-1Chapter 13: A Fallen Friend

As Spike regrouped with the Arcane Renegades, Tank, Jade, and Tick were all shocked to see him in such a state.
"Spike, what happened to you?" Jade asked.
Spike growled, "Never mind that, we've gotta go find that last Chaos Emerald, this one was quite tricky to take…"
Tank wrapped Spike's arm around his neck to help him walk, and the bandits were on the move yet again.

About two hours later, Sonic and his friends arrived in Nie, where the villagers had reported seeing the Arcane Renegades.
"You're sure they were here?" Vector asked.
"Yeah," Sonic said, "the villagers said that they saw them come through that village over there, let's go!"
They rushed through the villages until them came across a completely destroyed one, where they saw a single body laying in the middle of the streets…it was Shadow.
"Oh my god," Rouge panicked.
Sonic's eyes widened, he dashed over to Shadow and kneeled down beside him, "Shadow, can you hear me?" the blue hedgehog asked.
Shadow's eyes slowly creaked open, "S-So-Sonic?" he asked, his vision was blurred from being asleep for so long.
"What happened to you?" Sonic asked, starting to cry.
Shadow forced a small grin, "I lost…" he managed to say, "he-he beat me and to-took the Chaos Em-emerald…" he said weakly.
When the others caught up, Rouge asked, "What happened to him?"
"It was the Arcane Renegades, they found Shadow and took his Chaos Emerald…" Sonic said quietly, seeing the life drain out of Shadow.
"Let me help!" Charmy said, but Sonic stuck his hand out to stop him.
"No Charmy, you can't do anything now…it's too late…" he said, and got up and walked off.
Shadow's eyes closed yet again, and as Espio stared at the fallen warrior, he couldn't believe it, the mighty Shadow the Hedgehog…beaten? It didn't make sense, what exactly were they up against that could beat the warrior of darkness?
"Wow, he's in worse shape than you Jet," Wave said.
Jet kept a straight face as he looked down at Shadow, "Yeah, but I was lucky…"

Sonic stared into the night sky, it wasn't fair, one by one his friends were being taken from him and it was all the fault of these traveling renegades.
"NO MORE!" Sonic screamed, and fell to his knees he was crying so hard.
Rouge's mouth hung wide open, "I don't believe it…"
"He's not dead yet," Charmy said, "I can still detect small pulses of life surging through his body every so often."
"It won't last long," Espio said sadly, he was actually feeling sorry for Shadow.
Espio, Vector, Charmy, Rouge, Jet, Wave, and Storm all stared down at Shadow and watched as he took his final breath, but then, he opened his mouth.
"D-don't ki-kill…" he started.
"What?" Vector asked shocked, "Don't kill what?"
"Do-don't kill…Sp-Spike…"
"Why not?" Espio demanded.
Shadow's eyes closed, and his breaths stopped, it was over.

Shadow the Hedgehog, also known as the warrior of darkness, had been created for the purpose of evil. After defeating his programming, he managed to adopt a life of peace and swore to protect the people of Earth. He died in the services he swore to fulfill, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.