5

Vader appeared on a hologram to Eggman. "The separatist leaders are dead, my master."

"It is finished then. You restored peace and Order to our galaxy.

"Send this information to the ships of the trade federation. All droid units must shut down, immediately."

"Very good my lord." Vader proceeded to do that. Afterward, he caught sight of a ship landing on the outside platform.

Amy sat in the cockpit for a moment, and saw her beloved come running along to meet her.

She ran out to, and embraced him.

"I saw your ship. What're you doing out here?"
"I was worried about you. Sonic told me terrible things. That you'd…turned to the dark side, that you'd killed younglings…"

"See? Sonic is trying to turn you against me."
"He cares about us?"
" 'Us?' "

"He knows. All he wants is to help you. " She looked into his eyes. "All I want is your love."

"Love can't save you Amy, only my new powers can do that."

"At what cost? You're a good person! Don't do this!"

"I'm doing it for you."

"No! We can go to Naboo, we can raise our child there!"

"Don't you see? We don't have to runaway any more! I have brought peace to the republic! I am more powerful than the chancellor! I can overthrow him!" Amy began to step away. "And together, you and I can rule the galaxy! Make things the way we want them to be!" Amy was out of arm's reach now.

She shook her head. "I don't believe what I'm hearing! Sonic was right! You've changed. "

"I don't want to hear any more about Sonic. The Jedi turned against me, don't you turn against me!"

Amy began sobbing, her voice began breaking. "I don't know you anymore! Shadow, you're breaking my heart. You're going down a path I can't follow!" Tears began streaming down her cheeks.

"Because of Sonic?"

"Because of what you've done, because of what you plan to do!" Shadow saw Sonic standing in the doorway of the ship. "Come back Shadow! Please come back! I love you!"

"Liar!" He shouted. Sonic began walking down the ramp. "You're with him! You brought him here to kill me!" Shadow slapped her, knocking her to the ground. "No! No! I SWEAR!" Vader began to choke her with the force. "Ugh…No…Ughh…."

"Shadow, let her go." Vader didn't let up. "Let. Her. Go." Vader did, dropping her to the floor, unmoving. He looked at his former master. "YOU TURNED HER AGAINST ME!"

"You have done that yourself!"

Vader discarded his robe. "You will not take her from me!"

"Your anger and your lust for power have already done that," Sonic said as he cast off his own robe. "Have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until now, until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy." They began circling each other.

"Don't lecture me Sonic. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do." They stopped, and Vader turned his back to him, while Sonic felt Amy's pulse. She was alive. "I have brought peace, justice, and order to my new empire."

"Your new empire?"

"Don't make me kill you."

"Shadow, my allegiance is to the republic, to democracy!"

Vader controversially said, "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy!"

Sonic stared at him. "Only a Sith deals in absolutes. Sonic pulled out his lightsaber. "I will do what I must."
"You will try." Sonic ignited his lightsaber, but then Vader ignited his and flipped backward, igniting and epic duel that began with them fighting off the platform and into Hell fire. Vader led Sonic to the edge, but Sonic was able to repel him backward, causing Vader to downcast Sonic's lightsaber, and kick him towards a door.

Eggman sat at his desk beneath the congressional chambers, and stirred as knuckles walked in, killing his two guards instantly. He looked at him. "I hear you have a new apprentice emperor. Or should I call you Darth Sidous."

"Master Knuckles, you survived. Now you shall witness the complete power of the dark side." He fired lightning from his finger tips, sending knuckles into the wall, and leaving him on the ground.

Sonic and Vader battled along a bridge, and eventually came to a door, and proceeded down the hall, the lightsabers swinging about destroying the small, triangular hallway they were in. Finally they came to the control room, where they both jumped and flipped around, trying to landed a blow on each other, but only lightsaber was met with lightsaber.

Eggman approached the fallen Jedi. "I have waited a long time for this, my little red friend." Knuckles stood up. "The Jedi are no more."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," and Knuckles pushed him back with the force, knocking him into the wall. Eggman got to his feet, and flipped at the same time Knuckles did to the entrance. "If you are so powerful," Knuckles ignited his lightsaber, "Then why leave?"

"You have lost! Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us!" Eggman flipped out his own lightsaber.

"You may have misplaced faith in your new apprentice. As well as your faith in the dark side of the force."

With that, Knuckles struck, flipping up and around Eggman, landing in front of him, and catching his lightsaber. Eggman laughed, and swung.

