Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After the fight with Eggman sonic seemed different to his friends. None of them will ever know or understand what the hell happened. But he seems a lot more greatful for everything. And they can't complain about that. Shadow knows what's up.

As they hung out despite sonic being more greatful and happy to be with friends, as his adrenaline started to slow. the weeks of fighting non stop with barely any food or water or sleep, and the constant injures he had endured was catching up to him.

He had thought he had just healed at first. Maybe he'd be a bit worn out and tired. Those weeks he spent just erased. Sure he remembered it but did it actually happen at all? Is that how this works? But no. His heart and adrenaline was working overtime as until now it was in constant flight or fight.

Sonic and his friends are all at the beach watching the sunset. Sonic lays down and clutches his ribs. Tails seems to notice and pops his head over Sonic's.

"Hey sonic are you alright-" Tails cuts himself off seeing how sonic flinches at seeing Tails. What was up with him?! "Sonic you've been acting weird since the cave. And now you look tired and in pain. That isn't like you... You weren't even that badly injured"

Sonic takes a moment and sighs. He'll have to answer this time. Tails doesn't usually let him brush things off, mainly when sonic seems like he could be in danger or distress. But maybe if he compliments them he'll let it go....

"Tails I'm fine......as I was fighting beside you all I realised how lucky I am to have all of you fighting by my side. I didn't always have friends. Especially ones like you guys. And also I had a dream about losing you last night so I feel a bit on edge."

"But what about.... You seem in pain." Tails looks down at sonic clutching his ribs. Looking sick. And tired. Tails backs away to sit next to sonic, "Maybe we should have you checked out. Maybe bring near that prism did something to you"

Darn it... Tails didn't brush it off. Whatever. Lying could be easy.

"Tails I am okay. The reason why I was late was because I got into a bit of an accident where I crashed into a tree ribs first. and I still have bruises." Sonic chuckles. Tails's face softens as he looks back at the sunset.

"Hah you're tough. I'm sure that bruises will go away in no time" tails smiles. Sonic smiles back. God how he missed tails. And him being encouraging and not a villain. Sure nine was redeemed in the end but after everything he can't get over it... No wait he can! He means he gets over everything else.

Like having tails kidnapped,
his friends defeated that one time,
dying and coming back to life that one weird time.
That time he got kidnapped and tortured for 6 months. Surely he can get over nine betraying him when it wasn't out of cruel intent...

After a while everyone goes home. But sonic doesn't have a home. He runs to the loopdy loop and looks at it and gives it a hug

"Oo boy! How I miss not seeing you destroyed and non existent. don't worry babes. I'll run in here a lot tommorow. If everything doesn't hurt too much. I honestly think I have a concussion but I'll live. I mean if what I just went through didn't kill me. A concussion won't!"

Sonic smiles and curls up next to the loopdy loop to sleep. He struggles as the more time goes on, he tosses and turns. He's finally alone with his thoughts. And his pain. Both types. His ribs.... And head is pounding. And the rest of his body aches. His heart before was speeding but now it's too slow. It hurts to breathe.

And now he can't help but think of everything that happened. How could he be so stupid! So wreckless... None of that would have happened if he went so... Wreckless! And stupid...! He mutters under his breath, cursing himself as he punches his head, which quickly makes him extremely dizzy.

He tears up but quickly wipes them away. He shuts his eyes tight and edventualy drifts off into a very unrestful sleep. Whimpering softly.

Meanwhile with shadow.. he's hidden the prism in a place no one will ever be able to find it. Where no one else can touch it again. He cannot have this happen again.

Shadow teleports back to Greenhills. And takes a walk just to take in and admire everything he had fought so hard for.

Just look at it all for a moment. Admire the non-saturated colours that he could easily differ from the ghost green hills.

He wanders for a while until he came to the loopdy loop. Sonic's favorite place huh? It's stupid-

"Wait what-" shadow mutters out loud. Is that.... The blue hedgehog himself sleeping next to it? Why is he there? Why isn't he home or something? Surely after everything sonic would be at his home after not being in it for weeks.

He has the urge to approach him but also hr doesn't want to deal with the little rat. So annoying. He should kick Sonic's ass again for doing that -

Then. Shadow hears soft whimpers. Shadow approaches sonic. Now that he isn't fuelled by the prism's energy, his wounds have started to bruise.

Shadow thought that the injuries would simply go away but now that he thinks about it, he feels a lot of pain. Obviously he can handle it unlike that stupid weak faker.

But shadow's line of thought stops as he hears sonic whimper:

"....nine... Please.... We can.... We can talk this out.... Please...."

Sonic mumbled other incomprehensible gibberish.

Shadow scoffs.

The pathetic blue hedgehog is having a nightmare? Hah! Though... It's about everything that happened. That was a lot to go through for anyone. And having nightmares about it... It reminds him, he still has nightmares about Maria. The last dream he had before it happened was about her...

What no what is he thinking?! Shadow can't empathize with sonic! Ew! Sonic can't even comprehend the pain and suffering shadow has been through! He is too weak... Just an overrated, egotistical, wreckless child!

The thought just makes shadow verbally growl. Apparently a bit louder than intended as sonic flinches wide awake making shadow jump back, blushing out of embarrassment. Then pulling himself back together. What does he say now?!

Apparently sonic gains his composure before shadow as he stands up, legs shaking.

"Uh hey shads.... Why are you peering over at me menacingly...?"

Sonic looks up and down, barely standing. then notices shadows pissed off face. Sonic assumes this pissed off expression was because of him and tenses.

"...s-shadow.... I know you probably want to beat me up for the whole destroying our world thing... But not right now...." Sonic feels his head spin. Soon rapidly. As he struggles to see shadow.

Shadow gets a bit flustered and scrunched his face even further looking even more pissed. Sonic does see this.

"...please don't hurt me..."

Sonic whimpers as he collapses.

"Shit! Sonic-!"

Shadow gasps as sonic hit the floor.....

Chapter Text

Shadow quickly regains his composure the moment he sees sonic open his eyes. He sighs and looks down annoyed,

"Are you... Right there?"

Sonic takes a moment to just stop his head from spinning,

"Ah... I'm... Fine... It's just that coming back I had more... There were lasting consequences to my body.

"Well being bashed around, not sleeping, constantly fighting people or running, and not really eating or sleeping for a few weeks straight does that to you. Well a non ultimate life form such as myself."

Shadow bragged,

"You know what I mean shadow."

Sonic sighs goes you lift his head up then immediately places it back on the floor out of pain.

"Ah, I do. You did take quite the beating. I expected you to be knocked unconscious more honestly."

Shadow almost chuckles. Sonic rolls his eyes.

"What are you doing out here anyway sonic?"

"...I could ask the same for you!"

"I asked the question first hedgehog. Don't you have a home or something to go back to?"

Shadow sneered. sonic gave an eyebrow raise.

"What's with the attitude switch up. You seemed really concerned and loving towards me when I was dying!"

"Answer my fucking question or I'll kick you where it hurts!"

Shadow snaps. Sonic flinches and shadows ears droop slightly then go back to normal trying to hide his soft spot.

"I don't have a home to go back to... I was going to sleep at Tails's house but I don't think I could make it through the night without being in visible pain and I don't want him to worry or ask questions about what happened. He'll freak!"

"What about a burrow? Haven't digged yourself one of those yet?"

Shadow asks scoffing.

"Tried a few years back. Only lasted a week before it was flooded and caved in. I kind of gave up"

Sonic sighs. Shutting his eyes and coughing a little bit. Before curling up more. Shadow ignores this.

"And you didn't think to buy a house? Like a small little hut or something?"

"All I do all day is fight villains and be awesome. Neither of those pay money. And I'm fine sleeping in the wild. Been doing it all my life since my parents abandoned me"

Sonic smirks. Sonic turns around to put his back to sonic, crossing his arms.

"Damn your parents left you? I can see why"

Shadow grins.

"Aww fucking dick move! That's too far shadow!"

Sonic goes to get up as he raises his voice but he's immediately stabbed and twisted with pain. He whimpers and lays back down.

Shadow turns his head to look at sonic, his eyes soften. His ears droop. Shadow kneels down next to sonic.

"How bad does it hurt?"

Sonic looks up not expecting shadow to care.

"It... I'm fine-..."

Sonic gets a sudden pain as he tried to lift his head up. He sighs. Out of anyone shadow would know what's going on right? He tears up as he says this

"...it keeps getting worse..."

Shadow's ears droop a little more.

"...weak..."

He mutters as he places his head down to Sonic's chest to hear his heart beat. Irregular and slow. Sonic's breathes are taken sharply and desperately. Shadow starts to feel around all over Sonic's body for any broken bones, bruises or blood.

Sonic blushes a bit then nervously laughs trying to make a joke.

"You're certainly interested in my body huh?"

Shadow looks down a blushes. He puts his fist to his face and coughs to compose himself.

"Shut up idiot... I'm checking for anything broken-"

Shadow is cut off by sonic helping after touching a sensitive spot on his head. Shadow feels around some more. Noticing that Sonic's back, ribs, hips, and skill is a lot more sensitive.

"We should get you checked out at a hospital. You might have broken something."

He goes to pick up sonic but sonic protests.

"Shads I'm fine..."

He is clearly not fine.

"Shut the fuck up. I didn't save you from shattering just from you to die from stubbornness."

"You're right. But that would seem like a fitting death for you"

Sonic smirks. That smirks fades when shadow picks sonic up causing sonic to whimper as his body is moved. He snuggles into shadow dazed. Shadow blushes embarrassed at how close to his chest sonic is. Shadow rolls his eyes and starts to take him to the hospital.

After a long long while of them waiting the doctors comes back with some results. they look up. Sonic seems to be doing better. Only probably because they drugged him up with painkillers. The doctor clears his throat and brings up his chart and hands them an x-ray,

"I don't know how to say this. But you've got a lot of fractures and places where the bones should be broken but they've already been put back in place? The skull, ribs and back are the worst to be expected but you have also torn some tissues in your feet sonic. You also have some open wounds... That closed by themselves... Was this all actually a recent thing that happened?"

Sonic looks at him with a dazed face. He probably wasn't even listening to what the doctor said. But shadow looked concerned.

"Uhm... It happened.... Well I'm guessing they all happened at different times? So he didn't go to a doctor before...?"

Sonic looks at shadow and shakes his head.

"I wasn't in the position to go before. All of this hurt a lot but my bruises tend to hurt a lot because whenever my quills move, my skin is extra sensitive on bruises. But I really outdid myself today. Shadow found me laying on the floor barely conscious."

Shadow looked back at sonic and moves his hand to touch sonic but quickly stops himself.

He doctor cringes a bit at how long sonic must have been in pain for.

"Sonic I understand that you want to be brave because you've fought Eggman and you might not want to worry people with your injuries. But you really cannot go one with just ignoring things like this. You have a lot of fractures and possible broken bones. That isn't easy to ignore and we're going to have to check if anything is infected."

"...yeah... Like I said all these happened recently but at different times. But I wasn't in the position to see a doctor."

Sonic slumped a bit feeling embarrassed about how weak he feels right now.

"Right... Uhm well I am going to need to give you antibiotics in case you have an infection. and I will put some bandages on to prevent too much bleeding or movement in case you either bleed again or you accidentally dislocate the healing bone while moving. And I cannot stress this enough. You must rest. I know sitting around all day isn't what you like to do. But if you want to walk properly again ever. Do it."

The doctor is stern. sonic nods.

After a while the doctor is gone to go and see if sonic has an infection anywhere. He has bandaged sonic up. Suddenly shadow peeps up out of no where after being lost in thought.

"Where are you going to stay?"

"Sorry?"

Sonic looks up at shadow.

"I asked where are you going to stay. You cannot just sleep out in the middle of nowhere. Not like this."

"Aww you care shadow~"

Sonic teases but immediately tenses up after seeing shadow cross his arms and raise an eyebrow.

"...ah... I'll probably have to stay at tails. As much as I don't want to worry about him with my injuries. I don't really have another place to go where I'd be that welcome unless if I stayed at Amy's but she'd freak out more. And plus if I did find someone else I'd have to go off the radar and that would be worse."

"Want me to go to tails and give him a heads up?"

"I feel like you'd beat the shit out of him for no reason if you went.

Sonic mutters tracing his finger up and down his bandage. Shadow scoffs. Sonic was right. He really did have an urge to kick the fox. He can't even look at it without being reminded of nine...

"Well then what's the plan? Randomly show up injured at his doorstep?"

"..ah. that was the plan but now that I think about it I don't want to give him a heart attack by seeing how I look without a warning.... Fine... Shadow, go. but if you hurt him I won't be happy."

"Yeah yeah. be right back moron"

Tails goes to tails's workshop and looks through the windows. He isn't there. He knocks on the door. Nothing. Shadow raises an eyebrow did tails live somewhere else?

No matter where shadow looked he couldn't find tails or any of his friends for that matter anywhere.

About an hour later shadow comes back to Sonic's side.

"Where the hell were you shads? You were gone for an hour!"

"I couldn't find them. Not the fox. Not amy. Not anyone."

Shadow snarls at sonic.

"Come on I thought you were the 'uLtImAtE lIfEfOrM'"

Sonic mocks, shadow bonks sonic on the head but sonic gets very dizzy from this.

"Shit.... Uhh..."

Shadow sighs for a moment

"I didn't want you knowing where I live but I'm not... I don't want to just... Whatever you're staying with me. I'm the only one to understand what actually happened anyway and if you stayed with tails then he'd do a bunch of research and stuff. I don't know..."

Sonic slowly smiles at this.

"Alright shadow... Just whenever you see tails or anyone. Please tell them about me so they don't freak out thinking I'm missing"

Shadow nods and takes sonic home. Not very decorated and it looks labish. Shadow takes sonic to a room that looks cozier. In the corner there is a little tent made of bedsheets and fairy lights with a few blankets and pillows. And a drawing framed of shadow and a blonde girl. Maria.

"Woah shadow. What's this? Rouge make this or something?"

Shadow was quiet for a moment before quickly moving out of the room and going to another with a normal bed. Looks like shadow's room. He lays sonic down and tucks him in.

"That room with the tent. It's dedicated... To an old friend. You sleep here I'll sleep in there. I was going to lay you over there but you're injured and it wouldn't be good for your back. Night sonic"

Sonic smiles weakly finally letting his body relax.

"Thanks shadow. Night."

Shadow leaves, sonic mutters under his breath the moment shadow closes the door.

"...love you"

Shadow walks over to the room with the tent dedicated to Maria. He looks out the window at the sun rising. Maybe it would be nice to take care of someone again. And have them take care of you back....

And the way sonic is vulnerable. Shadow is one of the only ones to have seen him like this. And sonic trusts him. He blushes slightly thinking of Sonic's smile. Not his annoying smirk. But his sincere smile.

Shadow scoffs at the thought. He shuts it down thinking it's cringe. Hell no...

Not for sonic...

....stupid feelings... Stupid sonic...

Chapter Text

It's been about a week. Sonic isn't getting any better with rest. It's gotten to the point where shadow has had to sleep next to him as he was paranoid of sonic randomly dying or being in pain. Shadow seems restless, and that plus sonic being missing has made Sonic's friends worry.

Tails sits in his workshop trying to track down where sonic is. They're planning a rescue mission assuming someone kidnapped him.

One day sonic sits in bed with shadow feeding him soup. Just as Tails, Knuckles and Amy burst in. Sonic flinches when he sees them. When he sees tails

"Ah hah! We know you've got sonic! Hand him over-"

Tails yells before stopping to look at the scene of shadow hand feeding sonic soup. While sonic rests comfy in bed.

"Uhhh..."

Knuckles is more quick to act going to jump shadow before sonic quickly yells.

"Everyone stop!"

They all freeze. Sonic coughs a bit.

"I am okay. I got injured. And none of you were around at the time so shadow took me in..."

"And you never told anyone!?"

Any yells out of shock putting down her hammer.

"Not even me?"

Tails walks forward

"What even happened to you sonic?"

Shadow steps between them.

"None of your business fox boy"

"Shadow please! Stop. Everyone. Stop... I am too tired and in pain to deal with this!"

Sonic groaned. Shadow sighs and takes a step back to be beside sonic. Knuckles walks around tails.

"Why have you been hurt in the first place? Was it his doing?"

Knuckles asks, side eyeing shadow.

"No no, it wasn't shadow... Not this time. I..."

Sonic tenses up. He doesn't want to tell them. Then after a while, shadow answers.

"The prism. I've studied it.... It uhhh... Feeds off of strong energy forces. And it was set off by sonic and sonic was also near it a lot so it drained his energy aswell? It made him be uncharacteristically tired and caused him to have brittle bones, a lot of which are now fractured."

"Yeah and shadow here has been taking care of me..."

Sonic smiles. Knuckles eyes them suspiciously.

"But why?! He hates you and has no reason to help you!"

Knuckles says, aggressively getting into Sonic's face. Shadow puts his hand between their faces.

"It's none of your business. I was going to drop him on one of you but I couldn't find anyone that night. You can't take him now if you want. But take good care of him. He's still injured and ill"

Shadow says brushing them off. Sonic looks a bit offended. Knuckles picks him up and Amy turns back to shadow.

"Fine we will take him! We'll take better care of him than you!"

Amy huffs as they leave. Shadow makes sure to trip tails on the way out.

Back at Tails's workshop they lay him on the couch.

"Should we grab a doctor?"

Amy asks. Tails shakes his head

"Depends. I think I can figure out a way to help him."

Tails gets to work with helping sonic. Perplexed about how this happened in the first place. Shadow has hidden away the prism so it's not like tails can prove anything. Unless if shadow caused this. Or someone else. But sonic seems to deny anything about anyone harming him!

Could it be sonic has been brainwashed? ... No... He doesn't show any signs. The closest thing to it is that he's been more sentimental than usual. Whatever. Tails just needs to focus on sonic getting better.

One night sonic wakes up to tails standing over him. He sees nine for a second and flinches. Before gaining his composure.

"Yes little buddy?"

"Good news, you're actually finally recovering quite well and at a rapid pace too. You'll be back on your feet in no time! Now rest up!"

Tails smiles as he hands sonic a glass of water. Sonic drinks it and smiles.

"That's awesome little buddy! Can't wait to run around again and not be in agonising pain."

It's quiet for a moment. Then tails pipes up

"Why didn't you tell anyone about your pain?"

"I just... I didn't... I get injured a lot and this... This... I didn't view this as that bad. Some bad bruises that would go away in a few weeks. I didn't want you to worry."

Another moment of silence.

"Sonic. You've been acting differently since shadow's place- no... Since the cave. Are you alright?"

"Just had a realisation in that cave. Everyone fighting together. Me having such amazing friends and I feel like I don't do enough for everyone. Like the palm tree. I... I didn't get it. It was like any other. But now.... I realise that I'm lucky to have everyone and everything. And I am lucky none of us are dead after everything we've been through."

"That's oddly sentimental of you sonic."

"I know."

Tails smiles at sonic then goes to bed. An hour goes by and sonic is almost asleep. But he feels someone watching him. He opens his eyes. And sees shadow watching him as he sleeps.

"What!? S-shadow.... What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you're alive. I overheard tails say that you were recovering well."

"Guess we'll go back to being rivals soon hey? Don't you miss those days?"

Sonic smiles. Shadow's face doesn't change. But his ears droop slightly.

"...no. I don't miss them."

"Really shads? Then what do you miss?"

It's quiet for a moment. Then shadow crawls on-top of him and buts his way into the couch.

"Shadow what?-"

Shadow covers Sonic's mouth.

"I got a bit restless without you next to me. I need to know if you're alive."

Sonic smirks at this.

"Damn, you're really saying anything but 'i love you' huh?"

Shadow blushes out of embarrassment from Sonic's comment.

"Shut the fuck up before I punt you. Go back to sleep or I'll make you."

"Alright alright. Been a while since I fell asleep in someone's arms"

"Don't get used to it.

"I won't"

Sonic lays back down and rests into shadow.

"Since you can't say it, I heart you too~"

Sonic giggles. Then shadow flicks Sonic's nose in retaliation.

"Oww! Hey! Rude."

Sonic mumbled as he lays back down to sleep.

He's drifting off but that's when he hears the yell of tails which makes him flinch

"What the heck?!"

Tails looks mortified and confused.

"Are... Are.... Are you two cuddling?!"

Tails's jaw is on the floor. Shadow glares at him.

"If you don't want your ass kicked then I suggest you go back to bed and pretend this never happened."

Tails slowly nods as he backs away back to bed.

"Go back to sleep rat"

Shadow says sitting up and pushing sonic into his lap. In which sonic shuts his eyes to sleep.

Chapter Text

It's been a while since everything happened. And sonic has almost fully healed. Definitely not enough to fight again but he can move around decently.

Today they're having a picnic. Sonic makes sure the chili dogs are extra perfect. Though they are mad that sonic was late.

They chat and chill for a bit until the question comes up.

"Sonic, something isn't right. You've been acting differently since the cave. What happened?"

Tails asked. Sonic sighs. Maybe it is better to tell them. This whole thing has been very hard on him. At the corner of his eye he still sees the chaos council or nine. God, it's over. Why does he still fear nine?

The paranoia hasn't gone away. He's been restless. Scared that something will happen and he'd still be too weak to protect everyone. He had fought so hard to get his world back. He isn't going to lose it.

Sonic takes a deep breath

"Okay so you guys are never going to believe what happened to me in that cave-"

Sonic is cut off by hearing a portal. He looks up.

The chaos council.

"What's that?"

Amy asks,

"Doesn't look friendly. Let's smash it. Let's go sonic!"

Knuckles says clamping his knuckles together. Sonic just stands there with a mix of annoyance and anger.

"...You have got to be fucking kidding me..."

Sonic runs and runs. And they fight.

"Why hello sonic. Missed us?" Mr Doctor Eggman coos,

"Absolutely not."

Sonic says unusually serious.

"I am so done with you."

"Aww no time for witty comebacks eh?"

Doctor doneit smirks.

"Get em! We can start fresh after we get rid of that hedgehog!"

They start to attack.

"Who the hell are these guys?!"

Tails says confused, dodging everyones attacks.

"I was going to tell you just now but long story short. These guys are the chaos council, different universe where Eggman won."

Sonic summarises as they fight.

"Interesting..."

Tails ponders, then he's hit out of the sky by doctor babble.

Sonic looks back at tails falling to the ground.

"Hell no... Listen here Eggman family reunion-"

"We aren't related!"

The chaos council says in unison. Sonic coughs a little bit to clear his throat,

"Shut up! You will not mess with the world I've fought so hard to get back! You will not hurt me or my friends ever again!"

Sonic screams, then he looks at knuckles.

"Give me a boost."

"These guys must have really pissed you off for you to get so serious. I like this you."

Knuckles smirks as he spins sonic around and gives sonic a boost into the sky.

Sonic flies then spin dashes doctor babble and doctor nope, before being surrounded by the others and hit. He falls to the ground as they point lasers at him. But suddenly shadow teleports with the chaos crystal, and kicked them, using them to quickly get to sonic and moving him out of the way of the line of fire.

Then shadow spins sonic around and throws him at doctor deep, shadow then spin dashes doctor doneit, they both kick off of their defeated villains, then they fly into Mr doctor Eggman and knock him out.

All of them fall to the ground. Shadow grabs sonic and carries him to the ground safely.

"Woah thanks for saving my butt shadow! Guess we aren't going back to being rivals after all!"

"Shut up. These guys have caused a lot of trouble. And I don't want to deal with them anymore, and I especially don't want Eggman to meet them. We're getting rid of them once and for all"

"Wait shadow, you're going to kill them?"

"Well I was planning on it... But now that I think about it. They deserve worse. To be stripped of everything and taken back to their home where they'll rot in jail or whatever they decide to do with them."

"Right..."

Sonic sighs. Shadow walks over to them.

"Chaos control!"

And just like that shadow disappears as well as the chaos council. The others run to sonic.

"Okay now you have to explain what's going on."

Knuckles says stepping forward. Sonic sighs.

"Yeah yeah. But first let's maybe find a place to sit because it's a long story."

Chapter Text

Everyone sits in stunned silence. Not sure whether to believe sonic or not. Sonic would have no reason to lie right? And things like this isn't too out there for them. Knuckles speaks up.

"Woah... So that's um... A lot..."

"What sonic says is true. I went through it as well."

Shadow says teleporting to a rock next to them.

"We heard. Is this why you both have been.... Closer?"

Amy asks. Shadow nods.

"Now that I've pretty much recovered I'm sure we're going back to bring rivals."

Sonic says giving a thumbs up. Tails stands up and puts his fingers to his chin, thinking.

"A shatter-verse? I might have to do some experiments. Especially after what that egg-world me did...."

"Don't worry tails. Nine isn't evil anymore. And I don't really want anyone to go poking the shatter-verse anymore. Don't want it to break again or something."

Sonic shrugs.

"It's still concerning sonic."

Tails says as he sits back down concerned. Sonic sighs.

Later that night. Tails had been looking into the shatter-verse. And it's disrupting Sonic's sleeping and sonic sleeping disrupts tails. So sonic leaves and runs back to the loopdy loop and sits down.

Shadow walks along on patrol. As he spots sonic and walks up to him.

"Woah, Deja vu?"

Sonic smirks at shadow. Shadow sits down.

"How do you do it?"

Shadow asks straight up. Sonic tilts his head.

"Sonic, you bounce back from things too quickly. You've been through a lot. I have too. I know you already answered this but when does it stop hurting? How do you seem so unaffected by everything?"

It's quiet for a moment.

"Like I said. It doesn't stop hurting. But you have to learn to not let it control you."

"...then I guess I'm falling behind..."

Shadow mutters, putting his knees up to his chin. Sonic puts a hand on shadow's shoulder. And suprisingly shadow doesn't flinch, tense or go away from the touch.

"You aren't falling behind shadow. you went through something horrible. But here you are. Doing everything. You helped save ours and multiple other worlds. You protect our world. You've saved me. You aren't couped up in bed wallowing in greif. And sure you still think about it and get upset but that's normal. But look at you, you got on with life."

Sonic smiles. Shadow leans into Sonic's touch subconsciously.

"...I'm going to miss having these talks with someone when we go back to being rivals."

Shadow says softly.

It's quiet for a moment.

They sit there under the stars.

Trauma bonding.

It's nice.

Soon enough sonic starts to speak nervously.

"What... If we weren't rivals...?"

"...what if we still fought. But we could count on eachother and maybe even be friends."

They look at the stars together as they think. Edventualy shadow finally speaks up.

"...I'd like that..."

....

"But no telling anyone this. We hang out in private."

Sonic smiles at shadows words.

"Of course shads."

Sonic smiles and pulls his hand away from shadow, but then shadow turns his body and grabs Sonic's hand. And they hold hands while staring at eachother in the eyes.

Shadow notices Sonic's face getting redder, he looks back at the stars while placing their hands, still holding and together, on the ground.

Sonic smiles warmly then looks out onto the stars again.

After a while sonic decides to make conversation.

"About the bouncing back thing... Since I've been unwell... I've had time to think... I haven't had time to process anything...."

"Hm?"

Shadow turns to sonic and tilts his head.

"Everything that's happened to me. Not just the prism shatter, but everything I've had to deal with. It's kind of fucked right? I've always been too busy to really reflect on anything. But I'm still only a teenager and I've had to fight in a war... I was a prisoner of war for 6 months... I had to survive the metal virus by non stop running for like a week straight... And all those other times... Like at the ark... And then there's the prism shatter... All that's pretty fucked up for anyone to go through right?"

"But you survived and came out fine right?"

"...did I? After the metal virus... I had nightmares for weeks about it. I was afraid to touch people. After the prism shattering and the shatter-verse... I still get nightmares about it. Flinch whenever I see tails out of the corner of my eye... Nine is good, he isn't evil but I still feel so uneasy around tails... And even knuckles... Is this a safe place to say that I kind of hate dread? For a while now I've felt this tightness in my chest. A constant uneasy feeling where I feel like I'm about to go into flight or fight..."

It's quiet for a moment. Shadow ponders....

"It's... That sounds like some things I've thought about with Maria.... And her.... I've had nightmares for years... They've finally started to fade away a little, especially after me saving the world a bunch..."

Shadow takes a deep breath and tightens his grip on Sonic's hand.

"I do think what we both collectively have gone through... Is something no one should go through. Especially now one at our- ... Your age. But you should be proud of everything you've done"

Sonic smiles slowly then puts his head on shadow's shoulder.

"I still feel... Dirty? After everything. Like... I don't know... I feel exausted but on the verge of panic and I still feel so weighed down by guilt. Knowing if I had just tried harder, been less cocky or wreckless or not given those people second chances when they would go back to being evil... I feel terrible... A lot of the time... And it's starting to get more frequent as less and less things appear to distract me."

Sonic smiles softly. His eyes weak and tired. But alive. Shadow runs his thumb against Sonic's hand. Considering what he should say and do...

"...would you like to come to my house? We can make... Those chili dog things you like."

Sonic's eyes light up.

"Race you there?"

Shadow smiles.

"Always."

They race there. Of course sonic didn't really know how to get there so he just followed shadow and then sped up to beat shadow last second. Shadow pouts at this until sonic grabs his hand and they go inside and make some chili dogs.

They eat, mostly in silence. But each other's presence is nice.

They do talk about what happened in the shatter spaces specifically as shadow doesn't know what really happened other than the quick details sonic had given.

They ended up taking a quick nap. But sonic woke up and hour later because of a nightmare. It's sunrise.

Sonic and shadow have some breakfast. Quiet again, sitting next to each other holding hands. They both feel butterflies in their stomachs.

Sonic goes to leave, shadow takes him to the front door.

"You know how to get home right? Well where you want to go."

Sonic gives a reassuring smile.

"Course. And even if I don't I'll find it eventually."

"Good. This is goodbye then... I liked that... We should do it some more times..."

"Aww! I knew the ultimate lifeform would fall for my charm at some stage or another~"

Sonic flirts blowing a kissy face. Shadow sighs annoyed,

"Get out of here faker."

"Alright alright HOT topic! I'm out I'm out!"

Sonic laughs before he gets quiet, blushes and looks up at shadow.

"I... Enjoyed this too... Thanks... For that..."

Shadow turns his head to go back inside, but then sonic grabs his face and kisses shadow's cheek. They both go bright red. Shadow turns to sonic

"W-woah woah... Wha?"

Sonic twiddles his thumbs and takes a step back,

"Uhhh... Yeah loved this, like to meet up again sometimes.... BYE!"

Sonic quickly speeds off.

Shadow is left there stunned. It takes a moment for him to realise rouge is standing on his porch looking shocked. She looks over to where sonic left then back at shadow.

"Oh~? What. Was. That~?"

She asks, shadow immediately gets his usually grumpy look up, still a bit flustered anyway.

"...shut up..."

Chapter Text

All sonic can think as he runs from shadow after kissing his cheek is

'god why did I do that?!'

Over and over again in his head. He's a flustered mess when he gets home.

Meanwhile with shadow and rouge,

"Rouge that was not what it looks like!"

"Maybe, maybe not. But my advice. If you like him, stop wasting time and ask him out on a date. Nothing too fancy if it isn't your style. But I see this working honestly. And you know how to contact me if you need any help darling~"

It's been a week. Sonic feels weak. And pathetic. All his friends have told him to take a break from fighting but hasn't he already taken long enough of a break?

And besides... The longer he isn't fighting, the more he thinks about everything. All the people he couldn't save... All the things he's done.

One of his main characteristics is being able to bounce back quickly. But he still feels horrible. It wasn't that he bounced back, it's just that he had never had the time to process it and it was all hitting him in the face.

Even shadow had moved on from the prism shatter incident.

He started to be a lot more reckless when it came to himself. He bit himself when beating himself up about something. Tails saw this and he finally talked to sonic. And accepted Sonic's want to fight again. To be distracted.

Tails knew this was bad. But it was the only way for sonic to be decently okay until tails finds a way to help him. He isn't even sure if he needs help. The moment sonic was back on the battlefield he was himself again. But a little more sloppier. Or what tails thought.

Sonic would start to fight Eggman again. The badnicks. But... He would go in for attacks in badly. He would let the badnicks hurt him. Sonic isn't sure why he does this. He doesn't enjoy the pain. It doesn't make him feel any better about anything. But everytime a drop of blood leaves him he feels less tense. And that kind of scares him.

One particular bad day, there is a big robot. And sonic gets knocked up, bashed into a wall. Amy manages to defeat it and helps patch him up. Sonic quickly leaves but before he does any grabs his hand.

"Sonic! You should rest. You have a concussion."

"I'll be fine Amy. I need to go for a jog, clear my mind after that anyway."

Amy is worried but let's sonic go.

As sonic runs, he hears footsteps behind him, and they come up beside him.

"Sonic we need to talk"

Shadow shouts.

"Sorry I'm a bit busy at the moment!"

Sonic goes run a bit faster but shadow pushes him and knocks him over. Sonic stands up, his head spinning. That's when shadow pushes him up against a tree.

"S-shadow?"

"Listen faker. Me, you. Tommorow night. Sunset, meet at the loopdy loop. We are going on a walk and spending time together that night!"

"W-wha?!

Shadow quickly runs off. Sonic is left confused. Rouge flies down from the tree.

"Translation because shadow doesn't want to say what this is: he's asking you out on a date."

"A d-date?"

Sonic blushes. Rouge nods and flies off. Sonic is left flustered as he continues the rest of his run. All he can think about is shadow. At least he's got a distraction now....

The next afternoon. Sonic is in front of tail's mirror in the workshop, making sure his quills are neat and he had a little jacket on to look presentable. Wondering if it's overkill. This is casual but it's still a date. He pops a mint in his mouth. Then Amy and tails come in.

"Sonic, a moment?"

Amy says walking towards him. Sonic doesn't look at them.

"Sure what's up?"

"We're worried about you. We think that whole prism thing ... It changed you. And we think you need some help"

Amy puts her hand on his shoulder. Sonic brushes it off and takes a step back, finally looking at them.

"Me? Help? Hah! I'm the one who helps people. I'm sonic. A hero. I have to be strong! Sure I'm taking a little longer to bounce back but I'll be fine."

"Sonic please! We aren't going to fall for the 'im fine' line again and again! Sometimes heros falter and they need people to lean back on! So please lean back on us!"

Tails pleads, grabbing onto Sonic's hands.

"As your best friend, right hand man. And brother. I want you to be okay. And I'm willing to make sure you are!"

"I-i need to go okay? Now isn't a good time to host an intervention! I have something important going on!"

Sonic goes to run but they both grab him and stop him.

"Sonic! Please!"

Tails pleads. Sonics face scrunches up.

"I said not now!"

He shoves them off to their surprise. Sonic stands there for a moment as they pick themselves up, realising that he's laid a hand on his friends.

"..I'm sorry... But now isn't a good time!"

Sonic then runs away.

"Sonic wait!"

Tails shouts out trying to go after him. But with no success.

Sonic runs around and edventualy finds shadow for their date at the loopdy loop.

"You're here suprisingly early faker"

Shadow says looking sonic up an down.

"And you're wearing the same old stuff you always do? When are you going to retire those shoes?"

"Shads please, I was rushed out the door I didn't have time to get anything. And besides. I'm a 15 year old who has no source of regular good income. And if I'm being honest I just forget to ask tails to make me a new pair of shoes..."

Sonic laughs. Shadow rolls his eyes. Sonic says looking shadow up and down flirtatiously.

"I see you're dressed suprisingly well for this. A leather jacket and all!"

"If I'm going to do something, especially something like this. I will do it my best and beat you"

"Hah now I feel bad for not trying"

Sonic rubs the back of his neck. Shadow sighs and takes off his scarf and hands it to sonic

"Wear this. It's not much but you know..."

Sonic puts it on and smiles.

"Thanks shads. Let's do whatever you have in store for us"

They start their date. Walking around. They go and get some milkshakes and hang around town. The lights are pretty.

Shadow can't help but feel something is off. Sonic seems a lot more edgy and tired. Sonic has been recovering since the prism... So what's happening now?

"This has been great shads.... Thank for doing this... I needed it."

Sonic says blushing looking at the stars, taking a moment to look at shadow then looking back up.

"You're welcome faker."

They go and sit on a bench and look up at the stars. By this point they've ran out of things to talk about, as neither of them feel that it's appropriate to trauma dump on a date. Sonic starts to speak again.

"Everything is my life feels so rushed and fast paced. So sitting here quietly feels odd. But unlike all the other times where I've had to sit with nothing but thoughts, I'm not thinking about anything bad... I'm just... Thinking about you."

Sonic turns to face shadow and smile. They make eye contact. Shadow looks down and sonic looks back at the stars. Shadow blushes slightly. Then slowly puts his hand on Sonic's. Sonic blushes and looks down at their hands. Then looks up at shadow who is looking away from him. Sonic smiles and then... He puts his head on shadow's shoulder.

They sit there for a while. Then sonic pipes up blushing.

"Shadow, I lov-"

Sonic is cut off by seeing Amy wandering around. He tightens his grip around shadow's hand and sits up.

"Hey shadow? How about we go somewhere else... Like the park again... But we race there!"

"Huh? Why?"

"Come on shads! Let's go! You don't want to lose do you~?"

Sonic stands up and starts to slowly run. Shadow stands up.

"Hah! Not to you faker!"

They start to run and run. And into the Forrest they go. They race. Sonic accidentally falls over and is behind shadow. But he stands up and runs again. That's when he's tripped over by one of tails's robots. Tails flies to him and helps sonic up.

"Sonic. We need to talk. Now."

Sonic can already feel his heart pumping more than before.

"There's nothing to talk about... I'm fine.... I'm with shadow... Please just let me go..."

"Sonic you pushed us. You are not okay and I am worried."

Sonic rolls his eyes and starts to back up.

"I'm fine tails leave it!"

Tails then grabs him and grips him by the arm.

"No you are not! I am your brother! Why won't you tell me what's going on?! Is it the prism?! Is it something else?!"

"It's none of your business!"

Sonic pushes him off again and goes to run. But this time tails grabs his arm and yanks him around. His grip is tight.

"HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP RUNNING FROM YOUR PROBLEMS?!"

Tails is quiet for a moment. Sonic doesn't face him

"...running from me?-"

Sonic suddenly snaps in tails's face cutting tails off.

"FOREVER! I WILL RUN FOREVER!"

sonic tells grabbing tails's wrist and shoving him off of him. Anger and panic in his eyes. Tails stumbles to the ground in shock. Then looks up with wide eyes. Looking for any shock in Sonic's face but all he sees is anger. So tails's eyes narrowed. He stands up. And simply walks away.

Sonic's eyes widen. His breathes lessen, and his stance less defensive. He then drops it completely and takes a step back. He feels his eyes tear up. It's too late to say sorry.

So sonic just starts to run again with teary eyes. He's mad at himself. He hits himself in the head with his fist calling himself 'stupid'

He has to keep running but he finds his chest tighten as it's harder to breathe. He feels tense. Unable to calm down. He stops to take a breather and then continues to run. It feels like agony but he ignores it.

Soon he finds where shadow was waiting. He looks impatient. Tapping his foot. He finally notices sonic.

"There you are! Where were you! Don't tell me YOU fell behind- sonic... Are you.... Oka-"

Before shadow can react. Sonic and his shakey and erratic body movements run over and grab shadow. His hands grab the sides of shadow's face. Sonics eyes full of tears.

"I love you. You love me. Let's do this already"

Sonic says with a shakey voice as he quickly pulls shadow in for a kiss to make him forget what just happened with tails.

Shadow almost leans into the kiss. But the kiss seems desperate in a bad way. And why was sonic crying?

Sonic still feels tense with the kiss. After a moment shadow pulls away.

"What's going on? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine just... Kiss me again...!"

Sonic goes to pull shadow in one more but shadow pushes away.

"No... You're clearly distressed. You aren't... Thinking clearly right now..."

Sonic feels something inside him snap. Like a string being cut. Like a heart string. In his delirious mid-panic attack state he takes this as shadow not loving him.

Sonic takes a step back and starts to breathe heavier.

"Sonic talk to me! Please..."

He grabs sonic again. Sonic tries to hold back but his emotions overflow as he starts to cry and hyperventilate. And hide in shadow's chest.

"Hey! Hey! Faker!... Sonic?! Please?!"

Shadow grips sonic tighter. Then takes a deep breath himself. He never looked at sonic as a one to have panic attacks. But shadow thinks back on his own panic attacks and move himself and sonic to the floor. He gives sonic a form squeeze before making distance between them. Making sure to hold his hand.

"Sonic. Can you hear me? Take a deep breath in for me. And one out."

Sonic nods but it's a struggle. He does.

"That's right keep going."

Sonic takes a few more breathes in.

"Name 5 things you can see."

Sonic looks around for a moment.

"My hands.... You... The grass... Your scarf on me.... And... Your jacket..."

"Good.. good. Name 5 things you can hear."

"...you... Myself... Crickets...... Nothing else...."

"Okay, 5 things you can touch"

"...my shoes... My legs... My hands... My quils... And you?"

"Good...."

Shadow takes a sigh of relief as sonic comes down from his panic attack. He doesn't know why. Out of anything. He doesn't feel much fear. But the fear in his heart when he saw sonic, the most brave yet stupid blue hedgehog like that. It made him scared...

Sonic collapses into shadows lap.

"... I'm sorry... Something just happened in the race... And I've just felt so tense and in fight or flight mode ever since we got back... I just feel like something bad is about to happen every moment..."

Shadow starts to groom Sonic's quills with his fingers while petting him.

"It's okay... It's okay.... How about we go back to my place and we can talk about it... Or just do something else?"

Sonic considers this for a moment.

"...I'd like that..."

Chapter Text

"so yeah, I think I really fucked up... I actually put my hands on tails.... I didn't hit him or anything I just pushed him... What kind of brother am I? I raised him I shouldn't be doing that! They were only trying to help!"

Sonic says nervously. His arms shaking. Shadow pushes a cup of tea to sonic and sits down.

"Seems like a tough situation... Listen you're clearly not in a state to try and resolve anything right now. You're a nervous mess right now and honestly it's not a good look on you. You can sleep over here tonight... Then when you're ready we can go to tails and you can apologise and make up. You're really good at that. And tails loves you a lot."

Shadow says. Sonic looks away. Shadow notices and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay. This situation is not nearly as bad as you think it is. Let's just forget about it tonight and do some other stuff to calm you down because the idea of you having a panic attack again freaks me out"

"But I can't get it out of my head..."

Shadow sighs and goes to the cabinet

"I know something that can get it out of your head"

He places down a bottle of whisky. It clangs against the table making sonic jump.

"Shadow really? Drinking my problems away? That seems a depressive... Or whatever..."

"Oh sonic, it's only depressing if you're drinking alone. And you have me here."

"And me"

They turn around to see rouge outside the window. Shadow face palms and opens the window

"What are you doing here rouge...?"

Shadow mutters. Rouge walks in and leans on sonic putting her elbow on his head.

"Here for a drinking game. I mean I do want to get to know my best friend's boyfriend more."

She giggled slightly smirking. Shadow blushes.

"We've been on one date! ONE!"

Shadow's nose scrunches as he growled slightly. Rouge slides to sit down to look at sonic and shadow at the same time. She laughs and moves her face closer to Sonic's.

"I just love how you're his weak spot! Seriously I just tease him about you and I can get him all flustered up! You must be quite the charmer~"

Sonic rubs the back of his neck and laughs.

"Ah it's funny, none of my flirtatious jokes landed. But apparently us both almost dying and having to save eachother multiple times did it. Well for me anyway. I don't know when shadow fell for the blue blur~ maybe it's when he saw me venerable and injured?"

Rouge laughs as sonic blushes slightly remembering the time he saved shadow from falling into the void. The vulnerability. The fact that he could save someone when he couldn't save anyone else really. The fact that he had failed so hard so many times, but he succeeded in saving shadow...

It made him feel something. Of course it wasn't until shadow carried him. Genuinely concerned for sonic. Saving him... As he was passing out. That's when he realised. He feels a lot more for that man than he does any other.

Shadow of course at Sonic's little speech turns away, blushing like crazy.

"Awww~ wittle shadow has got a cwush~"

Rouge teases. Then shadow grabs the whiskey and chugs half the bottle and slams it back onto the table.

"...are you okay?"

Sonic asked concerned. Rouge grabs the bottle.

"We haven't even started the drinking games! God dammit shadow you party pooper!"

She pouts.

"Let's start the game shall we?"

Shadow mutters.

A few hours later all of them were wasted. Rouge went even more overboard on the free booze and passed out on-top of the CD cabinet.

Sonic was sitting on the floor Infront of the couch as shadow day on it. Trying to figure out how to turn on the tv as he is completely wasted and barely watches tv as it is.

"Urg shadow! Just hand the remote to me! You're shit at this!"

Sonic turns around to try and get the remote but shadow pulls back

"Shut the fuck up faker! Let me figure this out!"

Shadow hisses.

"Come on man!"

Sonic stands up and they start to fight over the remote. Soon they accidentally turn off the TV and knock it far across the floor.... Which made them realise...

Shadow was on-top of sonic holding him down. One knee between Sonic's legs. Shadow didn't even realise what this looked like until he saw sonic blush and looking away all flustered.

Shadow's ears droop as he looked away covering his mouth in embarrassment. hiding his blush too. Sonic gently pushed him off to make a move for the remote, trying to see if he could reach it. But shadow just growls and pins him back down, intertwining fingers with the hand sonic tried to reach the remote with. Shadow nuzzles his face into Sonic's neck.

"Woah didn't know you were into that~"

Sonic says, half joking. But then... Shadow bites down on Sonic's neck. Sonic immediately tries to push shadow away but he doesn't budge,

"H-hey?! What are you doing?! Get o-ooooo~...fff...~"

Sonic blushes and moans out the as the word off, in shock as shadow goes from biting to sucking and kissing. Sonic whimpers, but not in pain or discomfort. But in something else.

"...a-aah... Shadow... What are you doing...?"

He whispers. Shadow pulls up. Making eye contact. Shadow's eyes narrow, looking sonic up and down the check him out. Sonic does admit his heart does flutter looking at shadow on-top of him.

"... seriously what are you doing...? What brought this on?"

"...shut it or I'll make you."

Shadow mutters threateningly.

"What do you mean 'you'll make me'- mmm~!"

Sonic is shut up by his and shadow's lips pressing together. shadow is about to intrude Sonic's mouth with his tongue but sonic beats him to it.

They start to passionately, yet sloppily make out on the couch... As rouge is passed out on the cd cabinet only a few feet away.

They're doing a lot. And shadow is trying too hard. Grabbing at Sonic's quills, caressing his cheek.

After a while shadow pulls up, taking a moment to admire sonic underneath him. His amazed eyes mixed with a scattering feeling that came from the shock and passion from this. Then shadow goes down and lays on Sonic's chest for a while. He soon talks after a minute of just heavy breathing. Letting go of Sonic's hand and placing that hand on his chest. Feeling the fast heartbeat

"...we should go to bed..."

Shadow huffs. Sonic sits up very flustered and in shock.

"I-its a bit early for that don't you think shadow?!"

Shadow grunt and flicks Sonic's nose.

"I meant go to sleep! Not have sex you moron... We aren't sober enough for that..."

Shadow growled. Sonic sighed with relief.

"Thank god, this might sound rude but I was not ready or prepared to do that. I mean not this early. We aren't even official.... Are we official? Like are you my boyfriend?"

Sonic looks away and looks back not knowing what the answer is and not knowing what answer he wants. Shadow face palms and gets up, he grabs Sonic's arm to help him up,

"We'll discuss that in the morning when we can walk straight..."

Shadow hears sonic Snicker.

"Not like that... You know what I mean..."

"But do I~?"

Sonic laughs. But the. Shadow grabs him by the arm ✨Maria✨ style and drags him to his bedroom.

"Let's just go to bed..."

Shadow grunts as he throws sonic down onto the mattress. Sonic looks up and bites his lip, trading shadow. Shadow rolls his eyes and creates a pillow barrier diving 2 sides. They get into one side each.

"That's your side. This is my side. If you cross it you're dead!"

"Whatever you say handsome~"

Sonic lays back into his pillow.

