Disclaimer- I don't own any Sonic the hedgehog characters. They all belong to SEGA.

Premonition

Chapter 10

Shadow sighed through his nose, dully watching the immediate scenery as he casually rubbed the bandages on his arm with his gloved thumb. He was leaning on the side of the house, not really thinking about anything. The black hedgehog was just waiting for his walkie-talkie to go off so he and Faker could go searching for the nearest Chaos emerald. If his internal clock was correct, close to an hour had passed since the others had left for Angel Island. Ruby eyes drifted over to the blue hedgehog taking a nap on the ground a bit of a distance away from him, snoring softly. Speaking of him…Something was off about that hedgehog.

Sonic had said that he had a rough night because of his harmful ability, but Shadow suspected that it was more than that. The Ultimate Lifeform knew the signs of someone not having enough sleep, or any in this case, because of personal experience. He had pulled all-nighters a few times when it was necessary, like when he and Rouge had a mission to accomplish in the dead of night only to have another one early in the morning. They both would be worn out, almost looking exactly like Faker other there. Yes, Shadow was the Ultimate Lifeform and technically didn't need sleep, but he had gotten used to the luxury and his body ran on eight hours of rest every night. He would resemble a zombie if he didn't, not unlike Sonic.

So, he knew that Faker hadn't fallen asleep last night, but why?

Before Shadow could ponder more about the matter, low static filled the air and derailed his train of thought. Ignoring the fact that the sound actually startled him, the ebony hedgehog uncrossed his arms and pressed the button on the side of the walkie with his thumb. He held it up to his mouth, cutting off the white noise. "You've located the closest Chaos emerald?"

"Always straight to the point. What? No 'Was there any trouble?' or 'Did you have a safe flight?'. You need to take some lessons in chivalry because you are hopeless in trying to get on a woman's good side."

Shadow rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to hit the back of his head on the wall behind him. Repeatedly. Sure, he couldn't ask for a better partner, but he had yet to get used to her many quirks and her flippant attitude. Sighing, the hedgehog replied through gritted teeth, "Fine. How was your flight, Rouge?" Chaos, it almost pained him.

Black furred ears perked up at the sound of a certain echidna chuckling in the background and Shadow glared daggers at the device in his hand, hoping that guardian could feel very heat of it.

"It was dandy, thank you for asking hon!"

Shadow glared harder at the plastic, not bothering to answer. It's surprising that it hadn't melted yet.

"…Lighten up, Shadow! I just wanted to tease you a bit; I can feel your glare through the walkie!"

Heh.

"Since you want to know so badly, yes, we've found two emeralds closest to where you two are. We've also found another two way far out, so Tails and Amy are going after those. The gems for you are about two miles northwest of Tails' house, hidden in the dense forest there." Shadow turned in that direction, rubies staring through the tree line like they could see the emerald from here. "You and Blue should be able to get them in no time." There was a pregnant pause. "On second thought, take your time, Shadow. Because-"

"There isn't any need to explain it to me, Rouge." The black hedgehog glanced down to the bandages around his torso. "You shouldn't worry, neither. I know how to take care of myself."

"Mhmm sure. Do I need to remind you of the time when you dropped your swiss roll-"

Shadow's right eye twitched. "You promised you wouldn't bring that up again." He couldn't have Knuckles find out because he would tell Faker and the blue annoyance would never let him live it down.

"And because you didn't have any more money on you, you begged me to buy-"

The Ultimate Lifeform's eye twitched again as he released the button, wishing that the bat hadn't finished her statement with the echidna listening in on the conversation. He had a reputation to uphold, and people finding out that he was begging on his knees for Rouge to buy him another swiss roll would pretty much incinerate it.

Tucking the device carefully into his quills, Shadow pushed himself off of the wall and made his way toward the still sleeping hedgehog. Should he yell, kick, or just nudge the Faker awake? The second option seemed most favorable, but the ebony hedgehog decided that his doppelgänger had been through enough to take any violent action. This time.

