Chapter 33: Farewell

"...Fine!" The purple glow disappeared from Scourge's body, the hedgehog giving up his invincible state. "Happy?! Now hand her over!"

"Who said anything about handing her over?" The ebony agent raised his eye-ridge questioningly, a smug smirk finding its way to his face—both of these gestures immediately sending Scourge's blood boiling.

The green hedgehog lunged forward, planning to get his girlfriend from Shadow's hold by force. "You mother—!"

The sound of gunshot echoed across the once-battlefield.

And Scourge fell to the ground unmoving.

...With a tranquilizer shot sticking out from his behind.

"Huh? Where did that come from?" Sonic asked in a mild confusion, turning his head around as he tried to pin point the person that had shot Scourge, Knuckles doing the same.

However, Shadow was able to immediately zero in on the shooter. "Took you long enough."

"Well, somebody needed to catch all the prisoners that were set free because of your rampaging," the shooter replied as he made a step out of his hiding spot so he could be fully seen by the others. The Other Shadow frowned as he rested the tranquilizer gun on his shoulder. "Two hundred forty-five escaped prisoners and I had to shot half of them." The ebony agent walked over to the unconscious criminal, forcing the limp body to roll over with his foot to check Scourge was truly out cold. Once he confirmed this he slung the green hedgehog over his shoulder, planning to take the criminal to the nearest zone cop so he could be returned back to his cell—well, if it still was intact. "Shooting on a moving target apparently isn't a strength of many zone cops."

The Other Shadow raised his eyes from the ground to look at Fiona, who still had the apathetic look on her face, the ebony agent wondering for a moment why she looked like that. But then he sensed the left-over energy of the chaos technique which had been used on her. Crimson eyes narrowed slightly as they met their mirror image. "Who is this girl?"

"Somebody whom Zonic has to see right now," Shadow responded, putting away the no longer necessary gun. "Do you know where he is?"

The Other Shadow frowned, not liking the sketchy answer of his alter-ego. However, he knew himself good enough to know Shadow surely had a good reason to not tell him—this of course piqued his curiosity even more, but he knew Shadow wouldn't tell him no matter how much he would ask. "He was in the weapon vault the last time I've seen him, however, I doubt he's still there."

"Hmph, thanks anyway," Shadow said before he picked up the still unresponsive fox into his arms and raced away to find the hedgehog zone cop.

The Other Shadow frowned as he looked around the battlefield. He could see Knuckles carrying Dr. Eggman away—the man had been knocked-out when Scourge kicked his robot into the building—but Sonic was nowhere to be seen.

The ebony hedgehog sighed as he rearranged the green hedgehog on his shoulder and then set off to deliver his own criminal to the zone police.

~O~

It took Shadow about ten minutes to find Zonic, who, surprisingly, was talking with Sonic. The blue blur was holding a person that appeared to be an identical twin of Fiona Fox. But Shadow knew how far from truth this was.

But this strange sight got him thinking. Why would faker carry him all they way here? Does he know about the swap?

The ebony agent strained his ears to listen on the conversation, deciding to not interfere for now.

"—That is not possible," Zonic stated in a tone of someone who was one hundred percent sure that the person to whom they were speaking was the one wrong here.

"Zonic, just—"

"Don't make me repeat myself, Sonic!" the head zone cop was now hissing, "It's not possible! We check everyone's zone address right before we send them into the Zone Jail exactly for these reasons—it's impossible for a swap to happen!"

"And yet it happened!" the blue hero responded, not letting himself get affected anyhow by Zonic's tone as he knew the head zone cop was just stressed from the difficult morning. "I swear, Zonic! He's innocent, he even fought on our side! I've seen his true form! Just do the test again, please!"

Shadow was sure now. He knows. "He's telling the truth."

Both blue hedgehogs turned to him in surprise. Zonic's scowl just deepened while Sonic raised an questioning eye-ridge on his sudden appearance. "Shadow?"

"The swap happened not long after you've imprisoned the real Fiona Fox—with the help of Dr. Nega she escaped and the replaced herself with that Sonic so you wouldn't notice she was missing," Shadow explained, gesturing to the still unconscious masked hero with his head as his arms were still occupied with holding the real Fiona. "She told me so herself."

