Sonic raised his head as they emerged from the corridors of the castle blinking into the faint light of the early morning. The court was chock-full, people of all sizes and sorts pressing against each other, trying to get a clear view of their former Prince dragged along by the guards. Sonic could see sweat matting the fur on Shadow's forehead, the breathing of the black hedgehog more and more laboured as the black rings around his wrists sucked him dry of his remaining energy. Uncontrolled rage roared through the collared hero's mind as the one he loved was mistreated and abused in such a fashion when he couldn't even fight back. Sonic gritted his teeth to keep himself from lashing out at their captors right now, furious, injured sense of justice burning in his gaze. Green eyes narrowed as he could see several archers and Sapients armed with crossbows on the walls of the castle, their weapons trained on them. The hero of Mobius swallowed. Normally, that wouldn't have posed a problem – both he and Shadow could dodge bullets, after all – but with Shadow in his current state Sonic wasn't at all sure whether the other would be able to protect himself.

His throat constricted.

This is SO not going great...

Sonic tried to look around some more, but a harsh yank on his arm by one of the guards holding him let him stumble into place again. The crowd parted in front of them...

To reveal the gallows.

The wooden contraption stood tall, thin and dark against the steely sky above, like a skeleton creaking in the wind. Sonic in his time had seen more than one instrument designed to kill him, but for some reason, this simple, tried-and-tested means to end someone's life had a grim finality to it all the sophisticated, shiny and modern appliances Robotnik had devised over the years had seemed to lack.

“You get to die asss you lived, hedgehog – standing on a pedesstal, and ass a circusss for everyone elsse,” Lazar mocked him and for the first time, Shadow raised his head again.

“Where is Black Doom?” he asked, voice hoarse, but steady. Lazar spat on the ground.

“The King hass better thingss to do than witnesss the extermination of traitorss,” he informed them with disdain. “He iss occupied elssewhere.”

So no Emerald here, flitted through Sonic's mind, but it hardly mattered to him at this point. More important was that they could get out of here, and that he somehow could save Shadow. Perhaps the fact that Black Doom was absent would even help them.

“Let them mount the stairs.”

The wooden platform with the trapdoor embedded into it was approximately three metres off the ground, a set of rickety stairs leading up to it. The area of the lofty stage for the lethal show to be produced upon it was perhaps four square metres itself, wide enough for at least five unfortunate individuals to stand next to each other in their final moments of life. Now, though, only two nooses dangled in the cold wind, each of them at the exact head height of a hedgehog.

Sonic put the first of his sneakers onto the groaning wooden step. His heart was trying to run a marathon in his chest now, and probably trying to beat the set records of its owner.

I don't want to die here. I CAN'T let us die here.

Another glance back at Shadow only assured Sonic that he had to do something. The other's head was tilted downward, the black hedgehog nearly unable to stand. Shadow couldn't give any kind of signal now; Sonic had to get them both out of here.

Five more steps to the top...

He surveyed the courtyard again. There were even more people now and still a steady trickle of spectators kept coming through the castle gate. Well, that would be an exit...

Three more steps to the top...

“Sonic...try to escape without me. There's no sense in both of us dying here.”

Two.

“Told ya before. No. Way.”

One.

“But-”

Zero.

“We'll escape both or die tryin', Shads. And now get your paws off us!”

“Wha-umph!”

It was the only thing the guard leading Sonic on his left side had time to say before he was rudely booted off the wooden platform by a red sneaker. The other bear's eyes opened wide, but, to her credit, at least tried to dive forward and counter-attack – not that it did her much good against the fastest thing alive, of course. Sonic dodged the swing of her spear before diving into a hand-stand despite his still tied wrists, his legs flying through the air as he twisted and connecting squarely with the side of her head, sending her tumbling off the gallows' contraption into the mud of the courtyard like her colleague. Before Lazar below even had time to squawk, Sonic had lifted his tied hands with ease and slid them over one of his quills to let the ropes snap almost immediately. Freed, he reached back and pulled Shadow by his wrist out of his captors' grasp and onto the platform with him.

“Snuff-flick is cancelled, folks, but you're welcome to stay for our magic show 'The Great Escape'!” the blue speedster called down to the gawking audience, only letting his attention snap back to Shadow for a fraction of a second.

