(Author's Note: Content warning for suicidal thoughts. Also, for anyone who reads my other fics, I'd like to say I am still working on my main fic 'Ask Your MOTHER' and have written over 50,000 words for the upcoming chapters, I just want to post the entire upcoming story arc at the same time once it's all completed and edited in a way I'm satisfied with, so don't worry, I won't abandon that fic, this oneshot is just something I took a few days to write when the inspiration suddenly hit me.)
Shadow and Sonic shouted into the silent vacuum of space while channeling the power o-
"Chaos Control!"
There was never time to finish a sentence or thought with this annoying blue hedgehog. Gold hedgehog now copying his hairstyle. Whatever. In their fight on the planet far below they'd barely been able to hear one another over Sonic's stupid snarky quips and their interruptions and the wind and sound their movements made that failed to keep up with them. Despite all that, the fights against him and now alongside him had given him that rush of adrenaline and a rare challenge from an equal, a welcome distraction from the thoughts in his head.
The Space Colony ARK reappeared in its proper place in orbit of the planet Mobius instead of its prior deadly crash course caused by his creator Gerald Robotnik and his now dead prototype, the Biolizard. Annoying as the blue and now gold hedgehog floating beside him was, he'd helped him put this feral creature driven mad by its chronic pain and isolation out of its misery and saved the planet in the process. The two of them floated in the midst of a beautiful green aurora with some pink and red hues that they'd passed through while fighting the Biolizard, surrounded by the starry night sky above and the blue-green planet below.
The gold glow around Shadow began to flicker away while Sonic's Super form remained even though he wasn't built to channel the power of Chaos like him. Maybe Sonic was the real ultimate life form all along, nature trumping whatever Gerald and his grandson Ivo cooked up in their labs. Was Sonic just better, or was it because he had more experience going Super? Or was it because Shadow was better with Chaos Control, so he'd done more of the work teleporting the colony out of its freefall? One way or another, his power was fading first.
Which meant he could no longer defy gravity.
Everything was so sore that he could barely move a muscle while he began falling from space for the second time in his life, this time without the protection of an escape pod. The gold power inhibiting rings that he'd taken off his wrists soon after going Super floated further away in space near Sonic while Shadow passed through the aurora's green and pink light.
"Shadow!"
Again, no sound in space. But Shadow saw Sonic turning and reaching out a hand as he began to fall, and Shadow happened to be good at reading lips, a skill he'd picked up from all the times Maria's voice got hoarse in one of her many life threatening bouts of sickness from colds that kids with normal immune systems would shrug off with a weekend and a few tissues. That was why Gerald had made Shadow hoping to use the DNA of his immortal body to invent a cure for Maria's illness. It was also why she wanted to be a doctor and scientist like her grandpa if she grew up (and they always knew it was an if!) and help as many people as she could on the vast blue planet below, once she was healthy enough to live outside the sterile environments of the space colony. They'd been raised together like brother and sister ever since he was made when she was four, even though by the logic of her grandpa creating him she was technically his niece. An older sister was an older sister, he never cared much about the little details.
She was different. She'd sped through so many books by the age of fourteen that she knew far more about medicine than most high schoolers, far smarter than him even though Gerald said his brain developed faster than a human's reaching the mental age of the average fourteen year old when he was only nine a year ago. Er. 51 years ago. He'd never minded her being smarter since he had strength she lacked, being made a physically fully-grown superhuman hedgehog, and he'd always wanted to use that strength to protect her. When she wasn't sick, they'd play together and she'd cheer him on when he fought Gerald's training bots. Gerald didn't want to use him as a weapon, but others did, so he needed to know self defense. When she was sick, he'd read with her, watch TV, find any way to bring joy into her life and by extension his. He never got sick, and she didn't get nearly as jealous as she had every right to, she just said she was glad at least one of them had such a strong, healthy body. But it was because he was strong that GUN feared him going out of control and sent their soldiers to-
"-crap, I don't have enough energy left to warp us both back with Chaos Control!" Shadow didn't hear the first few words until he felt Sonic grabbing his hand and stopped spacing out. The gold glow around him began to flicker away making his fur blue again for brief instants, anything more would make him suffocate in the void of space. "I don't think my Super form will last long enough to fly us both back, either, so you gotta get it together and warp back on your own! I'm sure you can do it, didn't you say you're the ultimate life form? Then you can brag about how you're stronger again if you want."
"It's no use...I can't do it, so you'll have to leave me behind." Shadow said silently and shook his head.
"Tough luck, pal, I'm not letting you die." They were not pals! Sonic started to turn away and attempt to fly back to the other side of the aurora and towards the ARK, but it was obvious his gold aura wouldn't last long enough at this speed. "Guess I'll just have to tough it out and drag you ba-"
"I wasn't asking." Shadow slapped Sonic's hand away with what little strength he had left and fell towards the planet.
"Shadow!" Sonic turned to him again, but he stopped moving closer as his aura flickered again. "Come on, you can't make me do this!"
It was either let them both die or save only himself, and they both knew it. Sonic got smaller in his view and Mobius got bigger.
