Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Sonic the hedgehog. They belong to Sega and not me.

Scars

Shadow the hedgehog felt his eyes open up, although his eyes thumped and his eyesight was very blurred. He couldn't remember much of what had happened, it was all a fog. He could only remember a booming voice, a blur of blue shooting towards him and then a sharp claw tearing across his face as he felt a blinding pain rip into the left side of his face.

He felt so weak and tired.

He coughed and heaved in shallow and wheezy breaths as he tried to keep his eyes open, even through the sharp stinging sensation that wracked through him. He stared blankly up at the dark skies that loomed right above him as he tried to curl up into a tight ball, to keep himself warm and protected from the oncoming storm, that rattled the world around him.

He lay on, what he could tell, was grass and very heavy raindrops came hammering down on top of him; the Ultimate lifeform couldn't help but flinch with pain when each and every one of those harsh raindrops hit him, feeling like teeny daggers piercing his unusually warm skin as each drop pelted his battered body.

He wondered if he had a high temperature or something...

There was a strong combinations of scents that crossed and drowned his sinuses in confusion as he tried his best to pick out that one smell that he hoped would belong to some. The fire wizard was about to continue sniffing the air for that single scent when a sudden sound carried through the wind and right into his ears.

It was a peculiar noise...but it was a noise that made his heart pound.

Faint footsteps.

He tried to move, to summon the energy to try and use Chaos control to teleport himself away should the oncoming mysterious person be dangerous but he couldn't even muster the energy to move his arm and grab his extra chaos emerald. He tried to push himself into a standing position but he only ended up flopping over clumsily to lay on one side. He didn't want help! He didn't need it!

"Sh-Sh-SHADOW!?" Shadow's ear twitched at the voice that he found really familiar.

Within seconds, he realised that there was a blurred white shape standing over him but he couldn't tell who it was for a couple of seconds...although he was able to deduce who it was thanks to her voice. All he could do in his pitiful wounded state, though, was make an inquisitive noise.

"Shadow! What happened to you!? You look awful!"

Shadow's response was a quiet huff.

"Gah! No time for this, I have to get you some help! You're badly hurt!"

Shadow would have been interested should he had been well enough to think clearly. Never had he heard such a panicked frantic tone come from the usually cool and collected bat woman, why was she so concerned about him? He could take care of himself.

Rogue could tell what he was thinking and wasn't fooled in the slightest as she glared.

"You are sadly mistaken if you think I'm leaving you here! You're coming with me!"

Before he could say anything to object, though, he groaned loudly when he felt himself being lifted up.

"I know it hurts, but we gotta get out of this rain and I need you to lean on me for a minute. Can you do that?"

Shadow hung his head low but nodded slightly.

He had no other option but to concede to the help, even though he felt his pride shatter at the thought of being helped when he was meant to be the one and only Ultimate life form.

The bat agent knew that Shadow couldn't keep being in the rain like this and so she found that she needed to get him to lay down. She gently furled her left arm around him, coiling her arm securely around his mid-section, and then she hefted him up as she practically carried him with a surprising strength that the black hedgie had no idea that she even possess.

Rogue flapped her wings so she was hovering off the ground by a metre with Shadow leaning heavily against her for support, his legs dangled when they were no longer touching solid ground. The bat agent knew not to fly too high with the sickened hedgehog since she feared that he would throw up and his condition would worsen, she didn't know how ill and injured he was and she didn't want to take any chances. She steadily fluttered her wings as she hefted the injured, partially conscious black and red hedgehog, making sure to handle him with the utmost care as she carried him over a little ways away from the forest clearing.

The two eventually arrived at a small log cabin hid amongst the foliage with a small mill structured alongside it. It didn't look too impressive but it looked cozy and safe.

Rouge approached the door and finally gave her wings a break as she landed on the ground and started pushing the door open. When she dragged Shadow through the front door, she bypassed the front room that practically had gems and jewels of all kinds perched like trophies all over the place. This was very unsurprising since she was a thief.

