Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“This place looks like a prison.” Sonic muttered, more to himself than Rouge.

“It might be.” Rouge said with a frown.

Sonic had never been within the walls of a GUN base before, so he couldn’t be certain if all of them felt this oppressive and lifeless, or if the people who used to run this place were just particularly boring. Every wall was the same cold, dark metal, and every room felt empty apart from the equipment that had been left behind.

Rouge’s employers had been tight-lipped when it came to the reason the scientists who ran this place had suddenly fled the building, all she’d been told was that she had to retrieve a highly volatile experiment that they’d abandoned. They hadn’t even bothered to tell her what it was she was retrieving, saying only ‘you’ll know it when you see it’.

She’d decided to drag Sonic along to get it over with quicker, as she had been dragged out here during prime beauty sleep hours, and didn’t feel like searching a base while half-asleep for hours. Plus, it had been a while since she’d had someone to accompany her on a mission, and she liked the blue hedgehog’s company.

Sonic had already run through the first few floors of the base, but hadn’t found anything out of place. Just more abandoned equipment and expired food. It wasn’t until they made it to the last floor that they finally found something different. Not just different, but deeply concerning.

They’d been walking down another blank hallway, the base becoming darker the further they went in, as most of the lightbulbs had already gone out, when they found what looked like a cell. It was an open space built into the wall, blocked off by glass, the only entrance being a door with a palm scanner next to it.

Within the cell, Sonic could just barely see deep scratches in the metal of the walls. It looked like some sort of animal had clawed at the metal, but he didn’t know a single animal with claws sharp enough or strong enough to leave such deep marks. A small bowl was lying on the ground, filled with fruit so rotten that it had gone black. At the back of the cell, a chain was connected to the wall, the end of it leading to the darkest corner of the cell.

When Sonic looked closer at the dark corner, he thought he saw movement. It was slight, he couldn’t even be certain he hadn’t made it up, until he heard Rouge gasp next to him.

“What the fuck?” She blurted out, stepping closer to the cell.

“What do you see?” Sonic asked, squinting in an attempt to get a glimpse of what Rouge was seeing, to no avail.

“It looks like…” she shook her head. “No, no, that’s not possible. Even GUN wouldn’t-“ she cut herself off, a grimace forming on her face.

Sonic wanted to roll his eyes. Not everyone has night vision, Rouge. “What are you-“

Sonic couldn’t finish his sentence before something shifted in the darkness. This… creature crawled closer to the glass, the metal of its chain clinking against the floor as it moved.

The first thing Sonic noticed about it was its face. It looked… mutilated, was the only word that came to mind. Sonic could only see half of its face, the darkness and the angle the creature sat at ended up concealing its other half, but what little he could see looked horrible. The half he could see was scarred, making the creature’s fur uneven and patchy. Its muzzle was torn down to the bone, showing its teeth and parts of its jaw through the ripped skin. Its eye- or, where its eye should have been, was now an empty socket, the eyelid equally scarred as the rest of its face. On top of its head was a ripped ear, the tear of it looking jagged.

As Sonic’s eyes shifted down its body, three realizations hit him at once, each one more horrific than the last.

First, this creature was a Mobian. It had to be. It had clearly gone through something that warped it to be nearly unrecognizable, the scars covering its face dragging down that entire half of its body, but it was still a person. Or, had been, at one point.

Second, this creature was extremely small. Too small to have been an adult Mobian. It was sitting down on the cell’s floor, but just judging by its size when sitting, Sonic figured that, even standing, the top of its head wouldn’t even reach his shoulder. If he had to guess, the creature was young. Very young.

Third, this base had been abandoned for months, yet this creature was still alive. It had moved. If Sonic listened closely, he could even hear its soft pants. It was dangerously thin from what he could tell, and nobody had been here to feed it, leaving it severely malnourished. Even just that small amount of movement must have taken most of the creature’s energy.

Sonic’s stomach churned, and he had to swallow back the bile rising in his throat. He turned to Rouge. “D’you think this has anything to do with your mission?”

“Gaia, I hope not.” Rouge whispered, her hands trembling at her sides. “…He looks so… scared.”

Sonic frowned. “How can you tell? I still can’t see what you can.”

For a few seconds, Rouge didn’t acknowledge that Sonic had spoken, but when his words finally caught up to her, she inhaled sharply, then knelt down in front of the glass.

“Can you hear me, honey?” Rouge said, her voice as gentle as she could manage.

The creature twitched.

“Can you come closer?” She made a motion with her hand, beckoning the creature to keep moving.

The creature didn’t move for a long moment, then it- he, apparently- seemed to shake his head. Something in Rouge’s eyes seemed to soften.

“We won’t hurt you, I promise. My friend here just wants to see you.”

After another tense moment, the creature finally moved again. He didn’t walk, instead choosing to drag himself forward with his arms, taking the chain with him. He stopped a couple feet away from the glass, then looked to Sonic. Sonic’s heart dropped.

The creature was a hedgehog. A mutilated, malnourished little hedgehog with dark quills and a single uninjured eye. His quills were clipped dangerously short, as if someone had intended to take away his only natural defense mechanism. There were red stripes beginning down the middle of each grouping of quills, though they were too short to know how far the stripes would have gone. He had the same red stripes over his eyelids, and down his arms (presumably his legs as well, but they were hidden from Sonic’s view). His arms were covered in a dark liquid that had dried onto his fur, which Sonic could only assume was blood. The hedgehog didn’t have any gloves, though he did have thick Inhibitor Rings around his wrists.

Only half of the hedgehog’s face had suffered severe injury. The other half of his muzzle was unscarred, though his cheek was sunken in, losing the baby fat that should have still been there due to a lack of nutrients. His fur was dirty and perhaps a bit thin, but not affected by whatever had scarred the other half of his body. He had a tuft of white fur on his chest, though the fur was matted, darkened with dirt and grime. His remaining eye looked uninjured, Sonic couldn’t tell if it was brown or red.

The little hedgehog’s gaze flicked rapidly between Rouge and Sonic, his eye wide and clouded with fear and an underlying desperation. One of his hands was clenched around the chain that must have been attached to him somehow. His mouth was stained with the same dark liquid Sonic had seen stuck to his arms, and it dripped and eventually dried onto the dirty tuft of fur on his chest. His lower lip wobbled, like he would cry at any moment.

“…He’s just a kid.” Sonic’s voice came out weak.

Rouge let out a wounded sound. “What the hell were they doing to him? How long has he been here? How-“ her voice cracked. “How is he not dead?”

The hedgehog’s good ear flattened, and Sonic wondered if he could actually understand them, or if he could only understand the tones they spoke in.

“W- We can’t just leave him here, right?”

Rouge shook her head fervently. “Absolutely not.”

A thought occurred to Sonic then, one that only expanded the sickening feeling in his stomach. “Is this what GUN wanted you to find?”

Rouge’s eyes widened. “No.” It came out less as a word, more like an exhale. “I’m- I can’t bring this to them. But… if they send someone else-“

“He won’t be here for them to find.” Sonic said with finality.

“You think we can get him out?”

Sonic shrugged. “We’re gonna have to. I won’t leave him here.”

Sonic moved to the door, inspecting the hand scanner next to it. He figured it would only open for the scientists that had been working here. Best case scenario, it wouldn’t work for him, and worst case scenario, messing with it in any way would set off an alarm. There was no one left here to be alerted by an alarm, but he didn’t want to scare the kid further. Besides, there was so little residual power left in the building that the scanner probably wouldn’t work to open the door anyway.

“I think we need to break the glass.” Sonic said.

Rouge raised an eye ridge. “Are you planning on spinning through it, Blue?”

“Spin-dashing, yes.”

Sonic dropped to one knee in front of the glass, making the little hedgehog flinch back.

“Can you understand me, kid?” Sonic asked.

The little hedgehog made a quiet sound, almost like a whine.

Sonic sighed. “If you know what I’m saying, then go into that corner over there.” He pointed toward the corner at the back wall, the same spot the hedgehog had been hiding in when Sonic and Rouge first found the cell. “I’m gonna break the glass, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

The hedgehog tilted his head, and for a moment, Sonic thought he hadn’t understood, but then he began crawling into the corner, pushing himself as far back as he could get.

“Rouge, stand back.”

Rouge backed away from the cell, flying up toward the low ceiling for good measure.

There wasn’t much space for Sonic to get a straightforward head-start, so he ran a short distance down the hall before running toward the cell. He curled up at the last moment, slamming straight through the glass and hitting the empty corner with a thud.

Sonic heard a high-pitched cry, and realized quickly that it came from the little hedgehog. He stood up and shook the broken glass off his quills before moving toward the hedgehog.

“Hey, little guy.” Sonic murmured, walking slowly to keep from startling the kid. “Let’s get you out of-“

In a single moment, Sonic understood exactly why GUN wanted this child.

Chaos energy burst to life around the hedgehog, crackling over his torn quills and lighting up his eye with red electricity. A loud hiss came deep within his small body, followed by a warning growl that sounded much bigger than something this small hedgehog should have been able to produce. He was back as far as he could move, yet that didn’t stop him from trying to press himself into the wall, only serving to bend his already damaged quills.

Sonic froze. “Whoa, hey, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

The little hedgehog did not stop growling. With the dim light of his own energy illuminating him, Sonic could see the sharp fangs his snarl revealed. For the briefest moment, Sonic was afraid. This hedgehog was small, but he was dangerous. His face was torn open, he had sharp claws that could tear through metal, and he was coated in blood that may or may not have been his own. He looked terrifying.

But that moment passed. Sonic took a deep breath, forced himself to look past the sudden aggression, and reminded himself that this was a child. This little hedgehog must be deadly, he had to be if GUN was involved, but that didn’t change that this was a child who was far more afraid of Sonic than Sonic was of him.

Sonic knelt down, sitting back on his heels. “Don’t worry, I won’t get closer.”

Rouge peeked into the cell, but made no move to enter it.

It took several minutes for the hedgehog to stop growling. The energy surrounding him gradually faded to an occasional flicker of electricity. He stayed curled in on himself near the wall, tense and trembling. His breaths came in short gasps, his chest rising and falling too fast.

“I just want to help you.” Sonic said quietly. “You don’t have to stay here. You can come with me.”

The hedgehog’s eye narrowed, scanning over Sonic’s face in suspicion. Something akin to recognition flickered in his gaze, and Sonic wondered if he’d ever met another hedgehog before, or if this was his first time seeing someone like him.

His eye shifted to the hole in the glass. One of his hands twitched, like he meant to pull himself forward, but he stopped himself, looking back to Sonic. He was frozen in place, torn between attempting to escape and staying as far from Sonic as he could.

Sonic held a hand out, a silent offer. He made no move to get closer, and he didn’t try to make the hedgehog move either. The hedgehog watched him cautiously.

“I’ll protect you from them.” Sonic promised. “I won’t let those scientists hurt you again. I just need you to come home with me.”

The hedgehog’s ear twitched at the word ‘home’. He crawled just a bit closer to Sonic, testing the waters. Sonic did not move, so he crawled a little further.

The hedgehog’s hand shook violently as he raised it. Sonic didn’t dare move a centimeter when the little hedgehog placed his hand over Sonic’s. He ran his bare fingers over Sonic’s glove with curiosity, a small frown replacing the aggression and panic from before. His hand was so small, Sonic’s fingers alone were bigger than it.

His eye darted up to meet Sonic’s gaze, and Sonic could still see the fear there, but that wasn’t the only thing he saw. There was the smallest flicker of hope, now.

“Ready to leave this place, little one?” Sonic asked softly.

The hedgehog blinked, like he was just realizing that Sonic meant it. His tiny hand trembled against Sonic’s. He nodded, his fingers clutching at Sonic’s hand, sharp claws digging into the glove and nearly tearing them.

Sonic smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll be out of here soon-“

His words died in his throat when he finally got a glimpse of the hedgehog’s legs.

He understood why the kid had been crawling now. He couldn’t tell if the legs were broken, or just weakened by a lack of food, but they were twisted at an odd angle, like they’d gone too numb for the hedgehog to realize that he wasn’t supposed to keep them in that position. Around one of his ankles, right above another Inhibitor Ring, sat a thick manacle, connecting him to the chain in the wall. The metal was covered in scratches, it looked like the kid had tried clawing it off, but failed. Even if Sonic managed to get it off of him, he wouldn’t be able to walk like this. Would he let Sonic carry him out? He already looked ready to back himself up into a corner again at any moment, and he was only touching Sonic’s hand.

“Uh, Rouge? Problem.” Sonic said.

Rouge entered the cell carefully, avoiding tearing her wings on the broken glass. She followed Sonic’s gaze to the manacle.

“Oh, I can get it off.” She said, her tone the most casual it had been since they arrived.

Sonic blinked up at her. “You can?”

“I’m a thief, dear. This isn’t my first time picking a lock.”

She stepped around Sonic to kneel next to the hedgehog’s locked up ankle, then pulled her tools out of her glove. The little hedgehog flinched away before Rouge could even touch the lock, red sparks of electricity lighting his eye up.

Rouge winced. “Sorry, hon, I wasn’t trying to scare you.” She held up the tools for the kid to see. “I want to use these to get that-“ she pointed at the manacle, “-off of you. It won’t hurt. They won’t even touch you, I promise.”

The hedgehog didn’t look convinced, but his desperation for freedom won over his fear. He didn’t move back when Rouge inserted the lock pick into the manacle’s keyhole. It took a little over two minutes before the lock clicked open, freeing the hedgehog’s leg.

“Dang, that was fast.” Sonic said.

Rouge snorted. “Fast? That’s the longest a lock has taken me in a while. Either GUN locks are harder than I remember, or I’m losing my touch.”

Sonic reached out to the little hedgehog once more. “I don’t think you’re gonna be able to walk out of here, little guy. Can I carry you?”

The hedgehog’s ear pinned back in alarm, a quiet whimper escaping his throat.

“Nobody’s gonna hurt you, but you can’t stay here. You need food, and a safer place to heal.” His nose wrinkled as his eyes landed on all of the blood clumped into the kid’s fur. “And a bath.”

The kid looked halfway to panicking again, Sonic could practically hear his heart racing. But all it took was one last look at the hole in the glass for the hedgehog to crawl closer to Sonic. He gave the older hedgehog a near pleading look, and Sonic didn’t know if it was meant to mean Please help me or Please don’t hurt me. Maybe both.

Slowly, Sonic scooped the little hedgehog up in his arms before standing up. The hedgehog was far lighter than he should have been, and small enough for Sonic to comfortably hold him against his hip. He was careful to not press against any of the hedgehog’s scars, as they still looked raw and painful.

The hedgehog shivered, clinging to Sonic tightly, and it was then that Sonic realized how cold he was. He’d been lying against the metal floor in a building without any form of heating for months, how had he not died of hypothermia? Or starvation? Or simply succumbed to one of his many barely-healed injuries?

Anger burned hot in Sonic’s chest, but he had to force it back and focus on getting this child far away from the base.

“What are you gonna tell your bosses?” Sonic asked, carefully climbing through the hole in the glass. The little hedgehog slumped against him tiredly, the demonstration of his Chaos abilities must have exhausted him.

Rouge scoffed. “I’ll tell them there was nothing here. They’ll probably send someone else, realize their ‘experiment’ went missing, and do everything in their power to erase any and all knowledge of this little guy. Plausible deniability, in case he turns up again, you know?”

“Assholes.” Sonic muttered, shaking his head. He’d known this child for all of ten minutes, and he already couldn’t imagine abandoning him like that.

Rouge followed Sonic out of the cell, and together, they made their way back to the stairs. Sonic dreaded having to walk up the stairs with a child on his hip, but the kid was light enough that hopefully it wouldn’t be too much of a nightmare.

“What’s the plan, Blue?” Rouge asked as they started walking up the stairs.

“What do you mean?”

“With the kid. What are you gonna do with him?”

Sonic frowned. “Honestly, I don’t really know what to do. If GUN’s after him, then there aren’t many places he’ll be safe, or many people he’d be safe with.”

“So, what, you plan on keeping him?”

Sonic narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t talk about him like he’s a pet.”

“Ooh, protective already. This is gonna be fun to watch.” She grinned.

“Shut up. I just don’t want anyone to hurt him again. This is…” he glanced at the kid’s torn muzzle, teeth, gums and bone all visible despite the kid’s mouth being closed. “Nobody deserves this.”

Rouge nodded in understanding. “For what it’s worth, the kid could have ended up with a much worse parent.”

“I’m not anyone’s parent-“

Rouge cut him off with a laugh. “Blue, you’re already raising Tails. This little guy is kid number two.”

Sonic couldn’t actually argue against that, so he just rolled his eyes. The little hedgehog watched them, his eye bright with curiosity.

Just as they arrived on the main floor of the base, Rouge flew off toward a nearby hallway.

“Yo, door’s over here!” Sonic called out to her.

“I need to check something first.” She called back. “Wait for me outside.”

Sonic sighed, but didn’t try arguing. He walked out of the building, taking in a deep breath of fresh air now that he was finally out of the stuffy base.

It was early enough in the morning that the sun hadn’t risen yet, casting darkness over the surrounding grass and nearby trees. The air was damp from rain that had only just stopped within the past couple of hours, and the wet grass crunched under his shoes as he walked toward the Tornado.

The hedgehog in his arms made a sudden sharp noise, a mix between a grunt and a whine. When Sonic looked down at the kid’s face, he saw that the kid’s eye was wide and filled with a quiet awe. His gaze rapidly moved from the trees to the sky, a soft gasp leaving him as he saw the stars. Sonic smiled. Now that he could finally get a good look at the kid, Sonic thought he was adorable. The scars on his face and upper body had been off putting at first, but when he focused on the uninjured half of the kid’s face, he realized the little hedgehog really did look like a normal Mobian child. It was impossible to tell at first glance just how much power this child held in his small body.

All Sonic knew was, the stars dancing in his eye were far more preferable to the fear his gaze had held in that cell.

The hedgehog looked away from the stars only because the grass had somehow caught his attention. He reached his hand out to touch it, and Sonic knelt down to make it possible.

The kid ran his hand over the wet grass, flinching back at the odd feeling before touching it again. Suddenly, the little hedgehog burst into a fit of giggles, though Sonic couldn’t tell what it was about the grass that this kid found so amusing.

That was when Rouge returned, tucking something into her glove. She paused when she spotted the two hedgehogs, smiling as she listened to the younger’s laughter.

“Someone’s happy.” Rouge said, coming up to Sonic’s side.

Sonic shrugged. “He just touched the grass and started laughing.”

Rouge’s expression softened. “Oh, poor thing. He’s probably never seen grass before.”

All at once, Sonic’s blood ran cold. He hadn’t even considered that the kid had probably never been out of the base before. Sonic couldn’t even imagine a life like that, living in forced captivity. Had this kid ever seen the sun? A living creature other than the humans experimenting on him? A color other than the grey of the walls, the white of the lab coats, the odd mix of red and green that stained his dark fur? Had he ever seen himself in a mirror? Just how much had those scientists taken from him?

