MUAHAHAHA. You´ll find out a disturbing reality in this episode! DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA! ... Enjoy :3

Darkness Shall Thrive

-Chapter 4: How hell was created-

Silver led Sonic to the old presidential room. Everything was destroyed and abandoned. The books that were ordered in the wood bookshelves were on the floor and dusty. The president´s chair was gone, and the papers he used to order in his personal desk were burned or torn. And the picture of Sonic and Shadow in front of the White House, was broken. Sonic grabbed it and Silver said:

"It is said that the presidents throughout the years kept that photo with them, to make themselves remember who you two were and keep the planet safe…"

Sonic gave him a sad look and put the photo on the desk. He asked:

"Isn´t Shadow around here? I mean, the future Shadow?"

Silver shook his head. "No. He´s gone."

"I thought he said he was immortal."

"No, what I meant is that I don´t know anything about him. Actually, I haven´t even met future Shadow, yet…"

"Mm… what do you think happened?"

"Maybe he decided to leave Earth?"

"No, that doesn´t make sense. He would never do that…"

"It seems that you got to know him a lot recently, haven´t you?"

Sonic removed the papers and sat on the desk. "Well, it had been an awful month. So, I´ve spent more time with him."

Silver didn´t bother to ask why. He had too many things going around his head to feel more disturbed about horrible events. "Well, do you want to know what happened?" Sonic nodded.

"Okay… this might take a while…"

-FLASHBACK-

Silver was flying around checking over the world to see if anything was bad. He stopped to take a break in Chun-nan and walked through the park. He was happy that the future was safe. He was the only one that remembered what happened with the Ifrit, for his timeline was fixed. So now, he was really enjoying this. He bought a vanilla ice-cream and told the seller:

"What a marvelous day, isn´t it?"

The seller nodded. "Yes, it´s quite gorgeous. The birds are singing and the sun is shining brightly. Let´s hope the raining season isn´t that bad!"

Silver nodded. "Well, I´ll be on my way. Thanks!"

"You´re welcome, Silver! Come back soon, boy!"

Silver flew away waving goodbye and headed to Route 280 in Central City and sat down in a bench. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, leaning his head back and relaxed. He fell asleep for a while until a lady came and woke him up.

"Mr. Silver! Mr. Silver! Please, wake up!"

Silver opened his eyes and saw how the lady was frightened and other people were around him looking scared.

"Something´s wrong. Look at the sky!" The lady exclaimed pointing to it. Silver looked up and stared for a long 30 seconds… the sky was turning red. He stood up and approached to the edge of the bridge. Suddenly, the ground started shaking in a very strong way for a while. The people got even more scared and covered their heads screaming. Silver determinat of what he had to do, flew to where the sun was and found a humongous purple cloud covering it.

"What the…"

The cloud had covered the entire sky and it started to shoot fireballs out of his "body". Silver tried to attack it but it was no use. The cloud was vapor, so he couldn´t do any harm to it. He also tried to grab it with his psychokinesis, and it actually did work. He managed to tame the creature and threw it into the ocean. The cloud returned back to him but now in a dense, liquid form that moved like a snake. It stroke Silver making him fall to the bridge. He stood up and punched the creature, making it crash on a building. It fell to the ground and "stood up".

"Very impressive…" It said. Silver landed in front of him and asked desperately:

"Who are you? And why are you destroying the city?!"

The creature started to take the silhouette of the well-known Shadow the Hedgehog, but darker. Like if it was his shadow… And instead of red-striped quills, his were gray.

Silver surprised, asked again holding him with his power.

"Who, are you? And WHY are you destroying, the city?!"

It smirked, but didn´t answer. Silver put it down softly and waited for an answer. Long minutes passed and the city was being set on fire by the thousands of fireballs the cloud sent. Silver heard how the firefighters were telling to each other that they couldn´t hold the fire any longer. He also heard how the buildings were crumbling down.

"You are wasting your time here." The creature finally said with a deep voice.

"I´m not leaving until you tell me everything I want to know."

The creature laughed and said: "Well, it seems that my plan has worked perfectly, Iblis. I will avenge you. Finally, after all this years…"

Silver looked at him in question. "Who´s Iblis?"

"My friend, my other me. The one that was killed by you ungrateful humans, a long time ago. Justice is finally served!"

The creature dashed to Silver and started to choke him with its bare hands. Silver felt how he was losing air as the other pressed stronger every second. Before fainting, the creature introduced itself:

"I´m Mephiles, Mephiles the Dark! And with the Chaos Emeralds, I will destroy you all!"

