93Cf96: Yeah, I'm bummed too. After all, this is the last time most of these characters have any relevance!
Christian Ape99: Thanks! Hopefully this is up to your expectations. :)
. . .
Here we are, Shadow's final chapter...the story continues in Chapter 17 of We Both Remember, but still...it's all so bittersweet. ;-;
...Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog.
In the Shadow of a Doubt
Chapter 11: Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt
The area we entered was another cave, but it wasn't nearly as dark or dank as the ones underground. It was wide, spacious, and relatively bright, and lingering remains of the ruins were evident. My team and I jumped down from the alcove and worked our way forward, with Omega confirming that Mephiles was in the room with us. He and Rouge flew on ahead, with me skating towards the back, only because I wanted a few more seconds of time to register what exactly was about to go down…
And about what I was going to have to do.
When I looked up, I braked to a stop in front of Rouge and Omega, spotting my adversary residing at the top of a tall altar in the center of the area. He was floating above the ground, his back toward us and a ghastly purple aura surrounding him like his own personal cloud.
"Mephiles!"
With only a turn of his head, Mephiles glanced over his shoulder menacingly, glowering at the three of us with his grotesquely-colored eyes.
"I was expecting you sooner," he finally spoke, turning to face us fully with a trace of genuine disappointment hidden in his tone. "As you must know, you're already too late."
He perched the yellow Chaos Emerald atop his crystal-tipped fingers, and I really hated how he didn't have a mouth, because it was impossible to tell what was going through that twisted head of his.
And I wasn't about to look him in the eye for longer than I needed to.
"But there's still time for you to change your mind. Join me, Shadow," he continued, like the solution he was proposing to me was the only option. "Let us teach the world a lesson…and rewrite the future!"
How many times was I going to be forced into such a situation? Teach the world a lesson? Join forces with questionable people? Destroy the world? Well, too bad for Mephiles! I wasn't the lost amnesiac looking for my place in the world anymore! I knew who I was and where I wanted to be, and he wasn't going to change that for me now!
No good would come with joining the abomination that tried to kill me…!
"Don't try to deceive me!" I yelled, taking a step forward and scowling. Mephiles, still in his high and mighty pose, actually snapped his head down to face me directly, appearing stunned at my strong rebuttal.
"What!?"
"You heard me." I narrowed my eyes and pointed accusingly at him, sick of the lies he insisted on feeding to everyone. "You have no desire for revenge- I know that better than anyone! You only crave destruction, but not just any destruction…you want to fuse back into Solaris so you'll be at your maximum power! You lust to fuel Iblis until there is nothing left of time itself!"
"Solaris was so strong…which was why the Royal Family was entrusted with the eternal flame, to prevent it from growing and abusing its power…" Rouge trailed, clasping her hands behind her back. "But they started experimenting on it, and it got out of hand, and it resulted in that deadly splicing…"
Mephiles grew quiet, like he was contemplating the moment he'd been separated from Iblis. I'd been there too, a witness to that horrific event, but to actually go through with that process and experience it? I couldn't even begin to fathom such a thing…
"I shouldn't expect you to understand the workings of divinity, but I offer you a position of power alongside me- a salvation, if you will," Mephiles began again. "Only a true fool would pass up the opportunity of a lifetime. By my side, you can live forever, in a life where all those who have wronged you can vanish in an instant…!"
I closed my eyes, falling silent at his latest offer.
Maybe…if I'd still been who I used to be, that recently reawakened experiment on Prison Island that carried the delirious desire for revenge his creator had left to him, then perhaps I would have taken him up on his offer. I'd be able to get revenge on all the faultless humans I believed had taken my best friend and my family away from me, and get that vengeance I had so desperately craved.
Maybe…if I'd still been who I used to be, that amnesiac hedgehog that couldn't tell right from wrong and went down the incorrect path many times, then maybe I would've listened to what he had to say. I gave Black Doom that chance, but pretty quickly I realized that he wanted nothing from me but to use me as his tool, and he insisted on badgering me right until his very end.
But I wasn't either of those people anymore. I was simply Shadow the Hedgehog, and my new life was just getting started! As long as I had a say in it, I would never stand by Mephiles' side!
Nothing could deter me from my stance…!
"…I'm already going to live forever, Mephiles, and it's true that one day I will eventually lose my friends," I began, eyes still closed. "…but I would rather live my life alone forever than live it next to you, in a world where time itself is unraveled beyond repair!"
