Chapter 10 - Disquieting Shadow

In that very moment, the entire building went silent all of a sudden as if in mourning. The black hedgehog continued to stare blankly into the depths of the chasm, trying to catch a glint of his blue counterpart who immediately disappeared out of his sight. He was utterly shocked when he realized that the entire event actually happened in mere seconds and yet, in those few seconds he could do nothing to make the situation any better and only watched as the other's decision took place. Sonic was gone… that obvious realization only managed to hit him in the head only a few moments later.

The eerie silence present was new and foreign to him, almost believing in slight horror that this is how it's going to stay for the rest of his abandonment here. Shadow shivered significantly at the thought before he tightened his outstretched hand into a shaking fist, angry for letting something like this happen to him. There was a sign of distraught on his face, but at the same time the black one was holding back a lot more anger than he could ever properly show.

Finally realizing that the Ultimate Lifeform was still hanging over the pit on nothing more but a dangerously broken pipe that was about to collapse on him anytime soon, the older mammal pulled himself back towards the wall with a tired grunt. He leaned his head against the wall with a sigh that escaped his lips and with a shaking breath looked upwards to find a way to get out of this situation more calmly, as much the sudden cold air from below decided to shiver his spines.

Noticing a small platform a few feet away from him, Shadow just might have had a chance to jump up there and grip the edge before the pipe succumbed under his weight. Then again, it's not like he had any choice in the matter anyway. It was either down the pit for him or grab any opportunity he could find.

Preparing himself for a dash, the black hedgehog positioned himself correctly as much as he could. There was no possible way he could ever gain enough speed in this position, but he had to try. Wasting no more time then he wanted to, Shadow pushed away from the pipe and the wall in quick succession in what he believed to be a perfect launch upwards. However, he slightly lost his balance once the pipe finally buckled under the pressure and spiraled down the deep chasm with no particular goal. By some strange miracle, the older mammal caught himself on the edge of the platform with one hand, straining his arm again significantly as he grunted out painfully. The first time that same hand was used to stop the Fastest Thing Alive from falling further down into the abyss… for all good it did anyway. Fortunately, the path to the upper parts of the building was padded with small sticking out pipes that weren't as easy to hang on as the previous, but at least they were bound to bring him back to the surface.

Shadow followed up an improvised ladder, finally reaching the completely destroyed room where the robot exploded only a moment ago, still filling the air with burnt technological material. Forcing himself over the largely damaged fence with an effort and staggering forward with an awkward stance, the darker counterpart looked around the place that had nothing more to offer than debris and junk metal. He snorted slightly with no breath left in his lungs as the black hedgehog collapsed on his backside like a sagged ragdoll with no support, leaning against the railing with a downed head staring right into the ground and disappointed mind that wouldn't give him a break.

Even now, he could barely believe what just happened down there. The black hedgehog went from exploring this island, to being stranded on it because of a massive storm that probably still continued regardless of the situation he was in, finding out that the blue hedgehog was lying to him this entire time, being attacked by a gigantic robot and to finally losing the hero in one clear but confusing event that could've been easily avoided if he only realized in time what his younger counterpart was really scheming.

He didn't understand the blue hedgehog at all, especially after he saw what happened. It raised all sorts of meaningless and unrelated questions in his mind he probably shouldn't even be thinking about at this moment. He figured he should just get up and keep moving forward to somewhere else, but he had neither the will nor intention of standing up anytime soon.

Why did Sonic do something like that? And for him out of all people in the world? As much of an annoying ego he possessed, the emerald eyed hero proved himself to be a stubborn figure that couldn't leave when evil was afoot, but a fully self-sacrificing one... at points the Blue Blur had no problems running away from smaller problems and sometimes he'd be glad to help, even if there was no reward or nothing interesting to gain from other than grant someone a bit of happiness in life. The black hedgehog now experienced it himself, with Sonic almost breaking his wrist in the process just so Shadow would finally drop him. His painful hand was the only reminder of the blue hedgehog at the moment. He never figured he had that much strength in him, but he kept underestimating his younger counterpart every step of the way.

Did he really look like he required rescuing from the informed hero? Or anyone else for that matter? One other person who did the same thing for him a long time ago died doing so. Did his actions force him to relieve the entire thing all over again?

