Shadic slept for three days.
Not by choice—his body simply refused to wake up. The strain of stabilizing an entire dimension, of channeling more Chaos Energy than any being should be able to control, of leaving a piece of himself behind to anchor a reality...
It had taken everything he had.
Amy stayed by his side the entire time. Tails monitored his vitals obsessively, running scans every hour to make sure his energy was recovering. Knuckles trained in the yard, ready to punch anything that threatened them. Rouge and Omega took shifts watching the perimeter.
A family, standing guard.
On the morning of the fourth day, Shadic's eyes snapped open.
"Nazo."
The word came out hoarse, desperate. He sat up immediately, ignoring the protest from muscles that weren't ready to move.
"Shadic!" Amy was there instantly, hands on his shoulders. "You need to rest—"
"I FELT him." Shadic's heart was pounding. "In my dreams. In the piece of me that's still connected to Chaos Energy across dimensions. He's reforming. FAST."
"That's not possible." Tails rushed over, scanner in hand. "The calculations showed months before—"
"The calculations were wrong. Or he found a way to accelerate. I don't know." Shadic pushed himself out of bed, legs wobbling but holding. "How long was I out?"
"Three days."
"Three—" Shadic's blood ran cold. "Three DAYS?!"
"You almost DIED, Shadic! Your energy levels were critically—"
"I don't care about my energy levels! Nazo is—"
The workshop's alarm system screamed to life.
Red lights flashed. Sirens wailed. Every display in the room lit up with warnings.
"INCOMING CHAOS ENERGY SIGNATURE!" Tails shouted over the noise, his fingers flying across keyboards. "MASSIVE! It's—oh no. Oh no no no."
The holographic display flickered, then resolved into a map of the region.
A red dot was moving toward them.
Fast.
And it was GROWING.
"He's here," Shadic breathed.
"SHADIC."
The cosmic voice exploded through his mind with enough force to make him stagger.
"NAZO HAS FULLY REFORMED. HE IS COMING FOR YOU. FOR THE EMERALDS. YOU HAVE MINUTES—PERHAPS LESS."
"I KNOW. I can FEEL him."
"YOU ARE NOT READY. YOU HAVE ONLY FIVE EMERALDS. THE SEAL REQUIRES ALL SEVEN."
"Then tell me where the last two are! EXACTLY where!"
A pause.
"THE SIXTH EMERALD IS IN THE OCEANIC DIMENSION. COORDINATES BEING TRANSMITTED TO YOUR ANCHOR. THE SEVENTH IS IN THE VOID DIMENSION. BUT SHADIC—THE VOID IS DANGEROUS BEYOND ANYTHING YOU'VE FACED. EVEN I CANNOT SEE WHAT WAITS THERE."
"I don't care. I'll figure it out."
"YOU WON'T HAVE TIME TO FIGURE ANYTHING OUT. NAZO WILL REACH YOUR LOCATION IN APPROXIMATELY EIGHT MINUTES. IF YOU'RE STILL THERE WHEN HE ARRIVES—"
"Then I won't be there."
Shadic turned to Tails.
"Can you open two breaches? Back to back? No recovery time?"
Tails' face went pale. "That's incredibly dangerous. The dimensional fabric would be destabilized. You could get trapped between realities, or—"
"Can. You. Do it."
"...yes. But—"
"Do it. Open the first breach to the ocean dimension. The moment I come back, open the second to the void."
"Shadic, that's INSANE," Amy protested. "You just woke up from a three-day coma! You can't—"
"I don't have a CHOICE, Amy!" Shadic grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes. "If Nazo gets the Emeralds we've already collected, it's OVER. Everything we've worked for, everyone we've tried to protect—GONE. I have to get the last two before he catches up."
"Then let us HELP—"
"You CAN'T help. Not with this. The dimensions I'm going to are too dangerous for anyone except me." He softened his grip. "But you CAN help by keeping the Emeralds safe. If Nazo comes here while I'm gone, RUN. Take them and run as far as you can. Don't fight him. Don't try to be heroes. Just SURVIVE until I get back."