He let out a low and raspy hum at my claim, his grip on the emerald becoming tighter the longer he glowered at me.
"It's a pity, Shadow the Hedgehog." Mephiles held the emerald out in his hand and let it float over his head, all while he aimed a particularly murderous glare in my direction. "…truly a shame that you'd wish to go against me!"
The yellow emerald suddenly resonated with power, and as Rouge and I instinctively took a step back Omega raised his fist, preparing to fire at any moment. The emerald resonated again, unleashing a stronger blast of power this time that I could feel it where I was. A third flash, and the three of us were pushed backwards by an invisible force. Rouge spread her wings and tried to fly against it while Omega relied on his thrusters, but the force had completely toppled me over. I managed to use my jet shoes and a backflip to upright myself, though by the time I landed, I was greeted to rather unfavorable sight.
"I'll make sure you regret this, Shadow the Hedgehog…"
Mephiles was suddenly in front of me, hovering over the floor as it began to turn purple right before my eyes. The strange liquid that began pooling beneath our feet wavered and rippled about in a way that made me feel dizzy, and Rouge wasn't taking too kindly to it either.
"Man I hope this stuff doesn't stain…"
And so it begins.
"Mephiles! I won't let you escape!"
"Who said I was trying to?" Mephiles taunted back, though he continued to distance himself from us. He hovered way out of our reach, holding out his arms in an anticlimactic fashion. Within seconds, high-pitched chittering laughter surrounded us, belonging to the rapidly appearing shades Mephiles conjured up. They swirled about in the air, emerging from the liquid on the floor or merely appearing out of nowhere, but that sound they were making…!
"It's…putrid!" I hissed, putting my hands to my ears as I skated around the area. Mephiles resided in the middle, simply floating there with his eyes teeming at me. I growled and decided enough was enough. I warped right in front of him, ready to kick at him just like I did before. Just as I went in to move, he laughed in my face and swung his arm, casting me away and sending me toppling again.
"You got lucky last time, Shadow! To think that such fortune would hold out now is imprudent!"
I slammed straight into the ground, landing in the purple liquid. Mephiles' shades emerged from the murky pool and started to grab at me, but I blasted them away with Chaos Blast before Rouge swooped in and lifted me out of the muck.
"How are we supposed to approach this guy?! He's nothing like anything I've ever faced!" she exclaimed, and I feared I didn't really have an answer for her.
"That last time, he wasn't even fighting me at full strength, and he nearly bested me-"
"Drown in darkness!" Mephiles interrupted, sending his shades to tackle Rouge out of the air and slam her into a pillar. I was left to free fall, but more shades came down and forced me towards the ground, but I wasn't about to fall for the same thing twice. Right before I fell back first, I flipped the shade grabbing me toward the floor, making HIM be the one to drown in darkness. With that out of the way, I turned back to Rouge, who was now slumped on the ground, but Omega's sudden shouts distracted me from her.
"Visual on Mephiles has decreased! Tracing energy signature…beneath the suspicious liquid?"
The thought of Mephiles lurking below us now was unsettling, and I couldn't spot him anywhere in the purple and black vastness. Omega was frantically searching for him too, even randomly shooting at the ground for good measure.
"Hey, hey hey…!" Rouge started screaming, pointing behind me. "That doesn't look good!"
I whipped my head around to see something glowing a brilliant shade of violet, and causing the entire area to quake dangerously. Then, in an inexplicable display, a large blue hand reached up out of the pool, as if some lurking monster below was trying to pull himself out of hell itself. My eyes went wide as second arm shot up, giving the creature full strength to emerge from the muck.
Upon closer inspection…it must've been Mephiles, but…in a form that resembled Iblis…
Rouge flat out screamed while Omega started firing at it, but that abomination swatted away his attacks like they weren't even there. Omega then lowered his blasters and started diagnosing the monster, his processor whirling loudly.
"Scan indicates that entity consists of numerous shadows. Still, I believe it can be destroyed!"
"Is there…more of them?!" Rouge exclaimed, looking around frantically. Sure enough, two more were resting on the edges of the room, and all three of them leaned forward and strafed beams of energy across the floor. I started skating away instantly, with Rouge and Omega close behind.
