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The two siblings were sitting on the grey-blue carpet of Maria’s bedroom, drawing and chatting.
Maria grabbed a blue colored pencil. She started to outline the petals of a flower. Shadow took a yellow one and drew a circle in the top corner of his page.
“Shadow, what’s your favorite color?”
“My… favorite color?”
“You know, it’s the color you like best! Sometimes it’s just which one you think is prettiest, and sometimes it’s because it’s the color of something you like.” She finished the petals of her flower, a lotus flower, and picked up a green pencil for the pad. “So which one do you like best?” She looked up at him.
“I think I like… yellow. Yellow is nice. What’s yours?” He grabbed an orange pencil.
“My favorite color is blue, because it looks nice and because it’s the color of the earth. Though I am partial to a nice green every now and then. Maybe when we get to see earth and everything on it in person, we’ll change our minds.”
They finished their drawings quietly, both trying their best to make them look nice. Maria’s was of a blue water lily on a pond. It’s not super technically skilled, but she made it look good. Shadow’s was a fairly simple drawing of a grassy field with a blue sky and large, bright yellow sun in the top corner. It’s pretty flat, but it’s charming. They traded drawings, exchanging compliments as well.
—-
“We should have a picnic!” Maria said.
“What is.. a picnic?” Shadow cocked his head.
“It’s when you eat a meal outside! Usually you share them with people. We should have one!”
“But Maria, we can’t exactly go outside…”
“But we do have the greenhouse! I’m sure if we asked, grandfather would let us have our picnic in there. We’ll need a blanket, a basket, and food…” She listed off.
Gerald thought this was a great idea, and said he’d find them a basket to use. The next day, Maria sent Shadow to go get a plaid blanket, while Maria packed their lunch into the basket. Two sandwiches, a couple juice boxes, some fresh fruit… they were all set!
The greenhouse wasn’t really a house, and was instead a wing of the arc dedicated to the growing of fresh food as well as plants for research purposes. But it was green enough for a picnic!
“Alright Shadow, lay out the blanket here.” She pointed to an empty space on the floor near some sunflowers. He complied and she sat the basket down gently. She sat down and smoothed her skirt. Shadow sat down on the corner opposite to her.
“What did you bring?” He asked.
“Sandwiches, juice, and… peaches!” She listed them as she bought them out, showcasing the fruit with fanfare. The peaches were definitely a little bruised looking, but fresh and ripe! They had a peach tree in the greenhouse, but it was still too young to fruit.
“Ooh, did the next supply shipment just come in?”
“Yup! Since they had them, I figured I should bring some on our picnic. I like canned peaches, but nothing beats the fresh ones!”
They dug in, enjoying the food and the time spent together. Maria scarfed down her peach, while Shadow savored his. They were her favorite fruit, and Shadow quite liked them as well.
—-
It’s a bright, sunny day, and Amy is holding a picnic! She had invited plenty of her friends, and a good few were able to come to the big, grassy park.
“I made cupcakes! With frosting in all the colors! Pick your favorites, everyone!” Amy announces.
“Blue, of course, what did I expect? Little egotistical, don’t you think?” Shadow says to Sonic after he grabs a blue cupcake.
“Heh, maybe. For your information, it’s because it’s a cool color. And when you travel like I do, you see a lot of good shades of it. I’m not immune to a good green either.”
Amy and Tails bump into each other while they both go for red cupcakes. They apologize in unison. Omega is off to the side, burning ants with laser accuracy. Because he was using lasers.
“I’ll take green, for the master emerald.” Knuckles grabs a green cupcake, a bit messily, and gets some frosting on his bulky boxing gloves.
“Green for me too, then.” Rouge says and swoops down on a green cupcake. Knuckles glares at her. She ignores him. She looks over to Shadow, who is… paused. He’s just standing there, staring at Sonic with a somewhat blank look. Sonic either doesn’t notice, or he’s ignoring it. One could never really know what was going on in that boy’s head…
“Shadow? Hello? Anybody home?” This snaps him out if it.
“What?” He snips at her.
“Oh, just you trying stare holes into blue’s head over there. What’s that about?” She prods.
“It’s just a weird feeling. Like deja vu.” He seems a tad unnerved.
She cocks her head and hums in reply, turning her eyes to look at Sonic. He scarfs his cupcake down with an easy grin, and grabs another.
“Bet a cupcake would take your mind off it.” He takes her advice, and grabs a yellow cupcake.
—-
The lights in Maria’s bedroom were off, and the only one left on was her bedside lamp. Her room wasn’t the tidiest, but it was far from hazardous.
