Shadow & Sonic (Full)

Alternate Ending: Friends?

"We don't have time to talk. Let's hurry, before this place floods.", Shadow responds, remembering how he forced his entrance into the underwater base.

"—Floods!? Heheh. Well, you don't have to tell me twice."

Suddenly, a Chaos look-a-like emerges. "What the heck is that doing here?", Sonic exclaims. "I'm not sure, but it doesn't have the same energy as the real being.", Shadow comments. It suddenly slashes a tentacle at Shadow, knocking him down. "Shadow--!", Sonic calls, readying himself to attack Chaos. He realizes the best chance he has at winning is using Chaos Emeralds, which he does not have at the time. His best chance is Shadow, who is now having to defend him. Shadow has to choose between protecting Sonic and preventing the Chaos creature from escaping, so he attempts both.

Shadow takes Sonic by the hand again, running with him down the hallway while alternating between using Chaos Spears against their foe. "Can this actually work?", Shadow wonders, his surroundings suddenly becoming more and more distorted with each moment. "What is happening to me?", he thinks, losing grip of what is real or not, his mind snapping back to his surroundings, the halls feeling closer together with each breath. He suddenly has a flashback as he keeps running: he remembers running down a hallway of the ARK, Maria's hand in his, as soldiers pursued them with firearms at hand.

Shadow snaps back to the current moment and notices he is now surrounded by water on all sides. Sonic, who is still holding his hand, tightly, is holding his breath. "No, I need to reach the surface.", Shadow thinks, becoming nervous, feeling the water pressure feeling heavier than ever before. Shadow, holding his breath, breaks open an escape out of the underwater base. "Forget stopping that Chaos faker. Sonic is more important right now, and he doesn't have much longer.", he thinks, but sadly, Sonic's time was short for a reason he did not yet know. As they leap out, one of Eggman's security bots suddenly fires a deadly laser at him. Without a moment to think, Sonic lets go Shadow's hand, trying to push him out of harm's way. It hits him instead. Shadow wants to scream in agony as Sonic begins to sink, but he cannot scream underwater without beginning to drown.

Shadow wakes up, realizing it was a nightmare. He stares at the world visible outside of the glass he is encased in. He notices a familiar green substance surrounding him, restoring him. "How long was I asleep?", he wonders, "How much of that was real?", reflecting on everything he thinks happened in recent months. He looks outside again, no longer distracted by his thoughts, noticing a concerned Sonic staring back at him. Shadow finds himself lost in his gaze, gazing back at him. Feeling this familiar moment, he has a flashback to his first dream. Shadow remembers their adventures together and their friendship that grew, the warm afternoons and the cold nights together. Realizing all of those moments were dreams and nothing more than desires, longing to make it reality, even if only a small taste, "Sonic," Shadow begins to ask him, "are we friends?"