Stepping up beside the resting 'hog, Shadow nudged Sonic with the side of his shoe. He then blinked in surprise when that small touch brought a pained groan out of the blue speedster. Shadow took a step back when the blue hero groaned even louder, raising his hand to cradle his forehead. Red eyes shifted from Sonic's face, to the Faker's side, then to his own hover skate. Shadow was pretty sure that he didn't nudge him hard at all, so why was he writhing in pain?

Shadow watched cautiously as Sonic slowly woke up, hissing when the harsh sunlight reached his emerald orbs. The blue one hastily sat up on the ground, closed his eyes, the started to rub his temples. His face was twisted up in agony. Shadow, mildly concerned (he wouldn't admit that later though) about Sonic's well-being, decided to speak up. "Faker? What…" His words trailed off when blue ears quickly flattened against the same colored head and the hissing got louder.

The Ultimate Lifeform stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do while the other sat there hurting. Should he talk to him again…or just leave him alone? Shadow clearly wasn't used to this type of situation. He wasn't usually the one to comfort another in their little group of, dare he say it, friends. Amy and Rouge were the best ones, but if they weren't around, Faker would give one of his corny pep talks. Since the girls were away and Sonic was the one kinda…in the need of a caring person, Shadow was a little stuck at the moment.

Luckily, the brief awkward moment passed when Sonic eventually peered open one eye and focused on a clueless Shadow. They barely held eye contact before the speedster closed the eye again. Gritting his teeth, Sonic took one hand away from his head to try to get himself off the ground. He would make it halfway before he would yell out in pain, dropping back down to the grass again and holding his head. After Sonic attempted and failed for a second time, Shadow decided that he had to know what was going on.

"Faker." Sonic's ears pushed themselves against his head again, but he cracked open one eye to regard the Ultimate Lifeform. Shadow took that as a go ahead. "What's going on?"

Sonic winced visibly at his seemingly loud voice, but answered anyway. "'ead…'urts..." Both hedgehogs were shocked at the sound of the blue hero's words. Sonic's eyes widened while Shadow's narrowed into slits.

The Ultimate Lifeform frowned. His speech is warped again…and his head hurts. Faker must've had another vision, but how? Sonic said himself that he only has the visions at night…unless…Shadow squatted down to be on the same level as Sonic. Slightly panicked green irises followed his movements. The striped hedgehog took in the state of the other. This was a slight surprise to him because he had never seen Faker in this kind of pain before. Usually Sonic would just wave it off, but now it seemed like he could hardly take it.

"Sonic, did you get any sleep last night?" The addressed was about to nod, but Shadow knew that it would be a lie. The striped hedgehog gave a weak glare. "Tell the truth." He demanded in that authoritative tone he had used before when he told his doppelgänger to take a nap.

…Which he kind of regretted right now.

Slightly panting now, Sonic just stared back before shaking his head minutely, closing his eyes again.

I was right. Shadow thought, standing back up. He looked down at the hurting hedgehog. The puzzle pieces fit together. Because Faker didn't go to sleep last night, he didn't have a vision. Somehow, it must've been stored or something until Sonic fell asleep again. But why wouldn't he want to have a vision? If I knew that I was going to have some type of pain following it, I would get it over with as soon as possible. Shadow pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for now, knowing that Sonic probably wouldn't answer any more questions until his migraine was gone.

"Stay here until I come back." Shadow told Sonic only to get a pointed 'where do you think I can go?' gaze in return. The Ultimate Lifeform sighed. "Right…I'm going to get the painkillers." He turned and quickly skated back into the thankfully unlocked house. He didn't have a Chaos emerald, the only one they had was in the Tornado. So, he wouldn't be able to Chaos control into the house if it was locked and let's just say…Tails would need another front door.

