Sonadow
SonicXShadow
He Is My Master by Taranea


Chapter 46: Waking Up, Breaking Out – This Is What It Means To Be Free

Just sounds of distant roar behind you...

"No!"

It was a single cry from Manic and it broke off abruptly when the purple lizard holding him yanked his leash harshly enough to nearly let him choke.

"Ssshut up. I hope you've ssseen what happenss to traitorss and sslave vermin who think of rebelling now," the reptile hissed at him, even if the despairing green hedgehog probably couldn't even hear him now. The court was filled with people cheering and jeering, a few of them also being sick, or looking equally distressed as the collared hedgehog – perhaps former friends of the ex-Prince.

Lazar noted their faces especially.

"Sonic..." Manic whispered, still remembering how the strange slave of the Prince had spoken to him only moments ago it seemed, but now would be silenced forever, along with all of his odd ideas and his infectious smile.

The blue hedgehog looked oddly peaceful now, hanging silently below the gallows and turning gently in the breeze. It was the first time Manic had seen him like that, bright emerald closed now and closed forever, and while the first tears were already stinging in his eyes he also wondered whether that perhaps could mean that at least the other was at peace now, having died next to his Master he loved so much. The blue lithe body was relaxed at last, for once all fight and angry pride gone from those muscles, hands that had held his owner's until the very end still loosely tied behind his back. Manic, who knew Sonic had hated restraints like no other, briefly wished they would at least take the chains off when they'd dispose of the body, and for some reason that thought hurt all the more.

"Alright. Sssend a runner to Hiss Majessty to inform him I have carried out hiss verdict," Lazar announced smugly to one of the guards, who nodded. "And while you're at it, assk of Lo-Prince Sscourge whether we might sequesster hiss pet for the time of hisss abssence or put him to work sssomewhere. If he isss of any usse."

Manic wasn't even listening. It had been more than ten minutes that the trapdoor had opened beneath Sonic and right now he cared very little for what was going to happen to him.

His Master had told him once off-handedly that there was no place for slaves to go to after they had died in their service. It had hurt Manic then, but he had accepted it. Now he wondered, briefly, if Sonic would have backed down, too. Or if he would have be as unafraid in the afterlife as he had been in this world and would rail against the gates of the Paradise supposedly reserved for those who had been free people until they let him in.

The green hedgehog was stumbling along now, his collar harshly yanked by the lizard pulling him along, the dangling corpses vanishing from his view as he was led back into the Palace again. But still, even in his pain, there was the smallest of wistful smiles on his face, almost mirroring the one of the blue-furred slave of the Prince moments before his death.

Perhaps you have now finally found your freedom, Sonic...

xxx

Amboss sighed and nodded in satisfaction at a job that was routine but still well done, the bulldog executioner a small island of peace amid the chattering, shrieking, sobbing and laughing of the crowd below the gallows. The guards were still busy holding throngs back that wanted to get at the corpses, either to cut off a bushel of fur for good luck and as a morbid souvenir or simply to get a closer look at their former crown prince who had now become a piece of macabre curiosity. Of course, Amboss would be having none of that. He had respected the Prince in his life, and even if he had been forced to execute him like a common prisoner next to a slave, he would make sure at least the body could be burned properly. The cream-coloured canine in the dark brown tunic descended the wooden stairs and with a grunt brought the large, straw-filled wheelbarrow in position underneath the bodies. Only now he noticed what strange footwear those two had been wearing, and he idly wondered whether he might be able to sell it for a decent price afterwards. The coat of the slave perhaps as well, such a bright azure fur could surely be made into a pretty pair of ear muffs or a stole. He'd have to see the peltmonger about that...

Muttering these businessplans underneath his breath, Amboss ascended the wooden stairs again, this time taking out a knife from his belt with which he then deftly and expertly cut the rope still dangling. Below, the bodies fell toward the earth into the cart, a dull thud resounding upon their impact, their forms crumpled against the straw, the fallen Prince's broken neck lolling over the edge of the wheelbarrow.

The dog dungeonmaster looked down at the scene through the trapdoor once more with another melancholy sigh, then abruptly turned around to pull the lever and shut the hatch again. When he took off the nooses, he could keep the Prince's as a memento, he thought as he walked down for the final time for today, planning to first wheel the corpses away to the dungeon entrance where he could try to get out of them what he could, before burning the black hedgehog's body and maybe pawn off the hide and meat of the slave for the tannery and animal food market, respectively. Waste not, want not, after all.

Amboss serenely sheathed his dagger again as he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, his boots sinking into the mud of the courtyard that was also still caking the corpses. He dusted off his leather-gloved hands briefly before preparing to grab the handlebars of the cart, ignoring the hooting, hollering and pleading of friends, enemies and simple low-lives trying to make a few easy coins demanding a chance to have a look (and possibly a grab) at the bodies. The bull dog gave a last, cursory glance at his freight to see whether nothing was sticking out too much so one of them could slide off...and then frowned. For some reason, he seemed to remember that the peach-furred arm of the collared hedgehog who had landed on top of the Prince had been lying across the black hedgehog's face, yet now it was placed beside it. A dark-brown furry eye brow rose in the cream face as he seemed to notice other strange things. The Prince had landed on his back, but even though his head had to have landed on the wooden railing of the cart, Amboss hadn't heard the crack that that should have produced. His slave had landed on his side half on top of him, lying with the side of his face on the chest of his dead Master, but just as the chains supposedly binding his wrists together seemed to oddly have come undone in the fall, his quills were apparently carefully arranged just so they hadn't pierced the dark-furred hedgehog in his fall. The picture of the two bodies in fact looked strangely peaceful, just as if they were only sleeping...

Amboss' dark grey eyes narrowed as he bent forward, intrigued despite having seen death many times up close before. His face neared that of the blue hedgehog, his hands gripping the rails of the cart tightly. No, everything seemed to be alright...

...wait. Had the chest of the slave just moved?

And then emerald eyes abruptly opened only inches from the dog's visage.

"Boo," Sonic said.

The scream of the dungeon master was heard across the entire courtyard.

xxx

Sonic had felt the trapdoor opening beneath him just after Shadow had said his last words, and liquid ice seemed to fill his veins as the ground dropped away underneath his feet. A last, nonsensical thought raced through his head, why does Shadow want me to hold my breath of all things, hanging kills you because your own weight snaps your neck, but a simple habit he had developed over the last week had let him obey anyway, even as he dropped like an anvil.

The last moment of the fastest thing alive...

...until his fall was abruptly stopped short and Sonic's eyes closed as he was expecting the noose around his neck to pull tight right now and finish what Robotnik had attempted all these years in vain.

Except it didn't.

Sonic's legs were flailing wildly for a second in the air until he realized that he hadn't been stopped by the noose, but had actually been caught beneath his armpits and waist by a feeling that had NEVER been a good thing before but couldn't have been more welcome now.

The blue hedgehog would have nearly gasped, but stopped himself at the last moment, forcing his eyes to stay shut as well. His legs stopped flailing, too, and he could feel Shadow's hand forcibly disentangle itself from his own, at once realizing that the hedgehog most important to him had to have been caught as well, and was on the same track as Sonic - indeed had to have known or at least suspected about this. The blue hedgehog let his fingers go limp as well, losing contact with Shadow, only seeing the black hedgehog suspended in air next to him through a slit in his eyelids he squinted through. And yes...

It was only faintly visible, only there when you knew where to look, and what for.

Sonic was nearly unable to hide a grin at the softly shimmering glow underneath Shadow's arms and around his waist that he now suspected suspended himself as well. Silver, somewhere in the crowd, had come to the rescue.

Sonic carefully kept limp, knowing that playing dead never been more important than now.

His feet still dangled disconcertingly above ground, the rope on his neck tight enough to fool anyone at first glance, and already exerting enough pressure to make breathing uncomfortable, but fortunately not impossible. Silver had let them drop just enough to make it look like they were really suspended by their necks, even turning them slightly to make it look more realistic. The noise of the crowd was deafening, but still a little click closeby almost let Sonic's ear flick. They were a bit out of the view of people now, hanging directly underneath the platform, but both hedgehogs still tried to let their ears and quills droop convincingly, just in case anyone wanted to take a closer look.

