Chapter 18: Atonement

'And through it all, how could you cry for me?'– Sleep – My Chemical Romance

He could hear the sound of the rain.

He could hear it falling.

It dripped and pounded, but he never felt its cool touch. When he opened his emerald orbs, he could see the rain falling; he could see the dark truculent clouds branching over the sky like a huge black tree. It made everything look dark and irresolute. He lay there gazing, and torpidly blinking as though he were still fixed in a dream. Then he remembered his companion.

"Shadow!" He sat up and new pain flared in his ribs and stomach.

Silver rested a hand on his shoulder. His green blanket of energy kept them dry from the rain. He had been sitting with Sonic all this time, waiting to see if he would wake.

"Sonic, lie down," he instructed him firmly, "you need rest."

"Where's Shadow? Is he okay?" He looked around him. His sight was blurred at the edges.

They were still in the borders of the snowy valley. Eggman's HQ and his dead factories were west of here, approximately ten miles away. Robotnik's forces too were leagues away, and they were losing. Unbeknownst to Sonic, Knuckles had found the blue emerald, and was now using it to aid him in the battle.

"Shadow's fine." His eyes betrayed the lie. "You need to concentrate on getting some rest. You were seriously banged up."

Sonic looked up at him, and saw the crude bandages dotting his muzzle, cheeks and brow. The images of the fight when he had been possessed were still fresh in his mind. He could remember attacking them so very vividly. And he felt very bad.

"I'm sorry…" He whispered to no one in particular, "but I have to see Shadow…"

"No. Not yet. Don't worry 'bout him." His hand guided Sonic back to rest on the hard earth.

'Use the emerald that you've got and save Silver. Save your army. Kill Eggman.' ~

'That reason is being able to protect others with the power that I've got.' ~

'Trust me.' ~

'When you go back into the past, do not save me.' ~

Sonic thrust himself forward. His shadow stretched over the coarse, barren ground. Silver tried to stop him, but Sonic pushed him away with the strength that he had left. "No! Leave me alone!"

"But… But you've been badly wounded!"

I don't care.

In the far distance, he saw Tails' plane hovering like an impending ship over the earth, perhaps hovering thirty feet above it so that he could look around for danger.

Words drifted into his head like a dreamy song.

I'm so sorry! Forgive me! So… so sorry…

The bandages on Silver's face made him look sad and inconsolable. "Sonic, take your emerald and return to the future." When he saw the blue hero start to object, he continued by saying harshly, "Your past self will be around soon. I don't know how you got rid of him, but whatever you did, he'll be around looking for Shadow. You need to go back to your own time."

"What about yourself?"

"Me?" He shrugged slightly in innocence. "You will see me, in your future. I'll be staying with the princess. Now go."

"What about Shadow?"

Silver said nothing. He just shoved the emerald into Sonic's quivering hands. A spark of lightening in the distance made a stark pattern of brilliant white in the sky before fading back in the dark sky.

Sonic took the emerald bitterly. A cold feeling of doom clenched his innards. Silver was right. Soon that other Sonic would awaken. He had to leave.

Sonic raised the emerald above his head. Silver stepped back.

It was done in an instant, and Sonic returned to his own time.

Sonic awoke in a thick thorn bush. He struggled to rise on all fours while his mind churned. Getting his thoughts in order was tedious and slow. The emerald was still in his hand.

He got out of the bush and shook the loose thorns free from his spikes.

Now he headed to head to Knothole to find them... that's where they must have surely gone for no one was here.

I am back in my own time… right?

He didn't know if his legs could take him all the way to Knothole. What about the war? The fighting?

He walked around near the bush in a feverish trance. Though there was no remains of the backpack, he found Shadow's gold bangles in a pool of melting ice that had turned pink from a residue of blood. He cleaned them off with his fur, then set out for Knothole.

Sonic raced like the wind. He crossed the borders between Rock Falls and the Grasslands. He dashed over a long stretch of valley and it reminded him of the dreams he'd been having. The green ocean. The grass whipping at his ankles. But the desire to see Shadow, the very need to save him, drove him even harder forward. His legs were a blue blur. His teeth rattled in his mouth. For a moment, he felt a sensation close to happiness. This present had been better now that he had changed it, hadn't it?

