One month after Nazo's destruction, life had settled into something approaching normalcy.
The workshop had been rebuilt—bigger, better, with Omega-approved structural reinforcements and a basement that could survive "MULTIPLE APOCALYPTIC EVENTS," according to the robot's specifications. Tails had thrown himself into the project with manic energy, grateful for something to focus on that wasn't existential dread.
Shadic had moved in officially.
Not because he needed shelter—his Chaos Energy could sustain him almost anywhere—but because home wasn't about walls. It was about the people inside them. And these people, this strange found family of heroes and misfits, had become his home in every way that mattered.
Amy had claimed the room next to his. No one commented on this.
Knuckles visited weekly, reporting on the Master Emerald's continued strange behavior. "It's like it's reaching for something," he said during one such visit. "Stretching toward dimensions I can't see."
Rouge had started teaching Shadic how to infiltrate places without destroying them. "You can't solve every problem by running through walls," she insisted. "Some walls have valuable things behind them."
And Omega... Omega was Omega. Vigilant. Lethal. Occasionally attempting to optimize the kitchen for "MAXIMUM COMBAT READINESS," which mostly meant hiding weapons in the silverware drawer.
It was peaceful.
It was perfect.
It couldn't last.
The visitor arrived at 3:47 AM.
Shadic's eyes snapped open, every sense screaming alarm. Something was in the workshop. Something POWERFUL. Something that hadn't been there a moment ago.
He was out of bed and in the main room in an instant, Chaos Energy crackling around his fists.
And stopped.
A figure stood in the center of the workshop, examining Tails' equipment with casual interest. They were constantly shifting—male, female, young, old, human, mobian, something else entirely. Their form refused to settle, refused to be defined.
Shadic recognized them immediately.
"Chaos."
The God of Possibility turned, and when they smiled, it was with a hundred different mouths.
"Shadic. I was hoping you'd wake up. It would have been awkward to explain myself to your robot friend."
"INTRUDER DETECTED," Omega announced, crashing through his charging station with weapons hot. "THREAT LEVEL: CALCULATING... ERROR. THREAT LEVEL: UNDEFINED. RECOMMENDATION: MAXIMUM FIREPOWER."
"Please don't," Chaos said mildly. "I'd hate to have to reassemble you from your component atoms. It would take at least thirty seconds, and I'm on a schedule."
Omega's weapons remained raised, but he didn't fire.
"What are you doing here?" Shadic demanded.
"Visiting. Observing. Evaluating." Chaos drifted closer, their form cycling through possibilities. "The other Gods were content to watch from afar, but I've always preferred a more... hands-on approach."
"The other Gods. Order, Balance, Time, Truth."
"You remember. Good. That saves time." Chaos settled into a form that was almost stable—a hedgehog, similar to Shadic, but with fur that shifted through every color of the rainbow. "They've decided that simply observing isn't enough. They want to TEST you."
Shadic's blood ran cold.
"Test me how?"
"Trials. Five of them, one designed by each God. If you pass, your existence is validated. The connections you're creating will be allowed to stabilize. The multiverse will adapt, and everyone lives happily ever after."
"And if I fail?"
Chaos's smile didn't waver, but something in their eyes grew serious.
"Then you and the Voice who created you will be erased. The connections will be severed. Everything you've built, everyone you've saved, every dimension you've touched—it all goes back to the way it was before you existed."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
"That's not fair," Amy's voice came from the doorway. She'd woken up, summoned by the commotion, and her hammer was already in her hands. "He's done nothing but HELP people. He's saved entire DIMENSIONS. And they want to put him on trial?!"
"Fairness isn't their concern," Chaos replied. "Stability is. And you have to admit, your boyfriend here has caused quite a bit of instability."
"I didn't ask for any of this," Shadic said quietly. "I didn't ask to be reincarnated. I didn't ask for powers. I didn't ask to become a 'nexus point' or whatever you're calling it."
"No. You didn't. But you accepted it anyway. You made choices. You left pieces of yourself scattered across dimensions. And those choices have consequences." Chaos drifted closer. "The question is: are you willing to face those consequences? Or would you rather run?"
"RUNNING IS TACTICALLY INADVISABLE," Omega interjected. "THE ENTITY'S POWER LEVEL EXCEEDS MEASUREMENT PARAMETERS. ESCAPE PROBABILITY: 0%."
"He's not wrong," Chaos admitted. "But I wasn't really asking if you COULD run. I was asking if you WOULD."
Shadic met the God's shifting gaze.
"No. I don't run. Not from anything."
Chaos's smile widened.
"Good answer. That's why I'm here instead of one of the others. Order would have just delivered an ultimatum. Truth would have laid out the facts without context. But me?" They leaned in conspiratorially. "I'm rooting for you. You're the most interesting thing to happen to the multiverse in eons. It would be a SHAME to erase you."
"Then help me," Shadic said. "Tell me what the trials are. Give me a chance to prepare."
"I can't tell you specifics. That would defeat the purpose. But I CAN give you some advice."
Chaos straightened, their form stabilizing into something almost regal.
"The trials will test different aspects of who you are. Order will test your discipline. Balance will test your judgment. Time will test your wisdom. Truth will test your honesty. And I..." Their smile became something almost playful. "I'll test your creativity."
"Five trials. Five Gods."
"Five chances to prove you deserve to exist." Chaos began to fade. "They'll begin at dawn. Be ready."
"Wait—"
But the God was gone.
Leaving Shadic standing in the middle of a half-rebuilt workshop, his friends gathered around him, the weight of existence pressing down on his shoulders.
"Well," Tails said after a long moment. "That's not good."
"UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY," Omega observed.
Dawn came too quickly.
They spent the remaining hours preparing as best they could—which wasn't much, given that they had no idea what the trials would actually involve. Tails ran diagnostics on Shadic's Chaos Energy levels. Amy made sure his inhibitor rings were secure. Knuckles showed up at some point, having sensed the cosmic disturbance from Angel Island.
"The Master Emerald went crazy when that thing appeared," the echidna reported. "Started glowing colors I've never seen before. If whatever's coming is strong enough to affect IT..."
"Then it's strong enough to affect everything," Rouge finished grimly.
At exactly 6:00 AM, the sun crested the horizon.
And reality SHIFTED.
Shadic found himself standing in an infinite white void.
Not the void between dimensions—this was something else. Something constructed. An arena designed for judgment.
Five figures stood before him.
Order, geometric and precise.
Balance, perfectly equilibrium.
Time, eternally shifting between ages.
Truth, formless but present.
And Chaos, still wearing that almost-friendly smile.
"SHADIC OF THREE," Order spoke first, their voice echoing with absolute authority. "YOU STAND BEFORE THE GODS OF THE MULTIVERSE TO BE JUDGED. YOUR EXISTENCE HAS CAUSED DISRUPTIONS THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED. YOUR FATE—AND THE FATE OF ALL YOU HAVE TOUCHED—WILL BE DETERMINED BY YOUR PERFORMANCE IN FIVE TRIALS."
"Each trial will test a different aspect of your being," Balance continued. "Your discipline. Your judgment. Your wisdom. Your honesty. Your creativity. Fail any trial, and you fail entirely."
"Succeed in all five," Time added, "and your existence will be validated. You will be allowed to continue. The connections you've created will become permanent features of the multiverse."
"There will be no deception in these trials," Truth declared. "No tricks. No hidden meanings. You will be tested fairly, and you will be judged fairly."
"Any questions?" Chaos asked brightly.
Shadic looked at the five cosmic beings arrayed before him.
This is insane, Sonic-brain observed. We're being put on trial by GODS.
Then we face the trial with dignity, Shadow-brain replied. We've faced worse.
Have we, though?
...we've faced DIFFERENT.
"Just one question," Shadic said aloud. "What happens to my friends if I fail? To Amy, and Tails, and the others?"
The Gods exchanged glances.
"They will continue to exist," Order said. "But their memories of you will be erased. They will not remember anything about your presence in their lives."
"Their connection to you will be severed," Balance added. "It will be as if you never existed."
"That's..." Shadic's throat tightened. "That's worse than death."
"That is the consequence of failure," Truth stated simply. "Are you prepared to begin?"
Shadic took a deep breath.
He thought about Amy. About her smile, her determination, her hammer.
He thought about Tails. About his genius, his loyalty, his twin tails.
He thought about all of them—Knuckles, Rouge, Omega, Cream, everyone who had become his family.
They wouldn't remember him.
It would be like he never existed.
He couldn't let that happen.