The kid calmed down a bit, but he still had the tiniest smile on his face as he ran his fingertips over the grass.

Sonic was reluctant to stand, wanting to let the kid enjoy his newfound freedom for a bit longer before they were locked into the Tornado, but they needed to get far away from this base. Sonic wasn’t sure how much longer he could handle the sight of it without getting sick.

The kid gave a quiet, disappointed whine as Sonic stood, but he didn’t fight it. He perked up quickly when he saw how far away the base was getting.

Sonic stopped next to the Tornado, looking from the pilot seat to the child at his hip, then turned to Rouge. “Think you could carry the little guy while I fly us outta here?”

Rouge had hardly taken a single step toward Sonic when the little hedgehog suddenly stiffened, clinging tighter to Sonic. His claws dug into Sonic’s back, and he had to bite back a wince.

“Okay, never mind, new plan.” Sonic said, his voice tight with pain. The kid only relaxed slightly. “You don’t happen to know how to fly a plane, do you?”

“I can fly a helicopter.” Rouge shrugged. “Close enough.”

“Let’s hope.” Sonic sighed. If they even so much as dented the plane, Tails would be devastated, and Sonic (despite his claims that he had unlimited energy) did not have the energy to deal with two upset children at the moment.

Rouge climbed into the front of the plane while Sonic climbed in the back. He held the child in his lap, keeping him in a protective embrace as the plane took off.

That same look of awe came over the kid as he peeked over the edge of the plane, watching as the ground quickly became a distant memory.

Chapter Text

By the time the Tornado landed in front of the house, the hedgehog in Sonic’s lap had fallen asleep. The uninjured half of his face was pressed against Sonic’s shoulder, his good ear twitching intermittently. The corner of Sonic’s mouth ticked up, just a bit.

“Hope the landing didn’t wake Tails up.” Rouge mumbled to herself, leaning back in her seat. She looked absolutely drained. In the time it took to fly away from the abandoned base, the sun had started rising, casting a soft orange glow over his and Tails’ home.

“He’ll survive.” Sonic said. The young fox would probably be grumpy about it later if they had woken him up, but he’d understand once they introduce him to the kid.

Which brought Sonic to his current issue; he didn’t exactly have a space prepared for the kid. There was a guest room saved for when Sonic and Tails had company, but it wasn’t exactly a child-proofed room. There were too many sharp corners on the furniture, several open outlets, and the bed was far too tall for the tiny kid. Sonic worried he’d roll off the edge in his sleep.

There was also the issue of actually telling Tails about their new guest. He was certain Tails would understand why Sonic had chosen to bring the little hedgehog out of the base, but that didn’t mean Tails wouldn’t be annoyed that Sonic gave no heads up. Sonic didn’t tend to make a habit out of taking in abandoned kids (although Rouge would probably argue that Sonic and Tails’ friendship was proof of the opposite), so this was completely out of the blue.

Sonic meant to climb out of the plane slowly to avoid waking the kid, but the moment he stood up, the poor kid startled awake harshly, one of his arms instinctively shooting up to cover his injuries.

Sonic winced. “Sorry, little guy.”

The kid pulled his arm away, his eye snapping to Sonic’s face. He blinked in surprise, like he hadn’t expected to see Sonic. He looked around rapidly, taking in his unfamiliar surroundings. He let out a questioning sound, high pitched and filled with anxiety.

Sonic readjusted his hold on the kid, moving him back to his hip. “Don’t worry, you’ll be safe here.”

The kid yelped when Sonic hopped out of the plane and onto solid ground, briefly sinking his claws into Sonic’s shoulder. He bit back a groan and continued toward the house, Rouge following close behind.

Sonic wasn’t sure what to expect when he opened the front door, but seeing Tails hunched over the kitchen counter, furiously tapping away at some sort of screen while absentmindedly shoveling mac ‘n’ cheese into his mouth, definitely wasn’t it.

Tails looked up from the screen when he heard the door open, and his eyes instantly landed on the small hedgehog resting on Sonic’s hip. The hedgehog turned the injured half of his face away from Tails, hiding it from his view.

“Why do you have a child.” Tails asked, deadpan. It didn’t even sound like a question.

“Why are you awake at five am?” Sonic shot back.

“Whose kid is that?”

“Were you up all night? I can see your eye bags from here.”

“Sonic.” Tails gestured vaguely at the little hedgehog. “The child.”

“Are you eating mac ‘n’ cheese for breakfast? Dude.”

Tails shot Rouge a look that screamed ‘is he serious’. “Rouge, did Sonic steal a kid?”

“It’s not stealing if nobody knows you took it.” Rouge said. “And believe me when I say, you cannot tell anyone about this kid. Got it?”

Tails blinked. Then blinked again. “If you wanted to adopt a kid so bad, I could’ve shown you my old orphanage.”

“I didn’t adopt-“ Sonic sighed. “This isn’t just… a normal kid. GUN was experimenting on him, but the scientists using that base all ran off, and left this little guy behind. He was locked up in a cell with no food or water for months. GUN wants him back, but there’s no way in hell we’re handing him over, so… until I can figure out a safer place for him, I’m gonna take care of him.”

Tails scanned over the little hedgehog, a frown slowly forming on his face. “Did they cut his quills?”

A pang of anger returned, making Sonic’s chest constrict, but he swallowed it back. “They did, and that isn’t even the worst thing they did to him.”

Sonic turned subtly, letting Tails get the barest glimpse of the kid’s injures. The young fox’s eyes widened, his twin tails lashing out behind him.

“Oh Chaos.” Tails gasped. “What did they do to him?”

The kid’s good ear flattened, the jagged one twitching down in an attempt to move. He shoved his face against Sonic’s neck, and Sonic forced himself not to shudder when he felt the exposed teeth pressed to his shoulder.

“We don’t know exactly-“ Sonic started.

“But we can figure it out.” Rouge cut him off, pulling something small and black out of her glove. She held it up, showing off a short USB stick. “Do you happen to have a computer? I nabbed this right before we slipped out of the base. It might have some info on this munchkin over here.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll show you.” Tails said, gesturing toward the garage, where he kept most of his inventions and equipment. His breakfast macaroni was left abandoned on the counter.

Rouge followed him into the garage, so Sonic turned his attention back to the child on his hip.

“You’re probably pretty hungry, aren’t you, little fella?”

The kid didn’t respond. Sonic hadn’t gotten a single word out of him so far, but he couldn’t figure out if it was because the kid had never been taught to speak, or because his torn muzzle hurt too much to.

He did, however, stare up at Sonic, his eye wide and ear pulled back. He had that same desperate look he’d had in his cell. Sonic felt like there was something he wasn’t getting, something that this child was trying to tell him, but couldn’t.

Whatever it was, Sonic would have to figure it out later. This kid hadn’t eaten in months, at least, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t even been eating what the scientists had tried to feed him, if the bowl of rotten fruit Sonic had seen in his cell meant anything.

Sonic brought the kid into the kitchen. He tried sitting him down on the counter, but the kid whined loudly when Sonic let go of him, grabbing his arms with shaking paws. Sonic quickly picked him back up, and the whining stopped, but the kid became noticeably clingier afterward.

It made something in Sonic’s chest ache. The kid had been alone in that cell for months, even if he’d been terrified of Sonic at first (and still might be, as he’d never truly stopped trembling since Sonic first picked him up), this was the first time he’d been around another person since those scientists abandoned him. Sonic wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t ready to be let go yet.

Sonic let out a quiet sigh and accepted that he’d have to prepare something for the kid one-handed. He opened the fridge, searching for anything the kid could eat, but quickly realized that he and Tails were low on groceries.

“I’m guessing you don’t like fruit very much, huh, tiny?” Sonic asked the kid. “Either that, or the scientists did something to it, so you wouldn’t eat it. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

The kid was still giving Sonic that same desperate look. Was he just really hungry? What was Sonic missing here?

Sonic checked over the kid’s torn muzzle again, and wondered if that was why he hadn’t been eating. Was he in too much pain? He’d actually seemed fairly calm so far, given the horrible circumstances he’d been put in. If Sonic couldn’t see the injures, he wouldn’t have had any reason to believe the kid was in any pain. But if they were healed enough to not hurt him, then what reason did he have to avoid food? Could something be wrong with his teeth?

Sonic hummed. “Hey, little guy, can you open your mouth?”

The kid’s eye lit up, and just when Sonic was thinking he’d guessed correctly, the kid opened his mouth.

Sonic’s heart plummeted.

The little hedgehog didn’t have a tongue. Near the back of his throat, there was a small stub of what was left of his tongue. The end of it was bumpy and uneven, the cut wasn’t clean enough to have been removed by a doctor. Had it been injured during an experiment? Maybe the scientists removed it without any real medical knowledge on surgeries, or- Gaia, was it ripped out?

His tongue wasn’t the only part of his mouth that was injured. His gums and the skin surrounding where his tongue should have been was all inflamed, the tissue slightly swollen and, for whatever reason, green. On top of that, a few ulcers had formed near his gum line.

It looked like his mouth had been burned, but this wasn’t like any regular burn Sonic had seen. It was more damage than hot liquid alone could cause. Were these chemical burns? That didn’t explain why his mouth was green, unless- was his blood green? That would explain the dried green liquid staining his muzzle and fur, as horrible as the realization was. Despite being months old, the burns looked like they’d been left completely untreated, and had only just begun healing.

Now that Sonic thought about it, the scars covering the entire left half of his body could have also been caused by severe chemical burns. But what happened to have done this much damage? Was it an accident, or did the scientists cause this directly?

Sonic’s anger became full blown rage when he realized that those scientists would have known about this injury, and still shoved a bowl filled with food the kid couldn’t eat in front of his face. What the fuck was wrong with them?

That was when Rouge came back into the kitchen, a triumphant smile on her face. “I think we might’ve figured out the little one’s name-“

“He doesn’t have a tongue.”

Rouge’s smile froze before slowly fading. “What?”

“They took his fucking tongue, Rouge.” Sonic’s free hand came up to tug at his quills. “I- I don’t know what to do. His mouth looks burned and- I don’t think he can eat like this.”

Rouge came up to Sonic’s side, giving the kid a reassuring smile, though Sonic noticed how strained it looked. “Shadow.”

The kid flinched, staring at Rouge in shock. How long had it been since he’d heard his own name? It made Sonic wonder what the scientists had been calling him.

“Can I see your mouth, hon?” She asked.

The kid - Shadow - opened his mouth again. Rouge barely concealed a grimace as she inspected the damage.

“They didn’t remove everything. He can probably still swallow, you just have to find a way to actually get the food in the back of his mouth without hurting or choking him.”

She moved past Sonic to look through his fridge. It took all of five seconds before she shut the fridge and turned to Sonic with an unamused expression.

“You and Tails only eat fast food, don’t you?” She asked blankly.

Sonic chuckled sheepishly. “We spend so much time out of the house, it’s just easier to get something as we go.”

Rouge rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna go get something for Shadow. You should go see Tails. What we found on those files…” she sighed, shaking her head in disgust. “They really put him through hell, Blue.”

While Rouge left for the nearest open store, Sonic went into the garage, finding Tails at his computer, his eyes darting rapidly over the screen. His twin tails were flicking in agitation, upset by something he’d found.

“Find anything interesting?” Sonic asked, stopping at Tails’ side.

Tails took a deep breath. “I don’t think I can keep reading this.”

Sonic frowned and turned to the computer.

There were multiple open files, all on different experiments, their purposes, and the results. Each one was titled ‘Project Shadow’, followed by the related experiment. Sonic read over the one Tails had been reading.

Project Shadow - Experiment #22 Notes; Regeneration Revisited.

It was determined that members of the Black Arms species have abnormally strong regenerative healing abilities. Subject #002 (informally named ‘Shadow’) was intended to have these same qualities, allowing it to quickly recover in a combat setting without the need for medical assistance.

During the first few rounds of testing, we determined that it can regrow entire body parts such as limbs and internal organs only hours after the injury is inflicted. But recently, it seems that its body’s natural regeneration has suddenly declined to that of an average human’s. Ever since the Incident during Experiment #21 (see Incident Report 21-3.8 for more information), the subject has been unable to fully heal the damage done to its body. The damaged flesh on the left side of its body has stopped necrotizing, but only after emergency treatment that should not have been necessary. The skin of its face, as well as its left eye, have not begun growing back, and we believe that the injury will not heal. Its ear also has not grown back this time, and the wounds on its left arm are still raw. We first noticed this new development after dampening its Chaos energy, but we are unsure if that is the cause. We are working under the assumption that its heightened healing abilities come from its biology, rather than its energy, as Professor Robotnik stated in his notes on the creation of Subject #002.

Behavioral Notes: Subject #002 has continued showing signs of heightened aggression. It growls at anyone who steps within three meters of it, and has attempted to bite two of our scientists. It has started biting the skin of its arms open. We cannot determine the cause of this new behavior, and none of us can get close enough to prevent it. From what we can tell, due to the damage its mouth sustained in the Incident, it is incapable of speech, and refuses to eat the food we leave it. If we are unable to pacify the Subject, we will be forced to terminate it. Under the current circumstances, it may be necessary to find the Professor’s old creation notes and start over, as we cannot allow Subject #002 to be unleashed on humanity if it refuses to obey its handlers.

Sonic felt his nausea building with each word he read, too many revelations at once making his head spin. From what he could tell, it sounded like Shadow wasn’t born a regular Mobian, but created in a lab, by someone named Robotnik. But there was still so much he didn’t understand. Had Eggman assisted in Shadow’s creation, or someone related to him? What are the Black Arms, and what did they have to do with scientists engineering a living being with powers like Shadow’s? If Shadow was Subject #002, did that mean there were other subjects that Sonic and Rouge hadn’t known about? The base had been empty until they found Shadow, surely there hadn’t been any living beings they’d missed?

But the biggest question running through Sonic’s mind was: How could anyone have treated a child like this?

“…How many more of these files did you find?” Sonic asked.

“All of them.”

“What do you-“

“Sonic, Rouge found all of the files they had. Every experiment, every note- there’s pictures, and old security footage. I...” Tails swallowed. “I tried watching one of the videos, but it was… too much.”

Sonic’s eyes widened. “How many different experiments did they do?”

Tails started closing the files, looking faintly ill as he did so. “A couple dozen or so. But whoever wrote these mentioned past tests in what I’m assuming is a different base. They called it the ‘ARK’. It looks like they’d had Shadow in the base you found for at least a year before they left everything behind.”

“Were you able to figure out why they ran off?”

“No idea. But there’s still so much here that I haven’t checked through yet, and I just… can’t.”

Sonic wrapped his free arm around Tails’ shoulders, pulling him into a side hug. “I’ll check when I have the time, you’ve done enough, buddy. Get some sleep, okay?”

Tails glanced at Shadow. “Don’t you need help with him?”

“Rouge and I have it covered, you don’t need to worry.”

Tails nodded, then raised his hand to stifle a yawn. “I’ll see you guys later, then.”

While Tails left to get ready for bed, Sonic went back into the kitchen, unsure of what to do while waiting for Rouge to return.

He looked down at the kid in his arms, and saw all of the blood - both red and green - still stuck to his fur.

Sonic clicked his tongue, catching Shadow’s attention. “I think we should give you a bath, tiny.”

Shadow blinked at him, uncomprehending. Had the scientists never even bothered to clean him? Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to leave a child in their care? Weirdly powerful lab-made baby or not, this was unacceptable.

Sonic made his way to his and Tails’ shared bathroom. It was empty, so Tails must have already brushed his teeth. He closed the bathroom door and hoped the sound of the tub wouldn’t disturb Tails as he was falling asleep.

“This is gonna be a little loud, but it’ll only last a minute, okay?” Sonic said to the little hedgehog, still not sure if Shadow could even understand him. By the way Shadow tensed in his arms, anticipating, he figured the kid understood.

He pushed the drain plug down, then turned the tub on. Shadow only startled a bit at the sound of the tub filling. He watched the water flow with a mix of confusion and… fear?

Once the tub was filled, Sonic pulled his gloves off (with mild difficulty, as he was still carrying a tiny hedgehog) and set them on the nearby counter to keep them from getting wet.

“Alright, Shadow, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Sonic tried setting Shadow down in the tub, but the second Shadow touched the water, he let out a terrified cry, scrambling to grab onto Sonic’s arms like his life depended on it. Chaos energy flickered weakly in his eye and over his quills.

Panicked by the reaction, Sonic immediately got Shadow away from the water, holding him close to his chest in a protective embrace. Shadow was gasping for breath, his eye filling with tears as little whimpers escaped his mouth. His head rested under Sonic’s chin as he shook uncontrollably.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright.” Sonic said quietly. “You’re okay. You’re safe, little guy.”

Shadow let out a single, harsh sob, his breath hitching on his next inhale.

Sonic swallowed around the lump forming in his throat as he looked down at the tub. Shadow must have a fear of water. It wasn’t exactly an uncommon fear, Sonic himself certainly understood it. But the kid’s instant and visceral reaction at just touching the water made him think that this had something to do with how the scientists had treated Shadow. Sonic couldn’t even begin to guess what they had done to make him this afraid of something as simple as a bath, and something told him he didn’t want to know.

Sonic bit his lip, unsure of where to go from here. He couldn’t just leave Shadow covered in blood and who knew what else, and Shadow’s legs didn’t work, so he couldn’t stand long enough for a shower… but Sonic could. He didn’t necessarily want to get soaked in his efforts to bathe Shadow, but if that was what it took, then so be it.

Sonic pulled the drain plug up, letting the tub empty as he toed off his shoes and socks, leaving them next to the tub to deal with later. Once the tub was empty, he turned the shower on, waiting a few seconds for the water to warm up.

“Alright, tiny, I’m gonna need you to work with me, here.” Sonic muttered, readjusting his hold on Shadow.

The little hedgehog was still upset, but he let Sonic move him back to his hip without complaint.

“Look away from the water, okay? Don’t let it hit your face.”

Shadow rested his chin on Sonic’s shoulder as Sonic stepped into the tub. He stiffened when the drops of water first hit his back, but he didn’t panic like he had before.

“I’ll make this quick, don’t worry.”

Shadow let out a small huff. If Sonic didn’t know any better, he’d think it sounded disbelieving.

Sonic got Shadow’s fur wet, carefully keeping the kid’s face out of the spray. He grabbed a nearby bottle of soap, one which thankfully had a pump, and poured some into his hand.

He started by washing the fur on Shadow’s arms, grimacing at how much blood was caked into the dark fur. It stained his palm brown as both shades of blood mixed.

It took a few handfuls of soap and a few rinses in the shower’s spray before the fur was finally clean. And that was only one arm.

Sonic sighed. “Alright, this is gonna take longer than I thought.”

