Chapter 16: Return to the Place Where We First Met
Amy and Tails were crying. Amy was trying to pull herself together, but Tails was still holding her close in a bear hug, even when she was sobbing on his shoulder.
"I can't believe it! Sonic's gone!" cried Tails.
"Sonic…! *hics* Sonic…!" cried Amy.
Eggman turned to them with an evil smirk on his, pointing his gun at them.
"Now, we have some unfinished business to take care of!" Eggman pointed his gun at them again. "Don't try anything funny…If you give me the real Emerald, I'll release you both." he threatened, aiming at Tails' head.
Amy stopped crying for a moment, she stood up, wiped her tears, and angrily glared at him.
"You really think we're just going to let you get away with what you did?! Sonic is gone because of you! And it's your fault that he's no longer here!" growled Amy.
Tails stood up, too, angry as well. He stared Eggman down, determined to keep Amy safe. "Amy's right, and if you hurt us, then it's going to be all your fault!" said Tails.
"You dare talk to me like that?! You little brats! Do you know how much trouble I could have gotten into by letting you live!?" roared Eggman. "All you need do is say yes, and this will all go away! Now shut your yapping and give me the real Emerald!" ordered Eggman. Amy and Tails didn't answer Eggman.
"If you want that Emerald badly," Amy withdrew her Piko Piko Hammer from behind her back. Tails pulled out his own weapon as well. They looked straight into Eggman's eyes, their anger radiating off of them, like a wave of heat from a burning log.
"You'll have to beat us cuz we avenge Sonic's death!" said Amy, preparing to battle.
"We avenge your death, Sonic! We'll beat Egghead!" shouted Tails. They both charged at Eggman. Amy held her hammer high, to swing with her Piko Piko Hammer to his head, while Tails shot his laser gun strike at his arm, hoping to weaken him so Amy could knock him out with her Hammer.
Hiiiyyyaa!" yelled Amy, as she swung her hammer, hitting Eggman square in the face. He fell back, shocked by the blow. Amy and Tails charged at Eggman, swinging their weapons around wildly. Their attacks landed blows on him, knocking him onto the floor, unconscious. Amy and Tails walked toward the unconscious form of their enemy.
"This is for Sonic, you asshole!" yelled Amy.
"Sonic… we did it. We avenged your death," said Tails, his tears flowing down his cheeks. He grabbed onto Amy's hand tightly. Amy smiled and gently stroked Tails' hair. She knew they would never let their anger stop them. The two stood there, holding hands, planning to tie Eggman up.
"Let's tie him up," said Tails.
Amy nodded, they went to find the rope while Eggman crawled away from them and found the real Chaos Emerald.
*Meanwhile*
Knuckles was strolling through the space corridor hallway, wandering around looking for any sign of his friends or his enemies. His feet echoed through the empty halls as he took one step after another. He reached the end of the hallway and stepped through the large doorway into the main room of the building. He stopped there as he felt something about the energy in the air shift. It made him uneasy.
'Huh? I feel some strange energy...' thought Knuckles.
As Knuckles stepped away from the door, something flashed before his eyes. He saw a blue hedgehog lying on the floor unconscious that possessed topaz Choas Emerald. Knuckles was confused. Why was Sonic lying on the ground unconscious? He quickly ran over to him. He knelt beside him. As soon as he got closer, Knuckles realized why Sonic was unconscious. There was no blood coming from Sonic's side nor bruises or fatal injuries. He was fine. Knuckles shook him awake. Sonic groaned in pain. Knuckles was worried. What happened to Sonic?
"Sonic! Are you alright?" asked Knuckles. Sonic slowly opened his eyes. "Knuckles?" he weakly whispered.
He helped him to stand up to his feet. Sonic leaned against him slightly, almost as if he needed support to stay upright.
"Are you alright?" Knuckles asked again. Sonic looked at him with concern."Yeah…" he replied, "just a little dizzy." he rubbed his temples.
"What happened to you?" Knuckles asked.
"I remember. Eggman set me a trap inside the pod and threw me into space. And next thing I knew, I was able to use Chaos Control before it exploded," said Sonic.
"Chaos Control?" Knuckles asked, his brow furrowed.
"I'm getting worried about Amy and Tails. I hate to ask, but can you go help them? I have to go back to the Control Room and set the fake Emerald on Eclipse Cannon before it explodes," said Sonic.
Knuckles hesitated for a few moments. He wanted to help, but he didn't want to leave Sonic alone right now.
"Knux… please..." begged Sonic.
Knuckles sighed. "...Alright. I'll see what I can find," he assured him. Sonic smiled gratefully at him left Knuckles and went to the Control Room.
