Under a cloudless sky, far from the turmoil of the city, an ancient forest slumbered by the sparkling clear waters of a vast lake. On a grassy hill overlooking the pristine mirror below, a single tree stood in splendid isolation. An old oak stretched its arms over the hillside, casting long shadows across the grass, swaying softly in the gentle wind with a rustle like soft whispering. All alone it stood; a sentinel watching over the verdant paradise for intruders.
But no-one ever came here, to this place of beauty. It lay too far from the safety of the beaten track, of the well-mapped trails, and that was precisely why he lay beneath the ancient snaking boughs, an entire world all to himself within the cool shadows.
Shadow sat cross-legged on the hillside, facing the trunk of the tree, lost within his own thoughts. He focused on a drawing scratched into the dark and ragged bark of the tree, its pale lines almost swallowed up by the expanding wood. An outside observer would assume a child had done it; the way the figures had sticks for arms and plain smiling circles for heads, but they would be able to guess what it was supposed to be; two hedgehogs, smiling and holding hands under an equally cheerful sun.
But they would be wrong. The drawing had been wrought by the black hedgehog sitting in front of it, and only one of the figures was a hedgehog; the other should have been human, but art wasn't his strong suit, and he doubted any Mobian knew how to draw a human properly; they were few and far between, and most had probably never even seen one up close. The 'sun' was nothing of the sort, but a space station adorned with a giant face; the ARK.
Staring at the scrawl he had made decades ago, Shadow sighed heavily to himself. He came to this place to be away from Sonic; not because he didn't want to be around him for a change, but because he couldn't focus clearly when that face was before him. That face, the one that made him want to punch it repeatedly and kiss it passionately in equal measure. The face that twisted his heart up in knots whenever any pain fell across it. The only face to appear behind his closed eyelids, save one other.
In his hands he held the old locket, its open lid revealing the smiling face of Maria.
"Hi Maria," he said quietly, "it's Shadow. How have you been? Things have been... strange for me recently. I think... I think I might be in love, Maria. Isn't that great?"
He stared at the faded picture for a few moments in silence, imagining what Maria's reaction might have been. Closing his eyes he pictured her sweeping her arms around him, praising him and kissing his forehead, then another scene; her meeting Sonic for the first time, the Hero of Mobius bowing and kissing her hand like she was a princess. What would she think of him? Would she approve?
Focusing intently on those azure eyes, a warm feeling began to rise in his heart. Sonic's love for life, his passion for freedom and his spirit that was truly free, the only burden he felt being his great love for the world, and his need to keep everyone safe. All the things she dreamed of; Maria would have worshipped the ground he walks on.
But there it was, the niggling feeling he couldn't escape. Sonic felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders every day, and the thought of failure burned him from the inside out. Shadow knew he could be the one to pick him up when everything got too much. But that same protective nature was what made him feel so conflicted; did he really love Sonic, or was it only Maria's legacy he loved?
Even the kisses he shared with Sonic couldn't soothe his turmoil. He would never have wanted to kiss Maria like that, but he was the only one who could; he had often shared a gentle kiss on the cheek or forehead during their time together, anyone else would have passed their own minor illnesses and bacteria onto her, and with her condition the infection would have been fatal. No, that was not enough to ease his mind.
There could be only one way to know for sure.
"Maria..." he whispered, his voice almost lost in the breeze. He closed the locket slowly, bringing it up to his lips and slowly kissing the tarnished metal, "I'm sorry."
Placing the locket down gently on the grass, he rose to his feet, stepping towards the tree. Slipping off his gloves, he dug his nails into the thick bark, and with a few stout tugs the rugged wood came away with a crack. In his hands he now held the crude drawing on a sheet of bark. Turning it over, he began to scratch something new into the smooth, pale underside.
When he had finished, he set the bark down next to the locket and kneeled in the soft grass. Around the base of the tree, where the grass gave way to bare earth, he began to dig. Slowly and methodically, clearing his mind of his reasoning and focusing only on the task at hand, he scooped up great clumps of dry soil and tossed them aside. After several minutes of digging he had carved out a hole about a foot square, and the same in depth.
He took the locket in his hands and held it above the hole. Gently, like lowering a baby into a crib he placed the tarnished pendant in the centre of the depression. Reaching into the pile of disturbed soil he prepared to let it slip through his fingers. He felt it creeping into him; the emotion he tried to conceal, the sadness he had denied himself for so long. With tears meandering along his muzzle he hesitated, flakes of soil dripping from his hand.
Reaching into the hole he flipped the locket open again, his breath catching in his chest when he saw her face again. Cautiously he lifted the rectangular keepsake from the hole, kissing it one more time.
On her lips.
