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Things had been rough for the Resistance since the beginning of the war with Infinite. Knuckles and Amy had taken the lead, keeping everything together as best they could, but it wasn’t easy. Still, they were still up and fighting back, giving just as good as they got. Eggman Had made progress, but he had yet to take over completely. They had lost a lot, and gained little, but they would keep fighting.
Vector had witnessed it all.
Some losses had hurt more than others. They had lost Sonic to Infinite, then Tails had run off who knew where and had yet to come back to them. Both heroes were missed greatly. Amy and Knuckles kept their heads high and did their best despite their friends’ absence.
Then, there was Rouge. Omega had gone missing during a mission months ago and they had no idea where he was. Shadow had been absent since before Sonic’s capture. There had been reports of him fighting the Resistance, but Rouge had been adamant it couldn’t have been him. People were skeptical, but Rouge’s friends believed her.
They managed to free Sonic, then Tails came back, with a younger version of his big brother.
And Sonic asked after Shadow.
“Huh… It’s complicated…” Answered Vector.
“Complicated? How so?”
“We don’t know of his status. There have been sighting of him all around the world, fighting on Eggman’s side.” Explained the crocodile in a gruff voice.
“What? Shadow would never…”
Sonic never finished his sentence, they were cut by an alarm. Shadow had been spotted once again.
Sonic had gone to confront the black hedgehog, but things didn’t go as planned. The Blue Blur managed to fight off his counterpart, but the other one got away.
Fast forward to three days later and the war was over. After months of fighting, they had won. Infinite was no more and Eggman had gone away to nurse his crushed pride once again. Omega was back with them. He had showed up in the middle of the fight with Infinite and his presence had been a morale booster for many.
During that last fight against the Jackal, they had realised Shadow had truly been missing. With the hundred of copies of him they had had to fight, along with copies of Metal Sonic, Zavock, and others, they had proof Rouge had been right all along.
The party had been huge, with people celebrating everywhere for days. However, some people were not quite in the mood for celebrations. Obviously, the bat was relieved to have her teammate back, but Team Dark was still missing one member…
Four months after their victory against Eggman and Infinite, the resistance was still busy. Many families had been reunited, friends had found each other again and homes were being slowly rebuilt. People were finally able to leave the shelters. Many stayed to help rebuild what was destroyed.
Some were still missing. Some others had been found lifeless, most of them taken by surprise, their life terminated in a matter of seconds. Many were not that lucky.
Shadow was amongst the missing people.
Vector was coming back from his shift in the communication room, intent on getting a warm meal before going to bed for a nap.
“Rouge, calm down”
“Don’t Rouge me Echidna! I have every fucking right to…!”
“Please, calm down.” Knuckles tried again, slowly approaching the upset bat.
“I want my brother back!” she screamed, on the verge of hysterics.
“I know. I know. We’ll find him, but you need rest, Rouge.”
“What if he’s trapped in Null Space?! Infinite is dead! We might never be able to get him out! We might never find him!”
“We don’t know if he’s trapped there.”
“Exactly!” she screamed again, throwing a lamp at his head.
“Tails is trying to figure a way to track him. And Sonic…” he answered while ducking the lamp, which shattered on the wall.
“You got both your brothers back! Why can’t I find mine?! Such a fantastic spy I am!”
Finally, she cracked and dropped to her knees, sobbing. Knuckles was by her side immediately, offering what little comfort he could. He hugged her and let her cry on his shoulder, rubbing soothing circles between her wings.
Glancing up, Knuckles noticed Vector standing in the doorway. A silent exchange occurred between the two as Knuckles hugged the hysterical bat tighter while she sobbed. They didn’t need words at that moment, their understanding was clear : they needed to up their game and find the dark hedgehog, and fast.
Vector nodded to the echidna before he silently left the room, closing the door behind him. He had a hedgehog to find.
“Damn it Shadow… Where are you?”
***LINE BREAK***
A few days later, the Resistance found a lead on an Eggman base. This one was fairly recent and they estimated it had been built just before the war. A team was sent to scout around the place, and infiltrate if they could.
They came back with a set of four shiny rings.
“Are those…?”
“Yep. Shadow’s inhibitors.” Sonic confirmed, face grim.
