Shadow watched as Knuckles placed his hands on the Master Emerald and closed his eyes. The four of them had used chaos control to get to Angel Island, and now Knuckles was attempting to increase the reach of the chaos emeralds to lure Mephiles in.

Sonic and Amy were sitting against a pillar a couple of feet away, also watching intently.

"You think this is going to actually work?" Amy asked under her breath. There was a nervous tension between all of them. Something about this endeavor had suddenly become daunting.

"I think so." Shadow said. "The Master Emerald is going to make it seem like the rest of the emeralds are here, instead of just three. There's no way he can resist that."

"Do we even know why this guy wants all of the emeralds?" Sonic asked. "What's his motive?"

"I suspect he's power hungry." Shadow glanced at Knuckles, who was still silently muttering prayers. The giant green stone was starting to glow from within, and Shadow could feel the air become alive with crackling energy. He remembered how he had felt when he had connected with Mephiles. The longing, the frustration. There was even a hint of something akin to sadness. It made Shadow wonder what the demon could possibly want out of all of this.

Knuckles leaned forward, pressing his forehead to the cold surface as it continued to glow brighter. The chaos emeralds that had been placed on the ground started to glow as well. They rose into the air, casting multicolored lights across the grey stone beneath it.

Shadow winced as a sudden burst of energy almost knocked him over. He glanced over and saw that Sonic and Amy were both affected as well. They were clutching their heads and grimacing.

"Geez, it's really blasting that, isn't it?" Sonic yelled.

"Get ready." Shadow said through gritted teeth. "He's going to show up any moment."

Knuckles continued to press his head against the emerald. He grunted. "He better. I can't keep this going much longer."

Amy's eyes widened as she stared at something above them. "You won't have to, Knuckles."

They all looked up. Above them floated Mephiles, his mouth twisted into an unnaturally wide grin.

"What a surprise!" He lowered himself down, surveying the four of them with an amused expression on his face. "Is this... an ambush, perhaps?"

"Hell yeah, you creep!" Sonic shouted. He raced forward, instantly becoming a blur, and slammed into Mephiles. The demon was pushed upward by the force, but was otherwise unfazed. He caught Sonic before he could fall back to the ground, wrapping his arms around his torso. He squirmed against his iron grip, but couldn't break free.

Shadow felt his wrist buzz. Rouge's voice emanated from the tiny speaker.

"Shadow, come in. Mephiles is on his way there, and he's way more dangerous than we thought! Get everyone away now! You guys won't be able to take him!"

Mephiles chuckled mockingly. "Is this what you consider reinforcement, Shadow?" He rose higher into the air at an alarming rate, and then plunged downward, still holding Sonic tight. They slammed into the grass at the bottom of the altar, creating a sizable crater. The boom echoed across the island.

"Sonic!" Amy shouted, running down the steps. Shadow ran after her, his heart starting to race. This was already getting off to a bad start.

They approached the crater as Mephiles climbed out of it, nonchalantly dusting himself off. "Don't worry, Shadow. I'll save you for last."

"Big mistake." Shadow growled. He had already charged up a chaos spear, and he threw it full force into Mephiles. The demon went flying backwards, crashing into a nearby pillar.

"Sonic, are you conscious?" Shadow shouted into the crater. Dust was still clearing, and it was hard to judge his condition.

"Yeah." A hand emerged from the cloud, and Sonic pulled himself out. He was coated in a thick layer of dirt. "I'm a little bruised, but I can still fight."

Amy brandished her hammer and ran at Mephiles, who was swaying slightly from the blow he had received. She swung, but the demon dodged easily and grabbed the handle. He lifted the hammer before she could let go and used it to slam her into the ground.

Shadow stared, his eyes wide. "He's going to kill you guys," he whispered to himself.

A voice sounded in his head, as clear as if he was wearing headphones. "The less you struggle, the more likely I'll let them live."

Shadow felt the connection form again between him and Mephiles. The demon was keeping his roaming thoughts to himself, but had somehow figured out how to telepathically communicate.

"I don't trust that." Shadow said out loud.

"Suit yourself." The voice responded. Mephiles turned away from Amy and rocketed towards Sonic. Shadow sped over and pushed Sonic out of the way, taking the full force of the blow. He was slammed into the base of the altar, stone crumbling around them both. Shadow tried to land a couple of punches, but Mephiles suddenly wasn't on top of him. He scrambled out of the rubble and felt his stomach drop. Knuckles had dragged Mephiles off of Shadow, but was now struggling as Mephiles held him still.

"Well, it's been fun playing around." Mephiles tightened his grip on Knuckles. He ducked, spinning gracefully, as if he was dancing, in response to a sneak attack from Amy with her hammer. He threw Knuckles on the ground. "But I must get back to business."

