Chapter 14: The Truth is Revealed

Shadow awoke on a couch in the living room of a strange, small house. He looked up to find himself surrounded by five faces, all familiar, but only one of which he was not unhappy to see. He saw the faces of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Vanilla, and Rouge. His left arm was in a cast, and his left hand was heavily bandaged. The last thing he could remember was being defeated by that mysterious hedgehog who called himself his brother. Shadow's eyes widened. He instantly sat up, but then he cringed as his sore muscles demanded that he lie back down. He disobeyed them. Instead, he checked his coat pockets. The Chaos Emeralds were gone. Then he remembered. His brother took them. He clenched his good hand into a tight fist in his frustration.

Then Sonic spoke, "Shadow, we need to talk."

Shadow looked up at him. "You're right. First of all, where am I, and why am I here?"

Vanilla answered, "You're in my vacation home in Metropolis. Rouge took you here because you were badly hurt in a fight."

Shadow looked at Rouge, "You took me here to recover? Couldn't you have just taken me to a hospital?"

Rouge laughed, "Ha, the hospital, funny, let me tell you something. I work for the government, Honey. I don't make that kind of money."

Shadow smirked. "The hospital would try to keep me from leaving anyway."

Sonic intervened, "Alright, we really do need to talk. We've got quite a situation on our hands."

Shadow looked at his injuries and added, "You're telling me."

Sonic said, "O.K., here's our situation in a nutshell: Dr. Eggman has created a second ultimate life-form, a monster who seeks the Chaos Emeralds in order to become something like a god. However, before Eggman's plans went awry, he dispatched Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles on some kind of mission to help save the world, but this is what I really wanted to tell you: Eggman's alive."

Every eye in the room widened. Rouge said, "That's impossible. I saw Eggman's dead body with my own eyes."

Sonic looked to Rouge. "It was a fake, an EggBot complete with blood and human skin made from Dr. Eggman's DNA. Eggman's creation destroyed the fake and took his Chaos Emerald. You saw the new ultimate life-form's silhouette leave the area, and you confirmed that Shadow was nowhere near the site, so everyone assumed that I killed him when, in truth, he's not even really dead. After hearing that, Amy and Cream went with Vector to try and prove my innocence, so now they're out there somewhere too."

Shadow began to speak. "I met this new ultimate life-form at the museum last night. He called himself my brother. I challenged him, but he defeated me, and he stole my Chaos Emerald along with the one from the museum." Shadow addressed Knuckles, "He also had your green Chaos Emerald."

Knuckles exclaimed, "I knew it!"

Tails wondered aloud, "So Shadow, do you know how many Chaos Emeralds this monster has?"

Shadow looked to Tails, "Five, that means there are two more out there somewhere. He's looking for them, and we have no idea where they are."

Sonic smirked. He took off his right shoe, and he pulled from it the blue Chaos Emerald. Shadow was shocked. He lunged toward Sonic with his good arm and demanded, "Give me that!"

Sonic retracted and said, "No way, Faker, you already had your chance with the Chaos Emeralds, and you lost them, so I'm holding onto this one." Shadow reached into his coat for his gun. It wasn't there. He remembered throwing it down in frustration during his fight against his brother.

Shadow stood up. He took off his coat and left it on the couch. Then, he started walking toward the door. Sonic asked, "Where are you going now?"

Shadow looked back, noticeably annoyed. "Isn't it obvious? You said that Eggman is alive, right? I'm going to find him."

Sonic asked, "What about finding the Chaos Emeralds? Besides, you're in no condition to go out on your own."

Shadow responded, "I'm fine. I'll leave finding the last Chaos Emerald to you."

Rouge stood up. "Then I'm going with you."

Shadow looked at her. "No, you're not. They need your help more than I do. You're a treasure hunter, aren't you? They'll need your knack for finding valuable jewels."

Sonic said, "Shadow." Shadow looked toward him again. Sonic continued, "Eggman is hiding in a secret chamber in the basement of the clock tower." Knuckles pulled out a lock of Sonic's fur. Sonic looked at Knuckles and exclaimed, "Ouch! What was that for?"

Knuckles gave the lock of fur to Shadow. "You might need this," the echidna said. "So far, all of Eggman's clues have only been intended for Sonic, and there's been scanners that need to identify his DNA before you can get anywhere."

Shadow took the blue fur and nodded, "Thanks." Then, the black hedgehog left the house.

He got to the clock tower in no time, since it was very close to Vanilla's vacation home. He went into the bottom floor, and a voice announced, "Sonic the Hedgehog DNA identified." Part of the wall rose, revealing a secret room. Shadow entered, and he saw the criminal mad scientist, Dr. Eggman.