Silver quickly used his telekinesis to release Shadow from the restraints in the machine. The contraption glowed cyan for a few seconds and the metal restraints clicked open, causing Shadow to drop onto the floor without warning. The ultimate life form looked up at Silver from the floor in awe, not sure of what was going on. The white hedgehog looked behind him to see the dead bodies of the five heroes on the ground.
"I was too late!" Silver cried out. "I'm sure my calculations were correct… I'm sure of it."
"Silver! We need to get to Maria!" Shadow cried out.
"How do you know my name?" Silver turned around to Shadow and asked defensively. The hedgehog felt nervous, he only knew Silver from visions Mephiles showed him from the alternate life form he came from.
"It's a long story. Complicated time travel business! Now grab on while I teleport us to Maria!" Shadow cried out and held his hand out. "I could really use your help."
Silver reluctantly grabbed onto Shadow's wrist.
"Before we go, I wanna ask. If I help you save Maria, will you help me to save the future?" Silver asked. Shadow nodded frantically.
"Yes! I'll do anything if you just help me fix all of this! I've reached the end of my sanity... I can't take it anymore," Shadow desperately then noticed Silver's confused look. "I'll explain it when we save Maria."
Shadow performed Chaos Control and used his time traveling powers to take them to Maria a few minutes before Mephiles would arrive. The dark hedgehog guessed that Maria would be in Rouge's apartment, so he teleported there. The young woman was sat on the sofa in front of the TV, but it didn't look as though she was concentrating on what happened on the screen; she looked too worried to be interested in it. Shadow appeared by the front door inside of the apartment and called to her.
"Maria," Shadow said desperately and ran to her.
Maria turned around to see Shadow charging towards her. But this wasn't Shadow to her… instead, it was Mephiles. The woman was terrified, so she screamed and got up. Silver watched as Maria ran to the other side of the room, screaming at the top of her lungs while Shadow desperately tried to reason with her.
"Please, Maria. I'm the real Shadow! I'm here to help you! Mephiles is going to put you in grave danger if you don't let me help you!" Shadow called out to her. The girl refused to believe the truth; it was hard to accept this after knowing another being as Shadow for fifty years. The hedgehog slowly walked over to Maria, who, by then, was cowering in the corner. The hedgehog got so close to her before she screamed out again.
Suddenly, Silver jumped to the side as Mephiles came through the front door. Maria looked to him for help.
"Shadow! Please help me!" She sobbed. The real Shadow looked to Mephiles furiously. There was only one way to do this, but he didn't want to.
"Silver hold him!" Shadow cried out and grabbed Maria. The woman screamed again, this time even louder and more frantically. The ultimate life form cradled the woman in his arms and looked to the window while Mephiles couldn't chase after them. Silver used all of his might to hold back the demon with his telekinesis while slowly edging towards the window himself. Shadow jumped from the open window with Maria in his arms and landed on his feet. Feeling bad for kidnapping Maria, Shadow ran off as fast as he could. Silver jumped down after the ultimate life form, freeing Mephiles in the process.
The two hedgehogs stopped a few miles down the road from the apartment. Maria kicked and thrashed about feebly as Shadow tried to hold her still.
"Maria… please calm down. I know you think I'm evil, but I'm not. I'm the real Shadow," Shadow pleaded. Maria continued, still refusing to accept the truth. The hedgehog let go of her because it was becoming too hard to hold her captive without hurting her, and it pained Shadow to hurt the most important person in his life. Silver helped and held her in the air with his telekinesis. She wasn't frozen in place, but she couldn't move herself from her position so she was stuck.
"Maria," Silver said and stepped forward. "I'm Silver… and I'm from the future… 200 years in the future to be exact. I came here to save that future from disaster. In my timeline, you would have already been killed, by Mephiles."
"Why hasn't he killed me yet? Why is he keeping me alive this time?" Maria sobbed. "And why are you helping him?"
"That isn't Mephiles," Silver said while pointing to Shadow. "That's Shadow. The same Shadow from the ARK, the one that got locked away because of Mephiles' tricks.
"No! That's not true! Shadow told me what happened, that Mephiles took over his body. That's Mephiles in there!" Maria yelled while sobbing.
"It's not. You were tricked. And as a result, the real Mephiles, the one you've lived with for the past fifty years, was able to cause mass destruction," Silver explained. "In my timeline, he would have killed you along with all of your friends and sealed Shadow away so there was no one to stop him from getting what he wanted."
