Notes: I really love this chapter.

Warning: A bit of blood I guess.

Rated: T

Uploaded: September 22 2013

Chapter 15

Weakness

When they heard him change, they didn't stop. When they heard the to-familiar sound of trees snapping, then falling, they ran faster. And not once in ten minutes did they slow.

But when they did, they knew they had to go back.

The scent of blood reached their noses.

And they ran.

They didn't stop until they found Shadow.

Gasping for air, Chip and Tails looked frantically around the clearing they had just burst into, until dilated red eyes locked onto them.

Shadow was crouched on the ground nearby. His eyes were slightly dimmer that usual, and his breath was coming out in short gasps. The seven watched him warily, taking concern to his disheveled look, before Knuckles took a step towards him.

He had not expected the hedgehog to flinch.

Knuckles stepped back, surprised, before turning to send a worried glance at his friends. Something was very wrong. Chip walked over to Shadow's side slowly, giving the shaken hedgehog time to acknowledge his presence, before placing a hand on Shadow's arm.

"What happened?"

Shadow clenched his jaw shut and forced himself to look at Chip's concerned expression. His eyes flickered over Chip's as he tried to force words into his mouth.

"Where's Sonic?"

Shadow's eyes cleared suddenly, and Chip withdrew his hand, worried he had upset his friend. He jumped when Shadow quickly grabbed Chip's hand in his own. Chip watched, confused and concerned, as Shadow carefully turned his small hand over. The hedgehog seemed confused himself, a frown tugging at his mouth, before his eyes dimmed again and he winced, releasing Chip's hand.

The others watched the exchange, their worry escalating at Shadow's uncharacteristic display of emotions. The usually stoic hedgehog could suddenly be read like a book, his fear and confusion thrown out for them all to see.

Shadow tightened his features and stood up shakily, forcing his breathing to even out, if only slightly. He glared at the ground and kept his silence.

For the longest time, no one had the nerve to break it.

Then finally, Tails spoke up, "Shadow, what happened here?" he gestured around him at the broken trees, before turning to look at Shadow once more, "What did Sonic do to you?"

Shadow raised his head to glare at Tails, and the fox only frowned, seeing the slightly confused haze that had refused to leave since they had found him in his gaze. "We can't help you if you don't talk to us."

Shadow couldn't stop a growl from erupting from his mouth, and before the others could comment, he started walking away.

The others found they couldn't do anything but follow.

And then they found him.

A little ways away, in the very middle of a circle of toppled and broken tree trunks, sat Sonic.

His eyes were screwed shut, and he was sitting back on his haunches taking slow, controlled breaths. Chip flew over to him shakily, his wings still slightly damaged, and landed cautiously a foot or two away.

Vanilla watched him, concerned. She hugged her daughter to her side, and Cream in turn held onto Cheese's hand as the chao shivered. Tails followed Chip's advance, however he stopped considerably farther than the Sprite had, and lowered his ears. He watched Sonic's ear twitch, and knew the werehog was aware of their presence. He took the fact that Sonic hadn't immediately attacked them as a good sign.

Knuckles moved closer to Shadow, watching him try to hide the fact he still couldn't stand without wobbling, and frowned worriedly at the normally collected hedgehog's lack of poise. Watching Shadow with uncharacteristic concern, Knuckles addressed Sonic.

"What'd you do to Shadow?"

Sonic was unable to stop a feral grown from tearing past his lips, and bit down immediately afterward, refusing to let any more unnecessary noises be heard. At the unexpected noise, everyone in the group flinched, including Shadow, and Knuckles frown deepened. Amy tore her eyes from Sonic and joined Knuckles in watching Shadow, before she convinced herself they needed to get Sonic to talk.

It was Chip who managed it.

He didn't say a word. Only inched forward slowly, deliberately crunching the dirt beneath his feet so Sonic could hear his approach. Tentatively, he reached out and brushed a hand across Sonic's arm lightly. His lips had parted to speak, but instead a startled gasp rang out through the clearing, and Chip was hovering in the air again. He landed on Sonic's legs, desperately trying to see Sonic's arms, which no one had noticed he had kept hidden beneath his torso. Tails's eyes widened in understanding.

He'd forgotten he had smelled blood.

And he didn't see any on Shadow.

Suddenly incredibly nervous, Tails took a step closer to Sonic, desperately wanting to make sure his friend was alright, but knowing if he got to close he could end up causing more harm than good.

The others watched with baited breath, before Shadow blinked and opened his mouth to finally, finally say something.

His voice died in his throat, and both Tails and Cream joined Amy and Knuckles in concern for their troubled friend.

