Chapter Text
The wind wove its invisible fingers through the blades of green grass, whispering them in wave-like ripples as it rustled along the landscape as if sharing secrets. Sunlight poured like liquid gold across Green Hill Zone's undulating hills, each ray setting the surface of the ocean ablaze with shimmering highlights. It was the kind of afternoon that made everything feel right. Whole. Unbreakable.
A streak of cobalt blue ripped across the horizon.
Sonic the Hedgehog raced through the familiar terrain, the wind whirring against his quills as he reveled in the sheer speed. The world was a blur around him, yet each detail—each loop, each plunge, each precarious wobble of a dandelion—seared itself into memory as only home could. There was nothing quite like a run on a perfect day.
“Man,” he mused aloud, grinning against the wind, “nothing beats this.”
With effortless grace, he launched himself into the air, twisting his body mid-flight before landing in a perfect roll, seamlessly shifting back into a sprint. He barely had time to hear the steady hum of an engine before a voice—lighthearted, familiar—cut through the rush of the wind.
“You’re just showing off now!”
Tails soared overhead, his twin tails blurring as he perched himself agilely on the wing of his biplane, the Tornado. The young fox had a wicked grin, eyes sparkling beneath the visor of his goggles.
Sonic, not breaking his stride, turned to run backward. "Hey, if you've got it, show it off."
Tails let out a chuckle but tapped something on his wrist-mounted device, the glass screen flickering to life. “Since you’re in the mood to race,” he said, his tone carrying that telltale excitement of an inventor unveiling something new, “I’ve been working on a little experiment. Try and keep up.”
Before Sonic could get a clever retort out, a searing flash of electric-blue energy crackled about the Tornado's form. The plane darted forward in an instant, ripping through the air with inhuman speed. Sonic's eyes widened in appreciative surprise before narrowing in determination.
"Oh, it's on."
With a burst of power, he catapulted forward, staying even with the newer plane, their flight paths etching the terrain in a vertiginous dance of technology and raw speed. Competition's thrill was indubitable in his blood, and then—
A shudder.
Subtle, at first. Like the earth had just wobbled beneath his feet. But then the sky shifted. The light dimmed slightly, and an odd hum quivered through the air.
Tails, still hovering in the air, frowned and flipped open his scanner. "Uh... Sonic? You feel that?"
Sonic kept on running, raising an eyebrow. "What, the bit where I'm totally winning?"
Tails didn't laugh this time. His fist tightened on the console, eyes darting across changing readings. "No. Something's... wrong. The energy readings just spiked—off the roof."
Static shrieked through the communicator of Tails' device before a voice—tight, tense—sliced through.
"Sonic! Tails! Something's happening at the lab—get back here now!"
Amy's scared voice startled them both. They met each other's gaze briefly, then changed direction, racing toward Tails' workshop at the summit of a sheer cliff face.
The workshop was a controlled chaos of creativity—a space filled with intricate blueprints, half-built devices, and flashing screens cascading coded data. But today chaos was in control.
Amy stood at the console, knuckles white against the edge of the desk as she stared at the screen in front of her. Nearby, Knuckles stood by the window, arms crossed, his usual glower hardened into something far more serious.
Sonic, followed by Tails, skidded into the room, breath steady but posture alert. “Alright, we’re here. What’s the big—” His eyes flicked to their expressions, his grin faltering. “—uh, problem?”
Amy didn't waste time, poking a finger at the middle screen. "This."
The display revealed a growing distortion in the sky—a vortex of pulsing violet and blue energy, roiling violently above the landscape. The ground beneath it hitched, momentarily dissolving into jagged, fragmented pixels before reconstituting itself in an artificial heartbeat.
Tails stared in wonder, his ears folding back. "That... that's impossible."
Knuckles, ever the pragmatist, snorted. "No, it's real. And it's getting worse."
Sonic folded his arms, head tilting at the anomaly. "So... any chance this is just some wild light show?"
Tails pounded away at his console, his expression darkening as additional readings appeared. "This is Paradox Prism energy. But at the same time... this... it's different. It's not just unstable—it's devouring reality itself."
The walls trembled with a deafening BOOM.
The sky outside darkened as torn crevices materialized along the horizon. From the midst of the rift, forms emerged—dark shapes, twisting and glitching as if they weren't meant for this world.
