"And in my super form I cut Neo Metal Sonic back down to size," Sonic declared with cheerful confidence while the doctor rewrapped the bandage on his arm, "you should have seen him Doc, he looked like a dented can of Chao Cola!" 

"That's incredible!---" the physician replied excitedly while tying off the new dressing, "to think that you, Tails, and Knuckles were able to defeat a gigantic robot dragon. No wonder you're celebrated heroes!"

The comment made the blue hedgehog pause as the memory, once cherished, now made him feel uncomfortable.
"----Yeah---heh---....heroes..."

The doctor took notice of his sudden change in demeanor, but continued to maintain her own zeal in the conversation.

"What about the Black Arms Invasion?" she questioned, "how did you manage to repel an entire alien fleet?"

The broken hero's discomfort quickly switched to a grimaced face steaming with annoyance. Without hesitation, he shifted his gaze away from the doctor as he spoke.
"I think that's enough stories for now. I want to sleep---"

In that moment, Shadow entered the door in a huff, slamming it behind him without looking back. His dramatic entrance caught the attention of the room's occupants, who stared blankly at him for an explanation. Before one could be given, Sonic waved his hand to the grey rabbit in the white coat as he adjusted himself in the bed, "If you want to know about the Black Arms, just ask him. There's a story that's practically in his blood." 

Shadow was caught off guard by the unprevoked insult on a conversation topic he was not prepared for. Sonic's cold words hung in the air and left awkward tension between all present, though the blue hedgehog; himself, was uneffected by them as he pulled the covers over his head to shut them out. 

"---Turn off the lights, will ya?--" he demanded from under the blanket. 

The doctor stacked the bandage refuse on a silver tray before gliding across the room, where she gently touched the black hedgehog's shoulder as a signal to accompany her. 
Though he seemed reluctant to obey, he knew she wouldn't request his presence unless it was imperative. 

"I'll be back in a moment," he stated after shutting off the lights. He couldn't help but idle near the door and stare back at the bed, where his partner remained steadfast in ignoring him. 

In the hallway, the doctor handed the tray to a passing nurse before motioning for Shadow to follow her to her office. They took long strides at a quickened pace, the physician appearing to be greatly troubled and anxious to obtain the privacy of her quarters. The hospital was busy in accomadating the newly admitted survivors of the Death Egg, some of whom the doctor had already treated before her appointment with Sonic. And though she had a lot more work ahead of her, this talk with the Ultimate Life Form took precedence. 

Once behind closed doors, she slammed her clipboard on the desk and swiveled to face him.

"I want to go on record, this is a highly unethical practice! Examining a patient's mental health without being forthcoming of my profession or the procedure itself violates their right of understanding what medical care is being provided!" The grey rabbit was on the edge of shouting directly into his face as she felt her principals were being violated by working under such false pretenses.

"You were a physician before you obtained your psychiatry license, so you were not administering any sort of care beyond your capacity...and these are extraordinary circumstances, doctor.... he would never have spoken to you otherwise," Shadow replied calmly without breaking eye contact, "what did your examination conclude?"

The grey rabbit couldn't argue with his logic, but she nevertheless felt uneasy about the code of conduct. 
With a heavy sigh, the psychiatrist took a seat and invited him to do the same as she admitted her findings.

 "Your assumptions were correct---", she began, looking over her notes and passing some of the test results to him.
 "--Sonic is suffering from an advance stage of stockholm syndrome, apparently developing a highly toxic infatuation with his captor."

The impact of the diagnosis hit Shadow harder than he expected it would. He knew Sonic was different somehow, but the idea of him bonding with the one who tortured him was difficult to imagine. Though he; himself, had been held captive before, he never once felt anything but revulsion and hate towards his wardens. Try as he might, and knowing his partner as he did, the possibility of him even liking the jackal was beyond his comprehension.

"Are you certain?" he questioned hesitantly, afraid of the response.

The doctor nodded her head remorsefully, "I'm afraid so. Since he's been recovering in the secured section of the trauma ward, we have been able to monitor him even more closely via the hidden camera, and in the process---"

"YOU WERE WATCHING US?! ---SPYING ON HIM?!" The implications of their intimate moments being broadcasted made Shadow immediately jump to his feet, skidding the chair behind him as his reaction was a combination of rage and embarrassment.

