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 2: From Nightmares into Dreams
In the depths of darkness, a place where light has no permission to exist, where sound is nothing but endless echoes, came something that violated both laws.
POW!
Shadow was blasted back several metres through the void. With no ground, or anything else, he simply tumbled through the empty space. Looking up, he saw his opponent.
"Chaos Spear!"
A sharp beam of light fired from the hedgehog's hands, heading straight for the dark spectre before him, but he vanished before being smitten by the beam.
Shadow looked around, trying to determine where Void would reappear, most likely behind. Shadow turned as best he could and fired another spear, this one deflecting the dark blast from his alien creator. Void disappeared again, leaving Shadow alone to try and guess his next move. This was where Shadow was at a disadvantage; in the void, there was nothing to push against, so running was not possible unless he used the Master Emerald's power. He was stuck. Void on the other hand could teleport around, allowing him full movement in the emptiness.
His mind was racing when he heard the oncoming blast. Shadow turned to try to block it, but barely had the chance to do so. The beam impacted, hurtling Shadow through the darkness.
"This may be your home, but you certainly don't seem to have the home field advantage, do you?"
{How I'd like to get my hands on that freak and give him a good one-two. I bet he has a glass jaw to go with those eyes.}
Void appeared above Shadow, if there was such a thing as above in this place and fired again. Shadow saw it and somehow contorted to avoid it.
{Damn! If I could only use the Master Emerald, I could go toe-to-toe with this guy. But if I do, I'm stuck here. And if I try to teleport out, what's to stop this guy from coming after me again. Either way, even if I get home, what do I do about Robotnik?}
Shadow looked around as Void teleported again. Twisting around, Shadow tried to locate the menace, only finding him when he fired off another dark blast. Shadow responded with his Chaos Spear that managed to stop the oncoming attack, but only just in time. Shadow found himself alone again. Again he scanned the darkness for his nemesis of the moment, and found him only a foot behind him.
He had no chance to dodge, block or counter. Void's attack hit him at full power, and the hedgehog was sent tumbling through space.
{How the Hell do I beat this guy?}
Shadow kept falling into the nothingness, his mind filling with confusing thoughts, his false family, his true friends, the darkness of his soul, and the evil he was fighting.
{If I had a place to stand, I could beat this jerk.}
He could do nothing, Void had him totally outmatched and overpowered. In this place, Shadow was a fish out of water. He tumbled even more, he was disoriented even more, and then he stopped.
Shadow snapped out of his stupor and looked down; his feet had hit something, something solid. Though he couldn't see it, he was standing on something as firm as stone. From the depths, he could hear a small voice echo in his mind.
{You now have all you need. Go forth, and fight the darkness.}
Shadow stood strong and firm on the invisible platform, and looked up. Above him, Void fired at him again. With a sneer across his lips, Shadow took off, just missing the black energy. He could feel the power given to him by the Master Emerald, running faster than the wind, he moved faster than he ever had before; faster than his phase run, faster than the Chaos Control, faster than he, Sonic, or anyone before had raced.
Void was stupefied when he saw the white streak flying though the night, somehow that hedgehog had gained the ability to move in this barren place; he moved fast, and he was heading this way. Void tried to throw Shadow off with a few more energy bolts, but as each approached, the white streak performed a quick step in one direction or the other to avoid.
Shadow had no idea what he was running on, it was simply something that existed in the darkness, or masked by the darkness. The path before him curled and warped in seemingly every direction at once, but it was taking him towards his goal. Shadow wasn't sure, but he couldn't tell if the path was leading him to Void, or if the path was bending to his will to take him where he wanted to go; It didn't matter, he was going where he wanted.
The black and white hedgehog was getting too close, and Void teleported away as the streak passed by. Void reappeared a fair distance away, but upon looking back, he could see that Shadow's direction had already changed and was well on his way. He took a few more shots as the oncoming meteor.
The path at Shadow's feet shifted, lifting him above the projectiles. Pushing forward with his arms, Shadow fired his Chaos Spear at the tyrant. Void dodged, and Shadow fired again. Void teleported away. Although Shadow couldn't see him, the path twisted again, and Shadow found himself heading in a totally new direction; before him, Void reappeared.
