Hi guys, don't be alarmed, I used my last episode of writer's block to take care of my first mini-chapters of this story and to fuse them together - instead of 11, you now have 7. I didn't change much, I just tried to get the chapters to fit together and maybe wrote a word or two more or changed a few of them. They don't miss anything you already read in them, promise. I'm not sure anymore, if I maybe broke up a chapter into two halves, but I can tell you, that I only used titles you already knew, so to say my favorite (and most fitting) ones. Now, enjoy the longer chapters :)!
1: What's wrong, Sonic?
He moaned, while gentle hands traced down his body, the fingertips touching just the right places to send shivers down his spine.
"Sh-Shadow...," he whimpered, his hips bucking against the hedgehog over him, while the rest of his body felt like mush under those capable fingers. "Please... more...," he begged and growling possessively, the seme leaned down to fulfill the request, nipping and licking every single one of the mapped-out places he had found so far, going to deeper located places of his love's body each time, drawing passionate moans out of his uke.
He was almost too lost in pleasure. Almost. Over the quills of his mate, he suddenly saw a tall figure in the shadows, moving closer to their bed, stepping into the light.
His eyes widened and his heart beat painfully fast. It was a human, an old man, with round glasses, white, neatly combed hair and a walking stick in his hand. His usually wrinkled face was halfway rotten, the left half of his face just a skull, with the eyeball hanging out of the socket, while the right half was a mass of pale-greenish flesh.
The dark, remaining eye was watching them with unhidden greed. "Come on, give me, what I want!," he snarled.
"AAAAHHH!" At once, Sonic sat up, panting. In the next second, he felt his body turning to the side and before he had grasped the situation, he already fell off the branch and down the tree he had sat on, into some bushes, landing on his back.
"Not again.," he groaned, while waiting for the world to stop spinning. He noticed, that the sky didn't look much darker than when he had dozed off, it couldn't have been more than two hours of sleep he had gotten.
He frowned. Again a nightmare. Since about two weeks, he had those strange dreams. They all started the same, him and Shadow...well, about to do it, but every time it became... interesting, there was something interrupting them. And the reason was getting worse each time. At first, he had dreamed of Tails and Cream coming unexpectedly in the room – a true nightmare, if that would truly happen – then, in the next dream, he had gotten a phone call, both, in reality and in his dream, which had woken him up.
The most disturbing one so far (not to mention the last one a few minutes ago) had been Eggman barging through the door, wearing a pink tutu – and nothing else – and telling him, that everyone was waiting for his show...whatever show he meant. He shuddered at the memory. Thankfully, the dream had faded mostly out of his memories by now and the details weren't as clear anymore.
And now, that. He had recognized the half decayed human, of course. How could he ever forget this face? Thanks to this man, he and his friends had gone through a martyr beyond compare.
Jester Perringten.
The name alone was like a curse and no one of them could hear it without feeling their chests constricting with the painful memories. Thanks to this man, Sonic had doubted his own body and mind, his whole being.
All had started with Eggman outing him as an uke, something, that some male hedgehogs were. Ukes were male in appearance, but could become pregnant, like females.
And Perringten had known and used that. He had kidnapped ukes and semes – the completely male hedgehogs, so to say – to let them mate again and again. He had wanted the pups resulting out of the forced pregnancies, but for what – Sonic had no idea. He had only seen one of the pups, that had gotten born there, anyway. It worried him, that neither Shadow, his boyfriend and mate, nor Tails, his brother by choice, had seen the babies on their way back from the Island – that had been the name of the hellhole, as harmless, as fitting.
Sonic frowned, while blinking in the sun above him. He himself...had had pups, too. Perringten had let another seme rape him to provoke Shadow into raping him as well. The dark seme had just in time snapped out of it, but it had been too late. His virginity had been gone and he had been pregnant from the other seme. He wasn't so sure, if he was glad, that he had had a miscarriage, that had almost costed him his life in the process.
Sometimes, if he hadn't have anything to distract him, he asked himself, how it would have been. Being pregnant, and stuff like that.
Well, on Perringten's little landmass of horror, he would have been chained to a bed for the three months the pregnancy would have lasted, to get the children cut out of him afterwards, without seeing them ever again, if even once. But now, he was free...
Sighing, he sat up and shook his head, fast. He didn't know, why he was suddenly thinking about something like that.
