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LoneGarurumon: Aw, thank you! I have to admit I also laughed way more at the bat credit card thing when writing than that joke deserved. XD Chris Thorndyke bashing included as a matter of course, though since it's Christmas that kid at least gets to live this time. ;P Thanks a lot for all the comments this year and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :D

Chapter 4: Merry Christmas, Everyone

Once, a long time ago, there had been a Christmas among the stars. It had been celebrated by nearly all 400 scientists and soldiers stationed up in the night sky, a Christmas split into many smaller parties all along the many, many rooms of their home. But perhaps the smallest and merriest celebration that day had been that of a grandfather with his two grandchildren, one by blood and one by choice, and one of them had never even celebrated the holiday before...

But it had been a Christmas to remember, because despite all of them being so far from home, and more than uncertain of the future, just for one night, there had still been a tree, and presents, and, most importantly, a family who was able to celebrate with all of the people they loved.

It had been the last Christmas aboard the ARK.

Now, the first spherical Bernoulli Space Colony lay silent, a black patch in the night sky above a planet that had almost forgotten it, its halls that had once been teeming with life and light dark and empty...

Until a flash illuminated the observation room like a comet across a dark sky.

"...CONTROL!"

"Wow!" Cream, the only member of their party who had never seen the ARK before, was the only one who exclaimed her amazement aloud, but everyone but Shadow was still gazing around them with large eyes. Apparently none of them had thought that this place still existed.

"We're...up in space...!" the little rabbit girl whispered, taking a few steps toward the large observation deck window where the Earth spun gently below.

"Uh...yeah. Maybe not tell your mum that we took you up here, right?" Rouge suggested brightly. "Or that we burned down the apartment, come to think of it, she worries enough as it is..."

"Okay!"

"So...we're really going to celebrate here?" Amy asked, rubbing her arms a little. "Only...it's a bit cold, isn't it?"

"When I come up here I usually don't bother to turn anything on but the air recycling," Shadow said, gazing for a moment at the Emerald Sonic had given him for the Chaos Control up here. "But with this," he said, at the same time striding over to the main console in the room and neatly slotting the stone into a mold in the panel, "we should be able to power up the rest of the systems no problem."

And even as he spoke, the lights in the room turned up from their emergency setting, air vents began to power up and raise the temperature in the room, and a computerized voice announced "All systems functional. Welcome aboard the ARK."

Sonic cocked his head.

"Soo...can we get this station to play A Spaceman Came Travelling, then?"

xxx

"I...didn't know this place still existed." Rouge had stepped up to Shadow, speaking quietly while everyone else was busy re-arranging all the food, decorations, presents and the tree ("Look, we can even turn the charred side to the wall and it looks almost normal! And since it's dripping wet it even glistens really prettily in the light!") in the room, wiping dust from surfaces to pile things on and dragging chairs, tables and makeshift furniture into the observation lounge they had chosen for their festivities.

Shadow had stopped a while ago and was now standing at the window he had stood at with Maria so often so long ago, arms crossed and staring at the stars. It was a familiar position he had assumed time and time again even after she had passed - only usually not with half a Mobian Christmas party happening at his back.

Now Rouge had come to stand at his side, and yes, that was new, too...Shadow turned his head. "I don't think many do know," he said, quietly. "I usually...only come here one day a year."

He didn't need to say which day. Rouge put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well," she said. "I'm glad that you brought us here today." She briefly bent forward, placing a chaste kiss on the side of his muzzle. "I'm sure she would approve."

Next, there was another scream and crash, and a yell of "Agh! Watch the tree!" and a question of "Hey, Shadow, say, how sturdy are these windows exactly...?" and Rouge laughed as it was now Shadow's home getting demolished by the Mobian destruction crew.

Shadow shot her a glare. "Next time some drunk guy with powers starts wrecking your club? Don't expect any help."

And just as Rouge only smiled even more brightly at that statement, somehow Shadow found it harder than before to make the sharpness in it sound convincing at all.

xxx

"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer...had a drinking problem and got help...!"

"Uhr...are we sure we should be listening to your Christmas playlist?" Amy raised an eye ridge at Rouge, but the bat waved her off.

