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Right now, time was playing into their hands: while the entire team remained at the base, two hedgehogs desperately and voluntarily rushed into battle. Into battle, again made by Dr. Eggman. However, this time the evil genius decided not to attend in person, but only sent his faithful iron slaves. A battle that was successful and nothing else: a bunch of defeated robots lying around on the ground here and there. And there was no malicious annoying laughter of the doctor nearby, and this could not but rejoice. However, the only thing that did not please only the dark hedgehog was the behavior of the blue one. He so hastily, feverishly attacked and smashed first some robots, then the next. And he was completely not guided by the instinct of self-defense, which is why Sonic often came across in front of his eyes and at the last second managed to dodge the attack of the black hedgehog, who, in fact, was aiming at the robot, and not at the suddenly appeared Sonic in front of him. The blue hedgehog waved away with an awkward smile and apologies and jumped up to the next pieces of iron.
It was annoying, it got on his nerves. Why is this idiot always not coordinating anything with him and pushing forward, always standing on his own? Why didn't the hero understand the meaning of the word "team"?
"We've done them well, aren't we, Shadow? Did you see how that big guy gracefully fell from my cool punch? He probably used to be a ballerina or something," Sonic happily kicked every robot that was lying under his feet. The hero walked around the perimeter, making sure of complete victory. All they had to do was get out of here and be done with it; Tails promised to bring a Tornado here to examine, perhaps, valuable scraps from robots and take them to his laboratory for study. Sonic didn't mind — he was always in favor of his little brother's enthusiasm. Eggman's technology sometimes inspired him, but Sonic couldn't understand it.
Shadow frowned, feeling everything begin to boil and boil inside. Even more than boiling, and far from the meaningless, annoying words of the blue hedgehog.
"Do you really not understand anything, or are you just pretending to be dumb?" Shadow barked, turning innocently to the hero. The dark needles bristled, the scarlet pupils stared mercilessly ahead, like a predator that for a long time could not catch its own unnoticed prey.
And then all the childish joy and inner glee disappeared from Sonic's face. He looked up questioningly at the dark hedgehog, hands on his hips.
"What did I do wrong again, Mr. Perfect? I hear from you time after time how stupid I am, can't you emphasize at least one of my wealth?" Sonic stretched out his hand to count and bend each subsequent finger in a staged manner. "For example, I'm handsome, I'm funny, and how can I be without my charming..."
"Shut up!"
One quick movement and Sonic flew across the hard ground straight to a particularly large pile of metal he had broken. The hero winced, feeling a bruise on his shoulder and hip. Shadow bared his teeth, revealing small sharp fangs.
"When will you understand?" growled the dark hedgehog, coming closer to the shocked Sonic. "When will you realize that for any attack you need a coordinated plan, and not a spontaneous "go ahead!"?"
Sonic sat up, pushing the heavy metal away from himself. No matter what he said, Eggman managed to create quite heavy things.
"What are you talking about, buddy? We won," Sonic waved off lightly, staggering a little and immediately wincing. "And anyway: it hurts me, by the way!"
"You think I ain't hurting?"
And suddenly the world froze. And all the time, the space around them, dimmed, went out. There was no air, no sky, no earth — nothing. And the atmosphere around him turned into nothing, and only Shadow's suddenly rapid heartbeat made him think about what he had said and instinctively clench his teeth. And all the anger and all the pompous rage dissolved, got lost and scattered in him. As soon as the words left his lips, he realized there was no turning back and there would be no turning back. There is no longer an opportunity to come to your senses, to turn back time. He knew the stubbornness of the hero — now everything is hidden, hidden in the depths the souls of the word will burst out, will be uttered with such reluctance and unwillingness that it would be better if they did not exist at all. What was he thinking? However... How could he order his tortured heart to take control of his mind?
Nothing mattered to Shadow now: the walls erected over the years cracked, broke, and broke into pieces in an instant. It remains only to overturn them to the end, in order to break and crumple the wounded, tortured heart of the dark hedgehog under these piles. He never confessed his wrong feelings to anyone. Even Rouge, who could sense Shadow's mood changes from a kilometer away. And he wouldn't dare admit it anyway. Because it was pointless, it was the lot of the weak to allow themselves to have a weakness that could be pressed at any moment and get what they wanted. The art of manipulation, the reality of the possibility of a choice that did not exist. Once he had already allowed himself to lose a dear, beloved, close and only person in the world — and he never wanted to repeat it again. Every grain of his soul reminded him of that day, like a waking nightmare: about the horror and despair experienced, about the hopelessness when a girl, with the brightest and tenderest smile in the world, allowed herself to be sacrificed for the sake of such a creature, a damn experiment like him. For the sake of his life and happiness, in order to help the weak, in order to fulfill all their joint dreams.
