Chapter 11: In Doom's Shadow
"You're dead. I killed you," Shadow whispered into the void.
It replied, "I am happy to see you again, son."
There was no one there. Shadow found himself floating in empty lightless space. He couldn't perceive anything else with his senses, but he still felt a presence as overwhelming as the darkness around him.
Shadow's quills tensed defensively, paranoia taking over. Even though a hallucination shouldn't have elicited such a reaction from his body, he found comfort in denial.
"This isn't real. You're not real! Just a figment of my imagination."
He fell silent at his own words, having unintentionally addressed the presence. It grew in intensity as if approaching.
"Know your place!" it roared from afar. The booming echo shook him and caused distortions akin to those one feels underwater. Ripples spread to his quills, rattling them, and the process didn't end there. "I will not allow my flesh and blood speak to me this way."
The pain that followed excluded the physical. As the voice resonated inside of him, numbness took hold of his limbs and trickled inwards, forcing Shadow to gradually cede control of his body. Bit by bit, his extremities betrayed him and started moving on their own.
When he lost perception of everything save for his face, a pair of scaly claws smashed into his cheeks. Shreds of Shadow's old gloves were stuck to their surface.
"W-what's happening? Let me go!"
Pressure coming from those claws seemed to mount to infinity, out to break his skull, yet the sensation didn't last a second as the numbness washed over his consciousness. The ripples reverberated in his head, letting him focus on nothing but the voice of his father.
"Our enemies tampered with your mind, Shadow. They forced you to put your past, your lineage behind you and set you astray. I am going to free you from their insanity and open your eyes to the perfect world. Our world."
The ripples eased down along with the voice to give way to something much more physical. Perception returned with an explosion of pain, muscles contracting in a seizure fit. Shadow felt a tightness in his chest and the sound of his own wheezing rang in his ears.
He shot up and looked around, panicking. The sight of an alien red sky blanketed with an endless sea of dark clouds spawning mindless, hateful creatures made him wish he was blind.
Shadow covered his eyes with his hands, only to find that it didn't block the view. The touch hurt even though his fingertips didn't seem to connect with his skin. Then, he realised his fingers have been converted into reptilian pincers. Their sharpness could pierce whatever they touched, but it did nothing to his eyes, protected by a hard outer shell.
He considered breaking it, tearing the eyeballs out to prevent his reflection from telling the unthinkable: he became one of them. A mutilated shape lacking feet, with scales instead of fur and dirty yellow sclera shining from the middle of his forehead, a black slit at the centre of a swirling red iris.
The third eye stole this reflection from a figure hovering next to him. Black Doom.
"You!" Shadow wished to exclaim, mortified when a hiss came out of the hole that used to be his mouth.
"Shadow!" he heard coming from behind.
That voice. He knew that voice. Deeper and less feminine than he remembered, but when he turned around and saw its bearer, the slit in his forehead widened.
"Rouge?" he asked the winged creature.
"Shadow!"
The tearful, longing embrace answered the rest while the sound of her heart beating into his chest pacified the chaos he was brimming with. Shadow closed his eyes and accepted her embrace in full.
"Rouge…"
Despite the bat creature's warmth and familiarity, the presence of another perplexed him. Black Doom circled them in tribulation like the hordes of aliens in the sky.
"Our family is united as one at last! With you in your rightful place, Eggman's demise is at hand."
He pondered Black Doom's words alongside Rouge's fond attempts of getting him to unwind. The conclusion he reached had him pushing the clingy bat creature away and facing Black Doom.
"There's just one problem. If this is our perfect world, why is Eggman a part of it?"
The leader of the black aliens laughed and lifted his arms high into the sky. "Because he's a useful idiot, just like you." With a feral roar, he called the aliens to swarm around him to be consumed and let him grow into a giant a thousand times bigger than Shadow. The aliens that remained converged on Shadow, trying to hold him down by any means. "The only way to control my flesh and blood, Shadow, is through my will. Eggman has haplessly sowed the seeds of my will by erecting Black Egg Obelisks across the globe. Through them, I control my flesh and blood. I control you and everyone like you!"
