Work Text:
A/N: Shadow x GNReader. Spoilers for the IDW comic.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The mission was long and hard, you had spent multiple days just planning the damn thing. But now that it was here, you still felt unprepared. You were saddled with Team Dark, you've, of course, heard of them before; they're the talk of the town back at the base.
You've worked with them all individually on separate missions over the years, it was a surprise to everyone when they found out you and Shadow worked so well together. You'll always remember Rouge saying she'd never seen him so " Chatty ", even if you only recall him speaking a total number of five times.
But that's not the point, you're getting off track. You had spent many days researching, prepping and training for this mission, the commander had called it "Intense" and so far, you were inclined to agree with him.
G.U.N. was tracking this evil, mad scientist and not the egg-shaped kind; or so they thought. Doctor Starlight was his name, he seemed to be a rooky, new to the long list of criminals that sought to keep a firm grip on Earth.
From the little information you had on the guy, he was a Doctor Eggman fanboy and a good one at that. Not only had he found the doctor, or at the time Mr Tinker, but he'd also managed to kidnap the guy and bring back his more ' colourful ' side.
You had heard about the fight between Sonic and Shadow, something along the lines of forgive and forget. But if you knew Shadow, and you did, he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon. As mentioned before, you and Shadow were fairly close, well, as close as you could get to him. He considered you a friend and an ally, ranked with the likes of Rouge and Omega.
You'd spar together and sometimes, on a rare occasion, he'd accompany you to get lunch. Sure, he'd just stare until you finished eating, maybe offering a small conversation here and there; but it's the thought that counts, right?
Anyway, back to the mission. It was meant to be intense, but nothing could have prepared you for this. You were only meant to infiltrate one of Eggman's old facilities to grab any information you could get on his next evil scheme. The world hadn't even begun the repairs after his first invasion.
So far you were in the clear, finding the facility abandoned save for a few badniks traversing around the place. They were easy enough to conquer. When you had finally found the computer room, you sought to find anything you could, there had been rumblings of another big attack.
Just as you were snooping around the whole facility went dark, shutting off the computer with it. You growled, smashing a fist against the monitor "Damn you! Damn you to hell!" you cursed out. A wavering static flooded your hearing before a voice called out to you, "(Y/N), we're picking up some energy readings coming your way. Looks like you've been spotted, sweetheart." Rouge mused.
You sighed but complied. Hauling yourself out of the facility before any of Eggman's lackeys could find you. You crawled back to the rendezvous point where Team Dark were waiting. Each had their own mission, it was the same as yours: find information.
"Sooooo, how'd it go?" Rouge asked, she was hovering in the air, somehow looking real cosy. You huffed, folding your arms over your chest, "The stupid computer shut off, I wasn't able to get anything."
"So, you were spotted then?" Shadow questioned, you hadn't noticed him leaning under the shade of the tree, hiding from the bright sunny rays. You nodded your head, eyes downcast, "After all the hard work I put into it too, Eggman can suck my-"
"Oh look! I've got a message from Amy!" Rouge shouted out, clearly trying to move the conversation along. You all leaned over her shoulder just to catch a peek at the message, "Why do we need to do that? We don't do rescue missions a lot." you huffed.
Shadow agreed with you, stepping away from the small crowd, "Still, it's work for the resistance and we should help any way we can."
"Affirmative, setting new mission credentials." Omega's voice echoed, you winced slightly, the guy really needed to install an inside voice and soon. You grabbed Rouge's wrist, choosing to ignore the squeal, "Zombots? What the hell are zombots?"
"Beats me, but if the resistance needs us , then it's gotta be important." Rouge shrugged.
--------------------------------------------------
"I hate it here, I hate it here, I hate it here!" you kept repeating, using a stop sign to beat away the zombots. Rouge flew overhead, securing the civilians before joining you.
"Oh, c'mon, it's not all that bad. They've got lovely shops that I hope to one day steal from." she mused, using some fallen debris to kick a zombot in the head.
"Yeah, I'm glad that's what you're focusing on right now, not the horde of zombies!" you were freaking out, you weren't trained for this; you didn't think anyone was. The crowds were getting thicker, more and more people were mutating.
