Chapter 4 "Death ball, (The end of it all)"

"Alright," Vector said with a low growl. He could scarcely open his left
eye, there was a burn mark covering a whole side of his face, growing into
a scar. He shed the thick layers of coats and stomped toward 
Celebra cracking his knuckles. She was still punching the heavy steel door.
 "I always say an, eye for an e-"
  "Shut up!" Celebra's head snapped around. Her gold eyes burning with 
hurt and hatred. "You got what you deserved! I know what you're like!
You're one of those birthies who thinks we have no right to exist just
'cause we're different!" She poked him in the ribs, " You're the type 
of birthie who tried to exterminate us!" lowering her voice to a soft 
whisper she looked up at him in utter loth and disgust.",And I just
LOVE to see you put in your place."
  Sera looked at Tails who was siting in a corner with Bunnie. He had 
his arm wrapped in his scarf where she had sliced his flesh. 
  "I, I'm sorry for what I did to you." she moved a little closer to the 
pup.
  Tails stared coldly, right through her and didn't answer.
  "(The Dark Legion set us up.)"Akuma said to her friends.
  "(What?)"
  "(I think that pink chick there set us up. She wants to exterminate us,
the whole Legion does, just like before.)"
  "(She really was sick, Aki. I believe everything she said)" Cel insisted
  "It was Sera's fault this fight started!" Akuma pointed accusingly at
the gray  mink.
  "I was scared. I thought they were going to hurt us!"
  "You scare easily." Akuma scoffed.
  "I'm not scared to take you on!"
  "Hold up!" Mighty shouted, "You mean she didn't mean to hit Sonic with 
that freaky iceball?"
  "Oh, She meat to!" Akuma said with a distant look. "Her aim is perfect."
  "It was defense!"
  "I thought you were enemies of Julie-Su's." Celebra said, confused.
  "Don't be so sure we're not." Vector said with another low growl.
  As this was going on Sally was deep in thought, there were so many weird 
things going on. She looked around the room, It was more like a person's 
private room than the cell she would expect. Comfortable, brightly lit, 
there was an unmade bed in the right corner, Espio and Antoine were 
fighting for possession of it, there were books stacked neatly on a shelf 
and there was a wood framed mirror on the wall.
  "Julie-Su," she asked, "Why were you out in the woods and not with the
rest of the legion? I thought that you decided to stay with them as a spy?"
  "I think that she's a spy for THEM!" Vector accused.
  "I ran away." She answered.
  "Why?" Sally said sympathetically
  "There was a brawl and Kragok blamed me. Then I talked back, and that's 
unacceptable. I was already on thin ice...He was going to kill me. Celebra
and her friends met me in the woods."
  "Kragok was going to kill you?"
  "Yes."
  Celebra started to laugh.
  "What's so funny?" Sonic growled.  
  "I'm going to kill him." She laughed
  "Who? Kragok?"
  "Ayashi."
  "What's an 'ayashi'?" Sonic asked again, in an exasperated, 
whining tone of voice.
  "It's our brother's name," Akuma explained
  "Man, who named you guys?" Sonic turned up his nose "Celebra? Ayashi?"
  "And what's your name, Blue?"
  "Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."
  "Oh, that's much better than 'Celebra'." She said sarcastically, rolling
her eyes.
  "Well. Since we're getting introductions out of the way, that's Sal, over
there, PRINCESS Sally Acorn. There's Rotor, Charmy Bee, Espio and Vector.
Over there is 'Marie Antoinette'" he pointed to Antoine.
  Antoine mumbled something in french that Sonic didn't understand and
Seraphim giggled.
  "That's Seraphim, and there's Akuma." Cel pointed them out. 
 "That's the 'Big guy', Tails, we call 'em, but his real names Miles 
Prower."
  "I can see why he wouldn't want to be called that." Celebra laughed.
  "And there's Mighty the armadillo and Bunnie Rabot."
  "Are you in the Dark Legion too?" Celebra asked Bunnie, eyeing her legs 
and metal arm.
  "No, Sugah. I never chose to be like this." She said "Ten years ago I
was in the wrong place at the wrong time and wound up in this heah machine 
that did this to me."
  "Ten years? That was around the time we were frozen."
  "Why were you frozen anyway?" Sally asked.
  "To escape the genocide," Cel sighed "How many times have I had to 
explain that today?"
  "and,"  
  "What's the genocide?" Sally and Celebra said in unison.
  "The genocide was when a bunch of mobians were rounded up and killed
because they were thought to be genetically engineered." Celebra blurted
out in a single breath.
  "I can't think of one of you here who would have been spared." Akuma 
chuckled. "The hedgehog's speed would have been his undoing, the armadillo's
strength. You're a mix of two species aren't you?" She asked Sally. She 
nodded. "You would have been taken too." 
 
  "Enough talk! We've cooled our heels here long enough." Sonic complained. 
 He charged up for another spindash and spun straight through the steel 
wall, leaving a smoking hole.
  "Well, I'm waaating! he said impatiently tapping his foot before 
anyone had even had a chance to get up.

  Ayashi looked down from his high perch on the main control center in the
great hall. The thaw was complete so it was much less cold in there now. 
There was no one inside the great hall but him. It was strange to be all
alone in such a big place.
  On a screen was displayed a detailed map of the surrounding area that had 
been scanned by the computer. He commanded the computer to display any and 
all locations of chaos emeralds. With a flash of shiny buttons and a beep
he herd Code's voice say, 
  "*All emerald signatures blocked out by one*" The screen showed a bright
green spot on the north tip of the island. (The chaos chamber)
  "That must be one POWERFUL emerald!" He gasped. With 'Banf" sound and
a cloud of green smoke he disappeared and reappeared in a square room where 
Code and some others were sitting on several large chairs around a table.
  "Well?" She said impatiently

  Through the wall Akuma was listening. She had her hand cupped to her ear 
against the wall outside. Sera and Rotor were next to her on both sides.
 "What do you hear?" Rotor asked.
 "Shh!"

