A/N: Sorry it took so long to write this. In all honesty, I didn't write this chapter. Crazy Muffin Assassin did. All I did was give her a rough outline of what I wanted to happen. For whatever reason, I wrote this chapter at least twelve different times in a multitude of different ways, and none of them sounded quite right, or finished, so I asked my friend CMA to help. Any praise should be directed or addressed to her.

Sky's POV

"So you like Shady? I like Shady too, even though I love Miles. Miles says he's like a hero. Is he a hero? I kinda thought he was like an anti-hero or something. Do you think he and Sonic look alike? I heard that Amy thought he was him, but she was wrong and he's really not him but someone else that's not him." My eye twitched as Marine continued with her blabbering. I'd lost track of what the hell she's talking about, and I'm supposedly one of the greatest minds on the planet! We've been standing out here for the whole of ten minutes, and I already want to kill myself. My God, if she doesn't stop talking...

"Look, Marine?" I finally got few words in. She snapped her mouth shut and looked up at me with wide eyes. Well, that shut her up.

"Yeees...?"

"I'm pretty beat, and, well, since I've already got my dress sorted out, I was thinking that I'm just gonna go," I told her, silently wishing that she wouldn't insist on tagging along.

"Oh, well I guess I'll just go with ya!" Damn it. I heaved a sigh, my ears drooping slightly.

"Fine." We started walking, heading back towards Silver's house. Delicate flakes of snow began to fall from the sky, lightly dusting my fur. Ah... March... Your fickle weather patterns never fail to amaze me... Silver and I both love snow, mostly because we lived in Crisis City for most of our lives and, well, it's one huge, freakin fire!

"S-snow?" Marine stuttered, shivering and hugging herself. "I-it's cold!" No duh, Sherlock.

"Do you wanna head back to the dress shop? It's closer than Silver's place." Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes!

"N-no, I'm a-okay, mate," Marine answered, her teeth chattering. Damn it! I took off into a run, leaving Marine well behind me. I felt a stab of guilt for ditching her like that, but, well, I got over it. I neared Silver's place in a matter of seconds. Heh, you know what stopped me? I tripped. True, I am extraordinarily clumsy, but I don't usually trip on snow. With a groan, I turned to see what could possibly have made me stumble.

There was a large green mound buried beneath the snow. What could that be? I wondered, crawling over to check it out. I only saw a single streak of bright red against black, and I knew. It was Shadow. I dug frantically, snow flying up around me as I struggled to uncover the unconscious hedgehog. He was wearing a green uniform, but the jacket was completely shredded. Plus, a sleeve was missing. I saw his arm, again, black and red, which verified his identity. He was wearing a helmet, so I took it off, and tossed it to the side to get lost somewhere in the snow. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and his eyes were squeezed shut.

"Sh-Shadow?" I stuttered, shaking him gently. He moaned and his voice edged with pain. I shifted him slightly, shocked to see the snow stained with blood.

"I'll get you out of here," I murmured, placing his arm over my shoulders. A glint of gold caught my eye, and I dropped him momentarily. I reached for the glimmer; surprised to see that it's one of the bands he wears on his wrists. The same ones he never takes off. Swiftly, I snapped it around the one bare wrist, ensuring that it is tightly secured. His breathing became stronger, though it was still ragged and uneven. I began to drag him up towards the house.

"Wow, you're heavy!" I grunted in surprise. Seriously, he's heavier than I thought! But still, I managed to lug him up the hill. Just as I got Shadow settled on the couch, the door flew open. You'll never guess who it was...

"You bloody left me!" Marine snapped, stomping into the den. Yeah, that was the point.

"Shh, Marine, I'm sorry," I whispered. She began to shout obscenities. I rolled my eyes. "Shut up and look at who I found."

Marine's eyes looked down and widened. "Shady!"

"Yeah, so hush," I told her quietly. "Could you get me the first aid kit from the bathroom, please?" Marine nodded, silent for once, and left to fetch what I'd asked for. I turned my attention back to Shadow, who was beginning to look weaker by the second. I turned him over to take a look at the source of his wounds. The back was worse than the front by far, and there were shards of broken glass and metal stuck in his back. Okay, this is going to hurt...

