Sonic X : Planet Zero

Making New Amends

After listening to the message provided by Caitlin, Shadow had his arms crossed and his head faced down, looking pretty disappointed.

As Sonic turned towards him, Shadow muttered some words to him.

"I can't believe you all got her trapped out there. We have to save her..."

"I tried the best I could pal. It's a long story but..."

But before he could finish, Sonic questioned how he actually knew her.

"Wait you know about her?"

"Yeah, Rouge and I came across her the other day. I had warned her to stay safe but now she's out there on her own."

"Well it's not too late for us now! But we're gonna need your help more than ever now Shadow" the blue hedgehog stated.

He then briefly told him the full story on what happened to him.

"The thing is, I recently lost most of my powers by Reclus when I was stuck on his ship, and I have only started gaining them back slowly."

"Can you still go super?" he asked him.

The blue hedgehog responded back, "I'm not even sure if I'd be able to handle that."

"You still got the chaos emeralds with you right?" he asked as well.

"I'm afraid I only have one with me at the moment" Sonic responded back.

Shadow happened to have one with him as well. He took a step closer to Sonic and offer that they test it out. Sonic, on the other hand, was skeptical about it.

"You sure we should try this, Shadow? I doubt the current state of my powers would be able to handle it."

Shadow was quite surprised to hear these words come from the blue hedgehog's mouth.

"Listen, did we give up back when we were up on the ark, trying to defeat the Biolizard and saving the world for everyone? And did we give up when we tried saving the planet again from the Metarex's power?"

"Well yeah..."

"Then who's to say we should give up now?"

Sonic then gave him a confident smile and nodded in agreement. He knew Shadow was right and couldn't believe he almost felt like giving up.

"Right! Heroes never quit!"

The two then held the emeralds in the palm of their hands and raised it slightly up in the air. They only used the chaos' energy minimally at the moment as they didn't want to use it up all at once at to be able to save it for the real battle. And to their surprise, both of them had created their own glowing effect. Both had felt their own strength within them. Sonic's energy was slightly weaker than Shadow's at the moment but both had enough power to top their enemies.

"Now we just need to collect the rest of the emeralds" Shadow had stated.

The whole team then agreed to go and search for the rest of the emeralds, while defeating the rest of Reclus' tiny bots along the way.

The next day, following the night that Caitlin had sent the message, Reclus gathered everyone on his ship for a quick meeting.

The dark ruler stood right in front of a gigantic sheet, where his newest creation was waiting to be unveiled.

"Attention everyone. It is my greatest pleasure to reveal to you all my latest creation yet. This invention of mine is certainly gonna be my biggest and best one yet."

While everyone looked on with eager anticipation, Caitlin couldn't help but roll her eyes as she already knew what it was gonna be.

The dark ruler was quite prideful as he unveiled the beta model of the gigantic robot.

"Behold! Meet Zelos! Fully equipped with over 1 million laser light cannons and missiles that should be able to wipe out an entire planet!"

The crowd looked on in amazement and couldn't help but gush while looking at his appearance.

"And once we eliminate all the other planets, then Zelos here will absorb all the powers of the emeralds which will all belong to us!"

Everyone cheered along as he gave his speech, except for Caitlin.

"In just two days, we will finally activate Zelos and test his true capabilities, so I need you all to be prepared for this special ceremony."

As everyone was excited for this upcoming event, Caitlin was now even more worried than ever. How in the world were she and her friends gonna be able to stop all of this now?

Later on, Caitlin and her dad walked over to his room. Victor noticed his daughter looking quite solemn and tried his best to cheer her up.

"Aren't you excited Caitlin? Reclus is finally going to activate Zelos for all to see tomorrow."

Caitlin took a deep breath, not wanting to argue but instead tried confessing her secret to him.

"I'm sorry to say dad but I already knew about all this. I snuck into Reclus' lab the other night and saw everything that he has planned."

Victor then looked on with a surprised look on his face.

"Really? And you didn't get caught? I mean I can't say I'm not impressed by your actions but don't do that again alright."

She then started raising her voice at him.

"But dad! Reclus can't be trusted. What is he even gaining from all this? He's costing millions of innocent lives out there. We can't just be lying around while he gets away with this. I don't know about you dad, but I'm gonna find a way to put a stop to all this."

She took a brief pause before continuing on with her argument.

"And I'm not alone on this either. I was able to get in contact with Sonic and his friends and told them everything that Reclus has been planning."

"Wait are you talking about that blue hedgehog? I thought we all got rid of him back there."

"No dad, he's still alive and I'm most certain that he will be able to come and rescue all of us from this prison."

"I really don't think it's the wisest choice to have your friend come all the way here, especially after Reclus has already showed how powerful he is. He can easily take down that hedgehog once again."

"Please dad. Please don't let Reclus know that he's still alive."

Tears started streaming from her eyes as she couldn't bear the thought of having to lose him again.

"I-I really can't lose him again."

Victor couldn't bear to see his daughter anymore upset. He clearly saw how much she cared about the hedgehog. He had to think hard on this decision of his.

"Alright sweetie...I'm keeping this secret between you and me ok."

She lifted up her head slowly to look at him.

"You really mean it dad?"

He nodded his head in agreement, hoping that he was doing the right thing.

She then proceeded to give him a giant hug.

"And you promise you're gonna help me and the rest put a stop to Reclus' plans right?"

He shook his head silently, as he feared the consequences he could get into.

"I'm sorry sweetie but I'm leaving that up to you and the rest of your friends. If Reclus catches me in on the act, who knows what he might try to do to me! He might even disembody all my parts and just reduce me into scrap metal!"

"Don't worry, soon you'll all be free from everything Reclus has done to you all."

Her face was now filled with determination more than ever.

Before heading back into her room, she gave her dad one last hug and a kiss on his cheek as she wished him goodnight. She then headed back into her room.

He was quite surprised at the amount of affection he was receiving from his daughter, as they barely showed it to each other throughout the past days since they had met again. Despite his loyalty to Reclus, he secretly wanted her to succeed if it meant seeing her being happy.