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Shadow had a vague outline of what happened.
He had been fighting Eggman about something he couldn’t quite remember, when a cold object lodged into the fur of his back and made him plummet to the ground. He tried use chaos control, but his body didn’t seem to answer. He tried to peel off his back whatever had been there, but instead was met with a pair of thick, silver rings cuffing his hands tightly. It was one of the few instances he would have appreciated the appearance of the blue nuisance and his wonder team, just to provide a sufficient distraction to get out of there. The doctor, he realized faintly, had been talking about something, improving a design of a device he replicated, the ultimate tool to take over the world and some more nonsense he tended to ramble about. What was worrying was how the world around Shadow had seemed to be turning more and more dull by the second, eventually fading into black whilst the doctor’s laughter rippled through the air.
He had woken up afterwards with a headache that didn’t seem to fade and the feeling of metal bellow him, his arms and legs tied to the sides with a thick rope. An unnerving sense of déjà vu persisted in his mind and only grew stronger as he stared silently at the bright fluorescent hanging from the ceiling. After a few hopeless tries of freeing himself the sudden smell antiseptic had managed to tip off whatever careful balance his brain had managed to maintain. The room, now much clearer in detail, was filled with people, some holding metal utensils and wearing medical equipment, others in the back chatting and writing as they observed his body’s natural responses.
Rationally, he knew it was impossible for him to be back on the ARK, because he knew it had been destroyed. But then a sharp knife trailed along his left arm and all he could do was whimper and try to squirm away, feeling as small as a child. He tried screaming, but found his mouth had been covered in cotton, muffling his sounds so he wouldn’t be an inconvenience, so he could be tested properly. According to the doctor, this was supposed to be helpful, useful for him to make sure he was “stable”.
He never could quite make himself believe that.
They were still at it, taking samples, drawing blood, looking at him over and over as if they were dissecting a corpse, not caring about any injuries, any scars, any anything they were doing to him. It didn’t matter really, not to them. He was an experiment, the newest product of a brilliant mind, a toy to be fiddled with. Someone loosened his right wrist and any semblance of complacency had vanished out the window, remembering very suddenly what came next. His whole body acted on impulse as he tried to loosen his other arm and break it free, but was met with strong pairs of hands holding him down.
He cried, his voice getting through perfectly, the muzzle having fallen to the side at the struggle. He pleaded that they stop, he begged, whimpered and shouted, but the world went white with pain the second the knife pierced his hand. Then, as the original feeling had subsided, a much stronger one replaced it, tearing pure screams out of his throat as his wrist started healing itself out of nothing but his own life force. He felt himself go in and out of consciousness, the steady flow of pain making him numb to everything around him. He could hear noises, metal shattering, shouting, whispering, hands on his chest, on his head, on his shoulders. It didn’t make a difference, for whatever they did wouldn’t be worse than this (he knew he was lying to himself). Oh, what he would give to be out of the room, for the torture to be over, to be safely back at Maria’s side listening to her fantasy stories about princes and princesses back on earth, the endless sky of stars staring back at them both. Maria was so wonderful, unlike any other human he had met. But Maria wasn’t there anymore, and the ARK didn’t exist, and the doctor was dead, but the pain still felt very, very real.
When the sonic team heard that Shadow had been captured by Eggman, they were almost inclined to not do anything and let the problem sort itself out, after all, Shadow was always insisting that he didn’t need any help and that they were no more than a mere inconvenience. Still, after Sonic’s motivational speech about their responsibility as heroes to always stop the villain’s evil plans, they had reluctantly headed over to Eggman’s lair and, after not receiving and answer, broke in sweeping around until they found the culprit, somewhere along his basement. Eggman, who obviously hadn’t expected company, was well under prepared for a fight and was easily taken care of, the team splitting up afterwards to find where Shadow had been hidden.
Sonic, even if he could check all the rooms in a matter of seconds, was weary of the structural integrity of underground spaces and instead opted for a quick pace as he called out for the other hedgehog. After a few minutes of walking in the darkness, he was greeted by soft lighting peaking under a door and the hum of electronics somewhere along the walls. The door lead to a surprisingly big curved room, relief washing over him as he finally left the constricting darkness of the corridors. It lasted only a few moments, for the feeling that something was very very wrong started to creep up his spine, sending goosebumps down his limbs. It smelled like he was in a hospital, too, which did nothing to ease his nerves.