“You holding up?”

To his surprise, crimson eyes blazed back at him a lot healthier than they had been just two seconds ago.

“Yes. There's a lot of Chaos energy stored inside in your body, and right now it's helping me to compensate for the shackles. Just don't let go,” Shadow replied as Sonic almost casually caught a spear with his free hand that had been thrown at them by the last guard charging up the stair case now and used it to conk the unfortunate soul right into the forehead with the blunt end..

“Wouldn't dream of it.” Sonic smiled...before turning it into a wicked grin. “So how about we show these guys some of our moves back when we teamed up against the brotherhood?”

An answering smirk formed on the dark Prince's muzzle.

“Excellent choice.”

Shadow straightened up, raising his head high again as he indeed seemed a lot stronger than he had moments ago. Strain was still visible in his posture and the way he held himself close to Sonic to not lose the connection that apparently sustained him now, but all in all, he was once again a force to be reckoned with, and the suddenly a lot more wary glances of the guards below them showed it.

“Ready?” Shadow asked.

“Born ready,” Sonic answered – and then shifted his grip a bit higher on Shadow's arm, the black hedgehog grasping his arm in a lock in turn. And then what had just a second ago been two prisoners in chains suddenly became a black and blue tornado as the two heroes of Mobius executed a perfect atomic strike tornado, just like they had all those months ago against a couple of very unfortunate SWATbots.

“Let's do it to it!”

Sonic and Shadow, still holding each other's forearms in an iron grip whirled down from the stage of their execution, cutting a swathe of flying kicks, razor sharp blades and crackles of chaotic energy through the rows of castle employees and now terrified bystanders. Arrows soared from the walls of the castle court yard but were knocked aside by the force of the artificial galestorm around the spinning hedgehogs, still not slowing down.

“Guardss! Sstop them!” A voice that sounded a lot like Lazar's sounded shrilly over the cacophony of mass panic, the din of weapons and cries of pain where a 21st century foot had found a soft patch to conveniently land in. Sonic and Shadow didn't care. They were at the centre of their private merry-go-round, gazes locked as they whirled around each other, cocky and excited grin mirrored in fiercely blazing crimson eyes, both feeling giddy by this new surge of hope, both feeling exhilarated by the sensation of fighting alongside the other now.

“The castle gate! We're almost there!” Sonic called out, using his free arm to briefly point toward it in the melee, Shadow's brief nod the only confirmation he needed.

“About time. The Chaos energy in your body is almost-”

“Hold it right there or I will have him killed!”

“No, please!”

“Wha -Manic!”

It was only a second. But that was all it took.

Sonic had reacted instinctively, immediately freezing as soon as he had heard the frightened voice and then saw the scared face of the green hedgehog he had spent last night talking to and who was now held in the grasp of the lizard, a heavily decorated dagger at his throat. The second of Sonic's shock brought their movement to a halt, the blue hedgehog distracted by a cry for help his dark-furred partner would have ignored, and the retribution was prompt.

“Let him GO, you-!” Sonic started to yell, but did not get very far.

“Sonic no, we-ungh!”

“Shadow!” Sonic's head whipped around at the same time as his partner was torn away from him, a whip of a leopard guard having wrapped itself around his chained hands and yanked him backwards, the Ultimate Lifeform collapsing with a strangled cry as soon as his contact to Sonic was lost. The collared hedgehog was about to shout but couldn't even do that as something thick and heavy impacted on the back of his skull and everything went black for one or two of his suddenly so loud heartbeats. He fell forward onto his knees and before he could get a grip on the situation again, pain exploded in his side as a vicious kick of a steel-shod boot hit him in the side, the guards they had fought their way through now repaying him in kind. A mangled gasp escaped the blue hedgehog's lips when another savage blow of some blunt object or other landed on his head, the guards crowding around them now and beating down with all they had.

No...no, no, no...!

It was about all Sonic could think of in the rain of blows and lashes that let pain explode behind his eyes again and again, the helpless speedster on the ground only dimly aware that Shadow had been kicked down somewhere next to him, their escape attempt gone horribly wrong. Another kick in the ribs let Sonic almost black out for good as his body cried out for a stop of the punishment, and it sluggishly occurred to the blue hedgehog that they very well could die right here, beaten to death by the angry mob.

Shadow...

