War of Chaos Final Chapter: Perfect Chaos

By: Shadow the Hedgehog 2099

Fiona and Kindar had only just landed the biplane when they were already running back towards the city. They had just witnessed the defeat of Chaos Six, and the fall of the Egg Carrier, and so they had reason to believe they were safe, but they weren’t. As they stood in their complacency, they suddenly were struck and rendered unconscious by a powerful entity and Kindar’s bird friend had it’s locket shattered like glass—and a beautiful Chaos Emerald rolled out—and into a small puddle of moving water, which swallowed it up and vanished just as quickly.

Meanwhile, Shadow the Hedgehog had just emerged into the sunlight from the ancient Echidna temple and began skating towards the city. At the same time, Eggman and Ishntknew were flying the newly-repaired Egg Carrier towards the same place. Knuckles was hotfooting it towards Starmen.netville but none of them were prepared for the sight they witnessed. Without a single hint of a warning, the ground began to violently shake and split—spewing water and sewage all over the streets and buildings. Manholes blew off from the ground, causing traffics accidents all over the streets, fire hydrants exploded with violent force like bottle rockets, buildings ruptured at their foundations and sank like stones in the newly-made ocean of destruction, killing thousands of innocents in their steps—some before they even knew what had happened.

A torrential rain joined in the symphony of desolation and people desperately attempted to get in boats and rafts or flee to rooftops, but even there, there was scarcely any relief. Terrible waves toppled rafts and boats, buildings were barely standing upright and people were hit so fast, many didn’t have time to react. Cars were tossed about like toys, even the strongest buildings were at the mercy of the gale and torrent, and in the middle of it all, an enormous draconic monster raised from the ocean and roared angrily into the air—quite proud of the job it had done upon the innocent city.

At a distance the Egg Carrier viewed what was going on with Ishnt and Eggman looking on in awe from the deck, while the three robotic minions piloted the air vessel. “This is terrible!” Eggman gasped, “Tikal was right… it is an uncontrollable beast…”

“We must stop it,” Ishnt agreed. Just below them, they caught signal of Kindar and Fiona, so they took them aboard, with them both having only just recovered consciousness.

“What’s going on?” Fiona groaned as she rubbed her head and gasped at the sight of Eggman and Ishnt, “You guys?! What’s going on?!”

“See for yourself!” Ishnt gestured over his shoulder at the massive monster, “Chaos has all the seven Chaos Emeralds,”

“It’s Perfect Chaos now,” Eggman informed them, grimly, “I fear there is… realistically little we can do at this point,”

“Don’t say that too quickly there, Doc!” a voice called out as Shadow and Knuckles suddenly appeared on the deck.

“Shadow!” Fiona gasped, rushing to embrace her fiancée, “How’d you get here so fast?!”

“Tikal brought us here,” Knuckles replied quickly, “She said we should band together and get ready for the final confrontation,”

“Who’s Tikal?” Kindar asked in all her naivety.

“I am!” a girl’s voice cried as a ball of light fell from the sky and formed in front of them as the young echidna girl, “I brought you all here in hopes we could stop Chaos and put him back in the Master Emerald to sleep for all eternity…”

“That won’t be a benefit to anyone!” Shadow declared sternly, “Look what has happened! This is the second time that a civilization has been ruined by his power! How many more have to die and suffer before you understand that Chaos is better off destroyed?!”

“Please, no!” Tikal begged, “I don’t want to see that! I’m tired of war and destruction!”

“Tough!” Eggman huffed, “Shadow is right—this war ends here and now!”

“I really can’t stop you from fighting but…” Tikal paused, “What do we have that can stop Chaos at this point?”

“There!” Fiona gasped as she pointed at the massive watery fiend, “The Chaos Emeralds! They—are…” she trailed off as she watched the spectacle that played out before them. The seven Chaos Emeralds flew up above the monster, lost their coloration and sheen, and then were strewn all across the flooded city’s island buildings. “The emeralds! Quick! We can get them now!” Fiona pointed, “Eggman, can you lower this thing down and keep out of sight while we do it?”

“I believe so,” Eggman nodded, then issuing the command to the three pilots, “Chaos looks like it’s having a temper tantrum on those buildings over there, so if we move quickly and quietly, we can get those jewels back!” They all nodded and made a silent truce between their forces as the Egg Carrier hid as best as it could amidst the buildings. Countless civilians shouted, pled and desperately begged to be rescued or have loved ones saved, but the heroes knew they had to stay the course—in spite of the Egg Carrier’s behemoth size, it was still unlikely it could harbor the inhabitants of an entire city.

