Chapter 8 – Twilight, The End of a Shadow?
The group had been travelling now for and was getting tired, even Sonic who had been running ahead alot was starting to slow down, the group had hit a slight problem after they left their cave that night and continued into the forest which had lay ahead, that forest had proved to be more trouble than it was worth as they had becme lost in their for the entire two days, if it wasn't for another cave which they had found which appeared to lead somewhere they could have been lost in their for weeks. The group continued down the cave which lead deeper and deeper into the unknown, it was lucky for them there was enough space for the X-Cyclone as Tails was the one providing the lights in this darkened tunnell.
Inuyasha finally said something "whose bright idea was it to go into the forest in the first place?" The group turned and looked at Kagome who was hiding in one of the X-Cyclones repaired pods
"Didn't you say you had scout training" asked Tails
"aren't they supposed to teach you the way out of woods not into them?" said Inuyasha angrily as water from the stalagmites dripped onto his head
"you shouldn't be too harsh on Kagome" said Shippo "it's not her fault you were the one who ran off then got lost and we found you crouched under a tree waiting for us"
"SHUT UP STUPID KID" yelled Inuyasha raising his hand to strike Shippo and cauing the cave to shake
Shippo lept to safety, but not to Kagome this time but to Shadow, Shippo had felt sorry for Shadow ever since he had told them of his terrible story about Maria and his creation and had since been trying to befriend the black hedgehog, but Shadow had remained his old self and shown no emotion to the small fox demons gestures, but this time he helped Shippo lefpt onto Shadow and held on tight wanting the hedgehog to save him, Shadow turned to Inuyasha and gave him a stare which told Inuyasha, "leave the kid alone"
Inuyasha got the message and remembered why they were in this team in the first place and continued on.
"thank you Shadow" said Shippo climbing down from the Hedgehog
Shadow just looked at Shippo then continued on, Shippo had a look of sadness in his eyes when he flet a hand on his back, it was Sonic
"dont worry Shippo" he said confortingly "Shadow always has the whole tough guy act on but he will show his true colours when he has too" he gave Shippo a thumbs up and the group continued to press on down the cave. About 15 minutes later Inuyasha stopped.
"wait" he said sniffing the air
"what do you smell" asked Miroku
"is it a demon" quivered Shippo
"its fresh air" said Inuyasha
"that means an exit" exclaimed Kagome
"race ya there" said Sonic running on ahead closely followed by Shadow then Inuyasha then the rest
The group eventually saw light and realised an exit was a few hundred meters away, as they ran they felt the cool fresh air and they hit the light, they exited the cave and what greeted them was a shock, they came out to a canyon, a huge canyon, walls stretching up so high and as long as the eye could see, the place was desolate and dry with only a few features in the canyon itself, a few dead trees and some bigger rocks.
"what is this place?" asked Kagome
"looks kinda like a secion of Glyphic Canyon" said Knuckles
"i guess our little Chaos control stunt bought bore than just us to the world" said Shadow calmly
"THE EMERALD" yelled Tails
everyone looked at the nearest Chaos emerald and saw it reacting, it was glowing, signifying that there was another one around there somewhere.
"which way is it" asked Sango looking around
"im not sure" said Tails "it looks like....Everywhere?" he said confused
"it could be one of Naraku's tricks" said Miroku
"Lets go find him then" said Inuyasha abrubptly
"and where do you propose to start" asked Kagome
"WAIT" yelled Sonic "look why dont we all split up we all split into groups and head out in different directions that way we will cover ground, all we gotta do is look for Naraku how hard can that be" he said confidently
"allright we follow Sonics plan" said Miroku "ill divided up the groups" he said looking around
"no you wont" said Kagome "i will, lets see now" she began thinking
"ok Miroku, you and Tails y head North use the X-Cyclone to get out of the canyon and follow the canyon up" she said
"no Problem" said Tails, Miroku wasn't as enthusiastic but he went along with it nonetheless
"Sonic you and Inuyasha head west along whatever is up there im sure you can both get out" she said
"no problem" said Sonic
"heh too easy" said Inuyasha
"Shadow and Sango head South and follow the canyon back down towards the original source, ok?"
"sure" said Sango, Shadow just nodded in approval
"me and Amy will head East
"cool" said Amy "it'll be a girls only trip
Kagome smiled and looked at Shippo
"knuckles you and Shippo can head..." but before she could finish Knuckles interupted
"im a treasure hunter, ill just follow the treasure myself, no offense kid but you will slow me down sorry" finished Knuckles
"ok then" said Kagome "Shippo, its probably best you stay here with some supplies, we will come back in an hour, besides Naraku is more dangerous than ever before with that emerald now who knows what he could do to us with that kind of power" she said sorryly
"but Kagome" pleaded Shippo
"listen to Kagome Shippo" said Shadow, the group turned "she knows what she is talking about, stay here and wait for us"
"but......ok Shadow" Said Shippo
"we will leave you some sweets and some juice for you and will be back in an hour, ok everyone move out" she said and with that the group left to their assigned positions.