Sonic tensed up a bit as he could suddenly feel something moving around his hands and realized with surprise and even a bit of awe, that this was very probably Silver trying to use his powers to loosen the chains that bound his wrists. The blue speedster couldn't even see the psychic hedgehog but suspected him to be somewhere in the throng of people in front of the gallows, perhaps even one of the last visitors to arrive. He tried to sneak another glance at Shadow and could also see some minuscule movement and clicking of his black bands, suggesting that Silver was concentrating on those, too. As far as Sonic could remember, Silver of their home dimension had not yet used his powers this finely tuned and in so many places at once, and a treacherous voice suggested that this was perhaps because this Silver already had had a lot of training with...delicate telekinetic tasks. Again, Sonic had to fight a bit for a blush not to show up on his face, and forced himself to stay relaxed even if he couldn't help the slight feeling of dread as he had to avoid thinking about what would happen if Silver's concentration on so many things at the same time let him slip up and perhaps drop them. There was still the smooth, tight rope around his neck and sneakered feet even now dangled precariously in the air, supported by nothing. If Silver didn't hold him up every single second, he could still die...

More than five minutes that seemed like an eternity to Sonic had already passed and the collared hero had had to start breathing again, trying to keep it as flat as possible while above and below him, people were still talking and shouting. His heart meanwhile was racing in his chest way too loudly, and while a part of Sonic savoured each beat because only moments ago he had thought it would soon stop forever, now he was also dreading to be discovered. Below him, something large was manoeuvred through the mud, but the blue-furred hedgehog couldn't see what it was because fear to be exposed had him close his eyes shut, still pretending to have died in the grasp of the noose.

Please don't notice anything...please don't notice anything...

Of course, Sonic was familiar with the feeling, how trying to stay still and undiscovered was indescribably more nerve-fraying than the desperate and daredevil stunts he pulled when on the run and cornered, but that didn't mean he liked it.

The rope around his neck was too tight for comfort...

A sigh of relief nearly escaped his lips as the steps of the canine ascended the wooden stairs again. The mayhem in the courtyard was still way too loud but fortunately at least masked all those little sounds their living bodies and their chains were making.

Up ahead, the steps paused. Sonic briefly wondered what was going to happen now, whether they would have to hang here until the evening, or what on Mobius they would do if any scavenger birds tried to show up, but then all of that was nearly immediately solved. The hero of Mobius almost screamed when suddenly Shadow, and two seconds later he himself dropped abruptly downwards.

Silver!

Sonic's mouth opened to a choked cry, but fortunately his rationale kicked in just in time and he realized he was falling, not hanging. There was an ungraceful landing on what turned out to be straw and a black hedgehog gasping ever so little when Sonic's elbow buried itself in the side of his face, but neither of them made a sound as they continued to lay still like ragdolls where they had fallen, Sonic's ear pressed to Shadow's chest where each moment, he could hear the other's slow, re-assuring heartbeat, his own so close to the other's body, too.

We...we have made it, Shads. We are alive.

Sonic for the first time felt an incredible surge of hope and optimism race through his body, but refused to become careless because of this. His shackles seemed to have come undone, though, and if the same went for Shadow's...

Amboss was returning now, obviously about to cart them off to Chaos knew where. Sonic was fine with that. But then, just after the dog had seized the cart, there suddenly was a pause again, and a curious humming. The blue hero's heart beat faster. Was he on to them already? Sonic still couldn't open his eyes and see, but his ears told him the canine was bending closer now. He already imagined he could feel the other's body heat on his mud-caked fur.

And then there was just the faintest smell of the other's breath on his face.

Oh, well. Let's just hope Shads is ready for this, then.

Sonic opened his eyes and gave the bull dog staring at him from inches apart his widest and brightest grin.

"Boo."