Amy's voice was barely above a whisper. "What... are those?"
Sonic stepped nearer to the door, his usual carefree demeanor set aside. His instincts were yelling at him, muscles bunched, ready. "Only one way to find out."
He darted out before anyone could stop him.
The sky writhed in a nightmare maelstrom of colors. The shapes solidified—familiar, yet utterly alien. Twisted reflections of himself and his friends, their bodies wavering between existence and nonexistence.
One of them—a deformed, frozen mockery of Knuckles—attacked. Its movements were wrong, flawed, as if its body was collapsing even as it attacked. Sonic jumped out of the way just in time before the creature crashed into the ground, sending fingers of ice crawling through the grass.
Tails burst out of the workshop, eyes scanning wildly. "They're fragments! Pieces of other universes caught in the collapse!"
Knuckles tightened his fists, standing with Sonic. "Then let's smash 'em."
But before they could act, the rift exploded outward in a violent shockwave. The blast hurled Sonic back—his arms and legs flailed, gravity distorted as the very fabric of reality ripped around him.
The colors of the world inverted, shadows stretched into impossible shapes. Sonic reached out, but space itself seemed to stretch, pulling him away. He caught a last glimpse of his friends, their hands reaching—Amy's scream, Tails' despairing wail—before everything dissolved into blazing white.
And then—
Nothing.
Only silence.
The world returned to Sonic in fragments—a stinging cold against his fur, the crunch of ice beneath his feet, the poisonous violet hue of the sky giving a spectral light to the frozen desolation. His breathing was brief gasps, trembling gasps, misty clouds about his head. The fog in his mind slowly cleared out, but numbness in his limbs remained, making even the simple effort of pushing himself upright painful.
"Ugh. Wh-what just happened?" he moaned, his voice hardly audible above the howling wind.
At first, his instinct had been to run, but as soon as he tried to do so, his body could not comply. He was heavy, his body laden, his stride reduced to a fraction of what it had been. The cold was seeping in, and it was not even the cold itself—there was something more, something intangible, pressing down on him, holding him back.
"Okay, not Green Hill. Not anywhere I know... And definitely not warm."
Sonic clenched his fists, forcing his muscles to comply, forcing himself upright. The landscape stretched out before him, a twisted mockery of something familiar. The gentle hills of Green Hill Zone existed here, but encased in a thick layer of ice. The river was frozen solid, crystalline points jutting from its edges. Deep within the distance, huge pieces of land hung in mid-air like they had been torn from existence itself. A horror realized in shades of ice and destruction.
Then the footsteps—thudding, methodical, crunching through the snow behind him. Sonic spun around hard, instinctively falling into fighting stance. A dark figure emerged out of the frozen mist, quills black and red powdered over with frost, red eyes cutting through the chill with cold intensity.
Shadow.
There was tension between them the instant they saw each other, heavy as the frozen air clinging to them.
"...You..." Shadow said, his voice low and unyielding, unreadable.
Sonic blinked, struggling with his shock. "Shadow?"
Shadow breathed out, his cloud visible in the air. His gaze never wavered from Sonic's. "So it is really you."
The words had weight. Sonic felt that, although he didn't understand why. Between them there was a heavy silence, the wind howling between the rocky hills. Sonic's eyes roved once again, taking in the ruined world, his confusion deepening.
"This... This isn't Green Hill, is it?" he grunted, to himself more than to Shadow.
Shadow watched him carefully, his stance tight. His face gave nothing away, but his eyes held something sharp. Something that Sonic couldn't quite pinpoint.
"You finally returned."
Sonic frowned. "What?"
Shadow arrived, the iciness in his tone now. "Where were you?" He balled up his fists. "After all this time, after all of this, you just show up out of the blue?"
The accusatory nature of his tone was not something that could be missed, and Sonic instinctively took a step back. "Okay, wait—what are you talking about? This is the first time I've ever been here."
Shadow's glare grew stronger. "Don't play dumb, Sonic." His voice fell, with something bitter in it. "Not after all the damage you've done."
The words cut Sonic like a cold slap in the face.
"Whoa, okay—come on? I just got here. I don't know what's going on, but I think there's been a—" He exhaled a harsh breath, hugging himself against the cold. "—great, another dimension thing. Classic."
