Blindfolded

Shadow's POV

Darkness is all I know now. It's all I see. For six months straight, that was what my life has been like.
Dark, cold, and uncaring.
My wrists are tied tightly behind my back, used to keep me from moving too much as they were chained to the tiled floor I was sitting upon. To be sitting like this for most of the day, it was uncomfortable to say the least.
Silver coloured inhibitor rings adorned my wrists and ankles now, that was what I had seen from a single glimpse before my sight was rudely taken. Unlike my golden ones, they didn't help me preserve my energy. Instead they took them away completely, causing me to feel weak and drained all the time.
My body was naked, has been for as long as I've been here besides the blindfold covering my eyes and taking my gift of vision. That made me feel just how cold it was in my cell, how chilly the floor was. Even my fur could barely protect me from the cool chill.
My neck was strained and sore, but only because my head was forced to stay in this uncomfortable position, reeled back just in case I had the bright idea of refusing to eat again.
Even my jaws were kept apart to make it easier with a metal ring hooked around the back of my head and to keep me from biting aswell. It was a brutal practice that helped them keep me fed and healthy, ready to endure another gestation process for their tests.
'Gestation'. That was a term more commonly used for animals.
Everything in my body was sore and hurt because of how long I've been forced to keep this position. I'm bound in a way that doesn't allow me to move, makes me stay in this sitting pose with my back straight, and my legs bend, the cold tiles touching all that is bare down there.
And not only were my clothes gone, but my quills, the pride of any self-respecting hedgehog, were cut short and dulled on both my skull and back to keep me from defending myself in a most natural way.
Decency and privacy were lost to me. It was like I was back in the underground laboratories of Prison Island over fifty years ago, except now I was more miserable because I've known happiness and had more to lose.
Not just my sight is gone. Sound, too, was lost to me as I heard not a single noise be made besides my own breathing. No one talks except for my captors, who occasionally come in to check up on me or start the process all over again and they are words never directed towards me.
Speaking of my abducters, they should be coming back soon. They check up on me and my recovery daily and it feel like I've healed again. Should they realise it, which they will, then the process could start any moment now.
The sliding of an opening door was always the first sign that the whole cycle could begin anew, much too my everlasting dread.
Fear creeps up to me at just the sound of the door opening and the footsteps coming closer.
"Project nr. 93, formerly known as Shadow Robotnik, is awake and ready." That voice is one of the few I've been hearing and I knew he was talking into this small recorder, keeping track of this experiment to help him write it all down later on his report. It wasn't an uncommon thing to do.
So today was the day.
Procedure number 3 was about to begin.
I could feel it.
There were two sets of footsteps that approached me, as they usually would, but I knew there to be two extra guns standing guard at the door aswell. Live ammo just in case I would've found a way to break free while completely immobile.
While the man, a scientist, talked about my amazing recovery process, I was lifted up by the second person through the use of those chains all wrapped around me, causing them to rattle and a great discomfort in my knees for being moved again. They were weak from this position, which made gravity my worst enemy right now.
Forced to stand on them, something was moved between my legs, a machine that made these procedures possible at all. Those limbs of mine shook as I strained to stay up.
"It is now 5:05 in the morning. Nr. 93 has fully recovered after a mere month, as was expected of this subject. Extremely accelerated healing allowed it to once again regain its old body with barely any signs of the young ever being there." Were the words spoken into the recorder.
Young...
That was the whole reason why I was even here in the first place.
Young.
Pups.
Hedgehoglets.
"The usual high dosis of fertility drugs with aphrodisiac has been administered yesterday evening and should be in full effect right about now." Oh? Did I get them yesterday already? That explains the lingering sensation of burning I've been feeling between my legs, growing stronger by the hour.
My heat, brought on through the use of drugs instead of nature.
At first I believed it was my actual heat and I had tried my best not to act on it, to not fidget and let them know. It was difficult to try and keep my breathing calm, to not let my pounding heart get to me, to try and hide the fact that my own gender was betraying me as it grew moist and wet the floor beneath me.
I tried so hard to not let them notice.
Of course, my body was just following a schedule they had set.
"5:10am, we will begin the third procedure now." As the man stated that after finishing his overal observations and the machine, as small as it was for its intended purpose, was put in place, I tried to stay on my knees. They trembled awfully through the abuse, but still I tried not to give in to the strain.
