Fatigue [Sonadow]

Travelling (P6)

Present timeline. G.U.N. Headquarters.

"I've got the scepter."

Tails turned around and saw Shadow popped up at his lab door with the scepter on his hand.

"Great! Finally, I can work on it!" Tails' face brightened up, he held out his hand to reach for the scepter but Shadow backed up.

"Where's the sphere?"

Tails frowned his brow on one side, "It's right here," he pointed to working table, where the sphere was being held inside a transparent glass equipment.

Shadow set his eyes on it. A purple glow flashes upon his pupil.

He walked towards the equipment and stood there watching it in silence for a few seconds before he opened his mouth again, "open it."

Tails starting to feel uneasy, he already alerted the base when Shadow was busy staring at the sphere, now he needed to buy some time for reinforcement.

"Um Shadow, opening the glass door needs approval from the top, I guess I can send a request now for you, but you have to wait for-"

"We don't have time to wait around, and you know that Tails." Sonic suddenly appeared, just right beside Tails.

"GAH! Sonic? When did you come in?" Tails jumped, but relieved that his concern of Shadow being an imposter created by Mephiles was just simply a thought.

Sonic's here, guess I'm thinking too much.

He called off the alert by pressing a few buttons on his gadget. The action was quickly caught in the eye by Shadow, he said nothing but only smiled.

"Tails, open it would ya? We're tired and we're seriously need some entertainment right now." Sonic put his hand at Tails' shoulder, pushing him a little to the control board.

Tails shoved his hand away and sat on his chair starting to key in some codes, "Okay okay, let me just, push a few buttons."

After a few clicking sounds, the glass door opened.

Immediately, a purple spear was pulled out within thin air and thrown across the room, destroying each surveillance camera.

At the same time, Shadow's figure turned into pitch black and dissolves to the floor, it grows and crawled towards Tails. Before Tails could react, his neck was already being clutched.

"Sonic!" He yelled in pain, but instead of a rescue, Sonic's was lying on the floor, unconscious.

'Shadow' on the other hand, had the sphere on his palm, and the scepter on the another. As they were being closer, a glow flashed, creating an energy wave. 

All the electricity were shut down by the impact, this then triggered the alarms that flashes red and wailing emergency siren, one after another. 

The silhouette in the dark, Tails couldn't see clearly who it was at first. But after another red light flashed upon the room, he finally saw. It was Mephiles.

The grasp on his neck gotten tighter, "You...no... So...nic..." Tails began to struggle for breath, as his conscious slowly fades away, he still has his gaze locked on Sonic.

Sonic still didn't budge.

Until Mephiles called out on Sonic, "Impressive, this year's acting award goes to Sonic The Hedgehog."

Sonic gave him a side-eye after getting up from the floor, "if you're done, then get the fuck out of here."

When another red light flashed across the room, Mephiles were gone with his laugh echoed with the siren.

"Motherf- Could you not do that every time you poofed off?" Sonic roared while massaging his head.

That creep's giving me headache.

Sonic pulled out another spear and walked towards the unconscious fox.

Until he was stopped by a few daggers thrusted from afar, he hopped a few steps back.

To no surprise, Shadow landed in front of Tails, armed with daggers in both of his hands.

"Ugh, you again?" Sonic greeted him with a frown, "I wasn't gonna kill him dumbass."

"Do you seriously expect me to believe you after you," Shadow stopped for a while.

Sonic grinned with one hand on his hips, while another waved around the spear, eventually pointing the sharp end near his neck, "Stabbed myself to death?"

Shadow did not response. He could not response. He did not know how to response. The only thing he did is to stare at the blue hedgehog like an idiot.

Why would you do this?

The thought has been hanging around his mind for some time, but for some reason, he could not bring himself to ask properly.

Frozen still with cold sweat and shaking hands. Just like last time.

Funny thing is, he never got the chance to ask the same question, for last time.

'No' and 'Don't do this' hangs around too, but the feel of helpless kept messing with his head, it made him felt like whatever he wanted to say is wrong that he just feel like,

I wanted to run away.  

Sonic laughed all of a sudden and make his first move on Shadow. He pinned the spaced-out hedgehog to the ground in just an instant, the daggers were disarmed when Shadow's wrists were gotten hit.

"Thinking of your trauma?" Sonic has held down Shadow's both hands, facing Shadow eye-to-eye, "Isn't it painful, to be awake and realize it did happen every time you open your eyes?"

"Don't you just wish that you could be unconscious all the time?" Sonic's voice so deep, it sounded like he was almost just whispering, "I know you do, I can feel it from your pulse."

Even though Shadow's ears were ringing, he could hear him bullshitting very clear.

"Don't you just wish, your heart could stop feeling things, your mind could stop talking and talking and talking to you and reminding you all the damn time?"

"Don't you feel like you're suffocating from every single," Sonic paused for a moment, he couldn't find the word for it. He backed up a little and saw the supposing unconscious fox getting up, he then spoke like a breath, "label?"

What? Label?

Shadow found the statement confusing. He also found an opening.

He gave a knee kick on Sonic, and another direct hit with his feet right on Sonic's stomach just as he stood up.

Sonic was sent backwards flying. When he gotten himself up on one knee, he's retching.

"Trauma is with me all the time you're damn right," Shadow said, "live with it you motherfucker."

Sonic looked up at him and smiled, "So easy for you to say smarty pants, but seems like you aren't smart enough."

Too late for realization, Shadow turned around and met with the angered fox.

"Tails! Now!" Sonic shouted at the fox, which Tails tased Shadow from afar.

When Shadow fell down lying on the ground, Tails ran towards Sonic and gave him a hug.

"Sonic! I saw Mephiles! Why did Shadow attack you? Did Shadow... join forces with...?" Tails wanted to break out from the hug, but Sonic pressed his head close to his chest.

All of this time, Sonic never shifted his gaze away from Shadow.

"Yeah, he and Mephiles, collaborated." 

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Happy new year guys, I know I'm late, sorry for that haha. Covid happened and it disrupted my plans. Anyway, hope you like the new chapter! Cheers.