Since about two weeks, everything was out of whack – again. For some reason, he had started to feel almost as ill, as he had about two years ago, when Eggman and Perringten, as a very temporary team, had brought him into thinking, that he was really just a completely weak uke. They had drugged him secretly, until he had been convinced, that he had needed to go to the uke institute, a fake institution, that he had never seen, he had been kidnapped to the Island right away.
The worst part had been, that Tails, Amy and Knuckles had found out about the fake uke institute and had gotten themselves captured, while trying to find and rescue him. Especially Tails had suffered a lot during this time and Sonic couldn't forgive himself for ever doubting himself, which had brought them all in this situation in the first place.
And now, his body was failing him again. Since those last two weeks, he was feeling very ill: He felt often sick to the stomach, which resulted almost always in vomiting, if he had something in his stomach, or not. He couldn't even run anymore, without upsetting his stomach, which was, why he denied himself his favorite hobby for the time being, unless it was absolutely necessary.
He got fevers at random occasions, which passed usually within an hour or so, but sometimes only after a day, or two.
He had sleeping problems, that either kept him awake for long time periods, or, as it had been at first, had kept him in a so deep slumber, that only being thrown in a bathtub filled with ice cold water (his friends had been desperate, but he was still a little miffed, because of this stunt) could wake him up, and to top it off, he had frequent, quite annoying headaches...like now.
He barely had an appetite anymore, especially not for his favorite food, chilidogs, mostly, because he vomited them out anyway shortly after eating them, but he also just didn't like them right now. If anything, he ate fruits and vegetables – in masses. Not that he wasn't a fan of healthy food, but the amount he was eating lately, was simply ridiculous... and Shadow probably needed to make sky-high debts to get his cravings...
The worst part was, that his instincts were going crazy. He was keeping a distance to each and everyone. Whenever Tails, Shadow, or whoever, came closer to him, even if they just tried to help him, he found himself backing off, or even running away. It wasn't out of fear, at least not the fear of getting hurt by them, which was a little reassuring, but he still felt the rare knot of panic in his gut, whenever someone came to him. Everyone needed to keep at least one meter as a distance, if they wanted to talk with him properly. One step closer – and Sonic was gone.
It was scary, how similar this was to the events from about two years ago. He hadn't have cravings (besides the craving for absolutely no food at all) or had felt the need to distance himself back then, but otherwise, it was the same.
The most important difference, however, was, that his mind was still clear. He didn't feel scared of anyone or anything, or started to cry every five minutes (a little exaggerated, but not much). He didn't doubt himself, not this time. His mood wasn't the best right now, like before, but this time, it was, because he hadn't been able to sleep properly for days now and often reacquainted himself with his food. Still, that he was this sick with these particular symptoms...
He looked up, when he heard a noise and looked up to see Knuckles, standing a few meters away from him, a disapproving glare on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. "Not again.," he growled.
"Hehe...," the hero laughed, embarrassed, scratching his head quills. Of course, the echidna meant his scream, because of the nightmare.
Since he had started to feel strange, Shadow and – to the blue one's surprise – Knuckles were quite literally going crazy with worry.
Shadow had almost obliterated Mobius in his search for Eggman and when he had found the man, he had... interrogated... him into the hospital, just to find out, that he was truly innocent, he had nothing to do with Sonic's current condition. Him being in hospital meant at least, that Sonic wouldn't have to worry about the evil genius anytime soon – and the hero had the feeling, that Shadow had intended just that.
Knuckles had had meanwhile almost destroyed Sonic's and Tails' house, trying to find any tiny robot, that might inject the hero with a drug to lower his health, like it had been the case before. Even after Eggman had been declared innocent by Shadow, Knuckles hadn't stopped.
The outcome: he had tried to kill mosquitoes and other insects with his fists – and usually just hit the furniture to debris. When he had almost killed a stray kitten, that had somehow found its way in the house and was now living with a neighbor's child (and was probably still traumatized), the hero had decided for a change of tactics – which was, why he was since eight days living in a corner of Angel Island, where the echidna could live out his protective instincts to the maximum, without killing anything innocent. Besides, if something dangerous or threatening came on the island, the echidna would know it immediately. This move had actually calmed Knuckles' protective instincts down and reduced them to a manageable intensity.
As the island's guardian, Knuckles reacted still to each and every single one of his screams, that were always caused by his frequent nightmares, which was going on his nerves by now.
For some reason, he hadn't tried to throw him off the island (either literally, or metaphorically), yet, even though he had all reason to do this – and Shadow was making it really clear each day, that he would rather have Sonic with him, even though coming here was the least of his problems.