Tails and Miroku took off in the X-Tornado and flew North, Sonic and Inuyasha raced up the canyon walls and sped off West, Sango got on Kilala and headed up to the top of the other side of the canyon wall while Shadow followed suit speeding up it using his air shoes and the two headed back down to the canyons source, while Kagome used her bow to shoow a roped arrow into an overhanging tree and her and Amy climbed up and headed East talking about Sonic and Inuyasha, leaving Shippo by himself in the canyon below.
It had been half and hour since the group had left and already Shippo was bored, he was full from eating the sweets and had began using his magic on rocks and leaves as target practice, he was going to be more skilled and Shadow, Inuyasha and Sonic, he would become so powerful Naraku would fear his name, he continued to practice his fox fire and illusion magic in the canyon as he was now full of energy from all the sugar, but he was unaware of the evil which hovered above him.
Above the canyon where Shippo played an evil witch flew, it was Kagura the wind sorcress who suyveyed the area with a piercing glance, she was the one in posession of the emerald and had been flying everywhere leaving chaos residue all over the area to fool everyone in hopes that one or more would stay behind in the canyon so she could pick them off, unfortunatly her plan had worked to an extent, when she saw who it was in the canyon and no one else she felt angry.
"damn it" she thought "what's Naraku going to say when he finds out?" Her question was soon answered
"Kagura" she heard Naraku's voice inside her head "this is a minor setback, but you must show them they are not safe, Kill the fox demon"
"yes Master" said Kagura
"summon the army and have them sweep the canyon, even Inuyasha's windscar won't be able to save Shippo"
"yes master" obeyed Kagura as she flew down to the canyon she stayed above the clouds so as to avoid detection by Shippo, once she had passed the fox demon she headed south down the canyon until she was far enough away from Shippo to be seen by him and she put her plan into action. Attatching the emerald to one of her wind feathers she flung it into the ground splitting it open and sending a termor in the ground, but that was the least of their worries, as the ground split open an army of demons emerged from the dry ground and reared into the canyon ready to obey the one who spoke for Naraku, Kagura smiled and shouted her orders.
"CASCADE DOWN THE CANYON" she yelled "ANY IN YOUR WAY, KILL"
The demon army obeyed and within a second the army ran down the canyon towards Shippo.
Meanwhile Shadow and Sango had stopped, Shadow had felt a tremor in the ground and had just realised where it had come from, he turned and looked back towards Shippos position.
"what is it?" asked Sango
"what are those" asked Shadow pointing into a dust cloud which had arisen from the canyon
Sango stared at them as did Kilala who started to growl at the cloud, with that Sango realised what it was
"A DEMON HORDE" she yelled "SHIPPO IS DOWN THERE" she yelled to Shadow "LETS GO", with that the two began to run with all speed back to Shippo
***************
Meanwhile Shippo was still practicing his magic in the canyon, he was getting quite good at it now and his fire based ability had moved on from being a small burn right up to being ale to sustain the fire without even having to concentrate too hard, Shippo thought to himself
"everyone will be impressed at me gotta keep practicing"
he readied himself for another attack "FOX FIRE" he yelled striking a leaf with the flams and incinerating it, he was very pleased with himself as a huge smile passed his face, but that smile soon faded as he felt the ground shake beneath his feet, as he looked up he saw a terrifying sight, the demon horde which Kagura had released was heading straight for him at a tremendous speedand for him there was no way out, he had no choice he had to run, without even thinking Shippo began to run down the canyon as fast as his legs could carry him not stopping to look back at the horde which ran behind him.
Behind the Horde Shadow and Sango caught up and saw it was comprised of thousands of demons all doing Naraku's bidding, Shadow felt an evil presence emmitting from the horde as he expected from a horde of pure evil beings, they soon reached the place where Shippo was, but when they got there they saw no sign of Shippo under the horde and feared the worst.
"maybe he ran" said Sango "he just have done quick we need to keep running"
both of them continued along the top Sango had an idea "ill fly down with Kilila see if we can find Shippo if we do ill come back up" Shadow gave this the thumbs up and the two split
Meanwhile at the front of the horde Shippo was getting desperate, they were closing in fast and he wasn;t sure how long he could outrun them for, he saw their shadows looming over him and he thought he was going to die, then he saw a slight hope of salvation, he spotted a rock sticking out of the ground, it was above the height of the horde and if he could scurry up and hide they would not notice, the demons Naraku used were not usually that smart anyway, like lightning he bolted for the rock scurrying up to the tip and clinging on for dear life, a second later the demon horde hit the rock hard causing it to shake, Shippo nearly lost his grip as he held on for dear life.
