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XVI: The Final Battle
"Surrender now!" Future Sonic demanded as he glowed with chaos energy.
"I see you've now gone against me." The King pouted. "Just look at them Sonic, doesn't it just bring you pleasure to see them all running scared."
"They're not all guilty!" Future Sonic yelled as he shot a beam of energy towards the King which Shadow and Sonic copied. The King deflected all of them though, forcing them to hit the tents instead and more people screamed.
"But still, don't you want revenge?" The King still tried to persuade as he shot more fire towards the many families of hedgehogs that ran away screaming.
"I had my piece of unwilling revenge." Future Sonic muttered as he tried to shoot more energy at the King. He created a shield of fire around him which easily protected him. This guy is tough, Sonic thought as he flew around him trying to get a better shot. The King prevented his attacks without even looking at him.
"Ah yes, you're little episode when you were first cursed." The King laughed. "Most impressive killing one's parents like that."
Sonic froze in mid-air to gaze in horror at his future self. He watched future Sonic's reaction carefully who looked indifferent to what the King had just said. Sonic could never remember having parents. What was the King talking about?
"Keep attacking!" Shadow commanded Sonic and pushed him forward with a hard shove. Sonic glared at the psychopathic black hedgehog, but did as he was told.
"What's the matter Sonic?" The King continued laughing evilly. "Have I hit a nerve?"
Future Sonic didn't answer as he shot another blast of energy at the King. This time he was unprepared as he was sent flying backwards and collided with the giant stone pyramid.
"Oh you'll pay for that." The King groaned as he pulled himself out of the rubble.
"This ends now!" Future Sonic yelled.
"You could still join me you know." The King said trying to get him to join again. "You truly are a very powerful creature, one of the most powerful I've seen for generations and yet no one ever truly appreciates how powerful you are Sonic the Hedgehog. Why even as you aged you became even more powerful than the ultimate life form."
Future Sonic and Shadow exchanged a glance and then looked back at the King.
"Just image how much potential you still hold." The king mused as he looked at future Sonic with his greedy hollowed out eye sockets. "I could help you unlock that. I believe you and me are destined to be partners in cleansing the world of evil. Side by side. Imagine all the places you could run once we expand our empire over the universe. You and your little family living in a safe, evil free universe. The shadow demons only clean the world of dirty sinners."
"I've done bad things, everyone has. No one is completely innocent." Future Sonic said glaring at the King.
"I've been watching you Sonic, since the moment you were blessed as a young child. I knew there was something in you. When you do bad things, you do it for the sake of good…like me."
Future Sonic growled. "I am nothing like you."
Sonic and Shadow shot more energy at him which he easily deflected and Sonic let out a cry of frustration. This directed the King's attention to him.
"Ah yes, I forgot about our little time paradox." The King said as he crossed his arms across his chest as he stared Sonic up and down like a piece of meat. "How are you liking your future Sonic?"
"It will look a whole lot brighter once you're out the picture." Sonic yelled as he shot more chaos energy at him. Sonic didn't know why he even bothered as the King deflected it again.
"I hope you have taken a good look at it Sonic because as I've watched you over the years, it certainly isn't all flowers and niceness." The King explained as he looked around at the fire that burnt down all the tents, leaving nothing but ashes. "It's all a downhill crash from the moment you get back to your own time. It was such entertainment to watch you unleash the monster inside you and finally unlock the true power within yourself."
Sonic stopped and watched the King in fascination.
"Don't listen to him you fool!" Shadow snarled at him, but Sonic blocked him out.
"What power?" Sonic asked, his eyes widening.
"You haven't told him?" The King said, turning to smirk at future Sonic. "How did it happen again? Ah yes, it all boils down to your wife, Amy."
"Don't you dare." Future Sonic growled out through clenched teeth and glanced at his past self with a panicked look on his face.
The King laughed. "Ever since you met that pink hedgehog, it all went back to her. Your fates intertwined and I'd never seen anything like it. Yet you betrayed her like that, I see she still has the scars."
Future Sonic's colour flickered from gold to a very dark blue and back to gold again. Sonic watched himself in horror as his future self began to shake.
"Come on Sonic." The King goaded. "Just remember all that anger you felt, the pain. It could happen again you know. The evil people in the world would come after her. Come after your family. They could hurt her again."
"Shut up!" Future Sonic screamed as his colour flickered again.
"I'm only telling you the truth." The King chuckled as he leaned forward and watched in fascination as future Sonic's colour flickered again. "Remember how you felt when Amy fell in front of you. When they dragged her away kicking and screaming, when you found her in the woods the day after she was cursed. They did this to her, they could do it to your children. They cannot be trusted and we must have our revenge."
Shadow growled and shot at the King again, but once again he deflected, his eyes still on future Sonic.
