Sonic and co ran through the long corridors of the final destination for their new adventure. The air was thin, and the surroundings were eerily silent. The few colours of red, black, purple and grey mixed together as they sped down the passages, through the doors and over the loops. They were looking for someone, because that person has all the Chaos Emeralds.
"If we don't find him in time, he'll give those emeralds to Black Doom," Sonic said in alarm as he ran alongside his friends.
"What!? Would he actually do that?" Amy exclaimed.
"No way. Shadow wouldn't betray us like that, after what he did for us on the ARK," Rouge defended as she glided alongside everyone.
"But Shadow forgot all of that. We may have told him about it, but it's all just facts to him. He didn't actually experience it according to his memory," Tails said frantically.
"Yeah, and Shadow isn't exactly on our side either," Knuckles said. "I saw him kill a few GUN soldiers. He even blanked a few of us when we crossed him in our battles against those aliens."
There were a few 'Yeahs' and nods of agreement.
"He was just determined to get the emeralds," Rouge said. "I hope…" Even she was losing faith. She knew the truth about Shadow, what she found out before their battle with the Metal Overlord.
They ran through one last door, and saw Shadow standing in front of Black Doom inside a large room. All of the emeralds were floating around him. Once they noticed Shadow, they all called his name.
"Shadow!"
They reached him and stopped at a short distance from him. Sonic reached out to Shadow desperately.
"Shadow, give me the chaos emeralds," he requested.
"Do not give the emeralds to Black Doom, Shadow," Eggman added.
"He's planning to destroy the planet!" Rouge explained.
"Muhaha. Ignorant fools," Black Doom chuckled to Sonic and Co's annoyance. "We're here to save the humans from their own demise. We offer salvation."
"What?" Shadow said in shock, his hands were out in a confused way.
"Their greed, thirst for power and affinity for betrayal has them on a path of self-destruction. Their actions will lead to the extinction of their species. We're here to save them from themselves with our perfect order. Allowing them to live through their desperate lives in peace."
Sonic and Co stood still and silent, anxiously listening to Black Doom's words. The dark overlord seemed to mean well, but something didn't seem right. The silence echoed through the surroundings and tense atmosphere.
"Humans are a great energy source for us," Black Doom continued. "They will be well kept."
Everyone gasped and exclaimed in horror, this was Black Doom's ultimate motive. Shadow put his arms out in pure shock; Sonic and Co could not see the look on his face, but could tell he was just as shocked as they were.
"Let us begin the ritual of prosperity," Black Doom announced. His choice of words and the way he described his plan baffled the team. It certainly wasn't as good as the dark overlord was selling it as. "Chaos Control!" Black Doom boomed. There was a flash and then a strong tremor that shook the floor violently.
"What was that? What just happened?" Amy exclaimed.
"Those black creatures just warped the comet down to the surface by using Chaos Control!" Sonic said in alarm. Rouge looked at Sonic in surprise.
"No! That's impossible!" she said.
"That's why you needed the Chaos Emeralds," Shadow said in realisation, then put his hand to his chest at his revelation.
"Hahaha… precisely," Black Doom chuckled. "The comet's velocity isn't powerful to pass through a planet's atmosphere. We needed them to charge them to full power. It's the perfect plan. That's why I needed the professor to help me."
"That's insane!" Eggman exclaimed.
Black Doom began explaining his deal with Gerald and his plan to get all of the Chaos Emeralds with the help of Shadow. Shadow, seemed distraught at this as he fell to his knees in despair. It was also obvious that Eggman was furious about it.
"That can't be! He betrayed his own people for research, for Black Doom!?"
"Big deal," Sonic remarked. "We can't just stand here doing nothing."
"Yeah, let's do this. Let's crush that cosmic rock ball!" Knuckles said and threw a fist into the air, then got stuck in that position. Sonic noticed something was up immediately.
"Knuckles, what's wrong!?" he exclaimed, then turned to Shadow and Black Doom frantically, getting stuck in that position in the process. Everyone else was frozen in position too.
"A special weapon. This gas, once released is quickly absorbed into your bloodstream. In a moment, total paralysis will hit your nervous system. The end is near now, hahaha!" Black Doom boasted. He began laughing maniacal as his Black Arms spawn crawled over to Sonic and Co. "Ah, my dear offspring. Eat and devour these savory dishes," he said lovingly. They all passed Shadow, who was still on his knees, looking around confusedly.
"Why… can I still move?" he asked and got up.
"What?" Black Doom exclaimed. "Curse your Black Arms DNA!"
"My… what?" Shadow asked breathlessly. Sonic and Co began to scream and cry out as the blobs got closer to them, and started biting at their legs. Shadow turned around and blasted all of them into oblivion with his Chaos Spears.
"My offspring! How dare you!" Black Doom bellowed. He put out his hand and stared at Shadow in hatred. "You will obey me!"