Even years later, Sonic thought a second later, I don't think I will ever forget that guy's face.

xxx

High above a planet that threatened to have his Chaos field collapse Knuckles floated, Angel Island a single spot of serenity still controlled by the Master Emerald. But for how much longer...?

The Guardian and last of the echidnas was sitting before the shrine now, a low murmuring under his breath an ancient chant meant to bring harmony to both the gem stone and its keeper, to forge a bond between them in times of need.

"...enriched by the heart. The controller serves to..."

"Hello, Knuckles."

It spoke volumes that there wasn't even the slightest twitch of anger on the echidna's face.

"Hello, Rouge," he said instead, not getting up from his sitting position in front of the altar. "Shouldn't you be looking for the seventh Chaos Emerald down on the surface?"

"I tried," the bat replied, sinking down next to him. "I tried everywhere. Nothing. All the Chaos readings I get are from your place here, because it overshadows any Chaos Emerald anyway."

Her words sounded as tired as she looked, and indeed there seemed to be little fight or energy left in either of the two Mobians now slumped in front of the shrine. The days of fear and worry, sleepless nights spent searching, debating, fretting over their friends' mental state and combing the world for that seventh, crystal-clear Emerald had taken their toll on both of them, leaving them mentally, physically and even emotionally exhausted.

"This is one of our last chances," Knuckles said, voice gritty. "I don't wake up Tikal often. The Guardian of the Master Emerald is supposed to be able to deal with Chaos problems alone – otherwise all his ancestors will know he just wasn't good enough," he explained, quietly. "But this is too big – this is the fate of everyone of the planet at stake and dammit, it should really be Sonic who deals with this sort of stuff," he grunted. "But when he is out, I suppose we have to step in..."

"...can I stay?" Rouge asked softly, and, after a side-glance at her, Knuckles nodded.

"Sure. You just have to be silent and let me concentrate and then maybe..."

He resumed the chant. "Power is enriched by the heart. The controller serves to unify the chaos..."

Rouge's eyes widened as the Emerald glowed like she hadn't seen it before. Knuckles murmured to it, and although his voice was nearly too low to be understandable, somehow she could make out the words...

"Tikal. Help us. There is an imbalance in the Chaos and we need you to show us where the seventh Emerald has gone."

That is...difficult at the moment...

It was a voice that simply bypassed the ears when it spoke, and every syllable sounded how light breaking in a prism would.

"Please, Tikal. Do your best. Even an approximation would help."

I...will try. But both exact time and place might be impossible...

The light inside the Emerald began to move, to burst apart and to collect again, drawing into shapes and images. Rouge watched with wide eyes, never having seen the like before. Finally, something like a picture began to form and both Sapients stared in fascination, trying to make out the details...of a throne room.

"What...?" Rouge mouthed. They were watching from a bird's perspective, somewhere high in the rafters of the place. People were milling about, but none of them clear in focus and all giving off the vibe of a very strange sort of costume ball going on. The picture kept shifting, distorting and jumping, seeming to bounce in position as well as in time. Finally, it appeared to be trying to hone in on something going on to one end of the hall, a sort of stage...

"There!" Rouge suddenly called out as a greenish blob had just appeared, followed by a bigger black blob, but the most important thing was that she thought she had seen a glint that unmistakeably had been an Emerald. "Did you see that?" she turned to Knuckles excitedly, her finger pressing against the green glass of the Master, but then the picture was already zooming in on something else, in stunning HD...

It was sometime later that Rouge had to call Tails from Angel Island, telling the distraught fox that unfortunately even the Master Emerald would show nothing but Sonic breakdancing for some reason and having great fun with it, and the resident Guardian was sadly having a quiet breakdown.

xxx

"Alright, Shadow, let's show them what we're made of!" Sonic half a day into the future yelled, leaping to his feet on top of the cart as his executioner stumbled backward, blubbering in astonishment, right before the steel chains thrown by the freed hero's hands landed straight in his face.

"You couldn't have waited even one more moment?" a somewhat grouchier voice growled up from the straw as Shadow picked himself up, shaking hay out of his quills. Sonic flashed him a somewhat worried glance.

"Why, are you still down for the count?"

