I listened to a song called State Lines by Novo Amor while writing this and it almost made me cry I felt so inspired by a good story with a happy ending.

"This is our world. It's a beautiful place full of the best and worst kinds of chaos. Yet still, this is life. Life can be good, and bad. But life is always a delicate thing we should all protect and cherish. I had to learn that lesson the hard way."

You stepped to the other side of the stage, looking amongst your crowd of fellow heroes as you addressed the evening.

"The heroes around us today taught me that lesson. Making a radical change in your lifestyle and beginning to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. You're allowed to be scared. I was, before life found the courage to give me another chance."

"I want to say thank you to you all. For giving me life. The experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. Thank you."

You toasted a small glass in the air where a volley of more hands followed. Clawed, gloved, and wrapped, all hand cheered for you and your inspirational message. For you see, tonight was the celebration of peace. Of success. Even for those who couldn't be here tonight, you promised to yourself that this was for them. This toast, this message about cherishing life.

A celebration of life.

Hands patted you on the back as you made your way through a crowd, finding a small open space glowing gently with candles. Small plants, flowers, and offerings were place underneath two frames. One had much more than the other.

"Olive. I wish you could see this..." You looked down at the small centerpiece that was your best friend's pilot photo, used in all her military honorations. Flowers lined her picture and little gifts were placed along side it. On a small table rest a row of candles glowing in a warm light. It's gentle touch made your heart soften as you dare not cry for your friend. You know her spirit would become upset with you if you cried on this happy day.

"Only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness." You turned around to find Gante with one of the candles, carefully holding the delicate wax tower as he placed it with the others.

"Happiness is only real when shared. How poetic." You leaned your head against the black dragon, who wrapped his arm over your shoulders in a small hug.

"She'd want you to be happy for what you've done for this world. Our world, right?" Gante reached forwards and grabbed a candle for you, using his dragon abilities to blow a small flame onto the wick on the candle.

You slowly took it and admired the small dancing light. The white hot flame shimmered through fierce yellow and into burnt orange as it warmed your face and cast a glow upon you and your mourning friend.

You sniffled, imagining each little wisp of fire as a memory between the two of you, "I miss her a lot Gante, she should be here to see all this-"

"I know (Y/n). But we'll just have to keep showing her that her sacrifice was not in vane. You'll have to keep protecting them. The people of this world, who cannot defend themselves as you can." Gante helped you place the candle down next to his and two others. "Here, these two are from Roman and Kat."

"Wait-... Me? Are we a-"

"Team?" Gante finished your sentence and looked down to face you, he smiled gently and his eyes shone with pride and honesty, "(Y/n), we'll always be a team, but my old bones took the last hit on this one."

"Are you- retiring then?" Your eyes widened as you realized what this meant. You refused to look at it as being alone without a team, but that's truly what this meant.

Gante pat your back and turned you to face back towards the party, while now magically holding a champagne glass, he pointed out with two fingers towards the chatty and happy crowd, "You see all them? Those heroes? Whoever you work with is your team. You will never be alone in this fight (Y/n), even if I'm not here right next to you always."

"BUT if you do turn back to your old ways don't expect me to come running to get you out of prison again." Finally, you let out a kind laugh at Gante's threat.

You sighed happily, "Thank you Gante, I trust you'll have a good retirement, grandpa."

"Listen here kid, I still got many years on me alright? I'm just done with all this fighting. Now, go out there and enjoy your night, alright?" Gante practically pushed you forwards as Vector approached him.

The black dragon gave you a wink as you began to walk towards your friends, giving a little wave back, and especially to your friend's memorial as you said a final goodbye for tonight.

Wandering for a moment, you found yourself admiring all the nice little lights fixated on the rooftop where this party would be taking place. Espio was using one of his kunai blades to carve out an ice sculpture of Sonic, the other portrait at the memorial that was slightly ignored as no one wanted to believe he was truly gone. The youth of the party, Charmy, Cream, and Tails, floated in the air as they sang and threw confetti onto the crowd below. Rouge was looking into the window of one of the nearby shops, a jewelry shop, and Tangle was prancing around with Amy.

All happy people you never got to see just be themselves yet, even after all this time. Tangle let go of Amy who spun towards you, holding her head as she recovered from the short dizziness.

The girl noticed you and brightened up, "(Y/n!) Oh my gosh, your speech was so amazing, I was about ready to fight another wave of the Metal Virus. But uh- not really, we wouldn't want that."

You and your pink friend laughed amongst each other as the crowd let out a 'hip-hip-horray' in the background. "I'm just so glad this is over. I've never seen the world have it this bad before. Heck, I didn't even cause this much damage."

You two now stood on the balcony, overlooking Spiral Hill Village, also known as Tangle's hometown."Oh (Y/n), don't rope your old self into this." Amy sarcastically rolled her hand as to 'avoid' the conversation. "I'd say you're a fine lady now."

"Thanks-" You lightly laughed, unsure of why it felt weird to be called 'lady'.

"WWWAAAHHHHH!!!!" Tangle let out a somewhat drunken screech as her and Whisper looked out across the otherside of the balcony. Both were shocked to find a shadow starting to rise over the sunset rooftops that became darkened by the lost sun. Eggman had returned in a supersized mech, adapted from what looked like Omega's model. Even more shocking, was that Omega's body was embedded inside the robot!

"It seems the life of the party is here!" Eggman was on the attack once again. "And I'll be ending yours!"

I wanted to try to be inspirational this chapter but also just try to sound cool now that everything is "over".

One more chapter guys. One more.

Chapter Length @1300 Words