Dinner For Schmucks, Part II: Hell's Kitchen

"Well?" Knuckles asked as Ebony the Cat stepped out of the interview room, closing the door behind her carefully, as her two hedgehog patients were still inside. The feline seemed exhausted, whiskers and ears drooping, her elegant tail almost dragging on the floor.

"Can you help them?" Tails asked, his twin appendages looking like giant hamsters that had been put into a tumble dryer, so frayed and knotted was the fur from his nervous habit of pulling at their tips or twirling them together.

"Uh..." Ebony started, giving a small look to the side, where they could still see the pair in the room through the one-way mirror. Sonic, if possible, was in a worse state of distress than his younger brother and lay curled up to Shadow's feet who was currently petting him. The black cat looked back at the fox and the echidna.

"...to be honest, it's not going very well so far."

"But what has happened to them?" Tails asked her, his blue eyes conveying the kit's despair at being able to understand the most complicated of circuit diagrams yet failing to grasp what was going on in his big brother's brain.

"I don't know," Ebony admitted, massaging her own temples with one slender hand, "It's not from any external causes, we ran the usual blood tests for any drugs that could have caused these symptoms."

"Then what?" Knuckles prompted. "Did they spontaneously contract schizophrenia simultaneously?"

"It's not that either," the dark-furred feline shook her head with a sigh. "Apart from the fact that you don't just 'contract' a psychological disorder. It takes time to develop. Weren't there any signs before this?"

"Well...they both weren't exactly what you would call 'mentally stable'-" Knuckles began, but was silenced when Tails slapped his arm.

"Knuckles! Not helping!"

"Sorry."

"What he meant to say, Doctor," Tails turned his imploring gaze toward Ebony again, "Is that Sonic and Shadow both weren't the most normal people in the world, but they were definitely sane. And they never acted out of character like this."

"Well, Shadow did forget his identity several times," the Guardian pointed out. "But this time not even mentioning that Maria girl's name could snap him out of it."

"The problem is not so much that they have forgotten who they were, but that they have developed completely new personalities. And not just personalities. They've told me – well, to be more precise, Shadow has told me – an incredible amount of detail and history pertaining to their backgrounds, their families, their home..." Ebony put a hand across her face. "I spent the last twenty minutes listening to him" - she jerked a thumb at the Ultimate Lifeform - "telling me how he as the 'son of the King' is in danger of losing his position as 'heir to the throne', because apparently, a green hedgehog called Scourge (and a lot of other names by Shadow, but I won't repeat them here) is currently holding greater favour with his father. That is because this other Mobian is a young, successful knight general who is 'leading his father's armies from victory to victory'. To be frank, I have never had a patient before who seems to have taken most of his lines straight from a badly-written, pseudo-medieval romance novel."

An idea seemed to strike her. "They don't consume this kind of literature much, do they?" she asked, tail tip flicking in suspicion.

"No," Knuckles shook his head. "Sonic barely sits still long enough to read a comic book and I don't think Shadow reads novels and the like at all. But if he does, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be caught dead with a romance story."

Under any other circumstances, the idea of the Ultimate Lifeform lying on his belly on a couch somewhere, feet crossed at the ankles in the air, possibly twirling a quill around his finger as he consumed the latest volume of Highlight (the teenie bestseller book series based around a bunch of sparkly vampires running a hair-dying business) would have seemed hilarious to Tails, but right now, he was too exhausted and on edge to find anything funny. He merely hung his head.

"Yeah, Knuckles is right. Sonic usually doesn't read books or even watches much in the way of historical movies or documentaries. Why, does that cancel out a theory of yours?"

"It wouldn't even have called it a theory, it' was so far-fetched," Ebony sighed. "I'm merely curious because I can't even begin to fathom where all this detail they're telling me is coming from, especially because they both corroborate each other's stories. They don't slip up when I ask them about any specific events again, either. Usually, you can start helping a hallucinating patient by showing them where there's inconsistencies in their dreamworld and guide them out of it – to put it in layman's terms – but their 'knowledge' about their imagined past is so thorough I had to get out of there before I started believing them myself," she said, her fir green-eyes looking at them a bit helplessly. "It is as if they had been working on their story for months."

