Sonic The Hedgehog: The Darkness Incarnate

by Strife The Dark 152

In exchange for freedom, Strife the Dark has been given a mission that seems impossible to begin with: to revive Maria Robotnik and Cosmo the Seedrian along the way. But sadly there's more behind the dark hedgehog then meets the eye and with a complicated past that's trying to kill him, it's up to Sonic and company to figure out what it means... before it kills them too.

21. Loneliness

Twenty one chapters! This is getting seriously long… I'm glad I got this far ahead though!

This Chapter was brought to you by: Black Storm Nomand, Black sand heart, chaotic hedgehog, Cor amicus, and ShadowofDarkness.

Shadow of Darkness: well here it is. You asked for it.

Cor amicus: so you're gonna cry when flame and Strife fight? That's new. I'm glad you liked everything! Here is the next chapter!

Chaotic hedgehog: holy crap indeed! And Lync's ultimate ability is the ability to make nine copies of herself with the same power. So nine Lync's turned Maria plus Maria equals ten Marias!

Black Storm Nomad: it seems like everyone in team moon are caudexes….

Strife: hey! well yeah, the strategy was hard to do but the author managed to do it, and I but I can drink a slushie faster than you can Kelly and not get a brain freeze!

Black Sand heart: yeah… I've always been good at fight scenes, and I'm so glad its "AMAZING"

Yeah, Flame and Strife are a sad group and it's supposed to be heart breaking… makes me kinda sad too…

Good! I'm so glad people like the end chapter rule thing! It takes some work and it's usally the last thing I do after re-reading the chapter…

Well here is the next one! The day before I leave…. So a while before the next update…. (shrug) well… until then Read you Around!

DISCLAIMER: Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Vector, Maria, Espio, Charmy. Blaze and Co. belong to SEGA, SEA TEMPLE belongs to SEGA, it's in Sonic Heroes, Sega owns Sonic heroes, Flame belongs to BlackSandHeart. Zenox belongs to my Girlfriend. Strife, Fengari, Flame, Inferno, Maria's abilities and how she is during this story, the seven commanders and the 12 guardians, as well as the plot and stuff you've never seen in Sonic before, that is Strife The Dark 152's property, also, the events that happen to Flame, her character development and such is property of Strife The Dark's as well.

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVX

Zenox woke up and Stretched, she summoned her staff in her hands and swung it, her normal clothes popped out of a portal she generated, she flicked the staff up and let go of it, the black staff with the pink jewel floated in the air as she changed, she checked her black pants to see if any wrinkles were present, none, she checked her t-shirt and her sleeveless jacket and her belt that held her medic supplies, She sighed loudly as she turned around to the picture of Inferno and Her kissing, she set her hand on the top of it, Sighed then slammed the picture down so you could not see the picture, she had been trying to get to talk to Inferno, and only managed to get him alone while Lync fought Strife, she did manage too, but he was too worried about his so-called-Girlfriend he wouldn't talk to her, Zenox was angry enough that she nearly killed Lync as she scurried past her after Fengari chewed her out, Zenox tapped her staff on the ground, and a circle appeared around her that had a triangle in the middle of it instead of a five pointed star, a portal appeared in front of her and Zenox jumped into it.

She appeared inside the library, a part she had found a while ago when she first came here, it was a large room with multiple floors all filled to the brim with books, she had studied the parts that had magic lessons in them and ones about the history of Mobius so she actually caught up to this day and age. She had swiped some fashion magazines and studied up on them so she actually understood pop culture. Zenox swung her staff and a bunch of books swirled off the shelf and around her, she sighed as she walked over to a desk and sat down as the books landed down in two piles. She leaned her staff on the desk and smirked as she grabbed a book on ice magic- her weakest element- and opened it to the last page she was on.

Couldn't walk away from something broken…

Zenox's cat ears picked up faint singing and a guitar being played

Tried to find a way to make it good again

Zenox stood up and walked towards the music, she de-summoned her staff as she walked closer

Only you can make a difference darling… always…

After following the sound she came up to a door marked "music room" the door was opened a crack and the music was wafting out of it. She opened it to find Flame sitting on a chair, strumming her guitar, it was made up from many parts the string and body were real enough, the neck was made from a thigh bone of some kind, with the head of it that held the tuning picks being a skull of a deer or something of the sort. When Flame saw Zenox peeking her head in, she stopped and set the guitar and looked at her.

"Hello Zenox!" she said with a smile, Zenox could not but smile herself. "Sorry I must have bothered you studying you magic, I know it must be important for when you're going to fight Strife." Flame continued in an apologetic tone.

