When we last left our heroes, they laid helplessly on Emerald Island. With Dark Hedgehog high above them, Jewel being kidnapped, and a giant destructive ball known as the Elemental Bomb hurdling towards the island; it would seem that the end is near… or is it?

Annihilation; Part 2

Rebirth

Reunion

As the Elemental Bomb made its way towards Emerald Island, small flashes of light could be seen on the island floor. Dark Hedgehog ceased his laughing when he saw this. Tails looked up as the flashes of light zipped past him. When the Elemental Bomb reached the island, one of the light flashes became black, and the Elemental Bomb was thrown back at Dark Hedgehog. The other light flash stopped behind Dark Hedgehog, and turned blue. It took Jewel from Dark Hedgehog's arm and came back to the island. Soon after, the Elemental Bomb blew up in Dark Hedgehog's face. The blue light was easily recognized as Sonic, and the black light that deflected the attack was Shadow. Sonic laid Jewel down and went to Tails. Shadow stayed right where he was, looking at the explosion which consumed Dark Hedgehog. Jewel opened her eyes just long enough to see Shadow standing there; she then closed her eyes and became unconscious. "Tails!" Tails looked up, crying. Sonic noticed Tiffany lying next to Tails, covered in blood; and quickly told Tails to go help the others. Tails retorted.

"But..." Sonic interrupted him.

"Go, now, help the others!" Sonic took Tiffany's arm and disappeared. Tails reluctantly went over to Artail, who was just beginning to stand up.

"You ok Artail?" Artail nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine, what's going on?" Tails helped him balance.

"Sonic and Shadow are here!" Artail looked up.

"Yes! Finally; a bonus for everyone!" Artail said this while going to check out everyone else. Tikal seemed to have helped herself up as Tails looked for Tiffany and Sonic. He didn't see them. Shadow was still looking at the ongoing explosion, his expression showed his anger. Tails walked up to him.

"Shadow, calm down." Shadow was breathing hard. He looked at Tails so fast, it made Tails jump back. He then continued watching the explosion. Sonic returned right next to him. He saw that Artail had gotten Knuckles and TR. Tails went to get Katrina. "Come on, we get ready, it's not over yet." Katrina got up, but lost balance and fell. Tails shook his head.

"Where's Tiffany?" Tails walked away without answering. "What?" Tails walked over to Sonic and Shadow. Sonic turned to him.

"Don't worry, Tiffany should be fine, I left her on the ARK II." Tails nodded slowly. Sonic seemed to have noticed something out of the corner of his eye, cause he suddenly looked at the explosion with Shadow. Katrina finally remembered how to stand and joined them.

"What are you looking at?" Shadow clenched his fist.

"Everyone leave, now." Tails objected.

"But…" Sonic interrupted.

"Just go Tails." Everyone looked up as the bright explosion turned a dark red. Shadow tuned towards the group.

"LEAVE!" He pushed his hands forward and everyone flew back several feet. Tails was the first to stand up. He stared at Sonic, but agreed in the end. Everyone except Shadow and Sonic followed Tails off the island. Shadow and Sonic turned their attention to the now black explosion. Sonic now clenched his fist.

"That's not an explosion…" Shadow now closed both fists as electricity surrounded him. Sonic did the same. The Chaos Emeralds behind them soon floated above them as they transformed. The black ball slowly became smaller; but before the ball decreased its size by a noticeable amount, a large Chaos Drive broke through from the inside and was headed towards Sonic and Shadow. They jumped out of the way as the attack stuck into the ground. It was twice as big as Shadow. Dark Hedgehog emerged from the hole the attack had made in the ball.

"Shadow… you're quite lucky that you arrived when you did. Had you not… I would have used our sister to destroy the damn place." Shadow couldn't make sense of what he was talking about, but he didn't care either. Sonic was looking at Shadow for an answer, he received none, but Shadow did say something.

"I don't care for your happy grab ass games! Just get down here so I can finish you off!" Dark Hedgehog laughed.

"Well, if you want to finish me, what's holding you back? After all, you're the ultimate life form." He said this mockingly. Shadow raced off towards him without warning, leaving Sonic behind.

