"Well?" Shadow gruffly asked, his voice tinged with ice. "Out with it already."

Sonic felt his ears flatten back at the hostile invitation. Even when they considered each other enemies, there was always a kind of familiarity to their wordplay- one that acknowledged their limitations and challenged them to push past them.

This... was not that. And especially after the stress the hybrid had gone through last night, it felt even more jarring.

The blue hero gulped, trying to ignore the pit that was rapidly growing in his stomach.

"Listen, I..." He trailed off, struggling to find the right words. "I just... I'm worried. I know how much Rouge and Omega mean to you, and... I know from experience how- how easy it is to make... regrettable decisions when dealing with that."

Shadow spun around; crimson eyes narrowed squarely on his counterpart. His mouth contorted into a snarl as he spat his response out to the other hedgehog.

"And what decision would that be, exactly? Enlighten me."

It became immediately clear to Sonic that his wording couldn't have been worse.

"Wait, that came out wrong-"

"Oh, did it?" Shadow pressed forward, his glare growing sharper. "What other regrettable decisions am I going to make, Sonic? Should I try to crash the Ark into the Earth again? Maybe kill a few more humans in the name of the Black Arms? Give me enough time and I could probably pin the blame on you for a few crimes, as well!"

"I'm worried you're going to start pushing people away again!" Sonic yelled back, cutting the other hedgehog off.

The explanation caught Shadow off guard, his eyes widening only for a second before reverting back to his previous demeanor.

"I didn't mean to... say you were going to... do something bad. It's just- after we stopped fighting each other, I came to realize how much I enjoyed spending time with you, and..." Sonic looked down at his shoes, swallowing thickly as he felt his stomach churn. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

The silence hung thickly in the air between the two of them. The blue hedgehog struggled to suppress his urge to continue talking, to make it clear that he was just concerned about the well-being of his counterpart. But what words he had already uttered had only been received disastrously.

Shadow simply stood there, his expression as inscrutable as ever. It felt like an eternity had passed before he opened his mouth to reply.

"Is that all?" He asked, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.

The words hit Sonic like a punch to the gut. He was never that great of an emotional talker, but never had he screwed things up as badly as he just did. He wanted desperately to find the words that could make all of it better, or at the very least set himself on the right path... but it never came.

"Yeah." He sighed, admitting defeat. "Stay safe, Shadow."

The hybrid didn't bother with a response, opting to simply leave an orange trail in his wake as he skated off towards the horizon.

Sonic grimaced, his chest aching as he mentally beat himself up for his poor handling of the situation. Part of him knew that this was just one chance of many, and that he would have plenty of opportunities later to patch things up with the other hedgehog.

But it was hard to listen to that voice over the other thoughts that cluttered his head.

He found himself already speeding towards home. He blasted through the front door, zipping through the living room and hallway only to swing into his room and throw himself face down onto his bed. He barely registered the sound of papers and other small items that fluttered and clattered to the floor in his wake.

It wasn't long before Tails had exited the garage, alerted by the commotion, and followed the trail of litter to its destination.

The fox lightly rapped against the frame of the hero's open bedroom door.

"Went that badly, huh?"

Sonic could only muster a grunt, muffled by the sound of the pillow his face was buried in.

Tails let out a sympathetic sigh, taking a seat on the bed and patting his brother on the shoulder.

"Things are just... complicated right wow. I'm sure this will all blow over once this is all over. You two like each other too much to stay apart."

The hedgehog rolled his head to the side, giving a saddened look to the young fox.

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one getting all the enjoyment out of it."

"Look, I can't pretend to know what's going on in his head." He shrugged. "But if he really didn't want to spend time with you, he wouldn't have changed his running path to be closer to our home."

The observation genuinely took Sonic by surprise.

"I... didn't know that."

Tails smirked. "You do tend to be oblivious to stuff like that. Let's just focus on locating Rouge and Omega for now- speaking of, I just got off the phone with Vector."

"I take it Chaotix is on the job?"

The fox nodded.