*Meanwhile*
Rogue walked to the Control Room with the clacking sound of her heel boots. There were six Emeralds on the panel, each one connected to a different circuit board. Each Emerald had its own power source and the same power source was used by the rest of the control panels. Rogue placed a finger on the Emerald connected to the power source, which emitted a purple glow, and hummed happily. Rouge tapped the Emerald again, and the humming noise subsided. Rogue removed her finger.
"Legend has it when all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected. If the power creates a miracle, I'll have six of them, they're all mine!" exclaimed Rogue excitedly, grinning widely at the thought.
"I don't think so," muttered a voice behind Rogue. Rogue jumped slightly before turning around. A black hedgehog stood there with his arms crossed, it was Shadow.
"So that was your plan from the very beginning, huh? Or was it the direct order from the president?" Shadow tilted his head to the side slightly with a raised eyebrow. Rogue smirked confidently at his challenge.
Shadow pointed at her, "Now I know who you are. You're the government spy, Rogue the Bat, aren't you?" he asked. Rogue laughed in amusement.
"My, you already figured it out... But I guess you're not half bad yourself, Shadow. I should've seen that coming though. You've always been too smart for someone your age!" Rogue complimented.
Shadow narrowed his eyes. "Why do you care? You're pretending to work with us. You're probably the reason our plan failed..." He started approaching Rogue menacingly. "And now you must pay the price."
Rogue smirked. "Oh dearie me, I didn't realize my job required my cooperation. I think I'd rather not join with you. Perhaps you could just tell me who you really are, Shadow." She held up a copy of the file with the picture on it. Shadow was on the profile picture as well. He looked at the article in monochrome color with a serious expression on his face.
"Here are the results of the research project called The Ultimate Lifeform. And that includes the true identity of the one responsible for creating the Ultimate Lifeform, but if this picture of the real ultimate lifeform named Shadow. Then exactly who or what is standing in front of me?" asked Rogue, raising an eyebrow. She watched Shadow's expression closely. Shadow glared at her and he wanted to snap at her. However, his walkie-talkie came on.
"Shadow, good news!" It was Eggman's voice. "I have found all seven Chaos Emeralds! Furthermore, someone is heading to the Eclipse Cannon. There's no time to waste before the cannon fires again. Can you go over there and stop him?" he asked.
"If you want to live, leave the Choas Emeralds where they are. The fake emerald is good enough for you," Shadow walked away from her.
"Do you actually think you're the real Shadow?" asked Rogue, hands on her hip.
Shadow stopped his track and did not look at her, "No doubt." he replied.
"Even your memories might not be real, you know?" she continued, still smiling.
"Who knows? Even if my memories are not real, it's still me, Shadow," he turned his head to Rogue and clenched his fist in determination. "And I will fulfill my promise to Maria, that's all that matters to me now."
Shadow walked out to the Control Room and left Rogue silently staring after him. She sighed in frustration.
'I wonder what kind of man he will become...' she thought.
*Meanwhile Outside the Colony*
Sonic walked through the hallway, searching for the Control Room. After walking through several corridors, he noticed someone standing in the corridor, it was a black hedgehog just standing there. Sonic gasped and hid against the wall.
'It's him. It's Shadow.' thought Sonic. He recognized him immediately. His heart was pounding against his chest, his face turned red, and his breathing became shallow. He put his hand on his chest and tried to control himself.
'No... You need to stay focus, Sonic. You cannot falter now. You need to protect the city. You have no choice!' Sonic told himself. He then took a deep breath and calmed down. 'Just act natural...' he thought.
After he calmed down, he came out and met Shadow with a poker face. Shadow turned and saw Sonic there beside there.
"You never cease to surprise me, blue hedgehog. I thought that the capsule you were in exploded in space," said Shadow.
The two hedgehogs walked through the corridor. Sonic closed his eyes and smiled.
"You know what I can say, I die hard!" he exclaimed. He took out a Chaos Emerald. "You actually saved me, y'know?"
"It was Chaos Emerald, wasn't it? There's no way you could activate Choas Control using the emerald that's fake," said Shadow unamused. Sonic smirked at him and Shadow looked at Sonic. "So, there's more to you looking like me. Just what are you anyway?" he asked.
Sonic started to run and Shadow started to skate. They were both at full speed.
"Heh, what you see is what you get. I'm just a guy who loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" said Sonic, pridefully.
"I see. But I can't let you live. Your adventuring days are coming to an end," said Shadow.
