The Greatest Betrayal
By Breech Loader
Breech: This isn't much of a chapter but I was kind of stuck for it. I just want the story to move on.
Chapter Eleven: Betrayal of Intelligence
Shadow's body-clock was generally pretty accurate, and he was sure he had knelt there for almost eighteen hours while the Egg Pawn had flogged him robotically and continuously, until Doctor Robotnik had come back from his business. He must trust that the Doctor would come back and end the punishment. And he had. He was the only person who had come back.
His back was now covered in cuts. It burned from the electricity that had bitten into him. But he was the Ultimate Lifeform. He would heal. He always had before.
Afterwards, the good Doctor had at length and meticulously explained that this necessary punishment was as much Sonic's fault as it was Shadow's – after all, none of this would ever have happened if Sonic had not allowed Shadow to fall, then abandoned him to suffer and die.
But now, Shadow stood musing outside the house of his next target. He had to do this right. He had to maximise the amount of fear. After all, according to the Doctor's spies, Amy had revealed that he was her attacker. It would be tough to prove her wrong.
But it would be easy to prove her insane.
Let's see how she likes having her head feel like a tangled mess.
He stepped forward to the house with his envelope, and pushed it through the letterbox. Then he knocked quickly, and pulled back.
Finally, he dialled the number.
Sonic could hardly believe it. Shadow. Shadow had done this? Like Amy, in a way he couldn't help but question that it was the real Shadow. In another way, he wanted to find Shadow and snap his damn neck, right now.
It utterly enraged him beyond belief that the other hedgehog had the gall to call at the hospital with Amy comatose, right there in that bed, and say all of that in front of him. The police couldn't 100% confirm it until they had Shadow's own DNA to check what they'd found in Amy but… they hardly needed to.
The trouble was that he hadn't seen the hedgehog since then. Shadow moved around a lot. When he didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be. Sonic had never bothered to look for him before. He just turned up at the slightest scent of trouble and started busting heads.
Admittedly, when trouble turned up with regards to Eggman, it wasn't really the 'slightest scent'.
Just as he was thinking this, Sonic's phone rang.
Hands shaking again, he answered the phone, trying to keep his voice steady, "Who… is this?"
"Good evening, Shit Streak…"
Sonic growled at the Voice. The police had told him that he had to pretend he didn't know that this was Shadow, or the dark hedgehog would go into hiding and be impossible to track down. It was more than just hard, "You…"
"So… noticed any missing princesses lately, Sonic?" the Voice mocked him.
"So… it was you…" he ground his teeth. He pressed the button that Tails had given him, tracking the call.
"You're the one to blame, you know… Rushed over to Tails' place when I left the clues right there with the lovely princess… Also, you dropped me…"
"And if you had hurt Tails?" Sonic remembered his panic when he had raced at full speed to Tails' lab, slammed in through the door… He'd never been so scared in all of his life. But Tails had been in bed, and he'd been so shocked to see Sonic. Sonic remembered the panic at checking him all over; he'd insisted on staying the night.
"Well, I wouldn't have. That's not part of the plan…"
Sonic couldn't hold the question in any longer, "Why are you doing this?!"
"You… let… me… FALL! You… left… me… to DIE!"
Shadow was completely insane. Sure, he'd always been more than a little off, but this? Sonic hadn't let him fall… Hell, Shadow had been the one to let go, and Sonic owed him his life. And apart from anything else, why hadn't he pulled off this shit sooner? It was taking everything Sonic had to keep from giving away that he knew who this was, "When Amy wakes up," he spoke slowly and calmly, trying not to reveal that Amy was already awake, "We're going to know who you are."
"Well, maybe I'll drop by… heh… and finish the job…"
"You can try, you psycho. She's surrounded by her friends," Sonic was having to keep her waking up a secret from almost everybody. It was a nightmare, considering how many friends she had. She'd been moved into a 'quarantined' room. Also to make sure she'd be safe from any visits from Shadow, "And she knows who you are."
"Does she?" there was a dark chuckle, "Does she really?"
Shadow hung up, leaving Sonic enraged and scared. The hedgehog sat down, emotionally exhausted. Why was Shadow doing this? What could he possibly have to gain from turning on them this way? He had nothing against Cream, or Amy, or Blaze. They were being singled out purely for their connections to Sonic.
His phone rang again, and he answered it sharply, "What do you WANT, you FUCKER?!" he screamed.