"They said it's on the house this time. Apparently, Rouge gave them a hefty tip for locating some lost treasure for her and this is their way of repaying the favor."

Sonic let out a sigh of relief, a small smile gracing his lips as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Then I shouldn't be resting on my laurels. I know I can't go out exploring, but if there's anything I can help with, let me know."


Omega's optical sensors snapped online the instant his main systems were taken off standby mode. Within milliseconds, his hands snapped forward, fingers retracting to make way for the autocannon barrels that took their place. His microphones picked up the sound of numerous voices yelling, though the words they spoke could not be parsed by his auditory processing units amidst the other sounds that bounced around the area.

His feet remained planted to the ground as his waist rotated a full 360 degrees, taking note of his surroundings and the potential targets that surrounded him. He was in some kind of helicopter cabin, designed for military transport. The rounded walls were covered in a red netting. A small group of GUN soldiers were shouting, some with their hands held up as others pointed their guns directly at him.

Re-tuning his audio sensors to filter out the noise of the spinning blades of the aircraft, he was able to make out the noise of multiple men ordering him to stand down, and that he was being brought back to headquarters for debriefing.

Omega retracted his autocannons, clawed fingers replacing them. The soldiers lowered their arms, the closest ones clearly relieved that they weren't about to be turned into Swiss cheese.

"I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION FOR WHAT TRANSPIRED."

The soldiers looked at each other nervously. Eventually, one of the men seated in the back stood up. His face was obscured by his helmet visor and goggles.

"Sergeant Cross." He curtly introduced himself. "We were part of the team responsible for rescuing you and Rouge. We managed to secure you while Eggman had your systems powered off."

The robot brought his hands up, twisting his wrists in full circles within view of his optics.

"MY BODY WAS DESTROYED IN CAPTIVITY."

The Sergeant nodded, continuing his explanation without missing a beat. "When we found you, he had installed you into a new chassis. Based on his notes, he was planning on installing a bomb within you and detonating it when you returned to headquarters. Luckily, we arrived before that happened."

"THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THE LACK OF AMMUNITION." The robot noted, only just acknowledging the system alerts informing him of his empty reserves.

"We can get it restocked when you're back at base-"

"WHERE IS ROUGE? WAS SHADOW PART OF THIS OPERATION?"

The commanding officer paused, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Behavioral analysis indicated that there would not be good news.

"Our squad was assigned to rescue you. Shadow was part of the team that was securing Rouge." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "We don't know the full details. Radio chatter indicated that there was a trap of some sort waiting for them. There was an explosion, and... they didn't make it."

The robot remained silent for a moment. He focused on the other soldiers. None of them were willing to look back. He settled his attention back to the man talking to him.

"I DEMAND TO BE SENT BACK."

"I cannot authorize that." The man shook his head. "We don't know if your chassis will withstand the battle."

"THEN WE WILL TEST IT ON THE BATTLEFIELD."

"You don't even have any ammo!"

"THEN I WILL USE MY BARE HANDS."

"You will stand down, that's an order!" Sergeant Cross barked. "Doctor Robotnik has already fled the base; he will not be there. We need you back at headquarters to determine if you're fit for battle- we would much rather have you alive and ready to battle where it matters."

As much as Omega would have loved to throw the man out of the helicopter and use him to break his fall, the robot knew what he said was logically sound. He turned around, walked to a section of the cabin without other personnel, and manually switched his systems back into standby mode.

When he was brought back online, he found himself in a large warehouse, devoid of anything but a few shipping containers and an empty plane. He recognized it as a former arms-firing range, with the benches and targets removed.

A familiar voice crackled from a speaker overhead. It was instantly recognized as Commander Tower.

"Good afternoon, Omega." The gruff voice began. "Due to the circumstances, I will be overseeing your battle assessment personally. We are going to do things a little differently than usual."

"I DID NOT SURVIVE MY CAPTIVITY ONLY TO SHOOT TARGET DUMMIES."

