Shadow trembled while he pulled himself towards the soldier and took the plethora of green, ripe objects from it. Some kind of alien fruit… not as shiny and appetizing at the last meal, but Shadow's ravenous mind saw right through it and sunk his teeth into firm skin, and through to the flesh and juice of the fruit. It was bitter, but Shadow's pleading stomach overid his tongue's protests.

Essentially, Shadow did not care about the taste or the texture. His body jittered with the thrill of something nutritious finally filling his mouth and passing down to his stomach. His ears flicked back in relief while he gorged himself until every mouthful was devoured.

...

Whenever it felt as though a day had passed, a foot soldier returned to feed Shadow. Each time, there was something different about them. Now that Shadow had gained back the mental energy, observations came quickly to him. The conditions of Shadow's Black Arms brethren were degrading; their skin were gaining marks of injury and blistering. A long time ago, the aliens walked in a unified way, as though they were all being controlled by the same source, obviously, Black Doom. Now, they were more individual, as though they had gained control of themselves.

The next time the door opened, Shadow pushed past the footsoldier and ran down the hallway. His reflexes told him he was about to experience some kind of excruciating pain, so he winced. But nothing came.

"Black Doom!" Shadow called out. Shadow stopped, partly from surprise over the lack of response, but also because his damaged shoe kept slipping. The fabric was still torn, so the metallic sole still wasn't secure. But Shadow had a feeling he wouldn't need his speed today.

Shadow marched into the control room, fists clenched. Black Doom was looking through the window, overseeing a pilot that had cracked, faded skin.

"Black Doom," Shadow sighed. "How long have I been in that room?" He honed in on his hearing and other senses… he could sense… 3 life forms on the ship. Either, his brothers had become excellent at hiding themselves, or…

… there was hardly anyone left.

"What the hell happened?" Shadow shivered, dreading to think that there was something out there that could deplete and weaken Black Doom. Whatever it was… it was formidable.

Black Doom remained stiff, with his back purposely turned to Shadow, gazing forlornly out into the distance of outer space.

"Did we… land on a dangerous planet or something?" Shadow whispered.

Black Doom swung around, and held out his hand. Shadow flinched a little, but shook his head. The hivemind was silent, and the scream of Black Doom's control was no longer there.

Shadow frowned, then grasped at his right arm with his left hand, tensing in sadness.

"Something is wrong…" Shadow breathed. "And as much as I want you dead… I don't like this."

"We stopped at an unfamiliar planet," Black Doom said. "Purely for… your sustenance."

"I never thanked you for that," Shadow's gaze flicked to the side, feeling his cheeks burned. "I appreciate you… feeding me."

"I regret it," Black Doom said solemnly. "You did not fall ill at all from those plants, did you?"

"No, why?" Shadow's brow furrowed in confusion. "Did… you? You don't eat… that stuff."

"We were forced to," Black Doom said. "There are no more living beings left in this galaxy. Every planet we have visited in the past… either dead… or still developing, with no living creatures."

Shadow tried not to smirk, but his malice and righteousness won. With that, he chuckled.

"I suppose your greed led to your downfall," Shadow said. "What was it you said about the human race… and their path of self destruction?"

Black Doom's glare intensified at Shadow, his arm shaking; the alien overlord was willing and pushing for his mind control to work but… Shadow felt nothing.

"So, you got sick?" Shadow questioned, folding his arms. "How? I thought you had perfect immune systems."

"No," Black Doom said. "Not without our Black Arms gasses. We used them to cleanse as well as kill."

Shadow raised an eye ridge.

"So how did I get my immune system?" Shadow questioned.

"One of Geralds' endeavours," Black Doom said. "I can see that it worked."

"Hmph," Shadow was taken aback by this new information. "So, your DNA made me… ageless and… resilient to starvation but… not immune to disease?" He blinked. "I always… assumed…" He looked down at the floor. "I suppose there is a lot I never found out about my creation…" he whispered solemnly.

"We have one more emerald to find," Black Doom announced. "Then I will use Chaos Control to take this ship back to the comet."

"Is it going to be okay after all of this time?" Shadow asked.

"It must, otherwise, there is nothing left," Black Doom said. "I did not anticipate you using the emeralds and losing them in space. We were meant to return to orbit by on the day of reckoning."

Shadow smirked.

"When we get to Earth, I will end you myself, Hedgehog, if you do not cease this smugness!" Black Doom swiped his arm in fury.

"Please do," Shadow squinted in malice, gritting his teeth.

…

"Okay, one last mission, Shadow… then you can finally rest…" the hedgehog whispered to himself, looking out of the main door of the ship. They had landed on the final planet. Shadow jumped onto the surface.

