The texture of his leather gloves rubbing across his abs abhorred him more than he could ever express. As much as Infinite hated Shadow, there was no denying he was an attractive specimen with a frame very different than the one he had grown accustomed to violating. The prospect of new territory to conquer enticed the jackal, who elected to take their game in a new direction. 

Desiring flexibility with his captive, he snapped his fingers and released the hedgehog from his bonds on the metal table, while also disconnecting the tube that had encased his member this entire time. Despite his best efforts, Shadow couldn't stop himself from falling forward, his damaged legs unresponsive to his commands. His dislocated arms splat on the ground, making it seems as though he was a marionette whose strings were just cut. Nevertheless, he fought to push himself off the floor, eager to attack his captor and beat him to a bloody pulp, but unfortunately, the strength of his will couldn't prevent his body from being encased by the power of the Phantom Ruby. His arms were yanked violently outward as he was levitated to his feet. No matter how hard he struggled, there was no resisting the gemstone or its wielder. 

"You're a rather interesting creature, Shadow", he remarked while brushing the white fur on the black hedgehog's chest, "your tolerance for pain is as remarkable as it is annoying."

Though he couldn't physically fight back, Shadow wasn't going to roll over and become another toy for this bastard's amusement. With his piercing gaze burning a hole into his enemy's soul, he proclaimed in a stern, powerful voice that resonated his unbreakable spirit, "I'm the Ultimate Life Form. I'd never fall prey to someone as pathetic as you."

The jackal paused, the two locked in a stare as a battle of wit and wills clashed. Such an insult was essentially a death sentence, or at the very least, a reason for punishment. The mercenary was eeriely calm as he took a few steps back from his captive. Without uttering a word, he raised his hand and shot a single precise beam of energy from his fingertips directly into the center of his prisoner's chest. 

"GGGUUUUHHHH!!!!" 

Though Shadow knew his remarks invited chastising, there was no way to fully prepare himself for the onslaught. Though the blast had missed any vital organs, blood nevertheless oozed from the pen-sized hole in his chest as the pain radiated across his torso and into his damaged arms. Yet still, the Ultimate Life Form stayed true to his word and his title, as he peered up with unrelenting resolve. 

"That---that all you got?" he grunted in a single labored breath as a small red stream seeped from the corner of his mouth. 

Infinite let out a small chuckle, "Defiant to the core," he commented as he strolled behind him. 
With the wave of his hand he lowered Shadow to his knees, the pressure transference providing some momentary relief on his shoulders, but the jackal didn't do this for his comfort. Wrapping his fingers around his throat, he forced the black hedgehog to look upwards as he stared down at him, his merciless gaze sending waves of discerned cruelty for what he intended to do. 

"The little blue savior was defiant at first, too," he stated as he stroked his free hand across Shadow's cheek, "I wonder how long you'll last before you sing my name."


Meanwhile, in the cell three levels up, Sonic sat idly on the floor, staring at the bars in front of him. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Wishing to see his precious master appear. Dreaming of his company. Desiring his touch. The wet dream he had experienced felt so vivid, so lucious and fulfilling, but he knew he couldn't trust his senses any longer. The only thing, the only one he could trust was his Infinite. He was his whole world now and he longed for him with all his being. 

Tracing his eyes back and forth, counting the bars to pass the time, the blue hedgehog gasped as he noticed a small uneven gap between the cell door and the rest of the reinforced metal. Was it open? As many times as he had looked over the bars, he was surprised that he didn't notice it sooner. He cautiously got to his feet, and while hugging himself to hold in his insecurity, he tiptoed to the door. Tentatively, he placed his hand on it and felt it sway. IT WAS OPEN! Apparently, the caretaker robot didn't shut it completely after its last visit or it jarred from the latch somehow. 

Sonic's first instinct was to close the door securely as quickly as possible. He learned a long time ago that he was never supposed to go anywhere without his captor's permission or without an escort. However, he was hesitant. Struggling. He kept thinking he should do what he was "educated" to do, but a recent memory flashed before his eyes that he couldn't dismiss. The feeling of being in Infinite's arms as the jackal gently caressed his wounds while he sat in his lap coated him in warmth and smeared a smile on the his face. Without realizing it, he opened the door further and stepped through. As if driven by an invisible force, he mindlessly made his way down the hall to the central control room where the caretaker robot had carried him before. It was all magnetism. The need to be with him directing his actions. 

