Pluck, pluck.

No. Still out of tune. Damn thing. Shadow shook his head, turning the tuning keys on the head of the glossy bass guitar that rested on his lap. He reached over to quickly palm through the beginner's guide he'd bought with the instrument, carefully going over the instructions and step-by-step guide on notes and chords. He was grateful that both Sonic and Tails had been kind enough to allow him a place to stay with them- offering off their own accord, in fact, as Shadow lacked the audacity to ask them himself. He'd been staying with them for a week now, and had settled in fairly well. There wasn't much space, but Sonic and Tails were rarely home to begin with, always out and about...gallivanting around the place, doing it is whatever it is they did. It gave Shadow plenty of time to himself, and his much desired time alone with his bass, a black and amber-colored Fender.

He picked the instrument up fairly well. It had only been about three days, but he could at least clumsily work his way through a basic jazz bassline now. He'd take it a little step at a time. No need for giant steps.

Shadow smirked at his own joke. Well, maybe at some stage he'd be able to play that bassline. Too bad he didn't know a saxophone player, let alone one confident enough to play Giant Steps of all songs. But for the time being, he was enjoying the process of easing into this. He kept stupidly plucking the wrong strings, tuning things wrong...at some points he felt himself growing frustrated, and at other points he almost enjoyed the feeling of being stupid. He hadn't felt this stupid before. There was a fascinating and almost tangible flow of energy that he felt pulse through him when he found the chords coming to him easier. He could do this all day. The sun was setting and he hadn't even noticed, time was passing in strange ways, fluid ways, the momentum of existence slowly began to feel almost natural to him.

There were some nights where he found himself crying quietly. All those buzzing, electric, horrific thoughts and memories would come rushing back at inopportune moments, from time to time. Shadow the hedgehog still insisted on clinging for dear life, and he could tell that even with encouragement, he was going to be stubborn. He could feel him kicking around angrily inside his mind, demanding his life back, demanding his ego back. Shadow the hedgehog, Project Shadow, was not happy, but the more he fought, the more he seemed to slip backwards, downwards, the more his body hurt, like a blue-black bruise.

The hedgehog with the bass guitar fought with himself, and was then sure he'd made peace with himself for the last time, until he fought with himself again mere hours later. He put his bass down, walking outside. He sat quietly in the honey-light of the sunset, waves rolling quietly. He gazed up to the sky, the darkness slowly creeping in from the top and down. A few stars had been splattered across the dark maroon already. Pinpricks. The ARK was a pinprick. Distant star.

You fell from a star. Pinprick hole in the sky.

Should he write that one down? Shadow had been writing lately, scribbling notes down, excerpts from incomplete stanzas and verses that fit nowhere. He wasn't interested in showing anyone his messy poetry; that was his. He'd show it to the right people, someday, maybe, but for the time being, that was his. He grew restless, done with his work for the day. As time had passed, he found the fatigue weighing him down was growing less and less overpowering, less severe. He'd largely given up on trying to find answers for what had happened to him.

Things just happen. Sometimes things just happen and it's nobody's fault.

Shadow had brought himself down to a small cove somewhere a good walk away from Tails's lab, standing on the shore as the evening sluggishly eased its way into the sky. And around that time, he'd started dreaming he was skating along the shore, right where the water met the sand. The water rippled and fanned out with each fluid stride. The dream was vivid, but he knew it meant nothing. It was a dream that meant nothing, abstract poetry in his mind. He could wake up and go home whenever he wanted, and better yet, he had a home to return to. He imagined, for a moment, entertaining the fantasy of being a lab-grown Ultimate Lifeform filled to the brim with endless chaos energy, that lifted and raised his feet off the ground in a pair of air shoes, skating across the surface of the shallow hesitations of the sea on the shore.

I'm nothing.

He took a deep breath of the cool ocean air.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

He almost laughed to himself. Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Maybe he wasn't even a hedgehog, maybe he was a butterfly, dreaming, imagining outlandish fantasies in its tiny skull as it slept on a flower. Who was to say? And what of it? And then he laughed, twisting suddenly, as he skated back the way he came, wind whipping through his quills as droplets of sea water speckled his face, under the slowly darkening sky. He laughed more, and more.

You stupid animal! What are you doing?! Where are you even going?

Up and down the shore, of course, where the sea met the land and the sky met the sea. A union, a trinity of the powers, the movement of the air and water and perhaps the land too, in its non-movement. There was movement in non-movement and action through inaction. And it carried him back and forth, he was the wind rushing past a stupid animal tearing up and down the shore, he was the sea that swayed back and forth, to the sand and back, over and over. He was the blue-black of the evening sky setting in, spirited and stupid and directionless, with every place in the world to go. He was sure he was dead now, or at least certainly dreaming, maybe dreaming within a dream, but he hoped that he wouldn't wake up.

Anything felt possible at this stage. Perhaps he'd lost his powers for good. Perhaps none of his memories were real. Perhaps Shadow the hedgehog died a violent death up there in space. Perhaps Sonic was the real Ultimate Lifeform all along, an obliviously immortal creature that had completely forgotten his past. And if that were the case, perhaps the insult of 'faker' would cut all the more deeper in retrospect. Someone whose life he once lived had memories of listening to beautiful, somber music up in a giant tin can in space, with a little girl who deserved every good thing in the world.


