CHAPTER 5-3

Shadow quickly went through the door hoping that Silver didn't take Amy far.

Meanwhile in another room, a purple chameleon was leaning against the wall twirling his combat knife around in his hand while looking at a white bat leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. "Looks like the intruder doesn't give up that easy. As for you, I don't trust you nor does Eggman. If you try anything funny, I will not hesitate to kill you."

The bat smiled, "Humph, you know I knew Eggman long before you ever did."

"Yeah well that doesn't change a thing about you."

She laughed a bit as she walked towards the door, "Maybe. Maybe it doesn't. Who knows you'll just have to find out for yourself now won't you." She left the room leaving a frown on the chameleon's face.

Later, Shadow came into an engine room finding ganados waiting for him. He took out his handgun and reloaded it before walking any deeper in the room. As he was walking, a flaming arrow flew past him and hit the wall. He looked in the direction from where the arrow had came from and saw a man holding a crossbow in his hands inserting another flaming arrow in it. He pointed his gun at his head, "I don't think so."

When the man tried to raise his weapon before Shadow, it was too late. He had already been shot through his skull.

Shadow continued to walk around the room and shooting the ganados while at it. Soon he came to a door, so he decided to go through the door. All he saw in the next room, was an elevator leading to a higher area of the room. He got on the elevator and rode it to the top of the room. Once he got to the top, he had a bad feeling about the place. Somehow he knew it was some kind of trap. He then heard something behind him, so he took out his combat knife and quickly spun around but he saw nothing.

Suddenly someone came from behind him in a different direction and tried to stab him with a knife, but Shadow had moved in time making the killer miss him...well almost.

As Shadow kneeled to the floor, he spotted blood falling from the side of his face. He wiped some of the blood away from his face, stood from the floor, and looked over at the attacker discovering that he was a purple chameleon holding a bloody knife in his hands. His eyes widened with disbelief, "Espio!"

The chameleon started to walk around him while twirling his knife around in his hand, "I died in a crash two years ago. Is that what they told yea?"

He glared at the chameleon as he walked around him, "You're the one who kidnaped Amy aren't you?"

"You're not bad at guessing games I'll give you that. Of course guessing can also give you misfortune. Even for your life", he quickly came at Shadow swinging his knife around. As Espio tried to swing the knife at Shadow, Shadow took his knife and blocked his.

Shadow tried to stab his knife into Espio's neck, but he backed away. He stepped back as well, "Why did you do it?"

"Just to earn Silver's trust is all." He took the blade of his knife and tried to cut him again, but it was blocked by Shadow's knife.

The impact by each other's knives made them fall off the floor and onto the next area of the room. They both landed on their feet and looked back at each other.

Shadow gritted his teeth in anger, "You got her involved just for that!" He ran up to him and cut him deep in his chest.

Espio just smiled and ran up to Shadow trying to stab his knife in his neck, but Shadow tried to push it away from him. He took Shadow by his arm and kicked him in his back making him fall to the floor and drop his knife as well. He walked up to him, "All for Umbrella's sake."

"Umbrella?" He said in an exhausted voice.

"Almost let it slip. Die, Shadow!" He jumped over to Shadow and tried to stab him in his chest.

Shadow tried his best to lure the knife away from him but he got weaker and weaker. Soon he started to ease off the knife until a bullet from a gun shot the knife away from Espio's hand.

Espio looked around until he saw a female white bat holding a handgun in her hand, "What do you know. It's the bitch in the red dress."

She cracked a smile as she tightened her grip around her gun, "Looks like I got the upper hand here."

Espio quickly ran out of the room before Shadow and Rouge teamed up and tried to kill him.

Rouge jumped down to Shadow and placed her gun back in her garter, "So you two knew each other?"

Shadow stood from the floor and picked up his knife from the floor, "More or less. Why did you help me anyway?"

"You think this is shocking, just wait. I'm full of surprises", she jumped off the floor and left the room as well.

When Shadow was about to leave the room, his communicator beeped. He took out his communicator and saw Silver on the monitor.

"Did you enjoy your reunion with your long lost friend?"

"As a matter of fact I did."

"Good and just to make things better for you, I'll introduce you to IT."

"IT?"

He nodded, "Yes, IT should give you a nice warm welcome." He laughed and turned off his communicator and so did Shadow.

