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 3: Another Desperation
Shadow's sleep was anything but restful; his dreams were filled with the horrid images of that day one year ago. As with all nightmares, every gory detail was magnified a hundred fold, and a thousand fold beyond that.
In the darkness, Shadow knew exactly where he headed, he knew the time and place, though he wished to be anywhere but there.
Entrenched in darkness, Shadow skulked through the woods around Mobotropolis, disfigured, twisted, unholy. Looking up, the sky was totally indiscernible from the treetops, the mighty spires simply bled up into the space.
Shadow continued on, not looking to either side, for there would be nothing to find. In the foreground where endless recurring echoes that broke the silence behind him: the sounds of battle, gunfire and the ramblings of the environment.
As he approached, the battle moved towards him, the echoes came to him louder and fuller, until he found himself face to face with destiny.
In the distance and approaching at breakneck speed came a flash of blue, a bright stroke through the black. Shadow froze and watched the light come forward, the light that streaked with blazing speed, was held almost frozen in time like molasses.
Shadow couldn't move from his place, and around him came the rustling of the bushes. On both his left and right, large monstrous robots leapt into position, with fiery sticks of metal swung forward. Shadow was paralyzed with fear as the loud explosions rang through both ears
Two narrow streams of red light flung themselves forward into the blue comet, crashing into the wall of light, illuminating the dreamscape, masking all around in intense yellow.
After the light faded, on the ground laid one dark figure, a shadowy blue figure laying face down in the muck. As the eternal seconds ticked past with the sound of a subdued heart beat that echoed through the ether.
Starting softly, a ghastly chuckle hovered over the body; it drew closer and louder. Along the ground came footsteps, each fall came with a squish in the muddy turf; and with each step, the mud turned, becoming more and more sanguine.
Shadow stood over his former and very short-term opponent, cackling in a hideous voice; his feet planted just inches from the blue head. Standing and laughing, Shadow looked down on Sonic, holding two long rods of steel, each smoking from the hollowed ends.
Shadow tossed the rifles down, and were lost in the red muck. Reaching down, he grabbed the corpse with both hands and lifted it out of the mire, leaving a black hole where it had laid. He stared at the blank visage with his teeth sneering at the fallen foe. Hoisting the body above him with his right hand wrapped around the neck, Shadow laughed maniacally at the sight of the blood that flowed freely from the gaping holes in the chest and splashed to the ground below.
Swinging his arm around, Shadow swung the body behind him, and flung it over his shoulder, throwing it through the air. Tumbling through the air, the cadaver hit the ground with a thud.
The evil glint in Shadow's eyes followed the object's trajectory. Once it came to rest, Shadow looked at his hands, both covered in blood, soaking through his gloves, staining his black fur in a dark red gloss.
Shadow returned to look at the body. Kneeling next to the blue mass was the miserable figure of Princess Sally, crying her eyes out, her bawling echoing as if she was in a small cave. Shadow walked up to the woman, grinning even more sinisterly than before, until he finally reached the pair.
With a swift kick, he knocked the fallen away to the void, leaving himself and Sally. He grabbed her chin forcefully and almost dragged her to her feet, smearing blood over her face.
"You monster, what have you done?"
"Forget about him, just wait and see what I do to you."
Sally spoke again, but instead of fear and sorrow, the words came through clear and untainted by distress. "If this is what you dream about with Sally, I'd hate to see what you dream about with Rouge."
Shadow froze, and took a step back from Sally. As the scenery seemed to spin around him, the figure of the princess was replaced with an almost mythical figure.
"Tikal? What?"
The peach echidna looked around the shadows. "I always knew that you possessed such darkness in your heart; but frankly, the blood is a bit much."
Shadow looked around, his hands were no longer caked in the rusty red liquid, and the thick residue on the ground was starting to drain away. And with it, went the evil that haunted Shadow.
"That's a neat trick, I wish you were here earlier."
"I didn't do this, you did; this is your dream."
"You bring up an interesting point; why are you here, or are you a figment of my imagination?"
"When you absorbed the Master Emerald, you invariably became linked to my powers of forbidden sight."
"Yes, yes, I know, you've done this before. So, does Knuckles know you're making this little visit?"
"This does not involve him, this is about you, and Sally."
Shadow's partial relief at Tikal's interference faded and was replaced with despair. He paced around a bit, and sat down on a fallen tree.
"Have you been to see her?"
"Not yet, we only heard about it this evening. We'll head down and pay a visit tomorrow morning. Is she really that bad?"
"She dying, with Sonic gone, she's given up."
Tikal walked over and sat down next to the hedgehog. "And you feel guilty for it."
"That obvious, huh?"
"Blood on the hands is a pretty obvious sign."
He glanced at his hands, though they were now clean of the stains, he still felt the dirtiness. Shadow folded his hands and laid his chin on his thumbs.
"I'd say that you shouldn't be blaming yourself, but I guess it won't work."
"There's nothing I can do."
"Of course there is, even if all you can do is nothing. Or perhaps you have already done it."
"Don't give me such trite nonsense. If the Master Emerald gave you such incredible powers of knowledge, why can't you tell me what to do, instead of giving me all this cryptic nonsense?"
"My powers of forbidden sight came from the Master Emerald, which is now yours; there is nothing that I can see that you cannot. All you have to do is open your eyes, and see what is shown to you."
Tikal got up and walked away. Shadow looked up, but Tikal had disappeared.