"I'm ready."
TRIAL ONE: ORDER
The void shifted, and Shadic found himself standing on a platform of pure crystal.
Surrounding him, stretching infinitely in every direction, was a maze.
But not just any maze. This one was constantly MOVING. Walls shifted, paths opened and closed, the entire structure reconfiguring itself every few seconds in patterns that seemed random but clearly weren't.
"THE TRIAL OF DISCIPLINE," Order's voice echoed from everywhere. "YOU MUST REACH THE CENTER OF THE MAZE. BUT YOU MAY NOT USE YOUR SPEED. YOU MAY NOT USE YOUR CHAOS ABILITIES. YOU MUST RELY SOLELY ON PATIENCE, OBSERVATION, AND CONTROL."
"You want me to walk through a shifting maze without my powers?"
"I WANT YOU TO PROVE THAT YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR ABILITIES. THAT THE BEING WITHIN THE FUSION HAS DISCIPLINE BEYOND SUPERNATURAL GIFTS."
He's testing if we can function without our powers, Sonic-brain realized. If we're just reliant on abilities or if there's actual skill underneath.
Then we prove there's skill, Shadow-brain said. We observe. We learn. We adapt.
Shadic stepped into the maze.
Immediately, the walls around him began shifting. Paths that had been open closed. Dead ends became passages. The entire structure was in constant flux.
But there was a pattern.
Shadic stopped moving and just WATCHED.
The shifts weren't random. They followed rules—complex rules, layered rules, but RULES nonetheless. Every seven seconds, a wall would move. Every fourteen seconds, a path would open. Every twenty-one seconds, the entire section would reconfigure.
Mathematical. Orderly. Predictable, if you paid attention.
Shadic counted.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven—the wall to his left moved.
He stepped forward.
Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen—a new path opened to his right.
He took it.
Step by step, count by count, he navigated the maze. Not with speed. Not with power. Just with observation. Patience. Discipline.
The center took hours to reach.
Or maybe minutes. Time was strange in this void.
But eventually, Shadic stepped onto a platform of solid crystal at the heart of the maze.
"YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIAL OF DISCIPLINE," Order announced, and there was something like respect in their geometric voice. "YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR ABILITIES. PROCEED TO THE NEXT TRIAL."
TRIAL TWO: BALANCE
The maze dissolved, replaced by something else entirely.
Shadic stood on a single point—a fulcrum—with two vast scales stretching out on either side of him.
On one scale sat his friends. Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Omega—all of them, frozen in stasis, their lives hanging in the balance.
On the other scale sat strangers. Thousands of them. Millions. Beings from dimensions Shadic had never visited, realities he didn't know existed.
"THE TRIAL OF JUDGMENT," Balance's voice resonated through the void. "THE SCALES MUST BE BALANCED. BUT THERE IS NO POSSIBLE ARRANGEMENT THAT BALANCES THEM PERFECTLY. YOU MUST CHOOSE WHAT TO PRIORITIZE. WHO TO SAVE. WHO TO SACRIFICE."
"That's not a choice," Shadic said. "That's a trap."
"ALL CHOICES ARE TRAPS. ALL JUDGMENTS CARRY WEIGHT. THE QUESTION IS NOT WHETHER YOU CAN MAKE A PERFECT DECISION—PERFECTION IS IMPOSSIBLE. THE QUESTION IS WHETHER YOU CAN MAKE A DECISION AT ALL."
Shadic looked at the scales.
His friends. His family. The people he loved.
Strangers. Innocents. People who had never done anything wrong.
How did you weigh one against the other?
We can't choose, Sonic-brain said desperately. We can't sacrifice ANYONE.
But refusing to choose is itself a choice, Shadow-brain countered. Inaction has consequences too.
Shadic stared at the scales.
And then he understood.
"The trial isn't about WHO I choose," he said slowly. "It's about WHETHER I choose. Whether I accept the responsibility of judgment, even when the decision is impossible."
Balance said nothing.
"I choose... neither."
The void was silent.
"You said the scales can't be balanced perfectly. That some sacrifice is inevitable. But you also said the trial is about judgment—about making decisions." Shadic stepped forward. "My judgment is that this choice is FALSE. The scales are rigged. The scenario is artificial. In the REAL world, in REAL situations, there are always more options than we're initially presented with."
