Shadow Saves Them All

Chapter 20

After saving Christmas and stopping Dr. Eggman's plans, the three hedgehog heroes, and Dylan, stopped off at Cream's house, with Maria too of course. Dylan dropped Eggman off at his lair and then met them there. All the lights were off except the front stoop light. The five of them stopped in front of her door and Dylan spoke.

"Well, that was one way to spend a Christmas vacation! I really can't wait to get some sleep and…" Dylan opened the door and was interrupted by a loud noisemaker blown in his face, and the sound of countless other people shouting;

"Merry Christmas!" Dylan looked inside and saw everyone was there! Vector, Charmy, Espio, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Omega, Blaze, Marine, and even Big was there with Froggy! And of course Amy was waiting for Sonic, jumping up and down with joy at the sight of him. Dylan turned around and looked at the four hedgehogs and asked;

"Did you know?" he smiled.

"Of course we knew! It was a secret until Knuckle head almost spilled it earlier today!" Sonic said. Knuckles looked away with a humph. Dylan smiled a very warm smile, he walked in and was amazed, they had redecorated the house for the party, and even made a cake that said; "Welcome Back Dylan!" he looked around at the smiling faces all around them, and remembered all the times he had helped them.

"I wouldn't trade you guys for anything," he said, beginning to get chocked up. That's when he had an epiphany. He had spent so much of his time being depressed and upset and scared because of Becca's death, but that's when he realized, he still had so much left here. He had saved the three hedgehog heroes, helped everyone in this room countless times and loved to be around all of them.

"Wait a minute… I wouldn't trade you guys for anything!" he shouted. The bright colors, and everyone being there for him just like he was always there for them. It made him feel… happy. He closed his eyes and the image of her slowly faded away… he was finally at peace, but for real this time. He opened his eyes and with tears flowing down his face said;

"Thanks guys,"

"Oh! Group hug!" Vector shouted. Everyone gathered around Dylan and began to hug each other, nearly suffocating him in the process. Everyone was hugging of course, except for Shadow who took the opportunity to sneak onto the roof. He stood there and just stared at the full moon intently, like he was trying to figure out what to do next. Maria came up the stairs behind him and closed the door. Shadow turned around and felt his face turn a slight red. Her eyes glistened in the moonlight, which reflected beautifully off her teal blue dress as she walked towards him. He almost stumbled back a little, dazzled by the sight of her.

"Shadow, I want to ask you something important," Shadow calmly regained himself and folded his arms. He closed his eyes and tilted his head down slightly asking;

"What is it?"

"Why did you attack Sonic and Silver like that?"

Shadow's eyes snapped open and he assumed a defensive stance. What kind of question was that?

"What? What do you mean? Eggman threatened to kill you! What was I supposed to do?"

"Shadow, you know Julian would never hurt me… so why did you do it?" Shadow looked down at the ground and clenched his fists tightly.

"I… I…" Maria walked up to him and and took his hand. He at her and she asked;

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want to risk it! I didn't want to even risk the chance of Eggman hurting you! I couldn't…"

"You couldn't what?"

"I couldn't lose you," She picked up his head and they looked each other in the eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere Shadow, you won't lose me," He grabbed her hands and fell to his knees.

"Maria," he said as tears rolled down his face. She knelt down to meet him.

"Shadow, you don't need to cry, I'm here," they looked each other in the eyes once again and they kissed once again. His tortured soul was lacking one thing, a person to truly care about and love, and that was her. He needed her, he loved her, and she loved him.

"It's likely that… you'll get kidnapped by him again though," he said warningly. She smiled back and said;

"I'll be alright, he can't always succeed," He pulled her in close hugging her, he would always want to be with her, and with her… he was happy.

"Now, please come back down to the party, everyone wants to see you,"

"Okay Maria, for you," They held hands and walked to the door leading down to the party. Shadow looked back one last time and saw the image of himself, the dark and evil hedgehog he once was, and he merely turned back around walking away.

"It's time to forget the past," he said.

He walked down to the party with Maria and everyone was abuzz with energy. Charmy was cheering Vector on in an eggnog drinking contest against Knuckles. They chugged down three gallons of the stuff before knuckles slammed the counter and laid his head down on it, unable to drink anymore, while Vector just got dizzy and slammed his head on the counter on his way down to the floor, making Charmy laugh uncontrollably. Rouge stood at the other end of the counter, downing her fourth gallon and placed the bottle down, wiping off her mouth with a napkin, the obvious winner.

Vanilla was trying to wake Vector up from passing out by splashing cold water on his face, which worked. Tails was chatting with Sonic asking him a million questions about their adventure to the north pole. Silver was sitting on the couch talking to Blaze and Marine about his time too, explaining the several bandages on his head and arms. Luckily it didn't hurt too much. Omega was oddly enough watching Dylan alongside Cream and Cheese as he told a kid friendly version of their great adventure. He was talking in a loud theatrical voice and even jumped around, trying to replicate bits and pieces of the adventure right there and then. At the end of the great tale Dylan snapped his fingers and said;

"Oh snap! I almost forgot something important!" he ran out of the door and came back a second later with a large sack of gifts, put it down on the kitchen table and everyone rushed in to see what it was. Dylan pulled them out one at a time and handed them out, there was something there for everyone!

