Act 2

Act 3

Infinite never let Sonic defeat him before. In all the plays Sonic starred in for the jackal, the hero never once triumphed over the Master of the Ruby. So, it came as a surprise when Sonic remerged from yet another rip in spacetime to uproarious applause and cheering. They had done it! His friends surrounded him, hugged him, decried his status as the Hero of Mobius. The world seemed to be one big celebration around them.

The War to Retake the Planet was finally over.

Sonic felt nothing, because-

This isn’t real.

His breath hitched and his fur raised. Amy (it was always Amy) noticed first and lightly pulled him away. No one questioned it or said anything, but he could see their smiles fade slightly, or their ears drop, or the skin around their eyes pull just a little.

Pity.

For him.

The Hero.

“I bet you don’t know,” Amy began, “what I’d like for my birthday.” She was right. He didn’t know. That’s how they’d learned to reel him back in, whenever he started to forget, to lose his grip: tell him something novel. He’d already known a lot, but now they fed him facts and stories like medicine…which kinda took a lot of the fun out of the experience.

“A…n-new muffin tin?” Sonic guessed, trying to focus on anything except his raising blood pressure. The thrill of that last fight should have been giving way to the exhilaration of victory, but it wasn’t. Why would it when-

This isn’t-

Sonic’s green eyes spotted Gadget and he bolted for the wolf, just leaving Amy standing there, mouth open to reply. The poor rookie was scraped up pretty bad and probably looking forward to not being Sonic’s emotional support friend for a hot minute, but that wasn’t the reality they were sharing. “H-hey! There’s my buddy!” Sonic gripped Gadget’s arm a bit too tightly. Whatever surprise Gadget expressed quickly melted into a tired smile.

Gadget the Wolf had the terrible privilege of never having met Sonic before the blue blur’s vacation to the Death Egg and the novelty had proven addictive to the reality-challenged hero. The red wolf was commonly colorful, a bit of a dork, and mute. Just Infinite’s exact opposite in so many ways, but the rookie just wouldn’t quit. Against all the odds, Gadget had managed to keep up with Sonic as they won the world back from Eggman. How desperately Sonic clung to him metaphorically and physically had absolutely nothing to do with it. Shut up, it didn’t, okay?

Sonic attached like a sanity leech, Gadget made eye contact with Amy, and she gave him a sad smile. She signed something that Sonic ignored and Gadget shook his head. The wolf pulled Sonic further away from the celebrating crowds and the hero allowed himself to be led. He was so good at following direction now. He needed to be told. Craved instructions, even. He couldn’t lie, his heart raced without a script and he was breaking out in a cold sweat and he really needed to act right because he didn’t want to get punished and hadn’t he been good and-

A battle-dirty glove roughly shook Sonic and he snapped to. Oh shit, right. Yeah, he was clutching Gadget’s arm way too tightly. Releasing the limb and stepping away cautiously, Sonic tried to cover himself by laughing, “Sorry about that, bud.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

‘It’s okay.’ Gadget signed. ‘That was pretty intense. Are you okay?’

No. No, he was not. “Oh, yeah, totally fine.” Sonic smiled and erected a thumbs up. “I mess around in spacetime anomalies, like, all the time. There was this one time I got sucked into one on my birthday. I’ll totally tell you all about it, but, uh, first, do you, like, think you could tell me something I don’t know?” Sonic gave the wolf a pained grin and looked at him expectantly, desperation barely veiled in his eyes.

Gadget frowned, thinking frantically. The poor guy had to be out of stories by now. It’s not like his life was all that interesting before the War. Shit, Sonic should have stuck with Amy. This wasn’t the best idea. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-

With a bashful smile, Gadget began to sign. ‘When I was in elementary school, my parents moved. I was so nervous the first day at my new school that I answered to the wrong name at role call. I never had the courage to correct them, so everyone called me by that name the whole rest of the year.’

Gods, that was so stupid it had to be true.

Which meant this was real.

Sonic laughed, relief washing through him, rinsing out all the sticky, bad thoughts. Gadget grinned. “That’s adorable, man. What was the name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

‘Gadget.’

Sonic blinked, momentarily stunned as he processed. Then he erupted with loud, boisterous laughter. “You’re kidding me!” He slapped his knee.

Gadget couldn’t help joining, though his mirth was softer and more airy through his disabled larynx.

That night they partied. Partied like the world was going to end, but knowing, finally, that it wasn’t. Sonic talked with everyone, absorbing their mirth, their relief, listening to their stories, secretly beating away a creeping doubt in his mind. All his friends – safe. All the new faces of the Resistance – hopeful once more.

Sonic was the hero again.

Again?

What was he thinking?

He had always been the hero!

