Chapter Text
Shadow had always been a lone wolf. Tackling tasks on his own, the occasional team ups with Rouge and Omega had gotten less over the years. He himself wasn’t so sure why. It kinda just happened. Today was a weird day for him too. Sitting in the grass as slowly the sun had set and the stars had started to appear, he was staring at the broken moon and what was left of the ARK. It wasn’t like he was lost in thought or anything but his mind wandered. To a place he didn’t like as much.
He was instantly disturbed by a blue hedgehog passing by him- he was about to say something to him until he noticed that Sonic hadn’t noticed him, talking aloud, to himself.
“It’s just so unfair!” the blue one said to no one in particular, he was equally staring up into the sky, to the ARK, to the moon, to the stars. “I wish I could help him.”
Shadow wondered who he was talking about.
“If we could just turn back time. Maybe, just maybe there’s a chance? Right? I mean, I wasn’t even born then but that didn’t hold off Silver, right? Maybe Tails has an idea. Why did Rouge have to tell me all of that?!”
Now Shadow really wanted to know who he’s talking about, it sounded almost like he was talking about- “Oh, Shadow, I’m so sorry this has happened. And then these stupid feelings!” - Shadow. Shit. He had it hidden pretty well, only Rouge knew exactly what had happened and he explicitly told her not to tell anyone. Now, somehow Sonic knew. But Shadow kept quiet, wanting to know what Sonic had to say.
The hedgehog kept rambling on. “I have to tackle this head first, I can’t just ease him into it- or wait, maybe I need to exactly do that? Ugh, this is all so complicated. I shouldn’t have pressed her on it…but I needed to know. I should never have asked. But I couldn’t have admitted my feelings without knowing- maybe I could’ve. Asked what their relationship was like? Maybe that would’ve been appropriate. Ugh! I don’t know.” Sonic let himself plop onto the grass. He still hadn’t noticed that Shadow was quite literally next to him. He wondered what he was talking about. Some sort of feelings? For Shadow? What was there to feel? They were rivals, nothing more. They occasionally helped each other. Sure, he cared for Sonic, he had saved him in the past but he also knew that Sonic would do the same for him. They weren’t exactly friends. Two different sides of one coin.
“Why is telling him I love him so hard for me?” Sonic mumbled. Shock went through Shadow. If he hadn’t sat here, he wouldn’t have heard it. Shadow must’ve made some sort of sound because Sonic now was looking around, searching around.
Shadow quietly scrambled to hide behind the tree. He could never let Sonic know he sat right there while he was pouring his heart out. He couldn’t believe what he just had heard.
Sonic in the meantime had stood up, looking around in a wider circle, he seemed to give up and sighed a quiet breath of relief. “Must’ve been the wind,” he said. Shadow knew it wasn’t but Sonic didn’t have to know that. The blue hedgehog plopped back down, looking back to the stars. Shadow should’ve taken the opportunity to leave but something kept him here. He had already heard the worst, right?
Sonic was drawing patterns into the grass, humming, making sounds. Shadow knew that it was one of his more annoying quirks. But you got used to them, Shadow had once caught himself humming quietly along to Sonic. Shadow had quickly stopped after he had realized and scowled.
Now, as he watched Sonic, something struck him as odd. Sonic seemed sad, so lost in thought. Sonic never was sad. Had he been hiding this for so long? Shadow suddenly didn’t know what to do anymore. He wanted to console him, tell him it’s not his fault, that he wasn’t there, that Shadow was fine now, that… but he would’ve needed to admit that he had heard everything. He wanted to avoid that for now. Especially since he couldn’t place the sudden flutter he felt in his chest. Shadow quietly decided to sneak away as quietly as possible, so Sonic was none the wiser of what Shadow had just heard.
Shadow was walking up and down in his room. He felt weirdly restless after what he just had heard. Tails sending Sonic into the past was certainly a possibility, it has happened before and Silver was the living proof that it is possible. But what happened on the ARK is something that defined him even now. Shadow couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if it hadn’t happened. He probably would still be up in the ARK. Sure, with Maria but… Suddenly he realized that he definitely doesn’t want that. Even though he missed Maria dearly, he wouldn’t want… yeah, who didn’t he want to lose? Rouge, Omega…Sonic… even the others- he didn’t feel like that’s what Maria had wanted. Even though he was quite the lone wolf, he liked the team ups- he liked his life like it was at the moment. Sure, it could be a little better with- what was he thinking? Sonic's unintentional confession was confusing him, playing with his own feelings. Something in his mind that he had pushed away so long ago, deeming it would never happen.