"What?" repeated Knuckles, "Working for months on a story where Shadow is a freak Prince and Sonic his...slave or pet or whatever...who'd do that?!"

xxx

"Good...evening," Shadow volunteered as the green hedgehog straightened up again, not at all sure what kind of relationship he was supposed to have with this new arrival. Rouge seemed to dislike him, that much was obvious, and the guy didn't seem to radiate a particularly trustworthy aura, either. His fur was green enough to be reminiscent of toxic waste and in a strange colour-reversal from Sonic, his eyes were instead pure blue – but it was neither the icy colour of Hathor, nor the calm sky-blue of Maria, and not even the stormy stare of Jet. Scourge's eyes were lit up as if by St. Elmo's fire, shining with a wicked amusement akin Sonic's when he was in a good mood, except that the expression on the green hedgehog's face signalled that no-one but him would have reason to laugh if that was the case. He wore a black leather vest with a silver shoulder plate on it like Shadow, the metal also clasping a black cape. The long, angry red scar across his chest would not really have been needed to illustrate his Bad Guy –status (just as his name was probably somewhere in the Top 10 of the 'Names To Run Away From Really Fast'-list, right next to General Hom. E. Cide, or perhaps Attila von Killington). And if even that wouldn't have been enough, his feet were also stuck in heavy, black leather boots that were only missing the metal spikes underneath, or perhaps a small dead kitten stuck to the sole.

And in everything else, he looked just exactly like Sonic. Shadow couldn't help but raise an eye ridge as his gaze trailed over the more than-familiar quill-shape, the slim, athletic body-built and even the exact same bone structure of their faces. Had Rouge said this guy was royalty, too…?

"Nice monkey you brought along, Duchess," Scourge drawled with a nod toward Khan still standing dejectedly next to the bat. "A pity you didn't seem able to afford him the training to pose himself correctly."

"I do not consider myself to be in need of a trainer to care for my pets," Rouge replied, her own bat fangs glistening as sharply as Scourge's incisors, "In fact, why anyone would be incapable of training their property themselves is beyond me."

"For ordinary slaves, this might be so," the green hedgehog retorted, ignoring the less than subtle barbs from Rouge's direction, "but I think both me and the Prince know the value of engaging simply the best when it comes to our personal belongings. Here, please have a look at my new toy – trained by none other than Silver the Hedgehog himself."

"Manic!"

It was only a little exclamation, but it nevertheless sufficed for Scourge's eyes narrowing in on Sonic like a hawk on his prey. The blue hedgehog had called out the name without thinking when his former class-mate had been pulled forward by his equally green-furred

Master, probably more in reaction to his get-up than anything else.

It included…feathers. A lot of feathers. And some leather cuffs, though these were linked together with actual chain, instead of letting their wearer move freely like Sonic's did. But mostly a lot of feathers.

"Is that yours, my Prince?" Scourge asked sharply in reaction to the blue hedgehog's outburst. Sonic himself was torn between shooting glances at the apparently thoroughly embarrassed Manic and sending glares toward his owner. Shadow stepped in to break the eye contact.

"Yes, he is. Interestingly enough, he was also trained by Silver and is now living proof that despite what you seem to think, even an expensive grooming can't guarantee for everything," the dark-furred Prince stated, an ever so subtle hint of derision creeping under his words, Rouge blinking for a moment before realizing that Shadow had just somehow managed to turn a slip-up of his pet into a put-down of the other hedgehog. In fact, there was a power-struggle going on here, wasn't there…

"It can, provided you use some classy material," Scourge retorted, and the bat could see both the Prince's and his slave's back quills subtly rising in response to the thinly-veiled insult, for a moment appearing much more attuned to each other than a royal and mere property of his should. Actually, all three of the hedgehogs now had widened their stances and shoulders broadened, even the body language of the Prince's blue-furred slave now radiating an underlying aggressiveness that would have caused Duchess Rouge's modern counterpart to call the testosterone fire brigade so the three of them could be hosed down. Living 400 years too early for enlightened biology however, the albino bat merely raised an eye ridge at the collared hedgehog's odd behaviour but decided to question the Prince about it later.

"Are you suggesting I have poor taste in pets?" Shadow asked, with a tone that suggested this question was usually asked while the speaker was not holding a blue whirlwind on a leash but more probably stroking a white cat on his lap – and had a tank of sharks for his personal aquarium. Scourge seemed to realize he'd gone too far.

"Wouldn't dream of it, my Prince," he held up his hands in an apologetic gesture, but was still devoid of the fear or nervousness others had displayed in front of a displeased Shadow. "In fact," he continued, already smirking slightly again and eyeing the Prince's slave, "I think our tastes are similar..."

