Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Travelling to Seaside Island was by far one of the least enjoyable experiences for Shadow. He didn’t have to do it frequently, however the times he did he considered precious time being wasted. Hedgehog village was surrounded by a thicket of palms and pines, an odd combination of trees. This thicket made swiftly getting to Sonic’s small shack on the beach a difficult process. Thankfully, while Shadow was abnormally fast he was also skilled and manoeuvring through hundreds of unusually placed trees was fairly easy. 

Upon arrival, Shadow was greeted by his least favourite scene. Tons of village goers make their way around the parade. People smiling, enjoying themselves. A line of hundreds gathered around Meh Burger. Children laughing and playing amongst the fountain. He gagged. Smiles were one of Shadow’s least favourite things…next to laughing. There was an assortment of smiles laid in front of him, almost as if God was smirking from heaven. Neat Shadow thought as he used a small section of rocks jutting out of the hill to climb atop of a palm. 

Overlooking Hedgehog village, Shadow had a clear view of almost the entirety of Seaside Island. It was a miraculous display, a canvas of green and blue. Shadow didn’t like colour. Perhaps it was the rays of the sun affecting his mood today.

SNAP! Shadow swivelled around, expecting to see a village resident – or even worse, Sonic himself. However, he was greeted with nothing but the emptiness of the forest before him. Before he could even process this though,  another branch broke, and before he knew it he was plummeting to the ground. 

His back was already strained from crouching in the tree for over fifteen minutes and how a jab of pain sliced down the center of his spine. It seemed his head had not been affected by the fall because he had a crystal clear view of the sky above. Too much sun he thought as he attempted to get up.

“I wouldn’t do that, smarty pants,” Shadow’s eyes widened and when the gears started to turn in his head he realised a ghastly white bat was glaring down at him. He sighed.

“You know, instead of staring there taking the piss out of me, maybe help me up?” Shadow snarled. Rouge stopped for a second, probably to soak in the moment before helping him. “Can’t you just magically heal yourself? What’s it called…Shadow Heal?”

“Yeah let me just pull out my Chaos Emerald from my back pocket real quick,” Shadow said before dusting himself off. 

“What are you doing here anyway?” Rouge said, placing her hands on her hips.

“Thought I’d pay my best friend Sonic a visit,” Shadow joked, snarkiness still suffering in his tone. “And yourself?”

“I come here sometimes. Spy on people, jumpscare them too. Basically the village nitwit. Club Rouge is on opposite timezones so as soon as the door closes I can come here and ruin a few people’s days.” Shadow smiled. It was a dodgy smile, so maybe it was Rouge’s strange sarcasm or that his grumpy mood had suddenly worsened.

“I didn’t expect much more from you,”

Rouge laughed. “And you shouldn’t. I’m going to Meh Burger to switch the normal patties for veggie ones. ”

Rouge fluttered away and Shadow was left slightly dumbfounded by the interaction. The only time he talked to Rouge was on missions and their conversations consisted of speaking about work, nothing personal. He shook it off and continued with the job at hand.

A quick glance south and Shadow immediately spotted Sonic’s shack peeking over the edge where the grass met the sand. He slid down the hill but clambered silently behind houses, sheds and markets. He knew nobody would care if they saw him but it was the fear of being noticed at all that made him ick. At the edge of the village, he ran into an issue. Team Sonic’s houses were all frustratingly placed on the edge of the grass. This meant that if Shadow wanted to make it to Sonic’s house he would easily be noticed by a passing Tails or even Amy who would make an unnecessary fuss. Regardless of how fast Shadow was, he would be spotted. 

He crept along the rooftop of an unused shed, staying low as he observed the village on the north end. He didn’t know if anybody was home but risking it would be dangerous. 

Shadow saw a small opening. There was a large ditch just in front of the shed. The ditch likely led to some sort of animal hole but it was an easy way to avoid being noticed. He sped across the hill. He knew he was in plain sight to the entire village but with the ditch in front of him, it was likely no one saw him. 

Landing headfirst into the ditch, Shadow realised the hard way that he was wrong about it being an animal hole. He sat up, caked in mud. It wasn’t pleasing but a quick spin move and the mud splattered off of him. 