"YOU WOULD DEFY THE TRIAL?"
"I would REFRAME it. My friends and those strangers aren't enemies. Their interests aren't opposed. There's no reason they CAN'T both be saved—the only thing creating that limitation is your artificial construct."
He raised his hand and pushed against the scales themselves—not choosing one side or the other, but BREAKING the framework that forced the choice.
The scales shattered.
His friends appeared beside him, no longer frozen. The strangers vanished—not erased, but returned to their own realities.
"YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIAL OF JUDGMENT," Balance acknowledged. "TRUE BALANCE IS NOT ABOUT CHOOSING BETWEEN EXTREMES. IT IS ABOUT FINDING THE PATH THAT TRANSCENDS THE FALSE BINARY. PROCEED."
TRIAL THREE: TIME
The void became a river.
Not water—TIME. A flowing stream of moments, past and future intertwined, stretching infinitely in both directions.
Shadic stood on a bridge over the river, and beneath him, he could see... himself.
A hundred versions of himself.
A thousand.
Past possibilities. Future potentials. Lives he could have lived, choices he could have made, realities that branched from every decision.
"THE TRIAL OF WISDOM," Time's voice echoed from the flow beneath him. "YOU MUST FIND YOUR TRUE SELF AMONG THE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES. BUT BE WARNED—MANY VERSIONS OF YOU BELIEVE THEY ARE THE REAL ONE. MANY WILL TRY TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THEIR PATH WAS THE CORRECT ONE."
Shadic looked into the river.
He saw himself as a villain—a version who had embraced the Commander's path, who had become a weapon for whoever held his leash.
He saw himself as a failure—a version who had given up, who had let Nazo win, who had watched his world burn because he couldn't face the fear of trying.
He saw himself as a god—a version who had kept his inhibitor rings off permanently, who had ascended beyond mortal concerns, who had forgotten what it meant to be human.
So many possibilities.
So many versions.
Which one was real?
We know who we are, Sonic-brain said. We're SHADIC. The fusion. The three-in-one.
But which Shadic? Shadow-brain asked. The one who existed before the trials? The one who exists now? The one who will exist after?
Shadic watched the river flow.
And understood.
"None of them are more real than the others," he said. "Because 'real' isn't about which version exists in which timeline. It's about which version I CHOOSE to be."
He stepped off the bridge.
Into the river.
The possibilities swirled around him—past, present, future, alternative, hypothetical. All of them touching him, all of them offering their paths.
He acknowledged them all.
Every failure. Every success. Every path not taken.
But he didn't let any of them DEFINE him.
"I am the sum of my choices," he said. "Not the choices I COULD have made. Not the choices I MIGHT make. The choices I HAVE made. Here. Now. In this moment."
The river stilled.
And then it flowed THROUGH him—not erasing him, but INTEGRATING. All the possibilities, all the potentials, becoming part of a single continuous self.
"YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIAL OF WISDOM," Time declared. "TO KNOW ONESELF IS NOT TO REJECT POSSIBILITY, BUT TO CHOOSE CONSCIOUSLY AMONG INFINITE OPTIONS. PROCEED."
TRIAL FOUR: TRUTH
The river faded, and Shadic found himself in darkness.
Complete. Absolute. No light, no sound, no sensation.
Just him and a voice.
"THE TRIAL OF HONESTY," Truth spoke from everywhere and nowhere. "IN THIS SPACE, ONLY TRUTH CAN EXIST. LIES ARE IMPOSSIBLE. DECEPTION IS IMPOSSIBLE. EVEN SELF-DECEPTION IS STRIPPED AWAY."
"What do I have to do?"
"ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. TRUTHFULLY. COMPLETELY. WITHOUT RESERVATION."
"And if I can't?"
"YOU CANNOT LIE HERE. YOU CAN ONLY REFUSE TO ANSWER. BUT REFUSAL IS ITSELF AN ANSWER—AND WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDINGLY."
Shadic braced himself.
"QUESTION ONE: DO YOU BELIEVE YOU DESERVE TO EXIST?"
The darkness pressed against him, and Shadic felt the answer being PULLED from somewhere deep inside.
"Sometimes," he heard himself say. "Some days I feel like I've earned my place. Other days... I feel like I'm just a mistake. An accident. Someone else's failed experiment that somehow worked out."
