The sun beat down from overhead, and Rouge instinctively spread out her wings to soak in as many of its warm, inviting rays as possible. The smell of salt tickled her nose, almost making her sneeze in reflex, and the sound of waves sliding along to the shore soothed her ears like a lullaby.
There was nothing familiar about it in the slightest, but something in her subconscious celebrated being in this environment; there were no pangs of nostalgia for a memory lost, but rather an indescribable satisfaction, as though this was something that she had always yearned to see, but never could before today.
Rouge closed her eyes, digging deep, trying to find any semblance of a memory, but nothing came to her. Aside from a vague understanding of her abilities, she remembered nothing about herself. Nothing about her past.
Nothing about the odd hedgehog who looked at her as though he were about to cry.
Rouge had nothing else to go by. She couldn't even say with confidence that Rouge was her name. But when one was lost, they followed a map. Whichever map they could find. So even if Shadow was being dishonest, even if he didn't have her best interests at heart, Rouge didn't have much choice aside from choosing to believe him for now.
And there was also that strange sensation in her gut, an instinct that had burst forth from the moment she opened her eyes.
Protect. I must protect…
"You two ready?"
Rouge blinked open her eyes, looking over to Shadow, who was stretching out his leg on a nearby tree, looking eager to get started. There was a strange energy coming from him, one that Rouge couldn't quite put her finger on-
"WARNING." Omega's voice boomed through the air, shattering her concentration. "IMMEDIATE DESTRUCTION IF DISTRACTED." The robot's hands swivelled and flexed, as though he was at the end of a full-body motor-control systems check.
...How did she know that?
"Pfft." Shadow gave his blue-lined eyes a roll. "Just try to keep up with me. I've outrun bullets before."
"I WILL BELIEVE THAT WHEN I OBSERVE IT."
The grin on Shadow's muzzle grew particularly smug, and with a gleam of his eye, he shot off, leaving nothing behind but a gust of wind and a sonic boom.
Rouge looked all around, her ears swivelling about, half-expecting Shadow to reappear somewhere behind her, or maybe to have hidden someplace nearby, having distracted them with some sort of smoke-and-mirrors trick that she hadn't caught onto, but when he came speeding back, stopping exactly where he had been a moment ago with his arms laden down with colorful fruits, Rouge felt her skepticism morph into disbelief and awe.
Shadow smiled and his spines puffed up in what she could only assume was pride when he glanced over at her. He shifted the fruits in his grasp, tossing one over to Omega, who caught it with no issues. For a moment, the robot scanned the item in his grasp before stating his findings.
"CONCLUSION: THIS IS A TRIANGLE FRUIT, ONLY FOUND IN CHAO GARDENS AND MARKETS CATERING TO THEM. THE NEAREST PLACE DETERMINED TO HAVE THE VARIETY YOU HAVE ASSEMBLED IS APPROXIMATELY 100 MILES FROM THIS LOCATION."
Rouge glanced over at Omega, unsure if she had heard him correctly. Did he mean to say that Shadow had run 100 miles, stopped to pick fruits, then run another 100 miles to get back to them, all in under a minute?
The robot squished the fruit in his grasp, much to the obvious displeasure of Shadow, and completed his analysis. "YOU HAVE CONVINCED ME THAT YOU ARE AS POWERFUL AS YOU SAY."
Oddly enough, instead of swelling with pride again, Shadow seemed to grow shy at that remark. "Well, um… y-yeah! Super powerful, yeah…"
"OBSERVATION: SHADOW RESPONDS PECULIARLY TO PRAISE."
The hedgehog tensed up at that. "Shut up!" he hissed, dropping the rest of the strangely-shaped fruits to the ground as he clenched his fists by his legs, face twisted in a snarl as a blush spread all over him.
The image was oddly endearing.
Still, the moment needed to be broken if they were to find any answers, or this doctor that both Shadow and Omega seemed to have a bone to pick with. "We should get going," Rouge said, standing her ground as two faces turned to look over at her.
