Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Space was cold.

It probably should have been obvious- being up away from the midst of the planet's atmosphere meant there was less stuff to hold in the heat from the sun, which was funny, because there was also less stuff to protect them from the sun. Either way, going up to the ARK was similar to being in the frozen areas of the planet in terms of temperature, but there was just a void of absolute nothing instead of snow and the occasional wild animal.

This wasn't the first time Sonic had been into space. He'd hitched a ride on one or two of Eggman's rockets into the atmosphere before in order to destroy the Death Egg. This was, however, his first time seeing an abandoned space colony that had apparently been up in the planet's orbit for about fifty years.

"The first Bernoulli spherical space colony, called ARK," Tails said, tapping away at the display on the transformed Tornado walker. "At the time it was built, it was the center of innovation and the peak of technology. After a terrible accident aboard it was shut down and everyone evacuated."

"What kind of accident?" Amy asked. She swiped a finger along the dark hallway wall and frowned at the thick clod of dust that came off of it. "This place kind of gives me the creeps."

"I'm not sure. I think... yeah, it looks like some major life support systems are offline. We'll have to be careful while we look for the cannon's core." Tails passed the fake chaos emerald to Sonic, who gave him a thumbs up.

Amy shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "You know, I did a tarot reading on the way up before Knuckles messed with the controls."

Tails fiddled with his map to show Sonic some directions on where he was supposed to go. "You still do those? What did it say?"

"Something about a fateful encounter, danger, and new beginnings."

Sonic chuckled and tucked the false emerald into hammerspace. "Sounds like every adventure we have! Don't worry Amy, we'll stop Eggman and go home in no time."

They'd parted ways there, Tails and Amy looking for the ARK's power supply and Sonic searching for the control room. Something they didn't account for was entire parts of the ARK being exploded and rooms that looked normal on Tails's map leading straight out into open space. Sonic ended up somewhere he didn't recognize from the map while avoiding being sucked out with a lack of artificial atmosphere.

It looked a lot like some sort of research lab; tubes extended from the floor to the ceiling and cords lay scattered around attaching machines to other machines and those machines to some things that looked like computers. Sonic wasn't really sure what he was looking at from one end to the other.

What he could tell was the one machine standing slightly off-center in the back of the room looked different from the others. It was some sort of pod-like device with a softly glowing green interface on the side and a glass top that was covered in a thick layer of dust. The fact that it was on caught Sonic's attention immediately; according to Tails, most of the ARK was shut off and on the lowest functioning settings possible, and the area leading to this room and even most of the room itself was also powered off.

So why was this one machine still on?

Sonic approached it carefully and peered at the screen. It was a bunch of- numbers? The screen was cracked and had a rusty brown stain on it that Sonic wasn't really willing to touch (with a scientist's lab, who knew what that was) in order to actually be able to read the rest of the information displayed.

"I'll just... make a note of this and tell Tails about it later," Sonic muttered, turning to leave. He was timed here.

His foot caught one of the thick cables on the floor, yanking it straight out of the pod-thing with the weight of his body as he tripped.

An alarm in the pod-thing immediately began to blare. Sonic frantically de-tangled himself and leapt to his feet in time to watch the green interface switch to a red color and a harsh puff of absolutely frigid air come steaming out of the edges of the pod where the glass met the metal. The latches on the edges of the pod popped open and the lid raised up on an automatic spring, which caught on something about halfway.

In the dim light Sonic saw a black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills, arms and legs strapped down inside, a light layer of frost blanketing his fur. The metal restraints pinged open, and the hedgehog tumbled out limply, smacking into the glass top and crumpling to the floor in a heap.

Sonic only stared for a split second before he moved, lunging forward and pulling the crumpled hedgehog away from the pod. The guy was breathing, but it was so faint that Sonic almost couldn't tell it was happening at all.

"Sonic! Where are you?"

He almost jumped all the way to the ceiling from the sudden sound of Tails's voice. Now that the hedgehog was out of the pod the alarms had stopped blaring, and compared to the otherwise quiet room Tails was practically shouting in his ear.

Sonic pressed a hand to his heart and took a breath before answering his communicator. "I, uh, ran into a small problem."

"Problem?"

"Uh, yeah, I got lost and- didn't you say this place was evacuated?"

"The records I found said everyone was evacuated, yeah. Did you find something?"

Sonic looked down at the hedgehog on the floor. "You could say that. I uh, I found this pod that was still active and was planning on leaving it alone, but then I tripped and unplugged something and it spat out a frozen person."

"A pers-" Tails gasped on the other side. "Are- are they- I'm so sorry Sonic, but we have to hurry, we can collect the b-body later-"

"He's still alive." Sonic double checked the hedgehog's breathing. Yup, definitely alive.

Tails was silent on the other end. Sonic glanced at his communicator and frowned. His little brother certainly had a point- they were timed and he was wasting precious seconds as it was, but at the same time Sonic couldn't just leave an entire person unconscious on the floor of some lab with who-knows-what staining the floor and walls and a questionable amount of atmosphere. The hedgehog was already covered in frost, and space was cold.

"I'll just take him with me," Sonic decided, shifting awkwardly so he could heft the unconscious stranger onto his back. He shivered a little as the cold fur touched his own, but now he could feel the black hedgehog's faint heartbeat on his back. It was reassuring, somehow, having a reminder that he wasn't the only living thing in the emotionless steel of the ARK and the unforgiving coldness of space.

"Are you sure?" came the sound of Tails's anxious voice. "If you mark your location I could go there with the Tornado and put him in the passenger seat while you run to the control room."

Sonic was already moving. He looked both ways down the hallway and tried to remember his way out. "I'm a bit lost as is, Tails. You're right, we're losing time. Just focus on the power supply and keeping Amy safe. I got this."

"You're lost?"

"Yeah, the main corridor was all broken. Nothin' but open space. I took a detour somewhere and ended up in a lab of some kind. I'm not sure where the control room is from here."

"You should have a map in your communicator. I pulled down the schematics of the ARK."

Sonic suddenly felt very dumb. He grinned sheepishly and checked his communicator, shortly pulling up the map Tails mentioned. His eyes trailed over the quickest path he might need and he hitched the snoozing stranger higher on his back before setting off. "Tails, you are a life saver. I'm on my way!"

"Be careful..."

A grin appeared on Sonic's face. He ran as fast as he dared to without jostling his passenger too much, though he occasionally had to pause and check his map again to be sure he was going the right way. After a little while of searching he came across a split path and paused to check his map.

"Control room is..." he muttered.

"...eft..."

Sonic startled and scrambled to keep a hold on the strange hedgehog. He looked around wildly before glancing at his shoulder where the hedgehog's head was resting limply. The stranger's eyes were fluttering weakly as if he was struggling to be conscious.

"Left?" Sonic asked. "But that doesn't lead to the control room. Right is the more direct path, isn't it?"

The black hedgehog shifted his head, barely able to shake it before going limp again. "Charges... blew up. G' lef..."

Sonic glanced between his charge and the hallways. Tails's map didn't account for the blown up bits, and he was on a timed schedule...

He shifted the hedgehog a little higher on his back and nodded. "Okay. Left it is."

Hurrying his way down the hallway and occasionally checking his map, Sonic did notice outside the window of the nearest room the entire section of missing material where the other pathway should have been. He let out a low whistle at the lack of material and briefly wondered just what sort of science would require needing explosives aboard a space station. Wasn't blowing up the walls keeping air inside the building floating in a void of nothing kind of important?

"...Go right."

Sonic picked up the pace a little with a small grin. "Thanks. This place is a maze, huh?"

"Lef' at th'..."

The hedgehog went silent again. Sonic paused in his running to check on him and found that he seemed to have fallen back into a state of unconsciousness, breathing softly against Sonic's shoulder. Sonic wasn't sure whether or not to be worried, but he didn't exactly have the time to be overly concerned since the guy was still breathing. He looked forward and kept running.

The directions had helped quite a bit, however. Sonic seemed to have avoided a large chunk of the destroyed section of the space colony. Now he was somewhere that looked more like the residential side of the ARK, where there was less destruction and a clearer path to the control room.

The downside was that there was no power here at all. It was all dark. Sonic had to force multiple doors open in order to proceed, even having to set the black and red hedgehog down once or twice. Still, he felt like he reached the control room much faster than if he'd had to ride some of the service rails out in the vacuum until he found a door back to the interior again.

And he did make it to the control room pretty shortly afterwards, gently sliding the black hedgehog off his shoulder and onto the floor, laying him down in the recovery position just in case he had actually passed out and not just fallen asleep. Sonic checked his communicator and rang Tails while resting a hand over the dude's wrist to check his pulse. The heartbeat was so, so slow. Sonic's own heart usually ran ridiculously fast, so he wasn't really sure if he had a good frame of reference, but he was pretty sure a normal person's heart wasn't slower than 40 beats per minute.

"Sonic?"

"I'm at the control room," Sonic replied. He stood up and stretched, withdrawing the fake chaos emerald and tossing it gently up and down. "Ready to blow this popsicle stand?"

The ARK was certainly cold enough to be a freezer. Sonic eyed the black hedgehog and mentally nicknamed him Popsicle. Popsicle found in a freezer.

Was that mean? It probably wasn't his fault he was stuck in an icy cold pod for... however long it had been.

"Great timing! We're at the power core!"

There was the brief sound of explosions over the communicator. Sonic chuckled; he could just see Tails controlling the Tornado in its transformed state, skillfully driving it and firing tiny rockets that were far more devastating than normal bullets at some machinery while Amy rained down destruction with her piko piko hammer. He had some awesome friends.

The lights in the control room flickered and the sounds of explosions died out from the communicator, quickly replaced by Tails's eager voice. "We're done on our end! Just pop the emerald in the-"

Sonic stiffened. A static noise crackled out of the device before laughter he desperately didn't want to hear right now rang out.

"Sonic! Amy is-"

"Huahahahaha! Sonic! If you value the lives of your little friends, you'll bring me that chaos emerald now!"

"Eggman! What did you do!?" Sonic yelled, the communicator clutched in a death grip. Behind him the black hedgehog shifted and opened his eyes and blinked blearily around at where they were, but Sonic was too absorbed in the sound of Eggman's voice to pay attention. "Tails!"

"Come to the research lab! If you don't, you can kiss seeing your little girlfriend alive goodbye!"

Sonic clutched the fake emerald tight. He spun around and bolted from the room in a blur of blue. The room was left in silence for a moment before he zipped back, suddenly remembering oh yeah there was another dude there?? Shouldn't he check on him super quick!? and tripped over himself on seeing the hedgehog giving him an absolutely baffled look. He splatted rather ungracefully on the floor face first.

The black hedgehog stared at him with a confused expression. Sonic lifted his head, quills all mussed up from the way he crash landed, and squinted back before grinning.

"You're awake again! Listen, uh, this is kind of an urgent situation, but there's a cannon that's going to be fired and an evil genius trying to fire it and he's kinda got my friends and I need to go save them, so are you okay staying here for a bit? I'll come back as soon as I can and we can get you a blanket and some proper medical care or whatever else you need because being stuck in a pod like that must have really sucked."

The hedgehog's expression morphed from confused to baffled, slightly shocked, then just back to confused again. It was almost amazing how much emotion he showed while being mostly stoic and still looking half asleep. After a moment he slowly nodded, and Sonic leapt to his feet.

He paused before running off again, then spun and pressed his communicator into the hedgehog's hand.

"My friends each have one of these," Sonic said. "If- I dunno, something explodes, or a big guy with a huge mustache and a creepy laugh comes in here, just send us a message and we'll come right to you, okay? Be right back!"

And he ran off to go save his friends, leaving behind one very, very confused black hedgehog looking down at the communicator.

Chapter Text

Shadow wasn't really sure what was going on. His memories were a little hazy, likely due to the time he spent in stasis, but he was pretty sure he was locked away for- something. Something?

He vaguely remembered... alarms. They were prepared for the alarms, and for the G.U.N. soldiers that stormed, and the deathly silence while he was being loaded into the stasis pod and the face of the scientist just before the gun was turned on her-

And then he was waking up being held. Carried while someone ran and checked directions on a holographic map.

It was... difficult to wake up. Shadow felt so tired. It reminded him dimly of a time he'd been drained of chaos energy and left without his inhibitors for testing. He hadn't been able to wake up then, either, no matter how much Maria tried to feed him coffee stolen from Gerald's secret stash.

"Control room is..."

He responded automatically through the haze.

"...eft..."

The warm presence holding him jumped a little. Shadow's eyes flickered as he struggled to stay awake. The world had no colors, just shapes and temperatures.

"Left? But that doesn't lead to the control room. Right is the more direct path, isn't it?"

Didn't they know? He shifted his head and tried to shake it. "Charges... blew up. G' lef..."

For a second he thought he'd fallen asleep again. But then the warm presence shifted their hold on him and began moving again. Shadow did his best to try and wake up to offer directions. The control room meant they could see most of the ARK's infrastructure and processes, so if someone was carrying him there, they had to be doing it for a reason.

Then the stranger seemed to catch sight of part of the ARK that was blown up and let out an awed whistle.

"...Go right."

"Thanks. This place is a maze, huh?"

The statement struck Shadow as a little odd, but he couldn't fathom why. His mind was already slipping back into the haze. He had to tell the warm presence to go left, but...

Then he was in the control room, mind clearing up much easier this time. He blinked his eyes open and focused as the world properly came into view with all its colors and details, pushing himself up from the recovery position he'd been laid down in. There was a strong buzzing of power nearby, and his eyes trailed up to the computer tower where six out of seven chaos emeralds were locked into place.

A small jolt of fear ran through his limbs. The only reason for them to be there was for...

Was... for...?

He finally caught on to the fact that there were voices. Shadow turned his head to see a hedgehog just like him, but blue, staring with wide and panicked eyes at a device in his hand.

"Tails!"

"Come to the research lab! If you don't, you can kiss seeing your little girlfriend alive goodbye!"

And then Blue was gone, leaving a blurred trail behind him at speeds Shadow had only ever seen from himself. He stared in shock and almost wondered if he wasn't the only experiment aboard- and then Blue came back and planted his face in the floor right next to Shadow with a resounding splat.

...Yeah, no. There was no way that was another experiment.

Blue squinted up at him and grinned widely, then started talking at 30 miles per hour.

"You're awake again! Listen, uh, this is kind of an urgent situation, but there's a cannon that's going to be fired and an evil genius trying to fire it and he's kinda got my friends and I need to go save them, so are you okay staying here for a bit? I'll come back as soon as I can and we can get you a blanket and some proper medical care or whatever else you need because being stuck in a pod like that must have really sucked."

Shadow stared.

Was he... okay staying here?

The only people who ever asked about how he felt were Maria, Gerald, and one or two of the scientists that were more sympathetic towards him.

He nodded, and Blue leapt up and took one of Shadow's hands, pressing the device he'd been holding into Shadow's palm.

"My friends each have one of these. If- I dunno, something explodes, or a big guy with a huge mustache and a creepy laugh comes in here, just send us a message and we'll come right to you, okay? Be right back!"

And Blue ran off, leaving him there to stare and collect himself.

His memories were clouded from sleep, but they were slowly returning the more he sat and breathed. Shadow looked up at the chaos emeralds and struggled to his feet. He reached out and plucked one from the core, holding it close to his chest and drawing in power. The energy from the emerald plunged him into wakefulness, and he staggered from the sheer force of it, leaning on the control panel with a sharp gasp.

He took a second to recover, then pushed himself to a standing position and pulled up the computer's interface. He drew up logs from the last time the cannon had been fired and frowned at the image of a partially destroyed moon. The cannon was set to fire again in mere hours, still aimed at the moon.

It only took a few presses of the keys to shut the cannon down and change all of the security passwords. Glancing down at the device Blue had left with him, Shadow leaned on the control panel, then began diverting power to the security cameras to bring them back online.

The voice said to come to the research lab, didn't it?

He managed to pull up video feeds in time to see a man who looked a lot like the professor did, if the professor had let himself get portly and was slightly younger, sitting in a mech of some kind and pointing a gun at a small pink hedgehog that was stuck in a trap of some kind. Also in the room was a little fox in a blue, distinctly more aerodynamic mech, and then Blue strode into the room. Shadow swiftly pulled some keys and turned up the volume. He needed to hear this.

"Aha! There you are, Sonic," the man in the mech said, and Shadow mentally changed his nickname for the stranger from Blue to his proper name. "If you want your little friend to live, you'll place the chaos emerald in the center of the room and back off!"

"So that's the 'evil genius?'" Shadow mumbled. The man certainly talked like one, that was for sure...

Sonic and the little fox nodded at each other. Sonic approached the middle of the room with a cocky strut. "You've turned into a big time villain, doctor!"

Shadow saw the trap before it was sprung. The "doctor" pressed a button and Sonic was suddenly trapped in an escape pod, hands brought close to his chest in a flinch. The look on the pink hedgehog's face went from hopeful to horrified in a heartbeat.

"You thought you could trick me with that fake emerald?" the doctor laughed. "I've rigged this escape pod to explode! The moment it's free from the ARK's artificial gravity, it's good bye forever!"

Shadow ignored the man's ramblings and ran a quick energy diagnostic on the room. Sure enough, the computer picked up not one, but two chaos emeralds. His eyes flicked up to the five emeralds still in the control console, then down to the room where Sonic was telling the other two to take care of themselves. He peered closer at the screen and noted their wide eyes and just how young they looked.

A flash of worried blue eyes before she was evacuated flew past his sight. Shadow was moving before his brain caught up, pulling the other five emeralds out of their sockets and spinning them rapidly around him. He focused down on the screen as Sonic was ejected out of the ARK.

"Goodbye, Sonic!"

"Not today," Shadow said. "Chaos control!"

The familiar energy rush was exhilarating. Shadow appeared in the rapidly descending escape pod next to Sonic and had to take a second to breathe as his vision was suddenly swamped with all the power he was able to tap into at the moment. Sonic jumped at his sudden arrival with a startled yelp.

"You? How did you-"

Shadow snatched his hand and glanced at the timer attached to the bomb on the floor. He focused back on the control room instead and pulled the chaos energy swirling around back into himself again.

"Chaos control!"

They appeared back in the control room. Shadow stumbled again, once more flooded with power from not just one, but six emeralds, and fought for control. He felt Blue- Sonic's hands steadying him as he forced the energy to flow properly. His vision slowly started to clear, Sonic's words coming back into focus through the static like tuning an old radio.

"-was that? I've seen speeds faster than sound, but that was downright, like, teleportation! Jeez, you're really shaking. Buddy, are you okay?"

Shaking? Shadow looked down at his hands and clenched them, pushing himself off of Sonic's shoulder. He shook his head and moved to the screen, pointing Sonic to where the little fox could be seen shooting the hell out of the doctor's mech.

"Your friends," he said flatly.

Sonic looked down at it and bit his lip. Then he looked up at the control room and startled. "Wait, the cannon countdown- the emeralds-"

"I deactivated it." Shadow let the chaos emeralds float around him in a lazy circle again and momentarily let himself be mesmerized from the colors shining off of their facets. "All of the passwords for activating it again have been changed. I'm the only one who knows them now."

Sonic stared hard at him for a moment, his eyes flicking to the emeralds. Shadow watched him back and wondered what he would do with a slightly bitter smile.

Then Sonic grinned, catching him completely off guard. The blue hedgehog thrust out his hand, palm open and green eyes glittering in a friendly manner.

"I'm Sonic! Sonic the hedgehog!"

Shadow looked at his hand and slowly reached out to shake it. "...Shadow."

Sonic's grip was firm and tight. He shook Shadow's hand energetically and turned to look at the screen to see how his friends were doing, oblivious to how Shadow looked at his own hand as if seeing it for the first time.

"We were in such a hurry because of the cannon countdown. I was planning on blowing it up with this fake chaos emerald, but..." Sonic threw Shadow a wink. "You kind of took the wind outta my sails with that!"

Blowing up the cannon would be... bad. But Shadow couldn't remember why, not right now.

He shook his head instead and folded his arms. "What about your friends?"

"Looks like Tails has ol' Eggman on lockdown. With the cannon out of order and Egghead locked out of the systems, I think all we need to do now is go home! ...You're right though, I should go let them know I'm not dead."

"Egg...head..." Shadow tilted his head. "Wait- that's it? You were only here to stop the cannon from firing?"

Sonic's smile was still bright, but it faltered slightly on seeing Shadow's confusion. "Yeah? Well- no, we also had to stop Eggman from gathering all the chaos emeralds. He was using the cannon to try and take over the planet again. ...Is there... something wrong?"

Did Sonic really not know who what he was? Why was he released then?

...Did Sonic just see him as another normal person?

Shadow shook his head. When he'd pulled up the cameras, he was able to see the current date on the computer system. He still had at least a year until they came.

A normal person... he could work with this.

"No. Go check your friends."

Sonic took two steps towards the door and stopped, looking back over his shoulder. Shadow raised an eyebrow back at him and tapped his finger on his elbow.

"What about you?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not going anywhere." Shadow gestured at the control panel. "I... have some questions that need answered." He paused, giving Sonic a meaningful look. "We can talk when there aren't children fighting your enemy."

Sonic's grin was particularly annoying. "Aw, are you worried about them already? You haven't even met them!"

"Sonic go look after the children or I will strangle you."

"Okay okay I'm going! I'll be back!"

Shadow looked down at his hand and dimly remembered the communicator. He held it out to the blue hedgehog with a slight frown. "Take this with you. I can use the ARK's intercoms to talk to you from here if need be."

"Oh, sweet!" Sonic took the device back and gave him a little wave, then ran off in a blur of blue.

Shadow shook his head and turned back to the console. Keeping one eye on the screen where it looked like the little fox- Tails?- had destroyed the doctor's mech and was now working on releasing the pink hedgehog from her trap, he began pulling up security camera footage to watch Sonic's progress on one screen while looking through news articles for records of what happened to the residents on the ARK.

He was still letting it sink in that 50 years had passed.

G.U.N. had locked him up and thrown away the key. There were multiple articles about an "accident" happening aboard that caused an evacuation of everyone on board, which... wasn't entirely a lie. Not everyone had evacuated, and pieces of the ARK blowing up was completely on purpose. Other than those few articles, however, it looked like the ARK was mostly not known about--

Well, up until the news feeds of Sonic's "Eggman" character firing the eclipse cannon at the moon. It turned out Maria's baby cousin was the world dominating type. Now pretty much the entire world knew about it, meaning there was a chance G.U.N. would suddenly remember Shadow existed.

He gritted his teeth. The chaos emeralds flared in response, and Shadow quickly forced himself to take a few deep breaths. He turned his gaze to the camera feed and watched Sonic have a teary reunion with his friends, focusing his attention on the relieved smiles on their faces instead of his own anger. To Shadow's surprise, a fifth person entered the room- a red echidna, who immediately got bombarded with questions about a space shuttle and commentary about bad driving habits.

Eggman was largely ignored by the group and slipped away with their last chaos emerald. Shadow wasn't sure if it was the real one or the fake, but he knew letting the man go was a bad idea.

With a small, mischievous grin, he began to lock doors down in Eggman's way and turned on the ARK's comm systems.

Maria had taught him a multitude of ways to prank people. One of those ways was using a voice modulation program someone had jokingly downloaded onto the ARK's systems despite it being a research facility. The two of them even once used it to prank Gerald by setting it up to sound like a chipmunk had gotten on board and was running in the vents.

Chuckling at the thought, Shadow pulled out the console's microphone and pressed the "ON" button.

Chapter Text

"Wait, so- some guy you randomly met teleported you out of an escape pod Eggman rigged to explode?" Knuckles asked. He'd been momentarily confused on walking into the room and seeing Tails and Amy sobbing while squishing Sonic tightly between them, but after a quick explanation was now following them back towards the control room.

"Yeah, it was like nothing I've seen before. Here I am trying to remember which wire does what with Eggman's bombs and trying to think fast and then I feel this buzzing sensation and the guy just." Sonic mimicked Shadow's stance and dropped his voice an octave. "Chaos... control! And we're back in the control room."

"Chaos control..."

"I'm so glad he did!" Amy said, still stuck to Sonic's side. "We thought.... We thought you were gone!"

Tails nodded vehemently, tears still lingering in his eyes. Sonic smiled and pulled both of them into a hug.

"Don't worry guys. I'm hard to get rid of!"

"You can say that again," Knuckles grumbled. The little group laughed and Sonic released Amy and Tails. "So what's this 'Shadow' guy like?"

Sonic opened his mouth to reply, but before he could the ARK's intercoms crackled to life and a soft tapping sound played through the speakers. Sonic and his friends stopped walking, ears perked as the tapping stopped and the squeakiest voice any of them had heard in a while started talking in a long, drawn out manner.

"Planet-dwellers... harken to my words."

Sonic covered his mouth with one hand to stifle his laughter. There was no way he was going to be able to take this seriously.

"I am the ghost of the ARK. You who tresspass upon the walls of my home... begone! You are not welcome here!"

Tails, Amy and Knuckles all quirked their eyebrows at Sonic. The blue hedgehog was doubled over and wheezing, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. This was probably one of the last things he was expecting Shadow to pull from their brief interactions, but if this was how he was going to get Eggman off the ARK, Sonic was all for it. Knuckles, however, was actively groaning and seemed to be taking this seriously.

"More ghosts?" the echidna groaned. "I thought I was done with them after the mines and Egghead's base!"

This made Sonic laugh even harder. Knuckles glared at him, but Sonic just weakly reached for his shoulder and gasped for breath.

"Knux. K-Knuckles. That's nothehehe that's not a ghost. Hehe, that's Shadow!"

"I thought you said his voice was deeper?"

"It is!"

Tails piped up. "He might be using a voice modulator. Sonic, we still need to go to the control room and make sure Eggman is fully locked out..."

Sonic nodded and wiped away his tears. "You're right. Let's get going."

Shadow continued to make very menacing comments through the intercom speakers in a very not-threatening manner as they walked. Even Knuckles was starting to smirk by the time they made it to the control room. Shortly before they arrived it was becoming clear Shadow was specifically talking to Eggman, but it was when they walked into the room hosting the precarious walkway and central computer that they heard the real gem.

"You dare doubt the power of Captain Reginald Alexander Peregrine Fiddlesticks the third!?" Shadow yelled into a microphone, then threw a couple of switches. In front of him they all saw the security screen showing Eggman and his beat up mech fighting against the leftover security robots. In response to the switches Shadow threw, Eggman's mech began floating in zero gravity and the lights in the room flickered different colors.

Shadow took half a step back from the intercom button and covered his very red face with both hands. He hadn't noticed Sonic's posse standing behind him yet.

"This is so stupid," he said quietly to the room. "This is stupid. This is so very very stupid. Why did I hit the squeaky mode? Ugh..."

"Captain what!?" Sonic was downright sobbing with laughter now.

Shadow whirled around to face them, his face going from red to purple as he gaped at Sonic. "Wh- y- I- listen-"

"Oh yeah, I'm listening." Sonic leaned on Tails's arm and grinned back. Tails and Amy were trying to hide their smiles and failing while Knuckles was quietly chuckling. "Do tell, oh so powerful ghost of the ARK!"

Shadow coughed into his fist. "You left the doctor with one of the chaos emeralds. I had to distract him somehow."

Tails startled and checked himself. Sure enough, he didn't have the emerald. A quick look at Sonic confirmed that they only had the fake one with them. Sonic zipped up to stand next to Shadow and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"He'll be busy for a second. Guys, this is Shadow! He's- hey, you're still shaking an awful lot."

Shadow pushed him off, looking Amy and Tails up and down. He turned to the center console and reached underneath it, withdrawing a first aid kit and popping it open. Sonic peered over his shoulder as he checked the tubes and bandages before closing the kit and tossing it at Tails. "Catch."

Tails scrambled to catch the kit and peeked inside with a small gasp. "O-oh! Uh-"

"Use just enough of the blue one to cover the scratches. It's a topical antisceptic and painkiller."

"-Oh! Okay. Yeah."

"No, really, Shadow, you're shaking like crazy. Are you okay?"

Shadow looked at the security feed and reached for the microphone. "Hold that thought." He pressed a few more switches and tossed some more security systems Eggman's way, then pulled up a map of the ARK. "It looks like... he's heading for the transporter room."

"Transporter?" Tails was suddenly at Shadow's side.

To his credit, Shadow didn't jump. He flat out vanished instead, suddenly appearing on the other side of the central console and momentarily losing his balance on the edge. Sonic zipped over immediately to grab his hand with a startled shout while Tails froze in place.

"What-" Knuckles rubbed his eyes. "Was that- chaos control?"

"I-I'm so sorry-" Tails cried, pulling his namesake close and holding it. "I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's-" Shadow took a deep breath and refused to acknowledge the fact that he was actively clinging to Sonic's hand as a non-shaking lifeline. "It's fine. I'm currently holding the chaos emeralds that were in the console."

"Oh- oh! Six chaos emeralds would be very responsive to the person holding them, wouldn't they?"

Shadow let out a small puff of air. He let Sonic walk him back around to the others before his legs finally gave out from underneath him, forcing him to stumble to his knees. Sonic partially caught him, but one of his kneecaps still smacked against the center console. Amy jumped to Shadow's other side and helped to force him into a sitting position.

"Tails, do you have that emergency blanket in the back of the Tornado still?" she asked, eyeing the way Shadow was violently shivering.

"You keep an emergency blanket in a mech?" Shadow muttered.

"It transforms from a plane," Tails replied, already digging in the mech for his own first aid kit. "Knuckles, what's Eggman doing?"

"Uhhh... he vanished off the map. I don't think he's on the ARK anymore."

Shadow reached up for the console to try and stand, but was forced to stay sitting by Amy and Sonic. "Send the ARK security systems to blow up the transporter. If it's locked down he can- do you mind?"

Amy fixed him with a glare. Shadow would have glared back, but the way he was shivering and curling in on himself made it look closer to a pout instead. "You stay put, mister. You're obviously not doing well."

"I'm fine!" Shadow protested. Tails handed Sonic the mylar blanket and when Sonic wrapped it around him and he shrunk into it and huddled down.

Amy snorted. "Sure you are. Geez, what happened to you? You're practically skin and bones..."

Shadow looked at Sonic. Amy and Knuckles also looked at Sonic while Tails got to work on examining the control console. Sonic rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

"I uh, tripped over a really thick cord to a pod thing and he fell out of it." Sonic grinned awkwardly. "He was covered in frost and super cold."

"Wait, you tripped over the stasis pod?" Shadow demanded incredulously. "You- you let me out on accident?"

Sonic and his crew blinked at Shadow's outburst. Sonic sat down by the shivering hedgehog with a small uncertain grin. "Uh... yeah. Was... I not supposed to?"

Shadow stared at him for a moment before turning to Amy. "Please tell me you all at least know this facility was shut down for a reason."

Amy faltered slightly at being put on the spot and looked to Tails for help. "Well- it was- shut down for... because of an accident, right? With... the life... support?"

"The official report by G.U.N. was that there was an accident on board and life support systems in critical areas failed, so everyone had to be evacuated." Tails peeped his head around the console. "I got some of the remaining drones to unplug the transporter, sir. It's no longer operational."

None of them missed the way Shadow started at being called "sir," but he did visibly relax at the rest of Tails's words, slumping against the console and suddenly looking much smaller. It was as if the urgency of Eggman being aboard the ARK was most of what was driving him; now that the danger was gone the adrenaline rush left, leaving him to deal with the impending crash afterwards. He summoned the chaos emeralds, ignoring the gasps from Amy, Tails and Knuckles, and sent them to float around Sonic instead.

"It's best if you all leave the ARK as well," Shadow rasped out. "This... isn't a place for children."

"Children?" Knuckles scoffed. "Amy alone could break half of this place into pieces, and you don't look any older than we are! ...He is right though. I don't like leaving Angel Island stuck in the water for this long."

"I'm just shutting down most of the processes needed for power where it's not necessary, and then we can go." Tails tapped away at the keyboard and hesitated when a password prompt appeared on the screen. "Is there a password I need to put in?"

Shadow squirmed to try and get to his feet. He managed to get part of the way up before his body failed him, and he would have planted his face right into the floor if it weren't for Sonic and Amy catching him. The dark hedgehog let out an annoyed huff and tried to push off of them to use the console as a crutch instead, but Amy and Sonic weren't having it. They nodded at each other and carried him over between them. Tails scooted aside and Shadow typed in the password with one hand. The lights in the control room dimmed slightly and the ones in the hallway outside turned off entirely, leaving only emergency light strips showing where the walkways were.

"The ARK has many solar panels for storing energy," Shadow told Tails. He slumped back against Sonic again and was eased back onto the floor. "It will... ugh, be fine... for..."

His head flopped forward. Amy peeked around at his face and put a hand on the side of his head.

"...He fainted."

Sonic frowned and looked around. "Tails, there's room in the Tornado for one more, right? I don't feel good leaving him here."

The little fox was already digging around in the mech. "Yeah, if I adjust a spot here or there- and I think I have a second blanket we can use to cushion his head. I'll just have to drive carefully so we don't jostle him too much."

"I trust ya, lil buddy!"

Between the three of them, Sonic, Amy and Tails were able to maneuver Shadow into the Tornado behind Tails's driver seat, nestling him into the back and wrapping him up tight like a hedgehog burrito with the emergency blankets. Once they had him settled and Tails had him buckled in they did one last check around the ARK and began heading back to the shuttle. Tails pestered Sonic for more details about the room he found Shadow in, and they ended up making a pit stop in the room in question.

"This is the stasis pod?" Tails hopped out of the Tornado and peered at the flashing red display. Knuckles also peeked at it, then gently pulled Tails away before swiping his thumb over the brown rusted substance on the screen.

"This is blood," he said grimly. "It's really old, but this is definitely blood."

"It- what?" Sonic scooted closer to watch Knuckles rub the dried material off of his glove. "Why would blood be on the outside of the pod?"

Tails ducked under Knuckles's arm and tapped away at the display. "Heart rate readings, vitals... it looks like a cryostasis pod for suspended animation. Activation date was-"

His tails started drooping to the floor. Amy fidgeted and wrung her hands.

"Tails?"

"Fifty years ago..." Tails looked at Knuckles worriedly. "It's no wonder he's in a bad state. Shadow's been locked up here since the ARK was shut down. The date on this pod is about a week after the initial evacuation of everyone on board."

"Fifty years... frozen? How does that work?" Amy looked at the Tornado and bit her lip. "And... why wasn't he evacuated too?"

Knuckles had pulled a flashlight from the Tornado's cockpit and was investigating the cables. There was a clear stain originating from a point just in front of the pod, and with the additional light it could be seen splattering over the pod itself while the pod was fully shut. He turned off the light and pulled Tails and Amy back towards the Tornado.

"We're leaving."

"Wait, I'm not done-" Tails protested.

"For once Knucklehead and I agree on something." Sonic patted the small fox on the head and gave him a gentle shove. "Let's go home."

Chapter Text

Shadow slept through the entire ride down to the planet. He didn't so much as twitch when Sonic pulled him out of the Tornado to put him in a shuttle seat, nor did he react at all to the rocket reentering the atmosphere. His shivering did abate with time spent wrapped up in the mylar blanket, however.

Sonic spent the ride back playing with the chaos emeralds.

He couldn't get the way Shadow made them spin around himself out of his head. Shadow did it so effortlessly with just a flick of his hand, if he moved his hands at all. The chaos emeralds reacted to him even when he wasn't actively trying to use them, as was evident from Tails accidentally startling the guy into thin air. Sonic was absolutely certain Shadow hadn't so much as thought about teleporting in that split second.

It had just... happened.

Sonic had made the chaos emeralds float around himself before, but it was usually with all seven and almost always right before he'd gone super. He never thought about the process to make them float before or why they did it. The chaos emeralds just floated, Sonic turned super, and afterwards they all scattered. That was just how it worked.

The chaos emeralds were mysterious. Tails and Knuckles could use them to go super, or even hyper, or whatever the glowy state was. Sonic didn't know if Amy could as well, but he was sure she could if she tried. He knew they could be used for so much more than just power sources or making wishes come true- Eggman had proved that time and time again, and Sonic himself had done outlandish things when in a superpowered state. But that was just it- he'd always used them to prevent a disaster in a spurt of bombastic power and hadn't ever had the time to think about what he was doing because the situation was dire.

Shadow may not have intended to do so, but he taught Sonic something new.

Sonic's eyes had been opened to using the chaos emeralds in little ways. Playful ways. He hadn't thought about using them for anything small before Shadow's effortless display.

He wanted to try it out.

The ride from the ARK back down to the planet gave him a few hours to play around. It took a lot of toying with the emeralds and trying to remember how it felt to use the energies inside of them for him to get anything out of them, especially as he really wasn't trying to do anything destructive. The shuttle was already damaged from Knuckles's failed attempt at commandeering the steering lever and they really didn't need a second crash landing in full gravity. When Sonic managed to get one of the emeralds to glow about halfway through the trip he was content enough to call that a win.

Knuckles came over and sat next to him, crossing his arms. Sonic cast him a smirk and elbowed his arm good naturedly.

"Not so keen to almost kill us all this time?"

Knuckles glared and shoved him back. "The Master Emerald shards were flying into space! I had to- argh!" He threw his hands in the air.

Sonic chuckled and patted his shoulder. "Yeah yeah, we get it. No hard feelings, Knuckles. Did you manage to get all the shards back?"

"Ugh. Yes, no thanks to that bat girl. The Master Emerald is fully restored, so I just need to put it back where it belongs."

"Bat girl, huh?" Sonic leaned back on his hand and toyed with one of the chaos emeralds, rolling it around in his palm. "This has been kind of a crazy trip, hasn't it? It hasn't even been that long since the whole Chaos shebang and then Egghead finds a cannon, the Master Emerald is shattered again, someone tries to steal the shards, and now we're coming back with a space hedgehog that might have hypothermia."

"I don't think it's hypothermia."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "You don't? He was literally covered in frost. Ice in his fur."

Knuckles huffed. "Sometimes I forget you're oblivious. You know about chaos energy, right?"

"The stuff that comes from the emeralds?"

"It's more than that." Knuckles reached out and grabbed a chaos emerald. Sonic's eyes widened as he made it softly glow.

"Wait- how did you- I've been sitting here trying to make them do that for hours!"

"Hah!" Knuckles smirked at him, but then it eased off into something a little bit softer. "Sonic, you're one of the most natural users of chaos energy I've seen. You just need a little training."

Sonic cast him a side eye and tried to make the emerald he was holding glow again. It was easier this time, and he let out an excited whoop as the emerald floated just above his palm.

"Hahaha, yeah! So that's how he did it!"

Knuckles hummed, watching the chaos emerald. "...You said there was a buzzing before Shadow appeared to save you, right?"

Sonic carefully "tossed" the emerald between his hands, juggling it without his hands ever touching the faceted surface. "Yeah. It was like all my fur stood on end and then he was just there."

"That was Shadow's chaos energy. I noticed it too when he teleported in the control room. He was relying purely on the emeralds for the energy to move around and sustain himself, but when he used chaos control, that was his energy." Knuckles glanced behind them to where Amy was napping next to Shadow's seat. They'd buckled the unconscious hedgehog in a seat around the center of the shuttle so that they could all keep an eye on him just in case he choked or needed any medical attention.

Sonic caught the chaos emerald in his hand fully and stared at Knuckles. "...What happens when a person runs fully out of chaos energy?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I don't think people usually... generate it. He looks half starved, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's less hypothermia and more 'needs a good meal'."

Sonic's mouth formed an "O" shape. He looked down at the chaos emeralds and played with the one in his hand again. It felt warm to the touch. Little crackles of energy ran underneath the surface, invisible to the eye, but each movement sent teeny little jitters running through Sonic's veins like an old friend. They were just gems, but sometimes Sonic felt like they were almost alive.

"I want to learn that teleporting thing Shadow did," he said suddenly. Knuckles raised an eyebrow at him. "I know, it's not something I need, not really, and I prefer running over, like, everything else, but- I..."

He swallowed hard and glanced to make sure Amy wasn't listening. She snoozed on, head leaning against Shadow. Her mouth was slightly open, leaving a slight trail of drool on Shadow's headspikes. Tails was too busy piloting the shuttle to listen in on them.

"...I really didn't know if I was going to make it this time," Sonic admitted quietly. His hands were shaking around the emerald. "I... couldn't find a way out-"

Knuckles put a hand over Sonic's. He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked at the ceiling.

"You know," he said, voice feeling just a slight bit too loud for the sombre air between them, "I could... teach you a few things. It won't be chaos control, but you're too stubborn not to figure that out eventually."

Sonic's jaw dropped. "No way. Knuckles, offering to spend time with me?"

"Should I go grab the steering mechanism again?"

"No! No! Don't do that!"

"Hey Tails, let me drive!" Knuckles moved as if to stand up.

"No!" Sonic dove on him. The two rolled around for a few minutes, pulling each others' quills and shoving at each other in a tangled mess of limbs. The back of the shuttle was filled with their grunts and puffs until they flopped uselessly against each other with tired glares only seconds before bursting into laughter.

Tails's landing was smooth. Sonic was out the shuttle door the moment it was open, letting out a joyful whoop and disappearing into the jungle. He reappeared shortly, leaves and vines stuck to his quills and a big grin on his face. Knuckles shook his head and helped Amy unbuckle Shadow before picking the dark hedgehog up.

"Yo Tails! Why are we in Mystic Ruins?" Sonic asked. "Wouldn't it have been better to land somewhere closer to Station Square so we can get tall dark and handsome over there to a hospital?"

"I don't actually think that's a good idea," Tails replied, reaching down from where he sat on top of the Tornado to take Shadow from Knuckles. They'd landed in the jungle a little ways away from his workshop, and the little fox had already packed up everything he needed from the shuttle into the Tornado.

"Why not?"

"Eggman broadcast the Eclipse Cannon to the entire planet. The media will probably be down our throats soon, and I don't think letting them know we found someone trapped in cryostasis for fifty years in a research facility is a good idea." Tails buckled Shadow in once again. He paused and brushed his hand over the hedgehog's forehead with a small frown, then wrung his hands.

Sonic hopped up on the leg of the Tornado and peered inside at Shadow's face, then at Tails. "...You're nervous about something."

Knuckles and Amy came a little bit closer to listen, though Knuckles was starting to look a little impatient. Tails glanced at them and looked down at his hands.

"I just- it's bugging me."

"What is?"

"The pod you found Shadow in was set to open a year from now anyway." Tails sat down in the cockpit and buckled himself in. "But why wasn't he evacuated with everyone else? Why was the pod covered in blood? And he was talking as if he expected us to leave him behind. Isn't that kind of odd?"

They started walking towards Tails's workshop as they talked. Amy stuck to Sonic's side on the left of the Tornado and Knuckles flanked it on the right.

"Maybe he didn't realize fifty years have passed?" Amy suggested.

Tails shook his head. "He'd pulled up a lot of recent news articles on the console. He knows."

Sonic hummed. "And if the media catches wind about him it'll be a mess, won't it."

"...Do you guys need me to stick around?" Knuckles finally asked, leaning his head around the Tornado to look at Sonic before looking up at Tails. "I have to get the Master Emerald back to Angel Island, but I have it with me. Angel Island can wait for another day or two if need be."

Tails glanced at Shadow behind him and bit his lip. The dark hedgehog still hadn't so much as twitched despite being jostled around and having a conversation going on right next to his head. "I... I don't want to impose-"

"Tails." Knuckles folded his arms. Tails shyly met his eyes. "Do you want me to stick around for another day?"

"...I'd... be more comfortable if you did," the little fox mumbled. "I mean! I trust Sonic! And Amy's here too, unless she has something to do-"

"Nope! I'm staying right here!"

Tails cast her a smile. She beamed back.

Knuckles tapped the side of his fist against the Tornado, drawing Tails's attention back to him. He smirked up at the fox and tapped his fist against his chest. "Kid, I offered. I'll stick around for a day."

Tails's shoulders slumped slightly with relief. Sonic threw Knuckles an appreciative thumbs up and got a good-natured eye roll in return.

"I guess first things first, we'll need to get someone with more medical knowledge than first aid out here," Sonic said, stretching his arms behind his head in a lazy manner.

Amy raised her hand. "I know a nurse. We might have to bring Shadow to her, but her place is usually pretty quiet."

"Really? Who?"

"Cream's mom. Ms. Vanilla used to be a nurse before she retired to an orchard near a chao garden, remember?"

They rounded a hill and Tails's workshop came into view. Tails relaxed a little more on seeing home so close by.

"I have a phone in the workshop you can use to call her," he offered. "I'll take some vitals anyway just in case, but it'd be great to have someone who knows what they're doing take a look."

"And when Shadow's in a better state we can get some answers." Knuckles tapped his fists against each other.

"Yeah!"

Chapter Text

Maria loved to sing. She loved to dance and sing at the same time, though she wasn't necessarily good at it. She would often sing in the wrong key and have to play with the pitch to remember where the song was supposed to be sung or just barrel on ahead off-key with a terrible warble.

Shadow thought it was one of the most beautiful sounds that existed. He loved watching her eyes sparkle with laughter as she unashamedly sang in that awful way and danced with ungainly movements, her dress flapping around her legs and tangling her up until she tripped. Maria wasn't supposed to be very active lest she get hurt, and she was often scolded for running around or playing like the child she was, but it didn't stop her from being vibrant with life and dragging Shadow on some new adventure between testing days.

He hated testing days.

At first the tests weren't too bad. Maria was none the wiser to the things they did to him and they would run around and play like normal. As time went on, however...

Well, it was hard to hide how tired he was. Maria never danced on those days. She sang sometimes, but only when the two of them were in the observatory or in her room, Shadow partially curled up in her lap and her hands stroking his quills. It wasn't unusual for him to fall asleep there, exhausted by hours of being abused and tormented by scientists.

As he came to surrounded by something soft and his ears picked up a gentle singing nearby, his mind filled with a dark room with glass walls, surrounded by countless stars.

"Maria...?" he pleaded. His voice was hoarse and his body ached with phantom pains from nonexistant wounds.

The singing stopped. Shadow's ears stood on end, suddenly alert. He forced his eyes open and blinked harshly against the dim light in the room in time to see a small shape, far smaller than Maria ever was, run out.

"Mother! He's awake!"

Shadow blinked a few more times and shoved himself upright. He was in a living space of some kind, lying on a couch with an IV in his arm and a plush blanket wrapped around him. There were bookshelves filled with little knicknacks and a mixture of children's books and novels, along with photographs and paintings of landscapes he'd only seen in textbooks. A gentle gold light was coming in from somewhere, and he looked around to see where it was coming from. His eyes landed on a window and he froze.

Trees. Grass. Sunlight.

Shadow was on the planet.

His mind blanked. This was not a picture, that was a window and he was on the planet.

And Maria... wasn't here to see it with him.

That thought sobered him instantly. He remembered- the ARK, waking up on Sonic's back, disabling the firing sequence for the Eclipse Cannon, handing off the chaos emeralds so he wouldn't accidentally use them and blow them all up in a half dazed state-

"Good evening, dear. How are you feeling?"

Shadow tore his eyes from the window and looked up at a kindly rabbit woman holding a tray with juice and a bowl of something that made his stomach remind him that he hadn't eaten in literally fifty years. Hiding behind her dress was the small shape he'd seen before- a little rabbit girl with big, curious brown eyes.

"Where are we?" Shadow asked instead. It came out harsher than he intended, and he flinched as the little girl hid a bit further behind what he assumed was her mother's dress.

The woman took his reaction in stride, however. She set the tray down on the coffee table beside the couch and smiled at him.

"It's alright," she said, kneeling down to be at eye level with him. "There's no need to be scared."

Shadow stared at her. Scared? He was a living weapon. She shouldn't have been letting him stay on her couch in the first place. But... she didn't know that, did she? Otherwise he would be locked up again, only to be let out when the world needed his power.

"My name is Vanilla," the woman continued. She gestured behind her at the little girl. "This is my daughter, Cream. You're in our house. Sonic brought you here and said you needed help."

...Ah. Sonic and his friends must have brought Shadow back with them after he fainted.

Pushing away the thought that they should have left him aboard the ARK, Shadow glanced down at the IV in his arm, then back to Vanilla.

"Are you... a doctor?"

Vanilla's smile slightly grew. "Oh no, I used to be a nurse. Are you hungry? I made some soup."

"I..."

Shadow looked down at the soup. He could go a long time without eating thanks to his biology. And it had been a long time since he'd eaten, hadn't it?

"It's good!" Cream said, catching his attention immediately. She was the one who'd been humming. On meeting Shadow's eyes, she smiled brightly and came out from behind her mother. She was holding a strange blue creature in her arms that was eyeing him curiously.

That was all the further prodding he needed. Shadow nodded, and Vanilla set the tray in his lap before gently urging Cream out of the room so he could eat in peace. He watched them go before turning his gaze to the tray in his lap and staring at the aromatic broth in front of him with a slight frown. He wasn't used to being treated with such care by strangers. Was this what it was like to be a person?

He ate a spoonful of soup and started crying.

Vanilla was a very gentle person. She reminded Shadow of one of the scientists on the ARK that sometimes snuck him treats on test days. The treats would often be things like tiny packs of fruit gummies or a juice box reserved for the few children on board, but they made his day that much more bearable.

"I'm going to remove the IV now, okay?" Vanilla said gently, showing him both her hands. "Is it alright if I touch you to do so?"

Shadow nodded and proffered his arm. Vanilla produced a small gauze square and deftly pulled out the needle. It didn't even sting.

"Put pressure here," she said, and Shadow did so despite knowing the wound would be gone in seconds. Then she wrapped his elbow up with a soft self-adhesive tape he'd often seen on Maria and sat back.

Shadow rested his hands on his lap. He wasn't sure what to do with them now; he'd never been a... guest, or a patient, before. He didn't know how to act, or where to look, so he kept his eyes glued to his knees. But he was curious about the world around him now that he was here. He wanted- he needed- to see the world that he and Maria often fantasized about seeing together.

Vanilla cleared her throat. Shadow's head snapped up and he stiffly sat at attention. She had an unreadable expression on her face, an expression completely foreign to him.

"Sonic said your name was Shadow. Is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am," he answered, keeping his eyes straight forward and locked on the door in front of him.

"It's a lovely name."

...Was this some kind of interrogation tactic? She was the authority of this place. It would only be right to scan a stranger in her home for danger. Shadow remained quiet, unsure how to answer.

Vanilla let out a small breath of air. To any other ear it would have been inaudible, but Shadow wasn't normal. "I should let Sonic know you're awake, but... I would like to ask you some things first."

Shadow's ear twitched. He kept his gaze straight ahead, but she gently reached over and turned his head to look at her.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," she said softly. "I'm just... concerned. Both as a mother and as a nurse."

He almost frowned. It didn't make any sense to him what being a mother had to do with her asking questions of him, but even more than that- she offered him an out. Weren't interrogations supposed to be for getting answers? Or was this a different tactic? Be nice to someone and they become more pliant, perhaps?

"It's not every day someone brings a dehydrated and malnourished child to me and asks me to not tell anyone about them." Vanilla bitterly smiled, and there was that expression he couldn't read again. "So please forgive me for wanting to know, but... did someone hurt you?"

Shadow blinked.

"...Sonic didn't... tell you?"

Vanilla shook her head. "He only said you needed help, and I did not ask why."

That sent him reeling a little bit. Sonic had, thus far, tripped over his stasis pod, picked him up and carried him away despite being timed to save the planet from having a cannon capable of destroying moons from being fired, bothered to make sure he wouldn't choke, consistently checked up on him, wrapped him in a blanket, brought him back to the planet and now kept his circumstances mysterious from a medical worker. Shadow wasn't sure who the hell the blue hedgehog was, but he knew that in the sum total of the hour or two that he'd known him, Sonic had been nicer to Shadow than nearly every other person in his life.

"Shadow?"

He jolted out of his stupor and blinked. Vanilla shook her head and held up her hands. "My apologies, I don't mean to make you uncomfortable-"

"I was in suspended animation."

Vanilla paused and blinked at him. Shadow swallowed and looked away, taking a deep breath before continuing. He wasn't sure why he was telling her this, but it was clear now he'd been given a choice to share it or not. And Vanilla hadn't pressed Sonic for answers either, choosing to ask him instead.

This wasn't an interrogation at all, was it?

"I was..." Created. "Born off planet, on a space colony. When it was shut down I was put in stasis instead of evacuated with the others. Sonic released me by accident."

"So the malnutrition..."

"...The pod was still in beta testing," Shadow admitted quietly. "It wasn't meant to hold someone for... that long of a time."

Vanilla's face eased up into something softer. Shadow still wasn't fully sure what it was behind her eyes, but he did recognize a sign of relief behind her concern. She gave him a small smile and held out her hand.

"Well, I still want to monitor your condition for a little while, if that's alright. But first, welcome to our planet, Shadow."

Shadow stared at her palm, then slowly reached out and placed his hand in hers.

If this was what it was like being a person...

Then he supposed he could pretend for a little while.

Chapter Text

Shadow had been up and moving around for a few days before Vanilla contacted Sonic. It was a decision they made together after Cream begged to eat dinner on the front porch so she could watch the sunset and Vanilla and Shadow went to follow her out. Shadow had frozen at the feeling of wind on his face and had to be told that it was a natural phenomena that happened. He knew gravity would keep him on the face of the planet, but it didn't stop him from staring up at the sky with his mouth slightly agape and feeling like he could simply fall upwards forever.

After seeing Shadow overwhelmed no further than her front porch Vanilla asked him if he'd like a few days to adjust. He hadn't waited two seconds before agreeing.

Vanilla was more than happy to set up a room in her house for him to stay in. Shadow had been so stunned that he got his own bed that he just stood in the middle of the room for a minute and had to take it in. On learning he'd never had a mattress before and didn't know how to put sheets on it, Vanilla had slightly pursed her lips, but was more than willing to walk him through the process.

He didn't sleep that first night. Vanilla woke up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and found him standing on the front porch again with his eyes glued to the sky. She leaned on the kitchen counter and watched him for a few minutes before turning to the stove and making two cups of hot tea.

"Long night?" she asked as she came out to sit next to him, holding out one of the cups.

Shadow hesitated before taking it and sitting down himself. He wrapped his hands around the cup and absorbed its warmth, finally tearing his eyes away from the sky to look at the clear golden-brown liquid.

"It's... loud, here," he admitted quietly.

"There's not much sound in space?" Vanilla guessed.

"There's sound. Just... machine sounds. The ventilation systems and the lights don't sound like..." Shadow gestured at the trees gently swaying in the night breeze. "...This."

She nodded and sipped her tea. They sat in silence for a little while, just looking up at the stars and enjoying the night air. Shadow's ears twitched and rotated with every little noise, even the ones Vanilla couldn't hear. She watched him out of the corner of her eye and hid her amusement when he startled at the sound of a cricket.

She turned her attention to the stars with a smile.

"You know... I always thought the stars looked kind of lonely."

Shadow blinked and turned his head to look at her. He remained silent, simply waiting for her to continue.

"When I was a little girl I used to be into stargazing. Not professionally or to the point where I actually knew anything about them," she admitted with a chuckle, "but just... looking. I used to spend hours fantasizing about what it would be like up there. But I always thought that maybe it was lonely to be out there."

Shadow finally took a sip of his tea. Vanilla acted as if she didn't see the way he blinked at it and quickly took another sip, hiding her smile by sipping from her own cup.

He was growing on her. She was unsure at first, letting a stranger into her home with her young daughter, but after Shadow had woken up Vanilla had quickly decided he needed more help than just what she could provide as a nurse. Shadow spoke eloquently and with a distinct enunciation that betrayed a good education, but he acted more like a scared stray cat. He showed a rare moment of vulnerability when he revealed he was from space, but had closed up entirely after being shown how to put sheets on a mattress.

It was going to take a lot of patience to figure out what was going on inside his head. It was never a good idea to push a child who'd been hurt to open up before they were ready. Shadow needed time and a gentle approach.

"...It is lonely," he murmured.

Vanilla glanced at him fully. He was no longer looking at the sky, but was staring back at his reflection in the teacup. There was something sad in his eyes. Something lost.

"...I had a friend, on the ARK," Shadow continued haltingly. "When it was... evacuated, she..."

He swallowed. Vanilla reached out a hand to his shoulder, but hesitated before touching it, instead hovering her hand over his instead. Shadow looked at it for a moment and nodded, and with his consent she rested her hand on his.

"...She was sick. NIDS. I don't think she would have lasted long on the planet." Shadow glanced at Vanilla's face, then up at the sky. "But she would have loved this. I wonder if... did she get to see it?"

Vanilla looked up at the sky as well and gave his hand a squeeze. If his eyes were wet, she didn't say anything.

"I can help you look for records, if you'd like."

"I... yes, I would like that."

"May I ask what her name was?"

Shadow smiled slightly.

"Maria. Her name was Maria."

It rained the second day. Cream and Cheese excitedly begged to show Shadow the joys of jumping in puddles and Shadow very nearly just followed her out without any proper rain gear before Vanilla stopped them. After foisting a spare rain poncho over Shadow's quills and reminding Cream to stay under shelter if it started thundering she sat on the front porch with a cup of hot tea and watched as Cream taught Shadow the "proper" way to jump in a puddle just right for maximum splash efficiency.

She worried a little over Shadow potentially losing patience with Cream, but her worries were soon laid to rest when he started taking the initiative to splash her back. He was constantly aware of his own strength and ensuring that he was gentle with her, taking care not to aim for her face or her eyes.

Vanilla didn't let them stay out too long and made hot soup for lunch. Cream cheerfully colored on the table while Vanilla and Shadow sat down with her home computer and looked up records for various residents from the space colony ARK.

Shadow hesitated on looking up Maria's name. He wouldn't look at Vanilla, his hands hovering over the enter button with only Maria's first name typed into the search bar.

"Do you need a moment?" she asked gently.

Shadow glanced at her, then shook his head and steeled himself before typing in "Robotnik." Vanilla's eyes widened, but she made no comment. People were different from each other. Shadow might not have even known about Eggman, though given his hesitation she supected he knew very well about the villain.

Maria had lived for another ten years after the ARK was shut down. Her NIDS wasn't fully cured, but it had been managed to the point she was no longer in danger from the common cold. She was starting a career as an astrophysicist when she died from a bout of pneumonia, leaving behind few records that she ever existed.

Shadow looked up Gerald Robotnik next and was startled to learn he'd been arrested for terrorism and unethical experimentation aboard the ARK. His trial hadn't started until after Maria's death, letting him take care of his granddaughter until she died.

Then he just... vanished. There were no public records after that.

Shadow was very quiet after looking up those two names. He searched a few others and managed to pull up a list of people who hadn't evacuated, but were listed as found dead aboard the ARK. After staring at it for a little bit he left the computer and joined Cream at the table to watch her color. Vanilla watched with a bitter feeling as Cream, unaware of the things Shadow just read, instantly began to talk to him about chao and what the different colors on their little floating bubbles meant. Shadow simply leaned his head on his hand and watched her talk, occasionally nodding along to let her know he was listening, but saying nothing.

Cream caught a small cold the following day. Shadow didn't leave her side once except when Vanilla asked him for help making dinner.

"It's just a common cold," she told him gently. "Cream's a strong girl. She'll be fine."

"...Do you want me to stay away?" Shadow asked.

Vanilla stopped stirring the pot of porridge to stare at him. He was completely serious, standing in a military rest position next to her with a carefully neutral expression. As Vanilla stared at him his eyes drifted slightly lower and his ears pinned back.

She thought back to what he'd said about Maria, how she'd had NIDS. Looking at how cautiously he was standing, she couldn't help but wonder if he'd been forced to stay away for Maria's sake before. Shadow was doing his best not to show it, but the little quirks in the way he stood belied that he was worried and dejected.

Vanilla slowly resumed stirring the pot. "Do you think you'll get sick?"

Shadow's eyes snapped back up to look at her. "Pardon?"

"If you're from space then you might not be used to the kinds of bacterium we have down here..." Vanilla hummed softly. "I suppose we should have thought about that before, but- well, I'm not exactly sure how all that works. Here, give this a taste."

She dipped a spoon into the porridge and held it out to him. Shadow blinked and slowly took it, looking between her and the spoon as if unsure whether or not he was really supposed to try the food on it. After a moment of contemplation he finally put it in his mouth.

"It's sweet."

"I put some fruit in it from the orchard." Vanilla smiled and took the spoon back, setting it aside for now. "My mother always used to add honey to the porridge, but I've found I like fruit and a little nutmeg in it instead."

"Nutmeg..."

She switched off the heat and pulled the pan off the stove. "It adds a sweet nuttiness to things. You don't need a lot to make something taste good."

Shadow stood by as she pulled three bowls from the cupboard. His ears were still pinned back, but not as flatly as before.

"I do not believe I will get sick."

"Then I don't see a reason for you to stay away. Do you?"

Vanilla smiled at him. Shadow's ears slowly raised back up, swiveling fully to face her.

"Besides," Vanilla said with a wink, "I think I'd like to hear the rest of that story you were telling. I wonder what happened with Captain Reginald and the princess of Sockington next?"

Shadow's eyes widened and his face turned bright red. Vanilla simply stepped around him and set the three bowls of porridge on a tray. Humming a little tune, she poured a few glasses of juice and walked down the hall to Cream's room.

Chapter Text

Sonic tapped his foot on the wing of the Tornado. They were flying at a pleasant speed and preparing for landing soon, since it really wasn't too far from Tails's workshop to Vanilla's house. It was just Tails, Amy and Sonic today. Knuckles had stuck around for another day or so after they'd dropped Shadow off, but when Vanilla didn't call them back with an emergency or worrying news he'd reached his limit and gone back to Angel Island.

And that was just fine, really. Knuckles was more interested in his friends being okay than he was in who Shadow was in the first place, and all of them were fine.

Everything was going to be fine.

Still, Sonic was both excited and mildly on edge at the same time. What happened aboard the ARK was a mystery, but it wasn't necessarily something that Sonic thought they needed to know. Tails did some digging to ease his anxiety and only came up with more questions after finding the records released to the public by G.U.N., but Sonic wanted to know if Shadow was okay more than he wanted to know what caused the ARK to be shut down for good.

He crouched down as Tails brought them in for a landing. Vanilla's house had an orchard and was next to a forest that housed a chao garden or two, but it had a lovely stretch of land out front that made for an excellent runway.

Vanilla came out to greet them with a smile and a picnic basket. Surprisingly, Sonic was not the first person off the plane. Amy was out and hugging Vanilla before the Tornado was even fully stationary, much to Tails's chagrin. Sonic shook his head with a grin at Tails's mutterings of disobeying safety protocol and hopped off the wing himself after the plane stopped moving.

"Miss Vanilla!" he called with a wave.

"Hello Sonic, dear." Vanilla's smile was kind and soft as she released Amy and looked him up and down. "Are you doing well?"

"Never better!" Sonic trotted closer. "I hope we didn't inconvenience you too much with the sudden request."

"Not at all. Hello Tails."

"Hi miss Vanilla!"

"Have you all been well?"

"Yes, thank you! And you? I hope Shadow hasn't been too much trouble..."

Vanilla smiled warmly and patted Tails's head. "You're all wondering how he's doing, I'd imagine. We were just about to have a picnic in the orchard. Why don't you dears join us?"

"That sounds wonderful!" Amy exclaimed. "Do you need any help?"

Vanilla checked her basket and counted heads. With Sonic, Amy and Tails joining she decided they needed more plates and cups, so while Amy helped grab the necessary items Tails and Sonic were sent around back with a blanket and the picnic basket. Vanilla and Cream's orchard was well tended to and had a little stone pathway leading towards the chao garden, and about halfway down the path was a spot of flat earth that was perfect for picnics.

Sonic and Tails found Cream and a giant mound of chao there. Cream paused in reading a storybook aloud to wave at them with a broad smile.

