Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If you told Shadow a month ago, chaos, even a few DAYS ago he would be traveling through the void of the Shatterverse with the hero of Green Hills dying in his arms, he wouldn’t have believed you.

But here he is, supporting the weight of his supposed arch-nemesis with an arm draped over his shoulder, in a mad dash through the void of space and time itself. Every step drawing them closer to home, and also one step deeper into the Mobian hero’s possible demise.

As they land on a ledge, Sonic lets out an exhausted yelp as his existence glitches again and he falls to a knee, eyes closing. Shadow’s eyes widen in shock as he watches the hero grow exponentially weaker, glancing at the distance between the hero and the view of Green Hill.

They have to keep moving.

Shadow acts quickly, hooking his right arm underneath Sonic's knees as he picks him up into his arms. The cobalt hedgehog’s head immediately falls limply against his chest, and Shadow couldn’t help but spare another worried glance before he took off running once more.

After a few moments, Sonic looks up at him with a soft expression, a smile creeping onto his face. “I never knew you were a hugger,” his ghostly voice murmurs wearily. This causes Shadows brain to short circuit, heart stuttering as annoyance digs at his chest. He was trying to save this idiot. Why is he making fun of him?

”Do you want me to save you or not??” He drawls. But the only response he gets is Sonic glitching in pain, the fading hedgehog’s body feeling practically nonexistent against his chest. Shadow watches Sonic’s eyes roll into the back of his head.

Panic pulls deeper into his chest, as he grips tighter at almost nothing. This is bad. He has to go faster.  

Shadow pushes forward as he works to close the gap between them and Green Hill. Why is it so far??

He launches them into open void air, scanning desperately for one more launching point between their location and Green Hill... 

He just needs one more boost. One more. Sonic needs one more.

The body in his arms starts to become fuzzy at the edges and Shadow swears those edges he is gripping at arguably aren’t really edges anymore… but rather general concepts of where his cobalt rival should be.

‘ There !’ Shadow thinks as a shattered crystal drifts into their pathway. He braces in determination as his throat tightens, gaze flicking to the distance between them and Green Hill.

Sonic is almost out of time. He needs to use this boost right.

His air shoe makes contact with the crystal and he yells as he puts as much force as he possibly can into the boost. Something deep inside of him screams that he has to do this, not because of principle, but because he doesn’t know what he would do if he didn’t.

They launch, the space around them cracking as they surge in a speed Shadow arguably hasn’t felt before.

”HANG ON SONIC-“

The gateway was rapidly approaching. He pushes forward, hoping to chaos that Sonic is still here .

Three…  

More chaos energy is forced into his air shoes.

Two…  

The entrance to Green Hill glows brightly back at their approach.

One…  

His hands grip tighter at the concept of Sonic’s existence.

Then the world turns white…

A moment skips before Shadow finds himself blinking away blurry vision, his ears ringing as he stumbles to a standstill. He inhales deeply, fresh grass and moist air racking his senses as he adjusts to his surroundings. He looks down at his air shoes, taking in the sight of bright green grass, reminiscent of his world. His throat grows tighter, as he looks in front of him to see the base of the tall mountain, before turning to look at the scenery behind him.

Green Hill.

They made it.

But– 

…Where’s Sonic?

Shadow desperately scans the immediate vicinity for the blue hedgehog, an uneasy emotion gripping at his insides as he passively grabs at his own chest, where Sonic was… was dying in his arms.

“Sonic?” He whispers quietly, but there’s no trace of the hero.

He feels the emotion in his chest grab tighter like a vice, crawling up into his throat.

”SONIC?” He calls gruffly, ignoring the light waiver in his voice, but it falls on deaf ears.

No… no no no no…

He feels his insides twist, but before he has a chance to lose himself the spiral pauses as his ears perk. He hears yelling from the sky above, and he fights for his resolve as he looks up at the mountain.

Wait-

He focuses on the energy around him, finally picking up on power that has been absent for days… his Chaos Crystal.  

It all clicks into place.

He pushes his nerves to the side, gripping his fists as he races up the mountain in an instant. He skids to a stop at the entrance of the cave, but… the scene he stumbles upon is different than before.

All of Sonic's friends line the room with shock in their eyes as they look at Eggman… who has Sonic hugging his windshield.

What?

“I’m just happy to see everyone, even you Eggy,” Sonic states sweetly, dawning his signature hero voice that somehow is both casual, yet extremely annoying, all in one package.

Despite all that, tension inside of Shadow relaxes exponentially as he hears the cobalt hedgehog speak, although the feeling isn’t gone entirely.

Sonic is alive—but, the real question is, is he okay? 

Shadow shakes his head to himself, taking a step back. Why would it matter if the hero was okay or not?

He doesn't have time to mull over his dilemma, as he watches Eggman lash out, shouting angry insults as he draws back the hood of his mech, landing a swift punch to the blue hedgehog's face. The hit quickly follows suit with an even bigger hook from his mech, sending Sonic scrambling for purchase in the air.

Shadow winces, his muscles twitching as his ears flick in reaction to seeing the hero be tossed around like a ragdoll– because his damn nerves were on fire . But Sonic miraculously lands on his feet, rallying with his friends, causing the dark hybrid to begrudgingly relax in his vantage point as he watches carefully, eyes narrowing.

Part of him wants to jump into action, to help out, but as he looks at the other Mobians in the cave he hesitates. Those are Sonic's friends, his team. There is no need or reason for him to intervene… at least, not yet.

The team springs into action, fighting off Eggman’s goons in a battle over the rainbow Prism in the middle of the room. Chaos breaks out as metal is flying and people yell. Team Sonic is obviously winning, but Shadow watches carefully as Eggman approaches the Paradox Prism, gripping onto it with his mech as he smiles.

He stands straight as Eggman begins to speak, ready to run in when Sonic's voice cracks through the room.

”TAKE THE SHOT TAILS!” The hero commands, and Eggman is hit, losing his grip as he stumbles, then the rest of the team follows one after another, sending the mech to the ground in front of the entrance. Team Sonic regroups in the space between the Prism and Robotnik. Shadow notes a flicker of Sonic’s expression as he watches the villain regroup, but is quickly distracted by Amy saying something to him, causing the hero to smile once more.

The villain's mech recovers and stands to block Shadow’s view of team Sonic, spewing some villain nonsense-of-a-speech to the heroes. Shadow doesn’t care to listen to the details, instead watching the mech approach the Prism once more…

As Eggman moves forward and out of the way, he suddenly finds his gaze locking onto emerald eyes deep within the cave, the hero's gaze flicks in surprise before filling with pure joy at the acknowledgement. Shadow stills as internally his veins grow fuzzy and chilled as whatever feelings he seems to be having clash. He swallows softly as he looks over the blue hedgehog standing in the cave. Taking the opportunity to give the hero a true look over. 

Sonic looks to be in one piece–no fading, no glitching, and no passing out. He wasn’t gray, ghosty, or just… not there. Despite what he was worried he might come across, the blue hedgehog was standing, energized… and normal. After everything they went through. 

He was fine. Entirely. It was like nothing even happened.

Shadow kicked himself internally. It’s embarrassing that his nemesis…? nemesis. recovered so seamlessly while he found himself tripping over his every move since the moment they got back to Green Hill.

Chaos, what is wrong with him…

He twists his wrist, summoning his chaos crystal into his hand, as he looks at it.

Things are truly back to how they were before.

He glances back at Sonic, who watches him for a moment before giving him a small nod of understanding. Let’s finish this.

VWHOOMP

In a flash, Shadow finds himself perched elegantly on the Paradox Prism, one arm outstretched while the other holds his Emerald.

Everyone turns to look at him, and he scowls, pushing any thoughts he’s feeling away, forcing himself to be solely in the moment. 

”Whuh? Shadow? What the heck are you doing here?!” Eggman exclaims. Shadow locks onto the villains words, something for him to focus on. 

”I am the ultimate lifeform, I go wherever I want,” he commands seamlessly, the statement second nature.

Shadow feels the presence of the glowing Paradox Prism below him, inhaling quietly through his muzzle. All he needed to do was get the Prism out of here, then this would all be over.

His heart hesitates though, and he spares a glance at Sonic, something twangs again at his insides. What is happening to him? Why does he feel so… off?

Get a hold of yourself.

He tears his gaze away after a moment, grappling his emerald tighter. He needs to end this. For all of their sake.

”CHAOS CONTROL!”

VWHOOMP

The world around him gets entirely replaced…

…and Sonic and his friends are gone.

Shadow and the Paradox Prism are gone.

“NOOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Screams Eggman.

Sonic wants to fall to his knees in relief, it’s over, they did it.

His friends glance at him, and he forces himself to move, now is not the time to freeze up. He urges his muscles to move again as he flips into the air, landing his feet in the new hole in the ground thanks to the missing Prism. He scuffs his shoe at the rock as he puts on a cocky grin, “Sorry, Eggman. But when you’ve got a crew like mine, there’s nothing that can stop you.”

Eggman fumes , “You haven’t heard the last of me, Sonic!”

Sonic rolls his eyes, and pitches his voice up in a terrible imitation of Eggman (although if you asked Sonic, he would say he did a pretty good job), “You will pay for this in ways you’d never imagine!” 

He scoffs, tossing a hand lazily at the villain. Honestly, after everything, his Eggman is seeming kind of lame right about now… 

“Yeah, yeah, I heard it a million times, Eggy.” He states, before narrowing his eyes at the villain, “I can’t wait for a million and one.”

Eggman picks up both of his robot henchmen “Cubot! Orbot! We’re gonna need a bigger fleet!”

“Sir, yes sir!” Orbot exclaims.

“Oh I’ve always wanted a bigger fleet!” Cubot tags in.

And then, Eggman retreats with his mech and henchman.

A breath of relief.

It was finally over, all of it, officially… 

They did it.

All of his friends cheer, high fiving one another as they dance around in pride. Meanwhile, the adrenaline in Sonic begins to fade, and all the feeling in his legs make him begin to feel like jello. Chaos, without the anxiety of fixing everything weighing on his shoulders, he felt so tired.

The world that he shattered is finally fixed–back to normal–and he’s actually alive to see it.

”Great job everyone!” Amy exclaims, looking at the group. “What do ya say we grab some food to celebrate?”

”I, as well, would like some grub,” Knuckles states in agreement.

Rouge hums in agreement and Tails nods, pulling out the keys to Tornado. Sonic looks at his friends as uncertainty creeps up, watching Tails twiddle with his keys. 

The idea of being social all of the sudden makes him really nauseous.

”I’ll hang around to get started with the cleanup and catch up with you guys later,” Sonic declares, walking to a nearby piece of robot scrap and picking it up–to demonstrate his plan.

Rouge tilts her head at him, probably because he isn’t exactly known to volunteer to clean up after himself–like ever.

Tails blinks, ”Do you need some help? I don’t mind staying behind.”

Chaos… that idea makes him feel even worse.

”Hah- Don’t worry about it!” He chuckles nervously, gut twisting with guilt as he can’t quite seem to meet his adoptive brother’s eyes. “It’s probably my long-overdue turn to pick up, besides, you have to fly everyone else home in the Tornado. I’ll be done in a jiffy, I promise.” 

Tails frowns, mouth opening a fraction to speak but Knuckles gets a word in first.

”If the hedgehog says he is okay to clean, I think we should take this as a win and leave before he changes his mind.” The red echidna explains, obviously looking to capitalize on the opportunity… he probably is overdue to help as well technically.

Rouge hums, “Well suit yourself.”

”Sounds good, we will see you later then!” Exclaims Amy, as she solidifies the decision by moving to leave first.

Knuckles quickly turns as well, and Rouge isn’t very far behind. Tails hesitates a moment but smiles, “Alright Sonic, I’ll see you at home.” He states, Sonic swallows thickly and nods, frustration swelling as his emotions clash at the thought. 

”Sure thing buddy, see you at home,” he manages to reassure, putting up a half-smile.

That seems to be enough as Tails turns to leave, he watches them all go. The distance between them slowly grows to match the distance he feels in his heart.

These were his friends, the real ones. But he can’t help but feel off when looking at them right now.

He sits on the edge of the crevice from the Prism. It wasn’t just his friends either. His whole existence feels… shaky. But he assumes that’s from the aftermath of everything being just too much.

He takes a look at his gloved hands.

His body seared as it felt like the Shatterverse was ripping him apart, erasing him from existence forcefully as he wasn’t meant to be there. Then the lack of feeling as his body and thoughts faded, as he almost didn’t exist.

He takes his right hand to hold his left, giving it a squeeze to take in the solid feedback of pressure–before he takes his gloved palms to grip his biceps, folding across his chest as he closes in on himself a bit.

It’s finally over.

But then why doesn’t it feel right? 

Chapter Text

Sonic does eventually clean up the cave, but not before taking some time to sit and just… process for a while.

It feels weird, to take the time to mull over his thoughts rather than to run it out, but with the way he’s feeling, he doesn’t think he is very up for running it out at the moment. Even if he might’ve wanted to.

Maybe it isn’t a bad thing to take some time for once. Just this once though.

…

Who is he kidding, he doesn’t think.

Forcing himself out of his spiral of self pity, he spends the time to walk while cleaning up the debris (chaos, imagine that?) setting up a pile in the corner of the cave. He would take it somewhere to actually dispose of it but that would take even longer, and it’s already dark outside now that he’s finished piling everything up.

He’s sure he can ask Tails, or maybe Knuckles instead to help him out tomorrow.

Sonic spends another moment glancing over at the empty crater in the middle of the cave–the space he is in was once bright with fluorescent colors, but now it only exists in darkness outside of the dim moonlight of the outdoors.

The crater is empty, the Paradox Prism is gone. 

Thanks to Shadow.

His nerves fray a little at the thought… 

Speaking of Shadow, he hopes the other is doing alright. They haven’t really had a moment to talk since well—everything. 

The last thing he remembers was running with Shadow to the void. He shudders as he cuts off that train of thought. He didn’t want to think about it too hard, at least, not right now.

But he probably owes his friend-rival a word of thanks.

Maybe he could also ask where Shadow has hidden the Prism, but it’s maybe better off he doesn’t know, since him being around the darn thing is what got them into a practically world-ending-crisis in the first place.

He sighs, hopefully he will see the dark hedgehog soon, but for now it’s time to go home.

He allows his quills to flair with energy as he activates his powers and he speeds off in a blink of an eye.

Sonic gets home to a silent house and retreats to his room instantly. It feel’s foreign being back after weeks of being away. But the way the exhaustion tugs at his body keeps him from mulling over that concept too long. As the moment he touches his bedsheets, he’s out like a light. 

Safe to say he is exhausted.

He’s asleep for hours, at least he is pretty sure, because when he’s pulled from his dreamless sleep he is met by the feeling of light rays blaring into his eyes through the window. The sun existing high in the sky.

He groans, rolling over to check the time on his communicator that was laying on his nightstand…

…Only it isn’t there.

Sonic perks up a bit, leaning over his bedside to check and make sure it hadn’t fallen onto the floor, until he caught a glance of his arm in his peripheral vision.

Oh, he forgot to take it off last night…

He taps it. 

Time 11:47 AM.

What??? 

Sonic springs to life, blinking the grogginess out of his eyes, he slept half the day away! He never sleeps that long! He’s missed his morning run, making breakfast, and any plans he had!

Well, honestly, he can’t remember any specific plans he had… but still!

Sonic is an early riser for a reason, a hero on the go always has to be prepared. If he’s worried, he can find a nice palm tree to get a little shut eye under, but sleeping the day away just wasn’t cool.

He sighs. 

Whatever, he better get a quick bite to eat before he starts his now supposed half-day.

He goes to grab his sneakers at the doorway of his room before he realizes he forgot to take those off too. He groans, but brushes the frustration off. Once he makes his way down the stairs, he sees Tails at the kitchen table, twiddling with a small device in his hands. Sonic hesitates a fraction.

Tails… not Nine.

Why does he need to remind himself of that?

The yellow foxes ears twitch at the movement from the stairwell and he perks up, looking over in Sonic's direction. A small smile splits across the younger face.

”Oh, hey Sonic! How are you doing?”

Sonic lets out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding. Stay cool.

”I’m doing great, just grabbing some grub before I go out on my morning run,” He explains evenly, walking past the kit at the table before rummaging through the cabinets.

”Morning run?” Tails questions, pausing for a moment as Sonic focuses on his task. “It’s almost noon, wouldn’t you have gone out already?”

”Well, no, I just woke up,” Sonic explains, looking over at the fox to see bright blue eyes staring right back at him. He shifts uncomfortably as he looks away, pushing down the anxiety that flares in his chest at the acknowledgement.

”But you never sleep in.”

”Well I guess there’s a first time for everything,” The hero says with a shrug.

He considers making chili dogs for breakfast but decides against it. The longer he stands here, the more queasy he feels, and suddenly he doesn’t want to be in the kitchen longer than he has to.

”Did something happen?” Tails asks bluntly, causing Sonic to stiffen. He doesn’t respond. The kit takes the brief moment of silence as a chance to continue explaining. “You’ve just been acting really weird since yesterday… you skipped out on dinner, and then now you’re telling me you slept until noon. It’s… weird.”

Sonic scolds himself internally, he’s been so caught up in his head since the moment he got home, he’s been ruining it for everyone.

He grabs a chip bag from the cabinet in front of him before closing the door, forcing himself to relax as he leans up on the countertop.

What would he do before he went to the Shatterverse?

He laughs, finally meeting Tail’s eyes with a half smile half smirk digging a chip out of the bag, feigning indifference.

”I mean nothing happened.“ Sonic rolls his eyes. “We beat Eggman, made him cry, and then saved the day, again,” He explains. “Afterwards I just spent a lot of time cleaning up, so by the time I got home it was super late, so I guess I slept in later than usual. That’s what happens when you don’t go to bed on time. Take it as a lesson from your elder,” He says as he points a chip at Tails before tossing it in his mouth. He hopes the confidence in his voice sounds genuine. Because internally he would hate to admit it wasn’t.

Tails stares at him for a moment, “but right after the battle you–“

”–did you all a favor,” Sonic interrupts, he didn’t want to be prodded. Being prodded right now made him think too much. “I never clean, we know that… and yesterday I just felt generous. Consider it making up for the heartache of showing up late,” He shrugs.

”Yeah- but-“ Tails says, standing up from his chair, and Sonic moves as well, placing the chips down on the counter as the foxes movements pull at his nerves.

His body screams at him to run. Don’t let him close.

He tries to quickly swallow the feeling, along with the guilt of the implications that come with feeling that way.

”Listen, if you want to make it up to me, you can go to the cave today and move the debris to some kind of landfill. I didn’t have a way to move it myself.” Sonic bounces on his toes, antsy as the foxes eyes bored into his skin. He pushes down the guilt that went along with that feeling, that’s his brother.

“Sure–I can help but-”

”I’m going to go on my run now,” Sonic announces, the need to leave taking the forefront of his mind. Tails looks like he’s going to say something else but the blue hero interrupts before he has the chance, anxiety taking over as he already feels his energy sparking. 

“Gotta go fast, byeee!” He waves as he zips out of the house in a blink of an eye. Then he is running down the pathway inland, taking a turn down Hedgehog's Pass, before making his way towards the coast side, east of town.

By the time he stops near some beaches, he feels out of breath, his heart racing. What is wrong with him? Tails is going to be so mad. But the longer that he stood there, the more anxious he felt, like he was waiting for Tails to just turn on him and hurt him–or worse.

But they are talking about Tails for chaos’ sake! Tails! His little, intelligent, kit of a brother, who’s lived with him for years. Tails wouldn’t hurt a fly, and sure as chaos didn’t have any intention of hurting him.

But Nine was also a Tails… and he surely did hurt him. Even if they made up at the end.

But his Tails is different. He isn’t like Nine.

Although he looks like Nine, and has the same abilities as Nine, he’s probably capable of the same things as well.

Sonic grips at his temples with shaky gloved hands, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. His head hurts from all of this thinking and it’s making him nauseous. He inhales through his nose to try and calm himself down. 

He needs to run this off, yeah, maybe that would help.

His quills burst with energy as he takes off running again, but he only makes it another mile north on the beach before he finds himself wheezing air, folding forward resting his hands on his knees.

He feels exhausted.

Maybe he didn’t sleep as well as he thought he did.

Sonic tries to catch his breath as he looks up a bit at his surroundings, spotting some palm trees in the green grass at the edge of the beach.

It won’t hurt to take a short rest in the shade would it?

Sonic shakily walks through the sand to the shade of the trees, laying in the bright green grass settled at the tree‘s roots. He feels the way his body aches as he lets it relax a little bit, sighing as he breathes in the ocean breeze. He folds both his arms to rest under his head as he lays on his stomach.

He’s just going to rest for a couple minutes, then he will be on his way.

His nerves feel all tingly as he lets them rest, mind drifting as he succumbs to the exhaustion.

”-onic?” He hears vaguely from the darkness of his mind. But his mind doesn’t really react. ”-re you doing out here?” He hums, he doesn’t know where he is.

“Sonic-“ And suddenly he’s being roughly moved by his right shoulder, causing him to be pulled from his mind into the bright sunlight as his eyes shoot open. The hero gasps slightly as the left side of his body is shifted in the dirt. But the hand pushing him pulls away the moment he expresses some semblance of consciousness.

He blinks to see none other than Shadow glare down at him as he kneels on one knee in the grass beside him, a wrist resting on his kneecap. Sonic stifles a yawn as he looks at the other in confusion before taking a glance at their surroundings. That’s right, the beach, but… When did Shadow get here? And how long has it been?

He laughs nervously, propping himself up on his elbows as he rolls onto his back “What’s up, bro?”

Shadow scoffs, and rolls his eyes, ”Really, that’s all you have to say?”

”I mean, you’re the one that snuck up on me.”

”Hardly, you’re the one that was lying defenseless in the grass,” The dark hedgehog reasons, and Sonic grimaces, that was a good point, he didn’t realize he would fall asleep, let alone that heavily.

Shadow narrows his eyes at him, gears turning inside his head, “What are you doing out here anyway? There’s no point for you to be lying around out here.”

“Maybe I just wanted a change of scenery, you know, see new places, do new things.” 

Shadow raises an eyebrow at that statement, “Haven’t you done enough of that already over the past couple weeks?” Sonic freezes at the statement.

Well, at least that comment confirms that he isn’t the only one who remembers the Shatterverse.

Sonic pushes himself into a sitting position, looking at the other with wide eyes.

”You remember–“

Shadow’s scowl deepens, he looks away from Sonic, “Obviously.”

Sonic’s mouth moves to say something, but then he wilts, what is he supposed to say? The Shatterverse is over… and it’s obvious Shadow is past it. Sure, he remembers, but based on the others reaction, it doesn’t seem like he wants to talk about it.

Not to mention, did Sonic even want to talk about it? Every single time he thought about it too long, thought about the betrayal–the world shattering–him almost dying… he feels like he is dying all over again as his insides tear him apart from stress.

”Shouldn’t you be with your friends?” Shadow asks, breaking the hero out of his thoughts, Sonic winces at the statement.

“I don’t know, thought maybe an afternoon away would do me some good,” he shrugs, guilt chewing at him. Shadow watches him carefully for a second before humming.

”Well, your afternoon is almost over,” He states, gesturing to the sun barely kissing the horizon. 

Has it been that long?

Sonic blinks, moving to stand. Shadow mirrors the motion as he brushes off the knee that was touching the ground.

”You’re right, guess I better get going,” Sonic states simply.

Shadow nods. “Sounds like a good idea,” He states, before turning to leave in the other direction.

Sonic watches his supposed-rival leave, regret already beginning to churn as he wishes he was able to say something, but he honestly doesn’t know what to say and isn’t sure if Shadow wants to hear it. So instead, he turns towards the direction he came, and begins to walk in the other direction.

He misses the way Shadow eventually glances back at him, taking note of the way the speedster didn’t run.

On Sonic's way home, he does stop by the grocery store to grab some extra ingredients for chili dogs, along with a bag of mints for Tails.

Maybe it’s a long shot, but he sort of hopes the bags of mints might distract the younger from his admittedly weird behavior from the morning.

Opening the door to his home, he is greeted to the sound of clattering dishes, as presumably Tails is cleaning in the kitchen. He takes a deep breath as he steadies himself before he pushes a pep into his step.

”Hey Tails! How has your day been?” He asks cheerily, a smile spreading across his face. The fox turns, “Oh hey Sonic, it’s been good–I’ve just been working on tweaking my energy tracker.” Tails gives his older brother a once over, “What have you been up to?”

Sonic shrugs, “You know, hanging out, going for some runs, I had the opportunity to annoy Shadow today, the usual.”

”Is that so…” Tail’s trails off, a hint of skepticism in his expression as he looks at the bag in Sonic's hands and the cobalt hedgehog jumps, that’s right! 

“Oh yeah– I also went to the store-“ He rummages through his bag, pulling out the bag of mints and presents it to Tails with a grin on his face. “Ta-da! This is for you.”

Tails blinks, perking up a bit as a smile finally graces the kits face, maybe this was a good plan after all, Sonic thinks as he relaxes a fraction.

Tails reaches out and takes the mints. “Oh gee- thanks Sonic! I really appreciate it.”

”Anytime, buddy,” He moves and puts his groceries away in the fridge before turning back to his brother.

”Now, I think I might actually head up to bed, but I hope you have a goodnight,” He states, and Tails tilts his head at him, obviously pondering the fact it’s just past sunset but, chaos, Sonic is still tired.

”You’re already tired? But you’ve only been up half the day?” Tails questions.

”Yeah but if I am not careful, my sleep schedule will be ruined forever… So I thought it would be best if I go to bed early to try and fix it now,” Sonic explains, leaving the fact he took a nap in the middle of the day out as well. Tails doesn’t need to know that, not to mention, the excuse sounds viable enough.

”Hmm…” the fox hums as both his tails flick, but he nods. “That makes sense, well, I hope you have a goodnight! I will see you in the morning.”

”See you in the morning,” Sonic salutes, satisfied with the interaction bridging the gap between him and Tails a little bit, maybe he is able to fly under the radar after all.

The speedster makes a quick jog up to his room, shutting the door behind him as he sighs, and takes a moment to slip off his shoes and communicator before sliding into bed–feeling the ache in his limbs as he relaxes.

He doesn’t know why he’s so tired after he slept through almost all of yesterday, but he is! And it only seems to be getting worse.

But, he guesses the only way to fix feeling tired is to sleep…

Sonic curls up in on himself, pulling at his blankets as he sighs. The state he seems to be in is surely annoying…

But he will be back to normal soon enough… right?

Chapter Text

“Hey Sonic, do you have any idea where Shadow ended up taking the Paradox Prism?”

Sonic’s hands freeze as he almost loses his grip on the wrench he’s holding. He’s inside of Tail’s lab, helping the two-tailed fox finish some simple touch ups to the Tornado. 

“Uh, sorry bud, I don’t have a clue.” He states. Trying to focus on his work of tightening some bolts again as an eerie unease sat on his shoulders. He can hear Tails sigh, to his right, heavy disappointment sounding in his breath.

”Really? That’s too bad. If we could just find the Prism… The possibilities would be endless.”

Sonic looks over at the Fox. 

“What did you just say?“ the cobalt hedgehog whispers softly, studying the way that Tails' eyes are wide with wonder and passion as he continues to ramble about his train of thought.

“With the power of the Prism, it would be like a clean slate! We could reset everything, keep the good, erase the bad… Like Eggman. No Eggman? No problems. The perfect world in my opinion.”

Sonic swallows thickly as his insides twist bad. Getting rid of Eggman? Sure, they fight him all the time, but just having him disappear felt wrong. Not to mention, he didn’t like Tails talking like this, it sounds too familiar, too real. He doesn’t want his little brother thinking like this. 

”But I… I kinda like the slate that we are… this is our home… our routine.”

Tails head whips towards him, as his expression falls and his eyes squint at Sonic. His face slowly morphing into one that was all too familiar from recent weeks.

”But what about what I want?” Tails asks, an edge creeping into his voice.

Sonic heart drops—this all feels too familiar for him to keep up.

“I assume we both want the same thing… you know, to live happily together, here, in Green Hills.” He states slowly, mind focused solely on his words as he tries to softly reason with his brother. 

Why is he acting so off?

As the blue speedster looks up and focuses back on the world around him, He just barely catches Tails lunging at him with a 9-limbed attack.

”Wait- STOP-“ Sonic yells as he narrowly misses an attack from Nine- no- Tails, stumbling a few steps back as his brother was propped up by 4 metal tails on the ground, 3 more cresting around his head.

What is happening? Why- since when did Tails have more Tails?!

“You-“ His heart is beating like crazy now in his chest, he tries to ignore the painful feeling as he grips onto reality, he’s at Green Hill—this is his brother.

”You’re supposed to be the real Tails, not Nine !” He exclaims, hoping the statement would just… fix everything.

“I AM REAL,” Tail’s seethes, eyes burning with rage. They stare at each other silently for a moment, neither moving before Tails scoffs, metal tails lowering the Fox to the ground as he roughly turns away from the speedster “Just… Not your real friend.” 

Sonic feels his heart break, what? That’s not true… “But you are my real friend, you… you’re my brother! We do everything together!“

“Not anymore…” The fox’s tails flick in the air behind him, as he gives the hero a glare from over his shoulder… expression burning with betrayal, “You had your chance, but when you destroyed our home? That all went down the drain. Not to mention that you’re living a lie.”

”I- I am not living a lie. We live our life in Green Hill—THIS Green Hill!” He exclaims, ignoring the way he feels his heart thump against his chest or the ways his hands shake. “The Shatterverse is fixed- and everyone is back where they belong. Nine is back in the Grimm, you—Tails—are here, with me, like it is all supposed to be.”

”That's what you think, but did you really consider what happened to everyone else when you ‘fixed’ the Shatterverse? Something that YOU created in the first place.” 

Sonic hears the garage door start to open, and he turns to face it as blinding daylight shines through the opening, making it hard to see what’s outside. Tails keeps talking.

”You like to think that they’re all fine, because that’s the only way you can live with yourself, as the hero that fixed everything. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth…”

As the door raises high enough. The sunlight dissipates allowing him to see the horrors that lay outside.

He swears he feels his heart stop, and the air in the room feels suffocating as his ears start to ring.

No-

Wait-

Outside the door of the garage, lies dozens of bodies, at the forefront are multiple friends of his friend the Shatterverse, Rebel, Dread, Rusty Rose, Marge, and more all lying lifelessly with grey translucent skin, and dulled out eyes.

They’re dead. 

They-

They’re all dead.

But they aren’t supposed to be dead, they fixed everything, they… it was supposed to be fine. He saved everyone. He… he had to have saved everyone.

”Without the Shatterverse they cannot exist. Just like you couldn’t exist within the Shatterverse.”

Sonic falls to his knees, grief, guilt, and fear pulling at him as his legs turn to jello. He can’t even breathe, and he feels tears gathering in his eyes.

“No… that’s… they can’t- they’re… fine.” He reasons weakly.

”That’s what you want to believe,”

Sonic sobs, bringing up his hands to cover his face.

He didn’t mean for this to happen, he didn’t want to hurt them. He wants them all to be safe, but it seems like no matter what he does… he’s failing, hurting people, and destroying lives. No matter how close or far those people were.

The Shatterverse was all his fault.

”It seems like the prism is still missing some energy.”

 Sonic opens his eyes, blinking away tears to see the prism set up in the middle of Tail’s lab in front of him. The young fox walks closer to him, eyes narrowing as he gives him a once over.

“To restore the prism I need your energy. I’m sorry Sonic, this is the sacrifice we must make to fix this world.” Tails reasons, lasers from his metal limbs charging up with green light. Sonic tries to stand, but suddenly he is too exhausted to barely move.

”Tails- WAIT- you don’t have to-“

Tail’s lasers fire, and suddenly he feels like his whole body is being ripped apart once more. All of the energy within him is zapped out as his cells fractured into a million pieces.

He falls to the floor harshly as the yellow fox finishes with him. Suddenly, the feeling of blinding pain is replaced with nothing as his feelings fade away… Voice… head.. thoughts… all gone, fading concepts. He barely manages to raise his hands into his peripheral vision as he sees them rapidly become more and more translucent. His body glitching absently in abrupt jolts of pain amongst the nothingness.

He can’t bear it, it hurts, but it’s also nothing, it’s so much.

Existence slips.

And then his mind goes dark.

Sonic jolts awake with a yelp, arms tangling in thick fabric as he attempts to flail them upwards in an immediate moment of panic. His eyes catch nothing but darkness at first, but after a moment his eyes begin to adjust to shapes around him as soft blue light illuminates his surroundings.

Where is he? Is he dead? What happened to the others?

His breathing is ragged, he feels light headed, and his body is hot and sweaty. He blinks once then twice as his heart thumps in his chest, he grips at the blankets that trap him tightly as he fights against them. In his panic he looks to his right, catching sight of a nightstand as the world starts to register around him. As the recognition of the furniture catches in his mind, he relaxes a fraction.

Oh, he’s in his room… and has just woken up from…

… well now he feels a little bit like an idiot. 

He loosens his death grip on the blankets as he forces himself to take a deep breath that comes out more as a stuttered-half-breath. He is fine; he is in his room, not in the workshop. Tails… should be just down the hall, without the unnecessary need of extra limbs.

He’s okay… it was just a typical nightmare…

He sits in silence as he simply breathes, focusing on the action to try and not let his mind wander.

Deep breaths. In and out… He. Is. Fine…

…Chaos… who is he kidding? This is the worst.

This is probably the fifth nightmare he’s had in the full week he’s been back from the Shatterverse, and every time he has one, they keep getting worse . First it was drowning in no place, then it was a massacre on the rebels from the chaos council, and now it’s playing into the already-terrible unease he has about his own friends at home? 

The concept is exhausting, and all the anxiety is making his nerves electric. 

Even when he does manage to sleep without a nightmare, he dreams of nothing. It’s just… blank void from the moment he closes his eyes to the moment he opens them back up again, and the time in between feels like seconds, even though it’s been hours.

Not to mention, regardless of whether he wakes up from a nightmare or just naturally after having no dreams at all, it always feels like he hasn’t slept a wink, and he doesn’t know why .

It was exhausting. Sleeping all the time for no effect is exhausting. Being anxious all the time is exhausting.

He puts his hands to his face and groans.

His mind is tormenting him, he’s decided. It’s been a week since the Shatterverse! The mission is over, and he’s ready to move on in life and live his routine— their routine —and have fun with his friends! And eat chili dogs! And, fight Eggman on occasion!

But he can’t. Not when he feels like he’s suffocating whenever he is around his friends, or eat chili dogs when he thinks of the sea that goes with the sea dogs from no place, or think of the massacre of deaths that could be happening in New Yolk City thanks to the chaos councils tyrannical reign.

Or now, when he thinks of all of his friends that he worked so hard to save, all he can think about is their lifeless bodies. Faded from existence all because he came home and fixed the paradox prism. He can’t shake the feeling of failure, of not even thinking to consider now what might have happened to the Shatterverse as a whole if he went back home to save himself. How many people did he possibly hurt? Did he hurt them all?

He needs to believe that they’re all okay, he doesn’t know how to save them if he isn’t there anymore.

"It’s the only way you can live with yourself"

He suddenly feels like he’s suffocating all over again.

Sonic needs fresh air. Real air in his lungs. Like- now.

He barely has enough time to put on his shoes before he finds himself outside.

The first thing Sonic does is run. Allowing his energy to flow through him to burn the unwanted thoughts out of his head.

He runs through hedgehog's pass, around the loop-de-loop, across the big field, under a tunnel, through the woods, around the base of the mountain, and then to the beach. 

His feet move at high speeds as he runs and runs… and runs… to keep his body going and his mind to stop. Because he can’t think right now, he doesn’t want to think right now.

He doesn’t really pay too much attention to his surroundings, chaos, he barely even looks, he just knows that he’s moving. But his eyes are shut off to anything more than just making sure that he’s not tripping over his own feet, and his ears are subject to the sound of his own breathing in his head. 

He exists like this for what possibly could have been minutes, or hours… it really is impossible to tell for the speedster, before his own body begins to catch up with him.

He feels his heart pounding painfully in his chest. His breathing, erratically ragged, and even his powers feel like they begin to peter out. He slows his mindless run to a stuttering stop. His wheezing breaths fill the cool night air as he finds himself keeling over. He uses his hands to brace the weight of his upper body on his knees, as he tries to catch his breath.

The good news about the ordeal is his body is so caught up in the moment with the overexertion, he doesn’t really have the ability to think of the nightmare anymore…

…the bad news is that apparently, he isn’t alone out here.

“Sonic.” A voice booms from behind him.

Sonic startles at the sudden acknowledgement, messily turning on his heels to face what his mind screams danger behind him, the energy he has left sparking around his raised hands. 

But as he faces the threat, it doesn’t take long for him to recognize the figure standing less than 30 meters away from him. His heart sinks as his mind begins to process the possible extent of embarrassment he might be facing at this moment.

Because standing stoically in the moonlight is none other than Shadow with fists clenched at his sides as he practically glares at the hero. The blue speedster doesn’t know how long the dark hedgehog has been there, but the treadmarks in the grass near his air shoes reveal he had also come to a harsh stop the same way the speedster did. 

As a pop culture reference might say— may the force be with him.

“H-Hey Shadow… what’s up? You… uh snuck up on me.” He says nervously as he forces himself to relax, cringing as his words catch on his shaky air. It takes a conscious effort to make his raspy respiratory system take a deep breath, he needs to calm down.

The fastest creature in the world shouldn’t be afraid of a stupid nightmare… and especially shouldn’t be out of breath . 

Shadow squints at him, giving him a onceover as he takes a couple steps to approach the hero, signature-indifferent expression flickering as he eyes Sonic carefully. “What’s the matter with you?” He asks, clearly not entertaining small talk.

Glorious—fricken—glorious. Just what he needs, Shadow to actually be curious about his existence for once.

“Nothing!” He half-laughs-half-wheezes nervously, “You know… just… taking a nighttime stroll.” He looks around at their surroundings, as if seeing the outdoors of Green Hill in the flesh is going to make him feel better. “It’s beautiful out here,” he comments absently, to solidify that hope externally.

Shadow raises a brow at the blue speedster, “Since when do you go on ‘nighttime strolls’?”

His insides begin to twist a little in anger, why is Shadow pressing so hard? This is NOT what he needs right now. He’s tired and his limbs feel like playdough. Not to mention, the longer he stands here is the longer he can’t decide whether he’s aggravated more by Shadow, the nagging voices in his head, or the fact that his nightmares aren’t giving him the room to breathe.

“Uhh… since like? Ever? Why do you care anyway?”

”I don’t care,” Shadow huffs, before he folds his arms across his chest. “You’re just acting weird. It’s suspicious.”

“I’m not ’suspicious‘. If anyone’s ‘suspicious’ it’s you, that’s literally your M-O.”

Shadows glare intensifies, burning at the now 15-meters between the two of them. The dark hedgehog seems to consider his words tactfully before going in to strike with what regretfully for Sonic, was precise accuracy.

“You have been suspicious since the Shatterverse.”

Sonic freezes, his anxiety spiking to new heights because again, Shadow regrettably is right on the money. He knows he’s been off, he’s felt off , and it’s impossibly hard to keep up the careless-hero cheraude when you are battling your thoughts at night, and are fighting your own limbs during the day. He’s been avoiding his friends, reliving the losses of the past month, and fighting an uphill battle physically. At this point, he’s struggling to even remember who he was before everything. Before he felt like an imposter in his own home. 

He misses being normal, he misses how things used to be, and he doesn’t know how to fix it.

His hands begin to shake, his breath growing tighter- He can’t-

No, push it down. Stay calm.

Dozens of bodies of his friends in the Shatterverse, lay lifelessly with grey translucent skin, and dulled out eyes.

What if he did that to them?

”Did I hit a nerve?” Shadow asks, studying him with a slight head tilt, eyes glinting with something Sonic can’t read.

But oh, does the action make his blood boil.

“I’m fine Shadow,“ Sonic bites, voice snapping harshly as he feels his nerves fray, but the outburst breaks him out of his spiral. He closes his eyes before taking a deep breath, his next words coming out as a soft mumble, “Quit bugging me.”

That shuts Shadow up, the dark hedgehog continues to hold his crude glare. But Sonic doesn’t care. Instead the hero pulls his eyes away, looking down at the floor rather than at his rival, who he really doesn’t have the energy to be arguing with right now , both figuratively and literally.

He just needs Shadow to leave—to mind his own business—like he normally does.

The grass sways in a light breeze Sonic notices, what he would give to be able to lay down right now outside of the prying eyes of the world.

“Alright, well then prove it.” Shadow says, breaking the long silence between the two of them, Sonic blinks looking up at the other in confusion.

“Prove it?” 

“Prove to me that you’re fine. I want you to race me.” Shadow explains, gaze hardening as he rests a hand on his hip. The finality in the hedgehog's demeanor tells Sonic that he’s made up his mind about whatever internal decision he just made… a decision that the hero personally was not a fan of. At all.

“What? I don’t want to race you.”

Shadows lip quirks, “Why not, faker? Are you afraid of a challenge?”

“Of course not! It’s just- late, and I gotta get home soon to-“

”-sounds like you’re just making excuses.”

Sonic looks at him in disbelief, jaw dropping. He could not believe this guy right now. Why is he giving him such a hard time? Was this really the one defining moment in their rivalry? After everything they just went through? Shadow couldn’t care to show some compassion for once?!

"I guess I can let it go…" Shadow says snidely before turning away from his cobalt ‘rival’. The electricity in his shoes starts to buzz, but just as he's about to leave, the dark hedgehog looks over his shoulder with a smirk, "We both know who's better anyways."

All the restraint in Sonic snaps . He’s going to jump off a cliff, he's decided.

“Alright. I get it. Fine.” Sonic huffs, rolling out his shoulder as he closes the distance between himself and Shadow, bouncing on his toes to try and rile up the small amounts of energy within him. He can’t stop himself, even though the back of his mind screams ’no’. He just, he can’t let Shadow be right, he can’t let him know how he is feeling, because everyone here—including Shadow—have been able to move on, and live life how they should… how he needs too. This is how he proves to Shadow and himself that he can do that, “But don’t think I am going to go easy on you.”

“Noted,” Shadow states simply, relaxing a fraction at the others' acceptance of his challenge.

Something deep inside Sonic claws at him, screaming that this is a bad idea. Not only is he still haunted by the bodies, by how quickly Tails changed into Nine, but he’s feeling exhaustion tugging at his limbs… not to mention the weakness setting in his bones.

Blinding pain is replaced by no feeling at all as his thoughts and feelings fade away from him… the way that he watches his own body become translucent… disappearing to nothing.

“I’m thinking the finish line should be the top of the loop-de-loop,” Shadow announces, breaking Sonic out of his thoughts.

The blue hedgehog nods absently at the decision, standing in line with Shadow facing towards the direction of the loop deep within Green Hill. He let his power prickle at his quills, at the very least… he isn’t entirely screwed off the start, he just hope’s Shadow secretly is having an off day as well… even though that probably isn’t the case. 

“You ready?” Shadow asks, looking over at the other, although, Sonic doesn’t even spare him a quick glance.

”Yeah sure, let’s go.” He states simply before dashing off, giving himself a healthy moments worth of a head start over the dark hedgehog. Yeah sure, it was technically cheating, and a little unfair of him. But right now he could take any advantage that he could get.

He’s able to keep the lead for about a minute before Shadow is right on his tail, breaking the gap between them with ease. Sonic huffs as he briefly looks over his shoulder, before pushing a bit harder into his energy. He is tired. And he knew that from the start, but it doesn’t take very long for his legs to start to feel wobbly… and his chest to burn again. Not long after that, his mind starts screaming at him to stop again, just like all the other times he has tried to run over the past week.

But here’s the difference between this time, and all the other times… this time, his pride is on the line.

And he isn’t about to prove Shadow right.

He forces his limbs to go faster, as his lungs scream at him. His powers are feeling weaker with every second. But the idea of stopping is the last thing on his mind.

What instead plagued him, is the presence of Shadow right behind him, the way that his thoughts are riddled with bad memories and terrible dreams, and the warning signals his body is giving him as he pushes his abilities.

But he is going to make it , he tells himself. He’s going to make it to the loop-de-loop first, to prove Shadow, and everybody else, wrong.

Shadow encroaches into his space, skating shoulder to shoulder with him a moment as they race through Hedgehog's pass, before giving his air shoes an extra boost to take the lead.

Oh no- no no no-

He pushes even harder into his own energy, he needs to go faster! HE was the fastest creature in the world, not Shadow- And everyone knows it! If his rival beats him, he is never going to get it out of his head.

But when he pushes for more energy, he finds that he’s on empty, no boost comes, in fact, he finds himself fading with every second longer that he runs.

What…?

What is happening to him- 

The energy slows, as he finds the sparks in his quills flickering unnaturally as they can’t seem to make ends meet. The lack of energy burns, as it feels like he’s a car running on fumes. He reaches, pushes inside himself for a little bit more, but he’s scraping for purchase at a metaphorical empty barrel.

He… he can’t do it.

He can’t keep running anymore.

He finds his limbs coming to a stagger as the sparks in his quills die out to a dull blue. His momentum slows exponentially as he sloppily runs with no speed at all. As he slows he realizes his lungs are wheezing painfully as he gulps for breaths—and his throat feels torn. Meanwhile his limbs are burning with a slow tingle, he can barely feel them… nevertheless control them outside of a vague flail.

Sonic can’t hear anything outside of his breathing, and he realizes he is extremely lightheaded, once-clear vision blurring between reality and mushy colors. He stumbles out of his straight line, jog faltering into a clumsy walk as he tries to stay on his feet.

His mind is foggy and his brain feels like a cloud, but the fear that grips deep within his heart is enough for him to vaguely recognize that something is visoraly wrong .

And he… he doesn’t know how to fix it-

”-aker you are not at the finish line.” He could barely hear through the rising ringing in his ears, presumably Shadow—he distantly notes as he sees his blurry figure grow bigger in his vision—but everything sounds so muffled and distant, and with the colors blurring together he couldn’t tell for sure. The lightheadedness is becoming just too much.

Then finally his foot catches on something below him, ending his stutter-step of a stumble as he is sent in a downwards fall. He acknowledges at this point, he can’t fight it anymore, he’s way past his limit and his body is shutting down on him. 

He sees blurry red, black, and amber swiftly approaching as a muffled yell barely breaches his senses.

“SONI-“

He embraces the darkness that comes to meet him.

Chapter Text

The first thing that Sonic is aware of as he breaks through the dark fog in his brain, is the dull ache that spreads throughout his limbs. 

The second thing that he is aware of, is the way that when he tries to prod his brain for any information, he draws a blank. He can’t recall much of anything…. What happened? What did he do last…? The longer he tries to search for answers, the more he realizes that he’s just… so tired . Nowadays it seems to be so hard to wake up, it feels like he’s a bear coming out of a multi-seasonal hibernation. 

His senses fight away the foggy darkness from his head as he inhales with his chest, taking a sigh as his body continues to stir. He also recognizes that his throat feels torn up… he probably needs some water.

He forces his muscles to move as he turns his head to the left, but the moment he does, he is met with a painful pounding against his skill, which makes him wince. A small whine escapes him as he deals with the discomfort. 

Following his exclamation, he barely catches a shifting sound around him as someone… or something moves.

He isn’t alone…?

Wait. better question.

Where even is he?

The blue hedgehog forces his eyes open, causing his temples to bite back with a stab behind both his irises—protesting the harsh light that greets him. He squints to dim the pain, blinking to force his vision to focus.

The first thing he sees is an onyx colored fuzzy blanket draped over his body… which is extremely soft. His head rests on an equally dark pillow that feels like a literal cloud—contrasting his heavy limbs. Opposite to the dark colors however, are the crimson red sheets below him. 

He is on a bed… but it isn’t his bed— he can tell that for sure . He looks farther to his left to see a dark wood nightstand decorated only with a simple red lamp… and an unopened water bottle.

Beyond the nightstand is a wall painted a deep black (seems to be the theme-), that has a big cut out in the middle to allow for a tall window that is just shy of reaching the floor and ceiling. The windows curtains are red that faded to a black at the bottom, it could possibly have more pattern to it, but he can’ tell because they are scrunched up to the sides of the glass, revealing bright daylight from the world outside.

What in the emo bedroom is…

His vision makes it past the far curtain towards the wall beyond the foot of the bed, where he finally sees his known-rival leaning up against a black desk, hands resting on the edge of the surface on either side of his body to brace his weight as he watches the hero carefully. There is a book closed off to the side, maybe the other was reading? But Sonic can’t think about it too much, as he is instead distracted by the terrifyingly-unreadable expression the other gives him.

Then it all suddenly came flooding back to him as his mind clicks into a new level of awareness.

The nightmare– Shadow questioning him– them racing – and then… Sonic passing out.

Oh, Sonic is so doomed.

The speedster instantly tries to force himself out of bed, pushing behind him with both of his hands as he drives himself into a sitting position. But the action is dizzying, and he is forced to slam his eyelids shut to mitigate the stabbing that attacks his head at the movement. He brings his right hand to the side of his head in a half-attempt to quell the throbbing. Somehow in the moments between the stabs of the knife digging in his head, he manages to catch the other hedgehog in the room bark out a sharp command in response to his action, but it isn’t enough to stop him entirely.

“Don’t get up.” Shadow directs, the proximity of his voice shifting as he crosses the room. Sonic becomes motionless at the request, his eyes still shut to mitigate the pain, he’s already partly up, but sure.

Suddenly, he feels a hand grip roughly onto his left bicep to hold him still as there’s some shuffling behind his back, rustling of shifting fabric hitting his ears. After a moment, the sounds stop, and a second hand grabs under his right arm against his chest tightly, lifting him lightly as he’s forced to move back against a soft cloud of a backboard…

The hands then disappear and Sonic blinks his eyes back open, squinting as he grimaces, taking a half glance behind himself to see pillows propped up between his back and the headboard.

Shadow… propped up pillows for him?

Sonic looks back over at Shadow, unable to hide the disbelief in his expression. What is happening right now? Why is Shadow helping him?

The other hedgehog blinks at him for a second, before his face morphs into a scowl.

Sonic isn’t able to look at Shadow for longer than a moment past that action however as the bright light illuminating the dark hedgehog from behind pierces his irises. He scrunches his nose in response, squinting again as he attempts to not entirely break their gaze. But the anti-hero seems to clock the problem almost instantly, turning towards the blinds to pull them closed.

“Better?” Shadow asks simply.

Sonic blinks, “..yeah… I– ahem –..thanks.” the hero states, cutting his statement short when his voice comes out a little raspy. He turns towards the nightstand, looking at the unopened water bottle. He glances back at Shadow, “Umm-”

“That’s yours.” 

Sonic doesn’t wait to grab it, unscrewing the cap before taking a big swig, which is followed by a cough that hurts his head a little. Maybe he should’ve been a little slower with that one. Shadow watches hesitantly for a moment before loudly sighing, moving a couple steps to pull a black desk chair over before sitting in it a few feet away from the bed, crossing his right leg over his left while folding his arms over his chest as he sits stiffly. Very clearly not relaxed. Even Sonic could see that. 

“Are… you okay?” the blue speedster asks hesitantly.

Shadow raises an eyebrow at the hero, “I should be asking you that question. I’m not the one who passed out.”

Sonic laughs nervously, ignoring the way that he aches at the motion, “Always one to get to the point aren'tcha?”

Shadow squints a little at him, but doesn’t comment on Sonic’s statement, instead, the dark hedgehog moves on.

“Are you having light sensitivity issues?” 

Sonic shrugs, “I mean... I just have a headache I guess.”

Shadow’s frown deepens, if that's even possible.

“You don’t normally get headaches, do you?”

Sonic plays with the blankets in his hands absently, as he ponders the question. He does but they surely are few and far between… normally in the case where he is hit hard enough to warrant some form of a concussion for a normal person. But he isn’t normal, he heals fast enough to avoid the majority of the aches and pains that come with minor injury.

“I do when I get hit hard enough.” Sonic shrugs.

“But you weren’t hit, at all.”

“Maybe I bonked my head when I fell.”

“You didn’t.” The dark hedgehog shuts down quickly.

Sonic frowns. Well then he’s at a loss.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s just something residual from the bad couple of weeks I’ve had…” He states absently, his mind wandering to the Shatterverse, when he first found himself exploring the multi-dimensional plain. He thought it would be a thrilling adventure, but then it all morphed to nothing but a time of grief and stress. As he grieved over what he thought he lost– what he did lose –briefly. But now that everything is back, he still finds himself lost in the same confusing waves of grief and pain… and that is the confusing part. The fact he still isn’t over it.

“Does the Shatterverse have something to do with it?” The ebony hedgehog asks.

“I- well-” He hesitates, the words getting caught up in his throat. He doesn’t really know the answer to that, but at this point, it has to play some sort of part, right? He definitely wasn't feeling this way before. 

But regardless if he did or not– it doesn’t help him to tell Shadow how he is feeling. Because, just like he said yesterday — the other doesn’t really care for him, care for anyone for that matter.

He looks up at the other hedgehog, expecting a glare, or at the very least a judgemental squint as he is scrutinized by his rival, but instead he finds just… a neutral gaze that doesn’t– much to his surprise –hold any exterior malice. Their eyes meet which causes the other to blink at him. The dark hedgehogs frown tilting downward fraction, but he doesn’t say anything else. He is waiting, Sonic notes.

He doesn’t know exactly why he is surprised… deep down, he knows that Shadow isn’t a complete jerk. He just constantly carries himself that way… and it wasn’t like they didn’t have any good moments in the Shatterverse, in fact, Sonic felt like they bonded quite a bit… however, all of their interactions were tied to life or death situations… fast action decisions amongst the reality that their reality wouldn't exist anymore–if they didn’t operate properly with one another.

None of it was truly… real… and if they weren’t tied to the same goal, who knows how much Shadow would have really cared? It was all just out of necessity for the sake of the mission.

But, between the lack of malice in the look the dark hedgehog is giving him, and the fact that the other is actually waiting to give him time to speak, makes him feel guilty over the concept of shutting down Shadow right now…

“...Maybe?” Sonic questions softly, voice cracking upwards lightly at the uncertainty in his words, “I don’t… really know. It could also just be an issue with, like, my sleep.”

“What‘s wrong with your sleep?“ Shadow asks.

“It just feels like I am not getting any.” He reasons, a weight he didn’t realize he was feeling lifting as he allows himself to speak out loud again ( chaos- when was the last time he allowed himself to do that? ) “Because… Every time I do sleep, when I wake up, it feels like no time has passed at all, and I am just as tired as I was before I tried to rest. And… if I am actually getting decent enough sleep… I am normally woken up by some sort of… erm… bad dream.”

Shadow hums, pondering what the speedster was saying as the gears seem to turn in his head. Silence stretches between them for a beat or two, before the ebony hedgehog focuses on emerald eyes once more, speaking evenly as he drills into the root of the problem.

”But, tiredness can’t be the only factor contributing to you passing out.”

Sonic frowns, he looks down to avoid the way Shadow keeps his eyes locked on him, scanning his features as he looks for something. 

Tiredness can’t be the only factor. He knows that… at least he knows that now. He can’t ignore the way that he reached for his powers only to find himself scraping at an empty barrel . That has never happened before. In all of his life. He always has something left to give, regardless of the circumstances. That race was one of the first times in his life he felt weak… or powerless… and, it was just a race! 

But as far as he knew at that moment… he was powerless. 

…and that is a terrifying thought. He doesn’t know what he would do without his powers, it was quite literally all he knows.

”You know something, hedgehog.” Shadow pry’s, breaking Sonic out of his train of thoughts.

”What?” The blue hedgehog blinks, looking up at the other.

”You have that- look. You-of all people-are thinking. And everyone knows that you don’t think,” Shadow scoffs at the thought, before he levels again, reiterating what he said before, “You know something. And I need you to tell me.”

Sonic’s expression morphs into a mix of annoyance and disbelief. What does he mean he doesn’t think- he thinks literally all the time! But, he doesn’t dig into that comment specifically, instead tagging his question onto the last thing Shadow said, which was equally as ridiculous. He technically, didn’t have to tell the other anything. “Why? I don’t have to tell you anything…”

“Because-“ Anger edges into Shadow’s features as stands, jabbing a finger at his rival in bed, “We can’t have Mobius’ main hero dropping dead at random times when he is actually needed. Believe it or not, you have a responsibility to be able to function, Sonic.”

Sonic blanches, itching to stand to meet the way the other hedgehog was sizing him up but restrains to avoid possibly embarrassing himself at the movement. But that doesn’t mean he can’t bite back.

”I can function.” Sonic hisses, “I function pretty well- I’ll have you know. Who was the one that finished off Robotnik and his goons last week? That would be me. Mobius’ greatest hero. Thank you very much.”

”Yeah? but also who’s the one I found dead asleep under a palm tree? The one that has gone out multiple times in the middle of the night over the past week OR the one that just- passed out in the middle of a race?” Shadow quickly retorts, teeth baring slightly as he practically glares at the hero. ”That would also be you.” 

Sonic’s instinct pushes for him to argue again, to bite back, to shut him down. But… every word Shadow speaks seems to weigh heavier on him as he feels the amount of truth possibly behind them.

He isn’t functioning, not really, he’s barely staying awake as he struggles through daylight hours. His ability to be able to run is in the dumps, because he just… doesn’t have much to give. When he sleeps, he sleeps heavy, but yet is either tormented by a nightmare… or the concept of still being exhausted.

It’s not sustainable, he realizes, but there’s also only so much that can be changed with what he is doing.

“Sonic.”

The cobalt hedgehog inhales sharply as he blinks, instantly loosening the death grip he had on the blankets at his waist. Feeling the way tight anxiety gripped at his insides. He didn’t even realize he was starting to freak out. He looks up at Shadow, who had lost the glare for more even expression, brow furrowed as he watches Sonic with folded arms over his chest. The ebony hedgehog speaks, the bite from his voice gone as he asks slowly.

”What’s going on with you?”

Sonic blinks, that is probably the closest to sincere he has ever heard Shadow. Which is shocking because they don’t talk like this, like, ever . They didn’t even talk like this during the Shatterverse. They fought, bantered, and almost-argued… ‘almost’ . But it seemed like the two of them preferred it that way… it was easier to be fighting. That literally was what both of their lives were built off of…

However, talking like this made it actually feel like maybe he could trust Shadow.

“I don’t know…” Sonic starts, silently trying to find the words as he begins to deconstruct the walls he had desperately attempted to put up,  “I’m still trying to figure it all out. But, I guess something is messed up with my powers because, when I was running in our race… I… I ran out. I had nothing else to give. I… I felt—”

He grips onto the fabric at his lap tightly, as he screwed his eyes shut, forcing out his next words.

”I felt… powerless.”

The words at the end of his sentence fall into a whisper that only meets reality thanks to the utter silence that spreads within the room around it. The statement weighs heavy in his chest, as he feels both the anxiety of feeling that way… and the grief of possibly disappointing others spin within his stomach.

When Sonic finally musters the courage to meet the gaze of his doppleganger, he is surprised to see utter disbelief edged onto the others face. But after the blink at each other for a moment, Shadow huffs and pulls his gaze away as he looks to the side, shaking his head and clenching his fists at his sides as he breaks their delicate silence. 

“I should’ve brought you to Tails-“ Shadow mumbles, but the statement lights a fire within the other as panic welcomes itself back into the equation.

”No- NO- Do not bring me to Tails.” Sonic states desperately, feeling some energy to flair inside of him. Even though now he had some… forced rest between his nightmare and now. Doesn’t mean he still isn’t on edge. He definitely was not ready to face Tails yet. Not to mention, he hadn’t even given himself the time to process everything else that came to light with that dream.

“Wait- Does Tails not already know?” Shadow asks incredulously.

”I mean-“ Sonic starts, but the anger is back in Shadows expression, and this time, he doesn’t even let the cobalt hedgehog finish.

”You mean to tell me that you’re struggling with your powers possibly not even working. And you have yet to tell anyone?!”

Sonic's ears droop as he looks away, wincing minutely at the yelling as it stabs at his head.

Why is Shadow so upset? It issn’t like it’s his business, it isn’t anyone’s business outside of his own, technically. 

”I’m bringing you to Tails.” Shadow says finally, taking out his chaos emerald into his hand as he moves closer to Sonic. This causes the hedgehog to react, sparks of energy flaring at his quills as he pulls the blankets off of himself in an instant, rolling to the far side of the bed as he moves to stand at the opposite side from Shadow. The action hurts his head sure, but he’s been awake long enough for the headache to mitigate from unbearable to not-so-fun to deal with… but it is manageable. 

Besides, his heart is distracted with the fact that it seems like he has power to pull from after all, as electric energy lights up his quills once more. Sure, his limbs themselves still feel like jello, but, all of that was overlooked by the concept that maybe he wasn’t completely empty... that maybe it's fine after all. A smile finally graces the blue speedsters lips.

Shadow blinks at him in quiet disbelief, clearly not anticipating Sonic to be able to use his powers after what he just said. The dark hedgehog moves a fraction, which triggers Sonic to retaliate with a quick movement to put a hand on the door. This causes Shadows eyes to widen as he speaks out.

”Don’t-“

Sonic smirks, “Why not?“

Clearly there is more to their situation than the other hedgehog is letting on, and the way that the other sighs, shoulders dropping, only confirms that statement.

”I really don’t feel like explaining to Rouge why you are here.”

Rouge. He glances at the black and red bed, then Shadows himself standing at the other side of it. They were at Team Dark's place- and this was Shadow's bedroom .

And better yet, apparently neither of his roommates know he is here.

Sonic’s smirk grows to fill his features, actually feeling like he has a handle on the situation he is in for once.

“Is that where I am? I honestly wasn’t sure.” He looks around at his surroundings again, taking in the dark red and blacks… along with the way the room is both furnished-but yet probably half decorated at best. ”Hate to say it my friend, but your decorating tastes might need some work.“

Shadow snarls, ”I don’t care to decorate. Rouge practically forced me too.” 

Sonic lets out a chuckle, “Of course you don’t, why would the ‘ultimate lifeform’ decorate?” he taunts, only earning a continual-scowl from the other hedgehog. “Listen, it seems like we are at a bit of an impasse… but I probably need to get going. If the sun is anything to go by, I have my daily activities to get to.”

“It’s almost three in the afternoon. You’ve been asleep for twelve hours.”

”Oh.” Sonic wilts a little bit, he slept the day away again? That needs to stop happening.

He attempts to shake off his disappointment.

“All the more reason to get going then.”

Shadow shakes his head, before he teleports beside Sonic to put his own hand on the door, to ensure the door stays closed.

“We can teleport to Tails lab, and then you can explain to him what is happening with you,”

Sonic blanches, he is not doing that.

“No we’re not doing that. I am just leaving.”

Shadow squints at him, “No you’re not, because I am your ticket out of here. And that ticket is a one way trip to talk to your friend.”

“I am not talking to Tails about this.“ He growls.

”Why not? Isn’t he your friend?”

“Yes- but-”

’But I can’t stop thinking about the fact that he looks exactly like the very person who tried to kill me- and almost succeeded. I can’t forget what it feels like, to have my body fade away to nothingness.’

That's what he wants to say, but he can’t get the words out… But, the look of pure anxiety and terror in his eyes must have been enough to quell Shadows question… because the next thing he knew the dark hedgehog is letting out a defeated sigh. 

“Fine. I’ll make a deal with you,” He states, aggravation edging into his tone as he speaks with new finality.

Sonic perks up a little bit, cautiously waiting for Shadow to continue.

”I won’t tell Tails. As long as things don’t become life or death for you, or anyone else involved.”

Sonic brightens, that’s perfect, he could totally do that. “Sure! That sounds a-o-k to-“

”-and. ” Shadow drawls, interrupting the other. Sonic’s mouth snaps shut. 

“… You meet up with me, daily, and we work to figure out how to fix-“ The dark hedgehog then gestures to Sonic from head to toe, Sonic raises an eyebrow at him.

”You just gestured to all of me-“

”Yes, you are a problem.” Shadow finishes.

Sonic blanches at him, the AUDACITY. 

“I don’t think I can agree to that.”

The dark hedgehog folds his arms against his chest, ”It’s either that, or I’m telling Tails.”

”I guess I can agree with that.” Sonic huffs, matching Shadow in folding his arms across his chest, “But that doesn’t mean I am happy about it.”

”Neither am I.”

They stare at each other for a moment. Silence stretching between the two of them.

”So… Should we shake on it?” Sonic asks, hesitant smile gracing his lips as he unfolds his arm, Shadow glares at him.

”No.”

”You sure? What’s a deal without a good ol’ hand-“

The blue hedgehog is then cut off by Shadow roughly grabbing the other's forearm, then in a blink of an eye they are teleported to the middle of Hedgehog‘s pass. 

Shadow lets him go in a moment, turning on his heel to face away from Sonic, but before he goes anywhere, he commands over his shoulder.

”We are meeting at the loop-de-loop Tomorrow morning. Be there, otherwise I am telling Tails.”

And then, before Sonic is even given a chance to reply, or protest, Shadow skates away, leaving the cobalt hedgehog alone in the middle of the pathway.

Sonic stands in awe. Both at the threat, and the fact that he and Shadow are now, once again, working together… kinda.

Part of him regrets telling Shadow anything- because of the very real threat he has to now deal with… but also… part of him is relieved.

Because maybe that means he doesn’t have to deal with this alone anymore.

He moves to slowly walk back home… ignoring the way that his limbs feel dead and his headache still pounds in the background. But he barely makes it more than ten feet before another voice is calling out from behind him

”SONIC!” 

He really knows no peace does he?

He regretfully turns around to see none other than Amy jogging up to meet him in the middle of the path. A big smile on her face as she immediately begins to speak when they are close enough.

”How have you been? I swear we haven't had any time to talk recently.

”Sorry Amy, things just have been super busy lately.” He lies, rubbing the back of his neck absently with his right hand, the pink hedgehog raises an eyebrow at him.

”Is that so…? I have heard that nobody has been able to find you as of late.”

He laughs nervously “I’m just so fast nobody can catch me. I have a lot of other things to attend to around the island.”

”Like goofing off?”

Sonic droops, giving Amy a look of annoyance. Why is everyone being mean to him Today?

”Yeah, sure, something like that.“ he drawls.

Amy smirks, leaning into Sonic's personal space a little bit, ”Well, if you have so much time to ‘goof off’ . Maybe you’ll have enough time to hang out with your friends who miss you very dearly.”

Sonic frowns, he has been accidentally ignoring them… but like… he still doesn’t really feel ready to be hanging out with anyone… not after everything that just happened.

”I don’t know Ames… I am pretty booked up…”

The pink hedgehog tilts her head at him, “How long are you booked up for?”

”I don’t know- maybe the next week?” Sonic states hesitantly- he isn’t really booked up, he just needs time.

”Well then, why don’t we plan for a hangout on the beach next Saturday. That would work in your schedule right?”

Sonic puts up a strained half-smile, she’s not going to let him go till he agrees to something is she- “Sure- yeah, that should work.”

”Great! Make sure it’s in your calendar, because I will hold it against you if you flake.”

Jokes on her, he doesn’t have a calendar.

”Duly noted.” Sonic states, Amy dances on her feet a little bit as she takes out a little pocket planner she apparently keeps on her person and marks something down. His limbs feeling heavier the longer he stands there, he needs to get home so he can lay down. 

“Well… my busy schedule needs me to get going…”

The mini planner snaps shut in Amy's hands as she looks up at Sonic again, blinking as her face is a little surprised. “Oh, right, well, be sure to be there next Saturday! And if your schedule does clear up, you can always just let us know and I am sure we can plan something more last minute…” Amy explains, which only makes Sonic feel a little more guilty, it's obvious they all probably want to see him… but he just… can’t see them right now.

He tries to not let his distress show on his face, he waves a hand in the pink hedgehog's direction. “For sure, don’t worry, I’ll let you guys know. I’d love to see you all.” He starts to turn to walk away, back to his house, “See you next Saturday, make sure to bring some chilli dogs.” 

Amy brightens at the suggestion, taking out her planner again, “Will do! See you next Saturday!” She calls, and then Sonic turns fully, and walks back home.

Well, it seems like he has a lot to work on over the next two weeks.

Chapter Text

Watching the night turn into sunrise from the loop-de-loop has become commonplace for Shadow over the last couple weeks.

He doesn’t need to be here this early… but… he doesn’t mind the time to think, and with the little sleep he requires as the Ultimate Lifeform, it’s not like he has much else to do at this hour.

It’s been three weeks since they returned from the Shatterverse, and almost two since Sonic and him began working together. One of their main focuses since they started has been attempting to build back Sonic's endurance and strength… since such was observed to be lacking pretty early on. 

That being said, the work that they’ve put in so far towards that effort is resulting in minuscule progress to the hero’s condition… a difference that Shadow finds rather disappointing. However, the lack of progress could partly be attested to the fact that in the two weeks they've been working together… they still have not managed to pinpoint what actually is wrong with the hero.

Back when the duo initially returned from the Shatterverse, after Eggman was defeated, Shadow took it upon himself to actually check in on the status of their reality. Is everyone accounted for? Is their reality set for the same time as before? Has anything changed? After a solid check through, he found everything to be in order. They were, quite literally, brought back to almost the precise moment they left. 

Even Sonic bounced back like nobody’s business, flipping from being well you know, almost dead, to fighting crime and goofing off like usual…

…at least, that’s what he thought at first.

But then, less than twenty-four hours after everything, he found Sonic napping under a palm tree. Which didn’t tip him off initially, but the way the Speedster didn’t wake up due to his presence was a little unsettling. However that to a certain degree could be explainable. Maybe even arguably in character for the hero to be careless subconsciously. But… what really made things feel off for the anti-hero was…

●○●○●○●○●

“Sounds like a good idea,” Shadow states, quickly turning to leave as he shuts down the conversation with the blue hedgehog. Who knew talking with Sonic for not even a couple seconds could be so annoying.  

His air shoes trudge in the sand as he walks, he’s in no rush, and he doesn’t believe in the need to be… much to the contrast of his supposed rival.

His mind pauses at that thought. Hm.

His ears twitch lightly as he listens, realizing he’s heard nothing of Sonic's departure from the beach. 

He concentrates for another moment–then two–but the status stays the same.

Eventually, curiosity gets the best of him, so he turns to look. A little taken aback by what he sees.

Sonic is walking away in the other direction…

…that doesn’t seem right.

●○●○●○●○●

Sonic quickly became the one anomaly in their reality that warranted a thought to note. The one thing that hadn’t seemed to return back to normal, so, he felt obligated to keep an eye on it.

It didn’t take long for the evidence to pile up either. The next thing he noticed was the fact that the hedgehog's habits were off. 

Believe it or not, the cobalt hero is a creature of habit. He wakes up early to run, hangs out with his friend, maybe collects rings or eats chili dogs, and then crashes for the night before doing it all over again. That is common knowledge amongst almost everyone. Including Shadow.

But, then the speedster started to appear at times that simply didn’t make sense.

●○●○●○●○●

Shadow sits beside a large oak tree as he looks up at the stars… well more specifically the ARK that orbits around their planet. 

The veil of darkness that comes with the late hours of the night is the only opportunity he gets to look out at where he came from… and where she drew her last breath. 

The fist resting on his knee clenches at the thought. He swallows the heavy feeling in his heart. 

Then, breaking him out of his peace, he sees a flicker of a blue streak lighting the ground below his vantage point. He stands and walks to the edge of the cliff in front of him. 

The blue lightning cuts through Green Hill, winding around the loop-de-loop before shooting down hedgehogs pass.

Shadow frowns. Sonic.

●○●○●○●○●

The sightings of the blue streak in the middle of the night only became more and more common. The main common denominator that drew the ebony hedgehog's attention was the fact that Sonic had a tendency to run through the island like a blue-lightning bolt… but granted, the runs also didn’t tend to last very long. 

At first Shadow tried to ignore it. However, each sighting made something inside him twist… So eventually he followed. 

Then… the night he did, he found himself challenging Sonic to a race. 

Why he did that still made him feel uneasy to this day. It turned out to be a strategic error… that granted, worked out–giving him the leverage he needed for a proper explanation…

But regardless, it was still a dangerous move on his part.

Because he walked into the situation without considering the damage he could have done to the hero's fragile state. In which he was aware of prior to the situation.

But how was he supposed to know the extent of it? Sonic was as stubborn as he probably could’ve been about the situation (which was saying something). The only way Shadow would’ve been able to get what he wanted was through challenging the speedster. The thought process was a tactful ‘prove it or lose it’ scenario. Either Sonic proved that he was fine… and was just being a little… ‘emotional’ after everything. Or, he gained the ground to ask more questions, because while Shadow doesn’t care about the speedster himself—he does want to know what is wrong with Mobius’ hero. 

Regardless of the reasoning… he can’t help the uneasy feeling that came with watching Sonic drop like that–again–a feeling that makes him reconsider the tactfulness of his approach.

●○●○●○●○●

“Faker you are not at the finish line.” He bites harshly, fists clenching as he strides towards the hero who had stopped in the middle of the field about halfway from their destination. What does the stupid blue hedgehog think he is doing?!

But then Shadow notices the way that Sonic's steps are uneven as he stumbles to the side. A trill of feeling tracing up the back of his neck as he watches the scene unfold.

Something is wrong.

That is the singular thought he manages to get in before the blue speedsters foot catches, and is sent falling face first towards the ground.

”SONIC-“ He yells, chaos energy activating as he closes the distance between them in a moment, falling to his knees to meet his rival just before he hits the ground. Sonic’s face lands into Shadow‘s chest as the ebony hedgehog leans back to muffle the impact, the hero’s limp body settling awkwardly propped up against the other. Shadow shifts his weight to the right, using his arm to support Sonic's shoulder blades as he rolls the cobalt hedgehog to face him. Sonic’s expression is peaceful with eyes closed as his head lulls for support, landing softly against black and white fur. Shadow feels the way the other's body is warm against his, breath heavy, although with each draw it seemed to calm a fraction. As the ebony hedgehog attempts to make a proper analysis, he can’t stop the thoughts in his mind from getting louder with each passing moment, as it screams over the shock and deja vu of the situation. The only thing keeping the thoughts at bay is the fact that Shadow can feel the speedsters rough quills, and a strong heartbeat hammering against his chest.

Sonic just… dropped. He just passed out. For no reason.

And now he finds the hero cradled in his arms again, feeling eerily reminiscent of a situation he’s been in before.

●○●○●○●○●

That situation ended in the worst way possible. 

Prior to the incident, Shadow considered the worst case scenario being Sonic maybe wouldn’t have been himself… possibly to the point where he lost because of obvious exterior iniquities. But the darker hedgehog didn’t consider the cobalt hero would run himself to the point where he would pass out. That concept seemed insane.

However after the deal they made over two weeks ago… he has begun to understand the cobalt speedster passing out isn’t actually that crazy.

Because spending time with Sonic has given him a more encompassing view of how bad the hero’s condition is… with some of the most natural tasks for the two of them being the most apt to set the hedgehog off. The worst part about it is Shadow has no idea what might possibly be making Sonic so unwell. He shows no visible signs of sickness at a surface level, and isn’t harboring any external injuries, internally? Maybe questionable- but both him and the speedster can’t seem to pinpoint an exact event where something could’ve happened to lead to something like that.

Not to mention his reactions to different activities were rather… inconsistent. Fighting in hand to hand? They found that the speedster was able to hold his own… for awhile… but running…?

●○●○●○●○●

He and Sonic skid to a stop amongst the soft sand of the eastern beach of Green Hill, sun resting mere inches above the ocean horizon. They started from the center of Green Hill and headed East- a distance that Shadow deemed fair, but not anything crazy.

But when he looks over at his counterpart, he finds the other swaying uneasily on his feet as he holds his hands locked above his head to try and assist his breathing (a trick Shadow had shown the other a couple days prior). The dark hedgehog's eyes widen in surprise as he watches the speeder trip over himself in his balancing act, arms flailing out abruptly as he falls. Shadow swiftly steps in, activating his chaos energy as he dips down to catch the blue hedgehog's weight from the side, hooking an arm under Sonic's armpits as he holds the hero up.

Sonic leans against him heavily, his head drooping forward as he apparently gives up the fight to stay upright alone. Shadow’s hand gripping onto the far side of the hero’s ribcage can feel the way his heart is hammering inside his chest.

“You need to sit down-“ Shadow addresses, regretfully unable to keep the stress out of his tone, but Sonic doesn’t seem to notice, instead shifting as he weakly tries to grab on the dark hedgehog's arm for more support.

”y-yeah… that… sounds good.” The hero addresses between heavy breaths.

●○●○●○●○●

Sonic’s spouts of… weakness… were way too common for his liking.

That is also just the tip of the iceberg. It only took a couple of days for Shadow to realize that the speedsters mental state was equally as questionable… and a bit beyond the complexities that he is admittedly comfortable with.

Some days, Sonic manages to roll up with a smile on his face and a pep in his step, mirroring as close to his ‘normal hero persona’ as possible.

But other days… well… Shadow would argue he’s barely workable. With his baseline sense of pride… and the threat the ebony hedgehog held over his head being the only things keeping him going.

However, even then, there was a time where Sonic was so unmanageable… He had to let the hero go.

●○●○●○●○●

Shadow watches as the sun rises more than a couple feet above the horizon. It’s late morning, and Sonic still hasn't shown.

He checks his communicator just to be sure. 10:44 AM. 

Annoyance and another twinge of something else settle in his chest. He is almost done with waiting.

…but then a quiet scuffle would be heard from the ramp behind him. His gaze snapping to face the direction of the source of the sound. The blue hedgehog walks into view.

”For a second there I thought you weren’t going to show.” He addresses, propping his right hand on his hip. But all he gets is a quiet hum in response.

