Chapter Text
Cold, unfeeling static.
That was what he first registered as he came to.
The next thing that bled into his consciousness was the emptiness of the expanse before him.
Unwavering, ever-looming and most annoying of all, all-encapsulating.
Shadow blinked, as if to try and blink away the stars or fuzziness in one's eyes when they stare at something too bright; yet the fragmentation stayed, refusing to focus in on anything in particular. The hedgehog growled, low and deep as he turned; yet his body felt as if it stuttered, as if it were three frames behind him, lagging a few paces too slow after he had decided to move.
Shadow blinked, looking down as his hands, gaze narrowing and once more, blinking as they almost refused to focus. Feeling his jaw set, he flexed them in and out of a fist, a flicker of confusion boiling into the first hints of panic as his quills whipped around, trying his best to see something.
The static void simply flickered an unfeeling reply of nothing back.
Shadow let out a breath, steadying his rising panic as the multiple possibilities flashed through his mind, all trying their best to explain what in chaos was happening to him.
The carousel screeched to a halt as his mind clicked on one major possibility, the memory of another similar white and stagnant environment blaring in his mind as an involuntary shake sparked within him.
Surely it cannot occur again, he thought, eyes once more roving over the rippling nothingness around him. A foot scuffed where he expected the ground to be, yet there was no resistance offered, no drag or friction. Squinting down offered nothing different, his eyes still refusing to focus. For once, Shadow understood what it felt like to not have perfect vision, to feel his senses dulled. If he were not near perfect in physiology, he would have been alarmed to think he had been drugged and was still recovering.
His mind flicked back to what he had been doing previously, memory whirring as he started to recall the events leading up to this strange predicament.
Rocketing along a path. On a mission searching and investigating some strange items G.U.N had discovered, buried deep within a rainforest yet to fully be searched. Threading amongst the roots and underbrush. Inspecting the strange fragments, which seemed so unsuspecting if not for the weird energy they radiated. Picking one shard up, and seeing a flicker of what was like pixels.
Then, nothing.
Another growl rumbled, a build-up of the swarm of confusion and border-line claustrophobia pushing at the seal deep in his chest. Shadow felt his energy flicker, missing the way his form sparked as he fought to let the chaos energy flow.
Clenching his fists, he pushed, forcing the energy to spark once more and flicker, setting his surroundings alight with a micro-explosion of scarlet. Tucking into a ball, the hybrid bounced, throwing himself around; however was returned to the centre as if strung on invisible wires rooting him to that spot. Shadow scowled, his frustration mounting as he popped out of the spin dash, throwing fists and trying to find his tether.
He was returned with nothing but that same unwavering expanse.
Shadow huffed, summoning his chaos spears after no less than a second of passing time. Poising his hands, he concentrated them outwards, a deadly halo surrounding him as he accrued more and more energy, letting it build until it snapped like an archer's bow pulled taught.
The spears hurled around him, sparking up a surge of blinding green. Shadow wasted no time in tucking into a spin dash once more, pushing through into the crackling nothing around him, determination flaring into rage as he pushed, pushed as he felt the area crackle in a stubborn sizzle.
Shadow grit his teeth, feeling his own being crackle and fragment, until it felt as if his psyche were hurled through space time, everything within him pulsing and screaming as it went flying, a slideshow of rapid images rolling around him. He tried to scream, tried to scoop the pieces of his being together as the images slowed and sped up, flashes of an island lush and dense, then suddenly a flash of the polar opposite; a volcano spitting and groaning, rocky terrain. Dimly through the pain Shadow felt the waver of familiarity, however it was soon doused as he caught sight of a flash of blue and orange.
Shadow's ghost stiffened, desperately trying to catch sight of what he was sure he saw, before his fracturing psyche burned, an artificial gravity drawing all his fragmented pieces back, back to the nothingness and blurry prison.
Shaking, he dropped to a knee, feeling dizzy and nauseated from the break he had forced, dimly registering the wild buckling and pixelated nature of his limbs. Shadow shook his head, hand braced against the knee as his surroundings buzzed back into focus—or as focused as was possible—and blinking down, saw his form shaken back into something far more solid than it was prior. Shadow breathed, his spine crackling with a shiver as he allowed himself to sit, knees propped up as he leaned his elbows forward, thinking through his next approach.
After a few moments of thinking, Shadow soon realised he had yet to test his other senses. Roughly, feeling something like bitter liquid grating within, he cleared his throat, the sound buzzing with an uncharacteristic frequency.
