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“Chaos Control!”
Just as soon as Shadow said those words, he found himself careening through a vast space filled with dull prismatic shards. His intention was to reach Sonic before that overconfident idiot could reach the Paradox Prism, but evidently he wasn’t fast enough. The last thing he saw was a burst of blinding, multicolored light that consumed everything. Sonic must have shattered the prism and the warped energy it released messed up Shadow’s Chaos Control.
All around him, Shadow could feel the world’s Chaos Energy in disarray, torn apart and unstable. Only the Chaos Emerald in his possession remained unaffected. However, the emerald did him little good at the moment. He had no idea where he was, let alone where he should be going or what he should be doing to fix things. In this endless space, direction might as well mean nothing with no solid ground and no meaningful landmarks. The only thing around him were dull, purple shards of varying sizes floating aimlessly every which way.
None of that mattered. Even if it was practically impossible to tell where he was going, Shadow needed to find a way out of this place. And once he did get out of here, he was going to tear Sonic a new one for causing this mess in the first place.
Firing up his air shoes, Shadow propelled himself through the prismatic space towards a bright light in the distance. The light was a vibrant red and was one of the few things that stood out among the nothingness. There were a few other, very similar lights of varying colors, but the red one was the closest. Its blinding radiance reflected off of the dull, purple shards surrounding it, giving them a bit more life than they’d normally have.
Upon reaching the red light, Shadow immediately noticed that the light was actually a prism shard much like the countless others floating around and that it was much, much bigger than anything around it. Why this one shone with such radiance while the others were completely lifeless was still a mystery. The red prism shard overflowed with some kind of unstable energy, so perhaps that was the reason. Reaching a hand out, Shadow touched the shard’s surface hoping to find out what was wrong with it or what its purpose was. As soon as he did, however, he was overtaken by visions of a dystopian city.
The city was a bleak nightmare, its skies lit red with a noxious smog. Endless, towering buildings stretched out far beyond the horizon, no vegetation in sight. The people looked miserable as they traveled via conveyor belt-like sidewalks with automatons overseeing their every action. One wrong move and they’d be arrested and taken somewhere they may never come back from. It was the epitome of industrialized oppression taken to its most extreme. But among the depressing mechanical landscape, Shadow could see bits and pieces he recognized from Green Hill.
Shadow withdrew from the prism shard almost as soon as he touched it. The sight of a ravaged Green Hill transformed into an unfamiliar dystopia was beyond awful. It was like gazing into a terrible alternate universe where Doctor Eggman finally managed to take over the world.
Suddenly, Shadow was struck with a realization, a theory about what’s going on and what this strange void is. Leaving behind the red prism shard for the time being, he went to investigate a different glowing shard. This time, he approached the green one and put a hand on it. Just as before, he could see another version of the world he knew, only this time it was overtaken not by industrialization, but by a suffocating jungle. Leaving that shard behind, he went to check yet another: the blue shard. This one featured a Green Hill flooded by an expansive sea ruled by pirates.
Shadow didn’t need to see anymore to understand what had happened. When Sonic shattered the Paradox Prism, time and space had been shattered, too. And now Shadow was stuck in what remains of their broken world, a lifeless void that separated the distorted splinters of what was once whole. That explained the unstable state of the energy all around him, these strange prism shards, and the visions he sees when he touches them. Yet that knowledge didn’t help him understand how to leave this place or fix what had been broken.
Although he could touch the prism shards and see what was inside them, he couldn’t enter them. It was like there was a wall blocking him from entering the alternate worlds. Even when he tried to utilize the Chaos Emerald’s power, his attempt was shut down by the unstable energy of the void. Shadow wouldn’t give up however, he’d keep trying until he managed to succeed.
As he tried again and again to use Chaos Control, he noticed the red prism shard glowing brighter from the corner of his eye. There was something weird about it, its energy fluctuating wildly from within. On the outside, it looked like a prismatic trail was spinning around in uncontrolled circles inside the shard. Returning to the red shard, he put a hand on it and took another look at the world inside.
Shadow nearly recoiled when he saw Sonic trapped in some kind of massive hamster ball being stress tested by five different versions of Doctor Eggman. The energy Sonic gave off as he ran faster and faster was reminiscent of that of the Paradox Prism and turned the hamster ball into glowing bomb waiting to blow. The power was so great that Shadow felt like he was getting halfway sucked in. Part of him was still in the void, but another part of him was somehow making it through the wall that prevented him from entering the alternate world.
It was a long shot, but Shadow had an idea…
“Sonic!,” he called out. “It’s broken! It’s all broken!”
A warning, that was all Shadow was able to get out before he felt himself getting pulled back fully into the void. That was all he needed to say to confirm his suspicions. Whatever Sonic was doing to cause the prism’s power to go haywire, it allowed Shadow to momentarily speak to his rival. Sonic had definitely heard him if his shocked comment about hallucinating meant anything.
Mere seconds later, a shockwave burst forth from the prism shard and knocked Shadow back, severing his link to Sonic and the alternate world. It was a momentary set-back, but at least now he knows he isn’t entirely stranded alone in the void. Under the right conditions, he could get in contact with Sonic, even if he couldn’t directly interact with the alternate worlds or speak to anyone else.
That was far from ideal. Hearing is one thing, listening is another. Sonic wouldn’t listen to him earlier, Shadow doubted he’d listen now.
