Demon dance

Authoress note: I got the inspiration for this from watching someone's ultimate tribute to Shadow on YouTube.

Prologue: Dreams of darkness

Shadow the Hedgehog sat on the edge of his bed, sweat covering his body, one hand held his forehead, his left hand hung over the edge of his right knee. His fingers played over the silver ring he had piercing his brow. He played with it for a few seconds then stood. His pupils were small, his eyes wide with fright, he couldn't remember the dream he had had, but it had been bad. Really bad.

He frowned and his pupils returned to normal size, but his eyes were still wide with panic. In the dream something terrible had happened. But he couldn't remember what.

Walking down the street Shadow glanced around himself. Everyone else looked cheerful and happy, what had he dreamed about? Whenever he tried to remember pain would begin to build up behind his eyes.

He saw Amy chasing Sonic in the distance and out of habit Shadow turned into the closest store. It was dark, completely matching Shadow's mood. He looked around with little interest, still wrapped up in his own thoughts, he didn't come out of them until a black wolf (an un-evolved one) came and started growling at him. The wolf had red markings and blood red eyes.

When Shadow took notice of it it sniffed him, he held out an un-gloved hand, it licked it, Shadow smiled a little and rubbed it's head. It made a barking noise like a dog. An old fox came to the counter. "Oh hello. I see Darkness likes you." "Darkness?" "He was born in darkness, his coat is made of darkness, and when I feel like the darkness will consume me he pulls me out of it." Explained the old fox.

"I see." Said Shadow quietly, he turned to leave when the fox said something that was about to change Shadow's life. "You are his new owner." "What?" "You're his new owner, there have been sixteen generations of the darkness shielders. You are the one to end and continue our organization." "What do you mean?" "You are immortal. You will live forever, and through you, our organization."

Shadow blinked, the old fox seemed to get dizzy, "That's strange... I can't tell which way is up anymore..." Then he fell. Shadow caught him before he hit the floor, the fox's eyes were glassy, he was dead. Shadow bowed his head.

Darkness came and rubbed his head against Shadow's shoulder. Shadow rubbed Darkness's head, "I guess you're stuck with me now." He stood, turned, and was about to leave when a soft hissing voice said his name. "Shadow... Shadow... Shadow..."

He whipped around, Darkness seemed perfectly content, while Shadow's senses screamed of ambushes and GUN assassins. Then he realized it was coming from the back room, cold metal suddenly nudged his hand, he looked down, Darkness was holding the key-ring from the foxes belt and two guns, a pistol and some huge kind of gun, in his mouth. Shadow raised an eyebrow. "You're certainly full of surprises."

He took them from the dog. His outfit seemed to shimmer, then disappeared, and was replaced with another. He now wore orange lensed glasses, a red trench coat with three black straps to keep it shut, black pants with a black belt and golden buckle to keep them up, red shoes with a golden chain acting as a kind of strap across it.

He blinked, "What the hell...?" Darkness butted him from behind towards the back room. "You want me to go in there? Okay..." Shadow cautiously inserted the key in the lock and opened the door. What he saw made his eyes widen. A portal hovered behind the door. A portal to a very strange world. Suddenly he had the impulse to turn around, he did, just as Darkness lunged at him and knocked him into the new world.

Author note: I own none of the Sonic characters, I only own Darkness, the old fox, the new world, the shop, Rose, and the Shadow prototypes who come in in the next chapter.

Chapter 1: Roses and experiments

Shadow stood, his outfit had changed again, now he was in a dark red robe with dark red versions of his air skates, the robe was sealed at the front and back, and the arms of the robe closed over his palms, only allowing his fingers out, as if there were gloves attached to it.

"Your lordship. We have been waiting for you." Shadow looked up. "Amy?" The pink hedgehog seemed surprised. "Amy? No... I am Rose. Amy's... sister." Said Rose after a moment of thought. Shadow cautiously looked around. After looking awhile he noticed Rose's eyes were staring at something. He followed her gaze, his hands were glowing green with chaos energy.

"You are... Shadow are you?" "Yeah why?" "Come this way, there are some people I want you to meet." "Who?" "Past prototypes of you." "What?!" "There were others Shadow, Gerald did not get instant success you know."

When they arrived at a house that looked like it was a chess piece (the king to be exact, the ground, as an added note, looked like a chessboard) there were twenty-two people sitting in the shade under a tree talking quietly to each other. When they saw Rose they jumped up and bowed. "Your ladyship." They murmured.

She nodded, "This is Shadow, the new Darkness Shield." "Your lordship." "Stop calling me that!" Shadow said, irritated. Darkness licked his hand, as if to reassure him.

"Introduce yourselves. But one at a time, the rest of us will go inside, you will introduce yourself first so Lord Shadow gets to know you." "Stop calling me a lord already!" Growled Shadow. But they didn't listen, he was left with what looked like a female version of himself, she bowed, "I am Slade your lordship, the first prototype, all of us prototypes could have lived, we were immortal and are after all, the only reason we didn't show life signs was because of the suspended animation capsules we were born in."

She looked at him as if seeking his approval. "Okay." She smiled, then went inside, and a second one came out. This one male. "Your lordship." He looked like Shadow too (they all did) but he had no highlights, he had grey eyes, and a red slash mark bellow his chest fur. "I am Swirl your lordship. The second prototype."

Next was a white version of Shadow with black highlights, this ones name was Nightmare, and he was the third prototype.

Next came a white one with grey highlights and eyes named Playback, then a white one with light blue highlights and eyes named Moon.

Then a black one with a handful of locks of hair with the half pointing outwards being red, and quite a bit more chest fur, as well as boots like Jet the Hawk's and spiked wristlets who's name was Eternity.

Then Dusk, who was black with dark purple highlights and eyes. Dawn was white with yellow highlights, Grave was grey with white stripes, Angel was white with light purple highlights and eyes, Twilight was black with orange highlights, Night was black with white highlights, Chaos was an orange-ish brown with yellow highlights and blue eyes, Emperor was white with green stripes, Neon was black with green stripes.

Kingsley was a tawny yellow with red chest fur, forest green highlights and dark purple eyes, Shade was a female, black with yellow highlights.

Then came a dark blue one with yellow highlights and eyes, Ocean, Thunder was white with dark blue highlights and eyes, Lightning was yellow with white highlights, Eclipse was dark blue with black highlights and eyes, Starlight was completely white with red highlights.

Rose smiled, "So, you've met all of them. What do you think of your... Family?" Shadow looked at them, they all smiled expectantly. "What do you guys KNOW about the world?" He asked, to see if his hunch was correct. "Uh... nothing really." Shadow sighed, to work. "Come on."

He found out to his relief that they had all the necessary pieces to create a flash learning capsule. Then he could introduce them to the world. Rose watched this, and to anyone watching, they would have seen her eyes flash and they would have known, this was going against all her plans.

Author note: Creepy... here is a secret, in the next chapter Rose stops Shadow from taking them and wants him to be the father of a child for her! Which she doesn't even have yet... you get the idea, I do NOT go into detail about what she does to him, you will have to find out what she does to him after she finishes later. Read and review!