15 - Christmas Ruins - 15

Empire City

Evening, 7:45 PM

A blue hedgehog laid sprawled on a mattress that did not belong to him, but held a scent he adored. Lightly snoring, he was hugging a pillow that he thought was owner of the bed, who wasn't present in the room at the moment. He slept for hours, not realizing how tired he was until he fell asleep. The door to the bedroom opened slowly, the lights being flicked on. The light caused the hedgehog to stir and turn over, before slightly cracking his lime green eyes open. His snores stifled to a stop, and he blinked a few times. He sat up and looked at the open door to see the very thing he adored so much walk in the room with something in his hands. The black and red striped hedgehog glanced down at him with those amber red eyes, and cracked a smile before sitting down on the bed beside his body. He bent over to place something on the nightstand before giving his attention back to the sleepy blue blur. The hero couldn't help but smile back, as the source of his happiness was with him again. "Hey you..." He greeted sleepily.

"You plan on sleeping the entire night away, faker?" Shadow asked.

Sonic yawned, his ears flattening as he cuddled up against the pillow again. "Nmm...but your bed's so comfy...and it smells like you~"

The elder hedgehog pulled some of the cover off of him to motivate him to sit up. "Perhaps, but I still want to see your face before midnight." He then held out a plate in front of him. His cheeks were lightly red. "...Here, I don't know if I made it the way you like it but-"

Sonic looked down at the plate, and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. A perfectly steaming hot chili dog just waiting to turn his tummy into a happy tummy. He gasped in delight and sat up immediately while clapping his hands. "Oh my God, you got me my favorite!" He took the plate and put it a few inches away onto the bed, before leaning closely. "You are so sweet to me~" He pressed a kiss on his cheek, then he pressed a kiss on the corner of his mouth. Shadow took the initiative and turned to lightly grasp Sonic's wrists. He pressed his tan lips to share a more indulgent kiss. Sonic gladly returned it in full and mumbled a pleasant sounding moan. Shadow embraced him closely, deepening the kiss even more. The hero wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him in closer. After a few seconds, they broke the kiss reluctantly. Sonic licked his lips "Mmn, babe if you keep treating me like this, I'll end up losing my innocence."

Shadow scoffed. "With a mouth like that, you never had any to begin with."

"Heheh, true~" Sonic nuzzled their noses together, but then he pouted. "I wish I waited so I could have given my virginity to you, 'cause it would have been worth it." He gave him one last peck, before turning over to pick up the plate of food and placing it in his lap.

His comment caused Shadow to really think. As mentioned before, Shadow wasn't entirely ignorant to the concept of sex, he just wasn't experienced at all. He knew what it entailed, what it might look like and what could happen. He also knew about the idea of chastity, or virginity. That was a sacred thing, something a lot of people took for granted. Kind of like Sonic or Rouge, who carelessly threw it away for their life of sleeping around. But if Sonic regretted it and wished he gave it to Shadow, that's a huge compliment. "You...want to give your virginity to me?" He asked almost in disbelief. Sonic was someone who promoted the idea of freedom to the highest extent. Therefore, that kind of mentality must have been the same for the way he viewed sex. Everyone should be able to do what they want with their body, which included being sexually active or being abstinent. But his chastity was his, and something he didn't truly respect until apparently now. If he had stayed a virgin, him giving Shadow his virginity would have been like him giving up the ideals he valued, all for him. The fact that he wished this was how this happened, well...It touched Shadow.

Sonic looked a little disappointed in himself, as a matter of fact, nibbling on his chili dog solemnly. "Yeah...It's way too late now, but I wish I did. I really do. The chick I gave it to was nothing compared to you. But then again," He said with his mouth slightly full. "Nobody I've been with could compare to you, actually."

Again, hugely flattering. Shadow was taken aback. "You mean that?"

"Hell yeah." The blue one replied with a charming smile. "You're the best I've ever had, and we haven't even gone all the way yet. I can't wait for that day~ You're good..." He smirked suggestively. "Really good. You're hot, you're big, you have good stamina, you learn quickly, and you're rough," He poked Shadow's nose playfully with his finger. "But you're also so sweet and gentle at the same time. You're the whole package, so I guess I lucked out."

