Chapter Text
"Shadow... Shadow, are you there?"
Shadow was there, but he didn't want to be. He groaned, pulling the blanket tighter over his head. As the Ultimate Lifeform, he didn't need sleep most of the time, but he also wasn't nursing a pounding headache most of the time either. A migraine that had crept up from the recesses of his mind over the past forty-eight hours.
He hated this, he hated feeling useless and like he was wasting time by not training, going on a mission, or keeping Sonic out of trouble. The Ultimate Lifeform, the marvel of science meant to cure all diseases and end all wars, shouldn't get migraines; and yet, here he was, hiding from the fluorescent light of the table lamp on his nightstand.
"Hmm...?" He mumbled, his own voice vibrating his skull and ending his mumble with a whine.
The door opened, and he heard the soft clicking of his teammate's heels on the floor. "Hey... Still not any better?"
"Worse..." He hissed, moving a hand out from under the shade of the blanket. "What is it, Rouge?"
"Just checking on you. You're not down like this very often. Excluding an inhibitor ring removal that costs millions of dollars to repair the damage of."
"Hmph... It's not like Towers wants me in fighting shape anyways..."
He felt something brush his fingertips, and then was nudged under them. "Hmm...?"
"Mail call. You got a package."
"What...?"
He risked facing the brightness outside of his blanket to investigate, wincing in pain and squinting as he found it to be a parcel wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. "...I don't get mail..."
"That's what the postman said."
He flipped it over and found a tag, with his name and the base's address on it, and then a small note.
Happy Winter Solstice!
"No return address, no name." Rouge mumbled, "Who could be sending the Ultimate Lifeform a holiday package? Sonic, perhaps?"
Shadow sniffed the paper, "...No, it doesn't reek of chili dogs. No scent of poison, either..."
"You are so weird..." Rouge started towards the door again, "Well, if you're still afraid of bright lights, I'll just tell Omega he can have your slot in the gymnasium for tonight."
"Have at it..."
The bat left the room, and Shadow placed the package on the nightstand before retreating back under the blanket. He'd investigate it later... when his migraine had faded...
_________________________________
It had been three hours when he woke up again. The migraine hadn't faded completely, but he could at least face the light of his table lamp now.
His feet found the cold floor and he shivered a little, but he'd been avoiding being functional long enough for one day. Making the bed behind him, he sat down at the desk and looked at the brown parcel sitting in front of him. His fingers twirled the tag. He sniffed the ink. He felt the paper. It seemed innocent enough, but dangerous viruses could easily be smuggled in on innocent-looking parcels and folders.
But if it was infectious, at least it would be restricted to his quarters, right? He wasn't opening it in a public space, and as the Ultimate Lifeform, there was no way he'd catch it if it was infected.
He picked it up and shook it gently. No rattling or clinking like it had moving parts. He finally gave in to his curiosity, and he untied the string and unfolded the paper.
His eyes widened as they fell upon a book- a very old book. The leather cover was soft and worn from age and use, the pages yellowed and a little stained on the edges. It looked like it belonged in a museum, locked behind glass and with limited light to prevent fading.
His gaze shifted to the corner, where another item rested that also belonged in a museum- Secace, a sword gifted to him by a mischievous fae from Londoon that had decided he needed it. He did not need it, he was the Ultimate Lifeform even without being an expert swordsman, but it seemed... rude to get rid of it.
His eyes moved back to the book, was this book from the same fae? Another relic of a forgotten era that most had deemed only myth and legend? He carefully opened the cover, and found another piece of paper folded in it, less faded than the others. He picked it up and unfolded it, reading the words recently inked onto it.
To my legacy, I hope this gift finds you well and you find it to be an asset to your task of protecting your realm from evil, as I do to protect mine. - Sir Lancelot Du Lac
Shadow sighed, folding the paper back up. It was a gift from Lancelot, his lookalike knight that everyone had gotten into their heads was somehow Shadow's father. Perhaps the bones of this ancient knight had been used to create Shadow, but by no means did that make them family.
In any case, he was dead now, his temporary trip to the future where Shadow lived not having changed the fact that Shadow was still alone.
Still... How did he get it here from the past? And who had been the one to deliver it to his door? He'd investigate this later.
