Sonic and the Black Knight - The After Years: Rise of Darkness

"To begin you first need to wield a sword." Galahad explained as he led Shadow and Silver to a small building with in the training area that help all kinds of variety's of weapons all along the wall as well as in barrels scattered around the room.

"Whoa!" Shadow and Silver cried simultaneously in awe.

"We can choose any our own?" Silver asked.

Galahad happily nodded. "Choose any that are to your liking."

Shadow and Silver quickly scattered around the room looking for suitable weapons. After about ten minutes Silver returned to Galahad with two short sword, one in each hand. "I see you are a dual wielder like Gawain." Galahad pronounced which caused Silver to shyly smile.

Shadow however was having a harder time finding a suitable weapon. He was on the second floor of the building directly above them. Shadow was picking up various swords and throwing them back down, none of them was to his liking, until he came across a large sword hanging on the far end of the wall.

"Whoa! Now that's a sword!" Shadow exclaimed as he examined the sword. The sword was yellow down the middle, with purple around the yellow, and finally the edge of the blade was black and had six bumps on each side.

As Shadow reached for the blade he suddenly felt his arm being held back. "Stop!" Galahad cried as he ran towards Shadow. "You can't take this sword!" He proclaimed as he stood in front of the hedgehog.

Shadow raised his eye brow in both confusion and irritation. "And why not? You said we can take any that is to our liking." Shadow explained.

"Yes, but not this one!" Galahad repeated. "This sword is called 'Deathcalibur'! It was used by the evil King Arthur that Sonic was brought here to stop!"

"What does that have to do with why I can't use it?" Shadow asked curiously.

"Because Deathcalibur has a tendency to brainwash whoever wields it!" Galahad finished.

Shadow was persistent, he kept trying to get Galahad to allow him to use Deathcalibur, but the final result was him getting carried out of the building by both Galahad and Silver by their Telekinesis.

That evening...

"How was your first day in Camelot you guys?" Sonic asked his friends as they walked through a long hallway.

"It was great!" Tails exclaimed. "Miles (The blacksmith) showed me how to make different kinds of sword blades! It was really cool!"

Sonic chuckled to his brother's enthusiasm. "Well I know our day was perfect." Jet said with a smirk towards Lamorack.

"Why, what happened?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles slightly chuckled. "Lamorack was curious about Jets board and attempted to ride it." Knuckles explained. "Let's say it didn't go well."

After another minute they finally reached a couple of large double doors and entered through them to find themselves in a large dining room. The table was filled with various meats and vegetables. "Whoa now that's a feast fit for a king!" Strom cried with his mouth watering at the sight.

Sonic chuckled. "If you're hungry than dig in!" Sonic cried as they made their way to their seats.

After dinner Sonic showed all the boys to their room, while Percival showed the girl's to their rooms. Jet and Storm shared a room, Tails and Knuckles shared a room, while Shadow and Silver got their own rooms; Sonic knew Shadow wouldn't want to share with anyone.

Later that night…

Once everyone was asleep, Shadow crept out his window and made his way down the castle until he was at the gates. He kept walking until he came across the same tunnel as before and made his way through. Once he was on the other side, Shadow ran silently over to the building they were in earlier, and made his way inside.

When he was he quickly ran up the stairs to the second floor and ran up to Deathcalibur. Once he as directly in front of the sword Shadow slowly reached out and grabbed Deathcalibur.

Meanwhile back at the castle…

"Galahad! Galahad!" Silver cried silently as he shook the knight awake.

Galahad groaned as he sat up. "Silver… What is it?" He asked tiredly.

"I went to ask Shadow something, but he's gone!" Silver exclaimed.

"What! He better not be doing what I think he's doing!" Galahad cried as he was now fully awake.

Silver nodded. "If I know Shadow, and trust me I know him like the back of my hand by now, he's probably gone to take Deathcalibur." Silver explained. "He's stubborn that way."

The two of them quickly flew out the window and down to the training grounds. They quickly made their way into the build, but were in vain. "Damn! He's already gone!" Galahad exclaimed.