  Code sat at the head of the table, not that a round table has a head 
but she sat in a position of importance. She had bound her long dreadlocks
entirely with soft ribbons of emerald green silk. There was a vibrating
contrast where the tips were left their natural, striking shade of red.
 She wore a short sleeved lab coat trimmed with blue that stopped mid thigh
and her hands, in their bangles and long, elegant gloves were clasped on 
the table infront of her. On her right was Spade who wore a suit 
covering all the crab shell on his body and blue boots. He sat very erect
and had a stern look on his face.
  "I've done some work with the computer." Spade said.
 Akuma herd the sound of a chair being puled out as he stood. Every word was
slightly muffled through the thick iron wall.
  "It appears that we are not in the same place that we were. The fortress
has moved."
  "Moved?"
  "Yes, the land that we are on separated itself from it's place downunda.
It's now an island."
  "Interesting."
  "That isn't the interesting part. This island is not really part of the 
planet. It's a satellite. A moon in the upper atmosphere, but not in space.
It orbits the planet twice a year."
  "That's amazing!"
  "True, but what does it have to do with our plan?" Spade asked sternly.
  "The computer says that there is a very powerful Chaos emerald here.
My guess is that for some reason, the inhabitants of the island used the
power of the emerald to lift it from it's place on the ground."
  "And we are going to use this stone?"
  "Yes."
  "How?"
  "The answer, brother, is all around you. In the lights, in the computer
systems..."
  Code raised an eyebrow. She had an idea what he was talking about, It 
was genius.
  "We're going to build a bomb!" She said excitedly, jumping from her 
place.
  "Exactly!"
  "I don't follow..." Spade said gruffly.
  "It's genius! All of the systems here are run by intelligent, yet non
sentient bacteria. Their job is to multiply and store whatever information 
we tell them to. The bacteria we use for lights are extremely dangerous
because they have no program, they just grow."
  "We are immune to them," Ayashi continued. "Yet the rest of Mobius
is all birthies who weren't designed with the natural defense that we have
against them. If we blow up the base than a toxic cloud will form, and the
plague will multiply itself, thousands upon thousands of times! A wave
of toxic death will spread over Mobius and only we will be spared. With
the birthies gone the planet will be ours!"
  "I can get this emerald. Ieru, Mirakuru, you will come with me." Ireu
and Mirakuru were twin sisters. The only set of twins to be created that 
survived the genocide. They were scorpion-like rodents, skilled fighters 
with extraordinary control of their ice power. Akuma feared them.
  "I've located the center of the island, The place where I will construct
the mega bomb. It's in a large city so I'll need Code with me, since she's 
inconspicuous with her birthie appearance. She can find a hideout and I will
teleport there."
  "It's Genius!" Code repeated again.
  "But we'll have to sacrifice the base if we blow up the island!" Ieru 
realized suddenly
  ",and the birthpods..." one said
  "And the computer." said another.
  "We can rebuild it all." said Spade. "Code has a superb memory and she 
programed it all once. With all the resources of the planet at her hands 
she can easily do it again!"
  "One more thing," said Chash, Calmly, "What will we do after everything
is dead? There's still going to be a cloud of bacteria, if they multiply
beyond control won't they block out the sun and freeze the planet 
eventually? Not that we with Snow crab genes will suffer at all, but those
with the fire ant gene, or no snow crab gene will DIE!" he slammed a huge
fist on the table as he said 'die'.

  "There he goes again," Akuma laughed "With that 'ant Vs. crab' thing."
  "Huh?" 
  "There's this thing between us, the fire ant preference for hot 
climate and the snow crab's for cold. Sometimes there are small fights but 
it's not that bad. The two races were mortal enemies so I'm not surprised 
that we don't always get along."


  Spade looked calm,
  "Code and the master thought of that a very long time ago, little brother.
In case the plague ever escaped and caused harm to anything, the master made
Celebra implant her creations with a self-destruct mechanism. One word
from her and they go 'poof'"

  "Hey, Cel, I think you just became real important." Akuma relayed
the conference to the others.

  "Yes, speaking of the three..." Ayashi drew out this sentence.
  "What are we going to do with them you wonder? Nothing, my brother. Don't 
worry about them. I know that their compassion for birthies is limited. They
hate them as much as we all do, but still, I feel a need to test them. If
we return to that room tomorrow I expect to see eleven dead birthies, or
better yet, If I know those three they'll think of something better, If 
not we will know that they are not to be trusted," Akuma herd Spade pause 
and then his voice became broken and too low to make out.

  "Everyone!" We have to get out!" Sally peeked around the corner and saw
some odd type of creature coming towards them on a hall patrol.
  "Hang on! were teleporting out of here!" Celebra grabbed onto Bunnie's 
wrist and Vector's arm. Bunnie was holding Tails's hand tightly, Julie-Su
put a hand on Cel's shoulder. Akuma ceased Sally, Sonic and Mighty quickly 
while Seraphim took hold of the remaining Rotor, Antoine, Espio and Charmy.
  With three 'Banf!' sounds and a cloud of green smoke they were gone, not
a second to spare before the guard rounded the corner.



  "Where are we?" Antoine could see that they were at the shore of a small
river, on the other side there was a beautifully sleek and modern city, for
a moment it reminded him of Mobitropolis, but he knew that it wasn't.
  Charmy recognized it right away,
  "It's Angel's Isle! That's Echidnanopolis on the other side."
  "Isn't it cool that Sera landed on Angel's isle? Kinda fits." Rotor said
  "Can you fly us across, Sera? Code should be somewhere in the city soon."
Espio asked.
  "Can I what?"
  "Fly us across the river!" Espio said impatiently.
  Sera looked down at her feet and kicked the ground with her sandals.
  "I can't fly."
  "What? You have wings and feathers?"
  Sera angrily ripped a gray feather coated with blue dye from the patch
on her chest and thrust it into Espio's hand.
  "There! Now you have feathers too! Can you fly?" 
  "Great!" he pouted
  "Will you teleport us across?" Charmy asked her calmly.
  "I can only teleport to the place I need to be, the place that needs
me to be here. That's why me and Aki and
Cel all came up in different zones I think. You go across there is something 
that I must have to do here."
  "I can swim us across in a jiff." Rotor offered
  "Alright"
  "Goodbye!" Sera Shouted as Rotor Swam Espio to the other side then 
Antoine with Charmy flying close behind.
  "Goodbye! (You magnificent fools!)" She raised an arm and a cloud of 
green smoke carried her away.

