Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26167440-20160111225919/@comment-679780-20160201061156

I guess you can say that. Yes certain cutscenes show he doesn't need rings to transform but they're certainly a beneficial factor for him.

As for the fact the emeralds leave after use, "why?" How is it the emeralds can "tell" they've fufilled a purpose. Honestly could be possible Chaos Emeralds can be semi-sentient as the Master Emeralds showed Knuckles to look around the Egg Carrier that one time. But I still think it's my instability theory why the emeralds go back to the Special stages after awhile. It's based after story concepts used in Sonic X and Sonic the Comics than just baseless answer why they just warp back to the Special Zone independantly.