Mirror Image

XXII - Burial

Under a cloudless sky, far from the turmoil of the city, an ancient forest slumbered by the sparkling clear waters of a vast lake. On a grassy hill overlooking the pristine mirror below, a single tree stood in splendid isolation. An old oak stretched its arms over the hillside, casting long shadows across the grass, swaying softly in the gentle wind with a rustle like soft whispering. All alone it stood; a sentinel watching over the verdant paradise for intruders.

But no-one ever came here, to this place of beauty. It lay too far from the safety of the beaten track, of the well-mapped trails, and that was precisely why he lay beneath the ancient snaking boughs, an entire world all to himself within the cool shadows.

Shadow sat cross-legged on the hillside, facing the trunk of the tree, lost within his own thoughts. He focused on a drawing scratched into the dark and ragged bark of the tree, its pale lines almost swallowed up by the expanding wood. An outside observer would assume a child had done it; the way the figures had sticks for arms and plain smiling circles for heads, but they would be able to guess what it was supposed to be; two hedgehogs, smiling and holding hands under an equally cheerful sun.

But they would be wrong. The drawing had been wrought by the black hedgehog sitting in front of it, and only one of the figures was a hedgehog; the other should have been human, but art wasn't his strong suit, and he doubted any Mobian knew how to draw a human properly; they were few and far between, and most had probably never even seen one up close. The 'sun' was nothing of the sort, but a space station adorned with a giant face; the ARK.

Staring at the scrawl he had made decades ago, Shadow sighed heavily to himself. He came to this place to be away from Sonic; not because he didn't want to be around him for a change, but because he couldn't focus clearly when that face was before him. That face, the one that made him want to punch it repeatedly and kiss it passionately in equal measure. The face that twisted his heart up in knots whenever any pain fell across it. The only face to appear behind his closed eyelids, save one other.

In his hands he held the old locket, its open lid revealing the smiling face of Maria.

"Hi Maria," he said quietly, "it's Shadow. How have you been? Things have been... strange for me recently. I think... I think I might be in love, Maria. Isn't that great?"

He stared at the faded picture for a few moments in silence, imagining what Maria's reaction might have been. Closing his eyes he pictured her sweeping her arms around him, praising him and kissing his forehead, then another scene; her meeting Sonic for the first time, the Hero of Mobius bowing and kissing her hand like she was a princess. What would she think of him? Would she approve?

Focusing intently on those azure eyes, a warm feeling began to rise in his heart. Sonic's love for life, his passion for freedom and his spirit that was truly free, the only burden he felt being his great love for the world, and his need to keep everyone safe. All the things she dreamed of; Maria would have worshipped the ground he walks on.

But there it was, the niggling feeling he couldn't escape. Sonic felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders every day, and the thought of failure burned him from the inside out. Shadow knew he could be the one to pick him up when everything got too much. But that same protective nature was what made him feel so conflicted; did he really love Sonic, or was it only Maria's legacy he loved?

Even the kisses he shared with Sonic couldn't soothe his turmoil. He would never have wanted to kiss Maria like that, but he was the only one who could; he had often shared a gentle kiss on the cheek or forehead during their time together, anyone else would have passed their own minor illnesses and bacteria onto her, and with her condition the infection would have been fatal. No, that was not enough to ease his mind.