  On a hot ledge of rock in the Lava Reef Zone, near a different part of
the river Akuma materialized with her passengers.
  "Mmmmm!" Akuma breathed in the smell of the molten rocks, savoring the
fantastic heat radiating from them.
  "Hey, Akster. Your aim is a little off." said Sonic as he looked across
the river.
  "The chaos chamber is thataway." Mighty pointed angrily across the river.
  "We have to get there before those badguys do."
  "Have a nice trip." Akuma sighed briskly. She sat down near the edge of a 
bubbling lava pool and stretched out as if she were on a beach. 
  "You mean you won't take us?" Sally asked calmly.
  "Man, I'm startin' to wonder what side you're on!" Sonic picked her up 
by the fur.
  Akuma laughed the subtle, knowing laugh she had.
  "Don't you know that I can't take you any further, Hedgehog?"
  "Let her go, Sonic." Sally sighed. 
  "I can't take you because I have to be here. I don't know why, but the 
Zone called me. You must go and stop them yourselves."
  "Fine." Sonic dropped her on her tail. "I don't need no teleport. I can
have us there in a Sonic second. Sonic scooped Sally up in his arms
and ran directly at the shore. Sally covered her eyes as she felt the 
splash of warm water as Sonic skidded across it. She felt like she was 
rolling down a hill in a barrel. When Sonic put her down on the other 
side she collapsed with dizziness.
  "Here, let me help you up." He laughed. His voice was softer and gentler
than she had herd for a while. Not annoying, or mocking or stogged with the 
usual bravado, but sweet.
  "Thanks." she said taking the hand. Once up she didn't let go.
  "You know, Sonic. That's the first time you've done something like this
since we got here."
  "Say what?"
  "The first time that you've paid some attention to me."
  "Is that what you were so mad about yesterday at the games? Was I 
ignoring you."
  "It was a lot of things. You were immature and you embarrassed the 
Chaotix. You always had to be the center of attention, and I didn't want to 
share you"
  "HEY, SONIC! I'M WAAAAATTIING!" Mighty called out.
  "JUST A SEC, MIGHTY! Sal, I promise that as soon as we beat these 
guys and go back to the carnival we'll do whatever YOU wanna do." Sonic
spun off across the water's surface to get mighty.
  "Yea, WHEN we beat them." Sally didn't say anything but she felt a little
unsure. A sick feeling wound a tight ball in the pit of her stomach, as
if something were about to happen.
  That night they stayed in the Emerald chamber to guard the precious stone.

  "CELEBRA! WHERE DID YOU TAKE US!" Julie-Su's shout was lost to the wind.
Sand blasted them all in the faces. They could see nothing through the
thick air. Celebra had managed to land them smack
in the middle of a Sandopolis dust storm. It was like an eclipse, the sky
was nearly black and there was darkness everywhere but the sun was a flaming
circle in the sky. The wind threw them to the bottom 
of a sandy dune and the flying fragments of dust began to cover them.
  They looked up to the top of the hill where the sun blazed brightly even 
though the sky was dark with sand and could just barely make out a dark 
shadow, a lean echidna figure with dreads whipping in the wind clenching 
his fists tightly in front of him and holding an oil lamp, 
silhouetted against the sun. Vector, Bunnie, Tails and Julie-Su recognized
him right away. Those dreads those claws, It couldn't be anyone else
but Knuckles.
  The shadow pointed frantically behind him, telling them to go that way.
 They hadn't walked five feet when they discovered what appeared to be an 
army tent. They scrambled into it and knuckles followed behind.
  "Knuckles!" Vector said excitedly, rushing over to him. "Whoa, you look 
terrible!"
  "Thank you so much, Vector." He said tiredly, hanging the lamp on a 
post that supported the tent.
  "What happened to you?" asked Tails 
  "What happened to you?" Knuckles pointed to the scars on Tails's arm,
The little fox's fur was matted with drying blood, the wind had torn the 
scarf off that had been protecting it and allowed grains of sand to enter 
the wound.
  "Better get some iodine." Knuckles reached for a box in the corner with 
a red cross on it.
  "Knux has been fasting and not sleeping  for the past day or so." 
Julie-Su explained to everyone.
  "How come you know and I don't?" Vector looked hurt.
  "I didn't want to tell everybody because I didn't want you to come 
looking for me." He said rubbing the dark orangeish liquid on Tails's
arm as the brown fox clenched his teeth tightly.
  "So, what are you all doing here? I guess I'm breaking the rules
again by having people around but, hey, there's probably a rule about using
someone's abandoned shelter too." He put the iodine bottle back in the first 
aid kit and started wrapping Tails's arm with gauze.
  "My new friend Celebra brought us-- HEY where is she?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Haven
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Archimedies sighed and took a sip of black coffee from the tiny mug he 
was holding. He looked at the screen and took another sip.
  A situation was materializing, those from the new zone WERE a threat. 
Haven might have to interviene after all and wipe the zone off the face
of the floating island. It had not come to that yet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Back in the room where they had been imprisoned earlier Celebra and
Seraphim sat. The abandoned winter coats of the others lay scattered all
about. Akuma appeared suddenly in the green mist.
  They had all known to come here without even planning it. They were all
of one mind now. Their thoughts were each other's and they knew what the
other was thinking without even probing their minds. They all knew what 
was going on, they all knew what was coming. They sat somberly and 
savored their moments together. They knew that they these moments were 
now a precious few.
  "(So you made it too.)"Celebra smiled.
  "(Yes. I told those birthie idiots that I could not go on. The Zone was
calling me to stay.)" She laughed.
  "(I gave some spiel about only being able to teleport where I was needed.
They believed it too!)"
  "(I just left when no one was looking. Are they all close to stopping
Spade and Code?)"
  "(Yes and I believe that they will do an excellent job.)" Sera yawned
  "(Then let's call it a night. We need our rest for the performance
tomorrow.)" 
    

  "Jus where iz the exact center of the floating island?"
  "How should I know." Espio said Walking down the dark street
  "We've been walking for an hour. We haven't slept." Rotor yawned
  "I'm taking care of that right now." Espio said as they reached the very
 edge of town. There was almost nothing here. They walked a little further
following Espio. Soon they reached a little hut. First Espio knocked. No
answer, the door was locked.
  "What is this place?" Rotor asked
  "Knuckle's home." Charmy answered
  "He won't mind if we bunk here for the night. Look, he keeps the key under
his 'Get Off My Island' mat."
  "Don't most people have a 'Welcome' mat?"
  Espio just shrugged and turned the key in the lock.


