Tails had run out of targets, and now he jinked and strafed, trying to outfly the bullet streams pelting from the remaining auto-turret. His channel for movement was limited – fly too close to the centre, the turret would be straight on target, fly to far out, he could get caught up with one of the others. Too far back and he risked exposing Fiona to the blitz of heavy calibre rounds. She had enough of her own troubles, a squad of Type-36s bolstered by Type-42s from the air…he had an idea. It wasn't tactically sound nor particularly safe, but perhaps it would help sway Fiona's views.

He dropped to almost vertical, flying directly down the tunnel of bullets.

"Ring burst, fifty rings!" he shouted, his emerald rushing to respond to the command. It began to toss out rings all around him, until he was surrounded by a veritable aura of the small glowing rings. He stretched out his arms, and began programming them mid-flight, locators, light rings, convertors, bubble shields, and a few he hadn't tested before, the mirror ring and fusion ring. The instant he finished, he lobbed a ring bomb ahead for an airburst detonation, arresting his flight and allowing him to switch directions, namesakes propelling him away.

The rings stayed behind, bullet-fire bouncing off the ring-wall he had built up. It would not last – ring shields, even highly charged ones, were not meant to stand up to sustained fire, but it might buy him just enough time to pull this ridiculous stunt. Abruptly he stopped again in mid-air, and dropped like a stone towards the ground. The turret followed him, pumping out rounds indiscriminately, and as he dropped, his carefully calculated fall intersected with the Type-42s, and in moments they too were caught in the stream of fire, all but evaporating as the heavy-bore shells tore through their light carapaces like paper in a firestorm.

Almost like a weight on itself, Fiona felt the fire bearing down upon her lessen, but she could not halt or hesitate yet – whilst the air support seemed to have disappeared, the Type-36s still posed a dangerous threat to her. She moved and reloaded with method and speed, using rocks to provide some cover against twin arm-cannons and shoulder-mounted rocket pods, and she was running out of cover as she emptied another clip into the brainbox of one Type-36 that reared in front of her. The heavy-bore pistol also fired a two stage bullet, but the bullets were shorter, stubbier, than the sniper rifle. The first shot discharged lit magnesium, melting away armour, then the second initiated a chemical reaction that produced a miniature plasma core. In net effect it did more damage than the sniper rifle, but the range was severely limited by the shot type. Something blurred behind her and she spun on the balls of her feet, firing two shots, one into the head and the other into the chest. Both shots hit home and the target detonated in a geyser of metal.

In the air, Tails completed his fall, namesakes spinning furiously to kill the momentum as he slammed into the powdery snow on all fours. His eyes focussed for the briefest of moments on Fiona, beleaguered as she was. He had done her a mercy, but it would take blind faith that she was as good as he hoped – he had helped her at his own risk, now the turret demanded his attention. He spun low and fired off toward it, trying to stay ahead of the descending stream of bullets. Thankfully, the turret was trying to take the most direct route to him, and it was already whirring with the sound of gears and cogs grinding in a futile attempt to keep pace with the small yellow blur streaking towards it.

Tails launched at an angle, carrying him into the centre of the maelstrom of lead, the eye of the storm, and the distance was closing. Fifty metres…forty…thirty…twenty…ten…a lightning shield erupted violently around him, fuelled by almost a hundred rings, as he crashed head on into the armoured turret. The metal bubbled and spat and lightning flared across the surface, the metal flashing a rainbow of colours as it heated up, reacting to the ferocious energies rippling off the bubble. Tails kept up the pressure as metal liquefied, gobbets of it spitting away as the pressure tore them from mountings, and then, with a sound akin to that of a bubble popping, the turret exploded outwards in a splatter of liquid metal and glass and electronics.

The lightning shield, pushed beyond its limits, flared out and died, leaving Tails hanging in mid-air through virtue of his tails, as he lowered himself to the ground, fatigued by pumping so much energy into that manoeuvre. He still had uncounted rings available, stored in the emerald space, but he had developed a healthy paranoia about how many rings he used every day. He looked back at Fiona, but decided not to go to her aid. Even from this considerable distance, he could see her doing just fine, and he wanted to see exactly what she was capable of now.