The Ultimate Lifeform raised an eyeridge, and then briefly displayed opened wristbands now dangling loosely from his arms.

"You mean because of...these?" his supposed Master asked, sliding them off effortlessly and then crushing them with the fingers of one hand. His other curled, and when he opened it again, there were the familiar emerald flames crackling on his palm. They reflected in his crimson eyes like wildfire as the dark Prince grinned.

"No."

"Hey! They, they're moving!" There was a scream from the crowd, answered by gasps and shrieks as the courtyard gradually became aware that their two executed prisoners were still alive and, as it were, kicking.

"Yeah, you better run!" Sonic shouted, leaping from the cart, grinning as the majority of the panicking audience was trying to push backwards, get away from the two demons that not even the gallows could stop. The blue hero knew he was likely to have to do most of the running, distraction and footwork, because the black hedgehog mostly had only partially recovered - he was running purely on relief and adrenaline, fury and fierce joy at finally being able to show his true powers, much like Sonic, but they were still both pretty banged up and far from their best, especially Shadow who had barely eaten anything and slept less. But this was still more than enough for simple castle guards, right...?

"Sonic!" Shadow yelled at this point, because not all of the people had been shocked and especially not the soldiers high on the walls, and now there was an arrow suddenly flying straight at an unaware hero's head. The Ultimate Lifeform rushed forward, aware that he would be too late to protect his supposed pet, seeing Sonic turn, but not quickly enough, the blue hero's green eyes widening as he saw the projectile but with not enough time for his body left to dodge...

And then the arrow was caught in mid-air, not inches from Sonic's face, its wooden shaft now gleaming blue.

"It's him! He's doing it!" The captain of the guards, an elderly cougar, cried, pointing at a figure that had previously been concealed within a the crowd. It was an inconspicious bystander at first glance, wearing a dark brown robe concealing his face and large head, but now, everybody was looking and everybody could see the light blue glow around his hands. The standard procedure took only fractions of a second to kick in.

"KILL THE WITCH!"

"I am male, you idi-oh, shoot," Silver gasped, having just whisked his hood off his head while letting the arrow still in front of Sonic's face drop to the floor, and then of course was instantly surrounded by fierce-looking soldiers, the hero of Mobius painfully aware that yes, this Silver employed the exact same mixture of telekinetic prowess, righteous bravery, desire to help, and, sadly, complete and utter naivety that also characterized his own Silver at home. Sonic leaped to the rescue in a second, just managing to knock the first sword out of the way that otherwise would have found home in the surprised young hedgehog's heart.

"Thanks for saving us!" Sonic called out, not stopping but whirling right on to the next combatant, the chaos and fighting breaking out anew after only a second's peace. People were screaming, now doubly afraid of not only two walking corpses but also a witch of indeterminate gender. Guards running around with pointy things were not really helpful in calming down a panicking crowd at the best of times, soldiers kept falling over each other as they tried to reach either Sonic and Silver or Shadow, and the hero of Mobius privately thought that not even a wrecking ball crashing through the wall of an agoraphobics convention could have caused a greater commotion.

"I- I came back!" Silver called out, the young telekinetic now frantically trying to explain himself, Sonic barely managing to keep all the sharp implements away from them while Silver had to use his entire concentration to stop all the arrows and bolts being shot their way, the hedgehogs fighting back to back. "I – Lady Rouge passed me and stopped me, she caught up with my coach, she told me what happened at the castle-" Silver babbled, clearly a bit overwhelmed with the current situation, "I couldn't let you die, not again, I took the fastest horse I could and turned around-!"

"STOP FIGHTING!"

The voice was loud, and it was booming, and it was one that not only Sonic had been trained to obey. For one moment, heads turned and beheld Shadow, perched atop the wagon that had been wheeled beneath the gallows, and his eyes were burning like fire.

"You will cease attacking us at once. We will take the Emerald and we will leave the castle," Shadow said, and it sounded like a certainty. The captain of the guards rallied first.

"You are no longer the Prince. You are a convicted prisoner and in no position to give orders," she said. "Sir Lazar will be informed of this and you will hang. Again."

