Theme Song: "Centuries" by Fall Out Boy
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Mephiles drew back his large arm and swung a violent fist at Sonic. This time, Sonic caught the fist in his hands without any noticeable effort. Mephiles was dumbfounded at this new strength. He launched another fist at Sonic, but Shadow flew in fast enough to catch the other fist.

"Why you little- UMPH!"

While vulnerable, Silver dashed towards Mephiles, tackling his blimp-sized body. Mephiles met the gravel with an impact to crater the width of the street. Silver rose from the crater and focused on a demolished twenty-story building that looked ready to tip over. Silver raised his hands to it and the whole structure illuminated in gold. Silver grunted as he gestured his arms downwards, allowing the building to finish falling over. It leaned over and spilled relentlessly on top of a roaring Mephiles; concrete, glass, and stonework toppling over him in a collision that shook the city.

"Dude, did you just drop a whole building on him?" Sonic amazed, descending next to Silver.

"That was twenty-stories right there; about two-hundred feet. That's a little over sixty times our height." Shadow followed.

"Thanks. But I doubt that did him over." Silver exhaling, not even displaying a lack of energy after his actions.

The rubble from the tower started to glow a dark red, then it exploded out blasting debris everywhere.

The three hedgehogs dodged the various scrap items as Mephiles ascended again, "Alright then, let's play for a bit!"

Meanwhile...

"I'll see you out there Tails!" Knuckles shouted back.

"Be careful, Knuckles!" Tails nodded.

Knuckles hopped off Tails' plane, down into the battlefield. None of the Heartless saw him coming, but when he landed he drove a fiery fist onto the ground, quaking the area around him to give him a starting advantage. He stood up straight and began throwing his blockish spiked fists at whatever opposed him.

Down the street, Vector The Crocodile was fighting off larger Heartless on his own. Espio The Chameleon had leapt off a street light with a dagger in his hand to pounce on one as a distraction for Vector. A mile away, Storm The Albatross relied on hit-and-run tactics, using his raw strength against whatever creature was in his way while he rode past them on his board. Multiple black figures can be seen being knocked away in different directions as he rode by. Storm stopped swinging when he saw Sally Acorn up ahead. He slowed down near her to offer a hand, with more Heartless closing in on them. She willingly took his large hand and Storm started rotating around on his board, swinging Sally around with him. Faster and faster now, Sally repositioned herself to kick away any Heartless that got too close to her.

The mob was clearing up until a small Heartless with a purple body, just two legs, and a bomb for a head started pacing forward casually. While spinning, Storm quickly noticed the little being had an active wick on its head and it was burning off the more he spun to face its direction.

"Sorry, but this is for your own good!" Storm told Sally.

"What are you- WHOOAA!"

Storm cut off Sally, and she felt her spinning body thrown high up in the air like a ragdoll, right before the Minute Bomb ignited itself in front of Storm. She then felt her body yanked out of the air by a pair of metallic arms that continued to fly. She peered up and to her surprise, it was Metal Sonic who had flown in to catch her. Sally looked back to see Storm was unscathed from the blast and proceeding to whale on the army.

"Thanks Metal. Hey, look!" Sally enlightened, pointing at the sky.

Metal Sonic stopped to look in the direction, to see what looked like three golden figures flying around swiftly against a larger and darker colored creature.

"Alright boys! Show him what you got!"

A dark towering shade then lurked over the two. Metal Sonic cautiously rotated themselves around to find a Darkside with a raised fist.

In the knick of time, the Eggrobo had flown in to fire a torpedo at the being's fist. The titanic Heartless stumbled back with the sudden attack.

"What are you waiting for? Go!" Dr. Eggman barked at the two.

"Affirmative." Metal Sonic replied, flying off with Sally to safety.

From high above into the dark sky, Tails was in his plane assisting G.U.N. and the Egg Fleet against the flying Heartless. A nearby G.U.N. helicopter had its propellers damaged by a few suicide-Air Soldiers, as it spun out of control into an explosion, hurdling back down to the earth. Tails refocused his sights and noticed a Gargoyle had just landed on his plane in front of the glass. It drove its hand through the glass and gripped Tails' throat with its branchy hands. Tails started swiveling the plane around to shake off the Gargoyle, but its grip was unyielding. Tails spotted his handy wrench on sliding around his legs as the plane kept shifting. He tried to reach for it, but it was too far and the Gargoyle squeezed his throat harder, now tugging at him in an attempt to either pull Tails off his seat or to rip out his throat. Tails hacked and croaked and choked- powerless in this situation.

