There, the black hedgehog and the gray hedgehog stood, squaring off. At one time they were one, but now they stood as two completely separate entities. The gray hedgehog wished to destroy everything as was Professor Gerald’s plans less than 55 years before then. The black hedgehog wished to protect everything, even at the cost of his own life. Events that at the time seemed small and unmemorable led to the differences in them. The black hedgehog knew love, hope, joy and care, whilst his gray predecessor knew only hatred, destruction, and rage, a legacy left by Gerald Robotnik.

“Incredible!” Eggman proclaimed whilst watching this from a camera in the main control room, “They’re about to face off! This is going to be great!”

Even though Eggman was happy about this soon-to-be fight Rouge was more concerned for Shadow’s safety, “Does he even stand a chance? Does he gray Shadow know all of the black Shadow’s moves? Or vice versa? Oh… I’m worried,”

“Me too,” Fiona chimed in, watching her boy friend fighting, quite literally, the ghosts of the past.

“This ends here, monster!” the black Shadow declared, “You’ve spilt the last drop of blood that you ever will again!”

“If you think you can terminate me, I’d like to see you try. You have only become weaker with time. You’re hardly worth the effort, so I’ll give you a chance to escape now. Well?” Alpha Ghost replied.

“Forget it! You’re as good as dead! There’s no way you can beat me, imposter!” Shadow exclaimed.

“It’s your funeral, organic!” Alpha Ghost quipped. From Alpha Ghosts’ arms extended two LifeSwords, each twice as long and thick as our heroes’, “Prepare for termination, Omega Angel!” With one swing, the very wake of energy carrying about the sword hurled our hero backwards and it split open the titanium-reinforced walls and door!

Strange… I seem to recall being incredibly slow back then… maybe… The black Shadow thought silently. Then he took off, straight towards his counter part and rocketed narrowly past the twin blades and leapt through one of the slashes through the wall and began running whilst his counter part made chase. C’mon Slow-Moe… chase me…that’s right… Shadow sneered. Shadow then turned on his hover jets and zipped far ahead of his much slower past-self.

Shadow then came across a large, thick metal door, and even though he couldn’t tell it by the outside, the energies from behind it told him the seven chaos emeralds were inside and so was the Atma Egg. Shadow turned only moments before Alpha Ghost Shadow struck at him with both LifeSwords, so Shadow twirled about him and kicked him in his back, knocking him forward and forcing the swords through the 3-foot thick door! Angrily, AGS twirled around after bringing the blades through the steel, opening a large gap through what at one point was the door, and swung again at our much-faster hero.

Shadow, however, zipped past the on-coming swords and lunged into the next room and saw the demonic-esque machine that killed his best friend, Forte. Shadow then, got an idea, and he leapt into the cockpit of the Atma Egg and lifted up the control stick and pressed hard on the red button on top of the device. In doing so, all seven chaos emerald, all embedded within the Atma Egg, charged up and fired off a radical beam of furious energy into Alpha Ghost, hurling him so far down the hall way, he faded from Shadow’s sight.

“Well, who’d have thought Eggman would be of some use to ME someday? HAH!” Shadow scoffed, “That wasn’t so hard…” But just then, Shadow’s eyes refocused on a bright blue blur zooming back towards him, “No! You’ve gotta be joking me!” Then, Alpha Ghost slammed into Shadow, breaking the Atma Egg into pieces, then slammed them both into the corner, and Alpha Ghost dropped the wounded hedgehog there, laughing.

“You were foolish to think that a First Class Bio-Unit like me could be destroyed by THAT pathetic attempt? Foolishness!” Alpha Ghost then laughed again, in a deep, haunting way, a laugh that echoed throughout nightmare-filled nights of Shadow’s sleep, which drove back so many horrid memories to our heroes’ mind.

“SHUT UP!!! CHAOS SPEAR!!!” Shadow screamed at the top of his lungs, and an enormous barrage of yellow arrows slammed into Alpha Ghost from all directions! Then, while the dust began to fall, Shadow quickly made work of collecting all seven emeralds and stuffing them into his pouch, “And now, Alpha Ghost…” Shadow looked up, “Playtime is over!”

“Interesting…” Alpha Ghost said, stoically and unharmed, “I didn’t know organic creatures could control such radical powers. I myself have flaws in doing such a task! But tell me, Omega Angel, do you really think such artificial power can beat my LifeSword?”

“You’re wrong, Alpha Ghost,” Shadow snickered, “Chaos emeralds aren’t power sources in themselves. When they touch someone, they collect that person’s feelings and build onto their battery supply of unlimited power. In doing so, there are, in actuality, two sides to each jewel. A Light Side. And A Dark Side. Now, I’ll show you what happens when all of them come to a point.” In saying this, Shadow closed his eyes and grit his teeth hard and began to radiantly glow, but something happened and he opened his eyes, without change.

“Was that it? A light show? I think your batteries are all dried up!” Alpha Ghost then laughed at Shadow.

Shadow looked down at the emeralds in his pouch, “I… uhm…” Shadow stuttered, and lifted the blue emerald out of his pouch, “C’mon, dad, let’s do it!” Shadow then, bit the emerald! In doing so, he took on the emeralds powers through his teeth and in that moment, every dark memory, every memory of ever being Alpha Ghost Shadow fled his mind forever and a bright light filled his heart and a longing to hold Fiona and see Forte and hang out with Kindarspirit; these and so many other emotions poured into his soul and then… SuperShadow was born once again.