  "Om...........Om.........Om............Wake up!......Om.......I'm really
bored....Om..............Om............Om....."
  "Cut it out, Knux." Vector yawned "You've gone a long time without
sleep, how come you're so awake now that I'm tired?" 
  "I was really tired the first night but now I feel great, not hungry
or thirsty at all."
  "Could you both please shut up?" Julie-Su rolled over.
  "Hmmmm, I think I'll listen to some resting music..."
Vector switched on his walkman and loud music started blaring out. Julie-Su
sat up in the early morning light and he could see her looking at him and
screaming and yelling angrily, but he couldn't hear her.
  "What the hoo ha--?"
  "Turn it down!" yelled Tails
  "Alright everyone's up. It's about time." Knuckles got up from his
crossed legged meditating position.
  "TAKE THOSE HEAD PHONES OFF!"
  "What?" Vector smiled
  "TAKE OFF THOSE DAMN EAR BUSTERS, YOU SWAMP SUCKING SLIME BOY!"
  "I can't hear you."
  "IF YOU DON'T TURN IT OFF RIGHT NOW I'LL DROP KICK YOUR SORRY TAIL 
RIGHT BACK TO THE 'HOOD AND..."
  "You'll have to speak louder, Julie-Su."
  "THAT'S IT!" She snapped the phones right off his head and threw them 
outside.
  "You could have just asked me to turn it down."
  "Oh look we're all up."
  "Yes. Maybe we should go help the others now. There's a lot to be done
to save this heah island of you're"
  "Aunt Bunnie's right, let's go."


  Sera awakened first as the green light from the outside hit her eyes.
Ayashi had opened the door and walked in. Sera summoned up a groan.
  "A-Ayshi?" She stammered, trying hard to sound hurt.
  "What the HELL HAPPENED HERE?!" He looked at the hole in the wall where 
Sonic had blazed through. The three sisters lay on the floor and the 
birthies were gone.
  "UGH! Aya- It was...terrible." She Slowly pulled herself up and limped 
over to him.
  "There were eleven of them and only three....OWWWW! of us"
  "You were taken out by birthies?!"
  "N..not just any b-b-birthies. Look at that hole in the wall. One of
THEM did that."
  "WHAT?"
  "And one was, ugh, strong too, stronger than Chash...he...they were all,
like professional fighters! They turned on us! Birthie scum!"
  "One of THEM did that to the wall? That's a half foot of solid iron!"
  "It hit...ugh, Celebra."
  "Celebra!" He ran over to the spot where Celebra was on the floor, face
down. He shook her. If he could see her face he would see the broad, evil
smile but to him she was just a small dead looking thing.
  "CELEBRA!" He held the frail form in his arms almost weeping over her.
 Cel shot a quick wink at her friend.
  "Oh, She's alive, I think, I herd her thoughts last night at least, just
before I passed out she said (Ayashi...why?)"
  "Oh, god! Cel! I'm so sorry." He nuzzled her soft face with the dry 
chunks of blood caked through the sleek, soft fur. Tears streamed down his 
face as he held the limp body close. "I loved you so much..."
  "Ahhhhh.....ahh? Aya?" Celebra tried to make her voice seem very small
and weak.
  "Don't worry, Cel" He moved her over to the bed and gently placed her in.
"I'll get the guys who did this to you!" he kissed her lightly on the cheek.
"The bomb is almost complete, I'll be back
  Ayashi's words seemed to come from far away." He 
walked out silently and shut the door behind him.
  All was dark.
  "(Sera, you're brilliant!)" Akuma rolled over and got up.
  "(I can't believe you made that death thing up off the top of your 
head! It was great!)"
  "(Thanks! You were great too!)
  "(Did you see his face when Sera said your last words, 'Ayashi...why?'?)" 
  "(That was the best!)" Celebra laughed
  "(He's gonna hill those birthies!)"
  "(Too bad, I kinda liked some of them, but they're all going to die 
anyway)"
  Their thoughts became quiet at these words, they all knew what was 
coming...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "OMIGOD! THE EMERALD! WE MUST HAVE DOZED OFF!"
  "MIGHTY, IT WAS YOUR TURN TO STAND GUARD!"
 Mighty and the two freedom fighters woke up in their hiding place in
the chaos chamber from where they were waiting to ambush Ieru, Spade and
Mirakuru when they came for it. There was a little energy left over
so the island wouldn't fall right away, luckily.
  "HEY Sally-girl, Sugah hog!" A voice called
  "Bunnie!"
  "AHHHHHHHH! WHERE'S THE EMERALD!!!!" Knuckled yelled in agony. "This is
a dream, this ia all a bad dream! I'm asleep, no, I'm dead and in hell!
I passed out from lack of food. This isn't real, it's a nightmare!"
  "Chill, Rad Red. We'll get back your emerald." Encouraged Sonic, although
he was beginning to have doubts. He glanced over at Sally, something in her
eyes was wrong, it was like something was dying, was it hope? Was she 
loosing hope?
  "There's one hope left, maybe the others have found the bomb and have
already disarmed it."  offered Bunnie with fake cheerfulness.
  "Maybe."
  "Sonic, we have to get there and find out, fast" said Tails
  "We're probably too late. The bomb was probably built last night, There
are a lot of them and they work fast. The only reason we aren't dead yet
is 'cause it's defiantly going to be a time bomb." Julie-Su sighed in 
thought.
  "Come on, Big guy." Sonic said to Tails, "We may not be beat yet, Maybe
we can still get to Echidnanopolis and stop the bomb!"
  "You're the only one fast enough, Sonic!"
  "Not true, you can almost keep up. Come on!"
  Knuckles watched them run off through blurry, bloodshot eyes. He was 
fighting the urge to fall asleep, he felt, now that if he even blinked,
everything precious to him would be gone. He sought release in reverie
but no good dreams would come to him. Whenever he closed his heavy eyes
all he could see was one horrifying image, the floating island, crashed
and broken on the ground, shattered earth, not in the sky where it should 
be. The only thing in the sky was an evil brown cloud consuming the sun 
and the land and on the surface of the planet were the ugly, decomposing
bodies of him and all his friends. Mere skeletons with stubborn chunks
of flesh still clinging to them that lay where they had fallen, drying 
up and rotting, eaten by maggots,pecked at by scavengers who were dying 
themselves of the same affliction. In the eyes of some of them were the
most horrible looks of agony and terror, the kind of look he could only see 
in his nightmare, and it scared him. On other faces, including his own, 
there was a look of...relief? ,that scared him even more.
  "What if they fail? What can we do then?" he said in the smallest, most 
afraid voice that could still be herd. The voice of a scared little boy.
So seldom did he let the tough mask slip, but it wouldn't matter if this 
were really the end. Sally bit her lip.
  "There's nothing we can do." Julie-Su said sadly. 
  "If they fail, we die, we all die." Sally said solemnly.
  "And we on the island will be the lucky ones! Our death's going to be 
so quick we'll hardly notice, those on the ground are the ones who will
really suffer." Bunnie drawled
  "Those in Mobitropolis! My father!" Sally choked
  "No, I WON'T let that happen," Julie-Su said "I know a way."
  "What are you babbling about?" said Vector "It's hopeless!"
  "WE will die, and the Floating Island will die but the rest of Mobius
will be spared."
  "How?" whispered Sally with tears welling up in her eyes
  "The password. Celebra had a password built into those bacteria remember? 
They're programed like a computer to self -destruct with one word. If we
can guess it..."
  "Do you really think you can guess it?" Knuckles looked up with a feint
glimmer of hope."
  "I only met Celebra for a while but I think I know her. (She's like me)" 
  "There's one way to find out."
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "Well did you search all the buildings on that street, Espio?"
  "Nada."
  "They have to be somewhere around here. Let's find Rotor and Antoine."

