Also, I'm not dead. Just a little busy. Honestly, too many ideas, too many plans, school, book many changes in life in general, both good and bad.",
"writing": "[center][b][u]A Different Kind of Chains[/u][/b][/center]\n\n[b][u]Shadow's POV[/u][/b]\n\nIt's been at least a week since Sonic had me admitted to the hospital when my water broke and today both my son, Don, and I were allowed to go home.\n\"I am 100% sure that you will love your room. My buddies, your uncle Tails and uncle Knuckles, set up your crib and there is not a doubt in my mind that you'll love every hour spend sleeping in there. And, when you're old enough, I'm willing to bet anything that you'll love the toys we picked out aswell. Not to brag, but the most fun ones are from me.\"\nThat was Sonic who was constantly blabbering without end with my son in his arms. As soon as he entered my hospital room, he had taken Don from his crib to hold him and talk endlessly to him. Meanwhile all the poor boy wanted was to sleep.\nNonsense like that never seemed to fail in making me smile lately, though.\n\"Sonic, can you not play with Don? Getting him to sleep is already a nightmare, so I'm glad whenever he's quiet.\" I couldn't help but chuckle lightly as the banter continued. And finally I was done packing.\n\"You're asking me to do the impossible, Shad. How am I supposed to keep my hands off this strapping young man?\" Sonic argued, but he did hand my son over when I reached for him, the light shoulderbag hung over my shoulder.\n\"Just get me home, Sonic. I'd like to catch up on some sleep before this little monster wakes up again and demands my bodily fluids.\" I replied, causing Sonic to grimace.\n\"Okay, fine, but did you have to make the art of nursing your son sound so gross?\" He asked and I could only nod curtly as an answer.\nSonic laughed briefly before he moved to pick me up in his arms.\nThe advantage to fighting robots nearly every week was that you build up muscle in pretty much your whole body. So while Sonic's strongest point was speed, I still trusted him to be capable enough to bring me and Don home safe. I was advised to hold off Chaos Control until at least my stitches were healed, so I hoped to get home quickly with his help and the blue hedgehog was more than willing to come to my aid.\n\"Careful.\" I told him when his hand nearly settled on my bandaged thigh instead of my knee, causing him to take a step back.\n\"Don't worry, I will watch out for your stitches, I know what I'm doing.\" He reassured me before he managed to pick me up.\nI had two sets of stitches. One row from my c-section a week ago and the other to remove a particularly bad burnmark brought on by seething hot iron.\nIt was a mark of slavery. A mark the blackmarket of Moebius had stained me with. It was a simple word, but it would've caused me great sorrow if it hadn't been removed.\n'Breeder'.\nThat's what the burn mark had said. The one who had gleefully put it on my right outer thigh, Scourge, the self-proclaimed king of Moebius, had every intent on using my body's accelerated healing abilities to get me to pop out a new slave pretty much every nine months and I would've never been allowed to care for even one of them.\nThat would've been a horrific future and I had almost give up, but fortunatly I'd never have to experience losing any children like that because Sonic and Rouge had come looking for me and brought me home while I was pregnant of my first.\nI will never be able to express the full extent of my gratitude.\n\"Shadow! Mobius to Shadow! Are you there, Shadow?\" As Sonic's voice pulled me out of the trance I didn't even know I was stuck in, I looked up to let my eyes meet with his.\n\"Yes?\" I asked as I repositioned the sleeping boy in my arms, adjusting the bag aswell as it had been resting on my abdomen in this position.\n\"I told you that I was about to leave, but you looked like you were deep in thought... I hope they weren't bad thoughts...\" That last sentence was spoken so carefully, like he wasn't entirely sure if he should speak of his concerns.\nI looked down at who I was holding as I didn't mean to meet his gaze any longer. I really was having bad thoughts and Sonic knew it too.\nDuring my last three months of my pregnancy I had developed the bad habit of letting certain terrible thoughts fill my mind, causing me to isolate myself from my friends as I let depression take hold of me. Especially after the baby room had been finished.\nMy friends had been patient and understanding, staying only by my side when I needed them to. However, when my son was born they couldn't help themselves and they had all visited. Often times my room had been filled.\n\"Sonic, can you just bring us home? I need to stay to Don's schedule if I wish to keep myself safe from sleep deprivation as much as possible.\" I requested and the blue hedgehog listened, speeding out through the fire exit.\n\nOnce Don and I were home, I told my thanks and goodbye to Sonic, who very, very reluctantly decided to leave me be so I could enjoy my time alone.\nWell, he hoped I would enjoy my time alone.\nAnd it turns out that was exactly what I was going to be.\nA note had been waiting for me on the table and as I approached it with Don still in my hold, the shoulderbag already dropped on the floor next to the coffee table, I could see that it was written in a clearly female handwriting.\nIt was from Rouge and I couldn't help but release a deep sigh as I read what was on it.\nWhile she was supposed to have a day off today, she had instead been called on by the Commander for a very urgent mission. And she was only going to be back this evening.\n\"Well, Don, looks like you and I will be spending some time alone today.\" I told him, though he was still asleep as that's what newborns did the most during their first few weeks of life.\nI couldn't help but huff at his continued silence and cruppled up the piece of paper before dropping it back down on the table and grabbing the shoulderbag in order to put my clothes in the washing machine and Don to bed in the crib that Tails and Knuckles had put together.\nShortly after I found myself lying on the couch on my left side, mindful of the stitches on my lower abdomen and thigh, while I watched commercials on tv.\nI never would've dreamt, in all my life, that I'd ever miss watching commercials. Their perfect little worlds, shown for a minute or less each, interrupting exciting movies and shows. Strangely enough I enjoyed watching them aswell as the documentary playing on the tv about the life and environment of tropical feral animals.\nNow that I'm lying here with the remote in one hand, my other lying beneath my head, and my eyes glued to the screen, everything almost seemed normal.\nAlmost.\n\"Get up, you piece of filth!\" All of a sudden I'm yanked up from the couch, the remote falling from my grasp on the soft carpet.\nThe grip is tight and painful and as I look up to the owner of the strong hand, I come face to face with a bulky primate, a chimpansee.\n\"Who the hell are you?! Let me go!\" I demanded, but suddenly my collar is pulled on and I feel myself falling down to the dirt covered ground.\nAs I look down on myself I noticed that I'm completely naked, save for a heavy collar around my neck that's adorned with six tiny jewels on the very top of its black surface. The first one was, like all others, just simple stained plastic and was glued in front of my throat and the others helped it create a path to the right side of the collar. It looked like an incomplete first row.\nWhat's going on? I was home, wasn't I? I had just put Don to bed and then I had plopped myself down on the couch and started switching between channels, eventually settling on a documentary.\nWhat was this?\n\"Damn degenerate.\" The chimp growled in disdain as he pulled harder to get me back on my feet and I realised that I've been crying.\nWhat am I so sad for? It feels so real.\n\"What are these gems for?\" I asked through the sobs that I could not stop as I'm pulled along, somehow obediently following.\nThe slaver smirked.\n\"Have you forgotten?\" He asked, a malicious tone lacing his every word.\n\"Those are 'rewards' for all of the slaves you've brought into the world.\" I feel my very being shattering at this revelation.\nSlaves I've brought into this world. Children I conceived, grew, birthed. Defenseless beings who had been ripped away from me. Living things with feelings and a soul to be misused by others, vandalized like mere property.\n'You monster! I'll rip you apart!' Is what I wanted to scream.\n\"Please, it's only been a month since I gave birth.\" Is what I sobbed.\nThe slavers' cruel laugh breaks free from his vocals and fills my ears, resonating inside my skull endlessly.\nIt becomes too much, the walk to whoever would impregnate me next to continue this horrific cycle too heavy and I feel myself falling down.\nI land on soft carpet.\nMy eyes snap open and come face to face with one of the legs of the coffee table. My chest is heaving rapidly as if I'm hyperventilating, my cheeks are wet and my eyes prickly, a crying reaches my ears.\nIt was Don.\nHe must've gotten hungry.\nSlowly do I calm down and once I find the strength to move do I carefully sit up to inspect my healing wounds. Thankfully, neither one of them are bleeding.\nI sat on the floor for a couple of brief moments as I simply collect my thoughts.\nIt was only a dream. I was back home, I was raising my first child, I wasn't a breeding slave. Though I don't know when I've fallen asleep, one look at the tv told me that it was certainly a dream, a differen program was now playing and time has moved forward.\nBut no, it wasn't a dream. It was a hellish nightmare.\nRouge and Sonic hadn't found me, or didn't even come for me, and I had already given birth to five more kids after Don. I had been about to carry a seventh a mere month after birthing a sixth, a little girl I'm convinced it to be, and immediatly seperating from her.\nAnd that collar with the little emeralds as proof of how many kids I've had, it was a terrible detail that I remember seeing on someone else in that warehouse where I had been kept to be auctioned off.\nShe had three.\nChaos, the nightmare felt so real that I get freezing chills running down my spine. I even embrace myself and rub my upper arms as if trying to protect myself from the cold.\nSo much detail, so much information. If I hadn't woken up, I would've been so sure that my short time back on Mobius had been the real dream.\nMy son's crying reached my ears again and I get myself to move up from the floor, scrubbed clean in preparation for my homecoming, to make my way up the stairs and into the baby room.\nWhen my eyes fall on his crying, squirming form, I feel relieved.\n\"This has to be reality. How else can listening to you cry make me ache so much and yet feel so relieved at the same time?\" I told him as I unbuttoned one side of the top I wore to gain easy access to my chest.\nIt was clothing made specifically for moments like these and a gift from Miss Vanilla the day after Don was born. She had claimed that this would make my life a whole lot easier and I can see why.\nI held the infant boy in the right position and he began to suckle, ceasing his crying.\nI bit down on my lower lip as I took a seat. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to endure the pain.\nTruth be told, breastfeeding hurt. As my son suckled, cramps formed in my abdomen. According to my doctor it was normal as it apparently helped my womb contract and get its original shape and size back quicker. That coupled with my accelerated healing must be why I'm getting my old body back at such a quick rate. Though, even without the breastfeeding it would still recover fast.\nOne of the wonders of having the ultimate body, I suppose.\nAlthough, my real wonder was held in my arms.