Chapter 18
The Flame of Color
"Shadow? How?!" demanded Orange.
"Apparently, he has a strong bond with whoever that emerald belongs to," Cream answered.
"Chao!" Fury and Cheese agreed together.
The emerald in Shadow's hands lit up and was a bright emerald green. Everyone recognized it. Everyone finally figured it out.
"It's emerald green! That emerald belongs to Zaira!" Tails yelled.
"I figured. That would be the only reason why Shadow would obsess over something that seems pointless," Rouge said.
"If that is Zaira's, why is it glowing?" asked Eggman.
"Why are you surprised?" asked Knuckles to Eggman.
"She said to me that Shadow would never use the color emeralds to save her."
That is true. At the time, Shadow wasn't too keen on me, but now I see he does feel something. Amazing.
Shadow could feel the power flood into his body strengthening the other emerald's power. He felt the universe completely in his control. It was time to settle it. No more stalling. No more running away. The emerald had the power. They all did. Only one thing left to do. Fight Vivilock.
Well, what are we waiting for? She would want us to fight now instead of putting it off," Shadow stated.
His heart seemed to power up again. He felt strongly about obtaining justice and battling. He felt himself float off of the ground and levitate. It wasn't his shoes that were doing it… He was flying.
"Wow, Shadow! You can fly!" Amy exclaimed.
"Technically, I always could, but this is the power that she's given me, so I'm going to use it," Shadow replied to her.
We all will fight with the power of the color emeralds. It'd be nice if we had the chaos emeralds to help us," Sonic stated.
"I think I may be able to help with that," a fox said from behind them. She had two tails and rainbow stripes. Her gold eyes seemed to sparkle and she held a large majestic wand. Rainbowta. Runner, Sunshine, Apple, R.T, B.T, Cosmic, Jack, Daisy, Pink, Orange, Fury, and Gold all fell to their knees in astonishment (So many people…). Apple stood back up and ran over to her.
"R-Rainbowta?" he stuttered.
"Indeed young Apple. I haven't been kidnapped by the metarex at all. I only had a vision a long time ago about the prophecy. It said that I had to make everyone think that I had run away or been captured. If I didn't, I would have had to experience you never getting the color emerald and being defeated by Zaira. I made this place actually. Not Dr. Eggman. I allowed him to stay here to hide from her and to study the color emeralds more. Don't you have the chaos emeralds? I can teleport them here, but only if I'm within a close enough range," Rainbowta explained as if she had read everyone's minds.
"Great! Random people are showing up now! What am I going to do…," asked Knuckles to himself.
"Just don't say anything. Be glad that they're not tacos," Amy replied.
"TACOS?!" screamed Sonic and Knuckles in terror.
"Did I miss something?" asked Shadow staring at Knuckles and Sonic.
"You had to be there to really get it. It was sort of terrifying. They almost carried off Tails and Sonic!" Amy replied.
"Tacos?" asked Shadow completely lost.
"I'll explain later."
"Well, we can't do anything by standing around here! Let's do this!" yelled Rabby.
Most of the people were still either astounded, confused, terrified, chatting or trying to explain things that are impossible to understand. Rabby sighed.
"Or at least… When we can…"
Shadow felt the power of the two color emeralds surge through his body as he looked up at where his opponent was. Directly up. However, everyone agreed that they had to rest up before the battle. It wasn't what he wanted to do. He couldn't sleep. Not with the power of a Drayan and Hyper Shadow running through him without stopping. Sonic suggested that he tested out his powers, but to do that would ruin all the fun. He was hovering off of the ground waiting for sleep to take hold of him, but he could also hear Zaira's constant thoughts in his mind. Wondering about him, wondering about the next day, wondering about everything. She was restless. He didn't blame her. To be dead for over a week was difficult and boring beyond belief. It was still unnerving that she had been stalking him the entire time.
Shadow, would you give your brain a rest already?
How when you're always talking to me?
Good point. I can't talk. I can only think. I don't grow tired, I don't grow older, I can only see and think…
Only I can hear you.
Yes.
Stalker.
It's not my fault!
Heh.
Shadow shakes his head. Their conversations were often like that. At least, it wasn't the randomness that it was when they had met. Meter sticks and leather jackets. He didn't understand anything back then. Her real feelings, what she really wanted, anything.
Shadow, why are you being so nice?
Quit reading my mind!
