Infinite Sadness

Framing Shadow

As he embarks on his nightly, routine run through the jungle, Shadow's Chaos Controls to an unfamiliar place.

"Where am I? This doesn't look like Seaside Island. How did I get here?"

Four expired mercenaries lay scattered along the boarder of a jungle base. They look like Zero. Clearly, they were his siblings. Shadow gasps and zooms to each one. After grimly verifying that each brutally terminated squad-member is in fact dead, he turns his sights on a fifth individual... Mephiles the Dark... whom he catches Chaos Controlling deeper into the base. He follows and confronts him.

"Mephiles, what have you done?!"

Mephiles Chaos Controls a few feet away. Though mouthless, he speaks forcefully.

"Destroying that squad will teach Eggman's remaining, scumbag-recruits a valuable lesson," he tells Shadow self-righteously.

Shadow can see that Mephiles is trying to trick him again.

"You destroyed Zero's team. You must have driven him mad."

"He was already mad," Mephiles argues. "Mad that he had to be their brother, their father and their commander. All positions for which he was too weak to assume! Join me, Shadow the Hedgehog, and together, we'll defeat Infinite in your world."

Shadow stands firmly.

"No wonder Zero hates my guts. You framed me for killing his family! I'll never serve you, Mephiles!"

"When you entered Null Space over Silver dying, you almost joined me," Mephiles reminds him.

"No," Shadow refutes. "I had Sonic with me, and Rouge ultimately revived Silver."

"Don't be a fool," Mephiles begins. "Infinite is evil. He needs to be eternally detained in an empty void. A fitting punishment for his remorseless crimes. I brought you here, into the past, to show you how I humbly gave Modern Shadow the credit for destroying that troublemaking Jackal Squad. Consider the next event that's about to take place. Zero just went looking for me. He'll find another version of you instead, whom he'll believe to be responsible for the destruction of his pack."

Shadow puffs up, right in Mephiles' face.

"No version of me, past, present or future, will ever join forces with you."

"GRAH! Another stubborn Shadow! You won't join me?" Mephiles replies. "Then drown in darkness, Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Darkness sucks Shadow back into his own dimension and spits him over a ledge. He tumbles down a hill, into the ocean. The splash alerts Sonic before he's about doze off for the night in his hammock. He hops up and darts out of his shack to the sight of Shadow struggling in the waves.

"Shadow?! Oh my gosh, DUDE!"

Sonic bypasses his fear of water and rushes into the ocean to help his friend.

"Whoa hey, Shadow!" Sonic cries as he doggie paddles into the ocean water. "Dude, are you alright?"

He grabs Shadow's arm. They return to the shoreline, with Sonic rubbing Shadow's back to settle him down.

"You... you swam," Shadow coughs.

"You taught me. I'm not good at it but yeah. You okay? What was that all about?"

Shadow wipes his face and snorts. Water went up his nose. That's the worst.

"Ugh, Sonic... if I told you that..." cough "...there's a monster that wants to destroy us and I need you to help me because, I don't know how to defeat him alone and..." cough "...he killed in my name and..."

Sonic puts his hand on Shadow's shoulder, worried.

"You're rambling, Shads. Take a deep breath, alright?"

"I think Tikal wanted me to give Zero the Damn Fourth Chaos Emerald, and..."

"You gave him that emerald? Whoa whoa, this is a lot. Let's dive into this convo at Meh Burger so I can scarf a few chili dogs. They extended their hours on Saturday nights. I'll buy you some hot tea from that fancy health food stand in the square. You can relax and tell me everything. Sound good, pal?"

Shadow nods.

"Yes, thank you."