They noticed, of course.
And so one hand settled on my shoulder for a little persuasion.
"93 still has some life in it. Should we remind it that everytime it doesn't listen, it'll reflect badly on its young?" The second man suggested the first. Clearly the more sadistic one, he threatened me, reminding me exactly why I was being this docile.
Hoglets somewhere in this building, no idea where they were and how they were doing. My level of obedience would dictate the way they are being treated.
A docile mom meant better treatment. A stubborn mom meant abuse.
So I relented. I lowered myself back down again, except my legs couldn't handle the strain and ended up giving away from underneath me, causing me to end up on the machine in quite an unfortunate way. It was only because of how lubricated I was that I didn't get hurt accepting this uninvited intruder inside, though I still yelped in shock.
Despites being made out of a smooth rubber and lubricated aswell as me, a grimace still made its way onto my face as I lowered myself on top of the rounded portrusion. It filled my pussy up in quite a discomforting way, stretching my inner walls until the very head of it could settle against my cervix, an extra very small and pointy tip on top breaking through to make sure there was direct contact with my womb.
I barely dared to breath, though my heat and feral instincts were very happy with this penetration.
I was still low to the ground, though now definitely sitting on top of something judging by this bit of elevation. I actually had no idea what this machine looked like, just what it does and how it works.
With it stuck in something as private as my vagina, it, naturally, had only one goal.
"5:11am, begin stimulation." A soft yelp left me as vibrations were being send through the rod for the sole purpose of forcing me to feel pleasure. They wanted me to orgasm from this aswell, believing it could help this body of mine to accept whatever seed they had decided to use on me this time, to make this insemination process easier.
I never had any idea what kind they've been pumping into me. Mobian? Human? Feral?! I honestly did not now as that wasn't something they've ever mentioned in front of me. Frankly, I'm not even sure they got that consensually either.
Those vibrations were wreaking havoc on my body already. They stimulated every sensitive spot within my folds and the urge to move myself was growing bigger.
I knew I didn't have much choice but to listen. Whatever I did, it would always reflect on the pups I've already been forced to give them.
Stay docile or rebel, how much worth my time is the latter if I didn't have a plan first?
"5:13am, 93 is still showing resistance, might have to drag this one on a little longer." With a barely audible click did another recording end.
Damn. The longer I ignore my body, the longer they'll make this last. I really don't have another choice. My only option right here and now was to give in, as it had often been ever since I've come to be stuck in this place.
So I did what my chemically induced heat longed from me. I caved in to the urges and started moving, pumping the lubricated rod in and out of my pussy myself. 
It was difficult to pull it out on my own with this unfavourable position and thrusting it back in again wasn't such fun either. I was basically impaling myself and that added sting from breaking through my cervix didn't exactly help.
Still they expected me to climax from this and I wanted to get this over with, knowing that the inevitable would come one way or another.
So I didn't fight the urges, I let them take me. I moved up and down the shaft and coated it in my own juices. I tried to picture anyone I knew that was more favourable than this lifeless machine.
"5:15am, turning it up a notch, we're on a schedule." The first man spoke into his recorder and the vibrations suddenly grew stronger, causing unwilling moans to leave my vocals as my heart pounded faster.
The movement of my pelvis took up the pace and I thrusted the rod in and out of my pussy faster. If I could pound myself with it, I would've. I was ready to do anything so long as it would help this end quicker. I tried to get some of those vibrations on my clit too, to use that sensitive nub for my pleasure aswell.
My thighs were growing wet now aswell as it just reached so deeply inside of me. This was made to make me give in. Every inch of my birth canal was stretched, not a nook or cranny stayed untouched and it stimulated everything it could reach. This artificial breeding would last just as long as I would.
With this metal ring in my mouth keeping me from biting it was impossible to form coherent words, but still my heat made me moan and plead for more. I was the only person making noises in this cell.
That said, these two men weren't getting off on this. They were here for the test subjects my superior body could give them and after all of these months spend here, I have been demobianized to the point that I wasn't even a person in their eyes anymore. They might aswell be watching cattle get artificially inseminated.
The only times they even mentioned my former name was whenever they commenced another experiment, as if reminding themselves of the person I once used to be. Other than that, my name was solely number 93 now, as in the 93th project in this facility.
