Chapter Text
The moon was high in the sky when he found her standing in the gardens, wearing a gown despite constantly insisting she disliked it due to it restricting her movement.
It was the dress he had gifted her, the day she ascended the throne with the title of King despite her gender. Not that any of the normal citizens knew that truth, of course. Only the king’s most loyal knights had that knowledge.
She turned toward him, noticing his silent presence without any suspicion. She never wondered why he was different from the other knights, and she never tried probing for the reason, either.
Her gentle but vibrant green eyes locked on him, her knight, and his breath caught in his throat at the warmth with which her gaze graced him.
“Lance! How did you know I was here?”
The king smiled brilliantly, her blue quills softly glowing from the purity of the moonlight. A full moon.
He relished the feeling of her attention, precious even if it was given often to him.
“Your Majesty.”
Lancelot kneeled before his king, a symbol of respect from a knight.
His heart thumped when the king placed her lace-gloved hand on his shoulder, his helmet covering the faint blush on his face.
“What’s up, Lance?”
The knight lifted his head, fixing the king with a look of noticeable disapproval. He knew well of her origins as one of another world, and has been trying steadfastly to at least modify her vocabulary for public appearances at the least.
“…What is the matter, Sir Lancelot?”
She rephrased her question and Lancelot nodded with approval before he stood and addressed her modestly.
“…Thou prefer being called by thy name, yes, King Sonic?”
“That is so weird. Just my name, please.”
Lancelot sighed as Sonic returned to her past manner of speech.
“Of course, Sonic.”
Sonic’s smile made his heart thump harder against his lungs, the flowers around her bloomed in the sweet moonlight, being nighttime blossoms and creating a gentle atmosphere around the two of them.
“Well then, whatever did thou need, Sir Lance?”
She spoke with an automatic accent to better form the words, practicing a curtsy she had learned from the etiquette classes with Sir Percival.
A surge of boldness swept through Lancelot as he stepped beside Sonic, his gaze fixed firmly on her beautiful face. It was disrespectful for a knight to have such thoughts or feelings for the king, but Lancelot did, knowing Sonic would never realize or reciprocate.
“Thou would wear such garments in the eve?”
The question escaped Lancelot the moment it had entered his mind, and he immediately turned his head away in embarrassment.
Sonic merely giggled at the question before nodding, even as she shivered slightly when a colder gale brushed by.
“Y’know, Lance. Standing out here together like this, it reminds me of when I first came here. Do you wish to know more about thine counterpart from back where I came from?”
Sonic turned her brilliant virescent gaze toward him once more, but this time, Lancelot shuddered because she was once again comparing him to the lookalike from her homeland.
The king had fallen from the sky, if Lancelot correctly recalled, due to the kingdom’s mage. Excalibur had chosen Sonic as the king to replace the fake Arthur, and Sonic had been given the title of king.
Though all the subjects, bar the closest circle of knights who knew Sonic personally, knew the king as King Arthur Sonic Pendragon. More commonly known without Sonic’s name being mentioned.
“What did thou say his name was, once more?”
Lancelot pushed away the memories of Sonic’s difficult coronation and brought back the other topic. He remembered, of course, but it always sounded better when it was she who spoke it.
“Shadow the Hedgehog.”
Her eyes shifted to the sky, locking on the figure of the full moon in the bright night.
The blue hedgehog seemed to care deeply for Lancelot’s doppelgänger, and Lancelot could tell. Although it wasn’t exactly him, he still felt fluttering in his heart when she said even his copy’s name.
‘A faker.’
The term came easily to mind, but it just as quickly faded with Sonic’s sheer wonderful presence.
He really shouldn’t be alone with the king. He had to leave.
Come to think of it, even the name ‘Shadow’ seemed strangely familiar to him. Perhaps due to the frequency with which the king mentioned him.
Lancelot shook his head, choosing to spend another moment beside his king in silence before moving to escort her back to her chambers.
“Your Majesty, thou must truly return to thine chambers. The night wind is chilling tonight, as it shall be for the entirety of this even.”
“Sometimes I just can’t understand what you say, Lance.”
Lancelot cleared his throat as he extended his arm toward the king he had sworn loyalty to by oath.
“Shalt thou permit thine knight escort thee, Your Majesty?”
Sonic laughed, the sound bright and amused and torturous to Lancelot by their proximity.
It was unprompted, but Sonic spoke only of Shadow the Hedgehog on their walk to her private chambers. Lancelot couldn’t linger, either with his mind or his body, and left his king alone in her room.
‘Is Sonic's mind so consumed by thoughts of this 'Shadow' that my king cannot be willing to stay longer?’
It was a thought that tormented Lancelot until the morn rose once again. At the very least, he should properly do his duties as a knight and protect Sonic completely.