"I got a bad feeling about this...IT", Shadow continued to walk on. He found another door and went in it. He saw nothing special in that room. All he saw was another door. He went through the door and found himself in a very narrow hallway leading to another door at the end. Somehow he had a bad feeling. It seemed just too easy. He slowly walked down the hallway until he immediately stopped when he saw lasers in front of him making different patterns. 'Damn it. Lasers.' He quickly ran through the lasers before they had sliced him into pieces. He continued to walk down the hallway until he saw little devices on the both sides of the walls. He nervously walked through them when all of a sudden the devices created many lasers that were coming at him. Shadow quickly found an opening in the middle of the lasers and jumped through it making the lasers miss him and continue their way down the hallway. Before the lasers came back, Shadow ran up to the door and tried to open it but it was electronically locked. He spotted a control pad beside the door. He pushed a button and it said that the door was unlocking and it would take a moment. He quickly spun around to check on the lasers and saw them coming back at him in a great speed. He suddenly ran up the door and jumped back down making the lasers miss him. Then the door had automatically opened and Shadow could go through it. He was now in some kind of throne room. He looked around and didn't see anything. He just sat in a soft comfortable chair and placed his arm on the arm rest and his hand on the side of his face, "Great a dead end. Now what?" He then heard a noise from behind him. He stood up from the chair and looked behind it seeing a secret elevator. He got on the elevator and rode it down to the lower level. Once he got to the new area, it looked like he was underground again. Ahead of him he saw a huge door. He went through it and saw something like a maze in front of him except it looked like it small sections of it hanging from the ceiling. He walked closer and in the water he saw a blinking red light. He picked it up and noticed that it was the tracking device that he had thrown on Amy. Silver must have saw it and got rid of it. He was now getting worried about her even more, "Amy..." All of a sudden, he heard a noise from beside him. He looked over and heard something racing through the rocks. He stepped back a bit and saw a huge monster with an extremely long tongue moving around from its mouth and its hands were like tentacles. Shadow ran into the maze like section with the creature following him.

When he got there, the creature had jumped down from the ceiling and stood in front of him. "So...you must be IT."

The creature growled at him and began to walk towards him.

Shadow took out his handgun and quickly started to run around the huge maze trying to find a way out before the creature had killed him, "I guess that's a yes." He ran towards the back of the first section of the maze and saw a huge red door. He opened it and it seemed to have led him to another section of the maze. He jumped on the next section and watched as the first part of the maze fell into the dark deep hole. He had hoped that the creature had fell along with it. He took his mind off the creature and started to walk around the second part of the maze looking for another red door.

All of a sudden, the creature had jumped down from the ceiling and swung its tentacles at Shadow, but he had jumped back. Then a huge scissor like thing had grown on the creature's back. The sharp points and blades looked dangerous so Shadow had to just try to stay away from it as much as possible. When he finally got to the door, he opened it and there was a hook setting outside of the door. He jumped and grabbed onto the hook. He watched the last section of the maze dropped into the dark hole along with the creature. He then jumped over to the next area and spotted a door ahead of him. He walked towards the door about to go into it, until he heard the creature's growl arising from the deep hole it fell in. He looked over at the hole and saw the creature crawling out the hole at a fast rate. Shadow ran away from the door and ran into another area with the creature following him. When he made it, he noticed the way he came to get into there had a gate over it so he couldn't escape. He looked back at the creature approaching him, "I guess it all ends here." He took out his magnum and pointed it at the creature's chest. He shot three rounds into his chest, but the creature never slowed down it seemed. As he shot more bullets into him, the creature came closer and closer.

It walked up to Shadow and used its sharp blades on its back to attack Shadow, but he kneeled to the ground and ran over to another side of the area to shoot him in a far distance.

He shot more bullets into it until the creature fell to the ground and its insides bursted out from its body. Shadow looked back at the gate and saw it go back down in the ground. He walked out of the area and went through the door. He then saw stairs leading to a ladder. He walked up the stairs and climbed up the ladder. He was in another room and all the room had in it was another ladder. He went up the ladder and found himself outside again. He saw a building ahead of him, but he couldn't go to it because a fence was in the way. He walked over to a cliff, looked down it, and saw some soldiers walking around tents set up around the area. He jumped down the cliff and confronted the men while easily shooting them out of the way. When he cleared them out of his way, he saw another way out, but a fence was there as well. He started to check in the tents until he found one with a hole in it. He spotted a ladder leading down the hole so he climbed down and was on a small railroad. He walked down the pathway and saw a merchant ahead of him. He walked up to him, took out some money from his pocket, and gave it to him. "I need more bullets."

The merchant took the money and gave Shadow more ammunition, "Heh, heh, come back anytime."

Beside the merchant, Shadow spotted a ladder leading above the underground area. He climbed up the ladder and was outside again, but this time he was on the other side of the fences. Ahead of him, he saw old buildings looking like they would collapses to the ground any minute. He walked towards the old buildings and suddenly saw a red laser on his shoulder. He looked at where the laser had came and saw Espio standing on the other side of the old buildings pointing a machine gun at his shoulder.