"Are you sure?" Rouge cut in. "Prince Shadow didn't get himself a pet that was an exact same copy of himself, at least. I'd call that Narcissism to the extreme," she waved a hand at Manic.

Scourge merely looked smug. "I see perfection in the mirror and I want more of it. What's so wrong about that? But I do keep female slaves around as well, so you if you ever decide you need something more impressive than your cloud monkey to keep you company…" he let the sentence trail off with a brief hungry look at Rouge, the bat duchess retorting with a look of disdain that would have vaporized weaker males on the spot, but did little to nothing to even faze Scourge. Shadow realized that not only did this green hedgehog have a body, but possibly even an ego to match Sonic's.

"Oh well." The black-clad hedgehog shrugged. "Until then, I suppose I'll have to make do with Manic here. Right?" he asked, at the same time roughly grabbing the younger slave's rump, an obviously tender area, since the collared green hedgehog winced immediately at the coarse contact, but did not try to fight back, merely standing still and enduring whatever his Master decided to do to him next. (Shadow idly wondered whether, after already explaining away Sonic fidgeting and talking tonight, he would also be able to come up with a plausible reason for why his slave had just drop-kicked this Scourge character out of the castle window, but hoped that this would not be the case.)

"Y-yes, Master," Manic whispered at the rhetorical question posed to him and Scourge nodded in satisfaction.

"Glad to hear it. I hope you enjoyed meeting your classmate from today again, Manic. I know I did," he said, briefly stepping closer to Sonic again until there were mere inches separating their faces and giving the bridling slave a last, smirking once over. Shadow could not help but observe how closely they seemed to match – the pride in the hero of Mobius' stance was only mirrored in the green hedgehog's arrogance; Sonic's aura of power, warning and daring only matched by the other radiating pure threat and violence and danger. Distorted reflections of each other, they were exactly the same height and as fire blue stared into emerald, the black hedgehog thought grimly that the only reason this guy unsettled Sonic more than the others who had already tried to lay claim to his body was that the blue hedgehog was actually considering this one a capable opponent. Scourge was obviously riled up underneath his restrained demeanour that a mere slave was returning his gaze so unabashedly, and Sonic…simply didn't take well to copies.

"Well...what a catch you seem to have made there, Prince," the green hedgehog conceded in a drawl, before then his eyes flashed almost like his blue look-alike's when he had just had a flash of inspiration, and his hand suddenly shot downwards and gave the same rough squeeze to Sonic's rear as he had previously treated Manic to. A vicious sneer flitted over his face to accompany the uncouth gesture, the wickedly gleaming eyes of the green-furred noble boring into surprised and angry emerald ones with a triumphant expression. His gaze said that Scourge knew how much the other had to resent being touched by him - never mind in such a manner - but that he had been powerless to stop him anyway. And it said that he could understand every single facet and fibre of Sonic's frustration and hate about that fact and that Scourge revelled in every cruel bit of it. The black-gloved hand finally let go, running its finger tips over the bruised section as he redrew his arm, the mock-loving touch perhaps an even greater insult than the assault beforehand. Shadow yanked Sonic back on his leash so the blue hedgehog was pulled out of Scourge's immediate radius.

"I would prefer you not to touch him. He is for use by none other than myself," he said, hiding his anger with obvious difficulty but still managing to keep his characteristiccalm for the moment. By forcing the blue hero backward, he had also just prevented Sonic's fist from making contact with Scourge's snout, which had been the speedster's reaction the last time toward the unfortunate individual who had attempted to cop a feel. (That and an almost broken hip...)

Scourge pretended to be taken aback. "Oh, he's private? I'm sorry, I had thought you had taken him here to show him around to us," he said, in a tone that conveyed that in his opinion Shadow was some sort of dense oddball, not wanting hand his pet around like everybody else. Because these slaves hadn't just been dressed up for a fancy dinner, but were here for a status contest of their owners...

Shadow and Sonic had both already began to realize this, but now Scourge's words confirmed their suspicions definitely. No wonder every collared Sapient here had been confined into the strangest and most uncomfortable of costumes. No wonder people were fawning over wretched-looking and intimidated sentient pets at every corner and shooting jealous glances at anyone who had brought something rarer or prettier. In fact, Shadow just now noticed he was at the receiving end of quite a few of these looks himself...

