Offical sequal to the original Crossroads.
Summary: Sonic. We are all caught in different ways. We may never be together again.
A Sonadow Fic
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Dib07: Okay, sorry for the confusion of the last chapter. What you are about to read will clear up 45% of that confusion! Lol! ^_^
Anyways, as a quick recap, Chris was getting to know much about Shadow's strange, protective and abusive habits. Sonic and Shadow bought their own place, forcing Sonic to get a job to help pay the bills. Shadow took everything that he had for granted. Just at their relationship was starting to emerge, Shadow was struck down in more ways than one.
This is a Sonic X universe fic 15 years in the future.
Chapter 1: Away
He stirred softly, eyes moving beneath his lids as he left the tarnished, painted world of fake dreams and haunted realities. As he came to, entering a cruel, hostile world of modern life, he caught the strange odors of man and sterile surfaces. He heard the clink of metal and the exhaling breath of another. From a larger being who was emotionally calm and tranquil.
Shadow felt strange too. He gathered that he wasn't lying down. No. He was in a forced vertical position that didn't agree with his spine.
With gentle caution he opened his blood red eyes. Annoyingly his vision wouldn't work from the getup. Things blurred. The high, white ceiling. The anonymous object in front that breathed. The floor. It wavered before his eyes like white desert sand dancing in the crumpled heat.
What could he remember? Nothing much. Was he still dreaming?
He recalled Chris coming round early morning. Pots of food for anorexics…
Then an aching first thought finally erupted in his mind's surface like a bursting boil. "Sonic…" He croaked, voice muted and stale on his lips. His throat burned. Lips as dry as straw.
"Coming around? Good. It took awhile, but we are still in the study processes. We don't know that much about you, but we'll know more…soon." The object spoke to him. Shadow looked upwards as much as his sore neck would allow. It wasn't a tall object but a man. A man wearing a thick white lab coat, wiry glasses on the bridge of his nose and a name tag on his left breast. Walter S.G.
"Sonic!" He tried again, swallowing. He went to move, bring a leg forwards, rise from the polished, artificial floor. But something held him, and his limbs stubbornly refused to encroach forwards. Annoyed, he tried to glance down at his body to see the answers. What he saw made him snarl openly, his eyes widening to their full width. His ankles were locked tight by these large diadem locks that encompassed each ankle in a circle. A key hole resided in each circle where he believed it would snap open if he ever got a key. His wrists were crossed over each other on his back, also locked together by chains that glowed blue and green. The chains came from holes in the floor, preventing him from moving mere inches. His neck was also fixed to a collar, keeping him from moving around freely at all. The chain was fixed to the floor too so that he had to sit stooped down. Already his back was aching from the unnatural position. He couldn't straighten himself up; knead the bones from their aching knots. Couldn't get any relief from the strain on his muscles.
Anger froze on his face once he took it all in. "What the hell?"
He pulled. Tore. Tried to shunt forwards. The chains strained, clinking and pulling as his weight pushed against them. But the diadems were like material he had never known. And for some reason the chaos energies he tapped into; though this need was rare, was still available to him when he lived with Sonic in this modern human world. Sadly, that little pleasure seemed to have been stolen from him.
"What happened?" Shadow growled, making sure his revealed his long canines to invite the scare factor. But the man; Walter, seemed unfazed.
"Don't remember? How convenient." The man's words were cheerless. Dry and empty as though he was talking to a cash machine.
"You sour piece of…" Shadow paused in mid-threat. Yes. He could remember now, as clear as day. He had woken up after having the most horrendous nightmare that was beyond realistic. He had shot out of bed, so tempted to call the emergency services for Sonic. Chris had come over, not pleased at having been woken at three in the morning. And Sonic… struggling up the stairs back to bed. Daylight had come. No premonition followed. The GUN official with the cameras…turned out differently too. Men came and broke into the kitchen in all places at once it seemed. He remembered gunfire. And he remembered screaming.
"It was illegal of you, but we were glad you did it."
"What?" Shadow swamped back to reality and looked at up the man who didn't approach any closer. He was holding a clipboard. He was leafing through it now like some mad teacher trying to find that elusive file.