***LINE BREAK***
Vector was startled awake when the door to the monitoring room opened with a resounding bang and crashed into the wall. A yellow ball of fluff entered the room and almost barreled into him in his panic.
“Whoa! Tails! What’s got you into such a frenzy? Did Sonic run away again?” said the croc as he secured the fox on his feet.
“Vector! Great! I need your help. I need to check something, I might have a hunch, I think I know where he is. I should have thought of that before. Why didn’t I…”
“Whoa. Slow down a minute.” Vector said, interrupting Tails’ rambling. “Who are you talking about here?”
“Shadow! I think I might know where to find him!”
The detective was fully awake now.
“I’m listening.” he simply said, his eyes more serious than Tails had ever seen them.
“It’s something Eggman said. I should have remembered before. Shadow has been missing for months now. If my hunch is right, then…”
“Tails, get to the point.”
“Sorry! I’m wasting time with my rambling. When we destroyed the fleet and the power source for the Ruby, Eggman mentioned a second power source.”
“I’m following. What about it?”
“What if… What if that second power source… What if it was Shadow?” said the child, his wide, tired eyes looking directly into Vector’s serious ones.
“... Shit. Do you have an idea where?”
“An underground base. Metropolis. Eggman mentioned a base under Metropolis.”
“Good work kid. Let me deal with it. You go take a nap.”
“But I have to…”
“Nap. Now.” interrupted the croc, again. “You’re exhausted, Tails. You need sleep. Don’t make me call Vanilla to deal with you.”
“Okay! I’ll sleep! But…”
“But?” Repeated Vector, raising an eyeridge.
“Sonic’s gone running some errands… And Knuckles is busy helping Rouge…”
And Vector understood. The kid wanted to feel useful, he wanted to be close in case he was needed. Shaking his head, he turned back to his computer screen and told the kit to go get himself a blanket and pillow.
He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips when the kit agreed and all but zoomed out of the room at a speed that would make a certain blue hedgehog proud.
“Hang on Shadow…”
***LINE BREAK***
As a detective, Vector had seen a lot of shit in his life. There was a reason why he didn’t always bring Charmy on every investigation. Hell, he didn’t even bring Espio on every crime scene. Some were… gruesome. He had to deal with victims of violent crimes, had seen his share of gore, murder scene that looked more like… Anyway. Point is, nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared him for the sight in front of him.
The hedgehog trapped in some device on the wall was nothing like the person Vector had gotten to know in the last few years. Shadow the Hedgehog was a proud and intimidating individual, his posture screaming confidence at all times. The striped male in front of him was anything but confident and proud. His fur and quills, usually a shiny coal black with stripes of crimson red, were now dull and grey looking. The worst were the dark shadows visible under his eyes, highlighting his sunken cheeks and making him look dead. His whole body, or what he could see of it, was emaciated. Shadow looked like a dead man, someone who had been starved for months. Considering he had been missing for over eleven months, he probably had.
As he got closer, the Crocodile swore under his breath. Knuckles had been right, Shadow really looked pitiful. When he was close enough, Vector crouched so he was at eye level with the hedgehog.
“Shadow.” he called softly to get his attention. The dark male opened his bloodshot eyes slowly and Vector let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. His body may be in a bad shape, but his eyes were as sharp as ever. The ruby orbs shined in the darkened room as they met his golden ones.
“V… Vector?” asked the ebony hedgehog. Vector smiled reassuringly and nodded to Shadow.
“We’re getting you out of here. Won’t be long now.”
“T… Took… Took you long… enough.” grunted Shadow. His voice was hoarse, whether from disuse or overuse, Vector couldn’t tell. “Haven’t hallucinated you y… yet.”
Vector didn’t like the sound of that, however, the mirth in the Hedgehog’s eyes was as surprising as it was welcome. The Croc smiled sadly and turned to Knuckles, who was still guarding the entrance several meters away.
“Rouge?”
“She’s safe. Worried sick about you, but safe and otherwise fine. Omega as well.” Vector answered as did a quick check up of the weakened mobian.
“We’re getting you out of here, hang on.”
“Don’t…”
“Don’t what?”