"Where's Shadow already, he's taking too long!" you yelled out, swatting away a fist with the sign. Rouge flew up into the air to get an overhead view, she sighed then landed, "No sign of him, but he'll be here."
You leapt back when another swing was coming at you, "Dude, that's so unfair you know I can't hit you back!" you growled out. Another swing and you were pushed up against the only defence the civilians had, "Woah!" you cried out. Rouge had wrapped an arm around you and pulled you up on the turned-over cars.
"That was a close one, you owe me." she batted her eyes at you. You pushed her aside, laughing, "Save it for the Knucklehead." she blushed at that. Just then, when all hope looked lost, a blue streak flew through the air.
"Hey, guys! Hope I'm not missing out on anything." Sonic smirked. kicking a zombot with his foot. You sighed, waving him over, "You're just in time, for once. We've got the civilians inside, but we can't hold this position forever."
"Where's the rest of your team?" he asked, concerned. Rouge cupped her eyes, scouting out over the crowd, "Omega's somewhere in there, and as for Shadow, he said he was bringing transport but that was over thirty minutes ago."
"You don't think something bad's happened to him, right?" You asked worried, maybe you had a little soft spot for the guy, so shoot me! You just wanted to know he was okay, you had no clue how you'd survive if he became one of those things.
"Picking up transport, really ? I didn't know he cared." Sonic teased, spin dashing another zombot away. You understood why Shadow had to restrain himself when around Sonic, because at this point, you too wanted to slap him so hard his head would explode.
Shadow had been nothing but kind to you in all the years you knew him, he was but a gentlemen even during hard times. Sure, there were maybe one or two times where he snapped at you, but it's not like you weren't to blame. Shadow truly cares about you, and that meant when you did dumb shit he'd let you know about it. He'd baby you a lot, persuade you not to go on missions or at the very least allow him to tag along and ultimately save the day.
You were annoyed at first, not understanding why he wouldn't let you do something on your own. But then you compare it to how he treated everyone else, protecting was the only way Shadow knew how to care for people.
You shook your head when a loud revving sound was heard, the hordes of zombots were shoved aside as a large, black truck pulled up. Once the dust settled, the door swung open to reveal none other than Shadow The Hedgehog; and he looked pissed.
But you couldn't lie and say you weren't happy to see him, you were over the moon.
"There you are, what's the matter? Couldn't find a bigger one?" Sonic joked, but Shadow wasn't having any of it. He held a finger out, close to prodding Sonic in the chest "Shut up."
"Easy, Shadow, he was kidding." you jumped down to the pair, knowing if you didn't intervene there would be a fight. Shadow pulled you towards him, he didn't want you anywhere near Sonic, "This is his fault. If I had destroyed Eggman in the Windmill Village, none of this would be happening." he seethed.
"Some creep named Starline made him evil again! Nobody could have seen that coming!" Sonic argued back, but the name rang familiar. Starline, as in Doctor Starline? The same Starline on G.U.N's wanted list, the very Starline you were tasked with hunting down.
" Feh , excuses." Shadow huffed, hands tightening into fists. Sonic waved his arms around, "Yo, I'm dealing with it too! I'm infected, see!"
"It's what you deserve," Shadow growled, you slapped him on the arm, giving him a warning with your glare. He shook it off, still choosing to burn hatred over the blue hedgehog than get a grip and focus on the now.
"(Y/N), I need you over here!" Rouge shouted, you sighed but left, albeit reluctantly. You joined her side, helping her with the survivors. But you couldn't stop thinking about Shadow, he was going to do something stupid, you just knew it. No matter how smart he was, the moment he saw Sonic his brain went dumb.
It was just an excuse to one-up him and call it helping.
You saw Sonic leave, his body coated in silver. Shadow watched him for a moment before meeting with Omega and giving him new orders, you couldn't hear them from here, but soon you saw Omega grow closer to the truck.
"C'mon people, we haven't got all day! Move it or lose it!" You shouted, but your eyes never left the ebony hedgehog. Shadow launched into battle, flipping over massive groups of zombots without care. Once he landed, he began using his chaos powers left, right and centre.
