Here it is, boys and girls. This is the last chapter of our story. It's been a really exciting ride, and I hope you've enjoyed it. Now, you get to see how everything happened, and what happens next. For one last time, enjoy.

Act III: Silence

Chapter 5: Life and Death

Several things happened at once. The first was that Silver ducked out of the way of his arm. The second was that Shadow tried to move his arm away from them but couldn't. Then, Blaze threw herself towards Shadow, her hands alight with fire. Before Shadow could even think to dodge, his other arm subconsciously reached out and caught one of Blaze's wrists. He was expecting a burning pain in his hand, but felt nothing. In fact, he had trouble feeling anything at this point. His arms wouldn't obey his commands, and his legs were firmly rooted in place.

Then, to his horror, the arm that was holding his gun flipped the gun to catch its barrel, then struck Blaze on the head with the butt of the gun. She was sent sliding across the floor towards the line of ten who were now struggling more than ever to get free. Shadow wanted to run to help them, but instead, his body turned around to meet a charging Silver.

Silver reached out to punch him, but Shadow's body blocked his hand with his forearm and delivered a kick to his head. Shadow was struggling with every ounce of willpower that he had to make his body stop, but it would not respond. Then, his body followed up with a powerful punch that knocked Silver off his feet. While he was still on the ground, Shadow's body teleported on top of Silver, with his foot in Silver's face. Shadow began struggling more than ever to make his body stop. He knew what it was about to do. It took everything Shadow had, but he finally managed to make his foot hesitate. It began shaking. "Ah ah ah, Shadow." He could hear the killer's true voice in his head. Shadow had grown to hate his false voice, but his true voice terrified him. He was talking to Shadow as if he were a child who had just picked up a toy that didn't belong to him. "I'm in control now. Your body does what I want it to." Then, what Shadow had been dreading happened. His jet shoe activated, and the flames began burning Silver's face.

Shadow's spirit began screaming. It screamed in rage, despair, frustration, agony, and hatred all at once. His body was being used to harm another, a friend. Even though he knew that he was not able to control this, he still cursed himself. What if he was in control? Was this some secret side of him that only wanted pain and destruction? Perhaps whatever Black Arms DNA within him was starving for decimation that Shadow had denied it for so long.

Silver, being far from helpless, telekinetically picked Shadow's body up and threw it across the room. However, it flipped in midair and his feet hit the wall. Shadow still felt nothing.

"Blaze, don't hurt him! He's not in control of his body!" shouted Silver. Shadow felt relieved to hear this. Silver could read minds, so he knew that there had to be something else inside of him.

"If he's not in control, who is?" asked Blaze, getting back onto her feet.

"It is I." Shadow was spellbound. The voice belonged to the killer, but it came from his own mouth. The demonic hedgehog that had appeared to him earlier reappeared in front of him. Even in lacking a mouth, Shadow could almost feel the sadistic triumph radiating from it. "My name is Mephiles."

"Silver, his eyes!" said Blaze.

"I know," replied Silver.

Had he been able to see, Shadow would have known that one of his eyes had retained its red color, but the other had transformed into the empty and terrifying green of Mephiles.

The very name was hauntingly familiar to Shadow. As if he had heard the name, but by some power was not supposed to know it. Whatever it was, he was grateful to not have known it. It was as if he now had the horrible knowledge of the true name of a demon.

"What do you want?" demanded Silver.

Mephiles chuckled. It disgusted Shadow to know that it was coming from his own throat. "Well, my dear Silver, what I want is absolutely nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I want to erase all life in existence. Erase everything that lives, breathes, or even exists. The problem with this world is that these pathetic life forms have the audacity to claim to exist. How arrogant of them to assume that they have a right to their lives. The only ones fit to live are the gods. I am a god, but alas, an incomplete one. My other half was destroyed, and erased from existence by three pathetic lesser beings. Now, all life must pay the price. I want to destroy everything so that there is absolutely nothing."

In those sentences alone, Mephiles solidified himself as Shadow's worst enemy. Shadow was the guardian of this planet. Mephiles wanted to destroy it. Shadow's duty was to protect the lives of all of Earth's people. Mephiles's sole purpose was to obliterate them. Shadow preserved life. Mephiles brought death.