\n\"It's a good thing you woke me up. I wouldn't know what would've become of me if I stayed in that nightmare for much longer.\" I told the boy as I leant back in the chair put here in the corner of the baby room.\nDon didn't reply, of course. He simply kept on nursing and eagerly satiated his hunger, his fist clenching and unclenching through my chest fur.\nOnce he was done he let go and I helped him relieve himself, but I didn't put him back in his crib even when he was close to falling asleep.\nMy mind was haunted by those children.\nSurely it would've never come to that, right? I had already determined that I would've escaped as soon as Don had left my body and I had regained my abilities. I would've been able to escape. Right?\n\"Look at me, getting all worked up over kids I didn't even have.\" I sighed, absentmindedly stroking my son's quills as he slept upright against my chest.\n\"To tell you the truth, just like I didn't want a physical relationship, I never thought I'd ever have children either. But I can't say I regret having you, no matter how you were conceived.\" I had to admit as I looked down on him, glad that he couldn't understand me just yet.\nThose months spend in Scourge's basement did make me realise a couple of things about myself.\nFirst of all, I wasn't all opposed to the idea of having children. I even got immediatly attached to the one I had been carrying at the time.\nSecond of all, I am pretty much asexual. Even with the gender I possessed, I didn't really feel attracted to any kind of gender. Male, female, herm, I didn't feel anything for them unless there were certain personality traits involved.\nThere might've been a while when I was first put in the auction house that my body longed for the daily use it used to receive those first three months at the hands of Scourge, but I have never gotten addicted, despites That hedgehog's claim. That was at least one small victory I had always carried.\n\"I'm thinking about the past again, Don.\" I truthfully admitted. The only response I got was silence.\n\"It's not as bad as people say, though. If someone ever tells you to put the past behind you, don't. It's from the past that we learn to create a better future. That is the first piece of wisdom I can give you as a parent.\" I continued to speak. Even though he was asleep, talking to him seems to ease the harrowing feeling brought on by my nightmare.\nI think I'll be just fine with him by my side.\nThe sudden ringing of the doorbell is what drew my attention next and I found myself forced to get out of his cushioned chair and put my kid to sleep in his crib before I made myself decent again and made my way down the stairs and towards the front door.\nBut once in front of it with my fingers clamped around the handle, I suddenly halted and dark thoughts filled my mind.\nIt obviously wasn't Rouge, she would've just come in. It wouldn't be Cream, Amy, or Tails as they would've called beforehand. I wouldn't know if Knuckles would bother to visit unless it was urgent and Vector would only drag his teammates along if Miss Vanilla showed any concern.\nNow Sonic, he would come for a visit without warning. Sometimes he'd even have the guts to enter without permission. That was how he got in the day I went into labour.\nBut would it really be him?\nWhat if it's... someone from my nightmares?\nScourge? Or one of those slavers? Or the man or woman who bid the highest on Don shortly before I was taken away from that horrible place?\nMy heartbeat quickened and my breathing sped up. I felt myself become anxious, fear and paranoia clouding my mind. My hand withdrew from the door handle.\nThe doorbell rang again and this time a voice accompanied the noise.\n\"Shadow? Are you there?\" It was only Cream. She might've dropped the Mr. and Mrs. by now, but I knew it was still her.\nA sigh of relief left me and I opened the front door.\n\"Cream, Cheese, Miss Vanilla, it's nice to see you.\" I greeted the pair and their chao. It was such a relief to see these three on the other end of the door.\n\"Shadow, look what we made!\" The young girl asked as she practically shoved a tray with cookies protected neatly in plastic wrapping in my face.\nBut noticing my relief, Vanilla couldn't help but pull an expression of concern on her features and pushed the matter of the baked goods aside for a little while.\n\"When we heard that you were leaving the hospital today Cream wanted to bake something delicious for you and the baby, but... Shadow, Dear, is something the matter?\" She asked, her hand settled on her chest. Her worry was very clear in her eyes.\n\"Everything's fine. I'm just a bit jumpy.\" I tried to show her a smile, but I think I just came off even more insecure.\nIt wasn't so difficult for her to see right through my act.\n\"Isn't Rouge in, Dear?\" Miss Vanilla asked as she tried to look past me, obviously wanting to know weither I was alone or not.\nHer daughter might not know the full details of what happened to me on Moebius, neither did Charmy or even Tails for that matter, but the mother rabbit was well aware of the horrors I had to live through.\n\"No, Rouge was called away for an important mission. It's just me and Don right now.\" I answered and felt myself become a little more relaxed. The fear that I suffered just minutes earlier was melting away because of this chitchat with two familiar faces.\n\"So you are here all alone. Do you want me and Cream to come in and keep you company until she returns?\" The vanilla rabbit kindly offered, but I couldn't accept.\n\"No, thank you. There will be more days that I'll have to spend with Don alone. So I'd like to get used to them as fast as I can. But thank you for the offer.\" I softly rejected, still touched by their worry instead of annoyed.\nThey reminded me that I was surrounded by kind people. No one would hit me while I was pregnant, choke me for looking them in the eye, pin me down for having a body part they could use for their own convenience. People here won't heartlessly trample on my feelings, my pride, my very being.\nHere I was safe.\n\"It was nice to see you two again, but I've just come home and I'd like to settle in again.\" I sounded more confident as I told them that I'd like to be left alone now.\nThey understood my want for peace and we spoke our goodbyes before they left, of course Cream had insisted that I accept the entire tray.\nI took the tray inside once they disappeared out of line of sight and held it with one hand while the free hand locked front door behind me, securing another level of safety for ourselves.\nFeeling a bit more sure now, I casually unwrapped the plastic and started munching on a chocolate chipped cookie. These were great! And that part of me that was still very much a teenager by heart, despites all the years that have passed, nonchalantly claimed that I shouldn't let their efforts go to waste and just engorge myself with these baked goods.\nThat sounded like a great plan.\nI entered the livingroom again and with the dream from before and my fears no longer occupying my mind, I sat down on the couch with the remote and enjoyed the gift I had been given.\n\nA couple of hours passed with me simply watching commercials, soaps, and documentaries with the occasional interruption from my week old infant son until my stomach started to growl even after downing half of the platter of cookies and I realised that it was already nearly 8pm in the evening.\nIt was desperatly time to get myself some dinner and I was trying to find something I felt like eating in the fridge, but that plan quickly fell in the water when someone rang the door bell.\nThe noise made me jump and I had to quickly compose myself before I made my way back into the entrance hall.\nUpon arriving at the front door, I opened with a little less hesitation this time.\n\"Hey, you hungry?\" Sonic asked with a grin as he held up a bag with takeaway of what would most likely be fastfood, just hoping I hadn't had a bite to eat yet.\n\"News travels fast apparently.\" I said instead of greeting him and leant against the door.\n\"You mean the news that Rouge will be gone until late in the night? Yeah, it did. So I figured I could come over with some food and totally not to check up on you and my godchild.\" He responded, earning himself an amused huff out of me.\nI took a step to the side to let him in and closed the door after he entered, locking it up tight once more.\n\"Thank you for the food, but I haven't decided who will be Don's godparents yet. Rouge has been pestering me about that too. And Amy. Even Tails tried to subtlely hint at how good of a godfather he'd be.\" I stated as I lead him to the livingroom and disappeared into the kitchen to grab two plates and utensils, figuring that Sonic brought enough for two.\nBefore long we were seated at the table and eating the fastfood that he had brought. Burgers, fries, and anything that should be enjoyed with them.\n\"So how are you doing? I mean, it wasn't exactly planned for you to be alone on your first day home.\" Despites his claim that he wasn't here to check up on me, though it had been a joke, the very first thing he said next was a question about how I was holding up.\nI would've sighed, but figured that answering the query would be easier. He and Vanilla probably won't be the only one to ask.\n\"It was fine.\" I lied as it hadn't been all that 'fine', not as much I would've liked this day to be. Ideally, I would've had no problem with a single paranoid thought or nightmare.\nBut then again, it's been little over three months. I suppose it could've been a lot worse.\nSonic looked like he wanted to ask, but at the same time he knew that I wouldn't want to talk about it. So he kept any further questions to himself.\nWell, questions concerning my mental health, that is.\n\"So how has Don been? Not giving you too much trouble?\" The hedgehog asked after swallowing a bite.\n\"No, he only wakes up when he's hungry or when his diaper is full. Other than that he just sleeps. He's such a lazy baby.\" I answered and Sonic could only chuckle, nearly choking on his soda. He had been so nice to get only a bottle of water for me, knowing that I breastfeed my son and probably shouldn't have caffeine or too much sugar just yet.\n\"Don't worry, I hear they become very active fast. Soon enough you'll have to chase after him as he crawls at the speed of sound.\" He joked and I could only smile.\n\"I hope he doesn't grow up too fast. I like to hold him.\" All of a sudden the mood turned all soppy, but it was what I truly felt. I hope he stays small enough to hold for a long time to come.\nSonic would've said something, but figured that he didn't want to ruin the mood.\nInstead he huffed and looked down, suddenly losing his appetite as he placed his burger back down.\nI took a break from eating aswell to observe him and as he didn't resume his meal, I knew something must be wrong.\n\"What?\" I asked with a low tone in my voice, telling him that I wanted nothing more than the truth.\n\"Are you sure you're okay?\" He asked, his concern winning over his want to keep the atmosphere lighthearted.\nThis time I did sigh, my fork stirring through the ketchup.\n\"I fell asleep around noon and had a nightmare about what could've happened if you and Rouge hadn't rescued me. It was horrific.\" I decided to come clean and felt that my appetite was perpetually lost too.\nI leant back in my chair and crossed my arms in front of my abdomen, sitting a bit slouched with my gaze cast downwards.\n\"You mean... when you did become a...\" It didn't seem like he could get the words to roll off his tongue.\n\"A pleasure and breeding slave.\" I looked back at him.\nAdmitting it out loud made it hurt. It made it more real.\nI pulled my feet up on the seat with me, my shins leaning against the edge of the table. I looked down again as I remembered every detail of that dream.\n\"I had given birth five more times after Don. And I hadn't seen any of them ever again as soon as they had left me. It was the true definition of a nightmare.