Sorry for the long update; I was struggling with writer's block for the longest time. That, and schoolwork taking up a lot of my time, was why I haven't updated in forever. I'll try to remember more often to update!
Sonic, Ruby, and Tails were temporarily shoved into a cell, while Knuckles' unconscious body was dragged out of the room. Sonic tried with all his might to break the bars, but these ones weren't meant to be easily opened, and he could do no more than leave a dent in the metal. Sonic growled angrily and pounded his fists on the door.
"Come back and fight me Eggman!" he spat, "C'mon, you chicken-headed fool!" Sonic paced back and forth, seething and panting heavily, before he tried to ram the door again.
Ruby sat in the corner of the cell, her legs curled up to her waist and her arms cradling her knees, crying silently. Tails looked to Ruby when he heard a soft whimper between Sonic's furious shouts and the loud clanks. He saw Ruby was crying, and he scooted closer to her. Ruby looked up at Tails with red, puffy eyes, and she spoke.
"What're we going to do?" she whimpered. Tails, wordlessly, scooted closer and wrapped his arms around Ruby's shoulders and hugged her tight.
"Ssshh, sshhh, it'll be ok," he whispered to her. Another loud clank sounded out, which startled Tails and caused him to look up.
"Sonic, stop! There's no point, the door won't budge, so don't bother!" Tails shouted to the angry hedgehog.
"No! If I just hit it in the right spot, it'll give, I know it!" Sonic snapped, and he gave one more determined charge at the door. It did no difference, and only gave Sonic a worse pain in his sides. Tails sighed and looked back down at Ruby.
"It's alright," he whispered to calm Ruby, stroking her bangs gently.
It was a half-an-hour later. Sonic had finally given up on trying to escape, and for awhile he just stared out the cage bars into the darkness. A moment later, Tails looked up and called Sonic's name, his voice echoing in the empty room. Sonic looked back at Tails and found him hugging Ruby, to try and calm her. She was crying, and Sonic hated to see people cry, especially girls, and he walked up to her and knelt by her side. He hugged her as well, his arms on top of Tails', and he whispered to her. "It's alright Ruby, no way am I going to let him roboticize us, or kill your children," he promised. Just then, all the lights in the room turned on, temporarily blinding the three, and they could hear Eggman's laughter as they squinted in the white light.
Knuckles moaned as he came back into consciousness, and he found himself looking up into a bright light, and he squinted. He tried to shield the light with his hand, but realized his hand had been fastened to the table he was lying on. Wait a moment… table? Why on earth was he lying on a tabletop?
"H-Hey… what's going on?" Knuckles nervously stammered. He quickly realized that he had been stripped of his clothing, and only a towel covering his lower half was on him, and Knuckles suddenly felt self conscious. He turned his head to one side, but saw no one. He turned his head to the other side and saw something that sent a shiver down his spine; scalpels and other sharp and pointy operating knives sitting in a small tray were sitting right next to his head! Knuckles began to pant heavily in fear, and he tried to free his hands and feet, which were also cuffed to the table. He heard Sonic, Tails, and Ruby all call his name from somewhere around him. He tried to look ahead of him, but his pregnant belly prevented him from seeing what was in front of him. Knuckles gulped nervously and he tugged at his hands again, while he spoke to his friends.
"Guys..? Where are we, what's going on?" he frantically asked. See, Knuckles hated doctors and hospitals, especially when it came to operations, and the pregnant echidna found himself hyperventilating and beginning to freak out.
"Knuckles, calm down!" Ruby said to him sternly.
"Where are you, I can't see you!" Knuckles cried.
"It's alright, we're right here in front of you in this cage," Tails assured.
"Eggman didn't do anything to you yet, you're safe right?"
"No Knuckles, we're fine," Ruby assured gently, "Just calm down and breathe." Knuckles swallowed down the lump in his throat and he sucked in a deep breath to settle himself.