Shadow suprisingly managed to fall asleep faster than sonic. The booze helping. But it seems like it takes forever for sonic to drift off. But then shadow keeps tossing and turning. Its unclear if he's having a nightmare.

But then he rolls over onto Sonic's side and nuzzles himself into Sonic's ribs. Sonic suppresses a laugh at the irony. But just smirks, wanting to admire the cuteness and not wake up shadow..

Sonic pulls shadow closer into a cuddle and gives him a kiss on his head. Whatever nightmare shadow seemed to have had is gone as he is now sleeping peacefully in Sonic's arms.

Sonic knew the answer he wanted to hear to the 'are you my boyfriend' question he asked earlier now, that feeling heightened as shadow nuzzles into sonic. It's cute to see shadow vulnerable.

It's nice for sonic to feel like he can be safely vulnerable....

Finally... After an hour...
Sonic is able to drift off to the most peaceful sleep he's had in a long time.

Chapter Text

Sonic and shadow stands in the centre of town. Sonic is eyeing tails, who is with... Knuckles? Why is he here? Oh well. He turns to shadow who gives him a thumbs up. Sonic walks over.

"Hey tails?..."

Tails turns to sonic.

"...hi..."

He whispers. That disappointed look on his face. Sad... It reminds him of nine so painfully.

"...I think you know why I'm here... I'm... Sorry tails... I... I haven't been well."

Sonic is about to say something. But thats when they hear an explosion. They see Eggman with a bunch of badnicks come their way.

"Oh my god... You've got to be kidding me?! Now?!"

He turns to tails. Tails speaks up with the same look of discomfort, determination and coldness. The same type nine had.

"... we'll finish this later... Let's just get Eggman out of here"

Tails runs to the badnicks. Sonic stands there feeling a bit empty. It wasn't that tails was actively being mean or rude... Or openly disliked sonic... But that tone and look still felt like a punch in the gut. Sonic ran too. Not thinking clearly about the fight. Only overthinking tails.

Sonic runs, and fights, but he's messy. And it leads to the rings getting knocked out of him. He yelps slightly, making tails turn to him, losing focus... Then... A robot delivers a bad blow to tails, slicing and knocking him back.

Sonic sits up recovering from his damage to see tails on the ground, a pool of blood underneath.

"TAILS!"

Sonic runs towards him, but a saw comes up, sonic jumps over but his inner thigh gets cut deeply, he continues to run, just a little less effectively. Then a robot jumps him. Metal sonic. Metal sonic scratches Sonic's arm, making it bleed. Sonic rolls to his back and metal sonic swipes down and gets Sonic's cheek.

"Damn, I missed you compared to chaos sonic..."

Sonic goes to kick him off, but does it with his injured leg so it isn't very effective. Metal grabs his leg and squeezes. Sonic yelps, then knuckles runs over and punches metal sonic off.

"Blue! Go and get tails out of here! Amy is close by tell her to come here!"

Sonic nods. And stands up, struggling, he runs over to tails and picks him up he starts to run but metal tries to jump him again, but he's blocked by shadow who jumps in.

"Go sonic! I'll cover you!"

Sonic nods and runs. He watches from the corner of his eye, shadow and knuckles destroying them. He smirks. And runs to Amy.

"Amy!"

Sonic shouts out, any runs over as sonic puts tails down.

"You're hurt!"

She says looking at the blood. It's not often you see sonic bleed, especially since he usually has so many rings.

"Tails is worse. Quick. Help me with him, knuckles told me to get you for the fight but shadow popped in so I think they're fine."

"Okay, I'll tend to tails, you tend to yourself."

She hands him some first aid boxes as she starts tending to tails. Sonic feels himself get a pit in his stomach. Guilt and fear. And anger... At himself. He wraps his leg and arm up, then takes a band-aid to his cheek. Soon shadow and knuckles run in.

"Is everything okay? We took care of Eggman"

Knuckles says looking around. He goes up to tails.

"...crap, tails got it bad. We might have you take him to a hospital"

A few hours go by. Then the news breaks. Tails is in a coma. It's only meant to be for a few days and the doctors don't suspect there will be any permanent damage.

But letting his brother get hurt, not only by Eggman. But by himself? He can't forgive with himself. And he doesn't like the feeling of everyone knowing he isn't doing okay. Mentally or physically.

The moment sonic is able to walk properly again, he runs away for alone time. His friends are worried about him if course, but running away isn't anything new for him.

But thing is, shadow hasn't been in Sonic's life when things like this has happened. So he finds himself restless, losing sleep over sonic. After 3 days. He figured he might as well look.

He grabs Rouge as she is good for these types of Missons, and he confides in her. And Amy as if anyone could ground him right now. It's her.

A few hours go by

"It's long after dark shadow. We should head back. I know you're worried but sonic will be okay"

Amy says putting her hand on his shoulder.

"But something isn't right. He should trust me enough now to-"

"Confide in you? Shadow, he's known me, knuckles and tails for years and we don't even know how he truely feels about anything. Hell, we don't even know his backstory! We don't know if he has parents or... Siblings. We don't even know how he met Eggman and what he did the first time he defeated him!"

Shadow is quiet for a moment.

"You can go Amy if you're tired. I just... I have to try my absolute best before I know I can stop. I am the Ultimate lifeform. If I do things. I do them to the best of my ability. Nothing less."

Amy sighs and smiles.

"Okay... I'll come back tomorrow. But if you do find sonic don't attack him or anything or try and solve his problems until he's grounded. Just be there... And tell him to come home soon..."

She turns around and leaves. Rouge walks up to shadow.

"I'm staying with you. And you seem a lot more worried than just wanting to do your best in this.. I can tell when something is off..is everything alright?"

Shadow sighs and looks up at the moon.

"He has the same smile, laugh... Sonic reminds me so much of Maria. And I want to redeem myself. I want to protect him to make up for how I couldn't protect her."

"You'll really say anything but 'i love him' huh?"

Rouge smirks. Shadow gets offended at this.

"The Maria part is also true... But yeah... I love that man. And I hate the fact that I love him."

"Yeah? Tell me more. Spill your heart out"

Rouge says, knowing this is a chance to get to know what's going on inside of his head for once.

"...back during the prism shatter stuff... I almost lost him. He saved me so effortlessly. Without hesitation. Almost died for me. He was always... He has always been putting himself on the line for others. And he bashes himself up way too much about it...

Shadow looks at the grass and the flowers.

"Seriously. If one person dies whether he could have done anything or not. It destroys him, even if the person was horrible to him... He's so kind. I want to be that kind but being that selfless... it's killing him"

"...and when he sacrificed himself for everyone... Transfering his prism energy without hesitation. I genuinely thought I lost him. Was going to lose him. The one thought that went through my head as I carried him through the shatter space back to green hill is that 'he can't die. Not like this'."

Shadow looks away tearing up. Rouge pulls him into a hug. Shadow doesn't hug back.

"I love him rouge. He's so selfless and kind... And I hate to see the fact that he actually hates himself! He actually genuinely thinks he's selfish or a horrible person because of one mistake! You should have seen him cry when nine and him got into that fight about them wanting different things! Then his face when tails got hurt... It wasn't his fault but I know he thinks it was!"

Rouge rubs his back in circles.

"Shhh... Listen... We're going to find him. And you are going to ground him, and comfort him... And help him and tails get better... And you're going to live happily together... And I'm getting you both therapy... And it'll be amazing... It's going to be okay shadow..."

Then they hear a camera click. And a robot with the screen of Eggman on it.

"Eggman!"

Rouge tells getting into a fighting stance.

"Shadow, if you couldn't save Maria from gun, what makes you think you cans save Sonic from himself? Hell, you can't even save yourself from yourself!"

Eggman laughs.

"Don't listen to him shadow!"

Rouge yells out. But it's too late. Shadow's vision goes red as his muzzle scrunches. He starts to run after the robot who speeds away quickly. He goes faster than what rouge can catch up to. And because of that, shadow doesn't look where he's going. He spin dashes into the robot and falls into a rocky cave.

Before he can react he bangs his head on the rocks. Blood squirting on them with every rock he hits.

His vision goes black. He's left at the bottom. Blood everywhere, and this odd gas.

Rouge can smell his blood and rushes to where he is.

"Shadow? Shadow! Wake up! Come on talk to me!"

Rouge shakes him. Her voice slowly turns into Maria's in his point of view. He hears Maria shout.

"Wake up! Get up! You need to save me!"

She reaches out. Sonic gets up and runs her way. But before he can touch her, in a blink of an eye she disappears. The only thing that's left being a puddle of blood and a human heart.

He looks around and sees sonic laying on-top of a shard from the shatter space. He's... Fading... He looks over and sees nine holding up the prism.. the fully formed prism with everyone else... Who he isn't sure of as their faces aren't there. Is reaching for it.

Shadow shakes his head and runs to sonic. He looks up and sees Greenhill. He might not have been able to save Maria. But he will save sonic.

He runs and runs as he feels the strength of sonic slowly fading..and as they reach the gateway... He feels sonic turn into dust as he's going through.

He makes it. He runs and runs to the cave where sonic should be... He looks around. Everyone is there but sonic. All he finds is his shoes and gloves. He falls to the ground holding them tightly as if they might disappear too...

He feels a drip of something. He looks up. And sees Maria and sonic dropping blood. He isn't sure where. But it drips into his head.

Drip drip drip.

It drips down his head. Down his face. And into Sonic's gloves and shoes. Staining them.

Sonic and Maria.... Their faces... Distorted. He doesn't remember them somehow... But he can't forget. God help him remember. He cannot forget the 2 people he's loved most. He cannot lose them... He cannot save them.... So at least let him remember them.

He isn't sure when it happens. But he feels a hand on his head. He slowly wakes up, vision blurry. He sees someone holding a cold face washer to his head. And another putting on bandages.

After a moment and some muffled talking he realises it's rouge and Amy.

"...what... Happened?"

Shadow mutters weakly.

"You tripped and had a nasty fall. You're lucky Amy was still close by because I was in shock that.... You just got hurt like that... She managed to do first aid until sonic saw you-"

"Sonic saw you?!"

Shadow yells out sitting up quickly but then quickly groaning in pain and being forced back down by rouge.

"Yeah he was running by and saw... And he ran to get any and a first aid kit. And actually ran you back here."

"And you let him see me like that?!- where is he now?!"

Amy steps forward.

"He left after he heard you were going to be okay. Probably to blow off some steam. He was like having a panic attack and dissociating while it was all happening."

Shadow freezes.

"Is he okay?"

"Not sure"

Rouge says sitting down in the bed next to shadow.

"Since tails woke up a little bit after he left he's been hanging to go find sonic.... So we're planning on doing a full search. Cream and her mother... Hell even vector and espio is willing to help us with this. Because I've been thinking about what you said and I think we need to get sonic some serious help for this"

"Tails woke up?"

Shadow whispers.

"Is he okay? Like... Does he hate sonic?"

He says in a panic.

"Hah! Tails? hate sonic?"

Amy laughs.

"Tails is just really worried. He's seriously on the verge of a panic attack over the fact that sonic might be hurting himself. But now, we need to make sure you're okay before we head off. How many fingers am I holding up?"

Amy puts up 3 fingers. Shadow shakes his head, gets up and runs for the door. Amy grabs him. Her grip strong

"And where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to save sonic... No matter what I have to do... I will not let him or Maria down!"

Shadow throws Amy away and runs off, very sloppily considering he's recovering from a major concussion and migraine.

Rouge tries to go after him but it's not much use. She stops and looks at him go. She knows that look. She knows he's about to do something wreckless. And she knows this isn't good.

"...oh no..."

She mutters, Amy walking behind her also concerned.

Chapter Text

Sonic has been running for a while. 3 days now? He's been going around everywhere helping with other people's problems in order to not help himself. So he doesn't have to deal with his own problems.

A few people have noticed he's been off. Cream like the little empathetic observant child and her mother definitely noticed that he was acting a bit erratic with asking if they needed help. So of course vanilla sat him down and gave him a bunch of food to 'put some meat on his bones'

Sonic was a bit offended. Mainly because it made him realise that a very inconsistent diet that had not many nutritional values due to only ever feeding tails that stuff (as he was broke and only ever wanted to spend money on tails) has definitely malnourished him and it made him uncomfortable and self conscious about his lack of weight.

After a while he was running through some place, that's when he sees rouge holding a bleeding shadow. He runs over.

"What happened?!"

He yells, kneeling down to hold his hand to Sonic's. Shadow's blood staining his gloves.

"He's fell down and gashed his head open on the rocks... Quick... Go get amy!"

Sonic nods and runs to grab her. Amy is about to ask if sonic is okay and where he's been when he grabs her arm and runs her over to shadow.

Amy does wonders in helping him and sonic runs them back to the house. Even grabbing a doctor.

Sonic sighed with relief after he heard that shadow would be fine. But he still felt a pit in his stomach. He never could even imagine shadow getting hurt like this... Sonic gets up but rouge walks over.

"The whole reason we went out was to search for you. Are you okay sonic? Like seriously?"

Amy stands up and walks over.

"Yeah I've been worried too. I know this is normal for you but you haven't been well since the prism shattering thing. And we are all really worried."

"Now isn't the time for an intervention. Shadow is injured... And if...."

Sonic's stomach drops. The only reason shadow got injured... Was because he was looking for sonic?!

"...it's all my fault... I..."

Sonic tears up and rushes to grab shadow's hand. Amy places a hand on-top of Sonic's.

"Hey no it's not.... Shh... He cares about you..."

"And it only got him hurt!"

Sonic snaps.. rouge places her hands on his shoulders.

"Sonic you're being... You're angry at yourself for nothing. Accidents happen. Just because it happened while he was looking for you doesn't mean his accident was your fault"

"He shouldn't even like me! After everything I've done... I almost destroyed our home... Destroyed you! Because I was too stupid! Why the hell does he like an idiot like me?! Why does he care!?"

He yells. Rouge flinches and takes a step back. Amy is frozen. They aren't used to seeing sonic so... Unstable.... Sobbing... Sonic feels a tear running down his cheek. He realises that he's just shown his suppressed hidden side to his friends. He turns away.

"...I need to go..."

Before anyone could say anything he's gone.. rouge did make anmvoe to grab him but... It was no use... Sonic was gone.

It had been a while since that happened. After a few panic attacks, Sonic had finally grown tired enough to lay down and just pass out. He made himself a little burrow to sleep in. But that's when he hears a noise.

He pokes his head out to see a portal... Just then, nine steps through it. Sonic feels his heart skip a beat before going 5x as fast as it should. He rubs his eyes. Was that really him?!

Rebel and knucks step out behind him. They look down at sonic.

"We need your help."

Rebel says. Sonic sighs.

"I... I cannot mentally handle whatever is happening here... Nope... I... Am not mentally stable enough to deal with whatever that is..."

"Listen sonic it's important. The chaos council is trying to get into the different shatter spaces and take them over..."

Rebel says kneeling down Infront of sonic.

"I thought shadow got rid of them... And besides, why are you asking me? I doubt I could survive the shatter spaces after having all the prism energy sucked out"

"...ahh right dammit...! Wait... You look tired. Are you okay sonic?"

Knucks says looking down at him.

"Been a long week I guess..."

Sonic shrugs.

"We don't need you to go into the shatter spaces. Just... If they come to yours... Press this button we're giving you to notify us so we can kick their butts..."

Nine says stepping forward. Sonics body shudders when he hears his voice. He made up with nine.. so why did he feel so uncomfortable?

"Sure thing nine..."

Nine gives sonic a button that sonic grabs.

"One more thing..."

Then nine pulls him into a hug. Nine feels desperate. Like sonic will disappear if he lets go. Sonic hugs back but is afraid to really touch him.

"I'm glad you survived... That you didn't disappear..."

"...I'm glad I didn't have to kill you or anyone to save the universe"

Sonic smiles, hugging back finally. They hug for a bit. And chat. Sonic doesn't seem fully comfortable. But he is talking.

"So, what's been happening in your world?"

Knucks says sitting down next to sonic. Rouge sitting beside him.

"...a lot of bad things"

Sonic laughs a bit trying to make it seem more lighthearted.

"Sorry to hear that. But we've been rebuilding. It's going great in our world. You're world... Is honestly so green... And perfect"

Rouge says looking at the tree next to them.

"Great to hear. How has it been going in your world nine?"

Sonic asks, nine looks up and stutters a bit before answering.

"It's been going fine... A bit lonley without you but nothing I'm not used to. I've fixed up some of the robots you guys destroyed and programmed them like people. And we've figured out how to farm in the grim."

Nine smiles. Sonic smiles back.

"Where are your friends? I'd expect you to be around them all the time because of what happened."

Knucks looks around. Sonic gets a bit flustered.

"Well uhh... Just needed to run around a bit and say hi to some others..."

"Honestly I'd really like to meet our counterparts from here.."

Rebel says. Sonic's ears droop. Nine pipes up.

"We shouldn't. It would be better if our universes stay unknown to them..."

"No nine... I've told them. It's just... My main worry is my world's Eggman. I'd love for you guys to meet my friends though but if Eggman sees us he could catch on that there are more of him or he could create a whole ordeal with talking to you guys... Like tricking you or something... I don't know..."

Sonic mutters.

"Fair enough. But uhm... If there is a time where he's gone and you make up a time we could come and visit again."

Knucks says, nine opens up a portal. Sonic speaks up.

"Yeah sure totally!"

He smiles. Rouge turns to him.

"That would be nice. But remember. Any member of the chaos council comes here, you alert us. See you blue."

Rouge waves and leaves through the portal.

"Later blue"

Knucks waves, and also leaves. Nine turns to leave, but turns to sonic. His ears droop slightly.

"Goodbye sonic... And I am so sorry for all the trouble I've caused for you and your home. I know I said I wanted to be left alone in the grim, but if you're ever in trouble... Your home ever in trouble, I'd help save it."

"I appreciate it nine... Goodbye.."

"Goodbye..."

They wave as nine leaves through the portal. It closes.

Sonic sighs with relief after gaining some comfort knowing everyone is doing okay.

But then...

He turns his head to see a fly bot recording... It looks like it was made by Eggman.

"...shit!"

Sonic runs and jumps it, destroying it.

"...god I hope Eggman didn't catch all of that... I have to go back... To warn everyone!"

Sonic stands up and runs. A pit in his stomach. His chest feels tight. And he feels dizzy just from the thought of accidentally exposing other worlds and the chaos council's existence to Eggman.

Looks like he's going to have to save the world again....

Meanwhile with Eggman.

He watches over the footage again and again trying to make sense of it all.

"A chaos council? Other new rodents?"

He smiles wickedly. Before laughing... Evilly...

Chapter Text

Sonic was running. Trying to figure out where Eggman would be hiding. He had to stop this. But that's when he hears a yell... A yell that came from shadow. He realises this too late and gets pounced on by shadow. They fall to the ground and shadow slaps him.

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE YOU IDIOT!"

he yells. Hiding his hurt behind anger. Sonic being in his own state of running away notices this.

"Hey shads... Take a deep breath for me..."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

shadow punches Sonic's chest. But it isn't hard as sonic was expecting. It was more of letting out anger. Sonic sits up and guides shadow's head onto his lap.

"Shadow... Just calm down a bit... I'm fine... I'm here... Then we can talk about this..."

Sonic says running his fingers through shadow's quils. Sonic thinks about this. Before the prism shatter they would never be in this vulnerable position.

Shadow takes a few deep angry breaths. Before giving up his anger.

"Where did you go...? Why did you leave me...?"

Shadow's voice breaks. Sonic doesn't know how to respond. He knows why. He's a coward who ran from his problems. Out of shame from hurting his brother. And letting him get hurt. But he could never even muster up the courage to say that thought out loud.

"...I'm sorry... I didn't mean to leave you... Just after that... I needed some time to myself to think... To just have a break from everything going on... It was too much..."

Sonic's voice cracked. He tears up. Petting shadow's head more urgently.

"Without telling anyone where you were going?! Without telling me..?! I was worried about you! I don't want you to die! I want to protect you!"

Shadow grips sonic tighter.

"...I..."

Sonic feels like walls are closing in. Like his ribs are crushing his heart. In this state. He thinks shadow only wants to protect him because of his own problems. And how he portrays Maria's death into the need to protect sonic. And out of anyone, sonic doesn't believe that he deserves that.

"...you shouldn't be held responsible for my wellbeing... That's my job..."

"But you handle everyone else's wellbeing but your own! The metal virus, the cyber corruption! You were suffering so much! And yet you still carried everyone else on your shoulders! Being so understanding and just taking their... Abuse! You let me hurt you because I thought the metal virus happening was YOUR fault!"

"...it was my fault. Most of this was all my fault... Sure I stand by the fact that it was morally right to give Eggman a second chance. But no matter what. He still turned evil. Because I let him go free. It was my fault... The metal virus was my fault, the prism shatter was completely my fault... Nine betraying us was my fault because I'm so selfish!"

Shadow sits up. Looking almost offended.

"Selfish...?! SELFISH?! what do you mean selfish?!.... Urg! Don't you dare fucking think you are selfish!"

Shadow snaps, then goes back down and burried himself in Sonic's chest. Feeling his skinny body

"You are destroying yourself because of your selflessness! Shut the fuck up!"

They hold eachother for a bit. Sonic trying not to burst into tears. No matter what shadow says, he'll still find a way to beat himself up over everything. Afterall, it all was his fault. And sure he fixed it all. But isn't that what you're meant to do if you ruin everything? You fix it.

Sonic notices the bandages. That have blood on them. Wrapped around shadow.

"Oh god... That's right... You're badly injured... You definitely ran away from rouge trying to find me huh?..."

Sonic stands up and picks up shadow.

"We're going back."

Before shadow can say anything sonic runs back to find rouge and Amy. They're walking around. They spot sonic as he runs up to them.

"Sonic-"

Amy mutters. Then looks at shadow and sighs.

They take shadow back to bed and tuck him in. As rouge tells him off for running off, sonic is doing some things outside. Then comes back in with a box. He sits next to shadow

"Hey shads .. I'm sorry for leaving... Because I'm about to do it again... But that's because I need to talk to rouge and Amy about something important... And you need rest so it's better you don't know... And you're going to be angry about not knowing what's going on... Soo... If you ever feel useless or unimportant... Just open the box I'm giving you. It has my most important thing in it."

Sonic hands shadow the box. Sonic takes a deep breath. A bit shakey. Then Sonic gives shadow a kiss on the lips. A light one. Their faces both go red as sonic pulls back.

"Promise me you'll get some sleep, and rest up. Okay?"

"I promise."

Shadow mutters. Then sonic E
Walks away. Bringing any and rogue with him.

Shadow sits there for a moment. Feeling a bit wresless and agitated. He then sits the box on his lap and opens it up.

It's a mirror... With shadows reflection, with the words with a marker that says 'you'.... Shadow can't hold it in. Be holds the box tight and let's angry tears slip as he hides his face.

Meanwhile sonic had explained everything. Rouge and Amy leave the space to call some others.

Sonic sits alone on the couch. His body tense. But as soon as they leave, he lays down and relaxes his body. Finally letting himself decompress.

"....fucking hell... I just want a break... Is that too much for one hedgehog to ask? Apparently...!"

He sighs rolling onto his back and putting his hands over his face. Even when he's alone... He really doesn't want to let his emotions out. He really doesn't want to seem weak.

But the more he thinks about it, even shadow could be vulnerable. Why couldn't he? How pathetic is it that he fought so hard to get everything back... Just for him to not trust anyone... Not show how much he cares about them by letting them know that he feels safe enough to share things?

He just doesn't want to appear weak. But suffering in silence when everyone is ready help him.... He finds himself pathetic.

Chapter Text

Sonic had been sitting there for a while. Then Amy and rouge comes back with knuckles, vector, espio, a d charmy.

"Huh a bit surprising to see you guys here"

Sonic laughs cheerfully standing up.

"They were in the area and we decided to get them on this case too. The more the merrier right?"

Amy smiles. Sonic's smile drops drops suddenly. And he sighs from exhaustion.

"Oh god.... More people I have to explain the prism shatter situation to... I just wanted to forget it and move on!"

He groans. Espio sighs and sits down, becoming vecor and Charny down.

"No need to give us a full story. Just summarise the important parts."

