Chapter 7- See no evil
" Shadow?" I asked in amazement.
" Yeah , it's me" he said. Was it my imagination, or was did his voice have a hint of anger in it, even fear?
" I can't believe your alive Shadow!" I said. Knuckles had told me he was captured, not dead, but I hadn't thought of the other Sonic clone letting him live. But here he was. He sniffed rudely in reply to my comment and replied with increasing venom in his voice
" Why do you care Sonic! Your the one that put me here". What! My brain did a double tack. Oh right! He thought I was the clone that killed all of the others. This would be difficult. Shadow was never the most trusting person, but when he thought an enemy was in the same room as him, he wouldn't believe anything I would say.
" Listen Shadow, I know this gonna sound strange and like a trick but, I'm not who you think I am!". He huffed and said
" Yes Sonic, I'm not stupid, I know your not a clone like you lead everyone to believe, it's the real you in there, robonics device still working even though he dies years ago". Wait! Was he saying that the Sonic who has been leading these demon like robots through the apocalypse was in fact, the real me? I shock my head. I would have to find out later. This new news was would in fact help me. All I had to do was show him I was really a robot and then... And then show him, that I was on his side.
" Look Shadow, I don't know why the other Sonic put you in here, or why he is still loyal to robotnic, but I'm not him"
" Whatever" came his predictable response. I grabbed his hand with own, uncovered, claw-like one. He started to struggle but then realised that the robot hand that grabbed him was my own. I heard him mumble the word ' What?' To himself, as I moved his clenched hand over to my head, letting it run down the robotic eye and numerous wires. Next I bought it to my chest, making sure his fingers ran down my unnatural bones and circuitry. Finally I rubbed it over my arm, letting him feel the bone pipes and metal network.
When I was done, I let his hand drop, leaving him a few minuets to figure out where his loyalties lied. There was a long, almost unnatural silence, through which the only sounds where my electronic veins seeping blood through my copied systems. I heard Shadow sigh and could almost see him frowning through the darkness. I smiled slightly. Shadow never would have been smiling right now, even if this had happened when I was...normal.
Finally his voice broke the stretching silence. It seemed confused and slightly worried.
" I thought we had destroyed all of you" he said in a shallow tone. By 'all of you' I assumed he meant the clones, how many copies were there?
" No, I remained in the old lab, locked away, Knuckles freed me "I replied, hoping I was convincing the most untrusting hedgehog in history that I was on his side.
" And, he wiped your destructive programming?" He said, his voice not giving any clues to whether he believed me or not.
" No, I never had it. At first I thought I was the real Sonic, then Tails told me and now I'm here". I felt Shadow growl next to me and said in a hard tone
" Tails, that scumbag!". There was silence once again. I absent mindedly fiddled with the chain around my forearm, twisting it around my metal fingers. " So you have been in contact with Knuckles, Vector and Rouge?" He said calmly, although I could tell there was some anticipation building up in his voice. I smiled to myself and said
" Knuckles freed me, remember? And Vector, yeah I saw him too" I said, remembering the last member of Shadows short list. " But Rouge? I thought she was dead". I heard a groan from Shadow that almost made him sound like he was in pain.
" Rouge is dead? No wonder I haven't heard anything from the guards" he paused, his voice showing sadness for the first time since I had encountered him. " Knuckles, imagine how he has felt" he finished, his voice mournful. My eye widened and I said
" Were they a couple?" I asked, curios. I heard Shadow give a gentle, proper laugh and he said
" Well, not officially, they never kissed or anything. But you can tell from the way they look at each other, there was something going on there". I shock my head in disbelief 'poor Knuckles'. Deciding not to linger on this painful subject any longer , I asked Shadow hopefully
" So, do you believe me?". I heard him sigh and there was silence, he was obviously trying to figure out whether I was trustworthy or not. I hoped he would say yes, having Shadow on our side mean we had a powerful ally, that was if Vector and that lot would let me back now they knew the truth.
" I guess it doesn't really matter if I believe you or not, either way I could potentially be killed, either rotting away in this dungeon or risking my live with you" Shadow said. I smirked. He never did like to admit someone was right, he would always twist it so he sounded smarter. " But I never did like hanging around clone, which you should know since you have Sonic's memories". I nodded, he was right about that, I don't think I , he had ever seen Shadow standing still for more than ten minuets. " So, I guess I will take my chance with you, I assume you have a way out of this place?" He finished, a hint of humour coming through in his voice. I smiled as well, I had done it, I had convinced Shadow not to rip my throat out. Now for the hard part, getting out of here.
I noticed while I had been absentmindedly twisting the chain round my finger, one of the metallic claws had gotten stuck in the hop of the chain. I growled slightly and tried to pull it out, but that only resulted in me twisting it round even further. I gulped when I realised what I may have had to do. True it was only a finger and could probably be easily replaced if lost, but pulling it out of it's joint, even an artificial one, had to hurt.
