Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues

Padme Skywalker stood in the Senate Hall, wondering if she was ever going to pull the galaxy back together again. After all the events involving Shadow and Palpatine, the Republic and Separatist Alliance had dissolved. There were still several planets that remained close allies with each other, mainly because they were dependent on trade with each other in order to acquire goods they couldn't produce themselves, but aside from that every planet was out for itself.

This naturally brought a lot of problems. The main one being that crime syndicates like the Hutts had far more power than ever before. Luckily, they spent most of their time fighting with their rivals rather than conquering innocent planets. But when their wars had a definitive victor, who knew what would happen?

Padme had been trying her best for years to bring the galaxy back together. Unfortunately, very few people agreed with her. After the Republic and the Separatist governments were exposed as corrupt frauds, no one trusted the idea of a galaxy-wide government. Many planets didn't even send a representative to this meeting she was holding. And the ones that did show up each brought a small army of body guards and mainly yelled at each other.

After twenty years with no progress, Padme was about ready to quit. The galaxy would only unite together if it wanted to, and it clearly did not.

Her mouth snapped shut on the speech she had giving on autopilot when the alarms suddenly started to blare. The representatives started shrieking about a terrorist attack and accusing each other of orchestrating it.

That's it. Padme thought. I'm done.

"Attention! There is a dangerous droid on the loose!" A voice announced over the intercom.

The Hall began to empty out as everyone bolted for their ships. Padme sighed and thought it best that she do the same. She paused as her personal comm went off and realized that it was a call from Cody.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"So you heard about that droid that's on a rampage? It wants to talk to you."

Padme's eyebrows shot up. "Me? What does it want with me?"

"It's not exactly you that it wants. It's interested in General Skywalker."

"Coming."


Mission Objective: Find Jedi and save Shadow the hedgehog.

This should have been relatively simple to accomplish. Unfortunately, Omega had ended up on a planet where everyone wanted to shoot him. His sudden appearance had startled a person who was almost certainly under the influence of one substance or another, and they had shot at him. Omega had done as both training and programming dictated and shot back. Unlike Omega, the alien wasn't bullet proof.

Unfortunately, things had only escalated from there. Suddenly there were dozens of people who wanted to shoot him. A very illogical decision, as they had seen the other guy try and fail. Nevertheless, they were very annoying and distracting. But at least one of them had been able to tell him about the Jedi Temple on the top level.

But when Omega got there, he found that there were no Jedi at all! It was instead inhabited by the clone people that Shadow had mentioned in his story. Since Shadow would probably be displeased if Omega shot them, the robot tried communicating instead.

"So… you're a friend of Shadow's?"

"Affirmative."

"And you say he's been… possessed?"

"Affirmative."

"Can we really trust this guy?" Another clone whispered to the one that had been speaking to Omega.

"Lying is a skill I have yet to master."

They weren't entirely convinced by Omega's story but bringing it to the Jedi didn't seem like that bad of an idea. If nothing else, Lightsabers would probably work better than blasters had. The only problem was, they hadn't been in contact with the Jedi in a very long time. But they did know where at least one of them was.

Padme came in, accompanied by Rex. "So, you know Shadow?"

"Affirmative. He requires immediate assistance from the Jedi."

"He claims that Shadow has been 'possessed' by Sidious." Cody said.

"Sidious is dead." Padme stated. "Shadow never mentioned having a friend like you."

"Unsurprising. Shadow doesn't speak much to begin with. He wouldn't have mentioned me unless it was relevant."

"That does sound like the Shadow I know." Rex commented.

"I'm still not convinced." Padme said suspiciously.

"Observe." Omega activated a holographic display. "Here is a picture of Team Dark after we destroyed one of Eggman's fortresses."

The picture included Omega, Shadow, and a third person Padme didn't know. They were standing atop a pile of wreaked mechanical parts with smoking ruins in the background. The winged one was giving Shadow bunny ears and he was giving her an unamused look.

"…Okay then." Padme conceded. "But that would mean Sidious is alive after all!"

Omega shut off the display. "Affirmative. This is why it is critical that I find the Jedi. And I have been told that you know one."

