I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the characters.
The Battle Begins
Shadow remained silent as he watched the others preparing themselves. They had gathered all of the available Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, however, even with the Master Emerald present, it wasn't enough for anyone to access their Super forms. So instead, they were preparing themselves, physically and mentally, for the worst, a fight with Mephiles without the Emeralds. Sonic was counting out his entire collection of gold rings, which Shadow still wasn't sure where he kept, or how they somehow made him stronger, since they were, in fact, just rings. However, he'd seen their effects on him first hand during the time between arriving and exploding the first time and starting this entire shit show of a train of events, so he didn't say anything. At Knuckles' suggestion, they had all agreed to prepare to use lethal force against Mephiles. As such, Knuckles had put on metal gloves with extended metal spikes over his and a bronze helmet and was holding a pair of war axes with gold designs on the side and two small spikes off their edges. Sonic had put on a metal glove on his right hand and had held his hand out the window for about a minute before a sword had suddenly flown over to it with a double-edged blade and a ring at the guard with the guard's arms reaching out of it, then the blade and grip attached to the top and bottom of it. His sword apparently was also alive, because as soon as he caught it, one side of the guard suddenly had a face that began to yell at him for not coming to get him for hundreds of years. Silver had gotten a face mask with six stretched diamond slits arranged in a semicircle, a pair of metal gloves with the same glowing blue circles as his normal gloves, and a sword with a blade that looked like a jumbo-sized spearhead. Blaze had gotten a silver helmet with three wavy horizonal slits, a blue gemstone embedded in the top of the face shield, a pair of armored gloves, and a rapier with a golden bell guard. Finally, Sonic had given Shadow gear that was apparently the original Shadow's, consisting of a silver face mask with six vertical slits for him to see through then armor that ran along his top center spike, three red diamonds marking the forehead of the helmet, an silver chest plate and pauldrons with white metal in a "V" around his neck, a pair of armored gloves that he put under his rings, then a sword with a half-leaf-shaped blade, a gold hilt with a small spike on the front curved downward, a small spike at the base of the hilt, a row of gold scale-like plates running down the back of the blade, and a diamond-shaped design on either side of the blade about two thirds of the way along it, both designs having something like a Celtic knot of some kind in them.
"So...where the hell did we get this shit?" Shadow asked.
"A while ago, I went back in time, though, it was using a story book as a medium, and fought King Arthur and Merlin," Sonic said. "There was a medieval version of everyone with gear there, even you. A little while before the last Shadow died, we had a fight we needed to go lethal for, but the thing was able to heat up bullets inside their magazines, so we couldn't bring guns. So instead, I found all of the medieval versions' tombs and gathered their weapons and armor."
"And yet, you just now got your own sword back for the first time?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I fought the battle using Super mode, so I didn't need the sword," Sonic said.
"What were you even fighting?" Shadow asked.
"The Black Arms," Silver said. "Under the leadership of a particularly nasty new leader, who was even more ruthless than Black Doom. There was no retreat, so we ended up fighting them to the death. We wiped them out."
"How?" Shadow asked. "Wasn't there a full comet of them?"
"There was," Sonic said. "But I blew up its core and ended the battle."
Shadow shook his head. "That's surprisingly ruthless of you all. I'm impressed."
"It was Shadow who decided we had to wipe them out," Sonic said. "He convinced us that the fight wouldn't stop if we didn't."
Shadow shrugged. "Whatever. I don't particularly care. This will come in handy against Eclipse. Mephiles, not so much."
"Still, it's better than punching him," Blaze said.
"True," Shadow sighed. "Somehow, things suddenly seem a lot more...dire, now that we're holding deadly weapons."
"You use deadly weapons all the time," Rouge said, looping her arms around his neck. "Are you afraid?"
"For you two," Shadow said, wrapping the arm not holding his sword around her. "I know I'll be fine, but I don't want anything to happen to either of you."
"We'll be okay," Rouge smiled. "We can take care of ourselves."
"I know," Shadow said. "I just..."
"We know," Blaze smiled. "We love you, too."
