=Chapter 33=
"What the hell happened tonight?!"
The Governor was quite thoroughly outraged at the sudden change of events. His personal guard sprang into action and surrounded him, creating a protective barrier around him.
"I'm-I'm not sure." Dr. Finitevus sputtered. "I'm just as shocked."
They went out into the halls, the guards shooting any monster that dared come near them. The group finally reached an elevator, and the guards covered their charge whilst he entered the car.
"Tell Miss Alicia that she's got some explaining to do." the Governor said in a huff.
"Uh, yes." Dr. Finitevus sputtered. "Of course..."
"...damn it to hell, we're going to have to sanitize the place now. And initiate Option D."
Just as the albino echidna was about to enter the elevator, he was abruptly blocked by the guard.
"From this point on, I see no reason to guarantee your safety." the royally appointed leader said. "Good bye, good luck, and good riddance."
Dr. Finitevus looked on blankly as the Governor and his guard disappeared behind the elevator as it closed its doors.
The albino echidna began shaking in fright as he realized the gravity of his situation.
"It's all over for me..."
XXXXXXX
Back on stage, Mephiles slowly approached Shadow with his long sword drawn.
"Big brother, why are you trying to kill me?" the pale ebony hedgehog asked in an almost sing-song voice.
"Our mere existence has caused many, much pain and suffering." Shadow murmured. "That's why I'm going to kill you, Mephiles."
The bluish-grey splashed male made a pause.
"...Is there no other way?" he asked. "You see it's not my fault. I don't really understand mortals. And I know mortals don't understand us either."
"That's not true!" Shadow exclaimed. "Mortals have been a part of me and my family from the very beginning. Despite our vast differences, they came to terms as to what I am and helped me survived all these years. Gerald, even though he wasn't my real father, became a father to me and remained thus to the bitter end."
"But...you're still a chiroptera."
Shadow made a surprised and disdained look to which Mephiles started laughing.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha! You got upset!" Mephiles teased.
"...It's useless, you'll never understand." Shadow bemoaned with slight despair.
"I wonder why. We're brothers. We were born from the same mother and father, and yet you accuse me of not understanding. Now Shadow that's not fair. Remember, you're the only one to be brought up like a mortal. You're the only one who got to have any fun."
For a moment Shadow felt pity for his twin brother.
"You've been a selfish boy, Shadow." the pale ebony hedgehog continued. "And let's not forget that you're also the one who released me from that disgusting tower."
"That's why..." Shadow began again.
"That's why what, brother?"
"...My sole purpose now is to kill. I've existed only for that."
Mephiles merely shrugged and observed the tip of his long sword.
"My, you're trying to justify your existence by killing me?" he said. "You're not just selfish, Shadow. You're completely deluded."
XXXXXXX
Meanwhile, the two brides that were still dueling, managed to break out of the opera house through the roof as they fought. It had started to rain over Station Square, as huge storm clouds completely filled the sky. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled as the pair flew through the air. Alicia proved to be a very powerful fighter. She was much larger than Mina in full chiroptera form, albeit Mina was not fully transformed. Nevertheless, Alicia was hell bent on disposing of the 'traitor' to the hive.
Mina continued to hold her own while simultaneously trying to think of a way to kill her sister Bride without taking too much damage to herself. They chased each other around the city, exchanging attacks in an effort to put the other down.
"Feh, pathetic." Alicia scowled in a demonic voice. "But then you always were."
The saffron mongoose ignored her taunts, and continued focusing on her own task. She dodged vocal energy blasts at every turn while trying to return fire herself. Finally, in her wild flight, Mina came across a large skyscraper bearing an equally long space needle. Seizing the opportunity, the violet-haired female started to get physical, trying to punch and kick her rival at every chance she got.
Alicia cackled at Mina's blows and violently swatted her away. Quite ironically, and conveniently, Mina landed right into the very building that she had spotted shortly beforehand. Pulling herself together, the saffron mongoose saw Alicia take a swan dive at her. Mina quickly launched herself at the transformed auburn squirrel, grabbed ahold of her leg and yanked her up into the air. Then, the violet-haired female managed to drop Alicia straight onto the space needle where the giant chiroptera Bride was impaled all the way to the base. Mina fluttered towards the sky scraper roof, exhausted and almost passed out. Alicia meanwhile, tried climbing up the needle to liberate herself from it, despite her injuries.
"This...this is nothing!" she rasped. "I...can still..."