Inside the house, Shadow traveled through the living room, kitchen, and finally crossed the threshold into the garage. Walking down the couple stairs into the space, he looked around until his eyes zeroed in on the white pill bottle on one of the many shelves the walls carry. He remembered Tails putting it there after the fox was finished with his bandages. Grabbing the bottle, Shadow left the garage and went over to one kitchen cabinet. The hedgehog scoured for a glass cup and when he found one, he filled it up with cool water from the sink.

Turning off the tap, Shadow quickly strode back out of the house, careful not to spill any water, and went over to Sonic who had his knees up, arms around them, and his head down. Shadow placed the cup down on the ground by his rival before opening the pill bottle, shaking two capsules into his hand. He held said hand out. "Here. Take these."

Sonic slowly uncurled and outstretched his own gloved hand. Shadow dropped the pills into it and gestured down to the cup. The hurting hero took the glass with another hand. After taking the medicine, Sonic downed the water, wiping his mouth afterwards. Placing the two items back on the ground, his rival leaned back on his hands, taking a deep breath. Shadow watched curiously and waited patiently as the pained look slowly but surely melted off Sonic's face.

Five minutes of silence passed before the blue blur focused on the Ultimate Lifeform and gave him a grateful grin. "'hanks…'hads…" The grin faded away quickly as Sonic moved his jaw around with his hand, brows furrowed. Shadow wasn't surprised that the other's voice was still messed up, because the pills didn't fix it before, but he was surprised that it seemed like Sonic's condition had gotten worse. When he talked, it looked like he had to put in more effort to form words.

Shadow's ears perked when his rival attempted to talk again. "It'…'arder…'o…"

"It's harder to talk than last time?" The striped hedgehog finished for him and Sonic blinked for a moment before nodding. "Can you still hear me well?" The blue hero nodded again, although confused. "What did you have for breakfast?"

Sonic furrowed his brow. "App…le."

Shadow crossed his arms and averted his eyes to the direction that the jewel was in. "Good. It seems like the headaches aren't harming your hearing and memory anymore. Just your speech." He glanced back down at him. "Let's go. Rouge called in not too long ago and told me the location of the closest Chaos emeralds."

Sonic got up off the ground and dusted his hands to rid of the dirt on his gloves. His scratched his nose before yawning. Shadow noticed that his rival seemed rested a bit, but he could use some more sleep. Sonic didn't have more than one headache a day, right? Right, because Faker had taken a long nap to get all the laughing gas out of his system and he didn't wake up hurting like just now.

Sonic stretched some, cracking his back, before focusing on Shadow. "'ere…i' it?"

"Wait." The raven glared at the blue speedster. "Before we get to that, why did you stay up all night, Faker?"

The blue blur immediately looked away, but not before Shadow saw the solemn expression on his face. Sonic shrugged. "'elt like it."

After waiting for a better answer, the Ultimate Lifeform started to walk off when he didn't get one, expecting the other to follow him. When he heard footsteps from behind, he answered the previous question, saving the white lie to think about later. "Two miles northwest, the direction we're heading in right now. Rouge said that they're hidden among the foliage there." Shadow sighed and shook his head slowly. "I just wish that she told me what color it is."

"'ot…'reen." Shadow glanced behind him, watching as Sonic caught up to him and they now were walking side-by-side. The black 'hog saw that his rival was smiling, but the expression didn't reach his eyes. Shadow decided not to comment on it. "'hat one…i' in…'he 'lane, 'ember?" It took a second, but when Shadow understood, he nodded in agreement. The green Chaos emerald was in the Tornado, and that one would be the hardest to find in the forest. They were almost to the tree line when Sonic turned to him with a cocky smirk. "'anna rae?"

A rae? What in the hell is a- oh…A race. Inwardly chastising himself, Shadow shrugged. "If you're up to it." He returned the smirk, but smaller, and rose a furred brow. "You are only running on one hour of sleep. If you want to be humiliated by tripping over some obvious root, then be my guest."

Sonic wiggled a finger at him, the smirk widening. It still wasn't genuine. "'ou 'houldn't…'e 'orried bout me." They both stopped advancing at the edge of the clearing. The two hedgehogs got into a ready stance, about to take off. The blue speedster laughed. "'ou 'eed to 'orry bout all 'he dust 'ou'll 'e eating."

