The Greatest Betrayal

By Breech Loader

Breech: I wrote this story – or something like it - before, a while ago. It's actually been toned DOWN since then. Well, at the start anyway. And there's been more characters added to the fandom since then, so I'm gonna need a couple of extra chapters to rip some more people apart. It's mostly an AU. It splits shortly after SA2 and continues whenever Sonic and co are five years older than they are now. Since it's right there in the Summary I might as well admit, yes, it has to do with Shadow.

It's right there in the summary. This story is M-rated. It's in the Horror genre. It's also Suspense, so it's designed to freak you out too. And you know what the thing about M-rated stories is? They contain material not suitable for the weak of stomach. This story will have vicious rape and horrible murder. Anybody can die. I'll prove it.

Prologue...

Falling… he was falling…

And burning… He burned.

"Maria… this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise that I made for you…"

Chaos Emeralds were falling near him, their power all but exhausted. He was exhausted too, and his power from ditching one of his Inhibitor Rings was so drained. But he could tell; he could always tell… Just a tiny amount… the tiniest fraction. But maybe just enough. He reached out, grasping for the nearest one. It glanced off his hand.

"Damn… come on…"

Again. The heat from entering the atmosphere was increasing.

"I don't want to die…"

It glanced off again. He growled, summoning up every fraction of determination as the friction heat against his fur rose ever further.

"COME ON YOU SONUVA-" got it, "CHAOS CONTROL!"

He felt his body twist in agony as the teleportation sucked energy not just out of the emerald, but out of him too. There was a flash.

Then he felt his body collide with the ground harder than any other hit he had ever taken in any of his memories, and in the same instant of pain his world went black.

When Shadow woke up, it was to the sound of monitors beeping. He remembered that sound; he'd spent most of his life having his vital signs monitored in one way or another. But apart from the light that those machines gave off, there was no other light.

When he tried to sit up, his hands and feet turned out to have metal restraints keeping him on a table. Strong restraints too; thick. A lot of things were hooked up to him too; analysing him. He didn't call out. Whoever had done this was probably not somebody he currently wanted to alert to his wakefulness.

His body ached completely and without any repent. His fur felt singed all over and… when he twisted, he had to bite back a cry of agony. He felt like he had a few broken bones. Some attention revealed that there were binds on his body keeping them straight.

"Vital signs have altered. Subject: Shadow the Hedgehog is now conscious."

"Damn."

After a couple of minutes a door opened and a shadowy figure entered, "Well, well, Shadow. You lived. And you're already healing well. It's good that you're awake."

"Doctor Eggman?" Shadow glared into the darkness, "Where am I? Did you bring me here? No, fuck all that. I order you to release me from these bonds!"

"Not right now."

"Yes right now! I am Shadow the fucking Hedgehog! I am the Ultimate fucking Lifeform! You have to let me up sometime, and if it's not now I'll twist your damn head off!" Shadow struggled, and held back his yelp of pain.

"Now, now, Shadow. If I let you up, you would just hurt yourself again. I'm your friend, remember? We helped each other. And then when I found you bleeding and broken, I took you in when most people would have left you to die."

"Hmmph," Shadow wasn't convinced, "What am I doing here, strapped to your lab table, if we're friends?"

"Healing, of course. You've been unconscious for over a month. If you think a few cracked ribs are feeling bad, you should have seen the state of you when you first came in. Look…" Doctor Eggman pressed a button and a picture came up.

"Oh."

"Yes, you did look quite dead. Most people wouldn't even have checked for a pulse. But I know that the Ultimate Lifeform wouldn't have been killed by a mere fall from space."

Shadow considered this through the clouds of pain, "Well, why am I here?"

"Because I'm the only person you can trust."

Shadow rolled his eyes, "Bullshit. Sonic and his cronies are infinitely more trustworthy than you are. You were using me to try to take over the Earth."

"And you were using me to help you destroy the Earth."

"Hmmm. Touché," Shadow gave this thought some silent analysis. Trust Eggman. Yeah, right. Shadow knew he had been the bad guy a lot recently, but at least he'd been under orders. Kind of, "Doesn't mean I trust you though. Just what are you up to, Doctor?"

"I'm glad you asked, Shadow! After you fell from space and I found you and saved you, I became concerned that your memories might have been addled somewhat. Can you tell me, how did you fall exactly?"

