In New Yoke, a portal opens and the mothership flies through it. Dread hangs on to the side as the wind picked up speed.

"This be more than I bargained for!" he grunted out.

Suddenly, he slips and flies off. Sonic and Gwen watches in horror.

"Dread?" Sonic called.

"Dread!!!" Gwen called.

She lets go and heads after him. Sonic lets go as well. Dread and Gwen fall side by side and Gwen gets a hold of his hand and spins around and throws Dread who lands on a building roof. Gwen uses her firebending to rocket herself toward the roof Dread landed on and lands safely behind him. Sonic, not so lucky, falls into a dumpster.

"Yuck!" he groaned out in disgust.

"Huh?" Dread grunted and growled, looking ahead at mothership.

"Me beauty." he growled, glaring.

"Really? Not even a thank you for saving your hide?" Gwen sassed, placing a hand on her hip.

Dread turns and yelps to see her.

"Oh, uh... hey..."

Gwen growls, glaring at Dread. He chuckles nervously, backing away.

"Right. Yer upset about the whole shard incident. But look on the bright side. Ye saved me hide. Once we take the shard back, the Chaos Council won't stand a chance against us. Gwen and Dread saves the day."

Gwen punches Dread, causing him to fall down from the roof. He screams and lands into a pile of the broken part Eggforcers.

"Good grief!" Dread exclaimed.

She jumps down after him to see him trying to take the trash can off his head.

"Ye try to do somebody a favor, and they..."

Gwen throws a head of an Eggforcer at Dread, hitting him.

"OW!!"

"A favor?!!" she exclaimed in disbelief and started throwing more trash and parts of the Eggforcers at him. "That shard was from the part of the Paradox Prism! It came from my home and then shattered into pieces thanks to Sonic's carelessness!"

"Well, maybe it's a miracle it came here." Dread said nervously, peeking from the body of an Eggforcer.

He quickly ducks down as Gwen throws a robot arm at him.

"Keep still!" she grunted.

"Can we just about this?" Dread asked, backing away.

Gwen stomps toward him and summons out her bow and arrow from her ruby necklace. She pulls the arrow from the bow and readies her aim.

"Miracle, beauty, or not, or whatever, that shard was going to..."

She begins shooting arrows at Dread who quickly grabs the damaged Eggforcer as a shield.

"...take..."

He skids back as more arrows hit his shield.

"...me..."

The last arrow nearly prick his cheek as it zooms past him.

"...home!!"

Dread waits for another hit and opens his eyes to realize that she's gone after that last hit. He places the Eggforcer down and walks through the alleyway, looking around. He eventually finds her sitting on the ground at the end of the alley, sad and depressed with her knees up to her face. Dread gets concerned and walks to Gwen.

"Gwen?" he called.

Gwen waves him away.

"Just go away, please." she said.

He looks down in shame.

"Um, I'm sorry."

Gwen scoffs at him.

"Sorry? Me and my brother worked really hard to get those shards. He nearly got himself killed to get those shards. But he wanted to make things right for us to restore our home and bring back our friends." she explained and sighed. "It was going to be the answer to all our problems. Now we're dealing with the enemies that attempt to take them for power..."

Dread stares at her.

"Well, maybe I can make it up to ye." he suggested.

"Get stuffed." Gwen said, looking away from him.

"No, no, no. I mean it. I... I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't myself..."

"You were obsessed with that shard. Did you forget?? Or did you forget about Emeraldas?"

"No! I would never." he shook his head.

"Really? Then did you forget about your crew that looked up to you? Don't you realize? You're hurting the people who care about you the most, including me..." she said in a broken tone.

"Gwen..."

Dread tries to comfort her, but she turns herself away from him and backs herself against the corner. Gwen breaks down in tears, but Dread wipes them away and the music swells.

https://youtu.be/sGCkskLaoVI

Dread starts singing.

Look at the sky, tell me what do you see?

