I do not own anybody and neither does my friend.

Chapter 5: The Past

"Shadow? Where are you?" Sonic called. You could tell he'd been practicing his running there was smoke coming from the soles of his shoes. 'He's not in the house, so he's probably in the yard.'

"Sonic, did you wear out your shoes again? I told you, there's no way you can beat my speed, no matter how much you practice," Shadow said, flicking his brother in the forehead. (Remind you of anyone?)

"OW! Why do you still do that?" Sonic pouted.

"Because I can."

"Well, stop. It's annoying."

Shadow didn't respond, because he heard someone approaching. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Impressive. You were able to detect us. Your senses are very developed. You're exactly the kind of hedgehog G.U.N. needs," a mysterious voice said.

"And why the hell should I do anything for those military dogs?!" Shadow yelled.

"Because if you don't come with us, we'll kill your brother over there," the G.U.N. soldier said, while his partner held a rifle to Sonic's head.

"Shadow? Why do they want you? I don't want you to leave!" Sonic cried. There was fear, confusion, and anger in his eyes.

"What else can I do, Sonic? If I don't go with them, then they'll kill you. I'm the older brother, so that means I protect you. Not the other way around," Shadow reasoned.

The anger in Sonic's eyes grew, and his jade eyes seemed to disappear as a dark aura surrounded him. (DSS at age 3? Cool.) "You won't always be there to protect me, Shadow. Guess it's time I started protecting myself!" he yelled, as he charged at the men talking to Shadow.

Shadow was stunned. 'Sonic? What happened to you? I don't happening, but I can't let anything happen to you,' he thought. And with that thought, he rushed in between chibi DSS and the soldier.

Chibi DSS skidded to a stop, instantly reverting back to Sonic. "Shadow? What are you doing? Why are you stopping me?" he asked, tears welling up in his eyes.

Shadow didn't respond, but he looked at Sonic with sadness and guilt in his eyes. "Sonic… I'm sorry." That was the last thing he said to Sonic before walking up to the soldier. "I'll come with you if you promise to not hurt my brother now or anytime in the future."

"What?! Shadow you can't go with them. You just can't!" Sonic cried.



"Don't worry, kid. We'll just train him how to fight and things like that. He won't exactly be working for, or with, us. Training takes several years and when it's done, we'll let him go, alright?" The soldier explained.

Sonic still wasn't convinced, and charged the guy again. This time, however, the man's partner grabbed Sonic and threw him 10 feet into the opposite direction.

"Hey! I said not to hurt him!" Shadow yelled, now worried and angry.

"Easy, kid. He's not hurt, just a bit dazed," the guy (let's just call him Bob) reassured. "Now, we need to get away quickly, so that he can't follow us."

"I can do that," Shadow said. He then grabbed the two soldier's hand and sped away.

As they sped through the forest, Sonic got up and followed them. Of course, due to the condition of his shoes, he tripped and started somersaulting. "WHOA!"

Shadow heard the screaming, but couldn't risk going. He wasn't sure if Bob's partner would really kill Sonic of not .He also remembered the promise he made when Sonic was born.

'No matter what happens, I'll always be there to protect you.'

Then, they heard a crash behind them. Apparently, Sonic had curled up into a ball while somersaulting and promptly crashed into a tree. He was dizzy, but quickly shook it off.

"Shadow, please. You can't go with them! You're abandoning your friends and family!"

"It has to be this way, Sonic." Shadow reached into his quills and pulled out a necklace with a weird red and black symbol (It's that symbol that was on the Shadow the Hedgehog box). "I want you to have this. Keep it with you, and you'll have a piece of me with you forever. And never forget, we're brothers and noting can or will ever break that bond."

Sonic took the necklace, but before he could say anything else, Shadow grabbed the soldiers and Chaos Controlled away.

In sadness, Sonic fell to his knees, crying. "SHADOW!" His scream could be heard miles away.

End dream/flashback

Shadow leaned over Sonic since he sensed a disturbance emitting off of him.

"I wonder if Sonic's having a nightmare?" he mumbled. He got closer because he noticed Sonic's eyes twitching a bit. Sonic then shot forward and yelled "don't go!" Crack! The two skulls banged against each other with extreme force. At the moment of impact, something fell out of Sonic's quills. Shadow was knocked unconscious and fell back against the cool floor.



Sonic's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was shadow's body lying on the floor. That's when he finally had truly awakened.

