Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“—lapse in judgment to keep the larva around in the first place. Who could imagine what might’ve happened if the military had gotten their hands on it today? Which is why I got rid of it. Posthaste.” Professor Gerald concluded with a firm nod, as if he was fooling anyone but himself.

“Uh-uh,” said Sonic, sounding like he bought the explanation just as much as Shadow did. “Well, glad it’s gone, at any rate. They’ve got some nasty tricks up their sleeves.” He peeked at Shadow. Shadow straightened under his attention. “You never felt weird when you were around it, Tiny?”

From anyone else, the nickname would’ve offended him greatly. But it was Sonic. “Does self-loathing count?”

Sonic weighed his palms like he was thinking about it. “Eh. More like voices in your head telling ya what to do. No- wait, that movie hasn’t come out yet, has it? Darn. Well, you get the idea.”

“No. I haven’t heard… voices,” Shadow confirmed dubiously. How many references to future movies was he missing out on? Their timelines were different, what if they never got made? Was it possible to feel left out of something that wasn’t from your future?

“I never knew,” Professor Gerald said in a tone of wonder. “And Shadow has the ability to hear them?”

“It’s a— what do you call it?” Sonic looked up, then knocked his fist. “Hive mind. Shadow really hates it when they link to him. It’s like, a whole psychic attack shtick. Creepy. Hey, count yourself lucky you missed out. And if it does happen, uhm… don’t listen to ‘em, I guess?”

“That,” Shadow tried very hard to keep his voice unaffected, “sounds like a good place to start.”

He was developing phobias they didn’t even have names for, yet.

Shadow retreated to Maria’s side, heavily troubled by the revelations that had come to light today. And more. He swept an assessing eye over Sonic. He talked about his friends, but they sounded more like family. He had family, and he wasn’t with them, because he’d been too busy saving theirs.

“We have to do something,” he said quietly, relying on their bond to relay his meaning.

Maria made a noise of agreement at the back of her throat. As if sensing she was upset, the Biolizard turned its attention to her. It nosed her hair and gave a lick. She leaned against it with a tired smile, stroking its enormous head as far as she could stretch her arm. Shadow crossed his arms, losing himself in thought.

“Professor Gerald says the ARK is the most sophisticated research station to ever exist.” If he wasn’t lying about that, too, came as a bitter afterthought. He’d never questioned his creator. Never saw a reason to. Everything he thought he knew was flipped upside-down, and, twistedly, it was the better outcome. Frustration bloomed in his expression. “Isn’t this the birthplace of Chaos study?”

“In the aftermath of a major attack,” Abe said, blunt and factual. “It’s too preoccupied being in chaos. I doubt it’s escaped your notice.”

Shadow gave him a dark look. “If it hadn’t been for,” (Grim) “that other Shadow, nobody would’ve known you’d been kidnapped. He’s the one who noticed you were missing.” He let his voice curl, sour with fear, of another close call, another dodged bullet. “Went following your tracks like a damn bloodhound.” He didn’t know what a bloodhound was, but they’d both heard the saying.

Abe mirrored his crossed arms.

“Disappointing, I know,” he drawled, and the curl in his voice was a mirror, too.

Huh.

“You want to help them as well,” Shadow half-guessed, half-realised.

“Their presence is going to draw all sorts of unwanted attention,” Abe said, as if he needed to justify his concern with practical reasons. “Their protection is no longer required, so it would be prudent for them to disappear before the wrong kind of people start asking questions.”

“They could send more soldiers.” Shadow had no reason to argue with him, except to be contrary. And maybe he wanted to wrangle the truth out of Abe. Make him admit he was just as grateful, and maybe just as scared, too. His hostile demeanour had cracked. The person underneath wasn’t so bad.

(“He doesn’t know you. He knows the idea of you. People are frightened of what they can’t understand.”)

Shadow wanted to dig him out.

“Sending people into space isn’t easy. Especially when they don’t come back. Extra especially if they don’t know why. If you want to look at it from a tactical perspective, we have their men hostage.” Abe looked away, swallowing. “There was a vent. In the cargo bay. I pulled some crates to make a ladder. Originally, I just wanted to have a place to hide, but… I heard some things. They. Um. They were arguing whether they should stay or go.” He swallowed again, discomforted. “About whether their comrades were all dead. It was divided.”

That was.

Well.

“Creepy,” Shadow decided on. Abe’s eyes shone a little brighter, and if he wasn’t such a difficult read, Shadow might’ve described it as perking up. “I guess… I still really wish you hadn’t, but I guess I understand why you felt like you had no other choice. When you shot at me. The other me. Both? Uh. After they took you and you were listening to all that without knowing what was going on and— Yeah.”

“I only saw him, first,” Abe admitted, and his inflection changed, slowing with shame. “He. He kept you behind his back. I suppose he did that on purpose. He must’ve known. Guessed. Whatever.” He quieted, looking properly forlorn. Guilty. He hadn’t known he was being rescued, but the knowledge he’d tried to shoot his rescuer, that had to be a rough thing to come to terms with. On top of everything else that came with picking up a gun with that kind of intent.

“Even if he hadn’t seen you coming, he’s bulletproof,” Shadow felt inclined to say. Consoling him? Yeah. Abe sharply looked up, all disbelief. “He is,” Shadow insisted. “I saw—we saw it.” He tugged on Maria’s sleeve, signalling a need for backup.

“Hm?” Maria looked over her shoulder, looking distracted. She was still petting the Biolizard, with languid movements, like it was an afterthought. “Oh. Yes,” she said distantly. “I think he was using Chaos energy. There was a red glow around him. Like an outline. It was mesmerising.”

Shadow nodded triumphantly, smirking at Abe. Maria turned back to her thoughts, and the methodical winning-over of the Biolizard’s love and loyalty, one affectionate scritch at a time.

“Chaos… can do that?” Abe sounded like he still didn’t believe it, but in a ‘that’s amazing’ kind of way. Maria’s word was law. Her affirming of something was basically the same as engraving it into the essence of truth.

“Chaos can do a helluva lotta things, kiddo,” Sonic said brightly, causing them both to jump. He was surprisingly good at sneaking up on people, for someone with such a larger-than-life presence. Sonic just laughed at the looks on their faces. It was hard to stay flustered around him. “They show up when and where they’re needed. They know what’s in your heart. They’re an embodiment of time and space. They’ve basically got a mind of their own.”

“Magic,” Shadow summarized.

 Sonic gave a half-shrug. “By any other name.”

“It’s not magic,” said Abe. “Chaos is a real phenomenon. It can be seen. It can be studied.”

Sonic winked. “And before those fancy tools, if ya saw someone who could use energy from a gemstone to deflect bullets, teleport, shoot energy, hop timelines, and other crazy shenanigans, that was called magic.”

“Point taken,” Abe said grudgingly. “But it’s still not magic. Case in point. You can’t go home.”

“Yeah, that’s a real problem.” Sonic rubbed under his nose as he glanced up. He did that a lot. “I guess even magic doesn’t like being thrown around by a sandwich fanatic dressed like a wizard. Heh.”

“I still find that hard to believe,” said Shadow.

“That’s something I can believe completely,” said Abe, at the same time.

They shared a look of dismay.

“You’re a sentient hedgehog made by crazy science and even crazier aliens, and you draw the line at sandwich wizards?” Abe asked incredulously.

“You don’t?” Shadow asked, equally incredulous.

Sonic sighed happily, and the look in his eyes was the same fondness that had drawn Shadow to trusting him in the first place. “Wanna hear something even more unbelievable? The guy hates sandwich puns.”

“I don’t blame him,” said Shadow.

“I find that hard to believe,” said Abe.

They shared another look. This time, neither of them commented on it. Sonic burst out into good-natured cackles, the kind that came from the belly and spread its spirit like a contagion. Both of them had the dignity to look away from each other before something horrible happened. Like smiling.

Maria suddenly stopped petting the Biolizard.

“Maria?” Shadow ventured, catching on immediately.

“If the door is permanently closed, what about a window instead?” she asked nonsensically, in the tone of someone who was having an epiphany. “It might not be meant for it, but they can climb through it.”

“Um.” Shadow blinked in bafflement. It was very rare for them to be out of sync. “Is that safe?” It was the first thing he could think of. To him, windows were meant to be looked through. You weren’t supposed to break them. There was space out there.

“Yes!” She knocked her fist into her palm. “Once they’re out, they’ll fall into their own reality. We just need to push them out of a window.”

“Who are we pushing through a window?” asked Sonic, ears perked.

“You,” said Maria, whirling to face him. She was grinning, despite herself. And Shadow couldn’t help but relax. That smile meant everything was okay. “We’re going to make a window, and then we’re going to push you and Shadow through it. And, if it’s true that you were supposed to return to your own reality hours ago, it should be waiting to suck you right back in.” She flourished her hands in a grabby motion.

“Unconventional.” Sonic was grinning. “I like your style, kid.”

They didn’t even need to call for attention. The Biolizard, perhaps seeking another willing participant to pet it, chose that particular moment to turn its attention to the next available human. It poked Abe with its tongue. He screamed high and shrill enough to make every head in the lab turn. The lights flickering was a coincidence. Probably.

Even though Maria’s idea was good, crazy good, like something Tails would dream up, Sonic was resigning himself to the possibility that it might not work. His trepidation grew deeper the longer Gerald spent reading her proposal. She’d written it down and everything. Finally, he looked up, glasses gleaming.

