Shadow whirled around quickly, his foot connecting with Kunoichi's metal wrists. With her robotic strength, she sent him flying, though his quick reflexes landed him safely. He wasted no time in speeding back toward his adversary. Kunoichi also wasted no time, drawing out her chain weapon and swinging the blunt projectile his way.
He ducked under the swinging nunchuck end and went into a spin, hoping to knock the robot off her feet. E-91 proved her agility once more, leaping into the air and swinging the chain back at Shadow, the blunt end turning into a round steel ball.
There was no room for taunts or witty humor in this fight, and Shadow simply worked at evading Kunoichi's attacks. After a while of dodging needles and kodachis and the chain weapon, Shadow had detected an attack pattern.
"Ready to call it quits?" he asked in a low tone, moving near the last cluster of bombs.
The chain weapon impacted the cluster, but it did little to move the solid weight she'd thrust at it. "Shouldn't you be calling it quits? Your movements have slowed three percent." The robot took a glance at where she thought Shadow would be, but he wasn't there. "Ehh?"
"What was that?" Shadow's voice came from behind her. As she whirled around, a dark energy gathered in his hand. He whirled the black fire at her, the robot's body suddenly stunned on the spot. He then unleashed a flurry of hits and kicks on the robot, sending her banging against the metal floor once the assault was over. He hardly gave the sparking robot a second glance as he went into the room containing his daughter.
Sonic's eyes adjusted to the light as they left behind the hidden tunnels Blaze had led them through. The passage opened up into the rafters of a large room with a vaulted ceiling. Though machines encased the pillars on which the emeralds sat, Sonic was sure he'd been here before. "It looks like the Master Emerald shrine…." Sonic said softly.
"With good reason. It was based on it," Blaze replied.
"Huh?" Sonic glanced at the cat. "Heh, does Knuckles know about this?"
"Who?" Blaze asked.
"Friend of mine, don't sweat it. Guardian of Angel Island...meh, not important." Sonic shrugged.
"...Whatever's down there, we still need to take care of Nega," Blaze replied.
"Right! Let's go!" Sonic grinned and jumped out to a nearby structural pillar, sliding down it in a triumphant way.
"Is he always that loud?" Blaze asked as she looked over the edge. Another fall, great. She took a breath and used her pyrokinesis to slow her descent.
Amy leapt down, letting her board fall at her side. She landed with catlike grace and looked around cautiously. This is going too well... she thought.
A white hedgehog was asleep in the center of the machine, where the Master Emerald would have been. His unconscious form was strapped in, and his body convulsed at varying power surges which ran through the enormous machine. "Silver...!" Blaze rushed toward her friend, her senses on high alert; this had been too easy…it could easily be a trap. She stopped short of him as the emeralds surged with power and Silver let out a scream of pain. "No...! Please...!" She grabbed one of the wrist restraints and felt the Chaos surge through her as well.
Silver's golden eyes flew open and rested on his feline friend. "Y-you came." He winced, but his sudden leap to consciousness seemed to affect the emeralds, the surge dying away as suddenly as it had begun.
"Of course I did," Blaze replied as she undid the restraints on his other wrist.
Sonic had been circling around the perimeter, but no one came. This isn't like Eggman...
"So you came at last," Nega called from one end of the spacious room, a number of sentry robots surrounding him. "Bravo. So you save your friend and let the world go to pieces." He grinned.
"Nega...!" Blaze supported Silver as she helped him out of the machine.
"Finally!" Sonic launched himself at the scientist, though the sentry bots created an energy shield, which repelled him.
"Don't you find it interesting? Your success in defeating me could ultimately destroy not one but three worlds!" Eggman Nega continued to grin at them.
Silver glanced over at Nega, "Why…why are you doing this?"
"Because I can." He bowed a bit. "It looks like you have no choice but to play by my rules." Lights glowed harshly on the robots as lasers powered up, trained mostly on Amy. Sonic noted this and quickly moved in front of her. "For Eggman, he can accept defeat. I, on the other hand, am in the frame of mind winner takes all."
