CHAPTER 6

Tears swelled in Nell's eyes as he stared at the lifeless body of the black and red hedgehog who laid there on the floor covered in his own pool of blood. "No..." he sniffed. "Shadow...no!" He shouted sobbing with his fingertips gripping onto the floor of the balcony he kneeled down on. His body shook while he continued to loudly cry with his head lowered down. He shut his eyes tightly as he cried, "He can't...he just can't be dead!"

With her body still chained up and hanging beside Nell who cried, Rouge's aqua green eyes remained on the unconscious and bloody hedgehog that laid there on the floor below her. "...Shadow..." she murmured lowly with her voice slightly cracking from her trying not to cry and break down like Nell had. "You can't...you can't die..." With her hands restrained behind her back, she couldn't help but to clench them tightly. She lowered her head down along with a tear rolling down the side of her face. She bit her lip hard as she tried her best to fight back the rest of her tears. "I haven't told you how sorry I am..."

While Rouge and Nell were devastated from witnessing Shadow's quick death, Infinite looked down at the bloody hedgehog's body and carelessly flung the blood covered red sword that had pierced through his body onto the floor next to him. The look of triumph on his face slowly faded and had turned into a disappointed expression. "So this was the all mighty half demon? Dark Demon's very own spawn?" He raised his hand towards his forehead to try to wipe some of the blood away. He had took his hand and flung some of the blood away from his hand and onto the floor. "I must say you did leave me very disappointed..." His words trailed off when he heard Nell suddenly shouting out from above him.

"You bastard!"

The demon jackal slowly spun around to look up at Nell who had his eyes angrily fixed onto him from above the balcony he was on. He slightly tilted his head in confusion towards the brown owl who was yelling out at him in anger.

Nell dug his fingertips into the metal floor of the balcony even more while he yelled at the demon jackal. "How dare you kill him!" He wasn't looking at her but he could feel Rouge looking over at him with her jaw dropped as she was surprised at how brave Nell was acting towards him. He knew that she probably thought that he was terrified of him, but right now he was more angry than anything. He lowered his head down as he continued to speak out, "We both didn't like each other very much but..." he paused as he sniffed. "He cared about me. He still cared about me...and you...killed him..." He raised his head up and glared coldly at the jackal, "You killed my friend!"

Rouge was stunned as she heard Nell's true feelings about Shadow. Ever since the two had met, they absolutely couldn't stand each other. Especially Shadow. She recalled he made sure that whatever was on his mind about him was heard whenever Nell was around or not. As for Nell he was only around him to do his job and watch his every word and record everything that he had done and said to report to Mayor Wish in the end. However with him being around Shadow every waking moment, had got him pretty attached. He started to grow close to not only to him but with her and Spike as well. She could now understand why he saw so upset over his death.

With an amused look on his face, Infinite took a small step forward and placed his hand on his hip while he looked back at the devastated and crying owl. "So what? I just did the world a favor and made it one less half demon to worry about. Besides...you're just upset because I killed the only one who had the slightest chance to kill me." He took his hand away from his hip and held it up towards Nell with it now having a dark purple aura surrounding it. "But you really are annoying. I think I should rid the world of one last pest..."

Rouge and Nell gasped when they saw Infinite aiming his glowing hand up at their direction and shouting out.

"You shouldn't have pissed me off, mortal!"

Nell and Rouge both flinched and shut their eyes tightly as they awaited Infinite's attack to strike. However when they heard a sudden cling, they both opened their eyes only to find Infinite's hand being raised behind his head and saw the bloody red sword being sent flying back away from him and hitting the floor. They both wondered how the sword was sent flying in Infinite's direction in the first place.

With his eyes wide open from the sudden and attempted attack from behind, Infinite slowly turned his body back around only to find the black hedgehog back on his feet with his head lowered downward. He couldn't believe it. He was standing. Actually standing. He even noticed that the wound he had through his stomach had appeared to have healed. The dark blue hoodie he wore was just heavily stained by the blood from his wound. "...What?"

Wide smiles of relief had formed on both Rouge and Nell's faces as they witnessed Shadow still being alive. It was hard to believe but he was there and standing on his own two feet.

Though Infinite knew it wasn't impossible that he would survive his attack. Half demon or not. He was still a demon and almost everyone knew that the proper way to kill a demon was to either decapitate their head or to incinerate their bodies. He gritted his teeth as he witnessed the sight of him. "You..."