"Sorry, Knux.," the hedgehog apologized for luring him here...again. "Would you FINALLY take it?," the echidna grumbled.
Sonic frowned immediately. As he had sleeping problems, the guardian had offered him a herb, that grew on Angel Island and that would help him to sleep for once, but Sonic had refused it every time, as well as every other herb for his current ailments so far.
Why? He wasn't quite sure. His instincts were keeping his guard up for some reason and he refused to take anything, that could lower it again...at least that was the only explanation he could come up with.
As Sonic's nightmares were by now also influencing the sleeping rhythm of the guardian as well, Knuckles was ready to do almost everything to get the hero to let them both rest. And just forcing the herbs down his throat was getting more and more attractive.
Suddenly, the echidna raised his head and whipped around. "Shadow, get off my island!," he barked at a bush and really, just a second later, the dark hedgehog came out of his hiding place, by now not surprised anymore.
Shadow had an unique relation to Chaos Energy – unlike all other living beings, he absorbed it and didn't give it off in small amounts, like it was usual with all other life forms on Mobius. Knuckles, as a guardian, could see the Chaos Energy floating over Mobius' surface and of course saw it immediately, when the energy was pulled in a certain direction. Needless to say, that it annoyed Shadow to not be able to sneak up on the other male.
"What are you doing to my mate?," the agent growled, not hiding his aggression. Sonic quickly jumped up, although his stomach and head both protested painfully against the action. He could guess, that this whole situation was stressing his mate out, and seeing now Knuckles almost towering over his uke, who had sat on the ground, was just adding to the tension the seme had to feel currently.
"Shads, calm down! It was nothing, I swear!," Sonic quickly reassured him. Having been in a relationship with him for about two years, the hero knew, that Shadow would protect him without a question and get very aggressive in the process.
Usually, he listened to him, if he said things like 'I'm fine', or 'I can handle (it) myself', but right now, saying both would be a lie. He had grown weaker and lost weight lately, even he himself with his limited knowledge about ukes and semes could imagine, that this was firing up the other's protective instincts.
Seeing, that the two were still in murderous moods, Sonic stepped between them. "Give us a sec, okay?," he asked Knuckles calmly, indicating silently for him to go. The echidna huffed, whirled around and marched away towards the temple. "I would hurry, Rouge was with me.," Shadow called after him, but the echidna, knowing, that he was just trying to get under his skin, didn't react to it.
Shadow turned to Sonic and saw him frowning. "What?," he asked. "Could you stop being an ass all the time?," the hero replied, annoyed, feeling his mood dampen more, than it already had been today. He hated, how Shadow was towards his friends, even though he already knew, that Shadow was acting like that, because he was jealous.
They hadn't have a lot of moments just for themselves so far, because they had been too busy – with saving the world, usually –, but whenever they had have the time to be just among themselves for something else, than sleeping, Shadow had almost always showed jealousy.
It had been touching at first. The news of Sonic being an uke and being on the Island (although the details had not been published, there had leaked out enough for most people to imagine the (wrong) rest) lured several males of all species in his range, whenever he went out, and they were trying to hit on him. They seemed to think, that he wouldn't be able to fight them off, if he had been so long in this place. It had been touching, how Shadow had let those guys back off with a glare or a threat (if necessary), because he got, that Sonic didn't want to fight against and hurt them in any way.
By now, however, the dark seme was going paranoid with jealousy. He saw possible rivals, where there weren't any, especially among Sonic's male friends and fans.
He had even looked at Tails with a murderous glare on several occasions, until Sonic had told him strictly, that he was a brother and best friend to him – and that he would break up immediately, if he continued to do that. The threat had saved at least the young fox genius from Shadow, but the rest of his friends had to be careful not to get too close to Sonic still, when the dark agent was present as well.
Until now, Sonic had no idea, how he could tame the jealousy in his boyfriend. He couldn't always threaten with a break up – years of fighting against Eggman had taught him, that threats had a short expiration date concerning the effect they had.
That Sonic was living with Knuckles (so to say), was provoking Shadow's jealousy greatly – but what could be done against it?
It wasn't, as if the blue hedgehog could simply live with the agent. He had no home for himself, he either stayed with Sonic, or, if he wasn't there (like now), with Rouge, as he had done before the Island-incident. As staying with Sonic, to share his twin bed with him, sleeping together in each other's arm (well, not during the last two weeks...), was heavenly anyway, he hadn't thought about his own place. Now, he regretted it – and Sonic did so, too.
