This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.

Chapter 6: Twilight of Fire

Day 9

It was Shadow's third full day in Lalberdean. Like the previous two days, Shadow awoke from his bed, washed up in the bathroom, and then dressed. After putting on his overcoat, Shadow opened his trunk and took out a bunch of Power Rings, stuffing them in his pockets. Now fully prepared for what the world could throw at him, Shadow left the house tracing a path to the mess hall. When he got there, Shadow went to the line, collected his breakfast, a large omelet and a grilled cheese sandwich with a glass of orange juice, and then looked for a seat.

Off to his left were the Sancots, minus Yohan, whom he usually sat down for meals with; off to his right were the guards, the people he was supposed to be working with to fight the dragons. The Sancots were a kind family that was playing host to the black one, and he felt most comfortable with them; on the other hand, the guards were not the most hospitable people around, fighting dragons who could level a whole town was obviously not improving their disposition.

The whole situation was not a whole lot different than the old days in Knothole, a rag tag bunch of rebels fighting a vicious force from a small encampment, lacking most of the amenities that Shadow was now taking for granted in Mobotropolis. But in those times, Shadow wasn't like anyone else; most of the old Freedom Fighters were assembled as a troop under Geoffrey, and many of them were former military from the old Acorn Kingdom. Shadow wasn't like that, he didn't fit in with the rebel forces, and was more independent; he didn't take a lot of orders and did most of his fighting by himself, with nothing but his Chaos Control for backup. It was very similar here; while the guards were not real military, they learned fast and became a pretty well-defined fighting force. It was that that annoyed Shadow. He was still as independent as ever and never really became a cog in Knothole's forces, nor did he want to just blend in to Lalberdean's paramilitary regime. In the old days, he was always closer with the people like Sally, much like he was getting closer with his adoptive family here.

All signs pointed to sitting again with the wife of the one who invited him, but somewhere deep down alarm bells were ringing. Ever since this whole mess started, it seems as if everything that was going on was against Shadow's will and wishes; as if whatever he wanted was wrong. He looked over at his hosts, and wondered if it was simply more appropriate that he should be sitting with them, or the guards who were busting their asses to keep the village safe; something that Shadow really wasn't doing yet.

Reluctantly, he had convinced himself that he should be with the guards, the ones he was supposed to be here helping, and the ones he should be getting close with. Heading over, he found an empty space near the end of a table and sat down, trading nods with a few of them, although most were too busy eating or talking with someone else to acknowledge the hedgehog. Some were just plain ignoring him.

Most of the guards were still apprehensive regarding the hedgehog, just like the mercenary Shadow wasn't like the others. The guards were mostly miners, who when faced with the threat of the dragons had become defenders of the town, just as others like them in the nearby villages took up arms to defend themselves; but deep down, they were still miners, and had other duties to perform. Shadow on the other hand wasn't a miner, and had no other duties; while the others also had to help in the mines, or in the makeshift refinery in the village, he did nothing. Shadow didn't like the situation either, he didn't feel that he really fit in, and he hated just waiting around; his biggest though silent complaint wasn't that he was dragged here into a dangerous situation, but that he had nothing to do in the meantime. As far as Shadow was concerned, bringing him here was a big waste of theirs and his time. Only the memory of Vannannen a few days ago showed him that these people did need help, sadly it was quickly fading behind the monotony of life in the small town.

* * *

After breakfast, Shadow was hoping for something different to do today. He had spent all of yesterday simply patrolling the town, and also tested his speed on the mountains, to see how far he could go. The hedgehog was studying the maps that Yohan had given him and wondered if he could try to race to the next town. Nosadire was the closest and would take more than a day of driving to get there, but Shadow figured that he could make it in about 20 minutes. He even thought he could get that lower if he took a direct route across some of the rough terrain, as his phase run cared not for terrain so long as it was solid. Eventually, Shadow got his orders, and was condemned to continue his rut from yesterday.

He spent the first half hour lamenting his position and how much longer this would go on for when a welcome break came; Karma called out to him and asked him for a favor.

"I need your help with something."

"Sure, what is it?" Shadow hated menial labor, but he wanted anything to break up this dreary routine.

"We have several errands to do and we need someone to look after the young ones. Marcy's available, but there are 13 of them under 10 years of age, a bit too much for her alone."

"Well, I'm here to help protect the town, I guess children are part of the deal."

Shadow wasn't sure if he'd like the children, since the only one he ever spent any time with in real life was Tails, and he was pretty mature for his age.

