Shadow Saves Them All
Chapter 19
The Big Finale!
Shadow flew straight at Sonic and tried to punch him in the gut, but Sonic jumped out of the way just in time. Silver panicked and flew out of the way too. Shadow looked back at Sonic with soulless dead eyes, his true power was unleashed at long last and he was ready to raise some hell. He smiled the smile of a crazy man and said;
"Lets see whose stronger once and for all faker," Sonic smiled and ran at Shadow ready to fight. Shadow flicked his wrist forward and ten chaos spears flew forward without any charge time, they also looked ten times deadlier than his usual ones! Sonic rolled out of the way of them, barely missing them and used a homing attack on Shadow hitting him dead on. Shadow didn't move, Sonic back flipped and landed on the ground looking up expecting Shadow to be sent flying, but he was standing right there, unharmed.
"You don't get it yet do you Sonic?" he put his hand behind his back and without even looking used a large chaos beam to completely vaporize a large pile of rubble Silver had thrown at him. The pile was easily the size of a small meteor.
"CRAP!" Silver shouted in fear from a distance.
"I've reached my highest form Sonic," Sonic's usual look of cockiness and confidence turned to one of worry. He had never seen Shadow use his full power, at least not in fighting, it had been used once at the end of the Sonic Adventure 2 story, but that was it. He drained all his power in one shot back then, Sonic could only imagine what kind of power he had now that he could use it in small bursts.
"CHAOS CONTROL!" he shouted. Shadow flickered from in front of Sonic to standing behind him, and he snapped his fingers. Using Chaos control he could slow down time to a grinding halt and pummeled Sonic. When he snapped his fingers Sonic felt excruciating pain all over his body and was sent flying across the beach. Eggman laughed in his robot, watching the fight around him like a movie.
"This is wonderful! At this rate my plans will come to fruition in no time!" He looked over at Shadow and could only imagine the kind of power he had control over right now. He could use Chaos Control without any emeralds in this form, that was already a huge step up.
"Shadow, go handle Silver, I'll take down Sonic myself,"
"And then you'll let Maria go… correct Doctor…" Eggman put on a menacing grin.
"Of course Shadow," Shadow nodded back at Eggman and flew in the direction of Silver at incredible speeds. His crimson and golden aura shining brighter and with even more intensity. Silver saw Shadow incoming and decided to book it out of there, he jumped up to fly, only for Shadow to grab his leg and throw him to the ground. Silver crawled to his feet and looked in utter fear at Shadow, who only stared at his prey, sizing him up. Silver gripped his shoulder and desperately tried to reason with Shadow.
"Shadow… please don't do this… You're better than this…" Shadow flew forward and punched Silver's chest, pounding him into the ground. Silver turned over and gripped his chest, trying to breath better and thought of a quick way out. He grabbed some sand in his hand and quickly turned back over throwing it into Shadow's eyes. Shadow stumbled back not expecting a cheap shot like that. He rubbed his eyes and fired several chaos spears where Silver would've been. Silver quickly got up before Shadow made the shots and flew out to the sea, trying to lose him in the light of the full moon.
Shadow got the sand out of his eyes and looked around trying to find Silver, he spotted him flying out to sea and looked at him with anger and malice. He closed his eyes and thought to himself;
"Why couldn't you just make this easy?" He flew out to sea and caught up with Silver instantly. Shadow stopped right in front of Silver, who stopped before bumping into Shadow. Silver tried to fly in a different direction but was only stopped in the same way once again. He kept on trying but met with no luck. Finally he stopped mid flight and used his psychokinetic powers. He grabbed anything in a small range field, which was luckily Shadow and pushed him downwards to the ocean. Shadow splashed into the water and hit it as hard as gravel.
Silver looked down at Shadow relieved he had stopped him for a moment. Then it happened. Shadow burst out of the water, flew right up to Silver and grabbed his head. He looked at Silver with more anger and hatred than he had ever felt before. Silver looked back to afraid to even speak, just looking at Shadow and what he had become was a horror story in its own right. Shadow spoke;
"Drown in despair," he forced Silver down to the ocean and pushed his entire body under. He kept his hand firmly on Silver's head to make sure he stayed under, trying to crack the poor hedgehogs skull as he held him. Silver flailed about underwater trying desperately to find a way back to the surface but was met with nothing. As he looked down at the darkness of the ocean he wondered if that was it, if he would die there, he couldn't use his psychokenesis, he was too weak, and he was running out of breath all too quickly. The flailing lessened and lessened to the point of Silver lacking any kind of real movement whatsoever.
But just before Silver had left them all for good, a golden weapon smashed into Shadow's back and sent him fly through the air. Dylan sheathed his blade and pulled Silver out of the water, he carried Silver on his back running across the water to the beach. He dropped Silver on the sand and pressed down on his stomach hard. Silver coughed up the water in his lungs in a few seconds and regained consciousness.
"You okay?" Dylan asked in a worried tone.
