Chapter 34: Shades of Black (Last Part)
OR
The One Where Evil Shadow Fights His Alternate Reality Twin From The Future
OR
I Swear I've Never Even Seen DBZ

Riven hit the concrete hard. That chameleon was a lot stronger than he looked. Through a haze of blood, the raven looked up to see the Chaos Matron's henchman storming towards him with two Chaos at his side.

"My Chaos Emerald!" the chameleon was shouting. "Give back my Chaos Emerald!"

Riven the Raven felt a witty slice of bravado coming on, but it was stopped by the pressing question of just where that Chaos Emerald was. Riven had made a grab for it, sure, but after that blinding green spark his hand passed through empty air, and he found himself completely visible at the middle of the Chaos Matron's fiercest minions.

Jedo kicked the raven in the ribs several times, before planting his boot on the bird's throat, crushing his windpipe.

Riven felt despair. Horrible pain, burning in his lungs, and despair. He knew there was no way any of his fellow agents could take the risk of coming to his rescue. Exposing themselves to the enemy at this point might doom their combined efforts to restore the future.

Just as Riven began to lose consciousness, Jedo removed his boot. "Don't worry," said the villain. "You won't die just yet. First, the Chaos Matron can get a look at your mind. She's good at drenching for secrets. Believe me."

The raven said a swearword.

-

The pumpkin-shaped mountains had a lot of history as one of the most documented haunted sites in the world. It was also the place where Knuckles the Echidna hunted for the pieces of the Master Emerald after the great gem was shattered for the second time, and where Shadow the Hedgehog made a death-defying chase across aerial rails in pursuit of the Tornado 3.

It was a place the two Shadows knew well enough to be able to Chaos Control to easily. Why they chose that particular spot? Setting, obviously. With the stormy clouds from Central City causing massive downpour and regular flashes of lightning, the area was perfect for a climactic showdown. More important to the future Shadow was the fact that there wasn't a living soul for miles around who might get hurt in the crossfires.

"Nice place to die," said the Dark Shadow, bathing himself in blood-red fire as he lowered his restraint once more.

"Hmph!" said the Hero Shadow, igniting a gentle blue fire around his heroic form.

That the two Shadows should draw out visible halos of energy was more a blessing for the audience of ghosts than it was for the fighters. At least this way it was possible to tell them apart when they clashed.

They clashed.

Leaping from opposite pumpkin hills, the two Shadows met in mid-air and locked in intense combat. The shock waves of their punches through the heavy rain was really impressive, and the flashes of Chaos energy rivalled the storm above.

The two combatants should be evenly matched, but they weren't. Dark Shadow fought with greater ferocity than his twin was able to muster, but Hero Shadow's superior experience allowed him to counter his adversary's moves with sufficient skill to survive. They were both taking damage, and fast. As both were more concerned with using their jets as weapons rather than tools to defy gravity, it was a big question if they'd both be alive by the point they hit the bottom of the seemingly bottomless pit between the pumpkin hills.

At the last second, both Shadows kicked off from the other, launching them back to the safety of the hills. But only the blue-lit Shadow landed. The other remained airborne, suspended by the exaggerated flames of his jet sneakers.

"Nice little game," said the villainous one. "But you should know that you'd already lost when you challenged me."

"Is that so?"

"Can't you feel them? I have all seven Chaos Emeralds! All I need to do is channel their combined power, and I'll be invincible."

"Then why wait?" Hero Shadow asked callously.

"Because I wanted to use their power against the Chaos Matron, not you. But given the circumstances, I think it'll be worth another fetch-quest around the world to be able to crush you like the pathetic bug that you are."

"You really do overuse that word, Shadow," said Shadow.

"Maybe so. I prefer action over words in any case."

Dark Shadow flung out his arms, as all seven Chaos Emeralds materialised in the air around him, one by one. The hero didn't move, even as the Emeralds started spinning faster and glowing brighter around the evil twin. Just as it seemed to late, Hero Shadow activated Chaos Control with a wide gesture, teleporting to within the circle of Chaos Emeralds. The evil Shadow's look of surprise in the last split second before the Emerald power was released was priceless.

As one might have expected, the Shadow who called out the Emeralds' power with hatred and malice took on rather different form than the do-gooder Super Shadow.

"Different," said the Dark Super Shadow. "How do I look?"

"Eerie," Super Shadow answered. "How is your sight?"

"I can see everything, why?"

"No pupils."

"That is eerie. Hmmm..." the hedgehog silhouette of black flame smiled, though it was impossible to tell with his muzzle coloured as dark as his spines. "I like this."