Amy's eyes were wet, but she nodded.
"Come back," she whispered. "Promise me you'll come back."
"I promise."
He kissed her forehead—a quick, desperate gesture—then turned to the generator.
"TAILS! First breach! NOW!"
Tails' fingers flew across the controls.
The generator screamed to life.
A breach tore open—and through it, Shadic could see nothing but water. An endless, infinite ocean stretching in every direction.
He didn't hesitate.
He jumped through.
The ocean was CRUSHING.
Shadic had maybe half a second to process that he was underwater—deep underwater, so deep that the pressure should have killed him instantly—before his Chaos Energy flared instinctively, creating a protective barrier around his body.
CAN'T BREATHE, Sonic-brain screamed.
WE DON'T NEED TO BREATHE, Shadow-brain countered. CHAOS ENERGY SUSTAINS US. FOCUS.
Right. He wasn't human anymore. He wasn't even fully organic. His body ran on Chaos Energy, not oxygen.
But the instinct to breathe was still there, and fighting it took effort.
The Anchor beeped: 4:50.
Fifty seconds already gone. He didn't have time for the full five-minute calibration.
Which meant he had to get the Emerald and get OUT before the Anchor locked in—otherwise, he'd have to wait, and waiting meant Nazo getting closer.
Where's the Emerald?! Sonic-brain demanded.
Shadic reached out with his Chaos senses—carefully, controlled, filtering the input like he'd learned to do.
THERE.
Below him. WAY below him. So deep that even the faint light filtering from... wherever the light was coming from... didn't reach.
And between him and the Emerald?
Something was moving.
MANY somethings.
Shadic's eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he felt his heart stop.
Creatures. Massive creatures. Hundreds of them, each one the size of a building, swimming in lazy circles around a point far below.
Guardians.
Of COURSE there were guardians.
We don't have time for this, Sonic-brain said frantically.
Then we don't fight. We go AROUND.
Around. Through. Whatever worked.
Shadic gathered his Chaos Energy and MOVED.
Underwater movement was different from air movement. The resistance was enormous, even for someone with his power. But he adapted—using short bursts of Chaos Control to teleport past the largest obstacles, slipping between the massive guardians before they could react.
Down.
Down.
DOWN.
The pressure increased with every meter. Even his Chaos barrier was straining now, the weight of an entire ocean pressing against him from every direction.
And then he saw it.
The cyan Emerald—wait, no. He already HAD the cyan one. This was... he squinted through the darkness.
White. The WHITE Chaos Emerald.
It rested in a massive shell at the bottom of the ocean, pulsing gently, illuminating a small circle of the seafloor around it.
The guardians were converging.
They'd noticed him.
GRAB IT AND GO, Sonic-brain screamed.
Shadic didn't need to be told twice.
He Chaos Controlled directly to the Emerald, snatched it from its resting place, and immediately reversed course—shooting upward as fast as his power could carry him.
Behind him, the guardians ROARED.
The sound was deafening even underwater—a bass rumble that shook his entire body and sent shockwaves rippling through the ocean. They were pursuing him, massive forms cutting through the water with terrifying speed.
But Shadic was faster.
He burst through the surface of the ocean—wait, there WAS no surface. Just water. Endless water in every direction. He was still underwater, still surrounded, still—
The Anchor beeped: 2:00.
Two minutes left before calibration.
He couldn't wait.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
He focused on the tether—the incomplete connection to his home dimension—and PULLED.
The universe screamed in protest.
Reality twisted, tore, fought against the forced transit. Shadic felt himself being ripped in multiple directions at once, his atoms scattering across dimensional barriers that weren't meant to be crossed this way.
But he held on.
He FORCED himself through.
And tumbled out of the breach onto the grass outside Tails' workshop, gasping, the white Emerald clutched in his hand.
