Everyone behind Robotnik began to murmur. Several stood up, looking up at the roof of the arena, as if expecting something to fall on them.

"What did he say?" Louie asked again, his voice a hiss.

"Be calm!" Robotnik ordered. He turned back to the camera. "Are we finished, rodent?"

In answer, a sound like thunder began to rise from the speakers.

"Sounds like he's blowing something up," Julius muttered to Louie. He huffed and downed the rest of his drink.

The sound continued to build and build, like an incoming wave. The kaisers began to stand up—Robotnik's canons emerged from his chest—

The sound erupted over the arena. It burst forth, louder and harder—the speakers screeched—all the kaisers and Mobians covered their ears. Several looked around, as if trying to find the explosion nearby.

Only Robotnik still stood with his ears uncovered. He stared up at the screaming speakers, his laser pupils narrowed to slits, his fists clenched.

And then, over the top of arena, something began to glow red. A slim glass window shattered, and a figure leapt free, its legs somehow expanding so that it shot up to the nearby cubicles leading out of the dome and to the hover pads.

Robotnik turned and saw her. His eyes blazed red.

The lasers in his vision struck out, shooting across to the dome, towards the escaper. He fired the canons in his chest and he roared.

The canon fire lodged into the side of the arena, missing her. All the while the glow in the window began to grow stronger.

He had just almost hit her when the entire window slit encircling the arena began to explode.

In the forest of Old Mobia, the earth shook.

Knuckles and Sticks could feel the explosion in the ground. Knuckles staggered back, shielding Sticks.

Neither one of them dared to move for a whole three minutes, just listening. Listening to the thunder over the radio speakers, listening to the thunder in the air, feeling the ground convulse beneath their feet.

Finally Sticks began to panic. "We're all going to die—the whole planet," she hissed. "They can't win-! I need to go back-! I need to go back to my hole-! The end of the world—I knew it was coming for me-!"

Sticks was about to turn around and run when Knuckles grabbed her arm. She stopped, wincing. She hissed and tried prying his hand off.

His purple eyes were solemn. He stood tall, his jaw clenched.

"You say you know Sonic," he said.

Sticks stared her, eyes round.

"Do you also know the princess?" Knuckles asked.

Sticks blinked.

"Where can I find her?" Knuckles demanded, his eyes beginning to burn brighter, his voice rising. "I must go at once."

"You are very, very stupid." Sticks spat. "Let go of me!" She clawed at his hand, then tried to bite it.

Knuckles gave her a yank that knocked her off her feet. She gasped, screeching in anger. Knuckles ignored her. He snatched at the ground next to him. His hand landed on a boulder the width of an ancient tree, and with a single tug, yanked it loose.

Sticks stop struggling. She watched in horror.

He pushed the boulder away, letting it roll to the side, just missing Sticks. Knuckles pulled the box out from the beneath it—the box that concealed the island relic.

"If the Queen, is dead, then the princess is the one I must go to." Knuckles said. "And if the planet has fallen, then I must fight. And since you know the way, you must take me."

Sticks held her breath for five seconds, still staring at the echidna.

Then she let out a long, hard, gasp. Her shoulders slumped.

"I know exactly where she is," she mumbled.

The next morning, Sally Alicia, Princess of Planet Marto, stood at the heart of the Underground. At the place where the waterfall washed into a deep, blue pool, and artificial grow lights cast a glow across Crème's cave garden surrounding the walls. It was a sanctuary, even greater than the one that they had built their home in. The place Sparks had trained many of them. A cathedral.

Sally stood in the middle of it, on a table-like slab of rock. The light fell down on her form and spun her shorn auburn hair to rose-gold. In her hands, she clutched the glowing star-ore sword of her father. The sword he had given to her mother. The sword she had taken from her mother's dead body.

She was there to greet them when they arrived.

When a disheveled group came in, consisting of a soot-covered, wiry blue hedgehog, a two-tailed fox, and a guardian girl with a hammer. All smiling, fire in their eyes.

The hedgehog smirked at her.

She was there when the army that the group of three had brought with them came in through the tunnels. The loyal fighters of Cloven Drew, the people that had experienced the brunt of Robotnik's tyranny, and heard their princess speak, and had refused to escape to safety. They were here to fight instead.

She was there when two strangers arrived, one tall and red, with proud purple eyes and a strange box under his arm. The other was small, striped and scared, with a wild gaze. She did not want to stay, but when she turned to go, she did not seem able to leave.

She was there when a single lone figure stumbled into "hall of the mountain king," covered in blood, her robotic arm severed, and tears rolling down her cheeks. With her, she carried the memory of many, but especially one, who had not been able to return with her. She dropped to her knees and fell into the embrace of them all.

They all gathered there. And they all bowed, and swore there together, on that stone, beneath the mountain, that they would free their planet and fight for justice, or die trying.

The winds blew hard against Robotropolis. Beneath the city dome, through the smog, the combots and slaves were at work, trying to restore the glory of the Arena. Part of the rim was destroyed, aided by the canon blasts of their master. Most of the tech in the crawl space was ruined as well, and the factories were in full operation to replace them.

It was there that the combots uncovered the body of the half-burned, dead Mobian sea lion. Under the orders of Doctor Ivo Nikolos, they took the remains of his pelt, and hung it in the factory square, where all the slaves could shudder as they walked under it on the way to work.

There it hung, heavy and limp. A threat, and an anthem, and a symbol that would remain hanging there until the end.

...

...

Well, compared to how long this took to upload, this is a rather short ending. :] And as you can see, there's more of the saga to come. Unfortunately, the next episode is not ready to upload yet and probably will not be for another year at least. So if you need to move on to other stories, but you'd still like to know what happens, just message me and I'll give you the run down.

But if you want to wait...stay tuned. I do hope to upload some more prequel materials (including an episode of Shadow's backstory) in the nearer future.

I just want to thank all who have read and followed and commented and favorited! Massive thanks to ThinMintE, Alexandria Prime, Zoggerific, Nail Strafer, Ehecatl, SharpDragonKlaw, ElizabethBathog, Sonic vs evil, Prime Jeremy, and The Retro Dude, for commenting and reading and critiquing. My dream is to become a writer with readers, and you all-as my first official non-IRL-friend readers-made that dream come true. I've learned so much from your reviews, and your input will definitely boost the next draft of this story. :D I enjoy hearing from you guys and it's been cool getting to know you more. I pray that God will bless you all!

If you review, please let me know who your favorite character was and why. :]

Thank you so much.

To Infinity and Beyond,

~April/Connie