Hi there!

This story is the REWRITTEN, new, and improved version of "Shadowed Past" that was written a few years ago. Due to certain life circumstances, I stopped updating the story. I reunited myself with Fanfiction a few months ago and decided to give this fanfic another go… with some MAJOR changes. To tell you guys the truth, I never stopped thinking about this story. I would occasionally reread it, try to figure out how to finish it, got frustrated, then gave up. So, I decided to rewrite it! I'm still a Sonic fan at heart, and I think about the characters occasionally. I feel like I HAD to finish this story… because leaving something unfinished that I put so much time and effort in… really sticks to you, you know?

I'm not going to put the old version down for now (if it becomes an issue, I will, though), if you guys are interested on how different my writing has changed.

IMPORTANT: This is the sequel to my very first fanfic, "Shadowed Photo." It's… uh, well, quite old and a little, um, different then my current style. But I HIGHLY recommend you should at least breeze through it so you know what's going on in this one. If not, just do your best to follow along. This story is based after the "Shadow the Hedgehog" game.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Sonic characters; they are owned by SEGA. I own Ruby Gemmon and Leo Richards.


Calm Before the Storm

Aunt Topaz parked the car on Shoreline Lane. As soon as the car made a full and complete stop, Leo and I hopped out.

"…So I'll pick you guys up at 8:00pm, alright?" Aunt Topaz asked as she leaned out of the open car window. She lifted up her sun glasses to make eye contact with me. When Aunt Topaz makes full eye-contact with you, she wants a definite answer. There had been times I would say I'd meet her at a location… and show up an hour later. That didn't settle too well with my parents at the time being. From then on, they made sure that when I made a promise to meet up with Aunt Topaz, I kept to it. She was a G.U.N. agent, after all; she could "use force to get me to cooperate."

My eyes flicked back to her. "Yeah, okay, I promise. Really, this time."

"You sure about that?" I wasn't facing towards Leo, but I could just imagine the smirk on his face. "Maybe you should send a search party or something in about an hour—just in case." Leo's ever-so friendly blue eyes always gave off an amused look. His eyes seemed to reflect any amount of light, no matter how little there was.

That was my cue to roll my eyes. "Yes, Aunt Topaz. After all, knowing his luck, Leo here," my right hand on my hip, and pointing with my left hand towards Leo, "he's going to be the one who will forget what street to meet up at."

Leo was about to open his mouth to retort with an equally sarcastic comment before Aunt Topaz interrupted, "Just so we're clear—who can tell me where we're meeting up at?"

Leo and I answered in unison, an oddly unique gift we seemed to occasion have, "At the Station Square bus station."

"Which one?" She asked more specifically.

I answered, "The one that is three blocks away from Sunset Hotel."

"And are you to going to go on the bus?"

"No, ma'am," Leo politely answered. "Unless Ruby wants to head to California to get some souvenirs."

Or I could stuff you in a suitcase…

I chuckled to myself, the thought of an unlucky passenger opening up their suitcase to discover and 12-year-old boy tumbling out. Oh, actually, Leo just turned ,13-years-old last week. I'm going to turn thirteen in about a month and a half, in July.

Fun fact: that's why my name is "Ruby." July's birth stone is a ruby. It's kind of a tradition for girls in my family to be named after their birth stones (I can't believe I didn't mention that before…)

"Alright, I'll see you at 8:00pm, then!" Aunt Topaz covered her light blue eyes with her sun glasses again. She started to roll up the window, until she looked as if she just remembered something. "Oh, Ruby, wait a second!" She rolled the window back down before I even had a chance to walk away. As I leaned into the open car window, she spoke low enough so that Leo wouldn't hear.

"Yeah?"

"I know you probably already understand what 'classified information' is… but I'm just repeating what the Commander said earlier-," she lowered her sunglasses down her nose, her crystal eyes flicked with warning, and spoke, almost whispering, "Don't tell your other friends about your 'ability.'"

I ducked my eyes down when she said that. Did she really think I didn't know better? Did she think I would seriously tell my other friends? Or was she just being my aunt, lovingly worrying about me? Probably the latter.

