Watchdogs of the ARK

Bright Lights

In the Control Room, Shadow turns Infinite onto his back and stares into his colorless irises, desperate to find the tiniest bit of life in him. Unfortunately, there's nothing he can do. With the ARK systems down, Shadow knows the powered-deprived equipment in the medical wing is currently inaccessible, offline, and therefor useless. It doesn't matter anyway. The Ultimate Life Form has been around long enough to recognize when it's too late.

He bows his head in remorseful defeat as several wisps dart across the galaxy scape like shimmering fireworks. The little creatures of light are accompanied by falling astroids which seem to be dropping into the Earth's atmosphere, mimicking tearful stars.

"You're not worthless," Shadow tells Infinite, still holding onto the jackal's shoulders.

Enter the sunrise, which entices Shadow to look up. Glorious rays wash over them. It hurts though, because he knows how much the jackal enjoyed the sun. So he delicately strokes Infinite's hair out of his face, so he can pretend to share one more moment with him. A burst of red hits the jackal's colorless irises, giving them a temporary redness, similar to Shadow's eye color. He half smiles but at the same time, feels a lump in his throat.

"You did good, Infinite. You were very brave," he says sincerely and for a few seconds, everything seems peaceful. But it's not. Far from it. So many memories of death, hundreds of years worth. Somehow Shadow's held it together. Why is this one so painful? Is it because Black Doom blinded Infinite before killing him? Or is it something else?

He sighs as he closes the jackal's pigment-stolen eyes, then shuts his own, trying not to cry.

"Everyone deserves a chance to be happy," he says, "that's what Maria told me. Whatever you did before doesn't matter. I wanted the ARK to be your asylum, because you came when I was alone... and you... you brought me happiness."

He stops, opening his eyes widely.

"I was happy? I've never been happy before. My purpose is to protect the ARK."

"I was happy," he proclaims out loud. "You... you made me happy."

Shadow remembers when he removed Infinite's mask, the day they met, and how the sight of Infinite's face ignited a glimmer of joy within him. Contemplating the existence of a parallel-dimension version of himself, whom at this very moment, despises Infinite... this baffles and saddens Shadow further. He sentimentally strokes Infinite's soft locks.

"What a beautiful face. I'm so sorry. What distant version of me could ever hate you? He must think himself to be much better than me... but I'm the one who got to have you so... I'm the better one... even though... I couldn't protect you."

The sunrise migrates across the ARK, leaving, reinforcing the end of Shadow and Infinite's short, unexpectedly blissful time together. He is now alone again and realizes what about Infinite dying, makes him so upset.

"I will never hate you the way that other Shadow did. You are my friend and I love you very much. And you called me your hero too... I'm sorry I failed you."

Heartbroken, tears begin to pour down his face as he cuddles his friend.

Meanwhile, miles away from the ARK, but still close enough for it to seem like only an arm's reach away, Black Doom reappears. He takes one last look at the space colony before turning to his floating eye and saying...

"A disappointment, that Shadow the Hedgehog. GUH! WHAT?!"

A huge storm surrounds the alien, but it's not really a storm, it's a sea of colorful wisps. Like being trapped in the eye of a tornado, they spin around him, with the Ultimate Life Force, appearing in front of him via a blinding, grand light.

"Those eyes don't belong to you," the etherial being confronts, his ageless voice quite terrifying.

Black Doom collects himself, moving his arm away after covering his eyes from the brightness. To his dismay, the same majestic version of Silver that Infinite encountered, floats only a few feet away.

"Impressive. I see, you're a Black Arms warrior too, one with great psychokinetic power, measurable to my own. I can feel my DNA flowing inside of you! Don't turn against me, my child. Tell me, what is your name?"

Rays of endless cyan shoot from Silver's mouth, eyes, the circles on his hands... he directs all light toward Black Doom, burning holes into the alien. Black Doom and Doom's Eye both shriek...

"What?! No, stop, what are you doing?!"

Silver's echoing voice bounces off the negative caverns of space. The wisps begin to scream with outrage.

"I am called Silver. You KILLED us, remember?! Whose planet is this?! HUH?! Not yours!"

"S-Silver, stop!" Black Doom begs, "Stop, don't do this!" Gurgle. "Join me and together," gag, "and together," gasp, "together, we'll control all the power of all the galaxies!"

"NEVER! You ruined our lives!"

"I can give life just as easily as I can take it! P-Please, you can trust me!" Black Doom desperately lies.

Silver becomes infuriated, raging into a deafening scream with the wisps.

"NO! DIE!"

BLAST.

Brutally, every bit of Black Doom is ripped to shreds by the cosmic laser beams coming out of every crevice of Silver's form. The spinning of the wisps causes all of Doom's biological matter to disintegrate. Within mere seconds, Black Doom is no more. Finally defeated and not by Shadow but by an anointed descendant.

Satisfied, Silver Chaos Controls back to the ARK, where he finds AI Rouge glitching out on a platform near the colony's core.

"ARK Spirit!" he calls out. "I'm here to help you. You're drained from firing the Eclipse Cannon but I can restore you."

He hurries to her and is able to touch her, placing his hand on her holographic shoulder.

"I'm a machine, love," AI Rouge whimpers, though still trying to maintain her spunky personality. "I just need... a little energy. Turn the lights back on, won'tcha, sugar?"

Silver nods then radiates into a white flame and begins to slow-motion blast through the ARK.