Sonic and I quickly made our way to Devil Doom. He let out a deafening roar and attacked. Swinging his large tail around to hit us out of the sky. We dodged and got closer. I called several Chaos Spears and threw them at the giant creature. Sonic used his speed to get close and lay several hits on him. It didn't seem like we were making much of an impact.

As we chased Devil Doom, we ended up over a barren land. His tail hit the ground causing large newly broken earth fill the sky. In an instant, our world changed around us, as if Devil Doom took us to a different dimension. It looked like Earth, but it almost looked like we were surrounded by a kaleidoscope of our surroundings.

A large chunk of earth was hit towards us. I pushed Sonic out of the way as it sailed past us. "I have an idea."

Sonic looked at me.

"We use his ammo against himself."

Sonic smiled and immediately began to deflect the debris back at him. The larger items coupled with our strength began to beat down Devil Doom faster than on our own. Another idea came to mind. I flew closer to Sonic and as some debris came towards us, I acted quickly and got close to it.

"What are you doing?" Sonic asked me.

I pointed. "Hit it close to his head."

He obeyed, and I grasped onto the rock and flew towards Devil Doom. Once it hit, I moved out of the way and sent a large Chaos Spear into his eye. Devil Doom let out a shrill cry of pain as one hand covered his eye, and his other waved at me. I dodged the hand multiple times trying to get to a safe distance. But I wasn't quite fast enough. I got hit and was thrown towards the ground.

"Shadow!" Sonic cried as he flew down to me.

Catching me before I hit, he made sure I was okay before we went back to confront Devil Doom again. We could see he was getting tired. We had to keep it up. Just a little more. But he was so large. How could we defeat him without causing too much damage to the Earth?

"Sonic!" A voice came through our communicators. "Eggman and I managed to set the ship for self-destruction. We can detonate any time."

Sonic lifted his wrist. "Hey little buddy, could you delay that explosion for about 3 minutes?"

A smile came to my face. I knew what he was thinking. If we could beat Devil Doom enough, then Black Doom would return to his ship. And if we timed it just right, he wouldn't have enough time to escape before the explosion.

I gave him a thumbs up.

"You got it." Tails confirmed. "We'll set a timer. Robotnik and I are going to get off the ship and to safety."

"Everyone else is still on Angel Island." Sonic explained. "You can go there. Shadow and I will meet everyone back there after we are done."

With that, Sonic and I dashed forward and landed a punch directly onto Devil Doom's jaw in unison. His head flew up and he fell backwards. We each grabbed part of his tail and began to spin him around before tossing him into the air. With another dash, we landed a hit in his abdomen sending him higher. As we flew to catch up, Devil Doom let out a roar before he seemed to disappear. Our world went back to normal.

Sonic and I stopped in our tracks and looked around. Once we found him, we saw that he was returning to his original form. He looked beaten and he knew he didn't stand a chance against us with the Chaos Emeralds. He let out some tired huffs before staring directly at me.

"You could have been something great." He started. "Something powerful! And yet you choose to align yourself with these ants."

"News flash, Black Doom." Sonic crossed his arms. "Shadow is something great and powerful. And he's even more so because of the choices he's made here on Earth. He doesn't need you to accomplish those."

I glared down at the warlord. "My choices to protect this planet are mine alone. You have no power over me. I will always choose to fight those who threaten to dominate or destroy this planet. And I will keep that promise for the rest of my life. This is who I am."

Black Doom glared at us. He dropped a ring and it opened to what looked like his ship. He passed through and disappeared. It had worked. And by now he would have no ability to stop his ship from exploding. We looked up at the sky and saw the ship as small little explosions already started.

"Sonic, Shadow." Amy called to us from the communicators.

"It worked Ames!" Sonic called. "Our plan worked. Black Doom is on that ship and its self-destructing."

My eyes remained on the ship. Something wasn't right.

"Don't celebrate too early, rodent." Robotnik broke in.

"The ship is –" Tails started to say.

"He's crashing it towards Earth!" I called as I saw it steadily getting bigger.

I took off towards the ship, not waiting for Sonic. I knew he would follow soon. I just had to do what I could to prevent any more destruction than he already caused. I entered the atmosphere and got closer. The massive ship was going to cause global destruction if we didn't catch it in time. And I figured that if it exploded too close to the Earth, much of what the Ark could have done with its explosion would be possible for this one as well.

As I got closer, I removed my inhibitor rings and let them fall. I needed all my power and strength to pull this off. I was able to move the Ark on my own, but this one was much larger than the previous. I got into position and began to push the space craft with all my strength. It slowed to a stop, but the power of the thrusters made it impossible to move on my own.

"Need a hand?" Sonic asked as he showed up next to me.

"What took you so long?"

"Oh, you know," He shrugged off my question as he began to push as well.

Our combined power and strength began to move the ship out of orbit and to a safe distance. We were running out of time. It would fully destruct soon. A thought came to my mind. I looked over to my teammate. He wouldn't survive the blast.

I grabbed the one ring I had available. Tossing it to a reachable area, I thought of Angel Island.

"Sonic," I called and he looked over to me. "Make sure Esme gets home safely."

"Shadow?" He looked confused.

"And thank you," I added. "For being my friend."

Before he could question anything, I shifted my body and kicked him out of the way and through the portal ring.