"Well, he doesn't consider himself a Jedi anymore, but yes I know one. Shadow would have told you about him."

"The Jedi identified as Anakin Skywalker?"

Padme sighed. "Yeah, he's not gonna be happy to hear this."


"YOU'RE TELLING ME HE'S ALIVE!?"

Tails cautiously lifted his ears back off his head. "Um… yes?"

"WHERE IS HE? WHAT IS HE DOING?"

"That's part of the problem. I don't know. Everyone who went through the portal would have been randomly scattered across the galaxy just like the Emeralds were. He could have shown up anywhere. I can't even be certain he showed up in same point in time as I did. It looks like a lot more time has passed you than it has for us." Tails explained. "But whatever he's doing, he's going to come after the Chaos Emeralds."

Anakin took a few deep breaths. "Okay. Okay." He shoved the Emerald into Tails's hands. "Take this and leave the planet immediately. Luke find your sister and tell her to put the entire city on lockdown immediately."

"Hold on, I still need to find the Jedi!" Tails protested.

"R2!"

One of the astromechs rolled forward with a concerned beep and bumped against Anakin's legs.

Anakin pointed at Tails. "Take him to Lothal." He then quickly marched over to another ship.

"Dad, where are you going?"

"I'm going to get your mother, now go find your sister!"

Anakin jumped into the ship and zoomed right out of the hanger. The familiar sound of a sonic boom punched Tails's ears as the small ship accelerated away.

"What just happened?" Luke exclaimed. "Why did my dad never tell me he's a Jedi? Why is he so terrified? And how does he know Shadow?"

"Your dad really didn't tell you much, did he?"

Luke sat down heavily. "He just told me he was born on Tatooine before he eventually moved to Naboo where he met my mom. They got married and they lived here ever since." He groaned. "Why didn't he tell me?"

Tails put his hand on Luke's shoulder. "Well, based on what Rouge told me, it wasn't a happy story."

"Tell me."

"Your father was a Jedi. The only Jedi Shadow kind of respected. Shadow saw the clone army as slavery and Anakin agreed with him. Freeing them interfered with the plans of Sidious, so he kidnapped your mother so he could force your dad to do all sorts of terrible things. But then with Shadow's help, he was supposedly able to kill Sidious. But apparently, he's still alive in Shadow's head. My guess is that he didn't want you to know about the terrible things they went through."

"He still could have at least told me that he was a Jedi."

"I'm afraid I don't have the whole story." Tails confessed.

R2 nudged Tails towards a ship that had just been readied.

"He's saying it's time to go." Luke translated.

"Why don't you come with me?" Tails asked suddenly.

"You want me to come?"

"You said you wanted to be a Jedi, and I'm sure they can answer more questions about your dad."

"But I can't just leave!"

"What's stopping you?"

Luke paused to think. "Okay, but I'm gonna need a minute to explain this to Leia."


Leia sat alone in the dinning hall, wondering just what was taking her father and brother so long. She had about finished eating when Luke finally came in.

"You're not gonna believe this! Our dad is a Jedi!"

She looked at him strangely. So, Luke explained everything he had just learned. She continued to look at him strangely.

"So let me get this straight. Our father was a Jedi, who knew the legendary Shadow the hedgehog, and now you want to run off and look for the Jedi."

"I just… don't know who our dad is anymore. And this is the only way I'm gonna find out what really happened."

"That's a crazy plan! Get on a ship with a stranger when there's supposedly a maniac on the loose? Do you have any idea how mad dad will be?"

"Dad's been lying to us our whole lives! Doesn't that make you mad? Don't you want to know what really happened?"

"I will ask him when he gets back." Leia said in her queen voice.

"And you expect him to be honest?" Luke shouted. "If he was ever going to tell us what happened, he would have told us a long time ago!"

"Well I'm not letting you leave. I'm putting the hanger on lockdown effective immediately." Leia stood and went to inform the head of security.

Luke growled, now in a bad mood. "Why won't she…!"

"We'd better hurry." Tails said.

"Huh?"

"Well, you still want to come, don't you?"

"Well of course, but…"

"Then let's get out of here before they have the chance to lock everything down."

The two took off running down the hall.