"Stop picturing her tits; that's my job." Hyperion sniggered.

Despite the irony of the accuser, Tails blushed furiously. "I wasn't."

"Oh come on, we all know you were. Even Umbra agrees. I can see them now, those firm, round-"

"Shut up you sick little shit. I don't care about your fetishes here, now kindly shut up or I will shut you up." Tails snapped back.

He did shut up – he shut up fast as that last threat issued from Tails' lips. He knew that Tails could silence him any time, he just hadn't so far because he served as a useful wild card to play. The kitsune watched Fiona from a distance as she cleared up the last of the patrol. When the last -bang- sounded and the valley fell silent, save for the ominous vibrations emanating from the facility, Tails left his position, travelling over to her at a slow, measured pace. Even from this distance, he saw her take a small object from her pocket – it glinted gold in the mid-afternoon sun – and watch it for a moment before putting it away again.

"What was that?" he asked casually, as soon as he was in earshot.

She glanced at him guiltily, but said nothing.

"It looked like a ring." He said.

He stared at her for only a few seconds before her willpower crumbled under his scrutinising gaze, and she pulled a ring, a starburst set in the centre, from one of the pouches on her belt.

"Miles said this would detect chaos energy, and vibrate the more there was." She whispered to the vulpine.

"So you could have tracked the super emerald without my help." It was a statement, not a question.

She nodded. "I already have – it's been telling me to go to rainbow valley since we got to the island, actually it started on the freighter, but only just before we got off."

Useful information…now they knew where it was. But one question nagged at him.

"Then why did you follow me here? You knew where the emerald was, you could have gone and taken it, then left without me even knowing."

She couldn't find the answer. Tails had suspicions, but he kept his council.

"So, back down the mountain?" she asked finally.

"Oh crap…that's going to be fun…begin as two foxes, arrive as two snowballs…" Tails sighed heavily, and he caught the beginnings of a smile from Fiona. They faded quickly, but they were there nonetheless. They were there! He was getting through to her!

"We could go down on snowboards." He realised, thinking aloud.

"Are you joking here?" Fiona asked, sceptical about the idea.

"Why, not good on a board?"

"No, it's just…" she trailed off, "it doesn't seem right, given the circumstances."

"It's the boards or the tundra again. At least the valley is sheltered, but you're going to have to leave the rifle behind."

"You must be mad if you think I'm setting it down."

"No, I'm pragmatic. We need to travel light and move fast. I have rings that can deal with food and water, and half the stuff you are carrying you won't need. You can leave the stealth suit behind, along with most of the gear you brought with you."

"You're asking me to strip?" she asked, eyes widening at the thought.
"Well, one guy in here wants you to." He tapped his temple with one claw, "but no, not completely. You can leave the rifle and the limb sections of the suit, and the hood, you don't need that any more. Keep the pistol and ammunition though – I don't want to keep having to save you each time."
Fiona grumbled and protested, but did as he commanded, stripping off the gloves and sleeves and leggings, muttering a near-constant stream of expletives in the process. Eventually she stood before him, boots, a close-fitting yet solid bodysuit that covered her regions, and the belt, with the pistol and remaining clips hooked onto it.

"Does this please you, master?" she mocked, feigning a bow.

"What did Scourge do to you, Fiona?" Tails asked, unhappy about how she felt to treat him.

"He gave me somewhere to stay, when you all gave up on me."

"I didn't- we never gave up on you. When you left, Sonic made five trips to Moebius to see if he could find you, but all he ever found were the mad biomechanical monstrosities Miles always produced, and I spent weeks trying to create rings that would track you down. Heck, even Nicole couldn't get you out of her system. For almost a year after you left, she kept sending mission briefs to your info-mail, and she only stopped when I broke into it to see if that would give me any clue as to where you had gone. I discovered the amount that had piled up and told her to stop, told her that you wouldn't respond. Everyone noticed you were missing, even those who didn't see you go, those we didn't tell, but do you want to know what the worst was? All those weeks after you left, I finally put down my tools, resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't find you. I almost killed myself. I almost activated the Last Resort I built into the chaos emerald. It would have wiped out everything within a kilometre. I was halfway out into sandopolis before I lost my nerve."

