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“It’s over, Nine.”
Sonic and Shadow stood at the base of the platform, with the two-tailed fox glowering down at them. A few wires from the scattered remains of robots flickered and sparked. Otherwise, the strange world was still. It felt even more empty than it had when they arrived.
Sonic stepped forward. It was time to make one more plea.
“This is the last chance I’m giving you,” he said, attempting to stay confident. “But please, listen. We can figure this out and find something that works for all of us. Together.”
He interlocked his fingers, and gave an unsure smile.
Nine’s expression hardened. “Seriously? You still think I’m gonna buy that?”
Sonic’s shoulders fell slightly.
“You already made it clear what you want!” Nine continued. “And I told you what I want, and you didn’t care. I said we could make a better world, and you just wanted your old one!”
Shadow slowly stepped even with Sonic.
Nine was becoming more exasperated. “I offered you the chance to be a part of it with me. You know, like a real friend? But you made your choice. Of course, now you want to try and find a compromise, but that didn’t matter to you before.” He huffed, more quietly. “You only wanted to be my friend because you thought I looked like your old one.”
Sonic quickly waved his hands. “No! We were real friends! I rescued you, you helped me, we actually bonded!”
He pinched his nose and collected himself. “Look, I think we can both accomplish our goals with the shards. We can both get what we want.” He tried to turn on the charm. “What kind of friendship doesn’t get tested every once in a while, huh?”
He thought he heard a low humphing exhalation from next to him at this.
“I don’t need your friendship.” Nine turned away. “I can make my own friends now.”
“Come on, little buddy –“
Sonic felt a hand on his arm. He knew he had run out of time to say his piece.
Shadow kept his eyes on the enemy. “We gave him a chance. He left us to die. You know what we have to do.”
Sonic stared at the ground. “I know,” he said quietly.
It was true. They needed to get the shards, one way or another. He had to see his friends again. The pain of seeing them at Green Hill, for just an instant, before they were stolen from him once more before his very eyes, had taken a toll on him. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. But he still thought he could make Nine see things his way. After all, he was a lot like his old friend, Tails.
But maybe Nine wasn’t like Tails. Maybe he couldn’t see things Sonic’s way. Tails would never act like this. The real Tails was still out there, and he needed Sonic’s help.
The hedgehog steeled himself. He looked back up at the figure on the platform, and for the first time, didn’t see his friend. He saw an opponent.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s get the shards.”
Shadow readied. “You go left, I’ll go right.”
Taking a sprinter’s stance, Sonic felt a surge of adrenaline. “On it.”
The two exploded from a standstill, heading straight for the wall and wooshing up to the platform.
Nine jumped up onto his robotic legs. He grabbed a remote of some kind.
The black and blue blurs landed in front of him. The parties sized each other up for an instant, and then the hedgehogs flew towards the fox, zigging and zagging.
Nine jumped upwards off his robotic legs, and then hovered in the air as he hit his remote. Two rows of blasters rose up from the ground on each side, training in on Sonic and Shadow.
Shadow jumped up, punching. Nine evaded him. Sonic jumped, aiming for the remote, but one of Nine’s legs met him before he could reach it and deflected him away.
Nine climbed higher into the sky. Lasers began firing at his attackers.
Sonic and Shadow ran, avoiding the spray of the colorful, heavy beams.
“Are these some kind of shard-powered lasers?” Sonic shouted. “I wish we’d gotten here before he set up all these defenses!”
Shadow didn’t answer. He glided along, looking for an opening. Nine was high above the ground, heading for an even higher platform. There was a glow coming from the middle of it.
“He’s heading for the shards,” Shadow said.
Nine reached the top of the new platform. But instead of continuing further, he waited at the top. This confused Sonic a bit, but he didn’t have time to consider why. He kept dodging the lasers, which were coming fast and furious, while looking for a way to get to the top of the platform.
There was another massive wall ahead of them, but he figured he could clear it with enough speed. Sonic and Shadow reached the wall at the same time, still dodging the lasers. They sprinted upwards.
“Heh,” Nine smirked. He hit another button, and suddenly cannons came out of the wall, firing more lasers directly downwards.
