28 - A Fatal Contract - 28

Afternoon, 12:30 PM

The jackal was more than annoyed that the hero arrived. He wasn't surprised that he'd eventually show up, he was surprised that he knocked out a few dozen of his men, and bashed them through the ceiling and onto the floor like gum against a sidewalk. He would take Shadow away, and he already healed him back to full health along with chaos energy. Since Shadow did nothing but meditate the entire time of his capture, his mind was resilient to illusions at the moment. And he was sure this steaming blue rat would be moving too fast and volatile for him to get his gaze on him. However, he was physically much stronger than he was, so this wouldn't be as easy for them as it was before. Even if it was, Infinite would only grow even stronger. They were on the same playing field now, except the mercenary had a huge advantage that could win this fight effortlessly. So yes, he was irritated, but he wasn't at all worried. He made it his mission to kill Sonic, and he would do just that without mercy. Nothing would surprise him, nothing would slip past him.

This was his fight to win, one he couldn't lose.

Meanwhile, the blue hedgehog walked closer as he seethed, his fingers flexing and readjusting to prepare themselves for a righteous battle ahead. They would spare no mercy, they'd crush and tear as much as they needed to. If the mercenary believed he was a monster, he'd show him one just as he desired. He nearly lost someone incredibly dear to him, someone he just spilled tears for. Someone he slept next to, someone he shared a bed with. It didn't matter if they weren't together for long, that flawlessly alluring black and red striped hedgehog was his, and he hurt what belonged to him. He tortured him, made him suffer for over fourteen days, and if he had just arrived a tad later, he wouldn't be standing behind him. This was beyond what Eggman did, because at least Tails wasn't close to dying a slow and torturous death. But this bastard...This delusional, vindictive, jealous bitch of a mutt...He was going to pay dearly. "I just gotta know..." He didn't need to push him over the edge any farther, he'll make him pay with his very life. "...What makes you think you can treat him like that?!" Sonic screamed as his entire body became a blue phantom of after images, zipping immediately towards the jackal with an outstretched hand.

"!?"

His full speed increased from last time...?!

Sonic's fingers gripped a tight handful of the mask, along with Infinite's face, and immediately shoved it against the nearest wall. If he didn't have this mask on, his nose would have been broken from impact. The action happened so fast, the jackal's eyes had to adjust—He could not move that fast before! "Hey," Sonic growled in a deathly whisper. "You still like callin' me a rat, right? Well let's make a promise, you and I: I'm gonna make you say my fucking name!" He began to scrape and push Infinite's mask against the wall while he moved his legs at an alarming rate in just a split second. "Say it! Say it, you shitty mutt!" He used both his momentum and speed to drag and grind his mask, and consequentially his entire body, along the surface of the wall like nails scratching and filing against a chalkboard. "You and that bald fat fuck are so terrified of me, you can't even say my name out loud without throwing in some cutesy little insult. Well no more, 'cause I'm gonna fucking make you say it! So say it," Sonic made a wild snarl as he moved faster and faster, his speed going so quickly that a miniature sonic boom began to blast everything else out of the room and even damage some of the walls and floors. "Say it!" He dragged him so far across the wall that he was down the corridor, and several yards away from the room they were initially in, leaving a streak of a sharp indention and blood from Infinite's mask into the metal hallway. "SAY IT!"

In Shadow's perspective, well...Needless to say: he was beyond aghast.

And maybe more in love.

Definitely more in love.

Angry, violent Sonic was hot.

He followed them, watching as Sonic literally used Infinite's face as a metal tearing paint brush, or a flathead eraser on a sharp sheet of paper. With every inch he moved as he dragged his body along, he grunted and growled as if he no longer was in control of his right mind. He had snapped—He was completely enraged. His eyes weren't even normal anymore, and his fangs were poking out of his mouth. It was as if a sleeping beast had awakened from within. Finally, Sonic pulled Infinite's body from the wall and swung it down onto the floor, small points of blood pooling beneath his body instantly. Panting like a deranged animal, the blue hedgehog's hand twitched violently, almost as if he wanted to do it again. As absolutely breathtaking he was right now, part of Shadow really wanted to stop him because this wasn't Sonic. He knew he was angry, and he knew he'd been harboring some negative emotions ever since three years ago. With recent events, those negatives only multiplied a thousand times over at the very least. Sonic was done, he didn't want to be the good guy anymore. He wasn't a hero right now, he was a regular person who had reached his limit with his temper. He didn't even turn to Shadow, he knew he was there. He knew he was watching this, and he knew he could see how out of character he was acting.