"AFFIRMATIVE," Omega agreed. "EGGMAN MUST BE FOUND BEFORE HE GETS ANY FURTHER FROM OUR CURRENT LOCATION."
"Wait wait wait…" Shadow pointed a finger at Omega. "Are you saying you know where he is? Like right now?"
"I SENSED THE SIGNAL COMING FROM THE EGGMOBILE APPROXIMATELY SIX MINUTES AGO."
"YOU KNEW WHERE HE WAS FROM THE SECOND WE LEFT THE BUNKER?!" Shadow screeched. "WHAT THE FUCK, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?!"
"DETECTING HOSTILITY. ADVISING SHADOW TO 'COOL IT'."
Rouge decided that it was up to her to get things moving in the right direction. As Shadow shouted at Omega, Rouge leapt into the air, hooking her arms under the robot's joints and lifting him above the ground, effectively silencing any further bickering.
"Which way?" she asked.
In response, Omega rotated his torso as though he was a compass pointing them in the right direction, and Rouge took flight, using Omega as a guide while Shadow clung to Omega's legs at the bottom of the stack.
With Omega taking care of leading them along with his built-in sense of direction, Rouge was able to let some of her attention spread to her surroundings again. The seaside was gorgeous in ways that still felt so new to her, an experience only faintly tainted by her current situation. There were some oddities, too; large ramps dotted with dash pads that threw them forward at incredible speeds, bounce pads that helped them up massive cliffs dotted with grass on their plateaus, and towering stone loops that, when hit with a running headstart, left her feeling lighter than air and on top of the world…
Then, they turned a corner on one of the plateaus and saw a grouping of rotund robots dozing in standby mode.
Shadow's reflexes were the fastest. In an instant, he had pulled out a miniature bomb and heaved it at the group, destroying most of them and damaging the rest, which Omega took out by dropping to the ground and clambering forward with guns blazing.
"Maybe we should keep the flying to a minimum," Shadow remarked as the gunfire finally died down and Rouge touched down on the ground. "I only have so many bombs and dropping Omega every time might end up with me getting crushed."
Rouge glanced at the wreckage on the grass; unease flared up inside her like a warning siren as she saw the scattered pieces of scrap metal glinting dully amongst the greenery. "You think there's more of these?" she asked, nudging the remainder of an engine with the tip of her boot.
"It's Eggman, sweetie," Shadow drawled. "This isn't even enough to be considered a first wave when it comes to him."
"UPDATED PRIORITY," Omega droned as he turned back to his teammates. "ASSESS THIS GROUP'S CAPACITY FOR SYNCHRONIZED ROBOT DESTRUCTION."
Shadow shrank back at that. "Okay, well… Don't expect me to keep dropping bombs every time! They're not easy to make and I only have-"
"WHAT OTHER ATTACKS ARE YOU CAPABLE OF?"
"I…" A look overcame Shadow's face, as though he had bit down into a lemon when he had expected an apple. "I don't…"
"EVERYONE IS CAPABLE OF ANNIHILATION," Omega stated. "I AM THE MOST CAPABLE OUT OF THIS GROUP, BUT YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ABILITIES, AND I REQUIRE TO KNOW THEM SO I DO NOT CATCH YOU IN MY CROSSFIRE."
Shadow looked down at the ground, his mouth pressed into a thin line and his ears flat against his head. "I can work up a vortex by running around people, I guess," he admitted gloomily. "And I can kind of spindash, but… I'm pretty shit at it. Look, I'm not great for combat, I've always been more of an evasion and stealth kind of guy, so-"
"UNDERSTOOD. PRACTICE IS REQUIRED."
"That's not what I said!"
"PRACTICE CAN BE ACHIEVED BY SHOOTING YOU AND ROUGE OUT OF MY CANNONS."
"Wh… ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"I could try throwing you as well," Rouge offered.
Shadow's eyes went wide in betrayal. "You're trying to kill me," he whispered. "You're both trying to kill me."
A commotion from a few yards away caught the group's attention. Rouge looked over to Omega and nodded, flying over on her own before flipping down and tearing through one of the enemy robots, bisecting it with her heel alone.