"Wait a minute," Zonic walked past his alter-ego to the ebony agent. "So the girl that you are holding—"

"—Is the real Fiona Fox," Shadow finished for him and then watched as the color started to slowly leave Zonic's face, the head zone cop obviously mortified that something like this had happened under his watch.

The head zone cop took a deep breath to calm himself down before speaking up in an emotionless manner once more, switching on his business side to deal with this. "Even though I know neither of you really has a reason to lie to me, I still need some evidence to confirm your claims. Please, take both of them to the laboratory—hopefully, it hasn't been damaged—and ask the staff to run the usual zone address test on their blood. I'll come in half an hour for the results."

"Sure thing, Zonic!" Sonic replied as he set off for the laboratory, Shadow silently trailing after him.

~O~

Zonic continued to stare at the paper in his hands in disbelief. "How could this happen...?" I should have noticed something was off! Nobody was has ever been so desperate to try to escape 38 times! Zonic's curled his free hand into a fist, feeling angry at himself; he was a zone cop, his job was to punish the villains and protect the innocent people!

Not the other way around...

"Don't let it bring you down, Zonic! Mistakes happen all the time! But we caught this one so we can fix it!" Sonic said, hoping it would cheer up the dispirited zone cop at least a little.

"An innocent person has been imprisoned for months, Sonic! On my watch! How am I supposed to stop thinking about something like that?!" Zonic shouted, his inner voice insisting it was all his fault because he hadn't been observant enough.

Sonic opened his mouth to speak but before any word could leave his mouth Shadow was already talking, this being the ebony's agent first time to speak since Zonic had arrived. "Brooding over things is pointless, you should try to make things right, instead of wasting energy on self-blaming."

"Whoa, Shads, that was...really deep," the blue hero said, earning himself a glare from the dark hedgehog with this comment.

Zonic unclenched his fist. "...You're right, I should make things right—I will...I will send him home right once he'll wake up," Zonic decided as he sat down, looking over to the door behind which the Other Sonic was sleeping at the moment—the blue hero had yet to wake up after the small operation that he had to undergo in order to get the microchip—which made him look like Fiona for the last few months—out of his body.

The head zone cop sighed as he read over the coordinates printed on the paper again to ensure they would stick in his memory—he needed to correct the unintentional wrongdoing, even if it was just by sending the hero home.

Zonic read over the coordinates one more time, suddenly realizing he had already seen these exact coordinates somewhere. Blue eye-ridges furrowed in deep thought as he tried to remember where it was.

No way! Zonic sharply stood up, slightly surprising the other two hedgehogs. However, the head zone cop didn't plan to explain his behavior to those two as there were much more important things he needed to pay his attention to.

With a quick, "Excuse me for a moment," he left the scene, planning to find out if he was right or mistaken.

~O~

Blue eye-lids slowly opened, revealing the green orbs underneath them. The Other Sonic blinked slowly, slightly confused as he hadn't remembered going to sleep. The last thing he remembered was fighting Scourge—

The blue hero sharply sat up in alarm at the idea that Scourge might still be nearby, a jolt of pain shooting through his side at the movement. The Other Sonic hissed, immediately looking over to his side which was covered in bandages—

Breath hitched in the Other Sonic's throat as he realized his fur was back to its original colors and that he no longer had the orange prison uniform. Green eyes traveled across the room, noticing its hospital-like whiteness and obvious lack of murderous purple hedgehogs.

The blue hero's heart slowly started to decrease its pace as its owner realized he wasn't in danger anymore; though he was still little nervous because he had no idea what exactly had happened when he was unconscious.

The Other Sonic grimaced slightly when his bare feet touched the cold ground, the sensation slightly uncomfortable. He slowly got up from the bed and started searching the room for some footwear. However, even two minutes later he still had nothing.

Where am I anyway? he wondered as he didn't recognize the room. It surely wasn't any part of the Zone Jail; he was very familiar with every single part of its infirmary as he had ended there numerous times because of his escape attempts.

I have no chains on me, there are no guards, I look normal again...Maybe, I just got into some fight and dreamed the whole prison thing...

With this thought the Other Sonic opened the only door leading from the room, curious if what he was gonna find at the other side wouldconfirm or deny his theory.

He surely didn't expect himself to be sitting there.