Looking and caressing his aching wrist, his fist suddenly tightened when a realization crawled in his mind and shook his shoulders beyond belief. Shadow was getting angrier with every living moment as his last visions of the blue hedgehog's fall became clearer. It was all the same… the situation, the purpose… and that goddamn smile that will haunt him forever even in the sunniest of days and calmest of nights if he doesn't do something about it. Pulling a quick but short breath through his nose, the Ultimate Lifeform gritted his teeth as a cold shiver traveled down his spines like a ghostly touch from the netherworld.

With swift movement, the black hedgehog gripped the fence behind him and pulled himself up, staring down into the chasm with a distressed look on his face as he screamed into clear nothingness, ''Sonic, you idiot!'' his enraged voice echoed all the way towards the invisible bottom. He could only hope the Blue Blur couldn't hear him right now, at least not in this desperation act. However, at the same time the black one didn't want to believe that his blue counterpart will never hear his voice again. He dropped down to his knees unexpectedly while still holding onto the railing with his shakings hands and made out short yet deep exhales, looking downwards into the hole that claimed his younger rival.

Widening his crimson eyes, another quick thought flashed through the older hedgehog's mind with a startled start. It should have been obvious before, but he didn't want to think about the worst case scenario. Sonic couldn't be actually dead, could he? The sheer thought of the Fastest Thing Alive dying like this was completely unimaginable and an absurd idea to just about anyone who knew him.

He wasn't sure why in the world would he be so upset about any of his former enemies ending up in a dreadful event such as this, especially since this was the Blue Blur he was thinking about. He always stuck his nose into things that weren't his, got himself in worse trouble than he should have in the first place, he would come out of nowhere to discuss business or just play around with him for a while… as he nodded at himself, a self mocking grunt left his muzzle.

If there was anything he ever admitted about the blue hedgehog to himself, it was the fact he made everyday life less boring. Especially for him despite the various annoyances he had to deal in the process to finally get somewhere with him. The black mammal snorted harshly at himself as he manned his forehead, thinking about it as a very ridiculous idea, yet he couldn't deny it. He did like having Sonic around, if only because of that one fact. He could barely imagine it in any other way.

Nobody this young should face death… not like this. Not when they had a full life to be looking forward to and that was something the blue one was supposed to do in the first place.

As he continued staring into the unknown depths, the chasm still appeared endless from this high up above and he had no idea if anyone at all could've survived that fall, but considering this gigantic hole in the floor, he quickly started doubting the statistics. He'll have to be lucky to find anything at all.

Speaking of which, how is he going to tell Tails or hell, anyone about this? The yellow furred pilot will go completely out of his mind if he heard that the emerald eyed hero was killed in the worst possible way, not even in a battle for that matter. Everyone else would react in their own way, but there was no way Shadow could ever face them with dignity after all of this happened right in front of his eyes, especially since he couldn't do a thing to actually stop it.

This entire island was a trap waiting to catch its invaders and it didn't seem like it was ready to let him go. Tilting his head over to the damaged robot, he didn't know if there were any more of these things out there somewhere, just waiting until he approached them by accident and was completely done for.

And soon enough, Shadow managed to hate the Fastest Thing Alive even more now. Hate him for pulling him into this situation in the first place and then leaving him alone in the mess the younger hedgehog pilled up on him in a short moment of quick and life threatening decisions that were bound to end badly for both of them. Which was about to happen just a moment ago, if Sonic didn't take the initiative and act like a sacrificial lamb. However, besides his conflicting feelings about his younger counterpart and his presumed death, that wasn't the only thing he felt at that very moment. It didn't seem to disappear as of now either as to ease his heavy heart.

The black hedgehog sensed something shattering in his very soul... something that didn't feel right and he only experienced it once a long time ago. When he watched him fall, he felt weak. It was something the Ultimate Lifeform never displayed to anyone in his life, no matter what the situation called for, staying calm and composed even under extreme pressure whenever it called for a sensible mind.

He believed Sonic must've noticed it somehow. He was sure his rival wouldn't go around making stupid decisions like this, if the younger hedgehog didn't think in some way or another that any of them were in any serious danger. Even if it was like that, the black hedgehog couldn't help but feel completely helpless and embarrassed by the notion that he needed somebody to sacrifice himself for him in his weakest moments. It didn't end well the first time around or years afterwards.

Nodding his ever so contradicting head, Shadow decided to pull himself back on his feet and keep searching. He needed to find a way down there as soon as it was possible, quickly deciding that he wasn't going to leave this island without Sonic, regardless if he was dead or alive. He couldn't tell which one was the better option in this moment, but if he was still alive, the Ultimate Lifeform will give him a piece of his mind.

