Chapter 30, Return.

Resistance HQ.

The journey back to Resistance HQ had been a quiet one, the few who had managed to escape from New metropolis all knew that they had just failed their most important mission, they all knew that they had just lost a huge amount of the Resistance, they all knew that they could have potentially lost the war.

Once they reached the base the survivors reunited with their friends while Amy performed a head count to see how many troops they had lost, Amy sighed as she finished her head count, they had lost 80% of the Operation big wave team.

Charmy was flying over everyone's head looking extremely worried, "Vector, Espio, where are you guys" he shouted, "Charmy down here" called Amy, Charmy flew down to meet the pink hedgehog.

"Amy have you seen Vector or Espio" asked a very worried Charmy, "No, wasn't they with you" said Amy, "They were, but after those monsters showed up we got separated" said Charmy, Amy sighed she knew that she would have to put both Vector and Espio down as M,I,A.

Knuckles was looked over the few who had returned from the failed mission, he couldn't help but blame himself for what had happened, "I should have known this was a bad idea, we've lost so many people all because of me" he thought, "Maybe I'm just not leader material after all".

Gadget was weaving his way through the crowed, like everyone else he was extremely worried about who had and hadn't made it back, finally after a few minutes of searching Gadget found who he was looking for.

Tails was inspecting the damage done to the Tornado 2, "Tails are you ok" asked Gadget as he ran up to the young fox, "Gadget your alive" said Tails with pure joy in his voice, "I thought one of those monsters got you" said Tails, "Well they did come close" said Gadget.

Tails sighed as he sat down next to the plane, "I'm just glad that you made it back, this whole mission was a pretty big flop" he said, "Actually I wanted to talk to you about that, we might have got something out of this mission after all" said Gadget.

"What do you mean" asked a curious Tails, "I think that I might have found a Chaos emerald while we was in New metropolis" said Gadget, "What, really, if you found a Chaos emerald then that could be a huge blow to Eggman" said an excited Tails.

"I sure hope so, we really need a victory after today" said Gadget as he showed Tails the Spectral sapphire, when Tails saw the sapphire his excitement turned to confusion and a hint of disappointment.

"Gadget that's not a Chaos emerald" said Tails, "It's not? Then what is it" asked Gadget, "I'm not sure, where did you find it" asked Tails, "It was in some kind of lab, it looked like Eggman was doing some kind of experiments on it" explained Gadget.

Tails thought for a moment, "If Eggman was doing experiments on this thing then it might still hold some kind of power, we should take it to the lab and run some tests" said Tails, "Ok" said Gadget as he followed Tails towards the lab.

New metropolis, Robotnik towers.

Dr Eggman was sitting in his office drinking a glass of champagne, he was celebrating his victory over the Resistance.

Not only had the Doctor successfully defended New metropolis, he had also captured a huge number of Resistance forces and sent them to be detained at his various prisons across the world.

To make things even better the Hooligans had captured both Vector and Espio during the battle, those two was now being sent to the Death EGG to join the other high risk prisoners.

Eggman took another sip of his champagne just as one of his computers made a little dinging sound, "What was that" asked Eggman, Orbot checked the computer, "It appears that your fleet of battleships have completed their attack on Seaside hill" said Orbot.

"Excellent, and has the Resistance base been destroyed" said a slightly excited Eggman, Orbot read the report and immediately wished that he didn't have to tell the Doctor what it said.

"Your airships have reduced Seaside hill to ashes, but there's no sign of a Resistance base being there, or that there ever was" said Orbot fearing the Doctor's reaction, "What, but that armadillo told me the base was there" shouted Eggman.

Eggman then thought about what he had just said, "That miserable armadillo lied to me, when I get back to the Death EGG I'll make him suffer for this" he said with ice cold rage in his voice.

Eggman downed the rest of his champagne and Infinite suddenly burst through the door looking very angry, "Where are they, where did the Resistance retreat too, I'm going to tear them limb from limb" said Infinite filled with rage, his eye was still magenta.

"Infinite calm down, the Resistance is defeated, there's nothing they can do to stop us now" said Eggman a little fearful of the jackal's rage, "No, I won't stop, not until every single one of them is dead" said Infinite breaking into a short laugh at the end.

Eggman was clearly becoming more uneasy at Infinite's behaver, "Right, well maybe you could go and destroy one of the cities that are still resisting us" said Eggman worry was now clear in his voice, "Yes, yes, I'll tear those cities a part, I'll kill all who resist, they'll learn that I'm the strongest being in the universe" said Infinite completely losing his calm demeanour for a more unstable one.

