Chapter 08: From Bad to Worse

Meanwhile, Rouge had taken the Master Emerald to a special chamber deep within the ARK, and was sitting in a control unit looking up information, when she heard Knuckles approaching. She flew up to the scaffolding above, and waited to ambush him. Knuckles appeared in the upper doorway, and then leapt down onto the platform. But before Knuckles could approach the Emerald, Rouge leapt down to try and stop him, but Knuckles spotted her shadow and leapt out of the way.

"This area is off-limits, hon, so pack up and leave!" demanded Rouge.

"No way! Not without that Master Emerald I won't!" said Knuckles. Then he threw a punch at Rouge, who responded by kicking back. The fight was entirely hand-to-hand combat. Rouge and Knuckles exchanged blows and then Rouge fell back a bit.

"Don't you know a gentleman always lets a lady have her jewel?" she asked.

"I'm not a gentle man and you're no lady!" said Knuckles, who managed to land a hit near Rouge and make her lose her balance. She then started to fall off the edge of the platform, but then, Knuckles grabbed her wrist. "Hold on! I got'cha!"

Rouge was then hoisted back onto the platform where she then said: "If that's your idea of a come-on, then think again! Take the Emerald for all I care! I didn't need it anyway!" then she just flew into a doorway. Knuckles felt very pleased with himself as he picked up and carried the Emerald away.

Rouge then proceeded to a data terminal as she pulled out her communicator: "Commander Raeglan, I've managed to access the ARK's data core. R2-D2 should be getting the information now."

"Good work Agent Rouge. R2 is receiving now, and now we need you to locate the Emeralds and…"

But Rouge's communicator was destroyed by Shadow, who now held her at blaster point. "You keep your hands off of those Chaos Emeralds. We wouldn't want them to fall into the wrong hands now, don't we? *Agent* Rouge?"

"So you figured it out hon. There really is more to me than meets the eye." replied Rouge.

"You've been a spy for the Republic all this time, haven't you?" said Shadow.

"Uh huh. And now that Master Skywalker's droid has all the information, it should allow the Republic to learn a bit about your creator's work." said Rouge.

"You're not gonna get away with this!" said Shadow growing more annoyed.

"That sounds funnier coming from you, since you only want vengeance." said Rouge.

"What do you mean?" asked Shadow.

"I mean that I still can't believe you're that thirsty for blood, and you're too quick to point the finger at the Republic, when they had no involvement in that." said Rouge.

"I will blame whoever I want! I will fulfill Maria's final wish to avenge her!" said Shadow sounding much more annoyed, but then he spotted Sonic spying on him from above, and decided to move to intercept him.

As he turned away, Rouge said: "Is revenge what Maria wanted? Or are you simply too angry to accept the truth?" Shadow didn't reply as he raced towards the Eclipse Cannon works.

Sonic followed Shadow onto a pair of conveyer belts near the Eclipse Cannon works, and whilst Shadow rode one belt going one way, Sonic walked on one going the opposing direction while holding the Chaos Emerald. "So, you can cause Chaos Control as well. I thought I was the only one who could use it." said Shadow.

"Just a little theory I had. Quickly came to mind when the Admiral shot me into space." replied Sonic.

"Hmph. I can't believe you took that death-defying risk and made it out intact." said Shadow.

"I'm a survivor, that's all. I've seen things a lot worse than this place." said Sonic.

"I'm amazed you hang around that Jedi as well. He has such power, more power than you and I could ever have." said Shadow thoughtfully.

"Luke is a powerful and wise Jedi Master. One day he'll train me as a Jedi someday, and I will defend the Republic alongside him." said Sonic. "You know, he can sense your thoughts and your possible future Shadow. I gotta admit, he did tell me a bit about the Force, and that the power you have isn't half as significant next to the Force."

"I am the Ultimate Power! I am the ultimate power in the galaxy! And I will accomplish my mission."

Sonic raced down the conveyer belt while Shadow followed. "I never got your name though."

"Who me? I'm just a guy with a need for speed. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." said Sonic.

"I can see. Well Sonic, your high speed adventure ends now!" then Shadow and Sonic were ready for battle at last.

Meanwhile, Luke, Amy, Kaylor, 3P0, R2, and then Leia and Sally made it to the Command Center where they took out many more Stormtroopers and Storm Commandos inside. When they reached the control console, R2 and NICOLE were plugged into the control console to find a way to shut down the Eclipse Cannon.

Meanwhile, Tails, aboard the Cyclone, was still fighting Admiral Forell's AT-PT, and both had taken very severe damage, and then Forell's walker fired off several concussion blasts at the Cyclone, knocking Tails back, and then Forell said: "All right boy! I'll leave you to lick your wounds for now. I have other matters to attend to. We can finish this another time." then Forell's walker raced through a blast door, which closed behind.

"And I'll be ready for you." grumbled Tails as he heard Han and Chewie run up. "Hey you two! C'mon, let's get to the command center."

"Right. Everyone needs us up there." said Han.

Sonic and Shadow exchanged many blows in the Eclipse Cannon works and also began to damage the Eclipse Cannon's circuits and energy conduits. But Sonic was still holding the Emerald, and while he was not looking, a metallic arm grabbed it from out of his hand and when both hedgehogs turned to see Admiral Forell in his damaged walker, and then he headed towards the Emerald chamber. But the Emeralds weren't the least of Sonic's concern as was defeating Shadow. They continued to exchange blows and blaster fire as they began damaging the cannon.

Meanwhile, Admiral Forell had just reached the Emerald chamber when the technicians reported: "Admiral, Shadow and Sonic are damaging the cannon, I'm not sure if this will destroy or damage the cannon if we fire it!"

"Well fire it anyway! We don't plan on getting what we need anyway from the Republic!" then Forell inserted the final Emerald. But then, the colony began to rumble and shake, and then, a countdown clock appeared on every other screen throughout the colony and then the image of a man chained to a chair appeared on the rest.

"The countdown for my final revenge has begun!" said the man as the clock, counting down from 45 minutes started to count backwards.