Suddenly, lightning struck the needle, thoroughly electrocuting and roasting the chiroptera Bride. Mina then gave a huge sigh of relief.
XXXXXXX
Back in the opera house Knuckles and Sonic were still busy shooting chiroptera as efficiently and quickly as possible. But their numbers were vast. When one was taken down, two took its place. They seemed to be coming in endless droves.
"Damn, these guys don't quit do they?!" Sonic rasped.
"They're all under the influence of Rosy's singing, that's why they're so relentless." Knuckles said.
"Tell me something I don't know!"
As they fought their way through the barrage of beasts, the pair were suddenly confronted by the Deathdealer Corps. They were also dispatched to exterminate the beasts, but they turned on the two vampire hunters themselves.
"Great. Is there anything else to make this night worse?" the cerulean speedster ranted.
XXXXXXX
Mephiles and Shadow had a tense standoff in the now deathly quiet theater which had now grown empty and dark. Finally, Shadow spread his blood onto his blade. Both his and his brother's eyes were glowing bright.
"...I have nothing more to say to you." he murmured.
"Nor I, to you." Mephiles replied.
When one of the spotlights hanging above the stage burned out, the twins charged at each other, trying to stab the other with their swords. Flashes of metal erupted from the stage as their weapons clashed.
Sitting in the front elevated section of the auditorium was Rosy and Amy. The sakura hedgehog was shocked to see both Shadow and Mephiles fighting each other. Rosy on the other hand didn't seem at all bothered by it.
"Oooo, isn't it exciting, Amy?" she giggled.
"Rosy, can't you stop them?!" Amy cried.
"Sorry Amy, I'd like to, but I won't be able to interfere."
"But...but you can't just let them kill each other!"
Before the pale pink hedgehog could reply, her senses suddenly alerted to an oncoming attack. In a flash, she grabbed Amy and the babies out their carrier and leapt out of her seat, landing on the other side of the auditorium. When the dust cloud cleared, they both saw Mina amongst the now destroyed seats.
"Oh, it's you." Rosy said, unsurprised. "Well, this can only mean Alicia's lost. What a dupe."
As she prepared herself, it was apparent that the saffron mongoose was still weakened from her previous fight.
"Don't get yourself all worked up, Mina." Rosy said in a rather annoyed tone. "I'm not gonna fight you. The real fight here is between the two Kings. I'm just here to see how it all turns out."
Amy shot a pleading look at Mina, hoping that she would try to stop them anyway. But to the cherry-pink female's disappointment, Mina relented.
"You're right." the violet-haired female said. "The fight is theirs."
The twins continued their swordplay with more vigor and intensity than they had when they began. Their fight caused a part of the stage floor to break open and fall into the underground space beneath them. Shadow, possibly because of his impending hibernation cycle, was getting rather exhausted. Nevertheless, he tore off the outer jacket of his tux as did Mephiles. The pair had another tense standoff before bleeding upon their blades again.
"Here we go..." Mephiles murmured.
As soon as their swords were coated with their blood, the twins charged at each other and thus impaled the other.
"Shadow..." Mina murmured quietly as Amy let out a gasp.
Blood spewed out from both of the chiroptera Kings as the blades went through them. When they drew back their swords, Mephiles tossed aside his long sword while Shadow simply dropped his katanna. The crimson-splashed male dropped to his knees, coughing and gagging as he let his brother's blood mingle with his own. Mephiles, remaining on his feet, did the same, while a shudder ran up his spine. Then crystallizing little cracks appeared on his fingers. A shocked pale ebony hedgehog shot his head up at Shadow who was also looking at himself with shock. But nothing was happening to him. Mephiles was crystallizing and Shadow wasn't.
"Muh-Mephiles..."
"Why...Why is it only happening to me?"
As the bluish-grey splashed male continued to crystallize and shatter before his very eyes, Shadow instantly got to his feet and ran over to his brother.
"Mephiles!"
Just as Mephiles' left arm completely crystallized and was about to break off his frame, Shadow caught it and frantically tried putting it back on.
"Ta-Take me with you!" the midnight warrior cried.
"...Big...Brother..." Mephiles sadly murmured as his body continued to fall apart.
"TAKE ME WITH YOU!"
Finally, the remaining lower half of Mephiles' body collapsed to the floor after his legs shattered to pieces like glass. The dying chiroptera King lowly stared up at his twin in a sort of trance-like state until he turned his head towards his left. Shadow's blood-red eyes widened in even more shock, when looked up to see a stoic Rosy now on the stage with a distraught Amy and with the two tiny cocoons in her arms. The crimson-splashed male thought he was hallucinating when he saw the young flower alive and well and still appeared mortal.
