I did it. I DID IT. But it took waaaaaay longer than it should have. And I'm SOOO sorry! DX It's still in the editing phase, but I didn't want all you fabulous supporters out there to wait any longer. So I'll change to the edited version later.

WARNINGS: There is some language, its cheesy, it might get a little weird/creepy/whyamireadingthis. Don't say I didn't warn you.

oXo

The two made quick progress down the side hallway, the sounds of a one battle fading, while another aroused. From the hallway, Sonic and Silver saw bolts and the remains of bad nicks fly out of a once heavily armored doorway. Now it was battered and lying just inside the frame.

"Looks like Knuxs has been through here," Sonic skidded to a stop in front of the frame.

"Don't call me that!" Said equidna growled and threw an Egg Pawn's head at Sonic's face. He missed.

"Quit messing around!" Blaze growled, burying her flaming foot into one robot and flinging it onto another. "Give us a hand; the Emeralds should be just past this corridor, but the Doctor's forces do not seem to diminish, no matter the force we apply."

Sonic nodded and joined into the fight, followed quickly by Silver. All the while, Amy didn't even look up from the bot she was bashing until Sonic appeared beside her.

"So," she grinned, "Did you give Robotnick the what-for?" Another wave of Egg Pawns washed into the room from the hall.

"Shades is taking care of him now," he lashed out, knocking a flat-topped head off his enemy. Amy swung at it with her unnaturally large hammer, slugged it like a baseball player, and downed another Egg Pawn which toppled on top of a few others, like Dominos.

"This would be so much more fun if it was actually difficult." Amy rolled her eyes.

"You're telling me."

Slowly, with the help of the backup, the line of defense diminished, and he Mobians gained some ground.

"'Bout time," Knuckles punched through the chest of a Pawn, then pulled his hand out, bringing cables with it. "I wonder if Shadow is done with Robotnick."

oXo

"You are finished, Doctor," Shadow hissed. Flames of Chaos Energy arched between his fingers in one hand, and in the other, the green Chaos Emerald he had ripped from the robot's core. He stood over the cockpit of the fallen robot, with the mad scientist unconscious inside.

"Chaos…BLAST!" Red energy, super charged by the Emerald, ripped out of the ebony hedgehog's body, and through the robot and creator. The concentrated blast could be heard for miles.

oXo

The remainder of the attack force didn't need to hear the opposite side of the base being blown to bits, they could feel the results in the reverberating in their chests.

"Guess that answers that question," Silver shrugged. The movement itself seemed to lift, crush, and drop robots around him.

"Guys!" Tails' voice sparked into each individual's com-link. "What was that?!" Blaze was the first to respond.

"Either it was Shadow eliminating the Doctor, or vice versa. We cannot be sure until one of the other makes an appearance." She slammed a burning fist through a metal arm, then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of its owner with said arm. "We are almost through the final wall of defense. Do you remember what you do when we reach the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Attention!" The sudden voice, Robotnick's voice even, surprised everyone in the room. Even Tails seemed to hear it, as he didn't respond. "Attention to all vermin! You may think you have defeated me, but as Shadow found out, I am not so easily beaten. I hope you're ready for the beginning of a new age!" The unseen speakers fizzled out, and everything in the room seemed to stop.

"Does that mean…?" Amy gasped. Sonic shook his head firmly and smiled.

"I think we all know Shades dies hard. He fell from outer space for crying out loud." He rolled into a ball and spin dashed multiple Egg Pawns in a row. "I think he can survive a little explosion."

Knuckles followed nodded slowly. He had been worried as well after that; he had a genuine respect for the black hedgehog.

"Sonic's right. Once this is over, Shadow will turn up again, if not before. Now," he cracked his namesakes. "Let's go win this thing."

oXo

*Minutes before*

Shadow weakly pulled himself to his feet. Even with the Emerald and his inhibitor rings, a concentrated Chaos Blast of that magnitude was a difficult thing to do. But no matter, the fight was over. Robotnick was dead.

Everything in the room was incinerated; it wasn't even a room anymore. The hallway he and Silver entered from and then the latter and Sonic left from was blocked from some remainders of the wall and collapsed ceiling. The fallen Badnicks and the larger, more difficult, 'bot lay in heaps of ashes.

Shadow himself was covered in thick black ashes that coated his pelt, muzzle, gloves, and shoes. The only thing left untouched where his blood red eyes, pronounced even more so by the white of his eyes, and pitch black surrounding it. A tiny stream of crimson liquid dripped out of his mouth and down his chin. He wiped it away, but only succeeded in smearing it and the ashes across his already blackened muzzle.

"Damn you, Doctor." He growled. Everything in his body was sore. Even his ears. The only way to block out Eggman's bad puns and stupid insults was to press them to his skull. If he used the Chaos Emerald to patch himself up, there was a chance he could be gone by the time his blue counterpart showed up again. Now that he thought of it…where was said Emerald?

"You should really watch your language Shadow. Who knows what would happen if the blue rat picked up on it."

