Chapter Text
Sonic set down two plates full of pasta on the dining room table in Shadow’s apartment. By this point in their relationship, Sonic basically lived there. Though he still had a room at Tails’ house, he’d recently spent most of his nights at his boyfriend’s place.
The blue hedgehog scratched his ear, thinking as he stared at the plates. He raced back to the kitchen in a blur, grabbing forks, knives, and napkins before coming to a halt back at the table again. He carefully placed the items neatly beside their respective plates and sighed, putting his hands on his hips. He had to admit that the food smelled amazing, and he was proud to finally have made something up to par with Shadow’s legendary cooking.
Even though it was a Sunday night, Shadow was out with Rouge and Omega. Something about the two leaving soon for a mission while Shadow was called to stay back for another thing. ‘Just some loose ends to wrap up before they leave. I’ll be back soon,’ Shadow had said.
Sonic hoped Shadow would be true to his word, he was hungry.
As if on cue, the blue hedgehog’s ear twitched as he saw a familiar green flash of light out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see his boyfriend standing in the hallway.
“Shadow! You’re back,” Sonic approached him beaming, his excitement apparent.
Shadow sighed, “I said that I would be, didn’t I?” He hesitantly reached his gloved hand out to graze over Sonic’s waist, the sliver of a smile on his tan muzzle.
Sonic grinned and pulled him into a quick hug. “I made dinner.”
“I can see that,” the dark hedgehog replied, returning the hug as ruby eyes glanced at the table behind Sonic.
The blue hedgehog pulled away and grabbed Shadow’s hand. “Come on, come on, before it gets cold,” Sonic dragged his boyfriend over to the table and pulled out a chair for him, beaming.
Shadow quirked an eyebrow but said nothing in reply, opting to entertain the blue hedgehog’s behavior as he took a seat. He would never admit it to Sonic, but the delicious aromas wafting into his nose were starting to make his mouth water.
It was a rare sight for the ultimate lifeform to be so moved by food. Was Sonic really that good at cooking all of a sudden? Maybe it was the thoughtfulness of the gesture that made the meal seem so incredibly appetizing. Regardless, the dark hedgehog began to eat. It was damn delicious, but again, he wasn’t going to outwardly admit that. He glared at Sonic halfway through his second bite when he realized the blue hedgehog was staring intently at him.
“Soo,” Sonic said, “Do you like it?”
“It’s good,” Shadow replied. “You used a recipe?”
“Yep! Tails helped me find one.” The blue hedgehog gestured across the room to the kitchen counter, in which a cookbook lay surrounded by a slew of pots and pans and half-used ingredients.
Shadow sighed, but he had trouble hiding the smile that crept upon his face. “And,” he paused. “You’re planning on cleaning that up, right?”
Sonic waved his hand, dismissing the thought. “Of course, of course, don’t worry about it, Shads.”
“Right.” was all that Shadow said, but he continued to eat the food without much fuss.
…
Later that night, Shadow laid in his bed, checking his work email on his phone. He had helped Sonic clean for a little bit before the blue hedgehog banished him from doing any more dishes, arguing ‘I made the mess and I can clean it up.’
Shadow put his phone down on the nightstand and sighed. He hadn’t been briefed on any new assignments recently, and with Rouge and Omega gone on their own mission, he was hoping that the commander would have emailed him so he could have time to prepare.
Usually he was given some sort of idea of what his next assignment was, in the form of a briefing or being given the documents of the case.
So far Shadow had received nothing of the sort, and it was starting to annoy him.
Shadow’s ear twitched at the sound of Sonic flicking the light switch in the hall, leaving the dim lamp on the nightstand as the only source of light. A moment later, Sonic walked through the doorway, closing the door behind him and making his way to Shadow.
Rather than walking to the other side of the bed, the blue hedgehog approached Shadow’s side, collapsing on top of him. Shadow grunted in surprise but ultimately allowed Sonic to wrap peach arms around a black torso and bury his face in the dark hedgehog’s neck. They laid there for a moment, Shadow staring off into space and raking his fingers lovingly through blue quills.
After a few minutes, a familiar notification sound played from the dark hedgehog’s phone, causing him to shoot up. Sonic yelped as he fell off Shadow, to which a soft apology was voiced while the dark hedgehog was already looking through his phone. Sure enough it was an email from The Commander.
