Identity War - Chapter 4

Shadow chased him, and then he began to hear cries and shouts from familiar werehogs, even small infants. He saw how the vampires attacked the few werehogs that existed.

Silver roared, both furious and scared for his pack. There was no way they could win this, and for that Shadow began crying. He then realized that Sonic was the leader and that he had decided this attack. The emerald eyes of Sonic struck on Shadow’s mate. If there was someone he wanted to kill, it was none less than Silver.

He had ordered the other vampires to trap the werehogs and lock when he was about to kill their leader. Shadow refused to let it happen and ran up to Silver to embrace him as he looked at Sonic, who was standing before them with bloodlust, directly to the ivory werehog.

"You won’t kill my mate! Or the other werehogs!” He growled. “Can’t we have peace?”

Sonic was turning sadder when Shadow kept protecting the werehogs; he started missing the old times when Shadow would only cheer up for him. Where were those old times? Why Shadow was protecting his "mate"? Did Shadow really forget about him and replaced him? Sonic hissed as he made big efforts to stop himself from crying, but it was very hard because some small tears were already falling from his eyes.

He wiped them away from his face and bared his long fangs.

"Move aside or I will hurt you." He said in anger. Deep inside, he was very jealous that Silver had got Shadow's attention and changed him. Silver stepped in front of Shadow.

"I will be fine Shadow. The least I want is that this stupid vampire harms you." Then he jumped on top of Sonic and bit him everywhere. Sonic gave some punches now and then, but he didn't want to harm him that much. He didn't want to make Shadow sad, so he instead received the bites without much complain.

Shadow was so confused. He didn’t know which side he should take. He was torn apart; he wasn’t sure what he should do other than stop the fight, but he also wanted to save the remaining werehogs. Seeing Sonic cry made him sad. Way too sad to ignore it.

He began to view this from the vampire’s perspective. He knew why Sonic hated them so much; Shadow did remember that Sonic was his owner after all. He had saved his life, and the reason for staying in the pack was because he was attracted.

It was wrong, so wrong for Shadow. He should have known better than to let his body speak for him. But in his mind he had started to develop feelings towards the leader.

Guilt was so overwhelming when he remembered that he had promised to Sonic that he would come back. So he was to keep his promise.

"Sonic… I am going home...” he said a bit low. He approached the brawl and got both of their attentions. "Sonic we are going home.”

Sonic was about to bite Silver and throw him away, but he stopped when he noticed Shadow stepping in front of the battle. Sonic was never going to be very sure about Shadow anymore. Was he lying again? Was he just doing it because of him? Did he care more about Silver than him? Silver blinked in confusion and anger.

"You aren’t going with this vampire! He was going to hurt you, don’t you see? He doesn’t care about you anymore! Please don’t go; you will be hurt worse than before!" He begged in sadness, but he was very angry.

Sonic's ears lowered as he looked away. He stood up and picked up Silver from his skin neck, then placed him besides Shadow. Sonic turned as he felt more tears coming to his eyes.

"You don’t have to do that.... I see you have adapted being here. The least I want is to force you to something you don’t want to do." He ran away when his tears started coming out.

Shadow growled at his own behavior and also at Silver’s. He didn’t like the way he talked about Sonic, and he had to run after his former owner. The vampire hadn’t expected Shadow to follow him, so he caught up with him pretty fast.

"..Sonic...I am sorry...for what I said before...but I miss my home… To be with you...If feels like I had been forced to adapt to be a werehog...and to slowly accept what I am...But you never judged me from which race I am, while everyone else in the werehog clan call me legendary werehog.....I don’t like it....I am just thinking....would you accept me no matter what? I just fear you won’t accept me master..." Shadow said and began to cry.

Sonic wiped away all of his tears before he turned to look at Shadow. He smiled very weakly. "Shadow, I have always accepted you. My father had explained me what a werehog was before, but even if he told me to treat you as a slave and not as equal I never paid attention to him. I cared for you as my friend, not as an inferior werehog." He cleaned some of Shadow's tears.

"Of course I would accept you... but I was thinking that you maybe wanted to stay with werehogs now because you have now lived with them for 4 years. I don't want to make you sad, so if you want to live with your... mate.... you can go ahead. I won't stop you. You are very free to choose which side you want to be on." His words came out as pained ones because the idea of Shadow living in his true place made him sad.

