Hey, guys! Sorry, I know it's been a while. I've been recovering from three years straight of call center jobs. I'm doing a lot better now, and I think I might have a job finally that I can keep on a long term basis! I'm excited for this! Wish me luck! Anyway, I've been in good enough spirits to get back into the habit of writing, so here's the next chapter. For those still in the midst of their difficult times, hold on, don't give up hope, and keep moving forward any way you can. Even an inch forward is progress! I hope you find yourself in better circumstances! Life can be like that some times, but you're not alone! Here's a story to help you escape for a while. I hope you enjoy!
It had been hours since they'd last seen Shadow. Tails was on a step stool, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, leaned over a work table soldering in the last few leads on his new 'Descrambler.' He looked for all the world like a busy little kid working on his next greatest piece of crayon art, except the tools in his hands were somewhat more dangerous.
The fox put his soldering iron back into its stand and turned it off with an air of finality.
"Okay," Tails said. "It's functional. Now I just need to put it in its casing and screw it shut. On this one, I can even adjust the intensity of the current it produces. That might make the first moments a bit easier on you guys."
Sonic turned and looked at the uncovered guts of the device Tails had just slapped together. There were computer chips and wires and an interesting coil of more wire at its heart. It kind of looked like a spring in the shape of a Christmas tree, and damned if he knew what any of it actually did.
Tails slid it into its new housing and quickly screwed on the back plate, then looked around.
"Where's Shadow?" he asked.
Sonic frowned. "Not sure," he admitted. "I thought he'd come back when he couldn't stand it anymore, but… I think it's time to go look for him."
The house wasn't that big so it didn't take long to find him. He was on the floor of the bathroom, leaning against the toilet and looking supremely uncomfortable. He glanced up when they came in, but his eyes slid off them in a way that did not look like it was entirely under his control. The ultimate life form cringed and clamped his eyes closed again. He was so bad off he couldn't even focus his eyes.
Sonic thought about calling him out for not coming back or even asking for help, but part of him knew any lecture he came up with would probably fall on def ears. Exchanging a wordless look with Tails, the two got to work, pulling off his shoes and hooking him up to the new descrambler.
Shadow put up no resistance, quietly letting them do whatever they needed to. When Tails started the flow of chaos, Shadow's stomach rebelled and he wretched into the toilet a few times, but nothing came up. After a bit, Shadow allowed his body to slide to the floor so he was curled on his side, and the three of them shared a quiet moment.
"How long till the storm breaks up?" Shadow asked quietly.
Tails glanced at his watch. "About another eight hours," he said. "The wind should die down at six o'clock in the morning."
"Eight hours huh?" Sonic murmured. "Might as well sleep."
"The guest bedroom's all set up," Tails said and turned to look at Shadow. "Think you can walk?"
Shadow slowly hauled himself upright and opened his eyes. "I think so."
Tails got to his feet and picked up the machine. "Come on," he said. "I'll show you the guest bedroom. You should try to sleep if you can. Its… its important right now."
Sonic watched as Tails led Shadow down the hall.
How long would it take to convince that guy that he could turn to them for help sometimes? Honestly, Shadow was probably worse than he was. Although, before Tails-. Sonic shut the thought down. Before he had Tails didn't matter.
Sonic wandered back to the workshop and began picking up the other Descrambler. There was no way he was gonna try to spend the night without it at this point. He'd been to that rodeo, gotten the souvenir and then processed one hell of a return on that momento. Nope, not doing that again. He turned to see Tails standing in the doorway.
"Shadow all settled in?" Sonic asked.
"...Yeah."
Sonic turned to look a little closer at his favorite fox. His baby blue eyes were practically shouting about how concerned he was, shoulders stiff and drawn inward.
"Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Sonic?" Tails said and seemed to hesitate for a moment. "I-I want you to be honest with me right now, 'cause… 'cause last time was really scary. I mean really scary. I thought you were going to die. So… How are you actually feeling right now? And don't you dare try to hide anything this time!"
"Oh Tails, I'm sorry," Sonic said. He suddenly couldn't disentangle himself from the Descrambler fast enough, but he set it down and kicked one last cable off his foot so he could hug his younger brother.
