A YEAR LATER, HALFWAY ACROSS THE PLANET...

Sonic walks down the forest path, earbuds in his ears, blasting his jam as loud as possible. He doesn't even realize that he's singing along to it and dancing slightly. "I can't slow down, I won't be waitin' for you! I can't stop now 'cuz I'm dancin'! This planet's ours to defend-"

"Having fun, Faker?" A velvet voice growls, and Sonic freezes. Tinny music pours from the earbuds as he removes them and looks around. Whatever you do, don't let him see that you're worn down. I step out of the forest, smirking triumphantly at him, as if just by existing I've won the battle.

"Shadow!" Sonic growls, shifting into a fighting stance. I surreptitiously ready myself as well, beginning to talk just to cover up my loudly growling stomach. I've been famished so long it's just natural to me, but my stomach still complains. Rouge was right...I've grown up spoiled.

"'Tis I," I say nonchalantly, *Grrroo-* "and what are you doing here, dare I ask?"

"An afternoon stroll, you?" His eyes search my stony, weather-beaten face. I can tell he's thinking, What happened to him?

"Oh, nothing...just heard rumors that there's another Chaos Emerald around here." More like, hunting for some food. Maybe he has something to eat...I'll just have to snatch it from him... I smirk, speaking up again as my stomach growls ONCE MORE. Jezus, pipe down will ya?! "Figured I'd take it before you did."

"Chaos Emerald?" Sonic blinks. "That's new." He turns his IPod off. "Well, looks like we'll have to fight for it."

"If you say so..." I lunge forward, punching him in the gut and stealthily checking his pocket. Nope. He kicks me in the head and I go tumbling backwards. Rolling with the blow, I come out on my feet. Other pocket? Dashing forth again I knock him to the ground. No food falls out. Dangit, he doesn't have any... Sonic throws me off him, planting a good, strong kick in my gut for good measure. I gasp in pain-Good thing I haven't eaten- and land face-first on the ground.

"Heh, you're a little off your game today, Shadz!" Sonic teases, grinning. I lift my head and then I realize I have a problem.

I can't get up.

My head is pounding and I'm dizzy. I groan and flop back down, feeling my arms trembling from the effort of even trying. A cold sweat has settled over me and I just feel like sleeping... It terrifies me.

Sonic blinks, not sure why I won't get up. "Shadz? C'mon...enough with the tricks. I didn't hit ya that hard!" Though weary I can still hear his thoughts; 'What's wrong with him? Is this a new ploy or what?'

I resist the urge to whimper and force myself to get up. It's extremely painful and I have to try really hard not to yelp when I feel some of my muscles practically snapping. Sonic's thoughts are so completely unguarded it's like his mind is shouting at me: 'He's moving really slowly, and if I didn't already know he was a robot I'd swear that's his ribcage...' I turn to face him, struggling to hide my panting. That took more outta me than I expected. I've entered a dreamy world now, and everything sways.

"Shadz?" Sonic looks really uncertain about me now. "You okay? You're awful pale..." 'He's sort of quivering, like he's gonna fall.'

"I'm fine," I snarl, attempting to convince myself as well as him. I try to take a quick step forward, intending to rush him, and instead I take a rather wobbly drunken step and faint. The last thing I hear are Sonic's thoughts echoing his words,

"What the-?!"

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I can hear voices. I'm not sure who they are but they sound familiar. I wish I could open my eyes, but even breathing right now is tough. I feel so weak... and everything is still dreamlike. How much time has passed? Who cares? I'm moving, but not of my own accord. I think I'm being wheeled around on a gurney. Cool. My own gurney. What for?

Oh, yeah, right. I was dying of starvation. Still on my big quest to find out where I came from! Hahaha...yeah, not funny. I've been searching for over a year and I'm still where I started, but a lot hungrier and more miserable.

If I'm on a gurney, am I in a hospital? Will they know what to do with me? After all, most people must think that I'm a robot. In fact, everybody but Rouge and her family believe that to be the truth. So how are they going to treat me for starvation if robots don't starve?!

...I'm screwed.

----------------

"Is he going to be okay?" Tails asks the doctor. "What happened to him?"

"Well," the doctor hesitates. "I'm not sure how to say this, so I'll just state it plainly: Shadow is not a robot."

Sonic spat out the complimentary water he had found. "Wh-what?!" He sputters, wiping his chin. Tails flinches away from the water, and even Knuckles sits up a bit straighter.

"I was pretty surprised too, and I don't know how to explain it. But he shows all the hallmarks of being alive: heartbeat, skeleton, the works." The doctor shrugs. "It's unusual to say the least, but, well, it's not unlike Robotnik to lie."

