Chapter 13 - My Ambition

''Oh and… thanks.''

Slightly puzzled by that claim, the Ultimate Lifeform looked over his shoulder, ''For what?''

''For helping me.''

Seeing that recognizable big smile on the blue hedgehog's muzzle, Shadow could see he was serious with that sentence. Forcing a sharp snort out of his system, the black mammal managed to reply with a short raspy cough, ''You're welcome…'' which in turn seemed to amuse his younger rival.

It's not that he wasn't used to being thanked, it was just another one of those things he never really expected to hear from his heroic counterpart. It appeared as if he'll need to change his views of the Fastest Thing Alive little by little as the day progressed. As this so called routine mission suddenly transformed into a survival mission and decided to carry on throughout the rest of the day, they will need to work together as best as they could to get through this place in one piece.

Shadow still had many questions stocked up in his head and he wished to find the answers from wherever he could. However, the older mammal only wanted to move on as soon as it was possible since they already wasted enough time here.

The Ultimate Lifeform finally asked the younger one, ''You haven't seen a workshop or anything similar around here, have you?''

Sonic thought for a short moment and shrugged with his shoulders in a confused state, ''Uhhh… no. What do you need it for?''

He quickly explained himself, ''I was thinking about fixing the fuse box in the corridors. I would rather much like to see what I went through to get here.''

''You gonna fix our way out?'' the Blue Blur chuckled out and folded his arms with a small smirk, ''That's exactly what Tails would do.''

''I'm not surprised.''

Seeing the nodding older hedgehog, the Fastest Thing Alive dragged himself rather slowly away from the debris to see if his legs still worked correctly, ''I don't think there's anything here,'' he replied lightly and kept his balance in check. He then leaned against the wall and pointed into the room with the transparent walls he previously only mildly examined but didn't seem to contain anything interesting or useful from his quick check up.

However, the blue one mentioned it anyway if it was useful enough for his darker counterpart instead as he pointed out, ''I only looked into that room and it's a mess.''

Tilting his head toward it, the black hedgehog nodded with a rare tone of appreciation in his voice, ''Right. I'll take a look around.''

However, the younger mammal didn't want to be left behind as he quickly staggered forward with a mumble, ''Wait a sec, I wanna go too.''

''No…'' with clear persistence in his voice, Shadow turned toward him swiftly and caught him by the shoulders to prevent him from moving any further much to the blue hedgehog's eventual annoyance, ''You stay here and don't move.''

The Ultimate Lifeform wanted him to rest for the time being when they were still willing to stay in one place for so long to get anything done. The way back up will be long and hard if those stairs were any indication, especially for the Blue Blur in this unfortunate situation. He wanted Sonic to regain at least a part of his strength back in the meantime, just so he'll have an easier time walking if not anything else. He replied further to the emerald eyed hero to discourage him from his incoming actions as best as he could, ''You're not in your best shape just yet.''

Pouting harshly, the blue wonder countered with a nonchalant look on his face as he started leaning against the older mammal as if to taunt him, ''What am I supposed to do then?''

''How should I know?'' the black hedgehog pushed him backwards gently enough to not hurt him again until he came across the debris and forced him to sit back down. With a slightly irritated appearance alongside his propped hands on his hips, he asked the blue hedgehog to find out what would keep him from moving around, ''What do you do when you're bored?''

His reply was mockingly simple, ''I run.''

Rolling his eyes, the G.U.N. agent crossed his arms with a heavy exhale, ''Other than that?''

As soon as the younger hedgehog could, he put his hand up to his chin and started looking around with an obvious thoughtful expression. He grunted out every so often to play around with the façade that already looked fake enough to embarrass most professional actors and the older mammal was slowly getting annoyed by it. He wasn't sure if it was because of Sonic's playful nature just now or his lack of any actual hobbies and interests other than speed and racing. For being such a carefree and impossibly irritating hedgehog in general, he must have been pretty boring otherwise. Then again, he could say the same thing about himself but at least he had enough life left to make something worthwhile out of it.

He almost burst out at him in irritation as the blue hedgehog kept playing around with him, ''Sonic…''

However, it was the Blue Blur who did that instead much to his initial surprise, ''Fine, I'll just lie down and stare at the ceiling or something!'' after pouting out tremendously, he hugged his legs and brought them against his chest, right before he started rocking forward and backwards with an unsatisfied and grumpy look on his face.

