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Chapter Text

Shadow was standing in a vast green field.

Which didn't really make sense for various reasons but Shadow kept himself from thinking about any of them, not allowing his mind to go down that particular road as to not break his immersion in this...hallucination? Mirage? Who knew what it was. He didn't and didn't really feel like possibly breaking it just to find out was worth it.

It had been too long since he last felt...new. Since he experienced something that wasn't coldness or darkness.

...since he sensed.

Closing his eyes, he listened to the quiet whispers of the wind that danced around him and the excited chirping of birds that it carried to him from who-knows-how far. The sun beamed at him from above, bathing him with its warmth that was unlike anything that he'd experienced at the colony back in the day.

Tan lips pressed together, a contemplative frown twisting them. They they smoothed and for the first time in a long while, Shadow breathed.

Unlike the sterile ark of ARK, the air that he breathed in felt fresh and light in his lungs, practically weightless as it expanded in his chest with minimal effort. As if by spell, all the liquid that had weighted it down just moments prior was nowhere to be found.

Feeling daring at this new finding, Shadow let himself breath through his nose, feeling a first spark of so long forgotten excitement shoot through him when instead of a painful burn that happened anytime he accidentally breathed the liquid this way in, a multitude of scents assaulted his nose instead, all pointedly herbal and foreign yet at the same time somehow familiar to his senses.

However, Shadow didn't preoccupy himself with these contradictory observations, instead relishing in all the scents with closed eyes and absentmindedly trying to match them to the faded images of flowers he had seen in Botanics book who knows how long ago now. When more vivid images appeared among them, many of flowers he hadn't ever seen before, he didn't question it either.

Instead he opened his eyes again and let them survey the area, finding all kind of flowers hiding among the lush green grass. Eager to explore them, Shadow stepped forward, for a single moment thrown of his balance at the softness of the ground under him. His gaze snapped down to the pliant brown under his feet.

Dirt. Soil. That was its proper name. That was what Professor had always called it when he reminisced on his time before the ARK, going on lengths about how much more enjoyable it was to walk upon than the metal halls of the Space Colony.

To be honest, Shadow quite agreed with the sentiment.

With his curiosity getting the better of him, Shadow abandoned his quest for figuring out which smells belonged to which flower in favor of walking among them all, enjoying the softness of the dirt and grass under his feet and how it swallowed even the heavier of his steps that would have normally echoed all across the ARK's halls.

Red eyes grazed along the terrain once more, taking in the sprawling greenery and the vast blue skies above it, as well as the single giant tree in the distance, towering above the landscape and looking over it—not menacingly but more like a concerned grandparent watching over their grandchildren.

It was the most beautiful tree Shadow had ever laid his eyes on. Well, the only one if he didn't count the bonsai Gerald had taken such a meticulous care of back in the day—the only greenery that he had ever been allowed to interact with back in the day.

Years of restrained curiosity hummed under his skin, his legs itching to carry him to the enigmatic tree and his hands to explore it.

Before Shadow could even try to stop himself, he was already moving to it.

His legs moved one before the other without stop, without a hitch, a single blur of color. The wind howled in his ears as he pushed against it, rustling his quills and fur as he sprinted onward, brushing his body almost fondly. A laughter bubbled in his chest at all the sensations—how long ago it had been since he last laughed?—born from childlike giddiness that was so unlike him but that was at the moment too overwhelming in its intensity to resist.

At last the caged laugh escaped him.

The voice that came out of his lips didn't sound like his own, noticeably higher than it, but he didn't give it much thought—He couldn't allow himself that right now; he wouldn't let all this shatter—He just focused on the burn in his legs as he ran to the enigmatic tree, feeling a hint of triumph when his hand finally landed onto the bark. However, just as he was about to withdrew it, he noticed he didn't really have his inhibitor ring or red cuff, but instead plain white glove and that instead of black fur his arm was entirely covered in peach—What—?

There was a pull.

Without any previous warning, a part of him was violently jerked and suddenly his surroundings were dissolving back into the unforgiving black void. Wanting nothing else but stay, Shadow thrashed and screamed, trying to fight the pull, but it was to no avail. Without any mercy, he was plunged back into the dreadfully familiar embrace of utter darkness and deafening silence, his lungs once more filling with the heavy green liquid of his cell.

-O-

"—Watch it!"

"...What?" Sonic breathed, confused as he suddenly found himself lying on the cushioned floor of his bedroom instead of standing in the green meadow by the enigmatic tree. Green eyes looked up towards the other voice in the room, seeing the familiar red form of his friend that definitely hadn't been there before either.

"Knuckles?" he intoned questioningly, brows furrowing in confusion when he saw the other was clutching his face and sputtering quiet curses. It took Sonic a moment to realize that he was the reason behind both actions, having swung his fist at the echidna's face reflexively when he was startled awake. He opened his mouth to speak, to apologize or maybe to utter some witty remark that Knuckles should know better than sneak up on him while he slept, but by the time he got his tongue to work, Knuckles was speaking already.

"Ah, forget it." Knuckles huffed, letting his hand droop from his face. His cheek was a bit swollen, but Sonic was fairly sure that over time it wouldn't turn out worse than a bruise—if even that. "Tails wants you to come into the workshop. He says he might have figured out what's wrong with the Chaos Emerald."

"I'll be there in a minute." Sonic nodded, pushing himself back to his feet and stretching his stiff back. Knuckles gave a huff of acknowledgement before leaving the room.

Sonic sighed, letting one of his arms droop back to his side while the hand of the other went to rub his neck, his unusual dream springing back into his mind.

It all felt so...vivid and real and at the same time somehow wrong; he had been fully aware of himself and yet at certain moments he felt as if something else was controlling him, emotions that had no reason to be there washing over him along with blurred images that didn't really make much sense to him.

Nor why he was so utterly fascinated by normal things like the way air filled his lungs and how soft ground felt under his feet. Just what was up with that?

He shook his head to chase those thoughts away. Dreams were supposed to be weird, after all, weren't they? This one had been just weird in a different way...

Yeah, that had to be it. What else could it be, really?

-O-

This time dunes of white mass stretched on all sides of Shadow. The sky was cloudy and small white particles were slowly descending down like leaves carried by the wind.

It was...snowing.

Red eyes gazed at the natural phenomenon with great interest, Shadow even outstretching his hand to catch some of the snowflakes into his hand. When a couple landed he brought them closer to study them. No two of them were the same, just like Maria had told him all these years ago.

Shadow's lips pressed into a thin line as he reminisced about his dear friend and all that they had promised each other—one of the many things being that they would go experience the snow together. There had been so many things they wanted to do; to have a snowball fight and make snow-angels, to build a snowman and go sledging, to build an igloo and so so many others. He had looked forward to that day.

But it never came...and never will now with Maria gone and him trapped.

His chest squeezed with longing at the thought.

However, it didn't last long; an invisible warmth twined tightly around him and dissolved the emotion as if it never were. Maria wouldn't want him to be sad, he could almost faintly hear it say. Almost.

With a gentle flick of hand, Shadow gave the snowflakes back to the wind and watched them float away.

In some far-away part of his mind, he knew they should have melted upon contact with his skin and definitely not let go of his hand so easily, but this...world clearly operated under different rules and so he didn't question it. Last time when he slipped-up like that, he was punished with exile by whatever governed this space.

He was not making the same mistake again.

It had been too long since he'd last been able to do anything but merely wait for his demise to finally come. He was not going to give up a chance like this, using the time that remained him to explore the world—even if it was one that was possibly solely fabricated by his mind; everything was better than the reality at this point.

If all he needed to do was not to ask questions to be allowed to continue to come here, then so be it.

-O-

Sonic blinked awake into the darkness of his brother's workshop. Only the small lamp on Tails' worktable offered any light to the room.

"Tails?" Sonic mumbled quietly, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Had he fallen asleep again? "It's night already?" he asked, stretching himself lightly.

"Yeah." Tails gave a sigh, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I'm sorry for dragging you down here, I've really thought I had it." Blue eyes stared with frustration at the yellow Chaos Emerald. "But it's like it has a mind of its own! See?! Now it's acting normal again for no apparent reason! It's as if somebody was flipping a switch on it!"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually," Sonic said as he walked over to the other. "For now, get some sleep, okay?" he advised, placing a hand onto the other's shoulder.

"Chaos!" With a yelp, Tails shot out of his chair and away from his touch so fast even Sonic had a trouble to follow the movement. The young inventor immediately began to rub the spot he had been touched on, his eyes wide. "Brrr, Sonic! Why on Mobius are your hands are cold?"

"I..." Sonic looked in confusion at his hands, realizing they indeed felt cold—even to him. Which was weird because he never got cold hands or feet. "I was making a snowman...I think."

"...It's June."

"Well, it was in a dream."

Tails cocked his head in confusion. "Why would your hands be cold just because you've dreamed of making a snowman?"

"I don't really understand that either, buddy." Chuckling, Sonic rubbed his hands together to make them warmer. He didn't really understand how could dream make him cold. Then again he had no idea why he had been dreaming of making a snowman in the first place.

Nor why he had felt so sad while doing it...

-O-

Shadow looked in confusion around himself, but the unusual checkerboard-pattern seemed to repeat everywhere he looked. The dirt, the grass—only the water didn't seem to carry the pattern. Also, the whole terrain and flora seemed to favor sharp angles above everything else unlike how it normally was in the nature.

What an odd place this was...

He scratched at the (natural?) wall before him, first at one dark square then at one of the lighter ones, rolling some of the dirt that fell off in between his fingers. Apart from its unusual arrangement, it seemed to be a completely normal dirt. What gives the place was so odd then?

He jumped to the lower level, but here too it seemed to be all just checker-board pattern and sharp angles; the only exception that broke the rule was the big loop in the distance.

Red eyes lingered on the clearly man-made structure before taking a better look at the surrounding terrain; upon further inspection, there seemed to be more loops than just that one and oddly they all were connected by one continuous path of golden rings that Shadow recalled were used as one form of currency back on Earth...

Hmm, he wondered how fast he'd able able to collect them all...

-O-

"—telling you, Tails! It feels like there's somebody else in my head, controlling what I do!" Sonic tried to explain, gesturing wildly. "It's hella weird and I can't seem to be able to do anything about it!"

"But why would somebody be controlling you in your dreams? Are you really sure it's not just your imagination?"

"I don't know!" Sonic threw his arms into the air, before sighing deeply and slumping back into this seat. "...But it feels so real—and it's more of memories than dreams I'd say; for the last few days, I've dreamed only of places I've been to."

"And what does the other person do?"

"They...just walk around and look at stuff, I guess? That seems like what they do most," Sonic tried to explain, trying to remember what the other had been doing in each of those dreams. "Last time, it was Green Hill and they ran around a bit, collecting rings and having a bit of fun, I think."

"You think?"

"Well, sometimes I can feel what they feel. They seemed to be having fun from what I could tell—" Especially, at the loops, which Sonic could understand; they were his favorite too. "—Thought they also felt sad for some reason...They always do," he admitted quietly. He didn't really understand why the other was constantly sad but he was really starting to get the impression the other needed for someone to give them a big hug. Preferably several.

Tails gave him a long look. "...You know, Sonic, if someone's really possessing you or something, I don't think it's a good idea to start caring about them of all things."

-O-

Shadow stared in fascination at the endless crystal blue that stretched before him, watching as the waves gently lapped at the sandy shore and the way sunlight of the setting sun played its colorful symphony on them. The warm sand under his bare feet kept on shifting ever so slightly under his weight as the water repeatedly tried to reach further onto the land and sweep him in but always missing just a few inches. The seaside breeze rustled his quills each time it rushed past and when Shadow breathed in curiously, he could faintly taste salt on his tongue.

Shadow let a gentle smile show on his lips. So this was what sea was like.

Curious, he made a step closer, for the first time feeling the cold water wash over his feet before receding back into the sea and then rolling back to splash him again in a harmonious rhythm. It felt like something sharply pinched him every time the cool water touched, but Shadow continue to stand in his spot and watch the dancing waves with interest, the never-ending motions of water rolling and curling to the edge of horizon and back.

His lips pressed into a contemplative line. He had been taught how to swim so long ago... He wondered if he even still remembered how to do that.

