A/N: it's been a month. Well.
Sorry. My only excuse is that this chapter fought me on literally every point a text can fight you. It's a lot. And you don't even get any EXP…
Guest review replies!
MadameMirage77: Sonic – like when he gets Serious, then he's all quiet and unnerving – and these circumstances are bad, because Eggman isn't threatening Sonic, that'd be perfectly fine – but no. Eggman is threatening everyone he cares about, so. Yeah. (PS. I've seen some takes where the Robotniks were mostly nice people and Ivo was the odd one out, haha. That said, it was mostly on orders of GUN that he made that chip) And I'm sorry but I don't know anything about Gargoyles – but in general, if you think it'll be good then go for it! :D
BulletWitch1985: the amnesia would've been interesting if they had just… done more with it? -I don't really mind it in canon but yeah – it's incredibly annoying when no one tells him anything! (I assume you meant 'striped' and not 'stripped' XD) Black Doom… There's not even anything to say… Garbage can? –and Sonic's attitude was way off in Forces – like, putting on a smile for everyone else's morale? Sure. But what they did in Forces? Nah thanks… -Thanks for the review - and shoot, I'm terribly sorry about your family. I hope your sister recovers.
Guest: working on it, working on it…
Bats have excellent hearing. Which is good for the job but completely awful if you're trying to sleep while the neighbours are practising drumming. On the ARK? The ever present whirr of machinery can't quite hide the size of all the long empty hallways, silent and untouched. It's no wonder that Rouge's ears catch the odd noise; gasping breaths, choking themselves silent…
-Rouge comes to stop at a doorway, and peeks inside of the room. Pretty nondescript. There's a computer at the far end of it. And what draws her eye next: someone's slumped on the floor next to it.
"Hey, how are you-" Rouge stops abruptly, because it's Shadow. Very cleverly she blurts, "Shadow?"
He makes a noise which could be interpreted as 'yeah, what?', or 'I'm dying'
Various scenarios race through her mind and are discarded just as quickly, and Rouge dumps the boxes on the floor, moving to sit next to Shadow. He's not injured. Of course not. Then it has to be something, something-
"Shadow?"
Rouge puts a hand on his shoulder, because he sits hunched over his knees so she can't see his face, and she's not that great at this, anyway. A long moment passes, and eventually Shadow exhales and says, voice so forcedly emotionless, "I uncovered some rather… alarming intel. I think- it would be-" he clears his throat, and says almost angrily. "You should – look at it."
The computer is right there. Shadow suddenly stands up, graceful and cold, and opens up some documents. Rouge stands next to him and pretends for his sake that she can't see his hands shaking, and carefully starts to read. It's utterly silent except for the click of the keys, and Shadow stands like a statue, while Rouge reads. And reads. She's done this before; read through clinical reports on Shadow, all information and no warmth. She's with GUN. She's done this before-
She's never seen this before.
Someone might have thought of this as useful. Maybe even- but this isn't about that, it's about her best friend. It's about someone who already has struggled with this again and again, and every time some even more damaging piece of information resurfaces— this isn't what he deserves.
This is also very dangerous.
"Do you-" Of course Shadow hadn't known, so she changes the question mid-step- "Does the Doctor have access-"
"No," Shadow says, and yes, obviously not.
"If he had then he would've already-" Rouge trails off, eyes sharp. "This is fixable. We need to-"
"Delete the documents," Shadow stresses. "If the Doctor-"
"I know, but the surgeon might want – damn." Rouge stares at the screen, something like exasperated rage churning inside. "Shadow," She promises, "We will get that chip out."
Shadow turns his face away, and Rouge stares at the screen. She's, again, not too great at things like this (if you on the other hand want to rile someone up she's your go-to gal) – but she gets when Shadow wants to be alone. So Rouge leaves him be and starts typing instead, downloading and deleting and overwriting. The – the chip is in his head so when they're getting it out… as said before, the surgeon might want some notes. One single copy; the rest wiped clean off the servers.
