Shadow, Don't Make Me Upset (Shadow Saga Series #2)

I Believe In My Future

Here comes the feels train.
Sonic belongs to SEGA, enjoy!

"Shadow... I beg of you... I want you to promise me something... please..."

Shadow was back in that escape pod again, desperately begging Maria to stop what she was doing. "No, wait! Maria! Let... let me out of here!" he screamed, banging his fists against the glass.

Maria didn't stop. "For all the people living on that planet... give them a chance to be happy," she said, never removing her gaze from his. "Promise me... that you'll help those people, and be... friends with them... just like you are mine. Please, make their wishes come true... Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason why you were born..."

There were no blanks this time. Shadow could hear her voice perfectly clearly, even through her pained gasps and his own sobbing. "M-Maria...! I-I... You... you can't go... I..." He slammed both fists on the glass again, tears falling from his eyes. "I WON'T LET YOU! You can't leave me like this... I want to make that promise for you, but... but I don't want you to die!"

Maria's gentle smile only made it worse as her own tears were shed. "It's okay, Shadow... I'm not going away forever. I might be leaving this world... but I will never stop being there for you, even after my last breath... And I will always love you, Shadow." She gripped the lever with her remaining strength and said her final goodbyes. "Adiós... Shadow... the Hedgehog..."

And she was gone.

Snapping out of his flashback, Shadow realized he was shaking, the memory playing over and over in his mind as he felt his eyes burn. "That's what I've promised her... of course..." he mumbled, the weight of his true promise to Maria hitting him like a truck. "That's what Maria wished for..." It was then that he realized what had truly been done to him.

Gerald lied to me.

And in that moment, a single tear escaped from Shadow's eye.

"Sh-Shadow...?" Amy asked, looking at him with concern as the Ultimate Lifeform wiped his eyes and stood up.

"I have to go now," he said to her with a determined look in his eye. "To make your wish and hers come true."

And just like that, Shadow was off and running.

Cannon's core

Shadow arrived at the deepest part of the ARK. The Chaos Emeralds were giving off a lot of energy, and he could sense all of that power as the emeralds were pulling the colony closer to that planet. If we don't hurry, everything will be for naught, he shuddered in his head, noticing that Sonic and Knuckles were there. But there was something else in front of the duo: a giant lizard monster, looking identical to the one in the picture Rouge had shown him earlier. That's... my prototype! Shadow clenched his fists, then decided to intervene and stepped forward.

"Leave this one to me," the black hedgehog announced, as Sonic and Knuckles turned to face him.

"S-Shadow?!" Sonic stuttered, eyes wide with shock. "What are you..."

Shadow turned to his blue rival and gave him a serious look. "Run to the Chaos Emeralds while I draw it away!"

Sonic still looked a bit shocked, but nodded in understanding and turned back to Knuckles, who held a large green gemstone in his hands. "Let's go!"

Shadow took off to face the prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform: the Biolizard, a mindless beast that only knew destruction. The hedgehog couldn't help but see a parallel between the creature and what Gerald had ultimately become. Looking back on the endlessly looping recording that had been playing this whole time, Shadow realized that, in his grief and descent into madness, his creator had cast aside everything he once cared about... including his own creations. The Biolizard was fighting for the man who had created it, but Shadow was fighting for the only person who had ever truly loved him. Maria.

Of course, Shadow was winning.

Pitiful specimen, Shadow thought as he shot several Chaos Spears at the Biolizard. The creature roared, leaving a ringing in his ears, and then the unthinkable happened.

With another earsplitting screech, the beast was engulfed in a white light... and it disappeared.

Shadow teleported to the section of the room where Sonic and Knuckles were located, all three of them staring at the spot where the monster had been seconds ago. "Oh, son of a—did it just use Chaos Control?!" Shadow exclaimed in a panic.

"Sonic! Can you hear me?" Eggman's voice shouted from the radio he still had. "The prototype is still alive! It's become one with the colony and is determined to keep it on its collision course!"

"Sonic, what do we do?!" Knuckles asked, yanking on his dreadlocks in his stress. "We're out of options!"

Sonic's gaze turned to the Chaos Emeralds laying all over the floor around them. "Not quite," he said before turning to Shadow. "Follow my lead."

Shadow nodded and did what Sonic did, both hedgehogs lifting their hands toward the emeralds as they began to glow. Sonic closed his eyes, as did Shadow, and the emeralds almost seemed to react to their thoughts as Shadow felt their energy getting stronger. Please... help us grant Maria's wish! Shadow begged the emeralds internally. I can't do it alone. Please, help us!

Both hedgehogs opened their eyes, and a flash of golden light flooded the room.

Shadow stared in awe as his black fur turned almost white, and Sonic's blue became a golden yellow. Sonic's quills were now upturned, much like Shadow's, and his eyes were glowing a blazing red. It was as though a wellspring of Chaos energy had sprung up inside both of them, and in another flash, they were outside the colony.

Shadow was not about to question how they did not immediately freeze out here or die from a lack of oxygen. The prototype was relentless, sending out huge lasers as it pulled the colony down further toward the planet. Sonic flew off to the left side while Shadow took the right, both hedgehogs flying around to avoid the lasers and attacking the boils that popped up on the lizard's body. Gross, Shadow thought as he swerved to avoid getting hit and punched another of the boils, resulting in a sickening POP as fluid was sent drifting into the void of space. Good thing I skipped lunch, otherwise I'd be losing it right now... this is nauseating.

"Shadow! How are you doing?" Sonic asked from the other side of the fight, speaking through Shadow's radio.

Shadow was about to answer—until a scorching pain shot through his entire body.

The hedgehog recoiled and teleported out of the way to be closer to Sonic's position, but that only seemed to make it worse as Shadow doubled over in agony, taking in sharp breaths. "It... it seems like this form is too much for my body...!" he gasped as Sonic flew next to him, looking concerned. It feels like all of my nerves are burning...!

"Shadow, at this rate your super form won't last!" Sonic said as he dodged another laser blast with Shadow in tow. "Get back to the colony!"

Shadow considered the option, but he knew Sonic couldn't handle this on his own. He shook his head, ignoring the burning pain in his body as he got back into the fight. "Maria... watch me," he whispered as he forced his body to keep going.

"I will fulfill your wish!"

Next time is the conclusion to the fight because this chapter is way too long. Sorry for the pacing issues.
Peace out!