''Just don't wander off anywhere,'' were Shadow's final words to him before he decided to take off toward the transparent room.

''Like I have somewhere else to go…'' the Fastest Thing Alive replied mockingly and dropped on his back soon afterwards, hitting all of his spikes against the debris as he exhaled deeply in certain boredom and mumbled various complaints to himself.

Pushing the rusty slide doors aside until they were perfectly out of his way, the black hedgehog stepped inside into the unknown room. At the first sight, the strange place didn't look anything special, with various long tables and mostly broken, possibly even hazardous junk lying on the floor for many years before they came to disturb the horrifyingly tranquil peace of this specific area.

The previously clean and white walls were now covered in heavily littered cobwebs, cough worthy dust and unpleasant moisture, only that weird and distinct smell was entirely different from the rest of the building. Around the entire factory, most scents were of mechanical and electrical origins, here it was more close to what the outside world would feel like… earthly and strangely clean, if somewhat rotten. As if something died in here and was forgotten about until the earth claimed its remains.

That was an unpleasant comparison to make.

As much as the light in the underground corridors wasn't exactly needed since the Ultimate Lifeform did find his way through with little consequences, the always present darkness was starting to severely grate on his nerves and he could never tell when he'd get lost in there without a proper warning. And he hated getting lost in unknown places like these with a fiery passion of a million succeeding Chaos Blasts. Especially considering the whole building seemed to be covered with light spots as of now, only the mysterious underground wasn't for some strange reason. He found that to be somewhat suspicious.

It would be much easier to keep an eye on the Fastest Thing Alive as well, since his younger counterpart would most likely go off on his own eventually or find himself in some remote area from where there was no escape, if such bad luck existed in this location anyway. That being said, he should hurry up since he doubted that Sonic will wait for him even in this incredibly worrying condition he found himself in.

Besides, right now he was the only one who could protect himself and the Blue Blur successfully as the younger hedgehog barely looked ready for action anytime soon. It was still an oxymoron in his head, but it was true. As cheesy and berating it began sounding in the older mammal's head, his rival was still a kid after all and the unfortunate fact was that he just fell down here unprepared and unsecured. Yet, he was doing considerably fine for someone he previously believed he would only find a bloody print splattered all over the floor. He was grateful that a horrible sight like that was spared from him and that the emerald eyed hero managed to survive.

Shadow noticed a pair of cupboards in the distant background, hurrying over to them in quick succession to investigate them out thoroughly. The shelves were sparsely filled with those few full jars that were left unscathed with various suspicious looking liquids dripping inside of them. By now, they must have turned into a dangerous corrupted poison that could only do more harm then good. He was wondering if this was some sort of laboratory or something similar back in the old days when it was still functional. The layout of the room resembled one at least. It still begged the question if this was a normal factory after all.

Opening the drawers instead, the black mammal found many smaller instruments he was either very familiar with or had no idea what they did exactly, most notably scissors, nails and screwdrivers of various sizes and even all colors of the rainbow for that matter.

The latter was pretty important in this situation and his mind, as he hastily grabbed the nearest one and examined it before closing the drawer with a small echo bouncing off the decaying walls. A working fuse turned out to be much harder to find in comparison, as those few he actually managed to discover were either empty or destroyed entirely. It must've been luck he found at least one in another fuse box that appeared to power up a nearby broken machine of some sort, but even this one looked in severely bad shape. Even more so than the blue hedgehog for that matter and that was saying something.

It probably won't last for a very long time, but at least long enough for them to get the hell out of the underground and back to the surface.

XXX

''When are you gonna be done with that thing?'' leaning against the heavy doors, Sonic watched with a bored expression as his darker counterpart worked on the damaged fuse box, trying to get all the wires back into their original positions before they were mercilessly ripped apart.

The blue hedgehog had nothing to do at the moment and he was slowly drifting into a world of irritation. Though he did offer his help so many times that Shadow was tired of hearing it any longer, the Ultimate Lifeform told him that he doesn't need his assistance and thus he should just wait until he's done with it. Injured completely with a stressful headache, this was one of those times that incredibly annoyed the Blue Blur.

After all, he couldn't even remember the last time he ever had a simple cold, much less a broken arm or a leg that prevented him from making his usual adventures around the entire world. He couldn't run so well anymore nor do any of his over the top stunts he enjoyed doing to battle whenever boredom entered the scene. Sonic couldn't even stretch properly without getting massive cramps in his legs or back.