"Chaos Control." Sonic said with a frown and teleported away.
Why had Sonic even tried to save him? He'd tried to kill him several times by now, and they may have teamed up to stop the Biolizard, but it was his fault they had to do that in the first place.
Now he was about to pay for that by burning up in the atmosphere. Some base animal instinct told him he should be afraid of death, but the rest of him didn't care anymore. At least he'd made up for what he did wrong at the last second and saved the world like she wanted him to.
"Maria…this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you."
His thoughts went back to when he'd been standing above that highway remembering things the wrong way...
The sirens of nearly a dozen police cars blared and tires skidded on the highway below when they all tried to stop and two bumped into each other thanks to one of them not slamming the brakes hard enough.
"Hmph. How pathetic!" He stared down from his perch at the top of the bridge's arch with red rails curving down ahead of him and behind him. Were all humans this incompetent, or was it only the police and military?
Those that didn't get in accidents got out of their cars and aimed their guns up at him. They really thought those could hurt him? A few cowered behind their car doors, and others had shaky nervous aim...they must have preferred defenseless little girls who couldn't dodge or shoot back. He remembered what happened that day, but it was always in distorted flashes, out of order and blended together. He smelled blood in the air even though none was shed yet. His ears rung with the sound of bullets even though none were fired yet. He closed his eyes as the sights of the past came back.
Maria panted struggling to keep up with him as they ran through the hallways.
"Find them before they escape!" A soldier said.
RATATATATA
Maria screamed at the sound of gunshots one of which hit her, Shadow moved in a red blur and the soldiers became messy bodies but it was too late, he was too slow, he was too-
Shadow opened his eyes and took a stance ready to jump, waiting for them to try shooting.
"MARIA!" He screamed when she pressed the button that locked him in the escape pod without her.
"Shadow...I beg of you, please do it for me...for all the people...on that planet..."
"Sayonara...Shadow the Hedgehog."
She pulled the lever and sent his escape pod down through the room's floor.
"Maria...I still remember what I promised you, for the people of this planet...I promise you...REVENGE!" He clenched his fist and glared down at the cops.
RATATATATATA
He jumped in a black and red blur before the bullets got close and grinded down the rail.
They never knew what hit them.
But that wasn't what he promised her. Gerald had gone mad with grief and meddled with his memories while he was in stasis so he'd think Maria asked him to avenge her, and for so long he'd believed it.
Shadow kept falling, more of his power fading by the second. Gravity made him accelerate at 9.8 meters per second per second with no air resistance to slow him down this far up. Thanks to that, terminal velocity was far higher up here. He had to be well over the speed of sound by now, and he was just about to rocket past the Karman line dividing the planet from space at around a hundred kilometers up. Of course, Gerald always reminded him and Maria how speed, space and time were all relative: the ARK orbited Mobius at Mach 22 letting them see a sunrise every 90 minutes, but it didn't feel like they were moving at all, nor did they notice the planet's orbit around the sun, so he was only feeling all this G force now because of how he was accelerating towards the atmosphere instead of falling around it at a steady rate like the space colony.
In less than a minute he would hit the mesosphere where meteorites started burning up. Just enough time to reminisce some more before he died.
It was less than half an hour ago that Amy brought his real memories back because her words were so much like Maria's...
"Shadow, we need you! Please help us!" Amy walked up from behind him while he looked out into space through the window.
"It's all going according to plan. There's no reason for me to help them. Besides, there's no way to save anyone." He said without turning around.
"There has to be! I know people fight over the most trivial things...some people may be selfish like the professor said...but they're basically good." Really? "If they try their best and never give up on their wishes...they always have a reason to be happy." Maria had tried her best and where did that get her. "That's why you should help them out...saving them is a good thing!"
He looked at her unmoved, and her expression got more desperate.
"Shadow, I'm begging you, please do it for them, at least give them a chance!"
"Ugh!" Shadow clutched his suddenly aching head so full of noise and looked back into space while holding the railing with his other hand and steadying himself. Why did he smell blood?
"Shadow, I beg of you, please do it for me...for a-"
"Maria!" He interrupted when she coughed up blood, clutching the bleeding hole in her chest from which a red stain spread across her blue and white dress. She could barely stand let alone pull the lever on the room's central console that would send him into space. That bullet never should've gotten near her, he should've taken it himself or better yet stopped it from being fired, he was far faster and stronger than even adult able-bodied humans, faster than sound, even as fast as a bullet if he tried, but it only took a moment of carelessness when the GUN soldiers didn't hesitate for a second to shoot-
"-for a better future!" She put her other hand back on the lever while continuing to look at him and the view of the planet behind him. "For all the people who live on that planet...give them a chance to be happy! Let them live their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason you were brought into this world." She made a broken smile.
"No it wasn't! Gerald made me so he could save you, not them! GUN wanted me to be a weapon and make them immortal, but fuck them! Fuck that stupid planet! It's full of humans just like that bastard who shot you! All I want is to make you happy! Why should they get a chance when you don't?! Why are you asking me to save the world instead of avenging you?! You don't have to force yourself to act so nice, aren't you angry or scared?!" It wasn't fair that she was so used to pain she could resist the urge to scream from a bullet wound. It wasn't fair she made herself act like a saint just to make him do the right thing.
