Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sonic had only been called to Lord Doom’s office once before, a few months back, when his latest prank on Professor Robotnik had gone a lot worse than he had imagined. The smoke bomb was supposed to be a small little thing, scented vaguely like rotten eggs, just enough to make him cough and then dissipate. He was not expecting a huge fume of green colored gas to permeate the entire school, leaving every corner stinking of rot. It had totally been worth it to see Robotnik’s egg-shaped face turn bright red with rage, metaphorical steam practically pouring out his ears. Safe to say, Sonic had been pretty sure he was going to be expelled. He had practically groveled before Lord Doom and Death Scythe, sobbing his heart out and begging for them to let him stay. He hardly remembered much of a reaction from Lord Doom at all, his tall and imposing figure mostly hidden inside his ebony black cloak with scarlet tipped edges. Only his one yellow eye could really be seen from inside the cloak, but even that revealed next to no emotion. It was ultimately Death Scythe who determined that he could stay at the academy, but only if he forfeited all souls he had gotten so far and completed extra remedial lessons for the rest of the year. Thankfully, his scores in athletics and fighting techniques were high enough for them to let him off easy.

The atmosphere felt a lot different this time around, with Sonic having no idea as to how he could be in trouble. As fun as it was to make Robotnik’s head spin with rage, he had no desire to get nearly expelled from pulling pranks again. He looked around taking in the endless space of the blue room, clouds floating across his vision every so often. It was a kind of magic he had never experienced before, and Sonic marvelled at how he hadn’t bothered to pay attention to the room the first time. The weather was perfect, just the right amount of warmth without the sweaty harshness of sunlight beating down. Here in Nevada, autumn was just as hot as summer and reached degrees in the hundreds daily. Somehow, the weather couldn’t breach this room. The air was a cool relief from the weather outside, yet not quite the artificial coldness of air conditioning. The blue stretched far to the horizon on either side of him, a light powdery azure reminiscent of baby blankets and forget-me-nots, giving the room a peaceful aura. A single wooden path stretched from the office door to a small podium deeper in the room, with a single full-length mirror right in the middle.

Sonic squinted at the empty podium. Last time he was here, Lord Doom and Death Scythe had been standing there waiting for him. It had been an incredibly nerve-wracking walk down the hallway toward the two figures, or as he had thought, his doom. Normally Stone, the death scythe present at their school, took charge of student punishment and other discipline. He felt like more of a vice principal than any formal ruler carrying out the will of Doom, but his presence still put him on edge. Sonic continued along the wooden path, a slight magical breeze blowing his shoulder-length hair slightly behind him. The atmosphere felt a lot lighter without the two figures waiting for him, but somehow he still felt like he was being watched. The mirror itself held the promise of some punishment, some lecture to come. Somehow, the fact that he would have to dial the number and call Doom on the mirror himself was a punishment in and of itself.

Slowly, Sonic dragged his feet up the steps to the top of the podium, approaching the mirror. It appeared just as normal as any other mirror, albeit much cleaner than most mirrors he interacted with. Its intricate frame gleamed gold and seemed to sparkle, even with no sunlight present to bounce off it. The imposing object stood at least ten or fifteen feet, far above Sonic’s meagre height, the clarity of his reflection boring into his soul. He took a moment to admire his awesome outfit; his favorite blue varsity jacket with the DWMA logo embroidered over the right of his chest, along with an oversized basketball t-shirt he had found at a yard sale underneath. He gave a small twirl to see the matching embroidered logo on the back of his jacket and smoothed out a wrinkle on the back of his baggy jeans. Briefly, Sonic pinched his shirt a few times and made sure the imprint of his binder wasn’t visible. Running a hand through his long blue hair to tame down some frizz, Sonic took a breath.

It’s okay. I look fine. Everything is gonna be fine.

Sonic leaned in closer to the mirror to breathe a cloud of hot air on the clear surface and began to write with his finger.

There’s no way I could be in trouble again. It’s probably nothing, he tried to persuade himself as he quickly wrote before the fog could disappear; 42- 42- 564.

The number to summon Lord Doom.

With one final glance at his reflection, Sonic stepped back from the mirror as it began to vibrate slightly, ripples forming on the mirror’s surface with growing intensity. For a brief moment, Sonic was reminded of jumping in puddles as a child, the way the water would part and shake with every step he took. Then the mirror was glowing a bright blue and Sonic shook the thoughts from his brain, trying to appear as attentive as possible.

His reflection disappeared completely as the tall figure of Lord Doom appeared in the mirror, the ripples and glowing beginning to fade as his full stature came into view. Sonic had never quite understood the physics of the guy literally being inside the mirror, but he stood up straighter before giving a small bow in respect.

Turns out, the dude was just as terrifying behind glass as he was in person. Only this time, there was no Stone to be a buffer and dish out his punishment; it was just the two of them. Sonic swallowed.

“Hey.. uh.. Good afternoon, your lordship sir!”

Sonic stood as still as possible and waited. The singular yellow eye was trained directly at his forehead, staring straight through him rather than at him. Doing his best to ignore the discomfort, Sonic shifted his weight from one foot to another and attempted to make eye contact. Boy, this guy was creepy.

“So erm, I got a note during class today? From one of my professors? He was saying you needed to see me as soon as possible or something?” Sonic chuckled, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible. The figure in the mirror did not move. His eye had begun to track his movements ever so slightly, as the small slanted pupil in the mirror had begun to follow him from side to side. Sonic stood with the same awkward grin on his face. When the hell is this guy gonna say something to me?

“How have your.. remedial lessons been going?” Lord Doom finally asked, his quiet yet sharp voice piercing through the awkward silence. Sonic wanted to jump out of his own skin.

“Oh! Uh good, good! Super good! The best!” Sonic began to stammer out. “Spending tons of great, uh, quality time with Professor Robotnik! Such a smart guy, huh? Learning a lot of new stuff from him about uh,”

Sonic furrowed his brows. Every remedial lesson was supposed to be hard work, learning new fighting skills or carrying out assignments that no other student wanted to do under teacher supervision, but Egg-head had made it clear they were to talk to each other as little as possible. Sonic had spent these lesson-turned-silent-treatment-detention sessions grading papers for Robotnik or making copies of papers for him. It was far more mundane than he had expected from the man, considering he had made his classroom smell like the inside of a dumpster for well over a week. Remedial lessons were supposed to be hard, right? Maybe, Sonic thought, Eggman is luring me into a false sense of security before he drops some huge life-threatening task on me. Regardless, there was very little of note for him to report back to Lord Doom.

“..uh stuff! Very cool and important fighting and academic stuff he’s teaching me! Very cool, we’re getting along great!”

Sonic thought it might be best to stop yapping about nothing before Lord Doom might decide to smite him on the spot. There was another bout of silence before the voice began again.

“Very well. I understand from Dr. Robotnik that you.. have still yet to choose a weapon?”

Oh. So that’s what this was about.

“Yeah, well, I mean I’ve totally been asking people. I think everyone in my class is already partnered so…” Sonic trailed off.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been asking people. Unfortunately, his reputation of showing up late constantly, yelling out jokes during Eggman’s class, and most recently stinking up the whole school had made his choice of weapon far slimmer than he would’ve liked. More than that, people just.. weren’t all that interesting. All the kids in his classes seemed to only care about their stupid grades or class rank rather than actually getting out in the field to do good work. It didn’t help that most weapons were only required to complete school courses in order to control their abilities out in human society, most of them had no real desire to become death scythes or fight at all. It made Sonic mad, that they were at the school which trained people to be heroes and save others, only for half the student population to have no desire to help society whatsoever.

Sonic stared back up at the dark figure in the mirror in front of him.

“I don’t think anyone wants to be my partner.”

Lord Doom’s singular eye remained unchanged. Sonic wondered briefly if the guy could somehow emote with his one eye, like Mike Wazowski or Sauron. Did he have a mouth under the cloak? Could he smile? Eat? Could he-

“You do understand that all meisters enrolled at this academy must have a weapon partner. You cannot achieve the goal of turning your weapon into a death scythe if you have no weapon.” The same sharp voice snapped Sonic out of his thoughts again. He looked down at his dirt covered sneakers, trying to formulate a response.

Of course I know that, of course I’m trying it’s not my fault they’re all frauds or posh or cowards or idiots who want nothing to do with me-

“I value your presence at this academy. Your athletic prowess has proved to be some of the best among students we have seen in years. I will give you an ultimatum. One week, find a weapon. Or you will be forced to leave the school.”

Sonic’s head snapped up. Leave?

He stared back into the yellow eye, waiting for more words to come. There was nothing. Sonic looked back down, willing himself to disappear.

“Of course sir. I’ll find someone. Thank you.”

As he walked along the wooden path out of the magic room, the sky seemed much darker than before.

Chapter Text

It was one of those days where grief was on the forefront of his mind, a numbing and cold sensation which coiled in the depths of his gut and trickled through his body like ice. 

It made sense, after all. Today was the day she died. Or, it had been, one year ago. It could have been today, with the way Shadow’s body convulsed with his guilt and regret, rendering him curled up in a ball on his bed. 

Useless. 

Last night had been no different than any other night in the last year. Shadow could still see the tip of a sword piercing through Maria’s chest whenever he closed his eyelids, the exact moment when he knew life had left her eyes forever-  the exact moment he knew he had failed. 

Safe to say, Shadow had no intention of ever letting himself forget that moment. 

Begrudgingly leaving the plush maroon covers of his bed behind, Shadow dragged himself to his feet and stumbled across his room. In moments like these, he hated the way his grief manifested physically in his body, the aching in his chest and churning in his stomach that never seemed to go away. But in his mind, he knew he deserved the pain. 

This is my punishment. 

Shadow dug into his closet for his go-to leather jacket, rummaging past the neatly hung-up layer of fancy suits and dress shirts he was forced to wear on formal events. The jacket sat crumpled and forgotten at the bottom of the closet, a small layer of dust having formed on the outside of its sad-looking form. Maybe he hadn’t been getting out of the house as much as he had thought. Easily, he slipped the familiar leather over his shoulders and breathed in the musky closet scent. The weight of it felt heavier than it did previously, the spikes on top of the shoulders digging into his shoulder blades rather than sitting upright. Brushing the dust off, Shadow quickly pulled on his black cargo pants and boots, stumbling to tie his shoes while standing on only one leg. 

He felt far clumsier than he remembered being. 

Finally, he was able to stand up, fully dressed, and brush the bangs from his eyes. Shadow hadn’t bothered to cut his hair in the last year, and, to his dismay, it was constantly getting in his face and mouth. 

Maria liked it when it was long. 

Shadow pulled his hand away from his hair and sighed. The glossy surface of his chest of drawers reflected his tired face back at him, a permanently fixed scowl and purple bags under his eyes. The distortion of the drawer made his face appear much sharper than it was, and when he moved, his face lengthened and contorted around the drawer’s edges. 

Shadow had always hated mirrors. 

Being his father’s prized possession, mirrors were always a way for the lord of doom to look into his son’s life, to keep him in check. He could remember a number of times brushing his teeth in the bathroom lazily, only to be startled by his father’s reflection being suddenly present across from him. He had choked on toothpaste more than once on these occasions. It seemed that the god himself was everywhere; any mirrored surface would undoubtedly glow and ripple with the yellow eye of Lord Doom whenever Shadow was around, no matter how much he hated it. 

There were no mirrors in Shadow’s house. 

Keeping his footsteps quick and light, Shadow walked from his room, across the living area of his house, and out the front door, locking it behind him. He could hardly call the living room a “living room” anymore, seeing as no one alive spent any time in it. When Maria would come to his house, they would often spend hours in the room watching movies or listening to music together. 

Shadow could hardly stand the sight of it anymore. 

The hot Nevada air was a stark contrast to the frigid air conditioning of his house, and Shadow briefly reconsidered his choice of wearing a leather jacket today. But the promise of seeing his empty living room again made his stomach do another flip, so he continued down the street in the heat, resolving to just tough it out. 

The name “Doom City” certainly painted a dark and dreary image in the minds of most people around the world, but the reality was far brighter than most would expect. The architecture was old and Victorian, but painted with bright and happy colors, almost out of a fairytale book. It was a college town, certainly, with mostly tourist-y stores and tchotchke stands lining the streets, but with enough decent restaurants and local attractions to keep a sizable amount of residents. With the population being just under 400,000, Doom City was the one of the largest cities in Nevada, second only to Las Vegas. 

It was certainly less crime-ridden than Vegas; no idiot in their right mind wanted to commit any crimes right under the nose of Lord Doom. With the storybook nature and warm weather of the area, most of the residents were either retired elderly people, young families with children, and of course, the students of the DWMA. 

As Shadow neared the ginormous set of stairs leading up to the academy, the hustle and bustle of tourists slowly morphed into the crowd of students rushing to get to class on time. Students on all sides were shoving as hard as they could to get by, only serving to create more traffic as people fell to the floor or got stuck. He was fully within a swarm of people now, being jostled by people struggling to get by. When a backpack from in front of him suddenly stopped and slammed directly into his head, Shadow decided he’d had enough. 

With a single clean swipe of his arm, the backpack tore open, books and pencils tumbling to the floor and down the stairs to the base of the academy. The kid with the backpack swiveled, his eyes wide at his backpack being suddenly ripped cleanly in half, the bottom now hanging by a singular thread and nearly dragging along the floor. Shadow’s arm transformed back from the sharp edge into his regular flesh, and he calmly walked past the gawking boy. 

“What the hell, man!” the boy yelled, scrambling to pick up all the junk scattered around the stairs. 

The crowd around them had stopped now to stare, people beginning to form a circular shape around the two. Shadow didn’t even glance down at the kid as he continued walking, using the back of his heel to kick his air shoes into gear. He shot off up the rest of the stairs, scarlet light trailing after him. The crowd parted as he went, the power of his shoes easily lifting his weight up the rest of the incline. 

Idiots, Shadow couldn’t help but think as he breezed up the stairs past the crowds of gawking students. These bumbling buffoons couldn’t possibly be the future of the DWMA, much less the future protectors of the world. 

What has father’s school come to? 

Then again, as he looked around, the faces of the students around him seemed much younger and much more impressionable than before. They could maybe only be a year or two younger than him, but he felt their maturity gap had grown far larger in the year he had been gone. More than ever, Shadow felt his fury toward his father grow. 

How could we possibly be sending these children to die in battles? 

Shadow reached the top of the stairs and continued to skate through the hallways of the school. Growing up in the academy, Shadow could skate the layout of the entire school with his eyes closed, tell where he was from the simplest touch of a wall or the sound of a single stair creaking. Breezing past the teachers and staff milling in the hallways, Shadow shoved the doors to the Doom Room open and skated down the wooden pathway. The heat from outside quickly faded into the cool dampness permeating from the clouds floating across the room. The endless expanse of sky was slightly pink today, fading into the warmer shade of light lavender in lower areas. 

Shadow had grown accustomed to the way the room would change and evolve throughout the day, the unnatural colors fading in and out seemingly at random, though the weather itself never changed. It was a constant perfect cool with a slight dampness, no matter if the outside was scorchingly dry or a devastating blizzard. Ahead of him, Shadow could see Death Scythe Stone locked in conversation with Lord Doom, whose dark cloaked figure appeared in the full-length mirror next to him. 

The familiar yellow eye was trained on him in an instant. Stone noticed Lord Doom was no longer looking at him and turned around, his face lighting up when he saw Shadow. 

“Shadow! It’s so good to see you out of the house!” the Death Scythe called toward him. 

Stone had always been such a genuine, kind man toward him. In the absence of a normal father figure, Stone had always made an effort to spend time with Shadow as a child. Though Shadow had never gotten the chance to see him in the field, he knew the man was far deadlier than appearances revealed. He could hardly fathom that the man who would buy him ice cream after a particularly stuffy formal event or a pointed lecture from his father could have killed hundreds of evil souls or any witches. 

Shadow gave a small wave and stepped onto the podium, clicking his heels on the edge of the stairs to turn off his air shoes. Stone glanced briefly back to the mirror and turned back to Shadow, wringing his hands slightly but keeping a pleasant smile on his face. 

“I’ll leave you two to talk privately,” Stone said, giving another small grin to Shadow. “So good to see you again.” With a small spin, he promptly walked towards the door, dress shoes clicking on the wood behind him. 

Shadow turned toward his father, and the cloaked reflection in the mirror turned slightly to face him back. The single eye remained as emotionless as Shadow had always known it to be, just the thin pupil within a simple yellow glow revealed where the eye was looking. 

Shadow had always wondered if the man had any emotion in the first place. 

“It is good to see you in person again,” Lord Doom started. His sharp and grovelly voice was usually a shock to most people, but Shadow had grown accustomed to it. 

“I’d hardly call this in-person. You haven’t left your mirror in years,” Shadow scoffed, staring directly into the glowing eye. 

In the depths of his memories, Shadow could remember being held in the arms of Lord Doom. He had been small, less than five years old, and he was crying from all the noise around him. This was his first formal event, first time being shown off to the world, and he had been terrified. Silently, Doom had picked him up and pressed him gently into his cloak. It had been far colder than Shadow had expected, and the shock caused him to stop crying. Despite Doom’s ability to pick him up in his arms, Shadow could not remember leaning against a solid chest or corporeal form. 

He had never been picked up again.

“...I meant to see you in the Doom Room. I am glad you are feeling.. adequate enough to travel outside the house.” 

Doom’s voice was quieter than before. He seemed to be calculating, always testing out the words in his head before he spoke them aloud. Shadow’s scowl deepened. 

“Let’s skip the pleasantries, Father. You know why I’m here.” 

The figure in the mirror shifted, the cloak swaying slightly from side to side. Lord Doom’s pupil grew and shrank again as the man clearly deliberated what to say. 

“I know you are.. displeased, with me, but-”

“ Displeased ?” Shadow scoffed. “I am far beyond displeased. A meister, a child, under your jurisdiction goes into battle against a witch and is ambushed and killed. Brutally. And you have the audacity to tell me that I cannot bring those brutes to justice.”

“Shadow-”

“And the worst part is! This has happened before! It keeps happening, again and again! I might be responsible for being unable to save Maria but I am not responsible for all the children of this academy who you keep sending to their deaths.”

Doom fell silent. Shadow wondered if he was showing some form of remorse when his eye looked down. 

“You know I feel.. great guilt for being unable to help you and your meister in your time of need,” Lord Doom started. Shadow’s scowl deepened. 

“I admit there have been more…  accidents with witches as of late. We believe they are getting stronger somehow, and there have been certain tribes working together that have never before been allied, and-”

“Enough. I don’t want to hear your excuses again,” Shadow said harshly, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“What do you want, Shadow?”

“You know what I want.” 

Lord Doom sighed. His figure in the mirror turned to the side, away from Shadow, and stared off into the infinite distance of his room. The pink of the sky shifted into a deep reddish-orange, the blues now gone completely. 

“I cannot allow you back into the field again.”

Lord Doom’s voice was  far quieter than usual, the sharpness melting into a softer tone. The yellow eye turned back to Shadow, the pupil growing in size. 

“You, my creation, are the most important thing in the world. I came far too close to losing you that day a year ago. If I were to lose you… I’m not sure what I would do.”

This gave Shadow pause. This was possibly the most emotion he had seen from the man in ages, maybe ever. Shadow looked down at the podium, avoiding the piercing yellow gaze. 

“I just want… justice. Closure. I need to avenge her.” Shadow paused. “If we allow those witches to get away without consequence, her sacrifice will have been for nothing.”

Shadow looked back up at the figure in the mirror. The eye moved, the pupil expanding and contracting at him, searching for an answer. 

“There would be.. some conditions.”

Shadow’s posture straightened. 

“So you’re saying I could go back in the field?” Shadow asked, taking a step closer to the mirror. 

“No. Or rather.. not yet. As I said, there would need to be some conditions in place.” Lord Doom’s voice was back to normal, the sharp tone having returned in full. 

Shadow raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I want you to enroll at the academy. I know now that your fighting skills are proficient, yet I would like you to have more practice and knowledge. Having other students could be beneficial to your skills.”

Shadow grunted but gave a nod. He could put up with the common rabble if it meant they would let him fight again. 

“You cannot go after those witches first. I need you to work your skills up to a higher level, far higher than what it was when you first faced them. I can’t have history repeating itself.”

Shadow looked down. He knew his father was right, his skills were hardly enough to keep himself from being killed the first time around. He had been too weak, too powerless to do anything to stop Maria being killed. 

He could not fail again. 

“And one more thing. I think it would be… er, beneficial for you to have a new meister.”

What.

What??

“Are you kidding me? Maria cannot be replaced! Ever!” Shadow shouted.

Lord Doom’s figure startled, his eye twitching and moving around. 

“I do not mean to imply a replacement for her. Rather, someone new to help you hone and grow your skills with. In any case, I will not have you going out into the field alone.”

“But father-”

“My conditionals are final.”

Shadow looked back toward the limitless horizon of the Doom Room. The pink had returned to the sky near the edges, while the orange was starting to overtake the red. A cloud floated into his head and further into the distance, causing him to shiver slightly with the chill. He turned back to the mirror with a firm resolve on his face. 

“For Maria, I’ll do anything.”

Chapter Text

By the time Sonic reached his small apartment in the city, the sun had set, casting the residents into a stuffy, warm darkness. Shadows easily spread throughout the city and between buildings, yet provided no more relief from the still remaining heat left over from that day. People moved through the alleyways lazily, the heat and late time of day rendering everyone tired and sluggish. For most people in the city, work and classes were over and it was time for a well deserved rest. 

Covered in sweat and gasping for air from trekking all the way down the large set of stairs leading from the academy into the city, Sonic finally burst through the door home, setting off the small windchime hung above. The door itself creaked loudly upon entry as well, announcing his entrance to the other two people in the apartment. 

Knuckles was on the couch, phone in hand, lazily scrolling through whatever videos he had been sent that day. The older teen hardly glanced up at Sonic, giving a soft grunt in acknowledgement. From the sheen of sweat that still covered his face and book bag carelessly tossed to the floor, Sonic guessed that Knuckles had only gotten home a few minutes before him. 

“The air conditioning broke again,” Knuckles started, taking a glance away from his phone now to reach his hand up and brush more sweat away from his forehead. His bright red locs fell in front of his forehead only to be quickly brushed away with a heavy sigh. 

“Fuck, again? Didn’t we just fix that thing?” Sonic asked, shrugging his heavy backpack to the floor and stretching out. A sharp pain shot across his chest and ribs as he moved, causing him to wince and stop stretching entirely. He had been wearing his binder for entirely too long that day, judging by the ache in his ribs and the sticky sensation of sweat practically gluing the garment to his body. Sonic sighed deeply and collapsed on the couch next to Knuckles, who had gone back to looking at his phone. 

“Mm. Tails said he’d fix it when he finished his project, but not to bother him until he comes out of his room.” 

Great. Of course he’s busy right now. 

Sonic glanced down at his own phone to check the time. 6:30. The days had been growing shorter, judging by the lack of light outside, but the weather was just as sweltering as it had been during the summer. Sonic idly wondered if it was legal to have his air conditioning break so frequently in the extreme heat. 

“So uh, you got called to Lord Doom’s office today?” Knuckles asked, not looking up from his phone. Sonic scowled. He regretted showing the note to Knuckles in class when he had received it, but it had been hard for everyone to ignore Professor Robotnik suddenly stopping the whole class to call Sonic up to his desk and give him the paper. 

What an asshole. Any chance to humiliate me, he’ll take it. 

“Yeah, I did. Something about needing to partner up with a weapon or I’ll get kicked out of school.” 

Knuckles chuckled. 

“No shit. You can’t go out in the field and fight witches or evil souls without a weapon.” The older teen put down his phone and leaned forward. “I’m just surprised you didn’t get kicked out after what you did to Robotnik.”

Sonic’s brow furrowed. 

“Dude this is serious! I don’t know what I’m gonna do! Literally everyone I ask to partner up with turns me down,” Sonic snapped. “This was my one chance to prove I can actually do something with my life, and I’ve already blown it.”

“Hey now, you’re not that bad,” Knuckles laughed. “No one wanted to be partners with the guy who flunked all his theory classes and started three fights in the hallway. But I still found someone.” 

Sonic snorted. 

“Whatever man, Sticks is just as insane as you are. You’re practically made for each other. Didn’t she put on her last exam that witches are secretly alien robots created to make sure Earth doesn’t get too powerful and explore outer space?” 

Knuckles laughed again. 

“Well, can you prove that they’re not?” he asked, jabbing an elbow into Sonic’s side. Sonic winced as the sharp pain spread across his ribs again. 

“Oh shoot, I’m sorry,” Knuckles apologized. “Shouldn’t you, like, take that thing off? So you don’t get rib damage?”

Sonic groaned and curled into a ball on the couch, wrapping his arms around his knees. 

“But I don’t wanna take it off!” he pouted. Knuckles snorted and stood up, grabbing his book bag and phone. 

“Well I’m not your dad. But if you get bruised ribs again then don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” Knuckles walked out of the small living area and toward his bedroom. “I’m gonna take a shower. Maybe that’ll cool me down in place of the air conditioning.”

Sonic nodded. Knuckles’ door closed with a soft click, leaving Sonic alone with his thoughts on the couch. His knees and arms pressed tighter against his body, causing yet another spark of pain through his chest. Laying sideways on the couch, Sonic looked across the room at the small clock hanging beside the front door, the arms slowly ticking away. A single bead of sweat seemed to roll down his face in time with the minute hand’s movement, ever so slowly, yet steady. Sonic closed his eyes. 

Why are things going so wrong?

At that moment, Sonic heard another door open from the hallway behind him with a loud creak, followed by soft footsteps.

“Sonic? Are you home?” a high pitched voice called out. Sonic sucked in a breath and sat up, careful not to touch his ribs again. 

“Hey buddy! Yeah, I’m over on the couch.” 

Tails’ face lit up the moment he looked over and saw Sonic, his small lips curling into an easy smile. The boy scampered across the room and onto the couch to tackle Sonic in a hug, crushing his ribs once more. 

Man, he could NOT catch a break. 

“Good to see you too, kiddo,” Sonic choked out, running a hand through the boy’s blond hair. Tails sat up and released him, sitting back to wave his hands excitedly up and down. 

“Did I tell you about my new project? It’s actually a submission for my online college class! One of my teachers in that gifted program at school recommended it- it’s super cool! Did you know we get to build actual robots? They’re gonna send me all the parts I need to build right here! For free! Apparently they wanted me in the class so badly that I got some kinda scholarship? Isn’t that amazing?” The boy was practically glowing while bouncing up and down. Sonic grinned.

“Yeah that’s awesome! I’m glad your teachers are encouraging you to work more on your level.” 

Sonic had always known the kid was a genius. When other kids were still struggling to read and write, Tails was already reading full novels and tinkering with the small electronics of their home, many times managing to make them better. Now that he was in middle school, the regular curriculum had grown pretty redundant and boring for the kid, so Sonic had helped him enroll in some college classes online to challenge him a bit more. Safe to say, the engineering courses had been a great way to keep Tails both entertained and learning new material. 

“Yeah, well now I just have to wait for my packages to come.” Tails looked wistfully toward the door. “There wasn’t anything for me outside?”

“Uh, not that I saw,” Sonic said, standing up and walking to the front door. Sure enough, no packages were on the doorstep that he had overlooked. Tails frowned. 

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon! I guess you’ll just have to focus on your middle school homework until they arrive.” 

Tails shot him a glare.

“You know that place is stupid. I could graduate early with like, two tests if I wanted to.” 

Sonic gave a small sigh.

