Chapter Text
Shadow wants to fucking vomit. And frankly, he doesn’t know if that’s normal or not! His head is pounding. it’s freezing out here, it’s also dark. Really dark, or are his eyes closed? Where…? Okay, okay. Maybe we should start with how he got here.
There was a large blast, one that should’ve incinerated him… but why? Was G.U.N. involved…? Wait fuck, was it the one that from when…. No no, that’s not right. Shadow was in a bright city, then… a crab? Or something? And there was a blue version of him wasn’t there? But wait, then how did he…?
Shadow jolted awake, his head pounding, the rest of his body following suit. His entire body ached, and any amount of movement added to that. His vision was blurry, he could make out vague shapes around him, but that mixed with the darkness of the night didn’t provide him much help. He blinked his eyes, looking up at the sky. His vision cleared some, the sky was dark. Void of the glittering diamonds Maria was so fond of. It’s strange, on a clear night where even the shattered moon is visible, there’s not a star to be found.
He raised his hand to the starless sky and froze. The familiar weight of his limiter rings were gone. He looked down at his hand, that’s right… he took them off to help push G.U.N.’s ultimate weapon away from the earth, but now they’re gone. Shadow took a deep breath, he needed to think.
At this point it’s likely that G.U.N. believes him and both Robotniks to be dead. His limiter rings are missing, it’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t have them, but Shadow would still prefer it if he did. They were a safety net, a way for him to control his strength, and without them it would be pretty easy to fuck up and have G.U.N.’s attention on him in an instant, a fate he’d much rather avoid.
Though…
Even if G.U.N. did find Shadow it’s not like they could actually bring him into custody again, after all his limiter rings were, y’know missing. It wouldn’t take much effort for Shadow to win that fight. But did he really want to? Honestly, after that talk with the blue faker, Shadow didn’t really know anymore. That’s what Gerald Robotnik wanted, that’s what Gerald’s grandson wanted. But what did Shadow want? A fight with G.U.N. without his limiter rings would be bound to lead to innocent people being hurt, and that’s something Shadow knew Maria wouldn’t want.
Shadow stood up, it’s not a good idea to stick around in the same place for long, G.U.N. agents will probably be here sooner or later to check out the crash site, he needs to leave now. Shadow hisses once getting onto his feet. It’s a wonder he didn’t break any bones with how much pain he was in, but he can’t worry about that now. Shadow took a single step forward and paused, looking down at his feet.
The master emerald
Shadow picked it up, he reasoned that G.U.N. really shouldn’t get their hands on something so powerful, and that Sonic would probably come looking for it sooner or later. Shadow warped out of the crater, carrying the Emerald in his hand. Snow crunched under his feet as he walked. Maybe he had been gone for a while, it feels much colder than it did when he broke out. Shadow glanced up at a road sign.
Shadow couldn’t make out much of the sign in this dark, only being able to read GREEN HILLS written across it in bright yellow text. It probably wasn’t a good idea to venture into civilization if he wanted to keep G.U.N. off his tail, but Shadow needed to know where he was if he wanted to get anything done.
Shadow zipped through the roads of the small town, from what he could see nobody was out this late. That’s good, he just needed to get in, find a map and-
“Of course,” Shadow muttered, scowling at the source of his annoyance.
The blue hedgehog was staring at Shadow with a wide-eyed expression, a half-eaten chili dog in hand.
“Well, I guess I’m two-for-two on villains I’ve seen die coming back to life,” Sonic grinned, eating the rest of his chili dog and discarding the wrapper in an instant, “you’re not gonna try to blow up the world again, are ya? Because I promise we’ll be able to beat you this time!”
“I doubt it,” Shadow muttered, narrowing his eyes, “I believe this is yours.” He dropped the master emerald in Sonic’s hand, the blue hedgehog looked down at it and then back up at Shadow.