"Hey! it's fine!" she replied, still smiling "I've studied constantly for the past two days, I've studied a lot and I've gotten Stronger, so I think I have a pretty good chance at beating Strife" Zenox continued as she sat in a chair across from Flame, "so did you write the song?" she asked motioning to Flame's guitar.

"No" Flame shook her head "a band by the name of "Sins of a Divine Mother" they wrote it, I heard it over the radio and liked it. So I learned how to play and sing it"

"Oh. Well it works good for you. I like the song!" Zenox complemented with a smile, then recognizing the situation, scratched her chin. "I have a question… do you have any… advice for me when I fight Strife?" She asked, Flame's demeanor grew serious and looked at Zenox critically. "I'-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry, I wa-"

"be careful, Strife is a wickedly good Strategist and Fighter, skilled in attacking and defending, and using both Physically and Magically" Flame took a deep breath before continuing "he uses Crystal magic, one of the darkest and most ancient of all Magic, I advise you to be very, very careful, another thing" she took a deep breath, and looked Zenox straight in the eyes "Strife at the core is a master at playing mind games and manipulating his enemies, keep a clear head, if you slip up emotionally, or if your will to fight is not refined enough, it will be your fatal mistake." With that Flame got off her chair and picked up her and sent her guitar back to her room in a flash of darkness. "if that is all, I will be off, probably to do some studying of my own. Good luck Zenox, you are going to need it" Flame walked out of the room after ending her sentence. Zenox was left on her own after Flame left.

"woah, that was… dark" was all Zenox could say as she walked out of the room and shut the door. She walked back to her desk to see a Sky blue wolf with an eye patching sitting cross legged on top of the desk reading the book on Ice magic she was studying, his one silver eye flew over the words, scanning them quickly. Zenox walked up to the wolf, but decided to sneak behind him to catch him off guard. Once she got close enough to Fengari to touch, his hand shot out and grabbed her hand, he continued reading, his one good eye never straying from his task.

"What, Zenox" Fengari asked, Zenox was utterly surprised; she even snuck up on his left side! His blind side with his eye patch! "If you're wondering how I managed to grab your hand, I have gained a sense of my surroundings a long time ago, like I still have my left eye, a gift from Minerva. So to speak" Fengari continued and let go of her hand, he scratched his eye patch with his left hand, his fingerless black gloves flashed with the crescent moon symbol before he left his hand back down to the book, he never looked to Zenox, but continued speaking "I'm guessing you were studying this book to try and find out more about Dark Ice, Strife's magic ability. You won't find it anywhere. It's not recorded, of if it was, it was burned a long, long time ago." He set the book down and pushed off the desk with his hands and landed on his feet, Fengari turned to face Zenox with a sly Smile on his face. "What? struck speechless by my sheer glory?" Fengari waited for Zenox to answer, but she didn't "guess so!" that resulted in Fengari and Zenox both bursting out laughing. Zenox smiled at Fengari's happy, totally entertained laugh, after that he looked at Zenox again "okay, I know that you met with Flame already, don't worry about her, she's always loved to scare people. Just fallow what she said and you'll be good, and you already have her blessing but I'll give you mine, Good luck." Fengari left Zenox with a smile still on his face, he whistled a tune and sang a bit of it "Don't worry, be happy, don't worry, be happy, everything is gonna turn out alright" he returned to whistling as he shut the door with a click.

That guy is sure the character… Zenox thought dryly.

"Don't worry… be happy... everything is gonna be alright" Zenox sang to herself as she sat in her chair and opened her book to her page in the book about ice magic once again, a smile gracing her features.

XVXVXVXVXVXVXV- Strife 3rd person

Strife the Dark woke up and walked out of his bedroom, summoning his sword to block a downward strike form Maria, Strife was certainly woken up ash he blocked the light sword, Shadow smiled behind her as Strife pushed Maria back into his arms, "it was her idea, not mine" Shadow stated as he smiled along with Maria. Strife could only sigh as he walked around the happy couple and downstairs, his sword disappearing as he did so,

"Whoa!" a smiling Silver yelled as he tripped and the twelve balls of water he was juggling landed directly on Strife, who was completely and utterly soaked, Silver, Blaze, and Amy all started laughing, Strife's mood turned even more sour and he clenched his fists, all the moisture on his flew into his hand and created a large spiked crystal ball, he tossed it in the air grumpily as he walked past them, Strife wandered around the halls, looking for Sonic, he was the one who would talk to him like an equal throughout his time here,

