"Shadow..."

It was indeed Shadow, although he wore a light case of metal around his chest as a result of lung surgery. But in his eyes there was no recognition. They were void of any emotion.

"What do you want?" he asked curtly.

"Nine, these are friends of yours and they wanted to see you!" said Harry excitedly. "Do you remember them?"

Shadow studied them for a long time. At last he said, "No. And my name is Nine. You must be thinking of someone else."

Sonic's heart, which had stopped for a moment, now crashed. Shadow didn't remember them?

"But... it is Shadow...you told me that yourself!"

Shadow, or Nine, was beginning to look irritated. "No, I didn't."

"But you did!" cried Sonic. Tails, Knuckles and Rouge chimed in their agreement.

Now Shadow looked threatening. "Leave! Now! All of you!" He crouched in an attack position.

Suddenly, the door slid open. In came a tall, thin man they had never seen before. Only Harry seemed to recognize him.

"M - Mr. K - Kerrigan," stammered Harry.

Kerrigan looked to be an average sort, not too tall to take notice of, not too thin to draw attention. The only thing memorable about him was his eyes. They were a vivid, piercing green, and they seemed to penetrate into the depths of your soul. Sonic and the others were vaguely uneasy, though they didn't know why. Knuckles in particular was agitated.

"Harry Greene." Kerrigan spoke in a cold, smooth voice, so smooth it seemed he would slip on it, but he didn't. "These are the intruders. May I ask what you are doing with them when you told me they went the other way? And why did you take them into this room?"

"Ah...um...that is, these are - friends of Nine. Or at - at least I thought..." Harry stuttered awkwardly. He was quite clearly frightened.

"Mr. Greene, by allowing these intruders into a high security room without permission, you have betrayed the trust I put in you. You are fired."

"B - but..."

Kerrigan stared him down. Harry turned away, humiliated. Then Kerrigan turned to Sonic, Shadow, and the rest.

"Nine... never fear. Harry was quite wrong to bring these people in." He looked at them for a minute, coldly calculating.

"Dispose of them."

"NO!" cried Rouge as Shadow flung himself with blinding speed at Sonic, the closest to him. She leaped on him, only to be batted away with amazing strength. Knuckles suffered the same fate. Both slumped to the wall, unconscious.

Tails stood back, afraid to join in as he knew he would be no help. "Shadow shouldn't have this kind of strength!" he realized. He glanced at Kerrigan.

Kerrigan's eyes were glowing.

"Sonic!" Tails cried. "Sonic! Kerrigan's helping Shadow! Get out of there!" Tails shouted.

Sonic heard him and attempted to get away, but couldn't because of the death grip Shadow had on his arm - his broken arm.

"Ahhhhh!" He screamed in pain.

Harry had been watching all this silently. Finally he realized he could do something to help. Harry looked at Kerrigan, whose entire body was rigid and now throwing off a few sparks. In an instant's snap decision, he leaped on Kerrigan.

The instant he made contact, he felt an enormous amount of energy flow through his body, like a thousand volts of electricity - and equally deadly. He was thrown back against the wall like a rag doll. Something made a loud snap.

However, it was enough to divert Kerrigan's attention, and his eyes stopped glowing. Shadow stopped suddenly, confused, and Sonic threw him away from himself and pinned him to the ground. They were both panting.

"I...don't want to...have to hurt you," gasped Sonic. Shadow lay still.

Knuckles and Rouge got back up and surrounded Kerrigan. Tails found a gun on the floor and pointed it at him.

"Give up, Kerrigan!" warned Knuckles.

Kerrigan laughed, a cruel, evil sound.

"Ha! You think you can stop me so easily?" Suddenly he glowed with an inner, deadly light, and everyone except Shadow was thrown back against the wall.

"You pathetic creatures are no match for me!" Kerrigan screamed. "I am beyond your comprehension!"

His body began to glow and twist. For an instant in his place they saw the most beautiful human being imaginable. Then there was only Kerrigan, his face twisted and ugly with rage.

"Follow me if you dare!" he raged. "I've had enough playing!"

Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light. Kerrigan screamed, "Ultimate Chaos!"
Knuckles gasped. Shadow and Kerrigan disappeared.

"He...it...it opened a portal!" said Knuckles amazedly as everyone slowly regained their senses. "He teleported out of here!"

"Guys..." said Tails quietly. He was kneeling over by Harry. "He's dying. I reckon he has about two minutes to live..."

Sonic's head was whirling.

"We have to save Harry!" insisted Rouge.

"How?" asked Sonic bluntly. "He's just been shocked by a whole lot of unknown energy that human bodies were not equipped to handle! How are we supposed to do anything about that!"

"Sonic, calm down," soothed Tails. "We can fix his broken spine, for one."

"I thought stuff like that was fatal."

"IT IS IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!" shouted Knuckles. "Quit being so pessimistic! We'll go after Shadow later, okay? Right now we should help Harry; he tried to save us!"

Rouge rummaged around in a cabinet for medical supplies.

"Here, tranquilizers and pain-killers...ah ha! Bone setter...here we go!" She brought down a bunch of bottles and a long, thin box. With it she quickly set Harry's spine. There was no need to give him a tranquilizer, he was already out cold.

"Um, his spinal cord is twisted," pointed out Tails. "He'll live, but right now the only thing he can do on his own is breathe."

"We won't be able to fix that without major surgery...but Harry'll live...for now," mused Rouge.

"Ah HA!" cried Knuckles triumphantly. He held up a Chaos Emerald. "I knew it was around here somewhere, I always carry one around with me."

"We could use that to see if it will help Harry!" exclaimed Tails.

"No!" said Sonic. "Let's warp to Kerrigan! Harry will live, you said it yourself! But what about Shadow?"

Knuckles looked at the Emerald.

"Well...all right..." said Knuckles resignedly. He handed the Chaos Emerald to Sonic. Everyone gathered around him. Sonic focused on the Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos...CONTROL!" cried Sonic. Instantly, everyone was sucked up into a huge whirling vortex with sparks that flew out of it as it turned. Sonic heard voices as he rushed by, millions and millions of lost souls crying out... in warning...