In everyone’s eyes! In everyone’s minds! In everyone’s hearts!

Well-

Then there was Shadow.

Fighting in the War had been weird for Sonic. There really wasn’t a better way to describe it. Sometimes he was fine. Smiling and meaning it. Laughing and joking. Moving fast and smashing bots. Normal…almost.

Other times he was very, very, very not fucking fine. Smiling and hating it. Panting and bitching out loud. Moving fast and smashing bots. Smashing buildings. Smashing things he wasn’t supposed to smash. Making people flinch. Making people whisper behind his back. Making people walk on eggshells around him. Making people wonder if this time would be the time he really lost it, just really went to town on the place and didn’t stop, never stopped, never could stop until it was all dust and then, maybe then-

No one said anything. Not really. But he’d see the pity and fear in their eyes, and it just made him mad. Just so fucking mad you couldn’t believe how it burned inside him. He didn’t know what to do with the anger, no matter how many times Amy tried to walk him through breathing exercises, or Tails tried to remind him of the good times, or Knuckles took a few minutes away from his role as Commander of the Resistance to spar with him.

The anger just built inside him.

Then there was Shadow.

Sonic sought out Metal once. Or twice. Or more times than was anyone’s gods damned business. Fuck off, what do you know?

His metal counterpart was on the run from Eggman and trying to use the War as cover for his own rebellion. Metal had been integral in Sonic’s rescue, risking getting reclaimed by his creator just to lead Amy through the Death Egg. Sonic literally wouldn’t have gotten sprung without his loathsome copy. The killer robot was turning a new leaf, Amy said. Metal wasn’t perfect, but he wanted to be the master of his own destiny. Old Sonic would have been overjoyed for his facsimile.

But New Sonic didn’t give a shit about any of that. He knew he should, but he didn’t. What he cared about was how hard Metal could hit him in the face. Sometimes Metal needed some antagonizing, but after the first few times, the metal hedgehog got with the program and brought the pain on demand. Sonic ignored Metal’s signing. All that mattered was that Metal was incapable of pity. Hate, loathing, disdain, whatever - Sonic fucking wanted it as long as it wasn’t pity.

But then Metal snitched like a bitch and Sonic found himself staring at the ground while Amy lectured him like a child about not developing unhealthy habits. Damn it.

Then there was Shadow.

Sonic didn’t want to upset Amy. He needed her. Gods, he needed her desperately at all times sometimes. Needed her warm lap and her gentle hand carding through his quills. Her calm voice telling him that he was safe, that he was strong, that all of this was real. Sonic upended his ocean of fear and pain onto her, unfairly hoping she could absorb it all, drain him off it and make him feel normal again.

She tried.

When she failed, Amy snitched him out to Tails the bitch, who approached Sonic like he was a problem to be solved, that his everything could be broken down into parts and, with a complicated enough spreadsheet, be fully understood. There was this thing to try, and that technique, or maybe this other drug. A million maybe this’ll helps. Nothing worked and they were winning the war. Soon there wouldn’t be a regular source of danger to throw himself into. What the fuck was he going to do then?

Oh Chaos, did he not want to win the War? Oh Gaia, what a piece of shit he was. What a selfish, worthless piece of shit he was to even think something like that. He didn’t deserve his friends. He didn’t deserve this world. He deserved to be back with-

Sonic hated it, but he was helpless to resist his friend’s (and Metal’s) loving help. Still, when he had enough, he would bolt, disappearing into a blue after image to parts unknown, utterly free. He was the fastest thing alive, gods-damn it, free as the wind, and nothing, absolutely nothing, would ever catch him again.

Then…there was Shadow.

Turns out that after passing Sonic to Knuckles, Shadow had gone down with the Death Egg while guarding the rescue craft’s retreat. As the wreckage created golden-red streaks through the sky as it burned on reentry, one of those blazing shooting stars had been Shadow. Rouge found him, but it took her a while. While Sonic was desperately clinging to his sanity fighting Infinite’s Ruby Clones of Shadow, the real deal was regrowing all his soft tissues and most of his bones in Rouge’s bathtub.

Luckily, Shadow grew back as a hedgehog and not a slimy, abomination that haunted Sonic’s nightmares (the better ones at least).

Of course, the bastard had to pick the most dramatic time to reemerge, wrecking one of Infinite’s copies before it brained Sonic with a steel-soled boot. The thing that looked mighty suspiciously like Shadow turned to look at the blue hero with trembling, expectant eyes. Sonic took one look at the short-quilled Shadow, his freshly grown fur downy like a hoglet’s, before the speedster booked it the fuck out of there.