“Can’t get out… I’ll blow. I’ll blow everything up.” Shadow said, his eyes now panicked.
“Tails is on his way with your inhibitors.” said the red furred male from his position at the entrance.
“Good…” came the relieved reply. Shadow closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall behind him.
“Hey. Stay with me Shadow.”
“M’tired…”
“I know, I know. Just a bit longer, until Tails frees you from this thing.”
When Tails arrived, almost an hour later, both Knuckles and Vector were getting antsy. Shadow had reached his limit and had not been responsive since Vector’s conversation with him. The young Fox had brought with him the set of inhibitors, a toolbox, his Miles Electronic device, and, to the men’s nod of approval, a couple blankets.
The kit set out to work immediately, analysing the huge machine keeping the Hedgehog trapped. After a while, he nodded to himself, muttering softly. His baby blue eyes turned to the two conscious adults in the room and they approached him, ready to do anything he would ask of them.
“Okay, here’s how we need to proceed. First, we need to free his legs, one at a time. There are five devices keeping him trapped. All of them seem to act as some kind of leeching device. If we deactivate all of them at the same time, we are going to blow up half the city.”
“We don’t want that.” nodded Vector, crossing his arms.
“We don’t.” said the young genius, tapping a finger on his chin. “So when I’ll deactivate each of them, Knuckles has to put Shadow’s inhibitors on his ankles and wrists. Vector, you need to keep him upright while we do so. We don’t want to injure him even more.”
“Roger that.” they agreed.
“I’ll deactivate his legs first, then the big part around his torso. I’ll do his arms last.”
Vector and Knuckles nodded their understanding and went into position. Vector tried to wake Shadow up by talking to him, but he was still unresponsive to his call. When he put his hands delicately under his armpits to keep him steady, the hybrid finally woke up and hissed in pain.
“Sorry, should I…”
“No. It’s fine.” grunted the dark male between clenched teeth. “The barest touch hurts…”.
The detective didn’t say anything else and did everything he could to stay as immobile as he could while Tailes worked. After a time, his shoulders started to cramp because of the less than ideal position he had to stand in, but he held back any complaint he might have had. His friend needed him, and sore shoulders were a small price to pay.
After what felt like hours, the last inhibitor was clicked in place and Vector was able to pick up Shadow properly in his arms. The hybrid hissed in discomfort, but didn’t react otherwise. Knuckles grabbed the duvets Tails had brought and they proceeded to wrap Shadow in them and make him as comfortable as possible. The second use for the duvets was to shield Shadow from view. They didn’t need nosy folks to stare at their friend.
The tree mobians shared a final look, before finally heading out of the nightmarish prison.
***LINE BREAK***
When they made it back to the Resistance HQ, everyone rapidly got out of their way as they went inside with urgency, faces grim, but determined. Vanilla had been warned they were on their way. She had been quickly preparing a private room where Shadow could heal and recuperate, away from prying eyes and ears.
The hedgehog had passed out again on their way out of Eggman's building. Even if they didn't like it, Vector and Knuckles knew it was probably for the best.
"I'll go get Rouge. Bring him to Vanilla."
The Detective nodded before turning right down the corridor, while the Resistance Commander went left. He knew he would find the woman in the coms room, most likely asleep in front of the monitors.
Cream was waiting for him in front of the infirmary. He went to enter, but she grabbed onto him and led him past it down the hallway. Vanilla, who had been waiting in a doorway, moved aside to let him through. He placed the hedgehog gently on the bed and got out of the older rabbit’s way. She quickly busied herself, taking his vitals.
“Cream, go get a heating blanket, his body temperature is way too low.”
“Yes mother!”
“His blood pressure is in the green, pulse is stable, if weak, breathing is shallow. I’ll need to monitor it.”
Vector nodded and went to get the necessary equipment. On his way back, he heard the distinctive clicking sound of Rouge’s heels. He stopped to let her pass when she appeared at the end of the hallway, closely followed by Knuckles. The echidna stopped beside the croc, leaving the bat to cautiously enter her teammate’s room.
The males shared a look. When they didn’t hear anything new, Vector moved forward.