But she couldn't hear anything he said. Through the soundproof glass, she could only see his angry expression and all the tears going down his face.
"I'm sorry, I-" She coughed. "-c-can't...talk...much longer..." Tears went down her face too. "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog..."
"No, you can't die like this, please! Don't pull that lever! DON'T LEAVE ME!"
"I love you." She pulled the lever with the last of her strength and fell to the ground in a puddle of her own blood.
"MARIAAAA!"
His escape pod flew down into space and re-entered Mobius's orbit, making her and the room vanish from sight. It took over a minute before he could do anything but sob or scream.
"Maria, I...I promise I'll protect the people of Mobius like you told me." He looked down at the planet getting closer and closer. "I know for all the humans like the bastards who shot you, there's just as many like you. I can't forgive GUN, they have to pay for what they did! But I'll save as many good people as I can...no, I have to get revenge on them to save people, no one's safe with them around! I'll protect the world like you want me to, Maria...that's my promise to you."
"That's what I've promised her, and I must keep that promise." A tear fell from his left eye against his wishes, but he was still facing the window to space and holding the railing so Amy wouldn't see it. "That's-"
"Shadow?" Amy interrupted in a confused voice.
"-what Maria wished for." Always the interruptions, but he owed her for bringing back his real memories so he'd ignore it. "I've got to go now! I have to keep my promise to Maria...and you."
"Huh?" Right, she had no idea what he was talking about-she couldn't see what he was remembering-but he didn't have time to explain and it was none of her business. He glided across the ground on his hover shoes. Time to save the world. Well, he wasn't sure if the ARK could really destroy the entire planet like Gerald said even with all seven Chaos Emeralds powering it: the test fire of the Eclipse Cannon with only six emeralds had only left a city-sized crater on the moon, so one more couldn't be that much worse. Still, its crash and resulting explosion would at least destroy the capitol of the United Federation if not stopped.
The planet Mobius got bigger and bigger beneath him as he accelerated more and more to well over Mach 3 by now leaving him only moments before he crashed and burned now that he was in the mesosphere at 75 kilometers up. Even though the air was extremely cold, the friction alone would burn him up under normal circumstances. One kilometer every second now and increasingly faster.
Oh well, it wasn't the worst way to go. Better than bleeding out slowly from a bullet wound, and if it did end up more painful, then he deserved it. The G force made it hard to keep his eyes open...at this rate, he might pass out and not even feel it happe-
"Shadow, wake up!"
Shadow opened his eyes, what was that voice and how could he hear it in space? No, wait, not space anymore but there was still barely any air to slow him down let alone breathe in.
He turned to face space and saw a red ball of light that then turned into an echidna who looked little like Knuckles other than being the same species, a girl with orange fur and a fancy jeweled headband and a dress in the style of the ancient Knuckles Clan. The same now nearly extinct clan of echidnas whose ruins and murals Gerald had studied in order to make an immortal life form like Chaos that could tap into the power of the Chaos Emeralds, like the Biolizard that resembled Chaos's perfect form, and then him. She was translucent enough that he could see the beautiful starry view of the night sky behind her, as if she was a ghost, but not the ghost he wanted to see...
"Who are you and how can you talk up here? I must be losing my mind already."
"No, you're not just imagining things, I'm real! I'm talking to you telepathically through the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald because Sonic and Knuckles are using their power to try to save you!"
"You didn't answer my-"
60 kilometers left.
"My name is Tikal but that doesn't matter you're running out of time just listen!" She grabbed his shoulders while falling through space with him, but he didn't quite feel it, not physically. "I can save you but it won't work unless you want to be saved! Because Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart..." He'd definitely heard that last line in Gerald's lectures about the archeology of Mystic Ruins and Angel Island. There must have been some truth to them considering while her hands weren't tangible, he could feel her emotions instead, a mix of fear and pity and sympathy, even though she knew she wasn't going to be harmed by the fall. Why would anyone be afraid for him?
Mobius approached rapidly and the gold aura around him continued to flicker and protect him from burning up no doubt thanks to her, but like she said it wasn't going to last. He could feel it, if he reached for the power she was trying to give him he'd be able to maintain enough of the Super form to survive a little longer. Whether that would be long enough and let him survive the fall was hard to say.
"AAAGH!" Shadow groaned when he hit the stratosphere at 50 kilometers up and was agonizingly forced to begin to decelerate by the increasingly dense air in the atmosphere, still too little to breathe without the Chaos Emeralds' fading aura and too fast to hear himself. Quickly his velocity fell from its peak of just over Mach 4 the denser the air became, but it wouldn't go down nearly enough to save him.
Shadow grit his teeth and stopped himself from the nauseating spinning in the air his agony had caused and now was facing downwards able to see the sea of clouds starting around 30 kilometers below his current height. Now the ghost echidna girl was below him looking up with the green and blue planet behind her. He was lucky he wasn't on a trajectory to the ocean.