Shadow scoffed, eyes planning out a route that had the least amount of obstacles. "I'm going to make you eat those words, Faker."

"'ring it on!"

The two rivals stood there for a moment, feeling the wind flowing between their quills. Then, like a flare had been shot into the blue sky, the duo bolted into the forestry, jumping over fallen logs and ducking under low hanging branches. Even though they were racing each other, neither Mobian were going all out. The reason was because Shadow wasn't trying to get Tails to replace his bandages again and because Sonic tripping over a root was something that could actually happen for his coordination wasn't at a hundred percent.

Not five minutes later, they both passed by a faint red glow that only registered a second after the two ran over it. The speed demons skidded to a stop, uprooting dirt along the way. The rivals surprisingly stopped at the same time, meaning that it was a tie. Shadow honestly thought that Sonic was going to trip at least twice, but apparently Faker had enough sense to stay on his feet.

Turning on his heel, the Ultimate Lifeform walked back over to the Chaos emerald, pushing away some bush limbs to grab the glowing gem. "Ya know…I 'eat 'ou, 'ight?"

Shadow glanced behind him to find Sonic rubbing one of his eyes while grinning openly. He snorted and took hold of the crimson emerald. "Only in your dreams, Faker." The ebony hedgehog then paused before turning around to face Sonic who was looking up at the canopy, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Uh…" Had Shadow ever mentioned that he was no good at apologizing also? Well there you go. "I didn't mean it like-"

Sonic waved him off. "S'ok." The blue hedgehog took a couple steps his way, hand outstretched. "'lus, it'll 'e oer wit'…'oon." Shadow handed over the emerald, glad that he didn't have to hurt his pride too much because of his bad choice of words.

The striped Mobian stood back and witnessed as Sonic concentrated while closing his eyes, both hands holding the glowing red gem. He heard the blue blur take several deep breaths and zeroed in on the emerald when it glowed brighter, illuminating everything in the area. The green leaves around gained a brownish hue while Sonic's normally blue pelt obtained a plum shade to it.

His rival remained like that for a while, similar to when he did it yesterday, before he opened his eyes and the glow of the gem dissipated until it was only covering Sonic's hands. "Did it work?" Shadow drifted his gaze from the jewel up to Sonic's face.

The speedster shrugged, tossing the emerald into the air once. "I 'ure 'ope it 'id…" Shadow watched with hidden concern as terror was quickly etched into his rival's features. Sonic dropped the gem, letting it roll away from him and more toward Shadow, and held his head in his hands. The Ultimate Lifeform cursed to himself as he picked up the emerald and dusted it off, sticking it into his quills. Again with this kind of situation…maybe I should just wait it out. It worked last time, yeah, that's what I'm going to do.

Shadow just stood there, half concerned about his rival's psych along with his health and half uncomfortable about this whole situation. He almost jumped when Sonic let out a loud shout, running his hands down his face. The blue speedster pulled on his ears as he paced back and forth. "It 'idn't 'ork…It 'idn't 'ork…It 'idn't 'ork…" He let out another sorrowful yell. "It 'idn't 'ork!" Sonic leaned his back on a nearby tree, tugging his ears harder. He slid down the length of the bark, meeting the ground. "'hat's 'appening 'o me…?"

Shadow blinked, not believing what he was seeing. Even though they were rivals, he still held some respect for the younger hedgehog and the Ultimate Lifeform thought that Sonic would be the last person to break down like this. Shadow was so surprised that he didn't move until a couple seconds after Sonic leaned against the tree. He took a cautious step forward. His job at G.U.N. had trained him to be careful around stress-filled individuals, especially the one' that people would think were the most docile.