Shadow frowned at Black Doom in confusion, he had no idea why Black Doom had his hand out in that manner.
"What are you doing?" Shadow asked.
"You… you're meant to in my control now," Black Doom said. "You were created with my blood!"
"W-what!?" Shadow cried out.
Eggman began chuckling loudly.
"Ho ho ho! Oh, Shadow. You were unaware of this because I never got around to telling you but, you're an-"
"Android," Rouge cut in, sounding upset.
"What?" Shadow asked again. He turned around to face them. "The both of you knew and didn't bother to tell me!?"
"I didn't think you'd need telling. But it seems you've gotten it into your head that you're the real Shadow, for some reason," Eggman grumbled. Rouge darted her eyes in guilt.
"R-rouge told me I… was someone she knew," Shadow said sadly. "And… I believed her."
"We believed her too! That's not the real Shadow?" Sonic exclaimed.
Shadow put his hands to his head and fell to his knees again. He looked as if he couldn't take any more of it.
"What happened to the real Shadow?" Black Doom asked, demandingly.
"He died," Sonic said. "And… never came back."
Black Doom raised his arm in anger.
"Shadow! Look out!"
It was too late. By the time the Shadow android began to turn his head, Black Doom sent a large attack that hit the fake hedgehog straight on. Andriod parts flew in all directions, and there was a small explosion to go with it. Sonic and Co gasped in shock when they saw the torso left behind, which had wires and metal coming out of it.
"So, that Shadow was a fake!" Black Doom said. "But it doesn't matter. It still filled out its purpose. And I don't have the real Shadow to deal with. That andriod went down a lot easier than I expected. Not an accurate replica of the original."
"He had his back turned!" Eggman shouted out in defense.
"Shadow, my son!" came on old man's voice that echoed through the room. A few screens descended to show a message in front of Sonic and Co, and Black Doom.
"What is this!?" Black Doom yelled.
"If you're listening to this, then the worst has happened. You need to know the truth. The government plans to shut down this research facility." It was professor Gerald recorded in a low quality message. But his message was clear enough for all to hear, and everyone listened intently. No one made a sound while Gerald spoke. "The government plans to cease all of our research and imprison all who know about you. I made a terrible mistake Shadow, making contact with that comet. Now listen very carefully."
There was a sense of sadness in the air. This message was made for Shadow, but he wasn't around to hear it.
"In 50 years the Black Comet will return. They plan to harness its power to destroy this planet," Gerald's message continued to explain. "The only way to stop them, was to develop a way to use the very power they intended to use, against them."
"That's it! It's brilliant!" Eggman yelled.
"Shadow! It's up to you, and only you can stop them!" Gerald continued. "I developed the eclipse cannon. It's the only weapon that can destroy that comet. Shadow, you are the only hope to save mankind as we know it. The future of this planet depends on… you."
All of a sudden, someone interrupted Gerald.
"Don't worry, grandfather. Shadow and I will protect this planet, right Shadow?" a young Maria said naively. The message ended there.
"Gerald you fool! Shadow is already dead, and I didn't even have to put in the effort to kill him," Black Doom said.
"It was my grandfather's later plan to destroy the planet that killed Shadow in the first place," Eggman said in frustration.
"Not quite."
This was a different voice, but it was familiar. There was slow footsteps coming from behind Sonic and Co, but none of them could turn around to see who was approaching. The voice, however, brought hope to all of them.
"Shadow!" Black Doom yelled. "It can't be you!"
"Oh, don't worry. I'm no android like the hundreds of fakers roaming the planet thanks to the doctor," Shadow boasted. He walked between various member of team Sonic, to the front of the crowd. He stood before Black Doom, confident and proud. "And I know everything now. Everything I wasn't told during my time on the ARK."
Black Doom put out his hand in desperation, but nothing happened. Shadow's legs began bending, but the dark hedgehog grunted and fought against it. A few moments of struggling passed, before he fell down even further, but came straight back up again with a last minute victory.
"You're immune to my mind control!" Black Doom said, sounding surprised.
"I now understand why I am here," Shadow said, sounding smug. "I made a promise to Maria, and I'm here to keep it. I will destroy you, Black Doom!"
"I gave you life, and this is how you repay me!" Black Doom boomed. "The irony of it all is, I gave you life. Now, I'll take it back!" The dark overlord turned to leave, but Shadow ran after him before he could escape. He leapt up, aiming for the back of Black Doom's head. The alien suddenly disappeared, but he left his emeralds behind.
"Shadow, you have to go after him!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Just as my grandfather said, Shadow. Only you can stop him," Eggman said, he began moving again. "The gas has cleared for now. We can all escape."
"All we have to do is to get down to the surface and we're safe," Tails said.
"And then I'll use the eclipse cannon," Shadow said.
