CHAPTER 18

DARKNESS SURROUNDS US ALL

Later that night at Dark's base in the dining room, a demon with dark blue hair with a dark blue jewel in his necklace around his neck was speaking with his brother.

His brother was a demon with black hair and a black jewel in his necklace. "This seems bad, Deminse. Our siblings are dying by each waking moment."

"Got that right. I don't know what Dark is thinking."

"But Dark was the one who resurrected us. He wants us to help take over the city."

"Yeah by killing our brothers and sisters. Heh, some leader..."

Shadow then came into the room startling the two demons, "Deminse, Baz I didn't know you two were here."

Baz started to look around the room nervously, "We're not doing anything special just...talking."

"Talking?" Shadow knew they were talking about Dark behind his back. He reached for a wine bottle on the table.

The two demons nodded.

Deminse seemed annoyed by Shadow's presence, "What are you doing here?"

Shadow walked up to the two demons, "Just getting something to drink." He took a sip of the wine. "As Baz said before Deminse, if it weren't for Dark you wouldn't be here right now."

Deminse was surprised to hear him say that, "How did you know that?"

Shadow shrugged, "Demon hearing? He turned to the black haired demon, "Baz."

"Yes, Shadow?"

"Tomorrow I want the Chaotix dead."

"Sure."

"And whatever you do, don't touch the bat. Got it?"

Baz nodded, "Yes, Shadow." He turned his back about to walk away.

"And Baz..."

Baz looked back at Shadow, "Yes, sir?"

"Don't call me Shadow. Call me Darkness." He tightened his grip around the wine bottle and soon the glass shattered, spilling wine on the floor along with the broken glass.

That next day at the Chaotix, Rouge was walking towards Espio with ten red bullets in her hand. She handed it to Espio, "Here, use these wisely okay?"

Espio took the bullets and placed them in his belt, "Sure. Uh Rouge, are you okay?"

"About what?"

"Kinda hard to say...about Shadow."

Rouge then began to think about Shadow, "Oh him, um I'm okay. I know that he's all right. He's a big boy he can take care of himself", she crossed her arms. Just bringing up his name made her upset. She still couldn't believe that Shadow would kill his own friends for some powerful unknown demon. It made her sad to think about him. Her true lover gone to the dark side. She couldn't hide her emotions from Espio any longer so she ran into the basement to cry.

Espio stood there confused. He turned to Tonya, "What's wrong with her?"

Tonya placed her hands on her hips, "She still misses Shadow, I thought that was obvious."

"She said she didn't."

"She was trying to hide her feelings. Poor Rouge I wish we could do something."

"Something's wrong."

Tonya faced Espio, "What?"

"We haven't seen Shadow at all and Rouge acts like she had. She's not sad because Dark took Shadow away, she's sad because she thinks Shadow is on his side."

"That's not true. We haven't seen Shadow at all, we don't know that."

Espio looked at the four necklaces, "She does." He then noticed the jewels glowing in the necklaces. "We got another one."

Charmy came into the main lobby with Vector, "Another demon?"

Espio nodded.

"We gotta get Rouge", Vector looked at the basement door about to call her until Espio held his arm.

Espio shook his head, "No, we can't. Let her stay. She doesn't want to come."

Vector sighed, "Fine, let's just go."

Later the glowing red necklace led the Chaotix to the city that looked halfway destroyed. They saw some of the people running from something. The group looked ahead of them to see what they were running from. They saw someone approach them with a bloody whip that had electricity coming from it.

The stranger laughed, "Nothing better than fresh destruction in the morning."

"Who are you?" Tonya demanded.

"I am Baz the fifth of the fourteen demons."

Charmy sighed, "We only wanted to know your name not your life story."

Baz smirked, "You like jokes don't yea kid?"

Espio pointed the Z-X at him, "Time send you where you belong."

Baz made an evil smile, 'Not so fast...'

When Espio was about to fire, Baz's whip had knocked the gun out his hand. "Damn it!" He held his bruised hand in pain. He saw his gun lying on the asphalt. He ran to it trying to reach it until Baz's whip had gotten to it before him.