Things had been… crazy. And that's putting it mildly. I mean it. Over a year ago, if I was having problems, I would confide in my friends, besides Leo (I mean with… girly problems). But with the things that have happened to me recently, not so much. It was for their own "protection." And mine.

Six months after the "Space Colony ARK" incident, something… weird happened. When I touched the green Chaos Emerald, it teleported me through time and space twenty feet up in the air! I don't know why or how it happened. If tempered with, Chaos Emeralds could become unstable. But… all I did was hold it. Immediately after that, Aunt Topaz took me to a G.U.N. special division that researches the power of the Chaos Emeralds. This division was created shortly after Sonic and the others made it onto my planet. Aunt Topaz just wanted to make sure that whatever had happened when the emerald "teleported" me, that it didn't hurt me. And to calm my parents down. They didn't see what had happened, but they were concerned, as any other parents would be. My little brother, Ricky, just thought I did a magic trick.

My parents took Leo home was was asked not to discuss with his folks about what happened until after we figured out if I was going to be okay. Aunt Topaz took me, my mom, and my dad to the research facility. The good news was: it didn't hurt me in any traumatic way. The doctors commented on how good my physical health was, too. Except for one thing. The bad news… was that when they scanned my body for Chaos Energy… they found some. Inside my body. I had Chaos Energy inside my body. And no one knew why.

I think anyone else who were told that they had a foreign energy inside their body would have been petrified. I was scared, but more than anything I was… dumbfounded. My parents were too shocked to think of anything comforting to say to me, not that I could blame them. But the simplest, most terrifying question was hanging in the air.

What is going to happen to me?

It's been over six months since I went to the research facility, and that question still scares me. Since I'm obviously at the beach today, it means that they didn't… do something else with me.

"I know." I finally managed to respond. I still couldn't look at her in the eyes. I felt Aunt Topaz's hand reach out and touched the top of my head, ruffling my shoulder length, brown hair. I managed to fake a smile.

Aunt Topaz revved up the engine of her Camry, shouted, "Have fun, kids!" And left a nice cloud of dust in her wake.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Leo tying one of his shoe laces. When he rose, he dusted off his grey, camouflage shorts, and adjusted his brand new Slipknot t-shirt. He recently took a liking to the color black for some time now, not to mention his taste in metal/hard rock/punk music. He stepped over to me with the slightest bounce in his step and asked, "So what was that all about?"

I rolled my eyes, hoping the gesture would lighten my already solemn mood. "She just told me about 'not telling everyone else I might be a ticking time bomb ready to blow up.'"

Leo laughed at the joke, but then said, "Seriously, though—you know you're not going to blow up, right? Didn't the scientists already confirm that?"

"Yeah, I know. But that doesn't mean they'll think otherwise." I groaned at the memory of the other day.

Now that's a bit of a story. Around the time I was examined, I was away from home for almost one and a half months. It wasn't like I was a prisoner or anything, but I didn't have any outside interactions for a long time. Before the scientists could consider me "a threat," Aunt Topaz and my family made a call. They called in "the big guns." Almost quite literally. Aunt Topaz and Rouge are in charge of stealth missions for G.U.N., and she is higher up on "the ladder." From what I've been told, she's not exactly "in charge" of anything major, but she has respect from a lot of her colleagues. And whenever Aunt Topaz or Rouge receive a mission, they get it directly from the "Big Cheese" himself—

Commander Tower.

And he lives up to that name. As the name "Tower" would imply, he is built as such, with a strong structure. He has to be at least six-foot-five! Commander Tower is almost sixty-years-old, too—his hair has already turned a dark grey. And boy, his expression could could freeze your soul! The Commander is definitely not a push over, and his face could tell you that much. He has a very hard expression 24/7.

One of the most… peculiar things about him, though—are his eyes. The Commander has one blue eye (right) and one brown eye (left)—two different colors! Other than that, I really don't know too much about him. I've only met him a few times, including when Aunt Topaz called him in to see if he could help me.

Considering that he is the Commander of the Guardians of the United Nations, he definitely helped me with my situation. Somehow, instead of being locked up in some research facility, he was able to let me live a normal life—meaning I was still able to live with my family and such. With one exception: I am now classified under G.U.N. jurisdiction. That means that G.U.N. can check up on my activity anytime, anywhere. I also have to take mandatory "check-ups" every week.