What am I supposed to do? Go see what Sonic is dreaming about?
No, wait. Do that right now.
Okay.
Her presence left him for a second and returned. He didn't know how he could sense it. He just could.
What was it about?
He dreamt that he was pounding the stuffing out of me like I was a stuffed animal.
Why can't he show more respect?
Why can't I be real?
If you're not real, how can I hear you?
Shadow remembered the words from his dream. "The link". What link? A link that connected their minds? How was that link made?
The link was probably made because you were thinking about me too much. I was thinking about you too much. Because we were thinking about each other, our minds became connected.
Stop reading my mind!
Sorry.
There was a long silence. Suddenly a late night conversation sounded more interesting than nothing.
You should try being me some time.
UGH! You just-! Whatever.
I'm lonely. I'm stuck in a place that'll have no end. I'm forever trapped. There's only one way out of this place which is almost impossible.
How? I'll do it.
Would you? Well… I have to find a new vessel that isn't already claimed or too well banged up for me to enter. In other words, I need a body that's not already dead or already possessed. I can be within another person, but I can't take control. That's why I don't want you to kill or destroy Vivilock.
So that's why. You want your regular form back. Although, if it's impossible to reach the state you're at, how did Vivilock reach that point?
It was a punishment. She did something so terrible when she was alive, so she was sentenced to a long forever of torture. She found me many years later. Sick of waiting and wanting revenge on the people who did this to her, she used me to gain strength. She took it from my anger and used it to power her soul. Once strong enough, she forced me away from my own self.
How rude.
Help me Shadow… I don't want to be alone anymore… I don't want to make my favorite past time scaring the sense out of people! It's torture…
A torture one like you doesn't deserve.
No. I deserve it. Everything I did to you. Everything I did to everyone.
Quit beating yourself up about it.
Why are you talking like this? You are the darkest character. You're suddenly…, lightening up it seems…
It's because I know that this wouldn't have happened if someone did give you a chance.
…
I'm giving you, Zaira, that chance right now to hopefully prevent this from happening again.
To think that you once hated me. I honestly don't know what to say.
I have an idea. Maybe thanks?!
Oh! Sorry! Uh… Thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog…
Shadow figured that was enough chatter. He was finally able to experience some quiet and not another peep from Zaira. He finally fell into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning, Shadow felt as if he were suddenly weaker. His power was wearing off. He knew they should've gone back to fight Zaira while they had the chance. He couldn't be the vessel forever.
"We've gotta get moving."
Everyone saddled up and was leaving with Rainbowta, Sonic, and Shadow leading. Shadow could still feel Zaira's restless soul floating around with powerful emotions. Half anticipation, half boredom. She also had a little bit of hope that she would be herself after that day. Shadow still wasn't sure how he was supposed to meet the conditions to bring her back into reality. He really would do anything because that was his mission. It was the whole reason he was the spirit. His soul is what should save Zaira, but the prophecy did say that there is a strong chance of there not being a victory for them. That would mean that the color emeralds would be dead, Zaira would be lost in her never ending torture, and the universe would be destroyed.
"I know that you feel me… I feel you… Tell me something… What's the probability of winning?" asked Shadow.
"Me?" asked Sonic.
"No," Shadow replied.
Slowly decreasing… She's using her new powers as a Drayan to see into the future…
"That's all we need," Shadow replied with a roll of his eyes. Sonic still didn't know who he was talking to.
Vivilock's ears twitched and she looked up. Sonic was coming. She readied herself and her two armies of robots. Sonic couldn't help but be amazed at the size of the armies. Vivilock could also sense Zaira's spirit in the realm between the Spirit World and reality. Forever silenced… She looked up at them and laughed. They looked so puny. All but Shadow. When she saw the emerald green color emerald within his hand, she felt a little unnerved. It was still no matter, however. She was more powerful than all of them combined.
"Who's ready to power up?" asked Sonic feeling his color emerald beginning activate because of his strong want to battle and feel victory. This power sent him up into the air, and he became Super Sonic. Within them all, they had yellow Super forms… Except for the pink Knuckles. However, due to the chaos emeralds being so close by, as well as the Master Emerald, Sonic became Hyper Sonic!
"Well… That was fast…," Super Rabby commented.
"We all feel the need to battle Zaira. That's why it happened so fast is what I'm going to guess," Tails explained.
"Why am I pink?!" demanded Knuckles.
