Chapter Text
Windmill Village - A year ago.
"I hope you'll come back to visit!" 'Eggman' said to Sonic the Hedgehog. "I'd love to show you Eggman Land once it's completed."
That was exactly what Shadow was expecting Eggman to say when he arrived with Rouge in Windmill Village. But there was something different about the way it was said. It was almost an excited hopefulness. Hope that perhaps Sonic would indeed come back to visit this "Eggman Land".
Shadow observed the situation below him. Sonic had obviously been shaken by Eggman namedropping his terrifying personal theme park, but he wasn't sure about something. Maybe Sonic thought that this was something innocent.
Shadow knew he had to step in now. He jumped down from the rooftop he and Rouge had been stationed on, and announced himself to the group:
"Now, what's this about Eggman Land?"
"Shadow?" Sonic said, startled by the sudden appearance of his dark furred rival. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for him." Shadow pointed at Eggman. The mad doctor then started to cower in fear.
"M-me?" Eggman asked, stuttering like a terrified child who had just seen a ghost. "W-what d-do you want with me?"
Shadow gave the doctor a confused look. It was almost as if the mad doctor didn't recognise him. Then, Sonic stepped in to explain.
"It's okay. This isn't Dr Eggman."
"T-that's right." Eggman-but-not-really-Eggman said. "Apparently he looks an awful lot like me. But I'm just your friendly neighbourhood handyman - Mr Tinker."
Shadow raised his brow at this 'Mr Tinker'. What the hell was going on here? He tapped Sonic's shoulder, and motioned for him to talk in private.
The two hedgehogs were now in the middle of the woods just outside Windmill Village. Shadow looked at Sonic inquisitively.
"Alright, blue hedgehog." Shadow said to his rival. "What the hell's going on here?"
"He's totally lost his memory." Sonic answered quickly. "Me, the Chaotix, the villagers - we've all confirmed it."
Lost his memory? Well, that certainly explained why he didn't recognise him. "I see. What do you intend to do with him?
"I was just gonna let him stay here. He's been helping out the locals, so I figured I'll just let him keep doing his thing. I want to nail down what he thinks Eggman Land is first though."
"Agreed. I just have one question."
"Yeah, man?"
"What do we do if he regains his memories?"
"Well, uh... we'll just hope that doesn't happen?"
White Acropolis - Present Day
Shadow was surprised he was thinking back to that day of all days. A lot had changed since that day. Eggman did regain his memories and returned to his old self, and had unleashed the Metal Virus upon the world. That had come and gone, but Eggman was still around.
Which was why he was on a helicopter with Rouge and Omega heading for the Doctor's new base in White Acropolis - a mountainous region outside of the city of Soleanna.
Wait, why did that name seem familiar to him.
"Alright, Team Dark." Commander Tower yelled from the intercom. "You already know the mission, but let's go over it one more time. Eggman recently set up his new base in the Soleanna mountains, and with the Eggperial City destroyed, this is one of his last bases currently active. We need you to go in there fast and hard. A mission like normally takes a day, we have a few hours. Move out, and don't worry about property damage."
"You boys ready to go?" Rouge said with confidence.
"ALL EGGMAN ROBOTS WILL FINALLY BE DESTROYED!" Omega responded in a monotone-ish glee.
"Just try not to get killed." Shadow said simply.
And the three of them jumped out of the helicopter. Shadow immediately started homing attacking the badniks at the peak of the mountain. Omega landed with a loud thud, and started shooting a barrage at the robots that Shadow hadn't already decimated. Rouge stuck to her kicks and her pistol.
Once the badniks on the peak had been left in pieces on the ground, Shadow immediately started sprinting down the mountain. He saw the trademark logo of Eggman's face on a large blast door leading into the main part of the base.
That must be where the power core is, Shadow thought. If we can take that out, then the base is neutralised.
A sharp pain hit Shadow in the back of the head. He gripped his head in pain, and turned around to see where the blow had come from.
Nothing was there.
"Shadow?" Rouge called down from above. "You okay."
Shadow stood there for a brief moment, unsure of what had just happened to him. Then, he gave a thumbs up to Rouge, and got back to the mission.
I wonder what that was all about, Rouge thought to herself.
Elsewhere - Eggman's Ship
Eggman walked onto the bridge of his ship, and cracked his back, feeling a little stiff from his nap.
"ORBOT! CUBOT!" He shouted to his robotic lackies. "Give me a situation report!"
"We're currently 50 miles above Spiral Hill, sir." Orbot reported. "They seem to have spotted us. That long tailed lemur painted a sign telling us to f-"
"Okay, okay!" Eggman interrupted. "Don't need to hear the end of that. I don't feel like arguing with her anyway. Far too early. CUBOT! Where's my evil ham?!"
"It's almost done!" Cubot yelled from the kitchen. "Don't know why you got me to do this job, though."
Eggman quickly flopped onto his throne-like chair in the centre of the room. A cup of coffee had already been set for him on the arm. "Why thank you, Sage." The doctor took a sip of the brew. "My, you're getting much better at this."
Sage then popped out from a computer screen in front of Eggman, sporting her white and blue colour scheme.
"It is my function, father." She said simply. "I live to serve."
"Of course, of course." Eggman gave Sage a small smile. "Any updates on the Eggnet?"
"I have detected a security breach at White Acropolis." Sage answered. "It appears GUN has arrived.
"What? Show me!"
The screen directly in front of Eggman activated, and showed security camera footage from the siege. The camera zoomed in on Shadow, who sprinted through any resistance effortlessly.
"No surprise Tower sent out his little ultimate pet to ruin my operations." Eggman sighed. "Where is he going?"
"He seems to be making his way to the power core."
Eggman looked at the footage on the screen, and started to smirk.