"Okay, maybe it's not Mephiles…" I murmured lowly.
"Well, he has to be the source of them!" Rouge protested, hastily looking over her shoulder at the oncoming beam.
"Then what happened to Mephiles himself?" wondered Omega. I clenched my teeth and searched the pool of seething shades, but no sign of Mephiles would surface.
Once again, he had trumped me…!
"ARRRRRRRGH….!"
Rouge and Omega stopped and froze, watching as I kept bolting forward with frustration, skating straight up to one of the monsters. I sprang into the air, narrowly avoiding the laser it was firing and landing over its head. Using my jet shoes to keep me in the air, I ravenously attacked its face, knowingly not doing much damage but needing something as an outlet for my pent up fury.
Why was I getting so angry? Was it because Mephiles had my hands tied at every turn, or was it because there was nothing I could do no matter how hard I tried? Had I truly reached the limits of what I could do?! …did I really merely get lucky last time? Was I doomed to be stuck in this sense of doubt forever?!
Am I…destined to repeat all the mistakes I made before?
I thought I was so sure of what I wanted- I had found out who I was, and I was strictly ready to move forward…so why was I constantly harrowing back on those hard times I went through?! They weren't me; they weren't me…so where was this doubt coming from?!
All these questions clouding my mind…just like before…
My focus wavered, and it felt like my entire body was backhanded by the monster I was trying to attack. My vision went blurry and my hearing became all stuffy the moment I slammed into the ground, and the world began to swirl in a sickening spiral. I tried to make out the sounds of Omega thudding over to me and Rouge calling my name, but they were lost in a sea of static, and I couldn't tell what was up or down or what was going on anymore…
There was only so much I could take.
I thought I had faced all my demons and purged all my troubles from all of me…I moved on from my life on the ARK, I forgave myself for what I had tried to do to the world, and I learned that my friends would always have my back until they very bitter end, but that was before Mephiles became entangled in my life; before he effortlessly resurfaced all the things I had wanted to move away from. He put Silver into that same impossible situation I was in, he wanted Sonic dead, and he was trying to drive me back into a shadow of my former self just for a sick kick…!
My thoughts were muddled now; nothing was clear, and I couldn't discern what was certain and what was doubt. I couldn't defeat Mephiles like this- not with my thoughts in a mess and the shreds of doubt in my heart-
Wait…huh?
"Thoughts are turned into power, yes…but power is enriched by the heart. Even if your thoughts are a jumbled mess…or you can't remember them at all…if there is even a shred of doubt in your heart…you're not going to get anywhere at all."
I knew that- Sonic told me that just before I went off to confront Devil Doom. I had stood so strong against him in our previous encounter, but when it came time to use the emeralds, I found it hard to tap into their positive power after being hit with so much negative…but Sonic had helped me realize something.
"You are you no matter what, past or no past…"
I am all of me, and I knew that better than anyone else. I knew that choosing between right and wrong could be like battling a war within yourself, but the extremes were always the same. White is black and black is white; right is wrong and wrong is right…but nothing could ever fill the hole inside my heart. That destruction would be the only tale I'd tell…
"Your past is not you, just the things you've done, and you can't go back to them no matter how hard you try."
I've suffered for so long, and in the end, that was precisely what set me free. I remember gaining my memories back all at once, finally recalling the brunt of everything I had experienced. Only through the trials of our lives do we find the strength we need. Turmoil may shape us, but it also makes us ready for the next thing to come our way. It's never over- it's just another day of hope, tragedies, and everything that comes our way…!
My eyesight was slowly coming back, and the sound of the world around me grew louder.
"The key to being happy is to never look back, and keep your eyes focused on the future- on what you can do next, and where you want to go."
Somewhere in chaos we all find ourselves…Through the determination of the strong, we can find the meaning that we've searched for so long! My ghosts won't bring me down…and when there's nothing left for me to lose…that's when I win.
Finally, things started making sense again, and eventually I realized that Omega had moved me behind a tall pillar for protection, and Rouge had hoisted me up in her arms, repeatedly chanting my name. I could hear thrashing and attacking going on in the distance, which wasn't a very reassuring sound.
"Come on, Shadow; you can't be taken out that easily! …don't you dare die on me again!"
Rouge was gripping me tighter, and after shaking my head, I tried to sit up by myself.
"Good Lord, I'm not dead…don't start the eulogy for me."