"Dylan! You saved my life!" Silver said.
"Yeah yeah, it's kinda what I do around here…" he responded scratching the back of his head. Shadow flew back and landed on the beach looking at Silver and now sizing up… Dylan?
"So you've returned to help them have you?" Shadow asked.
"Shadow…" Dylan tried to talk to Shadow rather than the power crazed creature in Shadow's body.
"Think, if you do this, do you really think Eggman will let Maria go?" Shadow wasn't about to hear it. He rushed forward and tried to punch Dylan, only to miss as Dylan jumped into the air. Shadow fired dozens of Chaos spears at Dylan as he descended, only for Dylan to dodge them all as he spoke.
"He'll never let her go so long as he can use her as a tool to get you to do what he wants!"
"SHUT UP!" Shadow shouted in fury. He snapped his fingers and a large explosion occurred right in front of Dylan, who used his Caneblade to absorb the force of the blast.
"Eggman's never been true to his word! You know that!"
'I DON'T CARE!" Shadow shouted again trying to blast his foe out of the sky. Dylan charged his weapon performed a horizontal slice with his sword, only for the beam to fly toward Shadow. Shadow nimbly dogged out of the way and tried to hit Dylan with another barrage of Chaos Spears.
"I will do whatever it takes to protect Maria! WHATEVER IT TAKES!" Shadow screamed using a Chaos Blast attack that could easily level a building. Dylan quickly hit the sand and jumped as high as he could to avoid the blast but didn't jump high enough, as it hit him like a solid wall. Dylan hit the ground and cringed in pain as Shadow slowly walked up to him, a Chaos bomb ready to blow and prepared in his hand. He pointed it at Dylan, ready to kill. Dylan looked up at Shadow panting, this was it… all or nothing.
"And should he ever let her go… she won't see you… she'll see a merciless killing machine instead of the sweet hedgehog she fell in love with…" Shadow stepped back. He… he was right. He looked down at the ocean water and couldn't even recognize himself. He didn't see a calm cool and collected black and red hedgehog, but instead a golden crimson… monster with soul less dead eyes. He clenched his fists in rage, but released them and calmed down. He let the power of the Chaos Emeralds leave his body and he changed back to normal.
"…I'm sorry…" Shadow said looking down at the sand. Dylan walked up to him and pulled out his Inhibitor Rings.
"It's not too late to stop him Shadow," Dylan said with a friendly look. He couldn't believe it, even after everything he'd done he was still willing to forgive Shadow… he was sincerely touched for the first time in his life. He took the rings and placed them back on his wrists where they belonged and smiled back at his companion.
"Let's go save the world Shadow the Hedgehog," Dylan said.
"Sounds like fun,"
They both bolted for it, head to the other side of the beach where Sonic was fighting Eggman. They had moved off the beach and to the large grassy cliff next to it. Sonic ran up to the top of the light house on top of it and dodged rockets fired at him by Eggman.
"What's wrong egghead? Having trouble aiming?" he said tauntingly.
Eggman pounded the control board enraged.
"Where is Shadow? He should've finished off Silver by now, so what's keeping him?" Sonic jumped off the light house dodging a few more rockets and ran to the edge of the cliff. Eggman jumped over the lighthouse and landed right behind Sonic, aiming all his weapons at Sonic all at once.
"Gotcha you filthy hedgehog!" Sonic looked back and smiled. He jumped out of the way of the rockets at the last minute and landed on the other side of the robot. The rockets exploded blowing up the edge of the cliff, making the entire thing collapse, with Eggman right there to fall through it. Eggman's robot grabbed the edge of what was left of the cliff and held on for dear life, as the arm began to slowly malfunction and break. Maria hit the back of the containment chamber and looked down at the ocean waves hitting up against the cliff bottom. Sonic ran forward to jump onto the robot and break her out, but Eggman was quick. He pressed a button and one last rocket flew forward and blasted the hedgehog high into the sky, so far out of sight he disappeared into the sky like a star.
Dylan and Shadow saw the whole event go down and they were almost there to help when the robot grabbed the edge of the cliff and Sonic was blown into the sky.
"Maria!" Shadow shouted.
"I'll get Sonic! You help Maria!" Dylan activated his jetpack and grabbed Shadow helping lift him to the cliff. He dropped Shadow off and flew up to help Sonic and was out of sight in an instant. Shadow ran as fast as he could to the robot, Eggman had broken out of the cockpit and was climbing up the edge of the robot and had almost cleared it, until he slipped and fell, and as he fell down to the sea you could hear him shout;
"I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!" SPLASH! Meanwhile Maria had broken out of her containment chamber and climbing up to the edge as well. The robot arm was holding up the rest of it by some thick wire and not much else. Shadow was so close to the arm and saw Maria trying to climb to the top and he shouted to her;
"Maria!" she looked at him and shouted;
"Shadow!" As the arm gave away and she fell, just out of grip of Shadow who dove to save her. He buried his face in the grass and screamed;
"MARIA!"