"Consider yourself lucky, Shadow," said Mephiles. "You have a friend who sees me as well. His cat friend only sees you, slowly being transformed into me."

"Shut up!" shouted Shadow. "I am not you, and I have never been you!"

Mephiles laughed. "Oh, but Shadow, you have been me for your entire life. Thanks to a certain princess, you have had me within you since the day you were born."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Shadow.

Mephiles made Shadow's mouth smile. "I was hoping you'd ask that. Silver, you can read minds, yes? Well then, you should be able to see this as well."

Before anyone could ask what he meant, the image of Mephiles reached out towards Shadow and grasped his head.

There was nothing. He felt nothing. He saw nothing. He was nothing. How? How could it be so? He was a god. A god could never be defeated by three rodents. Now all that remained of him was a miniscule flame. He was pathetic. The shame and despair of defeat had transformed his raging inferno into nothing more than a burning lamp.

"This is where everything began," said a voice.

He knew that voice. Its owner had been instrumental in his plan. He had known the voice for a time. Ever since she had been a small girl and her father had first shown her the flame. It was now as it was then.

"Who knew such a tiny flame could bring such devastation?"

The princess picked up the lamp. He knew that his time had come. Would he be the first god to die? Could the eternal flames be extinguished? But they were no longer eternal.

"If we put out this flame, Solaris will never exist. And we'll never have to worry about the flames of disaster, right?"

True enough. He was about to be wiped off the face of history. But no, he was history. He was a god. He would never be destroyed! There had to be some way!

"But our encounter... You and I will never meet. It will never have happened."

He began listening intently. Was she betraying an aura of doubt? Could this be the chance to ensure survival? He had to take the chance. It was his only choice.

"Elise," he whispered from within the flame. "Do you love him more than anything?"

"I... to tell the truth..." she said.

"If you let even a small piece of me live, you can remember your beloved. You can remember every moment you shared with him."

Elise responded in her thoughts. "But if you do live, it will be forever. How can I live with myself knowing that the one who killed Sonic is alive and well?"

"I don't have to live forever. In fact, I only have to live until this very moment in time. It is a charitable act, really."

"I don't believe you." He could still hear the doubt in her heart.

"All that needs to be done for you to remember him is to accept my offer. Only the tiniest part of me will live, and only for a limited time, but you will remember everything about him for your entire life. And think about it. Don't you love him more than anything else?"

She hesitated in her response. A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Alright," she told him. Out loud, she said, "I don't care what happens to the world!"

His spirit was positively ecstatic. He had done it. He was going to live. Ah, those humans. How fortunate for him that a human only needs the slightest bait to be persuaded to swallow everything: hook, line, and sinker. What a cruel attachment love must be to force such irrational and asinine actions out of those who fall under its spell. For him, it was a two-edged sword. On one end, the princess' love had brought that rat back to life, and caused his downfall. On the other, it caused her to make the greatest exchange that Solaris had ever made.

"Elise," said her beloved. "Just smile."

Yes, Elise, smile. Smile while you can. Smile while you see your one true love running freely through the world without an inkling as to who you are. Try to smile when you wish to catch the attention of your paramour, but he ignores you in pursuit of adventure. Smile when you become an old woman who has lived her entire life, remembering what it was like to be with him, but never being able to live your memories. Hopefully, you won't get that far, though.

He was already devising his ultimate plan for vengeance. He only had so long to live. With what time he had, he would cause as much chaos and annihilation as he possibly could. He would kill every single one of them. And he knew just the vessel to do it in.

The princess exhaled and blew the flames out. But her regret and selfishness kept one piece intact.

Time was rewritten, and Solaris was nothing more than a wisp of Mephiles. He was barely large enough to take the form of the tiniest purple vapor blowing in the wind. Throughout the years, he waited, he schemed, he lived, and all for the destruction of every single living thing.

When the day finally came, he boarded a space shuttle undetected. It took him to the birthplace of one of those responsible for his demise.

Another momentous day came, and he entered the body of the only host that he could possibly survive in: an immortal one.