Shadow was now slouched under the shack’s first wall, attempting to get inside without Sonic noticing. He could hear soft humming from inside of the shack and was relieved to know Sonic was home.

Wait. Relieved? Relieved??

No, Shadow didn’t love Sonic. But the issue he had was far more important than any beef formed between the two of them. 

He lunged over the fence and landed with a hard thump on the creaky wooden floor of the shack. He was in the wars today, clearly, and the large thump didn’t help himself sneakily getting inside.

“What the…” The blue hedgehog emerged from his hammock. 

“Oh,” Sonic stated solemnly as he overlooked Shadow sitting up. It was the least emotion Sonic had ever given in a sentence.

“I hope I didn’t disrupt your beauty sleep,” Shadow growled. He had no reason to be mad at Sonic but falling on his back three times in the span of half an hour was no treat.

“Well, you did. But I’m sure there was some meaning behind it. I hope,” Sonic said, walking closer to help Shadow up. Shadow brushed him away and stood up shakily. 

“I have an issue, and I…” Shadow paused.

“ Need your help,” he muttered, turning away.

Sonic smirked. He saw an opportunity and took it.

“You need my what? Sorry, I didn’t hear you before,”

“You heard me, Sonic.” Shadow scowled. Sonic kept giggling to himself

“No, no, I didn’t hear you before, I swear. Just say it again for me,”

“ Need…help ,”

“Again?” 

“Alright, alright I need your damn help? Got it now? Or are your mangy little ears still playing pranks on you?” Shadow snapped. Sonic couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Much better. Now how can I help?” 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Shadow somewhat nervously sped around the room and Sonic slouched back down on a beanbag flipping through his graphic novel.

“No, it’s fine I have all the time in the world. Feel free to answer me whenever!” Sonic joked.

Shadow envied his sarcasm.

“It’s about my life support system. I wish I could say it was not serious, but it could be,”

Sonic glanced over at Shadow before returning to his book. He made a gesture to continue and Shadow scoffed before throwing his mood over his shoulder.

“My system was originally linked to the eclipse cannon. But, well, something happened and I had to switch it from there so it wouldn’t explode,” Shadow said, deliberately avoiding speaking about that something .

Arrays of memories lined up along Shadow’s mind. Mentioning his past was like a tiny slit across his neck. Often he would disassociate when being reminded about it but with a more important issue at hand Shadow swept it to the dark corners of his brain.

“Then I damaged the support system when fighting Biolizard. While I guess it was worth it, Rouge recovered the orb when I was encapsulated falling towards Earth.”

Sonic listened intently, Shadow hoped.

“I guess this life support was maybe, potentially a weakness so I had to make sure that it couldn’t be used against me and I needed to contain it, I guess…”

The long pause made Sonic look up from his book.

“And?” 

“So I went to Eggman.” Shadow said, claiming no emotion.

Sonic slid his palms down his cheeks. 

“Joy, what did he do for you?”

“He created this capsule, to hold the red orb. I keep it with me, usually, but sometimes I have it vaulted up somewhere…I don’t know why I’m trusting you with this information but I need to tell you otherwise the next piece of information will sound like I’ve taken something.” 

Sonic squinted.

“He just made you this capsule for free?”

Shadow cringed. “No, I had to pay a small price,”

“Of what, exactly?”

“Just a strand of hedgehog hair,”

Sonic sighed. “Now I have to deal with that,” 

Shadow smirked. “You’ve done it before, you’ll be fine.”

“Continue.” Sonic rolled his eyes.

Shadow paused to catch his breath. He didn’t usually talk this much.

“Recently I had it with me and it started shaking in my hands. Shook so much it flew out of my hands. I didn’t know what that meant so I flicked through all the documents I have of Robotnik. He has a folder dedicated to speaking closely about Biolizard. 

I kept listening till I paused it on a tape from when he was manufacturing Biolizard’s security implants. He spoke about how if Bio was to die it would send a message to Ark’s system to tell that system that..well he’d died. The thing is, this message is based on movement. So since Bio hasn’t moved for an extended amount of time the system probably thought he was dead.

Luckily for me, Robotnik was smart and made it so the life support didn’t immediately shut off.

…

But.”

Sonic slapped his forehead. Shadow presumed that these long pauses making it seem like this was a movie trailer were not amusing to Sonic.

“He designed it so that if Bio did happen to awake from his slumber then the system would flag it and send a message to Robotnik.

However, since Ark isn’t really a thing anymore…the system can’t send a message anywhere.

So I looked at the next tape and Robotnik explained how when movement is detected it shakes and rattles the orb so that Bio can maybe…sense his surroundings?

I’m not entirely sure, Robotnik didn’t go into firm detail but he did say clearly that if movement is detected from Bio then it will send a message to the system and alert the orb to shake and rattle. ”

Sonic put two and two together.

“You’re not suggesting…”

“I am.”

Sonic didn’t actually react that much, he just threw his book across the room.

“I need to retire.”

Chapter Text

The calm swell of waves chopped across the sand, unearthing remnants of forgotten creatures’ homes and the classic old leather boot.

Shadow was flicking through Sonic’s large X-men comic collection which seemed to have grown exponentially since the last time he was spying on Sonic. Shadow took small glances over at Sonic who was pacing around the room. He didn’t look nervous but glinted frantically in his eyes. He was chattering immensely which made Shadow inevitably decide to break the silence. Sonic was quicker though.

“How can you be for certain?” Sonic chapped. 

“I’m not, it could very well be a bug in the system but I don’t doubt Robotnik’s designs one bit,” Shadow replied.

Sonic hesitated for a second, then opened his mouth to speak.

“Well, it could b-”

A large explosion rippled an ear-imploding boom across the village. Shadow and Sonic were launched backwards and landed several metres outside the shack. A few screams could be heard towards the parade and a large disc of explosive matter hung in the sky for a moment. 

Sonic and Shadow immediately looked at each other and then raced towards the parade. To each other’s dismay, they arrived at the same time.

A gathering crowd had started to form in a tight circle, all crouching over something. Sonic and Shadow pushed their way to the front before kneeling down to face an object that was wedged into the ground.

It had created a small crater and windy cracks jutted out of the object's headquarters. Sonic reached for it first and began unwinding a tangled metal cover. It revealed a small crisp piece of paper that looked like it had undergone several hundred evolutions in Earth’s history. 

Sonic took one look at what was featured on the paper and froze. The whole crowd began whispering and talking about it. Team Sonic, which consisted of Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Sticks all knelt beside Sonic. Shadow opposed the team waiting for an answer from Sonic.

Sonic shared the piece of paper with his teammates and they all stopped and looked him dead in the eyes. Sonic crawled silently over towards him and handed him the slip of paper.

It was a logo.

A specific logo too, Shadow’s. 

His eyebrows furrowed and his eyes began rapidly moving in different directions. There were a lot of people around. All of them trying to get a swift look at the paper. It made him nervous, but he had to stay calm. 

At that moment he thought about one person he needed to see. One person who would… help …him. And who wasn’t a bright blue version of himself.

Rouge. 

He sped away without a question, leaving the scene unscathed and without saying a word. Sonic was quick to follow him. 

One of Shadow’s favourite things was his ability to observe his surroundings in the blink of an eye. While jolting around the village looking for Rouge, he could clear the area quickly. He knew Rouge wouldn’t be back at Club Rouge, so his only option was to check the surrounding villages.

He wanted to escape Sonic for now, but Sonic was firm on his trail. His best bet was to head to South Island, as there were several populous villages there that might attract Rouge. 

Fortunately for Shadow, running on water was easy. Unfortunately for Shadow, it was easy for Sonic too.

The two dashed through the pine and palm thicket till they reached the North end where disrupted abandoned warehouses were stacked upon each other. These warehouses had faint scrawls of the word “Meh Burger” on them which ultimately led Shadow to assume they were supplement houses. He figured he could try and lose Sonic here and began spinning atop the houses and through the small nooks to try and hide from him. Sonic was just as nimble as him but Shadow was easily more skilled and managed to jump flawlessly over Sonic’s spinning body and land with perfect form. It was as if Sonic was reliving the Olympics, watching Mario complete the perfect set for gold. 

Shadow assumed he’d lost Sonic, judging by the emptiness of the busted corridors of the warehouse. He changed direction pretty quickly so that Sonic wouldn’t follow his tracks. He eventually left the warehouse around a large back door that had been forced open. 

He clambered atop a tree and prepared to jump far enough so that his momentum would keep him going all the way to South Island. One quick leap and Shadow had descended upon the ocean water. He was surprised that his speed managed to keep him afloat, and it was only a matter of time before he arrived on the shore of the island.

Looking back, he felt slightly guilty leaving Sonic there without an explanation. After all, he needed his help if Biolizard did happen to be alive. Happen to be alive Shadow scoffed. With this slip of paper, it was almost certain. It was the fact that the history of Team Dark was at stake, and Shadow didn’t want things leaked to Sonic that he could use against him in the future.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Arriving at the port situated on the west coast of South Island, Shadow crept along the bottom of the jetty to stay unnoticed. Once he reached the edge he peeked over the edge to observe his surroundings.

Huh? G.U.N agents? What are they doing on South Island?

Shadow was confused, but brushed the thought off and silently made his way behind crates and containers to the grass. He knew Windmill Village was nearby, so that was his best bet. 

An unattended motorbike and helmet were slanted on the stump of a tree. Shadow assumed merrily riding along the cemented paths was a lot less suspicious than a black flashing ball whipping across the island. He swiftly nicked the bike and helmet from the stump and attached the helmet. To his convenience, the helmet would cover his face, so soldiers wouldn’t recognise his familiar hedgehog head.

Shadow made his way along the main path, “admiring” the scenery. South Island was a lot more built up than other islands in the archipelago but it was the most attractive. He halted when he saw a group of G.U.N agents situated along the middle of the path, a wiring gate behind them and a large black truck planted against the road. 

Shit.

He moved on. He knew the agents had seen him from atop the hill and would question if he turned back now.

Shadow calmly approached the four G.U.N agents.

“What’s up?” Shadow asked, confused.

“Papers please, sir,” one of the agents muttered in a hardly enthusiastic tone.

“Why do I need to present my papers?” Shadow asked formally.

Another agent stepped forward.

 “South Island has had an incident. Protocol by Commander that we need to ask for papers in case an unidentified person that we may or may not be looking for enters the villages,”

Shadow paused. “I’m afraid I don’t have them on me,”

“Sorry, sir. Nothing we can do about that. You can’t pass through here,”

Shadow stopped for a second. A shitty mood was usually the cause for Shadow being violent, but he decided to spare these agents as they looked like they were being paid minimum wage.

He revved the engine and squinted heavily before launching the bike forward and over the agents. The wheel originally got caught in the wire but with Shadow’s quick thinking, he was able to slice the wire away using the back end of the seat. He drove away quickly, the bellows of the agents still echoing behind him.

He didn’t have long, he knew that. G.U.N agents would be on his ass in a moment if he didn’t make it to Windmill Village soon. He noticed houses blinking over the hill and ditched the motorbike in the center of the path to pursue this village.

Once he reached the top of the hill he now had a clear view of Windmill. With a snap of his fingers, he now found himself in the middle of the village. It was packed today, crowds splattered across the windy paths of the village. It was sheltered by trees and mills, and Shadow realised it was too dangerous to do a sweep of the place. 

He silently strolled along the windy paths, hoping to see the face of a seductive bat gleaming over at him. 

His wish came true when he saw a white blob through a small window planted on a swivel chair. 

Shadow stormed his way into what looked like a large restaurant. It was full at the time so no one noticed the edgy hedgehog slaunt across the room and plopped himself down next to Rouge. 

Rouge had a plate of sludge placed in front of her and she smiled at it intently before looking up at Shadow.

“Whoa, jumpscare. What are you doing here?” she asked, stabbing her fork into the volcano of grime.

“I came looking for you . Why the hell are you here?” Shadow replied, fiddling with a salt shaker.

“Funny story actually, see that guy over there?” Rouge said, pointing to a stubby guy wearing chef’s clothes with a long bushy moustache and a gleaming face. He smiled at the two before returning to his pan to “cook” the food.

“He approached me in the street, said this place had the best food in the world. So you know this gal immediately believed him,” she beamed. 

Shadow smiled. 

“You got played at your own game,”

Rouge giggled. “Maybe he did! But hey, l don’t know why there’s so many people here. Perhaps they fell for the same trap, or maybe he realised I’m a tourist,”

Shadow continued to smile but shook his head, realised what was going on and grabbed her hand.

