HEEEEEY! How are you guys doing? Let me explain something real quick before I forget. In this story Mephiles and the Chaos Emeralds coexist in past, present, and future. For example, you can see that in this moment of the story Sonic is talking to future Shadow, while present Shadow is going to fight Mephiles. So, there are two Shadows, but there aren´t two Mephiles or two sets of Chaos Emeralds. Just saying. I hope I didn´t confuse you. Anyway, enjoy, and please review?

Darkness Shall Thrive

-Chapter 6: Alone-

Before the fight, Shadow said one last thing:

"You may be even lying to me. Why should I trust you?"

Mephiles just laughed and started attacking him. He began to levitate and made clones of himself to confuse Shadow. If the hedgehog hit a clone, Mephiles could have the chance of punching him and block his attacks.

For the first time, Shadow knew that this enemy was most likely impossible to defeat. It was one of the few rivals that could fight against him, the first being Sonic.

He started to home attack the shadows and threw a Chaos Spear to Mephiles, which fell to the ground. He reappeared in front of Shadow and with a ball of energy and hit him in the stomach. In pain, Shadow returned the hit and "electrocuted" Mephiles with another spear. He backed down and made more clones of himself.

Shadow tried to find the green Chaos Emerald he left behind when Mephiles appeared. It seemed that the cristal hedgehog had grabbed it. Shadow hovered to him and tried to get the emerald out of him. Successfully, he got from Mephiles´ quills. The creature attacked sending Shadow flying, making him drop the emerald. He stood up and ran to it. Mephiles noticed and sent a clone to stop him. Just when the black hedgehog was about to take it, the clone jumped from behind landing in his back.

Shadow back flipped and crushed the shadow clone. Stretching his hand, he shouted:

"Chaos… Control!"

Everything was now moving slowly. The environment was in stop motion. Shadow grabbed the Chaos Emerald and kept it in his quills. He approached and grabbed Mephiles´ neck, pushing him into the ground, making in "break" a little. The time was moving normal again, and Mephiles stood up exhausted. Shadow, breathing heavily, kicked him in his head, making him fall.

"Sure… you want to continue?" He asked.

Mephiles standing up unbalanced answered:

"I´ll be back…" He stretched his arm in the sky. A purple warp appeared and Mephiles floated to it, disappearing. Shadow stumbled and leaned his fist on the ground. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Who´s Iblis?"

When Sonic opened the file, he saw a picture of Shadow. He read:

"After the capture of Project Shadow, our main scientists have successfully made an exact replica of it. The name of the project is Terios, Project Terios. It is supposed to be the mirror of Project Shadow, having the same abilities and capabilities.

Terios, meaning "reflection of" in Japanese, was finished three years after the original project´s capture. Its mind is prepared for anything. The first one who interacts with it, will have the opportunity to use it as he or she wants. But the world isn´t prepared for this, yet.

If it is in our hands, we can try and connect it with Iblis, part of the Solaris project."

"The Solaris Project?" Sonic and Silver said at the same time. Shadow stood up and replied:

"Yes, the Solaris Project."

"Do you know any of this?" Silver asked.

"Probably more than 200 years in the past, Mephiles will try and convince me to join him to the dark side. He mentioned that the world was devastated by Iblis´ flames."

"So?"

"I sneaked again in Chun-nan´s secret base and discovered that Mephiles and Iblis are part of Solaris. Solaris being the Sun god of Soleanna, a lost city, was found hidden in this place and was brought back to the continent, where the humans could experiment with. They managed to separate both of them, sealing Mephiles apart from Iblis. As you can see, I accidentally set Mephiles free. I guessed his goal now was to fuse with Iblis so I tried to look for him. Sonic was missing, so I had to stop him alone. He escaped and didn´t see him again. The faker returned, saying no word about what happened to him. We didn´t speak to each other for weeks."

"That´s strange… So you know what will happen in the present."

"Of course, Sonic. If my present self doesn´t change anything back there, this timeline will remain the same."

