Chapter 5

I was falling, falling away into consciousness as my aching body awoke. I was shaking with pent up adrenaline, yet also numb to the world I was waking up to.

My emerald eyes slowly opened, and I realized I was curled up on a metal ground, the shadows of darkness dancing endlessly on the stone walls. Familiar voices cried out my name, 'Sonic!'… 'Faker!', but for a few moments, I couldn't remember who those voices belonged to.

I shot up and looked around, my mind registering who was talking...it was Amy and...Shadow.

I was in the middle of the small room, chained heavily to the cold, alloy ground. I was aware of the dense collar around my neck and the steal irons that cuffed my arms and legs. The dull feeling of sedatives kept my mind from caring, but deep down, I was panicking. My legs' speed were the only way any of us would be able to escape. Whoever did this seemed to know that.

Could it be my Arch-nemesis, Robotnik? I never thought him capable of this level of abuse, but I wouldn't put it past him.

My friends were in two of the many dark cages in the walls, and they were screaming for me to wake up.

"Sonic? Are you okay?" Amy was crying, and I couldn't help but recognize that she too was chained down. But thankfully not as heavily, and she didn't look sedated either. I looked up at her, putting on a brave, cocky face as I answered.

"Yeah, I'm good." But the pink hedgehog in a soiled red dress with beautiful green eyes only sobbed harder. I was confused until the black hedgehog elaborated, his dull, crimson eyes watching me with annoyance. He seemed to be drugged as well as chained like me. Although, he was chained to the walls of the cage instead of the floor.

"The hell you are." His golden rings glinted on his gloved wrists, and I could just barely see the red on his quills, arms, and legs as he carefully leaned against the side of the container, the chains around him chinking together as he did. He refused to show any sign of weakness despite this and his obvious sedation, "You were brought in here broken and bleeding: Not to mention Comatose." His eyes were boring into me as he studied my chest. I couldn't help but look down at my breast as well, but I saw nothing wrong with it. It was cleanly shaven, but other than that, it was fine, "Now you don't even have a scratch..."

"Maybe..it wasn't his blood?" Amy was hopeful as she wiped her eyes, "Maybe..it was just oil...it was black." Shadow still didn't look convinced, but he let it drop.

"Maybe." Was all he said as he backed into the corner of his cage so I couldn't see him. So edgy.

The last thing I remembered was fighting a large amount of strange black robots near Tail's, my dear fox friend's lab. I remember their numbers getting too overwhelming...then-

I closed my eyes and rubbed my chest reflexively. I had gone into my Super Form with the chaos emeralds, but one of them managed to get close. I couldn't fully remember what happened after that. What I do remember are flashes of brutality and pain. The chaos emeralds all left me, and I blacked out.

I opened my eyes again, the shattered memories fading. But where was the blood? If I had been that badly injured, why were the floor, my gloves, and my fur completely clean?

"Where's the blood?" I asked, looking to the shadow in the right cage. He shifted, the chains rattling in response but denied to look at me during his spiel.

"A guy dressed in a black robe and a matching gas mask came in earlier and cleaned both you and the cage up. I couldn't see his eyes or anything else, but I know it isn't Dr. Eggman...he was much too slim." I froze, but he continued, his eyes now searching my terrified expression for its cause, "My guess was that he didn't want you to know of your injuries." He looked at me, "Faker. What's with that face?" He chuckled weakly, "Don't tell me you're frightened." I looked away, and tried to wipe the terror away with my hands.

It's...it's not him.

I put on a brave face and turned back around, "Nah. Scared isn't part of my vocabulary." I went for a winning smile, but but shadow saw through it, chuckled, and turned away.

"Whatever you say, Faker." Our voices echoed across the neglected cages, the aged stone walls and metal floors burying me like a tomb. It was familiar to me, but not in the same way. Robotnik had to be putting on an act..he had to be.

I shook my head, trying and failing to put myself back together.

"Hey, Shads?" He grunted in my direction, "How were you captured?" I looked up at the black hedgehog, hoping to get my mind off of the looming danger.

He turned to look at me, an annoyed smirk written in his face, "I was ambushed on a secret mission by a bunch of black robots. At first I thought they belonged to Eggman, but their color and demeanor was off and they just kept coming." He was crossing his arms while looking at me with such intensity that I was almost afraid he was gonna burn a hole in my head, "Eventually one of them managed to get behind me and it grabbed my power rings..what happened after that is all a blur." He closed his eyes and shook his head as though the memory were painful to him.

"Was Rouge with you?" Amy asked, now almost completely calmed down, "Is she okay?"

"No, she wasn't with me." He opened his eyes and shook his head again, "What I don't get is how anybody besides you guys could've known where I was, much less where to hit me..." His eyes shut as he pondered this strange phenomenon.

I cocked my head in wonder, "Where were you?" But he refused to answer. I had a feeling he had been searching around my bro, Tail's workshop though as he had been doing it now for the past few months.

I shrugged and turned to Amy, "What about you?"

She seemed startled, but answered anyways, "I was with Cream when two black robots attacked us. They left her alone, and grabbed me before I could pull out my hammer. After that it's a blur."