Sonic had, on occasion over the years, wondered why Eggman hadn’t made a Metal Shadow. It seemed on brand, right? Though the Shadow Androids were…well, were they robots? Clones? Come to think of it, Sonic hadn’t really thought about it too hard, not at the time at least.

Infinite’s Ruby Shadow Clones weren’t robots, that’s for sure. Sonic could hit them as hard as he wanted and all they’d do was burst into a fountain of redish-purple cubes. And he…he popped a lot of them. Was it therapy via violence? Yeah, sure, totally. Amy didn’t think so, though, no matter how many times Sonic promised it made him feel better.

It didn’t make him feel better.

Nothing made him feel better. Not for long at least. Especially not while he was in the background. Always standing in the wings, fighting right behind Sonic, just out of reach, with that stupid sad look on his face. Bastard! Sonic heard his voice, occasionally felt his touch, but the hero was always too busy winning the War to waste his time on…

Sonic ran.

He ran a lot.

Every time there had been a pause in the action, a brief moment while the dust settled and they could catch their breath, he’d make a move. He’d get close, his hand reaching out- saying something, apologies and comfort spilling out- trying to catch Sonic’s eye, pain and sorrow carved into twin rubies- hoping to-

But Sonic ran.

It was cowardly. It was unfair. It was mean, and wrong, and so many other bad things, but Sonic couldn’t…He just couldn’t. Not now, maybe not ever. He was more than broken, more than mangled, more irreparably shattered. He’d played himself on stage so many times he wasn’t even sure if he knew who he really was anymore.

Shadow never gave up. No matter how many times Sonic booked it the hell away, the hybrid would be right beside him in the next fight, waiting for his chance to try again. Shadow was infuriatingly patient. Maddeningly accepting. Disgustingly kind.

But now the War was won and Sonic the Hedgehog had proven, yet again, that he was exactly the amount of hero everyone thought he was. So, at the party, it had just been such a Sonic thing for him to do when he, feeling the approach of a familiar chaos energy, bolted mid-sentence. Chaos damn it, he cursed. He had hoped he’d be safe in the dead center of a massive, throwdown block party, but apparently not. What could he do? Massive, rampaging killer robots were suddenly so hard to come by.

Sonic made it about a quarter turn on the globe when his body (having gotten zero real rest since the thrilling conclusion of his last adventure) started to fail and he finally came to a stop in a wide grassy plain. He’d been going fast. The sun rising in the west fast. Start in summer, end in winter far. And still, not a handful of heartbeats later-

He sounded winded. Good, Sonic thought, himself huffing a bit. “Sonic-“

“Fuck off.” The blue hedgehog interrupted.

Shadow decidedly did not fuck off. Sonic grit his teeth, forcing his gaze to rise from the ground, up the black body to the face that haunted his nightmares. Every hair on his body stood on end, every fiber of his being screamed at him to keep running, every thought was-

This isn’t-

This isn’t ever-

This can never be-

Sonic forced himself to stare at Shadow’s face, soft with something fake, and he could barely breathe. His vision blurred and faded, his body trying to shield him from the intolerable.

“I said. Fuck. Off.” Sonic growled, fangs bare.

“Is that…really what you want?” Shadow stared at the ground between them. “You really…want me to leave?”

Sonic had had enough. Enough of this shit. He didn’t care if Infinite threw him on the rack and pulled his limbs off again. He’d fight it like he meant it this time. He’d fight the end of this script until the bitter end. He’d fight like hell. Tooth and claw and blood and bone. Fuck it.

“You always fucking do this to me!” Sonic heard his voice shout. Shadow’s brow knitted in the perfect replication of confusion and he looked up. Sonic’s hands ran through his quills. “Look. Just let me pretend this is real for a little longer, okay? I’ve been good, right? Can’t you just- fuck-! just throw me a fricking bone for once?”

“W-what are you-?” Sonic hated how perfect Infinite’s version of Shadow had become. It could even do that little vocal fray when Shadow got upset. “No…No, you can’t still- Sonic, please-!“

Sonic grimaced in disgust. “Just give me like five more minutes. Then you can try to fuck me wearing Shadow’s face before tossing me back into the real world.”

Shadow froze. Great, the illusion was glitching. Ugh. “Sonic.” The illusion stared at Sonic with the most realistic expression of misery Sonic had ever seen. Infinite really had gone all out this time. But Sonic refused to be fooled. Refused to open his heart because if he did, the last bits of hope would rush out. “Do you think this is an illusion right now?” The phantom Shadow’s voice cracked with something akin to agony (but it couldn’t be agony because-

This isn’t real.

