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 5: Time for a Change
Omochao walked into the kitchen in Shadow's home. Shadow, Rouge, Bunnie and Tails were sitting at the table sharing a pot of coffee; except Tails, he had orange juice. The metal creature took an unoccupied seat and sat down.
"That was very rude."
Everyone turned to look at Omochao. Shadow pulled his cup away from his lips to answer. "All you did was ramble on and on no matter how much we told you to stop, so we left."
"That was still rude." Omochao's previously angry tone faded and he became more polite. Though no one could tell until he uncrossed his arms since his face was solid metal and didn't move. "So, what's going on?"
Rouge looked to her left at the visitor. "Is there any chance you'll be leaving depending on the answer?"
"No."
"In that case, we're trying to help a friend of ours. She's very sick because a close friend of hers died a year ago, and she's really depressed. Any thoughts?"
Omochao stopped and thought for a few seconds. "One plus one equals one on a bun."
The other four looked on. Tails asked, "What does that mean?"
Shadow answered the young fox. "If it's what I think it is, you're not getting an answer."
"Ah." Tails was pretty smart and pretty much figured it out on his own by Shadow's refusal to answer.
"I'm sorry, I say stupid things like that at times. So your plan is to go back and prevent his death, so that Sally won't be in despair. Perhaps I can help."
Shadow furled his brow. "What can you do?"
"I know a lot about traveling through time and space; for example, the person you're trying to save is named 'Sonic', right?"
Rouge put down her coffee; she was a bit intrigued since no mention of Sally or Sonic was made, but still not impressed. "Not bad, but everyone around here knows that."
"Then how about this? Where was Tails when Shadow left?"
Rouge was even less impressed. "He was here. He came and gave us an update on Sally's condition."
"Wait a minute." Shadow tried to think. "He wasn't here when I left."
"That is correct, when you left Tails wasn't here, but when you returned he was. That is because you changed history."
"But I didn't do anything, I just picked up a rock and tried to bring it back."
"And that was all it took. You claim to be a creature of chaos, but you do not understand true chaos. Every event, even the slightest action has consequences, and those consequences lead to other consequences that multiply on themselves a trillion fold. You must be careful, Shadow; although time does have a desire to travel in a given direction, it is very unstable and great change can be made by simple acts."
Bunnie was getting worried. "So something more drastic could cause really severe changes, possibly meaning the difference between life or death?"
"Right, do you remember what you and Rouge were talking about when Shadow left?"
"Well, we were... Why do I get the feeling that it's not what I am thinking we were talking about."
"Actually you were talking about..." Omochao froze for a second as he recalled how the other timeline was turning out. "Perhaps I shouldn't say; it's a bit personal and doesn't bear repeating, least of all in front of 'you know who'."
Rouge looked oddly at the robot. "Why, what was it?"
Omochao's odd implication gave Bunnie an idea, and she almost choked at what Rouge might do if she found out about her feelings for Shadow.
Shadow interrupted. "Look, can we get back to the trouble at hand? Omochao, you seem to know a lot about this time travel stuff; can you help us change history to save Sonic?"
"Possibly, but I must warn you, such a thing will have a profound impact on history; and history will try to maintain balance, you may find it harder to do than a simple trip to the past."
"We're going to try it again."
"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."
"We need more Power Rings, I went through almost 30 in about half a minute. Second, we'll have to head back to where Sonic got killed."
"Not necessary."
Shadow turned back to Omochao. "What do you mean?"
"You only need those rings to maintain the Chaos Control which is what kept you from self-destructing when you traveled; you really only need a few to travel, and I can keep you from going boom. Second, you don't actually have to go anywhere, you can travel through space as well as time; after all, this whole planet has moved billions of kilometres in the past year on it's own, and you already compensated for that yourself."
Shadow shrugged and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Well, wordy explanation aside, let's do it."
Back in the basement, Bunnie was tying Omochao to Shadow's back. Though Omochao felt nothing, Shadow felt every tug.
"Holy cow, ease up a bit on the rope."
"I just want to make sure yah get back alright."
"Remind me to never arm wrestle you."
"Farming can do that to yah."
"Perhaps I should take up gardening. Ooof."
"There, that ought tah do it."
Omochao tried to struggle in the back to test the rope. "It's nice and tight."
Bunnie backed away from Shadow, rather shyly. "Shadow, I... I know you're just trying to help Sally, but... I..."
"What is it?"
"I... I'm just worried about yah, that's all."
"I appreciate that."
"Yeah well..." Bunnie slowly turned before quickly leaving the scene. "I gotta go."
