Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Supporting Me

Prologue: Farewell to My Shadow

The sun beamed down on the brilliant, shining green grass and foliage of Green Hills, a brilliant, bright blue sky like sapphire glass above. Absolute warmth radiated the scene, friends and allies all together to celebrate two momentous occasions. Celebrating two of the same hedgehog, in fact.

After being trapped in the void of White Space, Sonic the Hedgehog, his younger self, and all his friends (including Tails’ younger self as well) were celebrating both the Blue Blur’s birthday, and his most recent victory in saving them all. Even a certain moody, dark hedgehog was currently attending, despite being “fashionably late.”

The party more or less resumed where it had left off before the Time Eater had pulled everyone into Dr. Eggman’s latest scheme. Meanwhile Rouge the Bat, government spy and the self-proclaimed - though not unearned - greatest treasure huntress in the world, carried on her conversation with Knuckles the Echidna. Though the two were long-time rivals, they also enjoyed each other most of the time, whether or not they’d admit it. 

“You really didn’t see any treasures in Death Ruins?” Knuckles asked after Rouge’s latest tale. Though he was normally distrustful of Rouge, especially around the Master Emerald, he felt totally at ease here today. Even the Guardian of Angel Island needed a break, after all. Treasure-hunting and exploring ancient ruins was some common ground to talk about at least. “I know about the ruins there, a lot of the cities from that time liked tucking offerings away in treasuries.”

“Well to be fair, the overwhelming amount of Black Arms shooting at us might’ve been a little distracting,” Rouge said with a shrug and a chuckle. “I’d love to go back sometime and give it a proper look. I’m sure there’s some shiny beauties tucked away somewhere.” She smirked and gave Knuckles a wink. “Maybe we could… help each other out? Since you know the place so well and all.” It wasn’t exactly a secret that the beautiful thief had a crush on the ruggedly-handsome echidna, but most of her passes seemed to go over, around or anywhere but through his head. Still, can’t blame a girl for trying and all that.

“Yeah! Why not, could be fun!” Knuckles beamed with enthusiasm, accidentally crushing his chili-dog into a pulp in his giant fist. The ivory bat’s eyes widened and she burst out laughing. 

“Maybe you should work on your touch before you take a lady anywhere!” Rouge teased, handing Knuckles a stack of napkins. She wasn’t even bothered that her flirt seemed to bounce right off the crimson echidna’s skull.

“Sure, yeah, laugh it up Batty!” Knuckles grumbled, but smiled at Rouge’s catching laughter. He gingerly accepted the napkins and began to scrape the sad remains of Sonic’s favorite food off his glove.

While Knuckles cleaned, Rouge looked over, and her smile wavered when she saw Shadow the Hedgehog, standing off alone by the tree next to the picnic table. It looked like Blaze the Cat had tried to strike up a conversation with him earlier but it seemed like that talk was over. Perhaps the two most anti-social members of the group found it especially difficult to find things to talk about. Still, it bothered Rouge to see Shadow by himself right now…

Not that long ago, just before Sonic had defeated the Time Eater, Shadow had defeated Black Doom all over again. He’d fought many battles, and worst of all, he had to say goodbye to Maria… Nobody else besides Omega and, if he’d been paying attention, Big the Cat had any idea what Shadow had been through while Sonic had been fighting versions of Eggman. As much as the Ultimate Life-Form put on a hardened, disinterested front, Rouge knew he was hurting… She distantly touched her cheek where Shadow’s tear had touched her as they’d left Black Doom’s Time Void earlier.

“Hey Knuckles, I need to check on something. I’ll be back in a bit, ‘kay?” Rouge said as she turned back to face her old rival.

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure thing Rouge!” Knuckles looked up from his laundry crisis to smile and nod at her. “I think Sonic was wanting to play some games, so don’t take too long!”

“Sure thing cutie!” Rouge said with a giggle and another wink. That did it! Knuckles’ smile went into a dumbfounded look and his cheeks began to match the rest of his head a little. He actually noticed that time! Pleased with herself, Rouge sauntered over to where Shadow stood. She took a quick but deep breath to steel herself as she approached. Though she’d never admit it, the huntress grew nervous when talking to the angsty hedgehog about anything that might hurt his ego. Rouge certainly didn’t want to tell him straight-up she saw him crying; he’d get irritated and deny it, or worse. Still, she couldn’t let her long-time teammate’s pain go unaddressed. 

“Hey handsome, you had a chance to get any refreshments?” Rouge spoke in her usual purr once she was close enough. Immediately she rebuked herself as Shadow looked over at her. Damn it, what was wrong with her? She had just flirted with Knuckles, why was she doing the same to Shadow? It was her way of breaking the ice; the ivory bat was used to working her charms to distract and deceive. It was practically a reflex. Although… she’d be lying if she said she didn’t think both were good-looking. Too late to back out now. Rouge just leaned into her confident advance, her smirk never wavering.

“Hmph. Yeah, I’m good,” Shadow replied, holding up a cup of punch in one hand and then sipping on it. That was a lie, one that came to him easily. All the victories he’d fought in the timeless White Void, and he was left with overwhelming loss, again. At least the party was distracting enough.

“You should try the food. Tails had everything flown-in gourmet, chili-dogs too. I even helped foot the bill!” Rouge went on, moving to stand a little closer to him.

“Really,” he replied dryly, clearly not remotely interested. Rouge fought the urge to sigh; Shadow never made talking easy.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here anyway,” she gently pressed on. “When I called you I was afraid you were gonna skip out on me! I think you might have if the Time Eater hadn’t sent us here.”

“I promised, didn’t I?” Shadow turned to face her, his voice a little less sharp now. Without even realizing it, the black hedgehog leaned back against the tree next to him, relaxing his stance a little. Though Rouge’s comment irritated him a little, he was used to this kind of banter from her at this point. It was a very familiar feeling.

“Yeah, but I know how much you hate parties, especially big ones with Sonic involved,” Rouge teased with a chuckle. “So… thanks for being here, and for sticking around.”

That surprised him. Shadow’s frown softened a little, and he gave her a small nod. He wasn’t even sure why Rouge had wanted him to come so badly in the first place, even willing to trash a G.U.N. base to do so.

“You’re… welcome,” the Ultimate Life-Form said uncertainly. Gratitude wasn’t something he usually expressed, yet Rouge had gone out of her way to thank him just for being here. He couldn’t even imagine why anyone would want him around anyway; he didn’t exactly have the most magnetic personality. Yet Rouge always stuck around, even if she got annoyed with him, and he her. 

“Okay hotshot, don’t hurt yourself if it’s that hard to be nice!” Rouge teased with a slight giggle. When Shadow only grunted in response, she took a chance and very lightly poked her elbow into his ribs. “Come on, lighten up Mr. Unsmiley. You can at least try the food!”

“Pass,”Shadow muttered, fighting a smile as he pushed Rouge’s elbow away. The damn bat had gotten him in a ticklish spot but he didn’t want her to know that. 

Too late. Rouge had noticed the quick change in demeanor, the frown falling away for a split-second. Encouraged, she moved closer to him, leaning against the same tree as him.

“Well, I don’t suppose you’d be up for games then either… not even racing Sonic?” Rouge said, her voice sounding innocently oblivious.

“Hm… I don’t need to prove myself superior to him,” Shadow replied, subtly scooting an inch away from Rouge. What was her problem, hadn’t she heard of personal space? Not to mention, why the facade of trying to tempt him into participating? She knew what she was doing, Shadow knew it, why was she making a game out of it?

Still… Shadow was a bit irritated he hadn’t had a chance to give Sonic a fair fight when they’d contested the yellow Chaos Emerald earlier. The ebony hedgehog could’ve crushed him then and there with his Doom Powers, but he wanted a fair fight, thus letting Sonic off the hook with the false Emerald.

“Oh come on!” Rouge said, letting a hint of her growing exasperation creep into her tone, giving Shadow a wide, puppy-eyed pleading look, fluttering her long lashes at him. “Pleeeease, Shadow? Just one game of your choosing, try some damn food and I’ll leave you alone. If you want, we can even do something you like to do after the party. Just the two of us, promise. Deal?”

Rolling his eyes at Rouge’s pleading, Shadow silently considered her offer for a few moments. Something he wanted? Ugh, fine. If it got Rouge to stop nagging him, it’d be worth it. Besides, her company was preferable to having Sonic and every single one of his friends in one place. What the hell.

“Fine,” he finally relented with a groan. “If there’s some sort of game where I’m pitted against Sonic’s speed, I’ll try. That, and something that looks nourishing, I suppose.”

“Finally! I promise you won’t regret it!” Rouge beamed, and eagerly began pulling Shadow to join the others over by the table.

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep, Rouge,” Shadow chided, yet he couldn’t quite fight the smirk that Rouge’s sudden enthusiasm caused. Inwardly, Rouge swooned a little at the hedgehog’s quick change in expression again. Even a smirk was pretty rare from Shadow, but he always looked so… charming when he smiled at all. Sure, his usual brooding demeanor had its edgy charm, but it had gotten a little old for Rouge to be honest.

*Later… *

A few hours later, the sun had now burned the sky out to an increasingly-dim orange as Sonic’s party carried on. The younger incarnations of Sonic and Tails had returned to their own time awhile ago, but everyone else was still here. While Shadow had refrained from joining in most of the activities, he’d surprised everyone when taking on Sonic in a sort of obstacle course/race track that went around the whole area, weaving through trees and across long jumps across cliffs and chasms. Knuckles, Blaze, Silver and Espio had joined in as well but after four rounds, evenly tied, it was clear Sonic and Shadow were in a league of their own.

After tying another two rounds, the group decided to move on to other games before it grew too late. While disappointed he hadn’t totally proved himself superior to Sonic, Shadow inwardly admitted it had been fairly entertaining, especially once he had familiarized himself with the course.

“Nice moves, Shadow!” Sonic had said, still catching his breath as the group set up the next game. “Thought I almost had ‘ya!”

“In your dreams, Sonic,” Shadow had scoffed. “Another round and I would’ve proved-”

“That you’re ‘the Ultimate’? Yeah, even if you did, cut me a break! It’s my birthday!” Sonic laughed, giving him a thumbs-up. “Still, I’ll race you anytime, any place!”

Afterwards, Shadow stood at the sidelines for the most part, quietly observing the party. Going against his instincts, he let his curiosity get the best of him and tried one of the chili dogs. Arguing internally with himself about how good they actually were, Shadow noticed Rouge approaching him again, a drink in her left hand. Torn between sighing at what antics she had planned, and actually being happy to see her, he settled on nodding at her.

“Hey Shadow, Knuckles just told me the most embarrassing story!” the ivory spy said with a massive mischievous grin. “Please let me tell you?”

“How about you give me the highlight and I fill in the gaps?” he replied, taking another bite of the chili dog. Rouge beamed at him and nodded smugly.

“See? Told you they were good!” she jabbed gently. Shadow just shrugged, turning his attention back to watching the others play a game that combined catch and keep-away, with Silver dominating the competition as he hovered above them all.

“Come on man! This isn’t fair!” Knuckles cried, hurling a boulder at the psychic hedgehog in frustration.

“It’s no use!” Silver taunted, catching the boulder and holding both it and the ball they were using above them all.

“Tails, you can fly! Give me a hand?!” Sonic yelled, trying to build up enough momentum to reach Silver from the ground, but always just a few inches short.

“Sorry Sonic, I’m just the task master! If I participated in the games, it wouldn’t be balanced anymore!” Tails said with a chuckle, sitting over with Cream the Rabbit and her Chao, Cheese.

“What is the point of this? Are they getting any training out of this nonsense?” Shadow scoffed as the game continued.

“Ugh, you’re such a stick in the mud,” Rouge said with a sigh. “It’s called ‘ having fun, ’ remember? Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy tearing across this place earlier!”

“It was alright,” Shadow admitted, though it severely underscored how much he’d actually enjoyed it. Sighing again, Rouge gave a half-hearted shrug.

“Guess I’ll take what I can get,” she said, and forced herself to smile again. “Can you at least admit you’re having a better time than you thought?”

“Yes.”

For God’s sake, could this man get more than fifty words out in a day?!

‘Patience… it’s subtle, but he’s lightening up’ Rouge told herself silently. ‘ He’s been through a lot today. Just be there for him, like you said.’ 

“Did you decide what you wanted to do when we leave the party?” she asked, hoping to keep Shadow’s mind in as much of a positive mood as possible.

“Yes, if you agree to it,” Shadow replied, finally turning to look at her again. Denying it, he was actually a little excited to do this. “I… was thinking about taking you somewhere on my motorcycle.”

“Oh really?” Rouge said, her eyes lighting up that Shadow had actually proposed that. She knew how much he loved his motorcycle, even if she didn’t quite understand why have it when Shadow could run faster than the bike with his fire-skates. “That sounds… a little personal, mm Shadow?” The thief’s tone grew slightly sultry as she lowered her eyelids in an alluring smirk. “I know how much guys like to show off their bikes.”

“I’m not like other guys,” Shadow grumbled, turning away again. “Do you want to go or not?”

“Of course I do! Sounds like fun, and amazingly it was your idea!” Rouge said with a small laugh. Feeling a little giddy, she took another risk, and gave the dark hedgehog a quick peck on the cheek when nobody was looking.

“Wha-?!” Shadow exclaimed, his face blushing pink as he raised his hand to where Rouge’s lips had touched him.

“Sounds like a date then! I’ll leave you alone now, see you after the party!” Rouge said, walking away with a wink and a wave as she went back to the festivities. She didn’t want to give Shadow a chance to rebuke her for the kiss; she just couldn’t help herself! The bat had been overcome with excitement at the idea!

Watching her leave, Shadow slowly resumed his brooding after a few moments. He distantly rubbed his cheek as the stun wore off.

“What is her deal?” he mumbled to himself. “I just don’t get it…”

*Later…*

The party went on for nearly two more hours. As the sky barely had any light left as the sun’s last rays gradually crept away, Sonic’s guests had begun to disperse. Blaze and Silver had returned to their respective worlds and times, and the younger Mobians like Tails, Cream and Charmy had turned in for the day.

Sonic was saying goodbye to those who remained as the party concluded, helping the others clean up as they did so. After bidding the blue hero farewell, Knuckles and Rouge were finishing a conversation as they left the party with Shadow waiting over at his bike.

“So, how about next week? I’ll meet you at Death Ruins while it’s still light out,” the red echidna proposed as they walked.

“Sounds good Red,” Rouge replied with a nod. “Just remember though; first come, first served! Any gems or jewels I spot first are mine!” 

“Bring it on, bat-girl! I’ll show you once and for all why my tribe was revered for discovering and protecting ancient treasures!” Knuckles shot back with a grin, eagerly smacking his fists together.

“Whatever you say, big man!” Rouge giggled back. “Goodnight Knuckles, you don’t wanna keep the Master Emerald waiting for tooo long!”

“Huh?! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Knuckles exclaimed. “You going after it again?!” The echidna angrily took a defensive stance as he faced the thief. “Nuh-uh! Not on my watch!” and he took off in a panic. Still giggling, Rouge walked over towards Shadow, who had one of his trademark frowns across his face.

“What is that fool’s problem?” the moody warrior asked once Rouge finally reached him. Calming her laughter down, the ivory bat shook her head.

“He’s just too easy to get a rise out of, that’s all,” she beamed as she answered. “We’re going treasure-hunting next week!”

“Hmph. You’re going on a date with him ?” Shadow grumbled, his frown deepening.

“It’s not a date! We’re just having fun together!” Rouge retorted, though she blushed a little as she did so. Admittedly, she didn’t hate the idea of it being a date… but neither was she opposed to this bike-ride being a date. Ugh, what was wrong with her?! “Besides, I don’t think that’s your business anyway!” she added spitefully.

Damn it. Why did she have to press? Because he’d kind of hit a nerve with that ‘date’ remark?

“Whatever,” the dark hedgehog muttered dismissively. He didn’t care about what his allies did in their spare time. Why should he? Right? “Coming?” Shadow started up the engine, the roar of the motor drowning out the rest of that particular conversation.

‘Calm down… be patient… he’s had a hell of a day…’ Rouge reminded herself again. Taking a deep breath, she got on the back of the motorcycle. As soon as she put her arms around Shadow, her mood improved; he was warm, and very soft. Except for those powerful muscles beneath that gorgeous jet-black fur. Grateful he couldn’t see her blush, Rouge called; “Ready when you are, Shad!”

“Better be. Hold on!” Shadow replied, his mood also improving as the duo took off. The rush of wind on his face always cleared his mind, and the rumble of the motor and the burning of rubber on road empowered him in a way he couldn’t quite explain.

“Where are we going, anyway?!” Rouge called over the motor and wind, now grinning across her whole face as the rush of adrenaline and dopamine spread through her.

True to form, Shadow’s response was predictably minimal: “You’ll see.”

‘ Way to keep a girl in suspense…’ she thought with a sigh. The beautiful bat decided to just soak in the view of rushing landscapes, the feeling of freedom on the road, and actually being with Shadow on anything that wasn’t a mission for once.

*Later…* 

Rouge had never expected Shadow to take her to a place like this. The pair had stopped at a meadow covered with flowers, blue petals almost glowing under the now nighttime sky. There were a few hills around, one of which the pair climbed. Shadow was quiet the entire time, making Rouge a little uncomfortable as time went on. At the top of the hill, the black hedgehog turned to look up at the night sky, the stars and moon now fully visible. The ivory bat almost gasped, her eyes glittering at the field of stars above them, a black and blue sky above a shimmering sea of flowers.

“Shadow… where is this place?” Rouge asked softly, unable to take his stoic silence any longer.

“I come here to think, sometimes,” he finally said, folding his arms as he gazed up. “I… like it here. I thought you might too.” Not surprisingly, he refused to elaborate further.

“Thank you,” she replied with a gentle smile. Looking at her for a moment, Shadow nodded and smiled ever-so-slightly.

The two of them continued to observe the beautiful landscape around them. Moonlight beamed down and turned the flowers into a sapphire sea, seeming to glitter along with the stars overhead. But Rouge always found her gaze trailing back to Shadow. 

Her feelings had been all over the place tonight; she’d been having a great time with Knuckles, and even got Shadow to lighten up. Rouge had spent time with almost everyone at the party but had practically ping-ponged between Shadow and Knuckles. The poor bat was feeling torn right now… but sitting in this field with Shadow, everything felt so… personal, meaningful.

Still, she knew there was another issue, one which had her concerned.

‘I… really should say something… ’ she thought heavily. ‘Just… to make sure he’s okay…’ Rouge wasn’t great at addressing feelings, especially her own. Shadow and her were alike in that regard; they both deflected when trying to dig past the facades on the surface. Still… she knew Shadow had to be hurting, and she couldn’t stand to see him in more pain. Trying to be delicate, she decided to try and get him to talk more first, test the waters more.

“Do you come here often?” Rouge asked, again mentally shaking her head at herself. ‘ Really?! That’s the best I can do?’

“Yes. I sleep here sometimes, weather permitting,” Shadow replied evenly, sitting down on the cool grass with his hands placed behind him. Rouge smiled; she wasn’t used to seeing him this relaxed. The angsty hedgehog still had a stoney, hardened expression, but his body language was much more at ease. While tempted to make a joke about him sleeping outdoors, Rouge wanted to avoid pushing buttons right now.

“It’s nice, seeing you appreciate a beautiful place like this,” she added gently, sitting down next to him. “Didn’t really expect that from you.”

“Hm. The calm around here makes it easy to clear my mind and think, that’s all. Not many places like this,” he replied dismissively. Shadow did find the place appealing, especially in this lighting, but he didn’t want people thinking the Ultimate Life-Form admired beauty like an artsy sort or anything.

Rouge sighed quietly. Shadow knew he’d frustrated her, and he sighed himself. What was the big deal, anyway? He knew Rouge well enough, worst she was going to do was tease him and move on. Shadow was used to that by now, so what was his problem?

“Sorry…” Shadow said heavily, apologizing for the first time in forever, perhaps. “Not trying to spoil the mood. It… is nice here.”

“There, was that so hard?” Rouge teased, gently nudging Shadow in the arm a little. Shadow grumbled under his breath and shook his head, but made no move to distance himself from his teammate. “Though you don’t need to apologize, y’know? I’m used to you being a grouch.”

“Like I’m used to you being a pain in my ass,” Shadow quipped, but a faint flash of a smirk betrayed his playfulness. With a small giggle, Rouge gave a relieved sigh; maybe she could check on him now. After enjoying the quiet awhile longer, watching Shadow gaze up at the stars, she decided to give it a try, against her own instincts. The quick-witted huntress knew she was taking a risk, but Shadow was too important to her to not try and reach out to him.

“Hey, Shadow, I need to know… Are you… okay?” Rouge gently prodded. “I can only imagine… today was a lot for you-”

“I’m fine.” Shadow immediately cut her off, his gaze flittering to the ground for a second before going back up to the stars. His face hardened a little; why bring up if he was fine or not? Couldn’t they just enjoy this moment in peace? Everything was fine damn it, just leave it alone! Don’t let his mind wander to his loss again .

“I’m just asking, Shadow… I told you I’d be there for you,” Rouge tried again, though her patience with her ally’s abrasive, fragmented deflections was wearing thin. “If you need to talk, I’m here.”

“I’m okay. Really,” he insisted, gripping the grass in his hand to stave off his own dwindling patience. “You can stop asking now. I. Am. Fine .”

“No, you’re not, Shadow!” Rouge replied, her frustration and exasperation finally beginning to sharpen her tone. “Nobody would be, after what you went through! And that’s okay, there’s nothing wrong with that!”

“Yes, but as I said, I’m fine ,” Shadow repeated, his jaw clenching a little as his irritability began to flare up. “I’ve moved on from my past, remember?”

“Fine! Whatever! Sorry I said anything!” the huntress said without disguising her exhaustion with the stubborn hedgehog anymore. “I’m just worried about you, after all that! Nobody even gave you credit, Sonic got all the glory for the Time Eater, and then you had to-”

“Well I’m not so self-absorbed I need the spotlight!” Shadow replied, his voice beginning to seethe. Everything Rouge was saying was true, and it was an unpleasant reminder. He knew she meant well, but… “So there’s no reason to bring up my trauma, thank you very much!”

“ UGH! I’m not trying to, Shadow!” Rouge exclaimed, unable to hold back her frustration anymore, standing up abruptly to look down at Shadow. “I just want you to talk to me! I know you’re hurting, let me help damn it! I saw you crying when we left White Space! Why do you only listen to her?! ”

Shit. Why, why had she brought that up? Shit.

“Shadow, I… I’m s-”

“You what?! ” Shadow snapped, getting to his feet as well. That particular mention of Maria stung and fanned the flames of his temper. Plus, she saw him crying. Vulnerability was a feeling Shadow loathed . “No I-! That’s none of your business!”

“But it is , Shadow!” Rouge cried back. “I care about you, I-!”

“I never asked you to care about me!” the dark hedgehog snarled back, more vicious than intended. “I’m the Ultimate Life-Form, I can take care of myself!” 

That wasn’t true. Shadow knew it wasn’t; Rouge, Omega and even Sonic had saved him several times before. Why had he said that? Why was he so angry? The duo felt their hearts collectively drop as Rouge’s ears did the same.

“That’s not something you ask people to do, Shadow! Why are you so opposed to spending time with friends, talking to us?!” the ivory bat continued despite her sinking feeling. “Why can’t you just let me help?!”

Shadow glared at the ground, too angry and too flustered to respond or even think of an answer. Why couldn’t he? Why would he rather keep his emotions bottled up like a pressurized bomb? After a few moments, he began to storm off towards his motorcycle. Screw it, the angsty hedgehog had already ruined the evening, right?

“Hey, where the hell are you going?!” Rouge demanded, running after him.

“I’ve wasted enough time today,” Shadow growled. Again, he didn’t really believe his own words; he’d had more fun today than he could remember having in a long time. “I have work to do.”

“Work! Ha! An excuse if I ever heard one!” she retorted as she followed. “Eggman is defeated, you stopped Black Doom! Sonic stopped the Time Eater! Can’t you take one damned day to stop being such an ass?!”

“Unlike the rest of you, I prefer to spend my time doing things that matter ,” he snapped. “I have questions that need answering. There was a villain I fought in White Space who called himself ‘Mephiles’. He knew me, all of us but I have no idea who or what he was. Furthermore, if Black Doom returned once, I need to find out how, and make sure he can’t return again .”

“You can take a few days to take care of yourself too, you know!” Rouge yelled back. “There’s nothing wrong with that! But I guess you’d rather just keep fighting for the rest of your life than be happy for a change! Can’t you even just let us help you, at least?! I’m your friend Shadow!”

Shadow didn’t reply, he just mounted his bike and revved the engine up.

“ FINE! If we really mean that little to you, just take off! We’re used to you not being around anyway, heartless bastard! Do whatever you want!! ” she screamed in anger, turning on her heel to face away from him. Rouge didn’t want him to see her fighting back tears; she loathed vulnerability, too. It was like letting him see how upset he’d made her would let him win, somehow.

“You want me to take you home or not?” Shadow muttered, but Rouge was already spreading her wings to get back her own way. “Hmph! Fine. Go chat up that dim-witted echidna some more!”

What the hell, why had Shadow brought that up? Why would that matter?

The hedgehog kicked off the bike’s stand and steered the bike around to leave.

“Shadow, wait!” Rouge called out despite herself. A cold feeling hit her; every time Shadow took off, it was always a long time before she saw him again. Surprisingly, he stopped the bike and looked up at her.

“Yeah?” he asked stiffly. Even as angry as he was, Shadow knew deep down if Rouge needed something, he couldn’t just leave her there. Was she about to apologize? Should he? Obviously, but…

Rouge wanted to plead with him to stay, to say she was sorry she upset him… to tell the angsty bastard how much he meant to her. But instead, her stubborn pride won out. She was upset at Shadow for rebuking her affection, her concern, and she couldn’t help but want him to be upset too. It was easier for her than opening up herself to him… or anyone, really.

‘Selfish bitch,’ she thought.

“Nothing, Shadow,” Rouge muttered. “Get out of here. Do whatever you want, just… try not to get yourself hurt, okay?”

Shadow just grunted. In affirmation or dismissal, Rouge didn’t care. Did she? Of course not; screw him. With another roar of the motor, Shadow took off into the night, and Rouge began her flight home.

Even in that moment, Shadow knew this was his fault. Maybe Rouge said some hurtful things but he’d been the one to start the squabble when she’d been trying to help.

‘ Stubborn bastard,’ he thought.

They tried to remain angry at each other to ignore the feelings of their own guilt. Rouge felt terrible about the things she’d called Shadow, and for perhaps pressing too hard, too soon. Shadow too felt horrible about how hard he’d gone off at Rouge, he knew she hadn’t deserved it. But they chose to focus on how they’d felt at the other’s words and hide behind that pain.

‘What the hell is wrong with them?!’ the two both thought as they left the scene, their hearts feeling heavy and beaten. Though they both blamed themselves more, their similar stubborn natures blinded them to that.

Such strong personalities like Shadow and Rouge’s were bound to clash at some point, especially with their alike emotional safeguards. Yet even harsh words like they’d exchanged rang hollow, and if their true feelings somehow came to light, perhaps true healing and peace could begin…

Chapter Text

Chapter One: Aimless Purpose

*One Year After the Events of Sonic X Shadow Generations*

It was another gorgeous day on Angel Island, the miraculously floating landmass that was a testament to the ancient Echidna Tribes, particularly the one led and founded by Pachacamac, Knuckles’ ancestor. Today, like most others, the Last Echidna leisurely strolled the island, soaking in the sunlight and ambiance of the wildlife on the island. Casually plucking a few grapes and tossing them in his maw as he walked, Knuckles glanced assuredly up the altar that led up to his most sacred responsibility: the Master Emerald. Even in the dark, the massive green stone always glowed, but it too seemed to be basking in the sun’s warm rays, shining like a star itself.

“Y’know… I think today’s gonna be a good day!” Knuckles affirmed to himself with a confident smile.

“Talking to yourself, Big Red? You starting to, ah, slip a little, living all by yourself?” a familiar, sultry voice spoke.

“I don’t-! Hey, Rouge!! ” Turning to his left, sure enough, he saw Rouge the Bat, leaning against a tree across from him, looking smug as ever. “So what if I am?! Maybe if you didn’t sneak up on me… Rouge?”

The whole time Knuckles spoke, Rouge’s expression never changed. For that matter, she didn’t seem to be moving. Cocking an eyebrow in confusion, he cautiously approached her, slowly picking up a stick from the ground as he did.

“...Rouge…?” the echidna whispered, and gently poked the bat. To his shock, the stick went right through, and caused Rouge’s whole image to shimmer and waver like water. Knuckles had seen this trick before.

“A hologram?! What the-?! HEY!! DAMN IT ROUGE!!” 

Knuckles’ purple eyes blazed open as he looked over to see Rouge, who was definitely not a hologram, starting to fly away with the Master Emerald. It was attached to a harness and gravity-lift to allow it to float along the airborne thief.

“Such a sweetie Knuckles, always looking after this gem for me!” the huntress giggled, winking and blowing a kiss as she started to make her exit. 

“OH NO YOU DON’T!!” the echidna warrior bellowed, running forward in a red flash. Rouge’s eyes widened as Knuckles flew up the steps and right up towards her, even using the Master Emerald as a foothold as he tackled her. The two tumbled roughly into the ground and skidded to a halt. Even in the quick chaos of the moment, Knuckles had steered his body to take the brunt of the landing.

“Ow… a bit… rough there, Red,” Rouge said with a wince, rubbing her head a little.

“Yeah well, you should know better by now!” Knuckles retorted with a smug smirk through the dirt on his face.

Still having an arm around her from the tackle, Knuckles and Rouge glared at each other for a few moments… and then burst out laughing together.

“That was such a cheap move, batty!” the echidna chided playfully, and pretended to *Bonk!* Rouge on the head “A hologram? Again?! ”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that it keeps working! Though, you are catching on faster!” she giggled, and gently poked Knuckles on the nose with a finger.

“Well, the game’s getting old, and not just because you insist on playing it,” Knuckles joked, though he cast an antsy look at the Master Emerald as he did so. “I always get you before you can get it to your ‘safe zone’ so what’s the point?”

“Because the deal was, if I get it to my safe zone, I get to keep it at my place for a night!” Rouge replied with a self-assured smirk. “Besides, it’s the principle of the matter, to win the most beautiful Emerald! Plus… it keeps you sharp,” she added with a giggle, and gave Knuckles a small kiss on the lips. 

The crimson echidna’s eyes widened for a moment, but he had begun to get used to Rouge taking him off guard like this lately. Knuckles gently embraced her and returned the kiss.

In the year following the Time Eater’s attack, things had been busy, to say the least. Even more so than usual. After the last time Rouge had worked with Shadow the Hedgehog to deal with Infinite, a war with Dr. Eggman had followed; a war they had thought cost Sonic his life. With Infinite and the Phantom Ruby spearheading his campaign, the battles to resist his rule had left many parts of the world scarred. Sonic, Knuckles, even Rouge and all the other members of the Resistance had helped rebuild the damage, but there was still much work to do.

Even now, more than half a year after that war had ended, many cities hadn’t fully recovered.

Then, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy had gotten caught up in Dr. Eggman’s scheme involving Cyberspace and the Ancient Chaos ancestors that had once inhabited Chaos Island and the surrounding regions. Along with his powerful A.I. daughter Sage, Sonic had been forced to nearly fight to the death against cybercorruption. Knuckles and the others had to help despite being half-trapped and hindered by Cyberspace, and even Super Sonic might not have saved the day without the help from Eggman and Sage.

But more surprising than any of that, perhaps, was that Knuckles the Echidna had grown close enough to Rouge to trust her to a game with the Master Emerald. Of course, he had only agreed after dating for about a month, and now they were going on two months. Not to mention all the rules attached to it.

After breaking the kiss, Knuckles stood up and helped Rouge to her feet. The pair exchanged a glance as they dusted themselves off, smirking.

“Now did you need anything, or did you just wanna play around with me all day?” Knuckles asked. “If you insist on trying to take the Emerald again,” He smiled cockily, “I’ll make you regret using more holograms!”

“Well, as much as I’d love to go another round… I’m famished,” Rouge said, leaning her head back into her arms. “What do you say we go for dinner in a little bit?”

“Ooh! Sounds great, I’m dying for some grub!” the echidna replied with puppy-like enthusiasm. Rouge couldn’t help but giggle; he was so cute when he got this excited about something. “Sonic said there’s a new burger place that-”

“Um, no, maybe something… a little nicer than that?” the huntress said with a cocked eyebrow, smirking at her simplistic boyfriend. “We’ve been to burger joints plenty of times. A place that sells nice cocktails, perhaps? Steak, good wine, hm? Eh?”

“Oh… I dunno, Rouge…” Knuckles said, his face falling a little as he examined his hands. “I… don’t do good with glassware…”

“It’ll be fine, you rugged ol’ hunk!” Rouge teased with a playful punch to the echidna’s shoulder. “We can get a special setup for you. Or, if you want to go hands-free…” The ivory bat’s beautifully seductive tone purred to life. “I could… feed you?”

“I don’t need you to feed me!” Knuckles retorted indignantly, putting his hands on his hips. “I’m no child, I’m a man!”

“Nevermind,” she sighed; all this time, and her passes still didn’t always make their way past all the muscle in that echidna’s head. “Well, what do you say we compromise; meet me at a place nicer than that burger joint and I’ll make sure you can enjoy yourself there. I know a place just on the edge of Emerald Town, just before the road to Central City. The Babylon Bistro ?”

“Oh yeah! Amy said they had great food, Cream’s family took her once!” Knuckles said with a nod. “She’s been trying to find a way to get Sonic to go.”

“You don’t say!” Rouge chuckled. “Alright, meet me there in say… two hours? That’ll give me time to clean up and get changed.”

“But… it’s only about forty minutes from here to Club Rouge!” he exclaimed, scratching his head. “How long does it take you?”

“Good point, better make it two and a half hours,” Rouge replied, nodding her head in agreement. Before giving Knuckles too long to dwell on her routine, she quickly planted another kiss on his cheek. “See you this evening, Red!” The huntress left just as abruptly as she’d come, leaving a baffled echidna in her wake.

“Heh… she’s such a wild card!” Knuckles said to himself softly. “She came here, tried to take the Emerald, asked me to dinner and left! Hah!” Smiling the whole way back to his hut, he was feeling good about his earlier prediction. As hard as it was to believe, he really enjoyed Rouge’s company. The two definitely had things to work through, but it was great nonetheless.

Of course, now he might have the challenge of undersized silverware in a public setting. Unbecoming for an echidna warrior, certainly.

—-------

*At Club Rouge…*

Upon returning to Club Rouge, the owner quickly made her way up to her penthouse on the top floor above the club. Humming the whole way, Rouge mentally planned out what outfit to wear, what jewelry, shoes and so on. She loved flaunting her beauty, as well as some of her extravagant wealth and gems in public, and now she had a cute boyfriend to show off too.

After taking as long as a shower as she could indulge in, Rouge slipped into an elegant, low-back red dress that glittered as she moved. One of her favorites, it came with a white-silk trim that matched her snowy fur. There were slits up the sides of the legs, but not so high as to be “scandalous.” The glamourous thief sported a pair of red high-heels to match, adorned with small diamonds around the straps. Still humming cheerfully, she began to pick out the jewelry from an assortment of cases on her dresser.

Then, Rouge’s humming came to an abrupt halt as her hand fell upon one box in particular.

Habitually, she opened it again. Inside was only one thing: a large, simple, flawless golden band. Shadow’s inhibitor ring, the same Sonic had retrieved for Rouge a few years ago back on the ARK.

“Shadow…” Rouge murmured, running her fingers over the smooth surface of the bracelet. The huntress sighed; it’d been months since she’d last seen or spoken to Shadow, and that was only during the mission with Infinite, and briefly during the battles against Eggman. The last time they had really spoken… Rouge cringed just thinking about it. No wonder Shadow had taken off after everything… again . Now it had been about half a year since anyone had any solid notion of the edgy hedgehog’s whereabouts. 

This bracelet, Shadow’s inhibitor, was the only real reminder she had of all the history the two of them shared, what they meant to each other. As much as it pained the white bat to behold it, it was too precious to get rid of or put out of sight.

Rouge had confided in Knuckles how worried she was about Shadow, seeing him so scarcely and knowing what he’d been going through. Despite his well-meaning assurances, nothing Knuckles or anyone said made her believe that her teammate, her friend, was at peace in his heart. If she could just see him again, apologize for their last talk… Would he even listen, a year after the fact?

“Where are you…?”

—----

*White Acropolis, Northern Soleanna*

Hidden beneath a thick veil of snow, tucked low in the roots of the mountains, laid a heavily-fortified base of malevolent mechanized soldiers. Closing off any and all routes to the base through the mountains with massive, thick titanium walls, the base also had hidden recon towers at six points outside the base to alert of any intruders, and hundreds of mechs ready to attack.

“Recon Alpha, checking in,” one mech, blending in with the flurry of snow, buzzed in over its communicator to the others. “ All recons report in.”

“Recon Beta checking in.”

“Recon Gamma checking in.”

“Re…”

“Recon Delta. Report in now,” the first mech repeated. One more failed response would trigger an investigation.

“Recon Delta checking in. Comms error reported,” they finally responded. The other two responded without a hitch. Operations resumed normally for now.

All the mechs in the base were monitored for their energy signals to ensure they were all operational. This, the check-ins and many other measures were in place to alert the base in case of any possible infiltration or attack.

Shadow the Hedgehog was acutely aware of all these security measures. Therefore, he had hit one of the mechs, the Delta lookout, with a special device that disabled all functionality without shutting down its power. The device would then respond to sound cues through the mech’s radio by hijacking the robot’s voice box, and knowing what to say from the memory banks. Basically, it was a device that acted like a built-in hacker controlled it.

Something Shadow had acquired from G.U.N., and then improved upon.

With one lookout safely disabled, the Ultimate Life-Form quickly climbed the tower the mech had been looking out from. Between the snow, ice and camouflage technology, it was almost impossible to see anything of the base, either visually, infrared or even satellite. From the top of the tower, however, Shadow could make out where the top of the wall leading to the base was. Once he got over that wall, they wouldn’t be able to lock him out, and stealth would be entirely “optional.”

Observing his surroundings quickly, Shadow planned his route, and then shot off the top of the tower like a comet. He quickly ran alongside a high point on an ice wall to build more momentum, and shot off again, soaring over the wall with less than a foot of clearance. Shadow’s fire-skates kicked on to slow his descent a little, and he landed without a hitch. 

Immediately, spot lights illuminated his location, and guns from dozens of mechs swiveled around to take aim.

“Useless,” he scoffed, and vanished in a blip of blue light.

The robots looked around frantically for where the dark hedgehog had gone. No sign, no movement, not even a reading on their sensors…

* BOOM !*

One of the larger floodlights had suddenly been blasted off its base and came crashing down into several mechs, causing their ranks to scatter. A fatal mistake. Taking advantage of the discord, Shadow quickly reappeared and began quickly taking the robots out. Every time one turned to aim, he was gone, then back again just as suddenly. The mechs fell one by one, faster than they could get a shot off. In just under eleven seconds, every robot before Shadow lay in pieces.

“Chaos Spear! ” he shouted, and several arcs of his Chaos energy fired from his palm, hitting the bases of all the other floodlights. Another blip of his Chaos Control, and Shadow was gone before the lights hit the ground.

Further inside the base, the mech that oversaw the whole base and all its operations in White Acropolis saw what happened on the camera feeds. It hadn’t even been a whole minute, and Shadow had obliterated every guard in the base’s courtyard. Had its creator given it the ability to feel fear, it would’ve been trembling, even without the cold. 

“Initiate lockdown,” the lead mech ordered the others working the base’s control terminals. “Converge all forces-”

A resounding *CRASH!* interrupted it as the door to the control room was knocked right out of its frame, and in a fiery blur, Shadow had entered the room. With four quick warps and four quick, precise shots of an energy gun, he took down all the robots in the immediate room save for the overseer. Another blip and the muzzle of Shadow’s weapon was aimed right between the mech’s optical sensors.

“I need information,” the dark hedgehog said in a low, steady voice. “You want to keep functioning? Access what I need.”

“I-If I do that… Master Eggman will know! There will be repercussions!” the robot stuttered, unaware it even could stutter before today.

“Mm-hmm.” Shadow fired a blast right between the mech’s legs so fast it looked like he never took his aim off the head. “Final answer?”

After a moment of resignation, the mech turned to face the terminal with Shadow’s blaster at point-blank range from behind.

“What do you wish to know?”

“Access any data banks you have for any information regarding Black Doom, or anything having to do with ‘Mephiles’ or ‘time void corruption,” Shadow requested in an even tone. “If you begin any sort of data purge before I’m done, or have anything interrupt us, I will destroy you.”

The robot didn’t reply as it complied, the screens flashing as data and images related to the search appeared in rapid succession. The angsty hedgehog’s eyes flitted between the data, quickly soaking it in, and the mech, watching it for any suspicious activity. 

“Zero results for ‘Mephiles,’” the mech reported after a minute, its optics nervously glancing between Shadow and the doors to the room. “Although we have over four-hundred results for Black Doom, and over one-hundred for-”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before yet,” Shadow interrupted, pushing his blaster more firmly against the mech as he continued reading. His brow furrowed and his frown grew darker; this particular “mission” was beginning to feel infuriatingly familiar. Every file he’d seen so far, he’d downloaded already. He already knew everything G.U.N., Eggman and even other, more obscure parties knew about Black Doom. There was absolutely nothing on Mephiles anywhere . Not a damn thing, no theories, historical mentions, mythos, nothing . There was never anything new on the corruption Shadow had encountered in White Space, which he theorized had something to do with Mephiles since the dark being had adapted to it the same as Shadow had with his Doom Powers. No new leads anywhere.

Another minute, and Shadow’s quick reading and comprehension concluded this base’s data held nothing as well.

“Damn it…” he hissed under his breath. “If that’s everything, purge all the data. Now.

“Very well,” the overseer mech complied, beginning a master delete. “May I… go now?” it asked slowly.

“Not yet. But I will spare your functionality, like I said,” Shadow replied, and blasted the robot in the left foot, and took off through the door opposite of the one he’d arrived through.

“All units… stop the intruder!!” the mech cried as it struggled to lift itself up to the console. “Converge on that hedgehog!” But it was already too late.

A series of explosions rocked the base as Shadow lit the place up with Chaos Spears, blasting his way through any and all resistance. Alarms began blaring, the damage growing more extensive as the Ultimate Life-Form made his exit.

Upon reaching the courtyard outside where he’d arrived, Shadow observed a number of robots attempting to mobilize despite all the chaos. He nodded when he noticed a row of them with jets that were airborne; there was his exit. Another flash of blue-light, and Shadow landed a Homing Attack on the lowest one, and then quickly slammed the full-force of his balled-up body into the next several mechs. Once his improvised staircase got him far enough, he leapt back over the outer wall, and sped off into the night.

While mildly satisfied that he had taken out another of Dr. Eggman’s bases, Shadow fumed that for the sixteenth time in a row, he had no new information. Ever since he’d taken off after Sonic’s birthday party about a year ago, the brooding warrior had been looking for more answers. He’d learned a few things G.U.N. and Eggman knew about the Black Arms, as well as what they’d learned about the corruption substance in White Space, which wasn’t much. Mostly just theories there. That had been within the first two months of Shadow’s search, and he hadn’t found anything new in the following ten.

Of course, his search had been put on hold when Dr. Eggman waged war with Infinite as his captain. Shadow wished he had finished the jackal when Rouge and he had done that last job together before the war had been in full-swing. It might’ve saved some destruction and blood-shed. That whole affair had ended several months ago now.

Shadow sighed to himself as he continued to skate through the snow, weaving with seasoned ease through the trees.

‘Rouge…’ He couldn’t help but muse over her a little when the memory of their last meeting crossed his mind. Of course, they had barely spoken during the mission G.U.N. had “requested” Shadow to perform. While they’d kept things friendly on the surface, it was obvious the two still remembered how poorly the encounter after Sonic’s party had gone. 

After being away so long, the dark hedgehog had wondered and wondered to himself why he had acted out like he had a year ago. The answer was simple; Shadow didn’t know how to address his pain. Even after he’d told Maria he had let go of his anger, the pain of losing her again… it was too much. He’d wanted to ignore it and got angry when he’d been reminded of it.

He knew Rouge had just been trying to help. Instead of accepting, Shadow had snapped at her and pushed her away. His long-time ally… Now, it was just easier to keep moving, stay focused on the mission…

‘ Hah! An excuse if I ever heard one!’

Rouge’s words echoed in his mind. Was she right? Was Shadow only searching these bases for answers, answers that may not even exist, just so he wouldn’t have to face her? Face the others? Face the pain that came with growing attached to someone, and the fear of losing them?

‘It’s easier this way,’ Shadow rationalized to himself for the umpteenth time. His frown turned to gritted teeth; that wasn’t true. Why couldn’t he just admit it? It was easier to make everyone dislike him, push them away when they helped him? He hated it. Maria had wanted him to be happy, she’d said so. Even during their brief reunion, it had been clear to her that Shadow and Rouge were friends…

The angsty hedgehog had thought before he really had no excuse to at least make amends with Rouge. He owed her that, after everything they’d been through. If he wasn’t getting anywhere raiding any base he could find, then perhaps he should take the time to find her… apologize, even if it was a year late. Would she even remember? Would she even care at this point?

‘Of course she would… I know Rouge well enough to know she remembers every time someone earned her ire,’ Shadow thought with a ghost of a smile tugging the corners of his lips. ‘Yes… very well. Eggman has one more base in this region. I don’t know if this last base was merely the other’s outpost or vice versa, but once I investigate it… I should find Rouge again…’

He didn’t want to. Where would he even begin? He shook his head at himself; why was he being a coward about this?! Shadow knew; he had to see her, at least try. Rouge had saved his life and helped countless times, he didn’t dare dishonor her… not again.

After a few minutes of running at a high-speed, Shadow ran up through a mountain and into a cavern he’d fashioned into a temporary shelter. The wind and snow were picking up into a gale; while Shadow’s Chaos Energy, genetics and fur gave him much more resilience to the cold, he wasn’t completely immune to extreme temperatures. Not to mention, the reduced vision would make scouting the base more dangerous. Best to take some time to catch his breath and wait for the snow to abate.

While Shadow gazed out from his shelter to the flurry of ice outside, he regretted the weather wouldn’t give him a chance to see the Northern Lights. Maria had always grown excited when they had a chance to observe them from the ARK, and he’d actually wanted a chance to see them from the Earth. White Acropolis was once such area he might have beheld the phenomenon.

“Can’t you take one damned day to stop being such an ass?!”

“Hm… ‘ Ally’ ” Shadow muttered aloud to himself, shaking his head a little. Not that he’d go so far as to admit this when he apologized, but maybe Rouge was right about that too; maybe he should take some time, see some sights…

It’s what Maria would’ve wanted.

“Damn it… she knows me better than I’d like…” the Ultimate Life-Form said with a half-chuckle. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Two: Punishment, Thy Name Is Ruin

—----

*Outside the Babylon Bistro, about 8:30 pm.*

“Well, I gotta admit, their grub was great!” Knuckles said with a hearty nod as he and Rouge walked away from the restaurant. “I’d love to come back sometime! There were a lot of other things that looked good on that menu!”

“Sure thing Knux, glad to see you can be more cultured when you want to be,” Rouge said with a soft laugh. The two walked down the sidewalks of Night Babylon, hands gently clasped. It had taken some practice, but Knuckles knew how to adjust his grip just right to keep a firm hold without crushing his girlfriend’s hand at all. Now getting Knuckles to wear any kind of formal wear, that was a challenge. Tonight the echidna had agreed to wear a dress jacket, a bow-tie and nicer shoes than he normally wore. That alone was progress.

“Culture? I know a lot about culture!” Knuckles retorted to her comment. “Go on, ask me anything about Babylonian history, or echidna culture, or-!”

“Chill Red! That’s… ah, it’s fine, I was just joking,” the ivory bat said with a weary laugh. As much fun as she’d had tonight, Knuckles’ defensive nature and… unfamiliarity with certain meanings had been going on a lot during this date.

“Sorry Rouge. Chill, got it,” the echidna said with a sheepish chuckle. “How about next week sometime we go back?”

“Sure, although I’ll have to check in with G.U.N. first to-” As if on cue, Rouge’s phone started going off in her purse. Sighing, she gave Knuckles an apologetic look and answered. “Agent Rouge here.”

“Rouge. This is Commander Tower,” a familiar voice spoke over the line. “ I apologize for calling at this hour, but this is an urgent matter. We need to brief you and E-123 Omega as soon as possible. Please report to G.U.N. H.Q. as quickly as you can.”

“Wait, really? It can’t wait until morning?” Rouge asked, resisting the urge to groan. Most agents wouldn’t get away with giving Abraham Tower, the Supreme Commander of the Guardian Units of Nations, any sass, but with her record a lot of allowances were made.

“ I”m afraid not. It’s sensitive so I need you here in person. Your’s and Omega’s ears only. As soon as possible, Agent Rouge. Don’t keep me waiting. Tower out,” the Commander ordered sternly before the call ended. Sighing again, Rouge looked over at Knuckles.

“Sorry… gotta go to work,” she groaned with dramatic emphasis.

