[MATURE] Shadow/Knuckles
Content Warnings: Aphrodisiacs / Drugging / Injury / Biting / Loss of Consciousness / Emotional Distress
Mount Cor was a towering, dome-shaped mountain blanketed entirely in snow.
Hidden beneath its white slopes was an underground facility secretly constructed by a certain corporation for biological research.
There was a possibility that remnants of the organization once led by Regina—the half-machine woman who had abducted Knuckles—were hiding there.
There was also a chance that data related to the creation of Echidna clones still remained inside.
Shadow received this classified information about a month after Knuckles had been rescued from Regina’s fortress city.
“—This is the structural diagram of the underground research facility inside Mount Cor.”
In a dimly lit briefing room, a white-furred cat calmly explained the situation before a three-dimensional diagram projected as a hologram.
His name was Cui.
He was an agent directly under the World Government, specializing in intelligence and information gathering. With sharp golden eyes and restrained gestures, he always carried himself with composure. Shadow had never once seen him raise his voice.
“Regina’s remaining forces are there?”
Shadow folded his arms and looked up at the image displayed on the large screen before him.
It showed a cross-section of the enormous underground research facility carved into the mountain, along with possible infiltration routes.
“Even if we call them remnants, they don’t appear to have much power left. The organization directly under Regina has been dismantled, and most of its personnel are already under the World Government’s control.”
Cui slid a finger across the display and enlarged part of the hologram.
“Still… I don’t believe Regina’s claim that she destroyed all the genetic data she had already analyzed. At least several of her direct subordinates are still missing.”
“So those subordinates may have copied the genetic data, fled, and gone into hiding somewhere. And that somewhere may be Mount Cor.”
Cui nodded at Shadow’s words.
Regina had abducted Knuckles in an attempt to analyze his genetic information, obtaining and concealing biological data taken from him.
Copies of that data might now be hidden inside the research facility at Mount Cor.
Regina had intended to create clones of the Echidna tribe and bring the Echidnas’ ability to control the Master Emerald under her own control.
“This information… What’s the source?”
“A tip from someone who once worked at this facility. Whether it can be trusted is questionable. The facility is registered under an entirely different organization, not Regina. But there are traces of illegal drug research having been conducted here. It’s possible the organization had ties to Regina behind the scenes from the beginning.”
The tip of Cui’s ear twitched ever so slightly. Without changing his expression, he tapped lightly at the keyboard and closed the data.
“But that’s all the data I can give you. We don’t have enough to justify mobilizing personnel.”
“But if you went out of your way to share it with me…”
“The matter of Regina trying to exploit the power of the Echidna tribe… I think I understand how much that concerns you. But there’s no guarantee this information is accurate.”
“Thank you, Cui.”
“It’s just an occupational habit. Are you going there right away?”
Shadow thought for a moment.
The genetic data Regina took from Knuckles. In other words, this is…
He remembered what the red echidna had said that day when he had gotten angry with him.
“I’m the guardian of this island. The island, the Emerald, the enemies after the island and the Emerald. All of it is my problem in the first place!”
That’s right, Knuckles. This must be your problem.
Shadow raised his head.
“I’ll call Knuckles. If he wants to go, Knuckles and I will infiltrate Mount Cor together.”
Cui nodded and stood up.
“I’m going too. If I can access the local data directly, there may be more information I can uncover.”
The cold mountain wind stung their cheeks. The slopes of Mount Cor were completely covered in white snow.
“Whoa, this is something else…”
Knuckles trudged through the deep snow, sounding somewhere between impressed and exasperated.
“That’s a hell of a lot of snow. Everything’s white no matter where I look. I’m gonna lose track of which way’s up and which way’s down.”
“Knuckles, there’s a cliff over there. If you step onto the snow cornice, it could give way. Watch your step.”
Cui warned him without changing his expression as Knuckles continued forward, looking around in every direction.
“Ah… Sorry.”
Shadow frowned as he pushed through the snow in front of him.
“There’s more snow than I expected. It’s not enough to stop us, but it is somewhat troublesome.”
“All right, move, Shadow. I’ll take the lead.”
Knuckles pushed ahead of Shadow and began vigorously digging through the snow with both fists.
“As expected of an echidna… That’s some impressive digging power.”
Cui watched the movement of Knuckles’ fists with admiration.
Like a bulldozer, Knuckles steadily plowed through the snow, carving out a path as he went. Snow flew backward in clumps, showering Shadow behind him.
Without saying a word, Shadow brushed the snow off himself and watched Knuckles’ back.
The genetic data Regina extracted from you might be hidden at Mount Cor.
When Shadow had told Knuckles that on Angel Island, the echidna’s purple eyes had fixed on him with a fierce, burning light.
The moment Shadow saw those eyes, he knew. He explained the plan to infiltrate Mount Cor to Knuckles.
There’s no need to ask. You’re going to Mount Cor. Then I’ll stay behind you and be your knight.
The three reached the entrance to a hidden passage that would allow them to enter the facility sooner than expected.
Cui quickly operated the control panel and fed it falsified authentication data to release the lock.