"Hey Strife hey Strife! Hey Strife!" Charmy buzzed as he flew past Strife, running into the black and blue hedgehog, slamming him into the wall, Cream and Cheese ran past Strife, chasing Charmy, Strife sighed as he wiped dust off his shoulders, he walked outside and raised his hands up quickly to catch a black and white ball in his hands, Vector, Espio, Rouge and Knuckles all walked up to him,

"hello cutie" Rouge said with a smile as she held her hands out "soccer ball please" Strife tossed the ball to her, she jumped up and kicked it at vector, who caught it and skidded back a few feet, they all ran back to the soccer field and resumed their game, Espio and rouge were players while Vector and Knuckles were goalies, rouge and Knuckles were on a team whilst Espio and Vector were against them, all of them were Smiling and laughing, nearly causing a black cloud to form over Strife's head as he turned around and walked back inside.

"Sorry!" only to be bowled over by Cosmo, she turned beat red, Tails ran down the hallway, he spun his two tails into the air and started to fly, he grabbed Cosmo by the waist and lifted her into the air over Strife

"Sorry Strife! Cream is it! She's right behind us!" Strife saw the small rabbit skid around the corner and Dash straight at him in a speed similar to Amy when she is running full out. Strife had to Shadow Jump into the shadows of the door to avoid being ran over. The dark hedgehog sighed in relief and stepped out into the hallway, and continued his search for Sonic again, he saw the blue blur fly into a room, Strife followed him and walked into the room too, Strife saw a small one room library that was cozy and was full of books, Sonic was walking amongst the back were three books sat, Sonic grabbed one and Strife could swear a ring appeared on his finger, he set it down and grabbed the next, and sonic seemed more… regal, and finally he picked a third one up and he seemed like a champion of the people, when he set it down he caught only a part of the title Darrius. Strife blinked a few times and Sonic turned to Strife as he noticed him enter the room.

"Yo Strife!" Sonic said with a smile as the blue hedgehog walked up to the pale blue one "how's it going on?" he asked as he put his arm around Strife and smiled as Strife's already dampened mood sunk further,

"Great, I woke up to a sword swing from Maria as prank, Shadow smiled, Silver dropped water he was juggling on me, I got slammed into the wall by Charmy, nearly got hit in the head from a rouge soccer ball kicked from Rouge and Espio's soccer game, got bowled over by Cosmo, and then nearly got ran over by rage-mode Cream" Strife said with a frown as his shoulders sagged, Sonic just laughed, Strife's ears went flat as he glared at Sonic "what."

"heheh, as the words from a song that I know, don't worry, be happy, don't worry, be happy, everything is gonna be alright." Sonic sang then dashed out of the room in a blue flash, Strife face palmed,

"That guy is quite the charmer isn't he?" Strife asked out loud as he walked over to a chair and sat down, closing his eyes and setting his arms on the arms of the chair, without even thinking he began to hum the tune sonic was singing.

XVXVXVXVXVXVX- Strife the Dark 1st person.

After taking a nap to rest and regain energy after the physically and mentally taxing battle against Lync, and the day that had already been straining my nerves, I hate to say it, but that was close. I thought sadly

"well you did fight one of the best trick masters in all of the dark dimension history, and she used your "best friends" against you" I opened my eyes to see an all-black shadow of a hedgehog with golden reptilian eyes looking back at me.

"Ah, Dark, I didn't know you could physically manifest yourself like this" I said with a raised eyebrow,

"It's something I've learned to do, as you get stronger, so do I" Something in his voice made me think that this shadow hedgehog-Dark- getting stronger was a bad thing…

"Ah, I understand now, thank you for explaining it to me, what is your view on the seven commanders?" I asked trying to make conversation.

"I think it's a force hired by the seven guardians, specifically Nazo, to kill you." Dark said with a nod towards me.

"Ah, so Nazo is the one pulling the strings?" I asked, Dark nodded, "wait a minute, I thought Nazo was-"

"a king" Dark interrupted "Nazo is king of the Babylonians, but with him being a member of the 12 guardians, he cannot be king, so a hawk with more ties to the Babylonian royal family than Nazo, Jet the Hawk, is the prince in his place."

"Jet the Hawk? I've heard Sonic say that name before" I replied.

"Yes, from the information I have gathered, Jet is a rival of Sonic's and uses an air board, Extreme Gear, as a means of traveling fast, Jet is known as "the legendary Wind rider" and is extremely skilled on Extreme Gear, his skill has made him cocky and arrogant, but the yoke of leadership has stopped that considerably, the company "Babel" makes the best Extreme Gear models throughout the world and holds the EX Grand Prix every year, with Jet actually racing in it, and winning, Jet's friend Wave the Swallow is the head of engineering for Babel, while the third member, Storm the Albatross, is the head of the Babylonian guard and leads the protection forces that pilot planes around the Island, he's the best Pilot, Second only to Jet, who is the best, I believe that Jet can do a lot better job than Nazo could ever do." Dark explained.

