Shadowed Frontiers

Chaos Island (Part 1)

Sonic and Shadow, carried by Sage, flies off to Chaos Island to retrieve the emeralds in order to fight the End once again. "I can walk, you know..." Sonic complained. Shadow actually enjoys this a little. It was nice being held once in a while.

"Uncle, we're here." Sage tells Shadow, who nods. Sonic leaps out of Sage's palm, finally touching down the ground. Sage's true form goes out of the Supreme titan, and flies before Sonic and Shadow. "Sonic! Uncle! The End will return soon, we must hurry!" Sage teleports away, leaving the two hedgehogs be. 

"Do you think we can beat this guy?" Sonic asks Shadow, unsure of whether his efforts would be in vain or not. "Honestly, Sonic. You know we can defeat the moon. You even did the Chaos Control because of muscle memory, and you doubt yourself? We've faced these odds before. The Ark, the Biolizard... do you not remember all this? How you saved the world hundreds of times now?"

"W-what if it was like Infinite all over again? Appearing to us when we're underprepared..?" Sonic wants to quip back, but something in his throat stopped him from saying that.

Sonic's mind cycles to the pain Infinite caused him. The grief, the anger, the sadness he experienced. It was like absorbing the 3 world rings all over again.

He holds those emotions down. He didn't want to concern Shadow now. Not when a giant moon is floating out there somewhere.

"You look awfully timid. Something's happened to you." Shadow takes note of this, and Sonic attempts to snap out of it. "N-no. I'm fine, really Shadz, look!" Sonic puts up a fake smile. "You're faking it." Shadow observes his face. "No eye movements at all. Talk to me, Sonic. What happened while you were captured?"

Sonic's eyes widen in shock. A question became a therapy session.

"I- I was tortured..." He manages to choke out.

In truth, even though Sonic is the hero of Mobius (and Earth), he pities the blue blur. He knew he held it in for way too long, and he needed to get this off his chest.

"Tell me the details." Shadow tells Sonic, who tells him everything.

(A/N: So, having no details included is because I have no idea about how to write that scene)

"Do you feel better?" Shadow asks Sonic, who nods. "Thanks, Shadow..." Sonic nods, feeling relieved now that it's off his chest. "Does Tails know about this?" he asks, and Sonic shakes his head. "He's just a 12 year old kid. I can't tell him what... happened..." Sonic tells Shadow, who nods in understanding. Sonic was about to break down into tears once again, when Tails emerged, having heard everything.

"Sonic..." Tails called for his friend, struggling to hold in tears himself.

"Did you hear-" Shadow asked, but was interrupted.

"Everything." Tails answers Shadow, then went back to trying to comfort Sonic. "Why? I could have helped you, you don't have to be an eccedentesiast, you know?" Tails tells Sonic.

"I don't want to..." Sonic tries to argue, but it led to Tails hugging him.

Knuckles glides over, Amy on his back.

"Thank you, Sonic!" Amy plants a kiss onto Sonic's cheek, which makes Sonic flustered. His light-skinned nuzzle becomes as red as a rose.

Shadow sighs, now away from the group. 'Sonic's into her.' He thought, shaking his head and-

"Uncle." Sage appears in front of him. "I'm at my limit after you carried me into this hellhole. Tell me one reason I shouldn't kill you with a spear to the head. Shadow wasn't kidding. His hand was surging with chaos energy as the pair spoke.

"..." Sage's body has a flash of blue.

"I'm..." The blue became frequent flashes.

"I'm sorry." Sage was now flashing with blue and red, switching from the two colors often.

"Sorry?" Shadow looks at the young girl, who was staring back at him.

"My prime directory was to defend my father, but now I see..." Sage stumbles over her words, though being machine helped with the shame. For once, she actually looked and... acted... human.

"...he was the true villain." Sage hung her head downwards, her thoughts against her code. One half, she forgave Shadow for killing her father, but for the other, she was furious for failing her own prime directory. Her purpose.

"It's alright, Sage." His tone became softer, much like before.

"You know, back when I was on the Ark, Maria helped me with these kind of things. Emotions were complicated for me." Shadow tells Sage, whose mind immediately agrees.

"But, I had a chance to be better than just a killing machine. A weapon."

"Maria helped me through those times, now let me help you." Shadow's straight lips turned into a curve, his frown turning upside down. He was smiling, genuinely.

Sage hugs Shadow, who hugs back, embracing his niece.

Sonic looks to the two, thinking about how they managed to make up in such a short amount of time.

"Awww..." Amy cooed, causing Shadow to break the hug and turn back to look at Amy, his crimson glare as hot as the molten lava that this island holds.

"Tell anyone else about this, and no one will find any of your bodies." Shadow threatened, a small flush appearing as his act of affection was caught by his rival's friends.

"Aw, c'mon Shadz, this is just too cute not to tell ANYONE—" Shadow unleashes multiple chaos torrents, destroy any terrain around Sonic's friends. "Sh-shadow! Chill!" Sonic calls as he blasts off, dodging the Chaos spears. Knuckles forms a shield made of Chaos Energy, preventing Amy and Tails from getting hurt.

Sonic nervously chuckles; he's screwed, isn't he? 

Shadow huffs, and attempts to take off the inhibitor rings, but Sage stops him. "Frequent use of your backup chaos energy storage might lead to extreme exhaustion. We require everyone to be at peak strength for when the End returns." Shadow nods in understanding as Sage takes out the fourth chaos emerald. "Please, use this instead." Shadow takes the emerald and smirks. Even though he didn't have infinite stamina like Sonic did, he did have infinite energy storage. He takes in the Emerald's power, a green glow flowing through his limbs.

"Chaos-"

His rival gasped in horror as a ball of pure chaos energy was hurled towards him.

"-Bomb!"

The ball takes out everything around Sonic and exploded, eviscerating everything around him. Knuckles protected him. 

"Damn, Shadow. Really feisty today, huh?"

"You knew I knew you would protect him." Shadow grumbles.

"I'M TELLING EVERYONE-" Sonic shouts, before being hit in the gut by a heavy punch from Shadow, making him fall on the floor, his stomach threatening to spit out every chilli dog Sonic ate the day before. "Come on, Sage. Let's find the rest of the emeralds and get out of here." Shadow coldly said, a satisfied grin on his face as Sonic writhed on the ground.

"Chaos Control." Shadow teleported himself and Sage in front of an emerald. "Stay here. I'll come back after I get enough vault keys." "But, I want to protect-" Shadow sighs. "Fine. You can come." Sage smiles, and Shadow takes out his emerald. "It'll be dangerous." Shadow tells Sage. "I have navigated cyberspace plenty of times before. It will be ok, as Sonic said." Shadow grumbles. "Don't tell me I'll be dealing with two Sonics now..." He warps them around randomly.

~Meanwhile, with Team Sonic (and Amy)~

Sonic was forced to be carried around by Knuckles.

"Can you put me down now?" Sonic complained.

"No." Knuckles replies.

"pleeeaaase?" Sonic asked again.

"Do you feel any better?" Amy asked.

"Yeah." Sonic responded.

Tails contemplates this, and he lets Sonic down. "I'm gonna go get the Emeralds in no time flat!" Sonic revs up a super peel-out, and "blast away!"