Author's Note: Hang on for this one folks cause this is the longest chapter of this fic so far. I'm honestly surprised with how fast I managed to write this chapter despite it's length. Usually it takes almost a month to write a chapter this long, and yet I managed to get this one done in a few days.

Anyway enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 14: Night Watch

In the apartment, Shadow looked through the window as the last rays of sunlight vanished and night took over. He had spent most of the day in the apartment, reading up on what G.U.N knew about the creatures at the moment, and the types of creatures that had been spotted. At times he would also look at the photo of the unknown creature, trying to figure out who it was.

As he studied them, he had thought about the events that led to this. First there was the professors disappearance, which at first didn't attract the attention of G.U.N as they assumed it was just a local problem that the police in the area would sort out. Then, a week later, the planet broke to pieces, causing G.U.N to send him, Rouge, and Omega to Spagonia to investigate the professors disappearance. Now the professor was safely returned, and now the three had to stay in Spagonia to guard it from the creatures.

All of those events happened over the course of barely two weeks. Which seemed almost amazing to Shadow.

He then looked at his hand. Of course, he was also dealing with a few personal problems since the planet broke apart. For example, his chaos abilities weren't working as they were before. When he used chaos control to teleport his team to Spagonia, he nearly passed out from exhaustion. While some very mild disorientation happened to him when he used it to travel long distances, it was nothing like this as he had to catch his breath for almost 5 minutes before they headed to Spagonia.

He suspected something had happened to the Chaos Emeralds, because why else would he feel more exhausted then usual when using his powers. Because of this, he decided it was best to save his chaos powers for emergencies only for now.

He figured the next time he saw Sonic, to ask him about what happened to the emeralds.

Just then, he heard a knock at the door.

Both he and Omega turned towards it as the person behind the door knocked again before speaking.

"Shadow, it's me."

Recognizing the voice, Shadow walked over and opened the door, revealing Rouge, who was holding a cup carrier containing 2 cups.

"I brought coffee" She said, indicating her head towards the cup carrier.

Stepping inside, he let her into the apartment. She got one of the coffee cups out of the carrier and handed it to him before grabbing the remaining one.

Shadow looked at the cup for a few seconds before sighing and taking a sip. If he and Rouge were going to have to stay awake to do their work during the night, they might as well drink something that helps keep them awake.

"Did they report any sighting yet?" Rouge asked as she sipped her coffee.

Shadow shook his head. "Not yet." He said.

"Well the night is still young." Rouge said shrugging. "These creatures probably don't immediately appear the second the sun goes down."

She then sighed. "Wonder how they're going to find these creatures for us to hunt."

"Heard from the reports I read that they're going to have some undercover G.U.N operatives keep watch and alert us if they spot a creature." Shadow explained.

"Let's hope they brought coffee too." Rouge remarked as she took another sip.

"I don't need to rely on caffeine to keep me awake due to being a machine." Omega said. "Unlike you organic's."

"Thank's for your input Omega." Rouge said.

Shadow sighed as he took another sip of his coffee. He finally decided to ask the question that had been on his mind for quite a bit since Rouge came back.

"Where were you Rouge?" He asked. "You were gone for most of the day."

Rouge sighed. "I went to the university to check on Professor Pickle, and then I explored the town for the rest of the day."

"You definitely took your time." Shadow remarked. "Didn't really come back until the sun went down."

"We're going to be stuck here for who knows how long." Rouge pointed out. "And since those creatures only come out at night, I might as well do a little sightseeing during the day."

Shadow said nothing, instead he walked over to the window, and listened to some of the screeches that had begun to cry out now that the sun was down. At one point, he heard what sounded like a wolf's howl.

"You know, you should do some sightseeing too." Rouge said. "It would be a lot better then you being in here all day."

Shadow shook his head. "Sorry, I'll probably be exhausted from fighting these creatures throughout the night most likely need all the rest you can get."

"Oh come on, don't tell me you can't find time to explore the town in between all that resting." Rouge teased.

"Well we also need to figure out what that other creature is." Shadow said.

"And that thing also comes out at night, just like the other creatures." Rouge added. "So you'd still have plenty of time left to explore the town a bit."

Shadow was silent at that, he wanted to tell her that he was so focused on figuring out what the other creature was a bit familiar. Even with the blurry photo they had, it reminded him of someone.

"Come on Shadow." Rouge said, continuing to tease him. "You can't expect yourself to stay in this apartment all day."

Shadow let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine, I'll walk around town tomorrow." He said.