What? Why would they take Amy and leave Cream? That didn't make any sense.

Shadow turned to me again from his nice, shaded corner, "And you?" I looked up at him, my face partially hidden in the darkness.

"I was caught sleeping, I guess." I shrugged, "I don't really remember."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "What about the blood?" I had a sneaking suspicion he knew I was lying.

"You said it was black, right?" I asked, my shaded eyes looking up at him. He nodded, "Whoever took me might have accidentally spilled oil on me, and the man who came in here cleaned me up because he didn't want oil all over the place." I said freely, an easy shrug escaping my shoulders.

Yes, my blood is black...It has been that way for a very long time. At least, it started turning that way when I was three, and just continued until it consumed all of my blood when I turned fifteen...I actually haven't aged since. Thankfully, the only people who've noticed this agelessness are Eggman and Shadow, but everyone else has remained oblivious due to my birthday being...hard to guess. I planned to keep it that way.

I watched Shadow's reaction to this explanation, and wasn't expecting anything else than his own disbelieving shrug as he grunted and turned away. Ever since he found out about my immortality, he started trying to sneak into my buddy's lab, and the couple times I caught him doing this, he argued something about a secret mission till both of us turned purple. I knew the reason. He was trying to figure me out, and seeing no information in the G.U.N. base computers that he works with, he started trying to piece it all together with my other friends and the places I frequent.

Not much he can do though when most of the information he needs is stored in an unusually good place.

Thankfully Amy believed me and smiled, "Don't worry, Amy. We'll get out of here." I said bravely. If Shadow wanted to be shady and down, then fine, but I didn't want Amy to be.

Suddenly footsteps echoed behind the large metal door to my right, and I spun away from my friends to meet it. The heavy set steps got louder and louder until they were ringing in my head along with my pounding heart. Then everything when quiet as it stopped in front of the door.

The steel door opened, hissing with poisonous intent to reveal a tall man dressed in a black robe with a matching black gas mask on his face. His eyes were the strangest things about him though as the one on the right shone emerald and the other glowed an unnatural red.

He looked directly at me, and without even thinking about it, my spines sharpened themselves into knives, my look deadly calm.

He chuckled, his deep voice filled with soothing static. You could fall asleep to this voice...forever.

"Careful hedgehog, or you'll lose your quills." He said calmly, slowly, "Your friends were quite easy to capture compared to you." He moved closer to them, slowly circling around my cage. He chuckled again as he passed Amy's cage and reached a black, gloved hand into Shadow's cage, pulling the chained, struggling teen against the bars, "Pathetic for the Ultimate Life Form, wouldn't you say?"

"Leave them out of this." My voice was dark, and despite my fear, rather assertive and brave. Over the years, I had learned to put on this act, and before long, it became my way to truly deal with my fear.

He let Shadow go, and I heard him gasping for breath as the cloaked man continued, "I'm afraid I can't do that anymore." He walked up to me, knelt down and looked me in the eyes, "My son protected you for far too long. If you had come back quietly when you were less well known, it would have been easy to make everyone forget that you existed." He stood back up and stared at Amy's cage, "Now I not only have to bring you back, but everyone who you've made real connections with. After that, people will think that you've faded away or died, and you will be forgotten." He stared once more at me, a knowing look in his eyes, "You've changed since I last saw you...you're at least a foot taller and a bit bluer than before." He chuckled slowly, "But I expected it."

"Who is your son?" I didn't really care, but some part of me was curious.

He laughed, the deep static bone-chilling to hear, "Did he not tell you?" My quills and guard fell at this strange question.

"Did who not tell me?" I was genuinely curious now. Slowly, his voice returned to the dark, soothing tone and he knelt down in front of me. Out of instinct, I quickly moved back, my quills rising again. But he just casually got closer. His eyes were piercing my soul as he examined me.

"Why, my dear boy..." He sounded sad, "It's your dear friend, Dr. Ivo Robotnik."

My eyes widened in shock, "Liar!" My mask had fallen away, and my pain had returned. I turned to look at my real friends, but they were up against the bars, just as shocked as I was, "You're just trying to psyche me out!" The bravado was still in my voice, but the cockiness was gone.

"Foolish child." He suddenly grabbed me by the collar and held me up in front of my friends. I fought and tried to get away, but the irons and sedatives kept me from doing anything short of trying to weakly peel his hands away, "He talked to me just a little while ago, telling me all about it." I could tell he was smiling, "He said, "If you so much as lay a hand on him, your whole operation will crumble, and either way you spin it, he will be safe from you." He told me that last week." I couldn't breath, and I could barely hear Amy's voice screaming:

"You're hurting him! Stop!" He just laughed.

He mocked her, a recording of her voice playing instead of his own, "You're hurting him! Stop!"

He never yelled, but was instead saying everything as though it were old news, "Don't you get your quills in a tangle my dear." He stared at them, "I have no intentions of losing this hedgehog again, no matter what the price." He suddenly dropped me and I fell to the ground, hard. My head hit first, and I couldn't move. Everything was blurry, his voice the only thing I could really hear, "I will be getting the other one back as well, as soon as I find out where she is."

