I redid this without my OCs because I realize they are not of any use in this story, and when I wrote this a few years back, all I was concerned with was making people like them. I realize now, they are basically Mary-sues of the highest caliber. *sweatdsrop* At least, the Sonic ones were. My Yu-Gi-Oh ones are decent, but unneeded. Therefore, I give you this, revised, edited, and OC free.
"Yugi." Yami stated. He appeared upon Yugi bedside in his transparent form. The small amethyst eyed boy turned and sat up after being awakened from his slumber, and looked at his taller, more regal duplicate, and although he was see-through, he felt the spirit's presence all the same as one of his other friends. "Yami? What's wrong?"
"Yugi, are you ok?" Yami asked. The great pharaoh was concerned for his smaller counterpart, his crimson eyes burning into Yugi's. He had just saved the world for what seemed like the umpteenth time, but this time came with a price: He had lost his soul to the darkness and it overwhelmed him. He had been so lonely and afraid after Yugi had sacrificed his own soul to save him(Yami), and Yami felt as though a part of him was missing...
Yugi gave him a soft smile. "Yami, I told you not to worry. I feel fine. You don't need to worry." Yami looked unconvinced. He sat in his trademark position: His arms folded, and one leg crossed over the other. This time, it was his right over left. He sighed and looked up at the skylight. "... Something's coming."
"What?"
"Yugi, I want you to be careful. Something's coming." Yami replied, not taking his eyes off of the skylight. He switched his legs, now left over right.
Yugi looked at the spirit, wondering for a moment why he was acting so protective, then quickly remembering all they had been through in the past few weeks. But still... What could Yami be referring to? Yugi looked up at the skylight as well, trying to see if something had caught his dark's attention, and maybe that was why he was looking up.
"Something not of this world." Yami mumbled, unbeknownst to Yugi's ears.
"BASTARD!" Shadow the Hedgehog yelled as he pushed Sonic into one of the walls of Eggman's new secret laboratory. Sonic wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. Damn, Shadow could hit hard! "Don't you dare talk about Maria! Not you!" Shadow clenched his hand into a fist and brought it down on Sonic's back. "You! Sorry! Fake! Bastard!" Each word was punctuated with another punch. He held Sonic down with his free hand, and wiped a bit of sweat off his upper lip, only to bring it down once more with the word, "IMPOSTER!"
"Shadow!" Tails yelled as he ran towards the duo from the seeming never-ending stretched hallway, her blue eyes wide with fear, his twin tails propelling him off the ground a bit. Knuckles and Amy followed suit, running behind the ten year old fox. "Shadow! You have to stop!" Amy cried out. Shadow turned his head for a second, allowing Sonic to jump out from under the darker male. "What...?" Shadow asked, confused and bewildered. Who are they...?! His mind raced as he tried to figure out who she was. The good doctor never mentioned them...
A voice came from Tails' wristwatch, static-y and choppy. "..Ta-Tails! D-... you... ead... me?" Tails looked down at his watch, groaning slightly. Eggman's base was interfering with the signal... "Yeah, Rouge. I read ya, loud and clear!" Yes, it was a lie, but he didn't want to say the wrong thing, in case Eggman was listening in on the frequency.
"I... ave... Cream... Safe... me." Slowly, the frequency began to pan out, letting the rest of the transmission come in smoothly. "You boys better not let me regret sitting this one out. I expect Knuckle-head to find me a nice shiny gemstone for this."
"Hey! Find one yourself!" Knuckles said, hearing the last bit.
Tails sweatdropped. "Great Rouge, and thanks!" With that, he ended the transmission.
"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled. "Take Tails and Amy, and get them out of here!" He looked over at Shadow, who was still frozen in his previous position and glaring at Sonic.
"Shadow..." Amy said as they approached the two males. "Please, please don't believe Eggman's lies. We're here for you." She reached out a gloved hand, which Shadow nearly accepted, if Sonic hadn't spin-dashed into him.
Both landed against the opposing wall with an 'oomph!' and Shadow, who was first to recover, flipped backwards. Knuckles, Amy, and Tails ran over to Sonic quickly, though Knuckles had to refrain from punching Sonic himself.
"What the hell did you do that for, you blue idiot!? " He practically screamed. "You couldn't recognize help if it bit you in the ass!"
"Nice to see you too, Knucklehead." Sonic grimaced. He looked towards Shadow, who instantly locked eyes with him, neither one moving.