I worked myself to a finish quicker, humping that rubber shaft as if it was a real mobian I was making love to. That's what I liked to imagine. That I was in control as a mate and I were intimate together, that it wasn't chains keeping me in place, but his strong, gentle hands.
I so desperately imagined it that I almost started to believe it, if it weren't for that constant vibrating.
But those scientists did get what they wanted. I came and they noticed when a particularly loud moan left my throat and my pussy clamped down on the object inside, my whole body tensing up for a good few moments.
It was while my orgasm ran through me that they pressed a button to release whoever or whatever's seed this machine was supposed to be pumping into me. I was 'open' and 'inviting' now according to them, and they made use of that window of an opportunity by filling my womb to the very brim, shooting in more than the organ would've taken from an actual mobian lover.
The feeling of being filled send unpleasant chills down my spine, but it made my feral self very happy about this ensured pregnancy.
Suppressed breaths could not be stopped and escaped as whines while I was pumped full with semen in a steady stream. When it finally ended, my body could finally relax. Or for however much that was possible with the position I was forced to sit in.
"5:20am, first injection administered. Now we will have a five minute break before we proceed with the second one." The first man spoke into his recorder and I felt dread upon hearing those words, though I knew this was always the way they bred me. And every time it'd be done by a new duo too.
It didn't matter who did it, though. So far they've succeeded twice already and I had no reason to believe they won't be successful this time aswell.
I had no other choice but to sit here and let them have their way with me. I couldn't see, I could barely move, I have no idea where I was, and I can't even remember how I got there in the first place.
'Where are you, Rouge?'
I was fated to sit here and let that particular thought be repeated in my mind over and over again, like it has been for a long time now.
'It's been so long. Are you even still coming?'
The longer I'm stuck here, the more I begin to doubt with every breaking dawn.
Her, the promise she made me, the friendship we shared, the years we spend working together. And that's not including the doubts I've been having about the other people I once called my friends.
"5:23am, two more minutes and we'll start with the second mating." The man said and as those words were spoken, the soft tingling of my heat already gradually made itself known again, the burning longing returning to help these cruel people achieve their goal.
I could only sit here and wait for those two more minutes to pass by, after which the vibrating and mating would begin again.
I would have to suffer through this for a whole week, so long as my heat would last. Then they'd be taking my blood every day for testing, but usually the first test would already come back positive.
Exactly a week later, I was confirmed to be pregnant again. As expected.

How was it that I got in this predicament? Why was I here? For how much longer would I be stuck in this place?
Those were three questions that I have been repeatedly asking myself.
The 'how' was already a mystery. I was just living my day-to-day life. Going to work, succeeding at mission after mission, hanging out with Rouge and our friends, that sort of thing. And the next thing I knew I woke up in this lab, where I'm quickly restrained by those rings around my wrists, my movement impeded, and my sight taken.
Someone, I don't know who, told me that I was captured, not for personal reasons, but because I was the Ultimate Lifeform. My body healed quickly, had a strong immune system that prevented me from getting ill, contained powers, and those were all things they wanted.
I was convenient. There was no other reason.
They also wanted more of me, which was why my gender was so useful to them, why my sole reason for being here was to become pregnant and birth more candidates for their experiments. That way they didn't need to unnecessarily damage the original project. That's what the pups were for.
And for what? For the simple reason that they wanted to be greater than G.U.N. Where they had failed in turning me into a weapon, they would instead turn several of my children into one, whichever survived the testing.
That's why I had been taken, why my heat had been forced to come just one single month after recovering from birth, why I was forcibly impregnated, and had to grow them a new project until I had to eventually tell that one goodbye aswell.
It's happened twice already, which means I've lost a total of four children as they manipulate me in a way to force my womb into carrying twins each time. It would double the chance of survival according to them. Should one child die, they'd at least still have the other twin.
I fought so hard during my first pregnancy, even got loose, which enabled me to see my new bracelets clearly and discover that this wasn't an underground lab of G.U.N, but I hadn't gotten very far as mobian hedgehog pregnancies only last twice as long as that of a feral hedgehog. My window of opportunity had been quite small.
I failed to that day escape because my water broke.
They took them away. As soon as they were born, they were taken from me for a whole night until I was desperate, maternal instincts kicking in and screaming at me to protect them and nurse them.
Weighed, measured, after running all sorts of tests on them, they'd return the twins to me and finally allow me to nurse them. They had been starving by then.