As the hero ate his meal, Shadow's heart felt like it was swirling with warmth. It felt amazing, but he also felt a little nervous because he wanted to say something. Something that would express just how much he appreciated that. But, could he even say that? "I..." No, he shouldn't.

The hero tilted his head as he chewed, practically almost finished the frank. "Hm? Did you say something?"

He couldn't. "Nothing." Shadow looked away.

Sonic finished the whole thing in mere minutes. He leaned over and nudged Shadow with his elbow. "Aww c'mon, don't hide anything from me."

No, he can't. "...I cant, sorry."

That sounded a little downcast, so it made Sonic a little concerned. With a more serious tone, he tried again. "What is it? Did you need to get something off your chest?"

"..."

Sonic made a pout and crossed his arms, not liking how closed off Shadow was being all of a sudden. He took a second to think before he got exactly what the problem was. He nodded understandably. "Oh I get it, I get it."

"...?"

"You want to say 'I love you,' don't you?"

Chaos, was Shadow acting that predictable? "...How did you know?"

With a small blush, Sonic smiled. "Because I wanna say it too."

"You do?"

"Yeah," Sonic's smile faltered as he rested his chin on his hand. "But I won't, because I shouldn't. And you shouldn't either."

That didn't make any sense to him, why not? This completely contradicted his dream, which he was grateful for. But if they felt the same way, why couldn't they say it? "But, why? I never said it only because I thought you would hate me for it, because I wasn't sure or not if I was really what you wanted. But if you feel the same way, then it should be fine." Shadow placed a hand on Sonic's leg affectionately. "The things I feel for you, I-"

"-That's only because I'm the first and only person you've ever felt like this with." Sonic easily cut him off with a hard truth. "I'm sure there's someone else out there who might be able to make you feel this way, too. We've only been dating for a few days, we can't say we love each other that fast. Saying you love someone, is saying you're willing to not just die for them, but live for them." His eyes drifted elsewhere as he spoke, his tone rueful but honest. "To live with them for the rest of your life, no matter how long that would be, for better or for worse. At least, that's how Amy put it. She's right, though."

What? He didn't care about the opinions of others, and he thought Sonic didn't either. "None of that matters. I know I want to be with you, Sonic. I told you earlier, I want you."

Sonic sighed, his grimace deepening and his expression a little...Annoyed? "You only think that now. Next week, you might be ready to punch my lights out. You even said yourself you didn't tell me because you were scared I would hate you if you did, which, by the way, would never happen." That's why he looked a little irritated, he was offended that Shadow would ever think that. He could never hate him, and he should have known that. "The fact that you didn't know that I would be okay with you saying that, proves we haven't been together long enough to say it in the first place. You...don't know me well enough, and I don't know you well enough either. Not fully."

All the vigor in Shadow just abruptly left. His heart felt empty, now. "...I...I don't understand." It felt like he never would, either.

"It's like I told you before, dying is easy, and I know you'd do that for me cause I'd do that for you if it came down to some big ass boss fight. But living," Sonic shook his head. "Living is hard. I couldn't ask you to do that for me, and I don't expect you to ask that of me either. Living requires us to take time in learning each other, knowing each other better than the other. Knowing how we'll feel, what not to say, what to say at the right time...It's complicated, and it isn't simple enough to just say it because I made you feel good for one afternoon after only three days of dating." He knew his words were a little cold right now, but he needed Shadow to truly understand how this worked without masking the reality of all this with softer undertones. "Bottom line, you shouldn't say that. There's even some countries out there who look down upon people who use those words so easily, so they don't say it at all. Not even during weddings. They wait until the very prime moment when it's entirely appropriate to say it, but only after they've taken time to truly know each other." He glanced at Shadow, noticing that he was looking glum. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Shadow. But there's a lot I don't know about you. We need to take this time to figure that out, without any rush. I don't know how long we'll be together. I personally hope it's for a while," He confessed casually. "Maybe even a long time, but neither of us know that for sure. You might fall for someone else, and they might make you feel so much happier than I ever could. Or, something bad could happen and we might break up. I...really hope not, but we just don't know. So," He reached out to place his hand onto Shadow's, softening his tone. "Do me a favor, be patient with that, okay? I still wanna be with you, so I'll wait with you. See how long we last. We're doing this together, right?"

