Through Shadow's Eyes

I've been a fan of the Sonic Series for as long as I could remember. Ever since I played my all time favorite game Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, I was hooked. I fell in love with the characters. They're all very likable to me, especially my all time favorite dark hedgie named Shadow. Shadow is the one character that I can somewhat relate to in a way. We both lost someone close to us. My mother died in a car accident when she was on her way home from work 10 years ago. Some drunken bastard drove past the speed limit and t-boned her...killing her instantly... I hated that man for what he did... Just like how Shadow hated GUN for killing Maria Robotnik.

When I got my hands on the gamecube copy of a game called Shadow the Hedgehog, I was excited. I got it from my mother for my 15th birthday before she died a couple nights later.  She knew I wanted it so badly and she decided to get it so we could play together. We tried out the 2-Player mode for the game. It's controls, I admit, were kinda slippery, but we didn't care. We where having so much fun playing against each other. We laughed at each other's accidental deaths and after a while we got used to the controls. It may not be the best Sonic game, but we had a lot of fun playing, despite it's flaws.

On that night when I found out my mother died, I was really upset. I was crying all night and wished that the whole thing was a horrible dream, but it wasn't. It was real. Filled with anger and sadness, I've decided to play through the Shadow the Hedgehog's story mode. I took as many dark missions I could complete. Originally, I wanted to make Shadow a Hero first. I even told my mother this and she agreed, but now...I want to let out my rage.

I played the game almost every night. I want to complete it as a villain. I want to kill the GUN soldiers and help Black Doom. On the day I finally completed the dark story I chose and when I was listening to it's end credit song "Almost Dead," I heard a knock on my bedroom door. I went and opened it to see my father with package.

"Some girl wanted me to give you this," my father said as he handed me the package. I looked at it in confusion. "Well? Are you gonna open it?"

"Who is the girl that wanted you to give this to me?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "She said she's one of your classmates."

I blinked and looked at the package again. Feeling even more confused, I opened up the package. Inside of it were three things; a small Sonic X Shadow the Hedgehog Plushie, a white gamecube memory card and a note. I took out the note as it read the following;

"Hello Derek, My name is Ria. I'm one of your classmates from Science Class. I heard what happened to your Mum and I'm truly sorry for what happened to her. I know we never really spoken to each other before, but I really want to make you feel better. I hope you like the gifts and I hope that we could hang out some time after school.

Take care, Ria."

Her writing seemed kind of messy. It's looks as if she was nervous while writing the note to me. I then noticed that my father was smirking at me.

"Seems like you got yourself an admirer son," he said with a chuckle. I blushed madly as I shoved him out of my room and closed the door behind me, feeling rather embarrassed. I know I'm like the best student in my Science Class according to my teacher, but I never thought that a girl would get interested in someone like me. I'm not an athlete, not to mention I'm skinny and almost weak as a kitten... well, not THAT weak. I was quite surprised that someone would go out of their way to try to make me feel better.

Then I saw something on the back of the note. It was a cell phone number. Curiosity got the better of me as I diled the number on my phone. It started ringing for a few seconds before someone picked it up.

"Hello?" a sweet, young, beautiful voice spoke.

"Um, hello. Th-This is Derek. Are you Ria?" I asked nervously.

The voice giggled a bit quietly, almost as if it was shy and a bit nervous as well. "Th-This is she. H-Hello Derek. Do... Do you like the plushie?"

"Uh, yes. I do actually. Thank you very much."

"Y-You're very welcome.." Ria said quietly.

We've been talking for almost 5 minutes before she had to go eat dinner. Turned out that she was also a fan of Shadow the Hedgehog and that she used to have her own copy of the game, but sadly she had to throw it away because it got broken. She also was having some issues with her homework for our class, so I've decided to help her out. Her voice... It sounded so beautiful and not to mention kind of cute in a way.

That night, I was starting to have a strange yet horrifying dream. I was in the Space Colony Ark... Running for my life with a girl by my side. I was panting, sounding really tired as I tried to keep running faster and tightening my grip on the girl's hand. I recognize this... I'm reliving Shadow's Past through his eyes... Experiencing what he had experienced. I can feel his adrenaline pumping as we kept running for our lives. Maria told me to quickly get inside a secret room near by. I did so... But as she was about to quickly close the door... A gun shot could be heard...

I woke up with a fight, screaming her name in horror as I started panting heavily. My heart beating really quickly as I tried to calm myself down. I then felt something wet near my eyes..

...I was crying...

...I was actually crying..!

