'Why? Why am I here? How did I get here in the first place? Where am I? All I see is darkness. Not a speck of light anywhere. I'm so...scared.' A sudden gunshot like sound was suddenly heard, making a frightened girl open her eyes that were once tightly shut. Her light blue eyes widened in panic as she found herself standing in the middle of a cracked highway having no clue where she was.
The girl looked around and saw some buildings destroyed while some were left to be on fire. She also saw corpses of dead humans and animals lying on the ground. She sniffed the air and smelled nothing pure at the least. All she had smelled was ash and rotting corpses that seemed to be left in the same spots for days. 'If this is a dream, please let me awake.'
As she scanned the area around her, she saw more corpses that were horribly disfigured, decapitated, or burnt. She felt her heart break in two as she stared at the images around her. She clasped her hands together near her chest as she felt a gentle wind flow through her two long pink pigtails. "What could've possibly caused this?" She asked herself in a whisper as she bowed her head and closed her eyes trying to get rid of those horrid images she had scene. She was then startled by a hand gently touching hers.
"Hannah?" A deep, cold, yet familiar voice had called.
The girl opened her eyes and instantly locked them onto a black and red male hedgehog. She practically had a heart attack when she saw him, "Shadow! I'm so glad to see you", she spoke in relief.
He made a nod agreeing with her.
She watched him slip his hand away from hers and still felt herself scared to death about the whole confusing situation she was in. "Shadow, what's going on?"
The ebony hedgehog looked around the destroyed city more to be sure to give her a honest answer. "It appears we've traveled back in time and I have no idea how."
Hannah gave him a disbelieving look at first, but had to go along with it since there was no other explanation. "Gone back in time? Well, how far back do you think we are?"
The hedgehog remained silent as he stared at the ruined city and sighed sadly. "If I didn't know any better, I would say we're in Mobius during the violent feud era between humans and animals. Also known as The Mobius Massacre."
"The Mobius Massacre?" Hannah couldn't believe it. She was somehow brought back into the past where humans and animals hated each other. "Oh, how awful."
Shadow began to think for a moment that if they were that far back into the past then Hannah wouldn't be safe to be seen with him. "If that's true, then you're not safe here." Before he could bring her to a safer destination, he heard a helpless cry of a young boy near them.
"Don't hurt me!"
Shadow and Hannah turned and saw a group of male teenagers who were humans surround a little blue raccoon boy child while tossing rocks back in forth in their hands.
The child cowered against a wall in tears as the boys threw rocks at him. "Please stop!"
"Go curl up in a ball and die you freak!" One shouted.
"Your kind isn't welcome on this side of the city!" Another shouted.
"Humans rule! You freaks are our slaves so obey us and go kill yourself!" Another boy spat as he threw another rock at the child's head.
Shadow's fists clenched at the sound of the child's pain. Before he could stop the human teenagers, he saw Hannah approach them. "Hannah, wait!"
Hannah walked over to the boys in anger while they had their backs turned having their attention focused on the frightened child. "Hey! Stop that!" After she shouted, it was like the boys didn't hear her and kept throwing rocks at the child. "I said stop!" When she tried to reach out to one of the boys, her hand had strangely went through their bodies. 'What?' She thought. 'Impossible!'
Shadow noticed what was going on and walked over to her trying to touch the boys as well, but his hand went through them as well.
"Holograms?" Hannah had thought that was the only explanation.
Shadow shook his head not knowing what to think. "I'm not sure, but it seems that no one can see or hear us."
Hannah heard the teenage boys laugh and run away exposing the raccoon child lying on the ground stiff with blood running down his skull. Hannah gasped and placed her hands over her mouth in horror. She couldn't help but to look away at the gruesome body. "Oh God", she spoke in a terrified voice.
Shadow stared at the dead boy's body in anger. 'Damn those humans!' He thought.
"Shadow?" Hannah called weakly. "I...I don't want to see anymore of this. I don't."