Shadow had gone completely still, unbothered by the soft scrubbing as he rested against Sonic’s shoulder. His muscles became loose and relaxed as the fear and stress he’d been carrying with him was finally given the chance to ease up.

It took entirely too long, especially for Sonic’s standards, but he eventually managed to wash the majority of Shadow’s fur. Washing his stomach and legs had been the biggest struggle since Shadow wouldn’t let Sonic set him down for a second, always making his displeasure known when Sonic tried. His right arm was beginning to ache.

He turned the shower off and stepped out of the tub before grabbing a towel. He couldn’t fully wrap it around the kid to dry him off, so he dried as much of Shadow’s fur as he could reach before the water made him cold. He ignored the way his own fur was dripping onto the tile beneath him.

When Shadow’s fur was dry enough, Sonic put his gloves back on, then brought them out of the bathroom. As he was walking down the hallway, he paused, hearing shuffling coming from the kitchen. Rouge must have returned.

He went back into the kitchen, and was greeted with the sight of the bat digging through a shopping bag, pulling out a few different packages.

“What’re those?” Sonic asked, leaning against the counter.

Rouge looked to Sonic. She raised an eye ridge as she glanced pointedly at his still damp fur. “Someone’s been busy.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. “He wouldn’t let me give him a bath, I had to improvise.”

Rouge chuckled. “Good job, Shadow, you actually got Sonic to take a shower.”

Sonic made an offended noise, and Shadow giggled quietly.

Rouge pulled one of the packages she’d bought out of the bag, a large plastic container of dairy-free yogurt, and set it on the counter. “I got a few different things, since I wasn’t sure what he’d like or what he’d be able to handle. I figured liquid-y foods would be easier for him.”

Sonic frowned. “But how is he actually meant to eat? Don’t you kinda… you know, need a tongue to eat?”

“Well, we’ve gotta try to feed him. If he can’t eat, then we’ll figure something else out. Where do you keep your cups?”

“…You’re gonna feed him yogurt from a cup?” Sonic said, immediately concerned.

Rouge blinked, then chuckled lightly. “Oh, no, I was thinking we should try getting him to drink some water first, just to make sure he can swallow. Plus, I can only imagine how dry his poor throat is.”

“Ah, that makes more sense.” He pointed toward one of the cabinets. “Cups are in there. You can fill it from the sink, Tails installed a specialized filter.”

Rouge nodded, grabbing what she needed. She filled the cup with water, then turned back to Sonic. “Do you have any straws?”

“Won’t a straw hurt him?” Sonic wondered, eyeing Shadow’s torn muzzle. He had to hold back a shudder at the realization that the water could leak through Shadow’s muzzle, even with his mouth closed. “It looked like he had chemical burns, what if this makes it worse?”

“He won’t be using the straw, he probably can’t use one without a tongue. I’m just going to use it to bring a very small amount of water to the back of his mouth.”

Sonic still wanted to protest, but he bit his tongue and pointed toward the drawer that held the plastic straws. He worried that Rouge would only choke Shadow like this, but he couldn’t think of another way to help the kid right now. He refused to take him to a doctor, no matter how much he wanted to. He couldn’t risk anyone alerting GUN to his location.

Once Rouge put a straw in the cup, she returned to Sonic’s side.

“Hi, Shadow.” Rouge said with a smile, using the same soft tone that Sonic used to use when talking to Cream. “Are you thirsty?”

Shadow’s ears folded back, and he pressed himself closer to Sonic’s side.

“Don’t worry, little guy, she won’t hurt you.” Sonic said.

Shadow looked up at Sonic, his eye rapidly scanning over his face, as if searching for any sign that Sonic was lying. After a moment, he turned back to Rouge, nodding hesitantly.

Rouge pressed the tip of her finger over the straw’s opening, creating a seal that would hold liquid in the small tube as she lifted it out of the cup. “I’m gonna pour a little water in your mouth, and then you have to tilt your head back to swallow it, okay?”

Shadow nodded again, his eye fixed on the straw.

“Alright, open your mouth, hon. And hold your breath, try not to choke.”

Nervously, Shadow followed Rouge’s instructions, opening his mouth wide. His good ear was pinned to his head, one of the first signs of his distress. Rouge carefully guided the straw toward the back of his mouth. She moved her finger away from the straw’s opening, letting the water pour down Shadow’s throat.

Shadow tried to swallow the water, but he’d gone too long without using the muscles in his throat, so his first attempt caused him to gag, coughing harshly as he choked. Sonic pat his back as he coughed, and Rouge winced.

Sonic saw Shadow swallow a few times, his eye squeezed shut and face pinched with pain. When his choking fit passed, he was left gasping and panting.

“You okay, tiny?” Sonic murmured.

Shadow nodded, his head resting against Sonic’s shoulder.

Rouge frowned, leaning against the counter and idly stirring the water with the straw. “Should we try again, or wait until later?”

Before Sonic could respond, Shadow made a high pitched noise in the back of his throat. He raised a hand and pointed at the cup.

Rouge’s eye ridges rose in surprise. “You want to try again?”

Shadow made another noise, his hand opening and closing in a grabbing motion. The sight of it made Sonic chuckle.

“You heard him.” Sonic said with a grin.

Rouge bit her lip, her expression filled with concern as she brought the straw back to Shadow’s mouth. He opened it without being asked to.

“Remember to hold your breath, okay?” Rouge said.

She poured a small amount of water into the little hedgehog’s mouth, and this time, he was able to swallow it with little difficulty. He coughed slightly, but didn’t choke.

“Good job, hon!” Rouge said.

Shadow’s mouth twitched at the praise, almost a smile. Had the scientists ever told Shadow he’d done a good job after the experiments?

No, Sonic thought, don’t think about them.

Rouge set the cup down on the counter after Shadow had managed a few good swallows. Shadow whined, reaching out toward the cup weakly.

“I think he’s still thirsty.” Sonic said.

Rouge grabbed the container of dairy-free yogurt and began pulling off the cover. “I know, but if we give him too much at once, it might make him sick. He still needs to eat a little.”

Before Rouge could ask, Sonic retrieved a spoon from one of the drawers, then handed it to Rouge. He felt a bit bad about leaving all of this up to her, but there wasn’t much he could do until Shadow allowed him to set him down.

Dipping the spoon into the yogurt, Rouge said to Shadow, “This is gonna be a little different from the water, okay? I’m gonna put a little on your tongue, and I just want you to try your best to swallow it.”

Shadow opened his mouth as Rouge brought the spoon close. She poured a very small amount of yogurt onto the stub of his tongue before pulling the spoon back. Shadow tilted his head all the way back, his throat clicking as he struggled to swallow the slightly more solid substance. It was a few tense seconds before Shadow lowered his head again, just barely managing to eat without choking.

Sonic and Rouge both let out sighs of relief. So it was possible for him to eat. That solved one problem, which still left… more problems than Sonic could count at the moment.

It took several minutes for Rouge to feed Shadow only a few small spoonfuls of yogurt, as she didn’t want to accidentally choke the kid again by giving him too much at once. Shadow didn’t seem to mind how small the amounts were. His tail had started wagging behind him as he ate, hitting Sonic’s arm repeatedly.

What should have been a cute sight only served to break Sonic’s heart further. After months of abandonment and starvation, all it took to make the little hedgehog’s tail wag was a couple spoonfuls of yogurt?

“That’s enough for now. We can try a little more later.” Rouge said, setting the yogurt down. She ran a careful hand over Shadow’s head, between his ears. “You did very good, hon.”

Shadow let out a happy little squeak at that. He was leaning heavily against Sonic’s side, and Sonic noticed the way his eye had started drooping.

Rouge wasn’t doing much better. She’d been ready to pass out since she and Sonic arrived at that base.

“I think tiny here is ready for bed.” Sonic said. “You can stay here if you want, Rouge. The guest room should be ready.”

Rouge gave Sonic a tired smile. “Thanks, Blue. I’m just about ready to drop.”

“Believe me, I get it.” Sonic had been struggling to keep his eyes open for a couple hours now. It certainly didn’t help that he’d also been carrying a child around for a few hours, only made slightly more tolerable by the fact that Shadow was far lighter than he should have been. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see you.” She gave Shadow a little wave. “Sleep well, little one.”

Shadow gave a shy wave back, looking back at Rouge over Sonic’s shoulder as he went into the hallway.

Chapter Text

While Rouge got settled in the guest room, Sonic went to his own bedroom. Since he didn’t have another room for Shadow, he decided he’d just let the kid stay with him for now. Maybe he could transform the guest room into a child-safe bedroom, but that would have to wait.

“Gettin’ sleepy, little guy?” Sonic asked when Shadow let out a big yawn. Shadow nodded, rubbing at his eye.

Sonic stopped at his bed, eye ridges furrowing in contemplation. He wasn’t sure if Shadow moved around in his sleep, but if he did, Sonic worried he may roll off the bed. He’d have to make some sort of barrier at the edge of the bed, just in case. He should have some spare blankets and pillows in his closet.

Sonic moved to set Shadow down on the bed, but just as before, he immediately panicked, grabbing Sonic’s arm before he could walk away.

Sonic stayed by Shadow’s side, his arms still wrapped around the child, but he didn’t pick him back up. “I just need to step away for a second. I’m not leaving, I promise.”

Shadow’s ears flattened, but he reluctantly let go of Sonic’s arm.

Shadow watched as Sonic rifled through his closet, grabbing whatever spare blankets and pillows he could find. He set the spare pillows on the floor next to the bed, just in case a blanket wall wasn’t enough to keep Shadow from rolling off. Then, he used the biggest of the blankets to make a border on the side of the bed. He set the remaining blankets next to Shadow. Sonic’s room was the coldest room in the house, which didn’t usually bother him (except for when winter rolled around, then it was absolutely miserable), but his comforter alone might not be enough to keep Shadow warm. His fur was too thin, and he had practically no muscle mass left to retain any heat, so he’d most likely need the extra blankets.

Sonic checked his closet one more time for anything that might make Shadow more comfortable, and he paused when he found a small box tucked into the corner.

Opening the box, Sonic found a few small pairs of gloves and socks. They’d belonged to Tails when he was around five or six, but he’d outgrown them years ago, so Sonic shoved them into his closet and promptly forgot about them.

Sonic grabbed one of the pairs of gloves, figuring Shadow was small enough that they’d fit him. He left the socks alone for now. With how twisted Shadow’s legs were at the moment, he didn’t want to hurt him by messing with them.

Sonic turned back to the bed, intending to show Shadow what he’d found, but he stopped when he saw Shadow messing around with the blankets.

It confused Sonic, at first. It looked like Shadow was just rearranging them around himself, making some sort of secondary bedding on top of the comforter, but then it clicked.

Shadow was making a little nest. He put the softest blanket down first, and used the rougher blankets as protective walls. It looked… interesting, to say the least. The construction was a bit sloppy but, if Sonic had to guess, the kid had probably never actually seen a hedgehog’s nest before, and was just working off of instinct.

Sonic leaned against the side of the bed, waiting for Shadow to finish his task. The kid was stressed out, removed from the environment he was used to (no matter how horrible it had been) by people he didn’t know. If this nest would help keep him calm and make him feel safe as he slept, then Sonic wouldn’t disturb him.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept in a nest. Back when he and Tails had no home and just slept wherever they deemed safe enough, Sonic had grown used to digging burrows for him and Tails to curl up in, keeping them safe from both wild animals and whatever weather conditions they’d be sleeping through. Chaos, they’d both been so young then, he still wondered sometimes how they managed to survive it.

When Shadow finally deemed the nest finished, he looked up to Sonic, as if waiting for him to give his opinion.

Sonic grinned. “Looks good, tiny.” It really didn’t, but Shadow didn’t need to know that. As long as it kept him warm and happy, it didn’t have to look good, Sonic supposed.

Shadow gave a small, shy smile, his bare paws clutching at one of the blankets.

Sonic held up the pair of gloves. “Look what I found.”

Shadow’s good ear twitched, and his head tilted as he inspected the gloves.

“These are for you. Wanna wear ‘em?”

Shadow blinked, looking at Sonic’s gloves, then the ones in his hands. Hesitantly, Shadow held up his paws.

Sonic put the gloves on him slowly, not wanting to accidentally hurt the little hedgehog’s sensitive paws. He hated seeing how many scrapes and bruises covered the pads, and hoped the barrier the gloves provided would be enough to protect them while they healed.

Shadow fidgeted with the gloves on his paws, poking and tugging the fabric. He held one of his paws up next to Sonic’s, and a giggle bubbled up from his chest.

“Yeah, you like ‘em?” Sonic chuckled. “Alright, let’s get some sleep, tiny.”

Shadow’s little makeshift nest only took up half of the bed, so Sonic could lay comfortably on the empty side. Light was just beginning to filter through the blinds as the sun rose. Sonic hoped that it wouldn’t keep Shadow awake, but he’d spent months in near total darkness.

Shadow curled up in the middle of his blanket nest before pulling the last couple of blankets over himself, covering everything but his head. He slept on his left side, which concerned Sonic, as he was putting pressure on his scars and barely-healed injuries.

For a moment, Sonic wondered why Shadow would do that. Wasn’t it uncomfortable? Then it hit him; Shadow was protecting the parts of himself that were vulnerable in the only way he could. Without the sharp ends of his quills, he had no natural defense. It must have been nerve-wracking for the kid to drop his guard around someone he’d never seen before, in a new place, knowing he had no way to protect himself if Sonic ended up being exactly like those humans that hurt him.

Sonic sighed and forced those scientists out of his thoughts. He could worry about them later. Right now, all that mattered was taking care of Shadow, and they both needed rest. Everything else could wait a few hours.

Sonic listened as Shadow’s breathing evened out. His ear twitched in his sleep, but other than that he was completely still. With his injuries hidden, he looked… peaceful. Younger, even. How old was this kid? Three? Four? He might’ve been older, but he was so small and malnourished, it was hard to tell.

The sound of Shadow’s soft breathing was the last thing Sonic heard when he finally succumbed to his own exhaustion.

***

Sonic flinched awake to the sound of a sudden scream. Bolting upright, he turned toward the sound and spotted Shadow thrashing around in his sleep.

Another terrified screech spurred Sonic into motion. He placed a hand on Shadow’s shoulder, jostling him lightly.

“Shadow, hey, it’s okay, you’re-“

A burst of energy crackled over Shadow’s fur, zapping Sonic’s hand. He winced and yanked it away as Shadow jolted, finally waking up.

He looked around the room frantically, seemingly searching for something that wasn’t there. Then, quietly, he said the first word Sonic had heard from the kid since finding him in that base.

“…Mia?” Shadow whispered. It was barely intelligible, his lack of a tongue making speech difficult, but he forced the word out anyway.

He spoke again, his voice gradually getting louder. “Mia? Mia?!”

“Shadow.” Sonic said, placing his hand over one of Shadow’s.

Shadow stiffened, his gaze landing on Sonic like he hadn’t even noticed him before. “…M-Mia?”

Sonic’s ears flattened. “Shadow… who’s Mia?”

Tears welled up in Shadow’s eye, and in the time it took for Sonic to suck in a sharp breath, the little hedgehog started to cry.

Sonic didn’t even think before lifting Shadow out of the nest and into his lap, holding him close as he broke down. Shadow went tense, but quickly relaxed into Sonic’s embrace, his need for comfort winning out against his fear. His slow tears became strong sobs that wracked his tiny frame.

Sonic began rocking Shadow gently, the same way he used to rock Tails when he was younger. One of his hands came up to pet between Shadow’s ears, hoping to offer whatever comfort he could. Shadow curled up against Sonic’s chest, his wails only growing louder.

“Shh, shh, shh, it’ll be okay, little guy.” Sonic cooed quietly, holding Shadow tighter. “It’ll be okay.”

For a few minutes, both hedgehog’s just sat there together, the younger one crying in the older one’s arms. Even when Shadow’s cries finally began to quiet down, his tears didn’t stop flowing. They dripped down his cheek, a silent, steady flow of anguish that was too big for Shadow’s tiny body to contain. His chest rose and fell with ragged gasps, his sobs tapering off into hiccups.

He brought one of his paws up to his mouth, catching the edge of his glove between his teeth. Sonic swallowed roughly, remembering what those files said about Shadow biting into his own arms. The scientists hadn’t understood the behavior, but Sonic knew that it was a natural response to a hedgehog being put under too much stress. He understood it in a way that only someone who had experienced it ever could. Chewing on his glove might work to curb Shadow’s instincts for now, but Sonic would make sure to keep a close eye on him, just in case.

Sonic rubbed slow circles into Shadow’s back, between his shoulder blades, where two groups of quills should have protruded, but had been cut just as short as the rest. He frowned as he felt the way Shadow’s spine stuck out, and his frown only deepened when he realized some of the notches felt slightly off, like he’d suffered another injury that hadn’t healed right.

Shadow sighed around the fabric in his mouth, another tear falling down his cheek. Poor kid still looked exhausted. Sonic wondered if he’d actually been able to rest in that base, lying on cold metal for so long.

Carefully, Sonic shifted himself and Shadow until they were both lying down. Shadow stayed curled up against Sonic’s chest, his tears slowly beginning to dry. He didn’t stop chewing on his glove, and Sonic didn’t try to stop him. He wiped Shadow’s tears away gently, then grabbed the loose blankets from Shadow’s makeshift nest and draped them over the kid. Shadow didn’t react, but Sonic noticed the way his tail wagged under the blankets, just a bit.

“Go back to sleep, Shadow.” Sonic whispered, pressing a soft kiss to the little hedgehog’s forehead.

Shadow let out a quiet sound, staring up at Sonic, his eye wide, filled with something he couldn’t put a name to. He finally dropped the glove from his mouth so he could shove his face against Sonic’s chest. Despite his obvious exhaustion, he didn’t look like he intended to sleep again. His breaths came too fast, not quite hyperventilating but halfway to it, and his body was tense, he wasn’t letting himself relax enough to sleep. After whatever horrible nightmare had caused him to cry like that, Sonic didn’t blame him. One glance at the clock next to his bed told Sonic that he and Shadow had only gotten a couple hours of sleep before Shadow’s nightmare woke them.

Sleeping issues were nothing new to Sonic, as he and Tails had both dealt with nightmares and bouts of insomnia before. He thought about the ways he’d helped Tails get to sleep in the past, but quickly ruled out most of them.

Sometimes singing had helped Tails fall asleep, but he doubted it would have the same effect on Shadow. He’d spent months alone in a silent place, and before that, the only voices he’d known were of people who hurt him. Sonic didn’t know much about those scientists, but he could only assume that they weren’t the type of people who had been singing Shadow to sleep regularly.

He couldn’t tire Shadow out either. He didn’t think Shadow could get more tired than he already was, and with his legs in their current state, running around until they both dropped wasn’t an option.