"Even if that's all true, why would you even want to save me? We're strangers, and it doesn't matter if I saved the world, it's my fault this happened in the first place, so I deserve it." Because he'd broken his promise to Maria. Because he'd let her die.
In any reasonable person's view he would be a monster, at most a sympathetic one meant to be put out of his misery like the Biolizard. Right?
"But you changed! If you were such a horrible person, then you wouldn't feel this remorse, you'd be begging me to save you. That's why you deserve a second chance." Damn it, that sounded like something Maria would say. "Even if you think you don't, do you really think Maria would want you to throw your life aw-"
"How do you know her name?!"
"Because I can see your feelings just as you can see mine, because Chaos is power enriched by the heart."
"Then get out of my head!"
"Not until you let me help you! I know how much you loved her, and I can tell she loved you too...so please, think of what she would want and-"
"If she loves me then why won't she let me die and be with her again?!"
Had he just said that? He'd never admitted that to anyone before now.
"Oh..." For once she didn't know what to say. Good, could she just shut up and let him die already?
They plummeted into the ozone layer still going at Mach 1 despite all the deceleration. 30 kilometers left. Only 15 more until they hit the highest clouds.
"Shadow, I know what it's like to lose someone!"
As if anyone could understand. He hadn't just lost one person, he'd lost everyone on the ARK, everyone who ever mattered to hi-
"And it wasn't just one person: I lost my entire tribe when my father tried to steal the Emeralds from Chaos even when I begged him not to!" Images flashed through his mind of the altar of the Master Emerald, Tikal's father and his soldiers storming the shrine and attacking the Chao protecting the Emeralds against her pleas, Chaos's fury at them harming the Chao, fire everywhere-"I couldn't change his mind, so I couldn't save them, just like you couldn't save Maria..."
"What?" She was there when Angel Island split off from the mainland? Then how was she still alive ages later? No, wait, it was coming back to him...Ivo had briefed him about this, about Sonic's last adventure along with the ones before it in an attempt to inform his new ally of his nemesis's weaknesses...those memories of what he'd been told along with the memories of Tikal he was just seeing now made it clear to him. Tikal had sealed herself within the Master Emerald along with Chaos until Ivo stupidly broke it into shards and tried to exploit Chaos's power just like Tikal's father had ages ago, and then she'd aided Sonic and his friends as a ghostly advisor...the reason Ivo knew this was because she'd tried to persuade him not to foolishly try to abuse Chaos's power, but he was convinced he would succeed where her father failed thanks to his scientific genius...he wasn't sure whether Tikal was really a ghost when she hadn't died, but whether she counted as alive or dead wasn't what confused Shadow most, it was seeing how she'd felt back then, knowing she had been in as much pain as he was in the ARK massacre, so then how did she choose to go on instead of-
"I know how hard it is to keep going, but you have to, just like I had to! It's the only way you can make up for your mistakes, and your loved ones would want you to have a chance to live on and be happy!"
24 kilometers left.
"I know she'd say something like that, but how am I supposed to just move on like she isn't dead? How did you do it?"
"I don't know, but you'll have to find a way, since I'm tired of watching people die!" Her tears passed right through him like they didn't exist, falling slower than both of them did even as their terminal velocity dropped further.
21. They had nearly escaped the ozone layer and reached the highest cumulonimbus. He still didn't get why she cared, but then again, even a stranger's death could be another weight on the conscience if it was your fault, especially a stranger with something in common. Why was it that she could move on when he couldn't? If it had been Maria who lived and him who died, would she be able to...
Then it hit him. Of course she'd be able to move on: she had been used to living with far more pain than him while she was still alive, both physical and mental. How had she had it in her to still be so full of love and hope when she always knew her days were numbered and her chances of being cured slim at best? The Biolizard had lashed out in its pain, he'd lashed out, what made her different?
...She'd had people who loved her, unlike the caged Biolizard or him after he lost everyone. She'd had her grandfather and the rest of her family.
She'd had him.
I'm sorry, Maria...I was trying to take the easy way out of my pain. You would want me to keep protecting the people of this planet, but I was going to use my mistakes as an excuse to give up and act like I've already done enough.
The power of the Chaos Emeralds coursed through Shadow when he crashed through the cumulonimbus at 15 kilometers up.
...I'll make sure to live enough for the both of us.
Falling through that cloud must have been why his eyes were wet even though this barrier of gold energy surrounded him.
"You did it, Shadow! I'm sure you'll be able to survive now!"
Tikal wasn't soaked like him, because she wasn't really here, this was just her projecting her thoughts, so she'd survive.
"I'm not as sure as you are, we're still going too fast." He closed his eyes. "Chaos Control!"
He teleported only a few feet above where he was and failed to cancel out his still great downwards velocity.
"Damn it, I can't warp myself back to the ARK, it's too far away and I can't sense it anymore! Why didn't you warp me back there from the start?!"
