*Sonic's POV *
"I know you are." I gasped and tensed up, then quickly stood up when I heard a very familiar voice. "I knew you would be okay."
"Shadow...?" I looked around then spotted him sitting beside a tree, holding his bleeding side.
My heart skipped a beat and I dashed to him, immediately cupping his face and touching his shoulders. Shadow leaned at my touch and held my hand that was on his muzzle as he gave me a weak smile.
"You really thought I died, Hedgehog? Did everyone forget I'm immortal?" He chuckled softly as if nothing had happened, as if it hadn't been 12 years since I last saw him.
I couldn't stop crying, I immediately hugged him tightly, completely forgetting he had a wound. There was a loud explosion deep in the forest and I gasped then turned to look in that direction.
"It's been 12 years!" I growled and sobbed. "Where were you? What happened?" I couldn't stop myself from crying, Shadow had his ears dropped and pulled me closer then hugged me again.
"12 years...?" He said in shock as he kept me in his arms and rubbed ny back to help me calm down but I couldn't. How could I?
I was mad, hurt, I was happy, relieved, I was stressed, tired. I couldn't find what emotion to feel, it was all hitting me so hard.
"What happened to you?" I asked again.
"I went back to Eggman that day. He was never going to leave you alone so my plan was to end him once I had the chance but he took me by surprise and managed to knock me out... He was testing on me, trying to use me for his experiments, G.U.N. found out and killed him off. I was weak and couldn't fight." He confessed, his voice sounding hurt and in pain. I kept my ears pinned down at this. "They caught me while I was weak and kept me in suspended animation again." He stopped. "I don't know what happened or who woke me up but I attacked them as soon as I was able to."
Suddenly, the explosion made sense, it had come from G.U.N.s headquarters. I couldn't believe what was happening. I had Shadow back.
"I was going to go look for you but I was afraid the kids would see me like this." He confessed. "I don't want to scare them." I nuzzled his muzzle then looked down at his wound. "I got stabbed by one of the doctors at G.U.N. I think it may have been Rouge who got me out but I couldn't find her."
"If it was her, she'll probably be going on her way to my house. Are you able to stand up?" I asked and he nodded then stood up with me. "The kids are at school so you don't have to worry about them seeing you like this. Will it heal by the time they get out of school?" I asked and hissed lightly at seeing how deep it was. I knew his wound would heal but I knew it still hurt him.
"It will." He kissed my forehead. For him it had only been days since he last saw me, but it had been almost 12 years for me. I didn't know how to feel.
I cleaned my eyes and nodded then took off the jacket I had on since it was cold outside and put it on Shadow and put the hood on him. He didn't question it, I'm sure he knew that he needed to hide. The entire world thought he was dead afterall.
We got to my house after a while and I could hear people talking inside. "Tails, Manic and Scourge are still here." I told Shadow and he nodded. He had an arm wrapped around me so he could walk but he was limping.
I opened the door and helped Shadow in. "So-" Rouge said then froze when she saw us. Tears were now streaming down her muzzle as she immediately launched at her best friend and hugged him, making me let go of him.
"Rouge... it was you, wasn't it? You were the one that found Shadow?" I asked as she pulled away. The other 3 were looking at us in shock.
"Yes." She cleaned her tears. "I found out about you because my new partner started working on a secret project so I took a look and saw the folder at his desk. I couldn't believe it was you until I saw you with my own eyes. I couldn't stay so all I did was wake you up before I got caught." She confessed.
"Thank you." Shadow said, he was starting to look very exhausted so I helped him to the couch and made him lay down.
"The first thing G.U.N is going to do is come look for him here." Scourge pointed out. "Remember? They almost took Shade from you."
"They can't do anything to him." Tails started but I nodded when Manic was about to say something.
"They can. I need to get the kids from school and go into hiding with Shadow until we fix this." I could see Shadow's wound was already closing.
"Sonic. No." Shadow said as he sat up again, Rouge gave him a rag to clean the wound and I went to get the first aid kit to get the alcohol. I sat beside him and cleaned his wound for him. "You can't get the kids involved," he was going to say something else but stopped when he saw the ring, making his ears lower. "You're wearing it." He smiled.
"We are a family, aren't we?" I asked Shadow. "We need to stay together. I know where to go." I stood up when I finished cleaning his wound. "Can you all keep an eye on Shadow while I go get them?"
"Sonic, what about Shade?" Manic asked making me drop my ears.
"Who?" Shadow asked.
"Shade is your son, Shadz." I pecked his lips, a few tears still running down my muzzle. "But he is very mad at you, he thinks what you did was stupid." I explained and he slowly nodded.
"That's okay. I understand why he feels that way." He said but it clearly bothered him.
"It's been 12 years, what were you expecting, you idiot." Scourge said, he was mad for some reason. "We told you not to do it!" He snapped at Shadow. "We said we would help you! And you leave! Look at what's happening now." He growled but Shadow didnt react.
"I am sorry for putting the pressure on you and Mephiles." He said calmly. "But thank you for taking care of my family."
Manic held Scourges hand and squeezed it. He then looked at me. "Go get the kids." I nodded and dashed off, ny eyes still red from all the crying.