Agent Shadow,
I am writing to inform you that you have been selected for a very important project. We are outsourcing the rest of the team, so meet me in my office at 8:30 tomorrow morning to meet them and learn more details. Remember that like your normal missions, this assignment is top secret, even more so since I myself don’t know much about it. We have no files on the project at this time, except for your own files from the ARK if you feel so inclined to look over those.
I’m counting on you, Agent.
- Commander Tower
Shadow’s eyes widened at the mention of his own files, and the ones from the ARK no less. He typically tried not to think of the many unpleasant events that took place during that time in his life; the same unpleasant events that were recounted detail to detail in those files.
Of course due to curiosity over the years, he’s read a few of them. Still, there were many that he’s never read because the last thing he wanted to do was relive those moments in his past.
He had visibly frozen, staring at the message blankly and thinking too deeply about why he would ever need to read those files.
“Shadow?” It took a moment for the dark hedgehog to register Sonic’s voice calling him and the warmth of an ungloved paw wrapped around his arm. “What is it? What does it say?”
“I..” Shadow started, but the words got caught in his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut to try and center himself. He was not going to freak out because of a damn email, and he didn’t even know all the details yet. “I can’t tell you that, hedgehog,” Shadow finally said, averting his eyes so he would stay true to his word. He wouldn’t tell Sonic even if he was allowed to. There was no reason to worry the blue hedgehog any more than he already was.
“Oh, right. ‘Top secret’ government stuff. I get it.” Sonic grinned, laughing it off, but there was still plenty of concern present in his emerald eyes.
“It’s nothing to worry about anyways,” Shadow said quickly. “It just caught me by surprise. Let’s get some sleep.” Shadow put his phone back down on the nightstand and switched off the lamp.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Sonic yawned, laying his head on Shadow’s chest the second that the black hedgehog laid back down.
Sonic combed a peach paw lazily through the fur on Shadow's chest. The delicate touches and grounding weight of his partner calmed and distracted Shadow of his initial concerns of the assignment. Still, that familiar low thrum of buried anxiety kept Shadow awake and restless for most of the night.
…
In the morning, Shadow pried his boyfriend off of him so he could get up for work, trying his best not to wake the blue hedgehog. Sonic was usually a pretty deep sleeper anyways.
Shadow stood by the bed, staring at his boyfriend, who looked a lot more peaceful than Shadow himself felt at the moment. The chaos emerald was already in his hand, glistening as the morning sunlight hit it.
The dark hedgehog knelt down beside Sonic and, in desperate search of some sort of solace, planted a quick kiss on the sleeping hedgehog’s forehead.
With that, Shadow stood again and held up the green emerald.
“Chaos control,” he whispered, and was gone in an instant.
…
The halls of G.U.N. were eerily quiet. The majority of the time there were at least some agents rushing from one place to the next, preparing for a mission or going to a meeting. It seemed that Rouge and Omega weren’t the only ones that were sent away recently. Why was everyone gone at the same time?
Now, as Shadow stood outside the commander’s office, the only sound present was muffled voices coming from behind the commander’s closed door.
Shadow stood stiff, fists clenched in anxiety as he observed the voices getting closer, until the door opened with a creak and the commander poked his head through.
“Ah Shadow, you’re here just on time, not that I would expect any less.” Commander Tower laughed awkwardly, opening the door wider and beckoning the dark hedgehog to go inside.
The commander’s office was simple, albeit a little disorganized. There was a large metal desk with his title etched on a plaque and papers strewn about and poking out of folders.
Reluctantly, Shadow obliged and walked into the office. Besides him and the commander, only one other person was there, a middle-aged man in a long white lab coat. He was sitting in one of the two cushioned armchairs facing the commander’s desk, but promptly stood as Shadow entered the room.
“Shadow the hedgehog, I am doctor Walton. Pleased to finally meet you.” The doctor held out his hand, and Shadow's piercing red eyes stared in indignance. “Eh- right, okay” the doctor stuttered out as he took back his hand, opting to use it instead to flatten out his lab coat.
Both turned to the commander, who cleared his throat and began to speak. “Shadow, as you know from last night’s email, your next mission will be working here with Dr. Walton. He is studying chaos energy and chose you for obvious reasons because of your unique connection to it. Plus the fact that unlike other Mobians who contain natural chaos energy, you were created to contain it. He says that he can learn a lot from that.”