Wanting to find out, he began to take small steps, slowly submersing himself in the shallow coast waters, each step costing him more and more effort and not only because of the water pushing him back. There was a strong unsettling feeling in his gut and his legs felt as if they rather go in the other direction, back to the shore, but Shadow pushed on. He was submerged up to his ribs when his body suddenly just froze and refused to take another step.

Dark brows furrowed in confusion. Was he not allowed to go further?

Something inside him twisted just at the thought, wildly opposing the idea and urging him back to the shore. But Shadow wasn't really feeling like going back there but rather further. The something just seemed to revolt more strongly at this; it almost sounded like it had a voice and was trying to shout at him. His body started to shake and Shadow didn't think it was the coldness of the water.

He looked down at his shaking limbs, brows furrowing in thought as he was not sure what to make of it. Was that the force that governed this realm or was that coming from him?

Red eyes turned to stare at expanse of blue and his heart suddenly lurched in his chest, the distinct clutch of fear closing around him and trying to hold him in place.

It was odd; he had never been afraid of water.

Figuring that had to mean it truly was the governor chasing him back to the shore, Shadow reluctantly began to turn around, only to suddenly feel the ground disappear from under his feet and the island seemingly sink under the waves, leaving no land in sight.

Naturally, Shadow immediately tried to adjust, kicking his legs and making a breaststroke with his arms—or that is what he would have done if his limbs listened to him. Instead they began to flail, panic washing over Shadow but at the same time not really reaching him as if wasn't really coming from him. Like a rock, his flailing body sunk under the waves, salt stinging his eyes painfully, cold wrapping around him. The panic mounted but Shadow was not able to regain control of his body. The voice in his head began to yell so loudly he could actually hear it—no longer just a vague sensation but an actual sound.

Through his hazy vision Shadow could make out his fur turning from black and red to peach and blue and suddenly he was drifting away, separating from his body as well as the fear that was still controlling it.

The image of frightened green eyes turning to stare right into his lingered before his eyes even as he was plunged back into the reality.

-O-

"—then I saw him—the other guy."

"Who is it?"

"No clue, I've never seen him before. He's a hedgehog like me, with black fur and red stripes on his quills, arms and legs. Do you know anybody that looks like that?"

"Nobody, I'm afraid—are you really sure he's real?"

"You know, he too looked surprised to see me. It was mutual. I don't see why would figment of my imagination do that..."

"To convince you. Obviously."

"Alright, I see you're still being skeptical. How about we ask for a third opinion?"

-O-

A wild untamed jungle surrounded him from all sides, big green leaves obscuring his view of the sky, letting only limited amount of light to shine through. The air felt full of humidity, just like before storm. How Shadow knew what that felt like, he couldn't tell for sure, but had a suspicion.

Despite trying to ignore all the oddities of these...ventures, Shadow wasn't able not to take notice of some of them. How emotions just seemed to appear and go as they saw fit, how his fur would occasionally change color, how his body would occasionally respond to the presence that kept pressing on his mind, how he could call on knowledge he knew he had not obtained like names of flowers he had never seen before....

He didn't understand why, but it seemed that he somehow shared existence—if he could put it like that—with someone else. This someone being the blue hedgehog from his last venture, judging by all the clues so far.

He looked at his hands which at the moment were his hands and not the other's. He wasn't sure what exactly made them switch places but it always seemed to happen just moments before he was pulled back into reality.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't do anymore; he needed some answers. He needed to figure out how to talk to the other directly. He needed to know who it was.

Aboard the ARK, Shadow had never met any other Mobian and he didn't recall seeing this person in some book or a movie. It was a complete stranger and he wanted to know why he was bound to this person in particular. Was the other supposed to be some kind of guide? Was he here by mere coincidence just like him? Or was this all really just Shadow's imagination and his subconsciouses was just trying give him some company for his last days?

After all, it wasn't like he had a chance to meet anyone else in the time that remained to him...

And did it even matter if the other was just a fantasy? This place nor any of those that came before probably weren't real, but he still had fun exploring them. After all, reality was just what person's brain made of the stimuli it was receiving; so what if his brain was just simulating all of the stimuli? That still didn't make any of this feel any different to the real thing.

Thanks to this he could experience what it felt like to have wind whipping against his face as he ran, to have his hands sting from cold or to have toes buried in warm sand. It didn't even matter if these experience weren't faithful to the actual thing—he would never know.

It didn't really make any difference in the end.

And so Shadow called out to the presence at the back of his mind, hoping it would respond and he would be able to get some answers—and maybe also experience what it was like to not be alone once more.

At least for a while.

-O-

"Aren't you a little old for an imaginary friend, Sonic?"

"Har har, Knuckles. I'm being serious here."

"I've never heard of such thing happening."

"But Tails's said the emerald acts weird only when I am asleep, remember? There could be a connection."

"Chaos Emerald is not a freaking telephone, Sonic."

"Well, you seem to call with your rock pretty often."

"I just deactivate the emeralds with it. I'm not having a chat with them."

"So you call them to shut down."

"...He's already made his mind, hasn't he?"

"I told you he's really adamant about it."

"Haven't you guys fought Eggman like a week ago, Tails? Are you sure Sonic didn't fall on his head back then?"

"Oh, come on, guys! My life has always been weird! Why are you guys having such a problem with accepting this as a possibility?"

"Because that's not how Chaos Emeralds work, Sonic!"

-O-

Well, this was new.

Shadow strolled aimlessly across the vast unfamiliar plaza, red eyes taking in all the things with interest; this was his first time setting a foot in an actual city. Which particular city it was he was not sure but considering the surrounding architecture—all white stone with mostly blue decorations—he was somewhere in Apatos from the looks of it.

The city seemed a little odd without anyone strolling around, but that seemed to be the norm for his ventures; he hadn't met anyone else beside the blue hedgehog yet.

Speaking of the hedgehog...

Shadow hadn't managed to draw the other out on his previous venture but the other had responded to him, brushing against his mind but not able to break through the barrier like last time. However, the other was curious about him too—Shadow could feel as much.

Red eyes zeroed on the fountain in the very center of the plaza. Last time, he had not been successful in drawing the other out, but he had an idea.

Before the presence could have a chance to figure out what he was up to, he was already diving into the fountain. He felt the moment the other panicked at them suddenly being submerged in water and he could feel him pushing in to get control and get them out. Shadow let him do so and at the very same moment pushed out.

Not one but two spiky heads broke the water surface just a moment later, sending water splashing all around. Two heavy thuds followed right after as they unceremoniously collapsed on the fountain's edge; Shadow suddenly felt as if all the strength in his body had disappeared.

Their quick rasping breaths and sloshing water were the only sounds to be heard for the following moments.

"Alright—" the blue-furred stranger coughed out suddenly, red eyes snapping to him in an instant. Oddly, Shadow was not met with a glare like he had expected but instead with a smile. A tired one, but still a smile. "—I'll give you points for creativity, pal, but, please, don't do it again; I really hate water."

"I needed to get you out," Shadow said as a form of explanation. "To ask why you keep sneaking into my...dreams." Or hallucinations. Shadow still had no clue what these were.

"Hey, I'm not sneaking anywhere! You are the one freeloading on my subconsciousness, buddy." The other hauled himself up onto the stone, shaking his blue and peach fur off of the excess water before sitting down properly. "I should be the one asking that question here," the stranger said, flashing him an amused smile.

"Your subconsciousness?" Shadow raised a brow and looked around again. So this wasn't his imagination...? Or was this just his subconsciousness trying to trick him into believing he actually wasn't alone by providing a crazy enough explanation for his whole situation? "How are you so sure?"

"Well, all the places you've dragged me to so far are places I've been to recently. It's about two weeks since I've been to Apatos." The other hedgehog gestured to the plaza. "So what gives?"

"I don't know," Shadow admitted. "It just started happening."

"Did you happen to touch any Chaos Emeralds recently?" the other asked and Shadow was left to stare in surprise. "Oh, right! You might not know what those are! You see Chaos Emeralds are these big—"

"I know what they are," Shadow cut in, still a little surprised the other actually knew about their existence. Back in his day, there weren't many people that have heard about them. "...and no." Unless somebody decided to travel up to ARK. But he had not seen a living soul since they had stuffed him into that tank...

"Shoot! I've thought I had it..."

Shadow watched the other turn pensive, he in turn doing the same. "...You seem oddly calm for someone that has a stranger regularly hijacking their dreams." Then again it was possible these were actually his dreams and the hedgehog was just a part of his subconsciousness...

The may-be-hallucination shrugged his shoulders. "My life is one crazy adventure after another. I'm used to bizarre stuff happening at this point—" Again, an outlandish enough explanation. "—and, well, you can't control it either, do you?"

"No."

"Then I guess we'll have to get to the bottom of this together." The stranger outstretched his arm to him. "The name is Sonic, by the way."

Shadow clasped the offered hand and it felt solid. But that didn't prove or disprove anything.

"Shadow."

"Well, nice to meet you, Shadow." Sonic gave his hand an energetic shake and flashed him a big megawatt smile that somehow managed to light up the other's expression even more, the friendliness catching Shadow off-guard; it was such a warm greeting and unlike any of the introductions Shadow had with the personnel back on the ARK.

Sonic also didn't rush to break their hold, just slowly easing his hand out of it, which was another first for Shadow; back on ARK, even those braver people that actually dared to clasp his hand when meeting him would jerk their back after the very first shake as if they were scared he'd try to crush it if they lingered just a split of second longer.

Then again Sonic had no clue what he was, so there were no such expectations on his side. He was just a stranger to him, not the feared volatile project of ARK like he had been back to all the scientists and soldiers.

It felt...refreshing. This anonymity.

Shadow liked it.

"Soooo..." Sonic drawled, drawing Shadow back into the present. The blue speedster had a small smirk on his face now. "I've noticed you can run pretty fast back at the Green Hill zone."

"I do. I can run at the speed of sound," Shadow explained, raising a questioning brow when that information seemed to make the other's smirk turn into a full-blown grin. "Why does that interest you?"

"Well," Sonic started, rubbing his nose, "I'm quite fast myself you see—"

-O-

"—and he can run just fast as me, Tails! We had a race and Shadow was this close to beating me—!"

"Heavens, he's already given his imaginary friend a name! Tails, we need to do something!"

"Oh, shut it, Knucklehead."

-O-

"What's this place?"

"Sky Sanctuary."

An apt name for a place like this, Shadow had to admit as he looked once more at the floating ruins that surrounded them; it was as if some ancient city had been fragmented into smaller pieces and then these pieces had been raised into a sky and held there by an invisible force.

"And why are we here?"

"We're going there," Sonic explained, pointing to one of the tall white towers. "The view is amazing from up there."

Shadow hummed thoughtfully, briefly studying their destination from afar before focusing back on the hedgehog ahead of him. Sonic clearly knew this place as perfectly as the back of his hand as the speedster weaved his way through the zone gracefully, making all kind of rolls, somersaults and tricks in the air anytime they came to a gap they needed to jump over.

It was mesmerizing, in a way.

The moves themselves weren't something Shadow couldn't perform himself, but the way they were being utilized—merely for fun and not out of any kind of need. Sonic did them just because he could. Not because the situation called for it, not because using them would be practical for getting around.

Like when they had that race on the previous venture—it hadn't been a form of exercise that was supposed to asses his or Sonic's physical fitness or the progress of his training like it would have been back on ARK. It was just a challenge, a competition with no other reason behind it than to have fun with trying to best an equally matched opponent.

Shadow didn't even mind he had lost it; it had been his first time facing an actual person and he had just basked in the moment. The stakes had felt high but there was no actual pressure on him to win the race and Shadow just let himself get lost in the freedom of it. No purpose behind it all. Just having fun.

It still felt odd that he was allowed to do that now; his GUN overseers had always told him that his only purpose was to be their weapon and thus that should be the only thing he should revel in. In his purpose. When he had argued that his purpose was to be Maria's cure and friend they had laughed into his face, telling him that the only reason Professor Gerald ever got the funding for creating him was because he had promised GUN a perfect soldier. It had never been supposed to be his secondary task but a primary one.

