Chapter Two: The Gathering

Shadow looked out over Station Square. He truly felt sorry for Sonic. Like him, he had had his love torn away by injustice. He shuddered as he remembered seeing Maria being gunned down, just beyond the glass of the Ark's escape pod.

He looked down at the grass next to him where Sonic lay sleeping. Whatever had hit him left a nasty wound, but in time, with Shadow's Chaos Healing his shoulder would heal. He sat down and watched the once proud hedgehog cry in his sleep, grieving for the previous day's events.

A day earlier Shadow had been sitting in the rafters of Rouge's Nightclub. He had spent his days since the fight with Metal Sonic pondering his existence as a robotic clone, and wondering if the original would ever be found.

On this day his thinking was interrupted by a call from Princess Sally. She said that the Freedom Fighters were planning a raid on Robotropolis, and that they might need backup. He agreed to meet them there to give support.

When they got there the next day all they could see was the blood and sonic lying unconscious face down on the floor. After making sure no one else was there they picked him up and took him back to Club Rouge.

Shadow spotted the familiar figure walking up the slope.

"Two days that boy's been asleep." Rouge's winged form came into view.

"Can you blame him?"

"I guess not," Rouge came up, sat down, and started petting Sonic's head. "When do you think he'll wake up?"

"I don't know." Shadow got up and walked over to the three fresh graves on the crest of the hill.

"Antoine, Tails, Princess Sally," He lightly put his hand on each headstone as he said their names. "Victims in a needless trap. Whatever did this has to be stopped!"

"It beat Sonic, and from the looks of it, fairly easily."

"Sonic is strong but he's not..."

"The 'Ultimate Life-form'. I know I've heard it a lot, but last I checked Sonic has you 4 to zip."

"That's not important. We still need to find a way to defeat the thing that did this."

"Argh!" Ivo sat up on the table with a jerk. "That stupid hog never... listens... to ... me," Then Ivo realized where he was. "This is that bastard's ship, damnit," He said to himself before being slapped by a small bony hand.

"How dare you betray the master?" the cloaked figure in front of him screamed, Ivo just sat there, resetting his jaw and cursing his bad luck.

"Calm down, Death." A tall frail man with long white hair caught the next blow.

"He tried to warn Sonic! He shall be punished."

"Ssyrin said not to hurt him."

"Fine!" The cloaked man turned from them. "Screw up again, fat-man, and I'll have your head." With that, the strange man dissipated into nothingness.

"Now come on, you're not all clear yet." The man led Ivo down corridors created with such skill and knowledge of robotics it even made Ivo jealous. "In here." He shoved Ivo through a large, ornate steel door.

"AHHH!" Sonic jerked his shoulder from Rouge's grasp. "What did that bastard Ivo hit me with? A bat!"

"We don't know, but a good portion of your shoulder and collar bones are broken."

"I don't care, I'm going to kill him." Sonic tried to stand up, but the pain was just too much, and he sat back down into the tub. "Damn it!"

"Calm down, Hun." Rouge started again to support Sonic's wounds.

"Where's Shadow?"

"He's out getting something to eat."

"Oh." Sonic wasn't hungry. He just felt like he wanted the tub to eat him up and leave this plane, but he needed to kill Ivo first - and whoever that voice belonged to. He had to get his revenge. "Rouge?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I... Can I be alone for awhile?"

"Sure, Sonic." Rouge packed up her stuff and quietly left the room. From just outside the door, she could hear Sonic sobbing, cursing himself, Ivo, and the mysterious voice.

"Playing Wash Maid?"

"Shadow!"

Shadow walked up and listened to the sounds coming from beyond the door. "Poor guy. I have only pieces of memories from Maria's death, but he saw his love die in living color."

"Come on. We should leave him alone."

"Yes." Shadow turned away.

"Oh, did you place that call to Knuckles?" Rouge said making her way form the door.

"Yes," Shadow turned to face the bat-girl. "But why couldn't you talk to him?"

"Someone had to wrap Blue-boy's shoulder. Besides, you know Knuckles doesn't trust me." Shadow wasn't sure, but he thought he saw her blush when she said that.

Shaking off the thought he continued the conversation. "Sonic's not going to like the help, but he'll need it."

"They were Knuckles's friends, too."

"KNUX is coming?" Sonic came out of the room, pissed as hell. "NO way. This bastard is mine and mine alone!"

