No new reviews! Wonderfuckingful!

Not like I literally depend on them for motivation or anything!

"Ugh... what...?"

Shadow sat up, rubbing his head.

"Where... am I?"

The cell was dingy and dark. Actually, less of a cell and more of a cage. A too-small one at that.

Shadow hated small spaces. He could feel his breaths coming slightly faster. He pressed himself into the corner, trying to make it seem like there was more space than there actually was in the tiny thing.

It didn't help.

"Hope ya like it, hedgehog," a guard smirked. Must have been the one who brought me here. "You're gonna have to spend the rest of your life in there." He walked away. "Not that that'll be very long..."

Waves of fear washed over him as he curled into a tighter ball.

"We have to do something!" Amy pounded her fist on the table. "We can't let everyone at that place just die!"

"And what about Shadow?" Blaze piped up. She looked more tired than usual, but she had insisted on joining in on the conversation. Especially after finding out that Silver was alive and well. "I don't know Knuckles's fate, but we can guarantee that Shadow is going through something similar to what we did. He doesn't have a chance of escaping. I mean, he would need a Chaos Emerald to do that, and as far as I know, the one they have at the lab is in maximum security. And he gave his to Silver, right?"

"Right," Silver sighed. "Look, I'm the reason we're in this mess. I was the target when the agents went to capture. Shadow literally threw himself in front of the dart to save me."

The group was back at Vanilla's house after checking out the area a little bit.

"Don't you dare blame yourself, Silver." Sonic's voice was flat, but angry. His right hand had crumpled the napkin on the table. His left was clenched into a fist. "It's my fault. I didn't think that bastard would start making it personal with the note. He broke his promise, and now I can't do a damn thing about it."

"A promise?" Tails asked. "What promise?"

"Y'see, it happened like this..."

"Wait just a moment, Blue."

Sonic turned on his heel sharply. "What?! What do you want, you psycho? The last time you stopped me was when you decided to kill Ava. What now?!"

"Now, now. No need for the hostility. I merely wanted to make a quick business proposal. One that benefits you far more than it benefits me."

Sonic, despite his vendetta against this man, was intrigued. "Tell me what ya got in mind."

Knuckles ran in, cyan Chaos Emerald in hand. "Sonic! I- YOU!" Knuckles pointed an accusing finger at the doctor. The human didn't mind, however.

"If you honor your end of the bargain, I will let both you and Red go. But of course, who would enjoy freedom while suffering from an incurable disease?" The doctor nodded towards Knuckles. Sonic stepped protectively in front of his frail friend. The poison was really doing a number on Knuckles, and due to past events... Sonic had had a sinking feeling as of late that Knuckles would die.

"By my calculations, Red will be dead by tomorrow at sunset. So, here is a solution." The doctor lifted a needle filled with a familiar pink substance out of the pocket of his lab coat.

"The antidote!" Sonic gasped. "So you'll give it to us?" he asked.

"If- and only if- you agree to what I'm about to say."

Sonic nodded. "Anything."

"You let me test one last serum on you."

Sonic glanced back at Knuckles's pale face. "No, no you can't, Sonic." Knuckles insisted. "He's gonna kill you!"

"Do I look like I have a choice? I'm not letting you die."

"We'll find another way!"

Sonic ignored him and stepped forward. "Alright. I'll do it. Only if you promise not to hurt me, or Knux, or Tails, or Shadow, or..." Sonic trailed off. "Ya probably don't know half those people, but Imma make it simple. If you know or they know that they know me, you can't touch them. Deal?"

"Deal."

The doctor removed a second needle from his coat pocket- this one black with red swirls. Knuckles lunged forward, spreading his arms out in front of Sonic.

"Knuckles, move!" Sonic shouted.

"NO! I CAN'T LET HIM KILL YOU!"

"THIS IS THE ONLY WAY SAVE YOU!"

"GUARDS!" The doctor barked. Two strong guards, a man and a woman, came from the door and grabbed Knuckles by the arms. They dragged him away, kicking and screaming.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

"Oh, just watch me..." the doctor's lips curled into a smile. "Oh, and I almost forgot to mention! You have to keep quiet about everything that happened here. No telling the police, or the government, alright?"

"Fine. Just inject me already so we can get this over with." Sonic stepped closer and held out an arm.

"YOU WHAT?!" Amy, Silver, Tails, and Blaze simultaneously screeched.

"Do you know what that could have done to you?!" Tails yelled.

"Tails, that was months ago! Have I been sick in that time? No!" Sonic argued back. "I had to do it, or else Knuckles wouldn't have survived!"

"Survived what?!" demanded Tails. "You can't seem to decide if you're ignorant to everything going on, or if you know everything about what's going on!"

"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER!" Sonic shouted, springing out of his seat. "AND SO HELP ME, I'LL TURN MYSELF IN RIGHT NOW!"

Sonic took three big steps towards the door, but Silver was there in an instant to block him. "Sit. Back. Down. We are not letting you get yourself killed. What we need to do is figure out a way to get them out while also making sure none of us get killed. We'll have to sneak it."