He'd asked Professor about it and the man did not deny. Nor did he confirm it. He just asked him to work hard for Maria's sake.

And so he did.

He did so well that even his overseers started to fear him. Expectedly, word soon reached the upper heads and not long after it the ARK was ordered to be shutdown and put under a lock—and him with it.

He looked down at himself, wondering how long it had been since he actually looked like this. The light in his cell had given out a long time ago and the last time he had been able to see himself his ribs had already been showing because of how much weight he had already lost by that point ...

"Mobius to Shadow!"

Shadow blinked, snapping out of his musings. He had not even noticed they had reached their destination. However, Sonic didn't seem to mind too much.

"You've got something on your mind?" the other just asked, cocking his head ever so slightly, looking genuinely curious.

But Shadow just shook his head. His dismal reality could wait until he woke up again; here he was free of it and he would not waste that. "Nothing important."

"...if you say so." Sonic gave him a side-away glance but didn't push. He just plopped down, letting his legs dangle over the edge of the tower. He tapped the spot beside him. "Come sit with me. The sunset is really something from up here."

Shadow peered curiously over the edge. If they were to fall, there would be nothing to stop them. But strangely he didn't feel even a slightest glimpse of anxiousness at the fact; without hesitance, he sat down beside the other and let himself enjoy the view with Sonic like there wasn't a literal abyss right below them.

"You know, I like to find high spots to look at the sunset from." Sonic gave a little laugh, moving his legs ever so slightly. "But I never get anyone to actually watch with me." Sonic looked down to underline his question, before nudging Shadow in the side playfully. "You've got some steel nerves, buddy."

"I've been told so," Shadow agreed, staring curiously at the slowly setting sun. His first sunset back with the sea had been beautiful but it had been stagnant. It was like if he had been staring at a photo as time didn't move unless Sonic willed it to—or that was at least what it seemed like to Shadow.

Because whatever Sonic wanted happened in this world. When Sonic had wished them to race on the previous venture, the world morphed around him to give them a nice grass field to run across. When Sonic said the place looked better in the summer, flowers grew from the ground and bloomed in seconds. Today when Sonic had wondered what to do, he had told Sonic he had never witnessed a proper sunset; Sonic had promised him a sunset and now they were here among the clouds and the sun was already slipping below the horizon even though it had been an early morning when they were climbing their way up.

"You know, you never told me where you're from, Shad," the hedgehog suddenly voiced, breaking his immersion.

Shadow snorted as he looked at the other. "If I told you wouldn't believe me."

Sonic just grinned. "Try me."

"I live on a space colony," he said lips twitching ever so slightly as he waited for the other to go all 'No way!' on him.

Except it didn't come. "...and?"

"What and?"

"You made that sound as if you were from another planet," Sonic said, following the statement with a hearty chuckle. "Which by the way already happened to me—I know some aliens. Ever heard of Wisps? They're a funny bunch."

"Only from passing," Shadow said, surprised. Professor Gerald had told him that the GUN had already discovered some alien species, but this knowledge was supposedly kept from the general populace. He hadn't thought it would change while he still lived. Then again he didn't know how long it had actually been since the ARK's shutdown. "...What are they like?"

Sonic's lips stretched wide and his hands began to gesticulate wildly as he described the squid-like aliens with their hyper-go-on power, the 'lecture' soon turning into a storytelling as the hero began to recount how he joined forces with the aliens to foil an evil scheme of some megalomaniac called Dr. Eggman that intended to make an interstellar amusement park by chaining multiple planets together. The idea sounded absolutely ridiculous, but the man supposedly managed to pull it off. Or, well, almost pull it of.

Still the man clearly had a vision and resolve, Shadow had to give him that. It kind of reminded Shadow of all the ideas that Professor Gerald had back in the day. Most people had called him foolish and crazy when they heard him speak about them or even outright laughed. Then they were floored when this 'foolish' man actually managed to bring those crazy ideas to life.

Then Sonic talked about Tails, his younger brother. The hero spoke fondly of the small inventor, describing his futuristic inventions like the alien language translator he'd created so they could speak with Yacker, one of the wisps, who then clued them into the situation at hand. The device supposedly had a lot of bugs at the start but it was the first of its kind so full reliability was naturally not expected. Still it was an amazing achievement for someone that had been just ten at the time. It was obvious the young kid was an engineering genius.

And that one reminded Shadow of Maria; she had always been inventive and resourceful just like her grandfather but she never really had a chance to put her intellect to practical use. Professor had always been trying to keep her out of labs and workshops for fear of her injuring herself, as even the smallest scratch could easily prove fatal with her compromised immune system. Ironically, it lead her to getting into other kinds of trouble that spiked the poor man's blood pressure and left him in terrible worry for her safety.

Then, when Sonic ended his story, he told him as much. He spoke of Professor and Maria, of their crazy ideas and all those mischievous activities Maria had dragged him into over the years.

And if Sonic ever noticed his use of past tense, he didn't comment on it.

-O-

"A space colony? Is he an astronaut or something?"

"I don't think so. He's said he's been there since he can remember," Sonic replied, tapping his fingers against his cup thoughtfully. "I didn't even know kids were allowed up in space. Seems pretty hazardous."

"Well, it's a colony. Maybe he was born up there," Tails suggested, his brows furrowing thoughtfully. "Though I've never even heard of project like that..." he said and again there was the uncertain look that clearly told Sonic Tails still didn't fully believe Shadow to actually be real.

And the look didn't escape Sonic's attention. "Oh, come on, Tails! I thought you were on my side in this!"

"Sonic, nobody beside Dr. Eggman ever came close to making a space station where you could actually live for longer than a few months without severe adverse effect on their health....Well, at least officially—Which would mean that he's either carelessly giving you classified information on some secret project, or more likely, just lying to you." Tails chewed his lip. "...if he even exists, that is."

"I didn't make him up, Tails."

"I don't say you did, Sonic, but people with stressful lives like yours sometimes have unusual coping mechanisms—"

"Alright! I'm going to prove he's real, okay? Just let me think up how."

-O-

Shadow looked around himself, curious about the space he found himself in. It was his first time not appearing outdoors but inside an actual building. Though he found it a little odd it was a school of all places.

"I didn't imagine you as someone who likes school."

"Well, no. I didn't really enjoy school back when I still attended it." Sonic chuckled, jumping down from the desk he was sitting on and then opening it to take out a piece of paper and simple pencil. "I think my brain just picked it up because of what I've talked about with Tails today."

Shadow raised a questioning brow, but obviously Sonic didn't see him with his back turned. The hero wrote something onto the paper and then handed the paper along with the pencil to him.

"Could you solve this for me, please?" he asked.

Shadow's brow rose even higher at the strange request, but he didn't say anything yet as he looked down at the paper and saw what appeared to be a rather simple equation. Sure, there were factorials in it, but nothing he couldn't solve by hand in two minutes. Still... "Why are you giving me high-school algebra?"

"Well, Tails still doesn't really believe me you're real so I've figured I need to prove it in some way," Sonic explained. "And apart from me, you seem kinda friends with maths and stuff, so I asked him to give me some math problem I have no chance of solving and he came up with these exclamation mark thingies." Sonic gestured vaguely towards the paper, obviously not familiar with the concept of factorials. "Can you solve it?"

"Yeah, I can." Shadow nodded before turning his gaze back to the paper, staring at it in pensiveness. Then he shook his head, chasing away the doubtful thoughts that were trying to crawl back in and just began solving the problem; it wasn't like he would live long enough to see whether Sonic and all of this was just a huge deception created by his own brain or actually real so it was pointless to waste time by asking questions he has no way of answering.

Especially, when one considered how little of that particular commodity remained him.

-O-

"..."

"I told you, Knuckles."

"This doesn't prove anything!"

"It shows I was right!"

"It could have been a coincidence."

"Tails, what's the statistical chance I'd get five out of five numbers correct?"

"One to hundred thousand so about 0,001 %."

"Well, I guess I better go buy a lottery ticket—clearly luck's on my side considering those odds. Wouldn't you say so, Knuckles?"

"...Fine, I accept that he's real. But that still doesn't explain why he's showing up in your head of all places. Chaos knows it's just filled with stupid ideas and chili-dogs."

"Hey! Leave chili-dogs out of this!"

-O-

"—and here lived Rosie. She was very kind and made the best apple-pie in history of all apple-pies—"

Shadow listened with interest as Sonic continued to ramble about all the houses that surrounded them and the people that had inhabited them back in Sonic's childhood. Expectedly, it was only a handful of people considering the small size of the island but Sonic seemed to have dozens of stories for each of the inhabitants so he never really ran out of what to say.

And when he needed a break, Shadow would chime in with stories of his own. It was odd as he had never been talkative, but with Sonic it just seemed as the most natural thing in the world. Just talking, swapping stories. Expectedly, Sonic had much more of them with his whole life being one adventure after another and way more exciting than most of Shadow's, but Sonic listened just as raptly as Shadow did when the hero talked. Even if it was about mundane things, Sonic always seemed to listen and Shadow just couldn't help himself but bask in the attention.

Unfortunately, it meant that he soon ran out of the stories to tell. Or well the nice ones at least. The majority of his time aboard ARK had been spent in the training facilities and those days had never been pleasant to go through; Shadow imagined it would be even less to listen to them.

But Sonic didn't seem to mind when he was left as the sole story-teller. The hero made pauses from time to time, giving him a chance to take up the mantle again if he wished to, but easily slipped back into the flow when he didn't raise up to the occasion.

But eventually even Sonic stopped talking when the two of them reached the small beach on the south side of the island. They sat down at the very edge of it, silence hanging over them as they watched the waves lap on the shore and the starry sky shining from above.

"I left the island when I was eleven," Sonic suddenly broke the silence. Red eyes immediately turned curiously to the other, but Sonic's own gaze seemed to be focused on something in the sky. "I didn't even know where I would go, I just packed my things and went to see the world. I had no idea just what awaited me ahead. Though I don't think I'd have decided differently if I knew." A smile pulled at the hero's lips, green eyes finally shifting their gaze to him. "What about you, Shad? Any plans about where you'll go once you get back down from space?"

Shadow's lips pulled into a thin line. Once. He couldn't even hope for that one anymore. "None."

"Really?" Sonic was clearly surprised. "Not one place you'd like to visit it?"

"There are many places I'd like to visit," Shadow elaborated, "but I won't have the chance."

"That sounds oddly...final." Sonic shifted slightly, a pinch of worry and hint of pensiveness twisting his previously happy face. "...do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Shadow wasn't sure how much time remained to him, but he was sure it was too late already. When he was awake, he could barely find the strength to breathe these days. He doubted he had much time left. "Just tell me what you've seen. You've said you been to Soleanna?"

Sonic gave him a look, conflicting emotions crossing the other's visage. It was clear the idea of pretending he hadn't heard what he just had didn't sit well with the other, but Shadow was sure his look alone was enough of warning for Sonic not to push.

And, so, eventually, Sonic began to speak of the kingdom of the water and the festival he had attended in the city. However, unlike those stories before it, it wasn't accompanied with easy smiles and heartfelt laughs, but fake grins and forced chuckles.

Shadow would expect the falseness to jar him, but instead it left him feeling oddly...regretful. He hadn't meant to upset Sonic—only say the truth.

Crimson eyes turned to gaze at the hero, feeling something twist in him as he watched the other try his best at pretending all was fine for his sake. It was obvious that Sonic was shook by his indirect confession and that... Shadow wasn't sure how that made him feel. When the ARK was still operational very few people cared about him and after the shutdown he didn't think anyone ever would again. He didn't think that he would be missed once he finally passed away; he had long ago accepted that he would not be mourned.

The fact that somebody would actually miss him when he was gone that felt...odd.

But not in a bad way.

-O-

"Hey, Smart boy. Haven't heard from you in a while."

"Hi, Rouge," Tails greeted, shifting the cellphone to the other shoulder. "I have a favor to ask."

"A favor? What is it?"

"You still work for the GUN, right?"

"Well, unless someone found the footage from yesterday then I'd say I still am."

"...What a footage? Heavens, don't say you—!"

"Ah, don't worry your little head with that, darling. What do you need?"

Tails chewed his lip. He didn't want Rouge to get into more trouble if she was already walking on thin ice, but... "Do you have clearance to get to classified information?"