The biohog just closed his eyes and looked away. "..."

Shit, he didn't want him to feel bad about this. "Hey, don't look so down." He tightened his hold on his hand. "Don't take it personally, we just need a little more time for that-"

"I suppose you're right." Shadow suddenly replied while standing up from the bed, taking his hand out of Sonic's hold. "It was foolish of me to think I could comprehend the concept of such a complex emotion. I'm still not ready, I'm still...ignorant." He walked away from the bed and made a beeline for the bedroom's exit. "Excuse me."

Sonic exhaled quietly as he closed his eyes, realizing that maybe he shouldn't have said any of that. Maybe he should have just let it hang in the air.

He hoped he didn't hate him for that.

Evening, 8:30 PM

The GUN agent was surprised to see that Infinite's vitals were perfectly fine. Experimentation of any kind from the doctor would cause severe damage and pain, so he should be in horrible agony right now. Yet, according to his computer, he wasn't. After he and Sonic talked, Shadow went into his home office. It was nothing special, and he rarely worked in here, but it had some uses. He had his own personal computer to do whatever with, and it was a good space away from distracting studio windows of his apartment. He grunted a little, before looking down at his hand. Red chaos energy was charging through it, so the spine was still in Infinite. Yes, Shadow had stuck one of Sonic's spines in him when he last saw him, except he overridden Sonic's energy with his own. Infinite didn't know it, nobody saw it, and Sonic wasn't concerned because he probably figured the energy in his spine died out by now. Shadow plucked it into the jackal's fur under the desk in his prison, and it's been on him ever since. Shadow could feel it's essence surging inside of him, indicating he was still very much alive. He used Sonic's technique to keep surveillance on him, and had someone from gun convert that power into data. They then further translated it into a computer program so he could read his body parameters electronically.

He could see that Eggman was forcing a lot of the cells in his body to become hyper focused on speed and power, ramping up his metabolism. Similar to his or Sonic's. He concluded that the doctor wanted Infinite to have a genetic makeup like someone with chaos energy. This had to have been a very painful process, as he could feel great anguish earlier before Sonic woke up. However, it abruptly stopped and Infinite seemed fine. He seemed as if he was okay, for now. He admittedly feared how much progress the doctor was making, as he was no slouch when it came to schemes. He was impossibly diligent, which was disappointing considering that if he was an ally of Sonic Team, he'd probably make the world a better place with them. Shame, really. Anyway, if anything abnormal happened with Infinite's body, Shadow would know instantly. If he had already used the ruby on him, he couldn't tell, because he never felt a spike or surge in power. Maybe he didn't implant it yet? He wasn't sure, as plenty of objects with strange powers could slip right under the radar of chaos energy, even chaos energy itself. There were a lot of unknowns here, but-

Oh. Sonic peaked in the room before stepping in and closing the door softly. "Hey..."

Shadow rose his head from the computer monitor. "Hey."

"You mad at me?" He sounded so afraid of hurting his feelings, that his voice was actually kind of cute.

The biohog sighed before looking back at the computer. "No. I'm...frustrated with myself, as always."

Shadow heard Sonic make a tired groan. "Dude, c'mon with that." He suddenly sat down on his desk. Considering how nice his lower body was, his ass made quite a tremor on the surface. He had to remind himself not to stare. "How many times do I gotta tell you to give yourself some slack? Look," He crossed his legs. "I know you're used to being super cooler than everyone else and doing super cool shit on your first try, but that's not how matters of the heart works. That shit's hard, man, even for us. Hell, I fuck up too. I told ya, this is my first serious relationship." He leaned his arm onto his computer monitor to get more of his attention, which worked. "If you mess up, take it in stride and move on. I won't be mad at you. And if I ever was, I promise you I'll let you know and get over it pretty quickly."

The GUN agent just nodded before looking back at the screen. "I'll be fine."