But he didn't care.

He didn't care about anything anymore.

Infinite pushed himself off of the floor and raised a shaky magenta glowing hand to his own mask, repairing it instantly. The speed of that wall-face-body-scraping was so severe, that it literally shaved off half of the mask and brutally damaged the jackal's face, which was bleeding immensely. As the mask was repaired, so was his facial structure. If it wasn't for the ruby's power, Infinite would have been permanently facially maimed for the rest of his life. He would have been unrecognizable, as even his nose got horrifically damaged to the point where he probably wouldn't have been able to smell or breathe anymore. The ruby actually saved him. With blood ceasing from dripping down his mask, the jackal didn't lose his composure. He didn't grow angry from the attack, but if anything, he seemed to grow a little more worried. That attack could have killed a normal person, which meant that Sonic wasn't holding back at all. The mercenary used the left side of his mask's eye to gaze into the blue hedgehog's glowing green. A spark of purplish-red power Blinked in his mind, and Infinite was suddenly directly in front of Sonic with an aura enflamed fist. He made a left hook, and it landed perfectly.

Blood splattered from the hero's mouth, and this moment of error gave Infinite just enough time to strike once again with a right. And for good measure, he struck with another left. Stumbling back a bit and now bleeding from his nose, Sonic looked a little dazed. Infinite moved to sneak in one last punch, but the hedgehog was ready for this one. He dodged last second, and swung a stronger right hook right back into the jackal's mask. Again, Sonic wasn't holding back, so that put major damage into the mask for a second time. Infinite recovered quickly from the hit and used his ruby's Blinking ability to continue teleporting punches into the hedgehog. However, these hits weren't connecting. Sonic dodged every single one, albeit by the skin of his teeth. Though the attacks were being done in less than nanoseconds, the hero was still able to anticipate them and avoid them. That's when he remembered what the blue rat said before about how his body and brain were literally moving much faster than he could possibly comprehend. A blink of an eye for Infinite was a series of breaths for Sonic, and it seemed like this fact still remained true even after the jackal powered up. The hedgehog's rage increased his speed so dramatically that he was moving beyond his own capabilities.

Bewildered by this, Infinite was momentarily distracted, giving Sonic the chance to slip a strong uppercut into the jackal's mask. Another piece of it broke off, revealing bloodied broken teeth falling to the floor by the mercenary's feet. A barrage of blue color fists bashed into the kidnapper's mask over and over, second by second, punch by punch. After a while, his mask was almost completely destroyed, but there was so much blood on Infinite's face that nobody could even see his eyes or much of his muzzle. In a magenta flash, Infinite teleported behind Sonic to try and strike with a sneak attack of sharpened claws, but he was only met with a sudden drop kick to the face. He tumbled down to the floor and scrambled to get back up quickly. Piece by piece, his mask was slowly restored once again with magenta surrounding him. He raised his hands in the air, and chrome metal walls suddenly surrounded the blue blur, obscuring him from their sight. Like a container of Schrodinger's cat, the blue hedgehog was sealed away in a perfect life sized metal box. Worried, Shadow ran closer, until Infinite held up his hand and made a crushing motion with his fingers. The metal box in the hallway dented, and when Infinite crushed his fingers more, so did the box. He was slowly crushing him to death.

