He couldn’t see. There was no light.

	He couldn’t feel. There was nothing here.

	He could hear nothing-

	Wait. Wait, no. He could hear something. But what was it?

	It was like a beeping sound. Some kind of machine?

	Whatever it was, he focused on it, hoping to get some more clarity. With the sound, came a feeling of something soft but firm. A bed? Was he laying in a bed? But why? Wasn’t he on the Comet?

	The light started to filter into his vision. It was so very bright, almost blinding. As his vision got clearer, he started taking in his surroundings. The ceiling was a stark white, as were the walls, void of color. He looked to his left, the action of turning his head somewhat painful. There sat a strange looking machine. Was that what was making the beeping noise?

	“...adow…”

	He hears a sound from his right. Was it someone speaking? Their voice was hazy, he couldn’t understand them. He turned to look at them, blue filling his view.

	“Sh..ow…”

	He could see their mouth open as they spoke to him again. Or, were they speaking to him? He didn’t know. He blinked, slowly, to show them he could hear them, though barely.

	There was another beeping noise, louder than the others, it shocked him a bit. All at once, he felt his senses returning to him.

	He sat up suddenly, hands gripping the bed sheets tightly, his eyes wide and frantic. He drew in short staggering breathes.

	“Shadow! Calm down!”

	He felt a hand gently grasp his shoulder, trying to get him to lay back down. He looked to the side.

	“Sonic?”

	The blue hedgehog looked relieved though concerned. Shadow let himself be pushed down, only then realizing there was a breathing mask over his mouth.

	“Yeah, it's me.” Sonic leans back in the chair he was sitting on.

	“What’s going on? Where are we?” Shadow asks, confusion clear on his face. This room looked like a hospital room but not at the same time.

	“We’re in Tails’ lab…” Sonic says with a sigh. He looks at Shadow with a serious expression. “You don’t remember what happened?” Shadow shakes his head. Sonic looks away like he didn’t want to talk. “Okay, well… how do I explain this…” He bites his lip, struggling with the words. “Remember we were captured by Black Doom?” Shadow nods. “Okay, do you remember what happened after that?”

	Shadow thinks hard for a moment, searching his mind for what could have happened. “The… Black Arms, they-”

	“Yeah.” Sonic goes quiet for a minute. He knew he was going to hate having to explain this part. “And… then… he showed up…”

	The dark hedgehog trys to think who ‘he’ would refers to. He ponders this before understanding. “Eclipse..”

	Sonic only nods. “After he… raped me, you kind of just… like, exploded?” It was posed more as a question.

	“Exploded?” Shadow raised an eyebrow at that.

	“Yeah, like a, I don’t know, Choas Supernova? Or something like that. But, whatever it was destroyed the Comet and all the Black Arms, I think.” 

	“You think?”

	“We don’t know for sure. It was a while before anyone found us after… You were barely conscious at the time.”

	“How long was I out?”

	“Two months.” Sonic looks to him again, sadness clouding his features. “We thought you were going to die, Shadow. Tails said that the explosion should have killed you.” His eyes were filling with tears. “I thought I was going to lose you…”

	Shadow sat up again, a bit slower this time. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you…” As the words leave his mouth, Sonic breaks down and leaps over to him, hugging him tightly. The only sounds in the room being his sobs and the machine’s faint beeping.