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Sonic was panting.
The army of robots that Eggman had prepared for them was overwhelming. To his left Tails had resorted to attacking with a blaster-like wispon. Knuckles was sweating to his right, punching robots left, right and center. Amy was behind him, smashing robots with her hammer. He could tell she was tiring because the sound of heaving breathing couldn't escape his focused ears.
Team Dark wasn't fairing much better.
Rouge was taking a breather as Omega covered for her. The robots surrounding the duo were beginning to overwhelm the two.
The only one who was fairing alright was Shadow.
The dark hedgehog was spin dashing robots, reflexes faster than lightning. Occasionally he would throw in a chaos spear, but he was mostly attacking the robots physically.
He was the biggest threat of the 7.
"We need a new strategy!" Sonic called out, voice cutting sharply through the battlefield.
"I'm thinking Sonic! There just isn't enough room," Tails shouted back, the yellow fox managing to clear a small area. That area was instantly filled again.
"Think harder!" Sonic called back, his exhaustion seeped into his voice.
And he hated it.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! Not so high and mighty now are you, Sonic!" Eggman cackled, watching the ensuing battle from his new mech.
The mech resembled a giant mantis, Sleek versions of a mantis claw adorned it's two arms. It had 3 sets of legs. Eggman's egg-mobile was nestled comfortably within the chest of the mechanical monstrosity. The legs were a glaring weakness but none of the fighting mobians (+rogue robot) could get to them.
"Grrr. Come down here and face us, coward!" Sonic screamed back at him. He was frustrated by his inability to handle the situation. He could feel the worried eyes of his comrades, the only absent pair being the scarlet rubies of Shadow.
Shadow was heavily focused on the robot army he was slaying, intent on getting to the robot so he could finish the fight.
"Oh ho Sonic. No witty remarks? How unlike you." Eggman sneered at the enraged blue hedgehog.
The sound the came from Sonic's mouth was too animalistic to be normal.
The snarl drew more worried glances from his companions.
Eggman noticed Shadow beginning to get closer to his mech and frowned. That wouldn't do at all.
If he aimed it right then Shadow would heal anyway. He wanted to torture his enemies before killing them after all.
Shadow was too focused on the badniks in front of him to see the claw sweeping towards him.
It was going to pierce his shoulder, hoping to put him out of commission.
SHUNK
Sonic glanced down as his chest, tears, unfortunately, welling up in his eyes.
He looked up to the person in front of him.
His gaze finally met with those rubies.
Shadow was in shock.
He had been fighting the badniks before, doing just as well as he normally did. Then he heard that dreadful sound.
SHUNK
How could he have been so foolish?
Those emerald eyes he knew so much stared into his red orbs.
His eyes trailed down to his counterpart's chest, fearing what he'd see.
A crimson claw protruded from the body. The crimson slowly dripping from the tip. The same crimson caked the fawn chest of the mobian before him.
It took him a heartbeat for him to realize that the crimson color was all Blood.
How could he have been so foolish?
Eggman was surprised. His arch-nemesis moved so fast that Eggman couldn't keep up. He was shocked, both pleasantly and negatively.
Sonic had been speared clean through the chest.
And it was a mortal wound.
Eggman moved the claw towards him, so he could see if it was true for himself.
He stared into the emerald eyes of his enemy, clearly seeing the life slowly draining from them.
His gaping mouth turned into a sinister smile.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! This is better than expected. It was honestly a shock for me, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth." He cackled.
Sonic's emeralds gazed into his eyes with enough venom to kill a black arms.
"No!" Tails screamed, staring at his brother with wide, tear-filled eyes.
"Sonic!" Amy screeched, her face filled with fear and grief.
Knuckles growled, his eyes trying in vain to hide the tears away.
Rouge gasped in shock. Sonic was dead?
Omega only gave his edition of a glare.
Shadow's reaction was the best of them all, surprisingly. Shadow howled, a sound filled with anguish and morn. It combined the other's emotions into one, multiplying it by an unknown number.
Eggman enjoyed every second of that pained sound.
"You won't *cough* get *hack* away with this... Doctor..." Sonic said, his voice weak from his blood loss.
"Oh Sonic, I already have." Eggman smiled with glee.
Suddenly a huge burst of blue light lit the air. It was like being underwater, but with small blue embers appearing and disappearing. It was Sonic's chaos energy, having stored so much of it over the years.
"I'd hate to inform you Ivo." Sonic's voice came out smooth like he wasn't being drained of the very energy that kept him alive.
Everyone stared at the spectacle of chaos as it rushed towards Sonic, or more specifically, his hand.
"But you've caught the wrong hedgehog." The blue blur smirked as he said those words.
SNAP
Nobody had a chance to question what he meant for he added on 2 more words to that sentence.
"Chaos Spear."
Two words were all it took.
Those words were spoken calmly but filled with enough power to destroy the world.
A brilliant lance of blue light launched from Sonic, spearing the mech through and injuring Eggman.
Eggman wasn't going anywhere, that's for sure.
As the mech fell apart, Sonic fell to the ground. He bounced a bit and rolled a little ways away, lucky enough to be outside of the debris. The badniks that surrounded the heroes deactivated, going into shutdown.
Instantly, Shadow was at Sonic's side. His friends weren't far behind.
"We only needed one more emerald... why did you do that?" The striped hedgehog asked through his tears.
"Because I needed to..." The dying hedgehog answered.
When the rest of the group arrived by the two heroes, Sonic weakly turned his head towards them.
"Sorry for *cough* keeping the secret..." The blue blurry told them.
"W-what?" Tails asked, in shock of seeing his brother dying before him.
"He's not Sonic," Shadow choked out, "I am."
"NOT PROBABLE," Omega stated.
"He's the real Sonic... We needed one more *hack* emerald before we could change back." Sonic breathed out, starting to blackout.
"I'm sorry I never told any of you..." Shadow cried, hugging what used to be his body close.
"We grew closer..." Sonic managed to mumble out.
"So... Shadow is...?" Rouge shakily whispered.
Shadow nodded, not able to say the words.
"Shadow- I mean Sonic- would've been fine with rest! Why did you do that!" Knuckles exploded.
"I would be a shitty hero," Sonic answered the question.
It hit them all like a truck, even the ones who knew little about the situation.
"This body would've died from the sickness running through its veins..." Sonic mumbled vaguely.
He was plagued with a series of couches, all of them bringing blood to the outside.
"You're giving me your immortality." Shadow breathed.
Sonic nodded with a low chuckle, turning into a cough.
It was silent as the blue blur's body was failing, giving in to the release of death.
As he was ready to die he looked his dark counterpart in the eyes with a surprisingly calm smile.
"Long live the eternal hero..."
Then the light died from his eyes and he was gone.
A sudden change went through Shadow.
The red streaks in his fur rippled with chaos, changing the color to blue.
With a dull flash of light, not blinding but concealing, the change was finished.
A black and blue hedgehog kneeled on the ground, the blue hero's body lying in his lap. Emerald eyes gazed at the body, tears freely falling onto the face of the deceased hedgehog.
Shadow's body was now his own.
He was the Ultimate Lifeform.
He was the Eternal Hero.
And he couldn't feel worse about it.