“But then you wouldn’t be around kids your own age! You need to socialize! Be a kid! You don’t even need to worry about grades since you’re so smart, just enjoy the rest of it,” Sonic said, walking away from the door and toward the kitchen. 

I really need to start dinner. 

“Ugh, as if. Those kids hate me. They think I’m some super freak or just trying to make them look stupid,” Tails scoffed, following him into the other room. 

Sonic opened the fridge and dug around, looking for something easy to whip up. The inside revealed some cans of soda, a bottle of ketchup, and half an onion wrapped in plastic. He sighed and closed the door, moving toward the pantry. 

“Look, you just gotta find your people, ya know? I mean I got bullied plenty in school too, but I found a group of people like me and that made it better. Trust me, having friends will change everything,” Sonic said. 

From his peripheral, Sonic saw Tails fidget with the sleeve of his shirt, unraveling a loose thread from the lining. 

“I guess,” he muttered, moving out of the kitchen and sitting at their small dining table. 

Sonic dug around in their pantry, pulling out a box of pasta and setting it on the counter. 

“So uh, we have pasta for dinner. Unless you want half an onion with ketchup instead,” Sonic laughs, pulling out a pot for water and turning on the stove. 

Tails remained silent at the table. 

Ah great. I made him upset. And he was so happy about his project too.

“Hey uh.. so you wanna tell me more about that robot you’re building?” Sonic asked gently. 

Tails just shrugged. 

“I think I have to send them more copies of my design and measurements for preparation.”

The boy got up and walked back toward the bedrooms. 

“Aren’t you hungry?” Sonic walked over and stopped him in the hallway. “Look, I’m sorry school’s been so rough lately. I just don’t want you cooped up in the house only doing online courses and not talking to anyone besides me.” 

Tails looked up at him. 

“And uh.. school’s been rough on me too. I still can’t even find a weapon and I almost got kicked out for that prank so… but it’ll get better! It will. I swear.” Sonic smiles and ruffles the boy’s hair. 

Tails gave a small smile and laughed. 

“Oh yeah! Knuckles told me they called you into the principal or whatever today.”

Sonic scoffed. 

“Yeah, if ‘principal’ is what you wanna call the benevolent god of the world, sure. And hey, if I can stand getting a lecture from Lord Doom, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a friend or two at school. Promise.” 

Tails nods and pulls him into a hug, sending another jab of pain through Sonic’s chest. 

Damn, and I had forgotten about the pain too. 

Tails pulled away quickly. 

“Sonic, are you still wearing your binder? You’re supposed to take that off after school!” 

Sonic groaned. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.” 

Tails scowled. 

“Go take it off before your ribs break,” the boy ordered, pushing Sonic toward their shared bedroom. 

“Fine, fine, I’m going!” Sonic laughed as he shut the door. 

Sonic winced as he lifted his arms above his head to pull off his shirt and binder, his ribs aching with every movement. 

Jeez, I must have fucked it up bad this time. 

Finally managing to crawl out his clothes, Sonic threw on his oversized blue hoodie and breathed in deeply, appreciating the rush of air into his lungs. Unfortunately, his brief bliss was interrupted by stifling heat from the hoodie and the immediate surge of dysphoria. 

Sonic scowled and flopped into bed, curling into a ball and grabbing his phone. The small square turned on, showing the time and date illuminated by the background image of him and Tails, smiling and eating ice cream together. 

Tuesday. I need to have a weapon by Friday. 

Sonic sighed. It was going to be a very long week. 

Chapter Text

A week later and Shadow was back in the Doom Room, arms crossed and lazily leaning on a stray chair Stone had carried in for him. The flimsy wooden stool creaked whenever he put his full weight against it, so Shadow slowly rocked back and forth, never sitting fully on the thing for fear it would collapse entirely. 

The mirror stood tall and ominous in the middle of the podium, the reflection empty save for Shadow’s own face scowling at the clear glass. He hadn’t gotten much more sleep that week, and the bags under his eyes were just as heavy as they’d been for months. Shadow blinked slowly before stretching his arms out and shifting his weight to the other side of the stool, yawning briefly. 

Perhaps I should make myself more presentable, Shadow thought as he ran a hand through his hair, the red and black strands falling through his fingers and in front of his face. Stone had left a few minutes ago, promising to retrieve his mysterious new meister from class. 

Of course, Father couldn’t be bothered to let Shadow choose his own partner. 

Shadow wasn’t particularly thrilled to be working with a new person, let alone being forced to join the academy along with the unruly rabble attending the school. He had never been one for socializing with people his own age, finding most teens to be loud, obnoxious, or idiotic in some way. The only person he had ever really gotten along with was-

Her. 

Shadow sighed and looked at the ground, tapping his air shoes against the dark wood of the podium. Whoever this new meister was, Shadow would simply have to get along with them. At least for long enough to find that group of witches and bring them to justice.

By any means necessary. 

At that moment, Shadow heard the door to the Doom Room creak open, and in walked Stone with the new teenager trailing behind him. 

He looked just as young as the rest of them, maybe sixteen or so, with his arms crossed easily behind his head. He was dressed in bright blues all over, from the baby blue of his star patterned jeans to the royal blue of his varsity jacket, to even the top of his head, which was dyed a deep cerulean. 

Shadow’s eyes hurt just glancing at him.

From behind him, the mirror began to glow and ripple as Lord Doom slowly came to focus in the glass in front of him. The blue haired teen’s eyes widened as he saw Lord Doom appear in front of him, jogging a little to reach the platform. 

“Woah, you can appear all by yourself? I thought someone had to call you for that!” the teen exclaimed, clearly mystified by the new information about the mirror. 

Shadow cringed. His voice was just as loud and irritating as he expected, with the teen clearly newly starting puberty as his voice had just begun to crack. 

The sudden appearance of his father was nothing new for Shadow- the Lord of Doom often chose to appear at random and stalk him all over the place- but he supposed it wasn’t public knowledge that he could just pop up anywhere. Briefly, Shadow wondered if a citizen could sue Doom for breach of privacy laws, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of Stone clearing his throat. 

“Sonic, since you were unable to find a weapon on your own this week, Lord Doom wanted to give you one more chance to stay in the academy. This is Shadow, Lord Doom’s son, and he’s in a similar situation as you.”

The teen’s eyes widened. 

“You have a kid?!” he blurted, pointing at the mirror. Lord Doom’s single eye remained unmoving, looking down at the group as emotionless as ever. Stone frowned slightly and coughed. 

“Yes, he does. Now, today is Shadow’s first day at the academy, we were hoping you could show him around, help him in class-”

“I do not need to be shown around. I practically live here.” Shadow snapped. He stood and swiveled toward the mirror. 

“This is idiotic. You want this child here to be my meister? Pathetic.” 

Lord Doom’s eye twitched, moving from Sonic’s face to Shadow’s. From his peripheral, Shadow could see Stone tense slightly, taking a step back from the mirror. 

“We had a deal, Shadow. Or did you forget?” Lord Doom’s grovelly voice rang out, casting a small echo despite the infinite space of the room. 

“You could at least partner me with an adult. Or even just someone less..” Shadow made a hand gesture toward Sonic,  “...colorful.”

The blue haired teen made an offended face but said nothing. Lord Doom’s eye shifted between the two teens, ultimately settling back on Shadow.

“My decision is final. Either you make it work, or you’ll never be back in the field again.” Doom’s yellow eye switched suddenly to Sonic. “This goes for you too. This is your last chance to have a weapon before I expel you.” 

Next to him, the blue haired boy took a large gulp but ultimately nodded. Shadow narrowed his eyes. Not only was he getting paired with some incompetent teenager, but one who was close to getting kicked out of school? Just how desperate did Father think he was?

Well, clearly desperate enough. 

Shadow sighed deeply before turning back to the mirror. 

“ Fine ,” he spat, before turning and walking off the podium. 

…

The blue haired boy was still following him. 

“Hey wait! You’re starting class today right? Shouldn’t I show you where it is?” Sonic called out, audibly gasping for air from running around the school behind him. 

Shadow stopped and turned to glare at him. 

“I already know where it is,” Shadow snapped. “I don’t need your help.” 

Sonic flinched slightly, but quickly plastered another smile on his face. 

“Right, right! You’re probably here all the time, visiting your dad and stuff. That’s gotta be pretty cool, huh? Being the son of the Lord of Doom?” 

Shadow frowned. There’s no way this guy was real. He was somehow the epitome of everything Shadow hated about teens his age; the noise, the obnoxiousness, the naiveté. 

“I’d hardly call it ‘cool,’” Shadow muttered, raising his arms to do air quotes. 

Sonic’s smile faltered slightly. 

“Well, uh…” he glanced around, clearly trying to think of something else to say. 

Shadow sighed and turned back around, continuing to walk down the hallway. In truth, he had no clue which classroom he was meant to be in, but he couldn’t care less. He had no desire to sit in a classroom with more bright-eyed, idealistic, go-getter children. 

The same children Father is sending to their deaths. 

The image of Maria bleeding in his arms flashed across his mind again, the one that was seemingly burned into his eyelids whenever he squeezed them closed for any attempt at sleep, the one which had haunted his dreams for the last year and likely would for the rest of his life. 

Lord Doom wasn’t going to stop endangering the students at his school, that much he had made clear. If he wanted to save them from becoming just like Maria, he would have to kill the witches himself.

He certainly didn’t want to drag this new, bright-eyed blue boy into his quest for revenge. 

A quest that deep down, he knew would get him killed. 

And maybe, wasn’t that what he wanted? 

“Your hair is super awesome by the way! Do you do your own highlights?” Sonic said cheerily behind him, snapping Shadow out of his thoughts. 

Shadow turned around, furrowing his brows. 

“My…highlights?” 

“Uh yeah. Your red streaks?”

Shadow reached a hand up to touch his hair. 

“It’s always been this way. Since birth.” Shadow deadpanned. 

“Oh. Well, it looks really neat! I guess that makes sense, I mean, son of Doom and whatnot. You don’t look anything like him, do you? He’s all like, dark and covered in that cloak and only has one eye, and you have two eyes so.. yeah pretty different. Do you have a mom? Or were you, like, asexually reproduced? Can you go into mirrors too? Can you-”

Good god. Does this guy ever shut up?

“ -and I’ve never had a weapon before, but I bet you’re super powerful, and-”

Wait, what?

“I’m sorry, did you just say you’ve never had a weapon before?” Shadow snapped, taking a step closer to the other teen. 

“Oh! Uh yeah, I mean I tried, but I think most of my class is already partnered up, and it's an odd number or something.. but don’t worry about it! I’m really good at athletics and hand to hand combat, and my grades are good enough-”

“I can’t believe this. I’m being forced to have a new meister and you’ve never worked with anyone before. Have you even seen an evil soul before?” 

Sonic took a step back, his eyes widening in fear. 

“Well, I-”

“You’ve never been in the field? Never fought anyone outside your class? Never seen real danger before?” Shadow was ranting now, seething with rage. Of course he would be assigned to some dumbass who’d never so much as held a weapon before. 

“What a joke.” Shadow sneered. 

Now only a few feet away from him, Sonic’s fearful expression quickly turned into a scowl. 

“Are you kidding me? I’m the joke? At least I’m trying to be nice here, man! This is my first year here! No shit I haven’t done anything yet! Aren’t you the son of Doom? And you still couldn’t get a partner on your own? Seems to me like you were too weak to be partnered with someone better, and that’s why you’re stuck with me!” Sonic shouted, his original persona gone. 

Shadow blinked, surprised at the sudden outburst. 

It wasn’t as though he was wrong. Perhaps Father thought he was too weak for a properly trained meister, and that’s why he was stuck with this inexperienced teenager. 

After all, weren’t you too weak to save Maria? 

Shadow went silent. Sonic seemed surprised by his own speech, and took a step back, crossing his arms. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. Look, I mean, we’ve gotta work together right? I know I’m not, you know, the best option, but we should at least try. Right?”

Shadow looked up at the teen, his royal blue-sleeved arm outstretched toward him. 

Maria used to wear a lot of blue. 

Shadow sighed. 

“I suppose…I don’t have much of a choice.”

Shadow reached out and grabbed Sonic’s hand, shaking it firmly the way that Stone had taught him when meeting government officials and other important people. Sonic’s hand was rather small compared to his, and sweaty. Shadow pulled away. 

Sonic laughed.

“Oh good! I was pretty worried there actually, you know, this is kinda my last chance to not get expelled,” the teen rambled, the smile having returned to his face. 

“That is... concerning.” Shadow said. 

Sonic snorted and slapped him on the shoulder. 

“Ha! Yeah, don’t worry about it. Anyways, we really should go to class. Come with me?” he asked, giving a big, bright smile. 

 Shadow grunted but gave a curt nod. 

“Awesome. Anyway, do you think you’re gonna be as tall as Lord Doom? Do your eyes turn yellow? I bet maybe they glow or something in the dark. Don’t you think that-”

Shadow sighed again. It was going to be a very long day. 

Chapter Text

Professor Ivo Robotnik hated when his students were late.

Sonic knew this very well, as he was late to the man’s class nearly every day, and he never failed to get a very strict lecture about the nature of “maintaining one’s studies” or “wasting valuable learning time.” Despite his athletic prowess and speed, Sonic was never one for showing up to things on time, especially not for boring, stuffy classes taught by even more boring and stuffy people.

Walking in forty-five minutes late was still an impressive feat, even by Sonic’s standards. As he opened the heavy door to the lecture hall, Sonic braced himself for yet another screaming fit from the balding man, maybe even more detention this time.

As expected, the moment the mustached man caught sight of bright blue hair coming through the door, Sonic was met with a death glare. But while opening his mouth to speak, the man’s gaze shifted to behind Sonic, where Shadow had just entered after him. Robotnik’s eyebrows raised seemingly in shock, but his mouth quickly shut, the man instead turning back to the class and continuing his lecture.

Woah, weird. Eggman’s not even gonna lecture me?

Sonic was puzzled, but he shook his head and simply climbed the stairs to the empty seats next to Knuckles. Shadow was still trailing behind Sonic, the dark haired teen scowling and staring at his own shoes. Shadow hadn’t said another word to Sonic while walking to class, though Sonic had tried to ask more about his hair and possible interests.

The guy certainly wasn’t an open book, that much was sure.

Knuckles gave him a questioning look as Sonic plopped down in the seat next to him, shooting a glance at Shadow standing behind him. Sonic simply shrugged and pulled out his notebook, turning to face the front of the room where Robotnik was currently pacing and ranting about the students’ lack of knowledge. At the very least, Sonic figured he should seem like he was paying attention to the lecture. Maybe Shadow would be impressed by his academic knowledge and ability to pay attention to the most boring professor in history.

Then again, Shadow didn’t seem to be easily impressed.

From next to him, Knuckles was still leaning forward and craning his neck to see the new addition to the class. He wasn’t the only one; Sonic could see students all over the lecture hall turning to stare at him and Shadow, a few whispering to each other or pointing.

They certainly weren’t great with subtlety.

On his other side, Shadow was perfectly still, the same scowl fixed on his face. He was staring directly ahead at Robotnik, seemingly locked into the man’s deranged lecture, but Sonic was willing to bet the teen was as lost in thought as he had been in the hallway. In any case, he didn't spare a glance to any of the chatterbox students whispering and looking at him.

Sonic startled slightly when Knuckled jabbed him with an elbow, the red-haired teen leaning over to whisper in his ear.

“Who the hell is that guy?” he whisper-shouted, shooting another glance over Sonic’s shoulder. Sonic held a finger up to his mouth to shush him.

“I’ll tell you later. Can you be quiet? This is, like, the one time Robotnik hasn’t yelled at me,” he muttered.

Knuckles snorted but turned his gaze to his other side, where his weapon, Sticks, was sitting. She, too, was leaning forward in an attempt to get a glance of Shadow, her twin ponytails bouncing as she jerked her head around. Sonic rolled his eyes when he heard the two begin to whisper and laugh with each other, more students now turning to stare at the commotion they were causing.

Sonic slunk down further into his seat, trying to make himself smaller.

This finally got Robotnik’s attention, with the mustached man suddenly swiveling around to glare at the pair. Sonic recognized his familiar angry stance, with the hairs of his mustache seemingly standing on end and his bushy brows furrowed down into his small glasses.

“You two up there! Do you think you have more important things to talk about right now? Why don’t you come down and tell the class all about the origins of combined warfare with human weapons and manufactured machinery!” the rotund man shouted.

From next to Sonic, Knuckles and Sticks stopped their giggling and froze, looking at each other worriedly.

“Well? I don’t have all day! Get down here!” Robotnik snapped, causing the pair to scramble up and hurry down the stairs. Sonic put his face in his hands.

This was not going to go well.

Next to him, Shadow was just as still as he was before, his expression unreadable.

“Alright then, class! We have two new teachers today! I’m sure they can provide you all with far more expertise than I, a meister with over thirty years of experience AND the creator of a death scythe, could ever give!”

Robotnik cackled and gave his small microphone piece to Knuckles, who furrowed his brow to scowl at the giant lecture hall. Coughing slightly, the red haired teen glanced over to Sticks, who simply shrugged at him and looked pointedly at the wall.

“Hmf! Well, weapons and machinery! So er… sometimes the military uses a combination of weapons and meisters along with, uh, regular machinery,” Knuckles began, noticeably looking at the notes already written down on the whiteboard behind him. Robotnik had a large smirk on his face next to them, clearly entertained by the humiliation of his students. Knuckles frowned.

“This is ridiculous! I could be using my time to be training for battle instead of listening to you yammer all this useless blabber!” Knuckles yelled, slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand.

Next to Knuckles, Sticks nodded and grabbed the microphone piece from his hands.

“This class is all a farce! Professor Robotnik is actually an alien from another planet, and he’s trying to rot our brains with his useless information! Haven’t you noticed how drained and inattentive we are after this class? That’s because he’s a fraud– he’s not a real man, he’s sucking out our energy and leaving us as husks!” she ranted, gesturing wildly at the mustached man across from her.

Oh dear god.

Another glance at Shadow revealed a new, completely bewildered expression. His scowl wasn’t completely gone, but his eyebrows furrowed into more of a questioning look, his eyes slightly widened.

At the front of the class, Robotnik had broken into full throated laughter, the man nearly doubled over and shaking. The rest of the class was similar, snickers and chuckles spreading around the lecture hall. This wasn’t the first time a student had made a fool of themself in front of the class, with Robotnik’s love for cruel and unusual humiliation tactics. Sonic was convinced the man hated teaching altogether, but embarrassing students seemed to bring him enough joy to stay in the profession.

“I think we’ve heard enough from our impromptu teachers, don’t you think? Let’s think twice before we talk during class next time, shall we?” Robotnik cackled, turning back to his own notes. “As I was saying-”

Sticks stormed back to her seat, Knuckles trailing slowly behind her. The lecture hall was still filled with small giggles as they passed back up the stairs. Knuckles flopped back down in his seat with a sigh. Sonic reached over to give him a small pat on the shoulder, barely holding back his own laughter. For once, it was nice for him not to be the target of Robotnik’s antics, but he still felt sympathy for his unfortunate roommate.

Sneaking a glance back at Shadow revealed his face was nearly back to its normal scowl, but with a small amount of bewilderment still present on his face. Maybe it would be worth it to pretend not to be friends with Knuckles and Sticks, at least for a bit. He didn’t want Shadow to think he was as idiotic as they were, after all.

The rest of the class passed by in a hazy blur, with Sonic tuning out the rest of Robotnik’s lecture on.. well, whatever his lecture was on. Blinking back to full consciousness, Sonic watched as much of the lecture hall began to file out in search of lunch or other more important activities. With a big stretch, Sonic stood and began to crack his joints, starting with his back, neck, and hands. With his eyes closed, he hardly noticed Knuckles shove past him and walk right up to Shadow, towering over the still seated teen.

“Who are you supposed to be?” he asked sharply, arms crossed and legs apart in a wide stance. Sonic rolled his eyes.

Knuckles, like Sonic, had been eager to join the DWMA in order to fight against evil souls out in the field. However, the red headed teen was far more prone to aggression, which had proved to be a constant issue since starting school. It was no surprise that he had gotten into three fights since the beginning of the year, with the teen practically jumping anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way. Sonic knew from years of friendship that Knuckles was a good guy, but he was always eager for action, which got him into violent predicaments more often than not.

Shadow stared up at the other teen, his expression unreadable. In one swift movement, Shadow had stood up to be at eye level with Knuckles, all without breaking eye contact. Knuckles towered slightly over Shadow, his red locs gently dangling between the two’s faces.

Sonic sucked in a breath. The last thing he wanted now was for Knuckles to start a fight with his new weapon, let alone with the son of Lord Doom. He watched Shadow blink, a frown forming on his face.

Shadow didn’t respond, cocking his head slightly. His body tensed, legs moving into a more grounding stance and shoulders squaring behind his head.

Oh no.

Sonic took a step toward them, putting a hand on Knuckles’ shoulder.

“Hey man, let’s uh, let’s take a step back, alright?” he spluttered out, eager to get them away from each other. Knuckles shot him a glare, but took a small step away.

“Relax, Sonic. Just asking a simple question,” Knuckles responded coolly. “Let me rephrase. I’ve never seen you around before. You must be pretty important for Lord Doom to let you in the school partway through the year.”

Shadow raised an eyebrow but said nothing, still standing tense and making intense eye contact. Knuckles furrowed his brows.

“I asked you a question, newbie. You think you’re better than me? That you can just ignore me?” Knuckles leaned in forward, using his height to hover closer to Shadow’s face.

“Hey, hey, he didn’t say that! Let’s just, just take a step back and-”

“Stay out of it, Sonic,” Knuckles snapped, pushing him away. Sonic stumbled back and crashed into Sticks, who had been behind them eyeing the whole interaction. Grabbing his shoulders, Sticks helped to steady him before walking next to Knuckles and squinting at Shadow.

Shadow scoffed.

“Are you kidding? These are the students of this school? You’re ready to beat me up for not answering a question? What a disgrace.” Shadow sneered, leaning in closer to Knuckles’ face.

Oh no. No, no, no.

Knuckles’ expression shifted, his eyes widening but quickly furrowing back down.

“The hell did you just say to me?” Knuckles practically growled.

Shadow rolled his eyes.

“Oh please. This is ridiculous. Get out of my face before I make you.” Shadow was impossibly close to Knuckles now, the two’s noses nearly touching. If Sonic didn’t know any better, he might assume they were about to kiss.

The image of that flashed across Sonic’s brain briefly, causing him to frown. On second thought, maybe he’d much prefer Shadow and Knuckles to fight than anything else.

Wait, why do I care who Shadow kisses?

Sonic was snapped out of his thoughts by Knuckles shifting backward slightly, recrossing his arms and raising his chin to appear bigger.

“If you mean that, maybe we ought to take this outside. If you’re not chicken, that is,” Knuckles snarled.

Oh boy.

“Shadow, Knuckles, c'mon guys! You’ve just met, you don’t need to be doing this!” Sonic stepped forward towards the two and put a hand on Shadow’s shoulder. “Look, Knuckles and I are pals, it wouldn’t make sense for you to fight!”

Shadow stilled and turned to glare at him, gripping Sonic’s hand with such force that he thought it might crunch.

“Did you just say this buffoon is your friend?” Shadow hissed, continuing to grip Sonic’s hand as he yanked it away from his shoulder.

Sonic winced.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of this,” Shadow snapped, finally releasing Sonic’s hand and shoving him backward.

Sticks lunged forward to grab Sonic before he hit the ground, managing to catch him without toppling to the floor completely. Knuckles was by their sides in an instant, checking for immediate injuries. When he found none, the older teen spun around back to Shadow, his face now absolutely setting with rage.

Shadow stood above them, stonefaced.

“Outside, then,” he stated calmly, turning on his heels and walking out of the room. The click of his air shoes echoed through the lecture hall as he left, the heavy door slamming behind him.

Knuckles scowled and stood up, preparing to storm after him.

“Wait, Knuckles! Just wait,” Sonic grimaced as he pulled himself to his feet. Knuckles spun back around.

“Why the hell should I wait! He just twisted your hand and shoved you to the floor! If I have any reason to fight him, it’s that!” Knuckles insisted, gesturing wildly at the lecture hall door where Shadow had just been.

“Look, listen. This dude is supposed to be my new weapon. This is my last chance to stay in this academy,” Sonic pleaded. “And probably yours too! I don’t think Lord Doom would appreciate it very much if you beat the shit out of his son.”

“Wait, that emo asshole is the son of Lord Doom?" Knuckled blurted, his face now completely free of rage, replaced instead with bewilderment. He frowned, now looking to be deep in thought.

“He’s the son of Lord Doom, and he’s only just now joining the academy? And he’s supposed to be your weapon? Why the hell would they assign him to you?” he began to mutter.

“Gee, thanks,” Sonic said dryly. “Look, the dude’s gotta be super powerful. Please, please, don’t start a fight with him.”

Knuckles wasn’t listening, hand perched on his chin and clearly still deep in thought.

“If I fight him and win, then I’d clearly be seen as the top champion of this school.”

Oh no.

“No, did you not hear what I just said? Do you want him to kill you?” Sonic scolded. Knuckles wasn’t looking at him anymore, already moving his way toward the door.

“Knuckles, Knuckles buddy, please, just listen to me! This is a bad idea!” Sonic pleaded. He whipped his head around to Sticks, who was scrolling through her phone behind him. “Sticks, help me out here!”

Sticks glanced up at the two and shrugged.

“You know you can’t stop him,” she snickered, packing the rest of her things in her book bag. “If Knuckie gets into a fight, maybe he just needs it. Fights fuel the souls of the tiny beings living in our bodies, you know.”

Sonic sighed. A glance back to Knuckles revealed he was halfway out the door.

Shaking his head, Sonic turned to run after his friend, shoving his way out the door and down the hallway out of the academy.

Chapter Text

It was an unusually hot day for autumn, the sun high in the sky and beating down with a ferocity that rivalled much of the summer. Heat waves like this tended to come toward the end of the season, one last hurrah of blistering heat before the weather inevitably faded into the winter chill. As Shadow stood outside under the direct sunlight, already starting to sweat under his leather jacket and heavy boots, he was reminded of Maria’s funeral.

It had been a hot day, just like this, cloudless and unbearable. In all the movies Shadow had seen, funerals happened in the rain, or at the very least, on cloudy days. He still remembered sitting close with her on the plush couch, wrapped up in blankets and plushies, grabbing idly at a large bowl of popcorn between them. Shadow had never appreciated the drama behind funerals in movies; they always seemed rather over-dramatic.

On the day itself, Shadow was enraged that the clouds refused to share his somber mood. People at the funeral, mostly teenagers from Maria’s class at the DWMA, had complained  about how hot it was in their thick black suits and dresses, about how inconvenient it was to go to a funeral in such stuffy heat. 

Stone had needed to restrain him from tearing them limb for limb. The sweat and blood left over from that day was almost reminiscent of rain. 

Shadow stripped off his jacket and set it down on the smaller set of stairs leading into the academy. The outside platform was large, the terracotta colored concrete stretching about seventy-five feet from the base of the building on all sides before hitting the main staircase leading all the way down into the city. Small planters dotted the sides, filled with cacti and other colorful succulents that were native to the area. However, it had somehow never occurred to any of the architects of the building to add a tree here and there for shade. Once anyone left the academy, they were in direct sunlight for the long trek down the stairs into the city.

That red-headed buffoon Knuckles was approaching from behind, with Shadow easily hearing the slam of his sneakers against the squeaky tile inside the building. Shadow spun around to see him crash through the doors and out of the building, stopping in the entryway to catch his breath. The teen was already breathing heavily, his chest visibly rising up and down as the two made eye contact across the way. Shadow watched as he pulled a pair of small brass knuckles from his pockets, carefully slipping them on his fingers. 