She started heading into a small bedroom where a cotton bed awaited the two G.U.N partners.

Shadow let out a soft moan of discomfort as he was gently lain down on the bed.

The agent crooned in a soothing, motherly tone. "It's alright, Shadow, I'm just going to grab some things to dress those wounds."

Shadow acknowledged the bat's words with a simple pained groan.

As Rouge went to retrieve some items to try and disinfect and treat the wounds the Ultimate life form had sustained, her mind was pounding with a thousand thoughts. What could have possibly happened to make it so she finds him out in the rain in this kind of shape? How could he have gotten so sick like this? Actually, should he have even gotten sick at all? He had Black Doom's blood circulating through his veins, didn't this mean that he was supposed to be immune to ailments?

She walked into the bathroom where she reached into a small wooden cabinet that was attached to the wall above the sink to grab all the supplies that she required to treat the grumpy hedgehog and then she grabbed a cloth and soaked it into the sink that had been previously been filled with lukewarm water. She exited the bathroom with probably about almost a dozen bandage packets, the damp cloth, cream and tablet bottles filled her arms.

The agent bat carried the necessities back into the bedroom where she placed the items atop the bed cover and started getting to work on assisting her wounded partner. She applied cream to some cuts that covered his red-streaked-furred arms and then she wrapped the affected areas up in bandages, as well as the area around his chest fur.

Shadow grunted with pain when Rouge gently but firmly grabbed and pressed the damp cloth over his wounded eye, but he knew that he had to satisfy his curiosity. His words came out in a breathless rasp as he made a casual remark.

"I...never took you...of all people...as someone...who would...live in a cottage...in the woods."

Rogue simply focused on her work but she still provided a response.

"This was my childhood home. My father made this house with his own two hands and I inherited it after he had passed away."

Shadow lowered his gaze.

"My apologies..."

The bat shrugged. "It's alright. We never really did see eye-to-eye on lots of subjects but he did raise me all by himself, taught me all he knew."

The two Mobians said nothing as a silence washed over the both of them. It was rather unsettling as a simmering anger bubbled inside of the bat providing medical care; what could have possibly happened to him? Last she heard, she was given permission to have a week off-duty and the boys were left to do what they wanted until they were called.

She moved to remove Shadow's inhibitor rings that cuffed his wrists but Shadow placed his hand on top of Rouge's, stopping it, and smiled softly at her.

"I wouldn't do...that because if...you remove...m-my inhibitor rings then the house...might blow up."

Rogue had to assume that it was the hedgehog's attempt at humour but, recalling that he displayed awe-inspiring power whenever those rings were removed, she decided that it would be best if she left them on and they were impenetrable so there was no chance there would be a wound hiding under them.

She smiled back at him in what she hoped was a reassuring manner but it soon dropped.

Shadow feebly looked up into the bat's deep sapphire blue eyes and let out a soft murmur of pain as he gripped tightly to the blanket with as much strength as he could muster despite his weakening body. The ultimate life form's condition was obviously getting steadily worse, he was rapidly losing his strength and he wasn't ever this clingy and frail.

It made Rouge's heart sink and she couldn't help but feel emotions born of pure worry and confusion as well as dumbfoundedness swirl inside her mind.

She decided to ask him the inevitable question.

Her voice hardened slightly and her posture stiffened, her wings included, as she put on the look a mother would when she knew her child was trying to hide something and trying to get said child to spill the beans. "That's enough beating around the bush; what in the name of Mobius happened?"

Shadow didn't say anything to that but his expression did darken quite considerably and it made Rogue's curiosity increase drastically. What was he trying to conceal from her...? He lay in bed with his regular look of sourness flashing across his facial features and he wore a dark frown on his muzzle.

That was when he decided that he had done enough resting and tried to get out of bed.

Rouge instantly reached out a hand and tried to push him back down on the mattress.

"Shadow! Don't! You're hurt!"

