I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the characters.
My Purpose
"Is that it?" the general asked, spitting onto the side of Shadow's head. "Pathetic. After all that power you showed for a second, I expected you to be able to keep up. Oh well. I'll tell those whores you were trying to protect that you say hello."
Shadow's eyes slid closed as darkness claimed him. Images began to play behind his eyes instantly. A laboratory. A fox with two tails and a fat man in a red flight suit were speaking to each other outside the stasis tank Shadow was floating in. He wanted to call out to them. He wanted to get out of the tank. But he couldn't move. His eyes drifted to the computer screen as a loading bar on it filled, the words "UPLOAD COMPLETE" flashing over it. The fox and the fat man both turned toward the tank and walked over to it. Slowly, the fluid inside drained, leaving Shadow on his knees inside, and the fox opened the tank. Shadow tried to stand, but his body wasn't responding.
"How do you feel?" the fox asked.
"Tired," Shadow said.
"Maybe the Master Emerald isn't hooked up right," the fat man said. "It should be giving him an endless supply of power more than double what the original Shadow was capable of with a Chaos Emerald."
Shadow frowned. "Master Emerald?"
Information began to flood his brain on both the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds. It wasn't like memories, though. It was more like he was reading from a book. Like words on a page. No emotions. No connection. Just information.
"We used the Master Emerald as your core," the fox, Tails, according to Shadow's still-flowing information, said. "It has the ability to shrink down to be carried, when necessary, so we shrunk it down and connected it to all of your systems. You're an android. A combination of organic and inorganic material and systems. The first of your kind. Do you know what's going on in the world right now?"
Images began to flash behind Shadow's eyes. A war. Black Arms fighting humans. Burning cities. He was suddenly in one of the battles. Sonic was fighting off to his left with Knuckles and Silver as backup. Blaze and Rouge were fighting near Shadow. Tails and Eggman were in their walkers off to the right. Shadow focused, sending out a blast of Chaos Energy. He picked up a fallen gun one of the aliens had used and opened fire, rapidly slaughtering them. However, suddenly, a Black Assassin landed behind Rouge. Shadow's eyes widened. Rouge had been there for him. She was kind. She was one of the only people that he was supposed to know that he had any kind of actual connection to. He launched himself at her, knocking her out of the way and shooting the Black Assassin in the face, killing it just as its sword tore through his torso. Then, suddenly it was his back in pain, and it was a laser, with Blaze being the person he was shielding. It was a different battle. It was later in the war. After Rouge had nursed Shadow back to health. After Blaze had helped Rouge protect him when their fort was overrun by Black Arms. He couldn't let her die. He owed her.
Suddenly, he was in a bed, wounded and resting, with Rouge and Blaze at his sides. He remembered this. It was a few days after they'd lost that battle. It was the day Rouge and Blaze told him they loved him. It was they day he realized why his chest always hurt when he was with them, and when he learned what if felt like to be in love. And it was the day that Tails and Eggman died. The fort was attacked later, and they stayed to detonate a bomb and kill the Black Arms attacking them. As the image of the explosion faded, an image of Blaze and Rouge replaced it, both bare of clothing and standing before him, hand-in-hand, and offering their other hands to him. He knew this day too. It was the day they decided that they would probably be dead soon, so instead of him trying to choose one, they agreed to share him for whatever small amount of time they had left. It was his first time with them, and it was their last time. Because the next day was the final battle against the Black Arms. A desperate attack in an effort to reach the Black Arms' leader and destroy him.
More images flashed behind his eyes. The battle, which they were losing, badly. The generals emerging from the cave to stop him, at the time looking like normal Black Arms, except bigger and more terrifying than Black Assassins. He remembered getting inside the Black Arms' hive-like facility. He remembered fighting the robot. Remembered Rouge and Blaze's deaths. Then, he remembered fighting Doom, the Black Arms' leader. He finally remembered what they were up against. He remembered taking his rings off and still not being strong enough. Then, he remembered the generals arriving and defeating him with a combined surprise assault., all of them now as the partially-mutated forms of his friends. He remembered the leader trying to infect him with the sixth general, but the Master Emerald went berserk. After the tenth Chaos Blast in a minute, the leader of the Black Arms finally used his own Chaos Powers to open a portal and hurl Shadow through it, casting him out of the dimension at random. And then, Shadow remembered the agony of the Master Emerald purging his body of whatever Black Arms DNA had infected it, also wiping his memories.