"Easily," Shadow nodded, "Myself and Sonic were bringing up the Ark with Chaos Control. He was losing power, so I gave him a boost and let myself-"

"WRONG ANSWER!" Eggman yelled. And without warning, the table Shadow was on, was tilted right back into a bathtub of water. Filled with ice-cubes. Shadow screamed in shock, and the water filled his mouth and nose. It blinded him. And the cold… the cold burned. He gave a spasm, and screamed some more as his ribs gave another boost to the agony. Oh god, the cold was like space, like well-forged steel, like death…

Just when he thought the Doctor was going to drown him, he was pulled up again, coughing and spluttering and shivering. It wasn't a phobia but he had never liked water much. It reminded him of about a million imaginative ways the scientists on the Ark had tested him, "ASSHOLE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

"I'm your friend, and I'm trying to help you," Eggman told him, rubbing his hands as his moustache quivered, "You didn't let go of Sonic. You were dropped." Shadow coughed out more water, "Sonic dropped you."

"Don't bullshit your bullshit at me, Doctor Butterball! I let go because-"

Before Shadow could even finish his sentence, he was plunged back into the water again, and somehow this time it felt even worse. When he was finally raised back out his lips were blue and he couldn't speak for shivering. He gasped for air, wondering what the hell Eggman was up to.

Eggman spoke for him, "What you think isn't what is true. It's just what you wish was true. You are the Ultimate Lifeform. Don't let that cheap copy fool you. He saw you could be so much stronger than him. He was afraid of you. So he let you fall."

"No, that wasn't how it-"

Shadow was surrounded by the coldness again, nerves twanging and muscles screaming. It tore into him like daggers of ice and set his heart thudding until he thought it would burst from the pain. This time he thought Eggman was going to drown him. He felt like he was held even longer before being lifted out again.

"Don't you understand, Shadow? This is for your own good. You can trust me."

"Trust you?! You're… you're waterboarding me and you're saying I can trust you?!"

"I'm looking out for your best interests, Shadow. It takes a lot for you to get hold of a new idea. I'd hoped you would believe me straight away, but I see now that you are giving me no choice. If you continue to refuse…"

Shadow cried out sharply as he was dunked again.

He was stubborn, and determined. The Doctor praised him for it often.

But he was kept on the table for a long time; the only clock he had was his own heartbeat. He slept when the Doctor allowed him to. A good night's sleep might be days apart, and he wasn't always sure what he'd done to earn it. He ate what the Doctor wanted him to, not that it made much difference because he was fed through a tube that would be pushed all the way down his throat to keep him from being unrestrained.

But he could trust the Doctor to feed him, and keep him healthy. And every time he admitted that, the Doctor unshackled his legs for a few hours. He couldn't move them for ages thanks to agonising cramps. But it was something.

Not that it ended there. The one thing Eggman was most adamant about, was that liars and fakes should be punished. Always. Whenever he lied, whenever he couldn't accept the truth, whenever he lied about accepting the truth, he would be punished. It wasn't just with water. Sometimes there were needles. Sometimes blades. Sometimes electricity. Sometimes he might be drugged and then it wouldn't be until later that he would feel whatever pain the side effects brought on.

It was hard going. Sometimes the things Eggman told him didn't make sense. They were so confusing… if he didn't understand, he had to be punished. So eventually he started thinking up ways for them to make sense.

He needed to really corkscrew some of them… it was so hard sometimes… But he was the Ultimate Lifeform. He could do it.

But eventually… one day he found it in himself to admit it. It took time. But he learned new things.

Like, Doctor Robotnik was a good man. Admittedly a fat, rather arrogant man with a face that had been badly savaged by a moustache and a voice that turned orders for salad into deep-fried Mars-Bars wrapped in a bacon sandwich… but definitely a good man. And finally he was unrestrained, and allowed to train once more. It took ages before he could move again at any kind of speed thanks to stiffness, cramps and muscle weakness. But he built himself up again. And learned new skills too...

And as time passed and he saw how Sonic and his friends behaved through the monitors, he finally realised that Doctor Robotnik was his only friend. They were so stupid. They just accepted that inferior fake as him, and didn't even question where the real thing might be.

And knowing that made it all the more painful that he found himself hating Robotnik. A lot. He hated saying that the Doctor was his friend when he didn't like him at all, too. And he hated being so reliant. So he pushed those thoughts away, deep down, because they didn't belong.

He wasn't sure how long it took. But no matter his confusion, eventually he was sure of two things.

He was the original Shadow the Hedgehog; the Ultimate Lifeform.

And he hated Sonic the Hedgehog more than anything in the world.

Breech: This chapter is NOT an indicator of the horribleness to come. Things are gonna get infinitely nastier. That's my warning.