Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The wind is what woke Shadow. Its whistle dancing through the landscape graced him with the scent of fresh air. He sat up, taking in the unfamiliar view. He was on top of a grassy cliff overlooking a lake, tall spires of rock poked out from its bank, and a… planet? Or a moon perhaps? Floated gently above it. The planet looked to be about the size of the ark, and was chained to one of those rocky spires.

This was… strange, to state the obvious. Shadow had assumed that after the two Sonics had defeated the Time Eater he would’ve returned back to the Ark, or even the birthday party Rouge had been so eager to invite him to, not whatever this place was.

Shadow got to his feet, scowling as he stared at the planet. It being chained up to one of those spires couldn’t be anything good, and while Shadow had assumed that Eggman would more than likely take a month or two sulk about yet another defeat, it was entirely possible that this was another one of his plots. But what was the goal here? And how? The Time Eater plot had been elaborate enough, and thus unlikely to be a distraction for whatever this was. 

The light pitter-patter of footsteps followed by the sound of something skidding through dirt pulled Shadow from his thoughts. He looked to the source of the sound, and saw none other than Sonic looking out on the lake, leaning forward with one hand above his eyes as he observed the planet. Shadow was about to comment on Sonic being late when he noticed something. This Sonic was shorter, and had yet to make one of the stupid quips the blue hedgehog was known for. This Sonic was the younger version Shadow had seen in White Space, which could only mean one thing: Shadow was in the past.

Now, if Shadow hadn’t just dealt with a temporal anomaly he would likely be way more freaked out than he was currently, but he really didn’t have the energy after what he had gone through back in White Space. For now Shadow should probably focus on finding a way back to his time; he wasn’t sure why, but he was pretty sure he could find it on that planet.

Tiny Sonic looked at Shadow and puffed up his quills, trying to get them to match Shadow’s and scowled to match his expression. Shadow raised an eyebrow at this display in response, causing the miniature Sonic to laugh before speeding away in the direction of the planet, Shadow followed behind him quickly.

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Shadow had lost Tiny Sonic on the way up to the planet, but it didn’t matter much, Shadow was sure he could find his way back on his own, if the Sonic from his time was any indication, Tiny Sonic would likely be no different. 

The place Shadow ended up was idyllic, bright green grass on orange dirt, palm trees with thick trunks were scattered about the area and there was the smell of salt in the air. Shadow started running, he couldn’t waste time admiring the view. He needed to get back to his time as soon as possible, who knows what paradoxes could’ve been caused by the Time Eater already, let alone the one shadow could’ve already caused by running into the past version of Sonic here. It probably wasn’t a good idea to follow him up here, but Shadow didn’t have the time to worry about what’s already been done. He just needs to worry about how to get back.

Shadow destroyed a few badniks as he skated, that was proof enough of Eggman’s involvement with this. He jumped on one to destroy it before teleporting out of the next to destroy it. Blue zipped past his vision as Tiny Sonic rolled into another badnik, Shadow teleported behind him to stop a badnik from sneaking up on him. “You need to watch your surroundings,” Shadow said, his voice drenched with his typical annoyance. Typically he would’ve just let Sonic deal with the consequences of his obliviousness, but this littler Sonic had done nothing to get on Shadow’s nerves yet, so he didn’t have a reason to be petty over this.

Tiny Sonic looked up at Shadow in awe, his eyes practically sparkling in admiration. Shadow hated it. He rolled his eyes, he doesn’t need Tiny Sonic following him around. Shadow started running again until he got the momentum to start skating on his air shoes, predictably Tiny Sonic was following behind him. Ordinarily Shadow would’ve used chaos control to get away, but his Sonic had his chaos emerald, so there wasn’t much Shadow could do other than hope to lose Tiny Sonic. Shadow sped past a signpost, not bothering to read it as he zipped past. He almost immediately regretted it as strange sparkles filled his vision.

Shadow stopped dead in his tracks, quickly observing his new surroundings, the trees were different, and the sky was more of a teal color, and the dirt was a paler brown color, but despite that the area looked mostly the same. Tiny Sonic jumped onto Shadow’s back, and looked over Shadow’s head, using his hands to support himself as he stared out over the slightly different landscape.

“What are you doing?” Shadow asked, receiving no response, “can you get off?” Tiny Sonic just laughed and would not budge from his spot. “This is ridiculous,” Shadow muttered, zipping off in a random direction to get an idea of where he was. Tiny Sonic held on tight and still refused to let go of Shadow despite how fast he was going.