The hedgehog spoke while still having his head lowered downward, "You wanted to see me at my full potential didn't you? Well..." He had then rose his head up to lock his eyes directly with his. "Let me give you a little taste of my real power!"

When he saw the way he had looked at him, he knew that this time there was something different about him. It wasn't the same as it was before. Just by looking at his eyes, he noticed that his pupils were slim and dilated just as any demons were. 'Something's different about him...' He was caught off guard when his sword had suddenly hovered from the floor and quickly came at him with the point of the blade striking in his direction. It came so fast, he didn't have time to think of a way to block it. It was coming towards his neck and fast, he had to think quickly and raised his hand up to have the sword stab him through his hand instead. He let out a low groan as he felt the point of the blade being stabbed forcefully through his hand. 'He has telekinesis as well? Should've expected it! No other demon can do such an ability with the exception of Lord Dark and myself...'

Before he gave him a chance to even take the sword out of his hand, he rose his hand up towards a metal pipe that was attached to the wall beside him. He used his power to force the pipe to rip away from the wall and quickly had it fly into the palm of his hand. Once he gripped around the pipe tightly he muttered under his breath, "Chaos Control."

Before he could even blink, he watched as Shadow reappeared in front of his very eyes and take his feet to force them down into his stomach to knock his body down onto the floor. He then used the opportunity to take his free hand to force the sword that was stabbed into his hand to pin it down onto the concrete floor.

With the sword stabbed through his hand and into the floor, he used the end of the metal pipe he held in his other hand and stabbed it directly through the jackal's throat while he was down.

He let out a painful groan as blood spewed out of his mouth from the metal pipe being impaled through his neck. He used his hand and gripped it around the pipe trying to remove it but struggled while Shadow used his newfound strength to hold the pipe into his throat. As he struggled, he looked up at the hedgehog and saw his demonic red eyes locked onto his and saw his fangs that were clearly visible through his slight evil smirk. '...Amazing', he thought. 'Just a moment ago, he had the strength of a low rank demon! But now...his power...it's not only on my level but I sense an extremely dark presence around him! But why do I have the feeling that he's still holding back?' His thoughts were interrupted as he coughed up more blood from the pipe being shoved deeper through his throat

Nell's mouth hung open as he watched the fight taking place in front of him. "W-wow! Shadow's really turned this entire battle around huh?"

Even though Rouge was relieved that Shadow was now winning against Infinite, it still made her feel uneasy that he was in fact using his demonic powers at a hundred percent it seemed. It scared her honestly. What was going to happen next? Was he planning on drinking Infinite's blood to become truly Darkness again? She couldn't read his behavior but she knew she couldn't let anything like that happen again. The last time she had seen him like this, his demonic counterpart took him over and was set on destroying everything in his path. She had hoped that she and the rest of the group would never see that side of Shadow ever again. She started to panic and turned to Nell who was still watching the fight in amazement. "Nell!"

Nell looked away from the two demons and turned to the extremely worried bat woman in confusion.

"You have to break these chains! I-I have to get down there!"

The brown owl tilted his head in confusion towards her as he didn't know what was making her so upset so suddenly. "I don't understand why you're so set on getting in the middle of them." He pointed down below to where Shadow and Infinite were, "Shadow's winning! He's totally kicking Infinite's ass!"

"Nell, you gotta trust me on this. You gotta try to get me free." She had then saw him standing behind her and grabbing on the heavy chain that was restraining her.

"Okay", he spoke. "I'll try." He pulled and pulled on the chains but they seemed like they were budging. They were wrapped too tightly around her body and way to heavy for him to snap or break. "Crap! These chains are tough!"

She slightly turned her head to him to watch him attempt to break the chains from behind her. She bit her lip slightly as she was worried that he wouldn't be able to break them. "Come on, Nell", she begged desperately. "You gotta keep trying."

With his body still pinned to the floor by the pipe in his neck and his own sword stabbed through his hand, Infinite had to get away or Shadow would succeed in a victory. He knew what he was trying to do and that was to decapitate him with the metal pipe. He saw him using both hands to hold down the pipe and decided to use that detail to his advantage.

By seeing it at the corner of his eye, Shadow saw him looking at the sword that was stabbed in his hand and used his telekinesis ability to rip the sword out from the floor and out of his hand. He quickly teleported himself away from him when he figured he would use the sword to attack him.

