Chapter Seven

"Here they come, Sonic…" Ragozine said as he watched the G.U.N. helicopter move toward their position. "They're coming to save you…just like I hoped they would." The two stood on the roof of the base. Sonic was tied to a cross-like mast, his hands and feet bound to the metal structure. Around them were seven needle-like spires, akin to lightning rods.

"So…what do you plan to do with me?" Sonic said angrily as he tried to free himself. "And why do you need the Chaos Emeralds…as if I didn't know!"

"Oh, you'll see very soon!" the dracomancer said eagerly.

"I, too, am curious as to the nature of this strange arrangement," Doctor Robotnik chimed in. "It's nothing like I've ever seen! How about we send in my welcoming committee?"

"No…I want them both alive," Ragozine answered. "It's all a part of the master plan."

"Master plan, huh? Care to elaborate?" Sonic asked, hoping that Ragozine would spill the beans.

"You think I'm that stupid, eh, blue one?" Ragozine replied with a chuckle. "You'll see when it happens, and no sooner." Sonic grumbled a little in his defeat.

As the helicopter moved into position, Shadow's and Amy's heads poked out of the door. Ragozine's expression of evil glee turned more disturbing than normal. The moment he had waited for in so many centuries was at hand. Shadow and Amy deftly dropped from the helicopter, and stood face-to-face with the demon and the mad scientist, the latter starting to back away. Meanwhile the helicopter had flown into the distance.

"I see that you have come, Miss Rose. Did you learn what you wanted to know?" the dracomancer began. "I'm sure you did."

"If you really want to know, it was no shock. I was born and enhanced for the purpose of taking down creeps like you, Ragozine. This is who I am." Shadow rolled his eyes at Amy's attempt at stealing his favorite line.

"Oh, silly girl…you obviously don't know the whole story, do you?" Doctor Robotnik chuckled. He pulled out a remote and pressed a large button in the center. Each of the spires emitted an arc of electricity, striking the Chaos Emeralds, and then arcing right at the astonished girl. Amy was caught by the arcs, and Shadow was blown back. Immediately a large dome of green energy surrounded the roof, blocking any access from outside it.

"Amy!" Shadow cried as he futilely tried to break the barrier with his fists. "Damn you, Ragozine! What are you doing to her?"

"I can't believe you fools actually fell for that!" Ragozine cackled. "Now my dream shall be realized! Let the ritual of transformation begin!"

The demon began to circle Amy, dripping a strange silvery blue liquid as he walked. As the dracomancer walked, Amy slowly began feeling great pain over her entire body, as if her insides were trying to force their way out. Sonic and Shadow were dreading the result of this fiendish ritual, wondering if Amy would actually change form. Even Doctor Robotnik's stomach was beginning to turn.

Soon enough, Ragozine finished his design, and reached into another pouch and began sprinkling Amy with a weird red dust, and finally blew some in her face. The pain in Amy's body began to increase, and she dropped to her knees, whimpering weakly.

"The ritual is nearly complete. All I need are the words in the Dragon tongue, and I'll have what I want. Any last words before you lose your body, Miss Rose?" Amy was in too much pain to respond, though. All she did was scowl at him.

"Very well then…it is time for the ritual to be complete!" With a wild look in his eyes, he screamed the words that completed the ritual: "Korve arbran dos avan Hemo Rosa Drak!" The Chaos Emeralds began to flash rapidly, and shot beams of light right onto the suffering hedgehog, engulfing her in a massive glowing field. Amy screamed at the top of her lungs…and the voice began to change…it became more primitive…more draconic. The barrier was dropped now, seemingly to make room.

Ragozine watched in wild earnest as he awaited the result, while Sonic and Shadow were struck in stupefied awe. When the light faded away, he cackled with fiendish joy. Amy had completely disappeared, and in her place was a huge pink dragon, almost forty feet long, with a wingspan at least twice that. Streaks of red ran across its back, and its long, crocodilian head was topped with a pair of awesome curved horns, and six pupil-less eyes, three on each side, peering out. The dragon was whining in pain, still uncomfortable from the transformation.