In the meantime, Shadow treated him like a patient and didn't want him to touch any of the stuff he was dealing with. As much as he even implied he wanted to do something, just about anything in this very moment, the older mammal shrugged him off and put him back in his place despite his resistance.

Sonic felt… useless. That managed to bug him more than the loss of his speed. Despite how he looked, he still had enough spirit in him to do the job just as fine. Maybe he couldn't run right now, but that didn't mean there wasn't something else for him to do.

''I only just started,'' the black one replied with no hesitation and backed away slightly when a spark left the contraption, ''Give me a moment.''

Slightly rocking left and right due to sudden dizziness in his head yet again, the blue hedgehog repositioned himself slightly to try and think about something else in the meantime. And yet, he couldn't do it as he figured out in the next couple of seconds when he started to bug his darker counterpart further, ''C'mon, do we really need it?''

Sonic found it slightly ironic that his rival wanted to fix the lights somehow, when just a moment ago he wanted to get out of this mildly terrifying place quickly. He even found his way down here with no light at all, so he didn't see what the problem was.

''I'm not about to wander in the darkness anymore,'' he explained right away with a grunt and continued working without turning his head around.

He clicked with his tongue, ''We could've been miles away at this point, you know?'' the emerald eyed hero sighed out significantly and pushed himself away from the heavy doors when he didn't get a reply from Shadow.

The Fastest Thing Alive eventually found himself staring right into the silent darkness of this large and complicated hall. The sheer feeling of loneliness, various unknown dangers of the underground corridors and lack of any natural warm light was enough to send shivers down his spines for very good reasons. Back in the day, he'd investigate similar locations before but not in this kind of darkness. Doctor Eggman's various fortresses and laboratories usually inhabited anything that was possible to create from random scraps, yet the clear and utter darkness usually stood firmly away from them.

And he was glad for it in most cases.

However, the blue hedgehog didn't want to wait anymore for the Ultimate Lifeform to finish with his work. He quietly dragged himself onto the edge of the darkness and called out with a mischievous whistle, ''Hey, I'll take a look.''

The older mammal immediately stopped fiddling around with the fuse box when he heard him. Shadow turned to the other with a particularly strict tone and pointed the screwdriver right at him as if he was going to throw it in his general direction anytime soon, ''You can't see anything in there.''

''I won't go far, I promise,'' the Blue Blur grinned and flailed his hand through the empty air with nonchalance.

He rolled his crimson eyes once more, ''Sonic…''

''Come on, Shadow. Don't you trust me?'' the emerald eyed hero wiggled his finger before the G.U.N. agent, right before leaving out a chuckle that started echoing in the unknown darkness. He then slowly started drifting into the black corridors regardless of what his darker counterpart was going to say next to prevent him from doing so. He might have appeared battered up and unable to do any of his fast actions right now, but he didn't need the Ultimate Lifeform to guide him around by his hand since he was perfectly capable of standing on his own.

The other mammal replied with a deadpan look on his face, ''I trust you to get murdered in there.''

''Oh, you're no fun, you nanny…'' the younger hedgehog complained with a mocking snort as he heard the surprisingly worrying tone in Shadow's voice, ''What's the worst that can happen to me? Trip, fall over and break my nose? Maybe you should kiss it later for better healing.''

As the Blue Blur started distancing from him with echoing steps, the older hedgehog thought about dragging him back with his own two hands with no regard for the Blue Blur's words. However, it was already obvious it wouldn't work on the blue hedgehog anymore, not even in this situation when Sonic was obviously a complete and utter wreck that was about to collapse on his head anytime soon. One thing he was immensely glad for was the fact that his ever so grinning counterpart wasn't able to run at any point, even if he tried very hard. If he did, the only thing that would come out of it was a sprain or worse, something very much broken and very agonizing.

And that was putting it lightly. The Ultimate Lifeform was at least a little sure the other mammal wouldn't be so reckless to forget that now.

However, it assured him that he won't be going anywhere far. Since he won't be bothering him anymore if he complies with his choice, Shadow should get a little peace at the moment as well and get his work done even quicker, ''Fine, but don't go far…'' the black hedgehog agreed with a sharp breath and turned back to the fuse box with visible hesitance as if knowing this wasn't a good idea to be making at this point in time.

He completely missed out on the blue hedgehog's thumbs up he had prepared for him, ''Of course! You gonna be done soon?''

