Chapter Nineteen: “All Hail Shadow”

Shadow was less than a minute away from dying, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He continued to fall head-over-heels down to the street. The black hedgehog tried to reorient himself, but between the way he was falling and the pain he felt and his exhaustion from fighting Mephiles, it was nearly impossible.
But suddenly, a strong hand grasped his wrist.
Shadow shook off the dizziness, and looked to see Shade the Echidna holding him while clinging to the wall of the building.
“You alright?” Shade asked, looking up to see Mephiles looking back at them.
“Yes… I’ve been better, but yeah, I’m fine” Shadow replied. Shade nodded, and looked back up to see Mephiles dive off towards them.
“Listen: Rouge is just on the opposite building. I’ll throw you to her while I hold off Mephiles, okay?” Shade said. Shadow nodded, and even now, he could see Rouge climbing the building across from them.
Shadow rolled up into a ball, and Shade tossed him as hard as he could towards Rouge. Then the black and red echidna leapt upwards at his old master, and fired a Chaos Spear at him.
“Greetings, my master!!” Shade snarled.
“TRAITOR!!” Mephiles roared. “I SHALL STAIN THIS WRETCHED WORLD WITH YOUR BLOOD!!” and with a gesture from the Havoc Blade, Shade was sent free-falling down at the ground at two hundred miles per hour. But since the echidna was going down head first, he merely drew his claws, and drilled downwards to almost completely break the fall. Mephiles snarled in fury at this.
Meanwhile, Rouge had finally caught Shadow, and they now held each other across from their foe.
“Oh Shadow…” Rouge murmured, and sharply kissed her lover. Shadow pulled Rouge into it, but broke the kiss briefly.
“Not now Rouge, we’re kinda busy right now” Shadow stated, unaware that he was caressing Rouge’s cheek.
The ivory bat chuckled. “That’s all you have to say after being separated by a god-awful battle for nearly five hours and after I helped save your life?” she teased. But Shadow’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Rouge, c’mon!!” he shouted, and suddenly pulled Rouge off the wall and they continued their fall. And not a moment later, the place where they’d been exploded with Chaos Energy.
As they fell, Rouge spread her wings and slowed their fall. But just as she did, Mephiles fired another blast of Chaos Energy at them. Shadow drew Dark Burner, and activated its fiery blade. He then quickly deflected the blast back at Mephiles, who again deflected it back. But by this time, Rouge had moved them out of the way. The blast of Chaos Energy hit the ground, and the explosion knocked Mephiles, Shadow and Rouge into separate directions.
When Shadow got his bearings, he saw that he and Mephiles were on opposite sides of a crater. Shadow also noticed that he was right on top of Rouge. Luckily, Mephiles had taken a much rougher landing, and would take a few moments to get reoriented.
“You okay?” Shadow asked his wife, who nodded.
“I’m going to sleep well after this…” she muttered. But then to her surprise, Shadow pulled Rouge into a gentle, loving kissed, holding onto the back of her head. Rouge eagerly returned it, but again, Shadow broke it.
“Rouge… thank you” Shadow said softly. “Thank you for always being there for me. This isn’t the first time you saved my neck.”
Rouge smiled back. “Anytime, sugar” she replied. “Thank Shade, too; it was his idea.”
“Rouge, listen to me” Shadow told her seriously. “I’m the only one strong enough to have a shot at destroying Mephiles. If he defeats me, Shade is your only hope.”
“What?” Rouge asked in surprise. “Shadow, what…? No! I’m not letting you fight that fruitcake by yourself! That’s why we came here!”
“Rouge, the only reason I haven’t beaten him yet is because another Lost One sprung him out in time. I need you and everyone else to finish them off. Then you can help me” Shadow replied. “But if Mephiles kills me, he won’t care how the rest of you are finished. Get Shade to try and Chaos Control you and everyone else out of here so you can continue the fight!”
“But Shadow, you can’t expect me-” Rouge started to say, but Shadow practically shoved her away.
“Go!! NOW!!” Shadow shouted. Rouge turned back to face him, and turned around to see Shade crawling out of the crater he had dug to save himself. Then she faced Shadow again.
“I love you!!” Shadow shouted. “Now go!”
“I… I love you too!!” Rouge shouted back, and though it killed her, she ran up to Shade, and they proceeded to find the other Lost Ones.
Satisfied, but unhappily so, Shadow turned back to his arch-nemesis.
“It’s you and me now, Mephiles” Shadow growled, drawing Dark Burner again.
“As it should be, Shadow” Mephiles replied, holding the Sword of Chaos at the ready.