Legions of dark shapes emerged from all the elements, like locusts caught by the storm that became Black Doom. The ground rumbled and the skies shattered in lightning at their arrival. In all the chaos, Shadow found himself thinking about the one creature he considered out of place.
"Shadow…" she whispered to his mind, a light hiss escaping her toothless maw. She grabbed his hand in desperation while her alien eyes begged him to change his mind. It didn't have to be this way.
Shadow looked at her misshapen fingers wrapped around his palm, his claw returning the gesture, and the nightmarish deity towering over the land.
"If I am your flesh and blood, I can see your will extinguished," Shadow told all of them.
His indignation was met with thunder and laughter. "You are just a figment of my imagination. Behold!"
Movement stopped as Black Doom conjured a vision in front of Shadow. It was a red and black hedgehog foaming at the mouth, his bloodshot eyes emanating a yellow hue above a twitchy, delirious smile. The hedgehog managed to stand up and gather enough energy for a Chaos Spear while shambling towards a prone bat.
"Embrace the light of our perfect world, Shadow, while I see theirs into darkness and chaos. Starting with her."
Shadow's disfigured face could no longer show horror, but it didn't stop Black Doom from sensing the torment he was causing.
"I'd rather embrace the Chaos," said Shadow as he gave the bat creature's hand around his claw one last glance, "which I Control."
The vision dissipated at those words, erased from within by the blinding force in the hedgehog's hand. At the same time, the world Black Doom had offered Shadow crumbled. Along with the bat creature next to Shadow, the light swept everything away, not leaving a trace of darkness behind.
The nightmare rejected the power Shadow wielded, pushing him out of the planet, the galaxy and the entire universe he became anathema to. He was the ray of light that escaped from a black hole.
"Consider your actions, Shadow. Their fate is an eventuality. You cannot prevent this future!" Black Doom's voice beckoned him.
"I doubt a figment of your imagination would show consideration."
Physical sensations trickled back in. There was pain. So much pain. Shadow's head was burning up. He couldn't open his eyes yet, but it was obvious that he'd gone past the lowest point and was subjected to seeing emptiness instead of an illusory world.
"So, you've made your choice? Because I've already made mine: you will watch as I destroy the world you cherish the same way you destroyed mine."
The emptiness gained colour. Red. Contours pierced through the unblinking void, giving way to the halls of Pleasure Castle, an unconscious bat in a pool of her own blood and a Chaos Spear seeking release from his arm.
Eggman cackled in the background. "This is the ultimate pain. Revel in it while your brain literally melts inside your skull!"
Shadow had too much power stored in the energy bolt to make it disappear, yet too little to regain full control over his limbs. Froth was still dripping from his grimace and he could only slow the twitchy movements directed towards ending Rouge.
Crimson droplets fell from his face into the pool stretching from her body. The pulsating agony, the convulsions and the blurred vision he didn't know he could trust…getting out of the fever dream was meaningless if he'd lose what he wanted to protect above all else.
The hold Black Doom had over him was too strong. Shadow's arm tensed for a strike he couldn't stop. If he tried, his hand would defy him and Rouge would still be gone.
Disappointment runs in your blood, but if I were you, I'd move from anger straight to acceptance. It's time to wake up, Shadow thought to himself. Black Doom was listening. Black Doom was watching. Black Doom could see him now.
Shadow added his strength to the throw, everything he had, so his puppet master would be unable to react. Rouge had made her sacrifice and it was time Shadow showed her what was due. His arm curved back in, letting the Chaos Spear strike him instead.
He cried out and, through him, so did Black Doom. The numbness retreated fully, letting Shadow realise that he was bleeding from every orifice. Time was running out and he could already feel Black Doom's will starting to weigh him down again.
The will sowed by Eggman… The obelisk! Eggman used it thinking it gave him control over those somehow connected to Black Doom while, in reality, it gave Black Doom a window back into the physical world. Shadow would close this window if it was the last thing he'd do.
Shadow screamed from a surge of white hot pain that came the moment he considered warping. He managed to quench his own voice, but the madness inside his head only intensified. As he tried to remember the obelisk's location, he could hear singeing in his ears.