Shadow narrowed his eyes. “And what does this study contain, exactly?” His voice was anything but friendly.
Commander Tower gestured to Dr. Walton, “the doctor is more knowledgeable on the specifics than I am so he’ll be able to tell you in a moment. What do you say, Shadow?” It all seemed a bit rushed to Shadow, not that he really had a choice.
“What. Do I say?” Shadow repeated. “You speak as if I am permitted to say no, which I highly doubt is the case.” Shadow snarled, crossing his arms.
The Commander's hopeful smile faltered, and he cleared his throat again. “Uh, well, no,” he finally said. “You are required to see the study through with Dr. Walton. I’ll leave you to it now.” The Commander walked around his desk to sit down.
Shadow reluctantly turned to Dr. Walton, who opened the door and stepped out into the hall, motioning at the dark hedgehog. “Follow me and we can get started,” his agonizingly slow, raspy voice called out.
Shadow’s ears flicked back, but he complied. “Very well. Let’s get this over with.”
He would have much rather been sent on a difficult, grueling solo-mission than do this damn chaos study. He sighed as he followed the doctor down the hallway. Hopefully it will be over soon, and he won't have to think about it again.
Shadow was led down a hall that he seldom frequented; G.U.N.’s science wing. The doctor eventually stopped at one of the last doors, white and windowless, on the left. He stumbled with a set of keys to unlock the door, pushing it open to reveal what seemed to be nothing but white behind it.
The dark hedgehog squinted as he entered the obnoxiously bright room, which was larger than he expected. It was completely devoid of color, barren walls, floors and ceilings were all he saw for a moment before his sensitive nocturnal eyes adjusted and he made out the rest of the room, or really two rooms, separated by another door and a large window.
The first room had a singular chair and a table containing what he assumed was a heart monitor screen and a push to talk microphone. The wires from both ran through the glass wall to the other side.
“It’s bulletproof glass,” the doctor said, walking up behind the dark hedgehog. Shadow turned to face him, adjusting the inhibitors on his wrists. “We’re going to use today to get a baseline for the tests.”
Shadow visibly tensed at the word, his quills rising. This all seemed too familiar, and he did not feel like going through that again.
“Now don’t you go worrying about any strange medical devices just yet.” The doctor said.
“Yet?” Shadow growled, unimpressed.
“Come on,” Dr. Walton ignored the dark hedgehog's hostility and went through the door to the room on the other side of the glass. Again, Shadow followed reluctantly.
The room, like the adjacent one, was annoyingly bright. However, the ceiling in this room was much, much higher. The blinding fluorescent lights were now beaming down at him from about twenty feet above, the dark hedgehog guessed. An old-timey loudspeaker was hung in one of the corners. There were very few actual items in the room. A small manual treadmill sat in one of the corners and some sort of harness attached to some wires lay on the floor. The dark hedgehog assumed they led to the monitor. He followed the wire with his eyes to confirm where it was coming from but nearly jumped when he lifted his eyes to the front wall and saw a stoic, black and red hedgehog looking back at him.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. It’s a one-way mirror,” The doctor said. He walked over and picked up the harness, which Shadow could now see what looked to be a few electrodes attached to it.
“So you can’t be directly looked at when you do whatever it is you’re going to do to me,” Shadow stated bluntly, a lot calmer than he initially believed he could be in such a terribly familiar situation as this. It was his anger, he soon decided, that was ironically allowing him to keep his usual cool.
Dr. Walton ignored the question and made a move to put the harness on Shadow, who took a step back quickly with a harsh “No.”
He really didn’t even mean to do it. He had made up his mind that whatever the doctor did to him, it couldn’t be that bad under the supervision of the commander. Either way, his body still reacted negatively to the medical equipment, and he subconsciously took another step back.
“Agent Shadow, remember that the commander is expecting you to complete this assignment,” the doctor said with an unusual cadence, as if he was talking to a scared kindergartener on their first day.
He was right, and Shadow knew that. Dr. Walton then held up one of the electrodes. “This one is simple,” he said, “it measures your heart rate.” He then held up the other one. “This one measures your body’s chaos levels.” Shadow said nothing. He wasn’t sure how to respond. He eventually figured that they were going to get to the same outcome either way, and his un-cooperation was simply extending the amount of time he has to spend in this godforsaken place with this damn doctor.