Standing outside the door, he couldn't help but hold his breath. It had been almost 6 days since he saw his master, but the anticipation and joy of his unexpected visit was compounded with fear and anxiety. 
What if he wasn't supposed to leave the cell? Would he be angry? 
---But he came here before.-- 
That was with the robot. This time, he snuck out. This is a bad idea. 
--But surely a little visit won't hurt. Besides, better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. 
---He's not the forgiving type. ---
But he misses him so much! He can't pass up this opportunity! 

He pressed his shaking hand on the control panel and gave it a gentle nudge, opening the door to the room illuminated solely by the wall of computer screens.

Taking one step at a time, Sonic scanned the entire room only to find it empty. His sigh of relief was coupled with disappointment, but subscided with curiosity as he couldn't help but investigate the far wall. The complex was apparently filled with security cameras, while several cells broadcasted multiple feeds from different angles. Counting the blocks, he found his home was one of them. "Aww, he was watching over me," he mused aloud as he felt a sense of what he understood to be love sweeping over him. 
"I wonder where he is though...." 

Studying one TV after another, he finally noticed some movement from the central monitor that caught his attention and quickly shuffled over with great anticipation!  

His hope, excitement, and smile all disappeared in an instant as his blood ran cold and his face turned almost white at the image depicted on the screen. 
"Wh---what?" he stuttered as the scene flooded his mind like a tidal wave, encompassing everything in its path, "F---Finny and.... Shadow?" 
He felt his heart drop like a million pounds of bricks into the deepest ocean as a sour taste filled his mouth, followed by the hot rush that well up through his throat until he expelled it on the floor in a gutwrenching gurgle. Shaking uncontrollably on his knees, he peered up to witness the infamous jackal riding the black hedgehog with incredible zeal. The glowing cubes that suspended Shadow in the air and the numerous spikes that were impaled in various points of his body were all constructs of the ruby's power. 
Sonic watched in horror as his master stood behind his partner, his claws digging into his hips as he forced his member in and out in a pleasureable rythmn that made his own tail quiver. 

Sonic couldn't process what he was watching, "...Shadow is....really here? ....Infinite...you're---you're with HIM?!" The broken hero stumbled to his feet as he held his nauseated stomach. His eyes swiped from one monitor to another, viewing five different camera angles of his partner being penetrated by the mercenary. 

"BASTARD!!" Shadow yelled in between grunts as the jackal continued pounding him, "NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO---I WON'T---SUBMIT!!!" 

Infinite grinned under his mask as he created another knife-life construct in his hand, "I have many ways to get the job done," he declared in a slightly breathless, yet suave manner. "The night is young and we have so much more to do." He then jabbed the energy-based blade into Shadow's side, stabbing into his rib before continuing his erotic dance within his victim's anus.


In the control room, Sonic's daze was interrupted by his inner conscience, who managed to somehow overcome the wave of confusion.
*HOW CAN YOU JUST STAND THERE?! LOOK AT WHAT HE'S DOING TO HIM!!!* The voice shouted with panic-strickened urgency the likes of which would have stirred anyone else into action, but regrettably didn't phase the broken hero.

Sonic was still. Hollow. He watched the screen with unblinking eyes as he spoke in an unsually calm tone to the voice occupying his fractured mind, "It's nothing I haven't been through... he...he can take it. He's the Ultimate Life Form, after all." 

While continuing his ejaculation, Infinite inserted yet another knife into Shadow's back, making him scream at the top of his lungs with a bonechilling cry that was inaudible to the blue hedgehog; however, the painful expression seared into his partner's face was all too evident. Yet still, he continued to stare blankly at the monitor without a single reaction. 

His inner voice couldn't remain silent while viewing the turmoil unfold in front of them, *THAT BASTARD IS KILLING HIM!!! YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!!!---PLEASE!!!* it begged with every ounce of its corporeal being.

Sonic merely brushed off the voice's pleas, "It'll be okay. Shadow's immortal, remember?"

No words could express how this intangible voice felt in that moment, though outrage would describe it best. *YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!! THIS IS WRONG AND YOU KNOW IT! SHADOW WOULD NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!!*

"And yet it did..." he responded plainly, "Chill out, will ya?" The broken hero waved his hand to nothing in the air before reaching up to caress the screen, stroking over Infinite's visage with a crooked smile forming on his muzzle. His only focus was on the jackal rather than the hemmoraging victim. 
"Finny will get bored with him soon enough and then it'll be just the two of us again---like before......like it's meant to be..."

*---YOU---you really want to go back to that? To being caged? TORTURED?! HAVE YOU HONESTLY FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING HE'S DONE?!?!?"