Shadow could only stare at the image of Mephiles that stood before him. It was true. There was no way to deny it. He was and had been for all of his life, Mephiles. When he was playing with Maria in the ARK corridors, he was there. When he vowed to destroy the world that killed Maria, he was there. When he nearly gave his life to protect the Earth, he was there. In every moment of his life, he had been haunted by a demon; an evil spirit lurking in his shadow. His every move was watched... and experienced by Mephiles. This demigod had been present in every part of his life. He knew everything about Shadow; his strengths, his weaknesses, everything. And now, he had Shadow under his control.

"Did you get all of that, Silver?" asked Mephiles. "I am in control of Shadow's body. Everything that he sees, hears, feels, it is all up to me. If I want him to taste blood in his mouth..." Shadow felt a coppery taste on his tongue. "Or hear a processed voice coming from his cell phone telling him that I have a game for him to play, I can. And to the medical mind, I am perfectly healthy within Shadow. Their machines cannot tell us apart because our lives are bound together. He perceives everything that I show him as reality. In fact, the only reason you see me in front of him, Silver, is because you are subconsciously reading his mind. Everything his mind perceives as reality, yours does as well."

Silver was aghast. "That's... impossible," said Silver.

"If it's impossible, then where is Jen?"

Shadow and Silver looked to the floor where Jen's body lay. But there was nothing there. No bloodstains, no bullet hole, no body, simply a space on the floor that was illuminated by a spotlight.

"You made her disappear," said Silver in disbelief.

"He made who disappear?" asked Blaze.

"Jen," said Silver. "Her body is right there, but I'm reading Shadow's mind, and Mephiles is telling Shadow's mind that it's not there anymore. There's no blood or anything."

Blaze looked at the spot where Silver was pointing. "But I don't see anything either. Am I reading his mind too?"

The grin on Shadow's face widened into a menacing smile. "It's difficult to see something that was never there to begin with."

Shadow and Silver were stunned. What? But he had been speaking to her for so long. She had slept at his apartment, he had bought her coffee, she had showed him her violin. The only thing he hadn't showed him was... her tutor.

"She was an illusion?" asked Silver.

"Yes, but I'm afraid that I cannot take credit for creating this one. I believe you can thank Shadow's own subconscious for that."

Shadow was so astounded that he managed to move his own mouth to shout, "What?" Impossible; that was entirely impossible.

"Well, don't take my word for it," said Mephiles. "Perhaps I should unlock some memories of yours that your own mind kept from you." Mephiles placed his hands on Shadow's head again, and the dark one revealed the truth.

Shadow saw himself on the park bench the day after the first murder. The riddle had been giving him a lot of trouble, and he was about to give up. Then, he looked up, but there was no one there.

"No, I'm not ok. If you don't mind, could you please leave me alone?" he said. There was no reply.

"It's something that doesn't involve you."

The scene continued to play on. Shadow was acting as though he were talking to someone, but in reality, there was no one there.

The memory changed to the night when Shadow had first "seen" the silhouette of Mephiles. Shadow sat at his window. He occasionally looked towards his bed; empty. But he had seen someone there. Then, he saw the next day. He was talking to no one, explaining who he was to the empty air. He came from Blaze's cafe, carrying two beverages. He drank from both of them, but only saw and tasted one. He stood at his bar in Club Rouge, his head turned to meet a door that did not truly open, and took the order of a cat that was not really there. He introduced "her" to Silver. They were both speaking to nothing that seemed to be something. Finally, he saw himself watching an illusion being shot by another illusion, and shooting at one of them in a fiery rage.

The memories faded, and he was brought back to reality. So it was true. Jen was not real.

"What was she?" he managed to ask.

"I can't say for sure," said Mephiles. "The closest thing I can approximate to her is a mental image of a person that appeared when you needed her, and helped relieve your stress.