Sally Acorn washed her hands and dipped the last of the medical instruments into the antiseptic water. Not a long while ago, Shadow had been their primal enemy. Aside from Eggman, everyone feared him. He was powerful, mysterious and unpredictable. Sonic never worried about him, but Sally always did.

Rouge had come to her like a squawking crow. She explained what had happened. She said Sonic had attacked Shadow without proper reason. So, she grabbed her kit, Rouge wasn't tolerant of questions, and Tails rode her to the hills were the fighting had apparently happened. There she met Silver who had shown her where Shadow lay.

Why should she have helped him? For all she knew, Sonic had fought him simply because he was evil. But the way Rouge and Silver persisted made her rethink her ways, and she had helped him. She was surprised by how gentle he was to touch. How similar in appearance he was to Sonic.

The room she was in was dim and warm. There were no windows, only the sanctuary of complete privacy. Shadow was in a bed, with wires attached over various parts of his anatomy to monitor his vitals.

"That blue bastard." Shadow watched her from the bed, looking incredibly lively for someone who had been beaten to a bloody pulp. His abdomen had been full of blood. His left kidney has ruptured somehow, and the excess blood needed to be drained. Own body already beginning to recover, the internal bleeding had stopped, and Shadow was allowed to rest easy.

"It's not his fault. Eggman did this. All of this." She told him with a limp sigh. "All of this..."

Sonic had burst into Knothole like a typhoon in high summer. The trees rocked violently. Some of the roots had even edged loose from the earth. Many creatures looked out their windows, thinking that there was danger. Others were more used to these gales from Sonic, and continued with their lives.

He saw Tails and his plane on the airport. Just ahead, on the corner was Sally's Knothole home. He barely spared a few seconds with the fox.

"Where's Shadow?" He asked him.

Tails gaped wordlessly for a few moments like a beached whale. He came to his senses much longer than the hedgehog liked. "With Sally, they took him to the lab, but that was almost an hour ago!"

He rushed on. Rotting leaves swirled in the mist he left behind. Snow flew up in flakes.

He would have gone so sharply into Sal's house that he would have torn off the door. But Amy stood in his path. He stopped just in time by skidding on the snowy floor before coming to a stop directly in front of her face.

"Sonic…" Her voice sounded like the wind. Dry and hollow. "Why did you try to kill Shadow? Rouge told me everything!" Before Sonic could begin to reply, Amy threw herself at him, and hugged him dearly. "Please tell me you did it because Shadow was bad! Because you had to save the world!"

At the sound of her crying, Silver came from inside the house. He was frowning, and evidently looked upset himself.

"Amy, I always save the world!" He replied as truthfully as he could. "You know that! Eggman tries in lots of ways to stop that from happening, but we stopped him, didn't we?"

Amy nodded, but the tears continued to roll down her flushed cheeks. Sonic hugged her back, feeling incredibly guilty. He looked down and saw the blood all over his gloves. The sight of it made him bite his tongue, and he quickly threw them off, leaving his hands bare.

"Oooh Sonic!" She sobbed, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Silver came in between them, and parted them deliberately. Amy yelled out at him and even went so far as it slap him. Silver jerked her hand aside with his fist, lightly, so he didn't hurt her, and said gently, "Sonic needs some time alone. He's hurt."

"He is?" Her anger was replaced with pity and concern. "Well why didn't you say so?"

Sonic smiled grimly; "can I see Shads now?"

"He's not ready." Silver started to go back inside the house. Sonic gingerly followed. Silver was right, again as usual. His ribcage was killing him and he tasted blood in his mouth. Shadow had struck hard; leaving devastating blows that would take a time to heal. His chest in particular ached when he moved too much. He suspected a broken rib or two.

After the sudden adrenaline getting here, weakness clawed up his legs and he struggled to make it up the steps to the front door. His nose was forever assaulted with the smell of his own blood.

Then, he fell, and Silver or someone must have caught him, because he never touched the ground.

He opened his stiff eyelids and took in a deep breath. He had been dreaming.

He was in his small bed, in his room. He was not in the lab and he definitely wasn't in Space Colony Ark.