"You're worse than Eggman!" Sonic snapped at him, his emerald eyes ablaze. Amy clung to him, hoping he wouldn't do anything stupid.
"Actually I'm better than my original. I'm going to succeed where he failed. That last Emerald goes there." He indicated a pillar. "I'm perfectly willing to destroy this whole palace if you don't wish to comply."
Shadow moved unchallenged to the center of the room. The emerald power was surging through the systems, he could sense it. Even worse, it had made his little girl cry. "Daddy's here," he said softly as he reached for his daughter.
"It's not over yet," Maria said.
"What do you want?" he said softly.
"Don't let the future go wrong." Her ruby eyes lost their gemlike quality as the bonds were released.
"So what are you going to do about the world collision?" Eggman called from the doorway.
Shadow had freed his daughter from the bindings and held her gently in his arms. "I'm going to stop it." He headed over to the vacant pillar and set the last emerald on it.
"So you're going to use yourself instead?" He glanced at the child clutched in Shadow's arms.
"If I have to." His tone remained even. "Knuckles and Tails should be here soon. We'll go from there."
"We're here already," Tails' voice called over the comm system. "Now that the last emerald's in place we should be able to move things along quickly."
"Well then, I guess you won't be needing me." Eggman tried to bow out only to be halted by Knuckles' fist.
"Not so fast. Hey, Tails, what's the scoop?" Knuckles asked as he entered the pseudo-emerald shrine.
"The echo's gotten stronger; I think they have the last emerald," Tails replied.
"So are we stopping or helping it?" Knux inquired.
"We help it," Uncle Chuck's voice intervened. "Sorry I've been quiet, Sonic and the others are in a bit of a bind...looks like we have no choice."
"Well that narrows things down. What do we do?" Shadow asked.
"The Chaos energies have to be unified from this time period and the future," Tails replied. "Both time periods have gathered the seven, so it's a matter of you and Sonic being of the same mind."
"Like that would ever happen." Shadow looked at his daughter as if expecting something from her.
"It's not impossible. Chuck? Let me know when they're ready." Tails' voice started.
"Shadow's a very capable Chaos user, he should be able to sense when Sonic starts things on his end," Chuck's voice broke through again.
"You do realize you could die?" Eggman put in at last.
"Yeah. That's probably what Nega wants, right? Well...I don't plan on it." Shadow looked back at his daughter. She was clinging to the furry white tuft of his chest, mildly aware they were in a bad place. Her little quills stiffened outward. "Hey, Knuckles? Think you can handle her a minute?"
"Yeah." Knuckles glanced at the doctor. "Nap time." He jumped up and clubbed Eggman on the head, knocking him unconscious. "You think you can handle this?"
Shadow handed Maria over to him. "I know I can." He headed over to the central pillar, a snap heard as he loosed one of his gold bracelets.
The World Gate shifted as the power of the emeralds locked. The portal seemed to spread out over the landscape on both ends, a sudden shift taking place. Next to Station Square, a lush forest had cropped up, with a palace in its center...Knothole. In other places in the world the same kinds of things were happening. Eggman's fortress became visible on Earth as the two worlds merged into one.
Immediate confusion cropped up where human and Mobian settlements overlapped. But this was not the true scope of the world merger, as a new portal appeared in the sky over Station Square. A large portal opened wide, linking the future and the past, a vast army of robots flying out of the new portal.
"At last, the world will know the Eggman Empire!" Nega gloated. "Thank you so much for your cooperation, but I have an invasion to oversee!" He bowed and left with his robots.
"No!" Silver bolted after him.
"Wait!" Blaze glanced at the fleeing white form, and then back to Amy, quivering on her knees by Sonic's limp form. It can't end like this... It can't! "Sorry…." She made her choice and ran after Silver and Nega.
The pulsing of the emerald's power had slowed, and Amy was left alone in the quiet open room. She took Sonic's hand in hers and drew in a shaky breath. "S...Sonic?" She listened for any sign of life from him. "We're having another baby...you know?" She got to her feet and took a deep breath, "So...you have to wake up okay?" She attempted a smile. "You have to! You have to!" Getting no response, she fell on his chest and began to sob. "Sonic!!"