(Which, of course, was no surprise. Sonic, a Mobian who had grown up in a world where food was plentiful and medical attention assured, was of course taller, looking better cared-for and stronger than most of the medieval population – or, at least, taller than the rodent part, anyway...- but it wasn't only that. While most of the Sapients dragged here were obviously quite beautiful and had had their bodies groomed for display, all of them visibly bore the consequences of slavery, psychological as well as physical abuse having taken a lot away from their natural beauty. Sonic had obviously been marked by his time spent as living property as well, the lashes he had received so far not yet fully healed and faded away, but these comparatively small injuries had done little to break anything more than his skin. Even now, when he had mostly accepted his role as a temporary pet and Shadow as his pretend Master, there was no denying the fact that he was still one of the most impressive figures in the room; eyes alight with a fire too deep to be extinguished, movements a proud cry of defiance with every little shift of his stance and a chaotic aura, even if only sensible to Shadow, that shone as brightly as a beacon. All in all, when it came to leaving an impression in terms of strutting your stuff, the Ultimate Lifeform and current owner of Sonic was right now comparable to Albus Dumbledore who had turned up at a Party Magicians' Convention.)

"Show, yes. Let him be grabbed by anyone, no," Shadow stated clearly, his grip on Sonic's leash still clenched.

Scourge pursed his lips, but then held up the palms of his hands in gesture of resignation. "Alright. If that is your wish. Though I personally think it's a pity."

Shadow didn't reply but instead offered a look and expression that quite clearly stated he could care less for Scourge's opinion (if it didn't involve the question whether the green hedgehog would prefer to be boiled alive or slowly roasted, that is). Fortunately, the doppelganger of the blue hero finally seemed to pick up on the general sentiments toward him and perhaps decided he had been enough of a pain for tonight.

"But I should probably try and find your father to offer my greetings to His Majesty," he said, again with a mock bow and a little flourish. " He enjoys my company so much, you know? I look forward to talking to you again, my Prince. Manic, heel," he commanded, the younger green hedgehog immediately flinching to attention before he added, "Or, on second thought, wander off and show yourself around, I think I'd rather enjoy myself without baggage for now."

And with that and a last obnoxious wink at Rouge, the green hedgehog turned and swaggered away, either oblivious or indifferent to the hurt expression that had flashed across his slave's face at his careless words. Nevertheless, the collared Sapient obeyed, walking away from the group with a last, sad look at Sonic that begged for understanding.

Rouge shook her head first, her wings flapping briefly as if trying to disperse a poisonous atmosphere her green-furred peer had left behind.

„What a creep," she offered her decided opinion as soon as he was out of ear-shot. "I swear to you, Shadow – my Prince – that if there's any truth to the rumours and your father ever chooses him over you as an heir to the throne, I will emigrate this country."

"...thanks," Shadow replied, not entirely sure whether he should be touched by this sentiment expressed by the usually so opportunistic bat, or maybe feel sorry for the unknown Prince who apparently had to deal with not only one, but two Sonics, and one of them seemed to be the biggest jerk alive. And what was that about the green hedgehog being a rival to the throne? Well, not his problem. If that other Shadow couldn't deal with troublemakers in his own universe, the Ultimate Lifeform was no hero to step in and help him.

xxx

"So you have no idea how Sonic and Shadow could know all that they think they know?" Knuckles asked, sounding slightly despairing. Ebony dug her own claws into her upper arm as she shrugged helplessly.

"Not yet, no. It could be a form of brainwashing or hypnosis, but I have never seen anything like it. Also, neither appear to be suffering from any known psychological disorder. Sonic behaves like a classic victim of both abuse and Stockholm syndrome, but nothing that would explain his hallucinating to be from a completely different life." She frowned. "Although in comparison to Shadow he seems to have much greater gaps in his imagined past..."

"He hasn't," Tails disagreed. "I've seen him when he told you about his 'life in a village' and the story about having no parents. I know Sonic and he was consciously lying at that time."

"What?" Ebony looked taken aback. "You think he's simulating after all?"

"No," the fox kid replied. "He genuinely seems to believe anything else he's saying after what happened when those slavers caught him. But for some reason he is making things up when it comes to his past before that. Why would you substitue a lie for something you hallucinated?" the kit asked, obviously close to tearing his headfur out in confusion. "Nothing makes sense..."

