Abraham took a seat in the chair beside Shadow's bed, and Shadow caught a glimpse of the hospital's letterhead on the printed pages in his hands. Abraham began to flip through the pages in silence.

'… What did Verity tell you?' Shadow asked.

'It doesn't matter. I want to hear it from you directly.'

Shadow closed one fist, pressing his claws into his palm. The pain was biting, but it gave him something else to focus on … something other than the fact that his heart was pounding. He could feel the heart rate monitor strap cutting into his chest, and a faint beeping echoed his pulse.

Abraham looked up at him. 'Shadow. This situation is bad enough as it is. Don't make me pry you for answers as well.'

'I-I didn't have a choice. The types of procedures the hospital wants to do would require making permanent changes to my body. GUN won't approve those changes without a fight.'

'So fight, then. It's not like you to shy away from conflict.'

'There's no time. I can reverse the changes, but by the time I convince GUN that I can do it, the program will already be over.'

'You could have asked me to help you.' Abraham was still staring at the documents in his hands, but his gaze was unfocused. 'At the very least, I could have helped you make a convincing case for yourself.'

'You don't get it, do you? Your grandson is the one who needs these drastic procedures. If you knew what we were going to do, then you wouldn't help me. You might even call the program off.'

'Try me.'

Shadow felt something snap inside him, and it was all he could do to keep his voice even. 'They're going to change my HLA type to match Elijah's by injecting me with his bone marrow.'

'Shadow, I already know that. Lindsey told me.'

Shadow blinked, and then he swore under his breath. He'd been so distracted by everything that had happened that he hadn't thought to swear Lindsey to silence.

'Either way, Shadow … I can't let you do this.'

'Damn it,' Shadow muttered. 'I knew that this is how you would react, and I know that the only way you would be able to stop me is by calling the program off.'

'Well, I'm sorry you were inconvenienced by the fact that I have a conscience. Remind me to have more disregard for your life next time – but God help us if there's a next time.'

Shadow said nothing, but his shoulders tensed. 'This isn't just about you or me. If you call off the program because of the lengths I have to go to for your grandson's sake, then it could affect all the other patients who need my help.'

'Shadow,' Abraham said, and Shadow's fur stood on end. 'Are you blaming me for your choices?'

'I didn't have a choice to begin with–'

'Don't you dare start with this again.' Abraham tossed the printed pages onto the floor, and they spread across the linoleum like a snowdrift. 'You chose to falsify documents, and you were eventually going to facilitate medical malpractice. Do you have any idea how much damage you could have caused?' Abraham's voice was terse, and he began counting off on his fingers as he spoke. 'Verity could have lost her job and her medical license. The same thing could have happened to Alex if she hadn't come forward to us. Even if GUN didn't sue the hospital, the patients' families could have launched a class action lawsuit against both parties instead. Even Rouge could be held liable –'

Shadow's heart began to jackhammer, and he said, 'Why do you think that Rouge was the one who helped me alter the documents?'

'I said nothing about altering the documents, Shadow.' Abraham glared at him. 'And there's only one person that has both your trust and the skills required to pull this off. GUN frequently pardons Rouge for her crimes in exchange for her services, but even we would have been hard-pressed to clean this up if it had gone wrong.'

'T-This was my idea. She shouldn't be blamed for what I did –'

'You should have thought of that before you asked her for help.' Abraham crossed his arms, and his eyes widened in disbelief. 'If your bio-integrity had been compromised without our knowledge, then GUN could have gotten the hospital shut down.'

'I know.'

'And that wasn't enough to stop you?'

'This is the only way I know how to do things, Abraham. Every time I've waited for GUN's permission in order to act, people nearly died. I waited for authorisation to investigate a bomb threat at Mission Street, and the entire city was almost levelled because of it.'

'I understand what you're saying, but this is a unique case.' Abraham shook his head and sighed. 'I give you a lot of leniency, and I know that when you go against GUN's orders, it's often for the sake of other people. But this is the one instance where going behind our backs could harm the people you're trying to save.' Abraham looked over at the other beds in the recovery ward, and his gaze tightened. 'Verity could have unknowingly approved procedures that may have resulted in the deaths of some of the patients. These are children, Shadow, and you could have gotten them killed.'