The hero never missed the subtle glares towards his abdomen, that he got from his mate. He knew, what Shadow was searching for. His symptoms, the tiredness, the vomiting, the mood swings (in a way he had those, thanks to his general condition), the strange cravings, the headaches – this were all symptoms of a pregnancy. Tails had researched it by his brother's request, after he had noticed the stares for the first time.
It took no genius to guess Shadow's thoughts from there – Sonic was pregnant because of Knuckles.
It was absolutely absurd and if the echidna would EVER hear of that, he would strangle most likely both, but the hero understood, why he was brought into thinking that. Just like in his dreams, he and Shadow had never gotten far with their intimacy.
The reason? He himself. Whenever Shadow's hands (or mouth) wandered too far south, Sonic found himself pushing him away. As if everything beneath his waistline was a taboo for his boyfriend.
At first, Shadow had blamed the rape and the unwanted pregnancy Sonic had had to endure for this, thinking, that both experiences had made him weary of physical contact. He had wanted to give him all the time he needed to recover, but the blue uke had reassured him, that he wasn't controlled by the past, that this wasn't the reason for his reluctance...he just wasn't able to understand or tell, why he was acting like this. Even shortly before Sonic had started to push everyone away from him, he had still kept him waiting, which just caused Shadow confusion as to why he was refusing him.
And now, both hedgehogs were feeling the consequences of their doing. Sonic's mind was torturing him with dreams, that let him yearn for more of his mate's touches, that he couldn't have in his current condition, while Shadow was getting lost in completely wrong ideas, that let him see his mate in the arms of another.
Sonic would love to end Shadow's thoughts concerning his – imagined – condition, but he didn't know, how to make him realize, that he wasn't pregnant. Maybe he should finally go to a doctor, which he had avoided so far? Tails, Shadow and pretty much everyone else had tried to get him to one, but he had refused every time.
"Any change?," Shadow changed the topic of their conversation, before they would have a fight. It wouldn't be the first one, since this mess had started. Sonic was really moody and Shadow really stressed, so they had ended up several times shouting at each other in rage, until someone dragged Shadow away – or Sonic fled, whatever happened first.
The hero just sighed and shook his head, not saying anything. Shadow pressed his ears to his head in distress. So he still didn't want him closer to himself. He hated to see his mate like this, to feel so powerless, to not know, what was going on. If only there was something he could do!
The two mates looked at each other, not sure, what they could say. If they could say anything, without slipping into an argument.
Two pairs of ears flew up and two heads jerked, when they suddenly heard a double scream, penetrating the silence between them, coming, as they both knew immediately, from the direction of the temple. At once, they raced towards it.
The two fast hedgehogs reached the temple just a few seconds after they had started running. Sonic came to a stop first and his jaw dropped upon what he saw.
Knuckles was held in the air by a turquoise aura, that kept him in a state of immobility. The person responsible for that, a male, silver furred mobian hedgehog, stood a few meters away from him, his hand outstretched towards the echidna.
Sonic believed, just for a second, that he saw the newcomer's usually light yellow eyes starting to turn red, before a blur of brown and yellow quickly jumped on his outstretched arm, forcing it down and breaking his concentration, while startling the hero out of his musings.
Knuckles was let go, he fell and landed on the ground with practiced ease, immediately looking for the attacker. His tension was lost however, when he noticed, who had saved him from his earlier position.
To the silver male were clinging a young rabbit girl with brown fur and a slightly older fox with yellow fur and two tails. "Please, don't hurt Knuckles, Silver!," the girl just pleaded, while the fox asked at the same time, "What are you doing!?".
A little blue creature with a red bow tie around its neck flew out of the rabbit's arm and up to the male's eye level. "Chao, Chao!," it squeaked, trying to help its little rabbit friend.
Silver seemed to come to his senses finally, because he let his arm fall completely, which was reassuring Cream and Tails, that it was safe to let him go now. They both made some space for him, too. Cheese settled in Cream's arm, feeling quite content there.
Sonic, who stood behind Knuckles, could see a few fresh scratches and bruises on the guardian's back and could now guess, what had happened: Silver had thrown Knuckles against something with his psychokinesis, probably even the temple, which had caused Tails and Cream to shout in surprise – Silver wasn't exactly one, who you expected to attack, Sonic had to admit – before the uke had started another attempt of attacking, which the children had thankfully been able to stop. The bruises weren't bad, Knuckles would shrug them off effortlessly, but get very livid at Silver nonetheless, Sonic didn't need to be a genius to foresee that.
