It took them a week to finish their job, mainly because they kept running out of material and the Hedgehog kept being sent out to get more. By the time they finished, Shadow felt like he knew Sonic better from the stories the fox told, he knew he judged Faker too fast.

"Now what?" They asked simultaneously as they took a step back and looked at their finished project.

"What in the chaos is this?" The fox mumbled.

"Now you step back." The heros looked up from where they heard the voice come from, there was an edge between the wall and the ceiling to the doctors lab where the one who spoke was hiding. 

"Who are you?! Where's Sonic?!" The fox shouted as Shadow took a step in front of him to protect him as the one hiding jumped down, showing their identity. 

"You...!" Shadow growled furiously as he looked at none other than Fleetway standing in front of them. "Where is he?!" He raised his arm, ready to attack when Fleetway raised his hand making him stop.

"Relax. I'll give what I promised once I use this." The golden one pointed at the machine beside them. "Do me the honors of turning it on. You hurt me and we will both lose, I don't get what I want and you don't get Sonic."

"Where is he?!" The fox voice cracked as he cried the question. "Give us Sonic now!"

"What did you make us build?" Shadow asked the one in front of him. "What did you want?"

"I will give you Sonic in a moment. I just need someone to get him first." Fleetway took a few steps back as someone else appeared from the shadows.

This person stood taller than the golden one, their fur as dark as night, sending shivers to the fox as he took a step back looking now at the machine.

"You're scared, Fox? You thought you got rid of me?" His eyes were fully white, not a sign of their hero as the darker version of his friend took a step forward.

"Y-You..." The fox shivered in fear for he thought he had gotten rid of the heros dark side.

The fox remembered as years ago someone had managed to anger Sonic to his breaking point again, showing Dark the way to get in control. Soon after the hero took back over his body, he had asked his dearest friend for help, not wanting blood in his hands again. They hadn't thought that maybe Dark would fight back, fight back enough to hurt to be torture the fox until he inevitably was able to inject him making him go away. He thought it had worked.

In reality, the fox had managed to suppress Dark, until that faithful night where Eggman tried to kill Sonic.

---
Eggman had built a room, specifically to hold Sonic down, long enough to use the emeralds he had to kill him, the hero knew the doctors plan would fail and would not only kill him, but the room wouldn't contain the blast like Eggman hoped for, it would be larger than that if he didn't at least take an emerald away.

Lucky for the azure hero, his quills also worked as a way to cut through things, he had managed to grab one and cut his hands free, ripping the rope from his legs after wards and attack the doctor trying to reach for one of the emeralds before Eggman could activate his plan.

"What are you doing?! You can't do that!" Eggman shouted in panic as Sonic laughed. Sonic spin dashed his conputer once he took one emerald. "Give that back! You are going to mess everything up again! Do you not care about what may happen to you?!"

"I only care about what happens to my friends. I can't let you go through with this." Sonic kept laughing. "You should know that by now Egghead. I'll give up myself to protect the others. This time, I'll make sure you don't get to go back."

"Sonic! NO!" The doctor shouted as the hero held the emerald close to him as the computer beside him started to glow, it held both the other emerald Eggman was going to use and they were about to make everything around them collapse.

His metal copy had been in the room trying to stop Sonic but failed as a piece of metal from the ceiling landed on him and crushed him. The explosion pushed Sonic backwards and he blacked out. The emerald he held plus the chaos and the pain Sonic was feeling as he was about to let himself pass, gave Dark the chance to take over, making sure Sonic never had the chance to see light again.

----

"Use the machine before it's too late, my love~" The golden one looked at his partner after he watched the fox hide behind the ebony one.

"What is going on?" Shadow was furious as he waited to see Sonic. He didn't understood but from the way the fox was acting, he knew the one in front of him was a bad sign.

Dark walked to the machine and turned it on, not saying a single word to Shadow or Tails.

"I don't know the condition your friend is in, but he is dying because of him and I can't let that happen." Fleetway took a step closer to them then pulled out a knife from his quills. "We will both get what we want but you two need to step away and leave him do what he needs to do." He was no longer smiling, he pointed the knife at the heros as he glared at them.

"Enough." That one word send chills down Tails back. Just being around Dark made him shiver in fear. His dark aura was not helping his case.

"He's dying?" The fox managed to ask.

"It seems as your annoying friend is trying to get out. I will not let him take Dark away from me, so this is necessary. I'm sure by now you understand what this does."

The ultimate life form started to piece everything together as he watched Dark.

"It may kill both of them!" The fox shouted. "It's too dangerous!"

"That's why you're here. If anything happens to him, I'll kill you, slowly and painfully." Fleetway maniacally laughed as he raised the knife to his mouth and licked the blade making his tongue bleed.

"Touch him and youre-" The Hedgehog was cut off as the knife quickly was put at his throat and stopped just before it could cut him. The tip of the blade poking his skin as Fleetway pushed a little more, enough to make sprinkles of blood come out of Shadow's neck.

"Well~ Well~ You bleed~ They made you better than I thought they did~" A painful reminder to Shadow that he wasn't like everyone else making him growl at the one holding the knife. "Now come on, love, go in." Fleetway said as he watched his partner nod and take a step inside the machine.