“It’s an old iris-recognition system. All we have to do is feed it falsified data. …The door’s opening.”
Shadow and Knuckles braced themselves at the same time. With a quiet electronic sound, the mechanical door opened.
Shadow slipped inside at once, with Knuckles following behind him. Cui entered last, keeping an eye on the area behind them.
The interior was dim, with red lights embedded in the floor and walls casting an eerie glow over the passage.
Cold air from outside flowed into the stifling, lukewarm air within.
Just as Shadow crouched down and started farther into the passage, the entrance door behind the three of them slammed shut with a sharp electronic beep.
All three immediately tensed. Keeping his stance and his eyes fixed ahead, Shadow signaled with one hand, and Cui examined the entrance door and its control panel.
“Looks like we’ve been trapped. They may have integrated a new system into the old one—something designed to lure in anyone using falsified data, then eliminate them once they’re inside.”
“So instead of keeping intruders out, they let them in and trap them. Which means what comes next is…”
Shadow focused his attention on the passage ahead.
From around the bend deeper inside, drones began advancing toward them in a steady stream, their quiet mechanical hum filling the corridor.
“There you are. These bastards look just like the drones that attacked the island.”
“Then we were right. Regina’s remaining forces are hiding in this facility.”
Knuckles took up a fighting stance behind Shadow, but his eyes widened at the sheer number of drones that kept pouring in behind the first wave, and he raised his fists higher.
“Wh-what the hell? They just keep coming, like a line at some bargain sale…”
“This many in such a narrow passage… It seems eliminating intruders takes priority over searching for the genetic data.”
Shadow immediately surged forward and slammed into the lead drone, sending it flying.
Knuckles quickly glanced from side to side. Spotting a garbage chute, he scooped up Cui, who was braced for combat behind him, and forcibly shoved him inside.
“Knuckles?! Wh-what are you—”
“You’re intelligence, not combat, right? This place is already a complete battlefield. Get out of here and bring back reinforcements instead. Sonic, if you can.”
Cui looked away for a moment as though considering it, then turned back to Knuckles with a grim expression.
“I’m the one responsible for putting us in this situation by giving you incomplete intelligence.”
“Don’t overthink it. This kinda thing happens when you’re exploring. Just make sure you don’t get yourself killed getting out. Got it? Call Sonic. Tell him if he’s got nothing better to do, he can come give us a hand. And get some agents who know their way around data searches or something.”
Without waiting for an answer, Knuckles charged into the enemy after Shadow.
“I’ll be back with reinforcements. I promise!”
Cui shouted with resolve, pulled the garbage chute door shut, and slid down into the shaft.
The corridor rang with the shriek of metal. Gunfire from the drones tore into the walls, sending sparks flying.
Shadow raced through the gaps between them like a flash of light, slicing through one drone after another with the edge of his hand.
At the near end of the corridor, Knuckles grabbed drones, threw them, punched them, and slammed them down, smashing every one he could reach head-on.
Then, with a grating warning alarm, a thick iron shutter came crashing down from above.
Knuckles noticed and broke into a run, but the iron barrier completely cut the two of them off from each other.
“Knuckles!”
Shadow struck the iron barrier with his fist. The impact felt solid, and it did not budge.
From the other side came the sound of Knuckles smashing drones apart with his fists.
“Knuckles! I’m coming over to your side now!”
Shadow shouted, urgency in his voice, and looked around for a control panel.
He swept aside and destroyed the drones that tried to approach him, then found a control panel and checked it, but a security lock prevented him from operating it.
Knuckles’s voice rang out from beyond the wall.
“More enemies are coming from the corner on this side! I’m gonna follow the passage and take out the ones hiding farther in!”
“It’s dangerous, Knuckles! Come back! I’ll find another way around and get over there right away…!”
Shadow clung desperately to the iron barrier and pounded on it again and again.
Knuckles did not answer.
The sounds of metal being smashed apart on the other side of the barrier gradually grew more distant, until soon he could hear nothing at all.
“Damn it… Going off on your own and doing something this reckless… This happened because I went too far ahead.”
His fist trembling, Shadow struck the iron barrier hard once more.
A drone closed in behind him. Shadow glared at it and spoke, hatred seeping into his voice.
“…You’re in my way. I’m busy……”
Shadow attacked in a blur.
A flash streaked across the drone’s body, and in an instant, it fell apart into pieces.
After tearing every last drone there to pieces, Shadow rounded the corner farther ahead and raced down the passage like a gale.
“I’ll catch up with you soon. Anyone who tries to hurt Knuckles—I’ll tear every last one of them apart.”
Knuckles kept pushing deeper into the facility, smashing aside the drones coming at him from ahead with brute force.
“Line up and come at me one at a time! I’ll smash every last one of you!”
Knuckles’ massive fist crushed a drone’s steel jaw. He trampled over the scattering debris and punched the next drone that came at him.
Farther down the passage, a narrow walkway came into view.
On either side was a deep open space. Directly below the walkway, rows of small compartments partitioned by glass stretched out beneath him.
“Hmph. Now this looks like a research facility. Bet they’ve got plenty of genetic data besides mine in here too.”