“Woah!” Sonic shouted, trying to redirect himself. He kept running, but suddenly to the side, then back down, then up, then to the side. He could barely keep up with the fire from two levels. The whole world was shaking from the barrage, or at least it felt like it. It was everything Sonic could do to avoid being fried.
Shadow kept dodging as well, and glanced at Sonic after a few seconds. Both of them were losing progress.
“Don’t die,” he said, before kicking off the wall and flipping towards the first level of cannons.
“Trying!” Sonic exclaimed. He continued to weave between the beams, but it was getting difficult. Tiring, he jumped back down. The only thing he knew to do was to keep running, so he did. He hugged the edge of the platform, jumping up and over the cannons along the first level as they fired, and squinted through the bright beams for Shadow. He had looked like he had a plan, but unsurprisingly, was keeping the details to himself.
Sonic finally picked him out, dashing along the opposite side. Shadow smoothly slid under a cannon and grabbed a hold of it. It buckled slightly.
Several cannons trained in on Shadow. But he didn’t move. He waited.
The lightbulb came on in Sonic’s head. Shadow’s plan was a calculated one.
But the cannons following Shadow stopped firing. Shadow peered suspiciously at the weapons, as his side of the platform grew quiet.
“Nice try,” taunted Nine from above. “But I thought of that. It’s a classic trick.”
Sonic still had his own lasers to evade, but he watched for Shadow’s next move.
“Alright then,” Shadow said. He suddenly began whizzing around the cannon. In a flash, he had sawed off part of it. With a heave, he pulled what was left of the cannon out of the ground, and hurled it towards another cannon.
A loud crunch rang out, and the other cannon was left broken, inoperable.
“No!” Nine pouted. He shook his head and pressed a few buttons on his remote.
The cannons suddenly began firing at Shadow again. He was nearly caught off guard, and a blast from the second-level cannons hit right next to his feet, making him stumble close to the edge of the platform.
Sonic gasped, but Shadow recovered and sped away.
“Fine, you want them honing on you at all times? That’s what you get!” yelled Nine, with even more angst than usual.
The firepower increased. Sonic had slowed his pace to watch Shadow, but now a laser nearly nicked him from behind. The scorching heat brought his mind back to the present danger. But now he knew what to do.
Sonic kept running, heading for the farthest cannon, from near where they had started. Shadow was ahead of him on the other side.
Shadow spun, and zipped under a cannon. He waited for a second. His timing had to be perfect.
Boom!
The cannon Shadow had been holding exploded from multiple angles. Sonic, still trying to dodge his own set of lasers, saw only smoke at first. After a moment, he saw a silhouette behind the cloud.
“Aw yeah! Let me get in on that!” Sonic said as Shadow raced to the next one.
Sonic ran to the first cannon and waited. It couldn’t follow him as he stood behind it, but the others could. He put his elbow on the cannon and smiled as he waited.
Boom! In an instant, the cannon had been destroyed, and Sonic was already off to the another.
“Tracking lasers on the fastest thing alive?” He said to nobody. “I’m glad it was this, and not, like, evil chili dogs. That would have been way harder.”
“Focus!” Shadow chided from nearby, as they both headed for the next cannon.
“Yeah, yeah. You know, you really say that a lot.”
From the top of the platform, Nine harumphed.
“Well, they weren’t for you,” he said under his breath. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”
Sonic and Shadow kept taking out the cannons on the first level. With each one they destroyed, the easier the rest of the task became.
Frustrated, Nine hit his remote again. The cannons stopped tracking the two intruders. They began firing in a pattern, avoiding hitting each other.
Sonic and Shadow took a second to adjust to the new speed of fire, but once they did, they looked at each other in silent agreement. The degree of difficulty had been lessened. The time was now.
They set their sights on the second platform again, dashing between the lasers around them. They hit the large wall and shot upwards. The cannons on the second level were still a danger, but they were more predictable now, and Sonic and Shadow found a path between the lasers.
Nine jumped off the platform, hovering in the air again. His robotic legs transformed into laser cannons, pointing at the hedgehogs.
Though he saw him hovering, Sonic didn’t notice that he was once again being threatened from another angle. He kept running up the wall, seeing the top of the platform rapidly approaching.
“Almost…” he said as he kept climbing.
Nine lined up his shot, pointing right at Sonic. He had it locked in.