The jackal walked towards it with a huff, but relieved the hedgehog was finally put down for now. "About time you-"

A pair of strong peach arms punched their way through the metal box, and reached out to grab Infinite. He tried to step away, but he was yanked back by his dreadlocks and yanked against the surface. Sonic headbutted his face and upper body through the wall as he pulled Infinite more into the metal box with him, whispering death threats as he strangled his arms around his neck in a sleeper hold. The muscles in his arms tightened and veined as he squeezed harder and harder, he wanted to break his God damned neck. "And just where do you think you're going?" He asked with a frightful growl. "You really think that loser shit is enough to stop me? Are you fucking kidding me, is that really all you got? No my friend, it's just gonna be you and me, with nobody to interrupt. And I ain't gonna stop beating the shit outta you until you say my name, understand? I'm gonna enjoy rippin' you to shreds. Piece by piece, limb from fuckin' limb." His eyes had never glowed this brightly before. He then briefly glanced at Shadow, who was still watching with his mouth agape. Angry at this, the blue hero yelled for him to move. "You idiot-What the fuck are you doing just standing there?! Go already!"

Shadow felt himself blushing a little.

He knew now was not at all the time for this, but God he was beautiful.

Hesitantly, the elder hedgehog slowly stepped backwards, biting his bottom lip anxiously. As gorgeously attractive as he seemed like this, Shadow knew better. Sonic was losing himself, he was losing his morality. If he kept going like this, he'd break their promise. He wanted to stop this so badly, but the biohog had to get in contact with GUN to intercept this fleet of airships. He said he'd go with the plan, he couldn't fail Sonic. With clenched teeth, he tore his eyes away from the hero and sped off. As he did however, he yelled back something. "Don't you dare forget our promise, faker!" Please, please don't let that imbecile lose himself in his rage like Shadow once did long ago.

As he skated through the newly destroyed corridors, he noticed that there was even more damage within the building than what Shadow just witnessed. Sonic must have raced his way inside and like a parasite, destroyed, or at the very least, highly damaged anything that got in his way. He was honestly shocked he didn't bring the armada down on his own already. He saw numerous unconscious bodies of the Jackal Squad littered on the floor, some of whom were pitifully trying to stand back up. There were a lot of blood stains and blue spines stuck into random parts of the wall with dying chaos energy surging through them. Thank God nobody was dead, the bodies were brutally unconscious at worst. As he ran, he slightly bent over to reach down and seize one of the bodies. He hoisted it over his shoulder as he skated, the flashing red lights of the siren going off from earlier still ringing throughout the base. However, he could hear something else. He heard an army of footsteps near his way from another direction, causing him to divert into another direction and skid to a stop to plant his back against the wall. He carefully glanced to the side of his hiding place to see more jackals rush down the hall, weapons in hand. Infinite was calling reinforcements. He would have been concerned if it wasn't for the fact that Sonic already beat up a high number of them on his own already. This wasn't two weeks ago, the hero could more than handle them all even without using chaos abilities.

When the jackal he grabbed from the other corridor began to stir and mumble, Shadow quickly threw him against the wall with his hand covering his mouth. With an alarmed, fully-awake, pained and terrified expression, the jackal stared at the biohog with shaky eyes. Waiting for the loud marching of footsteps to end, Shadow then turned his attention to the temporary hostage he just acquired. He lifted his hand from their mouth. "...H-Hey, you're-!" The biohog punched his fist into the wall beside their face to shut them up. "...!"

"Tell me where the control room is. Now."

"I-I can't! You're boss's hostage, you shouldn't even be out of your room! It's only a matter of time before he kills-" A glowing amber red Chaos Spear was held up to their eyeball.

With a tired and very annoyed expression, Shadow reminded this person that he was in no mood for a long interrogation. "Your boss has done nothing but assault me and torture me in that room for two weeks straight. Now, I'm a very busy person. Either tell me where it is, or lose your right eye. Then, I'll just move onto the next jackal and do the same to them." He tilted his head. "Would you like that? Because I really don't give a good shit."

Gulping, the jackal gritted their teeth frightfully. "...I-"

"And if you lie to me," Shadow added with a ghostly voice. "I will remember your face. I will find you, and I will happily break every bone in your body. Slowly. Oh," He then pointed the Chaos Spear to the other eye. "And I wouldn't mind taking your other eye, either. I'm sure blindness is just a small inconvenience to a member of the notorious Jackal Squad."

"There's a hidden elevator in the female restroom of this floor and it's in the fourth stall!" The Jackal Squad member suddenly blurted out. "I-It'll take you to the control room, but there's more of us up there. You won't even be able to touch anything!"

The Chaos Spear was stabbed right above the jackal's head, just barely close enough to tear off a few tiny strands of head fur, but not enough to injure him at all. Trembling against the wall, the jackal fell to his knees while whimpering. "Hmph," Shadow just stared with disgust as the chaos projectile faded into embers, watching as a yellow dampness began to spread onto the floor. Repulsive and gutless. "It seems being weak and cowardly is a running trend for you dipshits, not just your bitch-made leader." He began to walk away. "And remember," His amber eyes glinted ominously. "You better pray to God you're not lying to me." He proceeded to walk away before abruptly bolting in an amber red streak.

Shadow kept forgetting that though this was a plant created by Eggman to house his robots, it was now Infinite's home to manipulate and restructure as he desired. There weren't any restrooms before, but there were now ever since the mercenary took control and used the ruby to warp the interior of the entire building. He had few female members of the squad, but they needed to be accommodated of course. Smart of him to put a hidden elevator in the female restroom, as no one would think to look there for a secret. He made a sharp right turn directly into the restrooms and slowed to jogging. He went down to the fourth stall, noticing it was closed. He narrowed his eyes and bent down to look beneath the door. He saw black. He then stood back up and touched his hands around the door. His left index finger felt something bulging from the surface, and Shadow noticed there was something attached to the stall door that was painted over. Ah-ha. He placed his palm over it, allowing the heat of his once-again borrowed chaos energy burn away the layers of paint. It chipped away before revealing a digital elevator pad. It revealed two large arrow buttons and much smaller buttons for letters. Shadow smirked, way too easy. Question was, what floor would the control room be? That lackey said "up there," meaning it was indeed a higher floor. Probably the highest floor. He didn't want to assume Infinite was that much of a stereotypical villain, but he's learned to stop giving the shit stain the benefit of the doubt. He pressed his fingers against the up arrow, then the words "control room." The bathroom stall door began to shift loudly, opening from the front to reveal the inside of a typical elevator. Shadow stepped in, and the door quickly shut.

As he ascended, he could feel rumbling and quaking beneath him. He frowned, Sonic must have been fighting hard. He hoped to Chaos he wouldn't be too banged up. It took a few minutes to arrive at the desired floor, and Shadow sprinted the second the elevator doors opened. He saw a bunch of jackal grunts surprised that he was here in such a restricted area, so they immediately readied their weapons. They were blocking this single hallway, leading to a pair of tall black iron doors. No doubt that was the control room. Scowling, his eyes became a bright red as he boosted himself forward with higher speeds, "You're-" He spawned several small Chaos Portals all over the corridor, right beneath their feet. "-In my way!" Those portals would drop them into the oceans of West Side Island like before, ridding them of Shadow's space. He then propelled himself farther like a rocket with his air shoes, blasting straight through the doors to the control room. He saw larger built jackals in here, angered that their boss's hostage found his way here. There were six of them, and they were blocking the dashboard. There wasn't that much room for a fight, and there were big, tall standing windows that could easily break with enough force and send them all tumbling down beneath the clouds if they weren't careful. Charging chaos energy in his hands, he knew he didn't have time for this. He teleported in between them, before looking up at one of his larger enemies. For him, time moved slowly, so they were only just noticing that Shadow moved. With a loud grunt, the biohog swung his elbow into the back of one lackey, while he kneed the other in the crotch. They both yelped in pain, and Shadow jumped up to grab onto one's back. Wrapping his arms around his thicker neck, he held up a Chaos Spear to his face that had just spawned in his palm. Startled by this, the jackal backed away from the others. "Leave this room, or he dies." He swiped the tip of the chaotic weapon against his face, leaving an open bleeding gash in his muzzle. The jackal panicked, reaching up to attempt to pull Shadow off, but he only responded by wrapping legs around his neck as well. "You're loyal to each other, no?" He then sliced the spear against his shoulder, causing the jackal to kneel. "Leave or else."