"SIX!" he shouted. "OPEN THE NEXT ONE! NOW!"
"Shadic, your readings—" Tails started.
"NOW, TAILS!"
The fox didn't argue.
The generator screamed again—louder this time, the strain of consecutive breaches taking its toll. Sparks flew from overloaded circuits. Warning lights flashed across every display.
A new breach tore open.
Through it, Shadic saw... nothing.
Absolute, perfect, complete NOTHING.
The void.
"SHADIC," the cosmic voice cut in. "THE VOID DIMENSION IS—"
"Not now."
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. THE VOID IS—"
"I SAID NOT NOW!"
He jumped through.
Silence.
Complete, perfect, absolute silence.
Shadic floated in nothingness—not darkness, not emptiness, but NOTHING. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no anything. Just... absence.
I don't like this, Sonic-brain whispered. I really, REALLY don't like this.
Stay focused, Shadow-brain commanded, but even his mental voice was strained. The Emerald. Find the Emerald.
Shadic reached out with his Chaos senses.
Nothing.
Not "nothing" as in no signal—"nothing" as in his senses didn't WORK here. There was nothing to sense. No energy, no matter, no reality for his power to interact with.
How is the Emerald even HERE? Sonic-brain asked. How does anything EXIST in this?
"I don't know." Shadic's voice came out strange—flat, without echo, as if the sound was being absorbed the moment it left his mouth. "But it HAS to be here. Tails' readings confirmed it."
Tails' readings couldn't penetrate this dimension, Shadow-brain reminded him. He detected a signature, but he couldn't see inside.
"So the Emerald might not even be here?"
It's here. We can feel it. Not with our Chaos senses—with something else.
Sonic-brain was right.
There WAS something here. Not energy, not power, but... presence. A feeling of being WATCHED. Of not being alone in the emptiness.
Shadic turned—or tried to. Direction didn't really exist here. But he oriented himself toward the feeling of presence and MOVED.
Movement was strange in the void. He didn't fly or walk or run. He just... shifted. Willed himself to be somewhere else, and then he was.
The presence grew stronger.
Closer.
And then, suddenly, he wasn't alone anymore.
Something EMERGED from the nothingness.
It wasn't a creature. It wasn't a being. It was... a concept. An idea given form. Darkness that had learned to think, emptiness that had developed a mind.
And it spoke.
"You carry light in you."
The voice wasn't sound. It was thought, pressed directly into Shadic's mind.
"Light is not welcome here."
"I'm just passing through," Shadic said. "I need the Emerald. The red one. Once I have it, I'll leave."
"The Emerald is ours. It fell into our domain. It became part of our nothing."
"I need it to save my world."
"Your world is not our concern. Your light is not our light. Your existence is an intrusion in our perfect emptiness."
Uh, Sonic-brain said nervously, this thing is giving me REALLY bad vibes.
Agreed, Shadow-brain said. We should not linger here.
The Anchor beeped.
Shadic glanced at it.
The display was glitching—flickering between numbers that didn't make sense. Time didn't work properly here. The calibration might take seconds or centuries.
He couldn't wait.
"I don't have time to negotiate," Shadic said, and his voice was harder now. "I don't have time to fight. I don't have time to do ANYTHING except get that Emerald and leave. So you have two choices: give it to me, or try to stop me and find out what happens when light REALLY intrudes on your emptiness."
Silence.
The void-presence considered him.
"You threaten us. In our own domain. Where we are everything and you are nothing."
"I'm not nothing. I'm Shadic. And I've destroyed things a lot scarier than empty space with a personality."
"Destroyed?"
The presence seemed to... shift. Expand. Become MORE somehow, even though there was nothing to become more OF.
"Show us, then. Show us what light can do against nothing."
And suddenly Shadic was falling.
Not physically—there was no down to fall toward. But CONCEPTUALLY. He was falling into the void, into the emptiness, into the absolute absence of everything.
His light was being devoured.