Shadow's eyes flew open as the images faded and he heard Rouge and Blaze scream. His body moved without command, and ignored the agony of his shattered bones. His yanked the rings off his wrists, dropping them as his feet kicked his ankles' rings off. Instantly, golden Chaos Energy exploded off his body and his bones all healed instantly. The Black Arms swarmed him but he exploded into motion instantly, the energy forming a sort of barrier that blasted them apart as it hit them. He could see the generals on top of a cliff a short distance away. The one with tentacles had stabbed Rouge through the arms and legs, the taller Shadow general had broken both of Blaze's arms and legs and was stabbing her in the stomach with her own sword, and the Silver general was slowly crushing Zeta with his powers. Then, Shadow reached them, the barrier fading as he kicked the taller general away from Blaze, into the other Shadow, both sailing away from them all. He caught Blaze's sword as it fell toward her again and spun, leaping at the Silver general and slashing at him, managing to tear a shallow gash into his side and making him drop Zeta and retreat. Then, Shadow stabbed Blaze's sword into the ground and knelt, taking both Blaze and Rouge's hands, golden energy spreading to them and healing them in seconds. Then, he turned, taking Zeta's hand and healing her as well, also managing to fix the cable connected to her Master Emerald shard, since she was designed the same as him. The moment Zeta was healed, she sat bolt upright, kissing him for a moment before beginning to sob into his chest.
"You're alive!" Zeta sobbed. "I was...I was so...afraid!"
"I'm okay," Shadow said, holding her for a few moments before standing. "I'll be back. I'm going to end this."
"Please be careful," Rouge said.
"I will," Shadow said. "Zeta, I leave them to you."
Zeta nodded and Shadow dropped off the cliff, the golden energy exploding off of him again before he landed, erupting outward from the cliff and blasting dozens of Black Arms into paste. Shadow shot toward the Silver general first, grabbing his sword as he passed, then stepped past Silver's sword as the general slashed it at him, only for Shadow's blade to remove his arm, then split him in half. Before the general could try to escape the body, a gold Chaos Blast erupted from Shadow's body, turning the General and his now dead host into paste. He turned as the two Shadow generals turned to him. He tightened his hold on his sword and both generals charged, only for Shadow to explode forward, firing a Chaos Spear out of his whole body, one which matched his body for size. It was aimed between them, but when it exploded, only the taller of the two was able to avoid it, not having his own inhibitor rings on. The other spun away, bouncing through the ranks of the Black Arms before rolling to a stop beside Sonic, just as Sonic removed his own general's head. He turned, flipping his sword and stabbed it down into the Shadow general's head, then spun again, slashing his general's parasite. Then, a Black Assassin's sword spun past behind Sonic, a glowing blue aura around it, and Sonic turned, staring at the Shadow general's parasite, lying on the ground. Sonic looked around and spotted both Silver and Knuckles, both wounded. He shot over to Knuckles first, then carried him to Silver before beginning to focus the Chaos Emeralds' power into a healing energy.
Shadow glanced after the general with tentacles, seeing him heading for Sonic, then spun, deflecting a Black Assassin's blade held by the other general with his own sword, only for the general to kick his hand, sending the sword spinning away. The general moved to slash Shadow, but Shadow launched himself into the air with his shoes, smashing his knee into the general's face and knocking him back several steps. As soon as Shadow landed, he launched himself forward again, this time curling into a ball as golden energy encased him, exploding into the general's chest and hurling him. He shot after him and the general flipped, slamming his feet into the ground before black energy exploded off of his body and he shot forward as well. Both threw a punch, their fists meeting and sending an explosion of their energies at each other, the explosions bouncing off each other and blasting the Black Arms around them. Shadow spun instantly, his right foot's front thruster launching him into a windmill kick, only for the general to duck under it. As the general moved to punch Shadow, Shadow set off a Chaos Blast, blasting him directly into the ground before landing and flashing forward. His right armored glove scraped the ground before exploding into the general's side, an aimed Chaos Blast sending him flying. Shadow formed a barrier around himself and shot after him, reaching him just in time for the general's own barrier to cancel out Shadow's, going with it. The general stepped forward, punching Shadow across the face, only for Shadow to spin, his heel crashing into the side of the general's head, sending him staggering away. The general spun just as Shadow drilled a punch into one of his knees, shattering it, then used his shoes to launch his knee up into the general's face, flipping him backward.
The general roared in rage, setting off a pitch black Chaos Blast and sent Shadow spinning through the air, only for Shadow to catch himself with his energy, then flash downward again, his fist cratering the ground just barely after the general had launched himself out of the way. The general stood, holding out his hand and forming a sword from his black energy. Shadow raised his own hand and his sword spun through the air to his hand. He flipped it back to reverse grip and shot forward, jumping and slashing at the general from above, the general blocking it and shoving it away. He moved to slash Shadow, but Shadow flipped over it, his left foot's front thruster spinning him into an axe kick that bounced the general's head off the ground. The general spun as he was bouncing and when his blade met Shadow's, there was an explosion of black and gold energy, both being thrown away from each other. Shadow flipped, landing on his feet as the broken blade of his sword stabbed into the ground in front of him. He huffed, tossing the hilt aside and shot forward, taking the blade with him. The general moved to meet him and slashed downward at Shadow, only for Shadow to duck around the Chaos Energy Sword, driving his broken blade into the general's heart before skidding to a stop behind the general. The general staggered forward several steps before falling to his knees.