"Oh honey, as if the human version of the song wasn't even worse. Body-shaming is a huge problem in reindeer communities, I'm telling you. So! Everyone got their presents?" she called out and received an enthusiastic chorus of 'Yeah!'s in response. By now, Christmas music was playing in the background, decorations had been re-done, food had been re-heated, and everyone was sitting down with a parcel in their lap that had been distributed by virtue of the tags attached to them so as not to give away the secret Santa - (though, in some cases, with the tag reading 'Mr. Knuckles' and a very small drawing of a red stick figure with large spiky fists next to it, the giver of the gift wasn't very hard to tell).

"I wanna go first!" Tails called out and tore open the paper on his (very hastily wrapped by the looks of it) package - only to stare at a rather strange, pen-shaped technical device.

"Uh...what...?"

"Guy who sold it to me said it's a 'Sonic Screwdriver'," Sonic next to him piped up. "Looked like right up your alley and I liked the name." He grinned. "Merry Christmas, buddy."

"Er...but..." Tails was still staring at the thing. "These settings here, this thing seems...incredibly advanced, who exactly sold you this again-?"

"Some human dude in a fez? Looked like a complete weirdo but was like, really certain this was a good present," Sonic shrugged. "Just, uh, 'Be sure not to point it anything that can explode' he meant. Apparently, that also includes feral chickens, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure out the rest," Sonic said, then grinned, ears perking up. "So, can I go next?"

"Be my guest," Shadow said, to his own surprise mildly amused at how Sonic tore into the paper very much like the fox kit he called his younger brother - no outward resemblance necessary to recognize the family similarity here.

"It's a - wow! This is an Untouchable X3, this literally hit the market just this year-" Sonic stared at the Xtreme Gear board he had just unwrapped, green eyes wide. "This must have cost a fortune!"

"You're welcome," Shadow said (and would have been lying if Sonic looking even more amazed at this revelation hadn't felt extremely satisfying).

(Rouge leaning in next to him, muttering 'Okay, so who did you kill for this?' was shoved back with an elbow and an 'I saved someone, alright?!' but, amidst the general impressed ooohs and aaahs of the rest, went by mostly unnoticed).

The rest of the presents went over fairly decently as well - Knuckles' present from Cream turned out to be a self-made sign reading 'Please don't steal the Master Emerald - Stealing is not nice at all, thank you!' decorated with smiling faces, Amy pulled out the skimpy lingerie from Rouge (and upon realization pushed it back down into the package with a squeak), Cream received a worryingly large collection of Sonic dolls from Amy ("Oh, thank you Amy, we can have...a...tea party...well, a Sonic-themed tea party at any rate...") and Rouge seemed to have gotten a sort of voucher from Knuckles.

"It's a voucher for a 'free touch on the Master Emerald'," Rouge said, before looking at Shadow with slightly wide eyes. "You know, I think I'm actually impressed."

Finally, Shadow was the last to open his own gift - which had to have been from Tails, by virtue of exclusion - and felt simultaneously both pleasantly surprised and disappointed by the contents of the package.

"It's a fake Chaos Emerald!" Tails explained excitedly as soon as he had opened it, the warm orange glow of the stone illuminating Shadow's features as he gazed down into the box.

"I already made one two years ago, remember? That was just at the time when Eggman had woken you up - and then that fake Emerald ended up in the Eclipse Cannon and we almost all died and then it broke in the process. Heh," Tails said, rubbing the back of his head while smiling a bit awkwardly. "But you always like having an Emerald and the real ones always scatter so easily, so I thought I'd make you another fake one, only better than the last one. I hope you like it!"

"I...do. Thank you," Shadow said, giving a nod to the fox kid. He could feel the edge of his mouth pulling ever so slightly upwards on its own - still a strange feeling, but not an entirely unwelcome one.

And yeah, of course he hadn't really expected or hoped for the present to be the jacket he had wished for earlier, the one that had looked like it would be able to keep you warm even in a blizzard - there was no one in this world who could have seen him stare longingly at the thing in the shop window, right before he had gone and saved the bird kid who had kept yammering on about Christmas angels. And the fake Chaos Emerald at least would enable him to Chaos Control to a warmer climate zone whenever he wanted now, so that was a really nice perk.