Rouge smirked. "That's what I wanted to hear."

After about an hour, an alert came up on the tablet, getting the attention of the three. Shadow ran over to check what the message was. Picking it up, he read the message.

3 CREATURES SPOTTED OUTSIDE AN STORE A COUPLE BLOCKS FROM WHERE YOU ARE.

Below the message was coordinates to where the store was.

"I guess it's time to go to work." Rouge said, tossing her empty coffee cup in the trash.

Shadow nodded. "Let's go."

The three then left the apartment, getting ready to fight the creatures for the night.

A few minutes later, they arrived at where they needed to go. Immediately, they saw the two legged and horned type of creatures clawing at the doors and windows of the shop. Inside, they heard the terrified cries of the people trapped inside.

At that moment, one of the creatures turned it's head towards the three and let out a screech. Once it did, the other creatures turned towards them and began to march towards them.

Shadow didn't wait to get close to attack, running forward and kicking the creature that was in front of the other two. The kick staggered it slightly, but it quickly recovered from it and attempted to slash at him.

He rolled out of the way of the slack and gave it another kick to the back of the head. As soon as it was knocked to the ground, Omega aimed one of his cannons at it and fried. He didn't stop until the creature let out a death cry, after which it disintegrated into purple smoke.

They still had two more creatures to deal with though. Flying upwards, Rouge moved towards the next creature and gave it a flying kick to it's head, knocking it to the ground. Shadow joined in, giving the creature a couple punches and kicks before it disintegrated into smoke as well.

The last creature lunged forward towards them, but Omega fired at it, knocking it out of the air and onto the ground. Shadow then finished off with a stomp of his foot.

As he caught his breath, Rouge walked over and gave a small knock on the door of the store.

"It's okay, the creatures are gone for now." She said. "Everyone inside should head home and remain there for the remainder of the night."

She the walked back over to Shadow. "You okay?" She asked.

He looked at her. "Yeah." He replied.

"You know, you could've used your powers against those creatures." Rouge said. "Could've dealt with the creatures a lot quicker with them."

Shadow looked away from her. "I've decided to use them only in emergencies for now." He explained. "Don't want to get exhausted in the middle of a battle."

Rouge thought back to when they arrived in Spagonia, when Shadow had to rest for a bit after using chaos control. "I understand." She said.

"I managed to deal with those creatures without excreting much force." Omega said. "You should rely on me until Shadow can use his powers again."

Shadow was silent. As much has he hated to admit it, he was going to have to rely on Rogue and Omega for assistance due to being too much of a risk using his chaos powers in combat for now.

Just then, a couple of shots rang out from somewhere in the town, breaking him out of his thoughts. Not even a minute later, another call came to them, and Shadow answered it.

"This is Agent Harrison. Am I speaking to Team Dark?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Shadow asked.

"I've encountered some creatures and witnessed them running in the alley." Harrison explained. "I need to to head over here and deal with the creatures."

"We'll be there soon." Shadow replied before hanging up.

He checked the coordinates they had go to before giving a nod to Rouge and Omega, and the three ran off to their next location.

When they arrived, they found a man with short black hair, wearing casual clothes, and peeking around a corner with a gun drawn.

He soon noticed them not long after they arrived. "Good, you're here." He said.

"You don't look like a G.U.N agent." Rouge said, noticing his attire.

"I'm an undercover spotter sent here to help you." He explained. "To everyone else, I probably look like a tourist."

"I see." Shadow said before turning towards the alley entrance. "Is this where the creatures went?"

Harrison nodded. "Was patrolling the area when I spotted them. Scared the hell out of me to be honest. Managed to scare them off and would one of them with a couple shots, and I saw them run into this alley."

The team turned towards the alley, where they heard various snarls coming from it. On the ground was a trail of what looked like some bluish blood, which they assumed was from one of the creatures.

"We'll handle it." Shadow said turning to Harrison. "You can be on your way now."

Harrison nodded and walked off.

Shadow turned to Rouge and Omega. "We should be cautious when going through this alley. We don't know how many are there."

Rouge nodded, and Omega gave a thumbs up reaction.

With that, the three began to move slowly through the alley, staying cautious and moving slowly as they did so. Shadow led them, ready to attack if a creature came in front of him. Omega scanned the area, his arm in it's cannon configuration. Rouge took occasional glances up to the roofs of the alley to make sure no creatures attacked them from above.

As they moved through the alley, the snarls from the creatures got louder, and they sounded more numerous.

