Fanfiction» Fanfics» Shadow Forever

Swimming through a sea of murky water, oppressing and constricting, squashing out every ideal of hope and happiness. Nothing but darkness all around, there is no escape.

--Disk the GG

Noctus was swimming in the mental sea in his fitful sleep, tossing and turning, the pain in his head throbbing through his ethereal consciousness, distorting dreams into nightmares of infinitely horrible proportions. And mixed in the nightmares were blurred snatches of memory here and there, things from a past long forgotten. His past? Maybe.

Even the memories in your head could be fake.

So what if they are?! He wanted to shout. So he did. So what if they are? In the end, I'm still me; still Shadow.

Shadow.

That name...it was so familiar! Throbbing pain flashed into brilliant light, and Noctus screamed, faltering in his strokes and sinking under water, disappearing beneath the inky waves.

That's no ordinary name, he thought, That's my name. My name...is Shadow the Hedgehog...but what else is there?

Shadow awoke suddenly, eyelids snapping open. Above him hung the dark ceiling of his room, so familiar that he knew it as well as the back of his hand; he had spent most of the past five years' nights staring up at the peeling paint and cracked plaster. His head was still alight with pain, but he could hear the sounds of several sets of heavy breathing laid out around him. Shadow slowly pushed himself up onto an elbow and looked around the dark room, blinking. His five siblings were asleep in their beds. Assured that he was safe for the moment, Shadow reached underneath his pillow to where he kept the white stone--but there was nothing. Pa must have held onto it for safekeeping.

"I want to regain my memories," Shadow whispered so quietly that it was drowned out by the snores of his brothers and sisters. "Ma and pa want to stop me, but whatever it is I need to know is tied back to that blue hedgehog...Sonic. I gotta find him and speak to him."

* * *

"So...do you have any clue what we can do yet?" Ma sighed, casting a weary glance to pa, who was pacing on the rough wooden floor of their bedroom. The blue hedgehog had been moved somewhere else; he still hadn't woken up, and neither had Noctus, not in three days. But when Noctus did come around, they'd have to do something about the blue hedgehog; unless the blue one woke up first, in which case he could just get on his way.

"Well, a worst-case scenario is that we have to shoot 'im," Pa muttered darkly. "We could tell the kids that he was suffering from an infection, and we put 'im out of his misery."

"You know Jerry and Laurie won't believe us."

"They'll keep quiet for the young'uns and Noctus."

"What other options to we have?"

"Take 'im to the hospital in town and leave him there, maybe...send him to the orphanage at the church."

"Alright..." Ma looked sadly at the box that laid in her lap. "Everything Noctus was holding when we found him is in this box...those strange sneakers, the wrist and ankle bracelets...even that white jewel of his. It doesn't feel right that we're holding so much back from him...he's our son, Jonathan, not our doll."

"I love him too much to let him leave!" Pa growled angrily, pounding on a wall with one fist, looking out the window to the night sky. "Damnit..."

"I think the way you see it, father, is that I truly am your doll." Spoke a cold voice. With a sharp gasp, ma and pa turned to see Noctus standing in the doorway, an even expression on his face.

"Noctus, what are you--" Pa began.

"My name is not Noctus," Shadow announced. "My true name is Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog."

Ma let out a sob. "Then you--"

"Not a lot...just my name." Shadow narrowed his eyes at ma. "Give me that box."

"No! You can't have it!!" Pa roared. "I won't let my eldest son be taken away from me!!"

"I'm old enough to make decisions for myself!!!" Shadow yelled. Pa leapt at him, and Shadow jumped into the air, a yellow glow surrounding his body--

"Unh!" Pa fell backwards as Shadow's curled-up form crashed into pa's body. Moving at ma as fast as possible, Shadow snatched the box from ma and ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house.

Panting heavily, Shadow ran as fast as his tired feet would carry him; thoughts were racing through his mind even faster than his feet were moving on the ground.

There's no turning back now. Shadow cast a glance at the box he held under his arm. I need to find that blue hedgehog...but first, maybe I should see what's inside here.

Making sure he was far enough away, Shadow sat down on a rocky outcropping, setting the box on his lap. He opened the top of the box, and instantly spotted the familiar glimmer of moonlight off his white gem. Shadow greedily snatched the gem up and held it tight, relishing in the feeling of it's cold surface against his fingers.

Chaos Emerald.

Shadow's back straightened suddenly, and he looked up to the moon with wide eyes.

The Servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is Power, Power is enriched by the Heart. The Controller is the one who unifies the Chaos. Only you can do this! Stop the Chaos Emeralds!!

"A...Chaos Emerald..." Shadow murmured, staring down at his gem again. "So that's what you are. A Chaos Emerald...and lying within you is a great power...hmm."