Meanwhile…
"I'll sneak inside the Death Egg," Sonic offers. They all three know he just wants to be the one to destroy it, but he's good at what he does, so? Let me have my revenge. (He still knows the cell back there like the back of his hand. Like the back of his ruined hand. He remember the exact shade of the walls and even the damn smell of that place-)
(it smelled bitter and too clean, sterile)
"And what about the defenses?" Knuckles asks. "There's no way Eggman won't know we're – you're – coming."
"The defenses can luckily be deactivated, but can only be shut down from inside of the Death Egg–" Tails says quickly, "Or from the main computer located in Chemical Plant."
There's a moment. "So. We need to get to the computer in Chemical Plant." Knuckles looks up like he's checking that they're both still hanging on. Or like he's checking to see if maybe there's another way of doing it, please?
"Unfortunately," Tails replies eventually, because someone has to, "We need to, yes."
"And with what resources?" Knuckles throws up his hands. "If our fleet is occupied with Eggman's fleet-"
"We've got a fleet on the surface, too," Tails says. "But they're defending the border to Shamar…"
Knuckles lets out a long sigh.
"How many do we need to take Chemical Plant?" Sonic asks, ignoring his impatience for a moment. If maybe they could spare some-
"I don't know!" Tails cries. "More than we can spare-"
"Is there any other…" Knuckles trails off. "Nevermind. We have to abandon Shamar, don't we?"
Tails chews on his lip, but doesn't say anything. Which means that factually, there's no other good option. Impatience and anxiety, the urge to do something, anything, fight against Sonic's feeling of adamant refusal. They can't just make the decision to abandon Shamar – but they can't not do it, they'll be toast if they do. This is what Sonic hates the most about the whole leadership deal – when you have to make bad decisions, if only because all the other options are even worse…
Though this time it's on Knuckles. But that doesn't mean Sonic feels less hollow for not coming up with a better alternative.
"We…" Tails hesitates. "We could send a couple of ships from the Starfleet to aid them, which would allow us to still keep half the fleet back in Shamar…
But then we've got half a fleet in three different places instead.
"Sonic?" Knuckles glances at him.
Though half a fleet is better than nothing…
"Send them, I guess. You're the boss." Shamar has been holding out for this long – they're capable. They have to be.
Knuckles nods, and then he's silent for a moment. It's not a particularly long moment, but it feels as if crucial time is slipping out of their hands with every breath, and Sonic's never been good at waiting.
"Sonic, you'll go take out the Death Egg. We'll send five ships from Shamar and a few ships from space to Chemical Plant, where they'll try and reach the computer- and the ARK's defenses will keep Eggman at bay for as long as this takes. Which shouldn't be long." Knuckles looks at them. "That's the plan, right?"
"Right," Tails mumbles. "The most difficult part… I don't know. We might have to hack the computer – or maybe he wouldn't have put passwords-" He trails off. "But – yeah. That's it."
"As easy as doing handstands on a plane."
Knuckles' expression was both long-suffering and utterly unfazed. "Now that this is all decided and done with, the meeting's officially over. I have other things to do."
Later…
The pheasant who reigns over the medical ward is attempting to feed Silver soup through a straw when the door slides open. Silver looks up, and then immediately pushes the cup away when he sees that it's Espio. Oh yes. Finally someone with information about what's going on, someone who knows what he's – what they're supposed to do next. Silver is supposed to stay in the infirmary. Of course. Very important to stay in medical, yes.
-Silver starts waving until Espio looks his way, and then he enthusiastically beckons for Espio to come sit next to him. The pheasant lady seems satisfied to leave him with Espio, and quickly rushes away to tend to the patient in the bed across from his.
Espio gives him a slightly dubious look, and carefully sits down on top of the covers. "Hello, Silver."
