Author's P.O.V.
"I promise I will…" The azure one said lowly to his rival, he felt depressed at his words. Knowing he wanted to be beside Shadow just confused him even more. Thoughts of starting to love his rival kept popping up but he kept ignoring them knowing that was impossible. "I'll leave as soon as you heal… You won't ever hear from me again…" He agreed with the ebony agent. 

"Good." Shadow nodded. "Now let me sleep." He immediately turned back to his cold and emotionless expression, this time it was not only hurting the people around him but him as well. 

It suddenly hurt him to talk to his rival like that, he didn't want to act this way, but this was the only way he could push everyone away. 

"If Rouge comes back and things are normal again. You can leave sooner."

Sonic wanted to break down at his words, he slowly stopped denying why he felt this hurt by his words and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know." He said lowly and clearly hurt. "I'll let you sleep." He walked to the room and laid down in the bed then stared at the ceiling quietly.

~~~
"Hun! We're back." Rouge walked in the house a few hours later, she raised a brow at how quiet it was and looked around. "Shadow? Sonic?" She was starting to get worried, thinking something happened.

She first looked in the living room and sighed quietly in relief when she saw Shadow, sleeping peacefully on the couch. The azure one heard footsteps and quickly dashed downstairs. 

"Rouge." His ears perked up, he didn't even dare to look at Shadow. "How did it go? Are you okay? Where is everyone else?" He asked quickly hoping everything was okay and he could go to his family. 

"Yes, everything is fine. The others went to their houses since it's late and we're all tired." The bat smiled softly at Sonic. "How is Shadow? Did he listen to you?" She looked at the couch then back at Sonic. "Did he start a fight with you?" 

The smaller hero shook his head. "No, he didn't start a fight, we made an agreement and he said he will try to get better. That he won't give up." He forced a smile to Rouge. "Tell him I will do what I promised. Alright?" He walked to the door. "Goodbye, Rouge… Thank you for helping me." The hero didn't waste a second knowing he will be asked things and quickly dashed off to the castle hoping he wouldn't get attacked.

"What… Promise…?" Rouge mumbled confused and looked at her best friend then sighed, knowing he had messed up again. "Oh, Shadow."

~~~
The guards that were outside the gates were still there, the castle was like it's always been, but this time, Eggman wasn't involved. 

Everyone in the castle was freed from Eggman's mind-controlling machine, they were all back to their old selves, but they, unfortunately, couldn't remember what happened while they were under the effect of the machine. 

Once the azure hedgehog was let into the castle, he looked around hoping to find his family. He suddenly got tackled down by his sister which made him tense up and quickly jump back. 

"Sonic!" The hero's sister smiled then raised a brow at his actions. "What's wrong?" She asked confused. "You look scared of me." She chuckled at that. 

"What do you-" He looked at her confused and shocked. "Are you okay?" He asked concerned, keeping his distance from his sister. 

"Of course I am, what's wrong? You didn't come here for so long and now you're afraid of your own sister?" She crossed her arms but she was quickly hugged by the azure hedgehog. 

"I missed you… I missed all of you…" The hero confessed with tears rolling down his muzzle.

"We missed you too Sonic." His sister lowered her ears slightly at his strange actions. "Did something happen? Why are you crying?" She pulled away and wiped his tears. "Are you too happy to see me?" 

The azure prince shook his head and looked at his sister. "Where is everyone. I need to talk to all of you." 

The pink Princess slowly nodded and started walking to the dining room. "Guys, guess who's here!" She said happily to get everyone's attention.

"Pizza!" Manic quickly answered and said the first thing that came to his mind. 

"What? No! That's doesn't even make sense." Sonia raised a brow and shook her head.

"Who is it?" Aleena asked softly, hoping that her son was visiting.

The azure one walked ahead of Sonia and smiled at them. "It's me, Mom." Sonic walked to his mother and hugged her tightly. 

