A New Threat

Chapter 3

I could just be replaced with someone, or something better. Shadow suddenly froze at his own words as a strike of realization hit him. He sits up and stares at the wall for several minutes, but his dull eyes were formulating a plan. A plan that made Shadow's lips twitch into a small scowl. He wasn't displeased with the plan, oh no. He was displeased with everyone, Sonic most of all. A burning hatred filled the abyss of his emotions, and he couldn't control it. It just festered and grew with an uncanny speed. Shadow narrowed his eyes at his ruined wall before standing up.

Metallic items clinked on the ground, the gold dimly shining. Chaos energy flowed freely through Shadow's veins as he gathered it, storing it into a vessel until it started to overflow. He screamed, a hate-filled yell that shattered the still atmosphere. A blast of pure chaos energy erupted.

~~~~~~~

"... a house blew up due to a blast of chaos energy by Shadow the Hedgehog. The house he blew up was indeed his own. Police are trying to find a reason for this sudden destruction and are also now looking for the striped hedgehog. If you see this hedgehog, immediately report him to the police. He could be a potential danger hazard." Rouge quickly turns off the TV and holds Knuckles' hand tightly. Her eyes were already red from crying, and Knuckles tried his best to calm her down.

"Why would Shadow do this?" Knuckles whispered.

"You know why, Red," Rouge sobbed, glancing back at her husband. "It drove him over the edge, Knuckles, and now he's gone." Her voice cracked as her tears flowed freely. Knuckles quickly pulls her back and embraces her, kissing her forehead as she cried into his chest. He didn't say anything as he let her cry and later tonight, Rouge will find him crying.

~~~~~~~

A few days have passed since Shadow's disappearance. No one has seen him, his phone is off. No trace of him anywhere. When Amy called for everyone to meet at her place, which was amazingly a pretty big house, Rouge marched up to Sonic and slapped him hard. "What was that for?" Sonic screeched, though he already knew the answer.

"You know what that's for, Blue," she growled. Knuckles walks up and quietly drags her to the kitchen, all while she's glaring daggers at Sonic. Amy comes up beside Sonic, along with Silver and Tails.

"It's not your fault, Sonic," Amy whispered, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Sonic sighs, his ears falling back, before he softly removes Amy's hand.

"No, it is. I knew Shadow wasn't going to take it well, but what the public did to him? I'm the only one to take the blame. For... everything." Silver, Amy, and Tails look at each other, worried.

"Maybe... he'll come back. He's disappeared before and he always comes back," Silver said, a hopeful but naive look in his childish eyes. Sonic gives a small nod.

"I hope so." They talked quietly amongst themselves for a few moments and as the day slowly trudged along, no trouble between Rouge and Sonic, they decide to go back home. Sonic makes it back to his house but stops as soon as he shuts the door. The house was dark and empty of life; a void in their time plane. Sonic suddenly drops to his knees as uncontrolled tears streamed down his face. Guilt shook his entire body as he curled up into a ball, letting the hot salty tears hit the floor. It was his fault. All of this was his fault, and he could do nothing about it.

~~~~~~~

Sonic woke up suddenly, panting like a mad dog. An entire week has passed since Shadow's disappearance, which was normal, but Sonic's gut tingled with anxiety. This is the sixth nightmare he's had about Shadow dying. A horrible, gruesome death. Sonic couldn't do anything about it, as he soon figured out, but that didn't stop the sudden burst of fresh guilt and depression as he watched. Watched as Shadow bled out, the life slowly leaving his already cold corpse. The first nightmare started with Shadow killing himself. Later on, it was Shadow being torn apart by a machine that had him strapped to it.

Another had him being impaled vertically with a sharpened wooden spear. Another had him drink molten gold, straight from the furnace. Another had him torn to bits by starved sharks, thrown and torn by angry gorillas, swallowed whole by a large snake that shouldn't even exist, kicked off of a cliff and forced to hit the jagged rocks below, drowned, hanged, suffocated, chopped up and forced to watch as people ate his remains with glee, his eyes being scooped out, fingernails taken off with pliers, each piece of quill plucked from his head, skinned, burned, frozen, electrocuted. It nearly drove him insane until he later found out that Rouge and Knuckles were having the exact same dreams.

Sonic quickly gets up from his sweat-soaked bed, not bothering to check the time as he ran to Rouge's house. He didn't care if the moon was only slightly past midnight, he needed to talk to someone. Even if that someone hated him. He makes it Rouge's house and knocks, patiently waiting for someone to answer. It didn't take long as the door slowly opened, revealing a red-eyed Rouge with dried tears still on her face. "What do you want, Blue?" she asked, her voice cracking with pro-emotion.

"Did you have the dreams, too?" Sonic quietly asked. Rouge sluggishly closes her eyes and nods, drawing her lips back into a tight line.

"I couldn't fall back asleep."

"Yeah, I couldn't either." He awkwardly stood at the door. He waited patiently for Rouge to ask him that one question, but she didn't. She starts to close the door, and Sonic quickly reaches a hand out, stopping the door.

"Can I come in?" Rouge looked him up and down, shrugged, and left the door open. Sonic quietly walks inside and shuts the door, locking it. He turns around to find Rouge slumped on the couch, her tired eyes staring at the blank TV. "Is Knuckles still sleeping?"

"No. I'm right here." Sonic looks to his right, to the kitchen, to see Knuckles with two cups of steaming something. He had bags under his eyes. "Would you like a cup?" Sonic nods.

"Did the same thing happen with you too, Knux?" The red echidna nods.

"We just can't seem to get it out of our heads, no matter what our therapist tells us." Sonic mumbles in agreement as he hesitantly accepted the cup of natural tea. There was a faint scent of honey in it as well. They all sat on the couch and drank their tea in silence. It greatly calmed Sonic to be around other people that had the same thing going on. He probably would be scrambling in the mental asylum if it wasn't for them. Imagine the headlines. 'Blue hero lost his head. No more running for him.' Absolutely fucking brutal. But, it's not as brutal as the true reality of his dreams.