A Promise Is A Promise (Completed)

Becoming Metal

Shadow POV

I stared at what was supposed to be Sonic. I wasn't sure about this anymore, as much as I wanted him around... He was suffering. The fox boy had tried to keep so much of him the same but... Nothing about this new appearance looked natural.

I don't know how we're supposed to explain all these new metal pieces. Sonic had no knowledge of his mechanical parts. He was blissfully unaware before.

Tails had explained one of the motors inside got waterlogged and short circuited. He replaced it, but said if he didn't find the problem as to why this happened, it could be fatal the next time it happens. Meaning Sonic was a ticking time bomb until Tails could figure out what went wrong. Tails had gone through all the research he had received from that base. He admitted the real reason we had gone to that abandoned base was to collect research in order to get Sonic at full functional capacity. Robotnik had much more experience in robotisizing living organisms. Tails wanted to use the research to help keep Sonic alive.

Sonic was starting to stir, he saw both Tails and I at his bedside. He seemed confused as he slowly sat up. He took in his surroundings before he spoke.

"How'd we get back here?" He noticed his metal hand and froze. He started investigating the rest of his metal arm and touched the metal on his face. He looked utterly terrified but he didn't say anything. Instead he looked to Tails, hoping to get answers.

"I needed to update a few things, things should be running smoothly now." The fox boy tried to reassure Sonic but Sonic still looked so confused. Tails shifted uncomfortably and tried to get a response from Sonic but he stayed silent. Tails left soon after with guilt dripping from his face. I decided to push my feelings on the matter aside to comfort Sonic. I went to sit by him and watched him as he looked over at me with slight fear. Carefully, I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder and traced his fingers on his robotic hand. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to comfort him, but he seemed to like physical contact. I hoped this would bring him some sort of comfort.

Soon after he seemed to relax and rested his head against mine and pulled me closer.

"Am I... Not the real Sonic?" He finally spoke. I held his hand in mine and spoke.

"Of course you are."

"You're just saying that." Sonic recoiled away from me and looked away in shame. I let out a sigh and pulled him back into an embrace, I rested my chin on his head and just began to concentrate on my chaos energy. Soon after he relaxed into it.

"You are the real Sonic. You still process chaos energy." I said as I began to stop using mine, he nuzzled his face into my chest fur but didn't respond, so I continued.

"And even if one day you lost that... Those memories, are what make you real." I said as I pulled back to look at his face. I put my fingers under his chin to guide his gaze to my face.

"The first thing you said to me to convince me you were real was ironically when you called me a bad boyfriend." I said with a small smile. Sonic laughed awkwardly and looked away.

"You didn't even believe me."

"I wanted to..." I looked down, he asked for an explanation. I thought about keeping quiet but, I'm sure this would benefit him more if I told him.

"When Tails built the other Sonic androids, none of them remembered what we shared. So when you recalled. I wanted to believe it... But I didn't want to get my hopes up like the first time." I admitted. Carefully, I looked back at Sonic, with his gaze I felt guilty at the memory and looked away from him soon after. Staring at anything but Sonic.

"Shadow..." Sonic went back to nuzzling my chest fur and began to purr, now that he was at ease. Eventually I relaxed again and we sat there holding each other for a few moments before the intrusive thoughts came back as I became more and more aware of his robotic pieces.

If he breaks down again... It could be fatal... The only logical solution would be to finish the process of robotisizing him... But... Would he still remember me?

"Why don't we go for a race before Tails gives us another errand." Sonic said excitedly. I looked at him with worry.
"No." I said firmly. I wasn't about to risk his life for some stupid race.

"No? You scared of losing?" He teased. I rolled my eyes at this but didn't give in.

"Well you're no fun... Guess I gotta run by myself the-"

"No! You're not going anywhere!" I didn't mean to sound so harsh, my voice startled him. I instinctively pulled him as close to me as I could.

"Shadow?" He was confused. I didn't know if I should explain. This was already overwhelming... How would he take this information? I buried my head into the crook of his neck as I contemplated what to say. I opened my mouth several times to try to explain but nothing would come out.

I felt his one of his hands rubbing small circles on my lower back.

"I'm not supposed to run... Am I?" He concluded. I simply nodded in response, I wasn't sure if he'd actually listen, he was always so reckless. I didn't answer, Sonic relaxed into my held and held me tight.

I wasn't sure how long we stayed like this, but we were interrupted by Rouge.

"Hey Sunshine." Rouge greeted. I pulled away from Sonic as I glanced at her. She seemed uneasy, she must have been unnerved by Sonic's appearance. She pulled her focus to me and explained the next phase.

"Tails needs some research from another inactive base. Something about finding some... Spare parts for..." She trailer off as she looked at Sonic before focusing on me again.

"Tails also suggested that you take this with you." Rouge reluctantly handed me a chaos emerald, but when I tried to take it she refused to let go. As I looked up at her with annoyance she spoke in a low tone so only I could hear before she left. I was confused, should I really be concerned of this?

I looked over at Sonic with a smile,

"I know it seems like he's back but... There's a lot you don't know. You need to be careful." Rouge then let go of the emerald and tried to give her usual flirtatious smiles but something about it just seemed... Off. Perhaps I was simply paranoid.

I looked back at Sonic, who held a smile as he anticipation this would be his way out of boredom. With Rouge's concerns added to my thoughts, I was confused again. It seemed all that was certain was that Sonic would die without the needed upgrades.

I should talk to that fox boy. I need more information on this...

A/N:
I finally updated! So I'm trying to condense the next few chapters so they make more sense without a bunch of unnecessary writing in the way x.x but this story is fast approaching and end and, I finally got this chapter done so all that foreshadowing in the previous chapters are finally catching up. Hopefully once I finish condensing the next few chapters I can go back to posting an update everyday but I'm getting irritated rereading the same chapters to edit them. It's gonna be such a relief when it's all done lol I even went as far as to make a chapter cover for this. If you follow my ig you probably got the vague spoilers on there haha but I made sure not to give too much away, just hints on what direction this story is going