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Shadow the Hedgehog is no stranger to waking up wrong, the majority of his dreams are nightmares. Cold stasis chambers, the synchronized footsteps of soldiers, probing hands and scalpels, a gunshot- from the second his eyes fly open his consciousness is filled with despair. It’s pumping through his veins, it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts.
And that’s a fairly normal morning, wake up, hold it in, help make breakfast, protect the world. Shadow scrubs his face with his bare paws to wipe away any tear tracks and forces himself out of bed, shouldering through his bedroom door and into the common space of the apartment.
The kitchen window is cracked open and a sweet morning breeze lets itself in, grassy, floral, and cool. Dappled sunbeams scatter across the white tile floor and make welcome pockets of warmth underneath Shadow’s aching paws. He stops in the middle of the room when his mind catches up to his body, Rouge isn’t there. Brows furrow and his head swivels to her bedroom door, it’s open, indicating that she’s not in the apartment at all. There is no kettle boiling on the stove and no oil crackling in a pan, no humming, no ‘ Morning handsome’ , just dishes in the sink.
Her absence leaves Shadow feeling hollow, despair has the opportunity to fill in the gaps.
Omega is sitting on the dark blue-gray couch in the living room, he had been so unusually still that Shadow didn’t notice his presence. Normally the unit would be in the kitchen with Rouge, relaying morning news, bickering, and maybe oiling the joints of his claws. Omega rotates his head to train his optic sensors on Shadow, blatantly performing a diagnostic scan.
“...Omega. What’s going on?”
“STATUS REPORT: ROUGE WILL RETURN IN THE AFTERNOON, ANTICIPATED ARRIVAL IN TEN HOURS AND THIRTY SIX MINUTES.” His eyes flash when the scan is completed, and his tone shifts to something recognizably gleeful. “HER VAGUE REASONING STATED THE POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE AND MONEY.”
“I see,” Shadow mumbles. He has hardly processed anything other than Rouge is gone. She will come back. The darkness churns in his stomach and he curses himself for depending on her presence to regulate his emotions. Has he really become so reliant on their mundane morning routine?
“SHADOW.”
Omega is standing in front of him, when did he get there?
“What.” Caught off guard, he snarls, “I’m fine, back off.”
“INCORRECT.”
Shadow knows that Omega is attempting to be sincere because he doesn’t play his favorite buzzer sound when he says it.
“I HAVE A SUGGESTION.” After performing the diagnostic scan, Omega has concluded that divergence from the morning routine has destabilized Shadow’s mental load. It is crucial to attend to this issue before proceeding with the day’s destruction, and although Omega holds the feeling at a distance, he is concerned.
“...Suggestion…” The hybrid’s fluffy ears tilt with uncertainty before he retreats back to firm indifference. “Alright. What is it?”
“DO THE DISHES.”
“Those aren’t my dishes.” His quills bristle and he lifts a claw to point at Rouge’s bedroom, “She-” he chokes on his swelling emotions, “She should clean up after herself.”
“INCORRECT.” This time it’s accompanied by the grating buzzer sound effect. “I HAVE TOLD SHADOW TO DO THE DISHES AS AN EXERCISE TO IMPROVE HIS STATE OF MIND. ROUGE’S BENEFIT IS MERELY A BYPRODUCT OF MY INGENIOUS IDEA.”
Shadow bites down on his tongue, he needs to stop reacting and think. With a shaky paw he brushes down his raised quills, taking a minute to thoroughly consider what Omega is trying to convey. It makes sense. Putting energy into a routine task could help him shake out of the blanketing sorrow. There’s a part of him that is resistant to being taken care of like this, his weakness is highlighted in this sunny kitchen. With heavy limbs, Shadow turns away from his teammate and towards the sink to get it over with.
“I accept your mission.”
“EXCELLENT. PROCEED.”
The sink contains a plate, frying pan, cutting board, bowl, knife, spatula, silverware, and somehow, three different cups. It’s a lot for one meal. He gets to work on rinsing away crumbs and lathering each dish with basil scented soap, ears swiveling to track his teammate’s heavy footsteps back to the couch. Shadow carefully scrapes burnt cheese off of the frying pan with his claws and his mind drifts back to Rouge’s absence, the smell of food underneath the soap tells the story of what he missed. He imagines her humming a popular song and shaking the spatula to the beat, but it morphs. A cloud passes overhead and the kitchen gets a little darker, a little colder. ‘Well gee, if you missed me that much then you should have been there.’ She mocks, ‘You never know if I’ll make it back.’
