"I can tell you're going easy on me," Tails said.

Sonic's mind snapped back to reality. He had been spacing out in the middle of combat training with Tails. The two brothers were at the DWMA training facility wearing light padding on their bodies to keep them from hurting each other.

"Sorry,"

They continued exchanging hits and blocks. Sonic decided to take advantage of his size, overwhelming Tails with a series of hits while out of reach of a counterattack. Tails faltered in no time and had his legs swept out from underneath him by a kick. The fox flopped onto the ground.

"Maybe easy mode wasn't so bad,"

Sonic laughed before helping his brother up. "Let's call it, for now,"

While the brother's were removing their practice gear, Starline approached them.

"How's combat training going for you, Miles?"

"Its, uh, going,"

"Maybe this will suit you better," Starline tossed Tails a metallic cube. It was plain and unassuming with only a few ridges in its structure. "It's the soul frequency bot we talked about the other day. With the finishing touches done, it can now emulate different soul frequencies for you to try matching. Training with this will help you adjust your wavelength and use soul force on a wider range of opponents,"

Tails held the cube in his hands, then activated it. He could sense the changes within the device, even though the outside revealed nothing. The artificial waves began changing frequency, so he responded by changing his soul frequency as well.

"Yow!"

"Mis-aligning your wavelength with another will always have consequences. The orb isn't as bad as the real thing," Straline grinned.

"Could have fooled me," Tails grumbled.

"Can I have one of those cool cubes?" Sonic asked.

"You want to practice soul force? Seems a bit out of the blue, no pun intended," Starline gestured at Sonic's whole body.

Sonic scratched his head. "I guess. I feel like I've hit a wall lately. That means I should do more than the usual training, right?"

"You might want a better reason than that if you plan on training efficiently. You need a path that suits your current needs,"

"What should I do, then?"

"You'll have to be the one to decide that. When you discover what's holding you back, I can do a much better job helping you,"

"Ack!" Tails yelled, dropping the cube after it zapped him once again.

Sonic couldn't think of anything, so he left the training facility. He had some alone time since Shadow was off doing his physical rehabilitation routine. He'd been making great progress. They'd be clear to fight together tomorrow if his checkup went well. The thought made Sonic anxious, rather than happy. He was angry at himself for that. Shadow needed him. They'd gone through so much, why was he wavering now that things were getting better?

He pondered Shadow's status as a Black Arm weapon. That inevitably made him think about Eclipse the Darkling. Their battle. He shook it from his mind and tried focusing on something else. So what if Shadow was a Black Arm weapon? It didn't change anything, right?

Sonic wandered around campus, trying not to give the unpleasant thoughts lurking in the back of his mind much attention. The morning weather was mild and pleasant, but he hadn't really noticed. What did catch his attention was a certain death scythe who was wandering about campus as well.

"Hey, Silver,"

"Hey, Sonic. How've you been?"

"Fine. Are you busy right now?"

Silver grinned. "I hope not. I wasn't planning on doing any work today,"

"I wanted to talk for a bit. I still owe you food, don't I?"

"You do. Looks like it's time for some lunch,"

Sonic led Silver to a certain food stand that was his go-to. They found an empty table. Silver neatly laid out three chili dogs, each with a different combination of toppings. Sonic had only one, finishing half before giving up. The death scythe laid back after eating, then sighed.

"Oh man, that was awesome. Blaze never eats food like this,"

Sonic pushed away his food before leaning in on the table. "Do you mind if I ask what her whole deal is?"

Silver chuckled. "You mean her attitude, or her fire powers?"

"Both, I guess,"

"People who aren't from Sol usually expect her to be very sheltered because she's a princess, but it's actually the opposite. She's under a lot of pressure to perform well as a meister. Her ancestors were monster hunters before they were royalty. They gained political power as a result of their effectiveness,"

"Her family are hunters?"

Silver nodded. "Sol used to be plagued with war and all kinds of monsters. It still is, but things were much worse a while back. Blaze's family has a burning wavelength that gets passed on through each generation. Being able to manifest that wavelength gave her family an edge as meisters. They brought some peace to the land of Sol, and were so favored by the people that they easily became its rulers. The people of Sol rely on their royal family to guide and protect them,"

"Did you end up becoming a royal weapon because you were so powerful?"

Silver chuckled. "I was pretty hopeless actually. My powers didn't really manifest until I became a death scythe. I could move small objects with my mind, and resonating gave me a boost. After eating the soul of a witch, my powers came into full bloom,"

"Wait, you had those powers before you ate a witch's soul?" Sonic frowned and thought. "I know that death scythes usually manifest their strongest abilities after absorbing a magical soul. Do you have other powers, then?"

"Nope. Between Blaze's fire and my psycho-kinesis, we ended up defeating a witch who could combine different elemental attacks with her magic. After eating her soul, my psychic abilities grew. They can be easily combined and amplified by other elemental powers like Blaze's fire,"

"That's pretty lucky that you ended up defeating a witch with powers like that,"

"Well, one of the benefits of being the princess's personal weapon is that you get first pick for hunting witches. We ended up pursuing the soul of a witch whose powers closely matched my own,"

Sonic tapped one finger on the table a few times while pondering his next question.

"Do you feel like you changed after becoming a death scythe?"

"Besides becoming crazy strong?" Silver smirked.

"Like, as a person. Do you feel like you changed?"

Silver sat perplexed by the question before smiling again. "You're worried about Shadow,"

Sonic sighed. "I feel like there's nothing I can do for him. Everything used to be so simple. But now? Shadow is a black arms weapon, and people might come after him. Not to mention Eggman was hiding things from us, hoping we'd fail. It was all a sham,"

"It wasn't a sham, not all of it anyway. You still gathered more corrupt souls than most meisters. In such a short time, too"

Sonic leaned back, then looked away. "I just don't want things to be different,"

"It'll be different no matter what. Would you rather go through all that change with him, or go through all the change of being alone again?"

Silver stood up. He remembered the black blood that Starline mentioned. Now that it was in Shadow's system, it was possible that he'd start changing after all. Likely for the worse. Maybe he'd been too quick to reassure Sonic.

"If you do feel like Shadow starts changing suddenly, let me know. I have plenty of personal experience with being a weird weapon,"

"Thanks, Silver," Sonic got up as well. "We're actually having a party for him now that he's out of the hospital. You can stop by and check on him yourself if you want,"

"Lunch and a party invite? I should save your life more often!"

"Hopefully I won't need saving in the future," Sonic recalled what Blaze said about Shadow. He wasn't sure if he'd forgiven her, but she had saved him and Shadow. "Bring Blaze along, if she wants. We'll all be at my place tomorrow for dinner,"

"Awesome," Silver's expression stiffened a bit. "If you're worried about Shadow in the future, don't say anything to Blaze. She uh, worries a lot about these kinds of things and her hands are full as it is,"

Sonic tried keeping his own expression from changing as well.

"Got it,"