Warning:

-OOC(?)

-Possible grammar/spelling errors

-Characters all have slight hairdos & wear clothes

-Your milage may very

"BLAH" = Talking or air quote

'BLAH' = Thinking

It's been a long time, I'm a little surprised that it's been 2 years since I last worked on this. I'm sorry I'm taking so long, a lot has happened(some I don't want to talk about) but I should get back to this now. I've taken long enough on this, better get back to work.

I also want to apologize for constantly switching words for uke & seme. I'm likely going to make things worse for this chapter because for now on I'm using omegaverse. We mostly know the terms, omega for uke, alpha for seme & beta is kind of just normal people. I likely won't use the term in this but for seke(both an omega & alpha) I'm using sigma.

I'm rambling so here we go.

One last bit, I'm running out of names for chapters. I'll likely come back & name them later. Another thing that won't happen for a long time, once this fanfic is over I'm coming back & fixing some mistakes I made such as thinking "kelp" was "kept" along with replacing my inability to stop using the and sign with the actual word.


Chapter 4

Shadow & Knuckles sighed as they(along with Rouge) got into Knuckles's kitchen, there was a lot to take in from the events from tonight. The fact that Sonic & Eggman might be older than they actually are/look, the fact Eggman used old wounds with some added in lies(that they still don't know about due to the Chaotics being to enraged), the fact no one knows where Sonic is were just the start of their struggles. Knuckles likely having old wounds opened up didn't help either as he had been muttering the whole way back & looked to be in deep though. Rouge looked worried as she got the guest room ready for Shadow. It was late & Rouge felt it'd be better if Shadow stayed the night especially since Shadow doesn't like staying at his place alone.

Shadow was more likely to wander around the streets than admit the place felt lifeless & that he didn't want to move. Rouge worried about him but hid it well though there were times were she'd try to talk him into talking about it. Shadow let his problems build up & stay locked inside, Rouge wanted to say she knew better but she couldn't tell how this would end. Long story short Knuckles & Rouge's house felt alive compared to his empty house.

"Still kind of hard to believe Sonic is around your age." Rouge commented as she got the room read since it wasn't used much.

"Hmm..." Was all Shadow responded with as he looked around the room, his eyes landed on a photo. It was of Knuckles in some kind of cowboy hat next to Sonic, who for some reason had black eyes instead of green ones.

"I guess Knuckles knew Sonic back then. Likely explains why he knows what happened, he got involved at some point." Rouge said, Shadow couldn't help but stare at the photo. If this really was Sonic then he could understand why they wondered why the current one was considered different. Besides the eye color this one had a slightly lighter shade of blue & wore clothes that Shadow doubted Sonic would wear, a generic polo shirt with shorts. Now that Shadow though about it this Sonic's quills/fur was messily cut short like he did it himself.

"I'm going to go see if I can talk Knuckles into going to bed, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask." Rouge says as she leaves the room, as she left though she said something quietly. Shadow almost didn't pick up on it but he managed to make out "Keep an eye on Knuckles if you wake up later..." as she left. The dark hedgehog had a bad feeling about this.

-Later in the night-

"Hungry for the kill... But this hungry isn't you... Voices disappear, when you're speaking in somber tunes..."

Shadow woke up after hearing that, he'd had a dream of one of his accouters with Sonic. He wasn't sure why he kept thinking about it but he kept dreaming of this recently. He hadn't though much about it at the time but now he was starting to think more on what was going on. At the time all he saw as he passed Sonic was the blue hedgehog surrounded by Flicky but now that he had more time to think he realized Sonic was singing to himself as he played a guitar. The Flicky must have become curious & came to listen to him sing. As mentioned the lyrics were the last thing he heard before something made him wake up. He wasn't sure what to think on what he remembered of the song but that could wait for later as he heard frustrated groaning from the living room.

Getting up to look he saw Knuckles in sitting in the living room with a mug of coffee & in nothing but slippers & slightly baggy PJ bottoms. Shadow just stared as Knuckles sat there holding the mug in his hands, it was a little odd to see him without his gloves on. Knuckles didn't seem to notice him, the sad hedgehog wanted to joke to himself that the hot head echidna was staring into the coffee but that's a lie. He could tell Knuckles was staring into space, he had a lot on his mind from the looks of it. Knuckles sighs & mutters something before looking at something on the coffee table. It's at this point Shadow realizes there's a photo album on the table next to some framed photos Knuckles likely kept hidden for some reason.