If he didn't do it now, the next thing they'd experience would be his brain leaking out. Black Doom threw everything he had to prevent Chaos Control, yet the torment only strengthened Shadow's resolve. Through clenched teeth, he called forth the power of Chaos to transport him to the Black Egg Obelisk atop the wisteria tree's resting place.
With every step he skipped, he was attacked with increasingly gruesome visions. Black Doom had infinite power in the realm he had ended up with. He wished to share this power with his next of kin and cast a new universal order. The imagery this order conveyed sickened Shadow. He had already received a taste of a future designed by Black Doom and he wanted nothing to do with its endgame. Such a fate differed little from Black Doom's own: restless and hateful, chained by immortality to claw at the corporeal realm.
Shadow regretted pondering such an end because it reminded him of what could have happened to him had he chosen to side with the aliens. What could still happen if he didn't put the past behind him…
"You have no right! You are mine! You are a part of me!"
On the outside, it was just a statue made of dark stone. On the inside, it was the key to unending suffering at the will of an immortal. Shadow clutched the Chaos Emerald tight in his hand and relayed the negativity Black Doom was channelling into him towards the gem.
It underwent repulsion as unquestionable as the emerald's power. The crimson brilliance of an all-out Chaos Blast swept the park, shattering the statue and razing all else that stood in its way. What the blast wave couldn't level, it set ablaze. In the distance, one of Pleasure Castle's towers collapsed on itself.
"Wrong. And I don't talk to statues."
Standing in the middle of the crater he had caused, Shadow closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of destruction. Water from the nearby pond trickled down into the crater to wash his naked feet.
Shadow picked up a piece of debris still hot from the blast and crushed it in his hand. Water and mud would carry the obelisk's molten remains into obscurity.
As he washed his face and wiped the exhaustion from his eyes, Shadow saw a city consumed by fire reflected by the water. The damage Shadow wrought was extensive, but Station Square's denizens would have to concede it was a necessary evil to restore peace and wither Black Doom away so he would no longer be a threat. The Black Egg Obelisk was history, just like any chance for the alien to return. Hopefully.
The humans would have to take care of the fires. Shadow had something else in mind he wanted to put out. He warped back inside the castle.
Large blocks of stone were falling from the ceiling. Impending collapse echoed from the other halls, another reminder of the costs of Shadow's recklessness.
Hatred flashed in Eggman's oculars when the hedgehog returned. Shadow was scorched, bruised but alive.
"How can this be?! Your brain should have melted inside your skull by now! No matter. You can't fight me…"
Shadow plucked away a blood clot left by a nosebleed. "I've surprised you once, doctor."
Eggman didn't like the interruption, "…and save your friends at the same time. What'll it be, Shadow?"
Wordlessly, Shadow examined the desperate doctor. All this time Eggman thought he had the upper hand, that everyone else was his pawn. It got him nowhere and Eggman didn't seem to be aware of this. Shadow freed himself from his illusions, yet the villain was yet to wake up. Thankfully, Shadow wouldn't have to sully his hands for it to happen. He picked up Rouge and turned his back on Eggman.
"Hmph. You continue being a disappointment to everyone around you." The doctor entered the safety of his elevator and started descending. When it was half-way into the ground, he grinned. "But not for long! Omega, self-destruct now!"
The crown-like device on Omega's head lit up. It had to be what Eggman used to control the robot. Shadow called for the Chaos Emerald to slow down time and kicked the control device off, sending it back to the creator before it overwhelmed Omega's resistance.
When the flow of time was restored, Shadow smirked to the sound of angry grunts from below and the sight of muddy footprints on top of Eggman's elevator. They were the same footprints that greeted Shadow on his first visit in Twinkle Park. Their owner had a penchant for shurikens.
"ILLOGICAL."
The droning criticism was music to his ears. Despite the light in his eyes blinking out, Omega had fight left in him. Shadow swore to make sure Eggman wouldn't get another chance to change that.
"Good to have you back, Omega," Shadow muttered ahead of transporting his team away.
