CANNON COUNTDOWN: 25 MINUTES
"Do you think you can disarm it?" Rouge asked, standing in the escape pod room as Tails fumbled with the escape capsule. He pulled the useless husk of a bomb from the capsule, and tossed it aside. "Wow, that was quick."
"Yep, that should do it…" Tails sighed. He turned to Amy, both of them still wrought with fear and shock. Tails felt so detached. "Alright, Amy, your capsule is safe and ready. We'll take it from here, and if all goes well we'll see you back on Erius."
"I already told you, I'm not going," Amy whined, standing in the corner of the room with her cracked Inhibitor Rings. "I'm not leaving until I make sure Sonic is okay." Amy stared Tails in the eyes. "I believe Knuckles, he's probably still alive somewhere! And I can't believe how quickly you just got over it. You're already willing to just give up on finding Sonic!" Tails' eyes widened in anger.
"You think I'm OVER IT?" Tails asked. "Of course I'm not, Amy! He was my BEST FRIEND! But you're in no condition to stay here. Rouge and I need to find Knuckles if we want to stand a chance against Eggman and Shadow. This is what Sonic would've wanted."
"Don't you dare say that!" Amy shouted through the pain. "He's still alive. I know it! Don't you have any semblance of hope left?" Tails and Amy glared at each other. Rouge took a deep breath.
"Listen, Amy. If Sonic is still alive, I'm sure he can take care of himself until we're done here," Rouge explained. "We'll look for him as long as we can after this is all over."
"Forget that. I'm looking for him NOW," Amy muttered. "Even if I have to go alone." She snapped off what was left of her Inhibitor Rings, letting the pieces of rings fall to the floor. Tails and Rouge stepped back as Amy powered up, not quite knowing what was happening. Amy then blasted out of the room in a sky blue light.
"Amy, wait!" Tails shouted. It didn't do him any good. Amy wasn't coming back. He facepalmed, letting out a dry segmented breath.
"Cheer up, Tails," Rouge sighed. "We'll figure something out…"
"I'm about to lose my two best friends in one night…" Tails droned, gripping his head. "Sonic meant so much to me… now he's gone!" He shrieked. "What am I gonna do now? Amy's gonna get herself killed, and I'm gonna be all alone until I die too!" Rouge averted her eyes, concerned. Tails shivered, leaning against his mech to support himself. He looked up to the two-tailed insignia on the side of the Cyclone. It was covered in soot and scratches, but throughout all of the damage it had received, it was still there. Tails felt tears rush to his eyes.
He wiped them away.
"Tails?" Rouge asked.
"But I still won't give up…" Tails said. "I won't let Eggman win! I won't let Shadow win either. I'll make sure they pay for what they've done!" Tails hopped into the Cyclone, and ran off.
"Hey, we still need a plan!" Rouge exclaimed, running after Tails. Suddenly, there was a green flash of light ahead of her. She shielded her eyes, only to open them soon after and see Shadow standing there in front of her. She stood her ground, sweat beading up on her forehead. "You again…" She grumbled.
"Found you," Shadow whispered, smirking and looking to the ground. "You thought you could hide from me, eh? I've had my suspicions about you for a while now. I found it strange that you just appeared out of nowhere offering to help, only to go into hiding when our first attack was a success. I've been thinking about how convenient it is that GUN found the entrance to the ARK in the doctor's pyramid base, convenient for you that is." Shadow glared her in the eyes. "I know what you are, you're a GUN spy, aren't you?" Rouge squinted.
"Let's say I am a GUN spy. You would have just figured it out, hurray for you!" Rouge exclaimed, applauding. "Your prize would be a full raid on the ARK once I get ahold of the people I work with. We have very special plans for you back on Erius." Shadow smirked.
"On what island?" Shadow chuckled. "There was only one containment pod capable of holding me, and now it's in shambles at the bottom of the ocean at best. You should be there too, I don't even know why I saved you!"