"Wh-?!" Shadow spun around. His eyes widened. "We killed you! You're dead!" He exclaimed in momentary surprise.

"No. You didn't. But such a death may come to you in due time." Reptilian green eyes stared straight into crimson ones. "Or feed off your natural Chaos Energy, so you die slowly. Depends on how I feel when my job is done." The other being shrugged; this was such a minimal matter for one with ambitions such as his. "But for now, the Doctor wants to see you." He tossed the confiscated Chaos Emerald from one gloved hand to the other.

"The Doctor is dead."

If this being had a mouth, it would be twisted up in a cruel sneer.

"Only the hologram projector, dear Shadow."

Hundreds of bolts of electricity hit him with the subtly of a train, entering though the hedgehog's back and coursed through his weary body. Shadow fell to the ground, a puff of ash lifting then resettling, coating him with more of the thick substance. His dark counterpart's deep, psychotic laughter pounded in his ears before the world around him disappeared into a thick blanket of blackness.

oXo

The last line of defense crumpled, courtesy of Sonic's Spin Dash.

"Who-yeah!" He pumped his fists and did a little victory dance. Everyone else just looked at him weird, accepted that he was special and there was nothing that could be done about it, and each began hacking away at one of many thick steel doors.

"You know," Blaze stopped pounding for a moment, "If we all took down the door that says, Control Room above it, we might get this done faster." Sure enough, her door said Control Room above it.

"Ohh…" Everyone was soon bashing said door.

The door slowly caved into itself, like its last bits of strength where fading away. Finally it gave way, falling just inside the new space. It was a control room, just as the conveniently placed sign had said, but what it failed to mention was that Eggman would be there, too. With the Chaos Emeralds.

"No! You weren't supposed to find me here." Eggman proclaimed, with the painfully obvious drama he was known for.

"Let me guess," Sonic rolled his eyes, "we were supposed to find you, which is why you practically said 'Oh look, here I am!' by putting a sign over the door, and then stall while pretending to do things to finish your evil plan, but in the meantime, your big take over the world gizmo will be charging up. Then when it's ready to fire, you'll say something like 'Game over, Sonic! I win!', try to press a button like some dramatic videogame character, but we'll wreck your machine and beat you. Again."

There was then a span of silence. The other Mobians were wondering when Sonic had become a mind reader, and Eggman was asking himself why the blue rat would ever think he would do such a thing. However…

Eggman chuckled dryly, his face unreadable.

"Have you wondered whatever happened to Shadow?"

The Mobians glanced at each other and shifted uneasily, except Sonic, who crossed his arms in front of him.

"Shadow can take care of himself." His eyes flicked around the room, searching for any sign of the Chaos Emeralds. He could sense them, but there was another, weaker energy coming from a different location. It could be Shadow's, if he had the last Chaos Emerald with him, and if it was, something was wrong. The energy seemed off; tainted somehow. And it was close.

"Are you sure?"

Sonic's quills bristled. Robotnic's change in attitude was bugging him. This whole situation was off. There is something wrong here, Sonic thought to himself, and I don't think I'm the only one who sees it.

"Quit yapping in codes, Eggman, and give up already!" Knuckles growled, "We've got you out matched, even without Shadow."

"Not quite."

It was here. What it was, other than tainted Chaos Energy, Sonic wasn't quite sure, but it felt strangely familiar. For some reason whatever memory the energy attached to was filled with pain and-

Oh, shit.

"MOVE!" Sonic found himself pulled by an invisible force further away from the entrance. It dropped him beside the others, and a blazing bolt of Chaos Energy sliced through the air only a few feet away from where the blue blur stood moments ago. Silver hovered just above the group, his telekinesis blazing. His gold eyes where narrowed into slits of seething hatred, with good reason.

In a darkened corner of the Control Room stood the shaded form of Shadow. A small portion of his body was lit by the eerie green Chaos Emerald, which he held in his hand.

"What the hell was that for, Shadow?!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"That's not Shadow. Not the one we know," Sonic scoffed.

"Then who…?"

"You know me. All of you know me," The voice that came from Shadow's mouth was not his own; a tone thick of dark power the Ultimate Life form never possessed. "All of the demons in your dreams; I am their king, and they cower before me. I am the nightmare your mind refuses to remember." The form stepped out of the shadows to stand beside Robotnick. "I am the greatest fear you never knew you had."

"That was wonderful," the scientist cautiously took the emerald out of 'Shadow's' outstretched hand. "Now that you have completed your part of the deal; allow me to do mine. Destroy them."

The demon possessed Shadow raised his head, tilting it slightly to the side, and skimmed the crowd of Mobians with green, reptilian irises.

"It would be my pleasure."

oXo

*le gasp* Who is it? What is happening? When will I ever get good at suspense?!

Disclaimer: If I owned Sonic and Co., Sonic X would be for teens. If I owned Pokemon, Eevee and Mewtwo would be in every episode.

R&R? No flames please! I do love constructive criticism!

My fandoms drive me crazy,

I should do my homework,

School gets in the way of life.

All this is true.

Nova out.