Chapter 49: Royally Screwed

"Oh ye-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ea-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ah-h-h-h-h-!"

It was that sound that was currently tearing through the barren plains below Black Doom's Castle (or what was left of it) and not even Shadow could prevent himself from feeling just a little bit affected in the sheer joy riding on the blue hero's whoop. Right now they were two blue and black blurs, Sonic's feet racing over the dry earth so fast that the steady patter of his feet became an indistinguishable droning, his own skates blazing brightly and hissing with each powerful push. Now they were finally leaving the castle that had held them both prisoners for over a week, Sonic even more so than Shadow, and the elation at their escape from was visible in every ecstatic movement of the blue hedgehog's body, his collar now the only reminder that he had ever been restrained at all.

"We're free, Shadow! FREE! Isn't this brilliant?"

The next call was accompanied by the former crown Prince's former pet briefly turning into an energetic tornado, whirling in circles around the other hedgehog, then eventually running in front of him, backwards, peach-furred arms spread as wide as his grin. Shadow permitted himself a small smile in response, gradually slowing down his speed as he did so and was pleased to note that Sonic seemingly automatically did the same until they were both moving at a much more leisurely pace.

Ooooh, had the last few days ever been piling up the energy bills in his metabolism household...

"Yes, it is. Now it just depends what we do with our freedom as our next move," the black hedgehog agreed, ignoring several immediate suggestions of his brain that was obviously not quite focused at the task at hand and was suggesting to just take Sonic to the closest quiet-looking bushes and wing it from there.

"We can do ANYTHING! Anything we want now!" the blue hedgehog called back over his shoulder, still giddy and exhilarated, every fibre of the speedster's being suggesting that freedom was more than even a drug to him, was the very air he breathed and he had been choking in the poisonous air of the castle for way too long...

"Which is alright, as long as we do it sensibly," replied Shadow flatly, privately wondering where all of that energy was even coming from. "That was insanity in the castle."

"No way, it was awesomeness at work!" Sonic protested. "In fact, I thinkwe should've put on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack."

"On all the medieval boom boxes standing around, yes. How about we slow down for a break in that wood over there and think about our next step?" Shadow asked, lightly touching the blue hedgehog's arm as he pointed over to the thin line of trees that had started cropping up to their right as they were running over the plain. Sonic thought this might have been part of the larger forest he had previously encountered the slave hunters in, but didn't care. Together they would be safe from anything.

"Yeah, sure," the collared hero agreed easily, a slight pinch of worry for the first time managing to make it through the happy haze that was Sonic's brain right now as the blue hedgehog became once more aware of Shadow's condition – it had not improved ever since their night in the dungeons and the signs of tiredness were now visible even if you didn't know the black hedgehog that well, a sure warning sign. He slowed down as they approached the trees until they had actually reached a normal walking pace and entered the cool air of the forest. Their feet sank into the grass and moss, a welcome soft contrast to the barren earth of the plain.

"Maybe we can also catch a bit of a rest and find some food here," Sonic suggested, "I know there's a river here somewhere..."

"I don't need a rest." Shadow's voice was irritable, which ironically by now signaled to Sonic that yes, he needed a rest very much.

"Chill out, it'll be fine. Doesn't matter if we give ourselves a break before we tear Black Doom a new one. He's probably busy for a while anyway, what with the echid-wait." Sonic had stopped on their way traversing the forest, which seemed to be thinner at this point, since there was already daylight filtering through the trees on the other side. Now the collared hedgehog turned toward his supposed Master with wide and excited eyes.

"Shadow, what if we find the echidna camp?"

"What? No." Shadow stopped as well. "Why would we do that?"

"Because they could give us food and a place for a decent rest," Sonic argued. "And we could cooperate with them against Black Doom."

"We have no idea how they'd react to us. They might as well kill us on the spot or try to take me hostage."

"But-"

"Besides, we both know why you really want to go there," Shadow said, and, though his voice was not harsh or unfriendly, it still let Sonic almost flinch and avert his eyes for a second. But when he turned back to Shadow, they were already full of the seriousness that the blue hedgehog only reserved for a select few topics, and this was one of them.

"But...he's my little bro. And he might be with them. And I could see him one last time...before I leave this world."

Shadow raised an eye ridge. "You make it sound like you were dying. Also, the fox kit you're responsible for is the Tails of our world."

"But..."

"Sonic." The blue hedgehog's eyes widened just a little, as his supposed Master suddenly grabbed one of his hands, ungloved black-furred fingers closing around his own. A crimson stare met his. "We've been through this. You're stretching yourself, and your responsibilities too far. We're saving this world." Shadow took a step closer toward him. "Let that be enough."