Sonic sighs and nods.

"A while ago Eggman tried to get his hands on the paradox prism. I actually broke it, and I had to shift between multiple worlds with multiple different versions of everyone in each of them with a shard of the prism in each one which had a lot of injury. Blah blah blah this, blah blah blah that. I think Eggman would want to get a hold of these people called the chaos council. Pretty much just different versions of him at different life stages I think? It's odd."

Sonic sighs,

"Long story short I fixed everything, but a few hours ago some of the alternate versions of tails, rouge and knuckles cane here to tell me about if the chaos council comes here, to alert them. But... Apparently one of eggman's spy bots were listening in, I don't know for how long and what it heard. I destroyed it. But he probably already has seen it. And well... Him knowing about other hims could be... Bad. Especially if he finds a way into the shatter-verse."

"Well that's a lot... But pretty much we need to stop any plans Eggman makes on that?"

Vector asks.

"Well yeah, but first we need to figure out if he has any plans at all... But I don't know how we're going to do that"

Sonic mutters.

"I do."

Sonic's ears perk up at this voice. Vector sighs and shuffles over a bit to reveal tails hiding behind hiding behind him. Sonics eyes widen as he quickly runs up.

"....tails..."

Sonic takes a deep breath pushing down tears.

"I am... So sorry... I didn't mean to do any of that stuff...!"

Sonic holds tails's hands. Tails shifts uncomfortably.

"First of all... Everyone, I've got a plan we'll talk about later to figure some things out... Second of all, sonic... I'd like to talk about everything that happened... In private..."

He points to a quiet area. Sonic can feel a lump in his throat and his stomach drop a little..he nods anyway. Tails gives a basic summary of what everyone should do in the meantime and they go over to a private area and sit down.

"... tails like I said I'm so sorry-"

Sonic is cut off by tails.

"I know sonic! I know... But I'm going to honest... I want to let things go and forgive you... I really do..I do forgive you. But it's sticking with me. Something in my gut tells me we should hang onto something a litt/le longer.. I don't know what that is... But..."

Tails gulps unsure of what to say next as he gets distracted by sonic being very antsy and panicking. Fiddling fingers. Eyes moving to be everywhere. Excessive tapping of the foot.

"I'll make it up to you tails! I will! And I'll make sure to never hurt you or let you get hurt again!"

Sonic smiles. Very scrambled. With a look of insanity in his eyes. Tails takes a deep breath.

"The problem isn't... What you did to me. I think the problem is... You?"

Tails says but immediately widens his eyes in regret as he knows damn well the way he worded that was horrible. Sonic let's out a scoff.

"Well yeah? I am the problem! I caused everything! Of course I am the problem because I myself am a problem!"

Sonic says in a bit of a manic like passion. Standing up and grabbing his ears. Tails reaches out, but sonic quickly cuts him off.

"...sonic... No-"

"Listen tails!"

He gets down on his knees and holds tails's shoulders.

"You don't have to forgive me or anything because you feel like you need too... You only forgive me if you want to! I can't expect to break something just to have it fox on its own! About time I got some consequences for my actions huh?! Because this is the wake up call to let me know that I AM THE PROBLEM AND I... AND I ALONE! NEED TO FIX IT! And I'm good at fixing things! I fix EVERYTHING! Because I am sonic the hedgehog! The HERO of Mobius! And I will fix myself!"

Sonic half laughs as he pulls as his quils. He's having another panic attack. And he's harming himself. Tails suddenly snaps.

"THIS! THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! Sonic you need to listen to me! I don't hate you! I could never hate you! I am not stuck on you hurting me! I'm stuck in the reason why you're hurting me! I'm just really really worried about you! You're... You've gone a bit crazy and very much an anxious self blaming mess who thinks he has to fix everything! Well you fixed everything and still get hung up on the fact that it was your fault!"

"BECAUSE IT WAS TAILS! Sure I fixed everything but that doesn't change the fact that I shattered the paradox prism! That... I treated nine badly when I only had myself at heart! It's all my fault!"

Sonic yells tears welling up.

"Sonic..."

Tails feels a lump in his throat. This is what sonic thought about himself. As if he were some horrible person for having flaws that any other teenager would have. Just for a few mistakes...

"Please sonic... Look at yourself... You need help! You've been bottling everything up for so long! Talk to me!"

"...you're right tails..."

Sonic turns away and places his hand on his neck.

"...I was doing okay at keeping it all inside me... But you are just my weak spot... And you're the one person I really... Don't want to be weak around..."

Sonic bites his lip as the first few tears drop to the floor. He grips his throat and starts to breathe heavier. Tails takes a step back.

"Sonic...?"

Sonic falls to his knees and goes into a panic attack. Hyperventilating, grabbing at his quils. Scratching and biting himself... Curling up small. He looks up at the tree Infront of him and is about to smash his head into it. But tails grabs his hand to stop him from hurting himself.

"Sonic calm down! You're scaring me!"

Tails pleads. Sonic curls up small and tight. They sit there for a moment. A long moment.

"I'm sorry you had to see that tails... I'm just feeling stressed... I'll go get some rest... And then I'll be okay again... Okay?"

Sonic stands up and guides tails back to the group.

"I'm going to go lay down guys..."

Sonic walks away fast. Not even showing his face. Tails is left standing there feeling shock.

Sonic walks away, still having an internal panic attack, his mind scrambled. His chest heavy... Crushing even, body heavy and without no support to keep it up.

He sees shadow through the window. He reaches out. He wants to ask shadow for help. But a force pulls him back. He can't ask for shadow's help. This is his second panic attack and shadow is injured and already is emotionally distressed enough! But the force is pulling even harder. Telling every muscle in his legs to run away from his problems like what he's always done... But no...

Everyone did so much to get him back. Shadow would stop resting and run to the ends of the earth to make sure sonic was safe again. He can't do that. Disappearing is selfish and cowardly...

He walks back to shadow's room and sits next to him. He can't help it, but his mind drifts off and starts to make him disassociate to avoid bursting into tears Infront of the man he loves..

"So, how was my gift?"

Sonic smiles. Shadow looks up.

"Thank you... I really needed that..."

Shadow smiles and pulls sonic in for a big kiss. Sonic takes a while to react but melts into it. When they pull back and notices Sonic's eyes that had just got done with crying....

"Are you okay?"

Shadow asks. That almost breaks sonic. Shatters his collected demeanor. But sonic smiles barely holding it together.

"Oh it's nothing... Just talked with tails.... Heartwarming forgiveness and stuff... Happy tears?"

Shadow takes this for an answer and smiles as they cuddle for a bit.

"Sorry shads. But I need to go..."

Sonic sits up and leaves. He goes outside a bit away from everyone. And just lays down and sobs.

Meanwhile. Tails tells everyone about Sonic's little breakdown.

"So yeah ... I don't think sonic is mentally stable enough for this mission. We need to take care of him. He's hurting himself..."

"...ahh gee... I'll tell him that he can't come..."

Vector rubs the back of his neck, and goes to find sonic. But espio stops him.

"Not now, and besides he's too stubborn for his own good. He'll come whether we like it or not. I hate to admit it but we need to trap him... We'll let him out after..."

"God espio! Do you want to give him another panic attack?! Sure it'll work in keeping him away from the battlefield.... But still you've got to understand how... Degrading that is for someone who's having a breakdown!"

Knuckles grunts putting his fist to his face.

"And besides, we might need his speed for our mission! What do we do when he's not there for it?"

"We'll take shadow instead"

Espio mutters. Everyone goes still.

"But shadow is injured!"

Amy mutters.

"For this in particular we probably won't need to fight. So shadow is just a backup. Besides he's strong. He can handle this."

Espio stands up. Then knuckle's voice goes from defensive to disappointment.

"You do realise, this will be a huge betrayal towards sonic... And if shadow gets hurt he'll never forgive us!"

Knuckles and espio start bickering. Amy and tails take a step back.

"What do we do?"

Amy asks.

"For the safest option... Lock up sonic until we get back... And immediately after we give him love and attention and help..."

"...Tails... I think it's time we call an adult in to help take care of sonic... We're kids too and we can only do so much until it becomes harmful to us... I mean you see sonic.. taking on so much responsibility... And helping so many people to the point where it's hurting him..."

"But who would we call? Do we have an adult in our life that would be able to support and help sonic?"

Amy takes a deep breath and pulls out her phone.

"I'll call vanilla..."

Chapter Text

Today was the day of the mission. Vector and espio were chosen to trap sonic as shadow couldn't know and they'd be the only ones to have both the strength and will to do it. Any could easily but she couldn't do this to sonic. Not with her own hands anyway.

They knew what they needed. They knew sonic was claustrophobic. But they needed a small space. Where he couldn't break the walls.

They told him that it was some stuff for the mission he could help get. But once they reached the place with the giant ball in the middle of the room, same you'd see with motor bike rings at the circus. They grabbed sonic and threw him in.

"Hey what the heck guys?!"

Sonic tried to claw out, then spin dash. But it didn't work. Vector piped up

"We're really sorry bud. We didn't want to have to do this to you... We'll come get you after we're done."

"Please forgive for this sonic..."

Espio whispered as they left for the mission.

Sonic continued to claw and to try and escape. Usually he would be able to escape from something like this with wits. But he isn't thinking clearly. He feels his ribs crush his lungs. He knows he's about to have another panic attack so he lays on floor of the cage and sobs.

Meanwhile with the others on the mission. They're packing up ready to go but then Amy cried out.

"Guys, I don't think putting sonic in that position was the right move to make!"

"What better move could you suggest than letting him go that would keep him safe?"

Knuckles asked. Sounding sarcastic but also truthfully wanting a different way to help sonic.

"I don't know... Maybe I'll call vanilla to pick him up or at least take care of him..."

Amy mutters pulling out her phone.

"That's a better option. But tell her to make sure sonic doesn't come after us."

Espio says nodding. Amy calls vanilla then they grab shadow and head on their mission.

Meanwhile with vanilla. She gets the message.

"Cream. I'll be right back but I need to go pick up sonic alright? Be a good girl while I'm gone"

"Yes mother!"

Cream shouts at as she plays with her toys. Vanilla leaves in a rush and goes to the place vector said sonic would be. When she goes inside, she's horrified to see sonic trapped in a cage having a meltdown. Ugly sobbing and hyperventilating.

"Oh my goodness sonic! What did hey do to you?!"

Vanilla rushes up to the cage and scrambles to unlock it. Sonic tried to rush out but vanilla grabs him.

"Now now now, come sit... Talk to me. Amy said you were going through a bit of a mental crisis. Talk to me..."

She runs her fingers through his quils.

"...no..."

He mutters.

"...that's okay... We can sit here... Or maybe go back to my home until you're ready to talk about it"

Sonic's body relaxes a bit as he takes some deep breaths. Not being pressured but being supported feels nice to him. After a while vanilla takes sonic outside and he runs her back to the house. Vanilla sits sonic down on the couch and vanilla let's him sit there with a blanket.

"Do you feel ready now?"

"...mm"

He mutters and curls up.

"I went through something bad. And that apon all the other bad things .. I don't know. I usually bounce back from things but I've been getting nightmares, and I've been feeling anxious and nervous and... Gross. I don't know what's going on with me but it's bad..."

"I see... Do you have anyone you're particularly close to do you can talk about this with them? What about tails?"

"He's just a kid... He doesn't need my problems weighing him down..."

"Knuckles?"

"...he isn't good with feelings."

"What about Amy?"

"She's good. But sometimes she isn't what I need..."

"Do you have any adult in your life right now?"

"There's you... Vector and doctor Eggman."

"...oo yikes. No parental guardian?"

"No..."

Sonic mutters.

"You let everyone lean on you for support. But who can you lean on?"

"...I'm used to dealing with things by myself... And I guess depending on the problem, I can have one friend or another help me out..."

Vanilla pulls sonic down. Onto her lap to pet it..

"That isn't good. You need to learn to ask for help more sweetie."

Sonic tensed. He had calmed down but he was still feeling very stressed and anxious so vanilla just started to pet and hum to him, the things that worked on cream to help calm her down. After a while cream cones over with a draw of biscuits and tea.

"Mr sonic. I heard you weren't doing well so I've brought you a snack."

Sonic sits up and takes it.

