#it also makes shadow's comfort at sonic's proximity in the latter half of the show make more sense. imo

[son1c]

i'm thinking so deeply about my sonic prime au... of course, sonic and the boscage crew succeed at their little game of hacky sack. sonic catches the shard right as he grabs hold of shadow's hand and they both get zapped out of there. the prism shard falls to the forest floor and the megaflora is FURIOUS at they lost their precious "gift"... their rapacious roar follows him out into the void, but it's already over. they can't reach him or shadow anymore. as the two of them pass through the gate to no place, sonic curls around shadow (who hasn't moved or said a word) while their momentum sends them into a free fall.

in an awesome moment of coincidence, there just so happens to be a small wooden skiff floating empty in the vast sea below them. sonic manages to point himself and shadow toward it, and they're able to get on board (though sonic basically had to drag shadow's limp body over the side). the boat is in pretty rough shape, with seaweed growing over the bow and a strong sense that no one has used it in many years. but it still floats, and that's better than treading water, so sonic is grateful.

sonic hasn't let go of shadow. they're both sitting in the boat, but shadow has this dead-eyed stare to him that freaks sonic the fuck out. he saved him, right? they're in a totally different world now, so the plants can't get to him anymore... right? well, yeah. that much is true. but after spending weeks under their green thumb, shadow's not unchanged.

behind that blank stare, shadow is waiting for the plants to tell him what to do. but it's so deafeningly quiet that it unnerves him. it wakes him up. slowly, he comes to his senses. and that's when he asks sonic if he's free and those sketches i made take place. after being forced to work and move and fight nonstop for those weeks by the plants, shadow is exhausted. he's finally free... and that means he can finally rest.

and sonic could wake him up. he could be like, well, i'm happy you're back, but we gotta save the universe NOW... but he's already fucked up once by ignoring his friends. he already destroyed the universe once by being hasty. so, he doesn't do that. and he lets shadow sleep as the little boat rocks softly on the waves...

i think shadow wakes up first. and for a minute, he's back to that almost catatonic state like, he's suffering from Plant Withdrawal(TM) or something. but then the disgust settles in and he snaps out of it again. finally, he remembers where he is and who he's with and he's able to take in, for the first time, just how BEAT UP sonic is. because it was no east task fighting through a whole jungle of killer plants just to save him. and ofc sonic wouldn't show it... he's tough... but shadow can see with his eyes that he's injured.

so he uses his chaos powers to help sonic heal. and when sonic wakes up he feels really good, and can see the last of the glow fading from shadow as his powers recede. and he understands without words that that was his "thank you."

but yeah, i wanted them to be alone for this so they could have a cinematic moment where the sunrise is coming over the vast sea, and they have a little handshake of understanding, and sonic grins his wide determined grin and things finally look like they're gonna start getting Better. like maybe they Can do this. now that they're working together. now that shadow understands that sonic truly regrets his mistake and is willing to do ANYTHING in order to fix it... which sonic proved by nearly destroying himself to save shadow. yk? i just think it really works.