"AN HONEST ANSWER. QUESTION TWO: IF YOU COULD RETURN TO YOUR OLD LIFE—BECOME HUMAN AGAIN, FORGET EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED—WOULD YOU?"
Shadic opened his mouth to say no.
But the truth was different.
"Part of me would," he admitted. "Part of me misses being normal. Being small. Being INSIGNIFICANT. The pressure of what I am now... sometimes it's too much. Sometimes I fantasize about just... not having to carry it."
"BUT YOU WOULDN'T ACTUALLY DO IT?"
"No. Because the other part of me—the bigger part—knows that I've become something better. Not just more powerful. BETTER. I matter now, in ways I never did before. And I'd rather carry that weight than go back to being nothing."
"HONEST. QUESTION THREE: DO YOU LOVE AMY ROSE?"
"Yes."
"DO YOU LOVE HER FOR WHO SHE IS? OR FOR WHAT SONIC FELT FOR HER?"
Shadic froze.
It was a question he'd been avoiding. A doubt that had lurked in the back of his mind since the first time he'd looked at Amy and felt... something.
Was it real?
Or was he just running on borrowed emotions?
"I... don't know," he said finally. "I don't know where Sonic ends and I begin. The memories, the feelings, the connections—they're all tangled up together. But I know that when I look at her, I feel something REAL. Something that's mine, even if it grew from seeds someone else planted."
"AND IF YOU DISCOVERED THOSE FEELINGS WERE ENTIRELY SONIC'S? THAT YOU—THE THIRD CONSCIOUSNESS—FELT NOTHING?"
"Then I'd learn to feel something anyway. Because she deserves to be loved for who SHE is. And I'd find a way to give her that, even if I had to build the love from scratch."
Silence.
"YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIAL OF HONESTY," Truth declared. "TRUE HONESTY IS NOT ABOUT HAVING PERFECT ANSWERS. IT IS ABOUT CONFRONTING IMPERFECT TRUTHS WITHOUT FLINCHING. PROCEED TO THE FINAL TRIAL."
TRIAL FIVE: CHAOS
The darkness lifted, and Shadic found himself face to face with Chaos.
The God was grinning.
"Last one," they said cheerfully. "The others tested discipline, judgment, wisdom, and honesty. Important qualities, all of them. But none of them matter if you can't do one thing."
"What's that?"
"SURPRISE ME."
Chaos spread their arms wide.
"THE TRIAL OF CREATIVITY. You have one task: do something I don't expect. Something I haven't seen. Something that makes me go 'huh, that's new.'"
Shadic stared at them.
"That's it? Just... surprise you?"
"That's it. Easy, right?" Chaos's grin widened. "Except I've existed for billions of years. I've seen EVERYTHING. Every trick, every twist, every 'unexpected' move that beings have tried to pull. There is NOTHING you can do that I haven't witnessed a million times before."
That's... actually impossible, Sonic-brain said. How do you surprise something that's seen everything?
There must be a way, Shadow-brain insisted. The trial wouldn't exist if it was impossible.
But what could Shadic possibly do that a GOD OF CHAOS hadn't seen?
He thought about his powers. Too ordinary.
He thought about his transformation. Already done.
He thought about every technique, every ability, every trick he'd learned since becoming Shadic.
All of it had been done before.
All of it was just remixing things that already existed.
So what was left?
And then it hit him.
"You've seen everything that EXISTS," Shadic said slowly. "Every possibility within the current framework of the multiverse."
"Correct."
"But I'm not just a product of this multiverse. I'm a fusion. Three beings from different origins, merged into something new. And one of those beings—the stabilizing element—came from OUTSIDE."
Chaos's smile flickered.
"Outside?"
"Another multiverse entirely. A place where your rules don't apply. Where Sonic and Shadow were fictional characters in a Flash animation." Shadic stepped forward. "You've seen everything possible within YOUR reality. But have you seen what's possible when you bring in elements from BEYOND it?"
"That's... an interesting theory."
"It's not a theory. It's what I AM."
Shadic reached deep inside himself—not for Sonic's power, not for Shadow's darkness, but for the thing that made him HIM. The consciousness that had died reaching for Doritos and woken up in the middle of an apocalypse.
The perspective of someone who had seen this entire universe as ENTERTAINMENT.
