Chapter 6


Meanwhile…


All was going well with our usual dark and gloomy hedgehog. Going out with Rouge seemed to be a big change for the black and red hedgehog. He was also enjoying his night out with her. It seemed like nothing could go wrong, or so he thought…

While the beautiful white bat and handsome black hedgehog were enjoying a wonderful night gazing at the stars, a sudden noise in the distance brought them out of their peaceful state.

“What was that?” Rouge asked in concern. She was also a bit angered that someone had to ruin her precious time with Shadow. As much as she hated to admit it, she really cared for him.

Shadow glanced back at her right after looking in the direction towards where the booming noise was heard. “I’m not quite sure, but I’d better check it out.”

“And why’s that?” Rouge asked, a bit peeved that Shadow never asked her to come along. “You do know that we’re still on our date, right?”

Shadow just scoffed at this and rolled his eyes. “Let’s just say that the person I was looking for happens to live in that direction.” The black hedgehog then brought back his cool composure while keeping his arms crossed, and asked, “Why do you care so much about this outing anyway? Do you like me or something?”

Rouge couldn’t believe what he had just asked and therefore started blushing profusely. ‘Did he just say what I think he said?’ At this point, Rouge was speechless. It wasn’t the fact that Shadow was stalking someone, (although that did make her want to question him further) it was the fact that Shadow had asked if she liked him.

While Rouge was gazing at him speechless, Shadow was starting to get irritated from waiting. What was taking her so long to answer? After thinking this through though, it finally occurred to him that maybe the white bat did like him, or maybe even loved him. ‘Let’s not jump to conclusions yet Shadow! She never said anything, so you don’t know.’ “Well…” He added, showing a bit of impatience in his voice. Rouge noticed this, and didn’t like it one bit. ‘What do I tell him?’ She thought franticly.

“Shadow… I…” She paused for a second and was then about to finish when that crashing sound was heard once again.

Shadow wasted no more time. He needed to find out what was going on. ‘I’m sorry Rouge, but I have to make sure nothing has happened to Amy.’ With that in mind, Shadow sped through the grassy fields, heading towards the direction of Amy’s house.

Rouge was angered by this and therefore decided to follow her dark antihero. ‘How can he do this to me?! He seems to be more interested in someone else. But… Who is it?’ Rouge didn’t have time to think however. She needed to catch up with Shadow. So without hesitation she started to pick up her speed with the extra help of her wings.

-

Shadow, in the meantime, had now arrived at the house of Amy Rose and was definitely shocked, if not, appalled. The house looked as if it had gone through utter chaos. ‘What happened here?’ Shadow thought to himself in worry. The dark hedgehog looked around to see if anyone was in the lower part of Amy’s home, and once he found no one was around, he dashed up the stairs, heading straight towards her room.

Once he found the room that he was looking for, he stopped instantly. Right there in front of him was the familiar blue figure of Sonic, and in his arms was the lifeless form of a pink colored female hedgehog. It was none other than Amy.

Shadow couldn’t believe his eyes. Something unfortunate had happened to the rose hedgehog, and it happened to be what Shadow dreaded ever seeing again. Death…

What had happened to this beautiful hedgehog? Well… He was soon to find out.

-

After what seemed like forever, Shadow finally brought up the courage to ask his blue rival what had happened. Sonic however, was hesitant to answer. The only words he seemed to mutter were “why” and “how could this happen.” Sonic didn’t seem to care that Shadow was even there, which seemed to stir up even more anger in the black and crimson hedgehog.

“Look Sonic… I understand what it feels like to lose someone, but… Dwelling on it is only going to make it worse.”

‘This is just like what happened to Maria. Why’d this have to happen?’ Shadow thought solemnly. The ebony hedgehog then glanced back at his now sorrowful counterpart and couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, as much as he hated to admit it.

Sonic finally turned around to face Shadow and didn’t look the least bit happy. In fact, he looked outraged. “You think that just because you lost Maria you know exactly how I feel?! Well think again Shadow!” Sonic spat back angrily. He then began to contort in tears, which happened to be the total opposite of his previous demeanor. “I… I loved her Shadow. And now… Now she’s gone.”

The once calm and carefree hedgehog now held an expression of deep sorrow. He already beat him self up for not being able to protect her, but now he just wouldn’t let it go. All he ever wanted to do was to spend time with Amy. Instead he got a whole truckload of misery. What was the point of ever loving someone? He finally realized that he cared for Amy more than any of his other friends, and nothing good came from it. He was brought down to an even more low than Shadow. Or so it seemed in his vision.

Shadow, on the other hand, couldn’t deal with any of this much longer. He was so sick of his own negativity towards what happened with him and Maria, that it seemed he didn’t want Sonic to fall in the same pattern of darkness. Shadow felt a bit of remorse for Sonic’s loss, but that was it. Sure… Amy was his friend as well, but he learned to not dwell on past faults, but to move on with life and to try living life to the fullest.

“Sonic… I do understand. When I lost Maria, life just wasn’t the same anymore. I… I lost it just like you. Except worse.” Shadow then sighs after saying this and then looks back up to the blue hedgehog and says, “Don’t ever make the same mistakes that I have Sonic. It’ll only make things worse.”

Shadow then glances at Amy’s motionless body and smiles at the most obvious answer to this tragedy. “Besides… I think that there might be a way to save her. That is… If you’re willing to.” Shadow then arched a brow in skepticism, while crossing his arms, and asked, “Do you truly love her, Sonic?”