"I'm sorry Shadow, but like I said, I couldn't do it for you, and you were still too far away even then. I don't think you have the power to fly anymore, either, but your transformation's invincibility should be enough for you to withstand the fall...I hope..."
Shadow swore some more while falling past more clouds to his sides, but he knew he only had himself to blame for not regaining the will to live and attempt warping to safety sooner. Wait a minute, he could hear himself swearing now even without talking telepathically! They'd dropped below the sound barrier...but still not slow enough...
A commercial plane flew off to their left. That wasn't a good sign, they were finally in the troposphere and had at most 10 kilometers left before Shadow splat like a bug. The air was starting to become thick enough to be breathable too...
Worse yet, they were falling near the northwestern edge of the United Federation's capitol city, since Shadow was on nearly the same crash course the ARK had been until he teleported it back into its proper orbit. He wouldn't destroy the city if he hit the ground, but he had other problems to worry about.
"Shit, if I land in the city and get knocked out by the fall, then even if I survive GUN will throw me in jail and try to use me as a weapon!" The Prison Island complex was rubble now, but they had plenty of other facilities. "Or they'll just kill me!"
He veered as far towards the countryside as he could in what little time he had left to control his descent.
5 kilometers left.
"But Shadow, you just saved the world! Surely they'll reconsider seeing you as a threat after all the good you've done."
Four.
"They don't care, they'll just give Sonic all the credit since they need me dead or quiet so I don't tell the public the truth about Project Shadow and shut up I'm trying to survive!"
Three.
"Then I wish you luck in surviving this and whatever comes next. May we meet again the next time you collect the Chaos Emeralds, if there is one. I do hope the world won't always be in danger..."
Two.
Her ghostly image turned back into a red ball of light, then faded away in a flash, likely returning to the Master Emerald or Angel Island wherever it is she really was.
Damn it, I forgot to thank her.
Shadow shielded himself with the last of his Chaos energy as the grassy outskirts near the city got very close very fast.
One.
"Fuck." Shadow swore before curling into a ball to brace for impact.
After a life of coasting on inertia, he was bound to hit rock bottom eventually.
...
...
...
...
Maria sang slightly off-key the lyrics of that 'Live and Learn' song she heard on the radio and played it on her acoustic guitar while they looked out the window at the gorgeous sunrise peeking around the edge of the planet below making a nice orange glow on its edge. Shadow sang with her just as off-key, and soon they finished the last of the lyrics.
"You totally nailed it."
"Oh Shadow, you say that every time." She said and giggled, and he did too.
Then for a moment, he spaced out. Something felt off, like he wasn't really supposed to be here, this odd sense of deja vu. A brief silence went by and she looked out the window.
"Shadow, what do you think it's like on Mobius?" They could both only guess, naturally, so she didn't mean it literally.
But he did know. He was sure he could remember things that had happened down there...somehow...
"The professor said his life's work was dedicated to all of those who live down there. He once told that the reason for his existence was making people happy through the power of...wait...didn't I already say this?"
"What do you mean? You sound confused."
"I feel like this conversation already happened before...the next thing I said was wondering why I was created, and I said if I went down there, maybe I'd find out...but I did go down there, I'm sure of it!" All the thoughts in his head were so jumbled right now. Was this real or just a dream? Or was it the things down there that he had imagined?
"Soooo, what was it like? Don't leave me in the dark!" She said with an eager grin.
"It's full of all the sights the professor talked about and showed you in photos, and more...their view of the sunrise isn't quite like ours, but it's beautiful in its own way, especially over the ocean. I wish you could see it for yourself."
"Sounds pretty."
"But it's not all pretty. The planet's beautiful, sure, but there's a lot of shitty humans down there ruining it...they're so petty and small-minded. They can't see how small and precious the planet is like we can, so they fight over the dumbest things, and they're ruining the environment just like the professor's colleagues warned about fifty years ago. When I got down there, I had to fight GUN to make them pay for what they did, and then I had to fight Sonic, that blue hedgehog they blamed the things I did on, and then I had to team up with him to fight Bio and stop the ARK from-"
Then it all came flooding back and his eyes went wide.
"If you teamed up with someone from down there, that means they're not all bad, right? Sounds like it was an adventure!"
"Maria...all these things happened because you sent me down there, because you..."
"Because I what?"
"...Is this real? There's no way I could be talking to you unless I'm dreaming, or...Maria, am I dead?"
If this was what death was like, he didn't mind at all.
"You say that like you want to be..." She said with a frown.
"I might, but I know you want me to keep living."
"Shadow..." Maria hugged him with teary eyes. "Life shouldn't be a burden you go through just for me. I told you to give the people down there a chance to be happy, do you think that didn't include you too?"
Shadow didn't know what to say to that, so he just hugged her back. She was right as usual.
Then he heard the sound of water draining and bubbling around him, but there wasn't any water. "What was that?" He turned and looked when an automatic door hissed shut, but it wasn't the one in this room. A computer terminal beeped but the one in this room was inactive. He gasped when suddenly he could breathe air again. He couldn't before?
"I think you know what it means."
"Oh...those are the sounds of the real world." He said with a frown. "That means I'm not dead or on the ARK, and this is just a dream I'm about to wake up from..."