I could feed them for a week or for however long my colostrum would last. Because that was the reason why they were even allowed to stay with me at all.
Colostrum was a name given to a mother's first milk. It didn't look like it at all, but it did have all the vitamins and antibodies a baby might need to help them build up their immune system. As they knew my immune system was particularly powerful, they hoped I'd be given a little piece of myself to start them off right.
So yes, after giving me that little bit of hope back, they'd take it away again next week and I'd be tied down again, left to wonder just what would become of my twins while I recovered and awaited the next time.
After that I had no longer been able to escape, they just kept me too immobile to do so. I didn't even get the opportunity when I got pregnant for a second time and when I had to say goodbye to those twins aswell, I felt something inside me break and it wasn't just my heart.
Now it was time for my third pregnancy.
Whenever a procedure was successful, whenever they confirmed I was gestating after a mere week of mating, they'd state such devastating news in front of me without even directly talking to me, like I wasn't even there. I just always happened to be in the same room as they announced it into those recorders of theirs.
After that, they'd lock me up in an even smaller cell.
No, this couldn't even be called a cell anymore. A box inside a cell was more like it, one with little freedom for movement, not even allowing me to stretch my legs. All I could do was curl up in here to be somewhat comfortable.
It had a blanket on the floor, like I was a domestic pet and this was my dog crate. It even had an opening they could offer me food and water through.
Essentially it was a way to put me away. Like a book you just finished reading, a game you got bored with, or a toy your mother wanted you to tidy up. Like an object, I was stored away until I was needed again and that wouldn't be so for a long while now.
At least now I was allowed to move a little, which my sore body was very thankful for. Curled up inside the box I had been pushed into, I could once again do nothing as my babies, and their next test subjects, were forced to grow in my womb again, which they quickly did.
I still can't see, I'm still being kept weak through the use of those inhibitor rings, and every morning this gas would be released inside as a soft sedative to keep me docile and calm, often times I even slept for hours because of it.
I once tried to remove my blindfold during my second pregnancy to regain my sight, only to get overwhelmed by that same gas and knocked out for the rest of the day.
That combined with how long it's been and the losses I've already suffered, it was becoming more and more difficult to escape. I didn't have the energy to do so and my will was nowhere to be found either.
I felt like a lost cause. That supposed ironclad will I was once known for proved to be a lie.
This box I was held captive in to sit out my pregnancy was equipped with all they needed to monitor me and the baby, which made it unnecessary for me to ever leave this thing. It kept my temperatures even, sensed our heartbeats, even gave them a constant live x-ray of the pups growing in my uterus. That way there was no actual need for them to be near in order to check up on us.
It saved them time they could spend on experimenting on other poor souls stuck in here.
Like this I spend the very short time I'd be carrying my third twins in captivity. While feral hedgehog pregnancies usually lasted 4,5 weeks, that of a mobian's took twice as long. So in this box I stayed for the next 9 weeks, not including that one week spend nursing.
I laid curled up on that thin blanket, the only comfortable way to lie in that tiny space. I was witness to my belly swelling and expanding with the life growing within. I couldn't see it grow so fast, but I could feel the changes happening.
My womb was heavy with the weight as they grew inside. And unlike with a human pregnancy, I could feel my twins begin to move and fight for the most space inside their mother soon enough. My blindness just might've made me feel their small hands and feet even clearer than I would've done so with my sight intact. And my chest felt swollen and sensitive, once more ready to feed my twins in the most natural way possible.
I don't know how big I got, I just know that it made this small space even more cramped. Without clothes, my hands could stroke the surface of my abdomen constantly and near the end I could only feel a very round swelling. I could hardly even try to describe the size of it.
I tried to savour my time spend with them. I tried to make the most of it, for as much as was possible in this situation. Much like I had done with the other two sets of twins, I tried to memorize every little detail about them, every little thing that made them different from their four siblings.
When I managed to pick up a couple of differences here and there, I tried to commit them to my memory. The way one of them seemed to have a favourite spot to kick, how much more active they were compared to their siblings and apparently didn't like to sleep.
But then month eight of my captivity here came to a slow end and the day that my water broke arrived.
Through the very accurate monitors this box was made out of, they were able to pick up on my contractions before they got to painful to wake me up at night. They prepared themselves and were ready before I was even awoken by the cramps and then proceeded to watch through the built-in cameras as I gave birth completely on my own.
