Watchdogs of the ARK

Like a Tidal Wave

Starlight brightly peeks into the Control Room, halting Shadow's grievous out pour of frenzied bawling.

"Another sunrise?" he gasps, barely able to breathe at this point. "Or, or could I be... dying too? Please let me be dead too!"

He stops weeping, holds onto Infinite and welcomes the wave, hopefully of death, to swallow them together. The same way a gush of water would lift a person with force and disregard for landing, Shadow feels himself being thrown and the jackal being snatched out of his arms. He tries to hold onto him but the pull is too great.

SWOOSH.

The tormented hedgie slides across the floor, carried off by a luminous flood, the already depleted air in his lungs, knocked right out of him.

Gasp. Cough. Wheeze.

He assumes he's the one making these noises but as his apparently, opened eyes adjust to the light, he's confronted with the blurred sight of Infinite rolling over and hacking.

"Infinite!" Shadow cries, intending to leap to his feet, but he can't. His legs are like noodles and his body feels emptied. He's only able to crawl on his elbows, like a broken soldier trying to get back into the trench.

Infinite turns over, struggling to inhale a good woof of air.

She seems smaller, more vulnerable than before, sweeter even, despite being partially conscious and in great pain. Wait a minute. She?

Shadow experiences the exact same agony in his own body, especially in his chest. He manages to get close enough to reach for his friend's hand, which he comfortingly holds.

"I'm here," he says in a horse but reassuring voice.

In the center of the room, Silver warps and observes the two suffering warriors. He floats before them, landing about a foot away. Shadow strains to gaze up at the spirit.

"Silver, you're alive?" he asks.

"If Silver is the name you wish to call me, I accept this title. You said you wanted to share your Chaos Energy with your friend. How noble and kind of you. I've made it so."

"You did what?" Shadow asks, trying not to pass out. "Black Doom..."

"Is no more," Silver assures him.

Poor Infinite continues gasping and coughing, curling in. Shadow maneuvers himself closer to the jackal, pressing his shoulder against Infinite's ribcage as Infinite rolls onto her back, making all sorts of excruciating sounds.

"Go to sleep," Silver says, holding his palms over both of them.

"No," Shadow begs... then blacks out.

He dreams of the past, racing across the Highway in the Sky with Sonic the Hedgehog. As they blissfully compete, the sky turns blue and sends Shadow back to planet Earth, where he sees Rouge soaring above him while he skates through a bustling metropolis. He journeys all the way to a beach, where the clouds morph into Maria. She joyfully waves to him before Tails swifts through the air in his plane, The Tornado. Sonic then rejoins Shadow on the beach and the race continues... until Shadow hears a girl whimpering.

He opens his eyes and sits up. The ARK's power has been restored and Infinite is backed into the corner of the room, shaking with massive confusion and terror in her revived, blue eyes. Shadow finds his strength and is able to get up to approach the jackal, who growls and cowers, ready to fight but too afraid to do so.

"Shh, it's alright," Shadow says. "Black Doom is gone. You were right, Silver's spirit returned and saved the ARK."

He gets on his knees and reaches for Infinite but, to Shadow's surprise, the jackal violently claws him across the shoulder.