"Hello?" he tried, his own voice feeling like the inverse of an echo, as if it were swallowed by a black hole. Regardless, the sound rung in his ears, bringing him some relief.
Dropping an arm, he brushed the not-ground, trying to register something outside his gloves. His nose scrunched in annoyance as it fell through, the atoms of his hand picking up nothing, yet not being allowed to sink further than his feet.
So that was a no on physical touch.
Shadow rolled his tongue over his canines, testing to see whether he could taste any remnants of the coffee beans he had munched on in the morning. A distant buzz of something akin to the beans played, however that too was warped.
It was a maybe on taste, it seemed.
The agent growled to himself, eyes wafting around, yet there wasn't anything to focus on. He was registering something, though, so it weren't as if he were suddenly blind.
Seemed a hesitant okay on the sight.
Sighing, Shadow leaned back on his knees, doing his best to glare daggers into the void. A part of him itched to experimentally garner up some more chaos energy, test to see if he could thread through the nothing instead of brute force.
But the memory of himself fracturing was enough to put him off it.
For now.
So he sat, mind flicking through the motions, still thinking. Could Doom really have reappeared? How would they have gotten the Time Eater once more, though? It weren't impossible, however if it were the case, this was a step up. Shadow felt that panic grow again, however a mist of eagerness soon wafted over as he had the brief realisation of what that could entail.
He could have more time with Maria.
Shadow looked around once more, gaze lit with that eagerness. Surely, that could be the one blessing of this prison.
The static wavered dimly, offering no sign of another.
"Maria?" he asked, tentative in his hope he could speak her into existence. Nothing replied.
Shadow waited still, until too much time had passed. Wearily, he dropped his forehead to his arms, the previous wound of before leaking open, ugly and yet to fully heal over. Too soon. It was too soon to deal with this all again. Maybe it was for the best he was alone.
Yet, as not-time passed in his not-space prison, he slowly felt as if there were a presence near him. Distorted and nothing but a whisper, but still there, out of reach of the bubble he was secluded in. Shadow stiffened, the war of his desire to see them again battling his desire to uphold his promise to her after they had faded into nothing. He would release the destructive anger, and with it that anger of the past.
Yet he so desperately wanted to see them again.
So he started talking.
"Maria," he murmured again. Not a question this time, but an acknowledgement. "I don't know if it's you out there, but," Shadow dwindled off, thumbing one of his inhibitors, the motion clipping and catching slightly, yet lacking the resistance of something fully solid. He sighed, eyes shutting as he lingered on the unspoken.
The air remained thick with muffled electricity, as he left the sentence unsaid. It was fruitless; not to mention the anti-thesis of what he was trying—and still failing—to do. So he sat there, mind whirring once more to try and think of a way out. His chaos abilities failed him, or at the very least seemed to break when he tried to force his way out. His vision was unstable and offered very little in the constant static nothingness, no weakness, no inconsistency to attack or peel away. His touch was of no use, no way to try fish around for a bump or texture or something to suggest he could interact and pry away.
What if this was it.
Panic sparked once more, setting alight some fragmented sparks from Shadow's form as his pupils shrunk, locking him in place.
There was nothing more for him.
And what had he spent his life doing?
Filled with anger, confusion and revenge? Rooted to a past he was powerless of changing. Avoiding and pushing away anyone and everyone who tried to enter into his small, delicate circle of personal being.
The hybrid wavered, his quills spiking outward as his forehead hit his arms once more.
What would the world say of Shadow the Hedgehog?
One full of rage, antagonism and desolate apathy?
That couldn't be his legacy, not after he promised Maria after White Space. Not after everything he had started to learn and allow himself to feel.
What of those around him? Rouge and Omega? Were they anchored to their own static nothingness? Or were they free, going about life as usual? The latter seemed most likely given this cage seemed a product of his mission for G.U.N, yet what if he had triggered it across the whole world?
The questions swirled, a storm brewing as the isolation and lack of stimulation frothed into a new panic from his lack of control. Shadow's fists clenched, though the lack of proper physical interaction made him light-headed with frustration as he couldn't even garner some relief from feeling his claws dig through his gloves into his palms. The crackling pixels did little to offer the same hit of distraction. A growl rumbled once more, vibrating him as he squeezed his eyes shut tighter.
What about Sonic?