“Shadow, could you hand me my book?” Maria asked. She gestured to her desk. She was already laying in bed, wearing her soft, baby blue nightgown. He walked across the dim room.
“Which one?” There were multiple. When you lived in space, thousands of miles from earth, you tended to read plenty. “Arabian Nights, The Little Mermaid, The Knights of The Round Table…” He listed off.
“Knights of The Round Table, please. Grandfather gave it to me a few days ago, and I’ve been meaning to get to it.”
He stepped over to her bedside and handed her the book.
“Thank you, Shadow. How about I read out loud?”
“What’s it about?”
“I can’t fully know without reading it, but it’s about knights and kings and dragons on an adventure.” She paused and thought for a moment. “We should go on an adventure, when we finally get to earth. We’ll see everything earth has to offer, just the two of us!”
“That sounds nice.” He sat down on the side of the bed.
She smiled, reached out, and ruffled the fur on his forehead. “Maria! Stop it!” He tried to swat away her hand and hide a grin, but wasn’t very successful.
“Oh, but you’re just so soft, how can I keep myself from doing it?” She laughed at his plight. “But I suppose I need both hands for this book.” She sighed dramatically and withdrew her evil hand.
Shadow huffed at her.
“I suppose I’ll start then. Once upon a time…”
—-
“Oh come on. I totally won!” Sonic complains.
It’s early morning where they come to a stop in their race. The open field they’re in is wet with morning dew, the sky is the purple of not-quite day but not-quite night, and the flickies aren’t all up yet.
“No, I did. Though it’s not like you’re quick enough to be able to tell.” Shadow retorts. He turns away and catches movement in the corner of his eye. Something is flying towards them. And it’s getting closer fast. He tenses up, ready for a fight.
“What is that?” Sonic looks the same way and lights up.
“Sonic! Hey, Sonic!” Oh. It’s Tails. What’s he doing here? He relaxes, feeling a bit silly.
“Tails! Over here!” Sonic starts waving his arms around. Tails lands on the dewy grass with ease like he’d done it a thousand times over. Well, he probably had.
“Sonic! There you are! With your race, you were tough to track down. Luckily I’ve had plenty practice doing just that.” Tails was wearing a brown satchel across his chest. Whatever’s in it looks bulky. Or it’s just a strangely constructed bag.
“Haha, sorry about that Tails! You know me. Now, what did you need me for?” He puts his hands behind his head and leans back.
“Oh, yeah! Here,” Tails unbuttons his bag and takes out a book. Ah, normal bag then. He hands it off to Sonic. “I checked out that book you wanted from the library. Knights of the Round Table, right?”
“Just that exact one! Thanks a ton, Tails. What would I do without you?” He reaches out and ruffles Tails’ bangs.
“Hey!” Tails tries and fails to hide a grin before flying out of reach. “Ha!” Sonic snorts and rests his hands on his hips.
“Looks like I just can’t catch ya, huh? Well anyways, thanks a bunch for the book!” Tails slowly lowers to the ground.
“Of course! I’ve read that one before, it’s pretty good! We should talk about it once you’re done with it. Oh, and it’s due in about a month.”
“Well, you know I’m a faster reader than that. The library’ll have their book back in record time. And you can tell the librarian I won’t be taking this one on any high speed adventures, heh.”
“You better not! She wasn’t happy when I handed her a burnt book last time…!” Tails takes notice of the rising sun. “Oh man, I better get back to my workshop soon! I need to get started on some fine tuning today.”
“Tails, before you go… did you happen to catch who won our race?” Sonic asks hopefully.
“Nope! Sorry! Bye then!” Tails says and flies off in the direction he came from.
“See ya!” Shadow was struck with that sense of deja vu once again. What was going on, if anything? No. Nothing was happening. Once is an oddity, twice is a coincidence. It’s nothing.
“Shadow? Whatcha thinkin bout?” Sonic looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What? Nothing. I just didn’t take you for a reader is all.” Shadow is quick to answer.
“Hey, I love adventure. Why keep myself from the adventures on the page?” Sonic explains. “Now, I was gonna see if you wanted to lose another race!“ Sonic smirks and stretches.
“Oh you’re on.” Shadow takes off, getting a head start. He forgets what was troubling him, at least for the moment. Sonic takes a bit to catch up, but after that it’s neck and neck. In the end, Sonic wins and he and Shadow start fighting. Physically.
Later, when Sonic cracks open that book, he gets the strange feeling that he’s read this story before. But he brushes it off with ease. He’s got more important things to do right now.