With no intention of answering straightly anytime soon, his black rival merely muttered out, ''Soon…'' which eventually caused the Fastest Thing Alive to shrug lightly and take his immediate leave toward the darkening unknown.

Brushing his large eyes, the Blue Blur proceeded slowly with one of his hands always touching the wall as he moved away from the safe and warm light, thus even farther away from his only backup in this weird and esoteric place. He had thought about the numerous possibilities of this place before, but he wasn't all too sure to share them with his darker counterpart just yet until he had a clearer picture in his mind. Even if he couldn't remember anything at this moment, Sonic was sure this was the right island for him to be investigating, no matter how foreign it seemed or how well it tried to hide itself from his presence.

He just needed to search for something. He didn't know what exactly he should be looking for, but that was just a small part of this entire investigation after all. The blue hedgehog was trying to figure it out by himself the first time around, but when he got here, the Blue Blur was hit with the fact that he didn't want to be here alone. Especially not after what happened to him in this place, as if it was out to murder him with no remorse for returning back here in the first place.

Shadow seemed like a weird choice of a companion for this sort of mission, but it worked for now and he didn't mind it much. Better yet, his darker counterpart dealt with stuff like this before. However, when they're back in the lands of United Federation… oh boy, he couldn't even imagine what his black rival was going to come up with to make him pay for keeping secrets from him. However, he'll deal with it just like he always does. A friendly race with an eventual sonic boom on the continental bridge always made everything better in his opinion and thus didn't worry about it too much.

The emerald eyed hero juggled with the idea of asking the Ultimate Lifeform about his own memory search he invested a lot of time into during the alien invasion. While he was usually around him whenever he had the time to help him out, Sonic wasn't always present, so he couldn't exactly expect how or why certain things happened in particular ways. However, he figured that his darker counterpart didn't like to be reminded of those times as the Blue Blur vaguely noticed at one point earlier, so he kept quiet at least about one thing without frustrating him any longer.

And yet, as if he wasn't at any time before this one, he was now literally wandering in pure unaltered darkness. Exception being that the previous darkness represented his complete and utter obliviousness to the foreign environment.

The blue hedgehog hoped his eyes would adjust at least slightly to see various shapes in the distance, but that clearly wasn't something to be happy about when he didn't know what they even represented. In situations like this, he was incredibly blind but he still pushed onwards with no clear destination. For a moment, he was wondering if he was even going the right way at this point. Sonic started guessing just how the black hedgehog managed to pull through it, but knowing his status it probably wasn't as difficult as he must've figured.

Turning around slowly with a slight shiver as both the perpetual silence and coldness dragged on through the underground corridors, he quickly widened his eyes. The blue hedgehog now found himself in pure darkness, with no light source to guide him back to his darker counterpart. With an awkward cough, Sonic decided to yell out in hopes of reaching the Ultimate Lifeform's ears, ''Okay, now I can't see anything! Shadow, are you done yet?''

''I'll be done soon!'' was the immediate echoing reply from somewhere else, sounding a lot more worrisome than he did ever before.

''You said that earlier…''

Sighing harshly under his breath, the blue mammal continued with slower but bigger steps, this time by pulling his hand away from the secure wall. He decided to wander through the dark hallway along with his shoes echoing against the metal flooring, giving him at least some sense of sight with his ears instead just so he wouldn't bump into walls by accident. However, before he could make even two steps into his blind chosen direction, Sonic already tripped over the next best thing that was lying on the floor.

''Ouch! What did I just trip over?''

Curiously, the blue hedgehog scratched his hurt head and sat up on his bottom with some effort, right before reaching over to where his legs were supposed to be right now. After feeling the cold surroundings with his fingers, the Blue Blur came upon a hard round object, most likely a very large stone of some sort as it appeared too small and too round for a Chao egg or anything similar.

While he felt like cursing at it for making him trip in the first place, the Fastest Thing Alive instead decided to examine it in pure blindness, amazed by its random design, ''Wow, it feels so weird. It's full of holes.''

Back at the warm unnatural light emitting from the previous room, the Ultimate Lifeform was finally finished with the fuse box and fixed it as much as he could. The only real problem were the ever so colorful wires, having been brutally dislodged from their original position by some strong force a long time ago. By some sheer luck, they were still connected with the box just barely enough for the energy to flow through it and lighten up the malicious darkness they were stuck in for so long. In hopes that he made enough rearrangements to it, Shadow breathed out deeply as he decided to try out the mildly decaying fuse, holding it carefully as if he'll accidentally break it in the process.