\" Suddenly I couldn't stop talking. Either that was because I knew I'd be safe with Sonic, or because I was just tired of keeping all of these things to myself, like I had done during my first three months of freedom.\nThe cobalt hedgehog was speechless at first. His imaginative mind forced him to vividly see it all before his third eye and it made his heart swell in both anger and fear.\nWhat could he say or do with my kind of nightmares now carved painfully into my mind and heart because of my trauma?\n\"You know you're safe here, right? I know that Rouge is trying to get you a therapist that she trusts, Don will have you and all of us to count on, and we'll protect you. Scourge will just have to think of coming for you and we'll be there.\" All he knew to do was to promise me protection, promise Don protection.\nIt was a bit over the top, but it did make me feel safe.\n\"Let's eat.\" My appetite somewhat returned after all and I decided to dig in again.\n\nI'm sitting on the floor with soft satin covers all around me.\nI'm mindless. My eyes are dull and lifeless and yet a smile stains my muzzle. I'm leaning slouched against an empty couch, which was decorated with golden lining. I feel wet between my legs, it feels empty down there, and I'm tired.\nSomeone used to sit on the couch. My legs used to be around that someone.\nMy gaze travels upwards and falls on a small figure of only six standing in a hallway shackled with both his ankles and wrists and an equally dead look in his deep blue eyes.\n'Don!' I hear myself scream in this empty head, but my body doesn't react. I don't even seem to care.\nSuddenly I'm aware that my body, that had just satisfied a stranger and is just sitting in this room in the nude, is exposed for him to see.\nChaos, a son shouldn't see his mother like this!\nYet, I'm not covering up.\nSomeone suddenly smacks him upside the head and short round of laughter follows. They just hit him for fun, I could see the bruises and dirt cover his entire being. Don whines and brings a hand up to his temple. A pleading look is send my way.\nAnd still I don't care.\nI hear myself screaming in my mind to react.\nThis boy knows I'm his mother! This boy is begging for my protection!\nAnd yet, I have only eyes for the next faceless man that walks into the room and closes the door behind him, seperating me and Don.\n\nI wake up in bed with a jolt. Sweat soaks my fur and clothes and tears stick my cheeks out of frustration.\nBesides disgust for myself, I feel the undeniable urgent urge to check up on Don and jump out of bed, racing to get to the baby's room in a desperate hope to still find him sleeping inside and safe from harm.\nI leant over the railing of the crib and found my son sleeping soundlessly, sucking away on a pacifier he had gotten from Amy. A green one with ducks on.\nHe was okay.\nHe was not being abused by an owner, not neglected and ignored by his mother.\nHe was simply okay.\nMy knees give in and I find myself on the floor, head low, my gaze on him, and hands still on the railing.\nThat was horrible. A true nightmare.\nWould things have really come that far had I stayed? Would I have become mindless? Desensitized? Would I feel more concerned about spreading my legs than my own son?\nMy dominant hand slipped through two bars and settled on his abdomen, stroking him lightly.\n\"That nightmare won't come through. I will always protect you.\" I promised him that I wouldn't grow so empty, so uncaring, so removed from reality.\nI will always love him and be there for him.\nThat nightmare will never be real.\nI won't allow it.\nIt took close to an hour before I could finally tear myself away from the crib and I walked down the stairs.\nI was alone now as I had told Sonic to go home. Which he reluctantly did close to 11pm, though there was no sign of Rouge. Afterwards I didn't stay up for much longer and got ready for bed.\nMy throat was dry and I was dying for water, which was often something that happened after I experienced a nasty dream.\nI made my way into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet, not wasting any time to fill it with the cool liquid and downing it all in one gulp. I gasped and panted lightly. Relief swept over me as my thirst was quenched.\nMaybe now I'll be able to get some decent sleep without being plagued by another nightmare.\nOtherwise I'm going to need to tell Rouge to be less picky about which therapist is going to help me. I can't exactly afford to get exhausted because of bad dreams and flashbacks, not with a young child to think of. And my mental health was never really the best.\nSuddenly I heard a noise coming from within the house, a soft creak that broke the deathly silence.\nI couldn't help but whip my head around and look at the darkness of the livingroom. A feeling of being watched settled in me.\nI wasn't alone.\nSomeone was here.\nAs the ominous presence in my home continued, I couldn't help but think about my child.\nThis wasn't just paranoia playing cruel games with my mind, somebody was definitely here.\nInstantly the first culprit I could think off was Scourge or someone else from Moebius, perhaps even the last highest bidder of my son from that last auction I had been part of.\nAn unfortunatly familiar fear enveloped me in a cruel embrace as I was frozen in place. I had somehow lost the strength to move as my ears swerved all over the place aswell as my eyes, trying so hard to pick up on the softest sound and smallest of movements. An unbearable pounding was felt in my chest as adrenaline began rushing through my veins.\nChaos, all of my power was back at my fingertips again. Wasn't that enough encouragement to get me moving again?\nA baby's cry reached me and my head snapped up to stare at the ceiling. That cry was a cry of hunger, even after just a week I could already tell.\nBut that didn't mean that he couldn't be in danger.\nWith terrifying thoughts of Don in mind, fueled by my last nightmare, I got myself in motion and grabbed a knife from a drawer before I left the kitchen. Barefooted I found my way through the dark in silence as I didn't bother turning on the light, my enhanced vision able to discern enough to make my way through my home to find the stairs and the baby room.\nAs I entered with caution, knife in hand and ready for immediate use, Don's crying became more audible. But besides us there was no one else here after all.\nWere it just the creaks of a settling building that I heard? Feral birds of the night on the roof? Mice? My own mind? Either way, I'm taking Don to feed him in my bedroom, lock the door and not come outside until I hear Rouge coming home from her mission in the morning.\nBriefly I turned on the small nightlight to look at my boy as I approached his crib.\n\"I'm right here, little man. I'll do something about that hunger of yours.\" I promised as I looked down upon him before bending over to pick the week old baby up while the knife lay on the nighstand.\nBut I stopped mid-movement when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and my quills felt like bristling, every voice in my head screaming at me to turn around.\nI did and found a giant figure looming over me, iron pipe high in the air. It was a mobian grizzly bear.\nNot wanting to dodge and have the pipe possibly land on my child, I instinctively lifted my dominant arm up in front of my face, after which a sickening crack resonated through the room and pain spread through me like fire.\nThe bear was strong and my fifteen year old body, still recovering from both pregnancy and surgery, was no match for him.\nStill, I managed to push him back and made a grab for the knife when a hatchet came into my view out of nowhere, causing me to jump back at the last second and get away with a shallow cut on my right forearm.\nThere were two of them and this one was a rhino.\nThe bear took this opportunity to grab my ear and slam the side of my head into the crib, causing my vision to go black for a moment and lose sense of evereything before I summoned a weak Chaos Spear and grabbed his wrist, effectively burning him and causing him to let go of me.\nThough my vision was blurry and I was dizzy, I charged another Chaos Spear and charged at the rhino with every intention of shoving this half-formed spear down his throat.\nI recognised these two.\nThey were both slavetraders from Moebius. I've seen them beating on others in the warehouse I was kept. They were here for either me, my child or both of us and my bet is on the latter.\nThey were dressed in police uniforms to try and disguise their real identities, but I still recognised them.\nThose costumes weren't worn to fool me, but others.\nThere was one mistake they had made. These slavetraders only knew me at my most weakest point. They weren't familiar with my powers.\nIf only the incision from my c-section didn't take so long to heal.\nIt was after I had succesfully send that rhino out the baby room and tumbling down the stairs that I felt the stitches pull the worst and I was momentarily caught of guard, hunched over and my hands settling on my abdomen as I held onto the banister. The bear took this chance to whack me over the head with that pipe of his and caused me to collapse where I stood.\nI tried calling up another Spear, but he just hit me again.\n\"You may not be satisfying that little brat's hunger, but you sure as hell will be satisfying ours before we leave.\" The grizzly told me before I passed out and all I know is nothing.\n\nI'm back in that room again.\n\"Get up, you lazy inbred!\" My collar is yanked on by the chimp and I'm forced to my feet, creating foreign movement on my body that feels somewhat like a light weight.\nA look downwards at my own body reveals that I'm pierced. I could feel that my ears had several of them. I could feel two of them in my chest fur on my nipples and I don't even want to know how many I have in my nether region.\nAnd my collar? This time there were 24 little false gems adorning the black leather. Some right next to eachother were of the same colour, leading me to believe that they were twins and even two triplets.\nOh Chaos, twenty-four children! Twenty-three more after Don! Eighteen more after the six from my previous dream. This is inhumane!\nWhy is this happening to me?\nAnd yet, all I'm concerned with is my body. I felt like I needed something. I was longing for that something.\nMy loins burned for that something.\nI was addicted.\nScourge was telling me the truth.\nIt had taken years, but it seems like he did it. He won.\nSuddenly I was pushed into a room, my leash handed over to someone else.\nThere was a group of at least four or five men. They were smirking down on me so maliciously. Like a predator who just cornered a defenseless prey.\nPhysically my excitement grew through the roof. An itching formed between my legs that only they could satisfy.\nIt was disgusting.\nI was disgusting.\n\nWhen I came too, it was to something heavy weighing down on me, moving against me, rocking with me, creating a painful stretch on my lower body that I know isn't coming from my stitches.\nAnd then something warm fills me up and burns my internal incision with its salty nature.\nA grimace and a pained groan easily escaped and it didn't deter the heavy weight from continuing to pin me down and make it even more difficult to breath.\n\"You finally done? That slave is about to wake up.\" A vaguely familiar voice told the heavy weight before it finally left me and allowed me to breath again. It helped my senses return faster.\n\"That's only because you took your time with him! I only got to cum twice!\" A different voice spoke up.\nAs the two argued and I slowly floated closer and closer to the surface of consciousness, I became aware of several things.\nOne, something sticky was clogging up my throat and hindered my breathing. Second, my body was wrecked with pain and all sorts of strange sensations. Third, I was lying on a bed.