  "Do you see what I see?" Rotor was crouched behind a dirty pile of trash
looking through an open crack of a warehouse door. 
  "Oh, this iz bad. C'est le plus mauvais jour pour Mobius! eeee!" Antoine 
squeeled
  "Calm down! Get a hold of yourself!" Rotor slapped his ranting companion
  "Oh I needed zat!"
 The large building was almost completely empty, except for a few 
stacks of large boxes lining the walls, in dead center of the cold cement
floor there were six beings and a shining chrome gadget. One of
the creatures held the precious Chaos emerald triumphantly.
  "Ant, Rote! What so you see."
  "Espio, you're just who we need! You have to sneak in there and get the 
emerald from those guys in there."
   "What guys?" Espio said, looking through the crack in the door. "The
emerald is just sitting there on that stand."
   Rotor looked inside and, sure enough, there was not a living soul
in there, save, perhaps a cockroach or spider that hid in some dark corner,
from the light of the radiant gem.
  "Well, I guess we can just walk in and take it!" Espio laughed, running in
with Charmy flying behind. When Espio bent down to grasp the emerald
he received a slight electrical shock.
  "HEY!" He touched it again, "AAHHHAHAHGGGGGGGHHHHH!" Green lightning 
surged all over him and he could not let go. Rotor ran over and pushed him 
as hard as he could in order to free him from the electric pull.
  "It seems to be anchored." He said 
  "No, really," A cloud of black smoke escaped Espio's lips.
  "Eeeeeeeeeeee!"
  ",I think Antoine's about to wet himself."
  "Do you not realize what zis means?"
  "What's the matter now, Antoine?" Charmy sighed 
  "Zee plan was to plant the bomb and then teliport off zee island, If Zee
bomb iz planted we have seconds to live!"
  Rotor noticed a timer on the bomb set to go off at 8:00 PM.
  "We have nine hours." He announced gravely "Does anybody have something
I can use as a screwdriver? I'm gonna crack this baby open!"


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  The freedom fighters saw their chance. Julie-Su grabbed Knuckles's arm, he
was delirious and too tired to walk fast himself. They ran through the 
thick brush following Julie-Su. She screeched to a halt near a large rock.
  "Here. " She pushed the hollow boulder out of the way, revealing a metal
door with a combination lock. With quick and graceful strokes she turned
the the lock until it opened.
  "Let's go" Sally motioned.
  "Yo, Red, you OK?"
  "I'll be fine when we stop running."
  "Er, we have stopped."
  "Thanks, that's much better."
  They climbed down the ladder into a familiar hall. They could see the 
hole that Sonic had burned when they were trapped in that room. They knew 
their kamikaze mission... 
  They passed another conference room, full of creatures, then another, and
another... Everyone was packed together, that was not a good sign, it meant
that they were getting ready to escape the island in a mass exodus.
  "Ah never knew that there were so many of them" said Bunnie in a 
hushed whisper as they snuck past the doors.
  "Neither did I, Bunnie" Sally said in an equally soft voice. 
  Through the hole in the wall Seraphim noticed them creep by.
  "They're here!" she whispered
  "(It's about time)" Akuma thought. 
  "It IS TIME!" Celebra said from a pile of scattered cloth she pulled out
the thing that she had been hiding, a glass ball with the most serene,
beautiful, aqua blue glow. A while ago she had sneaked off to her lab and 
made it.
  "I don't know if I want justice." Sera peeped
  "None of us do, but we deserve it." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "It's a lost cause." Rotor sighed with exhaustion. "I can't tamper with 
this timer, I've never seen this kind of computer chip."
  Charmy looked off into the distance, 
  "I guess *Gulp* it's all over."
  "Yea, over." Espio repeated bitterly "Think it ended too soon, Charm..."
  "Yes. Too soon."
  "You aren't gonna go all water-works on 'ol Sonic are you?" Sonic 
screeched in with Tails hot on his heels.
  "Sonic! Tails! How did you find us."
  "We looked everywhere!" Tails said
  "It took us forever to find you!"
  "It's hopeless, the timer says that there are four hours left."
  " 8:00. When the lights go on at Carnival night party the whole island is 
going to see the biggest blast in history!" Espio mused.
  "Will you stop thinking about the winter carnival?"
  "It iz ironic..."
  "Don't give up, Rote! There must be something we can do!" urged Sonic
his voice cracked a bit with fear, he hoped no one noticed.
  Rotor thought for a while then said,
  "This is one wierd machine but I think that if I take out this chip than 
the force field that keeps us from grabbing the emerald will go offline."
  "Great!"
  "But,"
  "Oh, boy. There's always a but." Espio roled his eyes.
  "But it could set off a security system within the bomb and cause
it to explode."
  "Cut it outta there, Rote."
  "Yea, what's it gonna matter if it explodes now or in two hours?"
  "Ok." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "Computer, allow the next users full access to the system under my name.
Voice command: Sister second ,Celebra, System password: Genesis egg."
  "*Sister second, Cerleba. Sister second celebra.... Password and voice
command matches. Access granted.*"
  "Why did you do that, Cel?"
  "We want to give our friends a sporting chance, dont we? Let's 
climb the tower and watch the fun."
  "This isn't going to be much fun." Sera sighed as they climbed the 
network of spiraling stairs to the very top platform of the grand computer.
  "Do you think that the walrus, the fox, the bee and the chamelion have
stopped the bomb yet, Sera?" Celebra asked
  "I'd give them five more minutes. Don't worry they'll do it."