"Shadow!" He turned to face Amt and Tails, who, by the way, were aghast. "What happened?!"

"Sonic! You're alright!" Amy floated to her koi and gave him a bone-crushing bear hug.

"Amy, I can't… breathe…" Sonic's face was turning purple due to the lack of oxygen while struggling to break free of Amy's lung-constricting death grip. Tails then ran up to them and tried his best to get Amy off of Sonic.

"Amy, let go of Sonic! Come on, before he gets really ma-"

"Let go of me, you stupid slut!" Sonic, with new found strength, pulled Amy off and he was about to toss her to the side, but when he looked into her traumatized eyes, he took a deep breath and calmed down. "Gomen. I didn't mean it." He looked downward with shame on his face and let go off her.

"That's okay." She said cheerfully. "I forgive you." She then walked off and stood near Tails, who had decided to wait until Sonic was okay.

"Anyway, about Shadow… he… was staring at you and then you woke up and… he… you … kinda banged him on the forehead and then he… was… knocked out." Tails placed his hand behind his head.

Sonic touched the middle of his forehead and noticed a small, tender bump there.

"Heh… oops. I guess I really do have a hard head." He chuckled. Sonic looked around and noticed that something was missing. "Hey, where's Knuckles?"

Tails's face suddenly turned serious.

"He left to go dispose of the bodies."

"Dispose of the bodies… does that mean that I… ki-"

Tails quickly interrupted. "Yes, Sonic, unfortunately. Sorry." Amy then looked behind Sonic and saw a necklace there with a weird symbol. She went over to him and picked it up. "Hey, Sonic, is this yours?"

Sonic looked at what she had in her hand. "Huh? Oh, yeah, Shads gave it to me before he left so I would never forget him. Weird thing is, I completely forgot I had it." He took it from Amy's hand and carefully placed it around his neck. "As it should be!" he nodded.

Then there was a long, awkward silence.

cricket, cricket

"So… how long do you think it takes an echidna to haul off a couple of dead bodies? I mean, come on! He should be back by now."Sonic broke the stillness.



"I don't know. How long does it take for the ultimate life form to wake up from a head butt?" Amy poked Shadow with a stick.

"Well, while we wait, how 'bout you tell us how you earn your hydrophobia?"

Sonic pondered this and agreed. "Okay, just pay attention to the flashback."

Flashback

A 3 year-old Sonic was in the yard with his big brother, Shadow. For some reason, the younger of the two liked to challenge the older to a race when he had the chance. Today was no different.

"Hey, brother, can we race today? Please?" Sonic asked, using the puppy dog eyes to try to persuade Shadow.

"If I say yes, will you stop asking?" Shadow inquired. Sonic nodded. "Okay. We'll race by the river. It's supposed to be calm today."

"Okay."

When they got to the river, they started near the waterfall. The river was calm, and by calm, the river's current wasn't strong enough to sweep you away just by touching the water.

"Okay. Ready, set, GO!" And with that, they were off. Shadow easily took the lead, but saw that Sonic was easily catching up.

'Impressive. He's actually catching up. Guess I better speed things up a bit.' Shadow thought as he sped up. "Think you can catch up now?"

Sonic was about to respond, when he tripped over a rock. With a yelp of surprise, he tumbled into the river.

SPLASH!

"Sonic!'

"Help me! Brother, help me!" Sonic screamed as he struggled to keep his head above the water. He was scared because 1) he didn't want to die and 2) he can't swim.

'What will I do? If I run back to get Mom and Dad, I might not make it back in time. There's only one option left.' "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow teleported to where Sonic was, (desperately hanging onto a rock at the moment) grabbed him, and swam to safety. (He wasn't sure if Sonic would also teleport with him willingly.)

When they got to shore, Shadow noticed that Sonic was unconscious, but unhurt. Nonetheless, Shadow felt really guilty. 'He could've died, and it would've been my entire fault,' he thought. (Aww… he does 

care.) Although he felt guilty, he was also relieved that Sonic wasn't hurt, but he wondered if the near-drowning experience left some psychological effects. (You have no idea, Shad.)

End Flashback

Terribly sorry for the late updating, but I've just been so unmotivated to write this stuff, so… what are you gonna do? Kill me? Ha, yeah right. But I've gotta give credit to my friend darksuperSonicLover58 for writing the dreams and flashbacks.

By the way, the fic will be ending in one or two more chapters. Finally.