"I'm a spy, dear. Even if I don't have the clearance—" Tails could hear her grin on the other side of the phone. "—it doesn't really make a difference. Well, maybe 'a couple of days' kind of difference but that's alright with you, isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Well, what kind of information am I trying to obtain then?"

"You see there's this person—" Tails then proceeded to tell Rouge everything Sonic had told him about Shadow so far.

"—fellow, huh? I'll look into it."

"Thanks, Rouge."

"Don't mention it, kiddo."

Just as Tails put the cellphone down, Sonic quite literally slid into the room. "Hey, Tails, what are your favorite places we've visited?"

"Favorite places?" Tails repeated, confused as to why would his brother want to know something like that as clearly the first thing in the morning; the other was sporting a severe case of bed-fur as if he had just gotten up.

But Sonic didn't elaborate on the 'why' much. He just said, "Yeah, any place you've enjoyed. Any. I need a whole list."

-O-

"—but honestly the best ice cream is definitely that from Apatos. Anywhere you'll go there it's absolutely delicious!—Though my personal favorite is definitely this one cart near the harbor. We would get ice cream there all the time with Chip—I've told you about Chip, right?—He was this little squirrel-ly guy—"

Shadow listened intently as Sonic chattered about the delicious ice cream of Apatos while they walked down the streets of Spagonia, the topic having been prompted when they happened to pass an ice cream stand about two streets before. It was kind of fascinating how the hero could go on and on about any topic, really.

Though as of now, Shadow wasn't really sure how much of it was Sonic being passionate about this particular topic and how much of it was just Sonic trying to pretend everything was fine; the hero had not spoken about yesterday at all but have been sort of skittish thorough the day.

"—and that's—oh, you're not listening to me. Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you," Sonic suddenly cut off, no hint of sarcasm in his voice and looking genuinely apologetic as if the hero was sorry for wasting Shadow's limited time with chattering about mundane things like arguing about meat-buns his friend Chip in Chun-nan even if the recounting of the events was truly entertaining.

Which considering Sonic's overall personality seemed plausible. "It's alright—" I don't mind, Shadow wanted to say and after that maybe also apologize for allowing his mind to wander when he should be paying attention. But by the time Shadow managed to recall the necessary words, Sonic was already diverging his attention elsewhere.

"Let's change the scenery, shall we?" Sonic proposed, clapping his hands. "Where would you like to go next?"

But Shadow had never been one easily distracted, so even though his mind immediately become flooded with all the possible locations they could go, he didn't let himself get carried by the proposition. Instead he took a time to consider the question and then he choose the same plain field where he and Sonic had their first race and then proposed a rematch; not necessarily because he wanted it, but physical activity had always helped him clear his mind somehow and he hoped the same applied to Sonic; he didn't want Sonic to spend the rest of his limited time pitying him.

Sonic tentatively agreed.

Quickly, one match become two. Two become three and so on and on until neither was sure if they were even competing anymore; nothing really mattered outside the present moment. They just ran and at some point Sonic began talking again and the world started morphing endlessly around them to accompany his words as Sonic excitedly went on and on about all the fascinating corners of the planet; their surroundings went from giant industrial cities to freezings tundras, to scorching deserts and endless expanses of oceans as well as to numerous other terrains, allowing Shadow a glimpse of the world he had so long wished to travel but had never been given a chance to.

But even though quite literally all the beauty of the world was being laid for his eyes to see by Sonic, Shadow's eyes still continued to stray back to the epicenter of it all; the hedgehog who called on worlds with a wave of a hand, the hedgehog with life so crazy one would not believe him if it weren't for all the scars on his body to bear witness to his tales, the hedgehog with a smile so bright it could easily warm the whole world instead of the sun if the star were to ever disappear.

And sometimes Sonic would meet his gaze and the corners of the hero's mouth would pull just slightly wider and that would make something lurch in Shadow and his heart hammer like crazy for no apparent reason.

But maybe that was what being alive was just supposed to feel like.

-O-

"...Are we going to tell him about it?"

"I don't think we should."

"Then are we at least calling the ghostbusters?"

"Knuckles!"

"What? You said it yourself, Tails. There's no way that guy is still alive if he really got stuck up there when the project shut down. The only other option that leaves is that the guy's ghost and haunting Sonic."

"I don't think Shadow's a ghost," Tails argued, but only that part. He was quite certain that Shadow was long dead—after all, the space station had been evacuated fifty years ago according to Rouge and had not been maintained or provided with supplies ever since; there was no way at least one vital life-support system hadn't given out already and no way Shadow would be able to survive on the food that had been left there if it didn't. But Shadow being a ghost...well, that had no actual facts supporting it. "...Isn't it possible that somehow the Chaos Emerald is allowing Sonic to communicate with Shadow while he was still alive? Like some kind of intertemporal telephone?"

"Interwhat telephone?"

"Intertemporal—like instead of calling someone who's in different location, you're calling someone that's in different time-period."

"I don't think so." Knuckles's lips pulled into a thin line. "But at this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if Sonic's somehow managed to make the Chaos Emerald do that just to prove me wrong, honestly."

-O-

"My house isn't exactly the most exciting of places," Sonic commented, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "You really don't want to go somewhere else?"

"No, it's fine," Shadow assured, running his fingers lightly over the colorful book-covers that were stacked on the shelf. Their titles ranged anywhere from 'Quantum Physics' to 'Arabian Nights' clearly reflecting the interests of the two occupants of the house. Shadow felt his lip twitch as he recalled the collection Professor used to have in his own book-case. "I was always curious what a normal home looked like," he confessed.

"...You know sometimes I forget you're from space." Sonic gave a little laugh from behind him. Shadow turned around to see the other rubbing his neck. "But if you really insist on marveling at my house, then at least let me show you the best part of it." The hero grinned as he pointed upward. "The roof."

"The roof?" Shadow raised a questioning brow, having no idea what could be so amazing about it. But Sonic didn't elaborate, just gave him a smirk and motioned for him to follow.

They exited the house and the first thing that Shadow noticed was the smell of salt in the air. Confused, he looked around and spotted the reason right below the cliff they stood on; a sea spanned to the end of the horizon.

Which understandably threw Shadow for a loop. "I've thought you disliked water."

"I do but Tails loves it," Sonic's voice sounded from above and Shadow turned to see the hero lounging on the roof of his small house. "Plus at the time it was the only secluded house in the area we could afford as kids at the time so we took it," he explained, tapping the spot beside him in a clear invitation to join him.

Shadow jumped up the roof, struggling a bit with his footing on the tilted roof and not just because of the angle; the weakness of his physical existence was staring to reach him even in his dreams, strength no longer being granted to him even here, a clear warning his countdown was soon going to hit zero.

But he did his best to hide it because Shadow didn't intend to tell Sonic; he'd rather have their friendship come to an abrupt end rather than waste the last hours with pity.

Let them end with a laugh on their lips rather than tears in their eyes.

He sat down (or more accurately flopped down) with less grace than he should, but luckily Sonic seemed not to notice it. "Who would sell a house to a child?" Shadow asked, trying to sound casual.

Sonic rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Well, no one."

"...You were squatters."

"It was long abandoned; spider webs and all that. We saw no harm." Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "We repaired it and took good care of it. I got it sorted legally the moment I could." Sonic snickered as he laid down beside him. "Though honestly, it was an absolute steal. I'm surprised nobody bought it over the years. Just look at the view."

Sonic raised a hand, making a turning motion with his hand as if rewinding a clock. The sky immediately turned from blue to black, the moon and bright stars sparkling on the dark canvas and colorful strokes of nebulas melting into the inky blackness before emerging like a wave somewhere else.

Tan lips fell open in a silent awe. This was what the space looked like from down on the planet?

"Pretty impressive, huh?"

Impressive? That word made no justice to what Shadow was seeing.

Shadow knew these were the same stars he had seen from the ARK and yet somehow they felt different. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

It was like if he was seeing them for the first time again. And he was, wasn't he? At least from the planet's surface. From a perspective he had longed for years.

It was a pity so little time remained for him to enjoy it. He supposed he ought to make the most of it...

"Hey, Shad." Sonic's voice gently called him back into the presence. Green eyes flickered to his red ones before turning their gaze at some point in the vast fabric of space. "I've always been curious—where exactly is your station orbiting?"

"Simply around the Earth," Shadow shrugged his shoulders, taking a brief glance at the sky to see if he could spot the station floating somewhere. No such luck. "But if you never noticed it, I supposed it's not going to show up in your dreams when they're build upon a memory."

Sonic hummed thoughtfully at that. "...Hey, Shadow, how many Mobians are there on the station?"

"I'm the only Mobian that's ever been there." Well, technically only part Mobian really. Professor had supposedly synthesized his DNA from multiple species, not just Mobian hedgehog's DNA. What the other part however was he had no clue...

"Figures," Sonic hummed. When Shadow raised a questioning brow at what the other meant by that, the hero explained, "Well, you've just called the planet 'Earth' and only humans call it that so..."

Shadow furrowed his brows in confusion. "What do you call it?"

"Mobius. Obviously."

Shadow huffed. Ah, the eternal debate of what the planet should be called... That had been quite a popular topic even among some of the ARK staff back in the day. "You know I've always believed all these names were too uncreative. I think the 'Big Blue Marble' is much better..."

Sonic let out an amused snort. Shadow followed suit right after. "Rather 'Earth' than that," Sonic muttered, lightly bumping their shoulders together before turning his gaze back to the inky blackness. "...How about you try to describe the station? Maybe I've seen it and just forgot."

"If you insist." Shadow didn't really believe Sonic would remember seeing it, but he was not against humoring the other. Sonic showed him his home, Shadow might as well return the favor in a way.

Thus he gave a simplified description of the outer design as that would be the only thing Sonic could be familiar with. Sonic's brows become more and more pinched as he went on, the other clearly trying his best to recall what was being described to him. However, no space station ever appeared in the vast blackness of space.

Sonic gave a huff and his expression slackened as the hero finally gave up in his endeavor. "...Well, at least I can say I've tried," he said, giving him a sheepish smile.

"Indeed," Shadow affirmed. He was not going to lie; he was kind of disappointed he didn't get to see in person what the ARK looked like from an outsider's perspective but not to the point he was upset over it. If that was one of those things he couldn't have before he went, so be it.

"Well, then how about I conjure up something else?" Sonic offered with grin, opening his arms dramatically. "Really. Say whatever you want. I can make it, I dunno, rain candy or something if you want."

"I think I'm fine with the sky how it is." Shadow gave a little chuckle. "...but thank you," he added after a moment, letting himself turn more somber.

...for everything, remained unsaid.

"No problem, buddy." Sonic offered him a grin, expectedly misinterpreting his thanks. The fact was even more underline when the next thing the hero did was to start pointing out star constellations in the dark sky and chattering excitedly about them.

But how could Sonic understand the gravity of the statement if Shadow didn't let him know?

Crimson eyes turned to stare at his blue-furred companion. They had not spent that long together but Shadow felt confident in saying they had become good friends in the short time frame; he found it quite disappointing he wouldn't get more time to spend with Sonic.

Thus he gave his all to use the hours they had left to their maximum. They talked, they laughed, they discussed and shared stories until there was no more air in Shadow's lungs to tell them and he could feel the familiar claws of reality already clutching at the back of his mind. Shadow tried to hold out for long as he could and he was given one last mercy—instead of him the metaphysical claws began to pull apart the fabric of this world, slowly deconstructing it piece by piece, giving him enough time to say his farewell.

It was at that very moment that Sonic seemingly finally realized something was very wrong, the other's expression twisting into one of panic as the world started to crumble without him commanding it to. The hero turned to him, panic mixing with confusion when the other saw how calm he was even though something akin to apocalypse was taking place.

"Do you know what's happening, Shad?" he asked, and the way it was said clearly told Shadow that Sonic realized the most likely reason but hoped to be proven wrong.

But Shadow promised himself not to lie to Sonic and he didn't plan on changing that on his deathbed.

"I wanted to die here by your side, beside somebody who cares ," Shadow confessed quietly and that seemed to break something in Sonic, the panic in his expression giving away to raw pain. "In a mirage rather than in the coldness of a broken tank that I know awaits me in the real world."