"Hello Mr. Sonic! Hello Mr. Tails!"

"Heya Cream!" Sonic jogged over and patted her head, then looked around. "Where's Shadow at? Miss Vanilla said he was out here with you."

The mound of chao turned, startling Sonic and Tails, who had caught up to them and was in the process of spreading out the picnic blanket. A hand reached out of the chao pile and pulled one away from the front, revealing Shadow's face underneath. Sonic stared for a moment before bursting out laughing.

"Someone's popular!" he chortled. "Do you need a hand there?"

"Mr. Shadow is very good with the chao!" Cream said enthusiastically. Her voice was a little nasally as if she had a cold.

"You don't say!"

With Sonic and Tails's help they were able to unbury Shadow from all the chao, though one or two refused to leave the safety of his quills. Shadow waved them away when they tried to pry those two chao out, so they left the two to happily snuggle against Shadow's head and set up the picnic instead. Cream tried to help as well, but Shadow made her stay sitting with a gentle pressure on her shoulder.

Vanilla and Amy joined them with food and plateware. Amy set her items down on the blanket before reaching to hug Shadow, but paused just before touching him due to how his spikes were raising. Instead she drew her hands back and gave him a bright smile.

"It's nice to see you again! You look a lot better now," Amy said cheerfully.

Shadow looked just past her at Vanilla, who was setting out the food. Vanilla caught his silent plea and spoke up while passing out plates.

"Shadow is making a good recovery. I would still like some time to ensure proper health, but he is doing well."

Sonic elbowed Shadow with a grin. "That's good news! You had me worried for a minute there."

Shadow's expression warped ever so slightly, his eyebrows twitching into a furrowed state and a tiny frown on his lips. Amy and Tails were already distracted by Cream's enthusiastic regaling of Cheese and Chocola's latest shenanigans and Vanilla's food, and Sonic was about to join them when he heard Shadow's question.

"Why?"

It was just one little word. Shadow was so quiet Sonic almost thought he imagined it, but the black hedgehog was staring at him with an intense gaze. There was something dark and untrusting in his eyes that reminded Sonic strongly of when he'd first met Tails years back.

It had taken time for Tails to learn to trust him. The little fox had been bullied for his inventions and twin tails and was unused to kindness that was given freely and unconditionally. As the days passed Tails flinched less and less and stopped peeking at Sonic with wary hope whenever Sonic was amazed at his adopted little brother's hard work and skills.

He still flinched and was unsure around new people, but Sonic was proud of how far he'd come.

...And suddenly it clicked. Shadow's quills rising as he was approached, how he expected them to leave him behind, his current confusion. His question was probably in line with Tails's confusion back then.

So Sonic answered the same way he did to Tails.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Shadow frowned. Sonic could see reasons why flashing through his head, each one dragging him down more than the last. He reached over and gently poked Shadow's forehead.

"We're friends, aren't we? Of course I'd worry about you."

"Friends? You barely know me."

"Never stopped me befoh good gravy what is that."

Shadow was suddenly very interested in his shoes as Cream proudly showed off a batch of the ugliest sugar cookies Sonic had ever seen. Half of the cookies were misshapen and had frosting with weird colors swirled around while the other half were perfectly round. Cream took one of the ugly ones and offered it to Sonic.

"Would you like one, Mr. Sonic?" she asked with a big smile.

Sonic looked down at the travesty of frosting and baked dough. His initial response was to say no, but Cream's broad grin made him take it. He swallowed and, under her excited gaze, took an intimidated bite.

Despite its looks, the cookie was very good. It was still a sugar cookie through and through, and Sonic eagerly tossed the rest of it in his mouth. Tails and Amy, on seeing Sonic take one for the team and enjoy it, each took a cookie as well. The delighted surprise on their faces was contrasted sharply by Shadow slightly shrinking in on himself and looking away while Cream beamed.

"Mr. Shadow and I made them together this morning!" Cream boasted. "Aren't they cute?"

Sonic looked down at the messy cookies and swallowed. "That's, uh... sure. We'll go with that."

They were delicious though, so he took another one.

The picnic was very peaceful. Vanilla asked each of Sonic's group how they had been doing and about their adventures, if they were all eating well, about Amy's latest baking attempts and Tails's newest inventions, even if she didn't really understand anything the little fox was saying. Tails didn't go into too much detail about his work with building a handheld computer and was starting to shy away from talking in general when Shadow piped up.

"...Would it not be more efficient to build your own operating system?"

Everyone at the blanket stopped and looked at Shadow. Tails tilted his head, twin tails slightly bristled behind him, but as he thought about it his tails began to swish thoughtfully instead.

"You know, that would make sense," the little fox said. "I didn't think too much about it since there's OS's out there that work fine, but if I want to be able to connect to any network and hack Eggman's machines, having my own processes would give me the flexibility I'd need."

"What specs are you going to use?"

"Oh, um." Tails scratched his face with his forefinger bashfully. "...I was going to implement an 8-core processor with at least 8 gigs of RAM and at least one terabyte of memory on a solid state drive."

"Give yourself at least 32 gigs of RAM," Shadow replied instantly.

Tails looked at him in shock. "I mean- that would make it faster, but- do you think I'd need that much?"

"You want speed and processing power. You should also give yourself more memory to play with and implement an auto-back up to a secure location."

Shadow's expression subtly changed, as if he was looking past the picnic basket into some distant place.

"Smart kids need room to play."

Tails blushed, but there was a smile on his face. Sonic grinned and elbowed his little brother, causing Tails to playfully swat back at him. Shadow looked away as if he'd used up the entirety of his words to speak, but looked down when Cream curled up at his side and tried to muffle a yawn.

"Oh my," Vanilla chuckled. "I think it's time for someone to take a nap."

"I'll take her back," Shadow said, scooping Cream into his arms. Amy covered her mouth with one hand and muffled a soft "aww" as Cream snuggled up into Shadow's chest, and Sonic and Vanilla both smiled at how close the two seemed to have gotten.

Tails quickly dusted himself of cookie crumbs and leapt to his feet. "Um! C-can I come with you? I'd, um! Like to know what else you think about the datapad, if that's alright!"

Shadow gave him a nod and the two set off for the house. Sonic leaned back on his hands with a smile and watched them go.

"Cream really likes him," Amy observed once they were out of earshot.

Vanilla nodded and sipped her tea. "I think she's been good for him these past few days. It must be so disorienting, transitioning from living in space to being here."

Sonic slowly sat up and folded his hands in his lap. "He told you?"

Vanilla met his eyes. Sonic felt a small shiver of nervousness run down his back at her gaze. He swallowed and kept up his smile, but he couldn't help but feel like he was somehow in trouble. Amy played with the hem of her dress, nervous even though she wasn't the one under scrutiny.

"You did good not to tell me much about him," she said finally, and Sonic let out a long breath of air.

"I did? I mean, uh, yeah! Of course I did!" Sonic boasted, then deflated. "Ah... I'm not sure why, though? It just- I don't know, it didn't feel like a good idea to say too much."

Vanilla set her teacup down and folded her hands. "I get the feeling Shadow hasn't been given much agency in his life before now. I don't know the full story, and I won't ask, nor will I ask how you met him."

Sonic slowly nodded. He didn't fully understand what she meant, but he had an inkling that his urge to let Shadow choose how much he wanted to divulge of himself made the hedgehog feel more comfortable around them. The truth was that Sonic did this because it just felt right, not because he thought ahead about it or because he was thinking of Shadow's feelings. That was just who Sonic was, really. A creature of pure instinct, just a guy who loved fun and adventure. Eggman had tried for years to understand who Sonic was and even tried to make a robotic copy of him, but failed every time. Hilariously enough, it was his simplicity that Eggman failed to grasp as a concept.

And that was it, really. He didn't care to ask about Shadow's past because it wasn't his business to know unless Shadow wanted to share. It wasn't a priority right now. Right now was a time to relax and recouperate and maybe ask Shadow how chaos control worked.

"I will, however, ask what you were doing in space, Amy."

Sonic flicked his nose with a grin while Amy suddenly looked sheepish. "She was helping us stop Eggman and his big ol' laser!"

"Is that so?" Vanilla smiled, the pressure from her gaze completely gone. All that was left was a soft, albeit slightly worried look at both of them. "I'm proud of you, then. I do hope you weren't hurt, though."

"Don't worry, I'm fine!" Amy puffed out her chest in a proud manner. "We beat that Eggman good!"

Vanilla nodded. "I'm glad. Now... did you have fun?"

"Yeah! Space is a lot colder than I thought it would be, but you can see so many stars and planets!"

The conversation quickly turned lighthearted. Vanilla asked about their adventure and what they liked or learned, and Amy and Sonic eagerly regaled her with their thoughts on what the stars looked like from the upper atmosphere or just how blue the planet looked from afar. Vanilla listened attentively and absorbed every word with a smile, occasionally asking questions for clarification or to get them to elaborate on their tale. Amy lamented her lack of a camera to take a picture for scrapbooking reasons and Vanilla offered her an old polaroid camera that she had stored away.

"Though it may need a tune-up," Vanilla added.

"I'm sure Tails would love to look at it!" Sonic grinned, thinking of the starry eyed look Tails got whenever he saw old machinery and was given the chance to tinker with it.

"Amy, dear, remind me to give it to you before you leave, would you please?"

"Of course! Thank you so mu-"

Amy was cut off by a loud bang! from somewhere towards the path to the house. Sonic was instantly on his feet and up the nearest tree. He shaded his eyes with his hand and scowled. Just over the treetops he could see Eggman in the cockpit of a mech of some kind and the flash of orange as Tails hovered in the air. He jumped down to the ground and waved at Amy.

"It's that Egghead!" he said urgently, already on the move to back up his little brother.

Hopefully Eggman didn't do something stupid like mistake Shadow for Sonic and attack him...

Chapter Text

Shadow's first impression of Tails was that the kid was timid, but quick. When they'd met briefly aboard the ARK, Tails struck him as smart and capable, and his talk about building his own handheld computer at the picnic blanket had cemented that impression in Shadow's mind. It surprised Shadow that Tails wanted his opinion on the handheld's specifics, even though Shadow had been the one to offer up hardware suggestions. This was only their second meeting, for one, and Tails struck him as someone that was shy.

And yet, the entire way back to Cream and Vanilla's house, Tails talked his ear off about specs and hardware and the ideas he had for how to build the device itself. Cream had long since dozed off, Cheese curled up against her chest and Chocola riding on Shadow's head. Tails lowered his voice as Shadow tucked Cream and the Chao in, only raising it to a normal level again once they were out of the house.

"-And, I don't really know whether I should make it more like a tablet or like a datapad. If I include handles it might make it easier to hold onto during battle or on the move, but handles might also make it harder to use the pad itself," Tails said, making shapes and gestures with his hands. "I guess I could make the handles big enough my hands can slip through, so maybe an open bottom handle? But then it might be harder to hold onto if someone tries to take it from me."

"Strap," Shadow replied, having long run out of words by now. Luckily for him, Tails understood exactly what he meant.

"I mean, yeah! I could include a strap, that would make it easier to just drop and run if I need to. But wouldn't that make it easier for someone to yank me around?"

Shadow just stared at him and shrugged. Tails blinked, his tails slowly drooping behind him, and fiddled with his hands as he looked away and rubbed the back of his head.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I got carried away and lost you, didn't I? Should have just stopped..."

Shadow slightly tilted his head, then shook it and released a small huff. He reached out and lightly ruffled the fur on Tails's head, eliciting a small squeak from the fox. Tails gave him a confused look. Shadow folded his arms and looked off into the trees.

"I understand what you mean," he forced himself to say. "...I just don't have anything to add."

A phrase Maria often told him popped into his head. Shadow eyed Tails and wondered, briefly, if he would understand. Tails was incredibly smart, but how he was on the emotional side Shadow wasn't quite sure yet. It was looking like the kid hadn't really had someone as bright as he was to thought dump to in a while, and while Shadow could sympathize (Maria did this to him often in the middle of the night when a thought struck her), he was very much over-socialized for the moment and needed to set a boundary.

He quoted Maria, hoping Tails wouldn't push for an explanation. "...I'm... worded out."

Tails mouthed the words, his eyes widening. Shadow was filled with relief as the realization struck the little fox and his tails began swishing again.

"I get it," Tails said, wringing his hands again, but with a smile on his face. "Sometimes I stop processing words, too."

It was... close enough. Shadow could still listen, still talk, but it was like pushing through a dense wall of goo. He processed things fine. He just didn't want to talk.

Tails's eyes widened again and he tapped his fist against the open palm of his hand. "Oh, I have something that might help! Hang on."

Shadow stopped walking and watched as Tails dug in the little bag he had at his side. Tails withdrew two earplug-like objects and held them out with a triumphant smile. Shadow slightly tilted his head and took one, noting the speaker on the side that went in the ear.

"...What are these?"

"Earbuds!" Tails demonstrated by putting one in his ear. He motioned for Shadow to do the same, and Shadow did so with a small amount of hesitance. Tails withdrew a small device from his bag next and clicked a few buttons. Soft classical music began to play from the earbud and Shadow had to resist the urge to flatten the other ear with how lopsided the feeling was.

He had to admit, though, it did help a little. What helped even more than the music was the fact that he recognized the song. It was a little piece of time that felt unchanged from his days aboard the ARK.

Things didn't quite feel real. Shadow knew, logically, that time was cruel and constantly changing. He couldn't simply close his eyes and go back to simpler days when he wasn't on the planet and fifty years hadn't passed, and when this particular classical song played Maria might dance along to it and try to sing along to the opera in her silly warbly voice. Those times were gone, and he'd never see her eyes sparkle as she laughed again. But, as he half closed his eyes, he could still faintly hear Maria's laugh at the edges of his senses.

Shadow pulled the earbud out and looked at it with a flat stare. His eyes stung and he suddenly felt exhausted.

Emotions were so weird.

He heard the hum of machinery as he was handing the earbud back to a mildly concerned looking Tails. Shadow's ears flattened and he gave Tails a shove that was probably too rough just before glass walls came down around him.

"Shadow!" Tails yelled, scrambling to his feet.

Eggman's laughter rang through the trees. Shadow looked up to see that he was trapped in a capsule incredibly reminescent of the ARK's escape pods. The capsule was held by a large egg-shaped mech with Eggman sitting in the cockpit leering back at him.

"Sonic, my adversary! How does it feel to be caught in the same trap twice!?" Eggman cackled, leaning forward slightly with a grin. His enthusiasm began to falter a little on closer inspection of Shadow, who crossed his arms and fixed the man with a scathing glare. "Did you... get a makeover? I have to say, I'm a fan of the look."

Shadow's exhaustion quickly changed to irritability. "Get your prescription checked," he snapped back.

"What? Why? I'll admit, the black and red is a bit edgy for your usual hip and cool demeanor, but-"

"I'm not Sonic!"

Eggman recoiled and took a closer look at him, pushing up his glasses as if they would help him see better. He squinted at Shadow with a scowl, then leaned back with a harrumph. "So you aren't. Tails, did you get mixed up with the wrong hedgehog?"

Tails leapt into the air, using his twin tails as propellers to raise him aloft. "Don't talk about Shadow that way! Let him go!"

"Shadow, eh?" Eggman smirked and pressed a button. Shadow lowered his stance to keep his balance as the mech shifted and lifted the capsule higher. Eggman held up a remote and pointed at Tails. "No matter. Give me the chaos emerald you have in your possession and I might let him go."

"Wha- but- I don't have a chaos emerald on me!" Tails cast a glance at Shadow, who shook his head. "Neither of us do!"

Eggman checked his machines. "What? My scans were showing-"

Shadow's stomach dropped as Eggman turned to stare at him and pointed a device at him. The device began beeping, and Eggman began to grin again.

"I see... it's not a chaos emerald at all! And here I thought you were finding ways to try to hide the energy signature. Instead it's a hedgehog with similar energy patterns. How interesting!" Eggman cackled and pulled the capsule closer to the mech. "Nevermind then! I'll just take your friend instead!"

"No! Shadow!"

Shadow stared at Tails with wide eyes. His mind blanked.

He didn't want to admit it to anyone, much less himself, but Shadow was scared. Not of Eggman, but of Tails and Sonic and Cream and Vanilla realizing what he was.

A weapon.

"You'll always just be a weapon," one of the G.U.N. representatives had spat at him, mere weeks before the event that saw Maria evacuated with everyone save for a few scientists that remained aboard the ARK to safely shut down all research. "Weapons don't have feelings."

It had been drilled into Shadow's head over and over during testing days that he was just a tool. He was a means to an end, meant to follow orders and destroy things for some unknown masters whose faces he'd never see. Maria had never seen him that way and insisted he was her little brother, but the idea was firmly planted in his psyche.

Weapons were not people. They did not get soup. They were not spoken to gently or shown how to pet a chao in just the right way or to play in puddles of water. They did not make friends.

Shadow had tasted freedom for all of a few days and had come to the conclusion that he did not want to be a weapon for as long as possible. He wanted Vanilla to show him how to cook and Cream to tell him about her favorite flowers, and he wanted Tails to keep telling him about what he had planned for projects. He wanted to keep learning things about this planet that Maria must have loved until the day she died.

If Eggman was able to study Shadow, he was bound to learn that Shadow was a product of his late grandfather eventually. G.U.N. would get involved, and then everyone would know what Shadow was.

But at the same time, if he displayed his power in order to escape, what would Tails think? Would Cream and Vanilla be scared, knowing they had a monster under their roof?

A blue blur shot out of the trees and crashed against the mech, disrupting Shadow's panic. Sonic bounced off of the mech's torso and struck a three-point landing with a grin. He met Shadow's eyes and the grin slightly faded.

"Sonic," Eggman spat. "I knew you were around here somewhere, you little rat!"

"Sonic! It's the same trap as back on the ARK!" Tails called.

Sonic thumbed his nose and smirked. "Well isn't that something! But we're not in space, Egghead!"

He gave no further warning before launching himself in a spin attack at the capsule. Shadow stumbled as the container shook heavily from the impact, unable to keep himself from staring at the glass that somehow hadn't cracked yet. Sonic continued bashing himself against the glass, and through all the noise the thought struck Shadow.

Sonic was like him.

He was fast as sound and he had devastating power behind him. He'd literally just left a dent in Eggman's mech and the main reaction he got was Tails cheering and Eggman being pissed off.

Shadow finally took a breath and started laughing. Sonic halted his assault and even Eggman peered at him in confusion, but Shadow didn't care. He just snapped his fingers and chaos controlled outside of the pod, reappearing on the grass next to Sonic. Eggman gawked and whipped his head between the capsule and Shadow in disbelief.

"Orrr you can do that," Sonic said with a shrug. "Why'd you wait so long?"

"Slipped my mind," Shadow replied simply.

"You know, fair enough. Ol' Eggy's face is enough to make anybody lose a braincell for a while."

"Hey!"

Shadow couldn't help the smirk on his face. Sonic had wiped out his fear with those spin attacks. He was still anxious about displaying his powers, but at the very least he could still use the one Sonic and his crew already knew about.

"What's the plan, Blue?" he asked, dropping into a crouch.

Sonic grinned widely. "Tails! What're its weak points?"

Tails flew a little closer, dropping to the ground behind Sonic. "It looks like the arm holding the capsule is straining a little bit under the weight. I think we can offset its balance if you break that arm, then knock it over."

"What about the dent?" Shadow asked.

Eggman recovered from his shock and swung the pod at them. Tails, Sonic and Shadow scattered to avoid it, and Shadow quickly discovered that moving in planetary gravity was much different than moving around in artificial gravity. His body was heavier, and while that meant he was slower to get going, it also meant that he could use proper traction and really get going if he wanted to. Finding out what his top speed was here was going to be fun.

Shadow cast a glance at Sonic. Maybe he could ask for a race later...?

Sonic and Tails worked well as a team, as if they'd done this many times before. With only a glance between them they had a strategy figured out where Sonic would curl into a ball and Tails would spin him around before throwing him at Eggman, or they both would curl into balls around each other and go flying with a devastating force into the dent in the mech's front. It was an interesting attack and definitely effective- and Shadow couldn't help but wonder if it would work if he was tossed as well.

He circled around the back of Eggman's mech while the dynamic duo had Eggman distracted. Sonic and Tails smacked the machine hard enough to make it stumble, and Shadow took the chance to jump onto its back, swiftly climbing right up to the cockpit where Eggman was.

"Wha- hey!" Eggman yelled, reaching for him. Shadow ducked his hand and did a quick scan of the console in front of him. "You're not supposed to be up here! Get off!"

Eggman's designs were massively different from Gerald's, but there were some similarities. Namely, it seemed they both labeled the power sources of their creations with "DANGER: LIVE BATTERY. DO NOT TOUCH."

Shadow plunged his fist through the console and ripped out a battery. He backflipped easily to avoid the punch Eggman threw at him and landed heavily on the ground below, retreating back towards Sonic and Tails.

The mech was not doing very well without the battery. It stumbled and moved slower, which angered Eggman quite a bit.

"You little rodent! Give that back!" Eggman shrieked.

"No," Shadow retorted. He caught Sonic's grin and couldn't help the childish urge to taunt the evil genius. "Captain Reginald Alexander Peregrine Fiddlesticks the third sends his regards."

Sonic let out a hoarse wheeze. Eggman's face turned a deep purple and he slammed his hands against the console, pointing an accusatory finger at Shadow.

"You! You're the one that kept mocking me aboard the ARK! I'll bet you're how Sonic survived as well!"

Shadow tossed the battery up and down in his hand with a smirk. Sonic cackled out loud, zipping over to throw an arm around his shoulder and threw Eggman a thumb's up. Shadow prickled slightly at the touch, but when Sonic pulled back he felt a small sense of coldness where he'd been touched. He ignored the feeling and tossed the battery to an eager Tails.

Eggman swung the capsule at him this time, pulling that little handgun he'd had back on the ARK out at the same time. Shadow leapt out of the way of the capsule and had to kick on his air shoes in order to avoid what turned out not to be a bullet, but a laser beam that fried a path in the grass where he had been standing.

Did lasers run in the family? Genetically that didn't work, but the tendency to make them was clearly there. Maria hadn't thought up giant death lasers or a handheld variety that Shadow knew of, but it was sure a weird coincidence that both Gerald and his grandson built deadly beam weapons. Or maybe, Shadow wondered, dodging another swing from the capsule, it was simply a case of taking a great idea and making a device with inspiration.

Sonic flew past him and landed on the front of Eggman's mech, pulling a face and sticking out his tongue before launching himself off and spin dashing the front of the mech again. Eggman let out a frustrated noise and glanced at something in his console when his eyebrows slightly rose.

Shadow spun around to a halt with a sinking feeling. Eggman tossed him a grin and swiveled to face Tails. A mechanical arm and a rocket appeared on either side, both focused on the little fox, who froze in place with wide eyes.

The rocket launched. Shadow and Sonic moved at the same time, Sonic leaping on the rocket and Shadow shoving as much energy into his air shoes as he dared expend. He wasn't used to the gravity here at all and went a little bit too fast, slamming into Tails instead of coming to a halt in front of him like he intended to. The mechanical arm bit into Shadow's back and yanked him backwards.

Tails dropped the battery and reached for him with both hands, missing by inches. Eggman laughed and began to brag.

"Well! It seems falling for tricks is a shared trait by hedgehogs," Eggman crowed. "You may have taken my battery, but that was just a placeholder until I got the chaos emerald anyway! What if I use you as the power source instead?"

Shadow's eyes widened. He struggled frantically before the shock hit him.

The scientists aboard the ARK had used him in this way a few times before. The first few times he didn't remember what happened, only that his inhibitor rings had been replaced by newer models each time. His power had grown over time, and eventually he was able to remember the feeling as his chaos energy was drained away and he was left cold and empty and so very exhausted afterwards.

The drain put him right back where he was when he'd first woken up, and even further back when he was tortured constantly for the sake of science. It hurt. It was too much.

He wanted it to stop.

Shadow bit back his scream and forced as much power as he could into his core, fighting the drain despite how it tore sundering pain through his veins. He tried to use chaos control, to be anywhere but here-

The energy expanded from his core far, far faster than he expected. The world exploded around him in a blast of deep red energy, and then it all went black.

Chapter Text

The world came back into focus slowly with a high pitched ringing in Shadow's ears. He was acutely aware of being buried under something and pain all over his body, but he could barely see anything through the haze of his mind. Something blue passed in front of him and the weight on top of him moved.

He tried to ask for Professor Gerald on instinct. His tongue felt like lead. A voice said something, but it didn't quite register in Shadow's mind other than being male.

Shadow felt his body being lifted and pulled away from whatever he'd been buried under. His head flopped uselessly, sending small twinges of pain with each movement, and he let out a tiny whimper. Gerald had always heard his whimpers and been careful with him after tests.

The hands weren't the professor's. They were smaller and moved differently, brushing something off of Shadow's face. The voice was speaking again. It was... soft. Gentle. Concerned?

Shadow harshly blinked and flopped his hand against his head. The buzzing was slowly clearing, but chaos, he was so tired. The blue figure sat him up against them and spoke to another voice that was younger, and then something was put in his hand. Energy melted through his veins like drinking a hot beverage and suddenly he could see the world around him again. Sonic was holding him close and Tails was right there next to him, both looking very concerned, and in the distance he was able to see Amy and Vanilla running their way.

"...Sonic."

"Hey, he's back!" Sonic laughed. Why did he sound so relieved? "You were right, Tails!"

Shadow looked down at his hand. A handful of depleted chaos drives sat loosely in his fingers. They were surrounded by severely scorched grass and barren ground. Shadow's head slowly lifted to look around, his ears flattening to his head and quills raising in alarm. The area around what used to be Eggman's mech was now a small smoking crater. Eggman himself was nowhere to be seen, leaving behind a mess of metal pieces and warped wires. The blast had taken out a good portion of the surrounding trees, but thankfully hadn't reached the house.

"No," Shadow whispered, staring at the damage.

Sonic shifted his hold on Shadow to pat his shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll grow back. Ol' Eggy's bots explode on me all the time over in Green Hill Zone and it's right back to bein' green in no time!"

That was... not what was horrifying Shadow at the moment, but he supposed that was good to know, in a bitter kind of way. He squirmed out of Sonic's hold, barely managing to catch himself on his hands and knees. Sonic reached out and tried to support him anyway as Amy and Vanilla reached them.

"What happened?" Amy demanded. She had a massive hammer in her hands and a fire in her eyes that made Shadow flinch back ever so slightly.

Tch. It wasn't even directed at him... yet. The Ultimate Lifeform, Professor Gerald's masterpiece, destroyer of trees, flinching at little girls. They were all bound to know something was different about him now. People didn't just explode.

A seed of doubt crawled into Shadow's mind as he looked at Sonic's burnt hands and slightly singed fur.

People... didn't just explode, right?

"Eggman tried to use a person as a battery again," Sonic grumbled. Shadow startled and looked up at his face. "It didn't go so well."

"A-again?" Shadow asked.

"Eh, yeah, once I got stuck in his trap and he hooked me up to a hamster wheel thing. Some of his bots still use flickies and other little critters as power sources, too." Sonic heaved Shadow upright. Vanilla dropped to her knees and cupped his face, looking him over for wounds with a tight frown.

"So he used Shadow this time? Where's Eggman at?" Amy asked, anger in her voice. "He deserves a good knocking, using an injured person like that!"

Shadow stared at her in shock.

"He ran away after the whole thing exploded." Sonic grumbled and lightly bonked his head against Shadow's in a gesture that Shadow was utterly baffled by. What the heck was that supposed to mean!? "Speaking of, you okay, Shadow?"

Sonic got the wide-eyed look this time. Vanilla tsk'd and turned his head gently, running her hand over a quill that felt broken.

"These are some rather deep scratches. Sonic dear, are you injured? Tails?"

"I'm fine, Miss Vanilla," Tails squeaked. "Shadow knocked me clear of Eggman's machines."

Shadow's eyes flicked to the fox and confirmed- yes, his fur looked a little ruffled, but otherwise Tails was fine. Tails cast him a smile.

"Thanks," he added.

Shadow's brain was already short-circuiting. Were these idiots not paying attention? He'd literally just released an energy explosion in front of them! They should have been scared of him, not holding him close and- was Amy angry for him?

His brain kept firing blanks as Vanilla and Amy swept the boys into the house. Sonic insisted he was fine, but still ended up on the couch beside Shadow with a warm cup of tea and a damp rag to clean his fur up with. Shadow dissociated through the entirety of Vanilla's first aid care and once again ended up with bandages covering wounds that would no longer be there in a short amount of time, staring blankly ahead while his heartbeat thundered in his ears. Sonic and Tails bragged about how "cool" he was when he removed the battery from Eggman's console, which normally might have made him swell a bit with pride, but really just made him feel awful in the moment.

Vanilla particularly fussed over the gouges in his back where Eggman's mechanical claw had dug deep into his skin. Shadow just stared at her, unable to comprehend her actions. He couldn't even feel the injuries.

To be fair, though, he didn't really feel like he had a body at the moment. His mind was somewhere above it and to the left instead of in his head where it was supposed to be.

"It'll heal," he mumbled when she tended to one of his deeper scratches. "'S fine."

Vanilla pursed her lips at him and continued her care. Amy, however, put her hands on her hips.

"Yes, it'll heal, but that doesn't mean you don't deserve to be properly cared for," she said, and there went Shadow's last brain cell.

Thankfully Tails brought the conversation back down to something Shadow did comprehend. The little fox scooted closer the moment Vanilla was done and closed up her first aid kit. His eyes were wide with wonder and questions and Shadow was once again reminded of Maria's intense curiosity.

"How'd you do that thing with your shoes? Are they rocket shoes? How do they work?"

"Air shoes," Shadow replied automatically. "Model 3.76.1, designed by professor Gerald Robotnik."

Sonic, Tails and Amy all stiffened, but Shadow just kept going. He'd listed the specifications to cameras and to scientists so many times that the information just spilled out.

"Exhaust pipes on gyroscopic ball joints allow for maneuverability depending on angle and chaos energy output pushed through the soles of the foot. Designed for high mobility in any form of gravity and able to withstand temporary flight with proper energy throughput. Blueprints classified as top secret. Alloy blend classified as need to know. Inquiries must be submitted to..."

He trailed off and took a breath.

"...It doesn't exist anymore. None of it does- it's all gone. It's all..."

His vision was blurry with something wet. It was wrong. Weapons didn't cry. Someone was holding his hands. That was also wrong. He clung to them anyway, squeezing them as tightly as he dared, which wasn't very hard. Humans- people- they were so fragile.

"It's gone," he said again. "Everyone's dead. Why? Why is..."

Why did they shoot?

He saw the face of the scientist who loaded him into the stasis pod again. Her name was Knowlton. She was one of the few who remained behind to shut the ARK down. They hadn't interacted much, but she was kind during that last week and kept telling him everything would be okay.

Her blood splattered so easily when the gunshot rang out.

Maria got to see the planet, just like she'd always wanted. She was only able to do that because Shadow existed. He knew that. But he also knew that seven scientists were shot and killed because of him.

No one was supposed to die. Wasn't he supposed to help humanity?

Someone had their arm around his shoulder. A hand stroked over his quills, and Shadow broke down. Weapons didn't cry. But Shadow did.

He wasn't sure how long he cried for, nor when he'd fallen asleep, but Shadow woke up in a warm tangle of blankets, quills, chao and cushions. Amy, Sonic, Tails and Cream (when did Cream get here?) were all piled around him on the floor, since there wasn't enough room for them on the couch. Someone had made a pillow fort around them so they were tented by blankets and then hung tiny light strands from the supports. The sound of Vanilla humming came from somewhere outside of the den- probably in the kitchen.

Shadow stared up at the little lights with his hand resting on Cream's head. She was sleeping curled up in his lap with Cheese and Chocola in her arms, Tails and Amy were snuggled up on either side of him, and they were all laying on top of Sonic, who seemed like he'd fallen asleep trying to hug all of them all at once.

It was... cozy.

Sonic snored loudly behind him. Shadow's ear flicked, and he allowed a slight smile on his face. It vanished just as quickly as he thought back to the ARK, and to everything that had happened over the past few days.

Fifty years had passed, but it was all less than a week to him. In one week he'd lost everything he'd ever known and been thrown into a world totally alien to him. But in one week he'd also been shown things he'd never seen before and given kindness he'd only really seen from one person. Now here he was, a weapon of mass destruction being cuddled and comforted by a bunch of terrifyingly effective children.

Shadow blinked and tilted his head back. Sonic had stopped snoring and was now awake, watching him quietly with a small smile.

"Heya, space boy," Sonic whispered. "How're you feeling?"

"Space boy?" Shadow whispered back.

Sonic grinned. "I mean, I could call you chao whisperer, but I think Cream's got dibs on that title."

Shadow let out an amused huff. "Just Shadow's fine."

"Alright, alright. Are you feeling any better?"

Shadow let his gaze fall back to staring at the little light strings. He didn't reply at first, mulling over his words in his head. He'd already been vulnerable in front of everyone here and let down his guard. He was undoubtedly too close now.

Scratch that. He'd been too close the moment he'd first opened up to Vanilla. If G.U.N. came calling they'd all be in trouble. But, maybe, if he had Sonic at his side... maybe he could prevent-

He shut that line of thought down. G.U.N. was Shadow's problem. No more innocent people getting hurt. The moment G.U.N. knew about him, he'd take the fight to them.

"Shadow?"

"I don't know."

Sonic fell quiet, but only for a moment. "Do you remember Knuckles? The red guy."

"Vaguely," Shadow replied.

"We should go talk to him tomorrow."

"...We?"

"You and me. And Tails, probably, since Angel Island's in the air. I mean, I can fly the Tornado, but I like it when Tails does better."

Shadow stared blankly ahead. "Why?"

"Um. Ah, I don't want to say this around Amy and Tails..."

"Tough. I can't move."

"Ugh, rough customer. I can't either. They're asleep, right?"

Shadow looked down at the kids. Tails was basically a fluffy ball on his left, and as much as it disgusted him that Amy was drooling, he didn't have the willpower to shove her off of his arm on the right.

"Yes," he said, "they're out."

Sonic scooted closer as best he could, but it really just meant he shifted enough that his head rested closer to Shadow's. The position was awkward and Sonic's quills splayed weirdly. Shadow burned the image in his mind, filing it away for the rough days he knew were bound to come ahead.

"In that capsule, when you rescued me... I was pretty scared."

Shadow blinked. He shifted his head to look at Sonic a little better, taking note of how Sonic wouldn't meet his eyes. He had a small smile on his face, but it was strained.

"You saved my life back there. And, I know Tails and Amy can handle themselves, but... I'd really rather stick around and see what they do with their lives, you know?" Sonic's ears were pinned back and his voice almost inaudible to the regular ear. "So, um... I got curious about chaos energy. You use it so effortlessly, and I've never seen someone just spin the emeralds like that before. I mean, I've made them spin, but not like that."

Sonic was able to use chaos energy. Why wasn't he surprised?

"You want to learn chaos control," Shadow guessed.

Sonic grinned. "Yeah, uh. Yeah. Knuckles knows a lot about chaos energy and way more about the chaos emeralds than I do. I was kinda hopin' you two might get along. Plus..."

He fumbled and shifted a little bit until one of his hands was free. Sonic reached around Tails to the best of his ability and rested his hand on Shadow's.

"Earlier, when Eggman caught you... I get the feeling you've never used your power like that before."

Shadow's breath hitched. Was he so obvious? He thought he'd been trained to hide his feelings better than that-

Well.

He hadn't really been hiding any of his feelings since the ARK, had he?

"...Not... that I can remember," Shadow said carefully. "I... tried... to use chaos control, but..."

"It spooked you, didn't it?"

Shadow gritted his teeth. He wanted to say no, no it didn't, but he'd have been a liar. Sonic was hitting his feelings on the head with every statement and he didn't like it. He looked down at Cream on his chest and slowly let out his breath.

"What are you getting at?"

"Training."

Shadow focused on Sonic again. Sonic met his eyes this time, and Shadow was slightly taken aback by the confidence behind his gaze.

"If we train, I'm sure you can master that ability. Then you won't have to be scared of it. And I can learn chaos control, and neither of us will have to worry. You don't have to," Sonic added hurriedly, squeezing his hand. "Today was pretty rough, and I totally get it if you need to rest for a while first."

It was a choice. Sonic wasn't scared of his ability, for some reason, and was offering him a chance to learn proper control. It was different than the scientists who clamped down on his powers and forced him to train day in and day out or ran experiments on how to properly control him.

"One condition," Shadow said.

Sonic blinked. "What is it?"

Shadow took a breath. "Would- agh, this is- I want a race."

"Oh thank chaos."

"What?"

"I've been dying to ask if you wanted to race for hours."

"...You have?"

Sonic snorted. "Buddy, I can go the speed of sound. Do you know how hard it is to find someone who might be able to keep up with me?"

Shadow eyed him with a growing sense of anticipation. He couldn't help it- he was excited. Someone who could keep up with Sonic? Hah.

Sonic could keep up with Shadow.

"I look forward to it, Blue."

Chapter Text

They were not allowed to go to Angel Island the following day. Vanilla was willing to let them out of her sight, but only if they spent at least one day resting, She said nothing about how Shadow's wounds were completely gone, only that he still looked like he could use a good meal. Shadow was starting to be convinced that she knew he healed at an unnatural rate and was either hiding it or saving the information in order to blackmail him into something like replanting her garden later.

...Not that he'd have minded replanting her garden. The plants were strangely relaxing, and the chao often gathered around when they were outside, especially if Cream was there.

Sonic was antsy and couldn't seem to sit still. Tails and Amy treated this like it was normal, but Shadow found he felt the same way as Sonic. He itched to explore and to move, to get going and throw himself into the midst of something to do. Tails had taken measurements of his ears and vanished into the Tornado for some reason and Amy and Cream were excitedly putting together a meal kit under Vanilla's supervision for them to take to Knuckles, which left just Sonic and Shadow to their own devices.

So, naturally, Sonic and Shadow slipped away to look for a place to race. They walked around for a bit before stumbling across an area with a soothing kind of energy to it. There was a clearing in the trees that contained a pool of water that stemmed from a tiny waterfall, and two or three much smaller trees bearing round fruit grew around the pool.

The area was full of chao Shadow hadn't seen before. There were a few that he remembered from Cream's infodumps, and they seemed to recognize him back, because the moment Shadow and Sonic entered the area they were bombarded by meeps and tiny tugs for attention.

"Hey, a chao garden!" Sonic knelt on one knee and rubbed a chao on the head. "Figures there's at least one around here."

"A chao garden?" Shadow folded his arms. He stood still as a chao that seemed particularly fond of his quills struggled to climb up his leg and squirmed its way onto his head. The little fellow liked heights, but didn't quite seem smart enough to realize there were easier ways of getting up there.

"Yeah! Occasionally you'll see an area like this with a high density of chaos energy. The chao really prosper with clean water and the fruit that grows here."

Shadow looked around. The high density of chaos energy explained why it felt soothing to him, and he briefly wondered if Gerald had studied the chao at all during his travels. The chao on his head tapped him and pointed at the nearest tree. Shadow reached up and gave the tree a light smack and caught the fruit that fell from its branches. The chao eagerly took it from his hand and started munching away. Sonic looked up at him and smirked.

"Have you named it yet?"

Shadow cast him a confused look. "What? Why would I name it?"

Sonic gestured at his head. "That's your chao, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Shadow. Buddy."

"Don't 'buddy' me and just explain."

"Come on, it's clearly imprinted on you! Surely Cream's told you about how chao can pick people, right?"

Cream had, in fact, told him about this. Cheese had picked her right away after she pulled them in from a rainstorm and dried them off, and Chocola had just moved in and never left.

Shadow refused to admit that he'd gotten attached to this particular chao as well. It was stupid and blue and didn't seem to think ahead, not to mention loud and obnoxious. As it grew closer and closer to Shadow it became quieter and calmer, but still remained an absolute idiot. It climbed up things the long way round instead of taking the obvious stairs and walked right into walls as if it had its head in the clouds. Shadow had to save it from choking on a fruit pit more than once because it daydreamed while eating.

It was adorable.

But he couldn't keep it. He wouldn't be sticking around for much longer, not around Vanilla and Cream's house. He wasn't sure where he would go, but he knew he couldn't stay here. It didn't matter how much he wanted to stay near Cream and Vanilla or the chao. When G.U.N. eventually found him he didn't want anyone else being in danger just from being in his proximity. Not again.

"I'm not keeping Edge," he said.

Sonic gave him a flat look. Shadow stared back, the realization of what he'd just said slowly hitting him. He slowly put his hand over his face and let out a sigh.

"Okay, yes. I named it. But I can't keep them."

"Why not?"

What was he supposed to say? 'Because I'm bound to be found by the government and they shoot first and ask later'? 'Because I'm a science experiment designed for medical reasons and turned into a weapon'? 'Because I can't take care of anyone else. I can't even take care of me.' 'Because I'm scared of losing everything again.'

"I just can't," he said.

Sonic stood up and put his hands on his hips, leaning forward and scrutinizing Shadow with a gaze that Shadow wasn't socially adept enough to interpret. It was somewhere between a smirk and a scowl with his eyes partially lidded and his ears half-flopped in a relaxed manner.

"What?" Shadow demanded, leaning slightly away from him.

"You're such a bad liar."

"Excuse me!?"

Edge cooed and patted his head. Shadow's eyes flicked up to cast the little traitor a glare.

Sonic patted Shadow's arm and dramatically sighed. "If you need help or don't know how to care for them, just say so."

"I don't-" Shadow protested, but Sonic was already moving again, scooping Edge off of his head and stroking the chao's head.

"Looks like a flying type," he said.

Edge squirmed a little and reached for Shadow, who swiped them back out of Sonic's hands immediately. Sonic smirked at him. Shadow glared at him and put the chao back on his head, where they immediately snuggled back in and made a soft noise.

"Not keeping them my butt." Sonic turned around and waved. "I'm gonna keep looking around for a place we can race. Be back in a few!"

He ran off, leaving Shadow to scowl after him. After a moment Shadow's expression softened and he let out a small annoyed huff. He leaned against the fruit tree and folded his arms. It annoyed Shadow quite a bit how much Sonic and his friends could just read him like an open book. Deep down he was starting to get worried that Sonic would know immediately when something was about to go wrong and get himself involved.

He couldn't stay here for much longer. Shadow would train with Sonic and Knuckles for a little bit, then leave as soon as he was confident he was back up to 100%.

His ear twitched. There was a very subtle sound somewhere in the trees, something like wings flapping. He'd heard this sound a few times while outside, but this was the first time he'd heard it so close. It was hard for him to tell the source since he wasn't used to the sheer amount of biodiversity on the planet yet, but it sounded much larger than the little birds he'd seen fluttering around. And then there was the extremely subtle smell that came with it. It was... muffled by something, but he knew the scent of coffee fairly well, and a part of the smell was definitely coffee.

Sonic zipped back up to him, breaking him out of his train of thought. Shadow followed him, the sound completely forgotten.

Sonic wasn't kidding. He really did go fast. Shadow kept up with him easily, so it didn't take long at all for them to be pushing their limits past just "hey let's run to that tree and back." Shadow was forced to use his air shoes the entire time, but it only took him slamming face first in the dirt or into a tree three times before he got the hang of how gravity worked here.

They struggled to identify a winner. One race turned into two, then three, then four, and then Tails called Sonic on his communicator asking where Shadow was.

"Hey Tails, check for us to see who's the winner," Sonic said, winking at Shadow.

"Check wha-"

Three minutes later they were both being scolded by Tails because Shadow failed to remember that gravity changed how he stopped, too. Shadow tried to apologize for the large dent in the Tornado's side, but Tails just checked that his head was fine before starting to scold Sonic for being a "bad influence." Shadow could only sit in shock while Sonic bashfully grinned and apologized for the lack of warning.

"You know I can't properly judge the winner without at least some kind of sensor," Tails complained, looking Shadow's eyes over again for a sign of a concussion. He sighed and grumbled, but Sonic's grin was pretty infectious, and the little fox couldn't help looking between them with a smile. "So? Who's faster?"

"I am!" Sonic said instantly.

"It's hard to tell," Shadow responded at the same time. Sonic pouted, but Shadow had a more scientific explanation at the ready for Tails's curious gaze. "By sheer footpower, Sonic is faster, but in terms of withstanding extreme vectors I believe we're equal."

"So... if you didn't have the air shoes, you wouldn't be as fast?" Tails guessed. Sonic looked at Shadow in keen interest, but Shadow smirked and let a little bit of his playful side take over.

"I did not say that," he said. "Speed is relative."

Sonic put his hands on his hips and leaned forward with a grin. "Is that a challenge?"

Shadow folded his arms and met Sonic's gaze confidently. "You know where to find me, Blue."

Tails sighed and pulled out a small notepad. "Build a race track with built in speed sensors. Got it. Shadow, hold out your hand."

Shadow did so, palm down. He was used to blood being drawn from the vein on the back of his hand or from the artery in his elbow, so he was mildly surprised when instead of doing something similar Tails turned his hand over and placed a small capsule in his palm. He looked at it in confusion and popped the top open to find two red earbuds with little padded mufflers on the outer edges inside.

"I wasn't sure what color you like, but I figured if they have mufflers then you can run with them in and not get overstimulated by the wind buffeting your ears," Tails explained. "I, uh, I hope you don't mind red..."

It felt almost normal at this point for Shadow's brain to break multiple times in a day. He stared at the device in his hand, struggling to comprehend what just happened. An eternity must have passed before he was able to blink.

"This is... for me?"

"If you want it!" Tails held up his hands and anxiously smiled. "If you don't then I can, um, probably find a use for it, but, if it helps-"

Shadow didn't waste time and popped them in his ears. They fit perfectly and were comfortable, and the lack of wind going inside his sensitive ear canals was such a sudden sense of relief that he could have staggered from the change in sensory input. He turned the earbud case over and found the power button, turning it on to find it had the same classical song from the previous day loaded into it.

"...I don't have to give it back?" he asked.

"Um, not unless you want to?"

He was aware of Sonic and Tails watching him. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and be filled with nothing but the sound of the music and be comforted by the ghost of Maria's terrible warbling in his mind, but he could always do that later. This was a gift, and it was his.

It slowly hit him that the inhibitor rings and his skates were also his, now. They weren't borrowed, because no one else could use them. So much time had passed that anyone who remembered they didn't technically belong to Shadow was gone.

...Where would he put the earbuds when they weren't in use? Would he just have to constantly use them?

"Woah, look at that smile," Sonic whispered. Most sounds were deafened, but Shadow could still hear him talk due to their proximity. "Tails, buddy, I think you did good with this one."

Smile?

Shadow touched his face and realized yes, he was smiling. A real smile, not a smirk or a fake expression. When was the last time he'd smiled? He couldn't remember.

"Thank you," he said. Tails beamed.

"It flies."

"Yup!"

"Why is an island flying?"

"Technically it's floating, but you'll also have to ask Knuckles how that works."

Shadow peered at the island from the wing of the Tornado. Sonic had encouraged him to stand on it while Tails flew the plane, and Shadow had to agree that it had a much better view than the passenger seat. He didn't quite like the feeling of having so much nothing around him at first, but after the first hour of flying he came to realize it wasn't actually that bad. Shadow ended up mostly admiring the view and taking in the vast difference in appearance of the planet for most of the ride right up until Angel Island came into view.

Shadow slightly tilted his head. He sensed something that felt like a chaos emerald, but he wasn't sure it necessarily was one. It felt similar, but very different at the same time. It felt deeper, warmer, almost... like comparing the vastness of the ocean they'd flown over to the sheer emptiness that was space, if space felt more like a blanket and the ocean was a roiling mass of chaotic energies.

Alright, maybe his analogies needed work, but he didn't have much to compare them to.

Tails pulled them in for a smooth landing. Shadow crouched on the wing and had expected some turbulence, but there was only a little bit of bumpiness from the touchdown and from the natural bumps and lumps in the dirt.

"You are an excellent pilot," he commented to Tails, genuinely meaning it.

Half of the pilots aboard the ARK who performed supply runs and moved things back and forth weren't nearly as skilled. Shadow had once been deployed to stop a runaway shuttle after the pilot lost control in the artificial gravity and smacked the shuttle into one of the transport rail systems. His palms still itched at the memory of 2000 tonnes slamming into them. Even at a low speed, it was a lot of weight, and the people inside all yelling at each other and at him hadn't exactly helped anything.

"Isn't he great?" Sonic said, jumping off of the wing and waving to the incoming red silhouette.

Tails blushed and busied himself with shutting down the Tornado. Shadow hopped down and strode over to join Sonic as Knuckles arrived with something large and ceramic in his hands.

"Hey, Sonic! Check this out, I found something that looks- oh."

Knuckles stopped talking and looked Shadow up and down. Shadow's quills instinctively rose under his scrutiny, and he did his best to push down the instant dislike of the echidna. They hadn't interacted at all aboard the ARK, partially due to the fact that there were quite a few distractions and Shadow's body had given out on him. Shadow wasn't sure what Knuckles was like at all other than Sonic's brief commentary about training, but he knew that being sized up like Knuckles was doing to him now was not a friendly thing.

"So," Knuckles said slowly, "you're awake."

Shadow bristled at his tone and nodded. Knuckles narrowed his eyes and flicked his gaze over to Sonic, who was distracted completely by the pottery Knuckles was holding. Knuckles shoved the pottery into Sonic's hands and stepped closer with his arms folded.

Unfortunately for Knuckles, his attempts at being intimidating weren't working. Shadow met his glare with a steady stare of his own and stood his ground.

"Why are you on my island?" Knuckles demanded.

"Oh, right." Sonic finally looked up from the pottery and looked between the two. "Knux, you know a lot about chaos energy, right? Do you know what would make something like chaos control turn explosive?"

Knuckles stopped his aggressive posturing and blinked at Sonic. "Wha- explosive? You didn't try it on your own, did you?"

Sonic coughed. "No! Not yet! There was this thing with Eggman-"

"Ugh, of course it's him."

"-And he tried to use Shadow as a battery, and uh."

Shadow passed a hand over his face. Knuckles looked confused and was now looking between them as if Sonic had two heads. Tails finally joined them, toting the lunchbox meant for Knuckles with him.

"Hi Knu-"

"So Shadow exploded?" Knuckles demanded.

"Well, uh- kind of? It was less explode-y and more like this big shockwave of energy that left a crater."

"Isn't that what an explosion is?"

Tails sidled closer to Shadow and patted his elbow. Shadow let out a tiny groan and eyed the small fox.

"Is this normal?" he asked tiredly.

Tails sheepishly chuckled. "Yeah. Um. Knuckles is the guardian of the island and the Master Emerald, so he's a little wary of strangers."

"So you brought an exploding hedgehog onto my island!?"

Shadow's eyebrow twitched. This was going to be a very long day.

Chapter Text

"You know, this kind of isn't what I was expecting from visiting Knuckles," Sonic said, biting into a half-unwrapped sandwich.

"What were you expecting?" Tails asked. An explosive gust of wind ruffled his bangs. He flicked down a pair of goggles over his eyes and sipped from a thermos.

Sonic shrugged and chewed contemplatively for a moment. "I dunno, something less... grunty? I mean, we all know Knuckles is a history buff, but who knew Shadow would be into rocks?"

Tails send him an amused look. "What I find unexpected is that you're not over there with them."

A grin crept its way across Sonic's face. He waved his hand nonchalantly and popped a strawberry in his mouth. "You know me, Tails. Running through old ruins is a regular Tuesday. Shadow, though..."

Another gust ruffled his quills and Tails's fur.

"...He deserves to experience this at least once."

Bang!

"Are you an idiot!? Don't damage the spikes, they're there for a reason!"

"What did you want me to do!? Move faster next time!"

"Especially with Knuckles," Sonic added. "That's definitely an experience."

Tails gave a soft hum. "It is nice to see Shadow being lively. I didn't expect someone to have speed that rivals yours and teleportation, but he's just full of surprises."

Sonic paused with his sandwich halfway to his mouth. His hand slowly lowered as he mulled the thought over in his head.

Tails was absolutely right- Shadow was an enigma. Sonic had been so excited that someone could keep up with him that he hadn't thought about it too much, but it was entirely possible that Shadow could do a lot more than just go fast and blip around places. He emitted energy similar to a chaos emerald and healed fast, and that was coming from Sonic, who also healed at an unnatural rate.

Sonic didn't usually question things. He liked to explore and let things be and enjoy them as they were. He didn't question how Tails wiggled his butt in order to fly or how Knuckles could glide despite not having any wings or... mass, or, uh, whatever appendages were needed. Amy could just produce hammers out of thin air, Cream could fly with her ears, Knuckles could punch his way through steel and communicate with ghosts, his friends were awesome, chili dog party time.

Shadow was making him start to question things. Eggman said he emitted an energy signature like a chaos emerald, so how come he hadn't shown up when Tails was looking for emeralds on the ARK? Why did Shadow's energy expand like that and explode?

"...Hey, Tails."

"Yeah?"

Sonic watched Knuckles and Shadow trigger yet another trap in the ruins and bit his lip.

Once Knuckles and Shadow calmed down from their initial staring contest Sonic had asked about the weird pottery, and Knuckles had explained that it was a relic he found and wanted to return it to its original place. He'd studied it for a while and had a good idea where it belonged, so now he just needed to get there. To everyone's surprise, Shadow was curious about the relic and the ruins themselves.

"You... want to know more about it?" Knuckles had asked warily.

Shadow had hesitated before gesturing at the vase in Sonic's hands. "There were sometimes relics brought aboard the ARK for studying. It's... many of them looked like this. The craftsmanship is hard to misplace. No one's left aboard, so perhaps they should be returned where they would be appreciated."

That had gotten Knuckles's attention. The two quickly got distracted talking about artistic patterns and echidna culture, and then Knuckles eventually loosened up enough to invite Shadow to return the relic with him and Sonic. Sonic quickly told them to have fun and settled down with Tails at the entrance of an old temple. The resulting misadventures were comedic in places and almost sad in others, since Shadow wasn't used to navigating anything old and Knuckles was pretty bad at giving directions on the spot. They were tripping and stumbling and knocking into each other at every turn, and here Sonic was without popcorn.

"What kind of research were they doing on the ARK?" Sonic asked.

"Supposedly the research aboard was for the betterment of mankind," Tails replied, setting down his thermos and pulling out the internal bits for what was already starting to look like a handheld device from a bag at his side. "I found a lot of records for biological experiments like stem cell growth and technological advancement when I first looked through it."

Sonic stared ahead. "The betterment of mankind. With a giant laser built in?"

"Yeah, that's been bugging me too." Tails put a few loose screws to the side and picked up a screwdriver. "Most things aboard that we saw kind of looked like weapons, right? And those blue creatures that looked like Chaos that ran amok- but I kind of don't feel right continuing to look into it after we found Shadow."

Sonic glanced at him. "Yeah?"

Tails put a screw in and began to twist it. "It feels dishonest to look into someone's past without their permission, you know?"

Sonic's mouth formed a perfect "O" and he nodded. Looking into the ARK was looking into Shadow's past, wasn't it? Still...

"Still," he said out loud, hoping that maybe Tails could help him clear up his cluttered thoughts. "What are the chances that Robotnik guy he mentioned is related to Eggman somehow?"

Tails's hands slowed down. The little fox stopped moving altogether and sighed, slowly looking up at Sonic with conflicted eyes. Sonic instantly scooted closer and wrapped an arm around his little brother's shoulders.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I did... look up that name," Tails admitted quietly. "He was a bigwig scientist and a reknowned genius who did a lot of research into various things. Most notably weapons and bioengineering. But... after the ARK was shut down, he was arrested for inhumane experimentation methods."

Sonic's eyes widened. "You don't think..."

Tails shivered and leaned into Sonic's embrace. "I don't want to make assumptions. The official report is that they delayed his trial so he could take care of his sick granddaughter until she died, and then all records of him just vanish."

"That's kind of... sad."

"You are right though," Tails added quietly. He looked at the ruins where Shadow and Knuckles had vanished into and shook his head. "He was Eggman's grandfather."

Sonic slowly nodded. He squeezed Tails and smiled down at his little brother before releasing him and stretching in a leisurely manner. "It'll be fine! Hey, did you know Shadow's got a chao now?"

"He does?"

"Yeah, little bugger wouldn't let go of him even while we were racing yesterday." Sonic mimicked the terrified face Edge had made, his hands held out as if he was holding on to something for dear life. "Looked like this the whole time. It's adorable."

Tails stared at him in awe. "It- it held on? While you were racing? How!?"

"No idea!"

While the two were giggling, Shadow and Knuckles came up to where they were sitting, both covered in dust and slightly singed and hollering back and forth at each other.

"YOU COULD HAVE JUST PUNCHED IT!" Knuckles bellowed, pulling a mess of dusty cobwebs off his head.

"I didn't want to!" Shadow yelled back. "What if I broke the wall!?"

"JUST PUNCH IT LIGHTLY!"

"I don't know how to do that!"

Knuckles punched the palm of his hand with his fist. "JUST DO IT LIKE THIS!"

"Why are we yelling!?"

"WHAT!?"

"I said why are we yelling!?"

"I'M NOT YELLING!!"

Shadow squinted at Knuckles. Knuckles stared back, his chest heaving with the effort from yelling. Shadow reached his hands out and put them on either side of Knuckles's head, his palms emitting a gentle green glow. Sonic and Tails's mouths dropped as Knuckles recoiled slightly and blinked.

"WHAt oh I was yelling- what the heck was that?" Knuckles demanded. "That-"

Shadow withdrew his hands. "Your ears must have been damaged from the explosion. Why were we punching the wall?"

"Oh, there's a hidden panel behind that section that would have deactivated the traps," Knuckles replied easily. "The wall in that spot is actually a brick with springs behind it, but you have to tap it with enough force to dislodge the dust in the mechanism."

Shadow's brows slightly knitted. "So... they designed a mural that you have to beat up."

Knuckles paused, his mouth slightly open. His eyes widened as he thought about it, and then he burst out laughing. Shadow tilted his head, but Knuckles just flopped himself down next to Sonic and Tails and took a canteen, still chuckling. Sonic waved Shadow to sit down with a grin.

"You can heal people, too?" Sonic asked, offering Shadow his own water bottle.

Shadow took the bottle and peered at it. His ears flattened as if he was ashamed of something. "It's just chaos energy manipulation. ...I am not... always able to use it, so I was unsure if it would work, however."

"That's because it's based in positive chaos energy." Knuckles opened up the lunchbox that Tails passed him. His eyes practically sparkled when he saw it was filled with grapes, and he missed seeing the way Shadow paused and stared at him due to promptly shoving a few in his mouth.

Sonic, however, caught the look. "Shadow, you didn't know about positive and negative energies?"

"I..." Shadow hesitated. "No, I thought it was all the same."

"Huh. I didn't know either until Tails mentioned it during that whole shebang with Chaos flooding Station Square a few months ago."

Shadow startled. "Chaos? As in the god of destruction, Chaos?"

"Oh yeah! Because Chaos drained the chaos emeralds of their negative energies," Tails explained. "So Sonic used the positive energies to turn super and calmed him down. That was pretty scary."

"I'm willing to bet the cause of your explosion was negative energy," Knuckles said, nudging Shadow's shoulder. "The difference is what emotions are tied to it. That doesn't mean either one is a bad thing, or inherently evil. Just look at chao. Dark chao are ones that have been raised with negative energy, but they're not evil at heart. Maybe a little mischievous, sure, but not evil."

Sonic burped. Tails leaned slightly away from him with a grimace and fanned his face. Shadow looked down at his hands as if seeing something new.

"Different emotions..." he repeated softly.

"Wait, what emotion is chaos control then?" Sonic asked. "Shadow, man, are you gonna drink out of that canteen or what?"

"Chaos control is neutral." Shadow handed the canteen back. Sonic promptly took a swig from it and looked at Knuckles, who nodded.

"He's right. Chaos control is neither positive or negative. It's a manipulation of time and space, which is a mixture of both positive and negative energies. There's no way to define it as one or the other."

Sonic was about to reply when he stopped and covered his mouth. Tails hid his face behind a sandwich with his eyes locked on Shadow's head. Knuckles looked between the two in confusion for a moment before glancing over at Shadow and startling. Climbing out from between Shadow's quills was a little dark gray chao. It tugged on one of Shadow's ears and squeaked. Shadow passed it a strawberry without thinking, then started and pulled the chao off of his head.

"How did you get here?" Shadow asked it.

"Is that- is that Edge?" Sonic asked. He had to struggle to hide his grin.

Knuckles snorted. "Edge. You named it Edge."

Shadow frowned at him. "That's what they said they wanted to be called. Is there a problem?"

Knuckles held up his hands defensively. "Nope. No problem."

"Were they stuck in your quills this whole time?" Sonic asked. He couldn't hide his glee anymore- Shadow protectively tucking the chao under his arm and immediately jumping to its defense was cute as heck. Edge just looked happy to be there and contentedly munched on the strawberry.

"No," Shadow replied firmly. "I left them with Cream before we left. Stop laughing."

Sonic burst into wheezing cackles.

"May I smack him?"

Knuckles raised his hand. "I'll do it."

"Nooo!" Sonic giggled, leaning away from the incoming glove. "Don't kill the messenger!"

"You're not delivering anything I want!"

Sonic batted Knuckles's hands away. They were being playful, but a smack from Knuckles still hurt any day of the week. He leaned towards Tails to try to escape and noticed Tails was watching Shadow with a slight frown. Shadow's ears were twitching in an alert fashion. His eyes were locked on a tree nearby and his quills were raised as if something had agitated him.

"Shadow?" Sonic asked, dropping his voice. Knuckles immediately stopped his play fighting to listen. "What's wrong?"

Shadow passed Edge over to him and vanished. Knuckles, Sonic and Tails all jumped to their feet as a cry came from the tree and Shadow reappeared, dragging a bat woman forcefully by the back of her shirt from the branches. The bat crashed heavily to the ground, smacking her chin on the way down while Shadow landed lightly on his feet. Knuckles's eyes widened.

"Hey! That's the bat girl who tried to steal the Master Emerald! What are you doing here? You're not after it again, are you!?"

"Ugh, that's so rude..." the bat complained, rubbing her chin and sitting up. "Did you have to hit me? That's no way to treat a lady."

"She's been sneaking around Miss Vanilla's house for the past few days," Shadow bit out. Sonic blinked and wondered why he was biting back what looked like a hint of anger. "I would like to know why."

"You could have just asked me!"

"Okay. Why were you sneaking around Miss Vanilla's ho-"

"I meant before, you punk!"

Shadow's expression slightly warped. Sonic took a few steps closer and offered the bat a hand up. She took it, flashing him a smile and standing upright.

"Thank you."

"Of course," Sonic said with a grin, suddenly tightening his hold on her hand. "I would like to know what you're doing stalking my friends, though, miss...?"

Her expression fell slightly, but it bounced back immediately. "Rouge. I'm a gem enthusiast. I was looking for gems, and you could say... I found one." Her eyes fluttered over to Shadow. Sonic glanced back and forth, mouth slightly agape.

If words were arrows, Rouge's comment soared over Shadow's head and went somewhere off into the woods. He just stared at her blankly for a moment.

"So... where is it?"

Rouge's eye twitched. Her smirk dropped to an "are you kidding me" expression. Sonic bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"That's a lie," Knuckles protested. "I'm a treasure hunter. The only gems around there are Vanilla's jewelry, and those are mostly fake. You can't have found any gems there."

Rouge looked at Knuckles and Shadow in disbelief before turning to Sonic. "Are they for real?"

Sonic's limit was reached. He burst out laughing yet again, now stared at by Knuckles, Shadow and Rouge. Edge squirmed out of his hand and flew over to Rouge's head, settling itself between her ears and yawning. Tails had his face in his hands and was shaking his head back and forth.

"Sorry, sorry," Sonic tittered, finally releasing Rouge's hand. "I don't think either of them know what flirting is."

"What a shame. That was such a good line, too." Rouge sighed.

"All flirting aside, what are you doing here? Because, uh, if it's the Master Emerald you're after, that's not gonna fly with Knuckles over there."

"I'm quite aware," Rouge drawled, smirking in Knuckles's direction. "As cute as he is when angry, I'm not after that today. If I could just have a chat with tall dark and handsome over there I'll be out of your way."

Sonic looked past the spluttering and blushing Knuckles at Shadow. Something about Rouge had clearly agitated the dark hedgehog. His quills hadn't relaxed in the slightest since she'd shown up and his ears were rigidly trained in her direction even when he wasn't looking at her. Sonic's instincts told him Rouge meant no harm, Master Emerald threats and flirting aside, but he couldn't ignore the fact that she made his friend uncomfortable. Still, it wasn't his place to decide who his friends talked to.

"Your choice, Shadow," he said, jerking his thumb in Rouge's direction. "You don't have to if you don't want to. We can always toss her off the island instead."

"Wha- hey!"

"What? You flew to get up here, didn't you?"

"I did, but- that's so rude!"

"I second tossing her off the island," Knuckles added.

"So long as she won't get hurt, I guess that's fine," Tails mumbled.

Rouge was affronted. "You three are horrible."

"Yup, horrible, awful and terrible, that's us." Sonic looked at Shadow again and noted how the dark hedgehog's quills had ever so slightly softened, one of his ears swiveled in Sonic's direction. It was a start, a tiny sign that perhaps Shadow was learning to trust him.

Shadow gripped his fists and let out a small breath. "I don't want to talk to a G.U.N. agent."

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all started. Rouge, however, sighed heavily.

"Sharp eyes. That's fair enough." She reached up to her ear and removed an earpiece, tossing it Shadow's way. He caught it and looked at it with as much surprise as Sonic felt. "That's my only method of communicating with them. I don't have a tracker on me or a badge. I just want to talk, that's all."

"Wait, hang on," Sonic said, putting an arm out between Rouge and Shadow. "Why does a G.U.N. agent want to talk to Shadow?"

Rouge pinched the bridge of her nose. "Blue, sweetheart, you're a hero, but you sure are dense. You saw how many G.U.N. robots were up there on the ARK and even smashed a bunch during your scuffle over the cannon- who do you think shut that place down?"

Sonic felt his own hackles raising. G.U.N. shut the ARK down and left Shadow in a stasis pod that was covered in blood. It wasn't hard to connect some dots.

"You're not exactly making me want to trust you," he warned.

Shadow stepped forward and tapped his shoulder. Sonic glanced back and frowned. Shadow's hand was shaking ever so slightly, but he gripped it and nodded at Rouge.

"You really only want to talk?" Shadow asked.

Rouge nodded. "I just want to talk."

"Fine. Let's talk."

Chapter Text

"If you get uncomfortable at any point, just honk like a goose and I'll be right there. Or- wait, do you know what a goose sounds like- wait, you can send Edge over, or-"

"Sonic."

"Oh, or you can just like, yell really loudly? Wait, you'll be in broad view of us, won't you? Just wave or something then. I know you just said you wanted to talk, but that offer to toss her off the island is still valid, okablrrrgh?"

Shadow removed his hand from Sonic's mouth. "I can toss her off the island myself, but thank you for the offer."

Sonic stretched his jaw a little and wiped his tongue on his arm. "Eugh, your gloves are dusty."

"...Sorry."

Sonic waved his mumbled apology away. "You're sure you'll be okay to talk to her? I know," he added, catching the look Shadow shot him, "I just- you don't look comfortable. I just want to make sure you're alright, that's all."

Shadow's expression softened. He didn't believe he would ever be comfortable, or even relaxed, never again. Sonic's concern was misplaced and unnecessary (weapons don't need comfort, the G.U.N. soldiers told him again in his mind) but that didn't mean he didn't appreciate it. Tails was vehemently nodding nearby, and Shadow knew he felt the same. Knuckles nodded as well, but Shadow was pretty certain the echidna just wanted to toss Rouge off the island and be done with the whole affair.

He spun on his heel and strode over to where Rouge was waiting in the shade of a nice palm tree. Knuckles insisted that, while their conversation would be private, Rouge had to be in sight of the group at all times, citing something called the Master Emerald as a reason. Shadow had gathered from the conversation that there was some history there, but to be honest he didn't really care right now.

He was more worried about the fact that G.U.N. had found him so quickly. It had barely been a few days since the ARK incident, so how did they know where he was? Did they have global monitoring systems for strange energy spikes now? How long were they tracking him for? Did they know where he was since he was released?

Were Cream and Vanilla already in danger?

"Oof, that's a face."

He glared at Rouge. She held up her hands defensively from where she was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree.

"Speak," he snarled. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were no longer in earshot. He had no reason to pretend to be friendly.

Rouge sighed and lowered her hands. "G.U.N. was monitoring your stasis pod. Only a select few people know you're awake- for now. My orders are to keep an eye on you."

"And do what?" Shadow demanded, his fists clenched. If it wasn't for his gloves' reinforced fingertips his claws would probably be digging into his palms. "They won't just let me roam free. What's the end goal here?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know."

Rouge met his furious eyes with a calm gaze. "No, Shadow. I don't know. So I haven't told them that I've found you."

He blinked. "You- what? But-"

Rouge spread her arms in a shrug. "I may work for G.U.N., but that doesn't mean I trust them as far as I can throw them, you know. I was up there on the ARK during the whole laser thing with Eggman on a different mission- I saw the blood on your pod. No way in hell do I want something like that on my hands."

Shadow narrowed his eyes. It suddenly made sense how they found him. Rouge was in the area and had most likely followed Sonic's posse.

She knew about him from the start.

"What do you want, then? Because if any harm comes to Vanilla and Cream-"

"What? No! I don't want that either! I'm a jewel thief, not heartless!" Rouge pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, I'm no good at this stuff- look, I don't want to be at odds with you. I ditched my tracker and only took my radio with me so they couldn't pinpoint where I am, but there's only so much I can do to throw off their trail."

A pricking sensation hit his palm. Shadow forced his hand to relax and flexed his fingers, feeling the chaos energy that was gathering start dissipating into thin air.

"Why would you do that? I don't see this being out of the good of your heart."

Rouge smirked. "You're right. I'm pretty selfish. I asked for double pay for this mission."

Shadow quirked an eyebrow. "...You're money motivated."

"I'm money motivated."

Well... he could work with that. If she had said her motivations were out of pity or kindness Shadow would have thrown her off the island then and there. He didn't know how to handle someone helping him for nothing in return. Even Gerald, his father creator, had wanted things out of him. He was a cure for Maria's sickness and a means to discover immortality, something built for scientific and medical research. Maria herself had been the only person he'd ever known that never wanted anything out of him.

...He wasn't sure where to stand with Sonic's friends, or Vanilla and Cream. Sonic himself was pretty hard to get a read on, what with oscillating between "of course I'm worried about you" and "hey so you can do this cool trick and I want to learn it too." What the hell was Shadow supposed to do with that?

Someone who had clear motivations was far easier to work with. He could read her greed and use it against her if he needed to. Selfishness was a powerful motivator. So was self-preservation- something Rouge had droves more than Sonic did any day.

"What's your plan?"

Rouge picked Edge off of her head and stroked the chao, earning herself a happy chirp. "It's as simple as this: you keep your head down, I pretend I can't find you. I get paid extra and have time to figure out what's going on, you get to keep frolicking and playing house."

"And when Eggman eventually shows up now that he knows he can use me as a battery?"

Rouge paused and smacked her forehead. "Right, I forgot about him. Look, I'm kind of flying blind here. I wasn't expecting you to realize I was tailing you."

Shadow gave her a flat stare. "Didn't you read my file?"

"What file," she replied just as flatly.

...Ah.

Drawing in a deep breath, Shadow let himself relax a little bit and folded his arms. "Was this your plan all along, then? Just... watch and do nothing?"

Rouge nodded. "Pretty much. Don't give me that look, I was thrown into this with the words 'hey this is urgent and top secret, don't let anyone know what's going on, just go follow this biological weapon and keep an eye on him' and sent on my way. I didn't want to jump in and get my head torn off."

"I don't-" Shadow gripped his arm tightly. "...I've never ripped someone's head off. I- I've had to shoot dummies, but-"

Her expression fell. Rouge's mouth opened and shut again, her ears pinning back a bit. Edge cooed softly from her lap, and the little chao took flight over to Shadow's shoulder in order to cling to him and pet his arm. They stood there in silence for a moment before Rouge stood up and slowly reached out to touch his hand.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "You're really just a kid, aren't you?"

"What does that mean?" he snapped.

Rouge took a breath of her own. "If it were Cream, what would you think?"

"That's not-" Shadow protested. "She's-"

"She's a child," Rouge said gently. "And so are you."

Shadow wanted to brush her off, smack her hand and destroy something. His hand wouldn't move from his arm. His fingers were digging in so hard that even the reinforced fingertips were starting to shred from his claws.

"I have never been a child," he snarled back. "Don't patronize me, bat. I am the Ultimate Lifeform- a weapon."

She met his eyes and squeezed his hand. "That's what they've told you, but is that the truth? Shadow, you know you're a person too, right?"

"Stop."

Rouge released him and stepped back. "As you wish."

He squeezed his eyes shut. Warmth was dripping down his arm, dampening his fur. Edge was nuzzling his cheek and cooing softly, but they were hard to hear over the pounding of his blood in his ears.

What did she know? She hadn't read his file, hadn't been given his file. She didn't know he could snap her neck and tear off her head. She didn't know that he could break a mountain if he wanted to, that he could slow down time and move freely while everyone else was helpless to his whims. He could recover from things that would kill normal beings within a day.

He was a living weapon, but that was where the similarities between him and anyone else ended. That's how it was supposed to be.

"That's what they've told you, but is that the truth?"

It hurt that she was right.

He wasn't just a weapon. Weapons didn't take lessons on advanced physics with little girls or have emotional breakdowns. Weapons didn't secretly love stuffed animals and chocolate cake snuck to them after midnight or have sappy love song lyrics memorized.

But that left him wondering just what he was supposed to be. He wasn't a person and he wasn't a tool.

Who was he?

"Shadow, I'm going to touch your hand for a moment again. Relax your fingers for me."

His eyes snapped open. He looked down and watched as Rouge pried his claws from his arm and held his bloodied hand. She heaved a sigh and rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand.

"I've done enough damage for the day," she said, suddenly sounding exhausted. "I mean what I said, though. If anything I think this settled it for me. See ya, cutie," she added, rubbing Edge on the head. Rouge pulled back and waved, and suddenly Sonic was next to them, hovering around Shadow's side.

Rouge left peacefully after that. Shadow let himself be pulled back to where Knuckles and Tails were. They didn't ask what he talked with Rouge about or how he hurt his arm, simply wrapping it up with a bandage and sitting a bit too close. The conversation was muted and sounded like distant garbage.

He wasn't in any physical pain, but his body ached anyway. Shadow desperately wished Maria were within reach so he could curl up in her lap and have her stroke his quills and tell him about the constellations she'd been studying. It was a simpler time when he had a schedule and was told how to think and feel instead of being thrown into the wild with people who cared for some reason and treated him nicely and bandaged his arm even though it was going to heal in five minutes-

-And he never wanted to go back, he realized, staring blankly somewhere between Tails's mess of screws and bolts that he'd pulled from who-knows-where and Knuckles's absolutely horrendous drawing of Edge in the dirt. He liked it here.

He liked Cream and Vanilla a lot. Sonic was growing on him like some form of mold. He had some amount of respect for Knuckles- mostly for his mission in keeping his island as it was and his passion for rocks. (Shadow liked the rocks. It felt childish to say, but damnit, he liked the rocks.) Tails would have gotten along incredibly well with Maria. Put the two in a room together and they would probably have built something that would cause everyone else headaches just looking at it.

Shadow drew one of his legs close to his chest and hugged it, idly flicking his inhibitor ring so it made quiet pinging noises.

Tails noticed Shadow looking at him and tilted his head. Shadow slightly pinned his ears, then relaxed them.

"...You would have gotten along with Maria," he said quietly.

Sonic and Knuckles immediately shut up. Tails's tails swished and wrapped around him, and the little fox set his tools down in favor of pulling one of his tails into his lap to stroke it. Shadow suspected it was an anxious stim- something he sometimes did with his inhibitor rings.

"...Who is- was, um... Who's Maria?" Tails asked.

"She was a genius," Shadow answered, then snorted darkly. "I suppose it runs in the Robotnik line."

Tails flinched. Sonic and Knuckles traded concerned looks. Shadow ignored them, focusing instead on his wrists.

"She loved this planet," he said, still flicking his inhibitor ring softly. "She'd come find me in the middle of the night to talk about some new invention she thought up. A wheelchair motorcycle, a robot that ran off of green energy that would cultivate forests, recyclers for toxic waste. Your handheld computer would have been exactly something she would have loved."

Tails blushed and slightly hid behind his tails. "You think so?"

Shadow nodded. He wasn't sure where he was going with this or why he was talking in the first place. Something was heavy in his stomach, beating against his insides and making his throat feel thick and uncomfortable.

"...She had NIDS," he admitted, and felt sick immediately after the words left his mouth. He'd already told this to Vanilla, so why was it so hard now? "When the ARK was shut down... going down to the planet... killed her in the end. They were researching a cure on the ARK. I..."

Shadow looked at the bandage on his arm.

"You don't have to tell us."

It was Knuckles who spoke. Shadow glanced at him and gripped the fur on his leg tightly.

There it was again- the choice. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Vanilla were constantly giving him the option to say no and explitly stating that they would accept his answer. It made him feel light headed and sick at the same time, like he'd been deprived of oxygen and shaken in a pressurized container. He liked being given the option to say that he'd had enough. But it also made him intimidated by the truth he was hiding.

Even if he'd tried to speak more, he couldn't have. Some unknown force prevented him from even opening his mouth again, clamping it shut as if that could somehow protect him from his own emotions. Shadow was only able to sit there and be grateful that Knuckles had given him an out.

The conversation around him turned lighthearted as Sonic asked Tails about the features he had planned for his handheld datapad. Shadow listened, but he had long since tuned out of the conversation and struggled to stay aware of the topic at hand. Eventually he gave in and pulled out the earbuds Tails had given him, earning himself a bright smile from the little fox and an understanding nod from Knuckles and Sonic.

Chaos, he missed Maria.

Chapter Text

It was strange how quiet the next few weeks were. Shadow was constantly aware of Rouge's presence, but he somehow was still able to fall into a sort of a routine with the others. Sonic took him up to Angel Island to train with Knuckles twice a week, always leaving in the morning and coming back late in the evening. Sometimes Tails went with them, sometimes Sonic said he was too busy working on his little computer. Shadow found he greatly preferred it when Tails went with them- not because Sonic was a bad pilot, but more because Tails warned him before doing stupid maneuvers mid-air.

Amy visited just as often, if not more so. She was a constant presence around Vanilla's house to see Cream. Shadow quickly picked up that the pink hedgehog had often watched over Cream when Vanilla had errands or her job to do, but since Shadow had been around that schedule had been thrown off.

His presence didn't stop Vanilla from needing to do things like go shopping, whatever that was, and it surprised Shadow a sum total of Not At All when she called Amy over so Cream wasn't left alone in the house with him while she was gone. He wasn't particularly bothered by that- he'd actually have been more upset if Vanilla hadn't called someone over- but Amy was a bit overwhelming at times, so he found himself out in the chao garden quite often.

The chao relaxed him more than he'd thought they would. They were weak and harmless and could take care of themselves without him, and yet they flocked to him whenever he visited and begged him for treats and headpats. It was... nice.

Shadow tried to move out of Vanilla's house by the end of the first week. Cream immediately jumped on him and clung to his side and Vanilla cautiously asked if he had somewhere to go. When he'd shaken his head she firmly told him he was staying right where he was until he had something to move into, then immediately called up Tails and asked how much he knew about architecture. Tails had then called up Knuckles, who got into contact with an armadillo friend he had, and that was how Shadow somehow ended up with a team of Sonic's friends showing up with lumber and tools and building him a house near the chao garden.

He wasn't sure how to take that.

He tried to protest- really, it was fine, he'd find somewhere (most likely a cave- it couldn't be that hard to survive in the wild for the Ultimate Lifeform) but none of them would listen. Shadow wasn't even allowed to help build the house, much less see it until it was done. The big crocodile that had shown up along with the armadillo laughed at Shadow when he'd tried to protest to Vanilla and told him not to worry about it. The crocodile had then nervously failed at talking with Vanilla before taking a picnic basket full of lunch to the cabin workers.

"...Is he alright?" Shadow had whispered to Cream.

"Love does weird things to people," Cream replied back.

As if Shadow wasn't confused enough before, now he had to ponder that for a full week.

Sonic got the hang of causing chaos control to happen around the end of the second week since Shadow had been on the planet. He wasn't any good at aiming it, nor at controlling what got taken with him, but Shadow was genuinely impressed that he could use it at all, though he did have to wonder if that was a good thing after he had to extract Sonic from a fairly shallow pool of water.

It turned out that Sonic was scared of water- or more specifically, scared of being in water. Knuckles had just stood there and laughed when Sonic panicked after landing in the pond, and while Shadow did admit it was amusing at first, he felt bad after seeing the very real terror on the blue hedgehog's face. It wasn't an expression he had ever wanted to see again, much less on someone he was growing to like.

Compared to Sonic's progress, Shadow hadn't gotten anywhere with controlling his... explosive tendencies. Conversely, nothing had happened when he'd tried to do it on purpose.

At the start of the third week, Knuckles had watched him struggle with a thoughtful expression before pulling him away from Sonic to talk privately.

"You're too scared of breaking something," Knuckles said bluntly.

Shadow stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You did it in the temple." Knuckles lightly punched his palm. "You took the danger of being shot with arrows over taking the chance that the mural would break."

"I'll heal from being shot," Shadow retorted. "A wall won't. What does this have to do with my chaos abilities?"

"Were you afraid of breaking things before you exploded?"

Shadow hesitated. He hadn't really cared before. Sometimes he'd even relished it, imagining the training dummies were the faces of his tormentors as he destroyed them. Breaking things was easy.

His eyes trailed past Knuckles to the trees, taking in the waterfall in the distance and the way the clouds rolled over Angel Island's peaks. Yeah, breaking things was easy. It was easier when he was trapped in a sterile lab with replaceable objects and not treated like he had feelings or wants and desires-

He looked down at his hands as they crackled with red energy. Knuckles raised an eyebrow at him.

"Anger," Shadow said slowly. "It's fueled by anger."

Knuckles nodded and folded his arms. "I think I understand why you're struggling so much with this."

Shadow gripped his hands into fists. The energy crackled around his fingers, sending unpleasant heat up and down his arms. It was a familiar feeling, something he'd often kept throttled inside and under a tight lid. Getting angry had never helped him recover after long days under a camera. Being upset would only make them attempt to sedate him so he couldn't fight back.

"Please," he said quietly, hands beginning to shake. "Explain."

Knuckles sighed and rubbed the side of his head, then turned and waved for Shadow to follow him. Shadow blinked, throwing a glance back at Sonic, who was currently practicing warping from one big X drawn in the dirt to another and back with a chaos emerald in hand and Edge cheering him on from the sidelines, then turned and followed the echidna. Knuckles led him on a small trek through a cave and into a clearing where a shockingly familiar structure was built.

Shadow gasped. The pillars, the structures, the ziggurat shape-

"This is- what is this place?"

"This is what I protect," Knuckles said, pride slipping into his voice. He puffed out his chest and smirked at Shadow, then softened and gestured to the top of the temple. "...You recognize it. Where from?"

"The ARK." Shadow stepped forward and laid a hand on one of the pillars. "The core of the ARK is built just like this. I always thought it looked like a shrine of some kind. ...There's something at the center. What is it?"

Knuckles stepped in front of him and stared him down. Shadow tensed at the sudden shift in emotion, unsure why the echidna was now hostile.

"Before I tell you, let me make myself clear," Knuckles said, borderline growling. "This is my duty. I don't just let anyone come up here, understand?"

"No, I really don't." Shadow looked past him at the shrine. "...I don't think I understand anything anymore."

Knuckles stared hard at him before relaxing. "So it's better if I'm blunt. I'm saying I'm trusting you not to do something stupid like steal something."

"...Then you probably ought to know that Rouge is right over there heading for the top of the shrine."

"WHAT!?"

He followed Knuckles's instant mad dash for the top of the structure, heart pounding like a hammer in his throat. Whatever Knuckles wanted to protect didn't quite feel as important as the parallels this place drew in his head.

The core of the ARK had structures from floor to ceiling, and Shadow had only been in there once or twice to visit the prototype (Liza, Gerald had nicknamed the biolizard, as he admitted once, very quietly in the deep halls where there were no cameras to overhear them). Here on Angel Island the pillars reached for the sky and crumbled before they reached a top circle that curled around the center shrine like a protective field. Where the ARK had been lit with harsh orange lights and cooled with yellowed water, this place naturally grew grass that swayed in a gentle breeze warmed by the sun.

The top of the shrine was a direct copy- no, the original, Shadow corrected himself- of what he'd seen in the ARK. The thing that took his breath away was the massive emerald gently glowing and slowly rotating in the slot at the center. This, he realized, was the endless space of power he'd felt when they first arrived on Angel Island. And sitting on it was Rouge, who was now arguing with Knuckles and looking very pleased with herself.

"Get off the Master Emerald right now!" Knuckles bellowed. "It's not a seat!"

"But I'm so comfortable!" Rouge chirped. She crossed her legs and leaned her elbows on them, giving Shadow a brief wave. "Hey hon. Enjoying the view?"

Shadow nodded. "It is... beautiful here."

"GET OFF THE MASTER EMERALD!"

"You're cute when you're angry."

Knuckles lunged at her. Shadow turned away and looked around the rest of the ruins, one ear swiveled to listen to their scuffle while the other twitched to listen to the sounds around him. Gerald must have studied this place intensely for the ARK to contain such a perfect replica. It made sense that relics most likely from Angel Island ended up in space.

"I wonder... what else did he take inspiration from?" Shadow murmured.

Was he... an inspiration from something here, too?

Rouge scampered past, hopping into the air to avoid Knuckles's fists. Shadow quirked an eyebrow as she winked at him and did a little twirl before blowing a kiss in Knuckles's direction. A rather large rock went flying past Shadow's head, very narrowly missing Rouge thanks to a lucky dodge.

"Hey, that could have hit me!" she protested.

"That was the idea!" Knuckles shouted back.

Shadow looked at the rock. Knuckles wasn't ordinary either, he mused idly. The rock had to weigh at least 90 kilos, but Knuckles barely looked like he'd broken a sweat.

He walked around the shrine, taking care not to get too close to the giant gem while admiring it. Where the chaos emeralds were a source of crackling energy neither hot nor cold, yet both at the same time, the Master Emerald felt... calm, somehow. It was an endless space of possibilities that waited like a sleeping giant.

He could have reached out and touched it, letting himself fall into the void, but the thought of Knuckles being pissed at him didn't sound too good at the moment. Still, it was tempting to see just how far the gem would take him.

"Ugh, she's finally gone." Knuckles stood next to him and crossed his arms with a huff. "Well? What do you think?"

"How can something so chaotic feel so... patient?"

Knuckles snorted. "Is that what it feels like to you?"

Shadow hesitated. Knuckles smiled and rested his hand on one of the emerald's facets.

"The Master Emerald is a controller of sorts. It can neutralize the chaos emeralds' power, so in a way you're not wrong."

"...Why are you showing me this?"

"Because we're kind of similar."

Shadow blinked. "Pardon?"

Knuckles sat down and crossed his legs, patting the spot beside him. Shadow sat down next to him and folded his hands in his lap, tilting his head to the side. Knuckles's gaze remained fixed on the giant green gem, something unreadable in his expression.

"I'm the last echidna," Knuckles said. "When I'm gone, that's it. The legacy of my people is over. I used to wonder why I was here and what my purpose was in guarding the Master Emerald. It was just a duty I'd been handed. It was still important, but I never really understood why."

Shadow despised how familiar that sounded. He kept his mouth shut and merely listened, pushing his feelings aside for the moment.

"I know why now, but back then I was just... lost. I was afraid of anything breaking because then I would lose it forever. Any ruins of my people that I could find was too precious to lose. It was like the only thing I had was the Master Emerald and a bunch of stories I had to piece together on my own."

Knuckles turned and tapped Shadow's chest gently.

"I don't know anything about the ARK, or what happened up there, but I know that look of someone who's struggling to understand their purpose," he said. "It's okay to take your time to figure that out."

"I know what my purpose is," Shadow stated bluntly, then faltered.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be in the meantime" went through his head, but there was no way he was going to say that aloud.

"But you're still afraid of losing something," Knuckles said.

Shadow clamped his mouth shut. It was really starting to piss him off that they could all read him so easily. What next? Was one of them just going to walk up to him some day and say "hey, we know you're a glorified science project, by the way?"

What a joke.

His fingers crackled with energy again. Shadow took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, well aware of the way Knuckles was staring at him and trying to hide the way he was partially reaching for the Master Emerald as if preparing for an attack.

"It won't matter in the end," he said, standing up and turning away from the altar. "I'm not someone who is meant to keep things."

"Drama queen."

Shadow startled and spun, frowning at Knuckles. "Pardon?"

The echidna rolled his eyes and stood up, stepping forward and poking Shadow's chest. "I hate to say it, but you need Sonic's help. If you don't loosen up soon you're going to be in trouble."

"And what does that mean?" Shadow snapped.

"It means you've exploded once and it's going to happen again," Knuckles barked back.

They were standing eye to eye, though Shadow had to look up to meet his gaze. "I am not going to explode again. That's the point of training."

"Yes, you are! You're ignoring your own needs in favor of being mopey and it's going to hurt you!"

"Mopey!?"

"Yeah, mopey! Learn to have fun, would you? Try acting like Sonic- he doesn't know how to be serious!"

"So what, you want me to act like a dumbass!?"

"N- wait- no, that-"

They stopped and squinted at each other. At that exact moment Sonic zipped up, absolutely covered in leaves and dirt and grinning like an idiot.

"Hey guys! I got the hang of- what's going on?"

"Shadow needs lessons in having fun," Knuckles said immediately, much louder than Shadow's protest.

Sonic looked between them for a second before slinging his arm around Knuckles's shoulders. "Oh? Like you'd know what having fun looks like, Knucklehead!"

"Hey!"

"So you're lecturing me on something you can't even do?" Shadow taunted.

"I can have fun just fine!"

"Prove it!"

Sonic looked between them with a huge grin. "Oooo can I pick the challenge?"

Shadow and Knuckles whirled on him at the same time.

"Bring it on!"

And then Sonic's communicator beeped, flashing an emergency red.

Chapter Text

It was Shadow's first time going anywhere that wasn't Angel Island, the chao gardens, or Vanilla's house. Tails's workshop wasn't too far from Angel Island since it was located in Mystic Ruins, but it still felt like an entirely new world to be in. Vanilla's house was surrounded by a forest, but Mystic Ruins was in the jungle. There were so many different sounds to take in, from the animals to the trees to the waterfalls to the myriad of egg-shaped robots running around.

Shadow had a strong feeling that last one wasn't supposed to be there.

Tails met them out front. He was wielding some sort of hand cannon and was expertly shooting down multiple robots at once, though it didn't make much of a dent in the sheer amount of foes all around. Sonic nearly crashed the biplane to get to him, hardly waiting for it to be on the ground before jumping out of the pilot seat. Shadow had to scramble to take control so he didn't end up trapped in a pile of burning motor oil as the Tornado bulldozed through a couple robots. The propeller at the front snapped off and Shadow was forced to duck as it whizzed past his head along with a couple robot parts.

He grumbled and guided the plane to a stop before jumping out himself and skating over to Tails. "What's going on?"

The little fox lined up another shot and blasted a few robots away. "It's Eggman! He's after the chaos emerald I stored in my workshop!"

"Do you still have it?" Sonic asked, spindashing another couple robots out of the way.

"Y-yeah, I have it on me."

Shadow kicked a robot and stole the gun it was holding, popping open the case and checking how much ammunition it had inside. "Is that why the robots are swarming you specifically?"

Tails glanced at him and looked at the gun. "Um, I think so- Shadow, you know how to use a gun?"

Shadow put the gun back together and popped five robots in the head in quick succession.

"Tch, piece of crap," he muttered. The trigger was awful on his finger and was clearly created for robots to hold, though why it wasn't just built into the robot's arm he wasn't sure. It was also slightly inaccurate and pulled too much to the left for his taste.

He emptied the rest of its clip anyway, swiftly taking out another twenty robots before chucking the gun with enough force to send a couple more flying. He turned back and hesitated on seeing the shock on Tails and Sonic's faces.

"...What?"

"Dude," Sonic said. "I think you throw at least as hard as Knuckles."

"...Thanks?"

Tails looked at all the fallen robots and back to Shadow, then meekly offered his hand cannon. Shadow gave him a confused look back.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, uh, I don't actually know..."

"You were doing just fine with it before."

Tails blushed and shyly giggled, then propped his cannon on his shoulder and shot a few more rounds. Shadow cast about him for something else to use, ending up with another of the robot's shitty guns in his hands. Sonic seemed to prefer the physical approach and zipped a ways out to bash the goons with his spin attacks. Between the three of them, the robots fell easily.

They fell... too easily.

Shadow had been trained on G.U.N.'s robots and run drills with the security team stationed on the ARK. He was fairly certain that team would have been able to take down Eggman's attack squad with few issues. It would have taken them much longer than it did Sonic and Tails, but they could have done it.

Shadow started paying more attention to the attack patterns of the robots. They really only seemed to have one drive, and that was attacking Tails and Sonic, but not the workshop. Even though Shadow was shooting them, it was like he didn't exist. On top of that, most of them were carrying guns, but none of them were using them; the bots that got close enough would swing the weapon like a club instead.

He chucked the gun he was holding so hard it took out a full line of bots. Still no change.

"Sonic! Do you still have that chaos emerald?"

Sonic zipped over to Shadow and produced the green emerald from somewhere. "Yeah, why?"

"Pass it to Tails for a minute."

"Alright. Tails, catch!"

It really should have startled Shadow that Sonic had zero hesitation in following what he said, but at this point he was starting to wonder if Sonic had a suspicious bone in his entire body. Tails took the emerald and looked at him as if waiting for orders.

Shadow took a deep breath. It wasn't just Sonic- Tails trusted him too. He could betray them both right now and they would be completely shocked.

He pushed the thought aside. "Tails, think of a spot Sonic can get to that is a fair distance from here."

"Huh? Um, okay. I've got one-"

Shadow wasted no time and picked Tails up. Using chaos control based on someone else's thoughts was much harder than a normal chaos control, but Shadow had practiced enough with Maria in the name of pranking the scientists who made Shadow's life hell that he could do it half asleep. It barely took him a thought and they were suddenly standing in a nice little clearing that had a small rivulet running through it.

Tails squeaked and looked around. "W-wait, what about Sonic?"

"Stay here."

Shadow put him down and warped back to Tails's workshop. Sonic was standing there perfectly unharmed, and just as Shadow suspected, the few remaining robots were just standing around as if lacking orders. However, the moment Shadow appeared, the nearest bots turned and began walking towards him- just him, ignoring Sonic completely. They weren't even shooting.

"They're reacting to chaos energy," Shadow said, slowly backing his way closer to the blue hedgehog. "Is this typical behavior for Eggman's robots?"

Sonic shook his head and spindashed the nearest bot. "No, they're usually programmed to attack me on sight. This is creepy."

Shadow looked at the soulless automaton eyes that were moving towards him. The closest robots to him raised their arms and splayed their fingers. He stood still and let them approach, but just before one of them touched him Sonic caught sight of what he was doing and yanked him out of the way.

"Shadow, what the heck are you doing?" he snapped.

The tone took Shadow by surprise. He hadn't heard Sonic even get irritated in the three weeks they'd known each other.

"I..."

Sonic's stare was somehow far, far scarier than most other things Shadow could think of in the moment. He felt like a small child being scolded rather than a dangerous weapon that was literally created from alien DNA in a space laboratory. He felt his cheeks flush with heat, and he looked away and scuffed the dirt with his heel.

"...Jus' wanted to see what they would do," he muttered.

The Ultimate Lifeform, everyone.

"You were just gonna let yourself be captured?" Sonic demanded, now dragging him away from the encroaching robots while fending them off with a stick.

"I-I mean-" Shadow cursed himself inwardly. Why the heck was he stuttering? "It- would be efficient to see where the base of operations is and what they want... And I can just teleport out..."

Sonic let out a small grumbling sound. "I don't like this plan. -I trust you, but I don't trust Eggman. What if he tries to use you as a battery again?"

"It's better than letting them have a chaos emerald."

"What? No it's not!"

"Sonic-"

"Don't 'Sonic' me, it's a terrible plan! Not doing it!"

"But-"

"No!"

Shadow floundered for words. Sonic destroyed the rest of the robots, smacking the ones that came too near Shadow with a little too much force. When they were all down for the count he dusted his hands and put them on his hips.

"Where's Tails at."

Shadow slightly flinched. "I'll... warp us there."

"No, let's walk."

Shadow forced his expression to go neutral. "I... don't know where it is from here."

Sonic paused and sighed. "Is it the waterfall area?"

"Uh... no, it's... there's water, but it's this tiny river?"

"Yeah, okay. I think I know which area it is."

They began walking. It was the most awkward experience Shadow had felt in his entire life, which wasn't saying much considering he wasn't really that old.

Was he old? Did fifty years trapped in stasis count as being old? No, more than that, he was technically immortal. Did things like being old even apply to him? It wasn't like he aged with time...

Sonic cleared his throat, startling Shadow out of his thoughts. He looked just as awkward as Shadow felt and scratched his cheek, not meeting Shadow's gaze.

"Hey, uh... I'm sorry."

Shadow tripped.

"Woah, hey! Are you okay?"

"What are you saying...!"

"Well, uh, I mean-" Sonic fidgeted and rubbed the back of his head. "I- was kind of snippy back there. I'm just- y'know, three weeks ago Eggman put a gun to Amy's head, and not even a month before that Station Square was flooded by a literal god, and- I know you can take care of yourself. Heck, every time I turn around you're doing something new and cool, but- I'm..."

He sighed and dropped his hands. Shadow noticed they were slightly shaking, though Sonic put on a smile anyway.

"I feel like I have to try and protect everyone, you know? It's what I do. But, uh, that's not an excuse, and you didn't deserve to be snapped at like that, so I'm sorry."

Shadow stopped walking and stared at him. Sonic stopped as well, casting him a nervous glance.

They were more alike than Shadow had initially thought. Sonic was a natural wonder, what with his speed and chaos abilities, but it wasn't just that. He put himself into the role of a protector, something Shadow had been told he himself was supposed to be (eventually), but also the front line fighter against a global threat. As far as Shadow could tell, Sonic hadn't been trained for any of it, either. He'd just... put it on his own shoulders.

That didn't feel very fair. But who was Shadow to tell how fair something was?

"Stop worrying about me," Shadow said.

Sonic flinched. Shadow winced in response. That definitely wasn't how he wanted it to be taken.

"No, I mean- ugh."

He was no good at talking about these kinds of sentiments. Maria had understood him despite his temper, but she'd also never had this kind of conversation with him involved. Gerald had struggled to communicate things to Shadow once or twice, but Shadow was always on the listening end and not on the speaking side. Perks of being seen as something not worth listening to, he supposed.

Shadow took a breath and a step forward, trying to formulate his thoughts. There wasn't really an easy way to say what he wanted to without revealing a part of his past, but... maybe, just maybe, it would be okay.

Just this once.

He felt like such a coward. The words wouldn't come out, and his body felt like it had frozen in place. It was too easy to imagine Sonic looking at him in disgust.

Shadow hadn't told anyone, but on the days when he did sleep he had nightmares. Dreams where someone discovered he was a science experiment, dreams where G.U.N. came for him and shot up Vanilla's house and Sonic blamed Shadow for existing. It was almost never Sonic's voice that echoed around him, but Shadow rarely woke up feeling anything less than terrified that one day it would be. One day it wouldn't be a scientist offhandedly commenting that he was a monster. One day it wouldn't just be a dream.

Maybe it was actually better that his words came out harshly. The less he got attached to Sonic now, the less it would hurt later when the truth came out.

"Nevermind," he mumbled. "Let's just- find Tails."

Sonic took a step closer and raised his hand. "Shadow-"

Shadow brushed passed him. Sonic grabbed his arm, and Shadow very nearly punched him in a moment of panic. He took a sharp breath and gritted his teeth instead.

"What?"

"There's a dart. In your arm."

All of his irritation drained away. Shadow looked down and saw the little red and yellow dart sticking out of the back of his shoulder and plucked it out.

"There's another one on your back," Sonic said. "Do you want me to...?"

Shadow looked at him, then back down to the dart. When had they been fired? He was fairly certain none of the robots back at the workshop had any equipment for firing darts. It had to have happened in the last thirty or so seconds.

He spun and scanned the trees behind them. A flash of metal caught his eye, and he launched himself after it with Sonic close on his heels. Another dart whizzed out, but Shadow was ready for it this time and caught it midair. He put a burst of chaos energy into his air shoes and rocketed forward, curling his hand that didn't hold the dart into a fist and punching down as he blasted through the trees and leapt on their stalker. The robot had enough time to let out a very alarmed beep microseconds before its head was caved in by Shadow's unforgiving fist.

Sonic skidded to a halt next to him and let out a whistle. "Wow, you really don't hold back, do you?"

Shadow pulled his hand free of the robot and looked Sonic over. "Did you get hit?"

"Huh? With the darts? No, I think you got hit with all of them. They weren't poisoned or somethin', were they?"

Shadow looked down at the dart in his hand. There was a tiny needle on the tip that was connected to a plunger of some kind with a colorless liquid inside. He sniffed it first, then licked it.

"Shadow!?" Sonic practically shrieked.

"A sedative compound?" Shadow held out a hand and pressed it against Sonic's chest to prevent the blue hedgehog from swiping the dart from him. "It's reminescent of the ones used on the ARK."

Sonic gaped at him. "You can tell that by tasting it?"

Shadow compared the dart in his hand to the one he'd first pulled from his shoulder. They were filled with the same liquid- and he had a strong suspicion the one still stuck in his back was the same. "Mm, they're typically pretty bitter. At least they're not as bitter as tetrodotoxin, though. Why are the robots carrying sedatives? Aren't they after the chaos emeralds...?"

"Wait, hang on, go back just a second! What do you mean, not as bitter as tet- tox- isn't that poison?"

"Hm?" Shadow blinked back at him. "Yes, it's a complex toxin typically found in oceanic lifeforms, most prevalently pufferfish."

Sonic gripped his shoulders and stared hard at him. "Shadow. You're not making the case for not worrying about you any easier, buddy."

Shadow tilted his head and flicked his ears. "Sonic, I'm immune."

"Wha- no, hang on, that's not the point...!"

"You are right. The point is that Eggman is acting differently and is employing strange tactics to try and get the chaos emeralds again. We need to meet back up with Tails."

"No- well, yes, but-" Sonic let out a low grumble and hung his head. "Fine, you don't want to talk about it. At least let me remove that other dart first."

Shadow nodded. Sonic let go of him and stepped around to his back, removing the dart from between his quills with a little tug. Shadow honestly didn't even feel any pain from it, but he was starting to see why it was bothering Sonic so much. He'd be worried if Sonic had a bunch of darts sticking out of him, too.

Sonic stepped back around and started walking again while looking at the dart in his hand. "Hey... if these are filled with sleepers, how come you're not falling asleep? That's how they work, right?"

Shadow pinned his ears to his head. "...Sedatives that weak don't work on me."

Sonic looked at his face and shut up immediately. The rest of the walk was awkward again, but at least it was quiet.

Chapter Text

Tails wasn't really sure what to make of Shadow.

Sonic was fond of him, but Sonic would adopt a snarling bear in two seconds if it let him. Cream was basically attached to him at the hip, but Cream had a heart that could melt steel, and Vanilla was similar despite her caution. Knuckles was quite wary of him and likened him to a ticking bomb. Amy was the only other person who'd really gotten to know Shadow aside from Vanilla and Cream. She didn't seem to know what to make of him either, though she had commented once that he'd be a lot cooler if he wasn't so broody all the time.

Tails wasn't sure 'broody' was the right word. Shadow struck him more as shy and easily overwhelmed by his new situation.

And that was something Tails knew pretty well. He was still recovering from his own struggles with being bullied; it wasn't hard to recognize the signs of someone else going through the recovery process as well. Shadow seemed to notice it on Tails's end, too, going so far as to push through his own discomfort to offer encouragement on Tails's project.

(It was kind of childish, Tails thought, but he had the phrase "Smart kids need room to play" saved in a notepad on his personal computer in the workshop. He looked at it pretty often while working on his handheld device.)

At the same time, Shadow kind of scared him. There was something offputting about his deadly accuracy with the Eggpawns' guns and his complete lack of hesitation on using them. His eyes were cold and calculated when he shot the robots down, and while Tails was 78% certain that Shadow had teleported him out of there to keep him safe, he also felt like Shadow had used him as a testing tool. With Sonic Tails had always felt a sense of trust between them, that any plan of Sonic's Tails would for sure have a part in and any plan of Tails's relied on faith that Sonic would never fail, but there wasn't anything of the sort that he felt from Shadow.

Tails worried a lot about being a good person, but he worried even more about being useful. He knew Sonic would never abandon him, but he still worried some days that he wasn't doing enough, wasn't good enough, wasn't... just wasn't enough. The thought of being used like a tool hurt.

Tails knew Shadow hadn't meant it that way. Probably. It was hard to put a finger on him just yet. He'd even encouraged Tails to keep using his hand cannon.

Tails spent his time since Shadow dumped him in the clearing trying to convince himself he was fine. His handheld supercomputer (the Miles O'Matic, he'd decided to call it) wasn't done yet, but he did manage to put together a handheld scanner that doubled as a weak computer in the meantime. He was typing away at it when his wrist communicator buzzed.

"Tails?"

"Hey Amy," he said, trying hard not to let his anxiety slip through to his voice. "Have you seen any Egg-bots around lately?"

"No, it's been quiet. Like, I-don't-like-it levels of quiet."

"Do you still have that chaos emerald?"

"No, I, uh, I gave it to a museum curator. She was really, uh. She was. Pretty- pretty persuasive, yeah! Um. No, I don't have it."

Tails eyed his watch suspiciously.

"Did you at least get her number?"

"Tails."

"I'm just saying," Tails said, already pulling up articles on his scanner for museums with new showcases. "Isn't there a nice cafe just up the street from your favorite mall? I hear their lattes are really good."

"Taiiiiils," Amy whined, "I'm waiting until Sonic gives me an answer!'"

"Ahuh. But you can have fun in the meantime, right? Give it a go! Maybe you'll get a new friend out of it!"

There was a brief moment of silence before a sigh came through his wrist comm. "Yeah, you're right. It's the Central Station Square Jewelry Exhibit, by the way."

Tails grinned and deleted his search results in favor of looking up that particular museum. Sure enough, there was an article about the chaos emerald having been donated as a showpiece about two weeks ago. To his relief, there wasn't anything about it having been stolen- yet.

"What's this about, anyway? Did something happen?"

One brief explanation later had her pretty irritated on his behalf.

"And he just LEFT you there!?" she shrieked. Tails held his wrist as far away from his head as he could with a wince. "Ooooooh I hate it when that happens! How long has it been? Are they back yet? I'll take the next train over and meet you there!"

"N-no, Amy, it's okay! I'm fine!"

"It's NOT fine! You and Sonic do it to me, and it always leaves me feeling bad, so I'm not letting it happen to you, okay? I'm already on my way to the Station. I'll be there in two hours."

Tails felt his ears droop. "Do we really...? I'm sorry. I'll- I'll try to fix that in the future."

"...I appreciate it. Do you want me to stay on the line until they come back?"

Tails slumped down until he was sitting with his back to a tree. He didn't feel good admitting that he was scared to be on his own, but also he really didn't want to be left to his thoughts right now. He didn't like how unsure of himself he was, or how he immediately thought that Shadow had just tossed him aside.

He was about to say yes when a flash of blue caught his eye.

"They're here," he said.

"I'll go straight to your workshop, then."

"Thanks, Amy." Tails hung up and quickly stood, running over to the two troublesome hedgehogs.

Sonic immediately swept him into a tight hug before giving him a noogie. Some of Tails's doubts were swept away with the unrestrained affection and it left him in an immensely better mood. And then he saw the darts in Shadow's hand.

"What are those?" he asked.

"An eggbot shot Shadow with them," Sonic replied uneasily. "More than that, though, the moment you guys left all the bots went totally still. When Shadow came back they all acted like zombies and just tried to grab him."

Tails's mind reeled. "Wait, but they- they attacked my workshop before! Some of my windows are broken!"

Shadow subtly flinched and looked him over. "Are you hurt?"

"Huh?"

"None of the glass scratched you, right?"

Sonic snorted and lightly bumped Shadow's shoulder. "Hypocrite."

Tails gasped. "Oh no, are you hurt again, Shadow?"

"Wha- no!"

"No, but he did lick the darts."

"You what? Oh well, at least it wasn't Sonic this time."

"Wait, Sonic's done what-"

"Why is it so bad when I do it, but Shadow gets off so easily?" Sonic whined.

Shadow scoffed. "That's beside the point. Tails, I believe the robots are reacting to different chaos energy levels. They did not shoot at your workshop despite having guns, which I hear is not typical behavior."

This was definitely more Tails's speed. His scanner was in his hands again in a flash, taking down notes and sending them to his computer in his workshop as he organized his thoughts. "You're right. It's atypical behavior. Normally they seek for utmost destruction until one of them has the emerald, then they all retreat. My workshop only suffered a few damages compared to what it could have. It's really weird how they tried to just grab you, but they could have mistaken you for a chaos emerald like Eggman did."

"Would it be like the doctor to not have fine tuned his sensors?"

Tails paused. "No... he definitely should have done some work fine tuning them. And it's too soon for him to be active again. In another week I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but Eggman likes to be prepared before launching his plans."

Shadow nodded and held one of the darts out to him. "Morover, these are filled with sedatives. At this dosage, one dart would be enough to knock someone of Sonic's stature out and two might be enough to make him specifically sleepy."

"Wait, why am I a unit of measure?"

Tails took the dart and held it up to the light. "Can I study this?"

"Take all three if you need," Shadow replied. "It seems very similar to a compound manufactured aboard the ARK, if not identical in nature."

"Seriously," Sonic muttered, "how did you tell all that just from tasting it?"

Honestly, Tails wanted to know that too, but the way Shadow slightly flattened his ears killed the question before it ever reached his tongue. Instead he reached out and gently tugged Shadow's hand, smiling nervously as a large portion of Shadow's attention shifted to the gesture.

"Can you teleport three people at once?" Tails asked. "I-I mean, we can also walk, but-"

"Chaos control."

"-if you could- oh."

Sonic whistled and shook his hand out. "Shadow, I don't mind holding hands, but a little warning would be nice. Your grip isn't gentle."

"...Sorry."

Tails looked around at all the broken robots. "Hey Sonic, are any of their heads still intact?"

"Find an intact one, got it."

Sonic was instantly gone, already zipping from bot to bot and checking each one for its hardware. Tails turned to Shadow and tugged at his hand, which he still had a hold on.

"You haven't seen my workshop yet, right?"

Shadow shook his head. Tails smiled brightly and pulled him towards the door.

"Let me give you a tour!"

Tails proceeded to guide Shadow through his organized mess. He wasn't really expecting Shadow to care much about the equipment- he was excited to show off some of the projects he had built- but Shadow was genuinely curious about some of the tools he had laying around.

It was a surprisingly nice change of pace. Sonic usually showed about two seconds of interest in his tools before moving on or getting bored, and Amy would listen politely with a strained smile, but Shadow knew the tools well enough to ask him if a chrome vanadium steel alloy wrench worked better for him than a strictly steel one. He didn't know nearly as much as Tails did, but it was still a breath of fresh air to talk to someone who understood instead of getting lost.

Tails was reluctant to finally lead them to his lab so he could put the sedative into a machine he'd made to analyze weird liquids. Shadow glanced at the microscope he had attached to it while Tails dialed in the controls.

"...When I was new I used to think those were called 'don't bite that'," Shadow commented offhandedly.

Tails fumbled and almost dropped the dart. One glance at Shadow's stoic face sent him into a fit of giggles.

"Y-you bit the microscopes?"

Shadow had the ghost of a smile on his face. "Once. Rumors spread fast, though. Every time I stepped into a lab I was told 'don't bite that'."

Tails snorted and giggled harder. He tried to press the start button on his machine with shaking hands and missed, slapping the counter instead.

"Shadow, get off the counter," Shadow mumbled.

Sonic showed up with an Eggpawn's detached head in time to see Tails collapse shrieking with laughter. Shadow simply leaned against the counter and folded his arms, pointedly ignoring Sonic's confused grin.

True to her word, Amy arrived two hours after her call on the dot. She gave Tails a tight hug and waved at Sonic for all of two seconds before Shadow appeared next to her with an awful lot of cleaning supplies. She didn't even have time to squeak before he foisted a pair of gloves on her and dragged her off into the depths of Tails's workshop.

Sonic deliberately did not follow them and sat on the counter. During the two hours that they'd been there, Tails had managed to set up connecting wires to the Eggpawn's head and had downloaded all of its data. It was strangely garbled and unintelligible, but Tails was Sonic's smart little bro and had been working the entire time to get any information out of the code.

He was working now, tapping away at his computer and frowning while his weird little liquid analyzer hummed next to him. Sonic kicked his feet and watched Tails's twin tails swish and wiggle.

"I wonder what Shadow's doing with those cleaning supplies," he wondered aloud.

"Huh?" Tails looked up from his work. "Shadow has cleaning supplies?"

Sonic snorted. Leave it to Tails to be too absorbed in his work to notice Amy being kidnapped for whatever their dark friend had planned. "Yeah, he just appeared with a handful of gloves and spray bottles and cloths, grabbed Amy and poofed."

"Oh... I guess my workshop is pretty dusty, isn't it?" Tails looked back at his computer. "I haven't really had the energy to clean it since the ARK..."

Sonic's legs stopped kicking. He looked- really looked at Tails, taking in the dark circles under his eyes and the weight that seemed to pull at his ears. He'd worried over leaving Tails and Amy alone, but he hadn't really thought too much about how they felt after the danger was over.

"...It was pretty scary for you, huh?" he asked softly.

Tails sniffled. That was a yes, then.

Sonic slid off the counter and wrapped his little brother in a tight hug. Tails leaned against him and closed his eyes, then turned and hugged him fully back. Sonic rubbed circles on his back, resting his head on top of Tails's.

"I keep having nightmares," Tails mumbled.

Sonic stayed silent and gave Tails a slight squeeze to let him know he was listening. Tails sniffled again before continuing.

"Shadow doesn't come, and- and I lose, and I can't... I'm useless. O-or, or Shadow does come, but he's too late- a-and I just sit there! A-a-and I keep telling myself that's not what happened, but...!"

Sonic squeezed him tightly before pulling back and smiling down at the now tearstained face before him. "Hey. It's okay to be scared, you know."

Tails scowled at him. Sonic laughed it off.

"I mean it! I was... pretty scared too. If Shadow hadn't showed up, I don't know what I would have done."

It was easier saying it the second time. Telling Knuckles had been like pulling teeth, but he'd been left with a sense of catharsis afterwards, like he was sharing some world-heavy burden. Tails's eyes widened at his admission, clearly not expecting his hero to admit his own fault, and Sonic chuckled at his expression.

"I know, I know, it's weird for me to be saying that," he said. "But I mean it. It's okay to be scared. And you didn't freeze. You stepped up and beat Eggman, and I couldn't be prouder of you."

Tails let out a sob. Sonic held him close and let him soak his shoulder with snot and tears, gently smiling and rubbing his back.

Yeah, he really couldn't be prouder of his brave little brother.

Chapter Text

After the incident on the ARK, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails had decided it would be best to split up the chaos emeralds. Tails kept one in his workshop. Knuckles kept one in on Angel Island. Amy took another, one had been given to a friend of theirs Shadow hadn't met yet, and Sonic lost the other two. Eggman still had one chaos emerald since he was able to escape off the ARK after taking it from Tails.

They explained to Shadow that keeping all the chaos emeralds in one place was usually a bad idea since Eggman went after them all the time. If the emeralds were dispersed it gave Sonic time to gather them before Eggman could strike with whatever new machines he had up his sleeve. Apparently the emeralds dispersed on their own if all seven were gathered in the same place for too long, and also when Sonic went into a super state from absorbing the chaos emeralds' power.

Sonic had been training to use chaos control with the emerald Knuckles had, which meant they knew the location of five out of seven chaos emeralds and were currently in possession of three of them. Sonic was adamant that if he explained the situation to their friend they'd be able to get that emerald back and be able to keep it safe from Eggman, but Shadow didn't count that as "being in possession" of the emerald at all.

Tails was still running algorithms to process the code from the Eggpawn when Amy got a call from Vanilla's house. Shadow only had to hear the panic in Vanilla's voice before he grabbed one of the two chaos emeralds from Tails's counter and warped himself and Amy over. His blood ran cold as they appeared surrounded by more destroyed Eggpawns. Vanilla ran out to greet them with a broken broom in her hands, closely followed by a large green crocodile and red armadillo that Shadow recognized from the house building team.

"Miss Vanilla!" Amy cried. "What happened?"

"It's the chao," Vanilla panted. "These robots showed up and just started taking chao left and right. They even took Chocola. Cream ran to the chao gardens - I- I haven't seen her since, we've been fighting them away from the house-"

Shadow rocketed off immediately. He blasted past the partially built house and skidded to a halt in the nearest chao garden, spinning around and searching for any signs of life. The trees were damaged and fruit had been stepped on and tracked everywhere, but there were no robots, no chao, and no Cream. Shadow shot off for the next garden and found it much the same.

"Shit," he whispered hoarsely. "Shit, shit, shit."

The garden was completely empty. He found no trace of Cream anywhere he looked, and the area smelled too much like robots to pick up the scent of chao. Shadow raced off to the third, more distant garden, desperately hoping at least for some robots to still be there so he could utterly annihilate something.

He was in luck. There was Cream, huddled around a small group of chao with Cheese standing between her and a group of Eggman's robots, tiny limbs held up in a fighting pose.

It was a small group of robots, perhaps thirteen maximum, but Shadow launched himself at them with full force anyway. One moment there were bots, the next there was a smoldering pile of scrap metal where they used to be. Shadow shook the remaining red chaos energy off his hand and knelt by Cream, holding out his arms. She dove into his embrace- as did all the chao she was trying to protect.

"I'm here," he said, more for his own sake than hers. "I'm here. I have you."

"Th-they took Chocola," Cream sobbed. "And Breeze, and Chippy, and all the other chao. They're all gone, mister Shadow."

"I know."

He scooped her up- and all the chao, but he really didn't care that he was basically holding a tower of gumdrop fairies. All that mattered was that Cream and Cheese were safe.

Cream buried her face in his shoulder. "The poor garden."

Shadow began walking back to the house. He wasn't sure what to say to her. 'It'll grow back' hadn't exactly been a comfort to him when Sonic had said it. Promising Cream he'd destroy Eggman's robots for revenge didn't feel like it would cheer her up, either.

He took her home in silence. When they got back to the house, however, Shadow's steps faltered as he stared in awe. Amy had somehow organized the entire house building team to be a sort of security squad in the few minutes he'd been gone and had divided the workers into a few different roles. Some people were working to clean up the trashed robots, some were clearing debris from the house, and others were doing patrolling and gathering evidence and information from the attack. Amy was at the center of everything with a clipboard, taking notes and doing some surveying herself.

She looked up as he came closer and ran towards him, hands outstretched. Shadow moved to hand Cream to her, thinking that was what she wanted, but Amy embraced them both tightly instead, causing the small tower of chao also in Shadow's arms to squeak.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Amy said gently, pulling back enough to caress Cream's head. "Did you get hurt?"

Cream shook her head and sniffled. "No... I'm fine, Miss Amy."

Amy frowned and released them, taking some of the chao from Shadow's grasp. "Let's go inside. Miss Vanilla will be so relieved you're back."

Vanilla was very relieved. She immediately set up a little area for the seven or so chao Cream had managed to protect, then sat her daughter down with a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa. Shadow half expected her to scold Cream for running off on her own with dangerous robots around, but nothing of the sort came. Rather, she focused her efforts on checking that the chao were all okay before sitting down with Shadow, Amy and Cream.

"Why would Eggman be after the chao?" Amy wondered. "Tails mentioned the robots all acted like zombies around his workshop. It sounds like they acted pretty similarly here and just left when they had what they wanted."

"They cleared out two entire chao gardens and almost took the third," Shadow added. "That's at least thirty chao plus Chocola."

Vanilla frowned and rubbed Cream's head. "Tails's workshop was attacked?"

"Yeah, just a few hours ago. I was over there checking on him with Shadow and Sonic when you called."

Shadow picked up one of the chao. It squeaked and wiggled in his grasp, more concerned with getting back to the fruit it had been eating than Shadow's intense stare. It was very small, but he could sense some chaos energy stored up in the tiny jiggly body.

"Is Tails okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. His workshop's a little banged up, but Shadow and I did some cleaning, so it shouldn't take long to fix back up."

Shadow set the chao down and stood up, walking over to where Cheese was huddled against Cream's head. He reached down and put a hand on the chao's head, noticing the difference immediately. For some reason Cheese had an awful lot more chaos energy than the other chao did. If Chocola was the same way...

He pulled the chaos emerald out next and stared at it. Cream looked up at him and tilted her head. He offered her the emerald.

"Want to help me with an experiment?" he asked.

Amy and Vanilla looked up at him as well. Cream nodded and stood up, and they all followed Shadow outside. Shadow cast about for something he could use and ended up with a towel that he tied around his head to act as a blindfold.

"I'd like you to hide somewhere with the emerald," he told Cream. "I'll try to find you. If more than fifteen minutes pass and I haven't found you, come back."

Amy put a hand on his arm. "How are you going to find her while blindfolded? ...Also, that towel is slipping."

"I think I have something that will work better. One moment," Vanilla said, slipping back inside the house.

Shadow removed the towel. "I'll explain it in a minute." He looked at her face and hesitated, then added, "...Do you want to come along?"

Amy put her hands on her hips. "Someone has to make sure you don't trip."

Vanilla came back out with a white scarf in her hands. Shadow stood patiently while she tied it around his head, taking care around his quills, but tying it firmly before taking the towel from him.

"Can I hide anywhere?" Cream asked.

"Anywhere," Shadow said. "Ah, but leave Cheese with Miss Vanilla."

Cream paused, but did as she was asked. Vanilla took Cheese and held them gently, and Cream ran off somewhere. Shadow folded his arms and waited for about five minutes before looking for her.

It was an experiment he'd done before a few times after the Professor realized he could sense chaos energy. If the presence was too weak Shadow struggled to find it, but he could typically find a chaos drive within the range of a few rooms. Unlike the ARK, the planet had naturally flowing chaos energy that gathered in spots like the chao gardens, but Shadow had noticed he could still sense the density of chaos energy with as much ease as he used to.

He found Cream within three minutes. She hadn't gone far- just around the corner and was crouching behind a small pile of wood planks. Amy's warning came slightly too late and he almost tripped right over Cream, but a large gloved hand stopped him from crashing into the wood.

"So, uh, why are we running around blindfolded?"

Shadow tilted his head up. He recognized the voice as belonging to the giant green crocodile that got flustered every time Vanilla talked to him. He reached out his hand and put it on the chaos emerald in Cream's grasp.

"We're doing an experiment," Amy said. She reached down and helped Shadow and Cream both to their feet. "Which, uh, is this a success?"

Shadow nodded. "The first half is. Cream, can you go get Cheese and hide with them next?"

"With Cheese, Mister Shadow?"

"Yes. Same rules."

"Okay!"

Shadow's ears flicked, easily picking up the little patter of her shoes hitting the grass. Somewhere to his right he heard the crocodile scratch his head.

"So, uh, can I ask what the purpose of this experiment is?"

"I'm curious too," Amy added. "Can you sense the chaos emeralds or something?"

"I can sense chaos energy," Shadow answered. "Chao have a small concentration of it, but Cheese has a higher density than the other chao. If I can track down Cheese..."

The crocodile gasped. "Then you can track down Chocola, right?"

Shadow slightly tilted his head. "...Who are you?"

"I'm Vector! I've been helping to build your house!"

Shadow ignored his slightly offended tone. "I know. I've seen you around. I never got your name."

Vector coughed. "Oh. Right. Well don't forget it."

Amy gave a soft gasp. "Vector, you're a detective, right? Do you think you can help us figure out what Eggman is up to?"

Shadow tilted his head a little further. Sonic had more connections than he thought- or Tails did, given that the entire house building crew had shown up after Tails made some calls. Or was it Knuckles that had the connections? Did it count as connections if you knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy?

"Hmm, I'll have to talk with Espio, but I think we can take a look around," Vector said. "Especially if it helps Miss Vanilla."

"Thanks, Vector!"

Having a detective team would help a lot, Shadow supposed, though he'd have to be careful if they decided to go digging into his past. He didn't think Vector would be able to find much on him given that G.U.N. held all the records relating to his creation that still existed, but it was better to be cautious than to run around without a care in the world.

Finding Cheese was a lot harder than finding the chaos emerald. Unlike the constantly swirling feeling the emerald emitted, Cheese's energy was steady and warm. It took Shadow ten full minutes to find Cream, but part of that was also because he kept nearly walking right into the walls of the house. Amy's way of making certain he didn't trip by suddenly yanking on his hand didn't help his nerves, though he supposed his nose was grateful not to be banged up.

Shadow was the one in control of his little test, but the sense of relief when his hand finally found its place on Cheese's head was palpable.

"Wow, Mister Shadow! You're really good at hide and seek!" Cream exclaimed. "I thought I had a good spot this time!"

"You did," Shadow grunted, reaching behind his head to untie the scarf. "I wasn't expecting you to hide on the roof." He waved to Amy, who was waiting below with outstretched arms as if having expected him to slip and fall. She put her arms down and waved back with a smile.

Cream took his hands and flapped her big ears, easily lifting him off the roof and lowering them both to the ground below. It was something that had startled the hell out of him the first time he'd seen it (that was not how aerodynamics worked) and still confused him now, but it was a useful ability to have. At least he'd never have to worry about her falling off of a cliff.

Amy patted Cream on the head with a smile. Cream beamed back, then tugged on Shadow's hand. He looked down at her and quirked an eyebrow.

"Mister Shadow, why did you have me hide with Cheese?"

"I'm going to get the chao back."

Shadow looked away, suddenly unable to stand looking at the sparkles practically flying from her huge eyes, and found himself face to face with a beaming Amy instead.

"I'm coming with you! Sonic and Tails will be busy chasing down the chaos emeralds, so we can have our own adventure!"

"Ad-adventure?"

"Yeah!"

"May I come too?"

They looked down at Cream. She had her little fists clenched and a fiercely determined look in her eyes. Blue dress, blue eyes, golden hair. Shadow took a step back and blinked harshly. The image faded, leaving just a now concerned Cream and Amy behind.

"Mister Shadow?" Cream asked. "W-what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said quickly, almost cutting her off. "I- ask Amy."

Amy shot him a look he didn't comprehend. "Shadow?"

"I- need to talk to Vector," he said, and he turned and skated away.

Chapter Text

Shadow sat on the ground across from Vector with a box between them. To his right sat a purple chameleon that had been introduced to him as Espio, and the spot on his left was supposed to be occupied by a small bee, but was currently being occupied by the red armadillo whom Knuckles had contacted to help build Shadow's house. The small bee, instead of listening to them talk, was currently buzzing around Shadow's head like a fly while asking questions nonstop.

"Why do you have stripes?"

"I just do."

"How'd you get them?"

"I was born with them."

"How come your spikes go all up like that? Do you use gel on them?"

"They just do."

"Where'd you get your shoes from? Are they heavy? They look heavy. What are the holes in them for?"

Vector finally reached over and grabbed the bee. Charmy squirmed and thrashed, but Vector tucked him under his arm like this was his average Tuesday and pinned him in place. Shadow shot him a slightly grateful look.

"So, uh, let me get this straight," Vector said, muffling Charmy's mouth with his free hand. "Eggman's active again, but we haven't seen 'im. His robots are actin' like zombies and going after the chaos emeralds and he's gone and chaonapped like two an' a half chao gardens. Anything I'm missing?"

"One of the robots also shot at Sonic and I with an opioid-based sedative," Shadow replied. Vector's jaw dropped, but Espio peered at him a little bit closer as if intrigued. "Tails is currently analyzing the robots' code to try and figure out why they were acting strange. Last I saw it looked like gibberish, but I am not versed in programming languages."

"So we will want to touch base with Tails first," Espio said.

Shadow nodded. "I believe they will be heading out to gather the other chaos emeralds soon."

Vector scratched his chin. "An' you and Amy will be goin' to find the chao?"

"Correct."

Vector and Espio shared a look for a moment. Mighty, the armadillo, tapped his fingers against the box with a small smile, catching Shadow's attention.

"Is Knuckles still on Angel Island?" Mighty asked.

"I believe so," Shadow answered. "...I don't know if he is aware of the situation, though."

Mighty nodded. "I'll get in contact with him. If Egghead is after sources of chaos energy, the Master Emerald is as much a target as the other emeralds. He won't want to leave it anytime soon."

Shadow thought back to the endless space of energy from the Master Emerald and found himself in agreement. Just the thought of Eggman getting his hands on it disgusted him, though he could easily see Knuckles chucking rocks at Eggman and hitting that stupid soup bowl shaped machine of his. He pushed aside the sudden urge to call Sonic and ask if Knuckles had ever decked Eggman before and nodded back at Mighty.

"I guess the house will have to wait," Vector grumbled. "And it's not like we have any other jobs rollin' in..."

Shadow's ears twitched.

"It's alright; Shadow's house is almost done anyway," Mighty said cheerfully. "I hope you like it, bud. It's one of the best ones I've worked on yet."

"I-" Shadow flattened his ears. "Thank... you."

It was hard to say those two little words. It would have been better if Vanilla hadn't made the call and brought all these people here. The house they were building would probably either go to waste after Shadow's job was done, or G.U.N. would find him first and raze it to the ground. It would have been better to just let him find a cave somewhere.

(It would have been better if he'd just left in the middle of the ni-)

"Nah, don't mention it. A friend of Knux is a friend of mine!"

-ght. Damnit.

He was starting to get attached.

"We're not friends," Shadow said bluntly.

Mighty laughed at him. "Don't be shy. Knuckles wouldn't have called Vec and I if he didn't care."

Shy? Shadow wasn't shy. He couldn't afford to be shy. It wasn't one of the things he'd been allowed to be. He was the Ultimate Lifeform, not- not-

Charmy and Vector shared an eerily similar snicker. Even Espio was slightly smiling at him now. Shadow felt heat rising to his face. His ears and cheeks burned even as he tried to keep a straight face and force the feeling away. What the heck was this situation? Did Sonic's friends just throw out their affections willy nilly? It made no sense.

Vector leaned forward with a glint in his eye. Shadow slightly leaned back in response. "So... I've been wondering about the guy we're building a house for. How do you know my man Knux?"

Shadow gave him a confused look. "Your... man?"

Vector's grin slightly faded. "Uh, yeah? My man, my buddy, my pal?"

Ah. The crocodile was using slang. "Your friend," Shadow clarified. "We met briefly when Sonic..."

He trailed off. How was he supposed to explain this? Telling Vanilla he was from a space colony was one thing, but telling a complete stranger was another. He could deal a blow to his already low pride and admit that Sonic rescued him (Sonic didn't rescue him, a part of his consciousness argued, just released him a year early- and then took extra care of him afterwards), or he could deflect and give a vague answer.

He opted for the second one. "We met through Sonic."

Thankfully, that seemed to appease Vector, who leaned back and was grinning widely again. "Of course it's through ol' speedy. That guy seems to know everybody!"

"He has been over quite a bit of the planet," Espio said, and Shadow had to fight the sudden jealousy that cropped up in his stomach. Charmy wasn't helping as he finally managed to wriggle free of Vector's grasp and yell loudly.

"I wanna go exploring too!"

"It is a lot of fun," Mighty said, patting the excitable bee on the head. He caught Shadow's gaze and grinned. "Looks like you want to explore as well, Shadow? Don't worry, if you're looking for Eggman it's bound to take you new places."

Mighty was tolerable, Shadow supposed. Charmy, on the other hand, he could punt.

It felt- so wrong to want to punt the bee, but Charmy's volume sent harsh shivers down Shadow's spine and gave him an instant headache. The feeling was strangely familiar, not dissimilar to the one he got from that one brat who clung to Maria- Abby? Abra-something? At least Charmy was mildly cute, though it probably helped that Charmy wasn't terrified of him.

He was rescued from any further questions by Amy, Vanilla and Cream coming to find him. A quick conversation brought them up to speed on the plan; the Chaotix would do some investigating of their own and trade information with Sonic and Tails as well as warn Knuckles of the situation while Shadow and Amy went after the chao. If anything urgent came up, the Chaotix would alert everyone and set up a meeting point for them to gather.

Vanilla was reluctant to let Cream go along even with Amy's promises to take care of her, but she agreed when both Shadow and the Chaotix (mostly Vector) said they'd help look out for the kid. Cream was ecstatic and promised to be good and to follow everything Shadow and Amy said, which Shadow promptly told her not to.

"You need to use your own judgement," he told her sternly. "If one of us tells you to do something you do not like, you always have the option to say no."

Cream looked confused and Amy gave him a concerned look, but Vanilla had an unreadable expression on her face as she watched the exchange. Shadow looked between them and sighed.

"Cream, if I told you to call Amy stinky, how would you feel?"

Amy spluttered.

"I don't like that," Cream said immediately. "Miss Amy is my friend and calling your friends names is mean."

"Would you do it if I told you to?"

"No."

"You said you would do anything we told you to."

Cream stopped and looked conflicted. She wrung her hands and bit her lip and scuffed the ground with her shoe.

"Don't promise your right to choose for yourself away," he said. "Use your head. Question everything."

Cream squeezed her hands. "So... if you tell me to call Miss Amy mean things, and I say no, you won't be mad at me?"

"It does not matter if I am mad at you."

"But-"

"It matters that you stand up for yourself."

"Even if it makes you mad?"

"Even if it makes me mad."

Cream still looked conflicted, but she nodded and clenched her fists. "Okay. I think I get it."

Shadow turned away and caught Vanilla looking at him with a strange mixture of emotions. For a moment he was afraid she was unhappy with him for what he'd said, but then she stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. Shadow stood stiff and still, internally running through a checklist of what this could mean and coming up blank. Then Vanilla released him and hugged Amy just as tightly before hugging her daughter last.

"Please... be careful," Vanilla murmured.

Traveling with Amy and Cream was...

An experience.

Shadow had, for obvious reasons, never traveled with anyone before. Sure, he'd gone with Tails and Sonic to Angel Island and to Tails's workshop, but that was a fairly short flight via biplane. This was walking for a full day with normal people who he kept forgetting needed to stop and do normal people things like eat or sit down or to disappear into the bushes and demand fiercely that he not follow them for a few minutes.

It took an embarrassingly long time for him to realize those were bathroom breaks. They could have just told him, but Amy and Cream were weirdly shy about those topics. He didn't get it- and he really didn't care. So long as they weren't running off and getting hurt it didn't matter.

There was another learning curve between the three of them over bodily needs- namely Shadow's distinct lack of them compared to Amy and Cream. He barely ate once in three days and slept even less, opting instead for power naps while Amy and Cream took breaks so he could keep watch at night. Part of this was simply his biology, though he wasn't sure how much of it was their dna in him and how much was genetic engineering, and part of it was the fact that he was still carrying the chaos emerald with him.

Shadow wasn't in a hurry to tell them how his body worked, but it was clear hiding himself as a normal person wasn't going to work anymore. Cream was somewhat used to his odd sleeping and eating patterns due to having lived with him for three weeks, but Amy was both older and wiser to the fact that a small granola bar once in three days was not something a normal hedgehog should have been able to subsist on.

It only took until about halfway through their second day of tracking Eggman's robots for Amy to start asking her questions aloud. What Shadow wasn't expecting was for Cream to start explaining his body to her.

"Mister Shadow is like a chao!"

Shadow spluttered on the water he'd been drinking.

"Uh, Cream? What do you mean by that?" Amy questioned, scrubbing her feet off.

They were currently taking a break by a small stream, and Amy and Cream had taken the chance to pull their shoes off and wade in the water for a bit. Shadow didn't join them, too wary of the feeling of unfamiliar dirt on his sensitive paws just yet. He didn't exactly like the feeling of wet feet, either.

"I mean- the chao need to sleep a lot more and get hungry much more often, but they can survive off of chaos drives, right?" Cream said. She'd hiked up her dress so it wouldn't get wet and was currently balancing as she hopped from rock to rock with her arms stretched out on either side of her. "Mister Shadow has something much better with him."

Amy glanced at him. Shadow slightly turned away and sipped his water.

"Is that true? You can survive off of chaos energy?"

"...Yes," Shadow admitted quietly, then glanced at Cream. "How did you...?"

"You like the fruit from the chao garden," Cream answered easily. "Mother says it's not a taste most people like and too much of it makes you sick, but you prefer them to the other food we make. It's the only thing you went for without being offered."

Shadow wasn't sure how he felt being called out over his food choices, but she was correct. Chao garden fruit had a distinct flavor due to the density of chaos energy that it held, and each garden had a few different varieties of fruit that grew in them. The fruit easily fulfilled his needs in ways that normal food did not, and he didn't have to worry about things like unfamiliar textures or consuming something he didn't know. It was safe. Plus he could share it with Edge and watch the chao's pudgy little cheeks wobble as they ate.

Cream wasn't done. "You like the cookies with chao fruit in them and prefer to hang out in the chao gardens when you're tired, too. And Edge and Cheese and Chocola all say you feel nice to hang around."

"...Because I emit chaos energy," Shadow murmured.

Amy stood up straight and shook her hands off. "So... you don't need to eat? Or sleep?"

Shadow sighed and capped his water bottle. "No, I do, but not very often. My body is... efficient, with nutrients. And Cream is correct. With the chaos emerald nearby I do not need to rest."

Amy eyed him silently for a moment, then put her hands on her hips. "So it wasn't because my cooking was bad that you kept disappearing instead of eating it?"

"Pardon?"

"Every time I make chili you disappear. I was starting to think you hate my cooking."

"No, that..." Shadow flushed.

Cream wasn't done calling him out. "Mister Shadow doesn't tolerate spice very well, Miss Amy."

"Cream-"

"Huh, really? I could have made a milder batch for you if you'd said something," Amy said. "Though... you are pretty shy. I guess I can see why you didn't."

"No, I'm not..."

Cream tugged at Amy's hand. "Mister Shadow's nose is pretty sensitive, too. If we don't leave the window open while baking he sneezes from the flour. Mother tries not to use many dried seasonings anymore, either."

"Oh, I see. Strong smelling onions and intense chilis must be unpleasant, right?" Amy tilted her head and looked like she was deep in thought, Shadow's protests going unheard. "I bet we can research more mild recipes for supertasters. Sonic likes his food exploding with flavor so I guess I've been focusing on making things really spicy and didn't think someone might be adverse to that kind of food."

"You don't need to-"

"Cream, let's hit up the library when this adventure's over!"

"Yes, Miss Amy!"

They'd stopped listening to him entirely. Shadow was left flabbergasted as the girls chittered away about foods he might be able to tolerate and ways to include chao garden fruit, already seeming to plan out their next picnic in a way that would specifically include him.

It was probably the first time in his life someone actively went out of their way to change up their behaviors just for him to be comfortable. He was both intensely flattered and absolutely baffled, but it wasn't a bad feeling.

Maybe... things would be okay?

Chapter Text

Following Eggman's robots' trail was surprisingly easy. The robots had made no effort to hide their traces whatsoever and had left footprints and tracks all over the place. Shadow didn't even need to attempt to trace Chocola's energy signature because the trail was so obvious.

It put him on edge.

Eggman was not Gerald, but Shadow was convinced that anyone with a semblance of a brain would know that leaving an obvious trail like this was just asking for trouble. Gerald would have been extremely cautious about leading his enemies right to him, and Shadow had expected Eggman to do the same and to try to hide the path to wherever it was he was taking the chao, presumably to a lab or a lair of some kind. But instead of covering their tracks, it appeared Eggman's robots had simply stormed along, leaving broken branches and heavy footprints in their wake.

Shadow, Amy and Cream were either following a trap or something was wrong with Eggman. Shadow wasn't going to rule either one out just yet and was erring on the side of "trap" just in case, though Amy thought it was the second option.

"His bots were all acting like zombies," she reasoned. "The strike on Vanilla's house feels closer to an actual Eggman attack, but something's definitely wrong with Eggman."

"What does a normal Eggman attack look like?" Shadow asked.

"He likes to go after the emeralds himself."

Shadow pushed aside the last of the foliage and nearly tripped at the sudden shift in terrain. They'd ended up on some vast plain of white gritty material on the shore of which was an endless expanse of water that sparkled in the midday sun. Shadow had smelled salt for the past half a day, but he hadn't expected to end up at the ocean. His thoughts about traps and Eggman halted for a moment as he stared, ears twitching with every sound of the waves.

Amy and Cream smiled at each other and each took one of his hands, pulling him across the sand towards the water. Shadow stumbled a little bit as the sand shifted under his feet, but in no time at all he was standing at the water's edge.

"This is your first time seeing the ocean, right?" Amy asked.

"Technically no," Shadow replied, his voice quiet with awe. "But... it looks so different up close."

"Isn't it pretty, Mister Shadow?" Cream asked.

"Isn't it pretty, Shadow? One day we'll go see it together!"

Cream's voice overlapped with Maria's in his head. Here he was, knocking off another thing on his and Maria's bucket list, but she wasn't at his side to comment about how she hadn't thought warm water would smell like this or to wonder if seagulls dreamed at night. He desperately wanted to know if she had ever gotten to see just how blue it was, or if she knew that the way it sparkled in the sun was strangely alive and ever shifting.

Shadow shook himself and took a steadying breath, ignoring the questioning look he was getting from Amy. Cream hadn't noticed anything was wrong and was now pointing down the path of semi-washed away footprints.

"Miss Amy, look! Isn't that Mister Big?"

Shadow turned to look where she was pointing and slightly startled. Not very far from where they were was a small dock of some sort, and sitting on top of a pile of smashed up robots was a massive purple cat with a fishing rod. He was probably twice Shadow's height and four Shadows wide, easily the second largest life form Shadow had seen yet.

Amy gasped. "You're right! It is Big!"

"Yes, yes he is," Shadow said flatly.

Amy snorted and smiled at him. "Come on, let's go say hi!"

Shadow followed behind as Amy and Cream eagerly ran down the dock. When the cat looked up Amy and Cream jumped on him and were quickly engulfed in a friendly hug, though the cat somehow managed to keep a hold on his fishing rod the entire time. Shadow hung back a few feet and clasped his hands behind his back awkwardly.

"Hi Amy. Hi Cream," the giant said. His voice was slow and soft. "What are you doing here?"

"Eggman's robots stole a bunch of chao," Amy said. "It looks like you've seen a few robots- did they have any chao with them?"

The giant cat looked down at the smashed up automatons he was sitting on. "Oh. I think so. They were very mean. They tried to take Froggy, too."

"Oh no! Is Froggy okay?"

"He went for a swim."

"...Uh... so that's a yes?"

"A day ago."

"...Oh."

The cat pulled his fishing rod out of the water and pulled the end close, looking at the worm on the hook sadly. Shadow cringed slightly at the dripping, writhing creature, suppressing a shudder as he tried not to imagine the texture of touching it. The cat didn't seem to mind it at all, though.

"I even used his favorite bait," the cat said mournfully. "But Froggy hasn't come back."

"Oh Big, I'm sorry," Amy said.

Shadow almost facepalmed. Of course he'd misunderstood- Big was the cat's name. "Do you know what Eggman wants with... Froggy?" he asked.

Big shook his head. Amy leaned on one leg and folded her arms.

"I think I have an idea why," she said, tapping her finger against her arm. "When all that stuff was happening with Chaos, Froggy swallowed a chaos emerald and Chaos's tail. If Eggman's after things with chaos energy, maybe Froggy has some residual energy left over in him."

Shadow leaned over to Cream and whispered, "Please tell me Froggy is an actual frog."

Cream whispered back. "Froggy is a frog about the size of Mister Big's fist."

Well that explained how a frog could swallow a gem big enough to fit in Shadow's palm. He was pretty sure frogs weren't supposed to be able to do that- though he wasn't really sure what the typical size of frogs was supposed to be. Most of the specimens aboard the ARK that Shadow had seen were either tiny, dead, or both tiny and dead.

He concentrated on feeling for chaos energy signatures around them, closing his eyes to focus better. They'd fallen a good ways behind the robots with the chao due to the robots not needing rest like Amy and Cream did, but Shadow could very faintly sense something up ahead. A couple somethings, actually. He opened his eyes and looked in that direction, finding himself looking at the top of some sort of building peeking out amongst the palm trees.

Shadow pointed at the building. "The only chaos energy around here is over there."

Big was huge, but he could move. Shadow stood staring with wide eyes as the gigantic cat leapt up and booked it for the building immediately, fishing rod trailing the still wiggling worm behind him.

"...How?" he demanded. "How does he move that fast?"

Amy let out a small chuckle. "He does that. I guess we're following him, though. Let's catch up before he gets into trouble."

Shadow nodded and checked that Cream was ready before setting off at a jog. Cream and Amy were both far more experienced with running on sand than he was and occasionally had to slow down so he didn't trip- until Shadow grew slightly frustrated and simply teleported the three of them across the entire beach. While Cream was in awe of having teleported, Amy gave Shadow an amused look before looking around.

"Looks like Big's still slightly ahead of us," she said, pointing to where there was a gigantic cat-shaped hole in the wall of what Shadow could now see was a palace of some kind.

Apparently Sonic wasn't the only freak of nature on the planet surface. Shadow stepped through the hole and looked around, followed closely by Amy and Cream. The palace was smaller than it initally looked- he could already see the other end where a door was smashed wide open with dust still settling around it. The floor was dusty and covered with robotic footprints all leading through the door, though one area had tiny little prints that were more reminescent of chao.

Shadow headed for that area and knelt by the little blobby prints. He hovered his hand over the dust, feeling the leftover energy signature. It wasn't as strong as Cheese's, but it was stronger than the average chao.

He suddenly realized he hadn't seen Edge since he and Sonic had left Angel Island. His first assumption had been that Edge had stayed with Knuckles, but feeling this signature and reminding himself that Edge had snuck up on him far more than once during races with Sonic or training with Knuckles... This chao might have been giving Sonic a run for his money in being troublesome.

"Shadow?" Amy asked, watching as he wandered away from the blobby prints and gripped a piece of fallen wall.

"Stand back," Shadow said.

He hefted the wall with a grunt, and- yup. Underneath was a hidden little cubby area with about seven or eight chao, Edge at their forefront and holding out their little blobby arms as if to protect the others.

Cream gave a soft gasp behind him. "Oh! Some of the chao escaped!"

Shadow set the wall aside and knelt down, giving Edge a gentle pat on head. "Did you see where the others went?"

The chao chirped and pointed at the other end of the palace. Shadow nodded and stood up, glancing at Amy, who was peering at Edge closely.

"They're getting really close to turning into a dark chao now," she commented. "Maybe they just really want to look like you?"

"Please do not joke about that."

"I could see that," Cream said. "Edge, did you save all these chao by yourself?"

Edge gave her a serious little salute. Cream giggled and patted them on the head.

"Can you take them back to mother's house for us, please? We still need to catch up to the others," she said, and Edge adopted a very Shadow-like pose with its little blob arms linked behind its back. The chao turned on its heel and chirped at the others, lining them up and guiding them out of the hole while keeping a watchful eye over all of them before marching to their head.

"They even scowl just like you," Amy said.

Shadow suppressed a groan and started walking. He was well aware he was a mess- being admired and even copied was not exactly a good thing.

He was proud, in a way, of what he was. Shadow could survive damn near anything that was done to him and was a testiment to just how hard the Professor had worked. He was a walking marvel of science and peak bioengineering created by one of the world's most brilliant minds. He was also a walking weapon with enough power to wipe this entire palace off the planet the moment he removed his inhibitor rings.

Edge copying him was flattering, but also not something he was sure he liked.

They came across Big just on the other side of the palace. The big cat was standing still, ears and tail fuzzed out like he'd been spooked by something. Amy and Cream moved to ask him what was wrong- and then all of them caught sight of the giant bird-like machine with a familiar egg motif waiting for them at the end of a marble boardwalk.

"Well well, if it isn't Amy!" Eggman crowed. "I see you've also made your acquantance with the newest thorn in my side."

"Quill."

"...What?"

"Newest quill in your side," Amy said. "He is a hedgehog."

Eggman jabbed a finger at her. "It doesn't matter what kind of rodent he is. You will all die here."

Amy put her hands on her hips. "That's so rude!"

Shadow gave her a slight glance. The man just threatened her life, but she hadn't even flinched. Cream was displaying behavior much closer to something he expected and was hugging Cheese while slightly shaking. Shadow took half a step in front of her so her view of Eggman was blocked.

"Allow me to introduce you to my latest, greatest invention!" Eggman pressed a few buttons in the cockpit of the giant machine, which spread its wings with roaring engines.

Amy produced a hammer from somewhere and gripped it in both hands. "Big, would you watch Cream for a moment, please? Shadow and I have to take out the trash."

"All systems... Full power!" Eggman hollered. The giant bird thing began to fly backwards down the boardwalk, which was... counter-intuitive in Shadow's mind. Why was he fleeing if they were fighting?

"Miss Amy-" Cream protested.

"Please, Cream. Stay out of this one."

Cream looked up at the giant robot, then at Shadow. She relented and stepped closer to Big. "Okay... be careful."

Amy broke into a sprint with Shadow hot on her heels. She was nowhere near Sonic's level of speed, but he couldn't help but admit she was quick on her feet.

"What's the plan?" he asked, one eye locked on the missile launchers aiming at them.

"I'll bat the rockets away and you smack him when he reloads," Amy replied.

"I... smack him?"

Eggman launched two missiles- low grade explosives, Shadow realized, and Amy batted them aside with her hammer as if she were playing a game. They exploded a little ways off the boardwalk, sending water flying everywhere.

"Your turn, Shadow!"

He grit his teeth and focused on the cockpit, shooting forward and forcing chaos energy through his air shoes as he leapt. The bird-machine swayed a little bit with his forceful landing, but he didn't stop moving. Placing one hand on the cockpit to balance himself, Shadow swung himself around and kicked Eggman in the head.

Eggman's head cracked at an odd angle. Shadow flinched- until Eggman grabbed him by the ankle with more force than any human could have had. His head turned and his eyes sparked with electricity, and now Shadow could see the exposed wires on his head. He was filled with a momentary sense of relief before the machine lifted him clear of the cockpit and threw him right into the ocean.

Shadow teleported the moment he hit the water and reappeared next to Amy's side, catching up to her speed in no time.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked, casting a glance at his drenched quills.

"Is Eggman a robot?"

"Huh?"

"Because that is a robot," Shadow said, pointing at the cockpit.

Amy squinted and batted another set of rockets away. "No, Eggman is- well, I think he's human. It doesn't surprise me if that's a clone of himself that he made, though usually they don't look so lifelike."

"Okay to destroy?" Shadow asked.

"Rip it to pieces."

...He was going to get along with her just fine. That said, as much as he was all for her propensity towards violence, the way she said it felt... off.

Well. He'd deal with that after the fight.

After Amy bashed away the third salvo of missiles with her hammer, Shadow curled into a ball and let her smack him like a sports ball. His quills careened into one of the engines, and when Shadow uncurled he teleported again. Eggman's clone threw a punch, expecting him to appear at the cockpit again, which he did-

-behind the robot.

Shadow spun and roundhouse kicked the robot's head with enough force to take it completely off its shoulders. The head went flying right into the ocean, where it promptly fizzled out. He let himself grin for a moment.

The robot turned and grabbed his ankle again. Shadow started in surprise when the robot lifted him once again and stood up, swinging its arm with him on the end in a circle. Eggman's mocking voice came from somewhere in the cockpit instead of the head like it had been.

"Did you really think you could stop me with such a petty little trick?"

The robot let go of him. Shadow was sent flying right into the face of the boardwalk, slamming headfirst into the marble surface with an audible crack. He heard Amy scream his name through the ringing in his ears as he pushed himself up and brushed blood away from his eyes.

Amy came skidding to a halt between Shadow and the bird-machine, which slowed down to hover menacingly in front of them. "Shadow! Don't go for the cockpit! We need to bring him down to our level!"

"Engines then," Shadow concluded. "Understood."

"How's your head?"

"Clear. Let's go."

She cast a glance back at him, eyes flicking to the blood on his head, but gave a firm nod and took off running again. She flicked her hammer expertly as if knocking the explosives away was just another Tuesday, and Shadow suddenly realized what was off.

Aboard the ARK he'd only seen a scared and trapped girl. Amy wasn't displaying fear at all now; she was confident and strong. She'd been angry at Vanilla's house after Shadow was attacked, but this level of strength was different.

He kicked on his air shoes and caught up to her. "...Have you been training?"

"I took up boxing," she replied simply. "On your left- ready for another spinball smash?"

He leapt forward and curled up in response. Amy planted her foot and gave him a firm whack, her hammer making a squeaky piko! sound. Shadow bristled his quills and bounced off the other engine. The force made his head ring, but he uncurled and landed much more gracefully despite the pain.

The headless robot in the cockpit "looked" at them and broadly gestured with its hands. "Hmph, so you're a little more durable than I thought. Shall we step up the game a little?"

"That usually means a slight change in tactics and more rockets," Amy said. "I think another hit or two on the engines should bring it down- are you okay?"

Shadow wiped his eye. The bleeding had already stopped thanks to the proximity of the chaos emerald, but it probably looked worse from the outside. "Fine. Any change in tactics?"

"Yeah, one." Amy pointed at one of the engines. "Can you teleport me up there?"

Shadow blinked. "You smack one, I get the other?"

"Yeah!"

He held out his hand. She took it with a giggle, and in a flash they were on one of the wings of the bird-machine. Shadow blinked to the other engine and waited for her cue.

"Hey!" the voice of Eggman yelled. "Get off of that!"

"Punch it!"

Shadow punched down with a heavy fist. On the other wing, Amy swung her hammer down so hard it dented the wing and the engine both, then jumped out of the way of the resulting explosion. Shadow sent a jolt of chaos energy into the turbine and overloaded it before following suit. The two landed next to each other on the boardwalk in time to turn and see the entire machine crash and crumple, robot pilot and all.

Amy hefted her hammer onto her shoulder and let out a huff. "That's the trash taken out. Let me look at your head, please?"

"It's healed already." Shadow bent his head forward and let her look anyway. She clicked her tongue and gently parted his quills, checking this way and that before letting him go with a nod.

"...Does it still hurt?"

"No."

"Good."

Shadow rinsed his head off in the ocean water to get rid of the blood. Amy took the chance while his guard was down to splash him, causing him to splutter and give her a confused glare.

"Don't worry me like that again," she said quietly. "Please."

Shadow stayed still and stared at her. Then, slowly, he reached down and cupped some water in his hands and tossed it in her direction. Amy squeaked and jumped backwards.

"Hey!"

He climbed out of the water and shook off his hands. "Let's go back to Cream."

"Y-yeah!"

Chapter Text

"...Maria?"

"Hm?"

"What makes someone... a person?"

There was a soft shuffling and the telltale noise of fabric dragging across the floor. Maria's arms wrapped around Shadow's middle and she rested her head on top of his, enveloping him in the blanket she was also wearing. It was warm and smelled faintly of hypoallergenic detergent and bleach. Maria hummed and danced her fingers on Shadow's sides.

"I guess, if they have a soul?" she said after a minute.

Shadow slightly tilted his head back, mindful of how his quills were sharp even when flat. "A soul?"

"Mhmm. Though nobody really knows how to quantify it. I'd say it's when someone is living and breathing and can feel things, but that would qualify lots of things that I think none of us think is a person."

"Like the artificial chaos?"

Maria frowned. "That one... I'm not sure. They always look so sad, but they don't... do anything intelligent. Grandfather said they're just computer controlled, so... I guess so."

Shadow shivered. Maria shifted and pulled him into a sitting position in her lap. She wrapped the blanket around them so they were enveloped in a cocoon of warmth with just their heads peeping out. He settled back against her chest and listened to the rhythm of her heart, soothed slightly by the steady cadence of her breath.

"How do you tell if someone has a soul?" he whispered.

Maria hummed again. Shadow tensed slightly and prepared himself for the painful reveal that it was something out of his grasp, something as unattainable as his freedom.

"I don't know. I think it's something you're born with."

Shadow slowly let out his breath. "So... something unnatural like me..."

"I think you have one."

He shifted in her hold, turning enough to look up at her. Maria smiled back, untangling one of her hands from the cozy wrap to stroke the top of his head. Shadow slightly leaned into the touch even as he frowned.

"But I wasn't born."

"But you're living and breathing, and you think, and you have feelings," Maria argued.

"Lots of things live and breathe and think and have feelings. Does that make an insect a person, too?"

Her expression twisted in thought. "...You're right. I think even bugs have souls, but bugs aren't people. Maybe it's if there's a culture...?"

"Like... yeast?"

"Ugh, this is a hard question. Maybe grandfather would know."

Shadow slowly nodded. He wouldn't get the chance to ask for a while; the professor was currently planetside to do some research and would likely not return for a few months. He had left Shadow and Maria homework to do in the meantime, but the two had blown through all of it with a few all-nighters and determined curiosity. Technically Maria wasn't supposed to stay up all night due to her health, and Shadow was supposed to check in with the researchers when they were done with schooling. That only encouraged them to finish early in secret so they could have free time together under the excuse of homework.

Anything to get away from the tests was more than welcome. Time with Maria was even better.

"What's with the existential questions?" Maria asked. Her tone was carefully light.

Shadow let out a long, steady breath. He could never hide his feelings from her. From the day he'd been introduced to her on, she knew him better than anyone else. Sure, the researchers and the professor knew his specs, but Maria knew him. A scientist could say his heart rate was steady and nothing was wrong and Maria would tell them he was anxious or not feeling well because of some little tell inhis body language.

He wasn't sure what to call the tiny warm bubble that grew in his chest every time it happened, but he'd come to realize he liked when it happened. He especially liked that she understood him even when he was silent. It meant he didn't have to say things aloud or struggle to express feelings he didn't know the name of.

"...G.U.N.'s top commander visited the other week."

Maria's hand stopped midway down his quills. Shadow swallowed and continued quietly.

"He referred to me as a stupid creature," he mumbled. "I don't... understand what that means. The professor said I was intelligent, but now somehow I am not? And you and the base team have always talked to me like you do each other, so I... it was confusing. I think- I know I'm different. I'm not a human like all of you, but I thought..."

He drew a shuddering breath. Maria pulled him closer and hugged him tightly. Her hand resumed petting his head while the other clutched him closely. She nuzzled her cheek against the side of his head.

"You are different," she said. Her voice was thick with something that Shadow could only really think to describe as wet, though he wasn't sure why it was wet. It just was. "You're special. But you know what?"

"...What?"

"That just makes me love you all the more."

Shadow huffed and rolled his eyes.

Maria snorted. "No, I mean it. I love that you're different. I love that you're fuzzy, and you're small and huggable!"

She punctuated her words with a particularly tight squeeze. Shadow unwittingly let out a squawk as the air was squished out of him, causing Maria to cackle.

"Maria!" he complained, though she could never hurt him.

"You're perfect," she said.

Shadow fell still. Something hot gathered in his eyes for some reason. The G.U.N. personnel from below hadn't said so. The commander seemed to think he was unintelligent. But he was perfect?

"Why?" he whispered.

"Because you're my little brother, and I wouldn't want you any other way."

He didn't understand. But there it was, that warm bubble now running through his veins like fire. He twisted in her grip and buried his face in her blouse. She wrapped the blanket over his head and hid them both away from the world like a secret. He was supposed to be her protector, and yet he'd never felt safer.

"So... either the bots are stupid or Eggman forgot this base is really, really old," Amy said, peering at the building in front of them.

"Can it be both?" Shadow mumbled.

Amy shared a look with Cream. Shadow had actually slept the previous night-not long after the battle with the fake Eggman, to be exact- and he looked worse afterward. He was bound determined not to talk about his condition and went silent every time Amy tried to bring it up. He hadn't slowed down at all and was still as focused as ever in finding the chao.

But Amy was used to dealing with Sonic. She knew her friends would run themselves ragged before they prioritized their own health. Shadow seemed just as bad, if not worse because of his unique metabolism.

She had to make him rest somehow. A nap was probably out of the question, knowing his personality, so she'd have to make do if all she got was for him to sit down for a few minutes with his eyes closed. She could theoretically sit on him, but he wasso behind on social cues that he'd probably take that as her being tired and just carry her or try to make her rest.

Thankfully, she had a powerful weapon on her side that no one could resist.

"Mister Shadow?"

"Hm?"

"Is it okay if we sit for a little bit?"

Shadow glanced between Cream and the base. He seemed to think about something for a moment, and Amy feared he was about to say no. Then he nodded, and Cream promptly grabbed his hand and pulled him down to sit with his back against a tree with her. Shadow's eyebrows slightly scrunched together into a frown.

"Do your feet hurt?" he asked.

Cream shook her head. "No, I'm okay! But I've never gone into a big building like Mister Eggman's before. I think I need a minute. And the sun feels nice, don't you think?"

"The sun does feel nice today," Amy added. "It's a nice temperature. I think we're almost into summer now."

Shadow's expression slightly twisted.

"...Summer," he echoed quietly.

Amy wasn't sure why that tugged on her heartstrings. His voice was flat, but there was a note of sadness in there.

"Oh yeah, there weren't really seasons on the ARK, were there?" she said, adopting a slightly excited tone. "Lots of neat things happen in the summer! It's perfect for going to the beach and for having picnics- oh, and barbecues! And you can watch fireworks while eating ice cream in the evening!"

Shadow gave her a quizzical look. She grinned and put her hands on her hips.

"Don't you worry, Shadow. We'll make sure you have a proper fun summer for sure! That's an Amy Rose guarantee!"

"Should I be worried?" Shadow asked Cream.

"Hey!"

"That was mean, Mister Shadow," Cream gently scolded. "Miss Amy is doing her best."

Shadow's eyes flicked up to meet Amy's. The little brat smirked. "I know. I was teasing."

Amy huffed, but she couldn't be mad. Shadow being lighthearted and joking around was rare. This was probably the first time she'd actually seen him smirk; usually he just kind of stood around and was awkward or followed Cream like a lost puppy. It was nice to see him growing more comfortable around them.

Shadow stiffened and his head turned to look towards the base, ears standing straight up. Amy peered in that direction as well and caught sight of white fur and black wings gliding to the door.

"Woah, who's that?" she wondered aloud.

"Rouge," Shadow answered, standing up and holding out a hand for Cream. "She's... been watching us."

"What? Since when?"

"Since the ARK. Sonic, Knuckles and I confronted her when she followed us to Angel Island. She doesn't mean either of you harm." Shadow dusted Cream's dress off and tilted his head towards the old Egg base. "Knuckles vowed to throw her off the side of the island if she causes trouble again."

Cream looked up at them with big, round eyes. "Isn't that dangerous, Mister Shadow?"

"She has wings."

"Oh!"

"Why has she been spying on us?" Amy asked. "No, before that- we also need to go in there. What if she triggers a security system and the chao get hurt?"

Shadow put a hand on Cream's head. "Do you still need a moment?"

Cream shook her head and smiled. Shadow set off towards the base with Amy and Cream jogging at his side, and as they ran the thought struck Amy that Shadow's words were a bit odd. Rouge didn't mean her and Cream any harm, but what about him?

They reached the entrance of the base and found Rouge waiting for them. The bat waved as they approached with a smirk on her face. It was only because Amy was already paying attention to Shadow that she noticed the way his quills slightly flared and stiffened. His poker face was impressive-- she would have never noticed he was more on edge than usual otherwise.

"Well hello there," Rouge said cheerfully. "What a surprise to see you here, Shadow! And it looks like you found yourself a girlfriend, hm?"

Amy almost spluttered, but Shadow's deadpan answer nearly knocked her flat.

"They are both girls, yes. I don't see what that has to do with anything."

Rouge's stare was also flat. Amy coughed into her fist to avoid laughing. Cream tugged at Shadow's hand to catch his attention.

"She's implying you and Miss Amy are dating."

"Dating what? I don't see anything to date, much less the equipment to do so?"

Amy patted Shadow's shoulder and pretended not to see his subtle flinch. "I'll... explain it later. I don't think we've been introduced, miss...?"

Rouge shrugged and held out a hand. "Rouge the Bat, gem enthusiast and treasure hunter."

Amy took her hand and nearly crushed it in a vice grip. "Amy Rose, Sonic's girl."

Rouge pulled her hand back and shook it out with a wince. "Er... noted. And this is...?"

Cream did a little curtsy. "Hello Miss Rouge. I'm Cream, and this is Cheese. Have you seen a chao like him, but brown?"

"Oh my, what a polite young lady! I'm afraid I haven't seen a brown chao specifically, but a few chao were brought into this building here by some of Eggman's robots." Rouge tapped her knuckles with her good hand against the door behind her. "I was about to break in myself, but if you gals want in too, we can forego the vents and I'll try the front door."

"You'd let us come with you?" Amy asked.

Rouge flexed her hand that Amy crushed with a smirk. "You get to look for your chao, I get to search his databases for notable gems that he discarded or considered worthless, it's a win-win situation for me."

Amy glanced at Cream, then at Shadow. He still looked slightly unnerved, but his ears had gone back to twitching and listening to all the little sounds around them instead of being stiff and straight up. She nodded at Rouge and flicked her hammer into existence.

"I'll get the door," she said.

Chapter Text

Rouge did not like Project Shadow.

When she'd discovered Sonic had released something that was stored on the ARK, she'd let her boss know at the soonest possible moment. At first she was pretty sure he'd fallen back asleep instead of listening to her, but then he had quietly told her to keep an eye on "Project Shadow" and had been silent since. She hadn't lied to Shadow at all on Angel Island- she'd been given no information and no further orders.

As any good spy should, she'd adapted. She'd pulled any and all related information that she could from the ARK before she had to sneak her way aboard Sonic's shuttle, but she couldn't grab much of anything due to the convoluted ways Gerald Robotnik encrypted his files. Apparently the ARK's security was shitty where it mattered- the half of a moon floating in the night sky was a painful testament to that- and stupidly good when it came to experiments of more questionable morality. The most she'd gotten was a file on a terminally ill girl called Maria.

It was hard to get close to Shadow. He was quiet and always alert, though at first she was certain he was just overwhelmed by a new environment and wouldn't be able to pick her out from any other winged creature. After he forcefully dragged her out of the tree on Angel Island, however, she learned he had insane hearing abilities.

Her job became easier now that she didn't necessarily have to hide herself from him- which was good, because she really wasn't sure how to sneak around a guy that could hear her muffled sneeze from all the way across a garden filled with talkative chao. Her job also became harder, however; it was hard to keep pretending she was trying to stay impartial after he silently walked over and threw the scarf Cream had foisted on him at her. Shadow was a walking liability and had left a giant smoking crater in Vanilla's poor front lawn, but he was also clumsy and awkward and kind of sweet.

Rouge radioed her boss from the hotel she had temporarily been staying at after the second week. She tried to wheedle some information out of him about Project Shadow. He didn't ask if she'd found him- he knew she had- and she didn't say a word about where she was.

He didn't say much about Project Shadow, either. Rouge could have strangled him.

And then her boss called her personal line from a payphone.

"...How is he doing?"

Rouge squinted at her phone. "Sorry, who is this?"

The long, haggard sigh from the other end was definitely her boss.

"I didn't sign up to be a babysitter," she reminded him, "so if you really want me to do this, spill. What is Project Shadow?"

"No, you didn't," her phone murmured, followed by another world-weary sigh. "Nothing I tell you leaves this conversation. Understood?"

"Who do you think you're talking to? -If you keep sighing like that your soul will leave your body."

"You're not helping."

For all his grumbling, her boss did explain. Rouge had asked for information on what she was initially informed was a top secret military weapon, but what she got was a story about a genius little girl, a boy who thought of her as a sister, a sinister shadow and the creature it helped create. The story was told in a voice that was at times angry and sad, but also spoken with a strange wistfulness as if it was a dream.

"...When I was a child I thought Shadow was a monster," Rouge's boss admitted quietly. "But after the ARK was evacuated and I spent more time with Maria... she never stopped thinking of him. She talked about him like he was a person and told me stories of the little shenanigans they used to get up to together. There was even a period of time where I was jealous."

"Jealous? Of Shadow?"

"It sounds childish, doesn't it? There I was, still spending time with the dearest person to him, jealous of the love she felt for someone who wasn't there anymore."

It was childish. And it was unfair to Shadow.

Rouge played with the armrest of her chair. "And now she's gone, but Shadow is here."

"I promised Maria I'd at least look after him however I could," Rouge's boss said. She could hear the tiredness in his voice and imagined the way he pulled his hand over his face. "Reluctantly, at first. He's the Ultimate Lifeform. Why would he need looking after? ...Then I found his files."

"Which you never gave me," Rouge added.

"For good reason. I want to know your judgement of his character before I share his history with you."

He was only able to get away with doing that because he thought Shadow wouldn't go on a rampage without a reason. Her boss didn't know that Shadow had already been attacked by Eggman and had nearly fried Rouge in the explosion.

Rouge snorted darkly. "You're lucky you pay me so much, you asshole."

Her boss's voice turned concerned. "Is it that bad?"

"Eggman was involved, so take a hazard here or there. I think he's out for my blood for ditching him before, by the way. And you didn't tell me Shadow has fucking good hearing, so he's known I've been watching him this whole time. I almost got thrown off an island, you know?"

"Ah..."

Rouge twirled her fingers and eyed the scarf hanging off a hook by the door. "He's soft with kids and has no idea what any form of slang means, but he's learning. He's aggressive if he thinks you're a threat, but his actions all have reasoning and logic behind them. It's a little startling how sweet he can actually be. If it weren't for the glaringly obvious abilities that could give Sonic a run for his money you'd think he was just another guy."

There was a brief moment of silence from the other end before a long breath was released. There goes his soul, Rouge thought with a slight smirk.

"Is he... staying out of trouble?"

"Careful, old man. You're starting to sound like an uncle."

"You love pushing buttons, don't you."

"It's one of my many charms, yes," Rouge drawled. "Unfortunately, as I've said before, playing babysitter is not. I'm not being paid nearly enough to handle a traumatized walking government secret."

"...So something did happen."

Rouge sat up straighter. Her boss's last words were murmured softly, not meant for her, but before she could focus on what that meant he'd already captured her attention with something else.

"Do you want overtime and hazard pay? Or are you asking to be taken off the job?"

"What kind of hazard pay are we talking?"

"I heard we came into possession of a painite necklace recently."

Rouge sat very upright. "No."

"The silver wiring on it is quite pretty, too... as are the inlaid diamonds and topaz decor."

"Deal."

"Are you sure? I'm certain we can find-"

"If you give away or sell that necklace I am going to rob you blind," Rouge hissed.

The asshole on the other end chuckled. "I'll send over some information via a courier and a backup drive to a location you choose. Thanks for your hard work, miss babysitter."

Rouge didn't give him the courtesy of a goodbye and hung up, then went and took a long bath.

It was just before the third week when she got the documents. She traveled a few hours away by air before she'd even turned on her communicator out of caution. She was pretty certain that Shadow would actually kill her if anyone from G.U.N. so much as looked Cream and Vanilla's way. The documents were handed to her in the rundown parking lot of a shitty family restaurant after she watched the poor fool who'd been tasked to hand off the high security briefcase circle around town for a good hour like a lost puppy. She verified the contents were what she was expecting, then took a convoluted route home.

Rouge was aware that Shadow was probably mistreated a little before G.U.N. had shut down the ARK. He'd said himself that he'd "never been a child," so she expected training and drills and not a lot else, though she was curious to know how much of Shadow's interactions with the other residents of the ARK had been documented.

She was not prepared to read the files on Project Shadow.

Halfway through the records on Shadow's regenerative abilities Rouge put the document down and left to commit jewel theft. After replacing the chaos emerald being displayed at the Central Station Square jewelry Exhibit with a fake she'd felt good enough to force herself through the rest of the documents.

So many things were clicking into place. By numbers and data alone, Shadow was a monster. He could regrow severed limbs and lost organs provided enough sustenance and proper nutrients. He could manipulate chaos energy to his will for devastating battle capabilities. He was sharply intelligent and had insane reaction times as well as the ability to move at the speed of sound. In numbers alone, Shadow sounded more powerful than Sonic, who had actually taken down a god not so long ago.

But that was in numbers and data alone. Sure, Shadow's bones could withstand far more pressure than a normal person's before they broke. Sure, he shrugged off most drugs and would be back on his feet in mere minutes. And sure, he could regrow that limb after it had been cut off.

That was well and fine if she ignored the note that bigger and harder tools had to be fetched mid-procedure. It was fine if she ignored the fact that things had to be done in order to get data like this. It was fine if she ignored how Shadow was able to feel pain, cry, make friends, and offer her a scarf despite having every reason to hate the people she was contracted to work for.

The notes written directly by Gerald Robotnik were much easier to parse through. At first the notes were solidly objective. Vitals normal today, project growing well, yadda yadda. As they went on, however, the notes became increasingly affectionate. Gerald Robotnik's notes read almost like a scrapbook and offered a much different look into Shadow's life aboard the ARK than his medical records. There were multiple pages that had little notes scribbled in the margins that made Rouge smile. Simple, little things; Shadow liked the taste of coffee; Shadow's first test run with having proper shoes on. Rouge's favorite was the note that Shadow could purr.

She was just starting in on the records regarding Shadow's military training when Tails's workshop was attacked. It was her first real look at how Shadow fought, and she had to admit- he was pretty good. He was a deadly shot and quick to realize that Sonic was in no danger from the robot army. She did not, however, approve of how willing he was to use himself as a test subject, and she found herself cheering each time Sonic scolded him for it.

Then her boss called her. Go figure- Eggman was back on the ARK and doing some digging where he shouldn't have been. She had a new priority for now. She'd just have to entrust Shadow to Sonic for a little while.

Days passed. Rouge was almost able to put Project Shadow out of her mind as she returned to something more normal and simple. She did her research and zeroed in on an old base of Eggman's that she could use to access his databases from. She watched a gaggle of Egg-pawns bring some chao in while she was scoping it out, which was a bit odd, considering this base hadn't been used in a long while before now, but that also meant it was perfect. Activity meant up to date information.

She was scoping out the entrance when Shadow, Amy and Cream just rolled right up to her with a gigantic purple cat trailing behind.

Spy movies often dramatized things like getting attached, but they weren't incorrect; attachments caused decisions to have more motives than pure logic. Part of what made Rouge a good spy was that she simply didn't really care about other people. She had empathy, sure, but she had long detached herself from it unless she had a personal connection to someone, and Rouge had personal connections to just about no one. She liked her boss well enough, but she didn't like him enough to call him an attachment.

Rouge had done her best to put Project Shadow aside in her mind. She'd been grateful for the change of pace and the switch in motives when she turned to look into Eggman instead. The documents had stayed in the back of her head anyway, floating around in the quiet moments.

It was probably because of that. Project Shadow was fresh in her mind. Seeing Shadow fine and healthy and with friends just helped her remember that was in the past. That was all. He wasn't an attachment. He was just a job.

As she introduced herself to Amy and Cream and Shadow once again failed to recognize her attempts at teasing, she wondered if that was how the scientists had felt about him, too.

Amy was terrifying with that hammer of hers. One good heft and the front door of the base was gone. The giant purple cat that had been following them moved the wreckage aside. Rouge had disabled the security system at the front gate beforehand, so they all just slipped inside with no problems. Shadow naturally gravitated in front of everyone without a word and stalked forward wherever Rouge directed him, which was much more reassuring after Rouge had learned what he was capable of. Who best to lead the charge than a tank, right?

"Are you feeling any chaos energy from this place, Shadow?" Amy asked in a loud whisper.

"I don't need to," Shadow replied, gesturing at the floor. Sure enough, there were a lot of very fresh footprints in the dust that led further inside. There was also a set of smaller, heavier footprints that looked slightly older and led to a different room.

Rouge pulled out her communicator and drew up the basic blueprint of the building. Shadow glanced at her device and slightly frowned, most likely noticing it wasn't in G.U.N.'s usual style, while Amy and Cream peered closer and Big just kind of loomed nearby. From what she could tell, the smaller footprints led towards the central computer room while the others seemed to be heading for a storage room.

"Looks like we need to split up here," Rouge said. "The chao were being carried by a bunch of Eggpawns, so they'll most likely be down in this storage room. I only saw about ten 'bots go in, but I'd prepare for a few more than that if I were you."

"What about you, Miss Rouge?" Cream asked.

Rouge smiled back at her. "Aw, are you worried about little ol' me? I'll be going that way."

Amy looked at the footprints, then back to Rouge. She put on a bright smile on her face and waved. "Have fun with the big robot! See you later! Come on, Shadow, Cream, Big."

"B-big robot?" Cream squeaked.

"Yeah, speaking of that." Rouge leaned slightly closer to Shadow and smirked at him. "Hey big guy, wanna come with me for a bit?"

Amy spluttered. "Now wait just a minute! What do you want with Shadow!?"

Rouge resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Shadow liked Amy far more than he liked her, so being polite was her best option right now. "Come now, miss Rose, you blew in that front gate like it was paper. You'll be fine handling a couple of measely pawn bots without him. I'd just like a little backup in case I run into something big."

"You can't just poach Shadow from our team like that!"

"Who said I'm poaching him?" Rouge spread her hands in a shrug and looked at Shadow. Her smile faded a little bit at the piercing stare he was giving her.

"...I'll go with Rouge."

Amy gaped at Shadow. Rouge's smirk came back and she opened her mouth to speak again, but Shadow cut her off.

"If I hear either Amy or Cream yell my name, however, I'm ditching you immediately."

She let out a sigh and put on a dramatic air. "What a ladies' man. Fair enough, I suppose."

Cream looked back and forth between them. "But... Mister Shadow will be in another hallway. And it's really loud when Mister Eggman's robots are about. How will you hear us?"

"That's a good question," Amy murmured. "Er- we'll have Big with us too, Shadow, we'll be fine. Let's meet back up at the front of the base when we're all done."

Shadow looked at the gigantic purple cat. Big stared back with giant clueless eyes. Rouge was very confused as some sort of silent and equally confused conversation passed between them with Shadow twitching his ears and Big tilting his head. Shadow flicked both of his ears and swiveled them forward before spinning on his heel and stalking off down the hall. That was it then- no big fanfare, no heartwarming farewells or good lucks. Just business.

She could get behind that. Rouge blew a kiss at Amy and trotted after him.

They made their way a good ways down the hallway. Rouge peered interestedly at the footprints as they walked. Judging by the dust, whatever had been through here had last moved at the latest a few days ago, for sure before the chao were brought in.

"What do you really want?"

Rouge clasped a hand over her heart. "You don't believe me? I really would like help if we run into trouble, you know."

Shadow cast her a glare. Now that they were away from Amy and Cream she could see the real heat behind them, something fierce and burning that caused his eyes to actually glow with a soft orange haze. It should have been a little scary, but somehow it was comforting to know he had a fire inside him despite everything.

Rouge's steps slowed. She pushed the thought away and quickened her steps back to their usual pace. Shadow's ears flattened.

"I finally got your files," Rouge said, waving a hand at him. "And no, I'm not scared of you, so don't even think that way. I am, however, more than a little pissed that I had to read through files detailing torture when I could have been eating a quality steak."

Shadow's glare morphed into slight confusion. Rouge ignored it and squashed the tiny nauseous bubble in her stomach. She instead chose to keep talking.

"At any rate, my orders haven't changed. I am getting Eggman-related hazard pay now, though."

"Why are you telling me this?" Shadow asked.

"Because this will be easier for both of us if we're at least cordial," Rouge answered easily. "You have deadly abilities, but I don't see you being a threat."

"I could be."

She snorted. "Sure, but that depends on what you want. In three weeks the only time you've attacked anything has been when others were being attacked or you were directly threatened. That doesn't exactly scream 'loose cannon' to me."

Shadow eyed her suspiciously. She couldn't blame him- especially after reading the tests G.U.N. had mandated be run.

"...You really aren't scared of me?" he asked slowly.

Rouge scoffed. "Sweetheart, I don't give a shit if you can throw cars around. It means you can open a jar of pickles if I hand it to you. The only thing I'm scared of is your inability to tell what flirting or teasing is. I can't tell who's worse, you or Knuckles. His reactions are funnier, though."

Shadow's ears slowly raised back up and he clenched his fists. His eyes had stopped glowing, which was kind of a shame because Rouge had been using them as a flashlight.

"Eggman-related hazard pay, huh," he said.

Rouge smirked at him and gestured ahead where the door to the computer room lay. "What, disappointed you weren't the cause of my hazard pay?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm simply surprised you didn't use me as an excuse to get more money." Shadow stepped ahead to get the door and paused with his hand over the button. Rouge bit back the comment that she did, in fact, use him as an excuse, and listened instead. She heard the hum of machinery inside, which was typical for a hub of computers, but one look at the twitching of Shadow's ears made her listen just a little harder. It took her a few seconds to realize what was wrong was the humming itself, because there wasn't just one tone of electricity.

She prepared herself for a fight and nodded at Shadow. He pressed the button and dove inside despite the sudden barrage of bullets that came raining down at him. Rouge waited for the onslaught to move before slipping into the room herself and leaping into the air.

The robot was different from any model she'd seen before. It had Eggman's typical color scheme and the helmet of an E-series, but it was much bigger and was clearly designed for combat. That wasn't the only thing different about it, though. No, what really set it apart was how it was currently ranting angrily at Shadow.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WALTZ IN HERE?" the robot blared. It fired a round of miniature rockets at Shadow, who bobbed and weaved like a dancer and avoided all of them. "I MAY HAVE BEEN ABANDONED, BUT I AM STILL DANGEROUS! DESTROY EVERYTHING! CHAOS! DESTRUCTION!! I'LL SHOW YOU PROBLEMATIC PERSONALITY! I CAN BE A PROBLEM! I WILL BE THE LAST PROBLEM YOU EVER SEE!!"

Shadow bounced off of one of the machines and crashed against the robot's chassis. The robot skidded back a foot, then began rapidly spinning its barrel-like body with its arms outstretched. Shadow caught a claw to the face and backed up hurriedly.

The robot stopped spinning and switched to its guns in the same fluid motion. Shadow was already on the move and ready to punch when Rouge did something stupid.

She stepped between them and held out her hands, catching both the robot's gun hand and Shadow's shoulder. Shadow skidded to a halt immediately. The robot also paused, and thank Chaos they did because she really didn't want to become bullet-ridden paste. She smirked at Shadow before looking at the robot.

"You're talking about Eggman, I assume," she said to it. "We're looking to be problems for him too. Why waste your ammunition on us?"

The robot's eyes flashed. Shadow flicked Rouge's hand off of his shoulder and wiped his cheek. There was a soft whirring of gears as the robot mulled over the idea.

"WHAT KIND OF PROBLEM?"

"The kind where I hack his database and you get to launch rockets at him."

"THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR SOLUTION."

Rouge's smile faltered slightly. "Please elaborate?"

"I HAVE DISCONNECTED ALL OF THE DATABASES HERE POST FILLING IT WITH GARBAGE AND PUSHING RUDE GESTURES TO ALL OF EGGMAN'S PRINTERS MY SYSTEMS WERE ABLE TO ACCESS. THE DATABASE IS FUNCTIONALLY USELESS AS OF THE MOMENT AND THE BACKUP WAS DELETED."

Rouge groaned. Shadow, however, was peering interestedly at the robot now, his eyes lit up with some kind of excitement.

"Can you do that to other peoples' databases?" he asked.

The robot zeroed in on him. "I AM CAPABLE OF ANY FORM OF DESTRUCTION," it answered.

Shadow paused and glanced at Rouge. He seemed to be struggling with something and the light in his eyes fizzled out. He looked away and crossed his arms.

"Well, uh. That makes my job a bit difficult," Rouge muttered, running her hand over her head. "I'd have to go raid one of his other bases and see if he made local copies of anything. I'm assuming this place won't have had much of what I need, given how old it is."

"ANALYSIS CORRECT. THE LATEST LOCAL COPY WAS LAST UPDATED OVER 400 DAYS AGO BEFORE I DELETED IT."

Rouge took a deep breath. She looked at Shadow, then back to the robot.

She needed to tell Shadow that Eggman was active aboard the ARK again, but she wasn't so willing to say anything in front of someone that wasn't an ally. The best scenario she could think of right now was if Shadow chose to come with her on a raid on one of Eggman's newer bases so he could interpret some of the information from the ARK and tell her if anything had been altered. If she got this robot- who was clearly able to access Eggman's technology and deal some real damage- to help her out, she'd have two tanks and easy computer access.

That was assuming, of course, that Shadow would come with her. She'd been away for a few days, so she didn't fully know what Shadow was doing with Amy and Cream (and Big) other than looking for chao. He might not be willing to follow her. The robot, on the other hand...

"Well, I need to go cause trouble in a new base, then," she said, watching the robot closely. "Which means new, explodable targets..."

The robot's hands flexed.

"...Lots of Egg-tech just waiting to be destroyed..."

The robot leaned slightly closer.

"And always the potential to run into Eggman himself," Rouge finished, hiding her smirk and tapping her chin.

"WHEN DO WE START."

Hook, line, and sinker.

"What's your name, big guy?"

"DESIGNATION: E-123 OMEGA."

Rouge grinned. "Well then, Omega. I'm Rouge. This here is Shadow. I dare say we can leave as soon as Shadow's business here is finished, don't you?"

She looked back at Shadow. He frowned and nodded, then turned and marched out of the room. Rouge followed him into the hall, Omega stomping after them like a looming wall of claws and artillary.

Chapter Text

"I don't like her."

Cream peeked at Amy and wrung her hands. The pink hedgehog had been upset since Rouge and Shadow walked off. Beating up a room full of Egg-pawns and getting the chao back, minus one Chocola and still no Froggy, had calmed her down a little, but now that she had been sitting just outside the base and letting the chao get some sunlight she was working herself up again.

"I thought she was kind of nice," Cream said. She picked up one of the chao that was nearby and petted its head.

Amy leaned on her hammer and huffed. "Shadow said she's been watching us since the ARK. That's in space, and there's only two ways she could have gotten up there, which is either with Eggman or by the same shuttle we were on. Even if she doesn't mean us harm, that's still creepy. And what he said is bugging me."

Cream tilted her head. She looked up at Big and saw he looked just as lost as she did, though he was also distracted by the gaggle of chao meeping and tugging at his shoes. She hugged the chao in her arms and looked back at Amy.

"Um, what did Mister Shadow say?" she asked meekly.

"You know how he said Rouge doesn't mean us any harm?"

Cream nodded. Amy sighed and reached down to pet a chao that tripped over her shoe.

"He said she doesn't mean either you or I any harm," Amy clarified. "It's probably nothing, but- I feel like that was important. And then she separated us to be alone with him. I'm worried. I don't think she'll be able to hurt him," she added quickly, seeing Cream's face twist and waving her hands in a placating motion. "I just... I don't know what she wants from him."

Cream still didn't quite understand it, but she was starting to get the idea. "Do you think Miss Rouge will be mean to Mister Shadow?"

Amy slumped over her hammer. "No... I don't know. Maybe she'll just flirt with him and he'll be confused again. I don't get a bad feeling from her the way I do Eggman or creepy mall salesmen, but... Ugh! Am I overreacting?"

Cream set the chao down and stood up. She walked over and patted Amy on the arm, giving her a bright smile. "It's okay, Miss Amy. You're just worried about Mister Shadow, right?"

Amy sighed and nodded. She went to reply, but then stopped and listened. Both girls turned to look at the building's battered entrance as Rouge and Shadow walked out... followed by a big robot with Eggman's color scheme all over it. They were chatting in what seemed to be a fairly amicable manner, though Amy immediately noticed the way Shadow's ears were pinned back.

In the short time she'd known him, she'd begun to pick up on certain things about Shadow. He was a naturally quiet person and mostly reacted to things instead of being proactive. He wouldn't suggest activities, but would say yes or no to them or outright avoid things he didn't like by vanishing.

Shadow never communicated how he felt about something. Not verbally. Amy had noticed over time from watching Vanilla that she had to pay attention to little tells in his body language instead. Shadow's ears were the most expressive part of him, followed closely by his quills. His expression was usually stoic and flat, but if he was confused his brows would furrow and he'd slightly frown.

When Shadow caught sight of them and his ears immediately flicked forward and his quills laid flatter, Amy's chest did a warm flip flop thing. He didn't run to greet them like Amy or Cream might have, but his steps did increase in pace a tiny bit. Amy made up for it by booking it over and pulling him into a tight hug. Shadow was stiff in her hold, so she didn't hold him for long, but when she pulled back none of the other tells that he was uncomfortable were present.

Rouge was watching Shadow with a slight smirk she couldn't decipher. Amy skipped her for the moment and turned to look at the robot instead. It was built differently than the other models she'd seen, but it reminded her of Gamma in the way it was staring at them.

"Hello," she said cordially. "Who are you?"

"DESIGNATION IS E-123 OMEGA," the robot bleeped back. Shadow's ears immediately flattened again and his hand that Amy was still holding onto gripped hers reflexively.

"Hi Omega. I'm Amy Rose. It's nice to meet you."

Omega watched her for a moment. Its eyes flicked up to look at the chao, then turned to Shadow.

"YOUR BUSINESS WAS WITH THE CHAO?" it boomed.

Shadow looked around at the chao playing around. Amy shook her head.

"I've counted all of them," she said softly. Shadow's ear closest to her flicked up ever so slightly. "The rest of the chao that Edge didn't manage to rescue are here, but there's no sign of Chocola or Froggy."

"...Perhaps they were separated for a reason," Shadow murmured. "I do not sense any other signatures or trails in this area."

Amy folded her arms. "So we don't have any leads..."

"SCANNING RECORDS."

Amy and Shadow both looked up. Omega emitted a soft whirring sound before playing a gentle ping.

"CHAO: JUVENILE. COLORATION BROWN AND BLUE. FROG: COMMON SPECIES, SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE. DIVERTED TO SECONDARY LOCATION FOR STUDYING. LOCATIONS OF INTEREST ARE: POWER PLANT IN GRAND METROPOLIS; HAUNTED MANSION; EGG-FORTRESS. NOTE: EGG-FORTRESS IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. CAUTION IS ADVISABLE FOR TINY PINK GIRL AND TINY RABBIT. YOU LOOK VERY SQUISHY."

Amy gawked at the robot. "S-squish- wow! I'm pretty strong, you know! Shadow and I took down a fake Eggman just yesterday, no problem!"

Omega's eyes flared. The robot loomed over Amy.

"FALSE EGGMAN, YOU SAY," it boomed. "TELL ME MORE. I WISH TO KNOW IF THERE ARE OTHERS."

Amy slowly turned her head. Shadow had one hand halfway towards covering her, but his quills were still flat. The robot wasn't going to attack any of them- it was just excited. She relaxed a little bit and smiled at Omega.

"Well, knowing Eggman, if there's one there will be more. It didn't stop when we removed its head, so if you want to go after them you'll have to destroy the whole thing."

Omega leaned back. It turned towards Shadow and flexed its claws. "WHEN DO WE PROCEED? I WISH TO OBLITERATE EGG-TECH. IS YOUR BUSINESS HERE DONE?"

Shadow's eyebrows knitted in a frown. Amy looked back and forth between them, then glared at Rouge.

"Why does it sound like Shadow's going with you?"

Rouge held up her hands. "Hold on just a minute. Omega's going with me. I said we'd leave after Shadow's business here is done. Mind you... I would like it if Shadow came with us, but I haven't said anything about it."

Judging by the way Shadow slightly startled and stared at Rouge, Amy came to the conclusion this was news to him. Rouge was being truthful after all. She squinted at Rouge suspiciously anyway.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

Rouge clicked her tongue. "The way you're talking it's as if you think I'm going to steal him away entirely. Miss Rose, you already have Sonic- surely you can let me borrow Shadow for a while?"

Amy blushed, but she put her hands on her hips and stood her ground. "First off, I'm concerned for Shadow as a friend, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped making jokes about my relationships. Second, you still haven't answered my question. Third, it's his choice where he goes, not mine, so if you want Shadow to go along with you, it's not me you need to talk to."

She was aware of Shadow staring at her with slightly widened eyes. She was also constantly aware of how Vanilla had told her he may not have had much agency in choices in his life before he'd come down to the planet.

Amy admired Sonic for many things. He'd taught her how to be brave and showcased heroism in most things he did. One of the things she admired most about him was the freedom he valued and fought for. Freedom to exist, freedom to be at peace, the freedom to be himself and to let others be themselves, too. Sonic fought for freedom of all kinds and valued the ability of people to choose what they wanted for themselves.

It made her sad to think that Shadow was only recently getting to experience that kind of freedom. Amy wasn't going to let someone waltz all over that choice in front of her. And she most certainly wasn't going to take the choice from him herself.

"...You're right," Rouge said, her expression softening. "I meant to tease, but I went too far. I'm aiming to strike more of Eggman's bases of operation. Shadow, would you come with Omega and I?"

Shadow took a short breath and let it out slowly. His ears were alert and upright, but he finally looked relaxed.

"If we find Eggman, we'll probably find Chocola and Froggy," he said softly. "But these chao also need to go back to the gardens."

"What do you want to do?" Amy asked.

"...I want to track Eggman." Shadow reached out and put a hand on Cream's head. "I want answers for what he's after."

Amy looked at Rouge. The bat's expression was blank, but there was something complicated in her demeanor. Rouge noticed Amy's stare and sighed.

"Do you have a phone or a communicator?"

Amy blinked and held out her wrist. "Yeah, Tails made these wrist communicators for us a little while ago. Mine works like a phone- why?"

Rouge pulled a phone out of her side satchel and pressed a few buttons before holding it out to Amy. Amy peered at it and slightly gasped, then saved the number in her communicator.

"We're going to aim for Grand Metropolis first," Rouge said. "I will pass on any messages you send me to Shadow directly. Does that work for you?"

Her question wasn't directed at Amy. It took Shadow a few seconds to realize she was looking at him.

"Y-yes, I- yes." He nodded and shifted his weight, gently flicking one of the rings on his wrist. Omega's head twisted to watch the action. "That works for me."

As much as Amy was reluctant to admit it, this actually worked out well for all of them. Shadow was still tracking Chocola and Froggy, and Amy and Cream- and Big, if he chose to- could return the chao home and meet up later. It felt like a solid plan.

"We're gonna have to see if Tails will make you a communicator," Amy told Shadow, forcing her tone to be cheerful. "Cream and I will take care of the chao. We'll see you later."

"ARE WE GOING NOW? CAN WE LEAVE?"

Cream slid up closer to Shadow and held out her arms. He hesitated, then slowly reached out and gave her a hug.

"I'll- I'll make sure Edge is fed for you," Cream said. "So- um... Stay safe, Mister Shadow."

"PLEASE."

"I... sure." Shadow pulled back and looked at Big. "Uh..."

Big slowly blinked at him. "Please find Froggy."

"...Sure."

Omega swiveled its head down as Cream stepped up to it. She held her hands behind her back shyly, then offered it a flower.

"It was nice meeting you too, Mister Omega. Let's meet again!"

Omega took the flower. It stood there awkwardly holding the flower in both clawed hands and watched as Cream bounced back behind Amy. It looked down at the flower, back up, down again, then turned its head to face Shadow.

"WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS?"

"It's... a gift," Shadow said. "I think."

"IT IS TOO FLIMSY TO USE AS A WEAPON. I DO NOT WISH TO CRUSH IT."

"You could... store it... somewhere?"

"I DO NOT HAVE STORAGE COMPONENTS AVAILABLE. THEY ARE FULL OF BULLETS."

Rouge sighed and held out her hand. "Give it here. I have a glasses case I can put it in."

Omega handed the flower over. True to her word, Rouge pulled out a glasses case and popped it open, storing the flower delicately inside with her sunglasses. She made a show of storing it in her satchel where Omega could see it before closing her bag and clapping her hands.

"Alright boys, who's ready to go do some gambling? -Miss Rose please put that hammer away, we have to go through Pinball Highway to get to Grand Metropolis."

"What is gambling?"

"Shadow, no."

"GAMBLING: VERB. TO TAKE A RISKY ACTION IN THE HOPE OF A DESIRED RESULT."

"...Why is that-"

"It's usually done for money, hon."

Shadow looked at his hands, then at Amy. "I don't have any money."

Amy dragged her fingers down her face and groaned. "Shadow. Just- just leave anything monetary to Rouge. Don't worry about it. Rouge, please don't teach him anything weird."

"No promises," Rouge said immediately. "Don't give me that look, you know just as well as I do Eggman likes his theme parks and casino motifs."

"IT IS TRUE. BLUEPRINTS FOR EGGMAN-LAND CONTAIN MANY CLOWNS."

Shadow looked around him with a frown. "...I have many so questions that I'm not sure I want to ask."

"YOU MAY ASK IF WE CAN LEAVE ALREADY."

"You heard the walking talking arsenal. Goodbye!"

"I WILL TAKE THAT AS A COMPLEMENT."

Amy watched the trio start walking away. Shadow glanced over his shoulder at her. She waved and bit back her worry. Shadow was... uneducated, but he wasn't naive. He'd be fine.

He gave the slightest of waves and stopped looking back.

Yeah, he'd be fine.

...So why wouldn't her bad feeling go away?

Chapter Text

Knuckles had been having a nice day.

He'd woken up just before dawn and had breakfast watching the sunrise. The sky slowly blossomed from a dark blue into gentle oranges and cream hues as the sun rose over the ocean, blanketing the clouds with a robin's egg color. The morning dew sparkled and the air was crisp and thick with the scent of grass.

Mornings like this were perfect. There was a sort of peaceful harmony that came with them, only made more complete as bees and butterflies got up to work and the birds came out.

After breakfast was Knuckles's morning routine. He started with a light boxing routine that ended with some very pulverized rocks, then began his usual route around the island. His route started, naturally, at the Master Emerald, where he cleaned the area around the altar and swept it of stray leaves and other debris, then continued as a slowly growing spiral around the immediate area. He checked the traps and the local chao gathering spots and the traps that sometimes were the local chao gathering spots. He ensured the relics in the area were where they needed to be and returned to the Master Emerald for lunch.

His good day ended with a call from Sonic.

Knuckles paused halfway through his sandwich and eyed his beeping communicator. He was almost tempted not to answer. Recently the silly blue fool had started doing something Tails called "prank calling" where he would call and pretend to be someone else. Knuckles had even fallen for one or two of the things he'd said, like when Sonic had offered to sell him an earthquake detector with a foolproof detection method.

It was a glass of water. Sonic had tried to sell him a glass of water.

Knuckles was still mildly pissed about that.

Thankfully Tails had updated the communicators since then to actually show who it was that was calling and showed Knuckles how to give everyone unique ringtones. Knuckles no longer fell for Sonic's prank calls, but it still pissed him off that Sonic had managed to trick him like that.

He gave a sigh and set his sandwich down. He resigned himself to the fate of having to hear Sonic's annoying voice and picked up the call.

"What."

"Oooh, someone's grumpy!"

"I'm hanging up."

"Wow, and here I am calling to give you a heads up on a plan of Eggman's that might endanger your precious emerald. You're just going to hang up on me? I'm so hurt."

"Be hurt," Knuckles retorted, then paused. "...What plans."

Sonic laughed. "Figures you listen to me when it's about the Master Emerald. Listen, some weird things have been happening, so we don't know for sure what it is he's after yet. Shadow and Tails put their heads together and figured he's after things with strong chaos energy signatures, though, so it's possible you might get a visit from an Egghead or some of his minions."

"Mighty already told me about that. I can handle Eggman fine without your concern."

"I'm not doubting you," Sonic said, and for once he sounded sincere. Knuckles sat up a little bit straighter and started paying attention. Sonic being serious was never a good sign. "But some of his bots did try to knock Shadow and I out with some kind of sleeper drug during that attack on Tails's workshop."

Knuckles scowled. "...If he's after chaos energy I guess that tracks. You've been growing recently and Shadow's practically a walking chaos reservoir."

"Is he? Huh. Um, speaking of Shadow- do you have the number of any of the Chaotix?"

Knuckles scratched his head. "I have Vector's. Why?"

There was a sigh from Knuckles' communicator, followed by a scratching sound. "I forgot to get any of their numbers before we split up. Amy gave me a call a few minutes ago and said Rouge took Shadow and an Eggbot with her, so I wanted to give them a heads up-"

"She's stealing people now!? That pisses me off!"

"Wait, Knu-"

Knuckles hung up. He immediately rang up Vector. It took the crocodile a few minutes to answer, and when he did Knuckles was blasted with loud colorful sounds that made him question his life's choices for a few seconds.

"Knux, my man!" bellowed out from Knuckles' wrist. He held the communicator far away from his face and winced. "You never call me! What's the special occasion?"

"Where the heck- are you at a circus or something?"

Ding ding ding!

"Oh shi- cough, Espio, grab him!"

Knuckles squinted at his communicator. There were a few sounds of explosions and something yelling "jackpot!" in the background that had Vector roaring appreciatively, then a bunch of fumbling sounds. Suddenly there was silence, and just before Knuckles started to wonder if the call had dropped Espio's cool voice came through.

"Apologies, friend," the chameleon said. "Bingo Highway is a terrible place for phone calls. Vector is reigning in Charmy at the moment. Can I help you instead?"

"It's the other way round. Sonic said you guys are looking into Eggman's stuff."

"That is correct."

"There's a bat girl you need to watch out for," Knuckles snarled. "She's a thief and a pretty good fighter. Sonic said she stole Shadow and is working with an Eggbot, so if she's working with Eggman you're going to have a problem on your hands!"

Espio drew a short breath. "Shadow was kidnapped...? That lines up with the information we have."

Knuckles's communicator buzzed. Sonic was trying to call him again. He ignored the call.

"Ah, was Mighty able to contact you?"

"Yeah, he brought me up to speed already. What, didn't he go with you?"

"Ah, no... Vector complained enough about Shadow's house that he stayed behind with Ray to finish it."

There was a muffled bang! from the communicator. Espio sighed.

"I should go. Charmy hit a jackpot on accident."

Knuckles snorted. "Hey, maybe you guys will actually be able to buy real furniture."

"...That would be nice, if we can keep a hold of it. Goodbye for now, friend."

Knuckles hung up. Sonic called him yet again, making his communicator buzz like an angry bee. Knuckles cracked his back and put his lunch away, only answering the call when he was back on his route around the island.

"-shole gon- hey! You cut me off! I think you misunderstood something!"

"What? What did I misunderstand, huh?"

"When I said Rouge 'took' Shadow I meant it like she poached him from Amy's team! He wasn't yoinked like a gem, ya doofus!"

Knuckles paused. He started to feel a little bit silly. Go figure, he'd jumped to a conclusion and needed to slow down. It was exactly how Eggman had tricked him before- give him a story and let him run headlong without thinking too hard about it. He preferred to get to the root of the problem immediately, but he was still learning to slow down and learn just what the root actually was.

"...Oh..."

"You..." Sonic groaned. "It's okay. It happens. Did you get a hold of Vector?"

"Uh. Yeah, but I'm not going to be able to get an answer if I call anytime soon."

"Why?"

"Charmy got a jackpot on Bingo Highway."

"...That's where Rouge and Shadow were headed. I guess they'll figure it out... But hey, maybe Vector and Espio will finally be able to buy new furniture?"

"That's what I said!"

They shared a laugh. For a moment Knuckles forgot all about whatever it was they were worried about and simply reveled in the moment. The sun was warm, everything was in place...

He stopped and narrowed his eyes. There, in the distance, was a glint of metal.

"Gotta go. I have some robots to smash."

"Take a few down for me!"

"Hah. Who do you think you're talking to?"

Sonic chuckled and hung up. Knuckles did a quick estimate of the distance and rounded up what local chao he could, hiding them away in their shelters before returning to the Master Emerald. He was no Tails and didn't have a head for numbers, but he was good at estimating distances and the ages of objects. He had at least ten minutes before the impending invasion.

He did a last minute check of the traps in the immediate area. The rest of the island's traps could probably have used a check, but his priority was right here. If Eggman's target wasn't the Master Emerald then Knuckles would eat his own fist.

And he was right. The ship arrived right overhead and the robots dropped over the altar and made a beeline for the Master Emerald. Knuckles cracked his knuckles and sent the first one flying with a simple flick of his wrist. He immediately saw what the others meant by "weird" in describing the robots- the first batch ignored him completely. It was like a game of keep-away, only with machines that exploded and stopped working after no more than a light smack.

A robot with a slightly different sheen dropped from the sky. Knuckles almost didn't notice it at first until he saw it hanging back and just kind of... watching. He didn't like that at all, so the next robot his fist collided with was grabbed and heaved in that one's direction.

It sidestepped and remained where it was.

"What, are you scared?" Knuckles barked at it. "Too intimidated to come be broken like the others?"

Its eyes narrowed, but it stayed put. Knuckles immediately began throwing every single robot he fought at it to piss it off. It took a good fifteen or twenty bots, but Knuckles finally managed to nail the oddball with a crunched up carcass.

All of the other robots stuttered. Knuckles didn't need any further motivation to hurl himself at the strange robot fists first.

The robot had been waiting for this, it seemed. It scooped up a handful of dirt and threw it in Knuckles's face just before his fist collided with its own metal facade. Knuckles stumbled and scrubbed at his eyes while the robot was sent skidding backwards a good ways. He got most of the dirt out and was able to squint through the tears in time to see the robot using one of its own companions as a bat. Knuckles flung a hand up to block it and caught a kick to the stomach.

Screw odd, this robot actually had intelligence compared to the others. The others were following direct orders, but this one had its own sense of awareness. Usually all of Eggman's robots had their own "sense" or directive and acted alone, but the others were acting like they were following very dumb orders at the moment.

Knuckles wasn't a thinker like Tails was, but he wasn't stupid. Either this robot was a special model or Eggman had been usurped by yet another of his dumb bots. He needed to wreck it stat.

The odd robot leapt at him and swung the other bot again. Knuckles punched the robot-bat into scrap metal and followed up with a few boxing punches. The oddball did its best to block him, but one of its wrists was punched clean off. He lunged at it and was surprised when it suddenly wasn't there anymore. Knuckles stumbled on thin air, whirling around to see the robot sloughing off its external metal like some kind of... shimmering... slimy... thing.

"Bio-data... copied."

Knuckles squinted.

The voice was different, yet similar at the same time to something he hadn't seen in a little while. But Metal Sonic had never been able to do this before.

And yet, the robot now standing in front of him was clearly Metal Sonic. It was edgier than normal and looked like any one of its headspikes would make for a horrible coat rack, but it was most definitely Metal Sonic.

It turned and flashed its eyes at the Master Emerald.

"Master Emerald energy scans... complete," Metal Sonic said, and then it was gone.

Knuckles covered his face from the blast of displaced air. When he lowered his hand the deadly copy was gone, its leftover army falling over and ceasing to function. He raised his wrist and immediately called Sonic while running to check the Master Emerald over.

"Kinda busy, Knux-"

"We've got a problem," Knuckles snapped. "Metal Sonic's been upgraded."

Chapter Text

Shadow sat half curled in on himself on the park bench. His earbuds were lodged deep in his ears and the same song had been on repeat for the past- however long it had been.

He did not have a good time in Bingo Highway.

Admittedly, at first it had been kind of... fun. There were so many colors and new concepts to explore. He hadn't known it was possible to design holographic objects that someone could then punch through and get money out of. Rouge and Omega had tag-teamed explaining things to him, Rouge with explaining why having money was necessary and Omega demonstrating monetary damages by blasting their surroundings to bits.

It hadn't taken long for all the sounds and colors and weird sensations to become too much to handle. Bingo Highway was so loud both literally and figuratively. Shadow had the feeling if he heard the ding ding ding of one more bell he was going to punch it so hard it blew a hole in something.

Rouge had noticed his overstimulation first. Shadow hadn't intended on saying anything, fully believing that nothing would change, but she had only needed to say two words to Omega to prove him wrong.

"Destroy that."

And then they were out of Bingo Highway, leaving a trail of destruction and twitching remains behind. The moment they hit Grand Metropolis Rouge had sat Shadow down in a quiet little park with trees and a pond and told him to stay there. She and Omega would go find Eggman's next base and come get him when they'd gotten the lay of the land.

It was pathetic. He could, and had, handled worse. A little bit of noise and colors weren't enough to take down the Ultimate Lifeform. He was a scientific masterpiece that could survive everything the scientists aboard the ARK had thrown at him.

The last thing he'd expected from a G.U.N. agent, much less one that had read his files, was for them to give him a break. And yet Rouge had given him one and left him unsupervised.

Shadow pulled his head from his hands and opened his eyes. He could finally look around without everything being too much and really take in the sight of the pond and the little birds fluttering around in the water. He pulled the earbuds from his ears and carefully tucked them away in his quills. With a deep breath he let himself take in the sound of the trees shivering in the wind and the distant laughter of children. There was a constant stream of whoosh sounds as countless variations of some kind of vehicle sped around on the roads that mixed with the chittering speech of the birds.

The ARK had more than 30 people aboard, but it had never been so full of life. The base team might have come close, once, laughing and joking in the cafeteria after burning their attempts at making birthday cakes for each other. The fans in the vents never stopped running and provided a steady thrumming noise that was completely different to the starts and stops of the leaves and grass here.

The ARK was sterile and clean. It had to be. All of the little bugs hopping around in the grass would have had to be in glass containers. The butterflies would have been trapped in a little fake environment like the rest of the inhabitants. A facade of freedom, a gilded cage whose bars were proven further by looking at the gentle blue glow of the planet below.

Shadow shouldn't have missed the ARK. He was free now, to some degree of the word. He could run and jump as he pleased and had no direct schedule for performing for scrutinizing eyes. Yet he kind of missed it. Everything that had happened he'd had an explanation for and there were rarely any surprises around the day to day life. He usually knew what was coming next even if he didn't know the details. Testing days meant pain, medical days meant making up silly stories to ignore the beeping of Maria's heart monitor, and three days a week were spent poring over a textbook and pretending he and Maria hadn't already had the whole thing memorized.

Maybe it was just Maria he missed. No, there was something else to it, but he couldn't sort it out from the rest of his thoughts. His own swirling emotions were starting to piss him off.

"Hey, is that Shadow?"

Weird. Charmy's annoying squeaks were almost welcome. Shadow turned his head in time for the bee to take up his entire vision.

"What are you up to? You don't look so good!"

"...Charmy."

"Yep, that's me! Did you miss me?"

"No."

"Have you ever fed birds before?"

Shadow squinted at the tiny bee. "None of them... have ever... asked me for food before."

Charmy giggled. Shadow failed to see what was amusing about the statement. Charmy buzzed over and sat next to him on the bench.

"I read in a book once that bread is bad for flickies," Charmy said. "It messes up their tummies and makes them fart really badly!"

"That is disgusting."

"Isn't it?? I feel kinda bad that it makes their tummies feel bad though." Charmy put his hands over his belly and looked up at Shadow with a sheepish grin. "I really like ice cream, but after I eat a whole tub of it my tummy hurts too."

Shadow rested his elbow on his knee and leaned his chin in his hand. He raised an eyebrow at the child. "Eating too much of anything will do that to you."

"But it's so yummy! What's your favorite flavor? Mine's strawberry!"

"I've never had it."

Charmy looked devastated. His dropped jaw and wide eyes were so comical Shadow had to suppress a snort. Then, to his surprise, the bee pulled out a little bag and started counting the contents. Shadow had a small suspicion what was about to happen, but he was still startled when Charmy took his hand and yanked him off of the bench and towards the city.

Shadow let himself be pulled along. Charmy babbled on about ice cream flavors while zipping here and there and fluttering all over the place. Eventually he was dragged up to a cart on the street that had some kind of colorful substance on a cone painted on the side. Charmy took a plastic standee from the cart and shoved it in Shadow's face, poking his nose over the top.

"Look, they have a list of flavors! Pick one, or- or even two! Mister, how many scoops do you serve? Shadow, pick two flavors, you can get a scoop of each! You gotta, you gotta!"

Shadow pushed Charmy and the standee away from his face, letting his eyes flick over the prices listed. While he was pretty sure he'd won something while they were at Bingo Highway, he was under orders from Amy to leave the monetary stuff to Rouge. Anything he'd gotten he'd promptly handed over to her, so as far as he was concerned, he still had no money.

"...Charmy. I c-"

"What flavors did you pick?? Oh, oh, if you're having trouble I can pick for you!"

"I-"

Shadow had to bite back a sigh. Charmy's eyes were huge and warm. He could at least glance at the flavor list.

When he saw Birthday Cake on the list his mind filled with burnt cupcakes. Some of the other flavors just made him confused. Were raspberries blue? Fruits could punch? What was so different about whatever the hell a mango was that made it amazing? The only thing that looked normal was chocolate. He set the standee back down on the cart.

"What'd you pick?"

"I don't have any money," Shadow said flatly. "I can't buy anything."

Charmy cackled. "I do! Just pick something!"

The man running the cart was giving him a look somewhere between a glare and a squint. Shadow wasn't certain if it was due to the sun or if he was judging them, and he didn't really care.

"...You pick."

Charmy started jittering excitedly. Shadow held up a finger.

"But only one scoop."

That way if he hated it he didn't have to force himself to eat as much material. Charmy wasted no time in asking the man behind the cart for two "ice cream cones" and whispered something to him. The man squinted at Shadow, then seemed to shrug off whatever was on his mind and took Charmy's money. Shadow was shortly handed a sticky, papery cone with a squished ball of pastel brown stuff on top, decorated with little colorful stars and with some concerningly red fruit with a twiggy stem on top. Charmy's own cone was heaping with a soft pink ball and a violently blue one on top of that.

Charmy hovered uncomfortably close. He flitted from one of Shadow's shoulders to the other and back again while wiggling his butt in the air. Shadow felt mentally exhausted just watching him, but it was pretty clear what he was waiting for. He eyed the cone in his hand and took a tentative lick.

The first thing that hit his senses was the sweetness. It was sticky and cold and made him crave water at the same time. It wasn't bad. Actually, it was kind of good, if not just a little bit too sweet.

"Weeeeeell?" Charmy squeaked, hovering even closer. "Whaddya think?"

"What flavor is this?"

"It's chocolate!"

"I think I like chocolate," Shadow replied quietly.

Charmy did a victory dance and flung his hands up. Half of his ice cream wobbled dangerously, and Shadow had to reach out and turn Charmy's hand so it didn't go splat on the ground.

"I picked a flavor Shadow likes! IIII picked a flavor that Shadow likes!"

Despite himself, Shadow almost smirked. He eyed the suspicious red thing on top of his ice cream and played with the stem sticking out of it. "Weren't you traveling with Espio and Vector? Why are you alone?"

This time Shadow really did snort. Charmy was frozen in place with massive eyes and Shadow could almost see the complete lack of thoughts running through his little head. The bee's jaw dropped and a long, high-pitched squeal escaped out of his lungs. Shadow watched in amusement as Charmy slowly drifted down to the ground and whined pathetically.

"Aaaaaaaaa they even told me not to run off," Charmy sobbed. "B-but I... hic! I got distracteeeeed aaaaaaa!"

Shadow pulled the weird red fruit off his cone and chomped it, shuddering at the cloying sweetness and throwing the stem in the nearest trash bin. He bent down and hoisted the bee's hand back upright so his ice cream didn't go to waste. Charmy hiccupped and wailed, but quickly cut off when Shadow gently flicked him on the forehead.

"Do you have a communicator?" Shadow asked tiredly. Charmy shook his head, and he let out a sigh. "Alright. Let's-"

He stopped and tilted his head.

"Sniff... What?"

"I thought..."

His ears flicked. There it was again. Shadow dropped his ice cream cone in Charmy's free hand and scooped him up. Charmy let out a whoop as Shadow kicked on his air shoes and shot up the nearest building wall. Holding the bee out slightly to the side, Shadow squinted across the city, his eyes catching the telltale flashes of gunfire amidst all the structures around them.

"Wow! We went so fast! Shadow, you're so cool!"

"Hold on."

"WHEEEEEEE-"

Jumping across the city was a lot different than jumping from rail to rail in space. Shadow didn't let himself think about how he actually enjoyed the wind whipping through his quills and instead focused on getting himself and Charmy there without missing his footing. In no time at all he landed on the rooftop where Omega and Rouge were brawling with-

"Vector! Espio!" Charmy shrieked.

"...Rouge? Omega?"

The fight stopped instantly. Or, it would have, but Omega's arm launched one last little rocket. Espio's hand flicked and the rocket exploded mid-air, and for a second Shadow thought they would continue fighting. Rouge held out her hand in front of Omega, who lowered his arm. Espio narrowed his eyes and kept his gaze on them while Vector whirled and gaped.

"Shadow? Charmy, you found him?"

"I told you we didn't kidnap him," Rouge snapped. "He's..."

She drifted off, staring at Shadow- no, not at Shadow, but at the bee in his arms. Vector also tapered off, and after a moment Espio looked over as well. Shadow looked down and couldn't help quietly chuckling.

Charmy was an absolute mess. His fur was mussed from the wind, but all three scoops of ice cream had gone splat all over his face. The sticky, sugary colors were slowly sliding off of his nose, mixed with little colorful stars stuck to his goggles and his pudgy cheeks. Despite all of that grossness he was grinning like he'd just a prize.

"...Oops," Shadow said, and set the bee down. "Sorry, Charmy."

Charmy giggled manically. "That was so much fun."

"What is going on?" Shadow demanded. "Why are you fighting?"

Vector scratched his head. "Uh. Knuckles told us you'd been kidnapped."

"...His exact word was 'stole'," Espio added.

"So you come barreling in and accuse me of working with Eggman?" Rouge growled.

Vector gestured at Omega. "Well, uh, it's not hard to come to that conclusion. Yer robot still has the Eggman logo on his shoulder."

Omega looked down at its shoulder. The piece of armor with the logo was promptly ripped off with a horrid screech and shot. Shadow winced at the sound and approached the group.

"Omega, we could have just repainted that," Rouge said.

"ARE THERE ANY OTHER FASHION DISASTERS I AM EMBLAZONED WITH?" Omega demanded. "I MUST REMOVE ALL TRACES OF EGGMAN IMMEDIATELY."

"Omega is with us," Shadow told Vector. "Rouge asked me to come with her after we raided an abandoned base. Most of the chao were found, but Chocola wasn't with the others, and it sounds like he kidnapped a... frog, as well. We are looking for another base that is somewhere in the city."

Vector and Espio looked at each other before bowing their heads at Rouge and Omega.

"Our deepest apologies, ma'am," Espio said. "I misunderstood the situation and we have acted rashly."

"Please don't sue us," Vector whispered. Espio elbowed him in the side.

Rouge sighed and clicked her tongue. Shadow stepped around her to look at the damage on Omega's shoulder. Luckily it was just the outer plating that had been ripped off, but there was now an exposed wire sticking out of the joint. Omega's head swiveled to watch as Shadow tried to tuck the wire deeper inside the plating and scowled when it popped back out. Maybe Tails could take a look later and repair it.

"You do have another Eggman logo," Shadow commented, eyeing Omega's back.

Omega's head swiveled around immediately and its claws flexed. Shadow quickly held up his hands to stop the robot from tearing itself apart and Rouge leapt on one of Omega's arms.

"DESTROY ALL EGGMAN MARKINGS!"

"Shadow, why did you tell him!?"

"Charmy, quick! Smear the ice cream on his armor!"

"Wait, wha-"

Charmy was there instantly, plastering his face to Omega's back. The robot seethed and ground out a few insults, but settled a little bit after the logo was at the very least partially covered up. Vector and Espio looked flabbergasted at the scene in front of them. Charmy just giggled his head off and hugged Omega's back.

"This robot's so cool."

"I'm officially lost," Vector said.

"Join the club," Rouge groaned. "Omega, please hold off on tearing yourself apart. I promise I'll get some paint and we can give you a complete makeover, okay? Until then, we have a power plant to ruin, remember?"

"What's at the power plant?" Espio asked.

Rouge cast him a scowl, but huffed and relented to Shadow's glare, choosing to sit on Omega's undamaged shoulder and crossing her legs.

"Fine, we can do an information trade."

"And then Charmy probably needs a bath," Shadow added.

Espio held up his hand. "That's... we'll take care of that. I'm afraid we haven't found much about what Eggman's up to. It's like he's been quiet outside of the robots' unusual activities."

Shadow caught the way Rouge subtly flinched. He tilted his head and caught her gaze. Rouge's eyes flicked to Vector and Espio and back and she raised her eyebrows. Shadow frowned and tried to interpret what she was saying. Was it... something they shouldn't hear? She knew something and didn't want to say it? Then she tapped her ear and it clicked.

It was related to G.U.N..

Shadow's mouth opened and closed again. He was suddenly aware of Vector and Espio watching him and how Omega's eyes swiveled to watch him. He saw his ears pin down and his quills slowly start raising in his reflection on Omega's paint. All at once everything was excruciatingly detailed. He could see every little bit of dirt on Omega's armor, every hair in Charmy's fur, the little veins running through Rouge's folded wings. He could ear every breath each of them took and, distantly, massive motors.

His head slowly turned away from the group and in that direction. There, in the sky, was a gigantic ship with Eggman's face painted on it.

"He built another one?" Rouge groaned. Her voice sounded a little bit distant, but Shadow latched onto it and forced himself to stay grounded in reality. "The first two blowing up wasn't enough?"

"NEW TARGET ACQUIRED."

"I guess our conversation will have to wait," Espio remarked. "Shall we?"

Chapter Text

"Kinda busy, Knux-"

"We've got a problem! Metal Sonic's been upgraded."

Sonic eyed the Eggmobile and Eggman's interested smirk. The latest Egg Carrier loomed overhead and there were Eggpawns all around him and Tails. Behind him, Tails was holding a very concerned seagull and slowly inching closer. Not the most ideal of situations for sure, but nothing he couldn't handle...

"Ahuh..." Sonic said slowly. "Can I call you back? I might have to crack an egg here."

"Eggman's there?"

"Yup."

"Am I on speaker?"

Sonic pressed a button on his wrist. Eggman floated just a little bit closer. "You are now."

What followed was a stream of words Sonic dearly wished he'd covered Tails' ears for. Eggman had the decency to look appalled as well- and maybe a little bit upset- at Knuckles' threats and warnings to stay away from the Master Emerald.

"Knuckles?"

"-and if you EVER step foot on my island again I'm going to shove my FIST UP YOUR-"

"Knuckles, Tails is right behind me."

The communicator suddenly went silent. Sonic stifled a laugh as the next sentence came in a slightly apologetic tone.

"Tails don't repeat any of what I just said."

"I mildly regret giving your communicator a thesaurus," Tails whispered.

"I see Metal's been busy while I've been gone!" Eggman cackled. "And here all I did was tell him to keep you occupied! Truly my masterpiece, that one."

"You also said that about the Egg Carrier, and yet this is your third one," Sonic pointed out.

"Bah, you wouldn't know good engineering if it smacked you in the face. Which it has."

"Gotta go Knux, Eggman's asking for a broken nose."

"Get his ass! -Tails don't repeat that either."

Sonic hung up before Knuckles could teach Tails any new bad words and put his hands on his hips. He quirked an eyebrow at Eggman and grinned.

"So what's the deal this time, Egghead?" he asked, tapping his foot rapidly. "Is it another ploy for the chaos emeralds? The zombie robot thing, was that all Metal's doing? Or are you here to get your rear end handed to you again? It's only been three weeks since you ran away from Shadow, you know."

Eggman's laugh was confident. The man grinned down at them and spread his hands. "Ah, yes... Shadow. Where is your edgy little friend, anyway? I have something I suspect he'll be delighted to see," Eggman said. "You see, after that little stunt he pulled, I became rather curious. How come someone else was aboard the ARK that I didn't know about? It was rather odd, wouldn't you say?"

Tails bumped up against Sonic's back. Sonic put on his typical cocky and over the top attitude.

"Get to the point, would ya? This is getting boring!"

"I went back to the ARK and had myself a lttle looksie at the records, and wouldn't you know it, there he was in a picture! And yet, nowhere in the official residents list was there a black and red hedgehog."

Sonic's eyes narrowed. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this. He'd already had one for a few days, but the more Eggman talked the worse it was getting. Normally he'd have just pushed through and ignored it, but there was something... different... in the air today. Something unhappy, like his stomach after that one time he'd forgotten to check the best use by date on a hot dog before making a chilidog out of it. It was churning his stomach and slowly swirling in his chest and he didn't feel like ignoring it was a good idea.

There was a soft wheeze from the seagull in Tails' hands. Sonic briefly glanced back at his little brother and saw his hands shake. Tails shook his head and nodded in Eggman's direction. Sonic got the message loud and clear.

Keep him talking.

The Eggmobile spun around them slowly in a mockery of Eggman pacing. "It's truly curious. Nowhere I looked is Shadow actually in any records. My grandfather was a man of science. He liked to record everything that happened and kept a tight grip on who studied under his care. So why are there scarce images of a hedgehog aboard a colony of humans with no records of his presence?"

"Am I supposed to care?"

"Your friend practically doesn't exist," Eggman spat. "Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"No, not really," Sonic replied easily. He laughed when Eggman spluttered at him. "What, you think I care if my friends have government issued IDs? I'm pretty sure I don't have one either!"

"You're insufferable."

"Aw, shucks, you're going to make me blush! So? What'd ya find? An heirloom cookie recipe?"

Eggman scoffed, then sat up a little straighter and shaded his eyes. Sonic felt the energy run through his fur just before Shadow popped into the space next to him. He cast a grin at the dark hedgehog and caught sight of Rouge and a big red and black robot come barreling through the Eggpawns at the edge of the circle around them, and following in their wake was the Chaotix trio.

Tails pressed against him. The seagull suddenly threw up all over Sonic's back and something clunked against his shoe. Tails squeaked and Sonic was promptly buffeted with wings as the seagull beat its way out of the fox's hands and escaped into the sky.

Sonic sighed and picked up the sodden chaos emerald, passing it to the apologetic Tails. "Long story," he said to Shadow's blank stare. "Watch it- Eggman's up to something-"

"Well well, if it isn't Shadow! And- oh my, if it isn't Rouge."

A miniature rocket flew past. Eggman ducked just in time to avoid it with a squawk, and then was forced to move the Eggmobile to avoid the three Eggpawns that went flying at him. Sonic watched in awe as the hulking robot he'd seen before stomped up next to them and opened fire. Shadow ducked his head and covered his ears and Sonic dove over Tails while the robot started berating Eggman.

"ME AND MY PROBLEMATIC PERSONALITY ARE BACK, JACKASS!"

Sonic stared in awe as the robot fired countless bullets at Eggman. It had Egghead's own logo on its back, albeit... covered in what looked like dried ice cream, and yet it was firing its entire arsenal at its creator.

"Cease fire!" Eggman shrieked. "You blasted- this is why I shelved you!"

"SHELVE THIS, YOU-"

The robot emitted a series of beeps and flashes. Tails blanched. Eggman howled in rage and fired missiles of his own back.

"You leave my mother out of this!"

"I think I just heard something I wasn't meant to," Tails squeaked.

The other Eggpawns started closing in on them. Vector barreled past and left a line of broken bots behind him. Shadow punched the gun out of an Eggpawn's hand and stood in Sonic's blind spot, hovering over Tails, and all at once Sonic felt appreciative of his clear protective streak. For a few minutes it was just a mess of gunfire and fighting, spindashing and dodging. Sonic waved hello to Espio as the chameleon went past and got a brief nod in return.

Eggman let out an angry noise. Sonic glanced up and wiped a spot of dirt from his muzzle in time to see Eggman point a remote of some kind at the murderous robot still shooting at him. The robot stuttered, the lights in its eyes going dead, and fell forward.

"Omega!" Shadow yelled. He yeeted his gun through an Eggpawn's chassis and blipped to the big guy's side, pawing at the robot's head as if that would make it start back up.

"Bah, this is why I install kill switches," Eggman spat. "I've had enough of this. Sonic! It's time you meet my grandfather's greatest creation!"

Amidst all the chaos and too focused on Eggman, Sonic missed the way Shadow went still. Above them, the Egg Carrier's cargo bay opened. A massive platform with engines welded to the bottom swiftly lowered down to the ground, and riding on that platform was the biggest lizard Sonic had ever seen.

It was black and red with tubes for eyes. Leading from its mouth to the great device clamped on its back were thick cables that ended in some kind of clamps on either side of its head. It had four legs, but only the front two had any form of feet at the end. The hind legs were more like flippers or fins of some kind. Its tail was as long as its neck and almost as thick.

The creature let out a shrieking roar. Somewhere behind them Charmy let out an excited squeal. Sonic gaped.

On top of everything else, he had to fight that?

"Li...za."

Sonic's head turned. Shadow had started walking, his eyes locked on the creature. Floating nearby, Eggman gloated.

"Do you recognize this, Shadow?" Eggman crowed. "I'm almost disappointed! My grandfather really did his best to hide this thing away! I had to go all the way to the core of the ARK to find it!"

Shadow didn't reply. The giant lizard zeroed in on Shadow, who walked right up to it and stopped.

When Shadow was showing him how to tap into the chaos emerald's power it had been almost like Sonic had been looking at the world with terrible eyesight before and was suddenly given a pair of glasses. He'd been doing all this big, bombastic stuff, but had never slowed down or paid attention to the little things he felt along the way, just like how he hadn't learned to play or do little things with the chaos emeralds.

Sonic had a really hard time going slow. He could run at the speed of sound and break the sound barrier without any harm to himself and processed things so much faster than normal people did, so slowing down to think was a bit like forcing himself back to the basics. But when Shadow and Knuckles had sat him down and taught him to feel chaos energy...

Suddenly the world felt so much bigger. And now, in that bigger world, he was able to feel the emotions in the energy swirling from the lizard.

Anger. Pain. Anger again. Grief? So much pain.

There was a spark. Sonic felt Shadow's energy rise up and mingle with the lizard's, something much warmer, but no less chaotic or hurt. Shadow raised his hand. The lizard pressed the top of its head against Shadow's palm and let out a low growl.

The bad feeling in Sonic's stomach spiked.

"Hun...gry," Shadow said. His voice had dropped an octave and was coming out like he hadn't spoken aloud in decades. "I'm... hun...grrrry."

Eggman squinted at them. "What? What are you saying? Hey! Destroy them all!"

Tails tugged at Sonic's elbow. He glanced down into Tails's worried expression, and Tails pointed at the lizard's back. The cables had lit up and some kind of fluid was moving inside of them, highlighting the way the lizard's skin looked swollen and sallow. The creature's head swayed side to side. Shadow started swaying in sync with it.

"Yyyou left me. You... LEFT me," Shadow snarled. "You left me, you left me, I'm so hungry."

His voice suddenly dropped to a gentle tone.

"Little Shadow. Not alone. My little Shadow."

The lizard's head swung up. Sonic watched its tubey eyes focus on Eggman, then focused on Shadow again. The black hedgehog had turned together with the lizard, and now Sonic could see his eyes were slitted and unfocused.

"Why you leave me?" Shadow demanded. "Father! You left me!"

Eggman squinted down at them. "I'm not your father. Goodness, what kind of relationship did my grandfather have with such a disgusting beast?"

It was the wrong thing to say. The anger in the ambient chaos energy intensified and swirled-

And Sonic was surrounded by water everywhere. a mixture of sewage and seawater and car oil hanging in the air. In front of him was a god, so full of negative energy and hurt, ready to destroy a world innocent of whatever had happened to it before.

Shadow doubled over and clutched his head. The lizard's neck scrunched slightly and bulged as if it was about to vomit, and then a beam of prismatic energy shot from its maw. The Egg Carrier had a line drawn right down the center, then exploded along the bisection, pieces raining down all over the city.

"Mother of Chaos," Eggman wheezed.

Chapter Text

Hunger.

Anger.

Loneliness.

Tired.

While Shadow had been frozen in time, the Biolizard had been sealed away in the ARK's core. It had not seen another living being, nor had it been fed or cared for. Despite the sudden lack of attention, it had only continued to grow, very quickly outgrowing the life support system Gerald had made for it. Now its body was pierced by the tubes meant to sustain it. The clamps that had once been snug around its chest had long since dug furrows into its flesh that leaked pus and crusted over with the foul stench of decayed meat.

Liza had not understood the evacuation. One day the mass of energies aboard the ARK had simply left. Then more came, and it felt the moment Shadow was put to sleep. And then the Biolizard was the only life left.

At first it had been patient. It had never been alone for long without at least a visit. Surely a life would come by and feed it.

Many cycles of the sun passed. No life came.

The biolizard rampaged a little. It stomped and stomped and let its rage be known with its voice. It cried and looked for any other sources of chaos energy, anything to touch, anything to feel. But there was nothing, and as far as the Biolizard knew, Shadow was dead.

It tried to sleep. The cursed object on its back keeping it alive bit into its skin with each passing cycle until a pain that had once been minor and easily soothed was now its entire life. The Biolizard bit and gnawed at the steel caging its chest and pawed at the tubes on its neck. It made the mistake of breaking one. Never again.

The agony never stopped. No matter how tired the Biolizard was, it could never sleep. It could only sit and wait, growing, growing, growing. It was very painful. It was lonely.

A long time passed.

A life. A life approached.

The Biolizard hadn't understood at first. Then its hopes raised. Yes, there was another life aboard the ARK, and it stayed. More chaos energy was gathering, enough that the Biolizard was able to take some into itself. The pain eased and a few of its wounds healed.

Something massive fired out of the bottom of the ARK. The Biolizard was startled, but it took the opportunity to absorb more energy. It was more refreshed than it had been in so, so long!

More energies approached. The Biolizard felt the stir of something small and something massive, and then the small presence was overshadowed by seven endless reservoirs.

And then they all left.

The Biolizard was pissed. It broke many parts of its enclosure and thrashed about until it was too exhausted to move. The anger stayed and festered even as one of the lives came back again. The anger briefly faded when it saw who it was. The Biolizard's eyes, once augmented with electronic lenses, were so swollen it could barely make out the hair and the shape.

It had been happy to see Father again. Father made the pain go away. Father spoke gently even when it thrashed and broke things. Father fed it.

The Biolizard obediently moved into the new enclosure. It was so tired, so hungry, so lonely. It did not enjoy the rattling or the pressure of the movement of this new place. And then it was dropped none too gently in a place blindingly bright and full of sounds and lives.

Its anger grew.

"Liza."

There, in front of it, was Shadow. The Biolizard connected their minds and poured its thoughts into him.

Shadow's mind finally caught up to the present when Liza released the beam of chaos energy. It hurt Liza to do so, the connection between them firing pain right through Shadow's head as well. He felt himself double over and clutch the area around his eyes, his fingers digging into his temples. Vanilla had given him new, soft gloves since he'd ripped his old ones, and without the reinforced fingertips his claws shredded the ends and dug into his skin.

Warm hands grabbed him. Shadow felt his body stumble.

"Are you okay?"

He snapped back into reality all at once. Liza's thoughts still entered his head, but it wasn't the flood it was before. Shadow was suddenly able to think again.

He tore his hands away from his head and looked up. Sonic had pulled him away from the Biolizard and was in the process of pulling both him and Tails away from it. The Biolizard was firing black orbs of energy at Eggman while pieces of screaming metal fell from the sky all around them. Near its stomping feet was Omega's unmoving form.

Shadow pawed frantically at Sonic's hand. "Let me go! Liza! Stop!"

Sonic's expression was panicked. Tails flipped to Shadow's other side and helped Sonic drag him backwards.

"Shadow, if you go over there it'll crush you!" Sonic protested. "And it- you were in some kind of trance, are you sure you're okay?"

"Who's Liza?" Tails asked.

Shadow squirmed and pried at their hands. "The Biolizard! It's hurt! If it keeps rampaging it'll crush Omega! Sonic, let me go! Liza, that's not Gerald!"

Betrayed! Father hates us now!

The Biolizard's hind leg stomped mere centimeters from Omega's chassis. Shadow's vision had black and red around the edges. Chaos energy flared through his quills, forcing Sonic and Tails to let go.

"Damnit, listen to me!"

He teleported in front of Liza's maw and gripped its head. Liza shrieked in pain, and Shadow quickly forced his mind to think of happy times. To his surprise, Maria wasn't the first thing that jumped to his mind. In her place was warm soup, Vanilla's gentle words, the smell of the chao garden early in the morning. Then there was Maria and her soothing touch, and racing with Sonic, and looking at Knuckles' rock collection. His entire body glowed with the green energy, and he forced it through his fingertips and into the Biolizard's head.

Liza stopped thrashing. It finally seemed to notice he was there, heaving heavily and panting with the exertion it had performed. Shadow kicked on his air shoes so his weight didn't put more pressure on its head.

"That's not Gerald," Shadow said again, rubbing his hand over Liza's forehead. "Gerald- has been dead for years."

Gone?

"I'm afraid so."

The Biolizard slowly lowered its head. Shadow lowered with it until his feet touched the ground. The entire power plant shook as Liza flopped down, exhausted and grieving. In the corner of his eye Shadow saw Sonic help Rouge pull Omega away from its flank. Somewhere behind him Eggman scoffed.

"Well this is a bust," Eggman muttered.

Liza's energy surged again. Shadow's hands dislodged from its head as it looked up and prepared to fire another blast of energy. Eggman squawked and moved his vehicle away as fast as it could go. Somewhere in the chaos of flaming metal falling all around them Shadow heard Vector yelling about an evacuation. Sirens were going off and the remainder of the Eggpawn army was still stomping around them.

None of that was his concern. Shadow grabbed Liza's head and pulled it down to look at him again.

"Stop," he said. "Liza, just... focus on me for a while."

Hurts. So hungry. Hurts.

Shadow poured his chaos energy into it again. Liza's swollen eyes shut. Shadow rested his forehead against its snout and put as many soothing feelings as he could into his energy. Knuckles said chaos energy differed based on the emotions behind it, so he focused on how happy he was to see it again. It was bittersweet, seeing something from his past, but no matter how scared he was of being seen as a monster, that didn't change the fact that Liza was hurting worse.

Liza continued to send him its pain. Shadow did his best to ease its unending agony in turn. He wasn't sure how much time passed or when the pandemonium around them ceased. It felt like ages until he heard voices cut through his focus.

"Um. So... is it safe to..."

"I don't know. Tails, buddy, can you get the big guy online again?"

Shadow swiveled his ears in their direction. The Biolizard's ire slightly rose at the disruption, and Shadow rubbed its snout. The longer it stayed calm, the better. Still, he was worried about Omega...

"I-I can try! I'm not really familiar with Egg-tech like this though."

"Don't call him that to his face," Shadow mumbled.

Somewhere to his right, Sonic hissed. Rouge's heels clicked on the ground as she came closer, stopping around what sounded like a good ten meters away.

"Shadow? Is it safe to approach?"

Anger started rising in the Biolizard again. Shadow forced a purr out of his throat. It worked on Maria when she was hurt, and apparently it worked on the Biolizard, too. Thankfully Sonic was too far away to hear it.

"They're friends," he said gently. The word tasted odd in his mouth. "They won't hurt you."

Little Shadow scared of them.

Shadow frowned. It wasn't wrong.

"They won't hurt either of us," he whispered. "...It's complicated, but I promise they mean well."

...Hungry.

Shadow raised his head and nodded at Rouge. The power plant looked a lot different now. Eggman's robots had partially been swept away, leaving a large clear area around himself and the Biolizard. The Chaotix trio were nowhere in sight, leaving just Sonic, Tails, Rouge and Omega there. It seemed that Eggman's airship had fully crashed in the time Shadow had spent calming the Biolizard down. He could still hear sirens in the distance.

Rouge came closer slowly as if afraid the Biolizard would turn and attack her like it had Eggman.

-Eggman. Shadow swiveled his head around. The doctor was nowhere in sight. He felt a flare of his own anger at the thought that Eggman had run away. Liza rumbled a response and Rouge froze where she was. Shadow forced his feelings down and rested his head against Liza's again.

"It's okay," he said. "It's okay."

Not okay.

"Don't you call me out like that."

The Biolizard huffed. Shadow watched Rouge's gaze flick between them for a few seconds before she gathered her courage and approached them again. Shadow's purr faded away, but he kept rubbing his hand over Liza's snout.

"Tails is trying to get Omega online again," Rouge said. "The Chaotix left to play cleanup in the city. ...I, uh. I don't know how long it'll take before some news helicopters arrive."

"...News?" Shadow asked.

Rouge glanced at Liza. She bit her lip. "Yeah. Cameras, reporters- this will all become public if they see it. I'm shocked none of them have come yet, actually. But, um. I can't... keep you out of G.U.N.'s eyes if you're shown off to the world. And your, uh... your- I'm sorry, what is it? I can't call it giant lizard thing. I mean I can, but-"

"Its name is Liza." Shadow bit the inside of his cheek.

She was right. He hadn't been thinking about it, completely focused on keeping his predecessor calm, but G.U.N. would absolutely recognize the Biolizard. They knew he was awake, but seeing it would ramp up the urgency of the situation immediately. Shadow wouldn't be the only one in danger.

Gerald Robotnik hadn't known the Biolizard was intelligent until he'd let Shadow meet it. The visits had been confidential and secret. He'd made notes, but they were all hidden away deep within the archives, deeper than Project Shadow itself. The only two who ever knew the Biolizard wasn't just a temperamental and violent beast were Shadow and Gerald. As far as G.U.N. was concerned, Liza was simply a big, dumb lizard with the ability to use chaos control.

"Where?" Shadow asked. "Don't give me a distance, just tell me where."

Sonic stepped closer. Shadow wanted to ignore it, he really did, but he couldn't help the fear raising in his chest. Blue looked up at Liza and back down at how Shadow was still soothing its head.

"Frog Forest," Sonic said.

Shadow's hackles rose. How much had he heard?

Sonic raised his hands. "I'll- explain when we get there. We need to get there pronto, right? And yes, Tails and I are coming with you. No arguments."

Shadow bit back bile. "Have you been there before?"

"Once."

He tried to stand up. Suddenly the weight of having been shoving all of his energy into healing the Biolizard's hurts hit him all at once. His vision blossomed into colors he'd never seen before and his hearing went through wave after wave of roaring liquid. He stumbled and barely felt Liza shove against him. He was engulfed in warmth that was kind of wet-

"Liza, put me down," Shadow said, fumbling to reach into his quills for the chaos emerald he still had. "I can't- reach Sonic from in here, you big lump!"

Liza grumbled, but its mouth did open enough that Shadow could partially crawl out of its lips. Sonic and Rouge were both giving him looks halfway between confusion and disgust. Shadow glared at both of them.

It took a minute for them to drag Omega closer. Tails took Omega's and Rouge's hands. Rouge and Sonic each put a hand on the Biolizard's head, though Shadow had to assure everyone involved, Liza included, that nobody's arms would be bitten off ("I'm in its mouth, you dumbasses") before any form of contact would be made. Shadow managed to reach a hand out and lay it on Sonic's arm before drawing on the chaos emerald for support.

I help.

The Biolizard took over the main burden of chaos control. Shadow found himself acting as a conduit between Liza, the chaos emerald, and the coordinates from Sonic all at the same time. It was one of the strangest five seconds of his life, simultaneously stretched between three different sources of chaos energies, and when they arrived at their destination it took Shadow a few seconds to disentangle himself from it all.

There was a croaking sound nearby. Liza dropped Shadow on the ground and lunged its neck. The croak swiftly turned frantic. Shadow looked up in time to see Liza swallow.

"...Those frogs are bigger than we are," Tails whispered hoarsely. "I-it just. Swallowed one whole."

"It hasn't been fed in fifty years," Shadow said tiredly.

He flopped his head back onto the ground and found he didn't care that he was now covered in both saliva and mud. He stared up at the underside of Liza's neck and let the chaos emerald in his hand ebb into his veins. The leaves around them rustled as every creature in the immediate vicinity began to flee, but Liza was faster than a few unfortunate frogs. Shadow was promptly sent a flood of joy and couldn't help slightly smiling.

Sonic sat down next to him. Rouge and Tails also sat down, all of them just enjoying a moment of rest between them. The Biolizard, now sated, sat down and let out a disgusting smelling belch.

Shadow closed his eyes. Liza was disgusting as ever, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Chapter Text

Tails reached his hand out timidly. Shadow knocked their shoulders together. Tails let out a squeak and stumbled forward with both hands outstretched, finally touching the Biolizard's flank. Liza snorted and Tails quickly withdrew his hands.

"It's not going to hurt you," Shadow said.

All nervousness aside, he was rather amused at how Sonic, Tails and Rouge tiptoed around the beast like it was going to turn and kill them for the mere act of breathing, yet wanted to pet it and know all about it at the same time. Sonic had been the first one willing to touch it after it had eaten its fill of local fauna and a tree or two, and then Rouge had given it an anxious pat on the foot. Now it was Tails's turn.

Shadow took the fox's hand and placed it back on Liza's side. Tails slightly flinched, big blue eyes widening, and then stepped closer with a little gasp.

"It's- it's so warm," he whispered. "And- the texture! It's just like a regular lizard's, but bigger!"

"Because it is a giant lizard."

"Oh, but..."

Tails' eyes wandered to the nearest steel clamp. The Biolizard's flesh had long ago grown around the life support system and melded with it. The skin around the area was swollen and sallow and smelled like rotting meat. Shadow winced at it.

"Shadow, what is that machine on its back?"

"It's a life support module."

Rouge and Sonic looked up. They were both huddled over Omega's open wires and had been searching anywhere on the robot for an on switch of some kind for a few minutes while Shadow made Tails take a break. Rouge's eyebrows were scrunched like she was looking at a puzzle. Sonic looked more concerned and curious than anything.

Shadow was apprehensive about telling them anything, but it wasn't like he could exactly hide the giant standing next to him. Liza had already connected their minds in front of everyone and taken his feelings about Gerald and mixed them with its own, then broadcast them aloud by using Shadow as its voice. Any minute now Shadow was expecting questions about who "Father" was, why a massive biological weapon existed, why it was up on the ARK, and anything else he'd stayed silent about. He wasn't sure he'd be able to answer any of it.

Liza nudged him and threatened to eat the others. Shadow let out a small sigh.

"Do you see how the flesh is melded with the metal?" he said, pointing at the Biolizard's side. "It's caused by overgrowth. The Biolizard grew too fast to support its own internal organs, so to keep it alive the Professor created a device that acts like a replacement. The tubes running back and forth augment blood flow from its heart and act as a filter at the same time."

"It looks painful."

Shadow stared at him. "...It is."

Tails tilted his head, both tails swishing behind him. His fur was still bristled, though it was a lot smoother now than it had been a few seconds ago. His eyes ran from the big red orb in the middle of the support device down the tubes and up to the Biolizard's eyes.

"Is it... telepathic because of the device, too?" Tails asked.

Shadow bristled. Liza's head swung around to stare at Tails, who flinched and hid behind Shadow. Sonic jumped to his feet immediately, causing Rouge to squawk and cover Omega's open wires with her body to prevent mud from getting in. Shadow partially covered Tails with one arm and stared back at the gigantic lizard. After a second he relaxed and lowered his arm.

Liza noticed his movement and lowered its head to the ground as well. Sonic tilted his head.

"What is going on?" Rouge hissed.

He should probably have answered her, but Shadow didn't want to.

He really wasn't certain how to feel about his own emotions at the moment. The Biolizard reacted strongly to everything he felt, which also didn't help him calm down. Every passing second was like his heart was bleeding, searching for everything to end and throbbing in a fear that was painful. Where Shadow's pain started and the Biolizard's stopped was a mess that wouldn't go away until the mental connection between them was severed.

The good thing about it all was that the Biolizard had finally sensed his attachment to Sonic and Tails. Shadow truly believed it wouldn't make a conscious effort to hurt either of them at the moment.

The bad thing was that their connection was only amplifying the initial irritation that Shadow had towards Rouge. Now he was fairly certain he was furious with her. Eggman had been back on the ARK. There was no way G.U.N. didn't know about that, and yet she led her conversation with him with the fact that she got his files. It was highly likely that Rouge had asked him to come with her so she could keep an eye on him, and that pissed him off.

At least the men on the ARK hadn't pretended to be nice when they came and locked him away. No one gave him pitying looks before shooting the scientists. No one pretended to be friendly and honest with him before cutting his skin open and-

Shadow's head tilted. He turned and caught Sonic's eye. Sonic was frowning, but his chaos energy flickered and reached out to Shadow's, something warm and gentle and... calm. There was a fierce protectiveness to it and the promise to fight, but it wasn't aimed at him. Shadow felt it reach out and touch at the edges of his own energy as if asking for something.

"...When did you learn that?" Shadow asked, genuinely impressed.

Sonic grinned and flicked his nose with his thumb. "Turns out there's a lot I learned from Knux's lecture about sensing the world around you. Don't tell him I said that."

So that was how Blue knew they needed to move locations. Shadow slowly nodded, then glanced over his shoulder at Tails. The little fox was still bristled and anxious and pressed up closer to Shadow's back, but was now looking between Shadow and Sonic with a look of curiosity.

"Liza is not going to hurt you," Shadow said. "...It was just reacting to me."

Tails's ears pinned down. "Oh... I-I'm sorry. That was a bad question. I shouldn't have..."

"Liza isn't telepathic."

Tails' ears flipped back upright. Rouge gave him a look that was full of disbelief. Sonic, however, looked like he'd just uncovered some great mystery.

"It's the chaos energy, right?" Blue asked excitedly. "Something like- oh, how did Knuckles put it- when you feel something strongly, you react in the same way? When you healed Liza earlier I got a really strong smell of soup!"

Shadow tried to fight off the heat that rose to his face. Sonic cackled and pumped his fist. Shadow coughed into his fist.

"You're... not wrong," he said carefully. "But not even Knuckles would be able to understand what the Biolizard is saying through chaos energy alone. It's... it's complicated," he added, feeling his voice grow quieter the more he spoke. He was digging himself into a hole the more he told them.

Somehow, though, his anger had calmed. Even Liza felt a bit better. Shadow let himself stare at Sonic again, who flashed him a bright smile.

You're okay, Sonic's energy seemed to say. Don't be scared.

Shadow swallowed and reached his own senses back. Sonic flinched as Shadow shared just a fraction of his raw terror between them, hiding it carefully from the Biolizard. Shadow flicked his eyes to Rouge and let his gaze narrow.

"Oh," Sonic said, voice low. "We need to talk about Eggman."

"We definitely need to talk about Eggman," Shadow growled. "How long did you know he was on the ARK?"

Rouge wrung her hands. Tails scooted closer and took over playing with Omega's wires. Rouge stood up and flicked mud off of her gloves, looking back and forth between Shadow, Liza and Sonic. She glanced down at Omega, then back up again.

"...A few days," Rouge said. "By the time I was notified, he'd been up there for two weeks. ...I meant to tell you after you had a chance to recover from Bingo Highway. I didn't even know he'd left. The reason we were going to find his base in Grand Metropolis was to see if we could find something on what he wanted to do up there. I haven't lied to you yet, Shadow, I swear."

His anger cooled.

Rouge was hard to get grasp on how she felt. Her face was a perfect mask every time he'd spoken to her. Every expression she made was meant to happen. And yet, now her eyes had a hint of fear and her hands trembled. The tips of her wings were tilted towards each other, betraying the slight hunch of her shoulders.

Until now Shadow had been lumping her in with the rest of G.U.N.'s people. She was different, sure, but she was still one of them. It hadn't occurred to him that she was as clueless as he was to a lot of what was happening.

"What are you really after?"

Sonic tilted his head. Tails looked up from Omega's chassis, hands frozen in place over a pair of wires he'd unplugged. Liza snored.

Shadow glanced at it. When had it fallen asleep?

He shook his head and looked back at Rouge. She bit her lip.

"...I'm an external resource," she said finally, letting her shoulders slump a bit. "Officially I'm under G.U.N.'s contract, but they aren't my boss. I can't say much more than that. I'm not your enemy. I don't want anything to do with this mess. I most certainly didn't know about this," she added, gesturing at Liza.

Despite himself, Shadow snorted. Rouge glared at him.

"...I can't tell you why right now unless you want Sonic and Tails to hear it," Rouge said quietly. "But I am on your side. As for what I want, that's pretty much a large glass of wine and a bath."

Shadow looked at Sonic and Tails. Tails had his ears pinned back and had his tails in his hands again. Sonic was frowning and watching Tails with his arms folded.

Tails looked up at Shadow and looked away.

"I'm... sorry," the little fox said.

Shadow blinked. "Tails?"

Sonic put a hand on Tails' shoulder. Tails hugged his namesakes close and took a deep breath.

"It- it bugged me a lot!" he squeaked, tears gathering in his eyes. "The cannon, the blood on your stasis pod- I know I shouldn't have looked! I-I told myself I wasn't going to dig any further after I found Professor Gerald's public arrest files, but- i-it just didn't make any sense! I'm sorry! I know it was dishonest to go looking without your permission, I..."

Shadow's blood ran cold. The sound of snoring stopped dead. The Biolizard raised its head behind him. Tails didn't seem to notice it, fully sobbing and rocking back and forth where he was.

"I didn't tell anyone," Tails hiccupped. "I didn't even tell Sonic. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"How much..."

Shadow forced himself to stop. He took a deep breath. The Biolizard's breath was hot on his back.

He had to be calm.

"How much do you know?" he asked quietly.

Tails sobbed. Shadow gritted his teeth and waited. Sonic tried to send him a comforting tendril of chaos energy. He batted it away.

"Better yet, how'd you even get ahold of the files?" Rouge mumbled. "It took me ages to get them out of my boss's hands. That shit's deeply hidden."

"...The password was an anagram of 'taco tuesday'," Tails whispered.

It shouldn't have been funny.

It should not have been funny.

Hell, there wasn't anything funny about it. His entire past had been locked away behind some moron's lunch time. But the thought that an eight year old child could hack into one of the government's deepest secrets so easily was just.

When he got control of his breath again he became aware of everyone staring at him. Liza asked if he was mentally sound. Tails stared at him in shock while Rouge and Sonic both looked baffled, though Sonic had a strained grin on his face. Shadow wiped his eyes with his thumb and sat down.

"Fucking unbelievable," he said, unable to contain another chuckle. "Kid, you're amazing."

Tails's mouth opened and closed a couple times. "You're... not... mad?"

"Mad?" Shadow asked. "Mad? At you? Did you even read the files?"

Tails flinched. "I-"

"How long have you known?"

"...Three weeks."

"So you've known I'm a monster for three weeks and all you've done with it is feel guilty for looking in the first place," Shadow said.

"...Monster?" Sonic asked.

"Excuse me?"

Tails paled. Shadow couldn't help the laughter bubbling out of his chest. He felt like screaming. His body was hot and cold at the same time and he was dimly aware of the mud curling under his claws. Liza hadn't reacted to him at all, strangely enough, but he couldn't care less at the moment.

"It was as simple as a child with an anagram!" Shadow giggled. "Fuck! G.U.N.'s gotten incompetent over the years, is that it? Or did they never really care at all? First they want a superweapon and then they go and murder people to keep it a secret just to hide it behind an anagram of someone's favorite food."

Liza bumped against his back. Shadow's breath caught in his throat.

"And now Liza's out," he whispered. "They already abandoned it to die for fifty years. What now? I have a duty to fulfil, but the Biolizard... will they kill it?"

What more would G.U.N. take from him?

There was a loud beeping noise. Shadow about jumped out of his own skin. The Biolizard chomped its mouth around him and hid him away immediately.

"REBOOTING."

Oh.

Great.

Omega missed the whole damn conversation.

Chapter Text

"Shadow, come here."

Shadow crept closer, socked feet padding softly on the floor. He hadn't mastered the art of moving silently yet, especially not in socks. He preferred wearing socks to walking barefoot on the cold metal floors. Even Maria's room, which had a kind of fake wooden flooring, was usually cold and just felt horrible on his feet.

The professor knelt down. Shadow stopped moving and clasped his hands behind his back, looking up with muted curiosity. Professor Robotnik reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a tape measure, taking one of Shadow's hands in both of his and wrapping the tape measure around his wrist. Shadow slightly tilted his head as the professor measured each of his fingers, then turned his hand over and measured the distance from his wrist across his palm. Each number was written down on a clipboard at the professor's side, and then Shadow's other hand was also measured.

"Both hands are perfectly the same size," the professor muttered. "Need a better measuring device to double check..."

He stood up and turned away to his desk. Shadow obediently stayed put where he was while the professor shuffled some things around and typed away at a computer. After a few minutes the professor walked from that desk to his lab counter across the room, absentmindedly patting Shadow on the head as he walked past. Shadow took that as his cue to follow, stepping carefully to make as little noise as possible.

The professor shuffled some things around and grabbed a bunch of different white fabrics. He moved some things aside and patted the cleared off area. Shadow leapt up onto the cleared space and sat down with his feet hanging off the edge of the counter. The professor held out each fabric to Shadow and had him touch each one.

"Now," the professor said, "which of these do you like the best?"

Shadow blinked. The professor held the fabrics out to him again, and Shadow touched each one in turn, then pointed at the one that had been offered second to last. The professor made note of it on his clipboard.

"Cotton-polyester blend, durable, but not harsh on texture," he muttered. Setting down the clipboard, the professor stretched the fabric out in front of Shadow and tapped the center. "Try ripping this with your claws."

Ah. A test. Shadow clawed the fabric immediately, leaving nothing but shreds behind. The professor looked down at the frayed strips.

"Well, that's one way to do it," he said, suddenly sounding tired.

Shadow's ears pinned back. The results were not what the professor was looking for. He'd failed.

He prepared himself to be ignored. Shadow locked his emotions down and sat as still as he could, looking directly forward. One of the G.U.N. soldiers that came up with the last shipment had joked to another that bad experiments were disposed of by tossing them into space. Shadow did not want to be tossed into space. Space was cold.

The professor paused and looked at him. Shadow barely resisted flinching. Then the professor reached a hand out and began stroking the top of Shadow's head.

It felt nice.

"...Would you like to see something?"

Shadow looked up at him and tilted his head. The professor gave him an awkward grin and pulled a pair of white gloves from his pocket. Shadow's eyes widened as the professor slipped them over black and red claws, turning his hands over and looking at how the fabric was loose and didn't fit at all. One of his claws was already catching on the inside of the finger of the glove.

"Maria said you dislike things touching your palms. We'll have to make the new ones with reinforced fingertips, but these will do for now."

"...New ones?" Shadow echoed. "That... wasn't a test?"

The professor's mustache drooped. "Ah. I suppose that was misleading of me, wasn't it? I'm not as good at surprises as Maria is. It is a little embarrassing for a man as old as I am to ask for advice from a little girl..."

It wasn't a test. Shadow hadn't failed at anything; he'd just been overeager to prove himself. He flexed his fingers and promptly tore holes in the fingertips on accident.

Both of them stared at the gloves. The professor snorted. Shadow looked up in confusion as the man coughed into his fist with shaking shoulders.

"Ahem! Well... the new ones won't do that. Hopefully."

Shadow looked at the torn fingertips of his gloves and silently apologized to Gerald. The reinforced fabric hadn't lasted all that long despite his efforts and Vanilla's temporary replacements hadn't fared much better.

He was currently tucked in the crook of Liza's neck while it slept. Shadow had his chaos emerald gripped in one hand and was holding the earbuds Tails had given him in the other. Somewhere nearby Tails was elbows deep in Omega's circuitry while Sonic and Rouge caught the robot up on what had happened since the kill switch was activated. Omega had been pretty angry that Eggman used a "cheap trick" on it, but then had fallen silent when Sonic mentioned the Biolizard. Even now it sat, silently listening and staring at Liza and Shadow.

Shadow, for his part, was thinking.

"They're friends," he'd told Liza. "They won't hurt either of us."

Three weeks. Tails had known about him for three weeks.

It was kind of funny how unreliable memory was. Shadow's socks, his gloves, his shoes and his inhibitor rings- they'd just been lumped into the category of "equipment" in his mind for a while now. But his original socks and gloves were gifts.

Maria had been the first to ever give him something. Shadow was two months old when she noticed the way he walked on any floor that wasn't freshly cleaned or carpeted. The next day he found himself wearing socks that she'd long since grown out of. They were pink and had little paw prints all over. The second gift was Gerald's failed surprise. Shadow later got reinforced gloves, but he'd kept the first set and secretly tried to repair them with an embroidery kit he borrowed from one of the researchers. He never got the hang of it no matter how much Maria laughed at him or tried to guide him.

And the third gift was the headphones from Tails.

Shadow didn't know if Tails had given them to him before he knew or after, but Tails had only ever offered him more. In the past three weeks he'd shyly suggested music, asked for advice about his projects, or shown off the upgrades he'd made to the Tornado. Even after seeing Shadow shoot the robots at Tails' workshop, he'd still treated the other like normal.

Shadow shifted and stood up. He moved silently and approached the rest of the group, noticed only by Omega. Shadow stopped a little ways away and folded his arms.

"...so what's our next move?" Rouge was saying. "Finding out what Eggman was up to on the ARK is a bit of a moot point now. We can still go raid his database, but I doubt we'll find anything."

"What about the zombo-robo thing?" Sonic asked, leaning on one foot and drawing something in the mud with a stick. Shadow peeked at the drawing. It looked like some kind of... oblong object surrounded by a wrap with squiggles on it. "Knuckles said Metal Sonic's been upgraded, but that was all the more we got on that. Tails and I only managed to get one more chaos emerald back, too."

Rouge looked unamused. "The seagull thing?"

Sonic's grin was slightly strained. "...I'm starting to smell, aren't I."

"You've been smelly," Shadow said, causing all of them to jump. Tails slammed Omega's casing shut on his own hand with a squeak and Sonic dropped his drawing stick. Omega simply let out a beep and stayed still. Shadow moved the earbuds to the same hand that held the chaos emerald before he reached down and grabbed Tails' fingers. He deliberately ignored the stab of pain in his chest when the fox flinched and felt the fingers for damage. He didn't find any, but he put a little bit of healing energy in anyway and let go. "Who is Metal Sonic?"

He was acutely aware of the way Sonic's eyes flicked from Tails' hand to his. Shadow folded his arms and stared back.

"...Do you think I could learn how to do that?"

"Focus, Blue."

Sonic coughed into his hand. "Right. Uh. Metal Sonic's a copy of me Egghead built. Keeps going on about how it's the 'real Sonic' and the superior one and all that stuff. 'S how we met Amy, actually!"

"INFERIOR MODEL."

Sonic eyed Omega.

"I don't think we've been introduced...?"

"CORRECT. WE HAVE NOT."

Tails timidly opened Omega's back panel up again and reached his hands in to work. Sonic stood with his mouth slightly open for a second before he recovered and picked his drawing stick back up.

"Right. Well, uh. Anyway, the point is, Metal's been upgraded. He was pretty tough before, so who knows what he can do now," Blue said to Shadow. "With those turbines he can go our speed. I'm still faster though."

Shadow looked down at Omega. Omega looked back.

"Eggman was on the ARK for the past two weeks?" Shadow asked.

"Correct," Rouge affirmed.

"Does Metal Sonic also have ill will against its creator?"

Sonic blinked. Tails looked up at him. Omega let out an indignant beep.

"I MEAN MORE THAN ILL WILL. I AIM TO BE A PROBLEM."

"Not... that I know of," Sonic said. "There've been models that defected before, but Metal is the OG model. The uh, the original," he added, grinning slightly at Shadow's confusion.

Shadow tapped his fingers against his arm. "You should call Knuckles and clarify just how Metal Sonic has been upgraded. I doubt the strange movement of his minions was due to him being gone for some time."

"You think Metal Sonic is behind the chaonapping," Rouge said.

Shadow nodded. "More specifically... he's after things with a high concentration of chaos energy. There's no reason to move Froggy and Chocola to a different location otherwise."

"Froggy got kidnapped again? Big's got some terrible luck," Sonic muttered. "Tails and I have two chaos emeralds and leads on one more, and Amy's was deposited in a museum. With the one Shadow has, that makes only two that are still missing, since Egghead has the other."

Rouge's heartrate sped up. Shadow looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. She raised an eyebrow of her own back, perfectly cool and composed on the outside. Shadow knew she had a chaos emerald on her, but that wasn't really a reason to be nervous.

"Rouge has one," Shadow said.

Rouge jumped and glared daggers at him. Shadow blinked back, confused.

"Oh, really?" Sonic said. "That makes only one that we don't know the location of!"

"...It's still two," Rouge grumbled. Her glare at Shadow was ice cold. "Mine's from the museum."

There was a brief moment of silence. Sonic scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression on his face and Tails and Omega kept silent. Shadow didn't know what he'd done wrong or why any of them were reacting the way they were. He shoved it aside and kept going. They had more important things to handle at the moment.

"I can't leave the Biolizard alone," Shadow said, drawing everyone's full attention. "It doesn't move very fast, but... the two of us can chaos control anywhere you need us to be."

"W-wait, you're- are you staying here?" Rouge stammered.

Shadow stared at her for a moment before gesturing at Liza. "Look at it, Rouge. There's no subtle way of getting that thing anywhere without getting G.U.N. doing a rehash of shutting the ARK down. I can't-"

He cut himself off and took a breath.

"I'm staying with the Biolizard."

There was a soft click as Tails closed Omega's back hatch. Omega's head swiveled around in place and Tails gave it a thumb's up. The robot immediately surged upright and loomed over Shadow, glaring down at him with a stare that was somehow intense despite being the same old red lcd display. Shadow stared back up at it and braced himself for a fight.

"QUERY."

"...Ask."

"WHY HIDE? WHY NOT MAKE YOUR CAPTORS RUE THE DAY THEY DID YOU WRONG? YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO FIGHT BACK JUST AS I AM. IF YOU ARE TRULY STRONGER THAN ME, THEN WHY?"

Get revenge?

It wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed his mind. He had the ability to tear everything apart. Even without Liza at his side, Shadow could topple anything G.U.N. sent his way.

Shadow's eyes lowered until he was looking past Omega. Sonic, Omega and Rouge all followed his gaze to where it rested on Tails. The little fox bristled and fluffed up nervously, twiddling his fingers and pinning his ears down to the sides of his head.

Was it something Maria would have wanted? Knowing her, probably not. Gerald... Shadow wasn't exactly close with his creator. He wasn't sure what Gerald would have wanted him to do. Without either of those two to guide him and no one giving him directions, Shadow wasn't really sure what to do. He tried to think if Cream would want him to get revenge and came up with a solid no on the spot.

So... it wasn't like the idea hadn't crossed his mind, but...

"It... wasn't something I was ordered to do," Shadow answered, somehow unable to speak very loudly. His gaze flicked back up to meet Omega's eyes.

"ARE YOU UNABLE TO DESIRE THINGS FOR YOURSELF?"

Shadow flinched like he'd been struck. He felt like he'd been hit. The question was one that had been asked of him before- snidely, as if an insult, as if he hadn't been ordered around and beaten when he failed to comply to the letter. Omega's computerized voice held none of the bite and was asked innocently enough, but-

It was Tails that spoke up.

"You... wanted to protect us," Tails whispered. He frizzed up a little more when everyone's attention was on him again and swallowed nervously.

"Um... Tails? Could you elaborate on that, please?" Sonic asked.

"I-I-I-uh, m-maybe I'm wrong...!"

Shadow's world started to spin. He stared at Tails, unable to swallow or open his mouth.

How much had he read...?

What did G.U.N. say in their report? Tails was a smart kid- which was exactly why he should not have read it. He'd understand the contents too well.

"...B-but... you didn't... want us to end up like the s-scientists... left... behind?"

"...You should not have read that," Shadow whispered.

"I have to agree there," Rouge added. "Nothing about those files is exactly kid-friendly."

Tails flinched and curled in on himself. "I-I'm sorry..."

"And... you're only half right."

Everyone looked at Shadow. He flicked his inhibitor right and swallowed the lump in his throat. Everything was still spinning, but he was seeing somewhat clearer now. He held up the headphones and looked somewhere in the vicinity of Tails's face, not meeting his eyes.

"...It was nice to pretend. For a while. That Maria wasn't wrong about..."

Damnit. This sucked.

He'd have rather had his arm removed again. Any of the tests, G.U.N. soldiers berating him, yelling at him, being locked away in a cold and enclosed space. He'd even take being locked up in the nutrient solution chamber again. Cut him and slash him, Shadow could have taken all of it. He knew how to handle pain. He knew how to handle physical exertion and how to kill. He knew how to break things and destroy and to be broken.

Putting his emotions into words? That. That he couldn't handle so well.

He looked away. Sonic's chaos energy hovered somewhere on the edges of his, waiting anxiously and not so patiently. Blue was really holding back from something. Shadow walled himself off and shut him out, putting up his own energy like a barrier between himself and the rest of the world.

"It was nice to feign normality for a while," he said, voice as small as he felt.

Sonic clicked his tongue. Shadow barely had time to blink before he reflexively caught the little yellow fox that was roughly shoved at him, and then Sonic was wrapping himself around the two of them.

Omega looked down at the lot of them and then at Rouge. She held her hands up in protest and was shortly swept up with the lot of them in a crushing metallic embrace anyway. It was painful and awkward as hell and Shadow nearly teleported himself out of there until he heard the telltail sniffle from around his chest.

He let out a sigh and let his head drop until it rested on Tails's.

This sucked.

Chapter Text

"...And if you see anything missing, give us a call at..."

"Hey, Espio! How many times are you going to repeat that?"

"Chaotix Detective Agency, we're always happy to..."

"Vector, I think he's broken."

"Espio! Hey!"

"If you're missing something, whether it's an item or a family member..."

Vector scratched ihs head. Espio continued muttering their signature spiel to himself, rocking back and forth in the alleyway. Charmy hovered upside down in front of the chameleon and pulled a silly face. Espio didn't react.

"Yup," Vector said, "he's broken."

Charmy flipped back upright and tugged at Espio's hand. "How do we fix him?"

"...Give us a call..."

Vector hoisted up his friend and threw Espio over his shoulder with a shrug. "Eh. Let's just give him some time. He'll recover eventually."

Charmy zipped around Vector multiple times, following him down the alley and towards the street. "But why's he like this? We got so much business today!"

"Nah, who knows! Anyway, check this out."

Vector held out his phone. Charmy hovered closer, peering at the screen with sparkling eyes.

"Wooooow! But, Vector? What's S.O.S. mean?"

"Idiot! It's a call for help!" Vector puffed out his chest. "And it was sent directly to us! All that giving out our number and helping around the city yesterday must've gotten us famous! You know what that means?"

"Money?"

"Money!"

"...Detectives you want on your side..."

"Vector, I think he started singing."

"Hey, that's actually a banger!?"

Since the incident with the giant... lizard... thing, the Chaotix had been very busy. The mayor of Grand Metropolis had been taken captive by a few of Eggman's robots, which only took a few well aimed shuriken and Vector hurling Charmy at them to fix, and from there they had their hands full running around the city cleaning up pieces of the Egg Carrier and reuniting folks with their missing loved ones. Vector didn't have a lot of business cards on a good day, but with how much they gave out their contact information they had enough money to pay rent for months.

Now that everything had settled down, Vector wasn't really sure if they still needed to be digging into Eggman's motives. He was pretty certain dropping a gigantic lizard that shot beams out of its face on Sonic counted as a motive.

At the same time, something didn't add up. Vector's thumb hovered over the reply button on his phone. Somehow the lizard monster thingy poofed- Shadow, Sonic, big Eggman-hating robot and all- and after Eggman ran away the robots had gone all zombie-mode again before starting to act a bit more cohesively. It didn't feel right for an Eggman ploy.

"...Truth can run but not hide..."

Vector hit reply.

---

Amy squinted against the sun and shaded her eyes. Her communicator beeped, but she ignored it and watched for Cream to come down from the sky. Big stepped up beside her and opened up his umbrella, using it to block the sun, and she gave him a quick, grateful smile before turning back to scan the cloudless sky. She perked up at the sound of flapping ears and held out her arms, shortly holding a softly giggling little rabbit.

"How's it look?" Amy asked, snuggling the top of Cream's head.

"It's very big," Cream answered. "And creepy! Cheese feels something nearby that might be Chocola, but he's not sure if it's inside the mansion or around it."

Amy looked up at the giant building in front of them. Cream was absolutely right- it was super creepy. She couldn't see anything wrong about it on the outside, but the air around it was stiff and the ramparts were dark. It looked more like a castle than a mansion, really.

Amy hated the place. She already missed Shadow's sensitivity to chaos energy.

She'd worried about him a lot over the past few days. Rouge had promised to pass on any message she had directly to Shadow, but she hadn't really had anything to tell him and didn't want to seem clingy. Was asking Rouge to make sure he ate something too much? Was asking if he'd slept okay weird? It would have been easier to send messages like that if only she wasn't going to send them through another person.

Her communicator went off again. Amy finally checked it and nearly squealed aloud when she saw it was a message from Sonic. Then she opened it and had to double check what it said.

"h y kjy"

She tapped out a message back.

"Sonic? Are you okay?"

"th s si n' snc"

"What are the chances Sonic suddenly forgot how to text, do you think?" she asked Cream, deciding to press the call button instead of deciphering whatever weird garbled message that was.

To her irritation, the call was picked up- and then immediately hung up.

Amy gaped at it and called Sonic back. This time the call picked up and stayed connected, and she wasted no time in teasing him.

"Did you really just hang up on me?" she said, leaning on one foot and putting her free hand on her hip.

"That was unintentional."

Amy froze. That wasn't Sonic.

"...Shadow?" she asked. Cream poked up at her elbow, so she slightly lowered her wrist in case Cream wanted to say hello too. "What- how did you get Sonic's communicator?"

"We met up and he left it with me. I... admit I'm... unused to an interface this small."

Amy couldn't help her smile. "I thought we were going to communicate through Rouge?"

Shadow softly inhaled on the other end. Amy quirked an eyebrow as a sound somewhere between a loud huffing noise and something windy briefly overloaded the microphone. Shadow softly grunted and the noise went away.

"Something came up. We split up for now. They left this morning."

Amy put a hand to her cheek with a happy grin. "Am I the first person you contacted?"

"...."

She let out a little squeal. Cream gave her an odd look. But Amy was very happy about this.

Everyone had their own ways of communicating how they cared about each other. Amy's was blunt and usually spoken aloud. Cream's were soft and nurturing, displayed in the way she'd try to bring cookies if someone was feeling down or try to give them little gifts of flowers. Tails liked to feel useful and to make people gadgets. Sonic would hang around and try to do little tasks to make someone's life slightly easier. Sometimes. Other times he'd intentionally ruin the laundry like a little brat.

Just like with his body language, Shadow's were mostly subtle. He showed affection by listening when someone talked or sitting nearby while doing his own thing. While Amy babysat Cream, he'd come silently stand in the kitchen while she practiced baking. At first she'd thought it was just him being wary of someone older or new in the house, but then he'd started occasionally trying to help her bake. Over time Amy realized that was Shadow's way of trying be social.

Maybe he hadn't been able to ask for things before. He did mention to her once that they didn't have things like perfume on the ARK. It also wasn't hard to figure out that his childhood wasn't any easier than her own was.

She could also have been reading too much into it. No matter what his intentions were, Shadow had still called Amy first, and that was really sweet.

"How do I hang up?"

"Shadow called me first!"

"I'm hanging up."

He did not hang up. Even Big chuckled a little. Amy smirked at her communicator.

"You don't know where the button is, do you?" she asked.

Shadow didn't answer. She laughed at him.

It didn't take long to fill him in on what happened on her end. Taking the chao home had been pretty uneventful. Eggman's robots were still zombie-ing around and were almost pathetically easy to take out along the way, if they encountered them at all. Amy and Big had sent Cream ahead with the chao while they stopped at a nearby town and looked up a map in the nearest library to get ahold of their next location. When they met back up again at a diner on the edge of town Cheese had sensed something and led them here.

"Cheese isn't as accurate as you are," Amy said, "but we do have a direction to head in."

Shadow made a small, noncommittal noise. There was another loud huffing sound for a moment before it silenced. Something like a splashing noise and a croak sounded off in the background.

"...Be careful," he said slowly. "We... ah... Sonic told me about Metal Sonic. I think he's behind the strange movements."

Amy's smile stiffened. Cream tilted her head.

"Knuckles informed us that Metal Sonic has been upgraded. The search for chaos energy sources tracks with his movements. And... Eggman hasn't been planetside for two weeks."

"And it's not likely Heavy King is back," Amy said. "...Okay. Okay, okay okay okay. What's the plan?"

"It hasn't changed much. Find Froggy and the chao and take them home, get the chaos emeralds as a preventative measure, and figure out what Metal Sonic's plans are."

Amy tapped her foot anxiously. "What about Eggman?"

Shadow was quiet for a moment. Amy bit her lip and waited for his answer, well aware by now that rushing him wasn't going to get an answer. Shadow said something under his breath that she didn't catch.

"He was forced to retreat in Grand Metropolis," he said at last, something strained in his voice. "It was a... resounding defeat."

So something happened in Grand Metropolis. Eggman being defeated was good, but from the tone of his voice, it sure didn't sound that way. Her mind flicked back to the incident with Chaos in Station Square and she winced. Maybe it was similar in terms of property damage or loss of life. Some victories were... not happy ones, now that she thought about it. And maybe that was okay. At the end of the day, all they could do was their best.

And their best was pretty dang good.

"Are you eating well? Resting okay?"

"Pardon?"

Amy frowned at her communicator. "Listen mister, just because you can skip meals doesn't mean you should. What would Miss Vanilla think if you came back even skinnier than you are now? And sleep is important for your skin and your mental wellbeing!"

"I'll... take a nap or something..."

She smiled. The call ended there after wishing him good luck with whatever it was he was doing next. She wanted to ask where he was, why he split up with Rouge, why didn't he go with them if his goals were the same, but couldn't find the words. It didn't feel like he wanted to say.

She turned to Big and Cream and gestured at the mansion. They set off for the creepy spires with Cheese leading the way.

It was creepier inside. There were ghosts with pumpkins on their heads and the halls were like a giant labyrinth. It didn't take them long to get good and lost. The most normal thing were all the badniks, even with the addition of the ones that looked kind of like evil wizards, though that was quickly turned creepy again by the distinct lack of zombie-mode they'd come to get used to.

No, instead the badniks were coordinated. Their tactics were simple- eggpawns with the spears at the front, eggpawns with the cannons in the back, heavier armored bots backed up by the wizard dudes and the flying bots as ambushes- but it was certainly far different than shoving motionless robots aside.

And then, about an hour in, it was like a switch was flipped, ironically about the same time Cream touched an actual switch and the entire mansion flipped upside down on them.

Suddenly she was diving on Cream as energy bolts flew past their heads. Big let out a startled noise and flopped down next to them. Amy smelled singed fur and blood. She looked up and saw a massive allotment of badniks surrounding them, weapons charging and trained on her team. One of the badniks made a popping sound. A deep, grating voice echoed out from its speakers.

"Chaos emeralds... where."

"We don't have one," Amy snarled. One of the bolts had come far too close to Cream's face for her comfort.

"Where," another badnik said.

"Did you hide them?" came from the other side of the crowd.

"You've spread them out," a third groaned.

Amy's hammer was back in her hand. She pushed Cream into Big's arms and stood in front of them with it raised. "Alright you hunk'a junk," she growled. "This is Metal Sonic, isn't it? Even if I knew where any emeralds are, what makes you think I'd tell you?"

The entire front row of badniks slowly tilted their heads. Amy surpressed a shiver as at least thirty glaring red eyes trained directly on her.

"You will tell me," they all said, all at once, "or the little girl you are trying so hard to protect will die. I will shoot the cat first, and while you are..."

Amy leaned back and dropped her voice low. "Big. Cream. Get ready to run. Find a narrow corridor. We'll make a stand there."

Her companions nodded. Cheese puffed his little cheeks determinedly. Metal Sonic was still monologuing.

"...the hope in your eyes dwindles, then I will slowly tear-"

Amy planted her foot and kicked hard with the other, using her hammer to propel herself in a circle. She spun hard and lobbed the hammer like a discus, taking down a solid line of badniks and cutting off Metal Sonic mid-sentence. With a flick of her hand she spawned another hammer.

"GO!"

Big and Cream booked it. The swarm of badniks opened fire, and the chase was on.

Chapter Text

"It's no wonder you're not the real Sonic," Amy hollered, kicking up a badnik's head before slamming into it with her hammer. "The real Sonic has class!"

The head was already partially coming apart from her hit, but it stayed together well enough to bowl over three or four Eggpawns. The other badniks furiously honked at her, and she pulled down her lower eyelid and stuck her tongue out at one before turning on her heel and running for her life. She was starting to see why Sonic taunted Eggman all the time. Metal Sonic had forgotten all about Cream, Cheese and Big with Amy's insults.

She was a little surprised she was so good at the insults, honestly. This was probably the first time in her entire life she'd purposefully insulted someone to anger them. Then again, she was just telling a fake that it wasn't as good as her hero, and that was easy.

It also meant that an entire robot army was focused on her. That... was not nearly so easy.

Actually it was really scary. Metal Sonic hadn't been so intent on killing her last time they'd met, preferring to kidnap her to get Sonic's attention or attempting to capture her for other reasons. Now, however, he was out for blood, and he made sure she knew it. She'd already taken a couple good hits to her legs and she was fairly certain one of her ears was missing a tuft of fur. Her hair was all messed up and she'd need a new dress by the end of it all.

Make that dress and boots, she thought, hooking her hammer on a doorframe and using it to slingshot herself down a different hallway. A blast of hot air hit the back of her legs at the same time that the explosion made her head ring. She smacked her hammer on the floor and used it to bounce into the air, narrowly avoiding another bomb just in time.

Telling Big and Cream to go for a narrow hallway had been a good tactic in theory, because Eggman's robots were big and would not fit in smaller areas. Less room to swing massive hammers was better for fighting less enemies at once.

Unfortunately, they hadn't found any big enough that would accommodate Big's own size without leaving them exposed to flanking by the 'bots. In the end Amy had screamed something that she honestly couldn't remember now, but it had worked, and with the entire horde angrily chasing her had scrambled for any means of escape that she could find. She could only hope Cream and Big would find their way out while she bought them time.

She hit the ground as a ball and frantically tried to spin dash. She hadn't mastered it yet, but as clumsy as it was she still managed to get some speed.

It almost wasn't enough. Something sliced through her quills as she rolled, and she didn't even feel the pain at first until she uncurled and got her feet under her. Amy barely had time to register the blood dripping from her back before more Metal Sonic was there in the metallic not-flesh, spiky and scary and glowering at her with those blaring red lights. He zipped in front of her and reached for her neck.

Amy shrieked. One second Metal Sonic was there and the next his head was halfway through the wall. The army behind her stuttered, but she didn't notice, too busy running for her life with a dented hammer in her hand.

This was a mistake. This was a mistake. Why did she think she could take on an army alone?? This was scary! She was scared and alone and hurt and her dress was torn and her hammer was dented and she desperately wished Sonic was here to whisk her away and she could hide her face in his shoulder and sob like she used to and...

And...

And she hooked her hammer on a banister and swung herself around, planting both heels squarely in Metal's face. The deadly robot's display flickered and blinked.

"I'm not a little girl anymore!" Amy screamed. She took her hammer and put every ounce of determination she could muster into her swings. "I! Am! Brave! And I don't need S-Sonic to rescue me anymore! And I promised Miss Vanilla I'd keep Cream safe and I'm gonna keep that promise, you metallic meanie!"

Piko!

This was why she took up boxing. She couldn't stand being scared and helpless anymore. She wanted to be stronger and more independent, someone who could be relied on instead of having to rely on others.

Piko!

Sonic's face before he was launched into space haunted her late into the night. It had been the third time he'd put himself in danger for her sake. It had almost cost him his life. If Shadow hadn't been there-

Piko!

No more. She wound up for the final swing-

PIKO!!

BANG!

Metal Sonic went flying through the roof. Amy fell back on her butt and heaved for breath. The robot army went all floppy and useless, returning to their usual zombie-like selves. Amy wiped her brow and looked at the blood on her glove. She'd have to get a new set of those, too.

She pushed herself to her feet. Metal Sonic never stayed down for long. She had to get moving before the adrenaline wore off or she'd be in trouble.

Amy hobbled her way up the nearest staircase. Her back was starting to throb now and her head stung. Her feet hurt. She made her way down the hallway as fast as she could while using her battered hammer as a crutch. About halfway down something reached out and grabbed her. She was two seconds away from screaming and hitting it when it squeaked at her.

"Cheese?" she gasped. "But- where's...?"

The little blue chao tugged at her arm. Amy followed it down a side corridor until they came to a crack in the wall that was just large enough she could attempt to squeeze through. Cheese gestured at it, then slipped to the other side. Amy took a deep breath and scrunched her way inside.

Her back was in absolute agony. She didn't know just how badly it was injured before, but the scraping of cobblestone and brick against it absolutely did not help. She got stuck halfway, sobbing for breath with big fat ugly tears dripping down her face. She was going to be stuck here forever, trapped between walls with Metal Sonic coming after her, she wasn't ever going to see Sonic or Tails or Cream and Big or Shadow again and Vanilla was going to be so mad at her for putting Cream in danger and...

And then she was pulled through to the other side and her face slammed into something soft. She screamed into the fur from the pain. Something warm and huge patted her shoulder with a light touch, and something croaked.

Amy pulled back enough to blink up at Big through bleary eyes. Cream and Cheese worriedly peered back at her from atop the giant's shoulders, one frog and brown chao held securely in Cream's hands. Amy forced herself to take a steadying breath.

"W-w-what are you d-doing here?" she demanded. "Metal Sonic's b-behind me!"

"We couldn't just leave you!" Cream cried.

"Run now?" Big asked.

"YES!"

Big scooped her up and booked it for the woods. Amy gritted her teeth and dealt with the jarring bouncing, ripping off one of her gloves and using it as a makeshift bandage for her head.

She was actually really happy to see them both. She'd have kept crying and soaked Big's fluffy tummy through with her snot if they'd had the time. She wanted to hug Cream to her and to take a long bath and a nap while being pampered with Vanilla's sugar cookies and a movie. As things stood, however, Big was also injured and Amy's hammer was in dire need of repairs. And Metal Sonic was a lot spikier than she remembered.

She looked over Big's shoulder as they ran into the treeline, warily watching the mansion get smaller and smaller. Her bad feeling still hadn't gone away.

To date, Liza had eaten over twenty frogs. It seemed to prefer the black ones, which Shadow noted had the odd ability to make the local flora wilt, over the green ones, which made the plants grow at an extraordinary rate. Shadow kept track of how many of each it ate up until he reminded himself of a certain G.U.N. scientist, at which point he threw it all out and instantly forgot the tally.

Liza was having the time of its life. It had food, it wasn't the tallest thing in the jungle, there was water everywhere that it could splash in, and its pain was well managed. Shadow did his best to try to remove some of the decayed flesh around its wiring, but he wasn't technically savvy enough, nor did he have the materials needed to resize the machinery. Liza told him not to bother. It didn't say why. He did his best anyway, and he didn't have to suffer the smell from the removed flesh long, since either Liza or the copious amount of frogs in the area ate it up. And then Liza ate the frogs.

Shadow was utterly repulsed. And that wasn't even the worst part.

The BioLizard was advanced, but its biology was not nearly as advanced as Shadow's. Where Shadow could digest and utilize everything he ate, the BioLizard still needed to... well, expunge... the excess mass. And given that it hadn't eaten in 50 years, the first excrement was one hell of a deuce.

It was bad enough Shadow ran for at least a mile until he couldn't smell it anymore. Liza, not understanding, chased after him, leaving behind the smelliest trail in existence. Shadow kept running until the disgusting giant had left it all long behind them, and then he promptly threw himself in the nearest body of water and scrubbed until his fur came off in chunks. Then he scrubbed the BioLizard, then scrubbed himself again.

Once they were both as clean as he could possibly get them without soap, Shadow took a look around. They'd ended up somewhere very far from where they'd begun. The trees were thinner in number, but thicker around the trunk here. In the distance he could see the shape of a large dark building with strange, spiked ramparts and dusty stone battlements. It reminded him a lot of the storybook castles he and Maria saw in the fairytails they'd read in the medical bay.

...Wasn't Amy heading for some kind of mansion?

He went stiff. Liza smelled it too, stilling with its maw open wide.

Blood. Sweat. Dried tears.

The distant scent of rose perfume.

Shadow's shoes were flared up and kicking up water before his brain caught up. Liza stumbled after him, unable to keep up after all the exercise they'd already done today, and he left it behind in mere miliseconds. Wait for me, it cried. He ignored it. Over the wind his ears picked up the hurried crunching of leaves and splashing of water. He pivoted and aimed for a tree, bouncing off of it to halt his speed and landing in front of the group.

Big tripped in surprise, dropping the girls, the chao and one unhappy little frog. Shadow sprung forward one last time, catching Amy before she went face first into the mud. Cream caught herself, but the two chao and the frog went right in the water.

Shadow looked down. Amy gaped back like she'd forgotten how to breathe. She was a right mess, covered in deep gouges and blood. One of her ears was cut in half. His gaze lifted to look at Big, who stared blankly back and didn't quite seem concerned at the blaster wound on his stomach. Shadow's eyes flicked to Cream and confirmed she had maybe a scratch or two, but no further injuries.

And Shadow didn't have any soap.

Chapter Text

Tails waved goodbye to Rouge's and Omega's retreating figures. Sonic stood beside him, shading his eyes from the sun with a slight frown on his face.

"I feel like I can both trust them and not trust them," Sonic said. "Well, Rouge, at least. Omega seems like the kinda guy who has a one-track mind. I can predict him a lot easier."

"I have to agree," Tails replied, lifting his tablet and setting it to track chaos energy. He'd managed to finish it with Omega's help while they were camping for the night. The sentient walking arsenal had been surprisingly willing to offer the nitty gritty software patches and security advice he'd needed to finish his own OS, and as much as Tails hated the fact that Eggman's technology was partially integrated with his own, he had to admit that he did admire the sheer genius of his work. Eggman's code was all over the place and messy, but it was also efficient and could adapt.

Omega and Metal Sonic were deadly, but they were also sophisticated and advanced. Tails couldn't get that kind of material to study from, well, anywhere else, really. Passing up the chance to examine Eggman's work was like skipping over an entire college course.

He started a scan for ambient chaos energy, removing Shadow's signature from his search. After a few seconds he restarted it and removed Liza's signature as well. Sonic leaned over and peered at the screen with some modicum of curiosity that started shifting to slight concern at the dot rapidly approaching them.

"Um, Tails?" Sonic said. "What's that?"

Tails squinted at the screen and looked up in time to see a large dust trail appear on the horizon. Whatever it was, it was approaching fast. Actually it kind of reminded him of-

Sonic swept him off his feet and threw him into the air. Tails yelped in surprise and flailed for a split second before remembering he could fly. His tails whipped into motion and got his bearings just in time to be swept away by the sudden blast of air where hedgehog met machine. He was blinded by the cloud of ripped up grass and debris, but he still heard Sonic yell out from the impact.

Knuckles had told them Metal was different. Knuckles had also failed to mention the spikes. They'd gone through a few iterations of mechanical Sonic clones by now- Silver Sonic, Mecha Sonic, even a Metal Sonic or two that came before the current model. None of them had been models to take lightly, but this one looked...

Needlessly... edgy?

Eggman overengineered a lot of things, but this model sure took it over the top. It was all spikes and glares; it had a darker, shinier coat of paint than usual, and it even had a spiky studded skirt. Its arms and legs were flared out in the fashion of sleeves and belled pants and its head quills were large and ridiculous. Not even teenage goths got that edgy.

Oh no. Eggman didn't turn Metal Sonic into a teenager, did he?

Sonic was pushed back a good couple of yards, grinning with some amount of strain as he grappled with Metal Sonic. Typical of Sonic- he wasn't fazed by Metal's new appearance at all.

"Long time no see!" Sonic said, pushing back against the overly edgy robot. "Got a makeover? Can you cut vegetables on all those edges? Slice and dice and Julienne cut? Oooh, if you spin fast enough can you make a smoothie?"

Metal Sonic's turbine flared. Sonic ducked and rolled out of the way only to catch Metal on the turn around. The two went tumbling in a mess of limbs and flashing steel until Sonic managed to throw him off, following it up with a spindash. Metal Sonic caught him in one hand and squeezed.

Tails reached into hammerspace and withdrew a project he hadn't shown anyone before. He'd made it after watching Shadow in action with the Eggpawns' guns. It gave him more than a few ideas on how to help out in cases like this, especially since the Tornado had been left behind in Grand Metropolis when they'd teleported away.

Tails hated being just an observer. He wasn't a fighter. He couldn't punch holes in things like Knuckles or go head to head with gods like Sonic. He wasn't nearly as brave as Amy or as compassionate as Cream.

There were a lot of times where he felt pretty useless. Sure, he could fly, and he could carry Sonic in short distance spurts, but when push came to shove like this, he felt like a bystander. Without the Tornado he couldn't really provide aerial support, and most of his upgraded weaponry were on its mech form. Sure, he'd made a hand cannon, but that was a last resort effort and also back at his workshop. The most he'd normally have had on hand would maybe be a wrench and his datapad to analyze things with.

There really wasn't any analyzing Metal Sonic. It had Sonic's abilities without any of his restraint. It had only one motive, and that was to defeat Sonic. To fight Metal Sonic you had to be Sonic.

Or that was what Tails would have thought before. Then he'd read Shadow's files. Then he'd watched Shadow fight.

Tails hooked the gear over his hand and strapped it in. It had been a good idea to have it charge based on gyroscopic motion and hook the wireless charger on one of Sonic's shoes. He had more than enough energy for this fight. The gun unfolded up his arm like a gauntlet, and Tails supported his forearm with a handle he'd placed for steadying purposes. The automatic tracking array predicted where Metal Sonic would go next, which wasn't exactly difficult when it was standing still.

Who was useless now?

In hindsight, he should have tested it first. The recoil on this thing at maximum power was a beast.

Tails was sent rocketing backwards as a beam of pure Sonic-powered plasma shot from the cannon. Metal Sonic wasn't quite hit by the blast, but that was alright. Actually hurting Metal wasn't the point. Distracting it was. Sure enough, it dropped Sonic and charged its turbine, launching into the air with the partially broken arm dangling behind and the other outstretched.

Tails wasn't done yet. He pressed another button on the cannon. The armor up his arm split apart into twenty teeny tiny drones that formed a shield array in front of him. Metal Sonic slammed into the array and bounced off harmlessly.

"Alright Tails!"

Sonic came flying up into the air as a ball of blue spines. Metal Sonic was taken off guard a second time and tumbled out of the air. It skidded along the ground, tearing up grass and sending wildflowers flying behind him. Tails whooped exuberantly. They could do it, they could do this. It was just like any other day, upgrade or not. A few extra spikes on Metal Sonic wouldn't change much.

Metal Sonic stood up slowly. It looked at Sonic, then up at Tails, then back. Its turbine powered down.

Tails faltered.

Something wasn't right. Metal Sonic wasn't flaring at them like it usually did. It wasn't charging in aggressively. It was slower, calmer, more contemplative. Watching them. What was it actually up to?

The broken arm liquified. Tails' flight stuttered in shock and he lost altitude, coming down to land by Sonic. Metal Sonic's lost metallic bits that had shattered with the blast from Tails' cannon also melted and flew across the field to join with the rest of it, and as they watched it repaired itself as easily as the snap of a finger. Metal Sonic flexed its hand and let out a low, guttural laugh.

"Nanotech?" Tails gasped. "What- what is that?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog, bio-data copied. Miles 'Tails' Prower, technology copied."

Metal Sonic's arm transformed into a copy of Tails' own hand cannon. Tails blanched. Metal Sonic aimed it at them, and then Sonic was picking him up and running again just before the beam of prismatic energy blasted past his ears.

"Great," Sonic grumbled. "So he can copy things now. What's this form called, Ditto Sonic?"

Tails fumbled for his tablet. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking. The arm gun had backfired on him. He couldn't use the tablet at the same time, either, even if it was charged up for another shot. But there was something else he could have it do. Metal Sonic already had a shield, so surely it didn't need to copy his drone array too, right?

Metal Sonic chased them. It already had enough charge to fire again, judging by the glow in its arm. Tails hurriedly folded up his hand cannon and came close to fumbling his tablet in his haste. His fingers shook so badly he nearly hit the wrong buttons multiple times. UX flaw. If he couldn't use it in the middle of battle it was too cluttered. He'd have to fix that later. And it was a fatal flaw, because his shield didn't come up in time. Sonic swerved expertly, but half of the drones were taken out by the plasma beam.

"Shield technology copied."

"Aw come on!" Tails yelled, tears in his eyes.

Metal Sonic raced after them, then suddenly stumbled. Sonic skidded to a halt and looked back as the menacing copy jerked unnaturally for a moment. Then Metal let out an unholy screech, its gaze as fiery as the sun with none of the warmth. It focused in on Sonic.

Tails didn't see it move.

One second Metal Sonic was a good distance away, the next Tails was being held aloft by his throat, Sonic on the ground and under Metal's heel.

It took a good second for Tails's brain and his body to catch up to the fact that Metal Sonic was squeezing. He didn't feel the pain at first until the warmth of his own blood hit his shoulder, and then it hit all at once. Metal's fingers had pierced his neck and were digging deeper with each passing moment. It only amplified the desperate need to gasp, except no breath was getting into his lungs. Spots were ballooning their way into his vision and everything was going an ugly purplish black.

Tails wanted to cry. He couldn't think past the flood of apologies he wanted to say to Sonic, past the anger and frustration that he did his best and it had backfired in his face, past the sudden realization that he was in deep trouble and that Sonic was currently being ground into the dirt nose first and it might have been Tails' fault.

He struggled. He flailed. His limbs lost all strength in them, and with tears staining his face he went limp.

WHAM!

Tails heaved for breath. He gasped and choked and heaved. The world was nothing but a rush of red and bright yellows and sharp whites and pain in his chest and his neck and pounding in his head. The little fox lay there for an eternity feeling nothing but agony until he was recovered enough to realize he'd vomited in the grass and was currently lying face-first in it. But he was alive.

He weakly looked up. Sonic was also bloody and dirty, deep scratches all up and down his arms and his face. Metal Sonic was a pile of crunched up steel and wires and claws, fighting back desperately against the rage of a protective older brother.

"Don't you ever touch him again," Sonic was screaming.

Tails had never heard him scream before. He'd never heard that tone out of Sonic, ever. He couldn't quite recall ever having seen Sonic angry, either. Not like this.

He watched in a daze as Sonic left Metal as some kind of pulp in the dirt and turned back to face him. The expression of pain and fury burning in his eyes died the moment they met Tails' own, and he cracked a tired smile. Sonic opened his mouth to speak.

Blood came out instead of words. Tails was suddenly in the moment and aware as Sonic dropped to his knees and coughed. Metal Sonic was there, claws drenched in blood, but it was also still a pile of mangled goo in the grass. A third Metal Sonic dropped out of the sky, and then a fourth, and a fifth, and then they were surrounded by Metal Sonics, all of them glittering with liquid metal and gleaming blood red eyes.

Tails did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed his wrist com and called Shadow.

Chapter Text

Shadow's emotions had grown still.

It was strange how easy it was to put everything aside when faced with this much blood. He didn't feel hot or cold, angry or scared. He didn't feel much of anything, really. After pulling Amy, Cream and Big further into the forest he'd begun to clean what he could reach of Amy's wounds without having her remove her dress entirely.

Compared to how emotionless Shadow felt, Amy was a wreck. She babbled constantly, telling him that they didn't have time to stop, that they had to run, Metal Sonic was on their heels and she'd really pissed him off this time, can't you see Shadow he's going to kill us and hurt Cream and Big was hit with a blaster and her hammer was damaged and she didn't think she could run anymore and oh that hurt what are you doing.

The prattling would normally have annoyed him. Shadow hated monologues. He hated lectures. They were too much noise that required his undivided attention for too long.

But this was Amy. She was terrified. It only took one look at Cream and Big's faces and how much the chao were hiding to understand what had happened and why she was so injured. They were scared too (well, Cream and the chao were; Big was an enigma with how wide his eyes always were), but they were also very concerned for Amy. And Shadow really couldn't find any emotion to feel in the first place right now.

"Could you tell me what you're doing?" Maria had once asked him, bedridden in the medical wing from another bout of illness. "Just- explain what steps you're going through or what you're thinking? My head's so loud. And your voice is better than my thoughts."

"You've lost a lot of blood," Shadow said.

Amy silenced immediately. Shadow was unnerved by the sudden lack of noise, but he pushed it away and waved at Cream.

"Do you still have the first aid kit?"

It was in his hands in a flash. Cream hovered close by, though not for long as Amy grabbed her and hugged her tightly. That was probably good, since Amy's dress had been torn to shreds and was starting to fall off. Shadow popped the kit open and took stock of what they had.

Still no soap.

"...I can't disinfect this right now," he said, "but I've washed out most of the dirt from your wounds. I'm going to apply some bandages to stop the bleeding now. They're going to go over your dress. Cream will help," he added, poking his head around Amy's side. Cream nodded determinedly.

Amy sniffled. She slowly released Cream and slightly pulled her arms away from her body. She was moving stiffly now, probably starting to feel the pain as the adrenaline wore off.

It was awkward work. Cream didn't know how to properly wrap bandages and didn't want to wrap Amy too tightly, and Amy flinched every time Shadow reached his hands around to her front. He suspected it had something to do with her recent trauma until her dress slipped and they nearly lost the entire roll of gauze to the mud. The frustration finally started to set in and he found himself literally biting his tongue to refrain from saying anything. The fourth time Amy flinched and he started tasting blood he decided they needed a new tactic.

"Cream, hold up her dress," he growled. Amy and Cream both jumped, but Cream did as she was asked and it was much quicker going.

Honestly, what even was the point of clothes? Shadow didn't get it. And now was probably one of the worst times to ask about it. He hadn't even gotten socks until Maria discovered his hatred of touching steel floors with bare feet.

Then, finally, the worst of Amy's wounds were covered. Shadow had wrapped her so that the bandages also kept her dress in place, and with that he could get started on the next part. He dug in his quills and withdrew the green chaos emerald. Cream gave a soft gasp, causing Amy to turn her head and peek over her shoulder with widened eyes.

"I'm going to push chaos energy into your system. I can't replace the blood that you've lost, but I can close the more minor wounds and stimulate your natural healing process."

Shadow paused. Knuckles hadn't been fazed at all, but this was a lot different than simply restoring ruptured eardrums. Knuckles was also constantly next to a gigantic power supply and had a lot of naturally flowing chaos energy in his system. Amy was just a girl. He didn't sense any kind of naturally occurring chaos energy in her like he did from Knuckles or Sonic.

"...I don't know if it'll tickle or hurt," he said, attempting to emphasize the apology in his voice. Everything he said sounded flat right now.

Amy took a breath. She let it out in a huff, then took a deeper, slower breath and letting it out over the course of a few seconds. Cream was pulled into another hug and held like an emotional support stuffed animal.

"Go for it."

Shadow pulled energy from the chaos emerald. It wanted to swirl inside of him instead, a testament to how he still wasn't fully recovered yet, but he pushed it through his system and out through his fingertips into Amy's wounds instead. The energy resisted him and insisted it wanted to stay, that she wasn't where it belonged. Shadow tried to force it to move to little effect. He looked at his hand and numbly saw red sparks dance at his fingertips.

He wasn't angry. Why was it responding with anger?

Gerald had told him that emotions were complex things. They'd stood together watching the ARK's residents hurriedly pack up their lives and prepare to leave their home, and Shadow hadn't known what to feel then either. He hadn't been allowed to feel anger before. He had to be in control of his emotions, to bite back the pain lest the G.U.N. overseers decide he was too uncontrollable and violent for their tastes and the research for Maria's cure would be delayed. His anger had been something to be wary of, to try to avoid and throttle before it became an issue.

Shadow wasn't angry. He still wasn't sure he felt anything. And maybe that was the problem. What he needed was to channel something more positive in order to get the healing chaos energy. How was he supposed to be positive in this situation? G.U.N. wasn't even here and Amy had been injured. How did he do this before with...

Shadow froze.

Liza.

"...Amy?" he asked weakly.

Big and Cream turned to look at him with concern in their eyes. Amy turned her head, fear on her face, and Shadow's chest squeezed uncomfortably.

"How do you feel about giant death lizards?"

She gaped at him.

"...What?"

As if on cue, the ground began to shake. Amy spun in place, Cream pinned to her chest, and Shadow watched with trepidation as the horror in her eyes grew every second. The Biolizard erupted from the trees behind Shadow with a pissed off roar.

You ditched me!!

Shadow wasn't sure what to do with his hands. He awkwardly waved one at the Biolizard and the other at Amy and Cream.

"Um. Amy, Cream, ...Big. This is Liza. Liza, these are ...friends," he said, tasting something bittersweet on the last word. "They're hurt. I didn't ditch you, I ran on ahead."

Amy gawked. Cream's eyes were as big as her ears. Big's fur had frizzed, but the giant cat's expression hadn't changed. The chao, however, had put themselves between the group and the Biolizard and were currently mipping and meeping at it. Liza pulled its head back at first, then leaned forward to peer at Cheese and Chocola with cooled rage.

Hurt? Little friends hurt?

Cheese babbled and gestured at Amy. Liza tilted its head.

Oh. Hurt. Don't leave me again.

And it sat down, resting its head nearby. Shadow stared at it, dully realizing just how out of breath and tired it was. The Biolizard had never been good physically in the first place, but all that exercize was its own form of hell. It had chased him despite its own agony for fear that he'd just abandon it like Gerald seemingly had.

He reached out a hand and laid it on the creature's heaving flank. Liza groaned, but the message was sent. He turned his head back and flinched at the hard stare Amy was giving him.

"I left you for two days."

Shadow fidgeted. "Eggman pulled it from the ARK. It's..."

She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "So you split up from Rouge and Omega because of this guy?"

She was trying to say something else with her body language, but he didn't understand what. Shadow flicked his inhibitor ring and nodded. Amy looked up at Liza, then down at the chao, then back to him. She smiled.

"Is it friendly?"

Funny how someone had once asked that about him.

"It understands you," Shadow said. "It has thoughts and feelings. Currently it is tired. It just doesn't want to be left behind again."

Amy met his eyes. As much as he wanted to look away, he stood firm and stared back. She glanced up at Liza again, then at him, and her eyes widened slightly. Shadow tried not to curl in on himself and bit the inside of his cheek, because it would help a sum total of none of them if he started panicking over the fact that Amy and Cream and Cheese (and Big, by proxy) were actively being introduced to a part of his past and a dangerous government conspiracy at the moment. Amy's smile grew firm.

"Hello Liza," she said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Hello Shadow! It's nice to meet you!"

Shadow blinked, then blinked again. His eyes stung. The Biolizard raised its head just a little to look at Amy. Cream shyly huddled against Amy's chest, but offered it a little wave, and the Biolizard touched at his mind.

He swallowed thickly. "...Don't be scared," he said. "It wants to talk to you."

Amy tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"It's..."

Shadow looked up at it, then back at her. Sonic, Tails and Omega already knew. She was going to find out eventually, and out here in the forest it was immensely less likely that G.U.N. had ears. At the same time, the less she knew about Project Shadow the better... right?

But at the same time, he was starting to want her to know. And she was already hurt from a source that wasn't from her proximity to G.U.N.. Whether she knew or not, she and Cream (and Big) were no less prone to other dangers like Eggman- who probably also knew, at this point. And it was probably better that she heard it from Shadow himself instead of finding out in the heat of the moment.

But that didn't make it any easier to say.

"...Liza is... my predecessor," he gritted out. He had Amy's full attention now, and the Biolizard had paused in its prodding of his mind to listen as well. "We share some of the same genomes... and were created by the same person."

He felt his quills rising as Amy stared. Cream, however, looked at Liza with slight admiration.

"So Liza is Mister Shadow's big brother?" she squeaked.

Shadow blinked. "Um-"

Yes.

"...Yes, it is."

"Or... is Liza Mister Shadow's big sister?"

Yes.

"It doesn't... really have a gender," Shadow said. "And it uh, I don't think it cares."

"Hi Mister Shadow's sibling! My name is Cream! And this is Cheese, and Chocola!"

Liza nudged his mind again. Shadow closed his eyes and let it in. It was far gentler this time, and he retained most of his ability to think and move separately. The Biolizard was careful in only taking over his voice.

"Hhhhello," it crooned through him. Amy and Cream both startled, and somewhere over by the trees Big just kind of looked at them while setting up a fishing rod in the water. "Hhhhello. Little ffffriends."

"Oh," Amy gasped.

"Mmmmy name isss LLLLiza. Hhhello. Hello."

Cream wiggled out of Amy's grasp and stepped forward. It both amused and amazed Shadow how much less fearful of it she was compared to Tails, but then again Tails had seen it completely take him over and then blast an airship to pieces like it was nothing. So far Cream had only seen it talk and complain. And that was fine, because he'd have rathered she not have to see that. She held out her hands, and Liza leaned forward and touched its snout to them. Cream gave a happy little gasp and giggled.

Shadow's heart eased and clenched at the same time as Liza gave her the gentlest little nudge and slightly opened its mouth, puffing a smelly breath out at her. Cream's face scrunched, and Shadow saw her struggle between trying not to breathe and to keep smiling at the same time. Liza puffed another smelly breath and Shadow let out a snort of laughter as Cream gave in and broke out coughing.

"I-I'm- cough- I'm so sor- cough cough- sorry," Cream wheezed.

What'd I do?

"You're too stinky," Shadow laughed. "She can't handle it."

Liza gave him a confused look and looked back at Cream. Stinky? No, full and happy!

"Your breath, dummy."

Oh. Liza's mouth shut.

Amy smiled, much more relaxed now than she had been just a second ago. Her eyes trailed down to Shadow's hands. Shadow followed her gaze and blinked at the green glow around his fingers.

"Oh. Um."

He hesitated in reaching for her shoulder. Amy scooted closer and full on laid against him. He froze and internally short circuited for a few seconds.

"You're still my friend," Amy said, very softly. "Thanks for telling us."

The flow of chaos energy surged through his system, flowing easily from the chaos energy and into Amy's back. It felt soothing, kind of like drinking water after a long day of running. Shadow was able to manipulate it to his will and bind the major injuries closed, even able to reach a tendril out and heal the burn on Big's belly from where he sat.

It was almost enough to make him not notice Sonic's communicator start ringing. He blinked down at it and gave Amy a mildly confused look. She blinked back, and Liza peered closer as Shadow hit answer.

"Tails?"

He was answered with sobbing. His hackles all rose immediately.

"What happened," he demanded.

"H-help," Tails said hoarsely. "Shadow, help. I-it's- oh, chaos. T-there's blood. S-Sonic's been..."

Chapter Text

Sonic spat out the blood filling his mouth and glared up. Past the ring of Metal Sonics standing over him he saw Tails frantically tapping away at his wrist communicator with a tearstained face. The Metal Sonic behind him stepped on his freshly wounded back, causing stars to explode in his vision. By the time his sight was no longer floating in all the colors of the rainbow he was being held aloft by his quills and blinking through tears at one of the Metal Sonics' faces right in his own.

"I am Neo Metal Sonic," Metal said, echoed by all six robots. "I am the one and only Sonic, not some cop-"

The 'bot in front of Sonic took a couple missiles and a lot of gunfire to the head. Sonic's eyes widened as Omega stomped up and smashed its fist down the bot's back, tearing a wide hole in his machinery.

"CORRECT. YOU ARE AN INFERIOR CONSUMER MODEL."

"E-123 Omega," Neo Metal Number Two grumbled. "Weren't you abandoned because of your personality?"

"AGAIN, CORRECT. AT LEAST I HAVE MY OWN PERSONALITY INSTEAD OF BEING A FASCIMILE OF A HEDGEHOG."

Sonic winced. Neo Metal- four of the six of them- whirled on Omega with fury in their demeanor. The copy still holding Sonic aloft by his quills squeezed while the other that hadn't gone after Omega spoke.

"I don't even need to copy your data. Having a throwaway's data in my system would only slow me down."

"BRING IT ON, YOU PALTRY BITCH."

Neo Metal number four leapt at the battle hungry robot with outstretched claws. Omega caught him by the face despite his speed and spun its torso around like a whirlwind. Sonic took a quick breath before twisting himself to kick the Neo Metal behind him. It released him in surprise, and Sonic immediately took off for where Tails had been-

Except Tails wasn't there.

Sonic didn't have time to panic. He was forced to dive to the side as Neo Metal Number One crashed into his personal space. As Sonic came rolling up Number Two was there slashing at his face. He kept his forward momentum and slammed his forehead into that of his metallic counterpart, though the way his vision wavered and his head felt muddy immediately made him think that was a mistake.

Metal Sonic was a problem on any given day, but this was ridiculous.

Normally Sonic was an even match for him, if not better, because when boiled down Metal Sonic was just a sad mirror of himself; a reflection of only certain sides of him. Eggman had studied his moves and his abilities and made a Sonic-esque shape with all of the speed and tenacity. But he had none of Sonic's free spirit. Metal had no restraint around cities or innocents, craved destruction and violence, and seemed to have more than a little bit of an identity problem. He couldn't just be someone- anyone- himself, he had to be the Real Sonic (whatever that meant) and now there were six of them.

Sonic moved his head just barely in time for sharp claws to scrape past his eyelids. He backed right into Number One and ducked into a back roll, coming out of it only for Number Two to have zipped around and punch him in the stomach.

He'd lost too much blood. One moment he was punched, the next he was blinking back into consciousness with both Number One and Number Two glaring down at him. Somewhere nearby Omega was still firing its guns and yelling insults. From the sound of things it had lost one of the guns, but hadn't slowed down on shooting anyway. Fighting to the bitter end. Sonic liked that.

"Is this all you have?" Neo Number One gloated. Sonic blearily squinted at its two- three? heads. "My loathsome copy... I expected bet-"

Today was a day Metal Sonic was fated to be interrupted, apparently.

A huge shadow slammed into the two Neo Metals and wiped them out. Something grabbed Sonic under the armpits. The next thing he knew he was blinking up at Amy's concerned face with half of his vision obscured by black and red quills on his chest.

"-be fine. The biggest wound is closed."

A very angry bestial roar shook their surroundings. Sonic pushed Shadow off of him and forced himself to sit up only to have an armful of yellow fluff. He looked over Tails' quivering ears and saw the Biolizard doing its best to step on one of the Neo Metal Sonic copies with another in its mouth. One was already gooey paste nearby and two of them were stuck like flies to its tail. Pieces of Omega were strewn about everywhere, but Sonic couldn't see the main body of the robot anywhere.

"Uh." Sonic swallowed. "Okay. What's-"

"Easy, hon." Rouge appeared in his vision next. "We're tagging in. Shad- oh."

There was a green flash. Shadow dumped the bits of what remained of Omega's chassis next to Sonic and held out its head. Rouge took the head and looked at it in horror.

"I REQUEST A MOUTH AUGMENT," Omega said. "I WILL BITE ALL OUR ENEMIES TO DEATH."

"Bio," Sonic said. His brain wasn't operating right and he knew it. "Copy- Tails!"

Reliable little Tails caught on. "S-Shadow! Neo- it can-"

"There you are."

As tired and injured as he was, Sonic was still the fastest thing alive. The only person who reacted faster was Shadow. Sonic threw Tails and Amy behind him. Shadow only had to take two steps forward before he caught the seventh Neo Metal Sonic by the hands. The black hedgehog skidded back an inch, but budged not a fraction further. Neo Metal's eyes were locked on Sonic despite the others around him, red electronic display somehow emitting intense fury.

And then things went from bad to worse. Liza swept around and blorped a black energy mass in their direction. Shadow let out a growl and shoved Number Seven backwards into it. But instead of being destroyed, Number Seven was surrounded by the mass and absorbed it. All of the Neo Metals turned into goop and regathered in one spot, his next words echoing from seven different speakers.

"Ultimate Lifeform: Biolizard. Chaos energy and bio-data: copied."

Sonic's limbs protested. His head pounded like it was actively being smacked with a hammer over and over again. His vision was blurred in greenish-purple blotches at the edges. He stumbled up to stand next to Shadow anyway.

A cold, impossibly wide shadow fell over them as yet another Egg Carrier floated overhead, followed closely by ugly green stormclouds. Liza shuffled in an unsettled manner as a load of Egg Pawns fell out and crashed to the ground. The Neo Metal goops slithered over the mound of shrapnel and broken bits and merged with it, and the pile just got bigger and bigger until something formed out of it all. The behemoth glaring down at them was... decidedly lizard-like, but with wings, and still somehow kept the blue and yellow color palette that was undoubtedly Metal Sonic.

"That's just ugly," Sonic grumbled.

"I don't like your copy," Shadow said lowly.

"Yeah, join the club."

The Biolizard reared back. Its neck bulged for a moment before it belched out that same prismatic beam that it had unleashed in Grand Metropolis, this time aimed at the robotic behemoth that was almost bigger than it was. Neo Metal, or whatever this form of it decided to call itself, ducked to the side and countered with a slash of its claws. The massive hand collided on Liza's neck with a sickening sound.

The rain started to drizzle on them. Liza roared. Sonic had to wrap his hands around Shadow's waist to prevent him from throwing himself into the mix. Shadow struggled until Sonic let out a pained grunt, and then he gave Sonic an angry glare.

"D-don't," Sonic panted. "What if he copies your data too?"

"That's my-" Shadow bit his tongue.

"I know."

The Biolizard charged forward, ramming itself fully into Neo Metal before unleashing a black blob of energy right in its face. Amy cheered for it from behind them.

"Go Liza!"

Sonic would have grinned if not for the look on Shadow's face. He felt out the ambient chaos energy and reached past whatever mess that Neo Metal was to touch on the Biolizard and realized what the problem was. He looked up and met Shadow's eyes, seeing the pain and anguish and pure panic there.

"...It's dying?" he whispered.

"It- it likes you all," Shadow answered thickly. "It's- it's willing to throw everything away. I have to help it."

Sonic looked up. Neo Metal had its claws around the Biolizard's throat and was being bashed by its tail. Liza clawed back to the best of its ability, pushing furious chaos energy through its throat to the point that they could all feel the heat from where they were. Sonic swallowed harshly and turned to his friends.

"Okay," he said. "How many chaos emeralds do we have?"

Rouge had one. Shadow had one. Sonic and Tails had two. Eggman, wherever he was, had one, and they didn't know where the other two were. It wasn't enough.

"We need all seven for you to go super," Tails squeaked, tapping away on his datapad. "I-I think I can get a lead on one of them, but... I-I don't know how we're getting the one from Eggman in time. And that leaves the last one-"

Froggy belched. Sonic looked down at the very wet chaos emerald in Big's hand.

"...Nevermind."

"He swallowed it again?"

"Froggy gets hungry," Big mumbled.

There was a roar behind them. Sonic glanced back and winced. Liza had Neo stumbling backwards, but its neck was gouged out and oozing green liquid. He turned back to the others.

"Tails, get a hold on that last emerald. Omega?"

"I AM A HEAD-- OF YOU. EGGMAN IS LOCATED TO THE SOUTHEAST. HE HAS UNWITTINGLY LEFT HIMSELF OPEN TO RUDE GESTURE ASCII ART." Omega paused for a moment. "SENDING COORDINATES TO SMALL FOX DEVICE."

Tails showed his little computer to Rouge. "I got them. If Shadow can warp us, we can get the drop on him. Um, the last one is-"

He froze, ears pinned so far back they were flat against his skull. His eyes were wide in horror.

Sonic almost couldn't get himself to turn around. He knew what had happened before he saw it. He could feel it in the chaos energy and from the sudden lack of emotion and energy from Shadow. He turned on his heel anyway and forced himself to look.

Liza lay on the ground. Its head struggled to lift just a few inches from the ground, locking eyes with Shadow. Sonic felt one last weak little strand of chaos energy reach between them.

And then Neo Metal's foot crashed down, severing its head from its body.

Sonic couldn't swallow. He glanced to his left and saw Shadow, the palest he'd ever seen him, staring numbly at the lifeless head. He glanced back and saw his friends in similar states of shock- Amy and Rouge with their hands over their mouths, Omega silent, Tails with Cream buried in his twin tails and hiding her from seeing the mess. He turned back and met the furious eyes of Neo Metal Sonic's bloodsoaked form.

Tails would catch up and understand. Shadow could get the others out of here. He had faith that his friends would figure it out.

He took off and skittered past Neo Metal Sonic, scooping up a rock on his way by. His back protested and itched like crazy, and it was highly likely he was going to reopen the wound soon. He ignored it. Sonic picked up speed and curled into a ball, spindashing forward and hurling the rock at the peak of his charge. The rock nailed Neo Metal square in the face.

Sonic landed and struck a cocky pose. "Hey big faker, let's play! You're uglier than ever!"

Neo Metal turned with far faster a speed than Sonic was expecting. He didn't manage to dodge in time and was picked up by one giant giant and slammed back into the dirt face first. He was fairly certain he passed out again from the way he missed entire seconds between hitting the ground and blinking up at the sight of Neo Metal rearing back for another hit. He spat out the blood from biting his tongue and moved to push himself up.

The sight of familiar shoes in front of him made him pause. He looked up and saw Shadow standing between him and Neo Metal Sonic.

Shadow looked- off, somehow. Sonic didn't know how, at first, until a single golden ring hit the ground in front of him.

"Are you trying to make me go insane?" Shadow said. His voice was quiet, but somehow it was louder than the raging thunderstorm or Neo Metal's whirling blades.

The second ring hit the ground.

"Shadow, what are you doing?" Sonic asked, shoving himself to his knees. Everything hurt and they didn't have all of the chaos emeralds yet. This wasn't the place or time for the one person who could teleport reliably to step into the fight.

"I am the Ultimate Being!"

Neo Metal flexed its claws and swung down, crashing its claws on either side of them. Sonic flinched, but Shadow stood tall, more confident than Sonic had ever seen him, and met Metal's eye. He lifted one leg behind him and unclasped the third ring from around his ankle.

"Is that so."

"S-Shadow, you gotta run-"

"Tell me, did you scan my biodata?"

Sonic stopped. Neo Metal slightly tilted its head and let out an amused hum. "There is no need for your data. You are insignificant. I have the biodata from Sonic and the Ultimate Lifeform already. You are but a fly standing in my way."

"Wrong," Shadow snarled.

Sonic sensed it even as Shadow reached for his other leg. It had been building with the drop of each ring. Something quiet. Something clawing at the edges of its enclosure, just waiting to be free, waiting to be let loose. It was like a coiled spring, but worse than Sonic after four cups of espresso. It was dangerous, it was thick and bloodthirsty and it was angry. Shadow's fingers landed on his fourth ring, and the monster before them fell still with anticipation.

"You scanned the prototype. The creature you slew was the predecessor to Gerald Robotnik's masterpiece. The Biolizard has nothing on the finished product."

"And what is that?"

"Me."

The fourth ring hit the ground. Shadow set his foot down, and for a moment the world fell silent. Sonic heard nothing and felt nothing but the wind and the rain-

Shadow exploded with power. The waiting energy that was roiling with something wrathful lit his fur up like a skylight. Shadow was just standing there, but the sheer pressure he emitted made him float a few inches off the ground even without his air shoes being active. Sonic's quills flapped in the wind, suddenly dry despite the storm. Shadow was practically in a super form! But he didn't have the emeralds-

It was like the world had to take a second to register the blast. Shadow punched a hole in Neo Metal's chassis and sent it flying backwards. Then the pressure hit, and Sonic was also sent flying from the sound barrier breaking. He tried to catch the grass with his hands to slow down, but the rain had made it too slick. He went tumbling.

In all the times Sonic had broken the sound barrier, he'd never really realized how loud it was for other people, or just how much pressure sonic booms gave off. He found himself gaining a sudden appreciation for it as Rouge caught ahold of his leg and pulled him back down to the ground. She met his eyes and rubbed her ears.

"Did- did he just-" Sonic stuttered.

"Well there's that cat out of the bag," Rouge said, voice cracked and dry. "You didn't happen to grab those rings before you got blasted back, did you?"

Sonic looked back where he had been. The rings were nowhere to be seen, probably strewn about in the grass. "Um."

Rouge let out a curse. Sonic quickly lost track of that train of thought as he looked up at Neo Metal and Shadow. It was like seeing the fight between himself and Perfect Chaos from the outside. It wasn't just energy roiling in the air, but something crackling and angry flooding from the wrong party in the equation.

Sonic jolted. Shadow's emotions themselves were manifesting in the chaos energy, muddled and painful and forming as blood-colored spears in the air. Neo Metal absorbed the first wave of spears as if they were nothing, but with a flick of Shadow's wrist more appeared, then more, and more and more until the sky was filled with crackling red energy. Shadow launched himself forward with every single spear flying with him. If Sonic wasn't half blinded by the lightning he'd have sworn Shadow was crying as he fought.

It was over almost before it really began. Neo Metal Sonic had taken a few good hits from Liza. Even with the chaos machine's reparation ability working to an absurd degree, Shadow passed through the damaged parts and tore Metal Sonic open from the inside with a grace that looked effortless.

Somehow, it was a regular looking Metal Sonic that was pulled out of the wreck. The body of the giant monster Neo Metal's amalgamated form had been fell to pieces around him. Shadow held the weakened robot aloft by its turbine and placed his other hand on its head. Then he ripped the circuitry of the robot's body and crushed the turbine, leaving only its head intact.

Sonic scrambled forward with whatever dregs of energy he had left and fought through the pressure Shadow emitted. The sheer amount of pain coming from him made all of Sonic's wounds hurt worse, but he pushed and stumbled until he was able to lay a hand on the dark hedgehog's own.

Shadow turned his head just enough to look at him out of the corner of his eye. Sonic reached for his fingers.

He was expecting Shadow to fight him or for his fingers to be stiff, but Shadow just dropped Metal's head to the grass without any fight. Sonic took the other's hands in his and gave them a squeeze. Shadow closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"...It's over."

Sonic bitterly smiled.

All at once, the fury and energy coming out of Shadow stopped. His feet hit the ground, and he collapsed. Sonic barely managed to catch him when his own legs buckled, leaving him with the limp body of his friend.

Chapter Text

Rouge was the first one to get moving. Amy was on her knees, frozen with both hands over her mouth and tears streaming down her face. Tails wasn't much better off, his little computer in his hands and Cream all but smothered in his tails. Big just stood there, and Omega was, well, a head.

She shook herself of the shock and put a hand on Tails' shoulder. The little fox nearly jumped a mile high, so she gave him a reassuring squeeze.

"You have a tracker to call that plane of yours to you, right?"

Tails gawked. "H-how do you-"

Rouge cut him off. "Call it. Hey- Big, was it? I need your help getting those two messes out of the rain."

Amy shook herself and wiped her face. She pushed herself up and put her hands on her hips. "What do you need."

Rouge looked her up and down. The determination in her eyes was commendable, but she had blood all over her dress and was second only to Sonic in how beat up she was. As much as Rouge could have used the extra hands...

"Find a way to keep yourself and the kids dry until that plane arrives."

Big pulled an umbrella out of nowhere and opened it before handing it to Amy. Amy took it and opened her mouth to protest. Rouge waved a hand at her.

"Miss Rose, with all due respect, you've had one hell of a day and aren't too far off from keeling over yourself. I'd much rather not haul three unconscious hedgehogs to a nurse that doesn't know I exist and have to explain everything on my own. Please just rest."

Amy's mouth clicked shut. Rouge turned and startled slightly at the big wet eyes staring up at her from Tails' tails.

"I can help," Cream whispered. "I'm not hurt."

Rouge's instincts screamed at her not to let Cream out onto the battlefield's aftermath, but she did need the help. She leaned forward and put on a slight smile.

"How good are you at treasure hunting?"

Cream blinked. Amy also blinked, as did Tails, who was momentarily distracted from his computer to look at them.

Rouge gestured at her wrists. "Shadow's rings went somewhere in all that hullaballoo. Can you help me look for them?"

With a little goofy salute Cream was off like a rocket, Cheese and Chocola following close behind her. Rouge waved for Big to follow and set off in Sonic's direction. As they approached she had to stop herself from wincing at the state Blue was in. His eyes were glazed and he had Shadow desperately clutched to his chest. It took him a good couple of seconds to realize someone was there, and that was only because Big just scooped him up, Shadow and all. Rouge shrugged and pointed the gigantic cat at the treeline before turning and helping Cream with the wreckage.

By some miracle, Shadow's inhibitor rings weren't too difficult to find. Having finely honed treasure hunting instincts was greatly useful in times like this, though having an extra pair of eager eyes and a set of overly strong chao definitely made it faster. If only Edge hadn't adopted Shadow instead of becoming hers...

Ah well. Gaia knew the boy needed someone on his side.

Cream found the fourth ring just as Tails' plane came roaring over the trees. Rouge immediately whisked the child under the canopy, then got to work clasping the rings back on Shadow's limbs. Everyone watched with varying emotions, but there was no real big change in the dark hedgehog's state. Rouge didn't waste time with explaining the details or exposing Shadow's dark secrets. He'd had enough choices taken away from him. She wasn't going to spill his life's story without his consent. And it was still raining like crazy.

Not everyone fit into the Tornado. Rouge conceded to letting Tails take Omega's head and spare bits of his chassis in the storage compartment on the underside of the plane on the promise to repair him (without a jaw segment, to which Omega greatly protested). Big waved to everyone and trundled off into the woods, and Amy assured her that was normal for him. Rouge tried to send them off with their dubiously safe arrangement of Omega's head in the storage compartment, Cream in Amy's lap and Shadow in Sonic's, and found herself being given a quick hug by Amy.

"I...'m sorry I've been rude," Amy said quietly. "And... I don't know why you're doing this, or how you're connected to Shadow, but thank you."

Good spies didn't get attached. Rouge tiredly looked up at the Tornado where Sonic was rapidly falling asleep in Shadow's quills.

"I'm just doing my job," she said.

She watched the plane take off and glanced up at the Egg Carrier after it was gone. Eggman's aircraft was silently drifting along in the rain, likely with no one at the helm. How convenient.

She phoned up her boss and leaned one one hip.

"Hey. I have good and bad news for you. Good news first- how'd you like an empty Eggman battleship?"

---

Vanilla was hanging bedsheets too large for the dryer up in her yard when the Tornado came rumbling overhead. She dropped the sheet she was holding in favor of her first aid kit and ran for the airplane. Tails, the sweetheart, had given her a warning call that he was on his way and that some of them were injured- not Cream, he'd promised, but she knew from the sniffles in his voice that something awful had happened.

Cream was first in her arms, face covered in snot and tears. Cheese and Chocola were both puffy eyed and teary, and all three children began to wail into her dress. Vanilla looked up at Tails and saw he wasn't much better. She particularly caught note of the dark purple bruising on his neck and how the fingertips of his gloves were torn and flecked with blood. He'd ripped his nails clawing desperately at something. Then there was Amy, whose dress was only being held together by some very tastefully and carefully wrapped bandages.

And then there was Sonic, who was too exhausted and injured to get out of the Tornado. Shadow wasn't even conscious. Vanilla had to call in backup from Mighty and his delightful little friend Ray to help get the hedgehogs inside and all settled in some manner of chairs.

She got the rundown of the entire mess from Amy while she tended to their wounds. Amy left out large parts of the story, but from what Vanilla understood, Eggman's robotic mimicry of Sonic had some dreadful copying ability, a relative of Shadow's had been pulled down from the ARK and was kind of scary but sweet, and then had sacrificed their life in order to try to protect all of the kids. Sonic, Tails and Amy were all beaten up thanks to Sonic's copy, Shadow was the one responsible for Amy's rather well done bandages, and Shadow had also taken care of the metallic copy before collapsing.

The children returned to her, injured, exhausted, and grieving.

Sonic, Amy and Tails probably needed a hospital visit. Sonic at the very least was going to need stitches. Amy's wounds were strangely healed as if she'd been recovering for weeks already, but her ribs were sore and she was exhibiting symptoms of bloodloss. Tails' voice was hoarse and his neck was bruised enough that Vanilla wanted to get him checked out a little more thoroughly just to be sure.

Nobody even suggested Shadow going to the hospital. He was set up on the couch with a heart monitor and an IV to keep him hydrated, a lot of blankets, and Mighty and Ray promising to call Vanilla immediately if anything happened. Cream curled up by Shadow's side and refused to move.

With Mighty, Ray and Cream watching over the house and Shadow, Vanilla took the others to the nearest hospital, many words and concerns buzzing around her head.

Sonic was a global hero. Amy could easily take care of herself. Tails was a very intelligent young man. Shadow was... an enigma, and lacking in a lot of information, yet no less capable. But they were all children. Sonic was at most fifteen years old.

How was Vanilla supposed to feel, as an adult, that children were fighting for their lives? How was she supposed to react when they came to her not a week after she'd sent them off, battered and bruised and full of grief? Was she supposed to be proud of their growth even as she felt so sad that they had to be this strong in the first place?

That was, she supposed, part of being a parent. She couldn't protect her own child from things like grief and pain. All she could do was support her and offer a safe place to rest.

Of course, this resolve didn't stop her brain from working hard on coming up with new stern words for Eggman. She had some very thorough arguments for him that would likely never see the light of day, along with a few imagined scenarios where she gave the man a good talking to about how to respect other peoples' children. It was most certain that none of her words would have any effect and would only put her in danger, but it was nice to imagine Eggman recoiling from being told how to behave.

"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" blared the back seat.

Vanilla screamed and nearly crashed the car. She settled for pulling over as soon as she was able to and sat there gripping the steering wheel so tightly the plastic creaked, taking deep breaths in and slowly releasing them and repeating the process until she could speak again.

"Tails, honey," she gritted out. "Who is that?"

"DESIGNATION: E-123 OMEGA. QUERY: WHO ARE YOU?"

"He's a friend of Shadow's," Tails rasped from the back seat. "He, um... he got destroyed during the f- during the fi... I-I'm trying to r-repair..."

Another dilemma. Vanilla twisted in her seat and looked at the ripped up head piece of a robot sitting in Tails' lap. She was torn between being very glad that Shadow was making friends, being horrified that there was only a head left, and scolding Tails for not giving her any heads... up... about the... head.

Oh goodness gracious.

"Hello Omega," she said, forcing her voice to be cordial. "My name is Vanilla. I'm Cream's mother. Tails, dear? I would appreciate a forewarning next time, if you wouldn't mind."

Tails sniffled and looked down. "Sorry."

Vanilla gave him a reassuring smile before turning back and starting to drive again.

"...So, Omega," she said, trying to get some levity back into the car, "how did you and Shadow meet?"

"I SHOT HIM."

Vanilla bit her tongue and once again gripped the steering wheel very, very hard.

"WE ARE FRIENDS NOW. I WILL NOT SHOOT HIM AGAIN."

"That's lovely to hear," Vanilla gritted out.

Chapter Text

Vector wasn't too certain what to expect when the people in uniforms that were suspiciously like G.U.N.'s with the logos torn off let his gang into the building. It was an old warehouse of some kind, currently loaded with an awful lot of weaponry that sure looked like G.U.N.'s with the logo scrubbed off, and filled with a lot of people that he was pretty sure used to work for G.U.N. and were involved in that whole ARK incident and trying to arrest Sonic a few weeks ago.

A croc could never be too cautious, and a good detective always kept tabs on informational tidbits like that. Either something was going on with G.U.N. and people were jumping ship, or some secret operation was going on here, and the two weren't necessarily mutually exclusive to one another.

The woman leading them stopped in front of a corner office that had all the windows blocked with black paper. She rapped smartly on the door and waited for the muffled response, then turned to Vector and gave him a nod before opening it and waving them through. Vector tipped his imaginary hat to her and entered, inwardly grateful that Charmy had been too distracted with a piece of candy to really pay attention to their surroundings.

The office wasn't badly lit so much as the light was placed in a really dumb spot. Only the doorway of the room was really illuminated, casting a kind of halo around Vector, Espio and Charmy. The grey haired man looking at a whiteboard on the far wall didn't even turn as they came in, simply making another note before waving in their general direction.

"Mad, would you mind fetching a lamp? This is nearly impossible to read."

The guide cleared her throat. "Sir. Your guests."

The man turned, his face cloaked in shadow, and clicked the cap on the pen he was holding. "Ah, yes. The Chaotix Detective Agency, correct? ...Mad, I really do need that lamp, if you wouldn't mind."

"Of course, sir."

The woman turned and left, shutting the door behind her. Without the light from the doorway the room was even darker than before, causing the man in the shadows to sigh. He gestured at their side of the desk in a resigned manner.

"I apologize that I only have two extra chairs."

Vector sat down and waved his hand. "It's hard enough to get Charmy to sit down. I uh, apologize in advance for your office."

"Ah, yes. I was told you had a child with you."

The man opened a drawer and set out some crayons and paper along with various fidget toys. He pushed them in Charmy's direction, much to the bee's immediate glee. Vector watched with amazement as Charmy was immediately absorbed in a puzzle cube. He cleared his throat.

"You're uh, prepared. So... are you the owner of this S.O.S. message?"

Even in the shadows, Vector saw the man's shoulders slump a little bit. "My apologies for that. We meant to send you a proper message, but I'm sure you've noticed our... situation. The sender misunderstood 'ask for help as soon as possible' and sent that instead."

Vector snorted. A snarky little voice in his mind told him it was something he and Espio would do. He waved it off casually.

"Well, we're here. Before we start though... is this a G.U.N. undercover shindig? Because if you're G.U.N., I'm afraid I'm gonna have to say no. I won't work for the people that falsely accused and arrested my friend."

The man chuckled darkly. "The technology is not exactly subtle, is it? No, none of us here work for G.U.N.. Most of us are something like refugees ourselves. It just so happened that if some old, unused equipment locked away in the warehouses gathering dust disappeared, no one would know."

"So you're ex-government. What do you need a bunch of down on their luck detectives for?"

"Down on their luck, but good detectives," the man replied. "And not ones on any radar of G.U.N.'s."

Vector's eyes narrowed. That didn't bode well. He had a nasty suspicion that he was about to be asked to undertake something large- and something dangerous. He wasn't any stranger to danger, and even with the money they'd gotten from Bingo Highway it was always likely something would happen and they'd be low on rent again, but he also had a teenager and a bee to think about. Going against G.U.N. wasn't exactly a child safe occupation.

He had to tread carefully on what information he could ask before the job was taken. A quick glance at Espio told him the chameleon was thinking the same. Charmy was too absorbed in making a mess of the crayons to pay attention.

"Hold up a second there," he said. "Is this somethin' I need ta hire a babysitter for?"

"Oh no, god no," the man said quickly, holding up his hands placatingly. "I mean, if you do, I have a contact you can have- no government involvement or shady back ends. I have grandchildren of my own. You have my word; none of what we're looking to ask you to do will put you on G.U.N.'s radar. We already have people for that kind of work."

Vector glanced at the sorry state of one of the crayons. What the man said checked out.

"What kind of work do ya need that ya can't send your own people?"

The man stepped back and tapped on the whiteboard. He glanced at it and sighed. "Where is Mad with that lamp- what we need is information that should have been publicly released, but isn't. A government conspiracy theory, you might call it, but from the perspective of an average citizen. I- sorry, could you open the door? There's not enough light in here to show you what I mean."

Espio stood and opened the door just in time for the woman that had escorted them there to enter with four different lamps. Charmy looked up and all three of the Chaotix watched with some sense of sympathy as each one was plugged in and turned on to no avail. The last of the four flickered to life with a very dim shine, which the man pointed at the whiteboard. Vector leaned forward at the map of information and had to take a minute to take it all in.

"Space Colony: ARK?" he read aloud. "Yer right, it does sound like a conspiracy theory. We have space colonies?"

"Had," the man said. "It was shut down nearly exactly 50 years ago. And I assure you it's no conspiracy. The colony was very much real. It's still up there in the upper atmosphere. The official story G.U.N. put out is that it was shut down due to an accident."

Vector caught on to what was being implied immediately. "You think the real story is different?"

The man snorted. "Something like that. The citizens who were evacuated had little knowledge of the science projects being carried out, and every scientist that was aboard either mysteriously vanished or died of 'natural causes' fairly quickly. However, I cannot go digging via the official route, given my background, and my informants all used to work for G.U.N.. We will get flagged immediately if any of my people try to research the event."

"You need someone totally unrelated to look into the public records of what happened to those people," Vector said thoughtfully. "Are we lookin' into the ARK itself, too?"

"Only as far as you feel is safe. The ARK... I would not suggest pushing too far on that just yet."

"Ooh, ooh, if we're going undercover, do we get a cover story!?"

Vector dragged his hand down his face. Of course Charmy had to start paying attention at that moment. Their potential employer, however, let out a low chuckle.

"You don't need to. We have an official requestor for you as well. She would have contacted you anyway- I just happened to have needs that aligned exactly with the information she's looking for. If you choose to take on this task, you will be paid by her for a private detective consultation... as well as by me for the information needed to expose a corrupt government."

A double paycheck. That absolutely caught Vector's- and Charmy's- attention.

Thankfully Espio had a calmer head when it came to money. "Pardon my inquiry, but it does not seem as if your base can afford new equipment as it is. How do you expect to provide payment when it seems as if you are struggling yourself?"

It was a little direct, but the man took it in stride. Vector had a suspicion he was grinning despite the darkness of the room. "Let's just say things only look messy."

Vector and Espio shared a look. Vector raised his eyebrows and waggled them. Espio frowned and sighed his resignation. Vector turned back to the man with a grin.

"There's just one thing."

"Hm?"

Vector gestured at the lamp. "The whole noir thing is nice, and I like ya vibes, but I'd like to know who it is I'm takin' a job from. Professional and all."

"Ah."

The man shifted the lamp. It promptly cut out, causing him to sigh. Charmy plugged in one of the others that had already been shown to be dead and wiggled it. Vector just stood up and gestured at the doorway. The man stepped around the desk and into the light, revealing an older human with greyed hair, heterochromatic blue and brown eyes, and marker scribbles that had been poorly cleaned up all over his face.

"My apologies for the mess," the man said. "I made the mistake of falling asleep in front of my grandchildren. My name is Abraham Tower."

Vector took one look at his face and stuck out his hand. "Vector the Crocodile. That there is Espio and the kid is Charmy. When do ya want us ta start?"

Chapter Text

Doctor Ivo Rebotnik, colloquially known as Eggman, sat back in his chair and scowled at the monitors in front of him. Metal Sonic's head sat nearby, replacement pieces for its body strewn about in preparation for repairs and many wires connecting its central processing unit to the computer. Each monitor had a different display, some showing corrupted files, some showing diagnostic tools and data reports and self repair software. The central and largest screen had been replaying what footage of Metal Sonic's last fight Eggman could retrieve from the damaged pieces of his beloved robot.

It was difficult to make out quite what had happened, but Eggman got the gist of it. He'd definitely caught the part about Shadow being the Ultimate Lifeform, the real final weapon he'd been after. Then Shadow had taken his rings off and the fight was a mess of colors that shortly cut out.

Eggman rewound the footage for the fifteenth time and paused it right before Shadow's energy took action. He sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers, narrowing his eyes in thought.

The information he'd found had said nothing about a hedgehog, only that Gerald Robotnik had created a weapon. Raiding Prison Island had gotten him coordinates, and to be fair he hadn't exactly dug through all of the files he'd stolen because he didn't think he'd need them. The Eclipse Cannon was definitely a weapon of mass destruction. But, following statistical patterns, somehow that plan had fallen through, so Eggman had revisited the files and found notes about a biological weapon sealed away inside the ARK. Once he'd found the Biolizard, he was convinced that was it.

The Biolizard's reaction to Shadow, along with this footage, led him to believe there was more to the story than that. But Eggman wasn't necessarily interested in whatever happened to cause Shadow to be completely written out of the records. He was interested in that power.

After all, if a metal version of Sonic could wreak as much havok as Neo Metal could, what about a metal version of the Ultimate Lifeform? Just imagining something with that teleporting power- ohh, he could just see the destruction it could cause! The havok it could play on Sonic's speed! The hedgehog would surely struggle against both Metal Sonic and a duplicate of his new little friend!

Except... Eggman didn't have any data on Shadow. He didn't know anything at all.

There were no records on how the Biolizard was made. There was nothing about Shadow at all aside from the one photo of him next to Eggman's own cousin and grandfather. Shadow just... didn't exist. Not even in the depths of all of the information he'd stolen from G.U.N. was there any mention of a black hedgehog.

Eggman spun his chair away and glared at a wall. He leaned his cheek on his fist and tapped his fingers on the chair's armrest. Then his fingers paused.

Maria...

Eggman's cousin, one who constantly overshadowed him as a child. Everything in the family was Maria this, Maria that. She was brilliant, beautiful, he'd been told, someone to look up to, someone who was destined for great things despite her terminal illness.

...Terminal illness?

Eggman's eyes widened. He spun back around to the computer and went digging through his data banks for old family records, quickly pulling up one he'd buried beneath a lot of junk folders and titled with quite insulting monikers. The gaunt picture of a blue eyed girl was ignored in favor of the medical records attached to her file. Eggman leaned closer to the monitor.

NIDS. Maria had been aboard the ARK for medical reasons. The cure had never been found, but somehow she'd managed to live for another ten years planetside. She'd still died, but against all odds, she'd been given a longer life than she ought to have had.

Eggman's fingers flew into a frenzy. He went back through all of the files, searching this time not for a weapon, but for a medical project, something Gerald would have worked for in order to cure Maria's illness. He dug through the deepest recesses of every file he could, even setting up his computer to search for over thirteen different keywords involving Maria, a hedgehog, medical research, and Gerald himself.

The computer returned to him multiple articles involving something called Heal Units, advanced first aid research, stem cell growth, and a whole bunch of biological mumbo jumbo that wasn't exactly Eggman's area of expertise. He didn't care about the nitty gritty crap of genome sequencing and he didn't care about how many diseases Gerald had inadvertantly made advances towards curing. He scrolled and skimmed through headlines and skipped over an awful lot of useless junk until he hit the very bottom records. Eggman nearly threw his keyboard when he saw the ARK's evacuation at the end, but he had to pause again and look closer.

Gerald and Maria had lived planetside. G.U.N. had kept a very close eye on them, no doubt. And, as Eggman suspected, there, in the article, was the address.

One quick search and a hop in his mech later and Eggman was off.

The house was... humble. Really, far too humble for geniuses of Gerald's and Maria's calibre. Eggman didn't necessarily know much about Maria's life or care, but the little cottage was just sad. It had clearly not been taken care of much in the past thirty or so years. The garden in the back was reclaimed by the wild and the windows were shattered. The door wasn't even on its hinges.

Eggman dismounted from his mech and proceded on foot. The interior was surprisingly a lot better than he'd expected, minus a lot of dust and natural mildewing and molding that occurred when a building was no longer weatherproof. He found a few pictures of various family members he'd blocked from his memory and a fire safe full of blueprints that were actually very clever, dare he think it himself. Maria was no robotocist, clearly, but she was intelligent. Eggman filed those away for later perusal and continued to dig.

It took a while of searching before he found it. The journal was well hidden under the floorboards and protected with what had once been state of the art security locks. Eggman, who was pushing the bounds of what could be called state of the art every day, had no trouble breaking in.

He opened the journal and began to read.

"Date xxxx: Another failure. The Biolizard looked like a success, especially after so many cases of the DNA dissolving or turning cancerous. However, its aggression and tendency to rampage caused it to be labeled as dangerous even before we realized its exponential growth will inevitably result in some form of lobster syndrome. We will have to routinely resize its life support module, which, naturally, will pose its own set of problems. I suppose it's back to the drawing board..."

"Date xxxx: Research on the surface led to the discovery of another mural in the ancient Echnidna ruins. The Biolizard was based off of the God of Destruction, Chaos, and it was one of the few successes we've had. This mural is less detailed, but it appears to depict a much smaller, golden creature of some kind. I have an idea, but where will I get the DNA from?"

"Date xxxx: Maria's gotten worse. I haven't been able to sleep for want of an update, of some kind of indicator she will get better. It's been months of no progress on either her cure or the search for immortality."

Eggman's eyebrows raised. His grandfather hadn't just been researching medicine, but immortality? Not merely extending life, but making it permanent... Fascinating. Reaching beyond the stars to do the impossible really was a Robotnik trait. And Gerald had quite literally reached the stars, designing a space station that could house over ten thousand people. The ARK had only ever housed a fraction of its full capacity, but it could have been an entire city of brilliant minds; if whatever had happened hadn't occurred, it could have been a center of science, a holy place for the up and coming scientists to unlock the secrets of the universe. Ah, if only there had been such a place when Ivo had first started his journey... Oh well.

The next few entries were about Maria. Eggman skipped them, finding them boring and unnecessary. He skimmed entry after entry about mundane little things and began to find the journal horrendously repetitive. Did his grandfather really have to detail his exercise routines or his meal schedule? Goodness, but life on the ARK must have been quite boring. What about talking about the sunrises or the growth on a petri dish or something, for Gaia's sake?

He slowed down, his eyes catching on the next entry. Gerald's writing was typically neat and fussy, but this entry was rushed and smudged.

"It's working. It's working! After months of nothing, the DNA finally took! The embryo is growing perfectly, and it has signs of chaos energy signatures! I can hardly wait for it to mature, but I must be patient. The DNA I got from that strange being is absolutely fascinating! It binds to other acids and reacts somewhat like a tree graft, adopting other traits into itself and adapting as it grows. Could this be the key for the ultimate lifeform? Oh, date xxxx."

Eggman flipped back a page or two and checked. There were no mentions of the "strange being," much to his chagrin. He returned to the messy entry and continued to read, taking note of how the dates of each entry after it were no longer an orderly distance from each other and how the handwriting got progressively worse. Some pages were completely torn out and missing.

"Date xxxx: Confirmed heartbeat. The chaos energy signature is strong and steady; it seems to flow throughout the blood vessels as much as blood normally does. I'm finding myself quite fascinated by the fact that its blood is red. Its donor's blood was clear like plasma with a greenish hue, but this creature's blood is very close in color to that of my own. Is it the hedgehog DNA that's causing this effect? I suppose it might have been stranger if its blood was strictly one color or another. Red blood indicates the need to carry oxygen throughout the system, so we'll have to rethink the equipment we need for its later life stages..."

"Date xxxx: G.U.N. is asking for weapons. I'm busy trying to save lives, not take them! ...But they are paying for this project. Why must everything come down to money in the end?"

"Date xxxx: I've given up so much of my research to G.U.N. so they stop breathing down my neck. Project Shadow, as we've come to call it, is too precious to give up on. Its growth is quick, but stable. It looks like an infant hedgehog now, though it has a curious fur pattern I've not seen on others of the species. The red stripes are unique. ...I wonder how that spot on its left foot will look when it's fully grown."

"Date xxxx: Maria snuck into the lab today. She's fallen in love with Project Shadow on sight, as I suppose little girls are wont to do. To be fair, the creature looks exactly like a young hedgehog boy, so it is cute. I need to update my lab security."

"Date xxxx: Updating the security hasn't stopped Maria from breaking in to see the project. I've explained the dangers to her many times now, but she still insists on coming to see it and has begun bringing books to read to it. Interestingly enough, this led to a discovery- its chaos energy fluctuates and reacts to her voice. Does this mean it can hear her?"

"Date xxxx: Shadow is almost ready. He's grown quite a bit in the past month and is no longer small enough to fit in my pocket. Vital signs are all steady. His brain has seen significant growth from Maria's storytime sessions. She's moved on to physics textbooks and does her homework next to his tank, reading everything aloud and explaining her thoughts as if it might understand. I worry over whether she'll be disappointed if it comes out of the tank and doesn't understand a word anyone says."

"Date xxxx: His eyes opened today. They're the same color of red as his blood. Already we're seeing so much progress from prior experiments. The Biolizard was never this calm or intelligent. He isn't stable enough to come out of the tank yet, but he tracks Maria's every move and hangs on to her every word."

"Date xxxx: It may be because he was designed to be a universal donor, but Shadow's blood adapts to everything. The rats that were injected with his blood are doing fine and are healthier than ever. I don't dare move on to organ transplants yet, but perhaps... perhaps I can grow something from a stem cell sample. His immune system is so advanced it seems to eliminate anything that could make him sick. If I could just find a way to transfer that to a human..."

The next entry was more than a month later.

"Date xxxx: Damn G.U.N.! I was forced to give up the Gizoid to them! I was able to give it a heart and set up emergency safety protocols before they took it, but that's nearly everything I've done. My Echidna research, my chaos drives, my artificial chaos creatures, G.U.N. has taken them all. I can see them eyeing Shadow every day. I don't want to give him up, but I can see the metaphorical writing on the wall. This... this is the culmination of everything I've done. Shadow is a masterpiece. He is intelligent and curious, and he lives up to his name as he follows Maria around everywhere. Even the other researchers are taking a shine to him. If G.U.N. were to take him, too... I can't let that happen."

"Date xxxx: Shadow's power grows by the day. His body's growth has slowed drastically, but his chaos reserves have grown exponentially. I've had to craft inhibitor rings to prevent his body from wrecking itself until he matures. Already we've gone through three generations of rings and I'm working on the fourth as of today. G.U.N. had a lot to say when the technicians were called to repair the lab..."

"Date ??: I've made a mistake. Damn it all, I must be getting old. All it took was a reversed polarity on the artificial chaos recievers for them to go out of control and attack the labs. The ARK's security team took heavy injuries until Shadow stepped in. All of a sudden we have funding for research, but they're taking Shadow for their own means. I've managed to restrict how much time they have by negotiating a schedule with them, but half of the week Shadow will still be under G.U.N. supervision. Maria's cure seems further than ever."

"Date xxxx: Research? This isn't research. This is a mess.

"We've achieved immortality, but at what cost? Williams, the head of the research team G.U.N. assigned to test Shadow's abilities, clearly does not think of him as a person. Didn't. He didn't think. Gods... twelve people, dead. One of my best interns was in that room. Shadow hasn't spoken a word since the incident and won't go anywhere near Maria. I can barely get him to look at me. My poor boy."

"Date xxxx: Shadow doesn't understand why he doesn't want to be touched and I cannot explain it to him. And how would I even begin? He was too unresponsive when they attempted to train him for combat and flinched away from weaponry, so they demanded I wipe him of his memories. I managed to remove two weeks worth of his memory, and that's all the more I can stand to do. How much more are they going to do? He's just six months old!"

"At least he is willing to be near Maria again. She's missed him dearly. I have to find a way to get them more time together."

Eggman flipped the page. There was only one more entry in the journal. It was the longest one yet, marked with the occasional stain or smudge of ink. He took the time to retrieve a cup of tea from one of his servant drones before reading it.

"Date... oh, does it matter?

"G.U.N. is shutting down the ARK. I caught word of a plan to raid and murder everyone who knows about Project Shadow. The Ultimate Lifeform is too dangerous, they say, after everything they've put him through. They're planning on locking him away forever. They'll doom us all.

Not long ago... the being I got Shadow's DNA from visited me again. He finally gave his conditions for sharing his DNA, and I've realized what a fool I've been. In fifty years, Shadow will be the only thing standing between the planet and its doom. Maria's lifespan has been extended and I feel as though I've gained a son, but at what cost?

Tonight Shadow and I will place explosives around the labs. I will set them off remotely and force an evacuation. My right hand scientist volunteered to stay behind and program Shadow's stasis pod to release him before the invasion begins. Shadow has the protocols for the Eclipse Cannon committed to memory and knows what he must do. We can only pray that G.U.N. doesn't change their minds at the last minute and alter the programming of the stasis chamber.

I should never have reached out to that comet.

Shadow... I'm so sorry."

Eggman wiggled the back end of the journal with a scowl. A comet. His grandfather had made a deal with an alien of some kind and set the planet up for an invasion of some kind. The Eclipse Cannon was built for defending the planet against said comet. No wonder it hadn't worked when Eggman had tried to fully explode the moon- Shadow must have woken up and turned it off.

The commentary about being family bugged him, but he shoved it aside. He had a comet to research.

Chapter Text

Shadow never knew what to expect when he woke up.

Sometimes he woke up to a dark ceiling. Sometimes he woke up to harsh lights and cameras still pointed at him. More than once he'd woken up to groggily stare at the inside of a tube, nutrient fluid that had a disgusting taste surrounding him on all sides and the warped visage of Gerald peering back at him from the other side of the glass. Once, on a good day, he'd woken up to a face full of Maria's blouse as she hugged him while napping.

The sheer consistency of three weeks living at Vanilla's house was a kind of foreign comfort that he could have gotten used to. Vanilla rose every day not long after dawn and had a cup of something smelling strongly floral. In the last week he'd stayed there, Shadow had started to grow accustomed to making his presence known exactly five minutes after the kettle began to whistle. Something about having a schedule was just right and eased the vicelike grip an invisible hand always seemed to have around his brain.

It wasn't as if life on the ARK didn't have a schedule. The lights had a routine to simulate a night and day cycle that matched when the sun was no longer eclipsed by the planet, and every sun cycle came with chimes that played on the intercoms. Most of the scientists were up by the first chime, and the residents would wake towards the second chime.

Maria was always awake somewhere between the first and second chime, coming by to say hello before they inevitably went their separate ways, Shadow for testing and Maria for school. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they would go to school together, a precious few hours where they could pretend illnesses and bloody needles were merely things that remained in the words on the pages of books. Tuesdays and Thursdays were testing days for Shadow and either resting or medical days for Maria. Saturdays were the days the base ARK scientists had Shadow booked all to themselves and were the one time during the week when he actually felt useful. Sundays were rest days, spent hiding in Maria's room or on the observatory deck.

Vanilla's house held no such fluctuation. Every day started the same. Shadow didn't have to wonder to himself whether he was supposed to remember the equations for calculating water pressure or if he had to mask his emotions in order to make the tests go by faster every time he woke up.

He could simply exist and have tea in silence.

And that was why, when he woke up to Vanilla falling asleep in a chair next to the bed he was in, the book sliding out of her hands as her eyes slid shut and her head drooped, he realized he couldn't stay any longer.

Shadow silently slipped out from under the covers and found his shoes and socks neatly tucked away just under the bedframe. He wasn't yet accustomed to opening windows, but he did his best and managed to slide the one nearby open with little noise. The screen was a bit harder to figure out, but he got it after a few seconds of scrutinizing and analyzing the frame. Putting it back was almost a nervewracking nightmare.

With Vanilla none the wiser, Shadow leapt off the roof and right into Omega's waiting arms.

"YOU HAVE FINALLY RISEN FROM YOUR SLUMBER?" the robot blared, startling the shit out of him.

"Wha- Omega!?"

"IT IS I," Omega bleeped. Shadow frantically made shushing motions, but the murderous robot ignored him. "I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU FOR THREE DAYS, SIXTEEN HOURS, FORTY-TWO MINUTES AND EIGHTEEN-POINT-FORTY-THREE SECONDS."

Shadow unsuccessfully put his hands over Omega's faceplate to silence him. "There's people sleeping inside...!"

"AND YOU ARE NO LONGER ONE OF THEM. THIS IS GOOD. I HAVE A PROPOSITION FOR YOU."

"A...? W-wait, before that, lower your volume!"

Omega ignored him, instead holding him under his armpits like a toy. "YOU HAVE INCREDIBLE DESTRUCTIVE PROPERTIES. I ADMIRE YOUR ABILITY TO BREAK EGGMAN TECHNOLOGY. JOIN ME. TOGETHER WE WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE."

"G.U.N. first!"

Omega paused. Shadow fought off the urge to shrink into himself and tried to salvage his hastily blurted statement.

"I have... to deal with G.U.N. first," he said carefully, though as he spoke a different idea was coming to him. He eyed Omega's glaring red eye sockets and remembered the sheer barrage of firepower the murderous robot was capable of. If he could just point it in the right direction...

Suddenly he was thinking of Rouge.

"Say... Omega. I think I have an offer for you as well..."

"IS IT FOR CAUSING DESTRUCTION AND MAYHEM?"

"Better," Shadow said, already thinking of a not so far off future. "How would you like a target rich environment?"

Omega was immediately hooked. "HOW RICH?"

"Shoot anywhere in the sky and you'll hit something rich."

"THAT SOUNDS PATHETICALLY EASY. I'M IN."

"You're not excluding me from this, are you?"

Shadow would have jumped had he not been in the cold, steely claws of a carnage hungry robot. He'd been too engrossed in his own head to pay attention to tiny details like the soft fluttering of wings or the faintest smell of coffee. Omega's head swiveled up to look at where Rouge sat on the edge of Vanilla's roof, plastic cup in her hand and a mischievous smirk on her face.

"You want to cause carnage?" Shadow asked, somewhat incredulous.

"Why not? Sounds like a great excuse to relieve some gems from their owners."

"...Does that count as money motivation?"

"What can I say, I like shiny things."

"I AM SHINY."

Rouge floated down from the roof and sat on Omega's shoulder. She patted the orange hood of its head before popping the top to her coffee and taking a sip. "Yes you are. First, though, aren't we going to take a look at that house they made Shadow?"

Shadow started. That was decidedly not something he wanted- needed- could do at the moment. He had to get away from Vanilla and Cream, not stick around...!

But Omega was already walking, Shadow clutched tight to its chest as if it was carrying a child, blaring the whole way to Rouge about its latest attempts to hack the "EggNet" and send very rude gestures to Eggman's computers. There wasn't any opportunity to request to be set down after Rouge started offering suggestions. The only saving grace was the lack of activity from the rabbit family's house as they walked away.

If there was a faint shuffling of one of the curtains or the hint of a certain mother's dress peeking through the window, he didn't see it.

To be fair, Rouge may have had a point in making them see the house. It was exactly the kind of place Maria would have described during their make-believe story time, with a big deck and a front porch swing made out of some kind of dark red wood. Someone had even gotten started on a little flower garden out front, complete with little wooden spikes with flower names and care instructions written on them. The front porch had hanging planters with some kind of drooping purple flowers creeping over the edges, and the glass above the front door was colored like a rose mosaic.

Rouge let out a whistle and hopped off of Omega's shoulder to open the door, then glanced back. Shadow also looked between the door and Omega's giant frame, realizing belatedly that it hadn't been designed for a murderous robot to fit through. He moved to squirm, but Omega's hands clenched around him.

"Wha-"

"I'll check around back," Rouge said, ignoring his plight entirely.

As it turned out, the back door was quite a bit wider. Omega was able to fit through with no issues once Rouge picked the lock. The inside of the kitchen strongly resembled that of Vanilla's house; it had the same general layout for the hardware such as the counters, but it was a bit dusty and looked like it had been untouched for weeks. Rouge swiped a finger across the counter and inspected the dust on her glove.

"Looks like this place has been waiting for around a month," she said, looking back at Shadow with a slight smirk. "I'd guess right around the start of that whole Metal Sonic business."

Shadow stilled and stared at her. She turned away and continued to wander, either not seeing his silent question or ignoring it. Shadow turned his head to stare at Omega, but the robot was following Rouge around with its own sense of curiosity.

"Oh look, the curtains have a kitty pattern!" Rouge exclaimed. "How adorably ugly! Omega, look at this- someone made a tiny model of you!"

"DOES IT FUNCTION?"

"...No, dear, it's a miniature. It's just supposed to look like you."

"IT DOES NOT CONTAIN ITS OWN ROCKETS?"

Rouge tapped the tiny model's arm. Her eyebrows raised as tiny firearms popped out and fell to the table. "Well, looks like it does, but not the kind you're thinking of."

Omega's eyes flashed. "SENSORS DO NOT DETECT ANY EXPLOSIVES IN THE RELEVANT VICINITY."

"Like I said, not the ones you're thinking of."

"REQUESTING REPLACEMENTS THAT FUNCTION AS INTENDED."

"Moving on," Rouge said, pointing at the stairs. "Who wants to bet that Shadow's room is painted black and edgy?"

Shadow's room was not black and edgy. Omega took ten rings from Rouge. Shadow chose to ignore them and looked around, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer.

It was easy to identify Cream's handiwork in the little girly parts of the room. The occasional childish doodle was tacked to the wall, including one Shadow recognized as one they'd done together of all the chao they could name off the tops of their heads. Admittedly, Cream's drawings were... more intricate... than his own, but he'd never really had the patience for drawing anyway. He could also tell Amy had been in the room from the faint smell of perfume and the card of signatures sitting open on the bedside table. Vanilla had clearly been present, too, from how the room was perfectly tidy and the bed was made.

And then there were touches of other people, too, ones that Shadow didn't recognize, though he did note a scribble in the corner of Charmy's name that hadn't quite gotten all the way scrubbed off and a small paper shuriken sticking out of the dresser. A geode sat on the bookshelf next to a book on physics and a DIY construction manual that looked like it had been utilized quite often recently. And there, next to it, was a pressed flower encased in resin, right next to a vase of wilted and rotten wildflowers.

Shadow's heart felt like it was going through Gerald's sensitive document shredder. He'd successfully tricked a bunch of people into liking him, somehow.

It wasn't like he'd lied to them. He just... acted like himself. And. Didn't. Expand on the fact that he was a biological superweapon designed to be immortal. And was actively being searched for by a military force that had no problem with murdering innocents.

Chaos, he had to get out of here.

"It's, uh," Rouge said, peering at the geode. "...Cute? I wasn't expecting it to be cute."

"DISTINCT LACK OF EXPLOSIVES DETECTED."

"You usually don't store those where you sleep, Omega."

Omega's fan whirred for a few seconds.

"WHY?"

"So they don't blow up while you recharge," Shadow mumbled.

Whir, whir, whir.

"...SO," Omega said slowly. "I WOULD... LEAVE MY ARSENAL... IN THE SHED?"

Shadow's brain kind of ground to a halt. He felt like he hadn't quite heard right despite supposedly having perfect hearing abilities. He stared at Omega, excruciatingly slow in realizing that his jaw was dropping.

"Here?"

The glaring red eyes swiveled down to look at him. "ANALYSIS OF DATA AND BIO SIGNATURES STATE THAT YOU ARE UNFIT FOR TRAVEL. THIS STRUCTURE IS IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO LOCALES DENSE IN CHAOS ENERGY. WE WILL NOT LEAVE UNTIL YOU ARE AT THE OPTIMAL STATE FOR WREAKING HAVOK. AND THEN WE WILL DESTROY EGGMAN."

Omega paused for a moment.

"AFTER YOUR BUSINESS WITH G.U.N.."

"I think I'll stick around too," Rouge said. "You have a coffee maker."

He had to get out of here.

"There is a very low likelihood of G.U.N. not noticing the surge in chaos power caused by me removing my inhibitor rings. The longer I stay-"

Rouge waved him off. "Oh honey, we wrote that off by saying Sonic went super. Tails still has that fake chaos emerald and it gives off such a similar energy pattern as the real thing that G.U.N. sure thinks Sonic had all seven back there. Nobody's corrected them."

"But-"

Rouge dusted off the bed. Omega promptly dumped Shadow on it, then unceremoniously threw the blanket over him. Shadow threw the blanket back off only for Omega to make a show of delicately tucking him back in. Shadow kicked it away yet again only for the hulking death machine to bundle him up and fluff up the pillows behind him like he were some kind of doll.

"I have to leave!" Shadow blurted, the words finally outside of his head. By some miracle he wasn't sparking and crackling with chaos energy with how desperate he becoming. "I cannot stay here, G.U.N. will- they-"

Rouge was watching him with her lips slightly pursed. Omega's head swiveled between them.

"THE TARGET-RICH ENVIRONMENT IS G.U.N. PERSONNEL?"

"Yes! I have- to- take them down, make sure they can't-"

The damn blanket was winning the battle. Shadow panted from the exertion of squirming, no more free from Omega's wrapping job than before. He cast Rouge a glare as she sat down on the edge of the bed, and he felt himself flinch back as she reached for his head, too used to the pain that usually happened when he was restrained. Her hand faltered, but she reached out and rested it on his shoulder with a carefully light touch. She met his eyes and held them with a strange softness to the edges of her own.

"And we will," she said firmly. "But you've been unconscious for a month, Shadow." She held up a hand, cutting off his sharp gasp. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there are no chaos emeralds around. They dispersed after you wrecked Metal Sonic, and as much as it needed to happen, it completely wiped you out. Vanilla thought you'd stopped breathing entirely. You can't even escape from one blanket right now, can you?"

She was right. He was exhausted already. But he was also stubborn, so he kept up his glare and refused to answer.

Rouge gave a small sigh and raised her finger. "One minute. If you can escape from that blanket in one minute, we leave. Right now. But. If you cannot get free of Omega's burrito wrap in that time, you stay until we think you're ready. Deal?"

"Fine."

Omega started the timer. By the time the minute was over, Shadow was panting and sweating and barely able to keep his eyes open. Rouge patted the blanket above his chest and left the room to find cleaning supplies, leaving Omega to stare at him in relative silence. Shadow glowered at the robot. It wasn't like he could do anything else at the moment.

After a few minutes, Omega spoke.

"YOU ARE CONCERNED FOR THE TINY SQUISHY RABBIT CHILD."

Shadow's glare faltered. Omega's fans whirred contemplatively.

"IT WILL BE DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO HARM HER IF I DESTROY THEM FIRST," the walking arsenal said, and Shadow felt himself relax a little bit. He hadn't considered it before, but Omega was a living weapon just as much as Shadow himself was. The firepower loaded up inside Omega's arms and chassis was physics denying in just how much of it was stored there, and Omega had no problems with using it against others.

"When they come," Shadow said, eyes sliding shut against his will, "don't hold back."

"I AM NOT EQUIPPED WITH AN EASY MODE."

Already drifting off into the hazy realm of sleep, Shadow snorted.

Chapter Text

The explosive packet was pressed into his hands. Shadow's eyes met the professor's glasses. The professor nodded. Shadow turned and teleported away, appearing in a lab he only remembered in nightmares.

He'd been here- once, or maybe thousands of times- he couldn't remember. There was a hole in his head there, something that made his skin itch and his fur stand on end. One hand came up to feel the white patch on his chest, and Shadow scowled, feeling a distinct lack of blood in the soft fur. He shook it off, placed the bomb, and returned to the professor.

He placed dozens of bombs over the course of the next few minutes. The professor was waiting for him each time he returned, holding out the explosives that he was creating even as they worked. Shadow kept his questions squashed somewhere else as he worked, focusing only on the task at hand, until he returned and the professor spread open his empty hands.

"That's it," the old man said softly. "All that's left is to make sure they're all online and to detonate them."

Shadow stood there, watching him fiddle with the cobbled together patchwork controller, and the thoughts reared up their heads and crept out of the box he'd tried to shove them in.

Bombs. Weapons. They were going to blow up the ARK. Shadow's home, Maria's home-

Except this wasn't Maria's home, a tiny voice interjected; this was only temporary. Her true home was on the planet below, and she was only here to be cured. Something Shadow had failed to do. Instead he was going to destroy pieces of it to deliberately force her to leave. It's not your fault, another voice tried to say, but he squished that train of thought immediately. The professor's idea would save lives by forcing everyone to leave. Shadow had bought Maria time, and the professor had samples of Shadow's DNA stored away to work from.

Bombs. Weapons to destroy and break, but used to save lives instead of take them. Shadow couldn't keep that thought out. It came back and sat at the forefront of his mind like a splinter. Weapons used to help in a bloodless manner. To protect.

The professor looked up at him and took a breath.

"No turning back now."

Smoke.

The blanket tore off in shreds. Shadow fell down the stairs more than he ran, his shoes that normally would have been lighting with chaos energy distinctly missing. He barely caught himself at the bottom, chest heaving with panic and screams filling his mind. Steel walls and white coats fell away at the sight of Omega turning to face him, frying pan in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other.

"I MADE EGGS."

Shadow's eyes flicked to the raging flame in the pan. Omega looked down at it, then back at Shadow, then back down again.

"I ATTEMPTED TO MAKE EGGS," Omega rectified.

Shadow's mouth opened. No sound came out, but he felt his quills partially deflate. His legs shook horribly, but he couldn't stand the smell of smoke any longer. He pointed at the fire and made a cutting motion with his hand, then stomped right out the door and collapsed on the front porch.

It was raining. Shadow fell over onto his side and stared at it, struggling to find the strength just to breathe. Something gently poked at his fingers, lifting his hand and placing itself underneath. Shadow's eyes flicked down and registered Edge's little face staring back at him. The chao was fully black now, the point of its head splitting apart and backwards like twin horns. Perhaps it would be an adult soon, influenced by Shadow's negative chaos energy to look evil.

Edge pushed itself closer and pressed against his chest. Shadow curled around it and buried his face next to it. The chao cooed softly and stroked his fur.

Two months. He had officially been on the planet for two months. True to form for his life, he'd only been awake and able to experience the world for half of that. Of what he did experience, pain and misery was quite a bit of it. In two months, he'd attempted to hide what he was, been drained of his chaos energy, scolded for not knowing how to experience levity, had his past blatantly thrown in his face, been reconnected with the last surviving member of what he could technically call his family and then lost said member, then used up all of his energy reservoirs and slept for a full god damn month.

Shadow couldn't really say that he was feeling anything. None of the pain was physical. His body was fine. He was, in theory, in good health, if lacking in chaos energy reserves.

But he was tired. His own mind tormented him.

He missed Maria. He missed her so much. There was a massive hole in his mind where the Biolizard touched. Somehow it had been a grounding force despite how short of a time he'd really interacted with it, and the hole it left was larger than anything he'd ever imagined could fit inside his brain. Liza had been a constant source of warmth, of something reassurring him that he was wanted.

His brain took a second to backtrack to that point. He scoffed into Edge's side, but it came out as a sob.

Pathetic. He was the Ultimate Lifeform. He was immortal, for all meanings of the word. He was unable to die, impervious to diseases, poisons and any manner of bacterium. He was an ageless being, a weapon of untold caliber and unmatched in strength and speed. (Except... the thought of Sonic and Knuckles made him pause there. Knuckles had a stunning amount of knowledge on chaos energy and a mastery Shadow had never seen before, and Sonic was a freak of nature.)

He didn't need to be... wanted. He...

Yes he did. Shadow so very much did. He could survive without it, but he so badly needed someone to want him for something that wasn't his powers. He craved someone to need him, to need Shadow the hedgehog and not Project Shadow.

And now... he had nothing. No Maria, no Gerald, no Liza. He'd lost everyone who saw him for everything that he was, science experiment, person, little brother.

Shadow curled tightly into himself. Thunder boomed somewhere above, startling him enough to squeeze Edge and yield a startled squeak from the chao. He didn't even have the heart to scold himself for jumping at something so silly. He was scared and so alone that it was beginning to sear his heart with a cold fire. He wanted someone to come and hold him, yet at the same time felt that if he were to be touched by anyone else he would punch them immediately.

The rain and his own thoughts were so loud that he completely missed the footsteps or the gentle tapping on the door behind him. Shadow jumped again as something sat down nearby, but refused to uncurl from his spot.

Rouge. Shadow forced one of his ears to unpin and flicked it. He tried very hard not to prickle when her hand rested gently on his shoulder.

"I, uh. I made Omega read a recipe book. The kitchen isn't on fire anymore. He thought 'medium heat' meant something completely different."

Rouge fidgeted with something. Her hand stayed on his shoulder, and he wasn't certain if it felt like it was burning a hole in his skin or if it was keeping the rest of the world from being cold. Could a simple touch be both at the same time?

"...When's the last time you ate?" she murmured.

He didn't want to think about it. He didn't care. (He didn't remember.)

Rouge's hand pulled away, leaving a horrible chill where it had been. Shadow's eyebrows scrunched tighter together in irritation at the sensation. She messed with something nearby, leaning away from him.

"They made you a lovely house," she commented. "Of course, it's nothing compared to what I would get, but it's nice. You've got a full on garden over there, and a functional swing set behind the house. It's a little cutesy for my tastes, but it's not bad."

He didn't know what that meant. It sounded positive. He'd never really known houses, or homes. He'd just known the ARK, and for a short while, Vanilla's house. It didn't mean a thing to him other than a roof, somewhere with more doors and enclosed spaces, somewhere that he was sure would have bullet holes in it soon and something he didn't want to see destroyed.

Shadow shoved his face deeper into Edge's side. He refused to let anyone see the wetness that was dampening his face, even if the chao could feel it.

Rouge softly clicked her tongue. Shadow flinched as her fingers touched the fur on his forehead.

"Look at this," she mumbled. "You have a scar."

That.

That should not have been possible.

Shadow shifted his head up enough to stare at her- or he tried to, having to blink furiously a few times to get his eyes to clear up. Rouge had lain down next to him on her side with her head propped up on her elbow. She was currently wearing a face twisted somewhere between a frown and a smirk, though she was rapidly trying to force down the smile.

"There you are. Hello, sunshine."

Shadow scowled and pawed at his forehead. Rouge took his hand and brought his finger up to trace the red stripe down the center of his head. Without his gloves on, his sensitive fingers were able to pick up the subtle bump in no time.

There it was- a thin surgical scar. It was very old and extremely well healed. And also impossible.

Project Shadow did not scar. He was perfect. Any cut that was made healed without a trace, any kind of removed limb or tissue able to regrow so long as he had the energy. And if he didn't have the energy, he'd simply hibernate until he did. The only way to kill him would be to atomize him until there was nothing left, or so they'd said. Project Shadow did not have scar tissue.

Rouge understood this as well. He could tell from the way her lips were pursed. She'd read his files very thoroughly. This was new for both of them, and not... in a... good...

Shadow wasn't able to continue along that line of thought. Rouge had started by tracing the line with her fingers, but she was now curiously raking her fingers along his scalp from the forehead back, scratching his head with her nails until she reached just past his ears. Then she brought her hand back to the front and repeated the stroke, sending little tiny tendrils of warmth down Shadow's spine.

He stared at her, unable to stop his eyelids from slowly beginning to droop. It felt so good. The gentle scritches were also reminding him that he hadn't bathed in... a really long time, and was really gross. His quills were probably a mess. But- oh... Oh this was nice.

Rouge didn't say anything. She just kept running her fingers down his head for a good ten or fifteen minutes until he huffed, and then she stopped.

There was a quiet rumbling sound coming from somewhere. Shadow's ears flicked to try to find the source before going rigid. His eyes snapped open in horror as he realized that it was him, purring, and that Rouge had one hand partially covering her mouth with delight in her eyes. Shadow shoved Edge away from himself and curled up into a perfect sphere. Rouge laughed- not a cackle, or a taunting laugh, but something soft and real and something else that he didn't register very well.

"Aw," she chuckled, making the heat rise all the way to his ears. "C'mon, there's no shame in liking a little bit of pampering."

There is if it comes from you, he thought heatedly.

"...Ouch."

Shadow slowly uncurled and peeked out. He... hadn't meant to say that aloud. Rouge genuinely looked kind of hurt, her ears floppy and limp and a bitter smile on her lips. Edge was now sitting on her lap, peering at him worriedly.

"I guess that's fair," she said quietly. "It's the nature of being a spy, but... that hurts."

He felt his own ears pin back. There was no backpedaling from this, no way of sugarcoating the truth. Rouge was a double agent, watching over him for both G.U.N. and some unknown third party he didn't know, and she was one of the biggest threats to his direct lifestyle and the livelihoods of those around him at the moment. As far as he was concerned, she was a bigger problem to him than Eggman or Metal Sonic was.

...At the same time...

She had just tried to comfort him. She'd been strangely aware of his comfort levels and his needs, oddly willing to go out of her way to keep him out of G.U.N.'s eye and to teach him. It felt unfair to lump her into a "them" category with some unknown enemy that he had to fight against. She'd said herself that she wasn't his enemy and promised she hadn't lied to him once. And he had his suspicions- after all, promises were empty and made to be broken.

(Maria was the exception; she always was, holding him to the truth, holding him to his word and keeping her own. There were no lies between them. Ever. There were things left unsaid, things not told, but there were never any lies.)

Shadow was so angry. He was so tired. He wasn't allowed to be angry, either. Not then. Not now.

What was he supposed to say?

Rouge shifted to lay on her back and rested her hands on her chest. Her smile was gone now. Shadow watched her silently, paralyzed from the lack of direction.

"There's a saying that good spies have no attachments."

Shadow blinked.

"Attachments leave you too full of vulnerabilities," Rouge continued. "You can't do your job if you're too busy thinking about something as useless as love. It's easy to compromise someone with a lot of bonds. Pull one thread and the whole thing falls apart."

Weapons don't have feelings. They do not cry, they do not get angry. Do you understand? A weapon with emotions is a broken one.

"I'm a very good spy. I'm one of the best."

Rouge held up her hand and flicked it. A glittering orange gem materialized in her palm out of nowhere. Shadow blinked harshly at it, startled by the speed of her fingers. Where the hell did that come from?

"I've only ever wanted jewels and money. Up until you came along. This is... Ugh. It's all new territory for me too," she said disgustedly. "You see, jewels don't ask for things like shopping lists, or stupid shit like borrowing money. Jewels don't come with baggage. They sparkle and shine and they just sit there and don't talk, and they're so precious and pretty. I've never needed friends or family, just pay me in shiny shit and I'm out. But now I'm in this whole- mess- between tracking Eggman's movements and tricking him, double crossing G.U.N.'s loyalties, my boss's involvement with the ARK, and you..."

Rouge paused. Her hand dropped to her side.

"I want you to trust me. Actually trust me. Not do some loyalty ploy or as a trap, but as someone to have your back. It's weird. It's so fucking stupid of a choice. It's not logical at all. It's not good behavior for a spy."

She wouldn't look at him. Maria said once that people who were earnest were supposed to look you in the eye when they talked. Neither of them had really believed it, especially since neither of them could stare into someone's eyes for long periods of time without feeling squicky. Shadow doubted making eye contact right now would have made a difference anyway. Rouge's voice had a waver to it and her fingers were shaking. He could feel the twitches of her wings through the little vibrations in the wood of the porch.

"So... I guess it hurts," she whispered, her voice finally breaking. Rouge cleared her throat and swallowed, taking a breath before continuing. "But I understand. And you have no reason to trust me. You shouldn't, actually. It'd be a really dumb idea to trust someone whose boss you don't know in your situation. But I..."

"Edge trusts you," Shadow blurted out.

Rouge startled and looked at him with wide eyes. Shadow immediately looked away and glared at the porch.

"...And I don't know how to do housework," he grumbled.

"Spies don't do housework."

"Weapons don't own houses."

She gawked at him for a minute. Then she snorted and started to laugh. Shadow glared at her, but she rolled over and grinned at him, taking him off guard.

"We're both really bad at being what other people think we are, huh? Do you want to break some stereotypes with me, Shadow?"

It was a terrible idea.

"How do we get a charging port for Omega?"

Rouge reached over and started petting his forehead again. Shadow felt his ears slowly unpin from his head and studied the look on her face as she paused and scowled at her nails.

"I think we figure that out after we get you a bath."

Omega poked its head out of the doorway, thrusting forth a pan covered in scorch marks and two very nice piles of char inside.

"IS THIS BETTER?"

"Oh, honey," said Rouge.

Chapter Text

Vanilla had thoughts.

She had quite a lot of them, in fact. Some of them went as far back as the early days when she had first met Sonic, some were about recent events, and some were about people she'd been hearing about, but had never met. A good portion of them were about Shadow.

Aside from her initial queries, Vanilla had kept her questions about Shadow and his past to a minimum. She had, on occasion, poked at the small things, such as how he knew some things about gardens, yet was wary of touching dirt, or at how he was so skilled with a knife that a strawberry could turn into a rose in no time at all. She had done her best to always leave him the option to say no, or to not say anything about himself, but generally she simply did not ask about Shadow's past beyond what he had shared first.

As she kept an eye on Shadow over the course of the month that he was unconscious, Vanilla had more than a few thoughts. She found that she also had questions for herself.

At what point did she start asking for answers? How much should she be asking? How much did she even want to know, what about, and what good would knowing do for her or those she cared about? Would it put her mind at ease to know just how much danger her daughter had been exposed to? Would it be good for the children if she knew? Or would they be weighed down by her worry?

It was a lot clearer cut when it came to Cream. Cream was her daughter. Cream was six. Cream should never have gone out searching for the chao with the others in the first place. She was supposed to be learning things where it was safe, having fun and beginning early school, not facing automatons that were out for blood. And maybe Cream had learned things, but Vanilla wasn't sure how much of it was good. No six year old should have been forced to see a violent death.

Was this the sort of thing Sonic had been dealing with, fighting Eggman and trying to raise Tails at the same time, all on his own? Was it even fair of her to step in, after everything he'd gone through and seen? And with Amy following them, she too was living in a different world, no matter how much she chose to hang around Vanilla or babysit Cream.

No, it didn't feel fair for Vanilla to pry too much into any of their lives. She wasn't their mother, nor did they treat her as such. If Sonic or Amy were younger she might have thought otherwise, but they were strong, independent young adults that were capable of making their own choices. The best she could do was if they came and asked her for something- anything- and perhaps offer them a warm meal every time she saw them.

And then there was Shadow.

Vanilla had no idea where she stood with Shadow.

He couldn't be older than Sonic. His stature and maturity suggested he might be, but it was so hard to tell with children that had been forced to grow up too fast. Vanilla had a hard enough time remembering that Tails was eight some days. Shadow's education made it all the more difficult to tell with how flip-flopped it was. He knew science and understood medicine to an almost concerning degree- Vanilla had caught him reading one of her old nursing textbooks once and was surprised that he corrected parts of it- yet knew barely anything of what Vanilla considered mundane or everyday things.

Some things she was able to write off as having been born in space. Food sounded difficult to get up there, and she imagined baking was off the table. Dirt, plants, and bacteria she could understand, what with his friend needing a sterile environment. But Shadow didn't know how to doodle. And Vanilla's alarm bells were ringing.

It wasn't that Shadow didn't know what doodling was. It was the little moment when Cream begged him to draw with her, the stolen glance in Vanilla's direction and the way his voice dipped as he asked if it was okay; it was the way he continued to subtly peek in her direction as Cream taught him how to scribble a sun and a house, how he was so ashamed that his doodles were worse than hers, as if it was supposed to be perfect on his first try. Vanilla had kept her mouth shut and gone to bed that evening with a hundred questions she'd kept to herself.

He had been brought to her twice now, unconscious both times, his breath so soft and fluttery that if it were any other person she'd have run them to the hospital for the care of someone more capable. The only indication he was still alive was the subtle changes in his pinched brow- because even unconscious, Shadow still looked uncomfortable.

He had started opening up to her- slowly, but surely- and Vanilla had gotten unfairly attached. Cream had all but adopted him as a brother, which certainly didn't help Vanilla's question of where she fit into all of this.

After nearly a full month of Cream depressedly monitoring Shadow with such care that she put nurses to shame, he woke up and immediately snuck out. Vanilla watched Omega and a white furred bat cart him away from the window, doing her best to stay hidden from view. And when Cream woke up and began to search frantically, crying out Shadow's name in a heartbreaking wail, Vanilla felt her patience begin to snap.

She wanted answers.

Apparently she wasn't the only one, because it was barely a few hours later when she got a knock on her door. Vanilla looked up from where she was handing a swaddled up and puffy eyed Cream some hot cocoa and pursed her lips. She forced a pleasant smile on her face and opened the door-

-to the same young bat that had just walked away with Shadow.

The bat opened her mouth. Vanilla cut her off.

"I am going to put on a pot of tea," she said, and the bat ever so slightly sagged with relief.

"Please tell me you have a chai of some sort."

"Of course."

Vanilla stepped back to let her in. There was a hurried shuffling sound and a slight clatter as Vanilla moved towards the kitchen, and she looked down to see Cream hurrying towards them with Cheese close behind.

"Miss Rouge! Mister Shadow is gone!" Cream cried. Vanilla restrained her eye from twitching.

Rouge crouched down and gave Cream a smile. "Hello Cream. Are you well?"

Cream sniffled, tears building up in her eyes again. "'M fine," she mumbled, convincing no one. "Do- do you know- where-"

"He's just over at his house," Rouge said gently. "I'm here to talk about that, actually. Do you think you can help me explain things to your mom?"

Vanilla glanced up from the stove in time to catch her daughter's eyes as Cream scuffed the floor slightly with her sock. Cream quickly avoided her gaze and looked down, fidgeting with her hands and biting her lip.

"I don't know how much I can say..."

"I'll help you out with that, okay?"

Cream looked up again, glancing between them. She gave a little nod and led Rouge to the table. Vanilla felt her chest clench both with pride and with anxiety; her little girl was being so strong, putting aside her worry for Shadow in order to keep his secrets even from her own mother. But that also meant that Shadow had secrets that had to be kept, ones that even a six year old could understand they weren't good to share. Although, Cream was a good girl, so it could be that the secret was something silly and she had made a promise.

Vanilla knew she was deluding herself with that last point, but she found herself holding onto the tiny shred of hope anyway.

She served Rouge and herself some tea. Cream got a fresh cup of hot cocoa since her old one had gone cold, and with the three of them sitting at the table she folded her hands and waited. Rouge took an appreciative sip of her tea and smiled.

"First off, this is delicious," Rouge said. "I don't believe I introduced myself. My name is Rouge. It's nice to properly meet you, ma'am."

"Properly?" Vanilla asked.

Cream fidgeted. Rouge gestured for her to go ahead.

"Mister Shadow said Miss Rouge has been watching us since the beginning, but she doesn't mean us any harm..."

Vanilla's gaze hardened. She kept her face neutral despite her jaw clenching.

"That is correct," Rouge confirmed. "To be specific, I was watching Shadow."

"Why?" Vanilla asked, forcing her voice to stay pleasant.

"Is it because of Liza?" Cream whispered. "Because... because of..." She glanced at her mother and hid behind her cocoa. Rouge tapped her finger on the table.

"Did he tell you?"

Cream fidgeted. Rouge's tapping stopped and she gave Cream a smile that was a little bit warm. She gestured for Cream to go on.

"It's okay. You can say it."

Cream swallowed harshly and took a big gulp of her cocoa first. Cheese floated down and nestled himself in her arms, and that seemed to give her the courage to go on.

"Mister Shadow said- he said Liza was his prede... pred..."

"Predecessor?"

Cream nodded. "He said they were created by the same person. I didn't get it. But then Liza talked through Mister Shadow. What does that mean, Miss Rouge?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Did Mister Shadow come from an egg? Like a chao? ...Is Mister Shadow a chao?"

Rouge's snort was borderline explosive. Vanilla gave her a hard stare, even if the notion itself was amusing. The bat waved her off with a grin.

"No, no. Shadow did not come from a chao egg. Though he could have been mixed with chao DNA- the records aren't clear what he was made from."

"Are you sure you should be telling us this?" Vanilla said, stunned.

Rouge looked at her, and something in her face had softened, a slight downturn to the corners of her teal eyes. The smile on her face disappeared in place of a tired expression, and all at once Vanilla was aware of the heavy makeup that most likely masked bags under her eyes or lines on her face. Rouge was a lot younger than Vanilla had first thought she was.

"He wants you to know," Rouge said gently. "He told Cream he was created, and no one knows the weight- or the risk- of that more than Shadow does. That's why he tried to leave. He's terrified you two will end up like the others on the ARK."

Vanilla paled.

Her mind flashed back to sitting at her computer with Shadow nearing two months ago, looking up the names of people that were all listed as found dead or missing. She remembered clearly the record of Gerald Robotnik, arrested by G.U.N. for performing unethical experiments. Terrorism. She looked at Cream, looked into those big, warm, confused brown eyes, and imagined her lifeless on the ground, listed as nothing more than a number in a record.

And once again, she had questions. She struggled to put them in order and define them as they flooded her mind. Unethical experimentation. Shadow acting ashamed, standing at military rest, his flip-flopped education. His friend's illness. His strange comprehension of medicine. His shoes, the rings on his wrists and ankles. The way he had stopped breathing, heart monitor flatlining for a solid few seconds before he took a breath. The fact that he had tried to leave immediately the moment he was able the first time, and somewhat succeeded the second.

Shadow had tried to protect Vanilla and Cream from the beginning. He wanted to learn, to play and take his time, but he had all along been burdened by the knowledge that the more he got them involved, the more danger they were in.

Vanilla and Cream were no heroes. They were no scientists, no government agents. They were simply a mother and a daughter with two chao and an orchard. There was nothing they could do, no point in getting involved in this situation. She would be putting Cream in severe danger by stepping in. The wise course of action would be to distance herself from Shadow, to restrict Cream's interactions with him, to cut him out of their lives.

"How old is he?" she asked.

Rouge took a moment to think. "Not counting the fifty years in stasis... almost eight months?"

The table clattered as she stood up abruptly. Rouge had a smirk on her face despite the full force of Vanilla's glare on her.

"You said he is just over at the house we built for him?"

"On my love for jewels and shiny things," Rouge replied easily.

"Well," Vanilla said curtly, "then I suppose I should prepare a housewarming gift."

Chapter Text

Shadow did not get a warning. In hindsight, Vanilla felt a little bit bad for him, but perhaps it was better that Rouge didn't tell him about their meeting. With his track record thus far he might have run away or attempted to hide if he'd known.

Vanilla and Cream marched on down to Shadow's house only a day or two later with baskets full of daily necessities. On any other day Vanilla would have found it utterly impolite to do as she was about to; however, she and Rouge had discussed this over a second batch of tea, and Rouge had insisted on it being the best plan of action. She stole a glance at Cream, who seemed almost more resolute than she was, and walked right on in the front door.

Poor Shadow's muzzle turned ashy. His eyes flicked from her to Cream and back again, repeating the process as if he couldn't understand what he was seeing. He didn't get two seconds to register their presence before Cream was buried in his chest fur, her basket dropped by the door in favor of trying to squeeze the life out of him with a hug. Vanilla, with as much restraint as she could muster not to do the same, settled for lifting Cream's basket and toting it inside with her before shutting the door behind her. She knelt in front of the chair he'd been sitting on and looked into his shaking eyes.

There were so many things she could have said. She'd mulled it over constantly in her mind these past few days. She could have scolded him for leaving, or told him that Rouge had explained his origins to her. She could have assured him that he wouldn't be alone, lied that no government would take him away or promised away the very real danger.

None of that would have worked. Vanilla couldn't lie to Shadow about the death he'd already seen. And scolding- what good would that have done? He was already hurting and afraid.

In the end, it was her distance, that unsure relationship she had with him that gave her an idea. She'd been watching him, after all, and it was the slight distance that had allowed her to see it without judgement. Shadow reacted best to kindness. He was unsure when it was loud and enthusiastic, such as came from Amy, and responded in kind if it sounded angry, but when it was quiet or gentle, as from Cream, Tails, or even herself, Shadow reacted far more positively. Vanilla didn't have to be any different than usual simply because something had happened.

"You forgot to say goodbye," she said.

Shadow's brow scrunched in confusion. Vanilla smiled and stroked Cream's head, giving him a pointed look.

"It makes those who love you worry if you don't. Even if it's just a courtesy... at least it lets us know you're safe."

His eyes widened. Vanilla reached out and placed her hand on his cheek for just a moment before standing up and leaving for the kitchen to see what the things Rouge had described as cancerous chunks of coal Omega had cooked really were. After sliding a pot lid over the fire to snuff it out, she began to instruct the deadly robot on how to cook food that was actually suited for eating, which happened to involve an awful lot of telling him that no, fire was not involved on the eggs themselves. The robot was, however, now extremely excited to try making crème brûlée, as it involved both cracking eggs and required torching the dish.

About an hour into Vanilla's cooking lessons Shadow crept into the kitchen to lean against the wall. Cream was nestled tightly in his arms, her face resting against his and her arms around his neck. Vanilla tried not to smile at the picture it made or notice how Shadow's hands were still shaking. She simply appreciated his presence.

Rouge appeared not half an hour later with a few grocery bags and cleaning supplies. Shadow's head quirked slightly to the side as she set out a bag of coffee beans and a grinder. He gave Rouge a mildly quizzical look, to which she put her hands on her hips.

"I told you, I'm going to teach you how to make coffee properly."

"You could still dip a spoon in the bag," Shadow whispered.

Rouge dramatically gestured at him with both hands and gave Vanilla an over the top look of devastation. "Do you see what I'm working with here? What will it take for a girl to get a decent cup of coffee around here?"

"Are you staying here, Rouge?" Vanilla asked. The house only had one bed, as far as she knew. It had a nice couch that Mighty had put together himself, and while it was an excellent piece of craftsmanship it was no place to stay for long.

"Temporarily, unless Shadow kicks me out or Omega burns the place down. Cream, open up!"

Cream unburied her head. Rouge popped a chao-shaped lollipop in her mouth and shoved a second one in Shadow's. He recoiled for a second, then blinked.

"DO I GET A LOLLIPOP TOO?"

Rouge squinted at the robot. "What are you going to do with it?"

Omega was silent for a second. "PUT IT WITH MY FLOWER."

Rouge's mouth opened. She faltered, her eyes widening, and she dug in her purse for a moment before pulling out a sunglass case and popping it open. Vanilla had to admit- she had an excellent poker face, because that poor flower was beyond wilted. Shadow also had a good grip on his facial expression, but that did nothing to stop the six year old in his arms from seeing it. Omega's eyes flared.

"DID YOU LOSE MY FLOWER?"

"Of course not," Rouge said tartly. "I never lose precious objects."

"Mister Omega, we could make a scrapbook!" Cream squeaked hurriedly, easily catching the robot's attention. Omega's fan whirred contemplatively.

"WE ARE SCRAPPING BOOKS?"

Cream giggled. "It's a way of saving memories! We can press a flower and stick on in your first page!"

She patted Shadow's arm. He obediantly set her down so she could skip over to Omega and tell him all about the art of scrapbooking. Vanilla set to helping Rouge unpack the groceries and the gift baskets, pleasantly surprised that the robot seemed to be taking a keen interest in her daughter's suggestion. After a minute Rouge tapped her hand. When she looked down, Rouge, placing her hand on one of the bags, flicked her thumb in Shadow's direction as if it was just how she opened bags. Vanilla let her eyes dance in that direction, catching Shadow staring somewhere around her dress with a knit to his brow.

He wanted to ask her something. He was deliberating on how to say it, or if he should. Usually when Shadow had that look he was about to say something that would make Vanilla feel a constriction around her chest and the sudden need to measure her breaths. She subtly bumped Rouge's shoulder and stepped over to the wall.

"Let's go outside?" she murmured.

Shadow's mouth opened. He glanced past her at Cream and Omega, his mouth slowly closing again. Vanilla stepped past and walked out to the porch swing. She took a seat on one side and waited.

It was the right call. Shadow took a few minutes before he came out and, with no small amount of hesitation, stood near the swing. Vanilla took clear note of the distance he'd purposefully set between them, but said nothing. It was his choice.

He floundered again, his hands gripped so tightly his brand new gloves started to shred at the fingertips and his ears pinned flatly to his head. Vanilla looked out at the sky and wondered, somewhere, behind all the clear blue and the clouds that looked like cotton, farther than any bird could fly, if the sun was hotter, or if it cold despite being so close to the star. She leaned towards cold. Her daughter, after all, was here on the planet surface, as were her friends, and Sonic and his friends, and now, too, Shadow.

"I..."

Vanilla folded her hands in her lap. She slightly inclined her head at him. Shadow gritted his teeth, no words coming out for a solid minute. Vanilla broke the silence for him.

"You do not have to tell me," she said gently. Red eyes that burned with a pained, yet gentle amber glow locked onto her. She smiled back. "I will wait until you are ready. If you never are, that is fine too."

His eyes shook. The amber glow grew in intensity, lighting orange rings around the irises. Vanilla knew that wasn't something the average person could do. Then again, neither could the average person break the sound barrier, summon hammers out of thin air, or be a genius at the tender age of 8.

"I," he said again, the word sounding like he was forcibly dragging it out of the depths of the ocean. Shadow paused, one pinned ear flicking upward slightly, then pressed on. "Have you. Ever. Seen death?"

Vanilla nodded.

"Violent, bloody death?"

She shook her head. Shadow looked at his hands, and as her eyes followed she saw red sparks crackling around his fists.

"They died... because I exist. None of them deserved that."

He looked back up and met her eyes.

"You don't deserve that. You and Cream... I don't... I can't," he whispered, voice cracking just a little bit. Vanilla suppressed the strong urge to leap up and pull him into a tight hug. Instead she waited as he continued, his voice now flat and slightly monotone. "The more you don't know about me, the better chance that G.U- that..."

He stopped again, taking a few breaths.

"I can't heal the dead," he finally said.

Vanilla stared at him, studying the way he stood. He was defaulting back to a military rest position, hands linking behind his back and his head stiffly turned away.

"If I ordered you to stay," she began slowly, watching his quills rise and his shoulders tense, "would you?"

The expression he cast her was nothing short of horrified. Vanilla stood from the swing and knelt in front of him instead, resting her hands on her lap.

"I will never do that to you," she vowed solemnly. "If you feel like you have to put distance between us, then I will respect your decision. However." She reached out her hand, placing it on his cheek. Shadow seemed too frozen in place to so much as flinch. "However," she said again, much more gently, "you will always have a place to return to here."

"Don't," Shadow croaked.

Vanilla moved to withdraw her hand. Shadow grabbed it back, then clung to it with both of his own, his grip so tight and desperate, yet loose enough that she could wiggle her hand free at any time. How could anyone see a child this sweet as a threat?

"Do you want to leave?"

Shadow shut his eyes. "I don't have a choice."

"Do you want to leave?"

"...No..."

"Then don't."

He squeezed her hand, his eyes flying back open. They were damp, making the red and orange glow turn glossy despite the glare he was attempting to cast. "I don't have a choice. I'm- they own me. I'm not a person, I'm a... monster. I don't... deserve to..."

He trailed off, staring at her face. Vanilla was quite well aware of how her grip on his hands had tightened and her stare turning arctic.

"Whoever told you that," she said lowly, "was neither observational nor astute. Monsters are a myth meant to scare others into obediency. They are created by imaginations out of fear. Monsters would not watch over Cream. Monsters would not befriend chao, nor cry over the dead. Monsters do not attempt to put themselves in danger for others. I would not invite a monster into my home."

Shadow's cheek was getting damp. "B. But... you don't..."

"I know enough. I do not need to be as smart as Tails to know when someone has a kind soul."

Grief filled his face. She felt guilty as her words struck some kind of memory in his head. His mouth opened and closed for a minute before he choked out his question.

"How, how do you... tell if someone has a soul?"

Vanilla pressed her free hand against his chest. "It's in their actions and their words. It's in their personality and what makes them them. It works with their heart to help them decide what is right." She paused for a second. "...Technically speaking... it is just a philosophical concept to define the emotional and intellectual aspects of a person."

"You... think I have one?"

"I know you do."

Shadow looked down and shut his eyes. Vanilla removed her hand from his chest and placed it on his other cheek, rubbing her thumb over the damp fur to smooth it out.

"...You'll still be in danger," he finally said.

"Isn't that my choice?" she replied.

He gave her a pleading look. A mischievous smile took place on her face.

"Besides," she said cheerfully, "what makes you think I would just let someone walk into my home like that?"

Chapter Text

If anyone had asked, Knuckles would have said that he only cared about his duty to Angel Island and to protect the Master Emerald. As he sat and watched dutifully, day after day, he never admitted to anyone how lonely it got with no one to talk to. And he never really thought about it, either, until Sonic and Tails had shown up one day and Eggman had tricked him into fighting them. Then his life had been a whirlwind of adventure, though he certainly wouldn't have called it that at the time, and once it was over it left him with thoughts.

Protecting the Master Emerald was his life. His sworn duty, passed down from a people now dead and gone. Knuckles held onto it with a desperate grip, knowing fully well that when he too passed, no one would remember the life of the last Guardian. His people would fade away into obscurity. He would be lucky to get so much as a gravestone.

Knuckles would never admit out loud that he actually appreciated Sonic and Tails. He refused to say even to himself that he trusted them. And he most certainly didn't have the notion that maybe, just maybe- they would be the ones to make sure he rested peacefully.

That was, unless Sonic got them both killed.

Which was why he broke Sonic's nose the moment the two came up to visit.

"Dude!" Sonic hissed, holding his face with both hands to try to staunch the bloodflow. "What the heck!"

Knuckles folded his arms and loomed over him. Tails anxiously waved his hands, unsure what to do or if he ought to get between them. Sonic glared up, and Knuckles met his eyes with a scowl.

"I thought you were the fastest thing alive?"

The look on Sonic's face changed. The way Knuckles had presented his statement was no mistake- it was a blatant challenge, something Sonic could never resist. They'd known each other long enough to know exactly how to push each others' buttons, and while Knuckles would never admit that Sonic was better at it than he was, that didn't mean that Knuckles was unable to fight back.

Sonic stood up straight and wiped off the blood, waving Tails' anxiously offered handkerchief away. He lowered into a fighting stance and cast Knuckles a grin that was somewhere between angry and cocky.

"So we're testing this again?" Sonic taunted, bouncing from his heels to his toes. "What, losing last time wasn't enough?"

Tails already had his hands in the air and was walking away. "Okay. Call me when you're done."

Tails ended up having to wait for a few hours. By the time whatever bug had gotten into Knuckles' system was out, both the hedgehog and echidna were covered in scratches, bites, bruises, patches of torn fur, mud, and other such things to show for it. The duo sat down heavily near Tails and chugged the water he'd set out for them. Tails didn't dare ask who the winner was. Knuckles admired his wisdom. Sonic finished off his water bottle and gave him a steady, much calmer look and voiced his question.

"While I'm always down for a friendly bit of roughhousing... what's on your mind?"

Knuckles scoffed and grumbled into his water bottle. Sonic squinted at him.

"You... might be... a... bee?"

Knuckles slammed down the water bottle and threw him a glare. "I said, Mighty told me! About you needing stitches!"

Sonic's jaw slightly dropped. His eyes softened, but only slightly, and the expression was quickly hidden behind a cocky smirk. "Aww, what's this? Knuckie-poo was worried about lil ol' me?"

Knuckles raised his fist. "Want your nose broken again?"

Sonic batted his eyes back. "Promise?"

Knuckles swatted him none too gently. Sonic squawked indignantly, but he got the point and held his hands up defensively. Knuckles glanced at Tails, who wasn't looking at either of them in favor of working on a black and red watch, then back to Sonic.

"How am I supposed to react?" he blurted out, waving his hands in the air. Tails set a lump of clay in front of him, and Knuckles grabbed it without hesitation, promptly tossing it between his fists before working it on a flat stone Tails also offered him. "How, Sonic? When I get a call from Mighty saying that you showed up looking like you lost a battle with a shredding machine and that Vanilla was taking you all to the hospital for- stitches and for blood transfumagogging-"

"Transfusions," Tails mumbled.

"How am I supposed to react?" Knuckles demanded.

He poured his frustration into the clay, working it into a pliable form in no time. Tails seemed to have come completely prepared for him to have some sort of mental breakdown, because pottery tools and a portable throwing wheel appeared in front of him in a flash. Knuckles threw himself into the work, dribbling a bit of water on it and throwing a flat, wide container. He took the hand tools and began the careful process of carving out the indentations, using the delicacy as a method for controlling his breath. He sliced off the top to make a lid and set it aside to dry. When he turned back, there was another large lump of clay waiting for him. It seemed Knuckles was about to be firing a lot of terra cotta.

Sonic was silent, for once, which left Knuckles stuck reiterating the thoughts that had been boiling inside him ever since he'd gotten the news. Mighty had called him with a cracked voice and told him only what he'd known at the time, and Knuckles was left for days thinking that Sonic was fighting for his life in a hospital. He'd finally gotten the update from Amy that- most everyone- was on the mend, but at that point it had been nearly four days of Knuckles pacing around the Master Emerald and cursing himself.

Knuckles had only ever known his duty. His purpose to protect the Master, to keep it from falling into the hands of those that would use it for evil, to keep it from being used like it was in the past by his own ancestors.

And then this damn hedgehog. Barged into his life. Taunted him for being gullible. Helped him get the Emerald back. Learned about his history. Opened Chaos' heart, and Knuckles had no choice but to trust him. He kept telling himself that their truce was temporary, that Sonic would go away and he'd be left in peace again, but that was never the case.

Because Sonic kept. Coming. Back.

If asked, Knuckles would say that he didn't care. Sonic and Tails didn't ask. They just showed up uninvited, barged into his life, and wormed their way into his conscience. So when they got hurt, and he was still up on Angel Island-

Knuckles threw the clay so hard it exploded. "Do you know what it's like to have to wait?" he bellowed. Tails flinched, hard, and Knuckles took a breath to collect both himself and the clay. "Do you know," he said again, much slower, "how it feels to be stuck? All I hear- for days! is that you- and Tails- and Amy- are in the hospital, or could be dead, and I'm stuck here! How! How, Sonic, how am I supposed to feel? Knowing full well that you could have died- and I was here, sitting around and enjoying the sunshine? Of course I was worried!"

He glared at the lump of clay. A second pair of hands appeared and started kneading it with unpracticed motions. Knuckles squinted at Sonic, who stuck out his tongue as if concentrating with all his might. After a few moments the hedgehog wiggled the clay at him.

"Man, you make this stuff look like putty. This is a lot harder than it looks!"

"You're not putting your weight into it," Knuckles said. He took the clay back and kneaded it much slower for Sonic- and now Tails, too- to watch. "It's not quite like bread dough. You have to work it to get the air pockets out of the clay or it will explode in the kiln."

Sonic took the clay back and tried working it again. Knuckles nodded his approval at the improvement. A small bump at his side caused him to look down and see that Tails had dragged his tools and project over to sit next to him, slightly leaning on his side. Knuckles wasn't familiar with a whole lot of contact, not after being alone for so long, but he knew what the gesture was supposed to mean. He ruffled the fox's ears, smiling with slight embarrassment as Tails shook off the clay particles stuck in his fur.

"You know," Sonic said, once again leaning back and holding out the clay lump, "I don't think I have the patience for this. It's so repetitive. I'd have gone stir-crazy if I were you, being cooped up here all the time."

Tails nodded his concurrence. Knuckles scoffed.

"You'd have jumped right off the island the first time it floated over solid ground."

Sonic nodded. "Yup, and then the Master Emerald would have either gone with me or I'd have just left it where it is. I don't know how you do it."

Knuckles paused and squinted at him. "...Do what?"

Sonic gestured around them. "The patience, the island, the routine of it all. I hate that 'duty' stuff! It feels like chains to me. You, though... I don't know how you do it. And you do it all yourself, not even taking shifts or anything."

"Because there's no one else here."

"Yeah, because there's no one else here," Sonic pressed, meeting his eyes. "It's not like you can just drop everything and come running. If you had help..."

Knuckles scowled at him. "Are you trying to get me to hire someone? To- what, be a substitute guardian? My people-"

"Aren't here anymore. And no, not substitute for you. To help you. Just like your people would."

Knuckles had to look away. He was suddenly reminded of a clumsy girl with a similar duty to his own, whose armor didn't quite fit despite the size of her heart. Her people, though he didn't get to know them quite so well, had felt similar to his own. They trusted her, but she could still fall back on them if she needed answers.

The North Star Islands had been a sharp reminder yet again just how alone Knuckles really was. If only he could have asked about the story behind Chaos instead of finding out through Tikal. If only he could have asked about his history in more detail instead of learning from ruins and old records. If only, if only, if only. There was no use asking for something he couldn't fix.

"...I'll think about it," he grumbled.

Sonic wiggled the clay. Knuckles swiped it from him and kneaded it again to warm it back up.

"By the way," Sonic said lazily, "Shadow's in a coma."

Knuckles threw the clay at Sonic's face.

In the end, Knuckles had to agree with Sonic's assessment once he got the full story. Tails, Amy and Espio had made it a point to plan a visit to Angel Island on the same day, whereupon they laid out something like a conspiracy board and put together each of their respective teams' stories. Knuckles was floored by multiple information bombs at once. There was a gigantic lizard on the Ark that looked like Chaos? It could telepathically manipulate Shadow and control chaos energy? Metal Sonic had clones and could turn into what? What do you mean Shadow didn't need the emeralds to go super?

Espio was just as flabbergasted as he was. Then he mentioned that the Chaotix had a job that would be taking a serious portion of their attention that he couldn't tell them about, but was very keen on getting Tails and Amy's side of what happened back on the Ark a few months ago. Knuckles, however, was more concerned with another fact that was getting blatantly clear:

Things were getting more dangerous with each adventure. Both times Sonic had nearly died, Knuckles was absent from the situation- and while he knew Sonic would never blame him for that, it still left a nagging feeling in his gut.

What if what was happening was bigger than just Sonic and Eggman? What if Knuckles very seriously needed to step out and go help? Most of the people he could... trust... with the Master Emerald... would most likely be in the fray already. The nearest person Knuckles could think of was Mighty. But Mighty had his own life and Ray was still young yet. Would they be willing to come up and... help out?

More what-ifs. Knuckles bit down on his tongue and sent Mighty a message, suddenly very grateful that Tails had thought to give all of their friends some form of communicator. The response was immediate and positive, almost as if Mighty had been expecting him to ask. He even said that Ray was curious about the history of the Knuckles tribe. If that wasn't a shot to the heart... But, at the same time, Knuckles had to let the smile of relief spread across his face.

Whatever would come next, whatever new dangers they'd face, they wouldn't face it alone.

Chapter Text

Amy showed up to Vanilla's house expecting to take her usual shift watching over Cream and Shadow while Vanilla actually got some sleep or managed to go shopping. She did not expect to find Cream and the chao strangely absent, all of the windows and the doors open, and an air of levity about the place. She peeked in the front door and knocked with some nervousness, no longer certain what to expect. Vanilla leaned backwards out of one of the rooms down the hall, her face lighting up brightly on seeing Amy awkwardly peeking around the door herself.

"Good afternoon!" Vanilla called. "I'm terribly sorry, Amy, I forgot you were coming today!"

"Um." Amy gestured at the house. "Are you... spring cleaning?"

Vanilla laughed. She backed up and walked over to talk properly. With her in full view Amy could see the mop in her hands and the apron she was wearing, which explained the state of the house. She looked happier than Amy had seen her in- well, since the whole event with the chaonapping, and what happened after. The bags that had been growing under her eyes for the past month weren't completely gone, but she looked refreshed and had an almost girlish energy to her.

"Something like that! It's a lovely day for it."

"Did... something happen?"

The missing aspects of the house finally hit her. Amy gave a gasp and looked around wildly, then back at Vanilla.

"He's awake?"

Vanilla held a finger up to her lips with a smile. "Yes," she said softly, "he has been for a few days now."

Amy paused. She had to force down her excitement as she took note of Vanilla's demeanor. "You didn't... tell anyone? And he's not here, so- but- why? We were all waiting and worrying!"

"Why did you stop proposing to Sonic?"

She opened her mouth only to close it again. Vanilla often had a way with words, saying things that seemed like a tangent only for them to be relevant to the current situation. So Amy tried to follow her thoughts and find the connection between the two.

When she was younger, she'd often tried pushing her feelings on Sonic. If she was straightforward about it, she'd figured her feelings would get across- and, naïvely, that Sonic would reciprocate. She'd even insisted that they were a couple and dragged him along on her escapades. Sometime just before the ARK incident, though, she started noticing how his expression would fall whenever she showed up, or how his energy would start dropping around her. And then he'd started avoiding her, even going so far as to book it the moment she and Tails broke into prison to free him.

When the whole thing was over, she'd taken up boxing. Knuckles gave her pointers on occasion, but the main thing she'd begun learning from it was patience. Love, as it turned out, was quite a bit like a boxing match; she had to take the time to read her opponent, to learn how they thought and wait for the right time to strike. If she kept pushing and pushing without backing up once in a while, she would lose the fight.

Amy didn't want Sonic to avoid her. She didn't want any of her friends to feel like she was overwhelming or draining on them. So she'd started taking a step back and letting life happen more gradually instead. The results were instantly gratifying, even if they hurt at first; Sonic kept looking askance at her the first few times as if expecting to be bombarded with affection, then poorly hiding his relief when it didn't come. Then his energy started coming back. And he stopped running away the instant he saw her.

"Shadow needs patience," she realized out loud. "Or he'd run away."

Vanilla chuckled. "Well. He already tried. If it wasn't for Rouge and Omega he might have collapsed in the woods somewhere."

Amy groaned. What was it with hedgehog boys and needing watched over?

She caught the fond look on Vanilla's face and frowned, suddenly feeling a twist of guilt in her stomach.

"It's not just the boys, you know," Vanilla said, her voice holding no judgement- only warmth. Amy felt her face start to heat up with mild embarrassment. "I worry about you, too. Anymore it's hard to know if I should expect a day like today or prepare an extra first aid kit and a gurney. I know," she added, cutting off Amy's interjection, "it is not any fault of yours. ...I simply wish to see all of you come back in one piece."

Amy understood that. She swallowed back the lump of emotion forming in her throat, well aware that Vanilla treated her somewhat like a niece or a protégé. There was a distance that the older woman kept between them, a distance that Amy wasn't too keen to close.

She knew Vanilla would adopt her in a heartbeat if she asked. But she didn't want to replace her parents, and she'd been on her own for long enough that it... just didn't feel right. And Vanilla seemed to understand that distance extremely well, maintaining it with not just Amy, but with Sonic and Tails as well. Knuckles was more like that kid that could just walk in the door and eat out of the fridge because he was a trusted friend of Cream's- not that he ever did, since he never left Angel Island, but it was the principle of the thing.

But whether Vanilla was a friend or a mother didn't matter in the end, because the love she had for them was still there, and that meant both answering Amy's awkward 2:00 A.M. questions and being there to put a bowl of soup in front of their weary faces.

Amy swallowed down both the guilt and the overwhelming warmth she felt. Vanilla gave a fond, knowing chuckle.

"He's at his house," she said. "Cream went over to play."

"Is he staying there now?" Amy asked, then hesitated. "Is- is that wise? I mean, he did sleep for a month..."

She caught the way Vanilla refrained from biting her lip, the look passing over her eyes and the words left unsaid. It was an alien expression for Vanilla of all people to make.

"...How much do you know?" Amy said carefully.

"More and less than I would like."

Amy couldn't help the wry smirk on her lips. She didn't want to do this dance. She also didn't want to just go and give up Shadow's secrets if Vanilla didn't know them. The look in Vanilla's eye said that the older woman felt much the same way- which meant that this was about to be a very messy and convoluted conversation if they didn't break through the ice somehow.

"Did Cream share what Shadow told us about Liza?"

Vanilla's smile grew bitter and she nodded. Amy's shoulders sagged.

"Okay," she mumbled. "Well that took less time than I thought it would. That's really all the more I know, at least... for now. I can put two and two together, what with Liza having been... a great big lizard, but we only really got to know Liza for like ten minutes at most before it-"

She swallowed and shook herself.

"-Anyway! Shadow has some serious healing abilities, but- are you sure it's wise to let him be on his own so soon?"

"To be honest, no," Vanilla answered gently. "But he is not alone. Rouge is there, and I ensured that Omega knows enough about how to cook eggs that he will not be burning the house down anytime soon."

...And that wasn't exactly comforting, but it was better than nothing, and Rouge did pick all of them up at the end of the fight and send them all home. So instead of worrying about it, she put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at Vanilla, who gave her an approving look that seemed slightly grateful for the change of topic.

"Do I need to bring over my baking gear?"

Vanilla laughed and shooed her away. Amy headed out for Shadow's house with a snicker of her own. It quickly faded into a sigh as she walked, her thoughts dragged down by the memory of the fight.

The whole event had left her with bittersweet memories. She wasn't the only one, either. Sonic, true to form for himself, was often nowhere to be seen, but when he was around he was just a little bit clingier towards Tails, whether he was lounging around in the workshop or dragging the other out to go fishing or camping or both at the same time. Tails, on the other hand, was more devoted towards working on his machinery than ever, quoting the failure of his tiny shield array or whatever it was as an excuse to work himself to the bone for days on end before crashing so hard he slept for sixteen hours in a row. Omega certainly didn't help Tails' sleep schedule. The robot seemed to have grown slightly attached to Tails- mostly for his eye for upgrades and repairs- and the first week had Tails repairing it over and over again as it threw itself against the nearest batch of badniks until it was completely out of any and all ammunition.

The Chaotix hadn't really been seen in a while. They hadn't really been too involved in the whole Metal Sonic affair, either- something Amy was fairly grateful for. It sounded like they had an awful lot of work to do right now, and she hoped they were getting paid fairly for once. She didn't want Charmy to have gone through the same traumatic experience poor Cream had.

Speaking of Cream, she was probably the one that was hit the hardest by Liza's death. Every time Amy came over to help watch over Shadow's comatose form Cream had seemed more depressed than the last, her eyes sunken and dark, and she clung to Shadow's hand with a desperation that was only broken when Vanilla came by to make her do something else or when Amy tried to pull her into a game with the chao.

They all did their best to keep the mood up for Cream's sake. Sonic had the best results- of course he did- what with dragging her out of the house and going for a run with her on his back, often returning Cream giggling and covered head to toe in flower crowns. Amy came in close second with asking things about the chao and Edge's progress into turning into an adult. Edge was turning into a proper adult already, a dark purple color to its bubbly little body and the clear two-pronged horns of a fly chao in the making. Neither Amy or Cream could really figure out why a chao that hung around Shadow was turning into a flying type, so that ended up turning into a fun little investigation that took up a lot of time and attention. Cream would have a good day, only to return and curl up at Shadow's side until she was forced to bed.

Amy was really, really glad he'd woken up. Doubly more so when she rounded the path and heard the infectious giggles of a little girl alongside some sort of waltzy music.

She turned the corner and froze mid-step at the sight of Shadow dancing.

Ballroom dancing. With Cream. Who was maybe half his size. On his front lawn, with a portable speaker behind them. Rouge was lounging on the porch swing, completely immersed in a magazine of some kind.

Shadow gave Cream a twirl and caught her in one arm, eliciting another giggle from her before he heaved her upright and took her other hand once more. Amy was stuck rooted to the spot with her jaw dropped. As she gawked, Shadow gave Cream another gentle twirl and tossed her in the air, catching her as if she weighed nothing and setting her down with a bow right as the song ended.

"You know how to dance?" Amy blurted out, much louder than she intended.

Shadow's quills rose and his ears flicked backwards. Amy quickly cast him a wide grin and skipped closer as he flicked one of his rings and slightly scuffed his shoe.

"I'm... a bit rusty," he mumbled.

"Rusty?" Amy squeaked. "I can't- me next."

"...Pardon?"

"Me next! Sonic doesn't know how to dance with a partner and Knuckles has three left feet!"

"...I don't think that's physically possible," Shadow said slowly, causing Rouge to poorly hide her explosive snort behind the magazine.

Cream giggled hard and waved. Amy waved a hello back, then held her arms out to Shadow. He hesitantly reached back and took up the dancing position with her. Cream happily set the next song up, and they were off at a nice brisk pace. Rouge peered over the top of her magazine to see Cream trying to mimic the moves with Cheese, who was more than happy to indulge her, and quietly snapped a photo with her phone. As for Amy, she matched Shadow step for step, even throwing him for a twirl.

"You aren't rusty at all!" she giggled.

"Hm," Shadow replied, pulling the dance to a close, then letting out a startled puff of air when Amy trapped him in a bone-crushing hug. She pulled back and hastily wiped away any trace of tears that might have gathered in her eyes.

"I missed you."

Shadow glanced back at Rouge, who gave him a I told you so look, then back at Amy.

"...How does someone have 'three left feet'?" he asked instead, sending all of them into a fit of giggles.

Chapter Text

"Professor?

"Hm?"

"Why... was I made?"

The Professor's hum was quiet, strained, with undertones Shadow didn't even know where to begin with parsing. He didn't even look up from the microscope.

Shadow, still considerably fresh from the tube, was unsure what that meant. He had an awful lot of knowledge programmed into his head; he knew how to walk, he knew how to talk and to run; he knew what stars were and what the planet below was; he knew that Professor Gerald Robotnik was his creator and that he could never disobey his orders, and that protecting Maria was never a question. But there was so much he didn't know, such as what emotions were or what the subtle looks on the scientists' faces when looking at him meant. He didn't know how to interpret the slight pinch of the Professor's lips or the lines in his forehead.

The Professor ran a hand over his head and then through one end of his mustache. He sat back in his chair, still facing forward, away from Shadow, who stood stock still with his hands clenched at his sides.

"I want to help humanity," the Professor finally said. "The secret of immortality offers up so many scientific advancements in the field of medicine. Curing Maria..."

Shadow understood. Maria came first. Always.

The Professor sighed, and Shadow felt a massive weight press on the old man's shoulders despite the lack of anything physically there.

"A shield," Professor Gerald Robotnik mumbled, "to block the sword hanging from the ceiling."

"You... haven't asked," Shadow said, eons of chewing on his cheek and biting his tongue finally over as he ground out the words into the madeleine Amy had finally managed to help Omega bake.

Amy's head slowly turned to look at him from where she was wiping whipped cream off of Cheese's face. Her eyes held something complex that he couldn't decipher, but she wasn't able to speak up before Cream did, huddling up closer to his side and clinging to him as if scared he would run.

He couldn't really blame her.

"Did you want us to?" Cream asked meekly.

The dark thought that a six year old girl was more emotionally aware towards him than most of the ARK had been flashed through his mind. Cream would have put an awful lot of the scientists to shame in less than two seconds. Then again... Shadow himself wasn't all that emotionally aware, having to learn what the feelings buzzing in his head and his chest and his skin were from Maria instead of the pre-programmed information in his brain. He was all of a sudden once again aware down to his bones that he didn't belong on a picnic blanket, eating cookies with chao and fr- and other people; he belonged in a lab or a test chamber, and someday on the battlefield.

He chewed on his cheek again.

"You don't have to," Amy said, her voice quiet, but strong.

Maria was like that, even during her bad days. Her voice would hold warmth with a conviction he hoped one day he'd be able to emulate.

The problem was, he wasn't sure if he could say something now that he had the choice. Before, it had been an unspoken rule he'd put on himself: no knowledge, no blood spilled. But then Liza had been dropped on them, Amy's back had been torn to literal shreds, Tails had clear bruises from being choked, and Sonic-

He'd circle back to that. Eventually. Maybe never.

Some of his secrets had been torn away from him without his choice, which led him to question the basis for his logic. How much knowledge was enough to be dangerous? What was the stopping point for G.U.N. before they turned from leering to lethal? Would they even bother to interrogate Amy and Vanilla first? They certainly hadn't bothered with Professor Poeff, but Poeff had chosen to stay behind and shut things down on a top secret project, and Vanilla was just a citizen.

Tails knew more than he let on, and somehow the fox hadn't even shared that information with Sonic, if his reactions in Frog Forest were any indication. As much as Shadow knew Sonic would throw himself into fire to keep Tails safe, the memory of Sonic's battered, limp body didn't give him confidence.

"...No," Shadow said, feeling his face scrunch up uncertainly. "Yes? I... I don't know."

Would knowing they had a functionally unkillable weapon with them have changed how they'd fought Metal Sonic? Shadow would not have thought anything of taking the frontline, especially after Liza had worn the stupid machine down. Sure, removing his rings for so long drained his reservoirs, but Shadow could have taken Sonic's injuries and walked away with no issue.

Sonic couldn't.

And he shouldn't have had to. That was what Shadow was made for.

"Mother says it's not polite to pry."

Amy nodded. "Would it help to start small?" she offered, giving him a bright smile when he glanced at her. "Don't start with the big things. Start little, like- what did you do for fun? Or where you learned how to dance."

"On the ARK."

Amy snorted. Shadow ghosted a smile back.

"Maria," he said, much softer. "My... sister." He swallowed, ignoring the curious glint to Amy's eyes and focusing on the space near Cream's gloves instead. "She loved dancing. Not as much as she loved the planet, but... on good days, she'd find a way to change the intercom systems to play music. Especially on days when it would annoy certain scientists."

Oh, Williams had hated Maria with a passion. Maria never let him forget it, playing the innocent little girl until the very end. She had the art of hiding behind Gerald down to a science just to avoid his ire. And Williams, the bastard, couldn't do anything back to the project leader's precious little granddaughter, not like he could to Shadow.

Shadow couldn't really remember how Williams was... did he leave? Something happened, and then... Williams wasn't around anymore.

It was Maria who taught him how to speak again after that. Shadow didn't remember why he forgot.

"Was she a lizard too?"

Shadow's laugh surprised even himself. Cream blushed and hid her face in his side. "No," he assured through chuckles, "human. Though she would have loved the ability to climb walls. The pranks she could have pulled with that are endless."

Amy and Cream giggled. Shadow leaned back a little and looked at the sandwich in his hand, allowing himself to relax just a tiny bit. A gentle breeze wafted past, bringing with it the scent of sugar, warm bread, and meat.

Shadow didn't really feel hunger. Technically speaking, he didn't even need food in the first place. If he had a stable chaos energy source nearby he would last forever. The first time he had ever felt what it was like to be hungry, starving to the point where his stomach was endless, was when Liza had poured its mind into his own. Despite his own physical circumstances, Shadow was suddenly intimately aware of what it felt like when the sensation of having one's stomach attempt to eat itself out of desperation was being passed to him from one body to another. Later Shadow would look back and curse himself for missing the obvious signs.

It started with the bread. Foreign. Not food. Next was the cheese. It smelled interesting enough and close enough to meat to do. Lettuce was what food ate.

And then there was the meat. It was soft, juicy and tender. Overcooked. Not enough blood. Cream said something, and that- was the right amount of raw.

Shadow pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, suddenly feeling sick. His eyes flicked up to see Amy looking at him with concern. She opened her mouth and said something, and the words that filtered into Shadow's ears didn't meet the movement of her lips.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" the Voice said.

hunger, hunger, hunger. Meat, meat, meat meat raw meat bloody juicy fresh eat eat eat eat

He didn't register moving. One second he was there on the picnic blanket, easing up and allowing his mind to open for once in his life, the next he was in the woods throwing up bile. The Voice was still there in his mind, cold and deep and unlike anything he'd ever heard before.

"Did you forget the promise?"

Promise? The promise... what was the...

"The time has come to fulfil that promise."

Shadow whirled before he was touched, his fist colliding with something. It took a solid two seconds before the yelp registerred in his ears and the world was back into focus. He froze where he was, fist still clenched tight and body still ready for a fight.

"Sonic?" he asked, voice cracked and hoarse.

Blue came back out of the trees, face a little bruised but no further harm done. He raised his hands and slowed down once he was a little distance away.

"Okay," Sonic said cheerfully, "I did call your name, but touching is a no-go. I can work with that. So uh, is there another way I should get your attention? Keep talking, maybe?"

"What... why are you here?"

"Uh, well, I was here to ask about the upcoming festival, but then Amy and Cream were worried about you, so..."

"...Festival?"

Sonic rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle that bordered on sounding nervous. "Yeah, uh, the Fire in the Sky festival. It only comes once every 50 years, but the Black Comet's coming early this year, so I was wondering if you- Shadow?"

Three orange eyes faintly overlaid over Sonic's head, pupils slitted like an amphibian.

Shadow shook his head. The eyes disappeared.

"How soon," he croaked.

"I mean, if you're worried about being around people, we can take it slow. We could visit stalls one at a time and go retreat to a less crowded area so it's not all at once-"

Shadow nearly growled at him. "No, how soon is it coming?"

"The festival? It's in like-"

"The comet!"

"-a week," Sonic said, pausing to squint at him. "You know, you don't have to go. If it's about social anxiety, we could just bring you souvenirs instead, if that helps."

The world seemed to narrow in, the shadows of the trees close in on him. The edges of his vision turned hazy and somewhat black.

"No," he whispered.

"Or we could not," Sonic said quickly, holding up his hands placatingly. "It was just an idea, something light and fun to get you used to being planetside. There's no pressure to go, okay?"

"Danger..."

Sonic's ears flicked. "...Is it about G.U.N.? Being seen? I bet Rouge could find a way to disguise you."

Shadow shook his head again. His head- he hadn't noticed the growing pressure behind his eyes before, but now it was rapidly increasing. Hunger pains that weren't his flashed through his body again before he realized what was happening and pushed it away. The orange eyes flickered across the insides of his eyelids.

"That's okay," Sonic said, still not getting it. "Like I said, it was just a suggestion. Maybe someday we'll get to go, though, yeah? I think you might enjoy the fireworks, and they sell pretty cool things you don't often see. It's a time of joy and whimsy, that kind of stuff."

Shadow unclipped one of his rings and teleported.

Chapter Text

The worst news always seemed to come when Knuckles was having a good day.

He was in the process of setting out an old shattered piece of something ceramic when he felt the shift in the ambient chaos energy. He'd come to find that Shadow always had a certain... zing to him when he used chaos control. It flowed naturally, smoothly, when it was done with a chaos emerald, but this time he could tell even before the hedgehog appeared that there was no emerald present. There was a presence of tumultuous strength boiling away with so many emotions it almost hurt- and then it disappeared as soon as it came, Shadow clipping his ring back onto his left hand.

Knuckles met his eyes. Shadow swallowed harshly and looked away.

He was pale, tense and ready to fight- fight or run, Knuckles realized. Something happened that made him so uneasy that it showed past his usually stoic demeanor and had all of his quills raised defensively.

Knuckles was on his feet in an instant.

"What happened?" he demanded quietly.

Shadow gave a slight start, covered his mouth with a hand, and held the other out to prevent him from coming any closer. His face somehow became both paler and green at the same time. He took a few slow, carefully measured breaths, and Knuckles felt his own hackles raise at how vulnerable he looked.

"I- I don't know why I came here," Shadow gritted out. "This- ugh-"

"Who am I punching."

Shadow blinked at him.

"...What?"

"Who am I punching?" Knuckles repeated, his voice a deep, pissed off growl. "Was it Rouge? I don't care if it was Sonic, I'll punch him too if you want."

"What- no- I mean Sonic was just there, but-"

Knuckles cracked his fingerbones and reached for his communicator.

"It wasn't Sonic!"

Knuckles paused and squinted at him. Shadow was still pale, but the moment of careful breathing had done a bit of good for his complexion. Knuckles took a deep breath in through his nose and held it for a few seconds before exhaling slowly, tempering his fury for the moment.

"Alright," he said, "but something clearly happened. Is it bad?"

"It's-" Shadow gripped his head with both hands. Knuckles swore he could see the veins in his arms popping from just how hard he was grabbing his own quills. "I don't-"

Ah.

...Well this was awkward.

Knuckles wasn't exactly the type to do emotions. -Not that he didn't have or experience them, just that he wasn't good at connecting with them. Especially not. With. Other people. Perks of being the only person on a floating mythical island that no one knew about: nobody else was there.

Unfortunately, that also meant that Knuckles' social skills were... lacking.

-And it wasn't like he was intent on changing that anytime soon, really. Knuckles had a job to do, and- well, and now he was going to have Mighty and Ray start helping out, so he guessed he was going to have to learn some skills whether he liked it or not, and he most certainly was not going to like it. Knuckles preferred his problems to be solved by punching- nice and simple and over with in less than a minute. Emotions were Sonic's thing.

All that to say, Knuckles saw the panic attack coming and had no idea what to do.

He defaulted to punching.

"Do you want to spar?"

"Fuck, right, that's a thing- please."

Yup. Punching had yet to fail him after all.

It was a long, rough spar.

Even not using any chaos abilities, Shadow hit like a tank. He did not fight like a warrior, did not use any kind of code of honor like Knuckles' tribe had preached. Shadow fought like a weapon of war, using the dirt, using every part of his body, using his surroundings, using anything he could to get the upper hand.

He fought like a cornered beast.

Knuckles suddenly felt like he understood this stranger from space a lot more than he wanted to. He could see the training in Shadow's movements, especially in the moments when he went for Knuckles' throat and then seemed to remember where he was and left himself wide open instead.

He hadn't known, a month and a half ago at this point, that when he'd said Shadow was afraid of breaking something, he was more correct than he'd meant to be. Knuckles thought about the blood on Shadow's stasis pod. He thought about how Shadow didn't know chaos energy came in types despite breathing it. He thought about how Shadow said he wasn't meant to keep things, how delicate he was when handling already shattered pieces of pottery, how cautiously he stepped around the others. Knuckles thought of Rouge- an agent of G.U.N.- wanting to speak to Shadow, alone.

Putting it all together like that, Knuckles was looking at someone that had been buried like a dark secret. It reminded him of Chaos and Tikal and how his tribe had reacted by hiding the Master Emerald away to keep it out of the wrong hands, except Shadow was a person and not an inanimate glowing magical rock. He wasn't a god that was sealed away by a panicking young girl. He was something else, something that came to Angel Island where Knuckles and the Master Emerald was, and not to steal it, but because he was panicked and unsure of himself.

Knuckles was not prepared to deal with this.

Knuckles didn't want to deal with this.

At the same time, Shadow had calmed down quite a bit after their tussle, and if any time was going to be good for getting to the bottom of whatever the heck was going on, it was probably now. Knuckles didn't do the icky squicky emotion thing, but he did waiting patiently even less, so it was probably time for the icky squicky emotion thing.

"So," Knuckles said. He didn't need to look to his right to see the hedgehog slightly stiffen again beside him. They were laying on the grass, having flopped down to stare at the evening sky in exhaustion. "Is this a one-time thing, or do I still gotta punch someone?"

He felt more than heard the tense sigh beside him.

"It's... this should be the only time," Shadow muttered. "I didn't- mean to intrude on you."

Knuckles cast him a side-eye and felt the urge to punch him.

"You know nobody comes up here, right?"

Shadow blinked back.

"Pardon?"

"My island is a giant floating myth with one resident. Even if Sonic came up here, which he does sometimes, I'm not exactly jumping out of my shoes to tell him about other peoples' problems. You can sit here being cryptic and avoid the topic, or you can just out with it and tell me what's going on that freaked you out."

"...I wasn't-"

"You were on the verge of ripping your own quills out," Knuckles interrupted tersely. "You didn't mistakenly chaos control up here at all. I'm willing to bet it's the Master Emerald's control you were seeking, even if you didn't realize it."

Shadow's breath caught. His eyes went wide, staring at Knuckles, and he could see the moment the gears clicked in the hedgehog's mind. Shadow sat up, placing a hand to his head.

"...You're right," he whispered. "The static is gone."

Knuckles slowly sat up as well, folding his hands in his lap. "What static?"

Shadow shut up immediately and kept his eyes trained in the distance. Knuckles managed not to reach over and strangle him, but just barely, if the creaking of his jaw muscles had anything to say about it. Instead he took a breath and doubled down on the strange glee that came strictly from knowing that there were people out there worse at handling emotions than himself and that they were currently floundering in a situation of their own making.

"Okay, fine. Don't tell me."

Shadow flinched. "I... don't know how to phrase it."

"I don't have the patience for fancy words anyway."

Shadow's mouth opened and shut again. Knuckles bit his tongue and waited. He ignored the little voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Sonic bragging about how the hedgehog was rubbing off on him. He would claim that he was getting his tactics from Tails until the day he died.

"...Would you... consider it weak, to admit fear?"

Knuckles answered immediately. "Of course it is."

Shadow's mouth twisted slightly and his eyes darkened, but Knuckles wasn't done.

"If you're admitting it to an enemy," he said, and Shadow turned slightly to look at him in confusion. "Admitting your fears to your allies is a different story. You can cover for each others' blind spots if you know your weak points. It can make small groups stronger."

"...What if they betray you?"

Knuckles faltered.

He looked at Shadow- really looked, taking in the eyes looking into the distance as if seeing something else, at how he was flicking his inhibitor rings, at how his fur was disheveled, but somehow pristine and lacking in any scratches or bruises despite Knuckles knowing he'd at least given the other a black eye. He remembered the way the ARK looked, a month and a half ago, with pieces of it floating off into the artificial gravity as if it had been torn apart from the inside. He remembered Shadow being afraid to break the things around him during training.

"I know what my purpose is."

"But you're still afraid of losing something."

"It won't matter in the end. I'm not someone who is meant to keep things."

Fighting, getting hurt- neither of those things scared Shadow. He wasn't like Sonic, who would throw taunts, who would whine about "low blows" as if their fights had pre-determined rules- who would worry about the other's health over the competition. Shadow used whatever was to his advantage to win.

"You're scared of losing your home," Knuckles realized, feeling as if he'd just unlocked the secret to some big mystery. "Was- is it G.U.N.?"

Shadow glared at him. "That's- not- I don't have a-"

Knuckles cut him off. "Not the place. If I lose Angel Island, I lose my home, but my duty isn't to the island. My home is, therefore, wherever the Master Emerald is. Whatever it is that you've found, you're in danger of losing it, aren't you?"

Shadow couldn't answer him. His eyes slowly widened as the words sunk in. Knuckles kept going, his mind now making the connections.

"And you're worried about betrayal, so you've lost it before- fuck, it was G.U.N., wasn't it? That's why the ARK was so banged up. Something happened that involved you directly."

He glanced at Shadow to look for confirmation. Shadow gave him an unamused glare back.

"No, go on," Shadow grumbled. "I'm curious to see how much more you're going to get by guesswork."

"There was blood on your stasis pod."

Shadow went pale. Knuckles groaned and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I told you I don't have the patience for fancy words," he mumbled apologetically.

"...At least you don't monologue."

Knuckles snorted. "Nah, no thanks. Eggman does that enough for all of us."

"Where did that name even come from?"

"Sonic."

"Of course it was."

"Yeah, it started out as an insult or something, and then I guess Eggman took it as his own or something. Nobody uses Doctor Robotnik anymore. I've uh, forgotten that it isn't his real name more than once, actually."

Shadow snorted. Knuckles totally didn't internally celebrate a victory. Shadow flicked the rings on his wrist again, and for a moment Knuckles thought he wasn't ever going to get a story out of him.

"I'm the result of a top secret project to discover immortality."

"Let's just pretend I know what those words mean. Carry on."

Shadow's hands now flickered with red energy, much to Knuckles' alarm. "It means that when G.U.N. decided their pet superweapon was too dangerous they shot everyone involved. If you bury your secrets, they don't come to light. Except they do, because you can't kill what can't die."

...Oh.

Yeah Knuckles was not qualified for this.

He couldn't even really reach for his communicator to call for help- Sonic, Amy, literally anyone else, because Shadow was talking to him and he'd pressed for this.

Karma. It had to be karma. For, uh. For laughing inwardly at Shadow struggling earlier.

Yeesh.

"My creator made a deal with an alien warlord," Shadow said, the energy in his hands turning from red to yellow and flickering up his arms, zapping anxiously through his quills and dancing around his eyes. "My si- my- the creature before me, was- a failure. It- do you know what lobster shell disease is?"

"What's a lobster?"

"Crustacean that never stops growing. It has a carapace- armor- that grows as an outer shell. If that shell gets infected, it can get lesions that cause the shell to attach to the lobster, so instead of being able to discard the armor, it grows too big inside of its own chitin and dies."

Tails! Where was Tails when Knuckles needed him!

"The Biolizard was like that," Shadow continued, unaware that Knuckles understood none of those words. "They- delcared it as a failure, called it aggressive, and it kept growing. It couldn't sustain its own body, but they'd gotten so close to immortality that it couldn't die immediately, either. So they just- locked it away, left it to die a slow, agonizing death of organ failure on its own, and then reached out to a passing comet and got DNA from an alien warlord in exchange for a promise. Except, by the way, the Biolizard was actually intelligent, and mildly telepathic. And since I'm partially made from the DNA of an alien hivemind race, so am I!"

Shadow sounded panicked. To be fair to him, so was Knuckles.

He didn't understand a word of what was going on. And also Shadow was fully glowing with yellow nervous energy, though Knuckles was starting to suspect it was a way of releasing pent up emotion in the same way that Sonic jittered in place.

"Eggman pulled it down from the ARK, and it dumped all of its emotions into me, and then decided it liked Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream, to the point that it fought Metal Sonic for them even though it was dying. Liza is dead. My sibling. It- it did a better job of protecting than I ever have. And now I'm getting hunger pains that aren't mine and mental static, and Sonic dumps the fact that by the way the alien hive is back on me, but it's too soon. I'm not- I'm not prepared for this. And... I... teleported to the island of a guardian."

Knuckles blinked, reeling from the massive information dump he'd just been given. "That's a bit of a topic switch."

Shadow looked at him, then at the island, then at him again. The sparks in his fur faded- as did the glow in his eyes, which. Wow. Knuckles didn't know they did that. "No, it's- you're the guardian."

"Um. Yes?"

"Knuckles."

"Yes??"

"You guard an island."

"I- yes!?"

"How do I protect a planet?"