“Whew! Knuckles is going to be so excited when he sees this!” Sonic declared with a wide grin, zipping away before Shadow had the chance to say anything else. Shadow teleported in front of Sonic, who simply zipped around him and kept running.
Did this hedgehog ever stop for anything? “Wait!” Shadow yelled, zipping after him.
“You’re too slow!” Sonic declared, running backwards and directly into a tree. “Ow.”
The two had run quite a ways out of Green Hills and were currently at the peak of one of the mountains that surrounded the small town in the few seconds they were running. Shadow looked down at the town, disdain evident in his expression.
Despite the conversation he had with Sonic earlier, the one about love lasting even long after the loss of the person it was for, Shadow still hated humanity with everything he had for taking Maria away from him.
“Hey, are you okay?” Sonic asked, lightly putting a hand on Shadow’s shoulder.
On pure instinct Shadow whipped around and threw Sonic at a tree with so much force the tree fell down. Shadow looked down at his hands, fuck. He needs to be more careful, he didn’t mean to throw Sonic that hard, hell, he didn’t mean to throw Sonic at all, not that Sonic didn’t deserve it but, still!
“Ow,” Sonic groaned again, “did you get stronger or something while you were missing?” He asked, running back over to Shadow in a split second, “did you have, like, a super intense training arc? Oh! I bet that would’ve been such a cool montage if it was in a movie or something!”
“What is wrong with you?”
“What do you mean? I’m the greatest hedgehog to ever live,” Sonic declared, striking a pose like one of the heroes in those superhero movies that Maria was always so fond of, before he zipped up a tree and hung himself upside down on one of the branches, “I’ve saved this world on countless occasions!” He jumped down and ran onto a large rock on the cliffside, “I’m the amazing Sonic the Hedgehog!”
Shadow scowled at the display, of course. Of course. Shadow really shouldn’t have been surprised at the Blue hedgehog’s antics, at all. Sonic’s just as cocky as he was during their first showdown.
“Hey! Lighten up a little,” Sonic said, patting Shadow on the back, “you can’t be doom and gloom all the time!”
“Don’t touch me.”
Sonic laughed, “fine,” he grinned, rolling his eyes. “Oh!” He suddenly yelled, clapping his hands together, as though he just had the best idea ever, “you should celebrate Christmas with us!”
Shadow narrowed his eyes for a moment, Christmas. It was late summer or early fall when he broke out of that G.U.N. facility, has he really been floating in space for that long? Or has he been crashed outside of Green Hills in that crater for that long without anyone bothering to investigate in that time?
Shadow also really didn’t want to celebrate Christmas without Maria. Not that he really got any presents in the Ark on Christmas, but Maria would always try to do something for him, even if it was just trying to find a way to sneak him out of tests, or trying to find movies she’d think he would like.
“No.” Shadow’s voice was harsh. He didn’t want any part in this holiday, and even if he did, he wouldn’t want to spend it with Sonic and his crew.
“Come on! It’ll be fun! It’ll also give you a chance to apologize to Tom, y’know, he’s a surprisingly forgiving guy.”
Shadow stiffened. Tom, that was the name of the human that Sonic and his friends had been distraught over when Shadow knocked him out. He was their version of Maria. Maybe—
No. No. He couldn’t do this again, he couldn’t get attached to anyone else, especially a human, ever again. It’s only a matter of time before he loses them like he lost Maria. Like he lost himself after Maria died.
Shadow was just about to say no to Sonic’s offer, but he has already left. Shadow signed, and looked out over the horizon as the sun began to rise Over the horizon.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Shadow didn’t know why he didn’t run the second Sonic left, it had been maybe an hour since he ran off, more than enough time for Shadow to run far away from here. But he didn’t, and he can’t for some reason. A light dusting of snow had coated his fur, as it floated gently down from the sky. It reminded him of those old Christmas movies he’d watch with Maria, the old stop motion ones that always freaked him out for some reason.