Shadow had to admit, he hadn’t been in a proper fight in quite a while. This would be a good opportunity to brush up on his skills and back into the swing of things. 

And maybe teach this idiot a lesson or two. 

With the metal securely on his fingers, Knuckles started walking slowly toward Shadow, stepping out into the sun and onto the brightly colored concrete. 

With the sun high in the sky, their shadows were nearly imperceptible, small pools of darkness forming only around their feet. Knuckles cocked his head to the side, cracking his neck as he reached five feet away from Shadow. With a small nod from each, the two began to circle each other, sizing each other up as a predator would its prey.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shadow spotted Sonic exit the academy, huffing and panting as he leaned forward with his hands on his thighs. He grimaced. The last thing he needed right now was the blue idiot getting in his way or distracting him mid-fight. Shadow tried to shoot him a look to stay back, but Sonic was too busy gasping for air. 

Some athletic ability he has. 

Knuckles shifted slightly, bending his knees more and bringing his fists to his face in the traditional fighting stance. Shadow turned his attention back to him just as the teen shot forward, jumping near ten feet and swinging his right fist straight at Shadow’s face. Shadow ducked under the fist, shoving his palm straight into Knuckles’ solar plexus, sending the teen careening backward. Knuckles landed hard on the backs on his heels, skidding slightly on the concrete as he caught himself. Shaking the impact off, he brought his fists back in front of his face and squatted slightly, keeping himself lower. 

Smart. 

Shadow knew he had landed a pretty hard hit, and Knuckles wouldn’t leave himself open like that again. Shaking the excess hair from his face, Shadow lowered himself into the same stance as Knuckles, beginning to circle the other again. Knuckles furrowed his brow, searching Shadow for where to strike next. His eyes briefly darted to Sonic, who was now standing on the stairs and watching them. 

Perfect.

Shadow shot forward, aiming another palm strike at the side of Knuckles’ arm. Knuckles bristled, the impact hitting his forearm, but reeled back his other hand and punched Shadow squarely in the chin, causing him to stumble back slightly. As Shadow fell back, he kept his grip on Knuckles’ arm, twisting it down and sideways, causing him to yelp in pain and jump backward. 

Shadow grunted, massaging his chin with his hand and feeling a trickle of blood seep out of his mouth. He brought his arm to his mouth and wiped away the hot liquid with a harsh rub, quickly bringing his arms back to the fighting stance. 

Knuckles was going to pay for that.  

The red haired teen was grasping at his arm, the appendage hanging loosely and in an awkward position. With a grunt, Knuckles yanked the joint back into place, causing a loud pop to sound across the courtyard. He rolled his neck, moving his arms back up to match Shadow’s fighting stance a few feet away from him. 

Shadow had to admit, the familiar sting of pain and blood flowing down his face felt almost good, the adrenaline buzzing through his brain as he moved. Going into battle with Maria had been like a dance, their souls in sync as they easily cut through any foe they went against. Even dripping blood and stumbling home, the two would always laugh it off, wiping each other clean with rags and carefully bandaging the other’s wounds. It could have been a game.

Until it wasn’t.

Suddenly the blood dripping from his mouth stung far more than before. 

Shadow shook his head, willing the thoughts away. He needed to end this. While his arm was still vulnerable, Shadow shot forward to shove all his weight onto Knuckles’ injured side, tackling him to the ground. Knuckles crashed into the concrete hard, most of the damage going to his opposite shoulder. Shadow wasted no time in delivering a solid punch to his nose, a satisfying crack echoing across the platform. The other teen grunted as hot red blood began to trickle from his nose and down into the cracks of his teeth. 

Without warning, Knuckles’ other hand shot up to grasp Shadow by the throat and slam him down on the terracotta, causing a shooting pain to erupt in the back of his skull. Briefly, Shadow’s vision was dotted with black spots, pain and blood rushing through his head like a wildfire. He grunted, trying to take in a breath, but the red haired teen’s grasp was still around his neck, making his vision swim even more. 

Shadow couldn’t think straight. He needed to-

“Knuckles, stop!” a voice called out, sounding both underwater and far away. Even with his blurry vision, Shadow could see Knuckles’ head turn away from his body to glance up. 

Now. 

With a pained wheeze, Shadow wrenched his arm to the side and transformed it into a traditional scythe blade, swinging the sharp edge down hard. Knuckled jerked back to avoid getting slashed, the edge of the blade just barely scathing his cheek as he hit the concrete behind him. 

Shadow gasped for air, the crushing grip suddenly gone from his throat. He sat up, his vision clouding again with more spots and blurry images. 

“Stop!” the voice came again, another body stepping into his line of sight. The bright blue figure rushed in front of him, crouching at his opponent’s side and checking the injuries before turning to face Shadow. 

The spots were slowly clearing away, and Shadow could now make out Sonic’s concerned face looking back at him. Knuckles was clutching at his nose and cheek, the blood spurting all over his white tank top and baggy cargo pants, slowly spilling onto the floor below. 

Shadow stared intently at the blood, slowly watching it pool and creep across the concrete toward him. Blood was all over his hands, his pants, his face- coating him like tar and pulling him down with a thick, heavy weight. And suddenly Maria was in his lap, her blood spilling out rapidly, far too fast for him to stop with his hands, her face stained red and her mouth moving slowly, her breath ragged, telling him to run, to leave, to-

Shadow’s breath came out in ragged gasps, sounding more like a dying fish than anyone trying to breathe. 

A glance back up revealed far less blood than Shadow had been picturing, Sonic having pushed his jacket onto Knuckles’ face, holding it there to slow the bleeding. The blue haired boy was coming toward him now, his face creased with worry and holding out a hand. 

Shadow grunted and spun his face away from the hand, shoving himself forward and onto his feet. His vision swum, the floor now starting to spin and Sonic’s face duplicating. As he stumbled forward, Shadow felt hands on his shoulder, steadying him. 

“Woah, dude, slow down! You can sit back down,” Sonic said, his voice still far away and under a layer of mush. Shadow shook his head and tried to push the other teen away, but found his movements were sluggish and uncoordinated. 

Finally relenting, Shadow allowed Sonic to lead him to sit on the stairs up to the academy, Knuckles plopping down next to him with a heavy sigh. The red headed teen took the jacket away from his nose, the bleeding having mostly stopped by now, and turned to look at Shadow. 

Without warning, Knuckles burst out laughing, clapping a heavy hand on Shadow’s back, causing him to grunt and buckle forward.

“Wow, wasn’t that incredible! I haven’t had a fight like that in ages!” he roared, now cackling and doubling over in laughter. Shadow frowned, staring in bewilderment at the teen’s sudden change in attitude. 

Knuckles looked up and noticed him staring in bewilderment, causing him to break out into even louder laughter and slap his knees.

“You should see your face!” 

Shadow scowled.

“Is this normally how you act when people beat your ass?” Shadow scorned, reaching up to rub at his aching neck. 

“Beat my ass? You should see yourself!” Knuckles snickered. “I’ve never fought anyone who could match my strength before. Hell, I thought you were gonna stab me through the face for a second there!”

Shadow went quiet. He had been incredibly close to hitting a potentially fatal blow to Knuckles.

“...I… I didn’t mean to transform. I didn’t want to kill you,” he muttered, staring down at his air shoes. The sides were slightly more scuffed than they had been before, the top also coated with a few blood splotches. He would have to clean and buff them later. 

“Nah, don’t worry about it. You couldn’t kill me even if you tried!” Knuckles laughed, grasping his shoulder and shaking him a bit. “I don’t know if you’re aware of my reputation, but I'm undefeated!” 

Shadow snorted.

“Have you even faced a real enemy before?” he asked, looking over at the red headed teen. 

“Of course I have!”

Sonic came walking back to them, having been out of sight for their whole conversation. 

“Alright, I got someone to go get the nurse for you guys,” he said, plopping down on Shadow’s other side. Knuckles leaned forward, looking over Shadow to get a good look at Sonic. 

“Why the hell did you stop us?” he demanded, raising a fist toward the blue haired boy. Sonic frowned.

“Uh, because you were going to kill each other? I kinda need Shadow to stay in this school, thank you very much.”

Shadow furrowed his brows. 

“Wait, you thought he was going to kill me?” Shadow asked, offended. From behind him, Knuckles just laughed. 

Sonic blushed slightly.

“I don't know! That fight was so stupid! It needed to end at some point anyway,” he grumbled. “And look at you two now! Best of buds!” 

Shadow stared back down at his shoes. 

Best of buds, huh?

Shadow stood, the spots and blurriness having faded completely from his vision, and began to walk away from the academy. 

“Hey wait, where are you going? The nurse needs to look at you!” Sonic shouted after him. 

“I’m fine, ” Shadow said curtly. “I’m going home.” He turned slightly to look back at Sonic and Knuckles. 

“And one more thing. We are not best buds.” 

With that, Shadow turned and started the long trek down the stairs of the academy, leaving the bright-colored boys behind him.    

…

It had always been just him and Maria. When they were young, her grandfather, a great older meister named Gerald Robotnik, would come to the DWMA to consult with Lord Doom on new innovations for weapon technology. He would bring his granddaughter with him everywhere, her parents having passed away years prior, and the two children would often be left alone while the adults talked. 

Shadow had never had a friend before Maria. He had private tutors, never went to school, and was watched most often by Stone in the absence of real Death Scythe duties. Lord Doom thought it was dangerous for Shadow to be left without proper surveillance, so he was mostly in their large house or in the academy, never far from a mirror for Doom to look in on him with. 

Lord Doom also feared that Shadow could prove dangerous to human children, his powers not fully realized or under control at such a young age. In the beginning, Shadow was barely allowed to be within a few feet of Maria, the elder Robotnik fearing for his grandchild’s safety. Over time, however, Shadow proved that he was not a danger to the girl.

Maria had always wanted to go to the DWMA. Her mother had been a weapon, and she was thoroughly disappointed to find out she hadn’t inherited those powers. Ultimately, she decided to become a meister, as any human had the potential to become one. Gerald Robotnik had not wanted her to enroll, fearing she would meet the same fate as her parents, but she was far too stubborn to be convinced otherwise. 

When Maria went to the academy, Shadow did not go with her, opting to train as a weapon on his own with Stone or other experienced weapons. Shadow couldn’t fathom how Maria could stand to be around hundreds of other teens, who were loud, troublesome, and ready to bully anyone different. 

But of course, Maria was Maria, and she made friends quite easily. She never forgot about Shadow though, opting to have him as her weapon anyway and begging him to socialize with people from the academy. 

She had always wanted him to have friends. 

Both Gerald and Lord Doom had advised against the two of them partnering up. Being the son of Doom, he would always be under more threat and attack from witches, and would ultimately put Maria in more danger further down the line. Neither of them would listen. 

It was only after her death, after he had failed to save her, that Shadow knew his father was right; it was far too dangerous for anyone to be around him. 

One thing was for certain: Shadow could never let anyone get that close to him again. 

Chapter Text

Sonic awoke the next day, a light throbbing spreading through his temple. He groaned as he sat up, slight spots appearing in his vision as he scooted to the edge of the bed. Light poured in through the cracks in the curtains, bright and persistent, telling him that he had slept in far later than he should have. 

At least it was Saturday. 

With a huff, Sonic pushed himself off the side of the bed, feet brushing the scratchy carpet covering his floor. On the bunk above him, Tails was still sound asleep, his soft breathing resounding throughout the small room. Sonic stood and stretched, cracking his back and neck before stepping over the piles of dirty clothes and stray robot parts spread out all over the floor. 

Over the past week, more and more of Tails’ robotic pieces had arrived, leaving him busy building late into the nights. Sonic wasn’t a big fan of the kid staying up so late, but he hadn’t had the heart to make him stop when he was enjoying himself so much. At the very least, the boy would catch up on his sleep during the weekends.

Sonic padded into the kitchen, digging through his pantry to grab a box of cereal. Knuckles was already awake, doing pushups on a yoga mat in the living area. As Sonic sat down with his breakfast, he could hear the older teen grunting with exertion as he moved up and down at a steady pace.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” Sonic asked, mouth full of cereal. Knuckles paused briefly, holding the plank position for a few seconds before continuing his pushups.

“My nose is broken, not the rest of me.”

“Uh, no. Your arm got dislocated dude.”

“I popped it back into place.” 

Sonic scowled, continuing to shovel cereal into his mouth. 

“Thats not how that works,” Sonic pointed out, milk dripping down his chin as he talked. Knuckles finally stopped his pushups, lying on his back and beginning to do situps instead. Sonic shook his head.

“I must improve my physical skills for my next battle with Shadow. I need to match his strength.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. 

“Shadow’s probably got, like, crazy powers or something. I don’t think any amount of pushups is gonna change that.” Sonic picked up his bowl and drank the remainder of his milk, more liquid pouring down his face and spilling on his pajama pants. 

Knuckles was quiet, the only sounds coming from him were the slight breaths as he sat up and down. 

Whatever. At least he’s not exercising his arm anymore. 

Sonic glanced at his phone. 1:37 pm. Much later than he usually woke up, even for Saturdays.

“Hey Knucks, you wanna go for a run with me?” he asked. Knuckles continued his situps briefly before laying down with a heavy sigh. 

“Already went earlier. But if you’re going out, we need more groceries. Tails left a list on the counter.”

Sonic scowled.

“Wait, if you already went out, why didn’t you get it yourself?”

Knuckles shrugged. 

“Forgot,” he said nonchalantly, standing up and beginning to do squats. Sonic rolled his eyes. 

“Fine. Enjoy fucking up your arm, or whatever.” Knuckles didn’t look up at him again, simply grunting in response. 

Sonic went back into his room and dressed in running shorts, his binder, and an athletic t-shirt. His ribs felt better today, with Tails having forced him to take a break for the last few days. He knew it wasn’t smart to wear the binder while exercising, but he really didn’t want to be seen outside the house without it on, so he opted to just not over exert himself. Grabbing the grocery list from the counter, Sonic bolted out the door and sped down the apartment hallway and out of the building. 

The heat was beginning to die down outside, the weather bright and sunny but not overbearing as it had been the last week. A few clouds were finally present in the sky, bringing promise of rain within the next few weeks. Sonic was reminded of the constant perfect weather present in the Doom Room, the slight breeze ruffling his shoulder length hair as he jogged down the street toward the local park. 

It was slightly difficult to go for runs in Doom City, the constant tourist presence and Vegas gambling influence blocking the sidewalks and crowding the streets with traffic. Sonic meandered around a small group being led by a guide, the woman animatedly talking about the rich history of the city and its creation hundreds of years ago by Lord Doom. A few food trucks and carts blocked the middle of the sidewalk, and Sonic was forced to run into the street past the coming cars to get around them. He grimaced as all the drivers began to honk at him, one man yelling swears out the window. 

The town he grew up in, Green Hills, was not nearly as chaotic as this. Living in the wilderness of Montana, there had always been plenty of nature and hiking paths for Sonic to run along freely. What few hundred people lived there largely walked through town, cars being unnecessary for the people who lived and worked in the town and didn’t go anywhere else. It was times like this that Sonic missed the quiet sounds of birds chirping and sticks crunching under his feet, rather than the chaotic honks and smog permeating his lungs on a daily basis. 

Sonic turned a corner away from the busy street and toward a slightly more suburban area. There was a small park near some of the nice houses that he enjoyed running laps through, the fresh cut grass and trees giving him some small semblance of familiarity. There were also far fewer tourists in the area, with there being less historical monuments and pop-up shops. The park was the closest thing to real nature in Doom City other than just running straight into the desert, which stretched for miles all around the city. 

Running past the grocery store, Sonic resolved to do a few laps around the park first before grabbing what he needed on the way back. The park was fancy by Sonic’s standards, an intricately decorated arc carved out of metal stretching over the park entrance. The grass was wet and perfectly manicured, likely on a strict sprinkler system, with no weeds or flowers in sight. Small hedges lined the concrete path which meandered in a circle throughout the park, the shapes perfectly trimmed into different animal forms. In the center of the park was a small playground, if you could really call it that, consisting of a bench and one structure with two small slides, a ladder, and a set of stairs. One long swing stood next to the small structure, green paint perfectly shining in the sunlight and unblemished by wear and tear. As far as Sonic was concerned, the thing was for display only. 

Only a few people were ever in the park, mostly elderly couples walking their small dogs and shooting him dirty looks whenever he ran by. This was slightly more reminiscent of Green Hills, the small town in Montana not being the most accepting for a young queer teen growing up. Having bright blue hair and a more unique clothing style never helped his case, and even in Doom City, he tended to stick out. 

Sonic never let it bother him. He was who he was, and it didn’t matter what they thought. He could outrun all of them anyway, leaving their piercing glares and judgemental thoughts far behind him.

Today was quieter than usual, a distinct lack of people being present on the concrete paths. This was surprising for a weekend, with more people usually being out and about with their families or friends. Save for a lone figure on the bench near the play structure, Sonic was entirely alone. 

Wait.

Sonic squinted at the figure on the bench, jogging slightly closer to get a better look. Black hair with red streaks, a leather jacket, a familiar scowl-

Shadow?

“Shadow!” Sonic called out, causing the other teen to jerk his head toward him, clearly surprised. Shadow locked eyes with him as he jogged up to the bench, the teen furrowing his brows deeper and leaning back into the bench. 

“Sorry, did I startle you?” Sonic asked, plopping down on the bench next to him. Shadow stiffened and scooted away slightly.

Wow, rude.

“No. I was just… lost in thought,” the dark haired teen replied, now staring daggers at the swingset in front of him. 

“Cool, cool. How’s your neck doing? You healing alright?” Sonic glanced at the other’s neck, searching for the remnants of bruises from where Knuckles had gripped him the day before. He was surprised to find his neck perfectly smooth and unblemished, in fact, looking rather soft. Sonic wondered if Shadow’s skin was as soft as it looked, if he reached across to touch him how it would feel-

Wait. What was he thinking?

“Fine. I heal quite fast due to my… enhanced physical abilities,” Shadow mumbled, snapping Sonic from his thoughts. 

“Ohhhh okay! That’s pretty cool! Gotta be really useful in battle, huh? You can bounce right back!”

“I suppose so.” Shadow shifted, turning to face Sonic slightly. 

“How is… your friend?” he asked softly.

“Knuckles? He’s fine. Just a broken nose, but he’s broken that before. He’s gonna try and fight you again, you know that? I think you’re the only person who’s ever beaten him.”

Shadow was quiet for a moment before responding.

“I don’t think I beat him, not fully. You stopped us.”

“Ha, yeah, I guess.”

The two sat there for a few moments in silence, watching the clouds float slowly through the clear blue sky. It was quiet, the busy streets far enough away that Sonic could almost hear the leaves rustle in the hedges next to him. 

Shadow sighed. 

“I suppose you’re going to say we ought to find different partners, yes?”

Sonic jerked his head up.

“What? No, why?”

Shadow fidgeted with his fingers, looking down at his legs. 

“I nearly killed your friend. It would be best if neither of you stayed near me. I’ll figure out some other deal with my father to get me into the field.”

Sonic just gawked at him.

What the hell is he on about?

“Uh, first of all, I couldn’t find another partner if I left you. Literally no one wants to work with me.” Sonic paused, making sure Shadow was looking at him before continuing. “And second, you were nowhere near killing Knuckles. If anything, I haven’t seen him so pumped up to improve his fighting skills in ages! I think the fight was stupid, sure, but maybe it could be good for him. Let his anger out in a healthier way than picking fights with random people.”

Shadow looked at him, seemingly searching for doubt or other uncertainty in his eyes.

“You think… it would be good? To fight him?”

“Well not fight, fight. Sparring. And ya know,” Sonic glanced to the side, running a nervous hand through his hair, “We could train together too. Meister and weapon are supposed to do that together. We could even train with Knuckles and his partner, Sticks! That could be fun, right?”

Sonic was rambling now, scratching his head and gesturing wildly with his other hand. Shadow continued to look down, now playing with a loose string on his jeans. 

“I really need this,” Sonic admitted. “This is my last chance to stay in school, I can’t mess this up. This has been my dream, like, since forever.” 

Shadow glanced back up at him, his eyes softening slightly.

“I know I’m not your first choice, I know there’s probably any number of better people you could work with, but please. Just give me a chance.”

Shadow looked shocked. Sonic was surprised at his own honesty and looked back down. 

“..It’s not you,” Shadow started.

Sonic snorted.

“ It’s not you, it's me ! Classic breakup excuse,” he smirked. 

Shadow scowled at him, the softness leaving his eyes in an instant.

“I was going to say, ” Shadow said curtly, “I didn’t want to have a partner in the first place. I wanted to go out in the field on my own, but Father doesn’t want me there alone.”

“Why? You’re definitely powerful enough for it, seeing how you kicked Knuckles’ butt!” Sonic laughed, elbowing Shadow slightly. 

Shadow looked back down, his face clouded with some emotion Sonic couldn’t quite place. 

“I’ve… gotten hurt in the field before. In a fight with a witch. My previous meister… didn’t make it.”

Oh shit. 

“Oh wow, I’m uh, I’m so sorry about that,” Sonic stammered, suddenly feeling very guilty for asking. 

Shadow cleared his throat and sat up straighter. 

“In any case, I think it’s reckless of Father to endanger another meister by partnering them with me. But he won’t hear of it. If I ever want to find the witches who hurt me and bring them down, this is how it has to be.”

So that’s what this is. 

“I mean, anyone who goes to this school is going to face some sort of danger. That’s kinda the nature of becoming a weapon or a meister, right? I don’t think you’re endangering me any more than you would anyone else,” Sonic pointed out.

“Maybe. And maybe that’s part of the problem,” Shadow muttered, crossing his arms. 

Sonic swallowed. This conversation wasn’t going the way he wanted it to.

“Well, in any case, we need each other, right? Might as well try to make the best of it.” Sonic gave his best friendly smile, the one with slightly too much teeth that scrunched up his face. 

Shadow looked back at him. 

“I suppose.” 

Sonic sat for another moment before standing up, stretching out his limbs over his head and hearing his back crack. 

“Well, I’ve gotta go get groceries. See ya Monday at school?”

Shadow looked up at him, brushing the hair out of his face. For someone so mean and grumpy, he was unfairly attractive. The red and black of his hair framed his face perfectly, and combined with the small metal nose and eyebrow piercings, he could easily be a model for Hot Topic or something. Sonic realized he was staring and looked away. 

“Yes. At school,” Shadow said curtly. 

“Alright. Have a good day!” Sonic said cheerily, jogging away toward the grocery store.

Every interaction with Shadow just left Sonic more confused (and somehow more flustered) than before. Sonic knew he had barely scratched the surface of the other teen’s history and personality, but each interaction left him needing to know more. 

One way or another, Sonic would have to figure him out. 

Chapter Text

Shadow had never been one for going outside. Even as he sat on the bench outside, the noises were unfamiliar to him, the stench of smog still permeating the park air despite its distance from the main road. Still, the park near his house was one of the quieter areas, being largely suburban and separated from the rest of the city. 

Lord Doom had a mansion all to himself, which was odd to Shadow considering the man was rarely ever seen outside of his mirror form. He could barely recall the last time Lord Doom had appeared in the flesh, having been several years prior when he was still quite young. Shadow had asked on several occasions why he remained in the mirror, but had received little answer. If Shadow didn’t know any better, he might think the man couldn’t leave the mirror anymore at all. 

The only question was, why?

In any case, Lord Doom certainly didn’t need a giant mansion, but the people of the world insisted only the best be given to their benevolent god, and so mansion it was. The place was mostly decorative, a display of wealth and power that showed the world he was to be trusted as their leader. It was used for parties or other formal events, often hosting world leaders and top meisters and weapons in the grand foyer and ballrooms. 

Shadow hated those events, and he hated the mansion even more. Even as a child, he knew just how hollow and meaningless it was, just a structure built for show. There was no warmth there, nothing even vaguely reminiscent of a home, just long hallways and vast rooms filled with riches he wasn’t allowed to touch. 

The only person who had ever made him feel at home was… 

Well. 

It certainly didn’t feel like much of a home these days, so Shadow had taken to going outside more. It wasn’t his style, but Stone had always encouraged him to “get some fresh air” and “clear his head.” As if that did anything. At least the disgusting smog and chatter of tourists wasn’t as stifling as that miserable mansion. 

And Sonic had certainly been… interesting. Shadow watched the blue figure retreat down the road toward the city, apparently toward the grocery store. His bright cerulean hair shimmered in the sunshine, reminding him of the pictures of the ocean he had loved looking at as a child. 

Shadow had always wanted to go to the ocean.

For someone with the amount of wealth and resources as he had, Shadow had never been out of Doom City, his father would never allow it. There’s no reason to risk it, he had always said, there’s plenty we can do right here in the city, where I can watch you.

Shadow thought it was a load of bullshit.

The sun sank lower in the sky, casting the city in a slight orange hue as evening began to fall. The park was completely empty now, the small swingset across from the bench swaying gently in the wind. Shadow stood, stretching his limbs after being sat on the bench for the last few hours. Whatever Stone had meant by going outside, Shadow was quite certain he was doing it wrong. Teenagers his age liked going shopping, right? Or going to the various tourist spots in the city?

Shadow figured it was a little late to be going to a museum, but maybe he could look at a shop or two on the main street. He had gone with Maria a few times, and she had always loved the old record stores. Being mostly raised by her grandfather, Maria had grown up with his old record player and collection of music, unlike her peers who had the newest phones and earbuds for listening to music. Maria enjoyed listening to records more anyway, perceiving them as quaint and antique rather than old and outdated. Shadow wondered if the store she liked was still there.

He made his way out of the park and down toward the main streets, the cars zooming down the street and groups of tourists becoming more plentiful as he went. Shadow grimaced at the sudden onslaught of noise, resisting the urge to reach up and cover his ears like he used to do as a child. Passing the gigantic statue of his father situated in the cross-center of three roads, Shadow glanced around, trying to figure out which way to go. Going downtown was still a rare occasion, even with Maria, and all the outside stimulation was not helping him focus. With a huff, Shadow pulled out his phone to search up “record store.” A few red dots popped up on the map app, so Shadow selected the closest one and began to walk.

Shadow squinted at his phone, the small screen not illuminated enough to see properly. He frowned and started tapping at it, trying to find the button to turn up the brightness but not being able to see any of what he was actually doing. He pulled the screen closer to his face, continuing to walk as he struggled with the device. A blaring horn from behind him made him wince and scrunch his eyes, his concentration even worse as he continued to stumble ahead, right in front of-

“Watch out!”

For a brief moment, all Shadow could see was light and a bright flash of pink before he was on the pavement, the asphalt cutting into his cheek and a heavy weight falling on top of him. He groaned, opening his eyes to see another body pressed into his, shaking slightly and attempting to prop themself up. 

“Are you ok?” the figure asked. It was a girl, Shadow could see as she came into focus, with chin-length pink hair and freckles. Shadow pushed himself up, the girl maneuvering them onto the sidewalk and out of the street.

“Fine. Are you alright?” he asked, scanning the stranger for any obvious injuries. Besides a few scratches on her upper arm, she looked to be unharmed. 

“Oh my gosh!” another voice came from behind them. Shadow turned to see another girl with short purple hair run toward them, eyebrows creased in concern. 

“I’m fine, Blaze!” the first girl called, waving over the other girl, presumably Blaze, as she began to stand up. She reached out a hand to Shadow, who was still sitting on the pavement looking dumbfounded. He looked away and pushed himself up, brushing off the dirt from his leather jacket and pants. 

