Summary

One shot. A short story set after I, Sorcerer. Peace reigns and Sonic the Hedgehog is now retired and enjoying a camping trip with his wife and two children. He tells one of his infamous stories, a fable of adventure, tragedy, and down right astonishment of his mysterious origins and legacy. Based on the idea from I'll Protect You by RAWN89, hear the tale in the Blue Blur's own words.

A Tale from the Campfire

Sonic The Hedgehog loved camping, and when the opportunity came to take his wife and two children, he was very keen to go. His brother has ascended, leaving the planet and him far behind and now the Blue Blur was alone. Eggman and Dr. Starline were gone and finally they had peace. Real peace. A world where they didn't have to worry about where their next meal was coming from because of the fighting. After a long day, they were resting around a campfire, darkness all around them, a beautiful clear, warm night.

His children were jumping on him. His four year old twin son and daughter were unable to contain their excitement. Not quite their bedtime, there were desperate for a story. His wife smirked, rolling her eyes. Sonic's stories were infamous. They were very long, far fetched and wild, as wild as he own adventures were for real. Believable? That was up for debate, and totally the reason why he loved camping. The campfire story was the only legal time, according to his wife, it was ever allowed to tell one, and boy, did he have a good one this evening.

It had recently dawned on the Blue Blur that he'd never told his wife or children the rather weird and unusual origins of him and more specifically his brother. Telling stories of his adventures were also as good as the adventures themselves, but this one did not originally come from him. He would have been too young to remember. It had been told by someone far older. Sonic sighed, looking up to the stars and began to speak, all eyes transfixed on him.

"What could possibly go wrong with Eggman's brilliant plan to go back in time to permanently dispose of me before I can become an unbeatable nuisance? He built a Time Portal, and setting it to a specific time, he disappeared through it. Rouge overhears the scheme and immediately tells Tails. They have to save me, but they can't tell me. They knew that I would cause a enormous time paradox trying to save myself. Therefore causing the possibility that he could destroy himself, saving Eggman the job. But with intense research, they realise they can't do it alone. They need someone who wasn't present at the time set on the Time Portal, strong enough to stop Eggman, but a professional. Exquisitely trained enough not draw attention to themselves. Only one fit that detailed description, and they never he would never agree.

Shadow.

But when Shadow realises that the time coordinates on the Time Portal was set to before he met me, meaning that we would never meet. Eventually, he reluctantly agreed. The mere thought of another day longer of being locked up in that capsule on Prison Island, was more then he could stand. It wasn't a part of his life he was proud of, and was very keen to move away from it. It was grotesquely unpleasant. Typical me, pushing Eggman, got him out. He owed me, at least for this one.

They readied themselves, and the three of them leave, to journey deep into the unknown. By the time they travelled though the Time Portal, they were immediately in trouble. It's pitch dark, but they can see Eggman racing towards a hospital. Tails instantly knows they have to intervene. Now! Only one of them can outrun Eggman. Shadow. He activates his Super-Speed and races after him, overtaking the human and getting to the hospital first. Time to go in. Shadow hated hospitals. But there was no time to linger, and he immediately runs for the maternity ward. The job was simple, go in, grab the baby, and get out. He was throughly unimpressed. If teenage me wasn't bad enough, now it had to deal with idiot me as a baby. The coordinates on the Time Portal had told them that before hand. He ran into the nursery. He could hear the human behind him, tearing the place up. He looked from one cot to another. I should be easy to find. Hedgehogs were not that common and the colour Blue was extremely rare. Finally, he found his quarry, and the most extraordinary sight greeted him.

Rouge was going mad down at the communicator. Shadow was not responding, and time was pressing. Eggman was tearing through the hospital at an alarming rate. There were screams, and people fled in fear. But Shadow just stood there, completely numb, staring at the cot. The Blue baby Hedgehog was indeed there, fast asleep, as expected, but he wasn't alone. Cuddling up next to him, was another Hedgehog. Also asleep. Also Blue! Shadow's eyes widened. Gobsmacked, he looked from one baby Blue Hedgehog to the other. We were identical. Same noses, same quills, same ears, same fur coat. He couldn't tell between them. He quickly scanned the documents at the end of the cot. Twins! He was astonished. He had no idea, but a noise behind him told him to move and now. But what to he do? Does he grab one and leave the other, in the hope he'd grabbed me. But Eggman would certainly kill any Blue Hedgehogs remaining. Finally, he makes his decision and runs, leaving the nursery, just before Eggman arrives with a matter of seconds to spare. Out of the window, down the wall, he runs and was gone, before the human even knew what happened.

He eventually meets up with Rouge and Tails, who explode at him. Extremely angry at the Black Hedgehog's lack of response. Shadow growled and proceeded to dump the babies on them. One in each hand, into the arms of both Tails and Rouge. He had taken both twins. Now we were awake. Our bright, shining emerald green eyes glinting in the lights above them. We looked at everyone very confused, but we're not upset in any way. Soon we noticed each other and giggling, we try to grab one another, across the gap between Tails and Rouge. Silence. Tails gulped, staring from one twin to the other. He had no idea, and he, of all people, should have known. He'd known me the longest. But I had never mentioned I had a brother, or that we were twins. I didn't tell because at that time I genuinely didn't know. Things change very much during the course of these events. But which was which? We were both identical. The only difference was that one twin was slightly larger then the other, obviously the first-born, but that was it.

The trio panic. Two babies was not part of the plan, and immediately had to organise accommodation for everyone to look after us. Soon we were in a small apartment, having bought everything we needed and as it turns out, caring for two very active babies was a full time job for three. Shadow, Rouge and Tails didn't talk. They were all still very stunned at the situation. But Shadow was determined to work out which was which. We looked the same. Hell, we even smelled the same. Incredibly unusual in Sapient culture. Scent was a enormous part of the interactions between Sapients, and to have two with the same scent never happened. But the twins were babies, it was properly a survival mechanism, and maybe as adults their scents would change.

But there had to be something that told us apart. Shadow was lounging in one of the sofas, bottle feeding one of the twins, no idea which one, when he felt pain in his arm. He gashed it quite badly escaping from the hospital, and it was now hurting him. The baby, upon finishing his bottle, seemed to notice and puts his tiny hands out towards Shadow's injury. Suddenly bright blue luminescent vaporous hue exploded from the infant's fingers in the form of the most concentrated Chaos Energy Shadow had ever felt or seen. It raced towards the gash and before he could react, it had been healed instantly. The blue hue immediately dissipating. Suddenly, the other twin, whom Tails had been feeding, the other end of the sofa, suddenly jumped out of his arms and starts rolling around the floor, very fast indeed. They were all stunned. Now they knew which was which. Rouge wanted over to Shadow, and my brother, the first-born, who was still happily giggling in the Black Hedgehog's lap. She smiled at the baby.

Who are you?

Tails had been researching between care duties, both in their current timeline and the one they had left. There was absolutely nothing on my brother. Only a time written on my birth certificate gave any indication that he even existed. No records whatsoever. As though he'd just vanished into thin air, straight after his birth. As for me not telling. If the twins were separated at birth, then the I may not have known. Which at the time, I didn't.

Now the trio were very worried, as the baby snuggled into Shadow's lap, finding him very soothing and calming. What happened to him? Does he survive the future? Shadow suspected not and even though he been very annoyed that there were two Blue idiot Hedgehogs, my brother was so vastly different from me, power-wise, that he felt obliged to do something. But what? He had no idea but with powers like those, my brother deserved a chance. Tails and Rouge agreed. But how? They had no information at all on what happens to the twins between the two time lines. Only what Tails know from what I had told him from my memories. But that doesn't help my brother, as he wasn't present during my early childhood, before he met Tails, and the Fox knew nothing. But what do they do with the twins. Tails had found no parents, as we were at the hospital as we had been recently been found abandoned. We couldn't be returned there. Eggman had destroyed most of the place, was now being repaired but thankfully no one had been killed.

They had to get Eggman's Time Portal and him back to their own time. Forcible, if necessary. Shadow had noticed that while he was at the hospital, the human appeared to be on his Eggmobile and nothing else. No accompanying robots and any other weaponry. It meant that the Time Portal was on Eggman's person somewhere, and to Shadow, made the job a lot easier. It was going to be him verses one human and his flying machine. Suddenly Tails handheld device went nuts. Alarming and beeping all over the place. Eggman was hacking it. He's found them. Horrified, they realise that they have to leave, now. With Shadow and Rouge grabbing a twin each and Tails leading the way, we fled. We ran until Tails was certain Eggman had lost our signal and we then found a place to hunker down. But it was not ideal to take care of two babies. In fact, it was very poor.

Now the twins lives were at stake. They had to end this and fast. Shadow growled. He'd become incredibly fond of my brother, very quickly, during the very short time they had been together, as the little me had been permanently all over Tails. He found the baby had struck a serious cord with him. He had the same cool, calm demeanour as himself, the complete opposite to me. Yet he still processed the same absolutely pure heart. The one thing Shadow found utterly annoying about me. The Black Hedgehog saw himself in my brother. He wondered if this was what he would have been like if Gerald hadn't turned him pure evil. But he had a heart, even if it was as cold, dark and hard as he was. Unlike that filthy human.

Shadow fully understood where Eggman was coming from with this plan. To kill me before I became the unstoppable monster for good, was a work of genius, but to kill me as an infant. That was where it crossed the line with Shadow. He was a professional assassin. He killed people for a living, but never, ever children. Maria was a child when she was killed, and the mere thought of taking a life so young, completely unable to defend themselves, was more then the Black Hedgehog could bare.

He looked down the my brother in his arms. What of his powers? Shadow still didn't know or understand what happened. He truly believed he produced the most concentrated Chaos Energy possible and yet he'd got badly trumped by a baby. Plus this was no ordinary Chaos Energy, Shadow could feel it. It was the wildest he had ever felt. So wild and so unpredictable that Shadow had no idea how the baby was able to control it to heal him. Healing using Chaos Energy was entirely possible, but the gift was exceptionally rare. So rare, in fact, that Shadow had never witnessed it before today.

This utterly fascinated him, and was keen to learn more, but as he stood there carrying the infant, he truly feared for his survival. The fact that he'd vanished into thin air, with absolutely no trace, terrified Shadow. What caused it? Was he killed? He genuinely didn't know. But Eggman was getting desperate. Time was not on our side. The Time Portals were only prototype technology. Tails had no idea how long they would last. Would they still be able to go home again if they stayed in the past for too long. Considering they didn't know how long was too long, they needed to do something and quickly. Then Tails had an idea. If Eggman could hack him, then maybe the Fox could counter-hack him back. Working franticly at his device, Tails growled and then finally, a beacon sounding heralded his success.

Found him.

Shadow took a deep breath, and gave my brother to the Fox. He growled. Time to end this. His way. He'd had enough, and his temper had been beginning to flare. Neither of the other two argued. Immediately, he sped off into the distance. Eggman was very easy to track down. Tails' coordinates were spot one, and he found the human in the main square. He was frantically searching, hovering between every house, for the baby Blue Hedgehog. Singular. Shadow smirked. Not even Eggman know. It seemed absolutely nobody knew. The human was so preoccupied that he didn't notice Shadow's almighty Super-Speed Triple Super-Spin attack. Silent and beautifully executed, it sent him and his Eggmobile flying. Eggman crashed landed on the ground but the Eggmobile was airborne again in seconds. Suddenly a second hit, sending the machine crashing into a wall, the human's bones breaking. This was unusually aggressive for Shadow, but the Black Hedgehog now was in full temper. The human was not having the twins. Me, he wasn't too bothered about, but my brother, meant something. He wanted to give that incredible kid a chance. He charged at the human again, and with a third hit, completely ruptured the Eggmobile. In pieces on the floor, Eggman grounded. Shadow immediately backed off for final hit, and Eggman realised that if he didn't move soon, Shadow would kill him. He was well aware that the Black Hedgehog was capable of killing, having witnessed it first hand, and realised he was now way out of his depth.

Though he was very surprised that Shadow cared so much about the me. Not the case, but Eggman didn't know that. Regardless, Eggman needed to leave, now. He grabbed the Time Portal from the broken Eggmobile and realised that it too was badly damaged. Only enough power for one one-way trip. Time to go home. He activated it just as Shadow attacked and Eggman promptly found himself being catapulted through the opening Time Portal, crash landing the other side, to yet more broken bones, and the Time Portal device shattering on impact. He wasn't going to be rebuilding that again. Eggman found time travel too complicated and far too painful, and vowed to himself to never get on the wrong side of that Black Hedgehog's temper again. He was going to take months to heal.

Shadow watched the human leave, and upon seeing the Time Portal device shattering, he was finally satisfied. Eggman wasn't coming back. He knew the human, surprising well. He knew how he ticked, and knew how much he absolutely despised pain. Shadow knew if he was aggressive enough with him, he permanently put Eggman off time travel. The two dozen broken bones should be painful enough for that. He smirked. He was evil, but he also had a heart, and found himself thinking back to my brother as he'd tracked down the others, who had moved to a better and more secure location.

The baby Blue Hedgehog, my brother, was absolutely delighted to see him again, whereas I was super-excitedly licking a very annoyed Tails to death. Neither he nor Rouge approved of Shadow's method of getting rid of Eggman. It was absolutely brutal, but it got the job done. Now that the twins were safe. But what do they do with us? We couldn't go back to the hospital, it was still a building site. Tails did more research and found a orphanage who had space to take the twins. Shadow growled. One of the twins. I was going there, but Shadow had his own ideas about my brother. Both Rouge and Tails objected. Splitting up the twins wasn't a good idea.

But Shadow stood his ground. He knew I would be safe, wherever they left me. I was that kind of Hedgehog, a surviver, but my brother was different and Shadow suspected he needed more specialist care. Someone able to hone those incredible powers of his. Shadow had been thinking back through his memories and remembered something Knuckles the Echidna had said. He'd mentioned some time ago that when he was growing up, he wasn't alone but was raised by his Great-grandfather Athair. Knuckles himself, who at this point in time, would only be an infant. If Athair could give my brother a head start, even if not raising himself, but passing him on to someone who could, it was the best chance the baby Hedgehog was going to get.

Tails and Rouge both sighed and eventually agreed. They too had both been fascinated by my brother, and they too wanted to give him a chance to survive. They were messing a little with time here, but to save someone's life, it had to be for the better. However, they were not messing with my timeline. They were incredible careful of that, as it was me who brought them all together. Soon they went their separate ways. Tails and Rouge taking me to the orphanage and Shadow to Angel Island, with my small yet incredible baby Blue Hedgehog brother. Sneaking into the orphanage was easy enough, but leaving me in there, without me following them out, was actually quite difficult. I cried. I balled my eyes out at them. I really didn't want them to go, and in the end, it took a beautiful and very soothing lullaby from Rouge to finally get me to go to sleep. They laid me in one of the cots they found there. Tails cried as they left, but Rouge reassured him, they were doing the right thing. He'd see me again and I hopefully be none the wiser.

Shadow sped across the land looking for Angel Island. The floating Island was easy to locate for him. It's enormous Chaos signature from the Master Emerald made it super easy to find, but getting up there, however, was going to take some sideways thinking. Normally he's Chaos Control up there, but he had no Chaos Emerald. Tails had decided, and he'd very much agreed, that time travelling with a Chaos Emerald going to cause some serious major imbalances in the Chaos Energy. The balance relied on seven Chaos Emeralds being present on Mobius at any given point in time, and to remove or add an Emerald through time travel could potentially be a catastrophe. It just wasn't worth it, so they left them all behind.

Shadow jumped, pounced and somersaulted all the way up to the Angel Island. It was hard work and when he finally landed on the Island, his precious bundle had fallen asleep on him, purring into his chest fur. Shadow looked at him. He was so still, so calm. I never did that, way to active, and yet my brother's body hummed as he slept in Shadow's arms. He was amazed, he could feel the Chaos Energy in the infant. Huge quantities of it. Such power should be feared and Shadow was left wondering if he was doing the right thing. But he was the brother of me, Sonic the Hedgehog. Someone famous for doing the right thing and Shadow truly believed that the brother was capable was equally great things.

Exploring Angel Island, Shadow quickly found the small humble wooden hut the Echidnas lived in, and in the darkness, looked for a place for leave the baby Blue Hedgehog. He found a basket and place my brother in it. He didn't even wake up. Peering in through the door, Shadow saw a rather young Athair rocking a newborn Knuckles to sleep. It was both cute and bizarre at the same time. Seeing his comrades against Eggman as babies had been an experience and really reflected on him just how old he was, and how he really needed to be less grumpy with all of us. As silently as a mouse, he slid the baby Hedgehog in the basket though the door, along the floor so the he was just inside. Now Shadow knew my brother was now guaranteed to be found, and immediately left. All he could now do was pray that my brother would make it. Jumping off the Island and landing hard, he sped through the countryside. Eventually he finally rejoined Tails and Rouge and together they reactivated the Time Portals. They machines were buzzing horrendously, and Tails suspected at if they stayed longer, they wouldn't have been able to return home.

The journey home was very unpleasant. Nowhere near as smooth as their journey out and soon after landing in their own time, the Time Portals began to collapse. They made it home, just. Once Tails was absolutely sure that they had the correct point in time, he smashed what was left of the Time Portal device and destroyed all his work so it could never be used again.

Everything appeared to be normal. I was my usual cocky self, completely unaware of their trip, no memories whatsoever and when Tails checked the data base, all of my records remained exactly the same. They had succeeded. But it wasn't me, Rouge, Tails and Shadow were interested in. It was my brother. Tails checked the records. Nothing. No medical records, no address, nothing. What? Stunned into silence yet again. It was as though they had never even travelled back in time. Months of searching found nothing. Many years went by and the trio has almost forgotten about the whole incident. Several world wars with Eggman, had pushed all thoughts of my mysterious brother out of all their minds. But a very recent incident involving myself had rekindled those memories back into the Black Hedgehog. The reveal.

Shadow was standing in the shadows of the cold, dark, damp night outside. It was only in grief did Shadow ever shed tears. He'd cried over my brother. But having what he'd just recently witnessed. He genuinely didn't know what to think. But then he felt it. The Chaos Energy. So unique that it was what made a certain baby Blue Hedgehog so special. Shadow turned around to a figure standing before him he can barely see. He wore knee high dark brown and beige patterned leather boots, with no socks and grey soles. He had a pair of white gloves with silver bracelets, over the thin cuffs on his hands. Cool, calm, his royal Blue quills now getting drenched in the rain.

He didn't care and upon seeing my brother, Shadow found himself in a deep embrace with him. My brother delighted to have finally found the mysterious Black Hedgehog who saved his life. He remembered him. His unusual Chaos signature. It both feared and fascinated him, and only recently did my brother put two and two together. Yes, he made it. As Shadow hugged the Blue Hedgehog, he took in a deep breath of his scent. It definitely wasn't me, and Shadow found himself eager to know more about him, and why he just couldn't find him. Now an extremely powerful Sorcerer, able to wield Chaos Sorcery, Magic, like no other, he'd disappeared off the face of the planet because the King of Stealth is not easy to find and that was exactly how the he liked it. Shadow smirked. He liked this Hedgehog and now knew he'd done the right thing. But he frowned. He knew a great deal about this Hedgehog, except for one thing. His name...Sukko!"

Sonic sighed at story's end. Two sleeping children on his lap and one very annoyed wife, staring at him. She totally didn't believe him. It was the most far fetched story she'd heard in her life, and stormed off into their tent. Sonic smirked, he'd be paying for that one, but it was totally worth it. The story was entirely true because he wasn't going to dare contradict the mighty Black Hedgehog who told it him. He really did save Sukko's life. Before his intervention, Sukko had been killed as a infant, hence the sudden disappearance. But Shadow leaving Sukko with the Echidna's changed everything, and during our childhood, the me and Sukko found each other, completely changing the course of the fight against Eggman. Peace reigned because of Shadow, not Sukko, not realising that saving one life would make such a difference. A single act of kindness that saved the world.