There was a moment of silence as the two hedgehogs stood looking at each other, Sonic not quite knowing what to say after Shadow's words. He couldn't hear anything apart from their breathing, and now that he listened, Shadow's wasn't coming quite as easily...

Damn. He's really not looking too well, is he...

The Ultimate Lifeform's ears were drooping and his shoulders sagging. The cut on his face from where one of the guards had hit him hadn't quite stopped bleeding yet, an indicator that the black hedgehog's body was struggling with even basic self-repair. Even the red eyes that were usually gazing at the world so fiercely seemed to be glazed with tiredness now and...the hand that held Sonic's had just trembled ever so slightly.

Damn. Shadow hasn't eaten anything. He's blasted a castle to shreds with Chaos Spears – without an Emerald. He didn't even sleep. Maybe...Sonic swallowed. Maybe there's only one responsibility for me at this point, and it's not Black Doom.

He slowly raised a hand to his tired partner's face. "Shadow..."

Sonic was about to say more, but at this point a noise interrupted the both of them and their heads whisked around; there were sounds, and it were the sounds of people. Both hedgehogs immediately crouched a little bit more and sunk lower into the cover of the bushes, but made their way forward to the edge of the forest, trying to get a clearer look at the movement at the top of the gently sloping hill that rose where the vegetation stopped. And then their eyes widened.

Because outside of the forest, there was an army.

xxx

"We give up! We give up! Don't turn us into frogs!"

"Hey!"

"No offence meant, Kermit."

Just about an hour prior, Silver the Hedgehog was regarding the small group of shaking castle guards he had rounded up that had dropped their weapons and were now staring at him in terror. They seemed more boys than men, peasant's sons who had foolishly been hoping for a better life in the army, and the three of them, one donkey, one beaver and one frog apparently named Kermit, were all regarding him as if he was the End of Days. Silver sighed.

"For the last time, I am not a witch."

"Yes! Of course not! Whatever you say! Please don't throw us into a cauldron!"

"I said I'm not a witch, I just have telekinetic-oh, forget it. Drop anything you can hurt people with, and run home to your parents. And do it fast, because there's worse things coming than me," Silver added, watching the three kits skedaddling almost as soon as he'd finished his sentence. He hoped they'd heed his advice, because Sonic and Shadow were still tearing up the castle at the North Side and even if they avoided killing anyone, the war was approaching and the troops were marching. The only thing he could do was try and keep things at the castle contained. Sonic had also asked him to free the court musicians imprisoned in the dungeon, which he had done by briefly bending the steel bars of their cell, but there hadn't even been time to talk to them. So he didn't know what they would do, either. Or why they even were here.

Speaking of which...

"Oy! You there, silver boy!"

"What?" the addressed hedgehog turned around to see the large crocodile of the group he had freed wave at him from the end of the corridor. "Oh. Hey. Glad to see you're out...I think," Silver replied, still feeling a bit wary around the group of unknowns that according to Rouge for some reason had entered the fight in the throne room and then had been imprisoned as well. Sonic had said they were the...wasn't it some odd name, the blue hedgehog had said? Confusix? Anarchics?

"Yeah, thanks a lot for busting us outta there! I'm Vector the Crocodile of the Order of Chaotix."

...right.

"...I'm Silver the Hedgehog," the former trainer ventured forth, a bit wary about the towering reptile, and which role they played in all this. But they had helped take the castle, right...? Even though he had never heard about any 'Order of Chaotix' in all of Black Doom's realm.

"Then I also need to thank you, Silver the Hedgehog, for saving the Prince's life this morning. Without you, our mission would have failed."

"Oh." Silver blinked, then smiled a little. "Thanks, I suppose. Though really, you should probably thank Sonic. He's the one who made me want to save the Prince in the first place."

Now it was the crocodiles's turn to look a bit confused. "Wait, what are you talking about? I didn't mean Prince Shadow."

Silver's eyes widened. "What? Then who-?"

xxx

"Damn..." Sonic whispered. The army atop the hill outside the forest seemed massive, even if you could only see their foremost cavalry approaching its top and gazing out over the plain below, but their line of soldiers stretched wide. There were banners flying among their ranks, too, but the golden emblem resembling a three-pointed leaf on purple ground did not resemble any crests they had seen in Black Doom's palace, so Sonic assumed they could not be the troops of the alien overlord. It was still somewhat hard to see, but the blue hedgehog thought that he also couldn't discern anything that would have looked like slaves or peasants coerced into foot soldier service among them. Rather, most of the Sapients continuing to assemble on the crest of the hill had an experienced and well-equipped look to them, even if their expressions were grim, but not lacking in resolve.

