Sonic woke up in a sealed room alongside Silver, Blaze, Tails, and Knuckles. The five of them each had a wheeled hospital bed. The room was composed of smooth, featureless concrete. One long mirror ran across the wall opposite each of the beds. Their injuries had been tended to, and no one seemed seriously hurt.

Being the last one awake, Sonic felt resistance when he tried getting up. Thick leather straps bound his wrists on the handrails of his bed.

"What the?" The blue hedgehog tried pulling his arms up, but the restraints held firm. He saw Tails and Knuckles sitting on their respective beds next to him. They were seated on the ends turned toward each other. If they had been speaking, their conversation had long since concluded. "Guys! Little help?"

Tails's eyes widened. "Sonic? Why are you restrained?"

"Good question!"

Tails and Knuckles undid the restraints. Sonic rubbed his wrists while scanning the room.

"What is this?" A surge of fear hit him. "Where's Shadow?"

"No idea," Knuckles replied.

Silver and Blaze, having only woken up a minute or two before Sonic, walked over and joined the group. Sonic noticed everyone else was wearing their clothes from yesterday, while he was the only one in a medical gown. At the end of his bed were his shoes alongside black pants and a white collared shirt. A black tie was included instead of the kind of long cloak that Sonic usually wore. He'd been given the standard uniform of a meister of his rank. He tossed aside the black tie, took off the gown and got dressed.

"Are we in quarantine?" Silver asked.

"Could be. This room is blocking my soul perception. I can't see who's out there," Tails gestured toward the door.

"No, but I imagine they can see us," Blaze peered at the mirror and slowly paced along the reflective surface. "Whoever's out there watching, tell Lord Death we're all awake now,"

There was no spoken reply or feedback of any kind. However, Eggman did enter the room only a few minutes later, so the others felt confident in Blaze's assessment.

"You're all awake," Eggman didn't look pleasant. "I would like to thank you all for your efforts in defending the DWMA from a sudden invasion,"

"Why are we being held outside of standard medical procedure?" Tails asked.

"Bringing you here was just an extra precaution based on your close exposure to the kishin's chaos wavelength,"

"Where's Shadow?" Sonic demanded.

"He was given his own room,"

"Where?" Sonic moved to leave the room. Eggman held out his hand.

"You can't see him now,"

Sonic looked at Eggman with stifled hatred. "Why not?"

"You'll remain in this room until information regarding yesterday's emergency mission is made clear," Eggman spoke with subdued anger of his own.

Blaze stepped forward. "Then let's start with the kishin. Why does he resemble you?"

"Did he…" Eggman examined the faces of each person in front of him. "...say anything when you saw him?"

"Shadow's weapon form caught his attention. Aside from that he was focused on escaping," Blaze replied

"I see," Eggman cleared his throat. "As you all know, the Robotnik family has overseen the DWMA for generations. He looks like me because he's a member of my family. One that became corrupt. He was powerful and intelligent but he was also distrusting of those around him.

"He's not the only one," Blaze cut in. Eggman ignored her.

"You all know that demon weapons are the only beings that can consume souls to grow stronger. The kishin gained that ability through cybernetic modification. His strength grew, but so did his corruption. My family opted to keep him inactive and study him to prevent further kishin from being created, since we can't kill him,"

"Can he kill you?" Blaze asked.

"Not as he is now,"

"So it's only a matter of time until he can?" The princess followed up.

"The kishin is our top priority regardless. His madness is spreading through the world as we speak," Eggman waved a hand. "That's enough on this subject. All future plans regarding the kishin are on a need-to-know basis,"

"Are Starline and Vanilla okay?" Tails asked.

"Vanilla is uninjured. Starline is fine aside from a reaction to the chaos wavelength,"

The fox raised an eyebrow. "A reaction?"

"He's recovering. He'll be fine,"

"Did he beat Tikal?" Blaze asked.

"She escaped. The only enemy we've accounted for is the darkling, who we've taken into custody. I don't suppose any of you will report eliminating any witches?"

None of the meisters or weapons replied.

"You'll submit a full report soon. Can we conclude this debriefing?"

Sonic crossed his arms. "Can we talk about why I was tied up?"

"You were only restrained as a precaution while the medics looked you over. They were supposed to undo the restraints before bringing you here,"

"Why were we restrained while being treated? Is it because of the exposure to the chaos waves?" Tails asked.

"Only Sonic was restrained. There are concerns over Shadow's current condition. Sonic was at risk of being affected,"

"Affected by what?" Tails asked.

"We aren't certain just yet," Eggman stated.

"Is it because of the black blood in Shadow's system?" Silver asked.

"What?" Blaze turned to her weapon.

Eggman rubbed his brow and sighed. "We aren't certain of the extent the black blood has affected Shadow,"

"What do you know about black blood?" Sonic glanced between Silver and Eggman with suspicion.

"Black Arm weapons fittingly have black blood in their bodies," Eggman began. "It has special properties that make Black Arm weapons even more formidable while they continue growing more powerful from consuming souls. The darkling has an enhanced version of black blood in his system. Some form of black arms weaponry seems to have been melted down, then mixed into his blood when he was created. It serves as both an internal and external weapon for the meister. He was fed many innocent souls so a vial of his blood could be refined to revive the kishin,"

"I've seen Shadow get hurt," Sonic recalled with some reluctance. "His blood isn't black,"

"Shadow was unique in that his Black Arm DNA is secondary to his hedgehog biology," Eggman recalled," It made him a more powerful weapon, but without the, I suppose you could call them 'drawbacks," of the original Black Arm series weapons. That is, until being injured by the darkling's blood weapon in Kingdom Valley introduced black blood into his system. His body responded, and his condition changed,"

"He became dangerous and you did nothing," Blaze accused.

Eggman continued ignoring the princess. "The point is, that anyone who resonates with Shadow is at risk of having their own blood blackened. It's best he stay in isolation for now,"

"Wait, Starline said Shadow and I were fine working together. Shadow was even worried about it but we were sent on a mission anyway!" Sonic declared.

"Tikal had shown an interest in Shadow's condition after his injury in Kingdom Valley. She was slowly becoming a person of interest in the investigation regarding the darkling's creator. The only way to confirm she was a witch was to let you and Shadow continue despite the risk,"

"You were using us as bait?"

"Yes,"

"You've always been a bastard, Eggman," Sonic spat.

"Oh, shut up! It worked didn't it?" "Eggman exclaimed impatiently "We only had a fighting chance at stopping the kishin's revival because Tikal overplayed her hand. Starline caught her giving you unlicensed medicine. Medicine that would have helped Shadow corrupt you. If Starline hadn't furthered the investigation based on that evidence, the enemy would have had a complete victory over us yesterday,"

"We don't deserve to be lied to!" Sonic shouted.

"If I remember correctly, Starline said you were insistent on continuing with Shadow as your weapon despite his concerns. Your partnership with him was against my recommendation from the start. Besides, you were covered in black bloodstains when we found you in the crypt. We know you resonated with the darkling to defeat him. You willingly used the power of black blood,"

"As if I knew what was really going on!" Sonic sighed then composed himself. "Fine, I made my choice. But Shadow was always worried about what his power would do. You all lied to him! He's not a tool for you to abuse!"

"Yes he is,"

Sonic froze. "What?"

"Yes he is,"