Shadow looked to the book's contents, the ink a bit more faded than the note. Words carefully written onto the pages, along with symbols, and illustrations of various shapes. He flipped from page to page, his brows furrowing.
"...A spellbook...?"
During his time in the present, Lancelot had referred to his and Shadow's chaos powers as magic, but magic was just science they hadn't found the explanation for yet. True magic wasn't real, and even if it was real, Shadow didn't have it, so what good was-
Thump!
Shadow jumped as one of the books on his bookshelf tumbled off... But not the one on the end, which would have made sense. He stared at the book, and then at the empty spot in the middle of the row, and then back to the book unfolded on his desk.
"...Coincidence." He muttered, picking up the fallen book and putting it back on the shelf. He turned back to the desk-
Thump!
He whipped back around. A different book was on the floor, one that had been pushed back and had no way of falling off unless someone— or something— had pulled it out. He frowned, and then picked the second book up, moving it back and forth in his hands. Without looking away from the shelf, he reached behind him, grabbing the chair and pulling it under the shelf and then climbing onto it to look on the surface.
He saw no small creature on the shelf, no mechanical menace pushing the books aside. He placed the book back and waited... They all stayed put.
"...Coincidence." He repeated firmly, as if telling it to the books themselves. He climbed down from the chair and returned it to its place by the desk. He looked to the spellbook, its pages resting on a spell for enhanced growth of plantlife. "Hmm...Hey!"
A book came flying back from the shelf, and as he lifted his hands to catch it, it stopped in midair with a green glow about it, and the same glow was about his hands.
Shadow's brows furrowed and he pulled his hands closer, slowly turning them over and watching the energy flow like water in reverse over his gloves. His normal chaos energy crackled with wild, barely controlled electricity, but this... This was smooth and almost mesmerizing to watch.
Thump!
The book dropped from the air and onto the floor, and the glow vanished from both his hands and the book.
Shadow's brows raised, and he looked to the spellbook. He then slammed the book shut before walking away. "Nope. Not today, we're not."
_______________________________________
"Ah... Feeling up to face the world again."
Shadow grumbled as he heard Rouge's voice behind him, but it was better than Commander Towers', he supposed. "Yes... The headache's gone... Mostly. Probably just dehydration."
"Hmm."
Rouge came around within his vision, wiggling her fingers before pulling them into fists and beginning to punch the sand bag hanging in front of them. "Tell me that you actually hydrated yourself after making this assumption."
The hedgehog scoffed, "Of course."
"Good... You open that holiday package?"
"Yes... It was a book."
"Oh? One of the classics?"
"Well, it was certainly written a long time ago."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Shadow paused in his pushups, catching the bat's gaze. "...Lancelot sent it."
The bat paused in her own workout, "...What?"
"It was from Lancelot... My guess is the Minkoffs shipped it here, but there was a letter from him to me in it."
"Do you think the Minkoffs found it on one of their digs?"
"No, it's in too good of condition to have been sitting in some tomb for centuries... And there's a different problem-"
Clang! Clang clang clang!
Both of them looked up and over as an entire set of dumbbells rolled off of their stand, one after another. Shadow could see a faint green glow about them for a moment, before it vanished.
"What the hell?" Rouge mumbled.
"...That."
"Dumbbells falling? How is that-"
"No."
Shadow looked around the room, listening for anyone else coming. His voice was a whisper, "...It's a spellbook, and ever since I opened it, stuff's been... flying off of shelves and my hands glow with the same energy."
Rouge's eyes widened and then she crouched lower, "...You've got magic on top of everything else...?"
"I don't know, but somehow Lancelot knew I would be able to use the spellbook, and somehow got it to me from hundreds of years ago... I need to know what's going on."
"Yeah, you do... Why not ask our resident king of Camelot about it?"
"Because I don't need the faker coming to me asking for favors like I'm his royal wizard or something."
"...The Ultimate Wizard."
"Rouge, please-"
"At least ask him if he knows how the book got here. He might have even seen it before and can tell you what's what with it."
Shadow groaned, pulling his legs up underneath him from his planking and shifting to a casual squat. "I suppose you're right... But not today. I have work to catch up on first..."
"Ever the workaholic... What're you gonna do when GUN inevitably collapses and you don't have someone giving you chores to do?"
Shadow frowned, "I'll figure that out when I get to it..."