A few hours passed and the group made it back to The Dark City. The moon now illuminated the sky with an eerie and unsettling pale light.
"Any change on the Emeralds?" Rage asks Maria. The wolf tapped on her tablet and shook her head.
"No, they haven't moved." She says.
"So…what do we do once we have all of the Emeralds?" Rarity asks "Are we heading back to Equestria?"
"If you'd like." Rage says "I have unfinished business with that thief… plus Christian's still out and about."
"I'm with ya all the way." Rainbow Dash says with a firm nod.
"Rage!" Maria exclaims "The Chaos Emeralds! They're on the move!"
"Where are they going?!" Rage exclaims almost immediately.
"It looks like they're heading right for us!" She exclaims.
"Get ready. Who knows what-" Sonic began to speak but then, everything froze. Time itself was brought to a stop. It was then Kira appeared and she smiled.
"This will be too easy." She chuckled. "I almost feel bad killing them in stopped time." She says as she formed an axe that was pitch black like the night sky. "But orders are orders. Nix'll blow a gasket if they aren't taken care of."
As she walked forward a bright orange-white glow surrounded Rage and he stumbled forwards some before shaking his head. "Rude." He scoffs. "What happened?!"
"What?!" Kira exclaims in shock. "How can you be moving?!"
Rage turned to her and quickly clenched a fist as soon as he saw her. "You! Emerald thief!" He exclaims. "You're the reason all of this even happened in the first place!"
"Just who are you?!" Kira exclaims. "You can track the Chaos Emeralds…you're immune to Dark Mobius' influence and you can move in a void of stopped time?!"
Rage gave her a sneer. "My name is Ragis Chaotic the Hedgehog." He says as he summons his sword. "Most know me as Rage and I am a Chaos Guardian."
"A Chaos Guardian?" She asks and smiles intrigued. "I guess Nix was right. Though I'm surprised someone so…weak could give him such trouble."
"If you're trying to intimidate me you'll have to do better than that." Rage scoffs. "My strength is more than my ability."
"Is that so?" Kira chuckles "Let's put that to the test…" she grins and flash steps to Maria. Rage followed and blocks the swing of the axe with his own weapon.
"You coward!" He spits. "You'd attack them when they can't even do anything?!"
"Life's not fair, boy." She chuckles, kicking him. He stumbles back and falls with Maria under him. "Originally I was going to take care of all of you without you even knowing. It would have been a blessing. Quick and painless."
Rage got up and looked Kira dead in the eyes. "You monster." He says as he rushed forward at her, his sword raised to strike.
"Monster? Please. You're no different than I am!" She laughs as her axe meets his sword. "I'll show you…" she glows with a sinister, purple aura.
Rage's eyes lit up. "What?" He asks as they continue pressing against each other, in a bid to overtake the other.
"Demonic Chaos…" Kira chuckles as an arc of energy from the top part of her axe blade is fired at Rage.
The crimson hedgehog gasps in shock. Unable to react, the arc of energy hits him and he is sent back from the force of it. The wind knocked out of him and he landed on his back. He took a few gasps of air before he got up. He looked at Kira and his gaze narrowed. "You…you're Kira…" he says between breaths. "But Dex…he defeated you…!"
"Hmph, Dex couldn't bring himself to do it. Not that I can blame him. Love makes you do crazy things." She chuckles as she hits him with the blunt head of the axe.
"You used it against him…" Rage says scornfully. "You bastard…" he curses before she kicks him into the air then hits him away again and scoffs.
"Come now don't tell me that's all it takes to put you down." She chuckles. "You're weak." She says walking over and picking him up.
"Let me go!" Rage shouts as he uses a burst of flames from his hands. Kira drops him and backs up. Her clothing burned and she had to summon some water to put them out.
"You rat!" Kira scowls as she uses magic to restore her clothing. She then chuckled. "I should have guessed you'd be an Inferno user." She says as she reaches up and stops the charging hedgehog with her bare hand.
Rage looked in shock as Kira forms an orb of Demonic Chaos and slams it into his chest. This sent him flying back again. He landed on the ground. Kira follows up by summoning hundreds of smaller orbs and each one turned into spears of Demonic Chaos that all strike Rage.
"You really think that you're a match for me? Some poorly trained kid?" She laughs. "You should have just stayed put and made this easy for both of us." She says as she picks her axe up again.
"N-no." Rage struggles to say as he stands up slowly. "I…won't let you…" he pants as flames begin to burn around him.
"Come on. This is just pathetic!" She laughs "You're barely able to stand! Give up."
