Chapter Text
There was an air of calm. No sound could be heard, no light could be seen, and he was utterly senseless to the world.
Then he blinked.
Shadow stared off into the moonlight not quite sure what it was he was even thinking about. The whole world around him just seemed to blur together and drift around in his mind. It felt like all the colors of were dulled and then swirled together across the blurred outline of the sky.
Behind him there seemed to be a something going on, but he could not figure out how to tell his body to check on it.
However, his senses were slowly coming back to him. he could feel the heat that flickered around his back, it provided an almost comforting level of warmth. The warm light creating a stark contrast against the cool breeze that drifted from the moon filled sky. His eyes adjusting and his nerves reawakening. Yet, sound and smell still escaped him.
Suddenly a large explosion erupted into the night.
It was too close for Shadow to dodge and his mind was already an incomprehensible soup, so he barely even flinched. The sound reverberated against his ears and overloaded the sensitive drums, causing them to fill with a ringing sound. The noise created a cacophony with the sudden addition of voices in his head. They were unintelligible but it served to make his head feel as though it was spinning on the inside as well.
The only thing keeping him conscious and mildly in the moment was the sudden appearance of his ability to smell. A burning sensation allowing him something to focus on as he tried to adjust back to reality.
Shadow did not even realized that he had been flung into the air until he saw the ground rapidly approach. He tried to move into a spin or at least land on his feet, but it felt like his mind was stuffed with cotton blocking all thoughts. He could not command his limbs to be in an way useful in breaking his fall.
Luckily he seemed to have control of his head and torso and was able to spin around enough that he created a slow spin dashed that protected him from breaking anything, but not fast enough that he could move again right away. Instead unrolling quickly upon impact then flopping unceremoniously into the dirt and dust.
He just stayed there for a moment, not really ready to check on his own well being from the awful attempt to save himself. It wasn’t like he could really move anyways.
He tried to focus on some of the thoughts in his head instead of trying to figure out the dizzying scene around him.
His thoughts seemed to be whispers or just gibberish he couldn’t understand. With as much focus as he could muster, he tried to make sense of one sentence that seemed to be repeating. It chanted in his minds as if it was something on the tip of his tongue that he desperately needed to say but he couldn’t quite reach the phrase anymore despite knowing it had been there not long before.
He felt a cool breeze pass by him, and his ears started to take into the popping sounds of smaller explosions coming from the building.
Then his ears began to twitch as they quickly registered the sound of something else… or more like someone else. The well known sound of fast footsteps getting louder at an insane speed brought him completely out of his head and trying once again to connect with reality.
After a moment the footsteps were as loud as they could get before stopping not far from where the hybrid laid.
“You take out this Eggheaded base all by yourself?” Came the cheery comment. Shadow could practically hear the hero smiling.
Shadow tried to answer, but he immediately found that he couldn’t. Not only was his body refusing to help him in the task, but he found that he didn’t actually know like the knowledge had been temporarily deleted. His mind swimming in a way that made it impossible to remember.
The other hedgehog didn’t seem to really notice his counterpart’s struggles, continuing on like he wasn’t expecting an answer anyways.
“Wow you really did a number on this place, I dont think that a single beam is standing. And what did you do to make it burn like this? Even the metal is on fire!”
Shadow could here a little whistle of awe in his voice and then the sound of dirt and stone crunching as the hero made his way over to him from his appreciation of the rubble. Finally seeming to notice that maybe Shadow had been experiencing so technical difficulties.
An almost panic frenzy started to crawl through the hybrid. He really needed to get up before the hero could find something to mock him for and make his day a living hell just for his entertainment.
He was finally able to force his brain to kick into gear. The adrenaline of the absolute need to move finally hitting his brain. It felt like someone had turned a fan on in his mind as the fog started to dissipate and his senses came back to him.
“Hey Shadow, I know your not big fan of talking but you are kinda scaring me lying over there like that. Are you ok?”There seemed to be a slight tension in his voice.
He could hear the steeps get closer at a faster pace now. Shadow started to feel like he was finally back in the land of the living and his mind was finally able to take into account his surroundings as he rolled over onto his back.
He started to check all of his sense to make sure they were finally all back.
He could feel the cold dirt below him and the waves of heat coming from the blaze that had thrown him earlier. He could smell the smoke and the unusual burning smell, it must have been the metal apparently melting.
He could hear the footsteps stop not far from him and the sound of the blue blur humming to himself a little as he looked over Shadow who finally showed signs of life. He could taste blood in his mouth, it felt thick and uncomfortable. It was not wholly unexpected for the liquid to be there since it seemed like there was a high likelihood that he had in a fight; or it could even be from landing incorrectly. And finally he could see the slightly worried green eyes of his rival staring back at him as Sonic’s face hovered over his own.
Sonic still had a smile on his face but it seemed a little strained as he finally made eye contact with the darker hedgehog.