"YOU MONSTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?" Shadow screamed when he saw what had become of Amy. Tears were now coming to his eyes, and his anger seemed to know no bounds.

"This is what Amy's purpose is! She was born to become the new body of Alneetha, the Blood Rose Dragon, queen of all dragon-kind! And she is under my control, making me the ruler of all dragons! She is the one true ultimate life form!" The dragon had now just recovered from the pain, and immediately set her six eyes on Sonic. With a few steps she was in range to grab Sonic in her mouth.

"That's it, my queen…" Ragozine said in a coaxing manner, "Devour the one who gave you so much pain…the one who broke your heart so much! Make him suffer!"

As Amy reared back to devour Sonic, she was suddenly interrupted by a smaller dragon who rammed her in the side, causing her to topple over. Two more dragons followed suit, grabbing Sonic and Shadow with their claws, and carrying them away. Ragozine watched all this in astonishment.

"Impossible!" the dracomancer roared. "How did those dragons suddenly broken free of my control? HOW?"

Robotnik immediately stood forward. "It matters not, dracomancer…you have your prize…now hand me those Chaos Emeralds! We have an Age of Machines and Dragons to usher in!"

"I can't begin my Age of Dragons when I command only one!" Ragozine roared. "I am the greatest dracomancer who ever lived! No dragon betrays his dracomancer! It defies all logic!"

Realizing that Ragozine wasn't listening, Robotnik leisurely began to collect the Emeralds…

-- -- -- -- -- --

"Ugh…where are we?" Shadow groaned when he came to. It was completely dark, and he couldn't see anything until his infrared vision kicked in.

"Beats me," Sonic groaned as well. "At least I'm free…"

"You two are safe now,"a deep voice sounded.

"Who said that?" Shadow said, turning his head every which way to find the source of the voice. A huge gout of flame roared over their heads, igniting a large pile of logs several yards behind them. The firelight revealed the three dragons that had saved them.

"We were once Ragozine's servants," one of the dragons explained. "He used mind control to keep us in his servitude. But now we are free, and we are aware of our horrible deeds."

"But…how did you break free?" Sonic asked.

The dragon to his left answered this. "When our queen is alive, all dragons, regardless of location on the planet, are freed from any mind control exerted on them, and are immune to further such control, until she dies. At the moment your friend became Alneetha, we were free of Ragozine's mental binding."

"But…why is Alneetha still under that creep's power?" Shadow asked. "She's a dragon, too."

"Ragozine must be exerting his influence through your friend's soul, who is linked to Alneetha's. Alneetha and Amy, as you call her, are now one and the same."

"Damn that Ragozine…" Shadow growled. "I can't let Amy be used! There's got to be a way to snap her out of it!"

"It seems you have strong feelings for the girl that houses the soul of our queen," the first dragon said, "And if she shares the same affections, then perhaps you can get through to her. I know it sounds childish, but the bond between two individuals who love each other does hold surprising power."

"I'll try anything to save Amy…" Shadow said with no disguise of his desperation.

"Heh…I guess the thing between you and Amy IS for real," Sonic interjected in his usual manner.

"And there is the matter of the other female hedgehog…" the third dragon said to his companions, "I believe her name was Tahra…"

"Tahra! I completely forgot about her!" Sonic exclaimed when he recognized the name. "We have to save her too! Man, this sucks!"

"Indeed. We have three tasks, then: to relieve the mad scientist Robotnik of the Chaos Emeralds, free the one called Amy from Ragozine's control, and release Tahra from her imprisonment."

"You four think of something…" Shadow said, as he started toward the entrance of the cave. "There's a little scientist at GUN headquarters, and a hedgehog lieutenant that have a lot of explaining to do! Go ahead and do whatever."

"Good luck, Shadow…" Sonic said, waving to him.