Briefly, he hesitated.
Then…
Pew!
Sonic heard the sound from behind him. He barely had time to register it, much less know to avoid it. A moment later, he felt a great force slamming into his right side.
But it wasn’t from Nine’s lasers. It was Shadow, who had grabbed him and was now carrying him the final leg of the trip up, somehow continuing to dodge the rest of the lasers from the wall.
“Oh, man,” was all Sonic could get out. He was still trying to figure out what happened when Shadow dropped him at the top. He didn’t wait for Sonic as he took off towards the glowing chamber in the center of the platform.
Nine flew back up. He ignored a slightly disoriented Sonic and flew after Shadow.
Sonic regained his bearings, and then saw what was in the chamber. The shards! They were so close.
Running, but not at full speed, Sonic took a moment to take in the new platform they were on. It was another expansive, yet mostly empty platform, but there were what looked to be some swirling energy fields near the center, where the shards were being held. Behind the chamber were some complicated looking panels, with glowing buttons and lights. It crossed his mind that the setup was pretty similar to what Tails had back in his…
“Waaaaaa-!”
The platform had dropped out beneath Sonic. He had instinctively grabbed a hold of the edge ahead of him, and held on as the rest of his body dangled.
He had fallen through a trap door. Only his quick reaction speed had saved him.
Peering out, he checked to see what was happening ahead. Nine kept hovering as he followed Shadow, and Shadow’s air shoes kept him from making contact with the floor. Only Sonic had fallen victim to the trap. He looked below him.
Bad idea. It was an expense of nothing.
Sonic shivered, his arms feeling like jelly. He carefully crawled his way back up.
Getting back to solid ground, he looked around him. Examining the platform, he now saw a few additional rows of what looked like similar trap doors. He could just barely make out their outline. They would have been imperceptible if he didn’t know they were there.
Shadow was about to reach the shards, but Nine shot at him. Shadow ducked, but rather than divert course, centered himself directly in front of the glowing chamber. Nine swerved a bit to set up a different angle, but Shadow kept himself perfectly between the shards and the flying fox.
Sonic wanted to get over there, but he was now watching his step more closely. He made his way over the trap doors, running and jumping, but was now keeping an eye out for any other traps along the ground.
Nine kept getting closer to Shadow, but couldn’t shoot without the risk of hitting the shards. He kept flying at him, trying to force his adversary to move. Shadow was at the chamber now, but he didn’t make a move for the shards. He was waiting, daring Nine to attack.
The two of them were getting very close. Sonic was still a good distance back. He wasn’t sure exactly what the next step of the plan was, but once he got there, he assumed someone could take the shards while the other held off Nine. He kept running and jumping, not as fast as he would have preferred.
Sonic watched as Nine advanced.
Suddenly, Shadow lept at him, landing a kick on his side. Nine tumbled to the ground, but scampered back up with the aid of his extra legs.
Shadow dashed at him, becoming a blur whizzing around his body. Nine was hit somewhere, but he reared up and threw his additional legs around him in all directions to stop the attack.
Coming to a halt, Shadow looked on as one of Nine’s robotic legs fell harmlessly to the ground, disconnected.
Nine scowled. He was free to fire lasers now that Shadow was no longer in front of the shards, and he did just that. But Shadow jumped up, leaping directly over Nine and landing behind him. Nine turned around and fired another round at him, but Shadow jumped over Nine once more.
Now Nine took to the air again. Unfortunately for him, he had played right into Shadow’s hands. Shadow was jumping before Nine could even attempt to hit him. He kicked straight down, flattening Nine back into the ground.
Sonic was getting close to the shards now, figuring that Shadow would take continue to hold off Nine. He looked for a signal of confirmation of some kind, but Shadow was only focused on Nine. Sonic slowed down a bit, as he pondered whether he should just take the shards, or help with the fight, or try to communicate with Shadow. He turned his attention back to the shards, looking at their bright colors, trying to make a mental note of where they were placed…
The sound of crackling electricity from the fight made him look back. Shadow had severed two more of Nine’s robotic legs. Nine was struggling as he tried to get off the ground. The stubs of his missing legs where they had been chopped off kept flailing around, spider-like, as if they were trying to help Nine recover. But now they were gone, and Nine couldn’t regain his leverage. Shadow punched him straight back down.
