Author's note: Hey! Sorry it took so long. I have Band Camp for the next week, so don't expect another update until next Saturday! I leave you with a cliff-hanger, sorry. This chapter has it's gruesome parts. I realized that I write better like that. Hope you enjoy it, and please don't hesitate to tell me if I'm too graphic with my writing.
Chapter Five: Back to the Future
Day Seven:
Tails begged Knuckles, repeatedly, to come back with us. Again and again, the fox asked the echidna to come back. Knuckles would only shake his head. "I'm sorry, Tails, but I belong with my own kind," he would say, patting the fox on the back. It nearly broke me to see Tails last night. He cried himself to sleep. I was exhausted from the night before, but I still listened to him cry in his bed. Once again, I had been forced to sleep on the floor. Around three in the morning, Knuckles cracked.
"STOP!" He yelled at Tails. I jolted awake. I didn't even know that I had fallen asleep. "Just stop! You have something to come home to, I don't! Don't give me all of this! All I have is a life of pain and loneliness to come back to! I hated my life back there!"
I walked into the room. Tails looked as if Knuckles had punched him clear across the face. He glared at Knuckles with burning eyes. Knuckles backed up a step or two. His angry face turned into a worried expression. I knew what he had done. He hit a nerve. He was saying that Tails and Sonic and the Master Emerald, Team Chaotix and everything in the future didn't matter. "Tails. . .?" Knuckles whispered. Tails stood, slamming his fist into Knuckles' abdomen and fled from the house.
I glared at him. "Nice going!" I snapped.
"Shut up, Shadow! This is all your fault!" Knuckles screamed.
"My fault? Knuckles, if you had left your blasted Island, then I wouldn't have had to go up there in the first place! You are to blame for this!" I yelled back.
"ME?" Knuckles retorted bitterly. "Shadow, you are to blame for so much in our lives, even if this isn't one of them!"
"What are you hinting at? I did NOTHING!"
"Exactly! You would have watched the world get destroyed while you tried to figure out your twisted past!"
I flinched. Yes, it was true, I had felt like that, but that was also almost four years ago, before Metal. "This argument is getting too personal," I whispered.
He knew that he had hit a soft spot. He kept at it. "Why, Shadow? You can't handle the fact that you nearly destroyed the Earth? You idiot!"
"Shut up!"
"And Maria! You ever thought that maybe she just pretended to like you to make her grandfather happy?"
"SHUT UP!"
"Make me, Shadow, if that is your real name."
Oh, I'll make you! I thought. I lunged, going strait for the throat. Knuckles threw up his hands, but a fraction of a second too slow. I gripped his throat, fully cutting off his air. Oh, I had panned on killing him that night; letting him die slowly and feeling every minute of his death. He grabbed at my arms, but I held him strong. He began banging the ground in a ditch effort to call for help. Everyone was asleep and the only guy who was wandering the area was either too far away or too angry to save him. Knuckles was gone.
Suddenly, I felt myself flying through the air. Looking up, I saw Ky standing over Knuckles, checking him. Knuckles was gasping desperately for air. Ky soothed him by rubbing his chest. I watched through blurred eyes, both from the pain in my head and the pain in my heart.
When Knuckles finally slept, Ky walked over to me. I stood up and met his eyes, though he was a few inches shorted than me. Through all we had done Ky always had a smile on his face, now he was angry. His face was so twisted with anger, I flinched a bit, but Ky didn't see it. "Get out," he whispered.
"You can't kick me out of here!" I growled.
"Get. OUT!"
I flinched again and nodded. I felt Ky's glare burning in my back as I exited the room. Sighing, I began to run. Running was something that always helped me. The skates kicked in after about ten feet and I was skating. I never understood why moving me feet helped, but I loved it. Over my whole life, I had never known the full joy of life, but I had never tried to take a life like that. I looked back in my mind. Knuckles was mouthing words at me, silently screaming to be let go. The horror in his eyes when they met my own, crazed expression.
I shook my head. It was in the past. I chuckled a bit. All of this was in the past. I halted at the gate of the city. Staring through it, I let my mind wander. I went back to the ARK, not 50 years ago, but a mere four.
"It's all going according to plan. There's no reason for me to help them."
"They always have a reason to be happy; that's why you should help them out."
"Give them a chance."
"That's the reason you were brought into this world. Sayonara, Shadow, the Hedgehog."
"I failed."
