Whoo, another scintillating update to Sanction of the Heart. I know you're all very excited and looking forward to what's happening. Well, that's why I'm updating now. Plus I had some free time, so it's all good.

I'll throw in some disclaimers before moving on. Paul and Ezel belong to ShiningRiku. Jun belongs to SuperSmasher025. Urami belongs to seastone130. Cecilia and Yo-Yo belong to RoyalFanatic. Skyler belongs to SkylerOcon. Jack belongs to nightmare car. Heather Wolfon belongs to TwilightBlayderJulz. The twins captured by the Organization XIII belong to Simimaelian. The undebuted Hyrule character belongs to Insidious Harbringer. And finally, Aliana and this fic belong to me, kbxshadow. Roll chapter.

“You see, Shadow,” Eggman had begun, “I had no idea what was going to happen. I only heard that he’d get Sonic out of my way, so I agreed to let them do as they pleased.”

“He?” Shadow echoed.

“Yes. That man, Xemnas. And some other fellow named Demyx was with him. They promised to get Sonic out of my way so I could go along and conquer the world without him bothering me,” Eggman grumbled. “These are the words of an evil scientist extraordinaire and humble conqueror of the world; you have to believe me!

“In compensation for their services to get rid of Sonic, though, they asked me useless questions about the heart of this world and where the quintessence would be. I told them the makings of this place usually go around the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, but I had no clue about any heart or quintessence. If I had known, I would have used it already!

“But that’s all they asked. After that, I had nothing to do except observe. Xemnas and Demyx set the trap, you see, sending an ultimatum to Sonic using a pair of white creatures they called ‘Nobodies’.”

At this point, the doctor beckoned Shadow to follow. “Sonic must have thought I had something to do with these creatures, since he’s never seen them before and because it was such an obvious trap. But he came anyway.”

White Acropolis possessed numerous secret routes. Eggman approached one of these now, typing a code into the keypad on the wall. The door opened, and Shadow allowed himself in.

The passage connected to an observation deck, overlooking what appeared to be a battle arena. Except, Shadow noticed, it was engulfed in a mass of black.

“Xemnas and Demyx called them ‘Heartless’,” Dr. Eggman continued. “I don’t know why I suddenly have an army of them when at first I only had two.

“At any rate, it was two of these Heartless with Xemnas and Demyx. Sonic ran in here all ready for battle like he usually is, and all I’m sure he saw was two men – excluding me, of course – and two creatures. And, of course, it’s the same sort of good guy-bad guy conversation between them. Sonic brags about his speed and so on and so forth and everything else that makes me hate his living guts.

“Sonic thinks he’s in for a good fight, but what happens next? Xemnas holds a hand up and these dark crystals start surrounding Sonic. That stops the hedgehog in his tracks, and of course, this is one of those rare times where it stops him and inflicts some serious amount of pain.

“You think that’s interesting enough? The fools knew of Sonic’s hydrophobia for some reason or other, and this Demyx fellow starts playing on this sitar-looking thing. He so happens to be some kind of water mage, apparently, and manages to summon a globe of water to imprison Sonic.”

Shadow gave a smirk. “Sounds like they were torturing him.”

“It went on for a good fifteen minutes or so; there isn’t any other explanation other than torture! Something about drawing the darkness of Sonic’s heart into the open for the Heartless to feed on.

“And that’s exactly what those two creatures did. Dove in for Sonic and clawed for his heart. It really looked like a jewel Rouge would fawn over.”

“What of Sonic?” Shadow pressed.

“Out like a lightbulb. His consciousness went out just like that. Once that happened, Xemnas and Demyx quit the torturing and just watched while Sonic split in two.”

“…Two halves,” Shadow murmured to himself, reflecting on Sora’s words.

“No, you idiot. He’d be dead if that were the case! I meant split as in there were two Sonics unconscious on the ground. One seemed an entirely separate entity, with all that black smoke around him.”

Shadow closed his eyes and nodded. This was the information he had been waiting for. “Xemnas and Demyx. What became of them?”

“I could care less and couldn’t say for sure. I am, however, a bit concerned about what they may be up to.”

Shadow paused as he turned to leave.

“They mentioned something about Iblis and Mephiles,” the doctor briefly stated before turning to his control systems, aiming to start up the arena incinerator to oust the Heartless.

Deciding he had obtained enough information for now, Shadow began one of his signature warps.

Except the warp reversed and pulled Shadow into the green Chaos Emerald, which vanished as well. Eggman had noticed the abnormal energy signature readings, and now stared at the place Shadow and the Emerald had been before, cursing his lack of knowledge as to what, other than Eggman himself, was making everything go so awry.

Nivea, guardian of the Ice Emerald (as her chilling telepathic voice told Mario and Tails), and her frigid arrows were proving to be more of a challenge than Mario and Tails first anticipated. As if the arrows were not bad enough, Nivea also possessed graceful martial arts skills, laced, of course, with her icy powers.

Mario rolled to the side to avoid said ice arrows, hurling a set of fireballs at the echidna. He followed in the wake of his projectiles, determined to get a fully powered Meteor Smash in to finish the fight.