As Shadow patted his pants, he realized his phone was missing. He squinted at the street, looking around for the small device but only finding dust and the continuous stream of cars. He sighed. The pink haired girl turned to him.

“You almost got hit by that truck, you know. You should really look where you’re going instead of being on your phone when crossing the street,” she said sternly.

Shadow was about to speak when the other girl, Blaze, finally caught up to them, sweeping up the pink haired girl in a crushing hug. 

“I thought that truck hit you! Why did you go running into traffic like that?” she yelled. The pink haired girl hugged her back before turning to look at Shadow.

“That guy was about to be hit by a truck, since he wasn’t paying attention,” she said, looking Shadow directly in the eye. He huffed.

“I apologize. My phone wasn’t illuminating correctly for me to see. I didn’t realize I was in the street,” he explained. He continued scanning the ground around him for his phone.

Shoot. That had all his pictures of him and Maria on it. 

More frantic now, Shadow squatted down and swiveled his head back and forth. It could have been crushed by a car by now, or fallen down a gutter, or-

“Hey. It’s ok. I didn't mean to yell at you.” The pink haired girl had a hand on his shoulder, looking concerned now. 

Shadow was breathing heavily now, still staring into the road.

“It’s not that. My phone. It has... important pictures. I need to find it.” He started to pace up and down the sidewalk, looking down the grates to see if it had slipped between the bars. 

The two girls glanced at each other worriedly for a split second before turning to search the street with him. The pink haired girl started down the sidewalk in the opposite direction, looking down the gutters and cracks where the sidewalk met the asphalt. 

“Hey! Is this it?”

Shadow’s head snapped up to see her waving the small device in her hand back and forth. He sighed in relief as he jogged over to grab it.

“Yes. Thank you so much,” he breathed out, the rush of relief washing over him suddenly. 

“It’s no problem… er, what’s your name?”

“Shadow.”

“Oo, isn’t that mysterious? I’m Amy!” she reached out a hand to him again. Hesitantly, he grabbed it and shook, keeping his grip tight and making direct eye contact the way his father had taught him to do with important officials. 

“I’m.. so sorry to have troubled you,” he muttered, releasing her hand and looking down at his shoes. He must seem a fool, having almost gotten hit by a truck looking at his phone and then nearly having a panic attack over losing the phone.

What was it Maria’s grandfather had called teens that acted addicted to their phones? Screenagers?

Amy smiled at him, warm and reassuring.

“It’s ok, really! I get it, I have so many pictures on my phone that I’d be devastated to lose. Especially the ones I have of me and Blaze!” she exclaimed. The other girl had caught up to them now, putting a hand around Amy’s waist and resting her head on her shoulder. She chuckled a bit at this. 

“I have the exact same pictures, you know,” she said softly, brushing a stray purple hair from her face. 

“Well, yeah, but it’s not the same! And I have all those pictures of my old dog I’d miss too!”

Blaze made a humming sound and let go of Amy, turning back to Shadow. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

Shadow nodded, gripping his phone tightly and checking it for damage. The screen had a new crack on it, but the wallpaper still illuminated just fine, and everything else seemed intact. 

“What were you looking at so intently, anyway?” Amy asked, her eyes still showing slight concern. 

“I was trying to find a record store. My phone wasn’t lighting up enough for me to see.”

With the words “record store” both girls’ faces lit up.

“Oh my god, you have to go to the place down the street! Blaze, what’s it called again?”

“Racing Records.”

“Yes, that one! It’s adorable, and it’s been in the city, like, forever. The owner is ancient . But there’s so many vintage records and it’s pretty cheap!” Amy prattled, waving her hands around excitedly. From the description, it sounded like the one Maria had enjoyed going to, or at least similar.

“Do you.. know where I could find it?” Shadow asked tentatively. He avoided eye contact with the bright pink girl, her gaze becoming far too intense for his liking.

“Of course! Follow us, Blaze and I go there all the time!” she exclaimed.

“…Are you sure that’s alright?” Shadow glanced back down at his phone. The lock screen was still a poorly taken selfie of Maria, a joke when she had stolen his phone for a few hours and set it as the wallpaper. Shadow had never changed it. 

“Yeah! We’re going there now, anyway. Blaze and I find old records in yard sales and recycling centers sometimes, so we sell them to this place when we can,” Amy explained, holding up Blaze’s bag which was, indeed, full of records. 

Shadow nodded. He expected the two to turn around and begin to lead the way, so he was surprised to find each girl turn back and settle on either side of him. Amy clapped a hand on his back and began walking, her eyes now glued to his leather jacket. 

“Oh my god, this thing is so cute! The little studs on the shoulders? I need this!” She began to fiddle with the small spikes on the shoulder pads of his jacket. “Where did you get it? Blaze has this dark purple one we found at this garage sale and-”

Shadow wasn’t listening. 

Did everyone in this city have the same dyed hair and obnoxiously friendly attitude?

The two were talking over him, quite literally, with each girl engaged in conversation with Shadow between them. He had no clue why they’d chosen to walk in this formation, perhaps some feeble attempt at including him in conversation, but mostly he just felt awkward. Trapped. 

Why the hell was he there?

The girls chattered all the way until they reached the record store, with Shadow’s ears slightly ringing and his breath still coming out short. He gripped his phone in his pocket like a boa constrictor would its prey, willing the thing not to get away. 

Why did it even matter so much anyway? She was gone, she was never coming back, and no amount of photos on his sad black rectangle would ever change that fact. He could barely even stand to see her face, in photos or on his lock screen or even in his mind. She was a curse now, a glaring reminder of all his failures, the promise he couldn’t keep. 

“Are you okay? I hope I didn’t hurt you too badly when I knocked you to the ground,” Amy said, snapping Shadow from his thoughts. 

She was being far too nice to him. 

“I’m not hurt,” he said curtly. 

“Ok, ok. That’s good. I’ve been told I’m pretty strong! Even for someone in the academy, I’m top of my class in strength.”

Wait. 

“You go to the DWMA too ?” Shadow asked, bewildered. 

Of course she did. Every teenager who lived in this god forsaken city went to the academy, why wouldn’t she? For a moment, his brain flashed to images of Maria on the ground, now replaced by these new girls, by Knuckles, by Sonic-

“Yep! Me and Blaze officially got our third evil soul last night, too! Apparently we were good enough to go on missions, and-”

“You should quit.”

“-and we passed that really hard exam in history so, wait what?” Amy stopped in her tracks, jerking her head to look at him. Blaze stopped too, giving him a slight side eye before walking to stand next to Amy again.

“I said, you should quit. That place is going to get you two killed.” Shadow scorned, looking the two up and down. 

It was hard not to see Maria’s face in every naive academy student that passed him by. There had been more of them in the news lately, no matter how much his father tried to cover it up. Weapons and meisters were being sent into battle to die. And there was nothing he could do about it. 

“What the hell do you know, you emo idiot?” Blaze shouted. Amy looked at her, slightly surprised by the outburst. “My girlfriend saved your life with training from that academy, and all you’ve done is act rude and insane!”

Shadow gritted his teeth.

“That is not what I’m saying. There’s been more deaths of students recently, and Lord Doom is doing nothing about it. I’m simply trying to repay the favor. Leave while you can.”

Blaze looked like she was going to tackle and punch him, but Amy placed an arm on her shoulder and looked at him, her face stoic.

“I would say I appreciate the concern, but I don’t. You have no idea how hard I, and so many others, work just to keep the world safe. And if it costs some lives to protect the people, then so be it. I’ll gladly die to protect the ones I love.”

She was determined, that’s for sure. 

Shadow glanced up at the record store, the sign in the window illuminating the words “Open.” He sighed. 

“Can’t say I didn’t warn you.” He looked Amy directly in the eyes. “Be safe.”

And with that, Shadow turned on his heels and walked away, the new image of Amy bleeding out burned into his mind. 

Chapter Text

Monday mornings never got any easier. The alarm blared in Sonic’s ears at 6:45 am sharp, causing him to jolt upright and hit his head on the bunk above him. He groaned, rubbing his head and turning his body so his feet hung off the side of the bed. He could hear Tails whine and shift, presumably pulling the blanket over his head so he wouldn’t have to hear the alarm so loud. 

“Sorry buddy,” Sonic mumbled as he hit the stop button on his phone’s alarm, standing up and stretching again. Tails made some sort of noise from above him before falling silent again, likely already asleep. The boy only went to school in person a few days a week, lucky for him, and he got to sleep as much as he wanted Mondays and Fridays. 

Sonic yawned and shuffled over to his closet, digging through the clothing pile on the floor to find something clean enough to wear. He brought his usual jacket to his nose and sniffed.

Ok, that one smells fine. What about this?

He grabbed a shirt to sniff the underarm area and immediately recoiled from the stench. 

Nope, definitely not that one. 

From outside his room, Sonic could hear Knuckles stomping around the kitchen, banging the cabinets open and closed as he presumably searched for breakfast. Sonic looked deeper in his closet. Wasn’t there anything he hadn’t worn yet that week? Bringing another shirt to his nose, he realized that it smelled pretty bad too. 

Fuck. 

Well, Sonic guessed he just had to put on a crap ton of deodorant and hoped it would drown out the body odor. He really needed to do laundry soon. After bathing himself in the body spray, Sonic finally emerged from his room with his backpack stuffed with loose papers. 

Knuckled immediately wrinkled his nose, shooting him a glare mid chew of oatmeal.

“You stink,” he deadpanned, swallowing his food. 

“Look, I haven’t done laundry in a while, I haven't had the time. I sprayed myself with a bunch of that deodorant you gave me, though!”

Knuckled just shook his head.

“Yeah, well I can smell both. Somehow. Let me give you a shirt or something.”

Knuckles retreated in the other bedroom and came out with a bright red shirt that read “Ask Me About My Chronic Constipation” with an image of a toilet under the text. Sonic frowned. Knuckles smirked at him.

“What about this?”

“Why the hell do you have that? And put that away, I’m not wearing it,” Sonic scoffed, crossing his arms. 

“Look, I’m saying this as a friend, but you cannot go out of the house being that filthy. The smell is bad enough, look at the stains!” Knuckles gestured at him.

“Dude, since when are you a neat freak? I’ve seen you eat out of garbage cans with Sticks before,” Sonic shot back, continuing to stare daggers at the shirt. 

“I’m just saying, man. If I think it’s bad, then it’s bad. But it’s whatever, I’m not your mom.”

Sonic sighed and took the shirt. 

“Fine.”

…

Thirty minutes later, Sonic was huffing as he and Knuckles climbed the impossibly steep set of stairs leading up to the academy. Knuckles was ahead of him, jogging slightly, seemingly unfazed by the extreme workout. Sonic recalled that he would sometimes put weights in his backpack for an extra challenge before and after school. 

Sonic thought the guy was insane.

He was breathing heavily, his binder tight around his chest and no end to the stairs in sight. 

“C’mon Sonic, keep going! Pretty sure we’re already late, too, so we should hurry,” Knuckles called down from ahead of him. Sonic groaned. 

“Will you carry me? Pleaaaaaseeee?” he whined, leaning forward to catch his breath. Knuckles just laughed and kept bounding up the stairs. 

Some friend he is. 

By the time he reached the top, Knuckles was nowhere in sight, seemingly already in the building and in class. Gasping, Sonic used the last of his energy to jog into the building and down the hallways, shoving past the other students still milling around. A few of them shot him glares as he pushed past them, but Sonic just kept going. He was really going to be in trouble this time. A glance at his watch revealed it was thirty minutes past starting time, not nearly as bad as it was last time, but he had no Shadow as an excuse this time. 

Sonic reached the double doors of his classroom and opened them quietly, hoping that he wouldn’t be noticed if he was subtle enough. He was not so lucky.

“Ah, Sonic! Late again, I see! Care to give me a reason why?” Dr. Robotnik taunted, stopping whatever lecture he was in the middle of to taunt him. Sonic grimaced. 

Robotnik, or Eggman, as he had deemed him, seemed to have hated him since the start of the year, always calling him out in class or making him do work the professor knew Sonic had no clue how to do. There didn’t seem to be any reason in particular for it, but Sonic knew from experience that teachers would just decide to pick on him based on looks alone. Sonic had hoped to get some petty revenge with his little stink bomb prank, and it certainly seemed easy enough to get away with, but the man now just hated him more, making some horrible joke or example of him in nearly every class. There hadn’t even been any proof that it was him, but Eggman just knew. 

“I...” Sonic was still gasping for air after running for so long. “...just took a while to get up the stairs.” 

“Hm, well the rest of my class didn’t seem to have a problem, did you class?” Robotnik turned to the rest of his lecture hall. All the students were looking at him now, either chuckling, whispering, or just judging silently. 

“And… what is that shirt you’re wearing? Ask you about your Chronic Constipation? Is that why you’re so late?” Robotnik sneered. The class was much louder now, actively laughing and some pointing at him. Sonic just sighed. 

He knew better than to respond to that, simply climbing the stairs and trying to find a seat. 

To his surprise, Shadow was in the same seat as he had been Friday, leaving one space open between him and Knuckles. His arms were crossed and he had the same scowl, but he gave a slight nod to Sonic as he plopped down next to him. 

“Ugh… Eggman can’t even give me a break for one day, can he? Always gotta make everyone laugh at me.” Sonic sighed and pulled out his notebook. Shadow glanced at him, a slightly confused expression on his face.

“Eggman?” Shadow asked, cocking his head.

“Uh, yeah. ‘Cos his head’s shaped like an egg.” 

“I see.” 

Sonic snickered. 

“What, you don’t think so? I mean, he’s all bald and round and shiny!”

Shadow squinted at the professor at the front of the room, now drawing some sort of model on the board with chalk. 

“...I suppose. He definitely used to have more hair when I was a child,” Shadow murmured. 

“Wow, have you known him that long? That’s unfortunate,” Sonic said, surprise evident in his voice. From the front of the room, Robotnik turned and shot him a glare which he took to mean “shut up or I’ll kick you out of class again.”

Sonic snorted. 

“He’s… certainly nicer when he’s not teaching. Or perhaps he’s just nicer around Stone,” Shadow said softly. 

“Stone? You mean Death Scythe?” Sonic whispered, leaning in closer to Shadow. 

“Mhm. They are meister and weapon after all.”

Sonic leaned back in his seat.

“Wait, he’s the meister for Death Scythe? ” Sonic scoffed. He watched Robotnik struggle to pick up a piece of chalk from the floor, rubbing his back and then go back to yapping. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, he certainly used to be quite skilled back in the day. Or so I’ve heard. Maybe he doesn’t quite hold up to that standard anymore.” Shadow gave a slight smirk, the closest Sonic had ever seen to him smiling.

It was striking. 

Even just the slight curl upward caused a drastic change in his face, the eyebrows relaxing slightly and his eyes gleaming with entertainment. 

Sonic couldn’t take his eyes off him. 

Shadow glanced back at him, making eye contact and immediately going back to scowling. Sonic looked away quickly, a slight flush rising to his cheeks. Shadow took out his pencil and resumed writing notes, looking back at the board instead of at Sonic. 

Damn. And we had been getting along so well. 

With a slight huff, Sonic grabbed a pencil and began to idly doodle, mostly poor stick figures of Eggman cartoonishly scowling or getting blown up. 

On his other side, Knuckles and Sticks were giggling as usual.

“I can’t believe I actually got him to wear it,” Knuckles whispered, Sticks snickering in return. They were both stealing glances at him every few seconds. Sonic just scowled and shook his head at them. 

“I can’t believe you, I thought you said I smelled bad!” Sonic hissed at Knuckles, who was now doubled over in his seat and covering his mouth to not laugh. 

Sonic rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the rest of the lecture hall, where people had mostly stopped looking at him. Except…

Ugh, it's her.

Amy Rose, prim and proper princess, top of their class, straight-A student was staring directly at him. Sonic frowned. They had only interacted a few times, back in the intro classes, but every conversation was filled with her self-obsessed gloating and passive aggressive comments about his own poor grades or lack-luster performance. God forbid a guy didn’t know the origins of weapons throughout history. Sonic thought most of the theory classes they took at school were rather useless; how was this stuff gonna help him out in the field? 

Amy had preached the importance of history and theory multiple times, though Sonic had largely zoned out through most of it. He couldn’t fathom how someone like her could exist: good at everything, yet somehow the most insufferable person around. 

Looking closer though, Sonic noticed Amy wasn’t looking directly at him, rather right next to him. At Shadow. 

Weird.

Her face was scrunched up, looking more confused than Sonic had ever seen her. Maybe she hadn’t heard who Shadow was yet, though news spread fast around school. There had certainly been a few onlookers at Shadow and Knuckles’ fight, and Sonic knew it was only a matter of time before more rumors spread about him. Next to him, Shadow seemed unaware of Amy’s staring, his head down and scribbling notes in his notebook. 

Of course he’d be the type to care about class. 

Sonic looked back to Amy and made a face, sticking out his tongue and pulling his eyelids down. Her gaze shifted to him and she glared, shaking her head at him before turning back to the front of class. 

Sonic drifted off slightly as he started listening to Robotnik’s lecture again. Something about that horridly scratchy voice naming random concepts was just enough to lull him into sleep. He dreamt about getting chilli dogs after class from that one stand a few blocks from his house, the one that piled the chilli and cheese on high without extra charge. The old man there knew him well, he would smile and say “the usual?” as he handed him the dog, and the first bite would be-

“SONIC!”

Sonic jerked up, Robotnik’s screech having broken his sleepy chilli dog fantasy. The room was half empty now, kids standing up, packing their things, and leaving. Knuckles and Sticks were already gone, the bastards, leaving him basically alone with Egghead. 

“You have another remedial lesson with me today, or have you forgotten?” The bald man smirked, turning his head toward Sonic as he erased the board. 

Ugh . 

Sonic rubbed his eyes and stood up, clumsily shoving his notebook back into his backpack, ignoring the loose papers that fell out on the floor. He stomped down the stairs to the front of the lecture hall where Robotnik was waiting. To his surprise, Shadow was leaning on the chalkboard next to him, looking bored as he fiddled with his earbud wires. 

“Lord Doom has requested, er, a change of sorts today. Since you-” Robotnik turned to Shadow, “-got into a fight recently, this lesson will serve as punishment for you too.” 

Shadow furrowed his brow but said nothing. 

“And since you, Sonic, have yet to have any field experience, this remedial lesson will serve as more of an intro to the battlefield.”

Wait.

What?

”I get to go out in the field?” Sonic blurted, now beginning to bounce up and down. A huge grin broke out across his face. A real field lesson! Who cares if it was with Eggman, he would finally get to fight and show off his skills!

”Yes Sonic, you’re going out in the field. And since I’m a very busy man with more, er, important work to do, you’re going with a more trained weapon and meister duo around your age to supervise and guide you,” Robotnik explained. 

“Wait, more trained? You’re not going with us? Don’t you want to see me get beat up?” Sonic snickered. 

“As delightful as that would be, I’d rather not spend more time around that hideous shirt than I have to,” Robotnik said with a smirk, turning back to the board and packing up more of his materials. “You’ll be going with the top duo of your class instead. I think you might know them already.”

Robotnik made a vague gesture behind them. Sonic turned around and sure enough…

There was Amy and Blaze, standing near the front row of chairs. 

Great. 

 “You’re kidding me. I have to work with them? ” Sonic scoffed. Amy rolled her eyes and glared at him in return, crossing her arms over her chest. Blaze seemed indifferent, looking down at her phone and scrolling through. 

“Not just work with them. You have to listen to them too, learn different fighting techniques and how to properly function in a fight. For the duration of your lesson, you answer to Amy and Blaze, no one else,” Robotnik explained, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. 

“But I-“

“Ah! No buts! If anything goes wrong, it will be your fault. And you’d better say goodbye to this school.” 

With that, Robotnik was zooming out of the lecture hall, the double doors banging closed behind him. 

Sonic groaned loudly, throwing his head back slightly and letting his arms fall to his sides. 

Behind him, Amy made some noise of indignation.

”You’re so dramatic! It’s just one lesson, you’ll survive.”

”Yeah, if you don’t get me killed. They really couldn’t get an actual teacher for this?” Sonic muttered. 

“You’re impossible!”

”Uh huh, and you’re sooooo easy to deal with too. I bet the evil soul we’ll find will die of boredom from you talking so much about the importance of weapons theory! If it doesn’t kill itself first.”

Amy gasped, offended. Blaze put a hand on her arm and shook her head. 

“Don’t let him rile you up,” Blaze said softly, putting her phone in her bag and standing up. 

From next to Sonic, Shadow stepped forward, taking his earbuds out and putting them in his pocket. 

“Do you have the mission details?” he asked. 

Amy scowled again. 

“Oh yeah. And what are you doing here, Mister ‘You Should Quit the Academy Before You Die?’ Bit hypocritical, don’t you think?” She asked mockingly, moving her thumb and fingers apart and together to make it seem like a puppet speaking. 

Sonic turned to Shadow, confused. The dark haired teen just shrugged and continued to look at the girls.

Blaze produced a piece of paper from her bag, holding it out to Shadow. 

“Here’s the details we received from Lord Doom. There’s been sightings of an evil soul out in this small town in Oregon. Bodies have been found deep in the forest hanging from trees with their souls torn out. Our job is to work together to find and destroy it.” 

Shadow grabbed the paper and glanced it over, with Sonic glancing over his shoulder to see. 

“We’ll likely be gone for a few days. I’d recommend you both go home and pack some essentials. These missions can take some time,” Blaze continued. “Meet back at the front of the academy tonight for the flight out.”

Shadow nodded. 

“And Sonic?” Amy asked. Sonic perked his head up. 

“Maybe pick a different shirt for the mission.” She smirked, turning and walking out the door, Blaze close behind her. 

“Hey! Not cool! I was tricked into wearing this!” Sonic shouted after them, but the door had already slammed shut. 

Next to him, Shadow let out a heavy sigh. 

“Oh, not you too. It’s not even that bad of a shirt, it’s funny!” Sonic asserted. 

Shadow raised an eyebrow. 

“It’s certainly… interesting.”

His face was less angry now, more… sad? Concerned? His eyebrows still furrowed down, but it was clear he was lost in his own thoughts. 

”Hey, the mission’s gonna be fine! Amy might be insufferable, but she can fight just fine. We’re in good hands,” Sonic assured him. “But don’t ever tell her I said that.”

Shadow glanced up at him. 

“I don’t doubt her abilities. But it has been getting more dangerous out in the field. We need to be careful. I can’t let… something bad happen to you all.” 

Sonic swallowed. He could only assume Shadow was so paranoid after losing his previous meister, presumably out in battle. Sonic could hardly imagine how painful that might be. 

“Guess we’ll just have to play it safe, then!” Sonic gave him a grin and a thumbs up. 

Shadow stared at him for just a little too long, expression unreadable. Sonic smiled awkwardly, the weight of his gaze making him sweat and want to wring his hands.

“Soooo… I guess we should go?” Sonic broke their silence. Shadow looked down, having realized he was staring. 

Shadow grunted and made for the door, Sonic running to catch up. 

“You said you knew Eggman when you were a kid, yeah?” Sonic asked, jogging by the other teen’s side.

“Mhm.” 

“What’s he like? Is he still as mean and grumpy outside the classroom?”

”He’s… fine, I suppose. I’m closer with Stone than I am with him. I think he just doesn’t like you.” Shadow looked him up and down. “Honestly, I can’t blame him.”

With this, Shadow gives a small smirk. 

Sonic gave a fake and overdramatic gasp.

“How dare you? I’ll have you know I am the peak of fashion and the most respectable student around! Egghead would be a fool not to love me!” He declared, shoving a finger in the air. 

To Sonic’s delight, Shadow gave a small chuckle, the frown lines disappearing for a brief moment and revealing the handsome face underneath. Sonic admired the expression, elated to have gotten that reaction out of Shadow.

Of course, it was at that moment Sonic’s stomach decided to make a weird gurgling noise, much louder than he’d heard it before. Maybe skipping breakfast wasn’t his greatest idea.

“Oh man, I’m starving! I was literally dreaming about eating a chilli dog when I fell asleep in class,” Sonic rambled. 

“A… what?” Shadow asked.

“Chilli dog? Have you never heard of one before?” Sonic was dumbfounded. Who hadn’t heard of chilli dogs? 

Shadow just shook his head.

“Oh. My. God. You have to have one, they’re the best thing in the world! Greatest invention since the wheel or whatever they say,” Sonic gushed, waving his hands wildly. “Come with me, there’s a great stand near my apartment! It’s not too far.”

Shadow froze, his cold demeanor shifting into anxiety. 

“I don’t know… shouldn’t we be preparing for the mission?” He mumbled, looking off to the side.

Jeez, this dude was awkward.

“You can’t prepare for a mission on an empty stomach! C'mon, it’ll only be for a little while. I promise, they’re the greatest food in the world, you won’t regret it!” 

Sonic shot him a wink and grinned widely. 

“…fine.” Shadow glanced back up at him and kept walking down the hallway. Sonic gave a whoop and jumped up, pumping his fist. 

“This is gonna be awesome! Look at us, bonding and stuff!” Sonic elbowed Shadow in the arm slightly. The other teen just shrugged. 

The two walked out of the academy and started down the long set of stairs down into the city. It was warm outside, the humidity higher than usual, making Sonic's shirt stick to him with sweat within minutes. Luckily, the sun wasn’t quite as harsh as usual, hidden behind a few clouds, bringing the promise of a storm in the next few days. It was odd to Sonic for it to be cloudy and still warm. Back in Montana, clouds meant a constant chill, the rain likely to turn into snow depending on just how cold it got.

It got cold in Nevada in the winter, sure, but it never quite got cold enough to snow. Sometimes the concrete would get slick with frost, making the walk to school all the more treacherous, with the crowds of students slipping and sliding into the busy streets. 

Sonic missed the more extreme cold, the days where fluffy snow would pile up outside his door for him and Tails to flop into or throw at each other. They were right next to the mountains, and spent much of the winter months sledding or skiing down the frosty slopes, wind whipping the sides of their faces. 

There weren’t any mountains for miles of Doom City. 

Shadow was quiet as they walked down the stairs, something Sonic wasn’t good with. He wanted to ask something, but he struggled to find the words. Shadow wasn’t exactly great with responses.

“Sooo, you have any hobbies or anything?” Sonic finally settled on. Yeah, that’s a decent question.

“Hobbies?”

“Yeah, like, do you do anything for fun?”

Shadow was quiet, his brow furrowing as he thought. Sonic considered the possibility that maybe he didn’t do anything fun. He certainly didn’t seem like he enjoyed much of anything. Maybe one of those emo types who liked sad, loud music and wearing all black.

“I enjoy listening to music,” Shadow said. 

Real broad choice there.

“Oh nice! What kinda stuff do you like?” Sonic asked.

Shadow shrugged. 

“Older songs. I have a collection of records mostly from the 70s.” 

“Oo, records are cool! I haven’t seen many of those recently, but I know tons of people still collect and listen to them. Any genre you like?”

“Just… whatever I can find.”

Sonic thought talking to Shadow was like talking to a wall. Whatever he could find? What does that even mean?

“Well, that’s pretty cool. Maybe you could show me your collection sometime!” Sonic said cheerfully.

Shadow stiffened.

Uh oh. That was an overstep.

“Uh… or you could bring your music to school! Yeah, and show me and Knuckles!” Sonic fumbled over his words.

Nice save.

“You want me to... bring the whole record player? To school?” Shadow asked incredulously.

Fuck.

“Well, uh, I mean, maybe you can just show us the records and we can pull up the songs on my phone! Just admire the old art or whatever,” Sonic continued. He had no clue what the hell he was talking about.

Next to him, Shadow just nodded slowly, looking ahead at the road. 