"Knuckles, use one of the scalpels to try and pick the locks on your hands and feet," Sonic told Knuckles. Knuckles looked to the knives by his side and he reached out with his hand for the knives. Knuckles grunted with struggle as he stretched his hand at the wrist for one of the knives. He was so close, when he suddenly felt a pain in his lower abdomen, rushing down his pubic area and legs, and he gasped in pain.
"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.
"Augh! I don't know!" Knuckles replied, "I suddenly felt this awful pain in my stomach!" Tails' voice spoke up immediately.
"These pains, were they sharp and quick?" he asked.
"Yeah… it's gone now, why?" Knuckles asked. "There isn't something wrong with the babies, is there?" he asked. He could hear Tails mutter, "Oh no, this is not good," which only made Knuckles more scared.
"Knuckles, you've gone into labor! The babies need to come out now!" he said to the echidna with a terrifyingly urgent voice. "If your water breaks, it could drown them, because the water will be trapped inside!"
"Eggman!" Ruby called at the top of her lungs. "Eggman, please, listen to us!" she called. And then another voice was heard, a darker and lower voice, and Knuckles looked to one side and saw Shadow walking into the room.
"Something I can do to help?" he asked.
"Shadow! Shadow, please, help him!" Ruby cried. "Knuckles has gone into labor, and he can't just push them out! Please, the kits will die if you don't remove them now!" She looked up at Shadow with tear-filled eyes, gripping onto the metal bars. "Please Shadow, you don't have to do anything else for us, just don't let our babies die this way!" she cried. Shadow looked over to Knuckles, who looked at Shadow and was panting heavily for a moment, before he winced, closing his eyes, gritting his teeth, and clenching his fists. Another labor pain passed, and when Knuckles opened back up his tearing eyes, Shadow was standing over him, and he placed a hand gently on his belly. He could feel the two infants moving under his skin, and Shadow looked away from Knuckles' terrified gaze.
"The doctor is planning on killing them anyways, why does it matter to you if they're born first?" he asked Ruby. Ruby sniffed and clenched her eyes shut, tears forced from her eyes to roll freely down her cheeks.
"Because I love them, and I want a chance to see them before they die," she said with a quiet, shaky voice. "Our first baby was a miscarriage. I didn't even get the chance to see it before it died; it didn't even get a chance to live! I want these two to live! Please, Shadow, let them live for awhile, for me!" Ruby cried, and she blinked back more tears. "…For us!" she added, before Sonic hugged her face into his shoulder for comfort. Shadow could feel mixed emotions forming in his chest as he saw Ruby hugging onto Sonic and crying, his blue counterpart only glaring back at him in response. Shadow then looked back to Knuckles. The laboring echidna was breathing heavily in fear and turning his head from side to side, his chest and belly heaving from his terrified breaths and his fur matted down with sweat.
"Fine, I'll birth your children," Shadow said, taking off one glove, and then the other, leaving his inhibitor rings on his bare wrists. Shadow's eyes glanced over to Ruby. The tearful girl mouthed the words "thank you" to him, before he looked away again. Shadow grabbed a syringe that was pre-filled with a clear liquid.
"Now, I'm going to numb you up really good, so you probably won't feel much of anything from the waist down," Shadow told Knuckles, who nodded tentatively.
"It'll be ok Knuckles," Ruby called to him, and though he couldn't reach her, he was sure that if she were by his side, she'd be squeezing his hand tight. Shadow flicked at the syringe to mix up the sedative, and was about to inject it into Knuckles' side, when suddenly the door burst open.
"Shadow, what is this?" Eggman demanded. "I said to leave the echidna alone!" he shouted.
"Doctor, the echidna is in labor, and his friends begged me to birth the babies before you roboticize them," Shadow said. His glare grew sharp and hard as he stared at the doctor. "I promised them I would, and I don't go back on my promises," he said sternly. Eggman growled in his throat.
