Author's notes:
I've been in hospital again, so things haven't been going well for me either, hence the late chapter, so sorry for the long wait. I have really enjoyed writing this series, and world-building (or, should I say: worlds building?) and won't quit very easily.
The next chapter should be a carry on from either Shadow's or Knuckle's prov, once I figure out what to do with them. Saying that, if someone would be kind enough to help plan/write the series, I would be so grateful, or just BETA. I've never been good at English, despite being a native, so I apologise for any mistakes.
That said and done, I'm going back to sleep to hopefully get better, and ignore the fact that the Cronovirus exists for the next few weeks.
-Anomalous123.
Chapter 16- Shadow Android's Promise:
Edited: 04/10/2021 (Day/Month/Year)
Android Shadow felt the silence suffocating as they traversed the streets, a half-cocked plan forming in his central processor. His fights were clenched, his body tensed. He didn't like leaving Sonic on his own for too long- disaster always seemed to follow the blue hedgehog wherever he goes. It was best to stick nearby to avoid pro-longed physical- and emotional- damage. Short bursts were the easiest to heal; the real danger was letting the hedgehog stir in his thoughts for any sort of time.
Since the accident, Sonic had lost most of his usual optimism for life. He was becoming more robotic, more... stoic. Sure, he had his moments of excitement. Moments of when he truthfully enjoyed the things he did, but captivity was never a good thing to force upon such a social creature. More so, when his captor was messing with his mind and body to the point he couldn't remember what is real and what is pretend, anymore.
Android Shadow almost missed the days where the blue blur would run freely, annoying people to either play hide and seek with him or give him food. Other times, he would rally his friends to fight for what he thought was right, explore the world in a day, or bounce back from daily fights without a care in the world.
Now, they were stuck here, searching desperately for a way out of the doctor's grasp.
It was within their reach. They had left the mad man's fortress and was finally free from the demons of their past...
Or, so he thought.
Sonic had to go and get himself into trouble.
Getting ambushed by the GUN agents, and then getting kidnapped by Knuckles' band of misfits? It was just his luck that something would go wrong.
He should have Chaos Controlled them away and out of the city when they had the chance... but his programming held him back. His constant connection to his creator overwhelming his logic circuits.
To run would be dangerous.
They knew too many of Eggman's secretes.
Knew the layout of his base. The ranks and capabilities of his creations. Knew the doctor's fears and weaknesses. His past and his mistakes.
That information would be too valuable to lose; he couldn't risk them talking to either side.
The doctor would always come after them if only to keep such things intact.
He had done it before with the others. Haunted them down. Tortured them for information before putting them through a permanent deactivation.
It proved how desperate he was. How dangerous he could be towards their continued existence.
The last time this occurred, he feared he would lose Sonic. One of the others had got out of containment and wreaked havoc, before stumbling across the blue hedgehog. Shadow didn't know what the rogue experiment actually said, but it, apparently, had gained the sympathy of his companion, who ultimately distracted the doctor long enough to disabled the security system in place.
(Sonic had always been too kind and empathetic for his own good.)
They escaped that night, hand in hand, running off into one of the secrete colonies in the woods.
It took months to find them.
Every second was a mixture of agony and fear to Shadow. It was the worse seven months of his life. Every failer and every mislead would be punished.
The doctor was beyond angry at the point, sending wave upon wave of minions out to the far corners of the map, hoping to get a glimpse of the blue hedgehog, but his efforts were fruitless. Sonic and the other experiment seemed to be gone.
He doubled his efforts, hoping to find the blue hedgehog and bring him back before the doctor could spiral into insanity. It was horrifying what lengths the doctor was going through to bring him back. Hundreds of bodies, dead or converted, from his rampage.
By the time they found him, it was too late for this world. The few survivors scattered across the globe had little hope to cling to.
They found him curled up in a basement, clinging to the body of the escaped experiment, broken down in tears. The figure laid prone, a hole through his chest. Most of the residents of Nutthole lay, dead, serval feet above their heads.
It had been a massacre; the bodies in serval states of decapitation and decomposition.
Sonic had babbled on hysterically, but nothing was coherent over the sobs that wracked his body. He rambled on about 'new worlds', 'other forms' and 'imposters'. At the time, Shadow couldn't make sense of it. It was too fictional. Too theoretical, to be true.
Instead, he picked up the sobbing hedgehog and carried him far away. At first, he had put up a fight, trying to reach the dead form on the ground before he collapsed against his chest, tears pouring down his face as he clung to Shadow to dear life.
When he got back, Shadow was banished to his pod while the doctor worked endlessly in the medbay. He didn't know exactly what he was doing in there, but, when the pair emerged, Sonic was back to his old self.
Momentary relief had sparked deep within his system until the blue hedgehog had come up to him and demanded him to tell him who he was in a playful voice.
Shadow was devastated.
The doctor said that the amnesia was the result of the trauma afflicted upon the blue hedgehog that made him forget. Shadow didn't believe him for a second. The doctor did something to him. Something irreversible.