Eventually reaching the end of the alley, they stopped and pressed their backs against the wall and Shadow peeked over the corner.

He saw that it led to a small area that was littered with various boxes and pieces of trash. One of the walls contained a fire escape, which led Shadow to assume one of the buildings surrounding the area was an apartment. It was also barely lit, only illuminated by a few of the windows.

He also saw some more creatures roaming around. Some were the basic two legged creature with a horn he had previously seen, but there were others such as small, four legged ones with rex heads. Floating creatures with tiny arms and legs. There was even a couple other creatures that looked similar to the two legged horned ones, but were much larger, a darker purple color, and had spikes growing on their backs.

"How many of them do you see?" Rouge whispered to him as he looked at the creatures.

"A lot." He replied.

"Have they noticed us yet?"

Shadow shook his head.

"We have a bit of an advantage then." She said. "We can ambush them and try to take as many out as we can before they have a chance to attack to us."

"That sounds like a good idea." Shadow said. "It can possibly cut down on the amount of them we need to deal with once their shock wears off."

Omega reconfigured both his arms into machine guns, but remained silent in order to not ruin the surprise. Shadow meanwhile, took one last peek at the creatures for a few seconds before turning to Rouge and Omega and nodding, signaling that they were ready.

At the signal, Omega charged forward and aimed his guns at the creatures. "Die nocturnal threats." He said.

He then blasted at them. The onslaught took out numerous creatures, mainly the smaller ones, but he did some damage to the larger ones. Eventually, he had to stop firing due to the guns overheating.

At that moment, Shadow and Rouge emerged from the corner and began to attack the remaining creatures. Shadow kicked the rex like creatures away from him, while Rouge began to deal with one of the horned creatures. With Omega providing support once his guns cooled down.

As he dealt with the Rex, Shadow saw one of the floating creatures flying towards him. Just before it hit him though, he grabbed it and thew it on the ground before kicking it towards a wall. It splat against it before sliding down and vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

Suddenly, he was rammed from the side, causing him to be knocked onto the ground. Looking to see what hit him, he saw that it was one of the dark purple colored creatures, and it was marching over to him and about to attack him while he was on the ground.

Shadow rolled out of the way just before it hit him, getting up as he did so. The creature turned towards where he rolled and began to move towards him. In response, Shadow prepared to fight it.

Once it was close enough, Shadow gave it a kick to the side of the head. It barely flinched however and prepared to swipe at him again. Dodging just as it swiped, he gave it a couple punches and another kick. While it did stumble slightly, it didn't seem to be affected. Shadow continued this cycle of dodging, kicking, and punching the creature to try and take it down.

Half a minute later however, just as he tried to dodge again, the creature grabbed him by the neck, lifted him up, and began to choke him. Shadow tried to free himself by punching the arm that was holding him, but it barely reacted to his hits.

"Let go of me dammit." He said through gritted teeth as he attempted to get himself free.

He began to feel himself loose consciousness. Despite this, he knew now had one option to get himself freed. While he didn't want to take it, the situation he was in made it necessary to use it.

Raising his hand and putting it in a grip position, a bolt of green energy began to form. It eventually took the form of a spear and he aimed it at the creature's head. He then threw it and it struck the creature, causing it to cry out and let go of him, causing him to fall to the ground.

Despite the exhaustion from using the chaos spear and almost being choked, he kicked the creature with all the strength he had while it was stunned. This time, the creature was knocked to the ground.

Stumbling back against a wall, he caught his breath for a few moments. As he did so, he saw Rouge notice him and rush over to him.

"You okay?" She asked, looking a bit concerned for him.

Shadow nodded. "Just a bit exhausted."

"You had to use your powers didn't you?" She asked, realizing part of the reason why he's exhausted.

"I didn't have any other choice." He replied. "I was being choked and nothing else was freeing me."

Rouge nodded. "I understand, I think it's best if you just stick with the smaller enemies for right now and leave the bigger ones to Omega."

Shadow nodded before he noticed something near Rogue's feet. "One of the creatures is gnawing on your boot."

Rouge looked down and saw one of the rex creatures biting at her boot. Immediately, she grabbed it and took it off her boot before tossing it back on the ground before stomping on it with her boot.

She then turned to Shadow. "Are you okay enough to handle the rest of the creatures?"

"I'm recovered a bit, but I'll probably handle the smaller creatures for now."

Rouge was about to answer when they both heard growling from behind them. Turning around, they saw that the creature that had choked Shadow had gotten up, the spear and kick from him not being enough to take it down.

