Chapter Text
"Shadow, run!"
"RUN!"
It went against every fiber of his being. He didn't run away. He wasn't a coward. He wanted to fight to his last breath to buy them just a little more time.
Except.
Except he wasn't going to stop fighting after his last breath, was he? Once the metal virus infection overwhelmed him he'd keep on going, except on the wrong side.
No. That was even more intolerable.
He refused to be Eggman's puppet once more. So even if everything within him was screaming to keep fighting he gathered his strength for one more spinning blast, breaking free of the clump of zombots trying to drag him down to become one of them.
He had to get away. If he stayed it would only make things worse. He had to get far enough away fast enough to keep from joining the attack on the truck full of survivors. He refused to be the reason their mission failed.
Shadow ran.
He blasted through zombots, finally getting enough height to skate up and over and then breaking free of the hoard. He just picked a direction away and ran. Every second bought them a little longer before he turned and lost his will to do anything but mindlessly attack the closest uninfected.
Except the seconds kept stretching out as he pushed himself to cover just a little more ground. He was warming, the exertion chasing away the unnatural coldness that had seeped through his fur and deep into his muscles and when he spared a glance the dull silver coating was shrinking away and then vanishing from his limbs. What was happening?
He slowed, trying to think, to remember. Sonic had been saying something, something about speed. He hadn't been paying much attention, still too angry that he'd let himself be talked into sparing the doctor. He should have done it anyway, let them be horrified. Let them think he was a monster. They'd all be capable of still hating him if he had.
Speed. That must have been what he was saying. That speed could push back the infection. Of course, that's why Sonic hadn't been overwhelmed yet.
He lifted his communicator to call Rouge. It connected almost immediately.
"What's the status of the truck?" Shadow demanded.
"You're not a zombot?" Rouge sounded equal parts surprised and relieved.
"Obviously, I'll come back and assist," Shadow said. As far as she and everyone else had to know, he'd run on purpose to push back the infection.
"No need, we're almost clear now, Omega and Sonic are buying us time."
Shadow clenched both fists at that. While he ran, Sonic had come back to finish what should have been his job. It was intolerable, but Rouge kept talking.
"You keep moving, if it starts to spread too far you accelerate until it's pushed back again. Touching an infected makes it spread faster. I'll contact the Restoration and see where we're needed next."
"Right." Shadow ended the call, not moving for a long moment. He could feel it even after his run, a cold almost numbness in his fingers that couldn't be entirely shaken off. This wasn't supposed to be possible, he was the Ultimate Lifeform! To be reduced to mindlessly running to keep from being taken over, the same way as that featherbrained idiot...
Shadow took a deep breath. He could still fight, that was the important part. And he had accomplished his task of not being another zombot for Omega to target. He would keep running.
Shadow rarely tried to rank how badly his worst times dealing with a crisis were, but this was certainly up there among the top few. Mostly he was bone deep tired of not being able to win, or even feel like he was accomplishing anything. Every moment the infection spread, claiming more lives. Every mission into a city or town or village measured success in a handful of lives saved and if they didn't lose anyone from the Restoration. He couldn't inflict any actual damage on the zombots, and even if they were too pathetic to hurt him physically each touch still accelerated his own infection. He longed for something he could actually destroy.
And then the Restoration HQ fell.
Rose contacted him, not Rouge, and he didn't ask why. There was nothing to do but help with the latest evacuation, buy time. Throw himself into the fray over and over and over again until the cold grew too deep and he knew he had to burn it off again. It felt pointless, but what else could he do? This was his purpose, after all. He couldn't just give up and let himself become someone else's problem.
Shadow ran.
Almost unconsciously he found his path drifting towards a blue streak echoing his gold. He didn't want to see him, he wanted to put a fist through his face and actually feel it break and stay broken. He wanted to ask if he'd finally admit he should have listened.
They were both stuck delaying the inevitable now.
He could feel the cold push back to just a few smaller patches. His fingers, a spot on his shoulder where a zombot had tried to bite him in the last attack, a splotch on his leg he couldn't remember which one had grabbed him or if it had been more than one then. Not as clear as he'd like, but acceptable as Sonic started slowing down and then came to a stop, leaning forward and bracing his hands against his legs.
He looked awful. Exhaustion weighed on him and the infected patches were bigger than Shadow's own, still clinging in large blotches to his quills and fur. He stood there trembling for a moment and then just pitched forward onto his knees with a soft thud. Bare dirt, Shadow noted, nothing to infect. Not that it seemed like it mattered much at this point.
"You need to get up," Shadow finally spoke. The longer he knelt there the more virus there would be to burn away to push it back to something more acceptable.
Sonic didn't answer and after a moment Shadow stepped closer to attempt to grab at his arm and just haul him up.
Sonic flinched at that, throwing himself backwards away from him, feet and hands scrabbling at the dirt to avoid the contact.
"Don't touch me! You'll..." Sonic trailed off, looking up with wide eyes.
"I'll what? What will happen?" Shadow demanded harshly. It had already happened, his body had failed him and let the virus take root.
Sonic didn't answer and Shadow reached down to grab again, this time he didn't resist, letting himself be pulled upright.
"I... heh, yeah. Kinda have to keep it automatic that I can't touch anyone else, my bad," Sonic managed, a pale imitation of his usual bravado. "Bet you don't have that problem. Normally I wouldn't envy that, but yeah. Lucky."
"I don't," Shadow said flatly.
He wasn't like Sonic. At best he didn't move away if someone else wanted to make contact, assuming they were tolerable. He didn't run around giving high fives or catching people up in hugs and all the other needless touching Sonic constantly and casually indulged in. If he had to grab someone for a rescue so be it, like he was doing now.
He still hadn't let go.
"We lost Tangle," Sonic said softly, so much so that he had to strain to hear it. "She was infected before I even got there, too slow. There's almost no one left. Tails was researching a cure, but... now that's gone too. And I can't... I can't... "
There was a lot Shadow wanted to say. It was Sonic's fault he was like this. In some ways it would have been easier to be a zombot already, but now that he could fight it he had to. Like Sonic still had to.
"When did you last sleep?" Shadow asked instead.
That startled something almost like a laugh out of Sonic.
"I don't even remember at this point, just a few minutes at a time. Can't sleep for long or it'll spread too much. Thankfully it feels bad enough it's hard to sleep though, you know?"
Shadow did, though he wasn't sure if he felt it the same way. It could be easier on him, it could be worse.
"Cold, not quite numb, like your body's dying." Shadow didn't really intend to say it out loud, but Sonic shivered at the words.
"Yeah, that," Sonic breathed out, and even just in the time they'd been speaking the patches had visibly spread. Not a lot yet, but enough. A ticking timer.
"You need to run," Shadow repeated.
"I'm supposed to be meeting the others on Angel Island, yeah. Just needed to get rid of as much of this as I can," Sonic didn't make any move to pull away yet. He looked so tired.
"You're pathetic," Shadow bit out. "I'm going to try something."
Sonic had just enough time to start to ask before Shadow was yanking him closer, getting him up in his arms. He would have preferred to sling him over a shoulder, but with Sonic's quills in the way holding him behind his back and under his knees was the least cumbersome position.
Sonic managed to stammer some sort of question that Shadow ignored, kicking himself up to speed.
The weight in his arms was nothing and after a few long moments he dared a glance down. It was working, the patches had visibly shrunk. Not as quickly as he'd like, but it was something.
"You're really going to carry me like this?" Sonic asked softly, but he was curling closer in his grip, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and clinging in a way that had Shadow suspecting wasn't any sort of worry for being dropped.
"Don't make me regret it," Shadow warned and got the smallest huff of laughter in response.
"You know, I was going to say it was ironic that the only person I can touch without it being tragic was the one person who'd never allow it."
Sonic's voice was soft and a little slurred, eyes drifting closed as he practically melted against him. Cheek nuzzling against his shoulder, body relaxed and curled against him, arm falling back limp to his own lap.
Shadow made sure he was secure in his arms and pushed himself to speed up just a little more, heading towards Angel Island.