Sonic sighed, there was nothing more he could do. "Alright..."

Before the hero could hop off of the desk, Shadow blinked. "Wait." He said before pushing his monitor a bit to the side so he could get a better look at him. "You said we should get to know each other more, right?" He saw the blue blur nod. "Then can I ask you something about yourself?"

Well that came out of nowhere. Sonic shrugged. "Uh, sure. Anything you want."

"Do you know what a Chaos Born is?"

"A who-what's it?"

"A Chaos Born."

Sonic squinted his eyes. "Uuuuummmm no? I don't think so." He kicked his feet back and forth. "Sounds rad, though. Overpowered as hell, but rad."

Shadow eyes sharpened. "Do you know anything about Christmas Island?"

"..." The blue one paused. "...How do you know about that?"

What Eggman found was true? He had to keep probing. "So you do?"

Looking a little uncomfortable, Sonic eventually answered. "I...Yeah, I was born there."

"You were born there?"

"Yeah," Sonic scratched behind his head. "I barely remember, but yeah. I was a baby, then a toddler...didn't leave the place until I was maybe...six? Then I went to Green Hill Zone and well, the rest is history."

Huh, he didn't expect that answer. How was he able to do any of that as a baby? How did he even survive? "How did you even take care of yourself if you were an infant?"

The younger hedgehog just shrugged with a frown, not liking his own answer either. "I don't know...I don't think I have parents, so...I just don't know." He closed his eyes for a moment to think out loud. "I just remember...being in water...I almost drowned a bunch of times. I was real little so I didn't know how to swim. I kept choking and swallowing all this water..." He made a pained expression, the memory of it seemingly causing a little trauma.

"That's why you're scared of the ocean?"

Sonic pursed his lips while crossing his arms. "I'm not scared per say," He clarified defensively. "I just hate it. It makes me slow and I can't swim that well. But more or less, yeah. That always messed me up..." He got up off the desk and paced around the room a little. "I could never remember much, but I always remembered that. Something was drowning me and I don't know what it was to this day."

That was foreboding to say the least. "Okay, and do you know of the relics that are on the island?"

The hero turned around. "Relics?"

Shadow nodded, seeing how now was a great time to tell him some information that he discovered last night. "Remember I told you I wanted you here for the weekend in case something would pop off. I made a breakthrough in Infinite's case last night, and GUN and I arranged for him to go undercover with Eggman." He used the mouse to bring up a few digital photos. "The doctor found something on Christmas Island called the Phantom Ruby, and he wants to use it to eliminate you, but he needs a willing Mobian to properly utilize it. Infinite volunteered to be experimented on by the doctor under the guise of seeking revenge on me for putting him in prison, so the ruby could properly take effect on his body. Infinite is going to attempt to steal the ruby once the experiments are finished, defeat the doctor, return to me and destroy it. As for the relics on Christmas Island," He continued as the hero gazed at him with a questioning stare. "Robotnik found them and studied them, and he apparently found out that those relics told of some apocalypse that would ensue from a race called Chaos Born. After you defeated him three years ago, he studied you and apparently thinks you're related to this mysterious race of people." He could see Sonic's face growing more confused from here. "That drive we found in the hideout? It had a bunch of audio logs and images the doctor recorded that I had Rouge decrypt. She said this dates back to beyond The Ancients related to Chaos, the God of Destruction."

"W-What...? What are you talking about?" Sonic asked, walking closer. "What do you mean Eggman studied me? I don't have an ancestry, I never did. That's news to me."

He wouldn't understand from talking alone, he'd have to see for himself. Shadow stood up from his seat and motioned for Sonic to sit down and look. "Come here and take a look, you might recognize something."

