Sky Sanctuary Zone (Sonic & Knuckles)

The Sky Sanctuary Zone is the last, second last, or third last zone in Sonic & Knuckles (or Sonic 3 & Knuckles). It follows the Hidden Palace Zone.

As Knuckles, this is the final zone of the game, and consists of two boss fights against Mecha Sonic. The level in itself is very short, with only three Rings to help see Knuckles through the fights. The zone is very small - just a flat, boss arena - after most of the zone fell apart in Sonic's storyline. In the second fight, Mecha Sonic uses the Master Emerald to transform into Super Mecha Sonic. Knuckles must race to gain back the Master Emerald for Angel Island, which is actually seen to sink in the background as the battle progresses.

As Sonic, the level is much longer. Sonic must jump from platform to platform, climbing up the zone and chasing the newly risen Death Egg before it gets too far in orbit. Knuckles briefly helps Sonic by activating a bridge on the Sky Sanctuary, but he wasn't able to continue further to help due to exhaustion (presumably from Eggman's earlier electrocution attack) Sonic must also battle numerous EggRobos, which hover in place and fire lasers straight ahead when Sonic moves into view, and which can be defeated like regular badniks. Sonic must also fight Mecha Sonic in this zone, in three separate boss battles. In the first, Mecha Sonic pilots Doctor Eggman's wrecking ball Egg Mobile (from the Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog); in the second, the robot pilots the whirling bubble-pod mobile from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ' s Metropolis Zone. In the third battle, Mecha Sonic attacks on foot, without an Egg Mobile. After this final battle, Sonic runs up a corkscrew ramp to the top of a tall floating landmass that crumbles beneath him, then leaps aboard the Death Egg. (Note that, in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, playing as Tails will initiate Sonic's version of the level.)

Music
thumb|left|300px|Sky Sanctury

Trivia

 * In Mario &amp; Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games the Dream Gliding event takes place in Sky Sanctuary Zone, but renamed Sky Garden. A remix of the zone is also played.
 * All three of the fights with the Mecha Sonic bear some similarity with bosses in earlier games, although the second fight is made much easier by the Insta-Shield move, something which Sonic did not have when facing the original version in Sonic 2. The last battle with the two Sonics on foot can be likened to the fight with Silver Sonic (an earlier Mecha Sonic model) in the Death Egg Zone in Sonic 2.
 * This stage will be reappearing in upcoming video game Sonic Generations, with more of a tropical look to the sky fortress.