The hedgehog turned to her and had no idea what to tell her. He didn't want to tell her about how much he had hated humans and wanted to kill them. If he did say that to her, he wondered if she still would accept him as a friend. He sighed and took her hand, "Follow me."
As Shadow lead her down the hectic city, she began to wonder whatever started the riots between the humans and animals in the first place. "Shadow?" She called. "What started all this?"
He never turned to her, but still had his hand firmly gripped around hers. "Well, some say it all began when some stupid human teenagers formed a little cult out of boredom to scare the animals. They called themselves The Freak Annihilators. They never committed any real serious crimes at first. All they had done was write subliminal racist messages all over the city in spray paint telling the animals to kill themselves and humans dominate Mobius and shit."
Hannah gasped in shock, "That's terrible!"
"That's not all." Shadow continued, "As the FA cult grew larger, there were complaints about it from every animal in the world. They wanted to stop them and that's when things got out of hand. The FA refused to give up their beliefs about dominating over the animals so they fought back...very violently."
Hannah looked down at the ground in sadness, "Oh Shadow, that's so sad."
"Because of the riots those humans started, Mobius was almost sent into its very first world war between humans and animals."
"What? There had to be someone to stop all of that. Didn't Mobius have like a prime minister or something?"
The hedgehog stopped in his tracks making Hannah stop as well. "Yes but...the mayor of the very racist city of all of Mobius was a human and believe me, he was not determined to make peace between the humans and animals. I believe he was more focused on the killings happening in Holy Village at the time rather than trying to help stop the world from falling apart."
"And which city was that?" She asked full of curiosity. She then felt Shadow's hand slip from hers.
"...Tech City was far by the worst cities put together. The FA was created here and everything."
Hannah placed a finger to her chin while she wondered why Shadow seemed so down from mentioning it. "Shadow..."
"And to make things worse, you have a human hater standing right before you."
Hannah gasped in shock, 'If Shadow hates humans too, then why does he still hang around me? Is he...only pretending to be there for me? Does he truly want me dead just like the rest of the humans?'
"To be honest", Shadow spoke. "I hate all humans in general because they caused Mobius so much pain."
She felt tears swelling in her eyes because of his hurtful words.
"Hannah, you have every right to hate me, but what I speak now is the truth. It's true I do hate humans, but...but not you."
Hannah wanted to hold her tears back in relief, but couldn't seem to successfully do it. She tried to fight her tears as she saw the hedgehog face her.
"Hannah, you're the first and only human friend I've made and I've never regretted being with you once since the day we parted."
She then couldn't hold her tears back any longer as she let her tears flow down her cheeks in happiness. She couldn't believe Shadow had still trusted her despite of what she was. Something had then came over her as she embraced the hedgehog in happiness. "Oh, Shadow!"
The hedgehog formed a small smile and hugged her back. "Believe me Hannah, no matter how difficult life in Mobius can get for you just remember...I'll always be by your side."
After hearing those words, she couldn't help but to hug him tighter and sob happily.
The two were then startled when they heard an angry crowd of animals stand in front of a tree shouting and yelling angrily. They both quickly went to see what everything was all about and their upcoming questions that they had in their mind was soon answered.
Hannah looked up at the tree and stared at what was hanging from a branch in horror. "Oh my..."
Shadow's hatred began to build up again as his eyes fixed upon a young fox woman who was hanging from a rope that was tied to a branch which was wrapped around her neck. He had to look away at the disgusting sight.
The woman's body was swaying from the wind blowing and flies were swarming around her body because what was left of her flesh fell onto the ground. It was clear that everyone had just found her like this while she was killed days ago.
Shadow felt sick to his stomach just staring at the repulsive sight. "Humans are so sick", he grumbled.
Suddenly they were both startled by a bright light that came from behind them. They spun around and saw human soldiers with rifles in their hands, looking like they were pointing them at the animals that were behind them.
Hannah gasped as she heard the guns clicking. She thought they were going to shoot them all. She began to tremble and panic.
"Hannah", Shadow called. "Calm down. They can't harm us."