Just close your eyes and describe it to me

In Dread's mind, the image of Emeraldas and his hand morph into view until it changes to Gwen as they're both the same person he fell in love.

The heavens are sparkling with starlight tonight,

That's what I see through your eyes

Gwen stares at him and sings along.

I see the heavens each time that you smile

I hear our heartbeat just go on for miles

Dread was about to pull her up when he felt the pain on his back. It was from the shot the Eggforcer hit him and he's still healing. Then a red glow magically flies around him and goes into his back, healing it and mending his tunic. It was from Gwen's ruby.

Then suddenly I know why life is worthwhile,

That's what I see through your eyes

She then hugs him, Dread then embraces her heartwarmingly before the two faces each other.

"That's what I see through your eyes." they both sang in unison.

Suddenly, they find themselves in a magical forest as the ruby had teleported them. Dread helps Gwen up and escorts her.

Here in the night, I see the sun

Here in the dark, our two hearts are one

Gwen jumps on a field, causing parts of it to rise each step she takes. She falls backwards and Dread catches her as they sing.

It's our of our hands, and we can't stop what we have begun

And love just took me by surprise

Looking through your eyes

Dread and Gwen walk through an area of tongue plants. The rest of the song continues with their voices.

I see a night I wish it could last forever

Dread pokes the plant with his sword, and Gwen stands besides him with her sword as well. As the plant swings its tongue at them, the two dodge the tongue and slice it off at the same time. They take down more plants as they stand back to back against each other.

I see the world that we meant to see together

After defeating them, Gwen raises her sword to make sure no plants come and attack them, but Dread sheathes his sword and lowers hers behind her back, smiling. The two share a smile as they fall in love. An orb flies in and grabs droplets of water with its wings and forms the three interlocked rings around them which stay in mid-air.

And it is so much, more that I remember

More than I remember (Dread)

More than I have known (Gwen)

The three interlocked rings dissolve back into droplets into the water. Dread and Gwen continues to walk on.

Here in the night, I see the sun

Here in the dark, our two hearts are one

It's out of our hands, and we can't stop what we have begun

And love just took me by surprise

They walk past the waterfall, Gwen opens up part of the waterfall with her hand and the waterfall closes.

Looking through your eyes

Gwen and Dread walk past the field of helicopter plants which they fly off.

Looking through your eyes

They walk up a hill and stand there before embracing each other. Around them, a wind carrying milkweed floss stirs into the air. Two butterflies flit around Dread and Gwen before flying away. The world around them eventually changed back to reality as they're back in New Yoke, in the alley. Dread pulls away and smiles at her.

"I'll help ye get those shards back." he said.

Gwen raises her eyebrow and stares at him suspiciously.

"How do I know this ain't just a load of old rubbish?" she asked.

"Well, I suppose ye'll just have to trust me." he said. "I may be crazy over that shard, but... I won't stop caring about you. If I am going crazy again, you can punch me or do whatever you want."

After a moment, Gwen sighs, seeing that he's completely honest. She hopes that he does changed. If he goes crazy again, she'll have to put him in his place. Gwen walks up to him and faces Dread who gulps nervously. 

"I must be out of my mind." she muttered.

Suddenly, she pulls him into a kiss. Dread was shocked at this until she pulls away from him. Gwen looks away with her cheeks pink.

"Alright. You've got yourself a deal." she said, walking past him. "Let's go find my brother."

Dread stands there, thinking what just happened. He eventually follows after her with a goofy smile on his face. Gwen climbs up the building to the roof as Dread climbs up after her. They look around when they heard loud noises. They look down to see Denizens running away from the Eggforcers as they appear to be back online and more... stronger and faster.

"That's odd..." she mumbled.

Then they heard another loud ruckus and Gwen and Dread turned to see parts of the Eggforcers flying off. They were about to go and check it out when the chopper bot flies up to them. More chopper bots came as they surround Gwen and Dread. Once begins to scan them until it lands on Gwen. Confused, they watch it scan her until it turned green.