~O~

"Hey, there! Great to see you're back on your feet so soon!" Sonic grinned widely, practically jumping out of his seat to greet his alter-ego. Though the Other Sonic didn't look very happy to see him—or maybe he was just confused about why he was here in the first place.

Sonic slung his arm over his look-alike's shoulder, his grin widening even more. "Which one do you want to hear first? The good news or the better news?"

The Other Sonic frowned slightly, obviously unsure what to make of his double's enthusiasm. "Er...the good news?"

"You are officially a free man once again!" Sonic announced excitedly and gestured to Shadow, who was just silently observing the blue duo. "You can thank for that Shadow over here! He caught the real Fiona!"

The Other Sonic opened his mouth to speak, but before he could even utter one word, Shadow was already speaking, "Take that as a return of favor when you stopped Scourge from tearing me to shreds."

The Other Sonic chuckled at this. It reminded him of a certain hedgehog... "Still...thank you."

Shadow just grunted in response.

The Other Sonic waited a few seconds and when it didn't seem like he would get more words from the ebony hedgehog, the Other Sonic turned his attention back to his alter-ego. "What are those other news?"

Sonic looked slightly confused for a second before he remembered what they had been speaking about before. "Oh, yes! You are being send home today!"

A mix of emotions flashed across the Other Sonic's face before a look of hope settled there. "R-really?"

Sonic would have probably smiled even more if it was physically possible. "Yeah. Zonic said he'll send you home as soon as you wake up. Though it seems we'll have to find him, he suddenly run off without—" Before Sonic could even finish his speech, he was enveloped in a tight hug that he hadn't expected.

The Other Sonic was holding on him as if his life depended on it, slightly stuttering over his words as he tried to keep himself from crying in happiness. "T-thank you, thank you so much."

Sonic laughed nervously. He couldn't imagine how great it must be to hear such news after four months of being locked up somewhere. "I don't you should be hugging me, it was mostly Shadow's work, really."

The Other Sonic mumbled something, Sonic's ears not able to pick it up. "Sorry, I haven't quite caught that."

The Other Sonic chuckled as he let go of his double, a smirk on his face. "He would punch me before I even had the chance."

Sonic mirrored the expression. "Yeah, Shadow doesn't really like physical conta—Wait a minute, where did he go?"

Both hedgehogs looked around the hallway, but neither of them could spot even a glimpse of the ebony agent—instead there was a completely different person approaching. Sonic immediately waved at the newcomer. "Hey, Zector! Good to see you unharmed! What a crazy morning, right?"

The crocodile zone cop laughed once he reached them. "Believe it or not. We had worse," golden eyes turned from the cobalt hero to the other blue hedgehog, their reptile owner confused for a moment why there were two Sonics. "Oh! You must be that another Sonic! Sorry for the whole, er, imprisoning you thing! This kind of stuff hasn't really happened to us before—!" Zector was no babbling and making wild gestures, the sight making the Other Sonic snort in amusement. At least Vector was the same everywhere.

"It's alright, don't beat yourself over it."

"...Uh, that's not really the reaction I expected..." Zector said, clearly surprised; however, he recovered just a moment later. "Anyway, Zonic has send me for you two—seems both of you are being send home!"

To this day, Zector still doesn't understand why only one of Sonics looked happy upon hearing these news.

~O~

"So, what will be the first thing you'll do when you return home?" Sonic asked, wanting to pass the time with a conversation—Zonic had given Zector the order that all non-No-Zoners were to be send home all at once and Zector still had to find both Shadows and Knuckles.

"I guess, I'll go to see my friends—and then maybe get some new pair of shoes," the Other Sonic joked, swinging his still shoe-less feet. "And you?"

"Probably the same, well, sans the shoe part," Sonic responded, grinning, "Who will you visit first?"

At this the bare-footed hero had to think for a moment. "Perhaps Shadow or Tails..."

"Hmm? Shadow first? What an unexpected choice," Sonic commented, "I mean I don't know what you Shadow is like, but mine pretty much hates my guts."

"Mine used to be like that too until a year ago."

"Oh, really what changed?"

"We..." the other blue hero paused for a moment, looking down on his toes as he deeply pondered over his answer, "...started dating."