"No...I'm the...the Ultimate...life...lifeform...I shouldn't...get hurt, need to...to give that fat idiot Eggman his-!" He tried fighting against her but let out a yowl of pain when he felt a sharp stabbing pain centred in his chest region.

"ACK! Ouch!"

"Shadow, you stubborn hedgehog! You'll make your pain worse! Just lay down!"

Rouge's stern tone was enough to make Shadow submit to her wishes as he flinched and looked down at his own chest; for a moment he looked like a sulky child after being scolded. The black and red hedgehog simply lay back down, albeit with great reluctance, and let the bat tend to his fresh and rather painful wounds.

Shadow felt a burning pain sting the left side of his face and he hissed through clenched fangs when he felt the cloth press right up against his wound. The ultimate lifeform couldn't understand it, he thought himself impervious to any and all things that could possibly cause injury to anyone normal...what had happened? Why was his head so hazy? Why was both his eye and his ear so sore?

"Gnnghk!"

"Please stay still, sweetie..." Rouge's soft and surprisingly tender voice cut through the blinding pain like a knife through hot butter, so unlike her sharp bark of a tone from a moment earlier.

Shadow was a loner —he always had been— and when somebody tried to get close to him by trying to get him to open up, he would always shut them out and use his Chaos control-induced teleportation to slip out of a conversation. Rogue needed to get the truth out of him because she wanted to help in anyway she possibly could. She was determined to break down that barrier.

She looked down at him, eyes pleading for an explanation.

"Shadow. Tell me what happened so I can help you...please..."

The injured hedgehog looked down as though contemplating whether he should tell her how he ended up like this, or what he could recall anyway. His memories had been left fragmented so he wasn't sure whether he could properly tell his partner even if he wanted to..he couldn't ignore the look in Rogue's eyes, she looked so helpless and he never wanted to see her like that although he didn't wish to burden her with his problems.

This was his fight, not hers.

But he also knew that he couldn't escape either because he had no Chaos emerald in his possession nor was he fit to even use Chaos control and Rogue would just keep on asking until he spoke the truth.

He sighed in defeat.

"I...can't recall...a lot of what happened, only bits and pieces, but...I can remember going on a mission...for G.U.N...then seeing...that blasted Metal faker..."

Rogue knew by the distasteful nickname that he was referring to Metal Sonic.

Shadow continued as his eyelids started squeezing. His voice held an emotion that Rogue had never even imagined she'd ever hear from the ebony/crimson-streaked furred hedgie:

Fear.

"We...we fought and I can...I can also remember some sharp claws and this blinding agony as Eggman laughed and commanded...him to continue...his attacks..."

The bat agent couldn't believe what she was hearing. It sounded like Eggman had decided to sic Metal Sonic on him and Shadow ended up being badly injured as a result, she couldn't believe she used to work for such a cruel man. Certainly Dr Eggman had paid her handsomely as a result for her excellent spy skills but she never thought that he'd ever go so far.

She was caught off-guard when the hedgehog asked her a question that made her freeze.

"Rouge...what did that thing...do to me?"

The bat didn't know how to answer the Ultimate life form. How would he react to the fact that he is probably going to be half-blind, not only that but also have a permanent notch in his ear? How is he going to take that? Several thoughts raced through her head as she thought about how to answer that question but she was jerked from her thoughts when she heard Shadow gasped out painfully, he was clearly trying to sound stern and demanding.

"Rouge..."

Rouge hung her head and reluctantly grabbed a small mirror from her nightstand and passed it to the hurt black and red hedgehog.

Shadow stared at the mirror with fierce intensity, but he felt his heart stop dead in his chest and the pupil of his one good eye shrink down in the purest form of horror when he saw the extent that claw had with his face. When he saw the ugly, three-clawed scarring streaking up across his left eye that had seemingly been sealed shut because of that, he couldn't help but notice his hands trembling violently when he clutched the mirror that showed his terrifying reflection.

