Chapter Text
Arms crossed Shadow only watched. Sonic wouldn't need his help destroying this new robotic creation Eggman had thrown at them: A clunky spider with hammer arms, if he had to describe it. He raised a brow in mild surprise as its top started spinning forcing the blue hedgehog to awkwardly duck under the speeding hammers flying past his head, his bumbling drawing a low chuckle out of him. Sonic wasn't in any real danger.
Cold wind swooped through his quills. Shadow had only agreed to tag along because he was bored. Fighting his way through the newest iteration of Badniks alongside his rival had been a nice change of pace. Keeping Eggman in check wasn't part of his motivation but it certainly had given the last few days some colour of purpose.
They'd managed to keep this little adventure part competition and part cooperation with significantly less fighting between themselves - somehow. Sure, there had been moments. It had taken them around two days before they'd found a comfortable balance, when Sonic's excitement had leveled out to something more bearable and Shadow had gotten used to his antics, dispelling some of the awkwardness. Most of their conversations had been about their next move, about where to strike next and where to watch out, where to regroup. Shadow would let him have his stunts and Sonic would swallow his jokes and teasing when things got serious. Somehow it had worked out and Shadow had even enjoyed this past week.
But now it was all about to end and they'd have to go back to their regular lives.
Shadow stood by the edge of this brand new Egg Carrier with no railing between him and dizzying drop into the dense forest underneath. Clouds rolled past the bow of this metal monstrosity. The view, though, was undeniably breathtaking with the snowy mountain tops lining the horizon and the sun high up in the clear blue sky. They'd have to make sure not to crash this thing into the small town that was just up ahead, he noted.
With a swing of his fist right into the visor face of a robot Shadow turned back around. Sonic still wasn't done and more bots kept pouring onto the upper deck. Shadow made quick work of them with a few kicks and punches. No need to break out any chaos spears for these. Maybe, if Sonic continued his embarrassing dance around the spider robot - or crab or whatever - without making much of a dent in it, he'd put an end to it with a few quick strikes, just to rub it in. He sneered. He'd give Sonic two more minutes.
In the corner of his eyes he noticed some surprisingly quiet flying robot reminiscence of a distorted dragonfly sneaking up on him. It had gotten close enough to irritate him before he sent it flying in an involuntarily trundle downwards after ripping its wings off and giving it a nudge over the edge.
"WATCH OUT!!" Sonic yelled from behind.
Shadow's head snapped around, eyes wide as all he could see was what he was supposed to watch out for. Red and Yellow painted metal - one of the spider bot's hammer arms, uncontrolled, broken from its body - already too close and approaching faster than even he could react to and jump out of the way of, his head the target of this projectile.
"NO!! SHADOW!!"
Stars danced before his eyes in a dark world and he felt the cold wetness of passing through a cloud before his consciousness faded.
*~*~*~*
Mumbling, shuffling.
Leaves rustled. Small birds fluttered.
Shadow felt his ears twitch towards the approaching sounds. Words. Someone was speaking. It was a nice voice, he thought, like bells, comfortable. It soothed the incredible discomfort he was feeling.
"Hey, are you alive?"
What a strange question. But then he found his body stiff, unwilling to move, his eyes glued shut. With a grunt he shifted slightly, startled by his own sound and the difficulty of moving his limbs. Curling his fingers he noticed pine needles underneath himself, felt them on his stomach and the cheek of his face, smelled them.
"I don't see any wounds, but… Take it slow, alright?"
'Slow' the comfortable voice advised, maybe he could. A sudden dizziness left him no other options.
Slowly Shadow dared to open his eyes and as he did a figure, closer than he had anticipated, moved two steps away from him.
"You most likely have a concussion, but I see no open wounds."
As his vision became clearer he could finally identify whom the voice belonged to: A mobian in a bright yellow dress, her fur purple all over with a thick dark purple and black braid sitting on her shoulder and equally thick bangs covering her forehead in a curl. Bright golden eyes peered down at him carefully. Did he know this one? Certainly not. With a groan he pushed himself up on his hands and into a seating postion against the tree he found himself next to. His body ached, his head felt heavy and like it was stuck in a vice, but it was nothing he couldn't heal given a moment to rest. He took a deep breath to let the arising nausea subside.
The purple cat in front of him was now staring upwards, drawing his own eyes to peer up as well, squinting at the sudden brightness. There was a definite hole in the canopy with pine branches dangling loosly around the window towards the bright blue sky. Assuming that was the path that had brought him here, a concussion seemed highly probable.
"What's your name? Can you tell me?", the stranger asked, arms behind her back.
"None of your business", Shadow growled, owing half of his mood to the sheer uncomfortableness. He wanted to be left alone.
She flinched, but didn't let herself be scared off, continuing carefully:"So, do you… not remember?"
"Yeah, I don't", he spat in a sudden bout of sarcasm. It irked him enough that he apparently didn't have the strength to get up and just leave this situation behind, he didn't want to hold a conversation about it.
"Th-that's alright. You don't need to tell me", she scrambled, almost shrieking, and making Shadow wince, the confortable voice completely lost. "Then… what do you remember? Do you know where you, well, fell from? I-i-i-i-i mean I can't just leave you on your own with a possible concussion and all…", she stuttered, her hands now flying everywhere in wild gestures. "That's not right…"
Fair, he thought and naturally, if begrudgingly, tried to recall the last thing he remembered before blacking out. He looked back up at the hole in the branches, searched the clouds for answers and… came up with nothing. A sudden feeling of dread tingled along his spine and his fingers. Just what DID he remember?
Scrunching his face he searched his thoughts.
Immediately a young blond girl's face appeared at the front of his mind, smiling, but unmoving. Recalling her face unmistakably spread a comfortable warmth inside his chest, the feeling of home, but… who was she?
He swallowed.
More faces flickered past his inner eye: a white bat, a young fox, a clunky robot … but all stayed eerily still and he remembered none of their names.
He failed to recall any event that occured in his past.
Why was this oddly familiar, though?
Shadow winced as a sudden piercing, searing pain shot through his head that threatened to tear his skull apart. "Fuck", he muttered.
"It's okay, don't try too hard to think", the stranger immediately tried to calm him. "You shouldn't strain your head. Your brain is probably all bruised up and needs to heal. Whatever you forgot will come back then, I'm sure."
"Are you a doctor?" Shadow squinted at her with a scowl.
"No… I've read about it… in a book", she confessed. "But I should take you to one, if… if you can stand?"
"No doctor", Shadow barked hissing at his own voice's volume, unsure why, but some deep-rooted feeling in his gut told him that people might be reluctant to help or even be afraid of him. Maybe this was the reason he had so instinctively ommitted his own name. "I only need rest", he groaned. This he was sure of, knew for a fact, that he wasn't a regular mobian hedgehog but the Ultimate Lifeform, which sounded outright ridiculous in his current confused mind.
The stranger nodded hesitantly. "That's okay…", hesitating she shifted from one leg to the other. "But d-d-do you, maybe, want to come to my workshop? The hammock is probably more suited for recovery than the… dirt."
Showing no less displeasure the black hedgehog accepted this proposal with grunt and a simple nod and tried not to linger on the question of why she would help a total stranger that obviously scared her into a stutter. "Thank you", he pressed with a snarl.
"Mhm", was all she answered, lips curled around her teeth, before stepping closer again and offering him her hands. She pulled him up slowly on one arm, the other holding onto the tree, all while his head spun at the slightest movement and the pain resurfaced. Thankfully it wasn't a long way to the workshop, he had practically dropped right into her backyard.
The workshop was a simple wooden shack by the edge of the forest, small but roomy, with small mezzanines extending the available space to the left and right of the front door. Worktables and shelves filled most walls and the space in front of the back door from where they came in, all filled and cluttered with rolls of yarn, dried plants and various tools, more cut plants hanging from the ceiling. It smelled green, Shadow noted to himself.
The space below one of the mezzanines had been made into a tiny sepparate room with a curtain for a door and with not much else other than a hammock behind it and a dirty window. He sunk into the hammock with more effort than Shadow liked to admit. The darkness of the small space calmed his pulsing headache. He wanted to refuse the ice pack the purple mobian placed onto his forehead without question, but the cold on his skin instantly felt even more soothing. A relaxing sigh escaped his lips.
"Just… so your brain doesn't swell", she explained with a worried expression. "I don't know if it's enough, but it's better than nothing."
"Swell… More book knowledge?", Shadow simply asked, tired.
"Yes… well… I will be out for the night. There's a bucket in case you need it." She pointed to a corner behind him. Her face said a thousand things. Surely she wasn't happy about giving a potentially dangerous stranger access to her workplace, but she was too 'good' a person to leave someone injured to themselves.
Shadow closed his eyes. Don't think, he told himself, lest the headaches came back.
"I'll be back first thing tomorrow morning."
*~*~*~*
The next day came and went in a blur. Sleeping most hours away, Shadow didn't notice his benefactor return. He refused the food held in front of him, but accepted water, before falling into a dreamless sleep again.
When he awoke it was morning yet again. The birds singing outside woke him with their incomprehensibly loud and chaotic chirping. It wasn't the worst thing to wake up to. For some reason he thought of a busy street and car horns and frowned.
Right, he remembered, my memories are gone. Taking a deep breath and shifting into a more comfortable position in this stranger's hammock Shadow gave thinking another go.
Faces, he saw people's faces, still and most of them looked at him with a stern, even wary expression. Clenching his fists in vexation he tried to ignore this detail. Instead he focused on the one that smiled the brightest. "Maria", he whispered to himself. Intangible joy and love bloomed in his chest that mixed with a quiet sadness. "Maria", he said again as if repeating the name would give him another clue.
It didn't happen.
But something else stirred and he let muscle memory do its work as his hand reached into his quills to pull out a small device, a communicator. Perking up his frown loosend.
With a familiar flick of the thumb and a click it snapped open revealing a small display on the top and a small numberpad on the bottom. Though all initial hope disolved when the screen refused to light up. The hedgehog grimaced at the damn thing. There was an obvious crack on the side and something rattled inside when he shook it. Nothing he could do about it.
Sitting up, which did not send his head for a spin this time, he grabbed the keypad in both hands, furrowing his brows once again, waiting for his thumbs to take over, hop from number to number and give him a clue, any clue. But even caressing the keys triggered nothing… only… yes, there was something, something blue. But the keys were grey, the numbers and symbols black. Why did he expect one of them to be blue?
He put the communicator away as he heard a clink and a creak as the front door opened. Soon voices followed, mostly one voice, an unknown deeper voice.
"It doesn't work like that! Promise me you won't do that again. You really made her uncomfortable and didn't even help clean up."
Without making a sound Shadow shifted of the hammock and to the entrance of his quarters, peering through a small gap in the curtain.
"I'm-", started the purple cat before being cut off.
"I know you can do it. It's not hard." These last words were said in great earnest, spoken softly and belonged to a raccoon - if the fluffy striped tail was enough indication - with light blue and white fur. "And don't apologise to me, apologise to her later. It's only right."
"I will", whispered Shadow's benefactor. "But still: I'm sorry, I know you have much to do and still came here with me after everything." She plastered a smile onto her face that made Shadow grimace in disgust. Her smile looked wrong and painful, her eyes glistening and blinking away the wetness but she was still keeping them wide open and cheerful. The corners of her mouth quivered. As she shifted from one foot to the other, she raised her shoulders cutely folding her hands behind her back. From something stronger than instinct and with unexplained certainty, Shadow knew what a bright and beaming smile should look like, how the eyes could glow and the whole body speak with it. He knew it in and out and it wasn't 'Maria' he had learned it from. This stronger-than-instinct thing made him itch all over and Shadow clenched his fists. To scratch it he'd have to just REMEMBER. Resentment for his own failure quivered in a silent growl towards this forgotten entity. Irritation rose in his chest.
"It's a little annoying, yes", the other admitted with a slight frown, apparently not noticing the other's unease. "I will have to make up for lost time so I should get going. Since I'm here now I won't come by in the afternoon. You'll apologise at dinner?"
She nodded suffocatingly brightly. "Can I… um… stay over again today?", she pleaded.
With an almost pitying smile he lay a hand on her shoulder. "Better not, better to let this cool off first. Though, I would love to have you." Suddenly his whole demeanour had changed into something more caring and loving, his voice soft and his smile genuine. "We'll have dinner together, that's something!", he tried to cheer her up, leaning into a light kiss before putting down the small bag he was carrying over his shoulder and heading out the door.
Shadow stepped back, fists still clenched tightly, waited a few quiet seconds to not trigger a conversation he had no interest in having and finally pulled back the curtain to reveal his presence.
But she still stood right there, now looking at him in surprise. "You're awake!" The strange smile lifted into a smaller, more honest one. "Oh, you probably heard all that, huh?". Cringing visibly she jumped to the next best distraction: the small bag. "I brought breakfast. Do you feel like eating?"
Having just witnessed this even more irritating scene and his emotions digging into his skin, he couldn't keep his face from scrunching up as he hissed: "Why are you doing this?" and her ears snapped back. Groaning Shadow pressed two fingers to the bridge between his brows. This purple cat had most probably exchanged her own comfort for his, a stranger in her house, a possible threat, always frowning and growling. He owed her for her kindness and he only continued to pile onto that debt.
"What do you mean?", she whispered cautiously, ears still flat against her head.
Trying to salvage what he could he spoke slowly this time, eyes closed. "I mean: Why are you helping me to this extent? You have no idea who I am." He breathed deeply actively trying to calm himself, though irritation and anger stuck to him like tar and feathers.
As if called out, she glued her eyes to the floor boards, frantically looking for an excuse if anything, even though it had been Shadow who clearly overstepped.
"I should go", Shadow started, immediately turning towards the door. There was no use in staying. He might find familiar places and find his way home, wherever that would be, if he had any. "Thank you for your help. I have nothing to repay you with so I will not burden you any longer than neccessary."
"Do you… do you remember?", asked the voice behind him, meek and faint.
"It's none of your concern."
"But… you have an untreated head injury."
Shadow only rolled his eyes still turned towards the door.
"What if someone comes looking for you here and you're not? You basically fell into my backyard. When lost, it is better to stay where you are and wait for your friends to find you." The purple cat's words shivered.
A pang in his chest. He knit his brows, eyes tightly shut. His friends? What friends? Did he have friends? The faces that kept popping into his mind at that moment seemed to encourage him to believe it. With another deep exhale he turned back around, a deep scowl on his face and crimson eyes shooting holes into the other's. "Fine, but as I've said I have nothing to repay you with, cat."
Her whole body perked and she took a long breath of her own. "I'm a stoat actually", was the first thing she said and as if it would proof anything, her nicely floofed tail swished left and right once, drawing attention to itself, purple as her coat with a black tip. Shadow could have sworn it had only just unfurled out of her skirt, which would have been inexplicably strange.
"Stoat", he simply corrected.
"And you can repay me when you know who you are and where you live"
He sniffed in agreement.
"Sooo… breakfast?", asked the purple stoat and picked up the small bag.
The black hedgehog gave her a slight nod, both simply moving on and he preferred it that way.
He knew he didn't need a lot of sustenance in general, but considering that his body had taken a whole day to recover to this point and his memories still being unaccessable, providing it with more than neccessary might prove to be beneficial, he argued.
Placing one arm across the main worktable and sweeping it from the edge to the rough middle, the stoat made some space for them to eat by pushing everything to the side without much care. Maybe it didn't need care. Most of the stuff on the table were bundles of dry grass and long-stemmed flowers, next to rolls of twine and rope. She then unpacked some simple, though, fresh looking sandwiches onto mismatched plates and served black tea from a thermos in unevenly shaped cups without handles. They settled opposite each other on the wooden benches.
Still uncomfortable, he wanted to at least try. "Thank you, it is much appreciated", Shadow broke the silence, though his face showed half a frown at the - he felt guilty for thinking it - shabby tableware, which was in fact very clean and cared for none the less. He lifted the cup to his mouth. He preferred coffee, he thought at the smell, but the tea was hot and comfortable.
"You're welcome", she smiled and picked up her sandwich, making sure no bit of salad or tomato slice slipped out. "I am actually relieved to see you up. When you slept through the whole day and I couldn't wake you at all, it gave me quite a scare."
"Hm", Shadow dismissed this revelation unsure what to make of it. He certainly didn't want to reveal the 'Ultimate Lifeform' aspect of his being as it still felt ludicrous to him.
"So, you don't remember anything, yet?"
He looked up from his meal, her gaze on him genuine, then he shook his head lightly. "Nothing concrete." It was the truth after all. The colour blue and a common name such as 'Maria' would not get him anywhere. After a few more bites in silence and some consideration he decided to thank her in trust and produced the communicator from his quills. "Do you happen to know how to fix this? It's the only clue I have."
His benefactor raised her brows. "Oh! So you're with the Freedom Fighters", she exclaimed, her face taking on a whole different shape of relaxed. "All of them have these little devices." She took it in her hands to examine the damage.
"I highly doubt that." Shadow's permanent scowl deepened at the mere suggestion, why exactly he didn't quite understand. "But can you fix it? Do you know anyone who can?"
"No", she answered, one eye peering into the crack on the side. "I don't have any knowledge on these things and I doubt anyone outside of the Freedom Fighters has any. And look, this is one of their's, it has this symbol on the back, can't be the evil Dr. Robotnik's." Pleased with her observations she grinned as she handed the communicator back.
But Shadow stopped in realisation: Maria Robotnik, that was her name. Never should he ask about this name, not here, not without all his memories. 'Dr. Robotnik' produced no image in his mind, but an uncomfortable irk. Certainly he didn't like this doctor either. Though, Maria Robotnik felt precious and her smile was a treasure in his heart. He knew this with absolute certainty. Shadow swallowed a knot in his throat.
Fleeing this train of thoughts he turned his attention to the button-sized imprint on the back of his communicator: two fluttering fox tails, twin fox tails as they originated from the same spot. Tails. Tails. He wanted to believe it was another remembered name. Did his brain finally short circuit? Quickly he put the device away before any skull splitting headaches could poke through and shook his head. This whole mess was tiring.
Searching for distraction he glanced over the pile things next to him. However, his irritation was immediately reignited, even to the point of showing fangs, as he found a roll of some royal blue string right next to him at the edge of the table. That blasted blue, he thought. Shadow purposefully ignored it, dragging his eyes to anything else. Briefly regarding every other item on the table - the dry plant bundles, strings, rope, shears and even a wooden board with the pointed tips of long nails poking out of it. He noticed that the rope was actually made of the same kind of dryed grass as the bundle next to it. It was made with an intricate braid, as far as he could identify, the dry dull grass accentuated by colourful strings and small flowers woven in between. Shadow had never seen something like this before and slightly tilted his head as curiosity struck.
After breakfast, the stoat set up her work, which turned out to be the production of exactly these kinds of rope. Grass and string would be tied to the wooden board and slipped over the nails poking out so they were held tight as she braided. To make a longer rope than one frond of grass, more were added at regular intervals, staggered, not all at once. A well-worn book lay next to her showing a colourful chart of symbols he didn't understand, but she read the pattern from it with ease. Every one of her designs had been neatly documented for easy reproduction. The use? Funeral rites. It was a deep-seated tradition in these parts to drape their deceased loved ones in these beautiful ropes. Sometimes it was only used as a crown or even a shawl, sometimes people even kept a length of this rope as a memento in their homes. Shadow had not known any of this, even before loosing his memories, but after her lengthy explanation and the long while he spent mindlessly watching her nimble fingers braid, he was sure he was even able to make the rope himself.
Shadow'd just been lingering around for most of the morning, giving his body more time to heal, if it needed more, and waiting for a spark of clarity. That was until the stoat asked him to fetch her a tin of pins from a small shelf tucked between a pillar and several stacked crates holding most of the dry materials. Following the direction of her finger in a daze, no thoughts lingering in his mind for long, as he spotted the desired object. But then his hand froze in place as he reached for it. Right there, next to the tin, lay a neatly folded scarf or rag and it was - again - blue. A beautiful, saturated cobalt blue. Shadow's hand picked it up, let it unfurl and hang softly from his fingers.
"Hedgehog?"
He almost jumped and flung his head around, eyes wide. The stoat had obviously taken to mimic him, but somehow he felt it. Looking down at the piece of blue fabric in his hands again he noticed he'd been staring at it for a while.
"You alright?" She held her work in place so it wouldn't unravel and still waited for those needles.
"It's… nothing." Shadow sighed in resignation. "I just keep seeing this colour and don't know why."
"You mean, it means something to you that you've forgotten?"
"Maybe?"
"Well, then you should keep it, it's just a leftover piece of fabric from another project."
Unsure he frowned at it, picked up the tin and brought both back to the worktable. He dropped the fabric in front of himself and blankly watched as the stoat pinned in place what had to be pinned. She was deft with her hands.
"How about this?" Immediately after freeing up those quick hands she picked up the blue fabric, twisted it into a loose rope and tied it around his left wrist, right next to the golden ring that he recognised as one of his limiter rings - a part of the whole Ultimate Lifeform thing he apparently had going on. Mesmerised by the cobalt blue next to his gold he stared at it for a long time, his heart reacting before the mind had caught up.