"Your unique energies. Don't you remember?"
"Remember what?" Phlegm spat from his sore lips. Again he writhed against the futile bonds, buckling his wrists up and summoning the strength to break them. But each attempt made shortly made him grow drowsy and weak. He wasn't sure how, but somehow…somehow they were using his strength against him.
"You performed chaos control last night without a single emerald. You just tapped into energies of your own, and went back in time. Just like that." He clicked his fingers to amplify this as one hand briefly left the clipboard. Shadow's mouth hung open. "We're still trying to determine why and of course…how. We've been watching you and studying you for a long time, hoping for this kind of breakthrough. And you've rewarded us well."
"How do you mean?" Shadow spat angrily, "what are you fucking jabbering on about? Where is Sonic and Chris? How have I performed chaos control?"
Walter cocked his head at him in ample curiosity, as though he was looking at a rat behind glass that possessed more than one brain cell and yet could somehow type on a computer. "You really were unaware? Well, that's a possibility I suppose. But that's fine, I'll level with you. You do need to help us after all. Last night you created a black hole."
"How did you know that…that I did?" He stared into the human's candid eyes. But the warmth there was fake. The human seemed only fascinated by Shadow's abilities alone.
"Easy. We've been studying you both, but mainly you. You see, you've always possessed a unique blend of scientific genius thanks to your creator, Gerald Robotnik. The chaos emeralds too are a marvel of science. We weren't going to do anything to you once the Government saw you as civilians. But let's be honest here, the Government would have to be mad to let you aliens go free and walk our world as if it was your own. You bought weapons; the chaos emeralds into our world. They are capable enough of delivering a nuclear winter into our earth and killing millions of people. So we had to begin studying you; you who know the most about the emeralds. You have an affinity with them. More than any."
"I really went back in time? Stop dancing around the fucking subject!"
Walter nodded hesitantly, and pressed the clipboard flat against his chest. "We had satellites watching you. Recording what you said. First it started as standard FBI recruitment to start a project of awareness and protection, to really make sure you weren't a threat to humanity. We people are a paranoid race. Trust is not an easy word in practice."
"But Sonic gave you trust!" Shadow ached against his insolent restraints, "he gave you all of the emeralds so that you would get off our backs! Trust us a little bit more! We put faith in you! All of humanity! Don't you understand? He believed in you; thought you were good!"
"And we are. For our own benefits. Humans always look out for their own species. Haven't you learned that by now? Sonic is kind, sweet and naïve. So we accepted the emeralds, and have been studying them ever since. But try as we might, we couldn't tap into them. For years we sweated over them, all of my scientific team frustrated and tired. The greatest weapons ever known, and we could not crack them. We covertly took Rouge here to try and see if she could shine some light on their enigma. She has always shown a fascination in them, so we believed she knew something. We interrogated her. And then she passed away. Quite unfortunate."
"What?"
"Knuckles too. The red echidna. We had to kill him to remove the Master Emerald. It was regretfully the only way. We wanted to study him, ask him a few kind questions. But he wouldn't have it. So we had to use our standard procedures. We still have his body on ice. Maybe one day, you'll get to see it."
"You bastards!" That's it! He would have no more of this! No more!
He bulged against his restraints, feeling the metal grind over his flesh. The chains shivered in their keen, metallic tunes. The energy began to sap out of him just like it had before, but it left him even quicker now because of his earlier attempts. The healing wounds in his left shoulder, flank and arm hurt horribly and he had to stop. He tried to glance down at his places that hurt, and saw gauze there.
Where I was shot.
Fresh blood blotted the creamy white gauze in inky blobs. He had been shot in many places.
"Reopened your wounds. Silly thing." Walter remarked with an indifferent shrug. "Oh well, we'll sedate you later and treat them. We need you alive for our project. We need time travel. We need full access to the emeralds."
"They are too powerful. If you ever know how to use them, you'd understand! They aren't for human hands! They never were!"