He smiled, giving them each a kiss before Espio and Vector, the last of the people they'd be taking, finally arrived, and Tails finally powered up the bipedal walker he'd been inspecting for the last thirty minutes.
"Alright, we're all ready," Sonic said, picking up one of the Chaos Emeralds. "Now, to find Eclipse."
"I'll do it," Shadow said, taking the Emerald.
"That's a bad idea," Sonic said. "You're not as practiced with it as the last Shadow."
"That's true, but it's my dimension we're traveling to," Shadow said. "Practiced or not...I can find it."
Sonic was silent for a moment before nodding. Shadow raised the emerald, but just as his eyes began to shimmer with white-blue chaos energy, images began to flash through his mind. Red and dark grey aliens. Blood. Fire. A comet. Guns. Swords. The images began to grow more complicated and detailed as they also sped up. Battles. Places. Deaths. Panic and fear shot through Shadow quickly and he suddenly couldn't breathe. He fell to his knees, hand clutching the emerald hard. Then, suddenly, a swirling portal formed under him and he fell through, the portal remaining open. Rouge, Blaze, and Zeta all dove through instantly, all of them having been about to try and take the Emerald away from Shadow and make sure he was okay. Sonic and the others grabbed the Chaos Emeralds and jumped into the portal and it sealed behind them.
"Can you do this Shadow?" Sonic asked nervously. "I mean...This is a big ask."
"Yes it is," Shadow nodded, watching as the giant black robot that had been slaughtering their forces for the last half hour stomped toward the giant elevator that had been built for it, one which would take it back to the interior of the fort. "But I'm the only one who can do it. If I don't stop this here and now, everyone will die. He cannot be allowed to win."
"Alright," Sonic nodded. "Then you go inside and we'll stay up here and keep them busy."
"Take care of Rouge and Blaze for me," Shadow said. "If I win this and end up alone, I'll find you and beat the shit out of you. And if you die with them, I'll piss on your grave."
"I won't let anything happen to them," Sonic promised. "Now go stop him before the generals return."
Shadow nodded and took off.
"Shadow!" Blaze shouted, Shadow gasping harshly and sitting bolt upright, mind still seeing the blackened land, stone spikes, and Black Arms army from his memory.
"Are you okay?" Rouge asked.
He sighed, nodding and rubbing his eyes, only to go rigid when he saw that what he was seeing remained unchanged. "What...Oh no."
"I think I have an idea about what happened here that ended with you going to our dimension," Rouge said as they stared out at the corrupted, infested world before them.
They were all on top of a mountain, the entire world around them blackened, scorched, and covered in Black Arms. there were millions of them. The entire world looked like a bigger, darker, war-scarred version of the Black Comet, except that he could see the comet in the sky above them.
"Did they... win?" Sonic asked.
"I don't...I don't know," Shadow said. "I can't remember."
"We need to find Eclipse," Silver said. "Whatever happened here, we need that last Emerald before Mephiles gets to whatever dimension he's going to."
"Uh...guys?" Blaze said. "I think he's already there."
She pointed up into the air where Mephiles was floating down toward the Black Arms, who were all watching him.
"What!?" Silver gaped.
"What is he doing here!?" Blaze asked.
"Zeta, do you know what he's looking for?" Shadow asked.
"No," Zeta said. "He just kept calling it his goal, or his objective."
Before them, Mephiles finally came within attacking range of the Black Arms, apparently, because the winged bat-like ones suddenly all swarmed toward him, only to be slaughtered by chaos spears erupting from his entire body at once. Several Black Assassins leapt at him and slashed, only for the world around them to distort, flashing red before clouds of red squares erupted off of him, enveloping the Assassins before expanding and clearing, leaving nothing behind. Then, Mephiles streaked downward in a blur, crashing to the ground hard enough to send out a shockwave that threw the Black Arms away and killed a dozen, plus one he'd landed on and flattened. Then, the world flashed red and he was suddenly holding a pair of single-edged swords with a guard that looked like the top of Shadow's head with a rainbow colored point on the pommel, then the blade black and extending off the top of the shadow-head guard, but with the edge being what looked like red crystal. Then, he was off, streaking around and around, his swords splitting the aliens rapidly. The aliens began to shoot at him and he flipped into the air, spinning and sending the sword tearing into the aliens, both swords spinning through several aliens before the world flashed and both exploded into massive clouds of red squares before fading at the same time as Mephiles was suddenly holding a rifle about as long as Shadow's sword, about three feet, with black along the top, a pink grip, and spikes sticking off of the top of the gun along the entire way along it.