With that, the supervillain charged at the superhero. The explosive energy of two oppositely charged Super forms was so violent that it was both visible and audible from Central City and Eggman's desert-stranded undersea fortress.

-

"Something interesting is happening," said the Chaos Matron, dropping the raven's lifeless body to the floor of her throne room. "Let's go take a look, Jedo."

"As you wish, Veronica."

-

"What's going to happen?" Conquest asked, looking over Eggman Nega's shoulder as they both watched the great big screen in Nega's command room.

"They'll probably destroy each other. Better that way."

Furious, Conquest grabbed the scientist's moustache and dragged his face close enough for eye contact. "No, it's not!" she hissed.

"What other way is there? Ow! If the future Shadow kills his past self, then they'll both be erased, and if the present Shadow wins we'll have two insanely overpowered monsters to deal with!"

"No, there is a way," said Conquest, looking determined. "Can you broadcast the signal based on Gerald's original programming a second time?"

"What good will that do? He got his memories back on his own, and it drove him crazy! Argh, why do all my plans always turn out this way!? Let go already!"

The bat finally did so. Nega rubbed his poor aching trademark. It should be obvious by this point that the hostage in this situation was not Conquest the Bat, but her would-be captor. With his robot army crippled and the Nega Replicoid MKII destroyed, the criminal mastermind had nothing left to prove a match against a very angry bat with a very powerful combat suit.

"This time we'll get it right. I think I understand it all now. You said that other Shadow is likely from the same future as that raccoon you told me about. I think what was supposed to happen was that someone else helped Shadow recover his identity rather than letting him work it out by himself. That someone should be me."

"Sentimental nonsense, but it might actually work."

"Then do it, Nega!"

"That is to say, it might actually work if I had a way to broadcast sound all the way to Pumpkin Valley."

"Damn! Does your hovercraft still work?"

"What!? You're not taking my pride and joy!" Eggman Nega exclaimed, turning red.

Too angry and impatient to take account of differences in size and weight, Conquest lifted Nega up by his collar and growled "I wasn't asking!" Her arm was going to ache like the dickens once she calmed down enough to be bothered by simple physics.

-

Silver, Blaze and Buta were keeping themselves busy.

"I've had enough excitement for one month. Do we really have to go through all that just to earn their trust?" Silver asked.

"Certainly. If we cannot offer them our respect, we surely do not deserve their assistance in the battle to come," Buta answered. "The life of the Flicky we are to rescue is of no less importance than any of those suffering under the rule of the Chaos Matron."

"Come on, Silver. What's one more obstacle course through an active volcano?" said Blaze, evidently enjoying herself.

"I really don't like lava, okay? I'm just saying that the Chief had better be satisfied after this...what are we at now?"

"This would be the fourteenth trial," said Buta.

-

The last pumpkin hill tumbled into the abyss. If the Super Shadows had attempted this battle over Central City there wouldn't be much left of the metropolis by now. As it were, the ghostly population were finding themselves without a place to haunt. The ghosts were also discovering, to their alarm, that Chaos Emerald energy could definitely harm supernatural entities.

Super Shadow stopped for a moment to catch his breath. His enemy didn't yet look tired in the slightest. The odds were still uneven. The hero Shadow knew from experience that the negative energies of the Emeralds provided significantly greater power than the positive side, with the added risk that the negative energy corrupted the mind of the vessel instead of amplifying it like the positive energies did. There was a reason why Super Sonic had to rely on his ability to dodge attacks to survive the battle against Perfect Chaos.

"What's the matter? Getting tired? I could go on all day!" Dark Super Shadow taunted.

"Why..."

"Why what? Trying to give me your epitaph? I've already got one for you. 'Shadow the Hedgehog, weak and unworthy of the title Ultimate Life-Form'. Apt, wouldn't you say?"

"Why are you still holding back?"

The supervillain narrowed his eyes. "What!?"

"Look at your wrists."

Shadow did so. What was he talking about, there was just his plain old bracelets. His- The memory came to him in a flash of horror: The energy containment bracelets that Prof. Gerald created to prevent his creation from unleashing its true potential. He-he still wasn't free! They were chains! Why hadn't he felt it before, how they sucked the energy out of him, keeping him in check against his will!

Trembling, the Dark Super Shadow removed his bracelets. Anyone who knew just how much more destructive power the Ultimate Life-Form could release without those devices might wonder if the future Shadow had lost his mind. But the hero had a plan. Right now he was pouring every ounce of energy he had towards amplifying the energy shield provided by his Super form.