Maybe the Fastest Thing Alive was in better position being dead at this point. However, he needed to find him first and make sure he's alright. Only then will he start asking questions before he'll decide what to do with him. Although the deep chasm didn't really indicate anything good going on at the very bottom, it still possessed a glimmer of hope.

Because he said it himself… he was Sonic the Hedgehog, right?

He better be right about it.

Shadow skidded to a complete halt almost immediately after spending the next couple of minutes traversing an unknown territory. The black hedgehog was not happy about this at all. It might have been mere minutes that passed ever since his search started, but those were the minutes he didn't like one bit and had no time to be wasting just like that. Before he came down here into what he believed was a crossroad of underground corridors and finally questioned his own orientation in this tedious place that Sonic called his home island, the crimson eyed agent skated around extensively through the entire known building. He double checked the rooms he already visited the first time around, such as the conveyer belt room and other bland rooms before that and only then he moved onto the new ones, believing there might be something the black one missed entirely.

After his investigation proved to be completely worthless, it wasn't until later that he finally realized that actively searching for something was completely and utterly meaningless in this place. For a slight moment, Shadow felt dumbfounded by it but he guessed this was how the blue hedgehog got his work done in a flash; no planning, no goal and no thinking at all, doing everything completely by accident and improvisation. By those standards, Sonic must've been an oblivious and absent minded genius, but he wasn't holding out his breath for it to ever come across as anything more but pure luck.

He searched with his mind wide open to the environment around him despite Shadow's skepticism. By some convenient chance that managed to fall on him at least once in his life, he finally found a staircase leading downwards, believing it could possibly bring him closer to where the blue hedgehog might have fallen. However, it did appear suspicious to him that the door to the actual place was pretty sneakily hidden behind old machinery as if it didn't exist at all, as if somebody decided to cover it up for some reason.

To hurry up and save his energy for when he'll really need it again, the Ultimate Lifeform grinded down the support railings in the middle of the stairs with remarkable speed which he usually couldn't get to in tight spaces such as this without carefully improvising, just like the blue hedgehog who was more used to implying this sort of technique to the real world situations. After a few minutes of nothing but grind abuse that could only slightly compare to Rail Canyon's lengthy grind rails, the black hedgehog finally hit a wall on his way down and came to a screeching halt as quickly as it was possible. Reaching the bottom wasn't as spectacular or glamorous he imagined it at first, but at least he finally arrived where he wanted to be.

The black hedgehog followed through the only door in the tight room and trailed the long claustrophobic and dark corridors that probably intervened themselves as well by some strange coincidence just to spite him for whatever reason. Probably to get him lost even more than he already was. Without being able to see where he was going, he kept tripping over useless junk on the floor, so he skidded to a slower speed and walked carefully but still pretty quickly by hugging the walls. Instead of merely skating up, down, left and right blindly and try to find his way out of it, Shadow decided to use his hedgehog senses this time around and follow his nose to get anywhere close to an exit and possibly the blue annoyance as well.

Whatever he was going to find at the end of the tunnel, it better be worth it all this way. When his crimson eyes got used to the darkness just slightly enough for him to see the vague environment, the black one seemed to notice that while the corridors did have lights installed on the ceilings, they weren't working like the rest of the building which was pretty much obvious by this point in time. He could only hope the power didn't go out sometime after he got down here. That's another annoyance he didn't want to deal with as the Ultimate Lifeform already had enough problems than he needed.

After a while, the corridor finally ended with a sudden stop. Hoping he reached some sort of exit or entrance at the end of the perpetual darkness, the black hedgehog started feeling his surroundings and trailed the wall in front of him with his gloved fingers. If it looks like a door and feels like a door… Shadow started searching for some sort of handle, finding it very difficult to get a very good grip on it for some strange reason. They were actually quite sturdy and heavy, as if someone installed a bulkhead instead of just some regular door. Pulling the door aside was even tougher than it seemed at first, but once he overcame those thoughts and pulled harder, the black one managed to open them up somewhat. He was amazed to find that the room on the other side was actually lighted. The evidence was the light shinning through the crack he made, feeling a sigh of relief in his mind that reminded him of his previous concerns.

When he finally pushed the steel block to the side so he could pass through it with no problems, he wanted to keep it from closing up again. Finding a small rock on the floor was good enough for him and propped it in between the door and the small step.

