This is a Redspark written fanfic. Unlike most of my fics I do not suggest looking up the song I based this off X.X or at least look for a clean version... I did not choose it! It was issued to me! (*coughcough*glares at Ravin*cough*)

Anyhow, I do like how it came out. I'm hoping to make this a chapter fic, so tell me what you think =p

I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog (or anything related to it) or any lyrics from You're Going Down by Sick Puppies.

The sky was dark, completely filled with a thick canopy of choking black smoke. Any light that managed to leak into the black shroud from beyond came through blood red and only added to the sense of foreboding. Devastation decorated the surroundings with wasted ruins that appeared as only a shadow of their former glory. Flames licked the skeletons of unrecognizable buildings and cast flickering images on the smashed sidewalks. Cement slabs stuck out haphazardly like jagged teeth in a monster's gaping maw, and over this destruction reigned an eerie silence that sucked the life out of any remaining hope in the ruins. Not a single soul stirred.

Far off the muted sound of crunching glass and debris came into hearing range. The sound came closer in a steady pace that seemed determined to get where it was going.

Have I been here before?

White, metal-soled shoes came into view, trudging along through the destruction with seeming indifference. The sound of tinkling glass underfoot abruptly ceased as the lone figure came to a halt in a small clear area surrounded on all sides by subtly burning buildings.

Did I do this?

Silence once again ruled as the figure stood straight with a dark and dangerous air about him. His fur was a glossy jet black with red accenting his eyes and sloping down from his forehead onto his the back of his headspikes like a royal crown. Thick red lines wrapped up the back of his arms, starting from his white gloved hands and disappearing behind his elbows.

What am I doing here...

Questions rang out faintly at the back of the creature's subconscious, like a piece of him had woken from a dream and was trying to make sense of it, but he ignored them. The anthro's ruby red eyes were piercing and achieved in appearing steel cold with detachment and red hot with a deep seeded anger at the same time. He glared intensely into a pile of rubble ahead of him, seconds then minutes ticking by wordlessly. He just stood there, waiting. Then suddenly something began to stir; from the pile, with much grunting and gasping for air, another figure managed to haul itself up and out of the rubble.

This anthro's fur was a shocking blue, but was dirtied and bruised, his head spikes bent painfully and his face discolored with one eye swollen shut. He staggered over the rocks at his feet to more stable ground, holding one cut up arm with a gloved hand. He gritted his teeth against the pain and glanced up at the black and red hedgehog. He managed a strained chuckle, an alien sound in the dead silence, and cracked a small grin. He called over hoarsely, "Hey, Shadow. How's it going?"

Shadow the Hedgehog narrowed his eyes at the cobalt form twenty feet away from him. "Sonic," he stated flatly in a deep and humorless voice. Positive that this was the reason he was here he deadpanned it: "You have been nothing short of an annoyance to me, a fly who just won't stay out of the picture. I plan to change that." Sonic straightened slightly in mild alarm as Shadow took a step forward and continued, "Tonight one of us shall fall. And Sonic," Shadow frowned deeper, "I can promise you that it won't be me."

"Sheesh, Shadow. You're starting to sound like the 'Good Doctor'," Sonic raised a brow then shifted his body to resemble a fighting stance, his usual cockiness shining through the bruises. "Bring it if you want, Shadow," he continued, doing his best to mask his real agony, "but we both know how this is going to end. Doctor Eggman will want you back in your cage before long."

A long tense moment passed between the two hedgehogs, Sonic apparently waiting for some type of reaction to the jab. Shadow closed his eyes and, in one terrifying moment, chuckled. The sound alone was enough to make Sonic suppress a shudder.

"Things are a little bit different now," Shadow smirked. "I won't be running anywhere," he said, his face falling back into a frown, "That pompous windbag won't be able to join us tonight."

"Oh, Shadow, I feel so loved," came a sarcastic voice.

Shadow's eyes flew open and focused on the man looking smugly down from the safety of his hovercraft. How did he get here? came the still quiet voice. The blue hedgehog was no where in sight. Shadow for some reason didn't feel surprised at the sudden appearance, but it was obvious he wasn't too pleased either.

The man grinned widely in arrogant victory, spreading his arms wide and calling out in a condescending tone, "Come now, Shadow, surely you don't think so bad of me. After all, I am the one who saved your life..." He smirked, "In any case, let us be heading home now. We have a lot to talk about." The doctor massaged his huge mustache, grinning and making soft cackling noises.

"Lies."

"Eh?" Doctor Eggman looked back down at the black hedgehog with a brow raised.

Shadow gritted his teeth and glared at the cracked concrete. Something boiled inside him and he let it be known.

"Lies. All you've ever told me are lies. Everything. I know who I am, Doctor, and I do not need your 'help' any longer."

"Oh, erm, Shadow -" Eggman stammered but was cut off as the hedgehog continued, voice growing a bit louder.