"I won't let you hurt them!" Rage shouts as jolts of electricity begin to emit from him. Rage begins to glow with a pale white-yellow light as he stands up straight.
"What?!" Kira exclaims "Shocking? Holy?! Impossible…" she mutters "Nobody can master two, let alone three forms of-" she stopped and looked back to Rage, seeing that he had all of the emeralds. She looked down, the pocket in her vest she had kept them in was empty and there was a cut in it.
"What's the matter?" Rage asks as he uses the power of the emeralds to turn into his Super Form. "Missing something?"
Kira shook in fear before she closed her eyes and looked down. "I see now…" she says "The prophecy wasn't a bunch of crap. Guess this is what I get for not trusting Chaotix and them." She says with a soft laugh. "Oh well. Look where it got them!" She shouts as she glows a dark purple. "I'll just do what I did to all the others!" She laughs manically.
"Shut up!" Rage shouts as he flash steps in front of her and drives his blade into her torso.
Kira looks at him with a grin. "You're mine." She says as she grabs his head. Her hands glow and Rage begins to shout as she begins feeding the dark energy she had into Rage just like the other Guardians, however this time forcefully, she was transferring her knowledge and power to him.
Rage reeled back and shouted as time resumed. Kira backed up and laughed sinisterly.
"Huh?" Applejack looked around "What in tarnation?!"
"Rage!" Fluttershy gasps.
"What's going on?!" Sonic exclaims.
"Damn…" Kira curses. "He took more than I expected…oh well."
"You!" Twilight shouts turning to Kira "You're the one who took the Emeralds!"
"Princess Twilight…it's nice to meet you. Shame it'll be our only meeting." Kira chuckled as Rage stopped shouting and stood slumped over. "Come now my little pawn."
"What did you do to him?!" Rainbow Dash shouts. She charges for Kira but the wolf just kicks her away.
"He's one of us now." She says with a sinister chuckle.
Rage struggled. He felt the temptations of Darkness clawing at his mind. It was taking everything he had to suppress it. 'I will overcome it…' he thinks closing his eyes
"My, my what do we have here?" A cold, scratchy voice chuckled. Rage opened his eyes and found himself in a plane of nothing. It was pitch black. The only thing there was a dark red hedgehog standing a few feet across from him. A pair of sinister amber eyes glared at him.
"You.." Rage says clenching a fist. The hedgehog in front of him was him. A dark, twisted version of him that was a result of a curse that went back ages. His Shadow as he called it
"You are taking a lot of Darkness here." It chuckles. "Won't be too long till you won't be able to stop me!"
"I'll never let you control me…" Rage spits. "You're nothing but a figment of my imagination and a scar from the past!"
"We both know that's not true." Shadow Rage laughs. "You can feel it…any minute now I'll have control!"
"No." Rage says sternly. "You won't."
"Tough talk. What are you going to take in the darkness instead?" Shadow Rage laughs, the idea amusing him so.
"I will." Rage says sternly. "I mean what's a little Darkness?"
"You'd just accept it?" Shadow Rage asks shocked. "Nobody will ever accept you! You'll be an outcast! A heretic to the other Guardians!"
"They'll understand." Rage says as he reaches out. "Besides, I don't care what they think. Especially to protect my friends…"
"Yeah for now." Shadow Rage chuckled as he faded. "But soon…"
Rage closed his eyes and sighed heavily out of frustration. This time when he opened them he found himself looking Kira down again. His friends grouped together with Twilight protecting them with a magic barrier from Kira's onslaught.
"Come on! All you're going to do is die tired at this rate!" Kira laughs. She threw spell after spell at Twilight who was struggling to keep the barrier up.
"You really like to hear yourself talk don't you?!" Rarity scoffs. "First Rage now this?!"
"You're the ones cowering in a magic shield." Kira scoffs as she steps back. She gathers a large orb of dark energy. "But this will end it!" She laughs as she throws it.
"Twi!" Rage exclaims, now fully cognizant of what was going on. He flash steps in between the attack and Twilight, he used a wall of Demonic Chaos to block it, he looked a bit shocked at how easily he could use it. A cloud of dark smoke concealed him and his friends. As it began to clear he quickly returned to a more angered and determined look.
Kira laughed with her arms crossed, confident that her attack had done them in. However, as the dust cleared and she looked and was able to make out Rage's silhouette and the barrier he had erected she looked in shock. 'Impossible…he can control it?! How?!' She thought as Rage bared his teeth.
"You sure like fighting dirty!" Rage shouts. "It's time we end this…" he says grimly as he summons his Blade of Chaos. "Burn!" He calls as he points it directly at Kira.
