Chapter 31, The darkest of days.
The Resistance was in shambles after the disaster of Operation big wave, they was still doing everything that they could to stop Eggman and protect the world, but with their numbers almost cut in half from a single mission they could no longer protect as many small towns or send out as many squads.
Moral had also dropped amongst the Resistance, many of the members was now questioning whether Knuckles was a competent leader or now, and sadly Knuckles was also thinking the same thing.
Some of the other members of the Resistance was also beginning to doubt that there was any point in battling Eggman anymore and some even left the Resistance believing that they had no chance of winning this war.
With the Resistance in such a mess Eggman and his armies was able to conquer many small towns that would have otherwise been defended, this only tightened the Doctor's hold on the world.
Westoplis.
Rouge flew from rooftop to rooftop, after the Resistance's defeat at New Metropolis Commander Tower had called her back to base to discuss new orders and she was now heading towards G,U,N HQ.
Rouge stopped on one of the rooftops and sighed, she knew that the Resistance was in no position to help battle Eggman anymore and she had a feeling that Commander Tower was going to order her and Omega to leave the Resistance in order to help G,U,N instead.
If Commander Tower did order Rouge and Omega to leave the Resistance than Rouge didn't know how she would break the news to Knuckles, she knew that he had been pretty depressed since Operation big wave and he was doubting himself, if Rouge and Omega did leave the Resistance than that would just be another hit to his confidence.
Rouge tried to push these thoughts from her mind, for now she would just hope that Commander Tower wouldn't give her an order like that.
Rouge was just about to take flight when something suddenly hit her in the back sending her falling off of the rooftop.
Rouge panicked for a moment, but she quickly regained her senses and flapped her wings turning what would have been a painful landing into a gentle descent.
Now on the ground Rouge looked up at the rooftop to try and see who had attacked her, Rouge's attacker jumped off of the rooftop and landed just in front of Rouge to meet her.
Rouge was now face to face with Shadow, however this Shadow's eyes was blank and dead telling Rouge that this was just another copy, Rouge knew that she was in trouble, this copy may not be as strong as the real Shadow but it was still powerful.
Rouge throw one of her bombs at the copy hoping to catch it off guard, however the copy was too fast and it easily dodged the bomb and closed the gap between itself and Rouge.
The Shadow copy throw a couple of punches as Rouge, but thanks to her training Rouge easily blocked these attacks and countered the copy with a kick to the stomach.
Rouge saw that the copy was now off balance and she quickly delivered a kick to its head knocking it to the ground, before the copy could recover Rouge throw another one of her bombs right next to its head.
The bomb exploded and the copy disappeared in an explosion of red cubes, "Not as tough as they look" thought Rouge with a smile, however Rouge's smile soon disappeared when she saw another Shadow copy emerge from a dark alleyway.
Rouge prepared for combat but another Shadow copy walked out of the same alley, then another one jumped down from a nearby rooftop, then another one emerged from an alley right behind Rouge, Rouge was now outnumbered four to one.
Rouge knew that she couldn't defeat four Shadow copies at once so she decided that it was time to make a quick exit, Rouge flew into the air and started to fly away from the copies.
However Rouge didn't get far thanks to one of the copies hitting her in the back with a Chaos spear, Rouge fell from the air and landed painfully on the hard road.
Rouge stood up and immediately felt a sharp pain in her back, the copy's Chaos spear had damaged Rouge's wing leaving her unable to fly, without her ability to fly all Rouge could do was run.
Rouge tried to runaway but the Shadow copies all began to fire Chaos spears at her, Rouge dodged a couple of attacks but was soon hit in the leg knocking her down.
Before Rouge had a chance to do anything one of the copies ran up to her and stomped on her stomach pinning her to the ground, Rouge watched in horror as the Shadow copy charged up a Chaos spear ready to finish her off.
Suddenly right before the Shadow copy could fire it's Chaos spear a bright yellow beam of energy came out of nowhere and struck the copy in the head destroying it.
Rouge and the three remaining copies all looked in the direction of the that the energy beam had come from, Rouge was extremely confused at what she saw, there was another Shadow standing only a few feet away from her.
Rouge noticed that this new Shadow seemed different compered to the copies, his eyes wasn't dull and lifeless instead they had a slight life to them that the copies lacked, "Shadow" asked Rouge with a hint of hope in her voice, Shadow gave her a small smile as he teleported between her and the copies.
"Strange, these don't appear to be Shadow androids, what are they" thought Shadow as he looked at the three copies of himself, the copies seemed to only just now realise that this Shadow wasn't one of them and the three all charged towards the real Shadow.
Shadow acted quickly and delivered an elbow to the first copy's stomach, then Shadow kicked the second copy in the head using his air shoes to add a little fire to his kick, The third copy tried to catch Shadow off-guard but Shadow caught the copy by the throat and sent a Chaos spear straight through its head destroying it.
By now the first copy had recovered and it attempted to kick Shadow only for the black hedgehog to block the attack, Shadow countered the copy with a kick to the stomach then he grabbed the copy and slammed it into the rode hard enough to leave a large crack, the copy then dissolved into red cubes.
The last remaining copy fired a Chaos spear but Shadow slid under this attack and then sweep kicked the copy's legs knocking it to the ground, Shadow then grabbed the copy by the head and then with one quick movement snapped it's neck.
With the last copy destroyed Shadow turned to Rouge who was still in shock after seeing the real Shadow, "Rouge would you mind telling me what the hell is going on here" asked Shadow.
"Shadow, is that really you" asked Rouge, "Of course it's me, now tell me what was those things" said Shadow, "Shadow how are you here, where have you been, what happened to you" asked Rouge a little too quickly.
"Calm down, your becoming hysterical" said Shadow, Rouge took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, it's just, you was gone for so long, we thought that you was dead" said Rouge.
"What are you talking about, I couldn't have been gone for more than a few days" said Shadow, "A few days? Shadow you've been gone for three months" said Rouge shocking Shadow.
"Interesting, whatever that place was where I was trapped, it seems that time moves differently there, a signal day in there must be equal to a month out here" thought Shadow trying to make sense of this.
"Rouge I think that we need to have a talk, it seems that I missed a lot" said Shadow, "Ok, I'll explain everything, but we also need to tell G,U,N that your alive" said Rouge.