"Ohhh, you poor sweet thing!" Rouge exclaimed. "Your naivete just pulls at my heartstrings! We don't plan on just containing you anymore, since that turned out so well the first time." Shadow scowled. "This time… we'll just get it over with. Like ripping off a bandaid. Maybe you'll be in shambles at the bottom of the ocean too once all is said and done." Rouge pulled out a piece of paper. "Besides, how can you say you know for a fact what I am when you don't even know what you really are?" Rouge showed him the paper.
"What is that…?" Shadow growled, gritting his teeth.
"This is an excerpt from an internal news magazine on the ARK… simply known as 'Harmony'," Rouge told him, blocking out part of her face with the pamphlet. "It details what was meant to be the end product of Project Shadow… Biolizard." Shadow squinted at the strange, huge monstrous amphibian in the photograph. Swarming the photographs on the timeworn page were descriptions of a mindless violent beast with very little regard for living things. Practically on life support due to its potential for immortality but inability to retain its own body, which nearly completely decomposed within a week of its birth. Rouge smirked behind the page.
"With all power across the ARK shut down 50 years ago, this thing most likely withered away without its support systems. So…" Rouge stared into Shadow's artificial soul. "If the real Project Shadow is dead, then exactly who… or what… is standing right in front of me?" Shadow grunted in shock.
"Impossible!" Shadow shouted defensively. "This can't be… I'M Shadow! The ultimate lifeform the professor created!" Shadow breathed heavily. "You're tricking me again… just like you tricked me and the doctor to weasel your way into the operation. You are one PATHETIC creature!"
"I could say those same things about you," Rouge laughed lightly. "You've tricked everyone— including yourself— into thinking you're the real Shadow. Project Shadow was supposed to be the key to eternal life… but all you seem to do is end lives. You've caused so much destruction, for what purpose?" Rouge held up the pamphlet mockingly. "The time for pretending is over… why are you doing this?" Shadow quickly Chaos Speared the page into the wall. Rouge stumbled back, unharmed but still startled.
"I'm doing this for Maria!" Shadow yelled. "I need to make GUN pay for what they did! I need everyone on that planet to pay… I need them all to remember her name, remember what I lost!"
"Shadow! We have someone attempting to hijack the Eclipse Cannon from outside!" Eggman grunted through the communicator. It was clear he was barely clinging onto the ability to speak. "Now that I've come so far, now that I have the entire Master Emerald, we can't afford to let the cannon be compromised! Get out there and put a stop to whoever is doing this! By any means necessary!" Shadow turned around and began to run out of the room.
"You really think you're Shadow, don't you?" Rouge asked. Shadow stopped in his tracks. "All this talk about the past… making them all remember… I certainly don't remember any 'Maria'. And GUN has made it a point to remember the names of the people they murdered that day. I can say with certainty that we never forgot what happened under the previous commander's reign." Shadow gripped his fists. Rouge stepped back. "Even your memories might not be real, you know…" Shadow looked down, these words repeating in his head.
"They are real. I'm really Shadow," Shadow mumbled. "And Maria was real, too. Your placeholder obituaries can't change that. I know I made that promise to her, and I know I'm going to keep it." He blasted off, leaving a trail of fire behind him from his Rocket Skates. Rouge sighed.
CANNON COUNTDOWN: 24 MINUTES
Knuckles wandered the halls of the ARK. Completely aimless. There were no Master Emerald Shards to find. There was no treasure to hunt down. Just an endless unknowable maze of cold metal corridors with no sense of direction or progression. The beeping in his head was gone, leaving him in complete silence. He wasn't even sure if he had been in this exact room before.
Knuckles rounded a corner, and came face to face with the exterior of the ARK. There was a view of outer space. He certainly hadn't been here before… but what good would that factoid do? Sonic wasn't there.
