Outside the Space Colony ARK, Knuckles was having issues of his own. He almost regretted splitting up from the group as soon as the shuttle touched ground; finding his way back to the spacecraft was going to be a task in and of itself, given the labyrinthine corridors of the space colony, but at least he had the Master Emerald back in his hand, safe and secure.
Though… he could hardly say he was thrilled about the circumstances.
His search for a way back in continued, proving fruitless for far too long for his liking, until he sensed something odd. "I feel some strange energy," he murmured to himself, following his senses, and somehow, they led him to an entry point.
Ah, good old instincts. They hadn't failed him yet.
But the odd sensation grew stronger and stronger, rising in intensity until Knuckles felt his spines begin to rise, and then, right in front of the tunnel leading inside the compound, a blinding light shone, burning white-hot. Knuckles shielded his eyes and face, taking a few steps back. Was this a security measure? Some kind of way to freeze intruders in place or burn them where they stood?!
But no sooner had the chilling thought come to him that the light faded, and Knuckles was blinking rapidly, trying to restore his sight as quickly as he could. There was an object on the floor in front of him, one that hadn't been there before. Large, and long, and blue, and…
...Hold on…
"Hey, Sonic!" the echidna called out, making his way forward as the blur started to take shape, with long, cerulean quills that started to become more defined by the second. One blue ear twitched, then a peach-colored arm bent and hoisted the body up, and then Sonic was standing unsteadily on his feet. Knuckles rushed to his side, offering solid support as the hedgehog's legs trembled below him.
"Whoa…" Sonic groaned, leaning onto Knuckles' shoulder with his full weight. The echidna barely budged under the force, but his face did heat up a little; he was still unused to having people in his personal space like this. "I wasn't sure if I could pull that one off," Sonic continued, sounding exhausted. "Somehow I managed to use the Chaos Control."
"Chaos Control?" Knuckles echoed, racking his brain for any memory of a text or mural from his people that could shed some light on what was going on, but ultimately, he drew a blank.
His mind went even more blank when Sonic stumbled, grabbing on to him as though for dear life. "Are… you okay?" he asked, hesitantly putting one of his hands on Sonic's waist to steady him.
"Yeah… Yeah I'm fine I just have to…"
Sonic took another step, stumbled again, and Knuckles decided that was enough. "Maybe you should sit down for a minute." At Sonic's look, he decided to appeal to his ego. "It's not like you can't make up for the lost time and then some."
Sonic exhaled, seeming to deflate, and sat on the ground. "I'm worried about Tails and Amy," he admitted. "I hate to ask, but could you help them? This is our last chance."
"How do I help them?" Knuckles asked, still puzzling over Sonic's abrupt appearance and dishevelled state.
"Save them from Eggman if they need help," Sonic suggested, stretching out his legs. "Tell them I'm alive. That sort of thing."
"What? Why would they think you were dead?!" Knuckles demanded, his confusion only growing.
"Getting shot out of an exploding space pod will do that to you," Sonic replied airily, and Knuckles' jaw went slack.
"I… What?!"
"Long story, no time." Sonic was already trying to stand again, with better results. "And what about you, Knux? Found what you were looking for?"
The echidna crossed his arms. "I did, actually. The Master Emerald is back in one piece…" His voice trailed off as he wondered whether he should bring up what was bothering him, but Sonic's ears flicked in his direction, briefly distracted.
"Sounds like there's a 'but' coming up."
Knuckles sighed, relenting. "But I had to get tangled up with Shadow for it to happen."
"Shadow's here, again?" Sonic frowned, looking down. "He keeps showing up in this plot… I don't like it, it gives me a bad feeling."
"Tell me about it," Knuckles grumbled, looking away. He could still so clearly see those eyes, filled with a world of hurt, could still hear the acid in his tone, could feel the fury fueling his motions as the final pieces to the ancient puzzle were shoved into his arms… and the guilt started eating at him again.
Sonic smirked at his friend, misinterpreting his body language. "Still got it bad for him, huh?"
Knuckles tensed up, teeth baring as his face went red. "Sh-Shut up! That's not… Sonic, I mean it! I…" He ground his teeth together, regretting having gone along with this line of conversation. "I might have really hurt him this time."
Sonic's smirk vanished, but he didn't ask questions, and Knuckles was glad for it. Instead, the hedgehog took a deep breath in, getting back on his feet and pulling out the fake emerald, staring at it as though it contained an answer. "How do we stop the world from getting destroyed?" he asked, abruptly pulling Knuckles' focus back into the bigger picture. "I got it! Before the cannon fires, I'll slam dunk it in there!"
Just like that, the fire had returned to Sonic's eyes, his objective clear as he started to dart away. "Come on! The others need your help, too!" he called back over his shoulder.
Knuckles stood there, his arm stretched out after the blue hero as Sonic ran away, ready to do what he had to do, before the echidna clenched his hand into a fist that he brought closer to his body. Once again, Sonic astounded him with his clear head, with his drive and his ability to keep focusing on what needed to happen. It wouldn't accomplish anything to keep dwelling on what happened with Shadow; he could only move on to what was next, and strive to do better at the next opportunity.
Help Tails and Amy. Tell them that Sonic was alive. He could do that. And if he ran into Shadow… maybe he could apologize? Tell him that he had spoken out in anger and hurt pride and scorn, and that he was sorry. Maybe tell him that Sonic was okay as well.
With that thought in mind, Knuckles started to leg it into the ARK, feeling a shudder as he imagined how catastrophic it would be if Amy, Tails, and Shadow all believed in Sonic's demise.
Eggman really hadn't counted on Sonic's loss to affect Tails quite in the way it did.
He had expected tears. He had expected emptiness. He had expected a broken will and a hopelessness that led to an easy victory.
But Tails had come at him with guns blazing, a ferocious gleam in his eye that chilled the doctor to the bone. The fox had charged forward, laser focused and furious, and it had caught him so off guard that the boy was able to outmaneuver him and finally overpower him.
Now, he was lying on the ground, head spinning, as the fox jumped out of his mech. Eggman half expected Tails to finish him off, especially with the state he was in, but the boy simply pulled out a communicator, switched it on, and in a soft, broken voice, whispered out a "Sonic… I did it."
It seemed as though the broken spirit had come after all, but too little too late. The doctor's head lolled to the side, and a faint yellow glimmer caught his eye.
Hold on a moment… Could that be…?
His hand reached forward as a beeping noise echoed through the room, and Eggman's hand grasped the final Chaos Emerald as Sonic the Hedgehog's voice somehow filled the room.
"Awesome job, Tails!"
"Sonic!" he heard the fox cry out, followed by a scream from the girl, but Eggman had no time to wonder how Sonic could still be alive. The final piece of the puzzle to victory was in his hand, and so long as the Eclipse Cannon fired, it didn't matter if he got rid of those brats now, or later.
In the ensuing celebration, the doctor took his leave unnoticed, his heart pounding in his chest as he reached out to Rouge through his own communicator.
It was time to finally end this.
Rouge flew at mach speed to keep in pace with Shadow as he raced through the hallways of the ARK, twisting and turning until they reached the central control room. The bat's nerves were shot, and the sound of Shadow's screams of anguish still rang in her ears like an echo that would never fade.
Shadow's breathing was heavy as he approached the core, and at his sides, his hands kept clenching into fists and then unclenching, and his head tilted every which way, as though he was trying to figure out the best way to go about his plan.
"What are you trying to do?" Rouge asked, her voice quavering, because she already knew the answer, and what it meant, but she was still holding on to a foolish hope that maybe, just this one, logic would fail and things would work out like she had hoped.
"Don't play dumb with me!" Shadow snapped, shooting her a glare over his shoulder and obliterating any hope bat had left. His eyes, still wet and reddened and covered in blue smudges, held absolutely no mercy in them. "You know why I'm here! You know what I'm about! I'm taking these emeralds and getting the hell out of here!"
Rouge's own face contorted into a grimace, and ruby red eyes glared at the floor. "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this," she hissed out, trying fruitlessly to stifle the horrendous feeling of betrayal welling up inside her.
Shadow wasn't on her side. He never had been. She had been an idiot to let him in.
"Well too fucking bad!" Shadow raged, whirling around to face her properly. "Because you know what? This is literally the worst day of my life! Literally!" He paired his exclamation with a swift, sharp kick to the console, and the old piece of machinery cluttered to life. "And I need something! Even if that something is an incomplete set of emeralds, at least I won't have to add 'destroyed home' to the shitlist below 'shown up', 'lost everything' and 'Sonic is dead'!" The boy's eyes drilled into hers, raw with untold pain and grief and rage that he had only scratched the surface of as he raged on.
So this was your plan from the very beginning… Rouge thought, feeling her energy begin to ebb.I knew it all along, but all the same, there came a point where I didn't want to believe it…
"So, before your stupid, mindless, idiotic scheme to blow up the world falls into place," Shadow ranted on, each word landing like a knife in Rouge's heart, "I'm just going to take what's mine and get out of here, before the universe decides it's time to take something else away from me!"
"You are one pathetic creature!" Rouge snapped back, finally pushed to a limit, and oh, the look on Shadow's face was the dictionary definition of enraged.
"Oh, and look who's talking, you bio-engineered freak of nature!" he screamed back.
It was like a slap to the face; Rouge's own anger flooded out of her in an instant, replacing itself with cold shock. She took a step backwards, mouth agape, and Shadow's face twisted into a look of sadistic glee.
"What, you didn't know?" he crooned, turning around to work at the computer console, searching through the files on it with effortless precision. "I made sure to do my homework on my fellow teammates, and what do you know! I found some enlightening information." The words sounded overly-sweet, and so much more damaging than his screams could ever be. Rouge felt nothing but fear freezing her in place as Shadow's fingers flew over the keys, seeking out one file in particular. "I found some results about the research project known as the Ultimate Lifeform," Shadow continued, hitting one final key as the file popped up and…
What on earth was that thing?
Rouge's mouth went dry as she saw an image load, right below a header proclaiming 'Project Rouge: the Ultimate Lifeform', but that wasn't a picture of herself. Instead, she saw a massive lizard, eyes piercing even in a fuzzy black and white photograph. It was massive, easily filling the room it was in, and Rouge…
"So," Shadow kept going, merciless, his hand resting on his hip as he faced her one more time. "If this is the real Ultimate Lifeform, named Rouge…" He pointed at her, and Rouge felt like an impostor in her own head, in her own body, in… in…
Who am I?
"...Then who the fuck are you supposed to be?"
For a moment, both hedgehog and bat stared each other down, the hedgehog in furious vengeance, and the bat in mute horror.
"M-My memories," Rouge finally uttered, only for Shadow to cut her off.
"What if they're not real? You know, like everything else about you."
Rouge started to tremble. No. No that couldn't be it! Those couldn't be fake, or made up, or… Surely there was an explanation for all the gaps, for all the inconsistencies, and… and…
The bat's blood ran cold as all her worst fears seemed all but confirmed at Shadow's malicious move against her. Was none of that truly real? Did Maria, Professor Gerald, all her thoughts and feelings… were they all just lies, conjured by a person who wasn't who she thought she was? Did she plan on destroying an entire planet, all through falsified evidence and mistakes?
Had she, a being of logic, been fooled all this time?
Rouge's breaths came quicker as panic set in. What if that was the case? What if Shadow was right. Then what? What was her next move? What was her point in existing? Who was she? Who was she who was she who was she who was she who was-
A familiar spark of warmth distracted Rouge from her torment, a spike of chaos energy that brought a familiar figure to her mind's eye, but she hardly had time to make sense of it before her headset crackled to life.
"This is Dr. Eggman, I have found all seven Chaos Emeralds!"
Rouge's breathing faltered. Too much was happening at once, and she didn't know where to turn or who to look to. Her eyes seeked out Shadow's, but the hedgehog sent her a look of such pure disgust that her stomach seized up and she had to turn away.
"Rouge! Someone is trying to get to the Eclipse Cannon! There's not much time left before it fires again. Can you get over there?"
She had to make a choice, there and now, about who she was and what she would do.
"...I will find them right away," she responded, and from across the platform, Shadow scoffed as she switched her headset off.
"Do you actually believe you're the real Rouge?" he sneered.
"I have to," she replied, turning away from him.
"Even though your memories might be fake?"
Fake.Fake fake fake fake fake.
"Even…" Rouge swallowed, regaining control of herself. "Even if my memories aren't real, it's still me." She took a breath, focusing on the energy spike she felt, and suddenly the world felt much less uncertain. "I'm still Rouge."
She blinked, and a tear dropped from her eye. "And I will fulfil my promise to Maria. That's the only thing that matters to me now."
The only thing… The onething…
Goodbye, Shadow.
She started walking down the pathway, pausing at the halfway point. "Leave the emeralds alone if you want to live," she warned, her voice hardening. "The fake is good enough for you."
Fakefakefakefakefakefakefakefake.
"And…"
She didn't have to say it. She didn't have to tell him. She could have just left, right then and there, her no-longer-empty threat hanging in the air.
But she didn't.
"In case you were wondering… that intruder that the doctor mentioned… I can sense him. It's Sonic. It seems as though he survived."
With that, Rouge dashed off, not ready or willing to see or hear Shadow's reaction to her final message to him. As she flew away, with white-hot rage and betrayal burning up her soul, Rouge searched inside herself, digging deeper and deeper, frantic, desperate, blindly seeking out the piece of her heart that Shadow the Hedgehog had managed to worm his way into until she found it, warm and soft and tender…
...and killed it with no hesitation or mercy.
Next chapter: Sonic and Rouge nyoom and no one expects the truth.