The doctor carefully raised her hands defensively while maintaining her composure against his piercing gaze and exposed fangs, "Rest assured, our privacy protection policies are held at the highest standard. And such accomodations are necessary to maintain 24/7 observation on patients at risk of harming themselves."

"---SONIC WOULD NEVER!" He blurted out in an almost inaudible strand of jumbled words seething with anger as he defended the last shreds of his partner's dignity. 

The doctor gently pressed her fingertips on a sheet of paper and slid it across her desk towards him, "....I'm afraid he already has."

Shadow looked down at the document which detailed the medical terminology of the various injuries the broken hero had sustained when he was first brought in, quandrontized according to their location on his body and catagorized by their severity with notes of treatment listed beside each. 

"Ordinally, Sonic has a remarkable healing rate, and while it can be surmised that his dimenished physical state is a contributing factor to the unnaturally slow progress of his recovery, there is another reason why several of his wounds have not only remained unchanged, but have worsened slightly."

She pointed to the chart with the indicators around his inner thigh, forearm, and rib. 
"I have already reviewed the footage for confirmation. He has been intentionally irritating the bite marks located in these areas for what I believe is an effort to preserve them." 

The Ultimate Life Form was left speechless. The only thing he could utter was "---Why...?"

The doctor shook her head, "It's not a simple answer. Including stockholm syndrome, he suffers from PTSD, stealth depression, apathy, and obsessive tendencies, and has also exhibited hostility towards the sheer mentioning of friends and family. Although most of these symptoms are quite common for one whom has been held against their will for an extended period of time, I fear there may be some additional complications since his behavior seems rather...unstable..."

"---Meaning?" Shadow questioned quickly, his concern doubling as a hard lump formed in his throat. 

"There's no easy way to say this and the medical terminology is too obscure to decipher, so in short....he's broken, Shadow."

The anxiety within the black hedgehog was consistantly rising as the doctor attempted to find the most delicate means of explaining the situation. 
She took a moment to collect herself and allow Shadow a little time to wrap his head around the life changing information she was laying in his lap. The room was deathly silent, but inside the Ultimate Life Form, he was calculating a thousand different ways of making that bastard suffer for what he had done. The image of the jackal suddenly flashed in his mind, making him instinctively squeeze the arms of the chair to the point of nearly snapping. 

"--You see" the doctor continued, "overwhelming pain can make it difficult for the higher functions of the brain to process, so when torture victims are granted reprieve by their captors, their minds are even more vulnerable at rest than during the course of punishment, because their minds instantly replay the events and reflect on what was done to them. ....My concern is if Sonic was submitted to the influence of the Phantom Ruby at any time during these torture sessions, especially afterwards----"

"Are you saying...the Phantom Ruby made him this way?" he said through gritted teeth.

The doctor could see his distress plain as day, but rather than let his anger ferment, she continued her report in a professional manner.

"From my initial assessment, I've come to the conclusion that Sonic's instability is LIKELY the direct result of the ruby's influence, or at least, a large contributor. 
The properties of the gem are unknown, so it's impossible to determine what sort of residual effects or permanent damage could form from overexposure to it. 
Furthermore, I can't rule out other underlying causes for his mental state since I was only able to ascertain some details of his captivity from other survivors on the Death Egg and subtle pieces I obtained during our informal conversation earlier."

She took a deep breath while holding her hands tightly together on the desk, trying to assuage the emotions that have been building up within her. 
"While it's too soon to give a proper prognosis, it's clear that he will require extensive trauma therapy to face what he's been through, understand it, and attempt to move on. However, given the variables of uncertainty, I honestly can't say for certain if he'll ever be the same again."

Shadow sat back in the chair, the news feeling like a hundred knives stabbing him in the chest and stomach. 
As an immortal, time was a novelty for him, but for others, it was a collection of precious fleeting moments that could never be reclaimed when they passed. 
Infinite had already stolen 6 months of Sonic's, and now, there was no telling how much more it would take.  

---Meanwhile, down the hall, hidden under the bed, the muffled moans of pleasure escaped the mouth of the broken hero. His fingers thrusted and caressed as far inside as they could reach while his claws traced the teeth marks under the bandages of his outer thigh. He used every inch of willpower to stay silent as the tantalizing sensations aroused him, and though they were not as fulfulling, they still rekindled the visage of the one his shattered mind longed for and eteched a crooked smile across his flushed face.