And nothing would have happened, damn it, if he hadn't been created! Neither Maria nor Gerald would have died. And there would be no scary, frightening and debilitating nightmares that drove him crazy, that played over Shadow's mind like a stringed instrument. Just pulling the strings.
And there was no way he was going to make that mistake twice now. Losing a hero meant starting all these torments all over again.
"What?" Sonic asked incomprehensibly, tilting his head. "What are you talking about?"
And here he is again, trapped in a real trap. The one from which there was either one way out, or there was none at all. There was no time to think, and no amount of Chaos Control would help with that. His nerves danced and tapped every second as his brain feverishly sorted through all sorts of lies that he could present to the hero. Anything to keep the blue hedgehog from understanding him. Contrary to Shadow's words, Sonic was really smart— it's just that sometimes he was either damn good at pretending that he couldn't hear anyone around, or refused to hear. Sonic was always on edge, not wanting to waste time and sit around: he said that every second counted.
And damn his indomitable selflessness.
Shadow did not know at what point this selflessness became a deadly, killing poison for him. He did not know at what point he began to get angry with the hero more and more often for no reason. Every time he saw the blue hedgehog hanging by a hair's breadth from death, every time the hero took a step towards the doctor's traps with that most arrogant smile in the world, everything inside Shadow screamed only one thing.
Protect him at all costs. Protect and don't lose.
And Shadow did not know from what moment these words were a new meaning of existence for him. Sonic, with those puppy-like, soothing baby eyes, was digging into the soul of the dark hedgehog, into its very interior. He couldn't even fight it—neither look away, nor walk away, nor hit the hero again. Shadow became a hostage to his own fears, which he thought would never come out again. He hid and killed his every emotion so carefully and diligently that he had less and less strength for self-control. And here it is — the result.
"That's what I mean," he replies, quieter than he should have. Suddenly, the hands begin to shake, the fingertips seem to be struck by an electric discharge. And Sonic seems to believe, and Sonic squints, looking with emerald, picturesque green eyes directly into the crimson ones filled with struggle on the contrary, in which, if the devils are not drowning, then they tickle dancing, suffocating in their own bowlers. The mystery of unspoken feelings, shrouded in darkness. A secret that he wanted to take with him and not let himself speak it out.
"And what do you mean, Shadow?" the blue hedgehog asks, not giving up for a second. He is fighting this battle: too pointwise, aiming, getting into the taste, but not showing it outwardly. And again, that blurry, cocky, inquisitive grin that turns everything upside down inside Shadow's thoughts, in his head and mind. And again, she makes you want to punch the blue hedgehog with all your might, trample, destroy, smear, forget and erase. How can you feel so much at the sight of that damn grin that Shadow would break anyone's nose for? For that grin on the peach-colored face, which has already become so expensive?
Then Shadow gives up. Shadow feels like everything inside is collapsing and settling like dust on the surface, leaving behind absolutely nothing. No reasonable arguments, no exceptional arguments. He just wants to burn in the ocean of these feelings and be burned. He just wants to drown in the whirlwind of these feelings and be drowning.
"We have to go. Your friends are waiting for us," Shadow says nothing, refuses, allowing himself to unfocus in front of the eyes opposite and turn away. Trembling hands clench into hard fists. Feelings cool down, and everything that was gnawing recedes. And the dark hedgehog allows himself to take a deep breath, feeling himself pulled out.
But that was not the case. Again.
"Are you offended that I didn't discuss our action plan with you? Come on, Shads, he's always the same! And a worker, by the way," Sonic grins, walking up to the black hedgehog and putting one hand on his shoulder. "This is my job!"
That was it — now it was called his job, not a part of his life. The job of destroying mindless robots and saving an entire city that doesn't able to take care of himself. A job that carries an unjustified risk, for which no one will be responsible. Now, according to Sonic, this is called "offense" — when everything inside you is boiling and hissing at the mere thought that you might lose him too? Is this some kind of childish, stubborn offense on his part now? When do you want to protect your loved ones, even if they don't even know about this status for you? How was he supposed to handle it? What did Sonic need to hear to realize how much he was wrong?
Something inside Shadow snapped when he felt a touch on his shoulder. Something inside him lit up when he felt someone else's warmth next to him. Something allowed him to flinch fleetingly with his whole body, clenching his fists even tighter, and something allowed him to relax his shoulders.
"Your job, then?" Shadow asked, grinning bitterly, and the hero didn't like it at all.
What happened to his friend today? He had never seen him so indecisive: during the battle, everything was familiar, stable — all the punches, turns, spears and so on. What has changed in him? Sonic tried hard to cheer him up, but he couldn't grasp a thread of truth, couldn't get through a closed door.
