《 Chapter 18: Ghost of a Chance 》

In Ghost Hill, palm trees and bushes wave. Above the beach, the Council Mothership slowly flies. On the deck, Council crafts and Eggforcers stand ready. On one craft, Babble types. On another, Done It types.

"Crush everything in your path until you find the Shards along with Gwen!" Mr. Doctor Eggman ordered.

The two crafts take off. Eggforcers jump down to the beach and march toward Ghost Temple Mountain. The crafts fly in the same direction. Sonic and Shadow watch.

"Don't you just hate this part?" Sonic sighed. "The buildups? Shadow and Sonic, versus unbeatable odds, with the fate of the world at stake. Like, let's just get on with it already!"

Sonic starts stretching while Shadow just deadpans at him.

"Hey, I'm not gonna be the one who pulls a hammy."

"What about him and Gwen?" Shadow asked, gesturing to the cave where Nine and Gwen are. "We can't just leave him along with the Prism Shards and Gwen."

Sonic states the obvious.

"Uh, yes we can. Seeing as he's the only one who can put them back together, and y'know, fix reality? Plus, Gwen said she trusts him, so I trust him too. You really don't trust him, do you?"

"No." Shadow replied without hesitation.

"Of course you don't. You don't trust anyone, well except Gwen, since you two are close." Sonic said. "You wanna stay here and babysit? Fine. Knock yourself out. I'm gonna go buy us some time."

Sonic jumps off the mountain. Shadow scowls with his arms crossed. He then follows Sonic.

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

Meanwhile in the cave, Gwen's ears twitches and looks over.

"Something's wrong." she said.

"Looks like the Council caught up with us. I gotta make it quick."

Nine stands in front of the prism blueprint. With two of his tails, he holds the blue shard in the air. He carefully moves it to the outline of the Paradox Prism. The blue shard then sits in place, much to Gwen's relief.

"There." Nine smiled. "Two more, then home for the last Shard."

She raised her eyebrow on what he meant by that. Nine goes to the case and lifts out the red shard. He takes it to the blueprint. As the shard floats between his two tails, he readies it. Nine looks at the outline of the blueprint and rotates the shard. He raises it closer to the blueprint. He turns it and moves it higher. The red shard shakes and the shockwave blasts through the mountain. Gwen was shocked at this. She runs outside of the cave and noticed the dull colors everywhere turn brighter.

In a second, the shockwave passes her and the Ghost Hill returns. She hears Sonic calling her and Nine from her regulator.

"Nine? Sis? You guys okay?"

"Yeah, this is a little trickier than I thought." Nine replied.

"What happened? Reality was flippin' out over here!"

"Like I said, this is a challenge. You're gonna have to buy me some more time."

"Just... be careful out there, bro." Gwen said.

"No problem, guys!"

Gwen watches as Sonic and Shadow fights the Council and the Eggforcers. Explosions and gunfires could be heard in the distance. She wanted to come down there and help them fight. But she hesitated, remembering about her powers being drained and making her weak. She only managed to use a bit of her power to save Nine from falling into the water back at No Place.

"I can't let this happen. I can't... I don't want to lose anyone. Or my home..."

She closes her eyes, recalling her good memories with her brother and her friends. She doesn't want anything happen to those people close to her. But if she uses all of her powers, she will be turned into the Paradox Prism and will never see them again. Gwen takes a deep breath and breathes out. She then opens her eyes and finds herself in a black room with a spotlight shinning over her. Gwen starts singing.

https://youtu.be/L0ZJnX6wEVE

It's so dark

Not a star in the sky

With no sound to be heard

And reality blurred

Dreams are gone with the light

Fading out

Till the world's far behind

I can't do this alone

I can't find my way home

With this doubt in my mind

Gwen looks ahead to see a sparkling bright red light flying as it flies past her. She starts following it as it keeps flying around her.

Gotta find the courage in me

Stand up and be braver

Than I've been before

Searching for the courage in me

So I can believe

This is what I'm destined for

Is this my moment to rise?

The light flies ahead and Gwen starts running after it. The room around her change as red and pink clouds form around them.

Leave the person I was behind

There are storms to come

Can I face each one?

Is it time?

The light then flies up and she jumps up high and lands on the floating glowing red platform. The light flies back to her and goes around her before flying off.