"Well thanks for the history lesson, how did you know of that anyway?" I pried, leaning forward and setting my forearms on my lap for support,

"if I focus my energy, I can hear things in the shadows, so more or less I have an ear in every room, at any time at any place, if I focus my energy on that place, when you are not fighting I am usually gathering intelligence, Speaking of tat, someone is coming, I hear their footsteps" Dark told me and I looked to the door, Maria busted through the door, a serious look on her face.

"Another commander is here! It's Zenox!" she said, and then I heard the bell signaling for everyone to get to the living room for us to teleport to the location.

"Where?"

"At Sea Palace!"

"So it's the wild card…" Dark stated ominously and I felt his presence in my thoughts leave, guess he's done talking.

"Alright! Let's get going!" I commanded to Maria as I ran past her, purple fire erupted around my crystal lined rocket shoes, making me go faster, I got to the living room and looked around to count heads, everybody is here but Omega, but he was off somewhere, so he's not needed, I turned to see Maria stop next to Shadow, I nodded to him and he held up his green chaos emerald in the air.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow yelled and we all disappeared in a flash.

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVX- Flashback, Strife 1st person.

"Alright, so here is someone I know very little about" I explained and snapped my fingers, in a black flash a figure of Zenox of Magic appeared. "I know for sure she uses magic, very, very very powerful magic, better than Lync's, better by a long shot, she uses elements, Fire, wind, Earth, Water, Ice, electricity, energy, and something called portal magic" I explained, "portal magic is at the most basic, you send something through one portal, it goes out the other, but she can summon ten or so and have them randomly switch to a different one, so it is very very hard to figure out how to get close to her. But once you do, she fights with a staff, but not very well, so you can have a chance if you get close…." Now I've come to a problem, I've ran out of good fighters I've seen fight and I can't just fight her myself, that'd ruin my strategy…. I can't have someone fight a commander twice….

"I'm guessing you're trying to figure out someone to fight her first?" Shadow asked, I nodded

"OH! OH! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH! I got an idea! I got an Idea!" Charmy said raising his hand, I sighed and looked at him

"What Charmy" I said, my voice flat.

"Espio can fight Zenny! He has these awesome Ninja magic powers! He can go POOF! And like BAM! Hit them in the face! And throw kunai and Shuriken! And all these awesome ninja moves! And don't even get me started on his ninja sword! It's like SHHHIINGGG! And SHWOSH! And-"

"That's enough Charmy" I said raising my hand flat, to stop Charmy from overflowing in talking. I turned to look at Espio. "So from Charmy's perspective, you can Fight Zenox, could you do so?" I asked, me and Espio had gotten off on a bad start, and I was worried that he would still be angry at me and say no, but instead he nodded.

"I have not fought a good enemy in a long while, so I think she will at least be a challenge, so yes, I will fight her" Charmy beamed and I had a relieved look on my face

"Thank you, Espio" I then clapped my hands "okay! So the next commander is…."

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVXV- back to the present, Strife 3rd person. Sea Palace

"Only three minutes to get here once I teleport here. Nice time…" Zenox Stated as she walked towards Strife and his crew, she held her hand out and he spear appeared in her hand and she spun it, Strife turned around to check his surroundings, they were in a loooooonnngggggg plot of land, it was as wide as a four lane highway, and went very far from where Zenox was, and the other way it ended and went to the sea three story tall walls framed the sides of the area. Zenox tapped her spear on the ground and the underworld knights appeared out of the ground and formed around her. She swung her spear and they all ran forward towards the crew, Strife summoned his Crystal cutlass in his hand.

"Espio, you got Zenox" Espio disappeared, no one could see him as he ran forward and trough the advancing underworld knights and towards Zenox "everybody else! Fall back to give Espio space! Then attack!" the crew all ran and made the knights chase after them, then Strife spun and gathered Dark Chaos energy in his hands, "Dark Chaos Spears!" Strife yelled and ten black chaos spears shot from his hands and decimated the front line, Strife, Sonic and Shadow, along with Silver, ran at the front line started to attack the knights, blocking and dodging sword swings, the rest of the Sonic team jumped in and began fighting back against the knights and pushing them back, eventually we managed to kill all but one that looked like a large knight on top of a horse, Sonic sighed in exasperation.