\n\"W-What-\" I had to cough to clear my airways before I could speak properly.\n\"What happened?\" A completely clueless me asked as I tried to open my eyes, except to find that the same sticky substance had dried on my face, making it difficult to open one eye.\nI tried to move my left arm and it was agony. I tried to move my right arm, it didn't budge and it felt alarmingly numb. I tried to move my legs, they stayed in the same spread position as they simply didn't have the energy to move.\nAnd then I also became aware of how wet my crotch, inner thighs and covers beneath me were coupled with a strong sense of a burning pain on both my gender and stitches aswell as a strange sensation of both emptiness and fullness.\nIt was painfully familiar.\n\"What happened? Did I have sex? No, the doctor said I'm not supposed to be having sex yet.\" Even with my eyes open my delirious state continued until I lifted my head and noticed several other things.\nMy right arm was tied to a bedpost, my left was broken. There were several shallow cuts of a knife visible on my inner thighs. Two men smirked at the footend of the bed as they watched with joy as an expression of realisation appeared on my features.\nThe ruin that was my vagina, that didn't go unnoticed either.\nSex disgusted me, the very thought of someone touching me if it wasn't for or from affection from my son or a supportive gesture from a friend I knew well enough was disturbing to me. And I was asexual to boot. I was very sure of that. I didn't want sex and so I could never have consented to this.\nBut worst of all, the absolute silence coming from the baby room.\n\"Oh yeah, he's remembering.\" The bear spoke up with a smirk, trousers still partially undone and barechested.\n\"If he really was the Ultimate Lifeform, do you think we've knocked him up again?\" The rhino was only just pulling his slacks up after using my soaked bottom clothing, my boxers to be more specific, to clean his privates.\nThough the bear knew it was impossible, his smirk widened at the thought.\nMy eyes squeezed shut.\nNo. No. No!\nI did not just get raped again. I did not just get raped again!\n\"Wouldn't do much harm if we helped nature along.\" Playing along with the rhino's fantasy, the other mobian took my soaked boxers and stuffed them into my birth canal, which was now quite loose after having two large mobians abuse it so carelessly and was slow on the healing because my accelerated healing was much too concerned over my stitches from the c-section and brand removal aswell as my broken arm.\nA barely hidden pained whine mixed with a yelp left my vocals as my inner walls were stretched once more in a most unpleasant fashion with a most unpleasant texture.\nEverything, the situation, the pain, the humiliation, the realisation, the fear, everything made tears come to my eyes and it was hard to keep them from slipping.\n\"Where...\" Through gritted teeth I attempted to speak, my eyes opening to stare at the two mobians.\n\"Where is my son... What have you done with him... Why is he so silent?!\" I managed to swallow back my tears enough to get the questions past my lips.\n\"Where do you think he is? Back on Moebius where he belongs and where he will soon be living with his owner.\" I felt my barely repaired artificial heart break upon the rhino's words and once again my head fell back on my pillow. It was getting hard to keep my tears down this time and so a few made a clear path down my filthy face. A sob broke through.\n\"From what I hear, he'll be given to a real good master. He likes his slaves young, you see.\" The bear said and I couldn't help but lift my head up and stare at him in utter shock.\nAn infant from a pleasure and breeding slave... Given to someone who likes his slaves young?\nI could've sworn I felt something snap.\n\"Now all that's left is to wait for that batslut to come home and we can include her to the collection too!\" The rhino was particularly happy for this and the mental images of Rouge being put through something similar as me only further fueled my rage.\n\"A slut like that is bound to be able to take us both-\" The snapping of both bones and rope reaches their ears as my left arm was pulled free from its restraints, my right following suit.\n\"What the crap... One arm is broken and the other should've been dying off already...\" The rhino was clearly puzzled with this and when I sat up to glare at them, both took a giant step backwards until their backs hit the dresser.\n\"He-hey, what's with that crazy look in his eyes?\" The rhino asked the speechless bear, a pathetic whimper leaving his vocals.\n\"I think... We broke him too much.\" The other stated.\nHe couldn't be more right.\nChaos energy was moved through one's emotions and pure hatred was boiling my blood.\nThese men would pay. For every threat against my child while I was pregnant, for every bid placed on him, for seperating a newborn boy from his mother, for every beating inflicted on me, for every thrust and action taken to humiliate me and drive me further into the ground.\nThey will pay.\n\nI had blacked out.\nThat's how enraged I was.\nSuddenly I stood at the footend of the bed, staring at a pair of half burnt and maimed corpses, a knife stained with both my and their blood clutched in my hand.\nIt was the crying of my infant son that had eventually snapped me out of my angry trance.\nThey had lied straight to my face.\nDon was still here.\n\n[b][u]Rouge's POV[/u][/b]\n\nWhen I had come home late that morning with a cheery smile on my face, excited to see my roommate and the one who I was so sure to be my godchild, and my bed, I had no idea of the horrific sight I'd be walking in on.\nThe front door was already open on a creak when I arrived and immediatly both my purse and lugagge aswell as my keys fell to the ground. Shock was visible on my features.\nI knew Shadow. I knew that he wouldn't just leave the front door open like that, especially now with an infant living in the house, his infant.\nSomething had to be wrong.\n\"Shadow... Don...\" Fear immediatly gripped my heart and I raced inside and up the stairs, only to find the baby room devoid of life aswell as his bedroom. Then I ran into mine and found a true bloodbath.\nTwo figures of clearly very large mobians lied on the floor. Both of them were obviously dead. Burnt and maimed with one of the two murder weapons lying next to them. Their police uniforms were only just recognisable.\nThe furniture around them were also splattered with blood and damaged with a few scorch marks that I could already see were caused by a Chaos Spear after these years of living together with him, though obviously not a proper one.\nAs my eyes skimmed over the barely recognizable corpses, feeling sick to my stomach just thinking of them, and towards mess that was my bed, I also couldn't help but notice the unmistakeable stench and sight of cum, sensitive as a mobian's nose was, and more blood.\nAnd so I screamed.\n\"Shadow! Shadow!\" I had run out of the room and cried his name several times, but I never got a response.\nFearing the worst I was already giving up.\nScourge had to have come while I was away. He had kidnapped them both. Those police officers must've tried to help him and died trying.\nI grabbed my phone from my coat, my knees trembling as I hurried to find Sonic's name in my contact list. I couldn't let him suffer for months again. I had to do something before he lost Don!\nThen I heard a sound coming from the attic.\nIt sounded like shuffling.\nIt was very brief and barely audible. I only picked up on it because a mobian bat's ears are naturally more sensitive.\nCould it be?\nI had to take a look up there.\nHe was found up in the attic curled up and huddled in a corner behind some boxes where he was sure he wouldn't be seen, while he used to feel nauseous at the very thought of dirt like cob or dustwebs clinging to him.\nDon was crying in his arms, but his mother was close to passing out from the bloodloss. The stitches on his abdomen had been riped wide open. It was a miracle that his guts hadn't come spilling out yet.\n\"Shadow.\" I was the first one who dared to speak up, though not approaching him as I knew the hedgehog to still be dangerous, especially when this emotional.\nBut then he looked up and he did recognize me.\n\"T-they were slavetraders. They had c-come for me and my child. And you. They were going to give Don to a pedophile.\" His voice shook as he spoke up, just like the rest of his body trembled. He looked so pale.\nShadow tried to defend his decision to go complete ballistic on those two and make sure that even coroners would have a difficult time determining their species.\n\"I only wanted to protect us. I swear, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to pro-\" He held his crying son closer, as if trying to hide.\n\"I know, Shadow, and that's okay.\" I cut him off and went to my knees to be at eye level with him. As I noticed that it was safe to approach, I drew closer and tried to keep my nose from scrunching when I noticed the obvious signs of sexual assault, the cuts on his thighs, and then the open fracture now present on my left forearm that he somehow barely noticed.\nHe was holding Don with only one arm, the left limb just hung there uselessly.\n\"Shadow, maybe you should give me the baby. You can't hold him for much longer in the state you're in.\" I tried to convince him to give me his son, hoping that he'd give in before the loss of blood got the better of him and he ended up passing out with him still in his arms.\n\"Don't you dare!\" He shouted and kept the boy away when I reached for him. By the grimace on his face I could tell that the sudden move of his body send a jolt of pain through him.\nDid he mistake me for them for a moment?\n\"Shadow, Hun, you're about to pass out. If you fall over, you're going to hurt him.\" I tried again and Shadow could only look at me like I was talking crazy.\nHe didn't mean to distrust me, he just didn't want Don anywhere else but in his arms.\n\"Shadow, think of Don. He could fall on his head.\" I kept on trying. I wanted him to give in already because I can see his eyes drooping.\nShadow knew he had no other choice and reluctantly handed the baby over to me. As soon as Don lied securely in my arms, his mother wrapped his arm around himself. He was uncomfortable and becoming even more emotional.\nHe was trying to hold back, even though he looked like he could burst.\n\"Hun...\" I moved to sit next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder to pull him closer to me.\nI've known him for years. I had never really noticed that he had never 'grown up' because he had always been just Shadow to me. My partner, my roommate, my best friend, the Ultimate Lifeform.\nNow a helpless 15 year old was breaking down next to me. Suddenly he looked so young and vulnerable as his head fell to rest on my shoulder when he no longer had the strength to even hold it up, his consciousness gradually fading as I grabbed my phone to call an ambulance, Don asleep on my lap after the poor boy had cried himself to exhaustion.\nAs Shadow's figure grew limp, I suddenly saw what Scourge and those slavers had seen in him.\nA defenseless teenager.",
"writing_bbcode_parsed": "
A Different Kind of Chains
Shadow's POV