"Yeah..."
"I don't want to lose you again."
"I know...but I'll still be in your memory, supporting you." She let go of the hug and stepped back with a smile. "Now go wake up and be a hero like I know you can."
"I can't call myself a hero, but I'll keep my promise to you."
"Hehe, that's all I needed to hear."
"Thank you, Maria...thank you for being my sister."
Shadow opened his eyes and saw the stasis pod he was in now drained of its strange fluid that had been sustaining him for who knows how long until it opened up just now. In the rest of the room was-
RATATATATATATAT!
-gunfire from the two arm cannons of a bulky red-eyed E-series robot, which Rouge dodged by leaping to the wall and then the ceiling and then another wall, each sleek metal surface being riddled with bullets and explosions as the bot failed to track her with its aim fast enough-
"Rouge!"
Shadow jumped out of his now open stasis pod just in time before some stray bullets hit it and caused it to explode, diving towards Rouge when she landed and pushing her out of the way.
"Shadow!" Rouge said.
"Stay here." He said now that she was behind some cover. But given how fragile everything in this place was offense was the best defense, so he spun at it with a homing attack and bounced off doing a backflip and landing again. It was unscathed. "Damn it, this one's tough."
"MUST ERADICATE ALL EGGMAN'S ROBOTS!" The robot said, it could talk? Why would it want to destroy other Eggman rob-
RATATATATATA
Shadow glared at the robot trying to aim its stream of bullets at him.
"CHAOS CONTROL!" A huge surge of Chaos energy flowed out of him and slowed time to less than half its normal speed, which made it easy enough to weave to the side of the robot's aim, jump over the line of fire to a wall like Rouge did, then teleport behind the bot and punch it, causing an explosion of unstable red Chaos energy crackling with red lightning that sent it flying into the wall across the room and made a small crater in it and destroyed more machines that sparked and fizzled with the ends of split wires and then the robot fell limp where it would be easy enough to finish off, so with the ringing still in his ears Shadow pulled his hand back and concentrated as much power as he could in it for a bright yellow Chaos Spear.
"CHAOS...!" The floor shook.
"SHADOW WAIT!" Her voice was distorted by the slowed time but not so much that he couldn't hear the desperation in it.
Time resumed its normal speed and the sphere of energy in his hand began to fizzle out.
"If you'd fired that, you could've destroyed the entire room with us still in it! No wonder Gerald gave you those inhibitor rings..." Rouge said with a shake of her head.
"Shadow, what are you doing?!" Ivo said through the walkie talkie that Shadow had dropped in his fight with Sonic. "Hurry and get back here right now before the island blows up with you on it!"
"BLOWS UP?!" Sonic said with his stupid mouth agape in shock. His eyes met Shadow's and they both realized simultaneously they'd have to call this a draw if they wanted to escape in time.
They ran their separate ways and Shadow rushed to reach Rouge before the bomb timer ran out. By the time he found her in Security Hall it turned out she had collected them but got trapped needing him to bail her out. He could have just taken the three Emeralds she had and left her for dead while escaping by himself, but...
"Chaos Control!" He warped them both to safety for no particular reason.
"Mobius to Shadow?"
"Guh!" He snapped out of his spacing out and took a step back when she waved her hand at him.
"You must still be out of it since you just came out of stasis. Here's your inhibitor rings, Sonic gave them to me after you stopped the ARK. Good job, by the way." She held out those familiar gold rings, and it was then he realized they weren't on his own wrists. That proved his memories of his fight up in space were real, didn't it? He wasn't going to let himself be brainwashed during some amount of time in stasis again. He put them back on and immediately felt the red aura around him settle down. Not like he needed all that power for most opponents anyways.
It was then he noticed how the mere chargeup of his Chaos Spear had fried the machines near him and even burnt some of the metal.
"Shit."
"Haha, you boys sure love wrecking things, don't you?" She said looking at the room full of wrecked machinery riddled with bullets and burns from the explosions and his Chaos attacks. "Still, you saved me, so thanks. Not that I couldn't have handled it on my own."
Now that he got a moment to look at Rouge, she had a new outfit, and her eyeshadow was pink instead of blue like before. It must have been at least a day since he fell from space, then, probably more for Ivo to have time to put him in this place and hold him in stasis.
Just how long had he been out?
"You woke me up, so we're even."
He looked back at the robot. It was unconscious, the circular red lights in its rectangular eyes dimmed to black, but not destroyed. Maybe he should fix that, this time without destroying half the room.
"Hold up, don't destroy it just yet."
"Why not? It just attacked us and it could get up any moment now."
"Remember how it said it wanted to destroy Eggman's other robots? That means it might be sentient. And look on its chest, see that number? It's an E-series!"
"E-123..." Was what the white serial number on its torso said, and there was a red symbol on its left shoulder which was bulky and black to contrast the red of the symbol and its torso. "Omega? Wasn't Zeta the last one? I thought Ivo said he shut down the E-series after one of them went rogue and destroyed all the others." Well. Almost all the others. Alpha had been destroyed by Amy, something Ivo insisted was solely the fault of it being the weaker prototype of the E-series for it to lose to Sonic's supposedly helpless fangirl.