"Thank you, they're over in a small field just behind the mess hall. If they get too rowdy, you can try calming them down with a story; I'm sure they'd like to hear about Mobotropolis."

Shadow followed Carmelita around the mess hall to the small field where the kids were playing with a ball. At first glance it looked like they were playing some derivative of soccer; but as he got closer, it started to look more like a game of "kick the ball around". He recognized two of them right away, Marcy and Brian.

"Oh children." Karma called out.

The kids stopped for a moment and turned to the mother bear.

"You've all met Shadow, right? He'll be keeping an eye on you today while I'm busy."

The kids spoke in a close unison. "Hi."

Shadow waved. "Hi."

"Well, I'm off. I hope you get along."

Shadow watched as Carmelita walked away, while the children returned to their game. When the adult bear was out of sight, Shadow walked over to her daughter who was off to one side.

"So what are they playing?"

"Oh, they're just kicking a ball around. Something to do to pass the time."

Shadow noticed the somewhat bored tone in Marcy's voice. "Something wrong?"

"No."

The sigh only reinforced Shadow's belief. "Sounds like you're bored; watching the kids not your idea of fun?"

Marcy added a bit of snobbery to her voice. "Hardly, just a bunch of little pests."

"Ah, I've heard that before; the 'I'm to old to be with little kids, I should be with kids my own age' attitude."

Marcy didn't respond to that, but the extra little pout on her face was enough to tell Shadow that he hit the nail right on the head.

"I've noticed that there aren't a lot of teenagers around."

"No, I'm about the only one. There are two other teens, but they're both older than me; so while they're usually with the adults, I'm stuck baby sitting."

"That's a tough break. Reminds me of this kid back in Knothole."

"Oh."

"His name's 'Tails', we call him that because he has two tails." Shadow chuckled a bit at the odd sight of the fox, then he realized that at no time did he ever find out his real name; for the sake of the story he ignored that oversight. "Anyway, he was about 12, and he was the oldest of all the children in Knothole; there were only 4 in total, but none of the other three were Tails' age."

"There was a girl here some months ago, she was only a year older than me. She was my best friend, until she moved away."

"Tough."

"Yeah, she was here with her mother and little brother; they moved to another village down the other side of the mountain where her uncle lived. Things were just getting a little too hot around here, so they left. Plus, her uncle was trying to set her up with a boy in the village over there."

"An arranged marriage?"

"Not really, but there were no boys her age around here, nor my age. It's not uncommon around here to find your husband or wife in another village. In a year or two, I'll probably be sent to another village to try and find a mate. Are you married?"

"No, I'm still a bachelor, but I've got some prospects back home."

"You mean those two girls you mentioned."

Shadow smiled. "Uh, yeah, them."

"And do either of these girls like you?" The childish tone of Marcy's voice suggested just what the term "like" meant.

"Maybe."

"Oh, and just how do you get two girls to like you that much?"

"It's all part of the hero game." Shadow acted all big and tough at this point. "You save someone's life and they love you."

"Oh really."

Shadow laughed. "I've saved both of their lives, and I can understand how they'd appreciate that, but there's just something about them."

"And how is it that you have two girls chasing after you without trying to kill each other?"

"Rouge is a bit strange, at least most people around here would find her strange; she convinced Bunnie that they should try to stay on friendly terms, to make it more of a game than a life-or-death struggle. They keep it friendly, but sometimes I get the feeling that they'd try to rip each other's throats out if they had the chance."

They traded a laugh.

"And what are you looking for in a boyfriend?"

Marcy laid back, she never really thought about getting married, she was still a little too young yet. "All I want is for someone to carry me away from here. A dashing young man to pick me up and bring me to a beautiful land without barren mountains, and fire breathing dragons."

Shadow and Marcy sat there, contemplating Marcy's dream. But the bear was also considering her dream, and whispered an alternative to her Mr. Right.

"I just want someone to take me out of this place."

Marcy sat there, and Shadow didn't want to disturb her little quiet time. He leaned forward, and had his attention focused on the children playing in the empty area.

* * *

A loud bell was heard, ringing very fast, as if at least two people were banging on the metal alternately.

"What is that?"

"Dragons. They're attacking."

"You kids better hide and…"

Marcy was already herding the children away, knowing what to do in case of an attack. Shadow was left alone, caught in the middle of a storm of activity as people scurried for cover, or battle positions. With little idea of where to go or what to do, Shadow located the first person who seemed like he was going into the battle and just tailed him.

Everyone was armed with many kinds of weapons: swords, spears, axes; some of them like hammers and pickaxes were regular tools that were co-opted as instruments of war. Shadow felt a little out of place being there with no such armaments; but he quickly checked his pockets for the Rings he was carrying, knowing that he had a potent weapon of his own.

The people of Lalberdean were taking up positions about the city, sitting behind the stone walls of the houses and short walls that marked the limits of the village, waiting for the oncoming attack. Some of the people were looking out around the walls, spotting the dragons as they approached, to tell the others when to move; either to attack or to flee. Shadow didn't like just sitting back and wanted to see the incoming dragons, so he scooted away from the group he was with and used his phase run to get on top of one of the houses. Once there, he took a defensive position behind a chimney and looked out.

High in the sky, three black marks could be seen slowly wafting in the air. As they descended towards the village, they took shape, and color, and size. At the long distance, Shadow still couldn't get a feel of how large the beasts actually were, but he had a feeling that they would be really large.

When the dragons came close the guard towers launched a preemptive assault, firing long bolts of steel into the air. The demons avoided the huge arrows, but one emitted a shriek when the spear clipped it on the side. Now they were angry.

The dragons swooped down and attacked the towers, blasting it with their fiery breath. Inside, the guards closed a series of steel shutters to block the heat while other towers around the village fired at the dragons to shake them off, to keep them from trying to savage the stone and metal structure. The trio left the guard tower and split up to attack other towers, each one trying to burn or claw its way into their respective targets; but like before, they were shooed away by the remaining towers.

As they flew directly overhead, Shadow could see just how massive his enemy was, and how powerful they were in a one-on-one fight. Each one the size of a small house with huge wings that extended almost twice as far on each side; covered in a dense patchwork of overlapping scales, bulging around the large muscles of their four legs, and up the arms of their wings. One had deep red scales covering its back and sides, a mix of ruby and blood red, blending into a bright orange on the underside; its head was lined on the back by a row of short horns. Another had a dark forest green shade of scales that covered the whole body, and two long horns that swept back, instead of curling forward like the skull Shadow saw in the barn. The last was lime green with a yellow belly, and its horns curled around in a spiral like a ram's. He could see how the pressure of an army of these monsters could easily ravage a village, even though this small group was having trouble breaking the defenses.

After a few minutes of toying with the guard towers, the dragons decided to ignore them, and dipped towards the village, searching the streets for the villagers. As they swooped over the buildings, the beasts fired jets of hot gas to the ground. Firing on the stone houses did little to faze them other than to slightly char them, and color them a glowing orange.

Shadow danced around the chimney to avoid detection by the giant creatures, just like the villagers. When he was sure that neither dragon was looking, Shadow would jump to another roof and hide at another chimney. The hedgehog wondered just when things were going to happen; did the villagers think that the dragons would give up and leave, or were they waiting for them to eventually land and jump them. Whatever was the plan, Shadow was getting tense just waiting there; he wanted something to happen.

Soon something did happen, one of the dragons swooped down, blasting its breath at the ground. Shadow couldn't see if the dragon saw any of the villagers in the street, or if it was just poking around, hoping to flush some out. A commotion heard down below suggested it might have been the former. Shadow crossed over some of the houses to get a better look, and almost forgot to check for other dragons. He had to quickly duck to avoid detection from the lime green dragon that flew just behind him.

The lime green dragon and the red dragon circled around, intent on locking in on the action that the dark one was involved in. Before it could get there, the lime green dragon was targeted by another group; a long chain was thrown and looped around its back legs. The villagers tried to pull the beast down; although it's powerful wings kept it aloft, it was having some trouble with the heavy chain tying up two of its legs and the added weight. Kicking its legs around, the dragon tried to haul the villagers off, and threw many of them several meters through the air; but it could not free itself from the chain that was anchored into the ground. Hoping to fight off the villagers that were surrounding it, the trapped dragon fired upon them causing them to scatter, only to have them come around from behind and try from another angle.

The red dragon saw that both its comrades were in trouble, but the lime green one seemed to be in more danger. Swinging around, the red beast came down on the villagers and blasted at them with its fiery rage. The two dragons were able to repel the assault, at least for a minute; while the red dragon provided cover, the lime green dragon focused on the chain. A stream of flame was unable to melt the steel links, and it was too strong to simply rip apart. The dragon landed and reached back with its forward legs to tug at the chain around its hind legs. After a minute, the chain was pulled slack and fell off. The dragon roared and flapped its wings to get airborne. While the lime dragon flew around to find those that dared snare it, the red one moved to the dark dragon to back it up.