Sonic bit his lip, lost in thought. He looked down at Shadow, curled up against him, and an idea came to him.

He took a few deep breaths, feeling the beginning of a soft rumble building in his chest. Listening to Sonic purr had helped Tails sleep in the past, though it was a method Sonic had very rarely used. It wasn’t that Sonic had difficulty purring on command, it just… felt strange to. Purring was a very personal thing for hedgehogs, something they only did when they were truly content, and usually only around those that they trusted the most. To Sonic, there was something almost embarrassing about purring in front of other people, let alone for other people.

But Sonic could handle a little bit of embarrassment if it helped Shadow. This was something he could do for the kid that those scientists never could have done, and maybe it would help remind Shadow that he wasn’t stuck with them anymore. That he was safe, in the care of someone who actually understood him, and wanted to help him. To Sonic, he wasn’t a thing to be studied, he was just a child who needed safety and comfort after spending so long without it.

Shadow made a confused noise when he felt the soft vibrations in Sonic’s chest. A moment later, the clicks of his purr became audible.

Recognition flickered in Shadow’s eye as he realized what the vibrations were. Slowly, the stiffness in his muscles lessened as he listened to Sonic’s purr. His eye fell shut, and he snuggled up closer to Sonic’s side.

A couple minutes passed, the only noise filling the room being the soft sound of Sonic’s purr, until a second set of quieter clicks joined it.

Sonic swallowed back a sudden rush of emotion, holding the little hedgehog tighter as he began to purr.

Shadow’s purr was softer than Sonic’s, and it sounded… broken, almost. Fractured, like his vocal cords were unaccustomed to purring, and were straining to do so. Sonic wasn’t surprised, he couldn’t imagine the scientists had ever made Shadow feel comfortable enough to purr.

But he did. His heart swelled with pride as he listened to the combined sounds of their purrs, knowing that Shadow felt safe with him.

With his jagged ear pressed to Sonic’s chest, Shadow fell asleep, motionless apart from occasional twitches and the gentle rumble of his purr in his chest.

Even after Shadow was asleep, Sonic continued to purr, holding his- the kid close.

This is only temporary, Sonic told himself. It was just until he could find a way to help Shadow’s injuries, and find someone who was better suited to care for him. Someone who wasn’t constantly running, or fighting, who could keep him safe from GUN and give him all the love and support he needed. A real family.

Sonic pretended that the ache in his chest caused by the thought was just worry for the kid.

***

The next time Sonic awoke, Shadow was still sleeping peacefully.

Looking down at the sleeping child, it hit Sonic all at once; he had no idea what he was supposed to do now. In the base, he hadn’t actually taken a moment to consider what bringing Shadow with him would mean. All he’d known was that he didn’t want to leave a scared, hurt kid alone in a freezing cell. But he didn’t know how he was actually meant to help Shadow.

His injuries needed a doctor’s intervention, but Sonic couldn’t risk GUN finding out that he had Shadow. And even if he could just bring Shadow to any random doctor, he wasn’t sure what they could do for him. His injuries were so severe that, realistically, he should have died already. Sonic was certain that he was only still alive because of whatever odd powers GUN had wanted him for.

The files Rouge had found mentioned some sort of healing ability that Shadow used to possess. Maybe he’d begin to heal again eventually? Sonic wouldn’t count on it, but just the fact that Shadow was still alive must mean that there was a chance he could heal from this, however small that chance may be.

Right now, all Sonic could think to do was address the issue of Shadow’s malnutrition. It felt like all he could do, and even then, he was scared he’d hurt the kid somehow.

Gaia, it’s been so long since he’d taken care of a little kid, he felt so… clueless. What little experience he remembered having was from many years ago, and even then, Tails had always been incredibly self-sufficient. Shadow didn’t - couldn’t - have that same level of independence, he needed someone to help him with everything right now.

It was slightly suffocating to think about. Over the course of a few hours, Sonic suddenly had this massive responsibility because of a mission that he technically wasn’t even supposed to be on. He knew he wasn’t alone in this, Tails was always willing to help others, and Rouge seemed ready to help as well, but neither of them had any real experience with taking care of kids. Very few of his friends did, and only one of his friends was actually raising a child.

Maybe he should ask Vanilla for help. She knew far more about childcare than he did, maybe she could help him figure out how to help this kid. Of course, she hadn’t ever dealt with a child that could manipulate Chaos energy like Shadow could, nor had she cared for a child with such extensive physical and mental trauma, but she’d probably still at least have some advice she could give Sonic.

Going slow to avoid waking Shadow, Sonic grabbed his phone off of his nightstand. He scrolled through his messages until he found Vanilla’s contact.

After a moment of consideration, Sonic raised his phone up to take a picture of Shadow, positioning it in a way that would conceal the worst of his injuries. He sent the picture to Vanilla.

Sonic: long story short im taking care of a kid but idk what im doing

It only took Vanilla a couple minutes to respond.

Vanilla: Do you need help? Cream and I could come over.

Sonic bit his lip, considering the offer before responding.

Sonic: idk if he could handle more ppl rn. dont tell anyone but this kid was locked in a lab for months. humans were horrible to him so now hes scared of pretty much everything

Vanilla: Oh, poor baby. How old is he?

Sonic: 3 or 4 i think? hes small but that might just be bc they werent feeding him

Vanilla: Did you try asking him?

Sonic: no but he cant rlly talk

Vanilla: Kids tend to find ways to communicate nonverbally from very young ages. I’m sure he’ll still find a way to answer, assuming he knows his own age.

Vanilla: How did you find him?

Sonic: went on a mission with rouge. gun sent her to find a “weapon”. i think they meant the kid

Sonic: we found him locked up in a dark cell chained to a wall. he was terrified but he let me carry him out

Sonic: ive been trying to stay calm but im so fucking pissed vanilla. those assholes were practically TORTURING him

Sonic: if anyone had ever done this to tails id probably commit murder

Vanilla: I can understand why you’re angry, but keep in mind that children are sensitive to changes in emotion, in themselves and the adults around them. I’m not sure if you ever had this issue with Tails, but when Cream was younger, she used to burst into tears whenever an adult near her so much as raised their voice.

Although it wasn’t quite the same, Sonic had noticed that Tails, when he was very young, used to hide away for hours at a time after particularly rough fights. Thinking about it now, Sonic took it as proof that he couldn’t act as Shadow’s permanent guardian. What kind of caretaker allows a child to fight in a battle against a mad scientist? Sure, Sonic himself had also been young, but that was different. Sonic could handle it- he had to. If he didn’t protect people, who would? Not GUN, clearly.

Sonic: ill be careful around him

Sonic: im just worried i guess. i dont know how to take care of a helpless kid. it wasnt like this with tails

Vanilla: If at any point you need assistance, I’ll be there immediately, just let me know.

Sonic: thank you. gaia knows ill probably need the help. i dont even know how to feed this kid

Sonic: he doesnt have a tongue. rouge was able to spoon feed him yogurt but its not enough. idk how much is safe to feed him either. he hasnt eaten in months at least

It took Vanilla several minutes to respond, and when she did, it was with several links to different articles on malnutrition and how to safely reintroduce food to someone who has been starved, along with a list of foods that should be easy for Shadow to swallow, all without the requirement to chew beforehand, as that could potentially choke him.

Vanilla: You need to be extremely careful in cases of severe starvation. Normally I wouldn’t suggest trying to feed him at all on your own, but if you haven’t taken him to a doctor already, I’m assuming it’s because you can’t.

Vanilla: Watch for any signs of nausea, trouble breathing, seizures, or any other abnormal symptoms. If he starts showing signs of these issues, find a doctor you can trust and bring him to them IMMEDIATELY. Refeeding syndrome is a very serious risk. If you aren’t careful, it could cause organ failure.

Sonic’s stomach flipped. He’d assumed that there was a chance he’d accidentally make Shadow sick on food if he wasn’t careful, but he hadn’t realized it could be this bad. Just feeding Shadow too much too fast could cause seizures?

Sonic: i dont know if i can do this. i dont want to hurt him

Sonic: what do i do

Vanilla: Right now, just take everything slow. Set timers on your phone as reminders to feed him every 3 or so hours, and try to give him roughly the same small amount each time. Getting him used to a routine should also help him become comfortable with his new surroundings.

Sonic: alright ill try thanks. srry abt randomly dumping all of this on u

Vanilla: No need to apologize! I’m always happy to help <3

Next to Sonic, Shadow was just beginning to wake. His mouth stretched wide around a yawn, but he didn’t open his eye, instead choosing to snuggle closer to Sonic, not yet ready to get up.

Sonic chuckled quietly, storing his phone within his quills. “Hey there, tiny. Are you hungry?”

Shadow let out a little chirp.

“…Was that a sleepy chirp or a hungry chirp?”

Shadow chirped again, unhelpfully.

Sonic sighed. “How about we go find you something to eat, and then you can go back to sleep after?”

After a moment, Shadow’s eye slowly peeked open. He shot Sonic a displeased look, but finally started waking up anyway. He raised his arms above his head, making a soft whining sound as he stretched, in that moment looking more like a sleepy cat than a hedgehog.

“Ooh, big stretch.” Sonic said with a grin. “C’mon, little guy, breakfast time.”

Chapter Text

Shortly after Rouge woke up, she needed to head back to GUN Headquarters to report to their current Commander, leaving Sonic and Tails alone to care for Shadow.

Sonic had ended up reading those articles Vanilla sent him, and was horrified by all of them. He hadn’t realized how much damage he could cause if he wasn’t careful about feeding Shadow. 

The little hedgehog was still completely exhausted, and did not enjoy getting woken up every couple of hours, but his mood always brightened while Sonic was feeding him, even though he was only given small amounts at a time. He went back to sleep right after, too tired to stay awake for much longer than that.

Currently, the three of them were in the living room. Sonic and Tails were both sitting on the couch, and Shadow was curled up in Sonic’s lap, covered entirely by a blanket he’d taken from his makeshift nest (he hadn’t let Sonic take him out of the room without it). They were watching a cartoon about a human boy and a talking dog, but Sonic was barely paying attention to it.

“Sometime today, I’d like to look through those files Rouge found.” Sonic told Tails, one of his hands absently petting the pile of hedgehog in his lap.

Tails grimaced, not looking away from the TV. “Oh, fun.”

Sonic snorted. “Believe me, I’m not thrilled about it either, but I need to know what GUN did to this little guy. I don’t know how deep the damage they caused runs. He can’t walk, but I’m not sure if it’s because his legs are broken or not, and he might have other internal injuries we don’t know about.”

Tails glanced down at the blanket with a thoughtful expression. “I think I might be able to help with that.”

“Really? How?”

“I’ve been working on this blueprint for a handheld x-ray machine that’ll work like a CT scanner, but on a much smaller scale.”

“Don’t handheld x-rays already exist?”

“Yeah, but those only show one small part of a person’s body at a time. What I’m creating will scan over a person’s body and create a full-body radiograph in seconds.”

Sonic’s eye ridges rose in surprise. “You’re telling me you were working on advanced medical equipment just… for fun?”

Tails shrugged. “I wouldn’t have to if someone would just go to a hospital when he’s injured.”

“Hospitals take too long! I don’t have time to sit in a waiting room for hours. Besides, when have I ever actually needed to see a doctor?”

“That time you may or may not have broken a rib after a fight with Eggman?”

Sonic scoffed. “I walked it off, it was fine. Probably wasn’t broken.”

“You’re lucky it didn’t heal wrong, whatever it was. I just figured, since you refuse to see a doctor if you think it’s unnecessary, I might as well invent something to show you exactly how injured you really are, then you can decide if the injury needs treatment or not. It’s gotta be better than ignoring it and hoping it’s not that bad, right?”

Something about Tails’ tone made Sonic pause. How long has this been something the fox thought about? It wasn’t often that Sonic sustained injuries beyond a few minor bruises or scrapes after a battle, but when it did happen, it wasn’t usually that bad. Maybe he’d have an annoying limp for a few days that kept him from running, or a twinge in his muscles if he stretched them too far.

It was never a concern to Sonic, but clearly Tails thought differently. He was ready to create something more technologically advanced than something trained professionals had on hand, purely out of worry for Sonic’s wellbeing.

Tails was… too young to be fussing over Sonic’s health like that. Just how often had he been worrying him without realizing it? Sonic supposed that he should be thankful for it, as it could be helpful in caring for Shadow, but still. Sonic was in his twenties, he was an adult, he should be able to take care of himself at least enough to prevent the teen in his care from getting stressed out from it.

“…That’s- yeah, fair enough.” Sonic said, hoping he didn’t sound as ashamed as he felt.

“It’ll probably take me a few days to get it built, and then I’ll have to test it, to make sure it doesn’t melt his bones or turn his fur purple or something.” Tails said, his namesakes twitching as he thought.

Sonic frowned. “Uh, the whole ‘bone melting’ thing can’t actually happen, right?”

“Probably not, but who knows? That’s why I’ll test it on a banana or something first.”

That did absolutely nothing to fill Sonic with confidence.

***

A timer on Sonic’s phone went off, meaning it was time to feed Shadow again. Well, it’s about time, Sonic thought. His legs had fallen asleep twenty minutes ago.

Sonic woke Shadow up, earning a sleepy glare from the little hedgehog. He just barely stopped himself from laughing. He didn’t think Shadow would appreciate it very much.

After feeding Shadow, Sonic brought him back to the couch. Shadow tried crawling into Sonic’s lap to sleep, but Sonic stopped him, setting the kid back down onto the couch next to him.

“Sorry, little guy, but my legs need a break.” Sonic said.

In reality, Sonic was planning on checking out the files on Tails’ computer the moment Shadow fell asleep, and he didn’t want to risk waking the little hedgehog if he used Sonic’s lap as his personal pillow.

Shadow stared up at Sonic, and he gave Sonic the most betrayed look the blue hedgehog had ever received in his life. He pouted before turning away from Sonic, clutching his blanket in his arms.

“C’mon, bud, don’t be like that.” Sonic said, petting between Shadow’s ears.

Shadow ducked away from his hand with a frustrated sound.

Sonic sighed, then scowled at Tails when the fox laughed at him.

“This isn’t funny.” Sonic said blankly. “I need him to go back to sleep so I can go-“ he cut himself off, but it was too late. Shadow had already heard him.

The little hedgehog’s gaze snapped back to Sonic in a split second, and his eye filled with tears. He shoved himself against Sonic’s side, clinging to the older hedgehog to keep him from leaving.

Sonic sighed again, wrapping his arm around Shadow. “Don’t worry, little guy, I’m not leaving. I just wanted to go check something in the other room for a minute.”

Shadow shook his head, making a sound of dissent.

“I- I can’t take you with me, Shadow.” He would, but he’d been planning on checking out those files Tails had tried (and failed) to read, and he didn’t want to risk Shadow seeing any pictures or recordings of whatever those scientists did to him. The last thing he needed right now was a reminder of the pain he went through.

Shadow whimpered, all but head-butting Sonic in the ribs as he shoved his face into the older hedgehog’s side.

“You won’t be alone, buddy. Tails will stay with you! Right, Tails?” Sonic shot the fox a semi-pleading look.

Tails took the hint, and smiled reassuringly at the little hedgehog. “Yeah! I promise, I’ll protect you from those mean humans while you sleep. And if you’re not tired anymore, we can watch cartoons together.”

With a frown, Shadow’s eye searched Tails’ face. Slowly, his tense muscles loosened, no longer clutching at Sonic like his life depended on it. He crawled a bit closer to Tails, not close enough for the fox to touch him, but it was still the closest Shadow had allowed himself to get to Tails without immediately freaking out.

One arm was wrapped around his blanket, hugging it to his chest as he stared ahead at the TV, and his other hand went up to his mouth. He began chewing on his glove, the only sign that he was more stressed out than he was letting on.

“Don’t worry, Tails won’t hurt you.” Sonic pressed a kiss to the top of the kid’s head before standing up. “I’ll be back soon, tiny.”

A slightly choked whine escaped the little hedgehog’s throat, the sound muffled by the fabric in his mouth. His teeth dug into the glove harder.

Sonic forced himself to walk away from the couch. Shadow would need to get used to being separated from him, sooner rather than later, and he would have to learn to trust Tails, since he’d probably be staying with both of them for a while. If something went wrong, Sonic had no doubt that Tails would come get him immediately if he couldn’t handle Shadow alone.

Stepping into the garage, Sonic clicked on the light and made his way to Tails’ computer.

He opened the files, and was instantly overwhelmed with all of the information he’d have to sort through. Dozens of different folders for experiments, some containing as little as five pages of information, while others had up to fifteen pages and multiple attached images and videos.

The first image Sonic selected made him freeze up. Not because the image contained anything bad- in fact, it was because of the lack of anything horrific that the picture had him pausing to look at it.

It was a black and white photo of what Sonic could only assume was Shadow, held in the arms of a human whose face had been cropped out, but the kid looked so different. He was slightly smaller, and at that point, completely uninjured.

In the picture, his quills were as long as they should have been, had they not been clipped. They bent halfway, the points sticking up in four groups. The stripes went all the way down to the tips of each grouping of quills.

He’d had no scars, his muzzle was undamaged (though Sonic couldn’t help but notice the way his cheeks had still been the slightest bit sunken in), and he’d still had both eyes. He was looking up at the human holding him with an expression filled with obvious love and adoration. It hurt to look at, and Sonic wondered if that was how Shadow had always looked at the scientists before they hurt him.

Upon closer inspection, Sonic realized that the human in the picture wasn’t wearing the same lab coats the scientists far in the background wore. This human was wearing a dress, it seemed, and though Sonic couldn’t make out the color, it was darker than the white lab coats. This human, whoever she was, must not have been one of the scientists. But if she wasn’t, then why had she been the one to hold Shadow for this picture?

Within the folder, underneath the picture, was a small note he had almost missed, but once he read it, he felt his heart stop.

Subject #002, age 5, 4 months before retrieval from the ARK.

Five? That couldn’t be right. Shadow looked younger than that now, and this picture had to have been taken well over a year and a half ago, if Tails was right about Shadow being in that base for at least a year, which meant-

Oh, Chaos. That meant Shadow must be around seven years old. But he couldn’t be, he was far too small. If he were seven, he should have been at least double the size he was right now. Just how long had those scientists been underfeeding him for? Even in this picture, he didn’t look five. If Sonic had been asked to guess his age from looks alone, he would have said two.

With his heart racing at the horrible implications his newest realization brought, Sonic had to close out of the image quickly, every second he looked at it hurt worse than the last.

Quickly scanning over the folder names, he clicked on the first one that caught his eye, one that he’d been thinking about since yesterday.

Incident Report 21-3.8, the one mentioned in the notes Sonic had read yesterday. He was almost afraid to click on it, his need to know what those scientists did to Shadow battling with his disgust at the whole situation. He didn’t know what to expect, and felt like he wouldn’t be prepared to see it even if he braced himself for the worst.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, then clicked on the folder, opening the report.