Sonic sat up, causing his muscles to burn from the exertion. His room hadn't changed. He still had his car bed, and all sorts of books and gadgets littered the floor.

Yep, definitely home.

He ripped off his covers, stood and felt along the heavy bandages round his head and torso. The gauze went round his ears and was held in place with tape. If he looked in a mirror he was sure he wouldn't look too hot.

He left his untidy room, and headed to the lab.

As he went further along, he saw Tails carrying some equipment, which probably belonged to one of his aircraft. He smiled when their gazes met, but the smile was forced. It was far from genuine.

"Shadow's room is straight down, on the last door to the left."

Sonic started on his way. The corridor he was in felt oppressive and dark with rancor. He hardly ever went into the lab before. It was a place for the sick, the dying. He didn't like the closed walls. He didn't like the rooms that acted more like cages than areas purposely sanctioned off for quarantine. He didn't like the smells that wafted into his senses. Medicine. Antiseptic. Drugs for all ailments.

Before Sonic got to Shadow's door, he felt the need to run. To escape. To recapture the freedom.

He shut his eyes, his blue eyelids shutting away his jade orbs. Eggman's ploys were beyond lethal. And he was disgusted to think that he had been a part of it. He had been taken over so easily.

He opened the door. It was unlocked. And the room inside wasn't dark as he expected it to be. The light shone in from the one window, and a small lamp was lit, standing on the nightstand at an angle. The four corners of the room were packed with machinery and medical equipment. Shadow lay in the medical bed, so wrapped in blankets that it almost hid all his quills.

Sonic shut the door quietly and walked gently up to the bedside. "Shads…" The guilt had always been there, oppressing his mind and spirit. "Shads! Shads I'm here! Wake up!" He found his bare hand under the covers and squeezed it tight. Not even this woke the dark hedgehog up. "I didn't mean it Shads! Answer me!" His world of vision crumbled into a watery scene. The tears felt cold down his flushed cheeks. He wished it had all been a dream. He wished the great battle had never happened. He wished he had never asked Shadow to fight by him. Even now he could hear the gun fire, the rage on the field. The blood… the bodies…

"I was possessed! You should have killed me! You could have stopped me! Shads! I should have done something different… I should have thought through it better. I panicked… and you… you tried to stop me, but I wouldn't stop…" He took in a heavy breath and exhaled slowly. "Shads… I… I failed you…"

"Jeez, Sonic, write a book while you're at it."

Sonic jerked, startled and bewildered. Shadow opened his one eye, and it took time for him to focus, if he could at all. Then he managed a faint smile and he looked across at Sonic.

"I gotta give it to you… Sonic, you fight like an elite!" Without words, Sonic took him into a fierce hug. Shadow moaned painfully, finding that he hadn't the energy to move Sonic off him. "Careful! T-This is fragile m-merchandise!"

Sonic at once let go, feeling terrible again. "Shads… Shads I'm so sorry! What I did was… was… what I did to you was abhorrent. I'm gonna kill Eggman! He's a fucking lunatic!"

"Shhh." Shadow whispered. "It's all right… You couldn't help it…What matters now is that it's over. Funny, I thought I asked you to let me die."

"You did. But I couldn't let you die. Why did you want it so badly?"

"I don't know. I suppose I was so caught up in the fighting... that I just wanted to be with Maria. To die in battle is a great honor, and I thought I'd meet her... a silly fantasy... So why did Silver come to our present?"

Sonic found that he actually had the answer. "I think Silver came to stop me. And stop you. He knew that if you died, I couldn't be stopped. I'd be Eggman's puppet. And the whole world would fold."

"Yeah."

Sonic went about his duty of trying to prompt Shadow to eat. The black hedgehog was barely awake. He was snuggled under the covers with the sunlight streaming thickly into the room. Apparently he had heard someone say that the snow was finally starting to melt outside. An early thaw sounded almost too good to be true.

"How about some sweets?" Sonic had been at this for almost an hour, and Shadow had to physically fight to keep himself conscious.

"No. Now leave me alone."

"Not until you agree to eat something. What did you eat on the Ark? What did Maria give you?" He hated to mention the dead girl's name, but he was so desperate for an answer that didn't start with the word no.

