(I don't have anything to say right now, really…oh, I DO have something.
Sorry I haven't been posting lately, I think I mentioned that school's starting soon so I'm busy with that, I've been camping a lot lately, and I've been getting into PewDiePie on YouTube lately, soooo….yeah. That's all, I guess.
Last time on In the Dark…
An interference with Shadow's time-altering Chaos Control has sent Sally, Amy, and Shadow to the very distant future, where they meet up with two strange allies; Blaze the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog. The two newcomers decide to help the trio journey to the villain Mephiles's home to try and reopen closed time portals with the Dark Emerald, which is related to the Chaos Emeralds. However, little did they realize that Amy had wandered away from the group. She fell into a trap set by Mephiles, who impersonates and is the literal shadow of Shadow. The remaining four tried to rescue her, but were too late, and watched as she disappeared with Mephiles and Iblis, the fire monster. With no other options, the group, now one short, headed back to Silver's and Blaze's base to rest. That night, Sally overhears a conversation between the two remaining hedgehogs and discovers that Silver is Shadow's future son, the mother left unknown. What will their next move be? Will Shadow and Sally decide to continue their quest to return to their timeline, or go after Amy? Find out in this exciting chapter of In the Dark!)
The next morning, I lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Every time I tried to fall asleep, I was awoken by nightmares; memories from Exe, images of Amy's scared face when she had been taken, and the last moments before Sonic had been overcome by that demon, Dark. How could our lives have gone from so peaceful (other than fights with Eggman) to something out of a horror movie? All the things we've seen, all that we've been through, no longer seemed real when I sat in the quiet room. No one would know that the world, life as we know it, and time itself was falling apart around us.
After a few hours of lying quietly with my eyes closed and pretending to sleep, I was snapped out of my thoughts by Blaze, who shook me a little and spoke quietly.
"Get up," she said. "Shadow and Silver think they know where the Dark Emerald is. We want to head out sooner than later to get it."
I nodded a little, sat up, and stretched.
I could hear Shadow and Silver talking in another room. Does Blaze know about their relation? The fact that we happened to come across Shadow's future son right when we came here was kind of disturbing. It was a little strange that Shadow, of all people, will have a son. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would fall in love and do…that. But isn't it a little ironic that we just happened to meet Silver? But I guess it doesn't matter. Silver's on our side. The fact that he's Shadow's son shouldn't slow us down.
Before long, Blaze and I met Shadow and Silver in the stairwell.
"So here's the plan," Shadow began. "I can sense Chaos energies coming from somewhere in the city, and they're rather potent. We'll see what the situation looks like once we're there and come up with a further plan."
Blaze and I nodded in agreement. We made our way up the stairs, out of the building, and started through the city.
"Everyone, stay close," I said, remembering what had happened to Amy. "We can't afford to lose another one of our number."
After that statement, we walked in silence for several blocks. I wondered if and when Shadow and Silver would tell us. I decided to just bring it up in private. After all, to get what you want, you just have to press your luck a little. I walked a little faster to catch up with Shadow so I could talk to him.
"I overheard you and Silver talking last night," I said quietly to just him. "I know how you two are related."
Shadow glanced at me. "How did you hear? We were outside."
"I couldn't sleep, and I could tell you were restless. So when you left, I decided to follow you."
"Hmph. Well, it doesn't make any difference. We still have our mission."
"I know, but…do you care about him? Like, as a son?"
He didn't answer and looked away.
I frowned. "If you do, don't let it get in the way or distract you. Like you said –"
"I'm not that kind of person, Sally," Shadow interrupted. "And why are you lecturing me?"
"Hey, I'm the one who dragged you into this mess in the first place," I pointed out firmly. "You're listening to me. But it's like you said, we still have our mission, and eventually we have to leave him. Don't get too attached."
"Just shut up and keep moving."
"Are you gonna tell Blaze?"
"Silver already told her before you woke up."
I nodded, then lowered my voice further. "Do you think we can trust them?"
Shadow's face hardened. "Of course we can trust them," he hissed. "They saved us once. I don't think they'd have done it if they weren't trying to help us out."
"What if they work for Dark?" I persisted. "They were leading us towards Mephiles. What if they were planning to just leave us with him and let us get captured? They didn't even try to stop Iblis from taking Amy. What if they just want to use us to open the portals?"
Again, he didn't answer.
"I know Silver's your son and all, but we can't ignore the possibility. Be careful."
He suddenly stopped walking and turned on me. "I said shut up!" he snapped.
His voice echoed, sending a flock of crows flying, letting out loud caws.
I hesitated before nodding and fell back as he continued walking. Silver glanced back at me. I had a feeling he knew that I knew.
A few minutes after that, Shadow stopped near an unsteady-looking skyscraper that looked like it was almost completely made up of windows.
"Here it is," he said. "The energies are coming from the top floor."
"This isn't going to be like last time, is it?" I asked him.
"What happened last time?" Silver asked.
Shadow looked at him. "We had to get a second Chaos Emerald from a skyscraper. We were boxed in by Dark's cronies and had to make a last-minute escape. That's how we got here."
"Oh," was all Silver said in response.
"So how do we get up there?" Blaze persisted, putting us back on topic.
"I suggest we go inside and take out any Iblis creatures that may be there," Silver said. "That way we won't have to deal with them when we get the Dark Emerald, like we would if we broke in."
"That's not a bad idea, Silver," Blaze said, sounding impressed.
Silver smiled.
"Well then, let's go." Shadow skated towards the building, and we followed.
The inside lobby only had two fire birds flying near a stairwell. Shadow easily took them out with two well-aimed homing attacks, and we started up the stairs. As we climbed, I started to get hot. I was just thinking that it was from exertion from the trek up the many flights of steps when Blaze spoke up.
"It's Iblis!" she cried, looking out a window.
Sure enough, flames surrounded the building, towering up to ten stories high. Out of the fire rose a monster, similar to the one that had captured Amy, but much larger and ganglier. He swung his giant, stony tail and – BAM! – it smashed into the building, several floors below us and sending glass raining down to the ground. The building gave an ominous shutter and creak, and I could swear it tipped a little.
"RUN!" I cried, and we dashed up the stairs, the building seeming to fall a little with every step.
The building gave another huge lurch, and I figured Iblis had smashed his tail into it again. But we were only halfway up the building. Suddenly, Shadow grabbed my hand and took off flying with his rocket shoes. Noticing what he was up to, Silver did the same with Blaze using his psychokinetic powers. Once we were high enough, we exited onto the landing. The building shook again, but more violently.
"He's getting closer!" Blaze cried after Shadow and Silver set us down. Another violent shake made the ceiling start to crumble. Shadow glanced out a window.
"We can make it to the rooftops over there," he said over the creaking and rumbling. He turned toward the window, and threw a Chaos Spear that shattered the glass. Another hit to the building sent long and large cracks across the ceiling. I let out a small scream as some of it started to fall and cringed away, but it never hit. When I looked, I saw that Silver was holding the large chunks of concrete above our heads and preventing it from falling on us. I could see the strain on his face.
"GO!" he cried.
"What about you?!" I shouted.
"I'll be fine, just go!"
I hesitated, but Blaze nodded and bounded off, followed by Shadow, and eventually me.
Once we were out of the immediate danger, Silver walked backwards, making sure he still had the rubble in place, then released it, sending it crashing to the floor. Then he ran after us, but tripped on a chunk of the ceiling. I was close enough to him, so I reached out a hand to catch him, but…my hand went right through his arm.
"Oh, for Chaos's sake…" Shadow hissed, and grabbed Silver by his gloved hand and pulled him to safety. Together, we leaped to the roof of the nearest building just as a final whack from Iblis sent the building tumbling to the ground in a heap of I beams, cement, and glass. Iblis then melted into the flames below.
I sat down on the roof, panting from our close shave.
"Is everyone…okay?" I asked breathlessly.
"Yeah," Blaze said.
"No…" Silver contradicted weakly. He was staring at his hands in disbelief, and I noticed for the first time that he looked slightly transparent and was flickering. We all looked at him.
"The time stream is being altered!" Blaze suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" I asked. "What do you mean, it's being altered?" I looked from Blaze to Silver, the latter too stunned to answer and still staring at his hands. Since Silver was too scared in spite of himself to respond, Blaze answered my question.
"It means exactly as it sounds. Dark and Sonic Exe are changing the time stream so drastically that it's preventing Shadow from meeting Silver's mother. Silver is starting to slowly vanish as it becomes more and more likely that Shadow and whoever Silver's mom is will ever meet. Thus, we need to get you two back as soon as possible to fix whatever is happening in the present, or Silver will be erased from existence and die."
(Couldn't word it better myself, Skye, thanks! ^^)
We stood in silence for a few moments, to shocked to say or do anything as the enormity of the situation sunk in. Shadow was looking down; my hand was clamped over my mouth. Shadow was the first to regain his composure.
"Well, we aren't going to solve this problem by sitting around sulking. I can still sense the energies; they're on the move. If we go now, we can catch up to Mephiles, assuming that's who has the Dark Emerald, and take it from him."
I dropped my hand from my mouth and nodded. Blaze took Silver by his hand and helped him up. He had gotten over the shock from his fading and now was looking miserable and sad.
"C'mon, Silver," Blaze coaxed. "We have to help them. The sooner we do, the sooner you'll be back to normal."
Silver looked at her and nodded. I got the feeling he held her in the highest respect.
The four of us climbed down the fire escape into the streets below, and after a detour around the flames still blazing in the streets, were on our way after the Dark Emerald to confront Mephiles.
While we walked, I made a promise to myself. We've already lost so many people, and more were probably dying back on our timeline with every minute we spend here. Amy is as good as dead in Dark's hands. I will not allow another person to die, whether I know if I can trust them or not. I decided to put most of my trust in Silver and Blaze, since there is now a life on the line. But it would only be a matter of time before I find out the truth, and who of our group I can trust.
(I forgot to credit her in the last chapter, but the plot of this chapter and the last one were both thanks to my co-author, Skye. She is the best Writer's Block destroyer EVER. THANK YOU!
Wow. This story is almost over. I estimate….5-6 chapters left. If that. At least I have another story I'm prepared to write after this one. I hope this chapter doesn't seem as rushed as the last one, I tried to take my time. It took me all day to write. I hope you all really enjoy it!
Th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks!)
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd