Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Late one night, Amy finished preparing another meal with a thorough wash of her hands. Her mind wandered to her long, sharp claws. The shimmering red paint had chipped away days ago, leaving her tiny daggers with a faint, red hue. Amy tried so hard not to think about it, trying desperately to occupy her mind with the sweet strawberry pound cake scented soap soaking into her fluffy fur cuffs. Amy scrubbed up her heavy, thick fur arms, using her claws to comb through her coat. Her eyes avoided any reflection of her glaring, disturbingly thick canines like the plague.

Yet nothing could stop that dreadful thought roaring in her mind from echoing louder.

Teardrops cascaded into the drain.

Why did Sonic have to be gone when she needed his arms around her and his evergreen edge of hope so desperately?

"Hey, this honey glazed ham smells great!"

Amy jumped. She knew that voice, but couldn't remember who it belonged to until she saw who it came from: a chihuahua fae with a dollop tail and a whipped cream mohawk.

"Ah, sorry!" he squeaked. "I don't think we met, but I came from one of Sonic's bracelets and I'm trying to find him and..."

The fairy squinted, flapping his wings to reach eye level with Amy.

"You...you're Chip!"

Chip's eyes popped back open. "You're that girl that asked out Sonic! Miss Rose-?"

"Please! Just call me Amy..." Amy drew circles on her hand with her claw. "That's a vegan ham, actually. If you'd like some, you can join Shadow and I for dinner."

"Sure! Say, who's Shadow?"

Chip's wings were suddenly pinched and lifted by a black and neon magenta monster with the quills and face of a hedgehog, but the long ears and wings of a bat. The intense, pink pupils dotting his pitch black eyes shook Chip to his core.

"GAH!"

"That would be me," Shadow growled, baring his sharp, needle-like fangs.

"Hey, that's our guest! One of Sonic's friends at that... Why don't you be a dear and pour him a drink while I set the table?"

Soon after, the three were seated over their vegetarian meal. Between Amy and Shadow's conversation, Chip merrily stuffed his face with Amy's scrumptious cooking.

"You know," Chip said mid-bite, "I wasn't expecting you to live with a vampire."

"Shadow doesn't usually look like this," Amy explained. "If this was lunch, he and I would be normal, ordinary hedgehogs."

"You'd be a normal hedgehog," Shadow corrected. "My blood will never leave me."

Amy paused with her knife hovering just above her plate. Chip put his food on hold to read her body's features more thoroughly; his suspicions and dread from this premature awakening were beginning to boil over.

"...You never met Chip, Shadow?"

"No."

"I guess you were sick during the whole Earth shattering disaster...you should have told us! I could have given you some home remedies!"

"Hm. Whatever, it's not like I need them now."

Amy giggled. "Neither will I if you bottle up your medicine already!"

"How? By spitting in a bottle? I'd rather drop dead again."

Amy laughed louder.

Chip swallowed a lump in his throat. He hated to spoil their fun, but he HAD to say something.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

Cold silence.

Cold, unbearably long silence.

Amy slowly set her fork down and pushed her half eaten plate away. She hung her head low, letting her long bangs eclipse her eyes.

Shadow abruptly stood up, his glare sending shivers down Chip's spine. "She doesn't like to talk about it," he grumbled, moving to Amy's side and holding her hand. "Get out."

Chip trembled tearfully. "I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't- I didn't know, I- Oh no!" He hopped onto the table, abandoning his meal to move closer to the girl whose wounds he opened.

"No, it's okay." Amy slowly wiped away a tear. Two more took its place. "You...you're Light Gaia..."

Chip nodded.

His tiny paws were gently scooped up and held by Amy's bulky hand.

"Then you should know what they've done," her voice strained.

All food was left behind on the dining room table in favor of the couch and its many blankets. Shadow nuzzled into Amy, gently squeezing her hand as he rested his head on her shoulder. Chip watched them from a tower of pillows built upon an armchair foundation. His tiny claws dug into the topmost pillow.

Amy took a deep breath.

It was time to open scars.

"Like everything, it began out in space 一 Neptune entered retrograde far earlier than projected, just as it was aligning with Pluto. It shocked the astronomy and astrology communities alike. I had to see the sky for myself.

"Tails let me know that Spagonia's hills had the clearest skies that week. However, other travelers from all over the world were already rushing there to see the upcoming blood moon. The night skies were becoming nothing short of chaos. I was thrilled to bits, but my heart was uneasy.

"Then..."

Amy closed her eyes, smiling softly.

"Sonic told me he was coming too."

The Spagonia marketplace with dense with intense, delightful aromas and loud human activity. Shadow found himself with no choice but to start shoving his way through the towering people just to look around.

Shadow ran his hand over a chaos emerald in his coat pocket. He was one push away from teleporting far away from Spagonia's crowd and not returning until the most dead hour of night.

Then Amy screamed loud enough for the whole market to hear.

Shadow jumped and turned around. In the blink of his eyes, Sonic was suddenly right front of him. Beside him was Amy squeezing his hand.

"Here!"

Sonic moved Amy's hands into Shadow's.

Their fingers squeezed instinctively.

"What-?!" Shadow's muzzle flushed red.

Sonic ran off.

Amy sniffled, her eyes squeezed shut.

Just as fast as he left, Sonic returned with a white rose in hand. "Gotcha something."

Amy opened her eyes back up. "Aw, thank you!" She dried her cheeks and gently placed the rose by her ear. "Sorry about that, I just wasn't expecting to see a chicken getting beheaded!"

"Hey, are any of us?" Sonic dashed to Shadow's side, winking. "Thanks for keeping her company."

"I...?" Shadow's face turned even redder as he realized he was still holding Amy's hand. "Way to make me do your work, Sonic."

Shadow felt a sudden bump beneath his back spines. It was Sonic and Amy linking up behind his coat.

"We have two hands, you know," Sonic teased, scooping Shadow's other hand into his.

Shadow wasn't sure what he was doing anymore, but he no longer wanted to leave.

The budding hedgehog trio stuck together as they navigated the rest of the market. The longest shop visits were the suppliers of mystic tools and treasures, but most of what they bought was food: hot dogs, buns, beans, peppers, cheese, the chili dog works. At Amy's insistence, they got a cake as well: a darling little strawberry and chocolate delight.

"Are you having a picnic or something?" Shadow kept their freshly bought cake safe in his arms.

"That's right!" Amy showed off her adorable pink picnic basket. "It was my idea. Sonic just wanted to stargaze."

"You just wanted to stargaze until I came along!" Sonic teased.

"And miss a second chance at a date with my darling?" Amy hugged Sonic's arm extra tight. "No way!"

Sonic blushed, his posture stiffening. He tried so painfully hard to appear nonchalant that his expression just came off as a cry for help. He locked eyes with Shadow and was met with a knowing smirk.

"Ahah!" Sonic slid free from Amy's arms and shoved himself between Shadow and Amy. "Say, you wanna join us, Shadow?"

"What?! I'm NOT going to be your third wheel, Sonic!"

"Actually, it would be fun if you came along!" Amy batted her big eyes at Shadow.

Shadow's ears drooped. "Hmph. Fine."

That cursed, lovely night, Amy skipped as fast as she could around a dazzling fountain to the heart of Spagonia: the grand clocktower. Back at sunset, she and Sonic had agreed to temporarily part ways and meet again at the top floor. She hummed her way to the last step, ready to throw open the doors.

Then the wind picked up around her.

Amy opened her eyes in Sonic's arms. She gasped.

"Sonic!" She playfully kicked her legs, then settled into his hold.

Sonic winked. "Going up?"

"Take me away!"

Sonic took his greatest series of leaps yet to reach the top of that monumental clocktower. He delivered Amy, all giddy and excited, right to Shadow. They spread out their blanket and set up their cozy chili dog picnic in what was most definitely a restricted area, not that any of the hedgehogs cared.

Sonic tried to bite his chili dog right out of the ingredients' insulating bag, but-

"Aah!! Ow!"

They burnt the roof of his mouth

Shadow smirked. He lunged forward and bit the other end of Sonic's chili dog with no issue. "All speed and no bite. Typical."

"Wha-?! Hey, make your own, faker!"

Sonic and Shadow started shoving each other. Sonic could hardly contain his laughter.

"Shut up and look!" Amy barked. She gazed outward, her big eyes reflecting glamorous constellations. "I've never seen the stars shine like this before!"

Sonic and Shadow scooted up to sit by Amy's side on the very edge of the tower. The sky was glowing with divine, lilac shimmers in luminous, violet oceans. The ever mystic moon, just a smidge away from being full, captivated the hedgehogs under its radiance.

They slowly gravitated towards each others' warmth amidst the chill of the night.

"I wish I had angelic wings on nights like this," Amy swooned. "Imagine slow dancing through the stars, turning back, and every little trouble on the earth is completely left behind. I couldn't picture anything more romantic."

"I could always fly us in a plane," Sonic said. "But that wouldn't be as fun, huh?"

Amy shook her head. "But a kiss close enough to those diamonds would be just as grand!"

"If we return to the ARK, I can show you the rooms with the best view," Shadow said.

"Alright, it's a date." Sonic reached across Amy to squeeze Shadow's shoulder.

Shadow blushed. "I...?!"

Amy giggled into his chest.

He promptly shut his mouth.

Amy stood from her spot and lifted a telescope close to her eye. Soft wind whistled through her ears. As the breeze caught Sonic's nose, he sneezed.

"Neptune and Pluto should be...right over..." Amy squinted, but haze and clouds were rapidly eclipsing the stars and the planets. "Hey, I could have sworn I cleaned this!"

A breeze started to pick up the hedgehogs' quills.

Back on the picnic blanket, Sonic laid on his stomach, kicking his feet. He was looking up at Shadow like a begging stray, intensely watching him arrange his spicy chili dog.

"You're not going to get away with this," Shadow taunted. "I have faster reflexes and high ground."

"I'll believe it when I see it." Sonic leaned into Shadow's chest fur.

Shadow kept staring at Sonic, unblinking.

Sonic laughed. He picked his own chili dog back up. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, ready for his first proper, mouth wateringly savory bite of the night.

Then the wind smacked him in the face with pieces of his chili dog.

"OH COME ON!"

Shadow laughed, but ceased when his chili dog also blew into his fur. Concern began to storm as the wind picked up faster and faster.

Amy struggled to keep her balance in the sudden storm, but fought against it as hard as she could. She dug her boots into the stone, desperately trying to see anything through the thick layer of clouds. She took a few steps back.

Then her basket blew right into her head. She dropped her telescope and stepped back again, but there was no ground. A gasp escaped her frozen body.

"AMY!"

Sonic grabbed her hand the second that she fell.

"Gotcha! Are you okay?!" He pulled her up, held her tight, and didn't dare let go.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, but what a mess!"

Shadow stood up to join the others, but without his weight, the blanket was snatched by the wind. Amy caught it and used it as an oversized napkin on her chili covered companions.

"I know!" Sonic spat against Amy's smothering. "Tails has never been this wrong about the weather... Looks like we got an even greater mystery on our hands!"

"I'll say." Amy switched to scrubbing Shadow. Her ear twitched erratically. "I can't put my finger on it, but there's some sort of dark energy present in the wind!"

"I feel it too, it almost feels like when-"

"LOOK OUT!" Shadow suddenly tackled Amy and Sonic to the ground.

Lightning struck where they were just standing. Their hearts raced. Acidic rain followed suit, drenching the panicked hedgehogs and slicking up the stone ground.

"We need to get inside!" Amy yelled through the thickening storm.

Like clockwork, a shut door that the hedgehogs gave no thought opened on its own. Around it, the world darkened further.

Sonic perked up, whistling. "I've never been inside that part of the clocktower before!" He gripped Amy and Shadow's hands, bouncing back onto his feet and shaking the rain off of his quills. "What are we waiting for?"

The trio rushed inside.

The door slammed behind them.

Amy gasped. "Sonic, did the clocktower always-?"

"Look like a gothic mansion? Not in the slightest!" Sonic shook off the rain once more and spun around, soaking in the rich sights surrounding them.

Indeed, the interior looked nothing like the series of gears and pillars that Sonic climbed up in his original nighttime rooftop run. Luxurious purple velvet curtains and carpet complimented the long, black marble halls.

There were long mirrors adorned with onyx and amethysts, but not a single window in sight.

Shadow briefly gripped Sonic and Amy's shoulders. "Stay out of trouble, I'll be around."

"We can handle ourselves," Amy assured.

"Don't have too much fun without us," Sonic said, winking.

"Chaos control!"

Shadow disappeared in an emerald green flash.

A chandelier high above Sonic and Amy suddenly lit itself with hauntingly violet flames. Seconds later, an identical chandelier ahead of it followed suit. Amy and Sonic locked hands as they started following the path of illumination. The second chandelier was followed by the next, then the next, each lighting up faster and faster until the final chandelier in the hall revealed a black and purple badger that had been hiding in the dark, eyes closed and facing away from the distant entrance.

"This is such a beautiful place!" Amy said, clasping her hands and gazing at the shiny walls. "if you don't mind, my date-"

Sonic coughed.

"My dearest, most darling companion and I would love to take shelter here!"

The badger lowly hummed. "Please, make yourselves at home." His flawless, velvet textured suit subtly glowed as he lifted his eyes open. "We've been expecting you, Miss Rose and Mister Hedgehog."

"Please, just call me Sonic: Sonic the Hedgehog."

"How do you know our names?" Amy asked.

"Who doesn't anymore? Your legacies outweigh you both." His chest turned to face Amy. "As for me, I'm just a melancholic gift from the deepest dark. You may call me...Melanc."

"Nice to meet you, Melanc!" Amy eagerly shook his hand. "I can't wait to see the rest of the place! Is there a tour?"

Sonic threw his hands behind his neck, smirking at Melanc. "Just one question before you let me go: how long have you lived in this clocktower?"

Melanc exhaled through his nose, grinning dryly. He threw his thick arms around Sonic and Amy's thin frames. "Oh please, there will be plenty of time for questions..." Melanc hugged them closer and walked them through a nearby door. "...after dinner."

At the door's opening, Sonic and Amy's noses were enchanted with the mouth watering scent of a gourmet meal laid across a luxurious black table. Fresh garlic bread, buttery mashed potatoes, and crisp, colorful vegetables surrounded a grand, juicy, glazed turkey. The food was steaming hot and only had miniscule dents in them, as if whoever made the meal was struggling to save it for the incoming guests.

The long table had four seats on one side and two on the other. Three seats on the former side were taken up by three more residents. The closest to the door was a golden viper with ghostly arms burying his claws in the table; he opened his maw wide open and swallowed a slice of bread whole without so much of a taste. Farthest from the door was a hefty pale blue fox with a full, but completely uneaten plate of food; he stared longingly at his own plate, slowly swishing his tail side-to-side. A properly seated, fancy scarlet owl towered over them; he had no food on his plate, just a drink in his goblet that he idly swished around.

"Ah! New friends!" the owl chirped as he rose out of his seat. He rushed to Amy and Sonic and fell to his knees to peck their cheeks with his sharp beak. "What beautiful, young hedgehogs! Please, join us!"

Sonic slipped away from Melanc and the owl to take his seat; his body had just started to shudder from its biting hunger. "So, who are the rest of you?" he asked, eagerly piling delightful food onto his plate.

The owl pulled out a chair for Amy and loomed between her and Sonic, swaying his hips. Melanc sat to the fox's right.

"Aren't you hedgehogs a ssssweet couple?" the viper hissed. "You can call me Choler!"

The fox smacked his lips. "I'm Flegmat," he said flatly.

"Like the temperaments?" Amy chuckled. "Then you must be Sanguine, huh?"

"Sanguin, yes," the owl confirmed. "A young lady who knows her humorism, what a smart cookie!"

"Yeah, we're quite humorous, huh?" Flegmat yawned.

Sonic laughed amidst silence. "Weren't the four humors an ancient medicine myth? You all must be pretty old fashioned." He stabbed his turkey with his fork. "Ancient, even."

The humors (sans Flegmat) side-eyed each other.

"Sonic, you can't just walk in here and call our hosts old!" Amy scolded through her gritted teeth.

"What? I'm just making myself at home." Sonic lifted his fork to his mouth.

"AND YOU CAN'T EAT BEFORE OUR TOASSST!" Choler hissed, slamming his fist against the table. "Tisssss tradition."

Melanc grimaced at the few crumbs on Choler's maw. "It's supposed to be, anyway."

"Fine, let's get grace over with," Sonic groaned, tapping his fingers against the table.

Sanguin filled Sonic and Amy's goblets with a wine colored fluid emitting a curious, violet fog.

"This isn't wine, is it?" Amy asked, giving it a cautious sniff.

"That's our special pomegranate mocktail we made just for you; we save the luxurious drinks for ourselves. It was my idea, you see: it's the color of your quills if they melted into one." Sanguin cocked his head and smiled down at Amy. "Since you're so smart and divine, why don't you lead the toast, Lady Rose?"

"Eheh! I actually prepared a toast for just Sonic and a friend of ours, but, um, I can include you all!" Amy eagerly stood and raised her goblet. "Ahem! To our adventures: past, present, and future, and the bonds that make them worth it! I raise this glass to celebrate US!"

Sonic raised his goblet from down in his seat. "For your sake," he said quietly.

Sanguin applauded them. The rest followed suit. Once Amy bowed and took her seat, everyone at the table drank in unison.

Neither Sonic nor Amy were expecting the true flavor of their drinks. The substance sliding down their throats was bitingly cold and slightly thicker than a typical juice. It definitely didn't taste like pomegranate 一 it had no taste at all! The sensation it filled their mouth with wasn't flavor, it was an emotion: melancholy.

Sonic swallowed it all in one rapid gulp, but gagged and shivered immediately after. His mind suddenly flashed back to the moment he had to let Shadow fall away in the ARK showdown's aftermath. His memory of the event usually fixated on the adrenaline soaked action before and the high of saving the entire planet, the high that was so great that he and Shadow couldn't help but kiss in the heat of the moment.

Not this time.

Sonic could only recall the very end: the last lingering touches and the desperate squeezes he gave Shadow's ring as he watched him plummet to his doom.

Amy just thought of her mother.

She faked a pleasant little smile, but struggled to force most of the fluid down.

"Alright, let's dig in!" Choler resumed his rapid food swallowing with additional reckless abandon.

Amy and Sonic's eyes glazed over the food one more time. Sonic slowly lifted his fork...only to put it back down.

"I...think I lost my appetite," he grumbled.

"We need to lie down..." Amy rubbed circles below Sonic's back spines. "If...if you could show us..."

"You may claim any room that you find," Melanc instructed.

Amy pushed against the table to stand up, but her once light body suddenly felt like it was made of lead. The world around her faded to a mess of blurry lights and ghosts. Her legs trembled, struggling to keep her upright as she stumbled around.

"Amy...?" Sonic pushed himself up faster, but his eyes suddenly lost all focus. "Take...take me with..."

"Sonic...!"

His body went completely limp and fell into Amy's arms. She caught him before his head hit the floor. She cradled him, struggling harder just to stay awake. Her vision distorted further and further; the violet flames, her new friends, and their generous but fruitless feast all melted together. She could have sworn that the walls were covered in clusters of eyes all staring through her body.

"Oh Gaia, they...they're every..."

She crashed into the marble floor. Her arms lost all strength, but they remained around Sonic's neck protectively. Under all the pain and haziness, she got one last hazy glimpse of a green bird checking her pulse with its talons.

From twisted corridors to zig-zagged hallways, Shadow was having a hell of a time trying to follow the energy that his chaos emerald was resonating with. Each time he felt like he finally found the right path, there was another staircase leading to nowhere or another door that opened to a wall. The deeper he descended, the less the black and violet maze made sense. It didn't help that each level was darker than the last. He descended further, deeper, darker, closer to the other chaos emerald, wherever it was, but the uncannily nonsensical structure of this interior only rose more questions.

"Wherever this is...this is no clocktower," he mumbled. "I have to get them out of here..."

Shadow descended one more staircase. The floor was pitch black, but his emerald was shining a brighter green than ever. With only the emerald's glow and no perception of color, he wandered through the deepest corridor. The interior was made up almost entirely of stone, some smooth and some sharp. Its ceiling, which was far too close to Shadow's head for comfort was made up of jagged edges and sharp spikes. Every few steps, a particularly long spike jabbed into his ear, stopping his heart for a fleeting moment.

Still, Shadow followed his emerald's glow.

He couldn't tell if the heartbeat he was hearing was coming from his chest or the subtly pulsating, slick walls around him.

Behind a turn at the very end of the dungeon, Shadow was finally greeted with a violet glow perfectly in sync with his chaos emerald's shine. The blinding violet was the same shade as the initial floors' decor, the clouds, and the stars.

"The answer to everything..."

Shadow rushed into the newfound glow.

The room he found himself in was far more cluttered than any he had been in before; piles of books, mountains of crystals spilling out of a chest, and a dizzying array of witchcraft tools scattered across low tables crowded the room. The violet emerald was held in the room's center, elevated by a podium and contained within a glass orb. As he glanced around, a peculiar tapestry on the wall caught his eye. Its design depicted a hellspawn with far too many eyes, snake-like tentacles, and the long body of a centipede. The planet, which was dwarfed by the demonic god, was shown being crushed in its upmost pair of claws. Shadow had seen that exact image before in one of Professor Gerald Robotnik's minor studies; he would have never seen it if Maria didn't show it to him.

"I wonder if it ever gets lonely when sleeping in the planet," she speculated late one night. "I suppose that's what fluffy little Light Gaia's for. Then again, the manuscripts describe them as eternal enemies. ...Do you think they ever tried ending their cycle of destruction by just...talking it out at twilight?"

"Dark Gaia." Shadow ran his hand along the tapestry's edge, clenching his jaw. "Right when Sonic put you back to bed, you just had to come back, you miserable abomination."

Shadow stepped back.

Squelch.

Shadow looked down. His shoe was halfway submerged in a warm, green puddle.

Drip. Drip.

Cold, sticky goop slapped Shadow's quills from above. He grimaced, but shook off the odd substances; the sooner he focused, the sooner he, Sonic, and Amy would be out of there. Shadow brought his emerald to the one in the glass.

"Chaos...contro-"

A beak, one sharp as a needle, pierced his neck.

"AUGH!"

Dark wings smothered his face from behind. Talons wrapped tightly around his body. One leg pinned his arms down and the other forced his emerald out of his hand. He could just barely make out the monster that attacked him: a demonic owl of pitch black and glowing emerald green. If its lanky body and long neck were fully extended, it would have been far too tall for the room it and Shadow were cramped in.

Shadow groaned, desperately trying to force himself out out of the demon's grip, but its whole body had him completely clamped. No matter how little the demon's grip budged, Shadow kept struggling.

"What grit!" the owl chirped. "I wonder how powerful you'll be after a little blood transfusion."

Whatever insult Shadow yelled was muffled by the wings around his face.

Other entities around him began to laugh as they manifested from other fluids flowing just beneath the chamber's surface: a long golden viper from a drain below, a large, goopy fox from the ceiling's pores, and the smallest but most formal of them: a stout, yet sharp and muscular badger demon.

"Sanguin," the badger commanded with a snap, "remove his rings."

Shadow thrashed even harder, especially his limbs, but he was strangled so tightly as the owl's talons forced their way between his cuffs and his limiter rings.

Shadow muffled a command. Both emeralds shone bright. Shadow warped out of the owl's grip. "...control!"

Time slowed to a crawl around Shadow, but all four of his rings were already off. His naked feeling ankles were already trembling faster and faster with the accelerating drumming of his heart. His pulse rocketed through and shook his body off of his balance. A migraine swallowed any concentration he could have had. Worst of all, the very chaos emeralds that usually empowered him were drowning his senses with their mere presence.

Shadow had removed two of his rings at once in plenty of dire circumstances, but not having any was a torture unlike any he had endured before.

The effects of Chaos control gave way to the vulnerable present. Shadow laid against the slimy floor, hyperventilating with his eyes squeezed shut.

Flegmat picked up the green emerald. His thin smile spread from ear to ear. "Thanks for the welcoming gift," he taunted.

"Excellent work." Melanc loomed over Shadow's head. He drew his smokey tongue over his lips, then slid it the other way along his charcoal canines. "I can't wait to see the monster you make out of this alien demon."

Sanguin pinned Shadow further into the ground with his talons and dangled his wing just above Shadow's face.

"What a curious, dramatic little thing you are!~"

Shadow snarled and snapped his jaws into Sanguin's wing, sinking his fangs in as hard as they could go, pushing as much of his pain as he could into the monster that stooped lower than anyone he had ever fought. His mouth quickly filled with an oddly, enchantingly sweet, almost green apple flavored blood. Tasting it brought to mind flashbacks of Halloween parties with his chao and horror movie marathons with Maria.

He choked up, but kept biting harder.

Sanguin didn't so much as flinch. His grin intensified.

Chapter Text

Rain flooded Amy's ears. She opened her eyes, but could barely see her own boots through the fog. Distant lightning idly flashed. The lush mountains and trees were difficult to make out, but in her heart, she knew she was in the Mystic Ruins.

"Was that all a weird dream...?" she pondered, not quite remembering what happened before she woke up, but vaguely recalling the feeling of dread.

"Amy? Darling?" an echoing, motherly voice called.

Amy's heart skipped a beat. "Mama?"

She caught a glimpse of a rose gold woman vanishing into the fog. She didn't hesitate to run towards her. Deep puddle after deep puddle was splashed up in her sprint.

Yet despite how hard she pushed her legs to run, the closest she got to the woman was a faint glance through the fog and the storm...

...until Amy found herself at the master emerald shrine.

"MAMA!" Amy screamed, drowning in hot tears and cold rain. "You're here!"

At last, the emeralds' glow gave Amy a clear view of her mother: a serene echidna with long, flowing locks, a flower crown of roses, and magenta eyes that twinkled with an unspoken kindness. She looked almost exactly like she did in Amy's memories and photographs. The one discrepancy was the absence of any joy; her pained brows and quivering frown only radiated pity.

"Oh my goodness!" Amy cried. "I knew you were watching me, I just knew it!"

Amy tried to hug her, but her arms passed right through her ghostly figure.

"Amelia, I'm..." Amy's mother choked up. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Amy kept her arms hovering around her regardless. "Dad raised me fine, really! I promise! Please, I have SO MUCH to tell you! I miss you so mu-"

"I am so sorry."

Her mother's spirit faded away.

BOOM!

Seven violet lightning strikes struck the chaos emeralds! The electric, chaotic energy all beamed from them directly into Amy's body.

"AAAAAA!"

Amy shook erratically. Her knees gave way, sending her back onto the ground, all while the current of negative energy and dark forces ignited her from the inside out. Her standing hairs grew heavier, thicker, and warmer; it felt as if she was suddenly covered in a weighted fur blanket. Her tense, pulsating muscles swelled and thickened across her body, especially in her arms. That dense bulk made her once delightfully comfortable clothing unbearably tight. The worst of it was in her wrists; her gloves had the decency to tear and make way for her newfound claws, but her golden ring bracelets choked her hands and the thick layers of fluff shooting out from them. The deepest rooted pain pulsed in her teeth as they all grew into thick, blunt canines. Her fangs had it the roughest, jutting out so far that they couldn't comfortably rest behind her lips.

"MAMAAAAAA!" Amy screamed in a strained, alto voice that she didn't recognize.

Amy's consciousness was devoured by the pain and shock of what she was going through, but her subconscious recalled when Sonic had become a monster just like this.

She shed another tear, wondering if this was the nightmare he went through every night.

No wonder she didn't recognize his eyes in that werehog.

Amy's eyes pushed open. A sophisticated fandango hedgehog stood in her mother's place, hovering right above Amy as she clung to the ground, growling and howling in pain.

"D-Dad?! H-Have I done something-?"

"Sh. It's okay, Rosey." Mr. Rose knelt to meet his daughter's quivering eyes. "You've always been strong, but nothing can hurt you now."

Amy's body slowly stopped struggling as the pain faded, but her mind remained in disarray.

"But I..." Amy wept into her freshly clawed hands. "I don't want to be a monster!"

She melted into the flooded ground.

"Please...I don't want to be a monster..."

The world around her decayed to black.

"I don't want to be a monster......."

A talon nudged her back.

Sonic snapped awake, heart racing, in a luxurious bed within a humid room that he didn't recognize. Sweat was stuck between his skin and the fur coat that blanketed him.

Wait a minute.

Sonic sat up, shutting his eyes. He ran the tip of his tongue over his teeth.

Those teeth...

He hesitantly opened his eyes back up.

That navy fur, those claws...

He let out a long, deep exhale.

Hopefully, if Chip was awake, he'd be easy to find.

Until then...

Sonic's eyes drifted across the room. Again, there were no windows. Sapphires and blue velvet decorated the walls of the mostly empty space. If he had plans of staying, it would have been the perfect little area for Sonic to pace back and forth, a necessity for everywhere he had called home. He approached a thin bookshelf beside his bed.

One Thousand and One Nights.

Sonic and the Black Knight.

The Odyssey series.

It was as if every book had been plucked directly from his library. He did a double take, quickly realizing that these books weren’t mere copies 一 they had the same scuff marks, stains, and bookmarks as his private collection.

Far behind him, the door opened.

"Satisfied with your arrangements?" Melanc asked.

The door shut.

Sonic's fur stood up as he turned to face the badger. Melanc was leaning against the door, muscular arms and short legs crossed.

"The room's not bad..." Sonic growled in his gruff, rusty werehog voice. "It certainly beats other prisons I've been in."

Melanc frowned. "The prison's many levels below us. What we've given you is shelter from the terrible storm. A little respect would go a long way, you wolf-"

"Hedgehog." Sonic snarled. "I'm still a hedgehog at heart, you know."

Melanc stepped closer. A smirk creeped across his muzzle as he brushed the back of his large, yet graceful hand down Sonic's cheek.

"Has anyone told you just how beautiful you are like this? Your midnight fur was made for the starry sky. We adore that in a creature."

Sonic swatted his hand away, snarling: "What's really going on around here?!"

Melanc moved his hands behind his back. "It's simple: we are creatures of the night…permanently. I envy how free you are, to run no matter where the sun is, but we have no such freedom. We can only exist in the dark, so in the dark is where we stay, under Dark Gaia's domain. This palace of ours exists in a pocket realm made of pure, concentrated darkness. That way, we never have to disappear. It just so happens that mortal creatures of the day find such concentrated darkness...overwhelming. It changes them into dark reflections of themselves." Melanc side-eyed Sonic with a smile. "Just be glad that you and your little lady remain sane, even if none of your day friends would recognize you."

Sonic suddenly pulled Melanc close to him by his neck, baring his sharp fangs. "Where's Amy?!"

The door was thrown open by Choler.

"Hey! You ssshould sssee what Sssanguin did with Missss Rossse!" he hissed, pointing enthusiastically to his right.

Sonic shoved Melanc aside with one arm and threw the other out the door. It stretched with a violet aura, just as it did during the original Dark Gaia incident, and his hand grappled onto the knocker of a shut door across from his. It swiftly contracted, delivering him into the dark violet hallway.

"GAH!" Choler yelped. "Wait up, you ssscoundrel! Ssshe's not ready yet!"

Sonic didn't listen to him 一 he was already running down the hall on all fours.

Melanc chuckled. "Perhaps you and I are correct, that he's the alpha after all."

"He'sss certainly got the aggression! Thisss bloody feassst is going even more ssscrumptiousss than we thought!"

Amy's room was a mirror of Sonic's, but more furnished, more feminine, and colored with garnets, red velvet, and pink fleece. She sat in front of Sanguin parallel to a dainty, white vanity. He ran a steel comb through her heavy fur, occasionally raking it through the thick tufts of white around her neck.

"Are you sure you still want this white rose in your ear? It's already wilting! A lovely maiden like yourself deserves something freshly picked, perhaps in scarlet… Ooh! Or how about one black as night?"

"I'll take this one out when it's dead. …Or if Sonic gives me another one!”

"Oh, I see how it is.~"

Amy laughed. "I never hide how much I love him!"

"As you shouldn't. He just doesn't realize how lucky he is, belonging to such a divine little rose like yourself."

“Well, I wouldn’t say he belongs to me,” Amy laughed. “If he wasn’t free, he wouldn’t be the same.”

“Whatever you insist, darling.” Sanguin gently scratched the top of Amy's head with his talons.

Her body relaxed further into his touch.

The door slammed open.

"Come on, Ames! We're getting away from these monsters!"

“SONIC!” Amy blushed, wagging her new wolf tail as she gripped the back of her chair. "Speak of the hedgehog!"

Sonic's brows raised. "Woah!" He wasn't sure what he was expecting Amy to look like, but her transformation reflecting his was more surprising (and far more heart tickling) than he wanted to admit.

Sanguin shot Sonic a sour frown. "Monsters? US?! Look at yourself!”

“Get your hands OFF of her! NOW!”

“Hmph, WELL!” Sanguin turned his beak to the ceiling and abruptly rushed to his feet. "If that's how you REALLY feel about me, then fine! I'll just be on my way then!" He marched to the door.

"Sanguin, wait!” Amy yelped.

Amy followed him to the doorway. Sonic finally got a full view of her new dress: a wine colored, short skirted witch dress with wide, draped sleeves. Her usual tall red boots were replaced with black pointed boots that only ran to her bulky calves.

“You don't have to go-!"

Sanguin slammed the door behind him.

Amy's ears flattened. “He wasn’t hurting me, you know!” She turned to Sonic, arms crossed. "Why have you been so RUDE to our hosts?!"

Sonic recoiled. "They're our kidnappers! Not to mention followers of Dark Gaia. Just look at what they did to us already, as if poisoning us wasn't enough!"

"Hey, I know that dinner went badly, but Sanguin was sorry! He really was!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yes! He didn't realize that we wouldn't take well to their realm's fruit!"

"And you believe him..."

"Of course! He gave me this dress as an apology!" Amy twirled, fluffing up her skirt for a moment. "When I woke up, I felt terrible, just terrible! I felt so...hideous and...beastly...but his words and his makeover made me feel better about myself!"

Sonic looked away. Amy closed their gap and gripped his shoulders, huffing.

"You can't blame me, Sonic! Look at me!"

Sonic met her furious, teary eyes. She squeezed his shoulders tighter, digging her claws into his skin.

"I'm hideous! You think they’re monsters? What do you think of ME?!” A tear rolled down her muzzle. “I'M a MONSTER!"

Sonic bit his cheek "You’re…beautiful."

Amy gasped.

They locked eyes for a long, silent while.

She slowly let Sonic go.

"Thanks..." Amy closed her eyes and buried her nose in Sonic's fluffy chest. "I'm sorry."

"Uhhhh..." Sonic put an arm around her, hoping that she didn’t notice how intensely he was blushing. "Don't mention it."

Their tender moment was cut short by Amy's stomach growling. She winced.

"You didn't get to eat either?" Sonic asked.

"Not at all."

Choler cracked open the door and slithered his head through the gap. "Are your ssstomachsss empty!? I have the sssolution! Come on! Your feassst is waiting for you!"

Sonic and Amy stared down the snake.

"Well…?" Choler crossed his translucent arms. "Do you want to ssstarve or not?!"

"We eat, then we see if you can leave," Amy whispered.

Sonic nodded.

While Choler made sure that the humors' guests of honor got their enrichment, Sanguin and Melanc descended to their palace’s lowest level: the lightless dungeons.

"Lady Rose is quite infatuated with her lover.” Sanguin took a sip from his goblet only to realize he had already emptied it again. “He captivates her as much as she captivates me. She'll come out on top, I guarantee! I don’t understand why the rest of you even bother investing in that Sonic!"

Melanc shook his head. "In the right circumstances, his alpha aggression should overpower her obsession. Don’t forget who the male is between them."

"What does his sex have to do with anything?! I tell you, Melanc, you're no better than those mortals at times. Have faith in our strong little lady!"

"Don’t boil yourself over it, Choler’s test may prove either of us wrong."

"Indeed. Cheers to his devilish little idea!"

They opened the door to the deep, dark chamber that they left Shadow in. Shadow wasn't on the ground, but Flegmat happily laid across it. He rolled onto his side, slowly waving his tail at the sight of Sanguin.

"If you're looking for your pet, look up," he said.

Sanguin and Melanc turned their faces upwards. Their prisoner was hanging from the ceiling upside down. Shadow's large bat wings opened like dark curtains, revealing glowing pink stripes, blackened eyes, and thin fangs. He hissed at his captors, struggling to pull apart each pair of his inhibitor rings which had been chained tightly together and welded at their hidden openings and hinges.

Sanguin squealed, bouncing back and forth. "It worked! He took to my curse! What a bat, oh what a beauty!”

"You missed the best part," Flegmat yawned. "Get this: this guy kept trying to dislocate his joints to escape, but his skeleton just kept healing itself. He was squirming helplessly like a worm in the rain! I must have exhaled through my nose at least twice."

Shadow paused for a moment, closed his eyes, then jolted as if he touched an electric fence.

"Oh yeah...and he kept trying to tap into the chaos emeralds."

"Even when they're full of dark energy?!" Sanguin cackled. “Excellent! Simply excellent! Now we just need to get his little white bat in here and I can have a matching set in my collection!"

"Hm, yep."

"If you lure Rouge down here…” Shadow scowled, his pink pupils glowing brighter, “...our whole team will make you regret it!"

Flegmat leaned into Sanguin. "Remind me why you want all these vampires in our dungeon again?" he whispered.

"Aesthetic perfection of a vampire aside, I adore building an audience that fancies my taste.~"

Shadow hissed harder, spraying glowing pink droplets from his fangs.

"We'll find a use for them after the wolves feast," Melanc ordered. "What's important now is keeping Shadow out of the picture."

"I got an idea." Flegmat's smile widened. "If we need someone to clean up the aftermath..."

"OH, yes!" Sanguin purred. "What a splendid idea! Bravo!"

Shadow's long bat ears twitched. "I've heard everything you said. Everything. Your plan isn't going to work. They love each other too much to do...THAT."

Shadow inhaled sharply, then spat a bullet of pink fluid onto Melanc. It burned into his head, sizzling.

"GAH! What…IS that?!" Sanguin gagged.

Melanc grimaced, then stared down Shadow.

"Oh yeah, he makes that." Flegmat scraped the substance off of Melanc, flicked it aside, and licked his wound clean with copious amounts of slobber. "Anti-venom I think."

"How rancid! How rude!" Sanguin complained. "Who does he think he is, huh?! WHO?! I say we leave him here for the rest of his immortal life!"

"We have more important hogs to deal with," Melanc muttered dryly.

The demons faded out. Shadow tried one more time to dislocate his thumb, a trick he had been eerily good at from creation to G.U.N. training. His finger gave way with a crack, he used his teeth to slip one of his rings off, and...

SNAP!

"GAH!"

His thumb was back in position. He heard Flegmat and Sanguin’s echoing laughter within the walls.

"Damn you!" Shadow groaned.

He closed his wings around himself and cradled his hand in his jaws. Shadow's body may have been consistently healing itself, but the pain of each escape attempt accumulated and lingered upon the last.

"Is that really you, Shadow?" a voice Shadow didn't recognize whispered.

Shadow opened his wings. His ears twitched. That voice came from across the long dungeon corridor so far and in such a delicate, low tone that only a bat's ears could understand it.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked.

"Muerto, Muerto the Bat. You're Rouge's latest amante, no?"

"You've got the wrong idea..."

"Apologies! She and I fronted a hard rock band a few years back and she must have pulled lovers from all over-"

"Get to the point."

"Well, I also have ties with Dark Gaia’s humors.”

“His…humors?”

“You know, the four humors? Blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile? It’s an ancient, long dismissed medical theory, but Dark Gaia’s an ancient being with a body unlike any mortal,” Muerto emphasized with wonder.

“Uhuh. And how do you know his…bodily fluids?” Shadow cringed at his own question.

“Back in my home country Gaialuz, everyone worshiped Light Gaia with utmost loyalty, but not me. I'm fond of the macabre shades of life: the death and the darkness. So every night, I did this ritual praising my god in secret. That's when the owl, which is really his blood, appeared to me. 'Oh darling, Dark Gaia would simply ADORE you!~’ it said. ‘Would you like to become one with the night?' I accepted wholeheartedly and here I am: a TRUE vampire, just like you."

"I wasn't given an offer, I was lured here and captured like my friends."

"You don't need to tell me twice, I too heard everything. You know who else hears everything?"

Shadow didn't need confirmation to know he was talking about the humors. Any escape plans and one of them would have been right on their wingtips.

"I can give you some insight into your new powers, baby bat."

“Baby bat?!” Shadow flapped his wings, agitated.

"I may not know everything," Muerto explained, "...and I've never seen the anti-venom before. However, there are some powers I do know and know well. You should practice them, they're quite useful if you're in a dreadful situation."

Shadow picked up on a distant wink.

"Very well. Hit me, Muerto."

Sonic and Amy were pleasantly surprised by the room that Choler led them to: a wide open, densely forested atrium. It was extremely dark with not even stars illuminating it, but a few violet lanterns provided some visibility. The werehogs had to rely mostly on scent to figure out their surroundings: trees, lots of them, and the hint of...some kind of hoofed animal....

...the blood of a hoofed animal.

The starved werehogs salivated against their will. Amy sniffed the air, slowly beginning to stalk across the grass.

"The hunt'sss all yoursss."

Sonic bared his gritted teeth. "THIS is what you had in mind?"

"The ssstag is waiting. Good luck."

He turned his head to glare at that snake, but he was gone. Choler's acidic stench still lingered beneath the prey's aroma.

"It's okay, Sonic." Amy stretched her hand across a few feet and pulled Sonic closer. "If it means we get to eat, then we get to eat."

The werehogs' fur jolted up. That rich, delectable scent was growing closer. Their burning hunger ignited deeply rooted predator instincts that Sonic never knew and never wanted his monstrous form to have.

Sonic quaked in his cleats. He fell to all fours and followed the scent into the dense, pitch black greenery. Amy stayed close behind, sniffing more thoroughly.

Bushes rustled to their left. There was a grand, especially complex tree looming over them. Sonic flung both of his hands at a thick branch and gripped it tight.

"Pull me back," he whispered.

"I have a better idea."

Amy approached him face-to-face and threw her arms over Sonic's shoulders. Her head nuzzled into the side of his. He squeezed his eyes shut, his fleeting heart fully expecting a hug, but her arms didn't wrap around him 一 they gripped the body of a tree far behind him. She began to compress her arms, pulling Sonic further back, pressing them closer together, and stretching Sonic's arms even tighter.

"Dog scent aside, you smell really nice," Amy whispered, savoring the feeling of Sonic's cheek against hers. "Like grass and beaches..."

Sonic flinched. "Not now!" he whisper-yelled.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I'm letting go in 3...2...1..."

Sonic and, by extension, Amy flew into the treetop. They caught themselves on the branch that they eyed. Down below, in a clearing yet swamped in darkness, was their target: a feral stag with two open wounds from a large snake bite. Trails of skin below the marks were furless and burnt, as if acid had dripped from them. The deer occasionally twitched and tensed up between grazing attempts.

"Poor thing..." Amy whined, ducking as low as she could.

Sonic struggled to swallow past the lump in his throat.

Suddenly, a snake hissed right above their heads. A rising acidic aroma underlined the deer's appetizing flesh.

"What a sssucculent ssscent. Aren't you excccited to sssink your teeth into all that fresh meat?" Choler's low voice echoed.

Sonic dug his nails into the tree bark. His insides howled for a morsel of nutrients.

Amy leapt from the branch and landed on the stag's flank with a fierce bite. Sonic wasn't far behind; he clung to their prey's neck and bit deeply as Amy pulled its hind legs down. The stag initially tried to shake them off, but ceased any defensive maneuvers once it was on the ground.

"Now, Sonic!" Amy urged. "The jugular! Hurry!"

Sonic placed his canines into the deer's flesh.

He paused. His teeth lingered superficially.

He slowly pulled away. He looked down upon their suffering prey, his expression mirroring its turmoil.

"I...can't," Sonic mumbled.

Amy pulled her hands to her mouth.

The stench of ink fumes materialized behind them.

Melanc slowly clapped. "What a satisfactory performance.” He folded his hands behind his back. “Now are you just going to stand there and watch your prey suffer or are you putting that meat out of its misery?"

Sonic crossed his arms. "I can't."

"Sonic!" Amy cried.

The hedgehogs weren't sure where they came from, but the next thing they knew, the rest of their hosts also surrounded them; Sanguin smirked down at Sonic, Choler loomed over Amy, and Flegmat curled around the deer.

"I can't. If I let myself give into my instincts now..." Sonic lowered his voice to a murmur, "...who knows what'll happen to me?"

"Well I can't stand to watch this!" Amy snapped.

She ended the hunt with a crushing bite to the stag's neck.

"Now try one more time to hypnotize that rat."

Shadow whistled. A feral rat that had been scampering around his cell made direct eye contact with him again. Shadow widened his dark eyes as much as possible, locking his glowing pink pupils onto the rat's line of sight.

The rat stared back, unblinking.

"You will go back into the wall pipes," Shadow commanded. "You will not make me say this again. You will do exactly what I told you to do: go back in the wall pipe!"

The rat glanced at the crack in the wall that it came from.

It broke its trance and ran eagerly towards another rat to snuggle it.

"It happened again."

"Peculiar…I'm starting to think that your hypnosis works in reverse."

"How so?"

"Most hypnosis weakens the target's willpower, but yours encourages it."

"I tend to have that effect on others."

"Is that the real reason why you're a healing vampire?"

"I was made for medicinal reasons..."

"Then perhaps Dark Gaia's energy was your creator's missing ingredient." Muerto hummed a note. "That or the darkness in Dark Gaia's blood and Black Doom's blood cancelled each other out…somehow…"

Shadow fell silent. He already had baggage accumulating back up in his head, the last thing he needed was another existential crisis.

"There's more important things to worry about," Shadow said.

Like Sonic and Amy, he wanted to say.

"Well, if you want to see your loved ones...I think I’ve stalled enough. Shadow, you should be able to transform into a tiny bat."

"How?"

"You wrap your wings around yourself and concentrate all your vampiric energy into just your heart. If you compress it hard enough, you should poof into a form smaller than a ring’s opening. To reverse it, open your heart back up and let the energy circulate again."

“If you know transformation so well, how come you haven’t escaped with it?”

“I tried a few times, but closing off my heart in Dark Gaia’s domain is painfully difficult for me. You, on the other hand, were designed around chaos control. I’m confident that you’ll master this magic as well.”

Shadow eyed the prison door’s narrow, barred window, then his cuffed rings. "What about my limiter rings? If I take in chaos energy without them, I'll die, especially while they're corrupted. If it wasn't for that, I would have chaos snapped out of here hours ago."

"How good are you at holding your breath?"

Shadow hung in thought for a minute. "I never attempted to...repel chaos energy..."

"If you don’t try, you may be stuck here for the rest of your immortal life: unable to die, but unable to live either. That's been my situation for a year, but it feels like millennia. Whether that or death's sweet embrace is a worse outcome...I'll trust you to decide."

Shadow held deathly still. Far above him, forks and knives clanked and plates were set. Sonic and Amy were still breathing, but both of them were disturbingly quiet.

"The humors are at their most distracted during their meals," Muerto whispered. "If you're going to try anything, do it now and do it fast 一 Shadow fast."

Shadow closed his eyes, grinning. "I like the sound of that. If this works out, remind me to pay you back."

“I appreciate the thought, but I have one request for you to prioritize over my freedom.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know how…but you need to get Dark Gaia’s humors back inside him.”

“Back…inside him?!”

“Yes…” Muerto sighed. “When His bodily fluids gained a mind of their own, they escaped from their containment: His body. However, sentient or not, they’re still vital fluids; Dark Gaia needs them.”

“So somewhere down there…Dark Gaia’s just a…a dry husk?!”

“A dry, dead husk. Their final goal is to wake and perfect Him prematurely again. That’s bad enough, but if they stay out for too long, they’ll destroy Him, and the world will be radiated by blinding, burning light. He may give the mortals torment and trouble, but the world still needs Dark Gaia. He’s not evil, He’s a force of nature. Like the rest of nature, humanity has left him in a crisis; Dark Gaia has been fighting His own body ever since Eggman disrupted His rest.” Muerto sniffed. “My poor, sweet darkness...”

Shadow was initially thrown off by anyone shedding a tear for that abomination. However, as he listened, he began to realize that Muerto’s understanding of the dark god was reminiscent of Maria’s.

"I wonder if it ever gets lonely when sleeping in the planet…"

“They say the best treats come from Gaialuz and only their best gets offered to Light Gaia! You think anyone out there makes treats for Dark Gaia? I’m sure it’s hungry too.”

“Someday, thousands of years from now, you’ll tell the Gaias how cool I think they both are, won’t you?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you, Shadow. I knew you would understand.”

He took a deep breath, soaking in faint traces of chaos energy in preparation for his ultimate flight. Once his veins were full, he shifted his energy to repel his life force instead.

So far, so good.

He locked himself in with a tight wrapping of his wings. He shut his eyes and compressed all of his energy into his accelerating heart.

If he survived, freedom would be right around the corner.

Chaos, let me lay in Sonic and Amy's arms, he prayed.

There was a flash of bright red. Shadow’s limiter rings fell free, clattering against the floor.

The four humors were all third wheels to their guests' awkwardness in the meal that followed the hunt. Their lingering silence, especially Sonic's, was quite loud. Few exchanges of eye contact were made and none were between the werehogs. Amy was quick to eat barely a fill of raw deer to get it all over with, but Sonic sat back with his arms crossed, letting his cold meat grow colder on his plate.

Neither of them touched their goblets.

"It's not bad, Sonic," Amy croaked. "Please, you need your strength."

Sonic closed his eyes, turning his head away.

"Peculiar..." Melanc leaned in Sonic's direction. "You act like you've never eaten animal flesh before."

"What do you think your precccious chili dogs are made from, huh?!" Choler hissed.

"W-Well, that's different! With them, I didn't have to... I didn't... I didn't see..." Sonic trailed off.

His eyes caught the stares of the whole table. He unfolded his arms and attempted poking the rubbery, crimson meat with a fork. Bile crept into his throat.

"I never liked my meat rare, anyway," Sonic complained, shoving it aside in favor of munching on his fourth bread roll. "Even if it's game, you could at least cook it."

Sanguin laughed.

"What's so funny?!"

"You, darling! A wolf preferring venison well done is utterly outlandish!~"

Sonic huffed, ditching his seat. "Then I'm fine with being the exception."

"Very well, Sonic," Melanc muttered with a swig of his foggy mug. "Let your first kill go to waste."

Sonic abandoned the dining hall.

"How rude," Sanguin hooted, swirling and sipping his goblet.

"Um, I'll finish his plate for him if he doesn't want any," Amy offered with an air of hesitation.

"Take what you want," Flegmat yawned between dozes.

Amy reached one of her arms across the long table. Once her hand snatched Sonic's morsels, her arm gracefully retracted back to her vicinity. She tore through a chunk of the meat with far less issue than before.

"Say, I'm getting pretty good at being a werewolf!" she exclaimed, waving her tail.

"I guess we know who the pred is," Flegmat chuckled, elbowing Sanguin.

Sanguin choked and slapped his talons over Flegmat’s muzzle.

"Sorry, I'm what now?” Amy questioned between bites.

Flegmat sneezed. "Ignore me."

“EUGH!” Sanguin retracted his goo-covered hand and scrubbed it raw with a napkin.

Amy sighed. "I'd love to stick around, this was lovely! Really! But I'd hate to lose Sonic in your fancy labyrinth." She stood from her chair, making sure to gingerly push it back in. "I better get going! Seeya-"

A hand suddenly gripped her shoulder. She didn't have to look to know it was Sanguin, who was suddenly on his feet.

"I have a better idea. Let's make a painting!~"

"R-Right now?!"

"Yes!" He grabbed her hands. "I must immortalize how beautiful you are before the ball of the blood moon!"

"WHAT? You guys had a ball planned this whole time?"

The other humors grinned and nodded.

Amy gripped Sanguin's hands back, eyes sparkling. "Why didn't you say so?! Tell me everything!"

"Of course! I will tell all down in the left hall’s studio!"

Sanguin reached aside for his goblet before letting himself get dragged away by Amy. He winked and raised his bloody drink to the other humors just before disappearing.

"Ssso, are...we doing sssomething about Sssonic, Melanc? He'sss trying to essscape!"

Melanc shook his head. "Let him get lost. He'll realize just how trapped he is soon enough."

The ceiling lights once again lit up one by one as Sonic ran past them (only, like him, much slower this time).

However, there was no door at the end, only a mirror. Sonic growled at it, pulled back his fist, and enlarged it as it swung forward with a huge PUNCH!

The mirror shattered. Glass shards flew every which way, many into Sonic's arm. He whimpered in pain, but he wasn't concerned about his physical well-being.