Before the Black Arms could aim up at him, he opened fire, the gun switching back and forth between bursts and single shots too fast for Shadow to believe it was a selector switch. The shots also were balls of orange plasma and exploded into small balls of fire on impact, each just barely enough to kill the alien it hit and maybe another beside them. Within seconds, Mephiles had killed dozens of Black Arms and landed on the ground again just as the Black Arms parted, forming a path through them. Mephiles stopped, looking around for a moment before letting his gun disappear and walking along the path.
"We need to stop him!" Shadow said suddenly, seeing a cave ahead of Mephiles and feeling utter terror from just the sight of it. "We need to stop him now!"
"Let's go," Sonic said.
"Wait, there's someone there!" Zeta said.
They turned and Shadow's gut dropped as he saw Eclipse standing in the opening. He held an arm out toward the cave as Mephiles reached him, Mephiles passing him in silence before Eclipse followed him.
"I guess we know where we're going," Sonic said.
"We're dead," Shadow breathed.
"Why?" Sonic asked.
"I...I don't remember," Shadow frowned. "It's just...this feeling."
"Well, get over your feeling," Silver said. "We don't have a choice except to go into that cave."
Shadow nodded, clenching his sword tightly. He glanced at the cliff they were standing at. So far, all his memories had been accompanied by fear. So, maybe if he was afraid, he'd remember something. He took a deep breath before tipping forward and dropping off the cliff. He kept his eyes closed, and as he had hoped, the flood of adrenaline and fear he suddenly felt brought images he didn't recognize to mind. The same group he had now fighting the Black Arms using their natural abilities, and Aimee her hammer while Shadow and Rouge used guns. The others all splitting off to fight the army while Sonic and Shadow headed for the cave, which held the entrance to the facility where Shadow would end up fighting the giant robot. Then, he remembered the generals. They'd been waiting just inside the cave. There were five of them. Six if he counted Eclipse, but he wouldn't be in the fight with the rest. Shadow's eyes flew open as the identities of the generals filled his mind and he flipped, activating his shoes to slow himself before slashing a pair of Black Arms below himself and landing safely. Just as he did, a roar rang out from the Black Arms, spreading outward as two moved to shoot him, only for Blaze to crash down on one, stabbing it as the flames coming from her feet ended just before Rouge's foot crashed down on the other, flattening it. Then, most of the others crashed down on the aliens around them and the battle had begun.
"What the Hell were you thinking!?" Blaze demanded.
"Good job forcing us into a frontal assault!" Sonic snapped. "We could have-"
"The generals are here!" Shadow said urgently. "I just remembered when I fell! We can't win this!"
