Good Future

One day, whilst in one of the shining cities, Silver spotted Shadow. He shouted and crossed the street waving, whatever business he’d had forgotten.

Shadow’s ear twitched and he turned in Silver’s direction. Then something unexpected happened: Shadow smiled.

Silver skidded to halt, forcing the self-driving autocars to divert around him like a river around a stone.

Shadow quirked a brow. “Silver? The years really have gotten away from me. How are you?”

“I…” On some level, Silver knew this Shadow was much older than the one in the past, but he certainly didn’t look like it. Two hundred years had done nothing to dull the physique of the immortal hybrid. His fur and quills were immaculate, and no signs of age pulled at his face. If anything, Shadow looked younger than Silver.

“Are you going to stand in the road all day?” Shadow crossed his arms and smirked in a way that reminded Silver of Sonic.

“What? Oh!” Silver darted forward and mounted the curb.

“How have you been?” Shadow didn’t wait for Silver to answer before wrapping his arms around the white hedgehog in a tight but friendly hug that Silver was much familiar receiving from Amy. “When is it for you?” Shadow asked as he released the shellshocked psychic.

Silver shook his head, still processing the utter disconnect between the Shadow he knew and this one. “I’m sorry. What?”

“What has been your latest visit to the past?” Shadow asked. The soft set of his features was unnerving. He looked…content? Could this be a clone? Wasn’t there something about Eggman cloning Shadow?

“I just celebrated Sonic’s birthday.” Silver explained, the fresh memory strangely difficult to recall amid the turmoil caused by…whatever this Shadow was. “There was a time anomaly.”

Shadow’s eyes darkened. “The Time Eater.” His face set into the scowl Silver was familiar with. Some of the tension left Silver. This was the Shadow he knew and…maybe not loved, but at least held some affection for, surely.

“Yes, though I missed whatever fun Sonic and our friends had.” Silver sighed. “I had to stitch the time-space continuum back together from where the Time Eater had torn holes in it.”

“Really?” Shadow cocked his head to the side, a genuine curious expression gracing his face. “I hadn’t known that.”

“Yeah, if I didn’t patch the holes first, once Sonic had saved the day, everyone would have gotten ejected into random locations and places throughout time. Instead, everyone ended up back at Sonic’s birthday.” Silver frowned. “You know, I don’t remember you being at the party before the Time Eater showed up, but you were there after…”

Shadow chuckled. “I guess that chewing out I got was your fault, then.”

“Huh?”

“GUN was pretty pissed I left their shuttle docked at the ARK.”

“Huh?”

“Doctor Robotnik!” A young voice called.

Silver tensed, quills flaring and hands alighting with his power. Eggman here? It was impossible! The bastard was dead! But, then again, this was Eggman they were talking about. Silver had long learned never to put it past the megalomaniac to find new and terrible ways to cause strife.

Shadow stayed relaxed. “Good morning, Bree. You are looking well.”

“I am!” A cherry-colored lemur, no more than ten, beamed at Shadow as her mother held back.

“I am glad to hear it.” Shadow crouched to eye level with Bree. “How is your tail?”

“Good as new!” The girl waved the bushy appendage as proof.

“Wonderful.” Shadow straightened. Bree’s mother exchanged smiles with Shadow as she and her daughter continued their walk.

Something did not add up. “Why did she call you Dr. Robotnik?” Maybe this Shadow was a clone after all. Maybe Silver should be readying a preemptive strike!

“Right. You wouldn’t know yet.” Shadow grimaced. “After Ivo’s death, there were a lot of celebrations. Some contrarian started circulating copies of Gerald’s Journal, claiming that the Robotnik legacy wasn’t over. Suddenly I was Shadow Robotnik as far as the public was concerned. Sonic hated it.” He sighed. “And by then I was a doctor.” Silver tilted his head. “A medical doctor.” Shadow clarified.

Silver’s eyes went wide. “Wow. That’s a big change.” The idea just didn’t click in Silver’s mind. Shadow, the dark, surly, living weapon saving lives without any explosions or roundhouse kicks to the back of the head? Over the last two hundred years had Shadow gone soft?

Shadow smiled. “Yes, it was. I wanted to try my hand at helping protect the world and its people in a non-violent way. Turns out I’m not half bad, though it took me a long time to develop a good bedside manner. I haven’t worn my airshoes in over a century.” He shrugged, “As for the name, after a few decades I stopped correcting people. By then I was working with Sage to develop treatments for various cancers and immunocompromising diseases, so it wasn’t like the name didn’t fit.”

“Sage?”

“She-“ He stopped himself. “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. Who knows what it could mean for the timeline.”

Silver frowned. “Right. The timeline.” Conversations he wasn’t allowed to have. Friends he hadn’t met yet. References he didn’t get. This was supposed to be his home, so why did he feel so…left out? Always on the sidelines, waiting until he was old enough, experienced enough.

But how long would that take? How many times did Silver have to fix the past before he could truly live in his own time?

Sensing Silver’s sudden coldness, Shadow offered, “If it makes you feel better, you can tell my younger self anything you want about how I am now. That bitter fool won’t believe you.”

Silver grinned, trying to find a positive thought to hold on to. “And he’s probably kick me in the back of the head again, too.” He’d meant it as a joke, but the memory made his fists clench.

“Again?” Shadow frowned. Silver froze. “I don’t remember this.”

Something bitter bloomed in Silver’s chest. For once there was something he knew that someone else didn’t. For once he was in the know. The urge to parrot Shadow’s earlier statement was almost unbearable. I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. “Never mind. It was a joke.”

Shadow stared at Silver for a beat, frowning slightly. “If you say so.” Shadow didn’t believe him, Silver was certain. This Shadow saw Silver as a child, as not the real Silver, the one who’d solved all the crises. The one who belonged here in this time. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m find.” Silver said sharply. “It was good seeing you, but I need to go.” He kicked off the sidewalk, his power raising him into the air quickly. Shadow shouted after him, but Silver pretended not to hear.

He flew high until the air grew thin and the temperature plummeted. He world expanded to the horizon in all directions looking, at this height, exactly the same as it did two hundred years ago. Silver felt very small and very alone.

It wasn’t fair. He worked so hard to protect this world, but he couldn’t live in it? His friends were in the past, his purpose was in the past, but he could only visit when the very future that eluded him was in peril. How was that fair?

Without consciously meaning to, he landed in Mephiles’ rose garden. It had been several years since his last visit, and the bushes and vines has snarled together into new formations and colors. The half-god was free of blooms due to a greed canopy of purple roses that cast a deep shadow over him from their perch on the large rock.

“And here I had suspected you had forgotten about me.” The demon intoned.

“I don’t belong here.” Silver gave voice to the roiling thoughts in his head.

“I have no opinion on your company.”

“No, I mean- argh!” Silver could feel tears forming in his eyes. “I don’t belong in this time!”

“I can empathize.” Mephiles answered simply.

“I- I feel like some sort of ghost, o-or a tool on a wall. Sitting, just waiting to be of use. Like I’m not meant to be here, like I’m-“

“Incomplete?”

Silver’s words died in his throat. He turned away. Why was he here of all places? Why was he talking to this evil creature? His face burned. He wanted to go home, but home no longer existed.

“Perhaps you’d like to watch the roses with me?”

Suppressing a sob, Silver looked around at the polychromatic resplendence surrounding him.

It was a very beautiful place.