She then remembered that he was right. Whenever someone had touched them, their touch had went right through them. They couldn't be seen or heard. Even though she had that thought in her mind, she still couldn't help but to feel scared. Once the soldiers began to fire their guns, she covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly because of the sound of the shots being fired and the sound of the bullets making an impact into the animals' bodies. When the firing stopped, she slowly opened her eyes and stared at the soldiers.
The soldiers began to laugh in triumph as they pointed at the dead animals lying on the ground in their own blood.
"Ha! That'll teach those freaks!" One solider spoke.
"I hope every single one of them burn in Hell!" Another soldier spoke.
Hannah turned to the corpses then looked back at the laughing soldiers in tears. It was sad how the humans treated the animals just because they had looked different from them and nothing more. She clenched her fists as tears ran down her cheeks, 'Why?' She thought. 'Why were the humans so cruel?' When she saw them turn their backs and walk away, something made her instantly think about Shadow.
She turned and looked around to find him and to her surprise she found him lying on the ground. "Shadow!" She quickly ran over to him in worry. "Shadow, are you all right?" She studied his body and noticed that he had somehow gotten shot in the arm, but he was still conscious.
"Hannah?" He spoke in a weak voice. "I...don't understand."
Tears began to arise from her eyes once more as she stared at the pain he was in. "How could this of happened to you and not me? Shadow, what's going on? I'm scared!" She then saw him slowly close his eyes and saw his body not moving at all. "Shadow?" She called, "Shadow! Answer me!" Tears fell from her face as she took his body and held him close to her in fright. "Why is this happening? What does this all mean? Am I being punished? If so, leave Shadow out of this! Please!"
Suddenly, the young girl had awoken in a soft bed with light blue comfortable bed sheets. She took her head away from her pillow quickly as she sat up breathing heavily in exhaustion. She instantly had no idea where she was or how she got there. "Wha-what?"
"Ah, so you're awake my dear, granddaughter?" A gentle and soft voice had spoke near her.
The girl looked over and saw an elderly old man with gray hair wearing a white lab coat and silver goggles on his head. "Grandfather! What happened?"
The older man couldn't help but to escape a chuckle, "You were dreaming, silly."
"Dream..ing?" She then slumped down onto her bed and tried to settle down again.
The old man made a nod, "Indeed. Apparently, you acted like you were in a whole different world and you kept screaming at the top of your lungs Shadow this and Shadow that."
She turned away from him and remained silent still trying to gather what she had just experienced in her dream.
"What was your dream about anyway?" Her grandfather asked. "You want to talk about it?"
"Grandfather?" She called in a whisper.
"Yes?"
"Remember you used to tell me about all those stories about this world called Mobius when I was a little girl? You told me how much humans and animals hated each other and it was a terrible outcome right?"
He stared at her sadly as he noticed her gripping the bed sheets, "Hannah..."
She began to silence herself once again.
"I remember when you disappeared a while back and your parents went into a fit of insanity because you were gone for weeks. They were thinking that you were dead, but you told me that you traveled to another world full of animals that were just like us. I was so happy...that my theory about Mobius' existence was true."
Hannah slowly turned her head to him, finally facing him.
"Though, there was one individual you kept mouthing on about. A black hedgehog am I correct?"
She made a small nod.
"Tell me. What was this character to you?"
She formed a slight smile as she looked down at her hands gripping the bed sheets. "His name was Shadow the Hedgehog and he was my friend."
"Oh?"
"Yes and..." She looked up at her grandfather again. "...Even though he told me never to go back, I will. I will meet him again someday. Someday...when you finish your invention, we'll both go to that world together to tie loose bonds between humans and animals."
A/N:
Shadow: And I shall await that day...
Jasmine: In the next fic, it's a oneshot between Espio and Tonya!
Tonya: A fic with Espio and I? I wonder what that's about.
Espio: Me too. *smirks*
Jasmine: *wink*
Tonya: *blushes*
Shadow:.....WTF?
Hope you enjoyed the fic! The Purfect Call is next so keep an eye out for it!