(AN: And so we've reached the end of another story! Hang on until the end of the story, where my second AU will tell you guys what's next!

But even after saying it was all over… it still felt odd. The building didn't explode or trap us in. Rouge kept her word, and sure enough, we could feel the aftereffects of the air purifiers turned off.

But besides that, no special ending was left for us. Nothing changed, and nothing felt off sans that one thing.

And it was that one occurrence that told us it was time to leave.

TheHunterPersian presents...

Despair Hill Zone

EPILOGUE:

Goodbye, Despair Hill...

We all stood in front of the large door in the main hall, staring right at it. Nobody made a sound as we stared at the door in front of us.

In truth, I felt… absentminded. I never thought the day would come where we'd finally get out. Who knew where everyone was? What were they doing? Were they okay after the events of The Great Calamity?

It was almost like we were stuck in limbo, unsure of what to do next. We said we wanted to get out but now that we were here…

"Hey, Charmy," Vector said, breaking the silence. "Gonna press that button anytime soon? We can't stay here forever."

"I-I guess I should…." I replied. Grasping the remote I had gotten after Rouge's death, I thought about how all this time, she had this remote until the time of her death.

"…I can't help but wonder… is this truly it?" Tikal asked. "That remote surely can't be it."

"Dun read too much into what Rouge said to find the answer, Tikal," the crocodile replied. "She said so herself. We all had to leave if we punished her. It makes sense that it would be our key."

"B-But what if it's like a button to self-destruct the Zone?!" Silver questioned. "And look!" He extended his arm out to a downed security camera, where it began to glow and move by Silver's command. "I finally got my powers back thanks to Charmy's hope, and now I'm gonna lose 'em?! She never SAID she was gonna let us leave alive!"

"I understand the fear."

"And you aren't gonna assure me?!"

"But even so, to fear our only way out means to disobey what Rouge wanted. She did what we wanted her to do, now it's only appropriate we leave here," Wave replied, arms crossed.

"I… guess that's true."

"OH MI AMOR!" Rosie laughed as she glomped the hedgehog. "There's nothing to fear as long as I'm here! I'll beat up any kind of explosion that comes your way, even if it comes at the cost of my clothes-"

Rosie suddenly sneezed, causing Silver to audibly gag and push the pink hedgehog off of her. She shook her head and opened her eyes, revealing that she had transformed into Amy. Amy put her hands over her mouth as she looked around.

"W-What? Hey, what's going on? Where are we? Why aren't we in the courtroom? Where's Rouge?" she asked.

"You don't need to worry about that anymore, Amy," Tikal said, running up to her friend and taking her hands into her own. "She's gone now. We're about to leave."

"L-Leave? T-Then that means?!"

Tikal nodded as Amy began to sniffle. And then…

"WE'RE FINALLY FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she cried, falling to the floor and sobbing in happiness. She placed her hands on the floor and continued to sob.

"Take all the time ya need, Amy. But try to hurry it up, Rouge said we gotta leave soon before the air purifiers bein' turned off kill us all," Vector replied.

"Hey… so I don't think any one of us have really talked about it but… what happens AFTER we leave?" Tikal asked.

"I… I still think that… I dunno…" Silver rubbed his right arm. "Part of me still wants to believe that once we leave here, everything Rouge said was a lie. That back in our normal ring dimension, it's our normal world."

…that would be nice. To believe in a lie like that…

But I feel that's not what life would throw at us. Despite that…

"Just remember, no matter HOW it looks, it's still our world," I said. "And… we're the hope of the future now."

"I… guess so…"

"And… and think about this… even if the world is ruined, it's still a large world. Out there, we can use our talents and our hope for the benefit of saving our future. The whole point of Green Hills is to create a zone for heroes. And that means… we have to be heroes for the people. Despair will still exist no matter what, but… hope does too, right?"

"In a ruined world, the act of searchin' fer hope by itself could be the true meanin' of hope," Vector replied. "For as long as ya hold onto hope, ya can continue movin' forward no matter what trouble ya fall into. Isn't that whacha believe, Charmy?"

"Y-Yeah. You frankly put it better than I could."

"Well, look at you," Wave said, walking up next to me. "Going to be the next motivational speaker it seems? Well, with how much you clamor on about hope, you might as well already be at that stage. Besides, Rouge said there were others out there who still haven't cast away hope. Maybe I should find them and have them help me continue finding more information about the Babylonians. And… maybe once despair is eradicated and life goes back to normal, I'd like to go back to Extreme Gear racing…"

"If the world isn't as destroyed as Rouge wanted us to think, my… my first step is my favorite mall! It always helps me feel better no matter what!" Amy smiled.

"But what are you gonna do if there IS no more malls?" questioned Silver. The pink hedgehog looked troubled for a second until a lightbulb went off in her head.

"Then I'm gonna do my best to rebuild my community! If we can start anew… we can make things be even greater than before!"

"How inspiring!" Tikal said.

"That's right!" added Silver. "If you have no road, just build one… The means of creation and rebuilding are endless… And my powers… I've used them for the sake of good when things have been destroyed! Nations destroyed by war, natural disasters… so many places have been changed thanks to me, and now my workload is gonna be increased but… all for the sake of hope, no?"