He was only concerned about there being no exit on the other side.

"NOOOO!" he howled.

But he didn't give up. He couldn't!

He pulled back for another punch, threw it, and-

A tiny bat suddenly fluttered around his fur.

"AUGH!"

Sonic missed a few times, but was quick to grab it. He pulled it close, but loosened his grip when he noticed the bat's pink stripes and white fluff in a familiar arrangement. The bat gawked back at him, especially when Sonic gave it a few sniffs for good measure.

"Shadow?! How’d you- When’d you get so demonic?! And...small! And...fluffy..."

"Hmph," he said in a shrill, but familiar enough voice. "You're soft yourself."

Sonic scratched the top of Shadow's little head with his claw. Shadow rubbed into it for a second only to bite at his captor.

"It's good to have you back," Sonic whispered.

Once bitten, Sonic was surprised to feel his hands' cuts being soothed by Shadow's tiny licks. Shadow paused for a second, feeling the werehog's flustered eyes gluing onto him.

Sonic threw Shadow back into the air and followed his lead.

"This way," Shadow commanded, drifting down a flight of stairs. "I echo-located a way out."

"What else did you learn?"

"Everything. Another prisoner told me."

Sonic ran ahead. Shadow followed suit with a few flaps of his wings.

"Then what the HELL is going on?!"

Shadow landed on the back of Sonic's neck, jolting his fur up and shocking him into halting his run.

"It's a long story, but basically, our kidnappers are really Dark Gaia's bodily fluids given form. They want him back out."

"That explains a lot...but it doesn't surprise me at this point. We’ll just have to confiscate any chaos emeralds they have, prevent them from getting more, and we’ll be good to go."

"Resurrecting Dark Gaia is their end goal. Their current goal, on the other hand..."

Shadow whispered into Sonic's ear so lowly that not even Muerto would hear.

Sonic's eyes shot wide open. His stomach filled with ice and his throat burnt from rising vomit.

"We NEED to go back for Amy."

Shadow was suddenly lassoed away. Sonic turned his head. It was Choler and Melanc, no longer bothering to hide their true forms: an enormous, feral viper constricting around Shadow and a darker, but largely similar badger. Their true neon colors, acidic gold and venomous violet, glowed ominously.

Melanc clapped his large hands even slower than before. "So…you guessed correctly."

Sonic seethed with rage over how much Melanc’s terrible claws resembled his.

"SSSANGUIN WOULD SSSAY: CONGRATULATIONSSS!"

Melanc's claps slowed to nothing, then gave way to him folding his wrists behind his back.

"Unfortunately for you, our plans have changed since then."

"Changed or unchanged, you won't get away with them!" Sonic snarled.

He launched himself at Melanc.

"Sonic-!!" Shadow squeaked. "DON’T!"

Sonic easily made contact with Melanc, but was immediately pinned into the floor on the far opposite end of that hall. Melanc shoved all of his weight onto Sonic.

"Why bother tempting you with predation..." Melanc's neutral expression melted into a sadistic grin, "...when you always made a much better prey?"

His fangs sliced into Sonic's neck. Any pain was drowned by overwhelming numbness. Sonic's vision spun further and further into a dizzy cyclone. A harsh blackout followed a flood of depressing sentiments.

A single tear ran from Sonic's unconscious eye.

Chapter Text

Sanguin’s studio was a cozy nest of luxurious blood red velvet, glittery mesh curtains along the walls, and crowds of dimly lit candles. Like the rest of the manor, the studio had no windows. In its dark center, Amy curled along a curved couch with a pillow clenched under her canines, exactly how Sanguin instructed. Mortal painters would have struggled to bring a scene that dim to life, but Sanguin stroked his paintbrush across his canvas with his boundless night vision, inspiration, and energy.

The aroma emitting from the candles was a curious blend of candy apples, licorice, and copper. The scent overwhelmed Amy’s nose, almost nauseating her, but she bit her tongue and tried not to concentrate on it.

“Can I speak?” she asked, muffled by the pillow.

“As long as you stay there, darling.~”

Amy parted her mouth from the pillow just enough to speak clearly. “So, how about that Blood Moon Ball you mentioned?”

“Oh yes, of course!” Sanguin took a long sip from his goblet, then set it aside. “Long ago, the Gaians’ culture revolved around the moon as much as the moon revolved around them. They believed that in the daylight, everyone hid their heart beneath a uniform mask. In the moonlight, those masks were taken off. Strangers by day were lovers by night. Full moons especially were their time of honest romance, of vulnerable hearts whispering to one another: intimacy in its purest form…“ Sanguin sighed.

“In astrology, we believe a lunar eclipse has the power of many full moons. So a blood moon must have been especially romantic, right?”

“That would be a gross understatement; blood moons were the most romantic nights of their lives! Asking your beloved to be your date to the Blood Moon Ball…it was like a marriage proposal, but purely in the spiritual sense. The Gaians believed that anyone who danced under the blood moon and sealed it with a kiss would be bound for eternity beyond the limits of life and death.”

Amy’s heart raced with passionate scenarios of that eternal promise with Sonic: them kissing for the first time in the moonlight, them recreating that night years later at their wedding, and finding each other again post mortem using only their bond to guide them. Her wagging tail thumped against the couch. “What a dream!”

“That divine tradition’s mostly lost to time, but we keep it alive here in our little dark paradise.~”

“Excuse me!” Amy suddenly pushed herself from the cushion. “I’ve GOT to ask Sonic before he leaves-”

“SIT DOWN!” Sanguin yelled.

Amy’s ears twitched and flattened from her captor’s sudden loudness. Sanguin’s glare led her back onto the couch. She clenched the pillow in her teeth again.

Flegmat slipped his head through the door. “Did something break in here?”

Sanguin took a deep breath, resuming his canvas. “Miss Rose has a message for her Sonic. Would you be a dear and deliver it to him?”

“Sure thing.” Flegmat approached Amy and knelt beside her. “Whatcha got for him?”

“It’s just a proposal to the ball,” she grumbled.

“Ohhh, I seeee. Welp, when he accepts, you won’t be able to see him until the dance. Sure you’re okay with that?”

Frustration seethed through Amy’s eyes. “What’s wrong with me seeing him?”

“It brings terrible luck!” Sanguin claimed. “You wouldn’t want him to see your bridal gown before your wedding, would you?”

“...Of course not.”

“Then you’ll just have to stay with me until tonight, my dear!!”

Amy dodged eye contact with Sanguin.

Flegmat put a paw on her shoulder. “Hey. Cheer up. Sanguin’s a fun guy. He’s, like, made of euphoria.”

“I was just hoping I could propose to Sonic myself. I dreamt of a night like this since before I got face-to-face with him. There were plenty of times I teased him with my bridal dream, I asked him on fun little dates, but we never had a serious, heart-to-heart slow dance. Knowing him, dancing slowly might be his worst nightmare! Or we’ll finally have our love story come into bloom…no matter what happens, this could be the most important night in our lives! I have to tell him with my own words.”

“Okay.” Flegmat reached aside for a sheet of parchment. “Sanguin?”

Sanguin plucked a feather from his chest and shoved it in the tip of Flegmat’s giant bush of a tail. Flegmat swished it over to Amy and tapped her arm.

“Thank you. Can I have some ink?”

Sanguin chuckled. “There’s no need, you can use it as-is!~” He brushed back his feathers proudly.

Amy squinted and cocked her head. She tried scribbling a rose into the corner of her parchment. To her surprise, a crimson red fluid flowed perfectly from the feather’s calamus. She smiled and wrote her heart onto the page.

A few drafts later, Amy finished.

“Make sure only Sonic reads it, okay?" she pleaded.

“Can do.”

Flegmat rolled the finished letter up into a scroll, stuffed it into his tail’s fluff, and left Amy and Sanguin alone. Sanguin slowly closed the door behind him with his foot.

“Miss Rose, can you keep a secret?” he asked, grinning.

Amy’s ears perked up. “Of course. What do you want to tell me?”

“Well, it’s less tell and more show…” Sanguin moved in front of his canvas. “You see, Miss Rose, this scarlet beauty before you…isn’t what I really look like.”

“I’m sure it can’t be worse than what happened to me.”

“Don’t even think of comparing this to your beauty!” Sanguin held and delicately kissed the knuckles of Amy’s hand. “My abominable form is nothing but sin and tragedy.”

Trusting glistens returned to her big eyes.

Sanguin’s hand slipped away from Amy’s. He pointed his beak upwards and extended his arms. A violet aura shrouded him. Every instance of red in the room from the cushions to the walls dimmed to gray. The candles suddenly blew out, leaving Amy stranded in pure darkness. She clutched the cushion tight, not realizing she was shaking.

The darkness pulsed with a deep heartbeat that was too slow to be hers.

The candlelight didn’t return, but a neon green glow almost as bright ignited the studio. Everything that had been red and gray was green and glowing. However, none of it glowed brighter than the bright green eyes suddenly right in Amy’s face.

Amy gasped, recoiling into the cushions.

Sanguin was still smiling, but this time, his sinister grin extended far past his beak. Amy’s eyes followed his long neck up to his back which was pressed against the low ceiling. He was even scrawnier than before, but with his wings extended, he covered the entire wall.

Amy tensed up further. Sanguin’s sharp foot was stepping onto her. One dig of his talons and he could have easily ripped her heart out. His texture was nothing like a bird; from his beak to the tips of his toes, he was hot and disgustingly moist like rotting slop left out in the sun. Inky fluid dripped from the tips of his wing feathers.

“What do you think, Miss Rose?” Sanguin gargled. “Do you think I’m still…pretty?” He rested his head in her lap. “I’ve been told that I’m quite hideous.”

Amy swallowed hard. A quivering smile crept across her face. She slowly stroked Sanguin’s neck.

“Of course you’re pretty,” Amy whispered with full sincerity. She smooshed his face into her cupped hands. “If we’re true friends, that’s all that matters.”

“But your day friends…they would hate me!” Sanguin croaked, still smiling in spite of his whiney tone. “They could never understand our-”

Amy hugged his neck. His quickening heartbeat drummed across his body into her ear.

“You helped me when I needed it most, Sanguin! No matter what you look like or what you really are, that tells me you’re good inside!”

Sanguin relaxed and brushed against her face. The darkness returned, but Amy no longer shook under its weight. The candlelight returned, the red returned, and Amy found herself hugging Sanguin in his familiar disguise.

“You’re such a lamb, Miss Rose.~”

“If you need any more support don’t hesitate to a-”

Sanguin shoved his goblet between himself and Amy. “How about a drink, dear?”

Amy sniffed the green apple scented fluid, considered grabbing it with her hand, then ultimately withdrew from Sanguin’s offer.

“No thanks. I don’t want to risk conking out again, you know? Not when we’re making art!”