“I don’t want to choose a side… You said wrong… I feel like I belong to you, I feel more at home when I am with you. I just feel guilty for leaving them for the desires I always had. Every time I mentioned what I wanted, they tried to understand why, but they didn’t understand much. They kept saying you were going to harm me.....The werehogs didn’t see past your race and see you as an individual because they fear all vampires ...I just want to come back with you!" Shadow said and began to sob. He just felt that whatever side he took would be wrong.

"I don’t understand why I can’t! But...I promised you... I promised you even before I felt attracted to Silver. My mate heard my promise! I still can’t be the werehog that hated my own race. So can you be my master again?” He sighed. “But don’t harm my kind....they might have kidnapped me... but I have become friends with some and I really don’t want a meaningless war...can you at least leave them in peace?" Shadow said honestly and lower his ears for a possibly rejection.

Sonic was overwhelmed by Shadow's words. From what he heard, Shadow was extremely unsure of which side he should take at all, if werehogs or vampires, but at the same time he seemed sure to go back with Sonic. He sighed as he gently patted
Shadow's head.

"Don't worry Shadow; I was just very sad the day I lost you. I was all alone and had no friends to be with, which is one of the main reasons why I wanted you back with me. Besides, we have known each other ever since we were babies, and I was very afraid that I would lose you forever if I didn't train and stop those werehogs. I understand that you have made some friends in here. I promise to leave them alone." He screeched to call the other vampires.

"We have gotten Shadow back, and that’s all what we needed to do here. Let’s go home." The vampires nodded, even though a bit uneasy, as they ran away, but Sonic didn’t move at all because he wanted to go last with Shadow.

"Well, let's go home... I had been missing you" He started walking away still a bit sad,

Silver was shocked to see the vampires leave, but he had heard the reason. He was about to take off and get his mate back but he was stopped by Eli.

"I am sorry to say this Silver...but I think this is the way the legendary black werehog was supposed to save us with. We had always thought he was going to go and attack them. But...this might bring peace to us forever." Silver, however was very upset and couldn’t believe he was losing his mate. He was certain that Shadow was starting to love him.

But, he knew that his pack would most likely cease to exist if it wasn’t for Shadow. "I...I...-" Silver said with tears in his eyes and he ran away.

A vampire and war was standing between him and Shadow. His mate saw that it was more important to protect his kind from the vampires than to follow his love.

The leader was having a breakdown and was left alone; they knew Silver didn’t want them to see him like that. In the pack an old gray werehog sighed sadly.

"Maybe this was Shadow’s fate...being kidnapped. It maybe had a purpose..." The old female said as she saw the other werehogs cry for their great loss that night. They could only hope there was a chance they all could move on, but it was a big chance that Silver would be scarred after this event.

Silver thought that he would never get his little mate back, and that made him deeply saddened. He had tried so hard to help him to adapt, but then again he had underestimated the vampires' power and now his mate was taken away. Silver still thought that Shadow was their savior, and even more because he managed to convince the vampires from stopping the attack. He did care for the werehog clan, after all. Silver just stared at the ground in complete silence, his thoughts mixed and confused.

---

Sonic guided Shadow back to the mansion, still not very sure about if the crying he made was forced or if it was true, and took him to the bathtub.

Shadow had got a bit hurt on the small war, and Sonic decided it was best to clean his wounds with the water. As soon as he filled up the tube with the water and placed the black hedgehog inside, he started remembering the very first bath he had given to Shadow when he was just a small pup. The black werehog was so innocent and curious by then, and he had enjoyed the bath with help of the blue vampire. Now Sonic wasn't sure if Shadow would feel something like that at all, and that made him shed some more little tears. He sighed as he cleaned Shadow's black fur with care.

"I love this...have missed it a lo,t almost as much as you!" Shadow said with a purr when his owner cleaned his fur like he used to do before. The werehog even began to play with the warm water as he had done the first time he bathed in it. He began to laugh innocently touching the foam in the water. His thoughts about the werehog clan were not there anymore… at the moment. He felt his life he had before return to him.

Sonic smiled weakly when he saw Shadow play in the water. All of his infancy with Shadow came back to his mind in a slow showdown, as if he was watching a long movie. Sonic couldn't stop smiling when another memory went through.

He had started massaging Shadow's body rather than giving him a bath, but Shadow didn't mind at all. Sonic did that for a long time until he finally stopped and took Shadow out of the tube. He grabbed a towel and dried his fur. After his black fur was totally fry, Sonic combed it with his hands until Shadow's quills were fixed. "You are clean now."

