Forgotten Soul: Espio the Chameleon

Part 7:Gone

"Ok, so let me get this straight, I left for two weeks and everything was fine, I went to take care of another friend, then I come back and one of my other friends gets kidnapped, and the other two almost died! So, the moral of the story is that I can't leave my friends unattended for more than a few days before everything goes to crap?!" Sonic yelled.

Shadow growled.

"This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gotten distracted by what Eclipse said!" Shadow snapped as he punched the wall of the room.

"Shadow..." Rouge said as she set a hand on his shoulder, Shadow fell to his knees as he fought the tears in his eyes.

"It'll be ok..." she said, Sonic frowned as he turned his attention to Silver, the ivory hedgehog was silent, and looked lifeless, his eyes full of terror and still. Sonic walked up to him and sat beside him.

"Silver?" he called, Silver's head snapped as he stared at the blue blurr and tears began to stream down his face and he began to shake.

"I watched him, I watched him leave with him, he hurt him..." Silver whispered, "He did something to him, he wasn't himself, he was so tense and distant because of him, he used him..."

Sonic stared into Silver's eyes, they were full of fear and anguish.

"Silver..." Sonic whispered, Silver felt his powers grow out of control as his emotions took a hold of him and put him out of focus.

"I will end him..." Silver whispered.

Shadow slowly walked up to the hedgehog.

"No, you need to stay here and heal... he could've killed you..." Shadow said, Sonic looked at the two figuring that they needed a moment, giving Rouge a look, and the two left.

"N-No! I need to go with you! Eclipse will hurt him!" Silver cried as he shook.

"Silver, I'm not arguing with you, you're staying here, I can't lose you too!" Shadow snapped, and Silver shoved him back with his power.

"Espio didn't betray us, and we won't lose him!" Silver snapped straight back, and Shadow got right back onto his feet and walked up to him, grabbing his wrist.

"Espio didn't tell us about Eclipse, Silver, he's a traitor!" Shadow tried to reasoned.

"No! He didn't! You're seriously one to talk, Shadow!" Silver cried, ripping his wrist away, and Shadow snapped.

"SILVER, YOU DIDN'T SEE HIM, ESPIO WASN'T ACTING LIKE HIMSELF, HE WASN'T LIKE HE SHOULD BE! HE WAS FOLLOWING ECLIPSE AND HE WAS DOING IT ALMOST WITHOUT HESITATION!" Shadow yelled, Silver took a step back, he broke down into tears as he fell to the ground.

"You don't know that! He was trying to protect us! That thing was going to kill us, kill you!" Silver cried.

Shadow kneeled down beside him and hugged him as his heart softened.

"I'm sorry, I'm worried about him too..." Shadow whispered as he rubbed the whimpering hedgehog's shoulder and kissed his head.

"He's hurting... and I'm not there to help him..." Silver whispered.

"I know... I'm sorry..."

Silver looked up at him and Shadow wiped away his tears.

Silver looked down again, "We have to get answers, get Espio back."

Shadow looked away, lost in thought, before turning back to the younger.

"I'm sorry... but I can't lose you too" Shadow whispered before he restrained Silver forcefully, the ivory hedgehog yelped and struggled.

"What are you doing! Shadow!?" Silver cried as Shadow pulled out his chaos emerald.

"No! Let me go! Shadow! Please!" Silver screamed as he pulled against his grip, he tried to use his powers but couldn't get the ebony hedgehog away from him.

Shadow let tears slip down as he put the emerald to the hedgehog's head.

"SHADOW! Please! Just... let... me... go..." Silver whispered as he fell asleep in Shadow's arms.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered as he kissed the sleeping Silver lightly.

Shadow then set the hedgehog in the bed, tucking him in, replacing his bandage, since the wound acted up when he struggled and bled through the old bandage.

Shadow then chaos controlled away to an unknown location.

-

"This is all my fault... if I hadn't allowed you to take care of me and stay on the island, Shadow, Silver, and Espio wouldn't be in this predicament..." Knuckles said.

Sonic grabbed his arm.

"No, this is not your fault, and I'm not letting you do this to yourself again," Sonic said as he pulled on the echidna.

Knuckles frowned at him.

"Guys! Shadow's gone!" Vector yelled, running into the room. Charmy flew in after him.

"And Silver's unconscious!" he said.

Amy came running in with the ivory hedgehog in his arms.

"His pulse is normal, Shadow probably put him to sleep with the chaos emerald," Amy explained, and Sonic caressed the Silver's cheek.

"We can't go after him..."

-

Espio was shoved into the wall, with Eclipse's arm in his neck and his hand pinned against the side of his head.

"I'm the only one who will ever care about you! They'll never understand you like I do, they'll never understand or care about you," Eclipse hissed as he kneed the chameleon in the gut.

"You're just... trying to break me so you... can hurt Shadow... admit it," Espio snapped right back, before coughing harshly.

"You'll see soon, chameleon, the sooner you understand, the sooner I'll stop hurting you," Eclipse said, and Espio then growled, he put his feet into the wall and pushed against him, nailing him in his eye with his horn.

Eclipse screamed in agony, letting the ninja go.

Espio then punched him in the gut and kicked his legs out, the chameleon panted in pain as he strained his bruised and scarred body, the ninja then fell to the ground unconscious.

-

Shadow searched for Eclipse's dark presence and shivered when he felt a chill of energy course through him.

Eclipse was around here somewhere.

He followed the trail of energy and he soon felt Espio's aura.

Who even was this guy, the question that hadn't been answered, how does he have the ability to drain Shadow's power, how long had he been a threat, how did Espio get tangled up with him?

Why now?

-

Eclipse got to his feet grasping his eye as he looked down at the passed out chameleon.

"You have spark, just like him, I'll break you, Espio, I will break you," Eclipse hissed as he tried to heal the cut under his eye.

He slung the chameleon over his shoulder and vanished as he felt the presence of Shadow nearby.

-

Shadow suddenly felt another chill, he ran faster and ran into a cave just barely before he saw Eclipse with a badly injured chameleon on his grasp, he yelled when he began seeing the demon disappear with his friend.

"NO!!!" Shadow cried as Eclipse left with a smirk.

Shadow fell to his knees and began weeping, he yelled at Silver, lost his friend to a demon that he should've killed the second he saw Espio in his clutches, and he was alone.

Silver dreamt of Eclipse and Espio, what that demon would do to his friend, what Shadow would do if he ever got his hands on Espio, after all he believed he was a traitor.