Last 4 chapters today! ENJOY! I took inspiration from the song "So Far Away" by RED.

Darkness Shall Thrive

-Chapter 7: So far away-

Mephiles dashed through the building, making the three hedgehogs fell to the ground. Saying no other word, Sonic and Silver got closer to him. The silver hedgehog grabbed him with his telekinesis and the other tried to convince the creature to use his time-travel thingy. Mephiles laughed, but Sonic punched him in the face.

"Do it!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Never…"

Shadow approached to the group. Mephiles was astonished.

"You-You are the real Shadow…"

"Yes, Mephiles. I am."

"How´d you…?"

Shadow didn´t answer. Instead, he prepared a Chaos Spear.

"If you don´t cooperate, this spear will go straight through your head."

"I am immortal as you, fool!"

"Wanna prove it?"

Mephiles remained silent. He created the purple ball of energy. Sonic nodded to Silver and he let Mephiles go. Both hedgehogs jumped to it, leaving Shadow behind with the creature. The crystalline hedgehog approached to the black hedgehog and said:

"It´s been so long."

"Who cares? The moment that they get back and talk to my present self, all this will change. So fighting will not work."

"Remember, Shadow. I co-exist in the different timelines. My mind works as one in the past, present, and future."

Shadow gasped. Without noticing it, Terios kicked him from behind. Mephiles laughed. Shadow stood up staring at his doppelganger fiercely.

"So, you´re Terios."

"And you´re Shadow."

Both launched and grabbed each other´s hands, holding the other´s strength. Shadow tried to push Terios, but it was useless. Both were as fast, as strong, and as agile. If they got into a bigger fight, there would be no winner. But Terios had Mephiles by his side, and he was an admirable adversary.

A light blinked behind Shadow. It was the dark blue Chaos Emerald. But if he grabbed it, it wouldn´t exist in the present. The Chaos Emeralds also co-exist in the timelines. So, he decided to leave it there. He rather wait for the existing time to change.

Mephiles grabbed Shadow from his arms, making him unable to move. Terios started punching him. He seemed to be enjoying it. Shadow spit out blood. The doppelganger kept on punching him fiercely.

The Chaos Emerald seemed to be teasing Shadow. It was slowly approaching to him in secret. He spit out more blood, and it landed on Terios chest fur and muzzle. His black heart made him stop for a while. He grabbed his fist and backed down. Mephiles let go of Shadow. He fell to the ground exhausted and coughing. He asked:

"Te-Terios, why are you doing this? Don´t you get… that Mephiles is leading you… to the dark side…?"

The hedgehog smirked and dragged Shadow to a wall. He bent and looked at him.

"I don´t care. I´m grateful that Mephiles found me. Those damn humans never released me. And he knew I would follow him, no matter what. I am at his command for waking me up."

"I-I know how you feel…"

Terios looked at him in question. Mephiles approached.

"Don´t listen to him, Terios. He´s just trying to confuse you…"

"Wait, Mephiles. Shadow, what you mean?"

Shadow smirked.

"I felt the same hatred for the humans such as you… When I woke up from my eternal sleep more than 200 years ago, I also called the one that stood in front of me my master, for I wanted revenge. Humans made horrible things to me. You don´t imagine how much I suffered… In the end, I discovered that sooner or later, bad guys receive the same pain…"

Terios helped him stood up and Shadow continued talking:

"There… deep in the past… you can find myself struggling to find the answers for my existence. Not remembering anything… Confused… *cough* I-I didn´t know what to do, and the humans weren´t helpful at all. I managed to defeat some of them, and with the help of others, I remembered everything, what was right…"

Mephiles backed down as Terios turned and looked at him angry. He returned to Shadow and said:

"So I was created to be just like you, not knowing the suffering you had experienced?"

Shadow shook his head. He coughed out blood and said:

"Screw it." He launched back and grabbed the Chaos Emerald that had gotten close enough to him.

"What the hell?!" Terios exclaimed.

Shadow raised the Chaos Emerald and with the energy he had left, before Mephiles could do anything about it, he exclaimed:

"Chaos… Control!"

Sonic and Silver landed in Green Hill Zone. They fell in one of the waterfalls. Silver jumped out of the water and saw how Sonic was yelping, being dragged by the water´s current. The silver hedgehog grabbed him with his telekinesis and brought Sonic to the ground. He shyly said thanks to Silver as both approached to the edge.

"Sonic, look!"

"Is that…?"

It was Shadow walking to the outsides of Green Hill, with the green and dark blue Chaos Emeralds floating around him. It seemed that he received the blue emerald from his future self, even if he didn´t know. As Shadow walked, the others approached.

"Shadow!" Sonic exclaimed.

Shadow turned to see the blue hedgehog running to him with Silver.

"Hey, Sonic! What happened?"

"You won´t believe it!"

"Oh, Silver…"

"Hey… Shadow…"

Both of them were still rivals. Even if they didn´t see each other that much, it was obvious they wouldn´t like the company of the other.

"So, what´s up?"

"We are changing history my friend!" Sonic said enthusiastic hugging Shadow around the neck with his arm.

"What are you talking about?"

"He means that we need to change this timeline to fix the future." Silver explained. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Okay… Sonic, can you please let go of me?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. But let me tell you something real fast, yeah?"

"What?"

"I met your future-self. You will not change one bit!"

"You met my future-self?!"

"We better explain everything to Shadow, Sonic."

"Alright… At least Shadow´s close, now. I felt so far away from you."

"Uh-huh… If it is about Mephiles, you´ll get my full attention."

"It´s about him and worst…" Silver sighed.

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