Eleven

Rouge laughs lightly. "So how was mating season?"

Shadow glares at her as he sits down at the bar counter. "It was hell. Not funny at all."

The white bat grins as she leans forward. "You did know about it, right?"

The hedgehog sighs and nods. "Yes, I knew about it. Doesn't mean it was any easier on myself or Sonic."

"Poor blue… Did he handle it okay?"

Shadow sighs and taps his fingers on the counter. "He's…going to be down for about a week. He could never get any proper sleep during the whole ordeal."

She gives him a sympathetic smile. "And did you?"

"I did until he woke me up."

She laughs again, shaking her head, defeated. "It must have been something. You should at least be happy it only lasts a month or two."

He sighs again and rests his head down. "It felt like a year…"

The whole experience had been hell. After their first time together, it kicked off their mating season with a bang. Shadow couldn't even touch Sonic without the blue hedgehog collapsing against him, mewling and crying and pleading and begging…

It came down to, Sonic wasn't aloud to leave the bed. At all. Anytime Shadow would get up and leave, Sonic would follow like a lost puppy dog, whining and whimpering the whole time. It affected Sonic far worse than Shadow had originally thought. Despite their first time being heaven, afterwards was a total mess.

He remembered the one morning he woke up, and Sonic was straddling his waist, face flushed red, his ears flattened guiltily against his head, his breath coming in pants, and his fur coated in sweat.

That…had been a very interesting wake up call.

…and despite how much he loved driving that blue body into the bed sheets, how much he loved making him cry out in pure bliss, how much he loved making him claw and kick and writhe until he was screaming for more, it grew very tiring. Sonic's body could only handle so much, Shadow could only stay awake for so long, but…Sonic could only go so long before he really, truly, needed it, before the pain would settle in, or his Chaos Energy would do a million flips in a split second, driving him crazy for his mate's affection.

Rouge smirks as she watches Shadow sit up, rubbing his tired eyes. One, whole, month of hell.

"How is he now?" she asks, tilting her head to one side.

Shadow shrugs as he stands up. "Fine, at least, as fine as he can be at the moment. He's been sleeping for days in a row now, hardly waking up enough for me to feed him."

She smiles softly. "At least you're taking care of him."

His ears flick in recognition, but he doesn't say a word to her as he turns to leave. She watches him open the front door, walking out as if he hadn't even heard her.

She sighs as she runs a hand through her messy bangs. She could not wait to get home, shower, and change into some comfortable pajamas…

Wolf gives her an almost worried look. "You okay?"

Rouge smiles and shrugs. "Yeah, just frustrated is all. I'm glad they took care of Mephiles, but I'm tired, I feel gross, and I'm worried as hell about Shadow."

The red mobian tilts his head. "I've heard you all talk about him quite a bit… Who is he?"

The bat smiles again, watching the sky slowly change its colors as they flew high in the plane. "Well, he's like a little brother to me, to be honest, but he's Sonic's mate."

The wolf raises a brow. "I'm guessing Mephiles kidnapped him?"

Rouge nods. "Yes. He captured him and hid him somewhere, while he disguised himself as Shadow to trick Sonic into eventually giving up his Dark Chaos Energy. We haven't seen Shadow in almost two months now…"

Wolf frowns. "That has to be nerve wracking, especially for Sonic."

She nods again. "It is, and I'm surprised Sonic has been able to hold himself so well. Then again, he's the strongest person I know."

Wolf leans back in his seat, playing with the frame of his glasses in his hands that he took off a bit ago. "Sonic does have a very strong aura, and not just his Chaos Energy."

Rouge glances back at him with a curious look. "You really know your shit, don't you?"

Wolf smiles. "I've had plenty of time to go over it."

She frowns as she looks back in front of her. "Have you been there all by yourself this whole time?"

He shakes his head. "Nope. My mother and grandmother lived with me for the longest time, but when my mother went missing, my grandmother grew ill and eventually passed."

"…Sounds a bit like Knuckles, except it was only his father."

He looks up, putting his glasses back on. "Our worlds have similar fates with each other. If you hadn't realized it by now, Blaze is actually the 'counterpart' of Sonic."

Rouge blinks, looking back at the wolf with a raised brow. "So…she's like the alternate dimension version of Sonic?"

He nods. "Yes, and I am Knuckles."

"Hmm…" Rouge turns away, frowning, tapping her fingers on the gears. That was rather interesting. "So, basically, this world, this dimension, is like Moebius, or the No Zone, and so on?"

He nods again. "Yes, but a bit more complex on its own, considering our ways are different than yours. Blaze never lost her parents, and grew up as a princess and the protector of the Sol Emeralds."

Rouge blinks with wide eyes. "How did you know Sonic lost his parents?"

The wolf shrugs. "As I said, I can read people fairly well. I said Sonic was hard to read, I never said I couldn't do it at all."