"Stay in contact with us with this," Tails said and threw a small communicator to Shadow with a weak underarm throw. Shadow caught it, and looked at it, not seeming impressed. He slapped it onto his wrist anyway.
"Black Doom is probably on his way to destroying the cannon or something so you'd better get moving," Sonic said as he forced himself to move to a normal standing position.
Shadow turned to the emeralds and pulled them down towards him. As he transformed, Sonic and Co got off of the Black Comet, and they left Shadow to his own devices. Hopefully, he would stay on their side, and come out alive at the end of it.
After a long struggle, Sonic and Co were able to move freely again, and they began running back down the long corridors. They didn't have long before Shadow would defeat Black Doom and destroy the comet that they were in.
Sonic was the first to reach the exit. He anxiously looked behind to see the everyone else slowly catch up. He didn't jump down and escape until everyone was back with him. They all climbed down the vines of the comet one by own. Tails and Rouge were able to fly down, and Knuckles was able to glide. The others had the hard task of traversing down the tangled mess of vines and ropes that attached the comet to the Earth.
Sonic looked up, to faintly see a battle going on past the clouds and fog above.
"There he is!" he pointed upwards. Everyone gathered around Sonic and looked up to where Sonic was pointing to see the outline of a large monster, and a tiny glow that was speeding around it.
"We should talk to him now!" Tails said and got out his communicator. Eggman stumbled over and took his from him.
"Shadow, can you hear me? We've managed to escape from that comet. There's no reason to hold back. Cause as much havoc as you need to," he yelled down the mic.
"Go for it, Shadow!" Tails yelled over him.
The group huddled around, anxiously waiting for Shadow to get somewhere in the battle. There was a few faint explosions, and no answer from Shadow, but the yellow glow never stopped moving.
"He isn't responding, do you think he's okay?" Rouge asked.
"Yeah, he's probably just concentrated on the battle," Sonic said. "It seems tough. He's not getting anywhere."
"I'll send one of my mechs up to get a look!" Eggman said. He pressed a control panel that he'd gotten out of his pocket, there was a small screen on it. He fiddled with the controls and tutted impatiently for a while. Sonic and Co stood in a tense silence, they were waiting for some results. "Ah, finally. I can see it. Give me that communicator again!" Eggman took it back from Tails. He took a closer looked at the picture from his feed. "Is that thing invincible? No! It's got some sort of weak point!"
"That's it! The eyes, his weak point has to be the eye that was following you!" Rouge said from behind Eggman.
"Alright then, Shadow. His eye keeps moving. You have to track it down!" Knuckles added.
Eggman gave the communicator back to Tails, then put his hand to his forehead because of the stress.
"Still no answer…" Rouge said and bit her lip. "Can he even hear us?"
Sonic leant over and peaked at Eggman's screen. He poked Tails' arm then pointed to the screen. Tails observed what was going on. He snatched the communicator from Eggman and shouted down it.
"Shadow, can you hear me? You're too far away, your Chaos Spear will be useless. But if you get to close, he'll warp away from you. You need to keep the right distance," Tails said.
At this, Eggman looked closely at his hand-held screen again. Sonic began tapping his feet impatiently, Tails right by him. Knuckles was grumbling at his inactivity, Rouge looked worried and concerned, and Amy stayed close to Sonic, also looking worried about the situation. Suddenly, Eggman went to steal the communicator back from Tails, who just held it out to be taken this time. He sighed and waited for Eggman to be done.
"Shadow, it's useless to attack those flying objects. Listen carefully: Use your full-power Chaos Spear to attack his eye! That's his weak point!" Eggman advised.
"Is he really missing that?" Sonic asked. He folded his arms and started tapping his feet. "He's really struggling out there. I bet I could do better."
"Hey! He might be rusty after almost dying in the last battle," Rouge said defensively while she walked towards Sonic in aggravation. "We don't even know what happened to him, or how he got back here."
"He's supposed to be our only hope, though. He can't afford to mess up. I should be up there with him or something. Screw that crazy professor's words!" Sonic yelled.
"So what Shadow isn't as experienced as you," Rouge said. "We've told him what to do. He'll figure it out."
"He better had, I-" Sonic was cut off as he looked up when something caught his eye. A large glowing explosion above. "Umm… never mind… he's doing fine." He looked surprised.
Everyone else looked up to watch for a few moments, until Tails spoke up to say something.
"Umm, Sonic… I… think the gas is spreading…" Tails said, sounding quesy.
"What!? We've gotta get away from that comet," Sonic said and pointed to the large vessel that was only a few meters away from them. "And find somewhere to hide. Like a building or something."
"Is there even a building that's left standing?" Knuckles asked.
