Author's note: Ok, this story is winding down. This will be the either the second to last or third to last chapter. If you haven't noticed, I write as I go! So, enjoy!

Chapter Twelve: The Shard

"Holly Macaroni and cheese," I muttered.

"Shadow, wake up!" Cream yelled. "And help him, will ya?"

"I can't," I whispered.

"What?"

I CAN'T!" I screamed.

"Why?"

"You go!" My mind kept flashing back to my dreams. In all of them, Tails died and now it was about to happen.

"Coward," Cream spat. I winced. I lost it. I was fully and completely insane. I was backing down from a fight. A scream came from behind me and I saw Cream taken down by a surviving robot.

"Cream!"

"You, go help your friend, I'll handle this bucket of bolts!" She yelled.

I began to run, but stopped dead. Half of me wanted to run away from the nightmare and the other wanted me to prevent it and whatever was left told me to wait just to see if I really could predict the future. I didn't know what to listen to, so I stayed frozen, half watching, half willing my legs to move. I saw a flash of a knife on the hill. "Great," I whispered. Tails ran. That wasn't in my dreams. Sonic picked up the chase. Since the fox's tail was broken, he could fly.

My legs finally worked and I began the chase. I didn't want to repeat my last dream. I screamed as I tripped over something in the clearing. I looked down and gagged. "Mighty?" I whispered, kneeling beside the broken body of the red armadillo.

"Hey," came the very raspy reply.

"Mighty?" I asked, louder.

"Jeez, boy, don't yell," he replied. "Are you ok?"

I laughed, despite the situation. "Is that all you can say?"

"Yes," Mighty answered with a hint of a smile.

"How are you still alive?"

"Sonic thought he could get rid of me that easy. Ha! He ain't the only one who can die hard!"

I jumped a little, briefly wondering how he knew of that line, but I didn't push the subject. I'm sure there were thousands attempts on Sonic's life, why wouldn't they think he died hard? "Never cease to surprise me," I muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Cream is on her way. Don't die on my, buddy," I said. "I need to find Tails before he dies."

"Nightmare?"

"Nightmare. Good luck." I stood and continued running. Without realizing it, I was searching for a capsule. Why did I want to find it? The vision of what was inside of it made me shiver.

I smacked right into a smooth, glass thing. I winced. This was it. Rubbing the dirt away, I was literally scared to see what was in it. When I made a window, I looked in.

Nothing. The capsule was completely empty except for some red liquid at the bottom of the glass chamber. I shivered and walked away. There was a loud scream. "Tails, if you die, I'm going to kill you!" I yelled and continued the chase. Coming over a hill, I was faced with a huge field of black grass and rolling hills. "Sonic, you are the sickest creature I've ever known," I muttered. The sky itself was turning a pitch black color and lighting lit the sky every few seconds. "Ever heard of a normal fight setting?" I said to the sky again. "You know, maybe get some sun out here, green grass, nice fluffy clouds, maybe a few birds? Ever thought of that?" Without waiting for an answer from whomever I was screaming at, I began running through the field of dead, black grass.

Tails and Sonic were fighting, and I knew it was to the death, on top of the biggest hill in the field. "Alright, now what?"

"Remember..." I looked around, but saw no one.

"Whose there!" I yelled.

"An old friend," came the reply.

"Who are you?"

"Remember, Shadow," the voice whispered, but I still didn't see anyone. My brain snapped to attention. The weapon in Tails' hand in my last dream. He needed a weapon, but what? Then it hit. The Chaos Emerald. I pulled it out. "Now what?" I muttered. Angrily, I began squeezing the Emerald. It cracked. "Wait," I whispered. This was the eight Emerald. It didn't exist! I crushed it. A long shard fell through the center. I bent down and picked it up and looked at the sky. "You win," I whispered.

"Tails!" I yelled. The fox lifted his head at his name. Sonic took the moment to strike. "Oh no you don't. Only in my dreams. Hey Sonic!" The hedgehog stopped dead, still not used to hearing his name. I threw the shard. Tails was quick to act and lunged to snatch it before Sonic had the first clue. The fox grabbed the shard from the air. "Do it," I whispered, urging him, knowing what he had to do.

Without thinking, the fox plunged the emerald shard through the hedgehog's back. I had to cover my ears to block the terrible scream from the blue hedgehog. Tails was on top of him, stabbing him over and over. Sonic was screaming. Tails wasn't hitting any vital spots, he was letting the hedgehog die slowly. I doubted he was even thinking about what he was doing.

"Stop you demon!" Sonic screamed. I winced. "You little devil! Hate! I hate you, you creature of the night! I thought you were dead! I enjoyed watching your body gasp for air underneath that water! You demon, get off of me!"

