Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shadow and Maria were sitting in their small fort, the warm lights illuminating the space nicely, and Maria was strumming the guitar with a calming tune.. It had been a long day for Shadow as the scientists were doing many tests on his motor skills and teleportation checks. He just wanted to relax with Maria and enjoy her presence, but life had other plans..

As Maria was in the middle of her warm-up, when the emergency evacuation light and alarm began to blast, and the professor ran inside, panicked and worried. Shadow immediately knew something was wrong, he got up and took Maria by the hand as they ran. There were troops of G.U.N. soldiers chasing the group down the hall. Maria looked terrified as they finally made it to the exit, she knew that they could escape and everything would be okay..

But a G.U.N. soldier missed the group while Walters was trying to aim his blaster away from the children.. The professor stopped in his tracks when they shot at the dangerous case containing Shadow’s energy, and before they knew it, the whole base blew up into flames.. Shadow swore he could hear Maria scream..

As Shadow stirred, he felt a huge pain in his head, almost as bad as a migraine, but that wasn’t the problem.. He stood up and looked around, seeing all of the base in flames and burned, but gasped when he saw the professor holding Maria’s cold body.. He ran and held Maria’s hand, gripping her head slightly, he didn’t know why she wasn’t waking up until he saw Gerald’s gaze..

The look gave him the answer he was searching for, Maria didn’t make it.. Shadow sobbed as he saw his gloved hand holding her head begin to fill with blood.. She had few cuts and bruises but the explosion had made her hit her head.. Causing the inevitable to occur, Shadow shook a bit as his gloves got stained, to the point that they were no longer white, he sniffled, the sight of Maria being too much to bear.

Soon other soldiers came rushing in, circling around Shadow and Gerald, Shadow was wiping away his tears, some of Maria’s blood being smeared against his fur and some just staying on her body.. Gerald was the first to get put in handcuffs, then was Shadow, he cried and screamed to be let go by the officials but they just tasered him until he passed out.

Some time later he woke up in the back of a military van, there were no windows and only 2 soldiers watching him, he was still in restraint but was allowed to walk around.. He looked around and didn’t see Maria or the professor, seems like they were in different vans to make sure they didn’t use eachother to escape. Shadow started crying again, he wasn’t ready to let go of Maria or anyone matter a fact..

He now knew that G.U.N. was cruel and that they were the reason why his best friend, his SISTER, was dead. He banged his head against the cold metal wall, he didn’t have a better way to mourn than to blame himself, those cases were filled with his chaos energy, and now they thought he was too dangerous to be let out..

Soon they dragged him into the prison, Prison Island to be exact, it was dark and gloomy there but they didn’t have much of a choice, Walters had given orders to put the alien freak into cryo sleep, ensuring the he never harm another human’s life again. He was trying to fight back against the soldiers but with the restraints it was to no success, they would just hit him with their guns, but would never shoot.

Soon Shadow’s tears had dried and they could finally put him into cryo sleep, Walters was standing right there, he felt remorse for Shadow and Gerald’s loss, but still, he had no choice, his job was on the line here. Nobody needed to know about Shadow, and nobody needed to know that his power caused a 13 year old to die.

He nodded letting the soldiers know to put him into the pod, Shadow was trying to fight back once they took off the specialized handcuffs, but they just tasered him again, he cried out and fell into the pod. They closed the door and waited for Walters to secure him into containment, Shadow was banging on the glass, his eyes were red and puffy from all the crying and his gloves were still full of Maria’s blood..

“Put him into cryo sleep.” Walters said, to the official with the control panel.

Soon the pod began to fill up with a specialized sleeping liquid, ensuring Shadow wouldn’t wake up and wreak havoc on the world, Shadow stared right at Walters as he submerged in the liquid, his eyes narrowing to a look of anger, resentment, and devastation.. That was the last time anyone had seen Shadow or Gerald in 50 years.

It had been 50 years since Shadow had walked the terrains of Earth, since Maria’s death, 50 years since G.U.N. had taken away his life and the only person who had ever loved him.. He had finally escaped, his fur had grown a bit, his gloves were still red but the blood had faded away over time. And so did the happiness he had felt for living..

He was walking in the bright city of Shibuya Tokyo, the rain was pouring down from the dark sky as he walked in deep thought, his only goal, get revenge on G.U.N. for Maria. He looked up at a billboard appearing screen, the words reading 2024?

“2024? I’ve been trapped for 50 years?” The news was shocking to Shadow as he couldn’t believe that G.U.N had taken 50 years from his life, making him suffer that same dread full night over and over..

