Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues

Leia and Kalani sat in the observation room and watched for incoming ships on the monitors.

They sat in silence for several minutes before Leia decided to speak. "So… after we defeat Sidious, what do you think we should do with the rest of the galaxy?"

"I don't intend on doing anything. What the rest of the galaxy does is not my concern."

"It should be. Planets all over the galaxy are being destroyed and conquered by Sidious and they're going to need help to rebuild."

"It was decided twenty years ago that all planets were independent and were required to take care of their own internal problems themselves.'"

"But this in not an internal problem!" Leia argued.

"Even if I wanted to help these other planets, I would not be able to. It would require more resources than what I have. The planets that have been left in ruin will have to find a way to survive on their own."

"But what if we brought back the Republic?"

A note of incredulity entered Kalani's voice. "I fought in the Clone Wars to insure the Republic's end. What makes you think I would want it back?"

"Just look at where the galaxy is now. Sidious is conquering the entire galaxy one planet at a time and there's no force strong enough to stop him."

"Our current plan will see to it that Sidious is destroyed."

"And what happens when the next power-hungry warlord decides to start taking over planets? The only way to stop people from giving into people like Sidious is to let them know that the rest of the galaxy will have their back."

"But will the rest of the galaxy have their back? The Republic protected its worlds, but only the ones it deemed important. This is why the Separatist Alliance was formed in the first place. Being attacked by criminals and warlords and having no one to protect you was simply how many planets in the Outer Rim lived. Nothing has changed for them except no longer having to pay taxes to a government that left them for dead." Kalani said coolly.

Leia took a moment to let Kalani's words sink in. "Was the Republic really that bad?"

"It was."

"Then why is my mother always trying to bring the Republic back?"

"Your mother is an idealist who believes she can fix a broken system. But if the Republic were to return, it would suffer from the same problems it did before. No one government can be trusted to control the entire galaxy, and nothing will change that."

They finally got a blip on the radar. "A single ship has entered the Lothal system." Kalani reported.

"Well, that can't be Sidious. He wouldn't come with just one ship."

"The ship is headed directly towards the coordinates from which Eggman broadcasted his transmission. It must be him."

"Please, Knuckles?"

"No."

"But-"

"It's too dangerous!"

"But it'll be so much fun!"

"Sonic, if I give you access to the Master Emerald's power, Sidious will have it too."

"He doesn't even know about it!"

"He'll know when he sees you!"

"Okay, so what if he figures how to do it, it doesn't change the plan at all!"

"Actually, it kinda does." Tails interjected. "If Sidious goes Hyper and then removes his inhibitor rings, we don't know how much damage he'll be able to do. We at least know the limits of his Super form, because Shadow was left completely drained after teleporting the Space Colony Ark, which allows us to stay a safe distance away."

Sonic groaned. "But it's been so long since I've been able to go Hyper! You never let me do it anymore!"

"I've never let you do it! You only discovered it in the first place because you found where I was hiding the Master Emerald."

Sonic was distracted by a call from Eggman. "Sidious's ship is approaching! Get ready!"

Sidious landed his ship and calmly got out. He saw nothing but an open plane of grass. He followed the signal to where Eggman's transmission had come from and found a transmitter laying on the ground. Sidious scanned the environment. He had learned to make use Shadow's enhanced senses instead of relying on the Force and was now able hear a faint rumbling and spot a distant dust cloud on the horizon. The cloud quickly grew closer, and closer.

Sidious closed his eyes as the dust cloud flew past him. When he opened his eyes again, Sonic was standing in front of him.

"Hello there, long time no see!"

Sidious scoffed. "Was this the doctor's best plan? Send you to fight me alone?"

Sonic shrugged arrogantly. "We could have brought more, but that would have made things too easy."

"Well, this shouldn't take very long at all." Sidious pulled out the red Chaos Emerald.

"Great, you brought a Chaos Emerald!" Sonic revealed the other six. "Now I can complete my collection."

Sidious raised a brow. "A bold strategy."

All the Emeralds started to glow. Sonic felt the power of the Emeralds surge through him as his blue spines turned to a bright gold. Super Sonic looked back at his opponent, who he expected to also be shiny gold.

But all his red stripes had turned dark purple, his eyes were completely red, with no white or pupils, his small fangs grew until they could no longer be contained by his mouth.

Sonic blinked. "Wow… that is not a good look for you. I guess you decided to take the negative energy from the Emeralds."

"I'm a Sith. What else did you expect?"

Sonic just shrugged. "Doesn't matter either way, I guess. Now, come on. Let's see what you got!" Sonic stood ready for Sidious to attack him, but the Sith just laughed. Sonic just looked at him in confusion. "Okay, even I don't think my jokes are that funny."

"Just how foolish do you think I am?"

"On a scale from 1 to 10 I'd rate you about a 7."

"I know how these Super forms work. We're both invincible in this state. Fighting you would be a waste of time and energy."

"So, are you just going to stand there until our Super forms run out? Because Shads and I are pretty evenly matched in our base states too."

"Of course not. Waiting around would be equally as wasteful. You might be invincible, but no one else is."

In the blink of an eye, Sidious was gone. Sonic came to a terrible realization.

"Guys, he's coming for you!"

"You were supposed to keep him distracted!" Eggman shouted.

"I'm not used to fighting someone who's actually smart!"

"If I don't die, I'm going to kill you for saying that."

Sonic soared through the atmosphere; eyes peeled for the other hedgehog. "I don't see him anywhere near you guys."

"He must be going for the temple!" Petro surmised.

Sonic zipped over to the temple. "He's not here either! Any other ideas?"

Petro thought for a moment. "If he's not trying to destroy them or the temple, then what does he plan on using all that power for?"

Kalani sat, waiting for word about whether their mission was a success or not. Leia began to feel something. She wasn't sure what it was, but something just felt wrong. The transmitter went off again.

"Something has entered the city. It doesn't look like a ship."

Leia's bad feeling grew worse. "We need to get out of here."

Kalani looked at her. "Why?"

"We have to go now!" Leia ran out of the room.

Kalani looked out the window. He saw Shadow wrapped in a dark aura, floating above the city. He saw him removing the golden rings from his wrists. Kalani began calculating the possibilities for what this meant. But he never completed that calculation as a large burst of red energy exploded out of Shadow's body.