-- -- -- -- --

The door to the Commander's office suddenly flew off its hinges, crashing to the floor. At the door was Shadow, who had a scowl on his face fearsome enough to frighten a bear out of its mind. Without giving the Commander any time to react, he leapt on top of his desk, and violently grabbed the human by the collar.

"Where's…Ullundara?" Shadow said through his teeth.

"He…he…passed…away just a few minutes ago…" the Commander stammered.

Shadow wasn't satisfied. "What about Yakujo? Where is he? Tell me, or I swear I'll rip your throat wide open! Start talking, you liar!"

"Commander!" Yakujo cried from down the hall. He appeared a second later with a distressed look on his face. When Shadow saw him, he dropped the Commander and rushed at Yakujo, grabbing him by the collar as well, and hoisting him up.

"You knew…didn't you?" Shadow said, still in his rage. "You knew that Ragozine was in on this! You knew, didn't you?"

"No! I would never!" Yakujo answered.

"LIAR!" Shadow screamed, tossing the officer across the room, right into the wall. The workers in the office immediately began to panic, and chaos ensued.

"I'm telling you…I didn't know anything!" Yakujo said over the commotion.

"Then who do I have to talk to get my info? Answer me, damn you!"

Yakujo was now terrified for his life. "G-g-go to Ullundara's office…the sound file on his computer has all you need to hear…"

"That's better. Now call security and tell them not to bother me." Shadow said calmly after composing himself. He calmly put Yakujo down and set off to the stairwell.

-- -- -- -- --

When Shadow entered Ullundara's office, he glanced around and saw the computer, with a sound clip ready to play. He clicked on the Play button, and the file began to execute. The voice of Ullundara Sr. came on.

If you are listening to this sound clip, I have died of a broken spirit, knowing that the worst has happened. I can only hope that a friend of my dearest Amy, especially my mentor's creation, Shadow, is listening to my final words. This contains everything one would need to know about the true nature of Project Minerva.

I am one of the survivors of the ARK incident, and Gerald's best student. My dream was to create an ultimate life form using an existing individual rather than creating one from scratch. The formula escaped me for five years, until I was approached by a mysterious individual named Ragozine. In exchange for delivering the girl to him when she came of age, he would give me the key ingredient to the formula. I accepted his offer, not knowing what he was truly up to.

In order to keep tabs on my progress, he sent Amy's father, who was his link to GUN, to watch me. Amy's mother, his wife, offered to give her child up. The couple was poor, and I was willing to split my large stipend with him.

When Amy was born, she was injected with my formula, mixed with the key ingredient: a vial of dragon's blood. I overheard Ragozine speaking with Amy's father about what would happen when the time came…the dragon's blood, when ignited with a specific ritual, would call forth the spirit of the Queen of Dragons and inhabit her body.

I knew the legend of the Dragon Queen and this ritual, so I managed to add one final component to the mixture without Ragozine's knowledge…it modified her DNA so that she would respond to these words, just like my mentor did with Shadow...speak these words to her…

Amy, listen to me. You are not yourself, and you must find yourself again. Ragozine is planning, if he has not already done so, to use you for evil ends. But I know you are strong. From the day I first saw you, I could tell that there was more to your life than this. Your friends all hope for your prosperity. Don't let Ragozine take your life away from you. I beg you…don't become anyone's tool…you must…live…cough…your own way…

And the clip stopped there. Shadow stood there silently, trying to process what he had just heard. As he did, the door opened. Yakujo was standing there. Shadow turned around and noticed him.

"Shadow…do you understand now? Amy was intended to be Ragozine's servant…but she doesn't have to be."

Shadow nodded. "I do. Ullundara was surely as far-thinking as my creator was to prepare so much for this day. I won't fail him. I needed a tool to free her…and now I have it." Shadow bowed his head.

Thank you, Doctor Ullundara, Shadow said to himself, thank you for giving me hope…