Is this my moment to rise?

I've started to realize

The light bounces off on each platform as Gwen follows its lead, trying to catch up.

Doubts that held me down

Begin fading now

Is it my...

Gwen jumps onto another platform and lands on her knees.

Moment to rise?

As I stand

With a new path to tread

The light bounces around her. She stands up, feeling confident and determined.

The hope in my heart

Starts to shake at the thought

Of what might lie ahead

Should I fight?

There's so much I don't know

Do I push through the fears

Till a new world appears

Though I might be alone?

Then Cosmo appears from the red light and floats before her.

"Are you ready, Gwen?" she asked.

Gwen stares at her for a moment, slightly tearing up to see her again.

"What if I fail?" she asked with worry.

Cosmo looks at her with an assuring smile.

"You must be stronger than before to protect the people you love."

Gwen gazes at her for a moment and exhales as she stands on the glowing platform. She finds herself back in the cave where Nine is still working on the outline of the Paradox Prism. She approaches him and taps his shoulder. He turns to her.

"Nine, I need you to power me up."

He looks surprised at this.

"Are you sure? You remember what the Council said about you."

"I know, but I need to help my brother and my friend. Please, Nine."

Nine stares at her for a moment and nods.

"Alright."

He steps to the shards in the blueprint. With his tails, he shoots beams to the shards. 

"Almost there. Whatever you do, just don't move." he instructed.

Gwen nods. Nine turns and creates a large green beam as it hits her. Multicolored energy surrounds her. She focuses on the energy.

What was in darkness

Is totally different in the light

And deep in my heart

I've found a way

To climb to new heights

The cave shakes. Gwen opens her eyes as she glows colorfully and smiles. She summons her fist whip and starts spinning around it with tremendous speed.

I'll go on regardless

Of anything standing in my way

Harness the power in me for those

Who needs to be saved

Gwen starts running with a smile on her face as she jumps out of the cave and skates into the battlefield.

I won't run, I won't hide

I will soar through the sky

Tonight, I'm not going down

Without a fight

And now is the time

My moment to rise

Gwen swings herself towards the palm tree and lands on top, bending it down before launching herself.

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

On the ground, Deep, who's all powered up by the shards, jumps at Shadow with his swords. Shadow evades him and Deep jumps high. Shadow kicks Deep, who lands on his feet. Sonic spins around Babble to make him dizzy. When Babble knocks the ground, causing Sonic to fly for a bit until he was grabbed by Babble. Babble then grabbed Shadow with Sonic. He holds Sonic and Shadow up to his gun as he laughs.

"Hey, Sonic, Shadow!!"

They all turned to see Gwen earth surfing with speed.

"Sorry to keep you two waiting!" she grinned.

She hits Deep and Babble with a giant rock fist and her fist whip. She punches them rapidly on each with her different fists and lands. Gwen then grabs Babble and lifts him up high and sends him flying.

"Ugh. Don't you know it's rude to— Agh!!" Deep screamed to see Gwen charging him.

She punches Deep away. Gwen then goes over to Sonic and Shadow, who are free from Babble. They look up and were amazed with Gwen's power.

"Whoa... Sis, you're—" Sonic started.

"How—" Shadow questioned.

"Got a power-up. You're welcome." Gwen smiled.

Suddenly, guns around the Mothership slowly turn upward.

"It's aiming away from us?!" Sonic said in shock.

"That doesn't look good." Gwen said.

"Maybe they know when they're beat." Sonic added.

"Seriously? Please. If you believe that you're even dumber then you look." Gwen deadpanned.

"Hey!" Sonic glared.

"I agree with her." Shadow stated.

Sonic was flabbergasted that his sister and Shadow are ganging up on him.

"Seriously?!"

Six beams shoot up and meet. Shadow, Gwen, and Sonic watch. Waves of energy grow upward. They create two legs and a round body. A glowing gloved hand makes a fist. A head wears round glasses and a mustache that sticks out of the sides.

"Behold, the pinnacle of all creation!" Mr. Doctor Eggman introduced.

They created a giant Doctor Eggman.

"It's official. I've seen it all." Sonic commented.

The giant drops to the ground. Towering over palm trees, he walks forward.

"It's heading for the Temple." Shadow warned.

Sonic, Gwen, and Shadow speed toward it.