"You can't hide from me!"
"How? How are you doing this?!"
Void fired a few more times, each one avoided like the last. When Shadow again closed in, Void vanished.
Shadow had enough of this game. When the path turned again, he didn't need it; he could feel Void, and knew exactly where he was. Leaving the security of the path, he combined the Master Control with his phase run and teleported. As if it was planned to the very detail, the path was also there and his feet again found something solid. He looked before him, waiting a fraction of a second as Void reappeared. The dark one turned to see Shadow lunging at him.
His fist hit hard, smashing into the middle of Void's face, knocking him back. Before he could recover, Shadow appeared behind him, and struck him at the back of the head with an elbow. Lurching forward, Void was caught again as Shadow reappeared below him, throwing a flying uppercut to his gut. Shadow quickly followed it with a drop kick on Void's back.
Void had been left a battered mess by now, but Shadow had one more hit coming. The hedgehog appeared in front of Void with both hands clamped together; swinging his whole body, he crashed both fists into Void's head, catapulting him through the emptiness. As he flailed, the body of Void slowly faded, like it had disappeared from existence; and with him went the darkness.
Shadow landed, only this time he could see what was at his feet, grass. He looked around and found himself in a beautiful pasture, no trace of Void or his darkness were to be seen.
"Hello."
Shadow turned with a jolt. "Who are you?"
The only remaining dark creature looked at the newcomer. She was most unusual; at least he thought that she was female. Dressed in pink with pure white wings, the stranger simply floated there, wearing a big smile.
"That was very impressive."
"Thanks. Wait, you were the voice I heard."
"That right! My name is Lumina, and I came to help you."
"So you created that path for me."
"I didn't have to, it was there the whole time; all you really needed was to remember how to use it, you did come from the Void after all. I mean 'the Void' the place, not 'Void' the person."
"Void mentioned you, you were the one who brought Sonic here."
"That's right. I needed a hero to combat Void when he tried to conquer Maginaryworld, and Sonic was ready and able."
"So, just what is this place, anyway?"
"It is the land of dreams, all of the good dreams that people have live here. Void represents darkness and is the despair in people's hearts and minds. He cannot be defeated by physical force, but by faith in the self. Once you believed in yourself, he could no longer control you, and you could defeat him, with a little help from me of course."
"So he's not gone."
"No, but that is the way it always is; you can never fully destroy despair, nor can you fully destroy hope, until all comes to an end. Therefore, there will always be Void, and there will always be me."
Shadow was only vaguely coherent of what Lumina was saying. "You say this is the land of dreams."
"Yes, you were born here, of Void's dreams of revenge, this is your real home. Come with me, I will show you."
Shadow followed Lumina for some time, though the hours passed like seconds, like looking back through memories of time passed.
"Do you see it?"
Shadow looked down, in the middle of the pasture a trio had set up a small picnic.
"It's your family, Shadow, the one that Void had created for you; here, they are as real as you are. Shadow, it is your choice, you have been given a physical form by Void, so you can choose. You can rejoin the family that you remember, or the family that you found. You can stay here, or I can return you to Knothole."
"Can I have a moment?"
"Of course, in the land of dreams, you can have whatever you want."
Shadow headed out to the field, silently approaching the family of three.
Shadow stood not far from the picnicking family; not wanting to interfere, but still wanting to get a closer look. The father of the set had his back to Shadow, but his grey fur was easily visible. Shadow remembered the blue shirt he was wearing; it was one of his favourites, a bowling shirt that he wore when he was out with the guys on Thursdays. They weren't very good and lost most of the time, but it really didn't matter to them.
In front of him and turned sideways from Shadow was a light yellow hedgehog in a full-length orange dress. The spikes on her head were curled in a series of loops and rings. Shadow remembered once when he saw her curling her hair one time and asked why she did it; the answer was to look pretty. His interest was piqued, and while she wasn't looking Shadow had made a grab for the curling iron. Subconsciously, Shadow's hand clinched as he remembered the burn he received from the hot iron. Since then, Shadow never bothered to make himself look pretty, and simply let his spikes go in whichever direction they did.