His Chaos Energy, the power that sustained him, was being ABSORBED by the nothingness around him. He could feel himself fading—not dying, but being UNMADE. Erased. Returned to the nothing he had come from.
SHADIC! Sonic-brain screamed.
FIGHT BACK! Shadow-brain commanded. DON'T LET IT—
But fight back HOW?
You couldn't punch nothing. You couldn't blast nothing. You couldn't even TOUCH nothing, because there was nothing there to touch.
So how did you fight something that wasn't there?
The answer came to him in a flash.
You didn't fight it.
You FILLED it.
Shadic stopped trying to resist the absorption. Instead, he LET himself flow into the void—but he didn't stop there. He kept going. He EXPANDED.
His Chaos Energy poured outward, not being devoured but being GIVEN. He offered himself to the emptiness, let his light spread through it, fill it, ILLUMINATE it.
The void-presence screamed.
Not in pain—in surprise. In CONFUSION. It had never encountered something that WILLINGLY merged with it. Something that gave instead of took.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Sharing," Shadic said, and his voice was everywhere now—part of the void itself. "You've never had anything, have you? You've only ever been absence. Emptiness. But you don't HAVE to be. You can be MORE."
"We don't WANT to be more! We are NOTHING! That is our nature! Our PURPOSE!"
"Purposes can change."
Shadic's light reached the center of the void.
And there, at the heart of absolute nothingness, he found it.
The red Chaos Emerald.
It was wrapped in darkness—not consumed, but PROTECTED. The void had taken it, yes. But it had also kept it safe. Preserved it. In its own strange way... loved it.
"You cannot have it," the void-presence said, but its voice was weaker now. Uncertain. "It is the only light we have ever known. The only thing that makes us... feel."
Shadic understood.
The Emerald had fallen into emptiness, and that emptiness had, for the first time in its existence, experienced something. Warmth. Presence. Meaning.
Taking it would leave the void truly empty again.
Just like taking the purple Emerald would have destroyed the light dimension.
We can't do that, Sonic-brain said softly. We can't just... leave it alone forever.
But we also can't sacrifice another piece of ourselves, Shadow-brain pointed out. We barely survived the last time.
Shadic thought about it.
And then he had an idea.
"I can't leave the Emerald," he said. "But I can leave something else. Something to fill the space it leaves behind."
"What could you possibly give us that equals the Emerald?"
"Memory."
Shadic reached deep inside himself—not for power this time, but for experience. For feeling. For everything he'd been through since waking up in the middle of a death battle against Nazo.
The fear of failure. The joy of acceptance. The warmth of friendship. The pain of sacrifice. The hope that drove him forward despite everything.
He gathered it all—not the experiences themselves, but COPIES of them. Echoes. Shadows of feeling that could exist independently of their source.
And he GAVE them to the void.
"What... what IS this...?"
"Life," Shadic said. "Or at least, a taste of it. Something to remember. Something to FEEL. It's not the Emerald—but it's not nothing, either."
The void-presence was silent for a long moment.
Then, slowly, the darkness around the red Emerald retreated.
"Take it," the presence said. "Take your Emerald and go. But... leave the memories. Leave them with us."
"They're yours."
Shadic reached out and grasped the red Chaos Emerald.
Power surged through him—the familiar, stabilizing energy of the final gem. Complete. The set was COMPLETE.
The Anchor beeped—finally, blessedly stable.
Calibration complete.
"Go," the void-presence said. "And... thank you. For showing us that nothing can become something."
"You're welcome."
Shadic activated the Anchor.
And left the void behind.
He exploded out of the breach at full speed, rolling across the grass, seven Chaos Emeralds scattering around him in a circle of brilliant light.
"SHADIC!" Multiple voices, multiple footsteps, everyone converging on him at once.
"I got them," he gasped. "I got them ALL. Seven. We have seven."
"That's great, that's AMAZING, but—" Tails' voice was panicked. "SHADIC, NAZO IS HERE!"