They silently entered. Vanilla was still busy treating Shadow, Cream was sitting farther in the room, patiently waiting for any direction, and Rouge… Rouge was silent. She had not reached the bed yet, as if hesitating. Knuckles approached her and gently put a hand on her shoulder.
“He’s back, it’s really him.” he said to her in a low, comforting voice.
“I… I know… I…”
“Come Rouge, you won’t hurt him. He’s stable, as far as I can tell. I’ll put him on respiratory aid, mainly for comfort and to help him recover faster.” said Vanilla as she prepared a mask for the hedgehog. At the same time, Vector set up the machine beside the bed.
The bat finally approached the bed. Now closer, she was able to take in the appearance of her friend. His dull colored fur, which Vanilla had cleaned as best she could, the dark, bruise like shadows under his eyes, visible even under the dark fur, his thin, emaciated face, the way he looked more like a skeleton than a live person.
“Shadow… What did they do to you…?”
She put a hand on his, then squeezed it as gently as she could. He looked so fragile at this moment, she was afraid she might hurt him. She felt moisture on her hand, then realised she was crying. Was she crying in relief, or in anxiety? She wasn’t sure. At least he was back now. From the corner of her eyes, she saw a chair being pushed just beside the head of the bed. The warm hand on her shoulder left and she found herself alone in the room. After what felt like hours, Rouge lifted her eyes from her and Shadow’s hands and landed on his face. A breathing mask had been put over his muzzle while she was lost in her own thoughts. The medical apparel made him look even more fragile, a reminder of how weak the Ultimate Lifeform currently was. Eventually, her own exhaustion caught up with her and she fell into an uneasy sleep, sitting in the chair beside the bed.
She never let go of the hedgehog’s hand.
***LINE BREAK***
Hours later, Vector accompanied Vanilla as she went to check on her patient. They found Rouge where they had left her; asleep, sitting in the chair beside the bed. The tall rabbit checked Shadow’s vitals once again. Satisfied with her readings, she decided to wake up the bat. The groggy treasure hunter uncurled from her uncomfortable position and looked up at the older female.
Vanilla informed her of Shadow’s stable physical state, and of her intention of trying to wake him up. She wanted him to try to drink some water and some nutritious broth Cream had prepared for him.
The spy nodded, and went to move out of the chair. The taller mobian stopped her with a look.
“It might be best if you stay close. Seeing a more familiar face might be best for him when he wakes up.”
Rouge nodded and got closer to the bed, still holding the hedgehog’s hand in hers.
Vanilla went to the other side of the bed, and gently shook his shoulder. At first, he didn’t react, but the gentle murmuring of his name finally made him stir in his sleep.
Ruby eyes slowly opened, but they stayed unfocus. After a while, the weak male turned his tired gaze on his teammate.
“Hey hun.” smiled the bat.
“Hey.” grunted the hedgehog. “Where are we?” He asked groggily.
“Resistance HQ. We are all safe. Robotnik won’t be a problem for a while.” answered Vector from the doorway where he was still patiently waiting.
“I can explain everything later, hun. My priority is you.”
Rouge extended her hand and delicately cupped Shadow’s cheek, but he violently flinched away, screwing his eyes shut. The bat froze, eyes wide in surprise and hurt. Seconds passed, and the hedgehog turned toward Rouge, trying to act like it was nothing. But it was too late, all three other adults had seen it. If it had been only the flinch, they might have missed it if they had been looking elsewhere, but they couldn’t ignore the hiss that accompanied it.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to…!” he rasped, desperate.
“It’s okay, I understand.”
And she did. She knew how Shadow was. Even before all this shit show, he still had trouble with touch. He would never initiate it. It had taken her months, years, to get to the point where she could initiate casual touch without him moving out of the way on reflex. He had been so touch starved… And now, it was like her world had just shattered all over again. At least this time, he remembered her…
“Shadow. Do you think you can drink a bit of water?.” Vanilla’s soft voice broke through the tension.
Shadow averted his eyes and gave a tiny nod. As Vanilla was removing the breathing mask on the hedgehog’s muzzle, Rouge retracted her hand from his and stood up from her chair.
“Get some rest hun, I’ll see you later. I’ll go update Megs about you.”