"All to make me suffer!" Shadow added in fury. Maria looked at Shadow reluctantly as it dawned on her… she'd lived with a demon all this time… a demon that was going to kill her. Shadow looked at her through the corner of his eye. In that stare she saw sadness… despair… a hedgehog that had suffered many years of pain, misery and loneliness.
Before either of them could say anything, they heard footsteps from behind them. Shadow turned around as quickly as possible to react to their intruder, but it was too late. A beam of light hit Maria right in her chest. Silver let go of her, so he no longer floated but it was too late. Shadow stared at Maria's dead body for what felt like forever to him … he was frozen. Silver was speechless… he felt guilty. Mephiles walked over to them.
"You still fail to help yourself, hedgehog," Mephiles said to Shadow. The ultimate life form didn't react to it, he just continued to stand over Maria's dead body; he didn't move at all. Only his quills that shook in the slightly breeze. There was no emotion on his face. "What do you think, Shadow? You're a vengeful creature so you should be able to judge. How would you rate my revenge?"
There was no answer.
"Judging by your emotional scarring, I would give it a nine out of ten," Mephiles boasted. Shadow's heart skipped a beat. Only nine out of ten? Mephiles had more planned! Silver got into a defensive stance, ready to fight. Shadow still stood as still as a statue; he'd given up. "I'm not done with you yet, hedgehog. I still have a final plan to fulfil."
"I think you've done enough, Mephiles!" Silver yelled. "I will not let you ruin the future again!" He used telekinesis on Mephiles. The demon saw it coming this time and sent out a shockwave of dark power and it knocked both Silver and Shadow off their feet. Silver groaned in pain and got up, but Shadow did nothing; he just lay there on his side while staring into space. The white hedgehog looked at the useless heap on the floor, the one that just lay there and let himself get abused. Silver watched as Mephiles walked over to the dark hedgehog, picked him up by the scruff of the neck and held his dangling body up high to see him face to face. The ultimate life form just hung there and looked at Mephiles with lifeless eyes.
"Whatever you plan to do to me… just do it now," Shadow rasped. Mephiles's eyes narrowed and he chucked Shadow against the nearest building. The hedgehog hit the brick wall with a large thump, then slid to the floor and lay there in agony after yet another beating to the head and back.
"I think you've suffered enough," Mephiles began as he walk over to him. Silver stood to the side, watching it all happen. He was unsure of what to do that wouldn't make the situation worse. "So it's time to put you to rest."
"Trying to kill me won't be easy," Shadow said through heavy breaths.
"I don't plan to kill you, hedgehog," Mephiles said threateningly. Shadow looked down and tensed up as his heart rate increased and he could feel his blood pumping all over his body. "I plan to wipe you from existence!"
Shadow's head shot up when he heard that; he looked at Mephiles with a terrified expression. Of course Mephiles would do that; it was a lot easier than killing him. Silver ran over to the demon and stood in front of him.
"You can't do that! It'll change everything drastically!" Silver cried out. Mephiles' eyes widened in surprise and amusement.
"Hypocrite," Mephiles jeered and pushed him out of the way to get to Shadow then looked at Silver through the corner of his eye. "Didn't you try to change the timeline?"
"I tried to change it for the better; you just want to destroy everything!" Silver argued. Mephiles didn't listen, instead he picked Shadow up by his throat and left him to squirm desperately.
"Any last words before I wipe every trace of your existence?" Mephiles asked arrogantly.
"Go the fuck ahead, at least you won't be able to hurt me anymore…" Shadow said through his constricted throat. The demon threw Shadow to the floor aggressively then disappeared.
Shadow remained on the floor; he breathed heavily and said nothing. Silver waited for Shadow to do something about Mephiles' latest threat but the hedgehog was hopeless. The dark one just stayed sitting, closed his eyes and waited for it to happen. Becoming frustrated, Silver ran over to the useless life form and shook him by the shoulders violently.
"Shadow! Stop being selfish and help me! Maria may be dead, but you don't have to let everyone else die too!" Silver cried out. "Please, I know a way to stop this. I know that you gained his time traveling powers."
"And what had that done for us to far? It's given us a head start for a mission we failed anyway," Shadow sighed and pushed Silver off of him while avoiding eye contact the whole time.
"You can do more than that, though. You can travel from one timeline to another," Silver stated. The sulky hedgehog looked at Silver sceptically; misery remained in his expression, but there was a hint of confusion and interest. In Shadow's mind, nothing would ever work, but he would hear Silver out before he let himself disappear from existence. "I have a plan."
Lucy Labrador