He didn't seem to notice it before, but the height of various machinery and doors was considerably lower than humans would've built them. In fact, he was almost the perfect size for it. Taking in consideration Sonic's words, this just might have been the place where a hedgehog civilization flourished once, if in complete isolation. If the Blue Blur really was born here like he claimed, then where is everyone else and why doesn't anyone else seem to know about this place? There were so many questions he wanted to know the answer to, but there was so little time to even concentrate on one thing entirely.

Now that he had light passing into the dark corridor, Shadow noticed a slightly beaten up fuse box hanging right beside the door. Opening it after punching it hard enough due to his previous nicer attempts failing, the box revealed itself to be empty and the wires stuck out as if something was forcibly ripped out of it. Being able to see in the corridors would've been a generally good idea, but he would need to find a working fuse somewhere which in this place seemed unlikely. The box itself looked damaged as well and even if he had the fuse, the black hedgehog couldn't know if it was going to work anyway. He wasn't exactly up to Tails' or Doctor's levels when it came to fixing stuff like this, but he could give it a go out of sheer curiosity.

However, before any of that happens, Shadow's first priority was to find the blue hedgehog to make sure he's okay and get some answers out of him.

Shadow could chalk it up to his nose, but he had a feeling he was getting close to finding him.

XXX

''Sorry.''

''I have to do this.''

''Don't hold it against me, okay?''

Those words still echoed in his dreams, returning to him like every so often… as if they had something to do with him at this point. Everything that surrounded him turned back to darkness the moment he tried to remember something very important to him and help him come out of the deep nightmare. Nothing can be scarier than something you can't even see, right?

Wandering around a complete void with no place or goal to go, what's a hedgehog to do? You can run from it, but you can never outrun it. You can hide from it, but it will find you even in the safest of places in the world, even the tender insides of your own mind. The only thing he needed to do was to wake up from these darkening thoughts… he wasn't sure how, but if he kept on running into a specific direction, something interesting usually happened and changed his adventures little by little, contributing to his life experiences he had written inside his head as chapters in a tightly sealed book.

That's all he knew how to do after all. Just run somewhere familiar, somewhere that felt like home for some time before he moved on with his life and ran to somewhere else entirely in the world. Whatever caught his eye, he ran toward it and investigated it. Something that kept distancing away from him and ended up like a shiny glimmer in the horizon, until he came across anything that was able to help him out in the most interesting and unimaginable ways. The possibilities were endless for someone in his position and he knew all about it. However, he wasn't going to get anywhere by running in here, not in this hollow echoing world he never liked meeting even in his unconsciousness. This wasn't the place he was looking for and never has been his private corner of safety.

It was merely a place of confinement and loneliness… just like he used to feel about the entire world once before.

Sooner or later, he needed to wake up… that's all it mattered now.

… only to realize a little too late that it might be a mistake.

Slowly, the darkness started withering away, having been replaced by a blurry vision of the blue hedgehog's dazed eyes. He could barely lift his head properly without spraining his neck a bit more than it already was, much less his entire body from the metallic floor. He stayed on the cold ground with an insufferable headache as he slowly started blinking, hoping for his sight and that annoying ringing noise in his brain to mellow out and never return again.

After a few moments, the emerald eyed hero could finally see what was around him, if only a small portion of the supposed location he landed in of a sudden, but he decided not to bother with it at the moment. Lying down almost motionlessly, Sonic needed to think for a short moment to barely recall his own name before he'd start speculating about more complicated things that argued amongst each other in what succession they would enter his memory again.

When the blue hedgehog believed it was time for him to get up on his feet again, the Blue Blur only lifted himself for a short moment before dropping back to the floor with a painful grunt. Like the previous time, it didn't work the way he felt it would. Just about anyone would find his position to be utterly pathetic in this situation, but he wasn't going to give up yet and kept trying to overcome the pain that travelled all over his body. Eventually he summoned all his remaining strength into his limbs and pulled himself on his bruised knees, slowly but surely.

However, the younger hedgehog found himself overtaken by the sudden pain in one of his arms that supported his equally aching body, doubling him over on his back with a small yelp as he cradled his hurt arm close to his chest. It's been a while since he felt any actual pain like this. It's been even longer since he hurt himself this badly.