"Sonic, I know you're mad, but come on. Whatever got you nearly killed you," Rouge said calmly.

"It caught me off guard!"

"You're being irrational, Sonic. This isn't just your fight. We all have our own reasons for fighting and protecting Mobius from whatever dangers may face it." Shadow stepped up and looked Sonic dead in the eyes.

"Hmph." Sonic backed down. This was the first time Sonic had ever backed down from a challenge, but he knew Shadow was right. Plus, with his shoulder shattered there was no way he was about to go toe to toe with Shadow, today.

"Fine then." Shadow said, turning away." I also placed calls to the rest of the FF, and the Chaotix is coming with Knuckles."

"Good, now that this discussion is over, I need to dress your wound Sonic, before you make it worse," said Rouge. Sonic walked into the back room of the nightclub with the concerned bat following behind.

Shadow smiled to himself as he used Chaos Control to warp into the rafters. "We might just make it though this."

Ivo sat in his chair pondering. He had only lived though his encounter with Ssyrin by the skin of his teeth, by striking a bargain with his captor. Ivo would continue to be Ssyrin's lapdog as long as Ssyrin provided all supplies, and there was no more killing.

"That man is either a fool or a genius... and I don't know which scares me more."

Just then the alarm kicked on. Caught off guard, Ivo fell over in his chair.

"AN INTRUDER! Who has the testicular..." Robotnick's brain flashed with memories of Dark Sonic beating the holy hell out of him. "Swatbots. Intercept, and DESTROY!"

The only response he got in return was the all too familiar sounds of Swatbots crunching and exploding just outside his door. Scared out of his wits, Ivo ducked down under his desk, and grabbed his trusty ray gun. "I may go down, but I'm putting up a fight, damnit!"

The door to Ivo's office slid open and the intruder stepped inside. Ivo jumped up from his desk to meet his attacker, but instead of the black furred harbinger of death he expected, in walked... "CHAOS!"

The watery entity looked straight at Ivo and approached. Robotnick knew he had done enough to the ancient god to incite his wrath, but why now?

The he realized that this Chaos looked different. This one was red instead of blue, and his eyes were a matte gray that showed none of the sparkle that resided in the real Chaos's emerald eyes. Not to mention the twin swords strapped to this Chaos's back.

"Relax, I'm not here to hurt you, just to make sure all of Ssyrin's orders are followed to the letter."

Ivo lowered his weapon, and let out a small sigh of relief, but only a small one.

Sonic sat near the window as he waited for Rotor's plane to land. He wondered how the remaining FF's were handling the loss.

The plane landed. Knuckles was on the plane, he knew it. He hated it but Shadow was right, he need all the help he could get to even think of beating whatever lay ahead. He got up to join Shadow and Rouge in greeting them.

Bunnie was first off the plane, then Rotor and Mina. Mina ran over and hugged Sonic as hard as she could without hurting his arm. With his good arm Sonic gave her a quick hug, then dislodged her, not feeling entirely comfortable.

Finally Knuckles came out. As he came off the ramp he gave Sonic his usual cold stare. Sonic recognized why and stepped away from Mina a bit.

"Hey Knuckles, how are you holding up?" Knuckles swiveled around to see Rouge smiling warmly at him.

"Out of my way, Rouge, there's only one girl I'm here to see." Knuckles kept walking." Oh, and the Chaotix aren't coming."

"Why not?" Shadow said curiously.

"Someone needs to guard the jewel." Knuckles never looked back as he walked up to the hill behind the club, where the fallen were buried.

That night as everyone slept, a dark figure slipped into the spare room.

"Sonic?"

"Knuckles? It's 11:30."

"I know, follow me." Sonic got up. His armed ached, but this seemed important.

They walked out of the club and around behind it to the slope of the hill. Halfway up the incline Knuckles stopped completely, with his back facing Sonic.

"Sonic, there is something I want you to know."

"What is it?"

"After we beat Ivo, after we have our revenge, you and I are enemies."

"What? Why?"

"You let her die..." Knuckles turned quickly, and pointed a mitten at Sonic accusingly. "You loved her, and you let her die!"

"Knuckles I..."

"Enough excuses!" The enraged echidna drew closer. "I saw the wreckage from the plane. You could have rescued her if you tried hard enough! Why didn't you? Were you scared? Or just apathetic?"

"You know I would never hurt her."