It was like I had suddenly become a zoo animal. I suffered through the pains of my labour with no relief to be found, with no one to comfort me or talk to. A mess was made of me and beneath me as amniotic fluid escaped and bits of blood soon followed, soaking through the blanket I had been sleeping on.
I pushed with all my might to help them leave me as the contractions ran through my body. Knowing that I couldn't stop them from leaving me anyway without seriously endangering them both, I had little qualms about pushing the twins out. I just wanted them to be safe and healthy and so tried my best to give birth to them.
That didn't keep me from feeling dread fill my heart as I knew that I would be forced to say goodbye to them in exactly a week too.
With a hand held ready beneath me did I expect to catch one of the twins, its head was already crowning and resting in my palm as I wanted to guide it out. I did soon caught it as my body was just much too used to giving birth after already four of my hoglets passed through there.
That made it so much easier for them to slip free from my birth canal and end up in my hold safe and sound. Before long the second twin was already on its way.
In barely an hour had I pushed the two of them out. By then I could curl my aching body up around the crying twin pups like hedgehog mothers were known to do, holding the two close to keep them warm and make them feel loved.
I comforted them with my voice, my presence, and warmth. I let them snuggle up to my chest, two small hands grabbing my chest fur.
This was such a precious moment. Though it was the third time and I've lost my previous two sets of twins, though I knew I would lose them too, despites the cold and harsh circumstances they were forcibly conceived in my womb, this was still special in a certain way.
I thought it wise to savour this moment too and I really wanted to. I kept them warm until they stopped crying, but then the box was suddenly opened and that gas was sprayed directly into my face while someone else grabbed the pups from me.
"No, don't!" Trying to grasp for something that I could not see, my body got a lungful of that gas and within seconds I was growing limp again. I was half out of the box I've been calling home for the past two months and a week when I could no longer move again.
Before I passed out completely, I heard my twins starting to cry again, without a doubt missing their mother already.

A whole night was I separated from my newborn twins.
To wake up with my womb empty and my pups nowhere near me a couple of hours after I had been knocked out to make our separation easier on the scientists themselves, I grew absolutely livid.
Desperation welled up inside and, as soon as I was fully awake and conscious, I literally tried to claw my way out of this box.
There was no way I could get out of this metal cage without my powers, but still I tried with all my might, my claws not withstanding the strain I put on them. I cried out in both rage and sorrow, my emotions made me uncontrollable.
I wanted to get out of here. I wanted to find my twins, all of them. I wanted to escape and raise them somewhere safe. I wanted them to spend their childhood playing, not suffering from test after test like I had spend my years as a child.
Like any other mother, or father for that matter, who knew they were about to lose their children, my heart was breaking when my claws had been ripped out and broken and I still had not made any progress. There was nothing I could do about this.
They were returned to me, of course. They always were after a series of elaborate tests were performed so they could ingest all the antibodies they might need from their Ultimate Lifeform mother, but that didn't make this loss of an opportunity to escape any less worse.
My failed attempts had doomed my children to a most terrible fate again.
When the starved infants were back in my embrace again, they desperately searched for their source of milk and that's what I had given them. Two young, two nipples, luckily I was producing enough for both of them. I could feed them both at the same time with some practice, allowing me to ease the hunger of both of them simultaneously.
Once they stopped crying, once they were no longer famished, I curled up around my young twins and let them sleep while snuggled up in all of that warmth I provided. Now reunited, I held them close in a protective embrace.
I could not protect them, that is something that has been made crystal clear to me these past eight months, but I will still try to the best of my limited abilities.
For me that one week of nursing was all about making sure I was bonding with my newborn twins.
Despites the inevitable day I had to say farewell, I still kept them close to me, stayed curled around them for warmth, nursed them whenever they cried for milk. I tried to be the best mother I could be in that one week.
Tried memorizing every detail about them too, though I could not see. Their scent, though that of a typical newborn, were slightly different from their siblings. Their fur was soft and quills were too for now. Their voices were similar to eachother, but still there was this slight difference in tone already. Those were just a few of the things I paid attention to.
But memories would never be enough and because of this gas I spend large parts of my day sleeping, which were already hours I'd lose when I should be spending them with my twins.
