Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues

Bo-katan smacked Eggman in the back of the head. Turning to the others she said, "I was told the Jedi would be here."

Omega raised his guns to shoot Eggman but Rouge stopped him. "Let's at least find out why he's here before we shoot him."

Sonic waved. "Hey, Egghead! I was wondering where you ended up."

Knuckles readied himself for a fight. Everyone else just stared.

Eggman straitened. "Will you stop doing that?"

She did it again. "This bag of Bantha shit tells me he has a plan to kill Sidious. And apparently, he needs you to help him do it."

"If it's Eggman's idea, we're not doing it." Knuckles spat.

Eggman recovered again. "I possess critical knowledge that you are going to need."

Rouge rose a brow. "Like what?"

"Like for instance, if we kill Sidious while he's inside Shadow's body, he'll stay dead."

"What makes you so sure of that?" Rex asked.

"Based on my observations of Sidious while he's been in Shadow's body, he's unable to use the power of your 'Force' or whatever you call it. He seems to consider Shadow's Chaos powers inferior to the power he had before. So that got me thinking, if he was able to transfer to Shadow's body, why doesn't he transfer to a body that does possess Force powers?"

"Because-" Sonic started, only for Eggman to interrupt.

"That was a rhetorical question! Because he can't!"

"What do you mean he can't?" Ganodi asked.

"I mean he's trapped inside of Shadow's body. Because Shadow's body isn't connected to the Force."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Petro argued. "He was easily able to hop in and out of Shadow's mind before."

"Correction: he was able to project himself into Shadow's mind. His actual essence never entered until now."

"But if he can't get his essence out, then how was he able to get his essence in?" Ganodi questioned.

"He was able to use his immense power in the Force to break through the wall of Chaos Energy in order to enter Shadow. But once he got inside of Shadow, he lost contact with the power that allowed him to enter in the first place. It's like a door that only has a handle on one side. What little power he still has left, he uses to stay dominate in Shadow's mind. But his connection to the wider extent of the Force has been completely severed. Therefore, he cannot shoot lightning out of his hands, he can't choke anyone with his mind, and most importantly of all, if he were to die, he can't hop into another body."

"That makes sense." Tails mused.

"That's all really interesting, but how does that help us actually kill him?" Rex asked.

"And how do we stop the Mandalorians from infecting people with the Blue Shadow Virus?" Ezra piped up.

"And what do we do about the return of Grievous?" Kalani added.

Eggman rose a brow. "Who?"

"You know, Grievous? The cybernetic warlord who mysteriously came back from the dead?" Sonic said.

"Came back? Oh, I know what you're talking about. He is dead. Sidious just want everyone to think he's still alive. He said it would be easier to terrorize the galaxy with an old monster rather than a new one."

"So the Grievous we saw is just a droid?" Rex asked.

"Android. But yes, that is in no way the real Grievous."

A palpable wave of relief swept over the room.

"Well, destroying an android shouldn't be too hard." Petro said confidently.

"That's other thing. There's four of them."

"Four?" Tails exclaimed.

"Yes. That way he can attack more than one planet at once. It's just more efficient. Luckily for us, none of that matters."

"I feel like it matters." Ezra muttered.

Eggman tapped the tips of his finger together. "That only thing that matters is Sidious. If we take out the individual pieces of his plan, he'll just alter his plan to compensate. But if we eliminate him, everything else falls apart.

"Again, how do we actually kill him?" Rex repeated.

"Luckily for you, I am an expert went it comes to killing hedgehogs."

Sonic burst out laughing.

Eggman scowled at him. "I'm more of an expert than any of you! Because I've spent years researching permanent ways to kill all of you! Including Shadow."

"And what have you come up with?" Sonic asked, still grinning.

"The answer is quite simple really. We get him to remove his inhibitor rings, wait for him to exhaust all of his energy, allowing me to easily finish him off."

"If it's so easy, why have you never tried it before?" Rouge wondered.

"Well, the main problem I run into is… surviving to that point. But in this situation, I have the perfect tool for the job."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Sonic asked.

"That would be you. You will fight Sidious, force him to remove his inhibitor rings, and waste all of his energy."

"Is this a plan to kill Shadow or is this a plan to kill me?"

"If I'm lucky, you'll both die."

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence!"

"What if Sonic was in his Super form?" Tails proposed. "Then he could survive anything."

"But we only have six Emeralds." Knuckles pointed out.

"Yes, but Sidious has the last one." Eggman informed. "Which he would no doubt bring to a fight with you. And once all seven Emeralds are in the same place, you can easily absorb all their power."

Rouge considered this. "That's actually… not a bad idea."

"We just need to lure Sidious to us. And considering how vital I am to his plan; I'd say I make the perfect bait."

Kalani pulled up a map of the planet. "We should lure him to the far side of Lothal to minimize civilian causalities."

Eggman clapped his hands together. "Great. Let's move out and get our camp set up."

Yoda went back to the temple to continue looking after Katooni and Gungi. Kalani and Leia would stay in the capital and keep watch for Sidious's ship. Everyone else headed to the other side of the planet.

"I'll contact Sidious and let him come find me. When he gets here, Sonic will fight him while the rest of you protect me from whatever forces Sidious brings with him." Eggman outlined.

Petro notice that Luke had gone very quiet. "Got something on your mind?"

"Do you think… that my father's evil?"

"Evil is a word that is often misused. Your father has done terrible things, but whether or not he's truly evil is determined by the reasons behind those actions."

"What reason could he possibly have for killing Chirrut?"

"I don't know. But I sense the Dark Side in him."

"If he's using the Dark Side, wouldn't that make him evil?"

"Not necessarily. The Dark Side is a path chosen by the desperate. It's possible that he doesn't want to do the things he's doing; he simply believes he needs to. His emotions guide his actions now. And while that does make him dangerous, it does not make him evil."

"Hey, give me a holoprojector. I need to make my call." Eggman rudely demanded.

Petro rolled his eyes and gave him one.

Once everyone was out of sight, Eggman made the call. "Hello again."

"Doctor Eggman. This is unexpected."

"I know that you're looking for me. Obviously, considering how important I am. And I know it's only a matter of time before you find me. So I was hoping we could make a deal. I went to that trouble of finding the other six Chaos Emeralds for you. And in exchange for delivering these Emeralds to you, I request my position of power back, an entire planet for me to rule over, and I want all superweapons that you have me develop to have my insignia on them."

Sidious narrowed his stolen eyes. "What are you up to?"

"I can't rise to be a ruler while I'm hiding from you. So I was hoping we could negotiate. But if not, then maybe I'll go ask the Jedi if they're interested in receiving help from the smartest man in the universe."

Sidious was silent for a moment.

"I know you're going to come here looking for me no matter what. I pose far too much of a threat to you."

"I will be there in one rotation. I look forward to seeing how good your trap is."