What A Long Hard Life: Bless' Story

Chapter 1: He's Gone

It's finally here. This was supposed to be done months ago, so here's my explanation as to why it's so late. When I finished What A Long Hard Life, I went on holiday with my netbook, when I came back, my netbook had broken. By the time I had it fixed, I could no longer be bothered. Then I started A-Levels.

It's now half term, so I have time to write this story. Hopefully, it will be done by the end of the short holiday so it's not left unfinished.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Sonic characters. Some of the characters in this are mine, including Bless, Shadow's Daughter.

You should REALLY read 'What A Long Hard Life' before you read this. It takes place during Shadow's absence, so there won't be a huge repeat of the previous one.

Bless watched in horror as her father left her, her mother and older brother alone on the beach. She wanted to call out to him, but he was already gone. The wind blew harshly against them, Shade and Maria were in their pyjamas, and the flames were homing in on the surrounding area, the only way to survive this, was go into the water.

As they did, Bless began to think of the last words he had said to her. No, it wasn't the 'I'm sorry.' that seemed to be directed mostly at Maria, the words of anger. "Bless, how could you do this-" until he was cut off by the large explosion outside. It was official, she hated him.

He didn't bother to even say goodbye properly, would he even return? "Mum… what's going on?" Bless turned up to Maria and asked.

"I don't know… but whatever it is… I believe that your Dad is trying to stop it. And I hope he comes back safely." Maria said worriedly, pulling her two children in to hug, as they were being surrounded by more Mobians that had come to get away from the flames. Bless began to think if it was just one of those lies to protect her, what if she did know the truth, the reason for this disaster. As a matter of fact, Maria had no clue, Shadow had never told her about the flames of disaster.

They stood in the ocean, up to their shins in freezing cold water, that was orange from the light of the flames that were burning the city in the distance. "Mum… I'm tired…" Shade complained after the first hour of waiting. "And cold… you'd think all of this fire would make us warm…" he shivered. "I wish we had time to bring supplies."

So did the others. Bless was shivering, standing in the water wasn't doing them any good, but even the dry sand at the top of the beach had caught fire. It was a massacre.

Amongst all of these strangers surrounding them, they saw a few familiar faces, which were coming towards them. Sonic, Amy and their kids Rush and Swift Rouge Knuckles and their kids Russet and Rose. Tails and Cream also. It was very convenient that they all had emergency supplies with them, plenty of food and blankets… Bless was thankful that they gave one to her.

Now a big group, they moved onto the damp sand instead of in the freezing water and set up a small space. "Oh guys… you're the best…" Maria said, extremely grateful that they had all brought extra supplies to share.

"Where's Shadow?" Rouge asked, looking worried.

"He ran off to help with the flames." Maria explained, looking sad.

"No… he shouldn't have done that…" Rouge said, going pale, she turned to Knuckles who also looked a but worried. "It's all over for him now…" she mumbled to herself.

"What?" Maria asked, she had no idea of what Rouge just said.

"I said… I hope he doesn't get hurt…" she lied, smiling politely at Maria. Rouge knew that Shadow would be hunted, and she had promised to remain by his side too, what if it was too late, she felt that she had to do something about this. "I have to go and check up with GUN… Knuckles… look after the twins!" she yelled and flew off.

"What's going on?" Maria asked looking nervous, it seemed as if Rouge knew something about Shadow. The others turned away, not saying anything, Maria was hating this, they all knew something about Shadow, but didn't want to tell her.

Bless sat there, staring into space, she had completely zoned out, she was lost in her thoughts, something that her dad would do a lot. Why did he leave me… after all he's put me through, he owes me so much, so why did he leave me! She came back to reality, noticing the events, Rouge leaving and everyone being quiet.She got up from the sandy floor, "Where the hell is he!" she said angrily at them all, standing taller than all of them since they were all sat down.

"Bless please…" Maria said, gently tugging on Bless' arm so that she would sit down.

"No! I need to know where he is so I can teach him a lesson… for leaving us! It's been hours now!" Bless yelled furiously. "He doesn't care about us at all!" she screamed.

"Dad does care about us! He went off to help those in trouble! He's being a hero!" Shade said to her angrily, getting offended that Bless has said such a thing about his hero, Shade looked up to his dad all of the time.

"If Shadow went out to save people… then why didn't you Sonic?" Tails asked, looking puzzled.

"I wanted to stay with my family for once… we've all moved on from that now… besides… this is how it's supposed to be…" Sonic said, looking fed up.

"What do you mean… 'how it's supposed to be'?" Maria said, looking serious. "You're all hiding something from us, aren't you? You all know something… but don't want to tell me… well… I deserve so know!" she started to shout. "Shadow's my husband!"

"When Rouge comes back." Knuckles said, "She knows a lot about this too…" he said looking solemn.

Maria began to cry, she feared the worse, they knew something and she had a strong feeling Shadow was hurt. Amy scooted over to her to comfort her, the whole group looked guilty. They hoped that in some way, Rouge could postpone Shadow's defeat.

After a long night the kids had fallen asleep despite the noise from the crowd, and the adults were keeping a watch over them. Knuckles was keeping an eye out for Rouge, she hadn't even returned yet.

By now the sun would normally be rising, but, there was no sign of it. They were now living in eternal darkness.