Sonic obliged his lover and sat in his office chair, leaning close to stare at the digital images he brought up. There were high quality photos of Christmas Island, a place he could barely remember to begin with. This was clearly taken in the day time, the skies seemed normal without any clouds on whatever day this was taken. The ocean looked calm, too calm actually. It looked like the water was completely still, like there were no tides at all. The sand was clean and white, but it was a little too sparkly, like someone dropped a bunch of super tiny pieces of broken glasses or diamonds all over the biome. As for this first image, he saw broken pillars laying against white sand. It was crumbling and weathered down. There were clearly effigies carved within it, but time had destroyed the story it was trying to tell. Sonic obviously didn't recognize it. Shadow used the mouse to scroll to the next image, which was a photo of another pillar that was actually upright. Still, it was even more damaged than the other. He didn't recognize that either. Shadow scrolled to the next one, the third and final one. It was a photo of both the pillars together. One could tell they were supposed to be upright, standing completely parallel to each other.

Almost like an arch or...the entrance to something.

Lime green irises dilated. He remembered. He didn't know quite what, but he remembered something being there. "That—That right there. It's...It's missing." Sonic whispered.

Shadow glanced at him. "Something's missing?"

"Yeah it's-Holy shit." He could remember—Just barely, but it was there. He gripped the sides of his head and stood up instantly. "There's supposed to be an entrance there. I remember—A cave or something. I went down there all the time, because there was food there for me." He then looked down. "But why? What was...Who was feeding me?" He whipped his head at Shadow. "Shadow, we gotta get over there. There's something there, something that might help me remember." He rushed out of the room yelling, "I'm putting on my shoes, get your ring thingies!"

Well, this was a productive night.

Shadow nodded and glanced at the computer before following after him.

Evening, 8:55 PM

They would have arrived at the small island much faster, but Sonic's memory was fuzzy so he wasn't quite sure of the directions. After some trial and error and the constant running on water for twenty minutes, which caused the hero to become a little anxious, they finally made it. Finally on solid ground, he immediately had a profound sense of nostalgia uppercut him right in his jaw. His eyes became glossy and he immediately got down on his knees to place his hands in the sand. It was very pale pink, almost white. The grains felt like dry water, and the ocean surrounding the island were glowing like the northern lights. He suddenly rushed towards the coast, noticing how still the tides around them were. No motion, not even a small brush upon the shore. He placed his fingers into the water, and watched as galaxy levels of twinkles brilliantly shined throughout the liquid. The water felt like magic was charging inside of him, and his energy felt instantly replenished. Then, he curiously cupped some in the palms of his hands and brought it to his lips.

Shadow noticed this and tried to stop him. After all, that was complete salt water. "You idiot, don't-"

The blue hedgehog already gulped it all down, and swallowed. That's when he lowered his hands and stared at them. "...There's no salt." He murmured. "It's just like way back then." He slowly stood up while still looking at his palms, as if he would see all of his forgotten memories in them. "I always drank the water from the ocean. It was clean, fresh water." He then spit out a little bit of sand grains. Besides the sand, it was perfectly safe to drink. He looked around and noticed the blush pink sand, and sifted his fingers down a few centimeters. Tiny pebbles of shells and empty clams were within its crumbs. Nothing was in them. He let them drop from his hand onto the ground and stared out at the motionless waters just ahead of the sparkling beach rocks. "There wasn't any fish, but I always ate...fruits..." He turned to the right, noticing the multiple tall stretching trees surrounding the mass of land. "But there wasn't any fruit trees..."

The ultimate lifeform noticed something about those trees in particular. They reached up to the skies like the branches were clawing at the atmosphere. They looked similar to contorted beech trees, but their leaves were multiple colors. The colors were unnatural, too. Pinks, pale yellows, bright greens, neon oranges, strong reds, purples and light blues...Every color of the rainbow was here in these trees. The way their leaves shimmered like gemstones was beautiful, but unnerving because of how abnormal it seemed. It was like someone dyed everything in strange colors that wasn't at all organic. The waters, the sand, the trees and even the sky above had a weird spectrum showing through it. And the sky was so lit up with colors, that the darkness of nighttime didn't affect the island at all, and it made the stars look like glitter. It was similar to aurora, but something about it felt off. Anyone would think this was a magical place, but he couldn't say that for certain. Then, Shadow realized: These trees, wasn't it similar to the tree that was in Sonic's backyard?