"I wouldn't do that in your position. Informing anyone," Shadow said, and now his voice was calm, but it was the calm before the last storm.

"Or what?" the cat asked, golden eyes narrowing.

"Or," Shadow replied, and suddenly his features lit up with a grin that was both gleeful and wicked and absolutely terrifying on his face. "That."

And then you couldn't hear his two words after, but Sonic knew what they must have been, because the next thing that happened was the gallows exploding over him like a supernova amid a deadly bloom of Chaos.

xxx

"What – what was that?" Silver whispered, astonished. Around them, bits of burned wood, mud and unconscious bodies were raining to the floor, and the crowd had turned into a stampede now, surging out of the gate and exits like mad feral horses, Sonic only hoping nobody was trampled to death in the process. For Silver, the only point of serenity in the turbulence was the slave of the Prince, severed rope still dangling from his neck, standing calmly and watching his Master.

"Shads' own brand of Chaos magic," the blue hedgehog replied calmly to the other's question, absent-mindedly stepping aside to avoid being hit by a wayward piece of debris. Shadow was stepping toward them now, the panicked Sapients parting like feral cats in front of a waterhose-wielder, and Sonic noted that his supposed owner was wearing a thoroughly satisfied expression.

"Well," Shadow said, flexing mud-caked fingers and brushing a bit of dirt off his shoulder as if in passing. "Let's pay a visit to Black Doom, shall we?"

"I – you – it exploded -" Silver stammered, but Shadow silenced him.

"Yes, And so will anyone else if they try to lay a hand on us again."

"That means 'Thank you for saving our necks, Silver'," Sonic translated dutifully, cheerfully removing his own rope still dangling from his neck. His fingers brushed over the collar still securely closed, but, he decided, this could wait till later.

"Yes," Shadow nodded. "But now we will have to move quickly. If Black Doom is still in the castle we don't have long to get the surprise drop on him."

"True," Sonic agreed. Then he turned to Silver. "Right. Lemme just say, what you just did was amazing. But now you might have to do a bit more. You okay with that?"

"Yes," Silver nodded, amber eyes glinting with the same resolution Sonic had already seen, in a place far away, in a time far removed. "I think...this could be the, the change this country needs."

"Awesome," Sonic grinned. "Okay, here's what you need to do. Me and Shads will attract the attention of anyone fond to wave spears into other people's faces. You have to go down into the dungeon." The blue hedgehog shot his supposed Master a glance, as if to see whether any objections were coming forth. "When you're down there, you should be able to find a cell with four, possibly five trapped guys, one of them's a large crocodile. Get them out. I dunno quite why exactly they're here, but they're good guys and I know they'll be able to cause a whole second load of trouble for horned and crazy on the throne."

"Got it," Silver nodded, adding, "Seeing as I'll probably be out of a job and hunted down as a freak anyway, might as well go down with flying colours, right?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Shadow said, stepping in. "Once this whole mess is sorted out, I hear Queen Blaze's Kingdom is quite pleasant, this time of year," the Ultimate Lifeform stated, remembering that Black Doom had said something to the effect of the purple cat reigning somewhere in the neighbouring countries. The telekinetic blinked at him slightly taken aback.

"Right..."

"Great Idea. Okay, Silver, listen, I'm sorry we don't have any more time to catch up or explain stuff, but we really need to get going before they rally," Sonic spoke up again and the silver-furred hedgehog straightened up, trying to show he understood the situation. Sonic pursed his lips.

"Just one more question, actually..."

"Yes?"

"That was a plenty dangerous stunt you just pulled there with us dangling. What would you have done if we hadn't realized what you were doing and panicked?" Sonic asked, raising an eye ridge.

Silver blinked for a moment. Gears in his head seemed to turn, and then he replied: "Well, I probably just hoped you would...hang in there," he said, and immediately began to laugh.

Sonic and Shadow shared a look. The blue hedgehog shrugged.

"Hey, he's from the middle ages. It's probably the first time anyone's cracked that joke in history."

