Chapter 12

"And here we are master Shadow, Earth." Grand Elder Yorven stepped aside so Shadow could stand near the edge of the precipice. Little Planet's border curved downward and what had been sky only moments before was suddenly a roof of earth and water. "Never Lake, our planet's destination every ten years. The convergence will not last long, you had best be leaving."

Shadow folded his arms and considered the view. He had spent nearly a year on Little Planet. In that time he had experienced the longest duration of peace and quiet he had known in a long time. Leaving meant the end of his exile and for some reason Shadow could not escape the feeling that danger lay ahead. "Thank you." Shadow said stiffly. "For everything."

Yorven's whiskers twitched. He was an old red panda with a bent back and fur that had dimmed to gray. The people of Little Planet kept no count of the years but Yorven estimated he had seen Never Lake nearly a dozen times in his life. "I always thought the lake was so blue. Earth had a vibrancy and a color unmatched by any other planet." Yorven had told Shadow the day Sir Gideon had brought him to the venerated Elder.

"How long until you return there?" Shadow had asked aggressively.

"We appear over the lake once every ten years." Shadow's heart sank initially but then Yorven had assured him that Little Planet was due to return in another eleven months.

"It seems you are fortunate you appeared when you did stranger. The timing of fate can be tricky sometimes."

Fate did not send me here. Shadow held his tongue but knew it was the Realm Lord's decree that Shadow would return to earth in eleven months. But for what purpose? That question had consumed Shadow throughout his exile.

"You remind me of another earthling." The elder had said, a few weeks into Shadow's protracted visit. "Little Planet was under attack. A human vested with great machines invaded our world and terrorized our people. We have so few warriors and none we are able to stand in the invaders path. The Time Stones were vulnerable. They are the secret to our planet's power and survival. The invader lusted after them, but he was stopped by a blue hedgehog."

"Sonic?"

"You know of him?" After that Shadow was force fed a tale of Sonic's daring struggle against Dr. Eggman. To his immense annoyance, Shadow discovered that Sonic was revered as a legendary hero among the people of Little Planet. Everyone who found out that Shadow was also an earthling immediately bombarded him with questions about Sonic.

Sir Gideon had intervened on Shadow's behalf and became a sort of local celebrity as the intermediary between Shadow and the people of Little Planet. A role that had pleased the knight to no end. However, that time was now at an end.

Consequently, as Shadow stepped away from the edge he saw Gideon wiping his eye with a wing. With excess pomp, he knelt before Shadow. "It was my greatest honor as a knight to serve as your guardian." He said.

Shadow had lost count of how many times he had told the owl that he did not need protection so he just let it slide. "Will you tell Sonic about us?" Elder Yorven asked. "He said he would try and visit again when the planet returned but I could tell that he would not."

"Memory isn't a strong suit of his." Shadow admitted.

"What will you do when you return? Will you seek out this Realm Lord?"

After a few guarded months, the sheer volume of questions and annoyances had led Shadow to finally divulge his story to the Grand Elder. To Shadow's disappointment, Yorven knew nothing about the Realm Lord and swore he had never heard the name before. "The greatest evil we ever knew was that doctor Robotnik. I shudder to imagine what kind of calamities he would have unleashed had he secured the Time Stones."

This comment had piqued Shadow's interest and Yorven was more than happy to acquire a listening ear. For the next few days, Shadow had been subjected to a round-the-clock lecture about the history of Little Planet all of which climaxed with him being led through the labyrinth within the core of the planet to the centermost shrine where seven colorful gems were held in safe storage. "Had that evil doctor taken hold of these seven gems he would have taken control of time itself. Many of our people fell trying to stop him, but where our armies failed, Sonic succeeded."

When Shadow beheld the twinkling gems, he had been struck by a sudden grief filled thought. If I took those stones I could go back, I could save Maria. The temptation faded in a heartbeat but the thought still left a scar over his heart. Ever since that day, Shadow had waited anxiously for Little Planet to return to earth. The place was timeless and still, and still was the last thing Shadow wanted to be.

The Celestial Spyre provided the only means of traveling through the convergence, allowing one to leave Little Planet and escape into the world below. Sonic had apparently bypassed this restriction by racing up the giant chains Dr. Eggman had forged to hold Little Planet in place. The entire affair sounded like an exaggerated bit of theater that was perfectly on brand for both Eggman and Sonic.

Within the spyre was a great dome in the center of which white chalk outlined a circle wrapped in an opaque fog. Shadow approached and prepared to travel the convergence and return to earth. "Wait!" Elden Yorven leaned on his staff and shuffled over to him. He drew out a chain of interwoven golden links and handed them over to Shadow.

"What's this?" The strings hung down like a necklace.

"A boon from our planet. Sonic would have received one as well but he left in such a hurry I never had a chance to give it to him."

"Does it do something?" Shadow was not about to wear the necklace, no matter what it meant.

"The rings carry an echo of the planet's power. They are bound to the convergence points across the universe. If you are ever in great peril take them in your hand and focus your thoughts on Little Planet. These rings should transport you back to Never Lake, or whichever convergence point is closet."

Shadow hesitated. He held up the rings and considered handing them back. I don't need to return. But then he saw Sir Gideon's expression. Standing behind the elder, the owl's eyes were set and solemn. "These relics are not handed out as trifles." Yorven explained. "They are given to great warriors who have proved themselves in battle, and oftentimes they are given to the families of fallen heroes." Yorven stepped back and Gideon reached beneath his cloak to display a similar necklace around his neck.

"Why give it to me?"