  When the Chaotix, Julie-Su, and the freedom fighters stepped in they 
looked like tiny specks, The three could barely make out which one was 
which but, as always, every voice was herd with crystal clairity in that
Great hall.
  "This must be it!" Sally said "Now, how do we access the program?"
  "*Access has been granted*" Came the voice from the computer
  "That was a little easy..." Vector said suspiciously
  "*Please state password for project: 'Cel's bacterial emergancy 
shutdown'*"
  "Can you guess the password, Julie-Su?" Knuckles groaned
  "I'll try. Umm, Ayashi?" (nothing happened)
  "Celebra. Cel. Sera. Seraphim. Angel. Akuma. Aki. Aya?"
  "I don't think it's a name, try something else." encouraged Sally. It was
six o'clock and she did not know why  but she had a bad feeling. They 
all knew that they would be caught, but if they killed the bacteria 
before the big blast than at least Mobius would be safe. And that's all 
that matters.
  "Some event. A birthday?"
  "I don't know her birthday. Genocide? Extermination. Freeze. Frozen. Pod.
Killed... Unfair."
  
 Ayashi senced something was going on in the great hall.Without explaining
a word to his comrads he bolted off in a dead run. Spade had felt it too 
and he grabbed Code and pulled her behind as he ran after his brother. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "Are we dead yet?" moaned Espio. 
  "YOINK!" Sonic happily snached the emerald "Now what about those wierd
whatevers? They're still around?"
  "We should go to their base and trash 'em. How many can there be? The
most we ever saw was about twenty in the fortress." Tails was unaware
of the irony of his statement. There were hundreads of geniticly engineered
Mobians in that base. Just because they wern't seen didn't mean they wern't 
there.
  "Yea, let's go!" Charmy said
  "...Better hide the emerald though..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "What are YOU doing back here." Ayashi yelled angirly upon seeing
the group of freedom fighters and Chaotix in the great hall.
  "My computer!" Code gasped. Everyone noticed how her voice was exactially
like the voice the computer used. "You better not have done anything to 
it!"
  Ayashi realized that the clock reached it's last hour by now, They would
have to deal with these birthies quickly before they left the doomed island.
Their brothers and sisters were already starting to disappear from the 
packed conference rooms. 
  "We're putting a stop to this madness you started!" Sally yelled
  "You tried to extirminate us ten years ago!"
  "No one tried to extirminate y'all! Y'all nevah existed here!"
  "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WE REMEMBER THE GENOCIDE!"
  "There was no genocide here! That happened in a different reality." Sally
tried to calm her anger to explain. They didn't know that Robotnic's machine
had crossed the two realities.
  "LYING BIRTHIE SCUM!" Spad yelled. He clenched his fists so tightly that
he thought his blood would burst out. He wished that they were around the 
neck of one of those birthies.
  "You're takin' out your angah on the wrong planet, Sugah."
  "Just watch, We've seen this before. Your zone is unstable, there isn't 
room for it in this dimention, In a day or so it will be gone, I hope THEN
you realize that you killed us for no reason!" Mighty yelled 
  "Lies." Code laughed


  "(Another reality?)" Celebra's jaws twitched back and fourth
  "(That would explain so much! Like, the Floating island and the large
population of the planet, even though we saw almost everyone killed AND
even though only a small space was inhabitable.)" Akuma said
  "(Yea, That would also explain why that birthie you met didn't know
about the genocide or know what snow crabs are.)" Sera added
  "(No one mentioned the surface inferno or the ice...)"
  "(Perhaps,)" moaned Celebra "(There is no need to carry out our plan...)"
She looked at the radient aqua globe in her hand, the size of an apple, but
it was the poison apple that, when bit would put Mobius to death, forever.
She leaned out over the balcony and watched them continue the argument 
below.

  "So you would accept us ammong you? Even though we're 'freaks'?" Spade
laughed.
  "Why not?" Mighty said
  "'cause they can't be trusted" Vector whispered.
  "Maybe if you gave us a chance." Ayashi said softly "but it's too late
now."


  Sonic rushed down the cold, deserted hallway, quickly up and down the 
entangled maze, far ahead of the others. Going at top speed all was a 
blur. He noticed the green lights lining the walls. They were
glowing iridecently....like....CHAOS EMERALDS! Sonic looked
into the light fixture and saw, not a chaos emerald but a green globe. He
pulled out the shining sphere and held carefuly it in both hands and looked
at it with awe. It was the same size and same glowing green color. He 
just had a great idea to trick those guys, Espio had the real emerald, 
if Sonic was careful enough he could easily convince everyone
else that he had it, maybe even lure the enemy into to some place 
where they could be trapped.
  His feet bearily touched the floor as he ran around looking for where ever 
the genetic freaks were hiding.
  He saw Ayashi, Spade and Code confronting Sally. He didn't stop to think,
he went into a Sonic spin straight for all three of them.
 
  Like a strike of blue lightning, he nailed them with tremendous 
speed and they scattered like bowling 
pins in different directions. The force accompanied with the suddeness of 
the jolt was enough to set Code unconcious.
  "Sonic!" Sally ran and threw her arms around his neck. Knuckle's eyes
were dry and blury but he could make out the green lighted object that 
he was conceiling, it was the thing he had gaurded hungerily all his life.
  "Sonic, you got back my emerald," He said tiredly "I could kiss 
you...all three of you."
  "Uhhhh...Not necessary." He said revieling that the thing he was 
concieling in his hands was indeed, not the real chaoos emerald.

