Chapter Text
His eyes blink slowly; once, twice, it’s hard to keep them open with the dust and brain fog. His vision is distorted, shrouded in darkness with faint rays of light piercing through what seems to be a building wreckage. A glance above tells that he’s caved in, but that doesn’t usually mean long term stability. Bits of memories flood his mind, and it's a of a relief to know his memory is willing to stay in tack. A relief effort to a sudden Earthquake. The orders from G.U.N. being to clear out all citizens from the site and evacuate them to the outskirts. He’d been tasked with working alongside his rival, tearing quickly through the higher levels of buildings. They’d split up when the last two buildings remained, the intent to meet back up at the emergency base once they’d finished.
Clearly The Ultimate Lifeform hadn’t been as fast as he should have been.
Something in the back of his mind says that falling asleep is a bad idea, but damn does his body crave it. He’s exhausted, the chaos energy that usually circulates inside feels as if it's slipping away. Which in theory with all his inhibitors on shouldn’t be possible. Rolling his eyes around lets him catch four distinct shines of gold. So he’s not breaking apart due to an overload, but that doesn’t explain his draining power.
Looking down to his left wrist reveals that his communicator has gone dark, screen smashed most likely during the collapse. No easy way out, as if he ever gets one anyway. Taking in a stuttered breath, he does the only thing he can do; keep moving.
His arms slide forwards, gloved paws grip tight to the twisted metal of what looks to have once been the metal of a stair railing, and pull forward.
Boy, what a mistake that is.
Pain is all he can think about, all that he feels. His grip on the metal drops, and quickly the pain multiplies. Scrambling to stop the agony, he screams, his feet push harshly against the ground. One hand flies up to grab at the rubble above. The other grabs at his chest, eyes darting down to see his tuft of white fur covered in ash and blood, but they also catch something else; and this makes his vision finally clear.
A fucking pole lodged through his chest, poking out just beyond his white chest.
Laughing would feel well timed, if he could get his breathing to steady. Instead his breaths are coming in short puffs, leaving a faint wheeze that only makes him feel more drunk. So much for this being an easy mission. Reconnaissance can kiss his ass, he wasn’t built for jobs like this, where the danger isn’t a target; but a natural disaster. What the hell was G.U.N. thinking when they sent the Ultimate Lifeform into doing hero work.
A cough bubbles up his throat, leading to a splatter of blood to coat the ground he leans over.
That’s not good, he thinks, eyes falling past a half lidded mast. His wheezing soon turns to short, fast breaths, before his brain clouds over in a hazy fog.
For all that the word of immortality was thrown at him, he was always reminded that the passage of time wouldn’t be his downfall. His super healing could recover from nearly everything, but it wouldn’t be able to recover from a wound that couldn’t be closed.
We’ll, maybe he will finally get to see Maria again.
—-------------
“Sonic, I think that’s all that we can do here. Should we group back up, meet at the base? I’m pretty sure G.U.N. is going to take care of the rest of the cleanup.” The yellow fox chirps, moving to face the blue hedgehog beside him.
They’d been at this for hours, an Earthquake along the border of Westopolis. It had come on suddenly, and while the damage hadn’t been extensive, it was enough for the trapped people to require aid. It was something G.U.N. would be able to handle, but not at the speed that some of the buildings had been starting to crumble; so they called in the big guns.
“Yeah, you’re probably right buddy. I think we’ve cleared out all the civilians anyway. Let’s regroup! Amy said she was meeting up with Rouge to give some statements at the Medical Tent.” The blue hedgehog sighed, adjusting his now soot covered gloves before ruffling the fur on the Fox’s forehead.
“I wanna see if Shadow made it back as well. He went to the last collapsing building. Knowing him, he was in and out quickly, but his communicator stopped responding a couple minutes ago, and something in the air feels off.”
“What do you mean, Sonic?” the fox questioned, flicking both of his tails behind, starting them up in a circle. Lifting off the ground, he hovered close above his brother, hands grabbing onto the arms Sonic now raised above his head.
“Something feels wrong in the air, I’m not quite sure how to explain it. Knuckles might know a bit better. It feels like Chaos energy, but the wavelength keeps breaking. I’m not a genius like you Tails, but I've got a feeling it's not a normal reaction.” Sonic said, his brows furrowing a bit as he darted his eyes across the rubble.
Up ahead he could see most of their crew outside the med bay tent waving off a couple G.U.N. officials, loaded in their trucks now barreling towards the worst of the damage. He spotted 3 of their friends standing just outside of the Medical tent; a white bat, a red echidna, and a looming robot. Two of the three sporting worried glances as they caught sight of their blue and yellow friends.
With a quick squeeze to Tail’s arms, he let his grip go, forcing his younger brother to do the same. Once his red shoes hit the ground, he was quick to rush the remaining few feet to join the three of them, Tail’s falling in line just behind.
“Late to the party as always Blue, but never a moment too soon.” The Bat remarked with a whistle, turning to rest a hand upon her hip as she gave another flutter of her wings.
The Echidna beside her gave a wave to Tails, motioning him over to their robot friend.
“Tails, if you can, connect your Miles Electric to Omega. We need a tracker.”