All kinds of emotions flashed across Sonic's face. Pain. Shock. Panic. Hurt. Anger. Back and forth. Forth and back. But then...

"I'll find you, Shadow," the hero vowed suddenly, his face hardening in determination, his eyes getting the same resolute gleam they always did when they raced. "I promise, you hear me?"

Shadow gave a weak smile. Oh, how amazing it would have been to hear such words before.

But now...

"Even if you did, it's already too late," he said.

And at last the claws swooped down for their final blow and ripped his consciousness away from Sonic's.

-O-

"Tails, quick! I need your help!"

"Sonic? What's the matter? You look like you have seen a ghost."

"Shadow's dying," Sonic cut to the chase. "And is stuck up there—on the ARK. We need to go save him."

Tails' lips pressed into a thin line. Time to break it to Sonic. "I'm sorry, Sonic, but Shadow—"

"Quick, Tails!" However, Sonic didn't seem to be listening. "What are you waiting for?" the other asked, before literally picking him up from his chair to carry him towards the hangar. "We need to move quickly!"

"Sonic, wait! Listen to me!" Tails squirmed in the other's hold. "The ARK shutdown 50 years ago! Shadow's long gone!"

His big brother stopped in his steps. "...Say what?"

-O- 

Contrary to what Shadow believed he 'woke' up again.

But this time it was to a completely empty space and Sonic wasn't there to greet him.

Nor anyone else.

The solitude felt way more crushing than Shadow remembered.

He looked around in the vast blackness and tried to call into it. But it was as if he just...was. There was no sound leaving him or coming to him. No colors to see or shapes to feel.

There was nothing.

But there was supposed to be a light or something at the very end, right? Some tunnel. Where was it? What did this vast space mean? Was he not dead yet? But what was this space then?

Once again Shadow tried to call. This time he was answered but it was not his own voice coming back to him. Instead it was the sound of a distant distorted humming—like when one was underwater and there was some heavy machine running above its surface. Shadow tried to call again but the humming didn't become any clearer.

Then the humming ceased without a warning and the cold came. Crushing freezing cold that wrapped around him so tightly that he couldn't breath. His chest felt heavy and his throat constricted. He felt as if he was choking.

He coughed out and thankfully whatever was obstructing his air-passages was expelled. It felt like some kind of liquid. It tasted vile.

He wanted to bring up his hand to clean his mouth of the horrible taste but found the action impossible. His hands refused to move from where they laid on the floor—wait, when did he get on the floor—weighted down by something smooth but heavy. Some metal cuffs probably...

Something itched at the back of Shadow's mind at the thought, something like a faint realization, but the fog that was filling his head made it hard to call forward. It become downright impossible when something warm suddenly wrapped around him, the comforting warmth chasing away the cold but also pushing him deeper into the odd cloudy haze.

Shadow fought the urge to fall asleep, wanting to know what was going on. But suddenly there was the faint humming again but this time it sounded soft. Alive. It wasn't the sound of a machine. It was a person's voice.

However, no matter how hard Shadow tried he just couldn't decipher the words—if there were any. In his ears, the voice just continued to make some faint soothing sounds that acted like a lullaby to his tired mind, urging it deeper into sleep. He found it difficult to resist.

But before Shadow was sent unwillingly stumbling back into the unconsciousness, he was able to come to one last baffling realization.

He knew that voice.

Chapter Text

This time, it wasn't silence that greeted Shadow upon awakening. It were many sounds—distant echoing footsteps, the familiar high pitch of a faulty light installation and voices speaking gibberish that he couldn't make out.

But among these, there was one voice that was familiar, one that he knew perfectly at this point, chattering about meaningless things like it often did as well as saying it would really be nice of him if he finally woke up.

Because Shadow knew how the other disliked being left waiting, he did so.

It didn't take long for the crimson eyes to find their green counterparts—though it did take a surprising amount of effort to get them to do that. However, Sonic's lips stretched wide the moment their gazes met, making Shadow believe the effort was worth it. The grin elevated some of the tiredness from the hero's expression but it was still pretty obvious that Sonic hadn't been getting enough sleep lately for whatever reason.

"Heh. Welcome back to the realm of living, sleepyhead," Sonic greeted, moving from a nearby chair to sit beside him on the bed, the mattress dipping under him slightly. "You took quite the time for someone that's the second fastest on the planet," he teased in a light-hearted tone, even if the green eyes dimmed with faint worry.

"...Whe...re?" Shadow managed, his tired mind struggling to piece things together. Sonic was here, so that had to mean he was dreaming again, but he felt so weak and that happened only when he was awake... "...What is...?"

"You're in a hospital," Sonic explained, laying a hand onto Shadow's chest and gently pushing him back into the soft mattress when Shadow tried to sit up. "Don't strain yourself; your body's recovering," the hero chastised him gently, keeping the hand on his chest until he stopped struggling—which Shadow mostly did out of confusion because how on Earth did Sonic have the strength to actually hold him down? Back on the ARK there had needed to be at least three people even when while he was sedated...

It took a moment for the hero's words to actually reach him. "Recovering?" he repeated, confused. He looked down at himself to see what was wrong, but a white blanket was covering him, concealing most of his body from view. The only visible parts were his arms and they were bonier than he had ever seen them—

His mind halted.

Slowly, red eyes surveyed the unfamiliar white room, then his arms and then finally the hedgehog before him again, pieces slowly falling into place.

"...Y-you've found me," he choked out, realizing that for the first time that he was looking at Sonic in flesh and bone.

"Well, I've promised you that, haven't I?" Sonic said, the corners of his mouth stretching into a grin, and somehow it was even more blinding in reality. "I never go back on my promises."

"...But how? I was dying. I felt it." Shadow just couldn't wrap his head around that. "T-there was no way..."

"Well, I guess you're just too stubborn to die," Sonic joked, giving him a little smile before letting himself turn somber. "But, to say the truth—I don't really know how you're still alive. When I found you, well—" Sonic grimaced as if remembering something unpleasant."—it wasn't a pretty sight. At all."

Shadow looked down at himself again, wondering how horrible the rest of his body must look under the sheet. He was essentially just skin and bone at the moment and that definitely couldn't have been a pretty sight.

"When I got you out of that tube—" A tube? Oh, Sonic meant his containment chamber. "—you didn't seem to be alive. For a moment, I'd thought I'd really come too late." Guilt flashed over Sonic's face. "But thankfully, you started coughing eventually and was able to get that weird black liquid out and breath properly. I did my best to keep you stabilized while we transported you here—to hospital," Sonic explained in short, vaguely gesturing to the room they were in. "But honestly, what the heck was the black goo? It looked disgusting."

Shadow blinked in confusion. It took him a moment to realize what Sonic was most likely talking about. Well, that explained what the vile stuff that he tasted back then was. The filtration system in his chamber must have clearly stopped working at some point. "...Mostly perfluorocarbon—a highly oxygenated breathable liquid," Shadow explained simply, knowing Sonic wasn't one for techno-talk. Professor Gerald had opted to use it so he wouldn't have to be strapped to some gas tank if the chamber ever needed to be used. "It was supposed to be green," he added for clarification.

Sonic made a face. "...Yuck."

"The filtration system must have broken down at some point," Shadow noted aloud, believing it to be the most likely explanation; Professor Gerald's creations were remarkable but even they could not work properly for eternity without any kind of maintenance.

Still the chamber was made to last years if needed. How long he must have been there for it to start failing on him...?

Red gaze fell back to Shadow's bony arms. His fur was incredibly short and sparse in places, the crimson stripes that were supposed to decorate it so dull they were barely noticeable among the black—or well more dark gray now; this color was far from the utter black he used to have. His previously tough dark nails were brittle and discolored, suggesting severe vitamin-deficiency. Shadow didn't need to see the rest of his body to know that it was in a similar state.

He let out a huff. Professor Gerald had always worried about the possibility of the chamber's oxygenating system failing and thus causing him to drown one day but as it seemed him starving to death should have been Professor's main concern.

Then again Professor probably had not expected that he'd ever be there so long that the dozens of chaos drives whose energy he was supposed to feed off while hibernating in the chamber would not be enough.

Which only begged one question. "Sonic, how long...?"

"You're here? Well, we've brought you here about two weeks ago, I think? Plus minus a few days." Sonic waved his hand dismissively, clearly not believe the precise number was important.

Shadow was momentarily stunned. Wait, this was what he looked like two weeks after being released from the chamber? How long he must have been— "No, I meant the chamber," he clarified. "How long was I in there?"

"Well—" Sonic shifted a bit uncomfortably. "—I thought you could shed some light onto that? Tails was able to dig up that the ARK had been shut down like five decades ago, but let's be honest it's impossible you would have been stuck up there so long, right?"

Five decades? Was that even possible?

Shadow's tired mind pushed to do the calculations. The chaos drives could have possibly lasted a few years if all he were to do was just sleep in the chamber according to Professor. But he hadn't spent the majority of his time in the chamber sleeping but downright hibernating, which meant that his body had required even less energy to maintain his body-functions than when just asleep, so they could have possibly lasted much longer. Plus the air on the whole colony was full of chaos energy thanks to all the experiments that were carried out there back in the day so he could have used up some of that too. And, of course, there had been his own body, fat and muscle tissue that could be converted into life-saving energy...

The numbers continued to swim in Shadow's head but there were too many variables in there and Shadow's tired mind struggled to sort through them. Therefore, Shadow figured empirical data was the only way to really answer this question at the moment.

"What year is it?"

"It's 3237."

It took Shadow only a moment to convert the Mobian calendar to the human one.

"Then it's been exactly fifty-two years."

The silence that followed his announcement was deafening.

-O-

Sonic had way too many questions.

When Shadow confirmed that he had indeed been stuck up on the ARK for over 50 years, Sonic's mind had just blanked. He didn't know what to say because that was not the answer he expected. It didn't make sense. Shadow couldn't have survived without any food or water up there for so long! Especially, not locked up in a tube like when he had found him.

Unfortunately, Sonic would have to leave all the questions of 'how the heck?!' kind for Shadow to tomorrow as the moment a nurse noticed Shadow had finally woken up, she had essentially chased him out of the room, insisting Shadow immediately needed to be looked over by the doctor now when he was finally awake.

Sonic couldn't really argue the decision as it was long after the visiting hours, and he was only allowed to linger so long because some members of the staff had a soft spot for him after all the years he'd spend in their care, because of his own various injuries from battles with Dr. Eggman.

Therefore, he could only give a quick goodbye and a promise to Shadow that he would be back tomorrow before he was being ushered out of the room, just as a doctor was entering it.

And, thankfully, tomorrow, some of his questions would finally be answered.

-O-

It took Shadow only twelve hours to decide that he didn't like hospitals.

He wasn't sure whether it was the decades of sensory deprivation catching up to him, but the hospital honestly seemed just too much. The white walls were too bright even under the cover of night, the distant footsteps of personnel scurrying around seemed just too loud and the ever-present smell of disinfection was making his head swim horribly.

There was also the fact that he was absolutely defenseless at the moment, and, well, that just didn't sit well with Shadow. GUN had it drilled into his head that he needed to be able to get up and fight at moment's notice and Shadow couldn't even manage the first part. His muscle atrophy was so severe he could barely twitch his fingers, so defending himself was literally impossible for him at the moment.

When Sonic had been with him, it was easy to forget how vulnerable he really was at the moment. If push came to shove, Shadow was convinced Sonic would do all to protect him, but without him here, Shadow had absolutely nothing. His strength was gone. His chaos reserves were too low for even a tiny chaos spear. His intellect was of no use without the power to carry out even the simplest tasks.

There was nothing standing between him and the world. If GUN decided to show up in the next minute and shove him back into his containment chamber, he wouldn't even be able to attempt to resist them.

Shadow hated to admit it but...he felt genuinely terrified.

However, knowing how dangerous that emotion was, Shadow didn't let it show. He hid it from the numerous nurses and doctors that came up to check on him, switch his IV or whatever else they came to do. When they asked him something, his answers were short and to the point, wanting them all to leave his room as soon as possible. Luckily, they all seemed to understand that and so they didn't stay for pointless chit-chat.