Shadow's ears twitched at the name and both his eyes, including the bruised on, blinked torpidly. "I can't remember…"

Sonic raced to think of something else. He started by saying, "if you don't eat, then we'll have to spoon feed you, and I'm sure you'd hate that. So cut what you think you don't like and eat whatever I bring up, okay?" His light voice was firmer.

The blue hedgehog left the bed and went to open the door. The outside air of the corridor would smell better, as he had yet to get used to the scent of all the medicines and antiseptics.

Just before he went, Shadow called out to him. His voice croaked thinly. "It… it had cheese in…"

Sonic turned and saw Shadow peeping at him from over the covers. "Cheese?"

"Maria had made it for me… and it had something else, but I can't remember…"

Sonic nodded. "Okay. I'll see what I can do." He had a small idea on what it could be.

While Shadow slept, Sonic saw Silver standing on a snowy ridge looking west of Knothole. He had his hands on his hips and his shoulders were stiff and straight.

Sonic stood close beside him. "When are you planning to return home, Silver?" He asked.

The pale furred hedgehog shrugged. "I don't know. I'm reluctant to return I guess. It's so nice here, but I belong in my own time."

"Well," Sonic patted him on the shoulder; "there's no rush. And thanks."

"For what?"

"For saving me and Shadow. That was a big risk you took, but you did it pal!"

Silver blushed when he turned to face the blue hedgehog. "Thanks." He answered sheepishly. "I hope this is over."

Sonic sighed. "It's never over, so long as Robotnik still lives. But maybe one day, we'll get him. And when we will, we'll kill him."

"Death is too good for that human." Silver looked back to the west like before. "Take care of yourself, Sonic. I've got the emerald. I'll be going home soon."

"Will I ever see you again?"

Silver nodded. "We will. I'll visit you sometime."

Sonic laughed lightly. "Make sure that when you do visit, it's not because something bad happens in our present!"

"I'll try to make sure!" They exchanged handshakes. Silver murmured a last farewell, then he turned and started heading to the west, heading towards a borderline of majestic trees. Sonic watched him leave, hoping that the future would bode well for them both.

It was early spring, approximately two months after the war with Robotnik. Sonic was running fast down open grassland that stretched on and on. But this was no dream. This was all real.

The harsh wind whipped past his ears and nose. Going at speeds like these created huge wind turbulence, but Sonic's body was used to it.

To the far edge of the grassland was a withered patch of trees. It was once a large forest that was once able to cover twice the size of Knothole, but many of the trees had been brought down for Eggman's armies thirty years ago. But, many young trees were growing in their place. Maybe one day, it would be a large forest once again.

Sonic saw a dark figure standing on a grassy hill two miles from where he was. His black silhouette stood out against the pearl blue sky like a blotch on the landscape. Sonic quickened his pace, and the last two miles he covered in three seconds. He got to the dark silhouette, and he smiled.

Shadow smiled back.

Shadow's right arm was still fastened in a sling. It hadn't healed as fast as the rest of his wounds. But the sling did not make him look any less dangerous. After the battle and its horrendous aftermath, his fur had become a silky fine marble black and his pale face had regained its tanned appeal.

His soft, handsome voice broke Sonic's trance. "What took you? You had me waiting here for two minutes."

Sonic helplessly grinned. "I stopped to pee!"

"Humph! Well, are you ready, Sonic?"

The blue hero came and stood by his side, his eyes sparkling in the evening light. "I'll go easy on you," he said, "what with that arm of yours!"

"I don't use my arms to run."

"Whatever, Shads."

"It's Shadow. SHAD-OW."

"Okay, Shads."

Shadow retained his devilish smile. "You go first Sonic. I'll give you a five second head start."

"What? No way! You might cheat!" His grin couldn't stretch any wider.

"Let's race!"

As the evening light sent warm fiery embers down on the grassy plain, two young hedgehogs bounded down together from a hill and raced side by side across the thick green landscape. Together they stayed close and headed directly towards the horizon dotted with mountains that promised adventure, and more than that, freedom.

The End

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Dib07: Yes, finished... completed at last! Hoorah! Man, written this so many, many years ago. Thank the gods my writing has improved!