"Doesn't matter, just run!" Sonic said and shot off in the direction opposite to the comet. Everyone else followed hurriedly. There was a tall skyscraper with half of its floors missing, rubble from those missing parts all around it. Sonic ran into it through a door that was surprisingly still attached to its frame and functioning. Everyone else ran in after him, as he waited for all to enter, then Sonic shut the door and pushed objects from the room up against it. It was dark and musty inside the collapsing building, but they were sheltered from the gas.
"This should gain us some time…" Sonic said. "I dunno if we'll make it though… unless Shadow speeds up."
"Shadow will do it in time!" Rouge said urgently. "I know he will."
Eggman was watching his screen once again. "We can see his progress through this," he said. "And give him any more advice, but it seems like he's gotten the hang of it now." The communicator was still in his hand, Tails went to take it back when suddenly he tensed up.
"Guys… it's come through already," Tails said. Sonic looked at Tails in shock. "I… can't… move." Sonic began to run over to his young friend, but got stuck into position. Eggman used the communicator in a hurry.
"Shadow... can you hear me? The gas from that Comet has... still made its way into our shelter…" he announced. Amy began coughing.
"I can't move!" she complained as she yelped in distress. She looked as if she was weakening.
"Sh-Shadow... Don't, worry about us... You've got to… destroy that thing!" Knuckles yelled. He was also stuck, but managed to shout loud enough for the communicator to pick it up. Others began to look weak like Amy did, Tails first, then Rouge, then Sonic. Knuckles and Eggman followed. It seemed as if the end was drawing near.
"Wh-what do we do? I can't keep my eyes…" Tails rasped. Sonic looked over to Tails in dread.
"Sh-Shadow... I believe in you... You've... gotta finish this…" Rouge said desperately. Everyone hoped that her pleading would give Shadow some kind of strength or determination.
"How's he getting on?" Sonic asked. He looked over at Eggman's screen from the awkward angle he was in. "Darn, he's not doing well. It looks like he's giving up…" He leaned over to the communicator as best as he could. "Ah! Shadow! You're... supposed to be the Ultimate Life Form… right? You've gotta... keep going…" Sonic could say no more. His eyes began to close like Tails, the both of them collapsed. Amy collapsed between them. Rouge against the wall, and Knuckles in the middle of the room. Eggman followed after a while too. Suddenly, the feed to his portable screen cut off as everyone blacked out.
The communicator crackled, Shadow's heavy breathing came through for no one to hear.
"Guys? Are you okay?" he asked.
"The time has come! Now, that the gas has overrun this tainted world, MY reign has BEGUN! Mwahahahahaha! Hahahaha! HAH-hahahaha!" Black Doom's voice boomed from the background.
"NO!" Shadow yelled in pure aggression. He wasn't giving up. The communicator went silent again.
…
Sonic and Co came back to consciousness, pushing themselves back up onto their feet one by one. Sonic shook his head and stumbled over to the pile of objects by the door. He pushed most of the things out of the way, and pushed himself through the gaps groggily. He made his way out of the building to see that the large comet was gone and the sky was clearing of all of the clouds and fog. Everything seemed brighter already. There was a large blast, faintly showing above the atmosphere. Everyone came out of the shelter and walked right out into the middle of the street to join Shadow.
"Yeah! He did it! That Black Comet is destroyed!" Tails cheered.
"Shadow, that was sweet!" Sonic exclaimed.
"I hope he's okay," Rouge said.
"I'm sure he's fine, Rouge, after all, he is Shadow," Amy said cheerily.
"How about giving me back those Chaos emeralds now?" Eggman said sneakily and began walking off.
"Hey! Get back here you creep!" Knuckles yelled and ran after him. Eggman ran off as fast as he could as he was chased.
"Where do you think he is now?" Rouge asked Sonic urgently.
"No idea," Sonic said. "Something tells me we won't see him until he's needed again. Like last time."
"How will we know whether he's alive or not until then?" Rouge asked sadly.
"We won't," Sonic said. He put a hand on Rouge's shoulder. "But there's nothing we can do about that."
"Except look for him!" Rouge exclaimed.
Suddenly there was a flash, and the spot the Black Comet once was, held a small figure. There was a cough and a splutter, and then the sound of a person falling over.
"That can't be!" Rouge gasped and ran over. In a pained heap on the floor, was Shadow.
"Rouge… is that… you?" Shadow asked, then looked up. "R-rouge…" The bat ran over to him and bent down. Shadow looked up at her through his eyes, which were squinted in pain, then forced a smile. "It's been a while," he rasped. Rouge wrapped her arms around him and held him close.
"I thought I'd lost you," she said desperately. Shadow said nothing in return, he just looked at her silently. "How hurt are you?"
"Very… but I'll survive. Just like I did last time," Shadow said confidently. He tilted his head upwards to see Sonic and Co standing on the edge of the crater, looking down at him proudly.
The End.