"All right, you two. Calm down." Shadow whipped around.

"You're not in any position to tell ME to calm down!" Knuckles stalked forward, until he was an inch from Shadow's face.

"Tails has an idea. You need to work together for it to work. So deal or be stuck like this." Shadow let out a big sigh, then turned to Tails.

"What do we need to do?" At this, Tails took a cautious step forward.

"Well, before this whole mess came up, I was making a memory transfer machine, so Sonic and I could trade battle secrets. With a few adjustments, I could rework it to switch your minds back. You'd need to use chaos control at the same time for the same purpose for it to work properly. You in?" Shadow shrugged, and Sonic smiled.

"I'm in. Shadow?"

"Fine. How long will it take?" Tails ticked off his fingers, muttering to himself.

"When we get back to the lab, only about an hour, if that." Shadow actually smiled, and even though he looked like Sonic, Tails still felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Then we should get going, shouldn't we?" He held up his glove, and the green emerald zipped from its place on the altar into his palm. Sonic walked over, grabbing Tails and Manic before taking Shadow's hand. Knuckles waved, tossing out one last remark before leaving.

"Good luck…you'll need it." Shadow shrugged it off.

""Chaos control." He said it so normally; Sonic wondered if it would even work. His question was answered when his quills swirled around above him, then a flash of light as they moved into the special zone. For some reason, he felt slightly nauseas in the moment before they touched down, but pushed it down. When he looked over at Shadow, was it his imagination, or was he paler then normal? It was hard to tell, especially since now he looked like Sonic.

"So…Tails? You going to get to work?" Tails nodded, letting go of both Sonic and Manic and walking over to a pair of telephone booth looking divices. Manic brushed himself off, turning to Sonic.

"I'll go get Amy and Sonia." Sonic nodded, suddenly feeling kind of nervous.

"Go ahead. We'll be right here…but don't forget to explain. Wouldn't want Amy running up and hugging Shadow." They both flinched, thinking about the consequences. Shadow had walked over next to Tails.

"Is there any way I can help?" Tails shrugged.

"Not much…you can hand me tools and such, but most of the reworking is deep in the inner circuits." Shadow shrugged.

"Something to do." Sonic wanted to do what he usually did to get rid of jitters.

"Can I go run? I'll put the communicator back on…'cause I don't want to be stuck here for an hour while you deal with all the techno mumbo jumbo." Tails nodded, pulling the communicator off Shadow's wrist and tossing it to Sonic.

"Stay within a couple hundred miles." Sonic shrugged, strapping the communicator on and shooting out the door. Tails turned back to the machine.

"Shadow, hand me the wrench."

…

About 45 minutes later, Sonic heard a beeping, so he looked down to his vibrating wrist.

"Sonic, I'm almost done. You'll want to head back. I'll be only another-" He cut off as Sonic raced in the door.

"5 minutes." He finished, laughing. Sonic started chuckling too.

"I was only a block away. Good timing, huh?" he glanced around the room-Manic had returned, with Amy and Sonia next to him. Both girls raced forward, hugging the hero tightly.

"I thought I'd lost you!" Sonia said at the same time Amy did. Sonic sighed, but hugged them back as best as he could.

"I missed you too…" Amy nuzzled him closer for a moment, ecstatic that he was hugging her back, until she asked something that threw Sonic for a loop.

"What was it like, being dead?" He pulled away, scratching his head.

"It's hard to explain. At first all there was was darkness, but I saw this bright light. I was so close, until it fizzled out. When I turned around, I saw Shadow lying down, looking dead. I ran over, and I swear I could hear his heartbeat. When I touched his forehead, everything went fuzzy, and I think I blacked out. When I woke up, I couldn't feel myself, but I somehow could still speak. Well, Shadow knows the rest." He shrugged, walking over to Tails.

"It done yet?" Tails nodded, standing up and pointing to the booths .

"Yep. Just both step in one. Shadow, you can take the emerald. Sonic, you're close enough that you can both use it." They both nodded, and stepped in. Shadow took the right, while Sonic was in the left.

"All right, both think very clearly about being back in your own bodies. Do it right, and this whole nightmare will be over." Sonic caught the 'do it right'.

"And if we do it wrong?" Tails shrugged.

"One of two things. Nothing happens, and you stay like that, or you switch a few memories. Nothing awful." Sonic nodded-he'd already seen some of Shadow's memories, so neither was worth worrying about.

"You both ready?" Shadow nodded, and Sonic gave Tails a thumbs up. Tails gripped the lever.

"This may tingle...three, two…NOW!" Sonic felt his entire body wracked with electricity. He used the small rational bit left in his mind to concentrate.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" He heard Shadow doing the same, but his vision suddenly blurred. The door wavered, and he heard Shadow say one last thing before he crumpled to the floor.

It's over.

…

Sonic woke up on Tails' couch, right next to Shadow. He shied away, standing up. Tails was staring at him.

"Sonic? You okay?" Sonic glanced down-he saw his peach stomach, blue legs and fur, his sneakers, the limiters…well, he could get rid of those now. He was nervous as he pulled the rings off, but felt nothing but relief. Sonic rushed forward to pull Tail into a big hug. He was joined by Manic, Sonia and Amy.

"Group hug, Bro!" Manic chuckled, squeezing. They stayed like that for almost 4 minutes, just glad it was over. After a while, they fall apart, with Sonic smiling his trademark grin.

"So it's finally over…there were no side effects?" Tails laughed, pointing at Sonic's head.

"Just one…" Sonic ran over to a mirror. He looked the same, except for two stripes on his quills. He looked back at Shadow-his were still in place.

"Well, I can get used to it. Tails, can I keep my limiters? I never want to forget this." Tails nodded, handing them over. Sonic slid them back on, before grinning evilly. If Tails didn't know better, he'd swear that Dark was back.

"I need to have a word with Robuttnick…"

A/N It's done! Wow, that was way longer then I thought it would be…thank you to everyone who read, rated reviewed, or favorited. I think this went really good for my first story. I only expected it to go to about chapter 12, but it spun out of control, suprising me. It was one of those stories that seems to take a life of its own, one last time, please rate and review, no matter when you read it. I'll check back every few months to see. Shadowdib out!