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: Of Doubt and Darkness
Shadow was hoping for a good night's sleep tonight, but no such luck. It was his first night in a real bed in almost a week, with warm sheets wrapped around him and a real pillow lifting his head; but all this wasn't enough to repel the fear that was growing in him. He had seen the devastation that was caused by these creatures, and just a few hours ago he had seen the remains of one of the monsters; now he had a good idea as to the girth of his enemy, Shadow figured if the inside of Yohan's house was gutted, one of those beasts might have a chance to cram in.
His mind was working in overdrive, trying to fathom the true nature of the creatures, the full power of the beasts, the vicious savagery of his enemy. Shadow was restless through his nightmare, tossing and turning. Eventually his body overcame his mind, telling him that it was time to sleep. Slowly he fell asleep.
His mind was cloudy, his dreams were distorted, his conscious was in chaos; it was a state that was normal for him, but this time the chaos was warped even more by his fear.
"Tikal?" Shadow's soul wandered in his nightmare. "Please be here."
"You rarely say 'please', something must be wrong."
Shadow saw the echidna in his mind, surrounded by an aura of peace that extended away from her body, like a small piece of Shadow's mind was cut out and replaced with a piece of Tikal's.
"I am so glad to see you."
"You must really be homesick."
Shadow approached Tikal, but stopped before reaching the peaceful place that came with her.
"It's not that. Well, it is partly that, but it's more. I saw something that's got me totally spooked. You remember when I told you about that town that was destroyed."
"Of course."
"Well, just a few hours ago, I saw one of them, actually a skeleton of one, just a few bones…"
Tikal could see that Shadow was fidgeting. "Calm down."
"It was huge, it could probably eat me in one bite."
"Is this the first time you've been this scared? What did you do when you challenged Robotnik?"
"I've had no time to be scared before. When I fought against Robotnik, I was so angry; that was the whole reason I joined Knothole in the first place, because I wanted to make him pay. When I tried to save Sally by going back in time, I wasn't scared of the consequences, I was too worried about…" Shadow hesitated, he realized that no one remembered any of the tinkering Shadow did except for Geoffrey and Omochao.
"Go on, I am fully aware of your time traveling."
Shadow paused slightly before continuing.
"The first time I was really scared was when Rouge told me about Bunnie, that was scary."
"You were scared of her feelings for you?"
"That might seem funny now, but when Rouge first told me, I was shaking in my shoes. With Robotnik, it was my anger and hatred that overrode any fear; but this was something I couldn't hide behind. How could I be angry with someone who loved me?"
"So you're scared because you have no other emotions to push your fear aside. Interesting."
"How so?"
"That you seem to have come to this conclusion all by yourself and didn't need me at all."
"Don't need you? I wanted to talk…"
"Because you don't want to confront your fear."
Shadow was flabbergasted, as usual, Tikal was totally right.
"Just what is it you're scared of? The dragons?"
"More than that. I've been homesick, Mobotropolis was the first 'real' home I've ever had, it's the first place I have any desire to go. When I saw the destruction in Vannannen, I was worried… that I might not be returning at all."
Tikal thought for a moment. "So it made you scared, but not angry? You joined the fight against Robotnik because you wanted revenge; because you hated him for killing Sonic, and then attacking Bunnie's farm. But with the destruction of this village, you didn't feel any urge for revenge?"
"A bit, I saw that woman, burnt to a cinder, holding a baby that was frozen to death. I don't know why, it just didn't spark that anger." Shadow shook his head, as if he should have been ashamed for not getting angry. "Then something happened today."
"You saw a dragon."
"No, it was when we were eating. The steak was a bit stringy, so I asked what it was; they said it was dragon meat."
"Why does that annoy you, what's the difference between that and hunting wild animals?"
"I don't recall eating Robotnik when I defeated him." Shadow calmed down. "I've been taken from my home, dragged into the mountains, asked to fight a bunch of monsters for a bunch of people who are preying on them."
Tikal tried to probe Shadow by asking the opposite question. "You think these people are the problem?"
Shadow stopped his tirade. "No, I'm just really annoyed that I've been brought here. I dislike the people for bringing me here more than the dragons who have so far done nothing to me. They want we to solve their dragon problem, when I just ate evidence that suggests they're not doing too badly without me."
"Then what do you think is the real problem?"
"I've been told that the dragons weren't a major problem until recently. It just seems like this whole mess is a misstep that's gotten way out of hand; as if some villagers got a little too close to the dragons and set them off. Maybe a miner caused a cave-in where some dragons were nesting and they got in a huff, or maybe a dragon mistook some villagers for lunch and that was the end of it."
"Something tells me this problem isn't going to be as simple as that to solve."
"No kidding. Once you get to the point where you're eating your enemies, it's pretty much gone beyond the bargaining table."
"So what are you going to do? Leave them? Help them destroy the dragons?"
"I don't know… Sally wants me to help, so the least I'll do is stick around for a while. If there's nothing I can do, I'll come home; if there is, we'll see."
Nothing was said between the two for almost two minutes.
"So what's going on at home?"
"Everyone's in a hustle with the visitor from over the sea. As for me, I was in the hospital today."
"Nothing serious?"
Tikal patted her stomach. "False alarm, but it put Knuckles on edge."
Shadow smiled. "I'm sorry I missed that."
"I was talking to Rouge; she came over when she heard I went into labor, only to find I went home. They miss you."
Shadow could've guessed that much.
"She didn't say, but they're also worried that you wouldn't be coming home either."
Shadow knew quite well what the two girls were going through.
"Would you tell them that if they miss me, then I'll worry about weither or not I come home."
"Why?"
"Because worrying if I'll come home in one piece is a lot easier than missing them."
Day 7
The village was awake early the next morning, rising before the sun. Shadow came out of his room with a yawn.
"Did you sleep well?"
Shadow turned to Karma who was already dressed and ready to go.
"I had a good night, much better than all of last week."
"Well get ready, breakfast is starting in a few minutes."
After a few minutes to wash up and dress, taking a handful of Power Rings from his trunk, Shadow joined the Sancots and headed to the mess hall. Yohan had already left to get an early start on the day. In the hall, Yohan was sitting at another table, while Carmelita took Shadow and her kids to their regular table.
"That's our eldest, Kirkigard."
Shadow looked at the group Yohan was with, across from Yohan was another bear with black fur.
"They're some of the guards, Kirkigard and them work the evening shifts."
"And is this a family meeting or work? Yohan seems like the leader around here."
"Unofficially; he more or less leads us, but we don't have a real leader. I'm sure he'll want you to meet the guards."
"I guess that's what I'm here for."
Shadow returned to his breakfast, a full and hearty meal of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast, with orange juice on the side.
"I almost hesitate to ask, but what kind of meat is this?"
"We get it brought in through trade; the bacon I assume is pork, and the sausages are whatever sausages are usually made from."
"Good."
Shadow dipped into his morning meal.
After breakfast, Yohan called Shadow over to the table with his son.
"Shadow, this is my son, Kirkigard."
"Hey."
"Shadow, huh? They tell me you defeated this Robotnik guy."
"Yep."
"Then what have you got against dragons?"
"Do you mean as a weapon, or a reason for helping you defeat them?"
"Both."
"I don't know, to both."
That put a bit of a chill at the table, but many of the people at the table knew how fierce the dragons were, and that nothing should be expected from the appearance of one stranger, no matter what his previous accomplishments.
"Well, at least you came here with realistic expectations."
"I came here with no expectations."
"Just what I said."
After the quick volley of depressing wit, the rest of the introductions came. Amongst the table sat a muskox named Filo Sween, a hefty porcupine everyone called "Sledgehammer", and Haley Finnes-Mars a sheep who took her husband's place when he was killed three weeks ago. At the end of the table was a very silent sort, dressed in black and barely attentive of what was going on at the table; a rat with platinum blonde fur and glossy red eyes. It was as if the Grim Reaper was sitting at the table, waiting for the souls of fallen warriors to take to the Netherworld. Clipped to his side was his version of a scythe, a long Japanese styled sword, wrapped in a black leather sheath; positioned on his right side, it indicated that he was left-handed, just one more quirk to this enigma.
"So what's with 'Happy' on the end?"
"He's a mercenary. He came wandering up the mountains a couple months ago, looking for work. We didn't have much use for mercenaries, but he was pretty good at hunting and caught a fair bit, so we kept him. Since the dragons started causing trouble, he's been a real help. He doesn't talk much, only told us his name once when we hired him, Veder Juda."
Shadow looked at the rat. "Nice name."
Veder paid him no mind, sitting there as if all his thought processes were preoccupied with something else. Dark and silent, if he was anything like Shadow then he was paying very close attention to the conversation, but just sat there not putting in his two cents worth; just sitting, dark and silent.
{I like him already.}
For the rest of the day, Shadow was hanging around the small village, getting to know the layout and some of the people. He spent a bit of time with one of the morning guard shifts. For three hours he was paired up with a bull in one of the guard towers. While up there, Shadow watched the procession of vehicles and workers as they headed up a small trail into a nearby hole in the mountainside.
Casey, Shadow's partner was showing the hedgehog the ropes; talking about the roads and nearest towns, the mining schedule, the harpoon cannons mounted to the watchtower, and of course the dragons. Shadow learned that the dragons often attacked in small groups, a couple of lone dragons coming out and shaking things up. But every so often, the lizards would come out in force, dozens of dragons attacking all at once. Thankfully this was rare, partially because of the narrow confines between the mountains, which limited the size of any attack force. Sadly, it did happen, and it was very hard to defend against such an assault; as was evident by the current state of Vannannen.
To pass the rest of the three-hour tour, Casey and Shadow talked about their respective lives. Shadow talked more about his recent battle with Robotnik and his life in Mobotropolis, as opposed to any of his early history, which was made up. Casey mentioned how he came to the mountains when he was young; his father took a job in another town as a miner. Afterwards, he became a miner, married and had two children. The conversation took a hallowed tone when Casey told Shadow about the fate of his family. His wife passed away about five years ago from illness, and his son, who was also a miner, died in a cave-in earlier that year. All he had now was his daughter, a bit older than Brian; and he took the job of guard to ensure that she remained safe; to protect her when he couldn't protect his wife, or his son.
Shadow was getting depressed again, another lonely soul pouring his heart out. Casey really wasn't "pouring his heart out", but the little bit of grief he showed got on Shadow's nerves.
After the time in the watchtower, Shadow spent the afternoon with Yohan to get a feel for the village. Most of it was just houses, with only a few large buildings. Two of them were the mess hall and the barn/garage. Next to the garage was Mac's blacksmith shop, and near the mess hall was another building that was used for a clinic. There was also a building that processed some of the Fyr crystals that were mined; it was a necessity in these times with most trade routes severed, even though it was nowhere near as efficient as a proper refinery that would be found off the mountain.
Afterwards, Yohan took Shadow out to the mines, but the hedgehog didn't feel like going in; being the fastest thing on the planet, the tight confines of a mineshaft was not a favorable place for him. Shadow noticed some Power Rings up the side of the mountain and tested his hyper speed on the rocky surface.
As he went up, Shadow found the solid surface to be pretty good for using his phase run, although it was harder going up as opposed to a nice flat surface. Occasionally he would hit a spot of some loose rocks, but would quickly adjust and regain his footing to continue. He reached the spinning golden circles, 29 of them in a bunch, more than he ever found in one place. He collected them together with a bunch that he had taken from his trunk that morning.
