*Shadow's POV*
"How'd you find me?" Faker asked as he stood up, his signature grin plastered on his face as he placed his hands behind his head.

"It's not hard when you leave a trail of chaos wherever you go, and I know how to find chaos." I stepped forward, my tone colder as I looked down at the crowd. "What's going on, Sonic?"

"You heard them, Shadow. I am dead." He shrugged and jumped off the building, landing on his feet as he put the hood over his head to hide himself from civilians. He walked backward to face me as I followed.

"Your friends are out there grieving your loss, and you're here? You're not even going to bother to correct them?" I sped up my pace, walking beside him now.

"They don't need me anymore, Shadz. And that's okay." He smiled. His smile was broken and showed sadness behind it, yet I could tell there was something more, something I could not figure out.

"Im kind of hungry. Want to go eat something?" His signature grin back as he kept glancing back to see what was going on at the cemetery.

"You can't possibly be hungry, Hedgehog." I sighed, finding this ridiculous. He could tell I was curious and was not going to leave his side until he explained what had happened. "What do you want to eat?" I asked, knowing very well how he worked.

"Chili dogs, of course." He laughed as we kept walking. He kept adjusting the hoodie tighter so no one could recognize him. "You're paying too."

"What? Why?" I raised a brow.

"Im dead, remember?" He shrugged, earning a scoff from me.

"Sure. How could I forget." I rolled my eyes, not sure what to expect from this. Why was he doing this? "Are you dead?"

"I am very much alive, Shadz. You dont have to worry about me. So how come you're not there?" Sonic nudged my arm. "You couldn't accept that you lost your best competition? Perhaps you were too sad I died?"

My ear twitched, still remembering that day. None of this made sense. Why was he here?

"Hedgehog, I saw the doctors robots crushed you and then got hit by a blast. What's going on?" I said, my voice sharper as I grabbed his shoulders and made him look at me. "What happened that day?"

"You want to know?" Sonics' grin was gone, his eyes showed absolutely nothing. The sparkle they usually had was gone as he finally turned serious for once. "Do you really want to know what happened that day?" I squeezed his shoulders, almost as if to make sure he was actually in front of me.

"Tell me. Now." I let go, crossing my arms but blocking his way so he could explain.

"Alright. If you insist." He shrugged once again. He scratched his head as if trying to figure out where to start, and then he raised his finger in the air, finally figuring it out. "Right. Well, I'll keep it short and simple."

"Go on." I said, then watched as he sat down on the floor. He patted the spot beside him as if telling me to sit. The most I did was lean on the wall and look down at him.

"Remember the day I went to help you and Rouge infiltrate his base?" I nodded. It happened about a week ago. "It started then. While you and Rouge took left, I took the right side and came across Eggman's lab, saw what he was working on. I told you about it but I didn't tell you everything." My ear twitched.

"What do you mean?" I clenched my fists. Why did he have to be so stubborn? So reckless?

"I saw him working on something, something big. It could destroy the planet if he goes through with it, Shadow." He looked down at his hands, which he clenched into fists. Whatever he was planning, I could tell he was determined to see it finish. "I heard him talking. He said he was going to activate it just to destroy me. He said he had big plans for it, and I could not get in the way anymore. He created it to kill me, and he's not afraid to destroy everything else to do so." He stopped and stood up.

"It's why the next time we fought with him, I decided it was best to sacrifice myself." He spoke softly, his hand on his hip as he raised the other hand in the air while he was talking. "I am going to find a way to stop him. While he thinks I am dead, he won't use that machine against me or my friends."

"Why didn't you just tell them?" I raised a brow. I understood why he did this, yet at the same time, I wanted to punch the stupid out of his head. "Your crew would have helped you."

"Perhaps." He nodded. "But this way, if things go wrong, they won't get killed along with me." He looked over at the cemetery. Rouge was hugging Rose as she cried. The echidna was rubbing the foxes back as they both looked at the empty casket that was being covered in dirt.

"You're stupid." I shook my head. "But I get it." I hated admitting that, but one thing this hedgehog did right was take care of his friends. Even if it meant hurting them in a different way.

"You won't tell them, right?" He chuckled nervously. "Cause you know, it took me quite a bit of work to pull this off, Shadz."

"I won't." I sighed. "But I will help you." He lowered his ears, his smile gone once again as he crossed his hands in an x form across his face. "What?"

"No way. Nu uh. I have to do this alone."

"As if I will let you. The faith of the world is on this mission. I'm not letting you out of my sight until we destroy that machine." My eyes narrowed. He raised his hands in the air.

"Fine. Fine. No use fighting against you anyway." He gave in pretty easily.

"How did you even save yourself? I saw that robot crush you." I asked as we started walking.

"Hedgehog. Remember? Burrowing animal." He laughed. "I was lucky there were some rocks there that saved me get out of there. Once out of the hit, I made one of the robots shoot the spot with a blast, making it seem like he eliminated me completely."

"Dark." I mumbled, but he heard me causing him to laugh.

"Yeah. I guess it was. But I had to do so in order for this to work. So I guess I'll be staying at your house?" My ears perked up at that. "Mister 'I won't let you out of my sight'." I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded.

"I guess so." I sighed in defeat.

This was already too much.