Sonic shrugged. “Nightmare, illusion, whatever the hell you want to call it, you sick motherfucker. It’s always the same. You have no gods damn imagination!” Sonic snorted bitterly. “Though maybe you’re taking creative writing classes or something because the crazy black squid thing was kinda cool. So much for ‘what I know, you know.’ Shadow does tons of cool shit, but there is no fucking way he’d willingly go all Black Arms like that.”

He turned away. Sonic couldn’t stand to look at the visage of Shadow anymore. Talking to him hurt, looking at him hurt, thinking about him hurt, remembering him hurt. And that’s why he was here. To make Sonic suffer.

“Sonic, this is real.” It said forcefully, putting all the gas in those lights. “We rescued you. Amy, Knuckles, Miles, Metal, everyone in the Resistance. We rescued you! There are no more illusions. You’ve got to- please, Sonic, you have to believe me!”

He’s not real. None of this was real.

“Whatever, dude. Go fuck yourself.” Sonic said with a level of venom Old Sonic would find horrifying. It was fine, though. New Sonic could be as hateful and negative as he could manage, really work his body raw to summon darkness into this mirage. Maybe it would obscure the pain, if only for a moment. But even his suffering didn’t matter because-

This isn’t real.

“This is what he wanted.” The nearly perfect facsimile mused with a strained voice. “Moments like this, where we torture each other. This is Infinite’s legacy.” What a strange thing to say. The Shadow copy continued, “He’s dead and still making us miserable. The fucker is still winning.” There was silence, then, “I hate him. I hate what he did to you. I hate how long it took us to rescue you.” It gave a mirthless huff, “And most of all, I hate myself for allowing any of this to happen.”

Sonic’s chest hurt. Everything always seemed to hurt around this stubborn fake Shadow who followed him all over the fucking planet, but his chest hurt especially and especially especially now. He wished it would go away. He’d learned a magic spell that could dispel the illusion, banish it away for a time. So, Sonic said the incantation.

“I hate you, too.”

But it didn’t work. He could still feel the apparition behind him, haunting his very soul, tainting the air around them with pain and grief. Why didn’t it work? Sonic tried again.

“I said, I hate you, too!”

Behind him, Infinite was making the Shadow puppet grunt, as if it was in real, terrible distress. Sonic refused to turn around. He just wouldn’t fucking do it. He didn’t like this new play the jackal was putting on. The softness, the cautiousness. Sonic almost preferred the violence and the vitriol. At least then he wasn’t fighting himself to resist.

But this? Ugh. His mind was a tempest. His instincts screamed at him to turn, to comfort, to be the hero and promise that everything would be okay. Which was what Infinite wanted, for Sonic to expose his belly for more disembowelment. That’s when the knives would come out and carve Sonic up for dinner.

Then he’d wake up in his cold cell, alone, stomach clenching on nothing, heart racing his system into oblivion, mind glitching.

And soul weeping.

Movement in the corner of his eye ripped Sonic out of his spiraling thoughts. He flinched, body coiling to ward off an attack, and his gaze shot upwards. He frowned. Something like…jagged, red-tipped black feathers hung in the air above him like a canopy, the golden light of the setting sun filtering through. Sonic’s eyes followed the strange feathers up and turned around to find the source.

There was Shadow, his eyes burning and jaw clenched, not from anger, but a bitter mixture of long-aged sadness and fear of rejection. Terrified of seeing disgust in Sonic’s eyes, Shadow’s gaze fell. Fangs grit, fists balled so tight the leather of his gloves groaned. A last ditched effort. A final gambit.

Shadow had…wings. Not angelic, feathery wings. No, these were fleshy, black monstrosities, something out of a sick nightmare and reminded Sonic of the black squid thing Shadow had morphed into on the Death Egg. Well fuck. Once was a fluke but twice was a trend.

Sonic stopped breathing. He had never seen anything like it in his life. And that made them-

Beyond Gorgeous

Transcendently Beautiful

Immaculately Stunning

Sonic’s heart stuttered, his ears rang. “Shadow…” He whispered.

It was him. He took a step closer under the cover of Shadow’s wings.

“I- I haven’t revealed these to anyone.” Shadow examined the grass at his feet intensely. “Not even Rouge. No one…knows about them…especially not Infinite.”

It was him. Sonic took another step.

“I…developed this…ability when we were in white space. I never told anyone. I- I was ashamed…and disgusted by them.”

It was him.

Sonic reached forward and laced his fingers through the white fluff on Shadow’s chest. He could feel the thrum of a racing heart just beneath his hands. The hybrid startled and finally his gaze lifted to Sonics. “It’s you.” Sonic gripped, perhaps harder than he meant. “You’re really here.” He said with in a shuddering whisper, as if speaking too loudly would make Shadow dissolve into dust.