Regardless, Shadow would work with what he could. If Sonic was his only chance of getting out of this void, then so be it. He only hoped that Sonic understood the warning and that this entire disaster would get it through his rival’s thick skull that he can’t wing everything on his own and expect to win. But Shadow wouldn’t bet on it. Either way, his one option at the moment was to keep an eye on Sonic through the prism shard and wait for his next chance to talk to his rival.
Suddenly, a light shot out from the red prism shard. Behind it, it left a familiar prismatic trail. Shadow caught sight of it for only a moment before it disappeared into the green prism shard, but he was certain it was Sonic. Better than simply being able to form a connection with the void, Sonic was apparently able to travel between the alternate words and the void freely.
Shadow hated to admit it, but he needed Sonic’s help at all costs if he wanted to escape the void. Rushing over to the green prism shard, he put both hands on its surface and carefully watched for his next opportunity to talk to Sonic.
It felt like an eternity watching Sonic and his shenanigans as he struggled to navigate the overgrown jungle. All of his friends weren’t quite themselves, none of them being able to recall who Sonic is and all of them treating him with hostility. Rouge was much the same as Shadow remembers her, but the others were not. Shadow couldn’t decide if it was entertaining or uncomfortable watching Sonic get repeatedly beaten up by his own friends. Especially by a rather viscious version of Amy Rose. He decided it was both as Sonic deserved it in some ways considering the hand he had in this whole mess. But Sonic refused to defend himself properly against the vain reflections of his friends despite knowing that they weren’t exactly the same people. It hurt a little to watch him try so hard to reason with them, only for them to turn on him at the drop of a hat.
In the end, Sonic was able to play mediator and convince everyone to get along instead of fighting. His efforts were admirable with his tenacity in trying to solve his problems peacefully being strong in the face of adversity. If only he had been like that before the world was shattered.
When all was said and done and the fighting was no more, Sonic sped off in search of the green prism shard. That was when Shadow saw his next chance to talk to Sonic. Or rather, he felt it, half of himself getting pulled in by Sonic’s prismatic trail.
“Sonic! I’m trapped in the void!”
At the sound of his name, Sonic turned to look straight at the prismatic projection of his rival. “Shadow?”
He was heard. Shadow could feel a tear opening up between the spaces. Just a little more and Sonic would break through the barrier.
“You need to keep moving!,” Shadow said.
The connection was cut off when Sonic tripped on some vines and smacked his face into the green prism shard. As soon as he touched it, he was sent careening through the void back into the red prism shard’s alternate world. Yet again, Shadow could hardly get a short sentence or two in before he was prematurely cut off. And yet again, Sonic passed through the void in seconds without so much as trying to stop.
It’s possible Sonic doesn’t yet know how to control his newfound ability to travel between the different spaces. But he at least knows now that Shadow needs help to escape from the void. If Sonic can figure out what happened when the Paradox Prism broke and about how to control his power, that is… Shadow needs to keep pushing his rival in the right direction if he can.
So that’s what Shadow did. He kept his eyes on whatever shard Sonic was traipsing around in, watching and waiting, unable to keep track of how much time was passing. He got a few more chances to call out to Sonic, though he could never say much. Sonic’s prismatic trail never lasted long before something interrupted him in the alternate worlds, and when he passed through the void, the chances of him even noticing Shadow was calling out to him were slim to none. The only other thing of note was an aircraft of some sort that created portals to pass through the void that was piloted by the nine-tailed, angsty version of Tails. Shadow took it as a bad sign that people other than Sonic were capable of traversing between worlds. Who knows what kind of domino effect that could have. Yet Shadow himself still couldn’t find a way to accomplish the same feat, not by watching Sonic and not by trying to brute force it on his own.
At best, Shadow could tell Sonic to keep moving, to keep running and don’t stop. At worst…
The longer Shadow watched Sonic and the harder he tried to get through to his rival, the more it seemed like he was being left to rot. Outside of the times Shadow was able to grab Sonic’s attention, Sonic didn’t seem to spare him a thought. He only cared about the immediate problem in front of him. Anything Shadow said to him was quickly thrown to the wayside mere moments after hearing it. It got to the point that Shadow could barely say so much as Sonic’s name before he was cut off only to have his efforts be completely ignored. Sonic didn’t even look at Shadow anymore, his gaze permanently trained forward.
Shadow had had enough. He’s been stuck in this miserable, lifeless nothingness of a void that was the destroyed remains of home for who knows how long. It felt like an eternity, the concept of time disappearing along with the day and night. And as hard as he tried, he couldn’t change it. He was well and truly stuck and the only person capable of helping him was treating him as though he no longer existed. If Sonic would have only listened to him, none of this would’ve happened.
If Sonic listened to anyone at all, their home would still be whole. But one too many victories had made him overly confident, like he could never lose no matter what. That confidence was his own undoing as he began to act more recklessly, treating everything like a joke, and disregarding the idea that he should heed what others tell him. Shadow tried to tell him before that he had messed up, but he didn’t listen. Shadow was trying to tell him now that he needed to go to the void, but he still won’t listen.
At this point, Shadow wasn’t sure what he wanted more: to finally get out of the void or to break a couple of Sonic’s bones. Luckily, he got his opportunity to get at least one of those things when Sonic shot out of the blue prism shard. Shadow kicked one of the dull shards directly into Sonic’s path, successfully halting his forward momentum.
Once Sonic regained his bearings, he said, “Shadow? Ugh! I don’t have time to deal with whoever you are. I just wanna go home.”
Shadow snapped. “Home? Home doesn’t exist anymore… because of you!”
Sonic was going to learn his lesson the hard way or not at all. Shadow would make sure of that.