Vector let her pass without a word, sadly noticing the tears she could no longer hold on. He searched Vanilla’s gaze, silently asking if she needed anything. Seeing her shake her head, he took one last look towards the hedgehog. His gaze was once again unfocused as he mechanically drank the spoonful of broth Vanilla was now feeding him. The detective silently left the room, silently closing the door behind him.
***LINE BREAK***
The following weeks were more of the same. Shadow was too weak to do anything else than sleep and needed to be spoon fed every few hours. Knuckles and Sonic had noticed a small increase in his chaos store, which was all the improvement they had been able to get from the dark furred hedgehog.
Physically, he was improving, albeit very slowly, and he no longer needed the breathing mask. His mental state was another matter. Since that incident when he had first woken up, Rouge had visited him regularly. They had even moved him in a bigger room with a bigger doorway to allow Omega to visit.
The members of Team Dark were so awkward with each other, it was painful to watch. Rouge visited, but she didn’t know how to interact with Shadow anymore. She wanted to act like she wasn’t hurt, but everyone saw through her, including Shadow himself.
The hedgehog was having a hard time. Now that he was more awake, he was also more aware. The proud and independent Ultimate Lifeform had now trouble sleeping if the room was too silent. He would fall asleep to background noises like Omega’s whiring or Vanilla’s gentle humming while she took care of him. If the noise stopped entirely, he would wake up in a panic, his heart monitor on his wrist going frantic. The first few panic attacks hadn’t been pretty and had left him completely drained and more exhausted.
They had decided to have someone in his room at all times. Cream had taken to doing her drawing and reading in Shadow’s room, sometimes even with Charmy, the both of them chatting quietly while the hedgehog slept. Vector himself would come over and ramble about everything happening around HQ, updates on the current reconstructions and what not. He knew he was rambling and that Shadow wasn’t listening to a tenth of what he said, but if it allowed his friend to sleep soundly, then it was worth feeling like an idiot.
With time and observation, the crocodile had come to a concerning conclusion. He was currently sitting in a closed room with Espio and Vanilla, discussing his theory.
“So what do you think?” he enquired, scratching under his chin in contemplation.
“It would make sense.” hummed the chameleon. “We know Infinite liked to play with our senses. The Phantom Ruby influenced everything sensory.”
“Yeah, anyone who fought Shadow or heard of him has to know his senses are more developed than a normal person.”
“Robotnik certainly knew this about Shadow.” added Vanilla, her eyes sharp.
“It would make sense for them to do this. Instead of overloading his senses, they decided to do the opposite.”
“Sensory deprivation…”
“You said the room he was kept in had no light at all?”
“Yes, it was completely dark, and now that I think about it, it was freakishly clean. No dust at all.”
“So no light, no food, no touch, no smell, and probably no sound from what we have observed with his sleeping troubles.” growled the rabbit, surprising both males present with her. Vector gulped audibly, before continuing.
“It’s like he has been trapped in the void for months. He already confirmed no one interacted with him from the moment he was trapped there, to the moment we found and rescued him.”
“We have our confirmation, Shadow was tortured.” stated Espio with a steely gaze.
“Now that we know what they did to him, how do we treat it?”
***LINE BREAK***
They had brainstormed for hours about it. In the end, they had come to the conclusion that they would need to wing it. Vanilla had approached Rouge and Omega to share their conclusions with both of them. Time was mostly their only option there. Hearing this, Rouge’s resolve had come back, stronger than ever.
“Megs and I managed to help him once, we can do it again.”
“AFFIRMATIVE. WE ARE A TEAM.”
“Well said Megs!”
The older woman nodded at them with a smile. Rouge and Omega shared a look, and excited the room. Vanilla could only suppose they were going to visit their teammate.
***LINE BREAK***
People were murmuring. Vector was used to gossip, his job depended a lot on it at times. However, the more he heard, the more angry he got. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he gave a filthy look at the two mobians talking shit about Shadow, not three meters away from him. They weren’t even trying to be discreet about it.
“How many times do we have to explain that the Shadow we saw during the war was one of Infinite’s illusions?!” he growled. “You heard it many times over the last week : Shadow was captured by Eggman and Infinite even before they got Sonic. Anything you saw in the last eleven months were fucking illusions.”
