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Sonic, during hard fights like these, usually never thought about anything other then defeating Eggman.
So, why now?
He knew this wasn't the last fight. He knew he wasn't going to kill that eggy old fool, not now, not ever. So why was he thinking about this? About every moment that had led up to this moment?
He was born in Mobotropolis, and he had two siblings, Manic and Sonia. His mother was a queen, and he a prince. He was given to his Uncle Chuck to keep a prophecy from coming true, and grew up on Christmas Island. Then, his uncle died. He was left with a letter explaining why he was separated from his mother and siblings and was left with a medallion and a biplane. He did not meet with them right away, as something told him the time was not right.
Then, he met Robotnik. He was four years old. He had been homeless for months, until the Doctor took pity on him and took him in. He lived with Robotnik for over a year, collecting the Chaos Emeralds, only for Robotnik to reveal it was only a long term plan to take over the world. Sonic, feeling betrayed, beat Robotnik and fled. He continued to take down Robotnik for a few years until he was eight, where he met his siblings in order to find their mother. Eventually, they found her, but Sonic simply did not feel as though he fit in, and he felt he put everybody in danger because he was the one who led Robotnik to them.
He left Mobotropolis for the second time in his life and fled to Knothole, where he joined the Freedom Fighters. He felt safe there, safer than he had for a long time. He fought with them until he was eleven. But then, he encountered his first very close call. He had been fighting a Badnik, and had very nearly died. It was the first time he had ever realized just how dangerous what he did was. He did not speak for a long time, after that. But then, the best thing in his entire life happened to him.
He met Tails. Messing with his plane.
His life had changed for the better. He was a part of the Freedom Fighters, yes, but he did not live with them. He had no home. He hadn't had one since Robotnik betrayed him. But he did his best to take care of Tails, and he felt he did an okay job. Eventually though, desperate times called for desperate measures and he let them get captured by.. Eggman, more often. Eventually the man noticed and after pushing for the reason, told Sonic to swallow his pride and ask to be paid for his heroism. Then, Sonic had a house they didn't have to pay for, a plane, and a brother. Sonic left the original team of Freedom Fighters not long after, opting to be a hero duo on South Island with Tails.
And soon enough, he had a friend, too. Not without physically having to fight for it, though. Knuckles had punched Sonic's newly-discovered Super Form out of him. They had come to realize it was a lucky shot, but Sonic hadn't known that at the time. After defeating Eggman and returning the Master Emerald to Knuckles, Sonic and Tails took off once more. Sonic now had a penpal named Amy Rose. He also knew a little girl named Cream, who he saved from Eggman. Sonic was now thirteen, Tails was almost six.
They went about their days for a few years, met new people, learned new things. Sonic had taught Tails how to fly a plane, Tails taught Sonic how to read. And then Sonic was fourteen, and Tails was seven, and most of their friends had come to South island to live.
And then there was Shadow.
Sonic liked Shadow. There was just something about him that let Sonic know that he could tell Shadow anything, and he wouldn't judge, wouldn't tell a soul. That he understood the burden Sonic carried on his shoulders, and that Shadow had known that same weight. Even if they were rivals. Enemies, even. He knew that at the end of the day, when the adrenaline of a battle wore off and he was nothing more than a broken body, all he had to do was call his name, and Shadow would be there. Even if Shadow had been the one who gave him the bruises on his body. Even if Shadow wasn't quite all there himself. Sonic allowed himself that. That one thing for himself, something nobody could take away from him. Shadow.
But then, they did.
Sonic held it together, as he walked back on the Ark, two golden rings in hand. He put one in his quills, and walked into the room where everybody was watching. He said nothing. He couldn't. Not right then. All he did was walk up to Rouge, ignoring everybody else, and held out the second ring. He knew he didn't need to say anything. He knew she knew, even before he walked back onto the ship. As she took the ring, tears in her eyes, she looked him right in the eye. He didn't bother trying to hide the pain in his eyes. He knew she would see through it. He knew she knew what Shadow meant to him. Even if he didn't realize the full capacity yet. She nodded once, and hugged him tightly. He hugged back as she cried. The room was silent, staring at the two in the middle as they processed what that meant. Eventually, Rouge let go. Eventually, the filed out of the room, leaving Sonic alone.
Eventually, he let that single tear slip.
"Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."