"THIS GUY! Really!" Sonic yelled as he ran at the mounted knight, the knight swung his sword down.

"Shadow Jump!" Strife teleported and kicked the knights hand, making him throw his sword to the side. Strife turned to see more and more Underworld knights spawning from where the sword bounced "sonic! You get the others and fight the incoming knights! I got this guy!" Sonic nodded, the knight held his hand out and the large sword reappeared into his hand. His armor was golden all… king-like.

"Be careful! He's good!' Sonic said before dashing off at the speed of sound. Strife turned and held his sword towards the knight.

"I am Strife the Dark! The Darkness Incarnate!" Strife said, Stating his name and so-called-title, the Knight held his sword out to point at strife

"I am Dark Arthur! The king of the Underworld!" he said, so I get to kill a king? Strife thought glumly as he readied his sword. This will be interesting…

XVXVXVXVXVXVXV- meanwhile, Espio 3rd person.

Zenox managed to dodge the swings the invisible Ninja had been making and slam him in the gut with the butt of her spear, knocking him out of invisibility.

"Good one!" Espio said as he tried another swing at Zenox, she blocked it with her spear.

"Your good too!" she replied and tried to stab Espio, who only stomped on the flat part, stepped up and kicked her in the face, making her drop her spear and go flying. Espio picked up the spear and threw it at Zenox, who held her hands out and the spear stopped and went into her hands, she stood far away from Espio and began spinning her staff. She stabbed the ground and ice shot up at Espio, who just slashed through it with his ninja sword.

"nice try!" he said as he dodged a pillar of earth that shot up the next time she hit the ground, Espio grabbed five shuriken in his hand and threw them at Zenox, she held her staff forward and a purple portal appeared in front of her and the Shuriken flew into it, another portal appeared in front of Espio and shot the shuriken out, Espio clapped his hands together and the instant the shuriken hit, they hid a random piece of debris that was laying around, Zenox looked around in confusion only to be kicked in the back by Espio.

"That… was a good move" she said as she pointed her spear at Espio, they circled around each other, each one daring the other to take a step "what type of magic?"

"Ninja clan" Espio answered her question.

"Oh. I see" Zenox said as she stopped, Espio did as well, "then I guess I better turn it up a notch!" she said with a smirk as she slammed the butt of the spear into the ground again and the triangle inside a circle appeared. This time it was yellow. "Fulgur!" she raised her staff… and that's when the bolts of Lightning started to strike.

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVXV- Meanwhile, Strife 1st person

I have been fighting this Dark Arthur for a while now. Neither of us had an advantage, I ran next to the knight who was on the horse and jumped up at him swinging my sword. He blocked it with his own sword and pushed me back, I landed on the grown and sped after him again. "Dark Magic!" I snapped my fingers and crystals jutted out in front of Dark Arthur, who only spurred his horse onward and jumped it. Come on! What does it take to defeat this guy! I re-lit my shoes with the purple fire and sped back towards Dark Arthur again, I ran next to him as he created a portal and stuck his hand through it, all of a sudden a portal in front of me going the same speed in front of me appeared, and his hand (with the sword in his hand) popped out and started to swing! I dashed around his swings and blocked a few, I managed not to get hit, the dark king stopped swinging and returned his hand back through the portal and disappeared. I looked at him as I thought, all I need is to get him to stop moving and get unbalanced… can I scare his horse in-

*Ca-CRACK*

The sound of lightning touching down, well that works, I thought as the dark horse reared up, and Dark Arthur was unbalanced as he tried to calm his rearing horse. Now's my chance! "Shadow Jump!" I aimed a horizontal slash and swung.

Dark Arthur disappeared into darkness before even hitting the ground. Though the sound of Lightning…. Where did it come from? I turned to were Zenox and Espio were fighting. Ah, so that's where it's coming from.

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVXV- meanwhile, Espio 3rd person.

Espio was currently running from the lightning bolts Zenox was sending his way, each hit burned the ground and nearly shocked him a few times. Espio has tried to run at her but she would just send a wave of lightning at him and he would have to run again, this was one such time of him running away from a wave of lightning. While he was running he tripped over and rolled over before getting burnt to a crisp. He looked back to see a small foot switch, Espio dived forward and pressed it down, the result was an earthquake that broke Zenox out of her focus so she couldn't cast a spell, and gave Espio enough time to look up and see three large demon faces inscribed onto three large three story tall wheels, on top of the hill, Espio's eyes went wide and he turned tail and Ran, he RAN.

"Guys!" Espio yelled to the crew that where fighting the Underworld knights, Strife was nowhere to be seen "Stop fighting! those rock wheels are coming down!" Espio yelled out-of-breath, nobody heard him but Charmy who was in the back protecting Cosmo along with cream.