Tails immediately buried his face in Sonic's shoulder.
"I don't really want to go through that again," the fox said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. "And Shadow… is bringing it all back. He's really not doing well."
"Shadow's pretty tough," Sonic assured the fox. "He'll pull through. I think it would take a lot more than this to put him out of the fight for good. And as for me… well."
Sonic knelt down so he was more at eye level with the fox. He smiled.
"Here it is, one hundred percent honesty, I'm not even kidding, no heroics this time, promise," Sonic said, earning a slight smile from Tails. "I'm at about what I was feeling last time at the start. Occasional twitches. Random tastes and visual… color splotches. Slightly sick to my stomach. Nothing big. I'm not even starting to get dizzy."
Tails nodded, shoulders relaxing. "Okay Sonic," he said. "But if anything at all out of the ordinary happens, you tell me right away. Promise?"
"I promise Tails," Sonic said sincerely. "Even if it's one AM in the morning!"
"You better!" Tails said, rubbing his eyes. It must have been the dust from the workshop.
Sonic turned and started retrieving the Descrambler from the table again.
"So," Sonic said. "How 'bout you tuck me in this time?"
It was a bad night. Shadow's sleep was plagued by indistinct dreams that jolted him awake, leaving him sweating and breathing hard with a heavy pit of dread in his belly and no idea why. He lost count of the times he rolled over and did his best to go back to sleep. After a while he became resigned to the fact that true rest simply wasn't coming for him.
At one point he was up to get a glass of water and passed Sonic in the hall. The other hedgehog looked about as tired and dispirited as he felt. Neither of them said anything, but it was somehow enough to know that he wasn't alone.
Shadow actually managed to get a little sleep after that. His best estimate would have been about an hour and half of unbroken rest before the nightmares returned. It was enough to make him regret going to sleep at all.
The dream started innocently enough. They were aboard the ARK, and Maria approached him, eyes shining and happy for once. It looked like this would shape up to be one of her good days, until Shadow looked down. Two splotches of red blossomed on the front of her dress, and somehow he knew that if she looked down and saw the blood, she would die.
He begged her, pleaded with her to look at him, to keep her eyes on him while he figured out how to save her. There was nobody around to help them. His heart was in his throat as he searched for a way to save her, but all the medical supplies were gone except for a partially used box of bandaids of all things. It was like they'd been left behind to taunt him. The frantic terror quickly turned to hopeless dread, and Shadow knew it was only a matter of time before she looked down and saw.
Almost as if she'd read his mind, Maria looked down and saw the wounds on her chest, and he watched her realize her own death. Her blue eyes filled with panic and sorrow, snapped back up to meet his own red ones.
"Shadow!" she called, reaching out a shaking hand, and the sound of her pain filled voice echoed in his ears even as he woke up.
He sat up sharply, throwing the covers off his sweat dampened fur. It took a moment to get his breathing under control. It didn't help that he just felt ill. Shadow closed his eyes and pressed his face into his hands in an effort to stem the fresh grief of her loss. That didn't turn out to be such a great idea. Her face was painted on the backs of his eyelids, and the pain, sorrow, and terror he read on her expression, in her big blue eyes, was like a dagger to his heart.
The black hedgehog wrenched his hands away from his face and opened his eyes in an effort to erase the new set of images his subconscious had put together for his personal torment. It worked somewhat. There was a minimal amount of light coming in through the window. The rain had largely quit, and even though it was still horrifically windy outside, there were patches of sky visible between clouds. He glanced at the alarm clock and cringed. It was just about five o'clock in the morning. If Tails had been correct about the weather, it would be another hour before they could leave.
Sleep did not even occur to him as an option. He didn't want to eat either. He usually liked a good cup of coffee but even the idea of it made his stomach churn uneasily. Perhaps Tails had some good books around?
The guest bedroom was pretty bare. There was a bookshelf, but it was filled with science books. None of them looked too complex for him, but he wasn't really in the mood for scientific theory. They looked dusty, as if the little fox hadn't needed them in some time.
Shadow wandered into Tails' workshop and began to look around, carrying the device keeping him sane under his arm.
