So I just finished this chapter right now. I wanted to take the small opportunity I had to wrap up another chapter before I fall back into Dragon Age 2. lol Hopefully I'll be able to wrap this up and start on the sequel, which I'm getting very excited for because we will see a lot more OCs, not just Azure.
Anyway, as usual, thank you for reviewing and adding to alerts/favs. Please do continue to review. I would love to hear some feedback. Any spelling and grammatical errors are my fault.
I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, only Azure and other mentioned OCs.
RECAP: Shadow has learned from Omega that his robot friend will betray him in the future. But if Mephiles is stopped, perhaps it will never happen? However, the only way to stop Mephiles is to seal him within the Scepter of Darkness, but that was destroyed... wasn't it?
Normal POV
"Oh, where could Shadow have gone? He's not answering his radio," Azure said as she paced back and forth in worry.
"Shadow enjoys his solitude. If it is his wish to be alone, we must respect it," answered Omega.
"But we don't have any time to waste! We have to make a new Scepter of Darkness, track down Mephiles AND stop him before he destroys the future! I don't mean to be a nag, but we can't just sit around and do nothing!" she protested.
"I've known Shadow for many years now. He will want some time to think over what has happened… what I've told him. When he is ready, he will come back to us. If you are concerned, perhaps we can prepare ourselves until he is ready. Have you uncovered any additional information on Mephiles?" he asked.
Azure sighed and calmed down. "Yes, according to Shadow, the only way to defeat Mephiles is to seal him. And to do that, we need a Scepter of Darkness. The bad news is that the Scepter was destroyed a while back, hence Mephiles running free now."
"Is there a way to construct a replacement Scepter?" asked Omega.
"I don't know. I did some research at the Soleanna library, but they didn't have much."
"Perhaps there will be something in the restricted section. Did you check there?"
"Restricted?" asked Azure in confusion.
"Most libraries keep classified materials in restricted sections where only certain individuals with the right clearance can access them. It is an excellent place to keep secrets."
"So how do we get access?"
"I believe I can persuade them to grant us access," said Omega, walking towards the library.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" muttered Azure, flying after him.
Shadow sat on a bench by the harbor in Soleanna's New City. He cast his eyes over the horizon in the distance as the boats bobbed up and down in the water in front of him. He took no notice of the people around them and what they did and simply stared out at the sea, unconsciously flipping the lighter in his hand open and closed. The clicking of the metal mixed into the background noises so well that he barely noticed the sound anymore.
Omega was going to betray him.
Or at least from the robot's point of view, he already had! Omega was one of his most trusted allies, one of the few that he could call his friend, of which there were not many, sadly. Deep down, he knew that Omega would never betray him of his own free will. But it wasn't of his own free will; he was forcibly reprogrammed. Omega was taken over, rewritten to track down and capture his own friend and destroy anyone that got in his way.
He suddenly thought of Azure. Omega had been awkwardly silent when he brought up the possibility of something bad happening to her in the future. He remembered that Z, Azure's future self two hundred years from now, had lost her own leg when she was defending him. Perhaps Omega was the cause?
It would certainly make sense. Perhaps Azure put herself between them in her desperate and noble attempt to protect him… and Omega attacked. And once Omega had him, he'd left, which would explain why he didn't know what happened to her after.
But why was he so concerned about something that hadn't even happened yet? If Mephiles was stopped, he could easily prevent this betrayal from happening. When Shadow truly thought of how he felt about this, he felt himself sympathizing with Omega more than being angry with him.
Omega was taken over and forced to do something horrible to his friend. Was he aware of what he was doing when he did it? Could he see it and not be able to do anything to stop himself? What Omega must have been thinking… what he had to go through in betraying his friend.
As he ran it through his head more and more, Shadow slowly came to the conclusion that he couldn't blame Omega for something he had been forced to do.
He would gain nothing by sitting here and feeling sorry for himself. There was still time to act. And if he was successful, this betrayal could be prevented, sparing both Shadow and Omega their pains.