"Wait? Those giant roly-poly demon rock thingies?" Charmy asked in fear as Espio gasped for breath.

"yes" he gasped.

"GUYS! THE G.R.P.D.R.W.D. IS COMING!" Charmy yelled extremely loud while pointing, catching everyone's attention, everybody looked at him in confusion Charmy sighed Really? Really? They don't know what a G.R.P.D.R.W.D. is? He thought and took a deep breath, then"THE GIANT ROLY-POLY DEMON ROCK WHEELS OF DEATH ARE COMING! RUN!" Sonic looked at Charmy, then at the "Big Giant Roly-Poly Demon Rock Wheels Of Death" that where coming

"He's right! RUN!" Sonic yelled as he ran towards the boost pads he knew where at the part where the slab ended, everyone followed Sonic's example and turned tail towards the boost pads and shot themselves over the space and over to the temple after that. They all caught their breath "thanks Charmy" sonic said

"No! Don't thank me! Thank Espio! He used his ninja powers to see it from a far ways away!"

"No, I didn't" Espio corrected "I was the one to step on the pressure plate to start it" everybody's mouth dropped. A chorus of "WHAT!?" was heard "I thought it was a good idea to smash the dark Knights and hopefully Zenox too" they all nodded at the reasoning behind the plan

"Hey, where's Strife?" Maria asked, and Sonic groaned

"He was fighting Dark Arthur farther towards the top of the hill where the rocks where rolling down" he said in despair.

"Let's just hope Strife makes it" Blaze said with a concerned face.

"Don't worry!" Maria said with a smile "Strife isn't the person to be killed by some big rock wheels!" she laughed and the mood lightened a little.

"I hope you're right Maria, I hope your right" Shadow said seriously as he looked back to where they were fighting.

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVXVX- Meanwhile, Strife 1st person.

I saw Espio run from Zenox's lightning magic and step on some switch that triggered an earthquake of some sort, then run to the sonic team, and the entire crew turned tail and ran, I turned to look at the opposite direction they were running, three large three story rolling wheels where heading straight down this path, I saw that they would easily smash me into the ground, so I ran the only other way, the opposite direction. As I was running I saw Zenox a little bit to my left running away as well. She saw me running and a smirk appeared on her face. Oh crud…. I thought as she pointed her spear at me and shot out fireballs, machine gun style at me. Wow! Thanks! More to deal with! I thought as I dodged the Fire balls she was throwing at me, Okay, I can't run like this forever, the rocks will catch up with me at the rate they are going and at my speed, and I can go faster, but Zenox will be smashed considering her running speed is sup-par to mine, Shadow and Sonic's rates, the sun is behind me so I can't Shadow Jump behind them… and if I get to the end of this route, there is a small outcropping to the side I can run into to dodge it, but now using my powers I would barely fit. What to do what to do….. As the situation seemed to get more and more dire, a memory popped into my head. It was a long time ago in the dark dimension, one of Fengari's ideas he had gotten when he was watching me and Flame spar.

"Enough!" Fengari yelled, me and Flame both stopped and let out swords dangle to our sides, Fengari walked up to us, writing something in his notebook, after he stopped he shut the book and put the pencil in a pocket next to the book and scratched his eye patch before continuing "Strife, I have an Idea, can you summon a crystal wall using Dark Magic?" he asked.

"On it, Dark Magic" all I had to do was raise my hand and a crystal wall appeared Fengari drew one of his knives and held it in his right hand, after a moment of focus, the circular cut in space of the back of the knife glowed and a white blade extended, making the one sided knife a two sided blade, he spun the knife around so the energy side was the cutting edge as swung. In one clean slash he cleaved my crystal wall straight in half, the top side disappearing.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Flame asked, I was already analyzing his technique, trying to figure out how it works, I was better at thinking up battle tactics and long term plans as well as manipulating people, while Fengari was good when it came to machines, but even more so in how to use energy differently and In new ways, when he got an idea, it was always a good idea to listen.

