Chapter 11: why do you torture me?
"Shadow…………."
Shadow's ear flicked as he woke to the sounds of white noise and whirs coming from machinery around him. He sat up slowly and pulled an intravenous tube out of his arm, through with allowing himself to be subjected to whatever it was the doctor's machines had done to him. He held his head for a moment, trying to clear his mind and stabilize himself as Robotnik entered the room where Shadow was seated on a medical bed.
"I see you're already awake- and sooner than I thought you would." Robotnik looked at Shadow menacingly with an all-too-knowing grin, his eyes narrowed as if he was hiding something inside them.
Shadow couldn't notice even if he choose to, his head throbbed in waves of searing pain and his ear was still excruciatingly tender as it was growing itself back together, the bullet hole still noticeable. He passed his bare hand over his temple and noticed where the bullet had grazed him was no longer a wound, but had formed a scar. It was still in the process of healing, but the skin was already repaired and fur had started to form again. He slid down off the table, bracing himself on it, as his legs struggled to hold his own weight. While he hesitantly adjusted to standing up, he groggily questioned the genius. "What had you done to me? And what were those machines doing after you left?"
Eggman laughed the questions off. "I just saved you Shadow. Without me, you would be in some form of near death, if not dead. You may be the ultimate life form, and you may have survived that fatalistic fall, but you are not able to survive everything I'm sure."
"What fall." Shadow stated. He had only remembered chaos controlling himself to the doctor's lair and his odd medical procedure, but he was sure that he had not fallen from any great heights during his incapacitation.
The doctor laughed harder. "You don't remember your past do you, my confused furry friend!? Well, maybe you will remember later on when you're more stable. Your reward is there, along with your processions. And by all means, feel free to leave as SOON as you can."
Shadow moved to the table where he found his shoes, gloves, and payment for completing what he had been asked to do. His golden bands were still wrapped around his sanguine striped limbs, no doubt in his mind that the doctor did not risk removing his chaos restrictors. He turned, harshly glaring at the portly genius to encourage him to leave, and after watching him do so, he finally started the painful task of redressing. Methodically, Shadow exited the base heading towards his home to a hopefully warm bed for better rest, far away from the prison like experience he had at Eggman's base of operations.
Amy woke up to light spilling over her face, shining in through her bedroom window. She stretched as she kicked down the satin white sheets that had been covering her legs and torso.
"Shadow…………."
She looked sadly across her bedroom to the spare chamber facing her own doorway. The bed was still made as it was the day she had set it up for him so long ago, and once more he had not come home to stay. It had been almost a month since she had seen the ebony male. Even before his staying at her home, she saw him regularly enough to wonder what could have possibly happened for him to simply vanish as he had. After getting out of bed, Amy looked to her reflection in the mirrored closet door. A look of anger shot over her face, and she felt as if she would cry.
"What is so wrong with me?! First Sonic, now Shadow! I will never be loved by anyone!" Amy stormed out of the room, to her little kitchen warmly lit by the morning sun. She angrily slammed the cabinet doors and roughly handled various items around the dining area. After finishing making her coffee and slamming it into the kitchen table so hard it spilled, she decided she had enough.
Amy stomped to the room she had set up for Shadow. It had grey hues with a modern style. The bed had black sheets, and there was even a bookshelf she had bought for him with a few books to read. Sitting on the bed was the torn white comforter Shadow had slept under the first night he stayed, stitched back together and nicely folded, placed upon the bed. Amy flopped herself next to it and pulled the comforter up to her chest, hugging it tightly to her as she cried into it. For many of the nights she had waited for him to return, cuddled under the blanket, her only memento to his time spent with her.
"Why did you leave Shadow?!" Amy sobbed out to the surrounding air. "I thought everything was fine! I thought you cared! And I actually started to-"
Amy heard something slam into her front door. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she ran to the entryway to see what could possibly be on the other side. She gasped when she saw what had hit her door.
Upon opening the barrier, Amy's eyes had met in a deadlock with Shadow's. The black male showed no signs of the trauma he had been inflicted with, aside from the damaged ear and patch of thin fur covering his scar. Amy stepped back in shock, letting the agitated hedgehog in. He had struggled his way back, finally improving enough on the way to be able to hide his state of health from any that saw him. He wearily walked into the domicile, simply wanting to rest, and when he saw fit, to fulfill his promise and replace the comforting blanket, but as Shadow painstakingly approached the couch, Amy stepped in front of him, obviously upset with her house guest.
"I am in no mood Rose."
Tears welled up in her eyes and her face flushed to match the heat of her anger. Amy's fists clenched so tight that her nails started to press into the skin of her palms and her whole body tensed up. Finally, as the words flew from her tongue, Amy's tears spilled down her face.
"YOU! You- JERK! You don't come back for a month, and then you waltz in here as if it were nothing!!"
Shadow's eyes went wide at hearing it had been a whole month since he had been knocked out from his attack. As Amy continued to yell at him, his mind wandered over what could have possibly happened to keep him unconscious for such an extended period of time.
"Just who do you think you are?! Are you always this selfish? Do you think you can just tell me one thing and do another?... Shadow?... SHADOW! Shadow, look at me you- you lying FAKER!"
Amy's hands slapped against her mouth after the words slipped off her lips. Shadow's eyes went threatening and bore into her, signaling his potential wrath. Amy looked sorrowfully back to him, and suddenly caught a brief glimpse of his tattered ear and patch of missing fur, as he continued to stare her down. He turned his body away towards the door while he continued his leer, finally snapping his head away only to be sure of his steps. Amy cried out to him as she watched him move to the door, completely livid over her choice of words so often used by his heroic cobalt rival.
"Shadow! Please, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said that! I didn't mean it!!"
As he neared the entrance, the pleading female received a still heated glare when she reached out to stop him.
"Then I suggest you do not say things you do not mean Amy Rose!"
His voice sent chills down her spine, the intensity of his anger directed at her causing her to stiffen up and stop her approach towards him. Amy had never seen Shadow angry at her. After recovering from the shock of his forcible suggestion, the distraught female quickly began her own verbal attack.
"FINE! Good! Go away! I hope wherever else you've been staying is better, because you'll regret it if you get sick from the rain and freeze!"
As Shadow continued to storm away, Amy slammed the door hard, causing a high pitched cracking sound to be heard sharply in his still damaged ear. A snarl grew on his face, and after sneering back at where he had exited from, an expression of anger was released with a dissatisfied, forced breath as he trudged away-
"Humph!"
Amy, after slamming the door, fell against the wooden surface crying, her back resting against it and sliding down until she sat upon the floor, sobbing to herself in miserable disappointment.
Shadow took refuge in a large dense tree shortly up the road from Amy's house. After finally adjusting his body to the least painful position he could manage, his anger died down into a deep regret. She was justifiably mad, even if she did handle it poorly, but Shadow was stubborn and not one to let anyone insult him. Sonic and Dr. Robotnik might get in their jabs, but he could always inflict some damage in retaliation, that and it was to be expected from them. Amy, however, had never been rude to Shadow. Even in anger she had always still been kind to him, and the shock of her actually insulting him the same way his annoying likeness did, struck him off guard. He held emotions for her whether he liked it or not, and to have her insult him when he needed compassion more than to be antagonized didn't ease his pain at all. His body ached, and now he felt some emptiness in his chest, almost like a ball of uncomfortable tightness, as he thought of her. He had no home once more, and now was frustrated that he let himself think he could ever find his own place in the world, or allow himself to lower his guard and get close enough to develop feelings for the thorny flower called Amy Rose.