"So…you can basically know anything you want to about a person just by using your energy?" Sounded unbelievable to her.

"Yes," he states simply, "It's a gift, as I said before. For example; you care for Knuckles more than you would allow him to see."

Her mouth opens as if to argue, but then she snaps it shut. "Don't you ever say anything to him like that," she huffs.

He grins. "That's okay. Knuckles feels the same about you."

She blinks again, her heart leaping in her chest. "Why…do I feel like you're just messing with me?"

He shrugs. "Believe what you want to believe."

She sighs. "Touché."

"Land down there, the last emerald piece is on that island."

She blinks and looks down. The island below them was small and filled with trees. "Where am I supposed to land without hurting Sonic's precious plane?"

They both frown as they survey the area below. "The beach should be fine," Wolf states, pointing to said area. She nods.

"It's gonna be tight, but it's better than nothing."

Knuckles frowned as he watched Sonic roll over in his sleep, groaning the same word he had been all night.

"Shadow…"

He sighs, rubbing a hand over his eyes. He could feel the stress in Sonic's energy radiating off of him in waves. He wondered how Sonic would act once he saw Shadow again. Hell, he wondered how pissed off Shadow was going to be once he saw Sonic again. He had to know what Mephiles did to him.

"Nnn…nooo…"

The echidna perks up and blinks, watching Sonic's brows furrow, his ears pin back against his head. He could see sweat forming on his forehead, and he tossed again, turning to lay on his other side, facing the wall away from the guardian. His quills rose for a moment, before they flatten suspiciously low. "N-Nooo..morrrre…"

Nightmare. With a worried frown, Knuckles stands up and leans over his friend, shaking him lightly. "Sonic? Sonic wake up," he said in a soft but firm voice.

Sonic whined in his sleep, but did not wake up. Knuckles rolled him over to his back, shaking him a bit harder. "Sonic! Wake up!"

"Nnn?!" Sonic blinked rapidly, shaking himself as he turned his head from side to side. The ruby guardian leans back, giving the sapphire some room to get back on the reality trail. "Sonic? You okay?"

The blue hedgehog blinks again, rubbing his eyes, sitting up now. He gives the guardian a sleepy glare, but nods anyway. "Mmfine."

The echidna chuckles and sits down on the side of the bed. "You wanna talk about it?"

The hero shakes his head. "Nno…I wanna find him…"

'Him' didn't have to be specified. The ruby male sighs. "I know you do, bud, and we will, but you just blacked out, out of nowhere."

Sonic huffed, as if offended by that irritating, but true statement. "How long have I been out?"

"About six hours, give or take a minute or two."

Green eyes widened to saucers. "Why'd you let me sleep so long? We need to go find Shadow!"

Knuckles watches as his friend throws off the tangled sheets, nearly falling off the bed as he rolled over to the floor. He bends down and grabs his shoes, sliding them on and grabbing his gloves off the nightstand. The older male sweatdrops. "Calm down…"

"Baka…" Sonic curses under his breath, as he trips over a piece of rubble concrete. Knuckles raises a brow at his friend.

"You sure you're okay?"

Sonic glares at him. "I…just want to find Shadow is all. What if he's hurt or something?"

Knuckles shrugs. "I'm sure he's okay, Sonic. Have a little faith…"

Sonic stops in his tracks, skidding in place as he turns to his friend, his eyes narrowed, jabbing a finger at his chest. "'Okay?' The guy that kidnapped him is the same guy who shot a Chaos Blade through my chest with no remorse."

The guardian seems to flinch at the memory. "I don't think he would have killed Shadow. He would have wanted him to suffer, not go peacefully."

"KNUCKLES!"

A loud smack and cry of pain followed, the echidna's words obviously not helping cool Sonic's anxiety. The red mobian rubs his now swollen cheek, tears in the corners of his eyes. "Sorry…"

Sonic huffs, his cheeks puffing as he stormed away. "Just shut up and don't say anything. You're not helping."

With a sigh, Knuckles follows, noting to himself to not ever say anything ill towards Shadow ever again.

He watches with half-lidded, almost sad eyes, as the black and red hedgehog continues to pack the bag up to its fullest. Why did he even fight it anymore? Shadow was going whether he wanted him to or not. His opinion or feelings didn't seem to matter when it came to what Shadow wanted to do. Said biohog looks up then, his ruby eyes falling on his mate, laying half on his stomach, half on his side, one fawn arm thrown carelessly over the arm of the couch, the other arm being used as a pillow for the hero's chin. Sonic was watching him, his ears, quills, and tail drooped, his eyes nearly closed, and his cheeks red. He looked like a child on the verge of tears. Hell, he probably was, considering here again Shadow was leaving him, with seemingly no remorse whatsoever.