“Damn… sorry Rouge,” Knuckles said softly, putting an arm around her. “Here, let me take you home first at least.”

“Thanks Red. I need to get changed then drive up there quick-like,” the master spy said with a sad smile. She’d been hoping to have more time with Knuckles tonight once they got back to her place… oh well.

“Did they say what it was about?” the echidna warrior asked as they continued down the sidewalk to Club Rouge.

“Nope… just that it was important,” Rouge replied with a shrug. “Besides, you know I can’t always talk to you about these things. As much as I want to.”

“I don’t like that… too many secrets is usually a bad sign,” Knuckles muttered. “G.U.N. has always been too shifty, y’know?”

“You know I know that,” she replied wearily. “Please, let’s not talk about my job right now okay?”

“It’s just… I wish they’d leave you alone, y’know?” he looked over at her with a frown. “They work you a lot and keep you in the dark.”

“It’s what I signed up for,” Rouge said with a casual smile. “Yeah, it can get frustrating, but I know how to deal with them.”

“Seems like a bad influence on you though,” Knuckles started to continue, but Rouge cut him off.

“ Please, can we wait until I’m back before we continue this?” the bat groaned pleadingly. Maybe it was because others had taken advantage of Knuckles’ trust in the past, but he had mentioned how much he distrusted Rouge’s employers many times since they’d been dating.

“Okay! Sorry, sorry,” Knuckles apologized profusely. “Gotcha. How about that dress? Let’s talk about how pretty it is!”

“You already have tonight… but don’t let me stop you,” Rouge said with a giggle, and planted a kiss on his cheek. Smiling giddily, he went on to compliment her dress however he could think to. Thankfully, the conversation didn’t go back to G.U.N. for the remainder of the walk. Knuckles stuck around the club until Rouge had finished getting changed into her usual leotard and heart-top, and had gotten into her spacious, luxurious muscle-car, colored to match herself.

“Take care of yourself until I get back, okay Big Red?” she said to him as she backed her car out onto the street.

“Sure thing Rouge, you too!” Knuckles bid her farewell, waving his big hand as she slowly pulled away. With one more giggle, Rouge blew him a kiss, and finally drove away as Knuckles continued to wave.

‘Now… let’s see what’s so damned important that G.U.N. cut my evening short,’ the ivory bat thought with no small amount of frustration as she drove. She was going to demand a generous bonus if this was so urgent.

– —------

*Later, G.U.N. Headquarters*

Shortly after parking in a hidden area outside, Rouge the Bat now found herself in the familiar halls of the most secure government base in the world. Officers, guards, and agents filed to and fro amongst the monitors and maps displayed on the various screens throughout the building. The ivory bat got a sinking feeling; the tension in the air was undeniable. From what her acute hearing picked up, nobody out here knew for sure what was going on. But whatever it was, it was “big”. As in when Dr. Eggman was working with Shadow, the Time Eater arriving, Infinite and the Phantom Ruby’s power “big”.

The master thief sighed; it definitely was urgent. She felt she’d jinxed herself.

Making her way to the Command Center where Commander Tower and the top officers managing G.U.N.’s global operations were, Rouge spotted a familiar face. Well, she noticed his hulking frame first, to be exact. He seemed to be waiting outside the door to the Command Center.

“Omega!” Rouge called, waving with a big smile she couldn’t help. “It’s been a minute! How’s my favorite rogue badnik?”

“I have been faring well, Rouge,” Omega replied in his usual deep, mechanically-stilted tone. He raised one of his metal claws up in greeting. “Since our last rendezvous, I have eliminated exactly four-hundred and sixty-eight of Eggman’s inferior robots. It has been good hunting.”

“Heh, can’t say I’m surprised,” she chuckled, giving Omega a friendly rap with her knuckles across his red metal chest. The E-123 model’s optics glanced at her and seemed to blink in confusion.

“I still do not understand these ‘gestures’ organics exchange,” Omega referred to the use of his chest as a drum. “Observation: they are inconsistent. Other instances that would have been seen as hostile action. Query: is this the kind that I return?” He readied one hand to knock his own knuckles against Rouge.

“Nope! No, don’t do that!” she cut in with a nervous chuckle. “Never change, okay Omega? I miss having your dangerous candor around.”

“I do not intend to ‘change’ unless it is an upgrade to my arsenal,” Omega stated, pausing a little on ‘change’ in confusion. “However… if you mean, as in ‘change the status of our team’, then no, I won’t change that at all.”

“Aww! You’re getting soft on me big guy!” Rouge teased, though she genuinely loved hearing that from Omega. It had seemed in all of Team Dark’s time together, somehow, by some miracle, Shadow and Rouge had helped humanize the deadly, revenge-bound mech. Perhaps a testament to Eggman’s work, something more than that… maybe a little of both? Who knew?

Before Omega could rebuke her words with another technical statement, the door to the Command Center slid open, and two more guards walked out to stand next to the other two already guarding it.

“The Commander will see you now, Agent Rouge. Omega,” one said with a respectful nod. Giving them a half-dismissive wave of her hand in thanks, Rouge led her mechanical friend inside. Immediately, the energy grew tense and charged with panic. More so than the G.U.N. staff outside. While only a few officers and agents were frantically on their feet, the staff on their computers were all talking in a loud buzz. Everyone’s voice was heavy with stress even as they tried to remain composed.

The two of them turned as the guards and officers nearest them snapped off a salute. Commander Abraham Tower now stood before them.

“Rouge. Omega. Thank you for coming,” he said with a small, polite smile. “I apologize for calling you both here on such short notice, but as I said this is urgent. At ease.” Everyone dropped their salutes. “Follow me into my booth, we’ll have an easier time talking amongst the three of us.” 

Once Rouge, Omega and Abraham were all inside the Commander’s central booth overlooking the rest of the Command Center, the long-time G.U.N. agent led with the questions.

“So Abe, how much longer are you going to keep us in suspense?” Rouge asked softly, though “Abe” was well-aware of the bat’s sass-ridden barb. The senior officer gently took a seat and pulled up a terminal.

“This morning, we received some… troubling images from our satellites, images that were barely within our scope to even see,” the Commander explained, his tone growing more grave. “We scanned repeatedly, and found that a large object was approaching the Earth at a high-speed, and continuing to close in. The satellite images became much clearer within an hour.” Abraham’s terminal pulled up a hologram of a 3-D render of what they scanned. Rouge’s eyes widened, and she gasped softly.

“No… is that a…?!”

“A Black Comet,” Omega stated simply, his voice deepening a little. Anger? Dread? Hard to say.

Sure enough, the image portrayed a familiar, grotesque comet, dark and laden with the red-glowing growth of the Black Arms army. Tendrils ran along the length of the “tail,” giving it a hellish, monstrous quality. Other than being shaped a little differently, and covered in larger, red icy crystals than its predecessor, this “new” Black Comet seemed nearly identical. The Commander nodded to affirm their words.

“Yes.. we cross-referenced it with our data from the last Black Comet, as well as the ARK’s sensory data. We have every reason to believe that the Black Arms have a reserve force of some sort headed to Earth,” Abraham said heavily.

“But how?! When Shadow defeated the Black Arms before, they all perished when Black Doom did!” Rouge asked, anger growing in her voice. After everything Shadow had been through, twice to get rid of these monsters, and they had the nerve to come back again? She certainly loathed the idea of having to fight another war with them enough as was, but to have to put Shadow through this all over again... 

“Then, he blew up the whole Black Comet for good measure! How can there be any left?”

“We don’t know any of that yet, all we can do is theorize,” Abe replied with a shake of his head. “Our best guess is either Black Doom had yet another contingency to return, or there’s another warlord akin to him within this particular comet.”

“I don’t understand why Black Doom would have gone through the trouble of everything with White Space if he could have returned with a whole other colony of Black Arms,” Rouge thought aloud. ‘Because he wanted control of Shadow? Was it that important to Black Doom to have Shadow? Bastard.’ Not aloud.

“Regardless, all we can do is prepare to defend from them and deal with them as quickly as possible,” Abraham continued on. “I’ve already begun mobilizing an elite unit of our best agents, as well as enacting countermeasures. Our scientists have ways of dealing with the Black Arms’ paralyzing gas, and means of fighting their special units. We’ll continue monitoring the Comet as it approaches and learn anything we can from it. In the meantime however, I have a mission for you two.”

He stood up, hands folded behind himself as he took a moment, and sighed.

“Have either of you two… been in contact with Shadow?” Abraham asked gently.

“No. Haven’t seen him in about six months,” Rouge replied quickly, her tone sharpening a little. Now the bat felt a barb, albeit an unintentional one. As much as she missed the angsty hedgehog, she hadn’t spoken to anyone about him in awhile. Even if she didn’t want to be, Rouge was still bitter about “the talk” they’d had.

“Nor have I. I would have very much liked him to have taken me up on my offer to go on a bombing raid,” Omega added after.

“I thought as much,” Abraham sighed. “Well, in short, we need him. Shadow is one of the Earth’s best defenders, and we need him present. Aside from that, I don’t need to tell you how much of an advantage he gives us against the Black Arms; immune to their gas, Black Doom’s mind-control, able to tap into their hive-mind, he’s essential. If neither of you know where he is, I need you to find him. Immediately.” 

Rouge’s senses all blanked, and her stomach dropped. Seriously? She’d thought a lot about what she’d do or say if given a chance to talk to Shadow again. Half the time she imagined it either going badly or giving him the cold shoulder. The other half of the time, she pictured them both apologizing, and finally, finally being a team again…

But now she was being ordered to find him?!

She opened her mouth to protest, but knew it was pointless. Abe was right; Shadow was their best shot to fight the Black Arms if they really were back.

Besides, as much as she didn’t want to admit it… she was worried about him.

“Rouge? You two are the ones I trust the most to find Shadow,” he asked after a few moments of silence. “You know him better than anyone after everything you’ve been through. Regardless of what you think, I know he trusts two both a lot more than anyone bearing a G.U.N. emblem.”

“Well… any leads?” Rouge finally settled on asking with a sigh.

“Yes, actually,” Abraham replied, and pushed a few buttons to bring up a map of a country to the north. “Within the last month, there’s been a handful of sightings in Soleanna. Nothing solid, but more than we’ve had before. We tried approaching Shadow not long after the conflict with Infinite and Eggman, but he… clearly didn’t want to be approached. Once Soleanna helped us establish an outpost there, we’ve been keeping an eye and ear out. No new sightings but, if it is Shadow, we have no reason to believe that he’s left Soleanna yet.”

“Anything more specific? A whole country is a lot of ground to cover for one hedgehog,” Rouge pressed for more information.

“Agreed. Especially given Shadow’s extraordinary speed and Chaos Control abilities,” Omega added. “Narrowing our search by any means necessary would save precious time.”

“I’m sorry, but the only thing we can say is that none of the sightings are in or near the cities of Soleanna,” Abe said regretfully. “There have been at least two sightings in the Dusty Desert region, White Acropolis to the North, and along the beaches and countryside as well. But none near the densely populated areas. We haven’t learned what Shadow might be doing there, or if it’s even him. But it’s the best lead we’ve had since our last contact during the war with Robotnik and Infinite.”

Rouge and Omega exchanged a glance. Through electronic lenses and aquamarine eyes, they silently shrugged at each other.

“Very well. We shall search and retrieve Shadow for a new ‘Team Mission’, ASAP,” Omega said with thinly-veiled gusto. Rouge sighed but managed a casual smile.

“Sure thing Abe. I’m sure it’ll be like old times,” she said with a seasoned mask of indifferent confidence. “We’ll have ol’ ‘Moody and Broody’ back before you know it.”

“Very good,” Abraham said with an assured nod. “We still have time; the Comet is still out of range of any ship or weapon. We estimate we’ll have at least twenty-six hours before we can act against it. Once we have Shadow up to speed and the whole squad is ready, we’ll fill you in on the plan. We’re already working on one, and any input you’d have would be invaluable.” He walked over to the door and looked back at them. 

“There’s a chopper on the roof, waiting to take you two to Soleanna. Landing pad five,” he said. “Anything you need that you think will help on the mission, take it. As long as Shadow is here as quickly as possible and the three of you are ready to assist in engaging the Black Arms.”

“Quick question Abe; obviously I’ll keep everything on a need-to-know, but can I bring some help in?” Rouge chimed in. “I know someone who could help find Shadow fast.”

“Very well Rouge, but do not mention anything about the Black Arms for now to anyone. If they know Shadow, feel free to say you’re looking for him, but nothing about the possible invasion,” Abraham said firmly. “Not even if it’s… someone from Team Sonic or someone else we’ve worked with before. Our hope is to eliminate this Black Comet before it even has a chance to get close enough to Earth to threaten anyone. We don’t want word to get out from anyone and unnecessarily cause any panic.”

“I don’t appreciate the insinuation Abe, but… understood,” Rouge said with a sigh and a nod. She hadn’t kept her relationship with Knuckles a secret, unlike a lot of things from G.U.N. she had to keep from him . 

Satisfied, Abe nodded back. Rouge had never let him down in a mission, despite her indifferent demeanor.

“Very well then. For what it’s worth, if things escalate we may very well bring Team Sonic in, and they’ll likely know everything you do by then. The chopper will take you wherever you need before going to Soleanna. Just don’t linger.” Abe’s expression softened and he saluted Rouge and Omega with genuine gratitude shining in his cyan and orange eyes. “Thank you, you two. Dismissed,” he said, and went back to work in the rest of the Command Center. Omega bounced on his feet energetically.

“I look forward to fighting alongside Shadow again!” the mega-mech spoke in a tone that bordered on bubbly. “Our team efficiency is four-hundred and fifty-nine percent greater than when we fight independently.”

“Try telling that to Shadow…” Rouge muttered bitterly.

“What do you mean, Rouge?” Omega asked, confusion again halting his tone.

“It’s nothing, Omega,” she sighed. “I just wish he were here in the first place… Come on, we should get moving.”

“Are you referring to Shadow’s long-term absence troubling you?”

Rouge felt her whole body tense sharply. Leave it to Omega to be as blunt as his fists. She huffed heavily, and turned to face him.

“Does it really matter, Omega? It’s not like you to press for things like that!” Rouge said, rather more haughtily than intended. 

“As a team, I’ve observed the more you and Shadow let issues ‘simmer’, as you put it, the more of an effect your collective organic emotions have on our mission effectiveness,” the walking arsenal replied, rather chidingly for his usual-monotone drone. Rouge almost scoffed at her metallic friend’s nerve. “Do not look at me like that. Back to my query; are you disappointed with Shadow for not being present more frequently?”

“Of course I am Omega!” Rouge blurted, and started pacing in the booth. Honestly it felt good to say that out loud. “He’s our friend! I’ve been worried about him ever since the whole Time Eater crisis! But he was such an… ugh! Such an ass! I just wanted to help him, but…” The bat sighed and collected herself, rubbing her temples a little as her ears drooped.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to find him again, or that I’ve stopped being worried, I just don’t know what to say when we see him again,” Rouge admitted. Even though Omega was a robot, oddly enough, he could offer a friendly ear every once in a while. The huntress found it easy to talk to him after going on so many missions together.

“Speech is not usually necessary with Shadow,” he replied. “He seems to prefer communicating through actions rather than with words. Finding him is our first priority. If you are worried about him, we must first secure him to assess his condition.”

In his own way, Omega could offer some words of comforting, technical truths.

“Huh… well when you’re right, you’re right!” Rouge said with a small laugh, her ears perking back up with her mood. She clasped a hand on Omega’s shoulder. “Come on Metal Muscles, let’s round up a posse and go find our favorite edge lord!”

“This is true; I understand Shadow has mastered combat with the edge of a blade,” Omega replied with several nods.

While Omega’s words assured Rouge somewhat, a few fears still nagged at her; chiefly, would they be able to find Shadow before he gave them the slip? Would he even want anything to do with them?

But it didn’t matter. Rouge the Bat and Omega had resolved to get their teammate, their friend, and bring Team Dark back together again. When this team collectively wanted something, they were impossible to deter.

—-----

*Deep In Space, Many Miles Outside Earth’s Solar System

Upon the cold, dark rock that blazed through the blackness of space, two beings mused on what served as the Black Comet’s command bridge. Among all the enormous gaping rooms, long twisting hallways and various, shifting rooms and platforms, this room resided deep within the Comet, safest from outside attack. Aside from a faint light glowing from the floor, it was dark.

One was fairly short, a long, red-tipped barbed tail swishing from behind him. His skin was a similar red and dark-grey hue as the Black Arms, and despite his height similarity to a Mobian, he bore no resemblance to any animal equivalent. The other was a creature that resembled a hovering squid or spider of sorts, a grey hue that was fairly light around the large central eye on its body. Its hue darkened as it went down the red-striped tendrils. Like the Black Comet before this one, this Eye bore a strong resemblance to Doom’s Eye.

At this moment, their sensors had recently gotten within range to bring up a clear view of their destination. The little blue planet glowed on their monitor, illuminating the faces of the two who observed it.

“So that’s it… the place where my father died…” one of them hissed, his burning yellow eyes narrowing into slits in loathing. “The place where more than half of our race perished… it looks like such a delicate world. Had I not known my brother played a role in our father’s downfall, I could scarcely believe its inhabitants posed any threat.”

“That is dangerous thinking, Eclipse,” the other being spoke, its large singular red eye finally blinking as it glanced at its companion. “Not only to underestimate an enemy, but to assume Shadow is any ‘brother’ at this point-”

“I know that!” Eclipse snapped back, balling the three large digits of his claws into fists. “Do not give me the mantle of leading our forces into battle if you doubt my abilities! Whether an enemy is weak or strong, I treat them all the same; with ruthless efficiency and without mercy. As Black Doom taught me, taught all of us. As for Shadow…” Eclipse’s eyes softened just the slightest. “There are few enough of us left as it is. If we can bring Shadow back into the fold, we will. But if it comes down to either him, or the rest of us…”

Eclipse’s hands glowed with a fiery, green energy, casting a haunting glow upon the blackness of his eyes.

“I’ll kill him, and everyone else on that wretched little blue ball,” the Darkling said with a wicked grin, his head tilting slightly as he fixed his gaze back on the image of Earth. “They took the lives of my father and most of our brethren. So now we’ll take it all back, a hundred-fold.”

“Forgive me Eclipse, but are you certain we’re ready? If Black Doom and his Comet fell to Shadow and the world’s other defenders, they may be more formidable than any other foe we’ve conquered.” The eye blinked again, and one of its long tendrils reached forward to rest itself below the eye. It was as if putting a hand on one’s chest.

“Even more so than the battle that restricted me to this form,” the eye added sullenly, its whole form drooping slightly as it hovered above the floor.

“I… am sorry, Black Death,” Eclipse replied softly, his gaze hardening at the burning reminder of his former master’s current condition. “I wish you could have been in your prime for this day. But rest assured, we are ready.” The Darkling brought up another image on their terminal, and a screen showing the feed of another area of the Black Comet hummed to life. It was a large, cavernous room filled with red eggs almost the size of Eclipse. Save for a few highly-capable guards monitoring the room, there was no movement.

“The Dark Arms, my pet project to evolve our race, are ready for their first real test in battle,” Eclipse went on. “Already over a hundred of them are matured and fully trained. Once we… restock our supplies on Earth, these hatchlings will be ready to emerge in no time.” A large, proud smile twisted his face. “To think, all I had to do was find a way to imbed enough of my Chaos Energy into their resting chambers to incubate them to get these results.” He looked back over at Death’s Eye.

“For nearly fifty years, every battle I’ve waged was for Black Doom and his cause to conquer the galaxy, and then beyond,” the Darkling said in a low voice. “Even when that battle over ten years ago injured you so gravely, we pressed on. But when I learned Shadow, the one meant to be my brother , had taken Black Doom…” Eclipse chuckled and shook his head.

“No… it’s more than that, now. Ever since that day, every battle was to get here. To this point! To train the Black Arms, surpass what they were capable of before. Find new ways to change, evolve, improve. So that, when we were ready, we could crush the Earth, the one place where the Black Arms were defeated. So I could confront Shadow victoriously. I will overwhelm him, show him that his only future is with the Black Arms. If Shadow refuses to see reason… ” Eclipse’s claws balled into fists again. “Then. He. Dies. Too! My powers have grown over the years while he slept in stasis! He has no idea what our Chaos powers are capable of!” Again, he laughed a little.

“Mark my words, Black Death… one way or another, everyone who stands against us on Earth will be punished… the full wrath of the Black Arms cannot be withstood. No… the fools may not realize it, but we know everything that happened when Black Doom came to Earth.” He tapped his forehead for emphasis.

“Hive mind! Even across lightyears, we can share anything we want! Their Eclipse Cannon, their roster of filthy animal ‘heroes’, we’ll deal with them all.”

“Yes… I know you will, Eclipse,” Death’s Eye hummed. “Every world that’s fallen beneath us, you have crushed remarkably well. The ruin you bring to our enemies is truly glorious to behold. Your strategies and skills have never failed us; that is why I granted you command of the hive mind when I was restricted to my Eye.”

Grinning wickedly, Eclipse looked back at the image of Earth. From their estimates, they’d be able to make contact with Earth in less than forty hours. From there, it’d likely be less than an hour before they could enact their plan.

“I shall make both you and Black Doom proud, Black Death,” Eclipse the Darkling swore. “Soon, the Earth shall cease to be blue… it will be brimming with red.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Three: Now I Need Your Hand

—-----

*Aboard a G.U.N. Helicoptor, En Route to Angel Island*

—------

Despite the headphones that muted the sound of the chopper (as well as allowed her to hear the others easily), Rouge disliked the sensory overload the roar of the propellers caused her sensitive ears. Still, she’d learned to tune it out for the most part over her many missions, she just preferred flying on her own. Walking over to where Omega stood, she tuned her headset into her communicator to make a call.

“Is your echidna mate’s presence necessary? Team Dark is not taking applicants, and I believe our efficiency shall be sufficient to find Shadow,” Omega asked.

“Don’t call him ‘mate’, that’s so crass!” Rouge scoffed indignantly, sticking her tongue out in exaggerated disgust. “And yes, Knuckles is a great hunter! You’re probably right; we probably could find Shadow on our own, but I don't want to take any chances. The more help we have, the more ground we can cover. Knuckles is someone we can trust. That good enough?”

“It is sufficient,” Omega replied with a light shrug.

“Hey Rouge! You free already?” Knuckles’ voice crackled through Rouge’s headphones.

“Hi sugar! No, not exactly, but if you’re feeling up to it, you can help me on my mission!” Rouge replied, her whole demeanor perking up at his voice.

“ For G.U.N.? Uh, yeah, of course… what kind of mission? ” Knuckles asked. As slow as he could be to catch on, even Knuckles knew that Rouge’s call meant things weren’t as casual as they seemed. Even though they often went treasure hunting together, she didn’t always bring him along on her G.U.N. missions.

“I’ll tell you more once I get there… it’s kind of a big deal, I’d rather tell you in person,” the ivory huntress said a bit lowly. Knuckles barely understood her over the background noise of the chopper. “See you at Angel Island in, say, ten minutes?”

“Yeah, sure thing Rouge… are you okay?” Knuckles asked, again feeling Rouge’s shift in tone. Subtle as it was for her to drop her masterful facade, it was also quite rare, so Knuckles picked up on it sometimes.

“I’m fine, it’s just… a lot right now. Like I said I’ll tell you more when I get there,” the bat answered truthfully.

“ Okay Rouge, see you in a sec. Be careful!” he said truthfully.

“You too Red! I’ll try not to keep you waiting too long!” Rouge signed off with a “ Smooch !” sound loud enough for Knuckles to hear.

“Please do not engage in kissing in my presence,” Omega said dryly once the call had ended. “I do not understand why organics partake in the contact of your lips, covered in mu-”

“Ugh, Omega, give it a rest!” Rouge sighed, but couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’ll never get a girlfriend with that attitude!” she teased.

“That is not a priority. Not even remotely. Not by any account,” the rogue mech said with a single shake of his head.

—------

*Later, Angel Island*

Knuckles stood out in a clearing a ways from the altar of the Master Emerald, frowning. Whenever G.U.N. did allow him to help Rouge on her missions or even know anything, this is usually where they’d pick him up. Tapping his foot as he waited, the troubled echidna reflected on everything G.U.N. had put Rouge up to while they’d been together. After the hedgehog-hunt for Sonic that Eggman had framed him for (using Shadow’s likeness), Knuckles had been wary of G.U.N., but there had been so much he’d been forced to stay in the dark about. 

He didn’t like it; he’d been deceived many times before, and they were forcing Rouge, his girlfriend, to keep who-knows-how many secrets from him. Why? Hadn’t Knuckles proven himself trustworthy for all the times he and Sonic had helped to save the world? He knew Rouge had been secretive well before they started dating, and back then he had just taken it in stride as a no-good thief. But now that they were dating, it felt personal. It had taken a good while, both before and after dating, until they’d been able to build the trust they had.

Was G.U.N. going to compromise that? Knuckles couldn’t help but wonder; what things were so bad that they had to make sure Rouge never told him?

He shook his head; he was being paranoid, he knew that. The huntress and he had had several “discussions” with Rouge assuring him she’d never keep anything to herself that would hurt him. So far, it had been great being with Rouge; she was gorgeous, a great hunter to go exploring with, fun to be around, and Knuckles admired her strength and drive, both in battle and in general. He had to trust her.

If she needed his help with a mission, he was going to be there for her; Knuckles was nothing if not dependable. 

Finally seeing a light and hearing the puttering of a chopper, the echidna peered up to see Rouge and Omega arriving on their transport. Once the helicopter landed, the ivory bat leapt down and jogged towards Knuckles, giving him one of her signature adoring smiles. Despite his anxieties, he caught her smile and waved at her.

“Helloooo! Glad I didn’t have to wait too long to see you again,” Rouge laughed, winking. Knuckles nodded, still smiling as he leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek.

“Good to see you too Rouge,” he replied, but his smile wavered a little. “So… you gonna tell me what’s going on?”

“Of course. It’s kind of a long story, but basically…” Rouge took a deep breath; she was still trying to process the news herself. “G.U.N. might have a lead on where Shadow is, and they need him for a mission. So they want me and Omega to find him, and they said I could bring in help, so I picked you.” She smiled innocently, albeit sheepishly at him.

“Shadow?!” Knuckles replied with shock. “Nobody’s seen or heard from him in months! They really found him?”

“Well no, just a lead. They figured… Shadow would be easier to find with Omega and I,” Rouge said with a shrug. “But we have a lot of ground to cover. I figured my big, handsome echidna would be up to help his poor girl out?” She winked again and smirked with a seductive, half-lidded eyed expression. It quickly vanished when she saw Knuckles was frowning, however.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know about this Rouge…” he said with a heavy sigh. “I don’t really trust-”

“Come on , is this about G.U.N. again?! ” Rouge cut in with a sigh. “It’s more than that, it’s about Shadow!”

“Exactly! Let me finish!” he replied firmly. “I don’t trust that guy, Rouge! He’s shady as hell, he acts like he hates everyone, he’s beaten Sonic and I around more than once, I’m never sure who’s side he’s on-!”

“Maybe if you weren’t so thick-headed you’d see he’s on our side!” Rouge snapped back, folding her arms and frowning. “He worked with Eggman before sure, and believe me, I know you’re right about how he acts! But he’s helped us so many times! Plus he’s been my friend for a long time!”

“Don’t call me thick-headed!” Knuckles snapped back, making a fist as he looked at the ground. “Come on, everyone’s giving me grief like that!”

“I know… you’re right, I’m sorry…” Rouge replied softly, her ears drooping. “It’s just… Shadow’s a sensitive subject.”

“Yeah, exactly Rouge! Shadow upsets you, he’s never around and he’s got you worried sick over him!” he said back, his stance softening in concern. “I hate to see you get upset…”

“I know. But there are things I need to say to him, to finally clear the air, or at least try to,” she said, relaxing her arms as she looked Knuckles straight in the eyes. “Even when I was pretending to help him back on Prison Island, he saved my life. I’ve saved his, and he’s saved mine more times than I can count. We’ve been through a lot, and I… I trust him. Maybe not to stick around, but I do with pretty much everything else.” She shook her head and chuckled.

“Maybe this makes me sound stupid, but Shadow’s not always an angsty ass. I’ve seen him… lighten up, here and there. It’s subtle, but you spend enough time around him, and you can tell when he’s opening up.” Rouge put a hand on Knuckles’ shoulder, and his eyes widened when we realized how zeroed-in she was.

“I owe him this Knuckles, and besides, other people need his help right now too,” she said, still gently but firmly. “He may not have a clean slate but neither do I. I said some things… I’d like to make right too. Please Red… this is important.”

It was impossible to ignore the sincerity in Rouge’s voice. Honestly, it shook Knuckles a little to see how serious she was about this. He knew that she and Shadow had been close as a team but…

“Okay… no problem, Rouge,” Knuckles said after a moment, smiling as he gave her hand on his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I’ll help. I just need to call Sonic or someone to guard the Emerald while I’m gone.”

“There’s a radio we can use on the chopper!” Rouge chirped, her mood immediately soaring once Knuckles finally relented. “Let’s go! I’ll tell you more about it on the way!” Shrugging, he followed after her. It was always impossible to deter Rouge when she got this excited.

—-----

*A couple hours after departing Angel Island, airspace above Soleanna*

After making a few calls, Knuckles had gotten Sonic and Tails to agree to spend a night or two on Angel Island to keep an eye on the Master Emerald for him. Rouge had quickly filled her boyfriend in on the finer details of their destinations during the trip. Unfortunately this left Knuckles with less distraction from Omega’s piercing-red glare for the duration of the ride; the mech clearly did not care for having another organic on board that wasn’t Team Dark. It was equally clear that it was only at Rouge’s behest that the deadly badnik didn’t say or do anything beyond the glaring.

“So we really got a whole country to search, eh?” Knuckles said just to break the tension. “I guess it’s lucky for them we’re all the best at covering so much land so quickly. Y’know, maybe we should’ve brought Sonic along? He’s the only one who really has a chance to outrun Shadow.”

“I thought about it, but I figured Shadow wouldn’t stick around if he saw Sonic of all people heading towards him,” Rouge replied, leaning against the wall of the chopper. She appeared casual, but she was too antsy about the idea of seeing Shadow again to sit still. “Our best chance would probably be to head him off or get the drop on him, and hope he doesn’t take off right away. I figured if you found him, he’d be more likely to stick around than with Sonic. I mean, you fought alongside him once, right?”

“Yeah, at Glyphic Canyon… not  too long before he started working for the Black Arms for awhile…” Knuckles said with a frown.

“I detect a shift in tone,” Omega spoke with deliberate derision. “Elaborate?” The echidna glanced over at him but Rouge waved it off.

“C’mon, the three of us got this! Like you said Red, we’re all used to covering a lot of terrain in a short time!” the bat said, putting a hand on both Omega and Knuckles’ shoulders. “Besides… I have a good idea where to start.”

“Where’s that?” Knuckles asked, leaning his head back into his palms.

“Well…” Rouge frowned slightly, her brow furrowing in thought. “It’s hard to explain, but… I have a feeling. About White Acropolis. It’s weird, because Shadow and I have never been on a mission there. But for some reason… I don’t know, it just gave me a weird feeling of deja vu.” 

“You know, now that you mention it… Soleanna does seem familiar, but I’ve never been. I’ve only ever heard of some of the jungle ruins you showed me of this place,” Knuckles replied, scratching his head.

“Perhaps your organic minds are eroding, causing memory failure. Suggestion: upgrade with cybernetics to counteract inefficiency,” Omega piped in.

“ Anyway, I figured I’d look in White Acropolis first,” Rouge continued, giving her blunt teammate a quick glare. “You two should still search the other regions while I check, to be sure. I can usually trust my gut but we can’t take any chances either.”

“Alright Rouge… you can count on me!” the echidna assured her, and put an arm on her shoulder. “Bet I’ll find him before you can even land!”

“Well, that’s why I brought you along, not just for your good looks,” the white bat teased with a chuckle, and gave Knuckles a quick peck on the lips. Omega blinked but said nothing, turning instead to face out a window. Perhaps he was considering jumping out early.

Soon after, they arrived by the shores of Soleanna. Omega decided to stop here and search along the coastline. 

“So just to be clear, whoever finds Shadow first radios the others as soon as they know he’s not going to take off again, right?” Rouge checked with Omega.

“Correct. When I find Shadow I shall notify you of my success,” the renegade robot replied with confidence as he opened the hatch. The ivory bat chuckled at her friend’s gusto.

“Be careful Omega, and good luck! Use that charisma that only you and Shadow understand to win him back over!” Rouge joked.

“Charisma? There is nothing as charming as a well-placed attack that achieves victory,” Omega retorted as he prepared to jump out of the chopper. “I shall discuss such things with Shadow, and if he attempts to flee I will restrain him forcefully if need be.”

“Yep, that kind of charisma!” she replied with a small laugh and a wink. With that, Omega leapt out, using the thrusters on his back and feet to safely slow his descent until he landed along the beach.

A while later, they arrived at the Dusty Desert region, where Knuckles would begin his search. He and Rouge exchanged another kiss for good luck.

“Thanks for doing this Knux… I really appreciate this,” Rouge said gently.

“Hey, no problem! Anything for my girl,” Knuckles replied with a firm smile and nod. “Don’t worry, we’ll have Shadow back before you know it!” Then the echidna leapt out and began gliding towards some ruins to begin his part of the search. Now that she had the back of the helicopter to herself, Rouge sighed heavily. She still wasn’t sure what to say to Shadow when she finally saw him again…

“First things first,” the spy muttered to herself. “Gotta find him first.” She went over to the supplies G.U.N. had provided for the mission, and found a custom-tailored sort of jumpsuit designed for serious cold. It was similar to her outfit when she, Shadow and Omega had first become a team, but warmer, less revealing and completely white, matching the fur of her head. It also had some built-in equipment made to make traversing snow and ice easier if need be.

Finally, the chopper arrived over the snowy peaks and valleys of White Acropolis. Rouge had finished changing by now, sliding a pair of night-vision-tinted snow goggles on as she stepped out to the chopper.

“Tell Abe when I find Shadow, I’d like my bonus in sapphires this time, thank you very much!” Rouge said to the pilots, and with a wave, elegantly fell backwards out of the helicopter. After a moment, she spread her wings and expertly maneuvered herself to ride the wind for awhile, and then flew down towards the white landscape.

Now the next big question; where to start?

Lucky for Rouge, her years of honing her hunting skills had paid off in superhuman ways. When hunting for pieces of the Master Emerald, she had developed a sort of sixth-sense for the energy they put out. After acquiring the Chaos Emeralds time and time again, she had developed a similar sense for them. Then, when they’d been separated by the Time Eater, Rouge had actually been able to use the same sense on Shadow, most likely due to the Chaos Energy that ran through his blood. It hadn’t worked until she’d been within about fifty, maybe sixty meters of the dark hedgehog, but it had still saved her a lot of time.

When hunting anything, Rouge had to know where to look. With treasures, hidden switches, trapdoors, fake walls, all sorts of things could be the right place to look. When looking for a person, you had to think like them; where would they go, what would they be doing?

The huntress had concluded; if Shadow was doing anything here, he was probably looking for Dr. Eggman or someone else to pick a fight with. So she brought a small radar with a search radius greater than two kilometers, capable of honing in on many different kinds of energy. Rouge had used similar devices on other missions for G.U.N., and only on very rare occasions did her target have a means of thwarting it. It had a hard time distinguishing Chaos Energy from other kinds of radiation, but her own senses would take care of that. Between her ability to fly at high altitudes and the range of her radar, she should be able to find a good lead fairly quickly… if there was one.

Rouge sighed to herself as she began her search. Should she try a stealthy approach? Would Shadow try to split when he saw her, like she’d mentioned he might upon seeing Sonic? She felt confident in saying Shadow had been an ass that day, but she also felt she should’ve handled it better. Rouge shouldn’t have made any kind of jealous jab about Maria, not pushed him so much to talk if he wasn’t ready… They both owed each other an apology, didn’t they?

“Focus,” Rouge shook herself out of her stupor. She tried to keep what Omega said in mind: just find him and make sure he’s okay first. The snowy-white bat continued her search, keeping a sharp eye on both the landscape and the radar she held. Occasionally flying at a lower altitude to stay beneath any clouds that might obscure her vision, she never dropped her focus; she was a professional huntress, after all. Nobody, not even the Ultimate Life-Form was going to elude her forever.

—------

*Over Fifty Years ago, Space Colony ARK*

“Are… you sure this is a good idea, Maria?”

“Nope! But that’s not the point, Shadow!,” Maria giggled. “It’s good to live a little every once in a while, even if there are risks. Besides, you need to learn how to use your new skates!”

Shadow again looked down at his newly-built skates, powered by small jets, with uncertainty. It had been Maria’s idea when Professor Gerald was thinking of ways to increase Shadow’s mobility, speed and stamina; rocket-roller blades! As silly as it may have sounded, Gerald had made Maria’s idea a reality. 

Even though the “official” testing was slated for tomorrow, neither Shadow nor Maria liked the idea of the first trial being in front of all the other researchers. While Gerald treated the hedgehog he’d created not so differently from how he treated Maria, the other scientists were hit or miss on their attitudes towards him. Some were kind, some indifferent, others looked upon him with thinly-veiled disdain or disgust. Or fear. 

When Maria had come to Shadow with the idea of trying them out early, it was clear to him that the young girl wanted to pull a fast one on the researchers and show them how incredible Shadow really was. Obviously, she knew he’d be more comfortable trying them out with just her around, which was why he’d ultimately agreed.

Still, the usually-sweet demeanor of Maria’s had flickered to show a fierce determination; she wanted something for Shadow to have to rub in the faces of the less-than-kind scientists. Despite everything, she managed to be so full of life…

It didn’t change Shadow’s perception that this seemed to be a silly idea: Maria had put on a pair of roller blades brought up from Earth, and had found a harness to attach a rope to the Ultimate Life-Form. He couldn’t see how Maria joining in was necessary, but after a lot of arm-pulling, begging and convincing, he’d relented.

“Okay Maria… just be careful, okay?” Shadow said, looking back towards her. “Give a tug if you feel uneasy or if I need to slow down, alright?”

“I promise, Shadow,” Maria replied with a firm nod. “I won’t push it today. Now come on, let’s go! While the scientists in this part of the ARK are still asleep!”

Taking a deep breath, Shadow crouched down, legs behind him with his hands touching the floor, like a marathon runner. Then, he finally took off, and began going through the motions he’d been learning about that day. The dark hedgehog expected to stumble or catch his feet on something, or feel more resistance than he should have…

Instead, he glided smoothly. Gasping softly, Shadow risked a quick glance down at his shoes, and saw the orange glow of the jets pushing him across the floor. It almost felt like gravity had surrendered its control back to him. Smirking, he kept going at a steady pace, smooth but not too fast.

Behind him, Maria was trying to stifle her giddy laughter. Even though they still weren’t making too much noise, she didn’t want to wake a scientist or someone and cut this fun short. She felt silly doing this too, but she didn’t have many chances to roller-skate due to her condition. With Shadow pulling her along, it put less of a strain on her. As long as they were careful, they could take this opportunity to have some innocent fun.

“Come on Shadow, you can run a little faster!” Maria urged with a grin.

“Hm… very well!” he replied, his smirk growing into a smile, and gradually began picking up his pace. Shadow was starting to enjoy this too; the skates felt so natural on him, the movement so seamless. The longer he ran, the easier it came to him. It was as if in another life, he’d been born with these fire-skates; a part of him. Upon reaching a particularly long, uninterrupted bend, he increased his speed a little more. The motions he made with his arms felt like they were cutting some sort of metaphorical path of their own.

“There you go Shadow!” Maria encouraged, beaming brightly. Shadow began chuckling; this felt so freeing. Something akin to a breeze brushed past the two of them as they glided across the floors of the colony. Taking a risk, Maria let out a small “Whoop!” as they ran. Very rarely did she get a chance to do something this exhilarating without straining herself. It reminded Maria of her brief time on Earth before having to live on the ARK…

Shadow smiled when he realized why Maria had wanted to come along for the ride so badly. She was having the time of her life, it seemed.

“Shadow!” Maria shouted, realizing a closed door was suddenly in their path. With a startled look, Shadow tried skidding to a stop but had some difficulty adjusting his feet. Only slowing his momentum a little with Maria about to roll into him, Shadow caught her and braced himself to crash into the door…

But it slid open, and Shadow tripped and the two of them fell onto the floor.

“Maria! Are you all right?!” Shadow asked immediately, but Maria was just giggling.

“I’m fine, Shadow! Thanks for catching me!” she assured him, straightening out her messed-up hair as she sat up. “Just our luck the door opened when it did! But why did-?”

“Maria, what did I tell you about running around the ARK after the curfew?” a familiar voice chided.

Eyes widening, Shadow and Maria looked up to see Professor Gerald, hands on his hips, giving a look at the disheveled duo.

“Grandfather! I’m sorry, I just thought Shadow could use a test-run of his skates!” Maria defended, but Gerald just chuckled, shaking his head.

“So I saw,” he replied. “I daresay it was a fairly successful first try, if reckless. May I offer a piece of advice, Shadow?” The ebony hedgehog glanced at Maria, then back at Gerald and nodded.

“I designed these skates to act intuitively, for the most part,” he told him. “If you focus yourself on what you want them to do, you should be able to get them to stop on a dime. I suspect that your sudden panic clouded your intuition. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll be as natural as breathing.

“Intuition? Got it,” Shadow replied with a nod and determined smirk. “Would it be alright if… we tried one more time?” he added sheepishly.

“Yes! Please, one more run? Please?” Maria chimed in excitedly.

“Very well, very well, but let’s continue in one of my larger test chambers,” Gerald said with a resigned smile. “That way it’ll be safer and I can monitor you. And you won’t risk waking anyone. After that, you two should head to bed.”

“Yes! Thank you Grandfather. Let’s go!” Maria exclaimed, and pulled Shadow by the arm as they went along to Gerald’s personal testing areas.

“Slow down, Maria!” the hedgehog warned her, the condition that plagued Maria ever weighing on his mind. Even so, her contagious, radiant smile caught on, and he smiled back at her.

Watching the two of them, Gerald Robotnik smiled assuredly to himself. After G.U.N. had been breathing down his neck, the atrocities he’d been forced to work on, seeing his granddaughter with Shadow always put him at ease. The one successful creation he’d made since his time on the ARK he could say he was genuinely proud of.

He was her stalwart companion, a friend in her darkest days. To Shadow, Maria was the key to life, his guide. For all his fear of what Project: Shadow would bring, especially after Black Doom’s involvement, Maria had rendered those fears unfounded. Seeing them together gave Gerald hope, for them, and for the Earth below.

With Maria as Shadow’s guide, he knew the Ultimate Life-Form would always do what was right.

—---------

* Present Day: Shadow’s Shelter, White Acropolis, Several Hours after Returning*

Waking with a start, Shadow the Hedgehog looked up to see scattered rays of moonlight shining into his shelter. Peering a while longer, he reflected on the moon’s shattered appearance, the chunks of rock now perpetually orbiting it and the Earth.

A constant reminder of the sins both he and Gerald had committed.

Still… at least through his dreams, Shadow could remember the good.

He glanced down at his fire skates, smiling sadly for a moment as he stood up. As foolishly sentimental as it might have been to think so, they were one of the few reminders Shadow had of Maria; her idea brought to life by Gerald’s hands. A part of his family’s legacy. On a rare, lucky night like tonight, he’d get a dream of a good memory like his first run.

But now, the dream was over, and so was the snowstorm outside. Time to get back to work.

Sighing, Shadow put aside the minimal heating and bed equipment he had, and holstered the energy weapon he’d brought with him. Quickly checking his radio channels, he learned it was predicted to storm again in a few hours.

Oh well. As long as he worked quickly, it should give him plenty of time to get back.

“No reason to think this base will hold anything new… but I can’t leave any stone unturned. Besides, the only good Eggman base is a destroyed one,” Shadow mused to himself, and took off running through his outpost’s entrance.

If this base didn’t hold anything new… Shadow honestly wasn’t sure where to look next. Maybe, once he finally tried to talk to Rouge, he could take some time to clear his head and figure out his next move… Still, the uncertainty gnawed at him; Shadow hated the idea of lacking a purpose. He was a warrior, first and foremost; battling enemies like Dr. Eggman protected the world, its people, and it was what he was best at.

But what would happen when he ran out of battles?

—-------

*White Acropolis, About Ten Minutes Later*

A quick reconnaissance told Shadow that infiltrating this base would be much easier. There were no giant walls or gates to keep him out, only a loose path of guarded recon towers. As long as he tore through them fast enough, he could still get the drop on the forces guarding the main base further down the valley. Readying himself for another fight, Shadow again sped down the icy paths down the valley. A red blitz of destruction followed him when he reached the towers, a flurry of Homing Attacks and Chaos Spears causing them to collapse and explode in his wake.

Like the last base, Eggman’s mechs had barely even reacted to the initial attack by the time Shadow arrived at the main base; a small, two-story building surrounded by a laser-fence just barely too tall for him to jump over. Most of the base was actually underground, and held a respectable arsenal, which was now being deployed against Shadow.

“Just get out of my way already!” the dark hedgehog growled as dozens of mechs began soaring or running towards him. Vanishing and then appearing above one of the lower-flying robots, Shadow brought his foot down in a vicious kick, and then used the metal carcass to launch himself higher into the air.

“Chaos Spear!”

A flurry of yellow bolts tore through the advancing mechs as Shadow slammed his balled-up form into another flying robot. Using the momentum, Shadow leapt over the laser-fence of the base, and then rolled himself into a ball again. From high in the air, he charged his body with Chaos Energy, and flew down like a little black-and-red meteor into the roof of the base, bursting right through the metal.

“Intruder alert! Enemy has breached the-!” a mech started to cry through the commotion, but was abruptly cut off by an energy blast from Shadow’s weapon. Two mechs quickly swung some close-quarter blade weapons at him, who blocked both attacks with his ring bracelets. With a smirk, Shadow quickly kicked one so hard the metal torso crunched inwards, and then used his free hand to shoot the other mech at point-blank range.

More robots rushed to attack him, but the Ultimate Life-Form took them all down. Moving and warping too quickly for them to keep up with, a blur of fists, fiery kicks and blue blasts from his gun spelled their end. In less than a minute, the area was clear again.

“Now… let’s see if this pathetic establishment has all the answers,” Shadow said to himself with a scoff of derision. “I’m sure this hole in the ice, that’s not even as well-guarded as the other one, holds-”

*SCRREEECH!!!*

A terrible noise cut off Shadow’s rant, and the alarmed hedgehog looked up to see a giant, mechanical beast of some sort tearing at the opening he’d made in the roof. It appeared to resemble a… hound, of some sort, made of black metal with a red, metal visor over where the eyes would be. After tearing off most of the roof, the giant robotic hellhound seemed to stare at Shadow before throwing its head back and letting out a loud, metallic roar that reverberated through the steel of the building. Then, it quickly fired a large, focused laser right at him.

“Damn it!” Shadow cursed, quickly darting out of harm’s way, and attempted to jump his way back through the opening to counter-attack. The giant metal hound responded with a volley of missiles that seemed to launch from its back. This forced Shadow to warp out of the way, but his foe was ready. Eggman’s guard dog leapt up just as he reappeared, and began to close its steel-trap razor-jaws around the black hedgehog…

*WHAM!*

But a sudden force came careening down out of nowhere, slamming itself into the hound’s head. The blow dealt was so hard it actually caused the mech to crash down into the building, screeching in dismay.

Landing safely on the snowy ground, Shadow looked around him, wondering what had happened.

“Nice to bump into you on a night like this, hm?.”

His red eyes widened; he’d know that voice anywhere.

Looking upwards, Shadow saw a familiar, ivory figure silhouetted against the shattered moonlight. Wings lightly fluttering in the wind, Rouge the Bat gently hovered downwards a little, arms behind her back as she regarded Shadow with an unreadable smirk.

“Rouge…?”

“Shadow… long time no see.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Four: Yin and Yang Reminiscence

—---------

Shadow’s mind blanked for a moment; he certainly hadn’t expected to run into Rouge out here, in a frozen plain around the Doctor’s base . Then again, she had a knack for showing up unexpectedly in his life. It was a little reminiscent of when they’d met during an attack on Eggman’s supply depot over a year ago. After a few moments of silence between the two, Shadow closed his eyes, smirking slightly.

“I… owe you one, for that,” he admitted, nodding in the direction of the giant mechanical hound. Rouge crossed her arms, her smirk growing more smug.

“You owe me more than one, hot-shot,” she replied assuredly. Scoffing, but still smirking, Shadow shook his head at her.

“I suppose I do.”

The two looked at each other, caught up in the quiet that swallowed those who had so much to say. The only sound was the cold wind cutting through, some flames crackling from Shadow’s attack and the muffled whining of machinery. For Rouge, this uncertain silence was dreadfully familiar.

‘ I should apologize… ’ Shadow thought, his eyes darting down nervously for a split second. First thing he wanted to do when he met her; say sorry. Looking up at Rouge, he couldn’t deny he was more than a little elated to see her again. That didn’t mean his stomach wasn’t gripped by raw nerves. Did he want to risk ruining their reunion by bringing up their argument right off the bat?