Silver nods and nods. Like, what else should he do? He motions in the air and a writing pad flies over from a desk, and is soon joined by a pen zooming in from another direction. Espio watches him work with an eyebrow quirked, but Silver is pretty sure it's in amusement. Silver would try and smile at him, but his jaw is like… completely out of function, or something. Oh man, would telepathy be handy right now…
Silver's writing is quick, messy, and somewhat blocky. He stumbles over the rounded curves of the letters of this century, and he doesn't really get the difference between capital letters and normal ones. He's getting better though. He is. And hey – it could've been much worse! If the spoken language too had changed drastically in the future, then he would've been in some deep water…
-He flips the pad and shows it to Espio. whats going on out there?
"Knuckles is sending half the fleet to Chemical Plant."
Silver writes, ?
Espio's mouth twitches briefly. He explains, "There's a computer terminal in Chemical Plant which controls the Death Egg's defenses. Sonic has… special orders to infiltrate the Death Egg."
Okay? Is it real secret business or is Espio just revealing it this way because he likes it? Both? Silver scribbles down a, so what will u do?
Espio looks at the text for a moment, and Silver looks at hm for a moment. "There isn't much to do but wait," Espio says mildly. "Wait and be prepared."
That combination of words shouldn't sound as ominous as they actually do.
Later…
In half-forgotten memories, he would always seek out a window whenever he felt like just turning around, smashing all the lab equipment and shouting at the humans and never coming back. There is something so calming about space – it's just a void. It's a soothing deep velvet black, the stars burning so far away it's always cold on the railings underneath the ARK. Mobius was like a myth up here – just a blue sunrise, so distant you could joke about going there because he'd never leave without Maria, and she loved to make plans but they both knew that she couldn't leave.
(there had been a small chance of curing her. But GUN didn't let her have even that one chance)
Shadow stands by a window in a dark empty room, gazing out, and tries to forget. It feels like there's something lodged in his throat, but after coming down from the panic-shock-anger-nausea-my-knees-will-give-out-high he mostly feels… nothing. There's surely very poetic things to say about colourless paintings and goddamn wrung-out towels, and Shadow wants to-
'Ultimate Lifeform, created to be-'
"Hey."
Shadow doesn't jump, but he spins around embarrassingly fast. It's Sonic.
He contemplates.
"Faker."
Sonic quirks his mouth the faintest bit at the nickname – that insult has aged its way through friendly and sarcastic and right into a greeting phrase. "I saw you. From the hallway, and then I thought 'wow, Shadow is just standing there. Alone. In a dark room-"
"Just get to the point."
"Aw Shads, not up for chatting today?" Sonic sobers up impressively fast. "Great, 'cause I don't wanna small-talk either."
"The point." Shadow repeats. He might be needed for something. They've been in a large urgent emergency ever since they got back on ARK – if they need any moving or sorting or guided tours done he'd be more than happy to-
Sonic says: "Are you- how are you?"
-Shadow immediately coaxes his expression into something even flatter, even more neutral. "Same as always."
Sonic looks at him. He's standing in the shadows by the door, his eyes gleaming green in the dark. The glass panes in the floor are lit by an eerie blue glow, and you can see Mobius floating thousands of kilometres below them. Shadow looks back at Sonic, and he opens his mouth to reply-
There's a sound like a firework from far away, and at once they both turn to the windows.
A ripple of blue flashes in the sky, and then there's another one, something crashing into the almost invisible force field around ARK. More blue sparks spray up from the shield as it takes a few more hits, and Shadow squints and looks farther, behind the impromptu lightshow. Dark round shapes in the distance, obscuring the stars. Movement.
"It's started," Shadow says curtly. "Was there anything else?"
"Well, if you know anything more about the ARK's defense systems Tails would really appreciate your help-"
"Noted." Shadow turns to go, and Sonic follows a moment later, still glancing back. There's another crackle of blue, and they both pause for just a second at the door. (Sonic wants to say something – he wants to say a lot but there's no time so he better just go and hurry up – he can always hassle Shadow when he's come back from the-) Shadow starts skating along to the right, while Sonic cuts to the left, starting to run.
.
A/N: you might just all hate me now because, delays, but thanks for sticking by :p more chapters coming, hopefully soon; we'll see.