The whip picked it up and the gun landed in Baz's hand. He stared at it for a moment, "Looks like you need this." He tightened his grip around the gun and smashed it with his strength.

The group gasped.

Charmy started to panic, "Oh no he broke the Z-X we're done for!" He started to scream and fly around in circles.

Vector tried to stay calm, "Don't worry maybe we can defeat him without the Z-X." He started to crack his knuckles.

"Are you mad? He's gonna slaughter us before we even touch him!" Espio was starting to panic as well.

Baz's evil smile still appeared on his face, "Fools, you'd be committing suicide if you actually went up against me." He then raised his whip in the air and swing it at Espio.

Espio was hit with a major voltage of electricity. He fell to the ground with misery, looking like he couldn't get up.

"Espio!" Tonya screamed.

"Wanna join him?" Baz raised his whip again but before he could hit her with it something made an impact in the back of his head. Then blood has risen out of his mouth. He fell to the ground dead.

Espio got off the ground with the help of Tonya, "Who did that?" He looked ahead and saw a white bat holding another Z-X in her hand. He smiled a bit, "Rouge..."

She ran over to them with a smile, "Hey guys."

"Hey Rouge, you made another Z-X?"

She handed the gun to Espio, "I was planning to make extras for the rest of us so we all could defeat the demons, but it does take a while you'll have to be patient."

Espio nodded, "Sure." He looked over to Charmy still screaming his head off. "Charmy, the demon's dead!"

Charmy stopped screaming, "Really? We won?"

Espio nodded.

Charmy jumped in the air, "Yay! We win!"

Espio shook his head in annoyance, "That bee."

"Enjoy your victory while you can", a deep voice said.

The Chaotix looked around until Vector saw a black hedgehog standing on a car roof with his arms crossed. He pointed to him, "There!"

Everyone looked over to him and gasped, "Shadow!"

Shadow made an evil smirk, "Surprised to see me?"

"Shadow, where have you been?" Espio asked. "We were worried about you."

"You shouldn't. I'm fine."

"What's going on with you? Why didn't you come back sooner?"

"I was busy serving Lord Dark."

Espio's eyes widened, "What! You work for him now!"

Shadow nodded slightly.

"But why?" Tonya asked.

"He needs me to conquer the world and I'm going to help him."

Charmy was filled with rage, "Why you!" He tried to fly over to him to hit him, but Vector held him back.

Shadow laughed evilly, "Go ahead, let the boy go." His fangs were showing during his laugh.

"Shadow..." Rouge said in a broken voice.

Shadow looked over to her, "Rouge...my love."

Rouge clinched her fists, "Don't call me that! I am not your lover!"

Shadow shook his head slightly, "Whatever you say."

"What do you want!" Vector shouted.

Shadow looked over to him, "Nothing really I just wanted to see how you were doing. I see that you killed Baz already. Heh, that didn't take long."

"Yeah well tell Dark that he needs to do a lot better than that to stop us!"

"I'll give him that message." He looked over to Rouge once more. He jumped off the car and ran over to her. He looked into her green eyes. He held her close, "I'm going to make love to you once more whenever I'm off duty."

Rouge struggled to get out of his grip, "Let me go!" She screamed.

Espio ran up to him, "Leave her alone, Shadow!"

Shadow saw him reaching out for Rouge. His short tail changed into a long tail and hit Espio away from them.

Espio fell on the ground. He looked over to Shadow with a glare.

The others decided to stay back because of Shadow's new strength.

Shadow had his attention back on Rouge, "I told you I would be back for you and I will just not now. You'll never know if I'm with you and when you let your guard down with that Z-X..." He whispered in her ear, "I'm going to fuck you hard."

Rouge didn't want to hear anymore. She took her hand and slapped him in the face.

Shadow let her go. He held his burning cheek, "I'll see you then." He then ran out of their sight.

Rouge kneeled to the ground crying.

Tonya looked over to her sadly, "Rouge, what did he say?"

Rouge looked from the ground and glared, "Fuck him..." she said hoarsely. "Fuck him...Fuck him! FUCK HIM!"