"So, if we don´t do anything in the present, the future will stay like this." Silver said.

"Exactly. You both need to go back to the present and stop Mephiles together, thing that didn´t happen that I remember. So the timeline will be fixed."

Silver nodded and flew out of the building. He landed in the ground and exclaimed:

"I´ll find Mephiles and bring him here, so we can return to the present!" And the whhite hedgehog sprinted away.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. Sonic asked:

"Aren´t you gonna come with us?"

"No, I can´t. I´ll stay here if anything happens. I´ll have to deal with this Terios guy anyway… You did a great job for waking me up."

Sonic looked at him surprised with a glimpse of confusion.

"Because it is my duty to carry on and protect the planet that Maria loved so much and…" Shadow made a brief pause. He smiled. "…I get to see you alive once again."

-O-O-O.

Silver found Mephiles and Terios talking to each other.

"I must thank you again for releasing me." Terios said. "But why you freed me instead of Shadow?"

"I was going to free Shadow, but you two are really similar. I found you first, and I didn´t doubt in awakening you. So that´s what happened."

"I see. But you could still have awaken him."

"I remembered that in the past he refused to help me, what if that happened again? I wouldn´t risk everything. I was lucky to find you instead."

Terios smirked. Silver, who was spying on them, took a rock and threw it at him. Mephiles turned and saw the hedgehog showing his tongue at him. Silver shouted woth a sassy voice:

"What´s up Mephiles?!"

Terios flew to him and sent a punched at his face. Silver dodged and kicked him in the head. He teased Mephiles, so he followed. The telekinetic hedgehog flew back to the building where Sonic and Shadow were, being chased by an angry, crystal creature.

-O-O-O-

"Why do you keep staring at my face, Shadow?"

"To remember. You, everything. I won´t forget. I doubt you´ll have to return again. If you have the chance to change this destroyed future, I will still remember."

Sonic smiled. "I know you won´t forget."

…

"Also recalling blowing your ashes to the wind…"

"What?!"
"Sonic, I saw you died. I remained with your ashes and freed them in South Island. I said goodbye to you, for I thought I would never see you again."

"That´s really horrible. I don´t want to talk about me being dead."

"It will happen eventually."

"But it´s not cool to think about that!"

"Heh. I´m just messing around, faker."

"Heh. You haven´t changed a bit, Shad."

"Anyways, I will suppose that Mephiles was the one who set the world on fire."

"Yes. We don´t know why, but it´s something about avenging Iblis."

"Mm… I never knew what happened to him. But Mephiles couldn´t manage to fuse with him."

"At least that´s the positive side of all this."

There was a big silence. The two of them just kept staring at each other. Probably it was because they made the promise that all the moments both had passed together, would stay in their hearts, until one of them disappeared. Sonic remembered how it used to be, before it all happened. They hated each other so much, just because they looked alike. Their relationship as arch-rivals decreased little by little, until it was totally gone.

"Remember that time when you accidentally fell to the water in Holoska?" Shadow asked.

Sonic nodded. "What about it?"

"Nothing, just wondering if you recalled."

"Of course I remember perfectly. I was freezing! Thanks for pulling me out though."

"It was funny to see how you fell."

"It is weird to hear "funny" coming from you."

"I gotta be honest to you, Sonic. Those moments were priceless."

"Still can´t swim..."

From the distance, Silver was seen hovering to them rapidly. He was choking and landed in front of Sonic and Shadow. They helped him stood up. As he regained his breath he exclaimed:

"We don´t have time. Mephiles is coming!"

Sonic and Shadow shook hands and the blue hedgehog said sighing:

"So long, friend…"

Guys, the story is already written down. I can´t add OC´s. Besides, I don´t like working with them. I even hate my own OC! That´s how bad it is... Sorry.
Oh, one more thing before you go! I actually took dialogues in the Sonic and Shadow scene from a comic on deviantART. It´s called "future_translated_ by Syesye996. Go and check it out!