He was standing on a rounded platform with a big hole in its center, the drop protected by railings and leading to something below him he couldn’t quite make out. As he started to approach the edge he felt his heart rate pick up, almost feeling like a character belonging to a horror movie. The second he looked, he expected a monster to jump at him. Instead, he was met with something far worse, somehow.
Shadow was lying curled up on a metal table, torn handcuffs hanging off his wrists, one of his legs still remaining tied. A needle, he noted grimly, was going in and out of his shoulder, moving slightly each time. He had been contained in a crystal cylinder, the side he was facing blown away completely by what looked like a chaos blast. Shadow was physically capable of leaving at any moment, but instead remained there, a ball muttering incoherent things. The blue hero, snapping out of the shock, dropped down and tugged the machine holding the needle far away from them both, the glass around them shattering with the hit.
“Shads?” He didn’t get an answer, but instead something that sounded awfully close to ‘Maria’. He knew, to a certain extent, who she had been. He tried to touch his shoulder and was met with a sob, still not a response. Up close, Sonic could see the trail of silent tears that wet the black hedgehog’s fur. It was disturbing to see someone so composed, and hotheaded, and strong, completely devastated. He had known Eggman was evil, but this was far beyond what he considered the other capable of, to reduce someone to this, it was unthinkable. He tried again, making his voice louder.
“Shadow, can you hear me?” This time he got a half-groan half-moan, but it was better than nothing. “It’s me Sonic, I need you to tell me if you can hear me.” Silence. “I’m going to touch you now, don’t freak out.” He tried again with the shoulder, but the only thing he heard was Shadow’s voice calling out Maria’s name like a mantra, his eyes still shut tight. Sonic was almost tempted to wait for Amy, someone who could probably do a better job than him, but realized the unwillingness his team had shown and accepted that he would have to be the one that did this. Shadow was obviously not aware of where he was and the first step should be to try and snap him out of it.
“I’m not Maria, I’m Sonic. Can you say may name?” He hoped into the table, it was definitely a medical one, and wrapped very lightly one of his arms around his back, propping him up to his lap. He didn’t complain, instead continuing to mutter the girl’s name.
“Sonic, the hedgehog, hero of Mobius, blue fur, very fast guy?” He poked at his cheek and that finally seemed to get some sort of reaction out of him, making him flinch. “Yeah, that’s right, I’m here right now and so are you, on Earth.” The other went silent again, his eyes remaining closed. “I seriously need you to tell me if you’re listening to me” If Shadow didn’t answer in the next five minutes, he would just throw him over his shoulder and carry him out of there like a sack of potatoes. Shadow mumbled something that he didn’t quite get, a raspy collection of sounds rather than a sentence, but it seemed much more cohesive than anything else he’d said.
“What?” Sonic leaned over to hear him better, awkwardly looming over the other’s head.
“Go away fake-” Shadows words were cut short by a sudden burst of coughs that propelled him upwards, half chocking him by their strength while his eyes opened in panic. He was trembling too, something that Sonic noted with increasing worry. He tried to hug him, but with his quills in the way he couldn’t do more than hover awkwardly and rub circles on his back. After a long, long minute, he had calmed down enough to be able to take even shallow breaths. Afterwards, he simply turned around and dropped his head into Sonic’s shoulder, hugging him tightly. Returning the gesture instantly, Sonic offered reassuring words as whispers they could barely even hear, trying to keep his counterpart calm. He felt his shoulder dampen and he couldn’t begin to mind.
Shattering the moment he had careful constructed, the sound of a call coming from his wrist indicated that someone, Tails, was trying to contact him. As reluctant as he was to answer, he clicked it and was met with his brother’s cheery voice, something that even if in most situations he enjoyed, felt severely out of place. Shadow had gone completely still, possibly not even breathing, for how quiet he had become.
“Hi Tails I uhm…” He briefly looked down at the ball of dark fur that currently rested on his chest, questioning what he should do next. Shadow, as far as he knew, was immortal and could easily heal from nasty injuries so he didn’t need immediate medical attention, not that there seemed to be anything left from Eggman’s little experiment. “I found Shadow”
“Great! Tell me where you are and we’ll come get you” At those words, Shadow tried to squirm away, Sonic’s arm still holding him in place, not hard enough that if he really wanted to he wouldn’t be able to leave.
“Actually Tails, I have everything under control here, so you can just go and I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Are you sure?” There was barely a hint of hesitancy from his brother’s part. Him and Shadow where very capable people, and he luckily didn’t find any reasons to doubt him.
“Yeah yeah, we’re fine here, See ya later!”