"Sonic!" it was Silver's voice. Sonic relaxed, then tensed, "Oh god, Sonic! I just found an envelope in my door and… Oh god, you've got to… to…" the young white hedgehog burst right into tears on the phone.
Sonic started running.
Silver's house was usually incredibly tidy. Sonic reckoned it was easy to be tidy when you could clear out dust with a twitch of your fingers. But today he had been more inclined to hurl things around it. A window had been smashed and several plates, in his sudden impulsive flare of rage. But now he was just sobbing. But he was alive. Oh thank god but he was alive. He showed Sonic the photograph of Blaze. Taken from behind, it showed her bloody, whipped back, with her clothes in tatters. And her lower half bare and smeared in cum.
"Shit…" Sonic murmured. Then Silver held out something else – the cut ruby ring that held up Blaze's hair.
"He's got her… and he's not giving her back…" Silver wept, "But she's alive; I just know she is!"
"I hope to Chaos you're right, Silver," Sonic looked at the photograph again. It was appalling. He couldn't find it in him to say it was as bad as what had been done to Amy… but it was sick all the same; Shadow barely even knew Blaze and simply to get at Sonic he had done… this...
"We… do we go to the cops?" Silver started to stand up.
"No, they're no fucking use," Sonic spat, "It's time you met the Chaotix."
About halfway to their headquarters, Sonic was wondering if this was such a good idea. If there was one thing you could really rely on about Team Chaotix, it was that they were a collection of nutjobs who probably had to share the same brain cell.
But sure as hell they were dedicated. And their luck was unrivalled. And he could trust them. If nothing else, he could trust that they wouldn't slavishly let the rules get in their way. And he knew that they would actually grasp how important this was. Plus, of course, they got so little work that nothing else was going to get in their way, as opposed to the cops.
He told them everything he knew. And to hell with the cops. He told them about Shadow too.
"Shadow? That's hard to believe," Vector mused. Of course, Vector's musings were pretty much the same volume as when he was shouting; the crocodile appeared to have no actual 'indoor' voice.
"Believe it," Sonic spoke harshly, "That's what Amy told me. The cops are waiting for DNA evidence, of course," he spat, "And they'll wait a long time; nobody finds Shadow when he doesn't want to be found."
"And you want us to find Shadow?" Espio asked.
"I want to know just what the hell is going on, before I snap his neck," Sonic answered.
"Listen," Espio was looking at the notes he'd made, "Whatever else he's doing, Shadow does seem to have a Modus Operandi. First he killed Cream. He laid her out at Amy's doorstep. Then he… attacked… Amy. He dropped her off at Blaze's mansion. Now he presents us with evidence that he's the one who kidnapped Blaze. At Silver's house…"
Silver swallowed, "You think… he's coming for me next?" he asked.
Vector slammed a heavy hand on Silver's back, "You sure chose a bad time to travel to the past, kid," he grunted.
"But now we know that, we'll be ready for him," Espio tried to calm Silver, who looked sick, "All of us. So you don't need to be scared."
"I'm not scared, I'm…" Silver paused, trying to name the emotion, "Look, I thought Shadow was better than this, is all."
"Are you calling Amy a liar?" Sonic asked, angry.
"No! I'm just saying that… I thought Shadow was better than this! It's tough to grasp," Silver grunted and his face fell into his hands, "Don't get me wrong, this is so evil… I just don't want to be tricked like I was last time… I want to know the full truth."
They all paused at that thought. Finally, Sonic nodded, "I want to know the full truth too. Amy told me it was Shadow but… she wasn't really in a condition to go into detail. She probably won't be for a while…" he hung his head.
"Sonic. We're going to catch Shadow," Espio told him, "What he's doing is terrible. The problem is that he was hatched at full physical maturity, but he's only got about five years of life experience. There's a damn good reason it takes most of us fifteen years to hit puberty. He doesn't think like you, or Charmee, or even a crazy bastard like Doctor Robotnik..."
"You're trying to excuse what he's done?!" Sonic asked, disgusted.
"No, of course not!" Vector spoke up, "We're just saying that snapping his neck the next time you see him probably isn't the best thing to do! We're gonna work this out! And now we know who he's going to strike at next…" they looked at Silver.
"YAY! Silver's helping!" Charmee squealed. The white hedgehog's face fell, and he was turning even paler than usual.
"And since we know," Vector added quickly, "You don't have to be afraid!"
Silver didn't look convinced.
Breech: Well, guess who's up next?! Short chapter, I know. But it's tough to write long, prolonged chapters that don't have savage rape in them. Next chapter's better.
