"SO WHERE DID you first see them?" Tails asked, typing on his computer. When Sonic didn't answer, the kitsune looked at him confused. He was greeted with a red face and a confused looking Shadow.

"W-well… um… I was sitting on Emerald Peak… and I um," Sonic covered his face and took a deep breath. Why was he so hot all of a sudden?

"Why are you having so much trouble explaining hedgehog?" Sonic only seemed to get redder at his voice, making the biohog even more confused. This is was pretty unusual behavior. Shadow continued examining the blue hedgehog.

Sonic could feel the eyes of his rival examining him, which only made him more embarrassed. It was enough with one Shadow, but what happened during captivity was something that he always thought about.

'I really don't want to tell him this… it's not something that he needs to know... But he does need to know so he can help us with this problem.' intruded a voice in his head. He had forgotten that they can speak through Chaos Energy without actually using their mouths to speak.

'How about you just tell him so we can get this over with? The quicker the better hedgehog,' Shadow crossed his arms and turned away, getting more impatient by the minute. He had other things to do, so this needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.

"I… I was sitting on Emerald Peak… and then I saw Shadow or Clone Shadow come out of the bushes," he started, his face still redder than Knuckles fur. Shadow looked at him attentively, his interest piqued. It wasn't every day you get to see the renowned hero reduced to a blushing mess.

"Then… um… The clone pinned me against the tree and… um...," Sonic rubbed his neck and chuckled nervously, looking away from Shadow's shocked gaze. "And then the other ones also came out of the bushes and… tried to.. um…,"

"You don't need to continue that," Tails interrupted, his cheeks a little red. Shadow doing that to Sonic? The kitsune smacked his cheeks and went back to work; he was looking to solve the problem, not have these weird thoughts. Maybe he was hanging out with Amy and Rouge too much.

"You guys can leave now if you want. It might take a while for the tracker to find any abnormal energy sources or anything that shouldn't be there." He had been listening, even though he already got the information that he needed. Shadow stared at Sonic, his face also red. "We'll be back fox," Shadow announced, walking out while dragging Sonic with him.

SHADOW PUSHED SONIC AGAINST the wall and closed the door to the lab. He turned to Sonic with a fiery glare, his cheeks still red. He was a little annoyed that the faker hadn't told him that since it did have to do with him. Once he was sure they were alone outside, he looked at the blue hero.

"Faker-"

"Shadow I didn't want to tell you because it was embarrassing," Shadow's glare softened drastically at this revelation. The biohog sat down next to him with his legs crossed. He folded his hands in his lap and looked at Sonic, waiting for an explanation.

Sonic looked in Shadow's eyes, trying to find any hint of mocking, but he only found confusion and curiosity. The blue blur sighed and crossed his arms, sitting down as well. "During the war… when I was captive for those few months," he started, his leg starting to bounce up and down.

"Eggman told the clones to… make sure I didn't escape, and apparently they didn't want to hurt me. Too much anyways. So… since they didn't want to hurt me, they decided to use a different method," Sonic's leg stopped bouncing and he looked away, his body heating up. Shadow could feel something was happening with the Hero's energy, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"My Chaos Energy is mostly dark, at least that's what Tails told me, and your energy is mostly light," the black-furred ears perked up. How had he known? "They had some of your Chaos Energy in their system, and when Infinite made the clones, they used that to make them. They used that to make sure I stayed put when they were on guard."

"How?" Shadow's voice interfered.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"How did they control you?"

"Well…," Sonic crossed his arm and his leg started bouncing up and down once more. "They would send... these shocks of energy through me… and it wouldn't leave me paralyzed, but it…" the blue blur paused, looking down at the grass.

"It… it felt… really good…" Shadow tensed, his quills bristling a little at the confession. "Since I loved it so much I didn't even try to escape, just because I wanted it to happen again," emerald eyes shone with an emotion he couldn't recognize. Excitement, perhaps?

His ears picked up a beating sound, like something soft hitting against a hard surface repeatedly. 'What is that noise?' Sonic seemed to notice it as well since he also started looking around.

"Shadow, your tail is wagging."

The black hedgehog looked at his tail and looked back at Sonic with a confused expression. "You don't know what that means?" when rival shook his head no, Sonic rolled his eyes and stood up. "We'll talk about it later, but let's go back and check on Tails." Shadow copied him and stood up as well, going to open the door.

"Sonic, Shadow!" both hedgehogs turned around at the mention of their name. Knuckles ran up to them and paused, taking deep breaths before he stood up, looking at both of them with the most serious look they have ever seen on his face.

"There is something wrong with the Master Emerald!" he exclaimed, barging past them and going towards the kitsune, who was currently running back and forth between machines, talking to himself frantically.

"Tails!" the echidna shouted. "I'm already on it Knuckles! Can't you see I'm busy here?" he yelled back, not breaking his pace in any way.

"How did you guys not notice it? You're both Chaos users right?" Knuckles demanded, turning towards the two rivals.

"We were talking," Sonic answered quickly, looking away just at the same time as Shadow. Ignoring their red faces, Knuckles went to explain what was going on.

"The Master Emerald isn't being itself. It's just spiking up and down, and I don't know why!" he explained, still panicking about the safety of his emerald. Sonic was suddenly holding his chest, gasping in pain.

Everyone turned to look at him, Shadow grabbing him by his shoulders and standing the blue blur upright. "S-Shadow… I…" a gloved hand reached out to touch the other's chest, and a bright light filled the room.

What was left when the light died down wasn't what anyone had been expecting.