Gawain and Galahad were sparring together in the knights’ training hall, Percival standing attentively to catch any movement that wasn’t a knight. She never was able to detect Lancelot, partially a testament to his skill, but mostly due to his own unique bloodline.
Just as he was about to surprise Percival yet again, a new knight recruitment barged into the grounds with a face ashen and drained of all color.
“The king—”
Lancelot’s body refused to obey his command, shutting down as the news reached his ears with a finality that threatened to bury him alive.
“The king has vanished!”
The moon was lower in the sky when Shadow woke up gasping for breath, the strange dream in his head mirroring the ones he used to have after Maria showed him one of her favorite storybooks.
He was always a knight, and he never remembered his life as Shadow, but there was a king he was loyal to. So loyal, he was willing to lay his own life down to keep the king safe.
The king’s face constantly evaded him in his dreams, although it seemed clearer in this dream than all the others, but no true details yet. Only the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen, which was a strange compliment to give a king.
He couldn’t remember the second part of the dream after the announcement that the king had gone missing, but it would either fade or come back to him with clarity once he was definitely awake.
‘Lancelot.’
That had been the name he had kept throughout the entirety of the dreams, every time without fail. Always being called ‘Lance’ by the king instead of his title.
Lance had gone somewhere after the news… but Shadow really couldn’t remember at the moment. In fact, he shouldn’t be feeling so invested in a mere dream. It was, frankly, ridiculous.
Although… just thinking about the king made his heart tug in strange ways that made him want to rip it out to investigate the cause of the anomaly. It always happened whenever he remembered the king from his bizarre dreams.
That reminded him, weirdly enough, of a different matter. Sonic was supposed to have some sort of day out with Amy just yesterday, but had disappeared for the entire day only to come back at nearly twilight.
A single thought strayed back to Lancelot and his king, and a second thought followed that one before it was muddled by Shadow trying to remember what Sonic had said had happened.
‘The king forsook the loyal knight, returning home instead of thinking of staying.’
Shadow frowned when his memories led to a dead end. Sonic had barely looked at him when he had asked where the blue hedgehog had disappeared to, although Sonic had definitely flinched at the mention of ‘disappearing’ from Shadow.
‘How odd… I shouldn't particularly care.’
Shadow shook his head and began his routine for the morning. He decided to practice the swordsmanship drills he remembered from the dream, although they were most definitely inaccurate since it was only a dream. The motions calmed his thoughts until he could only feel an urge to check on Sonic.
Every single time his thoughts turned to Sonic, or he was near Sonic, his body refused to hurt the faker unless he thought of it as sparring between rivals. He could never rival his king. Even his heart reacted oddly with the blue hedgehog’s proximity, constantly thumping in a strange rhythm as if his heart knew the hedgehog before Shadow ever did.
He really felt like he had to check on Sonic now that his thoughts were focused solely on the faker.
Shadow pushed past the urge, attempting to find the source with his own mind, but was blocked from going anywhere near some part of his memories.
He had to investigate it, which he had the feeling was going to lead to something bad. Extremely bad. Terrible enough to lose what was dearest to his heart.
‘What in the world is this?’
(Imagine the second sentence before this one was in a really fancy, old-timey font, please. I don’t know how to set that.)
Shadow’s fingers twitched to where the dream version of him would wield his sword, his other hand trying to more firmly secure a helmet he wasn’t even wearing.
‘…What exactly happened to Lancelot and the king?’
Long before the king’s disappearance, after Sonic managed to call for a ceasefire with Lancelot…
“So. Thou claims to be from a world foreign to our own?”
It made sense, since he had seen the blue hedgehog appear from the sky with his own eyes… Lancelot sheathed his blade, still wary of the stranger that was speaking in riddles of tongues he could hardly properly comprehend. King Arthur had ordered the knights to get rid of the foreigner on sight, and Lancelot had no desire to disobey an order from the king, as he was still viewed as an outsider to many. He, a fully fledged knight, had lost to a mere apprentice knight in a duel.
The two hedgehogs were of contrasting colors, standing at the edge of the road and what marked the beginning of the lush green forest within the boundaries of the kingdom. If they moved deeper following a few trees, they would end wind up in a clearing. There were many clearings in the expansive woods, and just as many mysteries all the same. The domain of the Lady of the Lake was within this forest as well, an entity that Lancelot was familiar with outside of the knowledge all the kingdom’s knights shared.
The blue hedgehog shrugged, leaning against a single slightly discolored tree as green eyes studied Lancelot’s unnerving features. He didn’t look as… natural normal as other civilians or knights did. A sign of his unknown heritage, though it was known to Lancelot himself.
Caliburn, the sword meant to dwell in Excalibur’s scabbard, did not speak beyond a few disgruntled hums.