"Sonic…" Knuckles growled. Suddenly, a strange chaotic feeling enveloped the room. "I feel some… familiar energy." A blinding light appeared, and out of it, a figure emerged. "No way! It's you!" Knuckles exclaimed, as the hedgehog floated down from the light. "What happened?! How did you do that, Sonic?!" Knuckles asked, helping Sonic up. He felt so weightless.
"I… I used Chaos Control… I did it!" Sonic mumbled tiredly. "Heyy Knuckles… I'm worried about Tails and Amy. Can you make sure they're okayyy?"
"Of course, but… Chaos Control?" Knuckles asked. "That's right! You have a Chaos Emerald inside you. But… I didn't think you yourself had enough willpower to enact Chaos Control!"
"W-what's that supposed to mean?" Sonic asked, slurring his words. Knuckles slapped him. "Guh!" Sonic spat. His eyes focused on Knuckles. "Thanks… I needed that."
"Pull yourself together! The Eclipse Cannon's gonna fire any second now!" Knuckles shouted, shaking Sonic by the shoulders. "You need to go do something about it! NOW!"
"Of course. I'm too far away from the control panel to do anything there, but…" Sonic sighed. "I have another idea! Right when the cannon's about to fire… I'll dive in there, and take it out from the inside!" Sonic blasted off. Knuckles reached out to him, before letting his arm fall back to his side.
Sonic grabbed onto a rocket, launching him out into the exterior of the ARK. He hopped down onto a grind rail as the rocket gave out, sparks emerging from under his shoes and fire burning away at the soles. Despite the freezing cold space around him, he felt himself overheating from the stress and the motion. He flew off a ramp and was faced with three paths far below him… but there was no time to choose a rail. Because he was in complete freefall. He picked the closest rail, and ziplined under the highway in the sky hundreds of miles above Erius with nothing but his bare hands. His gloves were torn, his shoes were worn. His entire body hurt and his vision blurred. His hands were cut, burnt, and raw. He fell off the rail, landing on another. It spun around into a huge tower, sending him spiraling down and struggling to keep his balance and the contents of his stomach. He couldn't give up. The pain was eating him alive, but he imagined all the greater pain that would come later if he failed or gave up. The determination to prevent the end of the world kept him moving. He crouched under bullet fire from a swarm of camouflaged robotic Gold Beetles. He was launched onto an actual road, which stretched on for miles. He wasn't even sure if he was going the right way. He didn't even know which way was up at this point. He felt himself slipping once again into oblivion.
Shadow caught sight of Sonic from a distant antigravity platform. He didn't know how he survived, or how he was still running. Even if he was running less like a powerful blue shooting star and more like an intoxicated infant taking its first steps with a broken leg. However, Shadow noticed something peculiar. With every even step the hedgehog took, every healthy footfall, he seemed to grow back some more focus and his wounds sealed a little bit. Could it be that the hedgehog was healing himself mentally and physically just by running fast enough? It didn't matter. Shadow would merely mutilate his legs to the point he couldn't run anymore. Then he would throw him out of the ARK's atmosphere and watch him combust in the endless cosmos while awake. Shadow supposed it was the least he could do to make Sonic's last living moments the fastest velocity he had ever achieved. A parting gift for the one entity able to somewhat match him.
CANNON COUNTDOWN: 3 MINUTES
Sonic struggled to take deep enough breaths to fuel himself as he ran. He panted and stumbled, but he could feel his strength and speed coming back ever so slightly by the second. He was almost there… he could see the Eclipse Cannon right there at the end of this street!
"You never cease to surprise me, blue hedgehog," Shadow stated, walking alongside Sonic on the other lane. Sonic spun around to face him, slowing himself down so Shadow could keep up. He could swear he hadn't heard footsteps approaching until they were right beside him. "I thought that capsule you were in exploded in space," Shadow observed. Sonic smiled.
