Okay, so I said in my last update that I'd have a new Sonadow story coming. Well, here it is! If you didn't read my last oneshot, then you probably haven't seen this mentioned. It's inspired by the artwork at (yaoi101 . deviantart . com (slash) art/Sonadow-46150410). That's also the artwork that I used for the book cover for this story. Well, rather, I used the colored version of it that's also on yaoi101's profile. Anyway, this is meant to be just an introductory chapter as to what happened before the artwork. The scene of the artwork and later will show up in the later chapters. Well, please enjoy!

Chapter One: Not Meant to Happen

It was horrid… It was the most awful thing I had seen in my entire life, and I'll probably never see anything worse. Doctor Robotnik… That horrible Eggman… I'll never forget what happened. I remember it too well to forget even the smallest detail.

Eggman had been dormant for around five months. We all thought he had fallen off the face of Mobius, metaphorically speaking. We had no idea what he was doing, and we thought that was for the better. Look how wrong we ended up being. The day it happened seemed like a boringly normal day. I usually expect the unexpected, but that day just seemed so ordinary that I couldn't help but feel like nothing was going to go wrong. Everyone was going about their daily routines: Sonic was running, Tails was tinkering away, I was wandering around the Mystic Ruins, etcetera.

Sonic had gotten back from his run early. That sometimes happened, though. It wasn't a cause for concern, and since he had no reason other than he felt like it, everyone else brushed it off, but I started to get the feeling that something wasn't right. I know Sonic had no reason for ending his run early, but I couldn't shake that feeling. Oh, well, I thought, it's just me. I'm being a worrywart. Then I started thinking. Maybe, if that day was a normal day, I could make it unusual, and I knew exactly how. I was going to confess a crush I had had for a long time. Well, it was a lot more than a crush. I was in love.

I was scared, however. I, the Ultimate Lifeform, was scared of admitting I was in love. Maybe it was because it wasn't exactly orthodox. It's always hard to admit you're in love anyway, but when you're a guy that loves another guy, it suddenly becomes tenfold more difficult. My life was going to be changed that day. I could feel it, but I didn't know exactly how it would be changed, or even whether it would be for better or worse.

It was decided, though. I had to tell him. I had to tell Sonic the Hedgehog how I felt about him. I went to his and Tails' house, and it just happened to be Sonic who opened the door. I had to try so hard to hide the red blush appearing on my face, but I think there was still a bit of it that was visible. "Hey, Shadz! What's up?" I always pretended to hate it when he called me Shadz despite the fact that I loved the little nickname, so I made an exaggerated frown.

"Don't call me Shadz," I said rather straightforwardly. "Anyway, I'm here because…" I paused, and blush appeared on my face once again.

"Shadow, you're blushing! Why are you blushing?" Sonic's voice was half sincere, half joking. He did want to know why I was blushing, but I knew that, if it were anything that could be taken in a joking matter, he would laugh and try to kid around.

"Sonic, there's something I have to tell you, and I need you to be completely serious about this." His playful demeanor quickly vanished and was replaced by a more serious look as he nodded. "I—"

Unfortunately, I never got to say what I wanted. Tails came running up the stairs from his workshop yelling Sonic's name. "Have you looked at the news?" he asked quickly and worriedly.

Sonic shook his head at the orange kit. "No, I haven't. Why? What's wrong? You don't look so good, buddy. Before you tell me anything, take a deep breath and go slowly."

The fox breathed in for about three seconds before exhaling. "It's E-Eggman! He's attacking Station Square, and he's got an army of robots! A huge one! Bigger than even the GUN! It doesn't look good! We've gotta do something about it!" As he was explaining the situation, Sonic's face turned pale.

"This isn't good!" exclaimed the blue hedgehog. It was obvious then. There would be no confession from me on that day. "Shadz and I'll head to Station Square right now! Get in the Tornado and get Knuckles! Then, come and back us up from the air! Sound like a plan, bud?" His little brother nodded and immediately sped off toward his workshop. "Ya ready, Shadow?"