"Faker." Shadow went over to stand in front of the distraught hero. "Pull yourself together. We don't need you to-"

Sonic then hastily jumped up to his feet, placing both hands on the striped one's shoulders. Shadow scowled when his rival shook him a bit. "I…'an't, 'hadow!" The Ultimate Lifeform felt Sonic's shaking fingers through the felted gloves. "Wha' if…Wha' if…I'm dyin'…'hads?!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Shadow tried to reason. "You're not-"

"I 'ave to 'e!" Sonic removed one trembling hand to rake it through his azure quills. "'his…isn' 'ormal!"

"We all know that all this is caused by Eggman, Faker." The Ultimate Lifeform growled out. "None of this is norm-"

The blue hedgehog took away his other hand, both grabbing his own blue quills. "'he 'haos emeral' was 'upposed to…'et rid of it!" Sonic shook his head back and forth. "It jus' 'ot worse…jus' 'ot worse…" Thinking that enough was enough, Shadow brought back a fist and struck Sonic on his cheek, sending him reeling into the nearest tree. A few leaves fell around the blue hero who slowly turned his head back to Shadow, rubbing his face gently. Once Sonic's brain caught up with what just happened, green irises glared at the striped Mobian.

As Sonic got back up, Shadow could see a bruise forming on the cheek he hit, but only for a second before a finger was shoved in his face. "Wha' in 'he hell…was 'hat 'or?" Rubies clashed with emeralds. "Huh, 'hads?" Sonic asked, scowling.

Shadow matched his expression and slapped the white digit away from him. "To get you to snap out of it." He snapped back, clenching his fists. "You were losing it and that in no way will benefit your situation!" Sonic blinked for a moment before taking a step back, touching his sore face again. Shadow, seeing this, calmed down a bit. "What was the matter with you? Even though you know that we are collecting all seven emeralds for you to use, you give up after one didn't work? Can you even explain your inane thought processes?"

Sonic glared at Shadow, but it didn't hold any strength. The blue hero sighed, pinching his nose with his forefinger and thumb. "I'm 'orry, 'kay? I 'hought…'his one would 'ork, and when it 'idn't…I 'inda 'reaked out." He sighed for a second time. "And 'ou're right, I 'houldn't 'ave gotten so 'orked up when it 'idn't 'ork. I was 'tupid." Sonic winced when his finger softly brushed his bruise. "'id you 'ave to 'unch me so hard? 'amn."

Shadow's lips twitched upwards. "I regret nothing." He then searched around the area, keeping an eye out for any type of unnatural glow. "Start searching for the other emerald that's around here somewhere."

His rival nodded. "'ight."

They looked around the surrounding forestry for a short while until Sonic spotted the purple emerald. The speedster zoomed over to the gem, picked it up, and zoomed back over to where Shadow was before the ebony one could glance up.

After a huge yawn, Sonic placed the violet glowing jewel into his head quills. He scratched his ear lazily. "Hey, 'hads…"

Shadow, in the midst of retrieving their communication device so he could call in their findings…among other information, paused in his movements. He rose a brow, wondering what the other was thinking about. "What?"

Sonic linked his hands behind his head, giving the darker one a lethargic smile. "Ho you 'hink…'hat we 'an rest awhile? Jus' for a 'it? 'uz I'm 'ead 'ired." The smile weakened a little. "I 'hink I'll 'e 'afe…'his 'ime."

The Ultimate Lifeform eyed the other, weighing on whether they should take it easy for a while. Although he didn't need the rest, Sonic definitely did. Going the entire day only on one hour of sleep was nowhere near healthy for anyone. "Fine." Shadow palmed the walkie-talkie, giving in to his doppelgänger's request. "You can rest, but only until they find the rest of the emeralds or until they need us for anything."

Sonic sighed in relief as he dropped down to the ground, closing his eyes and immediately curling up on a soft patch of grass. However, before he got too comfortable, the hero shot his leg out and kicked Shadow in the shin. The raven yelped embarrassingly and got ready to punt the Faker to oblivion, swinging back his foot. Sonic peeked one eye open and smirked. "I 'egret 'othing."