“This could work,” he said.

Sonic almost didn’t hear him. “Even so, we gotta— wait, what?”

“This.” Gerald flicked paper for emphasis. “Could work.” Sonic boggled. A wry smirk formed under his moustache. “My dear boy, this is Space Colony ARK. We are pioneers. Not to boast, but we’re very good at it.”

“Nobody wants this to work more than me,” said Sonic. “Okay, scratch that, I’m pretty sure Shadow’s gonna start biting people if we can’t get back soon. But this is, uh, I think the scientific term is bonkers. I mean, we’re talking about taking a little bit of reality and tryin’ to punch a hole in it with a cookie cutter. That’s never been done.”

“There is no such thing as ‘never done’ my boy,” said Gerald, stroking his moustache, which only made the delighted smirk more visible. It was somewhat unsettling. Eggylike. “Here, we like to say ‘never done yet.’”

Sonic suppressed a shiver, wondering what kind of future he’d just unleashed upon this timeline. A better one, for sure, but what kind.

“It would need a massive source of energy,” said Maria, who was poring through notes with a kind of concentrated frenzy that frightened him, but in a good way. He never expected she’d remind him of Tails. Beyond admiration, there was an aching fierceness of longing to see his little brother. Maria looked up, all Cheshire-curled lips and twinkling blue eyes. “Fortunately for us, we have two.”

“Three,” Tiny Shadow said quietly. “I want to help, too.” He went a little pink and deliberately avoided Sonic’s eye. “I have power. I’ll use it until it becomes a part of me. To become stronger. So I can protect my treasured people.”

Maria considered. “Three,” she nodded, and hunched over to scribble something in the margins.

“Atta boy,” Sonic encouraged, and Tiny Shadow’s blush deepened.

“Don’t wanna keep the other me too long and have him start biting people,” he mumbled.

“Aww. Don’t worry. My Shadow doesn’t bite.” Sonic cocked his head thoughtfully. “He punches, though.”

Tiny Shadow managed to look at him, warm in the face. Sonic was ninety percent sure he’d seen puppies give that exact look, minus the blush of course. “You’re really cool,” he admitted, which, hello, duh. “I hope you’re this cool when I meet you. Uh, the real you. Wait, I mean, the—um— future you?”

Sonic laughed and ruffled the top of his head. “I hope so too. All Sonics gotta keep the reputation going, y’know?” He hummed thoughtfully. “Tell ya what. When you do meet him, challenge him to a race. I think you’ll get along great.”

Tiny Shadow frowned. “What if he doesn’t like me?” And he sounded heartbroken about it, so much that Sonic felt compelled to do something. “What if he’s one of those people who thinks I’m a monster?”

Sonic knelt and put a hand on his shoulder, getting his full attention.

“If he’s that stupid,” he said solemnly, “I give you permission to punch him.”

“Wh— that’s mean. That would just prove him right.”

“I’ll punch him,” volunteered Abe. “He’s part of my family. Nobody is allowed to insult my family.”

Tiny Shadow gave him a strange look.

“You call me a monster all the time,” he said slowly.

“It’s different when I say it,” said Abe.

“No, it’s not.”

“It is.”

“How?”

“Because it is.”

“How?”

Sonic grinned, because these were kids, and they were going to be okay.

Now he just had to make sure they’d be okay. Shadow was still out. Gerald and Maria were conspiring over papers. They seemed to be drafting up some kind of machine? Scientists were flocking to the table, and the air was buzzing with talk. All those white coats moving at once did funny things to his eyes.

Despite their own difficulties, the whole of Space Colony ARK had accepted the situation and were banding together their finest to figure out a way to get their unlikely rescuers back to their own timeline, even if they had to innovate. Not just to repay them. Debts could be cashed in anytime. This was dedication. Gratitude. A want to help. Maybe a little bit of scientific mania. The warmth resurfaced in his chest, all soda-bubbly and soft.

He’d done exactly what he set out to do. Maybe he should give napping another whirl. Let himself switch off for a bit. He was still far from tired, but he also wasn’t bringing his best game. On the (increasingly likely, if they were going to get flung through timelines like a rubber band) chance they ended up right back in the fight, he should do something to prepare for it.

…All he could think about was racing. Get his adrenaline up. Resharpen his edges. But the ARK didn’t have the kind of space and freedom he needed for that. Sonic sighed to himself, weighing the pros and cons of heading back to the sleeping quarters.

Cons: Trying to sleep was boring.

Pros: Shadow was there, and Shadow was not boring.

Less than twenty-four hours ago, he would’ve assumed doing that would end in a trashed bedroom, holes carved in the walls from spindash attacks, and a lot of apologies to make. Now, he imagined the give of thick fur underneath his fingers, Chaos-static nipping at his fingertips. The raspy noise Shadow’s quills made when they were teased. The stillness of rest, and the unique sound of his strong, steady heartbeat.

He wasn’t sure if this was a one-off, what happens in the other timeline stays in the other timeline sorta deal. Shadow didn’t do cuddly and affectionate, except—

(“Shadow doesn’t let anyone see that side of him unless he’s very sure about it.”)

—he’d seemed very sure about it. Sonic could replay it action-by-action in his mind; it probably would be replaying for a while. The way he’d leaned on him and waited, like a challenge. When Sonic decided ‘sure, why not’ and picked up the gauntlet. The way he’d immediately relaxed. How easy it was to follow, sprawl out with the same physical ease as they wrestled, struggled, fought, straddled, kicked, punched, pinned. The familiarity carried. The violence didn’t. Perfectly at ease. Like natural progression. Sure, Shadow got annoyed with his inability to sit still, but the guy had to have known what he was signing up for when he decided to wrap himself around Sonic and snooze on him. They worked. They worked, somehow. Rivals. Allies. Enemies. Always fitting together.

Was this so different?

Wait. Better:

Was this different in a way that he didn’t love?

Nope. New. Exciting. Thrilling. Whatever they had before, whatever connection they were dancing around, it’d broken wide open and it was spilling out with no end in sight. Sonic was never able to say no to a new adventure. Double if Shadow was tagging along for it. Triple if Shadow was the adventure.

“Oh, Sonic?” He blinked, looked up. Gerald was speaking. “There’s a—hm, how to say… one of our scientists attempted to build a clock that would track space instead of time. It was entirely doomed from the start, I assure you. I gave it to the little ones to keep them entertained. But its parts would be rather helpful now. Could I ask you to fetch it from Maria and Shadow’s room?”

Maria looked up from the workstation and Tiny Shadow perked up.

“So that’s what it was,” said Tiny, sounding like he’d been told the meaning of life.

“A clock…” Maria trailed off, cocking her head. “I knew the ticking was intentional.” She sounded pleased.

“The shrieking probably wasn’t,” said Tiny helpfully.

“Oh, yes. It wouldn’t stop, even when you took the batteries out. I’m a little disappointed nothing was haunting it. It would’ve been nice to talk to a ghost.”

“I mean, we still don’t know what was screaming.”

Maria bobbed her head. “I suppose we can rebuild it later. It would be fun to get to the bottom of the mystery. Maybe we’ll be able to hear the whispering more clearly when we’re in Earth’s atmosphere.”

“Okaaay, I’m just gonna…” Sonic pointed at the door, giving perfectly adequate warning before he ran through it.

Definitely a Robotnik, he thought, all the amusement and none of the scorn. Jury was still out on whether he could score getting ‘Maurice’ or ‘Sonic’ to be Eggman’s middle name. That was something he could hold over his head forever. “Hey, Eggman! In another timeline, I’m your favourite uncle. They named you after me!”

Context was unnecessary. It was outrage he was fishing for.

He looped around the ARK a few times, getting lost. Some of the corridors were taped off for repairs, not that a bit of hazard tape could slow him down. Less blood on the walls. He got a couple of friendly waves and one opera-worthy shriek from a G.U.N. operative that was being led away in…festive zip-ties. Looked like they were out of other options. The important thing was that the place was locked down, the last embers of conflict were burning out, and soon Space Colony ARK would be a fortress in the sky. Whatever G.U.N. did next, it wouldn’t be easy for them. They lost their biggest play. He’d bet things were looking a bit chaotic down on Earth. Shadow liked to complain about Tower’s predecessor – or more specifically, Tower liked to complain about Tower’s predecessor, and Shadow made sure if he had to suffer, everyone else suffered too.

Bet they weren’t feeling so commanding now.

And boom, sleeping quarters. He recognised that calming wash of dimmed lights and muffled white noise. A janitor was scrubbing a coffee stain out of the carpet. Sonic gave a friendly wave and got a nod in return. He jaunted up the stairs, feeling better than he had since this whole thing started. They were on the right track to getting home. His relationship with his rival had taken a sharp turn through Attraction Avenue, which he was sure at least one of his friends saw coming months ago, and he’d bet his last capsule of rings it was Amy. No wonder half of her advice these days boiled down to ‘maybe you just need to have a good race with Shadow about it.’

No wonder that it usually worked.

Sonic remembered the passcode to the door on his first try, and was quite proud of himself for it. He entered and got all of three steps inside before he found himself face-to-face with a very awake Shadow.

“Fight me,” he said plainly.

“Helloooo to you too,” said Sonic, weaving around him. He spotted the weird, maybe-possessed machine that Gerald mentioned, stooped down to pick it up. “I’m doing fine, thanks for asking. Slept well?”