"I know you're there..." Knuckles says, finally looking up.

Shadow sighs & walks over while Knuckles turns on a small lamp so Shadow could see, the light from the moon was likely enough especially after being stuck in the dark for a while but the lamp was a bit more helpful. Shadow walks over after looking around, Rouge must still be in bed since it's just the two of them. He shrugs & sits on the couch, looking better at the photos he sees Knuckles & Sonic with some others in them. One photo shows him holding Sonic close while another shows Knuckles holding a magenta/pink hedgehog that looked kind of like Sonic, she's held the same way Knuckles holds Sonic close... As if they were dating...

"As much as I don't want to talk about it I guess I have a lot to explain... Probably for the best due to the current events with Sonic." Knuckles says, he sounds tired & a little lost. Shadow quietly nods, wanting to figure everything out, Knuckles sighed before going to get Shadow a cup of coffee along with refilling his own mug. Once that was done he showed Shadow some photos before explaining.

"So you know I was there with Sonic 50 years ago. The members of Underground explained as much as they could since I was isolated for a lot of this until I joined the rebellion.(1) Adding on to what the Chaotics said, 50 so years ago Eggman at the time Robotnik had made a robot version of himself. Not entirely sure why but he missed a lot, the robot did a better job at being evil than him... Well at some point the robot got mad, talked a bunch of aristocrats into paying for his plot to take over the world then pretty much started an invasion which kind of turned into a war when the rebel side finally took a stand against him. The invasion lead to Sonic's family being separated, his mom had a lot of influence or something & she left the kids with 3 different families to keep them safe."

Knuckles then showed Shadow a photo of the younger Sonic from the photo in the guest room. His quills looked to be fixed some from last time & he had glasses with thick lenses on along with a pink hair clip & green hair clip holding his bangs up. To the left of Sonic was a green hedgehog that looked like him, the guy looked like a punk or something with his spiky bangs, piercings, vest & tattered jeans. The guy had a fanny pack & was giving Sonic bunny ears as he posed for the photo along with holding some drum sticks. The magenta/pink colored hedgehog was there on the right, hugging Sonic & looked a younger in this too. She was in a pretty dress that looked kind of like something Maria would have had or dressed a doll in. Once again no green eyes which made Shadow wonder what that was about, at best he could shrug it off as contacts.

"The one on the very left is Manic while the one on the very right is Sonia. They're Sonic's siblings, he was a triplet. They all have differing personalities like Sonia lived a wealthy life & is fairly smart to the point of having photographic memory. Manic was kidnapped as an infant & grew up on the streets as a thief. He's street smart, might have some kind of vision powers & jokes more than Sonic does. I think Sonic got his traits from him or something at times." Knuckles explains before commenting how they all enjoy music.

"Their family was had this special thing were the bloodline of Sonic's mom owned these medallions that could turn into musical instruments that could double as weapons. Sonic had a guitar that shot lasers similar to his mom's I think bass or cello? Anyway he brother had a drumset that could cause earthquakes, at the moment my mind is fuzzy on what Sonia's keyboard did but I think it was more lasers..." Knuckles explained, moving his hands around as if to explain or something before drinking some coffee.

Shadow couldn't help but feel impressed that the person he called "Faker" had that much going on in the past. Despite their similarities of being speedy hedgehogs(as weird as that sounded) they were very different from each if it weren't already obvious. Shadow couldn't help but feel he should sit down with Sonic one of these days & talk about their pasts, while he wasn't to happy about the idea he felt a little more ready to talk to Sonic.