To Fiona, that was worse than any of the kicks or beatings she had received. She couldn't tell why…but it tore at her what she had done. She sank to her knees, cold washing through her.

"If it would have brought you back, I would have done." The words echoed in her skull, yanking her sharply back to the day she had left…

"Pl- please…I don't care…I don't care if you don't care about me- just please! Don't go, not with him!" She had heard Tails say.

"Such a poor little kid, he still doesn't get it." She had told Scourge, before addressing Tails. "For all your brilliance, you still don't get it. Scourge loves me, and you're trying to make me change my mind." And she had struck him, hard enough to knock him down.

And Scourge had laughed.

She had it wrong back then…it wasn't Tails with a sick obsession for her…he had known what she would face…and he had tried to stop it, and she had hurt him for it…he had cared about her…and what had she done for him?

She stayed there, on hands and knees, hot tears running down her face, wetting her fur. Tails just watched her, slightly distanced, until he noticed something amid the pile of gear she had discarded. Ignoring her for a moment, he crossed to it and picked it up – a piece of small, crafted metal with a strand of wire protruding at it from an angle. He held the strand to his mouth and whispered: "You want me dead, come and try." And then threw it away.

He put one hand on her shoulder. "Come on, we have somewhere to be. You get to make your choice there, he's on his way."

She knew who 'he' was, and her head snapped round to stare at him with nothing less than undisguised terror in her eyes, past the tears.

"You- you didn't-"

"I'm not offering you a reprieve from him – that would be obsession. You have to reject him, and I can't tell him in your place."

"I- I never gave you an answer." She stuttered to him, shaking visibly from the fear and the cold.

"Then it won't matter, will it?" he even sounded cold. "Wipe your eyes, we have to go, and you don't want tears freezing in the wind, believe me."

They acquired boards from the shop, one of the few places in the resort that the mad dictator had no use for. Boarding gear was useless when it came to equipping robotic minions with weaponry, and he had bypassed the store without a second thought, completely unaware that two foxes were about to use them to get to the super emerald that they were all after.

"That bitch! She let herself get discovered and now I have to go and sort her shit out!" Scourge threw another item the length of the opulent room and watched it shatter against the stone wall.

"You're plan fail?" Miles remarked, without looking up from his book.

Scourge rounded on him. "And you were supposed to make sure she couldn't get found! You're just as much to blame as she is!" he roared.

"No, you were the one who sent her on this escapade, to retrieve an item that could very easily kill you if you use it. It was your idea to ask me to equip her with stealth tech, though you knew very well that my counterpart is capable of chaos sense." Miles had not done so much as raise his voice, nor deign to even glance at Scourge, yet he had just single-handedly shot down Scourge's entire rage. "Go after her, lose your temper like you always do, see what happens. Just don't come crying to me when 'I' mangle your limbs and send you back in a body-bag."

Scourge glowered at Miles, then wheeled and stalked from the room, saying nothing. He said nothing of following up on Miles' thoughts, but he was too proud of himself, Miles knew, and he herd and smelt the portal open as he left for Mobius.
Once Miles was sure Scourge had gone, he stood and began the walk to his chambers. He had oh so wanted to kill him himself, but he and his counterpart were almost the same, and in the end, it didn't matter. Tails got his revenge, Miles got his Moebius – and Alicia, he remembered, as he passed her chambers.

The ride down was wild, wind tearing at their faces as they jinked and slalomed to avoid trees, rocks and other glacial features. Several times as he passed her, Tails caught Fiona smiling, or indeed laughing, at one point.

She felt great, it had been years since she had been to Ice Paradise, and though she was not here on holiday this time, it felt like it – Ice Cap zone had melted on Moebius, when the industry took over. Miles, though by no means sympathetic, had offered to take her on a holiday on Moebius at one point, but Scourge had got wind of it and had the placed bombed. Miles had defended her there and then, but later, in private, Scourge had let her known the full extent of his selfishness.