A mass of drones burst out from the far side of the walkway. Knuckles charged straight into the middle of them and met them head-on.
“Take this!”
The drone at the front went flying apart. More drones kept pushing in from behind without slowing down, and the walkway groaned loudly beneath their weight.
“Whoa… this is bad…”
The floor suddenly collapsed under the weight of the drones. The footing vanished beneath Knuckles, and his body was thrown into the air.
Glass shattered, and Knuckles plunged into one of the compartments directly below.
“Bgh…!”
A muffled splash. Cold liquid against his body. Something slick enveloped him from head to toe as he sank deeper and deeper.
He opened his eyes and thrashed his arms and legs toward the light, somehow managing to make his way back to the surface.
A sweet scent, like the concentrated fragrance of flowers, filled his nose.
“Bwah—damn it, what the hell is this slimy stuff…?”
Knuckles pulled himself upright and climbed out of the tank filled with the slick pink liquid.
Brushing away shards of glass, he looked around.
He was inside one of the small glass-walled rooms he had seen from the walkway above.
Test tubes and tanks lined the room, while displays along the walls had been left showing graphs and numbers that appeared to be biological data. The slick pink liquid from the shattered tank had spread across the floor.
Knuckles’ entire body was soaked and sticky with it.
“Ugh… This is disgusting…”
Grimacing at the sickly sweet smell, Knuckles wiped at his sticky fur with one hand and got to his feet.
The drones weren’t following him. Maybe they had been destroyed in the fall. He left the section with the pink tank and looked around.
“So there’s a whole bunch of labs down here. Maybe my genetic data’s somewhere around here.”
Knuckles noticed something moving beyond the glass and peered into the neighboring section.
There, numerous living creatures were restrained inside tanks lined up along the wall, suspended while still alive.
They were all strange animals unlike anything he had seen outside. Perhaps they were the products of genetic manipulation, or experimental animals that had been abducted from somewhere.
Every one of them hung there quietly, wearing the same frightened, defeated expressions.
“What happened to you guys? Some bad guys catch you?”
Knuckles spoke to the animals. He often talked to birds and small animals in the forests of Angel Island, too.
“Don’t look so sad. I’ll get you out of there first, so cheer up.”
With that, Knuckles smashed the glass of the nearest tank and tore apart the chains restraining the creature suspended inside.
Once freed, the creature stared at Knuckles for a moment, then trudged away and sat down in the corner of the room.
“You’ve still got enough strength to walk. Reinforcements’ll be here sooner or later, so sit there and wait. …All right, this one next.”
One. Then another.
Knuckles smashed the tanks and tore apart the chains, then looked into the room on the opposite side.
There were more cages.
The creatures inside them were staring silently back at him.
“All right, hang on. I’m gonna—”
The moment he took a step, his legs suddenly wobbled.
“…Huh?”
His vision warped.
The floor seemed to draw away and then rush back toward him.
Heat suddenly began to build deep inside his body.
“What is this…?”
He tried to take another step, but his knees buckled. He forced himself to keep walking and went sprawling to the floor.
“Ow…”
The floor beneath his hands felt strangely cold, while the inside of his body burned with heat.
He was hot, yet somehow shivering at the same time. His throat was dry, and his breathing grew shallow.
“M-my body…”
Something he couldn’t identify seemed to be rapidly demanding something from deep inside him.
He couldn’t put it into words.
He only knew that he couldn’t settle down. That something felt unbearably unresolved.
…He wanted something.
“Damn it…”
Knuckles gritted his teeth.
Unable to stand, he began crawling forward.
Only a few creatures remained restrained. Dragging himself along the floor, he clung to one of the chains and bit down on it.
The taste of metal filled his mouth. He put all the strength of his teeth and jaws into it, and the chain creaked.
“Nngh…!”
One, then another.
Knuckles bit through the chains with his teeth, freeing the animals one by one.
Once I’ve done everything I can… Shadow’ll take care of the rest somehow.
Each time his consciousness began to slip away, it was sheer stubborn pride as a guardian that kept his body moving forward.
How much time had passed?
“—Knuckles!”
Shadow’s voice echoed down from above, and Knuckles faintly opened his eyes.
Shadow had circled around through a passage farther inside. There, he found the floor a filthy mess of broken glass and spilled liquid—and a red back lying unconscious, teeth still clamped around the chain restraining the last animal.
It took Shadow less than a second to understand what had happened.
He rushed to Knuckles and severed the remaining chain with a knife-hand strike.
Calling Knuckles’ name, Shadow lifted him up. Knuckles gave a weak smile between ragged breaths.
“I-I’ve been waiting for you. The animals…?”
“They’ve all been freed from their restraints. They’re huddled quietly together in the corner. Your condition is far more serious right now.”
His fingertips were trembling. His body temperature was abnormally high.
Shadow reached to place a hand against Knuckles’ forehead, but Knuckles knocked it away and forced himself upright.
“I-I’m just a little tired. There’re still drones around, right? Let’s hurry up and take ’em out, and f-find my data…”
“Knuckles. Sit down.”
“I can still—”
“Sit down.”
Shadow ordered him in a low voice.