Mephiles raised his arms. He flashed a bright white, and suddenly his form was somehow more horrifying than before.

His skin was now a dark shade of blue, his hair an electric teal. His hands were skeletal, and instead of nails, his fingers just ended in crystalline claws. He opened his eyes, and the whites were now a bright red, the poison green of his iris even more pronounced.

Rising into the air, he sent out a shockwave of raw power. It hit Shadow like a truck, and he fell to the ground, gasping. He could hardly move, he was in so much pain. He looked up, and saw that the other three had been knocked out cold. He crawled over to Knuckles, who was the closest, and pressed a hand to his chest. The breathing was shallow, but it reassured Shadow that the blast hadn't killed anyone.

"I have to say, Shadow, your mortal friends put up quite the fight." Mephiles smiled down at him. "This has been quite entertaining."

"The fight isn't over." Shadow growled, getting up. The pain was already wearing off.

"Hm, I think it is." Mephiles replied in a snarky tone. He flew up to the top of the altar, disappearing from view. Shadow gritted his teeth and hurried up after him. When he reached the top, he realized that Mephiles was holding all of the emeralds in his arms and standing on top of the Master Emerald.

"Looking for these?" Mephiles released the emeralds, and they started to orbit around him. Shadow ran at the demon, reaching to grab them out of the air, but was thrown back by a heavy force field.

Shadow watched as the emeralds spun faster, and a bright silvery light started to surround and engulf Mephiles. A beam of pure energy shot straight upwards, disappearing into the clouds above.

Shadow took a deep breath. He concentrated all of his power, steeled himself, and then ran forward towards the quickly forming orb of light. He reached forward, almost as if he was about to dive into water, and plunged in.

The air around him became thick and unbreathable. He tried to gasp, but found he could barely move. He floated through pitch black space, and then suddenly he was laying down on a solid surface.

All around him was blank white except for the small figure standing in the center. It was Mephiles. Black, wispy tentacles were sprouting from his back and arms, and his eyes were opaque and glowing.

Shadow lunged forward. He tried to charge up a chaos blast, but his body seemed to constrict and tighten. He stopped trying to channel his power, and his body relaxed again. He slammed himself into Mephiles, but as soon as they made contact, everything went black again.

Images barraged Shadow's mind, memories, feelings, all of it alien and unfamiliar and not his own.

He remembered being in a capsule, but not any he had been in before. He remembered feeling a lot more whole, and then suddenly being ripped in half. There was years of darkness, soul crushing darkness, where nothing but negative energy stewed and festered. He saw himself from another pair of eyes, standing in front of him, the source of his hatred, the source of his pain.

"I'm the source of your pain." Shadow felt a small part of him say, drowned out by the barrage of memories. "I'm living your memories, aren't I?"

"Get out!" A horrifyingly gravelly voice screeched. It was one of the most inhuman things Shadow had ever heard. It shook him to his core. He reached up and touched his face, and suddenly he was staring into Mephiles' eyes, and it was like looking in a mirror.

"Get out of my head!" Mephiles screeched again.

"I don't know how." Shadow whispered. He felt like he was disintegrating, like every bit of him was breaking off and melting into the thick abyss of memory and emotion.

Mephiles stared at Shadow, then he smirked, as if something enlightening had struck him. "You know what? I could use your life force. My summoning spell isn't quite working without all of the emeralds." He grabbed Shadow, pulling him close into a sort of embrace. He instantly felt weaker as every muscle in his body was painfully drained of energy.

"You're... summoning Iblis." Shadow mumbled. He was starting to slide down, but Mephiles just tightened his grip. Wind seemed to whip around them, and streaks of bright light started to zip around them. "Iblis is... our other half. We must get Iblis back. I must be with Iblis again. I must be... Solaris. To rid the universe of... imperfection."

As Shadow spoke, Mephiles seemed to have been lulled back into a trance. The area around them was becoming increasingly warm, and glowed with a dull orange aura.

"Iblis is almost here." They both breathed in unison.

"Shadow!"

A familiar voice cut through the haze. Shadow blinked, and he felt hands on his shoulders.

"Shadow! We gotta get out of here."

He realized that his arms were now wrapped around Mephiles as well, anchoring him even more firmly in place. His head swam. His only thought in that moment was summoning Iblis, was providing power to summon Iblis...

"Shadow! Snap out of it! You're only giving him more power."

"Rouge?" He blinked. He vaguely realized what he was doing, but not enough to stop himself. "Rouge... I need to become Solaris..."

"No! Stop! You're Shadow, and that's all you need to be right now." He could feel her tugging on him. If he could just will his muscles to loosen then maybe she could pry him free.