——
It’s late night, almost early morning, and they stand on a large cliff facing a large crater with some giant badnik and a bunch of little ones in it. Tails sits busy in front of his tech setup. Knuckles stands near Amy, eyeing her piko-piko hammer. Sonic is stretching off to the side, and Shadow is stood at the edge of the cliff watching and waiting.
The air is somewhat tense with anticipation as the hours trickle into day, when Eggman is supposed to put his plan in action.
“Damn, where are they? Vector said they’d be quick…” Knuckles complains.
“Well, they’d probably be quicker if I flew them in the Tornado, but I’ve got to stay here to monitor everything. I’m sure they’ll be here soon enough. Though, that’s assuming Rouge doesn’t manage to swipe the emerald while they’re on their way.” Tails says as he types something into his big multi-monitor setup.
“I’m getting tired of standing around doing nothing… anyone got games on their phone?” Knuckles asks.
“Ooh! I’ve been getting into palm reading lately! I’ve been trying to see what my past lives might have looked like. It’ll be fun!” Amy says, smiling. She holds out a hand.
“Sure, why not. Here.” Knuckles hands Amy his. Hand.
“Uh, you’re gonna have to take off your glove… I don’t think I could get a reading through that.” Knuckles looks a bit embarrassed and takes off his thick boxing glove. Amy takes his hand back and examined his palm.
“Hmm. This line means your past life lived long. And this one says they had a large family. I think this one means they were strong willed. If I’m reading this one right, it means… that they wanted to protect what was precious to them. That’s all I think I can get, you can put your glove back on now.” She releases his hand and he does as she said.
“… Sonic!” She shouts.
“Huh?”
“Let me read your palm next!”
“Yeah, that sounds fun. Why not?” He strolls over to Amy and takes off his glove. She takes his hand and begins studying it in the same way she had done for knuckles.
“You just wanna hold his hand.” Tails mumbles.
“Okay… this line says that your previous life was someone who longed for adventure.” Amy starts off with a smile but as she reads, it slowly turns to a small frown. “This says that they had poor health. And I think that this one means they were very loved. I believe that the line here says they were kind. If I’m right, this means… that they died young.”
“Bit of a bummer, but hey! Still interesting stuff, yeah?” Sonic takes back his hand and puts his glove on. His expression is the same as ever.
“I guess… hey, Shadow! Let me do you next!“ Amy says.
“I have no need for your silly little party tricks. Besides, this is no time to be fooling around. Eggman strikes soon.” He scoffs and turns away, folding his arms.
“Okay well you don’t have to be a dick about it.” Amy says, frowning.
Amy’s reading of Sonic’s past life was unnervingly familiar. As Rouge had once told him, once is an oddity, twice is a coincidence, but thrice is a pattern. There is something strange about Sonic. Aside from his usual quirks. But there are no such things as past lives and psychic readings. Though in their world of ancient gods and mystical jewels, is it truly such a stretch?
Are these things connected to that strange feeling of deja vu? Is Sonic…
… more than what he seems?
He’d have to look into it further. Right now there was yet another Eggman plot to take care of.
—-
When Amy hears the knock on her apartment door the Saturday after they took down eggman again, she’s making toast. She sets the timer and walks over to the door. She looks through the peephole and her eyes widen. She unlatches the door and opens it up.
“Shadow? What do you want?” She squints. He invites himself in and strolls past her.
“I need you to tell me what you know about reincarnation. And past lives.” He folds his arms and stares.
“Why? Change your mind? And welcome to my home, I guess.” She puts her hand on her hip and stares back.
“You don’t need to know why. Either tell me or don’t.” He looks away and his eyes wander the room.
“Well, damn a girl for being curious.” She mutters. “I’d love to talk about it, But seriously, what do you want to know specifically? It’s… a pretty broad topic.”
“Hm. For starters, how about you tell me how you were able to supposedly learn about the others past lives through palm reading?”
“I read the lines on their palms specifically for past lives. The most recent one is easiest to read. But that’s just the one interpretation. It’s a lot of informed guesstimating. Lots of different cultures have different beliefs and theories about reincarnation and past lives, it’s actually pretty interesting stuff. I could recommend you some good books about it-“
“That won’t be necessary.” He interrupts her. “What do you think about reincarnation?” The toast pops up. Amy moves to collect it.