The thought flowered quiet, unseen, until his realisation snapped his mind towards it, other thoughts screeching off a cliff and leaving him with that one question.
Cerulean flashes amongst the barren volcanic land. Suddenly, Shadow remembered the vision of before, causing him to stand up in alarm.
They couldn't be too far from here. If he had fractured himself out of this hold, surely he was placed in an actual physical place on Earth? There had been an island, and flash of blue and orange seemed to be like Sonic and Tails. Once more, the dim familiarity bloomed, until his memory blossomed.
"I would speculate you've experienced places in the future,"
"Now's the future," Shadow thought out loud, turning in his place, once more seeking out something different. Determination hardened throughout him, as he steeled himself of the panic, boxing it away for the time being.
Once more, that eerie ghost passed over the bubble, drawing Shadow's gaze behind him. The hybrid concentrated his chaos energy once more, crackling and fighting for something outside of his cage.
However, he didn't have to push long, for after a few seconds of passing, the prison shifted; a warped wave passed throughout the static, reverberating as something seemed to be affecting it. Shadow crouched, defensive as he braced himself, until his cage gave a buzzing groan, cracking and falling away.
The hybrid blinked, a sudden sheen of light flooding him as he glanced around, realising he was in mid-air. Instinctively, he sent energy shooting down to his air-shoes, lowering to lush and mossy ground as he caught sight of Sonic a few feet away.
The hero was crouched down, a grimace on his face as he glowed with that same crackling energy now turned crimson, his entire figure appearing to be melded in pixelated lava. Shadow sucked in a breath, stepping over quickly to hover an uncertain hand over Sonic's figure, a wave of muted concern washing over him. Sonic waved him off, weakly tossing a hand to his knee to prop himself up, standing straight as the energy seemed to absorb beneath the surface.
It was at that moment Shadow properly registered his hand, still fuzzy and pixelated, however now—against the backdrop of reality—it was ghostly. He stared down at them, only to immediately look back up to Sonic with narrowed eyes.
"Explanation. Now," Shadow said, cutting in before Sonic had a chance to get a word in. The hero gave a pained chuckle, gripping his upper arm as he seemed to sway, causing even more concern to flare deep in the hybrid's gut.
"Not sure I can give you much, I'm afraid," Sonic started, as Shadow started to stalk, circling around the hero to get a gauge of his state.
"Clearly, you are suffering from something. You have to know something about that," Shadow replied.
Sonic sniffed, casting his eyes away into the depths of the rainforest just beyond where Shadow's prison had been. The hybrid came to a stop just a ways out of his rival's staring, arms crossing as he waited. He knew Sonic would speak; it was only ever a matter of time with that hedgehog, so he stood there, gaze piercing.
"These islands have some weird energy," Sonic started, hand dropping as he finally straightened out, seemingly adapting to the energy he had absorbed. Still, Shadow was weary, all too familiar with his rival and the amount of times he had brute forced his way through discomfort, pain and misery. He watched as Sonic stepped up to him, reaching out to Shadow's hand, swiping straight through it.
Shadow stared once more, face a mask as he looked from his hand to Sonic, expectantly awaiting more context.
"It's made everyone this weird, ghosty way. Though, I don't know how you're here," the hero hummed in thought, a hand coming up to his chin to scrutinise the hedgehog before him. The hybrid huffed, arms crossing tighter, the weird not-quite contact of himself crackling.
"If you must know," he replied, gruff and irritated. "I was on a mission for G.U.N. They had discovered some fragments deep in the recess of a jungle, and wanted me to retrieve them as they were too close to one of Robotnik's bases,"
Sonic nodded along, a hand coming to rest on his hip as he listened.
"We would have left them as is if not for some bizarre energy signals radiating off it. Robotnik best not have whatever it may have been," Shadow finished, gaze lazily roving around them, drinking in the area. Interestingly, the area around them seemed to mimic that of the dense jungle he had found himself in, with the smaller shrubs and undergrowth bleeding into a tropical wall behind where he stood.
"Sounds kind of like what happened to Knuckles. Though his were ruins," Sonic murmured in thought, drawing Shadow's eyes back to his rival.
"Regardless," the agent cut in, voice strained with his brimming urgency. "The better question is how do I escape this. Clearly you've already dealt with the others if you are here," Shadow drawled, gaze steely as Sonic smirked back at him.