It's been at least a week since Sonic had me admitted to the hospital when my water broke and today both my son, Don, and I were allowed to go home. "I am 100% sure that you will love your room. My buddies, your uncle Tails and uncle Knuckles, set up your crib and there is not a doubt in my mind that you'll love every hour spend sleeping in there. And, when you're old enough, I'm willing to bet anything that you'll love the toys we picked out aswell. Not to brag, but the most fun ones are from me." That was Sonic who was constantly blabbering without end with my son in his arms. As soon as he entered my hospital room, he had taken Don from his crib to hold him and talk endlessly to him. Meanwhile all the poor boy wanted was to sleep. Nonsense like that never seemed to fail in making me smile lately, though. "Sonic, can you not play with Don? Getting him to sleep is already a nightmare, so I'm glad whenever he's quiet." I couldn't help but chuckle lightly as the banter continued. And finally I was done packing. "You're asking me to do the impossible, Shad. How am I supposed to keep my hands off this strapping young man?" Sonic argued, but he did hand my son over when I reached for him, the light shoulderbag hung over my shoulder. "Just get me home, Sonic. I'd like to catch up on some sleep before this little monster wakes up again and demands my bodily fluids." I replied, causing Sonic to grimace. "Okay, fine, but did you have to make the art of nursing your son sound so gross?" He asked and I could only nod curtly as an answer. Sonic laughed briefly before he moved to pick me up in his arms. The advantage to fighting robots nearly every week was that you build up muscle in pretty much your whole body. So while Sonic's strongest point was speed, I still trusted him to be capable enough to bring me and Don home safe. I was advised to hold off Chaos Control until at least my stitches were healed, so I hoped to get home quickly with his help and the blue hedgehog was more than willing to come to my aid. "Careful." I told him when his hand nearly settled on my bandaged thigh instead of my knee, causing him to take a step back. "Don't worry, I will watch out for your stitches, I know what I'm doing." He reassured me before he managed to pick me up. I had two sets of stitches. One row from my c-section a week ago and the other to remove a particularly bad burnmark brought on by seething hot iron. It was a mark of slavery. A mark the blackmarket of Moebius had stained me with. It was a simple word, but it would've caused me great sorrow if it hadn't been removed. 'Breeder'. That's what the burn mark had said. The one who had gleefully put it on my right outer thigh, Scourge, the self-proclaimed king of Moebius, had every intent on using my body's accelerated healing abilities to get me to pop out a new slave pretty much every nine months and I would've never been allowed to care for even one of them. That would've been a horrific future and I had almost give up, but fortunatly I'd never have to experience losing any children like that because Sonic and Rouge had come looking for me and brought me home while I was pregnant of my first. I will never be able to express the full extent of my gratitude. "Shadow! Mobius to Shadow! Are you there, Shadow?" As Sonic's voice pulled me out of the trance I didn't even know I was stuck in, I looked up to let my eyes meet with his. "Yes?" I asked as I repositioned the sleeping boy in my arms, adjusting the bag aswell as it had been resting on my abdomen in this position. "I told you that I was about to leave, but you looked like you were deep in thought... I hope they weren't bad thoughts..." That last sentence was spoken so carefully, like he wasn't entirely sure if he should speak of his concerns. I looked down at who I was holding as I didn't mean to meet his gaze any longer. I really was having bad thoughts and Sonic knew it too. During my last three months of my pregnancy I had developed the bad habit of letting certain terrible thoughts fill my mind, causing me to isolate myself from my friends as I let depression take hold of me. Especially after the baby room had been finished. My friends had been patient and understanding, staying only by my side when I needed them to. However, when my son was born they couldn't help themselves and they had all visited. Often times my room had been filled. "Sonic, can you just bring us home? I need to stay to Don's schedule if I wish to keep myself safe from sleep deprivation as much as possible." I requested and the blue hedgehog listened, speeding out through the fire exit.
Once Don and I were home, I told my thanks and goodbye to Sonic, who very, very reluctantly decided to leave me be so I could enjoy my time alone. Well, he hoped I would enjoy my time alone. And it turns out that was exactly what I was going to be. A note had been waiting for me on the table and as I approached it with Don still in my hold, the shoulderbag already dropped on the floor next to the coffee table, I could see that it was written in a clearly female handwriting. It was from Rouge and I couldn't help but release a deep sigh as I read what was on it. While she was supposed to have a day off today, she had instead been called on by the Commander for a very urgent mission. And she was only going to be back this evening. "Well, Don, looks like you and I will be spending some time alone today." I told him, though he was still asleep as that's what newborns did the most during their first few weeks of life. I couldn't help but huff at his continued silence and cruppled up the piece of paper before dropping it back down on the table and grabbing the shoulderbag in order to put my clothes in the washing machine and Don to bed in the crib that Tails and Knuckles had put together. Shortly after I found myself lying on the couch on my left side, mindful of the stitches on my lower abdomen and thigh, while I watched commercials on tv. I never would've dreamt, in all my life, that I'd ever miss watching commercials. Their perfect little worlds, shown for a minute or less each, interrupting exciting movies and shows. Strangely enough I enjoyed watching them aswell as the documentary playing on the tv about the life and environment of tropical feral animals. Now that I'm lying here with the remote in one hand, my other lying beneath my head, and my eyes glued to the screen, everything almost seemed normal. Almost. "Get up, you piece of filth!" All of a sudden I'm yanked up from the couch, the remote falling from my grasp on the soft carpet. The grip is tight and painful and as I look up to the owner of the strong hand, I come face to face with a bulky primate, a chimpansee. "Who the hell are you?! Let me go!" I demanded, but suddenly my collar is pulled on and I feel myself falling down to the dirt covered ground. As I look down on myself I noticed that I'm completely naked, save for a heavy collar around my neck that's adorned with six tiny jewels on the very top of its black surface. The first one was, like all others, just simple stained plastic and was glued in front of my throat and the others helped it create a path to the right side of the collar. It looked like an incomplete first row. What's going on? I was home, wasn't I? I had just put Don to bed and then I had plopped myself down on the couch and started switching between channels, eventually settling on a documentary. What was this? "Damn degenerate." The chimp growled in disdain as he pulled harder to get me back on my feet and I realised that I've been crying. What am I so sad for? It feels so real. "What are these gems for?" I asked through the sobs that I could not stop as I'm pulled along, somehow obediently following. The slaver smirked. "Have you forgotten?" He asked, a malicious tone lacing his every word. "Those are 'rewards' for all of the slaves you've brought into the world." I feel my very being shattering at this revelation. Slaves I've brought into this world. Children I conceived, grew, birthed. Defenseless beings who had been ripped away from me. Living things with feelings and a soul to be misused by others, vandalized like mere property. 'You monster! I'll rip you apart!' Is what I wanted to scream. "Please, it's only been a month since I gave birth." Is what I sobbed. The slavers' cruel laugh breaks free from his vocals and fills my ears, resonating inside my skull endlessly. It becomes too much, the walk to whoever would impregnate me next to continue this horrific cycle too heavy and I feel myself falling down. I land on soft carpet. My eyes snap open and come face to face with one of the legs of the coffee table. My chest is heaving rapidly as if I'm hyperventilating, my cheeks are wet and my eyes prickly, a crying reaches my ears. It was Don. He must've gotten hungry. Slowly do I calm down and once I find the strength to move do I carefully sit up to inspect my healing wounds. Thankfully, neither one of them are bleeding. I sat on the floor for a couple of brief moments as I simply collect my thoughts. It was only a dream. I was back home, I was raising my first child, I wasn't a breeding slave. Though I don't know when I've fallen asleep, one look at the tv told me that it was certainly a dream, a differen program was now playing and time has moved forward. But no, it wasn't a dream. It was a hellish nightmare. Rouge and Sonic hadn't found me, or didn't even come for me, and I had already given birth to five more kids after Don. I had been about to carry a seventh a mere month after birthing a sixth, a little girl I'm convinced it to be, and immediatly seperating from her. And that collar with the little emeralds as proof of how many kids I've had, it was a terrible detail that I remember seeing on someone else in that warehouse where I had been kept to be auctioned off. She had three. Chaos, the nightmare felt so real that I get freezing chills running down my spine. I even embrace myself and rub my upper arms as if trying to protect myself from the cold. So much detail, so much information. If I hadn't woken up, I would've been so sure that my short time back on Mobius had been the real dream. My son's crying reached my ears again and I get myself to move up from the floor, scrubbed clean in preparation for my homecoming, to make my way up the stairs and into the baby room. When my eyes fall on his crying, squirming form, I feel relieved. "This has to be reality. How else can listening to you cry make me ache so much and yet feel so relieved at the same time?" I told him as I unbuttoned one side of the top I wore to gain easy access to my chest. It was clothing made specifically for moments like these and a gift from Miss Vanilla the day after Don was born. She had claimed that this would make my life a whole lot easier and I can see why. I held the infant boy in the right position and he began to suckle, ceasing his crying. I bit down on my lower lip as I took a seat. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to endure the pain. Truth be told, breastfeeding hurt. As my son suckled, cramps formed in my abdomen. According to my doctor it was normal as it apparently helped my womb contract and get its original shape and size back quicker. That coupled with my accelerated healing must be why I'm getting my old body back at such a quick rate. Though, even without the breastfeeding it would still recover fast. One of the wonders of having the ultimate body, I suppose. Although, my real wonder was held in my arms. "It's a good thing you woke me up. I wouldn't know what would've become of me if I stayed in that nightmare for much longer." I told the boy as I leant back in the chair put here in the corner of the baby room. Don didn't reply, of course. He simply kept on nursing and eagerly satiated his hunger, his fist clenching and unclenching through my chest fur. Once he was done he let go and I helped him relieve himself, but I didn't put him back in his crib even when he was close to falling asleep. My mind was haunted by those children. Surely it would've never come to that, right? I had already determined that I would've escaped as soon as Don had left my body and I had regained my abilities. I would've been able to escape. Right? "Look at me, getting all worked up over kids I didn't even have." I sighed, absentmindedly stroking my son's quills as he slept upright against my chest. "To tell you the truth, just like I didn't want a physical relationship, I never thought I'd ever have children either. But I can't say I regret having you, no matter how you were conceived." I had to admit as I looked down on him, glad that he couldn't understand me just yet. Those months spend in Scourge's basement did make me realise a couple of things about myself. First of all, I wasn't all opposed to the idea of having children. I even got immediatly attached to the one I had been carrying at the time. Second of all, I am pretty much asexual. Even with the gender I possessed, I didn't really feel attracted to any kind of gender. Male, female, herm, I didn't feel anything for them unless there were certain personality traits involved. There might've been a while when I was first put in the auction house that my body longed for the daily use it used to receive those first three months at the hands of Scourge, but I have never gotten addicted, despites That hedgehog's claim. That was at least one small victory I had always carried. "I'm thinking about the past again, Don." I truthfully admitted. The only response I got was silence. "It's not as bad as people say, though. If someone ever tells you to put the past behind you, don't. It's from the past that we learn to create a better future. That is the first piece of wisdom I can give you as a parent." I continued to speak. Even though he was asleep, talking to him seems to ease the harrowing feeling brought on by my nightmare. I think I'll be just fine with him by my side. The sudden ringing of the doorbell is what drew my attention next and I found myself forced to get out of his cushioned chair and put my kid to sleep in his crib before I made myself decent again and made my way down the stairs and towards the front door. But once in front of it with my fingers clamped around the handle, I suddenly halted and dark thoughts filled my mind. It obviously wasn't Rouge, she would've just come in. It wouldn't be Cream, Amy, or Tails as they would've called beforehand. I wouldn't know if Knuckles would bother to visit unless it was urgent and Vector would only drag his teammates along if Miss Vanilla showed any concern. Now Sonic, he would come for a visit without warning. Sometimes he'd even have the guts to enter without permission. That was how he got in the day I went into labour. But would it really be him? What if it's... someone from my nightmares? Scourge? Or one of those slavers? Or the man or woman who bid the highest on Don shortly before I was taken away from that horrible place? My heartbeat quickened and my breathing sped up. I felt myself become anxious, fear and paranoia clouding my mind. My hand withdrew from the door handle. The doorbell rang again and this time a voice accompanied the noise. "Shadow? Are you there?" It was only Cream. She might've dropped the Mr. and Mrs. by now, but I knew it was still her. A sigh of relief left me and I opened the front door. "Cream, Cheese, Miss Vanilla, it's nice to see you." I greeted the pair and their chao. It was such a relief to see these three on the other end of the door. "Shadow, look what we made!" The young girl asked as she practically shoved a tray with cookies protected neatly in plastic wrapping in my face. But noticing my relief, Vanilla couldn't help but pull an expression of concern on her features and pushed the matter of the baked goods aside for a little while. "When we heard that you were leaving the hospital today Cream wanted to bake something delicious for you and the baby, but... Shadow, Dear, is something the matter?" She asked, her hand settled on her chest. Her worry was very clear in her eyes. "Everything's fine. I'm just a bit jumpy." I tried to show her a smile, but I think I just came off even more insecure. It wasn't so difficult for her to see right through my act. "Isn't Rouge in, Dear?" Miss Vanilla asked as she tried to look past me, obviously wanting to know weither I was alone or not. Her daughter might not know the full details of what happened to me on Moebius, neither did Charmy or even Tails for that matter, but the mother rabbit was well aware of the horrors I had to live through. "No, Rouge was called away for an important mission. It's just me and Don right now." I answered and felt myself become a little more relaxed. The fear that I suffered just minutes earlier was melting away because of this chitchat with two familiar faces. "So you are here all alone. Do you want me and Cream to come in and keep you company until she returns?" The vanilla rabbit kindly offered, but I couldn't accept. "No, thank you. There will be more days that I'll have to spend with Don alone. So I'd like to get used to them as fast as I can. But thank you for the offer." I softly rejected, still touched by their worry instead of annoyed. They reminded me that I was surrounded by kind people. No one would hit me while I was pregnant, choke me for looking them in the eye, pin me down for having a body part they could use for their own convenience. People here won't heartlessly trample on my feelings, my pride, my very being. Here I was safe. "It was nice to see you two again, but I've just come home and I'd like to settle in again." I sounded more confident as I told them that I'd like to be left alone now. They understood my want for peace and we spoke our goodbyes before they left, of course Cream had insisted that I accept the entire tray. I took the tray inside once they disappeared out of line of sight and held it with one hand while the free hand locked front door behind me, securing another level of safety for ourselves. Feeling a bit more sure now, I casually unwrapped the plastic and started munching on a chocolate chipped cookie. These were great! And that part of me that was still very much a teenager by heart, despites all the years that have passed, nonchalantly claimed that I shouldn't let their efforts go to waste and just engorge myself with these baked goods. That sounded like a great plan. I entered the livingroom again and with the dream from before and my fears no longer occupying my mind, I sat down on the couch with the remote and enjoyed the gift I had been given.
A couple of hours passed with me simply watching commercials, soaps, and documentaries with the occasional interruption from my week old infant son until my stomach started to growl even after downing half of the platter of cookies and I realised that it was already nearly 8pm in the evening. It was desperatly time to get myself some dinner and I was trying to find something I felt like eating in the fridge, but that plan quickly fell in the water when someone rang the door bell. The noise made me jump and I had to quickly compose myself before I made my way back into the entrance hall. Upon arriving at the front door, I opened with a little less hesitation this time. "Hey, you hungry?" Sonic asked with a grin as he held up a bag with takeaway of what would most likely be fastfood, just hoping I hadn't had a bite to eat yet. "News travels fast apparently." I said instead of greeting him and leant against the door. "You mean the news that Rouge will be gone until late in the night? Yeah, it did. So I figured I could come over with some food and totally not to check up on you and my godchild." He responded, earning himself an amused huff out of me. I took a step to the side to let him in and closed the door after he entered, locking it up tight once more. "Thank you for the food, but I haven't decided who will be Don's godparents yet. Rouge has been pestering me about that too. And Amy. Even Tails tried to subtlely hint at how good of a godfather he'd be." I stated as I lead him to the livingroom and disappeared into the kitchen to grab two plates and utensils, figuring that Sonic brought enough for two. Before long we were seated at the table and eating the fastfood that he had brought. Burgers, fries, and anything that should be enjoyed with them. "So how are you doing? I mean, it wasn't exactly planned for you to be alone on your first day home." Despites his claim that he wasn't here to check up on me, though it had been a joke, the very first thing he said next was a question about how I was holding up. I would've sighed, but figured that answering the query would be easier. He and Vanilla probably won't be the only one to ask. "It was fine." I lied as it hadn't been all that 'fine', not as much I would've liked this day to be. Ideally, I would've had no problem with a single paranoid thought or nightmare. But then again, it's been little over three months. I suppose it could've been a lot worse. Sonic looked like he wanted to ask, but at the same time he knew that I wouldn't want to talk about it. So he kept any further questions to himself. Well, questions concerning my mental health, that is. "So how has Don been? Not giving you too much trouble?" The hedgehog asked after swallowing a bite. "No, he only wakes up when he's hungry or when his diaper is full. Other than that he just sleeps. He's such a lazy baby." I answered and Sonic could only chuckle, nearly choking on his soda. He had been so nice to get only a bottle of water for me, knowing that I breastfeed my son and probably shouldn't have caffeine or too much sugar just yet. "Don't worry, I hear they become very active fast. Soon enough you'll have to chase after him as he crawls at the speed of sound." He joked and I could only smile. "I hope he doesn't grow up too fast. I like to hold him." All of a sudden the mood turned all soppy, but it was what I truly felt. I hope he stays small enough to hold for a long time to come. Sonic would've said something, but figured that he didn't want to ruin the mood. Instead he huffed and looked down, suddenly losing his appetite as he placed his burger back down. I took a break from eating aswell to observe him and as he didn't resume his meal, I knew something must be wrong. "What?" I asked with a low tone in my voice, telling him that I wanted nothing more than the truth. "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked, his concern winning over his want to keep the atmosphere lighthearted. This time I did sigh, my fork stirring through the ketchup. "I fell asleep around noon and had a nightmare about what could've happened if you and Rouge hadn't rescued me. It was horrific." I decided to come clean and felt that my appetite was perpetually lost too. I leant back in my chair and crossed my arms in front of my abdomen, sitting a bit slouched with my gaze cast downwards. "You mean... when you did become a..." It didn't seem like he could get the words to roll off his tongue. "A pleasure and breeding slave." I looked back at him. Admitting it out loud made it hurt. It made it more real. I pulled my feet up on the seat with me, my shins leaning against the edge of the table. I looked down again as I remembered every detail of that dream. "I had given birth five more times after Don. And I hadn't seen any of them ever again as soon as they had left me. It was the true definition of a nightmare." Suddenly I couldn't stop talking. Either that was because I knew I'd be safe with Sonic, or because I was just tired of keeping all of these things to myself, like I had done during my first three months of freedom. The cobalt hedgehog was speechless at first. His imaginative mind forced him to vividly see it all before his third eye and it made his heart swell in both anger and fear. What could he say or do with my kind of nightmares now carved painfully into my mind and heart because of my trauma? "You know you're safe here, right? I know that Rouge is trying to get you a therapist that she trusts, Don will have you and all of us to count on, and we'll protect you. Scourge will just have to think of coming for you and we'll be there." All he knew to do was to promise me protection, promise Don protection. It was a bit over the top, but it did make me feel safe. "Let's eat." My appetite somewhat returned after all and I decided to dig in again.