The Sonic steps into direct light of the morning sun, and Shadow is able to see the exhaustion engraved across the other’s face. His eyes have dark circles under it, his lips rest a somber frown, and his quills were barely brushed back to appear as half-kept. The cobalt speedster locks his arms across his chest to hold them upright as he walks—and if Shadow is to guess—as some form of self comfort (he has seen Maria do something similar once or twice). The hero looks like he had barely rolled out of bed after restlessly laying all night, Or–had spent hours of the darkness running himself ragged. 

Either way it looks like he hadn’t slept a wink.

But the most off putting part about all of it is the fact Sonic isn’t even trying to hide it… the hedgehog in front of Shadow is making no effort to project the exterior front he’s been building to reflect the ghost of the hero he was before. Instead, allowing the things he’s kept buried beneath for the past two weeks since the Shatterverse finally shine through for someone else to see.

That last tidbit unsettles Shadow the most, throwing the dark hedgehog off his game.

Shadow shifts on his feet, straightening up as he turns to face the other fully, ”Did something happen?”

”No.” Sonic answers shortly, noticeably avoiding his gaze as he instead chooses to look at the grass between their feet.

Shadow watches the other carefully, trying to ignore the way that some feeling nags at him. Sonic is a liar. 

”Do… you want to talk about it?” He tries.

Sonic’s quills bristle at the statement a bit, and Shadow notices the way that his grip tightens around his own biceps. The blue hedgehogs brow furrows, the gears turning in his head for a moment before he scoffs, throwing his arms down as he finally dares to look up at the other. Annoyance and aggravation infect Sonic’s features, ”Let’s just get to work, that was the deal, right?“

Defensively Shadow returns the glare, lip tightening to a thin line as he backs off, “Right,” not his place.

He turns his back to the hero and looks over the landscape of Green Hill. With Sonic's current state it suddenly doesn’t seem like a good idea to test his endurance right now, which stifles his original plans. It also doesn’t seem like Sonic had the bandwidth to hold any form of discussion or ponderance of his condition either. So that sort of problem solving is out of the window as well. He looks down at the field directly in front of the loop-de-loop.

It seems like there really is only one option with all things being considered.

”We’re going to spar in the field.” He explains, before leaping off the edge of the loop-de-loop spin dashing down the side of the mountain.

It takes a moment for Sonic to follow, but he does the same. Shadow purposely ignores the way Sonic’s landing sounds tragically ungraceful behind him as he strides further into the field ahead of the other. Once he makes it to the middle he turns to face the way he came, watching Sonic who is following at a distance.

When the hero is close enough, he raises his fists, not even bothering to explain. Sonic understands. He always does. That’s why, regretfully, they are able to fight so seamlessly together in battle.

Sonic is the first to throw a punch, putting a little speed behind it as he closes the distance between them. 

Shadow easily moves to the side, slipping behind the hero with the missed momentum and jabs an elbow harshly into the blue hedgehog's back, sending him stumbling a couple paces. Sonic is quick on his feet to adjust, turning his body to face the ebony hedgehog, a fire lighting in his gaze as he attacks with another swing.

They quickly fall into a rhythm that starts off as manageable, but there isn’t a ton of trading between the two hedgehogs… Instead Shadow quickly finds himself adjusting to operating solely on the defensive, allowing his opponent to throw sloppy punches in his direction. 

At this point he’s accepted Sonic is having a tragically emotional day. He can see written all over the hero's face with a narrative told through his actions. His eyes are fiery with anger while he attacks with vigor… (a vigor he can’t define who it is aimed towards), his face is etched with stress lines that give him years of age, and his silence speaks volumes to the character that was left for dead back at whatever set the blue hedgehog off.

All of it is also only accentuated by the deep exhaustion that infects the speedsters movements. Which makes his emotional attacks weak and sloppy. The hero also operates with a lag of a couple moments, making the intentions and follow-through of the other all too easy for Shadow to track and keep ahead of.

“Your attacks are sloppy. Think about what you’re doing.” He directs, frustration towards the hero’s negligence eating at him. The hero is trying to do too much right now between trying and failing to manage his emotions, and attempting to catch some sort of upper hand on his rival. 

Shadow hopes that his directions can draw the cobalt hedgehog out of his thoughts, and back into a place of focus. Yet, Sonic’s fists clench even tighter at the words, focusing in on the ebony anti-hero before swinging again.

The dark hedgehog dodges the hit, and is forced to block a quick follow-up attack with his forearms that aimed at his head. At least Sonic thought to approach his offensive with a secondary notion–possibly thanks to his advice. Shadow then parry’s the onslaught with a swish of his air shoe, catching the back of Sonic's heel and pulling it towards himself. The blue hedgehog yelps and falls on his back, glaring daggers at the ebony hedgehog.

If Shadow isn’t mistaken, Sonic looks genuinely angry.

To be fair, since the moment they started this sparring session Sonic immediately was going for the jugular of his opponent, embracing a viciousness he’s only seen a handful of times… and never in sparring. They have a rule with intentional training sessions to keep it pretty civil, with a focus on technique and mindful practice over actually landing a hit. There’s also an avoidance of using powers in sparring, because getting the upper hand with one’s innate abilities wasn’t really the point either.

It was a set of rules the two of them were pretty good at sticking to over the past week of training, at least, until Today apparently.

Sonic’s teeth bares for a moment on the ground, before he rolls into a charged spin dash at his opponent from the ground. 

Instincts kick in for Shadow as his eyes widen minutely in shock, he instantly teleports out of the path of destruction, barely saving his own quills as he reappears fifteen feet north of where they were. The anti-hero turns to watch his fiery-opponent, bounce further away from him, uncurling and landing in a fighting stance a good thirty feet away. Electricity dancing at the edge of a few of his quills.

What does Sonic think he’s doing?! Does he genuinely want to kill him?

He feels his insides flush as multiple different ‘emotions’ clash inside of him, but he ignores it, gripping onto the only status he’s comfortable with. Anger.

Because he doesn’t have time to figure it out. Sonic is breaking their rules, ruining their trust, and just downright playing dirty.

He’s sick of it, he’s sick of the disrespect, and he’s sick of the other’s temper tantrums. He doesn’t know what’s got the blue hero all tied up in a knot, but he has no right to come after Shadow after everything he’s done for him.

So, if Sonic wants to fight? They’ll fight.

Shadow curls up into his own spin dash as the fight gets faster and more violent by both parties. They meet in the air as their attacks collide, chaos energy sparking between the two of them. Shadow breaks the cycle first, swinging a strong fist into their attack and sending them both flying in opposite directions. Sonic retreats a bit to recuperate but Shadow follows relentlessly with another spin dash across the ground, and a roundhouse kick the moment he’s close enough. The hit lands with precise accuracy into Sonic’s stomach and the hero is sent tumbling across the grass. The blue hero catches his landing crouched on his feet, with one hand planted on the ground in front of him for balance. The stance allows him to shoot back into the action, running straight for Shadow, when he breaks through his blur of blue speed he lunges at the dark hedgehog with a flying punch. Shadow throws his body to duck under the attack limbo style before shooting back upright, response time instintatious with a turn then hop over Sonic's foot that swept right where his own just were. He lands on his right foot, using his air momentum to twist with the fall, sending a backwards kick at the blue hedgehog's face. The blue hedgehog flips backwards out of the way, but is too slow to avoid Shadow’s quick secondary advancement, giving the opportunity for the other hedgehog to clock him in the face.

Sonic stumbles for a moment, blinking as a hand flies up to his jaw following the impact. Something flashes across the blue hedgehog's face, fire distinguishing in his eyes as he finally takes a breath as he steps back. But, Shadow barely has a moment to catch it, because he was already mid-air with another punch, an attack that luckily Sonic sees, and moves out of the way at the expense of practically tripping over himself.

Sonic lets out a strangled yell in frustration, the way things are turning out obviously eating at the speedsters pride. His attacks and dodges only growing progressively more erratic and clumsy between the labored breaths in his chest. 

Shadow finally notes the amount of energy the other has been using on top of his pre-set exhaustion. The hero’s movements and decision making were probably falling victim to the weakness ebbing at his body and desperation settling in his mind. That becomes even more apparent when the hero recklessly attacks with a sloppy Axe kick from above, an onslaught Shadow easily mitigates, cupping his hands above his head, grabbing a hold of Sonic's ankle before roughly tossing the cobalt hedgehog to the side. Sonic is then back on the ground again, barely propping himself up with shaky arms on the grass again, chest heaving as he gives himself a moment to look at the long green blades closely.

When the downed hero doesn’t get up immediately, Shadow takes a pause in his relentless attack to analyze the other’s sudden hesitation. The flicker of emotion breaking through when Sonic was hit hard enough, the way the other on the ground trembled through labored breaths, how the other only became more and more disheveled as he fought through emotions that raged through his mind and infected his thoughts–

The puzzle pieces finally began to fall into place. Sonic was hurting, badly. In more ways than one at this point.

The anger leaves Shadow’s limbs, and the electricity at his quills calm a fraction as he feels cold blood rush through his veins. Chaos, what is he doing? 

It’s clear that Sonic is not in the proper headspace to perform properly. Not to mention defend himself. How did he not see that before?

Sonic takes Shadows internal crisis as an opening, throwing a messy punch at the other. But it was sloppy at best, the exhaustion surely getting the better of the speedster as the anti-hero registers his forum breaking. Shadow intercepts the punch directly, catching Sonic's right fist with his own using lethal force. The air shifts around them. But the darker hedgehog wastes no time to grab onto the blue blurs wrist with his other hand as well, forcing his weight downward and swinging his arms outwards to rip Sonic off his feet. He spins, swinging Sonic in the air as the speedster yells. After gaining some momentum, the darker hedgehog throws the other at a low angle to the ground– to avoid hurting him any more . The action forces the hero to haphazardly roll like a log a couple feet away, before he catches himself on his elbows.

Sonic doesn’t immediately get up. Shadow turns his back to the hero on the ground, but watches him carefully over his shoulder.

“We’re done here. Get some rest, Sonic.” He huffs sharply, holding onto his feelings as chaos energy prickling at his own quills as the hum of his inhibitor rings pulling the electricity back into its docile state.

The ebony hedgehog glares at the hero for one more moment, but the anger to support that glare was dramatically waning by the second. He watches as multiple emotions flit over the cobalt hero's face while he pants on the ground. But that's all the time Shadow is willing to spare with the heavy weight in his chest pulling at him. 

He feels… dirty. This whole situation feel’s wrong.

He can’t look at the blue speedster any longer. He needs time away.

So Shadow teleports away, leaving Sonic to his own devices.

●○●○●○●○●

The next day's training was difficult. Neither of them apologized for what happened… or even mentioned it, for that matter.

To this day, Shadow still doesn’t know what happened to sonic before he showed up. But, he’s decided it’s best not to question it.

The thing he does question however, is Sonic's unwillingness to confide in his friends, or anyone else for that matter, about his condition. It’s a common talking point between the two of them during their daily meetups… and also a common point of friction. Every time there's a glaring problem with the hero’s condition… Shadow presses for them to tell someone about it. Whether that be Sonic’s friend, a doctor, or even G.U.N. But every time, Sonic relents, with one of his top excuses being the fact that it would ruin his ‘hero persona’. If he had such unexplainable problems.

But Shadow didn’t care about that, and couldn’t wrap his head around why the hero did. They have been working on this issue for two weeks at this point, and have made almost no progress. It was infuriating. And the frustration only gets worse the more Shadow thinks about the fact they have so many resources in this world… and yet they are using none of them. 

The hero’s negligence also bothered him because it’s glaringly obvious when this all started, and if he’s right, it’s a pretty big deal. It happened right after the Shatterverse—right after Sonic almost died —and that correlation was too close to be a coincidence.

They have no knowledge on the possible complications that come following almost phasing out of existence, and they were ignoring an issue that quite possibly could be crippling for life–or worse–especially if they continue to ignore it.

But yet, when they talk about it, it’s always about the impact of telling Sonic's friends, or what happens to his hero image… and never about him himself.

The topic has caused multiple arguments between the hedgehogs.

●○●○●○●○●

The two hedgehogs leaned up against the base of a big tree just off the pathway of Green Hill that cut through a denser forest area before breaking out to the beach. Sonic leaned with his head back and eyes closed, focused on steadying his breathing, where Shadow sits a foot to the left of the speedster, arm resting over his propped knee as he waits, keeping a watchful eye.

Sonic had passed out, again, forcing Shadow to catch him as he lost consciousness for a couple moments. It made the dark hedgehog's nerves fray, but he is honestly just thankful the other hedgehog regained consciousness rather quickly, and they hadn’t had a repeat of what happened a week and a half ago.

They’ve been sitting at the tree to rest for the past half hour, giving Sonic a chance to regain his strength before they travel back to the center of Green Hill.

The blue hedgehog beside him takes a deep breath, blinking as he looks at his shoes in front of him. Shadow watches him carefully, the other looks exhausted, and he is barely regaining a normal color to his cheeks.

Something twists at Shadows insides. They have been doing this for over a week, and yet everything is still exactly the same as it was before.

Shadow sighs, breaking the silence between the two of them. 

“When we get back, we should tell Tails about what happened,” He explains.