"You meant to sacrifice yourself for your world. You are no less a hero than Sonic himself if what you told me is true."

"Hero?" Shadow thought back to his final confrontation with Sonic aboard the Ark. On that final runway Shadow doubted that either of them were thinking about the stakes of their conflict, only the fight right in front of them. "I didn't do it to save the earth. I did it to keep a promise." All the same, Shadow placed the necklace around his neck.

"Farewell Shadow the Hedgehog, may you find peace." Yorven said with a bow.

"May the honor and protection of the Knightly Order go with you." Sir Gideon offered.

Shadow did not look back. He stepped into the convergence and felt himself yanked upward by some invisible hook. Space compressed and Shadow thought he might be squeezed to death. His vision blurred and he couldn't breath. A second later he was on all fours, resting on a beach.

He rose and looked around him. An idyllic scene of a lake and a green countryside greeted him. An emorious globe hovered eerily over the water. Shadow stared at Little Planet and wondered. Why had the Realm Lord brought him there? Had he been telling the truth about the limitations of his power? Was that really the only way he could send Shadow safely back to earth? "Make no mistake. Eventually, you will come to serve me, but not as a mercenary hoping to pay off some debt. When you come to me again you will do so willingly." The Realm Lord's voice and threat still clouded over Shadow's mind.

I have to find out who he is. Shadow resolved. Shadow may not have been a true hero, but he was through being somebody's else's plaything. The doctor might know something. Shadow kicked off into a run and quickly left the lake and countryside behind. It took him a few hours to find a city and once there he was able to more or less riddle out his location.

The doctor mentioned having a base in the Mystic Ruins. With nothing else to go off on, Shadow directed his course to the U.F, a country nearly one thousand miles away from where he was. It was a long journey to take on foot, but Shadow had waited and rested for too long already. Not that his exile had left him out of shape.

His anxiety over a sense of coming danger had led Shadow to push his body to its limits time and time again while residing on Little Planet. It had not been so long ago when Shadow felt assured that he was the world's ultimate life form. After the Ark and the Realm Lord, Shadow no longer knew where he stood in the hierarchy of power. In fact, Shadow wasn't sure whether he or the BioLizard was a more advanced prototype of the ultimate life form.

These questions and doubts led Shadow to do something he had never done in his life; train. Though he had accepted Sonic's superior speed during their temporary alliance, Shadow would not rest on a disadvantage. Every morning he would run all around Little Planet pushing himself to go faster and faster. For the first few months, Shadow had wondered if perhaps he was already as fast as he could be as he saw no real improvement. However, he kept up the discipline and after about six months he experienced a breakthrough.

While running one day, Shadow felt something open within him, some new treasure trove of power. He tapped into it, hesitant at first and it cringed at his touch. Everyday following Shadow pushed himself until he sensed that deeper well of power and kept attempting to tap into it. When he finally broke the last barrier and the power came rushing up, Shadow accelerated forward. Pop. Pop. Pop. At his maximum speed Shadow broke through the sound barrier, causing small tremors throughout the planet with just his speed alone.

Time to put all that training to the test. Shadow left the city and started for the coast. The U.F lay across a wide ocean. When he neared the water's edge, Shadow reached into that well of power and felt a rush of heat course through his body. Like a burst of an engine he shot forward. His Air Shoes allowed him to glide over the water.

It took him under an hour to cross the ocean. Dodging ten foot waves and breathing in the salt spray had been an admitted thrill. Shadow spent the rest of the day orienting himself and was finally directed to the Station Square. Once there, he decided to give his legs a rest and take the train.

Eyes followed him everywhere he went and he noticed many children tugging at their parents' legs to point him out. Shadow was used to being avoided or shunned so he did not mind too much. They're used to hedgehogs constantly smiling like an idiot. His black fur and stern expression caused people to keep their distance and watch him suspiciously.

He sat alone on the train and looked out the window. The gray hues of the city gave way to the countryside. This is what you wanted right? Shadow looked up and down the train car. Most of the people's heads were bent staring down at flashing tablets. Few mingled with strangers and all were oblivious to the country passing by their windows. Absorbed. Shadow thought. So many of them seemed absorbed by their own little lives, their own little entrainments. Is that what it means to be happy? Are these the dreams I meant to protect?

Shadow sighed and leaned against the glass. Beyond him, the trees grew denser as the train approached the forests near the Mystic Ruins. Shadow stirred. Something was soaring over the tops of the trees. He sat upright and pressed his face against the glass. A figure with leathery wings was flying into the heart of the forest. Isn't that? Shadow was sure it was. He sat up right and pulled at his window.

"Hey!" A constable on the train came rushing towards Shadow. "Leave that alone."

Shadow ignored him and fiddled with the lock until the window broke open. The rush of wind caused many to look his way in annoyance. "Have a nice ride." He quipped as he shimmied through the window. Shadow clung to the side of the train and looked below him. The forest was further down than he had anticipated. Shadow aimed for a nearby tree and leapt!

He fell freely for several seconds before crashing into the trunk of a tree. Shadow wrapped himself around it and grimaced as bark scratched his chest. When he came to a stop, Shadow quickly jumped to the next tree and did so again and again in order to travel quickly. Rouge was still in his sights and Shadow caught up to her swiftly. She was soaring lazily, allowing the wind to drift her along without effort.

"Are you still working with Eggman?" Shadow called when he got right beneath her.

Rouge stopped dead. She hung suspended in the air as if she had been frozen stiff. Her shoulders heaved as she took a deep breath and looked down. Her eyes widened, but she quickly masked her surprise with her usual brand of aloof indifference. "Shadow?"