Work Text:
"I was waiting for you, Shadow."
He had no idea who he was.
He almost looked like a black jackal, had it not been for the white hair, like the tip of the tail. What really left him stunned was that mask, though.
How did he recognize him if he couldn't look him in the face?
But that wasn't the important thing at the time.
"Tell me what you did to Omega."
The only visible eye of the creature, yellow and with red iris, stared at him relentlessly.
If Shadow hadn't been the way he was, he would have shivered all over his body. That look was nothing human.
“Useless being like him doesn't matter. Come on, Shadow ... Now that we're finally reunited here, you keep spitting out nonsense things. "
But what the hell was he talking about?
Shadow worried for a second: what if he hadn't remembered everything from his amnesia? If there was something from his past that he still didn't know?
“I have no idea who you are. The only thing that doesn't matter is your big mouth. "
The creature laughed, a metallic and cruel laugh that raised the spines of the black hedgehog.
"I thought you would have thought it."
Another laugh and Shadow clenched his fists. He was beginning to get nervous. What did he know more than him?
The creature calmed down, looking down again, towards Shadow.
"I am Infinite. You say you don't know me, yet I remember you very well. "
Infinite?
He didn't know anyone by that name.
The hedgehog refrained from wanting to materialize next to him, placing a kick in the face. He had to know.
"For you, that was nothing more than another Eggman’s base, which you destroyed without thinking twice."
Shadow narrowed his gaze. Eggman’s base?
Was he one of the Doctor's creations?
Shadow tried to remember, but there was no way. He had no idea who the hell he was.
His silence seemed to annoy the creature suspended above him, who clenched his fist, taking a deep breath.
"I have become what I am because of you, and you don't even remember ...".
Infinite paused, which frustrated the black hedgehog even more. Then, suddenly, a little laugh.
"Well, I guess it usually goes in that way. It simply means that the old me was too weak, too pathetic to be remembered. "
The anger of his words was in every syllable, but it didn’t seem aimed at Shadow. Rather to himself.
Suddenly, a word rang in the mind of the hedgehog, sudden: unworthless.
The creature raised a hand, pointing to Shadow.
"And now you've become little more than an insect, waiting to be crushed."
Shadow moved into a guard position, ready to shoot. He had waited too long. Whoever that guy was, he was completely crazy.
And decidedly arrogant for his tastes.
"Thanks to the limitless power that I have gained, I have become unstoppable."
The hand raised towards Shadow moved violently, hitting Shadow with a strange red trail, too fast to avoid. He was faster than Sonic.
"TAKE THIS".
Shadow took the hit, being blown away.
He opened his eyes: Green Hill.
What the hell had happened?
Suddenly he heard Rouge's voice calling him.
"Shadow? Shadow, can you hear me? "
"W-what? Where did Infinite go? "
Shadow began to run, tearing apart any robot he was facing. Green Hill, how was that possible? A second earlier it was in a completely different place.
Rouge herself didn't know what he was talking about.
“We came to get Omega, remember? It was destroyed three months ago ... Get it togheter! "
The black hedgehog observed something different in the panorama of the valley. A red trail, similar ... similar to the one that struck him. What the hell was that? It was nothing natural.
He had to stay away, little but sure.
Shadow ran on, destroying any machine that blocked his path. A blind fury moved him and the feeling of not being master of the situation made his blood boil. He was not used to that feeling.
"This is where Omega was destroyed, but there is no sign of him."
A laugh from Rouge, totally out of place.
"Yes, it's true. Maybe because it never really happened. "
What?
Then Omega's metallic, robotic voice.
"I've never been defeated."
Omega? Was he alive?
“I am not weak. I am not weak. I AM NOT WEAK. I AM NOT WEAK. "
Omega's voice was lost in the void, almost looking like it was melting.
Shadow stopped for a moment, avoiding one of those red trails at the end and putting a hand on his forehead.
Oh my God, his head ... throbbed painfully.
What the fuck was going on and why did Rouge and Omega behave like this?
Shadow bent over himself, clutching his face with both hands, in a groan of frustration and pain.
No.
He was absolutely not prepared for a situation where he was not in control.
He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.
When he opened them again, Infinite was again in front of him, suspended in space.
"W-what? But where…"
His opponent's yellow and glassy eyes peered at him, now that they were away from Green Hill again.
"I'm here again?"
Suddenly, he understood.
No.
"Is it ... an illusion?"
What the hell was that guy capable of?
He even seemed stronger than Silver the first time they met him.
“This is reality, Shadow. Yours. I didn't expect to see you come back alive, but you have to admit it, it was a magnificent show, wasn't it? "
The pride that transpired from his words made the hedgehog want to disintegrate him in that instant. The power of Chaos Control was fermenting all over his body, making his veins throb with rage.
Infinite laughed, without limits.
"Oh, this power ... before we even tuned it. Just like I thought ... "
Shadow clenched his fists.
"... has no rivals. Not even Sonic can do anything against me now. "
Sonic?
Infinite laughed again, a psychotic and crazy laugh, while Shadow experienced for a more unique than rare moment a sensation that he had not felt since the last time he had seen Maria.
Fear.
What did Sonic have to do with it? And what did he want from him?
"Sonic? What are you talking about?"
The rumble of an explosion made Shadow turn around.
"What was it?"
When he returned to Infinite, the creature was already moving away. Shadow prepared to shoot.
"Stop! Where do you think you're going, Infinite? "
The evil laugh erupted again, promising to populate his nightmares.
Shadow leapt into the air, whirling around to kick him in the face and encountering ... the void.
Infinite was gone.
Completely vanished into thin air.
Shadow found himself staring at the emptiness before him, completely helpless.
He clenched his jaw, holding a scream deep in his throat.
He was not helpless. It was not possible that he was, in front of anyone.
Suddenly Rouge's velvety voice shook him from his thoughts.
He barely listened to her, calculating the next move to make: Eggman had unleashed an attack on the city, bombing it from above.
"Give him an A for the commitment, but there is nothing to worry about. We are in advantage. Sonic is also there, so I don't think it's such a big problem to bother you. "
Infinite's mellifluous voice rang in the head of the black hedgehog.
Not even Sonic can do anything against me now.
The shivers went back to the prickles of Shadow.
No. Something was wrong. A bad feeling made his heart beat faster: Doctor Eggman would never have made such a risky move, unless ...
Rouge's voice came back, terrified: "S-Shadow! N-not good! R-run, go there! "
Shadow gritted his teeth before teleporting away.
They had to do with something they had never faced before.
The reason he felt the urge to run there, however, was not to save the world.
No, he had already done it once, keeping the promise he had made to Maria.
The only reason it mattered to be there was only one.
Sonic.
If anyone had to defeat him, it wouldn’t have been Infinite, nor anyone else.
It would have been only him.