This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 6: To Run in another Man's Shoes
Twenty minutes later, Geoffrey and Shadow returned to Knothole with the former's troops; by now, everyone had heard about the appearance of the black hedgehog in battle, and the destruction of Robotnik's robots. They had also heard of the casualties suffered, and many of them were gearing up to treat the wounded.
When the party returned, they were swarmed by the residents who seemed to have renewed vigor since Shadow had last passed through. The severely wounded were laid out on the ground and the more or less healthy ones sat down on tree stumps and chairs provided by the populace. The doctor went to examine each one, and princess Sally headed towards the skunk and the hedgehog with a few others in tow, including the strange fox.
"Geoffrey! S…" Sally stopped herself before she accidentally called out the wrong name.
"Shadow, miss Sally."
"Oh, yes, Shadow." Sally was almost blushing at how she was about to call him "Sonic".
"I understand that you helped our troops defeat Robotnik's robots."
Geoffrey responded. "Actually, your highness, he took them all out himself."
Tails jumped up. "Wow! That's incredible! How'd you do it?"
"Just a gift I have."
"Well, I hope you don't mind lending us your aid. But if you don't… I'll understand."
Before he answered, Shadow noticed the doctor checking the troops. "You'll have to excuse me, your highness, but I have something to check on. I'll be back shortly."
Shadow bowed, and scooted off towards the doctor.
"Doc!"
The duck looked back at him. "Ah, it's you again. It's quite the story they're telling about you."
"Yeah, yeah. How is she?"
"She's much better, and breathing on her own. The last I saw she was still asleep, but you can check on her."
Shadow raced to the hospital, and to Bunnie's room. Inside, she was sleeping, just as the doctor had said. Shadow moved to the side of the bed to look at her face, cute, almost cuddly, and totally ignorant of what had recently transpired. Looking at her stirred a strange feeling in the dark hedgehog, a warm feeling, like taking a relaxing bath in lukewarm water. He heard the commotion outside as several of the wounded were bring brought inside, so he started to leave. But the noise also woke the sleeping rabbit.
"Mmm… Shadow?"
Shadow turned. "You O.K.?"
"Yeah, what happened? Mah memory is a bit foggy, there were these robots and…"
"Just rest, we'll talk in the morning."
"Shadow." In the door was the doctor.
"Doc?"
"I'm sorry, but she won't be able to stay here, we've got too many wounded here to keep them all in the hospital."
"Then where is there room for her?"
Geoffrey came up behind the doctor. "You and she can stay in the barracks, we've lost a lot of people so there are plenty of beds."
Shadow grumbled. "Great, I'm here in place of one dead man, and about to sleep in the bed of another."
"Excuse me?"
Shadow snapped back to reality. "Oh, sorry about that. Just a little dazed by this whole scenario."
Shadow walked over to Bunnie. "We've got to move, they'll have another place for us to sleep."
Bunnie yawned. "Where?"
"You just sleep, I'll worry about that."
Shadow reached down and picked up the rabbit.
"Wait, isn't that yah necklace, and where's the jewel?"
"You can have it if you want; it's served its purpose."
Bunnie took the necklace that was now missing the oversized gemstone.
Shadow continued out the door and followed Geoffrey to the barracks. As they walked through the small woodland village, the black hedgehog got a number of stares. Especially attentive to them, were the eyes of Sally, who watched the mysterious stranger carrying the younger rabbit.
In the barracks, basically a series of caves dug into the ground, Shadow and Bunnie were brought to the sleeping quarters, nothing more than a series of large chambers, each with around two dozen beds and matching lockers. They eventually found themselves at two unoccupied beds that Geoffrey led them to. Shadow laid Bunnie on one, then took the necklace from her hands, and placed it on a nearby night table. He then took the other bed.
A few of the other beds were occupied, and couple more had people surrounding them, preparing for their slumber. A couple of the normal residents had come over to thank or congratulate Shadow for his accomplishment. Shadow was a bit annoyed when someone accidentally referred to him as "Sonic", but found the overall barrage of questions and comments to be far more annoying than the slip of the tongue.
Eventually, Shadow had a visitor. Sally had walked down the rows of beds, receiving salutes from anyone still awake, until she reached Shadow, who was sleeping on his stomach. She looked over to see if he was asleep or not.
"No, I'm not asleep." Shadow rolled to his side. "Your highness."
"Please, just call me Sally."
"That I believe would get on the nerves of Geoffrey."
Sally smiled a bit; the first time he ever saw any such thing come from her face. "Yeah, I guess it would. So, will you be staying with us?"
"I suppose, I really don't have anywhere to go."
Sally sat down on the bed in front of Shadow, with Bunnie sleeping behind him. "So tell me, who is she?"
"Her name's Bunnie. I met her a few days ago when I accidentally found myself in her carrot patch. She was being hassled by some of those robots this morning; that's how she ended up like this."
"Poor girl."
"If you don't mind my saying so, but 'poor you' might be more appropriate."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Bunnie will be fine, but you. You've been very depressed lately. Now I don't claim to know you since I first saw you only a couple of days ago, but at the funeral, you were definitely the most heart broken."
"It was that obvious, huh?"
"I know what despair is like."
"I loved him, I so desperately wanted this war to be over and for us to be together. But that won't happen now." Sally wiped away a tear from her face.
"That is a pain that I only felt for a brief moment, and it wasn't as intense at what you feel, but it hit me hard. I can't even fathom what you are going through."
Sally didn't say anything for a few minutes.
"It's so hard to let go. I don't know if I can go on."
"You have to, if you don't nobody else will."
Sally sat up and was preparing to leave. "I know, a princess must think of her people before herself. But that doesn't make it any easier."
"No it doesn't, but you're off to a good enough start."
"How do you mean?"
Shadow smirked. "Earlier, you didn't call me 'Sonic'."
Deep in Robotropolis, Dr. Robotnik had taken much interest in the newcomer.
"Computer, display all collected data on the subject 'H49' and compare to all data on subject 'Sonic'."
"Processing."
In front of the doctor's hovering chair, two large screens flashed the requested information. The left showed an image of Shadow from his rumble at Bunnie's patch; the right showed full details on the more familiar hedgehog, Sonic.
"There is still limited information on subject 'H49'." was the response from the computer.
"Ignore, examine all known data and compare, taking into consideration that both are of the same species, and give me a result."
"Subject 'H49' has an unknown variant not present in subject 'Sonic' that is not identifiable as anything of this world. Overall comparison of available data on both subjects, ignoring similarities of being same species, shows a match of 98.3%."
"What? 98.3%? Unless they were brothers or something, such a match would be virtually impossible. Just my luck, I finally defeat my greatest foe, and another takes his place; even worse, one who is almost identical, with a new and unique power."
Robotnik examined the picture of his new adversary. "Most disturbing."
Elsewhere, Shadow's feat had been noticed by one more. In the trees surrounding the previous battlefield, Rouge sat on a high branch in a total stupor.
"What the Hell is he?"