This information set off an alarm in Sonic's head. No, that can't be...the chances of that happening are like bazillion to none! "Ehm, how long have you been stuck in this jail?"

"Huh?" The Other Sonic raised his eye-ridge, slightly puzzled by the sudden change of topic. "About four months. Why are you asking?"

Sonic's eyes widened. No way! "Well—"

"Hmm, I didn't know there was somebody beside us."

Both blue hedgehogs turned their attention towards the new voice, which belonged to the very familiar Ultimate Life form. The ebony agent gave them an a contemplative look before moving to the other side of the room to sit there.

He's the Other one... Sonic judged by the ebony hedgehog's remark. Green eyes jumped from the hedgehog sitting next to him to the one across him repeatedly. He still wasn't sure if these two truly were from the same world even though all the clues pointed in this direction. But Sonic didn't want to act upon unconfirmed information and possibly bring even more suffering to the two and so he decided to keep his mouth shut—because if they truly were from the same world, they would end up meeting each other there, right? They would find each other even without his help...

It took only few minutes for Knuckles and Shadow to arrive, surprisingly, accompanied by Zonic, who upon entering the room looked all of them over, his gaze visibly lingering at the Other Sonic and Other Shadow longer than on anybody else. Sonic didn't need more confirmation that his theory was right, but he still decided that letting Zonic reveal this information would be better.

Zonic walked over to the blue duo, his green eyes visibly fixated on the Other Sonic, who was now looking curiously at his alter-ego as despite being in the Zone Jail for so long he hadn't really had the chance too meet Zonic yet because the head zone cop was always running around solving problems.

"Please, let me introduce myself. I am Zonic, the head zone cop of the zone police. I would like to formally apologize to you for falsely imprisoning you. I am also sorry to say that we cannot offer no other compensation beside an assistance with helping you return back to your home-world and a promise that the zone police will do everything in its power that a case like yours won't happen again."

It was obvious that Zonic wasn't apologizing solely out of a duty but because he truly felt like he had wronged the blue hero. The Other Sonic smiled at this.

"I think that'll be enough. I don't really wish for anything else than to finally return home."

"Very well, then. Could you walk over to the portal number 2 then, please?" Zonic gestured to the aforementioned piece of technology, the Other Sonic immediately doing as he was asked. Sonic blinked in slight surprise at the evident lack of any mention of the Other Shadow and the Other Sonic being from the same world in Zonic's speech. Maybe they really weren't from the same world?

"Sonic, can you, please, join Shadow and Knuckles?" Zonic's voice drew the blue hero back from his thoughts, making Sonic immediately jumped out of his seat. Sonic then walked over to the portal no.1, wondering how deep in thought he must have been that he hadn't noticed the aforementioned duo walk over there.

Green eyes turned to look back at the Other Shadow, who was already heading for the portal number 3, despite the fact that Zonic hadn't given him any instruction yet, as he assumed it would be the one he would be using. However, Zonic's voice, which sounded just a moment later, confirmed this to be a wrong assumption, "Shadow, could you please join Sonic at portal number two? You two are headed for the same world."

It took exactly two seconds for everybody's brains to realize the implication of Zonic's words.

~O~

But neither of the Other-worlders believed they have heard right. "Did you just say—?"

"That you two are from the same world?" Zonic finished the question with a small smile on his face. "Yes, I said exactly that."

Slowly the two hedgehogs turned their gaze from Zonic to each other and just stared, neither of the two making a move to get closer as both were having trouble believing that this was really happening.

However, only a few seconds later the Other Shadow managed to overcome his initial shock and finally walk over to his partner. Not even a second later the Other Sonic found himself being hugged by his ebony lover, the blue hero eagerly returning the embrace.

"I thought I'll never see you again..." It was a mere whisper but it was still loud enough for the Other Sonic's ears to catch, tears accumulating in the corner of his green eyes as the Other Shadow's soft words and warm embrace felt exactly like what he remembered the home to be.

"M-me too," the Other Sonic's voice broke in the middle of his short sentence as his mind kept screaming only one thing, Home, home, I am home!

"Please, don't let this be a dream..." the dark agent mumbled, earning himself a snort of amusement from his blue and peach lover, who then pulled away slightly so their eyes could meet.

