Work Text:
Shadow couldn't focus. He had to avenge Maria, it was the only way, to turn those sick soldiers' own plans and fears against them and wreak the destruction they had so feared. What was it they had said? "If Russia gets ahold if it while we're so close to a peace this whole gamble will have been for nothing"? Well, looks as though G.U.N. was so worried about Russia they left themselves wide open to an attack from the very being they froze for half a century.
Those cowards had been so fearful of a hypothetical that they had thoughtlessly killed a child. They had then used his grief to their advantage, captured him while he was by her side. By the side of the child they had killed in the fear that their enemies would get ahold of the weapon they'd made. If he was a weapon to be feared, then so be it. He'd make them regret what they had done, they could spend their precious final moments in agony and he wouldn't give a damn.
For a second though, as he activated the core, Maria's face had been replaced by that man, and he had been replaced by Sonic. Was this what Maria would have- No. None of that. Hypotheticals only caused more pain. It was time to end this, then he could see Maria again. He could look that child in the eye and swear he had gotten her justice. He'd tell her, "I did it all for you."
All he had to do was defeat this blue mirror of himself and he could see her again. He could apologize for his failures. The emerald's energy coursed through him, burning at his veins and feeding on the rage and grief he'd been trapped in for so long. He was winning, and it felt good. He could easily imaging the blue hedgehog as the soldier who had shot the gun that let to Maria's death. It was cathartic, landing blow after blow, releasing his pain, his anger, his sadness.
In a way, he felt for his mirror, he was going through something similar after all, but that was where their similarities ended. Sonic had been lucky. He had been loved, trusted. He was an individual to the world, not a weapon. He wasn't a creature made from the fears of a people who were prepared to blow up the world over ideals. Shadow could not allow pity to blind him, he had a goal.
As his luck goes, inevitably the tide was turned. Sonic gained the upper hand, eyes and full of the same righteous fury he'd felt for decades met his and something in him just caved.
"Do it." he had told the mirror. He could accept this. The lasers would fire, Maria would have her justice. He could be content with going to meet her a little earlier than planned. But then, inexplicably, Sonic let go. He let him go, the light of furious power faded, and he sat down, back to Shadow, hand to his heart, and he stopped.
It felt wrong, shouldn't he want revenge? What was stopping him, then he spoke, and Shadow got it. Just the same as that man wouldn't have wanted this for his mirror, Maria wouldn't have wanted to see Shadow like this. He thought about what it would be like, seeing Maria, and all he could picture was her disappointed face. She wouldn't be angry, just sad. Sad that he had been so hurt, sad she hadn't been there to stop it.
New resolve growing, Shadow agreed to stop the laser, and for just a second, he could have sworn the other hedgehog's blonde fur was a bit paler. Shadow swore, for just a second, that the light he had treasured so much in Maria was in front of him once more. Maybe he could still make her happy. Yes, that was it, as angry as he was at this world, Maria was too kind a soul to want this level of carnage. He'd make it right, so that one day, when he met with her again, he could look her in the eye and say, "I did it all for you."