Shadow froze for a moment before aiming his kick slightly to the right, causing a medium-sized rock to fly out of sight. Grumbling at Sonic's quiet laughter, the Ultimate Lifeform picked a good enough tree and hopped into it, settling on a branch that had a good vantage point. After sparing another glance down at the now sleeping Sonic, Shadow brought the device up to his mouth and pressed the button.

"Shadow, calling in."

"It's about time, hon. I thought you would've gotten them faster than that."

The ebony hedgehog relaxed against the trunk of the tree, letting one leg hang. He chose to ignore the indirect insult to his speed. "We found the first one quickly. It's just the event after we got it that added to our time."

"What happened? Was Eggman involved?"

Shadow frowned. "He is the root of the problem, yes, but we've already established that. Something happened with Faker."

"Tell me what-"

"MY SONIKKU! What happened to him? Is he hurt?"

The black hedgehog flinched and held the walkie away from himself, trying to preserve his hearing. Was it bad that he had forgotten that Tails and Amy were on the other end as well? Now he was going to have to deal with the pinkette before she went hysterical.

"Okay, Pinky, never do that again unless you want your precious hammer to be 'mysteriously' broken or missing."

Shadow heard a small eep from the device. "Sorry! Sorry, won't do it again."

"Now back to what you were saying before Amy interrupted…"

"Right." The Ultimate Lifeform huffed in irritation at an unreasonably loud snore coming from down below. "Immediately after you called informing me of the closest emeralds, Sonic woke up from a nap with a migraine, signifying that he had a vision."

"But wait! Sonic told us that they only happened at night!"

"Amy's right, he did tell us that."

"Yes, and that is the case…if he goes to sleep then." Shadow plucked a nearby leaf off its branch and started to rotate it between his fingers. "Faker didn't go to sleep last night, so, from what I've gathered, the power activated when he rested because it didn't get to overnight."

"So what happened next? You gave Blue some medicine?"

"The pain killers, but they didn't fix his voice, like we already knew."

"But Sonic's okay, right? I mean, you found the…" There was a short pause on Amy's end. "I know that an emerald can heal him, Tails! I was just asking."

"He's fine, in the physical sense." Shadow dropped the leaf and watched as it was carried away by the gentle zephyrs weaving between the trees. "It's just that the Chaos emerald didn't heal his voice when he used some of its power. In fact, it's worse than before."

"Oh no! I-It didn't work?! What's going on?! H-He's not dying...is he?" Shadow shook his head in exasperation. Here we go again…He just sat there and listened to Amy's high-pitched voice. "Oh my gosh! He is isn't he?! We have to help him quickly before-"

"Calm down Amy! I'm sure Blue is fine. This just gives us more incentive to find all of the emeralds. By the way Shadow, Knuckles and I are about a hundred miles north of you and Sonic if-"

"There's no need for that Rouge, at least for right now." Shadow traced the gauze wrapped around his abdomen. "We'll meet up with all of you when-"

"BOOM!"

The black hedgehog almost fell out of the tree when a loud explosion filled the area. Shadow stopped searching around when he figured out that it came from the plastic device in his hand. Now alert, he hastily asked, "What happened? Rouge? What's going on?"

"I don't know! It came from Amy's end! Amy? Amy?!"

The pink hedgehog's voice came through, but it was farther away than before. "W-What's going on Tails?" Shadow's brow furrowed as he tried to make out the kit's voice, but he couldn't.

"Amy! Answer me! What's going-"

"I-I can't!" Her weeping voice carried through the walkie, worrying the other two. It seemed like that she was still talking to Tails. "The belt's stuck!" The fox's muffled voice was heard before Shadow's ears were filled with frantic and frenzied screaming. He gritted his teeth. What in the hell was going on?

Shadow was about to shout something into the device, wanting to have more information to what was wrong, but all words died in his throat when a deafening splash drowned out the screaming voices.

Then there was silence.

PS- Sorry for such a late update!

PSS- Why in the world does homework exist?