Chapter Text
It was during one of the rare downtimes on the Astral Express that they encountered their new passenger. It all started with a…
BOOM!
The whole train shook from an unknown impact, causing the main lights to shut off and the red emergency lights to switch on. In the Party Car, Sunday and Welt were slowly getting their bearings after the crash, their game of starchess interrupted.
“Are you okay, Sunday?” Welt asked, cane in hand and eyes alert.
“I am not injured, just overtaken by the sudden surprise. How about you, Mr Yang?"
"Same here. We need to regroup with the rest and confirm everyone's condition before-" Welt stopped when he noticed a golden light radiated from outside the window.
Sunday followed his direction, his eyebrows furrowed when he didn't comprehend what he was seeing. "Mr. Yang, do you have any guesses on what or who is the being floating outside?”
“Hmm, my best guess is... some sort of hedgehog?"
"He seems to be unconscious and judging from how the light is slowly fading, I don't think that whatever that is will not survive long in space. What should we do, Mr Yang?"
Welt fixed his glasses. “Sunday, go tell Himeko or Pom Pom to prepare the medbay. I will go retrieve the hedgehog.”
Shadow woke up to the familiar scent of antiseptics and a dull throbbing pain all over his body. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself in some sort of infirmary. The equipment around him looked vastly different from the ones back in the military base.
He turned to his side and saw a dark-haired male reading a book.
The man looked up; his light blue eyes widened slightly with mild surprise.
“Oh, you are awake. How are you feeling?” his tone calm and measured.
In a red flash, Shadow teleported to the corner of the room, putting distance away from the potential threat. Red and gold lightning sparkled to life in his fists.
"Who are you? Where am I? Am I at G.U.N?" Shadow tried to ignore on how his voice sounded so scratchy and not as intimidating as he wanted it to be.
The man pulled up his hands, a vain attempt to look harmless in Shadow's opinion. “My name is Dan Heng. I am part of the Nameless. You are currently in the medbay on the Astral Express and not this G.U.N you mentioned. I assure you that you are safe here.”
“The Astral Express? What is that?”
The man raised an eyebrow at that question. “It’s the train used by the Nameless to travel the star rails laid by Akivili, the Aeon of the Trailblaze. Now, can you tell me your name?”
Shadow ignored the question, his mind whirling from all the unfamiliar terms. “I don’t understand. I’m supposed to be dead. Why am I here?”
Before Dan Heng could respond, there was a knock on the door.
“Dan Heng!! This is March and I'm here with your lunch. Oh and Mr. Yang is here too, to take over your shift”.
"March, Mr. Yang, please don't come in yet –"
The door opened to reveal two more humans, one girl with pink hair and one tall man with glasses. Shadow saw an opportunity to escape and planned to teleport out of the medbay. A short burst of Chaos Control and he found himself... back at the corner of the room.
Suddenly the dull pain flared up into a burning sensation, mostly centred around his chest. The supposedly Ultimate Lifeform dropped to his knees, his Chaos energy climbing up to an intensity he could not control. Crimson lightning struck at random places around him. He could barely hear a yelp from one of the humans.
Shadow was fully focused on wrangling the violent energy for at least one more Chaos Control that he didn't anticipate the hard knock to his temple. In an instant, his Chaos energy fizzled out. The last thing Shadow saw before his consciousness slipped was the face of the man in glasses.
When Shadow woke up for the second time, the man in glasses was sitting close to the wall opposite his bed. Brown eyes were intently staring at a rectangular device that was reminiscent of the one Agent Stone held when they were in the Crab. A tablet, he said?
Knowing that this man somehow had the capability to suppress him, Shadow made no immediate action, opting to observe first and be prepared for any offence. He waited until the man finally looked up, brown eyes meeting red.
"Hello there. My name is Welt Yang, but you can call me Welt. What is your name?"
Shadow kept quiet.
"If you are not ready to talk, that's ok. I want to apologise for knocking you out. I hope you can tell me if there is no lingering pain."
His head was currently fine and the bodily pain from before had lessened. However, his Chaos energy had not settled from the previous outburst, but so far, it was still manageable. Not that Shadow would share with this man. The lesser these people know, the better. Besides, Shadow wanted to see this Welt Yang's reaction to his disobedience.
Whereas previous scientist from before would scowl or frown with impatience, Welt's face softened. "Take your time. It can be disorienting waking up in a strange place, especially after what had happened previously. You can continue to rest and if you need anything, you can tell me. I will be sitting here doing my own thing,” he gestured towards his tablet.
Shadow kept an eye on him for a long while, but Welt was fully immersed with whatever he was doing on his tablet. Slowly, the hedgehog cast a glance outside the window, hoping to gauge his location.