In all honesty, no one knew Shadow had still been alive! It turned out, after Shadow had used Chaos Control to delay the bomb's explosion and sacrificed himself to save everyone when they were in space, Eggman found Shadow's body as it plummeted to Mobius. Shadow was bruised, chunks of fur and flesh had been ripped from his skin, and he was unconscious. He healed his body, and once more, Shadow had little to no memory of his past. Eggman had used that to his advantage once again by filling his head with lies. Now Sonic had to deal with Shadow before Eggman let loose his newest plan. He hadn't quite figured it out yet, but he knew once he got there, he'd improvise and figure out something.
"You guys need to go." Sonic told the trio. He was answered by Amy and Tail's protests, as well as Knuckles pinning him to the wall in an effort to make him understand. Before Sonic could say or do anything else, Shadow let out a growl of pain. He clutched onto his head and dropped on one knee, glancing up at the group of friends. "Who are all of you!? Answer me!"
Amy's face turned solemn, and she turned away from Sonic to look directly at his ebony-furred counterpart. "You tell me." She said in a quiet voice. She pointed to Sonic, and said, "You tell me who he is too."
"I don't know!" Shadow screamed.
"YES, YOU DO!" She shrieked back.
Shadow was somewhat shocked by her outburst, and took a step back. He then growled and ran forward. "Chaos Spear!" He yelled, using the energy of Chaos Control to make spears appear out of nowhere and fly out at Amy.
Amy gasped, and brought her arms up to her face, as though to brace herself for the attack, but it never came. Sonic pushed away from Knuckles in time in order to use his Sonic Wind, rotating in a circle to create a mini-cyclone, countering Shadow's Chaos Spear.
Hundreds of memories raced into Shadow's head at all at once. He fell to his knees clutching his head, and looking at the ground as he tried to make sense of them. He could tell most of these memories weren't in order, a great deal of them seemed to be out of place. Eggman, saying someone named Cosmo had to sacrifice herself... a boy with brown hair asking if he was related to Sonic... A bat and robot working side by side with him, a machine called.. a Gizoid? Maria... Maria... Maria... Maria's face appeared in his mind, and the simple image of her face morphed into the last time he saw her, ejecting him out of the Space Colony ARK, before she was killed. He stuttered, his eyes bloodshot. "Maria...!" He lifted his head to Amy, staring at her, tears nearly falling from his eyes. "Amy... I-I..."
His eyes widened as a pink blur rushed to him, and arms were thrown around him. "Shadow..." Amy whispered breathily, trying to comfort him. "Thank you."
Knuckles frowned slightly. He still wasn't ok with all this. Yes, he was happy to know Shadow was ok, but he knew what it was like to be duped and used by Eggman. He sympathized with Shadow, though he'd never admit it.
Shadow stiffened as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Amy loosened her grip on him, and Shadow looked at the owner of the hand. "About time you woke up, buddy." Sonic said.
Shadow's eye twitched. Sonic... "Sonic." He growled. Sonic removed his hand at that. Shadow looked around, trying to better grasp the situation. "The Good Doctor told me-"
"Lies." Knuckles said, folding his arms. "Eggman lied to you, Shadow. He was using you. What all do you remember?" He was known for getting to the point, Shadow remembered.
"Most is blurred... I remember Maria-"
"That's natural." Tails said, placing his hand where Sonic's originally was.
Shadow's head quickly turned to his direction. "Tails..."
Tails smiled lightly. "It's nice to have you back to yourself, Shadow."
"Cut the chitchat and get to the chase!" Knuckles said. "What about Eggman?!"
Shadow got up. "You can finish your business with the Good Doctor," Shadow said as he frowned, turning away from the group, "after I talk to him." He began walking calmly towards the opposite end of the hall.
Sonic sighed. "Always one to do things his way." He looked around him only to see that the others were following behind him in the same manner. "Hey!"
Amy stopped, turned back and gave him a wink. "Are you coming, slowpoke? We're waaaaaaiting." She said in a taunting tone. Sonic's muzzle was graced with a fairly light pink blush. Damn her! He thought as he ran to catch up with Shadow.
"Yug'! Yams! Are yoose guys home?!" Joey yelled into the Game Shop. Yugi walked down the stairs and saw Joey, Tristan, Serenity, and Tea.
"Hey, Guys!" Yugi said. "What's up?" He hurried down the stairs to rush to his friends. As they all began talking, Yami appeared beside Yugi. "Aibou."
Everything seemed to fade away, and only Yami mattered. "What's wrong?"
"Tonight."
"...What?"