An idea then came to him. In one good tug, he pulled the steering handles of his Tornado back and the whole craft flew up and back, looping around to an upside-down position. The wrench followed gravity and fell loose from the cockpit. Tails quickly reached out at the falling wrench, caught it by the tip of the handle, and while the plane looped back down again to a fixed position, he fixed his grip on the wrench and started beating the Heartless with it. He whacked away the hand at his throat, then swung the steel tool across its face. The being tumbled back losing its balance, but Tails finished the job by flinging the wrench at it, and it fell off the plane with the wrench, fading into nothingness. Tails regained his breath, holding his throat that felt like it was beginning to swell inside.

"Man...I really liked that wrench." Tails frowned.

He looked to the side and saw three golden dots facing facing off with a large black creature.

"That fight's going on longer than expected. They need to hurry or- What the?!"

Tails noticed above them was a large mass that could've easily matched the moon in size, was way above the sky, almost as if it was in space.

Tails pulled out his laptop to run an analysis on what it may be. "That's pure dark energy! Mephiles is going to destroy the Earth! Those three better hurry! I need to go tell them!"

Tails spun the Tornado around and flew off to the distant scene.

At The Scene...

Mephiles shot a beam from his eye at Sonic, who had just blocked, but wasn't strong enough to hold it. Sonic was blasted back to the earth, crashing into a lighthouse.

"Come on Sonic, you weakling." Shadow muttered.

He then flew over to Mephiles and threw a punch at his massive torso, rolled up then kicked out at Mephiles with both feet. Mephiles swayed back slightly, but responded with a swift backhand to Shadow, swatting him away.

"That's what you get for talking." thought Silver.

Silver lost his focus when he noticed the large sphere of dark energy outside of the planet. If anything, it looked like its own growing planet.

"Oh my- AGH!"

He was then zapped in the back by Mephiles' beam. Sonic and Shadow had just flown back to catch Silver from falling.

"SONIC!"

Sonic looked behind him at the voice to see Tails flying closer.

"Tails, what are you doing here?! It's too dangerous!" he exclaimed.

"Look!" Tails said, pointing to the sky.

Mephiles took the moment to shoot another beam, but this time created a barrier that reflected it back to Mephiles' eye.

"GRAAAAGH! Damn you!" Mephiles growled, shielding his eye.

The three hedgehogs took the free moment to observe the sphere above the atmosphere.

"He's going to try and blow up the Earth!" Silver commented.

"We don't have much time, if we keep fighting him, that's going to keep growing until he wants to release it. But if we go for the sphere first, he'll try and stop us." said Shadow.

"Our best option is to beat him to the point where he can't concentrate that energy." Sonic advised.

"You have to do it quick then! Remember, you can't stay in the Super State for too long!" Tails reminded.

The trio looked at each other in distraught. They forgot the one rule that makes their current forms imperfect: if they stay too long in the Super State, their energies will eventually burn out and they will disappear from existence- permanently.

"Alright Tails, we'll do our best, thanks! But you need to get out of here now!" Sonic urged on, noticing Mephiles' eye was no longer in pain. Tails swiveled around and continued on elsewhere.

"You wretched pests! I will-"

"Enough talk!" Sonic interrupted Mephiles with his own small beam from his hand.

"Disrespectful, despicable-"

Shadow then interrupted Mephiles with his own blast.

"Sorry, you were saying something?" Silver jeered.

"DIE!" Mephiles bellowed, shooting a larger ball at them.

"Whoa!" they all chirped, evading away from it on time.

They all then charged Mephiles at once. Shadow kicked his jaw, Silver used his powers to stop Mephiles' punch and redirected it to hit himself. Sonic performed a Homing Attack to his eye, rapidly rebounded with two more, then all at once, the three hedgehogs swooped in for a final punch to the eye. The monster was now rocked and weak.

"This is it, Mephiles!" Silver shouted.