Ignoring the pain for the time being and breathing deeply, Sonic stared upwards to see nothing more but a hole above him with a curious white mist traveling all around it like clouds in the sky. He must've fallen all the way through it and ended up down here as he quickly predetermined in his incoming search. Sonic knew who he was despite having a massive concussion that continuously made him disoriented and confused. The emerald eyed hero only needed to figure out what happened to him a while ago. Hoping his memory would return slowly and reconstruct the event that took place at that specific time and location, the blue hedgehog tried recalling back whatever he could.

So he fell from somewhere high up above… what was the exact reason again? And where was Shadow?

''Shadow?'' he whispered lightly, almost shocked that he didn't lose his ability to speak after everything that happened to him.

Widening his eyes, he finally realized that he completely forgot that his darker counterpart also came along for the ride on his request. Upon mentioning his would be rival, the only memories of him in this strange place were of very unconformable situations they found themselves in. The other appeared to be enraged at him, shouting at him with all his might and kept walking away from him to keep his distance as much as the hero tried to explain himself to him.

But there was another flash that was completely different from the previous ones he'd seen so far. He could see the black hedgehog reaching out to Sonic, with a clearly upset expression on his face which the Blue Blur couldn't get out of his mind. He never saw the Ultimate Lifeform in such distress before. Did his fall really upset him that much? Or something he said along the way? He'll need to think for a moment before he remembers anything at all.

Sonic cleared up his mind for the time being and tried to pick himself up, finding himself in a more comfortable sitting position as he sat up with a weary feeling. Looking at his hurt arm, as soon as he touched it with merely his finger, the throbbing pain sent shivers down his spines. He knew next to nothing about medical help or even basic care for that matter, so the blue hedgehog didn't know if it was either just badly twisted or threatening to snap at some point. Manning his eyes, the blue hero needed to stand up somehow and folded his arms carefully around his chest to hold his hurt arm close to him at all costs, almost as if he was afraid he was going to shatter it completely if he moved it around too much.

Finally back on his feet after much painful grunts and lost breaths, Sonic got the chance to check his surroundings a bit more. The oval room he landed in was, like the rest of the known building, dirty in gray colors with the only greenery growing out through the ruined floor. He was closer to the underground than anytime before. With a gaping mouth, the younger mammal seemed surprised at no considerable damage on his body other than the arm. He still considered it better than having his head stuck in the dirt again like a peacock… or was it a flamingo? That didn't sound right at all.

Looking around slowly, there must've been about three or four doors worth mentioning but the only thing that caught his eye was a transparent wall with sliding doors. Sonic didn't really know where his mind was at the moment. The only thing he really wanted to do was walk it off as best as he could, even though something told him in the back of his head that it wasn't the brightest idea he ever had. He stumbled over to them, catching himself against the nearby wall as he tried to step further without shaking too much. A moment too late and he would probably end up back on his knees.

Squinting through the small opening, he could only see a part of the room's insides but it was as equally dirty as the floor he found himself lying on. It didn't look anything special in his eyes, with just some broken junk and glasses all over the floor. It almost looked like a laboratory of some sorts, but empty.

Nodding his head and turning away with an unimpressed feeling from the disappointing room that had nothing to offer, he couldn't stay here any longer and needed to move on to find Shadow. He could only imagine just how angry and upset the other hedgehog must be at this point. The blue one was sure that if he didn't die right now, he will probably wish he did as soon as the black hedgehog comes across him and finally lets out everything he's been bottling up against Sonic. Due to at least three different doors to choose from, he didn't know which one could bring him back to the surface and at the same time he felt like his legs would eventually give up under his weight.

In the worst case scenario, he'd only manage to get deeper into the building and lose himself in it with no way out.

He could only hope his adventures weren't going to end here.

Somewhere in the near distance, his ears twitched into the direction of muffled noises coming toward him. As exhausted and beaten to an inch of his life he appeared, Sonic still had a good enough hearing to catch the sounds behind the walls, coming ever so closer with every living second. Something was coming his way and in this condition he just might not stand a chance against it, whatever it might have been. He couldn't even run for that matter, as he could barely stand upright without his legs giving him a nasty shake through his entire body and threatening that they would drop him on the floor anytime soon.

Leaning his back against the wall he came across a moment ago, he decided to take it in its stride anyway. The Fastest Thing Alive wasn't a coward nor was he going to run away from anything imaginable, even at this desperate point. Closing his emerald eyes, the blue mammal merely waited with a calm, if frequently dazed mind as the heavy sliding footsteps drew closer to meet the wounded blue hedgehog.

Wait...

''Sonic!?''