Mirror Image

XII - No Strings Attached

"Okay, we really need to get moving," said Knuckles.

"Think you can keep up, Knux-y boy?" said Sonic, flashing a cheeky grin.

"I'll keep up; just to make sure you don't do anything stupid."

Sonic threw Knuckles a sly wink before racing off down the deserted city streets, and Knuckles followed close behind, leaving the deserted intersection and devastated façade of the café to their solitude.

~o~

The devastation in the plaza hurt Sonic's eyes to see it. The modern urban centre, not many years rebuilt since the old city's destruction at the tentacles of Perfect Chaos, lay in ruins once more. The whole area had become a raging inferno, and black smoke threatened to engulf Sonic & Knuckles.

Peering through the smog, Sonic could see no sign of either Shadow.

"Where are they?" said Sonic, "Shadow! Shadow, are you alright?" He pushed forward through the intense heat, stopping when he felt his weight shift underneath his feet, and found himself at the edge of a deep, smouldering crater.

Down in the depths of the recess, amidst the sinister crimson glow, Sonic saw two figures, recognising the familiar outline of the two Shadows. One knelt on the ground, arms slumped to his side, while the other had a hand pressed against his forehead. Sonic's heart skipped a beat to know Shadow still lived, but worry soon crept back in. Which one was the real Shadow? Who had won the fight?

That's when he saw the locket.

Glinting in the light of the flames, Shadow's precious locket hung as limp as his arms, the chain intertwining his fingers and the frame dragging in the dust. Sonic's heart began to race. The real Shadow had lost, he thought, and was now at the mercy of the doppelganger.

A flash of red shot through the kneeling Shadow, and he twitched slightly, before crumpling into a heap. Sonic gasped, and his heart shattered.

"NO!" he shouted, before scrambling down the dusty and cracked slopes of the crater towards the body. Knuckles threw down the robot he carried and charged down after him. Shoving the stunned Shadow out of the way, allowing Knuckles to catch the black hedgehog from behind and hold him in place, Sonic skidded to his knees, propping the limp body up on his lap and wrapping his arms around the shoulders.

"Damn you!" Sonic seethed, resting his head against the still head of Shadow, who stared out with unmoving eyes, "We were just starting to become friends, and I actually liked him! More than liked him, I don't know. Why did you do it? Why?!" He began to rock back and forth with his eyes tightly closed, cradling the still body in his arms, rage and sorrow flowing through him in equal measure.

"Er... Sonic," said Shadow.

"Shut up!" Sonic snapped, his eyes still tightly closed, "I have nothing to say to you!"

"Sonic, open your eyes!" said Knuckles.

Sonic obliged, jumping in fright. In his arms lay a similar spindly silver robot like the one Knuckles had carried. Leaping to his feet he let the metal corpse slump into the black ash.

"It wasn't you?" he said, looking at Shadow with confusion

"Obviously," sniffed Shadow, "I wouldn't give up so easily, for a start."

Sonic couldn't contain his happiness any further. He threw his arms around Shadow, kissing him repeatedly on the forehead. Shadow tensed up, standing upright as a board and holding him at arm's length.

"Alright, Sonic," he said, grimacing, "you've made your point."

"Yeah Sonic," said Knuckles, "we've had enough weirdness for one day." Sonic's face flushed crimson, and he avoided the two men's gaze, pretending to be interested in his shoes.

"Sorry about that. Got a little, ya know, overexcited."

"I assume your doppelganger is dealt with?" said Shadow. Sonic got a brief flash of his recent interactions with his copy, and felt his stomach turning again.

"Yeah," he said, "he's up at the top of the crater. Looks just like this guy now." Shadow nodded in silent approval, and Sonic's stomach twisted even further. I knew it, he thought, he's proud of the fact that I had the guts to kill, sort-of kill, whatever. What am I letting myself in for?

"Chaos, what a horrible mess this is," said Knuckles, looking at the flaming ruins surrounding them, "Hasn't Station square suffered enough?"

"It could have been worse," said Shadow. Knuckles glared at him.

"Could have been -?" he said incredulously, "there must be hundreds dead, you heartless bastard!"

"Be thankful," said Shadow, turning to stare down Knuckles, "millions more would have died had we not stopped these insane robots." Knuckles flared up again, but Sonic found himself silently agreeing with Shadow. He couldn't help feeling conflicted; did he agree because Shadow was right, in a cold logical sort of way, or because of his inexplicable attraction to the Ultimate Lifeform?

"Why the heck did they do it?" said Sonic, trying to diffuse the brash posturing between Shadow and Knuckles, "If they were just gonna cause havoc, why did they wait for so long? Why spend time infiltrating our circle of friends?"

"I think they genuinely cared about our friends, in a twisted sort of way," said Shadow, "they wanted them to be part of their new world order. It's tragic, really. They honestly thought they were real."

"Where did all that ideological crap come from anyway?" said Sonic, "you've never believed in anything like that, have you Shadow?"

"Of course not," said Shadow with conviction, although Sonic noticed he turned his back on him as he said it. He shook his head to dispel his unwanted thoughts; Shadow couldn't be that cruel, could he? His thoughts drifted off when he heard the sound of fluttering wings.

"Shadow!" cried Rouge from the top of the smoking crater, "Shadow, are you there?"

"It's alright," said Shadow, waving to her. The three men clambered to the top of the crater, black dust accumulating on their gloves. Knuckles grumbled as he dragged the former Shadow robot to the lip of the deep hole.

Climbing onto the relatively even street, they froze at the sounds of guns rattling all around them. On every side of them, soldiers in black combat fatigues and dark visors trained their assault rifles on them, angular silver robots readied their large laser cannons, and armoured trucks and tanks formed an impenetrable wall of metal. From the turret of an armoured vehicle one of the soldiers barked through a megaphone.

"Stay where you are! Get your hands up!"

"I'm so sorry, Shadow," said Rouge, her face heavy with pain, "I kept them back for as long as I could."

Shadow's expression became fierce, and Sonic feared the worst. He sharply nudged Shadow in the ribs.

"You can't fight them, Shadow!" he hissed. Shadow didn't look convinced, and neither was Sonic. He was confident this army was no match for them, but he couldn't bear to be party to any more destruction, any more death. His desperate look softened Shadow's stern glare, and with a heavy sigh the black hedgehog slowly raised his hands.

"Sonic & Shadow," the GUN leader continued, "By the power invested in me by the Supreme Commander of the Guardian Units of Nations, for the crime of mass murder, I hereby sentence you ..."

Shadow and Sonic both held their breath.

"...to death!"

~o~