"We need to alert Sonic and the others!" Silver proclaimed. "If that sword is as dangerous as you say it is than we need to find him as soon as possible!" Galahad nodded in agreement and the two of them made their way back to the castle.

Meanwhile in Deep Woods…

Shadow was holding Deathcalibur with both his hands and slashed multiple trees in half. "Now this is what I call power!" Shadow proclaimed as he continued to relentlessly slash at the trees. After nearly an hour Deathcalibur started to glow which got Shadow's attention. He then felt his body start to move on its own! "H-hey what's going on here?!" Shadow exclaimed.

'Foolish rodent!' A voice spoke.

"What? Who's there?!" Shadow demanded as he franticly looked towards the trees.

'You should have listened to your friends.' The voice continued. 'Now your body is mine!' Suddenly Shadow blanked out and a black and purple light engulfed him. When the light faded an armoured shadowy figure ran off towards the mountains.

Meanwhile back in Camelot…

"This is bad…" Sonic pronounced as he inspected the glass case that Deathcalibur laid. "If Shadow truly does have that sword, than he could very well become the new black knight." Sonic lowered his head and crossed his arms in thought.

"Then shouldn't we go after him before that happens?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic slowly shook his head. "Once Shadow picked up the sword he sealed his fate." Sonic explained.

Everyone continued to stand there in shock and sadness at the seemingly loss of their friend. Continued to think of any possible way to prevent the inevitable. "What if we we go and find him and take the sword back?" Rouge asked. "Would that undo the damage?"

Sonic looked over to the bat, not changing his facial expression. "Yes, but we only have a month to do so, or it becomes permanent." Sonic explained. "And there's no need to find him. He'll come to us."

Tails raised an eye brow at Sonic confusingly. "What makes you think that?"

Sonic chuckled slightly. "Cause let's face it, he maybe the same black knight from before, but since he's in Shadow's body he shares his ego as well." Sonic looked back down to the ground. "The problem is that not only does he have the same powers as before he also has Shadow's abilities as well."

"Then we've no time to waste we need to get our defences ready before he gets here and prepare ourselves." Gawain pronounced.

Sonic nodded to his knight and they proceed back to the castle.

Meanwhile at the Damned Isle…

"But my lord there was no stopping them." A Dark Silver hedgehog pleaded. "Lancelot's powers are impossible to-"

"Silence!" Cried a Dark figure atop a black and red throne. "I don't want to hear any more excuses DS! You must serve a penalty for your actions!" The figure stood up and raised his towards Dark Silver.

DS stepped back fright. "N-no please your majesty!" He pleaded.

"Enough!" The figure cried. "Take your punishment like a men DS."

"Stop!" Came a voice from the entrance.

The two of them looked towards the figure to see a hedgehog wearing Golden armour. "Hmph. Arthur you made it I see." The figure said as he lowered his hand.

Arthur walked forward towards the throne and kneeled down next to Dark Silver. "Yes, and as you can see I was also able to take control of one of the rodents friends." Arthur smiled evilly under his helmet.

"Indeed. Searching through the memories of this hedgehog that I inhabit, this one's named Shadow." The figure explained. "He looks and acts just like Lancelot as well as having the same powers."

"Sire I request an army of soldiers so I can crush that king of theirs." Arthur claimed. "I want to crush that infernal rodent for what he did to me!"

The figure held his hand up signalling him to silence which he obliged. "All in due time Arthur, but for now…"

Back at Camelot Castle…

"Well Knuckles, anything?" Silver asked the echidna who was concentrating with the master emerald.

The echidna shook his head. "No. I can't track his chaos energy." Knuckles explained. "There's something's blocking me. Whatever it is, it's powerful."

"Damn, ok then. You can all return to your rooms now, we will figure this out in the morning." Sonic stated which every nodded and returned to their rooms. 'Shadow… why didn't you just listen for once?' Sonic thought to himself before he returned to his room also. Not knowing what the future had install for them.