Shadow's head snapped up as he suddenly came out of his deep thoughts when he heard the sound of Omega's engines getting louder and closer to him. He snapped the lighter shut and hopped off the bench as Omega and Azure caught up to him.
"Sh-shadow? Are you ok?" Azure asked, with worry and sincerity in her eyes.
"Fine. What have you found?" he asked, getting straight to business.
"W-well, Omega and I went to the library and accessed the restricted sections for anything on the Scepter of Darkness," said Azure.
"How did you gain access to restricted files?" asked Shadow, cocking his eyebrow at them.
Azure and Omega quickly turned to face each other, giving each other an awkward look before they turned back to Shadow. "Details aren't important," said Omega plainly.
"Anyway, we found out that during the Solaris project you were talking about ten years ago, the Scepter was created as an emergency procedure. The project was apparently an energy research program, but that wasn't true. It was actually a secret project dedicated to harnessing the power of time by conducting experiments on something called the Flames of Hope."
"Flames of Hope?" asked Shadow.
"According to the files, it's another name for their sun god, Solaris, the deity they worship in Soleanna. If we head to the old lab, do you think we can find what we need to make a new Scepter?" she asked.
"It's our only lead right now…" Shadow said, averting his eyes to the ground in deep thought.
"What's wrong?" asked Azure.
"I saw the project fail first hand. There was an explosion and this Solaris split into two entities: Mephiles and Iblis. It seems that Mephiles is only part of the problem here."
"So who is Iblis and what do we do to find him?" asked Azure.
"It doesn't matter. We focus on Mephiles for now." Shadow didn't know much about Iblis, but he knew who Iblis was. According to Z back in the future, Mephiles was the cause of Iblis' release, which sent everything into a downward spiral: his capture, Omega's betrayal and the destruction of the future. If they stopped Mephiles, then they wouldn't have to worry about Iblis, whatever it was. "Let's go," he said.
"Wait, how do we find the research lab?" asked Azure.
"We don't have to. I already know where it is."
"And where's that?"
"Beneath the lake of Kingdom Valley," Shadow answered with a subtle smile. The three traveled to Kingdom Valley as quickly as they could, not stopping for any distraction that could impede their progress.
"So if the base is underwater, exactly how do we get in?" asked Azure, looking over the lake surrounding the crumbling castle.
"When I was in the lab in the past, the psychic hedgehog and I exited from an emergency exit that led into the forest. It was clearly designed to remain hidden and keep people out. With luck, the passageway is still in tact," Shadow said, leading them deeper into woods. When they finally reached the passage Shadow was talking about, all they found was a stone wall with no sign of any passage in the mountain even existing.
"It doesn't look like there's anything here…" Azure said awkwardly.
"This is the spot. I'm sure of it. Omega, think you can clear us a way?" Shadow asked, turning to the behemoth.
"It will be my pleasure!" he boasted, pulling out all his guns and weapons before aiming them at the wall and firing. "The way is clear," Omega said with pride as a dark tunnel lay before them by a heap of rock and debris.
"Let's go," ordered Shadow.
"Are you sure? I don't have a good feeling about his!" Azure exclaimed, feeling nervous about entering the abandoned dark tunnel. When neither Shadow nor Omega replied to her protesting, she dashed forward to catch up to them as they entered the tunnel.
Shadow heard the sound of metal as his shoes touched the ground. "Metal floors. We're on the right track. Let's hope we find what we need."
This was sort of a last minute thing I thought of. I didn't like how the game made it oh so convenient and rather unlikely that we get a new Scepter by lighting candles of a fountain... Really? So I looked up the Scepter on the Sonic wiki and learned that it was created as an emergency procedure during the Solaris Project. Therefore, I decided to take the more logical spin on getting another Scepter in the story.
Plus, it also allows me to still cover the Aquatic Base level since I skipped out on writing the level when Shadow went back in time with Silver.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. Please review!
Next Chapter: Deep in the bowels of the abandoned lab, Shadow, Azure and Omega encounter a number of frightening beasts as they attempt to reconstruct the Scepter of Darkness to defeat Mephiles once and for all.
~ZP