"Thanks master." Shadow said and gave him a happy smile. Then he suddenly noticed Sonic’s long fangs. He had never seen such dangerous fangs before.

"Wow Sonic! Your fangs! They are amazing!" He pointed out with wide and impressed eyes.

Sonic laughed weakly. "Thank you. I didn't think they would grow this large, but I don't really like to use them." Sonic picked him up and put him down on the bed.

“But you have to use them! …Can’t you drink from me again? Like before?" Shadow asked and lowered his ears. The werehogs kept telling Shadow that being bitten was an abuse and would only hurt him, but Shadow didn’t see it that way; he was still happy when Sonic could feed on him.

Sonic however was very confused. Why Shadow was so persistent about him drinking his blood? Sonic had got so used to only bite his wrist that he didn't want to bite anyone else, not even an innocent animal. He sighed.

"No, I don’t want to do that. Those werehogs were right when they said I was abusing of your regenerative ability to drink as much as I wanted. Please don’t ask again."

"No! They are wrong! They always tried to make me believe you were the bad guy! But it’s not true!" Shadow said and began to cry. "I love these marks from you Sonic! That was the only thing that kept me sane the first years! I was happy that I had something from you and it comforted me!" Shadow added sad and shut his eyes.

"I want you to bite me again. It’s not abuse! You knew it before! I would have protested if I hadn’t liked it…"

Sonic thought hard about it. His body had got used to not drinking blood, and he wanted to keep it that way. In all these years he had thought about how mean he had been to Shadow, even if the werehog kept telling him he liked it. Sonic thought Shadow said it just not to worry him.

But if Shadow wanted bite marks, then he would just give him bite marks, nothing else. He got closer to Shadow and sank his fangs all around his body, resisting himself from drinking the blood. He separated and smiled very weakly. "Well, I have just given you more marks so you can be happy about it."

"No! You misunderstand me! The thought that you have been drinking my blood and that we were connected to each other made me happy. I don’t want to force you into drinking me....but at least do it now....if you don’t like the taste or don’t want to do it again then tell me." Shadow said and sniffed sad that Sonic might not want to drink him because he didn’t want to be connected with him. Or that he was disgusted and would rather starve than drink from him.

“So you say that me drinking your blood made us have a connection? That means that if I didn’t do that we wouldn’t have a connection?" Sonic asked. His mind was so confused right now that he kept misunderstanding Shadow's words. He felt his vampire instincts starting to kick in, but he managed to hold them back. "I don’t drink blood anymore because I am simply not used to it anymore"

"No, we are connected, my blood is still inside you but I want to share it again as before." Shadow flinched at the last sentence.

"You stopped drinking because I wasn’t the one you drank from?" The werehog asked and was very certain that was the case. "Sonic please stop pretending I am not here...I am home...." He said and nuzzled Sonic, exposing his neck, just like he had done many times before.

"Don’t be sad because I am home you have me back now. I promised you that.” Sonic hugged Shadow a bit tight, really missing to touch him like that. Apart from his parents, he hadn’t gotten any more affection. He sighed.
"No, that’s not it.... I was just too focused on training that I didn't stop to do anything else; it was all to save you. But now I don’t need to worry because you are back with me." He looked at Shadow's neck. The vein pulsing on it was tempting his vampire instincts to wake up and take him over.

"The only thing that matters for me is that you are by my side again. But please, don't try convincing me to drink your blood. I only want you as a friend I can have good moments with, not a werehog I can feed on."

Why Shadow wouldn't understand it? He just wanted his affections, not his blood.

“Sonic… that is as far as I would go to want you to drink from me. As a friend I am worried about your health! It pains me a lot to see you in this state. You know how stubborn I can be when you don’t let me help you! I am not seeing myself as a blood donator or something. You are the best friend everyone would want!" Shadow said and then his werehog instinct came. He licked Sonic’s muzzle to comfort him.

Sonic had almost forgotten about Shadow's werehog instincts, that until he was licked on the face by him. He used to dislike his tongue touching his fur, but now he had missed it.

However, Shadow’s vein was pulsing so hard that his vampire instincts were about to wake up. Sonic knew that if he let them out he would badly hurt Shadow. He had no other option, so he bit his vein neck and drank the blood.

Shadow didn’t even flinch by the bite; he had accepted it far before he even did it. He stayed still so Sonic wouldn’t have problems to drink from him. He smiled happy that Sonic’s health would return back to normal.