Shadow lost all faith from then on of every getting his friend back. The memories were gone. He just knew it. It wasn't like his situation. An outside force had taken them.
Just moments after this, the doctor sent him on a mission. He couldn't bear to be in the same vicinity, looking at the empty shell that his friend use to occupy. So he went in search of the Chaos Emeralds.
That night, he had returned, his hands stained with blood and his heart strained with regret. The doctor was pacing anxiously in front of the computer screen, his face contorted with contemplation. As soon as he stepped into the room, the doctor had stopped, turning to him and started to tell him the truth... With proof.
To say he was shocked was an understatement.
What was said that night echoed around his head to this very day? He had launched into an explanation of who the experiment actually was, how he escaped, what happened to the village, and what the insane rabbling was about.
Shadow couldn't bear to believe it. His head was still buzzing hours after Robotnick had left him alone in the console room.
He had been working with the wrong man...
For months, now.
He had been the cause of the village's death.
Had been the cause of why Sonic lost his memories.
Things had started to slot into place.
It was all too much; the entire situation was f*cked.
It was then he decided to get revenge.
He would ensure that the fake Robotnick was stone dead by his own hands.
Everything went blank after that. Despite his creators best efforts, there was very little he could remember. His memories were so hazy, that he could only get flashes that caused disorientation, confusion and headaches.
Memories were sacred these days. His timeline was so patchy it was hard to ignore. Something must have happened between that moment and getting re-constructed by his creator. Something that was enough to warrant repair. Serval times, he finds himself thinking if ever got his revenge on the fake? If he ever got close to giving his friend some relief? Some closure?
Thankfully, the memories had started to come back in fragments for his friend. Momentary flashes and odd pieces of information cropping up in random fits and episodes. It wasn't a lot, but there was hope.
The doctor had said that a fresh start would be the way to go.
New life.
A fresh identity.
Shadow found himself agreeing, refusing to let his friend stay in a war zone. So, he gathered all the emeralds and helped bring them somewhere new. Someplace to finally call their home.
It was a shame it didn't work out that way.
Things were fine for a while.
They started to make friends with the locals until Robotnick ruined it all.
He went quickly back to his old tricks, his old schemes, and Shadow had made the mistake of abetting him.
Soon the nearby villages feared the doctor's name and then Shadow was back to leading armies again... This time, though, without his faithful companion by his side.
It was new, certainly, but not the step forward that he wanted. Rebels started to rise in various factions, trying to hold back the army.
Another war was stirring on the horizon, and he was on the front lines.
He refused to oblige; refused to obey... But Robotnick was too cleaver.
Too anticipating.
He used the blue hedgehog's life against him, threatening Android Shadow with his best friend's deactivation.
He couldn't back down. Couldn't cower in the corner. He had to do it.
Robotnick may treat them like mindless machines that were to be discarded as soon as he was done playing with them, but Shadow knew better. They both were alive. With feelings and thoughts and memories.
Right there, and then, he promised to do anything he could to keep Sonic alive whatever the coast...
Even if he didn't like it.
Things only got worse from then on. Another Sonic had stumbled on the scene, tall, nibble and full of terrible quips and one-liners. It had happened before, seeing another distorted version of his best friend. The last one- the first copy- turned had tried to gain their trust, acting innocent and child-like until their true nature started to unravel. That version had been corrupted by Chaos and had developed a second form, who revelled in death and destruction.
Back then, Sonic had his heartbreak at learning the truth but still wanted to help him. To make him better. The results had ended badly and Sonic's faith in others began to slip, burdened by all the death and Chaos his 'help' had invertedly caused.
Fortunately, this one seemed more open- more normal to the travellers, even if he was an annoying pest. Sure, he had super his superspeed, but that seemed to be standard for any version of Sonic. Apart from that, he was a normal teenager, thrust into a position he struggled to fill. Nothing
Through this double ganger, Android Shadow had started to learn why the doctor was so averse to this world. Just the sight of him brought back painful memories of a pre-memory wiped Sonic. It made his heart sting and his skin prickle. The sight was reminded of what Sonic would have been if Robonick didn't interfere with their lives. If he hadn't been created.
His body always itching for a fight. To punch him in that smug face and gangly limbs so he didn't have to look at this cheap imitation any longer.
The animosity for him only grew as beef between not-Sonic and the Doctor grew into hate. The blue hedgehog started to do surprise inspections of the base just to ensure himself that Robotnick wasn't cooking up anything evil in any moments of peace. It happened so frequently and randomly that their Sonic wasn't allowed out of his room during the day and had to be on alert at night.
He hated it. Everything about it.
Sonic had been forbidden to make contact with anyone from this new world, especially when it comes to his double, rendering him trapped in the base, forcing him to play a twisted game of hiding and seek when they had any unwanted visitors. It got so bad that Robonick had resorted to locking him in one of the Chronic Capsels around a near run-in with this version of Tails.
Every night, Android Shadow would come and sit by the capsule, guarding and talking to his unconscious friend. Every night, his hatred for the situation grew, and when morning broke he would do something more foolish, more reckless.