With the stock in hand, he triggered his Chaos Control and charged down the mountain in record time, leaving a green fiery tail behind him. It took four seconds to climb, and half a second to return. Yohan and a couple of miners who witnessed the feat were definitely impressed.
"So, is that how you defeated Dr. Robotnik?"
"Something like that. I was worried that the terrain might pose a problem, but it seems just fine."
"Is there anything else you can do?"
"Given the opportunity, I can do plenty."
Yohan and Shadow returned to the village. The bear gave the hedgehog a series of maps of the mountains and the villages in them. Shadow would look at them later; right now, he just wanted to get away from everything for a minute. First he went back to his room at the Sancot's house; he put some of the rings he collected back in the trunk, then laid the maps on the bureau.
Lying on the bed, Shadow figured he might get in a quick nap, but noise from around the house was not making it easy. Brian apparently had a friend over and was playing in his room down the hall. Shadow considered going over there and asking them to be quiet, but he thought it best just to find another place to be alone with his thoughts.
Outside, Shadow wandered around the town, looking for some small nook or cranny that Yohan didn't show him, someplace quiet that he could sit down and just be with himself.
During his round about path around the village, he was stopped by several people, usually for nothing more than a friendly hello; apparently the show of speed at the mines was not public knowledge yet. He answered back with an equally polite "hello" and a smile, just to be nice, even though he felt that everyone he met was a delay in his finding some peace and quiet.
He eventually reached the outer limits of the town, the buildings that ran along the mountainside to the north. There was no one here, now he just needed a place that was out of sight of the watchtowers.
After a few minutes, Shadow found his quiet little nook; too bad someone else had claimed it before him.
The hedgehog trotted up towards the white rat who simply stood leaning against the wall, not moving, seemingly frozen like a statue. Were it not for his glassy red eyes turning around to focus on the other hired hand, Shadow would have thought that Veder was as dead as that child in Vannannen.
Shadow slowly crept up, not wanting to disturb the mercenary; but if he was anything like Shadow, then he was annoyed by Shadow's very appearance. The rodent didn't flinch, until the insectivore was within range.
With one stroke, Veder swung out his sword from the sheath and right at Shadow's neck. When it reached its apex, it was in empty air.
Off to his right, Shadow appeared in the exact same position on Veder's other side.
"You're as fast as they say."
Veder put his sword back.
"And you're about as menacing as I figured."
Veder didn't bother answering, he just leaned back on the wall and seemed to ignore the hedgehog. Shadow realized that Veder wanted his space, which is exactly what he was looking for. Leaning back, the hedgehog rested on the wall, finally achieving the peace and quiet he wanted.
He stood there for a few minutes, but eventually curiosity got the better of him; he was getting restless with the figure standing next to him, wanting to know more about the fiend who tried to take his head. Shadow was clearly not as good at keeping to himself as the rat was.
"So how did you end up here?"
Veder didn't reply.
Shadow was a little dismayed, but he figured that he wouldn't get an answer anyway.
"You're not like anybody else here, you're more like me."
"If you were anything like me, you would've gone away to find another spot, or at the very least kept your mouth shut."
Shadow thought about that for a moment, despite their apparent affiliation for darkness and desire for solitude, the pair really didn't have much in common. The rat stood silent again; in all his years, he's realized that with some people you ignore, but with others you have to chew them out to get your peace and quiet. The rat could feel the evil air about Shadow, a darkness that was deeper than even him, something that by comparison made his life a walk in the park. That made Shadow tolerable, if he'd shut up.
Shadow returned to resting silently against the wall, he didn't want to go looking for another place, this was just fine; were it not for the rat standing just over there, it would be perfect. The hedgehog didn't like being put down by someone acting like a bigger jackass than him, so he decided to have some fun.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm…"
Veder paid Shadow little mind when he started humming a strange little tune; but he couldn't help but notice when Shadow switched to whistling, and he didn't whistle very well.
