Summary

How far would you go for love? To the ends of the earth and back again. For Sonic, love proves to be a killer. A strong, powerful, sly, cunning hedgehog. Potentially evil. Hang on, something's seriously wrong here. Change is on the horizon. The Blue Blur with another deadly secret and the emotionally rollercoaster that comes with being different.

Chapter Contents

Chapter One – Different

Chapter Two – Robbed

Chapter Three – Transformation

Chapter Four – Reborn

Chapter Five – Vanished

Chapter Six – Consequences

Chapter Seven – Quadruple

Chapter Eight – Instinct

Chapter Nine – Chaos

Chapter Ten – Linked

Chapter Eleven – Dubbed

Chapter Twelve – Cure

Chapter Thirteen – Emeralds

Chapter One – Different

What do you do when your the fastest thing alive? Have a ball? All the time? No. Life wasn't that straight forward. Having super-speed comes with major responsibility. Even though from the way you act, everyone doesn't think so. It comes down to the laws of physics, you know, speed times acceleration equals force. For example, If you fall, traveling at speed, the force of it would kill you. It comes with risks, big ones, but trying to explain that, everyone just laughs. You make it look so easy.

This was a daily dilemma for Sonic The Hedgehog, yes, he did make it look easy. But he had been doing it all of his life, he literally knew nothing else. He also knew that there were people who would do anything to get at his powers. That's what scared him. Such a high level Chaos power, such as super-speed, comes with a heavy price tag. An extremely heavy price tag, as both he and Shadow The Hedgehog knew only to well. His long, royal blue quills flowing down his back, shimmering in the moonlight through the window, his long legs, dangling over the edge of the bed, swaying too and fro, his cherry red shoes with the famous red stripe shining in the evening light. His white gloved hands supporting himself on the edge of the bed as he sat there thinking.

For Shadow, the price he'd paid for his super-speed and Chaos powers was the death of a loved one, his only loved one, Maria. Which was extremely harsh, but Sonic had paid his own price for his powers. He was faster that Shadow, always will be and there was nothing the black hedgehog could do about it. There was a good reason for it. Sonic was cursed, and as a creature of Chaos light, being cursed with evil was hell. This was his price tag and he hated it. The curse was the source of his super-speed. Chaos only enhanced it. Shadow's powers of super-speed was purely Chaos based and therefore somewhat limited by them. There were times, when Sonic would've have given anything to swap places with Shadow. Yes, the death of Maria was extremely sad, and yes, it had nearly destroyed him, but at least you can recover, you can move on.

Sonic didn't have that luxury, and this constantly played on his mind. He stood in his room in Tails' house, thinking, all alone, the middle of the night outside. Sonic always found the darkness comforting and very rarely, especially these days, slept through the night.

Tails' house is a large house with two large bedrooms. One each for Sonic and Tails, and a bathroom upstairs, and a large open-plan lounge-kitchen-diner downstairs which was in a large L shape, the small kitchen was set towards the back of the house and the lounge towards the front. There wasn't exactly a dining room there, but a large breakfast bar which was doubled as kitchen work surface.

The lounge took up all of the front of the house, along the longest edge of the L shaped room and there were sofas everywhere. All misshaped, all different sizes and colours. There was enough space to sit ten to twenty people. To the side of the kitchen was the staircase, which run up through the centre of the house and the other side of that was another large room. It was separate from the open-plan living space and could only be entered and exited by a single door. It was Tails' Workshop. Sonic had not idea what went on inside that room most of the time, but it was very grateful of it, the inventions that came out of there had saved his life on more then one occasion.

Even though this was technically Tail's house and Sonic was a permanent guest in his 'guest' room, Knuckles was another semi-permanent guest who could often be found lounging on one of Tails' sofas. But the kid fox did get a 'hell of lot of visitors' in Sonic's opinion, as almost all of their counter attack plans against Eggman were always derived at Tails' House. How the hell Eggman hadn't found them yet, was completely beyond Sonic's comprehension and right at that very moment, Eggman was the least of his concerns. He was still sat on his bed in his room. A large square room with the door in one corner and in his bed in the opposite corner, with a window next to it. Around the edge of the room there was a wardrobe, a chester draws, a desk and chair and a bed side table. In the centre of the room, there was a large amount of floor space, of which Sonic liked to just lie on the floor in the middle of it.

The room was white and very bland. Sonic had very little in material wealth, items he could truly call his own, but he did have a thing for photographs. Every flat surface was covered in framed photographs, most of which were of Sonic and Tails when they were small children. There were, however, photographs of everyone he called a 'friend'. Knuckles, of course, Cream and Cheese, Big The Cat.

Amy. Why she was there, he had no idea, she did his head-in but he had be seen in keeping up appearances.

Team Chaotix. Sonic smiled, when he saw that photo of Vector, Charmy and Espio. How those guys managed to make any money from their Detective Agency they ran was a mystery in its own right. But they were good guys and could always be relied upon if he needed anything.