I clenched my jaw and ripped the jacket from him, taking much of the debris out of his flesh with it. His back arched, and he released a low groan of pain. Marine returned with the first aid kit, handing it to me. I open it up, removing cotton balls and a bottle of alcohol. After removing the remaining shards from Shadow's back, I dabbed at his wounds with the alcohol, my ears flattening as he hissed with pain. The front door opened yet again, and I heard a familiar set of footsteps, alerting me of the arrival of my twin.

"Sky, can you believe it's snow- is that Shadow?" He bolted to my side.

Blaze's response to my discovery? "You're getting blood on my furniture."

"Yeah, I know. I'll clean it up later," I grumbled without looking at her. Why does she insist on being so irritating?

"Where did you find him?" Silver asked, kneeling beside me and watching my hands as I bandaged Shadow's wounds. "And what happened to him?"

"I found him in a snow bank on the way up to the house. There was, um, broken glass and burnt shards of metal lining his back," I explained, taping the last bandage down. "He was a mess when I found him."

"I can imagine," Silver murmured. He turned, jumping as he saw Marine for the first time. "Marine? What the heck are you doing here?"

"Hey, pointy, no need to sound so dodgy! I came up here with Sky!" the young raccoon answered, obviously having gotten over her chill.

"Oh, um, could you please, uh, leave?" Silver asked, trying to be nice. He's always been a bit of a wuss. I rolled my eyes again, turning my attention back to Shadow. I turn him back over, careful of his injuries. His breathing was steadier, and the color had returned back to his face. I smoothed the fur on his cheek, resisting the temptation to plant one on him then and there. Even unconscious, bleeding, and covered with soot (although that doesn't really have a huge effect anyway. He's black for heaven's sake), he's still gorgeous. I brushed off the ash staining the fluffy white patch of fur on his chest.

"I'm not leaving! It's bloody cold out there!" Marine protested, fighting Silver in the doorway and breaking me away from my thoughts.

"Marine, it's not that we don't want you here, it's just that, well, we kind of need some... family time, 'Kay?" Silver lied. Family time? Ha! I didn't think that Silver could make a joke.

"But it's snowing!"

"Oh, it's fine, Silver," Blaze stepped in, a sneer spreading on her face. "She can stay and keep Sky company." Bitch. I shot her a death glare, baring my teeth in a silent snarl. She smirked at me, her eyes reflecting my own hatred. I whipped my head back around with huff. I waited for her to walk out before relaxing. Silver flashed me a sympathetic look, lifting himself up with a grunt.

"I'll come back later. Could you clean up by yourself?" he asked, his eyes resting on me, dark with concern. Gee, thanks for offering your services, bro. You're such a wonderful brother, I thought sarcastically, blinking at him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Marine can help me, right Marine?"

"Huh? Yeah!" the younger replied bluntly, staring at me stupidly. I sighed. It's going to a be a long night...

Shadow's POV (subconscious)

Once again, I had to let Maria patch me up. See what had happened was there was an experiment run amuck, and I had to put a stop to it. Of course, this resulted in serious injury to myself and the ARK as a whole.

"Why do you do this to yourself, Shadow?" Maria's voice was soft, and her blue eyes were dark with worry. For a human, she's quite beautiful. She's precious to me, my only true friend.

"Because-Ow!-everyone here is my family, and it is my duty to protect all of you," I answered simply, wincing as she rubbed me down with alcohol, making my skin burn.

"You got yourself into quite a pickle, eh, Shadow?" Professor Gerald's voice was the next thing to reach my ears. "You did well, my boy."

"I try my best, sir," I told him, dipping my head. "I'd do anything to protect my home."

"I see that," the Doctor observed, nodding. I felt something press against my cheek; it was warm, and soft. What could it be? I touched the spot lightly with my hand, feeling only a slight tingling sensation and nothing more. My face burned, and my hand remained on my cheek.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" Maria asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Professor Gerald joked lightly. "Maybe you hit your head while you were fighting Artificial Chaos." Artificial Chaos was meant to be an indestructible goo-like substance, based off an ancient god from some far off religion. Indestructible, that is, before I stuffed it into a jar and sent it flying into space.

"It's nothing," I muttered, reluctantly pulling my hand away from my face.

Sky's POV

I withdrew from Shadow's cheek with tears welling up in my eyes. A few dropped from my eyes, dripping onto Shadow's body. I rested my head on his chest, letting the sobs rack my body. Oh, Shadow, what happened to you?