Sonic winced. He involuntarily began taking a few steps towards the fight.
A trap door opened just in front of him.
“W-woah!” Sonic threw his arms out to keep his balance. Another fall had been narrowly avoided.
Nine just managed to evade one of Shadow’s punches, and his remaining legs gave a zap that pushed Shadow away. Nine once more started flying. Shadow knew this was coming, and grabbed Nine by the legs. He whipped him back down to the platform.
Nine was getting worn out. He rolled to avoid another quick strike from the hedgehog. But Shadow was setting up for a more powerful attack. He spun to the left, took to the air, and dashed downwards, bouncing Nine back against the ground and far away.
“Hey, um,” Sonic began. “I think…”
Shadow sprinted at Nine, and tackled him off the edge of the platform.
“Uh…” Sonic made his way to the edge of the platform, as quickly as he could while evading the traps. Was Shadow expecting him to take the shards now? Probably, but something about the fight made him want to keep tabs on it.
He and Shadow were on the same page, right? He tried not to let any other thoughts beside the mission cross his mind. The mission was to get the shards, right? Right.
It took him longer than he would have liked, but he made it to the edge. He saw Shadow standing over Nine. From what Sonic could make out at the distance, the fight had already concluded.
Sonic looked back at the shards. He could just take them now, and they could go home. They could fix the whole universe.
But he had to check in on Shadow to make sure of the plan. What’s the harm in that? It seemed like Shadow had control of the situation, which was good, but Sonic figured he should still make sure. All the more reason now that the fighting was less frenetic.
Sonic tried to shut out the funny feeling inside him as he jumped, spun, and zipped down the enormous wall towards the ground. He jumped off, keeping his momentum, and rolled towards Shadow and Nine.
He threw on the brakes about twenty feet away, and began walking. Shadow’s foot was on Nine’s chest. Nine tried to shake himself free, but it was no use.
Grimacing, Nine still met Shadow’s eyes defiantly. “I’ve faced bullies stronger than you.”
“I doubt that,” Shadow said flatly.
The next few moments slowed down, as if Sonic were in a dream. He watched as Shadow lifted Nine in the air, by the neck. Nine writhed, but didn’t have the energy or technology to fight back. A few of his extra legs were still moving, but not very smoothly.
Sonic got closer, scratching the back of his neck. “Hey, uh…” he was hoping, not very confidently, this was as far as Shadow was going to go.
With his free arm, Shadow reached behind the back of Nine. He grabbed hold of the center of his robo-leg mechanism.
“No,” panted Nine. “No, wait!”
Shadow ripped it off.
Nine wailed in agony. Chills went down Sonic’s spine as he averted his eyes.
Broken, shuddering sobs filled the empty space. But they fast lost intensity, fading to almost a whisper.
Sonic cautiously looked back. He saw some kind of fluid dripping from where the legs had been attached to his shirt.
Cybernetically enhanced… Rusty Rose’s words materialized in Sonic’s brain. The horrible realization hit him. Nine’s robotic legs hadn’t been attached at the shirt…
Covering his mouth, Sonic blinked a few times. He took a shaky breath.
“O-ok Shadow,” he started, as the world spun under him. “We’ve disarmed him. Now, if you want, you can get the shards while I wait here, or…”
“You get the shards,” Shadow said, his eyes not leaving Nine.
Sonic gulped. “Sure, y-yeah, that works.” His ears were ringing.
He took another breath. “So, I’ll meet you here, then? And then we can… decide what to do with Nine?”
Shadow turned slightly. “Sonic, just get the shards, and I’ll meet you back at the entrance.”
Nine sniffled, tears streaking his face as he trembled. Sonic looked between the two of them. Nine was looking back at him, but it almost seemed like he couldn’t see Sonic.
Wordlessly, thoughtlessly, Sonic stood for a moment.
“Okay, sounds good!” The words came out of his mouth almost instinctively, his natural energy trying to reset his mind. He turned and took a step away, consciously not yet dashing off.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of their movement. Shadow lowered Nine to shoulder level, and wrapped his elbow around his neck.
Nine whimpered, making a few panicked squeals. “S-S-Sonic!”