"Cream you are an angel and your mother is too..."

"Thank you... But Mr sonic? What kind of Ill are you? Is it a cold?"

Cream asks. Vanilla sighs.

"Could you go back to your room for a little bit cream. We appreciate the tea... But right now sonic and I have to discuss about his grown up feelings okay?"

"But sonic isn't grown up! He's still only a teenager...."

Cream whispers. Vanilla tensed being reminded once a again that this minor had saved the world more times than she could count. This teenager who has been put under more stress and injury than anyone should experience. And it isn't just sonic. It's everyone.

Cream walks out and vanilla turns back to sonic.

"Listen. If you ever feel like you need an adult to talk to... Or if any of your friends can't help, you will never be a burden here. Come and talk to me sometime. Alright?

"...why did they not let me go?"

Sonic whispers tearing up.

"Sweetie, you're falling apart and needed a break. And they knew that they couldn't stop you with words so they trapped you, which I will give them an earful later...."

"...I could have handled it. I'm strong... I always have been... After everything... Why am I breaking now?"

Sonic asks genuinely curious. He's been through so many traumatic situations that would give a middle aged man a heart attack from stress... And yet it's only now that he's going under.

"I'm not sure... Maybe you feel as if you're losing your support? Your friendships?"

Sonic's body tensed. That's it! He's been feeling very on edge around his friends because of what their alternate versions did! And he got tails and shadow hurt! That in particular he already knew. But this made him realise. His friends are what have kept him together. And now it was changing in a way he didn't like!

Vanilla sat up.

"Alright. We'll how about I make us all some dinner and you can hang out with cream for a little while?"

She says smiling. But she sees Sonic's nervous look.

"Take your mind off of everything for tonight. I'm going to make you feel better before you face your problems okay?"

"...alright..."

Sonic smiles standing up.

"Yay! Mr sonic is going to play with me!"

Cream shouts as she runs from her room into the living room.

Sonic, cream and vanilla end up hanging out and falling asleep Infront of the fire place. Vanilla doesn't fall asleep but instead grabs them and tucks cream into bed, and sonic on the couch. Tucking them both in and going to bed herself.

Chapter Text

Sonic wakes up to a loud crash. He sits up and runs outside. He looks at the sky. The chaos council is back. Cream and vanilla run outside with him.

"Mr sonic, what's that?"

Cream asks worried. Vanilla grabs her and picks her up.

"Some very... Bad people. Don't worry I got this."

Sonic smirks. He runs and finds the button nine, rebel and knucks gave him and presses it. The button then speaks.

"What is your situation?"

"The chaos council are here... And well my version of eggman knows about them... I can probably handle it... But I think you guys should come here"

The button sends the message. Sonic sighs. that's when he sees the others running back from their mission.

"Sonic! We were too late! What's going on?! What did Eggman do?!"

Amy says in a panic. Shadow runs up to be next to sonic.

"Are they who I think they are?"

Shadow whispers, sonic mutters back.

"If you're thinking the chaos council. You are correct...."

Sonic raises his voice for everyone else to hear.

"Everyone! These guys are the chaos council that comes from a different dimension than our own. They're different versions of eggman and I believe that's his plan. To bring them all here to team up. Now I have called the other you's from the other dimension. And I'm going to be honest. It's going to get weird so don't question it too much. They're here to help. Now we need to stop that ship! Let's go team and let's stick together!"

"Wait sonic! You're still unwell!"

Tails says running up to him.

"I think stopping the world from being taken over by a bunch of dictators is a lot more of an important crisis than me."

Sonic says running getting everything into order for an attack.

They grab the tornado, and some other stuff and start to fly up. They use a cannon to fly sonic up and straight into a window... That doesn't break. He almost slips off but he manages to stay on and crawls around trying to figure out how to get in. He then finds a hole... That looks like it was blown in. The new yolk folks must have already tried to stop them. He crawls inside and runs around trying to find them.

Thats when he sees Dr dunnit. The old guy. He rushes and attacks him quickly.

"RAH! RAT! ITS THE RAT EVERYONE AND HE HAS NO RESPECT FOR HIS ELDERS!"

sonic keeps spin balling him hoping to knock him down before the others arrive. But then a door behind him quickly opens showing the rest of the crew, before sonic could react Dr babble hits him and throws him to the wall. It hurts more than it usually would.

"Hah! Take that sonic!"

Dr deep laughs. Lunging for sonic, sonic gets out of the way just in time but does get a cut on his cheek. Dr Dr Eggman sees the blood.

"Aww... Has us not attacked you in a while made you weaker?"

He mocks. Sonic goes in for a spinball but as he knocks Dr deep down he is hit by Dr nope.

"...huh... Maybe everything that's happened has made me weaker..."

Sonic mutters to himself as he dodges a Lazer coming from Dr dunnit. But then there's an explosion that shakes the whole ship. Dr nope looks on his tablet.

"Urg! The hedgehog's friends have broken in!"

"Send an army on them. We'll take care of the rodent. The blue one of course"

Dr deep says smirking. Then sonic punches him in the face.

"Ow you rat! You'll pay for that! Everyone rush him at the same time!"

Everyone starts blasting but sonic dodges. But then he's hit hard by Dr babble and throws to the wall.

"Urg..."

Sonic grabs his head then looks up to see Dr deep flying towards him, as Dr dunnit was aiming his Lazer at him.

But before they could hit him, someone shoots a Lazer at the both of them, throwing them down. Sonic turns his head and sees rebel, and knucks standing there.

"You're here!"

Sonic shouts happily, getting up and running to be by their side.

"Let's end this"

Rebel says as knucks cracks his knuckles

They fight but sonic gets hit more than usual.

"You rusty blue?"

Knucks asks smirking.

"Like I said before it's been a rough.... However long it's been... I've been fighting my own demons instead of these demons. You know?"

"Damn. That sucks."

Knucks says as he punches through Dr babble's suit and pulls out the wiring to render it useless. Dr babble whines and throws a tantrum. Grabbing anything he can find to smash them with. Including his own teammates. He grabs Dr Dr Eggman and throws them at the team, sonic jumps Infront of them to use his body to cover them as they're thrown back into the wall.

Dr Dr Eggman is cranky at first but then realising that he's crushing the little rodents. Then lifts his fists up to punt them. But then his mech suit stops listening to him. Infact the whole ship stops doing what it's supposed to do. All of the robots gather and start dancing.

"What is happening?! Go back to fighting?!"

Dr deep yells as the robots dance.

"Don't try it. They don't answer to you anyway. I've hacked the system"

Sonic coughs a little bit clutching his chest that was crushed under the mech suit. But then once Dr Dr Eggman is forcefully moved off to dance with the robots, sonic looks over and sees nine.

"Nine!"

Sonic smiles but also feels his heart beat faster out of fear, he slightly punches his chest as if to tell it to stop being so scared because nine isn't a threat! Not anymore. Just to prove that to himself he runs over and forced himself to hug nine who hugs back.

"I missed you sonic"

"I missed you too buddy."

Sonic let's go but then flinches as the door is busted open and Sonic's team bursts through looking as if they've been through hell. Knuckles, and rouge take time to look at their... Counterparts...

"Crap! Our tech isn't listening to us!"

Dr nope says tapping his tablet furiously.

"And there's so many of them!"

Dr Dr Eggman shouts.

"Retreat!"

Dr deep shouts, they all pick themselves up and start running through a secret passage.

"Don't let them get away!"

Rebel points. They all start to chase after them. The chaos council comes to the hole that the others blew to get in and then see Dr Eggman! The one from this world in a ship.

"Come on guys over here!"

He shouts beckoning them. The chaos council look at each other and nod. Then jump on. Sonic runs faster and jumps but Eggman pulls away just in time for sonic to start falling.

"AHHH!"

Sonic shouts. But then tails is right there to catch him, he flies up catching the others except for rouge and rebel. Nine falls and lands Infront of tails. They lock eyes.

"...woah... So that's what you meant..."

Tails mutters.

"Okay everyone. Quick introduction. These guys are all from new yolk. Knuckles, this is knucks, rouge this is rebel. And tails this is nine, previously from new yolk but now lives in the grim."

"I bet we're going to be pals, anyone who can handle sonic sure is a worthy soldier."

Knucks says fist bumping knuckles.

"Woah... You look..."

Rebel's eyes lighten up at Rouge's outfit.

"Gorgeous?"

Rouge smirks. Knucks turns his head to see what rouge is wearing and blushes. He's been friends with rebel for years but to see her like that... In that outfit. Woah.

"Aww look, now I have 2 of them to torment~"

Rouge laughs poking at knucks. Rebel smirks.

"Woah! Your tails are cool!"

Tails smiles poking at nine's robotic tails. Nine is surprised. Then smiles.

"Thanks!"

"I should think about making stuff like those!"

Tails says, sonic grip on the plane tightens.

"Please don't..."

He mutters.

"What was that?"

Tails turns his head not quite hearing what sonic said.

"Nevermind don't worry about it!"

Sonic says almost whimpering. He can't believe he just let that slip out! Imagine how hurt nine would have felt if he heard that. He didn't mean it in a bad way towards nine personally. But how was he meant to tell him that he had been having nightmares about him?

He looks back at shadow who also has the same somewhat nervous expression sonic does. Somewhat due to nine and also due to the height they were at.

Meanwhile with the chaos council.

"Damn! They're chasing us! How do we escape them?"

Dr Dr Eggman shouts. Dr Eggman puts his finger to his chin.

"Usually to escape I make a bigger problem than myself."

"Wait I've got an idea!"

Dr nope says, then whispers it to the group.

Then, they attach Dr deep and Dr Dr Eggman to a claw on the ship and send them attacking the tornado. Specifically sonic. They fight, it's hard considering the plane is small and there's so many people. But they grab a hold of sonic and another claw grabs him and takes sonic, and the doctors away.

"Ahh!"

Sonic shouts as he is taken away, nine, tails, and shadow reaches out to grab him, but nine and tails are too late, shadow grabs on but he is almost pulled of the plane so he lets go. Dr nope opens up a portal to the shatter verse and the claw throws sonic inside as the others turn the doctors so safety.

"Sonic! No!"

Shadow shouts knowing what this means. Sonic can't survive in the shatter verse. Shadow takes a leap to the portal, but just as he's a metre away, it disappears, and shadow starts to fall to the ground. But then rouge flies down and catches him.

Nine looks back at the slowly falling chaos council ship. Luckily they made it so it wouldn't go down fast, so just in case of an emergency the council would have time to escape.

"Crap! Tails we need to fly back to the plane and stabilise it before it crashes down and hurts anyone! We need to hurry! I also have my shatter verse ship in there and we'll need it to save sonic! He can't survive out there!"

"Okay!"

Tails says in a panic, his heart starting to race as nine mentions the fact that sonic 'cant survive out there'

They make it to the ship.

Tails and nine run to stabilise the ship and make it so it safely lands in the ocean, not the deep part. Just the shore. They then run back to nine's ship.

"Get in we need to safe sonic before his body implodes!"

Nine yells turning on the ship.

"Implodes?!"

Tails shouts. But he's ignored as nine closes the roof, but then shadow grabs it before it shuts, opens it and jumps in.

"I'm going to!"

He says as he closes the door.

"Fair enough. let's save sonic!"

He says as he opens a portal and goes in, just as Amy and knuckles were running to them.

"Wait stop! What's going on?!"

Amy shouts. But it's too late. They're gone.

"...you guys better be alright..."

She mutters. Then they hear someone rip open a wall, they turn to see rusty rose, the pirates and the scavengers there.

"I'm guessing we're late to the party?"

Black rose says as she smirks in an uncomfortable way. Everyone just turns to them speechless. Now could they even begin to explain what just happened... How could they even understand what's happening.

The roses step forward and lock eyes with Amy.

"So you're the rose sonic knows and got all that good advice from huh?"

Thorn rose mutters. Rose blushes. Sonic thinks the advice is good? But then... Oh no... Sonic...

What happened to him?!

They all just stared at each other for a while. Before vector shouts out.

"What are you all doing standing around?! We've got to get moving! We can't let those eggheads get away! The tails's has got sonic Covered!"

Everyone snaps out of it and runs to planes and ships to start to chase the chaos council and Eggman.