“Even if you win here, there’ll be other battles to fight, and you cannot win them all!” Shadow shouted, and slashed at his opponent, but Mephiles slithered out of the way, went behind Shadow, and threw him across the street.
Before Shadow had even gotten to his feet, Mephiles was again upon him. “You fight for the lost cause!! FOR WEAKLINGS!!” Mephiles roared. “AND THAT IS WHY YOU WILL FALL!!” and he blasted Shadow aside. The ebony hedgehog forced himself back onto his feet, and ran at the dark being, crying out; “FOR MARIA!!”
The battle was on.

*Central City: With Shade and Rouge*

The two Mobians quickly regrouped with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Silver, Blaze, Cream, and all the soldiers. Rouge told them what Shadow had told her, all the while hoping a Lost One would come and attack them now so she wouldn’t have to travel any further from Shadow (who was still close enough to where they could all hear the sounds of battle).
“Alone? Is he crazy?!” Sonic asked. “We’re right here! Why won’t he let us help? Is he that full of himself?!”
“No! Like I’ve already said, he told me that we’d be more use finishing off the Lost Ones first!” Rouge replied angrily. “Don’t dare insult him after he’s put his life on the line so selflessly!”
“Okay, okay! Jeez, I was just kidding, Rouge!” Sonic said, holding his hands up defensively. “Don’t get me wrong, Shadow’s a hell of a guy, I’d just rather be fighting Mephiles than hunting down his cronies.”
“You and I both, blue-hog” Rouge muttered. “Alright, where do we start our hunt?”
“We should split up, like we proposed earlier” the Black Arms Commander stated. “We’re in an alley with two exits. I’ll take sixty of my soldiers, twenty G.U.N. soldiers, Silver, Blaze, and Knuckles down south. Everyone else can head north.”
“Sounds good…” Knuckles said. “Just one flaw in that plan: they’ve found us first.”
Everyone turned to see that the red echidna was right: Sparxan landed right outside of the alley they were in. Everyone ducked down, some taking cover behind dumpsters and what not. But Sparxan seemed oblivious to them, only looking around warily. He slowly walked off, obviously not having seen his hidden enemies that were right under his nose.
As he passed, Rouge and a few soldiers poked their heads out, and they saw where Sparxan was headed.
The Lost One was slowly advancing on Shadow and Mephiles as they fiercely battled about a block and a half away from him. Sparxan chuckled darkly, drew his multi-whip weapon, and started to spin it around with incredible speed, and continued advancing on Shadow and Mephiles.
Rouge turned to the Black Arms commander. “How much longer until the planes get here?” she asked.
“In a matter of seconds” the Black Alien replied. “They know our location. The first wave, they told me, has already neutralized the blockade’s anti-air defenses. The second wave will be upon the Lost Ones momentarily.”
Rouge nodded, and accessed her comm.. “Zachary? This is Agent Rouge: we have friendly units entangled with the Lost Ones, we’ll mark them for you, over?”
“Copy that, Agent Rouge” Zachary replied. “I’m alerting my fighter-planes now.”
“Everyone ready?” Rouge asked. “All right, let’s kill this bitch! Move!”
Suddenly, everybody poured out of the alley, moving as quietly as they could to cover, and aiming their guns on Sparxan. They knew if they alerted the Lost One too soon, he would likely fly off again before they could finish him.
When nobody was looking, Sonic suddenly pulled Knuckles aside. “Hey, Knux, you remember that one move we used against that big Metarex, a few years back? The whole arm-swing thing?” Sonic whispered. Knuckles nodded slowly, not yet understanding.
“Stand as close as you can to Sparxan without getting spotted” Sonic told him with a smile. “I’ll be right back!” And with that, the blue hedgehog took off, leaving a befuddled Knuckles in his wake.
The Black Arms commander pulled out a high-tech targeting system, and locked it onto Sparxan and Mephiles, labeling Shadow as “vital friendly”. Then he transmitted the targets to the fighter planes.
“Targets marked. What’s your E.T.A.?” the Black Alien spoke softly into the comm..
“Time on target: 25 seconds” a voice replied from the comm., and soon enough, Rouge could faintly hear the roar of jet-engines from behind them.
Sonic, meanwhile, was nearly a mile away from them, but he had a clear path to the others, and he could even see the battle. He patted his foot impatiently, watching with a keen eye, and got ready to do what he did best: go fast.
“Fighter-planes, still in position…” the Black Arms commander whispered into the comm..
But suddenly, as Knuckles shifted a foot that had been asleep, his shoe crushed a piece of glass amongst other rubble.
“Oh shit” the echidna whispered.