I sighed. There went my chance. I just composed myself like nothing bad had happened and replied, "Yes, faker. Let's destroy the Doctor's robots. They'll never hold a candle to anything I can do." He gave me a thumbs-up before we both dashed off in the direction of Station Square.

When we arrived there… Oh, God… I swear the city was in worse shape than Westopolis during the Black Arms invasion, and it was almost as bad as it is in the future where Iblis thrived, only sans the lava. "What the hell happened here?" I asked myself as we ran through the city, destroying useless Egg Pawns that were obviously just meant to take up our time.

Even though the question wasn't directed toward him, Sonic answered, "I don't know. This looks worse than anything Eggman could pull off. Are we sure this is Eggman we're dealing with?" He had a point. How could the Doctor manage something of that magnitude? It didn't seem possible. I knew from the robots, though. No other than he himself would use those bots. He was actually getting good, and as far as we knew, and still know, he had no external help.

Eventually, we made it to the evil scientist. "Yo, Eggman!" exclaimed Sonic. The bloated doctor, who was just in his hovercraft thing, as always, faced the two of us with a smirk under that horridly huge mustache.

"Ah, Sonic and Shadow! Just as I expected!" After saying that, he sent dozens upon dozens of a new robot at us, and I believe they were stronger than any of that size that we had fought before. "I call them SWATbots." They were black robots that were very humanoid in shape, and for a head, they had what looked as if it was a helmet meant for battle. They had every tool imaginable at their disposal, and it took us a full thirty seconds to destroy one of them, despite the fact that they were only the size of a human.

After taking down several of them, we were exhausted beyond belief. I don't even know how Eggman managed to build something so durable that even a spin attack seemed to do nothing. Then, one of them shot me with something. I don't know what it was, but I just fell to the ground, and I felt as if I didn't have control of anything below my neck. The Doctor just laughed as Sonic looked at me and shouted my name in worry. "Shadow, you must be wondering what my wonderful SWATbot just did to you. It paralyzed you. Temporarily, of course, but there is a reason for doing it."

He snapped his fingers, and all of the SWATbots started to crowd around Sonic until I heard the cobalt hedgehog yell, "Shit!" as he dropped to the ground. Oh, no…! No, not Sonic! One of the bots picked him up and slings him over its shoulder.

"Sonic!" I cried. "Sonic! No! Don't take Sonic away! Goddammit, Doctor!" I knew he was going to do terrible things. If he did this to Station Square, then what would he do to Sonic?

"Shadow, is that really you? You're actually worried about Sonic, of all people?" I could understand his surprise at that, but I wasn't thinking about what he would think of me. I knew that, whatever he was going to do to Sonic, I would probably never get to see him again, and if I did, the sapphire hedgie would probably never be the same.

"Shadz, don't worry about me!" said Sonic. "I'll find a way out of this!"

I sighed, and tears started coming out of my eyes. I couldn't stand the thought of possibly losing him. Not after all we had been though. Not with how I felt. "Sonic, you don't understand! He'll do terrible things to you!"

Sonic just shook his head. "I'll be fine! Why are you even worrying about me?"

"You don't get it! I love you! If you were to die, then I don't even know what I'd do! If you can't get yourself free, promise me you'll at least live! Please!"

The look on his face at that moment… It had to contain the most emotions I had ever seen at one time. Confusion, sorrow, shock, and even more occupied his face. Finally, out of his partially open mouth, he was able to respond, "I-I can't make a promise like that, Shadow, but I promise I'll try."

More tears than I had ever released were streaming down my face as the SWATbots and Eggman with Sonic in tow disappeared in the distance. The emotional pain I felt… It made me feel sick… It had all just happened so fast! I laid there for hours, just hoping that nothing terrible happened to Sonic.