The Babylon Rogues. He found himself staring at the photo of Jet. He growled at him. Jet may have known how to have fun at a Grand Prix but Sonic didn't trust him. He was desperate, and desperate people can be dangerous. Jet might do something he might regret, to do anything to beat Sonic anywhere. He really wasn't keen.

Finally there was a photo of E123 Omega, Rouge and Shadow. Shadow didn't look to impressed about caught on camera. Sonic's eyes moved to this photo and he smiled broadly. He was head of heals in love with the Shadow. He had been ever since he'd met him. His groin began to tingle, as it always did when he thought of that gorgeous black hedgehog. Shadow always looked spotless whenever he saw him, and he always wandered how the hell he did that. Sonic always looked scruffy, no matter what he did. It just wasn't fair.

Sonic didn't care anymore about what people thought about his love for Shadow. To be honest, his curse was more of a concern and he had become extremely good at hiding it. As for Amy, he hated her. He didn't just hate her, he downright loathed her and he would do anything to permanently get rid of her. One idea that had crossed his mind, was to swipe her memory and sell her to a brothel. There, she would never bother him again. He giggled at that. It was a very un-Sonic-like way of thinking. It was his curse and Shadow's influence getting the better of him. This was happening more and more these days. The evil in his curse getting stronger and his the Chaos light within him shrinking. It was like it was eating him from the inside out, a very unpleasant feeling but not painful.

This worried Sonic. He has tried everything, but nothing worked. He was born this way and there nothing he could do to stop it. One day, he could be as dark as Shadow, maybe worse. That was the thing about Chaos. It was pure, extremely pure. So pure, in fact, that it didn't care whether Sonic was good or evil, it could do either perfectly. To be of pure goodness which he had done regularly or pure evil, which he hadn't done, or rather, been push into doing...yet. This had been making the curse more difficult to hide in recent weeks but he was still certain that no one knew. Sonic turned and walked towards the open window, looking out. A warm clear night outside, all quiet along the rolling hills and valleys of Tails' rural neighbourhood. He sighed.

Changes were happening, big changes and he could feel it. He didn't how much longer he would be able to stay or keep his friends. He also had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to keep his secret for much longer and potentially be forced into leaving. His suspicions were confirmed the next day, though he didn't know it when a meeting was called. Nothing unusual there. It was just another 'Anti-Eggman' meeting. They had those all of the time. But this meeting was to prove the beginning of the end of Sonic's life as he knew it.

The usual suspects were there, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Cream and Cheese, Big The Cat...

'They really shouldn't be here.' Sonic used to think, 'They could get themselves hurt.' But the rabbit and the cat always surprised him, despite their shortcomings. Team Chaotix were also there, their go-to guys for stuff. Amy, who insisted on clinging to his left arm, which extremely annoyed him. But to his delight, Shadow was there. Sonic shouldn't have been surprised to see the love of his life there, Shadow was very curious about Sonic and his friends, attending every meeting, but very rarely took part in any missions. Every since the incident on the Ark, he had gone to them. He had no memories and needed help. He received with a lot of aggression from them, and was asked to leave, but Sonic managed to convince his friends to give the black hedgehog a chance. To prove his trustworthiness, which he has done since, repeatedly. Sonic was the only one who stood up for him. Why? Two things, one, Sonic's loved him and two, he saw the black hedgehog was innocent in all of this. He had not been born evil, he has been created that way, he hadn't had the choice, he had been forced into it.

Sonic had the suspicion that Shadow choose him and his friends, because they never really told him what to do. Requested his help, made suggestions, yes, but never gave him a direct order, which Eggman did constantly. He felt here that he was free, free to make a choice, to help them or not. Freedom was something Shadow's life had been constantly lacking. Imprisoned from birth, forced to carry out orders against his will, freedom was something he cherished whenever it came in his direction. This low-life group of juvenile sapients gave him some freedom, and he was willing to put up the stupid antics to have it.

Sonic glanced over to Shadow. He was stood at the other end of the lounge, in the shadows, unemotional, his back against the wall, listening intently to the conversation, not paying the slightest bit of attention to him. This was usual for the black hedgehog. But Sonic still loved him for it, anyway. He got that tingling feeling again. 'Stop it!' He told his brain.

Eggman had been building a new base close to Tails' house. It was to too close for comfort and finding ways of taking it out, was the current topic of the conversation.

"Right, the location of the new base lies on the intersection of districts 26, 27, 28 and 29. Whoa, this thing is massive!" Tails had been reading out from an intelligence chart, showing it to the rest of the group. His house was in district 32, when meant that the base was only a few miles away. Districts was how Eggman had divided up the land in his territory. Each district was only a mile square and Tails' house was in the middle of it, despite the fact it was there first. Tails' house has been in his family for centuries and Eggman had only taken over the area a few decades earlier. Therefore it had to be destroyed. "Currently, the base is about six weeks from completion." Tails continued. "Any ideas?"

"Go in, destroy the place and get out!" Sonic said as a side comment, "Isn't that what we normally do!" He giggled.

Everyone looked at him, thoroughly unimpressed. Tailed glared at him.

"No, seriously, how are we going to take out the base?"

"Actually, the idiot has a point..."

