Chapter 10 - Caster of the shadow

A/N: I'm back! And sorry for separating the story of Sonic Force into two parts but I wanted you all to witness all the important and exiting scenes of the story which all of them in this part. In this part Blacks story and purpose will be revealed and why he and sonic are connected and what will become of him.

Enjoy!

Chapter 10 - Caster of the shadow

Sonic's POV

Flashback

Black's eyes were gone dark and emotionless, he turned to me and punched me in the faces that sent me flying into the cold ground

I landed on my back with great pain in face and back but all that pain was nothing compared to the pain of being hit by a close friend, I gazed at the cloudy sky with wonder and confusion "Why….Why did he hit me? Did I say something bothered him or is he angry of me for being calm in such hard times?" I kept gazing at the sky but soon I got on my feet and stared at him in shock "Hey why did you hit me?!" I asked him but he just stood there without moving our talking.

He suddenly began to chuckle, I was now more mad than before "What's so funny?" I asked with an angry voice but he didn't answer. When saw his eyes there were they were blank in blackness, no light in them just nothing but soon I heard him reply "You are what makes me chuckle" he said in different note with a different voice and manner, I gasped once I figure out the owner of the voice.

"Your Dark Gaia!" I shouted at him "What did you do to Black?" I asked him, he began to chuckle again but this time even more sarcastically, I clutched my hands in anger, I wanted an answer from him but he is just not taking me seriously.

He then quit chuckling and gazed at me with his dark eyes that soon turned into bright green eyes with black slits, "I now taking control of his body " he said with a grin, I was shocked by hearing that Black promised Dark Gaia, "But how?" asked curiously, he made another grin and explained.

Flashback

"After Black Fang left you and my arch enemy Light Gaia on the Frozen Coast, he told you that he wanted to go to meet someone right? Well he did and guess who he went to meet, it was Dread the Crow my second creation. He wanted to finish what he started three years ago after the world was fixed by you and your friends. When he found him he was determined to destroy the crow to save this world that locks me.

Black's POV

I walked closer to him with great determination in my eyes and nothing will stop me to end him once and for all, I stared right through his Blue emotionless eyes and saw nothing but hatred and despair in them but I haven't hesitate even if I was about to fight who's heart is merciless, who's doesn't hesitate in killing. Dread was a black crow with sapphire blue eyes with slits, he was wearing a red cloak but his head was visible, he also wearing black, blank sneakers and white gloves with black stripes.

While staring at each other, there was nothing to hear, nothing to feel and nothing to deny. There was no turning back from this. I could only think of how this will end and how it will look, he finally broke the deadly silence in the atmosphere by saying "It's been a long time, Black Fang. Tell me are you still lost in your delusions?" Those cold words made my heart beats faster and a feeling of flames erupting inside me "You're the one who's living a lie Dread! Your life is meaningless! You only follow Dark Gaia's commands without even thinking, your nothing but a mere puppet he use."

He felt insolence from what I said and clutched his hands "You're the last one to talk about being an instrument, you're a mere shadow of someone else, you don't feel or even think on your own, you just follow your caster's movements that's all" he replied in anger.

What he said thrilled me, my breaths were speeding up and my eyes were becoming fierce and wild with slits, I began to roar like a beast and even stood on four legs. Soon and without a second thought I burst at him in blurry speed and he did the same, we clashed and began through punches, kicks and shredding by claws, it was unbelievable of how he took so much damage and still be able to stand on our feet.

We both jumped back after the violent clash, I was pretty injured especially on my back and left arm but luckily I have wounded him in various spots such as the legs and chest but still even the pain that we were feeling wasn't going to make any of us turn back.

After gathering strength for another attack, Dread made a hand sign and yelled "Red moon mist" soon some black and red mist was spreading from him and what the mist do made my eyes go wide, anything the mist get attached to faded away, the mist began to approach me, I knew there was no way for me to fight him with black and red mist around him so, I retreated for a better position but as I expected, the mist was spreading even wider and its range began to expand.

No matter how far I got the mist kept expending more and more, I knew Dread won't stop it until it destroys me so, pretended to be swallowed by the mist. As soon as he saw what happen, he instantly stopped the expansion of the mist and made it vanish.