"SOME ONE HELP" he yelled
Just then Sango flew overhead and noticed a small child clinign to the rock, it was Shippo, she flew down to try and pick him up but the demons noticed her, one of them took a swoop at Kilila cauing her to pull up dramatically, Sango looked down at Shippo, tears were welling in his eyes as he begged her to save him, she was running out of options as she stared down at him, she knew the rock would give way under the enormous amounts of pressure being put on it by th horde as they slammed into it as the ran by, she looked back nd saw the horde was still coming.
"is this never ending" she thought
"SHADOW IS COMING HANG ON SHIPPO" she yelled as she raced to find him
Shadow was still running along the cliffside when Sango got back to him
"DOWN THERE" she yelled pointing at the rock
Shadow saw Shippo clinign on for dear life, he lept down to a lower ledge just above the horde and looked accross to Shippo who was beggining to cry now, Shadow thought to himself deeply "DAMN IT" he thought and lept into the horde and began to skate between their legs to reach Shippo, Sango remained above Shippo ready to react if anything went wrong.
Meanwhile the others had noticed the demon hordes too, Sonic and Inuyasha had seen a huge cloud and felt enormous evil from the canyon and had sped back to the canyon, Mroku and Tails had noticed the horde speed by them as they walked along the cliff edge opposite to the dierection Shadow and Sango had gone and had headed back, Kagome and Amy were also on the way back as she had sensed Shippo's danger, Knuckles too had seen the danger and was also speeding back.
"SHIT" he thought "I hope the kid's ok, if i had let him come with me...." he continued to run back
Meanwhile Shadow was had overshot Shippo's rock and had to turn around and was not running against the demon horde, "out of my way" he said zippng past them killing several demons as he went, he lined himself up for a jump onto the rock, if he could jump onto the rock he could grab Shippo then leap up to Sango getting them out of the canyon leaving the group free to use their most powerful techniques on the horde, he took a breath then took the jump, he was on a straight course for Shippo wen it happened, a huge demon took a swipe at him and knocked him onto the floor, he immeditatly looked up at Shippo's rock and saw it give way sending Shippo flying into the horde, Shadow too another leap and caught the small fox but fell back into the horde and was forced to dodge everything he could.
At this point the others had made it back and were gathered over the action zone
"SANGO" yelled Kagome, Sango flew over "whats happening?" she asked
"Shippo's down there Shadow is trying to save him" she answered
The rest of the group continued to watch powerless to help as they could now no longer see Shadow or Shippo and if they did anything then they could risk injusring or killing them both, Inuyasha watched with incredible interest, this Black hedgehog whom he had had a rivalry with now, who had shown no emotion to anything else and had rejected friendship almost altogether was now risking his life to save a being who was not even from his world, Inuyasha felt a deep sense of respect for Shadow as the watched the horde unable to help or act.
Shadow by now was getting deperate, he couldn't keep this up forever and if he used Chaos Control he would risk a demon swiping the emerald or dropping it, he had no choice
"SHIPPO HOLD ON" he yelled to the fox demon who responded by grabbing his fur tightly
With that Shadow made a huge leap into the air breaking through the demon horde and into the light, staying in the air for a few seconds he saw Sango racing towards his position ready to try and rescue him and Shippo, Shadow looked down at Shippo who was clinging onto his front and made his decision, he grabbed one of Shoppos hands and gave him the emerald, Shippo looked at him confused.
"hold onto this for me" he said, then he looked up at Sango as he began to succumb to gravity
"SANGO CATCH" he yelled throwing Shippo up to the demon slayer who caught him with ease, the feeling of good was quickly replaced as a demon lept at Shadow while he was falling and took him back down underneath the horde
"SHADOW" yelled Shippo scanning the area where the hedgehog fell, as did the rest of the group, this lasted 7 agonising seconds until a black ball lept out of the horde and clung to the cliff edge, Shippo was relieved, but soon realised they could do nothing for him as he was still too close to the horde.
"we have to go he will climb up himself" said Sango who looked down towards the horde and thankfully saw it coming to an end soon, she and Shippo began to fly up to the other on opposite edge, but Shippo didnt take his eyes off Shadow who continued to climb slowly.
Shadow was still climbing when he looked up and saw him, a man wearing the pelt of a baboon stood atop him on the cliff and was giving out a terrible evil miasma, Shadow immeditaly know who it was.
"NARAKU" he said angrily
Naraku laughed "hm hm hm hm hm" he laughed calmly "sayonara, Shadow The Hedgehog" he said before Striking Shadow in the face cauing him to loose his grip and fall
Shippo saw this "SHADOW" he yelled seeing the black hedgehog fall into the horde which turned into a thick fog before there eyes and flew up into the sky before heading west to the unknown, Shippo without even thinking lept of Kilala and down into the canyon in the hopes he could save Shadow, turning into his baloon form he slowly decended into the canyon.