"I don't...believe it," the general said, staring at Shadow, who held out his hand again, his inhibitor rings streaking over and reattaching themselves to his wrists and ankles. "How?"
"Simple," Shadow said. "You and that other one may be clones of Shadow the Hedgehog, but I am Shadow the Android. I was created to surpass Shadow the Hedgehog, and I was created with one purpose: Annihilating the Black Arms and killing their leader."
"You won't...be able to," the general said, laughing weakly. "Your Chaos Energy is useless...around Eclipse. Even if you...take off your rings. You won't...be able to...power up."
"We'll see about that," Shadow said, raising a hand. "Now die."
He fired a Chaos Spear into the back of the general's head, blasting his upper body, and the parasite inside of it, into oblivion. Once that was taken care of, he turned, launching himself over the Black Arms to the battle still raging where everyone who hadn't fought a general was struggling against the might of the Black Arms, Blaze, Rouge, and Zeta all having joined the fight again. Shadow landed in front of the others and once again removed his wrist rings, passing them to Rouge before stepping forward and raising his arms. Then, a massive wall of golden energy exploded off of him, obliterating the Black Arms for hundreds of meters. As the blast faded, he put his rings back on, Sonic finally rejoining them with Silver and Knuckles, both fully healed but exhausted.
"That's some amazing power, Shadow," Sonic said. "It looked like it was almost Super form."
"I'm glad you liked it," Shadow said. "It's exhausting."
"So, now we just have to fight through the Black Arms to the cave, right?" Knuckles asked.
"Yeah," Shadow nodded. "Once there, I can lead you all to where the leader will most likely have put Mephiles."
"Wait, put Mephiles?" Silver asked. "What do you mean?"
"Mephiles is here for the comet's core," Shadow said. "He came to this world not because it doesn't exist elsewhere, but because he believed he'd be able to get this one without having to fight for it. Mephiles is powerful, but not all powerful like we thought."
"He seemed pretty unstoppable to me," Sonic said.
"No, he wasn't even close," Shadow said. "Between you, me, and Zeta, we were giving him a hard time in our fight. He has the same powers as Dark Gaia, the Time Eater, and the Phantom Ruby, but he's nowhere near as powerful as he wanted us to believe."
"Shadow's right," Zeta said. "We can beat Mephiles."
"Mephiles isn't the main problem right now," Shadow said. "Yes, our original goal was to stop Mephiles, and we're going to do it, but...I was created to destroy the Black Arms of this dimension. Their leader is the one that erased my memory, then cast me into your dimension. He killed all of the versions of you in this dimension, took over the planet, and is the one person I have a score to settle with. Before I can leave this dimension, I have to set things in order and clear these insects out of my home."
"And we'll help you," Sonic said. "We just need that last Emerald."
"It won't help," Shadow said. "Eclipse can cancel our Chaos powers while leaving his master's unaffected. When we fight him, it'll be our abilities against his."
"He can use Chaos Powers?" Silver asked.
"Easily," Shadow said. "Because...he's the original Shadow of this universe."
"What!?" everyone gaped.
"When the Black Arms invaded, he used the Chaos Emeralds to absorb Black Doom, erasing Black Doom's soul and stealing his power. It transformed him into a monster. A hybrid. More so than those two Shadow Clones that became generals."
"Shadow clones?" Rouge asked. "Who made them?"
"I'm not sure," Shadow said.
"Okay, so, we beat Mephiles, we kill Eclipse and Shadow Doom, then we all go home," Sonic said.
"There's one more thing," Shadow said. "Shadow Doom's power is greater than me without my rings, even without my Chaos Energy blocked."
"We'll figure it out," Sonic said.
"We'll be right there beside you," Rouge said.
"If nothing else, once we kill Eclipse we can just use our original plan for Mephiles," Blaze said.
Shadow smiled and nodded.
"Okay then," Sonic said, everyone turning back to the Black Arms, who had been docile for the last couple minutes. "Let's go!"
Suddenly, the Black Arms parted and Eclipse stepped out of the army, smirking. Shadow grit his teeth, but Eclipse raised a hand.
"As you know, if my master dies, so do all of the Black Arms, excluding myself, by the grace of my master," Eclipse said. "So, he has sent me to invite you inside. I'll lead you to Mephiles. Then, once you've dealt with that insect for my master, my master will give you the chance to finish what you started, Shadow."
"He's going to regret that," Shadow said. "Lead the way."
Eclipse grinned wickedly, but nodded, turning and walking away, Shadow and the others all following.
"This is a bad idea," Silver said.
"This is a trap," Knuckles said.
"And when the trap's jaws snap shut, we'll just break them," Shadow said. "Along with Eclipse's neck."
Eclipse smirked, raising a hand to acknowledge he'd heard them. They all fell silent, and after a few minutes, they reached a large, round platform that began to descend the moment they were on it. Then, after a few seconds, the top of the elevator began to close, sealing out the light and blocking any chance of taking a different approach.
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