When he noticed that Shadow vanished off of his body, he quickly ripped used his strength and easily ripped the pipe from his blood soaked neck and flung it across the room before standing from the floor. While he caught sight of the hedgehog standing across from him, he stood there panting heavily while gripping his bloody throat that sustained a critical injury from the pipe Shadow had shoved through it. While his blood poured onto the floor below him, he caught sight of the hedgehog giving him the same bloody thirsty expression he had while he had pinned him down. Suddenly his painful expression had then turned into hysterical laughter. "Now this...this is what I'm talking about! Ultimate demonic power at its finest! You don't know how happy this makes me Shadow!"

Shadow stood there in silence while he continued to give him a cold look while he ranted on about what he had just witnessed in excitement.

"Heh! It's a shame really!" He took his bloody hand away from his throat and extended it out towards the dark hedgehog. "You and I have been given blood from the demon lord himself and here we are...together at last!" He made a devious smile and took his bloody hand to sift it slightly through the white dreadlocks on his head. "Why this practically makes us brothers wouldn't you say?"

While Nell still tried to free Rouge from the chains, he frowned from hearing the conversation that was happening between the two demons and made a disgusted look, "Is that guy kidding? He wishes!"

In silence Rouge continued to listen to the two talk with each other. She knew that if Darkness really had taken him over, he would never agree to work with Infinite. Darkness hated working with anyone. However she was finding it harder and harder to read what could possibly be going on in his mind. She noticed that he was just fighting him and not saying much of anything and that even worried her. His demonic counterpart was arrogant and self centered. A real narcissist actually. But Shadow wasn't like that. She had hoped that the Shadow she knew was still there.

Shadow's eyes remained coldly locked onto the demon jackal as he spoke out to him. "You can go fuck yourself", he spoke in a low and careless tone. "We are not the same."

The jackal's smile slightly faded after hearing his cold reply to him. "I see..." He had then held out the sword he had in his hand and dropped it onto the floor. Before the sword could hit the floor, he had then teleported himself. When he did, he found himself in mid air along with Shadow alongside him with a serious look. "Then no more games! Come at me with all you got!"

"As you wish", he spoke before vanishing in front of his eyes once again.

Nell had suddenly found it hard to pinpoint where exactly Shadow and Infinite were because of their constant use of teleporting around the large warehouse. "Whoa!" It just appeared to be flashes of white light that appeared and then disappeared wherever he looked. He adjusted the large glasses on his face while he tried to track the two demons. "This is unreal! I can barely see what's going on!"

"They're definitely fighting. We just can't see their movements..." Rouge spoke as she tried her best to see what was going on between the two.

When Shadow found an opportunity to attack him, he raised both of his hands that had a green aura of energy around them and used them to blast a strong amount of the energy at him. Unfortunately, Infinite saw his movements and used his own demonic energy to blast back at him blocking the attack. The blast turned out to be strong enough to knock them both away from each other at a great distance. When Shadow's back slammed against the wall of the building so did Infinite on the opposite side of him. They both fell to the floor from the attack but they didn't stay down for long.

Infinite raised his hand back towards him and quickly blasted another blast of dark energy at him. When he thought he had him, he was wrong again when he saw him raise his hand outward and unleashed multiple green energy spears towards him. One of the spears had stopped his blast, but there were three other spears he had to worry about avoiding. Swiftly he created a shield made from the dark purple energy to block the other spears and made them all dissipate when they touched the shield. When he made his shield vanish, he glared over at the demonic hedgehog in annoyance, "This is getting tiresome", he muttered. Before he could even move, he then saw him appear right before him.

Once he appeared in front of him, he made sure he didn't give him a chance to speak another word. He reached out to him and quickly grabbed him tightly by his bloody throat before he lowly spoke, "Chaos Blast."

Rouge and Nell turned their heads away when a large blast of red energy had flashed within the warehouse. When the light faded, they turned to look back and figured that Infinite for sure had to have been dead from an energy blast like that. After all Shadow did have him cornered so there was nowhere to actually escape. It couldn't have been possible. When they did look, there was a large splatter of blood on the wall but Infinite was nowhere nearby.

When Shadow had stood back and took note of the blood on the wall and on the floor from where he had cornered Infinite, he knew surely that he had killed him by blowing his body apart. However he had the feeling that was even way too easy. He quickly spun around when he heard his voice coming from behind him.

"I'm impressed...", Infinite's weak voice spoke.

When he turned to face him, he saw him on his knees panting heavily in exhaustion while using his hand to place on his shoulder. He looked and had noticed that his entire arm had been completely destroyed from his body. He gritted his fangs in aggravation. He had him. He almost had him, but he somehow managed to teleport out of the way from the blast at just the right moment.