"I don't know who I am anymore." He felt himself saying. He was losing. She was losing. He could no longer feel her gripping his shoulders. He was soon staring at himself in Mephiles' body, and the only thought was the anticipation of being Solaris again.

"Shadow? Shadow!"

It was so faint now. Something stirred in him. A memory. Of a normal day, awhile ago. It was raining. There was only one umbrella. But her coat was expensive.

Her coat was expensive, brand new. She had just bought it.

"Here..." He felt himself mouthing. "Use this."

"What's... what's happening?" He mouthed again, but this time it was angry. "Why this? Why is this my thought right now?"

The umbrella was black and blue.

"We can both squeeze under."

"Rouge..." He mouthed. It was his mouth. He had let go of Mephiles. "Rouge, we need... to go."

Shadow felt energy flow back into him until it seemed like he was about to burst. Mephiles fell to the ground.

The demon's eyes became clear again, and he opened his mouth to scream, but it never came. Instead, their surroundings collapsed all at once, and a blinding light engulfed the three figures.

Angel Island was unrecognizable. The foliage had been burned away completely, only leaving a fine ash behind. The altar that had held the Master Emerald had crumbled, parts of it ground down to sand.

Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy peaked out from behind a broken pillar, their hair singed and their muscles aching.

"Holy shit." Amy breathed.

Floating just above the ruined altar was Shadow, his skin glowing gold. He held Rouge in his arms, who was completely limp. He flew over to the three of them and gingerly set Rouge down.

"Please watch her for a bit. I still have to take care of this fucking piece of shit."

And with that, he made a beeline back to the ruins.

He touched down near the top, standing above a smoking heap of black sludge.

"Well, we just learned a lot about each other, didn't we?" Shadow remarked, folding his arms. His head still swam somewhat with all of the new memories and information, none of them his own. And yet, he understood his place in all of it. A version of him that wasn't quite him, one from another timeline, a timeline that no longer existed.

A low, guttural growl emitted from the seething mass. A tendril shot out towards Shadow, aiming for his eyes, but Shadow dodged it and slammed his foot into the goo. The smallest whimper of pain followed the blow.

"I understand why you want to be Solaris again." Shadow said. "What I don't understand is why you think the entire universe needs to be purged."

"It's imperfect." Mephiles hissed. "I'll recreate it to be... perfect. In my own image. I'm a God. This is what I was made for."

"If it's in your own image, it will be imperfect." He got down on one knee, looking at Mephiles in what he hoped was his eyes. "Then you will end up having to destroy yourself. Your desires are unattainable and needlessly destructive."

"I don't care!" Mephiles screamed. He writhed, slamming his tentacles down and sending bits of stone flying into the air. "I just want to be Solaris again."

"Well, I made a vow to protect this world, so I could never let that happen."

"You're so goddam weak! You allow these mortals to brainwash you into caring, into not realizing your full potential."

"I haven't run away from a fight yet." Shadow stated calmly. "You've done nothing but run. I am strong because I allow myself to care, even though it might hurt me. Now, I'm going to offer you one chance. You could either accept that this is the timeline you're stuck in, and allow me to help you find a place in this world, or," he stood up, "I can have GUN make a new scepter, one way more powerful than the one you used to be trapped in, and you'll live in darkness forever."

Mephiles stopped writhing, remaining still. The black sludge started to swirl and become black smoke, and Shadow was staring into dead green eyes again. He stuck out his hand.

Shadow reached out and shook it firmly. "Glad you came aro-" He was interrupted as he was thrown over Mephiles' shoulder and slammed into the ground. Before Shadow knew it, the demon was gone in a bright flash of light.

He stood up. He felt his super form fading, and heard the sound of footsteps running toward him.

"He got away?" Knuckles exclaimed. He was carrying Rouge, who was still passed out cold.

Shadow just stared ahead, then he looked back at them. "Yes, but he's very weak now. It'll take him awhile to become a threat again." He realized his throat felt thick, and he reached up, resting a hand on his neck.

"Dude, are you... okay?" Sonic asked awkwardly.

He narrowed his eyes. "Clearly, I'm fine. It's you guys who look a little worse for wear."

"Shadow, you're... do you know you're crying?" Amy ventured.

Shadow's eyes widened. He moved his hand up to his chin, and felt drops of water falling down. He looked away and wiped at his eyes, but new tears were still streaming down his face. He could feel his face get hot with embarrassment. How could he not have noticed he was crying?

"That's not... important." He pointed at Knuckles. "Give me Rouge. I'm going to get her to a hospital."

He nodded, handing her over. Shadow looked down at her, seeing droplets of water land on her cheeks. He stared at the people in front of him.

"Hang on to me, guys. You probably all need to go to the hospital, too."

They all obliged, and Shadow channeled chaos control, the six of them disappearing in a flash of white light.