“Well your breathing and you at least moved. You seem fine to me! Are you okay in there?” He asked his joking tone hold a slight edge of nervousness. His finger coming to poke at his head like he was trying to provoke his brain underneath it.
Shadow felt slight annoyance at the other’s antics. He once again tried to open his mouth, and this time he found that he was actually able to do it. However, his voice-box simply made a cracking sound before breaking down causing him to lapse into a fit of coughs which then prompted him to sit up so that he could fully clear his throat.
Where he once found his body unresponsive just moments before, he now found it quick to action as he bolted right up to start coughing. Sonic backing away just a little from him, giving him some space as the hero awkwardly watched.
A thick glob of blood slipped through his lips as Shadow tried to keep his mouth as closed as possible. It landed unceremoniously into his hands after it had dribbled down his chin. His eyes widened as more kept slipping out, slowly creating a small puddle in his open palm.
Shadow looked at it in surprise, he usually didn’t bleed this much, his healing factor was known to be extremely fast in closing wounds. The surprised effect was mirrored in the shocked face looking at him.
“Woah there Shads, take it easy. Looks like you took a pretty serious hit there huh…” Sonic gently pats against his backing in support and trying to help him get it out of his system. Shadow would have pushed him away if he wasn’t so focused on not choking.
After a few more globs the flow stopped and Shadow was finally able to choke out a few words.
”I’m fine, It’s nothing” he gruffly stated pushing Sonic’s arm off of him now that he was out of danger choking and could focus on the other.
Sonic sighed in exasperation. Although part of it seemed to be in relief as Shadow was finally talking to him and seemed to be moving alright. Shadow could say the amount of blood was concerning but it had stopped so that meant there was serious wound.
The hybrid flinging his hand quickly towards the ground forcing the blood off of it with the speed of the movement. He wiped anything that had managed to stick onto the ground next to him as Sonic spoke.
“Still Shadow, what did you do to get like this? It’s not like you to be taking naps out here.”
When the dark hedgehog made no move to reply, Sonic took that as his opportunity to ask more questions, still eyeing his rival with a level of concern that Shadow was not used to eliciting from others.
“What were you even doing at this base? You absolutely destroyed it! Gotta say it’s a little overkill even for you.”
Shadow finally looked over behind him where the burning had turned into smoldering, the flames finally starting to die. This also meant that the light started to slowly fade as well, casting everything into the dark.
It was had to tell as the light disappeared, but it was almost impossible to tell that a structure had been standing there, it was throughly trashed after all.
It was completely razed to the ground and the only way to tell it had been a large structure at all was due to a copious amount of ash. However, even that was beginning to be taken away by the night breeze. Soon, there would be no evidence at all that the base existed besides the littered eggman robots lying around crushed in the dirt.
Well at least he would not have to worry about putting it out himself and the forest seemed unharmed by the explosions and any possible battle that had taken place.
Sonic kicked a few robots that were more in tact, testing to make sure they were actually decommissioned. Whereas Shadow took in everything trying to think back on where he was and what happened.
He expected to be greeted by thoughts of a mission for GUN, or even just simply the memory of a run. Something that would have caused him to stumble upon a base with unstable energy research or something that required this amount of destructive force. But instead the only thing in him mind was an ominous blackness.
It wasn't as if nothing was there, but rather as if it was all shrouded in darkness. It was like if he lived it but was blind folded, deaf and had no sense of feeling all throughout the experience. Shadow had no recollection of what he was doing here, or why the base was turned into nothing but dust. He furrowed his brows as he tried to focus on the blackness in his mind.
He tried digging deeper into his memory, tried to rip the darkness apart, but that fuzzy numb feeling that he had before began to creep back in. This time it felt like a pressure headache might follow the sensation, so he quickly abandoned the idea for the moment.
“Was this for some sort of GUN mission or something?” Sonic had finally turned back to him deciding that nothing was operational anymore.
Instead he cleared his throat and gave a rebuttal that did nothing to betray his concern over the lack of knowledge of the events that had transpired, nor that fact that it seemed as if there was something wrong with his memories…again.
“None of your business, hedgehog” he growled up as he made a moved to stand up. Giving a standard reply to the other was probably his best move till he could figure things out. the last thing he wanted right now was Sonic trying to investigate in his business or worse: have his friends try to help.
His whole body still feeling unsteady enough to deal with that level of noise. Sonic just gave a huff of annoyance, fixing Shadow with an exasperated look.
Shadow started to dust himself off, noticing the lack of weaponry or even a chaos emerald on him.
What was he doing out in the middle of nowhere at an Eggman base with none of his usual tools to defend himself? That wasn’t quite like him. He knew he was confident in his abilities but he was not stupid enough to not prepare for the worst. Especially if it involved the unpredictable doctor.