Shadow had been paying close attention to the captured dragon, and turned his attention to the other battle with the shift in the fight. The dark green dragon was staying off the ground and raining flames to the ground. Shadow had no idea just how the people on the ground were faring, but they were soon about to have a double headache. While the band was preoccupied with fighting the dark green dragon, the red dragon came in to ease the tension, and roast a few of the peons. Shadow saw the ambush coming up and chose this opportunity to join the fray. Leaping over a couple roofs, Shadow lined up with the reptile and pulled his hands back.

"Chaos Spear!"

The blazing lighting bolt fired straight through the air, but the red-scaled dragon swerved to avoid the comet. It looked back and roared at the impudent hedgehog. The dragon flew back towards the rooftop with Shadow standing on it. The hedgehog stood there, taunting the dragon to come closer. Approaching Shadow, it pulled back its head and unleashed its blazing fury. When the flame was almost tickling Shadow's fur, he leapt off the roof and appeared at another roof. The dragon couldn't see Shadow through the flames, nor did it know that Shadow was already out of range, it just kept blasting the roof.

"Chaos Spear!"

The red dragon was too preoccupied to see Shadow on the other rooftop, or to avoid the energy bolt that he fired. The spear slammed right on the side of the dragon's torso and exploded in a blaze of sparks, inciting a cry from the beast as its whole body lurched in pain and fell to the ground.

It took a few seconds before the creature moved at all, showing that it was stunned, but not dead. With a wail, it fired again at Shadow; though it was more a defensive blast to shoo him away, not an attack. Struggling to get up, the dragon eventually got back to its large feet. Spreading its wings, the beast jumped up and took off, not wanting another punishing burst from Shadow. With a pitiful wail, the beaten beast called to its comrades, and all three retreated. The villagers suspended their attack, including the guard towers when they saw the dragons leaving without any further conflict.

The villagers watched closely as the dragons flew away, wary of celebrating until the beasts were well out of range. Once there was nothing more than three specks in the sky, cheers wrung out up and down the streets. Most were happy that they were gone, and the people in hiding soon came out now that the coast was clear; but some saw what happened, and how Shadow struck down one of the demons in one shot. They called out to him, to come off the roof and join them below.

Shadow looked down briefly before resuming his stare to the heavens and the three disappearing marks in the sky. His attack on the red dragon was racing through his mind on a continuous loop, that blood curdling scream echoing in his ears; Shadow knew "blood curdling" when he heard it. His strike hit hard, but while the dragon felt a lot of pain, it really took no damage; it was stunned and shaken, but quickly recovered.

Shadow looked down to the villagers below, the story of his attack was spreading, and the people were cheering him on; but it only served to unnerve him. It reminded him a bit of Knothole, when he returned after saving Geoffrey's troops from Robotnik's forces. The people of Knothole were also very appreciative of Shadow's triumph, but at the time they were too busy tending to the injured to lavish over their black hero. For Shadow that was acceptable, and as he got to know the people of Knothole more and more, he grew to tolerate their zealousness and modest hero worship when Robotnik finally fell. But this was something different, everyone wanted to congratulate Shadow, and many of them were starting to see the hedgehog as the messiah that Yohan may have suggested him—or Sonic at least—to be.

Shadow wanted nothing more than to disappear right now, but that would only make things worse, and the longer he stood on the roof looking like an idiot, the worse things were going to get as well. There was only one thing to do, go down there and get it over with. Shadow trotted to the edge of the roof and jumped down into the crowd. The villagers started to glom around the hedgehog like a pack of rabid wolves on a large prairie animal they stalked and downed.

"That was amazing."

"How'd you do that?"

Shadow was trying to calm everybody down, mainly to get them off his back, but he had no idea how to do that. Trying to shrug off questions or giving overly modest answers only resulted in more attention; all the hedgehog could to was keep smiling and try to wait it out, hoping that the village didn't break into a parade or something.

"Is that what you used against Robotnik?"

"We're glad to have you around."

"You really hurt it with that."

Despite the success at warding off the dragons, Shadow still wondered just how effective he would be fighting these monsters; he knew that the shock caused a lot of pain, but it didn't really hurt the dragon. In a way, he was worried that these people were putting too much faith in him, depending on him the way Knothole did; on the other hand, he also wanted any excuse to go home. He was sure that if he had left before now, most would probably have shrugged him off with a polite "thanks for coming"; but not anymore, there was no way he was going anywhere.

To be continued