“I definitely believe in it, if that’s what you’re asking. But I get the feeling that it’s not. Based on what I’ve read and my own experiences, I think that it’s… confusing. I think that who someone once was can effect who they are now, but I also think that it doesn’t really matter? Especially since they don’t really remember. I mean, I like knowing, and it’s interesting, but… ugh, do you get what I’m saying?” She spreads peanut butter on her toast and drizzles honey over it.
“No, not really. Even if someone can’t remember who they used to be, they still used to be that person. Have you ever heard of someone… getting back memories of a past life?” He picks up a framed photo of Amy and Sonic. They’re eating chili dogs on a sunny day in station square.
Amy makes a skeptical hum in response and opens the fridge. She grabs some strawberries and shuts the door with her hip.
“I’ve heard of plenty of hoaxes of the type, a few times where people couldn’t find holes in the story, and some people saying they would get flashes of memories of past lives, but it’s kinda of a hard thing to fact check. I figure it just depends.” She carefully slices the strawberries and lays them out on her plate.
“How can you know your readings are correct?” He sets the photo back down. It must’ve been Tails who took it.
“Call it my girlish intuition.” She sticks the knife in the sink and turns around to face Shadow. “Anymore questions?”
He looks back at her for a second before responding.
“No. That should suffice.”
“Hold on. Really, why do you need to know this stuff?” She gestures with her palms.
He opens the door and steps out.
“Really, you don’t need to know.” He looks at her.
“Hey, don’t you want to know those books I recommend?” He turns and continues walking.
“Ugh, whatever. You could’ve at least closed the door behind you, jerk!” She yells after him before slamming the door.
“Oh well.” She sighs and chows down on her cute breakfast, wondering what Shadow’s deal was.
—-
In the parking lot of Amy’s apartment building, Shadow spots a mostly black blur out of the corner of his eye. He stops.
“Rouge.” He turns to face his friend.
“Shadow. How are ya?” She struts over to him.
“What is it that you want?”
“Oh, can’t I just wanna say hi to a dear friend?” He squints at her. “Fine, fine. I was curious about what you were up to so I listened in on your talk with Amy.” She puts a hand on her hip.
“That was a private conversation, Rouge.”
“Well, next time you might wanna get better at catching eavesdroppers in case it’s really private. But anyways, what’s got you interested in palm readings and reincarnation? Change your mind?”
He looks at her, thinking for a moment before speaking.
“I’ve been… noticing things. It started out as just little flashes of deja vu. But it kept happening, and I started to see more and more similarities and I thought that it was just a bizarre coincidence. But then,”
He looks down at his hands and clenches them.
“When we were waiting around to stop Eggman the other night, Amy did palm readings and the puzzle pieces began slipping into place. And I can’t tell if they really do form the picture that I think they do, or if my vision is clouded by my own foolish desire. … I don’t know, Rouge. I feel more confused than I have in a long while.”
“Hm. I figured it had something to do with your past. I mean, doesn’t it always?” She looks him in the eyes with a careful expression. He wonders if she can connect the dots to figure out exactly what he means. Her prowess with just that was one of the main reasons gun hired her, after all. “I don’t know quite what you want me to do, but I bet i could help you out here.”
“Where’s the catch?” He eyes her skeptically.
“Oh, no catch. Not this time at least. This sounds like some juicy stuff. And if a chaos emerald or two happened to go missing under your watch, well, really who could blame you?” She flaps her wings idly.
He rolls his eyes.
“Fine then. So, what are you going to do?”
“My job, Shadow! I’ll call you when I’ve got the info! Buh bye!” She waves goodbye and takes off.
“… Thank you.” He says softly. But he knows Rouge. And he knows that she heard it.
—-
About a week after that, he gets the call. It’s a crisp Saturday morning, and the leaves are just barely starting to change. He’s out in a forest somewhere, searching for an emerald.
“Rouge?” He answers and holds the phone up to his ear.
“Shadow, honey! So I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you wanna hear first?” Her end sounds rather windy.
“The bad.”
“Mmkay then. So, I got in contact with a friend of mine who knows a psychic. A real one, trust me. She said that for her to do a proper reading, she needs a full chart. Birth signs and all that jazz.” She keeps up her usual tone, but he can tell she’s taking this seriously.
“And?” He swats at a mosquito.
“And Sonic doesn’t have any of that.”
“What? Just use your access from gun.” His expression is annoyance masking confusion, not that she can see.
“You think I didn’t try? Shadow, I tried that back when he was being framed as you. The records don’t exist. Sonic didn’t exist on paper until he started fighting against Eggman and the news picked up on it.”
“What the hell? Rouge, that’s…” He clenches his empty fist.