After a lengthy and anxious wait, Rouge returned looking disappointed, they all looked to her. She landed by them and shook her head in sadness. "Ok… what's going on!" Maria asked desperately. Rouge, pulled Maria away from the others to speak to her in private.

"Maria… you're not going to see Shadow again… he's been captured… by the commander…" Rouge said solemnly, getting tears in her eyes.

"Well… go and free him… you work for GUN…" Maria said hopefully. "Wait… can't he escape himself… he's done that plenty of times…" she was silenced by the others.

"No… Maria… he's been put into the machine… his… eternal prison… there's no escape from it… he's gone…" she said, and pulled Maria in for a hugged. They both sobbed their eyes out.

"Did you see him?" Maria said through her heavy tears.

"No… I just found out… the commander's gone missing too… must have been lost while he locked Shadow up…" Rouge said. "Serves him right…" she growled. "I never liked him… I swear he's been after Shadow from the start."

After a long cry, they returned to the group. Bless had no idea what was going on, Maria had hid the fact that she had been crying by the time she came back. All seemed ok to Bless.

They every one of the gang stayed there for a few days, where it was safe until large amounts of the fire was extinguished, and they could move to higher ground where it was safe and dry.

Bless was still angry at Shadow for not coming back. While Shade was upset and refusing to talk, Bless however was not afraid to speak her mind. "He is such a prick! Why did he leave! He doesn't care about us at all… we could have died because he left us!" Bless screamed.

"Bless… I am warning you now… stop talking about your father like that!" Maria said, starting to lose her temper.

"No! Why won't he just come back and show himself, face up to us so I can give him a piece of my mind!" Bless continued to rave. "He's no ultimate life form if can't even do that! Why the hell did you call him that!"

"This is your last chance… stop talking about your dad in that way… or I will punish you!" Maria began to shout.

"No! I hate him! He's done me nothing but bad! It's all his fault that I'm bullied in school, that I'm like this! And what does he do? He leaves us! He's a bastard, and he doesn't care about us one bit!" Bless screamed.

That's when Maria broke down and cried, Shadow was the person she loved the most, and her own daughter was saying such filth about him. She missed Shadow so much, he was gone forever, but wasn't allowed to let her kids know.

Bless didn't know what to do, she was feeling no remorse, she still felt angry. "This is just ridiculous… I'm going to find him!" Bless growled and ran off, into the city where she was more likely to get burnt by the flames.

"Bless! No!" Shade yelled, he went to run after him but Sonic stepped up and stopped him.

"No… let me go and get her… I wouldn't want the both of you to get hurt." Sonic said, standing up as a responsible adult. He ran off down the hill to find her.

Bless was now surrounded by flames, it was so hot and she had trouble breathing through the thick smoke. She ran between the burning building and cars, one of them exploded near her, sending her crashing to the floor. She screamed out as she did, but recovered immediately and continued to look for Shadow.

After a long search in the scorching hot city, she began to feel dizzy, her body couldn't take the heat and harmful gasses any more. She stopped and bent over to catch her breath, which was hard to do through the smoke.

Then she heard a crumble from the building standing high above her. She screamed as it all started to fall, a large chunk of scalding hot concrete falling right towards her. In that split second she saw someone in the corner of her eyes. Another hedgehog, with long spikes, he seemed to be coming at her fast. My dad's fast, and he has spikes like that… could it really be him? She felt strong arms grab her, picking her up bridal style, she was swept away from the falling spot for the building and back to safety.

She clung onto this man's torso tightly, to notice, no white fluffy chest, instead nothing, she looked up to see green eyes piercing through the misty air. It was not her dad, it was Sonic. She began to cry, her dad never came to save her. Even Sonic cares more about me than HE does. She thought.

She was given back to Maria, Sonic put her down gently onto the blankets on the floor, she felt so weak, and she coughed to get the bad chemicals out of her lungs. Maria hugged her tightly. "Don't you dare run away again…" Maria sobbed, embracing her lovingly.

"I won't… because he's not out there… he doesn't care…" Bless cried, and continued to do so until she physically couldn't cry any more, that's when she fell asleep. He body would need some rest to be able to recover from the damage the heat and smoke did to her body.

While her body healed, she dreamt, about Shadow. He was there, like when she was younger, and he played with her, as if he did love her. He wasn't always that playful though. As she got older, he became a little more grouchy, or maybe she had just started to notice his grouchiness. The way he would always look solemn, especially if Maria wasn't there.

So, he was there, in the dream looking solemn, just watching her crying and screaming in the flames, she called out to him. But he just narrowed his eyes at her, turned around left. "I don't have time for kids anymore…" he grumbled in his usual fed up voice, and he was gone. Bless screamed out for him to help her, but he never came, he let her burn.

The others were anxiously waiting for her to wake up, when she did, she sat up, breathing heavily, looking around in shock. She slowly calmed down, realising it was just a dream. The dream seemed so real, like something he would do, she thought about it carefully, hatred for her father increasing tenfold.

I think that went very well. To help you visualise this better, in case you've forgotten or didn't know this. Bless is 10, Shade is 14, Maria is in her late 20s, and so is Sonic and the others. Tails and Cream are in their early 20s though.

Hope that helped. If you're still confused, READ What A Long Hard Life! Or ask me.

Lucy Labrador