I took a breath and pulled, ready to feel the slow pull on my joint as the claw slowly popped out of place. But , funnily enough, the pain never came. I continued to pull my finger until, eventually, the chain itself snapped in half.
I stood, dumbstruck for a second as my hand came free of the chain, still with its five fingers and flopped gently to my side. I heard Shadow shuffle around and ask
" What happened?". After snapping back to reality I grinned and said
" I think my friend, I just found a way out of here"
So after pulling Shadow free of his own chains and spin dashing the walls down together, we found our selves in the same corridor I was led through to get to my temporary cell.
" Yes!" I shouted in triumph, clasping my hand over my mouth when I realised I may alert the security robots. With a huge grin plastered all over my face, I turned to Shadow, expecting him to seem happy too, or at least satisfied. But his back was turned and he seemed to be staring into space. " Shadow?" I asked in concern " What's wrong?". His ear twitched and he turned around, his eyes closed. This puzzled me.
" Sonic" he said, his voice wavering slightly. I frowned , my face growing slightly shadowed in the low light.
" Yeah..." I said, urging him on. With his eyes still clamped firmly shut he continued with
" While I was here, in that miserable hole of a cell, I had continuous visits from several types of robots, as well as Tails himself" he stopped, took a deep, shuddering breath that made me panic. Since when did Shadow become afraid of anything? I also wondered what Tails would visit him for, hoping it wouldn't be anything, inappropriate. " They used anyway they could to make my life a living hell, slicing my skin, burning me with red hot metal spikes. But worst of all, much, much worse, was when they took that electric spike to my eyes". I looked him over, true enough, his whole body was covered in huge, manky scars, much like Knuckles own, but these were far more numerous and lacked the fur to cover them. But what alarmed me the most was what he had said about his eyes. Did it mean he was...
" Blind" he said, opening his eyes. I felt my heart pull with sympathy and my mind freeze with shock. His once sharp, red pupils were now an empty colour of white, like a layer of mist that covered them. No longer did his eye possess separate parts, it now all swam in that empty fog, forever blinding him. I couldn't believe it. Who had an evil enough heart to do these horrible deeds against my friends?
" Shadow I-" I begun, but was cut off.
CRASH! The wall behind us collapsed, revealing the same robots who had captured me last time. I gulped and turned to Shadow, who's white, useless eyes where swinging wildly.
" What? Where?" He said in confusion, not aware of a robot approaching his from behind. Without thinking I dashed forwards, grabbed his hand and dragged him along, my ears flattening back to lessen drag. We had to get out here, and now. Although where we would go, I didn't think about. " Sonic?" Asked Shadow uncertainly, as he felt the movement of my running feet but couldn't see the destination.
" Just hold on Shadow!" I snapped, swerving to the right after a robot transported in front of me.
We rushed through the corridors of the robots base, desperately seeking a way out. Twice I had tried to spin dash down one of the walls down, but twice I had failed, the building obviously constructed of something far stronger than brick or steel.
But I kept my pace up non-the-less. Running full pelt down the corridor with Shadow half clinging to my back, trying to avoid my spines as I ran. I felt myself sweat as I became desperate, running down another fork in the corridors. Running until the lights went out.
I fumbled around blindly in the dark, flattening my already swore nose as I stumbled into the wall. I tried to stay calm, hoping that I wouldn't loss Shadow in this blanket of darkness and preying that a robot wouldn't find us.
" Intruder located" I heard a metallic voice rung out behind me. Frustrated I said
" Oh sh-", when suddenly a quite hum rang out and a enormous pain erupted in my legs. I collapsed. The lights flashed to life and eliminated a giant of a robot, holding up a smoking cannon barrel arm, it's red eyes flashing. I looked down when the pain had died away enough for me to squeeze open my eyes, instinctively wanting to know what damage had been done.
I wish I hadn't.
My legs were no longer there. My eyes almost fell out when I saw it, my heart ready to jump out too from shock. Below my pelvis, streaming off smoke as if chimneys, lay tiny stumps of metal work, wires loosely hanging off the edge, melted away at the ends. I watched, helplessly and unsure, as more robots marched in, their heavy footsteps echoing in my mind. Cursing in my head and aloud, I figured we would be safe if I could still run, only the fastest jet robots could keep up with me. But no, now an robot could outrun us, wiping us out in a few seconds.
" Sonic?" Said Shadow, sounding apprehensive " What's going on?". I sighed.
" We're screwed Shadow, totally and utterly screwed"
AUTHORS NOTES
I'm sorry for being ages before I updated, I was buisy with other fic but they have been deleted, so I have no choice but to continue this one.