After a few moments of running Tiny Sonic patted on Shadow’s head. “What?” Shadow skidded to a stop as Tiny Sonic hopped off of him and pointed at a strange device. The device was made of two identical parts, each half was primarily silver with one yellow and one black stripe, the black stripe had a single red dot in the middle, the inner portion of halves were made from a black metal with electrical currents running between them. Tiny Sonic rolled through it without a second thought, causing the device to explode. 

Shadow turned his attention away from the now destroyed device, he had spotted another one of those signposts he had ran past earlier, the sign had the word ‘Future’ written on it in yellow. Shadow crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing as he thought. He had run past one earlier and ended up here, a place remarkably different yet similar to where he was before. And that meant time travel was in play yet again. Shadow looked down at Tiny Sonic who was imitating his pose and expression. “Is this how you ended up in White Space?” Shadow asked.

Tiny Sonic looked up at Shadow, a confused expression on his face and head slightly tilted. He had no clue what Shadow was talking about. “Nevermind,” Shadow muttered. He approached the sign before boosting past it, the place he arrived was yet again similar, but the colors were much brighter. The palm trees were now a golden yellow color, bright pink stars took the place of coconuts, and golden yellow pipes stretched out between each tree. 

Shadow could hear the sound of Tiny Sonic skidding past him, he stumbled as he stopped, barely managing to stay upright, he looked around briefly, giving Shadow a thumbs up before running away into the distance. Shadow sighed, crossing his arms. This was going to be a nightmare wasn’t it?

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Shadow had been investigating one of the signposts when he felt the ground shuddering from an impact and heard the resounding thud. 

“We meet again Sonic! I say, have you grown any since our last showdown?” Eggman’s voice was brash, full of that smug cockiness that he has apparently always had.

Shadow turned his head to get a look at Eggman, he was sitting in some ridiculous looking mech. It had an egg-shaped body where Eggman was sitting, it had two arms with bumpers on the end and was sat on top of two skinny legs with large spikes on the feet.

“No matter, I’ll still crush you!” The mech stomped forward, Shadow teleported out of the way and onto a ledge slightly above where Eggman and his mech were.

“What the-!?” Eggman sputtered, turning the mech to face Shadow, “Oh I’ll get you! You may have some new tricks but you’re still no match for me!” Shadow narrowed his eyes. 

“My name is Shadow.” Shadow didn’t have time for Eggman’s games, but if there’s anything he couldn’t stand, it was being compared to Sonic. At that moment Tiny Sonic rushed from somewhere behind the mech and rammed into it, causing one of the arms to fall off, before attempting to jump onto the ledge Shadow was positioned on, but just falling short causing him to have to scramble to pull himself up. 

“That’s not fair!” Eggman yelled, slamming on the console of his mech, “I’m just here to fight Sonic, this isn’t your fight!”

“I don’t have time for this,” Shadow muttered, turning away as Tiny Sonic dashed into Eggman’s mech again, causing it to explode. Eggman grumbled something and shot away on his jetpack, leaving Shadow and Tiny Sonic alone in the rubble. 

Shadow turned back for a moment to see something glittering beneath the wreckage of Eggman’s defeat. Against his better judgement Shadow approached the rubble, kicking away what remained of Eggman’s creation. Buried there was a hexagonal green gemstone radiating some kind of power, Tiny Sonic jumped onto Shadow’s back to get a look at the item. The gemstone was a bit smaller than a chaos emerald, and the power it radiated felt different, strange. Shadow wasn’t sure why, but he had a good feeling this was his ticket home.

Tiny Sonic reached over Shadow’s shoulder for the item, “you want this?” Shadow asked. Tiny Sonic eagerly nodded his head in response. “Fine, you’ll have to earn it, though,” Shadow said, “help me find the rest of them and I’ll give you this one, got it?” Tiny Sonic jumped off of Shadow’s back and ran in front of him and held out a thumbs up, before running off into the distance.

This was going to be a disaster, wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

The next place Shadow found himself was strange. Shining towers of steel shot up from the ground with metal spheres or cubes sitting on top of each one. Some towers stood alone, others were connected by pipes, and some off in the distance were seemingly unfinished. The soil shone with a metallic sheen that shimmered a pink color when light hit it one way and a more yellowish hue when light hit it the other. Despite the metallic appearance patches of grass and moss poked out from the ground. The sky was a deep purple with shining billboards flashing bright symbols across the horizon. The place seemed to be bathed in an eternal night from the dark sky when it was bright as day only an hour prior.

Shadow kept walking, he should probably be skating around trying to find the next gemstone but honestly? Shadow just wanted a moment of calm. He had spent probably the last twenty four hours (if you could even count time in white space) reliving some of the worst periods of his life and then getting stuck in the past. He needed to take a break. After a few moments he found a place to sit down, it was a grass covered ledge that overlooked the zone. 