The team split up across the buildings and after about fifteen minutes all returned. Shadow held one of the grayed, dull gems in his hand, Fiona had two, Kindar also had one, as did Ishnt and Knuckles, and finally Eggman stepped forward with one in his hand too. “That’s all seven,” Shadow conceded, “But what’s the point? Chaos sucked up all their power and spit them right back up when they were just pebbles again!”

“No, Shadow!” Kindar shook her head, “Don’t you remember? These jewels contain the powers of emotions—they can never be ‘dead batteries’! Our hearts united with them can make their power reactivate! And then we can awaken our champion to battle that beast!”

“You’re right,” Shadow nodded, “So, I guess that means I get to be the one to bravely sacrifice myself for the good of the city, huh?”

“That’s what you’re good at!” Kindar nodded, handing the jewel to Shadow, “Give him heck!”

Knuckles walked to Shadow next, “The Master Emerald will also do its part to strengthen you, Shadow—it’s up to you!” He then forked over his emerald too.

Next was Ishntknew, who went up and firmly placed his emerald into Shadow’s collection, “You can’t die here. If you lose—it’ll be against me. Period!” Shadow nodded with a smirk.

Then was the nefarious Eggman himself who was quite frank, “We must stop Perfect Chaos! If there’s no city there’ll be nothing for me to take over! So show that beast no one beats us!” Shadow couldn’t help but laugh a little, but he nodded again.

Lastly, Fiona came in her turn and put the last two into the stack and said, “Shadow the Hedgehog, I love you! There’s nothing that can beat us—because our hearts are always together!” And then it happened.

The Chaos Emeralds relit in their vibrant color and began to pulse their immense energies again. They all began to levitate around Shadow and began to spin around him faster and faster. Shadow focused all his might and ability into the jewels and desperately beckoned for their power and in a brilliant flash of light that pierced the sky for but a second, the beautiful, silvery SuperShadow had returned. Feeling his strength completely renewed, the super-charged hedgehog took to the sky and went straight to battle against the water monster.

SuperShadow flew up above the ruined city and watched in horror as Chaos continued to attack buildings, not caring if people were there or not—so he reeled back and launched himself at the beast at such a speed his body burst into flames. Less than a second later, the radiant hedgehog blew clear through Perfect Chaos’ core brain, dropping it back into the water below. SuperShadow hesitated for a moment, knowing rightfully that one hit couldn’t have dropped such a powerful opponent. Perfect Chaos then burst up from the sea below and attempted to slam its huge, powerful jaws around him, but SuperShadow saw it coming and launched himself off to the side to avoid it.

Chaos then locked its sights on the silver hedgehog and spewed out a blue beam of energy of which SuperShadow easily zoomed around and tried to fly at the head of the dragon again, but a massive club-like mitt swatted the attacker off. SuperShadow twirled in the air for a moment before regaining his mindset and focused again at Perfect Chaos, who was already on the move to attack again by launching several water spouts towards the unprepared hero, which sucked him in, threw him about and hurled him back into the air again but he was ready and caught himself and shot right back at Chaos and caught him with his guard down and splattered the watery freak again. SuperShadow quickly looked around the water for where he had slipped off to, only to be blasted from below by a massive laser blast, hurling the hedgehog higher above the ruined city and just in time for him to look down upon the massive monster.

SuperShadow braced himself then launched himself downwards at the creature like a falling comet, but Perfect Chaos easily anticipated this and began sliding back along the water, but the smaller warrior knew better than to let himself go under the water, so he pulled up just before the water’s surface and lunged himself like a spear into Perfect Chaos’ head again. The drip splattered again and the hedgehog began to feel himself tiring out from the hydrokinetic ability of the monster and figured he was probably using the rain to strengthen its own power and beat down on him little by little. He then mustered his strength again as Perfect Chaos appeared again before him, and it began hurling spear-like ice shards at him. SuperShadow saw them and began dancing around the blades and hurled a Chaos Spear against the shards he doubted he could get by.

SuperShadow became exasperated; never before had an opponent done so well against his super-charged form, but he knew that monster was feeling the burn too. SuperShadow decided to go for another strike before Chaos could get the chance to, so he launched himself like a missle and took advantage of the beast’s open mouth and pierced right into its brain again—splattering it. Beginning to feel drained, the hedgehog fell back to the Egg Carrier and, after getting some distance away before watching Perfect Chaos rise yet again. “No way!” SuperShadow gasped, “We’ll need bigger guns for this!”