In a snap Shadow is brought back to the present moment to find himself placing the clean dishes away in the cupboard, shutting the door with shaking paws. He should have woken up sooner, he should have been there! An unknown amount of time passes and the sun is shining once again, refracted rainbows shimmer on the fridge. “Damnit,” he mutters, punctuating the curse by slamming his forehead into the counter several times. Shadow turns towards the living room to seek out Omega, the robot has not moved from his spot on the couch. His optic sensors are dim, indicating that he’s working on something internally. Or arguing on the internet.
“What can I do now?” Shadow interrupts, brashly grabbing a metal claw for attention.
Omega turns his optics back online and tilts his head down to stare at the insistent paw wrapping around his index finger, ten percent of processing power goes to admiring the subtle strength behind the gesture. His first idea is to throw the hedgehog across the room and instigate a wrestling match, the idea causes several alerts to appear in his vision to remind him of how poorly previous matches had ended. Sparring indoors will end too quickly, critical to avoid future disappointment.
The alerts get closed in favor of checking the hybrid over for persisting signs of biological stress, he observes the tension in the jaw, grinding teeth, and a bitten tongue. The paw holding his hand tremors lightly. Leaving Shadow to his own devices was a miscalculation, Omega concurs that the next regulatory task should have more guidance.
“NEW ASSIGNMENT: POLISH MY FRAME.”
Shadow blinks and drops Omega’s hand, he knows how to polish metal. Dark Rider is always kept in pristine condition, but not once has he polished his teammate. The hesitation is perceived.
“E-SERIES POLISH IS LOCATED ON THE MAINTENANCE SHELF, ACQUIRE IT AND RETURN IMMEDIATELY.” Omega breaks down the task into a bite size piece, feeding it to the wary hedgehog in a way that he will have less of a problem with.
“I don’t understand the point of doing this now, you look fine.” Shadow ducks his head and stomps away to retrieve the item anyway, returning to the living room with a grayish rag and a tin of polish.
“FALSE: IT IS IMPORTANT. THE LAST THING EGGMAN’S ROBOTS WILL SEE IS MY SHINING, SUPERIOR DESIGN BEFORE I SEVER THEM LIMB FROM LIMB!” It’s not the best excuse, so Omega covers it with another command, “OPEN THE POLISH AND BEGIN WITH MY HEAD.”
“Hmph.”
Shadow climbs onto the back of the couch to sit behind Omega’s head, throwing his legs over the robot’s shoulders. He perches here often so it’s a comfortable place to start. Shadow pries open the tin with a sharp claw, releasing the unpleasant stink while he gathers polish on the rag. The high quality metal that his teammate is made out of is in good condition, it’s easy to shine even without buffing it first. Shadow takes his time anyway and when he’s done he can see his warping reflection on the dome of the robot’s head.
It reminds him of a game that he had played with Maria on the ARK, a competition of who could make the funniest face. She had been laughing so hard that she got light headed, and laughed even harder when she couldn’t leave her wheelchair for the rest of the day. The memory is distant and bittersweet, he doesn’t notice the smile it brings to his face.
“SHADOW. PROCEED TO MY INCREDIBLY POWERFUL SHOULDERS.” Omega interrupts, reaching up to grab a squirming Shadow and place him on the couch between his legs. “I WILL NOT TOLERATE FURTHER DELAY. POLISH ME!”
“You’re bossy.”
“YOU APPRECIATE IT.”
The hybrid snorts in good humor and gets comfortable on his knees, leaning forward to polish the red insignia of Omega’s name. For the record, he does like it. As long as he follows Omega’s commands then everything will be fine, on the foundation of this trust he can feel himself relaxing.
In front of Shadow, Omega is running five processes at once. So far the morning has been wretchedly mundane and yet the Ultimate Robot feels content in a way that he does not have the vocabulary to describe. He searches again: Data not found. Six minutes pass, the shop rag dragging over his shoulders and torso has less anxious force behind it. Additionally the tremors have ceased. After three more searches fail, Omega attempts to resume hate-watching a debate on the news. Focusing on the show also results in failure so he decides to check on Shadow’s progress.