Before the normally quick Shadow could react, Bunnie was gone, crying alone in her room, ashamed that she couldn't confess her love for him; weither it was the presence of Omochao, the issue of Sally, or fear of Shadow's reaction, she just couldn't do it.
About 10 minutes later, Rouge returned after collecting another 50 Power Rings.
"Where's Bunnie?"
"She ran off to her room, she wants to be alone for awhile."
"And Tails?"
"He went back to the hospital to check on Sally."
"And you?"
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
Shadow spun around to reveal Omochao tied to his back like a knapsack.
"Ah! The latest in Mobotropolan fashion, but I don't think it'll catch on."
"Hah, hah."
"How's it going back there?"
Omochao called out, though his voice was no different than before. "Alright, but if it weren't for my metal hide, this guy's spikes would really cause some pain. How do you put up with it?"
"What?! Why you little…"
Rouge considered going back there and giving Omochao a piece of her mind with a pickaxe, but stopped.
"Shadow, you be careful." Rouge leaned in and kissed Shadow rather passionately. "I'll be waiting."
"You won't have to wait long."
Shadow turned his back to try and see Omochao behind his shoulder. "You ready?"
"Roger Wilco!"
Shadow wondered what Omochao said, but shrugged it off.
"Then away we go. We'll be back for dinner so save some places; unless you're cooking, in which case I'll be a little late."
"You swine! We'll see if you get any action tonight, buddy!"
Shadow didn't stick around for Rouge's tirade. The room was bathed in green as Shadow activated his Chaos Control and he and Omochao disappeared into time.
It was dark and dreary in the forest where and when Shadow and Omochao reappeared.
When the two had fully formed, the glow of the Chaos Control faded. Shadow took a few steps around.
"Looks like we made it here alright."
"I told you you'd be O.K. as long as you stay close to me."
"Right." Shadow looked closer at the trees. "This is the place alright. Now we just have to wait until Sonic gets here."
"If my chronometer is correct, we should only have to wait about 10 seconds."
"10 Seconds?!"
Shadow quickly glanced around to see Sonic quickly homing in on their position.
"Aw Hell!"
Shadow quickly looked around, looking for the robots that shot Sonic. He remembered it was a pair of shots from the front, so the robots had to be close to him. Looking forward, he saw two glints of dark metal in the brushes between him and the direction the Sonic was coming from.
Sonic raced through the dense woods as fast as possible to escape the gun fire raining from behind, completely ignorant of the threat before him. As he approached, two SWATbots jumped from their hiding place, and levelled their guns.
"Yeaaaaahhh!"
The two robots flinched at the scream from behind. Turning, they saw Shadow charging the both of them. In the darkness, the shadowy figure was almost impossible to distinguish were it not for the lump of metal on its back. With his enhanced speed, the SWATbots had no chance to defend and were overtaken in a hundredth of a second.
The first was slammed like a spiny wrecking ball and exploded into small shreds and iron filings. The second one barely saw the bellow of flame before it too was demolished in an equally quick fashion.
Shadow fell to the ground on the spot where the second robot hid in the bush. The robots were destroyed, his job was done. Off to his left, the sounds came closer, until they caught up to his position. Shadow spun on the spot.
Sonic almost didn't believe his eyes, two SWATbots, about to jump him from in front, just exploded for seemingly no reason. What he saw next really knocked him for a loop. As he reached the spot where the robots stood, he looked to his left, standing there, his eyes following Sonic's, stood Shadow, the nightmare who's done nothing but be a huge pain in his side since showing up earlier that day. But in the fraction of a second that their eyes locked, Sonic could see it. These were not the same eyes that that could eat into your soul, that concealed a deadly fire ready to scorn all they saw. No, these eyes had a certain peace behind them.
All went quiet in the fraction of a second that the two pairs of eyes locked on, a silence broken by a loud thunder.
Shadow saw a bright fiery flash that crossed before his eyes, streaking in from the distance, and ending in Sonic's back. Sonic's whole body arched like a bow, his legs and head falling back.
Shadow watched in shock as another shot flew and planted itself in the back of the blue head.
Sonic's corpse flew through the air, carried by his momentum for another 10 metres before finally tumbling to the dirty terrain much like he did a few seconds before in the previous timeline.
"No!"
Shadow was about to leap out of the brush and charge the robots when Omochao reached out to the flora and pulled the hedgehog back to the ground.
"What are you doing?!"
"We can't be seen here."
"I can't let those tin cans get away with this!"
"Of course not, the Shadow in this time will take care of them, remember."
Shadow hesitated to respond when the SWATbots made for their location.
"Forget it, we failed this time. We can try again, but only if we return, alive."
Shadow grumbled before reluctantly activating the Chaos Control.