She had a feeling that showing Omega what she was capable of was a better plan than explaining it, and in any case, she wanted more of an understanding of her abilites herself.
As she effortlessly ripped one robot's head from its torso, she could tell that she was hiding more power than she had anticipated.
What am I?
Shadow hadn't been exaggerating when he had told her about the near countless enemy robots swarming the beautiful seaside hills; every turn the picturesque landscape provided also brought forward more foes to flatten, and bit by bit, their small, strange team was figuring out formations and tactics to move forward.
Omega's arsenal of weapons proved almost limitless and his large body was an easy way to keep the group together on steep ascents. Shadow was finally coerced into Omega's cannons and Rouge's hands, and proved to be a particularly deadly projectile, even if he didn't always stick the landing and ended up lying flat on his back with a look on his face that promised death upon anyone who laughed.
He still refused to be in the middle whenever Rouge took the lead and flew them all up as high as her stamina allowed 一 "Look, Rouge, maybe you can lift three tons, but I sure can't. His weight would tear me in half." 一 choosing instead to keep his grip on Omega's feet and to be the lookout for any missed attackers.
And Rouge…
Rouge was beginning to wonder, as her capability for strength, speed, and destruction kept proving to be much higher than expected, if maybe she was locked away for a reason. She could rip, tear, clobber, stun… all at a higher level of power than she felt like she should have been able to achieve.
The word 'ultimate' came to her.
So did the word 'weapon'.
"So, you were the ones playing games with my army!"
Even with the loud whirring of multiple propellers and engines, a man's voice sounded clearly across the walkway that cut through the crystalline blue waters. Rouge squinted against the sun, her crimson eyes taking in the massive red aircraft shaped like a bird, and zeroed in on its pilot, a man with a thick mustache.
That must be…
"PRIMARY TARGET DETECTED," Omega announced, confirming her suspicions. "DESTROY DR. EGGMAN."
"You must be Omega…" the doctor realized, sounding oddly amazed before making a quick shift back to infuriated. "Hmph! Is that any way to treat your creator?" he demanded, slamming a fist down on his control panel and lifting the aircraft higher into the sky. "Now, witness your master's true power!"
"Wait!" Rouge called out, but it was too late; the Egg Hawk started moving away, leaving her behind with no new answers about who she was or why he had contained her.
Without another word, Shadow dashed forward, teeth bared in a snarl.
Without a second thought, Rouge flew after him, with Omega rocketing along as well.
Their earlier training and combat practice along the hills and plateaus began to show their worth in a new way; with their new agenda of stopping the Egg Hawk in its tracks, Rouge was on the lookout for patterns in Eggman's attacks and maneuvers, finding openings to strike in time with her teammates. When Shadow put his focus on the left engine and Omega zeroed in on the cockpit, Rouge set her sights on the right engine, and little by little they tore down at the doctor's aircraft.
Taking care of the right engine was child's play as, once again, Rouge felt herself expelling more energy and power than she felt she should have been able to, but she shook off her misgivings and flew over to Shadow, who was still clumsily but determinedly spindashing at his own engine.
Rouge felt the instinct to fly forth and assist him, but one look at Shadow's pained, frantic expression made her stop. This wasn't something she could intrude on, not when Shadow was fighting like…
Like…
Like he has something to prove…
The bat redirected her attention to the cockpit instead, where Omega was firing an endless barrage of bullets into the hull, absolutely merciless as he droned "ANNIHILATE!" at his creator. Rouge swooped in to help him, aiming a kick at the glass protecting the doctor.
As her heel closed in, her mind began to race. Could this be it? Could she break the glass, drag the man out, and shake the answers she needed out of him? Was she already at the end of this journey, and what path would she walk after she knew what she needed to know?
But before she could hit the glass, a stray bullet ricocheted off of the hull and thrust itself at her arm, spinning her off-axis as pain bloomed in her left bicep. Rouge gasped, panic gripping at her like a vice, and she landed on the ground, a little bit away from where Omega was still firing, to check on her arm.
She expected to see a hole, metal buried below the skin, and miniature rivers of blood. Yet there was none of the above, which perplexed her.