Vader pulled Sonic's arm away, and slashed his lightsaber. Sonic kicked it way, marginally before it hit him, and kicked Shadow in the stomach. Shadow kicked him back, but his legs were swiped out from under him, and he fell on his back. Sonic got above him, and swung down but Shadow retrieved his lightsaber, and blocked it as it came down on him.

Knuckles and Eggman flipped around and around, on a the central congressional box, which elevated into the empty congressional hearing chambers, and they continued in their duel, dwarfed by the sheer massiveness of the room. Knuckles eventually caught the emperor's blade, and drove it downwards, but Eggman managed to overthrow it.

In the control room, Vader and Sonic fought, not strafing or moving now, but with their feet planted, striking again and again at each other. Finally, they came to a point where they tried to push each other with the force, only locking themselves in a stalemate, but finally propelling themselves into the wall. Shadow got up, and fired lightning from his organic arm, destroying the control panel behind Sonic, who had jumped out of the way, deactivating the shields outside, on the mining arms.

Sonic ran around the room, being chase by Vader's force lightning, igniting the whole room on fire. He came to a door, and slashed the control panel, opening it. As he backed out onto a balcony overlooking the lava streams below, he could Vader silhouetted by the flames. But Vader emerged, and swung his lightsaber.

Eggman had climbed into one of the congressional seats, and lifted it up with the force, floating above Knuckles. He then pulled other ones away, and swung them at him. Knuckles dodged out of the way of several, and punched through several more, sending the wreckage cascading down to the ground. Eggman threw one at him, but Knuckles caught it with the force, and began spinning it around. He then flung it back at him, upending the one he was sitting in, and leaving him dangling off the edge. Eggman let go, but clung on to another. Knuckles made his away over to him, igniting his lightsaber, but Eggman shot it away with his lightning. He fired his lightning at Knuckles, who captured it in his hands, charging it into spheres of power. Eggman kept up his assault, but eventually Knuckles flung him backward, the blast knocking the red echidna back as well.

Eggman landed on a congressional seat, while Knuckles reached for the central platform, but could only grip the edge with his fingers. He pulled his other arm up, and stuck his knuckles into the steel, but Eggman suddenly appeared above him and shot him down with his lightning, sending him to the floor.

Vader battled Sonic to the edge of the balcony, and kicked him off, sending him to land on a curving rail, which Sonic began to slide down on. Vader jumped, and grinded after him, both eventually picking up speed and shooting down the rail, swinging and slashing their lightsabers at one another. They kept up these attacks, as their shoes gave off sparks, as a jet of lava erupted beside them, ever trying not to cut the rail, for fear the entire thing would give way, if but a single piece was lost. They kept this up, swinging and slashing at enormous speeds, Vader even tried to fire his lightning at Sonic, but Sonic was able to repel it.

Finally, Vader was able to hold Sonic's lightsaber away long enough for him to grab his former master and send him off into the distance. He watched, as he failed and Sonic landed on a mining arm. Vader jumped down after him.

The looked at each for a moment, then ran towards one another, gripping each other's hands above their heads, trying to force each other away as a jet of lava erupted beside them.

Knuckles crawled through a small ventilation shaft. He spoke into his comm. unit. "Hurry, we will need careful timing."

"I'm on it," Said Organna, flying in his classic lightning bird. "Activate your homing beacon when you're ready."

"Sir, We haven't found him," several clones troopers said to Eggman.

"Then he's not dead. Double your search." He turned to his servant. "Tell captain Cargate to ready my shuttle."

"Yes master."

He said, more to himself than anyone, "I sense lord Vader is in danger."

Vader and Sonic struggled on the mining arm, but quickly shot to the very end when a jet of lava erupted and fell on the middle of it, causing it to break off. The end they were on, a large, claw-like structure, dipped, and began to fall in the sea of lava. As it did, the two ran forward, Vader even striking at Sonic a they did, and grabbed onto cables dangling from the top.

The structure was now floating on top the lava, with red and blue lightsabers glowing near the top.

Knuckles crawled out through the vent, and dropped down onto Organna's hovercar. "I have failed. I must go into Exile," He said, hanging his head.

They swung at each other, leading their lightsabers into the metal. Vader grabbed Sonic with the force and sent him swinging on his cable. Vader took position, and fired the jets in his shoes, launching him at his enemy, striking him when he came close. Sonic returned to the structure, leaving Vader to come in just as it was entering a lava-fall. Sonic spied a hovering platform, which he jumped on, watching as Vader came on the structure as it went over the fall. He ran along the beam, avoiding the lava as it was nearing him, and jumped on a small mining droid. It flew up next to Sonic, and they began striking at each other again, and again, and again.

Finally, Sonic managed to bat the droid away, allowing him a moment to speak. "I have failed you Shadow, I have failed you."