As he was deep in thought some vans belonging to G.U.N pulled up on him, multiple soldiers swarmed Shadow in a circle, he was infuriated at the fact that G.U.N was still tracking him down, he just wants some PEACE. They yelled at Shadow to surrender but Shadow was done playing games. He powered up and blasted his chaos energy at the soldiers, hurting multiple of them and causing fires.

He picked up a car and threw it at one soldier who shot at him but missed, he looked around and beat up a couple soldiers, and soon he felt like he was finished and he could finally leave. But no, G.U.N just had to ruin his life, over and over again.

As Shadow began to walk away he heard some obnoxiously loud voices, he growled and grabbed one of the toppled over cars and threw it at them, assuming that G.U.N had sent over some more soldiers to capture him. But no, he looked over and saw that one of the people had caught the car, he was shocked and walked up a ramp of cars. Looking over at the group.. He was almost shocked when he saw 3 anthropomorphic aliens, all of them being different animals.

The one that had caught his attention most was a blue hedgehog, he seemed to be their leader, he was just as shocked as he was, the blue blurs mouth gaping wide. Shadow wasn’t too thrilled though, they still jumped out of a G.U.N helicopter and were still the ones in his way.

“You’re a colorful bunch…” He said with a tone that sounded like he was mocking them in a way.

And soon began the verbal banter between the two hedgehogs, the back to back comments making Shadow’s brain hurt. He just walked away, warning them to back off unless they wanted to get hurt. Which they didn’t listen of course, forcing Shadow to fight them with ease, and soon he warned them again as he hopped on a motorcycle, grabbing a gun and speeding away.

He honestly hoped that this was the end of it but no, the annoying blue hedgehog just had to follow him and try to talk to him, the hedgehog wasn’t too bad, he had powerful energy just like him, just he didn’t know how to control it properly. That’s probably why he knocked him out with an energy surge that powered down the electricity of Shibuya for a considerable amount of time.

Shadow sighed and handcuffed the blue buffoon to a rail so he wouldn’t come after him, though he knew that the stubborn hedgehog and his pals would. He teleported to the old research facility, or what remained of it at least, it was dark and gloomy, most of the stuff there had rotted over time or succumbed to mother nature.. Luckily Maria’s fort was still intact, he sighed and sat in it, grabbing her guitar and strumming it, he didn’t know how to play it, but he just wanted to feel like she was here again.

He looked down at his gloves, the faded blood of Maria made him sick to his stomach, he wanted to burn them, burn them and forget that he ever saw her die.. He sobbed again, his gloved claws scrapping against his face as he threw the guitar off of his lap, causing the old wood to break, he grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped himself in it crying and rocking himself back and forth as a sorry attempt to calm down..

And soon he passed out, all that energy he wasted on fighting soldiers made him weak and tired, so he would succumb to his body’s natural needs. During his slumber he still dreamed of that night, Maria’s scream, the disappointment he felt when he knew it was his fault. It was like his mind would never let him over come it..

And soon he would try to, just not by good intent.. No this intent was cruel, even more cruel than what G.U.N did to him.. Humanity needed to pay for their actions and take responsibility for their mistakes.. Death should do fine.

Chapter Text

Shadow had just woken up, he looked around and saw everything was dark and gloomy, seems like the sun went down already.. Shadow sighs and stands up, grabbing the blanket he was previously sleeping with and wrapped it around his figure.. Walking around the place looking for a flashlight or something to illuminate the room.

He goes back to the rooms where the scientists used to test on him, remembering how Maria used to sneak him out so they could play. He chuckled a bit, rummaging through the drawers until he found a flashlight, he pressed the on button and it shined, acting like a source of light. He walked around for a while, checking out all of the papers with notes about him, the notes being about his chaos energy and how he was no ordinary hedgehog.

He went back to the fort, sitting down before looking at Maria’s small sketch book where she used to doodle when the professor was busy and when Shadow was in motor control.. As Shadow reminisced in the past, he heard a crash in one of the labs nearby.. He ran up and checked it out, assuming that it was a rodent of some sort, but no..

As he walked closer, his fists clenched as he prepared for battle, he stopped in his tracks, seeing the blatant name tag “Gerald Robotnik”.. He stood up straight and seemed in denial, the professor was 50 when the incident occurred, how could it be that 50 years later he was still alive.. Even if it was impossible, Shadow called out to the dark figure.

“Professor?” Shadow said as Gerald stepped forward, the moonlight gently illuminating the lower half of Gerald.