"It'd best to hold off on that, as interesting as that sounds it's not a good to ask Sonic." Knuckles explained, Shadow looked away in embarrassment due to realizing he said that out loud. Knuckles smirked a little before looking a little upset & looking threw the images in the photo album. "I've tried to ask Sonic before about his past, he admits he can't remember anything past leaving his dad's place in the Tornado. It's kind of more odd that he mentions his dad as the old man's never been in his life or at least as far as Sonic's family & I are aware. Aleena refuses to say anything about him, likely due to the war making them have to go into hiding leading to him never being found. I'm uh, getting off topic I think... Anyway if I did try to get him to remember or something would resurface memories he'd fall to the ground & shake uncontrollably. It would bring back some memories but it was a nightmare to see so we dropped the subject. The last thing that lead to him convulsing was remembering he had a past with music & guitars."

Shadow felt a little horrified to learn this, his ears folded against his head in distress at the image of trying to administer CPR to Sonic due to triggering a possible memory. The only good implication was that he had some memories back & that this likely was the Sonic from back then... The down side was that Sonic's health was at risk some how should he try to trigger any memories to come back. Whatever happened to Sonic in the past lead this to happen & it scared even Shadow.

"What is... What was your relations with the old Sonic?" Shadow asked, wanting to change the subject & get the image out of his head.

"...We use to date for a bit... We met while they were on Angel Island for something, Robotnik tricked me. DON'T laugh... I... I had a pet back then that ended up eating a hologram Robotnik's lackeys used to trick me... If it wasn't for the hologram projecting threw his mouth & nose Underground wouldn't have realized they were being framed... Robotnik attacked my home, I ended up joining the rebellion & letting survivors camp out on the island. Like I said I use to date Sonic, we were together for a while... There was an accident during a mission I was in... Sonic broke up with me, though we were still friends I felt upset... He was supportive, always trying to push you to try your best, could brighten your day if you let him in... He didn't smile as much after that, I started to realize he blamed himself & was afraid to lose me... I think he was hoping I'd go home to safety & the refuge camp but I stayed... The thing about Sonic is that he's suffered a lot & this leads him to blame himself... I eventually got with Sonia & we were together up until I was put in stasis..."

Knuckles sighed before drinking something that was obviously not coffee.

"Sonic isn't going to like me mentioning this but he lost his adopted family at some point before joining the rebellion. They lived near a river that was close to the side of the island that one of Robotnik's bases were on... There were a bunch of raids, most of the time to take people that stepped foot on that side of the island... One night Sonic lost his adopted parents to Robotnik, they had him make a run for it & never look back... He turned around after getting to a safe area... He saw them burn his house down & drag his parents away to be turned into robots..." Knuckles explained, rubbing his forehead & drinking again. "Robotnik had a ray he used to turn people into his robot minions... Sonic believed it was his fault because he crossed the river to go frog hunting... He later was found by his biological uncle, who raised him after that. He helped him practice guitar, is the reason he likes chili-dogs & trained him to fight in the rebellion... He too eventually was captured by Robotnik though he was one of the lucky ones as he survived & was eventually turned back into a hedgehog. The adopted parents weren't so lucky..."

Shadow sits there, his coffee forgotten... He can't imagine this, he CAN'T imagine the fact that his Sonic was suffering. Sonic the stupid, lovable, always smiling, friend to all living things, HERO blaming himself because of suffering in a war that he was born into. Sonic didn't deserve to have to be forced to remember this, he didn't need to be reminded that everyone he loved from back then was GONE.

"...I... I think he still remembers his parents... Despite not remembering I know Sonic remembers enough that it's lead to him still being scared of robots with Omega kind of being an exception. Tails is aware he's scared so the fact they were crawling all over the place was pretty much a way to hurt Sonic..." Knuckles mutters, shivering at the though.

Shadow squeezed his hands against the couch in anger, Eggman wasn't getting away with this... No one would... Shadow stood up, left to go get dressed & left before Knuckles could stop him. He wasn't resting until his(2) Sonic was found & gotten help. As he slammed the door closed, a light turned on from Knuckles & Rouge's room. Knuckles could only face palm & groan, realizing he shouldn't have said all of that.

"Rouge is going to kill me..."


1) I'm not sure if it was already apparent(likely is & I'm an idiot) but this is kind of an edited version of Sonic Underground being put in. I kind of hope this makes sense, likely not & there might be plot holes...

2) Shadow are you unconscious thinking this?