It was Knuckles that decided he needed to step up.

He walked towards Sonic loudly, hiding his own unease, and addressed him.

"Are you alright?"

Sonic blinked, nodded, and returned his focus to Chip. Knuckles growled.

"That's not good enough Sonic. What happened? What did you do to Shadow?"

Shadow. Sonic's head snapped up. He had forgotten about the black hedgehog. Spotting him quickly, Sonic had prepared himself for a look of hatred.

Instead he saw complete disorientation.

Sonic immediately started thinking. Trying to remember exactly what he had done while raging to earn that look, before he decided to expose his arms to the others. Chip made a sound of pure sorrow in the back of his throat before quickly reaching up to hug Sonic.

His arms were nearly mangled.

Amy sucked in a quick breath, before turning to Shadow, "What happened? Why are his arms like that!?"

And Shadow forced himself to speak.

"He…" he took a deep breath, then seemed to grow even more confused and blinked slowly. He raised his head to stare blearily at Sonic, "…What did you do?"

And then Sonic remembered, and then he was moving.

He was at Shadow's side in an instant, supporting the staggering Hedgehog, careful not to injure his arms even more. His friends jumped at his sudden movement, before hurrying to his and Shadow's side.

"Tails." Tails's gaze shot over to Sonic, "I need you to find somewhere we can spend the night tonight. Somewhere safe."

Tails nodded, his worry escalating, "What happened? What's wrong with Shadow?"

"I gave him a concussion." Everyone's eyes widened and they gave Sonic a look of horror, before looking at Shadow as though with new eyes.

"He wasn't prepared for me to lash out. It was an accident, and I threw him into a few trees. From the looks of it…" he watched Shadow struggle to stay on his feet and his worry escalated, "…I might've given him more than one concussion."

"But what about your arms?" Tails pushed his concern for Shadow aside.

Sonic sighed heavily through his nose, "When I realized what I was doing, I couldn't stop myself." he shrugged, "I had to hurt myself to wake myself up."

"…Shut up, Faker…"

Sonic returned his focus onto Shadow, frowning as the hedgehog shrugged his arm away, standing on his own.

He refused to be a burden.

Forcing himself to focus, Shadow shoved his confusion away. His head was starting to ache quite badly, and he knew if the others remained so close he would be unable to hide his pain.

So he pushed them away.

He always pushed people away.

"I'm fine," he growled. "Focus on his arms. They're way worse off than I am anyways."

Nonetheless, Shadow found that he was disappointed when they turned away.

With the lack of attention towards himself, Shadow walked away shakily. When he was a few yards away, he allowed himself to fall into a sitting position. With hushed voices as background noise, Shadow crossed his legs, held his head tenderly in his hands, and wondered how long it would take for his concussion to make him pass out.

It wasn't until he felt a hand shaking him that he realized it already had.

The sky was dark, his head pounded with pain, and he was looking into the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen.

They reminded him of Maria.

He blinked, and the hand that was shaking him was gone suddenly, and the voices he had passed out to were quiet. He was lying on his side on the same patch of dirt he had been sitting on, and it occurred to him that until now, no one had approached him to make sure he was alright.

He hated that it made him somewhat sad.

Sitting up carefully, Shadow became aware there were eyes watching him, and when he raised his head to meet them, they did not falter.

"Sorry about earlier Shadow." Shadow's eyes flickered to Sonic, and the werehog sighed in relief at the clarity he saw there. Shadow just nodded, and it occurred to the others that they had not heard him speak in a very long time.

Tails chided amusedly, but with an underlying tone of concern, "You're not supposed to sleep when you have a concussion, Shadow."

And before he could stop himself, Shadow responded, "I didn't see any of you trying to wake me up earlier."

All sound stopped.

Tails bristled, and in a sudden bout of uncharacteristic anger, he threw his hands up, "You know what? Fine. Do whatever you want. I don't care anymore."

It occurred to Shadow that the fox must have been under large amounts of stress in the past few hours; that he must have been scared and confused; that not knowing if his friends were going to be alright must have been terrifying.

Then Shadow reminded himself that they weren't friends.

After a few moments, Chip broke the silence by making a joke, earning laughter and banter for the next several hours. Occasionally, Shadow would chime in.

But when he thought no one was looking, he would glance down at his hands, and remember how light and kind Chip's hand had felt. And then he would look up at Sonic and wonder how such small hands could calm such a raging anger.

He found himself wishing he had someone who could do that for him.

But he knew, the only person he could have sought help from was dead.

And it was his fault.

And in a moment of regret, he found himself wishing his concussion had killed him.