"it's fairly simple, all you do is gather energy around your blade, the cutting edge to be precise, and make it incredibly sharp, I did it on accident a week ago when we fought those fire mages, I did this when I was charging a Lunar Wave and I swung my knife to defend myself, I cut straight through the fire ball. I've been testing it on other things, like rocks and other types of Magic when we fought people, so it's more or less an anti-Magic slice, make sense?" Fengari ceased his explanation and me and Flame both nodded, catching on to the idea, I remade my crystal wall as I saw Flame charge dark energy around her two sided sword and concentrate it on one side, then she swung and chopped my crystal wall again in half, "good job! And I'm guessing Strife, that you already have it down?" he said looking at me with his sole silvery eye,

"yep, try a Lunar wave on me" I said, energy already coursed into my crystal cutlass, making the cutting edge incredibly sharp, Fengari jumped back and the hole in the back of his knife glowed white again and he swung, this time sending a wide wave of white-grey energy (Lunar energy, as Fengari had called it) I swung my sword into the center of it and cut the wave in half, making the two ends sputter out weakly.

"I'll take that as a yes, then, now you two can continue" Fengari said as he put his knife back in its sheath and taking his book out again and opening it as he sat down on a rock, Flame looked to me, a devilish grin on her face and her hazel eyes alight with fire, she ran at me, he sword poised for a lunge…

"En Guarde!"

The memory ran its course and ended, leaving me feeling slightly melancholy about seeing my friends happy, but none the less, I got what I needed, I summoned a ball of darkness in my hand. "Oblivion!" I called and I teleported myself way ahead of the rolling rock wheels, I set my left hand onto my right and held my Crystal Cutlass with both hands, I then began collecting dark energy around the sword I have gotten so good at the technique that it's been permanently ingrained into my sword, it automatically cuts magic now, so if I add more energy into it… the darkness straightened and extended to make a black blade that continued off my sword and ten feet out. Perfect! I now held the extremely long sword sideways as I ran towards the giant Rolling Rock Wheels, I ran past Zenox, who was surprised by my action as I jumped into the air, I went to half the height of the stones, I held the blade sideways, ready to swing, Longer! I commanded and my darkness made the blade's length extended farther, More! More! I commanded and the dark blade became so long until I had to forgo my crystal cutlass and hold a Giant sword of darkness (there was no weight to it anyway, it was made of energy) I finally got the sword long enough and….

*SHHHHHINK* I cut all three of the rock wheels in half with my sword, with one swing too! After I cut all of them I immediately re-absorbed the sword to make sure I didn't waste the extreme amount of expended energy I created with the sword, I looked up and saw that one cut was not going to stop these things. A little bit of black lightning curled around my gloves… well I guess I've gone over… so I guess I better overdo it… I gathered dark energy around me and readied my sword "Shadow jump!" I dashed forward and swung in frenzy. Cutting and slicing and spinning, the entire time cutting the rock wheels, a second later I landed on the other side of the rock wheels, they just collapsed into chunks and pieces and just rolled to a stop. I turned and saw that Zenox was standing, looking at my work in shock. Now's my chance! I thought quickly as I ran forward at Zenox.

I grabbed her spear with my left hand and hilt smashed her with my right hand, she let go of the spear and staggered back, I Jumped up and slammed the spear downwards, slamming it into the ground when Zenox dodged it. I swung around the grounded spear and kicked Zenox in the chest with both feet, sending her staggering again, I stuck my sword in the ground as I fell and swung around, only kicking her in the head with one foot, she flew back this time, I landed and I could feel an icy rage build up inside me, the same type that I had felt when I fought Scourge, I dashed forward and began kicking and punching Zenox without any mercy or care to if she could reply, I just attacked and attacked, eventually ending with a roundhouse hit when I summoned my sword into my hand for the ending blow. Zenox flew over the rubble of the rock wheels, the icy rage seemed to diminish and disappear, and making me feel even more drained than before. Once I looked at Zenox, she stood back up again, a green glow enveloping her. She can heal? Greattttt…. I glared at her as her spear appeared in her hands once again,

"why!?" Zenox asked "Why did you leave Fengari and Flame, and try to escape without even trying to bring them along!?" she said. Her anger seeming totally out of place.

"Like I told Inferno! I had no choice, everything I've done I've been ordered to do! Finally once I escaped and I can do what I want to do! But now I'm still being hunted just like in the dark dimension!" I yelled except this time I am alone…

"Well! If Inferno and Flood and Lync could not give you retribution! I will!" she spun her spun her spear and slammed the butt into the ground, an orange circle with Greek lettering all around it appeared, a thin orange line appeared around her and a circular line appeared in front of her like a targeting sight. "Ignis!" Zenox commanded. Around the large pile of debris, portals appared around it in a circle and fire burst forth and and firey tornado spread out into the sky, picking up debris and sending it around in deadly orbits. I sighed at seeing it, it was the same tornado Iblis always was in and it was very alike to Inferno's fire tornado too! And now she is doing it!

"whats with you and fire hating you, and fire tornadoes?" Dark commented, I shook my head and sighed.