He looked way too pale and sad troubled by not getting blood. He had rejected his instinct way too long. Because Sonic needed much blood he created more of it for his owner. His black hand travelled behind Sonics head between his quills and scratched them carefully. Giving all affection Sonic had missed; being alone so long had made the vampire sad and lonely.

Sonic had forgotten how sweet Shadow's blood was in those years, but when he drank the blood he was glad to remember the taste. This day had been so great for him because Shadow was finally back with him, and he didn't want to lose him a second time. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if that got to happen again.

He hugged Shadow without taking out his fangs from his neck. He didn't have to worry about it that much because Shadow would never die from blood loss. The affection he got from him made him so happy he started crying, but this time from happiness.

He stayed like that for some minutes until he felt it had been enough. He separated from Shadow.

"Are you ok?" He asked worriedly. Shadow chuckled at the question and nuzzle Sonic again.

"You act as if it was the first time I have done it...I am okay. But are you okay? You are crying...did I do something wrong?" He asked carefully as he didn’t want to upset Sonic.

Sonic giggled nervously. "Well, it is actually the first time I have done this to you in several years, and very intense." He nodded as he wiped his tears away. "I am fine now. You didn't do anything wrong. You have made me very happy I couldn't help but to cry in happiness. Sorry if I scared you." Sonic ruffled Shadow's quills.

Shadow smiled and put his two hands on each cheek of Sonic and could see that his pale peach fur returned to it normal color. "You look much better now, don’t you dare starve yourself like that! Ever!" Shadow said and snuggled into the peach chest of his owner. "I am glad I am home again..." The werehog said and began to slowly fall asleep.

Sonic chuckled weakly "I won't, I promise." He said as he gently stroke Shadow's quills. Every time Shadow nuzzled into his chest Sonic became happier. The vampire looked up at a window and noticed that the sun was appearing. He let out a yawn as he put his head on top of Shadow's and closed his eyes, falling asleep as well, feeling happy to be with Shadow once again.

---

Shadow woke up in his owner’s arms. He thought that everything had been a dream but he was happy it wasn’t.

Sonic was still sleeping and the ebony hedgehog began to nuzzle into him happily. "Sonic wake up." Shadow whispered quietly.

Sonic groaned weakly as he moved to one side "Five more minutes... mom..." Sonic answered as he kept sleeping. However, when Shadow kept on moving him he sighed "Ok ok I am up.." The vampire yawned and stretched himself. "Is it night already?"

"Yes it’s very dark." Shadow smiled as Sonic finally was awake. "Come on you must be very thirsty by now." The werehog said and exposed his neck. "You slept in way too long this night." He pointed out with a chuckle.

Sonic scratched his head and yawned again, rubbing his eyes to wake up more. "I didn't expect to sleep that much, I guess I really needed it because I didn't sleep that much when I trained." Instead of biting his neck, as Shadow expected, Sonic rubbed his neck gently, thinking that the bites maybe hurt him a lot.

"Oh don't worry I am not thirsty." He assured.

"Well if you say so, but don’t you try lie to me! I don’t want you to look like a ghost again." Shadow teased but purred when he smelt the scent of his owner. "What shall we do today master? This is the first day after four years!" He cuddled into the peach chest.

Sonic let out a laugh. "It will take some time to look myself as a ghost; you don't need to worry about it. And no, I am not lying to you now." He patted Shadow's head. "I have been waiting so long for this day to come. So obviously there won't be training for now, there was just a war." He showed his fangs.

"What do you feel like doing today Shadow?" The blue vampire asked weakly.
"I don’t know.....I don’t mind what we do. Do you have something in your mind you want to do master?" He asked smiling but turned to look around in the room.

"Where is my litter box?”

Sonic blinked in confusion; he had completely forgotten about that box because he had moved it away to have more space for training. "Oh I kept it. Let me take it out." He stood up and walked towards big furniture. He knelt down and took out Shadow's litter box. Without Shadow noticing, he grabbed a small doll from one of the shelves and walked back to his bed.

Shadow went over to his litter box and did his needs as he usually did when he lived with Sonic. He then hid it with the sand as soon as he was done.

"It’s like old times Sonic." He said and went to the floor and curled into a ball and rolled around on the flat floor.