A gloved hand tried to reach out for his supposed Master but his fingers were nearly crushed when a boot landed on them. At last, there was another cry over the chaos and it ended the rain of abuse, although Sonic could hardly be thankful for that.

“SSSSTOP IT! THEY WILL BE EXECUTED PROPERLY!”

The hero of Mobius could barely open his eyes or raise his head. His whole body seemed to hurt and there was the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, although he wondered whether he could hear Manic yelling now, shouting apologies over and over, until a yelp shut him up.

“Get them up. Bring them back to the gallowss. And bind that one with chainsss thiss time,” Lazar hissed at the guards viciously as he indicated Sonic, the glare he directed at the prisoners and their abusers filled with enough venom to poison the entire court.

The next moment, Sonic refused to cry out as he was roughly yanked upward again and his arms wrested forcefully behind his back to be bound in iron this time. He wasn't surprised when he was slapped across the face as well, the bear who did it of course the same in whose face Sonic's sneaker had previously landed. The collared hedgehog's head was ringing, but at least nothing seemed to be broken, just bruised. Still, he was in no shape to fight again right now...

“Sonic...”

It was only a whisper this time, but Sonic heard it, along with Manic's horrified face as he was dragged past him, the green hedgehog aware that he had perhaps been the only reason their escape attempt had failed. Sonic tried to shoot him a 'It's not your fault'-glance, but couldn't be sure the other really had seen him as he was already pushed further away, Lazar's angry eyes glowing like yellow coals. Shadow bumped into his back as the black hedgehog had been lifted up, too, and was now shoved forward.

“Ungh!”

“Shadow!” Sonic called out under his breath, even as they were both manhandled back toward the wooden steps. “Are you okay?”

The black head was lifted with difficulty. There were three bleeding cuts of someone's claws on the dark-furred hedgehog's face and it was obvious he was in pain (which probably said a great deal about the magnitude of his injuries) but there was the scarcest of nods.

“They...didn't break anything. But...” another hiss as he was pushed forward once again, the two hedgehogs now stumbling upwards toward the pair of nooses dangling against the leaden sky.

“...this is it. With these chains there's no way I can continue fighting now.”

We have lost.

Sonic grit his teeth. Shadow was basically admitting defeat, and this time, Sonic couldn't see a thing he could do about it. His body hurt everywhere, he'd need at least ten minutes before he would be able to go again and those were ten minutes he didn't have, and if he couldn't get Shadow out of those shackles, then everything was useless. When they were pulled onto the platform, he still couldn't think of anything. Emerald eyes roamed the place with increasing panic, but Shadow's quiet voice interrupted him.

“Don't. Don't give them the satisfaction.” Let us face the end with dignity.

Sonic glanced to his side, and it was only when he looked into his partner's eyes, as dark as they were utterly serious, that his reeling mind, slowly, gradually began to realize that this time, there might be no way out.

This...this is it.

Sonic felt as if his insides were turning to stone, this one sentence sinking in with an unstoppable finality, like a lead weight descending into an unfathomable abyss underwater. The whole scene in front of him seemed to spin for a moment, to turn surreal with its edges too sharp and its noises too blurry, the jeering and shouting of the crowd below, the rough bellowing of the guards jerking them into position, the wind suddenly howling so loudly overhead under an empty sky. For a minute, Sonic's senses seemed to stretch, to strain to take everything in for one last time, every burning bruise, every smell of wood and mud and leather, every single detail on that noose being pulled down in front of him. He turned his head slightly and the spinning stopped as he saw Shadow again, the black hedgehog clear in focus, the single point that still seemed like reality to him. Despite his injuries, the Ultimate Lifeform stood tall, face and body motionless as his own rope was readied, apparently nearly aloof to it all. When their gazes connected, Sonic was finally snapped back into reality enough to pull himself together as well.

There would be no second escape attempt. The now trained bows and crossbows of the archers would make sure of that.

Sonic briefly looked at his chained hands, but there was no way of freeing them, either. In front of him, the trapdoor was briefly tested and then shut again. It worked.

“Shadow...”

He would never see Tails again. He had danced with death for so long, and this was finally the end of his song.

