Shadow Surpassing Shadow

An Alternate Epilogue to Sega's Shadow the Hedgehog and Tyra Plamen's Pretense in the Mirror

"Thanks for your help, Shadow," Rouge purred, glancing at the screen. "I never realized how good you were with computers… and I never thought the Black Aliens would do such a number on ours."

I leaned to the side, putting my face on my fist. What an obvious, ham-fisted lie. Rouge is a skilled actor; with my memories restored, I could remember watching her work her magic on other people. How strange, then, that her lies have never worked on me, no matter how much I remember or how much I have changed.

She must have some moral qualm with lying to me. A laughable thought. Rouge. Morals.

Finally I replied to her. "It seems I'm used to them. After all, Gerald used them to reprogram me, didn't he? A hedgehog doesn't simply switch from promising to save the world for a little girl to promising to destroy it for the same." I watched her closely, trying to see how she would react as I circled around the truth.

Rouge nodded. A box popped up on the screen, and she typed into it. If I were so good with computers, why not ask me to enter the data? Clearly this was all an excuse to pull me away from the pity party in the infirmary. An excuse to get me away from the Sonic the Hedgehog who lost, so that he might not have to look at his Shadow and be afraid.

I think he made that joke once.

I needed to make everything clear.

"Rouge," I called to her, reaching out. I put a hand on her shoulder. "I remember everything."

"I'm glad you have your memory back, Shadow." She continued typing into the box. I was sure it was some kind of coded summary on how I was responding.

I shook my head. "No, you don't understand. I remember everything. I remember the ARK. I remember both before and after Gerald decided to use me as a weapon. I remember helping Eggman use the Eclipse canon, every sordid detail. And I remember every moment I've ever spent on Prison Island."

I felt a gasp catch in her chest, but if I hadn't been touching her, I wouldn't have noticed.

"I know the truth within my memories: about the Black aliens, about Sonic. I know what I really am. And I know that you've never been around me because you want to be my friend."
I hoped it sounded accusatory. To my ear, it seemed more desperate.

"Shadow, that's just not true." She turned around. "Yes, you were a job at first. Yes, the job comes first. But that doesn't mean you don't matter."

I shook my head. "Don't you worry if I'm even the same person you worked alongside on the ARK?" I held out my hand, looking at it. It looked the same, impeccable. But I knew it wasn't the same. I knew what I was now, thanks to Eggman's big mouth.

She tensed under my hand. "I recognize you easily enough."

"Rouge, I know about the Shadow androids."

She stiffened, visibly.

"I know why I had holes in my memories."

Rouge took in a breath to speak, but nothing came out. I knew my hand should be shaking, but it wasn't.

"I know what I really am. And I've realized, this is WHO I AM." I took in a deep breath this time. "Just because this body isn't the ultimate life form, just because it is a robot body… I'm still Shadow the Hedgehog. It doesn't matter."

She turned and looked at me, blue eyes wide with fear. "How could you possibly think you're a robot?"

"I know how I should feel right now," I explained, letting my lip turn up into a little smile. I wondered if I looked like him. "Eggman was too sentimental to let me die. He gave me the only kind of immortality he could. But I'm still Shadow, whatever the hell Shadow is."

She nodded.

"You said to me once, 'Your memories might not even be real, you know?' Well, who cares if they are? They're my memories. I exist because I am aware of myself. You don't have to hide what I am from me. I'm done hiding what I am from me."

Rouge smiled. "What if there's more you don't know?"

I rolled my eyes. "You mean the nonsense with Sonic? I remember far more of that than I'd like to. I'd like to put it behind me. I don't need to define myself by that faker."

I heard a noise behind me, and her eyes moved toward the door. They didn't widen any; it must not have opened. Then she said, "So you do know everything. And you're ok with all of it. But why bring it up now? Why not let us keep on trying to protect you?"

"Because I'm not child. I'm far too old to be a child." I rolled my eyes. "And something is wrong with the driver for my chaos sensors. I'm picking up more than seven chaos emeralds."

It was her turn to roll her eyes. She leaned back and laughed, closing them. "You're picking up Time Stones from the Little Planet. We're only a few miles from Never Lake."

It took me a minute to sort through all the layers of memories, all the things I knew, to understand why that was so important. And when I did, the sheer joy of it swept over me. I was so surprised when suddenly that familiar pressure started building in my head, when my chest started moving. I was laughing. And my surprise at laughing made me laugh even harder, throwing my head back. When I finally brought myself down, Rouge's hand was on a phone, eyes wide.

"We're near Never Lake? And AMY is here? Do you realize the carnage she's going to cause when Sonic realizes where he is?"

Rogue cocked her head to the side.

"That's where Sonic and Amy met! This is hilarious. Make popcorn." I stood up and turned, looking at her over my shoulder, smiling. "It's time for a show."

"I don't remember you having a sense of humor, Shadow."

I grinned. "A present from the Doctor, I guess. Come on."

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! I hope this wraps up any lingering concerns you had about Pretense in the Mirror. If it doesn't, let me know, and I"ll see if I can answer your questions or write another sidestory.

This Friday, I'll post the first chapter of my comedy, Leave it to Me. LITM's title is taken from Shadow's game, too; the story is about Sonic grocery shopping for a sick Tails. Everything that can go wrong does. I hope you'll take a peek at it!

Thanks so much.