"Oh, don't be mistaken, these are not stationary dummies. We figured something more... extensive was needed to determine if your abilities are within specification."

Omega refreshed his internal ammo counter. It was at max capacity- likely refilled while he was not online.

One of the shipping containers next to him burst open, a horde of smaller Badniks rushing out to greet the E-Series robot.

He didn't bother with theatrics. A couple bursts of his autocannon quickly shredded the clearly inferior bots.

"Good." Tower commended him from the speaker. "Onto stage two."

A pair of shipping containers across the warehouse opened. Within were newer models of Eggman's robots- some even newer than him. They had a strange look to them, a mixture of red and blue robots with rotund features reminiscent of the Doctor himself. The red ones sported a set of large missiles while the blue ones were equipped with a sword and shield. A search of his onboard knowledge of Badniks identified them as Egg Fighter Knights and Egg Launchers.

A few well-placed bullets detonated the Egg Launcher missiles before they could even fire. The explosions wiped out most of the robots. Omega rushed forward, slamming his body into one of the remaining Knights. It didn't take much effort to tear the shield from his grasp and crunch its comically small head with a single blow. The E-Series robot pulled the sword from its collapsing body, throwing it with enough brute force to pierce the shield of another Knight, causing it to fly back to a wall where it was skewered and held in place. Another hail of bullets took out the remaining enemy.

"These are promising results, Omega." The commander concluded. "Now, for the final stage. It took us some time to capture this one- if you manage to defeat it, we'll consider you fit for battle."

Omega zeroed in on the only shipping container not to have opened. He didn't have to wait for long- its side burst open in a shower of sparks and scrap as a clawed hand reached out to pull the rest of the body through.

A harsh buzzing echoed throughout the warehouse; its source revealed as the creature made itself visible.

It stood almost as tall as Omega himself, its body a mix of silver and blue. It had a single visor instead of eyes or optical sensors, an orange light on it bouncing side to side. Its torso and head resembled that of a hedgehog, its metallic quills rotating back and forth like sawblades- the source of the noise.

Another search of the Badnik database quickly brought up a single result: 'Mecha Sonic Mk. II"

It zeroed in on the E-Series robot, a set of wheels on its shoes revving up and sending sparks scattering across the concrete floor. Within milliseconds it launched itself towards Omega at blinding speeds.

He wasted no time. The thrusters attached to his back flared up, and with a twist of his waist he sent himself shooting to the side, just barely avoiding a head-on collision with the other robot.

Omega continued strafing around Mecha Sonic, blasting volleys of bullets at the other robot. It deftly avoided the onslaught, curling up into a ball as it launched itself in a broad arc that was quickly closing in on the last remaining E-Series robot.

As the metallic hedgehog was just about to strike, Omega quickly cut power to his thrusters and skidded to a halt. The autocannons in his left hand retracted, replaced by his actual fingers. Just as Mecha Sonic was about to strike, he brought his hand up, catching the Super Badnik in his hand and redirecting the momentum upwards, launching it in the air.

His hand was quickly swapped out for autocannons. Without hesitation he raised both arms to the air, and unleashed the full might of his firepower upon the still-airborne mech. The sonic clone was unable to avoid the gunfire, body flailing as the force of the bullets kept it suspended in the air. The gunfire quickly ripped through its internal components, riddling the entire thing with holes.

When Omega stopped firing, the ravaged body of Mecha Sonic plummeted to the ground, the impact breaking apart what was left of the chassis and sending its components to scatter across the ground.

"INTERNAL PERFORMANCE REPORT INDICATES THAT I AM MORE THAN CAPABLE OF DESTROYING THESE WORTHLESS SCRAPS OF METAL."

"Agreed." Commander Tower replied. "It appears that your performance has outpaced all expectations. Return to your quarters and put yourself in standby mode- the moment we find Eggman, you will be deployed."


Days. It had been days since Shadow had been told to wait for communication from Tails. It gnawed at his insides- his inability to help setting his mood off even further. He couldn't help but pace around his living room, unable to find anything to quell his mind. For once in his life, he could understand what Sonic must go through.