By now it was a numb realization, and Sonic wondered whether that was how dying ultimately and finally felt like. Just...numb, as opposed to all the joy and pain, heat and danger, hope and despair life had meant for him. The hero of Mobius had always suspected he wouldn't die of old age and there had been a lot of instances when he had been a hair's width away from getting killed, been more than one time when he had closed his eyes and thought everything was over...and yet, the only thought that hurt him as if someone had already pierced his chest with a sword was the thought that Shadow would have to die along with him.

“Yes, Sonic?” Shadow's voice was quiet, but steady, unheard by their captors who now stood at the edge of the platform, reciting the various kinds of treason and other crimes they should hang for. Sonic licked his cracked lips.

“Shadow...can you survive this?”

“What?” The question sounded slightly incredulous.

“You're the Ultimate Lifeform,” Sonic said, his tone now a bit more insistent. “Is your body resistant to this?” he asked, and there was just enough hope in his tone to finally tear a bit at Shadow's calm interior and let him inwardly cringe in pain. These were most likely Sonic's final moments. Should he...?

“...no.” The dark hedgehog shook his head slowly, telling the other the painful truth instead of the comforting lie. He respected him this much. “If this were a death of suffocation, then yes. But if they snap my neck, I will die,” he added matter-of-factly, perhaps attempting to distract himself as much as Sonic, briefly averting his eyes from his supposed slave who just had his last hopes crushed. This was Sonic for you – he would never truly give up, not really, but in an impossible situation like this it also meant that he would have his spirits crushed, mercilessly, again and again.

“Damn...I'm...I'm sorry it has to end like this for you as well.” Sonic's voice was far from his usual tone, low and hoarse.

Shadow shook his head. “It's okay.” His own death didn't matter to him so much. He didn't think he would survive if lost another loved one, anyway.

Or wanted to.

Well, at least my plan held up. Sonic is resilient and excellent at survival. At least I could be sure that anyone who would have been able to take him away from me would also be strong enough to kill me, too, flitted through the Ultimate Lifeform's head. Perhaps I will see Maria again...even though I doubt she would ever have wanted me to die like this.

Sonic inwardly tensed as the guard stepped up behind him, an instinctive reaction of his body that might as well have been meaningless now. Hands reached around him and laid the noose around his neck, calmly as if this was an everyday business. Sonic swallowed. The rope felt cool and smooth against his short fur, as if it was well-used and had already strangled the last breath of many victims dangling in its grasp. Next to him, Shadow was prepared likewise. Sonic managed to gather enough of himself to take a deep breath, trying to suppress the thought he very likely would not draw many more. But Shadow was right. They could still at least go out with self-respect instead of tears.

“Shads?”

Sonic's voice let the black hedgehog's head turn back again from his inspection of the court. There were still people filing in, more after the latest commotion, filling the yard up even now. A real public spectacle, my life, a cynical voice said in his head before Sonic at his side thankfully interrupted that train of thought. Shadow looked back up at him, ignoring something he thought he had just seen in the crowd.

“Shadow,” Sonic began again, and when the Ultimate Lifeform looked at him, the collared speedster even had a small smile on his face now.

One of the few things they hadn't been able to take...

“Yes? Famous last words?” Shadow asked back, voice almost resembling the dry amusement with which the black hedgehog usually would have reacted to a smile of his supposed slave.

The blue hero's lips nearly twitched at the seemingly careless quip of the other. Instead he just kept his voice steady and continued. “I just want to say...“ he briefly closed his eyes as the rope was expertly tightened around his neck, but otherwise didn't let himself be disturbed in the least.

“I don't regret anything. Tails and Amy...they can look after Mobius themselves - 'specially if ol' Knucklehead is there to lend them a hand. Even if I won't be there to see those two grow up.” Here the blue speedster paused, and for the first time since this small return to his old character, there was again a flash of pain in his eyes, deeper than the others. He seemed to push himself to go on. “But, but maybe, if we're right and our double ended up back home, then...” he swallowed, “Tails won't ever have to find out I...died here,“ the blue speedster said, voice trembling only ever so little as he forced the last words out. “Just probably thinks I've gone nuts,” he added with a weak laugh. Next, though, he sighed and when he spoke again, the tension seemed to have left his body again and this time for good after he had been able to at least tell it to Shadow. And when emerald eyes re-connected with crimson ones and the small smile widened into a real one, there was for once no trace of sadness visible. “And this trip also meant that I could get to know you. Even if it would have been nice if we had had more than just a week together.”