Pleasure Castle lay in a pile of rubble moments after their departure. It was another painful imprint in the city's collective consciousness. Twinkle Park would never be rebuilt. Having been a host to an evil greater than a man's madness, the powers that be couldn't allow it.
Likewise, they couldn't allow Team Dark to carry on. A toxic asset turned into a walking threat, Shadow and his friends had to pay a price steep enough to change their ways. Two of them welcomed the hammerfall.
The other waited for it anxiously in Shadow's arms as he entered a GUN infirmary. Her teal eyes stole a glimpse of his gloom, prompting him to break eye contact. The next time he mustered the courage to face Rouge, her hands were already fondling him whilst her bloodied lips curved in contentment.
"My hero… I've seen everything," she whispered to him.
Shadow stopped in his tracks. "You-you did? How?"
Rouge dragged one of her exposed nails along a wound on her arm. Plots of clean freshly-formed skin stood out from the dirty fur around them. "It's your blood, Shadow. It keeps us…connected," she said and put a hand on his chest. His face wouldn't reveal it, but his heart thumped in excitement from the affection in her touch.
He looked forward, walking faster than before. "It's the reason you're in this mess. I can't risk losing you again."
The hand withdrew. It felt like Rouge shrank from his reaction. She had something heavy on her mind. "I…let you take that risk…so I wouldn't lose you to Amy."
Shadow perked an eye ridge. Rouge was clever enough to work it out without him saying a word.
"She was an accident. I didn't know my state was contagious back then…but we can put that behind us now!" she said boisterously. The pace of her recovery aided by Shadow's blood coursing through her amazed her nearly as much as the sensations Shadow was giving her without meaning to.
He didn't share her sentiment. Shadow marched on into ever more secure compounds, door after armoured door shutting behind them. It wasn't until she heard the humming of an activated stasis pod that she considered stopping him.
"Shadow…no. I'll be fine, trust me." She fidgeted in his grasp, trying to make him look at the process of her beautiful renewal in action. "You know I'm telling the truth. You can feel it now…"
"I'd rather trust you," he replied bitterly and placed her on an operating table.
GUN medical staff surrounded her to cut through the remains of her outfit and prepare her for the procedure. It didn't hurt and Rouge could easily dispatch them with a single blow, yet a pain-ridden expression persisted on her face.
"We're a team, Rouge. Omega, you and I. If I'm anything else to you, I don't wish to know or feel it…anymore."
A tear rolled down her cheek when she closed her eyes. She wanted to calm down and relax. She wanted many things, but the most important of them didn't want her. Rouge's breathing degenerated into gasps as she pondered her chances.
She could change his mind, even force him to. The people currently attaching a transfusion apparatus to her wouldn't have the physical capacity to think of opposing her. Shadow had no right to break their connection.
The more she thought about it, the more he scowled. Deep in her heart, she knew it couldn't work this way and so did he. In his mind, the only way to dispose of the nagging doubt was to cast it away, to forget. She couldn't accept his solution.
"After everything we've been through…what we've experienced about each other…" She swallowed the lump in her throat and groaned from the heartache his silence gave her. "Bastard!"
"I was hoping you'd understand."
Rouge whimpered as the medical staff dried her tears with a sponge. Shadow had fully withdrawn into his own little world. There was no reasoning with him. The moment she needed his support the most, his heartlessness showed its true colours.
Colours she'd rather cast away for things to be as they used to be. Hopeful.
"I understand, but I don't forgive you," she said. Tears continued streaming from her closed eyes when she was secured inside the stasis pod. "Have it your way, then: we're a team."
"Trust me. We are," was all he said before the machine knocked her out.
Shadow found refuge in a similar pod next to her. He looked at her one last time, his hand pressed against the glass as the capsule filled up. With her feelings filtered out of his system, he had to tend to his own.
We'll put our past behind us, so we continue to be. Team Dark.
Author's note: Whatever you do, don't read the next chapter. Just pretend the story ends here and start writing that review. Curiosity is evil.
Thanks for being with me on this ride. Hope it's given you some serious giggles. And don't die. I'll want you back for my next fic.