Chapter Text
Shadow despises them all.
He hates the villagers for their sloth and pettiness and small-mindedness, they’re so preoccupied with their own insignificant lives. Why should they get to live when the Ancients didn’t? Even more he hates that human. He hates Eggman for thinking he’s a genius, mucking around with ancient tech that doesn’t belong to him, telling Shadow stupid lies, an egoistical coward, waste of space, the worst of them all. And he hates that hedgehog and his stupid friends, hates them because they’d almost be tolerable if they weren’t so stuck in this awful place and time.
It’s all the same, petty squabbles and insipid chatter, and the villagers flinch whenever they see Shadow. Good. Stay out of his way. Just stay away…
But Shadow can’t, because of the library.
The scanner in his bracelet caught it the first time Shadow came here, though he thought himself mistaken. What he searched for couldn’t be in a place like this. But when he scanned again, he saw it again: the signal from a Knowledge Repository. One of the Ancients’ special books.
Perhaps, more probably, a collection of them. Somewhere beneath the library. Hidden away, shielded or just buried – and guarded, by those infernal librarians. They must know what they have, and hoard it selfishly.
If there’s any way to return home, it’s to be found among the Ancients’ secrets.
So Shadow stayed near the village, keeping out of sight. Sonic and Eggman lured him out, yes, but that will not happen again. He will get into that library, no matter how impossible. He will, so no time for petty distractions, no time for beating up Sonic, no matter how much the fool deserves it.
Shadow watches the library at all hours of the day. Then, one afternoon, his scanners finally catch a change – a book being moved beneath the library?
No.
Coming from- the village. Moving towards the library. At the same pace as… Sonic, who’s heading inside right now.
A signal coming from Sonic? Shadow stares furiously at his scan result, missing Sonic as he disappears into the library building. Damn!
Sonic returns the book to the library after a week.
(it’s not like keeping it would bring Enkidu back)
But he returns it with caveats. He’s argued with himself plenty, but ultimately, what he does is this:
“Look,” Sonic says, gesturing. “This book is – I mean, the cover? Are those real gemstones? I think you should lock it up in the basement. So they don’t get scratched.”
“Hmm,” says Fastidious Beaver. “Do you really think so?”
“Very. Extremely.”
“And did you learn something from this book?” Beaver asks, as he finally takes it from Sonic.
Sonic crosses his arms. “Shouldn’t you ask me if I liked it? And no, I didn’t.”
“But you finished it?”
“As finished as it gets,” Sonic snaps. “Just put that thing away, alright?”
“Fine. I shall see what I can do.” Beaver then toddles away behind the help-desk, putting the book away into some kind of chute. Sonic watches the entire process suspiciously. “Have a nice day!” says Beaver loudly, catching him looking.
Sonic leaves.
He returns the next day and spends probably a solid hour going through all the books in the shelves, making sure that the Epic isn’t among them anymore. He can’t find it anywhere, so maybe Beaver really confined it to the basement – or maybe he just hasn’t gotten around to refilling the shelves yet.
So Sonic comes back the next day. And the day after that.
Then Amy catches him. Well, it’s not like Sonic’s doing anything illegal, but Sonic still feels caught. This is his private problem, figuring out what the deal is with the library.
“Do you want any recommendations?” says Amy, once again with a stack of books in her arms.
“Maybe not,” says Sonic.
When he leaves that day, he swears he catches a glimpse of Shadow, lurking on the roof of the building next to the library. He disappears immediately, but who else could it have been that is all black and red, huh?
Is Shadow in on it somehow?
That hedgehog keeps going to the library, spending hours in there and leaving empty-handed. Shadow watches it happen for several days but he can’t make sense of it, and Sonic doesn’t bring out any more Ancient books. But he definitely returned one. Is Sonic in on it?
No. If he were, he would have frequented the library earlier and not just started this week.
So what is that hedgehog doing, then? He better not get in Shadow’s way.
Sonic thinks about the problem and honestly, this could be another weird plan by Shadow, except- wouldn’t it have come out already? That guy is far from subtle. And patient. Just ‘cause Sonic’s also guilty of that doesn’t mean he can’t accuse others of it, if the shoe fits. Shadow is impatient and unsubtle, blunt, rude and a violent loner and… no, but what could he even want with the library?
He has to be involved somehow, someway. But how?!
Thoughts of Shadow consume him for the next few days. Well, not really, pfft, but he keeps thinking he’ll see him again, sneaking around the library… Sonic thinks he sees him a couple of times but no, it’s the shadow of a tree (ha!) moving as the tree shifts a little with the wind, or stuff like that, any spot of darkness that suddenly moves catching Sonic’s attention.
He and the gang stop Eggman a couple of times and have a sleepover at Amy’s house, but Sonic can’t really make himself fit into the groove of it all. He knows, but he can’t not feel different after all that happened, and he’s sure Amy’s noticed, but there’s just nothing to do for it and… he’s no closer to figuring out the library plot.