Shadow set the Chaos Emerald next to him, and pulled out next what seemed like a strange pair of silver, red and black shoes; he remembered these shoes...they had been his! They had been given to him by...who? There wasn't anything beyond a vague foggy sense...Shadow shook his head, and slipped the shoes over his feet. He went back into the box, and pulled out white gloves, two anklets, and two bracelets that different from each other. One of them was regular, red and orange; the other one was gold and had a blinking orange light on it. After slipping out of his nightclothes and putting on all of the items, Shadow at last stood up. He took one last look into the box, and pulled out the last remaining item...a golden, shimmering ring that emanated untold-of powers. Shadow laid his hand on the ring and pulled it out slowly, marveling at its' beauty as the star and moon shone their light off of it.

"And this is the fuel to unlock the power of the Chaos Emerald. These rings." Shadow narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Of course, it's all becoming clearer now! But..." Shadow looked forlornly to the ground. "They're all so vague. I can't remember anything more than the most basic things, and a few precious licks of memory. I must see Sonic."

Shadow took the ring in one hand and the Chaos Emerald in the other, and began running back towards the house.

And as soon as he got up speed, air shot out from the bottom of his shoes, and he fell flat on his face.

"Ouf..." Shadow coughed. "Maybe I should get used to using these air skates, first..."

* * *

--Tails' Lab, Mystic Ruins--

Blip!

Tails coughed, and crumpled in a heap on the floor of his laboratory.

"Intense," He whispered, chuckling hoarsely. "Man...about damn time..." Overwhelmed by the utter exhaustion that washed over him, Tails smiled, and passed out.

* * *

--The next morning--

When the teen kitsune awoke the next morning, he felt completely refreshed and invigorated; he even ventured to say that he felt excited! He got up from his uncomfortable sleeping arrangement on the floor, a wide grin on his face. With extra vigor in his step, Tails walked into the main room of his lab (which had grown in leaps and bounds from the tiny workshop it was five years ago), and over to a frost-covered vertical glass cylinder, with a control panel attached via a series of thick cables.

Tails stopped at the control panel, humming a little tune to himself as he fiddled about with the controls. The tube emitted a hissing sound, and the front of it popped open, spilling a white, fog-like gas all over the floor.

"Good morning, Amy," Tails said cheerfully.

"I detect that two weeks, three days, twelve hours, forty-three minutes and twelve seconds have passed since de-activation," Amy's voice came back from inside the cylinder, sounding monotone and robotic. That sound usually made Tails feel depressed, but not today; today he just felt as if nothing could slow him down.

Amy's bare form emerged from the cryo-stasis chamber that Tails had built for her in the cases where Tails had to spend long periods of time away from her and couldn't take care of her. He felt guilty for doing it, but there just weren't a lot of options open to him, especially in dangerous times like these; the times where Eggman was laying suspiciously low, plotting his schemes, no doubt.

Amy's eyes were completely black, like a pair of large voids on her face--but Tails pressed a single button on the control panel, and the voids faded away to reveal Amy's real eyes, wide, green, and disturbingly innocent.

"Tails!" Amy cried, grinning widely at the sight of her boyfriend. "You're back! I had so many weird dreams while you were gone..."

"Well, after we get you dressed and fed, you can tell me all about them," Tails said cheerily, handing a green towel to Amy, almost forgetting that the ideas of privacy and wrapping a towel around oneself were lost upon her. With a happy sigh, he wrapped her in the towel for her, and then went into another room to start some breakfast while he sent a modified Omochao of his, Mika, to fetch Amy her clothes.

Breakfast was ready soon; a pair of boiled eggs, some strips of bacon, and a cool glass of orange juice set on either side of the small table that sat in the center of the kitchen. Just as Tails sat down, Amy walked in, wearing baggy jeans, and an red tanktop. She sat down, too, and the pair began to eat.

"So, tell me about these dreams of yours," Tails said around a mouthful of eggs.

"Okay, well, I had this really weird one," Amy began, swallowing some bacon, "And it was...weird. I dreamt that I was back in the Final Egg, and Eggman was leaning over me, laughing; I was strapped down to a table, and I couldn't move at all!"

Tails hiked his brows, kept his gaze steady on Amy, and took a cautious bite of some egg.

"Keep going," He muttered, popping another slice of egg into his mouth.

"Well, I was strapped down, and then Knuckles, Rouge, and Shadow came in to save me!" Amy giggled. "I know that's silly, though, because Shadow is dead, and Knuckles is on the island in the sky...what was it's name?"

"Angel Island," Tails said, his gaze still steady on the bubbly, carefree Amy, who was munching on another strip of bacon.

"And here's where it gets really weird--two Sonics came in behind them! Only one of them wasn't Sonic, it was you--only you were as blue as Sonic was! And then the dream ended..." Amy giggled again. "But it was just a dream. And dreams are nice, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Tails agreed, smiling. He finally broke his gaze from Amy, and went back to cutting away at his breakfast. "Did you have any other dreams while I was gone?"