Nell's mouth hung open as he couldn't believe that Infinite had gotten away from Shadow's attack. "Wha! No way!"

Even though he felt an intense amount of pain from his arm being blown to pieces, he couldn't help but to form a small yet cunning smirk at the hedgehog. "You almost got me", he panted. "But you were...just a little too slow!"

He watched him weakly stand from the floor while holding onto his shoulder that continued to spew blood from where his arm was supposed to be.

"I'll admit. Something like this will sure as hell slow me down, but not for long of course." His cunning smirk widened, "After all this isn't the first time my arm's been blown off."

He took a small step back when he saw the mini red energy cubes beginning to surround the bottom of his body and slowly work its way up. As it did, he saw that Infinite was slowly vanishing.

He studied the injury he once had through his stomach and noticed that he had almost completely healed himself. "After I recover my strength and regenerate a new arm...which won't take very long compared to your regenerating. I will most definitely be looking forward to another rematch with you." The small cubes had then made it up to his neck and made sure he spoke to him before he completely disappeared. "You've won this battle Shadow, but I assure you...you won't win the next!"

After when he had completely vanished, Rouge scanned around below her but she caught no sight of the jackal anywhere. "He's...gone?" When she didn't hear Nell say anything, she turned her head to look beside her and didn't see him. "...Nell?" Her ears perked up when she heard his voice coming from below her.

"Down here!"

She looked down and saw that he was on the silver ladder he used to get to her and was pointing at a control panel that was built into the wall. It seemed that it went to the metal hook she was hanging from. "Nell? What are you doing?"

"I think I found the controls for that hook your hanging off of." He adjusted his glasses and leaned in closer to get a better look at the control panel, "I bet I can use this to lower you down."

After when she saw him press a few buttons and then a black lever, her body slightly flinched when she felt the hook beginning to slowly lower her back down to the main floor. "Oh what a relief", she sighed. When she did make it down to the floor, her feet was still not completely touching the floor. She looked back up at the brown owl with an arched eyebrow, "Uh, Nell? I'm still not on the floor."

"Sorry, Miss Rouge", he spoke while he tried to pull down even more on the black lever on the control panel. He tried and tried but he just couldn't move the lever. "It's stuck!"

Before she could say anymore to him, her body froze when she caught sight of the dark hedgehog who had stood before her. She remembered she wanted to say so much to him, but at this very moment she couldn't get a single word out. Not after what she had just witnessed him doing to Infinite and him being almost covered in blood didn't help either. Before she even had the courage to say anything, she was slightly startled when he reached out and grabbed the large heavy chain that was tightly wrapped around her body. In a matter of seconds, she could feel her body being released from the chains tight grip around her. She knew she shouldn't have been surprised by how easily he broke the chains. After all, he was always pretty strong. She figured he probably didn't even slightly struggle from breaking them. Once the chains broke and dropped to the floor, she could feel herself about to lose her balance and fall forward until she found herself safely in the arms of the dark hedgehog. She let out a soft yet accidental gasp when the front of her body pressed closely against his while he held her with his hands securely gripped onto her hips. "Oh! Uh, Shadow..." While she secured her arms around his neck while she held onto him, she couldn't deny that she couldn't fight the heavy blush that had overcame her face while she stared at him. They had been together for as long as she could remember but he somehow always managed to get her to blush. With their faces only inches apart, it seemed that time had stopped. While being held in his arms, she did realize that he was still acting rather odd. She wondered if the one who was holding her ever so safely in his arms was the same Shadow as before. She leaned herself closer to him so she could get a better look at his eyes. "...Shadow...", she spoke softly.

He saw her take her arms from around his neck and felt her gentle hands lightly place themselves on the sides of his face to make him look directly at her. He could tell even at that moment that there was heavy tension between them. Heavy, passionate, sensual tension. He felt it and he knew that she did too. After all what had happened between them, he couldn't deny that he still wanted her. No matter how hard he tried to fight it. When she kept pulling herself closer and closer to him, he had a sudden and undying urge to kiss her, but he restrained himself from doing so. "...Uh...are you allright? Did he...hurt you?"

His question caught her off guard while she was far beyond distracted by her thoughts. "...Uh yeah. I'm fine..." She looked deeply in his red eyes and saw that his pupils were no longer slim and dilated like they were both when he fought with Infinite. "...Is it...really you?" She then heard an annoyed sigh coming from him and watched him take her body from his and gently place her feet completely down onto the floor.