Knuckles thought of offering the fact that in less than 36 hours, nothing would have to make sense anymore anyway, as consolation, then considered that this really wasn't very consoling at all, and then came up with another idea.

"...I think I want a drink."

xxx

„Well, I should probably go after him," Rouge said without much enthusiasm shortly after Scoure had departed. „After all, I shall have to pay my respects to your father as well. I hope we can talk again later," the bat smiled at the supposed Prince. „And I also hope despite what you said, you're not going to keep your pretty slave on his leash all night," she said with a wink, „He should be tamed, right? And maybe some of us others would like to get a closer look at him as well..." she gave him another fanged grin and then turned to walk away, her hips swaying subtly beneath her tight dress. Sonic looked after her just a tad longer than Shadow would have liked, but a snap of his fingers just before his eyes brought his distracted slave to attention again.

„Hey. Stop spacing out," Shadow commanded, and Sonic blinked, briefly shaking his head.

„Yeah. Right. Sorry," the blue hedgehog replied, but before he could utter anything else that might have sounded less submissive than his apology, the black hedgehog had already turned away from him and now looked at Monkey Khan who was still standing next to them dejectedly.

"And what are you still doing here?" Shadow asked, not actually aggressively, but more in his standard tone that simply implied that as long as you weren't a threat to mankind in general and to little blonde girls in particular, you weren't really worth his time. The simian looked at his feet.

"The Prince doesn't wish to inspect this slave further?" he asked, the words sounding as if he had to force them from his throat. Sonic grimaced subtly as he remembered how people had told him to use this mode of speaking, too.

Shadow frowned. "Do I look like the local estate agent or something? You can leave," he said, knowing his words would have been confusing, but the Ultimate Lifeform was past caring at this stage. Khan merely nodded and shuffled away into the crowd again where he was immediately beset by new admirers, mostly females that appeared to already have had a bit too much to drink. Sonic at this stage noticed that in fact, there were a lot of slaves wandering about and none of them seemed to be dragged along by their owner...

"Hey," he said, poking his supposed Master in the shoulder at that observation. "Take the leash off, I obviously don't need it."

Shadow (who had rather different opinions on this matter), briefly suppressed the urge to pinch the skin above his nose. "Fine," he relented, knowing he had lost this battle anyway, "But stay in the room. As soon as Black Doom shows so much as a tacky ornament of himself, I want you ready to attack."

"You got it," Sonic replied happily, having no problem obeying Shadow once in a while if he thought himself the black hedgehog's instructions made sense. The usual small tingle of excitement rushed through the collared hero's spine when he was released from his restraint. Shadow proceeded to roll up the gold-interlaced leash around his hand, scanning the room as he did so.

"Good. It would be even better if you could stay close to me, we have no idea what the programme for this evening is supposed to be," he said, crimson eyes roving over the chattering mass of nobles in their dresses and costumes, but failing to pick up on any sort of hints that indicated something was happening other than chit-chat. "And I better don't catch you talking to anyo-"

It was at this point that Shadow turned back to Sonic and noticed a great, big, hedgehog-shaped spot of emptiness right next to him.

The Ultimate Lifeform very slowly, very quietly, uttered a string of curses that would not have been permissible in the current society, or, indeed, any society ever.

Then, of course, he sighed, hooked the rolled-up leash into his belt and strode off himself, to see what helpful hints concerning the war he might be able to get from some other nobles. The crowd had already swallowed Sonic, but the supposed Prince was not particularly concerned about having trouble finding him again. After all, the blue speedster was the kind of person who, when told to be inconspicuous, would immediately go looking for a tightrope, a motorcycle and six burning chainsaws.

To be continued...

I've tried to find synonyms for 'poisonous atmosphere' for several minutes, but no matter what I wrote, it still sounded as if Scourge had farted before he left.

Aaanyway! I have to apologize for a) the huge delay and b) the fact that this is not the actual chapter I was planning to post. Fact is, actually, that the chapter got wayyyyy too long, so this is in fact the only about a fourth of the original chapter 38 I had written over the last few weeks before I realized that I couldn't possibly post something that was thirty pages plus.^^° So, please look forward to frequent updates for at least the next two chappies and then finally the resolution of a few hints that were dropped in the previous chapter. :P Also in other news, uni has me in its lovely grasp again and I have a feeling I am scarcely better off than most pets in the castle - but never fear, this story is far from discontinued or forgotten.