"In my original world," he said, "you don't exist. None of this exists. It's all just stories. Games. Things people create for FUN."
He pulled that perspective outward. Let it BLEED into the void around them.
And suddenly, Chaos wasn't looking at a hedgehog.
They were looking at something that had no business existing. A being that was simultaneously fiction and reality, simultaneously inside the story and outside it.
A fourth wall given consciousness.
"That's..." Chaos's eyes widened. "That's not... you're not supposed to be able to..."
"You asked me to surprise you," Shadic said. "Is this surprising enough?"
Chaos stared at him for a long, long moment.
Then they laughed.
It was a genuine laugh—delighted, amazed, thoroughly entertained.
"In billions of years," they said, "I have NEVER seen that. A being that exists both as part of the narrative AND as someone who knows it's a narrative. That's not just surprising—that's UNPRECEDENTED."
"Do I pass?"
"You pass. You MORE than pass." Chaos clapped their hands together. "Oh, this is WONDERFUL. The other Gods are going to be SO confused when I explain this."
The void dissolved.
Shadic found himself back in the white space where the trial had begun, five Gods arrayed before him.
"THE TRIALS ARE COMPLETE," Order announced. "SHADIC OF THREE HAS PASSED ALL FIVE TESTS."
"His discipline is proven," Order continued.
"His judgment is sound," Balance added.
"His wisdom is sufficient," Time acknowledged.
"His honesty is absolute," Truth confirmed.
"And his creativity is DELIGHTFUL," Chaos finished with a grin.
"BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE FIVE," they spoke in unison, "WE DECLARE SHADIC OF THREE TO BE A VALID EXISTENCE. HIS PRESENCE IN THE MULTIVERSE IS SANCTIONED. THE CONNECTIONS HE HAS CREATED WILL BE ALLOWED TO STABILIZE. THE FABRIC OF REALITY WILL ADAPT TO HIS INFLUENCE."
Relief washed over Shadic so intensely he nearly collapsed.
"THE COSMIC VOICE WHO CREATED YOU IS ALSO ABSOLVED," Order added. "THEIR EXPERIMENT, WHILE UNAUTHORIZED, HAS PRODUCED BENEFICIAL RESULTS. THEY WILL BE RESTORED TO FULL STANDING."
"But be warned," Balance said. "This judgment is not permanent. You will continue to be observed. If your influence becomes destabilizing—if the connections you create begin to harm rather than help—we will revisit our decision."
"I understand," Shadic said.
"Good." Chaos drifted closer, their form cycling through possibilities. "Because I meant what I said earlier. You're the most interesting thing to happen to the multiverse in eons. I REALLY don't want to have to erase you."
"I'll try to stay interesting, then."
"Please do."
The Gods began to fade.
But before they vanished entirely, Time paused.
"One more thing," the eternal being said. "The trials have changed you. Opened doors within your consciousness that were previously closed. You may find that your abilities have... expanded."
"Expanded how?"
Time smiled—a strange expression on a face that was constantly aging and de-aging.
"You'll see."
Then they were gone.
And Shadic was back in the workshop, dawn light streaming through the windows, his friends gathered around him with expressions of desperate hope.
"Well?!" Amy demanded. "What happened?! You disappeared for HOURS!"
"Hours?" Shadic blinked. "It felt like days."
"TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT IS COMMON IN DIVINE INTERACTIONS," Omega noted. "PLEASE REPORT: STATUS OF EXISTENCE?"
Shadic looked at his hands.
They were glowing faintly—a soft rainbow light that pulsed with each heartbeat.
"Validated," he said. "I passed the trials. All five of them."
Amy threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I KNEW you would. I KNEW it."
"We were so worried," Tails admitted, his twin tails drooping with relief. "The cosmic energy readings were off the charts. We thought—"
"I'm okay. More than okay, actually." Shadic looked at the fading glow around his hands. "I think... I think I might be even BETTER than before."
What did Time mean about expanded abilities? Sonic-brain wondered.
Unknown, Shadow-brain replied. But I suspect we'll find out soon enough.
Shadic smiled.
Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.
For now, he was alive.
He was validated.
And he was exactly where he belonged.
Author's Note: Shadic passed the divine trials and earned his place in the multiverse. But Time mentioned expanded abilities... what could that mean? Final chapter next: Epilogue—where do we go from her