I'm sitting on the floor with soft satin covers all around me. I'm mindless. My eyes are dull and lifeless and yet a smile stains my muzzle. I'm leaning slouched against an empty couch, which was decorated with golden lining. I feel wet between my legs, it feels empty down there, and I'm tired. Someone used to sit on the couch. My legs used to be around that someone. My gaze travels upwards and falls on a small figure of only six standing in a hallway shackled with both his ankles and wrists and an equally dead look in his deep blue eyes. 'Don!' I hear myself scream in this empty head, but my body doesn't react. I don't even seem to care. Suddenly I'm aware that my body, that had just satisfied a stranger and is just sitting in this room in the nude, is exposed for him to see. Chaos, a son shouldn't see his mother like this! Yet, I'm not covering up. Someone suddenly smacks him upside the head and short round of laughter follows. They just hit him for fun, I could see the bruises and dirt cover his entire being. Don whines and brings a hand up to his temple. A pleading look is send my way. And still I don't care. I hear myself screaming in my mind to react. This boy knows I'm his mother! This boy is begging for my protection! And yet, I have only eyes for the next faceless man that walks into the room and closes the door behind him, seperating me and Don.
I wake up in bed with a jolt. Sweat soaks my fur and clothes and tears stick my cheeks out of frustration. Besides disgust for myself, I feel the undeniable urgent urge to check up on Don and jump out of bed, racing to get to the baby's room in a desperate hope to still find him sleeping inside and safe from harm. I leant over the railing of the crib and found my son sleeping soundlessly, sucking away on a pacifier he had gotten from Amy. A green one with ducks on. He was okay. He was not being abused by an owner, not neglected and ignored by his mother. He was simply okay. My knees give in and I find myself on the floor, head low, my gaze on him, and hands still on the railing. That was horrible. A true nightmare. Would things have really come that far had I stayed? Would I have become mindless? Desensitized? Would I feel more concerned about spreading my legs than my own son? My dominant hand slipped through two bars and settled on his abdomen, stroking him lightly. "That nightmare won't come through. I will always protect you." I promised him that I wouldn't grow so empty, so uncaring, so removed from reality. I will always love him and be there for him. That nightmare will never be real. I won't allow it. It took close to an hour before I could finally tear myself away from the crib and I walked down the stairs. I was alone now as I had told Sonic to go home. Which he reluctantly did close to 11pm, though there was no sign of Rouge. Afterwards I didn't stay up for much longer and got ready for bed. My throat was dry and I was dying for water, which was often something that happened after I experienced a nasty dream. I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet, not wasting any time to fill it with the cool liquid and downing it all in one gulp. I gasped and panted lightly. Relief swept over me as my thirst was quenched. Maybe now I'll be able to get some decent sleep without being plagued by another nightmare. Otherwise I'm going to need to tell Rouge to be less picky about which therapist is going to help me. I can't exactly afford to get exhausted because of bad dreams and flashbacks, not with a young child to think of. And my mental health was never really the best. Suddenly I heard a noise coming from within the house, a soft creak that broke the deathly silence. I couldn't help but whip my head around and look at the darkness of the livingroom. A feeling of being watched settled in me. I wasn't alone. Someone was here. As the ominous presence in my home continued, I couldn't help but think about my child. This wasn't just paranoia playing cruel games with my mind, somebody was definitely here. Instantly the first culprit I could think off was Scourge or someone else from Moebius, perhaps even the last highest bidder of my son from that last auction I had been part of. An unfortunatly familiar fear enveloped me in a cruel embrace as I was frozen in place. I had somehow lost the strength to move as my ears swerved all over the place aswell as my eyes, trying so hard to pick up on the softest sound and smallest of movements. An unbearable pounding was felt in my chest as adrenaline began rushing through my veins. Chaos, all of my power was back at my fingertips again. Wasn't that enough encouragement to get me moving again? A baby's cry reached me and my head snapped up to stare at the ceiling. That cry was a cry of hunger, even after just a week I could already tell. But that didn't mean that he couldn't be in danger. With terrifying thoughts of Don in mind, fueled by my last nightmare, I got myself in motion and grabbed a knife from a drawer before I left the kitchen. Barefooted I found my way through the dark in silence as I didn't bother turning on the light, my enhanced vision able to discern enough to make my way through my home to find the stairs and the baby room. As I entered with caution, knife in hand and ready for immediate use, Don's crying became more audible. But besides us there was no one else here after all. Were it just the creaks of a settling building that I heard? Feral birds of the night on the roof? Mice? My own mind? Either way, I'm taking Don to feed him in my bedroom, lock the door and not come outside until I hear Rouge coming home from her mission in the morning. Briefly I turned on the small nightlight to look at my boy as I approached his crib. "I'm right here, little man. I'll do something about that hunger of yours." I promised as I looked down upon him before bending over to pick the week old baby up while the knife lay on the nighstand. But I stopped mid-movement when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and my quills felt like bristling, every voice in my head screaming at me to turn around. I did and found a giant figure looming over me, iron pipe high in the air. It was a mobian grizzly bear. Not wanting to dodge and have the pipe possibly land on my child, I instinctively lifted my dominant arm up in front of my face, after which a sickening crack resonated through the room and pain spread through me like fire. The bear was strong and my fifteen year old body, still recovering from both pregnancy and surgery, was no match for him. Still, I managed to push him back and made a grab for the knife when a hatchet came into my view out of nowhere, causing me to jump back at the last second and get away with a shallow cut on my right forearm. There were two of them and this one was a rhino. The bear took this opportunity to grab my ear and slam the side of my head into the crib, causing my vision to go black for a moment and lose sense of evereything before I summoned a weak Chaos Spear and grabbed his wrist, effectively burning him and causing him to let go of me. Though my vision was blurry and I was dizzy, I charged another Chaos Spear and charged at the rhino with every intention of shoving this half-formed spear down his throat. I recognised these two. They were both slavetraders from Moebius. I've seen them beating on others in the warehouse I was kept. They were here for either me, my child or both of us and my bet is on the latter. They were dressed in police uniforms to try and disguise their real identities, but I still recognised them. Those costumes weren't worn to fool me, but others. There was one mistake they had made. These slavetraders only knew me at my most weakest point. They weren't familiar with my powers. If only the incision from my c-section didn't take so long to heal. It was after I had succesfully send that rhino out the baby room and tumbling down the stairs that I felt the stitches pull the worst and I was momentarily caught of guard, hunched over and my hands settling on my abdomen as I held onto the banister. The bear took this chance to whack me over the head with that pipe of his and caused me to collapse where I stood. I tried calling up another Spear, but he just hit me again. "You may not be satisfying that little brat's hunger, but you sure as hell will be satisfying ours before we leave." The grizzly told me before I passed out and all I know is nothing.
I'm back in that room again. "Get up, you lazy inbred!" My collar is yanked on by the chimp and I'm forced to my feet, creating foreign movement on my body that feels somewhat like a light weight. A look downwards at my own body reveals that I'm pierced. I could feel that my ears had several of them. I could feel two of them in my chest fur on my nipples and I don't even want to know how many I have in my nether region. And my collar? This time there were 24 little false gems adorning the black leather. Some right next to eachother were of the same colour, leading me to believe that they were twins and even two triplets. Oh Chaos, twenty-four children! Twenty-three more after Don! Eighteen more after the six from my previous dream. This is inhumane! Why is this happening to me? And yet, all I'm concerned with is my body. I felt like I needed something. I was longing for that something. My loins burned for that something. I was addicted. Scourge was telling me the truth. It had taken years, but it seems like he did it. He won. Suddenly I was pushed into a room, my leash handed over to someone else. There was a group of at least four or five men. They were smirking down on me so maliciously. Like a predator who just cornered a defenseless prey. Physically my excitement grew through the roof. An itching formed between my legs that only they could satisfy. It was disgusting. I was disgusting.