The air here was thin, which bothered Shadow at first, but he'd experienced worse hunger for oxygen in the past. Sensing the emerald's power nearby, Shadow kicked himself into a skating start. He tripped. Again.

Shadow clenched his fists and glared down at his broken shoe.

"Having trouble, Shadow?"

Shadow's body tensed with dread. That voice.

"Mephiles?" the hedgehog gritted his teeth in frustration. Then he turned around.

"Looking for this?" Mephiles had the last emerald in his hand.

"How convenient," Shadow remarked, "Wanna hand it over?" He readied a Chaos Spear in his hand.

"And end your quest so soon?" Mephiles said, mouthless muzzle curling in delight. "But you've barely suffered yet…" he hissed.

Shadow gave a dark chuckle.

"You don't think so?" he asked. "How about you experience the misery I have, and then tell me if you think it's enough."

"I have experienced misery, Shadow. Loss, pain, fear, imprisonment… all of it. All from your hand!" Mephiles spat.

"Ugh! This 'timeline' bullshit again!" Shadow tugged at his quills in frustration. Mephiles dashed at Shadow, then grabbed his throat.

"That was a mistake, Shadow… leaving yourself open," Mephiles squeezed Shadow's throat. Shadow barely reacted. He stretched out his hand to reach Mephiles' emerald, but the demigod held it far behind him.

"Shadow! What is taking so long!?" Black Doom's voice boomed from a short distance behind the pair. The alien overlord was floating towards them.

When he spotted Mephiles, he stopped… noticed the emerald in Mephiles' hand… and Shadow in the other. "YOU PEST!" He swiped a Chaos attack at Mephiles. Mephiles dropped Shadow and dodged.

Shadow dropped down and panted for a few moments, then ran in pursuit of Mephiles. Of course, he was tripped up by his broken shoe.

Black Doom teleported in front of Mephiles and swiped him from there. The demigod fell to the ground. The emerald went flying far out of the demigod's reach.

"I should have destroyed you sooner," Black Doom said.

"Just like you have destroyed yourself?" Mephiles asked, standing up.

Shadow was creeping up towards the emerald. He bent down to grasp it. Mephiles' arm reached, dispersing into its liquid form and stretched to Shadow. It curled around Shadow's leg. Shadow felt himself go from nearly holding the emerald, to being dangled in the air by his ankle.

"What the!" It had happened in a split second.

"You weakened yourself and put yourself at risk for the comforts of this pathetic hedgehog," Mephiles looked up at Black Doom with a taunting expression.

Meanwhile, Shadow was swinging himself, throwing spears, attempting to grasp at Mephiles' stretched out dark substance. Then, he looked down at the emerald, and his expression became incredulous towards himself… why did it take so long to think of this?

The emerald was close enough to draw energy from so,

"Chaos Control!"

Shadow appeared, feet firm on the floor. Literally his feet. He left his torn shoes in Mephiles' grasp. He swiped the emerald and dashed towards his lookalike.

"Chaos spear!"

Mephiles retracted his dark liquid substance, then fell through a portal. Shadow dived into it; it closed too soon; his face hit the ground.

He groaned, clutching at the emerald. He still had it!

"Come now, Shadow," Black Doom. "The rest of the emeralds are secure inside of the ship."

Shadow pushed himself to his feet.

"WHAT!?" he yelled. "That's not safe!" With a flash, he teleported to the ship. "Mephiles!" Shadow called out. He could sense the emeralds were still there. He marched down the corridors in search of them.

"Damn… I should have just swiped them sooner," Shadow whispered to himself. "I assumed Black Doom had them this whole time…" He walked into the room that the emeralds were contained in.

He tensed up. There he was, Mephiles; holding two of the emeralds in triumph, four more circling around him.

"Do you need these to return home?" Mephiles turned around slowly from the display.

"Of course…" Shadow hissed. "Don't you have something better to do?" The strain of green veins in his eyes were returning from the stress. "You of all people should love to see me die! So let me go home!"

"Sure!" Mephiles exclaimed. There was a large flash.

Shadow gasped and looked around him; a wasteland of rubble surrounded him instead of the interior of the Black Arms ship.

"You… left Black Doom behind," Shadow hissed. "You do realise that I hate him, right?"

Mephiles stood with six emeralds circling. This was daunting to Shadow, who had just the single emerald in his hand.

"You cannot die without him," Mephiles purred, eyes glowing with malevolent delight. "So how will you die with him so far away."

Shadow gulped.

"I'll retrieve him," he said, then gestured his hand. "When you give me those emeralds."

