-Sonic-
I run through the forest at high speeds, flashing through the trees. Ahead a metallic form hovers on the edge of vision, always behind a tree, only ever allowing me glimpses of it, tantalisingly ahead on the edge of view. It's a race of a kind, but the stakes are much higher than a simple prize...
It's a flash of memory, if only real in part. Things didn't quite happen like that… With a start, I realise my elusive opponent still hangs in the air behind Tails. There just for a second before vanishing, not disappearing, but suddenly it's as if there was never anything there. Tails rushes to my side, concerned; I must have looked surprised, more than surprised, perhaps.
"What is it, Sonic?"
"Nothing... but for a moment... I almost thought I saw..." I trail off there, uncertain of just what is going on. I couldn't have seen what I thought I did; he died, was destroyed, a long time ago. Though once, during that business with Chaos, I saw his rebuilt form hanging motionless, suspended in a tube in Robotnik's tower, there was no life there - and then, the tower was destroyed, and the lifeless form too, I suppose. Besides, if he had been here, then I'd have known. Why would my memory flash that up before me, after all this time? And why would I actually see anything? A memory is all he is now.
Tails still looks concerned, worried, thinking, too, and his conclusion doesn't appear to have been very reassuring. I try and reassure him.
"Don't worry about me, Tails. I'm probably just feeling the effects of... however long it's been." To tell the truth, I hope I'm right... and Tails only looks like he believes me because he wants to. I shake my head and look across at Shadow, lying there. He looks so tired... and sort of, I don't know... maybe defenceless, smaller than he normally seems. I've never seen him like this, except maybe once, when he was recovering after the fight on the ARK. I feel... I don't know, some kind of kinship with him. I'm not all that much good at saying what I feel, or even just putting it into words; it's not something I generally do. But right now I want Shadow to be okay, a lot more than almost anything else.
After a while, Tails gets up.
"So, Sonic... what're we gonna do?"
"Well... can you find those Emeralds?"
"Shadow has one, but I don't think I can do any better than a very crude detector with the equipment we have. It could probably tell us roughly which direction to go, but that's about it."
"That'll be fine, just so long as we can find them." I have an idea that the deep blue Emerald might still be around, and I think I know where to find it... but I'm not sure if I'm right, or how to get it even if I am. Whatever, it's still best that we find the others.
Tails nods and starts heading out the door, turning in the doorway to tell me something.
"I'd better go see what plans Amy's come up with, now that we've been discovered again. I'll try and get that detector together as soon as I can." Then he goes, leaving me with several things to think about. Am I right about the Emerald, and if not, what? How long is Shadow going to stay like this? And why is my memory flashing up these old images, from a time and place long gone now? Why am I remembering things I'd thought long-buried? Why...?