"Always quick with it," the cobalt hero replied, sarcasm dancing. His teasing expression dropped off, though as he crossed his own arms, mirroring the other. "Unfortunately, seems I need to get through everyone before you guys are free,"
Shadow's ear twitched as his lips dropped to a simmering scowl, arms dropping as he took a menacing step forward.
"You mean to tell me I'm stuck," he demanded, causing Sonic to look back with a small grin of amusement.
"Till we find the next Titan? Pretty much," Sonic chuckled, grin growing into that teasing smirk once more. Shadow's fists bunched as that glimmer of panic struck, sparking him to swing a fist intent on punching that smug expression off Sonic's face.
Much to his dismay—and due to a small lapse in memory—his hand flew through Sonic, not even grazing the fur on the other's muzzle as Shadow stumbled, their faces drawing close.
Shadow blinked up, face melding from shock to deep dissatisfaction as he hurriedly stepped back, putting the needed space between the two again as he stiffly crossed his arms back across his chest, eyes guarded. Sonic bit out a laugh, leaning forward against his knees as he cocked an amused head.
"Man, can't say this has been very fun to deal with these past islands, but one of the only upsides of it all is neither you or Knuckles can land a hit!" the hero sung, his previously tense expression melting a fraction to give way to some genuine ease.
Shadow, on the other hand, was thoroughly displeased, a lip curling as he stared down, meeting the challenge and stare as he could do nothing more but stew in his annoyance.
"What do we need to find the titan," he brushed Sonic off, starting to walk forward as he eyed a cliff edge. The hero followed him after stretching out his legs, the two hedgehogs coming to a standstill at the edge of the island, overlooking the ocean that roared beneath them. A broad smudge hinted at the other islands, though it was decently foggy from the spray of the ocean that Shadow couldn't fully make it out.
"Well, it shouldn't be hard to find," Sonic replied, admiring the view in one of the rare breaks he had gotten. Shadow shot him an irritated expression, prompting the other to continue.
"I'm just saying, we gotta find the Chaos Emeralds first," he amended.
Shadow scoffed, for the first time feeling his own amusement speckling as he looked back out at the ocean.
"What, too weak to defeat them as is?"
Sonic guffawed at this, shooting his rival an indignant stare as Shadow smirked back at him.
"I'd like to see you defeat three titans without this cyber corruption," Sonic replied back, sass blasted at a hundred after the dig. Shadow scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"Gladly. I would take down every enemy you have twice, once I'm released of this limiting form," he threw back, heart ablaze in their normal banter. Sonic squared his shoulders, a daring glint in his eyes as he smirked back.
"Oh I'm holding you to it,"
"I'd be disappointed if you were to not,"
"Well then, first to find the emerald gets pick of the first titan you get to fight," Sonic ended, stubbornly ignoring the fact that the likelihood that the titans would become reanimated was little than zero. Shadow's brow dropped in determination, digging his foot into the ground, positioning at the ready.
Instantaneously the two zipped off, threading around each other along the rocky outcrops circling the jungled area. They raced for a bit until they broke away, a large boulder slicing between the two, severing Shadow's view of his rival.
He still felt bitterly unused to this form, the unnerving lack of control eating at his throat, threatening to close it in panic every time he thought too hard over it. Shadow pushed it down, goal of tracing the first chaos emerald being drawn up and clicked into the forefront of his mind, determined to use it as distraction from his lack of agency. Shadow's eyes roved over the rocky outcrop, winding through the maze-like area as the boulders grew higher and higher beside him.
I need higher ground, he thought, urging his air-shoes to blast stronger as he started skating up, darting between overhangs to scale the rocky wall. Still, he lacked proper grip, however was able to hold and interact with the environment all the same despite the lack of texture and physical hold.
Shadow popped up to the top, letting out a breath as he looked across, a soft glow and the gentlest of whirring drawing his attention to the east.
Ducking low, he sprinted off, hopping to narrow pillars until he reached the hum, scaling down into a pathway to walk towards a rough ring of boulders. Jumping up, he climbed up, hands feather soft, shoes not making a sound, until he reached the top. The whirring had reached a constant volume, towering fins circulating around the thrum of a Chaos emerald. Shadow smirked to himself, though stopped as he started approaching it.
He looked to his hands once more, the edges of his figure distorting and blurring. Shadow's jaw set, as he started looking about, hoping the blue fool would find him sooner rather than later.
"Hedgehog!" the hybrid barked out, relief as he heard his own echo bounce back to him.