"Sorry Connie," Super Shadow said out loud. "This is the only way."

-

The Negamobile was badly damaged from the recent battles. Its engine kept making complaining noises as Conquest pushed the machine past its limits, racing against inevitability. The Super-form battle was impossible to miss. Shielding her eyes, Conquest drove straight towards the light show.

-

"Ahhhh! AHHHHHAAHAHAHAAA!! This...is...incredible!!" Dark Super Shadow laughed, his eyes open wide, and his breath heavy. "I could- I could do anything!! Destroy all of the Chaos Matron's servants, then herself. Yes, I could do it!! I am the secret to ultimate victory! I am! I AM UNSTOPPABLE!!!"

The horror escalated. The black aura of the evil Super form expanded, arcs of energy reminiscent of Chaos Spears circled like satellites around the single glowing hedgehog form in the centre of it all. The evil hedgehog was lost now. He'd been drunk on power before, but now he was completely absorbed. As the future Shadow expected, the dark Shadow didn't even realise that he was turning himself into a single explosive force coming ever closer to disastrous detonation. Super Shadow wasn't amplifying his shield in order to save himself. He was doing it to contain the inevitable destruction that would kill them both.

-

"Oh dear. That looks dangerous," said the Chaos Matron, watching the growing energy bubble from afar.

She was flying high above Central City, with Jedo close by on an overpowered hoverbike.

"What is happening, Lady Veronica?" Jedo asked.

"That hedgehog is channeling the sum total negative energy of all seven Chaos Emeralds into physical space. What is most interesting is that the energy is straining like a rubber band. Momentarily, the backlash will kill the hedgehog and release explosive power far surpassing the most powerful bomb in existence."

"Should we retreat?"

"No, I don't think that will be necessary. That other hedgehog is attempting to contain the blast. I believe we should stay here and watch the spectacle. It is no threat to me. As for you...well, I do hope you survive. If not, it will be an unprecedented final sight, at least."

"Very well, Veronica."

Self-preservation was the first aspect of Jedo's mind that had to be killed to make him a perfect slave. The chameleon's will to survive had been exceptional by any standards - suggesting that he would sacrifice anyone and anything to escape danger alive. Not a good quality in a servant.

-

The Negamobile flew right into the energy bubble, narrowly avoiding the deadly Chaos blasts. Against the noise of the sheer force being built, it was impossible for any naked ear to hear the high-pitched noise being emitted from the Negamobile's speakers at full blast.

"No!" Super Shadow shouted.

The scene was so spectacular you'd need fantastic 3D technology and a whopping huge budget to show it in proper detail. Super Shadow flying into the bubble of energy. Conquest being thrown clear as the Negamobile exploded in a huge explosion that was coloured bizarrely and impressively within the bubble. The silhouette of the Dark Super Shadow clutching his ears and screaming out silently. The energy bubble disrupting and beginning to break into separate explosions of coloured energy. Super Shadow bursting free of the collapsing bubble with Conquest in his arms. The very air around the collapsing bubble crackling with energy, and the rain evaporating instantly for miles around. Finally, a de-powered unconscious Shadow falling like a rag doll to the ground, as the unnaturally interrupted rain resumes.

Super Shadow doubled back and caught his past self right at the last second, then flew off at super speed with Conquest hanging on tight and past Shadow held safely above the abyss. Everybody survived. Roll credits.

...except that the ending is still way off. No credits, then.

-

The Chaos Matron smiled.

"What a wonderful show," she mused. "Looks like we've got a busy time ahead of us, Jedo. Time travellers to root out and kill, a pair of Ultimate Life-Forms to correct, and oh what ever did become of Silver and Blaze? Wouldn't be like them to die without a proper noticeable spectacle."

"What about the Chaos Emeralds?" Jedo asked, true to his character even after so much possession.

"Ah yes, ever the wild cards. They can never be trusted to stay put. I suppose we'll have to destroy them once their current owners are dead."

"Destroy?"

"If it is possible. We could try storing them in a rocket and launching it into the sun. If they can survive even that, then they should at least be well beyond the reach of anyone wanting to cause us trouble."

The Chaos Matron wasn't considering the very real possibility that throwing all seven Emeralds into the sun might trigger a supernova that would utterly destroy Earth and the surrounding planets. But hey, what's a cataclysm without the risk of doomsday?

-

"I hate lava!" Silver shouted, catching himself with his psychokinesis before he dropped into the deadly red pool.

-

End of Chapter 34.