‘He’s okay… say something, let him know you’re happy to see him,’ Rouge told herself, her eyes softening as she took in the sight of her friend, her ally. Shadow looked as good as ever, even standing amongst the wreckage of another base. She was happy and relieved… but still a little angry at him for being gone so long. They needed to talk, but Rouge had learned not to press at a bad time. Hadn’t she?

“You…”

“It’s-”

They spoke simultaneously. 

“Oh, you-” Rouge started.

“No, you go ahead,” Shadow insisted.

“Just… it’s good to see you again,” Rouge chuckled. “It wouldn’t kill you to check in once in awhile, y’know?”

“Hm… you know I’m not one for chit-chat,” he replied.

“Tsk. Saw that reply coming a mile away!” she replied with a look of mock surprise and laughed again. “Even taking a second to say ‘Hello!’ is too much socializing for Shadow the Hedgehog!”

“Mm. Well… it’s good to see you too,” Shadow said, his eyes darting down again. He didn’t want to keep the conversation focused on any issues he’d caused for their relationship and start another fight. Shadow was well-aware of how hard he made it to get along with others; it was more or less the point. He always felt things were better off if he was alone. But he knew he had to at least try to make things right, so he made himself make an effort to be kind.

Rouge was surprised by Shadow saying that, and immediately a little relieved; if he was going to run off, he would’ve done so by now, and he wouldn’t have said that . Scarce as words were from the ebony hedgehog, even rarer were words of any kind of sentimentality. Her sly smirk softened into a warmer smile.

Their talk was cut short however, when they turned at the sound of whirring hydraulics and crunching of metal on ice. The giant robotic hound was getting back on its feet, and turned to look at them. Rouge’s attack had knocked the red visor off the head to reveal two large, glowing orange eyes fixed on them. Now outside the base with a clearer view, Shadow noted it had a glowing long spine along the back and a similarly-glowing horn adorning it like a crown just behind the head.

“What a rude interruption! We’re having a reunion here!” Rouge said with disdain, holding her hand up to show a weapon of hers; a round bomb adorned with her signature pink heart, flashing blue as it primed.

“Let’s finish up here. Then we can talk,” Shadow said simply, eyes narrowing as he focused on the mechanical foe.

“As long as you don’t count your grunting as ‘talking’, then deal!” she shot back with a wink as she spread her wings and then took off into the air.

Shadow sped right at the hound until it started bounding at him, roaring in apparent fury. He zipped off to the right to circle around it; now that they were out in the open, he could utilize his speed to his full advantage. The massive metal canine fired missiles at him, but Shadow was able to jump and dart around them with ease now. He retaliated with several Chaos Spears, but his opponent could move with fair agility for something so large, and was either able to avoid them or block them with more missiles.

While Shadow had Eggman’s creation distracted, Rouge looked their enemy over from above. Her device detected significant energy focused in the glowing horn-like “crown”, and an idea struck her. She flew down again at a high speed, but more carefully than before; even distracted, the giant guard dog might be keeping an eye out for another attack from above.

Sure enough, after unleashing another volley of missiles at Shadow, it turned its fiery gaze up at Rouge and prepared to fire a laser from its maw. But the huntress was ready. While sharply pulling out of her dive by spreading her wings, she flew right over its back, and she heaved the bomb she had right at the crown. With a *Clang!*, it stuck to it’s base.

“All too easy for me!” Rouge boasted with a wink, flying away as the bomb detonated, destroying the crown and unleashing a surge of energy all through the robotic beast’s body. With a screech and the snapping and sparking of parts overloading, the hellhound mech flailed back to the ground, moving sporadically as its damaged parts struggled to get it back up.

Shadow was upon it as soon as it crashed. He leapt up, rolled into a ball, and began slamming Homing Attacks into the metal monster’s head. The speed and frequency of his attacks increased, the head rapidly becoming dented in and its functions even less responsive. Once the head was sufficiently crushed and the eyes were shattered, Shadow charged himself up with Chaos Energy, and slammed into it harder than any time before, and tore the head of the beast right off, leaving it to fall to the ground with a resounding crash.

Rouge couldn’t help but admire how Shadow looked when he landed. She couldn’t tell if he ever meant to do it, but he sure seemed to like to do that “superhero-landing” pose, all dramatic and whatnot. If it wasn’t intentional, the edgy hedgy still pulled it off with style.

“Yeah, yeah we get it, you’re so cool,” she teased as she floated down to the ground. “Seriously though, nice work hand-” She stopped herself from finishing “handsome.” Rouge was with Knuckles now; she probably shouldn’t be throwing flirts around like that anymore. Especially at…

Shadow raised an eyebrow at her; he was accustomed to her flirting, but not with cutting her own passes short. He became aware of his own hardened frown. Was he… disappointed?

“Hm. Thanks,” he said nonchalantly, deciding not to press it. Rouge flirted all the time with him and other people, it got annoying. It was good if she wasn’t doing it so much now. Right?

“Though of course, you couldn’t have done it without my help!” the white bat went on with a very smug look.

Shadow only grunted in response and looked over at the torn-up entrance to the base below. 

“I have some business here. If you want to talk, we can talk while I get what I need.”

“Yep, it’s always ‘Business, business’ with you,” Rouge replied with a sigh. “Fine. Lead on, Mr. Unsmiley.” 

The two of them quickly made their way back into the destroyed building and managed to find a working lift at the back. It was locked down due to Shadow’s attack, but Rouge quickly went to work at the lift’s terminal. Inserting a small flash drive she had, she uploaded a subroutine she’d coded herself to unlock every door and lift in the base.

“You can shower me with my well-deserved praise whenever you like!” she said with another smug smirk, looking back over her shoulder at Shadow. Despite being a little annoyed at her boasting, the dark hedgehog couldn’t help but smirk back.

“Fine. I guess it’s lucky for me you dropped in, Rouge,” he admitted, folding his arms. “You’re good. I never had the same patience for hacking that you do.”

“Hah! Thanks Shad!” Rouge said with a chuckle. As they entered the lift, it occurred to her that she felt a little… giddy. Her reunion with Shadow was going well so far, and it felt… almost nostalgic, to be on another mission with her old friend. Of course, Rouge eventually wanted to try and mend that fight they had… but perhaps this was the best way to start?

“So… what exactly are you doing in White Acropolis?” Shadow asked as the lift descended to their destination; the base’s central mainframe. “Were you looking into this base as well?”

“Well…” Rouge paused; she had wanted to keep things light to start, but she knew this conversation was inevitable. “I… was looking for you, actually,” she answered somewhat awkwardly. “G.U.N. needs your help for a mission.” She wanted to say she’d been worried, she wanted to make up and just wanted to see him again. But of course, leading with the mission and ignoring that for now was easier for some reason.

Damn it.

“G.U.N. can wait until I’m done here,” Shadow replied with a look of derision. “I don’t work for them.” Things had never been smooth between the Ultimate Life-Form and G.U.N., even after Abraham and the President pardoned Shadow and even requested his aid on the odd mission. Still… there was some bad blood on both sides that couldn’t be forgotten. Not completely. 

“Okay, well it’s your turn then; what are you doing here?” Rouge replied with a frown, folding her arms. She’d hoped it’d be awhile longer before Shadow started acting difficult; it was beginning to bring up bitter memories.

“I'm still looking for information,” he told her, his tone growing more bitter at his failure to find any of said information so far. “I’ve raided many bases over the last few months, trying to find any information on Mephiles or Black Doom, or White Space. Nothing new on any of the servers anywhere.”

“Still looking? It’s been a year, Shadow. Maybe it’s time to give it a rest?” Rouge said gently. “No offense, but you just might need to wait for some sort of opportunity to come along if you’ve had so little luck. Change strategies, y’know?”

“Hmph. You may be right,” Shadow replied bluntly. He was still irritated at the lack of results he’d had, but Rouge hadn’t said anything he hadn’t thought to himself.

“Y’know… this might not be the best time, but… you might be getting answers to some of those questions,” the ivory bat said gingerly. She had to tell him sometime, and the lift had a little ways to go. Besides, if Shadow wanted answers about Black Doom, this might be his only chance.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked, eyes widening slightly.

“It’s about what G.U.N. needed you for,” Rouge continued carefully. “Apparently, there’s another… Black Comet headed to Earth. It’ll be here in a few days, and they want your help fighting them off before they can make landfall.”

Shadow’s mouth fell open slightly as he stared at Rouge, frozen from the information she’d just dropped on him. Months and months of searching for answers, and now it seemed they were being delivered to him in the worst possible way.

“The Black Arms… again?!” he said in nearly a hiss.

“Yeah… it looks that way,” Rouge replied softly, ears drooping slightly. She knew hearing this would be hard for him. “They’re still unsure what exactly is going on, but they’re preparing to fight them off. I’m sorry Shadow… I know you were hoping to be done with this…” She tried to muster a smile at him “Still… maybe it's our chance to stop them once and for all?”

Shadow just grunted and glared at the floor of the lift, his hands clenched tightly.

“Hey…” Taking a risk, Rouge gently grabbed one of his hands and held it firmly. “I’ll help you, Shadow. Omega too. He, Knuckles and I all came here to Soleanna to find you. G.U.N. has all this research they’ve done since the first invasion to fight them. Whatever the Black Arms are planning, we’ll stop it. Together. I told you I’d be there for you… that still holds true.”

Shadow looked up at her, his frown softening slightly at her words. For now, he simply nodded.

“Thank you,” he replied softly, and managed a brief, small smile back at her.

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other for several more moments. For the time being, it felt like Team Dark had never gone their own ways. The familiarity they shared over all their struggles together came rushing back. Shadow felt the rare comfort he only got with the company of his long-time allies, and Rouge felt like some missing piece of everything had fallen back into place…

*Clunk!*

The lift finally came to a stop, and the slight jolt snapped them out of their moment. Looking down in unison, the bat and hedgehog realized they were still holding hands.

“Let’s go,” Shadow said quickly, walking through the doors as they opened. Rouge stared after him a moment, her cheeks a light pink shade. She’d been so caught up in Shadow’s eyes it was like time had lost meaning during those last few moments. And…

Had Shadow been blushing a little as well when he left the lift?

Shaking away some intrusive thoughts, Rouge quickly followed after him.

“How could they be back? Has Black Doom returned again as well? They cannot function without a ruler governing the hive mind!” Shadow spoke as they ran down the hall to their destination. He slowed his pace enough for Rouge to easily keep up by flying, which was still a fair speed by his standards. It was an old habit he fell back into during his past missions with her and Omega.

“Nobody has any idea yet,” Rouge replied, relieved that Shadow had changed the subject. Normally she wished he’d talk about things other than “the mission” but it was a good distraction right now. “We probably won’t know until after we engage them.”

“They’re fools to return. I’ve defeated Black Doom twice, they should know they’re only rushing to their death!” the black hedgehog growled, and with a shout, fired two Chaos Spears at the door to the central mainframe. Several of Dr. Eggman’s mechs remained inside, some immediately fleeing and others turning to desperately defend themselves.

Shadow, his body flaring with red Chaos Energy, unleashed his wrath upon every mech in sight, save for the only one he ever spared; the designated overseer unit. Punching and kicking the others to scraps within seconds, Shadow slammed the overseer’s torso into the main console.

“Pull up some information for me!” the Ultimate Life-Form demanded, but Rouge, her face utterly calm, stepped up between them.

“No need, here,” she said casually, plugging another of her flash drives into the console. Immediately, a download command queue was brought up on the screen. “You wanted information on the Black Arms, White Space, aaannd…?”

“Mephiles,” Shadow reminded her, his demeanor growing a little less intense, his Chaos Energy relaxing a little. His ally’s adaptability was assuring, putting him at ease and calming his anger a little. Quickly typing away, Rouge began downloading every relevant file on those subjects. Sometimes her sheer expertise blew Shadow away, especially with how easy it seemed to come to the huntress. Deciding he no longer needed the overseer, he hurled the mech out the door they’d come through. 

“Rouge?” Shadow asked as they waited for the download to finish.

“Hm?”

“On the lift, you said Omega and… Knuckles came to look for me as well?”

“Yeah… oh shit! That reminds me!” Rouge swore as she pulled out her communicator. “ I almost forgot, I told them I’d radio them both when I found you!” She switched it to her, Omega and Knuckles’ collective channel. “Hey boys, Rouge here. You copy?”

Shadow sighed; looked like his question would have to wait.

“Omega here, I copy,” came the familiar artificial tone, making Shadow smirk a little.

“Knuckles he- hello? Rouge? Can you he-hear me?” Knuckles’ voice followed, apparently struggling with the controls.

“I found Shadow, alive and well. We’ll meet you two soon. We ran into trouble but we’re about done here,” Rouge told them.

“ Great! We’ll head to your coordinates right away!” Knuckles said cheerfully. “ As soon as the chopper gets us-”

“No, there’s a storm coming soon,” Shadow chimed in, arms folded per usual. “A severe one. The chopper won’t be able to safely make it through until it passes. I have a shelter not too far from here.”

“What, a storm?! Hold on Rouge, I’ll-!” Knuckles started to worriedly insist, but Rouge interrupted with a laugh.

“I’ll be okay, handsome! I can handle a storm; whatever shelter Shadow has I’m sure will be fine. Why don’t you and Omega spend the night in the city, see some sights and we’ll meet up once the storm passes?”

“My optics do not require ‘sightseeing’ unless the sight is a scope,” Omega replied wryly.

“ Well, okay, if you’re sure… just be careful, ‘kay Rouge? ” Knuckles asked gingerly.

“I always am, Red! See you two soon, goodnight!” she assured him. After Knuckles bid her goodnight and Omega wished her luck, they ended the call. Rouge looked over to see Shadow staring at her.

“...What?” the ivory bat asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I was going to ask… why did you bring Knuckles along?” Shadow asked, eyes narrowed slightly. “Do I deign to guess?”

“We had a whole country to search, Shadow!” Rouge said rather defensively. “Like I told Omega, he’s a great hunter! Both he and I can sense the kind of energy you, the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald put out. We needed to find you as quickly as possible.”

“Is that all?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What’s the deal with you and Knuckles?” Shadow asked point-blank, raising an eyebrow back at her. He had detected the change in the way they talked since last he’d seen them. It was less heated, open concern on Knuckles’ part… and the fact that Rouge had called him “handsome,” but had refrained from doing the same to Shadow.

Was his pride wounded? No… of course not.

“Hm! That’s a tad personal, don’t you think?” Rouge retorted, turning her nose up and away from him to hide the potential blush the question might have brought on. “Why do you care anyway?”

Damn it. It felt like they were falling into their old habits again.

“I don’t. I just haven’t heard you two talk to each other like that,” the dark warrior said, turning his head slightly. He was trying to refrain from being overly-callous or hostile in any way towards Rouge, but it was just so goddamned reflexive of him. Shadow scowled as he mentally berated himself.

“Well… if you must know…” the ivory bat blushed a bit more. Why was she having trouble telling Shadow this? “We’re… dating. Have been for a couple months now.”

“Oh.”

An uncomfortable silence fell on them, very different from the silence on the lift earlier. Rouge couldn’t read the tone from Shadow’s one-word reply, and she found it difficult to look over and read his reaction. The ebony hedgehog felt annoyed; did this mean Knuckles would be tagging along on missions now? He wasn’t as irritating as Sonic, but Shadow could find the echidna’s dull wit insufferable. 

But why did it feel like he was upset at the answers to his unasked questions? Rouge was right; why should he care who she was dating? Why?

Thankfully, they were snapped out of silence again when the flash drive beeped to signify it was done downloading. Trying not to visibly sigh in relief, Rouge went to retrieve it.

“Now, G.U.N. will probably want to see this stuff eventually too y’know,” she said as she pulled the drive out. “Buuuuut… as long as you promise to give it back when you’re done, keep it as long as you need to. Deal?” She gave Shadow a wink, hoping to lighten the awkward tension a little.

“Fine,” Shadow replied with an irritated look, taking the drive as soon as Rouge held it out to him looking it over. “I doubt it’s anything we don’t already know, but I can’t be too thorough.” He glanced up from the flash drive and nodded at her in thanks. Whatever irritation Shadow felt, he knew he should put that aside. He hadn’t even made amends like he wanted to yet. Compromising that with animosity would be foolish.

“Good! Now then,” the ivory bat nodded towards their exit. “I saw on the terminal that this base is set to self-destruct in about eight minutes from now. What do you say we make our exit and you can look at that stuff later?”

“Very well, just try to keep up!” Shadow shot back with a smirk, and zipped back down the hall to the lift.

“Hey! No fair!” Rouge snapped after him, taking off in a frantic hurry.

It was a competitive playfulness that, by Rouge’s account, had started around the first time Team Dark had been on a mission together, on Seaside Hill. Eight minutes was more than enough time for both of them to escape, they knew that. Why not have some friendly competition on the way out?

Despite having quite a lead on her, Shadow came to an abrupt halt once he reached the lift. Activating it, he tapped his foot impatiently as the lift seemed to crawl upwards. He glared up through the shaft, and was just about to find a faster way up…

“So long, hotshot!”

With a look of frustrated disbelief, Shadow watched as Rouge caught up to him, winked, and then quickly flew up and over him, then straight up the shaft leading out.

“I don’t think so!” The Ultimate Life-Form began rapidly jumping from wall-to-wall of the shaft, outpacing the lift. He jumped upwards through the shaft as fast as he could but Rouge was a little faster than him in this regard. The ivory huntress flew through the door with Shadow following a few seconds later. After they’d fled a fair distance away from the opening of the base, Rouge abruptly landed in front of him.

“Hah! I think that means I win!” she teased, sticking her tongue out at the ebony hedgehog. “You’re fast, Shadow, but you can’t beat me in the air!”

“Can’t I? Hmph. Perhaps I’ll test you on that sometime,” Shadow growled, frowning at his supposed loss. It quickly turned to a sly smirk as he had a thought.

“How about round two, race to my shelter?” he suggested. “It’s a little over a mile from here but we should still get there well before the storm blows in.”

“Okay, but… on one condition,” Rouge replied with her own shifty smile. “We both skate there.” She activated a hidden button on her glove’s palm, and her suit deployed a pair of ice-skating blades. 

“Huh. That’s new,” Shadow remarked.

“Oh come on, act impressed for once!” Rouge said with a pout. “Ah, fine! You accept my challenge? No flying or warping, only skating on the ice and jumping over obstacles. I won’t be a pushover, I promise!”

“I know; you told me about the mission you learned how to skate to go undercover as a professional,” he told her. “You were trying to give me tips on how to improve my own skating.”

Her eyes sparkled a bit; Rouge didn’t know Shadow remembered things like that. If he did, this was the first time he’d commented on it, at least.

“Well look at you, paying attention!” she said with a wink, and floated around in the air for a bit. “Soooo…?”

“Yes, fine. Challenge accepted,” he finally answered. He pushed a few buttons on his communicator, and Rouge’s blipped with a new signal. “That’s where it is. Ready when you are.”

Landing to stand right next to Shadow, Rouge got into position by a giant patch of ice to begin their race. There were fields of snow and many hills and mountains between them and Shadow’s shelter, but there was a frozen river down the valleys that also led there that would suffice for skating. Exchanging looks that burned with the desire to win, Shadow and Rouge smirked at each other, and then took off.

Despite believing her stories, Shadow was surprised to see how fluid and masterful Rouge’s movements were when skating. They were very similar to his own style, but more with the same unique grace the huntress had in battle. Realizing he’d gotten distracted for a moment, the ebony hedgehog cursed and picked up the pace. The two maneuvered expertly, weaving past trees and boulders with speed dangerous for humans. Determined not to be bested again, Shadow gritted his teeth as he accelerated as much as he could around the bends of the river. He soon slid past Rouge, who huffed and began moving faster as well. 

There was a distant rumble as Eggman’s base finally exploded, causing the ice behind them to crack and fall apart. The splits in the ice seemed to be chasing the two, but instead of causing fear, it only exhilarated the both of them.

“The Doctor’s going to be feeling that one!” Rouge laughed as she skillfully leapt over a large crack with a twirl, and landed gracefully right behind Shadow again, tailing him.

Thankfully, the jets on Shadow’s skates weren’t hot enough to affect the ice in any significant way, so she was able to follow directly behind him. With a giggle, Rouge used one of her wings to wrap around Shadow, and spin the both of them around so that she was in front. Stunned with wide-eyed rubies, the dark hedgehog shot the snowy-white bat a playful glare. He tried to run past her again, but Rouge’s reflexes were too good, and she spun him around again to keep him in the back.

“Rouge!” he growled.

“What? I’m not using my wings for flying! I didn’t break any rules,” she said innocently.

“Yeah, hard to break the rules to your own game,” Shadow retorted. “Well, you didn’t say anything about this either!” Pushing himself out of her hold, he used a moderate amount of Chaos Energy to melt a big gap in the ice between the two of them, with him in the lead. With a short chuckle, Shadow continued towards the shelter.

“Oh you ass!” Rouge hissed, building up speed and then leaping over the gap after him, no wings. She used her powerful legs and guileful reflexes to catch up as quickly as possible, but now Shadow had the clear edge. By the time she got to the foot of the hill where the shelter was tucked away, she had lost. Looking up and sighing, she saw the hedgehog standing towards the top of the hill, where the signal for his shelter seemed to be indicating.

“Alright, not bad Shadow. Not bad at all!” Rouge said jovially as she flew up towards him. Despite losing, the experience had been… fun. It wasn’t often she could talk Shadow into doing anything that wasn’t totally serious. “Have you been skating your whole life, or did you just have a really good teacher?”

“Heh. The latter,” Shadow replied with the ghost of a smile. “Come in, the storm will be blowing in soon.” He walked down the hill a little ways to reveal a carefully-concealed entrance to a cave. Following him inside, Rouge looked forward to helping herself to whatever rations Shadow had, and then cozying up and riding out the cold until they got to see Omega and Knuckles again.

“Y’know Shadow…” Rouge spoke as they walked. “I know it’s been awhile, but… it’s been nice. Today, I mean. Even if we had to fight a giant killer robot dog, it’s been… fun, y’know?”

“Mm.” Shadow paused in his walking to look back at her and nod briefly. “Yes. Today improved when you showed up.” Then he kept walking. Rouge beamed at him as she followed.

“Look at you, all smooth-talking!” she teased, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.

“Hm.” The angsty hedgehog grunted again.

“No seriously Shadow! I like hearing you actually say things like that,” Rouge said, still smiling warmly at him. Now that they were out of the wind, she removed her snow goggles. “Considering how long it’s been, I’d say seeing you today has been-” Her smile wavered and her eyes dimmed when they arrived where Shadow had been staying.

“Today’s been…?” he repeated for her.

“Shadow… what the hell is this?!” Rouge demanded in a low voice, gesturing to her ally’s “camp.”

The Ultimate Life-Form traveled light; one advantage of his creation was being able to run on minimal resources. All Shadow had brought with him was a bedroll, a small travel-heater, a radio, his gun and a matchbox-sized cloaking device to hide Shadow and the minimal tech he’d brought with him.

“...What? It’s my shelter,” he answered carefully, not seeing the issue.

“Shelter?! What are you, a masochist?!” Rouge snapped back, gesturing dramatically at the most minimalistic living arrangement she’d ever seen. “Look at this heater! This couldn’t warm up a bathroom, and you brought it to an arctic region?!”

“It worked well enough for me,” Shadow said with a shrug.

“Good for you, not everyone has thick fur everywhere like you do!” she said pointedly, blushing a little at her own implication. “But come on, not even a first-aid kit? And you didn’t bring any food?!”

“Not much,” he said with a sigh; Rouge’s criticisms were starting to annoy him. He knew she was used to living lavishly, but come on . As far as a first-aid kit, Shadow was built like steel, and very rarely got an injury that his regenerative powers couldn’t eventually shake off. Walking over to the pack he’d brought everything in, he reached in and pulled out a single flavored nutritional bar. “This is it.”

“Ugh! I wish we had time to go to Soleanna before going back to G.U.N.!” Rouge groaned, leaning back against the cave wall. “To think, Omega and Knuckles are in the City of Water, around luxury and restaurants, and I’m roughing it in the Ice Age with Shadow the Survivalist!”

“What, you didn’t bring your own supplies?” Shadow asked with a scowl. He had genuinely been happy to see Rouge, but now it felt like she was deliberately trying to complain to him to death. “You seemed like you were ready to spend a lot of time looking for me. Isn’t that why the echidna was invited along?”

“It’s Knuckles, ” she replied with a leer. “And of course I did! I just wish I’d brought more now is all.” Rouge pulled a small, white backpack that blended in with her snowsuit, and with a smug look, pulled out a small device that quickly unfurled into a much-larger, thicker bedroll that rolled out across Shadow’s. Slightly alarmed, the ebony hedgehog looked back from the bedding’s sudden appearance to the rest of what the ivory bat was unpacking. Another device that also folded out to create a slightly-larger space heater, a first-aid kit, an inflatable pillow, radio, flares, her various bombs, spy-tech and specially-packed rations followed. All somehow fit on her utility belt and into the tiny pack Rouge had brought.

“How the hell…?!” Shadow muttered, kicking the part of Rouge’s bedroll that had covered his own off of it. 

“G.U.N. has a lot of improved tech for making travel lighter on longer missions,” she replied as she tried to make herself comfortable. “This thing even has its own built-in heater! If you worked for them, you’d have access to it too!”

“Hmph.” Rouge rolled her eyes at his predictable response. Shadow shot her a look when he noticed, but tried not to say anything. He still wanted to avoid another argument with her, but he felt like he was on his last nerve.

“Well, it may not beat wherever Knuckles gets to stay, but it’s an improvement,” the ivory bat muttered with a sigh as she tried to finish adjusting her equipment. She was trying to be patient as well, focusing on how relieved she was to have Shadow back. For whatever reason, it felt like the Ultimate Edge-Lord was bent on being unbearable.

“So sorry you couldn’t be with your boyfriend tonight,” Shadow practically spat back. “Then we wouldn’t be so crammed for space!” Damn it, why did he get so touchy when Rouge mentioned Knuckles? Maybe if she’d stop complaining for a few seconds!

“Tsk! Excuse me?!” Rouge snapped back, standing to face the black hedgehog, hands on her hips. “He’s got nothing to do with this! I finally find you after months of not hearing from you, and when we get to your ‘shelter’, it's not even suitable for one person, let alone two! Then you seem bent on being a total prick about it! If I hadn’t brought my own things I would’ve froze to death!”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to expect company! If it’s so miserable here, maybe Knuckles should’ve come and saved you!” Shadow retorted, getting to his feet. 

“Oh screw you!” Rouge yelled at him, her blue eyes sharpening into a glare. God, why did Shadow always have to ruin their nice moments by being such an unbearable, angsty asshole?! “Just tell me Shadow, why the hell do you care so much about who I’m dating?! You’ve never taken an interest before!”

“I… just don’t get it Rouge, he’s beneath you!” he replied, pulling at reasons that he himself was looking for. “He’s a gullible fool, he’s scared of ghosts , he’s muscle-headed as hell, he hangs around that idiot Sonic, he-”

“Yeah well, at least he’s around!! ” the ivory bat shouted, her hands now fists as she took a step towards Shadow. Part of her felt better to have told him that, and another small part of her was worried that she was causing irreparable harm. But it was difficult to stem her emotions at the moment. “I’ve been worried about you ever since you took off, running around everywhere, wasting time-!”

“I’m not wasting time!!” Shadow snarled back, taking a step towards Rouge in turn. “I have a responsibility to Earth, and questions I need answered! Questions that haunt me! Even if I haven’t found answers, what else was I supposed to do?!”

“Maybe ask us for help! ” Rouge cried as she advanced more. “Why is it so much easier for you to internalize and brood by yourself?! Huh? Why?! Because we’re not Maria?!”

Shit.

“Don’t…!” Shadow’s hands balled into fists too, his eyes shooting red daggers now. He took another step forward. “That is not fair! Don’t bring her into this, you ignorant ditz!”

“Stubborn asshole!”

“Spoiled bitch!

“Jar-headed edgelord!”

“Selfish thief!”

“Arrogant dick!”

“Screw you!”

“ Screw you!”

“SCREW YOU!!”

At this point, Shadow and Rouge had advanced to be in close proximity. Quite close. Barely more than an inch. They glared down at each other, neither one backing down as their anger had reached a point where words no longer came to mind. Their faces were flushed with anger as they glared… and then gradually became aware of certain things.

They’d been too caught up in their emotions to even notice how close they’d grown. In the cold, they could easily feel each other’s warm breath on their faces… and how close everything was. Their noses, their lips… The details they could see in each others’ eyes, the crystalline aquamarine sparkles and the deep, luscious-red glimmers. Shadow and Rouge’s expressions of venomous anger quickly gave way to flustered astonishment.

The red flush of anger on their faces was quickly replaced by something else… part of which turned to embarrassment.

“ Sorry!! ” they said in unison, quickly turning to face away from each other. Another awkward silence fell between them, and again it was different. Both of them were muted by the confusing rush of flustering emotions that consumed them.

‘What… was that?!’ they both thought to themselves. How had they not noticed how close they’d gotten? Why were they blushing so much? Why was this getting to them so badly? 

What had they even been arguing about?!

Shadow risked a quick glance over at Rouge, who still had her back turned, too embarrassed to look at him. She was caught between addressing her emotions and berating herself for them. Knuckles was her boyfriend now damn it, why was she finding herself in a compromising position like this?!

“Rouge… I’m sorry…” Shadow finally spoke.

“Hm…? What… what for?” Rouge asked distantly, Shadow’s words snapping her out of her emotional turmoil for the moment. She turned to face him now.

“For… a lot of things,” he continued, rubbing the back of his quills in uncertainty. “I’m sorry… for what I said, that time after Sonic’s party, a year ago. I’m sorry for never checking in, for being a bad teammate… and a bad friend.” Shadow sighed. He maintained eye-contact with her now to let her know how sincere he was.

“You were just trying to help that day. I don’t know how to address the things you wanted to talk about; all I know how to do is be a warrior, apparently.” The Ultimate Life-Form looked down at one of his own fists and grimmaced before looking back at Rouge. “I don’t feel I deserve friends… especially not one like you who has saved and helped me so much. Someone that I feel I can trust.”

Rouge’s eyes widened a little, and shimmered at Shadow’s words. She couldn’t believe he was actually apologizing to her… when had she heard him do that last?

“Hm… well y’know, a double-crossing thief like me probably doesn’t deserve friends either,” she replied with a weak chuckle, rubbing the back of her neck. “Yet here we are, helping each other out, racing for fun… trusting each other, even though I’ve proven to be untrustworthy and you’re always going rogue,” she added with a smirk.

“But… to be honest Shadow, I’m sorry too… I know it's difficult for you to talk, and it's fine. I shouldn’t have pushed you so much,” she continued, her ears drooping a little sadly now. “Maybe… you would’ve stuck around if I hadn’t…”

“It’s okay, Rouge,” Shadow assured her, but Rouge insisted.

“No, let me say it. I’m sorry for the things I said, for… bringing up Maria…” she looked down at the cave floor somberly. 

“It’s… okay Rouge… we both said foolish things. But I’ve thought a lot about that day… and I owe you an apology more than anything. Nothing you did justified what I did and said then. You’re…” he sighed heavily, struggling to bring the words up. But he’d convinced himself awhile ago he needed to say them.

“You’re my best friend, Rouge… after everything we’ve been through, I owe you so much, and I’m sorry I failed you…”

“Then be better,” Rouge said softly, taking both of Shadow’s hands in hers again. “We’ll both be better. Just… stick around and talk to us once in a while, yeah?”

“Yeah… of course,” he replied gently, and nodded at her. Rouge smirked at him, and dropped one hand so they each had a hand clasped.

“Team Dark?” Rouge asked hopefully.

“Team Dark,” Shadow echoed with his own smirk. They unclasped their hands and, just for old times’ sake, bumped their fists together.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five: Snow and Night, Chaotic Hearth

—-------

*Soleanna: Castle Town Resort*

Knuckles and Omega sat uncomfortably across from each other at a table of a bistro the resort had built in. The upside to working along with G.U.N. was that they were paying for a night’s stay at this fancy hotel until they could rendezvous with Rouge and Shadow, dinner included. Downside? He had to share it with Omega.

Knuckles didn’t have any particular beef with the reformed badnik. In fact, he obviously reminded him of Gamma during the fight with Chaos, and that was a good thing. Still, before Knuckles had started dating Rouge, he had harbored a strong distrust of Team Dark in general. Setting aside all the times his girlfriend had tried to steal the Master Emerald, Knuckles had been on the receiving end of Shadow’s wrath, both with Eggman and the Black Arms. The echidna had gone toe-to-toe with Omega a few times, and he was formidable, even for someone as powerful as the Master Emerald’s guardian.

Still, at Rouge’s behest, Knuckles had tried to set aside his distrust of Shadow and Omega in addition to trusting her more.

That didn’t mean they had much to talk about right now. The one thing in common they had was Rouge. G.U.N. said they would let them know when the storm was cleared enough to leave. It couldn’t come soon enough.

“Why exactly am I here?” Omega asked after a dreadful pause. “I do not require nourishment the way you organics do.”

“I don’t know,” Knuckles said with a sigh, leaning his head back into his arms. “Maybe there’s something around here you could use to… I don’t know, recharge?”

“Are you suggesting I plug myself into an outlet?” the mech replied, his tone souring slightly. “I am not an appliance.”

“Sorry man, I don’t know!” Knuckles sighed, rubbing his forehead a little. “Why don’t you ask one of the servers if they have anything for robots!” 

“Perhaps I will. There is much you ‘do not know’, it seems,” Omega said with emphasis. Sighing again, Knuckles looked out the window, to distant clouds that had built and darkened over to the north. Following his gaze, Omega immediately read his concern.

“Rouge has endured worse than a storm of this caliber,” he affirmed, his tone perhaps softening just a little. “She’s intelligent and adaptable. She will be fine when we locate her.”

“I know… I just wish I was there to make sure,” Knuckles muttered, looking back over at Omega. “But… thanks, Omega. I never knew you said stuff like that!”

“It is a duty as a team member, unfortunately,” the rogue badnik replied dryly. “During my time with Shadow and Rouge, I have observed and learned much of their mannerisms. There are times we must… ‘parley’, I suppose, when we are split on a course of action. Sometimes, it is necessary for me to remind them of each other's skills to move our mission forward.”

“Remind them of their skills? Why? So you can figure out the best job for each of you?” Knuckles asked, sitting up in his seat now.

“No. To assure them of our collective survival,” Omega answered. “We are all very familiar with each others’ skills and capabilities. However, during a high-risk mission where either Shadow or Rouge must go solo, sometimes they seem to forget that, and begin worrying. For some reason, they usually lie and say they are not worried when their vitals and body language betray them. My assurances are usually enough to cease the hesitation and move the mission forward.”

Knuckles stared at the mech in silence for a while. It was hard for the echidna to imagine Shadow the Hedgehog, of all people, expressing worry over someone. He’d seen Rouge show concern for the ebony hedgehog multiple times over the last few years, but even her openly expressing worry for anything was pretty rare. Not to mention, what exactly did it say about them that Omega, walking arsenal, had to be the voice of reason sometimes?

“Huh… you guys really have been through a lot together, huh?” Knuckles said with a small smile.

“Affirmative,” Omega replied with a single nod. “That may be your first correct observation this evening.”

“Hey!” Knuckles gritted his teeth. “Watch the insults, pal! ”

Thankfully, a waiter came and took orders at that time, defusing what could have been a destructive brawl. Fortunately, G.U.N. had had the courtesy to concoct a sort of drink for Omega that acted as a sort of safe fuel while allowing him to process it as a refreshing beverage, which was retrieved for him while Knuckles was served a white wine. Taking another look out towards the north, he glanced at Omega again.

“I know Rouge can handle herself, but… you sure Shadow will take care of her if he needs to?” Knuckles asked softly.

“With absolute certainty,” Omega replied without missing a beat. “Shadow never allows others he can help to be harmed. Especially not allies, and especially not Rouge.”

—----

*Soleanna: White Acropolis, Shadow and Rouge’s shelter*

—-------

It had taken some time, but Shadow and Rouge had finally made enough adjustments to the cave for both of them to lay in their own bedrolls without being too cramped. With their respective supplies bundled next to each of them, they finally prepared to bunker down for the night as the storm came in.

“I still don’t see the need for another heater if your bedroll has one installed already,” Shadow muttered, leaning against the cave wall by his spot. “Just seems materialistic.”

“Oh hush, I can’t stand the cold,” Rouge said dismissively. “Are you sure we’ll be okay in here? Not to keep criticizing your hotel choices but I’ve noticed a few… ah, cracks in the ceiling?”

“It held out perfectly during the last storm; they're small enough no snow should be getting through to us,” the dark hedgehog replied, glancing up as the moonlight shining down through the aforementioned cracks vanished as the storm clouds moved in above. “The built-up snow above should insulate us just fine. We’re high enough up this mountain that we’re not at risk of being trapped in an avalanche, either.”

“Okay then… well if you’re wrong, it’s on your ass, mister,” the huntress replied casually as she tried to get comfortable in her bedroll.

“Excuse me?” Shadow raised an eyebrow at her.

“Your ass,” Rouge replied, pausing for a moment to yawn. “Maybe just yank out a few of your quills if we just get some snow on us. If we get trapped in here though, I might just snip that cute little tail of yours.”

“What?!” the ebony hedgehog’s face showed a mix of alarm and confused hostility at Rouge’s nonchalant delivery of her threats.

“I’m kidding Shad, kidding!” the ivory bat laughed. “Oh, but your face! Ah, if only I’d packed a camera!”

“Hm! Troublemaker, same as always!” Shadow scoffed, turning his face away. His frown gave way a little as Rouge just kept laughing, however. “Rouge, you… ah, you never change, do you?”

“Probably not!” she said smugly. “I’m amazing as I am, don’t see any reason to change!”

“Heh. Don’t.” The Ultimate Life-Form tried to hide his smile; too gentle to be a smirk. Rouge didn’t need to see it to hear how tender his tone grew for that one word though. She smiled secretly to herself too; it seemed after they cleared the air, Shadow was a little more receptive to sentiment. Part of her was tempted to tease him for going soft, but she didn’t want to discourage that. 

Besides, she was exhausted.

“Are you ever going to lay down Shadow?” Rouge glanced over at him, still standing against the rock wall.

“Not yet. I want to keep an eye on the worst of the storm, just in case,” he replied. “There’s also a chance some of Eggman’s remaining forces might risk sneaking through the storm for retaliation. I’ll wake you if anything happens.”

“That’s soothing food for thought,” the huntress sighed. “Well, whatever. Goodnight, Shadow.”

“Goodnight. Rest well,” Shadow added after a pause.

Rouge turned over in her bedroll, smiling again. Hearing Shadow return even basic sentiments was rare, and she knew it meant a lot coming from him. It gave her a fuzzy, giddy feeling in her gut as she drifted off to sleep.

As Rouge slept and Shadow kept watch, the storm began to rapidly worsen outside. A howling gale drowned out the sounds of the small heaters they’d brought. Time crawled by as the ebony hedgehog strained his senses for any sign of the cave succumbing to the storm, or any other threat. Frowning at the cave floor, Shadow looked over at his resting ally, thinking maybe he should follow her lead and just get some rest; he couldn’t hear anything over the wind, and likely wouldn’t be able to see anything if he ventured outside. The shelter seemed to be holding out just fine, keeping watch was fruitless.

After an hour of debating, however, Shadow’s fur suddenly stood on edge when his keen senses felt something coming towards them. Fast. He would’ve noticed sooner if the storm hadn’t masked it. With little time to act, Shadow suddenly grabbed Rouge in her bedroll, and leapt aside with her.

“Wh… h-huh…?! Hey! EEP!” the white bat yelped from her rude awakening, shortly before a resounding * Boom!* from a missile shook the shelter. A part of the rock wall had collapsed inwards, allowing part of the gale from the storm outside to blow in.

“Damn it! Rouge, stay here! Try to get the shelter back up, I’ll investigate!” Shadow said as he set Rouge down in as safe of a spot as he could find.

“Wait a second! You’re going out in that mess?!” she objected as she struggled to get out of her bedroll. “Don’t be stupid!”

“I’ll be fine, my Chaos powers keep me warm enough to survive this,” he replied firmly, grabbing his energy gun from the rubble. “If we get attacked again we might not survive tonight.” The dark hedgehog looked over at Rouge to see her crossing her arms and frowning. “I’ll be back. I promise,” Shadow assured her.

After a moment, she sighed and held her hands up.

“Fine. Just hurry and be careful. If you’re not back in a minute I’m going out there for you, okay? At least take these.” Rouge tossed her snow-goggles over to Shadow. “It’ll make it easier to find our new friends in this blizzard.”

With a nod, Shadow strapped the goggles on and dashed out the new opening in the shelter. Immediately, the goggles activated night vision and did their best to see through the snow. The harsh chill cut through Shadow’s fur, and even his Chaos-boiled blood wasn’t immune to this severe cold. He could probably afford to stay out here twenty minutes, thirty tops if he kept moving. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to find the cause of his latest misery.

As Shadow had guessed, a small group of Dr. Eggman’s robots were clustered on a small vehicle with snow treads and a cannon. The group hadn’t noticed him yet, and seemed to be firing the cannon haphazardly into the hills and mountains of the area. Perhaps they were damaged from the earlier attack on the base and were malfunctioning. Maybe they were desperately searching for Shadow and Rouge for retaliation with no regard for their own safety. Whatever the case, it didn’t matter now.

With a quick warp, Shadow appeared right before the Doctor’s mechs. Alarms sounded from them as soon as they saw him, some dropping their weapons in shock. Panicking, they scrambled to defend themselves.

“Chaos Blast! ”

But they were too slow. A violent surge of red Chaos Energy slammed into the mechs and their vehicle, causing them to explode instantly and launching their ride far off into the icy night. The smoldering scrap of their remains rained down and were quickly drowned in snow. Shadow’s eyes narrowed suspiciously; this seemed too easy. 

Suddenly, Rouge’s goggles blipped to warn him of something to his right. He immediately zipped backwards a ways, just in time to miss another missile fired at him.

‘A decoy?’ Shadow thought to himself, turning to try and pierce the veil of the storm to see where the missile had come from. The goggles located a reading and revealed a missile turret, hidden in the side of one of the nearby mountains. He was right; the robots had lured him within its range once he had attacked.

Well, at least they’d made a bit of an effort to deceive him.

“Chaos Spear! ” Four glowing bolts fired from Shadow’s hand in quick succession, each hitting the turret dead-on, completely blowing up it and the robots that manned it. For good measure, the remains were all quickly buried in snow and rubble.

After taking a minute to look around, Shadow was satisfied there was no longer an immediate threat, and began his return to the shelter.

When he got there, he saw that Rouge had managed to pile up the rubble into a wall of sorts that blocked off about half of the new opening. Shadow frowned when he saw her visibly shivering as she struggled to clear some of the rubble off of their gear. The dark hedgehog quickly moved to assist her.

“Aww, d-damn it!” Rouge hissed through chattering teeth. “Those l-lousy p-p-punks destroyed m-my space heater! And the one in m-my b-b-bedroll is wrecked too!”

“Mine still works,” Shadow replied glumly, and pushed it over to her. “Take it. You need it more than I do.”

“Th-thanks… still g-gonna b-b-be a popsicle at this rate t-though,” Rouge stuttered out, trying to stay focused on staying active and moving the wreckage. After a few minutes of blocking off the opening, Shadow used his Chaos powers to melt a layer of snow and ice into a half-decent insulation on the cracks. 

“S-So, what w-was it th-that ruined a-all my s-s-stuff?!” Rouge demanded as they tried to get the area as habitable as possible before attempting to turn in for the night. “P-Please tell me you gave t-them what for!” She was desperate to keep her mind off of how cold she was; she was worried her wings were going to snap right off!

“Some Eggman mechs trying to lure us outside,” Shadow answered as he used his fire skates to remove the snow to make room for the bedrolls. “Don’t worry, I destroyed them all.”

“G-G-Good riddance!” she said with a forced, haughty laugh. Shadow nudged her as he handed her goggles back to her.

“These helped. Thanks,” he told her, immediately going back to work once she accepted them. Rouge got a small, warm feeling that allowed her to continue on.

A few minutes after that, they cleared the remaining rubble and ice out of their camp. But even with the storm outside shut out, it was still terribly cold, and there was nothing to try and stay busy with. Rouge attempted to warm herself in her bedroll with Shadow’s heater as close to her as possible. She hoped she’d hurry and either finally warm up and sleep, or just mercifully freeze as quickly as possible to get it over with.

Now that he was out of the storm, Shadow felt better. He was still uncomfortably cold, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. However, even wrapped up in her bedroll, Shadow’s bedroll on top and with his heater right next to her, Rouge was still shivering and trembling terribly, teeth chattering loudly.

‘This is bad… hypothermia or something worse might set in if she doesn’t warm up…’ Shadow thought to himself, lines of concern cutting into his face as he tried to figure out what to do. There wasn’t anything suitable to burn, what else could serve as heat?

Of course, one idea came to mind… it was a well-known survival tactic for surviving the cold, and Shadow’s Chaos powers would likely make it even more effective…

‘No, I can’t do that!’ the Ultimate Life-Form mentally hissed at himself, blushing a little at the thought. ‘Even if she… wasn’t with the echidna… it’s…’ He sighed heavily, and clenched his fists.

‘ It doesn’t matter… whatever she or Knuckles thinks, her well-being is more important,’ Shadow affirmed, and with a deep exhale, made himself walk over to where Rouge lay.

Trying not to overthink what he was doing, Shadow kneeled down, climbed into Rouge’s bedroll, and wrapped one arm around her stomach.

“H-hm…?! S-Shadow…?!” the white bat peeped when she realized what was happening.

“Shut up. I’m just trying to warm you up before you freeze to death,” Shadow grumbled, and channeled a very small amount of Chaos Energy to his palm, and throughout his whole body. Immediately, Rouge felt warmer, and she couldn’t hold back a sigh of relief. Her whole body relaxed against him, which made Shadow blush an even deeper red. After taking a moment to process what had just happened, Rouge was blushing too.

However, exhaustion took hold, and the ivory bat quickly fell deeply asleep in the ebony hedgehog’s warm embrace.

Despite being exhausted himself, Shadow felt as though he couldn’t move. Part of him didn’t want to disturb Rouge now that she was safely warmed up and asleep, part of him was frozen at the reality of him holding her… in a bedroll. Of course Shadow couldn’t let Rouge just freeze, but he’d never imagined himself in this scenario before, regardless of circumstance.

After a few hours of laying there restlessly, the storm outside dimmed somewhat, no longer a whirling, noisy gale. Eventually, Shadow forced his stiff body to slowly relax. He became flushed again when Rouge was inevitably pressed even closer against him. She was soft, comfortable, and now that she’d had time to adjust her temperature, warm.

‘It’s just to keep her warm,’ Shadow reminded himself. ‘ No need to be such a fool about this… she’s my ally, my friend, that’s all. I wouldn’t try anything when she’s with…’ He shook the remainder of the thought from his head. 

Finally, his eyelids grew heavy, and Rouge’s sedative presence put Shadow to sleep as well.

—------

*White Acropolis: The Next Morning*

—-----

As sunlight illuminated the ice and snow of the cave, Rouge finally began to stir from her slumber. The shelter had grown warmer, still cold but much safer than last night. When her senses returned to her, she cooed softly at the warm, strong presence behind her. Then, Rouge’s eyes bulged open wide when she remembered what had happened:

Shadow the Hedgehog, of all people, had held onto her all night long.

‘ What… the hell is happening?!’ the huntress thought to herself, her once-chilled face now burning. All sorts of thoughts she didn’t want to have came tumbling into her mind; Shadow’s fur was so soft. The way he held her securely but comfortably, tenderly. How his Chaos Energy had tingled across her skin, left her with goosebumps at the sensation…

‘ GAAHH!! What is wrong with you?! You have a boyfriend! Stop it! StopitstopitstopitSTOPIT!! Stupid sexy hedgehog!’ she cried inwardly. Slowly turning her head to look at him, Rouge again felt a rush of complicated thoughts. Shadow… looked adorable right now. His mouth was open ever-so-slightly as he breathed evenly, his right ear twitching occasionally. The angsty hedgehog looked so relaxed… a little vulnerable even. Rouge had grown accustomed to Shadow frowning most of the time, but now the frown lines were gone, relaxed. She’d never really seen him like this before…

‘Okay, that’s enough!’ Rouge thought as she resisted the urge to go “Awww!” in adoration. She cleared her throat as loudly as she dared.

“Hnhngh… huh…?” Shadow mumbled, and yawned as he tried to retrieve his bearings, exposing one of his canines. The treasure huntress again mentally shrieked as she tried not to express herself over how cute the black hedgehog was being right now.

As soon as Shadow was on the same page as her, however, he too blushed madly and tensed up sharply. He was now acutely aware of Rouge’s entire back pressed up against him, and all sorts of new and confusing thoughts flooded his head.

“R-Rouge! You’re okay, good,” he said as he scrambled to get out of the bedroll. The hedgehog moved like he was attempting to leave his thoughts behind. “I-I’m glad to see you didn’t freeze!”

“Heh, y-yep! Thanks for that!” Rouge replied as she got to her feet. The two of them rubbed the backs of their necks, staring at the floor for awhile.

“Seriously though… thanks, Shadow,” she repeated, more evenly than before. “I know you don’t care for getting personal like that, but you did it to help me. You probably saved me… again. So… thanks.”