Shadow's eyes blazed with something uninterpretable, but he did not move. "Dimension...?"
There was a moment of silence. Sonic was not certain how much explanation to give, and Shadow was uncertain whether he should be more frightened or wary. There was heavy, charged tension between them, and neither stirred.
Sonic exhaled, ruffling his head. "Look, I don't know what kind of ill will is going on here, but I'm telling you—where I come from, this isn't the way it's supposed to be." He waved his arm. "Green Hill isn't a frozen wasteland. It's vibrant. It's warm. It's home."
Shadow's expression didn't shift, but something flashed behind his red eyes.
"It was."
Silence. The weight of those words pressed hard on Sonic, colder than ice under his feet.
Wind began to blow, and Sonic grew chilled, rubbing at his arms. He was not a man to yield to weakness, but that the cold weakened him was reality. "Right, great, love the coded language, but maybe we could take this conversation somewhere... not so cold?"
Shadow looked at him for a slow moment, then swung around. "Follow me."
Sonic paused only a moment before taking off to catch up, his own speed clumsy, weighty. Cold bit at him, holding him back more than he'd like to admit. He tried not to make it too clear, but Shadow noticed.
They walked in silence, the world abnormally still—no birds, no creaking of trees, no water. Just the sound of their footsteps on the ice. Sonic glanced over at Shadow, frowning.
"So, uh. Not to state the obvious, but what happened here?"
Shadow didn't immediately answer. His eyes were still staring ahead, his posture tight. Finally, after a long silence—
"You happened."
Sonic brought his walk to a stop, eyes wide. "Come again?"
Shadow stood there to look at him, face set, but a burden lurked in his voice—anger, guilt, something else.
"You disappeared. And everything collapsed."
Sonic's mouth fell to argue, and he changed his mind. To himself, he had never stood here. But to Shadow? Sonic disappearing wasn't just possible—it was the truth.
The effects started taking place.
"How long?"
Sonic finally spoke, voice softer now.
"Years." Shadow's voice was harsh, unwavering. "And when you vanished, the world started rotting."
Something inside Sonic tightened. He didn't know—he didn't know any of this. But Shadow... Shadow was looking at him like he was a ghost that didn't belong.
Finally, Sonic exhaled, rubbing the back of his head. "Well. That's... heavy."
Shadow scoffed. "Understatement of the century."
Before Sonic could continue with the questions, a distant rumble shook the ice beneath their feet. Instinctively, Sonic prepared himself, scanning the horizon. The rumble was deep, jarring.
"Alright, I know an ominous quake when I hear one."
Shadow clenched, his eyes traveling out to the horizon. Sonic followed where he was staring—something was traversing beneath the ice. A massive, sweeping shadow.
"We've been out in the open too long." Shadow stated coldly before he turned and accelerated.
Sonic glanced back, uneasy. "Yeah, you don't have to tell me twice."
As they disappeared into the icy wasteland, the shadow beneath the frozen ground stirred again—as if something ancient and patient had sensed Sonic's presence.
The shaking under the ice did not abate. If anything, it became more urgent, a low, humming vibration that felt as if the earth's bones themselves were on the move. Sonic's nerves yelled at him to hurry along, but cold had seeped into his muscles, tugging at his pace like an unseen anchor. In front of him, Shadow glided efficiently, each footstep measured and deliberate—like a man who had traversed this terrain a hundred times already.
Sonic exhaled sharply, his breath curving into the frigid air.
"Giant underground monster? Check. Freezing my quills off? Check. Absolutely no idea what's going on? Big check."
And then, suddenly—
CRACK.
The ice beneath him was slippery, broken like glass, and in a moment of movement, his leg splashed through into an icy void. Cold was instantaneous and brutal, seizing his muscles in an iron grip. Sonic gasped, teeth clenched, as shock nearly pulled him under.
"Whoa—! All right, nope, bad—very, very bad—!" He swiped at the ice, trying to pull himself up, but his hands caught nothing on the slick, icy surface. The blackness underneath the ice shifted—slowly, deliberately, aware of him now. It moved around below, something great and unimaginable shifting in the depths.