A sea of stars greeted him.
The stars he watched with Maria at the flower field would always be one of the brightest memories he had, amidst all the painful ones that he had to relieve for 50 years. Yet, he couldn't deny that looking at stars in space (while sitting beside a hedgehog who was both like and NOT like him) was a different experience.
What he was currently witnessing was closer to the latter. Somehow, he survived the exploding Eclipse Canon and ended up on this vessel in space, if he had to believe what Dan Heng said.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" a deep voice disrupted his musing.
Shadow quickly returned his attention to Welt, berating himself for lowering his guard. Despite that, Welt didn't move from his place. He put down his tablet and gazed at the stars, sharing the same awe-struck look as Maria and the blue hedgehog.
Shadow was supposed to die saving the Earth that Maria loved but he didn't. He had no idea on what to do next but since he was still alive, he would never let others manipulate him again, especially in this unknown situation. He needed more information, so he had to start the first move. With a sigh, Shadow made his decision.
"My name is Shadow."
Welt turned to him with a soft smile.
"How far away are we from Earth?"
The way the smile dimmed didn't bode well for Shadow.
Out of all things, Shadow didn’t expect to end up in a different dimension. Welt had given a concise explanation about this dimension, from the Aeons that governed the whole universe and their Paths to the Trailblaze journey of the Nameless. He was still confused on certain details but that was not the main thing that bothered him.
Welt asked him a few questions about him, but Shadow only revealed that he was in space with an exploding space vessel and didn’t remember how he got to the Astral Express. Shadow was waiting for Welt to push for more, but he thanked him for the answers and excused himself from the medbay.
Since that moment, Shadow thought long and hard on his next move. His first instinct was to return to Earth, but he had nothing left on that planet.
Maria was long gone. The military base was eradicated. The Professor and his grandson were most likely dead. Even the blue hedgehog could not survive the re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. His heart pang with a fresh hurt of a possible friendship cut shot, which Shadow knew for certain would linger the same as his grief for Maria.
His thoughts were interrupted when his Chaos energy suddenly surged, pushing against his skin and demanding to be let out. Shadow groaned, gripping his fists to regain control of his powers. It was to be expected that without his Inhibitor Rings, his mastery over his Chaos energy would decline dramatically. He had vague memories of excruciating outbursts during testing long before the Professor created the rings.
After a few tense moments, the intense energy surge finally died down and Shadow could finally breathe. He hoped that this would pass over soon.
It had been 3 days since the first time he had woke up in the medbay. So far, only Welt entered and exited the room though that stemmed from Shadow’s choice.
Welt had requested for the hedgehog’s permission to allow others to enter the room, either to bring in food or to check on his injuries. When asked on the reason behind such a decision, Welt said that it was to prevent the Astral Express crew from overwhelming him like the previous incident. When Shadow decided that only Welt could enter the medbay, he expected disagreement, but the man simply nodded.
When Shadow refused to eat since he could only subsist on Chaos Energy, the man didn’t force him to eat like the scientists back at the military base. He put the food tray on the side table beside his bed and returned to his seat. At the end of the day, signalled by an announcement by the Conductor, Welt carried the untouched tray without a complaint.
Much to his embarrassment, after an energy surge that left him drained, Shadow gave in. He wanted to just take a few sips of what Welt said was vegetable soup, but the hedgehog ended finished the whole bowl. From that day, Shadow would eat though he made sure that Welt explained to him what was in the meal. Even then, the man was still accommodating.
There must be a limit to Welt Yang’s patience and Shadow needed to be prepared for that time.
The time seemed to be now when Welt finally spoke up after another episode with his Chaos energy.
“Shadow, if I may, can I ask you a few questions about this energy phenomenon you are experiencing? I am worried that it may impede on your recovery or making you worse, but I lack the information that could point to a solution.”
Resigning himself to what could be an invasive questioning, Shadow nodded.
“First of all, from our scans so far, your physical body was healing faster than we anticipated. Is that a normal thing for you?”
“I have accelerated healing. It is to be expected.”
“Okay. Then, can you explain more about the energy inside you? To my knowledge, it didn’t exactly match with any known energy in this universe. The closest comparison I can make is a weird mix of Imaginary and Quantum energy.”
“It is called Chaos energy. I have always had it since I can remember. It’s the reason why I didn’t need to eat and heal fast.” Welt was waiting for more, but Shadow refused to continue, waiting for his reaction.
“I see. Do you know what is causing the energy fluctuation?”
