Chapter Text
The white light burned.
It all happened in a second. Shadow didn’t even have time to register the golden light beside him beginning to flicker out. For a moment, he felt the full brunt of force from the Eclipse Cannon’s laser before it overwhelmed him and he was sent flying, careening off into the endless void. Shadow’s ears rang as he fought to gain his bearings in the zero gravity, vision obscured by the beam’s intensity. He wasn’t sure how long he floated there, disoriented, tumbling and struggling to hold onto consciousness. Then his ears picked up on the distant sounds of explosions. He blinked rapidly, clearing the white spots from his vision and was once again met with the sight of the stars—endless and infinite. His breath caught at the sight of them as slow tendrils of power floated around him in a soft silvery rose glow. He could hear Maria’s voice again in his mind, so clearly that it was as if she was right there beside him.
‘I wonder which one you came from, Shadow.’
Another explosion behind him jolted him from his thoughts. Earth was still whole and untouched by the blast. Had they succeeded in turning it away from Earth? Chaos, he hoped so. Shadow turned to see fires erupting all over the Eclipse Cannon, the massive machine slowly tilting as more of its surface was consumed in flames.
It wasn’t over.
‘You always have a choice .’
Sonic.
Shadow’s head whipped around, his eyes scanning the endless black for any sign of the blue hedgehog. Nothing. His chest squeezed with a sudden icy fear. He had seen Sonic’s golden luminance start to fade as they held back the Cannon’s beam. But he had to be alright. He had chased Shadow around the world, all the way to the moon. And his friends were always one step behind him. Even before rage had consumed his heart and fueled his assault. He had barely known the other hedgehog, but he knew he had to be alright. Between chasing Shadow through the city streets hurling playful insults as he pursued him, to fighting alongside each other in a whimsical dance of robotic destruction, Shadow refused to believe that someone like Sonic could be beaten. Even by a doomsday beam, if only out of sheer annoying stubbornness.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a small yellow figure sail into the air from the side of the cannon and barreling towards Earth. Shadow’s eyes locked onto it.
The fox. Sonic’s friend.
Shadow’s eyes widened as he finally spotted the hero’s unconscious body, his fur dark blue and unlit by the power of the crystals, limp and burning through the atmosphere as he hurdled towards earth. Shadow turned and jolted towards them. He couldn’t let his counterpart fall to his death. But another explosion behind him caused him to falter. The fire on the Cannon’s left side has started to eat away at the exterior, bits of shrapnel flying off of it.
Shadow looked back at Sonic and the fox, his throat thick with emotion as he watched them fall further into Earth’s soft glow. Sonic would be safe. He had friends that he trusted. They would take care of him. They would see him safely back to where he belonged.
Shadow gritted his teeth and teleported himself inside the cannon. Robotnik confirmed it–they had managed to direct the beam away from earth, but it wasn’t over yet.
“The reactor core is overloading. It’s only a matter of time before it blows,” he said despondently.
“So what does that mean for Earth?”
“A radioactive atmosphere. Rain that kills the crops and melts your flesh. Other than that…” Robotnik trailed off.
“We’re not done here!” Shadow exclaimed. “You try to stabilize the reactor. Buy me some time. I’ll push the station away from Earth before it explodes.”
‘Doing the right thing is never easy .’
“This is our last chance to do the right thing.”
“Vaya con dios, erizo apestoso.”
He didn’t understand whatever the Doctor said, but his expression confirmed his assent. And they were out of time.
Shadow teleported back out into space. He unclipped the golden cuffs from his wrists that had been designed to inhibit and focus his power. He was going to need every ounce of strength to do this. Immediately, he felt Chaos energy explode in his body—wild, untamed, unmatched, and all consuming. Pain seared through him, like his physical body was too small and too weak to hold onto such immense, raw power. He always wondered if he was a flawed design, something too big to be contained in something so small. It hurt; his body shook with pain.
He slammed his palms against the cold steel of the cannon, gritted his teeth, and pushed. The power from his Chaos along with the borrowed power from those mysterious crystals was more than enough to get the massive structure moving. It bucked and groaned, metal screaming in distress as he used every part of his power to push it further and further away from Earth, debris falling all around him. Shadow could feel the energy that he had infused the core with, crackling violently just out of his reach and far too volatile to try to reabsorb. But the Doctor had been true to his word. The Cannon shuddered and sent vibrations throughout the whole weapon as he tried to slow the inevitable meltdown.
Shadow pushed even harder, drawing more Chaos energy from the endless well inside him. It sparked from him, crackling in elegant, supercharged lightning arcs around his body. He had to fix this. He had to make it right. This was his fault. He had done this. All of this was made possible because of him . His power. His anger. His grief. His loss….
Sonic’s voice rang in his head.
‘I know you’re hurting but don’t let that change who you are inside.’
I’m so sorry Sonic. I wish I could have thanked you for giving me a second chance....
‘You can do or be anything you want. Not because of your powers but because of who you are. In here.’
Maria.
Shadow closed his eyes, his mind drawn to her voice in his head. The pain that surged through his bones, the explosions as the core began its final death knell, his own powers snapping around him in a storm, it all faded. He could hear the soft chords of Maria’s favorite song as she played it for him in their blanket fort. Her smile as she pressed her hand against the glass of his containment chamber, the first act of kindness he had ever received. Her joy at seeing the stars, their celestial light reflected in her soft blue eyes as she reached up at them. Her arms that wrapped around him in the dark as they hid from another round of his lab tests. Her playful giggle as she tried to race him through the halls. Their arms swinging to the music. Their little games. The movie nights. Her hand in his. Squeezing. Reassuring him that she was there.
Forgive me, Maria.
The chaos energy hit its peak inside the core. Shadow opened his eyes one final time and pushed as hard as he could, hoping that he had done enough to save the planet he’d tried to destroy. Hoping that the violent Chaos that lived inside him had done something good. Hoping that Sonic’s friends had saved him in time.
Blinding light exploded as the core finally gave out. He closed his eyes as everything became white, his face softening as radiant oblivion overtook him.
Shadow welcomed it.