Aftermath..

•7•

For Shadow, it was a surprise for him, seeing Sonic cry like that. Sonic isn't the type of guy to cry, he was always so cocky and confident. He now wondered, how long has he been keeping that? How long would he keep destroying himself, and when would he finally acknowledge this? Or did he already acknowledge it?

He felt some sudden extra weight over his shoulder, and next thing he knee, Sonic had fallen asleep. Was it something weird? Was he actually tired from not sleeping in so long? Was it because he cried? No matter, He picked him up and speeded away, over to Sonic's shack. Surely Tails would be there to take care of him.

He arrived over to the shack and knocked on the door, and just stood there, carrying Sonic, bridal style. Tails soon answered the door, and looked at the two, quite surprised. "Shadow?! What did you do to Sonic?!" He thought Shadow went too hard on Sonic and accidentally knocked him out or something, and got super worried. "Don't worry, we were just talking and he fell asleep on me. I came to give him back under your supervision." He explain. "Ah, well, could you help me bring him to bed?"

Shadow nodded and Tails opened the door wide, letting him inside. Tails lead him towards Sonic's room, and Shadow placed him down on his bed. He was about to leave, and Tails put a blanket om Sonic. Shadow turned around to see the two, and the next thing that happened was unexpected. "Maybe I could stay and help."

Both himself and Tails were surprised by his own words. Why would he offer himself to take care of Sonic? What was happening to him? Although he was confused by himself, he snapped out of his thoughts as he heard small mumbles. Both him and Tails looked over to sonic, who was mumbling in his sleep. It wasn't clear what he was mumbling, but Shadow did recognize one of the names he mumbled. "Thorn?.." Thorn Rose. Why was he dreaming about her?

Shadow's ears lowered a bit. He didn't know why, but he was upset. Maybe it was because he was dreaming about the shatterverse. It didn't make sense, but he let that go. He now watched Tails shaking Sonic awake. Sonic was sweating, still muttering, and that worried Tails. Eventually, he screamed his name over and over.

"SONIC!!"

The blue hedgehog finally woke up, quickly sitting up. He looked around and saw he was in his shack, alongside with Tails and Shadow. He felt his face, as if he was making sure he was real. "Are you okay?" Asked the fox. Sonic grinned and gave him a thumbs up, which was enough to calm Tails. "Well, I'm going to go finish up cleaning! You rest a bit." Tails said, as he left the room, leaving Shadow and Sonic in it. Shadow was about to leave the room, and the shack itself, since he had no business to stay. "Shadow?" Shadow turned around quite annoyed by him. He wanted to leave. He was thinking it wasn't something serious, but it was, at least, that was what Sonic's face showed. "Show me the prism." Sonic said. He saw Shadow just glaring, or maybe is was his neutral face. "No." H e finally answered.

Sonic was taken back by the response, and was curious, why no. "Why not?" He asked, and Shadow looked at him like if Sonic thought he was dumb. "I can give you three perfectly explainable reasons. One, you were the reason the prism shattered in the first place. Two, you wont tell me where the tech is. Three, you have been dreamer of the Shatterverse, haven't you?" Sonic's eyes widened hearing that last part. He had only had 2 or 3 dreams, and Shadow already knew? "You were mumbling their names in your sleep." Shadow explain, bringing in sense in the topic.

"Ohhh, well, that explains!!" Sonic said as he laid back on the bed. "Come on Shads, this is really important!!" Sonic begged the ultimate life form [edgelord]. Shadow was having his doubts. He didn't want Sonic near the prism at all, and it wasn't him being selfish, it was him being cautious. Then again, if it's important.. He didn't want to make chance of getting any important details slip out of his grip.

"I guess.. It's okay, only if I get to accompany you though. I don't want anything bad happening again." Shadow finally agreed to let Sonic visit the prism Sonic was overjoyed, although he was also annoyed Shadow didn't trust him enough to let him visit the prism alone, but right now, its not like he cared.  "Alright then, lead he way!"

Tails was in the kitchen, eating bread, and he was thinking of maybe preparing some chili dogs, but soon the two hedgehogs ran past Tails, over outside of the shack, and he just leaned on the counter, forgetting about the chilidogs. "Wonder what those two are up two.." He mumbles to himself as he took the tech out of his pocket and decided to put it back in Sonic's room.

Shadow and Sonic arrived to the other side of the island. This was basically a dark forest that pretty much no mobian dared to enter. Of course, it made sense to Sonic that Shadow would hide the prism in there. Shadow entered the forest with no hesitation, but Sonic stayed back, thinking maybe it wasn't worth it. He wasn't scared of the forest, but of the many body of waters that was said to rest in this forest.

He took a breather and went in. He was lost, since Shadow went in earlier, so now he had no guide. He was about to give u and head out to wait for Shadow to go back out and get him, but he noticed some of his quills glowing a bright cyan, and it would get stronger every time he heading deeper into the forest. He immediately knew that this had to do with the prism, so he followed his gut and the glow.

Eventually, he found both Shadow and the prism. When Shadow saw that a few of his quills were glowing, and it'd get brighter once close to the prism, he knew his theory was confirmed. "..So.. I guess now i know why the dreams.." Sonic said. He was quite excited to still have prism energy in him, meaning he was still quite powerful, more then he originally is, however, Shadow wasn't too thrilled. He thought, and basically knew, this was a danger, both to reality, and Sonic. With some of the energy missing from the prism, their reality could be easily shattered again.

He didn't know what to do at this point. He was no expert in this, he just knew the basics. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we might need to take a trip back to the Shatterverse.." Shadow informed, which caught Sonic off guard, and got him questioning this. "Why? Why would you want to go back? I thought you wanted to avoid going back." Sonic asked, which he was right. Shadow wanted to forget about all of this, but it was hard to, especially now.

"Believe me, I don't want to go back faker, I want to forget, but that's hard to do so right now, due to the fact I know the prism exist, you almost died in my arms due to that sacrifice, and yet here you are with still some prism energy in you, making you glow like a blue flashlight." Sonic was offended by that last part, but he was right. "We have to go back and find Nine, surely he'll know what to do." Shadow said, regretting admitting that they needed Nine. Now, Sonic was absolutely thrilled to know that probably, he'll be able so see Nine again.

"Alright Shads, how do we plan on visiting the Shatterverse?" Sonic asked, now curious on what the plan was going to be. Its not like touching the prism was going to bring them back to the Shatterverse just like it did with Sonic back then, and they couldn't just open a portal that easily, it would affect their reality.

"I say we give your fox friend another visit today."