Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues
Rouge felt herself die on the inside. She wilted, falling to her knees and staring blankly ahead as she tried to process the storm of emotions. Did she even believe he was dead this time? Rouge didn't know anymore.
Sonic definitely didn't buy that Shadow was dead. He had come back from the dead too many times already.
Tails felt his eyes welling up. He didn't know much about the Force, but the Jedi did, and they seemed certain that Shadow was gone. He buried his face against Sonic's chest for comfort.
Then a voice spoke, smaller and more plaintive than anyone had ever heard before. "Shadow is… nonfunctional?"
Petro nodded.
Omega's eye glowed bright red. "New mission: Destroy Sidious. Where is he?"
"We don't know." Petro said.
"Then I will go find someone who does."
Lando spoke up. "Well, now that that's figured out, I have a problem of my own that I need help with."
Petro glared at him and Yoda said, "What troubles you?"
"The Mandalorians took over Cloud City."
Petro's eyes shot open. "The Mandalorians!"
"Yes, that's what I just said."
"Shadow killed Maul and took the Darksaber."
Sonic rose a questioning brow. "Yeah, so?"
"That means he's the rightful ruler of the Mandalorians!"
"Where do they live?" Omega demanded.
"On Mandalore, where else? We'll take ya. We've got a score to settle with them too." Lando offered.
"Whoa! You can't just go to Mandalore and take them all on!" Petro shouted.
"Why not?" Omega asked.
"The Mandalorians are the deadliest warriors in the entire galaxy. And if they're being led by someone as powerful as Shadow… We can't just charge in there all willy-nilly! We can't go after him until we're prepared. First, we need to find the Emeralds."
Composing himself, Tails offered his own suggestion. "We should split up so we can find them faster. And we still need to find Knuckles."
They split up into pairs. Each pair had an Emerald tracker. Omega would go with Lando, Rouge with Petro, Luke with Rex.
Tails turned to Sonic. "I guess we're together."
"Actually, you both would be better off if you were each paired with someone from this galaxy. There's someone back at the Temple we can pair you with. We'll go pick them up before arranging ships for everybody." Petro said.
They went back to the Temple and met Chirrut and Ezra. Tails decided he would he would go with Chirrut just so he knew that there would be someone who could fly the ship, but to be honest, he wasn't entirely sure about bringing a blind person.
"Are you sure about this?" He whispered to Yoda.
"Yes."
Five ships departed from Lothal.
"Omega, this is L3. L3, this is Omega."
L3 studied the newcomer critically. "This better not be my replacement."
"Unless your function is to destroy, no."
"We are going to find Chaos Emeralds." Lando explained.
"And kill Sidious. And Eggman, if we find him." Omega added.
"And then get my city back!" Lando finished.
"Kay. Where to first?"
"So, you knew my dad, right?" Luke asked.
"Yeah. He was my general during the Clone Wars."
"What was he like?"
"Well if you want my opinion, he was the best man in the entire Republic. I've fought countless battles with him. He came up with some of the most insane, reckless, and out of the box strategies that I have ever seen. A lot of other Jedi thought he was nuts. But he had the skills and determination to pull them off."
"So why did he leave?"
Rex shifted uncomfortably "Well, I… never really had a chance to ask him. We… haven't spoken to each other in a long time."
"Why not?"
"Something happened to him."
"What?" Luke asked knowing he was getting close to one of the secrets that had been hidden from him.
"He… betrayed us and joined Sidious."
"WHY?" Luke cried. He hadn't expected that at all.
"Well, Padme had been taken hostage and I guess he chose her over the rest of us."
"…Oh."
An awkward silence descended over the ship as they continued journeying through space.
Sonic was bored again. "Ugh, how can anyone stand to travel this way? Doesn't this ship have a radio or something?"
"Can't receive radio signals while traveling faster than those signals can move." Ezra answered.
"What is anyone actually supposed to do while they're traveling?"
"Usually we occupy ourselves with reading or playing games."
"Okay, what games ya got?"
"Well, none. Kind of forgot to pack them before we left."
Sonic groaned dramatically.
"As for reading, we have the flight manual."
"Who do you think I am, Eggman?"
"Actually, I don't know anything about you at all. Maybe you could tell me?" Ezra asked.
"Sounds better than anything else. Ask away."
"You knew Shadow, right? What was he like?"
"Oh him? Only the biggest grump you ever met. And I've met some big grumps."
"Some people here said he was a hero. Others say he was an insane terrorist."
"He's both. Depends on his mood."
"Sounds like a difficult guy to be friends with."
"Oh, you have no idea!" Sonic said empathically. "But you know, despite being a huge jerk and overly violent, and constantly in denial whenever he needs help, I think his heart is mostly in the right place."
"He managed to make a lot of enemies though. Especially the Wookies." Ezra mentioned
"What'd he do to them?"
"Stories mention forest burning and child abusing. But according to Petro, it was an android that was burning the forest."
"And the child abuse?"
"Well that part was made up. But still, several Wookies are still hunting him to this very day."
"Yeah, Shadow has that kind of effect on people. Most people back home hate him too. Especially that time he tried to crash a huge space station into the planet and the time he got involved in an alien invasion."
Ezra stared. "You're going to explain more, right?"
"Well, what actually happened was this…"
Anakin landed on Lothal. Steeling himself, he went to the Temple.
"Luke!"
"Here, he is not."
Anakin angrily marched towards the voice and found Yoda sitting in an empty room.
"Where's my son?"
"Went to search for Chaos Emeralds, he did. With Rex, he is."
Anakin felt slightly better knowing that Luke was in the hands of someone capable. On the other hand, he felt a sense of impending doom regarding the very awkward conversation he was going to have with Rex.
"Don't you know that-"
"Sidious is back? Yes."
"He's going to be looking for those Emeralds too! If Sidious finds him, he will kill him!"
"Willing to take that risk, he is."
"That's because he has no idea what he's getting himself into!" Anakin shouted.
Yoda still sat on the floor, appearing totally serene. "Wishes to become a Jedi, he does."
"Well he's not going to!"
Yoda let out a sigh. "Still controlled by fear, you are. Trust your son, you must."
"Just tell me where he is."
"Anywhere, he could be."
Anakin growled in frustration. "Do you at least know where Sidious is?"
"Believe him to be on Mandalore, we do."
Anakin quickly turned around and began to walk away.
"Come back, you still can."
Anakin paused. "No, I can't." he kept walking.