Tails was right behind Mario with the hand cannon, changing its function to flamethrowing, hoping for an advantage.

Nivea could see right through their attempts, though. Sliding past the fireballs, she kicked up, forcing Mario to leap into the air. At this, Nivea quickly pulled out her bow, firing a pair of arrows straight into Mario.

While Mario reeled and spun away from the force of the arrows, Tails took to the air, grabbing Mario while aiming the flamethrower at Nivea. Fire burst from Tails’ hand cannon, catching Nivea off guard. She backed away from the flames, her obvious weakness.

“Mamma mia,” Mario breathed as Tails placed him on the ground. “Fighting this-a particular echidna is-a like fighting Link. Link’s got-a more power, but-a it would be-a nightmare if he had this kind of speed.”

Tails perked up at this. “If this is like fighting someone you know, do you happen to have a strategy?”

Mario chucked a fireball at an oncoming ice arrow before running to the side once more. Noticing Nivea draw in close, Mario balled a hand into a flaming fist, smashing it into Nivea’s face and sending her flying into her own altar. “Well,” Mario finally replied, “I-a did have-a strategy, but it-a only worked the first few times before Link finally caught on.”

Tails kept an eye on Nivea. “Do you think it’ll work for this?”

“I’m not-a sure, Tails,” Mario solemnly answered. “With Link, his lack of speed made the-a strategy work.” Seeing Nivea struggle back to her feet. Mario assumed his battle stance once more after fixing his hat. “The-a idea was to provoke Link into bringing out his-a long-range weapons. He loses some-a time when he-a has to pull out his bombs or arrows.”

“But it only worked because he was slow?” Tails finished, contemplating. Then snapping his fingers, Tails excitedly went on. “Cover me, Mario! I think I can slow her down!”

With that, Tails began dashing around the perimeter of the area, crouching low every so often and swiftly working on the ground.

Nivea quickly caught on to the smells of a scheme, but her in attempts to intercept Tails, she failed to pay attention to Mario. Even though the second Meteor Smash in her face was fully powered, it was enough to anger and distract her away from Tails.

Mario stopped his urge to charge her again, knowing reckless moves would ruin Tails’ efforts. He held a fist, circling the area in such a way that he blocked Tails from any incoming attacks.

Nivea seemed to glower before pointing her bow and arrow straight up into the air. Ice condensed into a tiny ball of light blue light at the arrowhead’s tip as Nivea pulled back the bowstring.

Mario looked over his shoulder to Tails. “She has an idea, Tails! Hurry up!”

“Last one!” Tails called back. His hands worked faster as soon as he noticed Nivea’s stance. His mind worked like a laundry list: Take out device. Turn device over. Take out crosstip screwdriver. Use crosstip screwdriver to open back. Find red button. Press red button. Close back. Use crosstip screwdriver to fully seal back. Set device. Press red button on side of device. Take out remote. Open—

“Tails! What are you-a doing?”

“I just have to synchronize this last bomb with the remote! Can you buy me some more time?” Open remote back. Find synchronize button… “There, I—“

“Run, Tails!”

Nivea let go of her bowstring, firing her arrow into the air. Another frigid aura condensed at the top and finally exploded, sending a blizzard across the area.

The blizzard, however, was not what caused Tails to fall to his knees. The spears of ice that began raining from above, however, did turn Tails’ legs to jelly. Tears welled at the sight of the icicle rain. He curled up in fear, covering his head with his hands.

“Snap out of it, Tails!” Mario called, throwing a river of flames at the incoming icicles. He held his ground, torching the descending icicles. Noticing Tails lifting his tear-stained face, Mario went on. “Sonic is-a counting on you to-a gather the Emeralds! You can’t-a let him down now!”

Nivea lifted her bow again, aiming for Mario once more. Her features contorted to a twisted triumphant sneer. The arrow notched to her bow grew and stretched into a longer shaft. The arrowhead and shaft glistened with crystal and ice. The feathers were of the finest snowy down. Steam seemed to rise from the shaft.

Tails’ mind was at it again: Normal ice doesn’t release steam; it’s not cold enough! Only dry ice can do that, and the most common type of dry ice is…nitrogen! Assuming that arrow’s made of solidified nitrogen…If Mario takes that…! He could see it happening. Mario struck by the nitrogen arrow. Frostburn. Even with speedy medical attention, it would only be a matter of time before—

“Pierce Zero.”

Tails shivered at the cold hiss reverberating in his mind, then promptly shot up from his cowering on the ground. He could tell he was moving only by instinct; he was racing at his fastest to reach Mario. All he could hear was an alarm going off in his mind, and his own panic ringing: Zero…zero…Absolute zero…Zero Kelvin, when all molecules and atoms stop moving completely! Science can’t do it, but of course magic and darkness can!

Tails heard a “twang” in the distance, followed by a dull whistle as the zero Kelvin arrow launched from its bowstring. The panic alarm in Tails’ mind blared louder, and in response, a strangled yelp escaped his throat. Before Tails realized it though, he was barreling straight for Mario – holding his ground and unable to escape in time – before pivoting sharply and stiffening his tails to swipe Mario’s feet from under him.