I lifted my head, aware of someone standing beside me. There was a hand on my shoulder. "Shadow, life can be cruel." I looked over to see a black figure standing beside me.
"Quiden?"
She nodded. "I heard about you and Knuckles. I'm sorry he's not coming back with you, but he does belong with Echidnas."
"How. .?"
"Ky always makes noises when he enters the library to sleep." I cocked my head. "Ky's homeless. He has no family in the Tribe." I widened my eyes. "They're not dead, if that's what you are thinking. They betrayed our Tribe. We told Ky they were dead, though, to save him the pain of knowing his parents were traitors. So, he lives in library."
I nodded. "I have no family," I whispered.
"Oh," Quiden said softly. "I'm so sorry. What happened to them?"
I shook my head. "I never had a family. No parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, or anything like that."
"But, how?"
Suddenly, I didn't care if she thought I was crazy. I told her everything. She listened with pure interest. My entire story slipped out, even the junk about Doom. When I finished, it was deathly silent. I knew she thought I was crazy.
Quiden nodded. "I believe you."
I was taken aback. "Yo. . .You what?"
"I believe you." People in my own time would have trouble believing that story and here, in the past with no technology, a female echidna that existed 300 years ago believed my story. I smiled. "Thank you," I said.
"No problem. No one from my time could come up with that story off the top of their heads. I'm sorry about your loss." All I did was nod. "Are you returning to your time?"
"When the sun rises."
She nodded. "Good-bye, Shadow," she said and turned and disappeared into the pitch black night. I wandered until I found Tails. He was sitting in a tree, crying.
"Tails," I called. He looked up at me and had this terrified look on his face. "You saw." He nodded. "Do you want to leave now?" He nodded again. "Come on."
Without saying a word, the twin-tailed fox jumped from the tree. Without looking back, we walked out of the city. I lifted my Chaos Emerald to my face and Tails gripped my shoulder. He nodded, signaling he was ready. We just walked. How long we walked is beyond me. When we were well into the woods, I quietly whispered, "Chaos Control."
When I opened my eyes, I was expecting to see the Shrine. I had expected to be where we had left, but we were definitely NOT on Angel Island. Tails had recovered from the warp before I had. He was staring blankly at the ruins, but they were the Mystic Ruins. We were standing in the middle of a ruined city. I gulped. "Where are we?" I whispered. Tails shook his head. I looked around as well. The street we were standing on had no cars, not that it was able to be driven on in the first place. The median beside us had a dead, black tree on it and the grass was nothing more than brown blades.
But what scared me the most was the sky. It was a greyish-red color and there was black and brown clouds gathering. The air was hot and heavy, but it looked as if no rain had happened on this place in years. The air was also almost unbearable. I could feel the pollution in the sky. Tails began coughing violently. I walked over to him and began banging his back until he caught his breath. I was used to breathing air similar to this, so it had no effect on me. There was not a soul in sight. Once again I was wondering where we were.
Tails backed away from me and ran. "Tails! We need to stick together!" I yelled. I chased after him, cursing his name. He was terrified and he had lost a friend in the process. I figured he knew Knux was dead, considering the time change. "TAILS!"
I became aware of the sound of feet behind my silent skate strokes. I didn't look back, too concerned that Tails would change direction while I was looking back. The fox was not as fast as me, but I, on the other hand, couldn't fly. I often caught up with him, but he would jump and fly, then I would slow up so he would land and we continued this until we reached the water.
Tails halted with a loud scream. I stopped as well, grabbing him, but he didn't say anything. He was staring out at the water. I looked at it as well. Once again, I was well aware of the sound of heavy breathing behind us. The water was dark crimson with greenish-brown swirls in it. It reminded me of puke mixed with blood. (Graphic, I know!) Dead, decaying fish, and bones, were floating at the top of the water. Tails turned away from me, bent over and threw up. I rubbed his back until he finished. He stood up strait and both of us stared out into the green and red soup that used to be the ocean.
"Sad, isn't it?" A voice said behind us. I spun around, ready to fight. All I saw was a swift blur of brown-ish fur. I heard Tails scream again, but it was cut off as he fell to the ground. I looked desperately for our attacker, but didn't see it. Suddenly, my world exploded into a white light that turned red. I fell to the ground as the red glow slowly faded into black.
Author's note: A reminder, the next chapter will be up in about 2 weeks, sorry! Please R&R!