The doctor made a move to put the harness on him again. The dark hedgehog didn’t back away this time but instead extended his hand.
“I’ll do it myself.” It was all it seemed he could do to save himself any semblance of dignity. And to show to the doctor that he was no longer the fearful child he was described as in his ARK reports. As he was handed the harness, Shadow was grateful that he was easily able to keep a steady heart rate, even when his mind raced with anxiety. Perhaps deep down he still was that terrified, manufactured, experiment of a child on a space colony.
His boyfriend had certainly seen that side of him on nights when he didn’t wake up soon enough to hide his hyperventilating from the blue hedgehog. Those nights always ended in comfort. Shadow thought of how Sonic had held him afterwards. How his soft voice had finally caused a few much-needed tears to fall down the dark hedgehog’s tan muzzle. Even now, the thought of Sonic brought him a new bout of contentment. He would be okay, this would be over soon, he told himself.
As Shadow struggled to slip the crude harness over his head and past his quills, he wondered who the last person to use this device was. It seemed like it should be old and forgotten, but he still stuck the electrodes to his fur. He silently questioned if the doctor had even considered sanitizing it. He reflected on the time in his life when he didn’t even know what sanitation was.
Shadow looked up to the doctor, a new sense of determination coursing through him. It was better than the alternative; giving in to his past memories and panicking. Dr. Walton held his hand out to Shadow, and the dark hedgehog looked back at it with part confusion, part disgust.
“We need to get a clear read on your natural chaos energy,” the doctor prompted. “Hand over your chaos emerald. I know you have one.”
Shadow’s ruby eyes averted their gaze, looking to the ground in anger, considering his options. He eventually looked at the doctor again, who’s hand was still outstretched expectantly. Shadow retrieved the glistening emerald from his quills, but made his way to one of the further corners of the room, as far as he could go until the harness was no longer slack, and set the emerald down.
“I will not give you possession of my emerald. Ever. It stays here.” Shadow growled.
The doctor stared at him from across the room for a moment. “Fine,” he eventually said, raising his hands in a surrendering motion.
“Now what,” the dark hedgehog spat out, fierce eyes burning a hole through the doctor.
“I will give you instructions in just a moment,” Dr. Walton said calmly, turning to the door and making his way out of the room.
Once the door clicked shut, everything was silent and Shadow was alone in the room with his reflection. His ruby eyes looked over himself in the mirror, wires wrapped around him and electrodes attached to his chest. He turned his back to the sight, lest it cause him to finally process everything.
“Agent Shadow,” Dr. Walton spoke through the loudspeaker. The black hedgehog’s ears flattened in disdain at the harsh crackling sound the old piece of equipment added to the already raspy voice of the doctor. “Try a chaos blast.”
Shadow looked around at the nearly empty room before braving a glare in the direction of the mirror.
“At what?”
“Just at the wall,” the loudspeaker replied. “And the window won’t break, it’s military grade material.”
Shadow rolled his eyes at how naive the doctor was. Of course, someone who has only read of the sheer power he possessed would underestimate him. All of a sudden Shadow started seeing the study as a challenge.
The dark hedgehog closed his eyes, conjuring his natural chaos energy to his core as he willed his chaos blast, both inwardly and vocally.
A flash of light engulfed the already blinding room, but it was a portrayal of his power, so Shadow didn’t mind as much.
Not really having anything specific to attack, Shadow simply stood there as the power in the air dissipated, wondering what would happen next.
There was a bit of silence before Dr. Walton cut in on the loudspeaker again. Simple instructions that for a reason Shadow couldn’t place, sent a chill down his spine.
“Do it again.”
The next two hours were nothing but the mind numbing act of Shadow launching attack after attack at nothing in particular. Damage was done to the room of course; but to Shadow’s disdain, the glass structure between him and the doctor remained intact. On one of the other walls, the area where he had aimed a good amount of his attacks, there was a split in the concrete, and the outer layer was crumbling.
Shadow hated it, but he was impressed with how much the room actually did seem to be ‘military grade.’ It was like the room was built to sustain his attacks. Perhaps he needed to try harder with his next ones, assuming that’s what the doctor was planning.
Dr. Walton eventually went silent again, which let Shadow have a moment to collect himself as his breathing, which was now heavy and staggered, slowed into quieter panting.
After an unsettling amount of silence, the door clicked open and the doctor walked in.