Infinite left the room laughing like a maniac at the thought of what he would do to the first city that he found, Eggman breathed a sigh of relief once the jackal was gone.

"Something's not right about that jackal" said Eggman, "Indeed, it appears that Infinite's mental state in deteriorating" said Orbot, "Yeah, and he seems to be going a little loopy too" said Cubot.

Eggman stood up and walked out of the room, "You two stay here and inform me if anything happens" he said, "Yes Sir Dr Robotnik" said the two robots together.

Eggman headed straight towards his secret lab, he knew that the Spectral sapphire would be complete by now and judging by Infinite's mental state he needed it now before the jackal got any worst.

Eggman entered his secret lab and nearly screamed at what he saw, there was a large hole in the wall leading to the outside and the tube where the Spectral sapphire was being kept was broken and the sapphire was gone.

"No, no, no, no" said Eggman over and over again as he searched the lab hoping to find the sapphire, if Eggman had any hair on his head he would likely be pulling it out right now.

Without the Spectral sapphire Eggman had no way to stop Infinite if he turned on him, and it could take the Doctor months to collect the necessary items to create another sapphire, to make matters worse Eggman also had no idea who now possessed the Spectral sapphire.

Null space.

Shadow was hit by an orb of dark energy that sent him crashing into the ground, Shadow tried to stand but he was tackled by two of Mephiles's shadow minions, Shadow teleported out of the minions's grasp and then stomped on their heads destroying them.

"Shadow can't you see that there is no way you can win this fight, wouldn't it be easier to just give up" said Mephiles from across the room, "You should know that I never give up" panted Shadow.

"Yes, you've always been a fighter haven't you Shadow, and just look at where that has gotten you" said Mephiles, "What are you talking about" said Shadow as he destroyed another minion with a Chaos spear.

"Don't you see Shadow, your very existence has caused nothing but death, especially for those closest to you" said Mephiles, "SHUT UP" shouted Shadow as he fired a Chaos spear at Mephiles but missed by a large margin.

"Your anger is only proof that I am right, you know that many lives would have been spared if you had never been created" said Mephiles as two of his minions stepped forward and then took the forms of Gerald and Maria Robotnik.

"And how long do you think it will be until those who are close to you now will suffer a similar fate" said Mephiles as another two of his minions stepped forward and took the forms of Rouge and Omega.

"Those you once knew, and those you know now, they will all die one day Shadow, and on that day you will be alone" said Mephiles, suddenly Omega was torn apart and dismantled, Rouge rapidly aged and withered away, Gerald was riddled with bullets, and Maria was bleeding out from a single bullet wound to the stomach.

"Surely it would be better to just end your life now and join them Shadow, rather than continue on an endless life without them" said Mephiles, Shadow didn't say a word he had fallen to his knees in despair, Mephiles smiled with his none existent mouth.

"Finally making the right decision I see" said Mephiles as he and his minions began to approach the downed Shadow.

Shadow was shacking with both rage and despair, there was a single tear falling down his cheek, as Mephiles and his minions drew closer Shadow removed his inhibitor rings, "CHAOS BLAST" screamed Shadow.

An explosion of red energy tore through Mephiles and his minions reducing them to nothing, the completely unrestrained Chaos blast continued to destroy everything in its path until it reached the boundaries of the room.

The Chaos blast suddenly stopped as if it had hit an invisible barrier, however the Chaos blast continued to fight against the invisible barrier determined to break through.

Suddenly a magenta crack appeared in the air as if reality itself was being torn apart, more cracks appeared until there was a sound similar to breaking glass, then everything turned white and Shadow passed out from exhaustion.

Sand ocean, Dr Eggman's pyramid base.

Shadow woke up to find himself in Eggman's pyramid base, the same base that he and Omega had been attacking when all of this insanity had started.

Shadow stood up and readied himself for battle expecting to face another enemy from his past, however no one appeared.

Shadow saw that his inhibiter rings was on the floor at his feet, Shadow reached down and placed the rings back on his wrists while keeping his eyes open for any danger.

Looking closely Shadow notice that the base looked a little different to how he remembered it, there was no sign of any robots or that the base had been used recently, the base seemed to be completely abandoned.

Shadow searched the base and continued to find no sign of danger, "Am I finally out of that nightmare" he thought.

Shadow activated his communicator and attempted to contact G,U,N, however the only response he received was that his code was invalid, "That's strange, the code doesn't get changed until the end of the month" thought Shadow completely oblivious to how long he had been gone for.

Shadow headed towards the exit of the base determined to find out what was going on and find the one who had sent him to that nightmarish world.