SuperShadow then tucked the emerald back into the pouch and smirked, “Now, Alpha Ghost, you’ll soon see what makes organics one step ahead of you and all your kind!” the newly-reformed radiant silver hedgehog floated up and then landed again, but a new change had occurred… the white tuft of fur on Shadow’s chest had become a radiant golden tuft and it shined and reflected light almost like a metal. Upon noticing this Shadow looked up at Alpha Ghost, “I now am in full sync with him,”

“With who?” Alpha Ghost replied, confused.

“My best friend,” SuperShadow grinned, taking out the sky-blue life jewel, “Forte and I are here together. Just because his body isn’t, doesn’t mean his mind and soul and heart aren’t! He and I have always been one, that’s why I was able to become SuperShadow the first time when I knew he was with me! Now, face me, Alpha Ghost! We end this now!” He then pocketed the blue jewel as well and began laughed.

“What’s so funny? You’re still inferior to me!” Alpha Ghost demanded, “STOP YOUR SNICKERING!”

“That’s why I’m laughing, Alpha Ghost!” SuperShadow looked up at his past self, “It’s over,” SuperShadow then shot forward and with but one hand thrashed Alpha Ghost across his face over and over, shoving them both outside of the Floating Fortress, and leaving Alpha Ghost wide open to more punishment.

After finally pulling away from SuperShadow, Alpha Ghost declared, “I’m going to crush you now! I do not feel pain!!!”

“And that’s why you will lose. You feel nothing. Not remorse for those you killed. Not love for anyone at all. Since Maria and Gerald are both dead, you work on nothing but your organic parts’ ability to reason. Which isn’t a whole lot. You will now know what friendship among brothers-in-arms can now do!” SuperShadow declared, floating about ten feet overhead of Alpha Ghost.

“Lies! All lies! I work on the highest ability of logic and rational thought! As a matter of fact, I’ve never been any more sane and wise than now!” Alpha Ghost screamed, enraged.

“Now that’s the scariest thing you’ve said all day!” the still-mocking SuperShadow laughed.

“I’ll show you to insult me!” Alpha Ghost declared and shot at SuperShadow who merely floated off to the side from the charging bullet-hedgehog. “Hold still, you pathetic carbon-based life form!” Alpha Ghost then proceeded to constantly charge over and over at our hero, who constantly sidestepped the attacks until, Shadow held out one arm with a bright orange sword shaped like a LifeSword on it and, in all his rage, Alpha Ghost charged right into it! “What is this? I’m… paralyzed!”

“That’s right!” SuperShadow said, “Like you said, you can’t feel pain because of your machine parts! However, after watching your very slow movements for a while, I noticed your primary weak and open points. Now, you die. Good bye poser!”

“IMPOSSIBLE! YOU’RE NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO KILL ME!” Alpha Ghost screamed, kicking in mid-air.

“Just calm down, you won’t feel a thing, I promise!” the still-laughing SuperShadow said, floating several hundred feet over his target, then shot himself straight down at the now-helpless Alpha Ghost! In doing so, three bright auras enveloped Shadow. First, a light blue one, life energy. Secondly, an orange one, chaos energy. Finally, purple, in this, Shadow learned how to generate his own emotions without the assistance of the chaos emeralds and the three merged together and shined a radiant white and in that light-speed movement, caught Alpha Ghost and slammed them all into the sand below.

The entire dusk sky lit up as if it were noon and everyone on the entire half of the planet looked up and saw the radiant white light. Hours passed, and Eggman, Rouge the bat, Kindarspirit, Fiona, and the three robots were on the sand, looked around the mile-wide crater for any sign of life. Then, all of their eyes focused on a single point, as SuperShadow floated gracefully up to the flat surface just a foot away from the impact sight, and revert to his black form and fell into the arms of his brown hedgehog girlfriend.

“Shadow! Are you okay?” Fiona exclaimed, “Speak to me, honey!”

“I’m just fine… Alpha Ghost Shadow is no more. I drove his entire body into the magma below. He will never return to harm anyone ever again.” then, Shadow tightened his grip his girl friend, making her giggle, and Shadow looked up, “Did you gain weight on that round-the-world trip?”

Kindar giggled and Fiona smacked Shadow over the head, “How dare you! I left that trip early to come see you again and THIS is the greeting I get! First I thought you were psychotic, then I thought you’d die, thrice! Then you call me FAT!!! JERK!” Shadow fell down laughing as his girl friend roughly tackled him and pretended to beat on him.

“Seriously,” Eggman said, “How did you synchronize with Forte? He’s… dead, y’know?”

Shadow patted Fiona on the back and said, “Listen, Eggman. Forte never died. His X-Life Jewel was still intact. All I gotta do is re-build him. He’ll be just fine. As for now…” Shadow then aimed a finger at the Floating Fortress, and the entire thing blow up then he said, “Get going, Eggman. We’ll fight again some other day. But neither of us are ready to continue.”

After a moment of silence, Eggman blinked, “Fine… but we will meet again, Shadow… it’s not over yet, just heed that!” He then hopped into a hover craft, and Rouge and the three robotic assistants hopped in as well.

“I’m glad that’s all over!” Kindar sighed with relief. Then, Shadow looked up and said weakly, “Nooo! I forgot to put my cheese back in the fridge! Three days out of the fridge! It’s RUINED!!!” but just then, his head fell and Shadow made a strange noise, “He’s asleep?!” Fiona and Kindar laughed and began their slow trek home.

“I love you, honey,” Fiona whispered to a smiling, sleeping Shadow the hedgehog. The one, only, true Shadow the Hedgehog. The last angel.

The End…?