I'm sorry I sound very naïve now, but I really don't know how exactly he was able to do it. I know he's a higher-up, one of the highest places you can go in the government, but… he seemed to do it so effortlessly. It couldn't just be because he has more political authority. Whatever the case is—as long as I keep my "condition" a secret, everything will be fine.

"Hey, blowing things up is my job!" Leo boasted, bringing me back. "Don't try to take my job just yet—I haven't even gotten employee of the month!"

Leo was never one for taking things seriously unless the situation is dire. Well, even then, he might not always take things seriously. Typical Leo.

Leo has been up to speed about the situation, too. Since he was with me during the Space Colony ARK incident, the scientists have run some tests on him, too. So far, nothing has come up. They only paid attention to Leo for about a week. Then all eyes were on me. I'm so lucky.

For some reason, thinking about all of this was putting me in a sour mood. "Leo…" I started in a warning tone.

"I was just kidding, Ruby." Leo gave me a reassuring half-smile. I almost thought he was being serious with that "blowing up statement."

I told him what happened yesterday, doesn't he consider how touchy I am on the topic right—

I shook it out of my mind. Today was not about thinking about what happened yesterday, with my little, um, "accident."

It's not I planned to destroy the r—

No, no, no! Stop thinking, you idiot!

Things were finally going my way in life, so I wanted to stay outside and enjoy it with my friends. And nothing was going to get in my way on having a good day—even if it kills me!

Relaxed a more fully composed, I glanced back up at Leo. "When did Sue say she was getting here?"

Leo glanced at his black and red electronic watch. "She said by four o'clock. It's a little before 4:10pm. Maybe she and her dad ran into traffic. Oh, and she said she was going to pick up Molly, too."

Ping-pong!

My cell phone went off, meaning I received a text message. My new cell phone was an early birthday present from my parents. They were originally going to wait until my 13th birthday, but decided with all the craziness going on, they would give it to me now. The down side is that I don't have a huge text plan, so I couldn't text a lot like all of my other friends could. Which was fine when being—I still had to get used to my phone. It's pretty standard looking as far as a cell phone; the kind that flips open and has a normal key pad. Nothing too fancy.

1 Text from Sue

"Speak of the devil," my brows raised in mild amusement. As I glanced over the text, my brows drastically decreased into a disappointed scowl.

"Awww, you've got to be kidding me!" I exasperated.

"What? What happened? Is she going to be an hour late again?" Leo crossed his arms, asking the question like it was no surprise. Sue was usually the last to arrive at a gathering.

I shook my head, "No, worse. She's not coming!"

"WHAT!" Leo dramatically threw his arms up in the air. Normally, he would shrug off the sudden rain check, but we had planned this gathering for the past two weeks. Since the craziness had died down, it left me more time to hang out with my long-awaited friends. "Come on! Whyyyyyy?"

I scrolled back up to the text message and read it out loud, "Ruby, I'm so sorry, but dad says the weather isn't looking too good for the beach. Weather man said a very bad-looking storm is going to hit real soon, so he's not taking me. I'm so, so, SOOOOOO sorry, Ruby! :'("

I was still looking at the text message when Leo scoffed in disbelief. He prattled on how typical it was that Sue and Molly canceled now of all times.

"I mean, go figure! She's the one who's been complaining about how she never sees you! And now this crap happens! If this is some stupid, 'revenge' plot for not talking to her in so long, I swear, I'm going to give her a piece of my—it's not even your fault either! And it's not like you can tell her…"

Since Leo was the only one outside of my family that knew what was going on with me, I had kept my distance from my friends for some time. I made some excuse that I caught a very bad virus while my family was on vacation in Brazil (I have never been to Brazil… darn it), and had regular examinations for the doctors to make sure no symptoms would come back. Some of my friends were still really peeved that I didn't keep them up to date on how my "illness" was going. Maybe Sue was one of them and didn't want to be my friend anymore.