She decided to turn it into a race, for old time's sake, she told herself. She shifted her lithe form, moving alongside him, and nudged him in the ribs, watching him wobble slightly before speeding on ahead of him. He took up the challenge, launching off one of the ramps and spinning in the air, landing just a few feet in front of her, and gaining. She leant forward on the board, trying to gain speed and for a while they continued this high speed dance down the mountainside, until once again Fiona regained the lead and glanced back at him, smiling wildly. That moment of lapse was something she couldn't afford – not being a chaos adept, she didn't see the spur of ice jutting from the snow. All she felt was the world lurch, the board shoot out from under her, and then the snow as she landed heavily, rolling. She bounced, sure of the bruises she would receive and arms curled around here head, as a pair of arms, stronger than she remembered, swept around her and lifted her from the snow. She uncurled herself and lowered her arms, finding herself cradled in Tail's arms with the vulpine showing almost no discomfort from the stunt he had just pulled. She tilted her head slightly and…he was using his namesakes as ballast.

"You might want to watch where you're going." He told her, shouting to be heard above the wind.

She just smiled back, content to stay where she was as long as he didn't mind, until they reached the bottom, only a few minutes later. He set her down almost reverently, she noticed, slowly, so she could allow her feet to touch the ground and find her balance.

"We have to stop meeting like this." She joked at him.

"So…will you stop with the insults now?" he asked tentatively, still unsure of his status.

"Yes. As you said, I can decide then; I still have a little time."

"Just, please remember, that I just don't want you to go back to Scourge. You don't have to love me, you don't even have to like me, just don't hate me…"

She put one hand over his mouth to silence him. "you're so sweet…" she answered, kissing him quickly, relishing his face as he went bright red.

Tails was getting worried, this sudden change in behaviour, her allegiance…he would have to make sure of it, but later. "We're going to have to run." He told her, trying to change the subject now he was sufficiently embarrassed. He hadn't really had a serious relationship in his whole life, after the trauma of losing Fiona, and so he was still unaccustomed to how you were meant to act.

"OK.." Fiona muttered, unsure where he was going.

"I don't know If you've noticed yet, but I'm about as fast as Sonic is when I'm moving. Either I carry you, or I have to wait a couple of days while you cross the island."

"Carry me if you like, it gives us time to catch up. Just watch where you put your hands."

Tails blushed again.

"I meant the claws." Fiona added, catching his meaning.

"Oh- oh, yes, the claws." He inspected his hands. "Shall we?" he made a vague gesture meant to look chivalrous as he gathered her up in his arms once more.

"You lead." She told him, as he launched into the sky.

Indeed, they did very little other than talk the entire flight, mostly Tails explaining his many achievements and Fiona marvelling at them – she had little to tell of her own. The years spent with Scourge had allowed her little time of her own, and that was spent in Miles' marginally better company, either watching him work or having him try to sort out the most recent damage Scourge had inflicted on her. Tails had set up MilesCorp, created the Typhoon fleet, saved the world innumerable times, and written a few books on his work in the process. He talked of victories but also losses, taking no shame from his defeats but no pride from victory either. In a strange melancholy way it saddened Fiona, to see him so emotionless in his life, it was too much like Miles, his counterpart. She told him so when they landed, a wide cliff-top, the edge of the island, in rainbow valley.

"What happened to you, Tails?" she asked.

"I grew up."

"No, that's no excuse. I don't want to come back to another Miles, an emotionless figure bent on his work, only having any care for me because of how Scourge treated me. If that happens, I might as well go back to Moebius."

"I haven't had much time for emotion. If I ever allow myself to get attached to anyone, they end up being used as a weapon either by me or against me. If I ever allow myself to have that attachment…" his voice trailed off as Fiona took hold of his hands. She leaned in close to his ear, and whispered, "then why did you come back for me?" and kissed him on the neck.