As the two walked through the eighth wonder of the world, experiencing the bizarre silence, they noticed there was only flora but no fauna. No living clams, crabs, monkeys, birds or even insects. There was no buzzing or chirping, and they couldn't even hear the leaves rustle because there was no wind here. One would think creatures like flickies or chaos would flock to a place like this, so why didn't they? Then, Sonic paused. He looked down at his forearm to see that a pink butterfly landed on him. Thank goodness, an animal. When Sonic tried to gently shoo the insect away, he hissed and snatched his arm away. Blood began to pool, and the butterfly fluttered about. A tiny stinging puncture now taking place of the butterfly's seat. Sonic made a disgusted expression and wiped his arm on his leg to brush off the blood. Shadow nudged him to point ahead, where dozens of multicolored butterflies hovered and swarmed. Amber red energy rushed through his wrist, and he uttered, "Chaos Spear." And tossed the chaos imbued arrowhead at the swarm. They instantly fell out of formation and flew away in different, random directions.

After the crowd of insects scattered, Sonic saw what they were looking for in the distance. He saw a crumbled looking pillar. "It's there." He grabbed Shadow's hand and ran forward. In seconds, they finally arrived at what they saw on Shadow's computer. The two pillars standing side by side, one damaged beyond repair and one just barely hanging on. The area was entirely blank besides the pillars, except for the horrendous amount of metallic rubble littering the sand. Sonic kicked over a piece of robotic armor and tilted his head to see that an Eggman insignia was on it. "These were some of the bots I kept seeing around the country all year. 'Guess those were prototypes 'cause these look way more advanced." Both of the hedgehogs sucked their teeth, so Robotnik was indeed here. He made a horrible mess of things, too. Besides the debris of robot scraps, there were tall pieces of fulgurite shooting up from out of the sand. That only happened during a chemical reaction of some kind of combustion combining with sand, nearly creating glass. "Eggman wasn't alone when he was here, and he pissed someone or something off." Sonic commented. After surveying the area, the two hedgehogs glanced at each other and nodded before moving closer. Sonic would inspect the one on the right, and Shadow would examine the one on the left. The one on the left was upright, and the one on the right was fallen over. Simultaneously, they both landed their eyes on the effigies carved within them.

The moment they did, they howled in pain.

A loud steaming noise emanated from their eyes, multicolored mist flowing into the air. They both reached their hands to their faces, covering their eyes with aching torment. Something was burning their corneas. Eyes watering, they both attempted to push through the agony and open them back up to what they were looking at before. That's when they saw it.

These symbols carved in the pillars weren't effigies or images, they were words.

And they could read them.

Sonic checked with his partner before continuing their investigation. "Shadow, is it just me or can you-"

The elder nodded. "Yeah, I can read this. I assume when our eyes were burned, it made it so that we could read it." He wiped his eyes with the back of his fist. "There's no doubt, that burning sensation was chaos energy for sure."

"But why didn't it do that when we looked at it before on your computer?"

Shadow wasn't sure. "Perhaps because it was a digital photo and not the real thing? Maybe this place has a mark of chaotic power, that can only be disturbed from a chaos user." He glanced over at Sonic. "What does yours say?"

"It doesn't make any sense," Sonic replied while backing up a bit to get a better look. "The words are cut off, not making complete sentences..." He suddenly snapped his finger. "I got it." He went over to Shadow, and eyed the left pillar. "Yeah, that's it." He grabbed Shadow's hand again and backed up a few steps. "The left pillar is the left half of the text, the right pillar is the right. You have to read them both together."

Shadow blinked a few times, and concluded that Sonic was indeed correct. "You're right, whatever's cut off from one side, completes the other. So together it says," The ultimate life form began to read aloud. "'The path opens with amorousness. To small youth pure from intimacy, you may proceed without dilemma." The biohog raised a brow as he continued to read. "To the current all seeing eye, you may proceed without dilemma. To elders of consummation, you must prove your passion. Until the sands feel your devotion, you shall never know the residence of the template who presides here." He briefly looked at Sonic, who looked just as confused as he was. "To interlopers who are not of chaotic blood, you will be exterminated. Let our blood subjugate and conquer forevermore.'"