"Hey! Bring it on, big, tall and ugly!"

Sonic jumps at the giant, who smacks him away. Sonic, Gwen, and Shadow watch the giant walk on. The ground shakes with every step. At the Loop-de-loop, he sweeps his arm and smashes it apart.

"No!!" Sonic and Gwen exclaimed.

"Sonic, Gwen, don't!" Shadow said. "You can't save anything unless you protect the shards!"

Sonic and Gwen runs and skates ahead. Gwen runs towards the beach as Sonic jumps onto the giant's jacket and smacks his head.

"Why won't you go down?!"

The giant flicks him away. Behind the giant, Shadow leaps up.

"Get to the Shards, now!!"

The giant turns to Shadow and opens his mouth. He shoots a beam that throws Shadow back.

"Shadow!!"

The giant continues towards Ghost Temple Mountain. Just then, a giant water fist punches the giant away, knocking it backward. Sonic turned to see a giant water version of Gwen. In the middle of its chest reveals the real Gwen controlling the water giant. She glares as she and the giant begin to fight. Water Gwen tackles the giant and pins him to the ground. The two giant struggle to push each other down until Water Gwen manages to pin the giant against the cliff. The giant attempts to shoot a beam from his mouth, but Water Gwen punches him in his cheek. She grabs and hurls the giant away, causing him to the crash into the ground.

Sonic watches in shock and awe as the giant gets up. Water Gwen rises a pair of giant water hands that clamp around the giant. She begins freezing the water hands, squeezing the giant. He begins to squirm, feeling itself starting to go down. But then the lasers hits Water Gwen in the face, causing her to flinch back from the hit. The Mothership was the one that shoot fire. The giant manages to break free from the ice and then delivers a powerful punch to her stomach. The giant then smacks Water Gwen away, launching her into the air. Water Gwen was about to summon a water to save herself when she finds out a little too late to see the giant aiming at her with his glowing open mouth. Then, he fires a beam that causes the Water Gwen to burst out and the real Gwen go flying towards the Ghost Temple Mountain.

"Sis!!" Sonic yelled out.

The giant continues walking.

"Nine!!"

Sonic runs between the giant's glowing feet and up the mountain. He sees Gwen getting up in pain. He quickly helps her up and takes her towards Nine.

"Nine! Her power-up, it's not enough! There's a giant—"

The cave shakes and the giant climbs the mountain. He looks into the cave and reaches a hand inside.

"A prismatic Titan..." Nine voiced out.

The Titan starts pulling the rocks away from the entrance.

"How do we beat it?" Gwen asked.

Nine scans it.

"Uh... Gwen and the Titan should operate within the same spectral frequency. If I offset her frequency—"

"Nine! What do we do? What do we do?" Sonic asked urgently.

"I don't know exactly! But, if you hit him where it hurts, I think we can make it go boom!" Nine said.

"And if he doesn't?" Gwen asked.

"Well, it's been a slice. A slice of reality, that is."

Nine collects more energy from the shards. Gwen takes Sonic's hand. He grips it and interlocks his fingers around hers. Nine then turns and fires a green beam at Sonic and Gwen. They both groan at the sudden blast towards them. They land on four, growling and groaning at the energy they're given. They slowly get up and Nine stops the beam with wide eyes.

Sonic and Gwen stands with their eyes closed as their shoes, gloves, and outfits glows light blue. Their quills glows purple. The two hedgehog siblings opens their eyes, as they're also purple. They turn to the Titan, who pulls away another rock. The Titan's glasses and open mouth glow light blue. Sonic and Gwen gets into their starting position. A sphere grows from the Titan's mouth.

"Now!!" Nine shouted.

Sonic and Gwen glares at the Titan then speeds toward him. The Titan shoots his beam. Sonic and Gwen weaves around it and spins at the Titan mouth and goes in. In slow motion, the Titan moves back and falls off the mountain. Sonic and Gwen groan loudly with effort to keep running and skating. Nine hurries out of the cave as the Titan lands. A shockwave spreads over Ghost Hill. It blows Mr. Doctor Eggman's wig off. The shockwave then dissipates. Sonic and Gwen stands alone with a hand on the ground. Their eyes turn back to green and light blue.