Shadow, dazed from both the pain the chains and bruises inflicted on his body, and the pain that came from knowing that the blue hedgehog in front of him would now have to die with him, emerald eyes closed forever, nodded. He felt the same.

And it really only has been a week...

As Sonic spoke, they were forced forward to stand atop the trapdoor below which nothing but a nine feet drop into oblivion would await.

Despite that, the hero of Mobius still smiled at his partner, eyes shining brighter than before, and now the Ultimate Lifeform had to fight hard, to banish the memories of his first friend, smiling at him just the same as she lay dying. The memories vanished again as he blinked, and then it was only Sonic again, looking at him with love even as the rope hung around his neck.

“Love ya, Shads.”

Shadow opened his mouth to reply, to say what were likely really going to be his last words, but then again, there was something...

“Sonic,“ he said.

“Yeah?“ the blue hero asked back, seeming a bit removed from everything now. The guards were currently having a brief discussion about whether to blindfold the prisoners, but no attempts were made since their quills, dented and askew as they were, still made it impossible to bind anything across their eyes. Shadow again looked at Sonic, intense. He reached out with one banded hand.

“Sonic. Do you trust me?” he asked, voice again tense but serious.

Sonic blinked, a bit taken aback by this apparently oddly timed question, but then his reply was prompt and didn't leave the slightest space for doubt.

“Always.“

Shadow reached behind Sonic to take one of the blue hero's hands in his.

“Then take a deep breath.”

xxx

“Ma-master?”

Tails looked up. It was rare of Sonic that he spoke ever since he had started acting strange a week or so ago, and even rarer that he did so without being asked first.

“Master, please, tell m- tell this slave what troubles you,” his big brother asked again, even if he was still ignored by the black hedgehog. Currently, both of them were inside a Chaos forcefield measuring several square metres in size and provided ample place to stand where they had put Shadow to prevent him from using any Chaos attacks, and Sonic, because everything else had proved to be...not very viable. Tails was also attempting to measure the Chaos auras and stored energy inside the two hedgehogs, the last theory he had been able to come up with that the two Chaos users had somehow either absorbed or even accidentally destroyed the missing Emerald that was now destabilizing everything. Rouge was still out there doing field work to try and find its location while Knuckles had gone back to Angel Island to try and contact Tikal inside the Master Emerald as a last hope for help. It left the young fox alone with the two strange hedgehogs inside his lab, and he constantly had to force himself to remember that they would be able to help Sonic, that his big brother would recognize him again eventually, that...that all this would somehow have a happy end...

“Please, this slave is distraught, too. Master...” Sonic was currently kneeling on the floor again, slightly to the side and behind Shadow, who had had his arms crossed until now, but finally seemed to sigh, and absent-mindedly reached out to pet the blue hedgehog between the ears, the action appearing to Tails like one that was familiar and comforting to both of them. Sonic's tone had been downright begging, though, and it let his younger brother cringe to hear his hero speak that way. The dark-furred hedgehog let his face set into a scowl.

“I can understand you, my pet. There is a sense of foreboding. Blood will be spilled tonight, and though I cannot fathom why, it feels like death's strides may be headed for us...”

The temperature in the laboratory had not dropped a single degree, but for some reason, the Prince's words had just let the blood in Tails' veins turn freezing cold. The young fox felt as if somebody had just walked over his grave. Or something yet entirely worse...

xxx

Somewhere far away, there was a lever pulled and the heroes of Mobius fell. Sonic never found out what Shadow had thought might happen before the ground dropped away beneath him. Only fractions of a second after the executioner's command there was the final and abrupt sound of rope being pulled taught by the weight of two bodies suspended by nothing. High above the muddy earth, blue and black legs that had moved at speeds faster than anyone on this planet could have imagined, thrashed in the air wildly one last time but ultimately went still when there was nothing to support them anymore. And two strong hands, that had held each other until the very end, finally let go.

To be continued...?

O HO HO HO HO HO! *cackles like Robotnik and flies away in her Eggmobile*

I was attempting to write the entire beatdown and execution scene while some dimwit kept playing 'Cotton eye Joe' on repeat in the background. Talk about a mood sabotage attempt.