"All men wear pink Knuckles," Rouge explained to him. She also couldn't help but laugh at the way he looked. A serious echidna with a pink Super form.
Vivilock looked unimpressed. "Well, you all still look puny. We have a pink echidna, yellow, fuzzy animals, and- What's this? A knight in shining armor? Shiny. I'm going to take a guess here. You're Kaira," Vivilock said.
Everyone looked over at the Drayan. She looked like Sonic in his Super Knight form as King Arthur from Sonic and the Black Knight. She had longer hair and wore a helmet over her face. She drew a large sword that had a wind marking on it. She also got out a shield that bore the symbol of a spirit. The sword of the wind and the shield of the spirit. Her wings seemed larger and more majestic. This was no Super form.
"This is my form when I use the color emeralds. Like when Lily becomes her true form, I too become my true form. My name may be the same, but you are no longer at the top of your game. Surrender to me now…," Kaira told her.
Vivilock laughed. "You really expect me to?! HA! How predictable! Come on… Fight me…"
"As you wish…," Kaira hissed. She drew her sword of the wind and raced at her evil double. Vivilock summoned the metarex to counter her attack. Although, for some reason, she didn't seem at all concerned for the well being of the metarex. Kaira simply destroyed them all like it was nothing. Left and right she tore them apart. She was unaware of what Vivilock was doing. She wanted for her to get rid of the metarex.
"Kaira stop now!" Knuckles shouted. It was too late. All the metarex other than the leader was gone. Blue Sycamore looked down at the ground and saw the parts of his fallen army. What had happened? They were so strong!
"Why…? Why did you send them out if you knew they wouldn't survive?!" demanded Blue Sycamore.
"It was all part of the plan… I weakened your army so that they would be easier to defeat. Once defeated, their energy that was not used will be sent to me. That way, I'd be more powerful! HA!" Vivilock explained.
"How could you!? Why would you?! I trusted you! You used that trust to gain the advantage of controlling my army! Then you destroyed them all! How could-"
Vivilock cut his sentence off short. She grabbed hold of his neck and evaporated the leader. Everyone gasped in horror except for the metaltrons and Vivilock.
"Zaira, how could you?!" demanded Sonic.
"He's completely gone…," was all Tails could say.
"He was disposable! Now… Give me the color emeralds and accept your fate!" Vivilock snapped.
"Never! No matter what you may do, we will never give up! I've seen what you can do with your terrible powers, but the time where you roam around making havoc is at an end! I hope you're ready for a good fight to remember…," Kaira retorted.
"First…," Vivilock said. She snapped her fingers. The metaltrons fired up.
"Activating self-destruct sequence… Will self-destruct in ten seconds," all the metaltrons said in sync.
"Now my pets, fly right towards them! Self-destruct in their faces!" Vivilock shouted as she pointed to them.
"Very well," they all said. They flew towards the Super team. They reached five seconds…
"AH! Everyone move!" yelled Runner.
Runner, Shadow, and Sonic were out of the way, but the others couldn't move that fast. Kaira flew in front of them and held up her shield. It expanded and surrounded them causing for the explosion to be harmless. Vivilock's power continued to grow… She sucked up the life energy from the metaltrons as well…
"Now fight me…," Vivilock taunted.
"I'll hold her off. Think up a strategy!" Kaira told them. She flew off into the sky with her sword drawn.
"What are we supposed to do?! She completely absorbed all that power from those robot armies! How do we beat her?!" demanded Tails trying to calculate a logical way to take her out.
"I don't know! Don't ask me!" Sunshine said clinging to her brother Runner.
"Is it all going to be over...?" asked Amy to herself.
"Don't lose heart yet! We must continue on with the fight! If we don't, she'll beat us once and for all! If she still had a weakness for Shadow, I'd ask him to flatter her, but she's different now. We must create a plan!" Sonic told them all.
I'd love to see you try to flatter me. It totally wouldn't work!
You've got very pretty eyes.
Ha ha…
"Why were we given the color emeralds in the first place?" asked Shadow.
"To make the prophecy come true," Amy replied.
"So, why would we get the color emeralds at all if we weren't capable of defeating her?"
Tails thought for a second and brightened up. "You're right! We must be able to do it! I know what we have to do!" Tails exclaimed.
"What?" asked Sonic.
"We must use the color emeralds all together. It'll be The Flame of Color!" Tails explained.