His scowl deepened as his thoughts wandered to that blue hedgehog. To say their last meeting did not end well would have been an understatement. Truth be told, he did feel guilty about his behavior, but he couldn't find it in himself to apologize; not when he knew he'd do the same thing during their next meeting.

He overreacted. Sonic clearly was trying to look out for his well-being. He was the type of guy who always saw the best in everyone, and never stopped trying to bring it out even when things were at their worst. When Shadow first realized the error of his ways as the Ark was plummeting towards the Earth, Sonic didn't hesitate to accept his help, treating him as an equal with not even an ounce of judgement. Even... even when he relapsed during the Black Arms crisis, Sonic's unceasing empathy brought him back from the depths and set him back on the path that he promised Maria he would follow.

And Shadow knew he deserved none of it. That blue bastard never needed a justification.

It took him a long time to come to terms with the guilt of his past actions. It used to tear up his insides like a wild animal, rendering him unable to trust his own judgement on what was "good" or "evil." But Sonic, whether through intentionality or sheer obliviousness, just... looked past that. They were... well, he would never use the word himself, but Sonic would probably describe them as friends. It was that relationship that allowed Shadow to look inward and truly rebuild.

Eventually, he learned to live with himself. He would never truly be rid of his guilt, nor should he. There would be those who could never forgive him- and to be frank, they never should. It no longer bothered him the way it did before. Given his apparent immortality, it was probably for the best that this revelation came sooner than later.

He felt that discomforting feeling from before resurfacing- stinging him like he had swallowed a sea urchin. Its cause, yet again, refused to make itself known. He no longer feared rejection, or the uncertainty of his own actions; he was inviolably sure of that. He had tried analyzing, meditating, anything he could to understand why he felt so upset with himself, but whatever part of his brain was assaulting him remained a mystery.

Shadow sighed, trying to think of anything else to dispel the feelings welling up inside of him. What activities he could do felt incredibly limited. Reading books did little to take his mind off things, and sleep was completely out of the question. He didn't need it anyway. Any thought of going outside was immediately quashed. He wasn't in the mood to risk bumping into someone he knew. Especially if his rival became the topic of conversation...

The black and red hedgehog covered his face with his gloved hands, letting out a frustrated groan. Almost all his thoughts circled back to Sonic. It was like a parasite burrowed into his brain, constantly reminding him that the blue hedgehog existed. He couldn't even say it was a recent development, his mind was constantly pre-occupied with wondering what Sonic might be doing, or how he would feel about some of the work that Shadow performed as a GUN agent.

He hadn't told anyone of this sort of predilection he had for the other hedgehog- he had planned to ask Rouge about it but was constantly putting it off. Omega... was Omega. He could only imagine the robot informing him that it was a liability and a distraction while fighting Eggman's mechs. Telling Sonic was similarly out of the question. There's no way that conversation would go well- it already sounded too close to something Amy Rose would say, and whatever her deal was it certainly was not like his own desire to spend more time with the blue hedgehog.

Shadow shook his head, chasing those thoughts away as he tried to focus on the present moment. It was probably for the best that they just remained a secret. It was little more than emotional uncertainty than anything else. And there were still more pressing matters, even if he couldn't act on them right now.

He felt his phone vibrating softly on the floor next to him. He picked it up, looking at the screen to see who was calling.

Tails.

He quickly answered the call, practically slamming the device up to his ear.

"Did you find them?" He asked, not even bothering with introductions.

The young fox was caught off guard by the sudden question but was quick to recover.

"Chaotix came back to us with a potential lead. It's an underground cave system that has signs of Eggman base development- and it's in the general direction we were looking for. How soon can you make it back to my workshop?"

Shadow wasted no time jumping to his feet. Within seconds, he was out of his apartment and racing down the complex's stairs to the street.

"I'm on my way- I'll be there in about fifteen minutes."


A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! As always, I'd love to hear what you thought of it so far. Feel free to leave a review!