The sky went dark.
Shadic looked up.
Nazo floated above the workshop, fully reformed. Dark red fur gleaming with terrible power. Yellow eyes blazing with hatred. Black rings around his wrists and ankles. Black aura crackling around him like a storm.
Super Perfect Nazo.
At full strength.
"You've been BUSY," Nazo said, and his voice shook the air. "Collecting the Emeralds. Growing stronger. Playing HERO."
He descended slowly, casually, like he had all the time in the world.
"I felt you, you know. Every time you traveled between dimensions. Every time you touched a Chaos Emerald. It was like a BEACON, calling to me. Showing me exactly where you were and what you were doing."
He tracked us, Sonic-brain realized. He used our energy signature to find us.
It doesn't matter, Shadow-brain said grimly. We have all seven Emeralds now. We can perform the seal.
"Can we?" Nazo smiled—that horrible, too-wide smile full of malice. "Can you REALLY? Because the seal requires time. Concentration. POWER. And you've been burning through your reserves like there's no tomorrow."
He looked pointedly at Shadic.
"You're EXHAUSTED. I can feel it. You're running on fumes and desperation. You don't have the strength left to fight me AND perform the seal."
"Then we'll fight you first," Knuckles growled, stepping forward with his fists raised.
"And we'll seal you after," Rouge added, wings spread.
"HOSTILE ENTITY DETECTED," Omega announced, weapons systems powering up. "RECOMMENDED ACTION: MAXIMUM FORCE."
Nazo laughed.
"Adorable. The hedgehog's little FRIENDS want to play."
He raised one hand.
Dark energy gathered in his palm.
"Let me show you what playing with ME looks like."
The blast came too fast to dodge.
Shadic MOVED.
He threw himself in front of his friends, crossing his arms, creating a barrier of Chaos Energy a fraction of a second before the attack landed.
The impact was STAGGERING.
Even with the barrier, even with every scrap of power he could muster, Shadic was driven backward. His feet carved trenches in the ground. His arms screamed with the strain of holding back annihilation.
But he held.
"GET THE EMERALDS!" he screamed. "GET THEM AND RUN! I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!"
"Shadic, you CAN'T—" Amy started.
"DO IT! NOW!"
His friends scattered, grabbing the Emeralds that had fallen around him. One, two, three, four, five, six—
Nazo saw what was happening.
His eyes narrowed.
"No."
He vanished.
Appeared in front of Tails, who was reaching for the seventh Emerald.
The fox's eyes went wide with terror.
And then Nazo's fist was swinging toward him, moving at speeds that would reduce the young genius to a red smear across the landscape—
Shadic intercepted.
His hand caught Nazo's fist an inch from Tails' face.
For a moment, they stood frozen—two beings of impossible power, locked in a contest of strength.
"Run," Shadic whispered to Tails.
The fox ran.
Nazo's eyes blazed.
"You can't protect them forever."
"I don't have to. I just have to protect them long enough."
Shadic's free hand came up, palm out, and he channeled every scrap of Chaos Energy he had left into a single, desperate blast.
"CHAOS SPEAR!"
The attack caught Nazo point-blank, driving him backward, giving Shadic a precious few seconds of breathing room.
"TAILS!" he shouted. "THE SEAL! START THE SEAL!"
"I—I don't know HOW—"
"THE EMERALDS KNOW! JUST BRING THEM TOGETHER AND LET THEM GUIDE YOU!"
Nazo recovered, his aura flaring brighter than ever.
"Enough of this."
He moved—a blur of red and black that crossed the distance between them in an instant. His fist slammed into Shadic's stomach, doubling him over. A knee to the face sent him flying. A heel drop drove him into the ground hard enough to crater the earth.
Pain.
So much pain.
But Shadic had felt pain before. Had pushed through it before.
He pulled himself up.
"That all you got?"
Nazo's eye twitched.
