Chaos: Why should I explain myself to everybody? This story should speak for itself. I shouldn't have to make excuses.
To be continued is under consideration. I like to think an appropriate imagination could join the dots as it stands.

Rated for all that's implied, and all that isn't.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Hey, buddy! You're dead!"

Shadow blinked. It wasn't exactly what he had expected to hear when he first woke up. "… What?"

"I know, it's a great introduction, isn't it?"

He sat up, and though he had already identified with ease the voice and was not surprised to see Sonic sitting before him, he was still confused over one large detail.

"Where the hell are we?"

"Hell is the operative word, my friend!" The blue hedgehog winked and crossed his legs.

He was sitting in midair.

Two large details.

Shadow took a careful step back, eyes darting around. Thick mist was wrapped around them, obscuring any other scenery. "What's going on?" He asked, suspiciously.

"Dude, chill." Sonic commented, tapping the fingers of one hand on his knee. "It's not like it'd kill you to relax." He chuckled. "Oh, that was a good one. I'd better remember that."

The black hedgehog narrowed his eyes. "I suggest you quit blabbering and start explaining, hedgehog."

Sonic pouted. "Take the fun out of it, why don't you? I might've known you'd be like that. Fine, fine. Err…" He cleared his throat and frowned, brows furrowing in concentration. "'O wandering soul, your long journey has come to an end, blah-di-blah-di-blah… this is the eternal resting place upon which you are offered your choice… yakkity yak… your destiny will decide your fate. Etcetera."

"You're not Sonic." Shadow observed. His voice was steely.

The other clicked his fingers. "You got me! Nope, I'm not. I'm your guide while you're stuck here, hm? My form and character was decided by your mind just after you died. Normally it's a comfort thing."

"You can't be serious." Shadow let out his breath in a hiss. "I don't know what you are, a hologram or some kind of hallucination, and you know what? I don't care. This nonsense about dying is ridiculous. I'm leaving."

He walked away into the folds of the mist, but had barely gone more than a dozen steps before Sonic's voice rang out behind him.

"I didn't want to do it, but it's the rules. Hmm, hmm… night. A room. Gloved hands. Heat. Darkness."

He continued listing words, but Shadow didn't hear them, because abruptly the world listed to a side and sent him to hands and knees. An image was suddenly in his mind, behind his eyes and plugging his ears and drowning him.

He was struggling, spots dancing behind his eyes because he couldn't breathe. A heavy hand was pressed on his throat and he couldn't fight it off with only one arm, the other pinned beneath the bed sheets.

"Sorry, Shadow." Sonic's voice? "It could have been so different, you and I…"

He panted and gagged and the hot room swam, and there was a loud click of metal close to his ear…

He was breathing harshly, the mist lifeless around him.

"Ooh, sorry. Might have overdone it."

"What… what…" He gasped, lifting his eyes to the sight of Sonic sitting in midair in front of him in exactly the same way as before.

"Dying is stressful, isn't it?" Sonic commented with a grin, and his eyes were dark and haunting.

"What is this madness?" Shadow growled, forcing himself to his feet and confronting the not-Sonic, the illusion or hallucination or maybe…

"You died!" The blue hedgehog folded his hands behind his head and reclined in the air. "Sucks to be you, pal. This is the next plane."

"No."

"Yup. Find your pulse."

Slightly shaken, thrown by the question and the sheer lunacy of the situation, and the slight possibility that… Shadow put two fingers to the side of his neck.

Nothing.

"Ba-dum-dum-dun!" Sonic made a drum-roll in the air and grinned. "Bummer, isn't it?"

"I don't believe it."

"And that's your problem. You gotta accept it before you can go anywhere, right? That's my job."

"So… what? I'm only stuck here so long as I don't believe this rubbish?"

"That's about right."

"Alright, I believe it. I died, great. Now let me go."

The hedgehog pouted again, and it grated on Shadow's nerves. "Geez. You have to actually accept it, you know. Don't be silly."

The streaked hedgehog's spines bristled with annoyance. He wouldn't stay and put up with this madness, this elaborate trick set up by Eggman, maybe, or some other computer genius. He wouldn't play along to their sick little game.

He turned and ran, pouring on the speed as fast as his legs would allow him, noticed in annoyance that his shoes had been taken. No matter. It would barely impede him.

Sonic was in front of him. "Now that's rude."

He spun without breaking step, sprinted.

The other hedgehog appeared again. "Do you have to?"

He turned.

Again. "It won't work."

Again. "Honestly."

Again. "C'mon, don't make me have to give you a memory again."

Again, faster, faster, sound should have been impossible.

"Sorry dude. It's the rules."

He was on the bed, hands pressing him down, airless. The click still echoed in his ear. A dark shape moved past his failing vision, the cold barrel of a gun pushed into his mouth.

"But…" Yes, Sonic's voice. But full pain and anger and tears and something strange. "You don't love anyone, do you?" He tried to kick; his legs were tied. Tried to breathe, couldn't and then pain and the gun, the gun, no…

An explosion and everything was wiped clean.

He didn't get up this time.

After a moment Sonic's face loomed into his vision from the side, eyes bright with worry.

"Hellooo? Shadow? Are you okay? … Shadow? C'mon. Shaaaaadow?"

"Why?" He managed at last.

"Oh, don't ask me. I don't know squat about the death itself."

He shut his eyes.

"Don't be so down. It's not so bad. Accept it and move on, right?"

"Uhn."

The sound of a foot being tapped against air, which shouldn't have been audible at all. "C'mon, I'm a busy guy. You gotta cooperate or we could be here a looooong time."

Shadow let him blabber on. Behind his closed eyelids, his thoughts raced angrily. He couldn't escape simply. 'Sonic' had some kind of barrier system set up, and the illusion that he forced upon him was strong, like an actual memory.

He could not accept that it was. He would not lie down and die so easily, not he, the Ultimate Life Form.

He had to escape this, this creation of impossibility, this whatever-it-was. Maybe he had to take the opposite side. Maybe he should cooperate… for now. He opened his eyes.

Sonic beamed, and waved. "Good morning!"

"Whatever."

He sat up. Sonic leant back and looked at him. "You okay?"

"Mm." He murmured, looking around.

"Dude! Is that all I get for my concern? Well I like that! I'm losing valuable time sitting with you here you know, I have better things to do…"

Yes, talk all you want, Shadow thought. Give me more time to plan. I'll get out of here.

Even if it kills me.