It was because of those lost hours that this week flew by and before I to realized it, that dreaded day had come.
They came without me even noticing. Releasing a higher dosis of the knock-out gas that morning to keep me asleep for longer than usual, keeping me from waking up when my pups would inevitably wake up and cry for food.
When I did eventually wake up it was only to discover no small creatures were rolled up and snuggling to my fur for warmth anymore, my heart broke all over again.
My third set of twins were gone and now I was fated to soon be pulled out of this box myself to be chained down again to recover in the most inhumane and uncomfortable way possible. And all the while I'd be wondering what would become of my children, all of them, until inevitably twins number 4 would be created within my body and this whole cycle could begin anew.
Nothing was humane about what I had to suffer in here. Nothing.
But then something shocking happened and like a miracle had it come out of nowhere.
That fourth set of twins would never come.

The few following days after being separated from my young was always spend in a haze, that gas keeping me knocked out cold most of the time, just barely aware of the empty space next to me and unable to move an inch of my body at all.
They were doing this to keep me from fighting back, figuring that a 'mother' with 'feelings' would want to try to break out harder now that I was alone again.
So days were spend like this. Unmoving, barely conscious, stuck between dreaming that all six of my pups were right here at my side and realising that they were all gone for good.
It was while I was stuck in that cruel haze between dream and reality that they had come for me. Not the scientists, but completely different people instead. And I barely even noticed, though I do vaguely recall this floating sensation at some point, like I'm being carried by someone strong.
At first I had no idea I had been moved at all. It wasn't until the haze faded away and I woke up from a very deep sleep that I noted something was different.
While consciousness slowly returned to me, I began to notice that the floor beneath me was softer and warmer than I remembered.
I had expected to feel myself be chained down to remain in that unbearable position until it was time to force another heat to break through. What I did not expect was to be lying on a mattress, an honest to Chaos mattress! My head was resting on a soft pillow, and I seemed to be covered from the waist down with a thin, light sheet.
What is this?
I wondered what their intentions were for providing me with such luxury, what they had in store for me this time.
Grasping the first thing my hand came into contact with, I soon came to discover that I was lying on top of another, much thicker, blanket spread out on the mattress beneath me.
When I became aware of extra weight on the bed next to me, I had to ask my questions out loud.
"Wha... What's the..." The problem with being sedated for long periods of time meant it was harder for anyone to wake up it, even for the Ultimate Lifeform. So my words were slurred and my movements inaccurate as I wanted to push myself upright and explore more.
I wasn't in that cramped space anymore, that's for sure. I feel like I can stretch my legs, which I did.
But then a slender hand settled on my shoulder and gently pushed me back down again.
A slender hand with long, slender fingers. And it's so familiar too.
"Shh, Hun, don't strain yourself. You've been out like a light for days now."
No, don't tell me... That voice!
I had to be dreaming. I had to!
"...Rouge?" I asked carefully, half expecting to suddenly be chained down to the cold floor anyway and shut up with the metal ring in case I dared go on another hunger strike that could threaten the precious schedule of those scientists.
I had never expected this answer.
"Yes, it's me, Hun. We finally found you." Her voice was soft, like a whisper.
"You... found me?" I asked in disbelieve, shocked to hear that my life wasn't going to know only sadness now after all.
The feelings that welled up in my chest were indescribable. There was relief, happiness, hope, just and abundance of emotions. I felt like crying and breaking down as I realised my fate had suddenly been changed on a whim.
And I think I did. Just a bit, not audible, but tears did wet the blindfold that I wore.
But wait, why is this thing still on? It felt like it was made from a differeny fabric, but it was definitely there.
"Rouge, if you're telling me the truth, than why am I still blind?" I asked, rightfully concerned that this just may be a trick, like they suddenly grew a sick sense of humour.
Please, don't let it be so. Rouge, if it's really you, proof it to me and end this misery.
"Shadow, Hun, you spend the last eight months and two weeks of your life in complete darkness. Your eyes need to adjust to the light again, according to the doctors we've got on your case, that is." She responded and to back her claim up, she grabbed whatever they had wrapped around my eyes to let me see what she meant.
She wasn't kidding when she said I needed to adjust again. I had to squint my eyes because any light that reached them was too sharp. And that which I could see was so heavily blurry, I could barely even make out any shapes at all.