Until the morning.

A nurse came into his room to check up on him and told him there was somebody there to see him. Reasonably Shadow expected it to be Sonic as he could sense a very strong chaos signature outside and from what he had been able to sense from the confines of his room this strong chaos signatures were still a rarity even decades later.

However, the chaos signature lingered outside and instead a short-haired blond woman clad in a dark police uniform stepped into the room, making Shadow's brows furrow immediately.

She greeted him with a friendly smile and introduced herself. Something in Shadow's gut insisted to not trust her.

Madonna Garnet was her name.

However, before Shadow could start even wondering about the reason behind the feeling, the woman was already asking him how he felt and if he been clued on why she was here.

Shadow said he had worse. The woman seemed to ponder a moment about his confessions, but she quickly began to explain her reasons for coming here.

As it seemed, the medical staff had assumed him to be a victim of domestic abuse and had informed the authorities of the mistreatment of possible minor, clearly misguided by his youthful appearance; Shadow quickly denied being a minor because he was sure that would mean just more people of her type coming in to question him, trying to find his non-existent parents and then trying to put him into foster care or something.

Of course, that meant she instead began to pry into other stuff. Shadow did his best to deflect the questions and answered only those that would not help her identify him anyhow.

It was obvious the woman was getting frustrated with his in-cooperativeness, the cracks in her professional mask like the slight narrowing of her eyes giving away this fact. However, she never raised her voice, kept her tone as calm as possible and subtly continued on trying to lure information out of him.

However, Shadow had gotten extensive training on manipulation and interrogation techniques, so he never let himself fall for her tricks, keeping tight-lipped and dismissive.

It took half an hour of meaningless conversation for her to finally give up. She gave him the usual get-well-soon wishes and politely excused herself out of the room. However, Shadow was sure she'd be back to try again at some point as she hadn't managed to even get his name out of him.

"Who was that?" Sonic asked the moment he was finally allowed in the room, the hero immediately reclaiming his yesterday place beside Shadow's bed. "She looked kinda pissed," he noted, looking over his shoulder as if checking she wasn't still present.

"She said she worked for the police," Shadow answered. "She was trying to find out more about me."

"And?" Sonic asked, clearly curious.

"I didn't tell her anything," Shadow retorted. Regardless of what Garnet's intentions were, he could not allow her to lead GUN to him even if it were to be done unintentionally. He had finally gained his freedom—he was not going to sabotage his chances by talking. Though— "Sonic?"

"Hmm?"

"When you brought me here what did you tell to the staff?" he asked, a slight worry forming in his stomach. Hopefully, Sonic didn't let anything slip....

"Well, considering I was fairly sure nobody would believe me if I told them I'd just rescued you from a space station, I just said I'd found you collapsed in an alley a few streets from here." Sonic gestured vaguely to the window, probably in the direction of the alley. "They obviously started asking if I knew you and stuff. But I figured there would be a lot of questions, considering your—" Sonic made unsure gestures with his hands. "—well, condition when I brought you if I said 'yes', so I said I didn't know you. The staff knows me, so they didn't doubt my word."

Shadow felt some of the tension disappear from his body. Good, so Sonic hadn't said anything. Though that begged another question. "How come they let you visit me when you're not a relative or a friend then?"

"I'm a hero, remember? We get a special treatment." Sonic poked his tongue out childishly and winked. "But honestly, I often visit people I've rescued—especially kids as it gets their spirits up—so no one really questions me anymore when I want to visit someone. It's just something I do." He shrugged his shoulders.

Shadow hummed thoughtfully. "...Sonic, I have a request to make."

"Huh?" The hero seemed a little surprised, but he recovered quickly. "Yeah, sure thing. What do you need?"

"I've had golden rings on me. I'd like them back." Shadow tried flexing his hands to underline his point but his fingers only twitched. Shadow internally cursed his weakness. "They would help me recover faster," he continued, without letting any of his discomfort show.

"Really?" Sonic raised a curious brow. "How? I've always thought it was just jewelery."

"They help me regulate the chaos energy in my body," Shadow explained simply. "I could speed up the healing process with them."

The way Sonic's face lit up, told him the other realized the benefits of that. "Oh, okay! I'll see what I can do. Be right back!" he said, before zooming out of the room.

It didn't take even three minutes for him to return.

"Ta-da!" he announced, holding the four golden rings triumphantly in his hands. "Do you want me to put them on right now?"

"Yes, please."

"Okay," Sonic hummed, stepping closer to the bed. "How do I open it?" He began to fiddle with one of the inhibitor rings but before Shadow could even attempt to explain, there already was the audible 'click' and Sonic was cheering at his little success. "Ha, got you!"

It didn't take long until Sonic carefully slipped the first inhibitor ring on Shadow's left wrist, clasping it around it, and Shadow immediately used it to start drawing chaos energy from the surrounding air, letting out a long exhale through his nose and closing his eyes as it began to slowly trickle into his veins. Heavens, he never realized how grounding the feeling was until now...

Meanwhile, Sonic continued with putting rings on his legs and with each inhibitor ring added Shadow felt himself become more relaxed. However, the last didn't clasp on as the others and Shadow opened his eyes to look at what was taking Sonic so long. The hero was looking back at him in a mixture of amusement and curiosity.

"The rings must be something to put a smile on your face," the hero noted, making Shadow only now realize what expression his face was making. Not quite a smile as Sonic had said but close to one definitely. "Maybe I should try it."

"Do," Shadow prompted him. "I don't mind."

Sonic gave him a surprised glance as if he didn't expect to be allowed. However, it didn't take long for Sonic to take up on his offer and tentatively slip on the last one.

"...Okay, I think the ring is doing something but I can't say what." The hero rotated his wrist and flexed his hand, looking down at the inhibitor ring somehow unsurely. "Is my arm supposed to be buzzing?"

"Yes, that is normal." Shadow let a bit of an amused smile on his face. "It's your chaos energy reacting to the inhibitor ring. The sensation will fade eventually."

"Eh, not planning to wear it for that long." Sonic made a small grimace as he unclasped the ring, shaking his arm a bit as if to get rid of the feeling before clasping the ring on Shadow's own wrist. However, this time Sonic's hands lingered on Shadow's own. It felt kind of nice.

However, it wasn't long before the hero's brows were furrowing thoughtfully. "Are these rings the reason you've survived so long up there?"

Shadow felt the light-hearted atmosphere between them shift to something more serious.

"Possibly," he said simply.

Sonic looked at him, his bright green eyes looking at him but at the same time not really—as if the hero was thinking about something deeply. "But how? That's not possible for Mobian or human—"

"I never said I was a Mobian," he interjected gently, not even stopping to think if sharing the fact was a good idea. But if Sonic didn't accept him for what he was who else would?

"—What? You aren't a Mobian? Then what—?"

"You remember how I told you about Professor Gerald's research?" Sonic nodded. "He wanted to create an Ultimate Life-form—a being that would never die of old age or any disease. I'm the result of his efforts. An artificial hybrid life form."

Sonic stared, wide-eyed. However, the hero didn't withdrew his hands and somehow that made Shadow relax. It took Sonic several long moments to find his voice, though. "...Okay, that's not an explanation I've expected," he confessed once he was able. "However, I believe you—" And the tone alone convinced Shadow Sonic meant it. "—After all, you've survived over fifty years up there. Normal people can't do that. You must be special in some way."

Sonic chuckled a little at the end, playfully clasping his hand over one of Shadow's which he was still holding. "Man, Tails is right. I really am a magnet for the abnormal."

Some kind of warm feeling spread through Shadow's chest, but he didn't bother giving it a name. "Thank you," he said instead even though he wasn't sure why he was saying it. For Sonic rescuing him? For bringing his rings back to him? For not being perturbed by him not being a normal Mobian? He didn't know and didn't really care.

Maybe it was just for Sonic being just, well, Sonic. That seemed as the most sensible choice.

"You're welcome." Sonic offered him a grin, not even asking what he was thanking for. He'd probably just assumed the inhibitor rings. "Oh, by the way, the nurses keep pestering me about your name so they could finally fill out some paperwork. What name should I give them?"

Shadow pondered the question. He knew he could not remain nameless forever but sharing his real name was not an option. He went over his options, even trying to remember the names Professor had originally considered for him. There was one fantasy book Maria had really enjoyed back in the day and Gerald had supposedly originally humored the thought of naming him after the main character but had eventually decided for something more common.

However, Shadow supposed he could use this name just for the sole amusement factor of it.

Thus he gave it, "Terios."

Sonic's brow rose and his lips twitched a bit as if wanting to spread into a smile. However, Sonic didn't let them, he just rose, snickered a bit and was by the door before Shadow could say anything else.

"Whatever you say, Terry!" the hero called with a laugh as he exited the room, obviously planning to tell his pick to the first nurse available before Shadow could change it.

When Shadow's mind processed what exactly Sonic had just called him, he immediately realized his mistake.

-O-

When Sonic entered the room the following morning, it was to the sight of two nurses tending to Shadow. One seemed to be doing something to his IV, while the other seemed to be grilling Shadow for info to (finally) put on his paperwork, wearing a no-nonsense look that clearly told Shadow he was not weaseling out of that anymore. It was kind of a funny sight.

"Good morning, ladies." Sonic greeted them and they both gave him a small acknowledging nod. "Terry," he offered Shadow, to which the dark hedgehog responded only with a roll of his eyes. The IV-tending nurse gave a muffled laughter for whatever reason. The paperwork-ing nurse shot her colleague a look, muttering something about young people being ridiculous under her breath. However, it didn't take long for them both to finish and leave the room.

"She's clearly read the book," Shadow noted quietly as he gave a quick glance after the less-strict nurse that had just left the room.

Sonic made a confused expression. "What book?"

"Terios the Terrific."

"Wait, you named yourself after a book character?"

"It seemed as a fun idea."

"Well, I guess it is," Sonic gave a small chuckle before sitting down beside the other again. "Your fur is shinier today," the hero noted aloud with a hint of surprise as he let his gaze run over Shadow's coat. The colors of his fur had become noticeably more vibrant since yesterday, the red no longer so dull it blended in and the gray actually turning dark enough it could be called black. "Is it because of the rings?"

"Yes." Shadow let out a long exhale, moving his hands ever so slightly. "They're helping a great deal."

"Is there any other way I can help you?"

"Unless you've got a Chaos Emerald on you—" Shadow let out an amused huff. "—I don't think so."

Sonic gave a sheepish smile. "Well, actually..." He reached into his head-quills and took out the green Chaos Emerald he had by sheer luck stumbled upon this morning. The crimson eyes turned wide at the sight of the legendary gem. They turned even wider when Sonic took one of Shadow's hands and placed the emerald into it.

Sonic laughed when the other's incredulous stare remained even after he removed his hand. "I'd offer to leave it here with you, but Egghead has been snooping around for these, so I'll have to take it with me when I leave. Until then though, do as you please."

"Thank you," Shadow said, looking at him with some intense emotion in the big crimson eyes. However, Sonic didn't have the time to identify it as Shadow closed his eyes just a moment later and then the emerald began to glow brightly.

Sonic couldn't exactly tell what Shadow was doing but he felt the chaos energy in the room dance around him excitedly and there was a small smile on Shadow's face, so it surely was something good.

-O-

Shadow knew that the road to recovery would not be easy, but luckily the emerald allowed him to take a shortcut.

Sure, he couldn't really heal away his muscle atrophy or other problems, but he could give his metabolism a boost that would help him resolve these issue much faster. So fast that it was clearly stumping the entire medical stuff so much that they were constantly coming in to question whether somebody had secretly given him some special medication or if this was a special ability of his—which Shadow confirmed as clearly Mobians with special powers have become common-place enough that nobody would really prod further into that.

In hindsight, that was obviously the right decision as after that it didn't take much to convince the doctors to let him start exercising to build back his muscle. The process was exhausting and often involved way more touching than Shadow would have liked, but he understood the necessity.

It took just a few days for him to get to the point where he could actually chat with Sonic while sitting up. Sure, even that little tired him quickly, but the way Sonic's face lit up when he saw him do it, made all the discomfort worth it.

He really liked making Sonic smile.