The young uke searched for Knuckles' glare. "I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to attack you.," he apologized, sheepishly. All signs of aggression on his body were gone now, even the red in his eyes, from that Sonic wasn't so sure, if it had really been there in the first place.
"You've got some nerve to come to my home and try something like that!," Knuckles growled, but made no move to attack, as long as the children were still close. He knew, that Tails would recognize an attack immediately and bring himself to safety, but Cream and Cheese were another story. If there was a small risk of hurting the little ones, Knuckles would hold back for as long as possible.
Knuckles, Sonic realized, and Silver, who had been also a prisoner of the Island, had never met each other personally before, so it wasn't such a surprise, that the situation had escalated.
The red furred guardian had retreated back on his island, after they had all been rescued, and only from time to time checked up on them, including the time Silver had needed to get well again.
He had never gotten close to the silver furred hedgehog and Sonic wasn't so sure, if Knuckles could recognize him, after all, he had only seen his unconscious and sick self about two years ago on Angel Island, during their rescue. Well, his five long head quills sprouting out of his forehead were actually quite unique and recognizable...
Silver had grown quite a bit, the hero noticed, he was now tall enough to be on Sonic's eye level – thanks to his head quills, he was even taller than him. His fur had a healthy shine of pure silver and his slim body showed no signs of starvation anymore. He had also gotten a slightly broader back, although his body still looked rather feminine – which was apparently normal for ukes like them. He wore black and green high boots and white gloves, that had turquoise circles on his palms. Broad golden rings were around the top of his boots and around his wrists.
"I'm sorry, I really am! I thought, that you would attack Cream!," Silver continued to defend himself. "Why should I attack Cream? She and Tails are always welcome here. I wanted to teach YOU a lesson for trespassing my island!," Knuckles raged. So... Knux had attacked first, not asking questions. Huh, the blue hedgehog felt a déjà-vu at thinking that...
Silver sighed, a relieved expression on his face. "That's good. I mean, that you would never attack Cream, it wouldn't be so good to attack me, because one scratch on me, and Mephy will have a fit, and I would never forgive myself, if he hurt someone and-" He let the rest of the sentence fall, blushing, because of his rambling. "Sorry.," he repeated.
"Silver!," Sonic said loudly, drawing attention to him. "Sonic!," the bunny girl called happily, waved and seemed ready to run to him, but Silver held her back by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Give us a sec, okay?," he asked.
Cream was confused, along with Tails behind her, but she nodded, stepping to the side to let him go past her, holding Cheese in her arm, who had also intended to fly to his blue friend.
Slowly, the younger uke came closer to the hero, his eyes wandering over him, as if searching for something. After just a few steps, he stopped again. "Hey.," he greeted, insecurely. "Hey.," Sonic replied, as friendly as he could in his confusion. What was going on here?
"It's nice...to see you again." Silver seemed unsure of how to say whatever he wanted to, that's why he started with something easy.
"I see it like you. What brings you here?," the hero asked, to hopefully speed the conversation up to the interesting part.
Silver fidgeted. "I...well...how are you?," he finally asked. Sonic frowned. "Did you come all the way up here to ask me that?," he asked back, trying to wrap his head around this strange behavior. He hadn't seen Silver since a little over a year – and he had traveled for who knew how long, just to ask him a question, that he could have simply written in a letter or asked during a phone call?
"Well...yes. I mean, I tried it at your home, Cream showed me the way, I hadn't known, that you had moved and your brother had told us, that you were here and even came with us, to make sure, that we would find the way and...y-yes.," the silver male stammered the last part, turning bright red, since he was rambling again.
"But why?," Sonic asked. Silver took a deep breath as if to calm himself, before looking into his friend's eyes with unnatural seriousness. "Tell me. Be honest. You're not well, right?," he asked, sounding, as if he already knew the answer, although it wasn't that obvious, yet. Sonic looked a little thinner and his fur not as shiny, but it was a marginal difference to what the silver uke had seen last of the hero.
Tails behind Silver jerked involuntarily upon his words. Of course, he knew, that his brother was in a bad condition, but he had apparently never told Silver, so he was surprised.
Cream, instead, narrowed her eyes, looking at Sonic more closely, trying to find out, what he meant.