At that moment, the strength seemed to leave Knuckles’ body, and he crumpled to the floor.
Just as Shadow caught him and lifted him up, a swarm of drones appeared at the far end of the passage.
Holding Knuckles in his arms, Shadow looked upward.
Thick pipes crisscrossed the vast hollow space above them, disappearing into darkness before the ceiling could even be seen. Through the gaps between them, there seemed to be a way to escape to an upper level, or perhaps into an adjoining space.
Shadow leapt upward with Knuckles held in one arm and caught hold of an overhead pipe with the other, hauling himself up.
The drones all raised their guns at once.
Before he even heard the triggers being pulled, Shadow instinctively drew Knuckles against himself to shield him, turning his own back toward the drones.
The sudden rotation threw his footing out of place.
“—!”
Hit by the gunfire and thrown off balance, Shadow made a split-second decision and plunged into a large opening beneath the pipes.
Amid the deafening gunfire and crashing destruction, Shadow and Knuckles were swallowed by the darkness of a shaft descending deep underground.
As they fell, Shadow twisted his body again and again, trying to position himself for the landing.
In the darkness, he struck pipes in several places, barely managing each time to keep Knuckles shielded from the impacts.
At last, he managed to bleed off enough momentum, kicked against the wall, and got his feet beneath him at the bottom of the dark shaft—but he couldn’t hold himself upright and collapsed onto one leg.
“Ghh…!”
He seemed to have injured his left leg when he struck one of the pipes. As he went down, Knuckles was thrown onto the floor.
“Ah… ngh…”
“Knuckles…! I’m sorry. Are you hurt anywhere?”
The bottom of the shaft appeared to be a cramped space between pipes and computers, enclosed by metallic walls and flooring.
Neon lights from machinery embedded in the walls faintly illuminated the area in an eerie red glow.
Shadow lifted Knuckles up and examined him in the dim light.
His breathing was ragged. Sweat covered his forehead. His entire body was drenched and trembling in small, constant shivers.
As Shadow shifted Knuckles in his arms to keep his airway clear, he noticed a sweet, flower-like scent coming from somewhere.
This smell… I’ve smelled it somewhere before.
Shadow instinctively held his breath.
—When Regina’s fortress city had been placed under World Government control, Shadow had later taken part in an investigation of the facilities inside.
In one of the rooms used for breeding experiments, he had seen a thick pink liquid swaying inside a glass tank.
It was a drug designed to disrupt the hormonal balance of animals and test subjects and stimulate reproductive behavior—an “aphrodisiac” formulated for females of certain species.
From back then…
Shadow stroked Knuckles’ fur, then lightly brought his fingers to his nose and smelled the liquid clinging to them.
Sweet.
Something must have gone wrong in the section above, leaving Knuckles’ entire body soaked in the aphrodisiac.
“…Knuckles.”
“…H-hot…”
Delirious with fever, Knuckles groaned.
“M-my body… it’s so hot…”
Shadow was at a loss for words.
An agent meant to stimulate breeding in females… Put simply, an aphrodisiac. …But Knuckles is male. He was never an intended subject. There’s no telling what effects it might have on him—
“It shouldn’t… be life-threatening.”
That was all Shadow could barely manage to say.
“You were probably exposed to one of the experimental drugs, and it’s affecting your body. …Its effects should weaken with time.”
“I see…”
Knuckles desperately tried to suppress his ragged breathing as he twisted around and turned his back to Shadow.
“Th-then… no problem…”
With that, he curled in on himself, collapsed facedown on the floor, clenched his fists, and went still.
Still down on one knee, Shadow looked upward.
Seen from the bottom of the dark shaft, the opening high above resembled a gaping black mouth, as though they were trapped inside the stomach of some enormous beast.
The drones don’t seem to be following us. I suppose we have no choice but to hide here until Knuckles can move again.
The bottom of the shaft, surrounded by metal, was cold, and the air was frigid.
Shadow started to move closer so that Knuckles wouldn’t be cold—
then noticed something wrong and went rigid.
My body… is hot too…
He jolted and backed away.
—The aphrodisiac.
If the word was to be taken literally—
perhaps it affected not only the one who had been exposed to the drug, but those nearby as well.
Ridiculous…
Shadow covered his mouth and looked away as he tried to think.
I am the Ultimate Life Form. I have no need for sexual desire. There is no way I could harbor such indecent, filthy urges…
But the instant his ears caught the sound of Knuckles’ ragged breathing, his reason wavered with almost humiliating ease.
On impulse, Shadow bent forward as though to seize Knuckles, then hurriedly recoiled and pressed himself back against the wall.
When he closed his eyes, Knuckles’ violet eyes appeared in his mind.
Even the pointed tip of his muzzle and the relaxed curve of his smile came vividly to him. Heat flooded Shadow’s body all at once, and he hurriedly opened his eyes.
Unable to escape the sight of him, Shadow stared hungrily at Knuckles’ entire body.
His shoulders rising and falling with every breath. His solid build, wrapped in powerful, well-defined muscle. His damp red fur. His jagged tail hanging limply behind him.