“Hmph.” Sanguin pried himself away from her. “I suppose you’re right…”

Amy laid back into her previous pose and their painting session resumed uninterrupted.

Flegmat’s slippers were thrown off the moment they touched the dungeon floor. He shoved Amy’s scroll into his mouth and melted from his disguise into his purest form: slimy, sticky, translucent white fluid. The sentient puddle pooled into a vent in the floor, oozed through a pipe, and seeped through several thin openings in the deepest, most closed off cell of them all. He reformed in his monstrous, only vaguely fox-shaped goopy form of slick black and glowing white markings. He spat the scroll out into his hand.

“Got a special delivery here.”

Four pairs of eyes stared at him, their hosts all frozen in action. Melanc had just hooked a chain leash to a collar around Sonic’s neck and Choler had Shadow (once again chained by his limiter rings) constricted tight in his body. Shadow huffed with raw intensity, but couldn’t budge beyond wrinkling his muzzle. Sonic clawed at Melanc, but stopped at the barring of Melanc’s violet fangs.

“…Did I…interrupt something?”

“You came just in time, ssspitball!”

Melanc pressed Sonic to the floor under his body. “What do you have for the morsels that’s so important?”

Flegmat rolled out the scroll. “Word from the pink one.”

Sonic and Shadow froze.

“She kissed it and everything,” Flegmat teased, staring right through Sonic.

“How saccharine.” Melanc carelessly ripped the scroll out of Flegmat’s hands and kept the words just out of Sonic’s sight. “She wrote: ‘Dearest Sonic, I know we made plans to escape, but there’s a beautiful ball tonight and I’d love nothing more than to dance arm-in-arm beneath the blood moon. Sanguin told me all about it and its lovely destiny. If you don’t want to linger, that’s alright; we can stay just long enough to ease your pain with a tender moment. I think you need this as much as I do. Love, Amy Rose,’ signed with a little heart.”

Sonic grit his teeth and struggled against Melanc. He countered by pinning Sonic’s head down with his jaw.

“Hm, peculiar…” Melanc side-eyed Shadow. “At the bottom, she wrote: ‘PS. If you find Shadow, bring him as well. I hope he’s alright, I miss his company.’”

Shadow yelled threats too muffled by Choler’s body to be comprehensible.

“How sssweet! Both of you invited to accompany Missss Rosssse to the ball!”

“Heh.” Flegmat grinned wider. “Gaian men would have eaten each other alive to get what you just got.”

Melanc rolled off of Sonic and yanked him close by his chain. “So, what’s your answer for your little lady? Are you going to leave her wilting on the most romantic night of the year?”

“SHE’S NOT GOING TO YOUR FEAST!” Sonic roared, pulling against the chain. “As soon as she knows what you’re doing-” a choke was tugged out of him, “NGH-! YOU’LL REGRET IT!”

“Hm…” Melanc pushed his nose against Sonic’s. “What a shame.” Melanc’s lips pulled back, exposing the rest of his venom drenched black teeth. A deep hunger radiated from his demonic eyes. “You’d make a perfect main course.”

Sonic’s lungs filled with ice. Melanc’s maw stretched open at a snail’s pace, just long enough for Sonic to grow painfully aware of what he was about to be subjected to. He stared lifelessly forward as if his soul was evacuating his body.

Shadow finally struggled hard enough to free his mouth. “STOP IT! LET HIM GO!”

Melanc CHOMPED past Sonic’s head.

“STOP!!”

Melanc’s jaw lunged forward again. Sonic’s legs hung limply from between his teeth.

“STOOOP!!!”

Melanc chuckled through his stuffed mouth. He spread onto all fours like a wild animal and bulked up to twice his original height. He flung Sonic in the air once just to drag out his cruel attack, then swallowed him bones, spikes, and all.

Cold.

Ice cold.

Unless dead in an antarctic wasteland, the inside of a beast should never have been that COLD.

Sonic’s head breached the pool of black he had been dumped into. He shivered and choked, coughing out heaps of numbing, cold goop. He was freezing; worse, despite the absence of warmth, it felt like he was sweating profusely. He gripped his arms only to feel deeply upsetting squishiness covering his bones — he wasn’t sweating, his fur coat and thick arm muscles were melting off of him and pooling into his surroundings.

Slowly looking around, his stomach contracted upon realization that the inside of Melanc was far more vast and empty than what should’ve been possible. There were no visible walls, nothing resembling guts, hell, no barriers at all; Sonic was surrounded by an endless, foggy, black ocean beneath an all-encompassing gray space.

Liminality chewed through his sense of reality like worms in his brain. Sonic’s vision rapidly gave way to visual noise. He didn’t close his eyes, not fully, but he would have seen just as well if he did. There was no whimper of sound, no scent that breached his dry nose, and no taste upon his numb tongue. Every nerve ending in his body gave way to pins and needles.

He tried his hardest to move his arms and lift his eyelids. Nothing happened.

Deep in Sonic’s subconscious, a ghost of a memory reappeared, one where he was impaled by a blinding light; a girl he didn’t recognize screamed, all sensations drained out of his body, and his shocked soul was blown away with the wind. He figured that it didn’t really happen, that it was just a nightmare, but he could never quite shake the feeling that he knew exactly what death felt like.

This was close, but the relief of leaving his body wasn’t coming.

Sonic never feared death, not for himself. If his life was meant to end, so be it. Whatever afterlife he was in store for would just be another grand adventure. However, this numb purgatory between life and death, a prison where he couldn’t die but likely wouldn’t live…it terrified him.

Drowning would have been preferable.

All that Sonic had left was his innermost thoughts saturated in raw melancholy. In absence of everything else, they were loud, so loud that he hoped someone, anyone could hear them.

Amy…I’m sorry. I…should have made my mind up sooner. I never told you, but you’re the sweetest girl in the whole world. If anyone knows the meaning of love, it’s you. You showed me time and time again, even when I couldn’t admit it, even when I…I took you for granted.

Sonic’s body curled up on its own into a fetal position.

You don’t know what’s about to happen to you, what the monsters you think are your friends have in mind. If you go through this and can’t bring yourself to love again, I wouldn’t blame you. I’d mourn with you…if I can. I…hope…I still can…..

…and if they really force you to…

…to devour me…

…just know…

I’d rather end where you begin than live without freedom.

If I can’t stay with you, Shadow will love you with the heart of two hedgehogs.

…At least I’d never have to leave you. Being part of you forever…doesn’t sound so bad…

…

I should have danced with you while I had the chance…

Amy shifted uncomfortably, squeezing the end of her dress in her hands. Her ears and eyes twitched.

“Tired of holding that pose, dear?” Sanguin asked. “Don’t worry, I’m almost done.~”

“Something’s wrong with Sonic.”

Sanguin raised a brow. “You couldn’t possibly know that.”

“The only other time I felt this was right before the world broke apart…that was when he first transformed!”

“You’re just in hysterics. Sonic will be fine! We wouldn’t let him out of our sight.”

Amy remained tense.

“Miss Rose…how about we finish our exchange? I shared a secret with you, why don’t you share something with me?” Sanguin double-checked that the door was still closed. “Something…you told nobody else.”

“Nobody?” Amy thought for a moment. “I’ve told the girls pretty much everything on my mind. My wants, my wishes, my fears…” Her last dream crept back into her mind. “I suppose the only thing I told no other friend about was…my family…”

“Oh!” Sanguin leaned in. “Please, do tell.~”

“I…never felt comfortable telling anyone. It would be such a downer.”

“Miss Rose, it’s okay! I can’t feel sadness!”

“You…can’t?”

“Nope! Flegmat was hardly exaggerating; you are speaking with THE prince of euphoria! Nothing you’d say could possibly burden me!~”

Amy inhaled slowly, then exhaled. Silence hung over her until she bit the bullet and let the words crawl out: “I…only knew my mom when I was little. She smiled a lot, all the time. It was what my father loved most about her next to her mysticism.”

“Sounds like a lovely lady.”

“Mhm. Then, one day…one day…” Amy hung her head low. “She disappeared.”

Sanguin gasped, dramatically shoving his hand over his heart.

“My father dragged me with him to go look for her. After days of searching, a lighthouse keeper told us what happened: she showed up, her smile faded, she dived into the ocean, and…never came out.”

“Oh dear!”

Amy wiped tear after tear from her lashes. Mascara ran down her muzzle. “I-I was so little that I…I didn’t understand. I was so angry, I thought she just abandoned me, I…” she choked on a whine, “I hated her. I hated her so much! I thought ‘how could you?’ I didn’t know…I didn’t know just how miserable she was and…

“…

“Once I figured it out, I just blamed myself.”

Amy buried her face in a pillow. Her bruised heart was sore all over — she couldn’t believe that she was saying what haunted her for years out loud.

Sanguin glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He then drifted back to painting as if his muse wasn’t clearly in distress.

“I see…Your plight sounds familiar…” Sanguin dusted his canvas with some final brush strokes. “Your father wouldn’t happen to be Fandango Rose, would he?”

Amy flinched. “H-How do you-?!”

Sanguin smiled, reached aside, and showed off an elegant, spot-on portrait of her father. “Lovely, is he not?”

“Do you know him?!”

“Oh yes! He adored us. As a matter of fact, he helped us build this very dark realm! He even trusted us to keep you safe in the event of a disaster in the light world.”

Amy cleared her face of tears and stray makeup, sniffling. “I should have guessed you were his friend. He was always painting the supernatural, even when I needed him for other-”

“Speaking of…!” Sanguin grinned wider. “Your portrait is complete, my dear.~”

Sanguin turned the canvas around. It depicted Amy in a field of red roses at night. The dress Sanguin painted her in was a shapely black velvet evening gown decorated with teardrop rubies across the trims. Instead of a pillow, she chewed a realistic heart bundled in red ribbons.

“It’s…certaintly dark.” Amy squinted, then smiled. “But I love it! Especially the dress!”

“Then I have good news!” Sanguin reached into a trunk and pulled out the exact dress from the painting. “I would have loved dressing you in it earlier, but we must keep it nice for your dance tonight.~”

Amy squealed and ran up to hug the fabric, bouncing on her heels. “Thank you! Thank you!! Oh, thank you so SO much!!!”

“Forget your troubles, Miss Rose, we’re just having fun tonight! That’s what your mother would have wanted.” Sanguin offered her his goblet again. “How about a quick toast? I’ll merely pour you a sip this time.”

“Sure!”

Sanguin poured a smidge of green fluid into a glass and handed it to Amy. She clinked it to his goblet.

“Cheers to us and your beautiful painting!”

“To us.~”

A burning, yet pleasant sensation shot down Amy’s throat. She giggled a little, caught sight of Sanguin’s smile, and laughed like she had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

Sanguin dug his sharp talons into her shoulder hard enough to draw blood.
Amy giggled harder, as if she was being tickled all over.