"Sonic, wake up," Tails' voice reached the hedgehog through his sleep and Sonic fought to wake up and open his eyes.
"Sonic?" Tails asked again, a note of worry creeping into his tone.
Spurred on by the fear in his little brother's voice, Sonic grit his teeth and fought harder. He sat up and opened his eyes, attempting to say that he was awake, but the words were badly slurred. "I'm awake," he tried again with more success.
"Good!" Tails said, sounding relieved. "Seemed like you had some trouble there."
"I did," Sonic admitted. "Sorry I scared you. It was a rough night."
Tails frowned sympathetically, and rubbed Sonic's arm. "I kinda figured it would be," he said. "We'll get you to Angel Island and you can rest there."
"The weather's cleared up?" Sonic asked hopefully.
"Take off might still be a little rough," Tails said. "But I don't really want to delay any longer than we have to."
"If you think you can do it, I trust you," Sonic told him and swung his legs off the bed. He hesitated once he was upright. Even with the descrambler actively working on him, he was starting to feel dizzy. "Yeah… let's go. It's getting worse."
"I've already gone through the preflight checks," Tails said. "We just need to get in and go."
"How's Shadow?" Sonic asked, getting to his feet once he thought he could stand.
Tails frowned. "Quieter than ever," he said. "He's been up for about an hour already. I found him in the workshop just looking at things. He seems really tired, and I can tell just looking at his eyes that he's dizzy."
"Don't tell him I said this, but he really is the ultimate lifeform," Sonic said. "I'm surprised he's still standing."
"Let's get going," Tails said, putting a steadying hand on Sonic's arm as he stood. "The sooner you guys are cured the sooner you can actually get some rest. Or… do you think you could eat anything or should we just go?"
Sonic cringed, his belly rolling uncomfortably at the suggestion of food. "Let's just go," he said and began stumbling towards the hangar.
Shadow was already there leaning against the plane with his eyes closed, an expression of discomfort on his face. He opened his eyes and Sonic saw the amount of effort it was taking him just to focus his eyes. "I'll need help getting into the plane," he admitted quietly. He did not look happy.
Sonic and Tails exchanged a worried look.
Even with the device running on full, Shadow's equilibrium was gone. His condition was rapidly getting worse. It took both Sonic and Tails combined efforts to get him settled into the passenger's seat. Sonic would normally wing walk, but he quietly admitted to himself that he was in no condition for it. If he lost his grip at a bad time, he could be swept away by turbulence. Knuckles generally kept Angel Island over the ocean for safety reasons.
Tails wordlessly assisted him into the copilot's seat and helped him strap in.
Take off from the Mystic Ruins was rough, but the whole time, Tails looked like he had an instinctive grasp on how the wind was influencing the Tornado. He angled the plane into the wind and gunned the engines lurching forward in a way that had them off the ground quicker than usual from a combination of the plane's speed and the wind. He took them down the cliff to gain momentum then circled, climbing with the wind instead of trying to fight against it. Soon, he pointed them out towards the open ocean and Sonic watched him settle in for the flight.
Sonic glanced back to see how Shadow was doing and cringed. The dark hedgehog was huddled in his seat, eyes clamped shut, and he was breathing very carefully. He looked seconds away from hurling, except that neither of them had eaten anything since the attack yesterday. Sonic knew he had nothing to bring up.
The weather only improved as they flew, much to Tails relief. It was only about ten minutes of flight later until Angel Island loomed into view. Wanting to let Knuckles know they were there, he did a courtesy fly by before lining up to land on the usual strip of cleared ground. Tails took a moment to taxi the Tornado into the tarp shelter that had become a semi permanent fixture before turning the engine of the plane off.
Shadow was unconscious in the back which was worrying, it must have happened some time during the flight, but Sonic couldn't say exactly when. He stood up, only to blanch and lower himself back down before he fell.
Tails turned and set the back of his hand against Sonic's forehead. "Sonic?" he asked.
"Sorry, Tails," Sonic said, managing a somewhat strained smile at his little brother. "Just give me a minute, I'll be fine."
