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“Hello?”
Rouge looks up from Shadow’s sleeping face and at the door of the infirmary room. There’s a white cat in an equally white coat, also holding a white notepad, standing there. Must be a doctor. “Are you his…” The cat pauses like he can’t decide, settling for, “Do you know him?”
“I’m his best friend.” At the end of the day, that’s where they end up, isn’t it?
“Good, good – oh, Miss Rouge, yes? Your name was mentioned in the records…” Get to the point. “Ah, but yes! To begin with, there’s been some issues with Mister Shadow’s chaos energy flow-“
“What do you mean?” She’s tired but at this she looks up in alarm. Why is it always fucking something going wrong-
“Well. So far it’s nothing life-threatening… but… we don’t know, what exactly is… wrong. His chaos energy levels are completely off the charts so I don’t know how to-“
“And?” Rouge asks sharply.
The doctor swallows. “He… woke up a little earlier, and… I’m sorry, I can’t tell you more yet.”
“Why not?”
“Let’s just wait till he wakes up,” pleads the doctor.
Rouge is nearly asleep herself when Shadow finally comes to. She startles at his sudden movement, and then he startles at her sudden movement, and then she says, “Shadow.” He’s awake, he’s fine, just- “How are you feeling?”
He stares at her. “I… I’m…” and then he actually fumbles for words, and Rouge feels a sharp needle of alarm puncture her balloon of relief. He says at last, “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, right.” She pokes him in the shoulder as a friendly jest, but he shies away from her hand. He stares at her again with this puzzled, serious look, and what? “Do you have a headache? Are you feeling dizzy?”
“Yes,” he says. And then, “What time is it?”
“About 5 in the morning.”
He nods carefully. Rouge looks at him and tries to see anything, something, some clue – he’s got that bandage around his head but that’s all, he’s probably just light-headed and tired-
“-And where is this?” Shadow asks.
“ARK,” Rouge says. You know this. Shadow, you know this- “We’re on Space Colony ARK, the medical ward, but are you sure you’re feeling alright-?” He can’t be. Maybe it’s nothing. But it’s never just nothing and Rouge is starting to feel cold down to her bones.
He says hesitantly, “…And you’re my… friend, right?”
Rouge looks at Shadow. And something clicks in her head, a horrifying suggestion that she can’t unsee.
The bat with blue eyeshadow and a catsuit (friend? Sister, no, can’t be- lover?) gives him a stare, a silent and stunned stare, and he knows. She’s figured it out, somehow, shit, maybe she was a lover after all, (that feels like a lie but what does he know?) and what does he do now? He’s on a Space Colony, apparently – and that’s-
“You,” begins the bat. “Have you-“ she cuts off. He can do nothing but look. She demands, “Tell me about Maria.”
“She’s a nice girl,” he begins, guessing along, but the bat cuts him off at once.
“You don’t remember,” she accuses.
It’s over, it’s over-
He breathes out. His head hurts. And he takes a deep breath and asks, “…Who are you?”
The party is massive, it’s all the people aboard ARK shouting out that they’re alive, in defiance of all the odds. There’s confetti strewn around in the bigger corridors and the mechanics are having karaoke in the hangar, Knuckles had to make an impromptu speech, and though the rations are strict they still scrounged up some candy for the younger ones. Sonic feels vibrantly alive, like he’s living off of all the laughter and scream-singing, and when he spots Tails he immediately goes to grab him.
“Tails! Best buddy, pal, we should sing a duet together, it’d be so freaking great-“
“Sonic,” Tails interrupts sternly. He makes sure he’s got Sonic’s attention before saying, “Shadow’s woken up.”
First Amy returning safely, and now Shadow’s back in the land of the living as well? Could today possibly get any better?
“That’s awesome-“
Tails says solemnly, “-But he’s lost his memories.”
”…He’s-“ What? Sonic didn’t hear that right, right-
“Shadow,” Tails says very clearly, “Has lost his memories.”
“No,” says Sonic. “That’s ridiculous,” he says.
“I’m sorry,” says Tails, quietly.
Sonic – nah, no way this is true. He turns around abruptly: he’ll just go and check for himself. Yeah, let’s get going… Let’s…
The room is quiet and white and on the bed sits Shadow, looking up when Sonic enters. His face is completely blank. No scowl, no recognition, no smirk, no-
“Hey Shads,” Sonic greets, hoping against hope. “How are you doing?”
“’Shads’?” Shadow’s expression of distaste makes Sonic’s heart positively stutter in his chest. See, he remembers, Rouge must just have got the wrong end of the stick- But then Shadow asks, “…Are we related?” (and it’s true it’s really this horrible why why why)
“No,” Sonic says. He feels blank and awful and suddenly completely exhausted. “We’re really not.”
“I see.”
Sonic can’t even imagine how Rouge must feel, if this is how he feels. He slumps in the guest chair and looks at a wall; he doesn’t want to look at Shadow right now. (it’s not their Shadow, except it is, it is, and he’s always welcome in their gang but he can’t even remember-)
“…And you are?”
“I’m Sonic.” He swallows. “Just a guy who loves adventure.”