Shadow hadn’t noticed but Rouge was standing in his doorway, quietly watching him. As he turned around and finally saw her, concern was written on her face. Sure, she was ruthless and a thief but she did care about him and he knew that. Why did she tell Sonic about his past?
“You’ve been acting strange since you came back- stranger,” she stated.
Shadow didn’t know what to make of that but then he decided- “Could be because you’ve used my trust.”
“What?” Rouge was taken aback by that. Of course, she couldn’t have known that Shadow would hear it quite literally out of the hedgehog’s mouth.
“Why did you tell Sonic?”
Rouge brought her hands up, in defense. “I had no choice-“
“You don’t decide for me what I should reveal about my past.” Shadow heard it himself, his voice was harsh, maybe a little too harsh. The bat flinched back, turned around and left Shadow standing there. Maybe he should’ve waited with that conversation. His own feelings were still confusing him from what he had heard.
Shadow had waited until he saw Sonic leave the lab. The hedgehog left the door open, so Shadow just walked in, watched Tails for just a second while he was tinkering on a bigger machine until clearing his throat. Tails jumped up and stared at him. “Shadow!” he managed to say.
“Tails,” Shadow returned, stepping closer, the fox scrambled back a little. “I’m not here to cause trouble. I have a question and a request.”
Tails was a bit confused by Shadow’s neutral tone but he nodded, letting Shadow speak.
“Has Sonic been acting… weirder?” Shadow managed to ask. Tails dropped his tool on the table as he thought.
“Now that you say he seems a bit… sad almost,” Tails said, agreeing with what Shadow had seen the other night, the hedgehog nodded. “What’s your request, Shadow?”
Shadow sighed. “If Sonic asks you to build a contraption that can transport him into the past- tell him no. I’ve overheard what he’s planning. It would be a suicide mission.”
Tails’ ears perked at that. “He already asked me about it but he refused to tell me what for.”
Rouge must’ve told him to keep quiet about his past then. “It doesn’t matter. Just tell him you can’t do it.”
Tails looked back at the machine he was just working on. “Uhm-“
“Don’t tell me you’ve already started,” Shadow said, following Tails’ eyes to the machine.
“I may just have finished it.”
Shadow shook his head. “I don’t care. Trash it. I don’t think he knows how much damage he could do. This whole universe could be destroyed.”
Tails looked back at him. “What… is he trying to do?” Tails asked. Shadow didn’t answer. “Okay, okay, I’ll… tell him it doesn’t work.”
Shadow nodded. “Thank you,” he added before turning tail and wanting to leave. He stopped though as a certain blue hedgehog walked in.
“Shadow!” he said, in surprise, “What are you doing here?”
Shadow weirdly felt the nervous energy that came from Sonic. It wasn’t the same nervousness he radiated anyways. And he knew why. This was a little awkward. “None of your business,” Shadow managed to say, he squeezed past the blue hedgehog. Sonic watched him and stepped into Tails’ lab.
As soon as Shadow was outside, he activated his air shoes and was gone.
That’s what he wanted the two to think. He did a big circle around the lab and then peeked into it, wanting to know if Tails would keep his promise. Since the doors were still opened, he could hear the two quite clearly.
“Tails! How is the thing coming along?” Sonic asked, he had watched after Shadow up until now.
“Not really great. 60 years ago is a really long time, Sonic,” Tails said. He stopped, turning around to his friend, contemplating. “Shadow knows what you want to do, I don’t know how he knows.”
Sonic visibly stopped. Even his slight tapping with his foot that seemed to be on by default, stopped as he stared at the fox. “What did you say?”
“Shadow knows what you want to do,” Tails repeated.
Shadow saw how the pieces were put together in Sonic’s mind. He had talked about his plan yesterday and also added a pretty personal statement in it. Shadow bit his tongue, ducking away as Sonic looked all around the lab.
“That’s why he was here. He wants to stop you.”
Sonic shook his head. “What I’m planning is for him? Why does he want to stop me?”
Tails shrugged at that. “He said the universe might be destroyed if you do this. What do you want to do?”
“I can’t talk about it. I… shouldn’t even know this. Rouge told me not to talk about it,” Sonic vaguely explained, “and what I wanna do is related to it.”
Shadow sighed. Tails at least kept his promise.
Shadow had heard enough. He had stopped listening, now sitting with his back against the wall of the lab. The voices distant arguing, that he let sweep over him, ignoring them. Shadow had already deduced yesterday that if Sonic was successful in his mission, he and the rest of them wouldn’t exist like this anymore. It may just be a small change of him being gone but that would be something that Sonic most definitely didn’t want. Not after what Shadow had heard him say yesterday.