Rouge let out a sharp laugh of relief before she started shaking me. "Well stop scaring me like that, jerk! What happened, exactly!?"
I tried to pull my way out of her grip, but she wasn't letting go until she knew every detail. Sighing, I caved in and went limp, trying to recount what I had gone through.
"Mephiles…he was using my greatest weakness against me, and I only just now realize that…" I trailed, grabbing my head. "I may have been able to stand against it, but he had me doubting myself…"
"You have no need to doubt," Omega confirmed, holding out his hand. "As long as you're certain of who you are, no one else should be able to sway you otherwise."
"Yeah, I know that now…guess we all need is a potentially lethal smack across the face by a demonic monster from time to time to get us back on the right track."
"Stop," Rouge smirked, helping me back to my feet. "This is so not the time for your warped sense of humor."
Leaning on the pillar to regain my balance, I dusted myself off and looked around. The three monsters were still going rampant on the area, and Mephiles was still nowhere in sight. Omega said that those creatures were nothing but shadows, which meant that they were just like the shades…and if I attacked them long enough, I'd be able to build up enough power to draw out Mephiles again.
"Okay," I stated, stretching my neck and loosening my arms. "I'm going to need your guys' help to give me an opening. Are you ready?"
"Assistance online and ready to function!" Onega declared, swinging his arms around and turning them into his cannons. Rouge merely took out one of her bombs and eagerly tossed it around in her hand.
"I've been waiting all day to hear you say that."
They wasted no time in running back out to the battlefield, where the trio of monsters roared and instantly began shooting lasers across the area. Omega was fast to react, repelling one of them back with his own inferno laser, keeping it at bay just long enough for me to skate over there, fly up, and attack again.
"Just like that Omega!" I called, knocking my opponent several times in the head and maneuvering out of the way when he tried to swat again. The fact that he missed caused him to let up on the laser, allowing Omega to get in his blow, nailing the monster in the face just as I flipped down its back, skating off to the next monster. My aura was glowing slightly, but it wasn't enough- not yet.
Rouge was busy keeping the second one distracted, nailing it with bombs at every chance she got. Otherwise she was busy spiraling and spinning about in the air, narrowly missing shots from the beam. Regardless, she still moved like each motion was choreographed, so I used this to get around the monster and attack it from behind. It lurched and roared in response, its back arching as I drilled into it with a spin dash. I could feel my aura growing stronger, even after I had forced the monster back into the floor, but I still needed just a little more.
"Let's go!" I demanded, skating straight at the third one. Its blue and purple exterior was glowing blindingly as it slapped its hand on the ground in an effort to squash me. I darted around it with ease before falling into ball form and launching myself up at its head with a Light Speed Dash. It was a direct hit, sending the monster bending backwards as it recoiled from my strike.
With Omega, Rouge, and I all tackling the monsters separately, they were unable to work with each other. They were left divided and conquered, and with no other choice than to surrender. When all three of them receded back into the ground, I found myself into the middle of the area, glowing red and feeling stronger than ever.
"Come out and face me, Mephiles…!" I blared, expelling my power in the form of a Chaos Blast. It was strong enough to completely obliterate the purple goo that covered the floor, and prevent the monsters from respawning. A purple portal suddenly opened up not too far from me, and out emerged Mephiles, spiraling around and not looking happy.
"You will regret that recent choice!" he hissed, wasting no time in hurling his blue orbs down at me. I darted out of the way and threw myself at him, swinging my leg and making contact with his head. "Gah…!"
"I'll make you regret ALL of your choices!" I shot back, refusing to let up on my assault. However, Mephiles managed to grab my fist at one point and force me to the ground, lowing himself down to be at my level.
"Do you really think you can take on a god like me?!"
He started darting around the area, leaving a purple streak behind him as he went. Omega began firing his heat-seeking missiles, but either Mephiles was moving far too abruptly or he had no energy signature to trace, because he was able to redirect them at every turn and laugh about it. His impish darting around the area was annoying, so I predicted where he'd be, warped in front of him, and punched him in the face. He stumbled backwards, wiping his arm across his face as he glowered at me.
"Nrgh…come closer if you dare!" he challenged me, arms lit up in purple. I sneered and drove at him, welcoming the invitation.
"With pleasure!"