"Fine, go ahead and get the little brats out! I'll get more enjoyment out of killing them then!" Eggman said, as he pulled up a chair and sat down near the door. Shadow injected Knuckles with the sedative; it hurt the echidna a little bit, but not half as bad as the labor pains hurt, so he hardly noticed. Shadow readied all his operating equipment and waited for the sedative to kick in, but from the obese doctor's perspective, it looked as though the hedgehog was just stalling. Eggman growled again and stood up.
"What is the hold up, Shadow?!" he roared, shoving his chair aside.
"I have to let the sedative spread before I can operate," Shadow explained. Eggman was just like a spoiled rotten kid on Christmas day, waiting around the tree to get his presents; the scientist wanted to play with his new robots, but he couldn't very well do that if he was stuck watching this.
"Who cares about the sedative, let's just get this over with so I can have my new robots!" Eggman yelled impatiently as he stormed up to the echidna on the table. He grabbed for any random scalpel on the tray with a disturbed sneer.
"Doctor, NO!" Shadow shouted, and without warning, Eggman ripped the knife across the flesh on Knuckles' abdomen, cutting into his skin and drawing blood. Knuckles' cries of agony echoed in the room, and Sonic, Tails, and Ruby had front row seats.
All I could feel was throbbing pain, pounding like a heartbeat inside of me. My vision and hearing both were blurring, as I could see Shadow rushing up to aid as the doctor continued to cut me open. I could only hear and see small parts. I saw the two of them working behind my belly- then the picture and sound faded into a white blur. I could hear my wife and friends screaming my name in fear and agony, I could almost see Ruby's face as I heard her fearful crying- then everything faded again. I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears, growing louder and louder as the room's lights seemed to feel brighter. The pain was overwhelming, and I wasn't sure anymore if some of the screams I heard were my friends' or mine. I felt so guilty; along with all the pain, I was also forcing my friends and my wife to see me in this state. I couldn't imagine how Ruby must be feeling right now!
My fists were clenched so tight my fingers were turning white, as the unbearable pain started to make me feel light-headed. I could feel the weight on my body disappearing, and I strained my neck to try and see if my children had been born yet. Eggman was holding one of the children, and Shadow the other. They were massaging the babies' backs to get them to breathe- my vision and hearing faded yet again and the pain began to subside; I suspected either I was dying or the sedative was finally kicking in. And before things began to fade from view, I heard faint cries of infants, and I sighed a breath of relief, knowing my children were alive, before I fell out of consciousness.
The two babies cried their breaths of life, and they began to squirm in their hands, their eyes squinted shut and their furry little bodies bloody. Shadow looked down at the crying infant with curiosity, as a strange new feeling came over him; love. He looked to the mother, Ruby, who was looking at the two babies with happy tears in her eyes as she could see the two babies were alive and healthy. Then Shadow looked back down at the baby. It was a male; he was still crying and kicking his tiny legs in the air. Shadow, his mouth agape ever-so-slightly, reached down and wiped a smear of blood from the puny infant's face. And suddenly, Eggman reached forward and snatched the baby from Shadow's hands, so now he was holding both of them, one in each of his massive hands. Shadow immediately turned his attention back to Knuckles, who was unconscious and losing a lot of blood. He quickly began to stitch back up the gaping hole Eggman had ripped in his abdomen, wiping away blood and fluid from his fur and whispering his apologies to the unconscious echidna as he did so. Shadow sighed, as it was silent for a moment, and then he spoke quietly to the doctor, standing near him.
"You know, you could've killed him," he said to the man.
"Who cares?" Eggman replied, still looking down at the crying babies. He smiled widely at the infants, at the thought of strangling them in his grip, and then he glanced to the three in the cages. Sonic and Tails were still hugging Ruby, who still had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling and looking at the two babies. And then, Eggman got a brilliantly wicked idea that would torture the girl even more than killing the babies.
