Mirror Image

X - Fakers

"Oh, no, please no. Sweet Gaia, this can't be happening."

Fear crept along Sonic's spine as hot air swept across his face. Piles of smashed stone, broken glass and wood lay all around him, fingers of flame licked at the sky, and water sprayed from burst water mains and toppled hydrants, evaporating in to clouds of wispy white moisture that swirled through the intense heat. Only the large circular fountain, its statues bisected at sheer angles, gave any clue that the devastation before him was the main plaza of Station Square. Sonic thought he saw dark familiar shapes scattered here and there, outlined by dust. He turned his head away, unable or unwilling to confirm if they were bodies.

Sonic's footsteps became heavier and slower, his head becoming overwhelmed by the chaos around him. Shadow had taken the lead, and Sonic only moved because of Shadow's tight grip on his hand.

"Why have you stopped, Sonic?" he asked, turning to face the morose blue hedgehog, "We need to hurry!"

"I can't believe I'm capable of this..." Sonic moaned, "My abilities did this, I caused this..." He trailed off, closing his eyes and holding his head in his hands. Everything his doppelganger had done, he feared he could do at any time, if he lost control, if he let his emotions get out of hand. He didn't know how Shadow handled the situation so well, but he didn't care, he just wanted the black hedgehog to hold him again and give him strength.

Instead, Sonic leapt about a foot into the air when Shadow's leg impacted into his crotch. A short sharp shock turned to crippling agony in his lower abdomen, and he toppled to the floor, squeezing his arms between his legs and wincing.

"Argh! What the fuck, Shadow?"

"Pull yourself together, Faker!" barked Shadow, his eyes blazing, "I can't win this with you whining in my ear all the time!" Sonic squinted through the pain.

"I thought you didn't like seeing me get hurt. I thought you wanted to protect me," he pleaded. Shadow looked like he was about to explode.

"I do!" he snapped, "I want to protect you because you're strong, because you're the hero of this world, and someone needs to keep you that way. But that doesn't mean I'm going to mollycoddle you if you can't keep it together. A little 'tough love' won't do you any harm." He relinquished his anger, looking more like a stern parent giving a lecture. He extended a hand for him to grasp, which Sonic did, lifted up easily by Shadow's strength.

"Face it, Sonic," he said, gripping him firmly by the shoulders, "if we were fighting anyone else, you'd have kicked their butt into orbit by now. You're letting this doppelganger get to you, to make you think that it's somehow a... a mirror image of you, but it's not. It's taken the tiny selfish part of you that exists inside every Mobian and twisted it into a sick parody. Please Sonic; show me that you're better than that. Be the hero again, like you should be."

Sonic knew Shadow spoke the truth by the fire now raging in his belly. So what if he was selfish and reckless sometimes, so what if he got angry with his friends in his head? That didn't matter compared to all the times he had stood up for them, been there to support them, and all the people he didn't even know, when they needed him.

"I'm ready to fight, Shadow!" he said, grinning, "It's time to prove there's only one true Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"That's more like it! Let's go."

"Shadow?"

"What is it now?"

"I just wanted to say, I think that if anyone's a hero right now, it's you," said Sonic in a gentle tone, blushing slightly. Shadow smiled warmly, his harsh visage softening, and Sonic sighed, overcome with desire for his former rival. You're my hero, he wanted to say.