"Perhaps someday," she said. "You could make wonderful things on Earth, things that would help make people happy..."

"Me? Oh, I don't know..." A hedgehog scratched his head, looking up at the corner of the room. "Maybe. I don't know how good I'd be at making things,"

"No one starts off perfect!" she smiled. "New things are never easy. You just need to give yourself a chance, all of the most talented people in history started knowing nothing at all. They weren't born that way, they had to find it for themselves!"


He skated back up the shore, to the grass, leaving behind the ocean to dance around in the dark, under the light of the full moon. There was a lunar eclipse that night, and Tails was eager to observe it with a big clunky telescope. Shadow made his way back to the lab slowly, cicadas relentlessly screeching. He wondered if Knuckles would be watching the eclipse too. Maybe he was sleeping.

Sonic nodded as he greeted Shadow. "Hey there! Tails is getting his telescope ready, how was your walk?"

Shadow nodded back, half smiling. "Fine, thank you."

The two sat atop the roof, on the balcony, looking up at the sky, while Tails was somewhere inside, his rummaging and tinkering creating all sorts of eccentric, mechanical noises.

Shadow spoke again, breaking the silence. "I wanted to apologize,"

"For what?" Sonic glanced over, blinking.

"I don't feel I've been behaving particularly graciously. I fear I was taking my frustration out on you unfairly,"

Sonic waved a hand dismissively. "Meh, don't sweat it, Shadow," He grinned. "I didn't really notice anything like that, I figured you were just upset. But I appreciate the apology anyway,"

"I owe you a lot, Sonic. Had it not been for you, I wouldn't have been able to make up for the atrocities I committed. It's because of you that I could fulfill Maria's wish."

Sonic rubbed his nose, bashfully looking away. "Hey, I do what I gotta do. I'm just glad we all got out of there alive!"

Shadow continued to gaze up at the sky, propping up an elbow on his knee and resting his chin on his hand. And to think it hadn't even been all that long ago since half the moon had been blown to pieces- it was thanks to Sonic that the world could see another lunar eclipse at all.

"Where did you come from, Sonic?"

"Huh?"

"You didn't always live here, did you?"

Sonic thought for a moment, prodding at his nose now as he focused on the spot directly in front of him. "Humm...to tell ya the truth, I don't remember, my first memories are on Christmas Island," He looked away, his expression growing slightly mellow, even a little disheartened. "My memories just kinda cut off at a certain point. It's not something I think about or talk about, much. If I think about it, sometimes it makes me feel a little sad," He crossed his arms. "But I dunno if I really need to know, you know? I'm here right now, and wherever I came from is wherever I came from. I'm Sonic the hedgehog now, that's all that matters to me!" His tone brightened somewhat. "And I live my life however I want to!"

"And what if your past held lost memories vital to understanding the very nature of your being?"

Sonic tilted his head thoughtfully, before shrugging. "Don't care!"

Shadow gave Sonic a look of fascination.

Sonic continued. "I don't really need anyone or anything to explain to me who I am. I'm Sonic because I say I'm Sonic, and I've got one life to live, so...I'm gonna be Sonic for as long as I can!"

"There was an escape pod that was ejected and never found, after GUN raided the ARK," Shadow commented. "Makes one wonder,"

"Shadow, if you're gonna try and tell me I'm one of the lost, secret projects of Gerald Robotnik," Sonic began, shaking his head. "I'm just gonna say that it doesn't matter either way. I'm a little more switched on than I look, ya know!" He tapped the side of his head. "I've thought about my past before, and all kinds of crazy ideas crossed my mind. I wouldn't rule anything out completely, but wherever it is I came from, I'm not going back there even if I wanted to. This is my home, here on Earth, and I'm most at home just being me."

I'd like to feel that way about being me. Whatever the truth may be, perhaps he's more fortunate than I am for not remembering anything.

Sonic shrugged again. "Well, anyway, if that were true, then all it'd mean is that maybe we were meant to meet! Imagine that, you're my estranged brother!"

Shadow wasn't so sure about this anymore. He lifted a hand with an awkward smile to politely end the conversation. "Yeah. Maybe."

"Well, either way, I think we're more alike than either of us thought. You're getting good on that bass- did ya know I tried to pick up guitar a few years ago? Maybe we could jam together someday!"

"Really?" Shadow glanced over. "What do you play?"

"I like playing rock!" Sonic beamed. "Ya like Blink-182?"

"Not that alike, then." Shadow gave a good-natured scoff, shaking his head.

Tails wheeled out an enormous reflector telescope, his tails spinning hastily to push him forward. "Yeah! It's gonna happen soon, the moon will turn red!" he cried excitedly.

Eerie. Shadow hadn't exactly been paying close attention to upcoming celestial events, yet here he was, witnessing what he had just dreamed of a week ago. Or maybe this was another dream.

He wouldn't have been able to see this eclipse from the ARK.