With a snarl, Sparxan turned around, and prepared to slam his fist into the ground.
“Take cover!!” the Black Arms Commander shouted, and everybody dove out of the way as Sparxan unleashed a quake on them, sending geysers of fire blasting out of the ground, igniting a few soldiers.
“Fighters are incoming!!” the Black Arms commander shouted, firing over his shoulder at Sparxan as he ran for cover.
Sonic, meanwhile, was hauling ass right at Sparxan.
The jets screamed over the hedgehog, momentarily outrunning him to the Lost One. They fired a spray of missiles just as Sparxan was about to retreat. The Lost One deflected a couple with his whip weapon, but one hit him and forced him back on the ground.
“Knuckles, heads up!!” Sonic cried, reaching an incredible speed that left tracks on the road. Knuckles saw the blue hedgehog, and just barely grabbed Sonic’s arm as the blue hedgehog passed. Then, using his incredible strength, Knuckles swung Sonic around and around, creating so much momentum that they drilled a circle into the ground. Finally, using his amazing strength, Knuckles hurled Sonic right at Sparxan, and with barely half a second to spare, Sonic rolled up into a ball…
And drilled right through Sparxan’s torso.
“WHOO-HOO!!” Sonic cried, laughing in excitement as he flew through the air, and finally landing on the ground. He turned to look at Sparxan, who stumbled on his feet for a second, and glance down at his almost-completely gone body. Then, with a groan, he collapsed face-first, and exploded.
“ALRIGHT!!” Sonic shouted, and high-fived Knuckles, and then Tails. “World-class speed, baby! I wish NASCAR could’ve seen it!” Sonic’s bragging was then cut off by a firm hug from Amy.
“C’mon, move!!” Rouge shouted. “We still have some enemies to take out! Move out!!”
Then, Rouge suddenly turned her gaze at the battle between Shadow and Mephiles…
Shadow was losing.
Mephiles just then threw Shadow down to the ground, and kicked the black hedgehog’s torso to send him rolling away. Shadow struggled to his knees, and suddenly coughed up a bit of blood. But Mephiles didn’t relent. He snarled, and ran forward, and kicked Shadow in the face.
“Shadow!!” Rouge cried out. “Hold on, I’m on the way!!” and she suddenly ran towards the battle, shouldering the G.U.N. weapon with artificial Chaos energy she’d picked up with her. Omega and Shade were right behind her.
Suddenly, a bright flash from outside the city confirmed that the fourth and fifth waves of fighters had began to inflict further damage on the monsters that had them all trapped inside the city, which meant the third and second waves of fighters were preparing to assault Mephiles himself.
“Second wave and third wave are on approach” a voice crackled over everybody’s comm.. “Shadow, recommend you get out of the way now!”
“Copy that…” Shadow grunted, trying to push himself to his feet.
But just as the fighters were closing into position, a black blur screamed across the sky right towards the fighters.
“What the hell is that thing?!” one pilot shouted.
“BEGONE, FOOLS!!” Hades snarled. “YOU SHALL NOT TROUBLE MY MASTER!!” And with that, he landed on one plan, and stabbed both arm-blades into the engine, and then leapt into the sky, spraying several more fighters with missiles and blowing up more than four of them. Then, as he flew by another, he slashed the wings off, sending the plane careening out of control to crash into a skyscraper.
“Wave three, burn that thing!” the leader of the second wave shouted. A few fighters were able to fire, but only one missile hit Hades, knocking him off of them. It gave them time for the survivors of the second wave to get by him. Hades then flew after the others.
“Wave three, stay on that guy! Don’t let him get away!” the flight-leader shouted into the comm.. “Everyone else, form up on Mephiles!”
“Take out the target!!” the Black Arms Commander shouted, and all the soldiers with him began to fire upon Mephiles.
The dark being was taken off guard, and he was forced to break away from Shadow, giving the ebony hedgehog time to get up and stumble away from his foe.
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all ran in together. Knuckles picked Tails up by the feet, and threw him at Sonic, who had leapt into the air. Tails then kicked Sonic in his rolled-up form, sending him flying with great momentum at Mephiles. The blow knocked Mephiles down as Blaze fired a massive typhoon of flames at the dark being, which had been sealed together to create a greater impact by Silver’s psychic force field. The explosion sent Mephiles flying to meet the mallet of Amy’s hammer, which in turn knocked Mephiles into Omega’s firing-range.
The Mobians then cleared out of the way just as the surviving planes from the second wave flew down and fired all they had at Mephiles. The dark being howled in pain as fire rained down all around him.