I started wiping away my tears with my arm as I looked at the Shadow Plushie I had resting on my night stand and frowned. I remembered how upset he was. Maria was the only friend he had and a GUN Soldier took her life in front of his very eyes...

The next day after school, I was heading back home when someone yelled my name behind me. I looked and almost gasped at who I saw. A beautiful young girl with long light brown hair and sapphire blue eyes, wearing a cyan tank-top, a dark purple skirt and black skinny jeans with a pair of white sneakers was standing there. She was around the same age as me. She smiled at me, lightly blushing as she said, "It's me, Ria." I smiled back at her happily.

"Hey there. Wow... You look really nice," I said, feeling a bit shy.

She giggled as she replied, "Thank you, Derek. You look really nice too with your leather jacket."

I chuckled a bit. "Well thanks. My dad got this for me and I... kinda grew attached to it."

We continued talking for a minute until I offered her to spend time with me at my house. She agreed and we started heading to my place. When we got there, my dad wasn't home. He was still at work. I went off to use the bathroom, but then when I went past the bathroom mirror, I thought I saw something in it... something black. I quickly looked at it, but it was nothing... Just my reflection. I look perfectly normal. I had brown hair, green eyes and tan-ish colored skin. I was wearing my leather jacket with my red t-shirt and dark blue, worn-out jeans. I wasn't sure what it was, but I didn't worry too much about it.

After a few minutes, I started playing Shadow the Hedgehog again with Ria watching me. This time, I wanted to make Shadow a hero. She was helping me through some parts of the level and when we finally beat the final boss, we cheered happily. She then suddenly hugged me, causing me to blush. The warmth of her hug... It felt very relaxing. I quickly hid my expression from her and we started playing the two player mode before she had to head back home. I kind of felt sad when she left. For some reason... I didn't want her to leave...

I had another disturbing dream, but it had gotten worse. I was in Westopolis... Ruined and in flames. All around me were corpses of the GUN Soldiers I killed when I took the dark path for my first playthough of the game. I don't know why, but I looked at my hands-- no. I looked at Shadow's hands. They were trembling... covered in blood. I then heard something as I looked behind me. It was the last remaining soldier who was struggling to stay alive. I could hear Shadow's growl in pure anger as I walked towards the soldier.

"Please... D-Don't kill me.." the soldier weakly begged in fear, clearly not wanting to die. I started to feel sorry for him, but I then noticed Shadow's hand aiming his gun at the soldier's head.

"Go to hell," I heard him say before he pulled the trigger...

I woke up again. It was about 4 am when I checked my alarm clock. I started to question myself why I was having those dreams. Why was I seeing things from Shadow's Point of View? I was really confused, but I've decided to shrug it off and head back to sleep.

For the next couple of days, Ria and I have spent a lot of time together after school. We played games, hang out at the park, and I even one time went over to her place to meet her parents. They were really nice and they seemed to like me for some reason. I wasn't really sure why. I was just really happy spending time with my new friend, but every night I kept having that weird dream over and over. Each night I get them seemed to get worse. I even told Ria about those dreams and even she said it was weird and told me that I shouldn't worry about it. Maybe she's right. They're just dreams after all. What's the worse it could happen?

I wish I never said that... Those dreams had become nightmares....

I was in what's left of Westopolis again, but this time this was far different. The Black Comet had already became connected to surface and... to my horror, I saw Sonic and his friends lifeless on the ground, including Eggman... I suddenly looked down at the ground and started to vomit some... blood out of my mouth. I looked at my hands to realize that this time... It wasn't Shadow's. It was mine. I started trembling, feeling horrified and confused.

"W-What is going on here?!" I screamed, not able to comprehend what I'm experiencing. "Why is this happening to me?! What is the meaning of this??!!" I then heard a familiar, dark voice from behind me...

"I see that you're the only survivor..." It spoke, sounding almost as if it was of pure sadness and guilt. I looked behind me to face him... Shadow the Hedgehog.

For some reason I started to feel pain in my throat as I spoke, "W-What is going on..? W-Why is this happening..?!" Shadow closed his eyes and turned his back on me, refusing to answer my questions. He appeared to be horribly injured on his left arm and there were some bloody claw marks on his back as if one of the Black Arms recently attacked him without any form of warning. "Sh-Shadow..?" I asked him again, but this time my throat was hurting even more. I was so confused and scared to a point that I could feel my body shaking uncontrollably. Shadow then lifted his right arm and began to point at something in that direction. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn't want to look, but I did... and I regretted it. My eyes widen in terror when I saw her...laying on the ground.