Gritting his teeth, the jackal below the biohog yelled as he suddenly ran forward towards the windows. Just before he broke through, Shadow kick flipped off of his shoulders and landed on the floor as the jackal fell and plummeted out of the airship's windows. Shattered glass fell all over the floor. Whoops, Shadow thought. Hopefully he had a parachute or landed on some bushy trees. The other jackals immediately rushed towards him with big swinging fists. The GUN agent dodged and spun around to round house kick one of the punches away from his direction, and the force of the kick managed to cause the grunt to accidentally punch his own comrade in the face, instantly knocking them down. One down. When another of them tried to grab him, he jumped up on their arms with perfect balance and made a right hook directly into his jaw, sending a group of canine-teeth and blood flying. He stumbled to the floor and fell. Two down. Shadow then felt himself get grabbed from behind his torso and lifted up. He then reached down to seize the wide wrist of his captor, and punctured his fingers through his fur and skin. The large jackal hollered in pain, and the biohog used this distraction to whip his elbow directly under his face, pushing it against his throat and cutting off his airway. The jackal immediately dropped him and bent down to cough for air with a bleeding hand. Shadow then got from underneath him. As the jackal hacked and heaved, he then gasped when he felt the hedgehog begin to lift his entire body from up off the floor. This Mobian was more than twice Shadow's size, causing the other jackals to gawk in fear. Shadow then huffed as he began to swing the body around in a circular motion until he was nothing but a black and red blur. He suddenly let go, tossing the large jackal into the last two lackeys. They all knocked down with loud thuds, groaning in pain.

Shadow easily dragged the other jackal to the pile and tossed him on top, before a red wire appeared and roped around them. "Chaos Bind." It tightened around them. "Chaos Control." In a red flash, they were teleported to the oceans. Chaos Bind wouldn't last for long, so they'd be able to break out eventually. With a sigh, Shadow finally walked over to the dashboard, powerful winds blowing in his face from the destroyed window. He stepped over the broken glass and stared down at the high tech interface. He groaned stressfully, he hated these things! There was a flat keyboard, a number pad, switches, levers, speakers, a small microphone...He was never good at these. Ugh...What did what? Shadow placed a finger against a button, only to hear a ridiculously loud horn. Chaos, airships had horns? Okay, that wasn't it. Maybe this one? The siren and flashing red lights suddenly stopped. Oh, good because that was getting annoying. He looked around and pressed another. The windows of the control room suddenly blocked the sunlight with metal shudders, including the wind. Neat. That wasn't it though, hmm...Oh. Maybe this one? Radio static began to echo in the room, causing Shadow to sigh in relief. He remembered the frequency for GUN, and began tapping away with the keyboard.

More static began to clear through the speaker. "Who is this? This is a private, restricted frequency and you are not allowed to access it!" That was the voice of Tower.

"...! Abraham?" Shadow asked hopefully.

"SEA Shadow...?" The GUN commander gasped. He heard a lot of shuffling on the other end. "Inform Agent Rouge and Omega immediately, I've got contact with Special Elite Agent Shadow! Shadow," The old Overlander said with great concern. "Where are you? Tell me your exact location."

"Abraham, Infinite of the Jackal Squad kidnapped me and held me captive on West Side Island's Chemical Plant ruins. He activated Dr. Eggman's Egg Armada that was hidden underground, and it's been in the sky for two weeks."

"Tell me the coordinates, we'll locate you in less than ten minutes!"

Shit, coordinates? Shadow looked back down at the dashboard and looked for some kind of map. He randomly pressed some buttons, and one of which caused the airship to tank a bit. "...!" Shit, shit, shit! Don't press that again. Um...Oh, here we go. He found something. There was a digital map here. It was pixelated but it told the current coordinates of their current position and altitude. "I've got the coordinates." He announced with semi-confidence. "We're east of West Side Island, passing close to the United Federation. We're over the ocean, but we're only fifty miles away from-"

Without warning, two male Mobians tumbled their way inside of the control room.

