Author's P.O.V.
"Hun, please be careful there. Here's the key that Sonic gave me." The white bat gave her partner the key to open the doors to the castle. "Just make sure everything is okay then you come back. Don't stay longer than needed." She sighed. 

Shadow nodded as he kept a straight face, he took the key and chaos controlled away.

"There's no way he'll get caught. He's the best agent. You've been in lots of missions like this, right?" Tails looked at Rouge as he tried to convince himself that everything will be okay. "He can teleport if anything happens." 

"I'm sure everything will be okay Hun. It's Shadow we are talking about. He always finds a way out. Let me go check on Sonic's leg." She walked to the room where Sonic was already trying to get up. "Sonic." This startled Sonic and quickly sat back down. 

"I'm fine. I can walk already." He quickly defended himself.

"You shouldn't be standing up yet." Tails lowered his ears slightly and sighed. "But you never listen, so this isn't surprising." 

"Sonic... You should listen to Tails..." Amy rubbed Tails' back. "And stay on the bed." 

Sonic groaned at their responses and sighed. "Fine." He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Where's Shadow?" He wasn't as surprised that he hadn't seen him but he was curious, none of his friends had told him that Shadow was the one that was going to go to the castle. 

"He took my spot on going to the castle. He is probably already inside the castle Hun." The agent answered softly. "Let me see your leg." She got closer to him and checked his leg.

~~~
"He's been gone for a long time, we should probably go look for him..." Amy said with her ears lowered. 

Even though she and Shadow weren't the best of friends, she couldn't help but worry for the person who's helping them.

Rouge slowly nodded. "I need to go to work but after, I am going to check on him." She sighed, she was extremely worried. 

"Please go look for him. I'm getting worried. He was just supposed to check and come back…" The azure hero told the agent as he was worried about his rival.

Amy looked at her boyfriend and held his hand. "He's fine, Sonic." She wanted to calm him down, even though she was a little jealous at how worried he looked for his rival. 

"There's no way he's 'fine'." Knuckles crossed his arms. "He's probably locked in." 

Sonic glared at his friend and rubbed his face. "You aren't helping Knuckles." He sighed and stood up then looked at Amy and nodded. "Thanks Ames but he's taken so long. If something happened to him at the castle… My siblings weren't being so nice." He shook his head. 

The agent nodded. "Don't worry. I'll go check on him once I'm out. I'm leaving." She flew away to G.U.N. and into her office hoping she'd see Shadow there, but unfortunately, he wasn't, the only thing there was a pile of paperwork that had to be done. 

Rouge sighed and dropped her ears then started doing her paperwork when suddenly she heard someone shout in pain and agony.

"AHH!" A familiar voice was heard throughout the building, but it didn't draw anyone's attention. 

Rouges ears perked up at hearing this and she quickly flew in that direction, being worried that it was her partner the one shouting in pain. She flew inside the room quickly and gasped then dropped her ears when she saw Shadow tied down in a chair being cut open by a scientist from G.U.N. 

"Enough! Leave him alone!" She flew towards them and quickly stopped them. She didn't care if she were to lose her job. 

"Agent Rouge? What are you doing here?!" The Commander growled. "Leave the room now. This has nothing to do with you."

"R-Roug-ge…" Shadow said weakly when he saw his best friend. "L-leav-ve…" He didn't want her to be punished as well.

Rouge shook her head. "I'm not leaving until you let go of him! This isn't right! You're going to kill him!" She growled back at the commander, completely ignoring Shadow telling her to leave.

"You have no right to tell me what to do." The Commander looked at the agents that walked in the room when they heard Rouge, knowing she wasn't allowed to be in there. "Take her outside! And make sure she doesn't come back." He glared at the Bat that was in front of him.

Rouge flew above them making sure they wouldn't get her as she growled. "Let go of Shadow!" She wasn't going to leave until he were to be free.

"No! He didn't follow my orders, now he has to face the consequences." Her boss growled back at her. 

Shadow noticed that everyone was focused on Rouge, so he tried to break free, but this only caused him more pain. This made Rouge notice what he was trying to do and as she was being chased by the guards, she flew past Shadow and cut what was tying him down bring careful not to be seen by anyone as she kept flying away from them. 

"I don't care! He's been doing his job trying to find them!" She snapped at the Commander. 

When the Ultimate Lifeform was finally able to move, he growled loudly and furiously then quickly stood up, the blood was dripping from his fur, he didn't have his inhibitor rings on so he didn't have a limit on how much energy he could use. 

He didn't waste a second and quickly shouted. "Chaos Blast!" 

Everything around him blew up, knocking everyone around him, except for Rouge, who knew what was going to happen and left the room, so the explosion wouldn't reach her. 

Rouge quickly flew back in after it calmed down and helped Shadow stay up. "I need to take you home. Come on, Shadow. Stay awake, please." She let a few tears roll down her muzzle since she was worried she'll lose her best friend, who panting heavily and bleeding a lot. 

"There's no… There's no point… I'm… Almost dead…" He groaned as he held his stomach in pain. "Eggman is the one doing this…" He looked at Rouge. "He's built machine that… C-controls… E-everyone…"

Rouge shook her head. "Don't die on me, Hun." She carried him as best as she could sense he was a bit too heavy for her but flew to his house. "We will fix what Eggman caused as a team, just hang on. Please…" She was trying her hardest not to cry. She didn't want to lose her best friend and partner. 

The bat ignored Shadow telling her that it was useless to try to save him and quickly flew to his house. She burst the door open and panting heavily. "Tails! Tails! Come here! Quick!" She set Shadow down on the couch. 

Sonic heard shouting and quickly dashed in that direction and gasped. He felt his heart drop and break as soon as he saw his rival in that condition as he pinned his ears down. "Chaos… What happened to him…?!" He dashed to them. "Shadow, come on man, stay awake."

Tails quickly ran to them when he heard shouting and dropped his ears as soon as he saw blood. "Shadow…?!" He ran to the restroom and grabbed the first aid kit then ran back to the couch, where the bloody hedgehog was laying. "Don't move…" He was panicking lightly since he knew that, if they could capture Shadow, capturing the rest of the gang would be easy for them. 

Shadow wasn't responding to any of his friends. He just had his eyes closed to avoid making eye contact with anyone. 

He felt pathetic.

He just wanted to die, to go back to Maria.

Sonic kept his ears pinned down as he watched Tails clean his wound and stitching it up. "Come on Shad. Please stay with us…I'm sorry…" He felt it was his fault that he was this way. He thought the guards had caught him and did this to him. 

"He needs to rest… take painkillers and drink something to stay hydrated. He won't be able to eat normal food for a while…" Tails said after he finished stitching him up. "I don't know what they did to him… or what exactly happened… But he can die from it if we don't take care of him properly…" Tails had his ears dropped. 

The bat slowly nodded and bit her tongue to not cry. "Hun, please say something. You're getting us really worried…" She looked at him. 

"…"