Happy High Holidays Everybody!
Believe it or not, Arav Rosh Hashana counts as the start of the new year!
And in case you can't tell, i'm Jewish.
Here's a special Holiday Edition for ya!
I checked. I don't own Sonic or Sonic related things EXCEPT this fic, and Project Cross. I own freaky mutated Shadow-guy! Shadow POV, yada yada -

Nuf said.


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Many of the buildings were scorched, cracked, and otherwise damaged. The rest were

now rubble scattered on the dirt. We didn't see any people - they were either in hiding or

gone. "I can't believe it…" Amy seemed very pale. We could hear sounds of fighting up

ahead. There, a small group from GUN, lead in person by Vox, were trying to attack Cross.

I say 'trying', because no matter what they did they couldn't make a scratch on him. Cross

used his tentacles to fling all of them into the nearest standing buildings before he turned

to us. "I'm not surprised," he said evenly. "I could tell you would try to fight me

eventually. But, I wonder. What makes you think you can succeed against the Supreme

Being?" "We've saved this planet dozens of times," Sonic said. "You're just another

wanna-be pyromaniac bent on global domination. You won't beat us!" "I beg to differ."

With no further than that warning, Cross opened fire.






Every single one of Cross's pods began spewing fireballs, which we dodged. As we

were distracted by this, Cross's tentacles lashed out. I was knocked flat by a grazing

blow. Amy and Tails got hit full force, getting tossed hard. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge

barely managed to dodge. "Amy! Tails!" Sonic yelled. The walker Tails had been in was

crushed, and he was nowhere to be seen. Amy was picking herself up, her mallet lost. "You

should know better than to hit girls, you jerk!" Sonic tried to use his Homing Attack, but

Cross kept deflecting it. Knuckles and Rouge tried to attack, but Cross was blocking them

too. He could see everything from the high place on top of his own tendrils. Well, almost

everything. One thing he failed to notice in time was Tails, diving in for an attack with

Amy's mallet. "Got ya!" Cross roared, more in annoyance than any real pain, and would have

smacked Tails into the next city if my Homing Attack hadn't smacked him in the face. "You

let your guard down," I chided as I landed. "True; but I will not make that mistake again."

Cross sneered and let loose a barrage of Chaos Spears. Sonic tried to hit him from behind,

and he would have if the Chaos Spears hadn't been immediately followed by the biggest Sonic

Wind any of us had ever seen. "Hey, that move's mine!" "And we're so glad you noticed,"

Knuckles growled. I felt a bruise forming on my arm, but refrained from rubbing it.

Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, and Sonic tried a full frontal assault. Cross was barely scratched

as he sent them hurtling. Sonic landed near me, away from the others. He was out cold.

Everyone else was either out or too hurt to move. It was a one-on-one fight now - The

Supreme Being vs. The Ultimate Life Form.






Cross eyed me with scorn as he withdrew his tendrils to lower himself to my eye

level. "This is pointless, you know. It's been fifty years, and you haven't

changed since we first fought. You have no chance of defeating me." "And yet, here I am."

"True." He looked at me strangely. "It appears we have gone full circle. I no longer

sense the Biolizard's power - I know you destroyed him. He was a mindless puppet, incapable

of comprehending the destruction he could administer. You, however, are fully aware of all

you are capable of, and yet you do nothing, progress nowhere. You don't even age. I have

watched you since my 'rediscovery' by that fool human. You could be so much more than you

are, it's really quite sad. I could help you, you know." "What are you babbling about?"

His sudden interest was making my fur rise. "I could help you achieve the ultimate power.

You could do anything you wanted with such power - end disease, stop war, even raise the

dead. Quite the idea, isn't it?" "Raise the dead?" I said it softly. /Maria…I could

bring her back?/ {To what?} A part of my mind that never let anything but truth pass it

spoke. {She gave her life so you could live, so everyone could live. What is the cost, to

resurrect her?} /I would give my life to see her face again./ {What about her? Are you so

blinded that you would ignore her opinion of this sort of thing? If the cost was the

painful, unhappy death of everyone on this planet, what would she say?} The obvious truth

hit me. Maria wanted everyone happy. Killing them all would mean breaking my promise.