"RIA!!!!!" I screamed painfully as I gathered enough strength I had left to get onto my feet and rushed to her side. She looked really pale. She didn't open her eyes or even flinched. I nervously placed my hand on her cheek as I found out that her skin felt very cold, but the moment I tried to feel her pulse...my heart sank. Tears began streaming down my face as I started holding her in my arms.

"I'm sorry," I could hear Shadow say with sympathy in his voice. "She couldn't be saved..." I refused to look at him, hugging Ria's lifeless body. I could feel my throat tighten as I started crying. The next thing I knew, I was awoken by a loud knock on a door. The noise continued rapidly as I heard a voice.

"Derek! Derek, open up please!!" It was Ria, and she sounded really worried. I quickly took a at my alarm clock. 2:23 AM. I wondered why she was here at this time, but I quickly got out of bed, hurried towards the front door and opened it. To my horror, I saw that she was horribly injured on her right shoulder. It appeared to be a stab wound. Her blue eyes were filled with tears of terror as she quickly hugged me and began crying. In response, I quickly brought her inside, shut the door and locking it as I tried to calm her down. I really wish my father was here when it happen, but he wouldn't return from work until 4:30 that night.

"Shhh.. It's OK Ria. You're safe now," I said to her as I gently rubbed her back. "Please tell me what happened."

"I-I heard my mother scream," she sobbed. "I got worried a-and I went to check to see what's wrong, b-but then I saw it..." She started crying even more. I could tell that she didn't want to say anything else, but I was really confused on what she meant by "it."

"Come on, Ria. You got to tell me what happened. I want to help you," I told her as I had her to look at me so we could make eye contact. Her eyes are filled with fear as her tears kept falling from them.

"S-Some black monster was in my parents room... My mother... M-My father... THEY WERE RIPPED TO SHREDS!!!" She buried her face in my chest as she started crying harder and tighten her hug for protection. My eyes widen in shock and disbelief. A black monster killed her parents? That sounds very unbelievable, right? Well I thought it was... until a strange crimson claw smashed though my door's window. Ria screamed as we saw a black monster with yellow eyes staring at us. Chills went down my spine when I recognized what it was. It was a Black Oak... The same one from the game. I quickly grabbed Ria's hand as we started running towards my room. I could hear it completely smashed the door into pieces and started running after us. As we made it into my room, I quickly closed the door and we pushed my dresser in front of it.

"W-What is a Black Oak doing here!?" I yelled, sounding really terrified and confused. "It's supposed to be in the game!" Ria just sat on my bed, trembling in great fear until she saw something and her eyes widen in shock.

"D-Derek! Y-Your game case!" She cried. I quickly looked at my game case that was laying on the floor. Shadow was missing on the front cover. Any trace of him was completely gone. All we could see was just the title, the rating, the SEGA logo and the exploding background. Where is Shadow?

Suddenly we started to hear a loud banging against my bedroom door as Ria ran behind me and started trembling. "W-What are we going to do!?" She cried. I began trembling as well. I was very scared. I didn't know what to do, but then... I heard a familiar dark voice echoed in my mind.

"Escape through the window! Hurry!" It yelled urgently. I quickly looked at my window and hurried over to it. Since my room is in the second floor, we couldn't jump out of it, but there was a tree that is right next to it. It's branches were strong enough to help support our weight. I quickly opened the window and told Ria to quickly climb out of the window. She nodded, knowing exactly what I meant as she hurried over to the window. I started helping her climb out of the window and grab onto one of the tree branches. After she got towards the tree's trunk, she quickly climbed down safely and begged me to escape, but when I was about to do so, the Black Oak broke through my door and my dresser. The next thing I knew was that it slammed me through the window with great force. I could hear Ria's voice scream my name in horror...before everything grew black.

I soon woke up on a hospital bed. My vision was very blurry that I could barley make out the people that were in the room. They noticed me waking up as I could hear one of them saying, "He's awake! Quickly, bring them here!" Within a few minutes, I could hear my father saying my name in relief. I also heard her voice... She sounded as if she was crying. I looked towards them and make a weak smile, but my vision hasn't cleared up yet. Ria went over and hugged me, sobbing quietly. I frowned as I weakly hugged her back, trying to cheer up my best friend. It was then I noticed a figure standing next to my dad. When my vision became clear, my eyes widen in shock at who I saw.

It was a certain Black and Red hedgehog with crimson eyes staring at me...