He had lost. He failed once again to protect her. He was useless… no. Less than useless. He was worse than a sad excuse for a living being he wasn't deserving of the title of ultimate life form, he wasn't deserving of anything anymore. He let her die, he was nothing without her… he was just a Shadow of a creation.
He gripped the grass, crying and sobbing and tearing up. Dylan flew back down from the sky with Sonic in his arms and landed behind Shadow, both of them unaware of the tragedy that occurred there.
"Whew! That was close! I gotta admit, for a minute there I thought Egghead had me there!" Sonic said.
"Yeah well. He didn't count on me coming to the rescue, right Shadow!" Dylan said. Shadow didn't bother to look back, he just kept crying.
"Shadow…" Dylan asked.
"Where's Maria?" Shadow grabbed his head in fury and sorrow and screamed in absolute pain. She was gone, and it was his fault. He could've stopped Eggman, he could've turned back to normal back then. He could've done more, somehow, somewhere… he knew if he had just tried a little more he could've saved her. Dylan looked at the ground and clenched his fist in anger.
"That's not right… It's just not right," Dylan said knowing now what happened. Sonic looked at Shadow in a very sympathetic way and said;
"Shadow… I'm sorry,"
"NO!" Shadow shouted.
"You're not SORRY! You didn't love her! She wasn't everything to YOU! I…. I…. I LOVED HER!" he screamed. The mood was dark and silent, that is until a miracle happened, something no one had expected… something so wonderful, when Shadow looked up to see it he himself was mesmerized by disbelief.
There, floating over the edge of the Cliff was Silver, carrying Maria using his psychokenesis.
"And… Silver saves the day," he said proudly placing her down on the ground. Dylan looked at Silver surprised.
"Wow… I didn't see that coming," Dylan clapped his hands legitimately impressed by Silver's actions.
"Alright way to go Silver!" Sonic said jumping up and down applauding.
Maria ran to Shadow who got up and ran back with tears of joy in his eyes.
"Shadow!" she said in joy and relief.
"Maria!" he shouted back in joy and relief. He caught up to her and hugged her tight. It felt so good to hold her once again, the way she smelled like blooming flowers was a smell he thought he would never experience again, and to hold her in his arms once again was so joyous, he thought never wanted to let her go. For her, to feel him once again, to know that he wasn't sad, was the greatest feeling of all. Sonic looked over at Dylan and said;
"Now this is lovely," Sonic looked to see Dylan had mysteriously vanished, and wasn't anywhere nearby! It was like he had up left them without a word.
Shadow looked into Maria's cute blue eyes and said;
"Maria… I… love you," she looked back at him and said;
"I love you too Shadow the Hedgehog," He pulled her in and kissed her right there in the glimmering moonlight of the Christmas morning and it was the most wonderful thing either of them had ever done. Their passion and love for each other had been laid out right there and then, and it was wonderful.
Meanwhile Dylan stood on top of the light house with a very angry Eggman tied up next to him. Oddly enough though, Eggman wasn't fidgeting around, it was more like he couldn't understand something and was thinking very hard about it.
"Now that's what I call a happy ending," Dylan said.
"Mission Accomplished,"
"There's one thing I don't understand," Eggman interrupted.
"Why did you save me? Because you did, I'll live to scheme another day, and you're always foiling my plots anyway! So why did you do it?"
Dylan smiled to himself.
"It's because the hero needs a villain in every world. No matter where you go, there's always a hero and a villain, if you were to die, then Sonic would have no enemy. Peace would reign forever, my role is to ensure nobody dies yet and that the cycle of good versus evil goes on until 'it' happens,"
"What's 'it'?" Dylan opened his eyes suddenly to a quick realization and stopped himself.
"I've said too much already. All you need to know is, Sonic will always be the hero and you will always be the villain. Whoever wins the final conflict all depends on you guys," Eggman looked down at the ground and sadly began to speak.
"You know, I didn't want to be the villain," Dylan looked back again. That's two big surprises in one day, he was on the verge of a personal record.
"When I was a kid I remembered reading comic books about my favorite heroes… The Avengers," Dylan was fascinated by the story.
"Thor was a god and incredibly powerful, The Hulk was strong and strong tempered, Iron Man was a genius and an expert at crafting robots, and Captain America was a strong and brave leader. I wanted to be just like them when I was young, but I never got that chance. Instead I could only use my genius for evil… and then that annoying hedgehog came along and… well the rest is history," Dylan couldn't believe it, but he actually pitied the good doctor. He sighed and put his hand to his forehead and spoke.
"You know…" Eggman looked up to listen.
"I think I'll take you back to your base, no charge whatsoever," Eggman looked back at the ground and said;
"Thanks," Dylan grabbed Eggman by the rope he tied him up with and flew back into the direction of the base. He looked back one last time at his favorite hedgehog's and said to himself.
"Congratulations everyone, Shadow Saves Them All,"