"Oh come on fox boy, what happened to that honour of yours?" the romantic yet awkward moment was gone. That voice, he knew the snide tone that accompanied it, the pitch that reminded him vaguely of Sonic. He released Fiona, pushing her away as gently as he could, and wheeled on Scourge, who stood a few metres away, a smirk fixed on his features. When Tails didn't reply, he continued. "Thought you'd take my emerald, and pick up some sex while you're at it? Sorry for the wake-up call, but Fiona is with me, isn't that right?" he asked her, leering evilly.

Tails sized up his opponent. He still wore the same black leather jacket, flames on the wrists and back, Scourge's vain attempt to look 'biker' cool. He answered before Fiona could say anything. "Scars haven't healed yet? I must have dug deeper that I thought." He referred to the two slashes on Scourge's chest, where Tails had sliced open with his namesakes those years ago. "Anyway, at least I'm not going to develop erectile dysfunction in a few years, after the chaos energy finally takes its toll."

He could almost see fire flaring in Scourge's eyes. "You little sod, you little, naïve bastard. You think you can piss all over me and live?"

"No, urinating on you would require me to come closer than I would want. I know that I can insult you all I like and hand you your ass back along with a few new scars."

"Ooh, you're balls had dropped." Scourge chided him, "Now, be a good kid and get me the super emerald, will ya'?

"Be my guest." Tails gave him a mock bow. "But first, I have a welcome home gift." He bared his claws at the green hedgehog, red chaos energy flaring along them.

"Out of my way, little shit. I'm taking the emerald and my girlfriend and then going home, and you aren't going to stop me."

The chaos spear gouged a hole in the grass in front of him, and Scourge had to dive to the side to avoid a second.

"By the time I'm done with you, you won't be going home."

Scourge spun to his feet, the anarchy beryls bursting into the Mobius dimension from the beryl pen, beginning a slow orbit. "When I'm done there's going to be nothing left of you!" Scourge fumed at him, the beryls speeding up, faster and faster as they moved closer to him as they merged with his skin, lending him their power.

"Super Scourge?" Tails asked, bored. "Not exactly demure, is it?"

Scourge was empowered by the emeralds, but they brought with them an unfortunate colour change, the emerald green skin changing to a deep purple.

"You have to go super to beat me? Coward." Tails continued, "I'm facing a camp rip-off, who pussies out at the sight of me."

Scourge didn't answer, he just charged, a dark aura flaring off his form, as Tails backpedalled hurriedly and leapt into the air, namesakes spinning to give him height. He launched a couple of chaos spears as he rose, the first to burst off an energy shield, the other to miss. The dark fire caught Scourge's sleeve, and the jacket burst into flame as the fake leather caught fire and for a moment his opponent paused, tearing the rags off his form and tossing them away.

"At least those flames were real!" Tails taunted from above, launching more spears interspersed with ring bombs, and he lost Scourge in a cloud of smoke from multiple impacts.

Scourge rocketed after him, Tails weaving and changing direction as fast as he could to avoid the potentially lethal energy his opponent was unleashing, but he couldn't do it forever.

A thunderbolt sounded as they collided, anarchy energy firing and spitting off four-hundred rings worth of shielding.

In the undergrowth, away from the battle, Fiona sheltered, out of her league.

"Are…are you here to take it?" a voice, insubstantial, rang from behind her, and spun quickly, the pistol coming up.

Syna, fatigue showing from sixty years through a form insubstantial as mist, arms outstretched, fingers clutched a gem, fist-sized and glowing deep red. She had travelled, sixty years ago to this spot, following the seemingly pointless route the emerald had taken her on, to a meeting that she would not live to see, but be there to witness. The emerald was bridging the gap, breaking time between the now and then, allowing her to complete the journey necessary.

"Who are you?" the only words that came into Fiona's mind.

"It doesn't matter anymore…I don't know anything anymore…just take it, undo what I did wrong…I've come so far, never stopping, please…"
Fiona had no idea what was happening, no idea at all who this girl was, she was so far out of her league it wasn't funny anymore. Was the girl seeing her the same way, insubstantial and ethereal? But then, there was the emerald, for the taking. For some reason, she reached out and took it, rather, let it topple into her hands, as Syna pitched forward, through the grass.

