It was a very nice day on Möbius, and Sonic was running, racing Shadow for the fourth chaos emerald. Shadow was in front at first, but Sonic sprinted ahead of him, grabbing the emerald, that was lying on the ground. "I won!" Sonic shouted with glee, and his ego was beaming. But as soon as he grabbed the emerald, his fur started to flicker from his usual cobalt blue to a dark navy blue. The emerald was glowing a dark purple as this occurred. Sonic quickly dropped the emerald, and he breathed heavily. The fear of his other self, being enough to cause him to panic. He was not scared of his other self, he was more scared of releasing it by touching the emerald. His fur turned back to normal as soon as he dropped the emerald.
Shadow saw what occurred, and with wide eyes, he muttered, astounded," Sonic... What the heck just happened to you...?" He stared at the emerald that was lying on the ground, and glanced at Sonic. He saw Sonic shed tears for the second time ever. The first time was on the Ark, where Shadow sacrificed himself to save the earth from the Ark crushing it.
"I..." He muttered softly, his cocky persona was switched somehow with a shy and sensitive one. Sonic was trembling as his pupils darted everywhere, avoiding Shadow's gaze. "I-I have t-to go!" He sped past Shadow, leaving him in the dust.
"What had just...?" With cautiousness, he picked up the green emerald, and took note of how negative the energy was, but his own had balanced it out. Why was it that Sonic's energy had made it negative? "Faker... What do you hold within yourself, and why are you hiding it...?" He wanted to find out, but he didn't know where Sonic lived, so he went to Rouge for directions.
When Sonic got to his house and got inside, he went to get a mirror for some very odd reason and gazed into his reflection. What he saw was a darker version of himself. Sonic started to tremble even more, and when his dark self smiled, he nearly screamed, but he restrained himself by covering his mouth. His smile, it was something no one could ever forget, and would haunt people's nightmares for eternity. "W-what do you w-want D-Dark...?" He asked, very afraid of what lies within himself.
"What I want..." Dark announced with a very creepy and deep voice, "Is to come out of this mirror and wreak havoc on all of Möbius." Dark laughed evilly and that caused Sonic's skin to crawl.
Sonic mustered all of the strength he could and pushed the fear aside, and he growled at Dark. "I will never allow that to happen, Dark, and you know it as well as any other villain." He slammed his hand on the table besides him. He was starting to get rather angry with his darker self.
"You will in time, I can predict that. You will lose your temper, and with the power of the chaos emeralds, I will be released to wreak havoc on everything I see fit as to destroy. Even if you don't lose your temper… You will have to use the emeralds again… And even if you just hold the emeralds, I will be released!" Dark announced, very proud of his speech. He sent dark power beams through out the mirror, this being a victory dance of his.
"I refuse to give you power! I will control my emotions, and I will not use the chaos emeralds, no matter the cost! You are just too dangerous, and any other villain is better than you! You seek to hurt others just for the fun of it! Other villains actually have a valid reason for being this way! I can actually see why they would want to do this… You… You have no reason." He said with a very angry voice, and he held the mirror so tight, he was about to shatter it to a million tiny little pieces.
"We shall see, hedgehog. We shall see… And by the way… I do have a reason, but I wish not to explain myself, even to you. You who are my goody goody side. Goodbye, Sonic…" He vanished within the mirror, leaving only Sonic's reflection behind in place of himself. Sonic sighed as he was about to put down the mirror, when he heard the front door open, and he turned to see Tails, who was carrying some heavy equipment to his laboratory.
Tails turned to see Sonic with a mirror in his hand, and it looked like a very old one. He shook his head and glanced at Sonic and starred. "Sonic…" He had no words for what he has just seen. He thought that maybe Sonic liked vintage things, but that was the only vintage thing he had. So that would only mean that… He did not like what he just thought, and he headed down to where his lab was.
Sonic sighed in relief and put the mirror back to where it was before. "At least he doesn't know what is going on…" He headed outside to see Shadow there, with his arms crossed. He knew why Shadow was there, but he decided to act like he didn't. "Hey, Shads! Why are you here?" He said with a very cocky tone in his voice, to make sure none of his insecurities would be noticed.
Shadow did not let that slide. He knew that Sonic knew why he was there. "Stop acting dumb, Faker, you know why I am here… I want some answers and I want them now." Shadow started to growl, and feeling very afraid of this older hedgehog, Sonic backed up, with his ears pinned back, his cocky persona shattered in seconds. Shadow got out his chaos emerald and almost put it on Sonic's fur. Sonic was backed up against the wall, and he started to hyperventilate. "Sonic… I don't want to do this… Just tell me and you won't have to reveal your secret to all… Please, cooperate…" Sonic shook his head, starting to cry, like he did during their race.
"If… If you do this… Something terrible will be released… I can't tell you what, but my body harbors an evil entity… One that will jeopardize the whole world…" He told Shadow and collapsed on the floor, trying to protect himself from the chaos emerald. Shadow's eyes widened. Shadow absolutely needed to know what this evil entity was, so he could destroy it, and rid Sonic of it.