“Excellent…~”

Shadow stared Melanc down with glowing pinprick pupils. His jaw hung agape. He glanced to the floor, then Melanc’s teeth, then Melanc’s body, back to Melanc’s horrible grin, then back at his body once more.

“What…the FUCK?!” Shadow squirmed a little looser. “Let him out! RIGHT NOW!”

Melanc snickered. “Don’t waste your energy. I couldn’t digest him even if I wanted to.”

“Now MYSSSSELF on the other hand-!”

Melanc silenced Choler with a glare. “No, we’re not indulging in the good part, not yet. I’m just applying anesthesia and taking back power that doesn’t belong to him.”

Melanc arched his back as far as he could. He wretched, then wretched harder, then spat up Sonic against the wall. With his prisoner out, his elastic body snapped back to his former size.

Sonic sank to the floor, limp as a ragdoll. He was in the shape of a normal hedgehog again, but his grayed fur, pale skin, sunken eyes, and blank half-lidded expression made him resemble a corpse. Shallow breathing was his only sign of life.

“SONIC!” Shadow screamed.

Sonic remained limp and unmoving.

A final red thread deep within Shadow snapped. His tangled up fury was left to unravel. “If you think I’m losing him, you’ve made the biggest mistake of your pathetic existence!”

Shadow pushed and clawed out of Choler’s stinging scales. Choler hissed and drew his head back in anticipation for a nasty bite. Shadow extended his arms. Choler bit down, but not on Shadow - his acid fangs chomped right through his chains!

“SSSHIT!” Choler hissed.

Shadow rolled onto the stone floor with his newly freed wrists extended.

“Choler…!” Melanc grumbled through clenched teeth. “Melt him or constrain him already.”

Choler rattled himself up, drew back his neck, and snapped forward for another bite. Shadow flipped onto his hands faster than the snake could react.

CHOMP!

Shadow parted his newly free ankles and leapt into Melanc’s face. He extended his wings as far as he could, giving him a much larger presence as he crept closer and closer. A fuchsia fire ignited in his eyes. Pink antivenom seeped from his mouth.

“CHOLER!” Melanc yelled.

Choler snaked around Shadow and bit through his wings, severing them from his back. Shadow groaned, clenching his jaw hard in a desperate attempt to endure the flash of pain flooding his shoulderblade. Still, he refused to turn away from Melanc.

Shadow’s struggle gave Choler a sinisterly confident grin. He opened his jaw far wider than before and loomed right above Shadow, acid simmering all throughout him, ready to burn his prey into an afterthought.

Choler’s attack was cut short with a wet slap to the face.

“Hey, don’t give him the easy way out just yet,” Flegmat whispered.

Shadow pounced onto Melanc, but got caught mid-leap by a sticky pair of arms. Flegmat pulled Shadow into a tight hold. His body stuck to the hedgehog’s limbs like glue.

Melanc corrected his posture with a quick dust of his chest. “Anyway…where were we?”

Choler picked up a cleaver with the end of his tail, coated the blade with his tongue, and tossed it to Melanc. He caught it, gave it a quick spin, and slowly turned to Sonic with a venomous smirk.

“Oh yes…preparations.”

Melanc knelt down beside Sonic. He gripped his head with his free hands and pulled back on his eyelids, forcing Sonic’s dull eyes to look straight at him.

“You know, Sonic, I’m far more ancient than you can comprehend, yet I’ve hated you for as long as I had thought.” Melanc brushed the blade of the cleaver across Sonic’s body, leaving a trail of dull irritations. “That energy coursing through your veins when you first transformed? Part of me was in that energy. I made you the monster that you resented. If you just gave in to your innermost animal, that would have been just fine, ‘just dandy~’ as Sanguin would say! But you didn’t. No, you and your stubborn heart betrayed me. You used MY power to hurt Dark Gaia over and over, night after night! YOU turned me against my own body! You used MY gift to kill the night with a thousand paper cuts!”

Sonic still laid silent and limp. Melanc let Sonic go, watching his skull bang against the stone wall. He raked one of his claws up and down Sonic’s right leg and up and down again.

“But that’s not why I always hated you, that’s not even a sliver of why I’ve come to hate you. The worst part about you, just like that Eggman you fight so much, is that you insist on making everything, even forces of nature, all about you! You have so much freedom, far more than we could ever have, but you waste it flying too close to the sun over and over again! Because of you, the god of destruction is no longer destructive, the god of the sun DOESN’T EXIST, and Dark Gaia’s righteous victory was stolen!”

“That...doesn’t matter...” Sonic wheezed. “Not when they put everyone in danger.”

“Oh, it matters. You still disrupted our natural authority. Even if it was to save your companions, you still interfered in the eternal battle between Light and Dark, a battle that we didn’t need help with before and will never need help with again! Especially not when we’re done ending our own cycle of imprisonment.”

Melanc’s claws stopped where Sonic’s thigh met his hip. His other hand pulled away a sock and with it, a shoe from Sonic’s paw and its pale pads.

“If I cared for you…” Melanc gripped Sonic’s bare ankle, “…I’d hope that you had another plan besides running.”

A brutal shiver shocked Sonic’s spine. His lids jolted wide open, painfully aware of what was coming.

“N-No…please…” his strained voice softly begged. “P-Please…please don’t…”

Melanc raised the cleaver.

“No…no no no, please…” Sonic’s body shook, but he had no strength to fight. “Please…DON’T-!”

SHINK!

Melanc, Choler, and Flegmat checked their disguises in a wide mirror, then approached Sanguin’s studio with a long, blanketed gift in their hands. Faint gramophone music was coming from behind the door. Melanc let one hand off of their delivery to knock on the door.

“JUST A MINUTE!~” Sanguin answered.

Several minutes passed with no answer.

“Thisss guy, I ssswear to Gaia!” Choler hissed. “I’m one sssong away from boiling our blood!”

“At least he knows how to have fun,” Flegmat teased, batting Choler and Melanc with his tail.

Melanc knocked again. Muffled, manic laughter followed. Then there was a sudden thud and joyous clapping. The music abruptly stopped. More laughter. Finally, Sanguin opened the door.

“Apologies! Apologies!~” Sanguin hooted. “Time flies over a party!”

The other humors stepped in and looked around at the scene. Pillows and canvases were thrown about carelessly and Amy was still howling with laughter on the floor.

“Hiii!!!” she giggled. “We were having the best party in here! I’m already dancing the night away! Hahaha!!! I don’t know what he gave me, but…but you HAVE to try it!” Amy held Sanguin’s goblet in the air. “Anyone want some?!”

Sanguin smiled, pleased with himself, only to refrain at the sight of Melanc’s glare.

“Sanguin…you didn’t turn her into one of your vampire pets did, you?”

“NOOOO nononono!!!” Sanguin used both arms and one leg to pry his goblet from Amy’s hand. “I gave her- ngh! Just-! Enough-!!” Finally, he pulled it free from her tight grasp. “...to put her mind at ease!”

Sanguin picked up Amy, pulled her eager-to-hug arms off of himself, and set her on the couch. She turned over onto her stomach and kicked her legs in the air like she was at a sleepover.

“What are we doing next?” she giggled. “I hope it’s more games! I LOVE games!”

Choler rushed ahead of his fellow carriers. “We have SSSURPRISES for you!”

“YAY! I love surprises!! Hehehe!!!”

“Congratulations, Miss Rose…” the corner of Melanc’s mouth curled into a subtle smirk. “Your Sonic accepted your invitation.”

“Aw, yay!! …What invitation was it?”

“Blood moon ball,” Flegmat injected.

Amy gasped. “OH MY GOSH! Screw this party, THIS IS GONNA BE THE BEST NIGHT EVER!” Amy suddenly gripped Sanguin by his arms. “Where’s the makeup, owl boy!? I wanna be SUPER pretty for him!”

“I-In a minute, Miss Rose!~” Sanguin yelped, trying to keep a straight face.

“Before that, we have…a gift from him,” Melanc announced.

He, Flegmat, and Choler set their delivery on a footrest beside her. Amy sniffed it right before they let go.

Grass. Sand. Palm trees.

“It sure smells like him!” she squeed, tail wagging.

She pulled the blanket off. Her tail slowed to a stop.

Sonic’s severed leg was laid out before her on a platter. She stared at it blankly, her smile faltering.

“Oh! Well! Isn’t that thoughtful?” Sanguin mused with a sway of his tail feathers.

The other humors surrounded her, leaning in to read her expression.

Amy held the limb in her hands. Her eyes felt it up and down.

She forced herself to laugh.

“I…it…um, certainly looks real!”

“Try some,” Flegmat suggested.

“Huh?!”

“He specifically desired you devouring part of him,” Melanc explained. “Strange hedgehog, that one…”

“Well? You’ve got to sssee if he tassstes good!” Choler hissed.

Amy laughed off their comments, the mania in her voice escalating. “Very funny, guys! Very funny!! You’re all SO funny, I’m gonna die!!!”

Sanguin gripped her sore shoulder. “It’s what he wanted,” he said, gazing into her eyes.

Amy stared the leg up and down once more. Even when intoxicated, she couldn’t imagine it tasting good — it had to have just been skin and bones with only the leanest of meat scraps.

But if it’s that’s he wants…

Amy shook off her concerns. “I’m sure he’ll just…explain it all later!”

She opened her mouth, slowly brought Sonic’s leg to it, and bit down. With teeth as thick as hers, no resistance was met from her raw, chewy meat. She savored and sucked the porky flavor, pulled a chunk off, and chewed it fur and all.

“It’s…” she swallowed, recoiled, and gazed at her treat with newfound wonder. “It’s GOOD!”

Amy licked the exposed bone, turned it, and ate swiftly from the opposite side. Devouring the most delightful hedgehog’s meat came to her as naturally as drinking water. She already grew sad that this limited delicacy would soon run out.

The humors all watched in awe, beaming at the perfect gore before them.

Their precious rose had become their loyal hound.

All that was left was her grand finale.

Far below them, Shadow heard every smack of Amy’s lips. It made staring at Sonic’s gaping wound all the more nauseating.

“Sonic…!”

Sonic still breathed, but said nothing. His head remained dangling above the site of his wound.

Shadow crawled over to him and gripped his shoulders. “Sonic, look at me!”

Sonic didn’t budge.

“LOOK AT ME, DAMMIT!” Shadow turned Sonic’s face up. His eyes were no longer dead, but they were strained and reddened with agony straight from his heart.

Shadow’s demanding scowl withered away. His ears fell aside. Pity was all that he showed

Shadow opened his arms.

Sonic opened his.

Shadow pulled Sonic into a tight hug.

Shadow had never heard Sonic sob before. It made him desperate to kill something.