“Yes, Shadow..” Gerald said as he saw Shadow’s eyes widen..

“I can’t get her out of my head.. Its like the night is replaying over and over..” Shadow said, his ears dropping as he spoke..

“Don’t worry my boy, we will get revenge on the ones who hurt us.” Gerald said, his voice slightly comforting Shadow..

Shadow looked down and nodded, G.U.N. needed to pay for what they had done, wrongfully accusing Shadow was one thing.. But letting Maria’s body burn in the everlasting flames, not even bothering to have her buried.. That, THAT was putrid, vile, sick even..

★

Soon, Sonic and his team had finally made it to the abandoned research facility to find this Egg Man imposter. Sonic sighed as he walked with Robotnik. You know that having to team up with your worst enemy isn’t the best thing in the world, Sonic thought as he walked.

‘You know, why should this stupid alien, FAKER, beat my team up? He killed someone (well, at least that’s what Walters said), a defenseless 13-year-old girl.. He could’ve killed me or my friends, but..’ Sonic stopped his train of thought as he looked at the floor, he had stepped on a framed photo, breaking the glass.

Sonic kneeled to the floor and grabbed the photo out of the pile of broken glass, he looked at it, his hands shaking as he saw Shadow and the 13-year-old Walters had been talking about. Sonic walked over and saw muddy boot prints leading to a separate room. He looked over at Robotnik, who was trauma-dumping, and he rolled his eyes, walking away, letting the old grumpy villain yap.

Sonic stepped into the room, seeing a blanket on the floor. It looked like the ones in the fort that he found the photo in.. He sighed and saw a broken capsule, it looked like a testing tube big enough to fit him right inside..

”Shadow, is this where you grew up? No wonder you’re so deep and scary.” Sonic said, trying to cheer up this darker hedgehog, if he’s even listening..

★

Shadow was hiding in the shadows (no pun intended). He had already captured the rest of the Teletubbies along with a weird man who was shirtless.. What is wrong with this generation?? He sighed but looked over at Sonic, who was talking to himself.. Seemed like these aliens didn’t know how to listen..

He teleported so fast, intending only to pin him down and knock him out, but it seemed like this time he came prepared.. As Shadow grabbed Sonic’s quills, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He looked down and saw Sonic had stabbed him with a shard of glass, he felt his heart sink when he saw blood, he had never let go so fast.

Shadow looked at Sonic, who was shocked and shaking, he had never hurt anyone and seen them bleed, let alone stabbed someone.. Shadow grabbed his abdomen, the glass still in his side. Before he could react, he saw Sonic about to make a run for it, he immediately punched Sonic’s jaw, knocking the blue menace out..

Shadow felt tears rush to his eyes as the pain was tolerable but still present. He was sweating now as he rushed to the cabinets, looking for disinfectant and a bandage to stop the bleeding.. His vision was a bit blurry as he grabbed a cloth and wiped off the blood, biting a paper towel in preparation to pull out the shard.. He pulls it out in a swift motion, screaming so loudly that it shocked Gerald..

Shadow put the disinfectant and wrapped himself up, the white bandages being prominent in his small figure.. He looked down at Sonic, he was disgusted with him, what did he do to him aside from state his point of not wanting to be followed?? He dragged the hedgehog to the room that the rest of the aliens were in, he tied them together with as much force as he could.. He looked over at the floor and saw Maria’s blanket, he sighed and wrapped it around himself..

★

Soon the two Robotnik’s return, Shadow was a bit skeptical towards the younger one, the prized grandson.. The professor had never talked about him, possibly because being in a high level, maximum security prison doesn’t allow visits.. Shadow sighed, this guy probably doesn’t even know who Maria is..

Gerald looked at Shadow, confused why he was all bandaged up around the waist, never mind that.. The ordered that Shadow get the first key to the eclipse cannon to set their plan in action.. Shadow looked at Sonic who had awoken and was trying to reason with the hedgehog, who luckily hadn’t died.. Shadow didn’t care and grabbed the key, soon handing it to the professor and teleporting up to a higher platform..

Shadow had a small invention that could create drastic black holes, sucking in everything around it.. As he was about to drop it he heard Sonic try to talk to him again, desperately trying to reason with the grieving hedgehog..

“Shadow! You don’t have to do this, you might have killed someone but that doesn’t mean its who you are inside!” Sonic said with a bit of fear in his tone.

Shadow looked at Sonic with disbelief, he hadn’t killed anyone, what was this blue buffoon talking about?