And then, he was there. He was right in front of him. And he didn't remember.
But that was okay. Sonic remembered. And Shadow would too. He was sure.
And he was right.
He did remember.
And Sonic was happier then he had been in a long time, that day.
Shadow knew Sonic was different.
He was faster than sound, for one thing. Even Shadow wasn't that fast. Not without an Emerald. And even then, he could still lose that race, if Sonic was focused enough. And most of Shadow's speed came from his rocket shoes anyway. He was fast on his own, sure, but he was only slightly faster than an average Mobian, and could never hope to break the sound barrier without artificial help.
But Sonic could.
Somehow, he could. And that brings him back to the original point. Sonic wasn't normal. Sonic once let Tails run an x-ray one him, and he called everybody he knew, including Shadow, to come and look at what he found. Shadow, wanting to see the what the hype was about, came. And what he saw was... astonishing. That was the only word for it.
Sonic had an entire extra organ that produced and stored Chaos Energy.
Sonic was basically a walking Emerald, for fuck's sake. Shadow supposed that's how he could run so fast, healed fast, and could control the Emeralds with ease. It was because he was one, and he told Sonic this. Sonic, having not thought of it like that, looked bewildered. Then, he smiled at Shadow.
"Huh, guess you're right, in a way. Wanna see if you can use me to teleport?" He said, jokingly sticking out an arm for Shadow to grab. What he didn't expect, was for Shadow to actually grab onto him.
"Chaos Control."
And then they were standing on the other side of Tails' workshop, everybody looking at them.
"Holy- I'm a Chaos Emerald! How- what- what?!" Sonic was absolutely dumbfounded, looking at his arm like it had turned pink for no reason.
That was certainly an interesting day. After all, it wasn't often everybody was in the same area, let alone the same room. Not even at parties. Sometimes some of them couldn't make it, mainly the Chaotix and Silver. Most of the time Shadow simply didn't want to come, so he didn't. And on top of that, they had found out that Sonic, to a certain degree, had to same abilities as a Chaos Emerald.
But there was more than that. Sonic may have had an organ for pure, unfiltered Chaos Energy, but that didn't explain certain things. Like Dark Sonic. From what Shadow understood, Dark Sonic was not the result of Chaos Energy. At least, not the way Super Sonic was. Dark Sonic was the result of something... sinister. Sonic's strongest emotions, the ones he pushes down constantly. Anger, fear, sadness, anything that wasn't happy or anything of the sort. The ones that broke his hero façade. The ones that made Sonic Mobian. He bottled those feelings up for over a decade, and one day, he reached his seemingly never-ending limit. For somebody normal, it would have resulted and screaming, crying, throwing things, or simply destroying everything in their sight before coming to their senses. For Sonic, it was none of those. It was his fur darkening, his eyes glowing a blank white, and his quills pointing up.
It was the intent to kill Eggman.
Except, it wasn't.
Because Sonic could never truly kill that sad excuse of a man.
Dark Sonic was the intent to put Eggman in his place. In a way, Dark Sonic was not Sonic at all, yet he was. Dark Sonic was everything Sonic couldn't be. Mean, nasty, brutal, scary. But he was still Sonic nonetheless, even if only a little.
And that little bit, that little part of Dark Sonic that connected the two, was the simple fact.
Sonic would not kill Eggman.
And Shadow could respect that.
One day, Shadow himself would kill the Doctor. Either that, or he would die trying. Sonic knew this. But Sonic could not do it. And that was okay, because he didn't need to. Shadow would do it for him. When Sonic needed it, when he could no longer fight, after he gave everything he had to give and still fail, Eggman would be dead. Both Shadow and Sonic knew that one day, Sonic would fail. Sonic once told him he didn't think he'd live to see thirty years old. Shadow knew right then that Sonic was right. But he knew that the day Sonic died, Robotnik would too.
Maybe today would be that day.
Sonic was fighting. He was fighting, and he was loosing. And Shadow could tell from the look on his face that he knew it. And then, his super form flickered slightly. Everybody could only watch. They were all there, everybody from Big to Manic to Espio. All of them. But they were either injured or tired beyond belief. Very few were still fighting. Rouge, Omega, Amy, Silver, Espio, Knuckles, Sonia and a few others were still at it, including Shadow, though he was slowing down, as was everybody else. But they were all watching. Watching as Sonic, the strongest of all of them, started to slow. And then he was blue again. He fell to the ground, but before he hit the destroyed pavement, Shadow had caught him. Everybody was watching them, now. Even Eggman, from the strongest version of the Death Egg ever built, had stopped to watch the scene unfold.