Then he stoop with pride and great joy of believing that I was killed "In the end, the shadow disappeared in the darkness" he said in a cold manner and closed his eyes and while he was distracted I jumped out of a black hole that I opened with The Black Hole Iris Portal technique before and after I was swallowed by the mist.

I dashed to him with a Dark Star of Darkosen I made when I was in the black void and stretched my arm like the werehog to strike him but he noticed my attack and tried to avoid it, my attack only scratched him, I was disappointed by the failure of my attack, the crow was panting of how close it was but made a grin "I shouldn't have expected that you will survive but you still die here" he said and made some hand sign.

Great power began to flow from him to the sky, the hole spot that treeless because of the mist became dark, like a sudden night, he was now in a red sphere and what was happening inside it was unseen but I could hear some whisperings coming from inside it and I could feel a mighty and treating power was filling the entire battle field.

Suddenly, the sphere exploded and what came out of it made shook me, it was Dread in a large double winged crow form, his eyes were now even more terrifying than before and his roars fill the land with terror. It was hovering in front of me with a look of challenge in his eyes.

I knew that I never wanted to be forced to use my awakening form but I didn't have another choice so, I made some certain hand signs that unlocks my true powers , soon the same things happened to me just like Dread only I was in a purple sphere.

I soon burst out of the sphere in a different form, it was my final form The Night predator. I was a dragon like beast with black scales, a purple blade like horn on the top of my head, sharp claws, five wolf-like tails with purple flame in the end of each one of them and purple glowing stripes on my body, I had fierce yellow eyes with black slits. I also had two black wings with some white parts.

We were both the size of sky scrapers and ten times more powerful than before, the whole location was dark with stormy clouds, the deadly silence came back, none of them was sure of how this will end but they didn't hesitated especially after this far, it shouldn't have come to this, the destruction will be limitless.

A single leaf that was remaining from the forest was falling in front of us, as it descend we both began breathe harder and harder and as soon as the leaf touched the ground, we vanished and appeared as blurry shadow in the sky, we kept clashing over and over until we stopped and gathered dark energy in mid-air in form of spheres, we shoot them at the same time.

The radical spheres clashed to make a mighty explosion that can be heard and feel from miles away. One of special abilities in The Night Predator form is running on air, I could run on the air the same way as I run on the ground and with that I could keep up with Dread Wings (Dread's form Name) we kept attacking each other with breath attacks until the crow dashed at me and slashed my right side with one of his wings, it hurt me so much but he didn't stop at this, he carried me to the sky and dropped me into the ground, I was in great pain back then, my entire body was sore and I couldn't move.

The feetless crow hovered above me and chuckled "You see Black Fang, there is nothing you could do to stop me, you and your foolish friends will die" he said in a victories tone but he didn't know what he just said cause what he said made anger fill me, made breaths faster and the memory of my friends washed away all the pain in my body, I knew now what must be done so, I got up on my four legs and stared at the double winged crow "Dread! I will never ever let bring harm on any one anymore, now prepare to meet your doom!" I shouted.

After that I made three of my tails turn into fists, he didn't get the chance to avoid my attack this time, the first fist punched him away and the second fist pulled him back to get hit by the third one, then I made two tails turn into dragon head that grab him from the wing, he was now in my grip and unable to move, I began to spin around and released him into the air, I finally gathered energy to make a final sphere "Dark meteor bomb" I shoot at him, the bomb exploded after hitting the double winged crow, the crow fell from the sky and landed on the ground, he was totally damaged and ran out of energy, he stared at me with an illusionist look "You can't defeat me, I am invincible!" he shouted in despair but I replied before preforming my final trick "I don't care about any of the nonsense your saying but I won't let you hurt my friends".

I made a howl which wolves usually do and created a ginormous ball of black, white and purple energy, it had all the power I have left which was still destructive in it, and the crow was now in great fear and terror more than ever.

I finally released the ball at him "Darkosen Final Force Blast" I yelled as the bomb exploded at the crow and vaporized hi into nothing, the blast was so powerful that it made a shock wave that reached five Kilometers.

Dark Gaia's POV

Dread was destroyed but Fang paid the price of the power he used, to use that power he needed to undo the seal that made me unable to communicate with him and lend him power. I was able to control his body whenever I wanted but I decided to let him finish the mission of destroying the elemental beasts before I take control.

