Shadow and Umbra were locked in combat. They started off with hand to hand, testing each other's strength. Course, their level of strength would be at least ten times that of a normal human. The electric armor that Umbra had weaved around himself beautifully was deadly.

"You can't stop me, you know," Umbra said into his ear, "even if you do, which we both know is neigh impossible, I'll survive. Then this will all repeat. I can just make more Black Arms. They are not trouble. But can you make more G.U.N. soldiers? You know this, as well as I. I will always be here. No matter how hard you try, the darkness will always be waiting to force a knife between your ribs and carry you off. There's no way to stop me and you know it!" The 'man' pushed his elbow right into Shadow's stomach with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

Umbra locked eyes with his wheezing brother and smiled. "Give up, pathetic life form. You are not worthy to remain in this world. I can obliterate you with a—!"

"HEADS UP!"

An explosion launched Umbra forward, skyrocketing him into the dark fleshy wall. Flames licked his form as his flew through the poisoned air.

Shadow, still trying to regain his breath, saw the four Delta force members emptying their ammo magazines. Black Arms were clawing their way toward them using whatever weapon or fellow Arms that was at their disposal. Empty ammo cartridges were falling over the floor as their semi-automatic weaponry discharged. Sharon was using a shotgun to splatter the Black Arms all over the room. Her hate for them knew no bounds. Knuckles didn't try any fancy guns; he just pounded his way through the massing forces with his fists. Manic was shooting off his M-16, as well as throwing the occasional grenade.

Shadow reached for the handle of the RPG launcher on his back and felt only air. He looked back to see it on the floor, knocked out its strap. It was at least fifty feet away from him, and to make matters worse, the Black Voles and the Nephilim were flying and crawling, respectively, all over and around the ceiling waiting to strike. He could see the Nephilim ripping off the green fleshy bags to show huge gapping mouths with dagger fangs and green saliva running down their faces.

Shadow didn't pause any longer; he ran forward to grab the explosive launcher. Out of the corner of his eye he could see 'Robert' running beside him at incredible speed.

What? he thought in amazement. How can he make that body move like that? Even if he is a shape shifter. This shouldn't be possible!

They were neck and neck. With a smirk, Robert stole a quick glance at Shadow's left leg. Shadow growled, his ire rising. He had expected this sort of thing from his brother-in-law. But now he had to deal with it from Umbra too.

Umbra started to grow something else as he rammed his electrified body into his brother. Shadow grunted in pain but threw a kick into Umbra's head. Shadow took the pain the electricity gave him and traded it for the pain he gave Umbra by sending him up into the air. Shadow charged forward for the grenade launcher once again.

Two Black Voles dived down, their gold armor dulled by darkness of the Black Comet. They began to fire the worm shooters on their underside at the black hedgehog. The red and black worms flew from their canisters at an extremely high speed. Shadow stepped to the right and dodged the slimy things. He charged forward to see Umbra charging—or should I say flying-through the air at great speed, his bat like wings flapping like a carrion bird. Shadow fired his pistols at his 'brother's' wings. The demon only smirked with an incredulous look. Umbra continued to charge forward, the holes in each of his dark wings being easily repaired.

Shadow turned sharply and launched another volley of bullets, only this time at the Nephilim. This caused the giant guards to scream and release their attacks unintentionally.

The powerful sound waves burst the fleshy green bags covering some of their mouths, but that wasn't the only thing to break under the extremely high pressure that is sound. A huge pulsating crystal hung above the 'throne room,' if you will. Sound is never given any credit as a powerful weapon. However, if you can channel it right and at the right pitch, you can disrupt the very molecules. Umbra had these attacks created into his army and personal guards for this very reason.

And of course, in his current form, Umbra's ears weren't advanced enough to block out the sonic power of the Nephilim. Shadow had felt their power on his own sensitive ears before. Now he got his revenge.

Umbra's screams pierced the semi-darkness of his throne room. Shadow smiled as his 'brother' had to put his hands over his ears to try to escape the pain. This had given Shadow the opportunity he needed. He rushed forward, his now partly cybernetic and unperfected leg biting with venomous pain. He ignored it; adrenalin does that. He picked up the RPG launcher and began to fire at the minions lining the ceiling. The beast shrieked in terror and a few left the ceiling before the explosive devisees. Shadow chuckled. He enjoyed giving his archenemies hell.