Incident Report 21-3.8: Subject #002’s failure to heal against hydrochloric acid.

In previous tests related to Subject #002’s heightened regenerative healing, we came to the conclusion that it can heal several injuries including but not limited to: bullet wounds, fourth-degree burns, broken bones, missing organs, missing limbs, etc. Our next test was to check the natural resistance and healing ability against certain chemicals, starting with chemical burns in localized parts of its body. The plan was to pour a very small amount of highly concentrated hydrochloric acid onto its upper arm, not enough to burn the skin down to the bone, but enough to prove that it could heal such a minor injury (and record the period of time required for a full recovery) before moving onto something more hazardous.

The test went wrong when the restraints holding Subject #002 down to the table snapped the moment Dr. Smith began pouring the hydrochloric acid onto its arm. In its attempt to escape, it knocked the container out of Dr. Smith’s hand, resulting in the acid being poured onto much of the left half of its body, with some even getting into its mouth.

This was not the intended result, and due to the failure to restrain the Subject, the injury was uncontrolled, and extended far beyond our original parameters. Almost half of its upper body suffered severe chemical burns, with the worst of it located on the left half of its face. We have waited exactly 4 days for it to heal, which it has not. Its teeth and jaw are still visible through the skin, and its left eye cannot be saved. Due to the damage done to its tongue, it was decided that removal is the only option, as the organ is now nonfunctional and barely attached to the rest of its mouth.

We can only wait and see if the Subject will begin healing as usual, and if it does not, then we will need to halt all current experiments to figure out where exactly we went wrong. We are unsure if there is an issue with the Subject’s healing abilities, or if hydrochloric acid is simply something the Black Arms species cannot heal against. Further testing is required.

At the very bottom of the file was a picture, this time in full color. It showed another image of Shadow, presumably taken directly after he first sustained his injuries. The burns on the left half of his body were still fresh, his skin a bloody mess of green. Blood dripped from his torn muzzle into his dark fur, and his left eye, which hadn’t yet been removed, was bloodshot, the iris swollen and cloudy with the first stages of what might have become cataracts, had the eye not been removed.

Shadow’s mouth was open in a silent cry as tears spilled down his muzzle from his undamaged eye. The amount of pain he must have been in…

Sonic felt liquid hit the back of his throat, and he immediately ran out of the garage, bolting into the bathroom.

He barely made it to the toilet before he started retching, throwing up what little he’d eaten earlier. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, and his stomach cramped up as his body continued its attempts to expel something that was no longer there.

Over the sound of his coughing, he heard Tails walk up to the bathroom. He tried to pull it together before the fox made it to him, but every time he thought about what he’d read, he ended up gagging again.

Tails peered into the bathroom with a concerned frown. “Sonic? Are you alright?”

“…St- stay with Shadow, please.” Sonic croaked, his arms shaking where they held him over the toilet.

“What happened?”

“Tails, go.”

The sudden harshness of Sonic’s tone made Tails flinch, but he finally walked away from the bathroom. A twinge of guilt settled under Sonic’s ribs, but he couldn’t stand the thought of Tails seeing him like this.

He was… so far beyond disgusted, beyond horrified by what those scientists had done. And that was only one experiment of dozens. What could have been so important about these experiments that it justified treating a living being like this?

He understood why Tails had quit reading the files so quickly. Sonic wasn’t certain he could stomach going back to them. But he had to, he knew he did. He still didn’t understand why the scientists had left Shadow behind, only to hire Rouge to go retrieve him months later. It just didn’t make sense.

He could hardly handle the idea of reading more, though. Just considering it had him dry heaving again.

With a grimace, he flushed the toilet, rinsed the taste of bile out of his mouth, and retrieved a clean pair of gloves from his room, then headed back into the garage.

He carefully avoided looking at any images or notes while closing down the files and shutting off the computer. He would go back to them, just… not now. He couldn’t continue so soon after all of that.

When he finally returned to the living room, Shadow had fallen asleep again, a pillow under his head and his blanket draped over him loosely. His legs were tucked under him in a way that looked extremely uncomfortable, but Shadow probably didn’t feel it.

Seven years old, Sonic thought, staring down at the child who was hardly bigger than a chao. That meant he spent seven years suffering in GUN’s care. He couldn’t believe Shadow had survived that long with GUN treating him the way they did.

Sonic’s legs shook as he sat down, his arms wrapped around his abdomen. He kept his eyes locked onto the floor, unable to look at Shadow any more without seeing those pictures.

“…Sonic?” Tails said softly.

Sonic swallowed roughly. “It was acid.”

He couldn’t bring himself to say more, but judging by the look of understanding, followed by the immediate horror on Tails’ face, he didn’t need to.

Wordlessly, Tails moved to Sonic’s side, wrapping his arms around him. Sonic returned the embrace gratefully, pressing his cheek against the top of Tails’ head.

“He’s gonna get better.” Tails whispered. “We’ll help him.”

“What if he can’t? What if the damage those scientists caused is permanent?”

“Then we’ll help him anyway.” Tails shrugged. “He’s probably gonna need like, a lot of surgery, and physical therapy, and probably regular therapy too, but he won’t be alone for any of it. Even if he can’t fully heal from this, we’ll be there for him.”

“You don’t need to help with all this, you know. I chose to become responsible for him, you didn’t ask to get dragged into it.”

Tails nodded against Sonic’s shoulder. “I know, but I want to help.”

Sonic felt some of the tension ease from his muscles, and he hugged Tails tighter. Sonic didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this kid, but he’d always be thankful that the fox had become a part of his life.

Chapter Text

A few uneventful days passed by as Sonic and Tails slowly got used to the new routine that came with caring for a hedgehog child.

Sonic still hadn’t gotten the chance to child-proof the guest room, so Shadow was still staying in his room. He’d still curl up in his makeshift nest to sleep, but as his nightmares continued to wake him up, he’d always end up in Sonic’s arms anyway.

He didn’t seem particularly upset about the arrangement, and just last night, he’d even fallen asleep lying on his uninjured side, leaving his injuries exposed as he slept. Sonic took it as a sign that Shadow was growing more comfortable with his new living situation.

It had taken Rouge a couple of days to contact him again, and when she did, it was with… less than great news. Turns out, she’d been wrong about her assumption of how GUN would react to their ‘weapon’ disappearing. They did not, in fact, decide to erase all knowledge of his existence and forget about him. According to Rouge, GUN was now on high alert, sending several agents to search for Shadow, Rouge included.

She’d warned Sonic that they were given equipment to track spikes in Chaos energy, meaning Sonic had to not only hide Shadow from GUN, but also try to keep him from using his Chaos energy so there wouldn’t be any abnormal spikes for GUN to track. He didn’t think it would be too difficult right now, as Shadow’s Chaos energy reserves had been almost completely drained since Sonic first found him, and didn’t seem to be replenishing itself as quickly as it should have. If GUN agents did happen to visit the house, maybe Sonic could convince them that any odd Chaos energy readings they got were from him.

Sonic had told Rouge about what he found in Shadow’s files (not in very much detail, as thinking about it still made him sick), and she had been just as horrified as he was. He’d also asked if she could check GUN’s databases for a scientist named ‘Mia’. Whoever she was, she had to have been important to Shadow, though Sonic couldn’t quite figure out why yet. Hopefully Rouge could find something that might help him figure it out, maybe he’d even be able to find her. He didn’t plan on reuniting her with Shadow - Sonic would never let a human find this little hedgehog again - but she might be able to shed some light on why Shadow had been created, and why the experiments had been so… brutal.

Sonic had been thinking about what he’d seen in Shadow’s files for days now, but he hadn’t gone back to them. He told himself that it was because Tails was still working on that hand-held x-ray, and he didn’t want to disturb the fox when he was busy, but he knew the real reason he’d been avoiding the files was because he wasn’t certain he could handle seeing much more. Tails being busy in the garage was just a very convenient excuse.

Shadow had spent the majority of the past few days sleeping, refusing to stay awake longer than needed to eat and drink. Sonic had expected this to continue for a while as his body tried to heal what it could, but after waking Shadow to feed him this morning, the little hedgehog hadn’t fallen asleep again immediately after.

Currently, he was sitting on the ground in front of the couch, doodling on a piece of paper with some crayons that Sonic couldn’t remember ever buying (he assumed they’d been left behind by Cream a while back, but honestly, spontaneously appearing crayons wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen to him this week). A kids show was playing on the TV that Shadow hardly paid any attention to, but Sonic’s attempts to change the channel had been met with an unhappy whine, so now he was stuck watching a show about some sport-obsessed guy teaching life lessons to puppet children. Their lifeless eyes were deeply unsettling, but Sonic could suffer through it if it kept Shadow entertained.

“Boo.”

Sonic blinked in surprise, his attention instantly snapping from the TV down to Shadow, who had already been looking up at him. He hadn’t heard Shadow attempt to speak in days, and when he had, it hadn’t even been directed toward Sonic.

“What was that, tiny? What’s ‘boo’?” Sonic asked.

Shadow gave him an odd look, then pointed at him. “Boo.”

Sonic’s eye ridges drew together. “Me? I’m ‘boo’?”

The little hedgehog nodded, looking almost comically serious.

It took Sonic a very confusing few seconds to realize that Shadow was trying to call him Blue, as that was what Rouge had been calling him before. Sonic laughed quietly. Of all the nicknames he’d been given over the years, ‘boo’ was definitely on track to becoming his favorite.

Shadow held up the paper he’d been coloring on and said, “Mia.”

The drawing looked like two humans- or, how a child would draw humans, at least. The smaller human (who sort of looked like a potato, if Sonic was being honest) had thin yellow lines that were meant to be hair, and blocky blue shapes that were probably clothes. A dress, maybe? And over the head was a matching blue band. The human was smiling, and one of her… hands? was connected to a similarly potato-shaped black blob.

The black blob didn’t have any distinctive features at all. Shadow hadn’t even given it a face. Was that meant to be him? Did he… not know what he looked like?

On the other side of the small human was a much taller, rounder human. This one was bald, but had two grey lines over the face that could have been a mustache, but it was hard to tell. This human’s clothes were the same shade of grey in the shape of a square, and Sonic was only able to tell that it was a lab coat because he knew that Shadow had been raised around many humans in lab coats.

Shadow was pointing at the picture of the girl, waiting for Sonic to say something.

“That’s Mia, huh?”

Shadow nodded, a little smile spreading over his face.

Sonic thought about the old picture of Shadow he’d found, being carried in the arms of a human wearing a dress. Could she have been the girl Shadow had been searching for?

Sonic gestured to the second human next to the girl. “Who’s that?”

Shadow blinked, looking down at the picture. He was silent for several moments, his eye ridges drawn together in thought.

“…Pofe- pufeve-“ Shadow groaned in frustration, unable to articulate what he meant without a tongue. Another couple moments passed in silence before he finally blurted out, “Papa.”

Sonic’s eyes widened. Papa? One of those monsters was Shadow’s dad? It shouldn’t have shocked Sonic, he’d already known that Shadow was created in one of GUN’s labs, but after seeing how Shadow was treated, he just couldn’t believe that there had been any humans there who actually cared about Shadow. Someone who loved him wouldn’t have left him behind, starving and injured and scared.

Although, thinking about it further, Sonic figured that just because one of those humans had been Shadow’s parent didn’t necessarily mean that he had loved Shadow. He probably didn’t, if he could so easily abuse and abandon him. It only made Sonic’s anger toward GUN burn hotter.

Shadow flipped the paper over so he could draw on the blank side, but just as he started reaching for a blue crayon, Tails came out of the garage with a device Sonic had never seen before in his hands.

“The x-ray is finished!” Tails announced, leaning over the back of the couch to show Sonic his newest creation.

The device was a handheld scanner with a flat screen on top and a handle underneath. The front of it had a circular shield surrounding the scanning system. It looked just like a regular portable x-ray machine, with the only notable difference being that the device was yellow, and had little triangles on either side, looking suspiciously similar to Tails’ ears.

“Great job, buddy!” Sonic praised, then froze when he remembered what Tails had said about the device a few days ago. “Uh, you made sure it’s safe, right?”

Tails rolled his eyes. “I always do.” He walked around the couch, fidgeting with something on the device’s screen. “I’m gonna need Shadow to lie down flat on his back to get the clearest image.”

“Got it.” Sonic turned to Shadow. “Hear that, little guy? I’m gonna need you to stop drawing for a minute.”

Shadow let out an annoyed huff and dropped the crayon in his hand. He raised his arms and waited for Sonic to set him on the couch.

Once he was on the couch, Sonic helped him lie down on his back, moving his legs into a position that wouldn’t have them shoved under his body at a weird angle. He thought about trying to straighten them out, but didn’t want to risk hurting him. Whatever was wrong with his legs, Tails’ device would show them soon.

Tails moved closer to the couch, device in hand, and Shadow tensed when he saw it. The whine that he let out was half confused, half afraid.

“Don’t worry, Shadow, Tails won’t hurt you. The thing in his hand won’t even touch you, okay? It’s just gonna take a picture.” Sonic said, taking one of Shadow’s paws in his own.

Shadow instantly started squeezing Sonic’s hand in a death grip, and Sonic nearly cried out in pain. Holy shit, this kid was stronger than he looked. Even weakened from starvation, he could probably still break Sonic’s hand if he squeezed any harder.

Sonic couldn’t blame the kid for being terrified, so he forced himself not to react to the pain.

Tails held the device directly over Shadow’s body, and Shadow’s breath hitched. His paw started shaking as he shut his eye tightly, bracing for pain that wouldn’t come.

“Alright, I got it.” Tails said, moving the device away from Shadow.

Shadow’s eye flew open, and he stared at Tails in shock. He looked to Sonic and made a questioning sound.

“Yeah, tiny, that was all he needed.” Sonic confirmed, slightly impressed that he managed to keep his voice level while Shadow was still crushing the bones in his fingers.

Slowly, Shadow released his grip on Sonic’s hand. He didn’t look convinced that Tails had already gotten what he needed from him. He’d probably assumed that this was another test that wouldn’t end until after he got hurt. Sonic should have explained what would happen beforehand.

After Shadow sat up, Sonic wrapped an arm around the little hedgehog, hugging him gently.

“You did good, Shadow.” Sonic murmured.

Shadow’s eye widened, and he leaned into Sonic’s side, hiding his face against Sonic’s fur, though he caught Shadow’s shy smile before he could hide it.

Tails’ focus was solely on his device’s screen, and he frowned as he looked over the image. His frown only deepened the longer he looked, something like sadness - or maybe pity - filling his eyes as he briefly glanced at Shadow.

“Alright, tiny, you can get back to coloring.” Sonic said, petting between Shadow’s ears to get his attention.

Shadow let Sonic set him back on the ground, and immediately picked the blue crayon back up.

Tails sat on the couch next to Sonic and tilted the device’s screen toward the blue hedgehog, showing him the image his device produced.

Due to how small the screen was, Tails could only show a small section of the x-ray at a time, and had to drag the image around to show the rest. Each part Sonic saw made his stomach tense, as if he was preparing for a fight that wouldn’t come.

“On the bright side, nothing looks actively deadly…?” Tails mumbled, cringing when his voice cracked.

Even if Shadow wasn’t technically in any immediate danger, that didn’t make what the scan revealed any easier to look at.

Tails showed him the image of the bones in Shadow’s legs first. Just as Sonic had suspected, they looked like they’d been broken at some point. The injuries looked healed already, but without proper medical attention, the breaks had healed wrong, resulting in the odd angle they stayed at now. Shadow must have kept them curled up because of the pain, not realizing how much more damage it would cause. It didn’t look impossible to fix, but Sonic doubted that he’d be able to walk on them anytime soon.

Tails dragged the image up, now revealing Shadow’s abdomen and forearms. There seemed to be fractures in Shadow’s arms, but they’d already healed, appearing as nearly invisible white lines. The fractures themselves weren’t what concerned Sonic, as they seemed like they’d been fairly minor even before they healed. What actually concerned Sonic was how many there were. Both his legs and his arms had been broken- repeatedly, it looked like, and not just a few times. Even parts of his spine looked like they’d suffered similar injuries at one point. There were dozens of these little lines and very thin bumps showing every spot where his bones had been broken, and a couple bigger marks which Sonic could only guess were healed bullet wounds, though he never would have believed it if he hadn’t read about it in Shadow’s files.

Shadow’s bones looked thinner than they should have been, which was most likely due to malnutrition. There was a chance that all the fractures had been accidental, a lack of nutrients weakening the bones to the point that the scientists couldn’t have stopped it, but Sonic doubted it. He’d seen what the scientists had said in those files, testing this child’s healing abilities by purposefully causing him injury. And even if the injuries had been accidental, it was still their fault that his bones had become this weak to begin with. If they’d just fucking fed him-

Sonic took a deep breath, reminding himself not to let his anger show itself around Shadow. The last thing he wanted to do was scare the kid, especially after making so much progress in getting Shadow to trust him.

Tails brought Shadow’s chest x-ray onto the screen next, revealing more of the same damage that Sonic was expecting at this point. His ribs had been fractured - possibly even broken - in a few different spots, and Sonic was beginning to wonder if the scientists had really caused all this damage on purpose, or if any of these were accidents caused during other experiments.

“This is… horrible.” Sonic said quietly.

“This isn’t even the worst of it.” Tails replied, dragging the image one final time to show the image of Shadow’s head.

Sonic’s breath caught in his throat, every drop of blood in his body turning to ice.

Something had cracked Shadow’s skull, the injury beginning at one point just above his temple, and radiating down toward his jaw. It looked like something had pierced through his skull entirely, passing all the way through his head before exiting out of the other side. It almost looked like-

A bullet wound. A bullet wound that hadn’t healed. This injury was recent- as recent as it could be, and Shadow was still recovering from it. That must have meant that the injury happened after Shadow’s healing abilities had declined.

But it just didn’t make any sense. Why would they have shot him in the head? Just to see if it would kill him or not? Why had they left such a major injury untreated? And why, after months, did it look like Shadow’s skull hadn’t healed at all, but his brain somehow had? Even if he was only healing at the same pace a human did, surely he should have healed more than this?

How had he even survived it?

“…Uh, Sonic? Are you okay?”

Sonic blinked at the fox, then recoiled when he realized how badly his eyes were stinging, and-

Oh. He’d started crying. When did that happen?

Tails and Shadow were both staring at him, sharing the same look of concern, which made him want to squirm. Sonic had never cried in front of Tails before, he’d never wanted to appear weak in front of the kid, needing to stay strong not just for him but for everyone who depended on him. This was… well, embarrassing, quite frankly.

Sonic quickly wiped the tears away, clearing his throat and avoiding the three eyes that were trained on him. “Don’t worry about it.”

A tiny paw rested on his knee, and he looked up from the couch to see that Shadow was still staring at him. “Boo okay?”