“What are you even talking about?! I’ve never killed anyone, let alone thought about it.. G.U.N. killed Maria, they took everything from me, and now we’ll take everything from them..” He said, dropping black hole and teleporting away, letting the words Sonic had said sink in..

Shadow looked down as he sat on a chair, his abdomen was killing him, the aches getting worse by the second.. He looked over and saw the agent he had previously tied up, it seemed like he had finally put on some fitting attire.. He saw that he had a med kit and hesitated before asking if they had pain killers..

“Sir.. Do you have anything to treat my pain..?” Shadow said, trying to be polite, even if he was in pain..

Agent stone looked at Shadow, noticing his poorly bandaged wound, he still had some painkillers left over from when the doctor was still recovering from his multiple surgeries in Mexico.. Shadow peered over as Stone grabbed a bottle with pills, handing 2 to Shadow as a mild form of keeping his pain at bay.

”I’ll give you the bottle, but you have to take 2 pills every 4 to 6 hours.” Stone said, letting Shadow down the two pills..

Shadow grabbed the bottle and put it away, sitting on the floor and just wrapping himself in the blanket he had taken from Maria’s fort.. He sighed and looked at his bloody gloves, the old faded away blood from Maria now being covered in his own fresh blood.. He needed new gloves..

With that, he closes his eyes and caresses the blanket as he drifts off into sleep. This trip was the best time to get more shut-eye.. Before we reach London, the home to the second key..

You will have revenge Maria..

Chapter Text

As Shadow rested in the crab that was making its way to England, Sonic and team escaped the facility, that was now sucked up by the mini black hole.. Sonic sighed and looked at his friends.

“Hey Tails, you got another ring?” Sonic said, opening his hand, asking that he hand it to him.

“Yeah, I got like one left, here,” Tails said, about to hand it to his brother until he saw a splatter of blood on his glove.

“Sonic, what’s that on your glove?” Tails said, hoping it wasn’t what he thought it was..

Sonic looked down at his own glove, realizing that when he had stabbed Shadow, some of the dark hedgehog’s blood had splattered on him..

“Oh sorry bud, had a freak nose bleed and it got on my gloves.” Sonic said, grabbing the ring and throwing it to open the portal.

Tails didn’t think there was much evidence to back up Sonic’s claim, but he sighed, just accepting that maybe that’s what happened..

★

It had been four hours of Shadow resting, any position he laid in hurt his abdomen since the wound was still pulsing with blood. Shadow sighed, waking up from the uncomfortable position, looking around, he could see that Robotnik and Gerald had finally taken off the headsets the two had been wearing.

Shadow sighed and climbed out of the crab, he was still holding the blanket he took with him. He looked around to see the monument of the Big Ben, he was astonished, the sun shining brightly, illuminating the whole city.. He had only heard Maria talk about these important landmarks in her history book, but seeing them was another story..

Soon the Robotnik’s got out of the manhole, Ivo, the younger one making a larger entrance.. Shadow grumbled and tried to ask if he could go and get his revenge against G.U.N. once and for all.

“Professor, let me go in there, get the key and hurt anyone in my way. I want revenge.” Shadow said, even if he was in terrible pain, he could manage to chaos control his way in and out.

“No Shadow, you will have your revenge soon, be patient, and take care of yourself, you look like you’re in pain.” Gerald said, not giving too much care in the world about the alien’s current state.

Shadow walked back into the crab, sitting down and taking his second dose of pain killers, and laying down, Stone on the other hand was making guac. Revenge Guac, as Shadow had dubbed it.

★

As Shadow was watching the telenovela ‘La ultima passion’ a familiar fox hijacked the screen, seems like they hadn’t died from the black hole.. Soon water began to rush towards the crab, Shadow, being the one with teleportation powers took the initiative to teleport away, saving himself but possibly drowning Stone..

Shadow grumbled and assumed that the colorful bunch was in G.U.N.’s headquarters, he knew that he could only do so much in his condition, but he felt a sense of urgency.. He teleports above the roof and slams down into the concrete, his chaos energy breaking his fall.. He looked and saw Commander Walters, his guard was up now..

He grumbled at the sight of the older, weaker man, the same man who blamed him for the death of a friend, A SISTER. He had it, the revenge he wanted, he could finally kill this man once and for all..

“Commander Walters” Shadow said, preparing to give a death punch, an energy surge large enough to knock someone cold..

He teleported right in front of Walters and punched his chest, the energy immediately knocking the old man unconscious, he loomed over the now corpse, he assumed, as he picked up the second key card.. Smirking to himself until he looked up, the body was no longer Walters, it seemed to be of a younger man..