“I am.” Shadow whispered, his voice warbling, perhaps afraid Sonic would fade into an afterimage. “I’m really here, Sonic.”

Sonic’s fingers clawed into Shadow’s fur, digging desperately and possessively, as if he could gather the entirety of the black hedgehog into his hands. Not making progress with the white hairs, Sonic’s hands spidered up Shadow’s chest and neck to frame his sharp jaw.

Blazing rubies met murky emeralds, their shine lost to months of abuse. Shadow blinked, his eyes dampening. “Sonic-“ His words were cut off by Sonic smashing his mouth against his, forcefully. Sonic had been drowning in misery and the only air in the universe was in Shadow’s lungs. Blinded by desperation and unraveled by a staggering relief that overwhelmed him, Sonic was completely disconnected from any form of rational thought by the rabid, drastic, caustic, incessant need to be so close to Shadow they became superpositions of the same entity.

His hands rounded Shadow’s jaw and scooped up along the back of his head, sliding through his ebony quills, granting Sonic leverage to push himself even harder against the black body. Crimson striped arms wrapped around his slight form, not trapping him, not looking to crush or strangle, but to hold him. Firmly. Protectively. Lovingly.

Shadow’s wings flexed, dangerous feathers clawing at the air, to maintain their balance.

Coming up for air briefly, Sonic then smothered himself in the nape of Shadow’s neck, gasping massive lungfuls of his scent. “I missed you.” He whimpered, his voice small and pinched.

“I missed you, too. I missed you every minute, every second, Sonic.” Shadow’s fingers kneading into the tense muscles underneath Sonic’s back quills and the smaller male continued to burrow into him. Sonic lifted his legs and wrapped them around Shadow’s waist, clinging desperately.

“I’m broken.” He whined.

Shadow shushed him. “No, you’re not.”

The denial irritated Sonic. “Don’t be a dick. Yes, I am.”

Shadow leaned back, pulling free of Sonic’s grip and made the blue hedgehog look him in the eye. “And what if you are, huh? You’re still you, Sonic.”

“I- I’m not-!” Sonic screamed into Shadow’s face. “I’m not! I’m not! I’m not!” He choked, hot tears breaking free. “I don’t care what you or Amy or anyone says! I’m not the same! I’ll never be the same!”

Sonic buried his face into Shadow shoulder, large, gasping sobs beating him out like a dirty rug.

Shadow held him, not tightly, but firmly. Solidly. “You idiot.” He spoke softly into Sonic’s ear as he nuzzled the hero’s head. “Yeah, you’re not the same. So what? You’re still you. You’ll always be you. Different, but still you.” Shifting his stance, he closed his wings around them, creating a private space. “Damn it, that’s just how time works, Sonic. None of us are the same from one moment to the next. Sometimes the difference is bigger than others, but that’s what happens.”

“Stop sounding like Amy.” Sonic muttered.

Shadow rumbled below him. “I will when you stop sounding like Infinite.”

Sonic veered back, eyes red-rimmed from tears, but sharp with malice. “Asshole!” He hissed.

“Jackass.” Shadow answered, smirking like the stupidest, handsomest, most annoying motherfucker Sonic had ever met in his life. Before the bastard could say anything else, Sonic shut him up with his face.

This time Shadow gripped Sonic’s back just as fiercely as Sonic did his. His hands explored the thin fur and brittle quills as bravely as Sonic’s tongue counted the teeth in Shadow’s mouth. Absently, his fingers found themselves low, cupping the taunt flesh of Sonic’s ass and curling around his tail.

Sonic froze.

Shadow withdrew the hand so fast it should have broken the sound barrier. After a moment, Sonic resumed as if nothing had happened.

Eventually Sonic had to come up for air again and he finally noticed how darkness enveloped them. He frowned and Shadow opened his wings, revealing the dusk-stained sky above them, the first stars already blinking into existence through whisps of orange and pink clouds.

“Fly.” Sonic commanded, still panting.

“What?”

“These fancy wings.” Sonic looked between the two of them. “They’re not just for show? They work, right?”

Shadow snorted. “Of course they work, hedgehog.”

“Prove it, faker.” Sonic sounded petulant, but, fuck, he’d earned the right. “Fly me to the moon. Show me something I’ve never seen before.” Prove to me this is real, went unsaid.

A sharp smile spread across Shadow’s muzzle, dangerous and wild. The hybrid tensing slightly was the only warning Sonic had before the massive, sinuous appendages slammed down. The pair shot into the open air with enough force that Sonic’s head pressed into Shadow’s shoulder tight enough to muffle his cry of surprise.

After a moment, the initial acceleration eased and Sonic was able to lift his head. The biting remark coiling to strike from his throat died as his eyes went wide. The land unfurled in all directions around them like a massive picnic blanket, its many features delicious dishes laid out for Sonic’s gaze to feast upon.