"Another shard detected."

Gwen and Dread were shocked at this.

"W-What?" she voiced, sounding nervous.

Meanwhile, in the Yoke, the Chaos Council sees this through the screen and are shocked.

"She has another shard?!" Mr. Doctor Eggman exclaimed.

"What could this mean?" Deep asked.

"Not sure. But we better get a closer look on her and test her. Choppers, capture that light blue rodent! We need her alive!"

The chopper bots begins to close in on Dread and Gwen. They begin to fight them off as Dread punches them while slicing them off with his sword. Gwen blasts them into bits with firebending as she burn them off. She flips over the chopper bot and grabs it and throws to another, smashing them together. Just as things were going well, more chopper bots came and grabbed Gwen with their mechanical claws. She struggles to get out of their grip.

"Hey! Let go!"

She begins floating. Dread sees that and tries to save her when more chopper bots block his path. They started taking Gwen to the Council headquarters. She struggles along the way.

"No!!" Dread shouted, punching the chopper bots.

"Dread!!" Gwen shouted, looking down at him.

He manages to destroy all the chopper bots and runs after her. He jumps over the roof and lands on another to try and get close to her. Dread was close to reaching her hand when the chopper bot shoots him by the feet, tripping him. He gets up and watches her get taken away.

"Gwen!!" he shouted back.

Dread gets angry and smashes the ground with his fist, growling. He looks back up as she flies away.

"I will get you back." he promised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Sonic landed in the dumpster as soon as Gwen and Dread landed safely, he started looking for them on top of the roof of the building and calling out to them.

"Dread? Sis? Dread? Sis? Dread? Sis? Where are you guys?"

He heard noises and turn to see Rebel flying with the Denizens after taking out the Eggforcers.

"It's the rebels!" he exclaimed in happiness and ran after them.

The Denizen kicks an Eggforcer as Rebel flies. Rebel then leaves the Denizens on the roof and lands besides Knucks.

"It's madness out here." Knucks said.

"It's hopeless." Rebel looked down.

Three more Eggforcers rise behind them. Before they could attack, Sonic laps through them in a blur and stops in front of Knucks and Rebel.

"Missed me?" he teased.

"Sonic?" Rebel said in surprise.

"I shoulda known when everything went bad, you'd show up." Knucks glared.

"Hey, I'm here to help!" Sonic defended.

"Except you always seem to make things worse." Rebel retorted. "Where's Gwen?"

Before he could answer, they heard a noise and saw an Eggforcer coming behind Sonic. Sonic dodges it, knocks it back, and takes off on top of a track. On the ground, Sonic spins and knocks the Eggforcers out, saving the Denizens. He gets more of them higher up. Knucks watches him before turning to the rebels.

"Come on, don't let Sonic get in all the good licks!" he ordered.

Two more Eggforcers flies in front of them. Rebel smashes one with her spin kick while Knucks punches another. He drops on one and rips off its arm. A rebel uses an arm to fire on the Eggforcer. Rebel flies in and picks up another Eggforcer and throws it into Knucks' fist. He punches it into Sonic's path as he zooms into an Eggforcer, destroying it. Sonic wipes his snout with his thumb and jumps down between Knucks and Rebel.

"It's great to see you guys again, it really is, but I—"

Sonic was cut off by Knucks grabbing him by the shoulders and making him face his angry face.

"Answers! Where did you come from?" he demanded.

Sonic glances away with a sheepish smile as he starts explaining.

"Well..."

He goes on by himself and Gwen into Ghost Space, Sonic slamming down a green shard to release trees with Gwen slamming her hands to release earth pillars, Shadow knocking Sonic into a blue portal as he falls in the water with Gwen in No Place. Dread ordering his crew to fire as missiles smash into each other as Sonic and Gwen dive into the water for safety with a big bubble around them. As soon as he finishes explaining, Knucks was surprised and pulled away from Sonic.

"Pirates? I hate pirates." he said.

