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Darkness Shall Thrive

-Chapter 8: Heartbeat-

"This is really messed up!" Shadow protested.

"What do you think?" Silver asked.

"We gotta fight back."

"And I thought it was over…" Sonic demanded.

"Sonic, do you have the emerald?"

He nodded.

"Good, we need to find the other four."

"Three." Silver said confidently.

Shadow turned to him and asked: "Three?"

"Yes, three." He pulled the red emerald out of his quills. Sonic gave a quick glance at it. "I found it when Mephiles and Terios were following me." He smirked.

"At least we only got to worry about Mephiles. That other guy gave me the chills, even if he looked like Shad here." Sonic said quivering nervously.

"Why?" Shadow asked.

"I dunno. Just saying."

"Anyways, the other emeralds could be hiding anywhere!" Silver exclaimed worried.

"We don´t have to be concerned about that, pal!"

"Huh?"

"Did you know that Shadow can detect chaos energy?"

Silver looked surprised at the black hedgehog. He looked deeply into his eyes. He felt how his dark soul were striking back at his stare. His amber eyes shared the same fear as the crimson ones. They both got along and turned away at the same time, resembling the hate they had for each other.

Shadow nodded and said: "We need to hurry. There´s not enough time, and you know it." He pointed at the silver hedgehog.

"So, you ready to go?" Sonic asked excited. He tapped his right foot on the floor and grabbed Shadow´s hand.

"What are you doing, faker?! Let go of me!"

"I want to take you for a ride!"

And the blue hedgehog took off, pulling Shadow by his side. Silver shook his head sighing and followed quickly.

Mephiles launched to the spot where Shadow was supposed to be, but he was gone. Terios turned to look at him. Without any other options, the crystal hedgehog ordered the other to look for the missing one.

"Find him, and bring him alive, and I also need the Chaos Emerald he keeps. I´ll go to the present to check things again. I have to fight present Shadow and have my revenge."

Terios, shocked and confused, nodded and skated through Crisis City.

The black hedgehog hid in a tunnel in the outsides of the city. He held his stomach and gasped in pain. But he noticed something he didn´t realize when he got to the tunnel… It was here… The most awful day for Shadow. The day when he surrendered to G.U.N.

-FLASHBACK-

Shadow tried to get away fast but Omega shot him, making the hedgehog fall to the ground. He leaned on a wall. It was covered with graffiti and a legend that said: "Sonic Was Here". He closed his eyes and turned to Omega right after that. Shadow stood up and shouted at Omega.

"Why are you doing this? Omega? Can´t you remember?"

The robot didn´t respond. Instead, he walked towards him and prepared his machine gun coming out of its arm. A beep sounded. It was coming out of Omega´s back. Every time it was beeping faster and faster until it was just a scratching sound. Suddenly, helicopters were flying above the tunnel. Their propellers were spinning fast and sounded like the motor was running furiously. A missile was shot. It destroyed the front part of the place, making huge cracks in it. Shadow and Omega stumbled. The hedgehog thought:

"I don't have other choice…"

He exclaimed: "Chaos…" Before he could finish, Omega punched him sending him flying. He crushed a wall and fell. He stood up again and tried it one more time.

"Chaos… Bla-…"

Once again, the robot punched him not allowing the chaos ability to be done. Shadow looked at him and wondered how his friend could have become to this.

GUN soldiers started to enter the tunnel. There were at least fifty of them and like four helicopters surrounding the area. Omega pointed at him with his weapon and said:

"Surrender now, or we´ll have to take you by force."

Shadow prepared a Chaos Spear but before he could throw it, unexpectedly, he received an electrical shot. A soldier shoot it at him with a small weapon while he was distracted. Shadow screamed in agony and fell to the ground. Other two soldiers approached and handcuffed him. They pulled him up to make the hedgehog stand up. Everyone exited the tunnel and entered to a military truck.

