A/N: I just heard that Sega is going to come out with this new Shadow the Hedgehog game soon. Isn't that awesome? But… equipping him with a gun? That's slightly, um, odd.
Also, thanks Shadow Stalkr for the criticism, thanks Kalligrapha for standing up for me, and thanks Mystic Mage for the "my life won't be complete unless you finish this story" thing. Feedback is appreciated as always, and apologies for any future errors.
This is the last chapter everyone. I hope it does the story justice, but we'll see. If I'm really upset with it later down the road, I'll probably re-write this chapter. Hehe…but yes, the finale!
Chapter 24: Stand Alone
Sonic could not trust his eyes. Robotnik's appearance refused to escape the hedgehog's mind. The tentacles, the eerie blue skin, and the sheer size of his old enemy were baffling. Even despite his eyes failing him, Sonic could see deep into the evil scientist's chest.
The master emerald.
It was embedded inside of him, glowing maliciously. The chaos emeralds floated beside it, but none compared to the gem itself. The master emerald no longer shone green, but now was smothered in dark goo. Squinting, Sonic gazed deep into the darkness, making the hedgehog shudder with anxiety.
"Wh-what did you do?" He coughed out, barely able to speak. The tentacle wrapped around his body ever tighter, and the chance of his escape was slim.
The creature that once called himself Robotnik pulled the hedgehog closer to him, as he laughed amusingly.
"Simple. I gained power. Enough to recreate the universe! Just look at what I can do…" With his other arm, the scientist snatched a handful of rock and slate from the cracked earth beneath them. Raising the devastated heap of rubble to Sonic's eye level, Robotnik smiled. An array of black flowers slithered from it and blossomed rapidly. It spread and crawled through his fingers like a virus.
"Imagine that, but everywhere. A utopia, and all in my name!"
"But how--?"
"How did I gain such power? Why do I look like this? For someone who reappears after so long, you disappoint me; I expected a better resistance. And to think you used to be my rival. Your strength pales in comparison to my own."
Sensing the annoyance emanating from Sonic's countenance, Robotnik grinned. His power was unparalleled, and nothing could possibly stop him now. "But if you must know before I finish you off…"
Shadow gazed helplessly at the fallen warrior. She had not stirred an inch, and the dark hedgehog was losing hope that she might ever regain consciousness, let alone heal. Sighing, he pulled his legs up to his chest, resting his chin softly.
Turning his eyes towards the battle, Shadow suddenly doubted Sonic would succeed. It was not his deep sarcasm or past hatred towards the hedgehog, but a sense of weakness that slowly took hold of him. Dice was dying, this world was devastated (as well as the rest of the universe), and more importantly, even if they were successful, at this point, what would defeating Robotnik solve?
Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Everyone would still be dead, Station Square would remain in disrepair and utter devastation, and to put it simple, Shadow failed to see any purpose for Sonic, with his lack of vengeance, to fight.
"Shadow?" Amy asked, interrupting his train of thought. She held a wet piece of fabric in her hand and quickly sat beside the dark hedgehog. Silent, she twisted the rag, allowing water to drip gently on Dice's visage, and then placed it on top of her forehead. "I could only find a leaking water pipe. That's all I could get."
"Mm," he replied, his eyes refusing to move. "It's fine."
"I heard rumor of a chaos blade and its ultimate power of destruction all those years ago. From the little piece of gossip I had received, when all seven emeralds were gathered with the master emerald and the right incantation was said, the user could have any wish granted and that a 'chaos key' could fuse with the emeralds to rip through time and space. That is what you learned, was it not?
"However, the master emerald was missing a shard, and I could not make my wish. Not to mention, the chaos blade was not the key the legend spoke of, but the warrior who wielded it. Only she possessed such power, and I realized this after kidnapping her from you, Knuckles, and Tails." He paused, mocking Sonic's disgust with a sly grin.
"Oh but you'll like what comes next, hero. She was far too 'good' to conquer the countless worlds I wanted in my grasp, so I spent years figuring out a way to harness the power myself. All my research led back to the master emerald. It was the source of her power and her good conscious."
"…So you tainted the emerald," Sonic added, understanding Dice's situation better.