"...?!"

Sonic was pinning Infinite against the floor, looking away and careful of his magenta gaze. While doing so, he punched at Infinite's mask over and over, snarling each time he did so. He was hitting him so hard that his knuckles were heavily bloodied and bruised. Even parts of his stained white gloves were ripped from the impacts. The jackal leader shoved a hard kick against the hero, knocking him backwards into the opposite side of the room. They both slowly stood up and glared at each other, ignoring that Shadow was just in front of them, attempting to contact GUN.

...

...And that's when the jackal realized that Shadow was attempting to contact GUN.

Infinite whipped his head at the biohog. "Bastard...!" He pointed his mask's eye directly at Shadow, who looked away too late. A magenta link of chains appeared across the floor, and Infinite yanked them, causing Shadow to be violently pulled away from the dashboard and towards him. The jackal leader growled angrily as he spawned his purplish-red bladed sword in his hand, and raised it towards Shadow's face. He wrapped an arm around Shadow's neck and pulled his body against his own. The biohog stiffened in his hold, turning away from him and the blade's tip as much as he could without cutting himself. "You're still disobeying me, you still won't see reason!" He yelled. "But I'll make you regret this, I'll make you rue the day you betrayed me. And then you'll finally see the demon you've been sleeping with this whole time!"

Sonic tried to reach for Shadow the instant he saw that blade near his neck. "Let him go-!"

As the hero ran towards them, the jackal whispered something. "Now," He briefly glanced at Shadow before looking over at his own sword. "Watch closely, Shadow." Magenta sparkled along the blade. Sonic caught this, his eyes making direct contact with the blade's aura.

And that was enough to activate a horrible ability.

It all happened so quickly.

No one saw it coming, and even Infinite hadn't truly realized what he had done until it was too late.

Shadow's eyes were like little peas when he realized he was no longer in Infinite's hold.

"..."

Sonic was now being held by the mercenary, having switched places with Shadow with Infinite's Blink ability. He had expected Infinite to attack him or to attempt to place him in an illusion. The blue blur was ready for all of that, he could handle it. And he knew that most of all, the jackal only wanted Shadow. He thought that Infinite had to share contact in the eyes to activate his powers, he didn't think even so much as seeing a reflection of his power could entrap him. He didn't think he'd do something like this.

Sonic didn't think he'd be currently stabbed in his neck, with the blade coldly slipping into his entire throat.

His body could barely react to what was being done to him, his eyes were glazed over. The jackal's hold of the blade shook a little, as he just realized that he was currently murdering the Hero of Mobius with his sword. A bunch of blood was spilling all over the floor, and he hesitated in yanking it out. Finally, stepping away quickly, the jackal ripped the sword from out of Sonic's neck. Blood splattered across the walls. Wobbling from side to side, the dying hero gasped desperately as blood cascaded out of his mouth and his throat. He tried to reach his hand to his neck as more blood squirted out. But then, he fell silent. He no longer gasped, he only stared with fading eyes as he stiffened. Infinite took another step back, watching the blue hedgehog slowly fall to his knees.

Finally, with his eyes rolling to the back of his head, he fell forward. The side of his face was laying against the floor.

He didn't move.

He wasn't moving.

Static from the dashboard along with Tower's highly worried voice echoed in the silent room. "Shadow? Shadow are you there? I repeat, are you there!? Please, answer!"

Sonic wasn't moving anymore.

Feeling his very soul nearly leave his body, Shadow immediately scrambled to his body. "S-Sonic...?" He could barely breathe his name out, as he had never been so scared in his life. He got down to the floor and scooped him into his arms. When he looked at his face, his mind went blank. Sonic's eyes were half lidded, dead green, and without any life in them. His muzzle was covered in blood, as was the rest of his upper body. Shadow couldn't stop staring, he couldn't stop staring. Staring...Staring...He looked just like...

His body...The blood...

He looked just like...

Like...