And it was staring at them with anger in it's eyes.

"Rouge, move." Shadow said as it began to charge towards them.

Rouge flew out of the way of the creature, while Shadow dived out of the way as the creature crashed into a wall, staggering it a bit. However, it quickly turned it's attention back to Shadow. It lunged forward towards him before he had a chance to get up

He managed to stop it from getting too close to him by extended his foot and putting it against it's belly. The creature began swiping at him began to try and get closer to him.

Shadow grabbed the creatures arms to prevent it from swiping at him, as he struggled to keep it away with him. But it was clear he was losing the battle to keep the creature away from him as he felt his leg begin to buckle from the creatures weight.

"Omega!" He cried out. "Could use some help here!"

However, Omega was too busy dealing with one of the creatures, who had jumped on him and he was currently trying to remove it. Since he doubted Rouge could do damage against this creature given that his own punches and kicked barely stopped it, it was clear to Shadow he was on his own for this.

He could try to use another Chaos Spear, but what if it didn't work? After all, it didn't stop it the first one, and if it didn't work the second time, he would be left exhausted and unable to fight against the creature.

The creature then screeched and brung it's head back to prepare to bite him.

Just before it did so however, a clawed hand grabbed the creature and ripped it away from Shadow. Quickly realizing the creature was no longer on top of him, he sat up to see what happened to it.

In front of him the creature he had been struggling against was being held by the neck another creature. While he couldn't see much of the other creature due to it being shadowed in darkness, he could see that it's fur appeared to be dark blue, had large hands with fingers that ended in claws, a long wolf like tail, and yellow glowing eyes. Staring at it, Shadow realized that it was the creature in the photo.

It let out a roar at the creature it was holding before slicing it's chest open with it's free claws. It then dropped it as it disintegrated into purple smoke.

At that moment, Rouge ran over to him and helped him up.

"Thanks." He said to her.

"You're welcome." She replied. "You hurt."

Shadow shook his head. "Guess I should be lucky that creature saved me."

"You think it's that creature from the photo G.U.N sent us?" Rouge asked.

"I think so. It's appearance looks like it matches the photo."

The two then watched the blue furred creature continue it's work. It had now turned it's attention to the remaining creatures. They saw it move towards one of the smaller horned creatures, and despite seemingly being further away from it, it slashed at it with one of his claws, the arm he used to slash at it seemingly stretching. The horned creature then let out a cry before disintegrating into purple smoke.

At that moment, Omega threw the creature that was on him onto the ground and shot it until it disintegrated. At the sound of the gunfire, blue furred creature turned it's attention to Omega, giving a snarl at him.

Omega interpreted that as a threat and aimed his cannon at it. "Preparing to fire at unknown threat."

Just before he did though, another one of the larger purple creatures attacked the blue furred creature. The two then got into a fight, with both of them slashing and struggling against each other.

As they were fighting, Omega was trying to find an opportunity to take a shot.

"What are you waiting for Omega?" She asked as the watched the two creatures struggled.

"Waiting for a clear shot on current target." Omega stated. "Current target is declared a threat."

"Well shoot the creature it's fighting." Rouge said. "We also need to deal with that one as well."

"Affirmative. Switching targets" Omega stated, and he waited for a clear shot on the horned creature.

The two creatures continued to struggle as the two showed no signs of going down. Eventually, they were positioned in a way that the purple horned creature was mostly in view of Omega.

"Firing."

A barrage of bullets fired, hitting the horned creature, causing it to let out a screech. At the same time though, they heard a whine, presumably from the blue furred creature. The two ended up collapsing, with the blue furred one clutching the side of it's arm.

Omega focused his fire on the horned creature, not stopping until it disintegration into purple smoke.

Once that was done, Rouge and Shadow walked over to Omega and they observed the creature. Right now it was lying on the ground, still clutching it's arm. In contrast to about a minute before, it now seemed a bit confused of where it was.

"Wha?" It said, it's voice deep and rough, as it looked around in confusion. It brought he hand clutching his wounded arm to his face, presumably seeing blood on it.

He then turned towards the three. While they couldn't see his expression due to the darkness, they saw that it's eyes were filled with surprise. But that wasn't what Shadow noticed that shocked him.

Instead of the yellow he had previously seen, they were now a familiar shade of green.

He turned to Rouge, who was just as shocked as he was.

Those eyes. It couldn't possibly be….

"Shadow look out." He then heard Rouge cry out.