He held him telekinetically, then swung him down soaring to the earth.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shooting a bolt at the falling Mephiles to assure of his descent.

"Let's end this! Chaos-..." Sonic started.

He brought his hands out in front of him and they started to charge a golden light.

Shadow and Silver flew in close to him and repeated, "Chaos-"

Their hands started to charge, aiming down at Mephiles who was now defenseless, but starting to regain enough energy to fly.

Simultaneously, with all their might, they shouted, "-CONTROL!"

All three produced a wave of Chaos energy from their hands and it blasted down onto Mephiles, right into the earth. The blast produced a blinding light throughout the city, so bright, the Heartless fighting in the air dissipated by the sheer power of the light.

The light started to dim and the city was quiet. In fact, so quiet, it may have been safe to say the world was quiet. Gunfire ceased, explosives were halted, roars and hisses of the Heartless silenced. There was a mile-wide crater on the ground, cleansed of any Heartless that may have been within the blast radius. There was no sign of Mephiles either.

"His life force...I...I don't feel it anymore." Shadow exhaled.

"Me neither." Silver added.

"And we got rid of a good portion of the Heartless." Sonic noticed.

"But that was half the battle. We have got to get rid of that sphere!" reminded Shadow.

"Whew, I don't know if I have another one of those left." Sonic sighed.

"Let's see then, before we burn out like Tails said." Silver now.

The other two nodded and flew off to space for the final task, accelerating into three golden sonic booms. By the time they broke through the atmosphere, the dark mass was already surpassing the moon's size. Silver flew closer to see if he could physically touch it. Instead, it zapped his hand before he could even make contact.

"Ow! That actually hurt. Aren't these forms supposed to be invincible?" Silver asked, shaking his hand.

"I've got a bad feeling about this. We might have to blast it and try to dilute it with our own energy." suggested Sonic.

"W-What?...No! Impossible!" Shadow spat.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" asked Sonic.

"I-...I can feel Mephiles again."

"What?! Where?"

"Oh no...I feel it too!...But..." Silver chimed in.

"What? Guys, talk to me, it's not like I can feel things like you two can!" Sonic snapped.

"Well, that might answer who's the superior hedgehog then." grinned Shadow.

"OK, we are not doing this at the brink of an apocalypse!" Silver interrupted.

"He's right. Anyway, this is the thing, I feel Mephiles' energy...but it's coming from this sphere."

"And before you jump to assumptions, no, he's not actually in it, like he's hiding. Somehow when we defeated him, he must have transferred his mental power into this sphere so that he can-" Silver halted to notice the sphere stopped expanding and started moving in the group's direction- in Earth's direction, "-so he can do that!" Silver finished.

"Let's give him another one!" Sonic declared.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" They all stammered, blasting at the orb of darkness.

It slowed down slightly, but was still moving.

"Oh...shoot!" Silver stuttered.

Their waves increased in width as they added more energy to their blasts, fighting against the sphere. Now the sphere was stilled to fight against their strength.

"This is all I got!" Sonic grunted, pushing his blast against the sphere.

"Guys...I don't feel too...too good." said Silver.

Sonic and Shadow looked over and saw Silver's body fading in and out of existence.

"Silver, hold it!" Shadow encouraged.

"Stay with us, pal!" Sonic followed.

"I...I feel so weak, I don't know-" Silver then disappeared for a second then reappeared, "-longer I can hold..."

"You have to turn back then." Sonic sighed.

The Master Emerald phased out of Sonic and regrew to its massive size. Instantly, Silver turned back to normal, his snow silver fur restored.

"I'm sorry guys." he said, fainting, falling back down to Earth.

"Damn it! Silver!" Sonic called.

"He'll be fine Sonic, you've fallen this high before and lived! Besides, Tails will probably catch him. Concentrate with me!" Shadow assured.

The two refocused and now their energy was slowly spreading into the sphere.

"Shadow, we're doing it!...Shadow?"

Sonic noticed Shadow was beginning to fade in and out too.

"Not now!" Shadow hissed to his body.

The rings on his wrists then popped off, and Shadow snarled adding more power. He then stopped fading for the moment.

"Shadow, no!" Sonic pleaded.

"Don't worry about me! We're making progress!" Shadow retorted.