"A smart one, eh? The technology I used on the emerald and her made her the perfect warrior. On that day, I sent her to destroy Station Square and the last of Knuckles' pathetic rebellion. It worked flawlessly, but I found myself disappointed. It was her who had the power, not I. See, I originally wanted the chaos blade for myself, not some sappy child with a connection to the master emerald."
Robotnik stopped, looking below him to see Tails aiming his gun directly towards him. Laughing, the scientist merely stared waiting for the fox to attack. Refusing to give in to his enemy's frightening glance, he pulled the trigger. Lasers shot from the gun but to Tails' dismay flew through Robotnik's skin. Continuing his cackle with amusement, Robotnik snatched Tails with the same arm, which now held Sonic.
"And so…" he grinned, enraptured in his tale of immortality. "My research continued. I left her here to rot, while I took the emeralds with me. And after over a year, it paid off. I created a serum that twisted me into what you see before you. My structure is now the same as chaos himself, and I am capable of harnessing the darkness within the master emerald. But more importantly, now that Dice is gone and I have the chaos blade, nothing can stop me! I have the ability to recreate the universe!"
"You're more of a megalomaniac than I realized," spat Sonic.
Twitching her eyes open, Dice found her ability to see was weak if existent at all. All she could perceive was red. The pain in her shoulder was incredible, edging through her body. Sharp as a knife, it was, and Dice lay helpless, only able to groan feebly.
"Dice! She's awake, Amy," gasped a relieved voice.
"…Sh-shadow?"
"Yeah? Don't move."
"B-but Eggman…he's—"
"Here. We know, relax." She suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder and wondered why he was not fighting their enemy. Mentally shaking her head, Dice remembered her vision.
"Listen," she began, using all her strength to speak clearly, "I know how to stop him. He's using the master emerald…" She paused, gasping for breath. "And I can subdue him so that you and Sonic attack while being super charged with the chaos emeralds."
"But we don't have the emeralds… and how can you possibly do anything in your condition?"
Instead of responding, the warrior raised her hand, now glowing green. Piercing her skin, a chaos emerald slowly escaped Dice's palm. A slight murmur of pain escaped her lips, but she remained calm.
"How did you…" Amy covered her mouth, grimacing at the thought of an alien object seeping out of her own skin.
"Reversed chaos control," she exhaled, speaking slowly. "Eggman has all seven, but I can teleport them here."
"Hah, and now I can finish you off once and for all, hedgehog. Oh how I've waited for this moment…" He smiled, crushing both Sonic and Tails, listening to their anguished cries.
"Sonic!" yelled Knuckles from behind, gliding and then landing in front of Robotnik to blind him. Holding up Tails' gun, he shrieked, "Block this!" The laser hit his eye directly, and Robotnik cocked his head back in pain. Jumping backwards, the echidna fell down to the scientist's arm. Without thinking, Knuckles began to pummel the blue tentacle with his new-found gun.
Robotnik's grip on Sonic and Tails was waning, and Knuckles quickly pulled his friends out from their enemy's clutches. "Did you have to bang up my gun!" called out Tails with extreme annoyance. "…And why didn't it work when I shot at him?"
"Because… I aimed at his eye and not his liquid skin?"
Recovering from the pain in his eyes, Robotnik glared down at the three of them. "Have you forgotten that you're still standing on my arm? Haha. Fools."
"Or maybe you've forgotten what a super-hedgehog looks like," snarled Shadow, holding Dice in his arms. While they were chatting, Sonic and the other two already made their way to Shadow.
Whispering so that Robotnik could not hear, Shadow explained his plan, "Knuckles, that bracelet you made for Rouge…with the shard of the master emerald… you need reconnect it with the rest of the master emerald while Sonic and I stall for time."
The echidna gave a look of disgust, "You mean… I gotta go inside of Robotnik?"
"Ew," smiled Tails. The echidna merely glared back and grimaced.
"Whatever, can you teleport me in there?"
"I c-can," Dice whimpered. The others gazed at her in surprise, as Shadow handed the warrior to Amy and then passed the chaos emeralds to Sonic.
"Let's finish this."
