Eclipse had been very small himself when he met the little one. It happened a long time ago, when Tikal brought him into a large room with one cage inside. The door of the cage opened, and a strange creature came out.

The creature was a wisp. It was unlike anything Eclipse had seen. It resembled a soft, squishy cube with one eye on several of its faces.

He was wary of the wisp at first, only observing it from a safe distance initially. The wisp on the other hand wasn't nearly as skeptical. Using it's tiny limbs, it scurried around the floor in a carefree manner. When it noticed Eclipse, it moved closer then peered up at him with interest. Eclipse smiled and considered reaching out.

"Kill it," Tikal ordered.

"What?" Eclipse's voice was soft and weak. His expression was filled with fear.

"Kill it,"

Eclipse looked down at the little wisp. It was bouncing along the floor happily.

"I can't,"

Eclipse crashed into the ground after he was thrown into a dark room by Tikal.

"You can spend some time in there, then,"

The door closed, and darkness came. Eclipse hated the dark. If he stayed long enough, the monster inside of him would come out. This time was no exception. He felt his blood stir within his body and manifest in the air around him. Whatever it was that lived inside him, it never spoke. Eclipse only knew one thing about the being inside of him.

It wanted to hurt him.

And hurt him it did. It always clawed at his body. Not violently or with any urgency, just enough to wear away at him. This would go on until the door opened again. It would not be opening soon.

Light entered the room. Eclipse awoke to find that his blood was back in his body. He stepped into the hallway where Tikal was glaring down at him coldly.

"It's time to try again,"

Tikal began to walk away, but stopped when Eclipse spoke.

"But I can't,"

Silence hung in the hall. A magical tendril whipped his body and knocked him back into the dark room. The door closed immediately. The monster that lived inside him came out soon after and clawed at him some more. All Eclipse did was cry.

The door opened after what felt like an eternity. Tikal watched the darkling exit the room with a twisted smile on his face. Black blood ran from cuts on his head and dribbled down his face.

"Did you know? My blood is black,"

The darkling found the wisp. The little one approached him for the last time. The darkling watched the little one move toward him without concern. Black blood slithered out of his body and into his hand. The darkling lifted a weapon made of blood, and brought it back down.

Shadow felt his mind return to the murky, mushy, brain-room he'd been trapped in. He had barely recovered from seeing some kind of vision about the darkling when he heard Sonic's voice.

"Shadow, pull me back!"

Shadow felt his connection to Sonic strengthen. The black sludge in the room of his mind began to shrink back. Shadow forcefully wrestled his body around to dislodge himself from the wall of blackness he was encased in. He freed one arm, then two. He placed both hands against the sludge and pushed as hard as he could.

"No you don't!"

Mephiles was back. The demon only barely looked like Shadow now. He more closely resembled the muck he had just emerged from. He grabbed onto Shadow to pull him back into the wall.

Shadow bit Mephiles where he thought his neck might be. He jammed his claws into the gelatinous demon and tore away at his form until there was nothing left that distinguished it from the rest of the ooze. Then, Shadow fell out of the wall onto the floor.

It was much more solid than the wall he freed himself from, but it still splashed when he made contact. He got on all fours and examined his surroundings. He noticed his jacket was gone; he was wearing just his shirt and pants. His gloves and shoes were gone, but that was the least of his worries. Shadow touched his face and arms as if to remind himself of who he was. A sigh of relief came when he realized he was in one piece.

Sonic's mind was still linked to him, and seemed to be coming from below. Shadow examined the floor. It looked as if it were made of blackened water. A distant figure was just barely visible. He knew it was Sonic. Shadow pressed his hands into the ground. There was significant resistance, but he got his hands through. Once he grabbed onto Sonic, he pulled with everything he had. Soon enough, Sonic was back in the room with him. The blue hedgehog coughed as his mind returned.

"What was that vision from before? A memory?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah," Sonic took a few more breaths. "We're resonating with Eclipse now. Our minds our linked closely thanks to the chaos,"

"Alright. Now what?"

"I thought we could try helping him,"

Shadow's brow scrunched. "Help him?"

"Or talk to him, at least. You saw that memory too. Tikal created him and forced him to act like a monster. He didn't choose this; he deserves another chance," Sonic held out his bare hand. "I bridged a gap to his mind. I'll maintain the resonance while you go talk to him,"

Shadow looked off into the blackness of the water below. Everything was quiet. Only his distorted reflection could be seen in the dark waters now. "Can someone like me really help him?"

"Of course you can, Shadow. You help me out all the time," Sonic smiled. "Besides, I think you'll be able to understand how he feels better than I can,"

Shadow recalled how alone he'd felt when he first woke up with amnesia. Meeting Sonic had changed the course of his life so much. If things had gone differently, maybe he would have ended up just like Eclipse. Shadow clasped Sonic's hand tightly, interlocking fingers with his meister.

Warmth was the first thing Shadow felt thanks to an arid atmosphere. He opened his eyes to see that he was standing in the middle of a sandy wasteland. His jacket, gloves and shoes were back; he looked and felt very much like his usual self.

"Now where's Eclipse?"

Shadow noticed an obvious structure in the distance standing out amongst the sand.

"Right,"

It was a harsh metal building of some sort. Shadow thought it might be a factory or storage facility, but entering the place told a different story. It was almost completely abandoned. A quiet tapping came from the metal floor while the black hedgehog explored the darkened metal hallways lined with observation windows. Each window revealed similar rooms that contained some combination of operating tables, syringes, scalpels, bottles and similar objects.