Sonic's POV

I stood still with my eyes wide and my hanging, I couldn't believe what I heard "Black…is…a shadow of…me" I said in shock but the possessed wolf began corrected my thought by saying "He is a replica of you, he was created by the pure darkness of me and your memories and qualities, that's why you two are mentally connected", I didn't what to say, I just stood there without moving or saying anything which made Dark Gaia smirks.

He then began to tease me "What's wrong hedgehog, did you lose your mending words?" he said before releasing a chuckle but I refused to give up on Black so, I stood with a serious look "I didn't lose anything but what I can't understand is what did you mean by can I feel the Black Fang?" I asked, he didn't say anything but he just pointed at building that was next to us but when I turned my head to look at it, I was gasped at what I saw.

On the windows of the building there were two reflections, one was mine and the other was of a black hedgehog with green eyes with slits and a pair of blue shoes with spike, I turned my head back to the wolf in will of getting some answers about what was that.

He chuckled and said "This is what I meant, you and Black Fang will soon unite and your heart will be swallowed by the darkness while your body will become my vessel, I will transport my power and consciousness into you so, I can destroy this world and rebuild it in my own image and that was my plan ever since you defeated my first form!", I gasped at the thought of but I was more shocked when I saw some hazy stuff coming out of the wolf and touched me, I tried to move but I couldn't, I knew this wasn't the end, I can't let him do what he want or everything will be lost, all I could do is to try to reach the real Black.

"Black listen to me, I know your there and I know that you believe that you are just a shadow but that's not true!" I said to the possessed wolf in hope of reaching the real wolf inside but Dark Gaia shrugged at what I said and replied in disturbance "Give up hedgehog, your friend is no longer controlling this body and besides, what do you understand about him, you used to hate transforming into him" (Remember Black the wolf is the werehog) .

What he said gave me back some painful memories of how I turned into a werewolf who looks scary, some people ran away from me and not even his friends recognized me but I knew where the problem was so, replied to Dark Gaia and Black who was inside "I didn't hate the from but I didn't like being someone else, Black listen to me, a replica or not that doesn't matter what matters is who you choose to be, even if your created by his powers and my memories but that doesn't mean that you don't have your own will and heart and no matter what you think Dark Gaia, Black is my friend and he's a real wolf!" I shouted with a blazing will.

Dark Gaia was thrilled by those word but also got angry so, he tried to attack me but he stopped when he felt a pain in his head and placed his hands on it "STOP it…stop trying to resist me I control this body!" he yelled in pain, just by seeing that made know that Black heard me and he's now fighting Dark Gaia's control.

Inside Black's Mind

The dark beast and the wolf stood and staring at each other in a black void "Why, why do you still have control on this body even if you don't have the will to do it anymore?" The dark beast asked the wolf in front of him, Dark Gaia wasn't Ginormous in here, he was just big now like 12 feet tall, the wolf didn't think that much to answer "Maybe I let you get inside me but I guess my heart wouldn't let you take control" he answered, the beast's eyes got widen by the wolf's answer and replied "Your Heart?!, do you actually believe what that hedgehog said about you having a heart and will?", the wolf didn't what to say, he gathered all he and answered "I don't know for sure but whenever I think of something precious to me, I can feel something inside me telling me to keep on believing and never stop fighting for what's important to me, that's what I feel and that's for sure is MY HEART!".

Those words shook the beast from the inside, he didn't know of how some word had such a strong meaning and effect. He was totally shocked and began to believe that there are things that can be changed just by a single twist to begin.

Even it was hard to tell, Dark Gaia began to grin, even the wolf was surprised, he then crossed his arms and said after releasing a sigh "Well I guess this plan was a total failure but…I want you to know that from now and onward and even if I was in slumber, I see through your eyes to learn you for your progress, until next we meet…farewell and watch out Black the wolf" he said before disappearing and Black returned into reality with sonic but he let out a tear.

Dark Gaia maybe wasn't good but he was a father-figure to him but he soon pulled himself together and whipped away his tears.

Once he turned his back the first thing he saw was me smiling at him, this made him happy and smiled back, he walked to me and hugged me "Thank you Sonic" he said while hugging me. "You're welcome" I chirped back.

A/N: Well I have to admit but this chapter was really sad and I almost cried at the scene of Dark Gaia saying good bye to his son-figure , it was really sad but I enjoyed writing this chapter get ready cause the final chapter is coming soon.