"No…" she gasps hearing the incantation to release the power of his Blade.
"Bureinjingukaosu!" He shouts as a pillar of fire surrounds him. His friends and Kira had to look away due to the heat. Once it died Rage stood there and his sword looked like a normal dual edged sword rather than the normal dragon wing shaped blade. "Ryuu Bureinjingukaosu!" Rage says as he looks Kira in the eyes.
"This is impossible!" Kira exclaims. "You should be corrupted by all of that Demonic Chaos!" She exclaims. "You can't do this!"
"This ends here!" Rage shouts as he charges at Kira. He was so fast that Kira nearly failed to get her axe raised to defend herself.
The two clashed and Rage's friends cheered him on as he and Kira exchanged blows. Kira struggled to keep up with Rage's newfound strength. "I won't lose!" She finally shouts after the two put some distance between them. She then glowed with Demonic Chaos and her body was covered in a strange black, shadowy energy that formed claws.
Kira's eyes glowed a spiteful and sinister blood red as she looked at Rage and grinned with jagged, monstrous teeth. "Time to die! Rat!" She laughs charging at an ever higher speed.
Rage, watched her closely and he began to glow with a pale, yellow-white glow. He began to emit a powerful aura of Chaos Energy. Kira looked in shock as he grabbed her hand with his bare hand. Whatever aura was around him burned her.
She quickly reeled back and looked at Rage with discontent. Rage then covers his blade in the aura and he swings with a shout. Kira, not expecting a beam to come from his blade, was caught off guard and took the full force of the attack.
She was sent flying and tried to flip herself around. She wasn't sure what hit her but it seemed to be a mixture of Holy and Demonic Chaos in perfect sync. Rage, not wanting to give her any chance to escape, quickly used Chaos Control to close the distance between them.
"What?" Kira exclaimed as he appeared. She could feel a powerful magic coming from him.
"Dawnbreaker!" Rage shouts as he slices with an overhead cut and Kira is struck and flung into the ground at mach speed.
Kira laid there trying to process what had happened. She felt her body being destroyed. As she began to glow and give on magical specs of energy she realized it. "Ultima Chaos…" she chuckled softly. "I guess it wasn't a myth after all…" she exhaled. "You win." She conceded. "I never expected that Chaos was serious about his prophecy. Now go…" she pants as Rage stood over her.
"I hope you rot." He says scornfully. "You betrayed everyone who saw you as a friend…worst of all Dex."
Kira looked at Rage and her eyes watered as they changed to a sky blue color. "Ragis…tell him…I'm sorry…." She asks.
Rage's look softened. He felt a change in her. He knelt down and put his sword down into the ground. "It didn't have to be this way…" he says.
"It did. I have to own up to my consequences while I can" she says weakly "I have done so many unspeakable things…I betrayed those who trusted me and loved me…then I nearly handed Nix a chance to destroy everything on a golden platter…hell I forced my own Demonic Chaos onto you…no this was the only way. I should apologize to you too…"
Rage was silent. There was truth in her words and he sighed. "I forgive you." He says as she glowed brighter and then vanished into small specs of light that scattered into the air.
There was a silence following this, it was finally Twilight who broke it as she walked up to Rage as he returned to normal. "Don't you think you…may have over done it…?" Twilight asks.
"What do you mean?" Rage asks, raising an eyebrow.
"I mean…sure she was bad and all…" Twilight says nervousness creeping into her voice "…but did you really have to…uh…" she paused and looked at him nervously.
"Have to what?" Rage asks "Kill her?"
"Y-yes!" Twilight says "Maybe she could have been redeemed! Atoned…"
Rage looked at her then down and sighed. "I know this probably isn't easy to hear but…this was what she wanted." He said in a soft, sorrowful tone.
"She wanted to die?!" Twilight exclaimed. "That doesn't make sense! You don't just want to die on a whim!" She shouts.
"Twilight…" Rage looked at her as he stood up and took his sword again. "Kira was corrupted by Darkness long ago. In her last moments with the Darkness gone she wanted to atone. She chose to end it on her own terms and while she had control. Plus I am not sure if I could have saved her."
Twilight looked at the crimson hedgehog and sighed. She could tell he was conflicted. She put a hoof on his shoulder before he stood up. "So…why did she go through all of this?" She asks.
"All of it was the Darkness that had corrupted her. I think in her last moments she was able to push through and apologize. So she could be at ease." He says softly. "Come on…we still have one more person to take care of…" he stated as he looked up to the Dark Citadel that overlooked the town. "Get ready Nix…" he states.