Shadow heard himself swallow hard, and the sound sent a shudder through his heart.
“Shadow…”
The feeble voice pierced his ears.
“Come… over here…”
“N-no…”
Shadow barely managed to cry out, his voice hoarse as though his throat had been scorched.
“Knuckles. There’s something wrong with me right now. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He pressed his back against the wall and covered his mouth.
An indescribable impulse surged up from deep in his gut.
“If I go near you now, I might do something… wrong.”
Clutching at his chest, he desperately forced the words out.
“I only want to protect you. If I were to hurt you just to satisfy my own desires—I’d rather bite off my own tongue and die!”
Knuckles’ throat caught with a thin, wheezing sound.
“…My body’s… so hot… but I’m cold.”
Knuckles murmured in a trembling voice.
“It hurts… I don’t want to be alone.”
Those words cut deep into Shadow’s reason.
I don’t want to be alone.
It had once been Shadow’s own cry.
When he had been left all alone in space.
When he could find nowhere he belonged, neither in his past nor in his present.
…Knuckles.
A stubborn, awkward, solitary guardian who had always protected his ancient island entirely on his own.
And yet now, even if it was only because of the drug, the man who never once complained or showed weakness was pleading with him not to leave him alone.
Shadow was not coldhearted enough to ignore that.
“…You’re not… alone…”
The next instant, he pushed himself away from the wall and rushed to Knuckles, almost throwing himself at him.
“Knuckles!”
He wrapped his arms around the red body from behind. Knuckles was burning hot.
His damp fur clung heavily to Shadow’s arms and body.
“…!”
The trembling of Knuckles’ body passed directly into Shadow’s own. His heartbeat, his breathing—everything.
As Shadow felt something inside himself beginning to crumble, he desperately fought to hold on to the final boundary.
This is… an embrace. Nothing more, nothing less. I only want to stop him from trembling.
If he didn’t keep telling himself that, he could no longer trust his own impulses—or even his own existence.
“…It… hurts…”
Knuckles spoke hoarsely between labored breaths.
“I’m sorry.”
Snapping back to himself, Shadow loosened his arms. He took a step back, trying to put some distance between them.
That was when he noticed something running down his cheek.
It was a tear.
…What is this?
It wasn’t sadness.
This was merely “resonance.”
His body was simply resonating with Knuckles’ suffering. Shadow told himself that, desperately trying to hold on to his reason.
But that alone could not explain the impulse surging up from deep within him.
—He wanted to bite him.
A sudden, savage, overwhelmingly primal urge.
The impulse to sink his teeth against the lingering warmth of Knuckles’ body—to feel that warmth for himself—raced through his mind.
“Shadow…”
Knuckles called his name in a trembling voice.
“I’m still… so hot… I’m scared…”
At those words, Shadow’s reason shattered completely.
“—It’s all right.”
He had no idea what was supposed to be all right.
But they were the only words he could give him.
He didn’t want to hurt Knuckles.
But he couldn’t leave him alone either.
Caught between those two irreconcilable urges, Shadow made his choice—
and sank his teeth into Knuckles’ shoulder.
“…!”
Not hard enough to break the flesh.
But firmly enough to bite down and hold him.
The sweet scent of the aphrodisiac clung to his nose, mingled faintly with Knuckles’ own scent, like summer grass. Knuckles’ feverish body heat passed through Shadow’s teeth and lips.
“Ugh…”
Knuckles groaned—and in the next instant, almost as a reflex, his teeth sank into Shadow’s shoulder in return.
“…!”
Pain. Heat. A strange sense of relief.
The sensations tangled together inside them.
Clinging tightly to each other, the two of them became completely absorbed in biting at each other’s shoulders and arms again and again, like dogs roughhousing together.
This is… just biting.
Caught between impulse and reason, Shadow desperately piled excuse upon excuse inside his own mind.
We aren’t doing anything strange. We’re only biting each other like this because we don’t want to do anything strange.
Knuckles’ quiet sobs trembled beside Shadow’s ear.
And then, between those sobs, Shadow realized that another strange sound was mixed in—
It took Shadow a moment to realize that the strange sound was his own crying.
I’m not sad. These are only tears of resonance. —Proof that no matter how much it hurts, we’re going to be all right.
He had no idea how long they stayed like that.
Eventually, the force of Knuckles’ bites began to weaken little by little.
His ragged breathing gradually settled as well.
The effects of the aphrodisiac finally seemed to be fading. Shadow loosened his arms around Knuckles.
The breaths they could hear over each other’s shoulders were no longer as desperate as they had been before.
“…Hah.”
Almost at the same time, they both let out a long breath and gently pulled apart.
Still close, they looked at each other.
At the bottom of the dim shaft, neon lights from the machinery embedded in the walls cast an angled glow across their faces.
Large bite marks covered Shadow’s shoulders and arms. Smaller ones marked Knuckles’ neck and chest.
Both sets of marks were slightly swollen. Their faces were a mess of tear tracks and sweat.
Silence lingered for a while—
then Knuckles was the first to break into a smile.
“…Heh.”
It was a silly, almost vacant little laugh.
Shadow couldn’t help smiling too.