"They aren't for animal paws either. Since when did monkeys have the upper hand over us? No. You have been keeping their full potential from us all this time. And we've grown weary waiting. We'll use them for our own benefits. And besides, Shadow, don't you want to go home? See your family again? I know you have one. Your partner? If you don't co-operate, we'll have to bring him in here too. And that won't be pleasant, will it?"
"Don't you dare! You sick fucks!"
"You should consider yourself lucky we didn't bag him up too on the same day we took you. He wasn't going to be healthy enough for interrogation. And the morgue is a bit full at the moment."
"Stuff you! I am getting out, and you'll be the first to be disemboweled! I hope the emeralds remain a secret, forever!"
"Well, that's where you're wrong. You know a lot about them already. Everything is still sadly on a trial basis, nothing is concrete, and that's why we need your help. But with or without you, we're getting there. A lot of it is confidential information, but we are very pleased with our progress. And then you spoil us by performing chaos control all by yourself. We need to know your secret, know exactly how you did it and repeat the tactic. We want to know how far back in time you can go, and how useful it will be for us to correct our history. Imagine the wars we can stop and the famine we can eliminate with your abilities?"
"You'll use it for evil! You fucking killed Rouge and Knuckles! This fucking proves it! Sonic will murder you! I will murder you!"
"Now, now. They were simply being uncooperative. We can't have time-wasters eating up our schedules. It's been fifteen years already, and we're still only scratching the surface. You'll speed up our research by 800%!"
"Tell me," Shadow began with a calmer façade. "Who is in charge of this research? You gave it the go-ahead? The Government?"
"Too cliché!" Walter said with a simple, knowing nod. "Even if it wasn't the Government, they surely wouldn't pursue a fruitless, frustrating project for fifteen or more years, surely? They have people to organize and tax. Nations to control. Rules to be applied, politics and money. There never has been a conspiracy with them. They are merely a right hand, doing their duty. No. We own the Government. We own the State."
"Who the fuck are you?" This time he really did scream it. In his heart he was worried. Stupidly worried for a little anorexic hedgehog. Not the end of the world, not nuclear weapons or his own chained self. He was just worried for Sonic. If he really did go back in time, then his assumptions about the dream was correct. It really did happen. The funeral, everything. Somehow, not long after it, the stress and pain must have subconsciously activated something he wasn't capable of doing. And he had gone back in time. Which meant…Sonic would die from starvation. All over again.
"Get me out! Please get me out of here! Take me home! I need to see Sonic! Please!"
"I love your energy. Your body took four bullets." Walter was on a different train of thought, and marveled at Shadow's physical prowess than anything of what the Ultimate Life Form was saying. "Amazing. We removed them, and your injuries though severe, are healing. We never hit any organs. We did want you alive, but enough damage to put you out, least you hurt any of my men. You are vital to us, but a dangerous life form nonetheless."
"Why didn't my energies work against them in the kitchen…? Why couldn't I…?"
"Fifteen years of research, that. We tapped into your unique magnetic field that is an exact product of the emeralds. We numbed your field like we can to the emeralds by using ZetaXC4, or as you call her, the silver emerald. This little miracle can safely neutralize her sisters, like water diluting acid. It took time for us to learn as such, and even this little bit of information managed to tame you and numb the other six emeralds. It isn't a massively useful skill, but we are learning, my friend."
Shadow sat lax against his bonds. This was bad. Very bad. All this time… all this time GUN had been learning. Learning about them…the emeralds…everything. While they lived the life, their enemies were researching. Thinking, plotting. Hiding. Experimenting. Calculating. They probably still had all of Gerald's notes somehow… had gone into Eggman's more recent research and added that it their own. And now they had him. And Sonic…the seed that started it all… had given them the emeralds to further feed their dangerous lust. But he was also the one who was dying.
Okay, Shadow, think. You are master of the emeralds. Gerald, my father, made it so. Even the Xorda were unsuccessful against me, and the emeralds were theirs. These are mere humans. Children in a strange and cruel universe. I can stop this, I can kill them. I can get out! I can rescue Sonic!
Rescue him…from what? Himself?