-O-

"—so, yeah, I'll probably be stuck in Mazuri for a while because of Egghead," Sonic explained, giving a tired sigh at the other side of the line.

Tails chewed his bottom lip. "Are you sure you don't want me to fly over—?"

"I'll manage, Tails. Really. Don't worry!" Tails could imagine the other giving him a wide grin. "Though there is something I need you to do for me—"

-O-

Normally, when people hear somebody calling them by a name in greeting, they politely give one back. Shadow, however, was too busy having a mini-heartattack to be polite.

It clearly showed on his face as the woman who had greeted him let out an amused chuckle. "Calm down, hon. Sonic's send us," the bat woman explained, gesturing to herself and then behind her back, from where a fox kid peeked out curiously—and wait did the kid have two tails—

Oh, that had to be Sonic's brother, Tails—which meant the bat with him was most likely their friend Rouge.

Shadow felt himself relax at the realization. Sonic had spoken at length about both of them and from what he had summarized they could be trusted. Still he couldn't fight back the instinctual apprehension of new people, so to make himself feel less threatened, he pushed himself into a sitting position at least.

"Hello," he greeted them with no real inflection to his voice. "Tails and Rouge, I suppose."

"Correct." The bat gave him a wide grin as she took a seat on the chair beside his bed, crossing her legs over one another casually. "Hope you're not disappointed," she added, giving him a flirtatious wink.

Shadow just gave her a blank stare in return. "...You're exactly what Sonic described you as," he answered simply, not having had any real expectation prior to this meeting.

Balmed lips stretched into a grin and Rouge gave a little laugh. "Likewise." She inclined her head a little. "So, Starboy, what do you think of Mobius so far?"

Starboy? Well, it seemed not only Sonic liked to give nicknames. "It's loud," Shadow said simply, not having had the chance to really explore more than the hospital and its immediate surroundings.

Rouge gave a snicker at that. "I'd second that." She tapped her left ear for emphasis. "But that's mostly just cities. Outside them it's very tranquil. Right, Tails?" She turned to her fox friend, clearly wanting him to use the opening she had made for him to join the conversation.

"Um, yeah." Tails nodded and rubbed his neck, clearly feeling a little awkward. "The seaside definitely is."

"Yeah, there's nothing like watching sun rise above the vast expanse of ocean," Rouge noted with a hint of dreaminess. "Well, maybe except for being among the stars themselves?" She turned to Shadow once more. "What's it up like living on a Space Colony?"

"Well, it's definitely a great experience for claustrophobics and agoraphobics to bond over."

Rouge laughed. This time openly.

-O-

Shadow knew that the world has changed a lot since his time, but sometimes he was still amazed at how far had technology advanced. Back in the day, the ARK had been the pinnacle of engineering, equipped with the latest technology that could not be found anywhere else. But most of that had been revolutionary technology back in the day was now wide-spread and so easy to use that it was commonly used by civilians with zero technical background.

Like cell-phones. Honestly, his mind still reeled from how small these things were.

Sonic laughed on the other side of the line. Oh, right they were on a video-call.

"Sorry, I got distracted," Shadow apologized, shifting his focus back to the situation at hand.

"Yeah, cellphones do that to people," Sonic noted with a hint of amusement to his voice. Shadow wasn't sure where exactly Sonic was but the savanna in the background suggested Efrika. "So, what your first impressions of Tails and Rouge?"

"Rouge has a great sense of humor," Shadow remarked. "And your brother is very smart. How old did you say he was?"

"Eleven."

"He's very knowledgeable for his age."

"Yeah, I figured he'd be when he started using words like 'photosynthesis' at age five.'" Sonic snickered. "He always either has his nose in a book or is busy building one thing or the other. He probably already knows more than I'll ever learn in my whole life."

"I'm sure he'll go on to do amazing things once he's older."

"He already does," Sonic remarked with a grin, his eyes lighting up with what Shadow already knew was brotherly pride. "Did I tell you how he—"

-O-

"You're standing!"

"You're not."

"Well...yeah." Sonic laughed, rubbing his neck sheepishly with his healthy arm. "Egghead got a lucky hit this time. I think I was luckier though. One hit and his battleship went down in flames. You should have seen that!"

"I'm sure that they'll show it on the TV today," Shadow replied and sat down by Sonic's bed. It seemed sort of funny for Sonic to see them switch places like this. "Though, you know that when I said a break leg yesterday I didn't mean literally, right?"

Sonic poked his tongue out. "I just didn't want you to feel bad about not being able to walk."

"Sure." The tone alone said Shadow did not believe that.

"So, I guess you'll going to be discharged soon now when you're walking?" Sonic inquired, letting his gaze run over the other. Shadow was still incredibly thin with little muscle, but he looked more malnourished than straight-up starved as when Sonic had rescued him from the ARK. His dark fur and quills were starting to get the right healthy shine and he didn't shake like a leaf just trying to stay upright. There were little tremors, suggesting he still struggled with moving around, but Sonic was sure those would cease after Shadow built up a little more muscle. "Man, I hoped I'd get to race you once they released you. I guess we'll have to wait until my leg heals."

Shadow huffed. "It's going to be a few months before I can hope to match you again. You'll have to wait for me, not me for you."

Shadow shifted to move on the bed and laid his hand on Sonic's leg cast, the dark digits enveloping themselves with a golden mist of chaos energy. Sonic felt heat seeping through the cast and an odd itchy sensation on the skin that laid underneath. He raised a questioning brow at the other. "Hold still," Shadow ordered simply, not explaining himself yet.

"That should do it." Shadow hummed some time later, the shine disappearing for the moment. "Your arm," he ordered and Sonic obliged even though he wasn't sure what exactly Shadow was doing. Speeding up the healing like he had with himself, maybe?

Shadow's hand lit up like before, and he run it over Sonic's bandaged up arm. This time the mist caused more of a tickling sensation, but, surprisingly, the moment it passed, the itch of the healing gash underneath went with it.

Then Shadow started to unwind the bandage and before Sonic could even try to suggest that maybe he should not do that if he didn't want to be yelled at by a nurse, the bandage was already off and Sonic was too busy staring in surprise at his gash-less arm; there had been like seven sutures required because the wound had been so big and there was not even a scar left now.

Green eyes looked up in surprise to smirking Shadow and then to Sonic's casted leg.

"It isn't," Shadow affirmed his thoughts with a smug smirk and Sonic was too busy being in awe to really call him out on it.

"I'm so keeping you, Shad," he declared without thinking, grinning like mad. Chaos, he wouldn't have to wait weeks until he could run anymore!

Shadow looked a little taken aback by his declaration but he recovered quickly. "I always knew you only liked me for my skills, hedgehog."

Sonic nudged him in the arm playfully. Shadow huffed in response, but a small smile still blossomed on his face.

In turn, Sonic gave one of his own.

-O-

"Ivo?!"

"Hmm?" Sonic turned to him in confusion. "You sound surprised."

"You didn't tell this Dr. Eggman was a Robotnik," Shadow emphasized, wildly gesturing to the TV that was mounted in the corner of Sonic's room and on which the 'epic' battle that had landed Sonic in the hospital was currently being discussed by some news-anchors. Their discussion was accompanied by short clips that were taken of the battle, one which involved the big bad himself and finally allowed Shadow to associate an actual face with the image Sonic had painted of this Dr. Eggman in his head.

However, he'd certainly never expect the man to turn out to be Maria's baby cousin of all people. Well, not so baby anymore, but still...

"Uhhhh..." The blue brows furrowed over green eyes, Sonic clearly having no idea what he was so worked up about. "Is that...important?"

"You don't think Maria's cousin growing up to be a supervillain is an important information?" Shadow retorted and Sonic seemed to do a double-take at that.

"Wait, wait, wait. Maria's cousin?" Sonic stared at him in a surprise that become diluted with realization as Sonic began to put pieces together. "Wait, you mean to tell me Egghead's grandpa made you?!"

Shadow paused, blinking in confusion, because certainly Sonic was not realizing that just now? He'd told him all of Professor Gerald. Though...had he actually ever used the man's full name? Thanks to his inventions, Professor had been well known even among the common people back in the day, but he supposed Sonic could have not made that immediate connection of who he was talking about, considering people tended to be forgotten after—

There was a knock on the door. They both turned to look at the newcomer and Shadow immediately felt his mood turning sourer.

Heavens, not this again.

"My apologies for interrupting you—" Garnet offered and this time Shadow didn't try to keep himself from rolling his eyes; despite his continued incooperativeness, she continued on visiting him and trying to get information out of him, and Shadow was really getting tired of her persistence.

However, for once, her too perfect smile was missing from her face. Instead her lips were pressed into a thin line and she had an unusual air of seriousness to her. Hmm, perhaps he was actually wearing her down more than he'd initially believed. Perhaps just a one more push...

"—However, there is something I need to discuss with you, Mister Terios, so if you'd, please—"

"No," Shadow said, resolute. He didn't care for what she had to say. She was just wasting both hers and his time by being here. It was a time she finally realized it too. "I've already told you all I remember. I haven't recalled anything else since the last time you visited me or the time before that or the one before that. As I've said, I'll call you if I recall anything. You and your colleague can focus your attention elsewhere."

"My colleague?" There was a hint of surprise to her voice. Heavens, had she really believed him to be so stupid and ignorant of his surroundings that he wouldn't notice that guy moping around?

"That jackal," he clarified.

"...Yes, him. Of course." There was something tight to her expression suddenly. Probably disgruntlement over him seeing through their play. Her steel blue eyes turned towards the hallway. "Please, excuse me. I have matters to take care of."

She turned on her heel and disappeared into the hallway without another word.

"You know, anytime I see her, I can't get rid of the feeling I've seen her somewhere before," Sonic commented, rubbing his head thoughtfully. "Ever had that with someone?"

"No," Shadow replied and doubted he would anytime soon. After all, the only people he'd ever know were on the ARK and those had to either already be dust or would be very soon.

There were no familiar faces to greet him anymore.

On the other hand, it meant there would be no old demons haunting him either.

Thankfully.

-O-

"So they'll let him go tomorrow?"

"Yup," Sonic replied with a grin, dressing the guest bed in fresh sheets, so it'd be prepared for their new house-mate. Though he doubted it'd be a permanent one as Shadow always gave him the impression of someone that preferred to live alone, like Knuckles, but, still, Sonic was determined to make Shadow's stay at their house as pleasant as possible; he wanted to give Shadow the actual home experience he'd never the chance to get. Everyone deserved at least one of those.

"Isn't it a little bit early?"

"Doctors think he might recover quicker in a home setting." After all, there was nothing like the peace of home and the freedom to go wherever you want whenever you want.

Shadow had waited long enough for that. There was no need to keep him waiting any longer.

-O-

They came for him at night.

(Just like fifty years ago.)

While he had been asleep like a fool.

(Soldiers should not sleep in an enemy territory.)

He thrashed in their hold but they were too strong.

(Why did his body have to be so weak?)

Something pierced his left side.

(His limbs felt too heavy suddenly.)

He was being dragged somewhere.

(It was just like back then.)

There was a woman's voice.

(He knew that voice.)

Garnet.

(She was GUN.)

He felt like screaming.

Of fucking course.

-O-

"I'm in for an urgent meeting with the Commander, Blue, so this better be—"

"—Does GUN have Shadow?"

There was a noticeable pause. "Why would GUN have Shadow?" Rouge asked a moment later, clearly having no idea why he was asking her that.

"Well, because, apparently, ten armed guards have escorted him out of the hospital in the middle of the night yesterday and the nurse on shift swears they had GUN insignia," he explained, his tone getting a harsher edge than was probably necessary. Rouge wasn't at fault, after all. He was. He should have watched over Shadow—

Sonic took a deep breath to rein back his emotions. Still his tone came out as demanding as when asked, "Does GUN have Shadow?"

"I know nothing about it. I'll have to investig—" There was another pause. Sonic could hear Rouge take a slightly harsher intake of breath. "I must go."

"What? No! Rouge. Rouge!" The line went dead.

Sonic tried calling again.

It went straight to Rouge's voice-mail.

-O-

Mismatched heterochromatic eyes stared at Shadow, and despite the face they belonged into being five decades older, Shadow had no trouble placing them.