The world came back into focus slowly, and I could hear Amy's muffled crying, and Shadow yelling my name.

"Welcome back, Maurice. You've been missed." He turned to walk to the door, "Oh, I almost forgot." He turned to face me once more, "You have a Water Punishment for your escape scheduled early tomorrow. You're friends will be there to witness it." With that he walked out, his quiet air leaving a darkness on the room that no light could penetrate.

I remained on the floor, the shock of what just happened still hitting me. I couldn't believe...I refused to believe him about Robotnik..Eggman. HE BETRAYED ME, and he did it in cold blood. I did nothing to him, but he just..

I laid there in silence, the comforting words that Amy tried to say lost to the wind as I reflected on the darkness of my past.

Suddenly, Shadow piped up, his voice shaking a little, "Who was that?"

I sat up and looked up at him, my soul felt dead, "The Good Doctor."

"Well, he's not very good then." Amy said, and I chortled softly. The air in the room felt stuffy and hot, the walls closing in on me. I wished I could run, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Who was the other one he talked about?" Shadow asked.

"My...sister." I looked to the ground, a small respectful smile on my face as I remembered my lost twin. She once looked exactly like me with emerald eyes and blue fur. Her smile used to be my only light before I escaped from this place long ago. We used to always joke about how gravity didn't seem to work on her quills while it crashed down on mine... My last memory of her though was broken and distorted with trauma.

Shadow continued, "What happened to her?" His chains were rattling as he took interest in my story, and in some ways, I was happy that he was listening.

"She..." I took a deep breath and looked up at their concerned faces, "I escaped because of her." They both looked at each other, "She managed to get me to the outside, and told me to run before she was taken away." I felt numb, as though the sedatives had increased in dosage, "I don't know what happened after that. I just remember running..running. I ran so fast I didn't even realize that I had run into a pack of bullies." My eyes glazed over as I watched my memories play out for the hundredth time. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think of this and what I could've done to save her, "They beat me to the point of death and just left me there to die."

"Oh God." Amy gasped, tears falling down her face as she put her hands to her muzzle. Shadow said nothing, his eyes filled with understanding for my pain. He had experienced something similar to me, so I was truly grateful that he was listening.

I continued, my gaze far away, "Then he came along. He saved me, and took me in as his little brother." I could never have said any of this in the open for fear of being judged. But here in this place, I felt like I had already been judged, and this was my punishment. I never meant for anyone else to be dragged into this with me, but now that they were here, I felt like it was only fair that they learned at least part of what was going on.

"Who did?" Shadow prompted once more, and with a glassy, dark look, I told him.

"Robotnik." But then I shook myself, jump-scaring my friends with my sudden movement, "But that man lied. Robotnik never cared." I said coolly. My voice was so dark and intimidating that even Shadow look a bit worried, "As soon as he realized that I trusted him wholeheartedly, he broke me and laughed in my face as I cried..." I closed my eyes, "I was only ten when he did this, and well...you know what happens next."

Shadow's chains clinked and rattled as he leaned against the wall of the cage again, "What is tomorrow's Water Punishment?" He elaborated, "What does that mean?"

I shifted uncomfortably, "I...I don't know." I lied. I knew that they were going to find out tomorrow, but at least for tonight, I didn't want them to know.

Shadow looked at me again and raised an eyebrow, but he said nothing.

Amy spoke, her voice scared and slightly tearful, "Well, we'll find out tomorrow. For now, lets try to get some sleep. We will need it if we're going to break out any time soon..." She looked at me, tears in her eyes, "You both look exhausted." She was trying to be strong, and I couldn't help but appreciate it.

I nodded, and laid down, Shadow's chains signaling that he did the same, and I fell into dreams and memories I had tried so hard to forget.

"Robotnik?" My tired voice echoed across the dark room. His sleeping form was resting against the side of the bed. He woke up, rubbed his eyes and looked at me with those kind green orbs.

"What's up, Sonic?" Though he was obviously tired, he did a good job hiding it in his voice..until he yawned.

"I..I can't sleep..." I whimpered, shaking in fear, "I-I was suffocating..I.."I started to sob, "She was right there-but he took her away!" I was crying now, my mouth making noises that I didn't want. Suddenly, I lept off the bed and raced for the door. I didn't even really know why, but I just had to. He lept after me and picked me up so that I couldn't get out, "I have to save her! I-I have to..."I had been fighting but stopped as my sobbing got louder, "Or..nobody will." He held me close.

"I will." He said softly, but proudly. I looked up at him, a confused look on my face, "If you can't save her and nobody else will; Then I will go straight to the evil man, punch him in the face, and save her for you." He held me up, "See, problem solved."

"Do you know where she is?" I whined softly.

"Nope. But we'll search for her tomorrow." He smiled heroically, "You show me where she is, and I'll bust her out so she can join our happy family. Deal?" He asked, putting me back into the bed, but this time, he got in too and held me close.

"Deal." I said happily, a grateful smile growing on my face, "But what about the nightmares?"

"They won't get us tonight." He said it as though it were fact.

"How come?" I was confused again.

"Because now you have me to protect you." With that, we fell to sleep. He had been right…

The nightmares didn't get us that night.