"Right," replied Sonic, closing his eyes. The chaos emeralds shimmered around the blue hedgehog, spinning faster and faster. Light flowed out Sonic's eyes and mouth as his skin began to glow as bright as the sun. Even after transforming dozens of times, the hedgehog never failed to be amused by the light and power thriving inside him.
At last opening his eyes, he nodded towards Shadow, and both of them flew to face Robotnik once and for all. His voice: now lower than before, Shadow said, "We need to confuse him till Knuckles does his job."
Laying her gently on the ground, the echidna bit his lip nervously. She probably would not survive. Blood caked her body, staining her white fur. Even the black skin was tainted crimson. It spilled onto the ground, on Knuckles' hands, everywhere.
"Just teleport me and get this over with." Opening her eyes, she placed her hand on Knuckles' chest. In obvious pain, Dice whispered inaudibly under her breath, and before the echidna realized it, he was inside.
His lungs burned from lack of air, but Knuckles refused to let darkness cloud his sight or his mission. Luckily, the echidna floated directly above the emerald, which he had once protected with his life. Now touching the source of all this pain, he felt sick from its dark powers. Without another thought, he took out his single green shard, searching for a recess in the emerald.
His fatigue was growing and the echidna was in too much pain to wonder why Robotnik had not noticed him yet. However, he took too long and closed his eyes, slipping out of consciousness. Suddenly, a figure appeared in his mind's eye, telling him to continue, to fight.
"Rouge…" he murmured, bubbles shooting from his mouth. Rummaging around the master emerald, he felt a crack in the emerald and knowing Rouge guided him to it, happily reconnected the shard to the master emerald.
Zipping past and around Robotnik, the two hedgehogs were successfully able to be the center of his attention. Smiling, Shadow could see a sudden change in his appearance. However, his smile was short-lived as he heard a loud scream. Following it was Robotnik's agony, as he shrieked louder.
Sonic meanwhile looked towards the master emerald to see Knuckles floating unconsciously. In surprise and awakened fear, he flew through Robotnik's liquid chest and rescued the echidna from his airless incarceration. Coughing, the echidna opened his eyes and choked out, "Always at the last minute, aren't you?"
"Makes things more exciting, I guess."
"Sonic, I think it's working," Shadow interrupted approaching the two of them.
"What do you mean?"
Amy and Tails stood beside Dice, watching the battle until she suddenly began to shake and yell. The pink hedgehog covered her mouth not certain of a proper course of action.
"Just leave her already."
Scowling, Amy glared deep into his eyes, "Why don't you? Either let it go or leave." Turning back around, she nervously looked at Dice, now clutching her head and screaming. The pain in her head and chest blinded the sting of her shoulder.
Tails, mouth agape, was speechless and motionless.
"By connecting the dark and light halves of the master emerald, Dice is trying to defeat the evil within her…"
"But since Robotnik is connected also, by destroying the darkness, she'll destroy Robotnik?"
"Well, I wouldn't say destroy. That's our job. She's just weakening him," Shadow replied, the chaos emeralds floating around them. "And… the only way to destroy Eggman is to destroy his heart. The master emerald."
"But won't that kill Dice?" Knuckles asked, still recovering from his underwater experience.
"We're," Shadow paused, "going to have to take that risk." Sonic looked at the dark hedgehog in surprise, despite knowing that wasting their time discussing their course of action might prove fatal. Earlier, he appeared to show feelings for her, but now Sonic was not entirely sure on his prediction. The hero, honestly, was disappointed at his ally.
"Well, let's do it already," Sonic sighed, regretfully. "Knuckles, you can glide to the ground." The hedgehog let go of the echidna and flew with Shadow (and the chaos emeralds) in front of Robotnik, who was still panting and shaking. Glowing bright, the hedgehogs extended their arms forward, the chaos emeralds: swirling around them. Each emerald with its unique color sparkled around them as a single ball of light began to collect in front of Shadow and Sonic.
"Chaos control!" they yelled in unison, as a beam of energy with the diameter of a tree trunk, pierced Robotnik's chest and shot the master emerald out from him. Without its power, he quickly shrank to his normal size, still thriving in agony on the ground. Lowering to the ground, Shadow could see the master emerald shine a mixture of black and green, the darkness threatening to consume it.