The rings on Shadow's wrists were Inhibitor Rings, they limited the amount of Chaos energy Shadow could use. Shadow's is both hedgehog and Black Alien, two separate genealogies within one lifeform. This makes his body very powerful, but just as unstable. Too much power within his small body could potentially burn out and kill Shadow. He only ever removes the Inhibitor Rings where the costs are meaningless afterwards.

After less than a minute, the sphere was halfway diluted, but Shadow was fading again.

"NOO!" Shadow roared.

He released his blast and howled with a fiery aurulent aura and thrusted himself at the sphere to fight against it.

"Shadow, a Super Sonic Boost will kill you! Stop! You have two things to worry about, either you cease to exist from being in this state too long or you die from overexerting yourself on Chaos energy!" Sonic exhorted.

He too lit up in the same aura and charged against the sphere, now pushing it away.

"I...don't...care! I made a promise to...protect this world...and all of these insignificant humans! I...cannot...give up, AAAGH!"

"Shadow, I know what you mean, but you'll die!"

Shadow then started fading more and more.

"Shadow!"

"Sonic..If I let go of th-...-phere, you-...to promise me-...will save-...planet." Shadow said distortedly.

Sonic hesitated, but gave a curt nod to Shadow.

"Good luck then. I'm counting on you. We're counting on you." said Shadow.

The Master Emerald glowed, and Shadow's gold darkened to black, then plummeting down to Earth.

"This is my world! I will not let anyone harm it! THIS ENDS NOW!"

Sonic's aura burned ferociously and he pushed harder against the sphere. The energies Shadow and Silver dispelled into the Master Emerald were now within Sonic, boosting him further and allowing him to use the Super State at full potential.

"You can't do it."

Mephiles' voice was now in Sonic's head.

"Just because you're not physically opposing anymore, doesn't mean you can try and mess with my head!" Sonic snapped.

"You will fail, Sonic. Your power is dwindling. I can feel it, and so can you."

The gold of the sphere then started shrinking away, as it was just halfway through covering the dark sphere. With this, Sonic was now fading.

"No! You're...wrong!"

"Hahaha! Formless, yet I still win!" Mephiles continued.

"No."

"You have failed Sonic."

"No..."

"And now your precious world-"

"Stop..."

"-will drown-"

"Please...don't do-...Mephiles."

"-in eternal darkness! Goodbye, Sonic The Hedgehog! It's time to rain Hell on this pathetic planet!"

"NOOOOO!"

Sonic's fading continued, but now his aura was as bright as the distant sun, and he fought harder against this sphere, tears streaming from his eyes.

"I won't lose!"

He then propelled forward through the sphere, fighting the intensities of the sphere's dark energy harming him and trying to maintain stability within his Super State.

"You fool, are you suicidal?!" Mephiles voiced again.

"Heh...why do you s-...-worried, Mephiles?"

Sonic's body was shaking and jolting in this negative atmosphere.

"This is it, Mephiles...one....more!"

"What?! Impossible!"

Sonic raised his hands towards the other end of this sphere.

"Sonic, I can grant you everything you desire, stop!"

"Chaos..."

"No! Sonic! NOOO-"

"CONTROL!!!"

"NOOOOO!"

Sonic blasted at the wall of the sphere, illuminating the dark barrier of destruction and the light spreading rapidly around it, like a spilled liquid on a table. The sphere was now covered in light and then Sonic shouted with power, his aura engulfing the sphere, causing it to combust like a supernova in the tenebrous galaxy. The sphere was no longer.

On Earth...

The energy of the light can be felt from the ground. It truly was as bright as a star, all who had eyes shielded them from the outstanding luminescence in the dark sky. Whenever a Heartless looked up at itm it immediately seared in the pure light. Even the towering Darksides were put into submission, as the last two had vanished. The army was defeated. Mephiles was defeated. Darkness was no longer. The light in the sky burned out, leaving a dark, polluted sky from the long, horrendous battle.

"Shadow, Sonic's still up there, right?" Knuckles concerned.

The warriors of Earth had gathered together as their part was now over. Shadow and Silver sat on a sidewalk, trying to recompose themselves. Tails was close by in his plane, waiting to fly back up and catch Sonic's body.