Sonic’s eyes landed on all of the scars covering the left side of Shadow’s face, and he realized that he could see a very small, circular dent in the scars. He was already so scarred that Sonic hadn’t even noticed it before, and he’d never checked under Shadow’s jaw, but he was sure that he’d find a similar scar there too.

With a soft sigh, Sonic set a hand between Shadow’s ears, ruffling the fur gently. “I’m alright, kid.”

He froze, his hand still on Shadow’s head, and worried that he may have been hurting the kid this whole time without realizing it. Shadow had never done anything to suggest that he’d been hurting him, but he pulled his hand back just in case, making a mental note to be more careful in the future.

“Please tell me… that injury is the worst thing you found.” Sonic said, still feeling small needles in his throat as he forced himself not to start crying again.

Tails’ ears flattened slightly. “There was one more thing, and honestly… I don’t know if it’s better or worse.”

He turned the screen back to Sonic and pointed to a small white dot Sonic hadn’t seen before. It looked like an object was lodged in Shadow’s skull, near the bullet wound.

Sonic’s first thought was that the bullet was still in his skull, but that didn’t make sense, as he could clearly see an exit wound. It could be shrapnel, but if the bullet had broken on impact, it wouldn’t have gone straight through, right? Not so cleanly, at least.

“What is that?” Sonic asked. Whatever it was, it looked damaged, almost half of it cracked into small pieces.

“I think it’s some kind of microchip.”

Sonic’s heart jumped. “Like a tracker?”

Tails shook his head. “I doubt it. If it was, GUN wouldn’t be scrambling to find Shadow. It looks like when they shot Sha- um.” His eyes darted to Shadow - who had returned to his paper and wasn’t even paying attention to them - then back to Sonic. “When they… you know, I think the bullet grazed the chip, so even if it was a tracker, it’s too damaged to work correctly.”

“So the chip is inactive?”

“…Actually, I don’t think so. Not entirely, at least. If it is what I think it is, then it might still be functioning, but not at the same capacity as it was before the bullet.”

Sonic frowned. “What do you think it is?”

“I remember Shadow’s files mentioning that the scientists had done something to block Shadow’s Chaos energy. I’m not sure why they did this, since it looked like they’d been using his energy for… something. Weapons, I think. Maybe it was only supposed to be temporary, or maybe Shadow had done something that made them block his energy for safety purposes, I don’t know and I can’t keep reading those files to figure it out.” The fox’s twin tails lashed out in an agitated manner behind him as he remembered the horrible things he’d read. “I think this microchip might be what they’d used to block his energy. It’s the only abnormality I found that didn’t directly come from his injuries, and whatever they’d used to block his energy is still affecting him. If it isn’t this chip, then I don’t know what else it could be.”

“But if it’s still working, then why can Shadow still use his Chaos energy?”

“I don’t think he actually can, not in the way he did with GUN. You told me about the sparking thing he does when he’s scared, but I don’t think his energy can replenish enough for anything more than that.”

Sonic thought about it. “So, the chip is damaged enough for his energy to just barely start replenishing, but not damaged enough for it to be useful to him?” He paused, his eyes widening in realization. “Wait, if he needs his energy to heal, does that mean he might be able to heal from everything those scientists did to him if we removed the chip, or found a way to fully deactivate it?”

Sonic’s heart started racing, the constant anxiety of the last few days finally beginning to ease as it was replaced with a very fragile hope. Shadow might not be stuck with these injuries permanently. He might actually still be able to heal after all. And if Shadow was able to heal, that would make it a bit easier to protect him from GUN, if he was strong enough to escape from them, if it came down to that.

The uncertain look on Tails’ face brought back some of that anxiety.

“There is… a chance that he could make a full recovery, if his healing abilities are as good as GUN thinks they are. But there’s a small problem with that.” He sighed. “That microchip might be the only thing hiding him from GUN right now. His energy reserves are so low that GUN hasn’t found him yet. If his Chaos energy fully replenishes, it will be like a beacon for them.”

Sonic deflated instantly. “So we can’t help him while GUN is hunting him?”

Tails bit his lip in consideration. “Well, we could deactivate it remotely, but we would have to find a way to block the energy readings from GUN’s radar.”

“Is that possible?”

The fox chuckled slightly. “Uh, yeah, it’s honestly super easy to mask Chaos energy. I could make something like that in a few hours. The problem is, Shadow isn’t the only one with a very visible energy reading. Don’t you think it would look a little suspicious if you suddenly disappeared on GUN’s tech less than a week after Shadow went missing? They probably know you were with Rouge when she searched the base.”

Sonic’s chest constricted. “There isn’t any way you could block his energy readings without blocking mine too?”

Tails shook his head. “Anything I create to block GUN’s signals would hide everything within a large area around it. And even if I could make one that blocks energy on a smaller scale, you still wouldn’t be able to enter the same room as him, or your energy signature would disappear until you walk away.”

Sonic sighed, leaning back on the couch and scrubbing a hand over his face. He felt like he was so close to figuring out how he could help this kid, but even now, after getting Shadow away from GUN, they were still preventing him from fixing the damage they caused Shadow.

Maybe if they waited long enough, GUN would give up their search, and they wouldn’t notice (or wouldn’t care about) Sonic’s sudden lack of an energy signature. He could come up with a lie for why he would hide it if GUN hunted him down, then Tails could deactivate the chip without GUN noticing. He could only hope that it would be enough to fix whatever issue had prevented Shadow from healing like he used to.

But he doubted GUN would give up on their hunt anytime soon, considering just how far they were going to find him. It might be years before they quit their search, if they ever quit. Sonic wasn’t sure if Shadow could wait that long, especially since Sonic couldn’t take him to any doctors while he was still hiding him.

For as long as Shadow was with Sonic, and GUN was still hunting him, he couldn’t heal.

…But what if he wasn’t with Sonic? What if Sonic found someone he could trust to care for Shadow? Someone who didn’t create their own Chaos energy strong enough to alert GUN to their location.

If that were the case, Tails could create whatever was necessary to hide Shadow’s energy signature from GUN, and there wouldn’t be any sudden disappearances for them to be suspicious of.

The thought of letting Shadow out of his sight was like sharp claws ripping at something inside Sonic’s chest, but it was for the kid’s safety. He couldn’t heal while he was with Sonic, so he couldn’t be with Sonic. Besides, Sonic had already known that him caring for the kid wouldn’t be a permanent thing, he just hadn’t thought he’d have to let him go so soon.

It would take some time to find someone willing to spontaneously adopt a possibly dangerous child, but Sonic knew enough Mobians who would be disgusted by GUN’s treatment of Shadow, surely he’ll find someone willing eventually.

Until then, Sonic would do whatever he could to care for Shadow, and make whatever time they’d have together as painless as possible.

“You know, we may not be able to help him heal completely right now, but there is something we might be able to fix.” Tails said suddenly.

Sonic couldn’t stop himself from perking up a bit. Devastation still flooded him at the thought of Shadow leaving - and wow, when had he gotten this attached to the kid? - but even the slightest hint of good news was enough to pull him out of his spiraling thoughts.

“What do you mean?” Sonic asked.

Tails gestured to his device’s screen, dragging the image back to Shadow’s twisted legs. “He can’t walk right now because of how some of his bones healed, but I might be able to create something to straighten his legs and aid in movement until he can walk on his own.”

“You’d do that for him?” Just the handheld x-ray alone seemed like a lot of work and effort for a kid Tails hardly knew, but he’d already been in the process of making it before Shadow had become a part of their life, so Sonic hadn’t questioned it.

Tails gave him a funny look. “Of course I would, he’s family now.”

Sonic’s breath hitched. “…R- right.”

Tails already saw Shadow as family. He was going to be devastated when Sonic told him that he wouldn’t be staying with them forever. Sonic hadn’t even considered that the fox might get attached to the kid too.

But Tails was a smart kid, he’d understand that it was for the best. That didn’t necessarily make it any easier, though.

Sonic cleared his throat, struggling to hold back his emotions. “So, how d’you plan on fixing the kid’s legs?”

“I was thinking braces, to help keep his legs straight. I’m not certain they can fully be fixed, but he should be able to walk on them eventually. It’ll take a while before he’ll have the strength to carry his own weight, though… unless I can find a way to keep his weight off of his legs. Maybe crutches? Or some sort of device to help him with movement?” Tails had this faraway expression on his face as he thought, sinking into the same headspace he always did when he was fixated on an idea. Whatever he came up with, Sonic could already tell that it was going to take up most of the space in Tails’ mind until it was completed. “I’ve gotta go sketch out some ideas. Did you need anymore help with him?” He nodded toward the kid.

Sonic waved a dismissive hand. “Nah, I’ve got him covered. You can go lock yourself in your cave again.”

Tails rolled his eyes as he stood up, muttering under his breath, “What am I, a goblin?” as he left the living room.

Sonic chuckled, turning his attention toward Shadow. The kid had been quiet for a bit, he probably hadn’t been listening to anything Sonic and Tails spoke about, too focused on his coloring.

“Whatcha makin’, tiny?” Sonic asked, leaning over the edge of the couch to look down at Shadow’s paper. Right now, it just looked like a blue circle with spikes.

Shadow’s ear twitched, and he looked up when he realized Sonic was talking to him. He pointed at the paper and said, “Boo.”

“…Y- you’re making me?” Sonic said, his voice wavering.

Shadow nodded and went back to coloring.

It was gonna be painful, giving this kid up, but it was for his own good. He deserved the chance to heal, and if Sonic’s own energy was what stood in the way of that, then Sonic would have to let the kid go. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d never see the kid again, right? It was just until GUN wasn’t on high alert, and wouldn’t notice if Sonic’s energy disappeared long enough to visit the kid every once in a while.

It hurt, just the thought was so much more painful than Sonic could have predicted, but he wouldn’t refuse to let Shadow heal because of his own selfish desire to protect the kid himself.

(Even though in the back of his mind, a very un-heroic part of him wanted to demolish GUN himself. They couldn’t take Shadow from him if there was nothing left of the organization. And, really, who would miss them?)

Until Sonic could find someone he trusted to care for the little hedgehog, he would do what he could to ease the pain GUN inflicted, and give the kid as much comfort and affection he could. Shadow deserved it, after all he’d suffered.

Shadow seemed completely focused on his drawing, so Sonic once again tried to change the channel to a kids show that was slightly more bearable than whatever this was.

He didn’t even get the chance to lift the remote off of the couch before Shadow’s head shot up, glaring at Sonic’s hand.

“Uh-uh!” Shadow complained.

Sonic sighed and left the remote alone. “Talkative today, aren’t you, tiny?”

Shadow ignored him.

It took a few more minutes before Shadow was finished with his drawing, and once he was, he lifted the paper up to Sonic, waiting for him to take it.

He took the paper from the little hedgehog, and nearly burst out laughing when he saw the picture. It… definitely looked like him, noodle arms and all.

“I love it.” Sonic informed the little hedgehog. “It’s goin’ straight on the fridge.”

Shadow gave him the biggest grin he’d ever seen from the kid.

He lifted his arms up, and Sonic set the picture down on the couch next to him so he could lift the little hedgehog.

Shadow sat on the couch, tucked against Sonic’s side as he finally started watching the odd show. Sonic wrapped an arm around the kid, earning a content sigh as Shadow snuggled closer to him.

Gaia, Sonic was gonna be miserable when the kid was gone.

Chapter Text

Sonic awoke to the sound of his phone ringing. One glance at his bedside clock told him it was seven in the morning, which was far too early for anyone to be calling him, and his friends knew that.

Shadow was still asleep at his side, his mouth lightly parted with a thin trail of drool spilling from the corner of his lips onto the bedding below him. The fact that the sight of it flooded Sonic with relief just showed how deeply screwed up Shadow’s situation had been. Him drooling now meant he was finally hydrated enough to produce saliva again after who knows how long.

With a quiet groan, Sonic grabbed his phone to check the caller ID. He fully planned on ignoring it and going back to sleep if it wasn’t an emergency (or Rouge, because she promised to call him when she had more information on Shadow’s past human caretaker).

Amy Rose. Probably not an emergency (sorry, Ames), but in Sonic’s defense, she knew better than to expect Sonic to wake up before at least nine.

He ignored the call, setting his phone back onto the nightstand and letting it ring until it sent her to voicemail.

He shifted back onto his side, wrapping his arm around the little hedgehog protectively as he shut his eyes. He felt Shadow shift too, curling up closer to Sonic as if he was seeking his warmth, even in his sleep.

For a few quiet moments, Sonic drifted between not quite awake and not quite asleep. Distantly, he could hear a bird chirping in the trees beyond his window, and Shadow’s muted breaths, but the soft sounds weren’t enough to disturb him.

Then a sudden, loud banging made him jolt awake instantly.

His flinching woke Shadow too, and that with the combination of the banging noise startled the poor kid.

Sonic shot up in bed, ready to defend against whatever threat had found its way to his home, until the banging suddenly stopped, and his phone chimed with a text. He checked it, and groaned in frustration.

Amy Rose: Open this damn door before I knock it down.

“Sounded like you already fuckin’ did, Ames.” Sonic muttered to himself, his voice rough with sleep.

Sonic: cant hang out. busy

Amy Rose: I am 99% sure you forgot about our plans and were just gonna sleep all day

Plans? What plans?

Sonic frowned, struggling to get his tired braincells to form a coherent thought, but after a moment, he remembered.

Sonic: ah shit i forgot abt the picnic

Amy Rose: I noticed >:(

Sonic: top 30 reasons why sonic is sorry. number 5 will surprise you

Amy Rose: Idiot. Are you coming or not?

Sonic sucked in a breath through his teeth, looking down at the little hedgehog still lying on the bed.

He was staring up at Sonic, confused and scared. Sonic hadn’t gotten the chance to introduce Shadow to any of his friends beyond Rouge and Tails, so he couldn’t have known that the loud banging wasn’t actually a threat. It certainly didn’t help that Sonic had startled as well, instantly making the child believe that they were in danger.

Sonic stroked Shadow’s good ear soothingly. “Don’t worry, tiny, you’re safe.”

Shadow made a small ‘humph’ sound at getting woken up unnecessarily, and turned away from Sonic grumpily to go back to sleep.

“Gonna be moody today, aren’t you?” Sonic sighed. “Fabulous.”

Sonic: i cant sorry. im babysitting today

Sonic hadn’t told Amy or Knuckles about Shadow yet. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them, he just didn’t want to overwhelm Shadow while he was still growing comfortable with his new (albeit temporary) home. He supposed he could have just texted them like he did with Vanilla, but they were two of his closest friends, and it felt wrong to just say ‘Oh, by the way, I stole a kid from the government so we can’t hang out for a while’ over a text.

It probably would have prevented this scenario, though. Sonic had completely forgotten that he’d made plans to hang out with Amy before breaking into that base with Rouge.

Amy Rose: Babysitting who?

Sonic hadn’t actually thought this far ahead. He probably should have just given them a heads up before.

Chewing on his lip in consideration, Sonic poked Shadow in the arm, waiting for the kid to turn to him.

Shadow let out a questioning grunt, refusing to acknowledge the poke, not even bothering to open his eye.

“Shadow, how would you feel about meeting one of my friends?”

The way Shadow immediately tensed was an answer in and of itself.

“She’s super nice.” Sonic said, poking Shadow in the arm again. The kid squirmed away from it, finally turning over to look at Sonic. “I bet you’d really like her, and I know she would love you.”

Shadow’s ears flattened, and he shook his head, fear clouding his gaze.

“I know you’re scared, little guy, but I promise she would never hurt you. You know I’d never let anyone hurt you, right?”

For just a brief moment, Shadow had this look in his eye, one that Sonic had only ever seen in a picture. A look that, as far as he knew, may have been reserved for one special human.

But that moment passed, and Shadow huffed in annoyance, back to being grumpy.

“How about we go talk to her for just a minute, and if you wanna go back to sleep right after, you can.”

Shadow’s ear twitched. Reluctantly, he pushed himself into a sitting position and lifted his arms.

Sonic grinned at the little hedgehog. He stood up and lifted Shadow, setting him on his hip before leaving his room. His phone chimed with another text from Amy, but he just left it on his nightstand.

By the time he made it to the front door, he was certain Amy was actually five seconds away from smashing the offending wood to bits. Sonic didn’t normally take so long to answer his door, but he didn’t want to run at his usual speeds with the kid in his arms. He wasn’t sure how Shadow would take it, and he didn’t want to give the kid a new reason to be afraid of him.

(It might have made him the slightest bit stir crazy, not getting the chance to go on his usual morning runs, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.)

When he opened the door, he positioned himself in a way that Amy would only see him through the crack.

Amy was standing in front of the door, one hand carrying a picnic basket, and her other hand resting on her hip. “It’s about ti-“

“Don’t freak out.” Sonic said, cutting Amy off. “I’m gonna show you why I can’t hang out today, and I need you to be really cool about it, okay? If you freak out, he’ll freak out, and he’s been through enough stress.”

Amy frowned in confusion, a hint of concern settling between the crease in her eye ridges, but she nodded. “Alright…?”

Sonic opened the door fully and took a step back, letting Amy see the child. He tucked himself close to Sonic’s side, his eye wide and frightened as he stared at Amy.

Amy’s eyes widened, her mouth falling open in shock as she took in the child’s appearance. “Oh, Chaos, he’s-”

“I know he looks-“

“-so adorable!”

Sonic’s mind blanked. “…Huh?”

But Amy wasn’t paying attention to him. She set her picnic basket down and stepped closer, bending down to Shadow’s eye level.

“You are just the cutest little thing!” Amy cooed, lifting her hand to stroke Shadow’s uninjured cheek with the backs of her fingers.

Shadow flinched slightly at the contact, but he didn’t move away, or zap anyone with his Chaos energy, which Sonic took as a win. He looked more confused than scared.

“I hope Sonic’s been taking good care of you! Oh, you’re so tiny.” She turned to Sonic. “Whose baby is this?”

Sonic chuckled nervously. “Yeah, so, um, about that. I may or may not have taken him from a GUN base.”

Amy froze, her smile fading fast. “What was GUN doing with-“ she eyed his injuries, and she gasped softly. “Did they do this?”

“They did.” Sonic confirmed. “They kept him locked up for years, and they were hurting him the whole time. They don’t know I have him, and I’ve been trying to help him, but there’s just… so much damage. They did horrible things to him, Ames.”

Amy clicked her tongue. “Poor thing. So he’s your baby, then?” She gave him a knowing smirk.

Sonic rolled his eyes. “Whatever you and Rouge keep implying, you’re wrong. I’m just taking care of him until I can figure something else out.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Amy was still smirking, which Sonic did not appreciate in the slightest.

“And he’s not a baby. He’s seven, I think.”

Amy blinked, looking back at the kid. “What? How? He’s as small as Cheese!”