Oh, if Sonic only knew what kind of storm, no, the tornado is experiencing a dark hedgehog inside itself right now. Then the hero would have sworn to himself that he did not allow himself to utter an unnecessary word.
"Of course. My job is to sacrifice myself for the whole world!" Sonic replied enthusiastically with a smile, patting the dark hedgehog on the same shoulder.
How simple it is — sacrifice yourself so that there are no other, apparently too important victims for Sonic! Where was the point in all this if no one could stand up for themselves, if Sonic and his team were constantly rushing into fights to cover these asses and hear a laudatory, reflex "thank you for your help"? Is this what Sonic lived, no, worked on? Was that his meaning, his source of happiness?
He was a real idiot back then. He tried to sow peace in the whole world, which didn't even try to get better after that. Mortal lives that most people around don't appreciate so much... but... It was this world that Maria so desperately wanted to see. She so desperately and dreamily wanted to visit him with Shadow. How many nights had he spent by the side of a girl with golden, rye-colored hair, listening to her amazingly entertaining stories about this place.
And Shadow wouldn't be lying if he said how sorry he was that he ended up on this planet here alone, without her. He was here at the unfair cost of her own life. Maria... His source of light, his source of life. They took her away from him. So brazen, so ruthless... And this is true: she did exactly what Sonic did and did for the sake of others — she covered him up, getting hit by a piercing bullet, now he was alive, he was saved. It seemed that the hero had provided salvation, and the saved one should be glad. Then why didn't he feel able to say thank you to her? Instead, he wanted to shout into the night darkness "for what?" and "why?". And no one would have heard him anyway, and no one would have seen the stingy tear that broke out, single-handedly rolling down his dark muzzle, straight down.
He was quite sure of only one thing. And this "one" stood right in front of him, completely unaware and unsuspecting.
Shadow was going to give up twice, completely. He never gave up, but in the struggle with negative, burdensome and exhausting feelings, he allowed himself to stop and make one decision.
He will feel better if the hero finds out about this.
"Then I would sacrifice this whole world for you."
And Chaos is his judge, who he awarded these words to — Sonic or Maria or both at once. And an innocent female soul, looking down at him from heaven, perhaps with a warm, loving smile, was a witness to him.
Before Sonic stared dumbfounded at the words of the dark hedgehog, Shadow threw away the peach hand, and in a golden, bright glow, left this place without further words. That's the whole process — that's the whole answer to all the existing and not quite the questions in the head of the blue hedgehog.
It was... It's that simple. Say it and disappear. To dissolve into the serene light of his energy, while the blue hedgehog remained standing in place with his arm outstretched, unblinking. It was Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog. Who just confessed how he would sacrifice this whole world for a man like Sonic. And maybe the meaning of the said phrase has not yet reached the hero's head, he could have sworn that the dark hedgehog was not joking at all.
Joking was more his initiative than Shadow's. To tell the truth, Sonic began to feel himself... Stunned and shocked.
What does it mean for him to be a hero, but from Shadow's side? Did he really mean what he said?
He did not have time to come to his senses, nor to restore for some reason his shortness of breath, nor to calm the sudden blush on his cheeks, as the communicator on his hand vibrated, notifying him of the call.
"Hey, Sonic, can you hear me? We are waiting for you," it was Tails, his beloved brother, without whom he could not live. His prop and support.
"Y-yes, buddy, I'll just be right back..."
"And Shadow? Is Mr. Meanie with you?" now it was the voice of Rouge, the greatest treasure hunter. The voice of one of the most charming friends in the world.
Shadow... He had no idea where the dark hedgehog had teleported to, but that was the least he was worried about right now.
Then I would sacrifice this whole world for you.
These words, which pierced his heart with a real blade, which did not cut, but left a pleasant aftertaste, a feeling of warmth, and which completely enveloped his soul with an invisible thread of hope: could he have been so frank, so honest with the hero? Then it would mean that the black hedgehog was in...
Sonic suppressed a sudden sigh, as if he had just committed the theft of the century. He looked ahead, but his gaze caught nothing but one dark figure that kept flashing before his eyes every time he blinked. Then all the gears in his head fell into place, now all the words and gestures of the dark hedgehog found for him that elusive meaning that he finally managed to catch. Maybe Chaos was his assistant, but Sonic felt genuine warmth and sparks of awe spread throughout his body. Shadow has always been specific, but now this is a revelation... And what should he do with all this? And why is his stupid heart beating so furiously and furiously at the mere thought that these words were addressed only to him. Only them. Shadow the hedgehog.
And why did Sonic think for a moment that he would do the same for this hedgehog...?
"...Shadow should be safe, guys," the hero exhaled, feeling definitely happy.
He noticed a black needle lying under his feet and picked it up from the ground.
The owner of this needle was so specific.