Mirror Image

XXV - Say Something

Someone who looked a lot like Shadow the Hedgehog limped along the desolate white corridors of GUN's regional headquarters. He ran his fingers slowly along the cracked plaster, riddled with bullet holes, scratched with deep claw marks and smeared with blood. Beneath his feet an obstacle course of rubble, dead bodies and inactive silver robots awaited him, and through walls and floors he heard the muffled sounds of gunfire and panicked screams.

He felt sick at the sight of the carnage endlessly stretching out before him, but he also knew that he didn't. Across his vision red lines of code swarmed like insects, words and number telling him to feel sick, telling his stomach to turn and his balance to waver. Looking down at the spindly silver robots strewn across the floor, he knew that's all he was underneath his outward appearance, but he still felt real, even though he could see the numbers telling him to feel real.

Sonic had caused this; his Sonic, the one that wasn't real either, but who still lived in the insidious fantasy of existing. The Fake Shadow had loved him once, and used to revel in this amount of destruction, but those emotions had no foundation; it was all lies, nothing meant anything anymore.

As he limped past a wooden door to his right, it opened a crack with a quiet creak. Peeking out at him through the gap, a female white fox in a white coat looked straight into his eyes, trembling and clutching a large bundle of papers.

"Is it gone?" she quavered, tears streaming from her eyes, "I hid in here but I... I saw what it did to those soldiers through the window. Their guns were useless, and it just... it just tore them apart... "

Fake Shadow's head began to pound, lines and crosshairs fixing upon the fox's timid face, red letters screaming at him from behind his eyes.

TERMINATE. TERMINATE. TERMINATE.

"NO!" he screamed, holding his head in his hands and crashing into the opposite wall, "I won't do what you tell me anymore!"

"Are you okay?" said the fox.

"Get out of here!" said Fake Shadow, falling to his knees, "run, before I hurt you!" The frightened fox didn't need any further prompting, and took off down the corridor, disappearing around a corner. Fake Shadow rose to his feet, his head pounding with error codes. The building around him began to shake, and a low rumble thundered through the floor from the floors below.

Fake Shadow quelled the errors hounding him, setting his focus towards the source of the noise. He had made a decision, the most important decision of his brief life. Even the numbers processing the decision before his eyes, reminding him of the futility of his existence could not quell his determination.

He would end this madness here and now.

~o~

Tails didn't want to die, at least not like this. He always thought he would go out in a blaze of glory, performing a kamikaze attack on one of Eggman's flying death machines, or being struck by a laser as he pushed Sonic to safety. Sacrificing himself for the greater good and most importantly going out quickly, just like Sonic would want for himself. Not the slow torture Super Sonic had begun to inflict upon him.

The hideous mockery of his best friend continued to grip his narrow arms, his fur burning in agony under the flaming gloves, his bones at breaking point against the supermobian strength. Tails had never felt more alone in his life than at this point, and the face of the beast before him only reminded him of the one he needed most, the one who had abandoned him in his darkest hour.

All Tails could do was scream. Hot tears flowed freely along his fur, and his agonising wail penetrated the walls of the lobby themselves.

"Please!" he bawled, "please, don't kill me! I don't wanna die!"