"She's losing…"
"Not yet. Have some faith in her," Sonic replied, grabbing Robotnik by the collar and returning to his normal blue hide. "You sick cretin. You've lost." The fire in his eyes was fierce, though not making through to his enemy. The scientist was not responding, lost in trance.
Amy, Tails, and Knuckles with Dice in his arms, ran up to the two hedgehogs. Though her red and blue eyes were open, they were glazed over with emptiness. "What are we going to do?"
"I-I dunno. He's not powerful beyond all reason anymore," Knuckles responded.
"But what if Dice loses?" Amy questioned earnestly.
"We can't take that chance," Tails cried out. "Destroy the master emerald; it's the only way now. It'll kill them both."
"But… what will that do? Everything is going to remain the same. We need to plan this carefully."
"I'm through with all your plans, Knuckles!"
"Aaah, Shadow!" Dice howled in pain. "M-my chaos bl-blade… where is… it! G-gotta send Ssssonic back…" Looking around, Shadow failed to find the legendary sword until his eyes came across Robotnik. There it was, strapped to his back. Swiftly, he snatched the blade and handed it to the blind warrior.
"Woah, I'm not leaving yet," Sonic retorted, releasing his enemy.
"Why didn't you do send him back in the FIRST place!" Tails shrieked.
"Need all th-the emeralds…" She twitched, weaker than before. "When… h-he's back, dessstroy the massshter e-emerald once and for a-all."
"But you'll die! And if I go back… these versions of you, all of you, will be gone forever." There was a long moment of silence between them.
"Nothing would make me happier," each and every one of them responded as one voice.
"I can't leave now, damn it! If I do, Shadow is going to stay in another dimension… and, and… Robotnik isn't defeated yet."
"I… I would rather be stuck there for an eternity then have to watch my comrades die," Shadow replied sternly. "If you go back, then this will never happen. Besides, Robotnik is already defeated."
The blue hedgehog was speechless and suddenly caught off guard as Amy hugged him. "Thank you for coming back, but they're right. We need you to fix this."
A smile appeared on her cracked lips as Dice gripped the handle of her sword. It began to glow bright blue as the other emeralds swirled around her. Lifting her arm, she cut through the air, ripping through time and space. Before Sonic could argue further he was pulled into it.
"Thanks," she coughed out, as the others merely smiled at him.
"WAIT A SECOND, I CAN'T LEAVE!" He screamed, extending his arm to them. The hedgehog gasped to see that his friends with all their scars were nowhere to be found. He was standing alone.
Panting nervously, Sonic looked up. The sky, it was blue, and birds were chirping. It almost appeared as though he had never left, let alone traveled to the future. He sighed, feeling like a failure. What he hated more than lack of adventure was leaving a problem unsolved.
Dice was dying, the world lay in ruins, Robotnik still had the potential of regaining his power, and they sent him back. How could they do that to him? It seemed rather anticlimactic, but perhaps it was the only way. If Sonic had defeated Robotnik right there, Dice would have died anyway and the hero would not have any means of returning to his time.
"Of all the ridiculous…"
"S-Sonic?"
"You bastard! You bastard! Sonic is gone!"
The hedgehog turned in surprise to see Knuckles clutching Robotnik by the throat as his gun clattered on the floor and to see Tails on the floor, feeble and young. He truly had returned, and fully understanding the consequences of his actions on the future, the hedgehog stepped in.
"I'm right here. Let him go, Knuckles. He's pathetic, and Tails is more important," he grinned, grabbing the chaos blade, the four emeralds, and baby Dice, right where he left them. He had to make sure that Tails was treated before his situation became critical and to take Dice and the chaos emeralds before Robotnik got hold of them.
"We have other plans. Like… getting Shadow back to this world." As an after thought he added under his breath, "And protecting Dice from the likes of him."
"Sonic? How did you…?"
"It's an overly long story, but Tails needs our help," he replied, gripping the echidna's arm and sprinting to the nearest hospital. Despite the deep regret raging within him, Sonic sensed that this was the proper path. His actions would ensure that the situation he ran away from would be avoided.
"There are just more important things to worry about."