Sonic's eyes widened as several voices began to laugh from around them. The Black Arms all backed away and Shadow swallowed hard. The five generals all suddenly leapt out of the army and landed on the tops of five spikes spread in a rough semicircle around Shadow and the others. Everyone stared at them in shock. One of them looked like Shadow, but with his fur messier, a pair of red devil horns, a third eye on his forehead that had a red iris and a gold slit pupil in the center, clawed fingers, red combat boots, and four long black tentacles with red spikes for tips extending from his back. The next looked like Knuckles, but with most of his body the same dark grey as a Black Arms alien, red on the ends of his spines, then reaching into the black in spiderweb-like veins that only reached a few inches, massive claws for toes, two glowing yellow eyes that had no features in them, and his hands transformed into balls of flesh on the ends of his arms with his knuckle spikes extended, closer together, and looking to be made of bone. The third looked like Silver but with black flesh in place of fur, silver scales on the front of his torso like armor, entirely green eyes with slit pupils, two smaller identical eyes above his normal ones, a long tail ending in a dark grey point, digitigrade legs with long silver claws, and black claws on his fingers. The fourth was another Shadow, this time twice the height of the others with black and red scales covering his body, two clawed toes on the front of his feet and one on the back, small red spikes up the outsides of his calves near the back, red scales covering his feet, then slowly fading to black from the middle of his lower leg to his knees, claws on his fingers with a similar scale coloration as his legs, two curved spikes on the outsides of his forearms, a long, pointed tail with a barb on one side like the point of a fishing hook, a tuft of white fur on his chest just in front of his neck, white scales on his snout, yellow eyes with red irises and slit pupils, the spines on his head all covered in spikes the entire way along them, and a disgusted, unwavering scowl directed at Shadow. The last, looked like Sonic, except with black fur, his spines glowing orange, his torso and snout both red, his arms starting black at his shoulders, then fading to red from around his elbows, then two clawed fingers and a clawed thumb per hand, all of which were also glowing orange, two spikes on the backs of his forearms, angled toward his elbow, digitigrade legs that faded to red just below his knees, then had a pair of glowing orange claws for toes, black eyes with glowing orange irises and slit pupils, and a tail with a glowing orange barbed spike at the end, red for a few inches above it, and two small spikes at the top of the base.
"Why do they look like us?" Knuckles asked.
"Oh my God," Sonic breathed. "They are us. Aren't they?"
"The versions from this dimension," Shadow nodded. "The generals aren't the versions of you. They're the parasites inside of them which mutated them into what you see, and which is controlling them. And no, you can't kill the parasite to save them. It's fused with their central nervous systems. Killing it will kill them."
"Oh my God," Rouge breathed. "So, then, why are there two of you?"
"I don't know," Shadow frowned. "Maybe one of them was the original I was made to replace. And the other might be a clone or something."
"How do we proceed?" Blaze asked.
"Carefully," Shadow said. "Anyone who has a doppelganger will fight them. Zeta, I'll need your help with my two."
Everyone that included nodded.
"Everyone else, try to keep the Black Arms busy," Shadow said. "Just be careful. Oh, and the most important thing for those fighting the generals. Once you kill them, and you have to kill them, the parasite will come out to try and infect you. Don't let it."
Again everyone nodded.
"Are you done strategizing yet, failure?" the taller of the two Black Arms Shadows asked.
"Failure?" Shadow asked.
"You were made to replace the original," the shorter one explained. "However, in your war against the Black Arms, under command of the lower lifeforms that created you, you failed. We tried to improve you with Black Arms DNA, but your body was immune. The process caused your Chaos Energy to go out of control, however, so Lord Doom cast you out of this dimension. However, he believes you remain a threat, even as a failure, so we've been ordered to destroy you."
"I see," Shadow said. "Then I suppose that means I have a score to settle with Doom."
"You're not going to live that long," the taller one snarled. "Black Arms, crush them."
The army charged instantly, but this time, Shadow and the others were ready. They all shot forward, tearing into the army rapidly, spreading out a short distance as anyone who was assigned a general fought their way toward them. However, after a few minutes, the generals all vanished, leaving the Black Arms to deal with Shadow and the others. Shadow grit his teeth, spinning and slashing a circle around himself with his sword held in reverse grip, then looked around just as both Blaze and Rouge reached him, the others all heading for him as well.
"Why is everyone coming to me?" Shadow asked.
"You've become our unofficial leader, since we're in your dimension," Rouge said, jumping and kicking an alien away as Blaze stabbed one, then slashed another.
"Your world, your orders," Blaze agreed, just as Zeta slashed her way into the small circle around them with both her hands as blades before shifting them back to hands and stepping into the small circle they'd formed beside Shadow.
"What do we do?" Zeta asked.
"Kill them until the generals decide to come back out," Shadow said, looking around at the Black Arms, which weren't attacking. "Why are they just standing there?"
