One Choice, Two Worlds (sonadow)

Him

— Alt. Shadow's POV —

Maybe it was a sign to keep going. Unlikely, but just maybe. It had been 2 years since The Incident, how was he alive?

"I t-thought you died in T-The Incident"

The tiniest spark of hope grew within me, but all was shattered again from his response. "The what?" He tilted his head, confused. "Nothing, it's a long story." I let out a heavy sigh, flashbacks haunted my brain as I was brought back to the day my world ended. "No it's okay, you can tell me!" I smiled. He was just as pure as I remembered him, yet something felt off. "Alright, but first let's get out of here. We wouldn't want Lord Robotnik to catch us." I stood up, reaching out my hand to help him, but he looked puzzled.

"Wait... you're talking about Ivo Robotnik right?" I nodded, what was he on about? "You mean Eggman? Pff. 'Lord Robotnik'? The audacity of that guy!" Shocked, I angrily shushed him, "Why are you talking about him that way? He's the strongest in the land!" He stopped laughing. Now we were both confused. I took in a deep breath, and started to explain.

"Look, about 2 years ago he broke this world. I don't know how you survived it, or if you're even the Sonic I once knew, the one I... t-the one I-I" I felt a lump coming up my throat, but forced it back down as I continued on, "The one I loved." The blue hedgehog that stood in front of me looked surprised, not in a bad way, I could tell, but now I knew he was definitely not my Sonic. "Nevertheless, it's clear that I know the guy better than you, so can we PLEASE make it back to the base in one piece, and then you can tell me all about how you got here." Sonic nodded, looking a bit hurt. I almost felt bad for him, but I had trained myself to stop caring. His death, it felt all too familiar, it reminded me of a certain someone... Maria.

_____

*CLANG* Flinching at the sound, I turned back to see Sonic holding the lid of a trash can, with a guilty look on his face. I did a mental facepalm as I hissed at him, "Shh. You're gonna get us caught!" We turned the corner, hiding out in a small alleyway. Suddenly, the billboard that hung on the building ahead of us flickered on and off repeatedly, 'This again'. I felt guilty, of course, but if I wanted to restore Palm Hill back to its original state, I'd have to be alive, right? "What's that?" He was going to find out the horrible truth about about it soon enough. "Look if you want, but trust me, you don't want to." The dumbass stared up at the screen as it Robotnik came into frame. He wore a black and red suit, fitted with gold accents, tucking his his fur-lined red robe under his legs as he sat down on his throne.

"Welcome citizens! As you know, it is the last day of June, and Shadow The Hedgehog has still not been found, that means one of you must perish." Sonic stared in horror as the screen switched to a live CCTV footage of a poor citizen being cornered off by Robotnik's minions, I couldn't bear to watch. "He isn't going to... you know... is he?" It was terrible. "Robotnik does whatever he wants, and no one can stop him. He'll do anything to lure me out." I turned back to the large screen to see a lifeless shrew, a pool of blood surrounded them as the robots walked away, one of which that held the gun. "Well then, wasn't that fun! Remember, if you see it, report it, because I'm not stopping until I find that pest." Robotnik cackled as the screen went dark. I turned to the side, Sonic looked absolutely traumatised. "So you just let them die? How long ago was this incident anyways?" I still remembered it like it was yesterday. "27th of May 2134, The Incident."

"So that means 26 people have been killed because of you. Can't you do anything to stop him?"
"25 actually, and believe me, I've tried. It never worked. I lost all hope after they got Rose." Sonic's eyes widened. He looked betrayed, tears welling up in his eyes. I started tearing up too, until I broke the silence. "There's no time for tears, we have to get out of here now-" I was interrupted as I felt a sharp pain in my leg. The world spun as I looked behind me to find a robot minion holding a pistol. Everything was distorted, I could hear Sonic calling out my name but it soon faded as everything went black.