"Shadow, wait!" Dark Hedgehog laughed to himself. When Shadow arrived, he tried to punch Dark Hedgehog, but he dodged it. Dark Hedgehog then punched Shadow, making him lose his breath. Sonic jumped up to him and kicked Dark Hedgehog, but it had little effect. Dark Hedgehog took Sonic's leg in one hand, and Shadow's arm in the other, then slammed them together, making them fall down to the island. He then stuck one arm out and fired a Light Bomb at Sonic, but missed. Shadow ran towards it and kicked it back towards Dark Hedgehog. Then fired a short Chaos Beam to distract Dark Hedgehog, allowing the Light Bomb to hit him. Sonic ran to the edge of the island and jumped off, confusing Dark Hedgehog. Shadow continued his barrage of different attacks, keeping Dark Hedgehog's attention busy. Sonic came up behind Dark Hedgehog and held him still. "I have him!" Shadow nodded and jumped in the air. He threw both hands out and began charging an attack. "Hurry!" Dark Hedgehog elbowed Sonic, forcing him to release his grip, and began charging for Shadow. He got within inches to Shadow when a giant beam hit him, making him fall to the island. Sonic looked down. Jewel was standing on the island. He had forgotten all about her. Jewel had her hands in front of her, making it obvious that she made the attack. Shadow looked down at them with a confused look on his face. Sonic took the opportunity to tell them to leave. Jewel ignored him; her eyes were fixed on Shadow. An attack was suddenly fired and hit Shadow, making him fall. Sonic looked over to see that Dark Hedgehog had recovered. Sonic went to Shadow to help him up. Dark Hedgehog was now rising in the air. He was looking over the island when his eyes stopped on Jewel.

"Ahh, Angel, what are you doing here?" Dark Hedgehog had an evil smile on his face. There was a pause; Sonic and Shadow were looking at Jewel. "I shall return, but for now I will allow everyone some time; time to live in fear." Dark Hedgehog instantly disappeared. Sonic stared at Dark Hedgehog's last known position.

"Hey, he got away." Shadow looked up and made a slapping motion with his hand. Sonic dodged it. Shadow stood up complaining.

"Must you keep pointing out the obvious?" Sonic shrugged.

"Well you looked lost." Shadow gave him a dirty look. "Anyway, let's go say hi to everyone." Shadow turned his back.

"How bout' we don't and say we did? How does that sound?" Sonic put his hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

"Sounds like someone's shy, come on!" Sonic went hurrying off toward Island 3. Shadow sighed and began walking in the same direction, trying to walk as slow as possible. Jewel was standing still, watching Shadow, and didn't leave until he did so.

ARK II

Instead of returning to Island 3, Tails flew to the ARK II, in search of Tiffany. He found the main control center and began searching for a map. It wasn't long before he came across some security videos. Being highly interested, he began to play back and watch what was recorded. There were videos of Sonic and Shadow training, videos that seemed to have been copied from the original ARK, and even videos from Earth. Tails watched as he discovered that Sonic and Shadow had seen what had been going on all this time, so why didn't they come to help sooner?

"HALT, who are you? State your name!" Tails turned to see a robot with its gun pointed to him. "STATE YOUR NAME!" Tails stepped back at his sudden raise of voice.

"Ta- Tails." The robot did not let his guard down.

"Searching data base… searching… Tails; aka, Miles Prower, voice recognition recognized, welcome to ARK II. How may I be of service?" Tails tilted his head in disbelief.

"I wish to speak with Tiffany Prower." The robot nodded.

"Follow me." As the robot turned around, Tails saw what was apparently his name, TX. TX stopped at a door. "This way." Tails went onward and saw Tiffany lying in some sort of machine. He looked at the monitor. Life signs strong. Rapid healing pace. 00:12:03. The timer was going down. Tails figured this was how long the healing process would take. TX walked in.

"G3 sensors indicate that you are fearing death. You need not worry, Tiffany is in great condition. You should have seen Master Shadow; he was nearing the brink of death when…" He was cut off by a deep voice.

"That will be enough." Shadow walked in, staring at TX, then turning his attention to Tails. "You're lucky Sonic found the time to input everyone's voice and name codes, it wasn't exactly what I would have done." There was a silence. Tails remembered all to well what Shadow had done last time he was on Earth. TX turned and walked outside, as if he had business elsewhere. "So, why have you decided to intrude on my home?" Tails replied in a cool, almost defensive voice.

"I'm here for her." He nodded in Tiffany's direction. Shadow let out a small laugh.

"You think you being here will speed up the process? Or are you afraid? I built the damn machine myself; she will not die in my care." The way Shadow worded the sentence would have made Tails laugh had the moment not been serious. Tails thought to himself. Your care? Since when did you care? A small beeping sound came from the machine. The timer was at zero. It opened as Tiffany slowly awakened. She stood up, looked around, and hugged Tails.

"Tiffany, you're safe." Tiffany stopped hugging him to raise one eyebrow.

"Of course I'm safe, who wouldl take care of you if I die?" Tails smiled as they kissed. Shadow rolled his eyes and left saying,

"There's a time and place for that, and the medical center does not fit either description."

Welcome Party

When Tails, Tiffany, and Shadow arrived on Island 3, a welcome back party had already started. A drunk Katrina walked up to Shadow. "You… you… you're a bad person… but that's ok…" She fell over unconscious. Shadow rolled his eyes and went inside. He found TR grabbing a few sodas. TR turned.

"Oh, it's you… you uh, you wanna soda?" Shadow shook his head. TR closed the refrigerator. "Shoot yourself." He walked over to the door and saw Shadow helping himself to a soda. TR chuckled. "Welcome back." TR left with no reply from Shadow; whom was now watching TV… does TV ever fail? Tails and Tiffany walked in; somewhat surprised that Shadow was in their house. They stood staring at his back as he watched TV. Tiffany walked up to him slowly.

"Thanks… for letting me use that machine." Shadow just grunted.

"It wasn't my idea. Don't be thankful." This angered Tiffany, but Tails put his hand on Tiffany's shoulder and gave her a look that meant something like it wasn't worth it. When they left, Shadow was finally alone.

Outside, Sonic was playing with Artail in the fields. "Come on Sonic, one more go?" Sonic took a drink of Z Thunda Energy Drink.

"No, no, we've had enough fun, I need to find Knuckles." No sooner had he said this, Knuckles showed up.

"So what's up?" Sonic jumped, spilling his drink.

"Jesus, you scared me!" They enjoyed a small laugh. "Look, I need to know what's going on, I know you've been running the show since we've been gone." Knuckles tilted his head.

"I have… but how did you know?" Tails came up behind him.

"I can answer that, they've monitoring everything that's been going on, they could have come down here to help us anytime they wanted." Knuckles didn't look as betrayed as Tails did.

"I'm sure they had their reasons." He looked at Sonic.

"Yes, I was going to get to that after you told me what's been happening." Tails stepped between Sonic and Knuckles.

"But if you've been monitoring us, how do not know?" Sonic replied with great confidence.

"Because we weren't able to monitor everything." Knuckles broke up what he thought might become a fight.

"If I'm going to tell you what's been going on, Shadow should be with us too." Sonic nodded. Tails gave them his location, and on they went.

More Questions Unanswered

Sonic was about to open the door, but he heard voices inside. Shadow was talking. "If your name is Jewel, why did Dark Hedgehog call you Angel?" Someone replied, apparently it was Jewel.

"I don't know, but that's not what I came here to talk about. I've… I've seen you before." Shadow was taking no interest in this conversation.

"Hmph, lots of people see me." Sonic opened the door, hoping to get in on what was going on. But no one was in the first room of the house. Sonic suddenly changed his mind and decided to not only eavesdrop, but spy as well. Jewel spoke again.

"I don't suppose they all see you in their dreams… before they even meet you." Shadow turned his head.

"What are you getting at?" Jewel hesitated.

"I have dreams; sometimes nightmares, about you. I have them about the ARK too." Shadow stood up.

"The ARK?" He looked down in deep thought. "But I… I don't remember ever seeing you." Jewel was looking down as well in deep thought.

"That's because in my dream, you were in a glass container. Someone said something about a counterpart, and that you weren't awake yet." Shadow looked up.

"A… counterpart?" He turned to walk away. "I don't need this, not right now." Sonic and the others came in to stop him.

"Hey Shadow, Jewel, what's up?" Shadow turned around, a little annoyed.

"What do you want this time?" Sonic jumped over the back of the couch and sat down.

"Knuckles has some important information for us. I think you should here it too." Shadow reluctantly returned to the middle of the room. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Sonic was probably right.