The sound of Sonic’s voice pushed him back out of his thoughts focusing back on his rival who was still glaring at him, hands on his hips with his foot taping.
“Really? Your going to pull some sort of secret agent bullshit? For a guy who claims to be logical and prepared for anything you sure you should keep important potentially life-threatening information to yourself, especially when it concerned Eggman?”
Shadow turned his head away, trying to hide his growing discomfort with the situation. It didn’t seem as though this had been a mission or he would at least have a comm on him. Yet, it was clear that for some reason Shadow had taken extreme measures in making sure that nothing was left of the base or anything that had possibly been hidden away inside.
“I don’t know if this counts as life-threatening or anywhere near the level of danger you seem to imply it does” Shadow simply replied, trying to act cool through it all.
“Shadow come on, as if you would so overboard for anything less. Not to mentioned it seemed like you, Mr.Ultimate Lifeform himself, took a decent enough hit to be lying in the dirt for at least 5 minutes after you had your explosive victory instead of just speeding off. That sounds like it was pretty dangerous to me.” Sonic looked at him like maybe he should have head checked for injuries more.
It was only fair, Shadow was a precise being, almost never taking any injuries, and usually just disabled a base before blowing up key structural supports so that it is rendered unusable. But, not disintegrate it completely as if he was scared that if even a scrape of his was left standing was a danger to him.
Shadow just gave a sigh still unwilling to tell the embarrassing truth that even he was not sure what he did. So he deflected. Instead turning the question back onto the hero.
“Well what are you doing way out here, surely you know what’s in the base if you have decided to come way out here in the middle of the night too.”
Sonic’s whole body seemed to freeze up for a second, his eyes giving widening with shock briefly. A hint of confusion in his brows for just a moment. Interesting. Nonetheless, he quickly smoothed it over. His trademark smirk quickly replaced the expression.
“Oh, you know. Just happened to be in the neighborhood on a run….or something like that” The last part was let out in a huff under his breath. Shadow straining his genetically enhanced ears to even hear it. It was so quite that Sonic probably didn't think Shadow could hear it all. Hmm, very interesting.
Shadow crossed his arms and simply gave Sonic a non-believing glare. Even raising one eyebrow a bit to emphasize that Sonic should try again if he wanted Shadow believe him.
Sonic’s lip twitched but it seemed as if he had yet to give up on his own bullshit as the smirk stay plastered to his face. Except now it didn’t seem as fake. Instead he looked like he genuinely found the challenging look Shadow had leveled at him amusing. His arms going to rest behind his head as he took on a more casual and relaxed posture.
“Yeah, not sure how long ago I left, but it seems like I found a good napping spot. Was having a great dream until your explosion rudely interrupted me.”
This part at least sounded like he was telling the truth, there was a slight strain to his voice giving a way a slight nervousness though, like he was still hiding something. The hybrid just decided to drop asking about his knowledge of the base for now. He could practically sense the nonsense Sonic would only continue to spew otherwise.
“Hmph, you do tend to fall asleep just about anywhere, I will give you that.” Shadow relaxed his own posture looking away from the other.
Sonic seemed a little relived at the change in attitude he was showing until Shadow asked his next question.
“But what made you want to take a nap all the way out here?” Another question he thought of was where even is here? If he asked that it would be clear that something was wrong with his memory again. Which would only just create unnecessary drama and worry.
At this question the blue hero seemed to stumble with his words for a second. Hiding his face behind his hand gripping the front of his face.
After a little sigh he quietly admitted “I’m not quite sure. I think I might have gotten lost or something. I’m not quite sure where `here` even is…” he stated giving a wobbly smile to Shadow for a second before he speed over Shadow who had started walking through the clearing, “But that’s okay, because I have the Ultimate Tour-guide to make sure I make it home safe and sound!”
Shadow rolled his eyes as he moved Sonic’s arm from off of his shoulder, “typical.” He stated. Sonic just snorted at him.
However, it was a bit concerning that Sonic seemed to not really know what he was doing here either.
Had he really been running around, got lost, and fell asleep for a bit before he stumbled upon Shadow? It did make him feel a bit better about his own situation knowing he was not the only one out here out of their element not knowing anything that happened here. Despite that, he was still unwilling to admit the fault in his memory to his rival to allow the other the same comfort.
Later he would have to look up what that base had been and what was being stored there. That would bring everything to light. There might even be something to trigger his memories in the files.
…Or maybe he had hit his head too hard and it damaged his short term memory. Either way, surely he would get them back after a little while. Right now, the best course of action was to leave the forest and look for information from other sources since Sonic wasn’t providing any of them.
Sonic seemed to be looking at him expectantly with big puppy eyes. Clearly ready to leave as well and just waiting for his personal compass to get moving.
Shadow let out a sigh and just started to walk forwards not quite sure what direction he was going in, but Sonic happily followed along nonetheless.