Rebel pulls Sonic by the arm and glares at him.

"You let the Council get their hands on more Shards?"

Sonic pulls his arm away and smiles.

"Technically, yes. But don't worry, I've got a plan. I'm on my way to fix it right now." he reassured them.

"We've heard that before!" Rebel retorted.

Sonic zooms up to the roof.

"I'm gonna bust into the Yoke, grab the Shards and rescue Nine."

"The fox with the attitude? The one who stood the Shard? Not to mention, betrayed Gwen?" Rebel questioned.

"I know he's a little rough around the edges..." he stammered, rubbing his head.

"It's not just the edges." she said.

Sonic zooms back to them.

"...but he saved you!"

"And then he disappeared again." Knucks reminded.

"Because he was captured! We can trust him." Sonic said.

"Him? We don't even trust you, except Gwen! Where is she?!" Knucks shouted, pointing at his face.

Sonic pushes his hand away.

"Fine. I don't need you guys slowing me down anyway. I'll just—"

Before Sonic could run off, Rebel covers his mouth.

"Quiet!"

Rebels, Sonic, and Knucks watch chopper bots start around as they fly over them. They look down from the roof.

"Those machines, they've never been so fast. Or this aggressive." Rebel said.

The chopper bots chase and pick up Denizens.

"Let go of me!! Get your metal claws off of me!!"

They looked up and their eyes widened to see Gwen being held by the chopper bots. Gwen is flying towards the Council headquarters as she struggled along the way.

"Gwen!!" Sonic, Rebel, and Knucks exclaimed.

Gwen looks down and gasps.

"Guys!!" she called back, flying further away from them.

"Why are they taking sis to the Chaos Council?" Sonic asked in disbelief and horror.

"Whatever they want with her, it can't be good." Rebel said in worry.

"No, not again!" Knucks stammered, remembering the last time Iris was taken to the Chaos Council.

"We need to go after her! Now! This is exactly why I need to get into the Yoke like, yesterday." Sonic said, determined to save Gwen. "The Shards and my sister are what matters."

Rebel thinks for a moment as Knucks jumps down to help the Denizens. As much as she wants to save Gwen, she needs to help her people too.

"Go on, then. Don't let us slow you down. You better bring Gwen back safe and sound." she said before flying off.

She kicks away the chopper bots and Knucks smashes one down and smacks the bot part into another one.

"It's fine. They can handle it. Focus on the Shards and sis, focus on the Shards and sis..."

He closes his eyes and runs down the building. Sonic opens them to find himself going down after Knucks and Rebel.

"Uh, why am I running into battle?"

Sonic jumps onto a chopper bot and frees the Denizen who falls. Big catches him and smiles. A chopper bot heads for Knucks and Rebel smashes it. Behind an old bin, Knucks drives his fists and hits the ground. The bin goes flying for second before he punches the bin into the chopper bots. Rebel lands by Knucks. Eggforcers land by them. Sonic quickly destroys the Eggforcers with his spin dash. Knucks and Rebel take off when more Eggforcers surround them. Sonic spins at the Eggforcers and spins up and smashes another and lands.

"Well, it's been a blast, but I gotta get to the Yoke."

Just as Sonic is about to run again, Rebel stopped him.

"We're going with you."

"What?" Sonic questioned.

"We're all heading to the Yoke." Rebel continued.

Knucks was shocked at her response.

"Why would we go to the Yoke? The streets are crawling with Eggbots again!"

"Now that the Council is back and more powerful than ever, with Gwen as their hostage, we have to tale the fight to them." Rebel explained.

"No one likes a good dust-up more than me, you know that, Rebel, but these grunts are green. We need to get underground." Knucks stated.

"Don't you want to save Gwen? We failed to save our Iris, but we can still save her this time." she reminded.

"I... I do." he said, glancing away slightly.

"Love that you're talking this out, but I should've been there already. I can't wait around—"

Sonic tried to walk away when Rebel lands in front of him, making him jump.