But still, he stood on feet. The dark being’s green eyes now glowed red with unspeakable wrath, and he suddenly blasted two planes out of the sky with a blast from the Sword of Chaos.
“DIE, YOU BASTARD!!!” Rouge screamed, firing non-stop at Mephiles, who was barely ten meters from her. The dark being literally roared, and ran at the ivory bat. But Shadow leapt out at Mephiles, and severed the dark being’s right leg off with Dark Burner, sending Mephiles crashing to the ground.
Rouge now crawled away from Mephiles and towards Shadow, who barely had the strength to get to his knees. Mephiles clawed at Rouge, who was a bit frightened by the death she saw in the dark being’s eyes.
“I WILL KILL YOU, KILL, KILL!!” Mephiles screamed. “YOUR BLOOD, SPILLING, SPILLING, POURING, FOREVER!! MAY YOU BURN, SUFFER, WITHER AND WILT!!! DAMN YOU!! YOU SHALL ALL PERISH IN OCEANS OF BLOOD, BLADES, AND FIRE!!!!”
Shadow gritted his teeth in pain, and looked up at his wife. “Rouge!! Get out of here, now!!” he pleaded.
Rouge looked back at Shadow, and then back at Mephiles, who was glowing from the heat of the missiles that had hit him. Mephiles pushed himself up, and prepared to pounce at Rouge and kill her.
But it gave the ivory bat an idea…
Just as Mephiles leapt at her, Rouge cried out; “Shadow!! Head’s up!!”, and as Mephiles leapt, Rouge kicked the dark behind over her head…
And towards Shadow.
Moving quickly, Shadow held up Dark Burner’s fiery blade, and impaled it on Mephiles’ chest.
The dark being cried out a terrible, pained screech, but Shadow didn’t relent. With a cry of “FUCK YOU!!!”, Shadow drove Mephiles and Dark Burner’s blade deep into the ground. A loud noise emanated from Mephiles’ body as the flames slowly destroyed him.
Finally, Shadow drew the blade out of Mephiles’ body, and just stood there. Mephiles rose for a second, but then fell to his knees, clutching feebly at the huge, burning hole in his chest. He gasped out, made an awful choking noise, and then collapsed. His body melted into a puddle of ooze, and ran through the numerous cracks in the ground to disappear.
The battle was over at last.
Shadow withdrew Dark Burner’s fiery blade, sheathed it, and collapsed on the ground.
Rouge ran over to her husband, and held him to her heart.
“Oh God, Rouge… I love you…” Shadow murmured. “I love you… so much…”
Rouge chuckled, and was surprised to find tears of relief leaving clean streaks on her dirty face. “I love you too, big guy…” she said softly, and pressed her lips onto Shadow’s. Shadow eagerly returned the kiss, putting a hand onto Rouge’s neck and pulling himself deeper into the kiss.
Rouge recalled that this may have been the first time Shadow kissed her in full view of over a hundred people.
Sonic and Amy embraced each other just a few meters away from Shadow and Rouge. The blue hedgehog cupped Amy’s face in his hands, and kissed his newly-wed wife on the lips. Even though Amy and Sonic had shared over a thousand of these kisses, Amy still cherished them more than anything, having finally found what she’d been after ever since Sonic and she had first met.
Silver and Blaze gripped each other’s hands, and after a brief kiss, they pulled each other into a firm embrace.
“Love you, psychic-boy” Blaze teased. Silver chuckled at his lover.
“I love you too, hot-head” he teased back. Blaze smirked at him.
“‘Hot head’? That’s the best you have?” Blaze said with a roll of the eyes. Silver just beamed at her, and kissed her again. Blaze happily accepted it.
Knuckles smirked at everybody, feeling quite proud of himself for having taken part in this. He glanced over at Tails and Cream.
“So, Knuckles…” Tails said, “What’re you and Tikal going to do when we get back?”
“Me? I’m taking a shower, and going straight to bed after we smother each other in kisses” Knuckles replied practically. “Damn, I miss her. Hopefully, with Mephiles dead at last, they’ll let me and her go back to Angel Island with the Master Emerald.”
“Sounds good, buddy” Tails said with a bright smile.
“As soon as I get home, I’m taking a nap” Cream put in. “I hope mother won’t mind me skipping a bath before I do that.”
Meanwhile, Shadow finally recovered the strength to stand up and walk with Rouge away from the damage the plane-missiles had caused. When Shadow looked up at all the soldiers ho had come to aid in this battle, he saw something that made him stop and blink.
Over two hundred G.U.N. troops and Black Arms soldiers were saluting him.
Rouge smirked, and nudged Shadow in the ribs. “All Hail Shadow!” she teased.