Some rooms had ominous machines looming over the tables while others were empty or in disarray. One room had blurry, monochrome images, taken from an x-ray machine, scattered onto its wall. It was difficult to make out who the recipients of the x-rays might have been, as the bones featured in each image were distorted and unnatural looking.

This place seemed like an old hospital until Shadow noticed a room filled with cages. There was a corner lined with white tiles with a drain at the center beneath a rusted faucet. Dried, blackened blood stains stood out against the tile. The harsh equipment present in previous rooms stood out more to him suddenly.

"A laboratory?"

After ascending a rickety old staircase to enter the second floor, Shadow heard crying off in the distance. He walked down the hall until he reached a room with just one cage. It was small, and the top was torn off. A boy sat inside the cluster of twisted metal bars.

"Eclipse?"

The darkling eyed Shadow's approach with some curiosity. "No one asked me my name except for him. Now you know it too,"

Shadow realized Eclipse was referring to Sonic. He couldn't think of anything to say, he was too fixated on how strange this boy was.

"Are you here to kill me?" Eclipse didn't seem particularly bothered by the possibility.

"No,"

"You're a brother. You're supposed to,"

Shadow still couldn't think of a reply. He tried to understand Eclipse's way of thinking so he could come up with a response. He knew Eclipse called him brother because they were both Black Arm weapons but didn't know much else. Starting there seemed like the best place.

"Why do you think brothers have to kill each other?" Eclipse gave only an inquisitive expression. Shadow continued. "You know brothers are usually family, right?"

"Family?"

"You don't know what family is?"

Eclipse shook his head and stared at the floor. Shadow sighed. Being an amnesiac didn't give him any expertise on the subject either.

"Usually it's when people are born together,"

"I wasn't born. I was created. For killing,"

"Well, that's not the only thing that makes a family. My meister Sonic has a brother and they weren't born together. They became brothers through a powerful bond they made themselves,"

"They did?"

Shadow nodded. "We're both Black Arm weapons. The last two in existence. I guess that does kind of make us brothers in some way,"

"Brothers..."

Eclipse pondered the idea with great effort. Shadow cautiously spoke again.

"Is that what you want?"

"What I want?"

Eclipse groaned, then clutched his head. Shadow took a half step forward, trying to think of a way to help. He then felt the strange world around him fading. His mind snapped back to his body. He was back in the crypt where he and Sonic had been fighting Eclipse. He wasn't in his weapon form anymore. Sonic was lying next to him, also waking up. A noise drew both their attentions away from each other.

Eclipse yelled in pain. His chest was swelling and contorting. His resonance was failing alongside his blood's loyalty. Black spikes began bursting from his body, pushing him off the ground.

"I guess he's done for…" Sonic looked on with concern. When he saw Shadow stepping forward, he spoke again. "Shadow?"

The black blood randomly shot spikes out. They grazed him, mostly slicing his clothes. Small cuts were being left behind as well, but Shadow kept going until he was next to Eclipse. He wrapped his arms around the darkling and the spikes halted.

"You didn't deserve to be treated like a monster,"

Eclipse said nothing and sat motionless. His black blood had stopped moving as well. Eventually, it returned to his body and he relaxed. The black hedgehog pulled away from him then.

"I don't know much about family, but I think brothers are supposed to look out for each other," Shadow held out his hand. "We are brothers, aren't we?"

Eclipse looked as if Shadow were speaking a completely different language. Once the realization sunk in, he nodded and shook his brother's hand. After that, he began to cry. It had been a long time coming, so the tears flowed freely for some time. They were accompanied by heavy sobbing. Eclipse rubbed at his dripping eyes frantically, and spoke when he regained a small amount of composure.

"Stop crying, please," He instructed himself.

"It's okay Eclipse," Shadow said.

Sonic approached after Eclipse had calmed down. Eclipse reacted to his presence by looking up with perplexion.

"Sorry about all the fighting earlier. Would it be okay if we were friends instead?"

Eclipse nodded, though he was surprised. He shook Sonic's hand and stood up. After a brief period of strange yet tranquil silence, Sonic glanced at the large room's more narrow exit.

"We need to check on the others,"

"We can't just leave Eclipse, can we?" Shadow tried hushing his voice unsuccessfully.

"I'll be okay,"

Sonic and Shadow turned to look at Eclipse with surprise. His expression was calm until the reaction of the two hedgehogs made him feel confused as well.

"We'll come find you when this is over," Shadow said.

Eclipse nodded. Shadow looked to Sonic, who did the same. Shadow shifted back into a scythe, and Sonic picked him up. With a wave, the two were off. After Sonic ran for a short time, Shadow focused on their current task.

"Sonic, how bad are your wounds?"

The meister held his scythe in one hand while running, checking himself with the other. He noticed the black stains on his gloves.

"Well, I was bleeding black blood during the fight, but the wounds never stayed open long. The black blood was protecting me kind of like Eclipse's blood protects him, but it wasn't exactly the same. He has a whole weapon inside of him that he can control. For me, it was like I got stronger and more durable for a little while. Even now, all of my cuts are scabbed over. They don't even hurt,"

"I really corrupted you didn't I?" Shadow's voice carried worry and disappointment. "I shouldn't have let this happen,"

"Honestly, I feel fine. After the fight we just went through, I should be a lot worse off. Hell, if I hadn't used that power to begin with, I'd be dead. If this is what it's like being corrupted, I'm not worried.

Shadow was satisfied with that for now. Sonic picked up a bit more speed, and the two continued further into the crypt.