He had to find those Emeralds. He had to fix this. This world was better, yet so much worse. Just like before, they couldn't stay here. The Doctor was slowly making the planet unsure by his pointless battles with the nearby villages, putting the whole country on alert.
Surely, the same trick would work again? Take them to another time or place. To save this planet from the Doctor's tyranny? The Doctor's grief?
Maybe they could keep doing this forever. Hop from planet to planet until they came across what Robotnick was searching for? They had been to three already, what is stopping them from visiting another? It would stop the fighting, and keep the Doctor busy.
Maybe the rage and disappointment would fade one day. There's got to be a world where he would just give in and stop, right? There just had to be...
Meeting Rogue was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Seeing her fall three hundred or so feet from an airship was something he was not ready for. She had passed out early on, way before the fall could get to her. With one big leap and a careful Chaos Control, he had swiped her out of the air and saved her impacting the unforgiving ground.
It took him a long moment or two to register his reaction before placing her down and backing away. The bat had slept peacefully, unconscious of the world around here. Oblivious to the conflict going on in his processing.
He hadn't done this before. Saved someone without a reason. It was strange. It was new...
He had shaken himself. Sonic's heroic behaviour must be rubbing off on him.
... Although now he thought about it, her form was similar.
That purple outfit.
Those wings.
They brought back faded memories of a time long forgotten. A sting of remorse and begrudging acceptance wash over him.
Feelings of guilt had stirred in his gut as a wave of primal protectiveness washed over his form.
Android Shadow stepped back, confused and slightly fearfulness stirring at his strange display of emotional weakness.
This was wrong.
He should be feeling these things.
He wasn't programmed to...
And, yet those feeling were strong and so real.
In his daze, he approached her once more and carried her from out of the forest, towards the Doctor's base.
She was hurt.
She needed help.
... And for some reason, he felt he was the one who had to help her.
He would hide her from the doctor and help her heal until she was strong enough to leave.
It felt the right thing to do.
The only thing to do.
He just hoped it was the right decision...
Android Shadow was jolted out of his thoughts by metal footsteps getting closer. He glanced up to see Omega staring down at him. Despite his lack of expressive features, he knew the other was cornered.
"IS THERE ANY REASON WHY YOU HAVE CEASED WALKING?" It started, an almost concerned tone coming out of its voice modulated. Shadow knew that shouldn't be possible- Omega wasn't like him or Sonic- but there it was... Maybe he was just imagining it.
Pushing that information to the back of his processor, he focused on more important things.
"Where's Rogue?" He asked first, knowing the robot was supposed to stay at the base, looking after her. It was the last order he gave until he came out... in case things got ugly.
"SAFE. YOUR ORIGINAL IS WITH HER. SHE IS VITAL IN OUR MISSION. I PROMISE THAT NO HARM WILL COME TO HER IF THAT HAS GOTTEN YOU DISTRACT." Again, phantom emotions seem to come from the modulator. It was reassurance and a hint of protectiveness.
He nodded. It was strange to think back to those days where he saved her from near-death. They didn't meet much after that. The doctor kept him busy. Rogue was spotted three weeks in but Robotnick didn't seem that bothered. Sure, he was intrigued by her and her skill to pick locks and rewire doors so she didn't have to deal with the facial recognition software.
She had kept Sonic company and released him from capacity in his frozen prison from time to time, but she also saved him from doing anything stupid or reckless.
Upon learning this, the doctor had let her stay in exchange for her talents.
She graciously accepted, having nowhere to go and no family to return to.
She was a quick learner, and with the right training, she was one of the best hackers they had.
She and Sonic grew close, forming a bond like brother and sister. Android Shadow was jealous but tried to stay out of it. Sonic had perked up a little bit, finding comfort in the small socialisation he got.
Even Robotnick seemed to take a shining to her, his depressive episodes getting further in between. They still happen, and were devastating, but was a push in the right direction...
A clawed hand landed on his shoulder and he shivered at the contact. "YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON THE PRESENT. ROGUE IS ADAPTABLE AND WILL FIND A WAY OUT OF ANY SITUATION THE DOCTOR THROWS AT HER. RIGHT NOW WE NEED TO FOCUS ON FINDING METAL SONIC BEFORE THE HUMAN'S OR THE DOCTOR DOES."
Shadow bit his lip before looking away. He was right. He was getting too emotional... Too nostalgic. He needed to focus on the here and now. And that's following the signal and saving Sonic for whatever situation he found himself in.
"You're right," he smiled momentarily before his face went stoic. He turned to the fit for the first time, who was standing serval paces behind them, staring intently at a store's glass with a frown and narrowed eyes.
Shadow and Omega shared a look before approaching, wondering what had attracted the kit's attention. Once they were close enough, the kit snapped his gaze away to them. "We can't go." He whispered, voice shaking slightly.
This surprised both creations. They glanced at each other before looking back to the kid like he grew a second head. "And why not?"
The smallest took a shuddering breath before slowing.
"Because Eggman has been following us for, at least, the last few blocks now."
TBC:
TBC: