Disclaimer: The following story contains characters that I do not own, nor do I claim them as my own. Copyright goes to Sega and SonicTeam.

Warning: This warning applies to the following story and all of its contents. This is a Sonadow (Sonic x Shadow. Male/male pairing) story. If you have a problem with that, please do not bother reading.

Rated T for Teen because of blood, murder, and some language.

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Fading Reminder

Chapter One: Forgotten

Sirens filled the crisp night air.

A dark, unidentifiable creature sped down the asphalt leading straight out of the city. He blended in perfectly with the dark atmosphere due to his pure midnight color. The headlights of vehicles tried to consume his form and illuminate him, but he was too fast. The only thing keeping them on his trail were the small flames shooting out from beneath his jet shoes; he hovered ever so slightly off the ground and was a complete blur of speed.

He had just sped out of the maze of tall buildings, now running down roads surrounded by grass. It was barely visible, but there seemed to be a smirk on his face. Trucks, vehicles, and mechanical robots sped over his tracks that he barely even left. Everything read 'GUN,' either on the side of the robots, the hood of the cars, or a top of the roofs.

They were persistent on chasing him; not far behind, though not close enough.

As he ran further and further away, he heard just what he was awaiting. A loud explosion erupted into the sky, peeling through the darkness, lighting it up like the sun had been present. The grin on his face clarified that it was the result of his doing. Screams and fire engines were heard in the distance.

He noticed he was approaching the main bridge that connected the forest to the city, and without hesitation, he ran straight up one of the bright red rails with no problem at all. The fire was burning beneath his feet from his jet shoes and he was at the top of it in seconds. He stood there with his arms folded across his chest, waiting for his prey with a cold look upon his face.

He wasn't a large creature, and seemed to resemble something of a hedgehog, but he had an evil disposition. He was covered from head to toe in ebony fur, despite a tan muzzle, a white tuft of fur on his chest, and red stripes adorning upturned quills. His deep crimson eyes seemed to burn as GUN grew nearer. They practically glowed with hatred.

Lights surrounded him. Screeching halts were heard through the night sky as six police cars and trucks stopped on the bridge; three surrounding the bottom of the platform where he stood, and the other three moved to the center, past their target, in case he decided to move the opposite way. The officers scrambled out of their automobiles, kneeling down on the asphalt behind their open doors, aiming at the black hedgehog. The captain pulled out a megaphone, "Lock on target men! We have you surrounded, put your hands up or we'll shoot!"

The creature shook his head subtly. He breathed out a small laugh with no change of expression as he stared at the humans for a moment before he decided to act. In an instant, he began to grind down the rail on only his jet shoes. His eyes were filled with fury, determination…and his heart mimicked the emotions.

"Fire!"

Bullets flew toward the black menace at a breathtaking speed, but none reached their target. Sparks flew out from beneath his feet and he managed to keep perfect balance as he sped through gunfire from the humans, and robots. He was untouched. Every fire shot at him was just barely a split second too late.

He jumped off the guardrail and began speeding down the center of the bridge, back on asphalt. He ran along the painted yellow lines in the center of the bridge, practically burning the ground beneath. He grinned as he approached a large steel robot standing in his way. He did not slow as the machine came closer into his view, noticing plenty of others like him around, mixed with humans. The machines had thought they had him. The creature formed his right hand into a fist. It began to shake as a ball of light formed within. He came about three feet in front of the steel life form and stopped.

"Hold your fire!" The humans yelled, thinking they would be able to catch this creature alive.

The black hedgehog gave a quick smirk as he felt all of their eyes on him, along with their weapons. The only sound heard was the heavy breathing of the officers around him. He even felt their anxiety and knew they were unaware and alert to what he was going to pull next.

He was as calm as ever, and didn't make a sound. His posture was straight and his stare hard with confidence. His glove burned.

All within the blink of an eye, he lunged into the air with a front flip, and the light that was in his palm encircled him like a white ball of fire. He hovered in the air and stared down his enemies as their fingers went to pull each of their triggers. He raised his arms in the air and threw them in front of him and when they clapped together he yelled "Chaos Spear!"

Bursts of lighting appeared over each individual enemy, eliminating them on the spot. All of the robots and humans exploded after being struck, and their remains were left in lifeless flames. The raven creature landed back on the asphalt, untouched. He was off again, speeding down the bridge, running under falling steel and blood from the tiny explosions.

He could see the end of it: his destination. He turned his head to look behind him, not slowing down a bit. There were walls of fire, dead humans, destroyed robots and machinery, but despite all of that, there was the rest of GUN coming towards him, further down the bridge. The creature noticed and grinned as this was a good thing, that this was part of his plan. He turned his head back around and saw he had finally stepped onto land. He immediately stopped. A ball of energy began to form in his right hand once again.

The humans were growing frustrated. At this point, they didn't care if they captured the animal alive, or dead. "Stop right there! Fire at will men!"

He rose off the ground slowly as bullet after bullet shot at him, the first few sped past him, but a sharp pain jarred itself into his skin directly into the shoulder blade, but he didn't falter. Just as before, a ball of white fire surrounded him. His crimson eyes resembled two violent flames and his outright arms began to shake as he concentrated on energy that kept building. More bullets attempted to wound the black hedgehog again, but the fire repelled them, as if it was some sort of force field. The bullets fell to the ground as soon as they touched it.

"You stupid humans." His voice was filled with hate, and utter disgust. He felt his energy building once again, but much stronger than before, and the humans ceased their fire, as if frightened.

"Retreat! Our weapons are useless! Off of the bridge! I repeat! Retreat now!" yelled the leader of the fleet with panic evident in his voice. The gunfire stopped and they began struggling to make it to the other side opposite the black creature, fearful of what may happen. They ran as fast as they could.

But they were too late.

"Chaos…BLAST!" His deep voice yelled, and at that instant a wave of what seemed like a wall of flames blasted forward, wider and higher then the large bridge. Each cable exploded one by one as it came in contact with this enormous energy at an alarming speed. It left trail of fire and destruction wherever it would strike. The bridge was illuminated in flames as if it were a scene straight out of hell itself.

The side closest to the arsonist fell first and it was not long before the opposite end did the same. The bridge pulled its casualties with it into the dark water just as they were about to make it to safe ground. Cries of pain and agony were heard as the steel and asphalt crashed into the water, and all the black figure did was watch to make sure no one survived. He watched as each human struggled to hold onto their life. He found this ironic. "You obviously do not cherish human life much considering you've taken away a pure and innocent life. She did not deserve to die!" This was the only time there was a hint of pain in his voice. Otherwise, he spoke with a fearful, seething tone. "Why do you struggle to hold onto yours? How dare you destroy one life so easily, yet you refuse to let your own go. You're all pathetic! You have taken her life away, and now…I have taken yours." He closed his eyes, "I am Shadow," the cries slowly began to diminish, as each one of them could no longer hold on to that last strand of life, "the ultimate life form."

He opened his eyes and watched over the cliff, waiting until the silence cleared over the water and death hung in the air. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. His work was finished. Shadow grinned with accomplishment and turned to begin walking to a destination that he wasn't too sure of.

"Not so fast!"

He jerked his head around to the direction he heard the noise: the opposite side of the cliff where the bridge used to connect. He saw a figure, possibly three, but could not make it out too well due to the distance and all of the debris. Though, he could tell it was not human. "Go away, this does not concern you." And with that said, he turned back to where he originally intended walking.

"I think it does!"

He gritted his teeth together and turned around to say something again but the figure opposite of him was gone. He thought for a moment he was hearing things but then when he turned back around he saw a hedgehog jump down from holding onto a fox. The fox must have helped him over the gap, considering the fox was…flying? "Who are you?" Shadow asked

This new hedgehog was staring at Shadow in what seemed to be disbelief. Oddly enough, this creature looked like Shadow's exact copy, despite the color. This one was blue.

"Shadow?" The blue one asked with confusion, having trouble keeping his jaw closed.

"How…do you know my name?" He was sure he had never met this…replica before; he would have remembered something as strange as this.

The blue hedgehog's fur glistened in the moonlight, and just before he could answer Shadow, he heard a distant cry for help.

He wasn't the only one who heard. Shadow's ears picked up instantly on this as well and he jerked his head towards the water. An aggravated emotion covered his face. He noticed another being in the distance helping out a survivor. "Leave this alone, blue hedgehog. They deserve to all die." His right hand began to shake, collecting a ball of light energy again as he stared downward at the black water. The young fox noticed this and his eyes widened.

"So, you barge in here uninvited, take out one of our bridges, you murder a bunch of innocent people just doing their jobs, and you say they deserve it?" The blue one said, walking towards Shadow. He decided to ignore the fact that Shadow was supposed to be dead (he had died a year ago, the blue hedgehog was sure of it–he even saw it,) and focus on stopping this evil act before it got any worse, if that was at all possible.

Shadow stared back at him with a cold look upon his face. He felt the rage within him boil. He pushed the thought of the surviving human to the back of his mind and all of his concentration shifted to this new pest.

The blue one went to grab Shadow, "come on, you fake hedgehog." But before he knew it, in the blink of an eye, Shadow warped from in front of him, to behind him, and grabbed hold of the blue hedgehog's throat. They began to hover above the asphalt.

"Sonic!" yelled the young fox.

"Quiet, you." said Shadow, shooting a quick bolt of light that he was holding at the young concerned, knocking him over into an unconscious state.

"Tails!" Sonic was trying desperately to wiggle out of Shadow's grip, but the only type of movement he managed was turning around and facing his angered double. He looked into the black hedgehog's blood red eyes and saw rage. "Sh-Shadow, don't you…remember me?" He managed to whisper in a raspy voice, though his throat was so tight with force, it was barely audible.