The helicopters flew away from Shadow´s sight as he noticed how the vehicle was approaching to Prison Island. A ramp opened on the floor leading to the underground base. The truck entered to it. The soldiers made Shadow get down and got into the SEALER 3000 room. In the way, the scientists stared at him. He felt disturbed by this and tried not to think about it.

In the room, Shadow tried to fight back, but it was no use. Omega made sure he wasn´t using his powers in there. He also checked if he had any Chaos Emeralds with him, which made his suspicions true. Shadow held the green emerald with him all the time now, but managed to take it away from him, making the black hedgehog unable to use Chaos Control. As stated by Mephiles, Shadow was sealed away for eternity, or that´s what the humans thought…

-END-OF-FLASHBACK-

Shadow opened his eyes and found himself touching the wall where Sonic´s name was written a long time ago, still holding with his other hand his stomach. He cried, but wiped away his tears. He had to be strong, because that future was not going to happen.

He thought how he wouldn´t remember this time. All the pain he had felt was going to disappear, forever. If he had luck, GUN wouldn´t follow him anymore. Besides, that´s why Sonic had been there. He told the blue hedgehog to change the present, so he could have a better future, and Shadow knew he was going to make it.

Why? Because he was the only person he knew capable to open his heart and fight for what was right.

The sky turned gray as even grayer clouds covered it completely. There wouldn´t be a sunset today. Small drops of water started to fell slowly to the ground from it. It seemed like if they were dancing to the rhythm of Sonic´s footsteps.

The group walked and picked the purple Chaos Emerald. Sonic looked up to see that more clouds started to show off and lighting appeared, making shocking thunders sound heavily into the hedgehog´s ears.

"Is it raining season?" He asked.

"No, and it very rarely rains in the desert. Think about it, we´re in Wild Canyon!" Shadow exclaimed somehow scolding Sonic for his stupid question. Silver grabbed the emerald and said: "Well, here´s the last one…"

They all pulled out all the emeralds. Sonic counted by color:

"Let´s see… Red, Yellow, Green, both Blues, Purple, and White. There! We´re ready!"

"Excellent job…"

The three hedgehogs turned to see Mephiles clapping to them slowly from behind in a very mysterious way. He flew to them and made a wild flame crush them that launched out for the emeralds.

"Iblis! We´re finally together!"

"!"

"Hahahaha… you didn´t know, right?"

"What we didn´t know?!" Shadow exclaimed furiously as standing up.

"Iblis was sealed in different parts inside the emeralds. You may have been using them without knowing what was inside of them. Only I could help my friend. I was going to look for the emeralds, but you saved me a lot of my time, you fools!"

Silver gasped and joint an incredible amount of rocks and pillars, making a humongous ball with the material, and threw it at Mephiles. He dodged and dragged the emeralds through the air fast enough for Silver to catch up. As the Chaos Emeralds floated to him, Shadow fought Iblis retaining it from joining with Mephiles and Sonic, alongside Silver, tried to distract the crystal hedgehog from doing it.

Mephiles punched both hedgehogs and made them crash into a wall. It started to crumble and fell on top of both hedgehogs, making them unable to move beneath the rumble. Silver managed to get out first holding Mephiles with his psychokinesis and launched him to the Iblis who stumbled because of Shadow´s attacks.

The crystal hedgehog opened a portal.

"You´re not getting away, Mephiles!" Silver shouted as the black hole was starting to drag him in, not noticing about it. "You won´t escape this time."

"The portal isn´t taking me."

Silver looked at him furiously.

"It´s taking you." The white hedgehog was now floating being sucked into the portal. He tried to fly away, but the incredible force from the air wouldn´t allow him to. Shadow watched astonished how Silver extended his arm trying to reach out for him, but the ultimate life form couldn´t do anything about it. He heard Silver´s last words that where whispered to him when the white hedgehog was being taken away: "I believe in you!" And he disappeared into nothingness.

Shadow rested from the current of wind that took Silver away. He clenched his fist and exclaimed: "This is the end of the line, Mephiles! This ends right here and right now!"

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