"Don't listen to him faker!" Shadow yelled. "He's just trying to get you on side. Remember how Amy warned you about how persuasive he can be."
"Amy." Future Sonic whispered her name.
The King smirked. "Yes, Amy. She could be safe forever, no curse, no bad memories, just you and her together, safe and happy like you always wanted. You're too powerful and good to be tainted by what this tribe did to you."
Future Sonic's colour flickered again only this time for longer. Judging by Shadow's facial expression, Sonic knew this couldn't be a good thing.
"Just reach down into your power and curse Sonic." The King urged looking at future Sonic in excitement. "Remember everything they did to you and unleash that anger."
"Sonic no!" Shadow cried out as future Sonic's colour switched to dark blue again. Dark flames danced off him and his eyes glowed white and he laughed manically.
Sonic floated there with his mouth agape as he stared at himself in horror. He felt like he was going to be sick. This was his curse? He transformed into this darker version of himself? It wasn't quite like his dark spine form. He had been in control when that happened. This looked different. He looked wild and untamed and completely out of control.
The King smiled proudly once he realised future Sonic was staying in this form.
"Not again." Shadow mumbled as he tried to fly down and reach the darkened form of Sonic.
Future Sonic looked up at him and held his hand out in front of him and Sonic blinked as what looked like dark magic wrapped around Shadow and held him still as he tried to break free. Sonic soon found himself in the same situation without even realising at first as he was too busy staring at his future self.
"Yes, that's it Sonic." The King praised. "Now unleash your revenge."
Dark Sonic floated there and did nothing as he looked at the King and cocked his head to one side. The King looked at him in confusion before future Sonic reached his hands out in front of him. He clawed at the air and it looked like he'd ripped open the fabric of space and time in a quick and easy stroke.
Sonic watched in amazement while Shadow smiled once he caught on to what future Sonic was doing.
"Wait, what are you doing?" The King demanded sounding panicked.
Dark Sonic laughed manically. "Unleashing my revenge."
Another rift had opened and the King began to be dragged towards it as if being sucked into a black hole.
"No!" The King screamed. "This curse will not contain me again."
"I, Sonic the Hedgehog." Future Sonic began. "Chosen one of chaos, blessed by their magical powers and keeper of peace and nature curse you to spend eternity in the underworld and shall now forever more remain unable to escape."
A dark magic leaked out of future Sonic and crept slowly towards the King who had grabbed hold of a tree in an attempt to prevent himself from being sucked back in.
"You think you could control me through my curse to act out your revenge?" Dark Sonic laughed. "Not a chance."
"But…how could you curse me." The King panted before screaming as the dark magic entered him. "You were never initiated into the tribe!"
"Yeah, but my wife was and seen as we're two parts of a whole, I can curse you." Dark Sonic chuckled as the King screamed again in pain as the dark magic finally settled inside him.
Sonic squinted as the breeze picked up and the King's grip on the tree began to loosen. Sonic shot a final blast of energy towards the King and the tree trunk snapped, causing the King to let go.
"No!" The King screamed as the rift pulled him back towards the underworld. "This cannot be how it ends!"
Sonic watched in anticipation as the King was dragged towards the rift by the force of his curse and he vanished into the rift with a loud bang that sounded like a lightning strike. The rift pulsated as it accommodated its victim and the three hedgehogs all nodded at each other, knowing what to do.
"CHAOS CONTROL!" They shouted and the rift imploded on itself as it sealed up, collapsing in on itself. The force sent a shock wave through the entire forest and the fires started by the King extinguished themselves.
The dead landscape began to come back to life. Sonic landed on the ground and watched in fascination as the grass began to gradually turn green and flowers grew back out of the ground and trees also gained their leaves and colours back. It was like watching a time lapse of spring rolling in and Sonic sighed as birds began to sing again.
The world was healing itself and returning back to normal.
Future Sonic and Shadow also landed on the ground and future Sonic turned back to gold as he watched the world gain its life back.
"You let your curse take over on purpose so you could so that, didn't you?" Shadow asked, unable to hide his amazement.
Future Sonic smiled and nodded. "I did it because I knew I'd done it before." He replied and smiled at past Sonic.
Everything then fell into place in Sonic's mind.
"You mean, there is no paradox? You were in my situation years ago and you knew all this was going to happen?" Sonic asked in awe.
Future Sonic nodded again. "How brilliant am I? I must say I even impressed myself with my plan. Of course I had to improvise sometimes because I couldn't remember everything that happened, but still it worked out in the end." He explained picking a flower and sniffing it.
Sonic didn't say anything as he tried to process everything he had just been told. All along, his future self knew how this would end because he had previously been in Sonic's place. Sonic felt breathless at the thought.
He'd never understand damn time travel.
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