Sonic whirled back around. “So, you’re just gonna hold him there, right?”
To disguise the daggers that had just entered his chest, he raised an eyebrow, gave a half-smile, and pointed finger guns at them.
Shadow didn’t answer right away.
“Go get the shards,” growled Shadow.
“Right, and then I’ll meet you back here?” Sonic pressed, now walking back towards him. “And then the three of us can figure this out and get what we want? Happy endings all around? A win-win-win?”
Shadow emitted a sigh of frustration, only half-facing Sonic. “You know what we have to do,” he said. “He wanted us dead.”
A low undercurrent of anger was now present in his tone.
Nine kept whimpering. “No, no…no,” he murmured.
Shadow looked remorselessly at Nine. “He’s a threat as long as he’s alive.”
“P-p-please…I’m s-sorry…S-Sonic.”
Sonic felt tears of his own coming. His heart was racing faster than it ever did when he was in the heat of battle.
“This is not your friend,” continued Shadow through gritted teeth. “In case I needed to remind you.”
A feeling washed over Sonic. It was a feeling he had not known for a while. Clarity.
Sonic thought back to when he had first met Nine. It had taken them some time, but they had started getting along fine, in their own way. He was different than Tails, even if he had the same voice and face. He remembered how excited Nine was at the thought of it just being him and Sonic in their own world together. Sure, Sonic didn’t want that exactly, but he had been so ignorant of everything Nine was telling him. Sonic’s care for him probably did seem like a façade, ready to be dropped as soon as he could see his old friends again.
But there was still time to show Nine how he really felt about him.
“Yes, he is.”
At this, Shadow turned himself fully to Sonic.
“What?” he said sharply.
Sonic felt calmer now. “Nine… is my friend.”
In a rare moment of being caught off guard, Shadow tried to form words. He shook his head in disbelief. “Do you hear yourself? How can you say that?” His inner fire was melting through his cold demeanor.
“Because real friends stick with you,” Sonic answered. “Real friends want a future with their friends. Real friends are there when you need them.”
Shadow’s eyes flashed. “Let me say it again…” he said, searing. “Your real friends are out there, and we need the shards to get them. This…” he looked back at Nine. “…nuisance has tried to stop you from doing that every time we’ve had the chance. He’s tried to kill both of us.”
Holding him like a stuffed animal, Shadow looked directly into Nine’s eyes. “He threw away our best chance to fix everything… for this?”
Nine might have heard the words, but it was unclear if he was processing them anymore.
“Nine is my friend, Shadow,” Sonic said. “And I’m not losing any more of my friends.”
Shadow was incredulous. “He’s not…!”
“He is.” Sonic walked over to them. The anxiety that had been gripping him evaporated with each step.
“We’ve been through a lot. I saved him, he saved me, we worked together to steal the shards right out from under the council’s noses.” Regret tinging his voice, he looked away. “He told me what he wanted, and I didn’t listen.”
Shadow snarled.
“I know he isn’t Tails,” Sonic continued. “He’s his own person.”
Shadow closed his eyes. “Surely, you understand that he deserves…”
“I don’t care what he deserves.”
Sonic stopped close to Shadow.
He knew that he couldn’t bend Shadow’s iron will with emotion. Reason, perhaps.
“Besides,” he said, a little more casually. He was going to have to play this carefully.
“Nine knows how to position the shards. His tech makes everything easier.” He looked back at the chamber, high above the ground, its glow illuminating the void. “It’s possible for all our worlds to coexist, but we need someone skilled to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
Sonic looked to see if Shadow was considering any of this. He couldn’t tell.
“Plus, we know that he’s an ally if we have to face the council again. You know they’ll come back. He was on the inside of their operation. He knows more about what they’re up to than anyone! That’s a valuable resource.”
Maybe Shadow was considering this. But he was hard to read. His countenance had frozen over again. He was looking directly into Sonic’s eyes, he noticed, trying to get a read on him as well. Scanning for weakness, hesitation.
Displaying nothing more than business, he kept talking. “Come on, any advantage we might have against the council is important.”
Shadow’s stare moved into the distance. His hold on Nine hadn’t changed. Simmering feelings, however, were surfacing.
“I knew you couldn’t be trusted to handle this.”