He continued to fire the mass destruction weapon. He needed to seal off this room, at least. Umbra was hard enough. He didn't need Umbra to have the organization abilities of the mind link in the fight. Course, he knew that even if he did so he would have to work fast to kill the so called 'immortal.' With that mind link, he would be able to move all the rock and debris in no time. Speed was imperative.

He began to fire at all the holes that were above them. He didn't have to worry about the dome collapsing in on them. This thing, though very macabre, was an engineered marvel and would heal, but it would take a while for it to move the blocked passages.

The grenades launched from their barrel and exploded with a mighty force. The creatures around the holes were caved in, crushed or just simply blown to kingdom come.

Shadow kept on blasting right until a searing pain came upon him. He held his mouth shut so as not to let his scream be heard. THAT HURT! He knew exactly who had done that and he didn't want to give them the satisfaction. He looked back to see a bleeding slash across his back. He turned to see Umbra getting to his feet, a smirk plastered parentally on his face, his clawed human hands splattered with Shadow's blood.

"Even if you block them, you are trapped with me. You aren't perfectly immortal like me. You can't regenerate . . . and neither can they!" The Umbra Shadow had been talking to faded into nothingness. Damn! He thought quickly and turned just as fast. The real Umbra charged his companions with impressive speed. His left human hand morphed again to become clawed like that of a raptor. He moved too fast for any of the group to react; he cut down one of the Delta Force Soldiers. Decapitation. Coronal Ryan, Shadow thought his name had been. But Shadow didn't have time to mourn. He knew he had no more time to play around. He needed to end this before anyone else got hurt. He pulled the blade out of it scabbard. It was time to end this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sharon Loveless looked into his face. She could see everything. It is true what they say, your life really does flash before your eyes. Her past, her home in the Bronx. Her father had been a military man. He had inspired her to go farther than any other, and she had gone far. She could see his funeral and the fallout between her and her mother because of her choice to go to the military. Her graduation from West Point as first of her class. She could see herself joining G.U.N. The Black Arms first falling from the skies all those years ago. She had seen the end of the war. Then she had met the most wonderful man ever. She had meet Robert Eclipse when deciding the heads for the new world security teams. She became head of ARK and he took her old position as coordinator for the Pacific extraterrestrial defense. She could see him when he took her to a restaurant on a date: Ere de Amour it had been called. She hadn't really been interested in any of the conversation and had only gone out with him to get him to stop asking. But in the end, he had won her over to his side and they went on many more 'outings' as the rest of command called them. Sharon hated now that she had fallen for him. That she had used none of her famous skills of looking underneath the underneath. She hated that his exterior and rosy tinted words could captivate her unlike any other 'person' she had ever meet. She could see that night he had proposed to her and had single-handedly fought off forty Black Arms soldiers. He had even rigged his own car to explode with just the punching of a few buttons and even under the tux he had worn he had a sidearm and a few blades hidden. She could see him on the screen making the Robert she had known and loved disappear forever and mask strings came undone to show him for what he truly was. A monster.

She gazed into those red and green orbs. They had none of the compassion and caring that she had seen. Now they held the cold steel of a veteran killer.

Time slowed down as she saw her friend and comrade, Coronal Jack Ryan, cut down by a raptor like claw from her former lover. She saw every drop of blood spew out of his neck as he died. She felt like that was her. Umbra would swat her away like she was nothing, then he would move one with his mass murder. Blood would be split. That much was sure. She had make sure that it was not hers or any more of her friends this day.

Her body was frozen. She couldn't force her body to point the shotgun at the demon before her and shoot. He held her once again, but not in love or tenderness. No, now he held her in fear. He could kill her easily. Nothing could stop him. If he wanted to, he could have had them all killed off a long time ago. And he could still do it now. One swipe of his cruel curved claw and you would pass from this world.

Now she was afraid.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Umbra smiled at her fear. At all of their fear. He could taste it, he could smell it. It was joyous. Pitiful mortals who had dared to defy him. Laughable. Now he could deal with them. This time without interference. But, truly, it didn't matter if he failed this time to seize this world. The seed was growing. He could fell the heart beat already. He only needed to wait a few more years and the process would be complete. He wouldn't need Shadow's blood to speed it up. Everything would go according to plan.

Or so he thought . . .

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shadow charged the humanoid creature, his blade poised to strike deep within the heart. With this blade, Umbra's wounds would be real. They would cause damage that he couldn't regenerate. The sword had the ability down to the molecular level to stop his regeneration, effectively killing him if a fatal blow. That shouldn't be too hard. Umbra never had real use of defense. He had never needed it.