"When I was up there,, his energy was just beginning to drain, when mine was already done for. As of now however...I don't feel anything from here. Silver?" said Shadow.

"I don't feel him either. Could be that we're weak right now." responded Silver.

"That's not good then," Espio tuned in, "Shadow's energy is depleted entirely, which is evident considering he doesn't have his Inhibitor Rings. Silver may have just enough to- at the very least- feel other energies, but he's not feeling anything."

"So what are you saying?" Sally now.

"I'm not saying it's definitive...but there may not even be a life force to feel." Espio replied, head down.

"What? No...No, no, no, no, no. He can't be dead. It's Sonic! He can't be...No! He can't..."

"Sally..." Blaze stepped in, "I have more energy than Silver...and I'm sorry...But I can't feel him either."

Sally dropped to her knees. She wanted to cry, but she was in too much pain to do so. She zoned out into a mindless, shocked state. She heard everyone talking, but it was slurred and echoed.

She then heard a noise. A single slur. It got louder, in which it also became less vague.

It continued on until it was clear that someone was calling her and shaking her shoulder.

"SALLY!"

Her eyes started watering, realizing her newfound pain.

Sally was ready to let loose, until that same person, Amy, continued, "Sally! Look!"

Sally looked in the direction Amy's finger was pointing. In the sky, a bright blue body was falling to the earth. Tails engine fired up and he rolled out towards the body. The heroes started to cheer, Shadow gave a smile of relief, lying back onto the cold concrete, and Dr. Eggman smiled as well, applauding for his nemesis.

Tails was right under Sonic. He left his plane on autopilot to hover in place and unbuckled his chair harness. He hopped out and spun his twin tails in a propeller-like fashion, keeping him afloat. Hands open wide and ready, after a few seconds, Tails caught the exhausted blue hero who was charred from the atmospheric burn-up.

"T-Ta-Tails. Hi...b-buddy!" Sonic whispered, eyes half-shut.

"Hey Sonic, you did it! It's over!" Tails smiled.

"Thanks...pal!" coughed Sonic.

Tails descended back into his plane, placing his longtime friend and role model in the backseat of the plane. He then got back in the front seat, and flew back to his allies. When he arrived, everyone applauded and crowded around the plane. Tails helped Sonic slide off, and in came Sally engulfing Sonic in a hug.

"Sally...you're OK!" he whispered.

"Forget me, I'm glad you're OK!" she huffed.

Tails and Sally helped Sonic walk to Shadow and Silver to sit by them.

They let Sonic go and he slid down onto the ground with a smirk, "Heh, heh...Hey guys."

"Hey...we did it! You did it!" said Silver.

"I knew you could. That's the only reason I let you do it, other than that, I probably would've handled it." said Shadow.

"Yeah right," Sonic chuckled, "Ow, it hurts to laugh."

"Wimp." razzed Shadow.

"You're to speak!"

All three broke out in a pained laughter together.

"No...this...this can't be!" Espio shouted amongst everyone.

Everyone turned their attention to him, to see his attention was just down the road. There, under the dim gleam of a light pole, was swirling black cloud, reforming into the infamous foe.

"How?!..." Sonic croaked.

Mephiles The Dark respawned once more, but now he was back to a weaker form; not the crystalline form, but the form that resembled Shadow more. Everyone huddled around Sonic, Shadow, and Silver, in defense of their weakened conditions. However, somewhere deep inside each of them, was a fear of this monstrosity before them.

"Back off if you know what's good for you!" Charmy trying to sound bold in his words.

"Select your words wisely, child. I might kill you before I kill that younger rabbit!" Mephiles snarled, referring to Cream The Rabbit who joined the battle a bit after it started.

Charmy winced at his words, as Vector raised his arm in front of Charmy and used his other to push Cream behind him, protecting the young.

"Did you fools forget how to kill me?" questioned Mephiles.

There was no response. Nothing but a confused and fear-stricken silence.

"Exactly- you can't!"

"Then how did we-"

"The Scepter!" Shadow answering Sonic before he finished his thought.

"Awgh, we've spent all this time the Chaos Emeralds, but never considered finding The Scepter Of Darkness!" Sonic groaned.

"Ha! Not that it'd matter anyway! You wouldn't have found it anyway!"