But she was truly there. That large white spot directly in front of me with those bits of darker colours had to be her.
"Rouge, it really is you!" I stated, thanking Chaos and all deities above that my hopes and prayers had been answered. I pulled her in for an embrace, happy to finally feel some warmth in my life again.
To hold someone again and be held back was a wonderful feeling. I was no longer held captive. I wouldn't need to give birth to fill their demand of future weapons. I was finally free.
But still... My six pups...
She must've been able to read my mind because when we broke away from our reuniting hug, She grabbed my hand to place it on the nearest quilled head she could find, which felt distinctly familiar to one of my very first twins.
No, it couldn't be...
"Rouge..." Looking up to her, or for as much as I was capable right now, she broke my final barrier by telling me exactly what I wanted to hear.
"How does six pups sound? They will be a handful, but they were so awfully lonely without their mommy."
Six hoglets, she said. All of them were here. I would get the chance to raise and love them anyway!
No longer able to contain myself, I curled up around them and cried, though no actual sobs left. Instead I sniffed and let my tears run down my cheeks as I held them close to me. That weight I felt here on the bed next to me was them.
I felt like Rouge was watching us.
"You... don't know their genders, do you?" She asked while I lost myself to this moment, for which I shook my head.
"I didn't even get to name them." I answered and then a sudden sad sigh left the white bat.
"Two girls, two girls, two boys. Born in that order. They're all sleeping now because traveling with mommy had them all so tuckered out." I was so happy to finally know their genders, to not have to call them 'its' anymore.
Four daughters and two sons.
And here I once upon a time thought I would be lucky to have just one child someday.
They are the only good things that have happened to me these past months.
However, I did not miss the hidden upset tone in her voice.
"Rouge..." Calling her name, I reached into her general direction to find a hand of hers to hold onto.
"I'm so sorry, Shadow. If we could've just found you sooner..." Guilt was eating her up from the inside. I've never heard her so sad before.
"It wasn't your fault." I wanted her to believe that. I could never blame her for what happened to me.
My abduction, the robbery of my virginity, of my selfworth, my identity, my children, or what they planned on doing with them, I didn't blame her for any of it.
"After all you had to suffer through, how can you still say that it wasn't my fault? I promised to stay with you no matter what." She asked me. How much she blamed herself of my suffering was so clear, though I couldn't see her clearly yet. I could tell from her voice alone.
All of that guilt, it must've been unbearable for her during my absence. All sorts of scenarios must've been running through her mind as she tried to tell herself at the same time that I would not let anyone lay their hands on me.
Recently Rouge had the misfortune of learning about all I had been through and it had made her guilt grow even worse.
The bat felt like there was more she could've done to find me, much more.
"Rouge..." We had always been close, very close, so I didn't think twice about pulling her in for a hug to ease any and all doubts she might have about herself and weither I blamed her or not.
We kept my young in mind as we embraced, Rouge tightening it as she was still trying to wrap her head around my return herself. So it was unlikely that she'd let go anytime soon.
I didn't mind. Though I liked to keep my distance, I was much too glad to be back to pass this opportunity up.
It was only when one of them started stirring that we were forced to part.
I let the bat wrap the bandage, my new blindfold apparently, back around my head to cover my eyes again as I couldn't expect too much from them just yet according to whatever doctor had been taking care of me up until now.
Now that I was blind yet again, Rouge helped me deduce which one of the two week olds to six month olds were hungry so I could nurse them. They were all still young enough to be fed by mom for now.
Once the hungry pup, a three month old girl, latched on and I sat up straight, the mood was a little lighter between the two of us.
Calmy did I enjoy the sensation of being nursed from again, particularly from this one. Not only did it finally relieve some of this pressure I was experiencing, but I was simply happy to hold a child I had believed to have lost.
So yes, I did thoroughly enjoy this moment.
"I'm really glad to have you back safe and sound with your family, but I don't think I envy you, Hun. Six hoglets for only two nipples? I imagine you'll be suffering for the next few months now." With the mood now lighter, Rouge saw no harm in a little friendly teasing, something that I never realised how much had missed before today.
She was right, though. Unlike our feral cousins, mobians weren't used to raising litters, which was what I now had thanks to those scientists. This just might be able to take a toll on my body.