“So I guess my hunch was right, you feel it too Knuckles?” Sonic asked, placing a hand on Rouge’s shoulder to pull her in as they all formed around Tails and Omega.
Giving a kurt nod, Knuckles moved his head to glance back at Rouge. She was fluttering her wings still, ears swiveling as if trying to catch any other sounds around them.
“Just after finishing securing the evacuees, Knuckles said he felt something was wrong. Like a powerful Chaos signature was slowly fading. Omega and I noticed then that Shadow’s communicator had stopped responding. I don’t know if anything correlates, but judging by the worry etched in your features, you’re also feeling this Chaos energy. I can’t think of anyone else able to cause such a feeling besides Eggman. However, seeing as he hasn’t been seen in a couple weeks…” Rouge tapered off, swiveling her ears back as she moved to crouch beside Tails. “I can’t tell you what to look for in making a tracker for Chaos energy, but if you can ping off the last location Shadow’s communicator gave, maybe we can at least make sure he’s okay.”
“I HAVE HIS LAST PING. ALL COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH COMMUNICATORS COME WITH LOCATIONS FOR ME.” The Robot, Omega sputtered to Tails, lighted eyes watching the fox as he types away on his device.
“Got it!” Tails exclaimed, disconnecting from Omega and giving the robot a couple pats to the arm. “It looks like his last location was the building Sonic and he agreed to split at. Meaning his communicator got damaged somewhere during the collapse. I’ll send you all the coordinates. With the cleanup going on, I don’t think it’s wise if we all go. Besides, it’s Shadow we're talking about, that Hedgehog bounces back from death itself constantly.”
Sonic drops his remaining hand on Tail’s head as the kit shuffles back, mussing with his hair and letting out a small chuckle as his brother rushes his paws up to fix his baby hairs. “Rouge and Knuckles should come with me, you stay here with Omega, see what help Amy needs. Once we recon with Shadow, maybe we’ll figure out what this Chaos energy leak is all about. He’s the best out of all of us with sensing this stuff.”
Sonic brings up his communicator, tapping it briefly to confirm the location. Living up to his name, he swivels on his heels before shooting off in a blue blur.
“Good to know he’s always willing to wait for the rest of us.” Knuckles chides, glancing over to Rouge, watching her take off to the sky before moving to run after Sonic.
It doesn’t take long for Sonic to reach the building, and truly it looks nothing like it did when he’d last seen Shadow run towards it. This alone already scares him. Not much is left standing, but there is a small entrypoint. Rouge and Knuckles quickly join his side, eyes trained at the same entrance he is.
“The Coordinates say he’s inside, maybe he got trapped? Knocked out so he didn’t teleport out?” Sonic muses.
They all give a weary loo to each other, a quick nod before slowly stepping in. Rouge turns the flashlight of her communicator on, sweeping it around the left side before pointing it towards the right. Everything is crumbled, the only structure remaining is the new walls that have formed from the broken stone left in larger chunks. As she continues to sweep, a glimmer of gold lights up, and everything turns to shit.
Blood covers the ground, splattered and pooling with a warm glow. With shaking hands, Rouge raises up the flashlight, and they catch sight of a slumped forward black hedgehog. The red of his stripes is a near match of the blood that weeps down his back, trailing down a metal pole sticking out of the ground.
“Sh-Shads?” Sonic whispers, shuffling slowly towards the other hedgehog until he meets his face. Shadow looks awful, eyes closed, brow scrunched up with his breaths coming out in quick broken puffs. Blood drips down his muzzle, covering the brown in a gruesome stain. Carefully, Sonic takes Shadow’s face into his hands, tilting it up and patting a stripe from his brow to between his ears.
Rouge and Knuckles are quick to join the Hero of Mobius. The bat glances around just where the pipe pierces her best friend, face giving way to relief as she sees his back rise and fall slightly with each breath. “Knuckles, we can’t remove it, he’ll bleed out. Think you can break it just past his back?”
“Yeah, hold the base of the pipe. Sonic, get prepared to catch him” Knuckles orders, as he lets his Chaos energy flow through him, lighting the room in a pink hue as he studies his fists over the entry point.
“Sonic, focus.” Rouge snaps, grasping the base of the pole.
Sonic’s eyes finally break contact with Shadow, and he runs his hands softly down Shadow’s arms, towards his back, where he grips tighter. Shadow’s head comes to rest in the crook of his neck, and he lets himself take in a deeper breath. He’s still breathing, however faint it is. They are not too late, they can come back from this.
Knuckles is nothing if not efficient. With a quick push, the pole snaps in half, and Shadow slumps completely into Sonic’s arms. Sonic can feel the blood soaking his fur, and he scrambles to get the hedgehog turned around, resting bridal style in his arms. He’s never been great at sensing Chaos signatures, but he can feel Shadow’s now.It’s beating in time with his heart, but it’s not as strong as he used to feeling. It's dim, waning in strength. It’s the Chaos energy he felt earlier, and a quick look to Knuckles confirmed he's realized the same thing.
Shadow is dying, and if they don’t get him help soon, even his healing powers won't be able to bring him back.
“Go hun, we’ll catch up.” Rouge whispers, and that's all Sonic needs to hear before he's running faster than he’s ever gone before, Shadow held tightly in his arms.