"I am no one's slave!" Shadow snapped, his fierce gaze locking onto the man above him. "And no one is my master." He took another step forward, deadly intent gleaming in his eyes. "Goodbye, Doctor." The words played in his mind, One of us shall fall.

Doctor Eggman jolted back and put his arms up in a measly defense, but suddenly his very form began to crumble and dissipate from the crown of his head down. His body turned a monotone gray and caved in on itself like a sandcastle in the water, and even his hovercraft joined the accumulating pile of gray smoke on the ground. But once nothing was left of what had been Doctor Eggman, the resulting cloud of smoke refused to settle and it surged violently. It pulled up together of its own accord into a column that began to further morph and compress down into a short bodily shape.

Shadow heard the voice echoing in the emptiness before ever seeing the blue fur peek out of the shifting smoke plume. "Come on, Shadow, you don't really know anything about yourself." The remnants of the smoke trails disappeared into the new skin of Sonic the Hedgehog, now completely free of bruises and standing proudly on a pile of debris. His arms were crossed over his chest and he smirked down at Shadow, saying, "In all the time I've known you, you've never even had your own life. You weren't created to have your own life."

Shadow gritted his teeth and emitted an audible growl, anger steadily rising. How dare they tell me about my own life? He suddenly cringed and grasped his head in his hands as a foreign yet annoyingly familiar voice pierced invasively through his mind.

'It seems to me, Shadow,' came the unmistakable voice of Doctor Eggman, 'that though you think you have discovered your past, you still really have no idea what you are now!'

Shadow growled fiercely and ripped his hands from his head, livid gaze falling on the blue hedgehog.

Sonic, or at least the image of him, sported an uncharacteristically sinister air about him, his eyes mocking and heartless. He barked a dark howl of laughter that sounded hallow and haunting, before his form suddenly and completely lost its consistency. Much like what had happened with Doctor Eggman, the small form of what had been Sonic crumbled down and expanded into a mass of gray molecules, swirling and dancing about.

The gray cloud separated into two masses, one slinking across the ruins a ways and both rising up and condensing into the thick forms of two men. As the smoke settled into its new images, the details of each man became apparent. Where the one mass had crawled away and settled stood a tall man with silvery-gray buzz cut hair suited up in military garb and adorned with many medals and ranking stars. The man's face was hard and caused Shadow to pause - did he know this human? The man slowly raised his arm without a sound and pointed to the second man's back as though in a silent command.

Shadow followed his finger to stare at the second man. He was completely covered in black SWAT team clothing that was complete with a dark visored-helmet and bullet proof vest. This man raised his own arm in response to the first man's command and pointed off into the distance. It was as though he were aiming at something not really there, or something that Shadow could not see.

This scene... it seemed so familiar...

In his hand was... a pistol...

Shadow's eyes widened with the horrific realization. He knew what would happen next.

No...

The man aimed the pistol at an unseen target and cocked...

And fired...

NO!

Shadow saw red. He let out a blood curdling roar and charged at the apparition with nothing inside him but unadulterated fury. Time seemed to slow as Shadow came within three feet of the gunman, his fist reeling back in a deliberate and fluid motion as the two separate men suddenly dissipated and reunited as the familiar blue hedgehog. The image of Sonic was not quite solidified when Shadow's fist came crashing down into its chest, causing the Sonic faux to stumble back in surprise - but Shadow's fist passed harmlessly through.

The world seemed to still as smoke trailed up from the image and ribboned past Shadow towards the sky. Unheeded by him, the world around Shadow began to litterally unwind, as though the fire and the buildings were made of thread. The sky turned from the choking black to a sickly white with streams of gray smoke contrasting against it. He stared down at the unseeing and lifeless doll as floated down like a feather past his outstretched fist and settled at his feet. It laid there like a corpse, staring unseeingly into the sky. But for only a few seconds. The image of a half created Sonic suddenly blasted towards the heavens as blue tinted smoke, knocking Shadow backwards a pace and grabbing him up in the pull.

The ground dropped away from Shadow's feet and he found himself shooting upwards like a rocket. Smoke and wind whipped around his face with such ferocity that he could only flicker his eyes open for a second at a time, catching only glimpses of the white and gray.

Again, he didn't feel very surprised at this bizarre change of events. It was almost as though this had happend to him before, like in another life time. All of his senses were soon consumed with the numbing sting of the blasting air. But perhaps it was more than just the air. Numbness. It was all he felt. One sentence echoed in his mind during these events, out of place and mocking.

...though you think you have discovered your past, you still really have no idea what you are now!

And soon he felt nothing.

Shadow's hand twitched as consciousness began to seep back into his body. His muddled awarness did not venture past his eyelids, until in his confusion they flickered open for only a brief moment. His mind was unable to process the images of glass above him, and the dull metalic ceiling above the glass, nor the cold cramped unit he was currently residing in. He simply rested his head to the side, his eyes clouding over once again, and was ripped away from reality before having the chance to get aquainted with it.

A.N. Please review! Give me ideas... Thanks! ^_^