The speedsters brow furrow and he looks back over at the other, disgust gracing his face, “What? No way, I am not letting you do that, we have a deal.”

“But you’re not getting any better,” Shadow reasons evenly, “this clearly isn’t working, we need back-up.”

“It doesn’t matter if I am not getting better- we can’t tell Tails- or anyone else. I don’t want back-up.”

Shadow scoffs, it’s always the same answer, and it’s absolutely ridiculous.

“Why not? When we were stuck in the Shatterverse, you were all about your friends… any version of them mind you. You were always worried about them, you were always with them, and you told them everything– and it almost cost us, everything.” Shadow bites at the end of his sentence, glaring at the other as Sonic wilts a fraction, but the dark hedgehog doesn’t exactly regret it, he isn’t wrong after all. “None of those copies were worth it– they were just made up versions of your actual friends… and now I don’t understand how being back in your reality where you are with your real friends, you suddenly cannot fathom to tell them a word… not to mention even look at them.”

“They are worth it– they are still real versions of Knuckles, Rouge, Amy, and even Tails! They have lives, thoughts, and feelings–they care about me–and I care about them. So don’t you-”

“--why is that the first thing you lock onto out of everything I said?” Shadow snaps. Enough with the hero-friend complex. Every time they talk about this, Sonic ignores what’s actually important and spends way too much time defending his Shatterverse ‘relationships’. It needs to stop.

“You are defending people that aren’t even here–and are ignoring the people that are. For all you know–all of them might not even exist anymore after–”

“THEY EXIST.” Sonic interrupts with a yell, rolling onto his hands and knees as he faces Shadow directly with an angry glare that almost causes the dark hedgehog to flinch… almost.

“You. Don’t. Know. That.” Shadow bites, eyes narrowing at the other hedgehog following the outburst. “They were fractured versions of our very reality, and guess what? Our reality is back, so we have no idea what that means for them… And that's not your responsibility to think about or protect them. You’re home now. So instead you should be thinking about how you can protect your friends in this reality.”

“My friends don’t need protecting.” Sonic mumbles, looking away from Shadow’s gaze. The anti-hero is quick to follow up on the hero’s observation.

“Well, neither do their copies from the Shatterverse. Because they are gone, Sonic, you hear?” 

Sonic deflates, leaning back to sit on his hind legs. He’s quiet for a moment, before doubling down.

“You still cannot tell anyone.” He says quietly, raising his gaze to look at Shadow, aggravation stirs in his chest, he cannot believe this guy. Why is he so adamant about avoiding the help he so desperately needs?

The ebony hedgehog lets out a loud huff, and looks away.

“Fine.”

●○●○●○●○●

Even with all the frustration in the world. Shadow still finds himself stuck on the fact that despite all the stupidity involved in the situation. He cannot seem to bring himself to break the speedsters trust over the matter.

Speaking of the blue blur… he sees a flash of the bright color cut through the center of Green Hill towards the loop-de-loop. Shadow stands up just in time for a zipping sound to grow exponentially louder behind him, before stopping with a gust of wind against his back. He doesn’t even have the time to turn around by the time the hero is already chatting away.

“Good morning Shadzster! How’ve you been? Not too much brooding I hope.” The cobalt hedgehog says, and Shadow turns just early enough to see Sonic flick his own nose at the end of the sentence. The dark hedgehog raises an eyebrow at him.

“What did you just call me?” He asks, confusion seeping into his tone.

“Oh, did you not like that one? How about… Mister Edgy! no… that’s too formal. Angsty the Hedgehog— or… Mopey McSpeedster. Uhh… hmm… Sonic 2.0! or… Ooo ooo! ‘The black blur’~”

Sonic animates throughout his entire pitch session, ending it on a five-finger wiggle on the last one as a smug expression infects his features. Shadow groans, it’s obvious the hero is in a good mood… which is both good news… and tragic news. Because while he is happy he’s not dealing with a possible fist fight to the death today, the hedgehog can be damn annoying sometimes.

“Don’t call me those.”

Sonic smirks, “Sure thing Shads! Anything for you.” He swipes a hand in the air, as if he’s dismissing the thought, “Those names were way too long anyway.”

Shadow sighs, actually running a hand over his face. Today was going to be so fun apparently.

“You seem to be in a good mood. Anything I need to know about?”

“Nope~” Sonic says, popping the ‘P’. “Just a great night of shut eye and a sick morning of chilli dogs– and I mean ‘sick’ in the slang way, not literally, just in case you’re behind the times.“ Sonic rambles

Shadow blinks, processing the details within the other's endless ramble, he tilts his head at the other, part of that is important, “You slept?”

Sonic falters at the question, looking at the other as he settles down a fraction, “Well… yeah, I do every night.”

Shadow scrunches up his nose, “Well- yes- but I’m asking to know if you slept the whole night with no issues and felt rested?” That’s different from what he’s been told over the past two weeks.

Sonic perks up a bit humming at the question, “I see… well! I will have you know I slept like a baby, and! Woke up naturally before my alarm. A perfect sleep cycle if you ask me,” The hero boasts, and Shadow relaxes at the report. That’s good news honestly… because that means they might be doing something right. He hums in quiet acknowledgement, but the devious smile that spreads along the others face makes him pause.

“What are you smiling about? Might it be… you… actually care? Hmmm???” Sonic prods, and Shadow narrows his eyes at the other hedgehog in annoyance, frown deepening on his face.

He would never say this out loud to Sonic, but Shadow is intelligent enough of a lifeform to realize that at this point, after the past two weeks, he does care… The issue lies with the fact that he doesn’t know exactly why.

Maybe it was his pride that was on the line… because in a way, he does feel responsible for the progression of the hero’s recovery if he’s the one training him… Or… maybe it’s because secretly, deep down, he does actually care about what happens to his apparent doppelganger.

He quickly bites that feeling out of his mind. No, it’s definitely his pride. He has committed to a task, and he plans to see it through. That's all there is to it.

“I wasn’t smiling.” He dismisses. He didn't think he was but he might’ve been—but if he was, it was minimal at best, and he would never acknowledge it.

“Sureee.” Sonic drawls happily.

Alright Shadow was sick of this topic.

“If you’re feeling so good this morning, I think it’s time I challenge you to a race.” Shadow states, raising an eyebrow at the other, seeing if he rises to the challenge.

“A race you say?” Sonic asks deviously, walking a few steps closer “Oh ho ho- you’re on.”

“One condition,” Shadow states, raising up a single finger for emphasis. “You will not be passing out on me again. If you feel faint, we are stopping, and calling it a draw, fair?”

Sonic nods, “Fair. But the same doesn’t go for you. If you drop I am leaving you in the dust, I got a crown to claim after all.”

Shadow scoffs, frown still etched across his lips, “Whatever.”

He moves to look at the landscape of the island they live on, coming up with a plan. “We start here… will do a lap to the south of hedgehogs pass… and then head north-east to the beach… sounds like a plan?”

“Sounds like the perfect course for my victory,” Sonic hums, stretching out his limbs besides Shadow, the ebony hedgehog readies his stance a bit, facing down the path downwards and skipping out on the need to stretch.

“Ready when you are,” He says, looking over at Sonic who practically prances beside him, digging his right foot in the ground next to Shadows left, mirroring his doppleganger’s stance.

“Count us down, Black Blur!”

Shadow frowns, “I thought I told you not to call me that.”

“That was the last time, scouts honor.”

Shadow sighs, but then looks forward, he has a race to win. 

“Ready…” They lean forward as they reach for the energy within them.

“Set…” Lighting begins to flicker amber and blue at their quills.

“GO-” And they both shoot forward at lightning speed, jostling shoulders as they attempt to curve around the thin path that leads downwards to the center of Green Hill.

When they reach the bottom, Sonic barely has a lead over Shadow, thanks to the benefit of having the inside. He cuts across the field just below the loop-de-loop before spin dashing onto hedgehog's path heading southward. Shadow mirrors the same less than a moment later.

On the straightaway, Shadow begins to gain momentum as he gives more energy to his air shoes. Gliding as he again dawns Sonic's shoulder, looking over at his rival briefly who returns the glance, genuine smirk infecting the blue hedgehog's features.

Sonic pushes forward, attempting to take the lead again but Shadow responds with an equal push. He’s not going to go easy on Sonic just because the hedgehog has had a rough couple of weeks.

They reach the end of hedgehogs passing at lightning speed, Sonic taking a sharp knifed turn to the east, where Shadow swings wide for the benefit of keeping his momentum. Initially, it looks like the darker hedgehog had fallen behind at the decision, but he quickly gains as the blue speedster has to put more effort in picking up his speed. Sonic glances over his shoulder slightly as he feels his rival come up behind him, and moves in the way of Shadow to try and block him off. 

Oh, there’s no way Shadow’s letting him get away with that.

The competitive streak ignites within him at the action, and as he sees the beach closing in on the horizon, He gives more energy to his air shoes, tucking in behind the other for the draft. Sure, if the speedster is going to block him off he’s going to utilize it to his benefit, saving his energy for his ultimate plan.

With the distance closing in rapidly, Shadow looks over Sonics shoulder to gauge the time he has–

–the beach is right there-if he is going to do something. He needs to do it now.

With moments left in the race, he pulls back a foot from Sonic, harnessing his energy as he jumps forward, charging a spin dash in the air as he shoots forward like a rocket overhead the blue speedster. However, the action is done a few seconds too late for it to be definitive, as Sonic crosses the threshold to the sand in tangent to Shadow flying overhead. 

The speedster skids to a stop on the grainy soil, and Shadow unfurls, quick to turn around and look at the blue hedgehog behind him.

Sonic is definitely out of breath as he pants, hands above his head… but a wide grin is etched across the hero's face as he looks at the darker hedgehog. 

“I-” he pants another breath, but there was excitement in his tone, “beat you.” Sonic exclaims, but Shadow smirks as he shakes his head and closes the distance between them, jabbing a finger at the other.

“No. I beat you. You let your guard down right at the end.”

“No way!” Sonic exclaims, taking a moment as he keeps one hand on his head while he uses the other to point in Shadows direction “You were.. too late!”

Shadow shakes his head, “Whatever you say, faker, but I am pretty sure I won that one.”

Sonic takes a moment to truly catch his breath before he speaks again, letting both his hands fall to his sides as he shrugs.

“Man… we really need to get a referee for these things don’t we?”

“Maybe we do.”

“I’m still confident I beat you.”

Shadow rolls his eyes, Sonic is ridiculous, “I’m sure you are, but your word doesn’t hold much merit.”

“It does too!”

“Hardly.”

A silence falls between them for a moment, Shadow watching as Sonic’s gaze flicks to the sunrise in the distance and the dark hedgehog who stands in front of it. Shadow turns to face the horizon as well.

The waves lap at the shoreline, as red and orange colors mix with blue and purple in the skyline… Green Hill always has nice sunrises.

His ear twitches at the sand crunching behind him as Sonic approaches. Once they stood beside each other, Shadow receives a hearty jut against his bicep from the other’s elbow, the dark hedgehog jolts slightly at the action but otherwise stands his ground. He gives the cobalt hedgehog a questioning look.

“Nice running out there today, we should do it again sometime.” Sonic says with a smile.

“We literally do this everyday.” Shadow deadpans in return. Sonic chuckles.

“Ah right.”

Another couple of seconds of silence spread between them, but Shadow didn’t have any plans to say anything. This normally would be the time that he would criticize the other for not talking to his friends, or they would discuss the status of his condition… but.. Today has actually been a good day. They made progress… progress he silently hopes will become normal.

“You know, I did want…” Sonic starts, but then Shadows communicator chimes, which causes the dark hedgehog to become distracted. He pulls out the device, clicking through the button to check through the notification. It was G.U.N. asking for some information on a mission he and Rouge went on a month ago. 

He sighs, he hated it when they contacted him directly. He would rather they just go through Rouge. Was their report not thorough enough?

Plus, don’t humans work nine to fives on weekdays or something? Maybe something urgent makes sense, but a basic information recall seems a bit tedious. “Why are they asking for this on a Saturday…” he mumbles out loud in annoyance.

Suddenly, the hedgehog next to him goes rigid.

“What?” Sonic asks stiffly.

Shadow raises a brow at him, turning to look at the cobalt hedgehog, “G.U.N needs information from me.” He explains plainly.

“No- what day is it?” Sonic asks urgently.

“Saturday.” Sonic deflates at the reiteration, which is confusing.

“Time??”

Shadow checks his communicator, “10:16”.

“Agh, Amy is going to kill me.”

“Why?”

“I need to go, now,” Sonic explains urgently, zipping a few feet away, before turning to face Shadow again, “It was fun seeing you though, great race– I won– but we can argue more about it tomorrow– see ya!” Sonic rambles, before taking off back down the pathway they came. 

Shadow stands there bewildered. What is so important about Saturday? It involves Amy– which is both a surprise… and also a red flag. Sonic has been doing nothing with his friends lately. So whatever it is, it doesn’t sound like great news.

He looks down at his communicator, before he looks back up at the direction that Sonic just took off.

Maybe he could keep an eye on that situation to make sure nothing goes awry… G.U.N. can wait on their weird requests at weird hours.

His air shoes activate, and he takes off down the same path Sonic took off on moments before.