Truthfully, Shadow still felt the panic gripping at his chest when images of Sonic in his near-death state sprung to life. How he had frozen up in that critical moment, he let his fears run wild at the worst time and they almost lost the blue blur because of that.

His gaze followed them to the living room, it wasn't that far, it's right in the place where the events truly first unraveled at. The ebony hedgehog inwardly winced at his stupidity at that moment, he still didn't believe that he let his guard down and this is what happened.

Shadow didn't wish to dwell on that, pushing the recent memories back he tuned in on the necessary conversation that's now taking place. He knows that after Tails has been thoroughly chewed out, he's next in line on the echidna's list.

"You wanna see what your intelligence led to? Take a look around you, there are consequences to every action and misdeed you make, Tails, and this is one of them!" Knuckles said, his voice growing louder and harsher with every word shortening with anger. "You knew that Amy wasn't quite right with her obsessive behavior! Getting her proper help should've been what you did Tails, not poke the flames to make the fire bigger!" The echidna grit out. He released the kitsune from his grasp, staring at the teen with nothing but disappointment and seething rage. Tails flinched under that heavy stare, each word he said had felt like he had been slapped across the face.

"I thought I was helping...I thought I was making Sonic the mature hero he should be-"

"If you so much as say one more toxic word I'll pummel the hell out of you." Knuckles hissed, obviously pissed off and greatly displeased at the fact that Tails is still not getting it through his thick skull. The teen instantly shut himself up, mouth pressed into thin lines to keep himself from saying anything else that may definitely make things even worse. "You, Amy, and every single one of those people out there seem to forget that Sonic isn't this toy you can mess with until he fits your deluded version of this perfect hero. He's a real fucking person, with real fucking feelings. He deserves to be treated with the same love we all get, he doesn't deserve to be mentally abused until the point of where he feels like he's obligated to live under these expectations you made for him."

Tails kept his mouth shut, but he trembled under Knuckles' pure ire. There wasn't much else he could do, he could apologize but it wasn't Knuckles he needed to apologize to.

"Your 'intelligence' almost got him killed, you know. You have any smart words to say in light of that? Or do I need to beat it into you?" Knuckles said threateningly, Tails shook his head multiple times, knowing that Knuckles can and will knock literal sense into anybody's head. After that intense silence followed, Tails took this time to think. To see. To finally look past his ego and see the chaotic mess this room is. Every detail he saw had dread bleeding into his heart.

The obvious object belonging to the culprit of this disarray, Amy's broken pink hammer snapped into splinters. Tails almost gags when he sees dried blood staining the thick hammer, the reality is dawning on him more and more. For a brief moment, everything is stained red and the two-tailed kitsune sees Sonic lying deathly still on the ground with deathly pale skin and a haunting look in his eyes. Tails blinks once, twice, then more but the image is burned into his sight.

"Am-Amy did this..." He chokes out while shaking like a leaf through a brutal storm.

"Yes."

"I... I did this..."

"Yeah. Yeah, you did this too, even if you weren't here, you still played a role in here." Knuckles offered no sympathy to the teen, being harsh with him was the only way he can get through the cocky brat.

"He looks okay, it's like nothing's happened." Tails said, nervously licking his lips, afraid to see what other mistakes his actions had resulted in other than severely hurting not only his hero but his older brother and their friends. Afraid to see Sonic lifeless like that again and knowing that he could be dead because he thought he could control him.

"You're a fool if you really believe he's okay just because he looks okay. If somebody you know went through a rough time but looked alright enough to you, does that mean they actually are okay or are they just faking it?"

'I'm one of the greatest fools of us all for not noticing, Sonic, I can never apologize enough for not helping you in the beginning.' A ghostly memory of Knuckles, Tails, and Sonic laughing, grinning, and cracking jokes with each other while they were teens came to Knuckles' mind, Knuckles can remember how Sonic's grin faded into a frown while his emerald eyes held a distant sorrow in them. 'I was the first to see and I did nothing. Chaos, I'm so sorry.'

. . .

Shorter chapters, but that means I'll update much more faster and efficiently than before. I'll be retouching up previous chapters, fixing typos and taking out my super long a/ns.

I honestly feel that I this story has helped me immensely figure out myself. I'm not quite there yet though, not by a long shot. But the progress I've made in helping myself mentally is huge, so I'm very proud about that. And I have all of you readers to thank for that. This has been a journey for me that I wasn't aware of where I was being led to at first, a little side project that got way more attention than I thought I was going to get. You guys have helped me so much, you've helped more than you think. Thank you, I appreciate and love all of you guys so freaking much. I don't think I'd get this far in opening myself up and loving me for me if I didn't have you readers to help.

I'm eternally grateful for you all getting me this far. You're all valid and I wish you nothing but the best.