"Nope, just that same one, over and over and over again." She giggled mischievously. "Although there was one where you were taking a shower with me..."

Tails blushed, and stared down at his breakfast, toying mindlessly at the eggs with his fork.

"But you'd like that dream also, I'll bet." Amy stood up, her breakfast eaten. "I'm gonna go play some video games, 'kay?"

"Sure," Tails muttered, not diverting his line of sight. "Have fun. I'll be working in the lab this morning, so if you need anything, let me know."

Amy walked off, leaving Tails in his thoughts.

She dreams of me in that way, too... he muttered in his noggin. Just like I dream of her in that way sometimes...but we can't do something like that together, not when she's like this! It would just feel...wrong. Like I'd be taking advantage of her...and I just can't do that to her. But the sooner I repair her mind, the sooner we can talk about that kind of stuff and mean it. Now, where did I put that Chaos Emerald?

Tails stood up very suddenly, realizing that he had not seen the blue Emerald all morning, and, for that matter, didn't remember having it with him when he came home the night before. His fork clattered to the table noisily.

"Amy! Have you see the blue Chaos Emerald?" Tails called urgently as he dashed back into the room he had reappeared in the previous night.

"Not in years and years!" She called back, the sounds of Jet Grind Radio coming with her voice.

Tails narrowed his eyes as he frantically searched the room, growling as every crevice, every niche turned up empty. He was about to yell in frustration, when Amy came into the room suddenly, holding the seashell that had the shards of the blue gem implanted in it.

"Here you go!" She said cheerily, placing the shell in Tails' palm daintily.

Tails forced a laugh and a smile, and said a quick thank you, but inside, he was stewing like mad, his good mood long since shot to hell. Where is it?? Where could it have gone?? Did it just...disappear when I used the Chaos Control?!

"Oooh, pretty..." Amy said, staring at the shell Tails held.

"You found it, so of course it's pretty!" Tails grinned, again forced.

"But now it's glowing...it wasn't doing that before."

"Wha--"

Tails looked down at the shell, and indeed, the blue shards planted in the thing were glowing a brilliant blue; this was a natural, unexplained reaction that a Chaos Emerald occurred when in extreme proximity with another one. But the other five Emeralds were in another room entirely!

"What's going on?!" Tails cried, as the shards separated themselves from the shell, whirling around Tails like blue balls of light. Tails took a nervous step backwards, eyes wide with fright; the shards were gaining speed, faster and faster, beams of blue light!! The shards drew closer to the kitsune; any closer, and they would slice him to ribbons at the speed they were going!!! "Amy! HELP ME!"

The shards moved closer. Tails screamed, and the shell dropped to the floor.

* * *

--Prison Lane--

The cell's door creaked open, and two figures were thrown in roughly, landing in shallow, grimy puddles. The guard who had tossed them in sniggered, closing the barred door and locking it loudly, before walking away.

"Shit." Espio coughed and spat up the filthy water that had spilled into his mouth.

"Hey, amigos, welcome to our humble abode."

Charmy and Espio looked up to see Vector and Mighty sitting on two of the four cots in the cramped, poorly-light prison cell. Mighty was wearing a pair of metal restriction cuffs that covered his wrists and hands, and were joined together at the top, and Vector was without his walkman and headphones. Both were looking mightily beaten, and very grim.

"So, you two got busted too, huh?" Espio asked, standing up achingly, cursing the metal collar around his neck that restricted his cracking of said body part, as well as nulling out his invisibility powers. "Did you at least get Rouge the stuff she needed?"

"Yeah, then we got beaten to a pulp," Vector muttered, cursing. "Them bastards busted my headphones!"

"And put these annoying things on me." Mighty held up his cuffed hands. "You have no idea how annoying it is to pee with these things on."

"At least you can crack your neck," Charmy pointed out in aggravation, pointing at the metal collar he wore around his neck, just like Espio. "These things don't let us use our powers, to boot."

"In other words, they're a major pain in the ass." Vector harrumphed. "Man! Not one of us can use our powers! Oh well...let's just hope Rad Red don't get caught, too..."

--Angel Island--

Rouge watched the news on her portable TV with narrow eyes.

"...captured two anthromorphs that were attempting to sabotage GUN's mission archives, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy Bee. Late last night, Vector the Crocodile and Mighty the Armadillo were also arrested for breaking into GUN's weapon hall. The four are currently incarcerated in Prison Lane, and are awaiting a court hearing..."

Rouge switched the TV off and sighed.

"I got the information I needed...but now the boys are in real trouble. And if Knux gets caught, then we're screwed..." Rouge looked over her shoulder, to where the Master Emerald was residing. "I'd better warn him..."