"Good." He said. "I've just had a brilliant idea."
GUN Headquarters - Five Days after the Battle for Angel Island.
Shadow was in his study, catching up on his Harry Potter reading, sipping a cup of coffee.
Nothing new had cropped up after he had helped Sonic and the "gang" more or less destroy Metal Sonic, so he was happy to have some time to himself. Something that doesn't crop up too often.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, though. He remembered finding Eggman in Windmill Village the other day, and that Sonic had said that the mad doctor had no memory of his previous misdeeds.
Mr Tinker had shown them his 'Eggman Land' project, which appeared to be some kind of mini-theme park for the kids to play around in. Nothing nefarious in sight, seemed perfectly harmless.
Something just felt off to him. Maybe he should check back on Tinker in Windmill Village, if he hasn't already disappeared and/or taken over the town.
And he had just run out of coffee, so he could go on an errand for a new tub.
He placed a bookmark in his book, then set the book down on his desk. He grabbed his walled, and made for the door.
When he opened the door, he found most of the base in a frenzy. Soldiers were running up and down the corridors, looking like they were preparing for another war.
Explains the faint shouts Shadow was hearing while he was reading, but still, what the hell was going on out here?
"Shadow!"
The dark hedgehog turned around, and saw his best friend fly down beside him.
"Rouge? What's going on?"
"We just got word from Tails." Rouge said. "Eggman's back. He's done something."
Shadow swore his heart stopped for a brief moment, before he regained his focus.
"Where is he?" He asked.
"We don't know. Tails said someone called 'Dr Starline' got the old man his memory back. Apparently their working on some kind of contagion."
"You mean a virus?" Shadow surmised.
"Yes. Apparently Sonic had a tussle with some mobians that were infected, and he's got it too.
"What? Is he okay?"
"Tails said he was fine, but we can't worry about that right now." Rouge started running towards the door. "Come on, the Commander told us to get to Sunset City right now."
Shadow looked down at the floor. He wasn't surprised this had happened, but everything seemed to have happened so fast. He quickly regained his bearings, and followed after Rouge.
White Acropolis - Present Day
Eggman really needs to change his passwords. If he had a ring for every time he had to read the phrase "I hate that hedgehog" he probably wouldn't need to work for GUN anymore.
Regardless, he had made it to the power core. He had managed to break through the badnik defences, and make his way through the doors without causing too much of a ruckus that would lead to an avalanche.
"Rouge, I'm in." He spoke on his wrist communicator.
"Good work, Shadow." Rouge responded. "Need any help turning it off?"
"I should be fine, but if I need anything I'll be sure to let you know." He turns off his communicator. "Right, now how does this work?"
Shadow spotted a control terminal left the the core. It was a large, cylindrical structure, with some kind of purple liquid in the centre, connected to various power cables linking up to the main command transmitter for the badniks.
The terminal was password-locked - no prizes for guessing what the password was!
Shadow scanned through the computer protocols. There were several options for it - party lighting mode, hedgehog crushing mode, and the deactivation protocol.
Perfect, Shadow thought. Time to turn this thing off.
Shadow went for the activation code for the deactivation protocol...
Eggman's Ship
Eggman had accessed the security cameras for the power core. He noticed that Shadow was accessing the terminal.
"Sage, what is he doing?"
"Shadow appears to be trying to deactivate the core, father." Sage answered.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho! Perfect! Detonate the core!"
Sage looked at her father in shock. "...father?"
"DETONATE!"
White Acropolis
Another password lock. Just one more time, and...
KABOOM!
The core exploded, the blast sending Shadow flying backwards, crashing the dark hedgehog into the wall behind him.
From outside the main part of the base, Rouge and Omega turned around to see the explosion. All the robots around them fall as they lose connection to the transmitter.
"Oh, no." Rouge says to herself. "Omega!"
"ROUGE!"
"Can you scan for life signs in the base?"
"SCANNING." The scan took a second, and Omega finished with a ding. "ONE LIFE SIGN - FAINT."
"Come on!" Rouge started dashing for the main part of the base. Omega activated his jets, and followed.
The both of them quickly made it to what was left of the power core. Where the core had been, there was now broken glass, purple splodges scattered everywhere, and pieces of the roof missing. Rouge's eyes darted across the room, looking for her friend. Then, she looked over to her left, and saw those familiar rocket shoes.
"Shadow!"
Rogue flew over to the dark hedgehog's body. There was a massive wound across his head from where glass shards had scraped him, but the bleeding wasn't too serious. What was serious, however, was the fact that Shadow's eyes were closed, and his breathing was slow and wavering.
Rouge picked Shadow's body up, bridal style, and kept his head held high to manage his breathing.
"Omega, come on." Rouge said, with a worried tone. "We need to get him home."
"ACKNOWLEDGED."
And with that, Team Dark left White Acropolis behind.
Eggman's ship.
"HO-HO-HO! I can't believed that worked so well!"
On the screen, there was footage from the remaining security cameras of Rouge, Shadow, and Omega leaving the base at White Acropolis.
"Father, what have you done?" Sage asked innocently.
"What I've done is won the battle!" Eggman said with glee. "Shadow's out of the way, at least for now, which reduces the amount of obscenely powered hedgehogs I have to deal with! Now, let me go and prepare another master plan!"
Eggman gets up from his throne, and made his way to his "thinking room", leaving Sage, Orbot, and Cubot alone.
"Aw, man." Cubot lamented. "He didn't even take the ham with him."
"Knowing your cooking, it's probably for the best." Orbot sassed.
"Hey, he let me do it!"
Orbot and Cubot continued their arguing for a little while, but Sage couldn't hear any of it. She was too focused on what her father had done. What her father had told her to do. She could only make one conclusion.
He had gone too far.