"So we send someone in to distract them?" asked Blaze.

"Yes. We can't send anyone that they've seen before, so it has to be Amy or Tails."

"I'll do it," Amy said quickly, before Tails could open his mouth. She didn't want him to have to do it- besides, she would have her hammer if things went wrong.

"Are ya sure, Ames?" asked Sonic. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt by this guy."

"I'll be fine."

Shadow recoiled from a poke to his sore side. Looking for where it came from, he spotted a small hole just large enough to stick a single finger through. The Mobian on the other side of the wall had poked him, and now a violet gaze was peering through. "Shadow?!"

"Knuckles?!"

"How did you get here?!" Knuckles asked.

"I saved Silver from getting re-captured."

"So he's out? What about Blaze?"

"Silver's fine. Blaze has some kind of sickness. According to Sonic, he and you had it at one point."

"WHAT?! THEY INJECTED HER WITH IT?!" Knuckles screeched. "If we don't get an antidote, she'll be dead in a week! Sonic only survived so long because it wasn't to its full potential when he was injected. I barely lasted two weeks with it, probably because of my connection with the Master Emerald."

"I-"

Both went silent as a guard approached Shadow's cell/cage. He unlocked it and swung the door open. "The Doctor wants to see you."

"Tell him- OW!"

The guard had reached in and grabbed Shadow by the ear. "He's not taking 'no' for an answer."

Shadow hit the ground hard. He felt ribs crack as he bit down hard on his lip to keep from crying out.

"Interesting. You survived a fall that would paralyze most other creatures like you..." the doctor mused. The tests were rough. Shadow had lost track of time a while ago.

The doctor lifted him up and poked at the area where there were broken ribs. Shadow inhaled sharply.

"Broken. We'll have to fix those. To make sure you don't try anything funny..." he dragged Shadow over to a weird looking machine. It was a chair like the one his injections had to be performed in, with the cuffs on the limbs. There was a thing that reminded Shadow somewhat of the shocky bits on a taser above just above the cuffs.

The doctor locked Shadow in, attached electrodes, and put the shocky bits as Shadow liked to call them on his arms, legs, and chest. "What are you doing?"

"Just another test. Likely the last. You see, Shadow, according to studies, you function somewhat like a living Chaos Emerald. Which means you can be drained. If a full drain happens, it'll kill you. I doubt this first one will."

Shadow opened his mouth to protest, but the doctor turned the machine on immediately.

"We weren't going to drain you, originally, but since you didn't bring a Chaos Emerald..."

His screams echoed throughout the entire lab, striking fear into the hearts of every single captured Mobian.

Amy took a deep breath as she relayed the plan in her head. After night fell, she would go into the forest near the patrols of the guards. She would let one see her and shoot at her with a tranquilizer dart. She wouldn't be hit, but would pretend to be- if the dart was near enough, she could make a big show of throwing it away. She would then pretend to be unconscious. Once she was in, she would fight her way to the holding area, release Shadow and Knuckles, and get out. She could release other captured Mobians if she was able to.

There was a guard! He saw her and shot. She faked like she'd been hit. She pretended to pass out. In no time, she was in.

Summoning her hammer, she smacked the daylights out of the guard and ran. She would be discovered soon, she knew.

But she had to find Knuckles and Shadow. Immediately.

She was just about to blaze through the cells, looking for her friends when she heard the most bone-chilling scream she had ever heard. It was a scream of true anguish, fear, and pain, almost as if your being was being sucked out from your body. And it sounded like...

"Shadow?"

"AMY!" She heard Knuckles's voice calling out. She noticed a keyring on the wall, grabbed it, and immediately unlocked Knuckles's door.

"What is it? What's happening to him?" she asked as he climbed out.

"We have to get him out, fast! That bastard's going to kill him if we don't!" He grabbed her hand and ran for the source of the screams.

Suddenly, guards poured in, aiming their guns at Knuckles and Amy. "We're going to have to fight our way to him," said Knuckles. "Lucky for me..." he raised his fists. "That damn serum just wore off."

Amy had no idea what he meant, but raised her hammer.

The two fought hard, sometimes abandoning an opponent to keep running. The door was in sight when more guards poured in from another hallway. They turned back, but more guards were following.

"We're trapped," whispered Amy. "What do we do?"

Knuckles froze.

But as if in answer to a prayer, the roof fell in, and friends with it. Among them being Sonic, Tails, Rouge, Cream, Charmy, Blaze, Espio, Vector, a few recruits from the resistance, Big, and Omega.

"No time to waste!" Silver exclaimed. He was the last to fall, and landed right in Sonic's arms. "Knuckles! Amy! Get Shadow! We'll hold 'em off!"

Before Amy could question why exactly Cream was there, Knuckles grabbed her hand again and the two dashed through the crowd.

They pushed open the door together, and Knuckles immediately flew forward and punched the doctor square in the face as Amy turned the machine off and let Shadow out.

Unfortunately, they seemed to be too late. Shadow took one step forward before collapsing. Knuckles grabbed him. "We have to get out!" He adjusted his grip so that he was carrying him bridal style.

"Now!"

Bye.