Then—
A tight grasp wrapped around his wrist, yanking him up with relentless strength. Sonic stumbled onto shore, coughing, shaking the water from his fur. Shadow's grip was unyielding, his expression impassive as he yanked Sonic upright.
"Keep moving." His voice was as cold as the air that enveloped them.
Sonic clenched a smirk, rubbing his arms against the icy chill. "Y'know, a 'you okay?' would be great."
Shadow was already in the lead. "Don't fall behind, and you won't require one."
Rolling his eyes but not arguing, Sonic gave a suspicious glance over his shoulder at the cracks now spreading spider-weblike beneath them. Whatever was below had felt him—had touched him. And it waited.
Time crawled in an endless drudgery of white and ice. Sonic, never fatigued before in his life, grew tired creeping into his very bones. Every step more labored, the cold a merciless enemy, sapping his speed, his strength, his nerve. But Shadow pushed on, relentless, as if driven by some energy Sonic was still unable to grasp.
Lastly, serrated cliffs rose in the distance, cutting across the flat expanse of frozen wasteland. Shadow made for them without hesitation, and when he reached them, Sonic saw what he had missed before: a cave, its entrance hidden by piled-up ice, barely distinguishable against the frozen rock.
Shadow stepped up to the solid stone, rapping three times in a precise rhythm. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a low mechanical whir, the ice-covered rock shifted, revealing beneath it something unmistakably unnatural—a heavy metal door, seamlessly embedded into the stone.
Sonic arched an eyebrow. “Secret base? Okay, now we’re talking.”
A mechanical scanner arm extended from a hidden panel, sweeping a thin red light across them both.
The next voice was artificial, its tone high and clipped. "Identity confirmed. Shadow—returning. And—" There was a pause. "Sonic."
Sonic frowned. There was something in the way the robotic voice said his name. A pause, as if in doubt.
"Status: previously missing."
Something cold fell into Sonic's gut. Missing? That was a strong word, and it clung to him, weighing more than the frost.
Shadow didn’t react. He simply stepped forward as the doors slid open, revealing a tunnel leading deep underground, dimly lit by pale blue lights embedded into the walls.
Sonic paused. The wind in his wake growled, a sharp reminder of the creature that lurked underneath the ice. Whatever was under it, it had already come for him before. And if Shadow thought this was safer than being out in the open, then he wasn't going to debate it.
He breathed and went in.
As the doors swung shut behind them, closing out the icy world above, Sonic couldn't help but feel that, in some manner or another, he had just crossed a threshold he would never be able to cross back.
The underground base did not live up to what Sonic was expecting. It was no high-tech resistance base, no sleek, defended command center throbbing with strategic brilliance. Instead, it was coarse, built from salvaged metal and blasted rock, its walls dripping with condensation, its lights faint and unpredictable, its shadows agitated and writhing with each movement. This was not a center of power—it was a center of survival. A transient refuge clinging to existence in a world that had long since crumbled.
Sonic crept cautiously, ears flapping. Something rested upon him, a déja vu so strong it made his back quills stand on end. Like Tails' old lab—but empty, shattered, left to die under the burden of something heavy and unspoken.
And then, voices.
Farther along in the tunnels, gasping and urgent—
"Shadow? Is it really—?!"
Sonic whirled at the noise. The voice was familiar, and yet—
A figure emerged from the shadowy corridor, moving rapidly towards them, then jerkily stopped. Sonic's muscles tensed as a couple of shining blue eyes locked onto him. But it wasn't someone.
It was Tails.
Sonic's tension eased as relief flowed through him, a smile already on his lips as he stepped forward one pace.
"Tails! Dude, I'm so happy to see you—"
But Tails didn't move. His face was locked—no, not with happiness, or relief, but with something else. Shock. Surprise. And something more, something below that, which Sonic couldn't quite name.
Tails whispered, almost soundlessly.
"...No way..."
And then, abruptly, leapt up, grabbing Sonic by the arms with a force that caught him off balance. There was something desperate in the hold, something urgent that ran through Sonic's backbone.
“You’re back!...” Tails breathed, his eyes scanning every inch of him, wide and frantic, as though trying to prove he was real. “You’re actually back!...”
Sonic blinked, twitching his ears. Something was wrong in the sense that Tails was looking at him. His fur was tougher, more mussed, his goggles cracked and worn from being used for all those years. The fur of his left arm replaced with metal, a cybernetic arm. This Tails—he was different.