Umbra moved too quickly. With a spin kick, he knocked Knuckles to the side and then proceeded to tear a huge claw mark into Manic's face, who at the time had been trying to load a Javelin rocket launcher. Then, oh then, he locked eyes with his intended target. Shade stood there with a pistol in his hands. Umbra smirked in his semi-human form. Was this truly the child he had wanted for his experiments? Was this the one who had almost brought Shadow down? The oddities of life.

"You're going to shoot me boy?" Umbra said, hissing. "You can't kill me. You don't have it in you to kill me. You're weak. I am strong. We are two different beings and there will always be that barrier between you and I. There is nothing you could do even if you could unlock the cold beast within. I am a perfect immortal. You are nothing but a worm. Everything I do, I have goal in mind and I get to that goal. The ends justifies the means, brat. Understand that and embrace it."

Umbra was cut off from continuing by a bullet straight into his face. Actually one bullet and a slug. Shade had closed his eyes when the bullets had fired. The first thing he noticed was the smoking Colt pistol in his hands. His eyes followed the direction of the gun to the bloody and healing face of his 'uncle.' Another hole came through the front of his face, which revealed some of the back wall if you looked. Not that Shade ever wanted to look of course. Sharon shot behind Eclipse; her face was full of righteous fury. She hated Eclipse. She wanted him to burn and he would. She continued to fire on him. The M-shotgun let loose hell on the monster from space. Holes began to riddle the human like form. But no exclamation of pain or surprise. Umbra could get used to it. He could easily grow the flesh and sinew back easily. Nothing could stop him.

Nothing . . . but the blade.

Umbra ruptured in pain. Like his whole body was on fire and then soaked in dry ice. He had never experienced this. This . . pain, was unlike any he had every felt. This was impossible.

The blade stood out of Umbra's back. Shadow left it there. He would have held on to it, but the moment it pierced the flesh, it began to burn powerfully. Course, the pain he was experiencing was nothing like Umbra was feeling. He was writhing all over the room. And it wasn't just the Lord of the Black Arms. His minions began to howl and scream in pain and fury. Shadow could only watch in horror and utter amazement at the effect mind link had on the army.

How ironic it was. It was incredible how far the monster had fallen. He had wanted so many to suffer for his pleasure and now Shadow smiled somewhat to see the Machiavellian creature get what he deserved.

Umbra crawled on the floor shifting through various forms faster than you could blink. One moment, he would be an old scarred robed man, then a huge biotech insect with a glowing yellow gem, then a huge black dragon. Every form was completely different and varied but the blood on the floor remained the same color: black. He could not stand it. He crawled his way to a wall. He clawed at it as if trying to pull it down, but nothing came.

Then the real pain began.

"THIS CANNOT BE! I AM THE ULTIMATE LIFE! I AM THE FIRST BORN! DAMN YOU SHADOW! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

His screams ceased as he began to bulge and convulse. Huge boil like objects formed and veins and arties opened violently, spewing blood everywhere. He began to scream once again. But not in fury, pain, or anger.

In fear.

"NO!"

He exploded with monstrous power, spreading his multiple insides across the room! Multiple colors of eyes flew everywhere along with tentacles.

Shade wiped his hand across his face, removing the dark slime from it. He would be thoroughly disgusted with the last few minutes for the rest of his life. He looked over to his family. Manic was alright except for a messed up face, and two broken ribs. Knuckles was alright but bruised up pretty bad. Sharon was pretty much dirty and a bit bruised. The two remaining delta force members were ok. The droids had been demolished by the force of the Nephilim scream. He looked at his father with a tired smile. Shade ran to him and hugged him.

Shadow's smile grew wider, and hugged his son tighter. "It's finally over son. Umbra Eclipse is dead."

They broke from their hug, but not by their choice. An earthquake knocked them off the ground. As fate would have it, a cold laughter broke out just this moment. "YOU MAY HAVE KILLED ME, BUT YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE HERE ALIVE! WITHOUT ME TO CONTROL IT, THE COMET WILL SELF-DESTRUCT! DIE SCUM!"

Shadow ran over to the chandelier as fast he could with his cybernetic implant. Attached to it were four of the seven Chaos emeralds. He took his pistol and fired on the placing of the emeralds, knocking each on free. "EVERYONE, TO ME!" he called, flipping up to grab the emeralds before they could shatter. He grabbed each one and placed one in each palm and the others under his arm.

The others grabbed hold of the dark hedgehog. He looked at each of them quickly, and then yelled to the entire comet, "CHAOS EPIPHANY!

A flash of light and then they were all gone.