Luckily, Sonic spotted his favorite hot dog stand in the distance before he could make an even bigger fool of himself.

“Hey, there it is!” 

Without thinking, he grabbed Shadow’s hand and started to run over to the stand, pulling the other teen behind him. He could already smell the chilli wafting through the air, the perfect amount of spice hitting his nose and making his mouth water. 

The elderly man who ran the stand spotted him running and waved, already pulling out a hotdog and piling chilli sauce and cheese on top. Sonic grinned. 

“Good to see you again! You want the usual, yes?” The man smiled, placing the chilli dog in a cardboard tray. 

“Yup!”

“Coming right up! And do you want another one for your-” the man glanced down at Sonic and Shadow’s intertwined hands, “-special friend?”

Immediately, both of them let go of the other’s hand. 

“No! I mean, yes, yes I want another chilli dog. Not special! Just a friend. I mean, not that he’s not special or anything-” Sonic stammered, now blushing wildly. 

The older man just smiled and turned back to his stand, grabbing another hot dog and putting the same chilli sauce on top. 

“Here you are! Enjoy!” the man said with a smirk and a small wink. Sonic gave him a small glare as he passed the man some cash for their food, earning a soft chuckle in return. 

Sonic turned around to Shadow, who was staring aggressively at the floor, seemingly trying to burn a hole into the concrete with his gaze. 

“Shadow!” Sonic called out, causing the dark haired teen to jerk his head up. He waved the chilli dogs in the air. “C’mon, let’s find a place to sit.”

Close to the stand was a cafe with a few tables and chairs for outside seating. Sonic placed the food down on a table and grabbed two chairs, cringing at the screeching noise the metal made as he dragged them across the floor. Shadow sat down stiffly, perfectly upright and at attention. 

“Ok, these are like, the best chilli dogs in Doom City. Maybe ever,” Sonic said, plopping down in his own chair. Without wasting any time, Sonic grabbed the chilli dog and took a huge bite, nearly half the thing, spilling chilli and cheese all down his face and onto the cardboard tray below him. 

That first heavenly bite never got old, with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice in the chilli mixing perfectly with the savoriness of the hot dog. Seconds later, he had wolfed the whole thing down, the only remainder being the bright sauce still dripping down his face. 

Sonic glanced up to see Shadow staring at him in nearly pure disgust. 

Uh oh. 

“Uh..” he swallowed. “Sorry about that! They’re just really good !” Sonic gave a nervous laugh. 

Shadow stared down at his own food, looking a bit queasy. 

“How am I… supposed to eat this?” Shadow looked back up at Sonic, eyeing the sauce falling off his face. “I’d rather not eat it like that. ” 

Sonic frowned. 

“It’s a chilli dog, dude. You just eat it. Have you never had a hot dog before? Some foods are meant to be a bit messy.”

“ That messy? You look like a wolf that just ripped out someone’s throat,” Shadow scoffed. 

“Ok then, rich boy. I bet Doom’s mansion only serves you caviar and oysters. Most cheap and good food doesn’t need to have fancy utensils and neatness,” Sonic shot back. 

Shadow rolled his eyes. 

“You’re being ridiculous. Of course I’ve eaten food like this before,” Shadow said, looking back down at the chilli dog and grabbing it. He still looked somewhat concerned, wincing at the sauce that was now dripping down his hand. 

Delicately, Shadow took a small bite, only spilling a small amount of sauce onto the tray below. Sonic snorted. 

“It’s not gonna bite you back, dude. Just eat it.”

Shadow shot him a glare. Sonic just laughed as he tried to take a bigger bite, tilting the hot dog toward his head for a better angle. Instantly, nearly half the chilli sauce spilled off the hot dog and onto the table and tray below. Sonic was wheezing now, nearly doubled over as Shadow lurched back to avoid the sauce getting on his pants. 

“D-dude-” Sonic choked out between laughs, “-you’re terrible at this!”

By now, some of the other customers outside had turned to look at them. An angry looking waitress stormed over to their table. 

“Sir, outside food is not permitted at this cafe, even in the outside seating. Please clean your mess and move elsewhere,” she snapped. 

“Sorry, sorry, give us a sec to clean up,” Sonic said, still gasping slightly. He ran inside, grabbed a bunch of napkins, and ran back out, shoving a handful into Shadow’s hands before rushing to clean some off the floor. The two scramble to wipe the sauce off the table, quickly throwing the stained napkins and trays in the garbage before running off into the street. 

“Great job finding us a good seat, Sonic,” Shadow grumbled, nudging Sonic with his shoulder as they continued down the sidewalk. 

Sonic was still laughing. Shadow scowled. 

“You think this is funny, idiot? You got us kicked out of an establishment! My Father will be furious!”

“Relax, it’s not like that waitress is gonna tattle to him. All we did was sit in the wrong place, it’s no big deal!” Sonic waved his hand back and forth, shrugging. 

Shadow stopped suddenly and grabbed Sonic by the shoulder, pulling him in hard. 

“You’re a fool if you don’t think that he can see everything we do. Everywhere, all the time, he’s watching. ” Shadow hissed, his face now inches from Sonic’s. 

Sonic’s eyes widened. Would it be bad if he found this a little hot?

“Okay, okay, jeez man,” Sonic complained, pushing Shadow away. 

Shadow grumbled to himself. 

“I knew this was a mistake,” he spat. Sonic made a face. 

“Whatever man, it’s just a chilli dog. You’re overreacting.”

It felt hotter now, the clouds having moved slightly to reveal the sun behind them. Sweat beaded down Sonic’s face and soaked through the back of his shirt, making him feel sticky and uncomfortable. He couldn’t deal with this right now. 

“I’m leaving. Screw you, man, all you ever do is get mad at me, and I’ve only tried to be nice to you! I hope you get your shit together before the mission tomorrow,” Sonic shouted.

Shadow was silent, simply turning and walking down the street away from him. 

“Yeah, walk away!” Sonic yelled. 

Shadow didn’t stop. 

Screw this. Screw him. 

Sonic’s face was sticky with the chilli sauce still stuck to his chin and cheeks. He sighed. 

Time to go home. 

As he watched Shadow’s back vanish into the distance, Sonic wondered if there was any part of the teen he would ever be able to understand. 

Maybe there was nothing there. 

Chapter Text

The graveyard in Doom City was a small thing, only a few rows of headstones in a flatter area of the dusty desert. It was about a mile out of the city, walkable, but still a bit of a trek in the direct heat. There were no buildings or trees along the dirt road leading out of the city- just the sun, a few rocks, and the occasional lizard running underfoot.

And Shadow.

The clouds were gone by now, leaving the sun fully exposed as it beat down, heavy and unrelenting on Shadow’s back. He hadn’t bothered to take off his leather jacket, and it stuck to his skin underneath, trapping him in the stifling heat. 

Doom City Cemetery, as it was so creatively named, was the last remaining area within the boundaries of Doom City itself. Beyond it was simply miles of desert until the next small town, as Vegas was in the opposite direction. It was old too; some of the headstones were crumbling and falling apart, the names barely legible after years of sun and wind exposure. The first grave dated back about a thousand years back, marked only by a heavy slab of granite and the old mound of dirt, the body beneath long decayed. Most of the rest of the graves were only about a few hundred years old, from the first settlers arriving west during the Gold Rush. 

About half the graveyard was taken up by more recent graves, a special section added about a hundred years ago to honor fallen weapons and meisters. Before then, the academy had simply buried people under the school itself, within a deep cavern hundreds of feet below the classes and activity above. 

Shadow was unsure as to why they had stopped that tradition, but it certainly made it easier to visit graves when they were off school grounds. As far as he was concerned, all the old graves under the school were now completely forbidden to enter by order of his Father, something about cave-ins and safety concerns. 

It didn’t matter. Shadow only had one person worth visiting, after all. 

Shadow had never seen the point in talking to a slab of rock on the ground. It wasn’t as if the person lying underneath could respond, and Shadow wasn’t keen on picturing what Maria might say to him. What could he even say? How sorry he was that he let her die?

He didn’t want to picture her face, sad and disappointed at the life he had taken from her. The bright future she was promised and all the love she might’ve had, gone in an instant.

All because of him.

There was a small funeral procession in progress as he walked under the iron arch serving as the entryway. Around twenty people, all in black, stood around the freshly dug grave, a few of them now lowering the coffin inside. Even from a distance, he could hear a few muffled sobs from the group as they said their goodbyes. 

There was no question that it was another student. 

Shadow furrowed his brow and walked away from the group, off in the direction he knew Maria’s grave was in. To his surprise, another figure stood in the distance, right where he was going. Getting closer, he realized it was Stone. 

He was dressed in his usual: black suit, black shirt, black tie. People liked to joke that he was always funeral ready. Stone would always reply that he had just gotten back from one and watch as the other person fumbled to apologize to him. It had always gotten a laugh out of Shadow when he was younger, seeing judgemental or naive people put in their place. He always wished he had such a smooth comeback to idiotic comments, but more often than not, he was silent. 

Stone didn’t look up as Shadow approached, simply leaning down to place the bouquet of flowers on the grave. The bunch of flowers was small, just a few carnations and asphodel tied up in a purple ribbon. Shadow suddenly felt ashamed that he hadn’t brought flowers, another added layer of disrespect he had brought upon Maria’s memory. 

“I thought I’d find you here,” Stone said as he stood back up, finally turning to look at Shadow. He reached up and wiped some sweat from his brow, frowning at the moisture that had formed there. Stone quickly removed his outer suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his button-up, letting out a sigh of relief as he did so. 

“It’s really hot out, you should take off your leather jacket,” Stone suggested, folding his suit jacket neatly and tucking it under his arm. Shadow didn’t move. 

“Why are you here?” Shadow demanded, harsher than he’d intended. He took a breath in and shoved his hands in his pockets. 

“I told you. I thought you’d be here. You weren’t at the house when I drove by, so I figured this would be the only other place left to check.”

Shadow scowled. 

“What do you want?”

“I… wanted to see how you were doing. You haven’t been answering my calls much lately, and I wanted to check in.”

Oh. 

“I’m fine, Stone. You know if Father asks you to snoop on me you can just make something up,” Shadow grumbled. 

“No, you misunderstand. I wanted to see how you were doing. You’ve barely even left your bed for the past year, and now you’re back at the academy? That’s a huge change for you, Shadow. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled you’re doing better. I just… worry about what you’re getting into.”

Stone took a step closer, placing a hand on Shadow’s shoulder. 

“I know you’re planning on getting revenge.”

Shadow stiffened. 

“I’d call it justice, not revenge,” Shadow muttered, staring down at the grave.

“You can call it whatever you want, but you’re throwing yourself out into the field before you’re ready. You’re going headfirst into battle, blind with rage, and you're going to get yourself killed. And you’re bringing down that new meister with you.”

Shadow glared up at him, grabbing Stone’s hand and tugging it off his shoulder. 

“You don’t know anything. I was perfectly fine to go back in the field on my own; it’s all Father’s fault I’m stuck with that blue idiot,” Shadow spat. “I’m not a child. I can do things on my own.”

“It’s not about whether or not you can, Shadow. It’s whether or not it’s safe. ” Stone looked back at him, making direct eye contact. “Can’t you trust that we can keep you safe? That I can find those witches and take them down?”

Shadow looked down. 

“...It’s not that I don’t trust you, ” he started. “People keep dying. Father doesn’t seem the least bit concerned. And what if—” Shadow’s voice cracked. “What if you go out there and I lose you too?”

There were tears burning at the backs of his eyes now, blurring the image of Maria’s grave and threatening to spill over. 

…

Shadow was seven. There was another banquet in the mansion, for whom he couldn’t say, but it was loud. The band was at full blast even from their tiny spot in the corner, and every hall, every room, was filled to the brim with people in formal attire laughing, drinking, and dancing. Doom had strictly reminded him that covering his ears was rude and not tolerated, and he had to talk to every official who approached him, make direct eye contact, and smile. For the whole night. 

Everything felt wrong. He couldn’t hear, he couldn’t see, the strobing lights were flashing too quickly in front of his eyes, and the bass boosted music made him want to explode—

Stone found him in a closet somewhere, sobbing into his hands and knees. Silently, he had closed the door, taking young Shadow into his arms and just holding him until he calmed down. At every event afterward, Stone always had a small, quiet room ready for him whenever he needed a break. 

Shadow had no doubt his Father hadn’t even noticed. 

…

His tears were falling now, running down his face. 

“I can’t- can’t lose you too- please,” Shadow sobbed as Stone wrapped him in a hug, the taller man gently patting his back. 

“You won’t,” Stone reassured him. “I swear, I’ll get those witches and be back in one piece. I’m Death Scythe; after all, it’d be pretty hard to take me down.”

Shadow pulled away and nodded, too exhausted now to argue with him. He quickly wiped the tears away from his face. 

“C’mon kid, I’ll drive you home. And really, take off the jacket. You’ll get heatstroke,” Stone said lightly, turning to walk toward the car. 

Shadow took one last glance at Maria’s headstone. Although they weren’t related by blood, Gerald had insisted the grave be marked as “loving sister,” saying Maria would’ve wanted it that way. Shadow wasn’t sure he was worthy of being considered Maria’s brother at all, but he hadn’t wanted to argue with the grieving old man. If that’s what he wanted, then Shadow would simply have to earn the title.  Shadow turned to the empty plots on the other side of the graveyard, yet to be used. 

He would not let any other students at the DWMA fall to those same witches. It didn’t matter how capable Stone was. Shadow would find a way to get his revenge, or he would die trying. 

Somehow, the second option didn’t seem so bad. 

…

Sleep evaded him the night before the mission. It was nothing new; he hadn’t slept well for the better part of a year, but the nightmares were different this time. 

He had been back in the graveyard with Stone. The sky was different—a dull shade of gray, yet just as hot and stifling as it had been in the direct sun. 

“I can take care of this myself,” Shadow said, his voice echoing despite them being outside. 

“Can you?” Stone asked. Shadow froze.

“Excuse me?”

“I said, can you? I think I’m standing in front of proof that you can’t. That you failed. ”

Stone’s face wasn’t quite right. The features were blurred, hard to make out, and it seemed he was getting further and further away. 

The grave was gone. In its place, Maria’s body lay at his feet. Just as bloody and lifeless as she was right after she died. 

The red was stark against the dull gray dirt. 

It pooled around his feet, hot and molten like magma, as Stone began to crumble and fade away into dust. 

“And when the next one, that new blue boy dies…” Stone whispered, reaching out a cracking hand to Shadow. 

“It’ll be all your fault again.”

…

Shadow jolted awake, panting heavily as he sat up and pressed his head into his hands. His alarm was blaring, the small red numbers reading 6:00 am. With a groan, he reached over and turned off the clock, laying back down to catch his breath. 

Their flight to Oregon would leave in a few hours. The DWMA would always provide transport for students on missions, flying them wherever they needed to be free of charge. Or rather, free of monetary charge. Some fights could take their toll on students, causing trauma and other emotional damages, not to mention physical injuries they might sustain on the job. 

Shadow had been surprised at how easy his first mission with Maria was. They were still in Nevada, going after an evil soul hiding out in the alleys of Las Vegas, a nasty thing that ate people alive. It was grotesque in appearance for sure, but only a few swings of the scythe had been enough to take it down. Maria was ecstatic, of course, and the missions grew mundane over time. They got cocky, thinking that no evil soul nor witch was a match for them.

How wrong they were. 

Ninety-nine evil souls and one dead meister later, Shadow wanted nothing to do with any more simplistic missions that were, no doubt, not worth his time. Evil souls had never been a challenge for him.

It was the witches that were deadly. 

Still, he had to go on this mission to appease his father and keep up appearances. If it looked like he was getting along with Sonic and following the rules, there would come an opportunity for Shadow to slip away, find those witches, and take them down. 

Alone. 

The thought of Sonic made him frown. That obnoxious blue idiot had never been on any sort of mission before, no evil souls, nothing. The idea of being swung around in his inexperienced hands was enough to make Shadow start to feel queasy. 

Shadow sat up and moved out of bed, grabbing his duffel bag and shoving some clothes inside. If things went his way, they wouldn’t be in Oregon for more than a day, and he wouldn’t need a whole lot of extra clothing. It was rare that a weapon fought on their own without a meister, but Shadow knew from his training he was fully capable of it. If Sonic was too incompetent to wield him properly, he would simply take matters into his own hands. 

The bag made a loud noise as it was zipped closed, likely the zipper falling apart after years of use. Shadow managed to zip it closed with some effort, though the bag bulged with all his supplies. First aid, some real knives he had collected over the years, blankets, a sleeping bag, a lighter, matches, canned food, water—anything they might need to survive. If Sonic somehow fucked up the mission and got them lost in the woods, he would be ready. 

Conveniently, the airport of Doom City was only a little ways from the mansion, should Lord Doom decide he needed to flee the city for some odd reason. It wasn’t close enough that it was extremely loud, but during the night, Shadow could sometimes hear the lull of engines as planes touched down and took off. It wasn’t the busiest city in the world, but it certainly got a lot of visitors. 

The sky was just starting to lighten as Shadow stepped out the door, the puffy bag slung over his shoulder. There was a slight chill in the air early in the morning, and the breeze brushed through the city streets, kicking up garbage and stray leaves in its path. Shadow pulled his leather jacket tighter around himself as he closed the door and locked it. It was quiet as he made his way down the street, tourists still asleep in their beds and students not needing to get to class quite yet. A few stores and cafes were just beginning to open to serve coffee or breakfast, the glow of the indoors shining brightly on the pavement outside. 

The DWMA had its own terminal for students and other personnel flying out on missions or other academy related business, which made it a lot easier to check in and get through security in a short amount of time. Shadow checked in the bulging duffel bag at the front, knowing that his array of knives and other weapons would likely not get past security. Even being the son of Doom, there were still strict rules. With nothing on him now except his phone, wallet, and earbuds, Shadow breezed through security and walked to his gate, only one of three in the terminal due to its small size. 

To his surprise, a head of blue hair appeared in the distance as he walked toward the gate, already seated in one of the black plush chairs. Sonic was staring at his phone, his legs crossed and his foot idly tapping in the air. 

“You’re early,” Shadow said as he approached, surprised. Sonic glanced up from his phone and gave a little smile.

“Yeah, couldn’t sleep.” It looked true enough, with the bags under his eyes and jittery movements. Shadow sat down across from him, glancing at his watch for the time. About thirty minutes left before their flight.

Sonic was staring at his phone, or at least pretending to. The other teen kept stealing small glances up at Shadow, trying to be subtle, but Shadow had a sharp eye and caught everything.

What was wrong with him?

Perhaps he should apologize for yesterday. Shadow knew he had slightly overreacted with the chilli dog incident. It didn’t help that literally everything Sonic did got on his nerves. 

Shadow cleared his throat.

“I.. er… apologize for my impolite conduct yesterday. I should not have gotten as angry as I did.”

Sonic looked up at him, his eyes slightly wider in shock. His mouth gaped open slightly. Shadow frowned.

“Close your mouth,” he grumbled. “It’s just an apology.”

Sonic blinked as he shut his mouth, sitting up a little straighter.

“It’s uh, it’s okay dude. Sorry, I was not expecting that. At all. You don’t seem like the kinda guy who apologizes for anything,” Sonic laughed nervously.

“I apologize when I mean it,” Shadow stated simply. The two fell into silence, glancing at the floor or the wall or at their phones, anywhere but at each other.

“Hey guys!” A voice called out from behind him. Shadow glanced over his shoulder to see Amy waving at them, with Blaze right behind her dragging a small suitcase.

“Hey Ames,” Sonic said, giving a small wave. 

“Are you boys ready for the mission?” she asked cheerily, pumping her arm in the air with excitement. Shadow grimaced. It was far too early in the morning for her to be this happy. 

“Yeah, totally ready,” Sonic said with a hint of sarcasm, looking back down at his phone. This was odd. Sonic was unusually tired and unenthusiastic, a stark contrast to the bubbly and chatty personality Shadow was used to. 

Not that he was worried about the other teen or anything. It was just strange.

Amy sat down with a small huff, Blaze lowering herself down next to her. Their difference in personality was stark, with Amy’s bright and bold attitude contrasting Blaze’s cool and calm demeanor. Shadow wondered how the two managed to get along so well in their partnership. Hell, they were dating. Shadow knew it was common for some meisters and weapons to date, but being with someone so utterly different from him was beyond anything he could imagine. 

The girls were holding hands now, whispering to each other and giggling slightly. Maria used to date a lot, never anything lasting more than a few months, but Shadow remembered all the nights of gushing about the newest partner, how wonderful they were, or later, how horrible of a person they were. While none of the people she dated had ever truly deserved to be with her, he was always glad to see her so happy.

So loved. 

Shadow turned away from the girls. 

By now, the gate had filled up with more people, not a huge amount, but enough for the airport staff to take notice. A short man in a staff uniform announced for everyone to line up to start the boarding process. 

“Attention everyone! This will be a full flight, please sit in the first available seat you can find. If anyone would like to check their carry-on bags, now is the time.”

Shadow didn’t particularly want to have to sit next to someone, but it seemed he didn’t have much of a choice. One glance at Sonic’s fidgety stance made Shadow walk to the line in a hurry, hoping more people would line up behind him between them. He was not getting stuck sitting next to Sonic for two hours, thank you very much. 

Thankfully, Sonic was still distracted on his phone, and the teen sluggishly moved to the end of the line quite a few minutes after him. There were a good ten people between them, a decent enough barrier to ensure some other stranger would be next to Shadow. 

He boarded the plane easily, finding a window seat in an empty two-person row and sitting down. Crossing his legs, he began to read the safety manual and emergency landing procedures. Doom City planes were supposed to be top of the line, but one could never be too careful. 

Shadow glanced up to the aisle. People were passing by his row without sitting down, even though the attendant had told them not to. He frowned. The passengers barely even glanced at him as they shuffled around to the back of the plane. He wasn’t that intimidating, was he? By now, Sonic’s blue hair was visible over the tops of the rows of seats ahead of him, slowly making his way toward his seat. 

No, no, no. 

People weren’t stopping. He was four rows away now. Shadow looked frantically at the business woman now next to him in the aisle. She just looked at her phone and kept going. Two rows away now.

Fuck. 

Shadow shut his eyes. He could not deal with this idiot sitting this close to him for so much time. It would be fine. Sonic was going to keep walking and sit next to someone else. There’s no way he would sit next to him. 

A weight plopped down in the seat next to him, brushing against his arm. Shadow opened one eye very slowly, carefully turning his head to the right. 

He was met with a face of blue hair. 

Shadow put his face in his hands. 

“You alright, man? Planes aren’t really my thing either. It’s not the heights, I don’t think, just makes me nauseous sometimes,” Sonic’s loud voice came from next to him. 

Oh great. Now he had to worry about getting puked on too. 

“Mm fine,” Shadow mumbled through his hands. He sat up and reached into his pockets for his earbuds, eager to tune the other teen out. Nothing. Shadow’s eyes widened as he dug through his other pocket. Nothing. He began to pat himself down more frantically, looking through his jean pockets, inside jacket pockets, back pockets. All he found were his phone and wallet, no earbuds. 

“Lose something?” Sonic’s voice came again.

“My earbuds, I had them after security.”

“Maybe they fell out at the gate? Or in the aisle?” Sonic glanced to the side, looking down the pathway for anything on the floor. “I don’t think it’s near us here. You’re sure all your pockets are empty?”

Shadow patted himself down again and turned up empty. So much for tuning him out. 

“It’s fine, I’ll just get new ones,” Shadow grumbled, turning to the window. The plane had begun to move now, taxing across the lot and moving into position to take off. 

“That’s fair, I know a guy who sells them pretty cheap. Of course, they break easily too, but that’s to be expected. Ah shoot, I don't have anything on me either. Would’ve offered mine, but hmm, actually, I haven’t seen them in a while. Maybe I need new ones too! I bet-”

Shadow stared at some traffic cones, desperately trying not to listen to the incessant rambling. They were speeding up now, the plane taking off. As the wheels lifted off the ground and they got higher into the air, Shadow began to feel sick. 

Beneath him, the city grew smaller and smaller, the buildings and cars appearing like an old model toy set he once had. As the small desert disappeared into the clouds below him, the realization of what lay ahead of him began to set in. 

He hadn’t been on a mission since…

His stomach lurched. Shadow turned away from the window and stared directly ahead of him at the tray table, currently in its upright position as instructed. The safety manual was neatly tucked away in the seat pocket, the red images of people exiting a plane by boat glaring at him. Next to him, Sonic was crunching loudly on some chips and then quickly following that up with large gulps of a soda bottle. He let out a belch before laughing hysterically, saying “excuse me” only as an afterthought. 

Shadow grimaced and closed his eyes. 

“Hey Shadow. Shadooowwww. Shads. Can I call you Shads?”

“No.” 

“Shads, wanna play a game? I brought Uno. ” 

Shadow opened his eyes and glared at Sonic, who was currently wearing the hugest grin and holding out a pack of cards. 

“Didn’t you bring something else to do? Like a book?” Shadow asked sharply. 

“Eh, it makes me sick to read on planes. Besides, it’s not like you brought much of anything either,” Sonic pointed out. 

“I don’t need constant entertainment, unlike you,” Shadow snapped back. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Suit yourself.”

Shadow closed his eyes once more, trying to ignore the sounds of Sonic tapping his foot and clicking a pen next to him. After a few minutes, he heard some footsteps approach down the aisle. 

“Hello, can I get either of you something to drink? Do you want complimentary pretzels?” 

“Ooo, yes please! Pretzels, and uh, what drinks you got?”

“Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Ginger Ale, Water, and Coffee.”

“Sprite please!”

“Of course. Anything for your friend, there? Is he asleep?”

“Nah, he’s awake. Shads, Shads do you want something?”

Sonic elbowed him in the side. Shadow opened his eyes to look at the flight attendant, who was standing with her small notepad and looking at him expectantly. 

“No thank you.”

She nodded and continued on to the next row. 

Sonic started tapping his foot again. Shadow grimaced. 

“Can you not do that?”

“Oh, sorry. I kinda can’t help it. Nerves and all that,” Sonic gave a small chuckle. Still, he crossed his legs so they bounced in the air without making noise. “Better?”

“Yes. Thank you.” 

A few more minutes passed in silence. The flight attendant came back with Sonic’s soda (didn’t he already have his own bottle?) and pretzels. More crunching sounds soon filled the air. Shadow gave a long sigh. He was most definitely not getting any sleep on this flight. 

“Shadow, you’ve uh, you’ve been on a mission before, right?” Sonic asked suddenly, mouth still slightly full. 

“...yes.”

“Do you have any advice or anything? Tips and tricks? I’ve never done this before, so…” he trailed off. 

Shadow considered this for a moment. 

“I’m a scythe. When you attack with me, stay further away from your enemy and prevent close quarters combat. When you swing, you want it to be in full, fluid movements, with a lot of power behind them. You can’t cut through anything without putting strength behind it.”

“Oh hey, that’s actually decent advice. Thanks!”

Shadow scowled.

“Did you think I was going to give you bad advice? Why bother asking, then?”

Sonic tensed, his eyes widening slightly.

“No, no! I just, you’ve been kinda pissed off all morning, I didn’t think you were gonna actually answer me. Sorry,” He scratched behind his head, looking off to the side. 

Have I been pissed all morning? 

“It’s… not about you. I don’t want to be going on this mission.”

“Really? I thought you wanted to be back in the field.”

“Yes. The actual field, against real threats, not evil souls in the woods that can be handled by someone like you with no experience. It’s insulting. ”

Sonic was quiet for a moment. His leg stopped bouncing as he turned to look at Shadow, face now looking somewhat hurt. 