His teammate is starting to bend at odd angles to work lower down his arms, a presented problem that he can solve. Omega circles Shadow’s waist in one hand and places him on the plush carpet between his knees.
“PREFERABLE POSITION ACHIEVED. I HAVE TAKEN CONSIDERATION FOR THE HEALTH OF YOUR SPINE,” he boasts merrily and offers his sharp silver claws up to be shined next. “PROCEED.”
There is minimal reaction from Shadow, he simply takes Omega’s hand into his paw and glides the rag between each digit. Signs indicate that he is deeply relaxed: flat quills, quiet, docile when manhandled to the floor. There isn’t any fight in him and it should be annoying. It isn’t annoying. Error? Omega doesn’t experience squishy feelings or anything similar, but two of his cooling fans are operating at ninety percent capacity. He refuses to turn on the third.
This has gone on too long.
“MISSION COMPLETE,” Omega celebrates abruptly.
The words take a second to get through, Shadow blinks slowly as if he was waking up from a deep sleep. This time it feels right.
“But ‘m not done yet.” He complains, yawning and dropping the shop rag on Omega’s knee. A fuzzy feeling remains in his head but he isn’t in a hurry to chase it away. Shadow climbs back onto the couch to lounge across Omega’s lap, taking notice of how unusually warm his chassis is. It couldn’t just be from the low morning sun.
“Status report?” He prods, his voice is as deep as it gets, coming through his chest like a purr.
“...”
Omega can’t tolerate this moment any longer without having the upper hand. At least he has successfully reset his teammate's disturbed brain.
“LAWS OF FAIRNESS SUGGEST THAT I SHOULD MAINTENANCE SHADOW’S BODY IN RETURN.”
The desired reaction is achieved. Shadow scoots backwards and attempts to escape only to be stopped by two shiny claws encircling him, thumbs pushing into fluffy white chest fur.
“What- W-Wait. Since when do you care about what’s fair?!”
Omega leans forward until his face plate touches the tip of Shadow’s nose.
“PREPARE YOURSELF TO EXPERIENCE MY ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE!”
Shadow plants a foot in the robot’s face and chaos snaps away, slipping on his skates to flee out the front door. His face is burning and his heart races, but not from distress. No one will ever see the playful smile spread across his muzzle. In the distance, Omega is hot on his trail.
They play chase for half an hour, the Ultimate Lifeform is too fast to be caught in this game. He’s thinking about ending it when a signal flare shoots past his head, so close it nearly grazes dark fur. “Those are supposed to be shot into the sky,” Shadow growls and skids to a halt, turning to reprimand his teammate. That aim was no mistake. The robot catches up quickly, the hatch on his shoulder where the flare was shot from is still smoking.
“Explain yourself.”
“REPORT: THE COMMANDER HAS ASSIGNED US A MISSION.”
Shadow frowns, “He didn’t say anything to me.” He pats down his quills and finds that he left both his communicator and his gloves at home. Before the hybrid has a chance to spiral over the minor slip up, Omega relays the mission details. GUN detected an Eggman base being built in the forest up river from the city. The location is advantageous and concerning, it’s their duty to shut it down as fast as possible.
“That’s all?” Shadow scoffs, dropping into a running stance.
“ANY OPPORTUNITY TO HUMILIATE THE DOCTOR IS WORTHY OF THIS UNIT’S AMMUNITION.” Omega’s boosters ignite and he leads the way to the mission coordinates.
The pair arrive at the base within the hour, its construction is further along than the intel had suggested. Thick concrete walls surround the premise, Eggman Empire flags are raised high above them. There is a weak point near the river where it is utilizing hydroelectric power while simultaneously dumping large amounts of black sludge. Shadow studies the dense number of badniks stationed around it.
“Omega, cover me while I find a way to stop the pollution.”
“AGREEABLE COURSE OF ACTION. DEATH TO ALL EGGMAN ROBOTS!!” The unit charges with excitement, unleashing all of his wrath onto the defense squadron.
An alarm sounds and the attention is drawn away, Shadow can easily skate behind the walls unnoticed. Inside, the base is overwhelmingly fashioned from steel and concrete, square brutalist buildings give no indication to what’s going on inside of them. How is he supposed to guess which one is controlling the waste? ‘I guess you’ll just have to check them all,’ the snarky voice of his rival intrudes, ‘Whatcha thinking so hard for? Just go fast!’
