Sonic Hill 2: DX
Chapter 21: Fact or Fantasy?
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It took almost an hour, but Miles finally reached what seemed to be the end of the labyrinth. At least, he hoped it was. At a final dead end, he had taken a ladder up one floor, walked down another annoying long corridor, and entered a medium-sized circular stone room. He was wet, he stunk, he ached, and he felt miserable, but at least he had all that over with.
He wondered if it was all worth it.
There was no other door in the circular stone room, in fact there was absolutely nothing at all, except for a strange pedestal in the middle of the place holding up a rather large blue-ish gray cube. On all six sides of the cube, a face was carved in, each with a different emotion. Happy, sad, angry, apathetic, content, and hopeless. Knowing how the town seemed to work so far, he guessed it was another puzzle.
He had no idea how it would work, so he just tried trial and error. The block could be moved around so certain faces look in certain directions, but there was no indication of which way they had to go. So, the confused fox just randomly moved the block so the mad face, which was originally looking forward, looked up at the ceiling. Nothing about the blocks changed, but everything else in the room did. The wall actually began to move, so the doorway behind him moved a few feet to the left. It stopped, revealing nothing but a second wall behind it in the doorway.
It didn't take long for Miles to figure it out. He'd seen a puzzle like this in an old video game once. There must be another door behind the wall somewhere in the room, and he'd need to revolve the walls so the doorway ends up on it. Randomly he moved the block around until he saw that he was correct – a corridor revealed itself in front of him once he revolved it enough so that the doorway was now in front of him instead of behind him.
He walked up to the now open doorway and noticed that it actually wasn't a corridor – it was a staircase. It led down about ten feet, and into a short corridor that led to another steel door. Walking down the steps and up to the door, he cautiously opened it, revealing a well-lit room on the other side.
Once he entered the room, his jaw dropped and a gasp escaped his lips when he saw who was within it.
The square room was rather small, and most of it was inaccessible from where he stood – there were steel bars in the middle of it, dividing it in two and making the other half look like some sort of prison cell. In the back of the cell was a small white-sheeted bed, which rested on the right side of another steel door. But that wasn't at all what his attention was focused on. In the cell, sitting in a chair facing him as if expecting him to enter, was the one guy he'd never expected to see ever again in his entire life.
"Shadow!?"
The unforgettably familiar black hedgehog sat in a small fold up chair behind the jail cell bars, a warm benign smile on his lips.
"Hello Tails." Shadow said calmly, his deep baritone voice confirming that Miles wasn't just seeing things. He didn't have a fur out of place; in fact his flawless black red and white colored body seemed to almost shine in the light overhead.
"Y-you're alive!" the fox shouted incredulously, too amazed to see his deceased friend before his eyes again to even notice what Shadow called him. He rubbed his eyes, almost expecting the hedgehog to fade into nothingness and disappear once he did. But his comrade didn't - he was really there.
Lifting an eyebrow, Shadow asked, "What are you talking about?"
"T-that thing!" Miles exclaimed. "It…you…y-you don't even have a single scratch on you!"
"Of course silly." The hedgehog stated, as if it were obvious. He looked like he was trying not to laugh at the fox's confusion.
Taking his azure-blue eyes off of the hedgehog for only a moment, Miles spotted another fold out chair on his side of the room, lying against the wall. Grabbing it, he ran up to the bars and sat down on the chair only a few feet away from the hedgehog. "I don't understand…t-that monster was…there was blood everywhere…I…I saw it with my own eyes…how…?"
From across the iron bars, Shadow's crimson eyes held a look of sympathetic concern.
"Tails honey, did something happen to you?" he asked in a questionable but soothing tone that had reminded Miles of the way Sonic talked when he was worried. "After we got separated in that long hallway?" He paused thoughtfully, and then asked: "…are you confusing me for someone else?"
Miles still couldn't believe it. He opened his mouth to say something, but he had already forgotten what it was, and wouldn't know how to say it even if he'd remembered. Instead, the black hedgehog before him chuckled a little and shook his head, speaking once more.
"Heh…you were always so forgetful…" Shadow said, that benign smile forming on his lips again. "Like remember that time in the hotel?"
"Shadow…"
"You said you took everything, but you forgot that videotape we made." The hedgehog looked up at the ceiling, seeming to talk more to himself now. "Hmm…I wonder if it's still there…"
The two-tailed fox was more confused than ever. Only he and Sonic had known about that videotape. They had left it in the Lakeview Hotel, but didn't remember that until after they got home. It was a bummer, really, being denied the ability to rewatch and enjoy their wonderful experiences and memories in Sonic Hill over and over again.
"How could you know that?" Miles questioned, flabbergasted. "Only…only Sonic and I know about that…" Looking down at the floor, Miles bit his lip and wondered what was really going on. After a few seconds, an insane question came to his mind, and his eyes focused once more on the hedgehog. "…you are Shadow…aren't you?"
"I'm not your Sonic." Shadow stated.
"So…you're Shadow?"
"I am, if you want me to be."
The mysterious dark hedgehog seemed to be asking and creating more questions than answers. Not to mention he was acting extremely weird and unlike himself. Slightly frustrated and even more confused, Miles stood up and stated as sternly as he could, "All I want from you is an answer."
"It doesn't matter who I am." Shadow said, standing up too. He took a step forward, shortening the space between him and the blue-eyed kitsune. "I'm here for you now, Tails." Reaching through the bars, he wrapped his arms around the fox's ribs and pulled him close; their furry chests pressed together through the bars. Raising his left gloved hand, Shadow placed it on the young foxes face. "See? Feel; I'm real."
"But…"
Miles put his own hand on Shadow's, feeling the other furry's solid warm fingers through the glove. Indeed, he was very real.
"Don't you want to touch me?" the taller male asked, his voice tangled in sexuality. "We can't do anything from behind these bars…"
"I…" Miles tried his best not to stutter, or ramble, or just plain make an idiot out of himself. Never before was he so baffled to see someone like he was now. Not only that, but it felt as if the hedgehog had pumped twelve tons of helium into his head. It was too much, it was too weird, for his mind to fully register in less than a minute. "I…dunno…"
Shadow let go of Miles, reached up, and brushed the three independent locks of hair covering the fox's eyes out of his face. In a beautifully fluid motion, he glanced at the door in the back of his cell for a second, crimson orbs unchanging. "Come and get me."
"…okay." Miles nodded. From the looks of it, the door must be locked from this side since Shadow didn't seem to intend to leave. He could ask questions later—and he sure had plenty to ask—but for now it was more important he make sure the hedgehog was safe. He could rescue him again. It was like getting a second chance…
"I'll be back, I'm going to get you out of here." Miles said, slowly moving towards the door and stopping at it. Before leaving, he turned and stared back to the mysterious hedgehog, as if to confirm the fact that he was there for the third time.
Shadow stepped backwards till his legs touched the cell's bed, where he laid his thin body down and looked at the fox with a mischievous grin on his face. "I'll be waiting."
Taking one last glance at Shadow before exiting, Miles turned and left the room.