“...sorry I’m holding you back.”

Shadow sighed. 

“Not you. You’re not holding me back, my Father is. If anything, I should be sorry. It’s far more dangerous to be around me than anyone else in this school. It was reckless of them to put a target on your back.” 

“I just—” Sonic started. “I want to be a good meister. My guardian, before she passed, she used to be one. I just wanna make her proud.

“And—and I wanna work with you, too. I’ve never had a weapon before; I want us to get along. Be friends, even.” Sonic flushed slightly and looked off to the side. “I know this isn’t what you wanted, but, just gimme a chance.”

Shadow looked at Sonic, who was still staring down at the food on his tray. 

He looked at Sonic, the cerulean of his hair jogging the memory of the blue dresses and shirts Maria favored, the loose outfits that would billow in the hot summer wind. Suddenly she was next to him, asking once again if they could be partners, if Shadow would help her prove herself to her grandfather. If they could be heroes together. 

A lump formed in the back of his throat. Shadow coughed to clear it, blinking the beginnings of tears away from his eyes. 

“I’m… already giving you a chance. We’re here, aren’t we? Going on a mission? Just… listen to me. Don’t be reckless. Do what I say, and you won’t get killed. Understood?” Shadow looked at Sonic, who glanced back up at him from his food. 

He nodded and cracked a small smile. 

“Thanks. I’m, uh, I’m really glad I get to have you as my partner. I promise, I won’t let you down,” Sonic said softly. 

Sonic’s face seemed to glow, his cracked and awkward grin bringing to light the relief and happiness kept just beneath the surface. As Shadow stared into his sparkling emerald eyes, he felt a small flush creep up his neck and onto his cheeks. 

Somehow, Shadow couldn’t help but smile back. 

Chapter Text

Sonic hadn’t slept in seventeen hours. Arriving home after getting yelled at by Shadow, Sonic had wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed and sleep his troubles away. But of course, his body was nervous. Hyper, even. The thought of his first ever mission both excited and terrified him.

Everything could go so wrong. He could get hurt, or mess things up, or die-

Needless to say, he hadn’t slept a wink last night, tossing and turning for hours before giving up to scroll on his phone until morning. 

Airport security had been a bitch. Something about Sonic’s binder and the X-ray scans didn’t mix. His chest would show up on their screens as a giant black box, or so he was told, resulting in an invasive pat down nearly every time he was at the airport. 

Humiliating.

Combined with the sleepless night he had before, Sonic was already feeling pretty bad as he trekked through the airport to his gate, threw down his backpack, and collapsed into the black chair. 

And of course, he had to see Shadow again today.

After their debacle yesterday, Sonic was not looking forward to dealing with that angry emo menace, let alone having to work together on their mission. As he saw Shadow approach the gate a few minutes later, Sonic had steeled himself for some form of yelling or silent treatment.

But then Shadow apologized.

What the fuck?

It was the same question he was asking himself now, trudging off the airplane with his heavy backpack full of clothes, reeling from the interactions he and Shadow had just had on the plane. 

Every time they talked, it was a gamble which version of Shadow he got. The angry one, annoyed by Sonic’s every small move and sound, or the quiet one, who for some brief moments would allow Sonic to talk and would actually listen to him, instead of tuning him out.

It wasn’t something he was used to.

The lights in the Oregon airport were glaring as Sonic walked off the ramp, making his head throb in pain. He was instantly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stimulus, the noise level having risen with the sudden appearance of hundreds of others in the airport waiting for their own flights. It was still slightly early, but late enough for the airport to be bustling with travelers; screaming children, fighting couples, and rambunctious groups of teens on school trips littered the area. 

Next to him, Shadow was similarly grimacing at the sudden onslaught of sound and light. They shared a brief glance, a mutual nod of misery. Sonic cracked him a small smile.

“Cmon, it’ll be better once we get our bags and go outside,” he reassured, gesturing to the large sign pointing them toward baggage claim. Amy and Blaze finally came out of the tunnel behind them, with Amy huffing slightly and looking a bit annoyed.

“Ugh, I can’t believe that guy!” She complained to Blaze, who nodded along.

“Woah, what happened to you guys? What took so long?” Sonic asked.

“Some asshole shoved us so he could get off first! We were literally two rows ahead of him! And then, he took his sweet time getting his suitcase out of the overhead bins,” Amy grumbled, shaking her head. 

“Ah yeah, that sucks,” Sonic replied, trying to sound sympathetic. He just wanted to get out of here before his headache turned into a migraine.

“The audacity of some people these days! And I bet-“

“Amy, love,” Blaze said, placing a hand on her shoulder and cutting her off, “let’s continue the story outside after we get our bags.”

“Oh! Sorry, yeah that’s a good idea,” Amy laughed.

It was a little impressive how easily Blaze was able to redirect Amy without being rude. For all Sonic disliked about the two, he had to admit they had a really healthy relationship. They were so different, but somehow they just worked, their differences complementing each other and working together perfectly.

Ahead of him, Shadow grunted and turned around, beginning to walk away. The other three of them followed him through the airport toward the baggage claim area. Sonic was astounded at the two large suitcases Amy grabbed off the carousel, seeing as she already had the carry-on luggage. 

He snorted.

“You’re certainly prepared, huh?” Sonic snickered as he watched her try to maneuver all three of her suitcases. Amy shot him a glare just as one large suitcase fell on the other, sending them both toppling. He burst out laughing, doubling over as he watched Amy scramble to get them before they hit Blaze’s leg. 

Next to them, Shadow had grabbed his duffel bag, which was bursting at the seams and had various sharp items seemingly about to poke right through the fabric. 

Jeez, do none of them know how to pack?

Sonic just shook his head as he grabbed his own small carry-on, which was neither about to explode nor decidedly huge, and he began walking toward the door to find a taxi outside. 

The cold Oregon air was a shock to Sonic as he stepped out of the automatic doors and onto the sidewalk. It was cloudy with a faint mist just beginning to sprinkle on him, dampening his clothes just slightly. He breathed a sigh of relief. Compared to the stifling heat that was Nevada, this weather was a dream come true. It was reminiscent of home in Montana, with the pine trees dotted in the background and the fresh smell of nature, even though they were still near the airport. 

His short peace was interrupted by the grumbling noises of Amy complaining behind him, something about being freezing and getting soaked. He just chuckled. 

A taxi finally pulled up to the airport, albeit somewhat small, but they only had the rationed amount of school funds for transportation and food. Blaze and Sonic shoved all of their bags into the trunk, putting in some extra muscle to make it all fit. Shadow sat in the passenger seat with his duffel, leaving him, Amy, and Blaze to squeeze in the back. The driver gave them a bit of a glare through the rearview mirror but said nothing. 

It was a short drive, though somewhat cramped, with Sonic stuck in between Amy and Blaze in the smallest middle seat. He wasn’t claustrophobic by any means, but after being in a cramped airplane seat with Shadow, this wasn’t much of an upgrade. Next to him, Amy was scrolling through a meticulously timed schedule in her notes app, checking off various boxes of what they had already done that day. Sonic rolled his eyes and tried to focus on the road ahead.

It was fully raining now, the thick droplets rolling down the windshield and windows in waves. It was hard to see ahead, but they were on a long winding road, getting deeper into the thicket of pine trees and dense forest. It was slightly dark under all the greenery, and the driver put on his highbeam lights to see ahead. As they twisted and turned, Sonic tried to relax to the sounds of the rain hitting the roof of the car, just as he used to as a child. 

Unfortunately, even a plane ride and sleepless night couldn’t shake his nervous energy about the mission. His knee bounced up and down, hitting Blaze slightly but apparently not enough for her to say anything. The car felt more like it was swerving than turning now, the movement far more sudden and violent than before. Sonic took a deep breath. 

“Do you want this?” Blaze said softly. He looked over to see her holding out a small fidget toy, something that had little circles to pop in and out. His eyes lit up. 

“Yeah, thanks,” he murmured, taking the small toy and fiddling with it. Blaze smiled. 

“I was really nervous about my first mission too. Trust me, it’ll go a lot smoother than you think,” she said reassuringly. 

Sonic smiled back. 

The car began to slow close to a large, cabin-like building, a hulking thing made of logs that read “Pinewood Inn.” A few lights from inside slightly illuminated the dark forest around them, casting an unsettling glow over the dirt parking lot. A few of them flickered slightly, revealing the dirt and grime present on the inn sign. The driver stopped unceremoniously, waiting for them to leave. 

Real nice place the school picked for them. 

Amy and Blaze opened their respective doors and stepped out into the pouring rain, Sonic following close behind Blaze. They hastily grabbed all the luggage from the trunk, struggling to hold onto everything with the droplets sliding down the plastic material. Really, why the hell did Amy need so much stuff? The three lugged their suitcases through the dirt toward the inn, Shadow already ahead of them with his duffel bag. 

Shadow did hold the door for them as they reached the entrance, which was nice. The four entered, dripping wet and dragging mud onto the gray-looking carpet. Sonic figured it had already seen better days. It was warm inside, with a few small lamps illuminating the lobby. The ceilings were surprisingly low for how huge the building appeared outside, and it was filled with comfortable looking couches around a fireplace. Looking closer, the couches were slightly worn, with a few scratches and stuffing sticking out of each cushion. The walls were dotted with deer, bears, and other various heads of animals. 

Sonic cringed. He always thought taxidermy was creepy. The animals seemed to stare down at him judgmentally, their glassy eyes moving to follow him as he moved to the front desk. Amy reached the desk first and rang the small bell, as there was no attendant waiting to help them. Shadow seemed to be locked in a staring contest with one of the bear heads, shooting a deadly glare at the thing on the wall with unwavering precision. Blaze idly approached a small water dispenser, the ones usually found in boring office jobs and car dealerships. She grimaced when the water that came out looked slightly yellow and put the cup back down.

No one had arrived at the desk yet. Amy tapped her foot impatiently. 

“Ugh, don’t they know we’re soaked and freezing? Just let me check into my room please, ” She groaned, looking around the small lobby for any staff she missed the first time. It was just as empty as when they walked in, save for the lamps flickering their orange light onto the dead animals above. 

A few minutes later, an employee finally walked in from the small room behind the front desk. It was a young woman, maybe in her twenties or so, but she looked far older due to the eyebags hanging from her face and the deep frown lines around her mouth. She looked at them with a bored expression, sitting down to poke at her ancient-looking computer. 

“Checking in?” she asked, looking back up at Amy. 

“Yes. Last name should be under Rose, two rooms.”

The employee clacked ever so slowly on the computer, the keys groaning and whining with each touch. She stared at the screen for a while, her eyes going completely blank and glossy with the green light from the device. Amy frowned and began tapping her fingers against the counter. 

“Ah yes, here it is. I just need to see some ID and get a deposit for the room keys. You only get one for each room,” she said dully, not looking away from the screen. Amy fished out a twenty and her ID to put on the counter, sliding it toward the employee. 

“Mm, twenty bucks for each key,” she said, grabbing the money and the ID with a clumsy swipe. Amy looked back at the three of them, a silent ask for more money. Sonic began to fumble through his pockets, looking for any loose cash. Nothing. He looked up and shrugged at her, earning a glare in return. 

Shadow walked over to the counter and placed his own twenty down, somewhat forcefully, and walked back to his place near the bear head. Amy sighed in relief. The employee placed two keys back on the counter and started typing on her computer again. Amy grabbed the two keys and glanced at them, reading the number engraved on the sides. 

“I think we’re on the fifth floor. It says 511 and 512,” she explained, walking back over to the group. She handed one key over to Shadow. 

“Here, you two can be in 512.”

He nodded silently. 

“Hey, why don’t I get a key?” Sonic complained, grabbing his suitcase as they all walked out of the lobby and into a hallway. Amy didn’t bother answering him. 

“Looks like there isn’t an elevator,” she said, staring at the single set of stairs at the end of the hall. Other than a lone bathroom on the other side of the hall, there were no other doors or entrances. 

“Are you kidding me? We’re on the fifth floor!” Sonic shouted. Blaze sighed and grabbed one of Amy’s large suitcases, just hauling it up the stairs as best she could. Amy turned to grab her other one, but frowned at the sight of her smaller carry-on. 

“Can one of you get that?” She asked, pulling her bigger suitcase up the stairs after Blaze. Sonic crossed his arms and scowled, shaking his head. Next to him, Shadow sighed deeply. 

“You’re so petulant,” he muttered, grabbing the other suitcase and brushing Sonic’s shoulder as he passed, moving up the stairs after the girls. 

A few minutes later they were all on the fifth floor, huffing and puffing. The stairs creaked rather violently as they moved upward, making Sonic slightly concerned about the building’s stability, but he figured the wood was probably just old. 

Probably.

Shadow turned the key in the door, revealing a small room with peeling green wallpaper, the same gray faded carpet, and one queen-sized bed. 

Wait. 

One bed??

Shadow let out a heavy sigh and walked in, throwing his duffel bag on the floor near the left side of the bed. Sonic placed his suitcase down on the right. 

“Sooooo, uh, how’re we gonna do this? I mean, I can go on the floor if you want-”

“That’s ridiculous. You need rest for the mission.” Shadow cut him off, turning on the small lamp on the one bedside table. It flickered briefly before turning off entirely. He frowned. 

“Are you sure?” Sonic asked. Shadow stared down at the gray carpet, looking at the cigarette burn marks and mysterious stains that littered the ground. 

“Do you want to sleep on that?”

Sonic shook his head. 

“I don’t wanna force you on there, though. It’s pretty gross,” Sonic commented, toeing at one of the larger brown stains near the corner of the room. 

“I have a sleeping bag,” Shadow deadpanned, opening his duffel and pulling out the item in question. 

“Oh. Okay,” Sonic said simply, opening his own luggage to look for drier clothing. Deep down, he was a little disappointed they wouldn’t be sharing the bed together. Not that he had a thing  for Shadow or anything, definitely not, but it could’ve been some form of bonding moment. At the very least, maybe slightly warmer. 

Unlike the lobby, their room was cold, with no heater for the room in sight. Sonic grabbed a change of clothes and looked around. 

No bathroom. 

He hadn’t seen one in the hallway, and he didn’t really feel like having to leave their room, go all the way back downstairs, and change in a potentially dirtier area. 

“Hey, uh, I’m gonna change, can you turn around?” Sonic asked. Shadow nodded silently and turned to face his duffel bag again, rooting through the thing loudly. 

Sonic peeled off his wet shirt, pants, and socks. His heart rate picked up slightly. 

What if Shadow looked and saw his binder? Would he be mad? Uncomfortable? 

Sonic was slightly regretting not just going downstairs, but he quickly threw more clothes on before he could panic and freeze. Immediately he felt warmer and better, even with the slightly wet binder still on underneath. He didn’t have another one, and it wasn’t like he could go without it in front of Shadow. 

The wetness made it tighter, the material sticking to him and making it harder to breathe. Sonic sighed. It was going to be a long day. 

…

A few hours later they were in the forest, looking for signs of the evil soul. The sheriff in the area had gone in to investigate the bodies they had found hanging from trees, but none of them had come back, leading the office to send in the DWMA. It was still raining, not quite as hard but still enough to be cold and annoying. Amy and Blaze both had on raincoats and shared one large umbrella, while Shadow had on a long black poncho with a hood that nearly obscured his face. He looked a little like one of those assassins in movies that jumped from building to building, trying to kill a corrupt medieval king or steal a prized jewel. 

Sonic was cold. He hadn’t had the forethought to check the weather or bring a rain jacket, so Shadow had offered him his leather jacket. It offered some protection from the rain but nothing for his head, which was now fully soaked. The jacket was bigger on him, the heavy fabric hanging off his body slightly past his waist. The sleeves covered up part of his hands, so he had rolled them up slightly. 

Sonic thought he looked ridiculous. The spikes on the shoulder pads were certainly cool, though, and Sonic was astounded Shadow had let him wear the thing in the first place. Maybe it was because he had seen his open luggage only filled with t-shirts and one pair of jeans. 

After a quick breakfast of the remaining chips Sonic had in his backpack, they had set off into the wilderness, Amy leading them with a large color-coded map in her hands. Besides the sounds of rain hitting the leaves and the ground, it was largely silent, no birds chirping or other animals cracking branches as they walked. 

It was eerie.

Beside him, Shadow began to tense, his eyes darting around the trees ahead. Sonic looked at him, confused. 

“What are you-”

“Shh.” Shadow held out a hand in his face. “I’m listening.” 

He scanned the forest around them for signs of movement, his eyes slowly drifting from left to right, then eventually up into the tree tops. 

Sonic saw the exact moment Shadow’s body went entirely rigid, his face morphing from seriousness to something tense with fear. A terror Sonic had never seen before.

He followed Shadow’s gaze into the trees. 

That’s when Sonic saw the first one. 

It could’ve almost passed as a branch, swaying slightly in the misty breeze, but the unmistakable shape of legs and feet now stood out against the greenery. 

A person. 

Blood dripped down their legs and torso, coating their once-blue shorts in a deep burgundy. A glance even further upward revealed the source of the blood.

There was no head.

Sonic took a frantic step back, willing himself to look away but now he could see more of them, tied up and hanging by their underarms in the trees above. Four, five… ten… twenty…

All of them were framed by the sheer amount of blood that had spilled out of their necks and down their bodies, coating the forest ceiling in a sheet of red. It was mostly people from the sheriff’s department, as Sonic could recognize the uniforms even under the stains, but a few were just civilians. 

A smaller body wearing a pink dress and light up sneakers caught his eye.

Sonic gagged. 

A hand on his shoulder caused him to jerk back, wrenching his head back down to eye level. 

“I need you to stay calm,” Amy whispered. “I know this is a lot, but we need to be on guard if we’re going to stop the evil soul that did this.”

Sonic swallowed. His mouth tasted like ash. He could barely feel the cold of the rain soaking into his clothes and skin anymore, just a pit of nausea in his stomach that threatened to make him keel over and spill his guts. 

Instead, he just gave a nod. Amy looked over to Blaze, who gave a nod in return and transformed into her weapon state in a small burst of light. Amy caught the newly formed flamethrower with ease, holding it out in front of her like a rifle. She looked to Shadow, who gave a similar nod. 

Shadow walked closer to Sonic, shoving an item to his chest. A sheathed knife. 

“Just in case,” he murmured, transforming into his own weapon state. The light was much brighter up close, a golden sort of shimmer that coated Shadow’s whole body and made him disappear entirely, leaving behind a scythe in its place. 

Sonic scrambled to catch him, the thing being nearly twice his size and hitting him in the face as he fumbled to grab the shaft of the scythe. In the reflection of the scythe’s blade, Sonic could see Shadow’s face staring back at him. 

“Stop fooling around,” he hissed, voice coming out slightly more distorted. 

Sonic grabbed the scythe and assumed a guard stance, just as he had been taught in class. His brain struggled to remember all the different defensive and offensive poses he had learned over the months, every nerve in his body screaming at him to just run away. 

The scythe was heavy in his hands, far more so than he had expected. Even in the dark of the trees, the silver glinted beautifully in the light, looking like a fine piece of jewelry rather than a weapon. Sonic could almost forget about the horror around him and just study Shadow’s scythe form forever, taking in all the intricate patterns and carvings that ran along the dull edge of the blade. 

Until a drop of red fell to them, sliding down the metal blade and leaving a streaky red residue in its wake. 

Sonic winced. 

Ahead, Amy made a beckoning motion with her hand as she continued into the forest, making an attempt to be as quiet as possible. Sonic followed close behind, the two moving inch by inch in the shadows of the trees, looking for any signs of life instead of the dead hanging above. 

Up ahead, there was a small clearing in the middle of the trees, with a bit more light from above shining through. Sonic could see it was still cloudy, with the sky being a dull gray, but it still gave him some small comfort.

Until he saw the hole in the ground. 

Amy inched closer to the pit, the thing stretching about fifteen feet wide and clearly very deep, as Sonic couldn’t see all the way to the bottom from his vantage point. Amy had her flamethrower trained at the pit as she moved, her hand on the trigger and the safety removed. Sonic could see Blaze’s face reflected in the dark metal, eyes darting around to where Amy wasn’t looking. 

Amy looked back to him, making a motion with the flamethrower for him to get closer. Something was going to jump out at them, he just knew it. His feet felt heavy, heart racing with fear and anticipation of what could possibly attack them. 

With a breath, Sonic gripped the handle of the scythe tighter and moved to the other end of the pit to look inside. 

Unblinking eyes stared back up at him. 

Sonic jerked back when he saw the severed heads, all thirty or so, looking back at him, blood still seeping from the wounds in their necks. They were all in various stages of decay, some nearly purple with discoloration and seemingly melting into the dirt sides of the pit. 

Right in the middle of the pile was a smaller head, long hair up in pigtails and tied with pink ribbons. A few droplets of blood had dried on her cheek from where the other heads had brushed her. 

Her eyesockets were empty.

Nope.

Sonic turned away and bolted into the woods, breathing heavily and slipping on every wet leaf and branch. Shadow was still in his scythe form, gripped tightly in his hand, and Sonic had to maneuver so as to not stab himself while running. 

In the scythe’s reflection, Shadow’s face appeared once again. 

“What the hell are you doing? Get back to Amy! You’re both in more danger if you split up!” Shadow yelled. 

Sonic was not listening. He kept running, stumbling over wet rocks and leaves and narrowly avoiding impaling himself on the scythe.

“Sonic! Stop!” 

The scythe began to flow in Sonic’s hand. He gasped, chucking the thing into the trees before falling facefirst into a bush, his jaw snapping up and clacking hard with his teeth. He could hear Shadow’s footsteps approach behind him. 

Suddenly he was grabbed by the collar and jerked upward, his eyes making contact with Shadow’s deep red irises, almost seeming to glow with rage. 

“What. The. Hell. Do you think you’re doing,” he seethed, pulling their faces close and gripping his collar impossibly tight. “Get your shit together. This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Well, this is what you get! Dead people! You’re going to be seeing this the rest of your life!” 

Sonic gasped in and out, his breath coming out ragged and shaky. Tears were falling freely from his eyes now, blurring Shadow’s rage-curled face. Shadow’s face softened slightly and he released Sonic, sending him falling back to the dirt floor. 

“Look. After this mission you can leave and do whatever you want. But right now, we are in danger. Amy and Blaze are in danger. We need to stick together and fight if we’re going to get out of this,” Shadow said firmly. 

Sonic pushed himself up to his knees, shaking slightly. Shadow’s hand appeared in front of him, a silent offer to help him up. 

Sonic took it. 

His hand was warm, despite the chill and damp around them, and Shadow pulled him to his feet with ease, grabbing his shoulders to steady him as he shook. 

“Sorry,” Sonic muttered, leaning slightly closer to Shadow. They were almost hugging now, their faces impossibly close. Shadow stepped away. 

“Are you ready to go back now?” 

Sonic looked down at the branches by his feet. 

“I don’t-”

A scream pierced through the air, shattering whatever thought was about to leave his mouth.

Amy.

As obnoxious as she was, he didn’t want her to die. Sonic turned back to where he knew the pit lay ahead and took a breath. 

He thought back to the little girl, small ribbons in her hair, dress stained brown with dried blood. He couldn’t let her die in vain.  

I can do this. 

“...Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

The scream echoed in Shadow’s ears, rattling through his head and sending his nerves ablaze. He rushed away from Sonic, the blue haired teen still hunched over and shaking in the bushes. Internally, Shadow rolled his eyes. Of course he would chicken out at the sight of any gore.

But right now wasn’t the time to dwell on Sonic’s cowardice. Shadow dashed through the trees, ignoring the still-dripping bodies hanging above him, even as a splash of blood fell to his cheek and rolled down. He couldn’t help them now, but he could still prevent Amy and Blaze from becoming like them. 

He only hoped he wasn’t too late.

Breaking through the clearing, Shadow was met with the harsh stench of ash and burning wood, with Blaze in her weapon form having set a few trees on fire. The two were currently locked in battle with some sort of… creature, presumably the one who had decapitated all those people and hung them in the trees.

It was a huge, hulking thing, nearly triple the size of Shadow himself, and just as wide to match. Much of it was covered in moss and greenery, blending it into the background quite seamlessly despite its size. The creature’s eyes were wide and glassy, dripping white liquid from both eye sockets and its mouth as it moved. 

Unlike a lot of evil souls, this one didn’t seem to have a real weapon– its sheer size and strength were enough to do critical damage. Briefly, Shadow wondered how such a large and clumsy creature could have so neatly decapitated so many people, but he didn’t have time to focus on that.

He had to act.

Fighting alone as a weapon was extremely difficult, even for the most talented and experienced fighters. It was strategically far different from being wielded by a meister, where one didn’t need to do a whole lot of movement or work to be effective. With Maria, his role was mainly to tell her when to dodge or what the best course of action might be, and to let her do the rest. 

Shadow gritted his teeth as he transformed just one arm into a scythe blade, running past Amy and right up to the creature, where he aimed a single swipe at its square-shaped legs. He made contact, but it felt like hitting thick, wet, clay, his arm quickly getting stuck in the leg. 

The creature roared, clearly having felt the pain. It started to shake its leg violently, flinging Shadow into a nearby tree, his arm ripping free from the clay. 

Shadow hit the bark with a crack, his back immediately erupting in pain as he slid down and slumped at the base of the tree. He groaned, spots dancing in front of his eyes as he watched Amy shoot a well-aimed blast of fire at the creature from further away.

The fire hit its torso squarely, plunging the moss and leaves coating the creature into flames. It screeched again, slowly moving its hulking body from side to side to fan the flames off. Amy wasted no time in running to the backside of the creature, aiming another blast to the back of its head.

Shadow groaned as he pulled himself to his feet, sucking in a quick breath before running back toward Amy.

“Where’s Sonic?” She shouted at him, scanning the woods around the creature.

“Still in the woods. He got too scared. I came running when I heard you scream,” he explained, panting slightly. 

Amy nodded.

“Well, he should be safe in the woods. Guess this was a bit much for a first mission.”

Shadow scoffed but didn’t reply. He turned his attention to the still screaming creature, the flames on its body almost entirely out now. All the greenery had burned away, only leaving behind the charred clay body, its hideous square face somehow furrowed in rage. 

Briefly, Shadow was met with the realization that this was once a person, one who strayed from morality and consumed enough human souls to be turned into this… thing. 

He had no sympathy for such a monster. 

The creature stopped screaming, the flames having been patted out entirely, and it turned its gaze back to Amy and Shadow, who each took up defensive positions. 

“Amy, I don’t think your flames are going to be effective on the rest of its body. The clay is too thick to burn through,” Shadow said, scanning the creature for any visible weaknesses. 

“What about the head?” Amy suggested. “It’s much smaller than the body, it should be easier to burn or cut through.”

Shadow squinted. The head was significantly smaller than the giant’s torso, maybe a third of the size, and visibly less charred than the rest of its body. The head was harder to hit with the flames, as the body or arms jutted out and took the brunt of the heat before it ever reached the head.  

“I think you’re right, but I don’t know how to reach it. Your flamethrower isn’t reaching the head because of the body’s size, and there’s no way I could jump high enough to hit it. Even if I could, I wouldn't have the right angle with just my arm,” Shadow noted. 

With a shriek that sounded a bit like a battle cry, the creature lunged forward once again, barrelling toward them with a speed extremely unnatural for a thing of that size. Its thick legs hobbled across the forest floor with ease, its clumsy nature from before completely gone. Shadow and Amy dove in separate directions to avoid being trampled, with Shadow skidding on the cracked leaves and sticks beneath him, tearing his long-sleeved shirt and scratching his arms beneath. 