Mephiles chuckled. The six emeralds glowed, and thousands of Mephiles clones filled the area, surrounding Shadow entirely.

"Damn it…" Shadow seethed. The Mephiles clones charged for Shadow, and began to dogpile him.

"Chaos Blast!" Shadow roared, but as soon as the clones evaporated, more piled on top of him. Shadow began to pant; he felt light headed. One more Chaos Blast gave him the brief moment of freedom he needed.

There were two clangs as Shadow's inhibitor rings clattered onto the broken concrete below him. Then…

An eruption of Chaos Energy blasted out, covering a mile radius area. Every clone evaporated, and Mephiles' form turned to a liquid puddle, bubbling about angrily.

With that, Shadow drew the six emeralds towards himself, absorbing their energy.

"UGH!" Mephiles' gooey form called out in frustration, attempting to circle Shadow, but it was too late. The emeralds were spinning around the ultimate hedgehog, faster and faster until. FLASH

Mephiles' liquid was blasted off, seperating into droplets of fear and frustration.

Shadow was in his golden super form, but was already panting. He did not have the physical strength to hold the form for too long.

He zipped over the horizon until he reached the Black Comet.

"Only one thing left to do!" He lurched himself towards it, grasped the bottom of its giant surface, shut his eyes tightly, and hoped for the best. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

The Comet appeared just outside the atmosphere of the earth, not yet in orbit. Shadow zapped himself into the eclipse cannon on the Space Colony Ark, going through the barrel of it's laser, through the machine, and into the control room.

Shadow's fur changed from shining gold, to dull black as he released the emeralds from himself one by one. He pushed each one into the slots of the eclipse cannon's power bank.

By the fourth emerald, he collapsed to his knees; his sight was fading.

"That… has to be enough…" he rasped as he passed out, face dropping to the floor. With a loud whir, the cannon began its countdown to fire.

2 minutes.

Shadow came to, ears ringing.

… TEN, NINE, EIGHT…

He gasped and dug his palms to the floor, shoved himself to his feet, and scrambled to the controls. He needed to aim the cannon. There was a small screen that showed the line of fire, and some levers. The comet was just out of sight. He pulled the levers, tipping them to the left. The cannon shifted until the comet was nearly in the crosshairs. There was a large clank; no further to turn.

SIX, FIVE, FOUR.

Shadow growled, and took the remaining three emeralds outside using Chaos Control. Holding his breath, he floated in the vacuum of space, far from the safe surrounding of the ARK.

He counted in his head as he charged up a strong orb of power in his hands.

Three, two, one.

BLAST

The orb of energy crashed into the comet at the same time the cannon's laser beamed down. The large lump of alien space rock shifted into the line of fire and…

BOOM

The laser scorched the comet; a blast erupted, shoving Shadow closer to the atmosphere of the Earth. Shadow closed his eyes tight, he knew what came next.

…

When Shadow came to, he expected to be in a large crater… or the ocean, instead, he was on flat ground. He squinted his eyes, struggling to open them any wider, and looked up to see Mephiles standing over him.

"You… saved me…" Shadow heaved.

"I don't want you to die just yet, Shadow…" Mephiles purred. "This is such a waste. No emeralds, no power… you are hopeless." He took a step away from Shadow. "And as long as Black Doom is alive somewhere out there. You will not die. This is your curse, Shadow."

Shadow scrunched his eyes tight.

"He'll come back to me…" Shadow heaved. "He has to…"

"His comet is destroyed. I am sure, even with his vast distance, he can sense the whole of his species is dead. Shadow… he is not coming back to this planet." Mephiles bent down to stare at Shadow with an intense hatred.

"So what? I can only die by his hand?" Shadow rasped.

"Indeed," Mephiles said. "As long as he is alive, and you are a part of him… you are forever bound to him."

Shadow heaved in a shaky breath of panic, then bellowed out a wail of mental anguish, clawing at his eyes and face in distress.

"No, this can't be!" Shadow said. "What use is my existence if the Earth is dead?"

Hearing no answer, Shadow's eyes snapped open and he hurriedly darted his gaze around. There was no sign of Mephiles… only a portal which closed. Shadow's head slumped back.

"Everything is… dead… except me…" Shadow's voice broke, his eyes stinging with tears. "Unless…" He swallowed hard. "Black Doom was dying…"

He turned over, then feebly pushed himself to his knees. He formed a crackling Chaos Spear in his hand, and held it to his head.

With a zap, the Spear made a clean sweep through Shadow's skull and brain. Shadow's limp body slumped to the floor, face planted in the dirt.

Right before his eyes rolled back in his head and his body rested, he saw, sprouting from the soil, a green shoot of new life.

END