Sure, he’d flown before. On the Tornado with Tails and in his Super form, but this was something else. Shadow was a furnace and Sonic coiled around him for warmth as the air around them turned deadly frigid. Then that same warmth became an ice pack when they exited the exosphere and the full force of the sun’s radiation went to absolute town on them.

Sonic felt the tingle of his chaos energy spreading to keep his body functioning. Pressure and air were nonexistent and Shadow was tearing them through space at over 50 times normal gravity, but with enough chaos energy, who gives a fuck? Shadow’s wings shimmered against the darkness of the universe and the green and blue sphere of the planet glowed below them. Yeah, sure, no directions in space. Whatever, Shadow’s thrust was taking them away from solid ground, so that was down. Just roll with it.

Halfway, Shadow flipped them to decelerate. The chaos powered hedgehogs could probably take the impact at that speed, but what was left of the moon probably couldn’t. Sonic pressed his ear to Shadow’s chest. The universe a silent void around them, but the thrum of Shadow’s heart was clear and pounding as he navigated them the debris field around the shattered moon.

Touching down on the lunar surface released a bloom of fine dust that settled in slow motion. Shadow released his hold on Sonic, who lowered his feet, but refused to relinquish his death grip on Shadow’s pelt. Shadow had landed them on a wide open plain, giving them an unobstructed view of the glorious planet, partially darkened by night creeping over its surface.

Shadow adjusted his wings to not obscure the vast expanse. Sonic ran a finger down one of the fleshy feathers and Shadow shivered. “Careful, hedgehog. They’re sensitive.” Well, didn’t that just rile Sonic the fuck up. Still superstitious that Shadow would disappear, Sonic kept one hand firmly grounded on black fur while the other shot out and grasped one of the feathers.

Sharp pain lanced through Sonic’s hand as he learned really quickly that the fleshy, protrusions were sharp as fucking knives. Shadow expelled a strange sound, something between a gasp and an irate snarl, and reached to try to pull Sonic off. He needn’t of worried, because Sonic’s bloodied hand retreated. However, Sonic was never one to turn down a challenge.

The pair became a strange blue and black blur, thrashing wildly on the pale, silent plain. Sonic, attached like a leech to Shadow’s chest, dramatically and childishly trying to poke, pinch, or stroke every ‘feather’ he could get his bloody little mitts on and Shadow, gritting his teeth to keep from snarling (or laughing), dodged as best he could, wracked as he was with waves of strange sensations from each of Sonic’s successful attacks.

Finally, Shadow had had enough and, with pained effort that gave Sonic pause, he reabsorbed his wings.

“Does it hurt?” Sonic asked, examining the sheen of sweat on Shadow’s brow.

“Like a bitch.” The darker male answered.

Sonic looked away meekly. “I’m sorry. I was being a brat.”

Shadow cupped his cheek and turned Sonic’s face back to his. “Don’t apologize. I love that about you. You’re a little shit.” Sonic made a sour face. “And I love it.”

This time Shadow fell over backwards when Sonic violently rejoined their mouths. There wasn’t any breath to catch, so the make-out session didn’t have any natural breaks or end points. Eventually, they did part, but how long that took was no one’s gods-damned business.

Sonic lay next to Shadow, their fingers entwined, and stare at the expanse of stars unhindered by miles of atmosphere. “So, like…Amy and Metal…are they like dating? How does that work?” Shadow chuckled. Sonic tilted his head and glared. “What?”

Shadow turned to look at Sonic, his red eyes glowing in the planetlight. “This just seems like a strange topic, is all. I thought you’d start with something else.”

“Well,” Sonic turned away, suddenly embarrassed. “I was just going back and trying to think when shit started going right again and I think it was when Amy and Metal busted me out.” He justified, though, truth be told, he really didn’t need to. “The way they acted…it seemed more intimate than, like, baseline Amy, you know?”

“I’m just as surprised as you are. As for how it works…” Shadow shrugged. “I confess I haven’t really thought about it and nor do I intend to. What I do know is that I have no place to judge who anyone falls in love with.”

Sonic snorted. “Shadow the ‘Ultimate Lifeform’ withholding judgement?”

Shadow reached over and flicked Sonic on the nose and the speedster blew a weak raspberry. “If I, an artificial being, can find love, then I don’t see any reason why Metal should be denied the same.”

Sonic hummed. “It’s still weird though.”

“This will be good.” Shadow snorted to himself in that infuriating way he always does. “How so?”