Not that I could blame her…

I started to think that until the wind picked up a bit. My arms got goose bumps, despite the fact I was wearing a dark pink quarter-sleeved shirt with my thin, short-sleeved grey hoodie over. It zipped up half way up my stomach, and was slightly shorter than the shirt I was wearing. I could feel a shiver starting from my legs-which the sky blue shorts only went slightly above me knees and all the way up my spine. As I glanced towards the sky, I didn't see anything but a nice clear day and some fluffy, perfect clouds. I then noticed the clouds' movements, they were starting to pick up speed. I looked forward, past Leo, and sure enough, I saw a few dark clouds fast approaching.

"Oh."

On second thought, perhaps I shouldn't jump to conclusions.

Leo followed my gaze, and turned around to the dark clouds that I was looking at. "Ohhhh." He echoed. Finally, he added. "Well, this sucks."

"Yeah… but, man this is weird! I've checked the weather every single day! And it said 'clear skies with a few scattered clouds.'"

Leo used his hand to shade his eyes, trying to judge the clouds. We probably had less than an hour before the storm would hit.

"I hate to say it, but I think our beach day is over." I said glumly.

"It's not over, it didn't even start!" Leo acted as if he was correcting me. "Man! And I've practiced my serves, too! I was totally gonna to beat Molly this time!" Leo is not the best volleyball player. That didn't stop him from practicing his serves ever since school ended for the year. My friend Molly is one of the best volleyball players at my middle school. I'm nowhere near as good as Molly is… but… I'm a lot better at serving than Leo is (no offence, Leo!).

"Come on, let's find a shop or something if it starts getting bad out here." I started walking across the street, to the line of shops.

Leo followed, falling in step with me. "You gonna call Topaz?"

"Yeah, as soon as we find somewhere to stop."

"Can't you just call her while we're walking? That's what a cell phone is for!"

"Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, why don't you use YOUR cell phone? Didn't you just get one last week?"

"Well, Mizz Fox, I don't have Topaz's—oh, hey! There, that convenience store is open!"

Leo and I headed inside the deserted store. The only person there was the sleepy cashier behind the register. There were a couple of chairs and tables to the side of the story, and a small television above the packs of cigarettes. It looked like a news program had just popped up.

The cashier looked middle-aged, slightly balding hair-line, and bags under his eyes. He briefly looked up from his paper. "Hey, can I help you kids? If you need to use the bathroom, it's for customers only."

"No," I politely stated, "We're just waiting for someone to pick us up because of the storm that's coming. Is it okay if we stay in here?"

"What, so you can loiter my store?" The man glared.

"Uh—no, that's not—"

He laughed in a tired, wheezy tone. "I'm just pulling your leg, squirt. Yeah, sure, take a seat if you want. If you want something to drink, all sodas are $1.50. Ice tea and lemonade is $1.25, and water is just $1.00."

"We're good, but thank you." I smiled back. Before I forgot, I took out my cell phone and texted Aunt Topaz about our rain check.

Bad storm coming our way. Beach day cancelled. Please pick us up when you can.

"And 'send.'" I mumbled. The icon of an envelope being whisked away flashed on the screen, and then disappeared. I snapped my phone shut with a satisfying "snap" and moved to one of the tables.

Just as Leo and I were about to shimmy to our seats, I got a glimpse of the back of the news paper the man was reading. And I saw a familiar looking hedgehog on the cover.

A very familiar looking hedgehog.

I walked over to the man almost too abruptly. "Sir—" I had to calm down or was going to sound panicked, "Do you have an extra copy of today's paper?"

"Yeah, right there. " He motioned to the rack to his right with his head, and proceeded to read the rest of his article.

I grabbed the paper and briskly walked over to the table that Leo was sitting at. I frantically flipped through the pages while Leo was fiddling through his phone.

"What page was it?! 3A, 4A, 4B, 5B… THERE!"

Still standing, I slammed my desired page on the table with enough force to snap Leo out of his cell phone trance.

"Whoa, what?!" Leo almost fell backwards out of his seat.

"Look." I demanded him. We both nodded down to the article.

NEW UPDATE ON SONIC'S LAST ADVENTURE DEALING WITH EGGMAN! SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG WAS SIGHTED DURING THE FINAL BATTLE! WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON NOW?

