Chapter Text
Shadow got up that morning with a bitter taste in his mouth and no, he wasn't talking about the alcohol he had consumed the night before. Not like alcohol could do anything to him; he's the Ultimate Lifeform.
What he was referring to was a dream. Usually, he would remember all his dreams (he'd rather call them nightmares, but Rouge had started reprimanding him for negativity), but this one felt so strange. There was somebody else with him. He was so sure it was—
"Shadow! Are you still here?" Shadow heard a voice that made him physically recoil.
That was when he had a look at where he was. He was at home for sure, but why did it look so messy? Every corner seemed to be occupied with something that shouldn't be there. Shadow was getting pissed.
"There you are! I'm surprised you haven't left yet." Rouge looked genuinely surprised. Shadow took a split second to wonder if his glorified coworker was any more knowledgeable than his average affiliate.
"Why does my room look like this?" Shadow snarled at the bat, who rolled her eyes in exaggeration. Scratch that earlier thought; Rouge was way less intimidated than his average affiliate. Her knowledge wasn’t to be questioned at this point.
"I thought you said alcohol doesn’t affect you, handsome. I'm gonna have to start mixing up more of what I gave you last night." Shadow stared at the scheming bat for a moment before opening his mouth to attempt scaring her into temporary paralysis, but Rouge spoke up again.
"You and a certain blue blur decided that the best place to rough it out and assert dominance was in my bar, and I wasn't having it. So I asked Omega to bring you guys here since Blue was going on and on about Tails and how unsafe it would be to–"
"You let that hedgehog into my house?!" Rouge had turned around at this point, and it was obvious by the look on her face that she had only turned to gauge Shadow's real reaction so she could continue with her usual sass. And it looked like Shadow wasn't intimidating enough to get her to shut up just yet.
"Correction: you did, handsome. You offered to bring both of you here, but chaos control doesn’t exactly work well when you're drunk," Rouge sneered as she seemed to recount a memory from the night that Shadow had no recollection of.
"This is ridiculous, bat. Either you poisoned me and made me do all these nonsensical things you're saying, or you're a good liar. Neither of which has a lesser punishment," Shadow said as if he were fighting the likes of Robotnik.
Rouge took a moment to stare at him, her eyes filled with an emotion that Shadow was painfully familiar with: hurt. But what is she hurt about? She's the one being difficult.
"Oh, Shadow, my poor feminine heart. You dare accuse me of being a witch and a liar when you know only one of those is true," Rouge taunted in a desperate attempt to hide her feelings, but that didn't convince Shadow in the slightest.
"Just tell me, Rouge," Shadow sighed in exasperation, and his female companion took it as a sign to be serious.
"I swear on my situationship with Knuckie, I'm telling you the whole truth," Rouge spoke as she placed both her hands in a swearing manner. Shadow began to question the relevance of keeping people close to you if they get to choose when they're useful and when they're not.
"Unless..." Shadow's ears perked up at that moment. Stupid Rouge and her stupid rage bait.
"You wanna go ask Big Blue about what happened last night. Though if your memory isn't good, I have no doubts that he's forgotten his own age. It's your choice, Shadow," she said calmly, keeping her eyes on said hedgehog.
Going to ask him wasn't a bad idea. Even though Rouge was setting him up for something he did not want to put himself in, that was the only way to get any sure answers about what happened.
Shadow didn't waste any more time. He shoved Rouge out of the way and left the room. The girl let out a yelp followed by an angry shout that Shadow didn't bother to register. He had learnt the hard way that the less you acknowledge, the less it's brought up. Besides, he had other things to think about
The ebony hedgehog left his house in a fit of rage mixed with pure curiosity and had walked out to the street before realizing that he had no idea where Sonic's place was
There was no way in hell that he was going to go back and ask Rouge. She'd probably ask for another gem or something mundane of the sort.
Right as he was about to grab a random person and bully them into telling him the location of their hero, an earthquake struck the ground. It didn't feel very normal, however.
Shadow turned to face the source of the shake and was immediately slammed into the ground by a robotic arm. Robotnik's doing, he presumed, not like there was anyone else who found pleasure in this line of work.
"FINALLY!" the Doctor's voice boomed through his speakers, which he had ever so discreetly assembled on the sides of his carrier. Times like this would remind Shadow that he wasn't all that bad when it came to subtlety, as Rouge would claim. He seemed to be thinking about her a lot. Odd.
"I managed to capture the so-called Ultimate Lifeform while he was walking down the street! This has got to be either pure luck or the reward for my genius," Robotnik exclaimed, his supposed happiness bubbling over. One can only imagine what he could get out of capturing the Ultimate Lifeform.
"I hope that wasn't your only plan," Shadow's gruff voice could be heard, and he was standing right in front of Robotnik's bewildered face. "It seems to me that your luck has run out." The smugness in his voice could be heard as well, and that only pushed the Doctor to a point of frustration.
"You rodent!" He hollered as the robot he came with rose from its temporary defeat. In the blink of an eye, Shadow activated his air shoes and skillfully dodged the attack. Or the excuse of an attack.
Something felt off about this one.
But before he could question it, another blow came his way; however, he didn't need to dodge this time.
A blur of blue streaks struck at the arm and left a gaping hole at the supposed wrist of the arsenal, with sparks flying to every corner. The furball that caused the damage stepped back to admire his work, his smug face enough to conclude that he was very pleased.