“Metal’s just a copy of me, right?” Sonic grimaced. “Metal’s an asshole, but, I dunno, things with him just hit differently with me. It’s nothing like what I got with Tails or nothing, but still…I can’t describe it. Amy wanted to be with me and now she’s with him. It’s just weird. Don’t tell her I said anything. I get it’s the sort of thing I just have to figure out how to get over.”

“You’re being a hypocrite.”

“Thanks, jerk.” Sonic tired to pull his hand free of Shadow’s, but the darker male wouldn’t let him. “I already said I need to figure out how to stop feeling that way.”

“It’s more than that.” Shadow sighed. “I could be considered a copy of you as well even though I predate you.”

Sonic frowned. That was different, obviously. “That’s different.”

“How so?” Shadow raised a brow.

Fuck, he didn’t know. “I dunno, it just is.” Sonic regretted bringing the topic up, tugging on his hand again.

“Nevertheless,” Shadow said softly, “I think Amy’s interest in Metal runs far deeper than just his relationship to you.”

“Good for her, I guess.” Sonic huffed turning away. Why did he care so much? What did he care who Amy fucked? When he was rotting away in the Death Egg, was she riding a viberator designed to look like him? That just figured, she was always like that, always a nasty, spiteful, little-

“Don’t be like that.”

“Like what?” Sonic snapped, yanking his hand away. Shadow tightened his grip and didn’t allow Sonic to disengage. He rolled to face Sonic and lifted himself on an elbow. “Let me fucking go, dude.” Sonic snarled.

Wait.

Fuck.

Why was he so angry all of a sudden?

Shadow took advantage of Sonic’s confusion to jerk the blue hedgehog forward and wrap his moondust covered arms around Sonic. The smaller male gasped and struggled, but Shadow’s hold was iron.

“I thought you died.” Shadow said quietly. “The Doctor bragged that he had killed you. Miles had seen you defeated.” He took a deep breath. “We all thought you were dead.”

Sonic felt his face heat and he settled. He was getting worked up over stupid shit again. That happened way too frequently, but he didn’t know how to make it stop. “What changed?”

“Metal. He showed up one day out of the blue. I was about to take him apart when Amy stopped me.” Shadow’s face clouded over, the memory married to shame. “She said he was the real Metal, not a copy, but that just made me all the more eager to rip him limb from limb…for looking like you. I didn’t care if he was the Doctor’s creature or not. I couldn’t stand the reminder. Amy threw herself between Metal and I. Jumped right in front of my spear and…begged for his life. That’s when we all found out about them. Did you know she’s the one that taught him sign language?”

“I didn’t know that.” Sonic thought about how desperately he hung onto Gadget’s signs, but fully ignored Metal’s unless the metal fingers were shoved in his face and only then because Sonic was pissed those fingers weren’t trying to claw his eyes out. Maybe he owed the guy an apology.

“The Doctor won’t let him speak or express himself.” Shadow’s gaze had grown distant. “Metal is just a weapon to be aimed. A tool to be used.”

Sonic nuzzled Shadow’s chin. “Sounds like you can relate.”

Shadow huffed. “You are correct. I’m glad Amy stopped me. Metal was able to give Miles access to the Ruby charged Eggnet and that’s how we found you.”

“In space…” Sonic twisted, looking across the sunlit moonscape at the partially illuminated planet dominating the sky.

“In space.” Shadow chuckled. “Getting there to rescue you was even more difficult that finding you in the first place.”

Sonic arched a brow. “You got us here easily enough.”

“If you would recall, I don’t exactly flaunt my new appendages.” Shadow flicked Sonic on the nose again, gaining a more forceful raspberry this time “And it was a team effort. If I’d just gone along to bust you out, I’d more than likely destroy the whole station with you in it. No, it was much better to have the backup. Further, if I had had come alone…I’m not sure I could have handled you as you were then.”

As Sonic was…delusional and violently uncooperative. Nasty and spiteful. Terrified and broken.

“I hated you.” Sonic confessed in a small voice.

“No, you didn’t.” Sonic could feel Shadow’s voice through his chest. “You hated Infinite. Even when he looked like me, it was still him.”

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

But Shadow heard anyway. He always could hear Sonic. “There isn’t anything to forgive.”

“Yeah, there is.” Sonic deserved to be punished. Deserved to be hated. Why wouldn’t anyone hate him? Why wouldn’t anyone confirm the hate he held inside for himself? “I’m so sorry about, well, about everything on the Death Egg. Running, what I said to you, running again.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” Fuck, it was so infuriating. “I know what it’s like to have someone mess with your mind.” Oh, right. Shadow didn’t expand on the thought and the finality cowed Sonic’s guilt. Or at least his desire to express his guilt. Whatever, basically the same thing.