The rest of the group followed suit "EVERYONE LETS GO" yelled Inuyasha grabbing Kagome and leaping down, Amy and Tails lept into the X-Cyclone and Miroku lept onto Kilala from the side even Knuckles began to glide down into the dust, but Sonci stood on the cliffside, he had seen Naraku's confrontation with Shadow, and he was struck with disgust
"how.....could he do that to him?" he thought "Shadow was unarmed and beaten from the horde" Sonic's fists clenched and he joined the others into the canyon in their search for Shippo and Shadow.
Shippo was the first to land and ran into the dust cloud looking for Shadow "SHADOW" he yelled looking around, he continued before he saw it, a body lying in the canyon centre, as Shippo approached it he saw what he didn't want to see, balck quills with a crimson stripe through them, golden rings around the wrists and bloodstained gloves, it was Shadow
Shippo ran over to the body and began trying to wake him up.
"Shadow, Shadow, come on Shadow stop playing" he said tearfully as his eyes began to wate, he then resorted to pulling his arms and trying to move him
"come on Shadow, you gotta help up save the world" he said cryng completely now before he broke down and fell to his knees before Shadows body, about now the rest of the group arrived Sango and Miroku with kilala arrived and couldn't believe their eyes, Inuyasha carrying Kagome arrived and stopped putting kagome down who grabbed Inuyasha's arm before walking over to Shippo, Amy and Tails followed suit, Amy began to cry and Tails' eyes were watering, Knuckles showed up and was stunned by the sight of Shadow, lying on the ground broken with several cuts and bruises all across his body from the horde, Knuckles began to walk over to Shadow but realised it was too late, Shadow was already gone he couldn't save him now. The last person to arrive was Sonic who stood back from the rest of the group, he stared at his nemesis' body and realised this time he was truely gone, Sonic' knuckles were clenched in rage but he remained silent he recalled the moments him and Shadow had fought, together and against each other.
Kagome finally walked over to Shippo who was crying into the ground "Shippo...." she started but Shippo was already ahead of her, he leap into her armsand sobbed into her shirt.
"KAGOME WHY?...." he cried "WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE?"
"he was very weak Shippo" she said conforting him "he just couldn't hold on any longer, it wasn't your fault"
the group agreed and Sonic spoke
"no" said Sonic "it wasn't"
the group turned and looked at Sonic
"what do you know" asked Inuyasha
"it was that guy, that one you guys are all scared of" Sonic had much anger in his voice now and Amy noticed his quills turing from the usual blue to a darker shade
"NARAKU" they exclaimed
"thats the one" said Sonic now even angrier
"Sonic are you ok?" asked Tails
"heh heh heh heh" laughed Sonic "oh im fine buddy" said Sonic looking at him, Tails noticed Sonic's eyes were now much darker
"his minions and him escaped" said Sonic "they headed west" he said a dark aura now surrounded him
"we must follow and..." started Miroku but Sonic interupted
"I'm going to go after him, and Kill him for what he has done today" within seconds of saying that Sonic had run up the cliff wall and began running after the dark cloud which Naraku had left in with his minions
"what was that about?" asked Kagome still holding the crying Shippo
"it's Sonic's dark side" said Amy
the group turned to face her wanting an explanation "all the times Sonic has been exposed to the emeralds left him with a dormant power, unfortunalty it only surfaces when he has been used too far and his darker side comes out"
"we have to get after him before he gets himself killed" said Sango
"ok everyone we are moving out we have to go now" Said Inuyasha sternly "pay your respects to Shadow and we gotta go"
everyone shed a tear for the mysterious hedgehog who had remained an enigma even after his first death but now it seemed nothing could save him, the group did not have time to lay a grave for him, so the left him with a flower on his chest, the group quickly left all following Sonic west towards Naraku's lair.
"Sonic, Be safe" thought Amy
After the group left a figure approached the body of the black hedgehog, she was dressed in a white and red outfit, she had long black hair and a bow with her. Accompanied by her soul carriers she realised in order to suceed in the mission of Inuyasha and Sonic this one would have to cheat death a second time. She reached into her robe and pulled out a piece of paper with an incantation written on it and placed it onto Shadow's body, then her soul carriers grabbed the arms, legs head and supported the body and began to carry the body to where she was going, she turned around and looked at the body of the hedgehog and stroked his quills.
"death is not your destiny today dark one" she thought as she dissappeared into the dust.
Well there yo are sorry it took so long to write i have been busy with university applications, hope you enjoyed it, if you notice a similarity with the lion king then that because i am a fan and i was listening to its music at the time i came up with this idea, Sorry Shadow fanboys and girls but don't worry you havent seen the last of him ill try and get the next chapter done over the next 2 weeks but ive still gotta write more on my other one so enjoy this in the meantime