The strange hedgehog spoke up after a few moments of one admiring the other’s face and Lancelot measuring this potential enemy’s strength.
“You look a lot like this friend of mine from back home.”
The statement should’ve been a shock if Lancelot hadn’t already thought up a theory beforehand.
“Shadow?” The name felt foreign and bitter on his tongue. He found that he preferred when the foreigner spoke it instead. Perhaps the next time it was brought up… Lancelot continued to speak before the silence grew too large. “Thee hadst spoken hist name when thou first laid thine gaze upon me.”
The blue hedgehog frowned slightly, head tilting as Lancelot’s words deciphered themselves in strange ways.
“Could you, uh, speak less—no, more like a… a commoner? Would that help?”
“A… commoner? Thou… you mean as one of the citizens of the kingdom?”
Lancelot frowned at the foreigner, wary of the strange things happening in the kingdom as of late. A thought returned to mind as he studied the outsider. That perhaps this hedgehog was the root cause of all the anomalies.
It was ridiculous even to Lancelot, since the sword had chosen this… stranger instead of one of the castle’s knights.
Not that Lancelot had any desire of attaining the throne or the kingdom, as he himself was an outsider. Even if he did tie himself into the role of a knight of the kingdom. A sentiment he would quickly disregard if any harm befell those close to Lancelot’s heart.
“Yes! Like that! Man, I could hardly understand you before.”
The blue hedgehog sighed in relief, shifting to lean more heavily against the tree. Lancelot had to readjust the thoughts in his mind to focus on the present.
“I am Sir Lancelot of the Knights of the Round Table, the loyal subordinate of the king, and Commander of the Knights.”
Lancelot positioned himself more strictly with his introduction, although he didn’t know why he bothered. He just felt… like he was supposed to know the blue hedgehog. Perhaps. He wouldn’t trust this storyteller as far as he could throw him, which could be a considerable distance with his physical ability.
“Oh right! Have I introduced myself yet? I’m Sonic, just a hedgehog who loves to run.” Sonic gasped and dashed forward until their faces were perhaps inches apart, excitement was palpable in the blue hedgehog’s demeanor. “Hey, Sir Lance!”
“Lancelot.” He moved a few steps back for a more appropriate distance as he corrected the nickname.
“Lance, do you know someone named Maria?”
Lancelot did not twitch or show any inclination of knowing someone by such a name.
‘Maria… no. But it sounds uncomfortably similar to what her name could be pronounced in the mortal tongue. Though that is not her name.’
What did this foreigner know of the waters of the kingdom? Sonic couldn’t possibly know…
“I know no one by the name of Maria.”
Lancelot denied Sonic’s question firmly, knowing that his answer was indeed true to an extent.
“Ah. Man, I thought I was onto something. You don’t have a sister?”
Sonic’s disappointment felt like venom to Lancelot, and without even meaning to, he answered. He shouldn’t have felt obliged to answer. He was a knight, and there was always a chance that enemies were eavesdropping like the pests they are.
“…I have a sister.”
The delight in Sonic’s expression at his response left Lancelot stunned momentarily.
“You do?”
Lancelot nodded in reply, distrustful of what his tongue may say. He was meant to be wary of this foreigner, a potential enemy to the king and the kingdom.
Sonic grinned, not asking anything more, to Lancelot’s relief.
“Hey, Lance! Do you wanna spar with me again? The first time was kinda fun!”
“What?”
Lancelot was left bewildered by Sonic’s sudden… request.
‘This apprentice knight has already defeated me once. Would you do so again, Sonic?’
Lancelot could use this as a way to show his own strength…
“I… lost?”
Lancelot lost in a mock duel against a hedgehog that couldn’t even properly wield a blade. He lost again to an apprentice, so the first time wasn’t a fluke…
“We have no time for more duels! We must go visit Lady Nimue, Knave!”
Caliburn scolded the blue hedgehog, who sighed in exasperation and shook the sword roughly in reply.
“Sorry Lance. Let’s duel when we see each other again!”
Dashing off, Lancelot was left alone in the forest, thoroughly defeated by the one he was tasked to eliminate.
Perhaps that was when Lancelot’s existence itself began to be drawn toward Sonic.
If it was Sonic… he was willing to learn how to use the abilities he was created with. He would have to ask either his sister or her father for advice…
Sonic shot upright, blankets being tossed aside as she took in the surroundings she never thought she could ever see again.
“How… what…?”
She could hardly form proper sentences, the words bubbling up and dying in her throat before they ever left her mouth. She had ended up back in Green Hill after being crowned as the king of Camelot, although it was mostly kept secret since none of the knights wanted the civilians to panic, and her friends had all been there. Just as suddenly as she had arrived in Arthur’s kingdom, she had returned.