"You DARE—"
"I DARE." Shadic spat blood—actual blood, red and real—and raised his fists. "I DARE because I don't have any other choice. Because there are people counting on me. Because I made a PROMISE."
Behind him, he could feel the Emeralds being brought together. The energy building. The seal starting to form.
He just needed to buy more time.
"You know what your problem is, Nazo?" Shadic said, forcing himself to stand straighter despite the agony. "You've never had anyone worth fighting FOR. You've only ever fought for yourself. Your power. Your survival. But me? I fight for THEM."
He gestured at his friends—at Tails, arranging the Emeralds in a circle; at Amy, standing guard with her hammer; at Knuckles and Rouge and Omega, forming a perimeter around the ritual.
"They're my family. My REASON. And that gives me something you'll never have."
"And what's that?"
Shadic smiled.
"Something to lose."
He charged.
The fight was brutal.
Shadic was exhausted, running on empty, facing an opponent at full power. By all rights, it should have been a massacre.
But he didn't fight to WIN.
He fought to DELAY.
Every punch he threw, every kick he landed, every Chaos attack he launched—none of them were meant to damage Nazo. They were meant to keep his attention. To force him to defend. To give Tails the time he needed to complete the seal.
You're taking too much damage, Sonic-brain warned. Your body can't handle this much longer.
Hold on, Shadow-brain commanded. Just a little longer. The seal is almost ready.
Shadic could feel it—the Emeralds resonating behind him, their power building to a crescendo. The air was thick with Chaos Energy, reality itself bending around the forming seal.
But Nazo could feel it too.
"NO!" The dark hedgehog's eyes went wide. "You won't TRAP me! Not like before! NOT AGAIN!"
He abandoned his fight with Shadic and lunged toward the ritual.
Shadic intercepted.
His body screamed in protest as he pushed himself faster than he'd ever moved before—faster than light, faster than thought. He appeared in Nazo's path, arms spread wide, and HELD.
Nazo slammed into him.
The impact shattered bones.
Ruptured organs.
Tore him apart on a molecular level.
But Shadic didn't move.
"NOW!" he screamed, his voice barely audible through the blood in his throat. "TAILS! DO IT NOW!"
"CHAOS SEAL!"
Seven Chaos Emeralds blazed with blinding light.
The energy they released was like nothing Shadic had ever felt—pure, concentrated, FOCUSED. It reached out, wrapped around Nazo, and PULLED.
The dark hedgehog screamed.
It was a sound of rage and terror and denial—the cry of something that had never truly known defeat, experiencing it for the first time.
"THIS ISN'T OVER!" Nazo shrieked as the seal dragged him in. "I'LL RETURN! I'LL ALWAYS RETURN! YOU CAN'T—"
The seal closed.
The light faded.
And Nazo was gone.
Shadic collapsed.
His body was broken—genuinely, horrifyingly broken. Multiple bones shattered. Internal bleeding. Damage that would have killed a normal being a hundred times over.
But he wasn't normal.
And he wasn't alone.
"SHADIC!" Amy was there, cradling his head, tears streaming down her face. "Stay with me! Don't you DARE leave me!"
"The seal..." he whispered. "Did it...?"
"It worked." Tails' voice was shaking. "The seal worked. Nazo's trapped. For good this time. The Emeralds are creating a self-sustaining prison—he'll never get out."
"Good. That's... good."
Shadic's eyes were getting heavy.
Hey, Sonic-brain said softly. Hey, stay with us. You promised Amy you'd come back.
We did come back, Shadow-brain replied. We just... need to rest now.
"Don't go to sleep," Amy begged. "Please, Shadic, don't—"
"Just... just need to close my eyes. For a minute."
"Shadic—"
"I promised I'd come back. And I did."
He smiled.
"I always keep my promises."
His eyes closed.
Author's Note: Nazo's sealed. Shadic's unconscious. The battle is won but the war may have cost them everything. Next chapter: The aftermath, the recovery, and the question everyone is asking—will Shadic wake up?