"I'm not here to hurt you." Rosy said in a surprisingly gentle voice.
The crazed Bride then slowly approached her dying master with the cocoons in her arms and taking Amy by the hand. Rosy knelt down with Amy and placed the infant chiroptera onto the floor near Mephiles. The pale ebony hedgehog gave a smile and reached out for his children, affectionately stroking them.
"Goodbye...my dears..."
Then weakly, he shifted his gaze towards Amy-who was now in tears-and used the last of his strength to kiss her. A few seconds later, Mephiles was completely engulfed in crystal. Rosy then got to her feet with a very sympathetic look on her face.
"Oh my sad, lonely, Mephiles." she sighed. "All he ever wanted in his long life was a family. Nobody could really understand that. Not even that fathead, Alicia. She felt like she had to keep studying him, and never let him out of that lousy test tube."
Rosy knelt down again to stroke her dead master's forehead.
"You finally got it in the end, my dear Mephiles." she continued. "You didn't realize that your blood lost its power when you successfully passed on your seed."
Shadow almost didn't believe what he heard. It couldn't be possible, and yet it was true. The two infants were indeed Mephiles and Amy's. Then Rosy got up and began approaching the midnight warrior.
"Now that dear Mephy is dead, it's meaningless for his Bride to remain. Her significance is lost. Whether Mina wants to follow me or not, is her own problem."
Suddenly, Rosy transformed into her full chiroptera form. Shadow cautiously backed away, only to have his weapon returned to him.
"Shadow, will you please kill me?" Rosy asked in a demonic voice. "If I die, you'll be able to fulfill your wish."
Shadow hesitantly took back his sword from her.
"If you truly pity me, Shadow, send me off." she said solemnly.
The ebony hedgehog then proceeded to spread his blood on his katanna and charged towards Rosy.
'...Good boy...' she thought.
Moments later, Shadow slashed his katanna at her, making a nice clean cut. Rosy staggered backwards before falling below the stage.
"Thank you..."
After her monstrous form disappeared below, there was a deep silence. It was broken when Amy finally broke into sobs. Shadow limped over to her and knelt down to embrace. The sakura hedgehog wasted no time in wrapping herself around her adoptive brother and clutching him as tight as she could. In spite of being distraught for Mephiles, she also missed Shadow terribly. Mina just stood on the other side of the stage, quietly, allowing them their space.
Then, a crackling noise was heard, catching the attention of the trio. Seconds later, they heard soft infant cries. Looking down, Shadow and Amy saw that the two cocoons had at last hatched. The two hogletts, twins, were spitting images of their father and uncle. Except the red-eyed King had a magenta tint in its stripes. When they saw their mother and uncle's faces, they started giggling and reaching out for their 'parents'.
"...Shadow." Amy hiccupped. "Please don't kill them. I...I promised him that I would care for them."
The crimson-splashed male then seemed to relent from his murderous mission and gave a nod. It was no fault of the infants of their nature and if Shadow himself could be raised to live amongst mortals without being a threat, there was no reason the babies could not. He could give that much to his fallen brother.
XXXXXXX
While Sonic and Knuckles were now surrounded by the chiroptera and Deathdealer Corps, the beasts suddenly paused in their slaughter and started howling as if they were subconsciously in despair.
"Man, what gives?" Sonic ranted.
"Hell, even the Deathdealer Corps have calmed down." Knuckles commented.
"Maybe Shadow did it."
Rouge had come out of the room she was doing her hacking skills in, armed with a pistol. At that point, the entire opera house had been evacuated and the area sealed off from the public. While cautiously trying to get into physical contact with either Snively, Dr. Eggman, Knuckles, or Sonic, she suddenly ran into a raving and insane Dr. Finitevus.
"What the hell?!" the ivory bat cried.
"It's over...it's all over..." the albino echidna rambled. "...they're going to initiate Option D and blow up this whole building..."
"They're going to do what?!"
Then Rouge heard distant gunshots which she recognized as Sonic and Knuckles' heavy artillery. Suddenly, Dr. Finitevus somehow got ahold of her pistol and pointed it at himself.
"Wuh-Wait!"
The snow white female's voice went unheard, as the deranged scientist blew out his head and instantly fell to the floor dead.
"Shit!"