The white bat quietly opened the door and hid behind the GUN steel container. She hid the explosives in her hammerspace. She turned on her communicator. "Shadow?" she whispered. A crackling sound came, followed by the black hedgehog's voice. "What is it?" he answered.

"We have 10 minutes to get out of here and drop the bomb into the core. Did you retrieve the Chaos Emerald?"

"Yes. Meet me in at the core in 5, then we'll get out of here."

Rouge turned off her communicator and stepped out from behind the container.

MEEP MEEP MEEP! A red light flashed in the hallway, followed by a woman's voice: "SECURITY BREACH IN SECTOR 39. LOCATE AND DESTROY. I REPEAT, LOCATE AND DESTROY."

"Damn." Rouge flew up to the pipes overhead and hid. She checked the bomb. 9 minutes. That was plenty of time. She looked around her. A security camera was tracking her movements from the corner. She couldn't move from the spot she was in, as it would attract the guard robots' attention. She rummaged around in hammerspace until she found a sticky grenade, and threw it over. It stuck to the camera, and she tucked herself into a small ball as it exploded. PING PING PING PING! The robots had started shooting at her.

Rouge quickly jumped into action. She did a drill drive down from the pipes, destroying one robot. She bounced back up and glided low, catching one robot between her feet and swinging it around to hit another robot. She turned a 180, throwing another grenade and catching the last two robots. She stopped to check the bomb. 6 minutes. It was time to meet Shadow at the core.

As she put the bomb away, she felt a sharp pain in her left wing. "AAAH!" she screamed in terror as she fell. She tried to fly away, but the hole in her wing threw her off. Still on the floor, she backed away as the robot stepped closer to her. She took out a grenade and held it in her hand. She was too close to the bot to use it, she'd get caught in the explosion too. The robot got closer. As she tried to scramble away, the robot grabbed her leg and hung her upside down. She dropped her weapons in shock and screamed as all the blood rushed to her head. She looked around frantically for a way out, but she couldn't find one.

The robot raised it's gun to her head. She held her breath and winced while she waited for the fatal blow that was about to come. "This is it." She thought. "And I never got to say goodbye to…"

"…CONTROL!" came a voice. CRASH! BZZT. Rouge dropped to the floor, unsure of what just happened. She opened her eyes. A dismantled robot was lying, sparking on her floor in front of her. A hand reached down to her. "Shadow!" she exclaimed.

"How long is left on the bomb?" he asked. She took it out and looked at it. Her eyes widened. "What?" Shadow asked, concerned by her facial expression.

"We have one minute to get out of here." She whispered in horror.

Noticing her broken wing, he picked up Rouge and Chaos Controlled to the core. It was a big big drop down. "I can't teleport up there, I took off my inhibitor rings to fight a hoard of robots." He stated. Rouge looked at Shadow. It was the first time in 17 years she'd ever seen him look seriously worried. She looked at the bomb. 30 seconds.

Rouge picked up Shadow. "What are you doing?"

"I'm flying up there." She replied.

"No, Rouge, you can't!" It was too late. Slowly but surely, she started flying upwards. They were getting quite close to the top now. 10 seconds left. Rouge was starting to slow down. Usually she could be out of here in less than 2 seconds, but her broken wing and the weight of Shadow was making it extremely hard. 5 seconds. "Rouge drop it now." Shadow panicked. Rouge did as she was told. Shadow grabbed the edge of the roof.

2…

Rouge was still hanging onto Shadow's hand, dangling down into the pit.

1...

FWOOM! A massive fiery wall came shooting up from the pit.

Rouge screamed in terror. They were both going to die, because of her.

Shadow clenched his fists, and using his last bit of energy…

"CHAOS CONTROL!" he teleported them both to safety as the building erupted like a volcano.

They were out on the street. Rouge, who was sat down, exhausted, looked down at Shadow, who had collapsed in a heap on the road, having fainted from using all his Chaos energy. She looked at him and started to smile, and started to half laugh, half cry, hugging the unconscious hedgehog.