Wow, I haven't been active here in a while… It's been months since I last posted anything to good ol' FF-dot-net. But I have finally returned! After a months-long writing dry spell I have finally started to write again, this time for one of my fave fandoms of all time- Sonic. I rediscovered it recently and, in the process, rediscovered why Shadamy is one of my biggest OTPs ever. But enough of my rambling- I hope you enjoy this story. If all goes well, I plan to update it on a weekly basis (or something like that), and I should have a few other Shadamy stories making it out here soon. Also, just a note: this is an AU. Earth in this story is inhabited by humans and Mobians alike. Anyhow, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Rain

The night sky was clear save for a few clouds scudding about here and there, temporarily hiding the few visible stars only to pull away and leave them naked and vulnerable once more.

It was as if they were taunting him.

It was as if the heavens themselves, from which he was so far, were saying, Run, run little fugitive, entertain us, for no matter how or where you hide, they'll find you, they'll find you you helpless rat, they'll find you and then you'll be gone from our sight forever.

Red eyes darted to the sky above, through the canopy of trees, then drifted back down to the dim path before him. He dared not look behind him in search of the city's receding skyline, nor would he give thought to the possibility of things lurking in the shadows of the forest, waiting to pounce on him and drag him back to that hellish prison. All that occupied his thoughts was running. Escaping. Keep running, don't let them catch him, don't let them take him back there. Running as he had been for the past- twenty? twenty-five?- minutes. His breathing was ragged and his left hand clutched his right arm over a fresh wound, blood matting his fur and staining his white gloves red. Other wounds, just as new, burned with pain and made his fur sticky and hot.

The forest soon broke out into an open field. Fog had rolled in thickly and he could scarcely see ten feet in front of him, but he kept running blindly, ignoring his burning lungs and his whole body crying out in anguish and exhaustion. Running was all he could do.

A fence appeared before him out of the fog and he slowed slightly, mustering up his fading strength and using it to vault the obstacle…

Only to fall a significant height to the ground. He landed unevenly- he was not prepared for such a drop- at the top of a rocky, flowered slant, and failed to catch his balance in time. Tumbling roughly down the small incline, the battered fugitive ended up in an ungraceful heap on the ground. And there he stayed. Because no matter how badly he wanted- needed- to get up and keep running, no matter how strongly he willed his body to move, he simply could not continue. All adrenaline had fled from his body, and with it had gone the last vestiges of strength that he'd possessed. His vision blurred- or was that just the fog?- and blackness closed in around him, smothering his muddled mind and enveloping his body like a blanket.

~The next morning…~

A breeze drifted through the open window and ruffled pink quills. A small black nose twitched and jade green eyes fluttered open. A pink hedgehog sat up and stretched, mouth opening and canines showing in a yawn. She glanced out the window at the bright blue sky, and saw tiny white clouds that were reminiscent of cotton balls. Smiling, she stood, yawned again, and went to the window to open it. Her bright green eyes proudly scanned over her flowers on the slope in the backyard and- wait. Something was wrong with them. They looked… Squished? Whatever they looked like, Amy Rose had certainly never seen her flowers look like that before. Her brow furrowed and, throwing on a fuzzy robe, she hurried downstairs to investigate.

She had the back door halfway open when she stopped in her tracks and screamed.

She had been too absorbed in the plight of her flowers earlier to notice a crumpled black figure lying motionless at the base of the slope. Amy stood stock still for a few long moments, then turned stiffly around and went back inside, grabbing her Piko Hammer from its usual spot. 'Better safe than sorry,' she rationalized in her head as she returned to the door and opened it up wide. Taking small, slow steps, she approached the unmoving figure. It was a person- another hedgehog, she found, colored black and red. "...Hello?" she called out uncertainly, hammer at the ready. However, no response came from the figure, and her racing heart relaxed a bit as she lowered her hammer and knelt beside the other hedgehog.

"He's unconscious…" Amy murmured to herself as she felt a weak pulse at his wrist. "Wait- ew! What-?" She winced and pulled her hand away as she felt something wet, noticing that her fingers were covered in some type of red residue. "N-No way… Is this blood?" she stammered in shock. Was this a joke or something? What if someone had been attacked in her backyard? 'What do I do?'

Just then the doorbell rang, jolting her from her stupor. "C-Coming!" she called. She rapidly drew the blinds over the sliding glass back door before hurrying to answer the doorbell, hiding her dirtied hand behind her back and opening the door with the other. "Hello?"

"Amy! Are you alright, hun? Is everything okay?" It was her best friend Rouge, and to say she looked worried would be an understatement. "I heard that scream from my house!" Also being Amy's neighbor down the street, her hearing was no surprise due to her being a bat.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine, I just went to go water my flowers and a spider fell on my head," Amy explained with a sheepish grin as she gave Rouge a quick hug. "Sorry to worry you."

Rouge still looked concerned, but she seemed to believe Amy, and just sighed. "Jeez, don't scare me like that!"

Amy just rubbed her eyes sleepily with her free hand, still half-smiling as she mumbled, "Sorry." The other female just yawned in response.

"Well, still, you need anything, you call me, you got it?"

The hedgehog smiled. "Got it. Thanks Rouge."

After the bat left, Amy sighed. She didn't like lying to her friend like that, but- wait, why did she lie? Why didn't she just tell Rouge the truth? Rouge probably would have known what to do… Then again, she wasn't sure if Rouge would have even believed that an injured, unconscious hedgehog had randomly appeared in her backyard.

Her attention returned to the issue at hand, which was of what to do about her unexpected visitor. Should she call the police? No, he might be dead before they got here, and besides which, she would sound awfully silly if she reported an attack that may or may not have ever happened. She had to find out who he was before she could decide on anything, she supposed.

...Well, there was no way she'd get anything out of him while he was unconscious, and his wounds looked pretty bad, so she couldn't just let him lie there and bleed until he decided to wake up, if/when he did. He probably wouldn't last very long without at least some medical care. Alright then, she decided, the first thing to do was to give him some medical treatment. After racing up to her room and changing into some old, worn-out clothes, she hurried back downstairs and laid out some towels on the couch so that the blood wouldn't stain the upholstery, then went back out to retrieve the injured hedgehog. However, she quickly hit a bit of a roadblock: getting him into the house. He was a deal larger than she was, and complete dead weight. Still, she considered herself to be pretty strong, and she had to get him inside one way or another. She rolled up her sleeves and sighed.

It took a few attempts, but Amy's efforts were not in vain, and she soon had the crimson-and-black hedgehog settled face-up on the towel-covered couch. She was a scientist, not a doctor, but she still knew the basics of first aid. Using several clean rags and bandages, she cleaned up and dressed her patient's wounds to the best of her abilities, doing her very best to ignore how suspiciously like bullet wounds some of his injuries were. She also removed and cleaned his bloody white gloves, noting the cracked and faded gold rings around his wrists and his lack of footwear.

After she had done all that she could for him, she laid a light blanket over him, leaving next to him a glass of water on a small table in case he should awaken. Then, she left him be, going to shower and tend to her traumatized flowers. It was her day off- Saturday- and she only worked half of Sunday, so she had plenty of time to fix up her flowers. And monitor her "guest".

Lifting a drooping blossom with her finger, Amy sighed. "Man, what happened to you little guys?"