Turning around, he saw one of the smaller horned creatures lunging towards him. He rolled out of the way, with Rouge punching the creature.

Turning back towards the blue furred creature, he saw that it was gone. However, he heard some scampering from above the roofs. Looking up, he saw it's tail going out of view.

He turned back to Rouge and Omega, who were now facing the remaining creatures.

"You take care of them." He said as he ran off to the fire escape. "I'll go after the creature."

Rouge nodded, and she and Omega began to fight them.

Once he was near the ladder to the fire escape, Shadow jumped, grabbed the last rung and began to climb it. Once he was done with the ladder, he moved up the stairs as quickly as he could so he couldn't lose the creature.

He eventually reached the roof and began to scan the area. The creature couldn't have possibly gone far given it's injury, even with it's traversal skills.

Noticing a small trail of blood going about west, he looked in that direction and saw a silhouette of a creature running away from the roof across.

Running after it, he leaped across the small gap between the buildings. As he chased after it, the creature took a look back and saw him in pursuit, causing it to try and move faster.

Eventually, it stopped, having apparently reached the edge of the row of buildings. It looked around, trying to find a way to escape, briefly taking a look back to see how far away Shadow was.

As he was closing in on the creature, it decided to leap off the building. Seeing him jump off it, Shadow quickened his pace and reached the edge of the building the creature was on.

Looking down, he didn't see anything that looked like the creature below. Aside from a few people walking around and minding their own business, there was no sign of the creature.

Shadow gave a sigh of slight frustration, he had lost it. But at the same time, he couldn't get it out of his head that the creature looked familiar.

The green eyes, the blue fur, it all seemed similar to a certain hedgehog he knew.

Just then, his thoughts were broken by a ringing from his watch. Answering it, Rouge's voice came through.

"Shadow are you there?" She asked.

"Yeah." He answered. "How are you with dealing with those creatures?"

"They're all dead." Rogue said. "Me and Omega are just waiting for you to return. Any word on that creature you're pursuing?"

"I lost track of it. Dropped off the roof and vanished."

He heard her give a sigh. "Shadow, did you get a feeling that the creature might be familiar."

"Yeah, I got that the moment I saw the picture." Shadow said, nodding his head.

"You don't think it's him do you?" She asked, emphasizing the him in the question.

Shadow shook his head. "I honestly don't know. We're gonna need a bit more information before we know that it's really him."

"But what if it really is him?" Rouge asked. "What if we have to capture and bring him in?"

Shadow sighed, he was uncertain about the thought of capturing him if they had to. "We'll figure it out if it turns out it's true." He said. "Though in my opinion, I probably wouldn't capture him."

Even though he couldn't tell what Rouge's facial expression was, judging from her response, he was certain she had a small smile on her face. "That's a bit of a relief. Head back here as soon as you can."

Shadow nodded and hung up. Taking one last look below the roof for the creature before heading back to Rouge and Omega.

Little did Shadow know that the creature he was looking for had been hiding just below him.

Sonic sat against the wall of the room he was in, clutching his wounded arm in pain.

He had no idea how he ended up in front of Team Dark. One moment he was fighting Dark Gaia creatures, which were beginning to overwhelm him, so he had Dar give him a power boost. The next moment, he was lying on the ground with an arm wounded and in front of Shadow, Rouge, and Omega.

He couldn't tell if they saw him in the dark, but the moment they got distracted by a creature, he decided to get out of there. Shadow had pursued him, but he managed to lose him by jumping off the roof and going into the building. He was lucky the room was abandoned and that the window was unlocked, otherwise, he wasn't sure what he would've done.

Luckily, it looked like Omega only hit him a couple times in the arm and grazed him once. He also didn't hit anything vital, so he was going to live. It still hurt though.

Of course, he had to deal with another problem right now.

"Why didn't you kill them?" He heard Dar say. "They attacked you."

"It wasn't intentional." Sonic said through the pain in his arm. "They probably accidentally hit me when they shot that creature."

"You claim that, but you mentioned that one of them tried to kill you before. Why did the robot shoot you anyway?"

"They probably didn't know it was me, and I told you that he's changed. Why can't you understand that?"

"Because sometimes they pretend to have change and betray you the moment they see an opportunity."

Sonic grit his teeth in frustration. "Well you really don't know them then."

Still, he worried about what happened in between him fighting the dark gaia creatures, and finding himself lying on the ground in front of Team Dark. Did he run into them during his blackout and almost attacked them, but was distracted by something else before he could do so? Sure they looked uninjured, but for all he knew, he probably was about attack them.

