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Sunshine hits his face. His black quills drink in the warmth, restoring heat to his skin, his body. He feels cool fingers on his temple, brushing something matted out of the way that tugs, tugs, tugs.
He slowly opens his eyes, drawing enough energy in his hand to produce a Chaos Spear. It’s tiny, pitiful, but enough.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A gentle voice advises.
He stares up at an orange echidna, her eyes cast away as she touches him, healing what he now realizes are tiny little wounds.
“These grounds are holy. Any desecration is a motive worthy of death, or exile.” She explains. “We do not allow any fighting.”
His voice is thin, rough and raw. “Who are you?” He asks.
She meets his eyes at last, her eyes a brilliant blue. She smiles softly. “Tikal, priestess of the Knuckles Tribe.” She says before adding, “What is your name, stranger?”
“Shadow.”
She smiles again, this time a little sadder. “Well Shadow, your wounds are deep. You must have been hurt badly in a battle.”
He stays silent, then tries to get up. Tikal reaches out to stop him, but she fails to do so. Instead she sits back as soon as he’s out of her grasp and watches as he painfully sits up, leans his back against a pillar of the shrine and looks behind her, his eyes wide.
“The Master Emerald.”
Tikal takes a cursory glance behind her. “Yes, that is it.” Her gaze grows more worried and she inches back before it. “Did you… where did you come from?”
“Somewhere else.”
“Where else?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Are you of the Nyx Clan?”
Shadow remains quiet, unsure of the meaning of the clan or the title or the meaning. Tikal’s eyes grow worried, her arms stretching out to protect the Master Emerald.
If I could get closer, the Chaos Energy would heal my wounds and I could go. He thinks to himself.
“Chaos.” Tikal breathes out nervously, and in the blink of an eye, the waters surrounding the Shrine build up, form into a green-eyed, gelatinous creature and with a sweep of it’s massive watery hand, casts Shadow half way across the isle before Shadow can even draw a spear.
Shadow rolls through the green grass, then stares up at the sun, too weak to fight back. He groans, rolls over as Tikal hurries to him and stands over Shadow.
“I thought you said fighting was outlawed.” He groans.
“Defending the island and Master Emerald isn’t.” She explains.
“Some double-standard.”
Shadow frowns as Tikal asks, “Are you of the Nyx clan?”
The gelatinous monster crawls up behind her, ready to strike again.
“No.”
“Do you swear?”
“Yes.” He says.
Tikal stares at him, her blue eyes searching his. “Where are you from then, Shadow?” She says his name with contempt and uncertainty.
“Not from this era.” He sits up and the monster gurgles. Tikal holds out a hand to quiet it.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not important.” He says, then stumbles away and collapses before he’s across the bridge that connects Shrine Isle to the mainland. Tikal and Chaos carry him back and heal his wounds.
“You have a connection to the Chaos Energy.”
Shadow stares out at the stars. From below on earth they look quite magical. Up in space they looked… depressing. Dots of white spread across a pitch-black sky. Here, amongst green mountains and trees and crystal waters, they’re the perfect finishing touch to a beautiful sight.
He turns his eyes to Tikal as she mashes something into a paste. Her eyes focus on it, not raised to his. “I can sense it now.”
“Took you long enough.”
Tikal frowns. “I’ve never met another being…” Chaos bubbles in annoyance and she smiles momentarily and corrects herself. “Aside from Chaos and I who are able to harness it.”
He watches as she scoops up the paste and smooths it over his back, where a particularly stubborn wound is. He bites down a hiss of annoyance and upset. “My own connection isn’t that strong, but I can sense it.” Lower she adds, “You have a Chaos Emerald too… Don’t you.”
Chaos grows upset and she calms him with a look. Quietly, Shadow produces the green emerald. Their eyes flock to the pillar, where their own emerald is poised above them all. Not duplicates nor doubles, from a different time, a different place.
“I was…” He pauses before spitting the word out, “Helping collect them in another time, just as I told you, I’m not of this era.”
Tikal stops. “Why did you not tell us?”
“Because you wouldn’t have believed me.” He explains. “Besides, you were assuming I was of the Nyx clan.”
Tikal tenses. She stops her movements. “That is true.” She says in a wounded tone. “I am sorry for that; please accept my apologies.”
Shadow scoffs. “Unnecessary.”
A silence falls between the two, a comfortable quiet that only the two of them can understand. For Shadow, many people regret his silence, grow annoyed or feel degraded when he’s silent; in Tikal’s case, many remark that she is a strange girl for her quiet demeanour. But the two of them, not quite friends but no longer enemies, can understand the peace, the comfort in the lack of noise, the exemption of talking.
“Your wounds… They must have…” She cannot finish the sentence.
“They came from the jump, yes.”
“No.” She insists. “They’re healing, but not because of my cures.” Her voice drops lower. “We do not know much about the Emeralds. Or their power… Yet… Can you tell me why?”
