Jayde the Hedgehog • Rising Adversity [2]

18: Exhaustion✔️

Music: Run - Veorra

The three beings stood before her, Adversity and Eclipse having their usual grins on their face while Shadow looked his evil self. Adversity looked at the hedgehog below her, "Now do you see? You are all destined to fail – the whole multiverse will come crumbling down under our rule."

Jayde sneered, clenching her fists, "You will never win."

This time, it was Eclipse who spoke for the first time. He chuckled, "You Mobians are so pathetic. Your puny comments only make us laugh. Shadow has turned against you – how could you possibly win?" Jayde could see his palms light up, but her body was too drained to move. Her powers were even weaker, preventing her from turning invisible and the blast struck her back. But she never made a sound other than a small grunt. She turned on her back, lifting herself up with her forearms as she stared at the three. She could never fight them by herself.

"Shadow," she grunted, standing up, "Y-You know that they've manipulated you – why are you still fighting with them?"

"They've showed me the future. A good future where I can avenge Maria and the Black Arms." He spoke in a monotone voice.

"That's not what Maria would've wanted at all!" Jayde shouted. Jayde felt metal claws grasp her weaken figure and she began to struggle. There was no way she could lose this again. She had to fight him – she had to fight Adversity! "No! Shadow you've got to come back! This isn't you!"

She was lifted off the ground, Shadow staring up to where she was being taken. He knew he'd have another opportunity to defeat her later – she was his prey, a weak one too. Tears filled her orbs that she refused to allow fall, "Adversity is the bad guy, Shadow! She's using you."

It was like she wasn't even saying anything. The Ultimate Lifeform turned away from her and began heading towards the forest. Jayde was dropped beside the blue hedgehog, his gloved hands securing themselves around her weak arms to stop her from escaping.

"N-No!" Jayde cried, watching his figure disappear, "We... We have to stop her. We've got to save Shadow!"

Sonic looked away from the grey hedgehog, his ears pinning back. But even the hero knew that they could not save Shadow without a proper plan. Without that they were all destined to fail. Jayde looked at Sonic in disbelief – he was supposed to be the saviour, the hero.

"No!" Jayde yelled, gripping the sides of the Eggcarrier as Eggman began to fly away, "SHADOW!"

Sonic walked through the lab doors with the grey female in his arms after having tired herself out with struggling. Amy was quick to make up a bed like area for her and the blue hedgehog gently placed her there. He sighed, looking at the Protector. The doctor walked in after the blue hero, leading Amy and Tails to tense up and move into a fighting stance, "Calm down, guys. Eggman's on our side – right?" Sonic asked, studying the evil genius with his emerald orbs.

Dr Eggman nodded, raising his hands up, "I promise not to harm anyone until this battle is over. I am here to help." He smirked, "But after this is done, get ready for the beat down of your life, hedgehog."

"Still waiting." Sonic mumbled, looking back at the sleeping female.

"What happened?" Amy asked, looking towards her blue hero.

"She tried fighting Shadow alone – it only ended up with her more hurt." He mumbled, "Adversity also took her shard."

Tails sat up straight after hearing this, "Who knows what Adversity could do with that shard! The Riots Crystal is still very much a mystery – we've only just scratched the surface of its powers."

"She unleashed Eclipse." Sonic added, causing his two closest friends to fall quiet. Now with three strong and powerful enemies on the loose, they needed to know that Scourge wasn't going to betray them. The enemies weren't just strengthened by the chaos energy in them, but the Riots Shard would've definitely been stronger than all of them combined. They still needed Shadow.

"Jayde, at the moment, is in a split between herself and her dark form." Sonic spoke, looking towards the Mobians, "I saw that when she fired a powerful energy at Shadow – almost like a chaos blast."

The cerise hedgehog looked at the female and nodded, "With everything that's going on, I'm not surprised. I mean – look at Shadow. They were close, and now it's like Adversity is tearing them apart, tearing Jayde apart from the inside."

"I think it best that we try not to stress her out too much, despite everything that's going on." Tails spoke, typing on his laptop, "I know that Raven won't be unleashed from her, but if her Dark form became angry enough, it would be just like yours, Sonic."

Tails looked at his communicator as it bleeped, showing the two Mobians back on the ARK, "Hey, Tails. How's everything going?" the red echidna asked, both him and Rouge in one of the spare rooms of the ARK.

"It..." he looked around. Sonic, himself, looked exhausted. Amy was constantly rushing around, probably trying to distract herself from what was happening and Cleobella and Jayde were practically knocked out cold, "It could be better." He finally sighed.

"How's things with Shadow?" Rouge asked, coming into view.

"We don't know how to return him." Amy simply spoke, "This is the second time Jayde has fought with him – even trying to talk to him isn't working."

"Last time all it took was recreating the fake information in his mind. Telling him about his past and how he's helped us," Rouge sighed, "But I don't think this time will be that easy."

"How do you mean?" Knuckles asked.

Before the ivory bat could answer, Tails beat her to it, "Because Adversity was created by more than one set of DNA, plus Eggman has put some kind of chaos energy in her, she is three times as powerful as Eclipse. It means it'll take more energy and more power to bring Shadow back."

"The super forms won't work." Sonic said, "Compared to both the Shards and Chaos Emeralds – which we don't have – I'd have no chance." The blue hedgehog paused, "Wow, never thought I'd hear myself say that." Amy giggled weakly at him.

Tails nodded, "It needs to be something that comes from Shadow. It has to be his own willpower that brings him back. I don't know whether he can see what he's doing but he most certainly can feel it still."

Rouge bit her lip a bit, "There's only one person that I can think of who could actually knock some sense into him."

"Jayde..." Amy whispered, looking over to the sleeping hedgehog. The ivory bat nodded. But they all knew that she was on her last strand of hope and all it took to snap it was Shadow breaking her one more time.