A long overdue note to my reviewers: Thank you very much for your comments! I hope you keep on enjoying it! (The songs in the seventh chapter are mine, what do you think?)

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-Sonic. Shadow. Tails. Give me the Emerald.- The voice was strange, somehow flat, and it seemed as if it were not a sound at all. There was none of the resonance that characterised any normal voice, nor emotion. Tails rubbed at his ears. He didn't seem to hear it speak… he just knew that it had spoken.

"Why should I give you the Emerald? And just what are you, anyway?!" Sonic said.

-I am Black Crystal. Now give me the Emerald.-

"No way!"

-Then I shall take it!- Immediately, it snapped into action, moving as fast as Sonic himself. Sonic stood his ground until the last possible moment, then leaped up and out of the way. Instantly, Black Crystal spun sideways, flashing past millimetres away from Shadow, curving up smoothly to intercept Sonic. As his rise slowed, he knew that it was gaining, and threw himself sideways in midair. Black Crystal missed him by a millimetre and curved around to attack again. As Sonic fell, it shot towards him – then suddenly its course changed, too late for anyone to do anything about it, and it shot past Shadow, grabbing his leg and taking him with it.

Black Crystal hovered in the air, just out of Sonic's jumping range, holding Shadow upside-down by the leg over the edge of the cliff. Were it to let go, Shadow would fall into the sea.

-The Emerald. Or I let go.-

For an instant, Sonic's eyes met Shadow's, and he knew what he had to do.

"No way, Crystal!"

Black Crystal released Shadow, who fell from view. It attacked once more, going now for Sonic, now for Tails, none of them getting anything more than a few glancing hits. Then it managed to hit Sonic, throwing him to the floor, dazed. As it was coming in on the final attack run, something hit it from behind. Black Crystal spun out over the ocean, out of control, and Shadow landed next to Sonic, offering a hand to help him up. Sonic pulled himself upright and looked at Shadow.

"Nice work, Shadow! I thought you'd have enough energy by now to use your jets," he said. It was exactly what Shadow had done; as soon as he was out of sight, he had used his jets to slow, then stop his fall, and finally rise above the cliff again.

'Only just,' Shadow thought. He was still feeling weak, and he concentrated on staying upright as a momentary spell of dizziness swept over him. Something of it must have shown in his face, because Sonic asked,

"Hey, are you okay?"

Shadow closed his eyes for a few moments. "I'll be fine," he said.

"Wow… I get the feeling we haven't seen the last of that thing, though. Do you think it was what wrecked my workshop?" Tails asked.

"Probably. And it was searching for the Chaos Emeralds, so we have to find them first!" Sonic answered him.

"Then let's go, right? Shadow?"

Shadow nodded. He was coming with them.