Disclaimers: I don't own Sonic or Knuckles or Shadow or Tails or any of the gang. They all belong to Sega. *Sobs* Tis not fair I tell you!

Warnings: Um... Some strangeness ahead..... Be prepared.... AU, angst and misplaced humour…

Archive: Wanna give it a home....? ^__^ (Though I'd appreciate if you'd tell me first.)

Rating: PG-13… for violence, minor swearing maybe and all around strangeness.

Summary: Sonic the hedgehog is dead. Only he's not quite ready to move on. In fact, he's downright Hell bent on having his revenge on Robotnik, but he needs the Freedom Fighter's help to do it…

This chapter is too long. Sorry about that. O_o;;

For 'Formerly Known As' – because can this author write? Better than me? By far.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG; AFTER LIFE, By Orin.

Chapter 1:

This Is Not The Life I Ordered!

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"Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off."

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Y'know, people talk about having the 'worst day of their life' and you usually think of somebody missing their train to work, having to cope with an irate boss, or not meeting a deadline, or being chased by a squadron of badass badniks, or losing someone they cared about. Even a combination of all of the above…

My worst day consisted of me dying.

I mean really, there's no way a day can get any worse that dying. Heck, I'd like to see someone top it.

I mentioned before how I can't remember exactly what happened that killed me. And I can't, though I can guess. It's entirely fuzzy at the moment, but that may just be because I haven't even been dead all that long. Maybe my brain doesn't want to remember it. I know it must've been a traumatic experience. I'm not sure I even want to remember.

I didn't see… I never actually felt the impact of the blaster. But I do remember rolling over and looking up. Then I blacked out I think. Then I died.

It was easy to pretend nothing happened, because when I woke up, I was in Knothole again. I didn't question how I got there, because I'd woken up enough times not knowing what the Hell was going on. I just went with it. I'm a deep sleeper too, it's hard to wake me up once I'm out, and it's pretty normal for me to just lie there after I have woken up, wondering what planet I'm on. If it's still Mobius.

And I know this sounds weird, but I'll bet you didn't know what when you're dead first, that it can take a bit for that fact to register. Maybe it's denial, I dunno, but I spent the first few hours of that morning after my death just wandering about wondering why the heck everyone was so Hell-bent on ignoring me. Because that's another irritating factor about being dead that no-body bothered to tell me.

Nobody that's living can actually see the dead. Or, at least I haven't found any. I think that part sucks most. I mean, who am I supposed to talk to for say, the rest of, eternity?

I don't know if God ever factored that little detail when he programmed death into mortality. If God exists even. If he does, then I have a few bones to pick with the guy. Think about it, what kind of reward is death after you've spent the best ten years of your life fighting oppression and all-round evil? Something stinks here, and it's not just my corpse…

I just realised how disgusting that is. Even for me.

It's not even correct. I've only been dead for about a day, so technically, there hasn't been the time for it to – okay. Changing to subject now. And besides, I've seen the body, and as bad as it looks, it ain't decomposing yet.

Heh.

Yeah, I saw myself.

Only I'm not gonna think of 'it' as 'me'… I'm gonna think of  'me' as 'it' instead, or 'The Body' because that's easier to deal with. I don't think - or wanna think of that guy lying out in that coffin with those bruise marks on his face as me… I don't think I can.

I'm actually gonna change the subject now.

So, basically I spent the entire morning being confused and generally peeved that everyone was managing to ignore me. And not only that, but they were being downright depressing in doing so. Everybody seemed to be just moping about, heads hanging. Nobody was speaking at all. Sal was silent, I remember waving my hands in front of her face, not to have her even blink. Of course, I know now that it was because she couldn't see my hands at all. But it didn't change the fact that when Bunny –uncanny-like– echoed my move a few seconds later, Sally just continued to stare. And I know Bunny isn't dead.

So far I'm the only dead and kinda peeved spirit wandering around Knothole, looking for something to do. Because, yeah. I'm getting kinda bored.

And I don't know if 'spirit' or 'ghost' is more politically correct by the way. But spirit sounds cooler.

So, I thought everyone was ignoring me, and the whole thing wasn't making me a happy camper in the slightest. Sal didn't even twitch an ear when I shouted at her. Bunny was just the same. Antoine ignored me when I goaded him – and he's never managed that before.

Tails was…

I didn't understand then why he was crying. I just knew that my reassuring wasn't helping at all. No matter what I said, what I did… He just kept making those trembling sobbing noises.

Knuckles was there too, in Knothole, but I stayed away from him. I didn't even try and talk to that guy. He ignores me on a normal day; there was no way I could get him to chat to me if everyone else had chosen to take a page out of his book.

He is the master at ignoring. Besides, I've… never seen Knuckles look like that either. Not depressed per se… But he was moody to say the least. I watched him for a little bit.  He sat alone, over at the village edge. Everybody was avoiding him, that much was obvious.

He seemed sad as well, not like Sally, and not even close to Tails, but I've seen enough lack-of-expression on him to know major sad when it's there. If I had gone over and waved my arms around trying to get his attention, and if he had actually seen me… Not only would I haven't had the first clue of what to say, but I'd probably have looked like an ass besides.

And I really wouldn't have known what to say, not when Red was acting all broody and grief-stricken. Because, just for the record – Red doesn't 'do' grief stricken. As I said, I'd just have made an idiot out of myself.

So, I gave the echidna a wide berth. But I wandered just about everywhere else. And that was when things began to get kinda strange. I know, I know, as if dying and not exactly being dead-dead isn't strange enough, but what happened next was weird on a level I never knew existed.

Did I mention I'm the master at denial? People say that when you don't want to acknowledge something, but you know, deep down, that it's real and it's now and it's happening, you just lather on the denial like peanut-butter. I did that. I saw everyone being all weepy, and didn't understand. I heard them talk about me like I was dead, and shouted that I wasn't. I saw myself… And pretended that I didn't.

This was while I was wandered into the central area of Knothole. It turned out that everybody was gathered there for… the burial. My burial. The burial of 'The Body' that is. And I should have been in the very furthest corner of Knothole at this stage, far away where I couldn't see any of the guys cry or stare blankly into space like they'd been doing all morning. That's what I should have done.

It's easy to pretend.

That it wasn't me lying out in that coffin. Just me. The bruises that they hadn't been able to cover up so well, or the fact that my face and head were pretty much a mess anyway. It was easier to pretend that body wasn't me.  And it worked like a charm, for a while. But even I couldn't hold off reality forever. I'm not perfect y'know. Pretty close to, but not quite.

Then they buried me.

I think it just kinda hit me then. I was dead. I was actually dead. An honest-to-God corpse…  And they were putting me in the ground; my life wasn't even over, Damnit! They were burying me already and I wasn't even dead! Eighteen years to become who I am, and all of eighteen minutes to disappear forever.

I was gonna do all kinds of neat stuff with my life too, once Robotnik was gone. I was gonna go to the south coast for a year and do nothing but surf the waves. I was finally gonna get the nerve to give Sally the best kiss she'd ever get- I was gonna… People were gonna forget I was here. That I'd even existed. I was gonna-

Only I wasn't going to do any of that stuff. And I had to get out of there before I broke down completely.

So that found me sitting on an old tree stump, just outside of Knothole about thirty minutes later. Like a baby, trying not to cry. And it was right about then, the strangeness went right up there to not possible.

I heard someone pass by, stop, walk closer. I stared at my feet. And they got closer.  And closer, until they stopped again. By this time I'd realised that I was alone. Really alone. That nobody could see me, hear me. But I said it anyway.

"Go to Hell."

It didn't make me feel any better.

 "Too late, Sonic."

Of course, my head snapped up so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash. And then I stared. I stared because I got a reply, when it was the last thing I expected. I stared at the reference of 'we' because it meant more than one and that meant I wasn't alone. I stared at the crimson on black, and those red, red eyes. I stared at the ridiculous white tuft of fur on that chest, those shoes I'd always really liked. I stared at him. I stared at-

"Shadow…?"

No reaction. He just stood there, looking pretty good for someone dead nearly a year. His form wavered slightly, but he looked solid enough. I nearly wanted to hug the guy to make sure. Nearly. He didn't cast a shadow though. But then, neither did I.

"You're alive!?"

Shadow raised an eyeridge, but didn't say anything. A second later, I realised why.

"Uh- not alive… I mean…"

God, I sounded like an idiot.

"You're uh… here," because I still wouldn't say dead, "Like me."

He nodded. Go me; I got a nod from the intractable Shadow. Yay. Made my day let me tell you. But sarcasm aside, he really wasn't being all that helpful with not saying anything at all. Nothing, not even a-

"Hey."

I blinked. He had nodded at me, lowered that condescending eyeridge and had actually said hello. Or something close to. Okay, I know it's kinda sad, but that made me feel really good. Like I'd actually accomplished something worthwhile. Something I could tell my kids someday about, that I had made Shadow be friendly. Kind of.

Only… I keep forgetting. Dead now. No kids. Not ever.

And because Shadow was looking at me, I gave him a little wave, realising I had just spaced out. "Hey," I said back.

What? If he wasn't gonna put in the effort…

He just looked at me. I just looked right back. There followed one of those silences where you really wish you had something witty or engaging to say, when really, all your teeny tiny brain was drawing with was a big fat blank. I was calm, only it was the calm of a duck. Y'know, all peaceful on the surface but paddling like hell underneath?

Luckily for me, Shadow didn't seem bothered by my silence. He just looked… kinda bored actually. Like he was here, but he really had better places to be. I tried not to get huffed when that thought occurred to me. Failed of course.

"So, I'm here and you're here and that's great an' all," I sounded sulky… I know I did, and hurried on, "But I don't know why I'm here." I gave him a pointed look, felt a little better for it. "Or why you're here." Just to highlight my point, I tapped my foot.

Shadow gave me my answer without missing a beat.

"I'm your guide," was what he said. Those words exactly.

Right.

And that brings me to where I am now. Right now. Standing, staring at the only other being that still knows of my continued existence. Who also happens to be dead.

Did I mention that this is getting really strange?

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*To Be Continued…*

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Sonic; "Shadow?"

Orin; "Uh... Yeah."

Sonic; "You could've picked anybody else – though not really – but, c'mon, Shadow?"

Orin; O__o;; "Yeah."

Sonic; "I mean… Shadow!?"

Orin; ¬_¬ "Yeah…?"

Sonic; "You're loving this aren't you."

Orin; ^_________^ "Yeah."

Again, apologies for this, it was kinda longer than expected, and for the typos I know must still be there somewhere. More soon.

*Huggles & Take Care*

Orin.