“Heh heh…”
Their quiet laughter echoed together through the silent shaft.
“Apparently, the effects have worn off.”
Shadow spoke first.
“Is your body all right?”
“I’m a total wreck.”
Knuckles rolled one shoulder as he answered.
“But I’m fine. You stayed with me.”
At those words, warmth spread through Shadow’s chest once more.
But this time, it was no longer the uncontrollable heat from before.
“…I see.”
Nothing else came out.
For now, they simply let themselves take in the fact that they were both safe.
Knuckles looked up toward the wall and jerked his chin upward.
“Let’s climb.”
Shadow glanced down at his left ankle. It still hurt.
But now that Knuckles had fully recovered his senses and his strength, Shadow considered it a trivial problem.
“If the drones are still keeping watch up there, things may become somewhat troublesome.”
“Then we deal with ’em when we get there. I’ll smash every last one.”
Knuckles puffed out his chest and grinned cheerfully.
The walls of the shaft were uneven, with plenty of pipes higher up that could serve as footholds.
“I’ll go first and see what’s up there.”
Knuckles sprang lightly onto the wall.
“Don’t do anything reckless.”
“I might do something reckless, but I’m not planning on going down. Wait here.”
With that, he disappeared upward in moments.
Protecting his injured left leg, Shadow slowly pulled himself up as far as he could manage.
A short while later—
a tremendous series of crashes erupted from above.
Metallic impacts rang out one after another, mixed with Knuckles’ angry shouts.
Then came the sounds of something being sent flying and smashed apart.
“All clear, Shadow! Hurry up and climb!”
Knuckles’ cheerful voice echoed down from above.
Shadow found himself smiling faintly.
Once he had climbed partway up, Shadow simply raised his voice and admitted it.
“Actually, I injured one of my legs. I don’t think I can climb any farther.”
By the time he finished speaking, Knuckles had already climbed back down to him.
“Jeez, when the hell did you get hurt?”
Grumbling, Knuckles effortlessly hoisted Shadow over his shoulder.
“Good to know I can count on you.”
Shadow said it with a wry smile, and Knuckles snorted.
“As long as there’s nothing complicated going on, all you gotta do is keep it simple.”
“Your specialty.”
“Damn right.”
Knuckles steadily climbed the wall.
When they finally made it over the edge of the shaft—
the mangled remains of drones lay scattered across the floor.
Beyond them came the sound of several pairs of approaching footsteps.
A blue hedgehog came running toward them, followed by several agents.
“Knuckles! Shadow!”
At the sight of Sonic racing toward them, Knuckles grinned and threw both hands into the air.
“Yo, Sonic! Took you long enough! Give us a hand!”
Sonic ran straight to Knuckles without looking anywhere else.
But the instant he saw the two of them standing side by side, his eyes went wide. His mouth dropped open, and he took a step backward.
“…Y-you guys…”
Their fur was filthy, damp, and disheveled.
Their eyes were swollen and bloodshot from crying.
And then—
there were the countless bite marks covering their bodies.
“…………”
Sonic hurriedly glanced around.
Then he turned to the agents who had arrived just behind him as backup and gave them a cheerful thumbs-up.
“All right! Both of ’em are alive! You guys take it from here! I’m gonna give these two a quick medical checkup!”
He grabbed Shadow and Knuckles by the arms and took off toward the facility’s main entrance.
“H-hey, Sonic—”
“Just come with me!”
Living up to his name, Sonic dragged them both outside at breakneck speed and shoved them into the makeshift medical tent that had been set up just outside the facility.
He winked at the medical staff and gently ushered them back outside.
Then he slipped inside himself and pulled the entrance flap firmly shut.
…
Silence.
Inside the tent, Shadow and Knuckles, neither of whom had any idea what was going on, stood side by side and stared at Sonic.
Sonic’s shoulders slumped.
He kept glancing sideways at the two of them as though he wanted to say something.
“What the hell, Sonic? Quit looking at us like we’re something disgusting.”
Knuckles frowned.
“No, it’s just…”
The corner of Sonic’s mouth twitched as he pointed back and forth between their bodies.
“You guys… those marks… You didn’t, uh… do anything with each other, did you?”
His finger moved between the bite mark on Shadow’s shoulder and the one on Knuckles’ arm.
Knuckles immediately shot back, completely missing what Sonic meant.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Then he followed Sonic’s gaze and looked down at his own body—
“WH-WHOOOAAA?!”
His voice cracked into a shriek.
Shadow looked down at his own shoulders and arms as well.
His eyes widened at the countless bite marks.
This is…
No matter how anyone looked at it, there was only one possible conclusion:
They had been biting each other.
A cold sweat broke out all over Shadow’s body.
“Sonic. No.”
His voice came out unnaturally high.
“You misunderstand. I swear I didn’t do anything. …This isn’t what it looks like. I only wanted to help Knuckles, I just—”
Nothing came after just.
They had bitten each other.
Cried.
Held each other.
When asked what exactly any of that was, Shadow could find no appropriate label for it.
There had been no indecent intent behind it.
Of that much, he was absolutely certain.
