The mid summer sun gleamed throught the living room window, warming the spots of furniture that it shone apon. Shadow sighed to himself as his legs were warmed by the rays. He had been relaxing on the couch as he waited for the day to start or atleast until it was into the late morning. The dark hedgehog was in a sleepy daze as he waited, but this was normal for him. This was his routine for most days. He would wait for a certain time and wake Skye up. Then, they would have breakfast and they would do whatever they had to do for that day.

His ear lazily pricked up as he heard afew muffled bumps and steps. He was about to open his eyes, hoping to see Skye in her pajamas. Instead, he felt hands grab onto his eyelids, violently opening them to shine the morning sunlight into his eyes.

"Are you awake yet?" A squeaky child's voice asked when he flinched back, he blinked to collect his bearings and to clear his vison. He felt weight on his leg and he turned to face whoever had done such a thing to him. But, he thought he would see Skye smiling at him, there was a small female child sitting on his leg, looking up at him with wide blue-green eyes.

Shadow stared at the girl, who was smiling at him. She looked rather young, her face rather chubby and covered in small brown flecks, which were mostly covering the bridge of her nose. Her shoulder length dark blone hair reminded him of Maria, but he swiftly pushed it out of his mind when he noticed that the girl's clothes were about five sizes way too big.

"Yay, you're awake!" She chirped loudly, hugging into him before nuzzling into his shoulder. A thought triggered in his mind as she did so. Skye was the only person was willing -and allowed- to hug him without hesitation, but surely this child wasn't her. True, she had a tendency to act childish, but this was far too literal.

He took a deep breath, pulling the child away to have a proper look at her chubby face. Trying to ignore her big eyed gaze he said, "Skye?"

"Yeah? That's me," She replied with a giggle.

Shadow's face paled. That sealed it. This was Skye.

Jumbled questions and thoughts bounced through his mind, trying to think of a reasonable explanation. No one could blame him when he came up with nothing. However, he realized that he wouldn't learn anything by sitting around.

The hedgehog gently lifted the girl off of his legs and placed her on the floor beside him and asked, "Skye, can you stay in here for a while, until I come back?" He couldn't quite guess what age she was, but he hoped that she was old enough understand the concept of 'patience'.

She quickly nodded at him. "Okay, Shadow," she promised, "I'll stay here."

Shadow nodded in affirmation as he stood up and walked away from her. He wondered if something in the house had somehow caused Skye's transformation, so he scanned the room for any kind of evidence. When he stopped, he had realized that he walked to the kitchen. He remembered that Skye had gone shopping the day before and returned with a normal carrier bag. Oddly, she didn't mention what she bought as she was normally the one to tell him as quickly as she could.

Having a good look at the food she had brought in the day before, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just the same she would always get.

Then, the most tiniest whiff of something different drifted into his nose. Shadow couldn't put his finger on it, but it seemed oddly familar. Like he had smelled it before, but off putted it. The black hedgehog decided to follow the scent, following it to the stairs. He noticed Skye watching him over the back of the couch with wide gleaming eyes.

"What'cha you looking for?" She stood on her tiptoes to see him over the couch. "I thought you were getting something to eat," she continued, "but then I remembered that you don't need to eat all the time."

iSo, she does remember my habits,/i Shadow thought. It was still a long shot on how she knew that, but she was correct.

The hedgehog gingerly began climbing up the stairs. He forced a smile and pleaded, "Just stay there." He heard her groan in annoyance as he got to the top of the flight of stairs.

He had a strange sensation like he was being pulled towards Skye's room. Glancing into the dimly lit room, he saw that the cover to her bed was lying on the floor. Shadow stalked over to it and bent down to pick it up when he spotted something glinting towards his left in the corner of his vision.

Turning his head, he spotted a bottle. When he picked it up he saw that it had a rather wonky shape and was fairly small. Upon closer examination he noticed that it had a small clear drop of liquid inside of it.

"Now what could this be?" He asked himself, flipping over to the label to see what was written on it.

bBe 10 years younger! For 30 days, you'll feel 10 years younger, guaranteed!/b

iFound my answer/i, he thought with a knowing smile. iBut, why would she do this for? She never mentioned anything about this./i He read the label again. iSo, this maybe a guess, but Skye has turned into a five year old./i He concentrated on the second seems that she'll stay at this age for four weeks. Quite a long time for a child./i

"Shadow, why are you taking so long?" The sudden voice caused him to jump slightly and his breath to be caught in his throat. Sighing, he turned to look up at the newcomer, but suprisingly, he had to glance down to see the child with a crossed expression on her face.