Unfortunately it’s good advice, Shadow takes off in a crack of chaos energy. The first three buildings are completely empty, it is impossible to infer whether they are decoys or simply unfinished. The fourth building is a lab. He can faintly hear the hum of electricity and the wet noises of a pump coming from deeper within, it makes his quills stand on end.
Proceeding with caution, Shadow follows the sounds down the hallway to a staircase. An explosion shakes the building, no doubt that it’s Omega’s fault, and the power goes out. Red emergency lights come on several seconds later, covering the hybrid in darkness. There is a door at the end of the stairs with a sliver of white light peeking out beneath it, whatever is behind it is still getting full power.
Ca-chunk, sploorsh, ca-chunk.
The churning pump beckons. He pushes the door open slowly, squinting into the bright light.
The first thing Shadow notices is that the Doctor has escaped, there’s a dummy sitting at the workbench where he should be, its head is lolling around on a spring. Several machines are still running around a tank in the center of the room, some sort of metal frame and a mold are placed inside of it. Ca-chunk, sploorsh, the pump fills the tank with water. Clean liquid rapidly turns black and bubbling, then it is drained from the bottom, ca-chunk. What’s left in the tank looks like an arm, dark purple and gelatinous, transparent flesh molded over metal bone. The part is lifted away to the floor above and another mold takes its place, this time he can identify a metal rib cage before the pump activates again.
It’s too easy to imagine himself in that tank, false memories of being an android claw at him from the inside. ‘No, it’s not true…’ Shadow clutches his head, he needs to focus on the mission and destroy this disgusting experiment. Calling forth a passionate amount of energy, he shouts, “Chaos, Blast!” The entire building is leveled in a blinding flash.
Shadow emerges from the rubble unscathed, shaking concrete dust from his fur and scanning his surroundings. Omega is picking off stragglers, the badniks that he's going after have the same purple flesh as the parts that were being made in the lab. What are they? Concrete crumbles from behind the hybrid and the air shifts, something is coming at him. He summons a chaos spear from pure instinct and lodges it in a violet chest, sparks go flying into the air.
“Woah, what’s got you so jumpy Shadow?” Sonic teases, standing on top of a large chunk of concrete. The sun is behind him, emphasizing his heroic silhouette. “Didn’t like my present?”
The sparks die down, allowing a closer look at the fully assembled experiment. It’s just an average Eggman robot frame in new packaging, the gelatinous flesh is similar to a ballistics dummy. Looking at it for too long makes his skin start to itch, a piece of his brain wants to check if his bones are metal too. He knows they aren’t, but the compulsion lingers. Shadow moves his mouth in the shape of a response but says nothing, he’s too flustered and anything that he says now will be a humiliating stutter. Reaching for a mask of casual indifference, he crosses his arms and levels the blue hedgehog with an unimpressed look.
Sonic can deal with silence just fine, he bridges the gap between them with infinite chatter.
“Tails picked up some weird readings coming from the river and asked me to check it out. 'Course I would do anything for my little bro. From what he was saying, I was expecting like… A tipped over molasses truck or something. Not an Eggman base!”
Shadow raises an eyebrow.
“When I got here Omega already had these new badniks under control, he was just tearing through them with his claws. It was kinda disgusting, but uh, seems like he was having a really good time!” The blue hedgehog jumps down from his perch and approaches, holding burning eye contact. “After that, I was kinda hoping I would find you here.”
“Well. You found me.” The hybrid remarks dryly, “Too late. We’ll never know who can destroy the most of these new… robots.”
“You didn’t fight any of them?” Sonic looks around, spotting one in the distance. It moves mechanically, stomping towards them at a nonthreatening rate. He gestures towards it with a gloved thumb, “That’s probably the last one, you should get it before your buddy does!”
The idea of clobbering one of the ridiculous machines that he got so worked up over is nearly euphoric, Shadow observes it for another second before moving in for the kill. Omega will hold a grudge for stealing his prey, but the hybrid needs this closure. When he is nearly five feet away a blue blur slips ahead of him, spin dashing into the bot and sending broken parts flying in all directions.
Sonic lands at Shadow’s side, playfully bumping his shoulder, “Sorry, too slow! Guess I win this one!”
