#I've decided to publicly embrace the cringe that is my writing

[sweetwhitechoco]

Golden Joinery

So my original plan for this was to write up some scenes for my fancomic about the start of season 3 of Sonic Prime, but it got a little longer over the week so it became a oneshot fanfic. Ha! xD

(Also I had some issues uploading this on AO3, so I'm gonna upload it here for now instead.)

Just a little bit of hurt/comfort. This one takes place after episode 16, Ghost of a Chance. Hope you enjoy!

--

"The only person I can trust is myself."

Shadow watched in silent rage as Nine carried the shards and walked away into a purple framed portal, leaving nothing behind. Sonic was standing below the cave entrance, he held his hands up to his face, hiding whatever expression he had.

Not that Shadow could see it from where he stood, but he guessed the blue hedgehog was pretty dejected about Nine's betrayal.

So much for that trust.

-

Harrowed by what just happened, Sonic repeated what Nine told him over and over in his mind.

"You just assumed I'd go along with you, no matter what."

"Did you even consider what I wanted?!"

"I am real!"

"Just.. not your real friend."

"Trust you? The only person I can trust is--"

".. you listening?"

He briefly snapped out of his thoughts when Shadow's voice broke through, who stepped directly in front of him. Sonic didn't even realize he already slumped down against the wall, didn't realize his darker counterpart was addressing him.

His hands lowered as he looked up in worry, expecting a seething Shadow with clenched fists at the ready. But there was none of that, Shadow simply crouched down to face him, mahogany eyes were now piercing into emerald ones.

"What happened here?"

".. You're really gonna ask me that?"

"Yes."

Sonic sighed. Where could he even begin explaining this mess to him?

"You were right about Nine, Shadow. He refused to fix Green Hill," he paused briefly to study Shadow's expression, then continued when he saw him nodding, "and he took the shards away."

Sonic's ears were lowered, remembering what he told Shadow right before the battle. "I really thought we could.." he trailed off as soon as his voice cracked.

"That we could trust him.." His throat felt too tight, it was hard to form words at this point. This was too painful, the previous mistakes he caused rushed back into his memory. His eyes were wide with shock and sorrow like never before, realized how much he really messed up.

"Sonic?"

Tears welled up in his eyes, he covered his face again and shifted away from his rival. How could Sonic ever fix this, it was lost on him. He could never face Shadow, not after he warned him about Nine for more than once.

By now they lost the shards, their only way to getting back home, because of him. He lost Nine, a friend he thought- no, believed- trusted him as much as he did Tails.

He was wrong. Again.

This is all his fault.

-

"Sonic?"

Shadow called out to Sonic, a hint of concern in his voice. His rival didn't respond, only shifted away as he covered his face again.

Just as he slowly reached his hand out, Shadow was caught off guard when he heard the small sobs that escaped Sonic's mouth.

He lowered his arm, eyes wide at the blue hedgehog that broke down in tears. This was beyond what he imagined; Shadow never expected Sonic to take Nine's betrayal this badly. His face turned to the floor, the way his rival cried already becoming too much for the ultimate lifeform.

What can he do at times like this? Shadow can't just tell Sonic to stop crying in this state, he had to approach this.. odd situation differently.

However, with little knowledge and experience on comforting others he found himself lost on solutions.

Well, there was one way he could think of. He had to swallow his pride to act on it, but for what its worth Sonic needed someone to be there for him.

Shadow sighed again as he held out his arms, wrapped them firmly around Sonic. He pulled him into a gentle embrace, knowing that he would definitely regret this one later.

"What am I going to do with you?"

-

Sonic suddenly felt something- or rather, someone- pressing against him, like he's being pulled into a hug. He opened his eyes to see the familiar quills of black and red, it took him by surprise as he realized it was Shadow who held him.

"What am I going to do with you?"

The blue blur's crying came to a brief halt, he refocused his vision to make sure it wasn't a trick of the mind. Yep, it was his broody rival who hugged him.

"S- Shadow?"

The dark hedgehog remained silent for a moment.

"I know you're not okay with what Nine did."

He paused at Shadow's words, and tears threatened to fall again. Sonic lowered his arms to hold him in return, chose to hide his tears by burying his face into the dark hedgehog's shoulder.

He slowly regained his breathing into a more stable pattern, taking his time to recover himself. The sobs have subsided after a minute or two, although his eyes grew tired from letting it all out of his system.

"You.. said you didn't trust him."

"I still don't," Shadow said this with absolute resolve, then he continued with a calmer tone, "but you did. You.. gave him a chance, and I'm not sure why, but I wanted to do the same."

Sonic didn't know how to respond to that, now that he was proven wrong. He let out a nervous chuckle at himself in defeat.

"I guess that makes two of us with trust issues."

Shadow looked at him briefly before a sad smile rested on his face. "Yeah, you can say that again."

They both held each other through the silence in the cave, an unexpected turn yet most welcome on Sonic's case. He didn't realize how much he needed this until now, it made him appreciate Shadow being there more than ever before.

"Thanks, Shadow."

-

He knew he was taking his time with calming Sonic down, but the contact felt also comforting to the dark hedgehog. The reason he decided to let go was Sonic being too sentimental about it. Or that he realized he might regret letting go after all.

"Um, anyway.. what I'm trying to say is;" Shadow pulled Sonic away as he cleared his throat, "you shouldn't give up because of this."

The blue hedgehog scoffed at him with a confused pair of eyes, appearing offended.

"I wasn't going to give up on our home."

"Good. Because we're still in this," his rival stood up when he said this, held out his hand to him with a smirk, "together?"

Sonic felt a surge of new hope rushing into him when he saw the confidence that Shadow's smile gave off. He grinned back at him before taking his offered hand, the hedgehogs faced each other with stronger, newfound bond.

"Together."

-

"Where did the shards go?!" Mr. Dr. Eggman shouted at the screen which scanned the area for prism energy. There were no energy spikes like it showed him before, which means..

"They moved the shards elsewhere.."

He grumbled to himself and moved back to his control panel, pressed a button to activate a video call.

"Members of the Chaos Council, fall back to the Mothership! The hedgehogs were a distraction; they took the shards away to another location!"

He didn't even bother waiting for a response from the rest of his team and cut the call shortly. There was another problem at their plate, as Mr. Dr. Eggman checked their ship's energy storage.

They barely have enough leftover energy from the shards, it could only track them through at least one or two more gateway.

"Curse these hedgehogs!"

He slammed the control board down in rage. They wasted too much of their time and effort into this chase game, when they could have used all that prism energy to build their empire and destroy the rebellion!

In that moment, the evil genius' brain remembered something. And it brought him a newer idea, that these two rodents might be the key to more than just restoring the lost shards. Mr. Dr. Eggman allowed himself a grin at his new revelation, and quickly began preparing the Mothership to retrieve the rest of the Chaos Council.

Should this plan work as intended, the power to dominate the multiverse will be immediately at their grasp.

--

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading! ^^