"I've got a really bad feeling about this," Zeta said.
Then, the ground below them exploded, the Black Bull erupting from below them, swallowing all four at once, the Black Arms turning to deal with the rest.
"Where is your master, slave?" Mephiles demanded after following Eclipse for nearly ten minutes in silence. "I will not wait for much longer. If he doesn't want me t-"
"We've arrived," Eclipse said, smiling condescendingly as he opened a door and stepped out of Mephiles's way. "My master is just inside. Oh, and don't begin to presume you know what my Master wants."
Mephiles scoffed, walking into the dark room. After a moment, the door closed, leaving the room in darkness, Mephiles only just able to make out a silhouette before him.
"I assume you've figured out why I'm here," Mephiles said.
The silhouette remained silent and immobile.
"I am here for the Black Comet's core!" Mephiles snarled. "You have a planet to call home, so you no longer need the comet. I could take it by force, but I believed it would be simpler to come to this universe where such methods would be unnece-"
"Silence!" the figure before him finally snapped, his three yellow eyes with red irises and slit pupils sliding open to glare at him, raised center eye's eyelid curved downward to allow the eye to glare as well, despite not having its own eyebrow. "You could do nothing! You came to this dimension to beg my comet's core because you are lack the power required to take it by force, and you believed that I would not care about it's loss! And you killed a few dozen of my drones as you believed such a pathetic display of what you believe to be power would intimidate me! If you were truly powerful, you would have wiped out the army in one strike! You would not have resorted to blades and guns as a way to conserve your power! You are not powerful! You simply have a few tricks that you stole from those who were truly powerful!"
Mephiles narrowed his eyes. "You dare to speak to me with such a tone!? Do you know who I am!? I'll crush-"
The figure before him raised a hand and an explosion of Chaos Energy went off directly in front of Mephiles, sending him exploding into the wall beside the door. "Raise your tone again, and the next explosion I cause will begin inside of your heart. I am not so weak that I would be impressed by you defeating such a paltry number of drones. Your display may impress the android created to replace Shadow the Hedgehog, but I am not so easily frightened. You shall receive nothing from us. Leave this dimension, or I will crush you."
Mephiles snarled angrily. "I have come too far to be refused! I will have my prize! I will gain the power I seek!"
He exploded off the ground at the figure before him, but he blinked and the eyes were suddenly gone, just before something exploded down on his back, cracking his crystal body and sending him exploding into the ground. He bounced once before his opponent exploded into his side, sending him crashing into the wall hard enough to crater it. He dropped to the ground, landing on his feet and roared in rage, firing a blast of energy at his opponent, only for his opponent to suddenly be standing in front of him. Mephiles shouted in surprise and flipped backward onto the wall, leaping off of it, only for his opponent to explode into his gut, sending him exploding into the ceiling before crashing back tot he floor. He began to stand, but his opponent swiped his feet out from under him, then slammed a kick into him as he was airborne, sending him once again exploding into the wall. As he stood this time, the world flashed red and several more Mephiles appeared, all of them forming a circle around their opponent and charging. However, when they reached him, he went ballistic, taking them all down in seconds without moving from where he was before ending up holding Mephiles in the air by the throat.
"What...are...you?" Mephiles choked out.
"As far as you are concerned, I might as well be God," his opponent said.
Then, he smashed him into the ground so hard cracks split open over Mephiles's entire body and left him unconscious.
The leader of the Black Arms stood, turning and walking back toward his chair. "Take him to the elevator room." He sat down in his chair, resting his right elbow on the arm rest before leaning his head on his fist. "If Shadow and his little friends make it inside, lead them to the this vermin so that they can destroy him."
"Of course, Master," Eclipse bowed.
"And Eclipse," the leader said. "Leave that Chaos Emerald with him. We have no need of it."
"Yes, Master," Eclipse bowed again, then lifted Mephiles by the top of the head and walked away, dragging him behind himself.
"Now, Shadow, let's see how you do," the leader mused, focusing on the Black Arms' hive mind to monitor his progress. "I hope you do not disappoint me again."
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