Here I go again, with another massive upload! Enjoy!!!!!!!!! Title's French for those of you confuzzled.

Part IV: Mes Dieux, Ombre! (My Gods, Shadow!)

Sonic looked up from his plastic bucket to find a most unwelcome sight gracing his dizzy, scattered, blurred vision. "Ummmm…heyy, Shads. What'chya up to?"

"I should be asking you the same question, blue hedgehog." Shadow observed in his usual monotonous tone, disgusted but not outwardly bothered otherwise as Sonic vomited rather loudly into the bucket before him.

Sonic lay back, panting hard. "Ugh, any more of that before I have a rest and I know I'll sprain my gagging system! Phew!" Shadow was frightfully surprised to find beads of sweat dawning Sonic's forehead.

He's actually straining himself… "Uhh," For once, Shadow shuffled his cards for words. Anything to prove his supposed superiority over this mortal, impertinent, self-centered…ailing, weak, strained…hedgehog.

Sonic regained a firm grasp on the situation. "I see no knives, no guns." He began jokingly. Shadow was startled by how drained, how tired, his normally peppy voice now sounded. "So…obviously you're not here to kill me!" He offered a gleeful thumbs up, a classic smile and wink to go with it crossing his lips before he, quick as a flash, bent over the bucket to release more liquids from his bowels once again.

"Obviously, you've eaten something that has been poisoned." Shadow noted, more to himself then to anyone else, especially Sonic, but the younger hedgehog appeared to have heard him, as he chuckled whilst raising himself on shaking limbs (Shadow observed this with a disconnected terror, as one would feel while watching an action-packed nature documentary) before depositing his body with a thump into the soft, inviting covers on his bed.

"No danger, I've eaten nothing for what feels like forty days and nights. I'm as empty as a dried up pond." Though he seemed to joke, he also seemed faintly sad at this fact. Shadow winced. He himself, though strong both fed and starved, would choose to eat instead of to ignore cravings. If it was hard, even for the Ultimate Lifeform, to refuse a single meal when his stomach begged after only a few hours…how truly difficult it must have been for Sonic to ignore the life-giving (and strength restoring, Shadow added mentally) substances not once, but again and again and again!

Sonic proffered a huge yawn, as if Shadow's very presence was somniferous. "What is it you want?" He demanded, rubbing one eye childishly. "Since I can't eat, I'm forced to Nod from tire." He yawned again to prove this.

Shadow made easy sense of blue's reasoning. With little strength in him, it ebbing away every time he released bile, and no hope of any of it being recovered, sleep was the only way Sonic could store energy. He needed plenty, and it seemed he could barely control it. Indeed, he looked ready to pass out, even before one he considered dangerous! But, Sonic's question also confused the dark one, forcing him to cogitate. Why exactly had he come here? He was surprised at the answer stolen from his lips by Sonic's apparent inability to pay attention (though this time, his impatience was not to blame): "I don't know." He shrugged, confessing.

"Hih-hmmm." Came Sonic's muted chuckle where he was supported with one elbow, hand supporting his cheek. With the other wiry arm and thin hand, he patted the space beside him. "Sit, Shadzy."

Shadow tossed his head in arrogance and surprise, unable to help the mortified flush. "Sonic!" He squealed, the first time this tone had ever passed his lips, as if the idea itself deserved contempt.

"Chill, Shadow," Sonic yawned again, closing his eyes and resting on folded arms, so that Shadow was beginning to fear he would lose his audience. "I'm straight. Relax."

"I—I am not that immature!" Shadow protested angrily, his cheeks pink with embarrassment at being discovered (as that was what he'd been thinking on) as he lowered himself beside Sonic. "That was not in my thoughts at all, you cocky, over-the-top…" He attempted to give Sonic a hard slap to the shoulder, but lightning-fast reflexes and a hand colder than the deepest, darkest areas of light-deprived space stopped him.

Sonic glared in warning before letting his hand drop as if it itself had fainted and allowed himself the liberty to fall back into the pillows with a defeated, weary sigh. "That took a large chunk of energy!" He exclaimed as his pupils dilated and he hid them beneath his bony fingers. "Oooww, I gotta try to eat later man, I'm starvin'…" He had seemed to forget that, for the moment, he was not alone, and when he realized this, he returned to the matter at hand without remorse at the barenaked words Shadow had heard pass his lips. "Listen to me, Shadow." Sonic's eyes gave a look-over of the ceiling before he tilted his neck, adjusting his pillows automatically, to gaze at Shadow. His eyes were glassy; sickly and far-off. "I'll never claim to know, heck I'll never even try, to see or understand what you think about, but I figure I'd be spot-on if I said you've got a lot to think about."

Shadow nodded, imploring Sonic to continue, suddenly eager to hear the surprisingly wise hedgie out…before he passed out.

"Okay, good." Sonic seemed relieved to be right. Maybe because he didn't have to waste energy trying a new path of thought. "I don't know why you've taken a sudden, confusing interest in me and my well-being, but I have a feeling it has something to do with this "Chaos Twins" nonsense."

Shadow sighed. "Yes. You are not wrong, blue one, though you speak of it carelessly and plainly, without respect for it. Does that mean you do not credit it?"

"I swallow it with a grain of salt." Sonic shrugged easily, strangely compliant.

"Because Amy came to me…"

"Amy?" It was obvious the name hit a nerve. Shadow could feel Sonic's body become tense beneath the sheets.

But, the obsidian Ultimate chose to feign ignorance to the response. "…and asked if I could tell her anything about what to expect from your condition."

"And?" Sonic pressed, too eager, his form quickly rising until his fingers gripped his ankles in a nervous anticipation.

"And I saw things." Shadow confessed.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Sonic realized, his eyes sparking and then dying with a weak flame. Weaker than Shadow had ever seen his eyes.

Shadow bashfully shook his head no, and Sonic lowered himself into the sheets. The silence grew so long that Shadow feared Sonic had gone to Nod. He was about to get up and leave when:

"It wasn't too bad, was it? What you saw, I mean." Sonic's voice came muted and mumbled, because he was speaking into a pillow.

Shadow chuckled. "Not terrible. It is at least good news."

"Good." Sonic seemed more relieved then he let on, though his words now came with tired sighs, as if he really had to summon all his strength simply to converse. "I won't press you for how good the news is…just so long…as…it's…good…" He was trailing off slowly, losing contact with the real for the surreal world of his feverish dreamings.

Shadow had his hand on the doorknob, preparing to close it. "Goodnight, blue hedgehog." He added as he closed the door on the exhausted hedgehog.

Et tu, Brutus?

Being sick definitely tires you out…even if you are the world's fastest, indefatigable hedgehog! :3

Play on, good sirs and madams! For my jests are far from over!