Sonic felt these words hanging between them. The harsh conviction in them. Their sense of finality. Sonic only knew that he couldn’t back down. He stood still, anticipating.
After a second, he realized that Shadow was not going to make another move just yet. His eyes were back on Sonic. The next play was his.
Sonic nodded to himself. He took one more step to be standing right next to Shadow, and spoke a language he knew he would understand.
“Either three of us come out of here, or one of us does.”
The low ambiance of the emptiness around them filled the air.
Sonic and Shadow didn’t break eye contact. Nine was drooping, pale, and noiseless.
For a moment, the realm was as lifeless as the ghost of Green Hill.
Silent. Still.
Shadow took an extremely long, deep breath through his nose. He broke his stare.
“Hmmph.”
Very slowly, he unwrapped his arm from around Nine.
Nine dropped like a pile of laundry to the ground. Shadow took a few slow steps away from him, and turned his gaze back to where the shards were. After a second, he clenched his fists and looked down, turning his head slightly from where Sonic stood.
Sonic took that as a concession. He relaxed his body, only now realizing how tense he was. He now looked down at the boy lying on his side next to him.
He dropped to a knee and put his hand on him. Still breathing. That was a good start.
Shadow began walking away. “You can stay here with your friend.”
Sonic side-eyed him, remaining deathly serious. Shadow didn’t attempt any more barbs. He continued to walk, further and further. That was fine by Sonic.
Once it was clear Shadow would keep walking, he turned his full attention to Nine.
“Hey…you’re gonna be alright,” Sonic said.
He felt him shudder slightly.
Mentally preparing himself, he turned Nine over to his back. He cringed. It wasn’t good.
For a moment, Sonic stared at the frail fox with glazed eyes. Then, he noticed that part of his shirt had mostly ripped. Sonic tore a piece of it off, and placed it over the wound. He held it there for a little while.
He became attuned to the rhythm of Nine’s breathing. Soft as his breaths came, their presence eased some of Sonic’s worry. It felt like they were the only movements in the expansive world.
“You’re gonna get through this,” Sonic spoke not knowing whether Nine was really listening. “You’re gonna get a happy ending.”
He gazed back out at the world. A place with just three living beings. He thought about the other worlds he had visited. They all felt empty in some way, too.
“I don’t know if you want me to be a part of your life anymore,” Sonic continued. “And if you don’t, I understand.”
He gently took one of his arms. “But I hope you know that I meant what I said before, about us being friends.”
He continued to feel his breathing. It was steady.
Sonic smiled a little at the thought of a friendship across worlds, though it was a wistful one. After a moment of letting his words linger, his mind shifted. He suddenly registered the body in front of him as his best friend, and felt his stomach jump.
He tried to shake it off. No, Tails was somewhere else, and he was okay. But he couldn’t even be sure of that. Who knew what Tails was doing? If he was conscious, or real? All of his friends…
Sonic shook his head. There was nothing he could do about that right now. Stay in the moment. He had someone else who needed him.
He glanced in the direction of the platform to see Shadow zooming up the wall. He disappeared over the top.
The shards were in Shadow’s hands now. It dawned on Sonic that Shadow didn’t need to work with him anymore. That he had burned a bridge to build another.
Shadow had everything he needed. He could hop through the portals using Nine’s tech, and fix the universe. After the words they exchanged, Sonic didn’t expect Shadow to wait up for him. He figured he should still try to follow him, in case of a sudden reappearance of the council. Or if Shadow attempted to use the shards in some less cosmically-desirable fashion.
He looked back down. He figured Nine was stable enough to be moved. Slowly, Sonic gathered him up, cradling him. He felt like he weighed nothing in his arms.
Sonic adjusted him, letting him rest over his shoulder so he could start walking. First to the shards, on the off chance they were still there when he arrived. And to see if Nine had any tools or supplies that could help him. Then, to the portal. And then, to the void between worlds. How would he get around with Nine? Could he even safely transport him through the void?
Nothing to do but see if he could make it work, somehow. He let out a deep sigh, patted his friend, and started on.
Very weakly, two arms grabbed tighter around him, accompanied by an audible inhale.
Sonic tried not to react in a startling fashion, but his heart jumped, and he slowed just for an instant. Then he kept walking.