Eventually, the Tornado landed by me, and Tails and Knuckles hopped out, running over to me as fast as they could. "Shadow!" exclaimed Tails. "What happened? Where's Sonic?" At that point, I really didn't want to explain what happened, but I had to. Tails propped me up against the Tornado as I began telling him what happened. As I rehashed everything, tears welled up in both my eyes and Tails', and I think I could see a couple come out of Knuckles' amethyst orbs as well. I left out any mention of saying I loved him, though…

"Oh, my God… So… Eggman actually got ahold of Sonic?" I couldn't bring myself to say any more words, so I just nodded. "H-how could this happen?"

I sighed angrily. "I'm a fucking weakling, that's how… I couldn't stop him from taking him."

Tails wiped his tears away and shook his head. "No, Shadow. There was nothing you could do; you can't blame yourself. Besides, why are you worried about him?"

I didn't bother to wipe away my tears. "How many times am I going to get asked that question? Do you want to know the truth?"

"You're in love with him, aren't you?" How did he know? I had no clue how he would know such a thing. I think he noticed the expression of surprise on my face as he continued, "I've known for a while. The way you look at him… Only someone in love looks at someone like that." I always thought I had hidden it well, but I guess with how intelligent Tails was, it was only a matter of time before he found out.

After that, we headed back to the Mystic Ruins, and Tails took us to a forest in which he had prepared a whole village in case of emergency. "It's called Knothole. It's where we'll have to live if we want to stay safe from Eggman."

Soon, everyone was at Knothole, and Tails and I had to explain what happened to Sonic. All of them were devastated. "How could this happen?" or, "Why Sonic?" were only a couple of the questions coming from the crowd before I heard Amy burst into tears. After a few minutes of listening to her cry, she stormed up to me, eyes narrowed in anger.

"How could you let this happen to him, Shadow?" she screamed. "You always wanted to get rid of him! And then, when your chance came, you took it without even thinking! Isn't that right?"

I couldn't just let her insult me or the way I felt about Sonic. "Shut the fuck up, Amy! You have no damn clue about anything that's spewing out of your mouth! Sonic is my friend! If I hadn't been paralyzed, I would have helped him without a second thought!"

"Lies! I know you're lying! You probably just left the man I love without looking back!"

"The man you love? That's bullshit! All you fucking do is chase him around! That's not love! Even if you love him, you're not the only goddamn person who does! I love him more than I've loved anyone in my entire damn life, and you don't see me crying my eyes out! Believe me, I want to, but I won't! Now stop blaming me for this, or I'll Chaos Control you to the farthest reaches of Mobius!"

I guess my yelling got to her, because she burst into even more tears and ran off to God knows where. "Shadow, I think you took it a bit overboard there…" said Tails, and he was right. I did take it overboard, but I couldn't just let her insult me like that!

"I need to spend some time alone…" I stated before I took off from Knothole.

It's been eight months since then. Tails has become extremely depressed, and he won't even come out of his workshop without a really good reason. Knuckles hasn't been as… well, knuckleheaded as he used to be. It's as if Sonic and only Sonic brought that on. Amy actually gave up on the faker, but she hasn't tried chasing anyone else. Her heart is broken. Cream and Vanilla try their best to keep their and everyone else's moods up, although sometimes, I see Cream and Cheese crying. The Chaotix… Well, they've just been themselves. There's really been no change, but I can tell they miss the Blue Blur. Silver disappeared shortly after Sonic's capture. We don't know whether he went back to the future or went somewhere else. Blaze has become very anti-social again without either Silver or Sonic despite how much Cream tries to get her to talk to others.

And I… haven't been the same. I haven't had anyone to call faker. I haven't had anyone to race. I haven't heard any playful banter. I haven't seen his cocky smile. I haven't felt happy… I'm just an empty shell, but unlike most everyone, I haven't lost hope that he's somehow alive, and today, I'm going to prove it, no matter what the cost to me is.

So, how did you all like? I thought I did a decent job. I don't usually write in past tense when I write in first person, but I think it helped capture things better. I hope you all enjoyed the story, and expect more in both here and Unexpected Events. I'm also writing a Shadilver oneshot as a request from catlover10192. Well, I'll see you all next time!