"So," Knuckles said, announcing his presence. It was rare that he would come out to meet them at the air strip, and Tails jumped. "The Master Emerald starts acting up, and then, not even a full day later, you two show up. I'm not even surprised anymore."
"Hey, Knuckles!" Tails said, attempting a friendly greeting. "Sorry to just show up like this, sounds like you were kind of expecting us though."
Knuckles grunted noncommittally, then he actually started looking at Sonic. "Hey, Blue!" he said pointing one of his fists at the hedgehog. "Your nickname's gonna change to green if you lose much more color. Something wrong?"
Sonic took a breath and attempted to stand again. It didn't last long. He sank back down with a distressed moan, clamping his eyes shut and putting a hand over his mouth.
"Oh, man," Tails said, gently rubbing Sonic's shoulders. "I feel like this is progressing faster than last time."
Sonic took a few deep breaths and spoke without opening his eyes. "What do you think, Knuckles?" he asked, his voice lacked it's usual strength, and the casual tone was ruined. "Can we book the Master Emerald for a little quality time?"
Only Tails saw the flicker of actual concern on the echidna's face. "What happened?" he asked.
Sonic managed to open his eyes. "Got a little scrambled," he said, cracking a pained grin at Knuckles. "And I'm not the only one."
Knuckles looked at Tails, examining him closely.
"It wasn't me," Tails said, raising his hands defensively. "I'm fine, I promise. It was actually Shadow. He's in the passenger seat, but I think he passed out."
"Shadow?!" Knuckles exclaimed and jumped up onto a wing of the plane to see for himself.
Sure enough. The black hedgehog was slumped in the passenger seat, unconscious. There was a look of pained discomfort on his tense features.
Knuckles frowned. Sonic was a chaos user in a way that was more instinctive than he'd ever seen before, and the last time he'd had his chaos energy disrupted… well it had been bad to say the least. Shadow though… he was a being that almost seemed to be more chaos energy than physical matter. He couldn't even imagine what this was doing to the dark hedgehog.
"No one deserves that," Knuckles said and crouched close, undoing the restraints so he could lift Shadow free from the plane.
They made their way to the Master Emerald. The closer they got, the more Sonic's strength seemed to drain away and Tails had to carry him the last thirty feet.
"I wasn't awake for this part last time," Sonic said through clenched teeth as he started to shiver. His addled chaos energy was beginning to feel like a whirlwind carrying a bunch of kitchen knives. He shuddered helplessly at the pain zinging through his entire being. "Tails!"
Tails laid Sonic down under the shadow of the Emerald. "Sorry, Sonic," he said, clearly hearing the discomfort in his older brother's voice. He brushed a gloved hand over Sonic's forehead. "At least we're here now though, right."
Sonic nodded, the motion was stiff and tense as he did his best not to struggle. "There's that," he agreed.
"Try to let the Master Emerald do it's thing alright?" Tails suggested somewhat weakly, he wished there was more he could do.
"The kit's right, Sonic," Knuckles said as he lowered Shadow down nearby. "You're fighting it cause you're aware of what's happening this time, you need to relax and let the Master heal you. We should turn the machines off too." So saying, he turned off Shadow's descrambler and removed the leads attached to his ears and feet.
The change was instantaneous. Shadow moaned, curlinging in on himself. He even wretched once, but it was weak and failed to bring anything up. They watched in concern for a moment, but he didn't make any other sounds after that. He never even regained consciousness.
Tails turned back to Sonic and put a comforting hand on his forehead again. "Try to relax," he said, reaching for the machine attached to his older brother. He cut off the flow of chaos energy and pulled his leads free as well.
Sonic moaned and tensed up even more. "Tails!" he said desperately, and began to breathe in short strangled pants. The knives turned into a continuous roll of razor sharp wire, shredding away at his organs. Oh, it hurt!
Out of fear and concern for his older brother, Tails was about to turn the machine back on for him but Knuckles grabbed it and pulled it out of reach. "No," the echidna said. "He's got to let the Master work now. That's the only way."
Tails frowned, he didn't like it, but he knew Knuckles was probably right. The guardian was the foremost expert on the Master Emerald, and even chaos itself in some regards. He rubbed Sonic's arm. "Breathe!" he said. "You're gonna be fine!"