"As for myself… I… I probably should finish my maiden training. But I know I must use my voice of pacifism to bring peace from now on. Maybe with my voice, I can bring about a hopeful future… Grandma… if you can hear me, I want you to know that I'm going to improve this world and continue your legacy. I just hope you support me from the heavens…"

With everyone staring at me, Vector smiled at me. "Well kiddo… Even if the world is in pain, even if they're gone, even if they're mad with despair, as long as yer around, I know I can go forward."

"Yeah," I replied. "And not just me too. Don't forget-"

"…Espio… yeah, I know. If we can get out there and do somethin'…"

"But what can we do? There's so few of us and we're so small as well-"

"Dun think like that. We can do anythin'. As long as hope resides in us all."

We turned to face the door.

"This is goodbye…" Tikal said. "Goodbye to this zone… and the ones we lost… But… as long as we carry the souls of the departed with us, we can leave here with a smile on our faces."

"I'm gonna be out there, making real change! Using my powers not just to look good, but to bring about a new era of hope once they see me rebuilding and starting anew!" Silver added.

"I'm sure you all know how much I hate being annoyed but I suppose if I'm leaving with all of you… well, I guess you can say I grew a fondness for you all despite my status. I suppose you can humor me with your presence for a bit but remember; any news about the Babylonians and come straight to me."

"I guess I am worried about what things are gonna come…" Amy said. "Are my favorite things to do gone now? Surely they can't. I mean, I lost my Darling Sonic… but… but Sonic isn't the only thing in life anymore. I can now go back to doing what I love while still remembering in what he believed in. I never knew being a shopper meant I was a hero but… now more than ever, I feel like I'm on the road to becoming one!"

"It does feel kinda strange…" Vector continued.

And finally, I finished off. "I… don't know what else to say. But… I guess we all graduated, right?"

As I pressed the button to open the door, I realized that hope was going to spread, as long as I never gave up. I had to push even harder, go forward with hope in my heart, with courage in my heart. And as long as I had those…

The door began to open, and when it did, I noticed a large warp ring just like the entrance. Smoke blew out from the door as we all felt a cool breeze from the circular room.

Before we took a step inside, Tikal stepped in front of us.

"Um…" she said.

Wave groaned. "Oh, what now, pacifist girl?! We're about to leave, what could it be?"

"I… I know this is going to seem very silly but… what of the dead bodies?"

"What about them?"

"Can… can we go back for them?"

We all looked shocked.

"What are you thinking?! Heavens knows how long we can stay here until its unsafe to breathe, and you want to go back for the bodies?!"

"I-I know it seems selfish but… Grandma always told me that for the spirits of the dead to finally rest, they must have a proper burial. I'm still only a maiden in training but… but I feel that I can bless the bodies once they've been buried. Please, I know it's a large favor but-"

"Uh uh, not touching dead bodies!" Silver said.

"Neither am I!" added Amy.

"Our lives are more important right now, pacifist girl," Wave growled. "Do you not care or-"

Tikal got in her face. "Wouldn't YOU want Jet and Storm to have a proper burial instead of forgetting about them?"

This changed something in Wave's expression as she softly gasped. Amy even looked down at her feet.

"I… I suppose that my Darling Sonic could be buried next to Tails…" she said.

"…then let's make it fast," I said. "I feel… Espio would wanna be buried too."

We quickly made our way to the fifth floor and burst into the bio lab, where it had stopped being cold and was starting to warm up. Silver used his powers to unlock each door and open them up. Carefully, he lifted every body using his ESP.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay with that?" I asked.

"Don't worry…" he said, holding his forehead. "I… got this!"

Wave and Amy came back from the garden, holding multiple shovels in their arms.

"Let's just hope there's still soil we can dig in," the swallow said. Carefully, we all went back to the main hall, where thankfully no one was dropped. We all stood by the opened door as all the bodies of our deceased friends levitated behind us. Tikal took out her prayer beads and began to chant beautifully, leading us to the warp ring. She danced her way to the warp ring and waited for us as we all put our hands on the warp ring, the world around us turning white and vanishing as we felt our bodies leave this ring dimension, and head to our proper dimension…

THE END

(AN 2: And at last, with almost 2 years of writing and 11k views, Despair Hill Zone is finally finished.

I'll be honest, this project went on a LOT longer than I expected so I apologize if any of my viewers wanted anything different. Now, you may be asking if I'll ever adapt Danganronpa 2. And while I've thought about the idea, considering how much longer 2 is to 1, I'm just gonna say to not expect an adapatation of 2 anytime soon.

So what IS next?

Well, I have a coming fic for Father's Day soon but its related to Suikoden and not Sonic, so there's that. There is PS All Stars Round 2 which I have listed as planned under my upcoming projects but with how long Despair Hill took, I think I want some more time with planning that so give me a bit more.

But besides that, it's time for my surprise reveal that I teased a few parts ago!

As I'm sure you all know, my college Vecpio AU, Transfer, will be turning 5 years old this next coming week. And to celebrate the occasion, I've decided... well...

To spell it out easier, why don't you rejoin me this June 26th back at another semester at Mobius U for a redo of the events you saw in Transfer?

With that out of the way, thank you for reading and for all your reviews. I know adaptation fics are not normally common but this was something I felt has helped me write in the past couple of years since writing. But with Despair Hill over, here's hoping we can return to regularly scheduled fics...)