"I should have known the Jedi were plotting to take over!"

"Shadow, Chancellor Robotnik is evil!"

"From my point of view the Jedi are evil!"

"Well, then you are lost!" He swung again, but Vader knocked it away. "This is the end for you, my master." He leaped up in the air, and landed on the opposite side of the small platform. They swung and slashed at each other, eventually becoming locked in a saber duel, which, after much pressing Vader won, allowing Sonic to flip back onto a mound of earth. "It's over Shadow! I have the high ground!"

"You underestimate my power!"

"Don't try it!"

He jumped, flipped over Sonic, and landed behind him. Shadow turned, but Sonic was faster: He severed his legs and his organic arm, and kicked the husk to the edge of the lava.

Vader screamed in pain. "Shadow, you were the chosen one! You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them! You were supposed to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness!" He watched, as the lava caught Vader's leg and burnt him alive, leaving him in even more pain. "You were my brother Shadow! I loved you!"

"I HATE YOU!" He screamed, reaching to drag himself away. Sonic looked with pity at the burning husk that had once been his friend, his apprentice. Now, it was only a twisted mangling of a once good person. It disgusted him, and worse, He knew he had failed to prevent this.

He picked up his friend's lightsaber, and walked off.

He made his way back to the sip, where 3PO greeted him. "Oh, Master Sonic are you all right? I've got Miss Amy on board, let's hurry and leave this dreadful place." Sonic tapped him on the shoulder.

Sonic met Amy in the medical wing, and felt her face. It was warm. She stirred. "Sonic…is Shadow alright?" But then she fell back asleep.

Sonic got into the cockpit, and together they blasted off.

A metal hand reached forth, and dug into the soft earth, and propelled the burnt husk forward. It did so again, and again, until Eggman reached it. "He's still alive. Get a medical capsule immediately.

On a barren asteroid, Knuckles sat brooding. He moved when he was called to Sonic the Hedgehog's presence. They rushed Amy to the medical center, as Eggman rushed Vader to an operation room.

The droids began to induce birth, and explained that though she was completely healthy, they were losing her. She had lost the will to live.

They operated quickly to save the babies. Sonic inquired to the babies, and the robot explained she was carrying twins.

Amy lay on the table, at peace, as Vader lay on the table, in agony.

But soon she was in agony, she screamed from labor pains, as he screamed from being touched, and having new, metal limbs affixed to his skin.

The first baby came, and it was a boy. Amy named him Luke, and smiled at him. The next baby came, and it was a girl. She named her Leia.

Vader's new body was almost complete. One final attachment remained: A mask, to regulate his breathing and the damage done to his Lungs. It was fitted on, and Vader sucked in a breath, causing a haunting noise, and exhaled, causing a new noise.

Birth and Rebirth.

Finally, Amy gave out, and ceased to exist.

Vader rose on the slab, and Eggman leaned close. "Lord Vader? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, Master." He looked at him. "Where is Amy? Is she safe? Is she all right?"

"It seems that, in your hate, you killed her."

"No….She was alive…I FELT IT!" He pushed outward with the force, destroying the droids that saved him and breaking apart everything else. He ripped his shackles off the slab and took two stomps forward. "Noooo!" He bellowed.

On Naboo, Kunckles, Sonic and Organna sat, thinking of what to do. "The children must be kept hidden sand safe."
"I will take the girl," Organna said, "My wife and I have have talked of adopting a baby girl. She will be loved with us."

"And what of the boy?" Sonic inquired.

"Send him to Tattonie, to his family."

"I will take the boy and watch over him."

They got up to leave, but Kunckles waved Sonic down.

"Master Sonic, I have a bit of training for you on Tattonie."

"Training?"

"An old friend of yours has learned the path to immortatilty. He has returned from the netherworlds of the force. Your old master."

"Qui Gon?"

Knuckles nodded. "I will teach you to commune with him."

Organna and the droid duo walked down the hall, and encountered captain Antilles "Sir, I'm leaving these droids in your care. Have them cleaned up, and have the protocol droid's memory wiped."

"Yes m'lord."

"What? Oh no."

A funeral service was held for Amy in the twilight of Naboo, where her hand was curiously placed on a charm around her neck. A charm Shadow had once given her.

Several Star destroyers were clustered around an object. On one of them, Darth Vader approached his master, and viewed the construction of their new weapon.

At Organna's summer home, he showed his wife their new baby.

And on Tatoonie, Sonic Presented Luke to his aunt and Uncle at sunset. He watched them as they looked into the sunset, holding a new hope.

THE

END