Mirror Image

IV - The Promise

"This is another fine mess you've got us into," said Shadow, his eyes glowing purple in the blue dim light of the chamber.

"Me? How is this my fault?" said Sonic.

"If you had listened to me, and not treated that damn emerald like a toy, we wouldn't have been caught."

Sonic's bit down on his lip, a sharp inhalation through his nose puffing out his chest.

"You're one to talk!" he said, fur standing on end, "what made you think picking it up was a good idea, after it zapped me?" Shadow looked down his nose at the accusing finger thrust into his face.

"I can handle Chaos energy better than you," he said, "I didn't think –"

"No! You didn't, did you?" Sonic barked, "why are you always trying to prove you're better than me? You would've thought the 'Ultimate Life Form' wouldn't be so insecure."

Shadow's fur now rose in time with Sonic's, and he loomed over the blue hedgehog, his haughty look paved over by one of fury.

"I don't need to prove anything to you, Faker," he said, "you can't stand the fact that there's someone around who can challenge the mighty Sonic, hero of Mobius."

Sonic rounded on Shadow, gripping him by the shoulders with such speed and force that the black hedgehog's arms were pinned to his side. Shadow seemed to deflate, recoiling from Sonic in shock.

"Dammit Shadow, I respect your abilities!" said Sonic, his eyes locked with his struggling rival "You are a worthy opponent. I just want you to chill out once in a while, drop the macho posturing, so we can be –" Sonic paused, the words lodged in his throat.

"What?" said Shadow, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"-so we can be friends."

"I don't understand."

Sonic had never seen Shadow look so confused, as if the word friend was totally alien to him. Sighing, he released his rival and turned away, running his hand through his quills.

"Think about all the times we've teamed up to save the world" said Sonic, turning back to face Shadow, "times like that, we were unstoppable together. It's such a rush to fight alongside you. I know you enjoyed it too. Don't you want to feel that way more often?"

"I was just doing what I had to," said Shadow, folding his now free arms, "your presence made no difference."

"This is what I mean!" said Sonic, "This is why I get so annoyed at you. I want to like you, but you keep pushing me away. If I was stuck here with anyone else, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, we'd be working on busting out of here."

"Let's do that then, instead of wasting our breath while those duplicates of us are doing who knows what with our friends. If we're such a good team," Shadow threw up his hands like he was opening for the circus, "then let's team up."

Sonic eyed Shadow with a wry smile.

"Our friends?" he asked.

"I mean, your friends, whatever."

"Okay, whatever you say, Shads. First thing I'll do when we get out of here is tell Rouge you don't consider her a friend. Right now, I'm gonna see if there's any way to shut off this force field."

"Dammit, you know that's not what I meant." Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes closed and sighing, "I'll see if I can do anything with that replicator. I might be able to overload it."

"Now we're cooking!" said Sonic, punching the air, "Go-oooo Team!" Sonic saw Shadow staring at him, looking like he had just eaten a bad lemon, "What?"