CHAPTER 1

Vic's body was thrown to the ground harshly while he struggled to fight the seemingly blood thirsty demon that was in front of him. While he lied there on the ground within the Tech City park, he dug his fingertips deeply into the dirt as he panted heavily from being exhausted. He lifted his head from the ground and looked at the dark hedgehog that was slowly yet casually approaching him. Blood seeped from the injury that was coming from his forehead and ran into his eye while he gazed upon the black and red hedgehog who was walking over to him with both of his hands lowered next to his sides with a glowing green aura of energy around them. He gritted his teeth as he caught sight of his demonic red eyes, and teeth that were razor sharp fangs. He had the face of a real monster. "Goddamn it...", he swore under his breath. "This hedgehog...he's so strong! And this time..." He studied how he approached him and saw how much he was in control of his actions. He was definitely acting different from their last encounter with each other. The last time they faced each other, he had attacked him like a blood thirsty monster. "It looks like he's actually aware of what he's doing." Before he let him step any closer to him, he reached inside of his tan vest and took out a silver revolver.

The hedgehog caught sight of the gun he took out and saw him pointing it in his direction. "Stupid slayer", he growled under his breath. "You just won't quit will you?"

Vic aimed the revolver steady towards his forehead, "We'll see how you do against a blessed bullet you damn demon!" When he fired the gun at him, he watched as the bullet somehow stopped in front of him. He noticed how his red eyes began to glow while he focused on the bullet that was in front of him. 'Damn! He's doing it again!' He thought to himself, 'What the hell is it? Could it be some kind of...telekinesis?' Before he could say or do anything else, he had then saw him somehow redirect the bullet in his direction and made it shoot him in the shoulder.

An evil smirk formed on the hedgehog's lips when he heard the slayer cry out in pain from being shot by his own bullet. He watched him squirm on the ground and hold his bleeding shoulder from where the bullet had struck him. "Now slayer, we tried that already. No matter how many bullets you bless and shoot me with, they're useless." Once he approached him, he kneeled down next to him and snatched the gun he had dropped off from the ground and took it away from him.

While holding his injured shoulder, Vic watched as Shadow crushed the revolver in his hand like an empty soda can and then drop it back onto the ground in front of him.

"There", he spoke before he extended his hand out towards him and roughly grabbed him by his chin and making him look up at him. "No more annoying guns to fire at me."

He knew he was becoming too strong for him and he was running out of options on how to take him down. He had to think quickly as he was face to face with him and there was no telling what he would do next. 'He's right there!' He thought, 'It's not too late! I can cut off his head!' While his hand was down near his belt holster, he quickly grabbed a large combat knife out of it and tried to use the blade to slice it into the hedgehog's neck. However he was swiftly stopped when he saw him grab his wrist to stop him from doing so. He tried to free his wrist from his grip but couldn't because of his incredible demonic strength.

"Christ Vic, you are one pathetic slayer. Can't even touch a half demon..."

His entire body slightly shook as he looked into the demonic hedgehog's blood thirsty red eyes. "Wha-what the fuck are you?"

He let out a heavy yet annoyed sigh, "God are you death? I just said it. I'm a half demon, you moron."

"N-No! I've killed demons! Actual demons! Why are you so different?"

He had then took his hand away from his chin and placed it under his to make a sarcastic look towards him. "Hmm...I don't know. Maybe because..." He slightly leaned over to him and made sure to flash his fangs at him while he spoke. "I'm kind of this super demon's son?"

His eyes had then widened in horror, "Wha-what? You-you're that demon's..."

"Ah so you've heard of him then?" He had then began to feel Vic's hand shaking while he held the knife in his grip.

"I-I didn't know...L-Look! I'm sorry about what happened with you and your wife okay? I'm sorry for spying on you and your friends! I-I didn't..." He had then felt his grip around his wrist tighten.

He had then had an angered expression while he leaned closer towards. "You shut your fucking mouth!" He saw Vic wincing in pain as he gripped around his wrist harder and harder. "Now you're apologizing! A demon slayer is sorry for trying to slay a demon? What a fucking joke! Apologizing will get you nowhere!" His grip around his wrist had tightened even more. "It sure didn't do anything for me", he growled under his breath. "I apologized to someone who I considered to be my own daughter and now she hates me! I apologized to my co workers for attacking them and now they all hate me! I apologized to my wife for cheating and now she hates me!"

