Chapter Text
An expanse without horizon, bound only by the distance by which light traveled, yet no light offered itself. Every system had reached maximum entropy, and the universe’s energy lay in equilibrium.
He opened his eyes. He had not been aware he had those until he was processing visual information beyond himself. He could not tell if it was light or dark. It seemed simultaneously both. He searched for color and found none. Or all of them. He couldn’t pinpoint anything. If he shut his eyes he could see it, but it didn’t exist around him.
The lowest part of his peripheral vision recognized black with red. He saw a body and limbs. This was him.
Hands raised closer to his vision, and then past it. A head. This is where he was, controlling this body he owned. He looked at his hands, unsure why he expected to see white. Unsure how he knew what white was. These hands were black and red. Clawed and dexterous, despite seeing no indication for their use.
He had fur. To protect himself from what? Around his wrists, it grew irregularly, as if he had worn something around them for a long time.
He looked up again. He was beginning to comprehend his existence better. The space now looked black. Was he in a void? The word ‘sonic’ kept reverberation in his mind. Sound waves didn’t exist in a void. He could feel ears on the top of his head searching for sound only to detect nothing outside a heartbeat. His own, he supposed. He mustn’t be in a void, then.
What could he remember last? He knew there was more beyond this. He remembered a sterile early life, eventually replaced by green. He had known others. Minds inside bodies called people he had called friends. But he remembered no individual names, nor faces. Just the emotions they left behind. If these friends were so important, why could he not remember? This didn’t settle well on him. And why did it feel so long ago? He couldn’t be certain if it had been days or years. He felt as if the time in this blank space could have been seconds or eons. No, he hadn’t been awake that long. That was how long he’d been asleep.
Everyone was gone.
Tears welled in his eyes. Without anyone to judge, they fell freely. They slid down his face, and when they slipped off his muzzle, the drops hung in space. Yet he would not let his mind fall as easily as his tears. He twisted his body for a better view of his surroundings. Despite the absence of sensory input, he wouldn’t let himself so easily believe there was nothing left. Around him and below him was an endless expanse. Flipping to the direction some part of him labeled ‘up’, he saw a discrepancy. A seemingly true color in a sea of the ones his mind was falsely attributing to the blank in their absence.
He saw blue.
He flew forward to the anomaly. Why did he know how to do that when his body was clearly meant for ground? Depth and time was impossible to judge, but it seemed a short distance before recognition hit him.
“Sonic!” The sound proved he was not in a void.
“Shadow!?” The other twisted to face him just as they collided.
Sonic’s hands met Shadow’s face. Despite everything he was chuckling. His thumbs wiped at Shadow’s tears.
Shadow now remembered two names more than the moment before. That proved he wasn’t alone. Between them, their bodies cast shadows on their chests. Their sounds fell on their ears. Sonic and Shadow existed even if nothing else did.
Sonic’s lips pressed against Shadow’s. Something short, sweet, and familiar.
He felt warmth and realized how cold he had been in this place. Sonic’s hand reached for Shadow’s, but that wasn’t enough. Shadow wrapped his arms around Sonic’s body, pulling their bodies flush together. He let their legs tangle and Shadow buried his face in Sonic’s neck. Even with his memories fuzzy, Shadow remembered the fear of loss and being alone. And worse, the feeling of those fears being realized again and again.
Arms returned his embrace tightly. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere.”
A thought hit Shadow. He cupped Sonic’s face with wide eyes and asked, “How long have you been here?” And could only hope it hadn’t been longer than himself.
“Probably as long as you. So, no clue.” A chuckle came out as he let out a shuddering breath. Was there oxygen here? Did they need it anymore? Sonic’s gaze fell past Shadow’s shoulder. His eyes shimmered as his countenance shifted. “Shadow, everything’s gone. I mean, you can feel it, right? There is nothing—” His voice cracked at the same time he did. “Nothing is left. Everything– Everyone is gone.” Sonic’s head fell to Shadow’s shoulder and he cried. He repeated his thoughts incoherently. How everyone was gone. How Earth was gone. Everyone they loved was gone.
Shadow was taken aback and too far in his own shock to offer comfort. Sonic was not one to reach hopelessness. That wasn’t what this was, though. They had never faced something of this scale before. Nothing could match this. Something so far beyond a mortal’s comprehension. What else could they do besides cling to the other last beings of the universe and cry?
Their universe had died.
Sonic was mourning everything he’d ever known.
But death had never been the end, had it? Facts came through to Shadow through faint memories. Lessons about a little blue planet he had learned while orbiting around it. Later, Shadow would relearn them through observing and experiencing them for himself. On Earth, death led to decay, which sprung new life. Matter and energy could not be destroyed.
Shadow could only rub Sonic’s back as he cried. Shadow hated this moment. Long ago, Shadow had often thought Sonic to be stupidly optimistic. Later, he had found himself admiring the trait foreign in himself. Sonic had taught Shadow there was always a way. If Sonic couldn’t see that right now, Shadow would lead him there. Even in the wake of the universe’s death.
Shadow gently took his partner’s shoulders. “Sonic. Sonic, look at me. ‘Nothing’ is impossible. Even if everything we’ve known is gone, we’re still here. So is everything else. Energy and matter are eternal. It’s just still right now. We can change that.”
Sonic’s eyes, still sparked with life, met Shadow’s. “How?”
He had no clue. But Sonic’s being was not made to exist in darkness, and Shadow refused to keep himself in darkness. They were the last beings alive. While all other energy was dormant, it still coursed through them. A revelation struck him. Shadow took Sonic’s hands and spoke with determination, “We’ll forge this reality to bring life back into it. If we are the last lifeforms, that makes us the two most powerful beings in existence. Existence itself will have no choice but to bend to our will.”
“Yeah?” Light from somewhere caught in Sonic’s eye. A smile tugged at his lips and slid into a confident one. Shadow had created a challenge and Sonic wasn’t one to lose. “Yeah. No biggie. We’ll just rebuild the universe.”