"Not just once but twice now. It was only by a miracle that the princess survived the first time, now I guess her luck ran out. I trusted you to take care of her! She loved you and you let her down!"

Knuckles stepped right up to look Sonic right in the eye, his violet clashing with Sonic's green

"Take it back, Knuckles. That was too far, you know there was nothing any of us could have done."

"Wanna start our fight early Sonic?"

"TAKE IT BACK, KNUCKLES!"

"Make me. Show me you loved her!" Knuckles put up his fists.

Sonic looked at his arm. It was useless in a fight, but he had no choice. He got in his running stance ready for a rough fight.

"Hey, hold up!" Rouge, who had been watching from the roof, had decided to act by flying between the two fighters. "Knuckles, I know this is important to you, but if you two fight now you'll crush Sonic, and any hope we have of winning the fight against Ivo."

Sonic came out of his stance, looked at Rouge, then looked back to Knuckles. "We'll finish this later... if we survive." Sonic turned and started to walk away

"Argh, RRRAAAHHHH!" Knuckles charged after the insolent hedgehog, and readied his hand to punch Sonic in the back of his head, but his fist was caught by Rouge.

"Come on Knuckles, we need to talk." Sonic kept walking towards his room, as Rouge led the bewildered Knuckles to the top of the hill.

Rouge pulled Knuckles up in front of the graves." Look, Knuckles, we all know you cared about Sally, but that's no reason to go off on Sonic like that."

"He let her die, Rouge." He said in a growl that was low even for him. "He could have escaped if he cared enough!"

"Could you have? Could you have rescued her in that situation?"

"I..." Knuckles paused, thinking. "I don't know."

"Then how do you know he could have?"

"He broke free, though!"

"He doesn't know what happened after he broke his arm!"

Knuckles stormed off the hill, frustrated but not wanting to show it.

"Snively!"

"Yes, uncle?" a small balding man dressed in a green sweatshirt and sweatpants appeared in the doorway. He would look like a child if it weren't his exceptionally long nose.

"Snively, show our 'guest' around, give him the grand tour of our fair city." Ivo motioned towards the Chaos lookalike.

Snively gulped, " Right this way... um... Sir? What should I call you by?"

"I was given no name, but since this 'Chaos' and I seem to be of the same order of being, that name will be acceptable."

"Yes, Mr. Chaos."

As they left Ivo smiled nervously. "I have a distinct feeling this won't end well."

A few hours later Snively came around the corner with Chaos in tow. "... And finally we have the barracks. This is where our few overlander troops eat and sleep. It also holds 250 Swatbots plus the last 2 Shadowbots."

"What is so special about the Shadowbots?" Chaos looked at him with what Snively guessed was confusion.

"Ivo's grandfather, Gerald, had created a life form, not just metal and wires, but a living, breathing being. His name was Shadow. He was created with the ability to control the chaos emeralds located here on Mobius and use them in almost any way he wished. Of course my greedy uncle wanted to use him as a weapon, this cause a huge fight that ended in a draw when another one of Gerald's creations came to life and started to attack the planet. The forces of light and dark came together to beat back the threat, but unfortunately Shadow lost his life in the last attack. Ivo was so impressed with Shadow's abilities that he decided to clone him. There used to be hundreds of them, but now only three remain, the two stored here and the one that currently resides with Rouge in her nightclub."

"So one of Sonic's allies is mechanical?" Chaos looked back at the iron building

"I guess so."

"Good, we can use that against him. Now show me to my quarters. I need to contact my superiors."

"Yes sir, Mr. Chaos." This guy really creeped Snively out.

It was early in the morning, and Shadow had gathered everyone around the bar in Rouge's club. "Now is everyone here?" Shadow went around the bar naming them off to make sure, "Rotor, Bunnie, Rouge, Knuckles, Mina, myself, and Son... Where's Sonic!"

"Sorry, but there was a chili dog with my name on it." The blue hedgehog said as he suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"Sonic, you bastard! You never take anything..." Knuckles's outburst was quieted by Rouge's hand on his shoulder. "Hmph," Knuckles snorted as he fell back into his chair.

"Never mind him," Shadow turned to Sonic. "I take it your shoulder is feeling better?"

"Enough to kick Lardo's fat butt, thanks to your 'Chaos Healing' abilities."

"Good, because we're raiding Robotropolis tonight!"