Sonic, still tired from being woken up too early, momentarily forgot that Cheese was the name of Cream’s chao, and was fully ready to accept that Amy was comparing Shadow’s size to a wheel of cheese. It wasn’t even wrong, if Sonic was being honest.

“The scientists weren’t really feeding him. I’ve been trying to fix that, but certain… physical disabilities have made it difficult.” At Amy’s head tilt, Sonic continued. “He doesn’t have a tongue.”

“Oh. Hmm. I guess I should’ve packed something a little less solid in my basket.”

“Wha- Amy, the picnic’s gonna have to happen some other time, I can’t leave Shadow alone-“

“So take him with you.” Amy said with a shrug. “I don’t mind. Besides, this little cutie could probably use some sunlight.”

Amy wasn’t wrong, Sonic supposed. He’d been reluctant to take the kid out of the house in case anyone saw him, but he and Tails lived pretty far away from most other people, especially humans. And the location Sonic and Amy had picked for their outing was fairly close to the house, so there was a very small chance they would even see anyone else anyway.

Sonic hummed, looking down at the kid in his arms. “What do you think, tiny? Wanna go out in the sun for a bit?”

Shadow’s ear flicked, and he tilted his head. He looked confused, but Sonic wasn’t sure what he’d said to cause it.

Did… did Shadow not know what the sun was?

Sonic froze. Shadow didn’t know what the sun was. Of course he wouldn’t. It’s not like those scientists had ever bothered to tell him anything, or let him out of his cage, or let him be a fucking person for a minute.

“Do you want to go out there?” Sonic asked, pointing beyond the doorway.

Shadow’s breath hitched, finally looking past Amy and out into the front yard. It had still been mostly dark out when Sonic brought Shadow home, and he’d kept the blinds on all his windows down, just in case someone happened to pass by. This was the first time Shadow was seeing the outside world in broad daylight.

He nodded, looking almost excited.

“Let me grab something for him to eat, then we can head out.” Sonic told Amy.

***

Shadow’s tail was wagging during the entire walk up the hill, whacking Sonic in the arm with the force of it. He couldn’t seem to find one thing to focus on, his eye rapidly darting from the grass, to the trees, to the clouds, to the sun.

“Careful, tiny, don’t stare straight at the sun.” Sonic warned when Shadow started squinting. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Shadow looked away, blinking rapidly against the spots that formed in his vision. Sonic just sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. Amy giggled at them.

Once they reached the top of the hill, Amy pulled a blanket out of her basket and spread it out on the grass covered by the shade of a tree, then settled down on top of it with the basket.

Sonic set Shadow down on the blanket, slightly surprised that Shadow actually let him, before sitting next to him with his legs crossed over each other.

If Amy noticed the way Shadow’s legs twisted when he sat down, she didn’t mention it, but Sonic did notice her slight frown as she was pulling the food out of her basket.

Sonic gasped. “You made chili dogs?”

Amy snorted, handing the container to Sonic. “I always do.”

“I haven’t had the chance to go out for food in over a week. I’ve just been eating cereal and noodles.”

“You eat like a broke college student.” Amy scoffed, pulling out more containers of little sandwiches and pastries.

Sonic turned to Shadow, who had crawled to the edge of the blanket, and was currently tugging blades of grass out of the dirt. “You hungry, Shadow?”

Shadow nodded, abandoning his task to crawl closer to Sonic.

Amy pulled out the applesauce Sonic had grabbed and handed it to him.

“Thanks.” Sonic said, accepting the pouch. He opened it, then lifted Shadow into his lap. “Alright, tiny, you know the drill.”

Shadow opened his mouth and patiently waited for Sonic to squeeze some of the applesauce out of the pouch and onto his very short tongue. It was difficult due to the size of the pouch, but with Shadow’s head tipped back far enough, it was manageable.

Amy watched them silently, a mix of pity and anger in her gaze, but Sonic knew the anger wasn’t directed toward them. He could only imagine how much angrier she’d be if she knew as much as he did.

Sonic gave Shadow a slightly bigger portion than usual, hoping to slowly increase Shadow’s food intake over time without making him sick (or worse). Shadow didn’t seem to mind, eating everything he was given with only minor difficulty. He’d mostly gotten used to eating without a tongue, and hadn’t choked in days. Sonic had even managed to figure out some foods that Shadow did and didn’t like through trial and error.

Yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal and pudding were all received well (although Sonic worried about the sugar in pudding making Shadow sick, so that had become a very small once-a-day treat for him, which he enjoyed immensely). Sonic had thought about making him a fruit smoothie, but decided against it, as the loud noise from the blender probably would have terrified him.

Some other foods Rouge had brought for him had included an assortment of baby foods with various flavors. Shadow hated all of them, with a couple of them even making him gag. Sonic couldn’t tell if it was the flavor or texture he took issue with (he wasn’t even sure how much Shadow could still taste, but his immediate love of pudding must have meant he still had some functioning taste buds). He also grimaced at the taste of bone broth, but didn’t outright reject it. Still, Sonic hadn’t tried giving it to him again.

So far, other than pudding, applesauce seemed to be his favorite. Sonic wondered if it was because fruit was already familiar to him, so he was more comfortable eating that than any of the more savory foods he’d tried.

Sonic waited until Shadow was done with his breakfast before eating his own. Shadow almost immediately went back to playing with the grass when Sonic started munching on a chili dog.

“Who else knows about him?” Amy asked before taking a bite of a sandwich.

“Wough an Thailth.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Maybe answer when your mouth isn’t full.”

Sonic finished his bite before speaking again. “Rouge and Tails. I told Vanilla too, but she hasn’t actually met Shadow.”

“Knuckles?”

“Doesn’t know. I haven’t really been telling people because I don’t wanna overwhelm the kid, so it’s just been me and Tails with him. It still scares him to be around people.”

A ladybug landed on the blanket next to Shadow’s paw. He watched as it crawled on him, holding his hand up for Sonic to see and giggling when the bug reached his arm.

“He seems calm now.” Amy commented.

“Yeah, he’s been doing a little better. Hasn’t let anyone else hold him yet, but he let Tails hug him before bed yesterday.”

“Aww. I bet Tails makes a good big brother.”

Sonic opened his mouth to once again argue that he hadn’t adopted Shadow, but found himself choking up for some inexplicable reason.

She wasn’t just implying that he’d adopted Shadow, but Tails as well. And in a way, he had, hadn’t he? It was never something they talked about, Sonic had always acted as more of an older brother in Tails’ life, but that was back when he was a young teenager himself.

Did… did Tails view Sonic as his father? Was that even something that the fox would want? He remembered Rouge teasing him about raising Tails back in the basement of that GUN base, but he hadn’t really thought too hard about it before.

Sonic loved Tails, and he knew that they were family, regardless of what their relationship was defined as. If Sonic was completely honest with himself… he didn’t hate the idea of calling Tails his son.

And part of him wouldn’t have minded it for Shadow either.

But that was a dangerous line of thinking, one that he couldn’t let himself get lost in. It would only make it that much harder to say goodbye to the little hedgehog when the time came.

The ladybug on Shadow’s arm flew away, and he watched it leave with fascination.

He crawled back to Sonic’s side as the blue hedgehog finished up his meal. Already knowing what Shadow wanted, Sonic raised his arm, letting the little hedgehog curl up against his side before wrapping his arm around his shoulders. He exhaled softly, his eye falling shut as he snuggled up next to Sonic.

Amy smiled at the sleepy hedgehog. “Cuddly little guy, isn’t he?”

Sonic snorted. “You have no idea. I think being left alone for so long made him clingier.”

“Left alone?”

“Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. The base Rouge and I found him in had been abandoned for a few months.”

Amy’s face fell as she looked at the little hedgehog. “He was alone for months? How could they-“ she cut herself off with a shake of her head, and her eyes filled with determination. “If GUN tries coming after him, you let me know, and I’ll be there to help you tear them down.”

Sonic chuckled slightly. “Thanks, Ames. Hopefully we’ll have a way to hide him permanently from GUN before that happens, though.”

His small smile faded quickly, and he frowned down at the blanket as he remembered that he’d have to start searching for someone capable of caring for the kid. Most of his friends were far too busy for a child, and he knew he couldn’t trust a stranger with Shadow. But what options did that leave him with? He couldn’t risk GUN figuring out Shadow’s location if he just disappeared on GUN’s radars as well.

…Unless he did just disappear. If both his and Shadow’s Chaos signatures were hidden from GUN, and they went into hiding, Sonic could continue to protect Shadow and give Shadow the chance to replenish his Chaos energy, which would be his best bet at healing.

But Sonic would have to leave everything behind, not even his friends could know where he was (he knew his friends would never betray him by helping GUN find him, but he knew how horrible they were, and didn’t doubt that they’d find a way to extract that information against their will). He would have to raise Shadow on the run, and that… wasn’t a life that Shadow deserved. Sonic himself knew what it was like to live without a roof over his head, or a guarantee that there’d be food for him and Tails. Shadow had suffered enough, he’d suffered far more than anyone ever should, he shouldn’t have to be raised in hiding because of Sonic’s selfish desire to keep the kid close.

Part of him almost wanted to just fight GUN head on, dare them to try and take this kid from him and make them regret the pain they caused. But if he failed, Shadow would either be locked away and experimented on again, or killed. It was too high of a risk, and Sonic didn’t have a backup plan if things went south.

Amy noticed his change in demeanor, and covered his hand with her own over the blanket. “I know you must be freaking out right now-“

Sonic scoffed, though it sounded weak. “I am not-“

“Sonic, I know you. You can’t help but worry about others.” She smiled softly. “But I can tell you’re doing a great job. He seems really happy with you.”

Sonic’s throat tightened, and pressure built behind his eyes. He looked away, willing himself not to cry.

Squeezing his hand gently, she said, “You’re a good dad, even if you can’t believe it.”

That was what broke him.

He failed to choke back a sob as the first tear fell down his cheek. Amy’s arms found their way around Sonic’s neck, and he wrapped his free arm around her back.

“I don’t know what to do.” He sobbed against her shoulder, his tears wetting her dress. “I- I can’t keep him, Amy. He can’t heal without his Chaos energy, b-but we can’t hide his energy if he’s with me.”

He felt Shadow shift at his side, woken up by his crying. It only made him feel worse.

“I don’t wanna lose him.” Sonic whispered, his voice filled with desperation and anguish. He knew his misery was his own fault, getting attached to a kid he couldn’t care for, but it still hurt.

Amy held him tighter. “You won’t. We won’t let that happen.”

“But he can’t stay with me-“

“Then I’ll take care of him.”

“You-“ Sonic gasped, pulling back to look Amy in the eyes. “Y- you would do that?”

Amy raised an eye ridge. “What, you thought I was just gonna let you deal with all of this alone? You’re my best friend, Sonic, I’m here for you no matter what, remember? Besides, I don’t want this little guy ending up with GUN again, either. If he needs someone to protect him, and that someone can’t be you, then I’ll do everything in my power to help.”

Sonic’s tears continued to flow, only now they were tears of pure relief. He wasn’t losing Shadow, not completely. He could get his Chaos energy back, and maybe, hopefully, it would be enough for him to recover.

Sonic pulled Amy closer, hugging her as tightly as he could. “Thank you.”

Amy hugged him back, giggling. “It’s no problem. I wouldn’t mind a roommate as adorable as him!”

When they finally parted, Sonic looked down and saw Shadow staring up at him with the same concerned look he’d had a few days ago.

He nudged his head into Sonic’s arm. “Boo?”

Sonic lifted Shadow into his lap, ignoring the squealing noise Amy made. “I’m alright, tiny.”

Shadow lifted a little paw up to Sonic’s face and began wiping at Sonic’s muzzle (and nearly poked him in the eye with a very tiny finger). Sonic blinked in confusion before realizing that Shadow was trying to wipe his tears away, the same way he did for Shadow when he woke up crying after a nightmare.

He started laughing, and let the little hedgehog attempt to dry his tears. “Thanks, Shads.”

Shadow gave him a funny look, and Sonic paused. He genuinely had no idea where the nickname came from, it just slipped out. Shadow didn’t seem bothered by it, though, and continued wiping at the wet fur of Sonic’s cheeks.

Once he was finished, he settled down sideways across Sonic’s lap, lying against his chest and watching as Amy opened up a container with whatever pastries and desserts she’d made.

“Can he eat anything solid?” Amy asked.

“I don’t think so, why?”

“I wanted to bribe him into liking me with something sweet.”

Sonic cackled. “It’d probably work, too. He’s obsessed with pudding right now.”

Shadow’s head shot up at the mention of pudding, and he gave Sonic his best puppy eyes- well, eye.

“Ah, sorry kiddo, I didn’t bring any pudding.”

It baffled Sonic how easily Shadow could express himself so clearly through body language alone, and Shadow made his disappointment in Sonic very clear as he turned away with a huff, his ears flattened and tail tucked between his legs. Judging by the borderline wounded sound that Amy made, Shadow was also pouting.

“So dramatic.” Sonic teased.

One of the containers Amy brought held a couple slices of strawberry cake, and she swiped some frosting off the top of one slice with the end of her fork, then held it up for Sonic to see. “Could he try some?”

Sonic hummed in consideration. He poked Shadow’s shoulder to get his attention. “You wanna try some frosting, Shadow?”

Shadow finally turned back to him, his eye ridges furrowed. Amy let him inspect the small amount of frosting on her fork before he looked up at Sonic and nodded, his attempted guilt trip all but forgotten.

“Will you let Amy feed you?” Sonic asked.

Shadow hesitated, but after Amy gave him a reassuring smile, he shifted closer to her, opening his mouth.

It was Amy’s turn to hesitate. “Um, how do you…?”

Sonic briefly explained how to feed Shadow without choking him, and Amy very carefully fed Shadow the small amount of frosting on her fork.

Shadow closed his mouth, his head tilting as he tasted the frosting. His eye widened when he realized how sweet it was, and he made a quiet noise, looking at Amy expectantly.

Sonic chuckled. “I think he likes it.”

Shadow whined and pointed at the fork.

“Can he have more?” Amy asked.

“One more bite. Hear that, tiny?” Sonic said, already knowing that Shadow would beg for a third, and Amy wouldn’t have the will to deny him.

Shadow nodded, like the little liar he was.

Just as Sonic suspected, two bites turned into three before Shadow was curled up against his side once more, this time sitting between him and Amy. He was almost touching the pink hedgehog, and didn’t seem the least bit worried about it.

Successfully bribed, Sonic thought with amusement.

Shadow ended up sleeping during the rest of the picnic, so Sonic and Amy took the time to catch up on everything they’d gotten up to recently while they ate their desserts.

When it was time to head back home, Shadow only woke up long enough for Sonic to pick him up, then immediately fell asleep again, leaning his head against Sonic’s shoulder.

“Keep me updated on the kid, alright?” Amy said as they walked down the hill.

“I will. And… thanks for this. I’ve been so worried about Shadow that I haven’t gotten the chance to leave the house since I brought him home.”

“I’d be happy to watch him for you if you need a break. Worst case scenario, he’s gonna need to get used to me taking care of him anyway.”

Sonic sighed. “I know, I just… I don’t like being away from him.”

Amy gave him a sympathetic smile. “Sounds like Shadow isn’t the only clingy one.”

Sonic felt his muzzle heat with embarrassment.

***

Once they were back at the house, Sonic brought Shadow to his room and set the sleeping hedgehog in his little nest. He covered Shadow with the loose blankets, earning a soft squeak of contentment.

Sonic grabbed his phone off the nightstand, intending to take a picture of Shadow and send it to Amy, but paused when he noticed that he’d missed both a call and a text from Rouge. He checked the text, and his heart stuttered.

Rouge: What GUN did is worse than we thought. Call me immediately

Chapter Text

Sonic stepped out of his room and into the hallway, not wanting to wake Shadow accidentally.

He called Rouge, unsurprised that she picked up on the first ring.

“Where the hell were you?” Rouge snapped.

“Good morning to you too, Rouge.” Sonic said pleasantly.

He could practically hear her responding eye roll. “I was finally able to break into GUN’s archives, and I found a few things on the little guy.”

Sonic frowned. “You didn’t have access to the info already?”

“Regular agents don’t have that kind of clearance, and as it turns out, information on ‘Project Shadow’ was never supposed to go public. They didn’t even give us a name while they were ordering us to find him. They just called him ‘the weapon’.” Rouge sighed quietly. “Fuck, Blue, I don’t even know where to start. There was… so much.”

“Let’s start with something simple, then. Were you able to figure out who Mia is?”

Rouge laughed dryly. “‘Simple’. Believe me, there was nothing simple about what I found. But yes, I did find the human Shadow was looking for.”

She went quiet for a moment, and Sonic heard a soft shuffling on her end of the call. When she spoke again, she sounded slightly further away, but her voice was just as clear. Must’ve put him on speaker, then.

“From what I could find, nobody named ‘Mia’ ever worked for GUN, but I did find someone named Maria Robotnik. It looks like she was the granddaughter of the head scientist who originally started ‘Project Shadow’. I think she might’ve been Shadow’s caretaker between experiments before he was moved to a different lab.”

Sonic was certain that she was the human that had been holding Shadow in the picture he’d found days before. She must have been kinder to Shadow than any of the scientists, for Shadow to have loved her enough to search her out even years later.

“Do you know where she is now? Do you think we could find her?” Sonic asked.

Rouge cleared her throat. “Blue… Maria’s been dead for over fifty years.”

…What?

Every muscle in Sonic’s body went stiff, and the fur on the back of his neck stood on end. In his shock, he nearly dropped his phone.

How was that possible? Sonic had seen physical evidence that Maria and Shadow had known each other at one point. How could that picture have been taken if Maria had been dead for the past fifty years?

Unless that wasn’t Shadow in the picture? He remembered something in Shadow’s files mentioning the scientists using old research notes to start over on Shadow’s creation entirely. Was it possible that this kid wasn’t the same as the kid in the photo? That they’d actually just remade the child from scratch?

And if that were the case, how many ‘Shadow’s had there been?

“…Rouge.” Sonic rasped. “Explain.”

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but according to the reports I found, ‘Project Shadow’ started over fifty years ago on a space station called ‘The ARK’. The head scientist was a human man named Gerald Robotnik. I think he might’ve been Eggman’s grandfather.”

He must be the human Shadow had called ‘Papa’. Sonic already resented him.

“He used DNA from an alien race known as the ‘Black Arms’ to create a living super weapon for GUN, something they called the ‘Ultimate Lifeform’. It looks like he was also attempting to use Shadow’s DNA to create a cure for some sort of illness his granddaughter had suffered from.”

Sonic remembered seeing the ‘Black Arms’ mentioned in Shadow’s files, but he’d never heard of this supposed ‘alien species’ before that. Did that mean Shadow wasn’t Mobian after all? Or only partially?

