Speedy's note: Hello, dear readers. Look, it's the first author's note in quite a while. Maybe there's hope that I'll one day stop spamming you guys with random ramblings. ;)
But before I get there, this note actually has a purpose for once. 455 days ago, the first chapter of this story went online. 24 chapters and 91173 words later, at the bottom of today's chapter, you'll find a proud 'The End'. So, you might have guessed, this is the point before the last chapter/epilogue, the point where I say a big THANK YOU to all readers, and of course especially to those wonderful people who reviewed and shared their reading experiences with me, or explained the many oddities of the English language to me. The internet would be a sad and lonely place without you. Danke schön! *bows and lifts hat*
Hope you all had as good a time reading this story as I had writing it. If you liked this Sonic fic, maybe I'll see some of you again when the next story starts publishing. Because of course there is going to be a next story. I can't live without a story to write. :)
Take care, everybody!

Epilogue

The computer's high precision clock recorded 15:31:18 local time when a short flicker interrupted the steady lighting of the laboratory's lights.

Archibald didn't move from where he sat rooted to a chair for hours already, just waiting for this one moment. The raccoon's blue eyes firmly rested on the modified ring tank, still sitting in a cocoon of magnetic fields that would keep the distorted chaos energy inside of it.

The large capsule grew transparent, opaque, transparent again. For a moment it pulsed between existence and something else, and he could see a bright white glow coming through whenever the capsule would turn transparent again. The bright light reached peak level, stayed that way for a couple of seconds, attempting to burn a white dot into his retinas, then it popped away and the ring tank was gone.

Phase-shifted through space and time. And he'd been here to watch it happen.

Archibald smiled, reminding himself he would have to remember this day. It was just like watching a galaxy being born or a supernova exploding through the telescopes. It was something you'd see probably just once in your life, something significant even considering the sheer size of the universe. A small event that changed the ways of time and space.

The professor smiled, for another moment watching the empty space before him, then he stood up. There still were a few galaxies he'd have to check up on… and just where had he put that take-out brochure again?

The nightly sky above was full of stars. A countless amount of shining lights. Beautiful, and unreachable. In the dim, silvery light they poured over the world, the smoke rising from the volcano crater seemed faint like mist, fragile shapes torn asunder by the winds.

Standing perfectly still, the young echidna priestess watched the orange glow the blistering heat of Lava Reef Zone gave out, watched the smoke rise up into the starry sky and disappear somewhere on the endless way up there. To Tikal, the volcano was a powerful place, a place where the might of chaos became evident to her. It was also a dangerous place, and going down there was not allowed. Nobody went down there…

Tikal sighed, her eyes again following the trails of smoke up to the coat of stars above her world. Maybe the inside of the crater and the stars up there on the unreachable sky were the only things her father wouldn't try conquering… Tikal loved Pachacamac, like every child loved their parents; but she had to find a way to make them all understand. War was wrong, fighting was wrong, the Emeralds wouldn't want that. There was no purpose worthy their powers in conquering another country. Another people. People like them. The… intentions were not right, and the mighty Emeralds would know. She didn't know what would happen, but she was scared of it.

A short, bright flash of light appeared almost above her. For a moment she thought it was a shooting star, but then the shine vanished and something oval, semi-transparent and glowing rushed past her to fall into the crater. She leaned forwards to look out for it, but the lava had already swallowed it up. Could shooting stars fall into a volcano? Could she stop her misguided clan?

Tikal slowly shook her head. She had no answer to either of those questions… but at least she could hope she'd find it sooner or later.

Taking a slow breath of Angel Island's crisp air, Sonic enjoyed the midday sun on his fur. The warmth was doing a magnificent job easing the slight soreness the fight had left into gentle relaxation. Sitting sideways on the edge of the highest treads of the Emerald altar's stairway, with his back against a small pillar and his left foot tucked under his right leg, the blue hedgehog let his eyes wanderer around.

Across of him sat Tails, cross-legged on the stone-paved floor, double namesakes wagging softly behind him. The fox' blue eyes were currently following the fluttering flight of two brightly yellow butterflies to his left.

Sonic turned slightly to look over at the third member of the group. Knuckles more lay than actually sat, leaned against the socket of the pedestal that held the Master Emerald, and the back of the guardian's head rested against the green gemstone. The echidna's legs stretched out with his feet crossed at the ankles, and in his lap lay the few remains of a paper bag that had been filled with grapes. Now just a bunch was left, and yet Knuckles' cast-up left arm was held around them as if he needed to protect a treasure while his right hand still slowly delivered the tiny fruits one by one to his mouth. The grogginess of just a few hours ago had mostly vanished and his face wore an unfamiliarly serene expression.

Sonic smiled a little to himself. He knew how much being back home and just sitting under the Master Emerald meant to the echidna. It was kind of rare seeing him not the least bit stressed out. Again the hedgehog's green eyes met Knuckles' snack and he pointed, smile growing enough to become an actual grin. "You know, nobody's going to take them from you. I just had so many chilli dogs I'm full."