The week before the last Shadow had left knowing Sonic was going to run head first into one of Dr. Eggman's most dangerous bases. Sonic had nearly drowned, and might have completely, if he hadn't gotten a boost of his dark super form. Sonic never said anything about it to Shadow, and Shadow never asked. He just assumed Sonic was okay. He never even asked how the mission went.

Ruby met clouded emerald, and Shadow raised a brow. "What?"

Sonic's expression doesn't change in the slightest. "Are you mad at me for something?"

Shadow blinks, confused by this question. He turns to fully face his boyfriend, dropping his bag on the edge of the bed, and crosses his arms. "What do you mean?"

The cobalt mobian stares for a moment, then shakes his head. "Are you mad at me?"

The darker hedgehog's frown deepens. "Why would I be mad at you?"

Sonic huffs, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you, or are you not?"

"No…" Shadow starts, still not understanding where this was going. "Why?"

The Blue Blur shakes his head again. "Because you keep leaving me. You won't talk to me. You don't check up on me. You ignore me. Like the old you did all the time to me." He stops and sighs, closing his eyes. "So I thought you were mad at me…"

Shadow stares, dumbfounded. Had he really been like that? For how long? "I'm…not mad at you, Sonic."

The hedgehog opens his eyes and looks at the older male with a confused frown. "Then do you just not want anything to do with me?"

Shadow's eyes widen. "That's not…" he stops himself, taken aback by this statement. He walks over to the hero, kneeling beside the side of the couch, reaching for him. When Sonic flinches away, he could feel his heart break in two. "I'm not mad at you, and I would never want nothing to do with you. You mean more to me than anything I can ever express, maybe more than Maria did, and I would never, could never, leave you like that."

Sonic's eyes narrow. "Then why are you doing it now? Just like last week, and the time before that? You didn't even ask how my mission with Tails went. You didn't care."

'Oh, fuck…'

He had completely forgotten about that mission. Now that he thought about it…Sonic's red muzzle had been in such a state since he came home. His whole body seemed ragged and he was always cold, always snuggling a blanket, but his skin, his fur, was hot to the touch. A cough here and there, a sneeze or two after…was Sonic sick? Why hadn't he realized this sooner? Why had he been so ignorant these past couple of months?

"S-Sonic…"

He didn't know what to say. He felt like a total douche.

The blue hero shakes his head and sits up, moving around Shadow to stand up and walk over to the bedroom door. He could hear sniffling, and watched the blue hog wipe his eyes as he opened the door and walk out.

Was he crying?

By the time he got up and went downstairs, Sonic was already gone.

"It didn't seem like you two had any problems."

Sonic sighs and leans against the old, maple tree behind him. "That's because I didn't want to bring it up with anyone. I don't know or understand why he was doing it, why he kept leaving, but…"

Knuckles watches the blue hedgehog slowly slide down to sit on the grass below, drawing his legs up to his chest and resting his chin on his arms as he folded them across his knees. "You have any theories?"

Sonic shakes his head. "I just want things to go back to normal. I don't want to hate him like I did before he left."

The guardian's eyes widen a bit. "You hated him?"

Sonic nods. "Despised him. I never depend on anyone, but he always promised he would always be there for me. He wasn't, and I hated that I trusted him. I hated all of it."

That was understandable. Sonic never put his life in anyone's hands before, so when Shadow stepped up to take that responsibility, Sonic had put his guard up to see if the dark hedgehog was worthy of it. After their anniversary, he declared Shadow was safe. Apparently, things weren't so nice afterwards.

"You never fought him?"

Sonic shakes his head. "I thought he would see it on his own."

"Hmm…"

The blue hero sighs then, standing back up to his feet. They had been searching for any energy signals for the better of an hour now, yet they were still getting nothing. Sonic was starting to get doubtful, and the echidna had thought it would be a good idea to sit for a moment and talk. "Maybe after we find him," Sonic starts, cutting off the red mobian's thoughts. "I'll beat him up."

The guardian smirks, chuckling lightly. "As long as I get front row seats."

Sonic smiles softly, chuckling as well. "Deal."

Then something in the distance exploded, loud, shaking the ground like an earthquake.

Both hedgehog and echidna whip around, their eyes wide. "What the hell was that?!" Knuckles exclaims.

"The castle!" Sonic pointed out, in which the direction of the explosion came from.

The two run out of the woods they were in, and sure enough, in the distance, the castle of Soleana was lit up in flames and smoke. Parts of the walls were crumbling down, people were running out screaming, and the calm sky seemed to turn dark.

"BLAZE!"

The two ran quickly across the fields, pushing passed people once they made it to the city. A large, crumbling boulder came crashing down not too far from them, and Sonic had to hope and pray that no one was stuck under it. They bolted to the castle, dashing inside straight to the main hall.