"You're gonna have to! This is bigger than you, Sonic." Rebel glared. "If you fail, and the Chaos Council keep the Shards, and finish off Gwen, we're finished. And I'm not letting that happen. Not again, to Gwen. I know this isn't what we do. We stick to the shadows, we fight from the shadows, but this time, there's just too much at stake. We have to bring the fight right to them."

"Maybe there's a way we can do both." Knucks grinned, getting the idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the Yoke, Council headquarters

"We should make it bigger!" Done It suggested.

"Big surprise that Dr. Slouch wants it taller." Mr. Doctor Eggman said sarcastically.

"Give it Buzzsaws! Carve them up!" Babble said.

They heard grunts and turned to see Gwen being lead by the Eggforcers with her hands cuffed. She glares at the Chaos Council.

"If you think you can stop my brother and my friends by building more robots, you're a fool." she sneered.

"We'll see about that." Deep smirked.

They placed her in a hamster ball with electrics around her. At the same time, they heard a cleared throat and turned to see Nine being lead by the Eggforcers, handcuffed.

"You rang for me?" he asked.

Nine turned and gasped in horror to see Gwen trapped in a hamster ball.

"Don't worry, Nine. I'm fine. They won't break me." she assured him with a smile.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Mr. Doctor Eggman said.

"How long are we putting up with him?" Don't asked in exasperation.

"He's built us what we want, get rid of him already." Deep said.

"Now, now. We're going to put him to work, but this one possesses a, shall we say, less-dull mind than the usual riff-raff? He'll appreciate this." Mr. Doctor Eggman said, looking down at Nine.

"Appreciate what?" Nine asked.

"What we've built, of course."

Mr. Doctor Eggman gestures to the shards in a power core. Nine's eyes widens in shock and walks over.

"You're harnessing the energy of all three Shards? That much power is—"

"Incalculable? Indeed." Deep grinned.

"No, it isn't! Just make them bigger!" Done It whined, pointing with his cane.

"What are you guys doing?" Nine asked. "More importantly, what are you doing with Gwen?"

"We're just about to study her. Dr. Don't?" Mr. Doctor Eggman said.

Don't types it and it starts scanning Gwen in a hamster ball. As soon as it's done scanning Gwen, he looked on screen as they read her. He gasped at what he just discovered.

"Um... you might want to see this."

Don't types and shows a hologram of Gwen's body. Everyone gasps loudly at what they just saw.

"Impossible! How can she be a part of the missing shard?!!" Mr. Doctor Eggman exclaimed.

"Maybe it has something to do with the shards being half the color. We never got to study on Gwen since we've been focusing more on that blue rodent brother of hers." Deep said.

"It could also explain her new powers she wield." Don't added.

Gwen was shocked to hear this along with Nine as he looks at her.

"What could this mean?" Done It asked.

"It means she has the power to wield the Shards' powers! But what we still don't get is why she's part of the missing shard?" Mr. Doctor Eggman stated.

Don't starts typing again to get more information out of Gwen who watches in horror. He clicked it and gasped.

"What? What is it, Don't?" Mr. Doctor Eggman asked.

"She's... Her body... It's trying to become something more powerful."

"Get an image."

Don't taps another button and the hologram showed Gwen's body with a shard inside her body. Then it begins incasing her from the inside and outside until it showed... a full form of a Paradox Prism. Nine and Gwen's breath hitches.

"No way..." Don't gasped.

Babble's pacifier drops down in shock.

"She's... turning into a brand new shards." Deep voiced.

"It appears that it's trying to form itself into her. If it gets into full form, she'll either disappear or her body will be destroyed." Mr. Doctor Eggman said.

Gwen couldn't believe what she was hearing. Is this why all the other versions of herself is dying? She starts to have a panic attack as she couldn't describe at this sudden new information. What would she say to Sonic? How would everyone that she knows will react to this? Nine is just as shocked as he couldn't utter a word. He can't... he can't let her die again. Nine wants to believe it's a dream, but there's no way he can wake up from this. He just got to see her again, he's not going to lose her too.