He landed in front of his awaiting friends, panting. Eggman spoke first, “Shadow! What’s the matter?!”

“The emeralds, though reactivated, are still weak. I’m not at 100% and I think Chaos is still gaining strength from all that water around him,” SuperShadow confessed.

“What are gonna do?!” Kindar worried.

“Don’t worry! I think I saw your fire attack do a lot of damage, Shadow,” Fiona commented as she took off her rune bracelet, “Here! Use this and amplify your fire powers!” SuperShadow put it on and felt powerful warmth overtake him and he embraced Fiona once again.

“Eggman,” Shadow then turned to address Eggman, “Is there enough power on this thing to fire off that huge cannon again?”

“My Egg Cannon?” Eggman pondered, “I believe so, but the repair job was a quick one! If we do it, it’ll have to be perfect! Otherwise, we’ll be essentially powerless!”

“I can’t keep fighting like this, I’ll get torn apart!” Shadow admitted, “We have to bind together everything we got to do this! Every little bit helps!”

“Right! We can use the energy from my beam sword!” Kindar suggested, “The battery is a type of high-powered crystal, so it could help a little bit, right?”

“Yes, I think so,” Ishnt nodded, “It’s a similar crystal to the one Eggman used in creating me—we could use energy from the blade and myself to fire off this thing and probably have enough power to land without crashing into something of value,”

“Good idea, Ishnt!” Eggman exclaimed, “I knew my genius would rub off on you all eventually! Well, I just thought of something! According to the various laws of physics and thermodynamics, if enough energy were exerted in the correct fashion, we could, theoretically, loosen up the bonds of the atoms in Shadow’s body—essentially making him a being of pure energy—and then get Shadow into the head of Perfect Chaos and the blast from the Egg Cannon would open a large hole where Chaos wouldn’t be able to utilize water energy to maintain its form or defenses!”

Most of the others there with him were dumbstruck but SuperShadow piped up, “Does this thing have the energy to do it? And if it does, what are the odds my molecules will re-assemble properly when we do this?!”

“You see, it’s a theory that hasn’t exactly been thoroughly tested, but if you’re willing to take a risk—so am I!” Eggman shrugged sheepishly, “If you were in the deepest accessible part of the Egg Cannon barrel, there should be more than ample energy there for the process to occur—that and your Chaos Emerald energy. If my calculations are correct then the emeralds should be able to shield you from any negative effects from the temporary deatomization!”

“Sounds good to me,” SuperShadow nodded, flying up and over the ledge of the Egg Carrier and into the cannon.

“Did anybody actually catch a thing they just said?” Fiona worriedly asked. Kindar and Knuckles shrugged but Ishnt nodded half-heartedly.

“We’re set at any time!” Eggman declared, pointing at the huge water dragon who was still infuriated from Shadow’s relentless assaults, “Now! Ready! Steady! Aim!...” he hurled his hand into the air, “FIRE!!!”

SuperShadow then felt the cannon begin to build up power and the turbines around him began to move as the energy from the Egg Carrier began to pour into him. SuperShadow then felt his consciousness broken from his body and placed within a realm of space inside that cannon that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He then found himself hurdled through the air in a way that using Chaos Control had made him feel and in a flash of light and time he found his body re-assembled in the hollow chasm that was Perfect Chaos’ mind—and he found his very essence within that of Chaos’.

He then saw what Chaos was thinking: he saw that same burning building before him with Chao strewn around, injured and some deceased. He also saw Tikal injured before the building and when he looked again—that same building Tikal showed him in his dream was none other than the shrine of the Master Emerald. He then saw a much younger Chaos Zero standing among the ruins and flying into a fury—then absorbing the Chaos Emeralds to become Perfect Chaos for the first time. Then, Shadow found himself back in the real world, still in the same moment of time before shouting out, “Do not try to justify your actions to me! You’ve slain countless more than those you claim to be getting revenge upon! You’re a worse monster than that heartless empire that tried to take the Chaos Emeralds!” he then felt all his hatred and rage flow through his blood violently and the rune bracelet on his arm burning with a righteous fury. “I cannot let a monster like you live! This war must end! CHAOS… BLAST!!!”