With no more hesitation, the black hedgehog slowly pushed it inside, ''Here goes nothing…''

When it locked into the right position, a small electrical spark mildly shook his hand, revealing that it was still in working order. To his immense surprise, the various lights began to light up slowly while the sparks flew all over the place. He sighed with genuine relief out of his mind, noticing the immense difference in the hallway before he managed to light up the place. Few of the ceiling lights still flickered occasionally, possibly indicating at a more internal damage then any of them expected. However, it should be enough for them to get through the underground labyrinth.

''Finally!'' the blue hedgehog looked around himself, readjusting to the new found light that was always welcome in his presence. He brushed his emerald eyes with his free hand, ''How am I glad to see you.''

It was as if he had been wandering around in the darkness for days nonstop. It was great seeing light once more, even if it was artificial at best.

With a mocking grin, Sonic exhaled heavily in relief and turned back to the strange stone he was holding in his hands.

Only to widen his eyes in an unexpected horror.

That wasn't a stone at all.

Brushing his forehead, the older mammal leaned against the doors and grunted pleasantly at his own resourceful mind. Then again, he really didn't have to be as prideful as it appeared. After all, it was only a broken fuse box and it probably won't hold for too long as he was already expecting, but the Ultimate Lifeform did his best to drive away the ominous darkness from himself and the emerald eyed hero.

Speaking of which, he really should take off right away and find the little bugger before he hurts himself or something.

However, the black hedgehog was sent immediately back on his feet the second he heard the blue hedgehog's scream from near distance, disturbing even him at this point as it managed to send a shiver down his spines, ''Sonic!'' he called out and dropped the screwdriver in quick succession, skating down the corridor as fast as he could.

With a stern but widened look on his face, he quickly followed toward the location where he believed his blue rival might have been at this moment. Passing down a very long corridor, he was slightly surprised just how far he managed to get in the darkness without any light. Whatever it was, the Ultimate Lifeform could only hope nothing serious happened to him or else he'll have to beat himself over the head with the fact that he just let the blue hedgehog wander around for no reason other than granting him some freedom before he'd get impatient again and started annoying him.

Shadow knew he should have kept a close eye on him and yet he still couldn't to do so. He should have known by now this wasn't the place nor the time to be this reckless like he had been now. This wasn't usual for the black mammal, he didn't make such careless decisions right out of thin air.

When the black hedgehog finally got around the corner at the very end of the hallway, he found the Fastest Thing Alive in a very unusual position.

He was sitting in the corner, with his hands tightly around him and visibly shaking.

Just what happened and scared the Blue Blur so much? He approached him with one of his extended hands, ''Sonic, what…''

Only then he managed to notice something entirely different not far away from him with a corner of his crimson eye. The older mammal widened his eyes in shock at the event he wasn't expecting one bit, almost paralyzing him to the ground and the world around him. All over the metallic floor, old bones were scattered in various ways, with skulls being particularly noticeable and shaped in such a way even someone with no experience in biology could recognize them immediately.

Hedgehog skeletons.

''What the hell happened here?''

Almost unable to speak in this very moment, Shadow the Hedgehog asked his own disturbed mind with disbelief, his eyes growing even more shocking at the thought that he was previously stumbling over this stuff in the darkness. The colorful tone continued to echo in his mind long after he had made that particular question. For once, he would have been grateful if he ignored his own wishes at this point in time, just so neither of them would have to see this now. However, he couldn't unsee it… not in any way possible could he ever forget about something like this. If he didn't think of this island in the same way before, he did now and it wasn't something he was glad about believing.

Christmas Island was a horrible place that should have never resurfaced and save them the trouble of going here.

This was getting out of hand.

This was getting too much for both of them.

Hearing stifled weeps and awkward sniffs coming from the younger hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform quickly turned away from the shocking event before him and hesitantly crouched down to the blue hedgehog's level. Sonic kept his face hidden from him and tried to keep his voice as low as best as he could to hide the obvious fact that he was on the edge of tears and a potential breakdown. Shadow wasn't sure if he should feel pity or at least try to comfort him.

''Are you alright?'' he asked softly, even though the older hedgehog clearly knew that wasn't the most sensible question to be asking someone who was in utter shock from seeing a bunch of long dead skeletons that happened to be of the same specie as them.