"Well, no matter. At least, we'll be able to get powers from her." Mr. Doctor Eggman waved off.

"Yes. Drain all of those power juices out of her." Done It grinned evilly.

"It's a bit brutal, but the more power we can wield the merrier." Deep shrugged.

Don't shrugged while Babble giggled evilly.

"Since the rat is confused. Perhaps a demonstration is in order. Dr. Don't? If you wouldn't mind." Mr. Doctor Eggman said. "Make sure to drain Gwen's power too since she's part of them."

"Whatevs." Don't rolled his eyes and typed.

A bubble grows from the power core, at the same time, Gwen's body begins to glow from different color as it shows her veins. She grunts in pain, feeling her power slipping away. It floats down to a pile of Eggforcer parts and covers it. Blue and purple beams shoot up. A bright light cylinder rises and disappears, leaving a giant Eggforcer. A regular one half its size looks up at it. Nine stares with wide eyes. Gwen looks up weakly and stares in shock. Mr. Doctor Eggman looks at her.

"Looks like you're still alive. Don't die on us, yet. We need you and your power more than anything before we dispose you."

Nine looks at Gwen with worry, fearing for her fate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gwen finds herself alone with the three shards and looks over her shoulder through the glass to see the Chaos Council watching on screen with Nine. They appear to be frustrated and angry while Nine smirks. It appears that no matter how many bots they upgrade, Sonic and the rebellions always find a way to defeat them. Gwen smiles, knowing they will win. She stops smiling when she notices Mr. Doctor Eggman gets up from his seat and drags Nine, walking away. She doesn't like where this is going. 

Mr. Doctor Eggman and Nine walks into the power core room. Gwen watches as Nine gets interrogated.

"We both know that the other members of the Council won't stop Sonic. They lack vision and imagination, unlike you."

"You think I have vision and imagination?" Nine questioned.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps you're just a stupid fox." Mr. Doctor Eggman said, facing him down. "Alone. Useless. Pathetic."

"He's not stupid! Or useless or pathetic!! You are!" Gwen hissed.

Mr. Doctor Eggman glares at her. Nine smiles at her defending him and crawls up with his metal tails to his level.

"I'm pathetic? You're the one with unlimited power, and all you can think to do is build a bigger robot." he said, poking his chest.

Mr. Doctor Eggman starts cackling and smacks Nine with a gun taser.

"Tell me how to defeat Sonic!"

"He will never tell you! Not when I'm here!" Gwen growled.

"Then I suppose you know how to defeat your dear brother."

"Even if I do know how to defeat him, I'll never tell you anything! You can't stop him. He'll always come back up."

"She's right. You can't, he's too fast. He thinks on his feet." Nine said. "No matter what you throw at him, he takes it. No matter how hard you hit him, he always gets back up!"

Gwen smiles with proudness that he's standing up to him. He may be different and... rude at times, but he acts just like Tails she used to know. Mr. Doctor Eggman falters.

"Yeah! You'll never beat Sonic, because you can't understand him. He hates Eggheads like you!" she added.

"And you don't think like he thinks. You're not even in the same league." Nine said.

"So I need to think like Sonic?" Mr. Doctor Eggman concluded with a grin.

Gwen froze in realization at what she and Nine had just done.

"I knew you had vision and imagination. That includes you, of course, Gwen."

"No... No!!" she shouted, trying to get out of the binds.

Mr. Doctor Eggman begins to walk away. Nine instantly gets out of his seat after realizing what he just said.

"Hey, wait! I didn't—"

"Yes, yes, you two did." Mr. Doctor Eggman said as the metal door closes behind him.

"Oh, what have I done?" Nine frowned.

"It's not your fault. That Egghead tricked us." Gwen assured him.

Nine at his communicator.

"Nine to Sonic."