The azure hero seemed a bit unsure about something but nevertheless said, “Of course I’m sure!” He then paused, still unsure as to what Shadow meant, and said, “But what-…” Sonic was then stopped abruptly by Shadow saying, “Just follow me and you’ll soon find out.”

“Okay… I don’t know what you’re getting at Shadow, but you sure seem certain about it.” Sonic replied back, with a hint of anticipation. He was determined to find out just what exactly Shadow was planning to do. ‘What could possibly save Amy? Maybe… No… It couldn’t be…’

“Do you mean to say that the Chaos Emerald’s will revive her?” A dark and seductive voice asked.

Sonic and Shadow were both driven out of their thoughts to notice a feminine silhouette walk into Amy’s bedroom. A closer look shown that it was an ivory bat whom was wearing a very attractive red dress, black platform shoes, a black choker necklace with a heart attached to it, black sparkly lipstick, and black eye shadow. The blue hedgehog was a bit surprised to see her so dressed up, for she was usually in her black and pink cat suit known for stealth.

Shadow, on the other hand, wasn’t so surprised.

“Rouge! What are you doing here?!” He questioned a bit harshly. He knew that he left her in a bit of a hurry, but he never thought that she’d follow him. Correction… He never wanted her to follow him.

“Well, excuse me for being nosy and all, but I was concerned about you. Plus, I never got to finish what I was about to say.” Rouge then looked a bit timid after saying this, but nonetheless kept glancing up at Shadow with those glistening aqua eyes of hers.

‘God is she beautiful.’ The black and red hedgehog thought in a dreamlike manner. Shadow hated to admit it, but he was definitely falling in love with her. ‘Why can’t I ever stop staring at her? Why does her beauty entice me so much?’

Once Shadow realized what he was just thinking, he quickly blushed the deepest scarlet that he ever had in his entire life. He then turned the other direction so that Rouge wouldn’t notice, but it seemed that she already did.

Rouge couldn’t help but smile mischievously at his sudden actions. ‘Looks like I have him right where I want him.’

~~~

From afar, Sonic took notice of their actions and couldn’t help but smile. Now, he at first thought that Rouge was acting her usual flirtatious way, but after seeing Shadow react that way just by glancing at her, it seemed that he was wrong. Whatever Shadow and Rouge were talking about before must have been something intimate. I mean… How else could you explain the Ultimate Lifeform turning all red in the face while Rouge started smirking like there was no tomorrow? ‘It’s pretty obvious to me that both Rouge and Shadow are…’

~~~

“Shadow? What I wanted to tell you was… Well…” Shadow then turned back towards Rouge as she said this.

“I like you Shadow. I really do.” The ivory bat replied sincerely. She then glanced up at him in the most loving like manner and said, “And I think that I even love you.”

That was it! The only thing and feeling that the midnight colored hedgehog ever wanted was love.

“Is… Is this true?” Shadow asked, a bit hesitantly. He was kind of unsure if she was really telling the truth, because he was hoping she would say this.

“What do you think?” Rouge then laughed at the look of embarrassment on his face. “Of course I do Shadow.”

Rouge then glanced downwards as a solemn look began to take over her cheerful demeanor. “I should’ve told you a long time ago, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react since, well… You know…”

“It’s okay Rouge. I’ve put the past behind me. Maria’s just a memory now. I still care about her, but I’m pretty sure that I care for you even more.” Shadow answered back sincerely.

“Well I’m glad to hear that Shadow. It means a lot to me.” Rouge was now gazing deeply into Shadow’s ruby red eyes. Shadow did the same. They soon drew closer to each other and finally, after some hesitation, Rouge locked lips with Shadow.

At first the black hedgehog was shocked at what just happened and abruptly stopped the kiss, but then decided that he enjoyed it and kissed the white bat back. This time they didn’t stop. They were drawn into a romantic kiss and it seemed that nothing would stop it. That is… Until Sonic notified that he was still there by clearing his throat. “You two knew that I was still here, right?” Sonic asked while laughing a little.

At hearing his blue rival, Shadow was brought out of his dreamlike state and quickly stopped the kiss and withdrew his arms from around Rouge’s waist. He then blushed an even deeper crimson than before, and quickly turned to face a wall that wasn’t already smashed to pieces.  Rouge happened to be blushing as well, but didn’t seem to be as modest about it as Shadow. Nonetheless, she spoke up for the red and black hedgehog by asking, “So… Do either of you know where to find the rest of the Chaos Emeralds?”


~~~~


It seemed that Metal Sonic wasn’t as strong as he’d hoped. Sonic just so happened to get lucky by turning into Dark Super Sonic. How he turned super, well… He’d have to figure that out some other time. All he did know was that if he got Sonic angry enough, then his dark side would arise. This was both a good thing and a bad thing to Metal Sonic. The good thing was that he may have some use out of this dark Sonic, if he’d only be able to control him. This way he’d either use Sonic’s powers for his own evil bidding, or he could just get the blue hero to work for him. The bad thing was that Dark Sonic nearly killed him. Sonic made a bad choice by stopping the fight though.

“He thought that I was dead, but he was wrong. Now I will finish off what I was set to do. But first… I think I’ll let Mr. Hero collect all those Chaos Emeralds for me. Then I’ll snatch those emeralds right from his feet! Yes… Then he’ll beg for mercy and I’ll be able to claim his little girlfriend as mine this time. Mwahahaha! Sonic… I sense that your end is near!”

Metal Sonic then zoomed out of his hiding spot from underneath some debris and secretly followed four figures into the distance.