“Yeah… of course, Rouge,” Shadow said, still blushing a little as he forced himself to look at her, awkwardly brushing the back of his quills. “I wasn’t going to stand by and let you be harmed if I could prevent it.”

“Hm… yeah, I know you wouldn’t,” Rouge said, smiling at him. “You really can be such a softie Shadow, but y’know… that’s not such a bad thing.”

“Hmph. Careful, you’re starting to sound like Amy Rose again,” Shadow teased, smirking at her. “Who’s the softie here, hm?”

“Oh you , definitely!” she replied with a small laugh. “You should’ve seen how cute you were when you were asleep. Precious! Absolutely precious!”

“W-What?! Don’t be a fool Rouge, I am not cute!” Shadow snarled, turning his burning face away.

“Ha! Yes you are!” the huntress continued to tease, grinning widely. “You might be the Ultimate Life-Form, it doesn’t mean you’re not cuter than a Chao!” Before Shadow could retort, however, Rouge’s radio crackled to life.

“Rouge? Hey Rouge, come in, you there?” Knuckles asked. “ We’re almost at your location, can you see us?”

“Knuckles!” Rouge exclaimed with an excited smile, and grabbed the radio. “Hey, I’m here! We’re not outside right now, give me a minute and I’ll check!”

Watching Rouge answer the radio, Shadow felt an odd sinking feeling in his gut that he couldn’t explain. As soon as he heard Knuckles’ voice, his mood soured. More than usual. He couldn’t stand being around Sonic and his gang’s overly cheerful and gung-ho attitude, but the echidna had never bothered him that badly. Not before.

“Shadow? Did you hear me?” Rouge interrupted the hedgehog’s thoughts. “I said Knuckles and Omega are on the way, let’s head outside so they can spot us.”

“Hm. Right,” Shadow replied distantly, quickly gathering his gun and pack as he left the cave. Rouge stared after him for a second, wondering what had occupied him so much she’d had to repeat herself. The ebony hedgehog was prone to brooding in deep thought, so she supposed it shouldn’t have come off as too strange. She hurried after him.

‘What is my problem?’ Shadow pondered the reason for his mood. Had Rouge’s teasing just gotten to him? No, the feeling had only hit after Knuckles had called. Why? His mind wandered to last night and this morning, forcing him to hide his pinkened cheeks from Rouge. 

Then, thinking about Knuckles again, was it…

Jealousy…?

‘ No, don’t be absurd… Why would I be jealous of that idiotic echidna? I’m the Ultimate Life-Form!’ Shadow assured himself. ‘ Just because Rouge is dating him… that doesn’t mean… why should I care?!’

Why indeed.

The sudden bright sun on the snow as they exited the cave caused the dark duo to shield their eyes for a few moments while they adjusted. Once they had, they took a minute to observe the snow-consumed landscape. A few trees down the valley had been blown over, but aside from that, all the snow had turned White Acropolis into a giant, blank sheet that buried all signs of yesterday and last night’s events.

“You were crazy for going out in this last night, you know that?” Rouge remarked as they tried to get as high up the hill as possible for the best visibility.

“Nothing crazier than what we’ve done before,” Shadow replied with a shrug.

“You’re right. Still… it was brave of you, that’s all,” she said with a shrug back at him. Shadow didn’t reply, he just took his usual pose of brooding with his arms crossed as he stared out at the horizon. Rouge frowned a little; he’d been opening up a bit more since their reunion, especially after their apology. Now he seemed more like his usual bitter, sullen self.

Was he embarrassed about last night? Obviously he had been when they first awoke, but he hadn’t appeared to be in a bad mood. Maybe it was nothing. Shadow wasn’t the type of person to open up at all, let alone for prolonged periods. She supposed she shouldn’t take it personally; she was just glad Shadow was back.

Before long, Rouge’s sensitive hearing picked up the sound of a chopper. Smiling brightly, she pointed out to Shadow the direction it was flying in from. Soon they could both hear it, and quickly saw the helicopter headed for them. Once it was close enough, they saw the side-hatch open and could both see the distinct red of Knuckles’ fur and Omega’s chassis. 

“Omega! Knuckles!” Rouge called out to them, waving to get their attention. Knuckles waved back with a smile of his own, and even Omega gave a half-hearted wave of his claws. Taking Shadow’s arm, Rouge lifted her ally up and flew them both onto the chopper. Once they were securely on, the hatch was closed and the chopper began to depart.

“Rouge! Glad to see you’re okay. Both of you!” Knuckles said with a grin, and pulled Rouge into a firm hug. Taken off guard by his sudden embrace, the ivory bat chuckled and hugged him back.

“Miss me that badly, Red?” Rouge asked with a wink, and planted a kiss on Knuckles’ lips, which he returned.

Shadow sharply turned his gaze away from the two of them, a hardened frown back on his face. Omega glanced over at his hedgehog ally, noticing the reaction. As well as he knew Shadow, he hadn’t seen that exact reaction before. He made a note to study his ally around Knuckles and Rouge as much as possible.

“Shadow. It is good to see you,” Omega told him. “Observation: your vitals indicate you are in good health.”

“Omega,” Shadow greeted, giving him a nod of acknowledgement.

“Shadow, come on! You haven’t seen Omega since the war with Infinite, give him a little more than that!” Rouge insisted half-playfully. Shadow sighed.

“It’s good to see you too, Omega. Truthfully,” he added after a moment. A satisfied smile on her face, Rouge put her hands on her hips and gave Knuckles a look. After a moment, the crimson echidna took her hint and cleared his throat.

“Shadow! Been a while man. Thanks for looking out for Rouge during the storm last night!” Knuckles said as pleasantly as he could. “We heard it was really bad.”

“Hmph. You should know she can take care of herself,” Shadow muttered, eyes narrowing as he looked away. Rouge scowled over at the angsty hedgehog.

“Come on Shadow, what’s gotten into you?!” she snapped. “We’re finally leaving this frozen wasteland, you can at least try to cheer up a little!”

“It’s a little hard to ‘cheer up’ when there’s an impending Black Arms invasion for us to avert,” he replied sarcastically.

Both Knuckles and Rouge’s eyes widened simultaneously, with Omega glancing between their expressions.

“The Black Arms?!” Knuckles asked. “They’re back? They’re coming to Earth? How? When?!”

“You don’t know? It’s the whole reason G.U.N. wants me to come in,” Shadow scoffed. Worriedly, Rouge met Knuckles’ bewildered face.

“What…?! Did you know the Black Arms were about to attack?!” the echidna asked.

“W… well… yes, G.U.N. told me not to tell anyone!” Rouge said quickly. She shot a glare over at Shadow. “It was supposed to be confidential so nobody would panic. The whole mission is to destroy them before they can even get close enough to attack the Earth!”

“Why me though, huh?! I could’ve helped G.U.N. too! I could’ve helped you!” Knuckles said, his whole body tensed in frustration. “Why can’t you ever tell me what’s going on with them?!”

“Heh. Perhaps you’re just not as vital to saving the world as your inflated ego led you to believe,” Shadow shot back. Knuckles shot him purple daggers and his teeth clenched.

“Say that again!” he shouted. “Say it again, and we’ll see how ‘Ultimate’ you are when I’m knocking you out of this chopper!” His fists went up in a fighting position.

“You’d die before you ever landed a blow!” the dark hedgehog retorted, his body beginning to crackle dangerously with red Chaos Energy.

“SHADOW! KNUCKLES! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!!” Rouge screamed at them. Startled, the two dropped their stances and looked over at the furious bat.

“Shadow! Knuckles was just trying to be nice! I don’t know why you’re such a crabby ass right now, but it stops now! Apologize right now! ” she snapped, glaring at Shadow as she aggressively pointed at Knuckles.

“S-Sorry…” the dark hedgehog muttered, eyes boring into the floor of the helicopter.

“And Knuckles! I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you! Believe me, I wanted to, but we don’t need to be fighting each other right now!” she told him pointedly. “If you want to be angry, be angry at me and G.U.N.! We can talk about that later, okay?!”

“Rouge is correct; save your aggression for the Black Arms,” Omega tried to add helpfully.

“Fine…” Knuckles resigned with a sigh. “I just don’t like being kept in the dark… again .”

“You and me both!” Rouge groaned. “But now you know, okay? Maybe G.U.N. will let you pitch in once we get back!”

“Yeah…” the echidna took a seat. Rouge looked between him and Shadow, who was sullenly fuming in the corner. Omega and her shared a look, and she threw her hands up in exasperation.

Since Knuckles was in the know now, Rouge had the pilots just fly them all back to G.U.N. Headquarters. She was probably in hot water for leaking the impending invasion, but if it was just Knuckles, she could probably talk her way out of it. Besides, it was technically Shadow’s fault for telling her boyfriend about the Black Arms. She was tempted to call him out on it, but she supposed she hadn’t really mentioned anything about it being confidential to him. The rest of the helicopter ride was uncomfortably quiet, with nobody attempting to break the tension.

Rough heaved another heavy sigh as she sat down next to Knuckles. This wasn’t how she’d wanted Team Dark’s reunion to go.

‘Well, at least being with Knuckles again should keep my mind off of Shadow…’ she thought as she looked over at her echidna boyfriend. The thoughts she’d had that morning still haunted her; the white bat had no intention of being disloyal to Knuckles in their relationship. They had a good thing going, and she didn’t want to spoil it. That angsty hedgehog was an ass, he’d just proven that. Not relationship material, right?

So why had being so close to Shadow gotten her so heated, so flustered? Why was there a guilty part of her that wanted to feel it again?

Rouge laid her head on Knuckles’ shoulder and closed her eyes. Despite still being upset at being left out of the loop, he relented and put an arm around her. Feeling a wave of comfort, Rouge sighed and was able to banish her mind of thoughts about Shadow. For now at least.

Chapter Text

Chapter Six: Troubled Paths and Dark Clouds

—-----

*G.U.N. Headquarters, A Few Hours Later* 

—-----

“ Well, if Knuckles knows, he may as well sit in on our strategy,” Abraham Tower said sternly over Rouge’s radio. The bat had gone into the back to be alone when she decided to go ahead and get this out of the way before they arrived. They were close enough to H.Q. now that Rouge could contact the Commander via this secure channel. “ We were considering calling upon him and the rest of Team Sonic to help in case things don’t go as planned. I suppose this works in our favor.”

“Yeah, I remember. You mentioned that contingency. Thanks Abe, nice to know you have so much confidence in us,” Rouge said haughtily.

“It never hurts to have a backup plan when it comes to keeping the world safe,” Abraham rebuked. “ I don’t think you’re exactly in a position to be giving me sass right now, Agent Rouge.”

“Yeah, I know. Fair,” she sighed. “Still, there wasn’t much point in keeping this from Knuckles if you were thinking of bringing him in later!”

“ Perhaps, but it was meant to be kept confidential from everyone, not just Knuckles. It was indiscriminate consolidation of information, that’s all Rouge,” Abe replied. “ I’ll let this slide since no harm was done, and Shadow may not have agreed if he didn’t know the Black Arms were involved. I’ll discuss everything else with you all once you arrive. Tower out.”

Rouge sighed in relief as the tense ride on the helicopter mercifully came to its final approach. She went back into the main hatch with the others. As she guessed, nobody had budged. Shadow was still brooding, Omega was still watching, and Knuckles still sat with his arms folded in his seat.

“Ugh, can you boys look alive for just a minute? We’re almost there!” the ivory bat snapped.

“I’ll feel better once I know more about what we’re dealing with,” Shadow replied without looking at her. “Once the Commander tells us what G.U.N. knows, we can act.”

“All we require is transport to enemy territory,” Omega said. “From there, it is simply a matter of destruction. Sheer, unwarranted destruction, as long as we are able to survive by the end.”

“Hm. Well put, Omega,” the edgy hedgehog agreed with a slight smirk. “If they’ve returned again, we’ll just destroy them so utterly that nothing could possibly survive!”

“You sure you’re the good guys?” Knuckles said with a disapproving scowl. “I love a good fight, but-”

“Do not presume to understand my motives!” Shadow snapped, his eyes shimmering with wrath. “The Black Arms are a threat to the whole world, to the whole galaxy and beyond. They will not show mercy. We can’t afford to show them any either. Aside from that, they have tried to control me. To lay claim to me as their warrior, their pawn. Black Doom deceived me while his followers wreaked havoc on this whole world.”

Shadow looked away, staring at the floor again as his fangs and fists clenched.

“I cannot abide by them. If we have the chance to stop them before they set one wretched foot on the Earth, we have to take it.”

“I know that! I care about protecting the Earth too!” Knuckles replied. “But you sound so sinister when-”

“Guys! Knuckles, it’s fine!” Rouge intervened, coming to stand between the two. “Shadow sounds like that a lot when he’s about to have a good fight. Like you said, you can appreciate that, right? So he sounds all cold, big deal! It’s his thing, doesn’t mean he’s not a good guy! Besides, this is personal for him. Can you two please chill and just try to get along?! For ten minutes?!”

“Fine, fine… sorry guys,” the echidna relented with a sigh and a shrug. Shadow just grunted and went back to brooding by Omega.

Thankfully, the chopper was ready to land at that point, and soon the four of them were able to disembark onto G.U.N.’s helipad. A small guard of soldiers and Beetle mechs quickly escorted them to the same room within the headquarters where Abraham had briefed Rouge and Omega just yesterday.

As they walked down the bustling halls, Shadow observed his surroundings with some guilt and disdain. The last time he’d been here, it had been briefly before the war with Eggman and Infinite. But at one point, Black Doom had been planning for Shadow to spearhead an assault on this very base. He couldn’t help but observe the security and defenses as they passed by. Somehow, G.U.N. had developed a field that prevented Chaos Control from effectively getting someone inside the building; he’d learned that during his brief time with the Black Arms before.

Once inside, however, despite the thousands of guards, mechs and elaborate defenses, taking the Headquarters would be much easier. Shadow hoped that this time, the Black Arms wouldn’t even get a chance to try.

Soon, they were back in the Command Center. Unlike before, the room was unsettlingly quiet. Only a few hands clicking away at computers and the odd murmured conversation made any noise besides the hum of the screens. Rouge and Knuckles looked around uncomfortably while Shadow and Omega seemed relatively unbothered.

“Tensions are high. So is blood pressure,” Omega stated aloud. Rouge sighed.

“Team Dark. Knuckles the Echidna. Good to see you all.”

The four of them inclined their heads to see Commander Abraham Tower enter the room, followed by two guards. As usual, Abe had a stern frown on his face, though his orange and blue eyes seemed to brighten with relief when he saw them.

“Well, I suppose we all know why we’re here,” he said, unclasping his hands from behind his back. “So… let’s get to it.” Abraham pulled out a small remote, and changed the main monitor on the largest screen in the room.

Shadow’s eyes widened and he involuntarily gasped softly when he saw the image of the second Black Comet appear on the screen. Nobody noticed but Rouge, who cast a worried glance at him. She knew this was personal to him, but seeing Shadow affected like that… hurt.

Unlike the hologram from before, the image of the Comet was clear, in vivid, accurate color. There was no mistaking its relation to the first Black Comet. A number displaying its distance from Earth was rapidly dropping.

“In short, we don’t know how, but the Black Arms have returned,” Abraham continued gravely. “This is the latest image we have of them, and we’ve been able to analyze it more thoroughly as it approaches our range. From what we can tell, they’ll be within range of Earth in less than twenty hours. However, our plan is to take them out well before that.”

Abe clicked the remote again to show a blueprint of a spacecraft on the screen. It looked much more advanced than the shuttle Shadow had “borrowed” to reach the ARK over a year ago. It was labeled “UFSF (United Federation Space Force) Ratatosk Assault Shuttle.”

“Our top engineers have been working on this for years, and now’s the best time to put it to use. It’s much more fuel-efficient, armored and shielded with our latest tech, and armed with five different weapons,” Abraham explained. “We’ve only field-tested the last few models against Eggman’s forces, but everything promises that this model of the Ratatosk is our best chance of getting to the Black Comet.”

“Excuse me, but why not just use the Eclipse Cannon on the ARK to stop them?” Knuckles asked. “Isn’t that how Shadow stopped them last time?”

“True, but unfortunately, the Chaos Emeralds haven’t been found yet,” Abe replied. “I believe the last time they were all accounted for was when Sonic used them to fight off The End and the Titans on the Starfall Islands, yes?”

“Yeah… that was the last time we saw Sonic go Super,” Knuckles confirmed. “Nobody’s found any since?”

“Not as far as we know. Regardless, the Eclipse Cannon isn’t an option right now,” Abraham continued. “We’ve hidden and shielded the ARK that will keep it totally invisible from the Black Arms, as long as they don’t make physical contact with it. We have defenses in place if they do.”

“Our current plan is to send a force to board the Black Comet, and plant a thermo-nuclear device at their core. This will not only eliminate the threat of the Black Arms on board, but also the threat of the Comet colliding into Earth. Once you’re all clear, detonate it and it should be more than sufficient to completely destroy it.”

“May I see this weapon?” Omega asked, his voice sounding elated in anticipation. Abe smirked a little but he obliged; an image of a large, missile-shaped bomb with similar blueprints appeared.

“Exquisite.”

“So Abe, what exactly do you need us to do?” Rouge asked, giving her robotic friend a smile at his usual candor.

“Team Dark will be spearheading the assault on the Black Comet. Spider and Sword Companies will accompany you for support. You’re to get the bomb to the core of the Black Comet by any and all means necessary,” Abraham went on. He nodded at two nearby G.U.N. soldiers, who stepped forward. One was a man, the other a woman.

“This is Captain Wachowski and Captain Topaz, of Spider and Sword Troupes, respectively,” Abe introduced. The officers snapped off a salute to their Commander and the others. “They’ll be giving their own soldiers their orders, but since Rouge is our agent with the most experience with the Black Arms, I’m placing command of this operation under her. Wachowski and Topaz answer to her unless I say otherwise.” He then turned his heterochromatic eyes towards Shadow.

“Other than fighting alongside us against the Black Arms, I was also hoping you’d act as an advisor, Shadow,” he told the hedgehog directly. “You spent some time, albeit brief, among their ranks. If you have anything to share that could aid in destroying them and saving the Earth, we need to know now.”

Shadow coldly regarded all the gazes on him for a moment before replying.

“I was really hoping you would have information to give,” the hedgehog scoffed. “G.U.N. knew about the Black Arms’ return before anyone else. You’re the traffickers of the government’s data, correct?”

“Anything and everything we know about the Black Arms will be shared before you all depart for your mission,” Abraham replied shortly. “However, if you know anything we don’t, we request you share it with us. Now.”

“Hmph. Right. Request. I don’t work for you, I’m only here because our interests align, and I trust Rouge and Omega.” Shadow scoffed again and closed his eyes, deep in thought.

“Black Doom didn’t share much with me, mostly just their tactics for their latest attack, or the location of a Chaos Emerald, a little of their history,” Shadow said after a few moments. “But if this New Comet and its Black Arms are anything like the main force behind Black Doom, there’s a chance I may be able to tap into their hive mind. I did so by accident the first few times before I learned to control it. There’s a chance I can learn how they survived Black Doom’s defeat, and how to prevent them from returning again.”

“Is that safe?” Rouge asked, frowning slightly in concern. “What if they tried to take control of you again or something?”

“They won’t,” Shadow said firmly, his eyes unblinkingly certain. “Black Doom sought to control me in the Time Void, and he failed, even with more of his power coursing through me at that time. I’ve learned how to control and stem their influence; I won’t serve them. Never again.”

“I hope you’re right, Shadow,” Abraham said gravely. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

“However the Black Arms survived, I believe they have something, or someone, powerful acting as a ruler the way Black Doom did. Something holding them together,” Shadow replied. “If whatever that is gets destroyed along with the Comet, it will at least ensure the death of every Black Arms on that Comet if the bomb doesn’t get them first.” His frown deepened as another thought occurred to him.

“They’re still too far for me to tell, but if they had a direct link to Black Doom, they could have seen how our battle went, even as far away as they must have been. The hive mind works both ways. I guarantee they’ll have tried to prepare themselves for everything we threw at them last time.” He sighed. “I just wish I knew what it was.”

“I understand Shadow. If you are able to tap into their hive-mind and learn something, relay it to us ASAP,” Abraham said with a nod. “Now, with the data we gathered from the last invasion, we’ll be able to equip you with rebreathers that should protect you from the paralytic gas the Black Arms weaponize. We don’t know the layout of this new Black Comet, but we’ve tried to compile everything we know to help Team Dark and our squads navigate their way to the core as best as possible.”

He turned to face Knuckles.

“Would you mind bringing in Sonic and Tails on this?” he asked the echidna. “Since you know everything now, we might as well begin planning in case the Black Arms manage to get to Earth somehow.”

“Mm… yeah, I’ll tell ‘em,” Knuckles said heavily, giving the Commander a stern look. “I’m so honored to be in the know for a change.”

“Knuckles!” Rouge rebuked, but Abraham waved it off.

“It’s alright. I understand you’re upset Knuckles, but please, we do need to work together,” he said.

“Working together takes trust!” Knuckles snapped back. “How can I trust you when you never let Rouge tell me anything?!”

Shadow couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. He hated to admit it, but the echidna had a decent point.

“It’s nothing personal, Knuckles. You’re not the only one who isn’t told everything,” Abe replied evenly, though his eyes began to narrow a little. “Can we count on you or not?”

“Fine. I’ll tell Sonic and Tails, and don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone else!” Knuckles muttered. Abe sighed and nodded. He supposed that was the best he was going to get right now.

“The Ratatosk still needs time to be prepared, but by the time it’s able to launch and meet the Black Comet once it's within range, it’ll be about twelve hours from now,” he continued. “You all have leave to do what you wish until then, just stay close. Westopolis isn’t too far from here, you can stay there until the mission is ready to begin, or in the Headquarters. Just be back and be ready in less than twelve hours from now. Any questions?”

“Plant a bomb, no more alien invaders, no more problems, and we all go home with nice juicy bonuses!” Rouge replied with a smug look. “Pish. We got this Abe!”

“As long as I am pointed in the direction of enemies, I am satisfied,” Omega chimed, eagerly bouncing on his feet a little.

“Hmph.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Very well,” Abe sighed. “Knuckles, once Rouge and the others leave on their mission, bring Sonic and Tails here and we’ll bring them up to speed. We’ll keep you up to date on their mission status as long as you don’t mind staying here in the Fortress in the meantime.”

“Wait, if all three of us are here, who am I going to get to guard the Master Emerald?!” Knuckles exclaimed.

“We’re already on that,” Abraham assured him. “We’ve hired another team to watch Angel Island in your absence. We’ll be paying them a generous fee. I believe you worked with them, once upon a time?”

“Huh…?” The echidna arched a brow, then furrowed them in thought. “Wait… the Chaotix?! Yeah I worked with them, but…” He cringed a little bit. “There was weird stuff going on back then…”

“Regardless, yes, we’ve hired the Chaotix,” Abe said. “They’re reliable in combat, and said they didn’t mind helping an old friend out. Besides, I figured you’d prefer them to having G.U.N. soldiers guard the Master Emerald.”

“Can’t argue with you there!” Knuckles said with a suppressed groan.

“Very well. If that’s all, dismissed for now,” Abraham said. “Remember, back in under twelve hours.”

Shadow and Knuckles were already fast-walking towards the exit as everyone else either returned to work or prepared to leave. Rouge and Omega hurried after the two, managing to catch up just outside the doorway.

“Hey! So what do you guys want to do? We got time to kill before the mission,” Rouge suggested. Hearing this seemed to lighten Knuckles up a little.

“Maybe get something to eat? That stuff in Soleanna was good but you didn’t get squat with their portions!,” Knuckles said hopefully.

“Sure thing, Red. Shadow, Omega! You guys wanna tag along? Spend the night out before we have to come back?” the ivory bat asked brightly.

“Pass. I’ll stay nearby and train,” Shadow replied bluntly. 

“Aw, come on, Shadow!” Rouge insisted, giving him a slight tug on the arm. “It’ll be fun, I promise!”

“You two go ahead. I’d like to stay close by in case anything changes,” Shadow said stiffly, gently pulling his arm away. Disheartened, Rouge sighed, her ears drooping slightly for a moment. Omega looked over at her, then at Shadow, then back at Rouge.

“I too shall remain here and train alongside Shadow,” he said. “I’d like to see how his combat skills compare to the last time we fought alongside each other.”

“Okay then… alright, see you boys before the mission,” Rouge said, managing a smile. She pulled out a keycard and tossed it to Shadow, who deftly caught it. “That’ll let you guys into my own training room. It’s better suited to Mobians than humans.” She and Knuckles took each other’s hands and went their own way while Shadow and Omega remained behind.

“Where is her training room?” Omega asked. Shadow just grunted and started walking down another hall. The rogue badnik followed his hedgehog ally, his red eyes blinking as he tried to process his organic behavior.

Soon, they arrived, and as Shadow slid the keycard and opened the door, they reveled in a large space, almost like a hangar or small warehouse. The room had all sorts of training equipment that humans would struggle to use. It had a few different obstacle courses, a large arena for fighting, and dummy mechs to practice with.

After trying out a few different things for about a half-hour, Shadow and Omega were now sparring in the arena, melee attacks only. No Chaos powers or guns of any kind.

“Shadow, I would like to venture a query,” Omega said as he launched two quick, powerful punches.

“Fine. Shoot,” the dark hedgehog replied, dodging under the attack and attempting to kick the mech in the torso.

“What has transpired between you, Rouge and Knuckles?” he asked after catching Shadow’s foot in his claw.

“What? Nothing! Why?” Shadow snapped back, arching a brow as he twisted himself to kick his other foot into Omega’s arm, freeing his foot as he leapt back.

“Do not give me that,” Omega shot at him dourly, launching himself forward for another attack. “I have been observing your behavior. Whenever Knuckles and Rouge interact as of late, your heart rate picks up and your hostility increases by over eighty-nine percent. Elaborate.”

“It’s nothing, Omega! I just have a lot to deal with now!” the Ultimate Life-Form growled, rolling into a ball and bouncing upwards to hit Omega square-on. “Why do you want to talk about ‘feelings’ all of a sudden?!”

“I never said anything about ‘feelings,’ though that was my most probable hypothesis,” the robot replied, turning himself around and using his thrusters to cannonball towards Shadow. “Elaborate!”

* SMASH! *

Shadow narrowly dodged Omega’s impact, and barely had time to turn and brace for the next attack as the mech came rocketing towards him.

“Omega-!”

“You, Rouge and all other organics have a foolish habit of letting your emotions cloud your capabilities instead of addressing him. It does not compute!” He began furiously punching at Shadow, faster than the hedgehog had seen before. The rogue robot had been keeping his software and hardware as up-to-date and top-notch as possible during his ally’s absence. “If we are going to emerge victorious against the Black Arms, I cannot have my team crippling their own efficiency! Elaborate! ”

“ Fine! ” Shadow snapped, and spin-kicked Omega hard enough to knock him away. He took a moment to catch his breath, and gritted his teeth.

“I… I don’t know what’s wrong,” the ebony hedgehog admitted heavily. “At first, I was glad to see Rouge again, to be working alongside her like before. But whenever Knuckles is around, it’s… like he’s tainting her companionship!”

“Why is that? Is it because they are, ‘dating’?” Omega cut to the chase.

“I’m not sure,” Shadow replied, shaking his head. “Why should that matter? Rouge can date who she wants…”

“The echidna’s company can be tiresome, I will admit,” Omega offered. “However, despite thinking he would be an unnecessary addition to Team Dark, our interests align regarding Rouge’s well-being. I struggle to see why his presence should infuriate you more than myself.”

“Yeah… I didn’t even realize how much I couldn’t stand him until he called on the radio,” Shadow sighed. “She’s your friend too, as well as mine, so why? Why does Knuckles anger me so much?!”

“Are you jealous of her choice?”

“No!” Shadow immediately barked. “Why would I be so petty as to be jealous?!”

“You and Rouge have embarked on many missions and many adventures together, even before I encountered you two. It is logical you would ‘bond’ during that time,” Omega reasoned. “Now that she is in a relationship with Knuckles, are you certain you’re not jealous of what he has?”

“Y-Yes!” Shadow insisted, but was betrayed by the pink burning his cheeks. Omega looked the hedgehog up and down, and his eyes glowed brighter for a second.

“Shadow, your vitals indicate-” he started to say.

“Nope! No, no, stop right there!” Shadow snapped, pointing a warning finger at the badnik. 

“If it is not jealousy, then what?” the mech prodded. “What else has changed in the time since we last made contact with you?”

The Ultimate Life-Form continued to glare with his flushed face, but said nothing.

“Did something happen? While you two were sheltering from the storm?” Omega asked carefully.

Shadow’s face burned even hotter.

“Oh no. Oh my,” Omega chirped, eyes blinking rapidly.

“N-No! Silence, Omega!” Shadow shouted, his face now beet-red. “A-All I did was keep her warm! That’s all, it w-wasn’t anything romantic! No big deal!”

“I can read your vitals Shadow. Sometimes you are able to mask them, but right now, lying is futile,” he reminded Shadow dryly. “You need to address this.”

“Hell no, not happening!” the black hedgehog said, shaking his head as he started to make for the exit. “I came in here to train, not play therapy with you! Who do you think you are?!” 

Omega pulled out one of his guns and shot the controls for the door, closing it in Shadow’s path.

“This conversation does not end until you swear to address this issue, and ensure it will not be a liability on our mission,” the mech stated as Shadow turned to glare at him in disbelief.

“What do you want from me?!” he growled, folding his arms as he fought to keep his temper. If this wasn’t Omega, he would’ve laid him out by now.

“If you harbor feelings for Rouge, from what I understand, you should inform her,” Omega answered. “Perhaps she will leave the echidna and order will be restored to Team Dark.”

“What?! I-I don’t…” Shadow stuttered, his mind blanking as he failed to finish that sentence:

“I don’t have those feelings for Rouge!”

“You expect me to discuss my feelings? With Rouge?! ” he decided to say instead. “Are you sure you don’t have a virus or something, Omega?”

“Perhaps you should challenge the echidna to single-combat, then,” the robot suggested casually. “If he honors it, you could win Rouge’s hand.”

“I’m not doing that!” Shadow said with a huff. “Rouge is her own person, not a prize to be fought over. She can choose who she wants to be with! And…” His tone lowered. “The bottom line is she’s with Knuckles. She seems happy. Even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t choose...” Shadow grunted and looked away.

“You refer to yourself?” Omega guessed correctly. “Are you so certain she would not? Perhaps, if she felt there was mutual ground there, she would reciprocate?” Omega kept on. “Regardless, you need to address this before the mission begins. Our success may depend on it. Neither you nor Rouge fight at peak efficiency if your organic minds are clouded.”

The two members of Team Dark stared each other down for several long moments. It nearly felt as though they were trying to stare each other down to death. 

“I cannot process the reason, but both you and Rouge seem especially determined to deceive yourselves and others. It is a massive waste of time and resources,” Omega said disdainfully. “It’s only logical to be honest and forward. Deceiving our enemies I obviously understand, but deceiving our own allies is self-sabotage. You need to address this,” he repeated.

“It’s not that simple,” Shadow muttered.

“Is that why you stayed away for six months without contact? Because of how ‘complicated’ those organic feelings of yours are?” Omega shot back.

Shadow’s eyes widened; that barb had unexpectedly stung, especially coming from Omega.

After deciding the badnik was bent on making this as much trouble as possible, Shadow facepalmed and groaned.

“Fine, fine, if I promise to talk to Rouge, will you stop this?” he growled lowly. Omega gave a single nod. “Very well, I promise. Now, can we stop talking and start training?”

“With gusto,” the mech replied, holding his arms up at the ready. 

—-------

*Westopolis, about an hour an a half later*

—------

Rouge drove her car, which she’d left at G.U.N. Headquarters before going to Soleanna, down the freeway to the city. Knuckles was kicked back in the passenger seat, smiling as the breeze rushed through his dreadlocks. The echidna felt better now that they were away from G.U.N. and that moody hedgehog. He still couldn’t fathom how or why Rouge and Shadow were friends with how hostile Shadow was. Knuckles had just tried to say hi, to say thanks for being with Rouge during the storm. But the edgelord had just bitten his head off! What was with that guy?!

“You’re wondering why I even hang out with him, aren’t you?” Rouge read his mind aloud. 

“Huh? Y-Yeah, how’d you know?” Knuckles asked, sitting up to look at her in mild shock at her accuracy. Rouge sighed and shook her head.

“Because whenever Shadow acts out or shuts us out, somebody wonders why. Sometimes I do too,” she answered with a sad smirk. “The thing is though… after everything he’s been through, both before and after we all met him, I can’t pretend to understand how it all must feel. Shadow’s in pain, Knuckles. Sometimes he just… can’t contain it, y’know?”

“I guess,” he said softly. “I know Shadow’s been through a lot, and I feel bad for him, but… he’s not the only person who’s had loss, y’know? I’m the last of the Echidna Tribe, we were sad when we lost Emerl too. Maybe things were different with Shadow when he lost Maria, but it shouldn’t be a free pass to be a total jackass to everyone for his entire life!”

“Shadow hasn’t had people the same way you and I have though,” Rouge said, her tone growing colder. “People have been scared of him all his life. It took a long time for Omega and I to get even remotely close to him. In case you forgot, right after he tried to save us and the Earth, he almost died and got amnesia. Shadow was lost, confused, and hurting, and too busy looking for answers to look for a friend.” Hearing someone, even Knuckles, say something dismissive about Shadow and his trauma touched a nerve. 

“We weren’t there, we didn’t know Maria, certainly not like Shadow did. Wouldn’t it be ‘ different’ for you if something happened to Sonic? Or me?”

Knuckles gave her a shocked look at the very thought, which quickly turned glum as he looked down at his shoes.

“You’re right… I don’t like to even think about that, it’s like my mind won’t let me,” he replied softly. “Sorry Rouge… I just wish Shadow was easier to get along with, I guess.”

“Yeah, me too,” she sighed. “But believe it or not, he cares. It’s subtle, but he worries. About me, Omega, the people of Earth, even you guys sometimes. Underneath all that gruff, he’s got a big soft spot.” Rouge giggled and gave Knuckles a quick wink. “Kinda like you, with all that ‘Guardian’ business.”

“Hey, I take that ‘business’ seriously!” he said irritably.

“I’m painfully aware of that,” Rouge said with a roll of her eyes. “It was a joke! You and Shadow could both stand to lighten up.” She turned a corner as they drove down the street leading to their dinner destination.

“But speaking of your Guardian business, he has a similar vow he’s made,” she continued. “To Maria. To protect the Earth, and the people who live here. Shadow makes exceptions for those particularly nasty creeps, but even then it’s the same as you and Sonic; only destroying an opponent when there’s no other way to save others. That kind of pressure probably doesn’t make it easy for him to relax and just have fun with others.” Her expression grew sad, and Knuckles noticed her ears drooping.

“I think Shadow feels like that promise to Maria, and keeping it is all he has left of her,” Rouge said so softly Knuckles barely heard her. “So he doesn’t feel like anything else matters but fighting bad guys, saving the world, onto the next mission. No time to spend on fun… or friends.” She huffed loudly as she finally parked her car. It was still a short walk to the restaurant they had in mind, but parking wasn’t exactly great in this area. Besides, the huntress wanted to window shop a little along the way.

“But y’know, I snoop around a lot; I know for a fact that Maria wanted him to try and be happy, to enjoy life on Earth. That was part of the promise too!” Rouge ranted as they got out of her car. “Shadow always seems to forget those little details!”

“Well… maybe Shadow’s just happy destroying Eggman’s robots and fighting?” Knuckles suggested to try and be helpful. “You said he enjoys a good fight, right?”

“But that’s all he does! That, riding his motorcycle and running!” she groaned on. “I know for certain that he enjoys video games, music and even anime! It’s like he’s scared of being happy! When he was staying at Club Rouge, he’d occasionally let me in on what he was up to.” Rouge sighed, but smiled at the image that came to mind next.

“Shadow… never smiles in battle quite the way he did when listening to music, or when he was on his bike, or when he’d actually let me watch something with him,” she said rather distantly.

Knuckles stared for a few moments as he tried to think of something to say. It kind of bothered him how affectionate Rouge was being over Shadow right now; sometimes it was hard not to be jealous of how well Shadow and Rouge knew each other. Maybe that was another reason he disliked G.U.N. as much as he did, since they had paired them up on several missions before. But right now he wanted to make her feel better and just try to have a nice evening before she left on her mission. Finally, he came over to Rouge and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, and met her with a confident smile when she looked at him.

“He’s your friend, Rouge. You trust each other, yeah?” Knuckles asked rhetorically. “Why don’t you try and talk to him when you get a chance? Let him know how much it’d mean to spend time with him some more. Not just to you, but to Maria and his promise, right?”

“Well I kind of did,” Rouge replied with a chuckle. “I already told him to check in more and not to worry me so much. But he said no to hanging out tonight… most of the time it’s a struggle to get him to do anything.” She laughed again as they walked down the sidewalk of Westopolis. “Shadow always keeps his word, though. So when I helped him get to the ARK, I made him promise to come to Sonic’s birthday party. He never breaks a promise, and… I really just wanted to see him, spend more time with him.” Rouge looked over at Knuckles with a sardonic smirk.

“Aside from finding a time and place to talk to Shadow, getting him to talk about anything other than a mission or a battle is a battle in of itself. If he thinks things are getting too touchy-feely, there’s always a chance he’ll snap or split!”

“Well, you guys are going on a mission soon. Maybe you can talk to him then, that way he has a reason to not take off or something?” Knuckles suggested after a few moments of thought. 

Rouge froze mid-step; that was actually…

“Red, that… that’s actually not a bad idea!” she said with a sly laugh. “I wouldn’t normally say a mission into enemy territory on an alien comet was a good place to talk to someone. But this is Shadow, and you’re right! He’d have an obligation to stick around, no matter how much he wanted to avoid a conversation! Good thinking!” She gave the echidna a playful punch on the arm.

“Heh, come on, you’re laying it on too thick!” Knuckles said, smiling bashfully as he rubbed the back of his head. Rouge giggled at how cute he looked and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to blush a little too. Even cuter! Embarrassment was a good look on the echidna, Rouge observed.

The two of them continued on, the mood now much brighter than when they’d left G.U.N. H.Q. Knuckles tried to ignore the nagging thought that having a chance to bond with Shadow seemed to be the reason Rouge was cheered up. It wasn’t hard; the ivory bat’s cheerfulness was contagious, and soon it felt like just another fun date. The two of them were soon talking about potential places to explore and their past adventures as they walked.

Once they had nearly reached the restaurant, however, Rouge was captivated by a high-end jewelry store along the way. On display was a set of a tiara and a necklace, both adorned with diamonds and emeralds. Her aquamarine eyes sparkled like stars as she was hypnotically drawn to the high-security windows.

“Rouge, I think they’re closed,” Knuckles said, peering into the shop once he saw what had distracted her. The whole store was dark, and aside from that, the hours of operation displayed had passed.

“So…?” Rouge replied, again rather distantly. This caused the echidna to frown and fold his arms.

“Rouge! Come on, I thought you were done stealing from people!” Knuckles snapped irritably. “It’s fine if we’re plundering abandoned ruins or forgotten treasures that nobody is using or has use for, but people work here!”

“Some people would argue against both,” she retorted playfully. “Come oooonn, Knuckles? It’s not like this company is exactly squeaky-clean, y’know? Pleeeeeease?” She batted her eyes affectionately at him, tilting her head in as adorable an expression she could muster. Knuckles’ face blanked and pinkened again as he struggled against the bat’s charms.

“N…No, Rouge. It’s wrong. Come on, can we please just go to dinner now?” Knuckles asked heavily after a minute of resistance. Rouge sighed and shrugged in defeat.

“Fine, fine, sorry. Let’s go,” she resigned. “I still think it’s hypocritical of our treasure hunting in ruins, though.”

“We can talk about that over food, how about that?” Knuckles replied, clearly relieved Rouge had decided to drop her potential theft. He only accepted said treasure hunting because, like he said, they were abandoned, and Knuckles reasoned those treasures were safer with either him or Rouge. Back when the huntress had been bent on stealing the Master Emerald, he wouldn’t have trusted her around a dollar, let alone gems.

“Sure thing, Red,” Rouge replied, casting one last, longing look at the enticing jewelry before following her boyfriend.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven: Prologue to World Conquest

—------

*Outer Space, New Black Comet, en route to Earth*

Eclipse the Darkling marched down a long line of Black Arms soldiers, all of whom stood at attention. They had gathered within a vast cavern in the Black Comet, lit only by the red, orange and purple glows of the Comet’s crystals around the room. Long, looming shadows covered much of the room, one of many areas large enough to assemble the majority of their forces. A grin of vile pride parted Eclipse’s lips as he observed rank after rank of the Black Arms as they made their final preparations for their invasion of Earth. The destructive glory they would unleash, the justice they would exact over his father’s death…

And, of course, the reunion with Shadow the Hedgehog.

Death’s Eye flew into the room from above, and stopped to hover alongside Eclipse as he continued observing their army.

Thousands upon thousands of them had spent years of battles preparing for this day. The ranks had built up remarkably well with the conquests Black Death and Eclipse had led. Not just the standard warriors of the Black Arms, but the elite Black Arm Assassins; the towering, hulking Black Oak behemoths, able to stomp tanks and absorb intense punishment before falling. Half-buried in the ground of the comet were the Black Annelids, the large, worm-like monsters, their true numbers hidden beneath. The winged Black Volts were so numerous in of themselves Eclipse had lost count awhile ago.

To Eclipse, they were not just his troops; they were his people, an extension of himself, and all he had left of his father. Them, and Black Death in his half-alive state.

“All looks ready, Eclipse,” Black Death’s voice growled from the extension of his Eye. “They look eager for bloodshed.”

“Oh indeed,” Eclipse said with a chuckle, his yellow eyes shimmering dangerously. “I can feel it. An entire world, soon to be on its knees… it never fails to inspire.”

“What of Shadow the Hedgehog?” Black Death asked, his eye turning its gaze directly onto the Darkling. “Do you still intend to bring him back into the fold?”

“Yes!” Eclipse snapped. “There are so few of us left. I will make Shadow see reason, I know what must be done!”

“I am confident in your abilities, Eclipse, but I am also confident in the threat Shadow poses,” Black Death rebuked. “He has defeated Black Doom twice. His abilities may have grown since then. If he cannot be made to join…”

“I know! I already said if I had to, I would kill him!” the Darkling snarled, his eyes now glowing as yellow and green Chaos Energy rippled across his form. “Shadow joins the Black Arms, or he dies by their hands. Those are the only possible futures, and either way, the Earth and its allies all serve their final purpose, and perish.” Eclipse clenched his claws so severely that they dug into his palms. Death’s Eye blinked as a small trickle of green blood dripped through the Darkling’s fingers and onto the floor.

“Eclipse-”

“It’s fine, it’ll heal long before we arrive,” Eclipse muttered. The two of them turned around to finish examining their forces, and again, the Darkling beamed insidiously with pride at his creations.

“I wonder… if they alone would be enough to take the Earth,” he said softly. The Dark Arms, the latest and greatest variant of the Black Arms yet, bowed to him as he addressed them.

“Very probably… but it’s only fair all our children partake in our vengeance… and our feasts,” Black Death replied with a resounding laugh. 

There were only a hundred and forty Dark Arms at the moment, with another batch of two-hundred in stasis, nearly ready but awaiting a final dose of nutrients and Chaos Energy from Eclipse before awakening. 

The Dark Arms all had equivalent variants of the standard Black Arms; warriors, elite Assassins, Dark Oaks, Dark Volts, Dark Annelids, etcetera.

However, the strength, resilience and abilities of the Dark Arms made each one easily worth more than a dozen of its Black Arms counterparts. Eclipse’s Chaos Energy had strengthened them from birth, and given them abilities unique from the other Black Arms.

“All the knowledge we have of battle is programmed into them as soon as they hatch. Still, this will be the first real war they’ve fought in… I look forward to the desolation they’ll leave behind,” Eclipse mused, bringing up an image of Earth on a large holographic projector in the center of the room. Every Black and Dark Arms soldier looked up as well, countless yellow eyes leering in hatred.

“Shadow the Hedgehog… when you see what horrors we’re about to wreak upon this wretched world, I hope you have the good sense to come home,” the Darkling murmured as he stared at the image of Earth. “Otherwise, you might not have any other home to choose from…”

—--------

*G.U.N. Headquarters, Early the Next Day*

—---------

Shadow and Omega now stood outside a chamber deeper within the headquarters. Inside was a large hanger that contained the Ratatosk Assault Shuttle, and dozens of G.U.N. personnel trying to quickly ensure it was ready to launch soon. The whole area was hundreds of meters beneath the ground, just to accommodate the hangar and launch pad to go into space.

Commander Tower had alerted them, Rouge and Knuckles about an hour ago that they were making final preparations to leave. As of now, they had just a little over an hour before they needed to be on the shuttle. Shadow looked around and sighed, tapping his foot a little.

“Where is Rouge?” he muttered. “Spider and Sword Troupes are already on board, we should be too.”

“Rouge was never one to make haste unnecessarily,” Omega responded. “Although I do not understand how the excitement of battle does not cause her to be more punctual.” He turned his head several degrees to look at Shadow. “Have you spoken to her yet?”

“No. She was out with Knuckles in Westopolis all night,” the hedgehog muttered. “Besides, I needed to take the time to go over the data Rouge and I got from White Acropolis.”

“Did you discover any new information regarding Black Doom, Mephiles or White Space?” Omega asked, his tone dryly coming off as rhetorical.

“...No,” Shadow growled.

“Then it seems your time would have been better spent resolving your organic conflicts,” Omega replied sternly. He pointed a claw at Shadow. “You will speak to her on the shuttle ride at the latest. You promised.”

“You don’t need to remind me!” he snapped. “But I told you, it’s not that simple! I don’t even understand why things are the way they are right now!”

“Regardless, if you do not address the issue and it compromises our mission, I know who and what to blame,” Omega said severely. 

“Well, if she’d stop looking for distractions with Knuckles and get a move on, maybe we’d have time before leaving,” Shadow muttered. “Rouge always takes such a leisurely pace with everything-”

“Oh chill boys, we still have plenty of time to kill before we go star-gazing!”

Shadow and Omega turned to see Rouge and Knuckles approaching, still holding hands as if yesterday evening had been just five minutes ago. The ebony hedgehog resisted the urge to hiss and instead forced himself to turn to face them and nod. Rouge returned it with a smirk.

“Rouge. Knuckles,” Shadow said simply, arms crossed per usual. Knuckles managed a small smile and nodded back.

“Everyone else on the shuttle?” Rouge asked, stretching her arms over her head.

“Yes. They’re about to do final safety checks, and then it’s just a matter of waiting until the Comet is within range,” Shadow replied. “Then we launch.”

“Sounds good!” Rouge turned to face Knuckles, and put an arm around him. She gave him a more tender smile than usual. “Be good until I get back, okay? We’ll be treasure-hunting again in no time!” 

“Wouldn’t miss it, bat-girl,” the echidna teased gently, and kissed Rouge on the lips. Giggling, Rouge gently pulled Knuckles by the dreadlocks a little more and held the kiss for a few more moments.

Omega looked on for a moment but said nothing, only glancing between them and Shadow, who, predictably, had faced away from the couple.

“I’ll make sure Sonic and the others are good to help you guys out at all if you need it!” Knuckles said firmly, meeting Rouge’s eyes with his usual beaming determination. She chuckled a little.

“You’re always so eager to help, sweetie!” Rouge remarked and gave him another quick kiss on his nose, causing the echidna to scrunch his face a little. “Yeah, I know we can count on you guys.”

“Are you sure there isn’t any way I can tag along?” Knuckles insisted with a pleading look. Shadow stopped himself from audibly spitting in protest at Rouge’s boyfriend.

“Heh… work under you as your spy again?” Rouge chuckled and winked. “I know you commanded the Resistance Knux, but G.U.N. likes to handle things all officially,” she added with an apologetic shrug. “Even if Shadow’s not on their payroll, he’s still officially part of Team Dark. Still, with that resume, you could probably join and we could work together then? Maybe even be an officer since we all know you can lead now!” She added the last part with a hopeful shimmer in her eyes.

“Ehh… I don’t know, I’ll think about it,” Knuckles muttered with a quick scratch of his head. “Still not a big fan. I’ll help you guys better doing things my way.” Smiling, the two of them hugged, and kissed one more time.

“Alright Red, see ya soon!” Rouge said after breaking the kiss, and gave Knuckles another wink as she started to walk away. They waved at each other as Rouge and the rest of Team Dark opened the door to the hangar.

A long ramp led up to the Ratatosk, a large angular craft currently pointed upwards as it was readied for launch. It sort of resembled an “A” shape, and bore a sleek, steely-white and steel-blue color, with the signature “G” of G.U.N. on its belly. Shadow, Rouge and Omega began their ascent to the ship.

“Hey Shadow! A word, real quick?” Knuckles called after them. Shadow glanced behind him, then at Rouge and Omega.

“You guys go ahead,” he told them. Omega complied immediately, while Rouge sighed and shrugged, deciding to stay out of this particular encounter.

“Just save some for the aliens, okay boys?” she reprimanded as she followed after Omega. Shadow turned back and took a few steps towards Knuckles before folding his arms again. The crimson echidna likewise had a tense posture, a resting frown on his face.

“Yeah?”

“Look, I know how good Rouge is, I know she can take care of herself,” Knuckles said firmly, his purple eyes meeting Shadow’s red unflinchingly. “Still, just… please, say that you’ll watch her back in there. Okay? I…” The red echidna sighed. “I’d feel better if you did, alright?!”

Shadow stared at Knuckles for a moment. He was taken off guard by the echidna’s sincerity. Clearly he didn’t take his relationship with Rouge lightly. That protectiveness… Shadow could appreciate that.

Finally, he nodded, and Knuckles’ demeanor relaxed a little.

“I will. On my honor.”

“Okay…” Knuckles sighed in relief. He managed a smile, this time more easily, and gave Shadow a thumbs-up. “Thanks man.”

“Hm. Thank me when the Black Arms are finally destroyed,” Shadow replied. He smirked a little. “I can’t promise to save any for you and Sonic. You’re the ‘B’ team, after all.”

“Oh yeah?! Well if I was on that Comet, I’d break the whole place up before you had a chance to do anything!” Knuckles challenged back.

“Seriously though; just pray you, Sonic and Tails aren’t needed,” Shadow said firmly. “I don’t know what the Black Arms have up their sleeves this time, or how they came back, but… I have a bad feeling.” He gripped one hand into a determined fist. “I don’t want to let a single one reach the planet.”

“You guys got this,” Knuckles said, and when he caught himself being assuring, he gave a cocky smirk as well. “You guys are almost as good as me and Team Sonic!”

“Heh! In your dreams,” Shadow scoffed, but for the first time since his return, there were no malicious barbs in his and Knuckles’ jabs. He turned to follow after Rouge and Omega.

“Good luck! Like I said, take care of her!” Knuckles called after him. Shadow simply waved back without turning around again, continuing his stride. With an assured nod, the red echidna left to go and get Sonic and Tails from Angel Island.

Then… he’d be leaving the Master Emerald in the care of the Chaotix Agency.

“I just hope Vector doesn’t get any bright ideas…” Knuckles muttered as he ran out of the base. “I know he loves a big fat paycheck almost as much as Rouge, and Master Emerald is priceless.”

—------

*Onboard the UFSF Ratatosk*

—------

As Shadow entered the passenger compartment of the Ratatosk shuttle, he observed the Spider and Sword companies that they soon would be fighting alongside. Altogether there were nearly three-hundred soldiers, accompanied by several dozen G.U.N. mechs. Each troop had one squad of Giga Troopers, soldiers in giant, piloted assault mechs. One of them was specifically assigned to carry and protect the bomb. It wasn’t a large army by any means, but it was still a force to be reckoned with.

Shadow just hoped it would be enough.

“Hey, Shad! Over here!”

Shadow looked up to see Rouge’s white arm waving him over to where she and Omega were standing, near the back along with Captain Wachowski and Captain Topaz. One quick look told Shadow that there wasn’t any way out of talking to Rouge before the mission officially began. With a sigh, he walked over to be with them.

“What was that about? You and Knuckles need to get another testosterone-driven spat out of your systems before we left?” Rouge asked with a roll of her eyes. “Ugh, you guys, I swear…”

“Actually, no. He… just wanted my word that I’d look after you,” Shadow admitted, more painfully than he expected to. Rouge’s eyes widened a little.

“Oh… really?” she asked, and beamed a little to herself. “Ha! You boys really are all a bunch of softies! That’s so sweet! And you two didn’t fight or anything?”

“Nope.” Shadow crossed his arms, giving Rouge an irritated frown. “I can be capable of surprises, Rouge.”

“Not gonna argue with you there,” the ivory bat said with a playful grin. “You always pull off something new when I least expect it.” Shadow grunted and leaned against the wall of the ship.

“Like with the fake Emerald?” he asked.

“Exactly! You have all sorts of powers up your sleeves, you’re one of the few people to beat Sonic in a fight, you drive well, and despite being such a stiff stick in the mud, you manage to learn tricks on deception from your much-more fun-loving friend!”

“Who said I learned it from you?” Shadow shot back, but was smirking a little despite himself. “Hm, such an ego. You’re always too quick to take credit.”

“And you’re too quick to deflect! Don’t give me that!” Rouge retorted with a spirited grin. “Where else did you learn anything about sleight-of-hand? A magician?”

“Don’t praise me and then suggest I’d do something so foolish,” Shadow glanced at her with a playful glare. “If I learned it from you, then why weren’t you able to catch on to what I’d done?”

They smirked at each other while Omega, Topaz and Wachowski glanced between the two of them. The G.U.N. officers exchanged a quick glance.

“So… what exactly is the deal with those-” Wachowski started to say but Topaz nudged him in the ribs hard enough to be felt through his body armor. The latter officer cleared her throat. 

“Agent Rouge, Shadow, Omega, it’s an honor to be serving alongside you!” she said with a salute to the three of them. “I’ve read all the reports on the missions Team Dark has accomplished, and I feel much better having you all along.”

“Heh, at ease sweetie, you don’t need to do that,” Rouge chuckled with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I might be leading this party but I’m no officer. Shadow and Omega even less so.” 

“Higher-rankings do not facilitate more combat opportunities,” Omega said somewhat defensively. “Nor do they make one bullet-proof. Conclusion: they are overrated.”

Shadow just grunted in reply.

“So… Is it true what they say about your Chaos Control?” Wachowski cautiously asked Shadow in an attempt to get to know the mysterious hedgehog he’d soon be serving with. “That you can teleport long distances and stop time?”

“Hmph. It’s more limited without a Chaos Emerald, but yes,” was all Shadow said, only glancing up at the officer for a moment to answer. The hedgehog was beginning to worry they’d be trying to conversate the whole way to the Comet. It seemed pretty clear to him that they were ‘fans’ of theirs. Fans were generally insufferable. 

Shadow sighed; it seemed as good a time as any to talk to Rouge. It was preferable to making small talk with people he’d just met, though just barely.

“Actually… I need to speak to Agent Rouge before the mission,” he said as normally as he could. “Alone, if we may.” Omega caught on and gave a curt nod.

“Yes, Shadow and Rouge have a specific tactic that they need to brush up on,” the badnik said to Topaz and Wachowski, and began “gently” urging them away. “They need to focus and go over it again; they are metaphorically rusty.”

“Wh-What? Oh, okay,” Topaz managed to get out as Omega herded them away from his allies. Rouge watched with wide eyes and then laughed.

“Um, Shadow? What is this about, what are you and Omega doing?” she asked the ebony hedgehog with a slightly nervous smile. “Are you two mutinying and taking over this ship?”

“No… I just need to speak with you,” Shadow said, looking down at the floor. “Omega put me up to this… made me promise him that I would.”

“Hah! Really? C’mon Shad, what’s up?” Rouge prodded, arching a brow at her awkward ally. Shadow was quiet for a few moments, dragging the tip of his shoe on the floor as he tried to find the willpower to just use his damn words and say what he needed to say.

“I wanted to… apologize…” he said, finally managing to look up at Rouge long enough to make eye-contact while he said so. Rubbing the back of his neck, he sighed and continued.

“We both know I’ve been… hostile towards Knuckles, cold towards you. It’s… uncalled for. I didn’t really understand why I behaved that way, until I talked to Omega…”

“ What is going on?!” Rouge exclaimed in amused bewilderment. “Omega’s giving you therapy now?! Is someone using the Phantom Ruby, am I in an alternate reality?!”

“Rouge!” Shadow snapped. “I’m being serious here! Believe me, I thought Omega was being strange too. He claimed it was for the best, that talking this out would ‘ensure team efficiency’. At least from what he understands of ‘organic psychology’.” The hedgehog shook his head. “Then I realized… We do waste a lot of time arguing during missions instead of addressing the issue. I loathe discussing feelings and get angry at irrelevant things as a consequence. Omega’s been with us long enough to have observed that.” He paused again while making eye-contact, trying to let Rouge know how sincere his next words were.

“The truth is… I’ve been a fool, Rouge,” Shadow said softly. “I… was jealous.” He visibly winced at how difficult that admission was. “Jealous of that… echidna I call a fool. After all you and I have been through… I don’t know, I don’t understand it, honestly.” He absentmindedly rubbed his left forearm with his right hand. 

“As long as I’ve known you… I’ve gotten closer to you than anyone else I know. Obviously we’re close with Omega too, but… I’ve known you longer, even if I forgot that for awhile. Besides that… you’ve… been there for me, even when I didn’t want you to be…” Shadow’s face pinkened a little, and he looked away for a moment, trying to keep his composure; this was way more difficult than he’d dreaded. He was beginning to feel a little light-headed, and for some reason his heart was beating louder and louder.

“S-So… I guess I just hoped I was the closest, and now it’s not me, it’s… Knuckles the Echidna…” Shadow said somewhat hoarsely, his throat having dried out suddenly. “It’s foolish, I know… I have no say in who you date, or any right to judge. So… I’m sorry.” The angsty hedgehog finally allowed himself to look away, his face burning as he screamed internally at what he’d just said, replaying it in the worst possible way in his head.

‘ Damn it Omega, I’ve made an utter fool of myself! The Ultimate Life-Form, confessing jealousy?! PAH!’

Rouge stared at him awhile as she processed his words, eyes wide and her mouth hanging open slightly; even in light of the upcoming battle, this shook her up much more. Shadow the Hedgehog had apologized, genuinely, which was surprising enough. But he had admitted to being… jealous?!

Was this the end of the world?!

Not to mention… jealous of Knuckles? Because… he was closer to her than Shadow was now? Did he mean that a best friend like him wasn’t as close as a boyfriend? Or… did he want to be more than that…?

Rouge’s face singed in a blush, and again she caught her mind wandering to the other night again, when Shadow had kept her warm, safe…

‘ No, I’m with Knuckles now, ’ the huntress told herself, steeling her resolve. ‘ Still… I’ve never heard Shadow say something like that before…’

“Thank you, Shadow,” Rouge finally replied after what felt like a week to Shadow. “Hm… I’m not going to give you a hard time for that, I know it’s not easy for you to talk stuff out. Still, it’s nice to hear you apologize.” Shadow looked over at her, and she smiled and winked at him.

“Still… I want you to understand; I’m happy with Knuckles,” she told him, her smile fading into a somewhat apologetic look. “While you were gone, he was there, y’know? He’s funny, reliable, cute, and he actually knows his stuff when it comes to ancient civilizations.” The ivory bat’s expression softened.

“I mean… if you had said anything instead of leaving, before he and I-”

“Oh, wait! N-No, I’m not trying to come between you and Knuckles!” Shadow said in a startled tone, his face redder than his quills. “I-I-I only meant, y-you know, as f-friends!”

The two of them stared at each other for awhile, their umpteenth awkward silence weighing the air down.

Rouge felt more confused than ever; what was Shadow’s deal? He was jealous, but in what way? Was he… actually interested in her? He said he wasn’t but… Rouge was a trained spy; she could read truths and falsehoods in body language. Normally Shadow was good at covering up everything with a stoic pose and a frown, but right now, he was clearly shaken. There were a number of explanations for that, though, right?

‘ For someone so fast, you’re always late to the party…’ She sighed, and managed another smile.

“It’s all good, Shadow; I’ll tease you about it some other time after the mission, okay?” Rouge assured him with a playful punch in the arm, causing the angsty hedgehog to smirk a little. “But we’re good. Seriously, thanks for apologizing, but try not to sweat it. I don’t blame you for being jealous.” She added with a wink, making Shadow grunt and turn away again.

“I mean, anyone with any sense would want to be around someone as glamorous as myself,” Rouge chided as she gently took Shadow’s face to turn it back to face her. His red eyes lit up a little in surprise. “But I’ll always be there if you need me. Remember what I told you? That will always hold true. Knuckles might be my boyfriend now… but nothing will ever change what we got, okay?”

“Rouge…” Aquamarine and ruby eyes locked again.

“Okay?” she repeated more firmly.

“Yes… okay…” Shadow answered softly, and nodded. Rouge smiled, satisfied, and gave Shadow a quick hug, forcing a slight gasp from him.

“Now will you please lighten up a little and stop being such an ass?” she asked while giving the black hedgehog a snarky smile.

“Heh… that’s one promise I don’t think I can make,” Shadow replied with a smirk. Chuckling, Rouge gave him a playful push on the shoulder, and the two made their way back to Omega.

Shadow wasn’t certain if he’d resolved all the conflicts within himself to the extent Omega had wanted, but he certainly felt better. As they met back up with Omega and the two G.U.N. captains, he couldn’t help but smile at Rouge as she decided to start teasing their robotic friend.

Despite the battle ahead, and all of the unknown factors surrounding the Black Arms, Shadow felt assured. As long as he had Rouge and Omega with him, they were practically invincible.

Not to mention, despite never admitting it, Rouge’s words, both now and back in White Space, reminded him he was no longer alone. Sometimes it was easy to forget that…

Finally, the time came to launch: the Black Comet was nearly in range, and all preparations had been completed. Team Dark and the soldiers of Spider and Sword companies took their seats while the mechs, equipment and heavy weapons (including their nuclear “package”) were all safely secured and strapped down.

The Ratatosk’s engines began to rumble to life as the giant doors of the hangar above opened to clear the way. Soon after, the engines explosively roared to life. They all felt a sudden jolt as the shuttle quickly launched into the sky. Despite being the latest and greatest G.U.N. spacecraft, the Ratatosk wasn’t immune to turbulence, and still had a few violent quakes as they cut through the layer of the atmosphere.

Once they were clear of the Earth’s gravity, the shuttle’s artificial gravity kicked in, and everyone was allowed to begin moving around. Rouge stretched her arms and wings out while Captain Topaz and Captain Wachowski called their troops to attention.

“All right everyone, listen up!” Topaz shouted, her tone and expression sharp and focused. “Sword Company and Captain Wachowski’s Spider Company, our primary objective is to support Team Dark and keep the package secure until it reaches its destination: the core of the Black Comet! The Ratatosk should be blind to any and all sensors with our cloaking technology, but we don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with. There’s a chance they could be ready for us as soon as we board. As soon as that door opens, open fire. Once boots are on alien rock, you are all clear to fire at anything that moves in there; shoot first, ask questions later.”

Omega spun his claws around in anticipation, his eyes laser-honed on the hatch they’d be exiting through once they were attached to the Black Comet. 

“That’s right; the Black Arms know nothing of mercy,” Shadow chimed in. “Ruthlessness is the only thing they understand. Remind them why they failed against us the last time.”

“Well said Shadow,” Wachowski said with an impressed smile. “Now, we know the Black Arms have a paralyzing agent in a gas weapon they have. Everyone has been issued rebreathers that have been tested against the strain they used on Earth last time. They’ve been proven to work, and have only been improved upon since they were first made. Every soldier has one built into their helmets. Team Dark, you have your own specialized rebreathers.”

Rouge shuddered slightly at the memory of when she, Sonic and all the others had been paralyzed and left for food by Black Doom during the last battle. Even Dr. Eggman had been caught in the dangerous toxin alongside them. She looked at the rebreather in her hand; a sort of small pipe with a vent that went around the neck and filtered the air around the head in a sort of perimeter. It wouldn’t cause much discomfort or get in the way. Rouge just hoped the Black Arms didn’t have something to render these rebreathers ineffective.

“I don’t need one; Black Doom tried but I broke free of it,” Shadow said, turning his rebreather back over to Rouge. “Keep it as a spare.”

“Alright, if you’re sure, hot-shot,” Rouge replied with a shrug as she stored it away.

“One more thing you should all know,” Shadow added after a few moments. “However the Black Arms here survived Black Doom’s death, we need to make sure they don’t come back. The bomb will take care of the Black Comet, but their new leader or whatever it is that’s kept them alive needs to be eliminated before they can escape or disrupt the bomb’s detonation.”

“That’s a good point,” Topaz agreed. “We’ll assign an additional Giga Trooper and one whole squad the job of solely safeguarding the bomb. Shadow, if you or Team Dark discover any leads to their leader or life source, pursue it however you see fit. We’ll back you all up however we can.”

Shadow nodded, and Rouge noticed him resisting the urge to smirk, which made her do exactly that. It wasn’t often she observed a look of approval from the hedgehog. She was starting to like these two officers.

Suddenly, the Ratatosk jolted somewhat, and a steady rumbling began vibrating the whole craft.

“We’ve made contact with the Black Comet!” Topaz shouted the confirmation after checking with the pilots. “The Ratatosk’s plasma drill is digging into the rock and attaching an appendage for boarding! Alright everyone, rebreathers on, weapons locked and loaded! As soon as everyone is on the Comet and we get our bearings, we’ll strategize more there. For now, fight for your lives, keep Team Dark and the package safe, and keep these bastards off our planet!”

With a collective cheer, every soldier in the craft began grabbing their weapons or climbing into their Giga mechs. Shadow and Rouge exchanged a knowing look as Omega jolted ahead of them, eager to be the first one to shoot an enemy. Taking the lead, Team Dark stood at the ready before the hatch as the Ratatosk’s attached arm continued drilling into the Black Comet. Once it was through, it would pull the shuttle closer to and secure itself an airlock between the ship, the appendage and the Black Comet. Then, the door before them would open into the appendage’s makeshift airlock. Once it was depressurized, they’d have direct access to the Comet past the outer door.

After nearly another minute of drilling, it finally stopped, and the whole ship thudded and shook as the appendage pulled the Ratatosk closer to create the airlock link. Then, an alarm blared as the air pressure was altered, and the door opened. Shadow and the others led the G.U.N. force onwards into the airlock. There was just barely enough room for everyone as the door shut behind them and re-pressurized the air again.

“Get set to come out swinging, troops!” Wachowski reminded them all over the radio.

Omega eagerly aimed one of his minigun-arms at the door.

Finally, the last door opened, and battle ensued.

“ Go!! Go!! Go!! ” Topaz and Wachowski shouted in unison, they and their troops firing a hailstorm of bullets and energy into the opening. They were rewarded with familiar, guttural cries. Team Dark charged in afterwards, and Shadow gritted his teeth at the sight:

Several dozen Black Arms soldiers stood before them, albeit some were downed or wounded already. A few Black Oak giants and about another dozen Black Volts accompanied them. They’d been scattered by Spider and Sword Troupes’ initial attack, but they were armed, angry and aiming back now.

Seeing these monsters nailed it home more than ever for the Ultimate Life-Form: The Black Arms had truly returned.

“Take them out!” Shadow growled, and immediately charged at his old foes. Rouge and Omega followed his lead, with the ivory bat flying above them and their mechanical friend covering their charge with his miniguns again. The Black Arms began to fire back, but those aiming at Omega never got a shot off before the robot did. Shadow warped out of their attacks’ range and closed the distance with a Black Oak giant near the front.

“Chaos Blast!! ” Shadow shouted, releasing his pent-up anger at the sight of these alien invaders again in a violent, explosive surge of Chaos Energy. The Black Oak cried in agony as it was forced back and violently slammed into several other Black Arms soldiers.

From above, Rouge scattered bombs around the Black Arms, taking out several soldiers and forcing the majority of them closer together into one cluster. Omega and the G.U.N. soldiers began mowing them down with their weapon fire after that. Screeching in anger, the Black Volts from above began swarming towards Rouge.

“Don’t even think of getting anywhere near me, wretches!” Rouge spat at them in disgust. She spun her leg around in a sudden whirling kick, her foot colliding with the head of one Black Volt and sending it crashing into several more. Building up more momentum, Rouge spun herself around to create a whirlwind, and flew at the horde of flying aliens, tearing right through most of them like a cyclone of razors.

“Chaos Spear!! ” Two more Black Oaks were hit by Shadow’s attack. One managed to block the brunt behind its massive arms, but the other one cried out and crumpled to the ground as the Chaos Spears exploded against its head. With another quick warp, Shadow appeared behind the Black Oak who’d survived and kicked it in the back of the head, earning him a grotesque *Crack!* before that Black Oak fell as well.

“Defeat is imminent, inferior warriors!” Omega chided, opening a hatch on his chest to reveal several primed missiles. Five fired out and homed in on the remaining Black Volts and Black Arms soldiers.

Three Black Arms warriors with swords and shields, accompanied by the last Black Oak giant, tried rushing the Captains in a desperate attempt to cripple their attackers’ leadership. Thankfully, they turned and fired their guns in time to slow their advance while a Giga Trooper rushed to their aid. The Black Oak and the Giga Trooper locked arms in a grapple, but even the giant mech’s impressive size and strength was beginning to bend against the Black Alien’s superior power. Metal groaned as the Giga Trooper’s frame began to give way.

*SCHLICK!!*

“ URRK!” The Black Oak gurgled and went limp as it too suddenly collapsed before the mech. The Giga Trooper’s pilot and the Captains turned to see one of the Black Arms’ large, purple, jagged sword sticking out of the behemoth’s back. Shadow stood a short distance away, surrounded by the bodies of the last of the Black Arms in the room. One sword was missing from the group.

“Excellent work Team Dark, everyone!” Wachowski said once they made sure they were safe for the time being. “Nice save Shadow!”

“Hmph,” Shadow grunted again. The flattery was beginning to be a bit much for him.

“Careful, Moody and Broody here hates getting too friendly with too many people,” Rouge teased while shooting Shadow a wink.

“We must press on; I desire more targets to engage!” Omega blurted out, aiming his guns at the defeated forms of the Black Arms, daring them to move.

“Yes, but we need to attempt to get our bearings and find out how to get to the core of the Black Comet from here,” Topaz pointed out. She pulled out a small device, a metal orb with some blue lights on it. Pressing a button, the device hovered in the air and projected a hologram of two Black Comets; the one from the first invasion under Black Doom, and the one they were on now.

“The Ratatosk is still running scans, but the Black Arms are blocking its sensors from picking up anything too specific,” Topaz explained. “All we know is that this Black Comet is slightly smaller than the last one, about twelve percent smaller according to this. That, and that there’s at least three extremely strong readings in this Comet. Stronger than the readings compared to the last Comet when it first arrived… but close to the readings when Black Doom had acquired all seven Chaos Emeralds.”

“What?! How can that be?” Shadow asked aloud. “There’s only a handful of things that can compare to the power of the Chaos Emeralds!” He tightened his fists; one or all of those energy sources must have something to do with the Black Arms’ return. He just knew it.

“Do we have any way of locating the energy’s origin point?” Shadow asked, looking up at Topaz and Wachowski.

“Unfortunately no. The best we can do is go by the layout of the first Black Comet and find the core from there,” Wachowski said grimly. The holograms of the comets merged, and a map displayed within the new Black Comet. “Our best bet is… through there,” he said after a moment, pointing at a large sealed door, colored a purple hue like the rock around them but glowing a faint red in the middle.

“Shall we shoot it open?” Omega asked but Shadow stopped him, his hand sparking with red energy.

“These doors were on the first Black Comet; they remain sealed unless Chaos Energy comes into contact with them,” he explained. “Use too much… and it causes a chain reaction that forces all other doors in a certain range to remain open for a long time.” Pressing his hand against the glowing center, Shadow overloaded his hand with Chaos Energy, causing the door to open with a loud, bassy warbling sound. 

“Look at you! Who knew you were a locksmith, too!” Rouge teased. Shadow glared at her but she just giggled and winked again. “Nice work!”

Spider and Sword Companies followed Team Dark through the door, weapons armed and aimed. For the most part they tried to stay spread apart, save for the squad safeguarding the nuclear device, carried by a Giga Trooper. So far, no other Black Arms had shown up. The next room was considerably larger. 

“Alright, everyone has had the map uploaded to their communicators and databases,” Topaz turned to face Team Dark. “How shall we proceed?”

“We’re the fastest and most mobile of the attack force,” Shadow replied as he crossed his arms. “I recommend Rouge, Omega and I scout ahead while you follow. We’ll keep the rooms ahead of you clear, and if you encounter trouble, inform us and we’ll return to assist.”

“Sounds good to me if that sounds good to you two?” Rouge asked, to which the Captains nodded.

“Very well. We’ll leave one squad here to defend our exit, and advance behind you,” Topaz agreed. “Stay in touch.” Shadow, Rouge and Omega all nodded, and turned to head further into the Black Comet.

“Does this feel like old times?” Rouge asked as the three of them began picking up their pace. Shadow smirked and shook his head as he reached his pace that required his skating motions.

“I’ve been feeling that a lot lately,” he admitted.

“Regardless, I believe in our team’s ability,” Omega spoke up. “Like all the old times before, I believe there is nothing they can throw at us that exceeds our might.”

“Hm. Yeah… it’s good to have partners like you two,” Shadow said in agreement, his smile growing softer. Rouge was now flying directly over the two of them, and she gave Shadow a similarly tender, heartfelt look.

“Now, stop getting sentimental on me, you two,” Shadow chided. “We have a job to do.”

“Damn straight. Let’s send these monsters back into the black hole they crawled out of!”

“Affirmative!”

“Team Dark, move out! ”

With that, the Ultimate Life-Form, the world’s best Master Thief and Spy, and their Walking Arsenal of a friend sped into the Black Comet, determined to end the impending threat before them with ruthless efficiency.

—----------------

*Deeper within the New Black Comet…*

—-------------

Red lights began flashing from the Black Comet’s internal defense systems, and almost autonomously, all the Black Arms and Dark Arms went to carry out the defensive procedures. All the glowing yellow eyes filed out of the room, leaving Eclipse and Death’s Eye in the room, darker and more ominous than before.

“Eclipse… it seems some intruders have let themselves in, about four quadrants below the Comet’s ‘bow’” Black Death’s voice emanated from Death’s Eye. The red and orange eye glowed and projected an image of the Black Comet, highlighting where the Ratatosk had breached the rock and boarded from.

“So soon? We’ve barely had time to roll out the welcome party,” Eclipse chuckled. “This isn’t unexpected… prepare the Black Comet’s defenses. It’s time to turn their plans on their heads… quite literally.” 

“Indeed. Based on our readings, they have a sizable force but nothing we cannot overwhelm,” Death’s Eye said. “Their current movement indicates they’re following a path based on the previous Black Comet’s interior. I believe they mean to reach the core.”

“So either to destroy us, or the Black Comet altogether,” Eclipse observed. He began snickering, shaking his head. “Those fools have no idea what they’re in for. This will not be like the last time they faced the Black Arms!”

“They already defeated our initial anti-boarding party squadrons,” Death’s Eye pointed out. “Rather quickly. They were by no means any of our best soldiers, but-”

“No, they weren’t: prisoners, deserters from previous battles. Their one final duty was to redeem themselves in death, dying in the stead of other Black Arms,” Eclipse growled. “They betrayed our people. Not as severely as Shadow did, but they knew their sentence. They knew their duty. Now that they have died serving a purpose, they can be remembered with honor again.”

“As you say, Eclipse,” Death’s Eye said, bowing its form to the Darkling ruler. “Shadow is only being given a chance to rejoin us again due to his power and strength, yes?”

“And for our people’s perseverance,” Eclipse added. “If anything were to happen to me in a future battle, as it did to you Black Death, he could continue carrying out the wrath of the Black Arms in my stead.”

“Speaking of Shadow…” Death’s Eye pointed a tendril at its projection. “I believe he and a small team are spearheading this assault. That would explain how those forces were defeated so quickly.

The Darkling’s searing-yellow eyes narrowed as he stared at the blinking point on the Black Comet’s image. Focusing for a second, the champion and leader of the Black Arms gasped, and then smiled wickedly: He could feel a distant presence, one radiating with the power of his brethren, was approaching.

“Welcome home… brother,” Eclipse hissed in sinister glee.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight: Doomed Homecoming

—--------

*Angel Island, a little over an hour after the Ratatosk’s launch*

While slightly cloudy, it was still another beautiful day on the ancient floating island. Despite having agreed to watch over Angel Island and the precious, powerful Emerald upon it while Knuckles was gone, the world’s fastest and most famous hero certainly wasn’t sitting still. Oh no.

Sonic the Hedgehog was currently zipping around the edge of the island, doing endless laps while leaving a bright blue trail in his wake. His signature grin on his face, the Blue Blur decided to change it up and veered off, zig-zagging through the trees on the island at dangerous speeds. Sonic ran up the stairs of some ancient ruins and flew over the island, spinning himself around and striking “cool” poses before deftly jumping through more ruins, and safely landing on the dirt. With a chuckle, Sonic sped off towards Knuckles’ place near the center of the island.

Meanwhile, by the altar of the Master Emerald, a certain young fox genius was currently engaged with his personal portable computers.

“Hmm… interesting!” Miles “Tails” Prower said aloud to himself. “The Master Emerald’s energy readings are showing different output levels than the last time I was here. Perhaps it's reacting to the absence of the Chaos Emeralds…?”

“Yo, Tails!” Sonic called, stopping abruptly to stand next to his long-time best friend. He gave the fox a quick wave. “Whatcha doing?”

“Hi Sonic! Just analyzing the Master Emerald’s energy and seeing if it can tweak my scanners!” Tails replied, lighting up at the sight of the blue hedgehog. “Nobody’s been able to find the Chaos Emeralds since the incident with the Ancients, Eggman and Cyberspace. I have some theories why but no solid solutions to locate them yet.”

“Yeah, it’s strange; your gadgets are usually able to spot one in no time after we use them,” Sonic said, frowning in thought as he tapped his foot. “You don’t think they’re lost in Cyberspace, do you?”

“No… at least, not all of them,” Tails said with a worried look. “We all saw them fly off in this world once the battle was over. My two working theories is that the cyber-corruption and power of The End altered their energy signature, or…” He scratched his head and swallowed a lump of fear in his throat. “They got scattered into space…”

“Into space?! ” Sonic’s eyes widened in horror. “Holy crap Tails! Th-that could take years to find them if that’s the case!”

“The Emeralds always do seem to return to the Earth, like they did with the first Death Egg battle,” Tails tried to reassure him with a nervous smile. “I just can’t say for certain. There’s a lot of new variables, and-”

“Hey there! Sonic! Tails!”

The two of them looked up and saw Knuckles the Echidna gliding down towards them, soaring over the nearby trees and landing on both feet near the top of the stairs to the altar.

“Hey Knux! Nailed the landing!” Sonic greeted with a thumbs-up. Knuckles smiled and waved back at his two best friends.

“Hey guys. Thanks for looking after the place while I was gone,” he said, giving them both a fist-bump at the same time.

“No problem man! I love running around here. Though if I’d had to stick around another day I might’ve started going stir-crazy anyway,” Sonic joked.

“So how is Rouge? Did you guys find Shadow?” Tails asked.

“She’s great! And yeah, we found him… It’s a long story, but I need to tell you guys some heavy stuff,” Knuckles replied, his smile diminishing a little and his face growing more severe. 

The Guardian of the Master Emerald then told Sonic and Tails all he could about meeting Shadow, the Black Arms returning, their part in the plan, and ending on Shadow’s promise that he’d look after Rouge during their mission. When he was finished, the hedgehog and fox stared at him wide-eyed for awhile, blinked, then exchanged a look.

“The Black Arms are really back?” Tails asked somberly, his ears drooping slightly. “Oh no… I thought Black Doom’s defeat meant they were all gone…”

“Damn!” Sonic hissed. “Just when things were starting to chill out! There’s still cities recovering from the war between Eggman and the Resistance. Heck, Green Hills still has piles of sand all over the place!”

“I know… which is why we need to stop those monsters as soon as possible!” Knuckles affirmed with his unshakable gusto. “Tails, in case the Black Comet manages to get close to Earth, can you tell where it’ll attack?”

“Possibly… if I can coordinate my satellites with the others in the atmosphere, I should be able to give us a decent idea of where they’ll deploy soldiers,” Tails replied, rubbing his chin in thought. He pulled a hand-held computer out of his pack and began pushing buttons. “Last time, the Black Arms beamed their armies down from the Comet while it was in orbit around the planet. They were able to land them in Westopolis, Central City and all sorts of places. But if the Black Comet reaches the Earth, we can at least find out where their initial attack will be.”

“Sounds good,” Knuckles said with a nod. “Sonic, will you and Tails help me head them off? I already called some other friends to help fight, and to watch the Master Emerald for us. Well…” The red echidna sighed. “G.U.N. asked for them, anyway, but we can trust them.”

“Really? Who’d you call?” Tails asked.

“The Rookie! Y’know, Gadget? From the Resistance?” Knuckles told them excitedly. “Ever since the war was won, he decided to help other fighters from the Resistance form the Mobian Militia! It’s not as big as G.U.N. but they said they’d join us in a minute if I called!”

“Nice! Look at you, ‘Commander’, pulling out the stops!” Sonic teased again. “It’ll be cool to fight alongside Gadget again, though you might wanna stop calling them ‘Rookie’. Sky’s the limit with what they can do!”

“No doubt; I’ll feel better having them backing us up,” Knuckles agreed. “As for the Master Emerald… G.U.N. called in Vector and the Chaotix.”

“Oh cool- wait, really?!” Sonic stifled a laugh.

“What?! Y’know, I used to work with those guys!” Knuckles barked back, though the embarrassment on his face spelled his understanding at Sonic’s reaction.

“No it’s cool! They are good in a fight. I just… never pictured Vector on guard duty, that’s all!” the blue hedgehog replied through a snicker. Tails couldn’t help but laugh alongside Sonic a little.

“Well we know Espio can keep Charmy and Vector straightened out if they get to be too much,” the young yellow fox said. “When are they getting here?”

“Shouldn’t be long; G.U.N. started flying them in when I left their headquarters,” Knuckles answered, sighed, and looked up at the Master Emerald. “Y’know… it’s times like this I really miss Tikal. Even if she wasn’t as much of a fighter as us, I’d feel better about the Master Emerald if she were keeping an eye on it too.”

“I’m sorry man,” Sonic replied softly, smiling sadly at his echidna friend. “For whatever it’s worth, you’re like a brother to Tails and I. Plus, you and Rouge have a good thing going now, yeah? You’ve always got a family around you!”

“Yeah… no, you’re right,” Knuckles replied after a moment, nodding and putting a firm smile back on his face. “I guess once the Chaotix show up, we just wait for word from G.U.N. before we head out.”

“If Shadow, Rouge and Omega’s team is successful, then we won’t have anything to worry about,” Tails pointed out. “Still, we should be ready in case anyone needs our help.”

“Almost seems a shame to get everyone together and then not have any bad guys to lay out,” Sonic remarked, leaning his head back into his arms. His green eyes lingered on the sky, and his usual jovial face grew more serious.

“Still… if even one of those Black Arm monsters leaves a scratch on this world, I’ll send them flying right back into space!” The blue hero declared, as if hoping the Black Arms would hear his warning and turn back.

—--------

*Aboard the New Black Comet, Roughly Ten Minutes after Team Dark scouted ahead*

—----------

Team Dark continued down the long, gaping halls of the Black Comet, keeping a fast and steady pace as they made their way deeper into the alien rock. The interior of the Black Comet was quite similar to the first one; dark rock with different shades of red, purple and blue tints everywhere. Alien tendrils, large and small, occasionally wriggled from the walls. Most of the rooms had the appearances of massive tunnels, or deep, dark chasms.

The only thing missing were the Black Arms themselves. After breaking off from Spider and Sword Companies, Team Dark hadn’t encountered a single enemy.

“What’s the deal?” Rouge asked aloud, flying over the precipice of another long chasm below them. Looking down the rock wall they could see many doors and paths leading down to deeper areas of the Comet. “They have to know they have guests, where are they at? They’re not going to just let us waltz into the core, are they?”

“No… I don’t like this,” Shadow muttered. “I feel a trap about to be sprung.” Frowning, Rouge contacted Captain Topaz.

“Hey, no Black Arms yet. Anything on your end?”

“No, no other encounters yet Agent Rouge ,” the Captain replied. “ We’ve detected varying levels of seismic activity throughout the Comet, but nothing serious.”

“Confirmed: Seismic activity detected in nearly every area in range of my scanners,” Omega said. “There’s a chance it could be the Black Annelids, the burrowing worm creatures with missile-projectile weapons. Be on guard.”

Seismic activity? In space? Shadow supposed the Black Annelids were the most likely explanation. Still, something about this whole operation seemed off. Everything was going too smoothly so far… For every tedious second that ticked by, the anticipation of the Black Arms’ next move grew more unbearable.

Before, Shadow could always at least faintly sense when the Black Arms were nearby. Now, it seemed they had found some way to avoid his detection.

The dark hedgehog had an idea, an unpleasant one but he was starting to seriously consider it. If he could access the hivemind, now that they were on the Black Comet, maybe he could see what they were doing…

It was risky, but so was continuing to do nothing while the Black Arms waited for their chance to strike.

Besides, Shadow was beginning to grow concerned that they may have blocked his access to the hivemind if he couldn’t sense them. He needed to test it out.

Then, nearly to Team Dark’s relief, the ground beneath them began to quake violently. The three of them jumped away from each other, Rouge watching carefully from the air. A moment later, a large, roaring Black Annelid emerged from the ground, gnashing its split-jaw pincers angrily.

“ Dibs!! ” Omega shouted, and immediately fired off three shots from a revolver of explosive darts that emerged from his “wrists”. But moving unnaturally quickly, the massive alien worm dug back into the floor of the Comet. The Black Annelid then rapidly burrowed through the ground right at Shadow, much faster than any of them had ever seen the monsters move. Eyes narrowed in a glare of focus, Shadow warped, spun around to face where the Black Annelid was, and fired off a salvo of Chaos Spears. It outran most of them, but one finally struck the rock above where it was tunneling, causing it to emerge again. This time, Team Dark got a better look at the creature.

There was something very different about this one; unlike the Black Arms they’d encountered when they first boarded, this Annelid wasn’t familiar. Everything about the way it moved so fast and precise was a far cry from the old Black Annelids. The coloring of this one wasn’t a dark, dull grey with faint tints of red. It was a deep, dark, shimmering-jet black, with scar-like patterns of vibrant red and yellow all over its long body.

“What the-?!” Rouge exclaimed. “That’s new! They come in different colors now?”

“Not only that… its movements are unnatural,” Shadow said, standing at the ready, eyes focused on their foe, waiting for any hostile action. “Not just faster than they should be, but… something else is off.”

“I am detecting a significantly higher energy level from this Black Annelid than the ones we encountered last time,” Omega warned. “Proceed with caution!”

Right as Omega finished speaking, the Annelid turned to face him, growled, and burrowed into the ground again. This time, it sped right at Omega, zig-zagging a little to avoid Team Dark’s attacks.

“Omega! Dodge! Move! ” Rouge shouted, hurling another explosive that the Black Annelid dodged yet again. Omega tried to move out of the way while firing off a shot, but the alien worm’s speed was difficult to predict. The Annelid managed to slam itself into Omega as it emerged, but the badnik’s thrusters kicked in fast enough to avoid the full brunt of the blow. After taking a moment to regain his balance, Omega stood back at the ready with his allies.

The Black Annelid roared, and suddenly, a volley of its projectile weapons fired from its mouth. Unlike the standard Annelids’ “missiles,” these glowed red instead of purple. They were smaller and thinner, but also much more numerous, almost like a red cloud of worms that scattered and split into three smaller swarms. 

“ Shit! ” Rouge cursed, flying back away from the projectiles. Shadow and Omega likewise quickly moved to avoid the swarms coming at them too. Rouge hurled a bomb at the oncoming attack and immediately dove down to avoid the resulting explosion. Taking flight again right before hitting the ground, with barely three inches of clearance, she flew back towards the Black Annelid, several more armed bombs at the ready.

Rouge flew as close as she dared, trying to bait the monster into getting into range. As fast as the creature was moving, she didn’t want to risk it dodging their attacks all day. It didn’t take long for her plan to pay off; the worm growled, and opened its split, fanged jaws to clamp down on her.

“Have some dewormer!” the thief joked as she hurled five bombs in quick succession down the Annelid’s roaring maw. The creature went quiet for a moment, then roared in agony as they detonated in its body. But the monster still wasn’t finished.

“Durable, for an organic lifeform!” Omega mused, unloading thousands of rounds at the missiles that had been fired at him, detonating every one of them. Activating his thrusters, Omega charged at the Black Annelid, reloaded, and fired another salvo of missiles at their enemy.

Shadow had warped repeatedly to dodge the projectiles following him, not wanting to destroy them just yet; he had a theory he wanted to test. Seeing his chance, Shadow quickly ran towards a sloped part of the rockwall next to him. The black hedgehog ran up the wall and upside-down across the ceiling, projectiles still following him.

Shadow smirked; he’d timed it perfectly. 

When he was right above the Black Annelid, Omega’s missiles detonated and caused the monster to start screeching and writhing in agony. The dark hedgehog leapt down, and brought the full-force of his fall into a kick, right upside the alien’s “head.” Immediately, Shadow rolled into a ball, hit the Black Annelid, and sped off just as the projectiles following him collided into the worm, and exploded.

Finally, the Black Annelid had had enough. Green blood streaked down its wounds as it roared one last time, crashed to the ground, and then slipped limply back into its hole.

“Seems they’re still not immune to their own attacks,” Shadow observed with a brief smirk. “Still… it was much tougher than the ones we fought last time. That doesn’t bode well.”

“Look on the bright side for once, Shad!” Rouge rebuked with a playful roll of her eyes, smiling as she peered down the hole the Annelid had vanished down. “Even if it was tougher, we still beat it, no sweat!”

“Exactly; why was there just one of them?” Shadow asked, frowning as he followed Rouge’s gaze. “Something’s not right about any of this. We’re being tested, played with.”

“Agreed. The likelihood of an ambush increases by twenty-nine percent for every minute we do not encounter sizable resistance,” Omega chimed in. “The Black Arms would not have returned with a force weaker than their first one. I predict we will encounter more of these ‘enhanced’ Black Arms soon.”

“Yeah, I know,” Rouge said with a sigh. “I was just hoping to have a moment of optimism before you two had to point out this was too easy.”

“Nothing more we can do but keep moving,” Shadow said grimly. As Team Dark left the room, Rouge called their G.U.N. allies on the radio to notify them of the strange, new type of Black Annelid they had encountered. After they’d passed through several more rooms without meeting any further resistance, something finally happened, though it wasn’t what any of them expected.

“Alert! Increase in seismic activity nearby!” Omega shouted all of a sudden, followed shortly by the ground violently shaking beneath them.

“Hang on!” Rouge called. “Fly Formation!” Shadow followed her lead and leapt upwards, grabbing onto his ally’s ankles as she flew overhead. Omega then created a chain by holding onto Shadow’s ankles as Rouge carried them over the rumbling rock of the Comet. Though the combined weight of the two of them would’ve put a strain on most, Rouge had grown accustomed to the weight of her teammates when flying them over gaps. Not to mention, the ivory bat’s legs were insanely powerful, even by Mobian standards.

“ Hey! Team Dark, w-what’s going on? AACK!” Captain Wachowski’s voice suddenly cried over the radio. “ T-The whole interior of the Comet is moving!”

“We don’t know! Same thing is happening in our location!” Rouge shouted back. “Try to secure yourselves and the package!” As the whole room rumbled and quaked, she observed that the walls and ceiling were also moving around them. It was as if the whole Black Comet was rearranging itself, shifting its rooms like the sides of a rubix cube. After nearly a minute, the rumbling stopped, and the Comet stilled again.

“What the hell was that…?” Shadow whispered as Rouge set him and Omega back down. His ruby eyes widened and he pointed. “The door is gone! The whole room has been altered!”

“Well that’s definitely new…” Rouge said with an irritated frown, looking the wall up and down for any other passageway. “Some new security measure? What a pain in the ass!” She jumped up and began expertly scaling the wall. If the master spy could only find a weak point, she could possibly detonate a bomb there and blast their way through. After a few minutes of searching, it was beginning to seem futile.

“Wachowski, Topaz, status. Are you all alright?” Shadow asked over his communicator.

“ Yeah… we’re all banged up but nothing serious. The package is still secure and working perfectly, ” Topaz answered in a strained voice. “ Except… wait, where are the doors?! ”

“The Black Comet rearranged itself… seems we’ve been caught in a trap!” Shadow growled.

“ Damn it… okay, I want squads Alpha and Charlie working on a way out of this room. Everyone else, set up defensive positions around the package!” Topaz barked to her troops over the radio. “ On the bright side, it looks like the distance between us and the core hasn’t changed, just the arrangement of the rooms and chambers.”

“If the Black Arms can change the rooms up… how are we going to get to the core now?” Rouge asked, fuming as she leapt down from the wall. “Even if the distance is the same, it could take years to find a route if they keep switching the layout up!” She, Omega and Shadow exchanged looks with each other, and Shadow looked down at the floor.

“I did have an idea… you probably won’t like it, but it might be our best shot right now,” he said grimly. Rouge raised an eyebrow at him, then both as her eyes widened when she put it together.

“Wait, you mean accessing their hive-mind?! That could be dangerous, Shadow!” she chided the hedgehog. “There’s all sorts of unknowns here, for all we know that’s what they want you to do!”

“Don’t worry; I swear, I won’t let them take control again,” Shadow assured her. Rouge instantly felt a bit better when she saw that familiar, iron-clad conviction behind his unwavering red eyes. 

“Okay, just be careful,” Rouge relented after a moment. “If you start acting weird I’m kicking you in the head though, so fair warning,” she added teasingly. Shadow smirked back at her, and then closed his eyes to focus.

The last time the Black Arms had invaded, Shadow’s connection to their hive-mind had an inconsistent strength. During the brief time the Ultimate Life-Form had fought for Black Doom, it had been at its strongest. Shadow had been able to access nearly everything from troop movements, to the Black Comet’s position, to wherever Black Doom was. When he turned against his “father”, the Black Arms had attempted to sever it, but were only partially successful; there was no way to completely negate the connection the black hedgehog’s blood had to them. Shadow had been able to find Black Doom and the last Chaos Emerald he needed aboard the first Black Comet, even with his weakened access.

Now, he hoped it would lead him to victory again.

“ The core… show me a path to the core… ” Shadow thought, repeating it over and over in his head as he reached out with all his senses, grasping for the feeling of establishing a connection to another presence… After several tedious moments, Shadow felt a prickling sensation in his mind, focused on it, and felt a familiar jolt as he felt the Comet respond.

Finally, something clicked, and the room shifted under their feet again, though not nearly as violently as before. Looking up, Rouge and Omega noticed one of the walls shift to reveal a new pattern, and a pool of some reddish, slimy substance. A trail of it ran down the wall like a vein to form another pool on the floor.

“This substance was common where the Black Arms established heavy presences on Earth,” Omega observed. Shadow opened his eyes, shaking the disorientating sensations away as he looked up where Omega had referenced.

“They call it ‘Conduit Gel’,” he explained. “I tried to access a way to the core, and this showed up. This might be our only way forward.”

“Great, I guess,” Rouge replied, making a disgusted face at the vile trail of goop. “How do we use it?”

“You can’t, not unless you’re one of the Black Arms.” Shadow clenched his hand into a fist while looking at it, grunted again, and began approaching the pool of conduit gel on the floor. “Only I can use this to go on ahead.”

“Yeah uh, how about no?” Rouge shot back, moving to stand between Shadow and the gel, arms folded. “They’re clearly messing with us. If they can seal off the rooms of the Comet, they might just be trying to cut us off from each other! It’s too risky for any of us to go on alone in hostile territory like this! There’s probably a whole swarm of Black Arms on the other end of this crap!”

“I don’t see much of a choice,” Shadow said grimly. “Either we stay here and wait for the Black Arms to make their next move, or I see what’s on the other side of this conduit. Besides, the Comet responded to me accessing the hivemind. If anything happens, perhaps I can change the Comet back again long enough to return to you guys.”

“No! I don’t like it, it’s too many ‘maybes’,” Rouge continued to protest, stomping her boot on the ground to emphasize her point. “We might not be able to get back to you! Hell, if anything happens to you , we might all be stuck in here permanently! If Topaz and Wachowski can’t find a way through, this mission is finished, and so are we!”

Shadow turned to look at her, the two of them sharing hardened frowns of concern. He felt a small pang in his chest at the ivory bat’s insistence on sticking together. Rouge’s concern had grown familiar, and perhaps due to the unsettling circumstances, she sounded more worried now than Shadow could ever recall.

“I don’t like it either, Rouge,” Shadow said firmly, yet his expression softened a little. “But like I said, I don’t see much choice. I’ll stay in contact and let you know what I find.” He took a few steps towards Rouge, and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She gasped softly at the unfamiliar affection of Shadow’s gesture. “I”ll come back alive and in one piece. I promise.”

Rouge’s eyes shimmered slightly, and with a forced smile, she gave Shadow’s hand a gentle squeeze in return.

“Okay… you better,” she said back. “Don’t abuse my trust in you.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Omega glanced between the two, and subconsciously pumped one of his fists slightly in celebration. To him, it appeared his sage advice to Shadow had worked, and Team Dark was free from organic emotional turmoil. For now, at least. Omega made a note to use some of his favorite weapons to commemorate this during their next encounter.

Shadow jumped into the air, rolled into a ball, and dove into the conduit gel. The energy of the Black Comet linked to his Chaos Energy almost magnetically, and he began zooming up and through the extensive trail of the conduit. After zipping across the Comet in all sorts of directions, the trail of gel finally came to an end, and Shadow emerged out of his ball form and into a crouching position. The ebony hedgehog’s eyes widened when he saw what was in the room: several Black Oak giants, about two dozen Black Arms soldiers, and about ten elite Assassins. All of them were the darker, enhanced versions like the Annelid they’d encountered.

“Damn it Rouge, I hate that you’re right all the time,” Shadow growled to himself as he stood up and took a fighting position. All the Black Arms turned to face him, the soldiers and Assassins raising their weapons to aim at him, but none of them fired a shot or moved to engage. The cold dread Shadow and the others had felt continued to grow colder still; what were they waiting for?

Shadow got his answer a moment later.

“You’ll forgive them for not indulging your bloodlust. They’re under orders; I want to see you for myself, first.”

This voice… Shadow had never heard it before, he knew that, yet he rang faintly familiar. It was cold, cunning, like a confident viper with a grip on its prey. The Black Arms lowered their weapons, formed a line, and then bowed down on their knees. Shadow’s eyes shot open as he saw who they were bowing to.

A being of the same dark-grey color and red patterns as the Black Arms approached, yet he bore about the same size, shape and proportions as a Mobian like Shadow, Sonic or Knuckles. Two yellow, dangerously-glowing yellow dagger-slits for eyes gazed from pitch-black irises, and an icy, unfeeling smile on his greyish muzzle. There were grey tendrils streaked with red across this being’s head that reminded Shadow a little of Knuckles’ dreadlocks.

“Who the hell are you?” Shadow demanded, never lowering his fists as the being continued to casually walk towards him. Chuckling, the newcomer’s smile grew wider. He raised an arm, and a jet-black, enhanced Black Volt flew from some dark corner of the room to land on his arm.

“Oh, I’ve waited a long time for the chance to introduce myself to you!” he laughed as the Black Volt coiled its tail around his arm. “That’s really the only question that matters today, isn’t it?” He continued to walk towards Shadow.

“I am you, in a way. Or at least, what you are meant to be.” Shadow’s fur stood on end as yellowish-green Chaos Energy began to crackle all around the being’s form. Even before he saw it Shadow could feel the familiar sensation of that power. The enhanced Black Volt flapped its wings as the energy coursed over itself as well.

“I am the greatest warrior, the Black Arms’ biology perfected, ” he continued, relishing in the look on Shadow’s face. “I am the last sight of every world the Black Arms conquers; the final shadow that blocks out the light of hope. I am… Eclipse the Darkling.”

Finally stopping his advance, Eclipse’s smile had grown into a sinister grin.

“You and I, we’re brothers.”

—--

*With Rouge and Omega in the Meantime…*

—-----

“So why exactly did you have Shadow have a talk with me before the mission?” Rouge asked offhandedly as they continued to search for an alternative means to escape the room. She was scaling the walls and ceilings while Omega scanned every nook and cranny he could find. The mech also heaved massive chunks of meteor rock about the place, searching for any weak points in the wall or hidden niches to go through.

“I would prefer to focus on leaving this room,” Omega replied dryly. He didn’t want another talk about emotions when he was supposed to be having fun annihilating enemy forces. “Most of the walls are too thick, dense or shielded for my arsenal to penetrate in a time-efficient way. I could blast our way out, but that would take a majority of my ammunition, and-”

“Omega! You’re changing the subject! Come on, just help me pass the time and humor me while we look for a way out!” Rouge pleaded at her friend, leaning her head back to give the mech an upside-down doll-eyed expression. With a slow blink, he reluctantly complied.

“His attitude towards Knuckles the Echidna showed an eighty-eight percent chance of hindering his full capabilities if not resolved,” Omega reiterated as he smashed a particularly large pillar of rock into the wall. If he was going to talk more about his team’s unfortunate shortcomings, he could at least keep working and destroying. “Shadow’s hostility towards your ‘boyfriend’ was a result of-”

“‘Our organic emotions’, yeah Omega, I’ve heard it and heard it,” the bat responded with a roll of her eyes and a dramatic gagging sound. 

“Then I suggest you and Shadow stop letting them limit your capabilities,” Omega shot back with a hint of derision. “If he is distracted by unresolved emotional conflict, he may not be able to fight at full capacity. I have downloaded over eighty gigabytes of information on human and Mobian psychology for the sole purpose of making you two, as you put it, ‘Get over yourselves.’”

“Tch!” Rouge gave Omega a look of shocked agitation. “The nerve, Omega!”

“Regardless, Shadow has had his talk, and based on his vitals before he left, he is operating at peak combat efficiency.”

“Well thank heavens for that . Literally nothing else matters,” Rouge sighed. She leapt down from the wall she was climbing to land before her mechanical friend, hands on her hips. “Did it ever occur to you, Omega, that maybe having Shadow confess that he was jealous of Knuckles for being my boyfriend, might be distracting for me? ”

“Yes, but I predicted a ninety-two percent chance that it would not disrupt your capabilities during the mission. At least not nearly to the extent it could have with Shadow,” Omega replied as confidently even-voiced as he always did.

“And why’s that?!”

“For instance, you have always been the better of the two of you at, as you say, ‘masking’ your emotions,” Omega pointed out. “Shadow is usually fairly skilled at masking, but as he proved, it frequently comes in the form of misdirected anger when he cannot. Anger can disrupt or overload his Chaos abilities if not harnessed correctly. Also, I calculated you would either handle it tactfully and be satisfied with Knuckles, or cease your relationship with him. Either way, the issue would be resolved.”

“What?! You thought I might just… break things off with Knuckles, just like that?!” Rouge spat, flustered in anger and embarrassment at the nerve of her friend’s implications.

“Only if that seemed the logical choice to you,” Omega answered undaunted. “If not, I knew there was a high chance that you would still be able to restore Shadow’s balance. Very few beings are able to get Shadow to listen, and you have the highest success rate.”

Rouge opened her mouth to try and chew Omega out for ‘calculating’ his team’s interactions and personal lives, but stopped and found herself fighting back a bit of laughter. The thief couldn’t believe it; their weapon-toting friend of destruction was playing therapist, and it was shocking to hear how right he was about… some things. She was suddenly curious about other people’s success rates of getting Shadow to listen, but put that aside for now.

“Omega… if I tell you something, promise not to tell Shadow?” she asked after a moment.

“Only if you promise to tell him yourself, at some point,” Omega shot back. “Unnecessary secrets amongst ourselves is also detrimental. In fact I believe that is the root of all-”

“Okay, okay! I promise I will, just not a word out of your steel trap, got it?!” Rouge demanded exasperatedly. Omega stared in silence for a couple of moments before nodding. Sighing, Rouge continued:

“If Shadow… I mean, if I had any reason to believe… he’d be interested in a relationship…” she mumbled, rubbing her forearm absentmindedly. Yet again her face reddened as she looked away from Omega. “I… wouldn’t have said no… I mean, Shadow’s the Ultimate-Life Form! He’s cool, he’s handsome, and he’s a cute softie underneath all that gruff… But I’m with Knuckles now… we have a good thing going, and I don’t want to mess that up.”

Before Omega could reply, Rouge got distracted by something on the far wall. With a jump she took off towards the spot she’d sensed… something from, and felt around carefully with her hands.

“Huh… there’s some sort of prickling feeling coming from here… it’s like a harsher sensation than what I get from the Master Emerald or the Chaos Emeralds,” she called back to Omega. He quickly approached and scanned the spot Rouge referred to

“Moderate amount of Chaos Energy detected. Observation: one of the doors Shadow previously opened with Chaos Energy is directly behind this wall,” Omega stated. “The rock covering the door itself is relatively thin."

“It’s not quite the way we came in, but it’d get us closer to the Captains and the rest of G.U.N.’s forces,” Rouge said. “We need to rendezvous with them if we’re going to find a way to get the bomb to the core.”

“Stand back; I can expose the door itself, at least,” Omega said assuredly, already arming a large missile from a shoulder-launcher. Rouge quickly flew out of range, and Omega’s attack hit the wall with two abrasive *BOOM!* sounds. They could see the faint glow of the door before the dust finished clearing. It was mostly uncovered, and showed very slight damage near the center where Omega’s missiles had hit.

“I know Shadow said only Chaos Energy could open these, but I want to try something anyway,” the huntress muttered, and focused her hand on the weakest part of the door. After several moments, Rouge was rewarded with a surge of familiar energy shooting out of her hand, and into the door. It seemed to cause a sort of glitch with the door spasming slightly, before it opened a bit past halfway with a similar warbling sound the one earlier had made.

“Hah! There’s no door in the galaxy that can keep me out!” Rouge bragged as she and Omega strolled through the door. She held her head high as she strutted with confidence.

“How did you acquire access, Rouge?” Omega inquired. “The energy I detected was similar to one of your other techniques…”

This time, Rouge was cut off before she could reply. Sheer noise and panic came in over the radio as she answered the call.

“ Team Dark! Mayday, mayday, mayday! Multiple Black Arms forces converging on our location! ” Wachowski’s panicked voice shouted. “ Two squads are down already! We need backup ASAP! Can you try and get to us?!”

“Shit! We’re coming you guys, we just found a way out of the room we were in!” Rouge cursed as a jolt of panic hit her. Her and Omega bolted in the direction of where G.U.N. had been when the Comet had cut them off. From here, her keen hearing could pick out the sound of gunfire, both human and alien. She could also hear lots of shouting, screaming and roaring.

“Rouge… the situation has escalated,” Omega suddenly said, followed by the * Click! * of his guns loading ammo. The ivory bat turned and glared at what she saw; a pool of Conduit Gel that had just deployed several Black Arms soldiers, and one Assassin armed with a sword.

“Damn it, damn it! ” Rouge cursed; she was beginning to regret letting Shadow leave even more now. “Omega, hold them off! I’ll cover you as best I can, I need to find a way back to the others!”

Rouge frantically began searching for another way back to Topaz, Wachowski and their G.U.N. soldiers while Omega began to exchange fire with the Black Arms. More began to emerge from the Conduit Gel.

The mission was already falling apart, and the bomb was barely closer to the Comet’s core than when they’d started.

“Shadow! Shadow, do you copy?!” Rouge shouted into her radio. “Things are going to hell here! What’s your status?!”

—----------

*With Shadow and Eclipse, closer to the New Black Comet’s Core*

—---------------

“‘Brothers’? What do you mean? I have no brothers,” Shadow scoffed at Eclipse. “If you mean because of the Black Arms blood within me, that’s irrelevant. You and your monsters are no kin of mine.”

“Wrong, wrong Shadow,” Eclipse tutted, continuing his advance towards the black hedgehog. “Because of the power and blood that courses through us both, you are going to stop this traitorous streak of yours, and return to the fold that needs you so dearly. That, or you die.”

“You better be able to back that threat; I don’t take kindly to those,” Shadow growled, and leapt as quickly as he could at Eclipse. He hoped to catch the monologuing bastard off guard with a full-force attack as quickly as he could, before the Darkling could show his hand.

“Chaos-!”

Shadow’s whole body froze; his attempt to use Chaos Control had been cut short somehow. No surge of energy, no temporary freezing of time around him, nothing. Eclipse just folded his arms, looking smug as Shadow’s attack was cut off by one of the enhanced Black Oaks grabbing the ebony hedgehog and pinning him down.

“That’s enough, let him up,” Eclipse ordered the giant, who immediately obeyed. Shadow glared with absolute wrath at the gesture, getting up and assuming a different combat stance.

“I take it you’re in charge here?” Shadow hissed.

“Very astute, brother,” Eclipse mocked with another chuckle. “Yes. I don’t control the hivemind directly; we learned our lesson on having such a singular vulnerability for our race. I can operate entirely independently. But all the Black Arms obey me without question. I’ve led this New Black Comet to countless victories during the fifty years since I was created.”

“Fifty years? From this year?” Shadow demanded. As much as he wanted to smash the Darkling’s face in and bury him in the rock, he was finally getting answers. Whether or not he was lying about being connected to the hivemind, Shadow knew losing their leader would cripple the Black Arms regardless. However these Black Arms survived Black Doom’s death, he needed to know about it, and destroy it.

“Yes; as soon as Black Doom had completed his work on you here, he enacted the ultimate contingency: me,” Eclipse replied nonchalantly. “You see, he didn’t trust that old dotard of a scientist; he suspected he would sabotage their research against the Black Arms, somehow. So he built a New Comet, a separate hivemind, and me, Eclipse the Darkling as their general. Their prince! Everything that went into creating you also went into creating me!”

“Is that how you were able to block my Chaos Control?” Shadow pressed, watching Eclipse and the Black Arms carefully.

“More like I negated it with my own Chaos Control,” the Darkling said. His smile changed to a look of confusion at Shadow’s expression. “What? You didn’t know we could do that?” Eclipse frowned and shook his head. “You’ve gone soft here, haven’t you Shadow? Tsk. We have a lot of work to do.”

“‘Soft?!’ You won’t feel the same once you fight me for real!” Shadow’s fists began crackling with his own red Chaos Energy. Eclipse’s very existence was beginning to anger him, but he needed one more answer before ending this new enemy. “If you’re not controlling the hivemind, then who is? Is Black Doom back somehow?”

“No… father nearly returned once, but you foiled that as well,” Eclipse answered, his voice growing deadly serious and even colder. “I’ll not tell you more than that, traitor. You… have committed the worst of crimes against the Black Arms, Shadow.” He pointed a claw accusingly at Shadow, his head tilting in an unhinged manner as he glared back at the hedgehog.

“But… because you are my brother, I am giving you another chance. Come back to us, join the new era of the Black Arms at the peak of our evolution! You are the only one in the galaxy, probably the universe, who has ever managed to stop the Black Arms! With you, we would-”

“Shut the hell up,” Shadow spat back, earning a look of mild shock from Eclipse that quickly turned back to anger. “I’ve heard this nonsense time and time again. ‘Join me and we can rule it all!’ Not interested.”

“But why, Shadow?!” Eclipse shouted. “We are your people! I am your brother! Even without Black Doom, we could have kinship! The others, the ones from your planet, they’re nothing! Their lives are like little flames; they flicker and go out eventually! You and I, we are immortal , Shadow! Only we and our legacy are truly forever!”

“Do you think I don’t know that?!” Shadow retorted. “Even a temporary existence with them on the planet I’ve sworn to protect is better than an eternity with a monster like you!”

Eclipse audibly gasped. Shadow couldn’t help but smirk at that.

“What, did I touch a nerve?””

“No, but I’m about to.”

A new voice came from behind Shadow, who turned just in time to see a creature nearly identical to Doom’s Eye reach a tendril out, and touch his forehead. As soon as it made contact, an excruciating pain shot into the hedgehog’s head. Shadow’s mind became overloaded with images and sensations that assaulted his senses. He cried out in agony and fell to his knees, clutching his head.

“GRRRGH! Stop! Get… out… of… my head!! ” Shadow screamed. The flood of images didn’t stop; he saw himself fighting Black Doom, both in his original state and as Devil Doom. He saw an organic pod of solidified red and black gel like the conduits in the Comet. It was surrounded by Black Arms soldiers in a dark, rocky chamber. 

Despite being built differently, it was clearly modeled after Professor Gerald’s design for the pod Shadow had been born in. Within the pod was Eclipse the Darkling, awakening for the first time. Other worlds flashed by, each with Eclipse leading an armada of Black Arms to victory after crushing victory. Images from both Shadow’s life and Eclipse’s flashed through his mind’s eye, blurring together.

“You are one of us, Shadow, ” the voice of the Doom’s Eye lookalike boomed within Shadow’s head, drowning out his own thoughts. “ Any who oppose the Black Arms perish, and those who do not will eventually perish as well. Only we are forever. All others exist only to sustain us. It is the only way they can serve a true purpose. You will return to us, and seek redemption for your crimes by fighting our enemies across every world. Serve the Black Arms. Serve your brother. Serve your true purpose. You are a warrior. A destroyer. You belong with the rest of us.”

“Like I said, dear brother,” Eclipse chided as he stood before Shadow, who continued to clutch at his head and seethe in his pain. “One way or another, your blood will bring you back to us.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Nine: A Conqueror’s Legacy, Waning Hope

—---

“Shadow! Shadow do you copy?!” Rouge’s voice came in through the earpiece Shadow had equipped for missions like these. Shadow’s eyes popped open for a brief moment.

“R…Rouge…?!” Shadow hissed out between gritted teeth.

 “ Things are going to hell here! Where-?! ” Her voice was abruptly cut off by Eclipse roughly removing the earpiece and crushing it in his palm.

“That’s enough of that, ” Eclipse remarked, letting the pieces fall to the ground. “We don’t want any distractions now, do we?” He looked to the enhanced Black Arms Assassin nearest to him. “Take the other Dark Arms and back up the standard Black Arms who have engaged our enemies. They should be softened up now. Sweep the filth away quickly.” The Dark Assassin bowed and saluted its arm to its chest, and quickly led the others out of the room, leaving only Eclipse, Death’s Eye and Shadow.

His agony hadn’t abated, but having Rouge’s voice right in his ear had broken through Death’s Eye’s attempt at controlling him long enough to register his ally’s and Eclipse’s words. The reality of what they were doing sank in… and it made the Ultimate Life-Form furious. 

All the times Black Doom had tried to take control of him, make him his tool, his slave, even attempting to hijack Shadow’s body. To make it worse, they were taking advantage of his state to attack his allies. 

“ No! ” Shadow snarled, his whole body furiously crackling and lighting up with red Chaos Energy. He reached up, and grabbed Death’s Eye by the tendril it had on his head, and violently slammed the alien into the ground. The flying mass of tendrils screeched and flew away, leaving echoes of Black Death’s cries of agony as it did. Immediately the pain subsided, and Shadow’s mind was clear. He got to his feet, catching his breath as Death’s Eye fled to Eclipse’s side, who looked mildly surprised.

“I have had enough of you and Black Doom trying to tell me who I am. I know who I am!” Shadow declared, his fists tightened, his blood boiling with power. “You came to kill the people of this world for your own uses, and leave the planet to rot. I made a promise to never let wicked filth like the Black Arms have this planet, and I will lay waste to all who try and take it! That promise is what keeps me going, and why I will never stand by and let any harm befall those I can save! I would rather die than ever stand by you!”

Eclipse stared in silence for several long, tedious moments. Red and yellow daggers glared at each other, the air tense with malice. Death’s Eye glanced between the two of them uneasily. He trusted Eclipse’s judgement, but he’d been obsessed with the idea of reclaiming Shadow as his brother. Black Death assured himself that Black Doom had removed sentiment and all of those other feeble traits when Eclipse had been created.

The Darkling’s eyes narrowed, and he sighed heavily.

“So be it.”

Eclipse’s whole body surged with an overwhelming amount of power. Yellow thunder shook the room, sending a prickling, electrical feeling across Shadow’s fur, and a chill of dread down his spine. The Darkling took a stance of his own, one claw raised above him ready to strike, and his other pointed palm-first towards the ground. His yellow eyes surged with matching volts, burning away any emotion that had been visible a moment ago.

Death’s Eye narrowed, and retreated for the time being, retreating through a dark, hidden passage on the ceiling. It was assured now that Eclipse would handle Shadow accordingly, and didn’t want to be caught up in what happened next.

“Chaos Control: Form Focus!” Eclipse shouted, and a heavy amount of his yellow Chaos Energy focused and settled around his hands. They hummed and buzzed loudly with power.

Shadow could sense the Black Arms when they were nearby, and the more powerful they were, the more easily he could sense them unless they found some way to conceal themselves. The Chaos Energy in him acted like a magnet for his instincts, a pull towards others with that same power. 

Based on what he felt now, Eclipse the Darkling had an even greater amount of Chaos Energy within him than the Shadow did. From what he’d told Shadow, he also had techniques and abilities the Ultimate Life-Form hadn’t even known of.

The dark hedgehog held his stance. It wasn’t going to stop him from fighting this bastard. He’d gone up against stacked odds before. This changed nothing.

“If you won’t make the Black Comet your home, I can at least make it your grave,” Eclipse declared softly, his tone melancholy, but firm. With that, he vanished in a blip of yellow light. Shadow did as well at the exact same time. The two reappeared in the center of the room, kicking simultaneously and colliding into the other’s attack. A shockwave rang out across the room from the superhuman strength of both beings clashing together, even sending cracks throughout the floor.

Eclipse’s strength and reflexes were on par with Shadow’s own, at least; he could tell that just from their first exchange. The grim realization of who he was fighting was beginning to dawn on him.

With a smirk, Eclipse immediately followed up with a punch with one of his glowing fists. Shadow knew whatever he was packing behind his punches, it was bad. Instead of blocking, he opted to dodge the Darkling’s blows entirely. He quickly countered with a kick of his own, landing directly on Eclipse’s torso. But he barely flinched from Shadow’s attack, and grabbed his leg while it was in contact.

“My turn,” Eclipse said, and struck Shadow back in the chest with another punch. Shadow blocked it, but he was unprepared for what happened: the punch literally exploded as it made contact, hitting Shadow with such a sudden violent, searing force it left his ears ringing for a bit and sent him flying across the chamber to crash into the far wall. A cry of pain gasped out of Shadow’s mouth as he fell to the ground, his whole body now aching. His resilience as the Ultimate Life-Form prevented anything serious, but a human very well could have been blown to pieces by that attack.

“ What the hell…?! That was like a Chaos Spear, but close-quarters, and all focused towards me. The explosive power of a Chaos Spear with the strength of his punches backing it up… ” Shadow observed to himself as he got back to his feet as quickly as he could. Eclipse had a smug look on his face, pointing his one fist that still glowed with a deadly attack at Shadow. “ He said ‘Chaos Control’… is he able to manipulate it at such a fine-tuned level he can sustain Chaos Spears around his limbs for other attacks?! ”

“Don’t tell me your bravado from earlier is already spent?!” Eclipse taunted. “You said you’d rather die than join me! Was that all just talk, Shadow the Hedgehog?! My offer still stands if you’re having doubts!”

“ You talk too much! We’re just getting started!” Shadow growled back, but stopped himself from rushing in; he knew being reckless against an enemy like this could get him killed. The ebony hedgehog needed to learn more about Eclipse’s techniques, how he was able to do these things. Only then could he find a way to counter and perhaps create an opening.

There was a very strong chance that Shadow was simply overpowered in this fight, as loathe as he was to admit it. If that was the case, he needed to use his power efficiently and carefully. Taking a deep breath, Shadow focused on what he usually did when he needed to clear his mind and fight with the kind of power that filled him when his thoughts were purest: Maria.

Shadow thought of her smile, her wish to see the Earth one day, and how dear his promise to protect the planet Maria loved so much was. Blue energy surged around Shadow, and he exhaled slowly.

With two more blips, Shadow and Eclipse vanished and reappeared again in an instant, and began rapidly exchanging blows. With the Chaos Energy surging through him, Shadow was able to deflect Eclipse’s arm and steer his fist away from making contact. He kicked at the Darkling’s head twice in quick succession but they were expertly blocked. Using his attack’s momentum, Shadow quickly spun around to dodge Eclipse’s claws and punched upwards, landing a solid uppercut on his jaw.

But again, Eclipse barely reacted, other than his head being forced upwards from the blow.

Like last time, the Darkling was able to grab Shadow, and pinned him right up against a wall. With a laugh, Eclipse landed an attack with his other glowing fist, striking Shadow so hard it buried him in rock, embedding him deep in the wall.

Thankfully, the Chaos Energy Shadow had summoned absorbed a lot of the damage. Otherwise that might have been the end of the fight.

“Pathetic!” Shadow heard Eclipse spit when his ears stopped ringing again. Everything was dark and burning in pain, every sensation was crying out at the torment. “I would have expected more from one who managed to kill father!” The Darkling scoffed and dismissively waved his arm at the hedgehog.

“Perhaps those friends of yours will provide more entertainment, at least!”

Shadow’s eyes shot open.

“ GRRAAAAHH!” The Ultimate Life-Form screamed, and an explosion of red Chaos Energy blasted all the rubble away. Immediately he was upon Eclipse, charging at him like a blazing meteor and punching him with enough force to finally knock him flying into the ceiling with a crash. Rolling into a ball, Shadow immediately leapt up and followed up by slamming his balled-up form into Eclipse over and over again before plummeting into the ground with a resounding *CRASH!!*

Shadow got back to his feet and grabbed Eclipse by the neck and began punching the Darkling in the face, but to his perturbance, Shadow’s attack was only rewarded with laughter.

“ That’s more like it!” he cackled, and caught Shadow’s next punch in his claw, gripping it tightly and causing the hedgehog to grit his teeth at the pain. “But still not good enough!” Shadow quickly warped away to escape the crushing grip but Eclipse was upon him, kicking downwards so fast Shadow barely blocked the overhead attack.

“You’re wondering if your attacks are even hitting me, aren’t you? They aren’t!” Eclipse affirmed with another laugh, and suddenly, the Darkling’s arm grew massive; almost fifty-percent bigger than before, the red spike on his forearm suddenly doubled and they both grew into razor-sharp blades. He struck and again Shadow only had time to block, but the Darkling’s strength had seemingly doubled from that transformation. Again Shadow was sent flying backwards, but managed to maneuver himself to use the jets on his shoes as propulsion and fly back at the Black Arms leader to counter-attack.

Shadow believed he had figured out how Eclipse was withstanding his attacks so well; he had somehow created a way of shielding his whole body with a field of Chaos Energy. This unseen forcefield was protecting Eclipse from all the damage of Shadow’s ferocious attacks, and seemed to absorb most of the shock and impact from being launched across the room into solid rock.

Still, when Shadow had attacked with an extra surge of Chaos Energy, he’d been able to more effectively block his attacks, and in turn the Darkling hadn’t bothered blocking Shadow’s attacks until then. Eclipse had to have a vulnerability; if he hit him with enough Chaos Energy, it might break through and finally do some real damage. The black hedgehog raised both arms to attack.

Eclipse saw this, smirked, and followed suit.

“Chaos…!”

“Chaos…”

“ SPEAR!!” Shadow and Eclipse shouted, and exactly five bolts fired from each of them. Six of the Spears collided into each other, causing a massive explosion that swallowed the other Chaos Spears in smoke. The other four struck random parts of the room as the two warriors had begun running throughout the chamber, dodging and matching each others’ attacks. They endlessly flung the volatile bolts of Chaos Energy between them like a deadly game of dodgeball. As the exchange continued, they picked up the pace and speed at which they fired Spears at one another.

Eclipse had used the Chaos Spear technique against many enemies with similar abilities in his years of conquest, and had sparred with the Dark Arms with it as well. It was a reliable technique, and more adaptable than Shadow apparently knew. His expertise allowed him to counter a majority of Shadow’s Chaos Spears by directly hitting them with his own. The few that slipped by were easily dodged. Of course, Shadow was skilled enough to dodge Eclipse’s own Chaos Spears as well. Even running so fast they scaled the walls of the room, continuously exchanging attacks, Shadow couldn’t land a single hit on him.

After another minute of Chaos Spears detonating across the room, Eclipse leapt high into the air at the center of the room, right where he could see everything.

“Not bad brother; it takes a lot of power and skill to attack like that, and survive my own Chaos Spears!” Eclipse declared with some sincerity. “But you’re not living up to your full potential! So sad that you don’t know your own capabilities!” Another quick surge of Chaos Energy focused around Eclipse’s hands, creating strands of pulsing energy between his claws.

“Chaos Control: Legion! ” he hissed, raising an arm over his head. A dozen or so orbs of bright Chaos Energy formed around him, and began multiplying. Soon, well over a hundred of the orbs had formed in the air around Eclipse, and took a pointed form, all aimed at Shadow. His eyes widened and he immediately moved to save himself.

“Chaos SPEAR!! ” Eclipse snarled, and a storm of the attack rained down across the entire room, utterly destroying everything in sight. Shadow ran for his life, jumping from rubble to rubble to avoid the onslaught.

“ How the hell is he doing that?!” Shadow thought as he leapt from one chunk of rock shortly before another one violently collided into it. Just before he could land on safe ground however, Eclipse warped right in front of him, frowning.

“Too predictable!” he snapped, and kicked at Shadow, who reacted just fast enough to deflect the attack and use the momentum to land, albeit roughly, on solid flooring. The bombardment of Chaos Spears had opened up the floor of the room to a dark, yawning chasm that led more than a mile deeper into the Comet. Even if he withstood the fall, Shadow couldn’t afford the time lost to fall down there. He got to his feet as soon as he could.

Eclipse didn’t relent however; before Shadow had time to fully brace, he began throwing punches faster than a human eye could perceive. It was frightening; Shadow had only seen Knuckles punch with so much speed and raw power when at his strongest (borrowed power from the Chaos and Master Emeralds aside). It took every bit of speed and precision the Ultimate Life-Form could bring into razor-sharp focus to ward off the assault. Shadow’s own limbs were a dark blur as he fought back against his Darkling counterpart. The fight went on for awhile without either of them using any Chaos abilities, and Shadow finally saw an opening and took a chance; he grabbed Eclipse by the neck, and aimed his other hand’s palm right at the Darkling’s chest.

“Chaos SPEAR! ”

Shadow fired the attack at point-blank range, without the precise control of Eclipse’s Form Focus technique. The explosion of the attack hit both of them, but Shadow still held on, even as he hissed through the pain. Even temporarily blinded by the blast, the dark hedgehog didn’t risk losing his opening; he punched as hard as he could at the point where the Spear had struck Eclipse, and was finally rewarded with a cry of pain from the Darkling. The blow sent Eclipse reeling back aways, clutching his chest for a moment.

But still, he only laughed at Shadow’s efforts.

“Good, very good, Shadow!” Eclipse praised excitedly. “Even for just one successful attack, you’re willing to put yourself in harm’s way to achieve it if necessary! Your strength, reflexes, speed, they’re all remarkable! So much ferocity, such commitment to battle! We are brothers, don’t you see?! If you had the experience I had, the same training, you could become just as powerful as me!”

“S… I said, save it! ” Shadow hissed, clutching the point of impact on his own torso. Some of his fur had been burnt away, his skin was seared, his eyes still blinking as they recovered from the flash, and his body felt like he’d been hit by a train. Still, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t recover from; he’d had worse, he knew that.

But Shadow knew this fight was going to be lost at this rate, and soon. He’d only landed one significant attack on Eclipse, and the hedgehog’s whole body was in excruciating condition. His chest heaved heavily as he tried to catch his breath. Not to mention, he needed to hurry and help Rouge, Omega and the G.U.N. soldiers. Even if he beat Eclipse, the Darkling’s death wouldn’t stop the rest of the Black Arms. Shadow guessed that the floating creature that resembled Doom’s Eye was connected to whatever other being controlled the hivemind, and the key to their defeat.

“Even if you are more powerful than me… I’m not going to cower before you!” Shadow shouted, taking an airtight, battle-ready stance. “I’ve fought against plenty of enemies who have claimed the same. A difference in power can be overcome by other means!”

“Hah!” Eclipse scoffed, his body again crackling with yellow and green Chaos Energy. “There’s truth in your words, but you cannot overcome the difference between our skills! I’m not just more powerful, Shadow, I’m perfected. I’ve been in more battles than I can count, it’s all I’ve known, and I’ve only honed my abilities more in that time! The whole while, you were sleeping! You thought you could claim the title of ‘Ultimate Life-Form’ after defeating the inferior beings of Earth, come here, and stand before me as an equal?!”

Eclipse held his hands apart, and a jolt of Chaos Energy shot from each palm and joined between them. His dark, yellow eyes glared with malice at Shadow.

“COME BACK AFTER FIFTY YEARS OF CONQUEST!! CHAOS BLADE!” The combined volts of Energy created a solid form that resembled a simple blade and hilt. Eclipse grabbed it, and pointed it at Shadow as the Chaos Blade hummed with its contained energy.

“One way or another, you will settle your debt to us, Shadow. Your life belongs to the Black Arms, and if you won’t serve us, we’ll dispose of you. Then, we’ll deal with every last urchin on that forsaken planet!” With that, Eclipse leapt at Shadow again, whose every instinct told him that sword hitting him would mean either instant death, or instant defeat. Shadow put all of his strength into reading Eclipse’s attacks and either dodging or steering them away. He could feel the heat of the blade, hear the electric crackle of raw power each time the Chaos Blade hummed and swished by him by a hair’s breadth. 

Trying to create an opening, Shadow leapt back and fired off another volley of Chaos Spears. To his surprise, Eclipse was able to simply swat the Spears away with his new weapon, causing them to scatter and explode across the room. Still, it gave Shadow enough time to roll into a ball and speed towards Eclipse. Shadow tried summoning as much Chaos Energy to his quills as possible, hoping he could break through Eclipse’s defense again and deal enough of a blow to allow him to finish the Darkling afterwards. He had to try and end this fight quickly; even with his Chaos Powers and all the superlative strength and durability that had gotten him through so many battles, Shadow’s stamina was burning too fast to keep up with Eclipse.

Upon seeing Shadow charging him, Eclipse smirked, and with a cry of exertion, he swung the Chaos Blade right at Shadow. Their Chaos Energy clashed, with Shadow’s balled up form spinning like a saw blade into Eclipse’s weapon. They both shouted, pressing all their strength into their struggle, until their powers overloaded and exploded, dissipating the sword of energy and sending them both flying backwards. The surge of Chaos Energy had damaged Eclipse’s defenses enough that he and Shadow both felt the impact of slamming into the floor. But they both instantly forced themselves back to their feet, and a few moments later, Eclipse’s body crackled and shimmered with a green and yellow shell of Energy. His “armor” had recovered.

“I’ll admit, perhaps I underestimated you a little, brother!” Eclipse laughed, and dove at Shadow again. He responded with a jump in the air and aimed a Homing Attack at Eclipse. The Darkling again caused his right arm to enlarge with a sudden enhancement, and with a roar, punched Shadow hard enough to send him crashing into another wall. Eclipse warped over to him before he could recover, and grabbed Shadow by the throat before leaping down to the edge of the chasm he had created. Using both hands, Eclipse began to strangle Shadow, who quickly struggled back and broke away long enough to grapple Eclipse. The two wrestled by the precipice.

“Still, even if you are one of the more worthy opponents I’ve faced, this is barely a challenge! I thought, after all these years, I’d finally have a fight that made me wonder if I would survive! Where I was finally pushed to my final limits! But NO! ” Eclipse pinned Shadow down by the neck with one hand, again physically enhanced, and held the other one out as it surged with Energy.

“Chaos Blade! ” The weapon reappeared, and he began to stab down at Shadow.

“ ENOUGH!! ” Shadow screamed, and with a thunderclap of power, both of his inhibitor rings flew off of his wrists. His whole body was engulfed in a gold and red flame of Chaos Energy, and blasted Eclipse back into the wall with intense strength, actually knocking the air out of him. He delivered more than a dozen punches before Eclipse tried warping away, but Shadow’s increase in power allowed him to cut Eclipse off, and slam him into the ground.

“Chaos LANCE!! ” Shadow shouted, and a large focused, red beam of Chaos Energy struck Eclipse, and blasted him straight into the opposite edge of the precipice with a sudden cry of pain and surprise. When he impacted, there was an explosion at least three times the size of a Chaos Spear’s impact.

Then, Eclipse the Darkling’s form fell down into the chasm, and disappeared into the darkness below.

After carefully watching for a few moments for any sign of Eclipse returning, Shadow walked over to his inhibitor bracelets, and with more effort than he cared to admit, snapped them back into place on his wrists. If he’d kept them off for much longer, the unrestrained flow of his power would deplete his remaining strength and he’d likely pass out. It was a huge risk to remove them in his condition, even for such a short time.

Shadow couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so utterly exhausted and roughed up. His whole body burned and ached, and he was certain a few bones had been cracked or dislocated. But he’d won… for now.

Shadow trudged himself over to the nearest door he could see; as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t afford to make sure Eclipse was done for; he needed to rendezvous with Rouge and the others. Shadow hated to admit it, but in his condition, he doubted he could go another round with Eclipse and deal with the Black Arms attacking his allies. Especially with the new enhanced “Dark Arms,” as Eclipse had called them.

With a spark of Chaos Energy, the door made its warbling, bassy sound, and Shadow forced his leaden legs into a running pace. He had no way of contacting Rouge now; all he could do was find some conduit gel, and pray he could at least get close to them.

“ I can do this… ” Shadow told himself quietly. “ I just need to find Rouge and Omega, deal with those Black Arms, rest a bit, and we can turn this around. Just find them, and everything will be resolved…”

—-----

*With Rouge and Omega, about a mile and a half away…*

—--------

“Shadow?! Shadow?! God damn it! ” Rouge cursed after Shadow’s radio went dead in a rush of static. She turned to quickly kick a Black Arms Assassin that appeared right behind her twice in the chest, once in the neck and once in the head. All in about half a second. The huntress quickly spread her wings and began frantically but thoroughly searching for a way back to where the G.U.N. Captains were making their stand. The sooner they regrouped, the sooner they could look for Shadow.

“Omega, we need to hurry! I think Shadow’s run into some serious trouble!” Rouge exclaimed, hurling a bomb at some incoming Black Volts and incinerating them in the air before resuming her search for an exit.

“Do not worry Rouge; Shadow is the second-most efficient warrior in existence! He will hold his own!” Omega replied steadily, firing an onslaught of bullets at the seemingly-never ending waves of Black Arms. When a Black Oak drew close, wielding a massive warhammer, Omega leapt up and delivered a mighty uppercut to the creature’s jaw, earning a satisfying *CRACK!* sound. He then leapt up and off the giant foe’s form, and turned to fire a volley of drill-missiles at the other Black Arms from above; it was one of his favorite weapons.

Each missile drilled into its target for a full second before detonating, getting right through the thick hide of a few Black Oaks and into the shields of the Soldiers and Assassins. The massive explosion wiped out most of the present Black Arms, buying them some respite.

“‘Second-most?’ Let me guess, you’re first?” Rouge replied, both smirking and rolling her eyes a little. Team Dark’s banter never failed to distract her from her anxieties. Her eyes widened though when she saw that Omega’s attack had left a huge crack in the wall nearby. She hurried over and placed a couple of bombs on it, then flew away from them.

“ Black Wave! ” Rouge called, and a dark-purple wave of high-frequency energy quickly flew from her and struck the bombs, causing both a fiery explosion and powerful sonic resonation at the same time. A huge chunk of rocks fell away to reveal yet another passageway just beyond. 

“Gotcha! There’s our ticket big guy, let’s move!”

“Innovative. Your ‘Black Wave’ technique is how you opened the door earlier,” Omega praised as he followed his teammate.

“Yep! It carries a sonic frequency that causes most mechanisms to malfunction and give out!” the ivory bat replied with no small amount of pride.

Rouge and Omega sped through their new path, and to their relief, they quickly found where their G.U.N. allies were. Their relief didn’t last long when they saw their predicament, however.

In a large, asymmetrical room that led down a slope from Rouge and Omega’s entrance, the Black Arms were advancing on G.U.N. from all sides. Nearly half of both Spider Troupe and Sword Troupe were already dead or too wounded to fight anymore. The survivors, roughly a hundred soldiers, had built a makeshift wall out of deployable energy shields, rubble and the damaged chassis of three fallen Giga Troopers. From there they had enough cover to fire back at the hundreds of Black Arms soldiers that were attacking them. Only three Giga Troopers continued to fight, and one of them was looking worse for wear; multiple dents from where a Black Oak had likely attacked it.

To make matters worse, about twenty of the Black Arms were the darker, enhanced variant; two Dark Oaks, an assortment of Dark Arms soldiers, a few Dark Annelids, at least six Dark Assassins and a few Dark Volts. Rouge and Omega observed several of them take direct hits from G.U.N.’s weapons but simply shrug them off.

“Omega, let’s flank them!” Rouge declared, and quickly took to the air again.

“Affirmative! I have called ‘dibs’ on the enhanced Assassins!” Omega chirped, and rocketed forwards with thrusters on full-blast. He immediately drew both miniguns and fired a hailstorm of the highest-grade bullets Earth had to offer into the horde of aliens.

The Black Arms didn’t take long to respond, although the disruption gave G.U.N. several openings to thin out their numbers. Several Black Arms soldiers formed a wall with shields to buy the others time to regroup, but Rouge saw them and quickly threw a few explosives down at them. Between her and Omega’s barrage, G.U.N.’s morale improved as they felt a second wind rising within them. Wachowski and Topaz took a quick moment to regroup their soldiers and allow them to reload and tend to wounds.

Unfortunately, that drew the attention of the Dark Arms. Within their hive mind, they quickly agreed to divert half their squad to the bat and robot who had come to the humans’ aid. The other half continued to press the attack on the surviving human soldiers. Three Dark Assassins and several Dark Volts went after Rouge while a group of Dark Soldiers and a Dark Annelid went after Omega.

“ These things are tough, but not invincible, ” Rouge reminded herself. “ Still, they probably have some new tricks. I need to be cautious, let them show their hand first… ” As the Dark Volts came soaring at her, she realized they were much faster than the normal Black Volts. Screeching, they suddenly glowed greenish-yellow with Chaos Energy, and shot at Rouge with a burst of speed.

“ Crap!! ” Rouge exclaimed. Thinking quickly, she hurled a few bombs at the Dark Volts while diving straight-down at the ground in a spiral, like a drill, boots-first. The Dark Volts tried to follow but were going too fast to adjust their trajectory enough to intercept. The Chaos Energy faded around them, and they joined the Dark Assassins as they frantically looked around for their quarry.

Meanwhile, Omega had his hands full with the Dark Soldiers alone. They were much faster and more focused than the normal Black Arms. Their pistols and swords crackled with additional power; Chaos Energy from within them as well. Omega had a much harder time avoiding their attacks, having to fire continuously just to keep them on the move. On top of that, staying on the ground was risky; the Dark Annelid was immediately on him any time he landed, being able to sense his location anywhere through the rock. A few stray bullets and lasers from Omega’s arsenal got through occasionally, but it barely slowed them down, if at all.

“Observation: I shall have to inflict much greater damage to obtain results,” Omega stated, and his chest opened along with his shoulders, revealing four missile launchers. He tracked each of the Dark Soldiers, and fired.

The Dark Arms held up shields while trying to spread out, but as soon as they did Omega also directly hit them with hyper-focused laser cannons, finally seeming to do some significant damage. A moment later, each missile found its target, quaking the whole room with a blossoming field of fire and detonations. Some of the Dark Soldiers that Omega hadn’t hit with his lasers survived the missiles with their shields, and quickly formed a defensive phalanx together.

But suddenly, the Dark Annelid emerged from the floor of the Comet, roaring and screeching frantically. A moment later, Rouge the Bat burst from the ground right behind it, and delivered a powerful, spinning kick to the “head” of the alien worm.

“Don’t mess with Omega! That job’s for Shadow and I!” Rouge cracked as the Dark Annelid crashed to the ground from her attack. After she’d dodged the Dark Volts, she’d tunneled into the ground right where she’d calculated the Dark Annelid would be at the time to help Omega out. Her powerful legs and specialized boots allowed her to tunnel to a limited extent; something she usually reserved for digging up treasures.

Still, the Dark Annelid wasn’t finished yet. The remaining Dark Soldiers surrounded it as the worm roared and fired a volley of missiles from its mouth. Omega fired his flamethrower with one arm at the Annelid’s attack while firing various guns at the Dark Arms. The missiles overheated and exploded as they touched the flames, missing Omega as his thrusters carried him away again. Rouge darted off the other way, casting several explosives at their enemies, but the aliens quickly spotted and shot the bombs before they got too close. Jumping back into the air with a grunt of frustration, Rouge turned to see the Dark Volts and Dark Assassins returning for another round.

“ I need to hit them before they charge up any Chaos Energy… ” she observed, and threw a timed-bomb at each of the flying aliens. They scattered to avoid them but it gave Rouge time to wind up another deadly, spinning kick that drilled right through both of the Dark Volts.

However, a Dark Assassin managed to teleport itself right behind Rouge in the air, and lunged at her with a large, twisted purple blade. The ivory bat barely moved in time to dodge the attack and countered with another kick, but to her surprise the Assassin successfully blocked her attack, and teleported away while another Assassin fired its rifle at her from below.

In his fight, Omega had switched tactics. While he’d been moving, he came across a destroyed Giga Trooper. With one powerful arm, the mech hurled the hunk of metal at the Dark Arms, who all scattered save for the Annelid, which was too injured to move in time. The worm screeched as it was crushed into the ground, and Omega quickly charged the Dark Arms, engaging them with his fists. Despite his overpowering strength, however, these enhanced Black Arms were still able to block most of his blows with their shields. 

Rouge, meanwhile, had her hands full with the three Dark Assassins; two occupied the airspace around her, vanishing and appearing sporadically while the other kept her on edge with its blaster fire. 

Still, she’d sparred with Shadow plenty of times; she had ways of predicting and countering all those “teleportation tactics.” As soon as one reappeared again, Rouge was ready; she’d figured out where the Assassin would teleport, and had already thrown an explosive with “attachment” issues. The Dark Arms roared in dismay as it teleported away, but the device remained on it. It desperately tried to claw the bomb off just a moment before it detonated.

Rouge soared down through the smoke of the explosion and kicked the Dark Assassin on the ground as hard as she could, slamming it into the wall with a violent force that shook the room. The elite alien warrior roared and coughed up some green blood, but in a rage, it grabbed Rouge’s boot with a strong grip, determined to finish her before she did anymore damage. But the huntress delivered another kick to the side of the creature’s head, not hard enough to finish it but enough to release its hold on her. Rouge followed up with three more kicks, flipped up into the air, and spiraled down with both boots right into the Dark Assassin’s neck, finishing it at last.

Not resting on her laurels, Rouge took the fallen Assassin’s rifle and fired it repeatedly at the last Assassin in the air, causing it to teleport about and return fire with a pistol it had.

Then, the Assassin saw Rouge wink with a rather smug look, and realized there were explosives planted on the ceiling; she had placed them there while avoiding them in the air. One last shot detonated them and caught the Dark Assassin right in the middle, finishing it with a final bellow of pain.

Omega still couldn’t get through the blockage of Dark Soldiers. They moved to draw swords while the mech was still close, but Rouge came down to help as soon as her share of the Dark Arms were dealt with.

Working together, Rouge would flank a Dark Soldier, hit them, and Omega would deliver a crushing blow while their guard was down. Moving quickly and watching the other’s back, they soon finished off the Dark Arms that had engaged them. But as they turned to deal with the rest, they saw the other half of the Dark Arms leading the rest of the Black Arms out of the room, exchanging fire with G.U.N. the entire time. Soon, they had left, and the room fell eerily silent all of a sudden.

“What the hell? Are they actually retreating just like that?” Rouge muttered. Still, they didn’t waste time; they quickly joined Captains Topaz and Wachowski behind their cover, to the cheers of several nearby G.U.N. soldiers.

“Rouge! Omega! Oh hell, are you guys a sight for sore eyes!” Wachowski exclaimed with a shaky laugh. “It… things were not looking good… made me start to wonder why I ever quit being a cop…”

“Well you are right about things being bad; they got the jump on us, and they quickly honed in on the Giga Troopers,” Topaz said through heavy breaths, wiping some sweat and grime off of her forehead. “We only have a hundred and five soldiers who can fight, about thirty of whom have some minor injury or other. It was everything we could do to protect the nuke and establish any kind of cover.” She looked Rouge and Omega over before looking around the room. “Wait, where’s Shadow?”

“We… don’t know,” Rouge admitted with dismay, her heart sinking as the issue was front and center again. “He went off ahead through some Conduit Gel to scout out. Something cut off contact with him, though… I’m worried he might be in trouble. We wanted to regroup with you before we looked for him or continued the mission.”

“Damn… well we can’t afford to divide our forces anymore, not if we want the bomb to reach its destination,” Wachowski said grimly. “We have about forty soldiers with either incapacitating or otherwise critical injuries. We need to get them back to the Ratatosk or they might not make it!”

“The Black Arms will be back, they’re probably just regrouping after Rouge and Omega entered the battle,” Topaz added. “Whatever we do, we need to do it fast, and get moving. If more of those elite soldiers, the newer, darker variant show up, we’re in serious trouble…”

All of a sudden, a door to the left of the one the Black Arms had exited out of opened with a strange, loud noise. Omega and every able G.U.N. soldier instinctively turned to fire their weapons, but Rouge quickly held both her arms up when she saw the familiar figure in the doorway.

“Wait! Shadow?!” Rouge called, at first alleviated but then struck with horror when she saw the state Shadow was in; “banged up” was putting it lightly. The black hedgehog approached them like his whole body was heavy, heaving with weary breathing. Shadow’s fur and quills were disheveled, and he was covered in scrapes, bruises, cuts and small burns.

“Shadow! What the hell happened?!” Rouge exclaimed, rushing forward with Omega right behind her.

“Rouge… Omega… met their leader… very powerful…” Shadow replied softly between breaths as he staggered towards them. “Tried to return… as soon as I found… Conduit Gel… But you had already left… the…” As soon as Rouge reached him, she gently grabbed his shoulders and stopped him. She looked him up and down, her expression growing increasingly concerned.

“Topaz! Somebody, get Shadow a medic!” Rouge shouted as she and Omega led Shadow back to G.U.N.’s fortifications. Shadow didn’t feel like protesting and allowed her to lead him over.

“W-We only have two medics left, they’re both busy right now!” Topaz replied exasperatedly.

“When will they be done?!” Rouge demanded angrily. In her mind, she couldn’t fathom how somebody else’s injury would be more important than Shadow’s. Didn’t they know if anything happened to him this mission was done for?!

“I don’t know, just… give me a minute, damn it!” Topaz snapped back and went to go check on the medics’ status for herself.

“I’ll be fine, Rouge… I just need to rest for a minute..” Shadow mumbled as he sat on a piece of rubble, propping his head against their wall. Her frown didn’t abate at his reassurance; Shadow looked worse than when she’d had to bring the hedgehog back to Club Rouge to recover from the Gimme Shelter base. His whole form appeared weighed down by exhaustion.

“Can you stop being such a tough-guy for one minute so we don’t let you wander to the brink of death all the damn time?!” Rouge scolded.

“I have located bandages,” Omega interjected, holding out a clean, fresh roll and disinfectant. Frantically thanking him, Rouge quickly began to wrap up some of the worst of Shadow’s external injuries, and putting on what binds she could to support his dislocated bones.

“Tch!” Shadow winced as Rouge tightened a bandage around his shoulder. “Mm… Thanks…” With a relieved chuckle, Rouge gave Shadow a wry smile while shaking her head in disbelief.

“You want to thank me, maybe stop going off on your own and getting into trouble without us!” she rebuked playfully. Shadow laughed weakly and was about to retort, when he felt a terrifying presence appear nearby. His red eyes opened wide and he turned to face the door the Black Arms had retreated through.

The door opened, again causing every G.U.N. soldier and Omega to aim their weapons. Rouge felt a fresh wave of dread at Shadow’s expression, and followed his gaze.

Eclipse the Darkling hovered above the ground by about fifteen feet, supported by two long wings from his back. They were similar to the Doom Wings Shadow had in White Space, except more bird-like, with small gaps in the wings akin to “feathers”, and much more similar in appearance to the rest of Eclipse’s body than the Doom Wings had been on Shadow. They both had the same hues of dark grey and red with nearly the exact same texture.

“I believe we have unfinished business, Shadow,” Eclipse hissed, his eyes unblinkingly glaring at the black hedgehog. The sound of hundreds of marching feet followed in the Darkling’s wake. “So disrespectful, leaving in the middle of a battle like that… There should be repercussions…”

Suddenly, the whole room began to quake as the Black Comet changed the layout again. The G.U.N. soldiers began quickly scrambling with Team Dark and the Giga Troopers doing what they could to help and save them. The wall that they’d worked so hard to build a base around crumbled and crashed as the floor, wall and ceiling all switched places. After securing most of the wounded and the bomb, the room was done changing, except the doorway where Eclipse and the approaching army of Black Arms were was now high above them, with the new ruler of the Black Arms looking down at them.

“ So I guess this is who Shadow fought; their new leader, ” Rouge thought as she carefully set Shadow down, whose entire body had gone tense as he glared back at the Darkling. She glanced between him and Eclipse, noticing that the latter didn’t seem to have any discernible signs of injury or exhaustion. The icy dread that the team had shared came back, chilling the huntress more intensely than before.

Whoever this person was, it had clearly done a number on Shadow, likely pushing the hedgehog to his limits. Eclipse, meanwhile, looked ready and eager for more bloodshed. Even without any Chaos powers to speak of, Rogue could sense Eclipse’s overwhelming power in his presence, like an omen of death casting darkness over them.

“I won’t waste any more of my Dark Arms against you; I’ve seen enough of their capabilities, for now,” Eclipse scoffed from the newly-elevated doorway, folding his arms. “The Black Arms need but to simply overwhelm you with fire from here. As for Shadow and his comrades…” He scanned the room and saw Shadow kneeling on the ground, glaring back up at him. Next to him was a white bat… a woman. Eclipse recognized her from what the hive mind had shared of Earth’s defenders when Black Doom attacked.

Furthermore, it didn’t take long for Eclipse to guess it had been her voice that had snapped Shadow out of Black Death’s control earlier.

“ You… YOU … ” Eclipse’s eyes focused into slits at Rouge. “ So, you’re one of those precious beings of Earth that Shadow holds so dear? Who he has promised to protect?! Who is so much DEARER to him than his own people?! ”

With a flash of light, Eclipse warped over to where Shadow and Rouge were in an instant, a new Chaos Blade in his hand as he drove the tip of the weapon right towards Rouge’s heart.

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten: Shadowfall

—------

Shadow’s eyes shot open in the split-second he realized that he wasn’t Eclipse’s target. Only through his Chaos Control-heightened perception did he have the time to react; his left inhibitor bracelet flew off, and with his fist overflowing with power, he struck Eclipse’s Chaos Blade just as it was a hair’s breadth away from Rouge. The blow caused Eclipse to angle his Blade into a defensive guard as Shadow’s fist dug into its edge. Chaos Energy surged and sparked as they continued struggling against each other, with Rouge having moved out of the way by now with Omega right next to her.

“What… I have no information on any being like this in my database, Black Arms or otherwise,” Omega stated with irritated hesitation. “I do not like not knowing our enemy. Observation: he is most likely the Black Arms’ attempt to recreate Shadow.”

“‘Recreate Shadow?!’ How could they do that without Gerald or Black Doom?!” Rouge exclaimed, her aquamarine eyes wide as she watched Shadow and Eclipse. She had to help; she needed to do something. They couldn’t let Shadow fight this guy by himself, especially not in his condition!

“It doesn’t matter, let’s take this creep out!” She gave herself a boost with her wings and began charging straight at Eclipse.

“Agreed!” Omega chimed, and aimed a focused laser weapon at Eclipse’s forehead, making certain to keep Rouge out of his scopes.

However, the Darkling soon noticed the additional threats approaching. With a grunt of exertion, he shoved Shadow back long enough to warp away again.

“Troops, take cover! We got company!!” Wachowski suddenly shouted, followed by the sounds of every able G.U.N. soldier readying or powering on their weapons. Just a few moments later, dozens upon hundreds of Black Arms started firing from the doorway above. With their superior vantage point it was almost like shooting fish in a barrel. Only the remaining Giga Troopers and what suppressing fire they could return to the Black Arms kept the G.U.N. companies alive for now.

“Useless! All of you, all this fighting, useless! ” Eclipse snarled as he reappeared above Omega and Rouge. “Chaos Spear!! ” The ivory bat and the deadly mech scattered from each other as the arcs of energy exploded around them.

“I… need to help them…!” Shadow growled to himself, and went to retrieve his inhibitor ring before the last of his energy was spent…

But it was now trapped under Eclipse’s foot.

“I think you’re done now, brother, ” Eclipse scoffed with utter disdain, and struck Shadow right in the face with his fist, sending the black hedgehog flying and then skidding across the ground to crash into some rubble.

“ SHADOW!! ” Rouge screamed at the sight, eyes filled with horror. Her gaze turned icy blue as she glared a promise of death at Eclipse. “You son of a bitch!! ” She flew straight at him, anticipating Eclipse to warp out of the way, but instead, the Darkling spread his own wings and flew right back at Rouge. Omega fired a few rounds at Eclipse but he simply disappeared and reappeared in a blip, never losing speed or changing trajectory. Rouge swung her leg at Eclipse’s neck as they closed the distance, but he blocked it in time. Eclipse countered with an overwhelming flurry of punches, taking Rouge off guard with how rapidly his attacks were coming. She blocked most of the attacks but Eclipse landed one blow on her left side, giving Eclipse a second to warp above Rouge and drive his full weight down on her in a body-slam, crashing the huntress into the ground.

“ Rouge!! ” Omega shouted, his voice shaken with a rare amount of concern. Putting full-power into his thrusters, the greatest of Eggman’s E-100 models slammed right into Eclipse, who blocked and braced against the mech but was still forcibly pushed up against a wall.

“Hah! Pretty powerful, for sentient scrap! ” Eclipse laughed as he grappled against Omega’s arms. He still held Shadow’s missing inhibitor bracelet in one of his claws.

“And you are arrogant for one so much weaker than I!” Omega retorted as he continued to bear down on Eclipse. “I may not have the powers of Chaos but my physical strength outclasses yours!”

“Famous last words, metal man!” Eclipse shot back, and with a sudden surge of sickly-green Chaos Energy, the Darkling’s entire body underwent a metamorphosis. Like before, the spikes on his arms doubled and changed to razor-sharp blades as his arms drastically bulked up. Eclipse’s whole body grew massive, now about a head taller than Omega, muscles and veins bulging across the Darkling’s enhanced form. It was as if his body had changed its outer layer into an entire set of heavy armor. A red crown adorned a crest on his forehead, looking like bloodied blades.

Omega was quickly overpowered; Eclipse was now crushing the mechs’s claws like cardboard, forcing him to fire a missile at point-blank range from one of them to escape the grapple.

“Impressed yet, machine?!” Eclipse demanded as he gave chase, lashing out with his claws. “I was created to defeat Shadow. The rest of you are nothing more than fodder! ” One swipe hit Omega’s chest, tearing off a chunk of metal and knocking him into a rock.

“Omega! D-Damn…!” Rouge hissed as she got to her feet, wincing as she tried moving her left arm. She could tell her left shoulder had been dislocated from Eclipse’s attack. With a deep breath, Rouge braced herself and firmly pulled it back and reset it. She cried out in pain but pushed past it; she couldn’t afford to waste another moment. Anyone less dexterous or experienced than her may have made it worse, but Rouge knew what she was doing. Her team needed her; she was the one who put Team Dark together. They were her responsibility on this mission.

“Shadow isn’t the only one who can tap into a reserve of power when he needs to!” Eclipse taunted, holding up Shadow’s inhibitor ring. “But unlike him, I am not restrained by some human’s invention! I can regulate it and unleash my full power at will!”

With that, Eclipse the Darkling crushed Shadow’s inhibitor in his claw, and tossed it to the ground, the crumpled metal looking like a golden balled-up wad of paper.

“N…No…!” Rouge felt a sickening sensation spread from her heart throughout her whole being. What would happen if Shadow didn’t have both of his inhibitor bracelets? Would the Ultimate Life-Form’s power just keep burning through his energy until…?!

“Oh… I love that look on your face, bat!” Eclipse chuckled, his enhanced form slowly shrinking back down to his normal state. “The despair is beginning to sink in, isn’t it? That look of all light draining from the eyes, the body growing weak and limp as hope is leaving you. Every time I conquer a world, I see those dying eyes staring back at me! The utter futility of fighting against the Black Arms is reflected in you all! Chaos Blade! ”

Another energy weapon formed in Eclipse’s hands. He swung the humming Blade a few times and pointed it at Rouge, then Omega.

“When that look of utter despair appears on the faces of my foes, it is only a matter of time before their world falls. You’ve already realized that, deep down, after seeing what we are capable of. You’re just either too foolish, or too stubborn to accept your death!” Eclipse lunged at Rouge first, who could do little more than put her guard up and prepare to dodge his Chaos Blade.

“Chaos… Spear!! ”

Eclipse turned to deflect two Chaos Spears that had been fired at him. Rouge went to attack when she saw a chance, finally landing a solid kick on the Darkling. Despite the shell of Chaos Energy Eclipse absorbing nearly all the damage, it still knocked him aside, allowing Omega to fire a few missiles from his chest-arsenal, striking the Darkling in midair. 

“Shadow!” Rouge called, seeing the ebony hedgehog staggering towards them, breathing heavily. Despite Shadow looking even worse than earlier, she was relieved to see him on his feet.

“Are… you… okay…?” Shadow gasped between breaths, clutching his chest as Rouge reached him. He practically collapsed into her arms.

“Significant damage: Right arm’s weapon systems disabled. Three separate weapons in chest arsenal are offline. But you have taken approximately ninety-eight percent more damage than either of us,” Omega replied, taking a moment to fire at the Black Arms attacking the G.U.N. soldiers.

“Omega’s right, don’t worry about us!” Rouge rebuked, her whole face creased in concern. She could feel how messed up Shadow was as she held him; broken bones, dislocated ones (the wounds Rouge had bandaged, as well as new injuries). His fur was tousled with blood, burns, cuts and scrapes. “You’re in no shape to keep fighting!”

“He’s… not… done!” Shadow warned her, struggling to stand on his own again. “Eclipse… that’s his name… he has… a field of… Chaos Energy! Protects him… from most… attacks!”

Right on cue, Eclipse flew straight at Omega again, slamming the mech into a wall not far from where Shadow and Rouge now stood.

“ Agent Rouge! This is a lost cause, we have to pull back to the Ratatosk! ” Captain Topaz’s voice cried over the radio. A quick look from Rouge confirmed her words; Black Annelids had burrowed into the ground, and on top of dealing with the hundreds of Black Arms still firing down upon them, the monstrous worms were now engaging at close-quarters. The remaining G.U.N. soldiers wouldn’t last more than a few more minutes at this rate.

“ NEGATIVE TOPAZ!! NEGATIVE!! We have to set this bomb off!! ” Captain Wachowski interjected. “ Besides, there’s no way all of us are retreating back to the Ratatosk with this much resistance between us and the doors! ”

Rouge glanced between Shadow, whom she still held up with her uninjured arm, and Omega, who was fighting a losing battle against Eclipse. She gritted her teeth in frustration; she needed to help Omega, but she couldn’t leave Shadow! Not like this! G.U.N. was going to lose two of their best companies soon too…

“ Shit, shit, shit… I really wish Knuckles was here right now. Or Sonic, or anyone, really! ” Rouge thought frantically as she tried to decide what to do…

Thankfully, she caught a break. To their surprise, Eclipse leapt back away from Omega as he doused the Darkling with his flamethrower. With a growl, Eclipse warped to a safer distance and countered with another spray of Chaos Spears.

“Fire… the fire hurts him?” Rouge murmured out loud. Then it occurred to her; Eclipse had bothered to deflect Shadow’s Chaos Spears, so perhaps those could actually damage the barrier Shadow mentioned. Physical attacks still knocked Eclipse around, yet nearly all damage that would’ve been done to him was negated. It didn’t look like Omega’s flames had spread or engulfed Eclipse despite being so close to the badnik’s flamethrower.

“ So, Eclipse’s barrier protects him from all physical attacks making direct contact, but can’t shield him from the sheer heat of flames? Even if he doesn’t catch fire, it’ll still cook him like an oven inside his barrier… ” Rouge smirked as an idea hit her. Maybe there were other kinds of attacks Eclipse couldn’t quite defend against…

“Wachowski, Topaz! Have one of your Giga Mechs fire at their leader, Eclipse, when I give you the signal!” Rouge shouted into her communicator. Without waiting for a reply, she quickly set Shadow down behind some rubble for cover.

“N-No… I have to h-help…!” Shadow protested behind clenched teeth, but Rouge firmly held him down in a sitting position.

“Stay here, or I’ll kick your ass myself!” she snapped, and promptly took off towards Eclipse and Omega. The Darkling was just lashing out with a Chaos Blade, cutting deeply into Omega’s armor. The mechanized warrior gave a shrill series of beeps as he stumbled back from the attack, but Eclipse turned to face Rouge before he could finish Omega off.

“You were lucky to walk away once, now you rush in for more! Eager to get it over with?!” Eclipse taunted. He spread his wings out again and aimed his blade at Rouge as he soared at her.

“ Black WAVE!! ”

Eclipse’s smile quickly vanished as the dark burst of honed, sonic energy struck him. His body felt no impact, but his ears suddenly began seething in agony, and a blistering pain began forming in his head, making it feel like it was splitting apart.

“W… What?!?! G-GAH! DAMN…!!” Eclipse cried out as he clutched at his head, trying to tear the pain away. Rouge didn’t relent; the huntress delivered a powerful kick right up into the Darkling’s chin, then jumped up and delivered another kick in mid-air.

“ Now!! Shoot now!!” Rouge shouted into the communicator, but G.U.N. was too preoccupied. She wasn’t sure anyone had even heard her. Eclipse had crashed into a wall, still shouting in pain but he wouldn’t stay down much longer.

“ Only one Giga Trooper left…! They’re… tearing right through…! What the…?! DOWN!! DOWN!!”

“Suppressing fire! SUPPRESSING FIRE!! DAMN IT!!” Topaz and Wachowski’s words were a blur of mayhem amongst all the gunfire. With an exhausted groan Rouge went to see if Omega was in any condition to help.

“C-Chaos… Spear! ”

Horrified, Rouge turned to see Shadow, stubborn as ever, shakily standing behind her, leaning heavily against a wall while his right hand (the one now missing an inhibitor ring) was outstretched, aiming at their enemy. Luckily, one Chaos Spear struck Eclipse dead-on, and Omega followed up with a couple of missiles. After a quaking *BOOM!* and an eruption of rock and fire, Eclipse had disappeared behind a pile of rubble and dust.

“Omega! We… need to help G.U.N.!” Rouge shouted between breaths as she ran over to Shadow, catching the black hedgehog just as he collapsed again. “C’mon Shadow, hang in there! Stop playing the tough hero and just take a break! Hey, can you hear me?!”

Shadow didn’t respond. While Rouge’s entire soul was cold with dread, she didn’t have time to stop now. Lifting Shadow up and holding him close with her good arm, the huntress took to the air again, and managed to drop several powerful bombs down upon the Black Arms. Omega, despite his extensive damage, managed to completely shred three Black Annelids with his remaining minigun, finally buying the G.U.N. forces some respite.

Still, the Black Arms didn’t relent. Wave after wave continued to pour in through the door, ceaselessly attacking.

Rouge and Omega regrouped with Topaz and Wachowski behind their grisly barricade; a fallen Giga Trooper piled on top of several bodies of defeated Black Arms. Both Captains had taken some minor injuries; nothing debilitating, but painful. Their armor looked slightly melted in a few places where laser guns had started to burn through.

“We need to abort; there’s no way we’re getting the nuke to the Comet’s core now!” Topaz told them, pausing to stand and fire her large energy-gun at a Black Volt that flew too close. “We’re down to one Giga Trooper, and more than half of our force is either KIA or WIA!”

“Team Dark… you guys don’t look good either…” Wachowski added grimly as he reloaded his weapon.

“No… Shadow’s out, despite whatever he might say,” Rouge said in a soft, worried murmur. She looked over at him as he limply rested against her, again unresponsive. The ivory bat could just barely feel Shadow breathing; certainly more shallow than when they’d spent the night in White Acropolis…

“System An-An-Analysis: Combat efficiency reduced by nearly seventy-percent” Omega stuttered out as his speech processors struggled through his damaged software. “I still * ZZZT !* detect Eclipse’s life signs… U-Unless he is neutralized, this… * BRRZZT !!* may-may be our last stand…”

“Well… if anyone’s going to make a run for the Ratatosk, it needs to be now,” Wachowski said with a deep sigh. The Captain slung his gun over his shoulder, and ran towards the nearby nuke, still guarded by the last Giga Trooper. “Anyone in Spider Company who can still fight, form up on me!”

“Wachowski! What are you doing?!” Topaz demanded of her fellow officer. Wachowski didn’t reply; he simply pressed a few buttons on the nuke’s command console.

“ Authenticate Activation Code ,” the automated voice chimed from the device.

“WACHOWSKI!!” Captain Topaz screamed as she realized what he was doing; only they and Rouge had been given the activation code for the bomb.

“G.U.N. Officer: Captain T. Wachowski. Voiceprint ID: Sierra-Uniform-Zero-Six-Two!” Wachowski spoke as he bypassed other safeguards via the console’s keypad. 

“ Authentication Confirmed. Allotted time? ”

“Nine minutes,” he replied after checking his map of the Black Comet in relation to the Ratatosk.

“Countdown commencing,” the bomb’s console chimed, and a timer appeared on the screen: nine minutes and counting.

“Captain Topaz, Agent Rouge, get your teams out of here,” Wachowski said with a pained but satisfied smile. He unslung his gun and immediately returned to the battle. Amazingly, none of his remaining troops in Spider Company protested or fled; they stood by their Captain.

“W-We can’t just leave you!” Topaz insisted, utterly stunned at what had just happened. “What the hell are you thinking?!”

“Yeah, what’s with you men all playing martyr?! You don’t have to do this!” Rouge shouted, though her words rang hollow. Omega was one good hit away from losing something vital, and Shadow couldn’t even stand on his own right now. Not to mention, it was only a matter of time before Eclipse or the Dark Arms returned.

“We don’t have time to argue now!!” Wachowski barked back as he took down a Black Arms assassin with a well-timed headshot. “Captain, get Sword Company and Team Dark back on the shuttle and evac, now!! The only way you’re getting off this Comet alive is if we buy you some time! We may not be able to get this bomb to the core, but if we detonate it here, it should still do significant damage to the Comet, and if we’re lucky, take out their leader and most of their forces!”

“You don’t outrank me, do not give me orders! This is insubordination, Captain! I-!” Topaz started to rebuke.

“Then recommend what actions you want to Commander Tower,” Wachowski said with a half-hearted smirk and shrug. “Just go. The best chance we have against these bastards is Team Dark, Sonic and the others. It’s more important that they survive. If you can blow your way out of here, the Ratatosk shouldn’t be far. Now go! Before they pull another rearranging act!” He turned away and the few soldiers left from Spider Company rallied around him, the nuke and the final Giga Trooper.

“Topaz… we don’t really have a choice now,” Rouge cut in heavily. “We need to leave now or we might not make it. The map shows we still have a relatively straight shot to the shuttle, but that could change! And Shadow’s in no shape to open paths for us!” 

Topaz clenched her hands fiercely, sucked in a harsh breath and turned her head away.

“Damn you… Sword Company, fall back to the Ratatosk! Fall back!!” Topaz ordered in a hiss. “Make an exit, now!! ”

Omega and two G.U.N. soldiers with heavy ordinance fired a concentrated flurry of missiles at the spot where a doorway had been before the room had rotated. After the first volley, just more asteroid rock. They fired another volley, and to their relief, an escape was revealed after the smoke cleared.

“Move!! Move!! ” Topaz barked, the few remaining soldiers from Sword Company firing at the Black Arms as they moved their wounded out as quickly as possible. Omega offered to carry Shadow, and Rouge took him up on it after hesitating a moment. Even in Omega’s damaged condition, he had an easier time carrying Shadow than Rouge did; her shoulder still hurt terribly after she’d been forced to reset it. Once everyone else was through, Rouge and Topaz took a moment to look back at Captain Wachowski and roughly twenty or so soldiers defending the nuke.

“Godspeed, Captain Wachowski!” Topaz said in a strangled voice as she snapped off a crisp salute. Rouge glanced sadly between her and Wachowski, hesitant to leave these soldiers to their fate.

“Give ‘em hell, Captain,” Rouge said into Wachowski’s channel on the communicator. “We can’t thank you enough.” After giving Topaz’s arm a gentle tug, the two of them ran after the others.

As he continued to exchange fire with the Black Arms, Wachowski kept glancing back at the nuke’s timer when he could. Even if Team Dark and Sword Company encountered resistance, the Black Arms’ priority would most likely be attempting to neutralize the bomb. By his estimates, they should reach the Ratatosk and get to minimum safe distance with at least a minute to spare.

“Come on, we’re taking out as many of you creatures as possible today!” Spider Company’s Captain shouted as he made every shot count, covering his remaining soldiers the best he could.

It was odd; Wachowski had accepted his fate, he knew that, but it didn’t feel like he had. As long as he kept shooting and shouting, he was just in the middle of his umpteenth mission for G.U.N.

So, Wachowski just kept fighting, and Black Arms soldiers kept falling. He fought like a machine, peek efficiency at ensuring he and his soldiers survived as long as possible. He ran, shot, reloaded, and repeated. Shoot, run, reload. Duck, dive, tuck and roll. Shoot, shoot… The minutes were gradually ticking by, he was distantly aware of that. But Wachowski knew it was better to just stay focused; time would take care of itself.

He didn’t see the flashes of green light behind him. It was only when the Captain heard one of his troops cry out did he risk a glance in the direction it came from. But the Black Arms above didn’t relent; he couldn’t afford to be distracted from them. All he and his company could do was keep fighting.

“ Come on! We’ll splatter every last one of you !!” Wachowski cried, but suddenly froze as he felt a powerful claw wrap around his helmet, squeezing his head with a deathly grip.

“You and what army?” Eclipse the Darkling hissed in his ear, and his blood ran cold. The Black Arms had ceased fire. Wachowski now realized every single remaining soldier had been knocked out in just a few seconds. The last Giga Trooper lay in two pieces, cut straight down the middle by Eclipse’s Chaos Blade. They laid there amongst the bodies of the ones the Black Arms had killed.

“Between the wounded we’ve captured and the ones I’ve incapacitated out here, I think we have enough sustenance for the Dark Arms for the time being,” Eclipse told Wachowski as he tightened his grip on his skull. “As for you , however…”

*SNAP!*

—----

*With Team Dark, Topaz and remaining G.U.N. forces.*

—-------

Several squads of Black Arms attacked as Rouge, Topaz, Omega and the others retreated. Even severely damaged and carrying Shadow, however, Omega was still more than capable enough to gun down any of the standard Soldiers, and Rouge could still fight well enough to take down the occasional Black Arms Assassin that appeared. Between them and the covering fire from Topaz and G.U.N., they were able to get through the rooms and bypass the larger groups of enemies.

With about four-and-a-half minutes to spare, they finally reached the airlock to the Ratatosk. The shuttle had been forced to disengage from the Comet and re-engage the airlock again after the Black Comet had shifted itself, but the entrance for this room had remained open. Everyone boarded as quickly as possible, and as soon as the craft was secure they disengaged and pulled away from the Black Comet. They didn’t even bother engaging the artificial gravity right away, only making certain everyone was secure enough to depart. 

With just over two minutes left on the bomb, the Ratatosk was finally able to re-engage its artificial gravity. It felt violently heavy to Topaz as she rested her back against a wall and slid down to the floor.

“S…….. Status,” she managed to croak out, her eyes drained and bleak. She was excruciatingly exhausted. It felt like this day had gone on for over a year. “Give me a sit-rep.”

“We’re… down to twenty-six active soldiers, ma’am,” a medical officer spoke up after they finished bandaging up another soldier. “Not including Team Dark, that is. None of our Giga Troopers survived. Aside from those who aren’t incapacitated we have about twenty wounded. About half of them will definitely make it. The others… are up in the air, at best. We just don’t have the supplies here to do better than that.”

“Agent Rouge… how is Shadow?” Topaz asked, turning her gaze to the white bat.

“Not good,” Rouge replied darkly. Shadow was currently laid out across the seats as an improvised gurney. One of the few medics had managed to rebandage the ebony hedgehog and hook an IV unit up to him. Rouge was seated next to him, leaning over Shadow as she kept an eye on him. Her expression was wrought with worry, even as she fought to keep her tone even.

Shadow’s pulse was weak and erratic. He stirred lightly and occasionally murmured something incoherent, but Rouge wasn’t even sure if he was conscious. All she was sure of was that Shadow didn’t seem to be getting any better. Usually the Ultimate Life-Form could get a second wind after a bit of respite, even after taking a beating. If only he had both of his inhibitor rings…

Rouge’s eyes lit up as a thought hit her.

“Topaz, how close are we to Earth? Can we contact anyone there yet?” she asked frantically, leaving her seat as she half-ran towards the Captain.

“N…No, not yet,” Topaz sighed after checking the shuttle’s status. “I just tried contacting the Commander. The Black Comet is causing some level of interference that’s limiting our range. Once we’re further away we should be able to radio someone.”

“Let me know when we can; I need to get in touch with Knuckles on Angel Island immediately!” Rouge demanded before hurrying back over to where Shadow was laying.

“Well, at least things can’t get much worse right now,” Topaz muttered as she pulled herself back on her feet and approached the pilots in the cockpit.. “Lieutenant, can you give me a visual of the Black Comet?”

“Yes ma'am. However I can only do so for a few seconds; too many systems online at once and we risk the Black Arms detecting the shuttle,” one pilot answered.

“Do it. I want to see the damage the nuke does to that infested rock,” Topaz ordered, tightening her fists in eager, if angered, anticipation.

However, just as the screen displayed the Black Comet’s position, there was a flash of green and yellow light. Topaz turned in alarm to see the bomb back on the ship, counting down with less than fifty seconds.

—------

*Black Comet, Mere Moments After Eclipse Finished the Battle*

—------

Death’s Eye flew into the chamber, overlooking the carnage below as Eclipse stood amongst it all. With a pleased laugh, the creature flew down to hover next to the Darkling.

“Well done, Eclipse. As always,” the voice of Black Death spoke from the Eye. “The next wave of Dark Arms should find the… preserved enemies quite the energizing meal.”

“Hm. Indeed,” Eclipse said with a nod, a malevolent grin back on his face. The Darkling turned to face the nuke, still counting down. “Black Death, can you see if this bomb has an override to stop the countdown?”

“Yes, I’ll disable the bomb shortly,” Death’s Eye answered confidently, floating over to the bomb with one tentacle extended towards it.

“No, don’t disable the bomb; disable the override,” Eclipse told him, his grin widening even more. “Once you’ve done that, I can… return this weapon to its rightful owners.”

“Ah, very good, Eclipse,” Death’s Eye complied with a chuckle. Touching the keypad to the bomb, the singular Eye suddenly blinked rapidly as its tentacle allowed the creature to hack directly into the software. Strands of code and numbers flashed across the Eye, and a few moments later it pulled away and turned to face Eclipse.

“We cannot locate their ship, but if you can hone in on Shadow’s connection to the Black Arms, you should be able to find them,” Black Death told him. With a nod, the Darkling stepped forward and rested his hand on the bomb; just over a minute to go. Closing his eyes, he reached out with the power of his blood; the Chaos Energy that burned within him and his brother. Finally, he felt it; faint, and growing fainter, but it was enough.

Eclipse hesitated; if not for Shadow being on that shuttle, he wouldn’t think twice about following through. But still, he had been hoping that, after so long, he and Shadow, his brother, could’ve led the Black Arms to victory together. Even as he felt Shadow’s distant presence, he felt… saddened that his brother had rejected the blood that bound them…

Still, the Black Arms as a whole came first. As the timer ticked away, the choice was painfully clear.

Besides, if Shadow really was his brother, he had the best chance to survive this out of all those fools on board.

“I believe you worthless humans forgot something!” Eclipse laughed, his hatred-honed resolve returning to him. “Chaos Control! ” The bomb disappeared in a flash, and reappeared on the Ratatosk as it rocketed back to Earth. 

—-------

*Back on the Ratatosk Shuttle, T-Minus Forty-Two Seconds to Detonation…*

—--------

“Shit, shit!! Disarm it, n ow!! ” Topaz shouted, running towards the nuke and frantically typing away at the keypad. Panic quickly began taking hold on everyone in the ship, some backing as far away from it as possible, despite the futility of the action.

“God damn it!! I’m locked out, Rouge try your override!” Topaz ordered but Rouge was already there, and immediately punched her code in. However, she was locked out too. 

“Shit! They tampered with it! Do we have any escape pods?!”

“No ma'am!” one soldier cried, who had started looking for them as soon as the bomb had shown back up.

Rouge was about to suggest taking the bomb outside with her and Omega since they could survive in space, even if it didn’t mean great odds of survival, when she looked up and gasped.

“ Shadow?! What the hell, lay back down! You’re in no condition to be up!” she shouted at the black hedgehog.

Shadow looked over at her with a distant expression, and half-smiled wearily.

“It’s okay Rouge… I promised I’d protect the people of Earth… and you,” he murmured, and placed his hand on the nuke, now twenty-eight seconds away from detonating. Rouge frantically glanced between him and the bomb, wondering what insane idea the Ultimate Life-Form had this time.

Then, she gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. No… he couldn’t mean to…?!

“You can’t warp yourself with the bomb out of here! You may not even have enough energy to use Chaos Control right now! You’ll… you might…!!” Rouge shouted but Shadow was already acting.

“Chaos Control!! ”

In a blue flash, the bomb was gone… but Shadow himself remained. In the same instant Shadow’s eyes rolled back and he crumpled to the ground, Rouge catching him yet again as he did.

“Shadow?! SHADOW!! ” Rouge screamed, putting her ear to Shadow’s chest. “Oh God… Omega, he barely has a pulse!”

Omega quickly marched over, scanning Shadow’s vitals as he did. Rouge set him back down on the shuttle’s seats, trying to ignore how frail and limp he felt. 

“The bomb’s signal reappeared just two-hundred meters from us! Punch the engines, get us out of the blast radius!” Topaz ordered the pilots. “The EMP from the bomb could fry all our systems!” The whole shuttle jerked forward as they complied, with Rouge holding Shadow down securely on the seats while their mechanized friend continued checking Shadow over.

When Omega was done, he faced Rouge, his eyes blinking once.

“His energy is draining faster than it can be restored,” Omega reported sullenly. “Shadow’s powers are normally able to accelerate his healing process, but without both inhibitors it is unable to store itself within his being. If he had lost both inhibitors, I do not know if he’d even be able to sustain his own life with the amount of power that he is exuding.” 

“Shadow…” Rouge mumbled, clenching herself as she crossed her arms, fingers digging with anxiety into her forearms. She glanced over at Topaz again, who was still restoring order from the panic caused by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the bomb. “Are we close enough yet?!”

“What?! Er, um… Yes, go ahead,” Topaz replied after checking the shuttle’s readings again. “Make it quick; the nuke might interfere if we don’t outrun the blast.”

Rouge bolted past her and grabbed the radio, quickly tuning it to find Knuckles’ outpost on Angel Island.

After several moments of static, she put on the earphones (as best she could) and spoke into the receiver.

“Rouge the Bat, calling Angel Island! Mayday, mayday! Agent Rouge calling Angel Island!!” she shouted into the radio. “Knuckles, are you there?! Answer! Come on! Knuckles?!?! ”

More static, but a moment later she heard a familiar young fox’s voice.

“Rouge! This is Tails, we read you! What’s wrong, are you guys okay?” Tails asked.

“Tails! Put Knuckles on, Sonic too! It’s Shadow, it’s not looking good!” Rouge replied, glancing worriedly at Shadow’s unresponsive form.

Another moment of silence on the radio, then some scrambled chaos as Knuckles put himself on.

“Rouge!! Are you okay?! Are you hurt? What’s the matter?!” Knuckles asked, clearly alarmed.

“It’s not me, it’s Shadow! He’s in bad shape, the worst I’ve ever seen him in!” Rouge told him. “Listen, I need you to do something, as fast as possible, okay? Have Sonic carry you if you have to! I need you to go into my room at Club Rouge. On my dresser, where I keep my jewelry boxes, find a plain, black box with velvet. Inside is a gold bracelet. Bring it to G.U.N. Headquarters as soon as you can! We’re returning there right now!”

“O-Okay… But, what happened with the Black Arms?” Knuckles asked, hesitating as he tried to process his questions and what Rouge had just told him. “Did the plan work? Are you guys all okay, or-?”

“ KNUCKLES!!! MY ROOM!! CLUB ROUGE!! BLACK BOX WITH BRACELET!! BRING IT TO G.U.N.!! NOW!! OKAY?!?!?!” Rouge screamed, drawing the looks of every conscious person on the shuttle. Knuckles was silent for a moment before replying.

“Y-Yeah… sorry Rouge, just worried…” he replied. Rouge could tell his tone was bitter but she was too worried to address that right now. “Black Box, dresser, bracelet. Got it.” With that Knuckles ended the call.

“Hmph!” Rouge slammed the receiver back down and stormed back over to where Shadow and Omega were. Topaz followed suit to contact Abraham as soon as she could: 

They needed to know the Black Arms were still coming. G.U.N. had satellites that could detect the Black Comet at this range but the nuke might have interfered with that too.

As Rouge sat down, she glanced down at Shadow again, her ears drooping. The ivory bat put a hand on Shadow’s cheek, desperate to find or kindle some kind of sign that he would be okay…

“Hang in there, handsome… you wouldn’t really quit on me now, after all this?” Rouge murmured and tried to laugh, but it came out choked, like her fears had a grip on her throat. “You still gotta settle the score with that bastard, Eclipse, remember?” Her hand rested on the patch of white fur on Shadow’s chest, just above his heart.

“Come on, Ultimate Life-Form… you’re not done yet…” Rouge whispered, as if praying, hoping with every fiber of her being.

—---------

*Black Comet, Five Seconds After Detonation*

—--------

“Hmm… we detected an energy signature, the bomb certainly detonated. But it was different from the ones vessels usually put out when destroyed in space,” Death’s Eye mused as it scanned through the Black Comet’s sensors. “Since we couldn’t detect their craft in the first place, we can’t confirm its destruction.”

“Let us assume they survived until proven otherwise,” Eclipse replied. He was currently overseeing the surviving G.U.N. soldiers being transported into the nesting chamber for the next batch of Dark Arms soldiers. The fortunate ones were still unconscious, but the rest struggled and screamed the entire way, even if terribly injured.

“Well, now that their little infiltration mission has failed, shall we prepare for our invasion?” Death’s Eye asked. Eclipse chuckled excitedly, nodding as he turned to face him. They summoned a hologram of the Earth in relation to the Black Comet, showing that they were nearly upon the planet now.

“Yes… Send out a squadron of Black Volts, with five Dark Volts to lead them. Have them search for the human weapon, the Eclipse Cannon onboard Shadow’s old home, the ARK,” Eclipse ordered. “Position the Black Comet to blot out the sun over Central City; that’s where the human leader who opposed Black Doom resides. We’ll take them first. Deploy the advance forces into the city. I’ll lead the first wave. Once we’ve secured a foothold, we’ll summon our fortresses to create a perimeter.” Black Death immediately began sending the orders via the hivemind, instantly transporting the orders into the minds of every Black Arms in the Comet.

“Understood, Eclipse,” Death’s Eye replied obediently. “Shall we prepare for a harvest operation, or a cleansing?”

“Cleansing,” Eclipse answered, his yellow eyes narrowing as he again seethed at the image of the blue world that would soon be at their mercy. “We only need one resource from this world. Its destruction and the death of e very . Last. Wretch takes precedence. Once we have what we need, we burn it all. Taking living prisoners for our energy is a secondary priority. We only need enough to reach the next world we will conquer. We should need no more than twenty, twenty-five thousand prisoners to ensure that.”

“As you say, Eclipse,” Death’s Eye obeyed, bowing its form to Eclipse in reverence. 

The Black Arms throughout the Comet were preparing for full-scale war now. Perhaps the humans and Mobians knew they were coming now, perhaps not. It didn’t matter; Eclipse the Darkling would make sure that, with he and the Dark Arms spearheading the attack, the Earth would fall like every other world.

“When the last sun is Eclipsed, and all hope is dead,” the Darkling whispered to himself with glee, “Under the Black Arms, all worlds will burn red.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven: Shaken Foundations, Bloody Skies

—---------

*Angel Island, with Team Sonic and Team Chaotix*

—------

“Hey, Knux… you okay, man?” Sonic prodded gently. Knuckles had just aggressively shut off Tails’ radio and stood up, frowning angrily.

The crimson echidna looked over at him, staring for a moment, then sighed and shook his head.

“Later. We need to get to Night Babylon, fast,” Knuckles replied stiffly. Sonic and Tails exchanged a worried glance.

“B-But what about the Black Arms? Are they still coming? We need to be ready for them!” Tails piped up.

“Yeah, didn’t Rouge say anything else?” Sonic asked. “It sure sounded serious-”

“I don’t know!! ” Knuckles shouted, turning to face the two of them with fists clenched and purple eyes burning. “All I know is that Shadow is hurt badly, and Rouge needs me to get a bracelet, or something! That’s all she cared to say!”

“Bracelet?” Sonic rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then his green eyes lit up as he snapped his fingers. “Oh! I’ll bet it’s Shadow’s old ring… stopper-thing, what’s it called Tails?”

“Inhibitor rings,” Tails answered. “The bracelets Shadow uses to contain his power, and restrain it to safer levels.”

“Yeah, those things! Back on the ARK, when Shadow and I stopped the Biolizard and the station from crashing to Earth, I found one of them floating in space after the battle. Back then, we thought that was all that was left of Shadow…”

“Oh… yeah, I remember,” Knuckles affirmed. “You gave it to Rouge, yeah?”

“Yep. I figured, they worked together, she was the closest person to him, y’know?” Sonic replied with a shrug.

“But why would Shadow need it now? And… why has Rouge kept it all this time?” Knuckles asked, with just a hint of envy.

“Maybe his other inhibitors got damaged in the mission,” Tails suggested. “If that’s the case, Shadow’s power might be draining at a dangerous rate! Especially if he’s injured!”

“Holy crap… if Shadow the Hedgehog got beat up that badly, these Black Arms must not be messing around,” Sonic said with a frown, tapping his foot. He looked over at Tails. “Any sign of the Black Comet on your scanners, bud?”

“Hmm… no, it’s strange… the signals from the satellites I’m linked to are either faulty or completely unresponsive!” Tails reported with dismay as he tried accessing them through his handheld computer.

“Let’s get to Night Babylon and bring the bracelet to G.U.N. Headquarters first,” Knuckles said. “Maybe they’ll have their gadgets working by then. Even if the mission was a success-”

“HEY!! What’s going on?!”

Knuckles groaned and planted his palm over his face. Sonic and Tails turned to face the source of the voice, the latter working up a polite smile.

“There’s an awful lot of talk going on out here! Something serious is going down, right?” Vector the Crocodile commented as he walked towards Team Sonic. As usual, Espio the Chameleon was next to him, and Charmy Bee hovered above them.

The Chaotix Detective Agency team had shown up less than an hour after Knuckles had returned to the island to inform Sonic and Tails of Rouge’s mission. To the crimson guardian’s dismay, Team Chaotix had made themselves a little too much at home. Vector had made himself a “late lunch” out of the contents of Knuckles’ fridge, and Charmy had been testing Espio’s patience relentlessly since they arrived. It was almost as if the young bee had something to prove and wanted to provoke the chameleon into a fight.

“Hey guys!” Sonic greeted with his usual enthusiasm. “Rouge just called. She needs something from her place, so we gotta split!”

“Indeed? I take it the mission did not go well,” Espio mentioned grimly. “Your auras suggest distress.”

“Yeah, you can say that again!” Knuckles grumbled. “Rouge didn’t say; just that she wasn’t the one she was worried about. Apparently Shadow’s in serious condition.”

“Shadow?!” Charmy asked in alarm. “Ooohh man, if someone can beat him up…”

“Like Sonic said, we need to get going,” Knuckles repeated. “We don’t know when or if we’ll be engaging the Black Arms. Just keep an ear out for the radio, okay? I’ll make sure either we or Gadget contact you once we know more!”

“You got it Knuckles! Nobody’s laying a hand on the Master Emerald while we’re here!” Vector assured with a thumbs-up.

“Yeah, not even us! No matter how much it’s worth!” Charmy added with a sly cackle.

“ Charmy! Angel Island is Knuckles’ home, and we are guests here!” Espio scolded the youngest member of their detective agency. “So do not suggest something so dishonorable!”

“Aw, lighten up, Espio!” Charmy replied, sticking his tongue out as his ninja colleague. 

“Knock it off, you two!” Vector barked. “We’re the Chaotix Agency, we’re professionals! So act like it! We were hired to do a job, and we’re going to see it through! Need I remind you of our policy?!”

“Charmy started it…” Espio grumbled under his breath.

“We need to head out now you guys!” Sonic interrupted with increasing urgency. “Rouge sounded worried, we probably should’ve left by now!”

“Right, right. Good luck to you guys! Let them know we’re ready to jump in to bail them out if they get into another mess!” Vector told them with a nod. “Oh, and as for our rates-”

“Yep, uh-huh! We’ll talk later!” Knuckles said as he, Tails and Sonic had started to move away, waving goodbye to the Chaotix.

“Alright, Night Babylon, no sweat!” Sonic said with a grin to his two best friends. “Let’s help Shadow and Rouge out, then knock those Black Arms back to the black hole they crawled out of!”

The blue hedgehog grabbed Knuckles and Tails’ arms, and with a nod from each of them, Sonic enveloped the team with his energy. Then, with a *Boom!!*, the three heroes took off in a blast of azure lightning.

—--------

*Night Babylon, Little Over Five Minutes Later*

—-------

True to his reputation, Sonic got them to the entertainment district of Central City known as Night Babylon in no time. Daylight was still prominent, so the lights of the casinos, clubs and nightlife were dark. The team was perturbed by how deathly quiet things were. The three of them came skidding to a stop just outside Club Rouge’s front entrance.

“Man, sure not used to seeing this place with the sun still up,” Sonic remarked. “Where is everyone? Is everyone in Night Babylon nocturnal, or what?”

“I think G.U.N. already evacuated all the major cities to their assigned safe-zones when a certain amount of time had passed since Shadow, Rouge and Omega started their mission,” Tails answered. “Even if they accomplished their mission, he knew it’d take time to evacuate so many people, and wanted to err on the side of caution.”

“I hope Amy, Cream and everyone else got out okay,” Sonic said softly, his smirk fading to a worried grimace. 

“Did Rouge give you a key, Knuckles?” Tails asked.

“Well yeah, but there’s a bit more to it than that,” Knuckles replied as he withdrew a keychain with three attachments; the key to Club Rouge, the key to his own place and a pink heart accessory that matched Rouge’s attire. Sonic smirked and gave Tails a look, to which the yellow fox fought back a giggle. Once Knuckles had gotten the door open, he looked back at Sonic and Tails.

“You guys stay here. I don’t know if Rouge gave you guys clearance anytime recently, but if not you’ll set off her security,”

“No problem Knuckles. Get the bracelet, we’ll wait here for you,” Sonic said with another thumbs-up. Nodding, Knuckles stepped into the club’s entryway, then stopped as a camera was extended from the ceiling, and ran a grid of blue lines over the echidna as it scanned him.

“Identity confirmed: Knuckles the Echidna. Proceed,” an artificial voice (that sounded suspiciously like Rouge) spoke, the next door ahead of unlocking with a *Hiss!* sound.

Running as fast as he could without crashing into anything, Knuckles made his way upstairs to Rouge’s penthouse above the main club. Another security scan and locked door, and Knuckles was finally in.

“Rouge’s room. Dresser. Black box. Velvet. Bracelet,” the crimson echidna repeated in his head over and over as he sprinted to the door to Rouge’s bedroom, swung it open, and bolted in. “ Dresser. Black box. Velvet… ” His face lit up as he spotted his objective; it was one of the larger jewelry boxes his girlfriend kept, and nearly front and center on the polished dresser. Knuckles opened the box, and tenderly pulled Shadow’s old inhibitor bracelet out.

“Feels like a long, long time ago when Shadow and Rouge first showed up,” Knuckles muttered to himself as he looked the golden ring over. As he turned to leave however, he suddenly caught his foot on something large and tripped over.

“ OOF! Ugh, what-?!” Knuckles rubbed his head as he got up, looking to see a black duffle bag sitting on the floor. Frowning, the echidna gave the culprit of his trip a spiteful kick, knocking it over and causing its contents to spill out. Knuckles’ eyes widened; it was a set of jewels, jewels he recognized.

It was the silver and emerald tiara and necklace set that Rouge had laid her eyes on when they’d gone out for a date in Westopolis, the night before her mission.

“Grr… damn it, Rouge!” Knuckles cursed lowly. With a scoff, he shoved the stolen jewelry aside with his foot, grabbed Shadow’s inhibitor with a firm grip and stormed back outside, down the stairs and outside to where Sonic and Tails waited.

“Oh good, you found it! We… what’s wrong, man?” Sonic asked, his cheerful demeanor sinking when he saw how Knuckles was fuming. The red echidna might as well have been on fire the way his whole body was tense, his jaw was firmly set and his eyes were purple daggers.

“It’s nothing. Let’s just go,” Knuckles growled, like a rumble in a storm. Sonic decided not to press the issue at the moment.

“Ooookay then… alright guys, G.U.N. Headquarters next?” he asked as lightly as he could. Tails nodded, forcing a smile as he glanced nervously at Knuckles.

“Pft. G.U.N.,” Knuckles hissed bitterly behind his clenched teeth. “Don’t talk to me about G.U.N.” He held out his arm for Sonic without even looking at him. The blue hedgehog gingerly took him and Tails in his hands again before bolting off in another flash.

“ Once Shadow’s taken care of, Rouge better have a good explanation,” Knuckles fumed to himself, and continued to fume and sulk the entire trip to G.U.N. H.Q.

—-------

*G.U.N. Headquarters: Ratatosk Landing Pad*

—-------

When the Ratatosk landed, a large team of medics, nurses and doctors were waiting for the battered crew. Once the loading ramp was lowered, those who were able helped move the wounded down the ramp, where a rush of gurneys and medical supplies came to meet them. A team of G.U.N.’s top engineers and mechanics came to load Omega onto a lift to take him down to maintenance. 

Despite the nuke having knocked out several satellites, Captain Topaz had still been able to contact H.Q. once they’d nearly reentered the atmosphere, and alert them to the medical attention they needed.

Rouge the Bat ran alongside Shadow as he was laid down on his own gurney. They were rushed into the medical section as a team of doctors and nurses hooked him up to some oxygen, a new IV, a blood bag and did whatever else they could to tend to his injuries as they moved.

“I got a pulse, but it’s weak. We’ll need more fluids ASAP,” one doctor told them.

“Give Knuckles the Echidna clearance to his room, alright? He has the one thing that might stabilize Shadow right now!” Rouge told them as she kept up with the rush.

“Yes ma’am, Agent Rouge. Shouldn’t Commander Tower be debriefing you, however?” another doctor asked.

“Topaz is already on her way to do that! Anything I have to say wouldn’t help. I just need to warn Knuckles and the others what those… bastards are capable of!” she replied, never taking her eyes off of Shadow’s battered, limp form.

A few minutes later, Shadow was brought into an operating room, and despite all her protests, Rouge was forced to wait outside. They told her that, when Knuckles arrived, she could apply whatever aid he’d brought, but would then have to return outside. Too tired to argue anymore, she allowed a few people to bandage up her shoulder to keep it set correctly, and tend to a few small cuts she’d gotten from the battle. Afterwards, she paced feverishly outside the room, her mind blank as she tried not to think about all the fears that kept sticking her heart with icy blades.

“Rouge!!”

Snapping out of her self-induced trance, Rouge turned and lit up to see Knuckles running towards her, Shadow’s old inhibitor ring in hand. The white bat ran to meet her boyfriend.

“ Knuckles!! Oh thank you, you found it! Thank God!” Rouge cried, squeezing Knuckles in a firm embrace, nearly forcing the air from the echidna’s lungs.

“ ULK!! Er… you’re welcome…” Knuckles coughed. Without waiting another moment, Rouge darted into the operating room with the inhibitor. Thankfully, Shadow wasn’t grotesquely opened up on the operating table; so far the doctors had mainly been performing orthopedics to reset Shadow’s bones, and searching for internal bleeding.

“Putting this on! Now!!” was all the explanation Rouge gave as she hastily covered her mouth with a surgical mask. She quickly slipped Shadow’s bracelet onto his vacant wrist, and with a soft, golden flash, the bracelet snapped back into place.

Shadow suddenly gasped softly, but didn’t stir much beyond that. A moment later, his whole body relaxed. The doctors all looked at the monitor; Shadow’s pulse had already improved dramatically. Rouge exhaled like she hadn’t taken a breath since leaving the Black Comet.

“Thank you, Agent Rouge. I’m liking his odds a lot better now,” a doctor remarked after observing his vitals awhile longer, and Rouge could read a smile behind his mask. “Step out now, please. We’ll notify you of any other changes as soon as we can.”

Rouge nodded wearily, and turned to leave without another word. She felt all the exhaustion the day had caused suddenly bearing down on her; now that Shadow seemed to be stabilizing, there wasn’t anything else to do but wait.

As she stepped out of the room, she looked up at Knuckles.

The crimson echidna had been determined to start yelling at Rouge as soon as she’d finished putting the inhibitor ring back on Shadow. Between the way she’d yelled at him on the radio, his over-awareness of how much the ivory bat cared about the ebony hedgehog, and finding out she’d stolen the jewels he’d asked her not to, he’d been in a total fury the whole way to G.U.N. 

But now, seeing how exhausted Rouge was, as her ears drooped and her eyes filled with weariness and pain, Knuckles’ demeanor softened. With a sigh, he walked over to Rouge and pulled her into a hug.

“He’ll be okay, Rouge,” Knuckles assured her, patting Rouge’s back as she tightly embraced him back. He could feel her shaking against him now. “It’s Shadow we’re talking about, yeah? Nothing can stop him.”

“Knuckles… God, I don’t even…” Rouge muttered shakily, and pulled away just enough to look the echidna in the eyes, keeping her hands on his shoulders. “The Black Arms… They’re worse than ever…”

“Rouge, what happened?” Knuckles asked. Before she could reply however, Rouge’s communicator went off.

“Rouge, it’s Tower,” the Commander’s voice spoke. “I’m sorry to ask this right now, but I need you and Team Sonic at my location now. We’re preparing a counter-attack for when the Black Arms inevitably make landfall. Captain Topaz just finished informing me, but I need you to tell me and Team Sonic everything you can about this… ‘Eclipse’ that’s leading the Black Arms now. Omega is offline for repairs so you’re the only one I can debrief that’s fought him.”

“Yeah… I’ll be right there, Abe,” Rouge groaned, and began practically dragging her feet to the Command Center. “Come on, Red. I might as fill everyone in at once, I don’t think I could bear relaying this more than once.” She was so desperate to take a load off she began using her wings to lazily fly her over the floor as she started to leave.

“Whoa hey, let me! You need a break!” Knuckles exclaimed, and gently picked Rouge up and began running. The white bat couldn’t help but relax immediately as she was no longer on her feet or flapping her wings.

“Heh… thanks Knux,” Rouge chuckled weakly. Knuckles managed a smile, but was still struggling with what he’d been feeling lately. There were too many emotions mixed to manage many words at the moment. Knuckles had a temper; he’d become aware of that, in no small part due to Rouge pointing it out while they were dating. For now, he just focused on getting Rouge and himself to the Command Center.

“Um… Knuckles?”

“What?”

“The Command Center is that way,” Rouge pointed down the opposite hallway of where they were headed.

“Oh, I knew that!” Knuckles chuckled sheepishly as he quickly turned around. “Just… just gotta turn around, that’s all.”

—------

*G.U.N. Headquarters: Command Center*

—---------

Once Rouge and Knuckles arrived, the former plopped herself down in a seat, and (begrudgingly) told Abraham, Topaz and Team Sonic everything she could about Eclipse the Darkling. She mentioned his similarities to Shadow, both in abilities and intended purpose for the Black Arms. Rouge spoke of the barrier Eclipse had that made him nearly invulnerable to most physical attacks, but how heat and her Black Wave technique had still managed to have an effect. The ivory bat mentioned the Dark Arms as well. Tower mentioned that Topaz had spoken of new, “elite” Black Arms but hadn’t confirmed what they were called yet.

“Do you think this ‘Eclipse’ was responsible for warping the nuke back onto the shuttle?” Topaz asked, laid back in her seat as a medic tended to the Captain’s minor, albeit painful injuries.

“Yeah, or some other Black Arms that can use Chaos Control,” Rouge replied with a sigh. “Eclipse seems to have some power of Chaos Control we’ve never seen from anyone else before.”

When she was finally done, Rouge let her head fall back dramatically to rest on her seat, letting out a pained, weary groan.

“Damn… no wonder Shadow had such a hard time with this guy,” Sonic said, scratching his nose as he frowned. “Sounds like he has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve. But at least, thanks to you guys, we have a better idea of what we’re up against!”

“Agreed,” Commander Tower nodded. “For whatever it’s worth Agent Rouge, even if the mission wasn’t a success, we know more about what we’re dealing with. I’m sorry we were so ill-prepared, but now that we know about this ‘Eclipse’ and the newly-enhanced Dark Arms, we can act more accordingly.”

“So long as Shadow doesn’t end up paying the price…” Rouge muttered sullenly.

“From what we can tell, the Black Comet will be within range to deploy their forces in less than ten minutes, but after the nuke was turned against us in space, we’re missing a lot of our eyes in the sky,” Abraham explained. “So we don’t know where or when exactly they’ll strike. All major cities have been evacuated to safe zones, and we’re doing what we can to move and protect everywhere else.”

“So now you decide to tell the whole world about the Black Arms?” Knuckles grumbled.

“We wanted to avoid a panic,” Abraham repeated irritably. “Once we knew there was too great a chance the Black Arms might make landfall, we had no choice but to tell people and evacuate as soon as possible. If we’d evacuated everyone as soon as we detected the Black Arms, the supplies we’ve set aside in the safe zones would be less likely to last them the duration of this struggle!”

“Knuckles, it’s okay! The people are safe now, we need to work together right now!” Tails urged. Knuckles scoffed and turned away, but protested no further.

Several minutes ticked by while Tails coordinated with G.U.N. to try and triangulate their working sensors to locate the Black Comet. Commander Tower began issuing orders for troop deployments to make sure every potential vital target was safeguarded. Rouge looked over at Knuckles, sensing the echidna was upset with more than*** the Commander’s cautionary tactics. The treasure huntress would’ve left the room to go rest by now, but decided to stay and check in with her boyfriend first.

All of a sudden, alarms began blaring and red lights flashed across the room. Rouge covered her ears while the G.U.N. officers and agents in the room began scrambling about.

“We have visual, Commander!” one agent yelled across the room.

“Show me, main screen.”

The screens all changed to show Central City and the skies above it. To the horror of everyone in the room, they saw something gradually moving to eclipse the sun above the city. The skies began to darken as a shadow was cast over the entire city and for miles around it.

“A few of the new satellites we deployed are coming online… it puts the New Black Comet at just enough of a distance to maintain an eclipse over a given area,” another officer explained. “It’s somehow maintaining a perfect orbit around the planet, moving at just enough of a pace to block out the sunlight.”

“They’re targeting Central City first,” the Commander growled, his white brows furrowed in hostile anger. “I see. They want to settle the score from last time. They remember the President is housed in Central City. Well, too bad for them the whole city was evacuated over an hour ago.”

A moment later, a familiar, unsettling phenomenon occurred; clouds began to rapidly billow over the entire darkened area that consumed Central City. The skies and clouds turned a dark red, and thunder began to rumble as an eye began to form in the clouds directly over the middle of Central City.

“We were just there… a few minutes ago…” Sonic mumbled, then balled his hands into fists. “We gotta stop them!”

“All right people, initiate combat alert ‘alpha’! I want five of our nearest companies to Central City deployed ASAP! Put the Fortress on full battle-readiness and every base on full-alert! Prepare the air-fleet and prepare all anti-air weapons to strike incoming vessels! Get on the radio and notify Gadget and the Mobian Militia! Move! Move! ” Commander Tower barked. “Team Sonic! We need you there now! Tails established a link with his radio, we’ll try and support you!”

“We’re on it, Abe!” Sonic assured with his signature grin. “Yo Tails! Knuckles! Let’s roll!”

“I should go too-!” Rouge started to say, but Abraham gently put a hand on her good shoulder to keep her seated.

“No Agent Rouge, you’ve more than done your part for today,” he told her. “Besides, even with the latest healing stimulants the doctors want to wait at least twenty-four hours before clearing you for duty again. If we weren’t in the middle of a war, I’d double that recovery-time for you all, at least.”

“I…!” Rouge sighed and hung her head. Before he left, Knuckles stopped at the doorway and they exchanged a look.

“Just… you guys be careful, okay?” she insisted. “This guy’s seriously bad news, even by our standards. Do you even have a plan on how to fight Eclipse if he shows up?”

“I got some new tricks I learned on Chaos Island; we’ll play it safe and figure something out!” Sonic assured her. Knuckles nodded and smiled as confidently as he could at Rouge.

“If all three of us take him on, we’ll find a way to pay him back for what he did to you guys!” the red echidna promised, walking back over to her. “He won’t chalk up two wins in a row!” Rouge nodded and managed a weak smile back.

“Good luck…” Rouge murmured, and gave Knuckles a kiss. He returned it, and gave her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze (if still firmer than intended).

“Take it easy, Rouge. We’ll be back,” Knuckles told her, and with that, Team Sonic departed, rushing to save the world yet again. After a few moments, Rouge heaved herself to her feet.

“I’m… going to go check on Omega,” she told Abraham as she dragged herself out.

“Very well… just please get some rest when you can, Agent Rouge,” he replied, his eyes softening with concern as he watched his best agent leave. Abraham knew Rouge had taken a beating, but more than that, he knew seeing her team get torn up like Shadow and Omega had shaken her up more than anything. He’d lost enough comrades in his years at G.U.N. to know that feeling.

Still… perhaps it was because Omega was in better condition than Shadow, but the concern Rouge showed for the Ultimate Life-Form was remarkable. Commander Tower had rarely seen that level of devotion between two people like that.

“Shadow… I hope you know just how great of a team you have rooting for you,” Tower thought as he returned to overseeing the next war with the Black Arms. “We’re all rooting for you right now. We need you more than ever, it seems…”

—---------------

*G.U.N. Headquarters: Outside Shadow’s OR, About Fifteen Minutes Later*

—------------

When Rouge had arrived at G.U.N.’s mech maintenance, she’d been relieved to see Omega with a brand-new chestplate already installed. A few minutes later, they reinstalled his fully-repaired arm and reactivated the reformed badnik at Rouge’s request.

When she filled Omega in on Shadow’s condition, he insisted on holding off on the remainder of his repairs. Since everything critical had been repaired and ammunition had been reloaded, the head technician cleared Omega for duty, and the two of them went to await word on Shadow’s condition.

After waiting another ten minutes once arriving, a doctor finally came out of the room. Rouge and Omega immediately jumped to their feet as the doctor approached them.

“His condition is stable, and from what we’ve observed, gradually improving,” she said with a warm, if tired, smile. Rouge exhaled in relief, putting a hand over her chest to steady her heart. “We didn’t have to operate too intrusively; amazingly, the bleeding, external or otherwise, was minimal and easily patched. The main issue is the broken bones, but we’re confident those will all fully recover.”

“Oh… oh, thank God. Thank you!” Rouge exclaimed, her weary aquamarine eyes now shining with hope and relief. Normally she was much more composed, but was too exhausted to mask her solace. “Can… can we see him?”

“We’re transferring him to another room. If you want to wait there he’ll be moved there shortly.”

Once they had Shadow’s new room, Rouge and Omega hurried there (after an orderly requested Omega walk more quietly so as to not disturb other patients), and a few minutes later Shadow was brought in.

“Ah!” Rouge couldn’t help but gasp a little; though he no longer had an oxygen mask on, the Ultimate Life-Form was covered in bandages, and still appeared to be very much out of it. She couldn’t remember seeing Shadow look this rough, even after getting wounded at the Gimme Shelter base. Omega put his newly-repaired hand on Rouge’s back for comfort.

“I know it looks bad, but remember; this is Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life-Form,” the same doctor from the OR told Rouge. “From what we’ve seen, and from his file, he should recover at least fifty-percent more quickly than the average patient. You can stay here as long as you want until then.”

“Thank you,” Rouge replied with a nod, scooting her seat a little closer to Shadow’s bed, leaning in to watch the ebony hedgehog carefully. After double-checking everything again, the doctors left the room.

“Observation: due to the rate of improvement in Shadow’s vitals, the restoring of his inhibitor ring may cause Shadow to recover more quickly than they estimate,” Omega stated as a means of comfort, but Rouge only nodded again, never taking her eyes off of Shadow. Glancing between his two teammates, Omega suddenly thought it’d be best if he let the two of them be for now.

“I shall return to maintenance to finish my repairs. I will return with haste once they are complete.”

“Okay Omega… thanks, for everything, y’know?” Rouge said softly, finally breaking her gaze to look at Omega. “I’ll call you if anything happens.”

“Very well. If you need me present before my repairs are complete I shall report in,” Omega affirmed, and (as stealthily as his mechanized metal feet would allow,) left the room. Rouge turned back to keep an eye on Shadow, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath to remind her he was okay.

“You just have to keep fighting for others, don’t you?” Rouge mumbled to her unconscious ally. “Just keep pushing yourself until you’re ready to keel over and… Ugh! Why are you always putting yourself in harm’s way to save others?! Do you really care that little about yourself?! Why can’t you be more selfish like me?!”

Rouge realized she had grabbed Shadow’s sheets, clenched tightly in her hands. With a sigh, she released them, and rubbed her forehead.

“Okay, you’re a hero, Shadow,” she whispered desperately. “You saved us. You saved everyone on the shuttle. Just… wake up now, okay? That’s all I want. I just got you back… there’s no point in saving me if you’re just going to keep leaving and staying gone… Just wake up already…”

—-----

*With Shadow…*

—------------

Everything was dark…

Shadow could only see blackness, could barely feel his own body. But gradually, his awareness of his surroundings grew…

“Where am I… am I… dead…?” Shadow wondered to himself, as he tried to move. He was walking now… wasn’t he? Was this even real? How had he gotten here…?

Shadow wracked his brain, but found darkness there too; his thoughts were slow to come, difficult to focus on. He closed his eyes tight, focusing as much as he could…

“Eclipse…!” Shadow opened his eyes and his whole face twisted in anger. That’s right; Eclipse the Darkling, the Black Arms… Rouge! Omega!

The ebony hedgehog turned around, peering into the darkness around him, trying to make some semblance of… anything, really. After a few moments, it seemed like his eyes finally adjusted to make out some vague shapes… One of them moved!

Shadow began walking, or moving however he was able to here, and began to make out more specific shapes. There were… wings? A familiar set of ears…!

“Rouge! Where are we?” Shadow spoke. Or did he…? He heard the words, but it felt like nothing came from his mouth just now… The silhouette of Rouge didn’t respond, so Shadow approached her again. When he finally reached her, he could make out the familiar ivory color of her fur and black-and-pink leotard.

“Rouge…!!” She still didn’t respond, so Shadow reached out to grab her shoulder… but as soon as he did, she dissipated like smoke.

“ What…?! No!” he tried to shout, but again, it felt like his words were smothered just before being heard.

“Nothing will last, brother. Nothing but the Black Arms…” a voice, from behind him… or in the back of his head…?

Shadow turned, and gritted his teeth at the sight of Eclipse the Darkling, grinning smugly with his arms crossed.

“You… YOU…!” Shadow desperately tried to shout, and grasped at his own throat in frustration. “What… what is happening?!”

“You, Black Doom and I, all of the Black Arms… we do not wither, we do not fade away,” Eclipse’s voice felt like a sting in the front of Shadow’s mind. “The bat, she will die. She will either die in battle, of her weakness, or die of aging, her fragility. You cannot escape the pain you feel so terribly when it comes again. It will only grow as everything else around you dies.”

“SHUT UP!!” Shadow screamed, and charged at the Darkling, his senses overcome with growing despair. But Eclipse just faded away like smoke as well, a laugh echoing all around like they were in a deep cavern. Shadow frantically looked around him..

“Why do you go against your nature? Why are you so determined to wipe out your own kind?” Eclipse’s voice hissed from everywhere. “There’s only one way to endure the centuries ahead unalone, Shadow. Without us, you have nothing. The humans and creatures you protect, they will turn against you eventually. You bear no love for them, nor they for you, despite all you’ve done for them. They know your true nature, better than you do… and they rightfully fear it…”

“H-How…?!” How, how could Eclipse even know that?! Then it hit Shadow:

This was in his head. Maybe it was a nightmare, perhaps a remnant of Black Death’s attempt to break Shadow’s will, but all these thoughts had crossed Shadow’s mind at one point or another.

“Stop! You don’t know anything about my true nature!” Shadow growled, nearly gasping in relief when the words finally came out. “You’re just a figment of my mind, nothing more. There’s nothing you can say that’s any worse than what I’ve told myself!”

Eclipse’s voice finally faded, but darkness again enveloped Shadow’s surroundings. He desperately attempted to sense where he was, keeping his arms around him, carefully feeling around him to find something, anything.

Then, Shadow finally saw something before him; his namesake, Shadow’s shadow, stretched out before him.

“A shadow will show you where to find the light…”

“Maria…?!” Shadow gasped, and turned to see a sudden shining light, like a doorway, glowing behind him, casting his shadow. The black hedgehog gazed at the beautiful doorway, reminded a bit of the portals in White Space when he’d last fought Black Doom… and had last seen Maria and the Professor…

Had he actually heard her voice…? Wasn’t this all in his head? Then why couldn’t he awaken?

Deciding he had no other choice if he wanted to leave this dark nothingness behind, Shadow finally walked into the glowing doorway of light. A soothing warmth enveloped him, and suddenly, he found himself in an old memory…

—------

*Space Colony ARK, Over Fifty Years Ago…*

—--------------

“Shadow! Where are you? We’re going to be late!”

A young, blonde girl wearing a cerulean dress quickly walked down one of the long, bending corridors of the Space Colony, her home. She clutched a few books to her chest as she walked; class was about to start, and her only other classmate was missing!

“Shadow! Come on, class starts in just a-!”

Maria stopped mid-sentence to find the door to Shadow’s room shut tight. Frowning in concern, she hit a few buttons on the keypad, and the door slid open for her.

“Shadow…? Are you okay?” Maria asked softly as she stepped into the room. Her eyes widened a little to see Shadow on his bed, lying on his side and facing away from her. “We need to be getting to class. The teacher-”

“You go on ahead,” Shadow muttered. “I’m not going anymore.”

“Shadow! What’s the matter?” Maria asked, walking over to her hedgehog companion with haste, setting her books down as she approached him. She seated herself on the bed, and tenderly rested a hand on Shadow’s shoulder. He flinched a little at first, but relaxed after a moment.

“It’s okay, Shadow. You can talk to me.”

“Maria…” Shadow heaved with sigh, and finally sat up to sit next to Maria on the bed. “It’s just… I didn’t finish my report…”

“What? But you were almost done a couple of days ago!” Maria said. “You were writing a report on the difference between electricity and your powers, right? What happened? I could’ve helped you if you needed it.”

Shadow didn’t respond, but his eyes darted down to the floor. Maria followed his gaze, and gasped to see a wadded up pile of papers in the corner.

“Oh, Shadow! Why did you do this?” Maria asked, patiently but clearly upset. She went over to the papers and picked them up, trying to smooth them out as best as possible.

“It’s…” Shadow sighed again. “The scientists… I heard what they’ve said, read the reports they leave on the screens. I know what they all think of me, of my powers…”

“Shadow… I’m sorry…” Maria told him softly, pulling Shadow into a half-hug as she sat back down. “I know words can hurt; they can resonate with your own fears, but that doesn’t make them true.”

“Nearly everyone besides you and the Professor thinks of me as a weapon. They say that’s all my power can be used for; fighting and destruction,” Shadow went on, gripping his hand into a fist. “Just like the Black Arms I was modeled after…”

“You’re not a monster of the Black Arms!” Maria said firmly, tilting Shadow’s chin so his red eyes were forced to look at her. “Remember what I told you before? I know how big your heart is, and I know grandfather and I aren’t the only ones who can see it!”

“How can you be so sure, Maria?” Shadow asked with a slight strain. “You said I would meet other people I can trust, but…”

“You will. You may not speak much, but your actions speak for you much more plainly,” Maria replied with a warm, assured smile. “I know how deeply you care for me and grandfather, and I’ve seen nothing but goodness in you. Even if you can be a bit grumpy,” she added teasingly, giggling a little.

“Hmph.”

“Seriously Shadow. Try to have faith; goodness as pure as yours will make itself known,” Maria insisted, handing Shadow his report back. 

“Nobody can tell you who you are but yourself. Once you've learned to hear truths with your heart, you'll know who you can trust.” 

After a moment, Shadow accepted the papers back, and gave Maria a small smile.

“Thank you, Maria,” he said, nodding at her. “You always know what to say.” Maria beamed at her dark friend and stood up, taking Shadow’s hand as she did so.

“Of course Shadow. I’ll always be there for you the way you’re there for me. Now we need to hurry; class starts in two minutes…!”

—---------------

Everything faded behind the veil of a dark fog again. Shadow felt he was half-drifting, half-running as he tried to find something else. Behind him, the darkness grew deeper and colder. Ahead, there was a faint, distant light, but he couldn't see the source, or where it was coming from.

“ I may look like a hedgehog… but I'm no different from this ugly, heartless creature…” Shadow heard his own voice speaking to him from the blackness.

“Evening, handsome!”

Shadow gasped softly and turned towards the light, where he had definitely heard Rouge’s voice just now. 

More voices began speaking from the dark, but were always rebutted by a comment from Rouge, most of which Shadow remembered her saying before…

“He is a warrior, a destroyer!”

“Aww, you boys are so sweet! You’re such a softie! Ah-ah-ah! The more you deny it, the more I believe it!”

Even in this state, Shadow couldn’t help but grunt out a “Hmph,” at Rouge’s playful remarks.

“He’s evil, and he’s the enemy!”

“Shadow’s always here to defend the world!”

“He’s so scary, that look in his eyes!”

“He’s not bad-looking, but…”

“Capture him, dead or alive!”

“Aw yeah baby, this makes us a team!”

Shadow began walking in the direction of Rouge’s voice. As he walked, everything began to brighten. The dark fog began to turn to a soft, lavender color, with luminous strands of light filling the air around him. He felt as if he were walking through the sky during a sunset. Soon, the voices from behind were drowned out by the voice of his ally ahead.

“Who do you think dragged you here in the first place?! You aren’t even going to thank me? Figures!”

“Thank you, Rouge…” Shadow whispered reflexively as he kept walking towards his unknown destination.

“Aw come on, Shadow! At the very least we can do some treasure-hunting together!”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve fought side-by-side like this!”

“You have to promise to come to Sonic’s birthday party!”

“That was so unlike you Shadow… to come and rescue me?”

“Shadow…”

“If you need someone after all is said and done, I’m here for you…”

The light grew brighter until once again, Shadow couldn’t make out his surroundings. He felt like he was suddenly falling upwards…

—-----------------

…?

* Beep*...*Beep*...

“A… monitor?”

Shadow slowly opened his eyes a wink. He groaned weakly as he became dimly aware of how painful and heavy his body felt. Through his bleary vision, the Ultimate Life-Form could vaguely make out that he was in a hospital, bandaged and lying on a bed. There was a gentle weight on his chest. Blinking a few times, Shadow did a double-take.

“R…Rouge…?”

Indeed, the huntress had fallen asleep not long after Omega had left, unaware that she would be using Shadow’s chest as a pillow. She was in such a deep sleep, even her sensitive ears hadn’t been alerted to Shadow’s stirring.

The ebony hedgehog fuzzily wondered what she was doing there, just sleeping on him like that. Had she just been keeping an eye on him? But in his condition, Shadow couldn’t stay awake much longer, and drifted back to sleep, hoping he would have more coherent dreams, or better yet, none at all.

“Thank you…” Without even realizing it as he fell back asleep, his hand with his newly-restored inhibitor rested itself on Rouge’s arm.

—--------------

*Central City, During Shadow’s OR Transfer*

—-------------

With the New Black Comet miles above the inclement weather it was causing over Central City, a steady stream of Black Arms began raining down from the eye of the storm clouds above. Unlike when they had invaded Westopolis a few years ago, there were no civilians to get caught in their immediate wake.

Dozens of Black Arms soldiers, Black Oak giants, and Black Volts quickly turned to hundreds, then thousands. They soon began taking positions on the buildings and street corners. A few Black Assassins took positions on skyscrapers, surveying the area with scoped-rifles. Black Volts began searching for any potential foes, darting through the streets from above. Several squads began firing their weapons into buildings and shops, trying to flush out anyone who may have been hiding.

Eclipse landed exactly where he wanted; right before the President’s House. He already knew the city had been evacuated, but regardless, he had no intention of leaving this symbol of leadership standing.

“Chaos Control: Legion! Chaos Spear!! ” Like before, hundreds of Chaos Spears filled the air, and rained down on the fortified government house. A ripple of explosions ripped through the air as the house began crumbling under the assault of Chaos Energy. “Chaos Control: Form Focus! Chaos Lance! ” Both of Eclipse’s claws glowed a mix of red and yellow, and he fired two focused beams of Chaos Energy into the heart of the President’s House while Chaos Spears were still detonating into the rubble. A huge wave of red fire erupted, blowing away whatever structure still remained standing.

“Hmph. Fragile,” Eclipse spat with disgust, turning his back on the smoking ruin.

“Eclipse, the fortresses have been summoned, and I bring news.” Death’s Eye suddenly flew down towards Eclipse, hovering just above him.

“Black Death,” Eclipse nodded towards the floating eye. “What is it?”

“The Black Comet has detected movement around the globe; the Mobians and humans are definitely mobilizing to stop us,” Black Death’s voice echoed from its eye. “More importantly, we’ve detected three beings moving towards us at an incredible speed. They will be here shortly. We believe it’s the blue hedgehog, Sonic, who helped fight Black Doom before, and two others of his kind. They are stronger than anything the humans can throw at us.”

“Sonic… Yes, I remember. Black Doom informed us of him via the hivemind; he was quite a thorn in his side,” Eclipse remarked. “I wonder if they’ll pose any more of a challenge than Shadow. When will they arrive?”

“Less than a minute, now.”

“Hmm… Now, do I move to intercept them, or let them come to me?” Eclipse wondered aloud, thoughtfully holding his chin as he smirked maliciously. “Decisions, decisions…”

A moment later, three figures blasted through the line of Black Arms furthest from the city’s center. Just as the Darkling registered this new presence, there was a flash of blue and red, and suddenly he found himself caught between a blue hedgehog, and a red echidna, both coming at him with raised fists.

“They’re fast! Not bad,” Eclipse thought to himself, smirking in amusement at his newest opponents. He summoned a Focused Chaos Spear to both of his hands, and moved to block both attacks. 

“Whoa!” Sonic exclaimed, changing the angle of his attack once he saw Eclipse’s claws glow. He rolled into a ball and Spin Dashed at the Darkling’s legs while Knuckles’s fist and Eclipse’s claw collided. Red energy from Knuckles’s harnessed Pachamac techniques and green Chaos Energy from the Black Arms prodigy collided, and built against each other.

When Sonic came at him, Eclipse summoned his latent power to strengthen his left leg, and he actually managed to kick Sonic’s balled-up form aside. The energy between him and Knuckles couldn’t build anymore, and exploded. It sent both of them flying back dozens of meters. Both managed to land and recover, but it was clear Knuckles had taken a bit of a beating from that attack.

“Gotcha!”

Eclipse’s eyes widened at the new voice from behind him. He turned to see a young, yellow fox aiming some sort of repulsor rifle at him, and the Darkling was suddenly hit by a jolt of energy. His barrier protected him from pain, but Eclipse suddenly found it difficult to move; an electrical current had managed to lock his body down. Tails had developed an attack that could latch onto other energy sources, and turn it against its user. In this case, it had latched onto Eclipse’s Chaos Energy, and though his barrier still protected him, it didn’t prevent his body and barrier from being immobilized.

“Tch! What… is this…?!” Eclipse hissed. He looked just in time to see Sonic and Knuckles moving to strike simultaneously again, and both fists struck the Darkling dead-on in the torso, sending him to smash through a building’s concrete wall.

“Ha! Gotcha!” Knuckles exclaimed with a satisfied smirk. Sonic flicked his nose smugly as he moved to stand beside the crimson echidna, with Tails moving to land beside him.

“Be ready guys; I doubt it's over that easily!” Tails warned them.

“The fox seems to be more intelligent than most of you,” Eclipse affirmed, brushing himself off, unscathed, as he walked towards the trio. “You have some skill and decent abilities, but nothing to pride yourselves with.”

“Big talk, dollar-store Shadow!” Sonic taunted as he took a battle-ready stance. “You might have beaten Shadow, but you got lucky; we won’t let you hurt anyone else! You think you’re so special? We’ve beaten interdimensional monsters, ancient gods, super-weapons of every size and shape, and about a dozen different kinds of evil aliens! We know how to deal with sinister sickos like you, we’ve beaten you before, and we’ll finish you for good this time!”

“Oh, on the contrary, hedgehog,” Eclipse laughed, his eyes glowing with power as it crackled dangerously all around him. “You’ve never faced anything like me before!”

----

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve: United We Fall, A City Lost

—----------------

Sonic and Knuckles launched at Eclipse from two different angles. Instead of meeting them head-on, the Darkling opted to warp away with his Chaos Control and reappear above them.

“Chaos Spear! ” 

“Oldest trick in the ‘Edgy-Hedgy Handbook!’ C’mon!” Sonic taunted as he deftly dodged every arc of explosive energy.

“ Grah!! ” Knuckles grunted as he hurled a huge chunk of cement at Eclipse while he was still airborne. Again, Eclipse warped away but Sonic managed to catch him as he reappeared. The Blue Blur began to throw punches as fast as his nickname implied. Even Eclipse’s speed and reflexes were quickly pushed to their limit as he blocked and dodged as many blows as he could.

“ There’s something familiar about his technique, the energy that envelops him and his speed… ” Eclipse thought to himself as one punch got by his defenses, but was still rendered useless by his barrier.

“Yes, I can see how Black Doom would’ve had trouble with you!” Eclipse remarked with a chuckle, and managed to catch Sonic’s next punch in his palm, and began crushing the hedgehog’s hand. Grimacing, Sonic attempted to pull free, but Eclipse quickly delivered a quaking kick to the Blue Hedgehog’s torso, sending him crashing through a shop window and slamming into about eight shelves and a wall.

“Sonic!!” Knuckles exclaimed, and with renewed rage, charged at Eclipse at his top speed (not much compared to Sonic’s, but still impressive).

“Chaos Blast! ” Eclipse shouted, unleashing a violent surge of explosive Chaos Energy just as Knuckles neared him. With a cry, the red echidna was thrown back, but while falling through the air, he managed to drill himself back down to the ground. Knuckles quickly burrowed into the concrete and vanished.

“Running away, or planning an ambush?” Eclipse mused aloud, and then warped just in time to dodge another blast from Tails’s repulsor cannon.

“Leave them alone!” the wunderkind fox demanded, aiming his self-invented weapon at the Black Arms’ leader.

“Oh please, a battlefield is hardly the place for a brat like you!” Eclipse scoffed, and warped before Tails, slamming his fist down upon him.

But the Darkling passed right through.

“Nope! Try again!” Tails laughed. Eclipse turned to see the yellow fox waving at him from across the street. Growling, the Darkling fired a spray of Chaos Spears, but they also went right through his target.

“Holograms. Tch, nice trick but I’ve seen it before,” Eclipse shot, and leapt high into the air. “I’ll just have to destroy everything until I hit the real one!”

“Too slow!” 

Sonic slammed a Homing Attack into Eclipse, who suddenly spread his wings to keep from being knocked down. Gritting his fangs, Eclipse empowered one of his arms and threw a counterattack at Sonic, who leapt off the Darkling and even higher into the air.

“Sonic Boom! ” Sonic exclaimed, and began rapidly kicking with such mind-splitting speed, each kick sent a shockwave of energy at Eclipse. The Darkling blocked the attacks but it was like being pinned down with a heavy machine-gun. His barrier was holding out, but Eclipse was starting to worry that, with enough time, the blue hedgehog may actually break through with this attack. The source of Sonic’s speed was empowering his attacks with its own energy, and it seemed to be having an effect.

“ Enough! ” Eclipse growled, warping away and above Sonic again, diving down fist-first at his opponent. “Form Focus: Chaos Spear! ” The punch collided with Sonic as he attempted to counter with a charged-up Homing Attack, but the Darkling won out and slammed Sonic into the ground with an electrifying explosion.

“Down here!” Knuckles exclaimed, having leapt out from the ground and grabbed Eclipse by the leg.

“ Wh-?! ” he had time to exclaim before the red echidna slammed him into the concrete streets below. Even with his barrier, Eclipse was a bit stunned by how sudden and violent the attack had been. Knuckles’ fists crackled with the energy of his inner-strength, and without wasting a moment, began repeatedly slamming Eclipse into the ground, like someone beating the devil out of an old rug.

Like with Sonic’s Sonic Boom Kick, Eclipse was concerned the energy behind Knuckles’ attack may eventually break through his barrier. It wasn’t as effective at piercing his defenses as Chaos Energy, but if the Darkling wasn’t careful, these three Mobians may have a chance, however slight, of defeating him.

He wasn’t about to let that happen. To come all this way, fifty years of war and conquest, to finally have a chance to avenge Black Doom and his people, and lose to these fools? Before he could even determine Shadow’s fate?

Eclipse managed to plant his powerful wings into the ground to catch himself before Knuckles could force contact with the pavement again. The Darkling briefly empowered his wings as he could with the rest of his body, and with the burst of enhanced strength he managed to push back against Knuckles’ legendary muscle.

“What… the…?!” Knuckles spat as he struggled against the Darkling’s might, and realized, with his hands free, Eclipse was aiming a Chaos Spear right at him.

“No you don’t!” Tails cried as he fired another blast from his cannon.

“He appeared too suddenly; it’s another hologram, but the attack is real,” Eclipse realized as he summoned a Chaos Blade to his other hand and blocked the attack. “ Did this fox invent these? false figures capable of offense? Impressive. Still, the real one has to be near… ”

“Chaos Spear! ” The arc of energy struck Knuckles, knocking the echidna across the street to slam into an abandoned car.

Not giving the others a chance to strike again, Eclipse warped away and took to the air with his wings. He certainly had an idea on how to flush out the fox and his holograms:

“Chaos Control: Legion! Chaos Spear!! ”

Another storm of Chaos Spears rained down upon the city, destroying buildings, parked cars and everything in the streets with blossoms of fire. Eclipse watched the area carefully, peering through the smoke and rubble, ready to move as soon as he saw movement.

There it was: he could see Tails fleeing a building’s rooftop before it collapsed, taking to the air with his propellor-like twin-tails. Smirking, Eclipse dove right for the fox like a hawk swooping down. Tails turned to see Eclipse coming, exclaimed and aimed to fire his repulsor cannon again.

“Chaos Control! ” Eclipse froze time just long enough to seize Tails’ weapon, crush it, and deliver a blow to his torso. When time returned to normal, Tails rolled across the street and roughly hit the side of an overturned vehicle.

But Eclipse didn’t have time to celebrate; half a moment after he struck Tails, Sonic returned. The blue hedgehog slammed into the Darkling from above, and forcibly drilled him into the ground below. Sonic didn’t relent; he repeatedly slammed into Eclipse like a basketball rapidly bouncing off the pavement. After over a dozen strikes, Sonic stopped in mid-air, then unleashed another barrage of Sonic Boom kicks, and then slammed himself into Eclipse again.

With that, Sonic finally managed to weaken the barrier, and the Darkling finally felt pain for the first time in this fight.

After burying Eclipse deep into the road, Sonic landed back above and took a moment to look for Knuckles and Tails. There was no sign of the red echidna amongst all the destruction, but Sonic’s eyes widened when he saw his best friend lying limply in the street about a block away from him.

“ Tails!! ” Sonic exclaimed, but was cut off by Eclipse’s fist smashing into his torso.

“ UGCK!! ”

“Don’t get distracted!” Eclipse chided with a sinister playfulness, and followed up with a kick to the blue hedgehog’s head, sending him skidding across the road to land near Tails.

“D-Damn…!” Sonic winced as he got back to his feet, helping Tails up as he did so. “Rouge wasn’t wrong about this guy. Everything we’ve thrown at him and he’s barely got a scratch! You okay bud?”

“I… think so,” Tails replied, trying to catch his breath as they kept a careful eye on Eclipse, who was casually striding towards them now. Tails pulled a few other combat gadgets from his pack, keeping them concealed from their foe under his palms. “Is… Knuckles okay?”

“I’m sure he is! That echidna’s tougher than a mountain, and twice as stubborn!” Sonic assured as he put his fists up, waiting for another attack.

“Your confidence is born of hollow victories, hedgehog!” Eclipse laughed. “You’ve simply never fought an enemy of my standards. I’ve conquered countless worlds, vanquished countless more opponents!” He pointed a claw, almost accusingly, at Sonic.

“I’ve seen beings with abilities remarkably similar to yours. Not nearly as strong, refined or fast, but the techniques are the same,” Eclipse told them. “A whole race of owls, actually, on a world that no longer exists. A whole army of flying warriors with your powers couldn’t defeat me, what makes you think you and your rodent friends pose any threat?”

“Cause I’m not an owl, pal! And taking pride in killing others is messed up, and frankly cheap!” Sonic shot back with his iconic snark, and a smug smirk suddenly appeared on his face. Eclipse arched a brow at him, then felt a new tugging sensation from below…

“ Gravitfy! ” Tails shouted, and triggered the devices in his hand. Eclipse’s entire body suddenly became pinned to the ground, and a moment later, the road gave way and the Darkling fell beneath the streets as rubble began to collapse upon him.

“Nice one Tails!” Sonic complimented with a friendly slap on Tails’ shoulder. “When did you make that gadget?”

“Just a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t been able to field test them until now!” the yellow fox replied. “While he was distracted I set several of these traps around the area; he just stands over them, I activate them, and gravity increases around the target up to over four-hundred times! But come on, we should find Knuckles!”

“Right, Knucklehead! He better be okay!” Sonic agreed, and they went looking in the rubble for their echidna friend. Thankfully, they spotted the familiar red color fairly quickly, and rushed over to him. Knuckles had luckily been sheltered from the worst of the Chaos Spears, but was now dazed and lying under a collapsed wall.

“Knuckles! It’s okay, we got you!” Tails said as he and Sonic worked together to lift the wall off. Groaning groggily, Knuckles rubbed his head as they helped him to his feet. The guardian’s crimson fur was singed and he was covered in scrapes and bruises, but his fists were still ready to rumble.

“You good, man?” Sonic asked worriedly. “We bought ourselves a break but I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being done here.”

“Y-Yeah… I’m banged up but I can fight,” Knuckles assured them after taking a moment to assess his condition. “W…Where is he?” 

Team Sonic went back out onto the street, standing close to each other as they looked around for any sign of Eclipse or other Black Arms. Tails retrieved his scanner and held it out before him.

“I’m detecting over a thousand signatures clustered around the city center. A majority of the Black Arms are concentrated there, with over a thousand more forming a perimeter around Central City’s borders,” Tails reported. “But I can’t get a fix on Eclipse any-”

He fell silent as all three of them turned to face what appeared to be a black stormcloud above them, crackling with yellow and green volts. A moment later they realized it was Eclipse, wings spread, surrounded by over a hundred Black Volts, surging with Chaos Energy so strongly it seemed to be resonating with all the other Black Arms around him.

“Uh, Tails? How many contacts are right in front of us?” Sonic asked with a nervous laugh, slowly backing away while keeping an eye on the horde of alien foes.

“Over a hundred… wait, two-hundred!” Tails replied in a hoarse squeak of a voice. 

“Sonic, I’m open to ideas!” Knuckles said, not backing down from holding his guard up, yet his eyes showed a glimpse of anxiety as he tried to keep all the Black Arms within his scope.

“Don’t look at me! You’re the commander of the resistance, remember?!”

“ Chaos Control: Legion!! ” Eclipse snarled. Sonic prepared to grab Tails and Knuckles to hightail them away, but hesitated when no Chaos Spears appeared to strike down upon them. Instead, Team Sonic noticed that multiple large, red spheres of Chaos Energy were appearing and building in size and strength.

Sonic’s eyes widened; he recognized this technique, he’d seen Shadow use it multiple times.

“ Chaos BLAST!! ”

Sonic pulled his teammates away for dear life. Hundreds of Chaos Blasts were detonating all around them, shredding the city apart worse than a series of carpet bombs. Fire and debris flew everywhere like confetti, with Sonic zipping the three of them away, around and over the destruction with expert precision. Even running at dangerously high-speeds, Sonic’s reflexes had become so accustomed to it that he could weave around and leap over the explosions before him while moving fast enough to outrun the rest. Carrying Tails and Knuckles wasn’t too much hassle either; he’d carried people to safety loads of times while the world seemed to fall apart around him, and while his strength was a far-cry from Knuckles’, it was still enough to dent up solid steel on Eggman’s robots.

Still, as much as he would’ve loved to, Sonic was too focused on staying alive to marvel at his own amazing skills.

When they’d traveled close to the northern district of Central City, they’d finally outrun the range of Eclipse’s enhanced Chaos Blasts. Sonic wiped his brow and heaved a heavy sigh.

“What in…?! He can multiply Chaos Spears and Chaos Blasts?! That’s totally unfair!” Sonic sputtered. “What’s this guy’s deal, does he have cheats enabled or what?!”

“He could wipe out whole cities single-handedly with those powers! We can’t let him or the Black Arms gain another inch!” Knuckles declared.

“We might need some help, guys!” Tails suggested nervously. “Especially if the Black Arms back him up, or if he has other powers we don’t know about yet!”

“Oh, I have plenty more tricks, if you care to test them out!”

All three felt a chill as they turned to see Eclipse hovering over them again, still accompanied by a few dozen Black Volts, as well as six Dark Volts that had just appeared. The Darkling chuckled in anticipation as he saw the growing despair of the Mobians.

“Chaos Control is something Shadow has merely dabbled in compared to me. Even Black Doom was limited by his time; only through his and Black Death’s refinements, and my extensive battle-experience bore the fruit of these specialized techniques! Chaos Bl-! ”

But before Eclipse could summon his weapon, a giant, red-and-gold hammer came careening through the air, smacked the Darkling dead-on in the head, and sent him to fly and crash into a damaged building two blocks away.

The Black and Dark Volts screeched as their leader was attacked, but were suddenly under fire themselves. Sonic and the others turned to see a very welcome sight:

Amy Rose and Gadget the Canine were leading a whole platoon’s worth of Mobian militia-fighters into Central City, along with a couple squads of G.U.N. mechs, Laser-Hunters, Beetles and the like. The pink hedgehog’s green eyes lit up when she saw the familiar blue of the person she admired most.

“Sonic! Are you guys okay?!” Amy asked as her Piko-Piko Hammer swung its way back to her before she held up her hand and expertly caught it as if it were a boomerang.

“Amy! Man, are you a sight for sore eyes!” Sonic greeted, dashing over to her with Tails and Knuckles in tow.

“You too Rookie-! Er, Gadget, sorry!” Knuckles added with an embarrassed smile. Gadget merely chuckled and nodded in response.

“Amy, what are you doing here? I thought you, Cream and her mother would’ve been evacuated by now!” Tails said.

“Oh, yes, but… there was an issue with the Chao Garden Daycare that Cream and Vanilla help run,” Amy told them, her gaze shifting a little as a bead of sweat ran down her head. “You see, there was trouble getting all the Chao out in time, so Cream and Vanilla…”

—-------------------

*A Few Minutes Before Black Arms Made Landfall*

—-------------

“Cream, Vanilla, are you sure about this?” Amy asked as the three of them each loaded a crate carrying several Chao onto a truck that Vanilla the Rabbit had been gifted. 

After helping open and run a Chao Garden in Central City (a sort of adoption center, vet and daycare for Chao all rolled into one), Vector the Crocodile had given Vanilla a remodeled truck leftover from the Resistance, and she’d used it to transport the Chao and supplies for the Garden many times since then. Of course, Vanilla and Cream had gone through great lengths to reoutfit the inside of the truck to be as colorful, calming and appealing for the Chao as possible. Cream’s own Chao companion, Cheese, had offered invaluable input.

“Of course Amy! Somebody has to make sure these poor dears are taken care of!” Vanilla chided gently, waving at the driver of the truck (a gray wolf volunteer from the Mobian militia,) as she drove off. “If I’d known our so-called co-owners were going to just abandon all those sweet Chao, I’d have come down here in a heartbeat!”

“Oh I know Vanilla, I’m just worried about you and Cream!” Amy replied, nervously looking towards the sky. “The evacuation started a few hours ago, and who knows when those monsters will show up!”

“Thank you Amy, but we’ll be okay!” Cream assured her friend. “A few of Mr. Gadget’s friends and Big are waiting for us by a boat in Emerald Beach! Once we get there we’ll get to a safe place.”

“That’s where we’ll see the Chao again, too,” Vanilla added. With a satisfied sigh, she turned back to Amy. “Well then, I believe we’re ready to leave now?”

Before Amy could reply however, they looked to see the sky darken and turn a deep red as black clouds billowed over the middle of Central City. Gasping, Amy put a hand over her mouth as the familiar cyclone formed, and they could distantly see Black Arms descending.

“Let’s go guys! My car is in the garage, we need to leave!” Amy shouted, and they all ran into the Chao Garden’s now-vacant building. 

“Oh my, look! We forgot the Prickle-Berry seeds, they’re a popular food for our Chao!” Cream stopped to point at a bag on a counter as they ran into the building. “They might need to grow them if they’re away too long!”

“Chao-Chao!” Cheese affirmed, floating above Cream’s ears.

“Cream, I’m sorry but we have no time! We-!” Amy started to protest, but was cut off by a loud *CRASH! * as three Black Arms Soldiers suddenly burst through the ceiling, growling fiercely.

“ Look out! ” Amy cried as she pulled Cream back and stood between her and the Black Arms.

“They… crushed the seeds…” Cream piped up, a tear welling in her right eye. Indeed, the counter and bag of seeds had been smashed to bits and splinters beneath the Black Arms’ feet.

“ Chaaaaaooo!! ” Cheese cried.

“Amy, dear, may I borrow your hammer?” Vanilla asked, her voice as cordial as ever yet so firm and sudden that Amy was suddenly more afraid of her than the Black Arms.

“Um… s-sure, Miss Vanilla!” Amy said with a forced, polite smile as she put her Piko-Piko Hammer into Vanilla’s open palm.

“Thank you Amy,” Vanilla said, her overly-warm tone betrayed by a hint of cold fury. “Now, could you please take Cream out to your car and double-check that we have everything? I’ll be along shortly.”

Vanilla hefted the Hammer up at the ready, and her eyes suddenly gleamed dangerously. The Black Arms froze as they could have sworn the rabbit’s eyes flashed red for a moment.

“These delinquents are mine.”

—---------------

*Back in the Present…*

—-------------

“...So by the time I got Cream and Vanilla to Emerald Beach after all that, Gadget and the Militia were coming through, so I thought I’d come along and help!” Amy finished explaining.

“Yeeeeesh… remind me never to cross Vanilla!” Sonic said, rubbing his quills absently as he comprehended the fury of a mother’s scorn. 

“Yes, we could honestly use someone like her in the militia!” Gadget agreed.

“I don’t think she could bring herself to leave the Chaos, especially after what happened today,” Amy replied. “But I feel better knowing Cream and Cheese are with her and Big. He might seem like an unassuming gentle-giant, but Big packs a wallop when his friends are in trouble.”

“ Commander Gadget!! ” The red canine’s radio cried with the voice of one of the Mobian Militia’s officers.

“What’s the matter soldier? Are the G.U.N. forces on the outside of the city unable to reach you?” Gadget asked.

“Negative, no reinforcements! We’re down to half-strength already-scratch that, less! The Black Arms, they’re-! AAAAGH!!” There was a scream, the sound of weapons firing, and the radio went dead.

“Lieutenant?! Lieutenant, do you copy?! No…” Gadget’s hands balled into fists, and he readied his Wispon-Cannon. “Rally our forces to this point, we need to save them and find a way to punch through the Black Arms on the perimeter so we can-!”

“You won’t be doing ANY of that!!”