“Fascinating Shadow. What other ways can you utilize your chaos energy?”
Shadow grimaced. He wasn’t going to give out any information that the doctor didn’t already know. “You tell me. Doctor.” Shadow replied curtly.
“So far you have used your energy for a chaos blast. I know that you can form your energy into a concentrated jolt of power. Hm, I believe you call this a chaos spear. Is that correct?” Dr. Walton acted as if he wasn’t entirely sure, but Shadow knew better. He would not, under any circumstances, allow the doctor to catch him in a lie.
“Perhaps.” Shadow said, averting his fiery eyes.
Dr. Walton smiled and Shadow wanted to claw his eyes out, “how about you try some of those now,” he said and retreated back through the door.
It was terribly boring. Hours and hours of conjuring up his energy and attacking an invisible enemy. He didn’t even have the adrenaline to help him anymore because he was so incredibly bored of the whole ideal. Even when the dark hedgehog caused the first few layers of concrete to fall and crash on the ground, covering the room and air with debris, it only revealed more concrete. The walls must have been feet upon feet in width, because Shadow tried for fourteen more hours to break through to the other side.
It was nearly midnight when the doctor finally allowed Shadow to go home. Shadow hadn’t been given any breaks, and though he usually decided not to take them because he was the ultimate life form after all, a moment’s rest between energy-draining attacks would have been appreciated this time. Instead, it was nonstop, and it left Shadow swaying, fighting to stay on his feet and conscious.
“Please arrive here tomorrow at the same start time.” The doctor announced over the loudspeaker as Shadow wrestled those annoying wires off of him.
Shadow picked up his chaos emerald with shaking hands. It had certainly been a while since he had felt this weakened, not that it happened often of course. He hated to admit that the doctor had tired him out, but yet here he was, questioning if he would even have enough strength to chaos control home.
He did, to Shadow’s relief. The dark hedgehog appeared in the living room of his apartment in a flash of green, somehow still standing on wobbly legs. Sonic, who had been dozing on the couch, got up immediately to greet his partner.
“It’s late Shads, I assumed you had been sent on a mission and forgot to text me. I was still worried though, did you get my texts?”
Shadow didn’t reply but leaned into Sonic as the blue hedgehog pulled his boyfriend into a hug, closing his eyes and sighing. He needed to come up with a good enough lie to take away any of Sonic’s suspicions.
“I already ate dinner but I can make you something if you want?” Sonic asked.
“No,” Shadow replied.
“Come on Shads, you should at least eat something. Watcha’ want?” Sonic walked into the kitchen and started ruffling through the cabinets. The dark hedgehog followed him slowly.
Shadow sighed. “Paperwork.” The lie wasn’t very great, but it would have to do for today, his brain was too fried to come up with anything else.
Sonic tilted his head, “huh?” He laughed.
“I was doing paperwork today, Faker.”
Sonic raised his eyebrow, glancing for a moment at the clock on the stove. There was no way Sonic had bought the lie.
“Sixteen hours of paperwork?” Sonic asked haphazardly, pulling out a can of soup from the cabinet.
Shadow hesitated. “Yes. We were behind and I was asked to help with it rather than going on a mission.”
Shadow jumped a bit as Sonic laughed loudly. “They made YOU stay behind. YOU. The ultimate lifeform?” Sonic’s laughter dissolved into a fit of giggles. “You gotta try better with your lying, man. I get that your mission is top secret, but just tell me that, you don’t have to lie to me about it.” Sonic's paw pads lovingly grazed Shadow's side.
Shadow crossed his arms and huffed as Sonic turned back to the stove, pouring the soup in a pan to heat it up.
“I’m your boyfriend, I’m allowed to worry about these things, even if I can’t know exactly what they are.” The blue hedgehog said.
Shadow came up behind him to wrap a hand around Sonic’s arm, getting his attention. He turned around to face the black hedgehog, who pulled him into a quick kiss.
“What was that for?” Sonic chuckled, snaking an arm around Shadow’s side to pull him in for another kiss, smiling lips lingering on Shadow’s. “Mm, I missed you.”
“It's only been fourteen hours. I have been gone for much longer before.”
Sonic sighed, but with a smile on his tan muzzle. “Yeah, but I didn’t know when you would be coming home. It made me miss you more.”
Shadow hummed in reply and leaned in again.