"I got one question," said Sonic, Shadow looked at him curiously. Sonic's face turned into a serious expression. "Why did you kiss me? You came to me wanting to punch me or something. Instead, you kissed me. So why didn't you kill me?" asked Sonic.
Shadow scoffed, "Nothing personal. It was for my safety. As much as it would've been fun to kill you, there's no point in doing it. I have no interest in killing you. My goal is to bring about an end to the world. I won't allow people like you to interfere with it. Not even in death."
"Huh... So that's how it is," replied Sonic.
As the battle began, a mysterious energy began to manifest around the combatants. They began to sprint with a red and blue aura around them, running from the colony ark and racing towards the Eclipse Cannon. As they ran, the aura began to intensify and ripple, almost as if they were using some sort of superhuman speed. With every stride, the aura grew stronger, and soon enough, the two combatants started to fight each other.
In an epic showdown, Shadow and Sonic clashed in a battle of epic proportions. Shadow was first to attack, unleashing a flurry of yellow spears with powerful CHOAS SPEARS! yell. Sonic, however, was too fast and agile and managed to dodge the attack. Not one to back down, Sonic retaliated with a charge and a punch to the face.
Shadow growled angrily and then curled into a ball before launching a homing attack and hitting Sonic in the chest, was thrown to the ground.
"Hah! That's the end of the game, you piece of crap!" yelled Shadow.
"Not quite!" shouted Sonic and he threw himself on top of Shadow. Shadow tried to push Sonic off, but it was useless. "Shadow!" shouted Sonic and Shadow groaned in pain.
"This is getting tiresome!" yelled Shadow.
"Shadow, for what you did was wrong, they didn't do anything to you!" Sonic yelled.
Shadow punched Sonic in the face to get off of him, and he fell to the ground.
"You never understand! They killed Maria in front of me!" argued Shadow.
"M... Maria...?" stuttered Sonic quietly.
"Yes, Maria. Her name is Maria. You knew that." Shadow answered coldly.
Sonic frowned sadly. "Oh..."
Shadow was silent as he stared at the ground, lost in his thoughts.
"Shadow...?" whispered Sonic, trying to catch his attention.
But Shadow wouldn't answer back, so Sonic decided to try another approach. He placed his hand on the side of Shadow's shoulder, surprising him and making him look into Sonic's green eyes, which held a glimmer of sadness.
"I'm sorry, you really loved Maria. I had no idea... What happened to her?" asked Sonic quietly.
Shadow looked away from Sonic. "Why do you care? It's none of your business," he replied angrily.
Sonic was taken aback by Shadow's reaction. "I don't want anyone else to suffer. I know that you love her, and I can help you if you'll just-"
"I don't need your help," spat Shadow, pulling himself away from Sonic. "You're just going to distract me from my mission."
Shadow ran away from Sonic and left him behind. Sonic then pursued Shadow and caught up with him. In order to teleport, he used the Chaos Emerald.
"Chaos Control!" he teleported in front of Shadow and knocked him out cold. Shadow lay unconscious on the floor, unmoving.
'Sorry, Shadow. But I can't let you destroy everything...', thought Sonic.
Sonic hurried to the Control Room in order to avoid firing the cannon before it was too late.
*Meanwhile at the Control Room*
Eggman walked to the control panel and placed the last Emerald into the stone panel. The Chaos Emeralds began to glow bright brightly and the Eclipse Cannon was preparing to fire the Earth.
"Yes! It's finally happening! Now I can make the world of Empire of Eggman!" Eggman laughed evilly. He was to succeed; nothing could stop him now. He pressed a button and the control panel beeped as the cannon fired. In a split second, an explosion occurred at the tip of the satellite causing a massive shockwave throughout the entire cannon to accientally explode.
What?! shocked Eggman, his mind reeling with disbelief and confusion as he desperately tried to make sense of the bewildering circumstances. The Eclipse Cannon was completely damaged.
*Meanwhile in the Main Control Room*
Tails and Amy were sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, feeling sad that Sonic was gone. And Eggman had escaped from them and he succeeded in destroying the Earth.
Tails' walkie-talkie beeped, he was surprised by the sound, and he answered his walkie-talkie.
"Awesome job, Tails," it was Sonic's voice.
Tails smiled in exclaimed and relief. "Sonic! Thank goodness you're alright!"
Amy held her head up that Sonic was still alive and well. She felt a sense of joy when hearing his voice. She was relieved that her love was alive.
"Look outside," said Sonic.
Tails and Amy took a look outside the window. There was an azure hedgehog hanging on the pole. He scratched his nose. And he flashed a smile and gave Tails a thumb up.