He looked back to the pair, then over to the remaining space on the blanket, but it was empty.
"Hello."
Shadow looked down and saw the smaller hedgehog had come over to him. A small girl with bright red fur and a yellow dress that looked a lot like Amy's red one. In her arms was a rag doll whose features had worn somewhat. If it were any particular kind of animal, it would be difficult to determine now.
"Hi."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Shadow."
"My name is Maria."
"That's a nice name."
"And this is 'Dolly'." Maria held up her doll to the black hedgehog.
"Hi Dolly."
"You're funny. Dolly can't hear you; she's a doll."
Shadow paused for a second as Maria bore a huge grin. He responded with a small laugh.
"Is that your family over there?"
"Most of it."
"What do you mean?"
Maria's smile faded. "I have a brother, but I haven't seen him in so long."
"Do you miss him?"
"A lot. You look kind of sad, too. Do you miss your family?"
"A lot."
"Sometimes, I wonder if he'll ever come home."
"I'm sure he will."
"I just hope he hasn't forgotten us."
Shadow crouched down to look Maria face to face. "Tell me, have you forgotten him?"
"Of course not."
"Then I think he still remembers you."
"I wish he was with us, and I wouldn't have to just remember him."
"Listen, I once heard, that as long as you remember someone, then there will always be a part of them with you."
"What does that mean?"
"Sometimes, I try to figure that one myself. But if you can't have a person with you, then you can remember them; and you can be sure that they remember you, and they want to be with you too."
"That sounds like something mommy says when I'm sad."
"It probably is."
"Maria!"
Shadow and Maria looked towards the pair on the blanket, who seemed to have moved almost out of visual range.
"That's my mommy, she's looking for me."
"Then you should go back to her."
Maria started to run back, but before she was out of sight looked back. "Don't be sad, I'm sure your family remembers you." She turned, and left Shadow behind.
"And Gerald remembers you too."
Shadow was alone, until Lumina moved up behind him.
"You still desire to be with your family."
Shadow took a second before he answered. "They're not my family anymore."
"They will always be your family."
Shadow didn't answer that.
"Have you decided what you want, to stay or to return?"
"I don't know, I want to be here with them, but I also want to go back. And what about Void, you said he can't be destroyed, what if he tries to attack me again, or them?"
"In the real world, Void is nothing more than the emptiness and despair in a person's heart; if you have will and hope, then he cannot reach you. And as long as you hold the memories of your family in your heart, then Void can do nothing to them either."
"Then I go back; there are people who need me there, and I will teach Void a lesson. I will punish him by returning to Knothole, and completing the task of the one he sent me to destroy."
"That is a strange thought, it is something that has no place here."
"Sometimes I wonder if I have a place anywhere. Just bouncing around, occasionally finding a place, but it eventually grows tiring, or tired of me. I suppose that is my destiny."
"That is true, your thoughts and decisions are not your own, they are crafted by the people you know. Destiny is nothing more than the decisions one makes in order to appease others and to do what others have imposed on them. Then the outcome is what is called 'fate'. This world is controlled by dreams of people, where people can write their own path, and there is no destiny or fate. Here, only what you want is what matters."
Shadow stood silently, considering his options.
Lumina moved behind him, and whispered in his ear. "What is it that you want, deep in your heart?"
"I want to go back to Knothole."
"Then so it is."
Shadow turned to Lumina who was holding a huge mallet.
"Nighty night!"
Shadow's world suddenly went dark.
Shadow shook the numbness out of his head; he had no idea where he was except that he wasn't in Maginaryworld anymore. All around were the tall trees of the Great Forest, but they seemed sickly and withered. He looked around, seeing only one thing that was different than the shafts of dark brown and tops of ill green. Before him was a mountain of grey steel, smoke pouring from high towers and green sludge pouring into the nearby river.
With both fists clenched and a grinding of his teeth, Shadow glared his eyes at the disgusting sight.
"Prepare yourself, Robotnik. Today, you die!"
Shadow's form was consumed in a white glow, and shot of towards the center of the metal city.
