Me: "Start the fic."

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Shadow and Knuckles were going at it tooth and nail neither seemed to be gaining the upper hand. They broke away both panting.

"I must admit echidna…you're a worthier adversary than I first thought." Said Shadow.

"Thanks…but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you have the Master Emerald. When I became it's guardian I took a vow to protect this thing with my life if necessary!" said Knuckles.

Shadow glared at him. This was going to be tougher than he thought.

But then he heard a beeping sound on his gold bracelet. He pressed a button and the hologram of Eggman appeared.

"Shadow! What is taking so long? I expected you back with the Master Emerald a while ago!" said Eggman.

"I ran into a little trouble. Apparently the owner isn't quite ready to part with it just yet. I'm trying to 'convince' him otherwise." Said Shadow.

"Then let me help you." Said Eggman.

A gun seemed to have materialized itself above Shadow. It fell right into Shadow's hands.

"I call this the Eggman Special. It should help you with your little echidna problem." Said Eggman.

Shadow looked over his new gun. It was light, easy to carry, but how powerful was it? There was only one way to find out; he aimed the gun and fired. Multiple lasers were fired at Knuckles who just barely dodged them.

"Impressive. You've actually managed to out do yourself Doctor." Said Shadow.

Unfortunately Shadow really should have kept his eyes on Knuckles because otherwise his new gun wouldn't have been smashed to bits courtesy of Knuckle's fist.

"Hey, that was fun. You got any other toys for me to break?" asked Knuckles.

Shadow glared at him. "I liked that gun!"

"Oh cry me a river! Are we gonna fight or what?" asked Knuckles.

Shadow turned off his communicator to Eggman and charged forward. He managed to deliver a solid kick to Knuckle's jaw…however after the blow was received Knuckles managed to grab Shadow's leg and pulled him forward delivering a nasty uppercut to Shadow's chin.

Knuckles…gaining a slight lead, elbowed Shadow in the back of the head followed by a punch to the stomach ending it with a kick across the cheek sending the black hedgehog flying.

"Did I mention I like to play rough?" asked Knuckles.

Shadow was about to reply when he noticed…SOMEONE WAS MAKING OFF WITH THE MASTER EMERALD!

It was none other than Rouge the Bat. She had made a net out of rope and was using it to carry away the giant jewel.

"HEY!" shouted both Knuckles and Shadow.

"Oh uh hi boys. Don't mind little old me." Said Rouge.

Both Shadow and Knuckles were looming over the little white bat with a battle aura flaring.

"Just where do you think you're going?" demanded Shadow.

"Yeah sneaky!" said Knuckles.

Five minutes later Rouge the Bat was gagged and tied. She was placed against a tree so she wouldn't get in the way of their fight.

"We'll deal with you when we're done here!" said Shadow.

"Yeah! Now where were we?" asked Knuckles.

"I think we were right about HERE!" shouted Shadow as he delivered a punishing blow to Knuckle's ching.

"I take it you're a little upset you don't have a gun to do your battles with now." Said Knuckles.

"Doesn't matter, I don't need the gun or Eggman or anyone for that matter! I can take care of everything all by myself! In the end the only person I can trust is myself!" said Shadow.

Shadow was expecting Knuckles to do a lot of thing but he certainly wasn't expecting him to start laughing. Maybe Shadow hit him too hard or something.

"Oh you'll have to excuse me. I just find it funny that it turns out Tikal was actually right about you." Said Knuckles.

"What are you blabbering on about?" asked Shadow.

"You see before I met Sonic and Tails I was a lot like yourself. I too was a lone wolf, I thought that since this was my emerald and my island it was my concern and that nobody else would give a damn. Which for a while suited me quite fine, I thought that I didn't need anybody else either, that friends were a sign of weakness. But after meeting Sonic and his friends I realized that it wasn't a weakness, it was a strength." Said Knuckles.

Shadow blinked in confusion for a second or two.

"Sonic has friends that he can always count on to bail him out if he's ever in trouble. And because of him I have a few friends of myself. In some ways he has a knack for changing a person, and it's only a matter of time before you do too…that is if you haven't already." Said Knuckles.

Shadow raised his eyebrow a little. In some ways he had changed a little because of his blue look a like…but only a little.

Knuckles spread his arms out wide and closed his eyes.

"Now what are you doing?" asked Shadow.

"I've grown to respect you Shadow, and so I will give you everything I got in this one last shot!" said Knuckles.

Shadow noticed that the Master Emerald was starting to shrink and Knuckles was starting to glow green.

"What's going on?" demanded Shadow.

"I'm guardian of the Master Emerald, and because of this I am allowed to absorb its power into my own!" said Knuckles.

For the first time ever Shadow actually gulped.

Knuckles was now glowing green with power. There were a number of reasons why he never did this before. First off he was usually too far away from the emerald or it was in shards. Second it was a tad bit time consuming, Knuckles was surprised Shadow had even waited this long. A last but most likely was because Sonic or Super Sonic, depending on the situation, always took care of things so there was never a reason for Knuckles to do this then.

"Now! Behold the power of the Master Emerald!" shouted Knuckles.

Knuckles shot forth a green energy blast straight at Shadow, one which the black hedgehog could not avoid. The last thing he remembered seeing was a green light, then his whole world went out.

Me: "Okay people, Shadow is not dead he's just unconscious. Just thought you would all have liked to know that. The next chapter is the last. I'll see you the next time I update."