"It's nothing serious, I'm just a little under the weather.," Sonic replied, still frowning. Had Silver just held back Cream, because he had feared, that he would infect her with whatever he presumed he was suffering from?
Silver was looking at him again. "You're having fevers, right?," he asked, and, when he was met with speechless silence, he continued, "And you don't eat your favorite food anymore, you vomit often, your head hurts, you don't want anyone close to you and you can't sleep without nightmares, correct?," he listed Sonic's ailments, as if he had just heard them and repeated them to test his memory.
"How...do you know that?," the hero asked, barely able to get his jaw to close. "Yeah, I would love to hear that, too.," Shadow growled, warping in front of a terrified Silver, who backed away tremblingly.
It had taken a lot of courage from the shy and insecure hedgehog to come here and speak with them, Sonic realized, and was in an instant between seme and uke. "Leave him alone!," he growled at Shadow, until the agent backed off, before he turned around to the young hedgehog.
"Silver, how do you know all this?," he asked calmly, trying to soothe the younger one's fear with words alone.
The male sighed and crouched low, hugging his knees. He looked suddenly like a lost child. Sonic got on his knees opposite of him, to be closer to his eye level.
"I dreamed it.," Silver mumbled. "WHAT!?," Knuckles and Shadow exclaimed loudly, making him flinch.
Sonic gave them a glare over his shoulder, before he turned back to Silver. "What do you mean by that?," he asked.
"Since a while now, I often dream of things...I shouldn't know. I dream of problems or good things my friends have. I see parts of their past, and sometimes of their future. I saved the life of one of my friends, because I had dreamed the night before of what would happen. And since about two weeks, I dream solely of you."
He looked in his eyes. "I saw you suffering from all this. And...," he bit his lip for a moment, "...and I saw it getting worse."
Shadow, Tails and Knuckles flinched a little, while Cream looked worried now. "When I saw you writhing in pure pain in my dream today morning, I just couldn't take it anymore."
He looked at Sonic, his eyes now starting to fill with tears. "Mephiles said, that I should use this ability, but...but I don't know, if I can help you."
Silver was scared, it was obvious. Whatever he had dreamed of, it had had to be gruesome for him to come here and...well, Sonic basically still didn't know, why he was here. So he had seen him getting worse – that didn't have to be his future.
"Silver, why did you come here?," he asked gently, his instincts resisting harshly the urge to hug the silently crying younger to comfort him.
"I...I...wanted to bring you to my home. To the Uke Shelter. There are doctors, who know, how to treat ukes.," Silver explained, rubbing his eyes.
Sonic could feel his brow twitching and he was sure, that Shadow and Knuckles were both very tempted to attack the young uke. He lifted his gaze a bit and saw Tails over Silver's shoulder, biting his lip and his tails wrapping around him, trying to hide himself behind them. This whole scenario – 'Go there to get help' – was too close to the past.
"Wait a second. Don't you live with Mephiles?," Sonic asked, while still trying to digest Silver's suggestion and to hopefully distract Knuckles and Shadow for the time being. The young male couldn't know, how much he had upset the four friends.
Silver blushed and looked down, starting to fiddle with his fingers. "Er...well, yes, but...not in his house...anymore.," he stammered nervously. "Why not?" "I... kind of destroyed it?," Silver more asked, than answered.
The three males opposite of him looked at him incredulously. Silver turned even redder. "I didn't have full control over my powers and he left me alone for a few minutes and the house was so scary... Well, I let it levitate, but it was so heavy, that I let it fall...with me in it.," he explained.
"Did you get hurt!?," Sonic asked immediately, feeling his old protective instincts towards the younger resurface.
"I fell on a sofa and another one fell with its cushions first on me, it protected me from most. I had just bruises, a few cuts and a small concussion. I just had to stay in hospital for a day. Mephiles was so happy, that I was fine.," Silver smiled, most likely at the memory of his relieved seme, standing next to him and telling him exactly that.
"Wasn't he angry, that his house got destroyed?," Shadow asked. He knew of the villain's temper, it was hard to imagine, that he had no problem with losing his whole house to a clumsy mistake.
Silver shook his head. "No. He said, that nothing in the house would be worth more, than me." He blushed again a little.
Sonic smiled. He had had a rather bad feeling at first, when he had seen the two together, but like with Silver's sister Blaze before, Mephiles had also proven the hero, that he was the right mate for Silver. Sentences like these only underlined this fact.