Shadow skates toward Sonic and Gwen and stops some distance away. The two hedgehog siblings stands up and looks around. They grin and run and skate back up the mountain. They jump up to Nine.

"Sonic! Gwen! You did it!" Nine praised.

"We did it." Gwen corrected him.

"Did you complete the Prism?" Sonic asked, turning to the Mothership and Ghost Hill. "Then why hasn't it worked?"

With a furrow brow, Sonic goes into the cave. Gwen frowns, knowing he's right, and follows after him with Nine. They run back to the shards.

"I don't get it. I thought this would work!" Sonic said.

"There's still one Shard missing." Nine said, glancing at Gwen.

"What?" Sonic questioned.

"The last Shard is in... Gwen." Nine revealed.

"What? Sis, what's he talking about?"

Sonic turned to Gwen, who looked away.

"I... It's true. I have a shard inside me."

He couldn't what he just heard.

"But that's... impossible."

"Does it make you wonder how I got these powers and my sudden hair dye?" Gwen asked.

Sonic flashes back to when Gwen started to discover her power and when she almost got sucked into the blueprint with the yellow shard.

"No way... Why didn't you tell me this?"

"Because I didn't want to worry you. And if I keep using up all of my powers, I... I..."

"She becomes the full version of the Paradox Prism. She... will disappear." Nine sadly confirmed.

Sonic's breath hitches.

"No, no, no, no! We... We can fix it! We can get the shard out of you!"

"That's what I was thinking." Nine said.

"Okay... Probably could've mentioned that earlier and saved us the trip there and back."

Nine looks confused.

"And back? The only reason we're here at all is because I needed to use the Prism's impression as a blueprint. To see which pieces went where. Now that all but the last one is in place, we can rebuild it to make the Grim into what we've always wanted."

"Yeah... to rebuild Green Hill, right?" Gwen asked, now confused.

"Green Hill? We're not remaking your old world. We're building a better one." Nine said. "The perfect world in Grim. Our clean slate."

"What??" she voiced out in shock, backing away.

"Why does the slate have to be clean? We liked the old slate! It was our home!" Sonic said.

"It was never my home. Plus, it's gone." Nine glared.

"I think you can get it back."

"You're wrong about that. We need to build a new home. After I remove the shard from Gwen."

Gwen doesn't like where this is going.

"Nine..."

Sonic reaches out to Nine.

"Come on, little buddy—"

Nine smacks his hand away.

"Stop calling me that!"

He towers over Sonic and Gwen with his metal tails.

"You just assumed I'd go along with you no matter what. Did you even consider what I wanted?!" he yelled, pointing his tail at Sonic.

"I assumed that after everything we've been through, you'd see things the way I do. Just like the real Tails would."

"I am real!" Nine snapped.

Sonic looks at Nine sadly while Gwen was in disbelief that this happening.

"Just not your real friend." he said and turned away.

"Nine... I trusted you. I gave you a second chance to make things right. You're still running away?!!" Gwen said, now glaring at Nine.

Nine said nothing and looked at Sonic.

"What did you think would happen to me when you brought your friends back?"

"We're all in this together, and I really think you'd grow to love them as much as I do!" Sonic said, trying to reason with him.

Nine turned back to them and glared.

"And that's exactly your problem! You just jump into situations with no idea about the outcome. At least, Gwen knows what she's doing!"

Nine turns to the shards and aims fire with his tails.

"Nine, no!!" Gwen shouted, skating over to him.

"Wait!!" Sonic shouted.

Nine shoots at the blueprint, causing a shockwave to erupt from the mountain. Shadow sees it and skates towards the mountain. In the cave, Sonic sits up from the ground he fell onto. He groans, placing a hand on his head. He looks up and sees Nine carrying the shards with his tails to the purple portal with unconscious Gwen in his arms. Nine looks back at Sonic. Shadow reaches the entrance and his eyes widens to see Gwen being taken away. Sonic coughs out from the smoke.

"We can make this work Nine. Trust me! Please let her go!"

Nine scoffs and glares back angrily.

"Trust you? The only two people I can trust is myself and Gwen. And I will protect her and keep her safe from you."

Nine goes through the portal with Gwen before it closes. Shadow grimaces with his fists clenched. Sonic shakes his head and looks down sadly. He lost his only friend he ever had and let his sister get taken away from him.

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