His reminiscing was cut short by the sound of rapid footsteps, Shadow turned to the sound.
“Ah! The more impressive hedgehog,” Knuckles nodded, seemingly unconcerned with Shadow’s presence, despite how poorly their first meeting went.
“Hey!” Sonic gasped.
“Thank you for returning the master emerald,” Knuckles said, nodding his head, “you will never see it again.”
“How are you not dead?” Tail’s reaction to seeing Shadow was probably the most normal compared to Sonic and Knuckles’ reactions. “Sorry if that’s rude, but there should’ve been no way to survive that.”
“Well, I did,” Shadow replied, he deliberately avoided the question. He didn’t need this colorful bunch to know any more about him then they already did.
“It was the power of the chaos emeralds,” Knuckles said.
“Oh! That makes sense!” Tails said, hitting his fist on his hand, “they have a lot of power, it would make sense that they could protect an individual from a powerful blast!”
“That can’t be it!” Sonic butted in, “the chaos emeralds wore me out so much whenever I used them!”
“You’ve used them twice,” Tails pointed out, “and Shadow has a lot of chaos energy so it would make sense for him to be better attuned to him than you!”
“Hey! Whose side are you on?” Sonic said, he pulled Tails closer and rustled the fur on his head.
“Yours! I’m just trying to-“
“Sonic’s right.” Shadow wasn't sure why he said that to be honest, just like he wasn’t sure why he stayed instead of ran.
Sonic had a smug expression on his face, “See? What did I tell you?”
“But-“
“Hm,” Knuckle's voice cut through Sonic and Tails’ rivalry. Everyone was now looking at him for what he was going to say. “What? Why are you all looking at me?”
“You were about to say something, right?” Tails said after a moment.
“No. I need to find a better place to hide the master emerald.”
“Oh! I know the best spot to hide it, there should be a cave somewhere around here that would be perfec-“
“No.” Knuckles said, “you cannot know the location. Bye.” And just like that Knuckles ran off.
“Anyways,” Tails said after a moment, “if it wasn’t the Chaos emeralds, how did you survive?” The fox’s tails twitched impatiently, he seemed genuinely interested, but Shadow wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
“Yeah! C’mon tell us! It’s got to be cool!” Sonic added.
Shadow glanced down at his hands for a moment. It was probably a bad idea to tell the two, especially bad to tell Sonic of all people. Sure Sonic was the hero type, and had stopped Shadow from destroying the planet, but that didn’t mean Shadow wanted to tell Sonic all his secrets. The fox however… If anyone would be able to replicate Shadow’s limiter rings it would be Tails. After all, from what Shadow has seen the kid did have a knack for technology.
Shadow scowled for a moment, considering his options, he looked at Sonic for a few minutes, before turning his attention back to Tails. “I’ll tell you if Sonic leaves.”
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Sonic pouted, crossing his arms, “Tell him Tails!”
“No, if he doesn’t want you to know something, that's his choice,” Tails said. The fox was seemingly the only person in this crew with any amount of sense.
“But what if he tries to pull something?” Sonic said, “what if he tries to attack you when there’s nobody around! Shadow tried to explode the world!”
“He also saved the world!” Tails yelled back, “also, if anything happens I have an SOS beacon! I’m also not defenseless!”
Sonic snorted, “Well yeah, but—“
“you’re just saying this to convince me to let you stay and listen, aren’t you?” Tails’ voice was calmer now.
“Well that’s not the only reason—“
“I’m right here you know,” Shadow said, very clearly annoyed.
“Fine,” Sonic grumbled, bolting away.
It was quiet for one moment. two moments. Three.
Just as Shadow was about to explain.
“Sonic!” Tails called, looking up somewhere behind Shadow. Shadow followed his eyes and… yet, Sonic was up in a tree.
“Okay! Actually going now!” And with that Sonic was actually gone this time.
“What did you want to tell me?” Tails finally asked after a moment.