"So, how did you land in this...er...?" "Oh, you mean the Uke Shelter?," Silver caught, what Sonic had tried to ask. The blue one nodded. "Well, we looked for a place to stay and when Mephiles heard of this place, he wanted to check it out. He said, that the mean man from the Island might be behind it."
Shadow narrowed his eyes. Mephiles of all people should know, that Perringten was dead... And he was very sure, that GUN would have found all of his secret hideouts, if there had been any.
"We went there and I was so scared at first, but I didn't have to. There are so many nice people! Mephiles even works there now. He's training with semes...or something like that." Silver frowned in thought. "I don't really know. He never allows me at his working place, so I have no idea." He shrugged.
"Anyway, the doctors there are great, I'm sure...I...I hope at least, that they can help you." Nervously, he rubbed his arm. "I know...that is, I can guess..., that you don't like doctors. I feel the same. I was so scared, when I fell ill last year and had to go there..." His ears pressed to his skull and he looked down for a moment, before lifting his head again, smiling. "But I was wrong, they were nothing, but friendly to me. I want you to try it, too. Please?," he pleaded.
Sonic said nothing, he only looked at Silver thoroughly. The younger male was absolutely sincere, he could feel it, he was truly trying to help.
"Silver says the truth!," Cream piped up suddenly, letting everyone turn to her. "In the Uke Shelter are many nice people. My mother works there, too!"
"Really? Since when?," Sonic asked. Lately, he hadn't seen Cream as regularly as usual, but simply assumed, that she had found new friends, or was distancing herself to find her own interests. She was still growing, after all, and although she could fight (to some extent), he had never seen her as a grown up warrior. That her mother had a job now, where she was visiting her often, had never crossed his mind as an explanation.
"Um...about a year, I guess. Mommy is a cook and sometimes a nurse there, three days a week. I'm often there, too, to play with the children, animals or chaos.," the girl explained. "And everyone loves Vanilla's carrot cake.," Silver grinned.
Sonic's mouth twitched to a small smile. Well, he knew that. Vanilla often rewarded the friends with her delicious cake, especially, when they had kept Cream safe or rescued her. The little girl was sometimes a trouble magnet, but usually unintentionally.
He raced past Silver, who flinched because of the air wave, that got created that way and that pushed him a little to the side, and stopped a little away from Cream, who was too used to Sonic's running to get scared. "Say, Cream, why didn't you tell me, that you go there?," he asked, coming down to her eye level. The girl wasn't very secretive, she usually told him – or someone of his friends, who would tell him eventually – everything going on in her life.
"I wanted to, I mean, you are an uke, too, so I thought, that you would like it there.," she started.
When Eggman had outed him as an uke, Vanilla had explained the fact to her daughter. He didn't know, what she had said, but Cream didn't see or treat him any different and he was grateful for that.
"Then...why didn't you?," the hedgehog gently pried. "Mephiles asked me not to. He said, that Silver should do that.," Cream answered. "M-me? Why?," Silver wondered, this was obviously new to him.
Sonic, however, could guess, what the dark seme had had in mind. If Cream would have been the first one to tell him about the Shelter, he would have kept away from it and tried everything to get her and her mother out of it, too. He would have assumed, that it was like the fake institute, that the two couldn't know, what danger they had gotten into, as the details of the Island were for them unknown also.
But Silver had been through the same, as him (mostly, thankfully not everything). He knew of his doubts and fears, as they were his own and knew, what to tell him to let him give this place a true chance. Maybe...it was worth a try.
Noticing, that Tails, Shadow and Knuckles were still tense, he straightened. "Hey, Silver, mind giving us a minute?," he smiled. "Sure. Can I look closer at the big gem?" The uke stood up and pointed to the Master Emerald.
Knuckles gritted his teeth, but answered, "Just...don't touch it." "Okay, thank you!," the young uke replied happily and ran up the stairs of the temple, which left Knuckles so tense, that Shadow – who only helped, because Sonic was still avoiding bodily contact – and Tails had to drag him away.
The group of four went to a small clearing, not too far away from the temple. "What should we do?," Tails asked silently, looking to Sonic. He was deep in thought, too, he saw that.
"Friend of yours or not, I don't trust this guy.," Knuckles declared. "I hate to do it, but I agree with the echidna. Silver may be your friend, but he could be used. You know, how gullible he is.," Shadow agreed.
"Silver only means well, I know that. He wouldn't trick me. The same goes for Cream.," Sonic stated matter-of-factually. For some reason, there wasn't the slightest doubt in his heart, that they had spoken the truth.
