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To move on.
This phrase echoed for years in the minds of both, an anchor to life, breaths and beats. The other in a different dimension, which followed that shadow on Earth, incessantly, since ... always.
The thoughts that unleashed in each of them were different, almost antithetical.
"Go ahead. Remember me just to smile at us ".
"It will never pass. It is not possible to start again without you ”.
Maria looked at him, invisible, while Shadow tore yet another opponent. They kept on coming at him, trying to stop that power without control, being swept away with a single punch, like flies. She watched him grab the last soldier by his shirt, now unconscious; despite this Shadow hit him, smashing his face, pouring anger on that unknown face, clenching his teeth as often happened to do, hidden.
Maria was behind him, watching those now swollen features stop twitching as Shadow dropped that body to the ground. She could hear him panting with the effort, the adrenaline, noticing how the red of his fur merged with that of the blood that wasn't his. Shadow turned to her, unable to see her: Maria stared at his lava-red eyes, unrecognizable. Those were not the eyes she had known.
"What did the world do to change you like that?"
A question that was lost, impossible to hear. Shadow had shifted his gaze to the ground, finishing to catch his breath, strangely still: he seemed to be feeling the weight of blood on himself for a single brief moment. He sat on a boulder, continuing to look down; Maria raised a hand, stroking it with her caress on his quills: she could not hear them, but she remembered how they were made.
Shadow shivered, looking up at where she was, without seeing her: they almost seemed to be looking at each other, perfectly aligned as they were. For a moment, Shadow’s gaze seemed like it was fifty years ago.
Maria smiled, drinking that expression with her eyes, before it quickly faded, returning dark, inaccessible. Shadow folded his arms, like taking the thrust before detaching himself from the ground, taking flight and moving away at supersonic speed from that bloodbath. The girl followed him with her eyes, seeing him disappear into the clouds.
Shadow seemed to hear her from time to time. Like an electric sensation, of very strange tension, halfway between the warmth of a moment and the fear of feeling it missing. Sitting on a fallen log, he looked up at the lake in front of him: even he felt the need for a regenerating swim, to wash away all his blood and his own. Not that they make him bleed so often.
Still wet, his spines slightly backward, he felt the drops of water slip over his face, on his back, but he felt no shudder: he shivered as he felt that sensation again. He sighed deeply, closing his eyes. Maria was there. And it was like she wasn't there. Her perception remained, of which he could not be sure.
The girl looked at him, feeling her heart heavy: bizarre for someone disembodied to feel heavy.
"I didn't want this. I didn't want to see you spend your life away from everything and everyone, unable to forget and forgive. You deserve more, you deserve to be happy as we were together, again, with someone else. I didn't want this for you, Shadow. I wanted to save you ».
It was true. It was not so much to save the entire humanity that she had sent him away in that capsule when the soldiers arrived. She really wanted HIM to be saved, to see the Earth as they had to do together, to realize the dreams of both of them. How evident was her failure…
She approached him, passing her hand through his spikes, almost combing them with the turn they had taken for water. Shadow narrowed his eyes, trying to better define that feeling, to make it more uniform, almost palpable, physical. He held his breath, concentrating ... He had to see her. He had to see Maria.
"It's just you. Even the Christmas Eve you play the solitary and isolated Prince of Darkness ».
Shadow's eyes snapped open, instantly recognizing that arrogant and provocative voice. He turned, feeling the sensation fade, cursing Sonic for this, leaning on a branch as if nothing had happened.
"But what a lovely present Santa Claus sent me ... and I thought I was a bad child," the black hedgehog sneered, lifting boulders around him with the force of Chaos, ready to throw them at him. Maria looked at Sonic, with a small hint of a smile: she had always liked that blue hedgehog; different from Shadow as if he was his nemesis, yet she could not help but appreciate him, esteem him, to consider him indispensable for the black hedgehog. If they hadn't met, probably the road taken by Shadow would have been much, much darker. The shadows would have devoured him, leading him to choose the worst part of himself. Shadow was not lost, though ... Maria knew it.