"Yug'! You ok?" Joey's voice came. Everyone's attention turned to the petite boy, who, in their eyes, was talking to the lamppost.
"Tonight? Are you sure? But what if-... Ok." Yugi turned to the others. "Guys, Yami is worried. He says something is coming." His features sharpened slightly. "Something potentially dangerous."
"Potentially?" Tea asked.
Yugi nodded. "He says he can't explain it, but... " He looked confused, then sighed. "I'm quoting here, ... 'What's important isn't what it seems, There's two sides where light and dark intertwine.'"
"Gah! Why does the Pharaoh always speak like that!" Tristan said, scratching his head. "Its so confusing!"
"Maybe he's referring to Ryou." Serenity said, holding onto her brother. All eyes turned to her.
"What do you mean?" Tea asked.
"Well, we know that like Yugi's puzzle holds Yami, Ryou's ring holds that evil version of him, right? Well," She let go of her brother and looked up, joining her hands and twiddling her thumbs. "is he thinking of Ryou?"
"Or maybe Marik's back." Joey asked. Everyone paled at the thought of those options.
"No, I don't think it's any of them." Yugi said. He sat up taller and said, "Yami would tell us who it was if he knew. Meaning, If it was any of them, we would know."
"Aibou." Yugi heard the nickname, and turned back to Yami. "Aibou, they're not of this world."
/What do you mean?/ Yugi mind-linked to Yami as he conversed with the others, although he was paying more attention to Yami. /Like... Aliens?/
/No, Yugi. Not 'Aliens'./ Yami responded. /Just... Not of this dimension./
Yugi's eyes widened, unbeknownst to the others. Why was it that everything was up to him?
Dr. Ivo Robotnik, better known as 'Eggman' to his enemies, had just finished placing the second-to-last Chaos Emerald into his new Death Machine. He chuckled to himself, imagining his Eggman Empire triumphant above all, the meddlesome pests below him, six feet under. "Finally! By tampering with Shadow's ever-so-faulty memory, he distracts Sonic for me, and I win!"
"Is that so, Doctor?" Came a voice from the shadows. Eggman turned around, to see Shadow standing behind him, an angry glare on his face. "No one uses me like that!" He raised a hand, slamming it into Eggman's side and knocking him across the room. "So sorry, Doctor," Shadow said as he walked towards the Chaos Emeralds, "But you won't use me like that again." He reached for one, only to discover a force field of some sort blocking him from the desired gems.
"You Black Idiot!" Eggman yelled, "You did not think I foresaw Sonic and his goody-two-shoes friends returning your memory? I knew this would happen! So I took extra precautions." A devious smirk took place on his mouth. "There is a catch when it comes to entering that force field. You must sacrifice someone, something." He motioned to the corner, where two metallic bodies were slumped together. "Decoe and Bocoe were of no use to me anymore. So I relieved them of their duties."
"You monster..." Shadow seethed. Sacrifice something? Or worse, Someone? Sure, in Eggman's eyes, Decoe and Bocoe were robots, something to build and something that was destined to outlive its usefulness. But to everyone else, even Shadow himself, It seemed even they had a soul. They weren't just another pair of robot lackeys.
Sonic and the others, who had caught up but stayed hidden, gasped. Amy put a hand over her mouth, leaned on Sonic, and sobbed silently. The other 3 stood in silence.
The Good Doctor has finally gone mad... Shadow realized. A gleam of light caught everyone's eye, and saw the Final Chaos emerald laying on Eggman's work table. Shadow dashed for it, successfully grabbing it, then ran over to Sonic and the others. "You three," He said, pointing to Amy, Knuckles, and Tails, "Find a way to sabotage that shield." He then looked at Sonic. "You are going to help me with him." He pointed to Eggman, who, in the commotion, grabbed a remote from his desk.
"You're too late!" He screamed. He pushed on a red button with his thumb, releasing a robot down from above. "Meet the Maionex!" The robot looked like a top, colored Grey and Black, with Eggman's logo,his face, on it. The top of the robot was clear, and it was obviously big enough for Eggman to control it from the inside. He hopped in, and the top detached itself, leaving only a few strands of metallic coils to connect it to the bottom, which began spinning furiously.
Amy, Knuckles, and Tails raced to the tall, oval shaped machine that Eggman had the other 6 Emeralds in. Knuckles nearly joined the fight though, if Amy hadn't given him an earful and forced him to help her and Tails. As they began trying to figure out how to dissipate the shield, Sonic and Shadow began to attack.