Shadow weighs the possibilities of doing so, the consequences, the issues with it, and the positives. He pauses, stares out at the sky and thinks.
He’s already probably ruptured something by landing here and meeting Tikal. To expose more might cause something dangerous and irreversible.
(If he tries to think of her in the future, it’s all a haze, a gentle fuzz. He knows that she will be Knuckles’ ancestor and he will be a descendant of her tribe, and that she still resides on Angel Island, but little else.)
“I cannot.”
He can sense Tikal tense up, her unease, her discontent. “Believe me, if I could, I would.” He promises me. “But for the good of us both, I can’t.”
“I don’t understand.” Tikal begins. “But I can respect your choice.”
Tikal keeps Shadow a secret while he heals. In the days, she is called back to the hidden city within the jungle where she is the pacifist daughter of the warmongering chief; at night she flees to the shrine where her secret is kept.
He’s seated before the Master Emerald when she comes back one night. While walking along the trail, she plucked flowers, thinking they might brighten his mood, raise his spirits. As she takes the staircase, she called out a hearty hello.
Shadow turns back to greet her, then his eyes fall on the flowers. She feels herself blush. “I just saw them along the path. Pretty, are they not?”
He remains silent and looks at them. “You’re thinking of someone.”
Long, blue salvia are in her hand. “What do you mean?”
His eyes move to the flowers. “The flowers you picked. They mean you’re thinking of someone.”
Tikal blushes again. “Oh. Yes, I suppose I am.”
“Lucky man?” He asks with a raise brow.
She shakes her head and lies, though it pains her. In that moment, she realizes what the flowers could mean to him. “No. My grandmother.”
His brow lowers. Tikal rests the salvia before the Master Emerald and sits down. “She raised me. She’s been gone sometime now.”
“I see.”
“I miss her often.” She finds herself confessing. Perhaps it’s the momentary nature, the understanding that this isn’t forever and that they will not meet again. The truth, which she keeps hidden most often beneath her reserved expression, comes out readily like a stream. “I miss her more than I miss my mother.”
“I assume she has passed too.” He sits down beside her.
“Yes.”
“My apologies for your loss.” Shadow must feel the same thing. “I lost someone dear to me, once. It… I know the pain all too well.”
Tikal gives him a gentle smile. “Thank you.”
The quite returns to them, the mutual feeling of loss they know so well. Then, without any reservation, she blurts out:
“I like you, Shadow.”
He stares at her as she looks into the Master Emerald’s reflection, a scarlet blush on her face. She nervously plays with her hands, which find her dreads and twirls the edges. “I meant to say I like your company. There is a peace in it.”
He scoffs. “Odd.”
“Why do you say that?” Tikal asks.
His voice is low. “No one much enjoys my company in my time.”
“That’s… Very sad.” Lower, she adds, “Though I know the feeling.”
“Out of step?” He asks, thinking of the fiends he must fight back home.
“Very much so.” She answers, thinking of the battles she refuses to wage.
A silence returns to them as they watch the stars. The night is clear and cool. There is a peace in the air, a peace Tikal has rarely known and probably never will.
“When will you return to your era?” She asks quietly, hating herself for asking it.
Shadow waits a moment. “Soon.” He responds, then adds, “Though, I have a problem.”
Tikal turns to face him. “What ails you? How can I help?”
Shadow almost smiles, perplexed by her worry and kindness towards him. His eyes move down into his arm, which loosens from the cross over his chest.
She feels it as soon as he lowers his arm. A seeping feeling, like the breath being pulled out of her.
Tikal remembers a time, when she was young—before she took up orders as a priestess, before the rift between her and her father, before she realized her purpose was connection—and her grandmother noticed a sudden bout of lethargy took over her. That was when she received the blue clay bands she wore daily.
Shadow raises his right arm, showing off a busted band, shiny gold and scratched and bent wrong.
Tikal nods. “I see.”
“I can’t travel if one is broken. I must have hit something when I fell through time.”
“Stray rock?”
“Something like that.”
“I… My mother used to be the guardian of this shrine.” She looks up at the ceiling. “Perhaps I could find one of her other bands.”
Shadow remains quiet and Tikal can sense his discontent. Quietly, she pulls off her own band, her wrist feeling lighter all the sudden. She faces him, gingerly takes his hand and twists off the broken band from his wrist.
She swaps them and looks at him with a pleased smile. Shadow stares back with a frown.
“Is this satisfactory?”
“I suppose.” He lifts the band and looks at the pale blue. “But it doesn’t match.”
“The colours shouldn’t matter, Shadow.”
“No, I mean the energy that’s emitted. It’s different. Your bands withhold…” He looks at her and then stops himself. “Never mind. It will do. Thanks.”
