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“Shadow!” He yelled.
Catch him. Save him. He needs you. You need him.
He’s like you.
He dived.
He couldn’t fail. Not like this. Sonic knew now that Shadow was… different. He wasn’t made like Sonic was.
He was created, not born. Every Chaos ability he possessed, he was using on borrowed time. Borrowed energy.
That’s why he was falling now. Shadow had saved the world with a power he was never meant to wield.
He wasn’t like Sonic. Not really, despite what his mind was screaming at him. Sonic knew it’d been too good to be true. He was one of a kind. Ability wise, he broke the laws of physics, made in a cruel twist of fate. The only one who could wield his natural Chaos Energy without being burnt to a crisp.
But still…
Shadow could run almost as fast as him. He couldn’t quite break the sound barrier without a Chaos Emerald, but he could do something no living being on Mobius or anywhere near it could do.
He could catch up to Sonic.
Sonic wasn’t willing to lose that without a fight.
Almost there.
Sonic reached out, prepared to grab Shadow’s outstretched arms. Shadow shook his head, weakly. Sonic realized Shadow wasn’t fighting this.
”Shadow, we- we need to get back on the ARK.” They were descending faster than sound, the words delayed in their ears.
“No,” Shadow refused, his eyes slipping shut. Sonic surged forward, using his waning strength to grab Shadow and do his best to maintain his Super form.
He grabbed Shadow by his inhibitor rings, due to overshooting and missing his hands.
Sonic opened his mouth to utter two magic words, and snapped it shut just as quickly.
Shadows eyes forced themselves open just a bit, and his rings glowed white. Sonic’s sure it should’ve burned, if he himself was not also burning.
Shadow fell. Sonic dropped the rings. He watched as Earth’s atmosphere swallowed Shadow whole, as he was lit aflame. Sonic looked away.
He’d failed.
Shadow was dead.
Sonic grabbed the ring that floated in front of him.
He stay there for a moment, in shock. He couldn’t believe it.
The other ring knocked into his arm, snapping him out of his stupor. He grabbed it, without really thinking.
”Chaos Control.”
He landed outside the room where his crew and Eggman stood waiting for his and Shadow’s return.
He braced himself.
”Sonic! There you are! Where’s Shadow?” Rouge asked. She wore a slightly worried expression.
Sonic looked around, at each and every one of his friends in that room.
He looked at Eggman.
He looked at Tails.
One glance and Sonic knew he knew.
He took a deep breath, and looked down at the ring in his hand.
He held it out, offering it to the bat in front of him. Rouge’s breath hitched, and Amy gasped. Knuckles simply widened his eyes. Sonic thinks Eggman sat a little straighter.
None of them had even really known him.
But the death hit them hard. A newfound ally, a potential friend to most of them.
And to Sonic?
A worthy rival.
Rouge asked him something, about the reason Shadow had ever existed in the first place.
”He was… brave. A worthy hedgehog that gave his life to save the planet,” Sonic said, pausing. “He was Shadow the Hedgehog. A hero.”
”When I was a child, I looked up to my grandfather. I heard stories, of him and my sickly cousin, Maria. But now… did he really mean to destroy us?” Eggman, Robotnik, finally said. Unfortunately, Sonic didn’t know.
Nobody knew. It was impossible to ever know. They all watched his execution.
Sonic couldn’t really remember what came next. Rouge cried in his arms, something she’d never done. She wasn’t like Sonic, hiding her sorrow like an alcoholic would hide booze, but it was a rare occurrence. She just didn’t cry.
Knuckles was silent, a face of stone. He was sorry, everybody knew that.
Amy didn’t cry. She comforted a droopy Tails with a shaky voice and shakier hands. But she didn’t cry. Tails didn’t either.
He was watching Sonic.
The blue blur wasn’t sure where to go from here. He hesitantly patted Rouge’s back, not quite confident it was enough. Eventually, Rouge pulled off and demanded that what happened in that room would never see the light of day.
Sonic wasn’t really listening. He walked over to the window, but couldn’t really hear Amy as she spoke to him. He thinks he might’ve been muttering, something he hadn’t done since before he lost his voice.
“Are you okay, Sonic?” Amy asked, snapping him back to reality. Out of habit, he put on a smile.
“Oh- yeah, sorry. It’s nothing. C’mon, I’m ready to go home. Back to the planet that’s as cool and blue as me!” He said confidently, feeling the tension in the air dissipating as he boosted their spirits. He’d always done that. If Sonic was okay, the world was okay. That’s what people believed, even his own friends. A large part of him took pride in this.
He watched as people left the room, heading back to where they came in from.
He was about to follow them, but something made him stop. He turned back around, looking out into the void that he’d just watched somebody fall into, never to be heard from again.
For the first time in years, he let a single tear slip.
“Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog.”
He’s not sure what made him say it.
Sonic thinks he feels somebody watching him. He turns, but nobody’s there.
He walks out, and the door shuts behind him. He goes back to his job, and laughs and smiles with his crew as they head back to Mobius, trying to cheer them up.
Sonic is a mess. He’d barley known him, he knows, and really, he should hate his guts for getting him in so much trouble. But he doesn’t.
Really, he just misses him.
For the rest of the trip, he reminisces on what could’ve been.