"He won't kill me, that's a fact."

He reached out his hand for the human girl as a bullet pierced right through her heart.

"Maria!"

He...

...He was...

...Dead.

He didn't even realize he was crying, not even as a small waterfall of tears fell down his muzzle and onto Sonic's body, which was growing colder by every second that passed. He could have begged for him to get up, he could have shook him and screamed for him to please show a sign that he was still alive. But he had already been through this before, he knew there was no use in doing that. The very thing he loved, he lost all over again.

Again.

Why?

Why did he have to fall for this idiot? Why did he do so, knowing that if something were to ever happen to him, he'd end up feeling like his heart imploded inside of his own ribcage? Rouge warned him of this, she warned him of the dangers of falling for someone. He knew the risks, and he took on the challenge anyway. He was a fool to do so, to think he could handle something this heartbreaking again. Shaking, he slowly looked up at the jackal who stood before him, holding the very weapon that ended the fallen hero's life.

Suddenly, Infinite dropped the sword, and it left a trail of the hero's blood as it slid away on the chromium floor. He knew he hurt Shadow in a way that he'd never be able to take back. He saw Shadow stare at him with the irises of a hellish inferno, waiting to burn and destroy anything that dared to get too close. His spines were raised and sharpened, his eyes were bloodshot. With a small swallow, Infinite attempted to speak. "..." He didn't even know what to say. He had severely hurt people before, but he never thought he'd actually end up killing Sonic the Hedgehog. Not like that. Everything happened so fast, and he knew he had to kill him but...This...This was grave. This was something no one could turn back from. "...Shadow," He spoke with both fear and concern, as he knew the ultimate life form wanted to kill him in this very second. "You...You have to understand," He murmured pleadingly. "I had to kill him. If I didn't...He would have become an overlord, a tyrant. He would have killed everyone, including you. I know you hate me right now," He cautiously took a step forward with a vulnerable posture, he meant no harm to Shadow. "But you need to see reason. You have to forgive me." He then knelt down, reaching his arms towards him. "Please, Shadow. Forgive me."

...

The biohog's eye twitched.

Forgive him?

Gradually, Shadow's pupils sharpened into slits. "...Forgive you...?" He whispered. "Forgive you..." He repeated with a haunting voice. "Forgive you...Forgive you...You want me...To forgive you..." He gripped his hands into Sonic's body, clutching him even closer. "You destroyed...something I loved. You killed it. You're no better than the people who took Maria away from me...You just want me to suffer...You take, take, take and take...And yet you expect me to show you forgiveness?" An eruption of amber red chaos energy bellowed from within Shadow's throat as he hollered from the top of his lungs: "I will NEVER forgive you!"

"...!" A boom of red aura blew the jackal back with a powerful invisible force, knocking him into the wall at the opposite end of the room. He landed onto the floor with a hard collision, taking a moment to recover from such a harsh impact. "S-Shadow..." He muttered. "Please..."

Shadow didn't hear anything.

He didn't hear Infinite, he didn't hear the static from the dashboard, he didn't hear anything. He just constantly stared at Sonic's dead body, his eyes no longer able to focus on anything else. Even as he laid cold and stiff in his arms, he still looked beautiful. He gently caressed his hand to his icy muzzle that was quickly growing a paler beige, his tears dropping all over his dead, dull blue fur. Pitifully, he began to chuckle to himself. It became loud, pathetic laughs of true grief, if not full blown sobs of misery. Again, it happened again. It was almost like he wasn't meant to find love or be happy, because anything he loved was eventually ripped away from him. Did he not deserve it? Did he not deserve Maria? Did he not deserve Sonic? Was that why this gorgeous specimen of hope and joy, was taken away from him once again? Why did he even bother with living a normal life, if this was all that was waiting for him? His only purpose was destruction and death, why did he think he could change that? Shadow was a fool. A complete, utter, stupid fool for thinking things would be different.

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours, but was in actuality only around fifteen minutes.

However, Shadow would sit here until eternity if it meant he could continue being with his love, even in death.

He wanted Infinite dead.