Doing _anything_ that hurt them would. I saw Cross draw closer. "What would it cost me, to

achieve such a power?" "Nothing but yourself. It wouldn't affect anyone or anything else."

He smirked. As my thoughts wavered, I saw an echo of triumph flit over his features. I

felt the word on my tongue, and then -





It grabbed the doctor by the throat, knocking him flat, trying to throttle him!

"No!"

The freakish creature got knocked off as I hit it from behind, slamming into the wall.

The doctor held his throat, where bruise marks from the creature had begun darkening.

I barely got a chance to confirm that when it came for me.

It's high-pitched scream echoed in my head as I was pinned down.

Thousands of tiny teeth tore at me!

I fought harder than I ever had before.

I barely managed to hold down the stubby thing's arms when it spoke.

"Must consume…must absorb…must destroy!"

Those hissing words were all I knew as it flipped me off.

I hadn't even landed before the thing wrapped it's tentacles around my body.

"Must achieve perfection…must absorb to achieve perfection!"

It slammed me into the floor - hard.

"Subject refuses to cooperate. Force will be used as necessary…"

I didn't even have time to cry out as it went to it's ruthless work…







I blinked as the memory came to me, as crystal clear if it had happened an hour ago.

I smirked. "Sorry, the answer's still no." Cross seemed taken aback. "Still?" It said

the word cautiously. "You haven't changed at all, Cross." The conviction in my voice grew

stronger with every word. "I remember you. Still trying for the impossible. You cannot

live with what you are. You only seek more power, no matter what must be done to attain it.

Personally, I'm disgusted my DNA is a part of you." Cross laughed then, a high-pitched

cackle. "Same old Shadow. Still too stubborn to see. Well, you will see soon enough.

There's no one with a tranquilizer to save you from your fate this time. I _will_ finish

what I started, even if you don't cooperate. Resistance is futile." "We'll see, parasite!"

With those parting shots, we attacked.







I started with barrage of Chaos Spears. Cross intercepted every one with a fireball

before launching a Sonic Wind. I jumped, and used a Homing Attack. I hit him, but he was

focused enough to hit me with his own Homing Attack on my rebound. As I hit the ground I

used my Spin Dash to move before a tendril drove itself through my head. I continued the

Dash as tentacles rained from the sky, barely missing me as they drilled through solid

stone. As I dodged, I made my way closer to Cross's main body, jumping at the last second

and getting him with my Homing Attack again. This time, I wasn't quick enough to avoid the

fireball that sent me sprawling. Jumping up, I ran to avoid the Chaos Spears he sent at me.

My hover jets kicked in just in time for me to avoid getting wrapped in tentacles -

something I knew was definitely an improvement over last time. I zipped back and forth,

constantly avoiding his scaly embrace. "Out of tricks, leech?" I taunted him. Big mistake

on my part. He leered and roared, "NIGHTMARE RING!" He shot a glowing green ring at me,

and it connected. It was incredibly painful. "You forget, I am an IMPROVEMENT of the two

of you. I have my own personal tricks!" He laughed as I picked myself up. "Here, I'll

demonstrate another particularly lethal one on your blue friend!" No! I could see Sonic,

still curled on his side unconscious. Cross aimed his pods at Sonic. "SCATTER BOMB!" His

pods released hundreds of spears of blindingly bright white light, and the area where Sonic

lay erupted with explosions.



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OMG! I killed Sonic! The horah, the horah!
Heh, Jewish joke. I couldn't resist.
Stayed tuned for the next chapter: Sonic, Dead? Maybe. Maybe not. He might be dead. Or is he?
PS I like reviews, don't you?