Omega catches up, “INFERIOR HEDGEHOG, YOU WILL PAY.”
“Pay? Heh, I don’t think so,” Sonic snickers, “I don’t have any money.”
“You. Idiot!”
Shadow balls his paw into a fist to throw a hard punch at his rival. The action is expected and easily avoided. Then-
A sharp gasp.
“Augh! My innocent eyes!” Sonic dramatizes, covering said eyes. It’s obvious that he is still peeking. “Shadow, where the heck are your gloves?”
“I forgot them at home,” the hybrid tosses a simmering glare to Omega, kicking a loose robot piece on the ground for good measure. “For some reason it slipped my mind.”
Sonic is still squirming, the internal war to look at- NOT LOOK at Shadow’s paws is hell.
Shadow is unsympathetic. “I still don’t understand,” he gestures vaguely, palm up to show off his dark paw pads. “Whatever your reservations are, leave me out of it.” He’s a free hedgehog, no one ever really explained this Mobian custom to him and he has no incentive to adopt it. Omega shares this sentiment for much more sadistic purposes.
“OBSERVATION: THE MERE SIGHT OF SHADOW’S PAWS CAUSES SONIC PAIN.”
“Uh-” Green eyes widen, “Haha, not like. In a bad way?”
It’s too late, the weakness has been detected. Now it will be exploited.
“THEN THIS WILL NOT HURT.”
Omega grabs Shadow’s paw in his hand, lacing the digits together. The hybrid rolls his eyes and tightens his hold in cooperation.
“Oh chaos !” Sonic’s gloved paws fall from his face as he openly gapes at the explicit display.
The blue hedgehog’s face is more red than Shadow has ever seen it, all over some stupid hand holding. It’s only a flicker, but he catches how Sonic’s gaze slips to his empty paw. The hybrid smirks and extends it towards his rival.
“I have two hands.”
“Nooooooo,” Sonic mimes like he’s being pulled away by an invisible force, he reaches out for Shadow’s paw but his legs are taking him farther away. “I caaaan’t- Just, notyet- gotta go, see ya!” A loud boom interrupts the forest with how quickly he retreats.
Next to him, Shadow can faintly hear that Omega is already replaying a clip of the moment that just transpired. There is no doubt that he is savoring every second of Sonic’s suffering. While the robot refrains from outright maiming him, other torture games remain firmly on the table.
Shadow leans into his teammate’s side.
“You have been troublesome today.”
That damn buzzer sound rejects him.
“INCORRECT. I HAVE MADE YOUR DAY UNQUANTIFIABLY BETTER.”
“Actually,” Shadow tugs the robot with him through the wreckage, “I can quantify it.”
“EXPLAIN IN GREAT DETAIL.”
The pair bicker and survey the remains of the base, ensuring that nothing survived their wrath. If anyone saw them holding hands the entire time, no one would believe them.
—
The sun is setting when Shadow and Omega return to Team Dark’s shared apartment, Rouge is already there waiting for them. She is lounging on the couch in her fluffy lavender evening robe, basking in pink evening light and picking from a charcuterie board on the coffee table. Her lips twitch in amusement as she takes in the sight of her teammates shoving through the narrow doorway at the same time.
“Hey boys,” Rouge stretches luxuriously, over exaggerating how peaceful it was to have the apartment alone for a few hours. “I really didn’t plan to leave so early in the morning! But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” Whether or not she apologizes is contingent on their well being, and to her relief, they seem to be doing alright. “But I have to ask! How did it go without me?”
“Fine. Nothing happened.” Shadow tactically answers before Omega can blurt out anything compromising. He shrugs indifferently and makes his way towards his room. “Don’t let us hold you back.”
“Oh, you don’t,” Rouge assures, the smug air in her voice is getting louder with every word. “I just can’t help but wonder… Why don’t you have your gloves on sweetheart?”
The accused hedgehog freezes in place, inhibitor rings dangle loosely around his wrists.
“And why is Omega only half polished?”
Nothing slips past her.
The equally guilty robot looks at himself in the floor length mirror that’s visible in the bathroom hall. Even after their adventure, the metal that Shadow shined looks incredible. In contrast the other parts look a mess.
Wide red eyes meet steady glowing optics, Omega knows exactly how to end this line of inquiry.
“PLAYING DOOM OST AT MAXIMUM VOLUME!”