When I came too, it was to something heavy weighing down on me, moving against me, rocking with me, creating a painful stretch on my lower body that I know isn't coming from my stitches. And then something warm fills me up and burns my internal incision with its salty nature. A grimace and a pained groan easily escaped and it didn't deter the heavy weight from continuing to pin me down and make it even more difficult to breath. "You finally done? That slave is about to wake up." A vaguely familiar voice told the heavy weight before it finally left me and allowed me to breath again. It helped my senses return faster. "That's only because you took your time with him! I only got to cum twice!" A different voice spoke up. As the two argued and I slowly floated closer and closer to the surface of consciousness, I became aware of several things. One, something sticky was clogging up my throat and hindered my breathing. Second, my body was wrecked with pain and all sorts of strange sensations. Third, I was lying on a bed. "W-What-" I had to cough to clear my airways before I could speak properly. "What happened?" A completely clueless me asked as I tried to open my eyes, except to find that the same sticky substance had dried on my face, making it difficult to open one eye. I tried to move my left arm and it was agony. I tried to move my right arm, it didn't budge and it felt alarmingly numb. I tried to move my legs, they stayed in the same spread position as they simply didn't have the energy to move. And then I also became aware of how wet my crotch, inner thighs and covers beneath me were coupled with a strong sense of a burning pain on both my gender and stitches aswell as a strange sensation of both emptiness and fullness. It was painfully familiar. "What happened? Did I have sex? No, the doctor said I'm not supposed to be having sex yet." Even with my eyes open my delirious state continued until I lifted my head and noticed several other things. My right arm was tied to a bedpost, my left was broken. There were several shallow cuts of a knife visible on my inner thighs. Two men smirked at the footend of the bed as they watched with joy as an expression of realisation appeared on my features. The ruin that was my vagina, that didn't go unnoticed either. Sex disgusted me, the very thought of someone touching me if it wasn't for or from affection from my son or a supportive gesture from a friend I knew well enough was disturbing to me. And I was asexual to boot. I was very sure of that. I didn't want sex and so I could never have consented to this. But worst of all, the absolute silence coming from the baby room. "Oh yeah, he's remembering." The bear spoke up with a smirk, trousers still partially undone and barechested. "If he really was the Ultimate Lifeform, do you think we've knocked him up again?" The rhino was only just pulling his slacks up after using my soaked bottom clothing, my boxers to be more specific, to clean his privates. Though the bear knew it was impossible, his smirk widened at the thought. My eyes squeezed shut. No. No. No! I did not just get raped again. I did not just get raped again! "Wouldn't do much harm if we helped nature along." Playing along with the rhino's fantasy, the other mobian took my soaked boxers and stuffed them into my birth canal, which was now quite loose after having two large mobians abuse it so carelessly and was slow on the healing because my accelerated healing was much too concerned over my stitches from the c-section and brand removal aswell as my broken arm. A barely hidden pained whine mixed with a yelp left my vocals as my inner walls were stretched once more in a most unpleasant fashion with a most unpleasant texture. Everything, the situation, the pain, the humiliation, the realisation, the fear, everything made tears come to my eyes and it was hard to keep them from slipping. "Where..." Through gritted teeth I attempted to speak, my eyes opening to stare at the two mobians. "Where is my son... What have you done with him... Why is he so silent?!" I managed to swallow back my tears enough to get the questions past my lips. "Where do you think he is? Back on Moebius where he belongs and where he will soon be living with his owner." I felt my barely repaired artificial heart break upon the rhino's words and once again my head fell back on my pillow. It was getting hard to keep my tears down this time and so a few made a clear path down my filthy face. A sob broke through. "From what I hear, he'll be given to a real good master. He likes his slaves young, you see." The bear said and I couldn't help but lift my head up and stare at him in utter shock. An infant from a pleasure and breeding slave... Given to someone who likes his slaves young? I could've sworn I felt something snap. "Now all that's left is to wait for that batslut to come home and we can include her to the collection too!" The rhino was particularly happy for this and the mental images of Rouge being put through something similar as me only further fueled my rage. "A slut like that is bound to be able to take us both-" The snapping of both bones and rope reaches their ears as my left arm was pulled free from its restraints, my right following suit. "What the crap... One arm is broken and the other should've been dying off already..." The rhino was clearly puzzled with this and when I sat up to glare at them, both took a giant step backwards until their backs hit the dresser. "He-hey, what's with that crazy look in his eyes?" The rhino asked the speechless bear, a pathetic whimper leaving his vocals. "I think... We broke him too much." The other stated. He couldn't be more right. Chaos energy was moved through one's emotions and pure hatred was boiling my blood. These men would pay. For every threat against my child while I was pregnant, for every bid placed on him, for seperating a newborn boy from his mother, for every beating inflicted on me, for every thrust and action taken to humiliate me and drive me further into the ground. They will pay.
I had blacked out. That's how enraged I was. Suddenly I stood at the footend of the bed, staring at a pair of half burnt and maimed corpses, a knife stained with both my and their blood clutched in my hand. It was the crying of my infant son that had eventually snapped me out of my angry trance. They had lied straight to my face. Don was still here.
Rouge's POV
When I had come home late that morning with a cheery smile on my face, excited to see my roommate and the one who I was so sure to be my godchild, and my bed, I had no idea of the horrific sight I'd be walking in on. The front door was already open on a creak when I arrived and immediatly both my purse and lugagge aswell as my keys fell to the ground. Shock was visible on my features. I knew Shadow. I knew that he wouldn't just leave the front door open like that, especially now with an infant living in the house, his infant. Something had to be wrong. "Shadow... Don..." Fear immediatly gripped my heart and I raced inside and up the stairs, only to find the baby room devoid of life aswell as his bedroom. Then I ran into mine and found a true bloodbath. Two figures of clearly very large mobians lied on the floor. Both of them were obviously dead. Burnt and maimed with one of the two murder weapons lying next to them. Their police uniforms were only just recognisable. The furniture around them were also splattered with blood and damaged with a few scorch marks that I could already see were caused by a Chaos Spear after these years of living together with him, though obviously not a proper one. As my eyes skimmed over the barely recognizable corpses, feeling sick to my stomach just thinking of them, and towards mess that was my bed, I also couldn't help but notice the unmistakeable stench and sight of cum, sensitive as a mobian's nose was, and more blood. And so I screamed. "Shadow! Shadow!" I had run out of the room and cried his name several times, but I never got a response. Fearing the worst I was already giving up. Scourge had to have come while I was away. He had kidnapped them both. Those police officers must've tried to help him and died trying. I grabbed my phone from my coat, my knees trembling as I hurried to find Sonic's name in my contact list. I couldn't let him suffer for months again. I had to do something before he lost Don! Then I heard a sound coming from the attic. It sounded like shuffling. It was very brief and barely audible. I only picked up on it because a mobian bat's ears are naturally more sensitive. Could it be? I had to take a look up there. He was found up in the attic curled up and huddled in a corner behind some boxes where he was sure he wouldn't be seen, while he used to feel nauseous at the very thought of dirt like cob or dustwebs clinging to him. Don was crying in his arms, but his mother was close to passing out from the bloodloss. The stitches on his abdomen had been riped wide open. It was a miracle that his guts hadn't come spilling out yet. "Shadow." I was the first one who dared to speak up, though not approaching him as I knew the hedgehog to still be dangerous, especially when this emotional. But then he looked up and he did recognize me. "T-they were slavetraders. They had c-come for me and my child. And you. They were going to give Don to a pedophile." His voice shook as he spoke up, just like the rest of his body trembled. He looked so pale. Shadow tried to defend his decision to go complete ballistic on those two and make sure that even coroners would have a difficult time determining their species. "I only wanted to protect us. I swear, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to pro-" He held his crying son closer, as if trying to hide. "I know, Shadow, and that's okay." I cut him off and went to my knees to be at eye level with him. As I noticed that it was safe to approach, I drew closer and tried to keep my nose from scrunching when I noticed the obvious signs of sexual assault, the cuts on his thighs, and then the open fracture now present on my left forearm that he somehow barely noticed. He was holding Don with only one arm, the left limb just hung there uselessly. "Shadow, maybe you should give me the baby. You can't hold him for much longer in the state you're in." I tried to convince him to give me his son, hoping that he'd give in before the loss of blood got the better of him and he ended up passing out with him still in his arms. "Don't you dare!" He shouted and kept the boy away when I reached for him. By the grimace on his face I could tell that the sudden move of his body send a jolt of pain through him. Did he mistake me for them for a moment? "Shadow, Hun, you're about to pass out. If you fall over, you're going to hurt him." I tried again and Shadow could only look at me like I was talking crazy. He didn't mean to distrust me, he just didn't want Don anywhere else but in his arms. "Shadow, think of Don. He could fall on his head." I kept on trying. I wanted him to give in already because I can see his eyes drooping. Shadow knew he had no other choice and reluctantly handed the baby over to me. As soon as Don lied securely in my arms, his mother wrapped his arm around himself. He was uncomfortable and becoming even more emotional. He was trying to hold back, even though he looked like he could burst. "Hun..." I moved to sit next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder to pull him closer to me. I've known him for years. I had never really noticed that he had never 'grown up' because he had always been just Shadow to me. My partner, my roommate, my best friend, the Ultimate Lifeform. Now a helpless 15 year old was breaking down next to me. Suddenly he looked so young and vulnerable as his head fell to rest on my shoulder when he no longer had the strength to even hold it up, his consciousness gradually fading as I grabbed my phone to call an ambulance, Don asleep on my lap after the poor boy had cried himself to exhaustion. As Shadow's figure grew limp, I suddenly saw what Scourge and those slavers had seen in him. A defenseless teenager.",
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