Mephiles stood, smirking, his foot over Blaze's back, as she lay unconscious on the ground, flames swirling around him and rising into the air.

Sonic cursed himself. Why did he think it would be that simple? Why didn't do anything more about Mephiles?

The dark creature laughs, almost manically. "You must be proud of yourself, my pet. You're incredibly naïve." He disappears in a dark flash, leaving the princess behind.

Sonic huffs, clenching his fist. "Knuckles…get Blaze out of here."

The echidna looks at his friend with wide eyes. "What? I'm not leaving you here to-!"

Sonic glares back at him. "I said go, dammit!"

Knuckles freezes, taken aback by the hedgehog's harsh order. Anytime Sonic acted like this, it reminded him that this was the hero that founded the resistance, the leader of the Freedom Fighters. As much as he didn't want to leave his friend, he knew he had to listen. He had no choice.

"Just be careful."

Sonic nods. "I'll try to separate them. Call Rouge and Wolf and tell them they need to be here, now."

Knuckles watches as Dark Chaos Energy swirled around Sonic. So that was it, then? Sonic was going to use his strongest form against the fake Solaris. It was only him in this fight, he supposed he had no choice.

"Alright."

Picking up Blaze, the echidna watches as Dark Sonic disappears from sight, a worried frown crossing his muzzle.

Flying up into the dark, purple space, Dark Sonic turns himself to face the monster that had been haunting him for the past two, now almost three months. This was it. He was going to put this bastard in his place. He was going to show this ill creation what true power, true strength, true ability, really was.

He was going to show him what happened when you messed with someone he loved.

His dark, emerald eyes disappear completely, leaving nothing but pure, white irises.

He could see Mephiles in the center of this large, monstrous creature. The dark hedgehog seemed to be smirking at him, as if challenging him. Sonic scoffs and shoots forward, avoiding the dark beams that shot towards him as he flew forward.

His idea wasn't to fight Solaris head on. No, he had other plans.

Focusing on the Chaos Energy building in his chest, he centers in on the creature in front of him. His voice was dark as he murmured to himself, and the grin on his muzzle seemed sinister.

"Chaos, Control."

"Knuckles!"

The echidna turns his amethyst eyes to Rouge and Wolf, of both were sporting a large, red emerald in between them as they ran. The red Master Emerald sparkled and gleamed brightly, its warmth felt from all within its wake. Blaze, who had woken up just a moment ago, looks on in shock. The emerald itself was here, right in front of her. Sonic and Knuckles had been right!

Rouge, who had initially called them, stops running, panting heavily as Wolf sets the emerald down behind her. "How is Sonic doing?"

Knuckles frowns and looks up. "Beats me. He went up there, and a few explosions later, it's been eerily quiet."

Wolf's ears bent back, he as well looking up into the large hole that used to be the castle, a large, purple vortex swirling in the sky above them. As Knuckles had said, it was eerily quiet, the only sounds being that of the howling wind, and the Master Emerald's buzz of energy.

"I don't like this," Wolf finally speaks, looking back down. "How are we to know when he needs help?"

The echidna shakes his head and looks down at Blaze, who was sitting up against him, still weak. "We won't, I guess. We just have to wait and see."

"E-Easy, Shadow…"

The black and red hedgehog, the real Shadow, curses under his breath as he forces himself to walk a few more feet. The moment he woke up, he began questioning everyone. Eggman explained to him what had been going on, Mephiles disguising himself as Shadow, hurting Sonic, taking Sonic's energy, and his plans. He also explained Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge going to the Sol dimension to help Blaze fight off Mephiles and hopefully seal him away for good. Shadow, of course, had been livid beyond hell. He was down right furious with the story he had been told, and after Tails and Amy had backed up the doctor, Shadow had gotten up with the intention of getting to his mate.

"You need some more time," Eggman tried, crossing his arms over his chest. "What good will you be to Sonic in that condition?"

This made Shadow pause in his steps, leaning against the wall with a scowl. The human had a point, even if it was a shitty one. He needed to get to Sonic. That was all he cared about. He just needed to see him, to apologize, to hold him, and to promise that everything was going to be better from here on out.

He felt nauseous.

His head was spinning and his thoughts were racing. He felt like something terrible was going to happen if he didn't leave now. He could feel it in his connection with Sonic and his energy. Something was very, very wrong here…

"I need…to go…"

Eggman sighs. Tails and Amy exchange worried looks.

"Alright," Eggman states "I hope you know what you're doing."

Shadow huffs.

Author's Note:

What? It was obvious I wasn't done with Mephiles~

Guess the relationship Sonic and Shadow had before Mephiles took over wasn't really as good as everyone had thought…

Currently taking votes for who wants to see Sonic beat up Shadow. Knuckles's vote counts as 1.

I couldn't end this story without a grand finale. The next chapter will be the final chapter. You ready?