Rouge stood by your side, watching along as sparks and flashes of green enveloped the crowds, "Damn it, Shadow...You're being reckless." you whispered out. A scream broke you out of your trance, a zombot had made it through to the survivors. You dashed down, grabbing your stop sign and whacking it as hard as you could, however, the sign had no effect.
You stepped back a little, swinging the sign once again, but nothing was working.
"Errr, Rouge? We gotta leave, we gotta go right now! Load everyone on that truck and move it!" you yelled out, still trying to attack the single zombot. Even if one of these things gets through that could mean the end for you, Rouge and everyone on that truck. The bat complied, practically shoving everyone onto the small space, yelling at them when they whined.
She called out to you, telling you to hurry up and get on. But you knew you couldn't do that, they needed a clear path and you were too close to getting infected, who's to say you weren't already with all these close calls.
"I'm not leaving you!" she called back and sat behind the wheel. You ducked back from a very dangerous claw, "I'll catch a ride with Shadow, just get out of here!" Rouge was reluctant, but she knew nothing would change your mind, so she started up the engine.
Shadow had managed to bide some time, dodging another attack and kicking a zombot in the head, " Hmph , resilient." he seethed, watching as the thing got right back up.
"The Doctor's metal virus can't infect the ultimate lifeform!" he ploughed through the rest of the crowd, using the fire from his shoes to burn the zombots.
"SHADOW!" he heard you scream out, his ear flickered before he pinpointed your location. Why the hell weren't you on that truck already? He tried to move over to you, using Omega as cover.
You were growing tired, swinging around a big sign for an hour would do that. Although, now instead of facing off against one zombot you were swamped with an entire crowd. And with the flimsy sign doing nothing, you were afraid you wouldn't make it out of here alive.
Just before a hand could reach out to you, black and red clouded your vision. Shadow performed a spindash, kicking away anything that came close to you. He kept his attention on the fight, but still spoke to you "Why aren't you with the others!"
"Zombots got through the barriers, I stayed behind so the truck could get away. It was the only way."
" Lies . You should have gotten on that truck, this place isn't safe anymore; there are too many of them."
"Even for the ultimate lifeform?" you teased, Shadow didn't respond straight away. He made sure he was always in front of you, nothing was going to get past him, "(Y/N), I've failed you."
"What do you mean?"
"We're not making it out of here, there's too many of them. Realistically, we never stood a chance. That's why I made sure Rouge got you on that truck, that damned bat." he grunted. You shook your head, tears starting to cloud your vision, "You never planned to get out of here, did you?"
He remained silent, you grabbed his shoulder from behind, "Shadow? Answer me, please?"
"I-I did what I thought was best. If you were out of here then that was good enough. I don't matter."
"W-what? Of course you matter, you matter to me! How'd you just expect me to go on knowing you're one of these metallic freaks? What if there's no cure, what if Tails can't do anything and you're stuck like this forever?"
As you were ranting, a zombot was in arms reach of touching you without you noticing. But Shadow did. He caught the thing by its neck, holding it into the air before throwing it at the crowd, knocking them down like bowling pins. You gasped, seeing the metallic residue on Shadow's glove. He was infected.
"You need to go, find Omega and he'll get you out of here." Shadow continued to fight, though now there was more of a gap between you both. You surged forward with the stop sign, swinging it with vengeance, "I'm not leaving you!"
He turned to you with a new emotion in his eyes, you've never seen him look so...vulnerable.
"Y-you'd prefer to stay with me? Become another one of Eggman's slaves?" the infection was spreading fast, his legs were already coated in the stuff. You shook your head, "I'm not going anywhere without you."
Shadow smiled, offering his hand out to you, "Then, will you be my forever?" You grasped his hand, watching as the infection moved from his palm onto yours. It felt cold, but you weren't scared. You were with Shadow, you could never be scared with him around.
You continued to fight, side by side, your hands still interlocked. But that all stopped when the viruses spread to your heads, nearly clouding your vision. With the last of his rational thought, Shadow surged forward to lock your lips. You pushed back just as hard, tears pouring down your cheeks.
That's the last thing you remember before the virus took over and Crisis City fell to the Eggman Empire.