PoV: Shadow

It took hours, but we eventually escaped Eggman's badnicks. He hadn't given us a new order since the battle began. Most likely the fat oaf was tinkering away in his lab, ignoring the whole battle. It didn't matter, we had to leave regardless. I could no longer deal with Eggman, Sonic had to be our only focus if we were to defeat him. But for now, we were all too worn out or injured to fight. We needed refuge and a real plan.

"Shadow," Sally came up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder, "We'll get Sonic next time for sure. We can't rely on traps or tricks. We need to confront him and beat him at his own game. You did great at controlling him for this long. But Chaos isn't so easily manipulated. We can't fight them when Sonic is unconscious. We need to take him down before Chaos regains control."

"Sonic isn't so easily defeated either. Finding out he'd been going easy all this time... it frustrates me," I clenched a broken half of the silver inhibitor ring I had found, "He broke these as if they were made of paper..."

"Shadow," Rouge spoke up, "We should free all the prisoners. The bigger army we have, the better chance we have. And if we leave them locked up, Sonic might..."

"I know, we'll wait for the robots to spread out. We can't fight them as one army against another. As soon as the path is clear, we'll free everyone in Eggman's base," I replied as we took refuse in a forest near by. The sound of fighting had gone silent. Usual Eggman began demolition once he acquired a new area, but there wasn't a sound. We didn't recieve new orders.

  We never announced victory to Eggman, he probably doesn't even know we won the battle. I was resting along with anyone else who could still fight. Were were getting ready to become a rescue team.

"Shadow, if we're lucky, Eggman probably doesn't even know what's going on. He hasn't changed any of his passwords or codes. This should be quick and easy. The prison is near the outer shell of the ship, we can blast a hole and everyone can escape," Rouge sat besides me, "My communicator with him is still showing a signal. He hasn't moved since we escaped."

"Still, we should carve a hole instead of blast one. The noise reduction will help us keep a low profile," Sally sat down besides us, "I've a good team, we used to do this sort of thing all the time."

--- Night Fall ---

The robots had all frozen in place. It was unsettling, seeing them all as statues. Tails checked one and found their fuel had run empty. That could only mean Sonic had taken the master emerald and the ring generator. The code for the door was the same as Rouge and I entered. We entered the main room an it was dark. The entire ship was running on emergency power.

"Nicole, can you hack into the ships mainframe and take control?" Sally plugged her device into the main console.

"Of course," A Lynx appeared on the screen and soon the Eggman logo on the monitor changed to Freedom Fighters', "I'm in, turning on the lights."

A gasp came from behind me, as I turned it was an unexpected sight... Eggman was covered in blood and inert. No one dared to approach, so I did. No pulse, and his skin had already gone grey. He was dead, and he had been for hours.

"Bringing up the security photogenic now," Nicole turned on the monitors, there we saw it all happen 1st hand. Sonic killing Eggman, taking the Master Emerald, and the ring generator before he disappeared.

"Well... Eggman's empire is over at least..." Sally looked away and removed Nicole from the main console.

"Let's just hope the prisoners are alive," Rouge whispered as we continued on toward the cells.

  We all felt relief to see people still alive. I gave Nicole the codes and she unlocked all of the doors just as Tails and Rotor finished carving out the escape root for everyone. I went back to Eggman's corpse after everyone escaped. I cautiously telephoned him back to home base with the emerald Tails gave me. I buried him there, and left.

  Never thought Sonic would... It was bound to happen one day during their battles. One of them was bound to be seriously hurt or killed.

  I found Knuckles alone when we returned to Knothole. It was my only chance, Sonic always blamed Knuckles for changing sides but he never said anything specific. I sat before him and I could tell by his eyes he knew what this was about. It wasn’t long before Amy, Sally, Tails, Sticks, and Rouge Joined us.

"Knuckles," I spoke up, "Sonic always blamed you when I asked him what made him change sides. He never gave me any details. It's time, what happened?"

"It wasn't my fault. It is my duty to protect the emerald. That is all I did," he sighed but still, he told us everything.

~~~

12-02-2023

  Wonder what happened that night so many month ago.

Love yall, bye bye! 😚😚😚