And he was alone with nothing but his thoughts.

Great. 

Despite his efforts of trying not to think about the events he experienced in White Space, he couldn’t stop the cascade of guilt rushing through his mind. He should’ve done something. He should’ve warned Gerald Robotnik of what was to come. Shadow knew Gerald didn’t want to change the past, but maybe if Shadow ignored him Maria would’ve had more time.

It’s stupid, isn’t it? That despite all the time Shadow spent accepting his past and who he was, he broke down at the first sight of Maria in fifty years. 

He wished rouge were here. Shadow would never admit it out loud (and would deny any accusations), but Rouge and eventually Omega were the only two who shadow could be emotional around. Sure he never really cried, even in private, but at least around his two closest friends he didn’t have to deny his own emotions.

Shadow took a deep breath. 

He looked down at the gemstone in his hand. It shone a brilliant green color even in the dim lighting of this place. He didn’t know what it was, or why he was so certain that it was his ticket back to his time, but with the power it radiated he was sure that there were more. Seven, if they were anything like the Chaos emeralds. The Time Stones. The words popped up in his head. Shadow wasn’t sure if he had heard the name before, but it didn’t matter. He just had to find the others. 

Shadow jumped to his feet and started skating through the zone, he had rested for long enough and needed to get a move on.

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“Help!” someone wailed off in the distance. “Someone! Help me!”

Shadow immediately changed course from where he was going to find the source of the cries. It didn’t take long to find where the sound was coming from. From a short distance away Shadow could see Metal Sonic lifting a young pink hedgehog into the air. “Help!” She screamed.

Amy!

Metal Sonic had lifted the younger version of Amy maybe ten feet in the air, she was kicking and screaming for help as Tiny Sonic stood below, hands balled up into fists as he stared up at one of his oldest rivals.

But was Metal one of his rivals at this point? Tiny Sonic was staring up at him with his anger very evident, but Shadow could tell Tiny Sonic was on the defensive. Something Shadow had never seen before from the Sonic he knew, especially when he was fighting a familiar foe.

Shadow shouldn’t interfere.

He absolutely wanted to, no question about that, but who knows how badly he had already messed up the timeline? Surely interfering with such an important event like this would have long-lasting consequences further down the line. So Shadow stayed back as he watched Metal blast through the sky, leaving Tiny Sonic alone to ponder what happened.

Shadow skated down to where Tiny Sonic was standing, skidding to a stop just below where Metal had been floating a few seconds prior.

Amy will be fine. In the time Shadow had known her he had seen Amy’s skill and resilience time and time again. It was one of the reasons she was one of the few people Shadow respected. Shadow turned his attention to where Tiny Sonic was. The blue hedgehog was staring up into the sky, a determined look on his face.

“You’ll save her,” Shadow said, “I know you will.”

Tiny Sonic looked at Shadow and nodded stiffly, before speeding off into the distance, Shadow just watched.

He felt a pit growing in his stomach, though he wasn’t sure why. 

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After some more searching for the Time Stones Shadow shot past one of the ‘future’ signposts, ending up in an area that looked almost nothing like the area he had been before. The sky was a bright blue and the ground was a bright teal color, the once sparse patches of grass were replaced with large swaths of grass that covered many of the various ledges that made up the area.

The towers had also changed significantly, they mostly had purple bases with plant life poking out around them as purple pipes converged on a sphere that’s lower half was the same purple, and the top half was a translucent green sphere with palm leaves on the top. Other towers were made completely of a metal the same teal as the ground with green plants growing on top. Several of these towers had glowing billboards of purple writing against a black background with a grid made of green lines. 

Shadow’s eyes were drawn to the movement of a certain blue blur. Shadow watched as the Ting Sonic ran towards him, stumbling a bit before stopping right in front of Shadow, holding a red gem up towards him.

Shadow’s breath hitched, it was quiet. Almost imperceptible. “No, you hold onto that one until we get the rest,” Shadow said after a few moments. “You earned it, so you keep it.”

Tiny Sonic looked up at Shadow with an oh-so familiar smug look. He gave Shadow a thumbs up before sprinting off into the distance.

Shadow sighed, crossing his arms staring up into the bright blue sky. Why did it always come back to Maria? The way Tiny Sonic showed him the red time stone brought back memories of Shadow showing Maria any of the interesting junk he found while poking around the ARK. He didn’t have time for this. He just needed to get the rest of the time stones and leave, not mess around and babysit a younger Sonic!

Shadow punched into the side of one of the loops that always seemed to pop up in these kinds of places, before speeding off into the distance.