“We need to go, now .” Shadow urged.

Rouge was confused but trusted Shadow.

As they ran through the village and dashed back to the port over on the west end, Shadow couldn’t shake the thought of how Rouge had made him completely forget what was going on. 

No one had that effect on him.

Chapter Text

Crossing across the vast plains of South Island, Shadow and Rouge stood out like two singular moles in someone’s face. The heat was not tremendous, but the sun’s rays affected Shadow in a not-so-great way.

“I can’t wait to get out of this shithole,” he stated.

“You went to one nasty scam restaurant and you think that?” Rouge chuckled.

Shadow lowered his head and looked at the ground. The grass was a luscious emerald green. How could someone find it ugly? Shadow wanted to kneel down and touch it but thought that might be a bit too over the top.

“Basically. And the whole island is covered in G.U.N agents for whatever reason which is another reason we gotta get the hell out of here,”

“Oh, I know why. This whack-ass object just fell from the sky, like a meteor or something. Crazy shit,” Rouge said, throwing her language around like a bouncy ball. 

Shadow grabbed her shoulder. “Really?”

“Um, yeah? I was tempted to go and find it but within seconds swarms of those agents had piled through the town out of nowhere. Not a dull moment on this island apparently,” Rouge ranted.

Shadow swore silently, then looked up at Rouge.

“Okay, seriously time to get out of here. I know you’re waiting for an explanation so once we get back to Seaside I’ll explain,” Shadow ordered.

“Oh, right. Well better make it quick, need to get my power nap in before I open the club.” Rouge replied.

Shadow rolled his eyes.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

After taking the same route back to Seaside Island and crossing through the mangroves on the west end to escape G.U.N agents, Rouge and Shadow were puffed, and confronted by a raging blue rodent was not the greatest scene to return to.

“Are you out of your damn mind?” Sonic bellowed at the two who were caked in mud and mangrove leaves. They both took small glances at each other, trying not to giggle at the sight of a grumpy Sonic.

“You left the village in shambles. They all thought the world was damn ending. I had residents storming around with signs reading “The end is nigh”. Like seriously,” 

Sonic was clearly too exhausted from sleeping until noon each day to deal with this crap. Shadow smiled. He was funny. 

“Sonic, I can’t tell if you’re joking or not but please, relax! Look, you’re scaring Shadow!” Rouge joked before pointing at Shadow who made a pouting face.

Sonic gagged before straddling off with his posse behind him. “Excuse me while I go find your stupid lizard brother, Shadow. You’ll be thanking me later,” he yelled.

Rouge turned to Shadow fast, with the usual is-he-on-drugs-or-are-you look. 

“Okay that’s what I wanted to tell you, but I wanted Sonic to be near because well…I need both of your help,” Shadow explained, then pulled out the slip of paper with his logo scrawled on it.

“I think Biolizard is alive,” Shadow frowned.

Rouge just blankly stared at him. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —- — — — — — — — — 

The night began to spill onto the village and darkness arrived in clusters to envelop the sky. Shadow and Rouge had been skimming pebbles into the low tide for a few hours, as Shadow explained the current situation. Rouge originally found it funny, but learning the details and how Bio could be hunting Shadow like he was a damn deer, Rouge tightened up. 

When the sun sunk into the depths of the horizon, Shadow was tapped on the shoulder. He jumped backwards, eyes fiery red.

Sticks giggled before urging the two to follow. Rouge snickered at Shadow for being so scared of a jungle badger. 

Sticks brought the two to a small cottage on the outskirts of Hedgehog Village. It was a small beacon atop the hill and Shadow could barely make out the shapes of the rest of Team Sonic awaiting the arrival of the trio.

Sticks swung the clunky door open, and Shadow and Rouge were greeted by four glaring faces.

Knuckles urged them out of the hall into a room with a large oval table. Trophies and awards hung around the room, as well as a large pinboard in the centre with several hundred notes hanging off it. 

“Welcome to the Hogcave!” Tails exclaimed, jumping atop the table.

Amy shoved him off and he landed comfortably on the rustic carpet. 

“I told you one hundred times, Tails, we are NOT naming it the Hogcave,” Sonic rolled his eyes.