"Well, it is what it is. I don't think I'll be returning to G.U.N or playing hero anytime soon, however. I'll have my hands full with these six now and no babysitter is going to want to care for this litter. Not last minute at least." Her statement had been spoken to tease me, but I gave her a serious answer as I sighed.
I had come to the conclusion that my fighting days were over, too many mouths to feed and not the time to do it.
I didn't mind too much. After the misery I had just been freed from, the life of a living and breathing breeding machine because of the simple fact my body was above average, I would've liked to embrace the life of the stay-at-home mom. At least until they were old enough to go to school.
I believed then to have been lost to me forever. Even if they were to drive me crazy, now that I had them back I simply wanted to enjoy every waking moment spend with them.
Rouge must've known what conclusions my thoughts had lead me to. Because she had decided to come sit on the edge of the bed with me, mindful of my young, and dared to wrap an arm around my shoulders.
Thankful for her unusually and overly affectionate behaviour after all the cold carelessness and cruelty I had suffered at the hands of those researchers, I gladly gave in and let my head rest on her shoulder, sleep wanting to catch up with me too as I was still tired.
"We'll figure something out, Shadow. G.U.N will see to the punishment of those bastards. All we need to do is make sure you and the hoglets will be alright. That is our main priority right now." She spoke with genuine honesty as Rouge declared the mental and bodily health of me and my family came first now. All else, G.U.N, Eggman, everything, was secondary.
Sitting there with one hedgehoglet suckling from me and noticing the others stirring around me, I knew life would finally be okay again. After eight months and a half, control over my life was given back to me and theirs could now begin.

My saviour in this instance wasn't Rouge, Omega, or Sonic himself.
It was a whistleblower.
It was a young woman working fairly recently in the facility I was held in, which turned out to be an unknown division of G.U.N that went rogue and missing a long time ago, years before I was even awakened. People had never been sure they had even existed at all.
Apparently they greenlit a lot of questionable things back in the day, particularly concerning human and mobian experimentation. That was something Abraham Tower did not agree with and so decided to shut them down as soon as he became Commander.
Clearly some of them had not taking the resignation lightly and so continued on with their work in secrecy, hiring new and qualified employees through the years to keep their facility going.
Them being part of G.U.N once upon a time, did explain why they had such intimate knowledge about me. When I woke up after my fifty year slumber, I was a golden opportunity they just could not ignore and they, presumably, already had all of my files.
I wasn't the only mobian there, however. As my number stated, there were already 92 people before me and even still a few more after me. They were mobians, humans, and animals. All for experiments that left them scarred on every level, mutilated, permanently sick, or even dead. With my healing and the fact that my children were just too young to be of use yet, I was most definitely one of the luckier ones.
As for the said whistleblower, she was a woman working at that same facility, who's conscience and terror-filled nights could no longer let it all continue.
She risked her life and family gathering the cases the most disturbing to her to bring them to G.U.N's attention and stop these atrocious series of tests on living people.
One case she brought with her was mine, that of a mother forced to give birth nearly every three months and continuesly separated with the children 'she' clearly loved. As a mother herself, that just wasn't something she could ignore, especially not when she has seen the news and knew how many lives I've saved in my time.
It was also my case that pulled the attention of Sonic and friends. At first in disbelieve of something as horrid as their secret agendas actually existing, they sprung into action when my involvement and suffering suddenly made it all seem real and not a work of fiction.
They had even seen footage of my time in that small box, which had been recorded the whole time it seems.
So while it was Rouge who had gotten me out with Sonic and Knuckles acting as our personal bodyguards, so I've been told, it was the whistleblower who saved us all.
Her reward was the witness protection program. Along with the G.U.N personnel monitoring her safety as she had become a key witness along with me and other survivors who were able to talk, Sonic was also personally tending to her safety as a 'thank you' because they couldn't make heads or tails out of my sudden dissapearance.
With our gathered testimonies and the heaps of evidence taken from the facility itself, there was no feasible way for our wrongdoers to escape.
So yes, everything was finally falling back in its place. With the culprits enduring their punishment, I could relax at home and raise my six pups in peace while surrounded by friends who supported me greatly and each wanted to do their part to help me in anyway I might need or want.
It was like this that I continued to live my life. Quietly, in peace, bringing up my quickly growing hedgehogs with Rouge acting almost like a second mother to them, leaving my past and events surroundings their birth behind, and with no harm coming to either one of us ever again.