Maybe if he could just take off his limiter rings, he'd get his revenge-

A black void.

...

...

...

He called out to it.

"...Huh? Who's there?"

...

He called out to it again.

"Little one...? You finally found me...!"

...

He told it what he desired.

"...I see." A hellish voice said. "You wish for madness, so you looked for your mind's pandemonium. Very good, template 2.0." They praised him with an amused tone. "And you desire to forge a contract with me? Let me look over your conditions..." The sound of paper filled his ears. "...Ah. Very well. I will commit to this request, as long as you commit to mine. Please, give it a good look. Read very carefully, as there are no second chances." They warned with a mischievous giggle. "Mmn, so you've read my terms. You understand them thoroughly, correct?" A brief pause. He nodded slowly. "Excellent. You have only ever summoned me once, which was three years ago. You were barely in your right mind when you did, so I don't think you truly comprehended the consequences of using my power. Now, you do. It's rare that I'm summoned under these circumstances, so I must warn you that this transformation will be painful. However," The voice laughed wickedly. "When the blood of your enemies run down your fingers, you'll feel such euphoria. You'll feel so complete, feeling their organs crush beneath your feet, rubbing yourself in their expired filth. You will be exactly what he always wanted you to be, young one: Perfect."

Bright scarlet red eyes opened to look down upon his soul.

They could tell he didn't want to be here, that he didn't want to do this.

He didn't have a choice, now did he?

"Are you ready to lay waste to those who hurt you and your love?"

An affirmative pause of silence.

...He nodded for the final time.

"...Very well." The voice concluded with a sick satisfaction.

Another malevolent cackle echoed through his mind.

"The contract has been sealed. I promise you, my dear, precious child..."

He hated himself for doing this.

He couldn't have any regrets.

"I will not disappoint."

A disembodied pair of bright scarlet red eyes appeared on the ceiling of the control room, and it stared directly down at Sonic's corpse. They squinted, as if they were happy to see him after so long. Both Infinite and Shadow saw this, and were bewildered by such a sight. Suddenly, the entire room turned pitch black. Infinite figured his power was severed from the airship, yet it wasn't. The lights in the room had blown out, but only just. Then, those lights turned back on, but with that same scarlet red shade. All of Sonic's blood that coated the floors and walls began to bubble and meld into a thicker substance. Like microorganisms, the stains rushed to Sonic's direction, developing below Shadow on the floor. As it pooled into a perfect circle around him and the hero's body, it began to create a symbol. Startled, Shadow stood up while carrying his body, looking down at just what the hell was happening. His eyes narrowed, he recognized the symbol that was being created. It was the same strange symbols they saw on Christmas Island. Then, that blood began to slowly lift from the floor, and drift in the air to Sonic's body.

Shadow suddenly felt Sonic's weight become empty in his hands, because he was levitating from his hold. A little disturbed by this sight, the ultimate life form took a few steps back as he watched the blood grow and surround the fallen hero in a literal bloody halo. It then slapped several globs of plasma onto his body, until it covered him from head to toe. In seconds, a massive ball of scarlet red blood floating in the middle of the control room, glowing bright solar flares of demonic chaos energy that Shadow had never witnessed before. Then, those eyes that were on the ceiling, suddenly appeared all over the ball like growing pimples. They blinked and looked around the room curiously, moving individually with sickening squelches of appalling noises. Infinite, looked absolutely stunned. He himself told Shadow that the blue hedgehog was a demon, and as much as the biohog never wanted to admit it, he was finally proving that he was right. And yet, he looked more surprised than he did.

Quiet whispers of death, giggling, derailed singing and hisses filled their ears. These voices seemed to come out of nowhere, yet it was as if they were all around the room. It was emanating from the orb of vitae, which was becoming contorted and losing its form. The voices grew louder and louder, the symbol on the floor glowing brightly as scarlet red light blinded their eyes. Shadow and Infinite looked away quickly.

...

Silence.

Slowly, Shadow opened his eyes again to see.

And what he saw next, would remain in his nightmares forever.

28 - END - 28