#Reading the story again and remembering chunks of the story doesn't reduce any of the pleasure

[asmuchasidliketo]

#RIP to Vimes I'd simply quit on spot if he did this to me  #cringe boss shortens your lifespan tags by OP

this is why he got shot

[oops-all-knuxadow]

Part three has arrived! It's time to prepare for burial...or is it?

Reminder: this story contains graphic depictions of gore/body horror. It is especially true for this part of the story.

Read part two Here!

Bandage, part three

--

It's twilight. Knuckles is pleasantly surprised to find that nothing seems to've come by to pick at the remains in the hours he left it there. It is the only thing pleasant about this whole situation.

Coming across Shadow again, he can see him lying in a pool of blood similar to the color of leaves in sunlight. It's just as morbid as it is beautiful, much like the hedgehog himself. The echidna casts his gloves aside to avoid stains and climbs back down to retrieve him, careful not to accidentally trample on him or fall into the mess.

Again, he finds himself wrestling with nausea. He stoops down and, taking a breath, carefully gathers the cadaver into his arms. He tries not to think about how warm it still is, how strangely pliant it moves despite the fact that rigor mortis should've set in hours ago. Instead, Knuckles focuses on the positives as he carefully exits the crater, like the fact that all four limbs are still attached. Burying Shadow whole is no longer a concern.

Additionally, while parts of his body are exposed that definitely shouldn't be, the mess is miraculously self-contained. A great many bones are broken, and even more feel like they've been reduced to dust, judging by the uncomfortably flat parts of his body, but the hedgehog's organs aren't spilling all over the place in a nightmarish heap. Knuckles can see, in the places that fur and muscle burned away, that at least one lung was punctured by a combination of bone and the impact Shadow made when he hit the Island, but there's too much blood coming from the rest of the wounds to pick out any further internal damage.

It's not like it matters, Knuckles thinks, solemn. All I can do is hope he died before hitting the ground.

He carries Shadow a little ways away until he finds a river. While he could've simply buried him and called it a day, he knows he wouldn't feel good doing it while his body was in such a state.

Before the extinction of his kind, Knuckles can vaguely remember the respect and care with which an echidna's body was treated, even after death. Those closest to the deceased would carry the body to the river to be bathed and made presentable for a funeral proceeding, then it would be adorned in ceremonial materials, and buried. The higher status they were, the closer to the Master Emerald's shrine they were laid to rest.

How ironic that Knuckles could not participate in this ritual for his own kind, but instead for a former enemy. Still, he will do it right, and with pride.

Toeing off his shoes, he wades into the river until he's up to his knees, then sits down with Shadow in his arms. The water immediately turns green with the alien's blood, and he sets to work cleaning him up as best as he can.

Blunt nails get to work methodically scrubbing away caked blood and dirt from Shadow's pelt. Small chunks of flesh inevitably flake off and get carried away by the current, and the echidna suppresses a gag as he continues on. The work is tedious but worth it, as Shadow slowly stops looking like a huge, charred lump of a Mobian and more like the proud hedgehog he had been in life.

There are parts of him that simply can't be fixed up by the echidna; most of his broken bones were in too many pieces to set correctly, leaving him looking malformed in more than a couple of places, and the part of his torso with exposed innards can't be closed because Knuckles simply doesn't have the skills to suture the hole. He's just thankful his eyes are already closed, unsure if he can handle looking at the missing or bloodied or otherwise damaged eyes sitting under the lids.

But, most of the blood has left the body, leaving behind obsidian fur with an impressive amount of shine, even in death. The vibrancy of his stipes shows through now that they've been scrubbed clean, and the blood and dirt is gone from what remains of his chest fur. He must not have landed head-first, which is the only reason his quills and skull appear mostly intact. Scratched the hell up, sure, and one of his ears is torn almost in half, but compared to the rest of him, the damage isn't terrible.

Knuckles gently scrubs Shadow's cheek, wiping away the last of what he can, and calls it done. He rises with him and steps out of the river, wishing for once that he had some of the comforts other Mobians down below possessed, like towels and first-aid kits. To be fair, Knuckles has never needed them, so getting any was rather pointless before now.

He slips his shoes back on, then carefully leans down to grab up Shadow's hoverskates, having pulled them off before bathing him. With one arm under his knees and the other around his shoulders, Knuckles starts walking towards the shrine to pick out a final resting place.

Maybe I'll tell the others where they can go, if they want to pay respects, he thinks. Loathe as he is to have other people in his home, he hopes they would take him up on the offer.

While he walks, he finds himself needing to discourage the wildlife from trying to sniff at what he's carrying. They aren't afraid of the guardian, which means he's trying hard not to trample on bunnies or let any deer get too close. It becomes a bit of an annoyance, and the fact that he's distracted means he's less aware of the littler things than he normally would be. By the time he shooes them away and comes across the shrine again, he's relieved and exhausted.

"Almost done," he whispers, clutching Shadow a little tighter to his chest, "and then it'll all be over."

His eyes sweep over the earth, gauging the best place to dig the plot. If it's too close to the shrine, it'll mean Shadow is to be recognized as an important figure in echidna culture; if it's too far away, it'll be as though he were something to be shunned. Knowing that he had come around to save everyone in the end, he deserves a respectable location on Angel Island.

Knuckles adjusts his grip as he comes to a decision, fingers grazing Shadow's neck. He goes pale when he feels a pulse.

"...No way," he says, mind going blank as he gapes openly at the body. There was just no way. He's exhausted and upset - his mind made him think he felt something because he wishes Shadow hadn't died, that's all. It was totally impossi --

But there it is again. Whip-quick, barely anything, but Shadow has a fucking pulse.

Knuckles almost drops him. It's a near-thing, his grip slackening in a combination of fright and incredulity, but he corrects himself at the last minute and manages to lie the hedgehog gently down in the grass. He leans over him, both hands now pressing into his throat to feel for the pulse again. He has to make sure, he has to.

Against all odds there is a sign of life, though only barely detectable. His heart is trying to beat and only pulling it off once or twice a minute. After falling from space, partially burning in the atmosphere, and crash-landing at terminal velocity, the hedgehog's body is trying to survive.

Maybe there was something to that pompous "Ultimate Lifeform" title after all.

"What the hell," Knuckles stammers, shaking. "What the HELL DO I DO NOW!?!"