We both looked up at each other, almost pain staking slowly. Leo lifted to paper to read the rest of the article. I stepped to his side so that I could read it over his shoulder.

"Three months ago, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles 'Tails' Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna—along with three other teams, who were connected with Sonic and his world—battled against Dr. Ivo Robotnic, a.k.a. Dr. Eggman's greatest and deadliest robotic threat yet, Metal Sonic. The other teams included the Amy Rose Hedgehog, Cream the Rabbit, Big the Cat; Team Chaotix—Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy Bee; followed by one of Dr. Eggman's robots gone rogue, E-123 Omega; and Rouge the Bat, a member of G.U.N.. But the most surprising character was the hedgehog whom everyone thought was dead due to the Space Colony ARK incident that happened over a year ago: Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Looks like those rumors we heard a while back were true!" Leo declared. "Shadow is alive!"

"Shh! Read the rest of it."

"Shadow the Hedgehog, proclaimed the Ultimate Life Form, and created by Professor Gerald Robotnik—Dr. Eggman's grandfather—over fifty years ago. According to a reliable source whose identity is asked to remain unknown—"

"Gee, I wonder why?" I asked rhetorically. Leo made a "tch" sound in agreement as we kept reading.

"—Shadow was supposedly pronounced dead as he and our hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, saved the planet from certain destruction. Regarding the incident three months ago, the public believed that Shadow is fighting on the side of good. However, some skeptics believe otherwise."

"Really?" Leo groaned is disbelief.

"Is Shadow truly a hero now? Has he faced the errors of his ways from a year ago? Will he now join the rest of Sonic, Tails, and their friends on keeping the balance of our beloved Earth? Or is he still a supposed 'weapon' created for mass destruction and chaos? With everything considered, it all comes down to one question: Is he good or evil?"

"Ugh, I can't read much more of this…" I flipped the paper down in disgust. To even suggest Shadow being evil made me burn with anger. Leo just shook his head. I could tell he wanted to say something, too, but for whatever reason, nothing came out. He opened and closed his mouth as if to start a sentence. I guess he just couldn't find the words to express his thoughts.

He's not evil. He's just not. Him saving the freakin' planet a year ago proves that much!

However, deep down, I knew the reporter purposely wrote the article to describe both sides of the arguments so that people would think. Last year, I had some interest in photography and reporting. That interest is what got me in trouble with Shadow and Eggman in the first place! I read a few books on how to perfect at reporting like a good journalist. One of the tips that I picked up was, "A journalist seeks the truth, and each truth has two or more sides to it. It is important that the journalist researches all possible sides of the argument before coming to a conclusion."

"Just who does this guy think he is?!" I flipped the page over, skipping the rest of the article to find the writer's name at the very bottom.

Written by C. E. Thorndike

I wasn't about to forget that name. I made a tear on the newspaper around the outline of the article, making sure that I didn't forget the back of the paper. I neatly folded the article and stuffed it in my back pocket. I think this "Thorndike" guy deserved a nice, anonymous letter in for the "Readers' Reactions" section.

As informative as the article was, it really wasn't a surprise to me. When I first heard of the possibility that Shadow was alive, I felt so… relieved. I could have cried. The problem was that no one would tell me whether it was true or not! I figured if anyone would know, it would be Rouge. Oh, but what does Aunt Topaz and everyone else tell me? "Sorry, Ruby. Rouge said she had business to take care of. I'm sure she'll be back soon." Nope. Her "important business" was probably going after Knuckles' Master Emerald. Again. I hadn't seen Rouge since I heard the rumors, too.

"It explains why we haven't seen Rouge in a while…" I thought out loud, giving a sigh.

"Well, yeah, that too—HEY! EARTH TO RUBY! Shadow is alive! Isn't this the part where you jump up and down for joy and start crying tears of joy?!" Leo was ecstatic by now. You could see his blue eyes brighten up, almost turning an electric, icy color.

That reaction had already happened three months ago when I heard for the first time that Shadow might be alive. But I had no proof, and even Aunt Topaz would dodge my questions about it. I'm not a genius by a long-shot, but my gut was telling me something was fishy about this WHOLE situation.