"Why didn't I think of that?" asked Sonic.
Knuckles smirked and pointed at Sonic. "You're too slow!" he laughed. Sonic shot him a stern glare.
Kaira, up in the air, was slashing her sword as if there was no tomorrow. Not in a crazy random fashion, but in a crazy skillful fashion. She managed to make contact with Vivilock's wing once, but she only healed it soon after. There they were, sending blows left and right. Vivilock spun away from a sword attack and aimed a kick at Kaira while she was off-balance. Kaira flew out of the way with a millisecond to spare. She looked up as the sun was covered by a cloud. It was also beginning to set causing the sky to turn red.
"Well, what nice weather… It seems all too appropriate!" Vivilock said.
"Yeah. It is. It means that today is the day you go down!" Kaira snapped. They flew at each other again only not moving out of the way. They pushed at each other as hard as they could. The massive amounts of force that was built up sent them flying backward in the sky.
"Kaira! You can't do it alone!" yelled Tails running towards her.
"Don't you think I know that?!" Kaira retorted with one eye on Tails and the other on Vivilock.
"We need to combine the powers of the color emeralds together! That just might be enough!" Sonic yelled to try and help Tails.
"I don't know… It sounds too simple!" she exclaimed.
"We have to try! It may be the only way!" Sonic yelled to her.
"The only way…, Fine. Get into the formation!" she commanded.
"The formation…," yawned Vivilock.
"The formation…?" asked Knuckles with a clueless look on his face.
Kaira rolled her eyes and pointed behind her. "Get into order depending on what color you have! I'm rainbow so I go in the middle!"
"Oh… Okay!"
They all gathered and built up their energy. It all gathered in front of the rainbow emerald. A large ball of energy big enough to make a supernova appeared. Vivilock didn't do anything. She knew they couldn't pull it off. There was only one way to be able to blow her away with the emeralds. It would be if they had the whole gang. When they all released the ball at her, she was ready for it. She held her hand out and when her hand made contact with it, it evaporated into little bits. Nothing of it was left.
"What? I don't get it! The color emeralds all together were supposed to work! Why didn't it work?!" demanded Sonic.
"I think I know why…," Shadow started. When everyone looked at him for an explanation, he decided not to keep it in anymore.
Should I tell them?
There's no point in hiding it anymore. There is no threat from them knowing now. Tell them.
Very well.
"The reason this isn't working is because Zaira isn't among us," Shadow stated.
"I thought that was obvious! She's on that side!" Runner snapped.
"No. I mean she isn't in existence."
"What do you mean I'm not right here?" asked Vivilock beginning to get irritated. She launched an attack on them. They only scattered.
"I mean, that she forced Zaira out of her own body! She's a ghost wandering around in a never-ending world of torture that was meant for her!" Shadow shouted pointing at Vivilock.
"What?!" demanded everyone.
"We're not at full power because there is no Zaira anymore!"
"Well, I see you've figured out my little secret! None of my armies knew! None of you knew… The only one who was able to figure it out was Shadow! Rouge did get a little preview of me as well. She saw Zaira begging to her for help when she noticed that she was in danger of me! There was never a chance for her. When she met Shadow, I already knew that she wasn't going to cut it. I had plans she never knew about. Ones that were far greater than hers… The all ended with the destruction of everything!" she announced.
"How did you know?!" question Tails.
"I and Zaira have this link. I can't explain it, but we talk to each other through this link. I'm her last hope. She's been like this for a whole week. You must understand that only a large force can remove a being who has a vessel and not damage the vessel in the process so that someone else can then take it over," Shadow explained.
"He's only told me about this because he knows that I won't blab to her about it. That's why we haven't told you about it. If you were to tell her, that would instantly put all of your lives in danger," Rouge added.
"That's how you knew so much and why you didn't tell us much about anything!" Amy realized.
"That's correct," Shadow said.
"If she's not Zaira, who is she?" asked Tails.
As they were flying there making realizations, they didn't realize that their enemy had become a completely different being. Her hair turned white, her wings turned blue and feathery, eyes turned gold, she had fangs, she became covered in fur except for her wings, she grew a lion tail and a beak with bird talons with sharp claws. She grew to be very large. About ten times larger than Sonic. Her shadow fell among them all. She was actually a griffin. A huge griffin.
"Vivilock. You can call me Vivilock…"