Tikal feels the joy seep out of her now. The busted ring slowly depletes the energy from her and she can feel it: the Chaos Energy leaving her system in a slow, steady, invisible drip. “Does this change your leaving?” She asks.
“Slightly. I need to make sure I am up for travel first.”
“Well, Chaos and I are happy to help. Do you need food or water?”
“I have no need for such things.”
“Really?” Tikal asks, aghast. “Do they have supplements in the future?”
Shadow looks at her bemused for a moment. His expression melts back into indifference. “No, I simply don’t need those things.”
“Oh. How odd.”
Shadow half-smiles. “You’re not the first person to say that about me.”
“So. Leaving? When?” She asks, then adds. “N-Not that I am trying to get rid of you but…”
He pauses. “After my wounds are all healed.” He tells her.
And so, she has a day to hope for and fear.
Shadow notices that she hasn’t changed the band. His inhibitor ring still rests on her right wrist, busted and broken. Perhaps she hasn’t found a replacement, or maybe it’s for a more selfish reason.
He doesn’t ask, he’ll never know.
Tikal also notices that his wounds have mostly healed. All remnants of bruises and scratches have faded amidst his exposure to the Master Emerald. Perhaps he hasn’t fully recovered, or maybe it’s for a more selfish reason.
She doesn’t ask, she’ll never know.
But, while she and Chaos visit the Chao in their little garden, her father, Pachacamac, visits Shrine Isle and almost discovers him.
Shadow dodges and hides beneath the water until he and his warriors are gone. As soon as they leave, he makes up his mind and seeks her out.
Making his way to the Chao garden isn’t hard: he can hear the sounds of the annoying little creatures from nearly a mile off and follows the sounds. But before that, since Shrine Isle is far off, he closes his eyes and tries to sense her.
Those with a connection to the Chaos Energy will be able to sense others easily. There’s a pull, almost like magnets, between the two: and he feels a pull towards Tikal before he even closes his eyes.
He treks through the jungle and finds the clearing where she plays with the Chao. Chaos is more lively with them, absorbing a few and then flinging them out to their delight. She must sense him too, for when he arrives she hurries over to him.
With a look, she understands his worries, his concerns, why he’s there. “You have to go.”
He nods solemnly.
“Promise that you’ll visit me!” She demands.
Shadow turns around and stares at her.
Tikal blushes for a moment then stands her ground. “People like you and I won’t die like others. I’m sure I’ll be around for a long time.”
He thinks, partly amused at how she already knows what she will become and partly mournful for the same fate. “I promise.”
“And promise are forever, right?!” She calls out.
Shadow dips his head in a nod. “They are.”
Tikal smiles at him as he turns away and leaves. She wears that smile through tears, through her breaking heart for losing a friend she’d only just made, for the other being who could understand her. Seconds later, Shadow raises his Chaos Emerald to the sky and summons all his energy, travelling through time in the blink of an eye.
The sun seems to shine brighter on Angel Island.
(It’s probably because it’s a floating island in the sky, closer to the sun and all that… but still.)
Shadow sets foot on the island, perfectly timed to Knuckles’s schedule, right when he goes out to train halfway across the isle. Shrine Isle, floating and chained to Angel Island, has changed. The pillars and shrine are crumbling, the stone ruining as they talk.
In his hand is the clay band. After returning to his time, a lengthy report to his commanding GUN officer about his romp through space and time and extracting a promise that he would not be forced to do so again, Shadow ordered a replacement inhibitor ring. The second it came out of the press, he took it up and slipped off the clay band.
He held it for a while, staring at it and found himself here.
He climbs up the same stairs he climbed what was perhaps days or centuries ago. At the top, he sees the quelled, quiet water that runs through the shrine.
“Shadow.”
He hears her voice and fights a smile.
“Didn’t expect to see me, did you?”
“You had me waiting long enough.”
A small red ball of light appears before him. It zips around him in a circle then stops.
“I had some things to do first, but I keep most of my promises.”
The light turns bright white then she appears, unchanged from when he met her. His eyes trail down to her right wrist, where the busted ring remains. “So you do. That brings me joy.”
“I came to return something to you.”
“So I see.” Tikal says before sitting down before the Master Emerald. “I thank you.”
She takes the band from him, restores it to her wrist and holds his busted ring.
“I can dispose of that at my workplace.”
“No.” Tikal says softly. “I’d like to keep it.”
“Don’t tell me you have fond memories.”
“I do!” Tikal exclaims. “Will you deny me them?”
Shadow remains quiet.
“Just as I thought.” Tikal laughs. “Knuckles is busy training, then I believe Mr Sonic and Tails are coming to take him to socialize. And Chaos will go to see the Chao shortly. I’d happily take some company.”
Shadow sits down beside her. “Well then, tell me about the last three thousand years.”
She smiles and moves closer to him, closing the years-long distance between the two.