As the days pass he just becomes more certain. There is something suspicious going on at the library, and Shadow is involved somehow…
And it all comes back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. He turns Ashnan’s last words over in his head, over and over, and feels angry that he didn’t make her explain more.
Ancient technology… that book was so obviously Ancient technology, it couldn’t have been anything else. Corrupted by Lyric somehow… and did the librarians know? Does Shadow know about it?
Sonic just has so many questions and no answers! He’s not made for this kind of investigation, c’mon, just give him a target he can see, a place to run to.
He’s listlessly browsing a library shelf when Amy finds him this time. (is she in on it?)
She’s got a couple books already, the top one seemingly sci-fi. Or something. Is that real circuitry on it?
“Is that a book on engineering stuff for Tails or what?” Sonic says quickly, before Amy can get started with whatever she was going to say.
Amy takes the cue though. “This?” She lifts it. “No, it’s for me translate, you know how I’ve been learning the language of…”
Sonic looks closer at the book and interrupts, “But it’s already in our language?”
“What?” says Amy.
She opens the book at a random page and says, “No, it’s not! Look!”
And she shows him the book and Sonic reads, a curfew was ordered by the council for all to heed, and it seemed as if the calamity could be averted, but Silver felt an unease that nothing could make loosen its grip on him…
“What are you talking about?” says Sonic. “It’s clearly-”
“Ancient script!” Amy finishes.
Sonic blinks and squints, and there – the glyphs of the Ancients, as unreadable as ever – and then the world snaps into place, or rather out of place again, and he can read it just fine again, like- like it’s being translated before the message reaches his brain.
Like what Ashnan said about him gaining the knowledge of their script was really…
Sonic’s stomach lurches.
Okay, it wasn’t like he actually thought it was a dream, but it still – it was another life, it wasn’t real, not like Bygone Island – except it was, of course it was, Sonic’s been grieving Enkidu for long enough to feel how real it was. Even if it was fake, it was real.
But now – it was really Real.
“Hey,” says Sonic, heart suddenly pounding. “Can I have that book?”
Amy squints at him like she doesn’t get why, and okay yeah, but Sonic needs that book. He just feels it, he can’t even explain it.
“Please?” he adds. “Pretty please?”
“Okay,” Amy says, dubiously. “I just don’t get why…”
Sonic takes the book as soon as she hands it over and pulls it close to him. “Oh, you know,” he says. And then doesn’t add anything.
When he checks it out, Fastidious Beaver says, “I see something has finally captured your interest. An excellent choice, I must say.”
He is in on it! screams Sonic’s brain, and he pastes on a huge grin and books it out of there with the book. He glances at the title as he slips outside: The Book of the End, sheesh, over-dramatic much, but he just clutches it close and starts heading home.
On the way there it starts to feel like he’s being watched. No, seriously, he can’t shake the feeling- like someone is following him.
The book feels cold to the touch, and seriously why did Beaver say that, he’s in on it, whatever it is- was this planned somehow? Or did Sonic just escape with some information he wasn’t supposed to have? Does Amy know anything?
Sonic finally reaches his shack, all his spines sticking up from the feeling of someone watching him, and then, finally-
Shadow bursts out of the bushes. “That book,” he says ominously.
“What?” says Sonic, holding it tightly. “I already borrowed it.”
“You don’t know anything,” Shadow hisses. “You are in over your head and that book does not belong to you, you embarrassment of a hedgehog…”
“This again? Also, what’s this book gonna do for you?”
Shadow’s fists clench. Sonic just has time to wonder which of this guy’s innumerable nerves he’s managed to hit now before Shadow is on him.
It’s a frantic brawl. They’re all alone on the beach, Shadow could hurt him badly and then it’d probably be hours before anyone found Sonic, which is not a good thought! Shadow is determined as hell to get that book, which makes Sonic want to keep it even more, he has to know what the deal is, he’s not letting go off it without making Shadow pry each and every one of his claws out of it, and Shadow isn’t even trying to injure him, just squirming on top of him with his warm heavy body trying to get the book-
The stupid damn mysterious book, and then Sonic’s hands slip on the cover and his thumb sinks into a- a random depression in the spine? A button.
A bright light swells out of it and everything starts to spin. Sonic feels like he’s losing his grip so clings fiercely to the book, and Shadow’s clinging furiously to him, snarling into his ear, “What have you done-”
Oh okay, figures, thinks Sonic as everything glows so bright he has to close his eyes, and the entire world trips over, swallowing him and Shadow into the book.
When the world finally stands still again and Sonic dares open his eyes, everything is a lot darker. But with these lines of light following walls and corners and- oh, they’re inside some kind of building. A huge building. The walls and floor and ceiling all look like stone and the ceiling just goes up and up, cavernous, and the corridor continues for untold lengths in both directions, curving.
Okay, Sonic thinks, only a little hysterically. Okay!
“Looks like we’re not on Bygone Island anymore!” he blurts out.
Shadow, still on top of him, pushes himself up so that he can glare down at him. It’s a lot less fun now that they’ve- they’ve gotten transported into another book-
“No,” says Shadow nastily. “No, we’re not.”