And yet, from an outsider’s perspective—
those bite marks were almost impossible to explain.
“Um…”
Sonic looked back and forth between Shadow and Knuckles.
Shadow’s eyes darted helplessly around as cold sweat poured from his entire body, desperately searching for something to say.
…Yeah. With Shadow, it’s pretty obvious there’s something like that going on.
Sonic lowered his eyes for just a moment.
A pang of sympathy stirred in his chest.
Knuckles, on the other hand—
stood there with his arms crossed, humming thoughtfully to himself.
He didn’t seem particularly bothered by the fact that they had covered each other in bite marks.
He merely looked as though he were trying to figure out how to explain it.
After several seconds of silence, Knuckles raised his head with a look of determination.
“We were tired and hungry!”
He declared it with complete confidence.
“Got a problem with that?!”
A strange silence fell over the tent.
Sonic stared at the two of them for a while, his mouth hanging open.
Bite marks all over their bodies.
Eyes swollen from crying.
And yet, when the two stood facing each other, there was something strangely calm about the air between them.
“Hmm…”
Sonic let out a deep sigh.
“Okay. I still have absolutely no idea why, but—”
He raised both hands slightly and tilted his head.
“Let’s just say you two ‘bit each other,’ exactly like it looks.”
“What do you mean, ‘let’s just say’?!”
Knuckles protested.
Shadow still looked as though he wanted to say something.
But Sonic stopped him with one hand.
“Shadow.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it. I kinda already figured you had… those kinds of feelings.”
Shadow’s heart leapt.
His eyes widened involuntarily, and he felt a little heat rise into his cheeks.
He desperately tried to deny what Sonic was suggesting, but the words refused to come.
In the end, he could only fall silent.
Sonic looked Shadow straight in the eyes.
“But there’s only one thing I’m gonna ask about what happened here today.”
He deliberately kept his tone light.
“Knuckles. You okay?”
Knuckles’ eyes widened for just a moment before he snorted.
“I’m beat to hell. But I’m alive.”
“Got it. Then that’s good enough for me.”
Sonic pulled the two of them firmly in against his shoulders.
“All right! I don’t care how much you two bit each other—as long as you’re both safe, we’re all good!”
“What the hell kind of conclusion is that?”
Knuckles frowned as he shot back.
Shadow’s shoulders slumped, looking utterly exhausted.
Sonic’s bright laughter rang through the tent.
The Mount Cor research facility was placed under the agents’ control.
All data produced through its illegal research—including Knuckles’ genetic data—was deleted, and the animals that had been held captive there were transferred to a volunteer organization and safely taken into protective care.
Three days after everything had been settled—
inside the cabin on Angel Island.
Shadow sat in a chair, clutching a handwritten letter as he muttered to himself.
“What happened at that time was a temporary state of confusion caused by the effects of the drug, and—”
…That just sounds like an excuse.
Shadow furrowed his brow and crushed the letter in his hand.
After thinking for a moment, he set out another sheet of paper and a pen on the table and hurriedly began again.
“Under the influence of the aphrodisiac, I was unable to suppress my impulses and ended up biting you.”
He read it back.
Immediately disgusted with himself, he crumpled that one up as well and tossed it onto the table.
Just imagining what Knuckles would think if he had to read a letter like that was enough to give Shadow a headache.
I want to apologize…
And yet, the moment he used the word apologize, he felt as though he would be declaring that everything that had happened between them in that cramped shaft—
all the time they had spent biting each other—
had been a mistake.
Shadow didn’t want that either.
He took out another sheet of paper and tried to think of what he should write.
“What happened was beyond my control, and—”
“None of it was your responsibility, and—”
“Even though I am the Ultimate Life Form, I lost control of myself, but—”
Everything that came to mind was humiliating drivel that only made him angrier whether he wrote it or read it.
…Would it actually be kinder to simply pretend I’ve forgotten about it?
The instant the thought occurred to him, Knuckles’ voice echoed deep in his ears.
I don’t want to be alone.
No. That’s not it, Knuckles. You’re not alone. At the very least, I…
He wanted to tell him.
But he had no idea what to say, or how to say it.
Shadow stubbornly pressed his pen to the paper once more—
when the cabin door swung open with a light sound, without so much as a knock.
“Yo, Shadow.”
The voice was utterly carefree.
Before he could even turn around, Shadow instinctively hid the paper behind his back.
Sonic stood in the doorway, halfway through a chili dog.
“What’re you hiding? A letter? A love letter?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
Then Shadow ran out of words and fell silent.
Sonic’s gaze moved back and forth between the crumpled balls of paper on the table and the hand Shadow was hiding behind his back.
Shadow was forced to conclude that speaking first would be the less painful option.
“What you said the other day.”
“What I said?”
Sonic tilted his head.
Don’t worry about it. I kinda already figured you had… those kinds of feelings.
Those words had been lodged in Shadow’s mind ever since.
At last, Shadow steeled himself and spoke.
“You misunderstand.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t have… ‘those kinds of feelings.’”
One of Sonic’s brows rose slightly.
“I am the Ultimate Life Form. I was created with no need for sexual desire in the first place.”