Shadow ignored this and screamed in his deep and powerful voice, "You tell me they're innocent! They are far from it! They destroyed my only family, and took the life of an innocent young girl!" He held onto the blue one's neck tighter, his face matching the color of its fur. He was strangling him, squeezing the life out of him–literally. "They left me with nothing! Now I am alone, without my Maria. I promised her revenge, and I will have it. That is the only reason for my existence now. They will know what it is to have their lives taken away from them as they did to me. Nothing…not even some damned blue fake is going to stop me." No longer was there as much rage in his eyes, but an obvious presence of extreme pain.

Sonic was overcome with fear as he dangled in Shadow's grasp, trying to find a way to escape. He felt his lungs about to quit on him from lack of oxygen. His eyelids were fluttering, eyes rolling to the back of his head, feeling himself almost in an unconscious state. Just before he thought he was out of ideas, he noticed the bullet wound on Shadow's shoulder. He managed to move a hand away from the struggle, and used the last bit of his strength to forcefully dig two fingers deep within the fresh wound, applying as much pressure as he could.

The ebony creature let out a cry of pain. His hold was immediately released and Sonic dropped to the ground next to his unconscious fox friend, coughing uncontrollably.

Shadow fell back. He had forgotten a bullet had struck him before considering it didn't hurt much until that menace decided to pull a stunt like that. He stood to his feet nonetheless, peering down on his coughing copy. He held his shoulder, blood dripping on his fingers, through his gloves. "Nice trick hedgehog. You've just given me more reason to destroy you."

And with that said…the black hedgehog fell, unconscious, revealing a crimson creature behind him. The blow to the back of Shadow's neck hit a pressure point and knocked him out cold.

Sonic held a hand to his neck, feeling that it was bruised when he applied the slightest pressure. The coughing calmed down, but was still there. "What took you so long?" He asked with a raspy voice. He was just able to get it slightly above a whisper. "I was wondering…where you got to…as I was practically dead. Sheesh."

Knuckles could barely hear him, but he did. He shook his head and rolled his eyes. Even near death Sonic never lost that attitude of his. "Just be thankful I was here in time." He moved to help his blue friend to his feet.

Sonic shook his head, denying the help, and managed to stand on his own. "I could've done it by myself. " He looked around, still rubbing his neck, then turned back to his friend. "Did anyone survive?"

Knuckles shook his head with a sad look on his face. "No…One called out for help, but when I got to him, he was dead by the time I moved him to land. That's when I heard Shadow screaming at you."

Sonic let out a sigh of disappointment. He was angry and hurt with himself that he didn't arrive in time to rescue anyone from this disaster, considering he was trying to save people from the explosion Shadow caused in the city as well. "I don't understand what is up with Shadow though. We all thought he died a year ago…and now here he is, murdering people and trying to kill me too." His voice was still quiet from the strangulation.

"I don't know either, Sonic." He moved to Tails lying motionless on the ground. He picked up the injured kit in his arms, looking over him thoroughly. "I think he's going to be alright, he isn't injured badly. Just unconscious and a little burnt. All of Shadow's energy he built up mustn't have been completely directed to Tails at once."

Sonic nodded to Knuckles in response to his news on Tails. He walked over to the unconscious dark hedgehog, kneeling beside him. "Maybe we should take him back home, to see what's up."

"What!" Knuckles walked over to him with the kit still in his arms, "he just tried to kill you, and you want him as a houseguest?"

"Just to see what is up. He died while we were saving earth, and all of a sudden, poof, hello afterlife, and killing is his new hobby."

"Exactly, so why do you want that in the comfort of your own home? And where are we going to put him? When he wakes up he is going to be mighty pissed off."

"Yeah, I know…But he seemed a new person before when we battled that creature together, and he became my friend. He wanted to save earth and its people, not destroy them. Maybe we can get that back. Maybe Eggman has something to do with this." He held his throat, struggling to talk, "And we can stick him in Tails' smaller workshop for now, in my backyard. Not even a bulldozer could break that thing down with the crap our little buddy here made the walls out of. He can just stay there until he calms down, and if it gets too out of hand, we call the police. But I have a feeling we can get through to him."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

He bent down, looking over Shadow. "I just have a feeling. I'm not going to give up on him this easily. There's something wrong. He was my friend."

"Who just tried to murder you."

Sonic ignored him. His mind was made up. He was too stubborn to let anyone talk him out of something when he decided on it. "We need to take the Chaos Emerald off him though so he can't do that…that thing…that he does." Sonic made a thoughtful face, snapping his fingers, trying to think of the right words. "You remember that thing…that makes him warp places?"

Knuckles smirked, "chaos control?"

Sonic pointed at him, "that's it."

Sonic jumped up quickly. He heard sirens approaching and a disappointed look covered his face. "About time they got here. Come on, I don't feel like being interviewed right now." He bent back down and picked up Shadow, one arm under his legs, the other behind his shoulders, mindful of the bullet wound that was still seeping blood. He cast his eyes to the ground, speaking just above a whisper, but Knuckles was still able to hear, "especially since I didn't get here in time to save anyone."