Setting it back down, he closed his eyes as the soil slipped from his hand. Silently, with vision blurred by tears, he continued to shift the soil, not stopping until the grave he had dug had filled completely. He patted the soil as flat as he could manage, before turning to pick up the sheet of bark. Holding it in front of him, he sighed, his chest sinking as he read the words carved by his own hand:
MARIA ROBOTNIK
1946 – 1958
SHE LOVED THIS WORLD
Setting the wood into the dirt, Shadow sat back to admire his handiwork. But a part of him still didn't feel right; something was missing from the proceedings. A memory came to him; Maria used to tell him how on her home world, her people used to wish on a great spirit to care for people after they died. He had always thought the idea of an afterlife sounded ridiculous, but if it was human custom...
He knelt over the grave, closing his eyes and clasping his hands together.
"Umm... Dear Great Spirit," he said, trying to put his own incredulousness to one side, "I wish for you to take the soul of Maria and... look after her, make her happy... keep her safe. I promised to look after the world she loved for her... and I will. I've found someone to help me keep my promise... together we'll make this world right for her. Just... promise me you'll give her everything she missed out on in life."
He opened his eyes again. He honestly didn't know what he expected to happen, but he felt slightly better. But still the fullness of his pain would not release him, and he felt the weight of his final act bearing down on him.
Rising to his feet, he stared at the grave, completely losing his composure. The tears flowed hot and free, matting his fur and clouding his eyes. His sniffled and gasped with stilted breath, unable to keep his sorrow inside any longer. He knew what he had to do; the say the one thing he never got the chance to say.
"Sayonara... Maria Robotnik."
Under a cloudless sky, far from the turmoil of the city, by an ancient forest slumbering by the sparkling clear waters of a vast lake, Shadow the Hedgehog found for the first time in his life, he did not want to be alone.
~o~
The surface of the lake, clear and pristine, disturbed only by the gentle wind rippling along it, soothed his mind. He felt like he had awoken from a dream, but the dream had been his whole life up until that point. He didn't know where he would go from here; he supposed he should go back to Station Square, to GUN HQ. He still had a mystery villain to deal with.
A part of him wanted to keep running away. He wanted to tell himself that the mysterious robot puppet-master wasn't his problem; let Sonic deal with it, he thought. But he knew the real reason he hesitated; he feared to see Sonic again. Now that he had laid Maria to rest, so to speak, would he feel anything for the annoying blue pest? He feared seeing that face that once intrigued him so much and feeling nothing. If he could no longer love Sonic, would he feel anything when Sonic's heart broke?
"Shadow?" a voice rang out through the clear air. Turning around in surprise that anyone else could have come to his sanctuary, his surprise rose again when he saw who it was.
"Sonic?" he said in confusion. Before him stood the very same blue hedgehog who occupied all his thoughts. His quills swayed softly in the breeze, and the sunlight shone off his white teeth. Green eyes pierced into him, and he felt his heart rising.
There was no pain, there was only joy. Joy like he had never felt. Sprinting across the grass he swept the blue hedgehog up into his arms, squeezing him tightly as if to let his own joy wash over his partner.
"Easy there, Shads!" said Sonic, "I do need this spine, you know."
Shadow set him down, and stared into his counterpart's radiant emerald eyes. He's so beautiful, Shadow thought, stopping himself a little; he had never thought of Sonic as beautiful before. This had to be the first time he had admired Sonic's looks. An intense feeling rose within him, and he felt his whole body quivering, the feeling desperate to escape him.
"Oh, Sonic," Shadow said wistfully, "I love you."
"I love you too, Shadow."
Shadow couldn't help himself. He forced his lips upon Sonic, engaging him a kiss more passionate than any he had given before. This wasn't a kiss to escape, it was a kiss to enjoy; to surround himself in the love he felt and that of Sonic. But as their lips mingled and their tongues danced together, a strange feeling crept along his spine. The kiss felt too controlled, too monotonous. Sonic's kisses were sloppy and inexperienced, but they surged with an intense passion. This kiss was like making out with a piece of unbuttered toast. He pulled away, staring at the blue hedgehog in disgust.
"You... you're not Sonic!" he said.
"What?" said Sonic dismissively, "how do you figure that one?"
"That kiss... it didn't feel right."
"Really?" Sonic said, "that's all? Pull the other one, Shads"
"Sonic doesn't kiss like that," said Shadow, backing away from the blue hedgehog, "the way he kisses would be part of his muscle memory, something that wouldn't be in his memory at the time he was copied. You're one of them!"
"Shadow, c'mon..." said Sonic, stepping towards him. Shadow held his finger out accusingly.
"No!" he said, "I should have known. There's no way Sonic could have found me here. But you, whoever you are, you're watching us all the time. Give up the act!"
"Shadow, I'm not one of them..."
White gloves on peach arms seized Shadow's arms, pulling them backwards. More arms seized his legs and dragged them into the air. All around him more blue hedgehogs appeared in a flash of speed, advancing on him from all directions.
"I'm all of them!" said the fake Sonic, his sadistic smirk reappearing. Shadow struggled against his captors, but they surrounded him, holding every part of him down. He could feel his energy leaving him again, like it had done in the Cybernian woods, and his Chaos powers fizzled to nothing inside him.