Shadow tracked him with a slow pivot on his heels to keep him in sight.

“Fight me,” he repeated.

It was heavier than it looked. Sonic hefted it up anyway. He needed both arms to carry it. Sheesh, how’d a couple of kids even manage to get this in here? It was all jagged lumps of cold metal and when he leaned in, a strange ticking came from inside. He knew it couldn’t be a bomb. Which is why he didn’t drop the thing immediately.

If it screamed, all bets were off. 

“Normally you don’t have to ask me twice,” Sonic grunted. “But, kinda busy.”

He turned to leave and Shadow was there, blocking his way, like a dark wall of stubbornness. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing with that thing, but you’re going to drop it. There’s a secure area that was built for containing the fallout of volatile experiments.” He smirked. It was sharp and dark and eager. “Come on. Let’s put it to the test.”

Sonic groaned, because Chaos, he wanted to. Adrenaline was already rearing its head. A spar was just as good as a race, and a whole lot more doable. “Just let me drop this off first,” he said, then, deciding fair was fair and he was allowed to push a little, too. “If this is what you're like after one hour of cuddling me, I might have to ask Rouge to teach me how to sneak into G.U.N. so I can do it all night. Maybe you’ll start glittering.”

A flicker of surprise muted Shadow’s smirk. Then, it came back with teeth.

“Where are you taking that?” he asked.

“Main lab,” Sonic said.

He wasn’t thinking about the consequences until Shadow was suddenly a whole lot closer. Static buzzed over his fur and he had exactly half a second to remember what a petty, petty hedgehog his rival was before Chaos Control swallowed him whole.

It spat him out in the main lab. He could’ve dealt with the fallout if it was just him, but the weight of the doohickie in his arms made it impossible to regain his bearings with any sort of dignity. He fell right over with a nauseous wheeze, lights stabbing at his eyes. Bright. Loud. Cold. The worst part of Chaos Control was hands down the sudden, jarring shift of being Someplace and then Somewhere Different. No adjustment time. His brain did not appreciate having the rug pulled.

Someone helped him up and when he turned to thank them, he was surprised to see it was Gerald. Random acts of kindness and the signature Robotnik moustache didn’t go hand-in-hand, but here they were.

“Thank you, dear boy,” he said gratefully. His gaze drifted past him for a moment. Suddenly, he busied himself with collecting the thingamabob and left. Not in a hurry exactly, but definitely with the air of someone who didn’t want to linger.

Sonic looked over and Shadow stared back, simmering with impatience.

“What did you do to him,” he half-complained, half-wondered.

“You should know,” said Shadow. “You were eavesdropping.”

“Yeah, but I can’t see through doors.”

“You could’ve fooled me with your penchant for turning up at the most dramatic moment possible.”

“It’s called a heroic entrance, Shadow.” Sonic fought back a grin. It was good to see him looking and acting more like his usual self. There was still a haunting glint in his eyes, but it was less deep. He seemed alert and well-rested. Sonic checked him over for any signs that he shouldn’t be sparring. No shaking. Good. Might’ve let his gaze linger a few extra seconds. Shadow cottoned on and seemed to preen under his scrutiny. Also good. 

Sonic jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “We gonna cause some more property damage, or what?” he taunted.

“The only damage will be your face going through the floor, hedgehog,” Shadow declared, as he led him away.

“You’d have to catch me first,” Sonic retorted. “Never gonna happen. I can run circles around you in my sleep.”

“I’m going to enjoy making you eat those words.”

“Not if I make you eat yours first.”

Bickering. Posturing. Their tones were geared towards a fight but their expressions were playful, if you knew where to look. Sonic was vaguely aware they were attracting some curious onlookers, but nobody tried to stop them, so he tuned it out. If they could keep the fight contained to the room Shadow had mentioned, then there was no harm in showing off some moves. Had to assert himself as the coolest hedgehog, after all. Shadow kept the pre-spar taunts flying with his usual boasts and threats. A calm wash of normalcy overtook him. It flickered every time Shadow glanced somewhere else, probably towards the people that were staring at them. He minded more than Sonic did.

“Bet I can dodge your spears while doing a handstand,” Sonic said, distracting him very effectively.

 The testing room was a decent size. It wasn’t made specifically for supersonic hedgehogs to have a showdown, but it was clearly reinforced against heavy damage, and explosion-proof, which was basically the same. One thing about the room that stood out to him was how tall it was. Had to reach two storeys high. There was an observation window about where the first floor would be. The lights were on and there was movement inside.

“Hey, I think we have an audience,” Sonic remarked. He shot Shadow a cheeky grin. “Who do you think you’re betting on?”

“Me, obviously,” said Shadow, like it was no contest.

“I hope Tiny’s betting on me.” Since it was a spar and not a real fight, Sonic took advantage of having actual preparation time and did some light warm-up stretches. Usually didn’t need em but, if his opponent was Shadow, he was gonna be put through his paces. “It’ll be funny when he swipes the whole pot.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes at him, then he melted into the same set of stretches. Ooh. This was gonna be one of those spars. 

“He’d better not.”

Sonic snickered under his breath. 

“Sorry your own double likes me better than you,” he said in a tone that was not sorry at all. “On the bright side, this world’s Amy is gonna have a much cooler fanclub.”

“Ugh.”

It was very suspicious, and very, very telling, that Shadow didn’t even try denial. Sonic muffled a laugh that he knew he’d be paying for soon. “Seriously though,” he chuckled. “What’s gotten into ya? Never seen anyone that itchy for a fight the minute they wake up.”

Shadow cracked his knuckles, thoroughly. “Now you have,” he said ominously.

“Right, right. Just uh. You’re not… doing this ‘cause you’re mad, are you?” Sonic was pretty sure there were no microphones in here. He didn’t see any. He lowered his voice anyway. “About the cuddling thing?”

The unimpressed look he got was fairly low on the judgmental scale. “No. I enjoyed that.”

Cool. No microphones then. Sonic was confident he couldn't pry a confession like that outta him with a crowbar if there had been. 

“Oh. Sweet. Just had to check, y’know?”

“I want to fight because this is hell and I’m going to break something.” Shadow tugged a glove tighter under his inhibitor, sending a dark stare up at Sonic. “You’re the only thing here I can’t break.”

Sonic put on a wider smile to hide his sharp inhale. Those words were dangerous, not the kind of words that were supposed to sound hot. 

“I should’ve known you only wanted me because I make a glorious punching bag,” he joked, trying to diffuse the accidental tension.

Instead, Shadow slowly gave him a once-over, lingering in the exact same way Sonic had. Because he was mean. 

“No. Not just that,” he said indulgently, and then his smirk glinted with fang as he blinked back to his face. “But it’s a benefit.”

Sonic never should’ve tried to win a game of flirt-chicken. Never should’ve started one. Sweet Chaos, he’d just handed Shadow a shiny new way to torture him. This was a spectacular backfire. Fortunately, he had other ways to win back his points. He moved to one side of the room and Shadow went to the other, clockwork, duelling.

“Just so you know!” Sonic called, provocation dripping off every word. “No matter what our relationship is, you’re still never gonna win!”

It worked. Shadow’s eyes flashed. He was too smart not to know it was a lure. He was too proud not to take it anyway; the insinuation that he’d ever want Sonic to go easy on him made for sweet bait.

He was on him in an instant, a blur of Chaos Control and a dropkick aimed at his head.

Sonic was already moving. The thing about Shadow was, he couldn’t use Chaos Control simultaneously. He sure made it look like it, but there was always a moment between one flash of teleportation and the next. Before the next surge of energy, when he was locked in a move. Milliseconds wasn’t an opportunity for most people.

Sonic wasn’t most people.

He dodged clear, kicked into a spindash, and whammed into Shadow’s back. Cheap shot? Yeah. So was stealing the first move with Chaos Control. All’s fair, baby. He let the recoil take him far out of reach. No illusions that he’d be able to take him out with his first attack. Shadow just dug his fingers into the floor to stop sliding and came back twice as ferocious. Fast swings that took nifty footwork to stay out of. He heard the fire burst from his skates before Shadow swung a kick at his gut. Sonic ducked under his guard and took the risk of grabbing his ankle before he finished, which led to the second thing about Shadow.

His defence was a strong offence. If he couldn’t hit, he had to take whatever counterattack got dished in return.

Sonic’s own kick flew into his chest and the impact came sharp as a whip. Shadow staggered with a hiss. It only chipped a little off his insane endurance, but a free hit was a free hit. And he still had a good point of contact. He twisted and swung him by the ankle, muscles singing with exertion. He didn’t stick around to gloat in the aftermath. Shadow could afford those hits. Sonic relied on his speed to keep himself from taking punishment. Being a sitting duck went against the strategy, even if there were some really clever quips on his tongue that were dying to come out.

There wasn’t even the sound of breaking air to warn him before a punch across the jaw sent him flying off his feet. The impact snapped all his lazier-acting instincts into gear. He tumbled on his back and blocked the next hit. Shadow ruthlessly stepped on his gut. Sonic choked on a wheeze as he curled into his foot to block another punch. Ooh, that one was gonna bruise.

He swatted off another hit before he found the perfect opening to turn the tide. When Shadow swung back and he knew the pattern, he bucked and threw off his whole balance. Shadow was forced to correct. Sonic surged forward with a wild grin and knocked him to the ground, flipping their positions in an instant. His hands slapped the floor on either side of his head.