“He threatened to take my body.” Sonic said in a small voice. “That was what finally got me.” Shadow pulled back and studied Sonic’s face. “N-not all the…touching. Or all the horrific stuff he made me do…no, he just said he’d- I couldn’t handle losing it and…I submitted to him.”

“There’s no shame in that, Sonic.” Shadow pressed his forehead against Sonic’s. “You worked hard for your body.”

Fuck, did Sonic know it.

He and Shadow had been dating for a while when Sonic finally decided he was ready to take the next step in aligning his outsides with his insides. Amy, who’d helped him through the recovery from his top adjustment, correctly instructed him to tell his man what he was planning to do to his sex. He wasn’t asking for permission, she explained. He was keeping the most important person in his life appraised of his choices.

Made sense, though Sonic was still fucking terrified Shadow would think he was strange or disgusting, or, shit, would just not be attracted to Sonic anymore, that he no longer was what Shadow signed up for. But Shadow hadn’t even blinked. Instead, he had asked what he needed to do to support Sonic and, in that moment, Sonic didn’t think he could ever love Shadow more.

A sentiment that Infinite had taken flagrant advantage.

“He almost chopped my cock off.” Sonic seethed. “He squeezed so hard, I thought it was going to snap in two.”

“I know.” Shadow’s voice was laced with disgusted vitriol from the memory.

“I worked so hard for it.” Sonic hissed threw gritted teeth.

“I know.”

“Fuck, it was so expensive, too.” He huffed.

“I know.” Shadow chuckled, darkly.

Shadow pulled Sonic into a tight embrace. The tears were coming back. In the negligible atmosphere, they froze and sublimated the moment each broke free.

“Every place he dared to touch you with his vile, rotten flesh, I’m going to reclaim.” The darker body was so warm against him. Solid. Steady. Shadow’s body felt so good against his, like a port in the storm of Sonic’s thoughts and emotions. “I’m going to cover you in my scent and my love.”

Sonic felt the rumble of his deep voice through Shadow’s chest. “I can’t change what he did to you, but I can replace the feel of him with the feel of me. I can push all those terrible memories away with new ones. I will excise him like a tumor. I will make you burn so hot for me that his infection is reduced to ash.”

“Sha-“ Sonic was silenced as Shadow connected their mouths. Sonic’s eye slipped closed and he allowed Shadow entry. The wet muscle pushed in and desperately began exploring as if it had never been there before. Shadow’s hands snaked along Sonic’s back and threaded through blue quills, pushing his head ever closer.

Sonic’s arms wrapped around Shadow, dull claws digging into the hard muscle of the hybrid’s back. He moaned, but the sound shriveled into a gasping sob. Shadow pulled back and Sonic sucked in a shuddering breath in the microclimate formed between their bodies. With nothing but vacuum around them, all he could smell was Shadow. Unadulterated. Uncut. Sonic blinked, releasing hot tears to run down his cheeks. Shadow gently licked away the moisture, his hands moving to softly, but firmly framed Sonic’s face.

The hero drew a series of short, quivering breaths, unable to control the tears. He pinched his eyes shut, unable to handle the world right now. Thank Gaia Shadow had taken him so far away from the resplendent sphere. The hybrid understood and positioned himself to fully shield Sonic from the planet’s glow. All that he would see, if he chose to look, was silky black and burning red.

As Sonic wept, Shadow continued to groom him. His hands traveled over the long-abused body, pressing away hard knots and gracing over newly gained scars. Shadow whispered into the soft of Sonic’s ear memories of all the places they’d been together, stories of all the people he had saved, and all the new adventures they’d have.

At times, Sonic was limp, unfocused eyes staring at the unfathomable span of stars, and Shadow laid beside him, warm and whole and real. At others, he convulsed, thrashing violently, biting, scratching, spitting and Shadow held him, immeasurable strength mustered to ground Sonic and maintain sole patronage of his ire.

Shadow clutched Sonic with crushing force. Not enough to hurt, but enough to convey a desperate possessiveness, a staggering forlorn so deep and solid Sonic couldn’t begin to comprehend its density. He didn’t feel unsafe, but for a moment it seemed they’d never part again and simply melt into a single homogenous mass, never to be distinct from one another again in any sense.

The gravity of connection grew too complex and Sonic, as was often these days, lost signal between his analytical facilities and his feeling ones. Past and future and imagination fell away, and he just existed in Shadow’s embrace. At some point his eyes slipped closed and he fell asleep, properly asleep, for perhaps the first time in many, many months.

As he faded, the steady sound of Shadow’s pulse throbbing in his ear, the rise of his chest gentle waves carrying Sonic away, the blue hedgehog registered a single thought, almost in passing, almost so obvious as to be a waste of time to contemplate-

This is real.