"Faker… I need to know this so I can get rid of it from your body… Don't you want to be free? It is what you so desire so much as to fight villains from taking it away. I want to help you, as odd as it may seem. You… You are like a brother to me, even if you don't see it. I am so sorry for treating you so badly… I just didn't want to get attached to you, and see you die like my dear friend Maria… Please… I want to help." He explained to Sonic, and begged him to explain his circumstances. He didn't want to lose the bright and happy hedgehog he loved so dear.
"Fine... Just not out here… Follow me if you so choose, and be quick. I don't want anyone following us." He got up and opened the door, and when Shadow was inside, he quickly closed the door behind him, and locking it. He lead the older hedgehog to his bedroom and he also locked the door behind him. He pealed a piece of the wallpaper off, and there was a keyhole where he pealed. He got out a medallion, and put it in the slot and turned the key in a specific order. One left, two right, two left, and pushed in the key, and when he pulled the medallion out, it gave way to a secret passage way. A very long tunnel that Sonic made just in case of these circumstances. On the walls were pictures of people Shadow has never seen. A raspberry colored hedgehog, and a lime green colored hedgehog, and in the center was Sonic, who was hugging the other hedgehogs. What he noted was that they all had similar medallions, and that they looked to be around the same age. Knuckles was in some of the pictures as well. So, knuckles knew of Sonic's past? Why would he not say anything?
"Sonic… Who are these hedgehogs? I am going to guess that they were very close to you…" Shadow said while glancing at each picture and taking in that in one picture, there was a queen with all of the hedgehogs, and knuckles was there, hugging the raspberry colored one that looked to be Sonic's age. It looked like a family portrait, but it can't be, can it? "Sonic... Are these hedgehogs...your family?" Shadow glanced at Sonic who had a serious face, and he nodded slightly, looking away from Shadow and the pictures.
"Yeah… The green and purplish ones that are small like I was… They were my siblings… We were triplets…" He sighed. Shadow noticed how he put it in the past tense. What happened to his siblings? "The tall one is my mother… Her name is Queen Aleena." Shadow noticed that it wasn't in past tense like with his siblings… What is going on here?
"You are a prince…? Should I start calling you Prince Sonic now?" He added to lighten the mood just a tad, but it seemed to do the opposite, as Sonic glared at Shadow tenfold, and Shadow shivered from the intensity of it.
"I hate formalities…" Sonic said as they just got to the door. He put the medallion in another keyhole and did the opposite of what he did earlier. Push in, two left, two right, one left. He pulled it out and the door unlocked. He pushed it open, and the whole room was filled with gold, and silver. "Welcome to what I call, the nostalgia room… For you, you might call it, the wonder of a lifetime room or something like that…" He said, while looking for something that could be used to help his explanation of his past. He found his and his siblings' photo album. "Please, come sit next to me, brother, and let me tell you what it is like to be a prince… You may think it is all luxury and happiness… But the opposite is true…"
"Sonic…. Is that your memory journal or something? If it hurts you to remember, why have it…?" Shadow asked Sonic, like a child would ask an adult. He was rather curious, and before, he forgot all about Maria, not intentionally, but after he got his memory back, he wanted to rid of them once more… Maybe Sonic could be more like himself than he thought…
"Because… If I didn't have my past… I couldn't be the person I am today. Anyway… About my siblings… The death of them could be the cause of the evil entity inside me known as Dark… He is an evil version of myself that I developed when Eggman killed my sibs… Only knuckles and my mom knew of it… Now you know as well… please keep this in mind that Eggman knows about Dark as well, and he would help Dark be released, and they would work together to take over the world… I accidentally showed my true colors during one of our fights… The one where he killed my siblings… They were named Sonia and Manic…" He explained, and with a heavy heart, he opened the book. "There was a time when I didn't even know I had siblings…" Shadow raised one of his eye "brows" in skepticism. "Me and my siblings were separated shortly after birth, because Eggman made his empire… We were destined to become great… And when the time came… We were supposed to meet and find our mother to become the Council of Four… I was put into a family that loved me… And when shortly after I turned ten… Eggman sent my house afire and turned my mum and dad into robots… I ran off to my Uncle Chuck's and because of my speed, I almost lost the robots that tried to capture me. Almost. When I got to Uncle Chuck, he got me ready for a mission. He wanted me to disable the force field that Eggman had made to protect his fortress, and to explode the whole thing. I was able to do both, however… I was recognized after two dogs zoomed in on me, on a security camera… I was doomed if someone called the Oracle of Delphius told me of my past… And my future. I quickly got together with my Sibs, and we were on a quest to find our mother and save Möbius." He explained, waiting for questions from the older one.
"What… What happened to your Uncle Chuck?" He asked, trying not to sound too rude. He glanced at Sonic, who had his eyes shut, and looked away briefly. "Sonic…?" He asked, becoming concerned with Sonic, his brother in all but blood.