"Would you stop that."
"Stop what? Whistling?"
"Yes. It's blatantly obvious that you're doing this to annoy me. So leave, and take your bloody yap with you."
"You don't own this place, I can go wherever I want."
"For such a dark soul, you sure like acting like a two-year-old."
"Aw, who told you."
The rat didn't even want to consider the implication of such a stupid phrase.
"Quit being so cold. We're both in this village, neither of us are like the people here, we're both dark and menacing; the least we could do is hang out."
"I don't hang out."
"That's for sure. They way you act, it's a wonder that anyone would ever want to be your friend."
"For a guy who claims to be dark, you sure don't seem to understand it."
"I was once like that. I learned that being dark doesn't mean that you can't have friends."
Veder was getting really annoyed, Shadow was sounding like his mother. He was sure that Shadow would find that an insult, just as he would also use it against him.
"You feel the darkness, and you think that means you have to shun everything that is light; you're not allowed to be happy, you're not allowed to have fun, you're not allowed to be nice to people. You can be dark if you want, but this lone gunman act is a bit overdone. We're a lot more alike than you think."
"Don't presume to know me. I can feel the darkness in you, just as you can feel it in me; but you don't know me, so stop pretending that we are anything alike."
"And what makes you anymore of an expert on me?"
"I'm not the one trying to start a conversation."
Veder was finding Shadow's incessant talk more and more annoying; he realized that there was only one way to shut him down: take control of this conversation.
"So what did they do to drag you here?"
Shadow was startled that it was Veder trying to start up with him, but at least he might have the chance to connect with someone over here, even if he was a total jackass.
"Well out with it, since you're so eager to spill your guts anyway, maybe then you'll give me some bloody peace and quiet."
Shadow hesitated before he came up with an answer. "I'm doing this as a favor for a lady back home."
"You like this dame? Girlfriend?"
"No, but I've always felt a bit guilty. You see, I had a part to play in the death of her fiancé. So when she asks for a favor, who am I to refuse."
Shadow shifted his head as Veder swung his arm around, aimed for the black one's head.
"You're a fucked up little pussy you are. 'I had a part to play in the death of her fiancé.' If you killed the bloke that'd be one thing. You've got the darkness, but you've got none of the grit."
"And you, you act dark but you're nothing but grit."
"Suppose you're right about that, mate."
"So what brought you here?"
"It's nice and quiet, peaceful…"
"That hardly sounds like the place where a guy full of grit would appear."
"And you're the bloody hero of Mobotropolis, hardly the role of a dark soul."
"There was someone who deserved to have his face rearranged, and I was the one who rearranged it. Now what's your excuse?"
"Let's just say that there are a lot of people who'd love to rearrange my face, particularly for what I did to everyone before them who wanted to rearrange my face."
"Ah, hiding."
"I don't hide, I just got sick of everyone and wanted a change; none of these pansies knew me, so I trotted right in."
"And they leave you alone?"
"They had better. Everything was alright until you showed up with your big mouth."
Shadow was pretty pleased that he was starting to get on the nerves of the vile one, and able to finally crack his exterior.
"Well, I must say that this has been the most enjoyable conversation I've had all week; it's nice to know there's someone here more miserable than I am. I'll see you around."
Veder realized that he was starting to get too personable with the black one. Shadow was right, he was full of grit, but a lot of the menacing aspects were more of an act to keep to himself; it usually worked, except for very cheery people, or "dark souls" who weren't put off. Veder wasn't too bad if you got to know him, but when he wanted to be alone, he made sure that you knew it. Returning to his "old" self, the rat stood like a statue again.
"I'm sure people have told you to lighten up, but I won't, since I hate it when people tell me that. So let me give you this advice." Shadow started walking away. "You need to get laid."
Shadow left the rat behind; Veder didn't move while Shadow was making his departure. When the hedgehog was totally gone and he was alone again, the rat chuckled once.