"It's so wonderful that you've found love, Shadow," the fake Sonic sneered, "it'll make you so much easier to break."
"Stop hiding from us!" spat Shadow, "you want to break me, do it in person!"
"Oh, I will, Shadow," said the doppelganger, holding Shadow's chin and grinning right in his face, "you're coming to meet me."
"Good, at least I get to finally find out who you are."
"Hmm, you won't be disappointed."
A dazzling aura of blue surrounded them, and in a flash the hillside laid undisturbed once more, the old oak tree left to its solitude.
~o~
They thought they were so clever, putting a blindfold on him. But he didn't need sight to tell where they had taken him; his senses were too heightened to let simple blindness fool him. He could practically smell the stone around him as they dragged him along the hall.
It made sense that they would bring him here, back to the old temple. Back when he had thought Robotnik to be the mastermind behind the doppelgangers, he couldn't wait to leave this place of faded memory, but now all the pieces were coming together; the temple, the voice, the sound of metal scraping. He knew who had been playing them all along, and he would show them no mercy.
The blindfold came away, and he saw a small room almost completely shrouded in darkness, save for the blue light glowing from the bank of flickering screens that lent the room an eerie vibe. A low hum reverberated throughout the chamber, punctuated by gentle beeps and whirrs, and atop a small flight of stone steps, a dark shape indistinct in outline, lay silhouetted against the stale electronic light.
"You had to escape my trap, didn't you?" a voice issued forth from the pitch-black shape, "You had to rush things. I had everything planned out so perfectly."
"You'll find that ruining evil plans is what we do, jerkass," said Shadow. Were it not for the Sonic robots holding him back, draining him and leaving him helpless, he would have leapt onto that dais and seized this guy by the throat. Instead, he received a dark laugh.
"We?" said the robotic voice, "I see none of your friends here. But then, do you even have friends?"
"More than you, I'd wager," spat Shadow, "all you have is your puppets. You're alone."
"Oh, very good," said the shrouded figure, a metallic clapping ringing out from the darkness, "I like your attempt to undermine my confidence, but it won't work. You see, someone like me doesn't enjoy the company of cretins and fools, with all their emotional baggage and selfish desires. My creations are all I need."
"Enough grandstanding!" said Shadow, "why are you so obsessed with Sonic?" This was the crux of the matter. The hidden foe had hounded Sonic mercilessly, trying to break his spirit, and if Shadow knew one thing for certain, it was this; he would not let anyone harm Sonic, his Sonic, his cherished friend, even if had only recently discovered the way he truly felt. He feared the danger he may have left Sonic to face, but if he hadn't left, would he feel strongly enough to worry about him?
"I could ask you the same thing."
Up on the dais, the dark rectangle shifted as if it was turning, and Shadow figured it to be some kind of chair. The overpowering darkness prevented him from seeing the seated figure, but two red eyes shone from the blackness around them. With a hollow clang the figure rose to his feet, making his way down the steps.
"You used to hate that hedgehog, Shadow," he said, slowly approaching, "you used to call him your 'fake' and fight him at every opportunity that came your way, but now look at you; Weeping and simpering over him like a lovesick schoolgirl. You don't deserve the title of 'Ultimate Lifeform.' How dare you claim it for yourself."
"I didn't 'hate' Sonic," said Shadow, seething at someone else trying to tell him his own mind, "we just... took a while to find some common ground. But you still haven't answered my question; why do you hate Sonic so much? Who are you?" The silhouette drew closer to him, and the outline became clearer, the crimson eyes piercing into him. Shadow was certain he knew the answer already, that silhouette could belong to one person only.
"Since the moment of my birth I longed to destroy Sonic," said the dark shape, "but as I studied him, I realised death would be not be enough for him. No matter what I could do, he would die a hero, loved by all and confident in the nobility of his sacrifice. I had to destroy his mind, his reputation, his very spirit, until he became a wretched thing begging for the sweet embrace of death."
"You've failed on all counts, moron," snarled Shadow, "Sonic is as strong as he ever was."
"Is he? Are you sure about that? Who knows what horrors he's facing right now?"
Shadow had to admit to himself that he didn't feel so sure. The horrible things Sonic had to deal with lately, could he really cope without Shadow around to look after him, to give him strength? He fixed the shape in its cold, red eyes with a crimson glare of his own.
"Yes," he said, concealing any sign of doubt, "I am. No-one is stronger than Sonic."
"You are!" the figure yelled, striking him across the face with a heavy and cold metal hand. As he felt warm blood trickle from his mouth, Shadow began to laugh.
"Heh, touched a nerve, did I?" he sneered, "enough of the mood lighting. I know who you are, so why don't you show yourself, Metal Sonic!"
The figure clicked his steel fingers, and a pale yellow light flicked on above him. Shadow's eyes widened as the robot before him came into focus. Particularly the colours adorning its casing:
Black and red.
"My name..." it said, "is Shadow!"
~o~