Knuckles' eyes moved up from his food to track Sonic. "I don't trust you with food, hedgehog."

"Aww." Sonic faked an insulted look. "After all we've been through you still don't trust me?"

The echidna studied him for a moment, then he smirked. "I never said that. I said I don't trust you with food."

Laughing, Tails turned from watching the butterflies to his friends. "Don't worry, Knuckles, your grapes aren't exactly Sonic's thing."

"Un-spicy?" The echidna grinned.

"No. Healthy," Sonic deadpanned in a totally serious tone that caused his friends to break out laughing. The blue hedgehog managed to hold on to his seriousness for another few seconds, then he couldn't help himself anymore either.

When the laughter calmed down again, Knuckles looked between the others. "When are you leaving?"

Sonic raised an eyeridge. "You're trying to get rid of us?"

"I, uh… I didn't mean for it to sound like that…" The guardian shifted, suddenly embarrassment obvious on his face.

Another grin formed on Sonic's face. "Well, unless you really want us to go or try to throw us off this beautiful island of yours, we planned on staying for a while. After all, we had a kinda stressful week and your place makes for quite a holiday resort, doesn't it?"

Knuckles frowned. "It's not a –"

"Chill out, I'm just kidding you." Sonic calmingly waved his hand at him. "Man…"

"We just mean… um, how will you guard the Master Emerald while your arm's still broken, Knuckles?", Tails asked.

The frown was still on the echidna's face. "What do you think, kid? I've been always guarding it alone, no matter if I was hurt or ill or something."

"But you're not alone anymore, Knuckles." The young fox trashed his twin tails. "You got us!"

"Yeah, uh, but… This isn't your job. It's mine." Knuckles' violet eyes moved from Tails to Sonic and back. "Don't you have anything you gotta do?"

"The only thing we had to do was stopping Eggman's trash of a plan," Sonic pointed out. "And since we dealt with him, with your help we can probably add, we don't have anything to do for real."

"Like Sonic said, you helped us defeating Dr. Eggman, and now we're gonna help you guard your Emerald until you're fine again," Tails added, smiling.

"You can just see it as a deal if you want to," Sonic noticed, pointy ears twitching a little. "Or as a chance to hang out with us. But if you don't want to…" The hedgehog shrugged, moving to stand up.

He was dusting himself off when Knuckles cleared his throat. "No. I... never meant you'd have to leave. If you really want to, you can stay…" Awkwardly the red echidna's gaze trailed from Sonic to Tails and back. "And, umm, thanks…"

Sonic chuckled, dropping back into his seating position on the ground. "Welcome."

"Heh." Knuckles smiled, his right hand rubbing the base of his neck.

Sonic openly grinned at him. "Stop looking like that and eat your grapes. Before I do…"

Knuckles chuckled and quickly snatched two of his favourite fruits. "Alright."

Tails giggled lightly, watching Knuckles eat. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Tails," the echidna replied through a mouthful.

"What was that green kind of force field?"

Knuckles looked up at Tails. "It's called a chaos barrier."

"You made it?"

"Yes." Another grape found its way between Knuckles' teeth.

Sonic smiled. "Didn't I tell ya?"

"How?" Tails's eyes were wide with awe.

Instead of an answer, Knuckles jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the Master Emerald.

Sonic shrugged and turned to Tails. "Like I said, awesome secret super powers."

Tails was still looking awed. "Is that chaos barrier like a green shield? Can you make a magnetic barrier, too? Or a warp hole? Or -?"

"Tails?" Knuckles smirked a little at the amount of questions.

"Yeah?"

"What did Sonic call it?" The smirk still played around Knuckles' lips.

"Uh, 'awesome secret super powers'?" Now the young fox looked puzzled.

Knuckles nodded slowly. "Correct."

Tails stared at him when no further explanation came. "What?"

Sonic laughed. "If he tells you, they're not secret anymore…"

"Oh." Tails scratched his head. "I see…" For e moment he looked thoughtful, then he flipped his fingers. "If you tell me, I can tell you how to build your own plane!"

"I don't want to build any planes, Tails," Knuckles noticed, but his look softened in spite of the sarcasm when he saw Tails's disappointed look. "Look at it that way. I'm the Master Emerald's guardian and therefore I can use its power to make chaos barriers and stuff like that. Sonic is a chaos controller and can turn super and so on, and you're a lot smarter than the two of us together and therefore you can build planes and machines. Okay?"

Tails beamed. "Okay. We're all special, aren't we?"

"You say it, little bro." Sonic smiled between his friends. "And when we're together, nothing can stop us."

To the hedgehog's surprise, even Knuckles smiled at that. "Yeah." It didn't even sound entirely sarcastic.

Sonic's own smile turned into a bright grin and he looked at the large glowing jewel behind the echidna. "Yo, Master Emerald! You're the safest giant shiny rock in the world now!"

The three friends laughed, and even the Emerald's steady light seemed to grow brighter for a moment.

The End