At their head, a single figure astride an imposing feral horse rode up and paused, the army also rallying to a halt behind. Spikes protruding through the back of the shining armour were undeniable proof that this leader had to be a hedgehog as well, although taller than Sonic or Shadow. It let Sonic breathe a tiny sigh of relief, since that also meant the new arrival couldn't be Scourge by any insane kind of twist of fate. The sun briefly protruded through the low-hanging grey clouds for only a second, but it was enough to let the metal of the armour shine as if in divine providence. The figure straightened and there seemed to be a collective movement in the assembled soldiers behind it, as if they were only waiting for the slightest signal to follow their leader into battle.

"We should get out of here," Shadow murmured, preparing to retreat, but Sonic's hand on his arm stopped him.

"No, let's wait just a moment. I wanna know who that is…couldn't be one of the troops of Sally's Dad already, right?"

"No, we've been heading into the wrong direction for that," Shadow replied, crimson eyes now squinting into the distance as well. "Plus, I think the Kingdom of Acorn had a different banner, theirs was green..."

The leader's form was well-built, tall but slender, shoulders broader than the waist giving off an impression of strength. Sonic couldn't quite discern the colour of the quills, but it seemed to be a dark one…the face was obscured by a visor, though and now the fastest thing alive wouldn't be satisfied until he had seen it.

"Come on, let's have them acknowledge us," he said, already about to step out of their protective foliage, dragging Shadow behind.

"What? Look, I'm supposed to be the Prince of the enemy nation in case you have forgott-"

"Traitor Prince. Oy! Over here!" Sonic called, waving to the hedgehog on the horse. Heads whipped around as the soldiers noticed the odd couple that seemed to have just tumbled from the bushes down below.

"Relax, Shadow," the hero of Mobius tried to calm his already close to exploding partner. "If they want trouble, we just take off. Not like they could catch us, right? And maybe they can even point us into the right direction of Black Doom or be allies or something."

Shadow was just about to reply…but it was at that point that the leader of the troops reached up and opened their visor. And the two dimensional travellers stared into eyes that seemed older than they should be, fiercer than they could be, but still wise enough for a king of kings…except that they belonged to a queen.

"Sonic?" Queen Aleena shouted. "My SON!"

"What-?!" the blue hedgehog's jaw seemed ready to not just hit the floor but actually dig a little ditch in it with a shovel. He could feel Shadow grab his wrist now, his grip tight.

"Sonic…"

"And Prince Shadow!" The purple hedgehog exclaimed, before then pointing a single royal finger at the pair. " Rescue my son! AND CAPTURE PRINCE SHADOW ALIVE OR DEAD!"

Two streaks of black and blue had vanished beyond the horizon so fast, there hadn't even been time for a sonic boom yet.

xxx

"...agents of Queen Aleena's realm, supposed to search through King Doom's lands and castle in disguise, on a secret quest for the heir to the throne of our country who disappeared two years ago. That's pretty much our mission in a nutshell," Vector was at the moment explaining Silver, who seemed pretty much dumbstruck at the moment.

"Do you mean...I was actually trying to...'train'...a..." the telekinetic hedgehog by now appeared to be choking on his own words and his silver hue had all but turned to copper in his mortified face.

xxx

"…what the hell?" Shadow asked finally, leaning against a tree for support and trembling badly, the sudden supersonic sprint the last thing he had been needing right now. His supposed pet was kneeling on the ground at his feet, hands spread in the dirt, seeming more than shocked himself. Shadow actually had had to stop him from running even further at some point because otherwise they would have likely ended up in another country.

"I think…" the blue hedgehog panted. "I think I might have been a little too early in complaining that everyone was a sodding Prince but me…."

xxx

"What? What is wrong with the Master Emerald?" The biplane called the Tornado had barely touched the surface of Angel Island before its young pilot, Miles "Tails" Prower had already leapt out and was running toward the bat and the echidna sitting on the grass in front of the shrine where the large green gem stone sat that was keeping the isle aloft in the sky.

"We...we tried to get Tikal to show us where the seventh Chaos Emerald might have gone," Rouge tried to explain while simultaneously rubbing a seriously distraught-seeming Knuckles' back, "But it only showed...well, Sonic break-dancing at a costume ball..."

"It's making fun of us!" Knuckles cried out at this point, "The entire world is going to hell because we can't find that missing stone and the Master Emerald doesn't even seem to know Sonic is currently out of his mind and locked up at Tails' house!" A spiked fist punching the ground to his side in desperation punctuated that statement before the last of the Guardians buried his face in his hands again, seemingly having given up on the world in general. Tails bit his teeth and appeared to try his hardest to think.

"No...I can't believe the Master Emerald would show us anything that's irrelevant. Maybe it was showing us events of the future?" he ventured, a small smile even gracing his lips at that thought, "If Sonic will be break-dancing again at some point, it could indicate that everything could be okay again...or maybe it's some sort of hint of what is supposed to happen, what we need to do?" the fox kit asked, looking from the mysteriously glowing stone on the altar to Rouge, who shrugged, and back.