I went low at him, but he hovered just out of the way and went at me with a strike of his own. I bent back and tried to kick, but he pushed my ankle out of the way. Mephiles was ready for me blow for blow and he was dead set on finding a hole in my defenses. It was hard enough for me to even attempt attacks, because eventually he overwhelmed me and landed a kick to my torso.
His vexing laugh pounded against my eardrums as I skid forcefully along the ground. I also heard Rouge shriek at the sight, and as I pushed myself up, I saw her hurling bombs frantically at Mephiles. The demon chortled even harder as he knocked away all of Rouge's explosives, causing them to backfire and detonate on her. She was forced to the ground, but she alighted on her feet, turning back to Mephiles with an angry sneer.
"You monster! We'll finish you!"
"Really? Your efforts so far are most discouraging," he huffed back. That made Omega furious, as he lifted his blasters and managed to hit Mephiles square in the back.
"Chances of success are 96.4 percent, and I believe in our odds!" he boomed, firing another round. Mephiles cackled and spread his arms out, welcoming the attack just like he had in Wave Ocean. When Omega reloaded, Mephiles used that brief moment to conjure up one of his spheres and send it Omega's way.
"Will you still be saying that when you're in pieces?!"
There was no way Omega could move fast enough to dodge that blow, but I could, swinging to my feet and hurling a condensed Chaos Blast into the air. Thankfully I had managed to connect it with Mephiles' attack, sending it off course and into a pillar, which promptly detonated.
"Leave them alone!" I shouted, readying a Chaos Spear in my hand. "It's me you want- keep them out of it!"
"They're the ones who attacked ME!" Mephiles howled, waving his arms until he had a huge amount of power charged up. He launched the large sphere at Rouge this time, which was yet another cheap shot from Mephiles. Grimacing, I activated my jets and glided over to Rouge at top speed, barely able to make it in front of her in time to put up a shield with Chaos Blast. Mephiles' attack pounded against my shield, but while the two of us remained unhurt, it still sent us flying backward against our will.
"Argh…!"
My shoes grinded against the floor as I stopped myself, falling to one knee and a hand as I looked back up at Mephiles. He was relentless, throwing another attack at me without warning. At the last moment I teleported to its right, feeling it explode right next to me.
That could've been me!
"You're really asking for it…!" I threatened, throwing my hands back and preparing a Chaos Spear in each one, like a golden fire flying out of my fists. Mephiles appeared bemused, even going so far as to make a thinking pose in midair.
"All I've asked from you was to join me, but you so rudely declined that offer, remember?"
Mephiles was suddenly in front of me again, my instincts kicking in as I bent to the left to avoid a sharp uppercut. In his fleeting moment of confusion, I jammed the side of my fist into his abdomen, driving my charged spear into his side. He actually howled at this, but in the midst of his pain he managed to get his hand around my neck and throttle me, using his other hand to charge up an attack and plow it into my stomach.
"Why fight a battle whose victor has already been predetermined?" he asked aloofly, letting me drop to the ground without an ounce of humanity. While my stomach was doing flips and I felt like throwing up, I refused to go down again, so I warped back into the air and threw some Chaos Spears at Mephiles. I nailed him in the head, which should've done something, but he merely let himself descend. Seeing him get closer to the ground, I ran at him, but he vanished into the floor before I could get at him.
"Damn it…!" I hissed pounding at the floor. "Where do you keep going?!"
Eventually Mephiles remerged behind me, appearing twice as grim and solemn.
"Looking for me?"
And right in front of my very eyes, Mephiles split into two, then three…and all of them were readying individual attacks between their hands. No way could I deflect all three of them!
"HAH!"
Trying to evade one was to move in the line of fire of another, but all three rammed into me like a locomotive, with the following explosion sending me upwards. When I reached the peak of my ascent, one of the Mephiles was there to kick me down…then another…and another…until I fell so hard that the ground cracked beneath me.
How am I not dead?
"Ooog…what the…?"
I felt myself being lifted, and glancing over my shoulder revealed that it was Omega. He set me back on my feet before stepping forward, watching Mephiles circle about the area and create a shade with every passing second.
"He cannot be allowed to roam like this for much longer!" he exclaimed, turning down to me. "We must incapacitate him immediately so you can seal him!"
"I don't…know how much more fight…is in me…" I murmured, staggering where I stood.