"He did, but that just means Eggman wasn't stupid enough to share all his secret projects with us. Lying's standard practice when it comes to spies. He must've had this bad boy on the backburner without letting us know about him, just in case we turned on him."
"Then he was smart to expect that, but an idiot to make the same mistake of making a sentient robot twice."
"That sums it up." Rouge said. "Anyway, Eggman must have built this one to be pretty tough if he's still kicking after he took a hit from you without your rings on, so he'd make a good ally if we could get him to side with us like Amy did with Gamma."
"Like Amy did what?" That meant it was twice now she'd turned someone good. Well, as far as the term 'good' applied to him now.
"You didn't know? Oh, right, Eggman didn't mention how she was the one who convinced him to rebel...I only found out when I was talking to Amy and everyone else on the ARK after you fell from space and we thought you might be dead. We all had to make a temporary truce to make sure we all got down from there in one piece, but Eggman ended up getting away by finding an escape pod we didn't know about. It's a shame, since the plan was we'd all go down on the same shuttle, then I'd turn him in to GUN and claim that sweet bounty on his head!"
Shadow crossed his arms with a frown. "You're still working for GUN? I already told you how they were the ones who killed Maria and everyone on the ARK, their story about the professor's experiments going berserk was all a lie. It's true that the Biolizard was getting hard for the professor and his coworkers to control, but they managed to put him in stasis without anyone getting hurt, and that was a long time before the massacre happened."
"Technically, I work directly for the President, not as an agent of GUN, but I see why that's close enough to bother you. And I did some digging trying to find evidence of what you said in the ARK's files after you fell and I had the time, but there was no proof there. If you're telling the truth, then they covered their tracks to make sure everything fit the official story."
"If their story was true, then they wouldn't have pinned my crimes on Sonic because they were afraid of the truth getting out about Project Shadow. It's obvious we don't look anything alike, the only reason they told the public he was me was so they could keep the public from finding out about me so they could cover it all up."
"Right, I get that, what you're saying adds up. There's no concrete proof, but I don't think you have any reason to lie, since if it was the Biolizard that killed her, then you never would've had that grudge against humanity Amy told me about."
"So why haven't you quit yet?"
She took a quick look to make sure none of the cameras or other recording devices in the room were still intact. Thanks to him and Omega, they weren't.
"Well, it wasn't my choice to be a spy in the first place. I got caught stealing jewels a while back, and the government saw how good I was at it, so they said I could either be their agent or go to prison. Spying on Eggman was my ticket to a pardon, but they aren't happy I couldn't capture him, so I've got one more mission until I'm in the clear: stopping his new plan to take over the world."
"Again, seriously? That idiot never gives up." Shadow rolled his eyes.
"What can I say? Madness must run in the Robotnik family."
"No, he's like this by choice." Shadow said.
"If you say so. So, remember what I said about pardons? The president's willing to give you one too for your crimes against GUN and the United Federation, since you helped Sonic stop the ARK. Sonic already got one for the property damage he caused escaping captivity after he was framed."
"I didn't think they would-"
"On one condition."
"Damn it, of course there's a condition!"
"You have to help me stop Eggman's latest plan. Capturing him is a bonus, but it's not strictly necessary for you and I to get our pardons."
"Fine, I'm going to stop him either way anyways. But I'll only work with you as long as it doesn't make me an agent of GUN, I'd rather die than work for them."
"Relax, it doesn't. I already told you I work for the president, not them. I know there's overlap, but the difference matters. Besides, everyone who was in GUN 50 years ago is either old or dead now, so they're under new management. You need to lighten up and catch up with the times."
"If they'd really changed, they would've revealed the truth of what they did back then and punished the perpetrators. Instead, they tried to kill me to make sure I didn't expose them, and they blamed Sonic for what I did to cover it up. They haven't changed a bit."
She shrugged. "Well like I said, I only work for the government of the United Federation because I have to, and I'd rather be a fugitive than follow an order to do something like what GUN did back then. You don't have to worry about fighting alongside their men, either: they're having us work as a small, elite team separate from their other forces to shut down Eggman's plans. They've gotten plenty of lessons lately of how outmatched normal human agents are against people like you, Sonic, and Eggman's best machines."
"Hmph. Why did you come find me anyways?"
"It wasn't just because they told me to recruit you. We were all worried you were dead after you fell from space, and I owed you one for saving me back at Prison Island. Back then, you said it was just for the Chaos Emeralds, but we both know you could've taken them and left me for dead. You may act like you hate everyone, but you can't fool me. I know there's some good in you." She said with that somewhat annoying knowing look coming from her batty eyes.
"..."
What was it with girls convincing him to listen to his conscience. First the promise he made to Maria, then when he saved Rouge, then when Amy reminded him of that promise, then Tikal convincing him not to let himself die, then when he saved Rouge yet again just now.
"Fine. I'll join your team."
How troublesome.
