Chapter 4
Chaos Blade
Maria let out a scream of fury that caused the entire cavern to tremble. A long blue tendril of semi-solid liquid burst out of her open stomach and slashed down at Shadow. He leapt aside as the weaponized limb destroyed what remained of the stairs.
Shadow darted in all directions as shattered pieces of the ceiling rained down on top of him. The only way of escape was the door he had come in from and he made his way in that direction. He was only a few yards away when he felt the ground beneath him break. Shadow was propelled up into the air and smacked hard into the wall. His vision blurred and he was left temporarily stunned.
Maria was raging like a wild animal gone mad by imprisonment. Her arms were still tethered to metal towers and she was attempting to rip herself free. Chaos limbs sprouted from her at random slashing and tearing at everything in their reach. The shrine had been torn apart, burying the Chaos Emeralds and the engines that had absorbed their power.
The sight made Shadow feel sick, but he knew it was only a matter of moments before Maria brought the entire cavern down on herself. If he did not want to share the same fate, he had to escape. He rose gingerly to his feet and made another attempt to reach the door before a horrible tearing sound brought Shadow to a grinding halt.
Maria had pressed forward until her weight succeeded in tearing one of her arms in half. She let out a horrible scream of pain and proceeded to use the same strategy to rip her other arm. Blood gushed out in all directions and her scream lost all human identification. It rang in Shadow's ears and he realized where he had heard it before. It was the scream of the Bio-Lizard as it attempted to bring the Space Colony Ark crashing into the earth.
The scream faded into a piercing shrill as Maria raised her bloody stumps. Something else was leaking out of the wound apart from blood. Maria shuddered horribly and threw back her head as monstrously huge Chaos limbs burst out of her wounds. They hung lifelessly at her sides and Maria drew in, slow steadying breaths.
Shadow was paralyzed by horror, unable to heed his instincts which were urging him to run. Go….go now! It took a stupendous effort to turn away. The door was close, there was nothing he could do for Maria. He had to try and find a way to leave this timeline and prevent any of this from happening. Shadow started to run but Maria moved first. She swung one massive arm with the speed of a thrashing whip. Shadow just managed to defend his face before being struck. He went flying backward before managing to flip and land on his feet. The blow had knocked the air out of his lungs. No…
While he recovered, Maria's other arm seized the frame of the door and pulled. CRACK! There was a sickening crunch as metal bent forward. The rock above the door frame groaned and a moment later the whole thing collapsed. Shadow was trapped.
He was not given a chance to lament his doom. Marira screamed and resumed her effort to destroy everything around her. She was as mindless of Shadow as she was of herself. It seemed her only thought was of escape and the destruction of her prison.
Shadow felt a well of hopelessness open in his heart. Everywhere he looked he saw nothing but the closed net of the cavern walls and heard the faint groaning of the soon to collapse ceiling. In mere minutes, he would be buried under the rocks along with Maria. The Chaos Emeralds! They had fallen when Maria destroyed the shrine. If he could get hold of one he could escape with Chaos Control!
Armed with this final hope, Shadow attempted to make his way over to the collapsed shrine. Maria's rampage brought her to the other side of the cavern. She threw her body against the cavern walls and her Chaos Limbs beat and slashed at the rock. This gave Shadow the time he needed to search through the rubble. It took him a while, but at last he saw a faint red glow issuing from a crack of trashed machinery.
Shadow reached his hand into the crack and felt the edge of the emerald with the tips of his fingers. Come on…almost there…His prodding jostled the emerald out of the crack and it came rolling free. Shadow reached out to snag it but it was swiped away by a rogue Chaos limb. Maria had returned. She towered over Shadow and when he attempted to dive and catch the falling emerald one of her limbs caught him around the ankle. He was flung hard into the wall but before he could slide down, a dozen more blue tendrils wrapped around him. Shadow let out a gasp as the limbs squeezed and the air was driven out of him.
His ears popped because of the pressure and he felt his ribs groan. Shadow was hoisted up and brought face to face with Maria. Her beastial rage seemed to have softened slightly. Maria's human eye had turned blue again and there was the whisper of a conscience residing in its depths. The pressure lessened somewhat. Shadow was able to swallow a gulp of air.
The grip was still too tight for him to escape but he could dangle his feet. Shadow looked down and saw that the red Chaos Emerald was out in the open. If only he could escape for just a second. "Maria…." He groaned. "It's me….it's me Shadow..Let me go."
It was tortuous to look her in the face, but Shadow forced himself to do so. He stared directly into her eye and pleaded with her. "Let me go…it's me, it's Shadow. I'll go back, I'll fix this." Maria drew him closer to her face, placing him right in front of her eye. "You remember. I know you. It doesn't matter if I never existed in this universe, you know me. I'll save you from this. Let me go." Again, Shadow felt his bounds lessen. The blue in Maria's eye became paler. More and more it became to resemble the eye that Shadow recognized. "It's me…" He whispered. "I can save you, just let me-" Plop! Maria's eye burst like a bubble releasing a wave of gelatinous green plasma that quickly morphed into an orb. Both of her eyes were now monstrous abominations.
Shadow swallowed the bile that raced up his throat as the tendrils started to squeeze him. He made one final effort to resist the pressure but it was no use. She was far too strong. Shadow groaned as his bones and muscles burned in agony. It was over, it was all over. The Chaos Emerald was still resting out in the open, but it may as well have been on a different planet.