Shadow’s pupils blew wide. It was hypnotic, red swallowed by black.

“Hah!” Sonic jeered, taking the opportunity to catch his breath. And then use it. He lowered his head and touched their noses together. “The whoooole pot.”

Shadow blinked a couple of times, and Sonic saw the exact moment his brain cells returned from whatever trance they’d wandered off into. The taunt clicked and so did his teeth when Shadow jerked and his folded knee rammed up into his jaw. Sonic didn’t give him the chance to pin him again, rolling across the floor until he picked up enough momentum to turn it into a spindash. That ceiling looked fun. He laddered his way up, chased by a furious black blur. It was a dead end with no handholds or footholds to take advantage of.

Boo. The ARK back home wasn’t as pretty, but at least it was fun to traverse.

Sonic dropped down and Shadow landed next to him. They regarded each other for a moment, as if wordlessly agreeing on the next course of action, and then struck. Sonic’s fists curled against Shadow’s. They were pushing against each other. His feet slid. He wasn’t gonna win a direct contest of strength.

Didn’t have to, if he could get Shadow to lose his cool for a minute.

“So, how long have you like liked me?” Sonic dropped casually.

“Don’t know,” Shadow grunted out, not falling for it. If he overpowered Sonic, there’d be little he could do to get out from another pin, and he knew it. Tough nut to crack.

“Me neither,” Sonic admitted cheerfully. “But I definitely remember a few months ago when we’d just finished fighting about something or other, and we were both lying in the grass ‘cause we decided to pick a fight in an open area in the middle of summer. I was like, melting, it was so hot. But then I looked over at you and I thought ‘nah, he’s hotter.’ Lemme tell ya, I didn’t mean the heat.”

Sonic felt Shadow’s unrelenting push falter and seized his chance, sorry to miss the look on his face. Couldn’t disappoint the fans in the crowd. He wrenched free and surprised him with a mean left hook. It was never going to stop him, but it did break his guard, and Sonic followed through with a combo of heavy hits, mainly kicks. They stacked up. He actually succeeded in getting Shadow to retreat. If he wanted to win, he couldn’t give him the space to breathe.

He torpedoed forward.

A barrage of Chaos Spears sent him dancing back, dodging for his life.

They weren’t full power, so he wasn’t literally dodging for his life, but they still had a nasty bite to them. He heard Shadow snap his fingers and conceded that he’d lost his chance, switching focus towards dodging the next round of spears. He slammed into Shadow mid-teleportation, and the residual Chaos made him feel like he’d just rubbed his face on a staticky television screen. Still, it was a fumble on both their parts, and Sonic was always quicker on his feet. He struck out with a lashing kick that connected before Shadow disappeared. Sonic twisted on his landing, snapped his sights over the room, and found Shadow stumbling from a harsh landing, closer than was advisable.

Oh yeah. Harder to teleport if you were distracted, and getting kicked in the face twice in as many minutes was a pretty good distraction. He could see Shadow’s sturdiness chipping away. He was taking more hits than he was landing. He still had more than enough strength to win, but if Sonic kept stoking his temper with taunts and near-misses, he’d get sloppy. And the damage would start to slow him down.

Then Sonic would have the odds.

“Which one of us is the punching bag, Shadow?” he called out. “Cause you sure are easy to hit!”

Shadow rubbed his jaw and looked over with blazing eyes.

“Maybe I just like having something to remember you by,” he said, and, uh, wow, that was an intense stare he was fixing on there. He dabbed his lip and came away with a splotch of blood. He glanced at it unconcernedly. “Something that’ll remind me of you every moment of the day, inescapably.”

Sonic suddenly forgot how words worked.

(the impressiveness of this feat could not go understated.)

Gold flashed in his eyes and the next thing he knew, he was sailing across the floor with the pain from an impressive uppercut radiating from his chin. Gravity was confusing him, which way was up? His ears rang and the floor seemed endless. Floor meant… down. He successfully reoriented himself, pushed on his palms, and immediately slammed back down with a heel on his back. Ouch. Meanie.

“Huh,” Shadow marvelled in idle wonder. “If I’d known you were that easy to fluster, I would’ve started flirting with you years ago. Could’ve saved us both some trouble.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Sonic said, muffled by how his face was currently meeting the floor. “Rouge had to mellow you out first. The old you would never stoop this low.” There wasn’t a trace of complaint in his voice. He got exactly what he wanted out of that spar. That antsy, restless feeling of need to move quit bothering him. Oh, he’d moved all right. “She taught ya to fight dirty.”

A genuine chuff of amusement from Shadow prickled warmly over his skin, followed by the release of pressure as he got his foot off his back. “You don’t seem to mind.”

“I do!” Sonic protested, rolling over on his back. “Nobody likes a cheater.”

“Except you, apparently.”

“Hey, I’ll take you on again. No tricks. No teleporting. Best outta three.”

“Hm. No.”

“Scared you’ll lose?” Sonic accepted an offered hand. Shadow pulled him to his feet.

“Seems cruel to watch you fail three times in a row.”

“You are so full of yourself, you know that?” His heart was still racing, but his breaths were starting to level out. So, it wasn’t light-headedness that caused him to knock into his shoulder and stay there until Shadow pushed him off, but it sure made good plausible deniability. Sonic looked into his eyes sincerely. “Don’t worry, I’m into it.”

“Losing?”

“You.”

There was suddenly something very interesting in the other direction that Shadow had to turn his head and immediately look at. Sonic kept his laughter to himself.

“We should.” Shadow cleared his throat. “See if the lab has made any progress.”

Sonic thought, I could get used to this.

“Sure. Got it all outta your system?”

“Huh?”

“Breaking things.”

“Yes.”

(thank you.)

“Cool beans.”

(you’re welcome.)

There were no bets placed, because people who lived on a space station had very little use for paper money.

It made a good bookmark if nothing else was available. It had interesting pictures on it. There was a genetically modified plant lying around that liked eating it, as a little treat. That was all.

Sonic still sulked over it, glowing inside from the sheer exhilaration that sparring with Shadow always brought on, and that he was starting to assume wasn’t just because he was an adrenaline junkie and Shadow was the closest thing to danger incarnate, although it certainly didn’t hurt. He was in high spirits all the way to the lab. Well. What he assumed was the way to the lab. Shadow could’ve been luring him away to stuff him down a garbage chute and he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. All the corridors looked the same.

“They’re keeping them locked in there,” Shadow muttered, stopping in front of a door.

Only one set of ‘them’ matched that look on his face. “Soldiers,” Sonic said, paying it a long look. He probably shouldn’t ask but, “What’s gonna happen to them?”

“I imagine they’ll stay onboard as prisoners until an arrangement is reached. Then, they’ll be taken back to Earth and put to trial.” Shadow inclined his head slightly. “The death toll is zero.” Thanks to us, went unsaid. “I doubt any of them are going to meet the same fate as the Professor.”

Electric chair. What a way to go. “And the people on the ARK? They’ve got to go home eventually, right?” Tiny and Maria need to see Earth, went unsaid.

“I imagine that will be an important part of the arrangements,” said Shadow. “Even with all of the evidence that what was happening here was dangerous, trying to massacre an entire populace of people will take priority in the eyes of the public. I’m sure the Professor and his researchers are already planning how to take advantage.”

“Huh.” Sonic gave the door a parting glance, then jogged to catch up with him. “You think it’ll go public?” It didn’t sound like a bad idea, people knowing the truth. Way better than finding out after the Moon blew up.

Shadow chuckled darkly. “There’s no hole deep enough to bury this.”

Sonic wondered if Shadow thought about this a lot. He didn’t comment on it. Despite the lingering disquiet from passing a room full of would-be murderers, he was still in a good mood. They’d never had the chance to just walk around and talk like this. No urgency or worry or questions like ‘how are we going to get back home?’ Just quiet conversation where they took turns talking and listening. Novelty for them. Sonic’s sense of direction was less than stellar when it came to this place, but after they passed the same dented-up wall with semi-detached hazard tape three times, he was pretty sure Shadow was leading him in circles.

“Hey, Shadow?”

“Hm?”

“Stop me if you don’t wanna know this, but… after you left, Robotnik Senior went to your little counterpart and hugged him really tight. Lots of I love you’s. And sobbing.” Sonic glanced outside, so Shadow wouldn’t have to hide his face. “I don’t think you broke something there. I think you fixed it.”

Eyes firmly set on the stars. After a while, they all looked alike. The ARK had slowly drifted along in orbit. He couldn’t tell how long. How many hours since he tackled Shadow and tried to save him from a portal that was too strong for either of them. Since they’d crawled through vents while cringing at gunshots. Since they’d routed the soldiers. Since he’d rode the Biolizard into battle (coolest moment right there). Since he’d been a passenger along for the ride through the stuff of Shadow’s worst nightmares.

Since they’d stood on the wing of the Tornado, heading to Angel Island, having another conversation-disguised-as-a-heated spat while Tails focused on flying straight and Amy rolled her eyes at them from the backseat and mouthed ‘just kiss’ to him behind Shadow’s back, and Sonic ignored it with every fibre of his being.

All through the night, it felt like.

“Thank you for telling me,” Shadow said very quietly.

There was nothing left in him but honesty. “Felt like you needed to hear it.”

“Yeah.” His voice was choked. They both pretended it wasn’t. “I think I did.”

As they walked back into the lab, Sonic studied his face under the electric lights and opened his mouth to say something stupid, like ‘I could totally kiss you right now.’ He was then distracted by the far more attention-grabbing sight of what appeared to be a giant hamster wheel, hooked up to a machine the size of a washer

“What,” he gawked, “the heck is that.” As if he didn’t have an inkling already. The hamster wheel design was a simple, but effective way of turning his speed into something useful. They’d gone on plenty of Tails’s inventions. Couldn’t say he’d ever seen one this big, before.

Gerald walked out from behind it, suitably dramatic. Instead of dread, Sonic just felt an ebb of amusement. “This,” he said, giving it a proud pat, “is your ticket home, my dear boy.”

“Uh, am I supposed to run on that?” Sonic gestured to the wheel, then to himself. “Because no offence, but I don’t think one of me is gonna cut it. Or two. Or three. You need, like, seven. Minimum.” He squinted at it. “Or maybe a dozen. I’m not a maths guy.”

The mad scientist (no point pretending he wasn’t) threw his head back with a belly-deep chuckle. “Ohohoho, quite the comedian!” He wiped a fake tear from his glasses. “No, no, dear boy. This isn’t for you. It—well, I wouldn’t have thought of it, but Maria did.”

A creature of the Biolizard’s size should not have been able to approach in any way that could be classified as stealthy, and yet. Sonic jumped when it appeared behind him. Gerald reached up and gave it an affectionate scratch on the chin. 

“It responds very well to positive reinforcement,” he informed his audience lightly.

Kid Abe walked past them with a crate. It had the G.U.N. logo on every side and must’ve come from that ship Sonic had seen earlier. He set it down and prised open the lid with a crowbar, bracing his foot on the side for leverage. Sonic got a peek of gleaming gunmetal before Biolizard stuck its head in it with the eagerness of a barnyard animal at a feeding trough.

“It likes guns,” Kid Abe deadpanned.

Biolizard tipped its head back and swallowed down a sniper rifle like a bird with a fish, scope and all. A moment later, it coughed out the scope. All eyes in the room turned to watch it spin wetly across the floor, looking like it had been caught in the aftermath of a fire.

“It really likes guns,” Kid Abe corrected without missing a beat.

Shadow turned his head the other way and coughed into his hand. Hard. He never coughed at random. Ever. Especially not like that. Sonic’s lips twitched upwards. He quickly turned back to watch the show, before it ended on the sour note of getting punched for looking too pleased with himself.

Biolizard looked up from its dinner (breakfast?) and Kid Abe dangled another gun at it. He stepped towards the hamster wheel. Biolizard slowly climbed on it, looking back eagerly, like a dog doing a trick. Kid Abe let it nibble the gun out of his hand, and even gave it a tentative pat on the snout before he moved back.

Sonic tried not to coo. That would be rude.

“Only Maria could’ve thought of something like this,” said Kid Abe.

“Only Maria,” Shadow agreed.

The Biolizard seemed to test its balance on the wheel. It looked back at Kid Abe, who gingerly gave it a thumbs up. It put one foot in front of the other and the giant wheel started to turn.

“That should start warming up,” Gerald said, sounding pleased. “Good work, my boy.”

“I don’t understand,” Kid Abe hissed back. “Why is it only taking orders from me? Maria is the one who- who bonded with it.”

“You fed it,” said Shadow. “It’s an amalgamation of different instincts, but all animals know where their dinner comes from.”

Kid Abe crossed his arms, a shade paler. “She’s the one who— I just did the grunt work. I can’t—my parents won’t let me have a dog how am I supposed to tell them the Biolizard is the family dog and it has to be a dog because Mother is allergic to cats and I can’t exactly call this a hamster---”

Sparks flew off the hamster wheel, which ranked a smidge higher on Sonic’s priorities than making sure Shadow’s future boss didn’t suffocate on his own fretting. He pointed at it.

“Is that a problem?”

Maria glanced up from a clipboard. She was wearing a pair of goggles. Somehow, that image cemented itself as one of the strangest parts of Sonic’s day. “No,” she said with detached scientific interest, and hastily scribbled something down.

Sonic leaned closer to Shadow. “Was your one like this too?” he whispered. It was something he wouldn’t have dared say in front of him not so long ago. They were a portal, a rescue, a cuddle session, and a very enlightening sparring match past that point.

“No,” said Shadow, watching her every move with soft, shining eyes. “She was worse.”

A screw flew off the hamster wheel.

“Are you sure that’s not a problem?” asked Sonic, louder.

This time, Maria didn’t pause or look up from her scribbling. “No.”

“No as in, it’s not a problem, or no as in you’re not sure it’s not a problem?”

“There are no successes or failures,” said Maria, her voice serene. “Only lessons to learn.”

Sonic swallowed nervously. “I still gotta go through that thing.”

“We’re all going to learn something,” she agreed cheerfully.

“Cool. Sweet. Awesome. I’m totally looking forward to this.” Sonic swallowed again, nodded his head, looking forward. “Just casually puttin’ my faith and the safety of my spiky blue hide in a pair of Robotniks. What could go wrong?”

Kid Abe gave him a funny look.

“Plenty,” he said, like he thought he was stupid. “It’s untested.”

Sonic gave him a funny look back. “You gotta work on your tells, kiddo,” he said. “Your nose twitches every time you take a sneaky jab at someone. Plausible deniability ain’t gonna cut it. They’re gonna catch on.”

Kid Abe clapped a hand over his nose. Sonic grinned. “Gotcha, brat.” Mismatched eyes widened, then deadpanned at him. Shadow turned his head and muffled another conveniently-timed cough. 

Biolizard picked up speed. The wheel was a blur. Sonic’s fur began standing on end. The air weighed down with pressure. He saw more sparks fly from the machine, only now, he could feel them for what they were. Chaos. They were taking a creature with enough Chaos to merge with the Eclipse Cannon and using it as the sharp side of the reality-shaped cookie cutter.

Sonic pressed shoulders with Shadow. Lights were flashing in a way that would become headache-inducing if he looked at them directly. Gerald threw his hands in the air jubilantly and shouted something that sounded positive. All eyes were on the spectacle happening in front of them. He took a shaky breath for courage, and dared to reach for his hand. Shadow glanced down for a moment, then went on as if nothing happened. His fingers were warm against his as he entwined them. More getting tangled together. It was a secret hidden between them.

Sonic was so giddy he felt sick, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to pass it off as nausea from the light show if Shadow asked why his face looked like that. He quickly turned his head. He discovered there was one other person who had their eyes somewhere else.

Maria smiled gently at him and offered a thumbs up.

Feeling like he’d just passed some sort of grave test, Sonic returned the gesture. What was the protocol when your relationship got the blessing of someone’s dead sister, a version of one who wasn’t dead? He didn’t know. He wasn’t going to ask. He decided to be happy instead. Maria’s approval meant something, no matter which one gave it. They all loved Shadow. They were all wicked smart. They were all, it seemed, a little eccentric at heart.

If this Maria Robotnik thought he was good, then, maybe Shadow’s would’ve too.

Sonic suddenly snorted. Shadow turned his head questioningly. “I just realised,” said Sonic, “I’m gonna have to sit through Rouge giving me the shovel talk.”

“The… what.” Shadow’s tone was flat with incomprehension.

“The shovel talk. The ‘if you think about breaking his heart, just remember I know where you live’ shebang. No?” Shadow shook his head. Sonic waved it off, with the hand that wasn’t wrapped tight in another. “I’ll text you later.”

“I don’t have a phone.”

“Rouge gave me your number.”

“Dammit.”

“Which I’m now starting to think might’ve had ulterior motives.”

“It’s Rouge. There’s always an ulterior motive. If you haven’t found one, you haven’t been looking hard enough.”

Shadow’s voice was a grumble, but the way he squeezed Sonic’s hand was gentle and affectionate. Yeah. Nobody was ever gonna believe him. Because he wasn’t telling. He had this side of Shadow all to himself. Who knew all it took was a rollercoaster ride through the depths of personally-tailored hell to break the ice?

“Hey, um.” Sonic flustered, which was such a weird feeling for him. “If uh, if, you know, once things have cooled down a bit and you’re thinking. Um. More clearly. If maybe you change your mind about—”

“No.”

“Let me—”

Shadow pointedly glanced at their linked hands and squeezed again.

“No.”

“Hey, I’m trying to be responsible and you know that’s not my—”

“Let me have this.” His voice cracked, and more emotion crept in than anything else he’d heard from him since those whispers in a bed of forgotten memories. “At least for a little while.” 

“Oh, Shadow.” Well, not like they had a reputation to uphold here for much longer. Even if they had, some things were more important than that. Sonic leaned in close. His shoulder was nice. Warm. Comfy. He gave his hand a reassuring squeeze back. “You can have this anytime you want.”

Shadow sighed, low. “Don’t make promises you don’t know you can keep. Not to me. Especially not to me.”

“I don’t make promises,” said Sonic. “I just do stuff. Ask any of my friends. Uhh. Actually. Don’t. I don’t wanna know what kind of embarrassing stories they’ve got on me.”

“You’re a menace.” There was a smile curling warmth through his voice.

Sonic bumped his cheek into his shoulder. “You like it.”

“There are worse things to be, I suppose.”

“Yeah. Like giant salamanders running on wheels to earn their next meal crate. Or the kid who has to feed the salamander.”

“I have ears,” Kid Abe said loudly.

Sonic faked a gasp. “Eavesdropping! The rudest social faux pas. Keep those ears to yourself. You’d better stop before you start growing corn out of them.”

“You’re making that up.”

“Happened to my uncle once.”

“Oh, really? What was his name?”

“I dunno, man. By the time I was born, everyone called him Uncle Cornstalker.” Sonic leaned in and faked a stage whisper. “He couldn’t fit his ear-corns through doors. Had to walk sideways for the rest of his life.”

Kid Abe scoffed, shook his head, and walked away. But Sonic knew he’d planted that little seed of mayhem. Like a corn kernel. Heh. Shadow shook his head at him in much the same way. “Menace,” he repeated dryly.

“Just doing my part for the next generation. You’re welcome.”

“I have to see him at work tomorrow.”

Sonic hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe skip roasted corn on that submarine sandwich.”

“Yes.” Shadow suddenly glanced down. Then to the side. Then at the hamster wheel. Anywhere that wasn’t Sonic. After a couple of minutes drowning Sonic in curiosity, he confessed: “I don’t know what a submarine sandwich is.”

“For real?” Shadow nodded. Sonic grinned. “Guess you need a veteran to show you the ropes. Don’t worry. I’ve been to every local bistro, diner, deli, and Chaoway from Central to Spagonia. You’re in good hands. I’ll show you where you can find the good stuff.”

“… Alright.”

“Shadow,” said Gerald, and both of the Shadows looked at him. He nodded towards the one next to Sonic. “It’s time. Do exactly as you did before. And you—” He turned to look at the tiny one, “will be helping. Your Chaos Control will not be as strong, but between the three of you, it should be enough to break through.”

Tiny Shadow gave a stiff nod and left Maria’s side. Sonic felt Shadow’s hand slip out of his. He let him go, hating this part. The goodbyes. Especially ones like this.

“You’re gonna do great things someday,” he said to Kid Abe. “You just don’t have to do them alone this time. Just do what you do best and let your people fall in line behind you. Learn to accept help. You don’t have to fix the world by yourself.”

“This is goodbye, then.” Kid Abe looked like the calm face he had on was cracking at the edges. “Is there any advice you can give me about the future, then? Things I should look out for?”

“Hm.” Sonic tapped his chin. “I dunno what kind of butterfly effect this is gonna have, but sure. Nothing changes from staying hush hush. I can think of a few insider tips for ya… how much do you know about the entity Chaos?” 

Every step that moved him forward felt like a dream.

A good dream, or a nightmare?

He was far beyond knowing.

Shadow let his steps carry him towards the nervous figure of his creator. He met him with a cordial nod, careful body language. Shadow saw his own reflection in his black glasses.

“You aren’t the person who deserved my anger,” he said quietly. He’d never been good at apologies. But for this, for this, he had to try. “It was wrong of me. I’m sorry.”

The Professor cracked a small smile. “You are wholly forgiven.” His hand hovered questioningly over his shoulder. Shadow gave a near-imperceptible nod, and he found himself the target of an embrace he had not felt in years. That damn woolly turtleneck… “I am very proud of who you have become and the choices you have made, Shadow. I am so very sorry the man who created you was an absolute buffoon.” Shadow blinked up in surprise. The Professor’s moustache twitched in a mirthful way. “I am a scientist, dear boy. I know how to conclude a fool when I see one.” He stroked his head. “I will be better than that. I am better than that. For you, just as much as Maria. I will not let those mistakes repeat. I give you my word.”

Shadow hovered listlessly, absorbing the monumental brunt of those words. Not a memory. Not a video. Not a diary. Something that was being said to him, that he could feel and hear and touch and— He buried his face in the damn turtleneck and squeezed the stupid lab coat and scrunched his face against the stinging threat of tears.

“I miss you,” he said. “You were more than a creator to me. You were Grandfather.”

“What an honour.” Those same, tender strokes along his quills. ‘What an honour indeed.”

He let go, because in the end, he always had to. He gave a shaky nod, no more words required between them. Just understanding and acceptance and an aching absence, finally acknowledged. Professor Gerald waved him off towards his next destination, the same absent way as he always did, like he had half of his mind stuck in solemn thoughts and the other swimming somewhere in a pot of black coffee.

Umbra stood before him.

“You’re leaving.” It was an acknowledgement.

“I am,” Shadow agreed, and it was thick in his throat.

“Be safe.”

“I will.”

“Be happy.”

“I’ll try.”

Umbra stepped aside. That pensive air hung over him. Shadow was braced for the question before it came. He still couldn’t grudge him for it. That curiosity was something he grieved for, too.

“Is there anything you can tell me about what comes next?” It was hopeful, and a little scared.

Like he had before, Shadow put his hand on his shoulder. It felt right. “Nothing that you’re not strong enough to find out on your own,” he said, and was going to leave it at that. Then, a second thought. “Wait. One thing.”

Umbra held his breath.

“If you ever encounter an artifact called the Sceptre of Darkness.” Shadow squeezed on his shoulder for emphasis, intoning clearly: “Do. Not. Drop it.”

“What… What happens if I do?”

“Carry it in a safe. Wrap it in bubble wrap if you must. If you find yourself with a choice between catching someone you care about and the falling Sceptre, you dive for the goddamn Sceptre. It’s not worth it.”

“I— okay.” Umbra sprung on heel and enveloped him in a hug. Shadow froze. Umbra took advantage of his indecision and dashed off towards where Sonic was waiting. The shock wore off eventually. Huh. His other self knew how to give hugs. That was new.

Only one person left, between him and the end, and it was the hardest one by far.

He knew he should say something. Needed to say something. Had so many somethings built up over the years that they avalanched and blocked up his throat. There weren’t enough words or time in the world, any world, where he could say enough.

Maria hugged him again.

“I’m so proud of you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I can’t be there to say it every day, but I can say it now. Okay? I love you. I’m so proud of who you’ve become. You’re all grown up. You made friends. And you’ve been to Earth. That makes me so happy, Shadow. But I can’t imagine how lonely it must’ve been, to do it all by yourself.” Shadow’s breath twisted with the roughness of a sob, trembling. Her voice. Her hair. Her blouse. Her scent. He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t, wasn’t ready to—

“Can you make me a promise?” asked Maria.

“Anything,” said Shadow. Anything. Everything. Always. Just ask.

She hummed. “If you are able to find happiness, I want you to reach for it. Take it with both hands.” Her delicate fingers curled around his palms, lifting them up to his heart. “And hold it tightly. Right here.” He could feel his own heartbeat trying to leap out of his throat. Maria smiled at him, and it was a brand new smile. Or, perhaps, a forgotten one. Warm and bright and lovely and tired and human and real. Not a ghost. Not a source of grief. Just his other half. His sister, with the sky in her eyes and golden fields in her hair and starshine in her veins and summer warmth in every smile.

“Promise?”

“Yes.” It settled with finality in his chest, and felt like something had been set free. Something that had been sitting in the dark for a long time. “I promise, Maria.”

“Good.” She leaned down and kissed his head. “Off you march.”

He stepped away, the dreamlike gauze wrapping in wider and longer loops around him. Sonic was holding out a Chaos Emerald for him. He took it. It felt real. This was all real. He drew it close to himself, held it, and thought a single wish with all of his heart:

Please don’t make me forget this, too.

“Ready for round two, hamster wheel boogaloo?” Sonic interrupted, managing to sever the tension and the last tendrils of his patience in a single move. Impressive, for such a blunt instrument.

Shadow breathed out a sigh, a mouthful of sterile air.

“Get this over with,” he ordered. “I need to beat the magic out of a wizard.”

Sonic’s eyes twinkled. Umbra gently leaned against him.

“I don’t know what to do,” he whispered. “What am I supposed to do?”

… Shadow was not the right person to ask, ironically enough.

“It’s all in your heart, Tiny,” Sonic jumped in. His counterpart did not seem offended by the nickname. If anything, his face got brighter. “It’s like a ball of warmth that gets bigger the longer you focus on it. Think of all the reasons why you’re doing this. What you want to do with that energy.”

“That’s not helpful in the slightest,” Shadow cut in, because he couldn’t stand back and listen to this nonsense. “Ignore what he said. The energy lives in your body. You control it. Move it like you’d move your hand. Make it obey your will, that’s what it’s there for. When you feel it’s ready to listen, let it go. Trust your strength to guide it.”

“Um,” said Umbra.

“No, no, no,” Sonic disagreed, the idiot. “It’s like this. The energy flows around you and you just gotta let it in. It’s like taking a super fresh breath of air. It feels like you can do anything with it. And you can! Which is why it’s so cool.”

“Are you talking about Chaos, or are you describing a breeze?” Shadow cut off impatiently. “Which is it, hedgehog?”

“I mean, it’s all nature, right?”

“It’s not even close to the same—”

“Oh.” They both turned their heads. Umbra was holding a ball of light in his palm. It looked like the undecided beginnings of a Chaos Spear. He stared at it with transfixion, and it shone back in his pupils. “It feels like me,” he said.

Shadow went quiet and looked at Sonic.

Sonic went quiet and looked at Shadow.

“Good enough,” said Sonic.

“That’ll do,” said Shadow.

The ball of Chaos drifted out of Umbra’s hand like a bubble. Shadow saw his fingers twitch, controlling its trajectory. He had never seen it manifest in this way before. It was certainly not something he’d ever think of doing. Was it—was it because of the events they’d changed today? Because Umbra was no longer him?

The bubble floated to Maria and rested on her nose. Umbra pinched his fingers and it popped. She laughed and rubbed it with the back of her hand. “Tickles,” she said. “Like soda bubbles.”

Umbra looked very shy, and very proud. He had every reason for both. Shadow held back another sigh and tapped him once. “Your control is remarkable,” he said. “Don’t let it turn you complacent.”

“I won’t,” said Umbra, and the light of Chaos was still bright in his eyes, and Shadow believed it.

“Alright, like before then,” said Sonic. Shadow moved into position. “Tiny, somewhere in the middle. Great. We’ll hold up the emeralds and you touch them too, okay? You gotta say Chaos Control or it won’t work.”

“It’ll work just fine,” Shadow growled, before he realised Sonic was teasing him.

“No, you gotta say it or it doesn’t count,” Sonic insisted blithely.

“Chaos Control?” Umbra repeated it to himself a few times. “Chaos Control. Chaos. Chaos Control.”

Sonic leaned in and whispered, “D’ya think there’s any chance we could like, borrow him?”

“Do you want to find out if you can still scream once you’re shoved inside a wormhole?” Shadow whispered back.

“Ehh. On second thought, one of you is plenty.”

“Good choice.”

This was it. This was the moment. Chaos rose all around him. It was wind and static and the sensation of floating on stars. He drew in his breath, drew out his power. “Chaos…”

“CONTROL!” And when they yelled, half of the room yelled it along with them. The Chaos rushed to swallow them and time and reality blurred into a slurry of colours and shapes and abstract patterns. One thing Shadow did see, from whatever scattered waypoint it took him to, was a pair of emeralds clattering to the ground by Umbra’s feet. His counterpart looked up, exactly to his eye-level, and he saw him, somehow, he saw him.

“Thank you,” he mouthed, and then came a lot of falling, through leagues of the sea. 

The Sandomancer burst into another round of cackles as a club-shaped club sandwich chased Knuckles around the altar. “AT LAST! THE WORLD IS AT MY FINGERTIPS. TODAY WILL BE—”

“Nope!” A pop of blue energy was the only warning before Sonic’s signature axe kick buried itself in the club, smashing it into leftovers. “You just made a huge mistake, bucko!” 

“Sonic!” called Tails. Sonic looked over and relief struck him so hard it almost hurt, because that was Tails, which meant he was back, which meant it worked. “There was a big wave of energy and— what happened?” Little brothers, always too smart for their own good. He squinted at him like Kid Abe did. “Something happened.”

Sonic waved, scanning his surroundings for Shadow while the Sandomancer threw another tantrum. He stopped caring as soon as he took away his new toy. “Long story, what’d I miss?”

“SONIC!” It was Amy, and she sounded a mix of relieved and outraged. Oh. She… probably hadn’t seen what happened. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I’VE BEEN FENDING OFF MAYO ALL BY MYSELF FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES!”

Sonic slowly raised his brows. “Fifteen minutes?” he asked, just to check, just to clarify, because what the fuck. That was way longer than fifteen minutes. He was starving and he wanted a nap. Preferably with company, so he could properly bask in the cuddling. Just had to find— yep, there. Shadow was sneaking around the steps right below him. Their eyes met.

Sonic gave a significant glance in the Sandomancer’s direction. Shadow’s head nodded a fraction and he disappeared around the corner. Guess the ‘no Chaos Control while time is twisting into a baguette’ restriction was back. Sonic shifted his attention back to the cause of all this. His friends were still talking to him, but they’d have to wait a second. He needed to stop the Sandomancer before he got a chance to open another portal.

You couldn’t pay him all the chili dogs in the world to go through that again.

“Honey, where’s Shadow?” Rouge popped into his peripheral vision.

“Sonic, what was that portal thing? You two went right through it. I tried to get a read on it and that’s when—”

“Hey, are you listening?”

He felt Shadow’s attack before it happened and he moved. Shadow sent a sucker punch right across the Sandomancer’s face, shutting up his tirade a blink. Sonic whirled his momentum into his hip and kicked with as much spite as he could muster. The Sandomancer tumbled down the altar steps with a series of squeaks. Shadow dove after him, and Sonic was right behind.

They caught the Sandomancer in midair before the last impact with the ground. Sonic broke the baguette staff with another axe kick and Shadow broke the Sandomancer’s nose with a crunch that was becoming a familiar backdrop to these kinds of fights. The Sandomancer muttered something unintelligible and crumpled like wilted lettuce. They stood over him, tense, waiting for something to happen, some sign to declare it wasn’t over.

It was over.

Blood dripped from Shadow’s tensed knuckles and a playful gust of wind tickled Sonic’s quills. They were on Earth. They were home. The Sandomancer was incapacitated, not dead. Just like every other enemy today. He shivered from the wind. Stupid temperature flux. Shadow’s eye glinted as his gaze shifted to him, a similar realisation dawning there, lifting off their shoulders like a thousand pounds of dead weight.

It was over.

The next thing he knew, there was several pounds of worried baby brother on his back. Sonic stumbled, caught himself, laughed. Because it was Tails. That fluff, that voice, that insistent poking of a scanning device as he waved it around his face and asked him questions that he should probably be answering. They’d just torn a hole through reality to claw their way back home. That kind of thing probably didn’t just slide, cosmically speaking.

They had time.

Yeah.

Nothing but time.

When he looked up, Shadow was gone.

A pang of disappointment hit him harder than a gut punch, before he noticed the deliberate trail that followed movement through the rubble. The kind of trail that was easy to track, that Shadow would never, ever leave. It felt like acknowledgement. Your turn. Goodbyes and reunion. It felt like an invitation. Come find me when you’re ready.

That anxious ball of hot fuzz in his chest disappeared. He remembered. Shadow remembered. It was—he hadn’t been afraid that one of them would forget, until he suddenly wasn’t sure. But no. He remembered everything. That was real. He’d been gone a helluva lot longer than fifteen minutes. Try fifteen hours.

“Helloooo, Earth to Sonic?” Amy’s hand waving in his face, while she peered at him with concern thinly veiled under exasperation. “Are you… okay?”

Sonic blinked. He took a breath that tasted like mountaintops and freedom. He felt daylight beaming softly over his head as the clouds drifted past. It was over, they’d done it, they’d changed a future. Not their future, but a future, as great and far-reaching as the word implied.

Now, he could get back to living his own.

“Yeah, Amy.” He looked over at her and smiled. The tiredness made her frown more, but it was a genuine one. “More than okay. Uh. Mind if I fill you in later?” He met each of their concerned gazes in turn. Well. No rush. And it felt great, that there was no rush, no pressure, no life-or-death thing that needed doing next. He pointed over his shoulder vaguely. “I gotta talk to Shadow.”

“What happened?” Rouge asked sharply.

Sonic shook his head. “Just. Gotta talk to him. It’s important.” He lifted his head, imparting seriousness into his voice. Been a while since he dusted off that tone. The one of a resistance leader. A trusted friend. Family. “Don’t follow me, okay?”

“Blue, you’re worrying me,” Rouge said, tone hundreds of thousands of watts brighter than the dark threat concealed underneath, like a blade. “What happened? Why do you need to talk to Shadow?”

What happened to Shadow?

“A lot,” Sonic said, which seemed accurate. “But he’s okay. So am I.” He gestured to himself. “Got back all in one piece.”

“Where did you—” Rouge cut herself off, staring into Sonic’s face. Whatever she saw there, it made her move aside. “Later, right?”

Sonic nodded.

Rouge gestured with a wing and a curt nod. “Go.” Some of her aloofness fell away. “Make sure he’s okay. Getting a straight answer from him is like pulling screws out with a spatula.”

“Weirdly specific, but thanks anyway!” 

Angel Island had many places tucked away where nature spilled corner to corner, and right off the edge into nowhere. A waterfall thundered nearby. Birds tweeting in the trees. Leaves drifting from branches. Long, untreaded grass that nodded sleepily to the wind’s lullaby.

A cliffside clearing cradled in the grip of winding tendrils, heavy with soft, white flowers.

Shadow’s ear twitched long before Sonic got close enough to say hello. Seemed redundant anyway. They’d barely been apart for a handful of minutes. The closer he walked to that brooding figure, the more surreal the past fifteen hours felt. But they’d made it. Survived living in a nightmare, all through the night. That was real. The things that were said were real. The bond they’d shared was real.

It still felt like his hand was entwined in his.

Sonic’s footsteps crunched to a halt. Shadow didn’t turn to look at him. Didn’t have to. Maybe didn’t want to. Couldn’t banish that anxiety threading through his gut. Maybe, just maybe, what happened in the alternate timeline stayed in the—

“Do you think there’s more out there?”

“Like aliens?” Monumentally stupid, but it was the first thing that popped into mind and, Chaos, there was no way he was going to be able to keep this thing going. It was doomed. All of it. Doomed.

“No.” There was that smile, curling through his voice. Then, it faded. “More timelines.”

“I mean, I hope so.” But that wasn’t what Shadow meant, and Sonic knew it. He cleared his throat, decided it was fine to step closer. His understanding of Shadow’s personal space bubble was as entangled as they’d been while trying to catch some sleep. While Shadow slept. And Sonic tried to die of boredom quietly. Heh. “You don’t know that,” he settled on. “None of us do. I mean, probably? If that’s what you want to hear.”

“But what if there are?” Shadow’s guarded tone slipped into something cracked, vulnerable, and deeply familiar as of late. “What if there’s something I can do to stop it, and I’m not doing it?”

“Shadow.” He only meant to put a comforting hand over his shoulder. Shadow twisted around and pressed in close. He was shaking so much. Sonic frowned, picked up where he left off, letting him hide behind his quills, shake it out with his forehead pressed to his shoulder. “You can’t.”

“I just did.”

“It’s not worth it.”

“It is.”

“No. It’s not.” A deep shudder ran under his hand. “Tell ya what. If something like this happens again, I’ll jump in with you no questions asked. But you gotta stop torturing yourself with what-ifs.” Shadow silently shook his head. “Yes,” Sonic repeated firmly. “That’s not what Maria would want for you. Or Gerald. Or those cute, tiny versions of yourself.” Then, quieter. “It’s not what I want for you.”

“I can’t stand it. The- the thought that it’s still happening. Somewhere. To another pair of kids.” Shadow’s weight became a lot heavier. He was crushed against Sonic’s shoulder so tight it had to hurt at least a little. “They’re just kids,” he rasped, and then his voice hitched and broke.

I was just a kid, he heard, echoing somewhere in the shards.

“It’s gonna be hurting like that for a while,” said Sonic, looking up at the sky. He could see the pale silhouette of the moon in daylight. Closer. Permanently fractured, surrounded by a ring of its own rubble. “Sorry, Shadow.”

The hands braced around his front curled into claws. “Not fucking fair,” Shadow hissed, pain and desperation and despair intertwined along a Black Arms-deep growl. Another hitch. Another dry sob. “They’re dead and I’m still here and it’s not fucking fair.”

“I know.”

“It should’ve been me.”

He pretended that didn’t plunge a cold dagger into him and twist. For Shadow’s sake. Chaos, how had he held it together back there? Squishing a Black Arms larva and yelling a bit didn’t come close, if this was how deep it went.

“Should’ve been no-one,” Sonic muttered, firm as steel. One thing at a time.

Shadow’s next breath shuddered, but it was better than the last one. “No-one,” he agreed, like he hadn’t thought of it that way before. Like someone always had to die. Well. They’d spent a whole night proving the opposite. He wasn’t thinking clearly. Sonic got that. All of it, unravelling at the seams while holding him like he was the only thing left in the world that wouldn’t break.

He stayed, weaving on his feet when his legs got tired. Nowhere else he’d rather be. He wasn’t the one who got battered by an emotional storm. He could dust off and walk away and he’d chalk it up to another crazy adventure within the month. Had done that, more times than he could count. Knew the drill.

Shadow wouldn’t.

Whatever wounds he’d been healing, whatever scars he’d managed to live with, they’d bled him out and he was going down hard. New pain. New memories, fresh paint. They did something different this time. Didn’t erase what happened before. Sonic stayed, and he held Shadow, and he felt like he could do it until the sun sank under the horizon line and another night fell over them in a sea of stars. And he’d stand vigil through that night, too. As many as it took. No questions asked. No justification needed.

Sonic didn’t do promises. He just did stuff.

Contrary to his protective thoughts as he did his best to buffer Shadow from all the world had to offer, his own stomach grumbled. Not a small grumble, either. He hadn’t eaten since – when? Couldn’t say. Too long. It was a growl that could be heard across the sea. Metaphorically.

Shadow lifted off him with a tiny huff. Sonic was – surprised, really surprised, that there were no tears in his eyes. No redness, no wetness, no sign that he’d been crying. He wiped the back of his hand over his face, paranoid hedgehog that he was, and his inhibitor turned back a wink of sunlight. 

The aloof mask slotted right back over his face with no chance that Sonic would ever, ever not be able to see right through it again.

“You should eat,” said Shadow, and aside from the hoarseness from the growl, which always seemed to happen when he made noises a hedgehog shouldn’t be able to make, he sounded like himself. Level. Detached. Cold. He met Sonic’s eye and there was light there, too, glittering light, mesmerising as Chaos. Shadow mistook his staring as defiance. “You need to eat. It doesn’t matter when you think your last meal was. Have another before the dissonance catches up to you and makes you truly sorry.”

Those were the same eyes. His tone, his words, his expressions, his body language. Somehow, he was the hedgehog who’d beat him into the ground and the hedgehog who complained about his fidgeting when they slept and the hedgehog who blazed through his own nightmare like fire in the dark, tearing it down with claws and fangs.

And he was dangerous.

And he was handsome.

And Sonic was going to do something stupid.

“What?” Shadow asked, finally catching on that Sonic was not, at all, even remotely thinking about chili dogs.

(the impressiveness of this feat could not go understated.)

“I kind of wanna kiss you,” Sonic said impulsively, adrenaline cinching into his throat, trembling in his teeth.

Shadow paused. Considered. Tilted his head. Squinted. Considered more. Let him sweat a little. Sonic was about to call it a bust and jump off the side of Angel Island before the embarrassment of what he’d just said he just said that to Shadow oh Chaos he was dead meat walking could catch up to him. 

He’d outrun more abstract concepts.

“You want to kiss me?” Shadow asked, like it needed clarification. Or he just liked making Sonic suffer. Both. He could be doing both. 

It had to be the sleep deprivation and the burnout. He liked doing reckless things, but this was bordering on suicidal.

“Yeah,” he said, cool as he could muster.

“You.” Shadow stepped forward. Sonic stepped back. “Want.” Déjà vu caught up to him. “To.” Same position as the Tornado, but the tension was really, really different. “Kiss.” Empty space under his foot and he realised there was nowhere to go but down, into the sky. They were touching noses. “Me.”

“Yeah,” he said again, nowhere near as composed.

Sky under his heels. Digging his toes into rock through his shoes. Teetering on the brink of oblivion. That fine line. He wasn’t usually flirting with danger so blatantly. He’d be lying if it wasn’t pumping his head full of so much adrenaline he felt dizzy. Shadow wouldn’t let him fall. But he could. There was always that risk. It was his mercy keeping him there, and he made no secret of how often he wanted to push Sonic off of high places. His pulse tapped, heady like honey. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Not supposed to like this.

He liked it anyway, because Sonic had never been very good at listening to common sense.

Just the wind clawing at his back. Just Shadow’s eyes burning soul-deep, searching for something, with that hypnotic glitter of light in them. Just the promise of falling on one side and a different, more thrilling kind of fall in the other direction.

“Not right now, if— if you don’t feel like it,” Sonic burst out, because the other thing he wasn’t very good at was letting a silence hang. Shadow’s eyes narrowed and he felt the shift in his muscles, because he was pressed so close, felt the tense as the idea of pushing him off physically flittered along the smooth, deadly lines of his body.

“If you want to kiss me,” and Shadow was pulling him back, pulling them both back onto the grass, then the flowers. Sonic was still a little dizzy. He’d insist that’s why he didn’t notice how dangerously closer Shadow had gotten until warm, soft lips teased butterfly-light over his cheek. Shadow’s mouth drifted to his ear and whispered, dark and mean, “You have to win it.”

“In, in a fight, right?” He sounded drunk, even to the scraps of his mind that weren’t swimming gleefully in the clouds above their heads. He might get addicted to this.

He felt his lips curl into a smirk beside his ear, because he was so close, he was right there, totally kissable, and it was so obviously bait, dangling, with a sharp hook.

“Yeah.” 

And he bit his ear. Nipped just hard enough to make him feel the sharpness of his fangs, the challenge he was throwing at him, because he was so, so damn mean.

Sonic wouldn’t choose any other way.

“Ha.” He smiled, not caring if it made him look dopey. Shadow was bullying him on purpose. He deserved a little dopiness. “Hey, Shadow. Wanna grab chili dogs?”

Shadow had to push away to look at him, which was a shame, but probably good for his heart rate. “Chili dogs,” he repeated, sceptically.

Sonic shrugged, in a what-can-you-do sort of motion. “Told you that’s what I’d do when we got back.”

Shadow closed his eyes, sighed, resting back on his thighs. “I remember.” 

Point to Sonic. Bait unbitten. He could be patient. Not for long, but he could be. Especially with incentive. Not just a kiss. The incentive of entwined hands. Quiet cuddles. Low grumbles. A kick or two, for good measure. Soft fur and danger-coloured eyes and competitiveness and contentment. Soul tonic stuff.

Sonic turned his head towards the clearing. “Hey, do chili dogs count as sandwiches?” he wondered aloud. “Because I don’t want anything to do with sandwiches today.” Shadow blinked at him in clear disinterest. Mischief crooked Sonic’s grin. “You think I should ask? I think I should ask.” Before waiting for an answer, if any, he cupped his hands and raised his voice to the top of his lungs.

“HEY! SANDOMANCER! GOT A QUESTION FOR YA. ARE CHILI DOGS A SANDWICH?”

For a moment, there was utter silence. Sonic was prepared to yell louder. Then, a scream rose from the knot of trees around the altar. Birds flooded out in alarm. It almost felt like the ground shook. The screams were furious, mouth-foaming, but too distant to parse out any words. Sonic turned to Shadow, still smirking.

“Jury’s still out. Wanna grab one anyway?”

“Menace,” Shadow muttered, and took his hand when it was offered, which, coming from him, was as good as saying yes, please.

FIN.