"What do you mean?" asked Rouge.

"Enough. You die, now!" said Mephiles, as various Heartless were summoned.

However, the Heartless didn't attack.

"Well? Attack them!" Mephiles ordered.

Still, the Heartless did not move.

"What is this insolence?!"

"Because now there are two Masters of Darkness before them."

The deep familiar voice came from behind Mephiles. He turned around to find that it was Ansem.

"Ansem? What's the meaning of this?" Mephiles surprised.

"Remember what I told you? The Heartless will not obey anyone, but they do have a great respect for those superior in the power of the dark. But, if there's more than one superior, they will not follow any of them until there is only one." said Ansem.

"OK, then continue on your quest. I can handle these fools!"

"No, you cannot. You've failed me."

"What?! No, they were the ones who failed! They did! They are defenseless now, look at them! And I'm still alive!"

"Hmph. That you are, no longer."

Ansem raised a glowing item, The Scepter Of Darkness.

"What, NO! STOP!" Mephiles pleaded.

"No, Mephiles. You've wasted enough of my time, so now yours, must cease."

Mephiles body started disintegrating into black smoke, which was also being absorbed by the scepter. In seconds, Mephiles returned to his basic form of a thick black smog and quickly glided into The Scepter Of Darkness.

Before becoming permanently sealed, the last of Mephiles' voice cried out, "NOOO! STOOO-"

Then the scepter glowed purple once more, a sign that Mephiles was contained once more.

"What an unfortunate turn of events." huffed Ansem.

He gently placed the artifact on the ground, then kicked it across the street to the heroes, Rouge picking it back up.

"Keep your trash, it wasn't my treasure after all. But don't think this is over yet. You may have succeeded tonight, Sonic. This battle is a win for you, and that's because you've never faced anything like me! But the war has just begun, be warned." Ansem proceeded.

"I mean...I still think you're all the same: a bunch of losers who can't seem to pay their electricity bill." jested Sonic.

"Hmph. Clever you are. I hope that'll do you justice the next time we cross paths. But until then, I bid you good luck on your following adventures!"

A black hole appeared behind Ansem, then he disappeared into it for one last time.

"I don't like the way he said 'following adventures.'" said Knuckles.

"He probably thinks some other force will take us out beforehand so he won't even have a reason to come back." Silver suggested.

"Probably, and if that's the case, we'll be waiting. If he's really keeping an eye on us, he'll probably realize that after everyone we beat after today, he won't stand a chance!" Sonic asserted.

"Let's also hope you won't be facing anything more than me! Don't forget Sonic, I only helped you and your friends for my own gain!" Dr. Eggman reminded.

"And I'll be waiting for you too, Eggman!"

"Very well then, Sonic! See you around!"

Eggman's signature hover-pod, the Egg Mobile, had just flown in to pick him up. Dr. Eggman hopped on and jetted away with Metal Sonic close behind.

"Some things never change." Amy said.

"I'm pretty sure the results won't either!" Blaze now, causing everyone to laugh in unison.

A small moment, but it is this small moment these heroes cherish so much, and it hasn't been since the night of the the party, the night of Mephiles' resurrection, when they all shared this same moment. No worries, no problems, no risk, and no time to pay careful attention to. The night was theirs, the fight was theirs, and now the delight is theirs. Through thick and thin, similarities and differences, they were able to come together in the end to protect the world that was never their own in the first place. That's what it means to be a hero, and for as long as these heroes stand, no foe will ever see success in their future.

*That's the end...well, besides the Epilogue. I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading this (mostly my ghost readers).

But my good friend felisleo18 deserves more appreciation, for being my most loyal reader. I know Sonic wasn't really your thing when you originally went into this, but my goal was to have you (and whoever else reads this) to become a fan of the stories, not the fandom. And I hope I accomplished that in some way!

Fun fact: I've had this song picked as the main theme of this story ever since it came out! As soon as I heard it on the radio, I was like "This is the one." 😮😂

Thanks everyone! Keep scrolling when you're done here, you got a little more to go...

*HEARTLESS INTRODUCED:

Minute Bomb

Sorry, you might have to zoom in for this too! Even so, it's the only accurate one they had- which unfortunately has the worst quality of them all.