And then it hit him.
Right. This wasn't his Tails.
But Tails didn't notice.
Sonic attempted to de-light the occasion, attempting a smile that hung badly.
"Uh. Yeah? Surprise?"
Tails froze. And, without any sort of warning from Sonic, was hauling him in into a strained, quivering hug.
Sonic rigid. This was something he was not used to getting.
"You were gone for so long..." Tails gulped out on raw air, shaking the entirety of his being.
Sonic's breath caught in his throat. This—this wasn't supposed to occur. In every other world, in every other Shatter-verse he had been hurled to, no one had ever known him. But here? Here, they had expected him.
And that realization fell in his gut like a boulder.
A shadow shifted on the periphery. Sonic glanced sideways—Shadow was there, arms crossed, expressionless and unreadable, watching.
When Tails finally released his grip, he kept his hands on Sonic's arms, as if letting go would make him disappear. His voice was gruff.
"I thought... I thought you'd never come back."
Sonic swallowed hard. He was used to fixing things, but this? He had no clue what was broken.
Before he could respond, another voice cut through the tense air—cool, calm, but with a hint of something sharp.
"So the lost hero finally returns."
Sonic turned around.
Rouge stood in the doorway of another corridor, arms folded, one eyebrow lifted. Even with the low lighting, he could see how changed she was. Warmer armor, padded against the cold. A jagged scar across one eye. Her usual air of easy confidence had been replaced by something harder and more calculating.
She came closer, inspecting him.
What's wrong?" she whispered. "Cat got your tongue?"
Sonic took a deep breath, reminding himself to stand tall, to grin.
"Nah, just readjusting." He waved his hand in a circle around them. "So, uh... Can someone tell me precisely what I left behind?"
There was silence.
Tails, Rouge, and Shadow all exchanged glances. The air was electric. Whatever had happened in this world, nobody wanted to be the one to talk about it.
Sonic let his gaze drift over them, really looking at them now.
He crossed his arms, trying to muster a small smile, in a bid to break the weight strangling the room.
“Alright, so, I’m just gonna say it—you guys look like you’ve been through a blender. And not in the fun, chili-dog smoothie kind of way.”
No one laughed.
His grin faltered.
Tails shifted. Rouge’s expression remained unreadable. Shadow said nothing.
The silence stretched until, finally, Tails spoke—his voice quiet, hesitant.
“...You really don’t remember?”
Sonic hesitated. The way Tails said it—it wasn’t disbelief. It was hope.
Hope that Sonic was just pretending.
Hope that maybe he remembered.
But he didn't.
And he couldn't even imagine how to tell them.
He washed out an embarrassed laugh and raised a hand.
"Hey, little fella—I'd remember if I was here before. I mean it. A frozen wasteland with a hidden lair? Just about impossible to forget." He waved his hand vaguely. "I don't even remember how I got here—"
He stood still. The memory struck him—the explosion of his Green Hill. The Paradox Prism. The power calling to him.
Could this place...
Shadow's eyes narrowed.
"How did you arrive here?" he snarled.
Sonic stumbled.
He could explain the Prism. But that would not explain why they recognized him.
"I don't know." His voice was gentler this time. "One minute I was at home, the next—I was here."
Tails' confusion deepened. Rouge frowned. Shadow's expression darkened.
"Is that it?" Rouge asked. "No details? No memory of anything before?"
Sonic shrugged. "Unless I sleepwalked through an apocalypse."
No one laughed.
Then Tails stepped forward, his fists clenched.
His voice was softer now, laced with something Sonic did not want to hear from him.
Hurt.
"Sonic... you were gone for years."
The earth seemed to tip beneath Sonic.
His mouth was dry. He remembered what Shadow had said before bringing him there, but he still couldn't understand what he meant by 'gone'.
"...But-"
Before he could say another word, Rouge spoke up.
"You vanished. No warning. No explanation. Just... gone."
Tails' ears flattened against his head. "We searched everywhere. We tried everything. And when we realized you weren't coming back, everything came crashing down."
Sonic retreated a step backward, as though the wind had been knocked from his chest.
Years.
He'd never come here before.
But if that was the case—
Then where had their Sonic gone?