In a radiant flare of red light that split the clouds in the sky like butter and caused the ocean of water below it to part like the Red Sea did for Moses, Perfect Chaos was completely incinerated. In a flash, the Egg Carrier began to gradually lower, as did the water. The buildings and streets drained and sunk back into the ground, the streams, rivers, lakes and gullies around the city fell back to their proper place. The rain ceased and the clouds dissipated like steam over a stove, and the furiously burning silvery SuperShadow gradually descended to the ground and returned to his black, regular self. In his tiredness, he fell to his hands and knees and weakly looked up to the shining sun and crowds of people cheering him in a triumphant joy. He didn’t know why they were cheering, but he did know Chaos was gone.

Then, he looked over his shoulder and Fiona, Dr. Eggman, Knuckles, Kindar and Ishnt all walked to see him. “That was amazing!” Kindar exclaimed, “You did it!”

“Did what?” Shadow mumbled. He then looked up and saw a glimmering white Chao egg descend from the sky in front of him, with Tikal holding it in her hands, “What’s that you have there?” Shadow managed to sputter.

“Chaos was the Chao Guardian, but also a Chao himself. He was the eldest and most powerful of the Chao by several millennia. He has passed on from this life and is given a second chance as a newly-reborn baby Chao, where he will forget his evil ways and hatred,” Tikal told them.

“Doesn’t that make it so that other Chao will someday grow up and become Perfect Chaos too?!” Eggman gasped.

“Not anymore,” Tikal shook her head, “Chaos was unique in his gifts, but Shadow saw to their end. Thank you all so much!”

“For what?” Shadow demanded again.

“You saved the city! You protected these people!” Tikal gestured around her, “But now, we must be off,” she smiled gently as she disappeared into the sky with the Chaos Egg.

“Saved the city?” Shadow asked, looking around at the wreckage, destruction, and most important, the deceased, “I didn’t save a thing… everything’s gone—destroyed,”

“Shadow?” Fiona asked.

“Perfect Chaos destroyed it all. I was too stupid and weak to prevent it from happening,” Shadow sighed.

“Shadow?” Kindar then chimed out his name.

“If I had only stopped him… as Chaos Zero, or Chaos Four, or Chaos Six… but no, I failed. I… I was responsible for this city’s destruction,” Shadow sobbed.

“Shadow!” Knuckles gasped.

“Don’t you guys get it? It doesn’t matter that Chaos was stopped! These lives cannot be brought back! I lost this war!” Shadow threw his arms into the air and howled a terrible call into the air in his agony, “I destroyed this city!” he cried.

“Shadow!” Ishnt exclaimed, “You’re being irrational!”

“If I had stopped Chaos,” Shadow choked back a sob, “Then everything would’ve been okay. Everything would’ve been fine. But the city is destroyed and so are the innocent lives in the middle of it all! Oh! Wretched day as this! Why was such an abomination allowed to exist?! And why… why couldn’t… I… I… stop… it…?...” Shadow gasped as he fell flat on the pavement, and passed out. They all gazed upon him. Each of them was lost in thought as of what to do next. The Egg Carrier had the ability to fly still, so Ishnt and Eggman left the scene quietly and flew over the horizon, with their own burdens on their minds.

Fiona and Kindar rushed to Shadow and lifted him into their arms and made haste for the nearest still-open hospital while Knuckles took off to help with finding any survivors who may have been caught in the attack. The people immediately began trying to find their families and friends and tried to find out who was where during the attack. There were many tear-filled reunions but also many tear-filled goodbyes. All the while one lone person was silently walking in the dark of his own mind. He had his heavy heart expressed not only on his face but also in the abnormally slow way he made his way through the darkness. He sighed and sat down, “Why was I even made? This world would’ve been better off without me,”

“I don’t believe that,” a girl’s voice called out to him. He stood up and looked at who it was but was too surprised to say anything. She was a petit fairy-like girl in pink clothes with outlandish pink hair and large almost bug-like purple eyes but she spoke before he could, “I am Lumina Flowlight. I serve under the Queen of Dreams, Illumina. I’ve come here to show you the truth,”

“The truth?” the surprised young man replied, “What is there to show?”

“Plenty!” Lumina smiled, “You have a lot on your mind, and I know why and how of it all. But trust me! Things are not as they seem… so come with me, Shadow the Hedgehog!” She then flew off as a trail of light deeper into the darkness.

Shadow hesitated for a moment before sighing and saying, “What have I got to lose at this point?” and then ran after her.

--The end… for now.