"Right," Shadow replied dryly in a resigned tone that indicated its owner had understood that not even certain death ten minutes ago could cause Sonic to stop his joking for two seconds. Their conversation had lasted barely moments, a few short seconds stolen from the madness surrounding them and now it was time to return them with interest. Sonic shot a quick, somewhat worried glance at his supposed owner, not having forgotten how exhausted the week and the beatdown just now had left them both, but for now the Ultimate Lifeform seemed to be holding up, even if fueled more by vengeance and determination than sleep or food. He took Shadow's hand, the blissful feeling of still being able to do that with both of them so incredibly, wonderfully alive right next to each other giving the blue hero another burst of energy. Shadow seemed to feel this, too, and turned to Sonic, a confident smirk upon his face.

"Ready to go to war?" he asked the blue hero.

Sonic grinned. "Ready to lead the revolution!"

xxx

"Okay. Let's be off," Shadow said, and Sonic nodded, the pair taking off after only a curt nod of goodbye to Silver. Shadow took the lead, running through the courtyard as the first few soldiers had already overcome their shock and now tried to follow them again, a few remaining archers on the walls vainly trying to get a clear view of their zig-zagging targets.

"Where are we going?" Sonic asked. "Shouldn't we make a break for it?"

"Black Doom or the Emerald might still be here, even if he didn't attend our 'execution'," Shadow explained, dodging neatly around a well in their way, "So yes, the idea is to get out of the castle, but not before we haven't ascertained whether the Emerald has truly been taken."

"So," Sonic asked, "The throne room?"

"The throne room," Shadow confirmed, all at once stopping before a high wall after they'd turned a corner of the castle in the inner yard surrounding the entire structure. The mayhem wasn't far behind. "If I remember the layout correctly, the it's just up there," he pointed to a window high above, before grabbing Sonic's hand. "Run up."

"Right," the hero of Mobius didn't even question the order, especially as their pursuers were about to catch up with them. Mobilizing his last reserves, he grasped Shadow's wrist tightly, took a deep breath and then shot straight up the opposite wall surrounding the courtyard, rubber-soled sneakers finding purchase where hover skates could never have. He was already half-way up, the first of the soldiers turning the corner open-mouthed as they beheld the spectacle, as it occurred to Sonic that there might only have been a single flaw in the plan.

"Oy, Shadow!" he called out, "If Black Doom paralysed us once with his gas in an enclosed room he can do it again! How do we-?" His question was cut off when they both landed on top of the castle wall, the window of the throne room now just an easy two metre leap away from them. Shadow dropped down behind Sonic, then straightened up, and Sonic could once again see the red lightning collecting in his hand. It illuminated the features of the Ultimate Lifeform in a way that would have sent anyone up against him running at this point.

"Easy," Shadow almost purred. "The throne room is not going to be 'enclosed' much longer."

He took a deep breath. Sonic stepped inconspiciously behind him.

"CHAOS BLAST!"

And two seconds later even the bravest guards, who had tried not to be scared out of their minds when the gallows went up to heaven, were not able to do anything but turn tail and run when an explosion worthy of the fury of a god of lightning tore a gaping hole right into their castle wall.

Sonic and Shadow leapt into the still clearing smoke.

To be continued...


Hi there! Wow, it has been a long time, hasn't it? Unfortunately, there was a death in the family over here and, yeah...kind of made writing difficult for a while. Yet while people inevitably have to die in real life, they never have to in a story...hope you enjoyed these two defying death once more. Of course, Silver had been calculated from the very first second - I had never planned for the story to finish like this, that would have been a major bummer. Kind of not what I want to read in fiction. So, meanwhile, hope you like and read and review.

A whole lot of you also asked why Sonic didn't turn into Dark Super Sonic, or sth similar. Answer is mostly 1) because that's Sonic X continuity and I write video games and 2) I really, really wanted to write a hanging scene. That is all. :P

Also, if any of you happen to attend Summer of Sonic this weekend, feel free to say hello - just look out for Tails in the company of (Sky)Blaze and Shadow (or should I say Sir Percival and Sir Lancelot? ;) ) I got to meet a couple of you last year and it was great! :D


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