"I was psyched about it. Three months ago. This article only proves that I was right." I stated plainly. "But, that still doesn't explain—" I stopped halfway through my sentence. "Nevermind."

"What? Tell me!" Leo insisted.

"It… it's really stupid." I brushed a strand of my brown hair away, which I grew out a bit. During the ARK Incident, my hair was just a little past my chin and had the slightest wave to it. It was touching my shoulders now, and swayed instead of waved.

"I'm the King of Stupidity, remember? I'll be the judge of that." He crossed his arms and pulled his eyebrows into a scowl. I almost giggled a little, since I know he was trying to intimidate me-which wasn't working.

"It's just that…" I began slowly, my words a little sorrowful and slow. "When I first heard that Shadow might be alive, I dunno, I thought that maybe, just maybe… I'd be able to see him again."

Leo's scowl softened, but he didn't break eye contact with me. He finally nodded, understanding where I was coming from.

Suddenly, I felt a need to defend myself. "But—but it's not like I was expecting anything like an invitation or something! Just, you know, wanted to say something like, 'Hi again! Glad you're alive! How are ya?' Th-that's all, really."

Silence. Awkward silence, which was my least favorite silence of all. I kept talking, hoping to fill in the awkwardness.

"Like, I mean, I'm not saying he had to deliberately come see me. It's just, the last time that I saw him, he kinda, you know, teamed up with Sonic to save the planet. And well, I wanted to... to thank him for that."

When I looked back up, Leo wasn't even looking at me anymore. His eyes fixated on the window.

First he wanted me to spill my guts out and now he's ignoring me. Wow, Leo. You really ARE a typical boy.

My irritation snapped for a split second. "Hey! Are you even listening to me?!"

"Ruby," Leo said in a warning tone. "I think we should get home."

"You weren't listening. Well, thanks a lot, butt-head. You reeeeaaaaally had me going there!"

He turned his face back at me, his expression panicked. "RUBY!"

"WHAAAAT!"

"Look. Out. Side."

And then I looked outside. "Oh God."

It was nothing short of Mount Doom outside the convenience store. The clouds had turned from a dark grey overcast to red. The sky looked like it was about to rain blood, I'm not kidding. And it was lightening like the world was going to split into two. The palm trees by the beach were almost falling over, and everyone was running to get inside. The wind was picking up faster than before—paper, dust, bottles, plants started flying everywhere. And the direction the wind was blowing, it looked like Downtown Station Square was going to get hit the worst.

But with what?

Leo and I looked at each other with equally shocked, yet resolved expressions out our faces that could only mean one thing.

Something bad is going to happen.

Before the cashier could ask us where we were going, Leo and I bolted out of the shop and ran towards Downtown Station Square. Leo and I live just outside of the city in a suburban area, away from the crowded city life. But it's literally a twenty-minute drive and you're there. It was roughly twelve blocks away, which is a bit of walk, but we booked it over there like we were Olympic sprinters.

I kept that single thought in mind as we ran down the sidewalks of the once busy, but organized city. Leo pushed himself so he was at least two steps ahead of me as we frantically ran. Running home seemed the most logical thing to do. Whatever was going to happen, we needed to get ready. We needed find our families. We needed to find answers to our questions. We needed to make sure that everyone was safe. We staggered and sprinted through the streets like there was no tomorrow.

Because for all that we knew… there might not be a tomorrow.

We only picked up speed when the clouds turned blood-red above us, swirling in dark circles. The clouds started to mix a dark, nightmarish red with ominous black clouds twisting tighter and tighter in the center of the city. Lightening cracked through the sky, hitting one of tallest radio towers in the city, sending a crackling rumble through building.

I could practically feel the adrenaline running through my veins as my legs pumped my body to go to its limit. I was slightly ahead of Leo now, despite the fact he was got a head start. Then he started to slow down drastically. Thinking he was hurt, or exhausted, I stopped to ask him what was wrong. Before I could say anything, I picked up on the direction he was facing.

Up.

The sky was falling.


Sweet baby chocolate cakes, I did it! I could kiss myself right now! Wait…

First chapter down and I'm already excited. Heh.

That being said—would you kindly review and critique? Thank you so much!