By the end of his rant, he was snarling. He knew everyone within the lunch room was looking at him, but at this point, he didn’t give a damn. They could think what they wanted of him, at least, if he was the gossip of the week, then they were not shit talking about Shadow.
“What’s going on here?” asked a familiar and welcome voice.
“Nothing, got everything under control,” answered the detective, turning to the Blue Blur, who had just come back from his latest assignment.
“I see…” said Sonic, sweeping the entire room with a frosty stare.
Some people looked down, ashamed of themselves while those who had been yelled at by Vector murmured apologies, looking away.
“Shadow is a hero, he helped me save the world on several occasions. He should be treated the same as me. If he doesn’t deserve your respect, then neither do I.”
With that, he motioned for Vector to follow him and turned around to get away from the stuffy atmosphere of the room. The croc nodded and followed the hero outside the building. They chatted for a while, Vector updating him on Shadow’s status and Sonic did the same regarding his team. Knuckles had just gotten back from an intelligence gathering assignment with Espio and Tails was doing all kinds of maintenance around the different buildings. They both enjoyed the cool night air in a comfortable silence, then bid the other a good night before going back inside.
***LINE BREAK***
More time passed, and eventually Shadow got strong enough to sit in bed, then a few days later, Vanilla started him on physical therapy. Now that he had been able to eat normal meals for a while, he had put on weight and was getting stronger. His chaos stores were higher and he needed less sleep.
One morning, the hybrid got out of his room with a pillow and a blanket and went to plop himself in a corner of the computer room where Rouge was on monitoring duty. Since the room was not completely dark, and also plenty or white noise, it didn’t take long for him to pass out, curled up in the large chair usually used by Vector.
Vector noticed the hedgehog would rub his eyes or temples regularly and suspected he got many headaches because of the light and sounds. When he asked Shadow about it, the hedgehog shrugged, saying he preferred the migraines to the feeling of loneliness.
“Pain is a good distraction.“
The detective frowned at this, but let it go for the moment.
“How have you been feeling lately?”
“Tired, mostly.” Answered the smaller male while he rubbed his eyes. “But… I’m better now, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Yes. I have more energy and I feel less jumpy. I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself less paranoid, ‘cause I think I’m a lost cause for that. “
“You’re never a lost cause Shadow.” rebutted the older male, and Shadow snorted.
“I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Paranoia has kept me alive so far.”
“Fair enough I guess.”
Later in the same night, Vector saw Shadow go out of his room and followed him. The hedgehog passed the computer room and went into one of the lounges reserved for high ranking people of the resistance. Rouge was there, chatting with Sonic and Knuckles while they shared a late lunch. The hybrid made a beeline for the couch she was sitting on and curled up beside her, not even acknowledging anyone else’s presence in the room. The woman held her breath, not believing her eyes. She threw a look to Vector who shrugged both shoulders and shook his head.
“Shadow?”
“M’Tired… Can’t sleep.” mumbled the ebony hedgehog.
“Oh. Do you want me to…”
“I’m good here.” he yawned, curling up further into her side.
“Are you alright?”
“My blankets were cleaned today.” He said.
“Your blankets are clean? What do you mean?”
“I don’t like the smell of them.”
“You don’t like…? Ho.” she said, as realisation hit her.
Before Rouge could say anything more, she felt a breeze and looked up. Not a moment later, Sonic was back, holding a comforter Rouge immediately recognised, her comforter. The blue hedgehog draped it over his rival and went back to his lunch like nothing even happened.
“So he does know how to be discreet.” quietly laughed Vector, still standing in the doorway.
Minutes later, Shadow was fast asleep, curled up against Rouge. She couldn’t help herself and started to comb his quills with her hand, like she used to do before the war. The last months had been hard. On herself, on Shadow, on everyone concerned with his recovery.
Their patience was finally rewarded. The boys kept talking about their day and ignored the two mobians on the couch. One was silently crying in relief while the other was purring softly beside her. Their friend still had a long way to go before he was completely recovered from his long isolation, but seeing him initiate physical contact on his own was a well received surprise.
“There we go. Took long enough.” thought the detective fondly before leaving.
END