"You should be thanking me, Egghead," he said, his voice as obnoxious as ever. "I think this is my finest work."
"Not you again," his arch-nemesis grumbled to the hearing of everyone on the street, which at that very moment was himself, Shadow, and Sonic the Hedgehog. "This is between me and the Ultimate rodent, hedgehog. I advise you take your leave before you push me to do some very mean things." The threat sounded so strange for someone who was his acclaimed arch-nemesis.
"And when have I ever taken your advice? I thought you knew me well," Sonic retorted, getting into a battle position. Robotnik stared at the rodent beneath him for a brief moment before breaking out into maniacal laughter and leaving the scene, signaling for his robot arsenal to take over.
"Faker, wait." Sonic looked over at his lookalike with a puzzled expression on his face. Shadow continued, "The Doctor mentioned that his plans do not involve you. I suggest you refrain from your usual tactics."
"PFFT," Sonic dismissed his concerns. "When have Eggman's plans ever involved me? You need to learn to chill, Shads," he said before taking off into the air, leaving Shadow with one strange thought in his mind.
'Shads'?! Where did that come from? He's never called me that before…-
That train of thought was broken abruptly, however, when the robot remembered its target and sent a blast in his direction. Shadow dodged in reflex before setting himself for a spin dash and joining Sonic in the battle.
Both of them went at it for a couple of minutes, and it seemed like they had it under control. So much for being concerned. Wait, I'm not concerned; I was just suspicious of the Doctor.
"Well, well, Shads, you were saying?" Shadow looked up to see the azure hedgehog leaning forward and staring at Shadow with a look that screamed 'I told you so'. They had landed on the ground with their opponent seemingly beat right behind them.
"Stop calling me that, Faker, before I pound your skull in," Shadow snarled right back at him.
"Oh, c'mon, I thought you liked it." The scratching of metal could be heard. Shadow had his fists clenched.
"What is there to like about such a degrading name?"
"There's nothing degrading about a nickname, Shadow," Sonic sighed, giving an elaborate gesture of hands to go with it. "We talked about this already."
Shadow was quick to express his confusion. "When was that?"
That line alone made Sonic halt in his exaggerated expressions. He took a good look at Shadow, assumingly taking in all his facial features to make sure Shadow wasn't attempting the impossible and telling a sick joke. But when he found only pure confusion, the hedgehog's demeanor changed.
"Oh… don't worry about it, Shadow," Sonic muttered rather dejectedly. "I'll do well to only refer to you by your ultimate title."
This day is getting painfully stranger. What is wrong with Faker?
Sonic had turned his back to Shadow, and he knew that the azure would try to run from this conversation as he did with all his problems. Shadow wasn't like his friends, though. He was not going to play this stupid game
He grabbed Sonic by the foot and dragged him to the floor. Shadow hovered over the hero, who was now groaning in pain.
"What are you not telling me, hedgehog?" he growled as he raised his fist, sparks of chaos energy surging through it. The ebony's gaze alone was enough to scare Sonic into paralysis, his darting eyes the only indication that he wasn't dead. What is he staring at?
Shadow raised his head and looked in the direction Sonic's gaze was focused on. It didn't take long to realize why as his forehead came in contact with the barrel of the gun. It also didn't take long before Shadow's body was pushed along the ground, pain surging through his entire body.
He finally landed, body slammed on the concrete, and was unresponsive. Well, almost unresponsive.
It took a few seconds of observing his rival's idle frame before he spoke, his words coming from the deepest part of his throat.
"What did you do to him?"
Shadow had never heard Sonic talk like this before. Talk with so much passion. Why is he doing this for me, though?
Shadow managed to open his eyes amid the pain and he took in the sight before him. Sonic had impounded the robot, leaving behind the metal frame. The azure was breathing heavily and when he had turned around to look at the ebony, Shadow could see his bloodshot eyes and the energy coursing through his body. Chaos energy, Shadow concluded.
Right as Sonic was about to run to his rival (To check on him? To worry over him? To determine the severity of the blow? - Shadow wouldn’t know), he was immediately surrounded by badniks. Sonic was about to attack them, but that was not going to do the trick.
It happened so fast.
The badniks formed a circle around Sonic, and they made what seemed to be a holographic cage around the hero. Except it wasn't a hologram, and Sonic couldn’t see that. Shadow merely observed as Sonic's attempt at a spin dash failed. The Doctor had installed some sort of shock effect to the bars that had Sonic whimpering in pain.
Shadow pushed his body to stand. He wasn't going to let the Doctor get away with this
Why are you saving the hedgehog? The question ringing in his ear had no definite answer, not that he was waiting on one.
He formed a chaos spear in his hand and aimed it at one of the badniks. The target was dented and ceased to function, the damage catching the attention of the other badniks and their prisoner.
However, Shadow fell to his knees and the robots took it as their sign to continue their mission. They lifted Sonic in the makeshift cage and took him up to a large battleship that had Robotnik's initials plastered all over it.
Shadow stared into Sonic's desperate eyes, a silent promise that Shadow was willing to keep.
I'm coming to save you, Sonic. I will.
Shadow would have no idea if Sonic understood. His body slumped to the ground once more as the ship overhead disappeared.
And everything went dark.