Shadow closed his eyes and embraced the darkness. It was over. He was going to die, squeezed to death by a monster. Hatred, sheer, unfiltered hatred overruled his despair. Shadow refused to die in a state of grim acceptance. His hate burned into his limbs removing his pain. He hated his weakness, he hated the Realm Lord, he hated Gerald and Eggman, he hated G.U.N and all the other pathetic humans, he hated Sonic and his friends, he hated that everything he had ever done had led him to this grim fate. Most of all, he hated Maria. He hated her for saving his life, for imprisoning him with her promises, for killing him now. Hate boiled in his veins like fire, burning him to the core. The heat billowed in some kind internal furnace until Shadow felt like he might combust.
Then something awoke inside him. Hatred, like a key, opened some inner storehouse of untouched power. The heat flowed outward until Shadow radiated like the surface of the sun. Maria let out a cry and dropped Shadow. He landed beside the Chaos Emerald and dropped to his knees.
The energy continued to burn inside him. His blood seemed to be boiling and a great pressure built up inside him. Shadow's eyes burned and he wondered if he was about to combust. He noticed that the red Chaos Emerald was nearby and that it was smoking. Then, as if by instinct, Shadow knew what to do.
"CHAOS BLADE!" All the heat rushed out of him and formed into a blade of pulsing red magma. Shadow took the sword and felt a hot wind blow against his face. Maria let out a shrill cry. It was as if the monster within her knew what was about to happen. Shadow did not hesitate. He sprang forward and slashed with his sword. An armada of tendrils tried to stop him but he cut through them like butter. Each cut completely cauterized the limb causing them to smoke, go black and die. Marira let out one last scream of rage before Shadow buried the blade right between her eyes.
The monster lurched, raised her arms and then let them fall. Shadow took his sword and leapt backward just as Maria fell onto her back. The Chaos Limbs dissolved into pools of ordinary water. Maria's body seemed to shrink leaving her almost ordinary size. Her body did not stir. As Shadow approached her, her skin had already flaked away. She was nothing more than a skeleton by the time he stood above her and the next second she had dematerialized into dust.
The sword in his hand vanished in a puff of smoke. Shadow had completely depleted himself of energy. He collapsed beside the spot Maria had been. The ceiling groaned up ahead and Shadow knew it was only a matter of seconds before it would collapse and bury him. However, that did not seem very important to him anymore. The Chaos Emerald was still within reach, but Shadow ignored it. He did not have the strength to use Chaos Control. There was no escape.
Shadow closed his eyes and focused on the simple effort of breathing. It was amazing how good it could feel just to breathe….
"What are you doing?" Shadow had walked into the rec area of the Space Colony Ark to find Maria laying on her back. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be in the middle of a blissful dream. "There are better places to take a nap." He suggested.
Maria had only smiled. "I'm not sleeping. Just breathing." Shadow had not known what to say to that. Maria patted the spot of the floor beside her. "Lay down."
Shadow obeyed but had to readjust himself several times. "This isn't very comfortable." He complained after a few minutes.
"Don't focus on your back. Just breathe. Feel the air entering your lungs. Isn't it amazing?"
It was an effort for Shadow not to roll his eyes. "Yeah..I suppose."
"When I was sick I had forgotten what it was like to simply lie back and breathe." Maria inhaled slowly and exhaled with obvious relish. "To simply feel the air restore your lungs, without any pain…I can't believe I used to let myself take it for granted."
Shadow said nothing. He had never been sick and, more than likely, he never would. Shadow turned his head and noticed that there was a tear on Maria's cheek. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," She answered with a smile. "It's just…I don't want to take things for granted ever again. I want to appreciate all of life's pleasures, no matter how simple. Promise me you won't let me forget Shadow, promise me-"
Shadow opened his eyes. The memory had felt so real it was as if he had slipped momentarily back into the past. "Promise me" Now he could see Maria by the terminal. She was dying from the poison as she prepared to send Shadow down on the escape pod. "Promise me."
"She asked a lot of you, Shadow." The Realm Lord's voice echoed in the darkness. All at once the sound of the groaning ceiling ceased. It felt as if the entire cavern had suddenly been set on pause. Shadow raised himself up to see the Realm Lord sitting on a throne he had conjured out of nothing. "Do you ever wonder how she'd feel if she knew what effect her words have had on you?"
"You wouldn't understand."
The Realm Lord chuckled. "Do you believe you know Maria Robotnik more than I do? Fool, I have known her across a million different streams of time. The Maria you knew played the innocent but she was only a victim of circumstances. Given health and freedom, what do you think Maria would have made of her life?"
"Shut up!"
"What makes her so different from all the other humans you despise? There is nothing in their nature, nor in Maria's nature that incline them to good. Compassion and decency are only shown in those whose circumstances have forced those traits. You know this to be true Shadow."
"And what if I do? What difference does it make? You're not any better."
The Realm Lord shook his head. "I alone choose my circumstances. Things are, as I allow them to be. One day they shall only be as I intend. You may not appreciate the subtlety of the difference, but I do not need your understanding."
"No, you only need me to kill Sonic."
"You will kill Sonic. As all other Shadows have done before. Is the architect in need when he uses a hammer to drive in a nail? I use my tools as I have fashioned them."
"I am not your tool!"
The Realm Lord rose suddenly to his feet. "You are imagining that I need your cooperation!" His voice changed dramatically. It was suddenly as loud and threatening as a hurricane. The Realm Lord directed his staff at Shadow and the end glowed red. "You will beg to serve me in the end. Your world, like all the others, will fall into my hands and I shall recreate it as I please. I will take your treacherous heart and cleanse it until you are pure. You shall stand in the gallery as I bring about The End. Your last thoughts will be of submission and gratitude. Until then…."
There was a flash of red light and Shadow felt no more.