'I-I didn't know.' A faint, frantic beeping echoed in Shadow's ears, and his claws sank deeper into his palm. 'I just knew that the patients I'm working with could die if I didn't find a way to help them. I've already caused enough deaths. I-I never would have done this if I'd known that it could cause the very thing I was trying to prevent –'

'Shadow.' Abraham looked bewildered. 'What on earth are you talking about?'

'Are you serious?' Shadow raised one hand to his chest, knotting his fingers into his fur as his heart pounded beneath his hand. 'I'm talking about Space Colony Ark. Maria, Gerald, your parents, the researchers, their families – all of those people died because of me.'

'You aren't responsible for GUN's decision to raid the Ark, Shadow.' Horror dawned on Abraham's face, and he looked like he'd seen a ghost. '… You do understand that, don't you?'

'But if I hadn't existed, then the massacre would never have happened in the first place.'

'Shadow, you never chose to be created.'

Shadow tried to take a deep breath, but he couldn't. His vision was beginning to blur again. 'Either way, I still chose to put myself in this position. I was designed to be a cure, but GUN only started caring about that once they realised that it could benefit them. Now they're expecting me to cure people without doing a single thing to improve my biomedical capabilities. I can't even make decisions about my own body without their approval. Everything has to be a fight, and I can't even complain because I'm doing this to myself –'

The beeping in the background turned into a piercing, high-pitched tone, and Shadow pressed one hand to his throat. He couldn't breathe. He began to cough in faint, stifled bursts.

A nurse rushed over and tilted the heart rate monitor beside the bed so she could see more clearly. 'What happened? I heard a stress sound alert go off over here.' Her gaze landed on Abraham, and she turned rigid. 'Who are you? Have you been bothering him?'

'I-It was an urgent matter. It couldn't be helped –' Shadow covered his mouth with one hand as he continued to cough, desperately fighting to stay conscious.

The nurse grabbed his free hand and turned it over. 'Where's your oximeter?'

'It broke. I'm s-sorry.'

The nurse looked over her shoulder and shouted, 'I need someone to bring me another oximeter, quickly!' She turned back to Shadow, and her gaze landed on his face. '… You already have cyanosis. Your skin is turning blue.' She grabbed the whiteboard from the end of his bed and scanned it. 'This doesn't tell me anything – what procedure did you have?'

Shadow tried to speak, but he couldn't get his breath back quickly enough. He pointed to the bandages over his incision wounds instead. Tremors shot up and down his arms.

'Did you donate bone marrow?' Shadow nodded, and the nurse stiffened. 'Well, that explains it. We're going to put you on oxygen. I'll be right back.'

She took an oximeter from a passing nurse, snapped it onto his finger and rushed off. Shadow dug his claws into his palm again, fighting the darkness at the edges of his vision.

'Shadow,' Abraham said. 'I …'

'It doesn't matter.' Shadow gritted his teeth. No matter how hard his lungs worked, he still felt like he was out of breath. 'I probably deserve this after what I did.'

'Despite everything that's happened, you don't deserve to suffer.' Abraham pulled his chair forward and offered Shadow his hand. 'Come on. If you keep that up, you're going to hurt yourself.'

Shadow flinched. '… I could crush your hand.'

'We're in a hospital. What's the worst that could happen?' Abraham pried Shadow's claws from his palm and interlocked their fingers together. Shadow stiffened, painfully aware that one wrong move would cause him to break Abraham's wrist.

'Look.' Abraham looked down at the pages scattered across the floor. '… If you want to take these kinds of risks to help my family, I won't stand in your way. But I need you to understand that you don't have to do this. You have a choice –'

A nurse rushed over with an oxygen canister and fitted an oxygen mask to Shadow's face. The oxygen hit his lungs, and he gasped for breath. The respirator pump began to click. Shadow's grip loosened, and his hand fell back to his side.

'Abraham, I have the choice to attempt to save your grandson or let him die,' Shadow said weakly. 'That's not a choice.'

'It's not your responsibility to save everyone. You should help people because you want to, not because you feel obligated to.'

Shadow's vision began to clear, the blurriness fading as he spoke. 'I don't want to help anyone, and the only reason I'm here is because of my obligations.'

'… Then no wonder you're struggling.'

The nurse turned from Shadow's monitoring equipment to Abraham. 'Hey. You need to let him rest, or you need to leave. His heart rate is still significantly elevated.' She gave Shadow a concerned look. 'If you're feeling anxious, we can give you anxiolytics.'

Shadow's heart slammed against his ribs, and the nurse flinched as the stress sound alert went off again. 'I-I don't want to go under again.'

'We don't have to give you dexmedetomidine,' she said. 'We can give you midazolam instead.' His heart rate spiked again, and the nurse turned on her heel, rushing off. 'I'll be back in a minute.'

Abraham exhaled. '… Midazolam causes amnesia, doesn't it?'

Shadow nodded tightly. 'Anterograde amnesia. I may not remember what happens after I take it.'

'Then I better say this now … I won't stop you from helping my family if that's what you really want to do. And if the rest of GUN objects, then I'll do my best to help you change their minds. Just think before you act next time. Please.'

'… I'll try.'

The nurse came back with a syringe in one hand and a wireless phone handset in the other. 'Shadow, Dr Alexandrite asked me to put her through to you.'

Shadow flinched and reluctantly took the handset, holding it to his ear.

'Shadow, someone told me that you went into hypoxemia. Are you all right?'

'I'm fine. I probably deserved it, after what I did –'

'Stop beating yourself up about it. Just promise me that you won't pull a stunt like that again.'

'I won't.' Shadow hesitated. 'Alex, I'm sorry about –'

'I'm in the middle of surgery right now. Just tell me what happened out there so we can fix it.'

Shadow checked the oximeter on his finger and gritted his teeth. His oxygen saturation was well below a safe level, and it was only just beginning to climb again. '… My red blood cell counts must be low after losing so much bone marrow.'

'Why haven't you started accelerating your recovery yet?'

Shadow's grip tightened on the handset, and he angled his body away from Abraham, lowering his voice. 'Because doing that cycles any pain medication that I've received out of my system.'

'Shadow, we can just put you on morphine with a PCA. Why didn't you ask?'

'I didn't know how to. It's a lot of morphine in a short span of time.' Shadow faltered. 'And after all the trouble I caused, I …'

'Shadow, stop it. I'm genuinely starting to worry about your mental stability. But regardless, you're still not an addiction risk, and you're also a unique case. I'll sign off on it for you.'

'Can you do the same thing with the midazolam?'

'Wait, wait. They're already giving you midazolam?'

Shadow glanced at the syringe in the nurse's hand, and his chest constricted. 'Yes, but it will cycle out of my system as well. And I'm … I can't …'

'We'll put you on midazolam with a PCA. It relieves both pain and anxiety, so you won't need morphine as well. Just bear in mind that the PCA will only let you take six doses in an hour.'

'… Ok.'

'I meant to remind you to accelerate your recovery the moment you woke up so you wouldn't experience these kinds of side effects, but I was distracted. I'm sorry.'

'You were distracted because of something that was my fault. It doesn't matter –'

'It does matter, and if you keep talking like this, I'm going to send you down to the psych ward as soon as you can walk.' Alex cleared her throat and said, 'Look, you made a mistake, but we were able to catch it before there were any significant consequences. It could have been far worse. Just rest and focus on recovering.'

'… Thanks, Alex.'

'Don't mention it.'

Shadow passed the phone back to the nurse, and she listened to Alex for a moment. Then she abruptly turned on her heel and walked off with the syringe still in her hand.

Abraham leaned forward in his chair, beginning to gather the papers that had scattered across the floor. 'Well. I guess I better get out of here before I say something that makes your heart rate monitor go off again.'

'Hmph.' The nurse came back, but Shadow wasn't paying attention to her. He watched Abraham warily, listening to the clinking of plastic and metal. '… Do you really think that we can convince GUN to let us do these procedures?'

'I know that you won't take no for an answer, and neither will I.' Abraham gave Shadow a sympathetic smile. 'I know you said you were tired of fighting, but I'll help you.'

Shadow hesitated, and he felt the click of an IV line connecting to the venous cannula in his arm. The nurse pressed the PCA remote into his hand, and he grasped it like a lifeline. '… Thanks, Abraham.'