Shadow moved his hands in front of him to push himself up but was met with empty air. His head snapped up as he realized that he had landed just on the edge of the deep chasm with all the decapitated heads inside. Turning his head, he was met with the sight of dozens of glassy eyes staring back, reddish-brown still staining their necks. 

For a split second, Maria’s face looked back at him. 

He grimaced, forcing himself to stay calm and crawl slowly backward so as to not fall headfirst into the pit. Shadow pushed himself to his side and away from the chasm, scrambling to his feet to avoid getting smashed on the head by the creature’s thick clay arms. 

The arms hit the ground just behind Shadow with a resounding boom, making him stumble with the force of the hit. He ran forward, forcing himself to balance to get out of the way of the next hit. The creature towered above him now, the looming shadow casting him into sudden darkness as he desperately tried to push forward.

He couldn’t get out of the way in time.

Shadow took a breath, steeling himself for the brunt of a hit he knew would come soon and moved his arms to shield his head. A shout pierced the air behind him.

“ Shadow!!”

A flash of blue crossed his vision in a split second, and suddenly Shadow felt himself being tackled and flung to the ground, far out of reach from the creature’s heavy hitting arms.

Shadow gasped, pain shooting through his back and head for a second time as he landed harshly on a pile of rocks, jutting deeply into his torso. 

He groaned, rolling on his side and sucking in a breath, willing the pain to die down so he could get up again. Opening his eyes proved difficult, white and black spots dancing in his vision and making his head throb. From above, Shadow heard a muffled voice trying to talk to him.

“Shadow…. Shadow! Are you okay?”

Shadow looked above him to see a blue haired figure leaning over him, eyes wide in concern.

Sonic.

“Ughhh….” Shadow grumbled, pushing himself to a seated position. Instantly, he was met with even more black spots and a rush of dizziness, causing him to collapse right into Sonic’s arms.

“Woah! Take it easy there,” Sonic shouted, far too loud for Shadow’s aching head. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see the creature turn its head and start to approach them, white dripping eyes wide with rage.

“Shadow, we need to move. Like, now.”  

Shadow could barely process these words around the miserable shooting pain in nearly every part of his body, only succeeding in shifting his head slightly before the blackness threatened to overtake his vision entirely. 

“Fuck, shoot, alright Shadow, I’m gonna try to move you—” Sonic muttered above him, slinging Shadow’s arm over his shoulder and lifting them both to a standing position. Painstakingly, Sonic tried to take a few steps, but Shadow’s legs felt like jelly beneath him. He could barely do anything to help as Sonic dragged him slowly across the forest floor. 

“Shadow, do you.. ugh…” Sonic grunted with exertion. “Can you transform? Do you have the energy?”

Shadow nodded, squeezing his eyes closed and willing himself to muster up the energy. Transforming into his weapon form had always come easy to him, being almost second nature since he was a child, but in his weakened state he found it nearly impossible. With a breath, Shadow’s body exploded into light, changing his form to a scythe within a second.

Being in weapon form was far different from existing in his human form. It was tranquil, his body feeling suspended in midair. It was a little like being underwater. He could still feel and see everything around him, but it felt more like watching a screen, having absolutely no control over where he moved or what direction he faced. Without a trusted meister, being in weapon form could be terrifying.

Shadow barely had the energy to be scared, simply letting himself sink into the weightlessness as he shut his eyes. He could barely feel it as Sonic grabbed him, taking the scythe and running just out of the path of the creature’s hard hitting fists. 

“Shadow, can you still hear me?” Sonic yelled, bouncing him up and down as he sprinted across the clearing away from the creature. Shadow scowled, keeping his eyes closed. 

“Yes dumbass, I can still hear you.”

“Jeez, dude, I didn’t know! I uh…” he panted, continuing to run, swerving a few times to avoid some more hits. “...what do I do? This thing’s gonna kill me!”

Shadow opened his eyes, though from his vantage point all he could see was the forest swinging up and down as Sonic swung him back and forth. 

“Keep running, try to get to Amy and make a plan of attack together. Don’t get hit,” Shadow grumbled, closing his eyes again to avoid looking at the dizzying world around him. He scrunched up his face, internally begging the throbbing in his head to go away so he could focus on the battle around him. 

He certainly hadn’t expected Sonic to come back, that was sure. Now, in the thick of battle with his injuries, Shadow grew increasingly concerned. At least when he was cowering in the woods, Sonic was safe, but now? Shadow couldn’t help him very much in weapon form, other than talking him through what to do. 

What was he going to do if he lost another meister?

Shadow snapped his eyes back open, willing himself to scan their surroundings and come up with a plan. 

“Sonic, listen to me carefully. I need you to follow my instructions exactly, do you understand?”

Shadow stated firmly. 

“Uh, yeah, whatever you say! Just maybe—” Sonic breathed heavily, “—something to do other than running?”

“I want you to run into the trees. It’ll be harder for that huge thing to follow us if it can’t fit between the trunks.”

Sonic didn’t say anything, but he pivoted hard to dash into the forest, shoving branches out of his way while using Shadow as a shield. Even in his scythe form, he could feel the tree branches scratching and smacking into him, sure to leave even more scrapes and bruises than he already had. 

Shadow could hear cracking sounds as the creature barrelled into the trees behind them, only slowing down slightly to shove greenery out of its way. Sonic zig-zagged through the forest, ducking between trees and branches to throw the giant off their tail. Through the trees, Shadow could see Amy up ahead, near the edge of the clearing scanning her surroundings. 

“Sonic, run to Amy!” he shouted, and Sonic sprinted to the left, making his way out of the brush and back to the clearing. Sonic panted as he came to a stop, the creature still further behind them stuck between some smaller trees. 

“Amy, Sonic, we don’t have a lot of time before it catches up. I think if Amy distracts it with the flamethrower, Sonic, you can jump behind and slice through its head,” Shadow explained. 

“Slice its head? Dude, I can’t possibly jump that high!” Sonic protested, gesturing wildly back into the woods. 

“You’ll probably have to climb a tree and jump off,” Shadow said simply, looking around to see if there was a decent looking tree that would give them a good angle to strike. 

“ What ? I’m not climbing a tree and jumping off, do you know how high that would be? Are you insane ?” 

“Sonic!” Amy shouted. “There’s no other visible weaknesses on its body. We have to cut through if we’re going to kill it. Unless you’ve got a better plan, this is what we’re doing.” 

She took a deep breath in. 

“I can lure it over to those trees across the clearing, they look a little easier to climb. You get a headstart now and be ready to attack when I get there, got it?” Amy ordered, pointing across the way past the giant pit. 

Sonic looked petrified, but gave a small nod. 

“Alright, then go!” 

With a huff, Sonic took off running again, bounding around the pit and onto the first tree he saw, a large oak with a few low hanging branches for him to grab. Shadow yelped as Sonic shoved the scythe handle into his mouth, biting down hard and starting to climb the tree with his hands. 

“ What the hell! ” Shadow yelled, feeling Sonic’s teeth dig into his body even in his weightless corporeal form. 

Sonic hummed something incoherent and continued to climb, making his way up the tree with surprising speed. He eventually reached a branch that was high and easy to jump from, taking the scythe out of his mouth and crouching on the branch. 

“Sorry, sorry, I needed both my hands to climb,” Sonic explained, giving a small chuckle. 

“That’s disgusting. Don’t ever do that again.”

“Hey, if I die today, you won’t have to worry about it.”

Shadow felt his stomach drop at the words, mind instantly showing him images of Sonic’s lifeless body, bleeding and broken just like Maria’s. 

It would be all his fault again. 

“You are not going to die today. Not on my watch,” Shadow growled. “Just listen to my instructions and it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sonic mumbled, but it was clear he was still nervous, the hand gripping the scythe handle shaking with fear. 

Shadow turned his attention back to the clearing, where the creature had finally emerged from the trees on the other side. It spotted Amy almost immediately and screeched, more liquid spraying from its mouth and eyes as it began to charge at her. Amy aimed a perfect blast of fire at its head, hitting it squarely in the face.

Not waiting for its response, Amy took off running across the clearing to where Sonic was crouched in the trees. The creature screamed even louder, making a futile attempt to wipe away the flames with its impossibly large arms, only succeeding in hitting itself in the face. 

Sonic chuckled a little at the sight, the shaking of his hand slightly calming as he did. Their relief was short lived, however, as the creature recovered and began to charge across the clearing with immense speed.

“Get ready,” Shadow warned as the ground began to shake with the weight of the creature slamming its fists and feet to the ground. Sonic gripped the scythe handle tight, adjusting his crouching position slightly and readied himself to jump.

Amy dashed past their tree, giving a wave to Sonic as she passed as a signal. With ease, she slung the flamethrower onto her back and climbed up a tree next to them, maneuvering through the branches as if she had done it all her life. 

Shadow watched her, impressed. She and Blaze were certainly top of their class for a reason, it seemed. Another screech from the creature pulled Shadow out of his thoughts as it approached, gunning it for the tree Amy was in.

“Wait for it…. jump now! ” Shadow shouted.

Sonic leaped off the tree, feet slamming hard on the creature’s thick, clay shoulder. His shoes sunk into the material slightly, causing Sonic to wobble and lean back dangerously. 

“ Sonic ! Stop shaking around! Swing at its head!” Shadow yelled. 

Sonic jerked himself forward, forcing himself to be still even as the creature shifted and tried to shake him off. Still, he was far too unbalanced to swing the scythe, missing nearly every swing and getting himself even more stuck in the clay. 

Shadow groaned as he felt himself being swung around wildly, dizziness coming back in full force. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the creature’s giant arm lifting toward Sonic, prepared to knock him clear off.

“ Look out !” Shadow screamed, the arm moving fast toward Sonic’s face. He wasn’t moving, still fumbling around with the excess movement and trying to get a hit on the head.

He wasn’t going to move in time.

Shadow’s heart raced as the scene seemed to play out in slow motion, the thick, clay hand nearing then with every second. 

He couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t lose one more meister, not like this, not when he could do something about it. 

Shadow took a breath.

In a split second, he had de-transformed back to his human form with a flash of light, just as the heavy clay of the creature slammed into his chest, knocking him clear off the shoulder and plummeting to the floor.

With a painful crack, everything went black.

Chapter Text

The world came to a standstill as Shadow transformed back into a human, the heavy clay hand of the creature smacking directly into him and sending the teen flying. Sonic watched in horror as Shadow was flung several feet into the air and across the clearing, landing a few seconds later with a sickening thud. 

Sonic screamed. 

Desperately, he craned his head backward to see where Shadow had landed, if he was still moving, but his feet were still firmly stuck in the clay. The creature was still swinging its arms at him violently, and Sonic ducked down just in time to avoid meeting the same fate as Shadow. Crouched down, Sonic used his hands to try and separate his feet from the creature’s shoulder, yanking at his legs as hard as he could. 

With a loud pop, one of his feet finally came free, still covered in the goopy grey of the creature’s clay body. He stepped carefully to another part of the shoulder, moving as lightly as possible to not get sucked in a second time. With one foot free, he was able to shove the other out as well, crouching near the back of its head where the ash made it easier to stand. 

From his new position, Sonic could make out Shadow lying limply on the ground, far away from where the creature was standing. Sonic’s stomach dropped as he noticed he wasn’t moving at all, one arm jutting out at an angle it was not supposed to. He closed his eyes, willing himself to focus on the task at hand. 

He couldn’t help Shadow if the creature was still alive. 

Sonic glanced around, looking for Amy in the trees nearby. Sure enough, she had her flamethrower pointed directly at him, or rather, the creature’s head, ready to strike. She made a gesture with her hand, urging him to move, presumably so she could shoot. 

He gulped and glanced to the ground. It was a long way down, that was certain, and he knew a bone would certainly break if he tried to jump. Still, what option did he have? Get burned alive instead?

Sonic turned back to the head of the creature, large and looming just in reach. Could he… punch it? No, it definitely wouldn’t even dent from that; it was far too thick to make a proper impact. He could… 

Scanning the area, Sonic suddenly noticed a small red dot on the back of its head, resembling an emergency off button that a lot of appliances had. 

What the hell? 

Tentatively, Sonic reached forward to grab at it, but was immediately shaken backward by the creature moving. He grunted, digging his fingers into the clay so as to not get flung off, and turned his head back toward Amy. 

“Amy!” he shouted. “I need you to shoot somewhere and distract it!” 

Amy gave him an odd look but nodded anyway, aiming down at the creature’s feet and letting out a burst of flames. The creature roared with pain, now focusing its arms on patting out the flames spreading all across its legs. 

As it bent down, Sonic finally had a clear shot to the button. With a lunge, Sonic reached forward as far as he could without falling off to slam his fist down on the red button.

The reaction was instant. 

The clay creature stopped moving immediately, jolting forward with a force that threatened to throw Sonic clear off. He gripped the head tightly, eyes now completely hollow and dark as it crumpled to its knees and went fully still.

Shaking, Sonic lowered himself to the floor, scrambling to get as far away from the creature as possible. Amy was close behind him, deftly leaping out of the tree and jogging over to where he stood.

She looked more concerned than ever. Amy released her flamethrower, transforming back into Blaze in a quick flash of orange light. She looked similarly bewildered, staring at the creature’s lifeless form just a few feet away.

“Sonic, what exactly did you do?” Amy asked, moving forward to tap the creature a few times. It didn’t budge.

“I saw something that looked like a button, so…” he trailed off. “That’s not supposed to be there, is it?”

“Of course not! It was supposed to be an evil soul, not a robot! This means someone had to have built and programmed that thing to kill all those people,” Amy snapped, shooting a glare at Sonic. “We have a much bigger issue on our hands than the DWMA knows about. We need to call home and report our findings.”

It was then that Sonic remembered Shadow, a jolt of panic rushing through his body.

“Oh god, Shadow !” He shouted, taking off running in the direction the teen was flung in. Amy’s face fell as she had the same realization, her and Blaze trailing close behind. 

Shadow was lying in a heap several feet away, not having moved an inch since Sonic had last looked at him. His heart sank. At this closer angle, he could see blood trickling from a wound on his forehead, as well as his left arm jutting out at a sickeningly wrong angle, definitely broken and dislocated.

Sonic rushed to kneel beside him, willing the first aid training he had learned months ago as a new student to come back to him. He pressed his fingers to Shadow’s neck, feeling around for a pulse. 

Nothing.

Sonic felt like he was going to throw up. Desperately, he moved Shadow to lay on his back and began pressing down hard on his chest. How fast was he supposed to go for CPR again? There was a song with the correct beat, what was it? Was he supposed to do mouth to mouth? Every safety training he had ever taken flashed through his brain, spilling information through his head in a swarm of memory.

He slammed both hands harder on Shadow’s ribs, counting to thirty, was that the right number?

Sonic leaned down, pushing air into Shadow’s mouth two times before sitting back and pushing down on his chest once more. He continued this cycle for what felt like a painstakingly long time, feeling both Blaze and Amy’s eyes locked onto him. 

In the back of his mind, he figured that, if he was doing it wrong, one of them would stop him and take over. Sonic panted as he kept pressing down, willing Shadow’s still face to awaken and breathe again. He’d barely even started to bond with the guy, and Shadow had already taken a possibly fatal hit in his place. 

Sonic couldn’t let him down now. 

He leaned down once again, pressing his mouth to Shadow’s and breathing more rescue breaths inside. Beneath him, Sonic felt a jolt as Shadow shot upright, gasping for air and beginning to cough. 

Sonic could’ve cried in relief at the sight, quickly patting Shadow on the back as he coughed a few more times and leaned forward, breathing heavily. Shadow wheezed and clutched his ribs, likely in a lot of pain from Sonic hitting them so hard.

Hey, at least his training worked?

In the distance, Sonic could hear sirens. Turning to the side, he realized Amy was on the phone with 911, informing them of the situation. Blaze put a hand on his shoulder.

“Ambulance is on the way. You did amazing, Sonic. I’m impressed by how quickly you sprang into action,” Blaze said softly, moving her hand to rub circles on Shadow’s back.

Sonic nodded, realizing he didn’t have the energy to respond. He suddenly felt more exhausted than he had ever felt in his life. He slumped into Shadow’s side, who had stopped coughing and was breathing a little more normally now. He moved his head slowly toward Sonic, looking him in the face with huge, wet eyes.

“You… saved me?” Shadow croaked out before bursting into another fit of coughs, body shaking slightly. 

“Of course I did,” Sonic blurted, patting Shadow a bit more on the back as his coughs slowed and stopped once more. “I’d never let you just die, man.”

The four of them sat in silence, huddled around one another as the ambulance arrived. The EMTs already looked shaken, likely having seen the dozens of decapitated bodies hanging in the woods above, but they were quick to snap out of it and tend to Shadow. Sonic stepped back, letting the professionals take over and lift Shadow into the ambulance, his eyes closing as he laid back on the stretcher and was whisked out of sight. 

Behind him, Amy and Blaze explained the situation to a few DWMA police officers who had arrived with the ambulance, now taking notes and pictures of the heads in the pit. Sonic flopped to the floor, taking deep breaths and trying his best to calm down. 

The emergency was over. Everything would be fine. 

Another EMT came to check him over, looking for obvious wounds or signs of any concussions. They deemed he was ok, as well as Amy and Blaze who had only sustained a few bruises and scratches during their own fight with the creature. Sonic glanced back to the ambulance, craning his neck to try and see Shadow, but was only met with medical equipment and the backs of the EMTs inside. He frowned. 

“Is my friend going to be ok?” Sonic asked the EMT outside with him. 

“Should be. You started his heart again, and he’s not actively losing blood, so they’re mostly just checking to see if everything else with his body is okay. He’ll probably need to be in the hospital for a few hours, just to check everything over, but otherwise…” the EMT trailed off, making a vague gesture. 

Sonic nodded and thanked them. 

“Can I go with him? To the hospital, I mean.”

“Sure. It could be good for emotional support anyway.”

Sonic jogged over to Amy and Blaze, who had finished their report to the police.

“I’m gonna ride with Shadow to the hospital,” he explained, both girls nodding in return.

“We need to go with the officers to the station to file  the official report and to update Lord Doom on the situation. We’ll meet you at the hospital after,” Amy said. “And by the way… good job today. With Shadow and the button and everything. Thank you.”

Sonic beamed. 

“Ah well, just in a day’s work!” He laughed, turning to jog back to the ambulance. 

Sonic had always wondered what was inside the back of an ambulance, never having been inside one before. Shadow lay on the stretcher, explaining his symptoms to the EMT checking his vitals and hooking up an oxygen mask to his face. A small blue bench was right beside the stretcher, along with a few bags of medical equipment hanging on the wall and other tools he had never seen before. 

It smelled just like the inside of a hospital. Sonic wrinkled his nose as he stepped inside and sat down on the bench beside Shadow.

“Shads is my weapon, so I’m gonna stay with him at the hospital. The other EMT outside said it was ok,” Sonic said to the EMT inside, who simply nodded and finished adjusting the oxygen mask on Shadow’s face. 

“Good work springing right into action with CPR. If it had been any longer, he might’ve died,” the EMT responded, moving to mark a few notes on a clipboard. They made a hand motion to the ambulance driver, who began to drive out of the forest, sirens starting back up again.

Sonic looked to Shadow, who seemed on the verge of passing out, eyes cloudy and struggling to stay open. 

“Is it ok for him to go to sleep?” Sonic asked the EMT.

“Hm, it’s safer if he stays awake right now, there’s a risk of his tongue blocking his airway if he passes out. The oxygen mask is helping with airflow, but he should try to stay awake the rest of the drive.” They looked down to Shadow. “It’s only a few minutes away, don’t worry.”

Sonic nodded, giving a thumbs up. 

“Hey Shadow, how’re you feeling?” Sonic asked softly, brushing Shadow’s hand with his own. Shadow stared at him, eyes cloudy and tired, and gave a small shrug. 

“Alright, well, you’re gonna be just fine. I'm gonna stay with you the whole time, ok?”

Shadow nodded slightly, chest rising and falling raggedly. Sonic winced. He hoped the breathing wasn’t too painful. 

“M… m’ria….” Shadow murmured, reaching out and grabbing Sonic’s hand. Sonic froze, his eyes widening and heart racing nearly as fast as it was before. He didn’t move, simply staying silent and squeezing Shadow’s hand back.

Whoever Maria was, they probably brought Shadow some comfort, so it was best not to correct him. Sonic held his hand for the rest of the ride to the hospital, minutes passing slower than hours as Shadow gripped his hand like a lifeline. 

They finally reached the hospital and Shadow was rushed inside on the stretcher, with the EMT telling Sonic to sit in the waiting area until someone came to get him. He nodded, slumping down in an ugly grey chair surrounded by various coughing people and screaming children.

In the sudden stillness, all the events that had transpired in the last few hours finally caught up to Sonic, weighing down on him as the background hospital noise faded into nothing.

Shadow had almost died. Hell, he had almost died too, would have if Shadow hadn’t taken the hit in his place. But the question lingering in Sonic’s mind was, why would Shadow risk death for him?

Sonic was sure they could barely even call each other friends. He had to admit, the way Shadow had grabbed his hand and held on to it so tightly made him feel…

No. He thought Sonic was someone else, that’s all. Nothing more. Still, it was hard to ignore just how close they had been moments before.

Sonic had even given him mouth to mouth.

Oh god, he had given Shadow mouth to mouth.

Sonic flushed red, staring down at his shoes, which were now caked in mud from the forest. 

It was fine. It was to save Shadow’s life, after all, it didn’t need to be weird. He certainly wasn’t thinking about it like that in the moment, but now…

It was certainly hard to forget.

A shriek from a nearby toddler shook Sonic out of his thoughts, the kid breaking into full blown sobs only a few seats down from him. The kid’s mother tried to shush them, only succeeding in making them cry harder into her shoulder. Sonic grimaced.

He was grateful not to have spent a lot of time in hospitals; the sterile smell and dreary atmosphere of sick people made him feel queasy. The lights overheard buzzed loudly, causing his head to throb. The exhaustion suddenly caught up to him. All Sonic wanted to do was crash into bed and sleep for days.

He groaned at the thought of the shitty motel in the woods they’d have to go back to tonight. Their flight home wasn’t until the next day, so he was stuck there for at least one night. 

The minutes trickled by, Sonic’s misery only accentuated by the coughing old people and crying babies surrounding him. He pulled out his phone, only to see a giant crack right in the middle of it.

Just great.

The phone wouldn’t turn on either, so Sonic assumed it was fully broken, or at least dead. The clock on the wall read 6pm. 

Weird. It had felt like way more than a day had passed.

His stomach rumbled suddenly, Sonic realizing he hadn’t eaten anything since the airport that morning. With nothing better to do, he stood to search the hallways for a vending machine.

Sure enough, around the corner from the waiting room were two vending machines, one with various snack foods and the other with water bottles and sodas. The soda machine had a light that flickered on and off, making a consistent buzzing sound that rivaled the ceiling lights. Sonic dug through his pockets looking for loose change.

With a start, Sonic realized he was still wearing Shadow’s jacket from when he borrowed it earlier in the day. Looking over it, he could see that there were a few mud blotches caked on the elbows and sleeves. He’d have to clean it well before giving it back to Shadow. 

Reaching into his own pant pockets, Sonic came up empty; his wallet back in his backpack in the motel room. He huffed, banging his head lightly against the glass of the machine, the snacks inside shaking slightly.

Maybe Shadow had a few spare dollars in his jacket? 

Sonic guiltily felt into the side pockets, pulling out a surprising amount of small tubes, mostly just chapstick, lotion, and sunscreen. On the inside pocket, his fingers brushed what felt like a piece of paper.

Bingo.

He grinned as he grasped the paper, expecting a dollar bill but being met instead with a small photograph. It was Shadow, seemingly years younger, with his hair short and bangs covering his eyes. Next to him stood a girl of similar age, albeit a little taller, with shoulder length blonde hair and a bright striped shirt.

It was cute, seeing a smaller, happier version of Shadow. Carefully, he tucked the photo back into the jacket pocket, figuring it was probably important for Shadow to carry it around.

Sonic shook the vending machine slightly, hoping for a packet of something to fall down for him, but to no avail. 

Figures.

He scowled at the thing and walked back to the waiting room, where he found his old seat and slumped back down, closing his eyes.

The dead, bloody eyes of the decapitated girl stared back at him.

Sonic opened his eyes, heart suddenly pounding. He sighed. Safe to say he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. 

A nurse came over to him, gesturing for him to follow behind her. Wordlessly, they made their way through the soulless white hallways of the hospital, reaching a small room where he was pointed inside.

Shadow sat upright on the hospital bed, an IV attached to his arm and a heart rate machine beeping steadily. His oxygen mask was gone, and there was a large bandage on his forehead, likely over the bleeding gash Sonic had noticed earlier.

“Hey,” Sonic greeted, giving him a wave and sitting down. Shadow nodded at him.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Better. They said I should be able to leave soon, they just wanted to keep me for observation for a bit.”

“Oh good!” Sonic exclaimed a little too loudly, Shadow wincing slightly with the sudden noise.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

Shadow was quiet, looking down at his hands as the heart rate machine continued to beep, filling the room with the obnoxious background noise.

“You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” Shadow murmured, looking at him from the corner of his eye.

“What? But I wanna make sure everything’s ok with you,” Sonic said, leaning forward. “Besides, you might need help getting up the stairs in the motel and whatnot; someone should stay with you.”

Shadow tapped his fingers nervously on the bedsheet.

“Really, it’s fine. I wanna make sure you’re not hurt. It’s basically my fault anyway, since you took that hit for me.” Sonic looked back up at Shadow. “Why… why did you do that?”

Shadow just shrugged, looking away from him and fiddling with one of the cords hooking him up to a machine. 

“I… didn’t want you to die. I can’t lose someone like that. Not again.”

Sonic sucked in a breath. 

“You uh, you called me something during the ambulance ride. Maria, I think.”

Shadow froze, turning his head to stare at Sonic, eyes wide and angry.

“What did you—“

The doctor opened the door with a loud squeak, casting them both into silence.

“Shadow, right?” She asked, glancing down at a clipboard.

“Yes.”

“Alright, well, I’ve reviewed my notes and you should be good to go. Just make sure to change the bandages on your scratches at least twice a day, and don’t over exert yourself. Come back if you’re feeling short of breath or experiencing any abnormalities with your heart rate, ok?” 

Shadow nodded as the doctor turned off the heart rate machine and removed his IV. 

“I’ll give you some space to change. Take your time, though, you don’t need to leave right away.“ 

With a click of the door, the doctor was gone. Sonic coughed awkwardly.

“Right, I’ll let you change out of the hospital gown. And uh, I’ll call a taxi back to the motel and let Amy and Blaze know what’s happening,” Sonic blabbered, practically running to the door and closing it as fast as possible.

He sighed. What kind of stupid thing to say was that? 

Shadow had seemed really mad when he brought up the name “Maria,” so he figured he wouldn’t bring it up again. Really great conversation skills he had, huh.

Sonic stupidly realized his phone was still broken, and he couldn’t call much of anything, actually. He knocked back on the door.

“Shadow? Are you done? Can I borrow your phone?” He shouted through the door.

No response. 

He knocked again, rocking back and forth on his feet for a little while before deciding it had been long enough; he could probably just go back in.

“Shads, can I use your—“

Turns out, it had not been long enough.

Shadow was still shirtless, currently struggling to put his shirt back on with the bandages around his ribs. 

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, I’ll just uh, just leave, so sorry—“

“It’s fine. My phone’s on the chair over there, just grab it,” Shadow muttered, finally managing to pull the shirt over his chest, hissing in pain slightly.

“Right, right, I’ll just…” Sonic squeezed past him and grabbed the phone, met with a similar photograph of the blonde girl as the Lock Screen. Maybe she was his girlfriend or something?