— Sonic's POV —

I didn't know what to do. There laid Shadow, unconscious. The bot fired another shot, but I dodged it just in time. Heaving Shadow onto my back, I sped off. This mysterious parallel universe, I didn't know where I was, didn't know where to go, didn't know who this 'Lord Robotnik' was, but I knew I had to get out. Speeding to the outskirts of the city, I caught sight of the Loop de Loop, thank chaos it was still standing with the state of this place.

My hands were trembling. I'd made it to the top of the loop as I slowly put Shadow down. The real Eggman wouldn't just heartlessly murder people like what I witnessed back in the alleyway. I buried my face into my hands, all I wanted to do was cry, All I wanted was Green Hill, I wanted the palm trees, the sandy beaches, I wanted to be back. My cries were broken by a soft groan. "What happened?" Shadow groggily sat up, rubbing his head. "You were shot," he looked down at his leg, confused. "Only by a tranq gun, thankfully," I chuckled, as Shadow continued on, "Oh, that makes more sense then, I was expecting a lot more blood." We sat at the edge, staring into the horizon. The view wasn't as good as it was back home, but I tried to enjoy it.

"Robotnik originally wanted to demolish the Loop de Loop, to make it into his own theme park, but not even his minions could stand by it, it was too important to be destroyed." Surprised by this fact, I let out a small laugh, "It's crazy how an artificial mind is more humane that him." Shadow smiled too. That would've be extremely rare back home, but there, that alternate universe, Shadow seemed much softer. We sat there in silence for a few minutes before the dark hedgie stood up, ruffling his fur. "Right. Let's get to the base. It's not safe out here." Agreeing, I watched him struggle to even stand straight. "Here, I'll give you a lift, just tell me where to go." He nodded as he climbed on my back, pointing to a small hill out in the distance, one that wasn't yet overrun by Eggman, and we sped off.

_____

"Alright. Let me down." Shadow slowly climbed off of me, and started plucking some of the grass, I found it odd, but let him do his thing. Eventually, he lifted a strand of grass that appeared to be fake, as attached was a small cylinder with a chrome screen which ascended from the ground. Shadow took one of his gloves off, and pressed a finger against the little screen. Soon enough, a hatch opened, and we climbed down a fragile metal ladder, down a metal tube that appeared to go deep into the hill.

It was awkward, but after a minute or so, we had reached the bottom. Shadow scanned his finger on one more screen attached to the wall, before the silence was interrupted by the squeaking of the comically large metal door that stood in front of us slowly slide open. "This way." He trod forwards, before slouching down on a sofa. The base was lined with thick metal walls, and there were 4 rooms; the room I was in, a bathroom to the left, and 2 smaller ones, presumably for Shadz and his roomie. I had a guess as to who else lived here, from all the high tech security gizmos, and my assumptions were correct when Shadow let out a deep sigh, and called out to the 'mystery' stranger. "Miles! Come here, and DON'T freak out." The orange-yellow fox emerged from his room, looking just as bad as Shadow. He was exhausted, but soon was shocked by my appearance.

"What? I thought- but he- how??" I smiled awkwardly as Shadow spoke wearily, "I don't even know either, let's just get some rest and we can all explain ourselves tomorrow." He got up and dragged himself to his room, a faint *thump* was heard as he flopped onto his bed. "Here, you can sleep on the sofa." Tails fluffed up the pillow before pulling out a spare blanket, setting it out as neatly as he could. "Hopefully it's not too uncomfortable."
"Thanks Tails, I really appreciate it." I made myself at home as he fluttered back to his room. Shadow had a surprisingly homey base for someone who had been in hiding for 2 years, it was also kind of depressing at the same time, I couldn't even imagine what the two were going through, with this Eggman, the ruthless, cold-hearted one, constantly seeking out for them.

Thoughts filled my mind as I tossed and turned, trying to sleep, I knew I had to make a choice, or both sides would be hurt.

'The gang is probably looking for me, I can't leave them hanging.'

'Yet I can't just leave these guys with Eggy terrorising them right?'

'...Right?'