  Taken back by the sight of seeing Ayashi and the others creamed like that
Celebra felt the small globe slip out of her hand and it seemed to fall
in slow motion as she and her friends gazed in terror.
  "CATCH IT!!!" she yelled to the tiny specks below. Oh, it didn't matter 
now if they caught it or not, she thought to herself, but she did want it to
last a little longer, she wanted to see Aya one last time before the end...
Even though their plans conflicted she wanted to tell him what she was 
doing and why. 
  Knuckles looked up in confusion. He saw something that seemed like a
glowing baseball falling from the sky. It looked as if it were going to 
land a few feet away from him. With all the little strength he had in 
his weakened state he lunged for it...slid a little ways on his stomach...
and caught it just in time!
  "Celebra?" Ayashi raised his head from where he lay in the corner. He
wondered if he was about to cry happy tears because
she was alive or yell with rage and confusion. Sera was with her, looking
perfectly healthy. That little witch had lied to him! but why? Cel swung
he legs off the side of the railing and disapeared. A second later she
reappeared at the bottom.
  "Ayashi." She said coldly. He moaned as she helped him to his feet. She
tried to keep all emotion out of her voice.
  "What is this thing?" Knuckles stared at the aqua ball of light in 
his hands.
  "Our death sits in your hands, echidna." Celebra said softly. She glided
over to where he was, still in the sliding position where he had caught the
lightball. She gently took it from him.
  "It looks like your bacteria lightglobes but smaller." Spade observed as
he held Code, trying to see if she was alright
  "It is the 'Purity strain.'"
  "Cel," Julie-Su had been quiet for a while, trying to think but spoke
now. She wanted to know where Celebra had gone after she dumped them in the 
Sandopoils zone, she wanted to know other things too, like, was it only
a stroke of good luck that they had been so close to Knuckles where they
landed? She thought she had found a friend in her....And why was she leting 
Ayashi destroy Mobius. 
  "Julie-Su, that's a good question." Celebra didn't usualy read thoughts
that were not intended for her to hear but that one had been loud. Some 
thoughts just jumped out at her sometimes...
  "I guess I should tell you all." Celebra laughed a cold unfeeling laugh.
If she let any emotion seep into her soal than she surly wouldn't be
able to hold back the tears.
  "Aya, I set up these bithies to stop your plan!"
  "I knew you were one of the good guys!" Julie-Su smiled broadly. There
was a loud, cackling laugh high up in the top platform of the computer
structure. Celebra herself joined in.
  "No, Julie-Su." She shook her head gentily. "Well, I guess maybe, but
our intent isn't for YOU to win."
  "What?" Julie-SU looked hurt. She had trusted Celebra.
  "If you'll look closely you will see that the hedgehog is holding 
something very important. It means Aya's plan just fell through."
  Ayashi looked at Sonic.
  "That isn't the chaos emerald, you fool." Ayashi sneered, "I'm surprised
you don't recigonize your oun lightglobe."
  "Huh?"
  "Yea, um, we couldn't get the emerald." Sonic made up a hasty lie. Cel
looked surprised for a moment but then her face flashed into a smug grin.
  "Well, I guess we have about five seconds left?"
  "Twenty." Ayashi said. "Then it all goes boom. We have to get off now."
  "No, I'll stay." Celebra grinned smugly
  "What?"
  "You herd her" Sera yelled
  "Oh, look. Ten seconds! I think I'll count them down. 10, 9" 
  "Sera, Aki, we have to go!" Spade yelled up to them
  "8, 7, 6,"
  "Everyone else is gone!"
  "5, 4, 3, 2, 1........boom!" Celebra burst out laughing.
  "What?" Spade looked confused.

  "Aya, do think we deserve this planet?" Cel said lightly.
  "We deserve peace. We can only have that when the birthies are gone."
  "Don't you see?" Sally broke in, "If you kill us with that disease than
it will be just like your own genocide!"
  "We will be no better than those Black Squadron rats." said Akuma as
she sailed gracefully down the last staircase. She had chosen
to walk down the many stairs rather than teleport.
  Celebra guided her hand along the smooth, glass surface of of the radient
aqua lightball, 
  "All we are is flesh and fur, blood
and bones wraped in a meaningless skin. Nerves sending impulses to eat and 
sleep and kill. We are nothing more than electric meat, living and dying
and hating! The birthies and us alike. We hate birthies, birthies hate us,
birthies hate each other, fire ants hate snow crabs, Dark Leagion hates
low tech echidna while they hate the Dark Leagion just as much. Different
species of birthies hate each other and there is even hate within species.
What's next? Hate because of the color of your fur? Even we hate. Those
of us with the fire ant DNA conflict with our snow crab brothers and 
sisters, You are the only one with both of their genes, Aya.
Those with neither of these chromosones are left out always from telipathic
communications.... So don't you see? Everyone wants purity but nothing is
pure!" 
  "So you're STILL going to kill the birthies?" Ayashi smiled hopefully
  "Fool, We're going kill EVERYONE! This sickness will even 
effect those who are immuned to my origional strain."
  "...Except yourselves..." Spade looked at the diminutive echidna
  "No, everyone, even me, brother." She thrust the ball
 high above her head triumphantly.
  "This is a strain of bacteria that will multiply without any inhabition!
I call it the Puirity strain because only that which is pure will be spared:
nothing."
  "I wonder what death is like..." Sera mused
  "It's like sleep forever." Akuma sighed
  "Maybe we will find the peace and justice we want in our eternal  dreams...
SWEET DREAMS, MOBIUS!!!" Everyone cringed as she prepared to shatter
the glass ball on the hard, steel floor. 
  "Sweet dreams." Julie-Su whispered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haven
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Alright, Archamedies, It's now or never." Loke said with strong
conviction in his voice. They would use Guardien Hawking's device to send
the new zone back to another dimention.
  "Will everything that belongs in this Dimention stay?" He wondered
  "It should." Archimedies said uncertianly "Only the things
that came with the new zone will be taken away with it."
  "Alright," Loke pressed a series of buttons on the panel "Everything
is ready."
  "Go."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  "Woah! what happened?" Mighty shook his head.
  "Where are we?"
  As everyone looked up one by one they saw that they were in a totally
different place, There was almost total darkness and they could tell, with
the very feint light that the sleek and eerie modren fortress had been 
replaced by some torn down dump. The pods, the computer, everything, had 
simpily vanished along with Celebra, Ayashi and all the others.
  "The Zone must have been kicked into another dimention!" Vector said
  "Hey, this is the REAL old Dark Legion H.Q." Julie-Su gasped as she
recoginized the Great hall.
 


  Followed closely by two black robed minions Kragok steped slowly down
the farmilliar halls. For the second time that weak he was surprised and
confused as he saw what he saw. Instead of the technologicaly beautyful
fortress that he had been expecting there was his old fortress. Lightless,
powerless with glass and wires strewn about the floor from exploded
lights. Everything was in the right place now and he had a strong suspicion
that the creatures that had occupied the new zone had vanished with it.
  Turning into the farmiliar Great hall that he remembered he heard a girl's
voice in the darkness. It was the voice of that little brat who had talked 
back to him earlier.
  "Julie-Su?" 
  Her heart skipped a beat as she heard him say her name. A wave of fear
rushed over her and then one of anger. He knew that there was no way out.
If he killed her, fine, she wouldn't run away, but she wouldn't bring anyone
else down with her.
  "Quickily," She whispered to the closest freedom fighter, she wasn't
sure which it was, either Bunnie or Sally, "If you head straight to 
your right then turn right again until you find a set steep spiral 
stairs. You and the others take those stairs to the surface and you'll 
be out. Out faster than Sonic with a power ring on a sugar high. Now 
go!" She gave it a push in the right direction.
  "What about you." Sally whispered. Julie-Su just pushed her again.
 