“See ya!”When the call ended, all of the energy he had saved up had been used on pretending he was happy and in a good mood. He didn’t enjoy lying to Tails, but he understood that people like Shadow didn’t appreciate their vulnerability being broadcasted to strangers, specially when they had been unwillingly forced to show it to someone in the first place. Shadow had relaxed slightly again, but now the unspoken tension that hanged in the air seemed to get more dense by the second. It was obvious that the situation they were in had finally downed on Shadow, which was still better than whatever memory induced nightmare he had been trapped in in the first place.
After a while, Shadow pushed himself away from him, siting half straight while lying the weight of his body on his arm, flexing his other wrist tentatively.
“Are you ok?” He only received a grunt in response, Shadow still not looking up.
“Cool, yeah, that’s good” Sonic sighed, slumping over. A breath he didn’t even know he was holding escaped his lips, relief washing over him. Even if the other hedgehog wasn’t being honest, it still felt good to know he had done something to better his state.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He barely got the words out before the other answered no.
“Do you want to talk about something else then?” This time he didn’t answer, instead raising his shoulders nonchalantly. Shadow, even if he wasn’t the most talkative person in the world, usually answered with clear words and cutting remarks, sometimes even half speeches about his greatness. To any other person he might just look bored, but to Sonic it was plain as day he was still extremely shaken by this. He could only wonder what he had seen, but decided that the wisest thing would be to pretend it hadn’t happened for now.
“Well, now that you mention it-” Sonic was painfully aware of how awkward he sounded, trying to make something up on the spot to kill the suffocating silence between them. “Something happened to me this morning, with one of the locals from the village.” He started rambling about nothing in particular, Shadow adding more and more comments as he spoke, finally letting his mind drift off the experience (he wasn’t even sure he had been listened to at all at the beginning). Somewhere in their conversation, an hour or two in, he had untied Shadow’s other leg, letting the rope carelessly fall to the ground.
“So, get this. I’m sitting in the middle of the street, not even wearing shoes mind you, completely covered in fruit juice, and he has the nerve to ask me for a ride back to his house.” Shadow snorted, Sonic quieting instantly to look at him. He wasn’t even sure he had heard him do that before, but it had been wonderful, so intimate and so vulnerable that it made him feel uncomfortable to think too much about it. Instead, hoping the other hadn’t noticed the staring, he slid down the table, with pins and needles all over his body.
“I really do think we should get out of here now.” The black hedgehog nodded and hopped out, landing with a soft thud. “I’d race you to the exit, but I don’t think there is enough space for both of us.”
“Are you afraid of a challenge, or have you accepted defeat already?”
“No, that’s not!” He tried to look intimidating and failed, instead laughing at the banter and sprinting past the other one, who shouted something along the lines of fair play.
As he had predicted, there wouldn’t be space for both of them to run parallel to each other, and as much as Shadow tried, he couldn’t get pass him without hitting the walls. Still, he felt him getting closer, blue and orange lighting up the corridors with a pleasant hue of purple grey. Suddenly something gripped his shoulder and tugged him backwards, Shadow using the shock to take the lead. Like this, they pulled and pushed each other until they arrived at the end, both of them tripping over and falling, Sonic’s giggles filling the chilly air of the forest. They laid there for a few moments, the world stopping its turning to let them enjoy the grass over their skin.
“I should leave now” Without warning Shadow got up and walked away, ready to teleport out.
“Wait!” He turned to look at Sonic, who was still on the ground. “Could you get me back to my place? I’m not really in the mood to sprint over there right now” He really didn’t want to run for half an hour alone, and honestly, he wanted to know what it felt like to chaos control with someone who knew what they were doing. He definitely didn’t want to do that because it was Shadow and he was still apprehensive of leaving him alone, not at all no sir.
“Sure” He knelt down and offered a hand, propping them back up.
“Thanks” Before they left, he knew he needed to say something about everything that happened, even if it costed him his free ticket ride.
“You should talk to someone about this though.” Shadow only tilted his head and squinted his eyes, ready to bolt if needed. “Not because you’re weak or anything like that! And- and I’m not saying you should talk to me, I get it, we aren’t that close, but still.” He had seemed to relax at that. “Maybe Rouge? She’s your friend right?” After a few painful seconds, he finally got an answer.
“I will consider it.”
And then Shadow swiftly grabbed his waist and the next second he was alone, in front of his doorstep, with a stomach full of butterflies he had convinced himself were strictly caused by the very sudden change in scenery.