Vic yelled out in pain when he felt his wrist snap back making a cracking sound and causing him to drop the sharp knife to the ground. "Ah! God damn it!"

He stood from the ground and watched Vic scream and hold his now broken wrist close to his chest. "Everyone thinks I'm a cold hearted monster...I'll show them. I'll show them all..." He looked down at the ground and spotted the knife that Vic had dropped. He leaned over to pick it up off the ground. He began to tap the side of the blade against the palm of his hand while he looked down at the wounded demon hunter. "Starting with you, slayer..." He took his finger and gently stroked it against the blade of the knife while he looked down at him hungrily. "I'll cut your body into pieces and make sure not even your bones remain behind!" Before he could take another step closer to Vic, he suddenly heard the sound of a gun clicking behind him. It wasn't long before he felt cold metal press roughly against the back of his head. He froze when he heard a familiar male voice speaking behind him.

"Yeah...I don't fucking think so."

He already knew by the sound of his voice who was behind him. "Espio..." A slight sigh escaped him while he still didn't face him. "Should've known you'd catch up to me."

The purple chameleon securely rested his finger on the trigger of the black handgun he had held up against the back of the hedgehog's head. "Shadow...", he spoke in a serious tone. "Have you lost your fucking mind? Just because Rouge fucked another guy, it doesn't mean go psycho. This is stupid."

Shadow arched an eyebrow while he shifted his eyes over at the chameleon without turning his head to him. "Espio, you and I both know that gun can't kill me."

Espio slightly shrugged his shoulders, "Well I guess the cat's out the bag but...Rouge had been working on a new weapon especially to kill demons. This gun holds special silver bullets that's infused with C-4. This bullet will not only go through your head but your brains will be all over this goddamn ground. So...you might wanna cut the crap."

Nell stood at a distance away from Espio while he held onto his notebook and pen nervously against his chest. He found it hard to swallow as he saw Espio pointing the dangerous weapon at Shadow. He never would expect to see the two to ever fight each other. 'I hope he doesn't really plan on killing him...'

Espio arched an eyebrow when he heard a deep laughter coming from the hedgehog. He watched as he slowly turned to him with an evil smirk on his face.

"You are so full of shit", he spoke while having his arms crossed. "You won't kill me."

"Just because you're in full control of your demon powers right now, it doesn't mean I won't blow your fucking brains out!" He shouted angrily while he tightly held onto the gun.

"You don't have the fucking balls!"

Nell dropped his notebook and pen onto the ground when he saw Shadow take his hand and smack the gun Espio held down onto the ground causing it to fire at a tree that was near them. "Oh crap!"

It only took a matter of seconds until they all witnessed the tree blowing into bits in front of their very eyes. After they all shielded themselves from the blast, Shadow turned to Espio with his mouth hung open in shock.

"You...you really were gonna shoot me with that thing!"

"Of course I would've shot you!" Espio yelled angrily while getting off from the ground. "You're acting fucking crazy!"

"I'm doing us all a favor here! I thought Vic was the enemy!"

"He is but that doesn't mean make him demon chow! You're better than that, Shadow!"

While Shadow and Espio yelled at each other back and forth, Vic laid there on the ground in both confusion and relief. He was glad Espio was there to distract Shadow from killing him. However he was totally lost if the two were really going to fight each other. He shook out of his thoughts and decided to make use of this opportunity and sneak away while they weren't looking in his direction.

Shadow continued to argue with Espio, "Why does it matter what I do anymore? Rouge and I are through!"

"So what? You're gonna throw away everything else you worked so hard for?" He then pointed at Nell who had just picked his pen and notebook back off from the ground. "Have you forgot about Nell? The guy who watches your every move and listen to every word you say? Your rep with The Council is on the line here! What do you have to say about that?"

"What do I have to say?" Shadow's red eyes shifted over from Espio and then to Nell. "I say Nell..."

The brown owl nervously shifted his eyes to look over at the demonic hedgehog.

"...Make sure you take notes..."

Nell gasped in horror when he had saw Shadow suddenly knock Espio to the ground. "Espio, no!"

When Espio saw Shadow get on top of him, he tried to push him off of him but his body was too powerful. It seemed like the more he tried to push him off, the more he saw him luring his sharp fangs closer and closer to his shoulder. He thought at that moment that Shadow really was going to kill him.

Nell saw the horrifying sight and he didn't know what to do or how to even help for that matter. "Oh my God", he murmured in panicked tone while he paced around in one place. "Oh my freaking God! What do I do? What do I do?" He stopped in his tracks when he heard shouting coming from Espio.