Shadow looked out, but saw nothing; everything that had happened was gone, leaving him alone.
"I don't understand; what is it that I'm not seeing? There's nothing here, there's nothing left."
{There's nothing left... nothing... left?}
When Rouge woke up the next morning, she found Shadow sitting up in bed, his head resting on his folded hands.
"What are you doing, how long have you been up like that?"
"Couple hours."
"You're thinking about Sally aren't you?"
"Yeah." Shadow broke from his statuesque pose and turned to Rouge. "How many Power Rings do we have?"
"Shadow, please excuse me for saying this, BUT THIS IS A RIDICULOUS IDEA!!!"
Shadow was packing away several Power Rings in his backpack while getting a chewing out from Rouge. "If you've got a better idea, I'm all for it."
"I don't have a solution, but going back in time? I've seen enough sci-fi flicks to know that time travel is a bad idea. You don't even know if you can do it."
"The Chaos Control gives me command over time and space, and with the added boost of the Master Emerald, I figure a little jaunt through history should be a breeze."
"You're not thinking right. If you're not careful, you could totally screw up everything."
Bunnie was also there, equally worried that Shadow was falling into the despair along with the princess. "Shadow, please don't do this, it sounds too dangerous."
"I have to try, at least to know if it can be done."
Rouge realized that she couldn't change Shadow's mind, and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving a big kiss on his lips.
"You be careful you big idiot."
Bunnie wasn't about to let Rouge get the last kiss before he headed out, and jumped Shadow the moment Rouge let go.
"Yah had better come back." Bunnie gave Shadow a kiss even more intense than the bat's.
Rouge looked at Bunnie rather suspiciously, this was the first instance that she seemed more than just a friend or family member. There were times that she thought it odd that Bunnie stayed with them, but she usually thought of her as innocent enough. Rouge treated Bunnie like a little sister or even an adopted daughter, perhaps that should change.
When Bunnie let go, Shadow took a step away and stood straight. Bringing his arms around him like a conductor summoning an orchestra, Shadow called upon the Chaos Control and was enveloped in a bright green aura. The light flared, then faded into a dark shadow that stood in the place of the fully solid Shadow.
Bunnie glanced at Rouge. "Yah think he'll be O.K.?"
"Of course he will; but if you were that worried about him, then maybe you should have given him a bit more."
Bunnie turned with a startled look at the bat and the sly smirk on her face.
Shadow seemed to float in the air as massive swirls of rainbow colored energy flew around in the background. Shadow paid little attention, instead he was more focused on the task at hand, and the result he was seeking.
Steadily his form was enveloped in a green flame, and he flashed into existence.
Shadow's feet touched down on solid rock. He stood with a green aura, and looked around the area.
The terrain was rocky, but it wasn't the randomness of a mountain or stony path; it was the ruins of a city, that city, what was once Mobotropolis, after the disaster that Robotnik had brought and Shadow had cleansed.
The landscape was dotted with ruined buildings, and cleared spots, and the wooden and steel skeletons of new houses and buildings. In the distance, he could hear the busy activity of builders in the distance, working quickly with hammers and saws, constructing what would become the new Mobotropolis.
Shadow had made it back about 6 months, shortly after Robotnik's defeat, half way to his goal, but the location was several miles off.
He glanced around the stone that marked where his house would stand in about a month and a half.
The hedgehog was quite impressed with his feat, even though he was in the wrong place and the wrong time, but he could always try again.
Shadow looked into his pouch to check his ring supply. He started with 35, but now it had whittled down to 14.
"Holy cow, this sucks more juice than my old Game Gear did."
In the instant that Shadow inspected his supply, two more rings had depleted. He quickly glanced around, realizing that he couldn't do anything in this time and place; he looked down and saw a small rock on the ground. Grabbing it, he jumped back into the Chaos Control to return to his time.
In a bright flash, the green glow left behind in his house to mark when and where Shadow left his time frame flooded the room and faded to nothing. Shadow returned, seemingly unfazed through the trip. Just as the Chaos Control dissipated, Shadow saw the rock starting to glow a bright yellow, and it burned in his hands.
"Yeargh!"
Shadow reactivated the Chaos Control and ran out of the house, rushing past anyone in his way. Outside, he hurled the fiery stone into the air like a baseball outfielder in a desperate attempt to throw out a runner making a break for home.
High in the air, the stone tumbled, glowing an even fiercer yellow, orange and red.
Shadow covered his eyes as the sky was filled with a billowing flume of white light high above him.
Rouge, Bunnie, Omochao and Tails ran out the door to see Shadow looking at the explosion.
Tails landed close to him. "What happened?"
"I'm not sure. I tried to bring a rock back from the past, but it went critical when I turned off the Chaos Control."
Omochao walked up behind Shadow. "It looks like the atomic structure of the rock couldn't handle the huge energy shift from being taken from one time to another."
"That sounds about right, whatever that means."
Shadow stood there for a second, then slowly turned around and looked down at the metallic creature with a questioning stare, as did everyone else.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Omochao, and I'm here to help you."
Rouge started poking Omochao's metal head. "O.K. What are you?"
"I'm Omochao."
"Oh that helps."
Tails took a closer look at the machine that was only slightly smaller than him. "Are you one of Robotnik's robots?"
"Robotnik? Big fat bald guy with no fashion sense?"
"Yeah."
"No."
Rouge gazed at the steel creature. "Then where did you come from?"
"I was created by the famous scientist, Dr. Yuji Naka…"