This couldn't be him, this couldn't be what his face looked like...this just couldn't be!

He ground his fangs and, in an act of pure fury and fright, Shadow let out a furious cry as he forcefully lobbed the mirror across the room with all his strength and it smashed into a billion pieces the second it hit the wall. The glass shards landed on the floor with little "clinking" sounds.

An ominous silence was left in Shadow and Rouge's wake.

Rouge could see no tears in his eyes but she could definitely see a hint of disbelief and despair shine in his one eye and she felt her heart drop into her stomach in realisation when she started to think of the implications of this whole situations aftermath.

Could Shadow see with that wound?

That question was quickly answered when he, in a desperate bid tried to whip his head about wildly as though searching for something that could magically restore his former looks but he could only squint both of his eyes (even the shut one) and he groaned in pure upset when he found that he couldn't see a thing out of that eye.

This was heartbreaking to see.

Closing her eyes and shaking her head, Rouge sighed sympathetically.

"Shadow...I'm so sorry about this."

Rouge stood from her position on the bed and pushed herself off the mattress with her hands, rising to her own two feet.

She wanted to leave Shadow and let him rest so he could heal up quicker; he clearly needed to get some sleep due to the fact that he looked both exhausted and he was clearly in a lot of pain that came from his fresh new scar that seared his eye shut and his newly-notched ear. Plus she could tell that he needed to ponder his new battle scars and she, herself, needed time to think about what this could mean for them as a team.

Shadow the hedgehog, Rouge the bat and E-123 Omega.

Could Shadow's new eye scar and badly impaired eyesight prove to be the end of team dark...?

The ivory-furred bat suddenly felt something stop her in her tracks.

She looked down and noticed that something was tugging her back by gripping her fingers -she looked into the ultimate lifeform's face and saw that, although he looked drained, he had a sort of glimmer in his one good eye; his scarlet Iris was gleaming with this silent plea and his muzzle bore a small frown. Both of his ears drooped, expressing a rather saddened emotion, and he gave a slight gasp of pain.

"W-Wait..." He spoke softly, flinching and gritting his fangs to try and hold in the pain that flared through his body, "Please...st-stay...stay with me..."

Those words shocked the bat to her core as she thought about it.

Never was Shadow one to act like this, he never was one to beg or show weakness. He was the sort of guy who would just sort of prefer to be on his own and she just assumed he'd want some alone time to rest; why did he suddenly want company? She wracked her brain in hopes to figuring out the answer to that question. She, although surprised by Shadow's uncharacteristic begging, simply smiled gently at her patient.

Rogue sat herself back down on the edge of the bed and was shocked when Shadow gently held the right side of Rouge's muzzle with his left hand, cradling it with his bandaged palm, and he found himself smiling sincerely at her when he realised that she was so beautiful right now.

Even though his hand was wrapped up in a few bandages, he couldn't help but feel his pulse stir and his heart was absolutely hammering inside his chest. The injured hedgehog ever-so-slowly leaned forwards (he ignored the pain as best as he could) and pressed his lips right up against hers. He closed his other eye and passionately kissed her just a little bit harder -Rouge was stunned but she closed her eyes and then felt her own lips pressing right back against his.

She couldn't believe it as her tan muzzle became a vibrant scarlet colour and her eyes became lidded.

Shadow was kissing her...!

The hedgehog eventually parted his lips from the bat he looked down to evade her gaze, his muzzle turning a bright red hue.

"...Thanks."

Rouge shook off her initial shock and chuckled warmly, a somewhat teasing look etching itself upon her face.

"Hey. I promised you that even if the whole world was against you I'd always remain by your side...I don't intend on ever going back on my word."

A/N: It's been awhile since I uploaded a Sonic story and I'm happy I got this out, I had been trying to finish this for awhile but ONLY just decided to complete it. I love Shadouge a lot because I think Shadow and Rouge are so cool together.

Anyways, I hope you like this.

Please review and fave!

-Chloemcg