"You see, I killed those people in order to gain further control of your mind by plunging it into chaos. I nearly had you during the Black Doom incident, but unfortunately, you recovered. It was then that I knew that I'd have to take matters into my own hands in order to take control of your body and exact my revenge. I had already grown used to how your body functioned, so I slowly began controlling your actions without you noticing. I started by making you see things that were not truly there, usually a fire hydrant or something commonplace, then working my way up to completely false images sustained for long periods of time. Slowly, I also began controlling your body while placing these false images in your head. However, I found that your body began recognizing the images as being false if they were there for too long. So to make things less noticeable, I had to make your body preoccupied with huge amounts of stress. And the thing that you hate most in this world is murder.

"I had to make myself into the greatest serial killer of all time; unable to be caught, seen, or heard, leaving no mark of any kind. I knew that to do these kinds of things, I'd need large amounts of resources. Thankfully, one day, you paid a visit to a certain scientist named Dr. Eggman. As soon as you were through with him, I took control of your body and had you attack his base while placing a false memory in your head. Once I had all of the resources I would ever need, I began planning my killings.

"I wanted to make some very large-scale killings that would undoubtedly cause your mind stress, even if you managed to save the victims. Some of these would require major preparation beforehand, the victims on the tower needing the most preparation. I knew that, also, the pod that trapped Sonic would point your suspicions towards Eggman.

"Your subconscious sensed that these killings and riddles were causing you a massive amount of stress. While it couldn't stop the killings, your subconscious did have the answers to the riddles. Jen, as it seems, was a creation of your subconscious that could alleviate your stress by giving you the answers to my riddles so that you also had a way of stopping me. She appeared to be nothing more than a perfectly innocent girl who could do you no harm and helped you when you needed her to. How fortunate for me that in the end, it was her that you suspected. And killing her caused you to go so mad with rage that I now have full control over your body. You filled your mind with anger and hatred, and I fed off of it. And when I heard what Silver had seen in the future, I knew that I would succeed. Eventually, I will disappear because of my agreement with Elise, but you will walk a barren and desolate world knowing that it was because of you that everything died. After that, I don't know. Perhaps you will kill yourself because of that knowledge. That, my friend, is the best revenge of all."

There was silence. Shadow did not want to accept this as the truth. He did not want to think that he would be responsible for the death of every living thing on the planet that he fought so hard to protect. He would not believe that he had been fooled by his own mind into thinking that there was a girl that could help him. None of what Mephiles said could be true. He was not Mephiles. But if he was...

"You're wrong," said Shadow. "There is a way to stop you."

When Mephiles regained control of Shadow's body, his grin faded. "You're a fool," he said. "It's destiny. It has been written on the fabric of time. Silver and Blaze thought that they could change it, but it will end up exactly as it was before."

"Silver," said Shadow, "do you remember when I said that it took two Chaos users to travel through time?" Silver nodded. "I think that I was the other. I helped to send you back in time to stop Mephiles. And there is a way that you can do it."

"Silence!" said Mephiles. Shadow found himself unable to speak; blocked by Mephiles.

"Silver, can you hear me?" asked Shadow, in his thoughts.

"Yes," said Silver, telepathically.

"I need you to take control of my arm; the one that is holding the gun."

"Why?"

"Never mind, just do it."

Shadow saw Silver's eyes begin glowing, and Shadow's arm began glowing green as well. "What is this?" asked Mephiles. "What are you doing?"

"Now what?" asked Silver.

"I need you to lift my arm so that the gun is pointed to the left."

"I'll try."

Slowly, Shadow's arm rose. He felt Mephiles struggling against it, trying to free himself from Silver's control. "Stop this!" panic was rising in Mephiles' voice. The gun froze for a second when it was about halfway up, Mephiles trying as hard as he could to keep it there. But again the arm rose until it was perpendicular to his body. Beads of sweat appeared on Silver's forehead. It was a major struggle to be fighting against the willpower of a god.

"What next?" asked Silver. "I do not see where this is going."

"Bend the elbow. Do it until my forearm is at about a forty-five-degree angle."

Silver's glowing eyes widened. He had figured out where this was going. "You can't," he said.

"It's the only way."

"What are you talking about, Silver?" asked Blaze.

Tears began forming in Silver's eyes. "He... He wants me to kill him."

Mephiles made Shadow's eyes snap wide open. Muscles in Shadow's neck tensed. "No," he breathed. He knew. Shadow was the only living host that he could live within. Not only that, but his life force was bound to Shadow's. If Shadow died...

