*Shadow's POV*
"Scourge? What's up?" Sonic answered the phone as he sat down beside me. His ears dropped instantly when he said something. "What? No. I'm on my way." Sonic quickly got back up and started pacing around the room.

"What happened?" I asked, standing up as well, getting concerned at the way Sonic reacted.

"Eggman." Was all he had to say before I understood what was going on. "I have to go to G.U.N., Manic got hurt."

I didn't waste a second before I chaos controlled us there. I never thought I would ever be back here again. It brought back too many memories I would rather forget, but I was here for him this time, and the commander couldn't do anything anymore.

Sonic ran as soon as we were there. He dashed off, and I followed close by. There was a group gathering around outside the infirmary. Sonic stopped running and made his way through.

"That's enough! Return to your duties at once!" Now there's the prince I was told he was. Everyone instantly listened and left, letting Sonic finally get to his brother, who laid down in a bed inside. Scourge was sitting beside him.

"You're here." Scourge said as he sat up and nodded at us as if greeting us, I couldn't keep my eyes off the prince who was lying down. He looked pretty rough. He had cuts and bruises on his face, and his torso was bandaged up, but he was awake.

"What happened?" Sonic said as he walked to his brother and helped him sit up.

"Eggman escaped." We turned when we heard the fox walking in. He walked to Sonic and hugged him, then let go to check on Manic.

"How?" I decided to finally ask. There was no way he could have done it alone since he had been trapped inside his cell for 10 years already.

"Metal." Manic said with a groan as he tried to get himself comfortable. "Before we locked up Eggman, we were aware he had placed a chaos emerald inside Metal, but we never needed it before. This time, one of our agents needed one for a mission, so I told Tails to work on him to try to remove it."

"I tried to remove it, but I guess doing so reactivated him." Miles explained as he gave Sonics brother a cup of water and two pills for the pain. "As soon as he was on, he pushed me out of the way and left. I sounded the alarms, and a lot of agents tried to get him to stop when we realized where he was going, but he was too strong with the emerald, and he managed to let Eggman out."

"We are going to need the group back." Manic said after he drank the pills.

I turned to look at Sonic, who looked like he was going to faint. "Sonic?" I raised a brow, but he took a step back and shook his head. "Are you okay?" I got closer and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"No." Was all he managed to let out as his ears dropped. "No. I can't do that again or let them get back into this."

"What? But we need you." Manic defended, raising his voice.

"I said no!" Sonic snapped and moved away from me as he walked backward to the door.

"Sonic, calm down." Miles said, concerned.

"How can you say no? I thought you were supposed to help others! You know what Eggman and Metal are capable of!" Manic was getting mad, Scourge had to hold him down before he could stand up.

"You don't understand what I went through! You would never! How could you? You were either on the streets or hiding in the castle with Sonia while I was the one out there fighting for my own life!" Sonic shouted in defense. "I watched as my friends got taken! I watched as Tails got kidnapped! My life was taken away, and thank chaos I revived or you would be without a brother right now! I was TORTURED for 6 MONTHS! I made mistakes, which nearly cost my friends' lives! And I lost many! And you want me to go back to fighting?" Sonic panted heavily after he finished talking. Tears were streaming down his muzzle. I walked up to him and hugged him. "I can't do it. I can't do this again. I can't risk their lives anymore. I knew bringing them back into my life was a mistake." He sobbed. "I should have never let them back in."

My heart broke at hearing Sonic say that. He was regretting everything.

"Sonic. I -" His brother tried to speak, but I cut him off.

"I'll take care of everything myself. Sonic already made his decision, leave him out of it." I said as calm as I could in this situation.

"You're not going to call anyone?" Miles asked.

"No."

"You're going to get yourself killed." Scourge stood up from his seat. "You can't do this alone." I could feel Sonic hold me tighter when he said that. I shook my head at Scourge knowing well I had to do this alone.

"I'll be with him." Miles said as he walked to his computer. "Like I'll let you go alone." He scoffed. "You should go home and rest, I will contact you once I know where Eggman and Metal are." I nodded, and chaos controlled us back at Sonics place.

Sonic let go and cleaned his tears, but I immediately pulled him back into a hug and rested my head on top of his.

"I'm sorry." I whispered by his ear.

"What do you mean?" He looked up at me, making me look down at him.

"I am the reason you brought them all back into your life." He shook his head at that.

"I want them back into my life, I don't regret meeting you again, Shadow. I'm sorry if it came out that way. What I mean is, I don't want to risk their lives anymore, and if I am in their lives, it always will be that way." He sighed and cleaned his tears. "I can't let you fight alone."

"You're not going." I let go of him.

"You're not going alone with Tails." He crossed his arms.

"I will. The fox is not going either. I am taking care of this alone."

"Like hell you are."

"Like hell am I going to let you risk your life again and watch you get hurt. I care too much about you, Hedgehog, to watch anything happen to you." I growled, getting mad when Sonic started glaring at me. "You can't just make me fall for you and then die."

"I can't die."

"My life is tethered with yours now. I can't lose you. So help me chaos, if the day comes then I will go with you."