Sonic looked at Shadow and chuckled. Shadow was totally right. It was like old times, old times that the blue vampire had missed a lot. He was very happy to see them again… well, not the needs part, but the next action that the black werehog did. He let his claws grow a bit and started playing with his doll. It was a Shadow doll he had made himself when he trained to get him back so he could feel close to him and keep training hard. Sonic was the only vampire who had the ability to grow out his claws, and he was obviously the only one with such claws.

When Shadow uncurled he saw the small Shadow plush in his hands.

"Aaw! You even made a little Shadow while I was gone...Now I envy it...." The werehog said with a frown because the plush have been there for the vampire while he was gone. Sonic looked at him and sighed. He hadn’t really meant to make Shadow feel jealous.

"I'm sorry Shadow I had nothing from you, and I was so sad I decide to make something to remember you." He let him see the doll.

"Oh I understand! It’s just like the bite marks on my body; it was something that reminded me of you." Shadow said and took a closer look at the plush. "It is very well made Sonic."

Sonic smiled weakly and nodded. "Correct. I used to sleep a lot with this doll, but now that you are here I don't need it anymore." He giggled "Thank you, I thought I had got it wrong.”

“I am okay with it; it’s a bit funny you had made a mini Shadow." The werehog said and nuzzle into Sonic. But then a thought hit him.

‘What will happen when I turn?’ He had a worried expression when he thought about it.

Sonic giggled and played a bit with the toy. He remembered clearly how that doll had made him company in those 4 years. He nuzzled it contently and turned to look at Shadow. He was confused when he noticed he looked worried.

"Shadow? Are you ok?"

"E…ehm..I don’t know… how to handle this....but…" Shadow said and began to cry sad and lowered his ears, feeling afraid and lost.

Sonic was now very confused. Why was Shadow crying suddenly? Had he done something wrong? He put the doll aside and looked at Shadow, hugging him gently. "Why are you crying Shadow?" He asked worried.

"Because…I… will transform… and I don’t want that to happen…” He said sobbing as he cuddled into Sonic. "Please don’t let me turn! I don’t want to!"

Sonic now understood why Shadow seemed so worried. When he thought about it, Sonic had lived with him for several years, yet he only knew him as a hedgehog. What would he be like when he transformed? Just thinking about an aggressive werehog attacking him made his fur stand up a bit from fear. He was truly scared, a feeling he had never had before.

"Don't worry about it Shadow, you won't transform, I promise.” Shadow wagged his tail, happy Sonic was the only one that had said that to him. The other werehogs said he had no choice and he had to and so on. That made him only sad and depressed.

“The werehogs said I must." He sobbed sad. "What will you do if it happens? Will you kick me out?"

Sonic lowered a bit his ears when Shadow asked that question. Of course he would never dare to kick him out. He just managed to recover him from the werehogs. Besides, he was his best friend. How could he do such a thing? However, he didn't know how he would react to see his friend transforming into a beast.

He sighed and patted his head "Of course not, I wouldn’t do such a thing. But I don't know how I would react at the same time..."

Shadow didn’t know if it was a good sign or a bad sign. "I am glad that you say that you won’t kick me out at least. Cause...the werehogs told me it is soon." He lowered his head ashamed. He had accepted being a werehog, but transforming was the only thing he couldn’t really accept.

Sonic was so confused he didn't know what to do rather than giving comfort to the black hedgehog by patting his head and hugging him close.  Sonic was not going to harm him, but he knew he was probably going to run away, which is why he didn't say anything about not leaving his side. Shadow cuddled into Sonic, glad that he did understand, though he wasn’t sure how he would react.

"I am glad that you at least wont hate me.....You will still be my side, right master?" he asked to ensure that Sonic would keep him.
"Why should I hate you? You are my friend; no matter how you look you will always be the great friend I care about." He stopped when Shadow said that he would stay by his side. That would depend on Shadow's reaction or his appearance, but he would have to get used to it eventually. He smiled very weakly. But when he was about to reply Shadow gasped, and started to cry out of pain.

"Help me!! It hurts!" Shadow wailed and felt his bone crack; he was scared that he started to turn just after mentioning it. It was as if his body needed Sonic to accept it before it would be able to begin.

His fur was the first thing that changed; it grew out longer. His small fangs became long and dangerous. His claws grew as well did his tail.

He fell down on his fours and roared out in anger and pain. Most of his bone structure changed against his will. It was new to him and Sonic clearly saw that Shadow’s new body was much bigger than his own.  

When Shadow was done he didn’t act like himself; after the painful turn he was furious. When the blood red eyes saw his owner he let out a hungry growl. In other words he had spotted his prey.