He always believed his friends, but usually, there was a small amount of doubt left, just to be sure, that dissipated instantly after confirming the story/statement. But not now.
"Still-" "Do you want him to get worse!?," Tails screamed suddenly, interrupting Knuckles, who looked at him, shocked.
Sonic frowned in worry. He knew, that this whole situation was stressing his young brother out, maybe more, than Shadow. He hated, that his instincts still didn't let him close enough to comfort him.
By now, Tails was crying, and it was clawing at his heart. "You heard Silver, he said, that Sonic would get worse! What if he dies, huh!?," Tails sobbed loudly.
Sonic looked at him, racking his brain for a way to tell him, that he wouldn't die. His current condition wasn't exactly a convincing argument.
Shadow looked to the side. Sonic couldn't die. He was, like him, immortal. Back on the Island, Sonic had once been close to death and, not ready to let him go, Shadow had shared his blood and immortality with him. Sonic had been too weak and the surroundings too insecure for him to tell him about that back then – and until now, the blue one was still unaware of this gift (or curse, however he would see it).
Shadow hadn't supposedly kept it a secret. He had tried to tell him, right after telling him about his own immortality, but Sonic's reaction hadn't exactly been...positive. And he had lost the courage to continue. But when was a better time to do this? So far, he hadn't found it.
"Of course I don't want him to die.," Shadow heard Knuckles soothing Tails, which ripped him out of his thoughts and let him focus on the present. "I'm just saying, that we need to be careful."
"By not going, or what are you implying?," Tails growled. It was rare, that he got actually mad at someone – and even rarer to pick a fight, with Knuckles of all people.
They were all about to lose their heads here, but for some reason, Sonic had suddenly the feeling, that he could think straighter than ever, now, that the situation threatened to escalate.
"Guys, I know, what we'll do.," he declared and turned around to march back towards the temple, followed by the others.
Silver was amusing himself with making faces in front of the Master Emerald, laughing at his mirror image, that got distorted by the uneven surface of the gem.
Cream sat on the stairs of the temple, Cheese on her lap, tickling him with a finger and giggling with him.
"Silver!" All three looked up upon hearing Sonic's call. "Yes?" Using his powers, Silver lifted himself up and landed in front of Sonic.
"Can you tell me, who is responsible for this Uke Shelter?," Sonic asked, having the feeling, that this question was the key.
"Hm..." Silver frowned, thinking hard. "I don't know." Before Knuckles and/or Shadow could rage, how that was even possible, he already continued, still in thought. "I mean, John built this place and gets all the food and medication and so on, but Kylie is the director, so I'm not sure, who the responsible one is. Or maybe...they both are...? Hm...or is it just John...?"
In the middle of Silver's musings, Sonic could feel the tension around him beginning to deflate and grinned. Those two names were truly magical words, they put everyone's worries to rest instantly.
John Perringten was Jester's son. He had at first followed his father blindly, before he had started to think for himself and quickly rebelled afterwards. He was actually one of the heroes, who had ended the Island's terror for good.
Kylie Ellen had been against Perringten's doings the whole time, but had been forced to work for him, as he had threatened her family. She had done everything in her power to protect and free the mobians, even risked her life and her family's several times.
They hadn't seen those two humans since their rescue from the Island, when they had gone to jail for their crimes and had been set free three months later.
Since their freeing from jail, Tails had wanted to visit Kylie, who had become a mother figure for him, but Sonic had asked him for patience – she hadn't seen her children and husband in three long years, she needed for sure some time with them alone. Seemed, as if they would meet again now.
"Silver.," Sonic gently interrupted Silver's continuing loud thoughts and the younger male immediately shut up, looking at him. "Would you bring us to this Uke Shelter? We would like to check it out."
"Sure! Oh, wait, I have just the thing for that!" He clapped his hands once, and a small violet glowing ball appeared between his palms.
"What's that?," Sonic asked, watching the small thing, that seemed to pulsate like a little heart. "A spell, from Mephiles. It can transport me and everyone close to me to Mephy. Great, huh?"
"A spell? That's just Chaos Energy, compressed.," Knuckles muttered, eyeing the ball. Its energy was bordering to being negative.
"Yeah, Mephy said something like that. 'Spell' just sounds cooler.," Silver shrugged, before he grinned. "Alright, here we go!"
He held the ball up on his right palm and it shone, bathing everyone in its shine, taking them with them. ...Well, not all of them.