"Okay," Sonic sighed. "So I've had my fair share of creepy, cryptic, confusing ancient temples, but this is just weird. What is it trying to say?"

"Well," Shadow trailed off. "That second to last part was obvious: To whomever doesn't belong here, they will be killed. And considering the environment at the moment," He referenced the robot rubble surrounding them. "Eggman incurred the island's wrath. He was an intruder to...Whoever wrote this, and thus, he was attacked. And whatever or whoever it was, they definitely weren't holding back. He must have barely escaped with his life."

The hero placed his hands on his hips in a thought provoking manner. "Yeah, but nothing's attacked us so far. Maybe 'cause we can use chaos energy?"

"That makes the most sense, as we could only read this with chaos energy." Shadow knelt down to the fallen pillar, feeling his eyes water the more he tried to read it. "Eggman has faux emeralds on him all the time, copying off of Tails' invention years ago. I'm sure he was able to read it because of that as well. Probably using some machine."

Feeling a little impatient, the blue blur tapped a finger on his own hip. "But then what does the rest mean? I know for sure Eggface didn't get that far."

Shadow stood back up and closed his eyes. "Hold on," He muttered. "Amorousness...That means love. 'The path opens with love'...And 'small youth', probably a child."

"'Pure from intimacy'—Maybe a child who hasn't experienced love yet. And elder usually means an adult. Sooooo," Sonic tapped his foot, the gears in his head turning. "Adults who have experienced love have to prove it. Only adults, no minors. I could get behind that."

That's when it hit him, Shadow's eyes widened. It was asking them that? To do that? Here? "Oh boy," He sighed tirelessly. "I figured it out."

"Ah, no fair. Okay, what is it?"

"It wants us to fuck."

Sonic instantly busted out laughing. "Hahahaha! Yeah right!" As he chuckled his laughing fit off, he looked in his partner's direction, only to see that he was deathly serious. His smile instantly disappeared. "Oh shit."

"Yeah."

"Oh," The hero could feel a visible sweat drop fall down his cheek. "Huh. Well then."

The biohog went over the riddle carefully. "Small children can't possibly feel the extremities of love at such a young age, therefore, they've no need to prove anything. Adults who have experienced passion have to prove their worth by expressing that affection to their partner, right here on the island. Meaning us. If we don't, we can't get in." He furrowed his brows with a scowl. "The other line I don't understand is the 'all seeing eye.' Who or what the hell is that? And that other line about subjugation...that's violent domination."

No matter how far back Sonic tried to remember, he didn't know of anyone or anything being called an 'all seeing eye,' so that was a bust. And he for sure didn't remember such a cruel and weird line as the last one. As for everything else, he did remember not having a problem with accessing that weird cave. "Beats me...I do remember not having any issue with entering the cave since I was a child. Anytime I walked near here, it opened up for me automatically...I think. It's still real fuzzy."

A pause passed by, and Shadow awkwardly asked what they were both thinking. "So...Did you-"

"Yeah, about that...Um," Sonic rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't like screwing around when I'm demanded to in a not-sexy way, especially not by some ancient asshole who carved a couple poem stanzas in a rock." He crossed his arms and didn't look in Shadow's direction. "Plus, I'm all for sex on the beach, but I don't know if you're comfortable with that. We kinda did a little somethin' on a beach before, in Green Hill Zone, but it wasn't that...Y'know, steamy. It was cute at best, mostly cuddling." After their disagreement earlier, Shadow figured the energy between them wasn't that strong at the moment. However, Sonic didn't seem to be resistant because of that. Perhaps he truly didn't want to do anything unless Shadow wanted to. Or, also because he didn't want to deal with this at all. "If you want, we can run back home-"

"No." Shadow instantly disagreed. "This is important. Not just to me, but especially you. This is your birthplace, something you should know about."

Sonic frowned with contention. "I don't need to know, it's behind me. I was interested at first, sure, but it ain't the end of the world for me if I don't see it through. I couldn't care less about this island. I..." He couldn't finish his sentence, his voice diminishing in sound quickly.

Shadow could tell he was worried about something. "You usually run head first into something you don't understand. You're backing out now?"

"..."

15 - END - 15