"Yeah, but, why would he lie about Shadow being a robot?" Knuckles crosses his arms, his brow wrinkled with confusion.

"Furthermore," Tails interjects, "how come Shadow hasn't shown any signs of injury before?"

"In fact," Sonic adds on, not allowing the poor doctor to get a word in edgewise, "I've dented Shadow in battle before. This doesn't explain how that happened. He was clearly made of metal."

"Sirs, please..." The doctor replied, looking confused and worried, "I don't know how to explain any of this, and I just want to focus on my patient right now."

"Sorry," Sonic laughs. "I guess we all just got carried away."

The doctor shakes his head and exits the room, still looking confused. The three then turned to each other.

"So," Knuckles says calmly, "Shadow's not a robot."

"Who would've thought?" Tails says. "I mean... How did he fool us?"

Sonic stretches, relaxing into a waiting room chair. "Must be some kind of Robotnik trick."

"Yeah, but wouldn't he have bled in that battle where you blew him up?" Tails points out.

"Or the one where I clobbered the snot out of him until he fell off a cliff-" Knuckles begins to add.

"Screaming all the way?" Sonic finishes, laughing. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do I look like a scientist? No, 'cuz I'm not. Tails, do you have a theory?"

Tails thinks for a moment, his sparkling bright blue eyes working up a storm of thinking. After a long, awkward pause, he finally responds with: "Nope."

"Nope?" Knuckles sounds disappointed. He sits down. "Not even the wildest theory?"

Tails settles down into a stiff chair as well, looking puzzled and a bit sad. "No..."

Sonic yawns. "Hey, can't be awesome all the time. Looks like we just gotta wait it out, huh?"

"You do realize it'll probably take him at least several weeks to recover, right?" Tails says just as Sonic was nodding off. He snaps back awake.

"What?!"

----------------

Something nearby was beeping at me. I thought it was my alarm clock at first-a thought that seriously confused me for a moment-until I realized that the tone was completely different from my alarm clock's. Thinking was proving slightly difficult for me. And for whatever reason, I couldn't open my eyes, and everything sounded faint and far-off. I was starting to feel better though. It was clear to me that I was in a bed-a much more decent one than what I'd been using as a bed for the past year or so. By that I mean dirt, tree branches, rooftops-whatever surface I could find that was vaguely horizontal and not made (entirely) of hornets or something. But this? This was an actual bed. With some decent sheets. It felt amazing.

My senses were slowly recovering, but I still couldn't open my eyes. I was starting to hear more clearly, however, and I heard quite a lot of noise. It was now very obvious that I was in a hospital, but how did I get here? Sonic wouldn't have brought me in, would he? After all, Rouge pretty much said he hates me. As if I couldn't figure that out on my own-every time we meet, he beats the crap out of me, and he flat-out refused to believe that I wasn't working with Robotnik anymore. But I don't particularly care for him either, so I guess we're even on that field. What probably happened was that someone stumbled across me, passed out in the woods. Maybe I was too mud-covered to be recognized. After all, as Scourge said, who in their right mind would help me?

Maybe I ought to just ask.

I tried to open my mouth and speak, but only managed a small croak. Straining, I opened my eyes a crack and tried to speak again, this time coughing. A nurse was near my bed, writing something down. He turned, hearing me, and gasped. "Doctor! Shadow is awake!" I began to sit up, opening my eyes fully and blinking a few times. I shake my head to clear it, feeling the fog clear a bit.

I snagged his arm, strength returning to me rapidly. The clipboard falls from his hand, clattering loudly against the linoleum floors. The nurse shudders, trying to get out of my grip, but I persist. For whatever reason, he's looking in horror at the monitor next to me, which is emitting the strangest and most annoying tone.

"Would you," I pause to cough, my throat dry, "Would you be a dear and turn that off?"

----------------

Meanwhile, back in the lobby...

Sonic groans. "What are we gonna do until he gets better?"

"We could go after Robotnik, who most likely dumped him on us in the first place," Knuckles suggests.

"That's it!" Tails blurts. "We can make Robotnik tell us!"

"Like he would." Sonic sighs. "If there's one thing he is, it's determined. Even if we managed to get our hands on him, something tells me this isn't the sort of thing he'd be bragging about, so we'll probably not be able to find out. Not from him, at least." A thought he didn't share with them was, what if even Robotnik himself didn't even know? I mean, it's unusual for Robotnik to mistreat his robots, right? So if he knew Shadow wasn't one, why wouldn't he feed the poor guy?

"Yeah..." Knuckles sighs. An awkward pause follows, broken by the sudden sounds of increased commotion in the hallways.

"What's going on?" Sonic called out, standing up.

A nurse pauses, leaning out the doorframe. "Come quickly! Shadow's waking up somehow, but something strange is going on!"