“Hey, what’s your password?” Sonic asked, glancing down at the five letter code blinking on the phone.

Shadow snatched his phone back, unlocking it and handing it back to Sonic.

“Amy’s number should be saved in my contacts,” he grumbled, putting his leg up on the chair to tie his shoes.

Sonic found the number easily, and Amy picked up on the first ring.

“Shadow? Are you alright?”

“Hey, it’s just me. Shadow’s fine, he’s being released right now. We’re gonna call a cab back to the motel,” Sonic explained.

“Okay. Me and Blaze are just finishing up at the station, we’ll meet you back there!” 

With a beep, Amy hung up the phone. Sonic breathed out, scrolling through Shadow’s phone to find the app to order a ride. Next to him, Shadow grunted slightly, struggling to put on his shoes.

“You need some help? You really shouldn’t push yourself,” Sonic said, leaning over to fix Shadow’s shoe.

A hand slapped his away.

“I’m fine,” Shadow hissed, gritting his teeth and fixing his shoes through the clear pain he was in.

Sonic backed away, checking the phone to make sure their cab was on the way before turning it off and placing it next to Shadow. 

Eventually, Shadow finished changing and the two made their way down the bare hospital hallway in silence, Sonic glancing over at Shadow every few seconds to make sure he wasn’t going to fall over. 

The cab ride to the hotel passed in a similar fashion, with Shadow looking pointedly out the window while Sonic bounced his knee nervously. He had totally made Shadow mad, and he didn’t quite know how to fix it.

Maybe it was best to just stay quiet for now.

Amy and Blaze were both sitting in the lobby when they arrived, leaning against each other on the ugly, peeling couch below the giant bear head mounted on the wall. Amy beamed and ran up to Shadow, wrapping him into a gentle hug.

Shadow stiffened.

“I’m so glad you’re ok,” she said softly, pulling away to look him up and down. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore. I’ll be fine,” Shadow said curtly, looking in disgust at the animal heads behind Blaze, who had also stood up to walk over to them.

“I’m surprised the hospital didn’t keep you overnight,” she remarked, looking at the huge bandage over Shadow’s forehead and the small piece of gauze sticking out from under his shirt. “You got beat up pretty badly.”

“I have… enhanced healing abilities. It wouldn’t be necessary for that kind of observation,” Shadow replied.

Blaze only shrugged, glancing down to a brown paper bag in her hands.

“In any case, Amy and I picked up some food on the way back.”

Sonic beamed.

“Oh thank god. I was starving in the hospital, and I had, like, no change for the vending machine.“

Blaze snorted, pushing the bag into his arms. It smelled heavenly, the savory scent of Chinese takeout filling his nose and making his mouth water. 

They walked over to the couches, placing the bag down on the shoddy wooden table near the fireplace. Shadow sat pointedly with his back facing the animals on the wall while Amy took out a few plastic containers of food from the bag.

The four of them devoured the food in an instant, grabbing at the plastic forks and shoveling greasy noodles and saucy chicken into their mouths faster than Sonic thought possible. Even Amy, who Sonic thought would be more focused on manners and cleanliness, was grabbing at the containers and keeping them to herself, Blaze having to rip it out of her hands to get a bite. 

They were all laughing by the end, save for Shadow who looked like he was about to pass out on the couch. 

“Ewww, Sonic you have sauce all over your face!” Amy giggled, shoving a napkin at him.

Sonic snorted.

“So do you! I think there’s a stain on your nose !”

“There is not! ”

Blaze took her finger and wiped the sauce off Amy’s face, licking it off her own hand. Amy went bright red as she watched Blaze smirk and press a small kiss to the tip of her nose.

“There, no more sauce.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. 

“Aren’t you two soooooo adorable,” he said with a smirk, causing Amy to blush harder, shoving Blaze away. Blaze just grinned, wrapping an arm around Amy’s shoulder.

“Yeah, she is pretty adorable, isn’t she?”

Sonic watched them bicker with a smile, enjoying the peace and joy after his day of being surrounded by death. It was hard to believe he was still in Death City this morning, not a clue about the horrors he would witness that day. 

He glanced over to Shadow, who had his eyes closed and was leaning more heavily against the couch. Sonic almost wanted to let him sleep, but it would surely be more comfortable if he was in the bed than on the shitty couch. Gently, he brushed Shadow’s arm to wake him up, the dark haired teen opening his eyes slowly and giving him a glare. 

“C’mon Shads, let’s go sleep in the room. You probably aren’t allowed to just sleep in the lobby all night anyway,” Sonic said, standing up and offering a hand out to Shadow. 

Shadow nodded, ignoring Sonic’s hand and pushing himself up with a slight wince, making his way over to the staircase. Amy watched as he walked away, a concerned look on her face. 

“Is he gonna be able to make it up the stairs?” she asked quietly, turning to Sonic. He just shrugged, the three of them jogging after Shadow to the stairs. Painstakingly, Sonic watched Shadow make his way up all five flights of stairs, slow as molasses, gripping the handrail in a death grip and he walked all the way up. 

Sonic was astounded at Shadow’s complete unwillingness to accept help, and even more so that there wasn’t an elevator in a building with over five stories. Still, after what felt like hours later, Shadow made it to the top, looking ready to collapse into a heap and sleep for days. 

Sonic rushed ahead of him, unlocking their room and holding the door open for Shadow, who limped inside without even a glance at him. Amy and Blaze lingered at the doorway for a moment, giving Sonic more worried looks. 

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Sonic reassured them. “If he gets worse, I’ll let you guys know. We can always go back to the hospital.”

Amy and Blaze nodded, retreating into their own room next door. Sonic closed their door with a click, turning to see Shadow, digging through his duffel bag and spreading out a sleeping bag over the floor. 

“Woah, dude, you can have the bed tonight. You don’t need to do that, I can just sleep on the floor,” Sonic said, running over to grab the sleeping bag from Shadow’s hands. 

“It’s fine,” Shadow muttered. “I can have the floor.”

Sonic just gawked at him.

“ What? No way, you’re injured, you need to have the bed tonight. You’re not gonna get better if you’re on the hard, moldy floor,” Sonic scoffed, snatching the sleeping bag from Shadow’s hands. Shadow scowled at him. 

“I said it’s fine, ” he barked, grabbing at the sleeping bag. Sonic moved it out of his reach as Shadow tried to lunge for it, only succeeding in doubling over in pain as he moved too fast. 

“No, it’s not!” Sonic shouted, grabbing Shadow by the shoulders. “Look, I don’t know why you insist on this, I don’t know, tough guy persona, but it’s completely ridiculous! You almost died today!" Sonic paused, feeling his face get heated as his anger built.

“I— I almost lost you! I thought you were dead! And— and here you are, acting like nothing happened! I don’t understand it!” Sonic spat. “All you do is act like you hate me , and then you turn around and almost die for me ? And now, now! You’re too proud to even sleep on this crappy motel bed! What’s wrong with you? ”

Tears were threatening to spill from Sonic’s eyes now, blurring Shadow’s shell-shocked face. Sonic released his shoulders, suddenly ashamed, and took a few steps back. He sniffed. 

“Sorry…” he muttered. “Just… take the bed, ok?”

Shadow closed his mouth, which had fallen open in shock during Sonic’s rant. He sat down on the bed, just looking at him. WIth a huff, Sonic slumped down on the bed next to him. 

“I didn’t mean to yell. I just… I really don’t understand you, ya know?” Sonic mumbled, wringing his hands. 

Shadow sighed. 

“...I’m sorry. For causing you distress. I didn’t realize… I didn’t know you cared that much.”

Sonic looked at him. 

“I could say the same to you. I mean, there’s certainly not a whole lot of people I’d almost die for. ‘Cept maybe my brother. And again, I mean, you don’t seem to like me all that much.” 

“...It’s complicated,” Shadow said finally, turning to look him in the eye. “I’ve never… I haven’t had a real friend in a while. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Sonic raised his eyebrows. Shadow, son of Lord Doom, insanely good looking, doesn’t know how to make friends? 

“Well… a good friend wouldn’t let his injured one sleep on the dirty motel floor.” Sonic looked at a dead cockroach in the corner of the room, cigarette marks and stains surrounding it. He shuddered. 

“Fair enough. Maybe a good friend would say that there’s enough room in this bed for both of us, so neither had to sleep on the floor,” Shadow suggested. “It is a queen-sized bed, after all.”

Sonic’s eyes widened. Him and Shadow? Sleeping? In the same bed?? 

“Are— are you sure?” Sonic asked nervously. 

“Sure. As long as you don’t kick me or anything.” Shadow reached down and pulled off his shoes, placing them neatly next to his duffel bag. Sonic chuckled. 

“Noted. I didn’t break your ribs, did I?”

“No. Just bruised.”

“Good.” 

Sonic took off his own shoes, chucking them against the wall with a thud. Sucking in a breath, he realized he had been wearing his binder all day, noticing a sudden ache in his ribs from the constant pressure. 

“Shadow can you, uh… turn around so I can change?” Sonic asked. Shadow nodded. 

Sonic peeled off the binder, the cloth nearly stuck to him with sweat. Instantly, he took a deep breath, air rushing in his lungs. He quickly threw on a t-shirt and baggy hoodie to sleep in. Hopefully, Shadow wouldn’t notice his chest if he was wearing enough clothes. He lay down, sighing in relief as exhaustion washed over him. 

“Sonic.”

“Hmm?”

“...thank you. For saving me.”

Sonic sat back up.

“Of course. And uh… thanks for saving me too. I think getting hit in the head by that creature’s giant hand might’ve killed me,” Sonic chuckled. Shadow looked down. 

Sonic cleared his throat. 

“Want me to turn off the light?”

Shadow nodded, laying down on his back and staring at the ceiling. Sonic flicked the off switch and watched the small lightbulb flicker before turning off entirely, casting them into complete darkness. He lay back down in bed, careful not to bump Shadow as he tried to get comfortable on the lumpy mattress. 

“Night, Shadow.”

As he lay there, Sonic realized he could already hear soft snoring from Shadow. He snorted, closing his eyes and willing sleep to come. 

Tomorrow would be a better day. 

Chapter Text

For the first time in months, Shadow slept without any nightmares.

He woke up slowly, the room still dark but with a distinct feeling that it was much later than he usually woke up. His ribs still ached, a shooting pain running through his body as he rolled over to grab his phone. 

It was then he realized another pressure over his chest, the weight of an arm laying on him. Sure enough, Sonic had his arm slung across Shadow’s chest, his head nestled into Shadow’s shoulder in an embrace. 

With his free arm, Shadow reached to the night stand and grabbed his phone. 11:45 am. 

Shadow turned on his back again, sucking in as deep of a breath he could without feeling any pain. Sonic’s arm was a little heavy and uncomfortable, but he felt a little bad moving it off and waking him by accident. Maybe if he just nudged it slightly?

Shadow gently lifted Sonic’s arm so it rested on his stomach instead of his ribs. Instantly, he felt much better, relieving the pressure from his chest and breathing more freely. 

Sonic was still snoring, quite loudly in fact, and Shadow was unsure how he had managed to fall asleep in the first place with all that noise. He supposed he was just really exhausted. Shadow unlocked his phone, looking through his new notifications idly. 

A text from Amy an hour ago told him that she and Blaze were awake and grabbing breakfast to bring back to the motel. Their flight home was in a few hours, so he and Sonic would need to get up soon. One more text from Stone asked him if he was feeling alright and to get better soon.

News travels fast apparently.

Shadow was only surprised his father hadn’t tried to check in on him, there certainly wasn’t a lack of mirrors around in the hospital or motel lobby for him to drop in. Not that he particularly wanted to hear the low, grating voice of Lord Doom lecturing him on being more safe, but it was definitely odd. 

Another deafening snore from Sonic shook Shadow from his thoughts. He was suddenly very aware of the arm around him and the head pressing into his shoulder, the sleepy haze gone from his brain and replaced with slight panic. 

Sonic was snuggling with him.  

It wasn’t unpleasant by any means, but not something he was used to in the slightest. Maria was the only person who’d ever show him physical affection, usually just hugs when they didn’t see each other for a while. His own father certainly didn’t hug or kiss or tuck him in as a child, and was just as emotionally distant.

People just didn’t seem to want to come into contact with him. Which was fine; he wasn’t used to it, he didn’t need it anyway. 

Probably.

It was warm and soft in the bed despite the lumpy motel mattress, and Sonic’s grip somehow felt more comforting than the suffocating feeling he expected. 

Maybe it wasn’t so bad.

They still had time left before the flight, and it was just comfortable enough for Shadow to loosen his grip on his phone, close his eyes and fall right back asleep.

…

A sharp knock came on their door about an hour later, causing Sonic to groan and bury his face deeper into Shadow’s shoulder. 

“Guys, we have to leave soon for the airport! Open up!” Amy shouted, slightly muffled behind the door. 

Shadow shook Sonic’s arm slightly.

“Sonic… we need to get up.”

He could see the exact moment that Sonic became fully aware of their position, the blue haired teen jerking his arm back and sitting up with a jolt. 

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I didn’t even realize I was sleeping like that, I didn’t mean—“

“It’s fine. Just… we need to get packed and go. Flight’s in a few hours,” Shadow mumbled sleepily, pulling himself to a seating position. His ribs ached as he sat up and pushed his legs off the edge of the bed, immediately overcome with dizziness. 

He groaned. 

“You feelin’ okay?” Sonic’s voice came from behind him. 

“Mm… fine. Just need a minute.”

Shadow could hear Sonic shuffle off the bed and begin to shove stuff back into his suitcase. He took a breath, standing up slowly but keeping a hand on the bed for support. The nausea subsided, mostly, but he knew bending over to pick up his belongings would be a challenge. 

“Just sit back down, I can pack it for you!” Sonic exclaimed, zipping up his own suitcase and moving to grab the sleeping bag off the floor, still half opened from last night. Shadow found he didn’t have the energy to argue, simply nodding and putting on his shoes slowly. Surprisingly, Sonic folded the sleeping bag and remaining clothes very neatly into his duffel, zipping it up with a satisfying click in just a few minutes. 

“Amy texted me that she got some breakfast,” Shadow mentioned. 

“Oh, awesome! I’m starving dude, you ready to go?”

Shadow nodded, making his way to the door while Sonic grabbed both bags and held the door open for him. Shadow snorted a little. 

“I’m slightly injured, I can still open doors for myself,” Shadow said snidely as he passed by. Sonic faked offense. 

“Oh but my good sir, I must keep up my chivalry! For thou art injured, I must make sure all doors are out of your way!” Sonic retorted, putting on a stupid medieval accent and bowing deeply. Shadow snickered and rolled his eyes as Sonic closed the door and locked it behind them. 

“Right, are the girls still in their room?”

Shadow shrugged. 

Sonic walked over to the door and knocked loudly, earning a glare from a person walking down the hallway back to another room.

“Coming!” Amy called from inside, footsteps padding toward them. The door swung open to reveal a perfectly manicured Amy, hair straightened and outfit completely wrinkle free. Sonic looked surprised at how put together she was, quickly running a hand through his hair in a poor attempt to look cleaner.

“Morning guys! We grabbed some bagels from a place down the street, but we need to start heading to the airport soon. Can you eat in the taxi?” Amy asked. Behind her, Shadow could see Blaze zipping up their three large suitcases, rolling them toward the door. How Amy managed to need that much stuff was beyond him.

“Yeah sure, we can eat in the car. I’m ready to get outta here anyway,” Sonic replied, rolling his shoulder in a circular motion. “The bed wasn’t the greatest.”

Amy chuckled, grabbing one suitcase from Blaze and closing the door behind them. 

“Yeah, we didn’t really like it much either. Luckily, I brought my trusty mattress topper in my suitcase, so we were able to sleep just fine!” Amy beamed, looking down at the suitcase. Sonic just gaped at her.

Who brings a whole mattress topper for a one night hotel stay?

“Don’t you think that’s a bit… excessive?” Sonic asked. “I mean, do you even need all that stuff?”

Amy hummed.

“Well, the bed was bad and I had the item we needed to have a better rest, so I’d say yes, I definitely do need all that stuff.” 

She smirked at him. Sonic rolled his eyes.

Blaze pushed past them with her remaining two suitcases, walking toward the stairs.

“We need to leave if we’re going to make our flight,” she grumbled. “I wanted to wake you up hours ago but Amy insisted we let you rest.”

“Aw, really Ames? That’s so sweet!” Sonic said with an exaggerated sweetness.

“Oh please. I wanted Shadow to get his rest, not you.”

The four walked down the hallway and started down the stairs, Shadow watching as Sonic stumbled down all five flights, the blue haired teen gawking at Blaze as she picked up two large suitcases with ease and practically floated down the stairs. 

“Shadow, do you need some help?” Amy called up.

Shadow stood on the edge of the stairs, not quite ready to move down. He knew moving down all the stairs was going to hurt, as it was definitely going to jostle his ribs, and he wasn’t quite ready to be in pain again. 

Amy put her bag down, rushing back up to Shadow and taking hold of his arm. He tensed, but ultimately let her help him down the rest of the stairs. What was it Sonic said earlier about friends helping each other? He supposed if Amy wanted to help him, he should let her. 

Sonic and Blaze trailed ahead with all the bags, with Blaze promising to wait outside and call them a cab while Shadow and Amy slowly moved down the stairs. Each step caused him to wince in pain, the pressure sending jolts to his ribs and back as he moved. 

“Sorry, I know you’re in pain. It’s ok, take your time,” Amy said soothingly, keeping a firm but gentle grip on Shadow’s arm. 

“...Thank you,” Shadow mumbled. 

She smiled at him. 

“By the way… why did you say all that stuff when we first met? About quitting the academy? It really is weird for a weapon enrolled to tell other students to quit.”

Shadow looked down at the dirty carpet covering the stairs, willing himself to shrink into the mysterious brown stain and melt away. 

Crap, he really was pretty rude when they first met. He sighed. 

“I… I meant what I said. About being safe, I mean,” Shadow started. “...I lost my previous meister. Lord Doom has proven to be nothing but unhelpful; he hasn’t captured those responsible, hasn’t upped security for students, doesn’t warn against just how dangerous this all is, and worst of all, he won’t even let me go after those monsters to get her justice–”

Shadow stopped himself. He turned to look Amy in the eye. 

“The point is, I don’t want to see more people end up like me. Or worse, like her.”

Amy was quiet for a moment as they continued down, only about a flight left ahead of them. 

“I’m sorry for your loss, Shadow,” she said quietly. “Really, truly, I don’t know what I would do if I lost Blaze. I just…” she trailed off. “Doesn’t that make you want to fight more? To be the hero for people who need it? People who could end up like you?”

Shadow huffed. 

“That’s why I’m still here, isn’t it? It’s not that I don’t support the idea of the DWMA as a whole, I just think it needs… better management.”

“Better management? Like, Lord Doom? The single most powerful being and ruler of this earth?”

Shadow just shrugged.

Amy gave him a dark look. 

“That’s a dangerous thing to say, Shadow.”

He didn’t respond. 

…

A few hours later and they were all on the plane, Sonic snoring loudly next to him in the window seat as Shadow shifted in his chair, trying to ignore the pain in his chest as the plane hit turbulence. How Sonic could sleep through all the shaking was a miracle; Shadow had never experienced plane turbulence quite this bad before. He was almost convinced they were about to drop right out of the sky, but no one else seemed to be concerned. 

Maybe it was just his injury making the turbulence seem worse. 

The four of them hadn’t spoken much on the ride to the airport or during security, Amy busy whispering with Blaze, presumably about their conversation earlier, and Sonic half asleep dragging his feet behind them all. 

Shadow politely declined the flight attendant who asked if he wanted a drink, and she continued down the aisle. Sonic was still dead asleep, and he wasn’t about to wake him up just for some airplane crackers and soda. It was still impressive just how loud he was, the snores almost drowning out all the white noise of the plane and sounds of turbulence as they went. 

Another bout of turbulence shook the plane, causing pain to jolt through his ribs yet again as he bounced up and down. Sonic’s head rolled with the motion to the side, falling on top of his shoulder and staying there.

Did he seriously not wake up from that?

Shadow supposed leaning on his shoulder would be more comfortable for Sonic’s neck, so he didn’t move the teen, simply leaning into the warmth as the turbulence died down.

The snoring was much louder now, but Shadow couldn’t find it in himself to care. Against the softness of blue hair, Shadow closed his eyes once again.

…

Shadow was dreaming of Maria again.

Usually, they started out peaceful, much like this one, the two of them sitting on a bench in the park and enjoying the sunset.

Tonight was different. Sonic was here, on his other side, chatting animatedly with Maria. Shadow couldn’t make out the words, but they both seemed happy and engaged, so he just leaned back and watched.

A far off feeling told him this was another dream, this wasn’t real, but he pushed the thought away, staring as the last bits of sunlight glinted across the park playground structure.

“Shadowwwww, I miss you!” Maria whined, slumping against him. “It’s so boring without you around.”

“Miss me? But I’m right here,” Shadow chuckled.

“You know what I mean.”

He didn’t look down. He could already feel the blood seeping into his clothes from her body, pouring out steadily with no chance of stopping. Maria giggled.

“You know, ignoring the problem won’t make it go away, silly,” she snickered. 

Shadow stiffened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t. Anyway, your new friend is cute,” she whispered, pointing at Sonic, still on the bench beside them. “Is he your type?”

Shadow scoffed. 

“Not a chance.”

“Aw, how mean. You hurt his feelings,” Maria said sadly, reaching a bloody finger to point at Sonic.

When Shadow turned to look at him, his head was gone, neck stump gushing blood as his body slumped over on top of him.

…

Shadow’s eyes snapped open, his heart pounding as he tried to register his surroundings. He was still on the plane, the dreary gray of the tray table shining back at him from the back of the chair. Sonic was still snoring softly, the weight of his head pushing into his shoulder.

Shadow took a deep breath. He’s fine. Everything is fine. 

Glancing up, he realized that everyone around them was standing, grabbing luggage from the overhead bins and moving to the front of the plane. Had he slept through the entire flight landing? 

Amy snorted slightly at him as she passed by their row, pointing to Sonic’s snoring face. 

“You guys are adorable!” she gushed, elbowing Blaze to get a look at them. Shadow scowled at her. “You should probably wake him up though.”

Blaze took out her phone and snapped a picture of Sonic asleep on his shoulder before smirking and walking away. Shadow just rolled his eyes, turning to shake Sonic gently. 

“Hey, the plane landed. We need to get up,” he said softly, not wanting to startle him. Sonic’s green eyes opened slowly, still dreary with sleep as he squinted at the tray table in front of him. 

“Oh,” he mumbled, yawning and stretching out. He sat up straight, immediately making Shadow feel much colder without the warmth of his head pressing on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, I didn't mean to lean–”

“It’s fine,” Shadow interrupted. “We’re getting off, let’s go.”

Sonic looked around at the now mostly empty plane, suddenly panicking and shoving all of his belongings in his backpack. Shadow stood up slowly, wincing at the pain in his chest and gripping the chair ahead of him for support. 

“You need some help?” Sonic called from behind him, zipping up his backpack and putting a hand on Shadow’s shoulder. 

“...not with walking. Can you take my bag?” Shadow asked. Sonic was being so nice. He always wanted to help, what was with that? It was almost like he wanted them to keep being so close together. 

Not that Shadow completely minded. 

Sonic grabbed Shadow's bag and followed him out of the plane, the two moving slowly but steadily. Amy and Blaze were waiting out at the gate, both giving a small smile and turning to walk back to baggage claim once the girls had spotted them. Shadow had barely taken two steps out of the gate before he noticed a horde of people dressed in black suits, staring him down. 

He sighed. 

Stone stood at the front of the group, rushing over to him with a concerned expression. 

“Shadow! Are you alright? How do you feel? I was so worried when I heard you’d been injured, I thought that-”

“I’m fine, Stone,” Shadow said curtly. “Let me guess, you needed the whole secret service to escort me back to my home?”

Stone’s face soured slightly, but he plastered a smile on as best he could. 

“It’s only protocol from your father, you are essentially royalty. You're lucky he didn’t send people directly to your hotel to take you on a private jet home! He just needs to make sure you’re safe, is all,” Stone explained, the group of twenty agents standing still behind them, awaiting orders. Sonic was frozen next to him, clearly unsure of what to be doing. 

Shadow sighed. 

“Fine. Just let my meister leave in peace.”

He turned to Sonic, looking bewildered at the sheer amount of security around them. 

“Thanks for holding my bag. I’ll see you… sometime. At school.”

Stone reached over and grabbed Shadow’s bag from Sonic, motioning for the agents behind them to move out of Sonic’s way. 

“I uh... I hope you feel better, Shadow. See you soon,” Sonic said with a small smile, hesitantly turning to leave. Shadow watched him join Blaze and Amy, looking similarly confused, but soon they faded into the crowd. 

“We don’t need to go to baggage claim,” Stone said, holding up his duffel bag. “I arranged to grab it right when you landed. Lord Doom requires your presence as soon as possible.”

Shadow huffed. 

“There’s a mirror two feet away, can’t we just call him here?” Shadow insisted. Stone shook his head. 

“He wants you in the Doom room for a private conversation. In person.”

Shadow frowned. In person? As in… outside of the mirror? Lord Doom hadn’t left his mirror since Shadow was a child, let alone for a simple conversation. 

Stone and the other agents formed a circle around him as they walked out of the airport and into a limousine, everyone dead quiet as they walked. Shadow knew he was going to get a lecture. He could practically hear the words already, something something ‘you’re not ready to be in the field’ and ‘I told you this would happen’ and ‘you’re never allowed out of the house again.’

Shadow just stared out the window at the desert around them as they drove. He just wanted to go home and get in bed, not get another useless lecture about how he’s always wrong. Even with the blasting of the air conditioning, Shadow could feel just how much hotter is was in Doom City, the hundred degree heat beating down through the tinted windows of the vehicle and making him sweat. 

Safe to say, Shadow hadn’t missed home. 

Doom City was on the smaller side, though densely populated, and it only took twenty minutes for the limousine to drive across the city and up the enormous winding road up to the school, reserved for academy vehicles only. Students weren’t allowed back here, leaving the lot behind the school largely deserted, save for their limo and a few other dark vehicles. 

An agent got out and opened the door for him, moving their hand and gesturing for him to step out. Shadow rolled his eyes. What was he, the Queen of England? He gripped his ribs as he leaned down to avoid hitting his head in the doorway, stumbling out of the vehicle with far less grace than he had intended. Stone followed close behind, keeping a steady hand on Shadow’s back. 

“Do you need any help?” Stone asked, moving to hold onto Shadow’s arm. Shadow swatted him away, moving quickly across the parking lot. 

He felt a twinge of guilt at Stone’s saddened expression, but he continued on into the building, met with a fresh blast of cold air and the citrus-y smell of cleaning product. For all Stone cared about him, he was an extension of his father, always carrying out orders and sticking to Doom’s side without fail. 

In Shadow’s effort to change the academy, Stone would never be willing to help. 

There was a distinct lack of students in the hallways, though Shadow couldn’t remember what day of the week it was. Maybe it was the weekend? That would explain the emptiness, his own footsteps the sole noise as he stalked down the halls toward the Doom Room. 

His shoes squeaked as they hit the smooth tile below, remnants of dirt and dried blood from his mission rubbing away at the pristine black and white checkered squares. Shadow felt a twinge of guilt, no doubt someone would have to mop up after him later. 

The corridor came to an abrupt halt in front of the large, familiar door, one that filled him with a familiar dread that pooled in his gut and seeped up to tighten his chest. He took a breath. 

The door opened for him.