'You're welcome.' Abraham reached forward, picking up the last few pages. 'But you should take some extended leave once this is all over. I know you're addicted to your work, but you're clearly overdoing it. You need to rest.'

Shadow clicked the PCA remote, and exhaled as the drugs began to seep into his system. 'I can rest once I'm dead.'

'Very funny, Shadow.' Abraham picked something up and sat upright again. '… What's this?'

It was a patient whiteboard, covered in black writing from edge to edge. It was Silver's notes on the calamity that was about to befall their timeline. It was the details of Shadow's impending death.

Shadow's eyes widened, and his heart rate monitor let out a piercing, frantic shriek. Abraham's gaze shot to him, and Shadow froze. 'A-Abraham –'

Suddenly, the board glowed blue and was yanked out of Abraham's grip by an invisible force, flying into Silver's upheld hand as he walked around the medical curtain. 'Sorry,' Silver said with a smile. 'I've never been great at picking up after myself.'

Abraham stood up and put the stack of hospital reports under his arm. He gave Silver an unimpressed look. 'I thought you were going to Empire City.'

'I was, but Shadow asked me for a favour.' Silver held the whiteboard close to his chest and forced another smile. 'He needed someone to stand guard for him during surgery, so I stayed back.'

'I suppose I owe you my thanks for volunteering.' Abraham looked down at Silver, and his eyes flickered. 'Would there be any particular reason why Shadow nearly had a heart attack when I picked up your conspiracy board?'

Silver's grip on the edges of the board tightened. '… I had to fill in time while waiting for him. I was making some notes on the things I need to do to fix this timeline.' He glanced at Shadow. 'He was worried that the timeline would be affected if you learned any of the information that I had written down.'

Abraham stared at Shadow for what felt like an eternity, then he shook his head. 'Don't leave classified information lying around out in the open. You never know who might come across it.'

'Noted.'

Abraham sighed. 'Look. Silver, was it? This might not be feasible, but would you be willing to stay in the area for a few days?'

Shadow grimaced. 'Abraham, don't –'

'Oh, be quiet.' Abraham ran a hand through his hair, weighing Silver up as he spoke. 'We're running out of operatives that Shadow is willing to trust with his safety for the purposes of this project. If you can help us out, then I'll make locating the Chaos Emeralds a higher priority.'

Silver put the whiteboard under his arm and shrugged. '… I suppose the 2011 financial crisis can wait.'

Abraham raised an eyebrow, saying, 'I suppose it can. Come and see us at GUN's headquarters when you get the chance. Take one of the rear entrances, though. We've been having some problems with protestors.'

Shadow wound the IV line around his fingers, clasping the PCA remote in his hand. 'Abraham, Silver can levitate. He could probably tear the rooftop access door off its hinges and let himself in while he's at it.'

Abraham gave Silver a curt nod. 'Well, aren't you just full of surprises?' He walked off, disappearing through one of the exit doors of the recovery ward.

Silver fell into the chair beside Shadow's bed and braced his hands against his knees in an effort to stop his legs from trembling. 'O-Oh my gosh. I feel like I'm going to throw up.'

'The pharmacy's downstairs,' Shadow muttered. '… Were you in the next bay over the whole time?'

'I was worried that you might need help. But by the time I realised what was going on, there were too many people coming and going for me to leave without attracting attention.' Silver grimaced, looking down at his whiteboard. 'Good thing, too … Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to intervene just now.'

'You put in a decent performance.'

'So I'm not a terrible liar after all?'

'No, you're just moderately bad.'

'… Have you considered telling Abraham the truth about what's going to happen?'

'I still haven't had time to think since you first arrived, Silver. I don't know what to tell him, even if I choose to tell him anything at all.'

'Have you considered quitting the program, at least?'

'Many times.' Shadow dug his claws into the side of the PCA remote. 'But I realised something … If I'm truly going to die, then I need to work out how it's supposed to happen. I need to prevent a scenario like this from happening again.'

Silver glanced towards the doors of the operating theatre that Makena and Alex had walked into. 'And there are also things you still need to do here, aren't there?'

'… Yes, there are.' Shadow exhaled, and Silver gave him a questioning look. 'I may still have work to do here, but you don't have to stay just because Abraham asked you to. He might have offered you an incentive, but Rouge and I can track down more Chaos Emeralds faster than GUN ever could.'

'That's a generous offer, but I can tell that you and Rouge are both pressed for time.' Silver hesitated. 'Forget about Abraham, though. Do you want me to stick around?'

'I …' Shadow hesitated. 'I've already made enough mistakes this week. Turning down your help would be a mistake that I don't want to make.'

'We all make mistakes, Shadow.'

'If I make a mistake, then it could cost someone their life.' His chest began to hurt, and he knew it wasn't a side effect of one of the numerous drugs percolating in his system. 'GUN has killed enough people through their incompetence and overreach. I … never imagined that I could have added to those statistics.'

'Well.' Silver shrugged. 'If you ever make a catastrophic mistake, I'll probably be summoned to the past to prevent you from making it in the first place, if that's any comfort.'

'I don't want to think about how badly I would have to fail in order for that to happen –'

A nurse placed a plastic box with Shadow's shoes and equipment beside the bed, leaving as swiftly as she had come. Shadow's earpiece glimmered, lying on top of his crumpled jacket.

Shadow steeled himself and held out one hand. 'Can you pass me that?'

'What? This?' Silver passed him the earpiece, and Shadow fitted it to his ear. He held one hand to the control buttons and lowered his oxygen mask. He was painfully aware of the faint beeping coming from the heart rate monitor.

'Rouge?'

'… What?'

Shadow winced. 'Please don't touch any more of the files from the hospital.'

'You're extremely late to the party. I already got the memo from Abe.'

'I'm sorry that I dragged you into this. I didn't … realise what would happen.'

'Shadow, I don't really care. I just wasn't expecting to get caught.'

'Look, this isn't your fault –'

'Of course it's not my fault. I never leave any traces behind, you know. This one's on you, sweetheart. Look, you're not a doctor, and this isn't your area of expertise. You need to dial it back a bit.'

Shadow's shoulders slumped. 'I know. I know, I just …' He coughed and held the oxygen mask to his face for a moment. The respirator pump clicked, and he lowered it again. 'Sorry. I know.'

Rouge's tone had been neutral until this point, but in an instant, it was laced with worry. 'Shadow, are you okay?'

'I was just in surgery. It's nothing.'

'You didn't answer my question.'

'I'm just … tired.'

He heard the sound of her shoes scuffing on the carpet as she got to her feet. 'Do you need me to come down there?'

'No.' He coughed again and cleared his throat. 'I've caused you enough trouble today. Stay focused on your work.'

'Are you going to be all right?'

'I've got Silver here. I'll be fine.'

A beat passed. 'Shadow, what the hell is Silver doing there?'

Shadow looked up at the clock on the wall of the recovery ward. It had only been three hours since Silver had crashlanded in the hospital's internal courtyard, bringing a slew of new problems with him. 'Hadn't you heard yet?'

'I work fast, but not that fast.' Rouge sighed. 'Honey, I just don't want you to be by yourself after everything that's happened. Your nerves were fraying even before all of this went down.'

'They put me on anxiolytics and gave me a PCA. I'll be fine.'

'… I know I just said you're not a doctor, but I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.'

'They gave me drugs so I won't have a mental breakdown. Like I said, I'll be fine.'

Shadow heard Rouge's chair creak as she sat back down. 'That doesn't sound as comforting as you think it does. But pinch some of those drugs for me if you get the chance. If they work on you, then they must work on anyone.'

'You need anti-anxiety medication?'

'I was extremely worried about you, believe it or not.' Rouge lowered her voice. 'And I still am.'

'Price of admission, as they say,' Shadow murmured.

'I love a good callback, but I wish we weren't referencing the fact that your mental health is in a ditch.' Her voice softened, and she said, 'Well, give Silver a kiss for me.'

'… Rouge.'

'I'm teasing. Love you.'

'Love you too.' Shadow blinked several times, and he buried his face in his hand. '… Damn it.'

Rouge cackled, and he heard her spin around in her chair. 'I can't believe I finally got you after all these years.'