I dodn't know, I just don't know….. I readied myself for the tornado and gripped my sword tighter… okay…. I'm seriously low on energy…. I can't to a dark chaos lance…

"use her shadow, you have enough energy to Shadow Jump into her shadow, but be careful, if you fun out you will appear in the middle of that fiery tornado… I will aid you in the manipulation." Dark told me and I felt a calm, cold presence wash over me, I felt calm and composed, and stronger somehow… the shadows from the walls moved across the floor and went into me, giving me a little bit more energy, I crouched, and jumped at the fire tornado "NOW!" Dark commanded

"Shadow Jump!" I me and Dark worked in tandem and bounced from shadow to shadow around the fire tornado at super speed, we landed in Zenox's shadow and I appeared and swung….

I stopped the blade inches from her neck, Zenox gulped and the fire tornado dissipated and the portals disappeared, the debris fell, one directly over us, but a dark energy blast shot out of my shadow and disintegrated the debris before it fell on us. Thanks Dark I felt him give a unconcerned "yeah" before disappearing again. Zenox began sweating, her eyes wide in fear. I looked at her, she has no reason to fight me, so I won't kill her, Sonic's song came back to my mind…

"Don't worry, be happy" I said with a smirk, Zenox's eyes went from fear to shock. "I'm not going to kill you, so don't worry, and be happy to live another day" I said lowering her sword, Zenox faced me face to face, her spear at her side, I saw an internal argument going on inside her, I wzaas wide open, if she thrust with her spear I would be dead. But I just spared her. She finally closed her eyes and sang, and I couldn't help but join in

"Don't worry, be happy, don't worry, be happy, everything is gonna turn out alright" we sang. Zenox bowed to me after that, a sad smile on her face.

"turns out I really have no true reason to fight you, Strife, Maybe We will see each other again… hopefully on more friendly terms…" she sighed "But for now, goodbye Strife, It was nice fighting you.. and… thanks" Zenox stepped back into a purple portal and disappeared. I turned and walked to the boost pad Sonic and the others used, and launched myself over to them, one I touched down I de-summoned my sword, just in time to be hugged by a running Maria.

"Strife! I'm so glad you survived! I was worried sick! I felt all your energy disappeared once the rock wheels disappeared and only now I can sense you again! I thought you were dead!" she exclaimed. I looked at Shadow, who seemed relieved, and a little angry. I tapped her head and she let go of me and walked back to hug Shadow again. "Well it's okay, I'm alive, obviously" I said with a smile, and everybody smiled back (including Espio and shadow, Omega wasn't here)

Sonic opened his mouth to talk. "Alright, let-"

"I got this" shadow interrupted Sonic and walked up to me, and set the green chaos emerald in my hand, "care to do the honors?" I smiled again.

"sure" I held up the chaos emerald and everyone gathered around me, smiling faces, My smile grew maybe I'm not so alone… "CHAOS CONTROL!"

XVXVXVXVXVXVXV 7 commanders HQ, Zenox 3rd person.

Zenox walked out of the portal she made and looked at her door. Flame was leaning in the doorway, a sad look on her face, "couldn't kill him?" She asked, Zenox nodded sadly, "it was wrong of me to ask you to kill him and assume you had reasons to kill him, I'm sorry" Flame said, Zenox took a step back at Flame's confession. "Strife is truly just my and Fengari's problem, I'm sorry I dragged you into this" Flame leaned off the door frame and left, she walked down the main hall and out the door. It was raining… she indulged herself in a childish moment and ran across the field and two the outside awning, she could of teleported herself under it, but decided to just run in the rain, something she hadn't done in a long time, sense it never rained in the dark dimension, she got to the awning and shook some of the rain off her, she looked out to the training field and heard yells, amongst the pouring rain Fengari went around, swinging his saxe knives and smashing the area around him to pieces with swings and Lunar waves he threw… Fengari looked angry… and amongst the rain he looked entirely alone… Strife was his best friend, and now they were going to have to fight to the death…. Isn't that the same with me though? Flame thought as she looked into the cloudy sky dumping inches and inches of rain, a sudden weight of Loneliness washed over her, and her heart had an empty ace. Like a part of it was missing… the members of Team Moon are truly and utterly alone.

XVXVXVXVXVXV

Excerpt from Fengari's notebook

Note #1

There is no fate worse than loneliness, no death worse than exile, life is not worth living if you are alone.

And that's the end of the 21st chapter! I'm so glad to get it done! And I won't be on for a while because of my trip, so my updates will be now even farther than before, but anyway! Please review now! Not another one until 50! So read you later!