Tail's got a new tool kit, Knuckles got some gloves that wouldn't tear or break if he tried punching with them. Rouge got a box of jewels, (what else?) and Omega got a year's supply of oil. Blaze received a pair of earrings which had real lava flowing through them, and Marine got a snow ball cannon which could fire snowballs at top speed. Vector got a new pair of 'Beats' headphones, Espio received a Ninja weapon sharpening kit, and Charmy got a card that gave him a 50% discount at the local candy store… FOR LIFE. Big and Froggy got a new fishing pole named; "The Tadpole,"… Get it? Finally Silver got something special. Dylan pulled this gift out of his pocket and placed it in Silvers hands, it was a small necklace… a locket maybe?

Silver clicked it open and was surprised at what he saw. It was a picture of a mother and father hedgehog holding their little boy in their arms. It was… him.

"How… how did you get this? Where did you get this from?" he asked taken aback.

"I've got ways my friend," Dylan said.

"They cared about you a lot you know, enough to give their lives to protect you," he stared at the locket and tried to bring back any kind of memory of them, but no such memory appeared to him.

"I… I don't know what to say,"

"Say thanks! That wasn't easy to find I'll tell you that! It was buried under tons of rubble! I spent fifteen days looking for it!"

"Thanks Dylan," he smiled at Silver.

"You're welcome buddy!" Dylan walked over to Sonic and handed him a new pair of shoes, they looked like the ones he wore back in the days of the Genesis, only better.

"They're designed to be able to resist tons of friction and resist all of the elements, like water, rocks, etc,"

Wow! Thanks Dylan!" he said putting them on slipping off his old shoes. Dylan quickly slipped over next to Amy and gave her a GPS and said;

"There's a chip in the shoes," she giggled with glee and thanked him, and he slipped right back to where he was before. Sonic stood up and moved around a bit in the new shoes, breaking them in.

"They feel great! This is awesome!"

"You're welcome my fast friend," Dylan left Sonic to work with the shoes and walked over to the happy couple of Maria and Shadow who set themselves down on a sofa in the living room. Dylan sat down with two boxes in his hands. He gave one to Maria and the other to Shadow saying;

"Merry Christmas to the happy couple," Maria smiled politely and said;

"Thank you Dylan,"

"Thanks Dylan," Shadow said. Maria opened her present and it looked like a small red bullet shell with a button on it.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Well since Egghead likes to use you as a bargaining tool I figured I'd give you something to stop him, that's a re-usable EMP. It's set to deactivate only Eggman robots and other things made by him. So if you ever find yourself trapped, you can use it to open doors, de-activate machines, etc,"

"Wow thanks!"

"You couldn't have given that to her before!?" Shadow shouted in rage.

"Geez! Shadow, it wasn't Christmas before! What was I gonna say to her when I first got here? Merry Wednesday?" Maria giggled a little and Shadow sighed sitting back down and opening up his present. He was a bit puzzled at the gift.

"Are these… Inhibitor Rings?"

"Yep, I made em myself, they're specially designed so you can unleash your true power and reseal it whenever you want to without having to take them off," He looked down at his wrists and timed himself, he quickly clicked off his Inhibitor Rings and Clicked on the new ones before anything could happen. They looked the same as his regular ones.

"Thanks Dylan,"

"Hey it's what I'm here for!" they all smiled.

"And who knows? Maybe the next time you use these, Shadow will be saving the day again!" they all shared a laugh and the screen turned off.

"Well," Alice said turning in her chair.

"There you have it, the mission was a success using only the peace agent, Thus proving my point that Military Agents are not needed!" A grey haired man stood in the room with her and thought to himself.

"Alright then, this is new and unusual but nonetheless I am a man of my word, we will suspend the Military Agents for now," Alice sighed in relief.

"Well done Dylan, well done,"

Epilogue

Everyone at the party enjoyed themselves very much and loved the gifts they had received. After it, everyone went back to living their normal lives and met up again a few short days later for a New Year's Party. After that party Dylan sadly had to depart for his home. Many people were sad to see him go, but he insisted he'd be back again for Valentine's day. He said his goodbyes and everyone waved at him seeing him off.

Meanwhile back at Eggman's base on Christmas morning, he had just gotten out of being tied up and walked to his entertainment room.

"Well I guess I'll go sit down on my lumpy couch and watch some football," he said to himself.

"OOOHHH! Can I join you Dr. Eggman?" Bokkun asked with glee.

"Sure Bokkun, whatever," he opened the door to his entertainment quarters and was amazed at the sight. He had a brand new couch, coffee table, surround sound stereo, Satellite T.V. box, Blu-Ray D.V.D player, Xbox 360, and PS3 all installed on a large 64 inch T.V. With 3D glasses. On the table, amongst many of Eggman's favorite snacks was a calling card. It had the Caneblade symbol on it with Dylan's signature saying;

"Turn it on Super hero," Eggman clicked the play button the remote and a movie began to play… it was 'The Avengers,' Eggman smiled and almost cried. No one had ever given him a Christmas gift before in his life, and Dylan was so generous as to give him all THIS!

"Thanks… Hero," Eggman said looking up at the sky, wondering where amongst the stars their hero was… one day he would tell them, but that day was not gonna happen for a long LONG LONG time!

THE END