"The only way we can get him is if we strike him and all his clones at once," Rouge pointed out, flying next to me. "Otherwise he'll just keep multiplying."
"Well what…do you want me…to do about it?" I panted, turning up to her. Rouge merely smiled and plucked the green Chaos Emerald off my person and waved it in front of me. I glanced at Omega too- he had his cannons all ready for the preemptive strike. Finally, I faced Mephiles, who had us surrounded by his clones with him in the middle. He was conjuring up the large blue and purple sphere yet and, this one was streaked with black in certain spots.
"Sink into darkness!"
Omega and Rouge turned to me as I watched that mass of power descend down upon us. I kept my eyes locked onto it as I held out my Chaos Emerald, the gem beginning to gleam when I drew out its power. I then blinked, crouched down, spun, and held the emerald over my head, yelling with a newfound conviction.
"Chaos…CONTROL!"
Time slowed down to a stop except for my friends and I, leaving Rouge wide open to heft Omega into the air, and for Omega to launch the Inferno Laser. The powerful pink beam swept across the area, spearing Mephiles' shades with its light and turning them into dust. The area was cleaned up almost instantly, although the true Mephiles had been untouched, as his control over time allowed him to nullify the time freeze and leave himself unscathed.
"Ha ha ha…HA HA HA!" he cackled toward Rouge and Omega as they returned to the ground. "Using a time-warp against a master of time? Fruitless, and truly futile. You can destroy as many of my copies as you like, but you'll never be rid of me, because I am-!"
Mephiles' eyes suddenly went wide as he lurched forward and went sickeningly limp, just barely floating up off the ground. Rouge and Omega recoiled at the sight, only to see me standing behind Mephiles, two fingers pointed in the air. I had hit him in the base of his neck with a Chaos Spear while he was distracted.
Sniped!
"I…am forever…and I am…invincible…" he moaned, falling straight to his knees as the pool of purple liquid returned. In fact, it was Mephiles himself that was decomposing, his body beginning to drip with that purple matter until he became nothing but how he used to be before he had the nerve to corrupt my shadow.
But most importantly, now my window of opportunity was wide open.
With him in his vulnerable state, I approached him cautiously, holding out the Scepter of Darkness as my trump card. Just like it did a decade ago, it began to glow as it hovered above me. I spread my arms and let it do its work, with Rouge covering her mouth in stunned surprise and even Omega unable to assess what was happening. Mephiles turned into a gas as the power of the scepter called him to it, and just like before, his soul was entrapped in the crystal.
It was done.
I was all ready to wrap things up…but the scepter suddenly turned upside down…and erupted in an even brighter flash. I was forced to halt the ritual and defend myself, along with Rouge and Omega. A sharp zinging sound pierced the air along with the unforgiving light, and when I thought it was never going to end, I heard Rouge yell out in anguish.
"It's destroyed!"
Sure enough, when I uncovered my eyes, the scepter was in pieces on the ground, discarded and nothing more than scrap. But what was more worrying than the last chance at dealing with Mephiles for good being destroyed was the swirling black cloud that appeared above us.
"The 'I' of now absorbed your shadow in the past…" Mephiles' voice rumbled out of the expanse. My quills sharpened instinctively as I narrowed my eyes. "…what may have worked ten years ago no longer does!"
His head formed from the black smoke, and the revelation of the fact that there was truly no way to stop Mephiles anymore struck me like lightning. In fact, before I could even get in a word edgewise, Mephiles' arms emerged back into existence, and he launched a powerful blue resonation that shattered the floor completely and blew us backwards with no way to defend.
"Whoooooaaaa!"
Mephiles floated before us like our fight never even happened, even his menacing heliotrope aura appearing stronger than ever. Rubble rained down from the ceiling as he alighted on the ground, standing tall as a truly malevolent god…who still wasn't even at full strength… A light hum of amused laughter escaped him as Rouge, Omega, and I fell face first onto the ground, lying amongst the debris. I was still reeling from the battle, unlike him, so I hardly had the resolve to push my torso off the ground.
"Wait…no…" I croaked, upon seeing what Mephiles was beginning to do.
He had swiped my Chaos Emerald, which must've flown off my person when he sent us flying backward, and had combined its power with the yellow one. The gems swirled each other in a figure eight motion, almost as if they were taunting me for my failure. To rub salt in the wounds, Mephiles was able to use their power to form EXACT clones of him, right down to the looks, abilities, and stability. They went from two, to four, and kept multiplying exponentially, and soon the whole room was full of them and keeping count was an impossible feat.