With a sigh, Shadow gestured to the rings on his ankles. “Chaos energy, as per its name, can be volatile if not fully controlled. The Professor…he invented these Inhibitor Rings to help refine my mastery over my Chaos Energy. He told me that I shouldn’t take them off unless necessary. As you can see, I had removed the ones on my wrists. This is the reason behind what you called as energy fluctuation.”
Welt’s eyes focused on the rings on his ankles with an intense focus that reminded Shadow of the Professor. Then, the man returned to look at Shadow, the expression on his face softened to a degree. “I think I have an idea for a solution, but I need to know this first. Is it safe to remove one of the rings on your ankle? I, no, I mean the Crew have the capability to replicate the Inhibitor Rings so you can replace the ones you lost.”
“Why would you do that?”
“As I said before, I don’t want this fluctuation to stop you from healing to full health. Anytime this happens, you look like you are in horrible pain, and I don’t want that for you.”
“I’m used to it. I just need time to adjust. You don’t need to waste your resources on this matter. Unless this is a way for you to trap me in debt?” Shadow snarled; his quills began to spark with red electricity. He was getting tired with this performative kindness. There must be a catch.
Welt didn’t even flinch at the display. “The Nameless are in no business of gathering debts. Then he sighed. “Besides, think of it as a measure to ensure both your safety and the safety of Astral Express crew.”
Finally, something that made sense. Shadow had always known he was dangerous, and he was glad that the Nameless had already known that.
“Fine. As for your question, I don’t know exactly what will happen if you remove another ring. But if you need to do so, then be my guest. I can handle it.”
Shadow was surprised to see a flash of sadness on Welt’s face. It was gone when the man adjusted his glasses. “Okay. Here’s what we are going to do. I will inform my companions on our next steps so they can be on standby in case anything happens. Then, I will slowly remove the ring on your left ankle so I can scan the structure and composition of the rings. I assure you that it will not take long. In the end, I will put back the ring onto your ankle.”
“Sounds reasonable enough.”
“Shadow. This is the most important thing you need to do.” Welt said with a serious tone. “If at any point in this process that you want to stop, immediately tell me. For both of our safety. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You didn’t need to call me sir”.
“Just get it over with.”
Luckily for everyone, Shadow didn’t cause an explosion. He was expecting the aching surge of energy to return but there was only a small discomfort when Welt removed the ring.
What was more interesting was the way Welt stared intently at the ring as if to commit it to memory. He thought that the man would at least use a device to do the scanning. It was so brief that Shadow almost missed the red tint in the Nameless’s brown eyes. Before the hedgehog could question about it, the sensation of familiar smooth metal had already returned to his left ankle.
“That’s it?”
Welt nodded. “I told you it will not take long. Thank you so much Shadow for your trust.”
“I don’t trust you. I only did what is necessary.”
Welt looked like he wanted to argue but what came out was a sigh. “I understand. I will do my best to recreate the Inhibitor Rings. Have a good rest, Shadow.” With that, the man left the medbay.
To his surprise, when Welt came the next day with breakfast, he also brought a pair of rings, eerily identical to the ones he lost.
“What, how do you make it so fast?”
Despite the more obvious wrinkles under his eyes, there was excitement in Welt’s manner as he launched into an explanation. It was a familiar sight like when the Professor was lecturing passionately about his research or when Maria was retelling her favourite sci-fi movies.
“I must admit, there were some challenges in recreating these Inhibitor Rings. I had to ask Himeko for some materials to substitute the unknown metal ores. Oh, the circuity. I am impressed by the level of complexity. It’s like a puzzle in figuring the channels but it all made sense when you found the right angle and all.”
“Can I try it on now?”
Shadow expected a reprimand for disrupting his rant, but Welt gave him a sheepish look and handed the rings to him.
“Please let me know if there is any adjustment needed since I did fill in some missing blanks.”
Shadow took a breath and slipped on the rings on his wrists. He waited for more pain or for the rings to change into shackles.
Immediately, he could feel the flow of Chaos energy slowly steadying within his body. The rings were a perfect fit. In fact, it was like he never lost them.
“How are they?” Welt asked, his eyes alert with anticipation.
“They’re fine.” Shadow almost forgot to add. “Thank you.”
He was repaid with the widest smile he had ever seen from this strangely patient man. “You are welcome! I hope this will help you feel better. I also suggest we wait for a day or two, just to confirm that the rings are working perfectly and that you have fully healed. Then, we can figure out your future living arrangement.”
The last statement bowled Shadow over. “What do you mean by that?”
Welt pushed back his glasses. “You don’t think you will be living in the medbay forever, right? Besides, the rest of the Crew are looking forward to meeting you, Shadow.”