She had the emerald – she had it, but she didn't know what to do with it. Now she saw what Tails meant by making a choice. Give it to Scourge, Tails would probably die, fighting till the last. Give it to Tails, it would give him the chance to win.

Above, Tails was getting hammered. He was smarter than Scourge, yes, more resourceful, yes, and this was his world as well, but Scourge was empowered with seven beryls, while Tails had only his single chaos emerald to give him power. He was beginning to feel cuts and bruises from where he had been unable to dodge the punches and kicks Scourge had levelled at him.

He drifted sideways, raking the hedgehog with his claws, driving them across the face allowing a weak golden light to leak out before the wounds sealed again.

He was getting nowhere – Scourge was near-invincible in his current state, whilst Tails was still his old self, quite vulnerable. He lashed out again, punches swift and strong just as his old mentor had taught him, forcing Scourge back pace by pace before the hedgehog lost height and appeared from beneath, crashing into Tails' midriff, singing and burning the fur there before Tails expended yet more rings to hold him off. Tails freed his arms from the grapple and swung his fist, chaos emerald held tightly within, once more across the scars left by his namesakes. The point of the emerald raked across it, turning the scar an angry shade of red, the anarchy energy shorted out by chaos power…

As Scourge raised both hands and let off an anarchy blast in Tails' face. The force of the explosion spun Tails away and pushed Scourge back from the impact, otherwise unharmed. The enhanced being scoured the black cloud summoned by the detonation for his target, until it came to him, rising from the inky depths within a crackling lightning shield. Scourge grinned at his damage – the shield had stopped him from dying, but now the fox was coloured by multiple gashes and tears all over his skin, his fur matted with congealing blood.

Fiona made her choice.

"hey, green britches, down here!" Scourge heard the call from below, and paused in his onslaught, batting Tails away with a swipe, looking down to Fiona.

He saw the super emerald in her hands. He dropped to the ground for it.

"You got it after all." His tone was placating, rather than patronising, for he knew how delicate this situation was. "You going to give it here?"

For a moment, she just stood there, and for a brief moment, Scourge thought that something was wrong, that he had just lost, until Fiona threw the emerald, straight for him. A little high perhaps, yet she was giving it to him! It was all he could do not to crow in victory.

His eyes fixed on the glowing gem, he saw nothing, saw nothing else as Fiona's hand moved to her belt and snatched the pistol from its holster and let loose the remaining shot from the powerful weapon, on an unerring aim into Scourge's left eye. She saw the bullet make impact and saw his eye fountain into an explosion of gore.

His hand went from a claw to a palm and he clamped his hand over the damage as the anarchy energies began to heal him.

"You bitch! I'm taking you home in pieces!" he roared at her, and with his free hand he let loose a stream of anarchy needles sprinting towards her through the air.

Something exploded between her and the needles, the bright, lethal stream showering away from the source of impact as yet another combatant entered the playing field.

Super Tails collided violently with Super Scourge, four limbs battering against his shield, the two forms rising into the sky once more.

Scourge pushed away is his eye healed finally, and the two combatants faced each other.

"Don't you even think about hurting her!" it was the first time Tails had raised his voice the entire battle, as he snapped his fingers and a dozen chaos spears burst to life all around him. As one they surged forward towards the purple life form, and he met equal resistance in anarchy needles, and the two meeting in stalemate before they broke and moved in close.

Scourge opened with an axe kick, his foot bouncing off a tail as it rose in defence, the other one knifing round to stab him through the chest. He didn't see it coming until the last moment, and though he jetted back, it struck off one of the scars, drawing a grunt of pain.

Blows were traded as energy was wasted as the two combatants fought, now out of spite more than reason – the emerald was lost to Scourge, he just had revenge left.

Tails kicked out with everything he had, fists and feet meeting as claws dug into Scourge's arms and his namesakes drove up past his guard, scraping across the old scars and drawing blood from him for the first time in the confrontation. It hurt and enraged him as he responded in kind, shifting his weight and forcing his fist across Tails' face as his other fired a short burst of anarchy needles, close range, into his opponent's closed hand.

