Shadow went to the spare that Knuckles had taken and flopped onto the bed, his body heavy with frustration and tiredness. His back landed on the soft quilt and Shadow immediately felt more comfortable and a little more relaxed. He stared blankly at the ceiling and sighed.

"He's probably right…" his mind told him. "But…that dream felt so real…No…no I can't sleep…"

He let out a huge yawn but then shook his head. He lay there for several minutes, not saying anything.

"…No, Sonic's right. It was only a dream!" Shadow told himself, chuckling slightly at his own "stupity".

The hedgehog looked back at his arm. Once again, the wound was sealed and looked as if it were healing well. But the unknown reason as to why those things had cut him like that was plaguing Shadow's mind.

Why had they done it?
What was going to happen to him?
What were those things anyway?

Once again, Shadow shook his head.

"I'm thinking too much…" Shadow yawned.

He nuzzled his head in the pillow and allowed his eye lids to slowly close, unaware that he was doing so. He sighed, feeling more at ease now. A few minutes later he was sound asleep.

But then he wished he had listened to his instincts and stayed awake.

Shadow opened his eyes and found himself back in the desolate homeland of the aliens. The wind was blowing harder now and Shadow was forced to shield his eyes almost as soon as he opened them, to avoid being blinded by the sand and dirt.

Unlike in Shadow's first dream, the sky was black but no stars could be seen through the thick camouflaged smoke.

The hedgehog stood up, realising where he was.

"…not again…" he moaned.

Just then, just as before, the four aliens appeared. They circled Shadow and began walking toward him. As it was darker than before, Shadow didn't notice the aliens straight away so when the horrific pain suddenly returned to his arm he was given a surprise.

He yelled aloud and clutched his arm. He looked around wildly for the aliens but couldn't see any sign of them. Slowly, Shadow could make out the outline of the creature's bodies emerging from darkness. Their shrilling voices began echoing around Shadow's head.

"Welcome back…" said the first voice.

Shadow's body began to become weaker as the intense pain began to move around his body. He began to shake and eventually fell to his knees.

"There's no escaping this time…" said a second voice.

"I knew it!" Shadow winced.

"There's nobody to save you…just let yourself go…make the pain stop, hedgehog." aid a third voice.

The voices began to move faster and faster around Shadow's head and made him feel sick. He fell to his front, shaking a little more violently now. The pain was beginning to engulf Shadow's body and, as it was doing so, Shadow's vision became blurry and out of focus.

He let out a huge scream of pain. This time, there was nobody to save him from his nightmare. The pain was too much for Shadow to handle and, just then, everything went black.

…..

Sonic was still sat downstairs enjoying his dessert when he heard movement form upstairs. I had been about half an hour since Shadow had gone up there and Sonic had assumed he'd gone to sleep. He sighed, after ignoring it didn't work, and trudged upstairs.

Just as he reached the upstairs landing, a horrific scream came from one of the spare rooms. Sonic gasped.

"Shadow!" he thought suddenly.

He ran quickly to the room he'd heard it from and kicked open the door. He found Shadow on the bed, in a worser state than he'd been in before. In his sleep, Shadow was clutching his injured arm and shaking rather violently. He was also covered in cold sweat.

Sonic rushed to his side and tried to wake him up.

"Shadow! Can you hear me?" Sonic cried.

Suddenly Shadow stopped moving and his grip on his arm relaxed. He lay limp and motionless on the bed. Sonic blinked and began to panic.

"Shadow?" he cried, grabbing Shadow by the shoulders and shaking him.

Shadow didn't react.

….."At last, our poison has purified your mind!" said the first voice again.
"Open your eyes, hedgehog. You belong to us now!" said the fourth voice.

…..

Immediately, Shadow's eyelids opened and Sonic jumped back in fright. Shadow's pupils had turned a dark green colour. Sonic backed away as Shadow jumped from the bed, snarling. He grinned maliciously and began edging toward Sonic.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you Shadow!" Sonic cried.

He soon found himself backed against the wall and nowhere left to go.

"He was right all along…" Sonic thought. "They've turned him into a monster!"