"You know, what can I say? I die hard!" Sonic replied, staring at the dark funland mirror that was Shadow with a tense look in his eye. His stare wasn't unhinged, it wasn't scared. He was sure he was in control of the situation. "You actually saved me, you know. If you didn't show me Chaos Control existed, I dunno if I would've made it."
"So you DID use Chaos Control…" Shadow muttered. "That explains a lot. Not bad for your first try." Shadow hummed, putting a finger on his own chin. "Still… there should only be eight Chaos Emeralds. One of them is my own heart. I'm going to guess there's a ninth one powering you." Shadow exhaled, irritated. "I just can't figure you out!" Shadow snapped. "Your very existence is a complete enigma to me. You show up in my absence… you fill my roles, you make my enemies, you befriend the people meant to be my companions… and you even defy the laws of time and space by being born with an extra Chaos Emerald. It's absurd! You shouldn't even be here!" Shadow's eyes sharpened like a hungry wild animal, staring into Sonic's eyes as his once red eyes turned green with Chaos Energy. "Just WHAT ARE YOU, anyways?"
"What you see is what you get!" Sonic replied with no hesitation. "Just a guy that loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" Sonic jogged ahead, gaining speed gradually. Shadow ran alongside him, propelled forward by the flames in his Rocket Skates.
"I see… well, I can't let you live, you know," Shadow told him. "I feel that… it is part of my destiny to destroy you. Otherwise you will steal my destiny and forge my identity. The world Maria loved will not go on living with you at the helm. Dark Gaia will destroy it, simply because you won't be enough to stop it while you're holding Light Gaia down." Shadow skated full speed ahead. Sonic still persisted and passed him quickly despite the cogs turning in his head. What did he mean by that…? "Your adventuring days are coming to an END!"
Sonic and Shadow ran parallel to each other, staring each other down now that they were on equal footing. Both hedgehogs were still sickened at the thought of their feet being on the same elevation. The road crumbled beneath their footsteps, falling apart behind them. "Once this is over… I'll show you the true power of CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow threatened him.
"Alright, Shadow. Time for me to finish this," Sonic entertained him. They closed in on each other, exchanging punches and kicks that never seemed to land. They kept blocking every hit thrown their way, both were completely incapable of actually dealing any damage. Shadow, finding it difficult to keep attacking while also focusing on moving forward, threw a Chaos Spear at Sonic. Sonic dodged it with a grin, manipulated the Chaos Energy that made up the spear, and threw it back at Shadow. It crashed through an asteroid, blowing it up into little pebbles. The two shielded their eyes as the exact same amount of rock shards hit them both.
While they were both blinded, they swung at each other wildly. Now they weren't even coming close to hitting each other. Sonic and Shadow grazed each other with their fists, only slashing their knuckles on each other's sharp quills. "Nch–! Face it, Sonic. By the end of this, the stars won't twinkle anymore. The moon's glow will fail and fade!"
"That's not true!" Sonic shouted.
"I'll cut the bird's songs short with a power equivalent to a million nuclear bombs. The wind will stop blowing from the force of the blast, resulting in a slow death for all life on the planet as it burns or freezes or both. It depends. I will kill the god of darkness. I will kill everything. I will even kill myself if need be. Only the planet she loved will remain, with no organisms left to blight it," Shadow declared.
"... You good?" Sonic asked, disturbed. Shadow teleported behind him and punched him in the eye while he was distracted. Even when Sonic saw him, it was only a second before Shadow's fist landed in the bridge between his eyes.
In an instant, the veins in Sonic's eyes expanded and his eyes widened until the lids slid into the back of his head. Shadow grabbed onto the sclera and twisted it until it burst. Sonic's eyes exploded, the little bits of eye freezing in space and floating around. He shrieked in agony as he went blind and blood pooled out. Shadow then went for the arms, slicing them off with his own two hands. Sonic shrieked more. As promised, Shadow kicked Sonic's legs and cut them right off in one shot. Sonic fell to the floor, with no limbs left to hold him up. He fell silent, with no energy left to scream. Shadow walked up to what was left of him. The road stopped falling apart.