Shadow wondered if Tails had accumulated his childishness from Sonic. 

Amy ushered the group to sit down before planting a small stack of notes in front of Sonic. Shadow thought this situation was quite ironic as if Sonic was about to present a pitch to a large company. Although it was highly unlikely that he wrote those notes himself.

“Ahem,” Sonic paused.

Rouge looked at Sonic with a devilish glare before leaning over the table and snatching the notes out of his hands. The rest of the group looked dumbfounded except Shadow who thought Rouge would chuck the notes in the blender and start drinking it. He smirked.

“Cut the movie bullshit, I had to make several calls just so Club Rouge would open at the right time AND I haven’t slept in well over 36 hours. Get to it blue bug,” Rouge snapped. Shadow loved her naturally sassy mood. Especially since it made Sonic particularly pissed off.

“Fine. Jeez…We brought you here today to discuss what seems to be the “reincarnation of Biolizard” a boss we have defeated before. Now, obviously, we’re not the type of people to plan our attacks before they take place but it seems the whole world is affected by this so-” 

Shadow’s head shot up.

“The heck you mean the whole world is affected by this?”

Sonic sighed. “Well, I guess I better explain it to you before we discuss attack plans…” Shadow hesitated. His eyes widened when he looked over at Tails. “OR, Tails can. Take it away Tails,” 

Tails looked as if he had just one the damn lottery as he stepped up to face the two. 

“We’ve had several reports come in, just earlier that the same canister that fell into the centre of the parade has fallen in all sorts of places around the world. Tons of them. All with the same logo inscribed on them…” Everyone shot a look at Shadow, who was not the type of guy to like all eyes on him.

“Continue the damn story.” he huffed.

“Well, one of them landed on Prison Island. And you can imagine G.U.N’s reaction…they thought it was an attack. So you can imagine what Commander thought when he saw Shadow’s logo. Just another reason to despise you, I assume. They set up camp on islands all around the archipelago when they learned the canisters had dropped in more places. Westopolis is also heavily guarded.

They’re arriving here tomorrow to set up camp up North. We tried to lure them away but Commander wasn’t backing down.” Tails explained.

Amy butted in. 

“If they can’t capture you now, Shadow, they’re gonna push you until you’re in a tight corner, then they’ll capture you.”

“They have bounties on your heads. They think all of Team Dark is behind the attack. Including Omega,” Amy continued.

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other, before turning back to the group. 

“All this for a couple of alien canisters? And also, what does this have to do with Biolizard? And also, what the hell?” Rouge crumbled.

For Shadow, it was just a nuisance. But he knew Rouge handled things like this differently.

“We speculate that these canisters have something to do with Biolizard,” Sonic said. 

“But Bio isn’t sentient? He’s a frickin’ lizard, “ Shadow bit back.

Tails jumped in excitement. He pulled three large pieces of paper from a drawer beside the table.

“Theory time!” he shimmered before holding the first paper up in the air.

“Our first theory is that Biolizard never actually died. This theory clearly needs to be expanded upon,” Tails pulled out the next piece of paper. Two giant bright yellow circles were scrawled on it. 

“The second theory is that Biolizard was somehow fueled by the mass power of Super Sonic and Super Shadow and it could have magically made him a conscious being. I guess it sounds more logical but obviously needs more work,” Tails continued. 

“And the final theory. This one’s abou-”

Shadow cut him off.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but these theories sound like total bogus…no offence Tails…I don’t kn-” 

“Oh, I suppose you could make some better theories though, right Shadow?” Sonic hissed at Shadow. 

“No, I didn’t say that. I’m saying is it really possible to theorise something like this? Not really,”

“Right, cause there’s a millliooonnn possibilities, ain’t there, Shadow? Why don’t you go ahead and name some for us?”

The two went back and forth.

“Listen dickface , you say I have no right to discredit Tails’ theories. I have every damn right. I was there that day, I saw Bio fall into the void and how he got out I have no dang clu-” 

“Yeah well, the way you’re acting now saying that apparently Biolizard isn’t alive anymore seems that you might be the one pulling the strings, huh? Know something we don’t Shadow?” 

Shadow gritted his teeth in an attempt to get Sonic to stop stirring him. It didn’t work.

