Alter Egos

Chapter 17

When Sonic first opened his eyes, he became aware of three things.
One, he was back home in his room and in bed.
Two, his torso was covered in bandages.
Three, Shadow was sitting on the other end of the bed, staring at his hands.
After a few moments of thought, he decided to sit up slowly, but apparently forgot about the giant gash in his chest. He let out a groan and Shadow immediately whipped around in surprise, but when he saw Sonic, without a word, he lunged forward, careful not to crash into him. Sonic flinched back instinctively, but Shadow caught him and hugged him tightly, just like he did back at the lab, muttering softly under his breath.

Unsure but wanting to comfort him, Sonic also embraced him, gently rubbing small circles on his back and allowing himself to lean into Shadow's shoulder, sighing softly.
Shadow spoke, almost whispering, into Sonic's ears, still gripping on tightly.

"I... after you got injured... you looked just like..."

"Her."

Sonic almost did a double take. Shadow almost never talked about Maria and especially hated talking about what the ARK. He wasn't really sure how to react to this, but he decided to go with it, continuing to comfort him.
"It's ok now Shadow, it's over. We're back home." Shadow let out a soft sigh, gently letting his hands wrap around the other carefully.

They stayed like that for awhile until they heard loud footsteps and voices outside the door, and Shadow practically launched himself to the other end of the room as the door burst open so fast Sonic half expected it to fly off its hinges.
Tails, Amy, Blaze, and Silver all came rushing into the room, talking very loudly and worriedly checking to see if he was ok. Shadow stepped in front of them to calm them down and after a few moments, they finally relaxed. Tails and Silver leaned forward and carefully gave him a hug, which Sonic returned. Poor guys were almost in tears, both of them must have been so terrified, Sonic thought as he felt a pang of guilt.

Amy fussed over his wound while Tails and Blaze interrogated him. Sonic was pretty nonchalant until Tails offhandedly mentioned the USB and would have almost shot up directly in bed if Shadow didn't grab his forehead and push him back onto the pillows. "The USB! Ah geez I almost forgot about that!" Silver had to come over and use his telekinesis to lock him down, saying in a panic, "Wait, wait, wait, I have it, I have it. I picked it up while we were escaping."

"Then where is it-"

Silver simply reached up and stuck his hand in his quills, pulling out the small device in his hand a few seconds later. There was a moment of silence, then Sonic burst into laughter, making everyone in the room flinch in surprise. He himself had done the same the once before, but-
"It's a lot easier to hide this thing in your quills than a chaos emerald." Silver had remembered? That made Sonic laugh harder, and with a grin on both their faces, Silver handed it over to Tails.

"Great job! Now we can find out more about this guy and how to fight him!" Everyone else muttered in excitement as Sonic nervously chuckled, knowing that he was a bit more knowledgeable about Achlys than he was letting on. Nevertheless, he watched Tails wave goodbye, probably leaving to process the USB in his lab. Silver and Blaze left with Amy and the only person left now was Shadow. He slowly walked towards the door, but hesitated, his hand gripping the doorway tightly.

"I'm... glad you're okay."

Then he left.
Sonic sighed, letting his head sink into the pillows. Shadow could be so confusing sometimes, but he means well and that's something that counts, right?

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I'm getting more busy lately, so I'm going to try releasing chapters in smaller chunks. School is getting more hectic and I'll try my best to keep up, but hope you guys understand.

Happy reading!