Even as he said it aloud, Shadow knew how strained the logic sounded.
“…I admit that I lost control of myself back there. But that was the result of the drug disrupting my reason, and—”
The hand that wasn’t holding the pen unconsciously clenched into a fist.
“If satisfying such a selfish desire meant hurting Knuckles—I’d rather bite off my own tongue and die.”
They were the same words he had repeated to himself at the bottom of the shaft.
Sonic was silent for a while.
Without realizing it, Shadow had tensed his shoulders.
But the first expression Sonic showed him wasn’t his usual half-teasing grin.
It was a softer, slightly troubled smile.
“…Gotcha.”
Sonic casually waved the hand that wasn’t holding his chili dog.
“Okay, okay. For now, we’ll go with ‘you don’t have those kinds of feelings.’”
“What do you mean, ‘for now’?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
Sonic turned his gaze toward the window.
Knuckles was covered in bite marks and didn’t even act embarrassed. He just stood there like it was nothing. Shadow’s the only one desperately trying to explain himself.
That was what Sonic thought—
but he wasn’t mean enough to say it out loud and corner Shadow any further.
Anyone could see how much Shadow cared about Knuckles just by looking at the mountain of drones he had destroyed inside that facility—and how desperately he was struggling now.
And that was precisely why Sonic decided, for the moment, to meet Shadow where he was.
“Well, I don’t really get all that Ultimate Life Form stuff, but…”
Sonic scratched his cheek.
“Hypothetically, okay? Hypothetically, even if this ‘Ultimate Life Form’ did have sexual desires—”
He paused and glanced at Shadow’s face to gauge his reaction.
“…I don’t think there’d be anything weird about that.”
Shadow swallowed quietly.
“Liking someone, getting so worked up over them that even you don’t know what’s happening to you, wanting to bite ’em all over—”
“That last part was unnecessary.”
“It happened.”
Sonic laughed.
“You called it a ‘selfish desire,’ but isn’t wanting to protect someone kind of an extension of that too?”
Sonic’s green eyes fixed directly on Shadow.
“At least from where I’m standing, you sure don’t look like someone who wants to hurt Knuckles.”
There was no teasing in his words, and no attempt to comfort him.
It was simply what Sonic genuinely thought.
Shadow had no answer.
Something seemed to creak deep inside his chest.
“…Well, I don’t really understand all the complicated stuff anyway.”
Sonic deliberately returned to his usual light tone.
“If there’s something you wanna tell Knuckles, forget the letter. Say it to him yourself.”
With that, he tossed the rest of his chili dog into his mouth, finished it off, and turned away.
“Chili dog’s gone, so I’m heading out. —Next time you and Knuckles have a fight, just make up by biting each other again.”
“Don’t end the conversation like that.”
The door closed with a light sound.
Silence returned to the cabin.
Left alone, Shadow remained where he was for some time.
The paper in his hand had grown slightly damp with sweat.
…Enough.
Shadow crumpled up that letter as well and hid it with the others behind the cabinet.
I’ll leave the garbage hidden there and take it with me when I go.
Sonic’s words repeated themselves in his mind.
“…Sexual desire…”
Saying the words aloud still made him deeply uncomfortable.
And yet, his actions at the bottom of that shaft had been far too desperate for him to simply dismiss “desire” as something filthy.
Were the feelings I had really nothing more than selfish desire?
He didn’t want to hurt Knuckles.
He wanted to protect him.
He didn’t want to leave him alone.
And mixed in among those feelings, there surely had been his own desires as well.
The impulse to touch him.
The impulse to bite him.
But to lump all of those things together and dismiss them as simply “dirty” would mean—
…denying the very feelings I have for him.
Shadow let out a quiet sigh.
“Love and peace…”
Rouge’s words as she handed him a cup of coffee echoed quietly in his chest.
“Love… If you put it simply, then perhaps that is what it is. But peace? I’m not so sure about that.”
That was how he had answered her then.
Knuckles brought “love” into my heart.
The last descendant of the Echidna tribe.
A man who continued to guard his island alone.
Awkward, quick to shout whenever something happened, and yet endlessly gentle toward anything he believed he should protect.
By caring for someone like him, something had undeniably begun to take shape inside Shadow.
Was it friendship?
Simple kindness?
Or something else—something deeper?
He still had no answer.
And yet—
there was no longer any point in insisting that it wasn’t there.
“Then I suppose I still want to—”
Shadow quietly closed his eyes.
Give “peace” back to your heart.
It would take a little longer for the bite marks to disappear completely from both their bodies.
But to Shadow, those marks were no source of shame.
They were proof that, however clumsily, the two of them had tried to protect each other in that cramped shaft.
And as long as he remembered that day, Shadow knew he would surely lose his way again.
Somewhere along the boundary between desire, impulse, and the wish to protect.
Shadow opened the cabin door, drew in a deep breath of the island’s clear air, and slowly began to walk.
No matter how troublesome the battles ahead might become.
No matter how often his own emotions might throw him into turmoil.
I will protect Knuckles’ peace.
With that vow held quietly in his heart, Shadow once again made his way toward the altar where the red guardian waited.