Suddenly, the idea of them attacking him didn't seem so implausible.

Just then, he heard a knock at the window and a second later a voice.

"Sonic? Sonic, are you in there?"

Looking towards the window, he saw Chip flying outside peeking through the window.

Getting up, he slowly walked towards the window. As he did so, Chip's expression changed to one of worry to one of happiness once he saw him. Once he was near the window, he opened it and let Chip in.

"Sonic, I'm glad I found you." He said flying in. "When you ran away without me, still in that feral state, I got worried. I tried to follow you, but I quickly lost you and I've been flying around trying to find you and..."

"Calm down Chip." Sonic said. "I'm fine."

He then felt a twinge of pain in his arm and clutched it again. Chip noticed this.

"Oh no!" He cried out. "You're hurt."

"It's okay." Sonic said, trying his best to reassure him. "It's not that bad, I'll live."

But Chip was still panicking. "What happened to you while I was gone. Was it one of those creatures? Was it someone else?"

Sonic sighed. It was probably for the best to explain what happened so Chip would stop worrying.

"Look, I don't really remember the exact details of how I got injured." He said. "But I encountered a few friends of mine when fighting creatures, and they accidentally hit me when they were helping me fight one of them."

Chip looked at him, a look of concern still on his face. "You sure they didn't harm you because they thought you were a monster?" He asked.

"Of course not. They'd probably realize it's me." Sonic said, though even he was unsure of his answer.

He once again thought back to his encounter with Team Dark. Judging from Shadow and Rouge's reactions, they probably realized it was him, but once again, judging from where they were, they probably couldn't see him properly. So who knows if they even recognized him.

Sonic sighed and shook his head. He needed some rest right now. Unfortunately for him, it appeared Dar held up it's end of the bargain from last night, and he didn't feel tired at all. So sleeping for a bit wasn't going to work.

"So what are we going to do now Sonic?" Chip asked. "Are you going to fight more of those creatures?"

Sonic took a brief look at his wounded arm before shaking his head. "No, not in the state I'm in. I think it's best if we head back to the university."

Chip nodded. "Maybe you can have Tails and Knuckles bandage that arm of yours too."

"That's probably a given." Sonic said as he approached the window and opened it. "I also want to have a talk with Professor Pickle if he's still there."

"Oh, what do you want to talk about with him?" Chip asked. "Is it about those cucumber sandwiches?"

"No Chip." Sonic said, giving a small chuckle at his guess. "It's more related to my werehog form."

"Oh." Chip said.

With that, Sonic leaped out the window and onto the ground below, wincing a bit as he landed thanks to his wounded arm. Getting up, he waited for Chip to join him before heading back to the University. He decided to walk his way back to the university as to not put pressure on the arm.

In his office, Professor Pickle was reading and grading essays written by his students. Occasionally checking the rubric he made to make sure they had followed it, and then grading the one he was reading accordingly.

As he finished grading one of them, he heard a knock at the door.

"You can come in." He said, though he did wonder who was visiting him at this time.

The door opened and he saw Sonic in his monster form enter. He saw that one of his arms was bandaged, and he saw that he was a bit depressed. Not long after, Chip flew in.

"Hey Professor." Sonic said.

"Hello Sonic." The Professor replied, putting the essay he was reading aside. "Did you want to talk to me?"

Sonic nodded as he closed the door before walking over to a nearby chair to sit down, positioning himself so his tail was lying by his side.

"What is it you want to talk about Sonic?" The professor said, leaning forward towards his desk.

Sonic gave a sigh. "It's about my werehog form." He answered. Noticing the slight confusion on the professors face, he decided to clarify. "It's what Knuckles calls this form."

"I see." The professor said. "I'll take it that it's bothering you."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, it is."

"Tell me what bothers you about it." The professor said.

"Well for starters, the transformations into this are painful." Sonic said. "Do you have any idea what it's like to have your bones break and snap as they're forced to take on a different form and shape?"

The professor was silent for a few seconds before he responded. "I can only imagine it would not be very pleasant."

"That's a bit of an understatement professor." Sonic remarked.

"But that can't be the only thing that's bothering you. Please tell me what else about your form bothers you."

Sonic sighed. "I'm not as fast when I'm like this." He continued. "When I'm normal during the day, I can probably run through the town in about a minute. But during the night, I can only run to about a job. I can go faster when I run on all fours, but whenever I do that, it feels wrong to me."

"I see." The professor said scratching his chin. "So you don't like this form because it robs you of what makes your identity."