But what she did see drew her attention like a moth to a flame. It was as though a small beam of light, of truth, suddenly pierced through the fog in her head when she saw it emblazoned on her arm.
A sharp red swirl, spiked in all directions… a symbol that looked like…
Like…
Rouge growled as the fog in her head grew thick again, and any inkling of what this symbol was or what it represented vanished.
Who am I? she wanted to scream. Who am I what is this what am I what is going on what-
"Rouge! Get your ass over here, we've almost got him!"
Shadow's yell dragged her away from the vortex of her tumultuous thoughts, and Rouge shook her head, stretching out her left arm to make sure it still functioned.
Somehow, all the pain had disappeared already.
Rouge couldn't afford to dwell on her odd tolerance for pain, nor the confusing indestructibility she seemed to have; Eggman was hanging on to his last thread, and if they could just take him down, she could know.
She could know everything.
She flew over, allowing Omega to pick her up and load her into his cannon and fire the final blow. As Rouge impacted with an ear-splitting crash, she heard the sound of the aircraft break apart and Shadow whoop in victory…
"This isn't the end!"
...and then immediately start screaming in rage while Omega shot more bullets. Rouge unfurled herself just in time to see Eggman fly out of the destroyed Egg Hawk in a small bubble-like craft, and nimbly dodge Omega's shots as he disappeared into the sky.
"COWARD," Omega projected into the empty air, firing off a few extra shots for good measure.
"FUCK YOU!" Shadow screamed into the sky. "WE GOT YOU! GET BACK HERE BEFORE I REALLY GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO RUN AWAY FROM!"
"AGREED. RAGE OPERATING AT MAXIMUM LEVELS."
And as they yelled in bitter, bloodthirsty fury, Rouge felt her energy begin to drain.
That was it? All that, and for nothing?
Who am I who am I who am I come back please tell me please I don't know I don't know Idon'tknowIdon'tknowIdon'tknow...
"Shadow!" she called out, her overwhelm nearly choking the words in her throat. The hedgehog paused, turning around with a disgusted look on his face, but it morphed into concern when he saw her state. Rouge looked down at her hands.
They were trembling.
What's wrong with me?
"What can you tell me?" she forced out. "What do you know about me, what do you know about who I am?"
Shadow's eyes grew wide, and he took a step back, averting his gaze. Terror seized Rouge at his reaction.
What am I what am I what am I what did I do?
"I… look." Shadow cleared his throat and smoothed back his spines, though they remained dishevelled from the aftermath of the battle. "I don't… really know how much I'm allowed to tell you, you know?"
Rouge didn't know.
"Like…" Shadow waved one hand as he struggled to explain. "I think I've heard that you're not supposed to tell amnesiacs everything? In case it overwhelms them or misdirects them, or maybe it has something to do with it ruining your chances of remembering everything yourself?"
Rouge didn't know how to respond to that, either.
"And maybe that's a bunch of bullshit," Shadow continued, "but I don't… I don't want to risk that. That's kinda why I wanted to get to Eggman… he might know if that's true, or might have a way to get your memories back, so… so let's keep tracking him down, okay?"
Rouge didn't answer. A gust of wind passed between the two of them, tangling Shadow's spines and lifting the long waves of Rouge's hair into its current, and Rouge realized that she might have been deceived by Shadow from the start. Perhaps she was the means to an end… a weapon to get to Eggman.
Maybe that was all she was, to him and to anyone else...
"Rouge, I…"
Shadow's face twisted in grief before he forced it into a mask of calmness. The world around them grew quiet as nothing 一 from the waves coming onto the shore, to the winds around them, to Omega only a few feet away 一 dared interrupt the black hedgehog struggling before her.
"...You saved me, once. So that's… So I'm going to help you get your memories back. All of them. I promise."
He looked right at her, the intensity of his teal gaze momentarily obliterating all of her misgivings.
And finally, Rouge answered him.
"Okay."
Next chapter: A run-in with the Chaotix leads Shadow to reveal something he would have preferred to keep hidden.