“One day, about five and a half years after Project Shadow began, GUN raided The ARK and attempted to seize the lifeform Robotnik created. They arrested Robotnik, but Maria tried escaping with Shadow. She grabbed him and ran for the escape pods, but she could only get Shadow out of there. The GUN soldiers-“ Rouge choked up. “They killed her, Blue. She was only twelve.”

Sonic exhaled raggedly, his eyes squeezing shut as he fought against his growing nausea. It shouldn’t have shocked him, he knew how awful GUN was, yet he still couldn’t believe that they were truly this evil.

They killed a child. An innocent human child who had nothing to do with their plans. What did they have to gain from it? What had she done to deserve such a punishment? Attempt to protect another child from a group of psychopaths?

Both of these children were innocent, and GUN didn’t care.

Sonic’s hand shook where it was clenched around his phone, and blue energy crackled over his quills. How far was GUN willing to go just to reach their goals? How many innocents would they have murdered? How many powerful, artificially-created children were they willing to torture just to possess and control these so called ‘super weapons’?

Sonic’s rage burned hot in his chest, and he wanted to use the flames to incinerate everything even slightly associated with GUN. He wanted to cleanse the world of their filth, and protect Shadow from their crumbling ashes.

“…Blue? What’s that sparking noise?”

Sonic startled, momentarily forgetting that he’d been talking to Rouge. He took a deep breath, grimacing at how audibly shaky it was, and forced himself to calm down before his energy broke something.

“S- sorry, I was just… I…” Sonic leaned against the wall and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck. I might actually kill someone, Rouge. I’m about five seconds away from being put on a watch list. Please tell me you found something that wasn’t completely shitty?”

Rouge went quiet, and Sonic realized she wasn’t going to respond.

“Incredible. Absolutely amazing. Definitely leaving GUN a good Yelp review, thanks, Rouge.”

“Believe it or not, I haven’t even told you the worst part yet.”

Sonic sputtered. “How?”

“As I’m sure you already noticed, Shadow doesn’t exactly look fifty. Wanna know why that is?”

“Rouge, I’m still recovering from learning that he’s seven.”

Rouge ignored him and continued. “Maria was able to send Shadow down to earth before those GUN soldiers killed her, but shortly after Shadow’s escape pod arrived on earth, GUN found him anyway. They took him from the pod, brought him to one of their bases, and locked him up in some sort of suspended animation for fifty years. He was just… left floating in a tube of liquid, barely alive and completely unaware of time passing around him.”

A tube of liquid. That must be why Shadow was so terrified of water. How long ago had it been since he was locked up like that? The memories must have been fresh for him-

All of the memories had to be fresh for him. He hadn’t been aware during his time in suspended animation, so in his mind, his caretaker’s death had happened less than two years ago.

Did he even know that she was dead? Did he call out to her because he didn’t realize she was gone, or did he know, and just continued to call out the name of the only person he could trust?

“…Why?” Sonic asked softly. “Why’d they even bother taking him? He was already theirs anyway, wasn’t he?”

“I wasn’t able to figure out why they raided the ARK that day, and I also wasn’t able to figure out why they let him out of the tube after so long. But I think I do know why he was abandoned.”

Sonic’s breath hitched. “Really? What happened?”

Rouge hesitated. “I found a recent report from the scientists that had been running that base, and… they’d had Shadow listed as ‘terminated’. I- I think they tried to kill him.”

Eyes widening in realization, Sonic gasped, “That’s why they shot him in the head!”

All at once, the pieces Sonic was missing all seemed to snap together. The scientists hadn’t left Shadow abandoned, they believed they were leaving behind a dead body. They shot him in the head, probably believing that destroying his brain would be enough to kill him, and inadvertently broke the microchip in his head that was blocking his energy.

But that still left one massive question: did they accidentally leave Shadow alive, and the chip’s partial destruction allowed him to heal just enough to stay alive? Or did they succeed in killing Shadow, but he just… came back?

If Sonic had to guess… it was probably the second option. This whole time, he’d wondered why Rouge had been sent to retrieve Shadow months after he’d been abandoned. If he’d been alive the whole time but they hadn’t known it, then they wouldn’t have even thought to send Rouge, as they clearly had no use with his dead body, considering that they’d left him behind to begin with.

But if Shadow had truly died, and his Chaos energy allowed him to come back from it, surely the brief surge it would’ve caused would have been enough for GUN to pick up on. And once they realized that he was still alive, that was when they decided to send Rouge.

It even explained why it had taken months for them to notice that those scientists failed to kill him, and why Shadow’s injuries still seemed so fresh, despite being months old. Corpses didn’t heal, or give off energy signatures.

With the chip still active but just broken enough for his energy to start replenishing itself, it had to have taken months for his reserves to restore itself enough to heal all the damage to his brain and actually allow him to come back. In the meantime, what little energy he had… it must have kept his body from rotting.

Distantly, Sonic realized he was trembling. He’d thought the acid was bad enough on its own, but this? This wasn’t just cruel. This went so far beyond inhumane that Sonic couldn’t even name it. If Mobians ever found out that a group of humans had treated one of their own like this, there would be riots. Whatever peace humans and Mobians had established over the years would be smashed to pieces.

“They fucking WHAT?” Rouge screeched.

Sonic winced. “I forgot to tell you about that. My bad.”

Rouge gave a baffled laugh. “You just ‘forgot’ to tell me Shadow was shot in the head? Sonic, I am going to strangle you.”

“In my defense, I only just found out a couple days ago, and you were busy.”

Sonic heard a very muffled yell on the other side of the phone.

“…Do you know why they tried to kill him?” Sonic asked. In all honesty, he really didn’t want to hear any more of this, but he knew he wouldn’t stop thinking about it until he knew the answer.

Gaia, he wished he was still asleep right now.

Rouge sighed. “It sounded like Shadow attacked one of the scientists, but I don’t know exactly what he did. If I’m being honest, that whole report was a mess. It was ridiculously unprofessional, and there were so many spelling mistakes. It seemed rushed. Maybe you’ll find something in the other files?”

“Chaos, I hate those files.“ Sonic mumbled. “Alright, I’ll-“

Just as he was about to continue, a sharp cry came from his room.

“Boo!”

Sonic quickly threw his door open, his heart racing with a jolt of adrenaline, and saw Shadow sitting up in his nest. He was shaking heavily, his chest rapidly rising and falling with his frantic breaths, and tears dripped down his muzzle onto the blankets below him.

Dark green stained Shadow’s lips, the liquid shiny and fresh. One glance at Shadow’s right arm confirmed Sonic’s suspicion.

Sonic shut his door behind him before approaching the bed. “It’s okay, Shadow, I’m here. I didn’t leave, I just needed to step out of the room for a minute.”

Shadow whimpered, his arms raising in a desperate plea to be held.

Sonic sat down on the bed before lifting Shadow into his lap, wrapping his arms around the little hedgehog as he continued to shake uncontrollably.

He lifted his phone back up. “Sorry, Rouge, I gotta go. The kiddo needs me.”

“It’s alright, I think I told you pretty much everything I found- oh, wait! I found a video. I’ll send it to you. Later, Blue.”

“Wait, what vid-“ Sonic tried to ask, but Rouge already hung up.

He sighed and set the phone on the bed before giving his full attention to Shadow.

The little hedgehog raised his arm up, but Sonic gently grabbed his hand before he could bite himself again.

“No, don’t do that.” Sonic said, struggling to keep his voice calm. “Bite your glove instead.” He guided the edge of the glove to Shadow’s mouth.

Shadow bit down on it with a distressed whine, sharp fangs tearing small holes into the fabric as his lips stained it green. He tucked his head under Sonic’s chin as he chewed on the glove. A thin trail of blood dripped from the wound on his arm, smearing over the fur on Sonic’s stomach, but he ignored it for now.

He could feel Shadow’s heart racing from where his hand rested on his back, and he wondered how Shadow had become this panicked in the short amount of time he’d left the room. He never got like this when Sonic left him with Tails.

But he hadn’t been left alone then. This was the first time he’d woken up alone since being taken out of that base.

Sonic pressed a kiss to Shadow’s forehead. “I’m so sorry, Shadow. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Shadow sobbed around the fabric between his teeth. He thought he heard the glove tear further. The kid would definitely need a new pair after this.

Sonic sighed and pressed his cheek to the top of Shadow’s head. “I’m sorry.” He whispered.

He should have known better than to leave the kid alone like that. But he didn’t, and his failure resulted in Shadow hurting himself. This could have been avoided, but Sonic screwed up.

His eyes stung. Amy was wrong, he would make a terrible father.

It took Shadow nearly twenty minutes to stop crying, the longest he’d cried since Sonic found him. At some point, his phone chimed with a text, which Sonic assumed was whatever video Rouge had found, but Sonic refused to check it until Shadow was calm.

Shadow had stopped hyperventilating, but his teeth were still buried in his glove desperately, and his muzzle was still wet with his tears.

Sonic stroked his short quills while his shivering died down. “I’ve got you, Shadow. You’ll never be alone like that again, I promise.”

Shadow whined and looked up at Sonic. He pulled the glove away from his mouth and mumbled, “Boo go?”

“No, tiny, I didn’t leave. I was on the other side of the door the whole time.”

“Oh.” He went quiet, then continued. “Boo?”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“I wuv you.”

Sonic’s breath caught in his throat. Shadow was looking at him, waiting for a response and visibly deflating more with each second Sonic said nothing.

He didn’t mean to freeze up, but he couldn’t have expected it. Shadow had only just started trusting him, but love? What had Sonic done for Shadow to love him? He was just…

…He was nice to him. Was that all it took?

Had Maria been the only other person to show this child any kindness?

“…I-I love you too, Shadow.” Sonic choked out, holding him tighter. He felt like he hadn’t truly earned this little hedgehog’s love, especially not after causing him to panic like this, but he couldn’t stop himself from selfishly accepting it. He did love this child, he loved Shadow so much more than he’d thought was possible in such a short amount of time.

He’d come to love this child only a couple weeks after finding him, so he genuinely had no fucking idea how those scientists had known him for years and still hurt him- still killed him.

Almost instantly, Shadow’s eye lit up, and Sonic felt a soft vibration building in the little hedgehog’s chest. He nuzzled into the crook of Sonic’s neck as he began to purr.

He rubbed the uninjured half of his muzzle against Sonic’s fur, and it took Sonic far too long to realize that Shadow was trying to anoint himself in Sonic’s scent. Usually, this was done by licking or biting whatever scent the hedgehog was trying to acquire, then creating a foam with their saliva to spread over their fur and quills.

But Shadow’s tongue was too short to anoint himself properly, and his eye ridges furrowed in frustration when it became apparent that his current method of self-anointing wouldn’t work.

Before Sonic even noticed what he was doing, he raised his arm up to his mouth and gave his fur a few licks, quickly creating a citrusy foam in his mouth.

He ran his tongue over the ruffled fur on top of Shadow’s head, smoothing out the fur between his eye ridges as he began spreading the foam.

Shadow stopped his movements at the first touch of Sonic’s tongue, and instantly, every muscle in his body relaxed. His eye fell shut as his purrs grew louder, soothed by the soft licks and the scent of his protector surrounding him.

In the back of his mind, there was this voice berating Sonic for his actions - this is not your child, you have no right to anoint him - but he forced it back. It didn’t have to mean anything, he was just helping Shadow with something he couldn’t currently do himself.

(Even though the act awoke something strong in Sonic, an instinct that he’d been trying his hardest to hold back. Something protective, possessive- parental. This was his son, and anyone close enough to pick up on Shadow’s scent would know that.)

He spread the foam over every part of Shadow’s fur that he could reach, avoiding his scars to keep from aggravating his injuries. He only briefly stopped when he felt Shadow push against his ribs.

He glanced down and saw the little hedgehog’s paws kneading against his fur, making soft, happy chirps and squeaks. Making biscuits, Sonic thought with a snort before continuing his current task.

He moved to Shadow’s short quills next, careful not to cut his tongue on their jagged edges. It still broke his heart to see how short they were, especially after seeing how long they should have been. They looked like they’d only just begun growing back. Sonic didn’t know if he should be relieved or horrified, now that he knew why it had taken them so long to start growing again.

Once Sonic was certain that he’d covered as much fur as he could reach, the foam drying quickly and invisibly but leaving his scent behind, he kissed the little hedgehog’s head gently.

Shadow had gone back to sleep at some point, his purrs now silent, but Sonic could still feel the gentle rumbling where Shadow was lying against him.

He frowned at the wound on Shadow’s arm. It had stopped bleeding, but there was still green blood drying into both his and Sonic’s fur, and on the corners of his mouth. He didn’t want to wake the kid, but he couldn’t leave them both like this.

Grabbing his phone, Sonic found Tails’ contact info in his messages.

Sonic: weird question but do we have baby wipes or smth

Tails: did u spill chili on urself :/

Sonic: nope its shadows blood this time

Tails: HUH

Sonic: he bit his arm then he passed out on me and i dont wanna wake him up to clean it

Tails: i dont think we have baby wipes but i can get u a soapy rag if u want

Sonic: thank u

Tails: no problem :]

A couple minutes later, Tails slowly opened Sonic’s bedroom door, minimizing the noise it made. He crossed the room and handed a damp rag to Sonic.

“Thanks.” Sonic said quietly.

“Is he alright?” Tails asked, also keeping his voice low.

Sonic started washing Shadow’s wound first, where the most blood had pooled. “Yeah, he just got a little scared earlier.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic saw Tails’ nose twitch, and his eyes narrowed.

“He smells like lemons.” Tails commented with a knowing smirk.

Sonic’s muzzle warmed up as an embarrassed blush spread over his face. He didn’t think he’d be called out for it so quickly. “Shut up.”

Tails looked like he wanted to tease Sonic further, but thankfully dropped the subject.

“I finished Shadow’s leg braces, by the way.” Tails said, namesakes swaying in satisfaction. “I’m still working on the mobility aid, but that’ll be done soon too, so he should start working on keeping his legs straight in the meantime.”

“That’s great, Tails.” Sonic said, only slightly distracted.

The blood hadn’t gotten the chance to fully dry, so it wasn’t too difficult to remove. Sonic wiped the blood off of Shadow’s mouth next, making the hoglet’s face scrunch in his sleep.

“Will the braces hurt him?” Sonic asked as he began cleaning the blood off his own fur.

Tails sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Honestly, I’d be surprised if it didn’t hurt a little. With how long his legs have been like that, they’re bound to be sore when he gets feeling in them again. The compression from the braces should help with that, but it won’t fix everything.”

Once Sonic was done with the rag, he tossed it in the direction of his hamper, biting back a groan when it hit the floor next to it. Whatever, he’d get it later.

“Ooh, so close!” Tails said sarcastically.

Sonic scoffed. “I’d like to see you do better.”

Shadow shivered lightly in Sonic’s arms, so he grabbed the closest loose blanket from the kid’s nest and covered him with it. He pointedly ignored the way Tails raised an eye ridge.

“I’m gonna keep working on the mobility aid. Let me know if you need any more help.” Tails said.

“I will. Thanks, buddy.”

Rather than heading straight to the door, he first made a detour to Sonic’s hamper, bending down to pick up the rag before tossing it in.

“That was gonna bother me for hours if I left it there.”

Sonic just rolled his eyes as Tails left the room. If he thought a rag on the floor was bad, he’d have a heart attack if he saw all the fast food bags shoved haphazardly under Sonic’s bed.

Moving slowly to keep from waking the kid, Sonic lay back on the bed. Shadow continued to sleep on him, his head resting on Sonic’s chest.

Sonic couldn’t get back to sleep, even though it was still earlier than he usually woke up. The adrenaline from hearing Shadow’s terrified scream had only just faded, but there was still this ball of anxiety sitting in his chest. The weight of his- the kid- his kid lying on him only helped to ease it a little.

He reached for his phone, figuring he should finally check out that video Rouge sent him.

Opening his messages, he saw that Rouge had actually sent him a video and a photo, with a short message underneath.

Rouge: DO NOT WATCH THE VIDEO WITH SHADOW IN THE ROOM

Sonic blinked. What the hell, Rouge?

He glanced down at the sleeping hoglet. Shadow wouldn’t see whatever it was Rouge had sent him, so he assumed he was safe to check.

He tapped on the picture first, and realized that he recognized it.

It was the same as the first picture he’d found in Shadow’s files. A black and white photo of Shadow in the arms of a human who Sonic now knew to be Maria, only in this photo, Maria’s face hadn’t been cropped out.

In this picture, Sonic could clearly see that Shadow and Maria had been looking at each other, their smiles matching. The picture must have been taken suddenly, neither of them even noticing the camera.

It was obvious that Maria had loved Shadow just as much as he loved her, which only made it that much more painful to know what GUN did to her. She’d sacrificed her life for this child, and if she hadn’t, Sonic might not have ever found him.

Gaia, she’d been so young.

He almost didn’t want to watch the video. He’d been avoiding all of the videos in Shadow’s files, dreading what he’d find, but Rouge must have thought it was important if she’d sent it to him.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Sonic tapped on the video.

Just like with the picture, the video was in black and white, and had no audio. It was of a room that was mostly empty, holding only a few glass tubes and what looked like a control panel off to the side. Even without color, Sonic could see that there were lights flashing.

Suddenly, a young girl holding an even younger hedgehog entered the frame. She made a beeline to the tubes and placed the little hedgehog inside. With one glance back at the control panel behind her, she decided to close the tube, leaving only the hedgehog inside.

Shadow’s paws hit the glass, trying to catch Maria’s attention, but she’d already gone to the control panels. She turned back to the little hedgehog briefly, and in the fuzzy footage, Sonic could just barely see Maria’s mouth moving, though he didn’t know what she was saying.

The camera was turned away from the door, but Sonic could tell the exact moment Maria had been caught, as she’d flinched harshly and looked toward the door, her hand hovering over a button on the controls.

Another human entered the frame, a GUN soldier, judging by the logo on his armor. He was pointing a gun at the girl, speaking to her, probably trying to convince her not to help the hedgehog escape.

Maria turned back to Shadow one last time, then lunged for the button.

Sonic had to stop himself from flinching as the soldier fired his gun. He hadn’t been fast enough, and Maria managed to press the button before she hit the ground. For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then the tube holding Shadow was gone, sent down to earth in an instant.

Sonic let out a slow, shuddering exhale as he dropped his phone back on the bed.

Shadow watched Maria die. That GUN soldier killed her right in front of him, yet he’d still cried out for her when he was afraid. Was that what his nightmare had been about, that first time he’d startled awake?

Sonic draped his arms around the little hedgehog’s back, staring up at the ceiling. He didn’t know whether to feel grateful to the human girl who may have saved Shadow with her sacrifice, or revolted that she’d even had to make that choice to begin with.

For the next couple of hours, Sonic allowed the little hedgehog to nap undisturbed until it was time to feed him again. The whole time, he struggled not to cry, thinking about the pain that his child had endured, and the little girl that nobody had saved.