"Sonny Boy! I'm glad you're back! We missed you!" The oldest hedgehog walked towards his nephew's direction.

The Queen dropped her ears when she saw her son after such a long time and hugged back tightly. "Maurice…" She smiled. "I'm so glad you're back." 

Sonic slowly pulled away and nodded. "Do you mind if I stay for a while?" He smiled at them as Chuck hugged him as well making him laugh softly and hug back. 

"Of course not, Son, this is your home too. You're welcomed here any time for as long as you want to." The elder one answered making the other hug him tighter then pull away. 

"Thank you…" Flashbacks of how they attacked him came in his mind making him lower his ears. 

"What about me? Your big brother?" Manic nudged the hero's arm. "I'm not gonna get a hug."

"No. Because you know that we're the same age." The pink hedgehog rolled her eyes playfully. "And you don't deserve any hugs." 

"I don't think I asked you, Sis." The cocky green one playfully glared at his sister.

Sonic chuckled at their fight and dashed to Manic and tackled him with a hug in a playful manner. These brothers were always messing around and playfully fighting with each other every time the azure one came to visit. 

"You know we're the same age, stop calling yourself the big brother, bro." The hero laughed softly. 

"Look, it might be just a few seconds, but still." The skilled thief shrugged. "Anyway, what took you so long to visit?" He raised a brow.

"He's the hero of the entire universe. He might have been busy." Sonia chuckled and wrapped an arm around her blue brother's neck. "How's Tails doing?"

Sonic nodded at his sister's question. "Better now, after everything that happened. Everyone was tired and went home, I wanted to make sure all of you were okay after Rouge told me it was safe." 

"Why didn't he visit with you? We have a spare room for him." The green Prince chuckled and pulled his 'little' brother closer to him and away from Sonia. "Back off, he's my little brother." 

"Excuse you?! Since when did he have only one sibling? He's my brother too!" Sonia raised a brow and grabbed Sonic's wrist. "He wants to be with me!"

"Manic. Sonia. Calm dow-" Aleena tried to calm them down but she was cut off by Manic.

"Yeah right. He doesn't want to have a boring talk about your crushes, he wants to go to the city with me." The green thief said as the azure one looked for help and laughed. 

"Guys. Guys. Calm down." He laughed. "I need to ask you guys something then you two can keep fighting." The azure one pulled his hand away and pulled away from his siblings as he walked to his mother and uncle. 

"What is it, Sonny?" The elder one asked slightly concerned since the hero would never stop his siblings from fighting this way. He knew it must be something important. 

"Do you guys really not remember?" He raised a brow. "For weeks, all of you were attacking me, Eggman was mind-controlling all of you. The entire world was against my team and me…" He was a bit worried that his family wouldn't remember this.

"What?" The two hedgehogs that were previously fighting looked at their brave brother in confusion. "When did this happen?" 

"We did what? I don't remember any of this." Chuck raised a brow and looked at his sister in law. "Do you?"

Aleena shook her head at this. "No, I would never try to hurt my kids." She said softly. "You said Eggman was mind-controlling us? Did we do something to you? Are you okay? What about your friends?" The queen asked concerned. 

"The guards attacked me the last time I came and almost chopped my leg off." The hero said. "No one from my team came except for Agent Shadow who got captured here and seriously injured.

"I'm so sorry to hear that…" Sonia lowered her ears. "I hope he gets better… Is your leg okay?" She looked at Sonic's leg and dropped her ears at the scar that was on it. "Oh my Chaos…" 

"I'm better. My leg is better don't worry, Sonia." He jumped so his family could see he wasn't in pain anymore. "I'm just glad everyone is okay now." He smiled softly. 

Chuck nodded at his nephew. "And now you'll be staying here for a while, aren't you? It's going to be interesting having you around." The elder one pointed out since the castle was usually quiet unless he came to visit since the triplets were usually fighting.

"Yes. I'm staying here for a while. I don't know for how long though." The hero smiled at his family.