So...yes. There was no reason for disappointment.

Not really.

"Alright!" Sonic called out, jumping to his feet. "Christmas presents all done, so let's hit the food! And then dance!"

"Oooh, yes! And then will you dance with me, Sonikku?"

"Uh, Amy..."

"You should try putting on your new ensemble, honey, and then asking that question again."

"Rouge!" (This, interestingly, had been squeaked by both Sonic and Amy simultaneously).

Shadow internally shook his head, preparing to remove himself a little bit as the general antics-level was once again rising. He didn't feel resentment any more for having been dragged into this gig by Rouge - there had been a few moments when he'd even felt part of the group for a little while, and the presents had all been thoughtful and heartfelt, even the one for him.

Yet this small sense of apartness remained and, Shadow suspected, might forever - Rouge had been right that these people were family to each other by now, and had to be, because in most cases they were the only family they had ever really known. But he had had a family, once, and it was hard (and maybe impossible, he wondered) to let any other group replace them - or even only let them fill the gaping void they had left when sometimes, it still felt like a black hole in your chest.

When I never even got to say goodbye back to her.

But then he froze. As did everyone else.

Mostly because there had just been a knocking.

"Did...did anyone also just hear that?" Knuckles asked.

"The knocking sound coming from the outside of the airlock door? Yes. Yes, we did," Rouge replied, looking a little pale around the muzzle. All of them were now staring at the door in the wall of the room (and also definitely shuffling a little bit away from it). Shadow could feel himself swallow. Truth be told until right now he had also completely forgotten that airlock was there - since this was the observation deck and not one of the port chambers, this was purely an emergency airlock that as far as he knew had never been used for anything.

"Um. Should we...should we look?" Tails asked, sounding somewhat morbidly curious.

("Baby it's cold outside..." the space station music console sang at this point, which didn't help.)

"And then get sucked into outer space when we're right next to it and whoever knocked somehow opens both the inner and outer door?!" Amy asked, already gripping Sonic's arm in a tight squeeze - the message apparently that if she had to die floating frozen in outer space, it would at least be a couple outing.

"The outer door didn't open," Shadow replied with a frown. "There's a warning light above it, see? It flashes when the outer door is opened and it didn't."

"Then there's someone in the lock?" Rouge asked. "Someone who teleported in there or something?"

"It might be a trap. It could be a drone of the Doctor's," Knuckles said, eyes narrowing. "Or a remote control bomb."

"After I've beaten him down at the mall?" Sonic sounded skeptical. "Usually he just goes to lick his wounds. And so far he's also never had tech that could just teleport stuff into random places..."

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure we can take it, right?" Rouge said. "I mean - it's us," she said meaningfully, glancing at the others. "And even if it were something we can't take on, you could Chaos Control us down to Mobius, right?" she looked over at Shadow.

"I...could, yeah," Shadow said, taking the Emerald out of Tails' package. This at least was far more familiar territory than the festivities. Defend the Space Colony, he could deal with that. "Okay then, I'll-"

"Cream!" Amy suddenly yelled, mostly because the little rabbit apparently had not really been listening, but instead walked over to the door and was now pushing the button next to it that would open it. Hearing Amy yell, she turned back for a moment.

"Hmm?" she asked. "Oh, no, it's alright, I just heard a knocking," she explained happily, "I'm sure whoever's outside will want to celebrate, too!"

Saying so, she pushed the button, thereby also demonstrating why rabbits even now seemed mostly to rely on large reproduction numbers for survival.

The Mobians collectively grabbed at each other (or various heavy objects within reaching distance).

Then:

"Ohhh, look, it's a present!"

"It's a...what?" Shadow managed, baffled.

"It's a present for you, Mr Shadow!"

"It...does look like a present," Tails said, sounding equally non-plussed as they stared at the wrapped package in Cream's hands that she'd picked up from the otherwise empty airlock. "It even has a bow and everything," he pointed out.

"A pres- but who could bring a present here?" Rouge asked, eyes wide.

"But Ms Rouge! Santa, of course!" Cream smiled at her. "Who else?"