"I told you. I'M the ultimate. You thought you could beat me, and now look at you," Shadow chuckled. "I suppose I overestimated you. All this worrying for nothing." Shadow knelt down, plunged his hand into Sonic's chest, and tore out his Chaos Emerald. "I'll be taking this. You never used it to its full potential, anyways. What a waste." Shadow kicked Sonic off of the road, and walked off.
Sonic fell.
And fell.
He fell out of the atmosphere of the ARK, burning up and slowly melting away.
He began to spin out of control, his body blurring and curling into a ball. He approached an asteroid, a blue blur trailing behind him. He crashed into the asteroid…
And used the mighty chunk of rock as a stepping stone.
He shot up, not uncurling from Spinball form at any point. He pierced the road under Shadow like a bullet, knocking into him and sending him flying into the air. As he did, the speed formed new limbs for him. New eyes. He regrew his own body, and used it to wail on Shadow. He smashed him into the ground, repeatedly spinning and cutting away at Shadow. Shadow could do nothing but lie there and struggle. Sonic bounced off of Shadow, and stomped down onto him, nearly crushing the scarred dark hedgehog under his foot. He kept him pinned down.
"What?!" Shadow spat. "That can't be!" Shadow's hand went limp and he let go of the black Chaos Emerald. "I thought… your powers come from the Chaos Emerald."
"What? No," Sonic laughed. He picked up the emerald. "I believe this belongs to me." Sonic held his heart in front of Shadow's face. Shadow couldn't move as the emerald's foreign electricity coursed through his body, leaving him immobilized. The only thing he could do was watch as he was humiliated by Sonic's taunt. "This Chaos Emerald's my heart, my soul. It makes my electricity for me. My speed? My speed's something entirely different. My speed is my spirit. And you can never take that away." Sonic walked off. "Game over, Shadow." Shadow lied there and ruminated on those words. Even when he was able to move, he lied there. And thought about it.
He then got up, and limped off in the other direction.
CANNON COUNTDOWN: 40 SECONDS
"Ha… ha… ha…" Eggman wheezed, falling forward onto the control panel for the Eclipse Cannon. "It's finally mine… ALL mine!" He mumbled almost too quickly to understand, plugging the last few Master Emerald shards into the console. The Master Emerald shined brightly, and when the shine faded, Eggman saw the whole emerald. It was ready. "Now, I'll pick up where my ancestors left off. Now begins a second golden age for the EGGMAN EMPIRE!" Eggman watched as all the lights in the room went green. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He cackled, peering at Erius through the Eclipse Cannon's cameras. "Can you see me now, world? Because I seeeee youuuu!" He sang.
Suddenly, something shot right into the cannon. The cameras were knocked out. "HUH? Sonic!" Eggman shouted, seeing Sonic blast into the cannon. "No matter…! You've made a grave mistake throwing yourself into a star-piercing cannon… You idiot!" Eggman scrambled to fire the cannon away from Erius, hoping to let Sonic be atomized point-blank with the Eclipse Cannon, but the controls weren't responding. "What?! Why won't the cannon fire?! Noooooooo!" Eggman shouted as the cannon went offline.
Tails and Amy walked their separate paths through the ARK, Amy still in her Uninhibited form. When suddenly… they both got a call. From Sonic. Amy and Tails gasped, picking up the call.
"Hey guys! Look outside!" Sonic exclaimed. Amy and Tails looked out the windows at the Eclipse Cannon, and saw Sonic waving and holding onto it from the other hand. The Eclipse Cannon was smoking out the muzzle. Amy and Tails pressed their hands against the windows, happy tears streaming down their smiling faces. They were both unable to vocalize anything but cheers of pure joy.
Sonic looked in their directions, then gave them a thumbs-up and a smile.