"You MUST realize that you cannot hope to stop me with your limited power," the true Mephiles boomed, though it was hard to tell him apart from his militia of minions. "You were doomed to lose from the very beginning! How does it feel, knowing you were destined for failure from the moment you met me?!"
Limited…power…?
I stared hard at Mephiles, getting on my knees before struggling to push myself to my feet, but I did it. Seeing me stand in the face of this despair was enough for Rouge and Omega to pull themselves together and get up as well, so that we could all stand together…
"Hmph, so you say…" I stated valiantly, a knowing smirk creeping onto my face. Mephiles eyed me suspiciously but remained assertive.
"It's futile," he insisted, unwavering. "The world will betray you. You've seen it yourself, and you KNOW that there will be no one to help you then…so why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later? Who will you fight against, when you'll have nothing to fight for at all?"
Would I really have nothing to fight for? I had already hit my rock bottom once, clamoring for a reason to fight, and I managed to bounce back from that. If I really had to, I'd do it over again, and again I'd find some way to carry on. The future still wasn't looking very bright, and no amount of optimism would change that, but I'd work through it like I did everything else in life. Sonic never let things ever slow him down, and Silver knew when to take an opportunity when it was presented to him, even if it did turn out to be bad…
Bad things were going to happen, but it's how we dealt with them that was important.
"Will you really let the world turn against you?" Mephiles asked again. "You could end that now before it even begins…!"
If it means sticking with what I believe in, then yes, I will.
Rouge and Omega sidled up next to me upon hearing that, with both of them all set to fight. I took a second to glance at them and found myself smirking, because I remembered what I was fighting for right now. I had a world I promised to protect, friends I vowed to keep safe, and a life I wanted to live, and to turn my back on all that now just because things wouldn't go my way was like giving up. I worked too hard to throw it all away now.
And "giving up" wasn't in my vocabulary.
"If the world chooses to become my enemy…" I grabbed the Inhibitor Ring on my right wrist, giving it a twist until it clicked off and fell to the ground. "…then I will fight like I always have!"
I broke out into a smile as I faced Mephiles, removing the Inhibitor Ring off my left wrist and letting it drop next to the other one. They clinked against each other, but otherwise rested lifelessly on the ground. I left the ones on my ankles on unless I desperately needed them, but as I took a fighting stance against the endless droves of Mephiles' look-alikes…I decided that I would be just fine.
They advanced toward me without hesitance, and I noticed that the real Mephiles had sunk into the ground and vanished, even leaving behind the yellow and green emeralds. I didn't truly understand why he didn't take the emeralds with him, but he was off to run loose again, and there wasn't anything I could do but fight, and hope to live another day.
And really, really hope that Iblis was prevented from being released.
"I will show you my true power…!" I announced, shoving the thought away. I threw my head back and let out a battle cry instead. I instantly burst with gold, teeming with the unheralded power that I possessed, no longer capped off by my inhibitors. Mephiles thought that my power was limited…well he was wrong in the worst way possible for him!
My energy radiated through the whole room, washing over every clone before I barreled forward, not even needing to touch them to eliminate them at this point. My aura was so strong and pure that simply coming into contact with me was enough to annihilate all the fakes in my midst. With Rouge and Omega behind me, Mephiles could've made a hundred thousand million copies of himself, and I'd be able to tear through them all!
It was true that I may have failed in stopping Mephiles, but I had given it my all right until the very end. I did what I could when I could at all times, and while I may have been forced to put my hands up and admit defeat, I was in no way, shape, or form down for the count now. I had lost this time, but we can't win them all, and once I got out of this I'd pick myself up and hunt down Mephiles for as long as it'd take.
This wasn't over by any means- it was just another thing to overcome, but I knew I could do it. I am Shadow the Hedgehog, who never stays down for long and takes nothing from anybody. Whether I had one enemy or a whole world full of them, I would persist in what I believed, and those who wanted to help me on my path were welcome to do so. Rouge and Omega were constant reminders of that, along with Sonic, and even Silver now that he came around…
I would never, ever question myself again from now on. Not anymore.
As I once said, I'd let nothing ever truly deter me again…and I knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