Sonic felt bad about standing up Amy, but she kinda couldn’t help it, other worlds and all that jazz.
…She could barely look at Shadow, after what she had done to her closest ally and friend inside the book. She hadn’t told him her choice, hadn’t explained how much she wanted to stay and continue seeing him, and had never had the chance to express her true feelings towards him. It was hard to face Shadow, who was identical to her beloved knight, Lancelot. However she couldn’t just leave her friends from back home alone with Eggman, to suffer for forever with the lunatic.
She made a choice that she desperately hoped she wouldn’t regret, even if she had to leave her knight, her Lancelot, to be alone in the book.
It was just a dumb book, and she had been so idiotically invested in the story that she had believed she was in it. That’s what Amy had summarized when Sonic tried to explain why she hadn’t shown up.
“Oh, Lancelot. My darling knight and dearest of friends. Forgive me for forsaking you to a life of misery and loneliness.”
Sonic was kneeling beside her bed, imagining Lancelot’s figure standing before her as she begged him for forgiveness. She couldn’t let her friends suffer, since she was the only one that could efficiently push Eggman’s plans back, and the kingdom had the knights for protection… but she just felt pain, being separated from her knight.
She didn’t know how he reacted to her disappearance, and while part of her wanted to know, the other part wanted to move on from him. While a smaller part of Sonic wanted to imagine Lancelot in place of Shadow. She couldn’t do that to her rival, not Shadow. She wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.
It had been Sonic’s choice to return ‘home’ to Green Hill, but every moment was filled with an endless and all-consuming regret.
A knock sounded on her door after she had gone back inside after attempting to explain to Amy the situation, and Sonic wiped away the tears she hadn’t realized had been falling and soaking into her fur and clothes. She quickly washed her face, to hide the tears, and checked who was on the other side of the door.
“Sonic?”
‘That voice. It isn’t Lancelot. Focus. That is not Lance. Not my Lance. Not my knight.’
“…Shadow?”
It took a moment for the name to leave her lips. She had grown alarmingly attached to Lancelot, even though she had a slight crush on Shadow before everything, but now her heart was filled with moments she shared with Lance. Shadow might still be in there, somewhere, but her heart yearned for the knight she had left behind.
Just as he yearned for his liege.
Sonic laughed awkwardly as she opened the door to better converse with Shadow.
“What could be the matter, Shadow?”
Out of habit, Sonic’s words formed in the way she had grown accustomed to.
A frown tugged on Shadow’s lips, unnoticed by the tired Sonic, as the words felt uncomfortably familiar to the dark hedgehog.
“Spar with me.”
The words slipped before Shadow could follow think them through, a request that had come easily to him. As if he had asked that same question before, quite a number of times.
Shadow hadn’t, but Lancelot definitely had.
Sonic stared at Shadow with an unreadable gaze, radiating the feeling of regret and sorrow as the blue hedgehog nodded in a brief reply.
So the two left, the moon hung low in the sky as it rose, a full moon the same as the night the king had last seen the most loyal knight and disappeared. A taunt to both the ex-king and the one with fragments of the knight.
They sparred with wooden swords Shadow had prepared out of ‘habit’ for the king. Two hedgehogs continued to spar as the moon rose and set for the dawn to rise.
Emotions became heavily entangled in the night, and both were uncertain of what feelings lay between them going forward.
One would see the other with confusion and hesitation, while the other would see the ultimate life form with regret and sorrow and despair unbefitting a ruler. She would see him through Shadow, echoes of their bond would continue rattling against her rivalry and friendship with Shadow.
Sonic didn’t feel like she wanted to wake up anymore. She didn’t feel like she deserved to, after what she put her knight through. She couldn’t rest with a clear conscious, not knowing how her knight reacted after all the time they shared together.
As she lay in her bed, going to sleep at the beginning of the dawn, a clock ticked on the distant wall parallel her position.
For a moment, that clock froze, and everything else did too. A figure stood beside the sleeping hedgehog, a mass of shadows and darkness as it stared at her with glittering ruby lights as eyes. It slowly lifted a shadowy hand to gently caress Sonic’s face, committing to memory what her face felt like as time resumed and the figure vanished.
It hadn’t worked on Lancelot’s first attempt, only managing a few minutes and one that wasn’t the hedgehog he was searching for. He could try again, as long as he could continue seeing her, he could try for eternity.
Lancelot could wait for eternity for his liege if he so had to. He always could. It was indeed interesting to learn more about himself and Sonic’s world, but he already knew what he knew. It was most important to learn about Sonic. The reason she abandoned him, forsook him. He had heard her pleading, and it shattered his heart to hear her so pained.
Lancelot could wait. Lancelot could wait as long as he could. As long as he could piece their world back together. One fragment at a time.