Sonic nodded. "That's part of it."

"Please continue."

Sonic looked at his now pawed and clawed hands. "There's also my appearance. I hardly recognize myself, and people don't often realize it's me. They just see a monster in front of them."

"Will you care to tell me some times when that happened?"

Sonic slightly scratched his chin with one of his claws as he thought about times when he was mistaken for a monster, despite not wanting to remember them. "Well, when I first landed, I encountered a family who thought I was a wild animal and ran off. Then there was Chip, who thought I was going to eat him. Tails nearly ran away from me before I called his name, meanwhile Knuckles knocked me out after mistaking me for one of the creatures not long after. Finally, there was a friend who is visiting here mistaking me for someone else."

He realized he didn't mention Team Dark, but that was mainly because he was uncertain if they thought he was just another monster.

"Hmm, those seem like a lot." The professor said as Chip grabbed a camera from a shelf behind him and started playing with it. "Were there any times when people realized you weren't a monster?"

Sonic tried to remember times like that. Surprisingly, it was quite easy to remember times like this.

"Yeah." He said, slightly smiling as he remembered those times. "You didn't think I was a monster when I met you professor, and there were some at a village in Mazuri who were able to look past my appearance and talked to me."

The professor gave a small smile. "You see, you might look monstrous when you're like this, but give people enough time and they'll see you're actually a good person."

Sonic let out a huff, leaning back on the chair and looking out the window. He heard a snap from the camera as Chip accidentally took a photo of himself.

The professor noticed his silence and decided to ask another question. "There must be something else bothering you whenever your like this aside from your transformations and appearance. Do you care to tell me what that might be?"

Sonic continued to stare at the window. He knew that if he was going to talk about this next part, he was probably going to have to tell him a few things he didn't want to tell anyone else right now.

But at the same time, he knew that he had to get it of his chest, and he was confident that the professor was someone he could trust.

He finally looked at the professor. "It's about what happens whenever I get in a fight when I'm in this form." He finally said.

"Care to give more details?" The professor asked.

Sonic sighed. "When I get into a fight, it feels like I turn into someone else. Before I fought for the first time in this form, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fight well. But when I did, it all felt natural to me, it was like I had fought in this many times."

He then looked down. "The most disturbing thing about that is the fact that I enjoy it. Slashing at those robots and creatures gave me sort of a thrill."

"I'm guessing that's not the only thing about this that unsettles you though." The professor guessed from Sonic's expression.

Sonic nodded. "I also get these blackouts sometimes. It mostly happens during fights, but one moment I find myself struggling against the creatures, the next, they're all dead, and I probably have an injury that I don't remember getting."

"Do you know the cause of the blackouts?" The professor asked.

Sonic was silent at that. He knew what was causing them, but he was still uncertain on telling the professor. Taking a glance at Chip, as if silently asking him if he should tell, he saw him give a small nod.

He then sighed. "Professor, do you mind if you keep this next part between us?"

The professor thought about it for a moment before he replied. "Don't worry Sonic, I won't tell anyone what you're about to tell me."

"Ever since this thing began, I've been hearing a voice in my head. It's been trying to get me to kill my friends, but I've been resisting it. It also causes the blackouts whenever I'm threatened, and a couple of times, I've been around some of my friends."

"Does this voice have a name?" The professor asked.

Sonic nodded. "It claims to be a part of Dark Gaia, but I just call it Dar."

"Have you told anyone else about Dar?"

He shook his head. "Not really, the only other person who knows about this is Chip. I haven't told anyone else because I'm afraid they won't believe me, as well as not to give Dar more of a reason to go after them."

"So you're afraid Dar will take over you and hurt your friends?" The professor said.

"Of course I'm scared of that happening." Sonic cried out, it came out a bit louder then he attended. "I'm afraid that if I lose control of myself, I might injure or kill one of my friends, and I don't know if I can live with myself if I do that."

He then took several deep breaths. "I don't want to hurt anyone innocent." He said quietly.

For a moment, no one spoke. Chip watched Sonic with sadness over his fear of harming him, and his friends. Meanwhile, Professor Pickle pondered what Sonic and told him. He was certainly no therapist, he had very little experience with psychology. But even he could see that Sonic despised his nocturnal form, and he was afraid of the entity living within him taking him over and harming his friends.

Finally, he got up from his chair and walked over to Sonic before speaking. "If you are still managing to resist Dar, then I don't think you have to worry about him taking over you anytime soon." He said, trying his best to reassure Sonic.