Sonic would have no idea what he did to that fox with that one statement. Tails stabbed harder, tears pouring down his face. Begging for forgiveness for doing this. Screaming that he never thought this day would come. I was mesmerized by the scene. Two best friends, one who looked up to the other with admiration, now killing each other. It was disturbing, but yet amazing at the same time. We always are asked "what would you do if..." and we always say we'll do the right thing, but when push comes to shove and shove comes to pull, you never really know what you will do. I will tell you, I never imagined this scene in my wildest dreams.

Sonic was weakening and his yells were more quiet. Tails was stabbing harder and in a rhythm. I shook my head, breaking the hold the scene had on me that kept me rooted to my spot. I ran to Tails. I placed my hand on his shoulder as he took one more stab right between Sonic's shoulder blades. There was a terrible gasp and the hedgehog was still.

"Tails?" I whispered. The fox was staring at the dead hedgehog. His eyes were glazed over and his face was soaked with blood, sweat and over all, tears. "It's ok..."

"What did I do?" He whispered.

"The world a favor," I replied, keeping me eyes on the blood soaked grass.

"No," he muttered, then louder screamed, "NO!" And he ran. I didn't go after him. What do you say to someone who had just killed their best friend? How to you explain to them that they did what was best for everyone? No, I let him run.

Kneeling beside Sonic, I frowned. "This isn't how you were meant to die," I muttered. "This isn't how anyone was meant to go. I will fix this, you have my word." I looked at the emerald shard. "And to you, Chanic, farewell. I thank you for my life. You could have made something of yourself, but instead you created this world. This land that holds too much pain and suffering for even my body to handle. You have destroyed this place and have made a mess of my home. No, wait, our home. This was yours too, ya know. Sonic the Hedgehog. What to say about the world's greatest hero and Chanic the Hedgehog, the world's greatest villain? I guess I all I can say is that if we can't get home, Tails will surely die." I turned him to see his face. An angry snarl was frozen on his now lifeless face. I gently closed his eyes. "Good-bye, hero and Good-bye villain."

Sighed, I looked away from the body. It was a horrible sight. Blinking, something caught my eye on a hill on the other side of the clearing. Lightning struck. It was a long flash that lit the whole field. There, standing on that hill was a black figure. In that brief moment where the sky was no longer black, but white, the figure locked eyes with me. I caught the look. It seemed to say "I will get you. No matter what time zone." And the moment passed. Lightning struck a second later and no one was on that hill. I figured I dreamt it. My mind flashed to the voice that screamed at me when I was wondering how to save Tails. Why, if it was the same person, they helped me just to threaten me later?

"Shadow?" I looked up.

"Cream? Where's Mighty?"

She pointed to the armadillo, who was staring blankly at the body. "Is he ok?"

"I'm fine! Start asking me, not her."

"What was that bone snapping sound?"

Mighty cracked his knuckles, which sounding exactly like a bone snapping. "Not bad," Cream said, "But why did you run?"

"Who do you think saved blacky over there?" Mighty said with a smile.

"Shadow, did you do this?" Cream asked.

"No, Tails did." I pointed to the fox, who was off far from here, weeping.

"He should be celebrating, not crying," Mighty said.

"Remember that story I told you, Mighty?" He nodded. "Well, it's all true, and in that world, they were best friends. Mighty winced. He began to crawl over to the fox. I watched him struggle until he made it. Tails refused what ever comfort he was being offered.

"Shadow, what story?" Cream asked.

"Cream, the reason Tails and I were so lost when you found us was because we are from the past. We destroyed the past by leaving our friend in the distant past. We messed up the time stream. Please, help us fix it."

"I will." She whispered and walked over to the fox. I followed. Tails was weeping terribly. I knelt beside him and Cream and Mighty stepped away. The bloodstained fox gripped my and embraced me. I looked around, embarrassed.

"Do that again and I will kill you."

Amazing how life can change. I let him stay there. I let him cry himself out and I let him weep until he was reduced to gasping sobs. I patted him gently when he finally threw up. I'm not sure how long we sat there, four unlikely animals who over threw one of the greatest villains to ever live and one of the greatest heroes. My dreams had come true. I had killed the fox. Not physically, like I thought it would be, but mentally. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

Thunder clapped and rain began to fall steadily. I placed my hand out, expecting to see red rain, or even black, but it was clear water. I looked over at Mighty and Cream. They were both crying.

"Guys?" I whispered. "What's wrong."

Mighty was smiling a huge smile. "We haven't seen clean water in forever." He said happily. "We haven't had rain in over 15 years"

Author's note: Rain symbolizes a lot of stuff. Ok, while writing this I realized that this is the second to last chapter. I know, it was a bit... Wow. Weird I guess. I have been planning this scene from the beggining of this story. Hope you enjoyed it. Very sad, or atleast I thought so. Very "heavy" again and hopefully not something you expected. Good day and I will see ya'll in the last chapter.