"Perfect, just what I wanted to hear! Now let's see if we can make Team Dark a team of three." Mediocre name, but he didn't have a better idea.
They interrogated the robot when it woke up. A little while later when it was done talking, Rouge was now sitting atop the one stack of servers left unharmed and looking down on Shadow to her left and Omega to her right.
"Now I get it...I see what this is all about. You're mad at Eggman for sealing you in this room, that's why you want to fight his robots."
"So why'd you attack us?" Shadow said staring at Omega. "We're not robots, and we're fighting against Ivo."
"When my consciousness went back online, I initially followed my programming to eliminate the intruder, Rouge. Then as you may recall, it was you who attacked first, and in my confusion and self defense subroutines, I mistook you for a malfunctioning Shadow Android since you had not yet used your Chaos abilit-" It said...he said in a monotone voice like before yet somehow less angry sounding, probably since he wasn't as loud, but Shadow interrupted him.
"You mistook me for a what?"
"A Shadow Android. One of many robots created in your likeness by Doctor Ivo Robotnik, also known as Eggman, and between the two, my preference is to use the derogatory nickname Sonic invented." Omega said.
"Imitation is the highest form of flattery, you know." Rouge said from her perch. "Androids are robots made to look like hu-"
"I'm not an idiot I know what androids are!" Shadow said. "Wait, Rouge, you knew there were androids of me? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Funny story: when I got here, I was actually worried that you weren't the real Shadow and all I found was just another android. But my doubts all went out the window as soon as I saw you fight. You're the real deal, no doubt about it, especially since you remember how you saved me. Besides, I had more important things to talk about, and I didn't want to give you another identity crisis."
"Fine, fair enough." Then he looked back at Omega. "So, you wanted to go against your programming because Ivo isolated you here for so long having you guard this place to make sure no one woke me up...I get that, but you should've thought first before shooting. If you want revenge on Ivo, then we should both be on the same side."
"Take your own advice: you should have thought first before attacking me."
"You shot at Rouge first!"
"Alright, calm down, both of you." Suddenly she was down from the server stack and pulling them each towards the other. "Shadow, Omega can make up for attacking me by helping us out. Omega, Shadow can make up for that dent in your back by helping you get back at Eggman. You two make up so the three of us can start looking for Eggman, together." She grabbed Shadow's right glove and Omega's large metal hand with one hand each and put Shadow's hand on Omega's, then put her own hand on top of the stack. They each begrudgingly went along with it rather than resisting.
"Aw yeah baby, that makes us a TEAM!" Rouge said with her usual sly smile.
She had them both hook line and sinker and she knew it. Then again, as much as her obviously being their team's leader initially bothered him, maybe working for someone else wouldn't be so bad this time. After all, last time he'd thought he was manipulating Eggman and only pretending to work for him, when in reality he was following along with the delusions Gerald had put in his head.
It was sometime later in their new adventure that Rouge said something that surprised him. She was sitting on one of the severed wings of the easily demolished Egg Hawk (though Eggman himself had sadly escaped in one of his usual capsules), taking a break while Omega picked apart some scrapped machinery, maybe to repair himself. Rouge was taking in the beautiful view of the sparkling sea at Ocean Palace, yet from Shadow's perspective laying back in the sand, she didn't seem to be enjoying the scenery.
"...What was Maria like?"
Shadow sat up and scowled. "Wh-" 'Who's asking, the guilty conscience of a GUN agent?' he nearly spat out spitefully. He'd wanted to say that and more to express all the disgust inside. 'She'd like this view if she wasn't dead because of people like you'. Even a skilled liar like her couldn't hide every trace of guilt in her tone. Or maybe she just didn't want to hide it. Either way, he wanted to twist that knife as much as he could.
But what would Maria think. What would she think of him doing all he could to hurt someone who was just trying to get to know him and maybe even open up a little herself.
He dropped the scowl.
"What do you mean? Be more specific."
"Hmm..." She seemed to be picking her words carefully too as she stared down at him while holding her chin. "How about her hobbies? That would be a start. I'm just curious what your life was like up there, that's all."
"...Hold on, give me a minute to think."
Yet again his thoughts drifted off to space. What advice would she give if they could talk by that window again? He could only guess, but guessing was better than forgetting her.
"Am I doing the right thing teaming up with her? She's working for the same kind of people who killed you." He said while sitting on that bench by the window with her.
"She said she'd never do anything like that, and she's helping you stop Ivo, right? She isn't one of the people who hurt me, and she's trying to do the right thing, just like you are." She was still holding that guitar...
"...Is killing your cousin the right thing? We're supposed to take him alive, but it could come down to that. I hate him and he's done plenty to deserve it, but he's still your family."
"Not any more than you are. It doesn't matter if we're not related by blood: you're still my brother, and I know you'll do the right thing." Her blue eyes were so full of trust.
"...I don't." But his red eyes weren't.
"...Ask me some other day." Shadow said.
"Got it." Rouge got the message: he'd tell her, just not right now.
Right now, he was going to stop thinking so much and just enjoy the beach like Maria would want him to.