At least he had his volume back. Some sort of fire to compensate for the lack of physical articulation.
Another sound broke his thoughts, as a familiar zroom started kicking up somewhere in the distance. It grew ever closer, until the sound was right around the corner, growing as a cloud of dust starting pluming.
Sonic zipped around the corner, almost passing Shadow all together before he skidded to a halt, cloud of dust exploding and coating the air. The hybrid stared down, crossing his arms as Sonic bounced up to meet him, clearly living for the pace and exhilaration of darting amongst the narrow passageways within the rocky outcrop.
"Damn, already got it, huh?" Sonic prompted, sitting down to slide into the centre of the ring, Shadow slowly following after a beat, still hovering by the top yet close all the same.
"Too slow, it seems," Shadow replied, earning an unimpressed glare from the hero. Sonic shook it off without dignifying it with an answer, stepping up to the emerald, hand entering and triggering the contraption with a low hum. Slowly, the emerald floated towards him, the slow spinning of the fins surrounding it creeping to a halt as the gem landed within Sonic's palm. The hero clasped it towards him, a satisfied nod as he tucked it within his quills. All the while Shadow watched, antsy as he flexed a hand, the situation sinking in as he realised just how useless he currently was.
Well, useless outside of being a glorified sniffer dog, at the very least.
Shadow brushed the distaste aside, watching as Sonic zipped up the ring of boulders to stand at his side.
"One down, six more to go," the hero gave a doltish thumbs up, simply earning a wince of disapproval from Shadow as he turned heel, hopping back down, landing without so much as a molecule of dust being displaced. It was eerie.
Shadow stared at his hands once more, mind flashing to another's hand similar to his, clutched in his palm as they too faded. He didn't register Sonic behind him as the memory played, until a hand passed through his shoulder. Shadow turned to pin his rival with a pointed glare, causing Sonic to step back a pace to give him some space.
"Don't worry, you'll be back to having your butt kicked by me in no time," Sonic snickered, as the other simply seethed, starting back down the boulders and outcrops with heavy steps. Heavy in cyberspace, at the very least.
"I don't worry," Shadow growled as Sonic caught pace with him, still having a chuckle at riling the other up without the normal consequences. "Though you sure as hell are adding to the punches you'll be receiving," he added hotly. Despite the heated threat, Sonic merely shrugged, slinging his arms behind him as they walked. Soon enough they exited the small labyrinth, and were trekking back to the area they had first started.
Shadow's eyes dragged through the underbrush, drinking in the towering rainforest trees that swayed gently in the breeze. Not even a few metres in and the canopy appeared to knit together into a thick carpet, shielding most of the sunlight from the sky. He hadn't seen such a place in quite a while, and passively considered where about in the world he had been dragged to.
Tower certainly wasn't going to be pleased. Those fragments were going to take a decent while to be reported in, it seemed.
"Though I gotta say," Sonic spoke up, earning another suffering scowl from his rival. "This was probably the fastest I've found one of these. The others got kinda… sidetracked,"
"The others are likely drifting with the clouds," Shadow muttered, earning a scoff from Sonic this time. "Plus, they would be more willing to stay at your mercy in this pathetic form"
Sonic hummed in thought, shaking off the comment.
"Eh Knux certainly wasn't all too pleased," the hero threw nonchalantly. Shadow sighed as they arrived at the area he was freed from, analysing the undergrowth for the best route to start attacking within.
"Then multiply that by the number of trees in this forest and you have how displeased I'm feeling," Shadow replied. His response lacked the same fire, though, as he was busy considering where next to start searching. Sonic grew aware of this, and dropped the banter, turning his own eyes to the rainforest set before them.
"I believe it best to split up," Shadow offered after a minute of silence. Sonic immediately nodded, finally in agreeance over something.
"You go right I go in?" the hero offered, causing Shadow to crinkle his nose. Normally, he would hate being directed. However, the other did have a point, as due to his weird ghostly form, Sonic would have an easier time zipping and moving through the undergrowth. Shadow couldn't properly interact with the plantation, and while he could phase through some of it, he was still deeply ubfamilar with his state best be safe while he grew accustomed to his limits.
So, with a heavy sigh, Shadow gave a tight nod, and without another word turned, beginning to walk off to the right to start scouting in the less dense areas. He heard the telling noise of Sonic zooming into the brush, leaving him with his thoughts.
Gaia, he hoped these emeralds would be as easy as the first to find.