"If it is, then I never want to wake up," the Other Sonic replied, his green eyes sparkling with happiness and looking much more alive than a few minutes ago while his lips were stretched in a wide toothy smile.

The Other Shadow leaned slightly forward, mumbling short "Me neither," before closing the gap between them and connecting their lips in a soft loving kiss.

This emotional moment would have probably continued on much longer if it wasn't for Knuckles suddenly speaking up, "Why can't I look away?!"

The Other-worlders separated and turned to the red echidna who have reminded them that were actually other people in the room beside them. The Other Sonic's cheeks turned slightly pink in embarrassment, the color change of his face accompanied by a nervous laugh. The Other Shadow just looked irritated at being interrupted like this.

"Maybe because you want to do the same with Rouge?" Sonic answered jokingly Knuckles' question and then bent down to avoid the fist that was send his way by the echidna.

"I don't want to do anything with that bat!"

"Suuure..." Sonic replied in a tone that clearly said that he didn't believe him that all.

"I'm serious!"

"You're just in denial, Knux."

"I'm not—"

"Can we get back to the matter at hand, please?"

All people turned to Zonic, who was now standing at the control panel that operated the portals, the hedgehog zone cop clearly waiting for all of them to calm down.

Knuckles send one last glare Sonic's way before hissing, "Sure."

"Thank you," Zonic said and then clicked few buttons on the panel. Just a moment later, a multi-colored vortex formed inside each portal. "Both portals will close in five minutes, so if you have anything to say to each other, please, do it quickly."

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Sonic commented turning to the other-worldy pair.

The Other Shadow nodded. "Seems so."

Sonic chuckled. "Well, thanks for the help and you," Sonic was now talking to his alter-ego, "be nice to him. He's gone through a lot since you were away."

"I will, don't worry," the Other Sonic answered, deciding to leave the question how did his alter-ego know his lover for later—Shadow surely would explain it to him. "Take care."

"I don't think I'll need to when there's no Dr. Eggman around," Sonic joked, referring to the fact that the zone police had decided to sentence the doctor to one year in the Zone Jail for attacking the No Zone. Sonic was actually looking forward to this Eggman-less vacation.

And like this they parted, all of them leaving the No Zone through they respective portals.

~O~

After stepping out of the portal the trio of heroes found themselves at an edge of a forest. Shadow guessed they were somewhere near the Station Square as a silhouette of the aforementioned city could be seen at the horizon.

"Well, that was one crazy adventure, don't you think?" Sonic commented, hoping to strike conversation with either of the two males. However, the only answer Sonic got was 'Indeed' from him as Knuckles was too busy with reading something at a cell-phone that he had taken out of his shoe just a moment ago.

A moment later the guardian started cursing, the words 'bat' and 'emerald' being the only thing that Shadow's ears were able to catch. It wasn't hard to figure out that Rouge must have stolen the Master Emerald again. The fact that echidna then said a quick goodbye and set off, all the while mumbling about strangling a certain bat, convinced Shadow that he was right. He could hear Sonic silently laugh at this, Shadow himself smirking a little as apart from the oblivious echidna both of them were aware that Rouge had other motives besides wanting to expand her collection of gems.

Sonic stared after the slowly retreating form of his red friend for a long time, before he suddenly turned to him with a questioning look on his face. "So...Wanna race?"

Shadow couldn't stop himself from sighing in the 'This again?' manner. "I have to report back to the GUN about what happened with Doctor and I'm sure there's a number of people to which you should show you're alive."

Shadow noticed how blue ears drooped ever so slightly, a sign that Sonic was unhappy about his answer. However, the blue hero didn't let it show at his face, the trademark grin still planted on the blue hero's face. "Well, I guess we'll have to leave it for later then." Sonic turned to look at the city, most likely planning which of his friends he would visit first.

"—I see a short happy life a better alternative to living a long miserable life—"

A memory of the happy couple, which he had seen just minutes ago, flashed through Shadow's mind.

"—But if you prefer the latter..."

It was at that moment that Shadow made a decision.

"Sonic?"

He didn't wish to push people away anymore.

"Yes?" Sonic turned to him, a curious look on his face.

He didn't wish to push Sonic away anymore.

"Let's race to the city."

And maybe one day...

Peach mouth stretched into a wide grin. "You're on!"

He'll get his chance.

The End