"I dunno, kiddo. I can only tell you how much a gem is worth, not what it's trying to tell you. Why don't you try and take a look yourself?"

"Al...alright..." the two-tail nodded, hesitating a bit as he beheld the Master Emerald glowing against the sky, but then starting to ascend the stairs to the stone altar.

"Master Emerald...Tikal...Chaos, I beg you," he said, breathing the words against the cool crystal surface, "Show us what needs to happen before everything can be right again. Please."

Rouge and even Knuckles looked up, as shapes began to form inside the green light once more, the Emerald obviously trying to grant the kit's request. All of them watched in silent anticipation...

...and then there was a single, high pitched scream worse than any Rouge had ever heard, when the Master Emerald then only showed a picture that was crystal clear in its intent, and it showed both Sonic and Shadow, hung at their necks and very, very dead.

xxx

"I keep thinking this can't get any worse, and then somehow it does."

Only one dimensional jump away, a blue hedgehog who had indeed been hung at morning moaned at this point, quietly wondering whether he should even get up anymore and whether he and Shadow couldn't instead remain in this peaceful forest they had run into forever.

"What were you even doing as my slave when you're supposed to be a prince as well?" Shadow asked from where he was still leaning against that tree, arms folded over his chest now, but even so he had trouble controlling his breathing and Sonic noticed that the Ultimate Lifeform's voice was trembling what what could only be exhaustion after their supersonic flight.

"I don't know," Sonic was shaking his head, finally picking himself off the ground and standing up. "By now this dimension seems to be running on crack and high octane nightmare fuel alone, anyway...what do we do now?"

Sonic looked at Shadow as he said this, and for once there was an uncertainty in those usually so confident green eyes that told the midnight hedgehog his supposed slave might have been actually truly shaken by this discovery. The Ultimate Lifeform was sharply reminded that unlike him, Sonic had never had an actual family growing up, Shadow at least having had a sister in Maria and a sort of father figure in his creator, Professor Gerald Robotnik. But Sonic's parents, as far as he knew, had died before he was even one year of age...and now the concept of him having a mother here of all places seemed to freak the collared hero out more than even the idea of his body technically being owned by somebody else.

"Did that hedgehog female look like your mother in our home dimension?" Shadow finally asked and now Sonic was surprised to note that it was for once almost a gentle voice. Nevertheless, the hero of Mobius couldn't help but look away as he replied.

"I...think so. Maybe. I dunno, my parents died before I was old enough to remember them. I saw...pictures of them, though. I think she had purple hair."

"...I see," Shadow replied eventually. There was again a moment of silence before he added, "It's not the easiest start you can get, not having a family."

"As we both know," Sonic sighed, straightening himself up again and turning to Shadow. "Seems like our doubles in this world have at least...well, some sort of family, I guess."

" True," Shadow replied matter-of-factly, but then a small smirk crept upon his features when he added. "Though if you factor in that in this dimension I also have a 'father' who wants to first torture and then kill my precious pet..."

"...maybe Mobius is the better home dimension after all," Sonic grinned back, closing the distance between them and placing both of his hands to the sides of Shadow's hip, leaning in closer now with an almost predatory expression. "Especially as your partner doesn't appreciate being your personal property, 'Master'," Sonic purred, pleased to see that Shadow at least didn't seem to tired to let his crimson eyes assume a darkly amused gleam and a black-furred hand came up slowly to lock an index finger into Sonic's collar to pull him possessively closer, a motion that was almost too familiar by now...

"Then what are you going to do about it?" Shadow whispered into Sonic's ear and the midnight hedgehog's low voice was enough to let electric current flow through the collared hero's body, and this would almost have been enough to let him forget about all of this dimension's problems, all about the war and the other Sonic's royal parents, all about Black Doom and Scourge, just for one, brief moment...

Except this was the exact point in time where suddenly a battle scream pierced the air and echidna warriors broke through the foliage in an ambush, and before Sonic could even whirl around into a surprised battle stance, Shadow's body had also picked this most recent moment of shock as the perfect point to finally collapse, and within fractions of a second, the fastest thing alive found himself standing between a charging red horde, and his presently unconscious lover on the ground.

"Oh brother..."

To be continued...

Don't ask me how the Master Emerald works, btw. In my opinion it's actually trolling at this point.

Also, in case you're wondering, yes, that bit with Silver took place just before Silver actually tries to aks Sonic about his princely status, and before Sonic dumps Manic on the poor telekinetic and runs off with Shadow. It's a bit of a flashback.

The reason for this insanely long hiatus was mostly me moving to Japan...Japanese universities and their workload is *insane*. Thank the gods it's spring break. But hope you like this chapter, even if it's short! :D Reviews and PMs will be answered shortly.^^