Worlds Apart - a Shadow the Hedgehog x Reader story

Near Death

Shadow's POV

Nightmares haunted Shadow as he slept. He didn't understand how he felt and why he had been running for so long. Memories of his long-dead friend Maria swirling in his dreams, mixed with Dr. Eggman's words. The fact that he was asleep against a rough tree didn't help either. Every time he moved, his back and quills itched like crazy. He wouldn't have been surprised if he had been scraped raw, the amount of times he had turned over. He kept muttering, "No... Leave me alone... M... Maria?..." By the time he woke, Shadow felt even more tired than he had before, if that was possible. Wounded, he hauled himself towards the welcome sound of running water nearby. Every single part of his body was cut. It felt like he was a walking corpse. He had nowhere to go but he was going to have to keep moving. Reaching the nearby stream, he stopped and looked at his reflection.

"Huh. Will you look at that?"

Shadow's face was covered in blood from the deep cut in his forehead. His back had been torn open during his restless slumber. Both arms and legs were scratched and burned badly. His whole body ached. His quills sagged. It was all he could do to keep himself from falling headfirst into the water. He carefully lowered himself into the liquid, wincing as it made his injuries sting slightly. The burns steamed a bit and the pain from his cuts and bruises slowly numbed. Using his hands, Shadow drank quickly and cleansed his face of blood. If he was going into battle, he'd better be ready for it. Refreshed, he dragged himself out of the stream, dripping wet but feeling much better. He shook some of the water out of his quills and set off into the forest.

Shadow's near-fatal mistake was to have gone away from the stream. No sooner than he was unable to hear it he fell into one of Eggman's traps. An ambush had been set up! He was knocked backwards and forwards by the robots. Each strike sent him staggering. A fifth blow to his chest threw him nearly back to the river.

"Oh come on! I haven't survived these past few weeks just to be beaten by hunks of scrap metal!" Though exhausted and backed against a tree again, anger burned through Shadow like a raging fire, pushing him up into the branches above him. Each robot quickly launched rockets straight into the leaves, not knowing where he was. He leapt from tree to tree, using the cover from the leaves to disguise each move. Out of nowhere, a rocket exploded directly in front of him, the debris sending him flying, snapping branches, out of the forest, nearly tearing open his chest. He crash-landed in a field next to a large building. Trying to lift his head, he thought Never even dreamed this would happen. Shadow attempted to push himself up but collapsed under his own weight. Touching the wound in his chest, he thought he saw people coming towards him but he couldn't tell if he was hallucinating or not.

"Please.... Somebody.... Help me," Shadow whispered, before thinking Wow. Never thought I'd say that either. Darkness started to descend on him and he finally realized what had been plaguing him the whole time he'd been running. For the first time, he was afraid.