Had Sonic saved him?
"There would never have been enough coal for you ... They decided to send me as punishment. I would say that it could be worse“ Sonic smiled, coming down from the branch, approaching him confident.
"It couldn't have been worse for you." Shadow quickly moved his hands, hurling the boulders at the hedgehog, which began to jump at supersonic speed from tree to tree, in an imperceptible blue trail. Shadow continued to move his hands, concentrated, following that crazy splinter with his eyes, also crazy, frantic. Sonic gave himself a push on one of the boulders, sending it back to the sender. Shadow avoided him, jumping, throwing himself against the hedgehog in a melee combat.
The girl looked at them, indifferent to the objects that flew from side to side, bending her head while observing them: every time they met, they ended up fighting, except for very rare exceptions. It was inevitable. To tell the truth, it was difficult for Shadow not to fight; yet with Sonic it was different. He rarely saw that hatred and that blind rage that guided him in the other clashes; there was something more "healthy" in their fighting, a desire for confrontation, for challenge. Obsessive, yes, but after all neither of them was very balanced ...
Maria looked at Sonic, his contemptuous little smile, his green eyes that screamed life and Maria couldn't help but thank God for their destinies to be tied. Maybe he... maybe...
Maybe he would let Shadow go on. To forget about her.
She smiled slightly, lowering her face, closing her eyes before disappearing, her heart hardly less heavy.
"I commend him to you, Sonic."
“Uh?" The blue hedgehog lowered his guard, looking over Shadow interrogative, as if trying to see something. He got too distracted though. An upright hit him right under his chin, sending him a few feet away. Sonic got to his feet, rubbing his aching jaw as Shadow crossed his arms, looking at him smugly.
"To be so fast, you have slow reflexes ..." he provoked, with a faint grin, watching him stand up again.
"I was just distracted. I thought I saw something behind you. It almost looked like a girl. Blonde », he said, almost in awe, unaware of what that phrase really meant for his rival.
Shadow's smile faded suddenly, as his pupils were reduced to a slit, as he turned abruptly behind him. What did he say?
He sprinted towards Sonic, lifting him from the ground to take him by the neck: "What ?? What the hell did you say, Faker? What did she do, what did she say?
Sonic brought his hands to those of Shadow, trying to get rid of them, displaced by the reaction of his rival: "W-what? Nothing, I'm not even sure I saw her! Leave me, damn it! " Sonic give a kick in his direction, which Shadow dodged, leaving him.
The blue hedgehog massaged his neck, looking sideways at him: maybe he success to go crazy at all, there was no other explanation. Shadow looked at the ground, without understanding, clenching his fists: how was it possible? So was Maria really there? And why was that freaking hedgehog able to see her, and he wasn't? He kept shifting his gaze from the ground to Sonic, holding back the irrepressible urge to punch him in the face again.
Sonic blinked, giving up understanding. After all, there was certainly an infinite number of things about the rival that he was sure he didn't know. He was certain of it. He sighed for a long time, not used to the feeling of being useless: yet with Shadow he was like that; he couldn't ask, he could only wait. And hope that he trusts him sooner or later.
"It's cold. Let's go away, Shad. There is a nice dinner that Amy and Cream are organizing, Rouge will also be coming. That was why I was looking for you, ”he added, looking for his eyes and finding it elusive. He seemed more fought than usual. Perhaps he had not even heard Sonic talk.
They were silent for a while, before Sonic sighed, shaking his head. He turned, ready to leave.
"If you want, we will be there."
He looked over his shoulder for a little while before giving up. He would not have uttered another word. It was clear.
Shadow watched him jump away, moving away among the branches, slipping away quickly. He swallowed, before putting his hand to his own face, rubbing his eyelids. He was not ready. He wasn't ready yet. But if ever it was, he was convinced that it would be Sonic who knew about Maria. He would tell it to him.