"...Of course it's me."

She gently placed her hand on her chest and made a heavy sigh of relief. "Oh..." Of course it had to be him. Compared to his demonic counterpart, he was acting way too calm. The demon inside of him didn't completely take him over after all. "Thank God", she spoke while not taking her eyes away from him. Suddenly the both of them were startled when they heard Nell miss a step from the ladder he was climbing down and fall with his face planted onto the floor. "Oh God, Nell!" While having her hand over her mouth, she gasped and kneeled down to the floor to aid Nell. "Are you okay?"

With his face still on the floor, he weakly rose his hand and gave a thumbs up. "It's fine. My face...broke the fall...again..."

"Well", she spoke. "As long as you're allright." When she saw Nell slowly getting himself off from the floor, she turned to face Shadow again but this time he wasn't trying to look in her direction. "...Are you okay, Shadow? You took a lot of damage in the fight..." Her words were cut off when she heard him suddenly speaking out.

"I'll be fine", he snapped lowly while having his body completely turned away from her. He slightly shook his head and made a small sigh before he spoke to her once again. "As long as you're okay."

"Yes", she spoke while she slowly stood from the floor. "I'm fine..."

Once Nell dusted himself off from falling onto the floor, he adjusted the glasses on his face and saw how distant and awkward the two were being with each other. He couldn't help but to feel saddened by the sight. He had wished he could do or say something to have the both of them make up with each other, but unfortunately he couldn't think of anything he could do. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Shadow suddenly call out to him.

"Nell, make sure Rouge gets back to the others safely."

He arched an eyebrow towards him in surprise that he wanted him to take Rouge back instead of himself. He used his index finger and pointed to himself in confusion, "Wha? Why me?" He paused when he saw Rouge take a small step towards the hedgehog.

"Wait a minute. You mean...you're not going to escort me back?"

He placed his hands down in the sides of his jeans pockets as he replied to her still without turning to her. "Don't worry. Infinite won't have the balls to go after you. Not after I blasted his fucking arm off."

"I wasn't talking about that..." Her words were cut off when she heard him speaking out again.

"Nails wanted me to get you back safely and that's what I did."

"...What?" Her body froze as she realized that he was still being cold and distant with her. She slowly clenched her hand into a fist while she had it beside her waist and bit her lip while thoughts ran through her mind. 'He...only came to save me because Nails was worried about me?' While hurtful thoughts filled her mind, she tried hard to fight back oncoming tears until she saw him about to walk away. "...Sha-Shadow, wait!" She called while extending her hand out towards him.

When he heard her call out to him, he stopped in his tracks and turned his head to face her. When he did, he saw her practically on the edge of tears. He could tell she really didn't want him to leave her and probably just wanted to talk everything out, but he just couldn't bring himself to be around her. His eyes slowly lowered down to floor as he looked away from her. "...I'm sorry, Rouge. We just...need some time apart..."

With her heart shattering inside of her, she helplessly watched as he made his way out of the door of the abandoned building they were in and never turned back when he left.

Nell stared at the door Shadow had closed behind him when he left and he himself was just as saddened and confused as Rouge was. Despite what had happened, he thought Shadow had wanted to make everything up to Rouge. Especially after Nails gave him such a passionate speech about finding and saving her. He slowly turned away from the door and looked back up and Rouge who had her head lowered towards the floor and her fists shaking while she held them down beside her waist. He knew how upset she was and at that moment he wanted to do everything in the world to be there for her. "...Miss Rouge? Are you...allright?" He suddenly saw her fall to her knees and place her hands over her face while she started to sob loudly.

"Oh God, Nell!" She sobbed into her hands, "He hates me! He fucking hates me!"

"...Miss Rouge..." Nell stood there and helplessly watched her break down and cry. It was hard as her cries echoed within the empty warehouse. "I'm so...sorry..." He hesitantly and slowly reached out towards her back to try to rub it, but he pulled his hand back when he figured nothing at the moment would make her feel any better. He didn't know how to destroy demons or even fight for that matter. He was considered a burden almost all his life, but as of right then, he had never felt so useless.

In The Next Chapter...

Rouge: I don't know if Shadow will ever forgive me...

Nails: Oh, Rouge...

Nell: You know you can't avoid Miss Rouge forever.

Shadow: I just can't bring myself to be around her right now...

Infinite: There will be only one half demon in this world and it will be me!