"If I didn't go find my sibs… He would be completely normal, but now… He is part robot. Someone, I forget who, restored Uncle's memories, and means of will to him. He is still alive… He will always live because of his turning into a robot. He will out live me, and so it has to be…" He explained softly, and tears started to fall from his eyes. "Anyway… Shortly after my sibs and I found our mum… The celebration was short lived… Eggman attacked us, using a machine that was powered by all seven chaos emeralds… Something my sibs and I have never seen. We have seen the Master emerald… But this was different. We had no idea on how to face something like this. We used our medallions, that turned into weapons, or instruments, to try and defeat Eggman once and for all… It didn't work. It just reflected off of the shiny metal… He killed my siblings, and left me and mum… Mum still rules… But when she dies, I have to take the throne, and that is not my strong suit… When Eggman killed Sonia and Manic with energy beams, I slowly lost control… The emeralds stopped working in his machine, and fueled my anger and pain that was in my heart… In a way I turned super… The emeralds came out of the machine and they surrounded me… I felt my anger be fueled… I accepted this, and let Dark be formed…"
"I… I see… How did you stabilize your power? You don't go dark when you turn super… How did you overcome it?" Shadow wondered aloud, and he didn't mean to pry, but curiosity overcame him, and it came out as an outburst. "I am sorry if it is a bit too personal…" Sonic quickly shook his head, and smiled as a few tears came from his eyes.
"No… It isn't that personal at all. When I met Tails, I found the same love for him as I did my siblings… That is how it was neutralized. I treated Tails like a brother since I have first met him… He was bullied by everyone, and he didn't know where his parents were so I took him in. I tried to find his parents, but they haven't turned up, until two years ago, and Tails chose to stay with me… Without him… I would be a huge mess… I am barely sane right now…" He smiled slightly. "I am thinking of giving him Sonia's medallion… Even if he can't use it because he doesn't harbor Royal blood, I think he would appreciate it…" He took out Manic's pendant. "Actually… I think that he would like Manic's better…" He smiled slightly more, and took out Sonia's pendant and held it out to Shadow. "Take it… You are a brother to me as well now…" He started to cry some more.
"Sonic… I can't…" Even though Shadow said that, he took the medallion, not wanting to hurt his feelings. Shadow put on the pendant, and it glowed as it accepted it's new owner. Sonic gasped, as he backed up from Shadow, and trembled a bit.
"It can't be… Shadow… You have royal blood in you… You can use the medallion… Can you tell me who your DNA donors were…?" He backed into the wall, hyperventilating.
"I just know of Black Doom… But there must be some hedgehog in me… Maybe we can check to see how close our DNA actually is, with Tails?" Shadow proposed as he slowly approached his supposed relative.
"Sure… Let's get out of here… Maybe you might be the key to destroying Dark…" He quickly locked everything up, and headed back outside of the passageway. "I… I wonder how close you are related to me… Brother? Uncle? I am just…frazzled." He explained quietly. Shadow nodded as he understands these feelings. "Let's just get to Tails, so we can solve this mystery." They walk out of bed room, and head down to Tails' lab. "Hey little bro! Can I do a DNA test? I think that Shadow might be related to me!" His tail wags, and Shadow rolls his eyes at this.
"Um… Sure… Let me get my DNA related materials." He quickly leaves and gets the DNA testing equipment. "Can you please take off your gloves? I have to prick your fingers so that I can take blood." They both nod, and they take off each of their gloves, and Tails takes a drop of each of their blood, and test it. Tails gasps as they were very similar.
"Tails… What did you find?" Sonic asked, becoming very despera th a lifeld, and silver. "ar friend Maria...s thrangerte to know the results. Shadow was also intrigued. What if they were actually related? Shadow couldn't call Sonic faker any more… But this would be an amazing find! Him, of royal blood, like Sonic… Could he be a duke or a prince? That would be cool… A little far fetched though.
"Sonic… Shadow is your… Uncle. Your grandmother was the hedgehog that gave Gerald the hedgehog DNA." He explained softly to Sonic, so he would take it all in. Shadow and Sonic looked at each other. "So… You guys are actually family. Besides Aleena, Sonic… You have a family again!" Sonic stared at Tails. Sonic was seething with rage.
"Tails… When did you find out about my past, and why didn't you tell me…?" He ground his teeth together, and was starting to turn into Dark, even without the emeralds. Shadow hugged Sonic so he wouldn't change, and so Sonic stayed the same. "Thanks Shads…" He looked at Tails and sighed. "Just tell me… It can't be that bad…" Sonic hugged Shadow back, and took a glance at Tails after he let go.
"Okay! Fine… One day, like two years ago… Your mum called, and you were on an adventure… I picked it up, and she was so happy to hear from me… You told a lot to her, about us, huh? She told me your past, and she told me to keep it a secret from you that I knew about the monster inside you…" He cowered away from Sonic, hoping he would be calm about the whole ordeal.
"Huh… Well that is okay Tails! I got a present for you! I know you can't use it, but it has real sentimental value in it… I hope you accept it." He gives Tails Manic's medallion. Sonic started to cry as Tails puts on the medallion. It fit him just right. "Woah… It looks great on you! I can't believe… I can't believe that they have been gone for so long… I miss them… But I am happy that you two are here… My Uncle, Shadow… And my little bro, in all but blood, Miles 'Tails' Prower…"