"---Pain only hurts if you let it," he declared quickly while moving to massage his right arm, now permanently numb from the constant damage it sustained during his captivity. He then straced his hand across his chest, where the scars of his master's fangs lay hidden under his fur. Feeling his beating heart and focusing on its rythmn with a warm smile, he looked again to the monitor with a soft expression of enlightenment, "But he...he helped me through it...helped me endure. Gave me purpose."

It was like arguing with a brick wall! The broken hero's stubborness compacted with his delusional state of mind made it nearly impossible to reason with him; however, the voice wasn't going to give up. It continued to try desperately to reach him, knowing that there was still some part of him who knew right from wrong. 
*He isolated you. Abused you. Corrupted you. HOW CAN YOU JUSTIFY THAT?!* 

Sonic's patience was wearing thin by its continued badgering, with his reasoning being questioned being the last straw. His soft expression quickly became one of rage, with furrowed brows and gritted teeth, "ALL THIS TIME, YOU'VE BEEN NOTHING EXCEPT A NAGGING VOICE IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD SINCE DAY ONE!" he screamed in the empty room. "You told me to keep fighting...LOOK WHAT IT GOT ME! You told me to believe in my friends...AND THEY ABANDONED ME! You said everything would be okay--- you made me think that it was possible---that one day, I'd be okay again....YOU'RE JUST A LIAR!---"

The voice kept calm, somber. Its words were like arms stretching out to hold him, to let him know it was on his side. 
*You've always known what I am, but you were just too scared to face it. I'm the last part of you, Sonic. The part of you that didn't die on the Death Egg. I've been fighting with everything in us this whole time, but I can't do it alone anymore. Shadow, our friends, they can help us get our life back, but there's a piece missing....You....You have to WANT to get better. YOU have to fight for it.*

Sonic scoffed at the notion in frustration, his resentment to the situation, the clear solution, and the complexity of it all combating against everything he had to become. Peering back up at the screen, he watched as Infinite finished his session with his new toy. A saddened expression christened Sonic's face as he saw the jackal remove his member from Shadow, where seminal fluid poured out in a cocktail of crimson red and white. A strange feeling of jealousy and heartache welled up within him as he saw the satisfaction in his beloved master's stance, the same swagger he always carried after their own intimate times. 
"Why does it matter anymore?" he stated in a melancholic sigh.

*Because I still exist,* the voice replied like a friend offering a shoulder to cry on, *if you had truly given up, if you were beyond repair, I would have been long gone.* 
Its words carried a truth the broken hero refused to accept. Instead, he reached up and stroked the screen yet again, trying to capture the feeling of being near his dear one. 

"You're just a figment of my imagination" he spoke earnestly with a shy grin, trying his best to validate his feelings, "at least--with him-- I don't feel alone." 

*Sonic, you are and have NEVER alone! You have friends who care about you!---YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT!---*

Sonic's personality shifted again, his tone became menacingly grim, his pupils shrank, and his teeth reared even more fiercly than before at the very mentioning of those he once held dear. 
"Care to explain where my so-called friends were when I needed them most?" he growled with clenched fists, his eyelids slamming shut as he recalled the experiences that now defined him. The images flashed before his eyes like a movie on fastforward, with each clip making his muscles tense, his anxiety rise, and his heart race. 

"Day after day, I waited for them. Every second of pain I suffered, every horrendous thing I was put through, like an idiot, I kept holding onto hope that my 'friends'... the ones I thought I could always count on NO MATTER WHAT would rescue me any minute. ---That they'd swoop in and SAVE ME FROM THAT LIVING HELL!!!"

Tears began to stream down his cheeks as his own voice cracked under the weight of the unhinged emotions pouring out of his soul. 
He was finally facing his demons and they were tearing him apart. 
"....I....I lost count of how many times I dreamed for freedom only to wake up alone in that dark cell....cold...hurt....forgotten. After everything I've done for the world, everything I've done for THEM--- when I was at the edge of breaking...when....when I finally...broke....-- WHERE WERE THEY?!?!---" 

The voice remained silent as Sonic whipped his head towards the monitor depicting his partner. 

"---WHERE WERE YOU, SHADOW?!?!?!?---"

In a fit of uncontrolled rage he punched the screen with all his might, shattering it into fragments and cutting his hand on the flying glass in the process. Sparks flew from the device, making the sobbing hero trip backwards to the control panel. Hyperventilating as he glared into the hole he just created, he faded into a state of shock. His bleeding hand quivered like a leaf in the wind as the tears began to flow even more freely while the tightness made a forever home in his chest. 

Overwhelmed, he sunk to the floor once again, crumbling into dispair. He had exumed that which he buried and it pained him. Cupping his face, the tears and blood mixed in the palm of his gloveless hands as he whimpered with all his heart and soul, "...where....where were you?..."