"Shadow, don't make me do this!" said Silver. "I've seen to much death! I spent my whole life watching people die around me! Don't ask me to cause another person's death!"

"Silver," thought Shadow. "Mephiles is the single greatest threat to life as we know it that has ever existed. If you do this now, none of those people will die. I've gone down with the ship before. Right now, I'm begging you. Please kill us."

Silver closed his eyes. The conflict was apparent on his face. It showed anger, sadness, regret,... and acceptance. His eyes snapped open, and he stretched his arms out towards Shadow's body.

Like a clock that was moving backwards, Shadow's arm began bending, moving the gun towards his head. Mephiles was raging in Shadow's body, putting all of his powers into stopping his arm from moving. Shadow's body began growling, foam appearing at his mouth. Silver was struggling with all his might to keep Shadow's arm moving. But his arm refused to move anymore. Mephiles was succeeding. He was overpowering Silver's mind. Shaking, Shadow's arm began to move the gun slowly towards Silver. They were losing.

But then, two hands grabbed his arm. Mephiles turned Shadow's head to see Blaze, pulling with every ounce if strength that she had. They were locked in a stalemate for a long time. It was the mind of Mephiles against the minds of Shadow and Silver and the strength of Blaze. As it drew on, Shadow became weary. He was putting everything he had into moving that arm towards his head, but it was still not enough. Mephiles was too powerful, and he was too desperate to survive. But he had to fight. He had always fought. He could not stop fighting. He would not stop until his task was complete. He would not allow himself to fail now!

Whatever new sense of strength had come over Shadow seemed now to pour into Silver and Blaze. After so much fruitless effort, the arm began moving again. It bent further and further. Mephiles became more and more furious, threatening to destroy Shadow's body with his blind anger. But he was too late. The barrel of the gun touched Shadow's forehead. With his last ounce of strength, Shadow pulled the gin's trigger.

"Rouge," thought Shadow, "I don't know if you can hear me right now, but thank you. I would not have been able to go very far without you. You showed me what it meant to truly live. I might have lived forever, but without your help, I simply would have been there. You gave me your trust and your friendship. Above all, you were there for me. You helped me to regain my memories, to save this planet, and to be happy. And I repaid you with my biting words. I apologize for everything that I did to hurt you. I know that I said things to you that wounded you, and I am sorry. I only wish that there were some way that I could rectify that to you. Please forgive me. Do not forget me. And say hello to Omega for me, would you? I get to see Maria again. I'll be sure to introduce you when you get here, but don't rush it. You have all the time in the world."

With one shot, everything ended. With one shot, two lives were claimed. With one shot, the world was saved. With one shot, the chaos and confusion died. With one shot, two immortals were killed. With one shot, all those who saw fell into despair.

And yet Shadow the hedgehog died with a smile on his face.

The End.

Well, there you go. Yeah, you probably hate me right now. But I've gotta say, that was one of the hardest things for me to write.

I hope you all enjoyed the story, but I bet you're wondering if I'm satisfied with the finished product. The answer is yes and no. I actually came up with the idea for this story a long time ago, and I only started writing it a few months ago. I really like the story, but I'm a little disappointed with how I put it together. I actually changed my mind about a lot of the plot points while I was writing the story, so a lot of the things that I put in there aren't necessary anymore. For example, my original idea was for Shadow to live at the end, and have him marry Rouge, and Silver would be their son. But now that that's not the case anymore, all of that talk about marriage and stuff is just taking up space, not going anywhere. So if I were a real writer, I wouldn't publish this yet. I'd make a lot of changes, taking out some things and putting new ones in, but overall, I do like my story. Let's just call it a first draft for now. Maybe I'll go back and rewrite it some day. If some of the premise looks familiar, I will admit that I was inspired by the book "Thr3e" by Ted Dekker.

But I do have a new story in mind. This one'll have Silver as the main character, though. I can't really tell you when to expect it because there are a few things I haven't decided on yet, but it'll be up at some point.

It's been fun, and I'll catch you guys later.

-Rev897