Sonic struggled and managed a deeper breath, eyes scrunched closed. He started to relax as the panic subsided a little, but then he felt it, a deep pull on what could have been his very soul. His eyes snapped back open and he bucked, trying to resist the powerful draw. "Tails!" he choked.
Two large hands caught his face, and suddenly he was looking into the deep violet of Knuckles' eyes. "That's the Master Emerald," he said firmly. "You need to trust her, she will not hurt you."
"I can't! I can't!" Sonic panted, writhing in Knuckles' hold as the bad chaos energy rolled and sliced away at him inside. "I feel th-this pull! It hurts! It hurts!"
"Sonic!" Knuckles said, shaking him once, sharply. "You need to stop resisting! The pain will stop, I promise, but you need to let go!"
Sonic closed his eyes as another pull hit him, but there was warmth this time. It poured into him with a sense of reassurance. Was that Knuckles? No… But maybe… maybe he was right. Sonic sought out the pull again and took a breath, letting it out with a whine, then he let go.
Instead of catching him, and pulling his life away, it held him and pulled at the chaos energy, binding it up and dulling its sharp lightning. He could feel it draining away. His body went limp without his permission.
"He's gonna be fine," he heard Knuckles say quietly.
"Are you sure?" Tails asked, wringing his hands. "I've never seen anything like that before."
Sonic managed to open his eyes. Above him was a cloud of… color. It swirled and changed above him rapidly and it made him feel sick again just looking at it. That's my chaos energy, Sonic thought dimly. No wonder he'd felt so sick. It was rising from his body in a steady stream and the Master Emerald was swallowing it up.
Wait. Wasn't that a bad thing? He tensed again, worried that the bad chaos would cause damage, but another pulse of reassuring warmth swept through him, and it was much stronger this time. It was like a wordless way of telling him not to be worried.
Sonic let his eyes drift closed again and burrowed into the warm reassurance that held him steady even as he felt weaker and weaker from the drain on his energy. It wasn't entirely comfortable still, but at least it didn't hurt anymore. The warmth caressed him again, and his breath evened out the way it often did before he fell asleep. Sonic surrendered once again, deciding that unconsciousness was the more comfortable option. With a little more encouragement from the Master Emerald, he drifted off.
Knuckles had pulled Tails back when the cloud of violently shifting colors began to drift up out of Sonic's body. The Master Emerald flashed once and began to draw the cloud in where it started to deal harshly with the corrupted energy.
"This is probably what happened last time," Knuckles said. "We just weren't there to see it."
"Right," Tails said, looking away from the shifting colors with a slight gag. "We spent a lot of time brainstorming over possible cures. Then Sonic waltzed up like the whole thing had been some kind of bad dream."
"We should probably leave," Knuckles said, glancing briefly at that chaos energy currently bleeding out of his friend. The very sight of it was enough to make his stomach turn. "I don't think it's a good idea to expose ourselves to that stuff."
"Okay," Tails said and began to turn away, but he hesitated suddenly and glanced cautiously back at Shadow. The dark hedgehog was still a heap of unmoving quills lying helplessly beneath the Master Emerald. There didn't seem to be anything happening. "What about Shadow?" he asked.
Knuckles turned to look and frowned. "You go on ahead," he told Tails. "I'll try to figure out what's going on with him."
Tails cast one last worried look at the ultimate life form, but turned to do as Knuckles had said.
Knuckles cautiously approached Shadow. His instincts were screaming at him not to approach the stream of energy flowing out of Sonic. Keeping his eyes downcast, he knelt by the dark hedgehog's side and put a hand on his forehead. Shadow's expression was tense, but it did not seem like pain.
The bad chaos energy was still roiling away inside his body, but it seemed contained for now, much to the Guardian's relief. He could feel the Master Emerald working to draw it out, but something was inhibiting the flow.
A gentle nudge pushed his concentration away from Shadow. The Master Emerald was telling him not to worry, and Knuckles nodded, feeling assured. Shadow was in good care. He walked away to go take care of Tails. Sonic would kill him if he let the little fox exhaust himself with worry.