“I vowed to destroy the professor’s work. I remember that moment Finalhazard died clear as day and I remem-”

“Surprised you even remember it,” Sonic said, a feral joke.

Shadow saw red.

“Excuse me? I worked months, close to YEARS remembering my past I won’t take that disrespect from the mangy little blue rodent with attention issues,” Shadow growled.

“Oh HERE we go, here comes the waterworks. Everyone prepare, won’t you? Because God forbid NOBODY else can have a depressing backstory,” 

“I’ma fuckin-”

Shadow launched himself at Sonic and grappled his arms to the ground, swiping at his face. Of course, Sonic managed to kick him off and the two began strangling each other on the carpet of the cottage. Tails and Amy quickly tried to separate the two while Rouge watched from the back chanting fight, fight, fight!

Eventually, Knuckles had enough of their shit and pulled the two away from each other and held them in the air like they were puppies who peed all over their owner’s new bedsheets.

“Cut it out. Acting like damn kids,” Knuckles grumbled before planting them down on their seats around the table.

The two kept eyeing each other down, still huffing from a heated battle that would have landed them both in an ironic “timeout”.

“Seems like we should settle this in the morning…” Amy stated. The rest of the group nodded.

Rouge was thanking her lucky stars then turned to Shadow. “I’ll be back here tomorrow, we can go find Omega,” she smiled.

Shadow had never seen her smile so sincerely. It made him happy.

“Shadow, I suggest you stay here for the night,” Sticks said, picking up the piles of paper on the floor. “We have several unoccupied huts you can stay at.”

“What about G.U.N?” Shadow asked.

“I doubt they’ll come near the village tomorrow. They care about who’s coming in, not who’s already in,” Amy yawned.

Amy took Shadow’s hand with a small lantern in the other. “Come, will pick a hut for you.” 

Shadow glanced back at Sonic, jealousy erupting in Sonic’s eyes.

He smirked.

Shadow had collapsed onto the rusty beds of one of the village huts that had not been used in decades. He felt as if he was an ancient artefact being placed in a tomb centuries ago as his head hit the pillow. The flickering nightlight overhung his bed like a lighthouse as he drifted off, disregarding anything that had happened earlier today.

Chapter Text

Shadow awoke to a subtle pounding of his door. Still delirious, it took him a moment to get out of bed. Luckily Shadow was sentient and quickly glanced through the peephole to see who it was.

Shadow expected the mangy blue blur to be staring back at him but instead, several G.U.N agents were lined up. They looked quite solemn, so while Shadow was very surprised he knew that they had no clue the ultimate life form was on the other side of the door.

“Open up. Mandatory check,” one of the agents yawned. 

The heck? Who did they think they were, waking him up just after dawn? Shadow grumbled before putting his shoes on and shaking off any fatigue still attached to him. 

He noticed there was a small skylight in the corner of the hut. He grabbed a chair in the corner of the room and climbed onto the ledge next to the skylight.

The agents pounded at the door consistently, and Shadow was starting to get frustrated. He knew it would only be a moment before they barged their way in.

There was a tiny latch on the skylight that Shadow knew he’d have to break a finger to open. It also required a key.

Great he grumbled, preparing his fist.

One small punch and the window shattered. It was clear that the agents heard it because one started yelling before the door ultimately burst.

It was too late though, because Shadow was already gone.

The head G.U.N agent leaned over the bed Shadow slept in. 

“Hedgehog-sized. Hm,” he huffed and whispered something into his walkie-talkie.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

It seemed the whole village was teeming with agents, and Shadow was confused about why.  It didn’t seem logical that they would have tens of agents here in a small village where Team Sonic resided so Shadow assumed that they might have been tipped.

It was certainly odd. He hadn’t been seen by village residents besides of Team Sonic, but potentially they were here for another reason.

Shadow approached Sonic’s hut, where the blue blur was seen discussing something with elite agents. You could tell they were elite by the yellow band worn across their arm.

That’s when Shadow saw him.

A-0793, his favourite Android clone. 

Always a sour look on his face Shadow thought, admiring the irony. 

Android was pacing around on the grass, kicking pebbles and sand. Even though Shadow was hidden amongst the trees, it only took Android a second to notice his fiery red eyes.