-END-OF-FLASHBACK-

"The next thing I remember is waking up in a hotel room surrounded by people that had been injured by fire. I stood up and turned on a T.V. It was too late. The whole world had been devastated by Mephiles. So, this Mephiles the Dark wants revenge, for the humans killed his friend, Iblis. He took Shadow´s form and murdered most of the living beings he saw in the streets all around the planet."

Sonic remained on silence.

"So, what we don´t know is that: Number one. How did he know how Shadow looked like? Two. Why is he planning to destroy the planet for revenge and why did he take so long in doing it? And three. Is he planning to blow up the whole Earth?" Silver finished.

Sonic stood up. "Well, this is messed up. He took Shadow´s silhouette?! How does somebody do that?"

"Who knows…"

"Well, anyway… We have to defeat him, now!"

"Didn´t you listen to me? He already has all the Chaos Emeralds except for the one you have, I think. We are basically dead because of that. And even still, we might lose. I thought the future Shadow was siding with Mephiles, but it appears that it´s another person."

"Mm… So there is another Shadow? Geez…"

"He is just like him, so I had figured out that it was actually him, but he isn´t."

"Then, who is it?"

"I don´t know. There are so many questions…"

"Well, the first thing we need to do is to find the REAL future Shadow. He might help us out."

Silver rolled his eyes. "I told you that I haven´t met him yet. He is nowhere to be found!"

Sonic bent down and started moving the papers he had thrown. He passed some of them fast, giving them a quick glance.

"What are you doing, Sonic?"

"I´m looking for a G.U.N file. In the present they have been bothering us, so I guess there might be a clue on where to find Shadow."

Silver gave a "seriously?" face to Sonic and said kind of angry:

"G.U.N? Those guys are truly pathetic. They disappeared a long time ago. There are even legends! Mephiles destroyed them all. Recently, he and the other hedgehog murdered a secret GUN group that was hiding in the sewers."

Sonic stood up reading a paper he had found. He read it fast and gasped. Silver noticed and asked what was wrong. Sonic answered:

"I… I think I know where to find Shadow."

Silver approached to him and looked at the paper. He began to read at loud from the top of the page:

"PROJECT SHADOW: The research project has been finally captured and sealed away in the old Prison Island´s underground base. It is asleep in the core of the base in a maximum secure sealer which cannot be opened with anything, except for the main key that can only be in hands of the commander.

When the project was captured, it was not announced to the president, for it could be dangerous for him knowing that G.U.N had now taken down Project Shadow, and that it could kill him.

The robot capable of taking down Project Shadow, E-123 Omega, fulfilled its purpose and currently it is guarding the sealer. Anyone trying to approach should be annihilated by the security bot. To deactivate it, speak with one of your superiors.

Note: Project Shadow must be sealed away forever. If someone tries to awaken him, it would probably be the end of humanity itself.

The sealer is made out of a powerful, pink material that can be capable of standing a nuclear bomb explosion. It is designed to freeze the body that is being kept inside forever. Unfortunately, the side effects are that the gas protecting the sealer might cause memory loss if being with iinside t for a long time, and maybe making the person violent.

In short, watch out and try not to get close to the area where Project Shadow is located. If you´re part of GUN, never reawaken it. It might cause the end of everything."

Silver finished reading the article. There was a long silence. Both hedgehogs were in shock for what they read.

"They, are being DRAMATIC, VERY DRAMATIC…" Sonic said astonished.

"Yeah, but… why did the president have this if he wasn´t supposed to know about it?"

"Maybe before the new president moved to the White House, the commander accidentally left the paper in the desk and the president didn´t notice. That´s the only explainable reason."

"Yes, you´re right. This also explains why I haven´t met future Shadow. He was sealed away before I was born."

"We have to rescue him."

"Yeah, of course. But we really have to be careful about this. You read it with me, the area where he is located is in a high security perimeter."

Sonic felt anger inside of him. He couldn´t keep it secret…

"Why did they do this to him?! We have saved the world together so many times, and they still make him suffer?! Darn it!"

Silver grabbed Sonic´s shoulder and said:

"You know that he´s powerful, Sonic. I´m also raging inside. It is just not fair. But I guess that´s how this world works. People live in fear, so they try to hunt down any dangerous thing they find. But, don´t worry. We are rescuing him right now, whatever it takes. And if we find that G.U.N is still down there, we´ll talk serious business with them, and finish this once and for all."

Sonic nodded. Silver was being inspirational.

"Well, we´ve got to get out of Central City…"

"Central City? Oh, yeah… it is now Crisis City."

"Says who?"

"The people that remain standing."

"That´s depressing… Anyway, let´s go. I know where Prison Island is."

*heavy breathing*

And what did we learn today? That Silver met other Shadow, not the real one! OHMYGOD.

Ohhhhhh, I really loved to write Darkness Shall Thrive. Did I tell you this is my favorite part out of all three?

Please, review? Questions?