'Rouge, I'm mainlining sedative drugs and I have low oxygen. I can barely think straight. This isn't the win you think it is.'

'A win is a win. I'll take what I can get.'

Shadow ended the call and unbuckled the heart rate monitor strap, removing it from his chest. The faint beeping in the background abruptly cut out. He pressed a button on his earpiece and materialised the Chaos Emerald, holding it in his gloved hands. The gem hit the PCA remote in his fingers with a sharp clink.

Shadow gritted his teeth. 'Silver, there's a risk that I could knock myself out while doing this. Can you … stay?'

'I'm not going anywhere.'

Shadow's grip on the emerald tightened, and he looked up at the clock on the wall. The emerald began to glow, and his body began to burn. He could hear the tick of a clock in his head as his heart rate began to speed up and his breathing quickened. Pain flashed through his body like flickers of light and heat as his wounds began to heal.

'Shadow?' Silver looked worried. 'Are you all right?'

'I'm fine,' Shadow muttered. 'This is what accelerating my healing factor looks like.'

Despite his words, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. His fast pulse and rapid breathing both felt like symptoms of an impending panic attack, but it couldn't be helped. He pressed his earpiece, and the faint sound of music seeped into his ear, giving him something else to focus on. He fixed his eyes on the clock on the wall. It had already been 10 minutes since the first dose of medication. He clicked the PCA remote again and turned his attention inwards. If he didn't concentrate, the medication would cycle out of his system faster than the PCA could dispense it.

His fingers twitched, and he looked down. Faint tremors ran through his hand. He wanted to tell himself that it was just another side effect of being on anxiolytics, but he knew it wasn't true. He had to rely on a piece of equipment that wasn't designed with him or his abilities in mind. He didn't even know whether his oxygen apparatus would continue to function as intended if he kept going like this.

Shadow's concentration wavered, and he glanced at Silver. '… That kid. The one who came to see me earlier.' His grip tightened on the PCA remote. 'She has to use one of these.'

'And thanks to you, she won't have to any more.'

'We don't even know whether the surgery's going to be successful. What if she gets graft vs host disease? What if –'

Silver uncapped the whiteboard marker with his teeth and gave him a wry smile. 'It's called having hope, Shadow. You should try it sometime.'

Shadow scoffed. 'Ever the optimist.'

'Why don't you believe that that the surgery is going to work?'

Shadow faltered. 'Because I've … I've never been able to cure someone before.'

'Don't put too much pressure on yourself. You're not tackling an incurable illness this time. You're facilitating a proven treatment method.'

Shadow tightened his grip on the Chaos Emerald, and a violent flash of prismatic light showered the walls of the recovery ward. Several doctors and nurses stopped in their tracks, and Silver shielded his eyes with one hand. 'Was that really necessary?'

'I'm going to try to get this over with before Makena gets out of the theatre.' Shadow tightened his grip on the Emerald as it flashed and sparked within his hand. 'At the very least, I need to recover by the time that Alex asks me to help the next patient.'

'Don't hurt yourself, all right?'

'It's too late for that.'

Shadow still didn't understand why it felt like everything he did for the sake of others required him to suffer. He didn't know what would happen when he eventually tried to help someone who couldn't be saved. But he had to start somewhere, and he had to have hope that something would come of it in order to keep on going.

He looked through the door of the operating theatre complex. He saw a red light glowing in the dark, indicating that someone's surgery was underway. It had only been days ago when he'd stood on the roof of GUN's headquarters in the rain, talking to Rouge beneath the red glow of a security camera's light, but it felt like years had passed since then.

The facets of the emerald cut into his hand. He might be doing this to himself, but he was the one who had made this choice. He had also chosen to keep coming back to the hospital. Maybe he really did believe that he deserved to suffer, but despite his resentment towards humanity, he couldn't look at someone like Makena and say that she deserved to suffer as well.

And if he kept choosing to save others, then maybe one day … he would learn how to save himself.

A/N: Looks like we finally cracked 100K words on my birthday, haha! Thank you all for reading and for your comments! I never thought I'd end up writing a medical drama set in the world of the Sonic games, but it's been great to see people having just as much fun reading this story as I've had writing it. Here's to another year and another 100k words!