Mario fell flat on his belly, his eyes wide and blinking.

The arrow whistled dangerously over the pair and disappeared into the depths of the waterfalls around them. The cascades froze instantaneously.

The rain of icicles above them had ceased. It felt like eons ago.

A startled Nivea stared as well.

After a moment of silence, “Whew…” Mario breathed. “I think I just-a had a near-death experience.” And laughed.

Tails felt himself chuckling as well, sobbing a little at the same time.

Mario stood up again, fixing his hat. “And-a my hat is safe,” he contentedly sighed before taking a stance again. “Thank you, Tails.”

“H-huh…?”

“I said ‘thank you. You-a did a good job. Sonic would-a be proud of you.”

“I-I feel l-like…jelly…”

Mario smiled, never taking his eyes off Nivea as she pulled herself together, preparing her bow again. “Well, all you need to-a do is push a button, right?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Then-a do it. I will-a finish this-a fight. No more sneaky tricks like-a that this-a time.”

Shadow came to full consciousness, noticing first the infinite pinpoints of light in the black sky around him. His eyes scrutinized the stars before settling on the globe of blue before him. He somehow remembered this scene. Except that time, there was a glass separating him from this view, and someone at his side…

He shook his head, reminding himself to quit dwelling on his confused and dilapidated past. After the Black Arms incident, he had vowed to remain on a path that looked toward the present and future, allowing his identity from the past – if he had one, he mused – to die away. The memories were supposed to have died along with the past identity.

But still, the uncanny familiarity of the scene bothered Shadow. He hated it with his living guts.

His eyes trailed to his side, taking in the sight of Space Colony ARK. ARK again. Shadow tried to disregard any parallelism he recalled; those were fragments of deteriorating memories he did not want to try to salvage.

Something glinted from the ARK, speeding toward Shadow. Realizing he still had mobility, he drifted out of the way, just enough to take a close glance of the capsule as it sped by.

Of course, Shadow was alarmed to see himself within the capsule, desperately pounding on the thick glass with his fists. The glass was too thick for anything to be heard, but Shadow felt he could dimly heard his own voice screaming in his mind: “Maria! Maria…!”

Shadow felt a knot tighten in his throat, and instinctively clenched his hands. His right hand tightened around some kind of foreign object. He looked to his hand to find a handgun instead of a Chaos Emerald.

Slightly bewildered, Shadow whirled around to find the Chaos Emerald, only to find himself surrounded by a mob of black and red aliens, along with a purple six-pointed starfish sort of creature with one single, sickening red-orange eye. Black Arms and Doom’s Eye respectively. Shadow looked around. A ruined Westopolis.

The blood that flows in our veins is one and the same…

Shadow blocked out the irritating echoing voice of Black Doom, the Black Arms overlord. He turned back around to face the space scene again. This time though, the ARK was quite a distance away from him. A gold and red shooting star spanned across his view, hurtling toward the Earth. He suddenly felt warm.

Where’s Shadow?

Rouge.

I…I couldn’t…save him in time. Hehe, some hero I am, huh? Couldn’t even save a friend…

Sonic.

It was too hot. He felt himself burning; the heat was aggravating. It seared and cut across his body, made his head ring. He could only manage a strangled gasp. The handgun fell from his hand as both of his hands shot to his head. Heat was piercing through his mind, ringing through his skull like a white-hot jackhammer. A gasping scream so unlike him burst from his lungs.

Then sudden quiet. Sudden calm.

The air was cool. But it did not seem like air; everything was wet.

Water. Now receding away. Shadow knew he was within some capsule, and he was starting to awaken from suspension. Now a new sound: gunfire.

Eliminate all Eggman robots!

E-123 Omega.

What?!

Rouge.

Shadow suddenly jolted up, noticing the green waterfalls around him. He was sweating cold sweat, and felt feverish.

Upon the altar before him, seated comfortably and patiently…was himself. A smirk flashed across the reflection’s features. “Even before the Heartless,” it started. The voice, thankfully, was not Shadow’s. “I’ve been within your grasp long enough to know you’ve had some rough times. But my, my. What a dilapidated past.”

Shadow struggled to his feet, wearing a skeptical expression.

“Not one of too many unnecessary words, are you? Then again, I already knew that.” As the reflection leaped off the altar, darkness surrounded him like a blanket. Now Sonic stood before Shadow. “Call me Tellur. I’m the echidna guardian of the Earth Emerald.”

"Hey, kbx, you seem to be rushing this arc a little." Well, yeah. I do kinda want to move my lazy self on.

"Uh, kbx, you're not going to go into Shadow the Hedgehog are you?" It was a horrible, horrible game, and I'd NEVER write anything on it because I thought it totally destroyed Shadow's character. Luckily Sonic 2006 stitched his character back together. And while I despised the game, there were certain features I did like. I always like to think Black Doom is to Shadow as Darth Vader is to Luke. And, I'm sorry, I want to do Shadow's character some justice though, poor fellow. I think I can help Shadow redeem himself.

That's all I got for now, so I'm off to go eat some dinner and stop starving myself.

'Til next time.
kbxshadow