"Ah. Yeah, right," Rouge immediately corrected herself as Cream bounced over and handed the present to Shadow, "Of course. Those famous, space-flight capable reindeer Voyager and Sputnik, who could forget them," she said, mostly while making do-you-have-any-idea-what-this-is-faces at the other older teenagers, but all she got were equally helpless expressions.

"It…couldn't really be a trap, right?" Sonic murmured into Shadow's ear, but Shadow shook his head.

"It's...something soft inside," he said, squeezing the contents of the package through the light blue wrapping paper. "So unless the Doctor has shifted from mechanics to fabric-based terrorism..."

"Well, there was Tails doll," Sonic replied cryptically. "But yeah, I think even he regretted that..."

But Shadow had trouble even hearing him. Mostly because he had just read the tag on the package with his name on it - and he recognized the handwriting.

To Shadow.

"...Shadow?" Amy asked, sounding a bit worried. "Are you okay? Because you're looking as pale as a ghost..." she said, but Shadow couldn't have replied if he'd wanted to, his throat as dry as the rest of him was frozen.

No, there was no way anything from Earth could get up here as quickly without a teleport. Nothing except…

Shadow opened the folded cardboard tag, hands definitely trembling now. It couldn't be. But...

Inside, there were more words, written in the exact same script he knew as well as his own.

Only now, suddenly, they appeared almost too blurry to read.

I hope it keeps you warm. Merry Christmas, Shadow.

"Ah! Shads, you dropped it!" Sonic called out next to him, lightning-quick reflexes catching the package before it could fall to the floor from Shadow's fingers. The motion jostled it enough that the soft paper tore and Sonic just about managed to keep the item emerging from it from falling to the floor -

"-it's a jacket?" Amy called out, staring at the garment unfolding in Sonic's grip.

"Yes! And a hedgehog jacket, too - look, it's got quill slits!" Cream exclaimed, pointing at the back of the clothing. "I'm sure it will look really great on you, Mr. Shadow!"

"Could...could it have been up here in the airlock all this time?" Rouge asked, also moving in to have a look at the jacket. "A present hidden in a really weird spot for your last Christmas up here?"

"I...don't know. It...it has to have been, though, right?" Shadow could hear himself say, because the alternative was just...

In his head, he could once again hear the chirp of Breeze – on Christmas, angels come down to Earth…

...and maybe up to space? his own, slightly hysterical brain supplied the rest.

In the background, there seemed to be a new piece of music starting up again, this time an upbeat Christmas Rock'n'Roll song that just asked one to dance, but Shadow could scarcely hear it until –

"Hey, Shadow." Sonic was suddenly at his side, gripping his shoulder. "I just wanted to say thanks again for bringing us up here - gotta admit, was a little worried about how it'd be for you to be back up here, but now...it's pretty much a perfect Christmas, right? Thanks, Shadow." He smiled, just before turning again to rejoin everyone else congregating around the food and the music, perhaps trying to give him some space to process. "And now it's dancing and eating time, so come back to the others when you feel like it, right?"

"…yes." Shadow replied after just a moment, gaze lingering on the window just for a moment longer wondering if, just for a heartbeat, he had maybe seen a flash of light blue and gold, just passing by…"Yes, I might."

And, just before he also turned and joined Sonic and the others in the general happy mayhem, he briefly pressed a hand against the window, feeling a small smile tug at his lips.

"…merry Christmas, Maria."

Xxx

Stories tell us that a long time ago, in one winter night, there was a Christmas star, brightly shining in the sky. It has been a very long time since then that that any stars have suddenly magically appeared, a long time since any stories were written about them.

But this Christmas Eve, there was a new light shining in the night sky above Station Square, an artificial star that hadn't been lit up for over fifty years, but tonight was alight more brightly than ever, and filled with as much joy as the last Christmas it had been shining.

Fin

Aaaaand it's another fic finished! :D And it's only been like, 11 years in the making. XD But still, hope you like, hope you had fun, and hope you're having wonderful holidays wherever you are. Merry Christmas to all of you - and if you leave a review, it'll definitely make mine :)

-Taranea :)