The strike sent Tails reeling, but only briefly, the kitsune launching back into the attack only moments later, driving punch after punch towards Scourge until he gave up and head-butted him along the bridge of the nose, breaking it with a crack and a spurt of blood.

Out of instinct Scourge clamped a hand over his nose – though there was no real need – and his eyes left Tails for a moment to inspect the damage. A fatal mistake – he looked up again, Tails' had was inches from his face.

"Chaos blast." The words were muttered in the same monotone as before, but the detonation…the detonation tossed Scourge away like a ragdoll, unprepared as he was, spinning him to the ground with a crack. The energy from the release flash-fried the grass as Tails came down heavily on him, feet pinning him to the ground as his namesakes pistoned through Scourge's arms. Despite his invincibility he could not stop them from cracking the bone and despite his vanity he still screamed in agony. Staring through his pain-fogged vision, Scourge looked into Tails' eyes and saw no remorse.
"You hope I would spare you? You think I would let you go, after the shit you put us all through? Normally I would say revenge is empty, not worth spending time on, but this time…" he leaned in close, "…this time, I don't give a flying crap. This is for me, this is for Sonic, for Sally, for Miles even, and for Fiona."

Scourge worked himself up for a reply, but he froze as his eyes fixed on Tails' fist, ascending slowly to above his head.

"Chaos judgement!" Tails shouted for all to hear, then brought his hand down upon his foe, releasing his most powerful attack directly into his forehead, shockwaves rippling out from the point of impact, uprooting foliage and tossing it away. Scourge began to disintegrate, from the hands and feet first, bits of him tearing away as Tails sent all of his pent up rage, all his anguish and hate into this strike against the cause of it all. Tails stared into Scourge's eyes the whole time, watching him as pieces tore off and disintegrate under the pure force of it all, until there was nothing left.

Tails stood, inspecting the devastation he had caused, Fiona standing untouched amidst it all, fear and relief shining from her eyes in equal measure.
Releasing his control, Tails allowed his form to return to normal, the gold skin to turn yellow, the fur to flatten against his skin again, and he let the super emerald fall into his hand. He looked up at Fiona as she approached.

"I'm probably going to kill myself later for this, but I love you Fiona. I'm not going to tell you different, I won't lie, I love you, and it almost destroyed me when you left. I don't care what you think of me now, but I loved you and always have and I had to tell you." His voice was little more than a whisper, but it was enough.

"I love you, Tails, and I'm truly sorry." It was more than he had ever hoped to hear, and even the solemnity of the moment could not stop him running the distance to her and embracing her as a surge of emotions crashed through him, relief, happiness, love.

"We have things to do, people to make re-introductions to, a lot to sort out…" he began, but she kissed him and he could say no more. They kissed, tentatively at first, but for longer and longer until Sally was wondering how long it would be until they stopped for air. They finally broke away as Tails actually noticed she was there, watching him with something akin to surprise, one hand cradling the spear of Rhadamanthus.

"You have some explaining to do, Tails, and you too, Fiona. For now, let's settle for getting out of here before Echidna authorities arrive."

Fiona turned away, already afraid to face Sally again, so the squirrel princess explained, "Fiona, I don't know what just happened and I don't care, you can explain later, so for now just come with us."

"Please, Fiona, don't leave us behind again." It was Tails, a final attempt. He had tested her, with the emerald, and she had chosen him over Scourge.

"I- no, I won't this time, but Sally…All that comes to mind is that I'm sorry."

The squirrel was different in her eyes. "We've grown up Fiona, so have you." She said, as if reading Fiona's thoughts, "For now, Tails vouches for you and I can live with that, but there is lots to sort out before I can really be sure about you."

"I know…I know the shit I put all of you through, Tails filled me in, but I was never good with words when it mattered. I want to make it up, I just don't know how."

She allowed herself to be led away, a different life, an old one, to begin again.

A/N: This is the final chapter of War in the Heavens, as you can see. I apologise for any loose ends that I may have missed, or if the finale was somewhat rushed, but because this was never meant to be continued beyond this, and I tried to wrap up the loose ends as much as I could.