"Hey Shads..." Sonic mumbled, bruised and bloody.
"Hello, hedgehog. Are you alright?"
"'M fine... just gotta get up again, 's all.." was the pained reply, before Sonic tried to wiggle out of Shadows grip, only to kneel over and start hacking up blood. Everybody could tell, even though they didn't want to admit it. Everybody Sonic had ever made friends with was there. And they all knew, and it brought damn every near one of them to silent tears.
Sonic lost.
Sonic lost, and Sonic was dying in Shadows arms.
"Sonic, look at me." Shadow said, voice eerily calm. When Sonic obeyed, he saw Shadow... crying. Shadow was crying over him. Huh.
"It's time. We both know it is. I'm gonna give it to you straight. You're dying. You're minutes away from dying, and he's still alive. I'm gonna ask you one more time," Shadow said. Everybody looked at him, but he ignored them all. He did not look away from Sonic.
"Do you want to kill him?"
And Shadow already knew the answer, but he waited for Sonic to reply anyway.
"No." And there it was. Sonic's final answer. He refused to kill the bastard who had been trying to kill him since he was five years old, tormented him and his friends for over a decade. He wouldn't do it, right up until the bitter end.
"Okay. Then I will. Tails." Shadow called. Tails took a small step from the front of the crowd, before running up to Shadow.
"Tails, you're a smart kid. I think you know that Sonic won't make it out of this alive." Shadow said, not looking at him, but at Sonic, who would not look away from the child he took in and called a brother. Sonic was still not crying.
"And I think you know that neither will Robotnik."
Tails nodded, not taking his eyes off of his dying brother. His entire frame wracked with silent sobs.
"Kid, I'm about to do something I should have done many years ago. And when I come back, Sonic will be dead in your arms. You know that, right?"
Tails could only nod. He couldn't speak, couldn't move. Couldn't look away from the blue blur he knew as home.
"Then take him. Let the rest of his friends see him." As Shadow turned away, Sonic took his eyes off Tails for a moment.
"W-ait..." He muttered, though everybody could hear him.
"Yes, hedgehog?"
"I love y-you, Shad-ow..." he said in a broken voice. Shadow stared for a moment, before, in a pained voice,
"I love you too. Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog."
And that was the last time Sonic would ever see Shadow. The dying hedgehog smiled, for the last time, as the love of his life walked away. He turned back to Tails. Everybody had crowded around them by now, each and every one of them sobbing. Tails the most. Nobody dared try to touch the pair, not even Manic and Sonia. Even though they were biological family, Tails was Sonic's true brother. Everybody knew that.
"Hey buddy, look a-at me." Sonic whispered. Tails did as he was told, looking right into the emerald eyes he had grown to cherish.
"Don't miss me too much, yeah? On a planet as cool and blue as me, there are plenty of friend options. Maybe now you won't get into so much trouble."
"Sonic please! Don't do this to me, to us! You promised you would always be here! You promised!" Tails yelled, hugging Sonic tightly.
"I did. And I'm not breaking that promise. I'll always be here. You know that."
Tails could only sob.
"Miles, my time is up here. I love you so much, little bro. Take care of everybody, okay?"
"NO! No, nononono please! PLEASE! SONIC!" Tails screamed, as Sonic's eyes slowly drifted shut, and his breathing slowly stopped. Tails laid Sonic down on the ground and laid on top of him, sobbing so hard to looked like he was about to pass out. Nobody noticed the explosions or screams coming from behind them. All they noticed was a little, eight-year old, two-tailed fox crying over the body of a blue speedster, who saved the world too many times to count. A hedgehog who befriended anybody he came across, even his enemies.
And it was then, when Shadow came back to this scene, that he realized why Sonic was so different from the rest.
Sonic was a god amongst Mobians. A god who had the power to protect the entire multiverse several times over. A god that knew how to worm his way into everybody's hearts, befriending them even if it seemed impossible.
A god that had managed to steal his heart.
Huh. Would you look at that.
And so, when Shadow came back, he pushed his way through the crowd, sat cross-legged next to Tails in the middle of the road, and sobbed.