"Don't you fucking do this, Shadow!"

Nell's entire body shook all over in panic. He knew if he didn't do anything and soon, Espio was going to die and anything beyond that would continue to spiral out of control.

Espio felt Shadow's breath against his neck as he was getting closer and closer to him. "No!"

"Stop!" Nell's loud yelling echoed through the dark park that caught both Shadow and Espio's attention

When Espio saw Shadow pausing from attacking him, he used the opportunity to forcefully kick him off of his body and knock him to the opposite side of him.

"Espio!" Nell had then quickly rushed over to Espio to make sure he was all right. "Are you okay? Did he bite you?" He asked while he adjusted his huge round glasses to observe Espio's shoulder.

Espio slowly shook his head, "I'm fine, Nell. Thanks." Suddenly he and Nell were silenced when they heard the clicking of a gun being heard near them. They turned and saw Shadow kneeling to the ground while holding the gun Espio had up to the side of his head. "...Shadow?" He looked at him closely and noticed that his red eyes were now normal and he didn't have fangs anymore. It was a relief to see that Shadow looked seemingly harmless.

Nell's eyes widened when he saw Shadow pointing the gun at himself. "Wha-what are you doing?"

"I tried...", he spoke in a low and saddened tone. "I really tried...but I just keep making mistakes..."

Espio flashed his eyes over at the hedgehog, "For fucks sake, Shadow! Put the gun down! It's not too late to turn everything around and you know this!"

"But Rouge...she..."

Espio had then heard Nell growling in frustration and saw him throwing down his notebook and pen onto the ground angrily. In confusion, he watched him beginning to storm over towards Shadow.

"Are you kidding me!"

Shadow watched as Nell angrily made his way over to him with the same confused look at Espio.

"You know even though you always insulted me and were always mean to me! I thought you were the legendary badass demon I read about in the reports! But no! Ever since I've met you, you've been this depressed sack of emo shit and it's freakin' pathetic!" He shouted while he angrily pointed at him.

Despite his mouth being open from Nell's sudden outburst, he remained speechless. Ever since he met Nell he had never seen him so angry.

Nell continued to point and yell at the hedgehog in front of him. "Now here you are pointing a gun to your head ready to end it all like you have nothing left to live for! Miss Rouge left you! So what! What about your son damn it! What about Spike?"

"...Spike?" He repeated in a low tone while slowly taking the gun away from the side of his head.

"Yeah! You and Miss Rouge maybe going through some crap right now but that doesn't mean Spike has to suffer too! He needs his father and you need him! So go be a good parent and be there for him!"

While Nell yelled at him, he could see tears swelling in his eyes. He was shocked to see this side of Nell. He thought Nell solely cared about his job and didn't think of anything else, but he cared. He genuinely cared about him, Rouge, and Spike. He had guessed that with him being under the same roof as them had caused him to develop some sort of soft spot for him and his family.

When Nell failed to hold back his tears, he raised his hand to wipe the tears that were beginning to stream down his face. He paused when he heard Shadow's voice call out to him softly.

"Nell."

With a small sniff, Nell looked up at the hedgehog who had gave him a small smile.

"Thank you."

He gave him a small nod with a smile in return and watched him walk over to Espio to give him back his gun.

"...Es..."When Shadow saw Espio take the gun from him, he shamefully looked over to him. "I'm sorry that I..."

He placed the gun back in his holster and turned to him with a slight smirk, "Forget about it. You were having a moment."

Nell scoffed under his breath after he got done picking up his notebook and pen off from the ground from when he threw it down. "That was one heck of a moment if you ask me!"

Espio had then pointed over at Shadow with a teasing look, "Just don't do that shit again. I'll fucking kill you for real."

"What the hell are you talking about? That explosive gun seemed pretty convincing to me."

Espio had then noticed Nell looking around the park they were all in. "Nell? What's up?"

"Um..." He slowly looked back at the both of them with a concerning look. "Where's Vic?"

The three of them remained silent and gave each other awkward looks as they realized that Vic had gotten away.

Author's Note: Well, here we are again! Get ready for more drama! I hope you guys enjoy the second part of Countdown To Zero!

In The Next Chapter...

Tikal: Rouge, is...gone?

Nell: How are we going to find her?

Nails: Damn it, Shadow! Find a way to save my sister!

Shadow:...