"What about the blackouts I have?" Sonic asked.

"I recommend trying not to induce them when your with your friends, in order to avoid any potential harm that might come with them. But if you have no other choice, perhaps you might retain enough awareness to not harm them."

"You really think so?" Sonic asked.

"I haven't seen what you're like when you're have a blackout, so I don't really have any idea." The professor said. "So perhaps I'm wrong."

"That's reassuring." Sonic muttered.

"As with Dar, I understand you not wanting to tell others about it. But if you do, just remember if your friends are able to to accept you at night, they might accept the fact you're hearing it."

Sonic thought about what the professor said. He knew that he was not ready to tell anyone else about Dar, but at the same time he did wonder what would happen once he told them. Maybe it would be like the professor said and they would perhaps understand.

"I'll keep that in mind." He said as he got off the chair and began to walk towards the door. Just before he opened it, he turned to the professor. "Thanks for listening to what I have to say Professor."

The professor smiled. "You're welcome. Always remember that I'll be here if you need to talk to me again."

Sonic gave a small nod and opened the door. He and Chip, who was still holding the camera, then walked out. As he did so, the professor walked back to his desk and resumed reading his student's essay's.

Outside the room, Sonic closed the door behind him once Chip was with him. Just as he was about to turn and head back to the university basement, someone spoke.

"I knew something else was up with you."

Sonic and Chip turned to where the voice came from. Much to their surprise, Tails was standing there, his arms crossed and glaring at Sonic.

"You were listening?" Sonic said, surprised.

Tails nodded. "I heard everything, and right now I have a few questions I'd like to ask you Sonic."

"Such as…?" Sonic said, nervously smiling as he knew where this was going.

"Like why didn't you tell me you were hearing voices?" Tails asked, sounding a bit angry.

Sonic gave a nervous chuckle. "I think you must've misheard something Tails. I meant I was hearing voices metaphorically, I wasn't hearing voices literally."

Tails however, didn't appear to be convinced as he continued to glare at him.

"You're a terrible lair. You must kill him because he knows about me now." Dar said.

"Shut up please." Sonic growled, clutching one of his hands in fist.

"You will. If not now, then when I take over you."

"I will not kill my little brother!" Sonic said through gritted teeth.

"Just admit it already Sonic." Tails said. "I'm not stupid."

Sonic took a few deep breaths, recovering a bit from his anger episode that Dar had caused before he spoke. "You're correct Tails, I have been hearing a voice."

Tails sighed. "Once again, why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"I figured with my transformations and the planet breaking apart, you already had enough to worry about." Sonic explained.

"I would've understood." Tails said. "You didn't have to keep this a secret from me."

He then glared at Chip. "Did you know about this too?"

Chip nervously nodded. "Yeah, but he told me not to tell anyone."

"Tails, please don't tell Knuckles or anyone else about this." Sonic begged. "I don't want him to get distracted by what we need to do."

"But Sonic…." Tails said.

"Tails please."

Tails thought about it for a moment. He wanted to tell Knuckles about Sonic's other condition, but at the same time, he felt that Sonic had a small point. They still had to find the other temples, and if Knuckles got distracted, it could potentially take longer for them to put the planet back together.

Eventually, he let out a sigh. "Fine, I won't tell anyone about this." He said.

Sonic gave a small smile. "Thanks lil bro."

"But I want an explanation for this tomorrow." Tails added. "The first chance we get alone."

Tails then walked away, leaving Sonic and Chip alone. For awhile neither of them spoke.

"This wasn't how you wanted to tell Tails about Dar did you?" Chip asked.

Sonic shook his head. "Not really." He replied.

"But still, you must really be concerned for your friends if you don't want anyone else to know about Dar."

Sonic gave out a sigh. "Sometimes I think I worry too much."

The two then began to head to the basement to rest for the night.

Author's Note: Well that was certainly an eventful chapter. Team Dark met the werehog, and Tails found out about Dar. Time for a bit of some fun facts.

Originally, Tails was supposed to find out about Dar much later in the story, but I decided with how suspicious Tails was in the previous chapters, I decided to place it here instead.

I originally wanted only Shadow suspect the true identity of the creature (Sonic in his werehog form), but I decided to add Rouge having similar suspicions too.

Anyway next time, our group heads to the next temple, which is gonna take a bit in terms of the chapters since I need to play the game a bit to refresh my memory. That and write another chapter of The Metallic Replacement, as well as plan the next story after that once since that story is almost done.

See you in the next chapter.