Silver left to perform his part of the plan, leaving Shadow alone to complete his own part of the deal. Silver wasn't sure whether Shadow would bother or not; it seemed as though the ultimate life form had given up completely. But, when Silver left, Shadow got up and did as he was told. He figured that it wouldn't matter how he spent his last moments anyway. He wouldn't remember them anyway; he wouldn't remember anything. All of his experiences would be undone and all event caused by his existence destined to never happen. The miserable hedgehog opened up a warp hole and jumped through it and entered a never ending tunnel of thin threads. Shadow felt as though he was on the inside of a cut up ball of wool. Not only could he see every woollen strand, but he could see the tiny pieces of cotton that made up the wool. It was a confusing and painfully complicated mess which Shadow didn't know how to navigate.

Shadow's aim was to jump to another timeline, which he'd never done before. It was more complicated than simply traveling within one timeline, so Shadow expected to make many mistakes before he ended up where he was supposed to. He wasn't looking for Mephiles, though. He was looking for the earlier form of Mephiles, the flame. Shadow had seen it in the visions Mephiles showed him. It would be very hard to find it in this mess of strings and threads. Each of them had a timeline. Shadow didn't know which one he came one, or which one he was supposed to go to. It seemed impossible. The hedgehog felt about, seeing many visions from different timelines as he touched each strand. Memories filled his mind and left them. Then Shadow saw it, the vision, only this time is was clearer to him… as though the image was right in front of his face. He didn't let go of the strand… he watched the small flame burn for a few moments than pulled himself in.

If he were to extinguish it before Mephiles was created, then surely Mephiles would never exist. Right?

Wrong. That's how Sonic and Elise got rid of Mephiles in the first place… and he escaped. Shadow didn't know what to do. Stood inside Soleanna's palace, Shadow thought of how to solve his problem. It was time for some easy navigation… time to go further back in time. The hedgehog opened up another warp hole and rode along his strand, looking for a time before the flame existed. Hundreds of years passed him in a second but he still saw the flame. No wonder it was worshipped by the humans, it had burned for so long. The flame was more than a burning candle; it was sacred. But it would cause so much destruction later on so he had to stop it from existing.

Then he found it, a time before the flame, before solarises' existence. It only existed in people's minds at this point. Over two thousand years before Mephiles' creation… the flame was ignited and kept in a small temple which would one day become Soleanna's castle. A crowd of humans kneeled in their primitive clothes as one of them lit a flame over a bronze tray. There was an eerie silence in this dimly lit stone room. Shadow jumped into the room via his portal and knocked the humans out one by one. He jumped up and kicked the kneeling ones in the head. Then he performed a homing attack and smashed the standing one into the wall. The burning stick that was meant to light the fuel in the bowl dropped to the floor. Shadow stood on it to put out that flame. Then he grabbed the small bowl and crushed it in the palm of his hand.

Surely it was done. Could Mephiles get out of that, or did Shadow have to go back even further to before the humans even got the idea of igniting the flame? What if they tried again when they all woke up? Shadow shook his head, feeling foolish. His efforts were most likely wasted. He would have to kill the humans too. The hedgehog walked to the small exit door on the other side of the small room and created a large sphere of energy in the palm of his hand. The large pulsing ball of energy became as large as the room itself and engulfed the humans. Shadow had teleported them to the core of the Earth. The deaths were most likely instant.

Surely that worked. Well, Shadow still existed, so that was a good sign. Mephiles hadn't gotten rid of him yet. Then it was time to navigate the cursed tunnel of strings again. He didn't know what would happen afterwards. Would he ever see Silver again or would he enter brand new timeline created by Mephiles' non-existence? The hedgehog looked for the timeline he'd come from and jumped inside of it. Nothing had changed.

Mephiles appeared in front of Shadow and looked at him furiously.

"You… still exist," Mephiles said confusedly.

"And so do you," Shadow said miserably and folded his arms.

"What do you mean? What did you…?"

Mephiles couldn't finish his sentence. All of a sudden they two of them were thrown into the timeline tunnel again against their own will. Instead of being able to navigate through them freely, all strands pushed in on the bother of them. Mephiles struggled as hard as he could while Shadow just took what came to him. They were both getting erased from existence.

"Curse you, Shadow! I've been erased again. No matter. I'll just find another Shadow to punish," Mephiles complained and reached for a strand to pull on. Shadow grabbed Mephiles' hand and stopped him from escaping.

"We're going down together, Mephiles," Shadow snarled as the two of them were engulfed in a painless, yet terrifying explosion of time-space energy.

The both of them were left to float in a white vast space of nothingness. No floor, no ceiling, no end, no beginning. Nothing. Shadow took a quick and sudden breath in and looked around frantically.

"Where are we?"

"We're nowhere. We've been erased from existence," Mephiles said solemnly.

"But… I exist… I'm here. I can still remember everything!" Shadow yelled frantically.

"That'll teach you to mess with me," Mephiles said sinisterly. "I'll just leave your mortal mind to go insane while I enjoy the bliss of silence."

The demon began to float away. Shadow tried to follow him but he didn't know how… he wasn't familiar with time and space navigation like Mephiles was.

"But… Silver said he'd stop you from getting rid of me!" Shadow yelled over to him. "Why did I end up here?"

Mephiles stopped and turned around, he looked terrified. "He… WHAT!?"

"Hah, is there a problem with that?" Shadow smirked. Suddenly a warp hole opened up and the hedgehog was sucked through it. Shadow heard the demon cry out in frustration and fury as he was left behind to suffer on his own. The hedgehog never heard from his adversary again… nor did he hear from him in the beforehand. Neither in past, present or future would Shadow hear from him. Thank you, Silver, Shadow thought to himself as he returned to his original timeline… where he belonged.

Lucy Labrador