"Well, now that you've seen them, I guess that will be all?" he sneered to the girl. "Hmm, such a shame that these new lives have to go to waste like this," he said, looking down at the babies. He glanced back up to the three for a split second and smiled a big smile. "How about instead I keep the little rodents?" he proposed to the confused mobians. Eggman raised the baby's tiny faces to his, and his smile widened. "They'd make great sidekicks, and who knows, maybe they'll even become my successors?" he said. Ruby gasped at the thought and more tears began to form in her eyes. Shadow looked up from his work, and looked directly at the three shocked mobians.
"You wouldn't!" Ruby cried.
"Oh, I think we both know I would!" Eggman sneered, looking to the broken hedge-echidna. Ruby growled and suddenly reached out with one hand through the bars, growling and snarling, grabbing and clawing at the mad doctor to try and get a grip on his coat. Eggman, however, just backed away a step and watched as the girl seethed at him and tried to rip him to pieces, while Sonic and Tails tried to pull her back and calm her down. Shadow finished stitching and bandaging up Knuckles' abdomen, and he gently ran a hand over the echidna's now normal-sized belly, before he turned to face the others.
"Settle down little girl, before you hurt yourself," Eggman sneered, as he began to walk to the door, the babies' cries fading into whimpers and hiccups. Then Eggman turned to Shadow. "Throw him into the cell with the others," he commanded to Shadow, who nodded and obeyed. Shadow opened the door just wide enough to place the naked, unconscious echidna inside, and then he quickly closed the door before any of them even thought about escaping. The three of them immediately ran to Knuckles' side, and Tails began to look him over to be safe, avoiding eye contact with his body any lower than where the bandages were.
"Have fun being roboticized, as soon as I put these two somewhere safe." Eggman headed to the door with the two babies, and Ruby looked up and began to breathe hard from anger.
"EGGMAN!" she shouted, her voice cracking in the process, but the man just walked out the door, with Shadow following behind. The lights went out, plunging the animals into darkness. Ruby clenched her eyes shut, as more tears fell down her cheeks, as she looked back down at Knuckles and hugged him, her face nuzzled into his neck. Ruby cried onto her husband's shoulder, her tears wetting down his already dampened from sweat fur. But then she felt something touch the back of her head. She looked away from Knuckles' neck to find that he was the one touching her, and his eyes were half-opened. The echidna smiled and weakly huffed, his thumb gently massaging into the back of her head.
"Knuckles!" Ruby cried, and she hugged him tight. Knuckles grunted slightly from pain, but he hugged her back. "I'm sorry Knuckles… he took our babies away," she cried. Sonic and Tails stood away from the two of them, allowing the husband and wife to hug in peace. Sonic looked to the doorway of the cage and walked up to it. He was still very unsettled by what they had been forced to watch, and he felt his stomach churn as he looked back at the bloodstains on the floor outside of the cage. Sonic screwed up his face into a grimace and he slammed his fists into the door.
"We're never going to make it out of here!" he cried. "I-I can't believe it! Eggman finally won…" his voice trailed off. A tear fell down Sonic's cheek, and he looked back at the three of his friends. Tails sat on the dungeon floor, appearing to have lost any and all hope. Ruby and Knuckles were still hugging, and Ruby could still be heard crying and sniffling as she buried her face into her spouse's neck. Knuckles' eyes were glazed over with sadness and pain as he stared up at the ceiling; he could still feel some pain in his body, and was probably still numb from the waist down, though he hadn't tried to get up yet. Sonic let out a long sigh and he sat down as well.
"I'm sorry guys… I failed," he said quietly to his friends.
"It's not your fault this happened," Tails said, looking up to him. "But now we might as well face the facts; we're about to become a bunch of metal monsters," he said. But then they heard the creaking of the door slowly opening, letting in light from the outside. Sonic stood up fast and looked towards the door, as a dark figure stepped into the room. Sonic raised a brow and backed down in confusion.
"Sh-Shadow?" he asked. The black and red hedgehog stepped towards their cage and spoke.
"I've come to free you," he said.