He smirked, "Finally we can end this."

"Espio."

"You know, the only way to get out of this place is if you obtain three insignias. There's one in the north and one in the east."

"And let me guess, you got the last one."

He laughed a bit under his breath.

"Espio, no. Don't you see? If you obtained power from Silver, there's no doubt that you're being used."

Espio refused to believe that was true, "Shut up! Just shut up, Shadow!" He pulled the trigger to his gun and tried to shoot Shadow.

Shadow ran and took cover behind an old huge rock knowing that he would have to kill Espio to get that last insignia. He had to do it...for Amy.

Espio continued to shoot at the rock trying to break it apart.

Shadow knew that the rock wouldn't last for long. He quickly took out his handgun and ran from behind the rock. He ran around the old area and started to look for the first insignia while trying to get away from Espio. He came to a gate, but he couldn't open it. He looked around and found a lever behind him. He pulled it down and the gate had opened. He went through the gate and saw a small stone with a lion carved into it. He picked it up and studied it, "This must be one of the insignias."

"Heh, you got it." A voice said from above him.

He looked up and saw Espio standing on top of the building with his arms crossed and his knife in one of his hands, "Espio, it doesn't have to be this way."

"So you say."

Shadow had to give up on him. Espio just wouldn't listen to him no matter how hard he tried, "Fine Espio, if you won't listen then I'll just have to kill you."

He pointed his knife at him, "Yes, a challenge from you will indeed make a difference." He stood in a fighting stance while Shadow placed the first piece of the insignia in his pocket. He jumped down from the building and ran up to Shadow.

Shadow took out his knife and hit Espio's knife out of his hand.

Espio watched as his knife flew in the air and landed over to the other side of him. He looked back at Shadow and smirked. He pulled out his machine gun and pointed it at Shadow's chest.

Shadow quickly ran back out the gate and ran around the ruins trying to find the next insignia. He soon came to a tower. He decided to look for the insignia in there. He ran up the stairs and then he found himself on top of the tower. He looked around until he spotted another small stone with a carving of a snake on it. He picked it up and placed it in his pocket, "That's two. Now all I have to do is get the last one."

"You'll have to beat me if you want that last insignia", a voice said from above him.

Shadow looked up and saw Espio glaring at him, "Just give it up, Espio. You and I both know that this fight is a huge waste of time."

"Somehow I doubt that. Witness my outstanding power." He held his hand in the air and then something weird had happened to him. It was some kind of plagas with a blade on it had taken over his whole arm. "The ultimate power!"

Shadow was disgusted that Espio had made a deal with Silver for more power. The outcome of the results had almost made Espio similar to Silver. "Espio, you have completely lost it."

Espio looked down at him with a glare, "Prepare for your death, Shadow." He jumped down with his arm blade pointed at Shadow. He struck down at him but missed because Shadow had jumped back. He faced Shadow, "To make things more interesting, I placed dynamite all around this tower."

"Wow, it does sound a lot more interesting", he said with sarcasm.

"Enough talk. Time to show you my real power." He ran up to Shadow trying to stab him with it, but he kneeled to the ground making the point of the blade miss him.

Shadow took his foot and kicked Espio's ankle making him fall to the ground, but he got back up pretty fast. He jumped back and took out his machine pistol. He pointed the laser of the gun at his chest about to shoot him.

Espio knew what he was going to do, 'Not so fast, Shadow.' The blade of his arm grew wider and it now looked like a shield. He took it and covered almost all of his body with it. The only parts that were unprotected were his legs.

Shadow shot at the shield, but his bullets couldn't get through it. He stopped shooting and realized that the only weak spot he had were his legs. He pointed his gun at his legs and shot them making Espio fall to the ground letting his guard down. He was now an open target. He pointed his gun at his chest and shot him there.

After about twelve rounds to his chest, Espio yelled with pain and fell to the ground with blood emerging from his chest.

Shadow slowly walked up to his dead body and saw the last insignia laying beside him. He picked it up and placed it in his pocket. He then remembered about the dynamite and thought that it might go off any minute, "Oh shit! The dynamite! I gotta find that door and fast." He jumped off the tower and began to look for the door. It didn't take him very long to find it. Once he found it, he placed all three pieces in the door and went through it. Once he closed the door behind him, he heard the explosion from the dynamite. He closed his eyes with sadness knowing that Espio's dead body was now blown to pieces, 'Espio, what happened to you? You used to be a good guy. Rest in peace, friend.'