Shadow smiled. A fun goose chase this would be.

As elite agents raced for the trees Shadow was gone. He only needed to be here a bit longer as he awaited Rouge, so he thought a nice morning “stroll” around the island was much needed.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Shadow sat along the riverbed admiring the site of the island. Usually, Shadow would have thought this was the lamest thing possible, but his mood had suddenly flipped since yesterday. 

That quickly changed.

As Shadow sat up to revert course to the village he saw it.

Doom’s eye.

It was recognisable with a tiny glance. It wasn’t spying on him close to his face, it was observing him well from afar. 

Shadow was nervous. He was never nervous. Black Doom? Alive? 

“Halt!” yelled Android from across the river. Tens of elite guards circled the thicket to the riverbed. Shadow hesitated. He looked in the direction of where he had seen Doom’s Eye.

Gone. 

Hallucinations? Shadow thought as he mapped an escape plan in his mind.

It took one leap across the riverbed into the river itself that Shadow was off. The agents chased behind but they were no match.

Shadow thought he was in the clear, but saw several vehicles chasing his tail. 

The river flowed across the entire island, and Shadow knew he could run around the island a few times and force them off of his track. They had been shooting in his direction for a solid five minutes but Shadow was too fast.

He smiled a deadly grin. 

Android had parked a crew of agents on the river on the other side of the island. They had armour, and shields and set up a temp wall to catch Shadow off guard. Android stood in the centre, smiling devilishly as he awaited for Shadow to meet his impending doom.

Shadow trolled the rest of the vehicles. As he circled the island, he was completely unaware of the wall of agents carrying the best warfare in the world awaiting his arrival. 

By the time he realised he was heading straight for a cascade of heavily armed soldiers, it was too late. He swiftly turned his head, time stopping for a second. 

His nose was an inch away from Android, and he braced for impact.

A shiny gold ring spun in the air. It hung there for a moment, soaking up the attention before landing in front of Shadow. The warp ring exploded into a portal and Shadow landed abruptly on to gleaming green grass.

His head was throbbing, his brain pounding on the roof of his skull. He glanced around, noticing an oddly bright blue sky and luscious grass coddling his view.

I know where I am… he grumbled, picking himself off the ground.

“Fuckin’ Green Hill Zone,” he wretched, trudging along the path.

He “admired” the large loops that ran across the hill while investigating the area so he could find some way to escape the array of bright colours.

Before a thought could escape his mind, however, a small buzz of blue erupted from atop the hill and greeted Shadow below.

“Hiya, missed me?” Sonic smiled, as he approached Shadow.

“Oh wow, am I overjoyed to see you, Sonic,” Shadow joked. Shadow’s humour was primarily sarcasm and it usually made people frown instead of laugh, just the way Shadow wanted it.

“Aren’t you lucky I threw that warp ring when I did? You would have been a fresh hedgehog sandwich if I hadn't,” Sonic grinned.

“Haha, Sonic, look! You’ve got the whole crowd laughing!” Shadow said, pointing to the vast emptiness of Green Hill Zone.

Sonic frowned. 

“I saved your life and this is how you gonna treat me?”

“ Please, “saved my life” is a stretch. You saved my snout at best.”

The two stared each other down before returning to the view of Green Hill.

That’s when Shadow saw it.

“Hey…what are those vine things?”

“Huh?”

“Sonic, look. Those orange vines over there. All across that hill. It’s killing the grass.”

Sonic quickly glanced over at the hill where an overgrowth of stingy orange vines had crept its way down the hill and near the loop.

“The heck… ” Sonic muttered, making his way over to the edge of the hill. Shadow quickly followed.

Upon arrival, Sonic bent down and poked at the vines. It made a sickly sound and jutted out of position before returning neatly back to its spot.

Shadow wasted no time and ripped a small patch of vines out and crushed it in his hands. It exploded into a cloud of orange dust and both Sonic and Shadow erupted into a storm of coughs.

“What the hell? The God of Cheetos suddenly moved into Green Hill or something?” Shadow gritted turning to Sonic.

“I don’t know, and I don’t know if I want to find out,” he looked at Shadow “Let’s follow the vines and see where they lead. If they lead to some tree or something…”

Shadow nodded and the two ambled down the hill and into the depths of South Island.