"Abraham Towers." The only other child that had been allowed above ARK and Maria's former friend. "I see you are following in your father's footsteps." Shadow didn't really try to stop the distaste from slipping in his tone. Towers Senior had been one of his main overseers above ARK and he had always harbored great hatred for the man. Though, it seemed he'd have to extend that to his son now too.

"Project Shadow," Towers mirrored him, the man's mismatched eyes appearing thoughtful and troubled. Oh, the hard decision of choosing between keeping him alive and exploiting him or finally ending his misery because they could not hope for the ever-faithful weapon GUN had once wanted. Not after leaving him to rot for fifty years. "I see you're still alive."

"Unfortunately, I'm hard to kill," Shadow replied, showing teeth in a cruel snarl. Thanks to his physical debilitation and the sedatives issued by GUN, he might not be physically capable to carry out the threat it was meant to convey, but it still sent a message. "You should know that."

However, Towers didn't acknowledge his clear show of hostility. The man only continued to look thoughtful. "I was under the impression you have died decades ago." Towers's gaze bore into him for a few long moments before the man gave a deep sigh as he sank back into his chair. "I've been told you have died aboard ARK and I didn't question it."

Dark brows furrowed in confusion. The man sounded almost...regretful. But why would Towers be sorry for leaving him to die? Abraham had disliked him since his first days...

"I thought you were a monster when I was a child," Towers announced suddenly. "You looked like a demon to me when I first saw you. And then I saw you training—tearing robots into pieces with ease as if they were made from paper and snarling like a wild animal. I saw it and though 'he could snap my neck and I'd be able to do nothing to stop him'. I feared you and my father fed that fear, telling me that wild beasts like you had to be tamed and controlled. Kept on a tight leash or you might lash out and attack someone."

"...He held me close with one hand while whipping you with the other," Towers said, his tone close to a growl. And Shadow blinked, surprised. He had never had anyone be angry on his behalf save for Professor Gerald and Maria. Nobody beside them ever thought his 'training' aboard ARK was inhuman. Then again very little people actually knew what went on during his training sessions.

Towers clenched his fist. "My father was not a good man." He sounded like it pained him to admit that. "Nor were his fellow officers and that has not changed even now." Heterochromatic eyes turned to Shadow once again. "I ask you to forgive me for tonight as it was the only way to assure your safety."

The world felt like it was tilting rapidly in Shadow's mind."My safety?" he choked out, stunned and in disbelief.

"GUN is still monitoring the ARK, so we have noticed the rescue mission your friends—" The word was said tentatively, the Commander clearly unsure if that was the proper term to use. "—carried out and learned of your survival. Unfortunately, this information has leaked to people it should not have. Some of the former leaders feared you might want revenge and wanted to remove this threat."

By killing him, remained unsaid. But it was obvious.

"But you believe keeping me alive is worth the risk." After all, Shadow had yet to deny wanting revenge, so the Commander was taking a gamble here. "...Why?"

"I'm sure you have noticed that the world has become a more dangerous place since your time with the likes of Dr. Eggman and the others. I believe that a person with your set of skills would help us greatly in keeping the planet safe." Towers gave him a long look. "However, I understand if you refuse."

Shadows lips pressed into a thin line. "And if I refuse?"

"If you are a model citizen then nothing." Towers gave him a look and despite the man's tone being neutral, Shadow could still feel the threat in it.

If.

The man was no fool.

Shadow felt his mouth twitch in amusement. The boy that had been running away from him in terror back in the day was now standing firmly in his spot and fearlessly threating him instead.

Heh.

Perhaps he might actually learn to like Abraham.

-O-

"Do you think we are going to get locked up, Sonic?"

"I dunno, buddy. Law was never my strong suite. But I guess officially it was Rouge stealing the secret information about Shadow, so—"

"We've literally broken into a military facility to get him out, Sonic."

"It was abandoned."

"That doesn't magically make it stop belonging to the military."

"...Honestly, Tails, I've got no clue what's gonna happen. However, I think we'd get a visit and not just call from the military if we really were in trouble."

"I hope you're right."

Sonic sighed as he got up to join Tails at the door. Me too, buddy. Me too.

-O-

Shadow felt like the world was moving too fast. He felt like he was on one of those giant chain carousels he had once seen in a movie, except this one was wildly spinning out of control above an abyss and the chains that were supposed to secure him to it were just moments from snapping and hurling him at neck-breaking speeds into the void of unknown.

The problem was that there was no way for him to get off this horrible carnival attraction. There was nothing to stop the unpleasant twisting of his stomach nor the worry gawking at his nerves while he waited for the verdict about his friends' fates.

He knew he should probably be rejoicing over his own newfound freedom—no need to worry about GUN breathing down his neck as long as he abode the land's laws. But Shadow could hardly bring himself to care about himself as long as the people that had broken him out of his cage were still in danger of this same fate themselves.

He had been aware what they had to do to get him out, but he had not really thought about it. He knew that consequences for breaking into military facilities and accessing restricted information without authorization could be dire, but he hadn't really thought anybody still cared. The ARK was a dead project. He himself had been presumed dead until not so long ago. Who would care about dead, failed projects of fifty years past? Nobody.

Except for Commander Towers, clearly.

Shadow cursed. He really hoped that Abraham was a man of his word unlike his father. He didn't want any of them to have to pay a price for helping him.

He'd rather see himself chained again that let any of them suffer that fate.

Luckily, as if his wished had finally been heard, the door to Towers' office finally opened and Sonic—with no shackles or any soldier flocking him—appeared in the doorway. The hero made a bee-line to him the moment he noticed him.

"Chaos, I was worried about you!" Sonic threw his arms around Shadow, squeezing him but being mindful enough to not do so too tightly. "Don't you ever dare to scare me like that again!"

For a moment, Shadow was uncertain how to respond to such a bombardment of affection as he had rarely hugged even back on the ARK and that had only been with Maria. But, eventually— "...I'll make sure to send a memo next time I'm about to be kidnapped," he deadpanned and, at last, tentatively wrapped his arms around the hero and squeezed back in return. It was surprisingly grounding.

However, it didn't last nearly long enough. The next moment, Sonic was already laughing and releasing him from his hold. Shadow, knowing it was a cue, let his arms drop as well, even if he'd rather hold on for a while longer.

"You better." Sonic nudged him in the shoulder playfully, the green eyes running him up and down, probably for injuries. They seemed pleased when they found nothing. "Have they been treating you well? Because, otherwise, I'm going right back to the Commander and—"

"I'm fine," Shadow assured him, though he knew didn't particularly sound it. Hopefully, Sonic would just chalk it up to the day taking a bigger toll on him than would be healthy in his state. "You?"

"Oh, the Commander just wanted us to answer a few questions. How we found out about you and stuff." Sonic waved his hand dismissively as if it was no big deal. Shadow immediately felt the rest of his worries dissolve at the easy attitude. "Reasonably, he didn't believe us at first with the whole Chaos Emerald-telephone thing, but after some GUN scientists had a look at it, they backed us up. Apparently, the Emerald we've got was some off-brand copy of a real one and these things are know to behave even strangely than the real deal."

Shadow blinked in surprise. GUN still experimented with making fake emeralds? The only one capable of making somehow successful copies had been Professor Gerald back in the day as far as he knew; Shadow had used several of them during his training to get a feel for manipulating chaos energy outside his own body and so he wouldn't be completely clueless once he got his hands on the real and more powerful deal.

"Sorry, I don't have it anymore," Sonic continued, shrugging his shoulders sheepishly, clearly having interpreted his surprise as interest instead. "The Commander was very adamant about keeping it when they found it again."

"Again?"

"Yup. A guy stole it from their safe because he thought he could get a good price for it at the black market. But those guys know their goods." Sonic snickered. "You know, I'm starting to get the impression that GUN has a problem with losing stuff."

Shadow snorted. You can say that again.

-O-

Shadow was quiet.

Of course, that was not anything world-shattering. Shadow was the type of person who preferred to stay silent rather than chatter away about pointless things, but still Sonic expected at least something.

After all, this was Shadow's first flight ever. He knew Shadow was not scared of heights from Sky Sanctuary, but he'd expected Shadow to at least react somehow to suddenly being miles above ground in an airplane. A little 'oh' maybe when Shadow finally realized he was miles above ground with nothing but hunk of metal between him and possible tragedy or maybe Shadow trying to touch the clouds—everybody always did that when Tails took them flying—just something. Like come on, if nothing else, the sunset was still downright gorgeous!

But there was nothing from Shadow. Not a single comment or a sound. Honestly, Shadow did not even look mentally present. He just seemed to stare into nothingness, his face a completely impassive mask, not betraying what was going on in its owner's mind at all. His left hand clenched and unclenched itself every so often but that was Sonic's only clue at what Shadow could be thinking about.

Which, to be honest, wasn't useful at all as Sonic couldn't even fathom the purpose behind the motion.

Blue brows furrowed over green eyes in thought. He needed to get to the bottom of this.

-O-

This time, Shadow was able to find the ARK in the sky. Sure, it could easily be just some meteor he was seeing, but something in Shadow's gut insisted that the little dark dot against the pale face of the Moon was actually the space-station in question.

Heavens, it felt almost surreal watching it just float in the sky. Only a few weeks ago he had been there, wasting away and dying, and now he was sitting down here, alive and...well, not thriving but doing miles better than he'd ever imagine he would.

Doing too good, actually.

He looked down at himself, clenching his fist experimentally once more. He felt the pull of tendons as they stretched into the new position. He felt the way his nails dug into his palms, four sharp pricks close to one another. When he released his hand, there was a brief moment of residual tension before all the tissues relaxed. It was all correct, feeling exactly as he remembered it too.

But still...

"I've thought I'd find you up there," an amused voice announced. Red eyes turned to stare at the hedgehog peering at him from above. Sonic's lips just stretched wider. "It's an irresistible view, after all."

"It is," Shadow agreed before turning his eyes back to the dark night sky, absentmindedly clenching his hand again. However, his mind was not absent enough to not take notice of Sonic plopping down to sit beside him on the porch. The opposite side than when they last did this—and, well, several feet lower; Shadow didn't really have enough strength in his legs to get on the roof yet.

"Something wrong with your hand?"

"...No." Realizing what he was doing, Shadow let his hand relax. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Recent developments." And that was not a lie. He didn't expand the answer further, though.

"Something's bothering you," Sonic noted aloud, successfully interpreting his quietness. "Mind sharing what?"

Shadow relaxed his hand again— "Things are working out." —then clenched it again.

It still didn't feel any less real.

Sonic cocked his head in confusion. "And that's problem because...?"

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the luckiest person alive." Shadow offered the other a little, wry smile, glancing up tellingly at the sky, at the dot he believed to be his once-home and prison. "Things turning out so well for me is—I'm not used to it."

He'd thought that if he ever left the ARK, it would be in a coffin. He'd thought that if he ever escaped GUN's clutches, they would chase him down relentlessly until they got him under their thumb again or at least locked up somewhere. He'd thought that if GUN ever caught whiff of the information that Sonic and his friends were the ones who had helped him escape that GUN would make certain the heroes would sorely regret this decision.

Yet, none of those predictions had fulfilled themselves. He was alive. He was free. So were his friends. Even though, Shadow was rarely wrong about things like this. Even though, he was even more rarely lucky. Especially, to this extent.

He was about to ball his hand into a fist again, but gloved fingers wrapped around his palm before he could, making him curl his own against them instead. Another warm hand clasped itself over the back of his hand just a moment later.

"This is real, Shadow," Sonic insisted, somehow managing to both clutch onto Shadow's hand and gently cradle it at the same time.

The sensation was surprisingly grounding. Just like the hug had been.

Unfortunately, its power did not exceed the realm of the physical, held no control over the storm of doubt that still raged in Shadow's mind.

"I hope so," he said and meant it. But there was no way to be certain if this was real or not; all of this could easily be just a last desperate fabrication of his dying mind.

I don't believe it. But, heavens, did he want to.

So, he held on. Held onto Sonic like he was his lifeline, his anchor, his eye of the storm. And Sonic understood, tightening his grip just a tad more.

Hopefully, he'd save him from slipping away this time too.