Now, he was standing at his full height. This new Skye was actually much shorter than he was, maybe just to his shoulders. Skye always did mock his height when she was her normal self. Now, if this Skye was just like the other, she wouldn't be able to joke.

"Skye, did you drink this last night?" He showed the bottle to the young girl. She looked at it, glanced back up at him and she shook her head.

"Nope." Her green-blue eyes widened as if she had just reminded herself of something. "But, I like how it looks. Can I have it?"

He noticed the small slur in her voice as he gave it to her. Her accent seemed different, like she was from another region of Mobius than Sonic and the others. He knew that small children did have a difficulty with talking.

iStrange,/i he knew that she was from Station Square and that wasn't that far away. Atleast, not enough for a voice change like this. It sounded like she was trying to talk to someone from another region.

"Hey, Shadow?" Skye asked, pulling at his arm with the bottle in her other hand. She still knew how to catch his attention.

"Yes?"

The next thing she said caused Shadow's heart to sink. "When are Mum and Dad coming back?" Was she serious? Did she not remember? She should know that her parents were dead; killed by Perfect Chaos when it attacked Station Square.

Shadow wasn't the kind of person to outright lie people -on the contrary, he was known for his brutal honesty-, but in this case he had no idea how she would react if he told her the truth so he said, "They'll be back in a few days."

"Okay," she muttered, returning her attention to the bottle. "I miss Dad a lot."

He knew he was going to regret that white lie, but it had to be done. "Alright, come on," Shadow slowly walked past her, stopping at the door. "I've got some questions for you."

Skye looked confused again, but she followed him, still playing around with the bottle. Then, out of the blue, she asked, "Can I draw?"

Shadow stood watching her mindlessly doodle on the paper, making circles and lines with her pencil. Her love for drawing did start early, earlier than he thought. She always did brag about being born an artist. Sure, she wasn't actually drawing anything that resembled a 'flicky', but atleast she was trying.

"So, Skye, how do you remember me?"

She didn't look up at him as she continued to draw. "I just do." He could see that she raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't I not know you?"

"It's just that," he lifted the bottle that was sitting in his hand. "With this bottle, I have came to a conculsion. You drank whatever was in this vial for whatever the reason you had and now you are a child."

She let out a soft giggle. "You're talking really weird, Shadow!"

His empty hand met his face with some small force. He knew that she wasn't going to realise that she was actually was a teenager the night before, nor remember why she changed herself into her new persona.

He had to take it slow. Very slow. "Okay, what do you remember other than me and your parents?" Skye stopped to think for a moment.

"I can remember you, Mum, Dad and that's around it." Skye said, returning to her scribbling. Great, that helped alot. "But," she mumbled quietly, bringing his ears up to listen. "I think there was this big bad thing. There is this girl with yellow hair and a blue dress."

His heart sank again. Out of all the things that whirled before in her head, that one memory had to stay in there. Fate must have been mocking the hedgehog. But, it was a start to getting into this younger Skye's head.

"Do you mean Maria?" He crossed his arms, showing how serious truely he was.

"Dunno." She shrugged. Shadow could sense the familiar presense of the original Skye within the body of the child before him. It was a strange feeling, weird even.

"Right..." He slackened his posture slightly. How could he get his answers now? She was too busy sketching to notice his staring. Not that she would mind though. "Looks like your another puzzle to solve." He only muffled that under his breath.

Skye's ear twitched and she looked up at him. "Wha?"

She's kept her acute hearing. Even her habit of moving her ears and her directness had stayed too.

"Nothing," he looked away from her. Shadow heard her scramble to her clumsy feet.

"Shadow!" The child said, grabbing onto his much larger hand with her own small hands. "Can we play outside?" Looking back at her, he saw that her eyes were gleaming with excitment.

"Outside?" He asked before shaking his head. "No, Skye." Now that he thought about it, he didn't know what to do about her. She didn't have any relatives to hand her over to until she was back to normal, nor he didn't trust anyone that had good experience with children.

"Why?" She whined, pouting up at him.

The hedgehog kneeled down and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You just have to stay inside, but I promise I'll take you somewhere tomorrow, alright?"

She didn't look happy, but she gave a small nod.

"Good, but first," he lifted her the loose sleeve. "We better get you changed."

As he guided her back to her room, he thought about the promise he had just made. He had to keep it or Skye wouldn't be pleased with it, but how was he going to let her outside anyhow? He was going to headquarters to have a training session with Omega. Older Skye would happily let him go on his way, but with this new Skye, he had to keep a proper eye on her.

Shadow had to come up with a plan for the day ahead and fast. Skye wanted to go out, but he had to go to the training session too. He had one idea, but he knew that it was stupid, but it was his only choice.

He had to take this new Skye to GUN headquarters.