  "Yes. I am here, master." She said in a low sullen voice as she walked
towards him. As of she were walking straight into a tomb.
  "I thought I heard other voices."
  "There is no one else here."

  Sally and the others held on to each other in order to navigate
through the dark hallways. They found Tails, Rotor and the rest roaming 
around in confusion and proceded to drag them out following the directions
given to them. They turned the second right and Sally's shin found the 
staircase that they needed to get out, and she led them up,
limping most of the way.
  Being in the open air again felt so good. The air in the underground
fortress was stsle and damp, a cool breeze brushed through Sonic's 
quills and the wonderful, claen smell of fresh snow was all around.

  Julie-Su felt the cold touch of a metalic claw on her head. It sent
a shiver through her and could feel every fur standing on end. She closed 
her eyes tightly as she could and waited for the squeeze. The hand would
close tightly and she would feel her skull caving in as he crushed it.
  Nothing happened.
  The claw was just resting on her head, not there to harm or likk her.
This was the position that Kragok placed his hand on the heads of new 
Dark Legion members who were just joining she remembered... He was 
reinnitiating her?

  "Man, am I ever hungry." Knuckles said dreamily. He didn't remember much.
"I can't wait to eat something, maybe I'll take a nap first. Wait what 
about the emerald is the real one OK, Sonic?"
  "Yea, Esp has it." He replied as Espio showed off the real master 
emerald. Knuckled struggled with a feignt smile.
  "Hey where is Julie-Su." There was the question no one had wanted him to 
ask. Sally looked in the other direction.
  "Sally?" Knuckles looked up at her with pleading eyes but she just
couldn't meet hes gaze. He turned to Sonic and he looked away as well
"Where's Julie-Su?"  There was silence. Everyone scratched their heads or 
looked at some tree or snow flake as if it were the most interesting thing
in the world. No one really knew and no one ventured a guess.
  "I hope she's dead!" The voice came from nearby bushes. There was a 
rusteling of leaves and Julie-Su emerged smiling. "Oh wait, here she is. 
Hey everybody. I'm Baa-ack!"
  "What happened in there." Sally and the others ran up to her.
  For some reason Kragok had decided to spare her life. What's more she was
was readmitted, (without her concent)actually rather ordered back into
the Leagion. He told her that he abandoned the plan of reconstructing the
old fortress.
  "Nothing." she said briskly.
  "Oh. Right." Vector shrugged.
  "You look like like you need some rest, Knux." Charmy was buzzing
around his head.
  "There's only two days left of winter carnival, I can't believe
we wasted all that time." Espio complained
  "Neither can I." Agreed Mighty. "Knux, we gotta tell you what happened 
at the race..."
  Knuckles appeared to be eating a snowball, trying to get rid of the 
dryness in his throat brought on by no water since monday
  "Maybe after I get some rest."
  "Tomorrow I guess we can all go. You too, J.S. but right now we could all
use some sleep." Sonic yawned
  "Wow, that is so unlike you, Sonic."
  "We'll have to get there at 10:00," Espio said, "So you can see us win
the...Oh wait we lost the boat." Sonic blushed,
  "Maybe you can start the 'Chaotix Curling team'."
  "Maybe we can use you for a curling stone."
  ~BANF!~
  "Archie?" Espio was surprised to see the ant as he landed near his feet.
  "Hey, Arch." Knuckles sounded kind of stoned with exaustian.
  "Hello, Knuckles." He said with a tone meant to sound like fake compassion
but came out strangely sincere. Archimedies decided that it was best not to 
tell anyone that he had been the one who sent the new zone away, he would
pleade ignorance on that. There was one thing that he certianly wouldn't 
let go, though,
  "You cheated on your journey, Knuckles."
  "What?"
  "I know you were with people and you hardly ever meditated. Hackey-sac
doesn't count."
  "But I did everything else..." He whined
  "Never the less, You're doing it over again. Tomorrow, say around 
ten-ish?"
  "Awww."
  "Get some sleep, boy." The ant smiled. Then he disappeared.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "Slow down, Knux. You're drooling."
  "Shut up, Blue." Knuckled said with his mouth full. He eagerly was 
stuffing his face with greasy slices of pizza.
  The winter carnival night party was in full swing as the weary Freedom 
fighters relaxed in the ski lounge resteraunt.
  "Could you turn your head that way? I can smell your onion breath all 
the way across the table. Nasty!" Vector said.
  "Save some for us." Tails had nearily had his finger bitten off when he
reached for a slice earlier.
  "You know, If we had been there for one more second we'd be in some
dead right now." Mighty said. He looked out the window as Espio snow boarded
down the mountain.
  "Ya'll mean if that Puirity strain' really wasa death bomb, maybe it was 
just a joke and that ball was full o' nothin'? That Celebra is loopy as they 
come."
  "I think she was serious, Bunnie." Sally said nibbling the corner
of her crust. "I hope that whatever god they believe in will have the 
mercy to spare their soals... That is if they even believed in a god...It 
seemed that they see death as an eternal sleep with no afterlife..."  
     Julie-Su looked out the resteraunt window at the softly falling snow.
  "You know, I really knew what they were feeling." She said.
  "They wanted justice and they got it, Sugah. That is, if it wern't all just
a big Celebra gag like Ah think it is."
  "Still, I wonder what happened..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Darkness, It always begins in darkness, it always ends there too.
  He watched the ball come down, the radient sphere. He saw the pieces
shatter on the cold floor and scatter in slow motion. Shards of glass and
a puddle of glowing, aqua gel that was quickly evaporating into the air.
  He could smell it now and his eyes grew heavy. This is what they deserved,
but it was, strangely what they wanted as well. He regretted trying to 
extirminate the birties but he hated them still, in his heart he could never 
forgive. 
 Cel looked so beautiful, her face showed not a trace of remourse and there
was a real, serene smile. Seraphim, Akuma and her met for one last group
embrace and she came over to him and sat.
  "Cel..." He said with a yawn, there was so much to say but no time...no 
time. "It could have been so different, If you had only gone along than
we would have our peace without the birthies."
  "It would not have been peace. Slaughter for hate is no way to peace. I 
couldn't let MY creations bring only death, I had to have them bring peace."
  "Peace through death! ....So we ruined it...didn't we?"
  "I ruined it."
  "I forgive you. I.... I want you to know that I always loved you. I'll see 
you in my dreams...for eternity"
  "Sweet dreams, Aya. I wish you happiness and love most pure."
  "Sweet dreams, Cel. I wish you the same... All that's pure." 
   
The end