Shadow touched down in the middle of a street in Station Square. It was still raining, and he was drenched by water and the luminescence of nearby streetlights. Many of the surrounding buildings were encrusted with scaffolding. Some passersby turned to look at him as they walked past. A few stopped and stared.
'Is that Sonic?' one girl whispered.
'Are you colour-blind?' her friend asked. 'Of course not. Besides, Sonic can't teleport, idiot.'
'Well, there was that one time …' She looked up at the sky as she and her friend hurried off. 'Oh, I hope it doesn't flood again.'
A horn blared, and Shadow whirled around to see a semi-truck barreling down on him, high beams glaring. Several bystanders screamed. He sighed.
With the exception of missions for GUN, he had no personal connection to this place. What was he doing here?
Snap.
He found himself standing on top of the Radical Highway bridge. He gritted his teeth, watching an endless stream of red and orange lights flowing beneath him.
He'd been dragged back to this place more times than he could count. Even in White Space, his memories and future history had been transformed into Elucidean nightmares – ones that were always haunted by the same bridge that he now stood on.
Shadow crossed his arms tightly. He had never understood Black Doom's obsession with this place. But maybe his progenitor hadn't just been trying to bring Shadow back to this place … Maybe he had been trying to bring Shadow back to who he used to be.
When Shadow had first stood here, he'd been filled with hatred and contempt for humanity. He'd promised Maria that she would have her revenge. But even after his false memories had been stripped away and over a year had passed, he was still simmering with anger.
He looked up, searching the distant skies for any remaining fragments of the Black Comet. Was Rouge right? Had he changed? Or was he forever doomed to fight against the rage and violence that was woven into his very DNA?
Snap.
He reappeared in Night Babylon, the nightlife district of Central City. The sickly lavender glow of Club 'Rouge' washed over him, and the jangling of pinball and slot machines flooded his ears. He winced, steadying himself against a roulette table.
'Black or red, sir?'
He pushed off the table and walked away. 'Neither.'
He'd wasted far too many nights here with Rouge. Even though alcohol had no effect on him, she was still determined to beat him in a drinking contest one day. They would do shots until she passed out or drunkenly confessed to grand theft larceny. One time, she got so hammered that she flew straight into oncoming traffic after leaving the club.
'Can I get you something to drink, honey?'
He looked up. The bartender had blonde hair and blue eyes.
Snap.
Shadow looked around and realised that he was standing in the destroyed remains of the Egg Fleet's flagship. The walls were riddled with the telltale signs of Omega's tracer fire. The room was filled with glass pods, most of which were shattered. He slowly backed towards the door, eyes darting left and right.
'You never found any treasure here, did you, Rouge?'
A Shadow Android hung out of one of the shattered pods. Its gaze was vacant. Its form was barely recognisable. Its comrades were in pieces, scattered throughout the room. There was no doubt that Omega had been here, but why hadn't this one also been destroyed? Had Metal Overlord attacked before Omega could finish the job?
The android lunged at Shadow's throat. He grabbed it by the head and slammed its skull down on his knee, shattering its eyes before ripping its head from its body.
Shadow held the severed head up to the light, glaring at it. Then he tossed it aside and stalked off, casting a disgusted look over his shoulder. How damaged had his memories been for him to believe that he was merely another android? A replica? A fake?
Snap.
Shadow stood in the ruins of Westopolis. Like Station Square, only so much of the city had been rebuilt since the cataclysmic disaster that befell it. He glanced around, and the echoes of the past rang in his ears. Artillery fire. Screams. The sound of death raining from the sky.
The passers-by gave him a wide berth as he walked down the street. He closed one hand around his upper arm, and his grip tightened like a vice.
He may have saved Westopolis – and the rest of the planet – from the Black Arms, but he had still wreaked havoc in this city nonetheless. Its inhabitants hadn't just had to contend with the Black Arms. They'd also had to contend with a homicidal amnesiac with a gun tearing through their streets on a stolen motorcycle. He had painted this city red, killing aliens and GUN soldiers alike. He still remembered putting his foot through a GUN soldier's helmet, smashing the visor, and using his thrusters to burn the man alive as he screamed for mercy.
He looked up. Where the Black Comet had once obscured the heavens, all he could see now was a faint sprinkle of stars.
Snap.
He stepped into an idyllic street in a coastal town. He looked around. The air smelled of sea salt. He'd never been here before. Or had he?
A girl passed him, brushing against his arm. 'Oh, I'm sorry.' She turned to look back at him. Her white dress swirled around her. 'I didn't … see you …' She stared at him. Her red hair was adorned with white feathers. Her eyes were a pale, opalescent blue. 'Do I know you?' she finally asked.
After a moment, he shook his head and began to back away. 'No. No, you don't.'
A single tear dripped down her cheek, adorning her face like a thin silver cord. '… Are you sure?'
Snap.
He was surrounded by a sea of quadratic equations written in white chalk on cinder blocks. The only other thing in the room was an empty chair fitted with broken restraints. The ground was spattered with faded bloodstains. A flickering halogen lamp swung on a rusted chain above his head.
He took a shallow breath.
Snap.
Volcanic fumes swirled around him, and he coughed, squinting through the haze. A tsunami of lava poured down the cliff face above him, and he dove for safety, landing on a metal rail. Sparks cascaded from his shoes as he corkscrewed through a collapsing volcanic landscape. Stars fell from the sky, cascading and shattering all around him, spraying him with shards of stardust.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap –
'Hey … Hey, faker!'
Shadow stumbled and dug his heels into the ground. He braced his hands against his knees. His vision was blurred, and all he could see was the ground beneath his feet. 'What … What zone am I in?'
'Green Hill, obviously.' A familiar pair of red shoes adorned with tacky gold buckles strolled past him. 'Green grass, chequered dirt, the loop-de-loop …'
Shadow shook his head and glared upwards. 'Shut up. I'm disorientated, not blind.'
Sonic leaned down to meet his gaze and grinned. His eyes sparkled, more vibrant than a Chaos Emerald. 'Disorientated? Are you sure you're the Ultimate Life Form?'
To be continued...