Walter watched with greedy eyes, chin resting on the metal clip of the clipboard. His long, silver hair freely rolled down his shoulders, making him appear much younger than he really was. And still he was smirking. Smirking before the Ultimate Life Form.
He willed his mind to concentrate. To focus and feed from the emeralds. But there was nothing to reach towards. Nothing to grope for. Only cold, void blackness. Like fumbling through airless water and unable to find a bottom. The emeralds weren't even there.
A trick! A dirty trick!
"What are you going to use the emeralds and me for?" Shadow barked out, his voice throaty and dark.
"Confidential information, though I'm sure my client will explain."
"Client?"
"Yes. The one who presides over this whole operation. He's in charge of every facility, you know. Including the Weapons' Department and Marines. And the Government. And even the President has to bow down to the man in charge of the military. They have the power, after all. The President is just an elected official governed by useless politics. A pawn, if you will. A stand in for people to see. A puppet. But not the most powerful man in the world. No. And today, you get to see him! This is more special than winning the lottery!"
"I want answers! Not some greedy, rich client!" Shadow snapped frostily, trying to rise upward against the various buckles, chains and diadems. He tried to purge out something…anything. A brief rattle of power boomed across his forehead. Yes, yes! Think angry thoughts! Kill this dirty little man! Rent yourself free! Sonic!
The diadems glowed and the power drained from him immediately. The lashing warmth of a building storm inside of him had become cold, hollow tranquility. The diadems…they were hexed. Designed to keep me down. Rob me of my power. They must have learnt this too. Bastards!
"Temper, temper!" Walter mocked with a delicate smile. He looked like a lady charmer. A businessman in another life. But this time he was devoted to lab experiments and injecting animals with cancer and molesting chaos emeralds. All in a day's work.
The human rested the clipboard on his hip, surveying Shadow one last time, eyes blinking studiously behind the lens of his glasses. "You are a secret, a gate, waiting to be unlocked. We'll get what we want out of you. Fifteen years was enough. Now you are the next step." He nodded again, an odd human gesture that Shadow never really understood. He tried to understand. Wanted to. But it was hard to concentrate past the panic. He was here, stuck. And Sonic was helpless without him.
Walter walked away, his boot heels smacking down on the solid, white flooring as he left. His lab coat billowing out behind him like wings. Shadow blinked in his absence, swallowing with difficulty. The room wasn't very big. He couldn't look behind him, but he could hear all around. The walls were padded. He could tell that this was so because of the way the walls muted sound a lot more than a steel or plastic surface. The floor was a slick, polished material he had not come across before. He could see his miserable reflection in it and the artificial lights encrusted on the ceiling above his head.
Rouge dead…
Knuckles… murdered too…
He didn't care much for them. Seldom had. But it hurt to know nevertheless.
He looked directly in front of him. There was ten yards distance between him and the door. No doubt the door worked in twos, one always locked first before opening the second. There was a large overlooking mirror to his right. He knew from watching enough movies that the mirror was two-way glass.
Walter S.G left. For a time there was nothing but steely silence. The blessed relief to be alone with his maddening thoughts. A time to plot, consulate himself. Howl mentally in anguish.
I went back in time by seven hours and three days. I think. That's if it clicked after the funeral. Shit. I really did go back in time. But how did I? And why won't it work now?
The door opened again after a thirty second delay. His stomach tightened inside. His ears drew forwards, eyes locked ahead. Would it be someone he knew? A figure he saw once on TV? An associate whom made no surmountable difference?
Fuck this. I don' have time. I want to go back home!
Until today, Shadow had never felt any real urgency except of course in that frightful dream he had. But now, here, incarcerated in hexes and diadems, he had never felt such a desire to simply be with the one he loved. He felt a sense of wrong every time he thought about him. Sonic needed him. And he was here, stuck! STUCK!
"God, help me. Please."
A figure stepped in. Tall and wide. Unlike Walter's echoing footsteps that bespoke disturbing calamity every time he planted a step, this one treaded lightly. Gaily. With soft boot grips.
Shadow growled once. "This is a trick! You're old! You aren't the real thing!"
(coming soon) Chapter 2: Unable to Find