He gasped when he realized he messed up, killing the wrong person, and innocent one to be exact.. As he was going to grab the body a familiar voice rang out behind him..

“Tom, Tom! You got the-“ The voice went silent as Sonic locked eyes with Shadow, he was a bit scared that Shadow might take his revenge for the glass, until Sonic looked over at the corpse..

His heart dropped, it felt like the world stopped spinning and that everything he had worked up to had now ended.. He rushed to Tom, his legs felt like jelly and his heart was so heavy.. He shook the body, tears swelling up in his eyes as he spoke.

“Dad! Wake up, wake up WAKE UP!” Sonic said as he held Tom’s head, some blood dripping out of Tom’s mouth, making the scene even more painful to watch.. Shadow just stared, a sense of familiarity rushing to him as he was reminded of how he felt when Maria died..

“What did you DO?!” Sonic said, his voice cracking as he cried, drool dribbling down Sonic’s mouth as he sobbed, rocking Tom’s body back and forth, slightly cradling the limp weight.

Shadow just looked at Sonic, feeling guilt for his actions, he looked at his own hands, the blood had already dried but reminded him of what he lost.. He teleports away, leaving Sonic with the dead body, leaving the pain and suffering to Sonic.

Shadow went to help the two Robotnik’s, taking down each of the gun soldiers who dared to stand in his way.. Once he saw that all of them were knocked out he gave the second key card to the professor. Gripping his bandaged abdomen with force to stop the slight pain, he sighed and teleported the Robotnik’s and himself into the eclipse cannon..

As he stood he realized he left Maria’s blanket back in G.U.N.’s headquarters, it seemed like he dropped it when he saw that he killed Tom.. He grumbled, remembering that his blood was slightly splattered on that blanket.. Well it doesn’t matter anymore since everyone on earth and in the eclipse cannon is dying..

★

Back down on earth Sonic was still sobbing, the rest of his family had found him and Tom’s corpse, and Maddie felt no pulse.. As Sonic kept holding his dad, he saw that there was a pool of blood forming around his head.. Sonic couldn’t look anymore and let go of his dad turning around and gasping as he saw a large space ship looking thing floating up into the atmosphere..

Soon the paramedics came to the scene and declared that Tom was dead, Sonic couldn’t bear this anymore, he needed to stop the eclipse cannon and kill Shadow. He looked over at his brothers who were trying to keep it together.

“I need the Master Emerald.” Sonic said bluntly, his tone cold and angry.

Knuckles looked over at his younger brother and shook his head, remembering the sacred oath they swore, that none of them would ever use the Master Emerald.

“No Sonic, I know you’re grieving but this is not the way to.” Knuckles said, crossing his arms as he looked at Sonic, who was clearly not in a good state of mind.

Sonic shook slightly, his anger rising as he wasn’t allowed to use the Emerald, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He powered up his fist, his eyes glowing an electric blue, the one that appeared when he used his energy to its fullest potential..

“I just lost my father, the only other person who mattered in the world to me. I’m not taking no for an answer.” Sonic said, his tone sounding like an angry growl as he clenched his teeth.

Knuckles stared at the blue hedgehog, all he could see was rage, not the caring brother he knew, not the understanding hedgehog he lived with. No all he saw was an empty soul, like the death of their father had killed him.

“Don’t do this.” Knuckles said, also powering up, knowing he’s not going to use force on his brother.

After a moment Knuckles powers down and looks at Sonic, sighing as he grabbed a ring out from his quills, knowing that anything he said would not stop the rampage Sonic was about to go on.. With that he opens a small portal and grabs the Master Emerald, the green hue mesmerizing to the naked eye.

“You are a brother to me, this loss will force us to grieve, but I will abide by our sacred oath, even if you have decided to break it..” Knuckles said handing the Master Emerald to Sonic, staring at his blood stained glove.

Sonic held the Emerald up high and the sky began to darken, the power of the Master Emerald shining and crackling surges of energy around the hedgehog. He felt himself succumb to the forces of the Emerald, transforming into Super Sonic.

Sonic looks at his new form, his two brothers looking at him, their faces both terrified and sad.. Sonic blasts off, his speed breaking car windows and blasting Knuckles and Tails away onto a pile of glass. Knuckles sighed and helped the fox up, looking at the eclipse cannon, then back at Sonic’s distant glowing form.. There was no stopping what was about to come.

Heres some food to hold you guys off until I finish chapter four and the second part of this art 😼👊🙏