“Unbelievable? Yeah, that the savior of the world supposedly just popped out of the ground one day? You and me both, pal. Even with the chart, there’s still not really a definitive way to tell who someone was in a past life.”
“So what was the good news?” He collects himself.
“Well, she also told me that sometimes things carry over from life to life. Sometimes little things, sometimes big ones. Mannerisms, personal taste, wants. She said that of any ways to tell, that’d be both the strongest and the flimsiest.” He hears her sigh on the other side of the line. “It’s your call, Shadow. Just keep in mind, even if he was once who you think he was, he’s still Sonic.”
He stays quiet for a beat.
“I think… that I should talk to him.”
“And what will you say?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
“Alright, well, the guard rotation just changed, so I’ve gotta go now. If you need to, call me back in like an hour. Buh bye!” She snaps her burner phone shut and hangs up.
“… Bye Rouge.”
—-
He manages to track Sonic down to a chao garden hidden away in some woods. When he gets there, the sun has already set. Fireflies flit about all around. Lotuses float all across the pond. He trudges his way into the garden itself and spots Sonic crouched down and playing with a few chao.
“… And here’s a rock perfect for skipping! Here, you try!” Sonic hands a small stone to one of the chao. It babbles something and tosses the rock onto the pond. It skips a few times, before accidentally hitting a lounging swim chao.
Is he really going to do this?
Sonic wades over to help sort out the situation, and Shadow sighs. It seems nothing was hurt but feelings, and Sonic stands and turns around, looking Shadow right in the eyes. Shadow stiffens. He’s supposed to be one studying him, and yet Sonic’s gaze feels so strange.
“So what brings you to this part of the woods? Here to pet some chao?” Sonic grins at him.
“How did you know I was there?”
“What, like it’s hard? Dude, I could hear your brooding a mile away. Are you here for a race then?”
A scoff. Shadow folds his arms and steps closer to the pond that Sonic is still waist deep in.
“No. I… wanted to ask you something. A hypothetical.”
“Ask away.” He scoops up the unlucky swim chao and holds it in his arms.
“If you knew someone, and things about them started adding up, and you realized that they might’ve once been someone you cared about deeply, but you couldn’t be sure, what would you do?” Shadow sounds almost unsure.
Sonic raises up the chao and then sets it back into the water. It swims off, content. He’s got a relaxed smile on his face, though Shadow cannot tell what he is thinking.
“Once was someone else like in the amnesia way?” He puts a hand on his hip.
“Something like that.”
“Well, Shadow. If you never wound up getting your memories back, would you still be Shadow the Hedgehog?”
“Of course I would, this is different.”
“Is it? If you had lived a whole other life with no memory or even the name Shadow the Hedgehog, would that still be who you are? Do you think the past matters that much?”
“I… I don’t know. But we shouldn’t forget the past.”
“And does this person even want to remember? Do you want them back so badly that you’d risk losing who you have now? Hypothetically, of course.” Did he know somehow?
“But shouldn’t I at least try? I can see it here and there, remnants of what might’ve been. Don’t I owe it to h- them?”
“Do you think they’d want it? Do you think the person you used to know would want to come back?” Sonic tilts his head at shadow. “It’s not who you used to be that matters, it’s who you are now. I mean, you’re not trying to destroy the world anymore. You’ve changed. I’d bet this person has too, even if the resemblance is still there.”
Shadow stays quiet. A neutral chao, the one that had thrown the rock, wrapped itself around Sonic’s leg. He scoops it up and it nuzzles him. The chao stays like that, snuggled up against his neck. What’s going on in his head remains a mystery, the answer known only to Sonic himself.
He thinks about what Sonic said to him. About what it would mean if he said what he was thinking. About the implications and all that it would entail.
“I think I understand what you mean.” Shadow says.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I do.” He steps closer still to the pond. A chao looks up at him with curiosity in it’s eyes. “I think you’re right. I won’t tell them. Hypothetically.”
“Of course. Hey, want a peach? There’s a tree right over…” He dashes over to a tree on the other side of the pond. “Here! Nothing beats peaches this fresh!” The chao he’s holding looks a tad shaken.
Shadow looks up at the tree and back down at Sonic.
“Sure. That sounds nice.” He walks over to the tree and grabs a peach for himself and one for Sonic. He hands it to him and Sonic immediately takes a bite. Shadow wipes his off against his leg.
He bites the peach and it’s one of the sweetest things he’s had in a long time. It’s familiar and new all at once, and he decides that’s okay.