"Nine?" Sonic answered back. "Is sis with you?"

"Are you there, Sonic?" he asked.

Gwen looks over and gasps.

"N-Nine...?"

Nine turns around and sees Don't with the Eggforcers.

"Warning your friend? Not cool." Don't sneered.

He grabs Nine and drags him away.

"Nine!!" Gwen called out.

Nine gives her a reassuring nod as he gets taken back to the Chaos Council.

"Turns out our many-tailed prisoner has been in communication with Sonic and Gwen this whole time." Don't explained, holding up the communicator on Nine's wrist.

"I knew it! That rat's a rat!" Done It glared.

"I am a fox!" Nine sneered.

"I'm gonna turn you into a bath robe!" Deep glared.

Babble says something that sound even worst.

"Ah, let's not be hasty. The fox can lure Sonic right to us." Mr. Doctor Eggman said calmly.

"How is that going to help? He keeps beating our Eggforcers!" Done It asked.

"Exactly. That's why I have something better in mind."

Gwen watches Mr. Doctor Eggman walk back into the power core room.

"My interrogation of our prisoners has inspired a design for our greatest robotic creation."

The doctors glide up to the glass as they watch Mr. Doctor Eggman.

"Watch and learn."

He presses the button and the prism shards flash in the power core. Gwen screams, feeling her power slipping away once again as the colorful veins shows out of her fur. Deep, Done It, and Babble watch. Nine looks on with his mouth open while glancing at Gwen with worry as she screams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Sonic, Knucks, Rebel, and the other rebel soldiers are fighting against the upgraded Eggforcers as they destroyed them.

"Nice job. Told you he's make it." Rebel said, looking at Knucks.

"Make it? Uh... thanks." Sonic said. "I can take it from here."

"No chance. We've come this far. We finish this together." Rebel said in determination.

"Easy to say. But we still gotta get inside." Knucks said. "This place is locked down."

More Eggforcers come out.

"Take cover!" Rebel shouted.

Sonic ducks from the lasers.

"More Eggforcers?" Knucks exclaimed in shock, dodging the laser. "I hate to say it, but—"

"We're not retreating! We make our stand, here and now!" she said, glaring. "Gwen's life is at stake!!"

Knucks and Big fire from cover.

"We can't hold them off for long. We need to get inside, now!" Knucks said, firing at the Eggforcers.

"Sonic!" Fake Nine called from Sonic's communicator.

"Nine? About time!" Sonic grinned. "How's Gwen?"

"Bring your friends to the southwest doors. Gwen will be here."

Sonic raises his eyebrow.

"You okay? You sound strange."

"I'll get you in." Fake Nine said, cutting off from the communicator.

"My inside fox is gonna get us in. Come on!" Sonic grinned, making Knucks nod.

"'Bring your friends'?" Rebel questioned, noticing Fake Nine's odd words. "Why would he say that?"

"Because he's a nice guy. I told you, we can trust him!" Sonic said.

"Not like we have another option." Knucks shrugged.

Sonic and Knucks ran off. Rebel turned to her soldiers.

"Rebels! Fall back!" she ordered before flying off after them.

They then made it up to the deck of the Yoke.

"Yes! I knew Nine wouldn't let me down. Come on!"

Sonic, Rebel, and Knucks run to doors. They stop and look around until the doors open. Sonic leads the way into a dark corridor.

"Yeah, this isn't ominous at all. I don't like this." Knucks said, getting a bad feeling.

"You don't like anything." Rebel commented with an unamused look. "Anyone got a light?"

More doors open and lights spills out. Sonic squints at something ahead.

"Nine? Sis?" he called.

Metallic footsteps walks from the light.

"Is that you guys?"

Its silhouette has two small pointy ears. Sonic, Knucks, and Rebel step back. Another light turns on to reveal a blue and black robot.

"No, it's..." Knucks started, looking at Sonic. "...you."

Its face glow blue and red eyes light up.