When Shadow didn't get any sort of response from him, the older mammal carefully gripped his shoulders, surprising him just how much his younger counterpart was shivering at the moment. The Fastest Thing Alive didn't react to his touch and even buried his head deeper in his arms. Shaking him gently in return to get his attention, he asked with a more endearing voice, ''Sonic… say something.''

Sniffing harshly, the blue hedgehog only started nodding at first as if in clear denial of the world around him and the unfortunate event he had seen just recently, ''I… was just…'' his voice sounded incredibly weak and muffled until he finally lifted his head up slightly and took a deep breath. He still didn't say anything for the time being when he shook again all over his body as if electricity just passed through him.

He refused to look at his darker counterpart when he posed a straight but somehow simple question, ''Why? Why is it like this?''

As if it was intended for him, the black mammal answered honestly, ''I don't know.''

''Shadow…'' when Sonic tried to move by gripping his counterpart's shoulders in return, he found himself leaning with his forehead against the Ultimate Lifeform's chest, along with his emerald eyes still staring down into the hard flooring. Catching a few breaths in-between his inconsistent trembling and heavy sniffs, the younger one eventually managed to reply with an incredibly shaking voice, ''I need to know… I need to know what happened here…''

Finding himself in a pretty uncomfortable position, the black hedgehog was out of words at this time. With the emerald eyed hero on the edge of tears in the middle of nowhere, what was he supposed to do about it? Comfort him? Give him a shoulder to cry on? What were the chances of him refusing because he was going to feel just as awkward about it as he did? This wasn't something Shadow was used to or would ever found himself in, not with the blue hedgehog nor with anyone he actually knew. The Ultimate Lifeform already figured out this was a very disturbing place as he just recently found out, but even he wasn't prepared to see what else would come out of it to haunt both of them.

He only knew they both needed to get out of here when they still had the chance. Or at least, out of the underground. This wasn't a good place for them.

With no real intention at first, one of Shadow's gloved hands somehow ended up on the blue mammal's head, gently stroking it. He didn't realize until a minute later just what he wanted to accomplish with that, but if it worked on those Chao creatures, maybe it will here as well. He didn't really know what to do or say instead, as he feared it might make things worse if the Fastest Thing Alive doesn't calm down first. Much to his surprise, it did actually work as Sonic calmed down after a while and his shaking started to slow down. Well, at least something good came out of it.

The Ultimate Lifeform was starting to get pained by the awkward position they were stranded in and decided to say something that might be encouraging enough for Sonic, ''We'll find something… if that is what you wish.''

As much as this island appeared to be a pretty messed up place, the Blue Blur wasn't going to leave in any case, especially not right now. Not when they've actually found a real honest proof of hedgehogs' existence on this land and not until he finds something that will be useful in solving this island's mystery; the true fate of all those disappeared mammals. And until the storms clears out, the crimson eyed agent didn't have much choice but go along with it.

At first, the emerald eyed hero said nothing but eventually agreed with his older counterpart when he nodded his head slightly with another electric tremble following down his body. As frightened as he appeared to be by this place, Sonic wasn't going to give up on this opportunity just yet. Nobody said it would be easy or pleasant, but as long as he was here, the blue hedgehog was going to make the best of it and find out whatever he can.

No, he will definitely find out what happened here.

As much as the black hedgehog felt the blue one would really need some time alone, the G.U.N. agent really wanted to move out of this dungeon, ''Can you stand?''

''Yeah…'' Sonic whimpered out in a high yet quiet pitch, trying to get rid of those ridiculous hiccups that came along as a result of the younger mammal's silent weeping. The older hedgehog helped him up, with the Fastest Thing Alive finding support on Shadow's arms along with his head still leaning against his chest. Eventually, he pulled away from him and brushed his eyes with one of his gloved hands to get rid of anything resembling tears from his face, as well as to keep himself composed before his darker counterpart.

After a while, the Blue Blur replied with a calmer voice as he stared into a wall, ''We should be going now. There's nothing here anymore.''

''Sonic, if there's anything…'' the black hedgehog almost chocked himself on that particular sentence, but he wanted him to know that he wasn't alone in this.

Dear Chaos, even in his head it sounded incredibly sappy.

However, if it makes him feel any better, the Ultimate Lifeform can't really complain about it, ''You can talk to me, alright?''

''I'll be fine,'' the blue hedgehog shot a pretty confident look toward his rival despite the situation that has recently befallen him, ''But thanks anyway, Shadow. I'll remember that.''