Silence reigned across the entire room. The person who has just spoke had a eerie ice cold voice that could have only come from one person...Shadow. Everyone stared. Shadow may have attended all of these meetings but he rarely spoke. Sonic got that tingling feeling again, which he tried to shake off. Shadow didn't move from his location in the shadows and his voice remained ice cold and emotionless. He seemed to turn towards Tails.

"You said that the base was six weeks from completion. That means that the main generation that powers the whole place isn't up and running yet. Destroy that and you will put Eggman's plans back somewhat."

"And how the hell would you know that." Knuckles jested.

There was a short silence, but Sonic had the suspicion, even though you couldn't see him in the shadows, that Shadow was smirking.

"I used to work for him, remember!" His voice now even colder. Silence filled the room again.

"I'm surprised you do, I thought Eggman had swiped your memory." Rouge asked.

Ah...That was purely Sonic's doing. Some months ago, he had managed to persuade Shadow to accompany him on an adventure, which he hated doing, but this time was different. It had involved some ancient Chaotic symbols he has found on a temple in the middle of a jungle. Sonic had wanted Shadow's opinion on them. As it turns out, they spoke of a Dark Angel that had fallen to the ground and was destined to save the world. Either way, what happen in the temple involved all seven Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald (which they had temporarily borrowed) and a lot of light. The net result was Shadow getting his memory fully restored. He could remember everything. Absolutely everything. From his non-existent childhood, where he went from an infant to an adult in just sixteen days and from the Ark and Maria to Sonic and Eggman.

This blow Shadow's mind, and he started grieving for Maria all over again. He also wasn't best pleased with Sonic and left quite abruptly. Sonic hadn't seen much of him since then, but today he seemed calm about the whole affair. Scarily calm in fact. It seems that he had managed to deal with his memories flooding back to him and put his past behind him, again. Sonic was amazed that Shadow still willing to be among them. He had chosen to be there.

Sonic could feel Shadow's eyes on him. Shadow was aware that no one apart from Sonic and himself knew of what happened. Despite his initial anger with Sonic, Shadow had been extremely grateful to him for restoring his memories, but like hell he was going to tell him.

Shadow then shot a glance at Rouge, all eyes in the room on him. There was some anger in his voice.

"Things change!" he spat at her. He glared at her but continued. "I have a suspicion where the generator might be. Eggman has the tendency to build his bases to a set blueprint..."

Rouge cut across him.

"A blueprint you happen to remember." She mocked him.

Shadow moved out from the shadows and walked right up to Rouge, silently and very fast, staring at her, his nose a few inches from hers. He hissed.

"Every detail!" His voice was ice cold and no more then a whisper. Shadow had a look in his eyes that had never been there before. A spark. Before, his eyes were always blank, due to his lack of memory. Rouge gulped. In fact most of them did. Shadow had been dangerous before, but now he had his memory fully restored, he potentially more dangerous as he was now extremely unpredictable. Sonic too was scared. He was beginning to think that restoring Shadow's memory may not a been such a good idea. Rouge got here nerves back and spoke.

"What happened to you?"

Shadow smirked, he was getting colder by the second.

"I have been... enlightened." He said mockingly, but before Rouge could say anything, he continued. "Do you want my help in destroying this base or not?" He was growing very impatient.

Before anyone could say anything, Tails ran across the room and put himself between Rouge and Shadow, facing the black hedgehog.

"Yes please." The fox pleaded. Tails knew that he was their only chance to stop Eggman. "What do we need to do?"

Shadow lip curled as he agreed. He was the centre of attention and for once, calling all of the shots, and was loving it. He was going to tell them what to do, for a change.

Sonic got the feeling in the room that trust for Shadow was wearing thin, and that people were looking at him wondering what the hell he did. Sonic tried not to give the impression that he had done anything. He had, but wasn't going to tell them that.

The rest of the day, Shadow formulated a plan to take out the base. It was brilliant. It fully utilised the skills of everyone there. It was going to be a two pronged attack. The speedsters (Sonic and Shadow) would attack the base head on. Causing mayhem but mainly acting as a distraction. While a second team consisting of Tails, Amy, Rouge, Knuckles which sneak in the back way, find the main generator, disable any worker robots, and set charges. Then the speedsters would go in, grab everyone, get out and boom, no more base. Amy wanted to go with Sonic but Shadow stopped her immediately. Sonic quietly thanked him, but she wasn't happy about it. Cream, Cheese and Big would act as lookout in case Eggman sent for backup in the form of robots from other bases. Shadow knew that was highly unlikely, but he had to give them something to do.

Sonic had been gooey eyed on Shadow all day, both impressed and in love with the black hedgehog. Sonic had got the feeling Shadow had noticed. Thankfully no one else did. But he didn't care anymore. He preferred this new Shadow, even though he was capable for being far more evil. Sonic really liked that. His curse grew a little at the thought. Sonic didn't stop it. He didn't want to stop it anymore. It was too painful. He was growing evil himself everyday and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The date had been set for the attack, tomorrow at dusk. The meeting point was a clearing in a small wood, a few hundred metres from the base.

Tomorrow, everything would change.