A/N: Well, this is going to be a good deal darker than the stuff I usually write. Still not that bad, but there'll be mild language and some violence. I actually considered squeezing it in under the K+ rating, but I didn't want to take the risk. Also, this is sort of AU. It's certainly in the Sonic universe, but it has absolutely no connection to the loose continuity that my other stories follow.
Anyway, that's enough talk. Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.
It started when Shadow disappeared. Not the kind of disappearing he often did, the kind where he'd whisk off somewhere without a word to anyone. Not the kind where he'd come sauntering back after a few days, cold as ever. Not the kind the others were used to.
This was a full-scale disappearance, an honest-to-goodness one. He was last seen on the first of May, acting as he usually did. Not a hint that anything was going to happen. Neither he nor Rouge were seen for two days after. Then Rouge returned, fresh and perky as usual, but with a strange light in her eyes and the faintest hint of puzzlement on her face, when she thought you weren't looking. Shadow still didn't make an appearance.
One day, there was a knock on Rouge's door. She opened it to find Sonic, Tails, and Amy on her doorstep.
"Hello there, Amy, boys," she said cheerfully. "What's up?"
"Rouge," said Sonic, with an uncharacteristically serious face. "Do you know where Shadow is?"
"Heck no," she shrugged, her wings flapping carelessly. "He never tells me where he's going. Heck, he never even tells me when he's going. Why, you need him for something?"
"No. We were all just wondering where he'd gone," said Amy soberly.
"Don't worry," scoffed Rouge. "It's his habit to disappear like this."
"For more than a week?"
Rouge's face remained cool, but her wings wilted defeatedly from their brave spread.
"I know," she said quietly, unknowingly gripping the doorknob. "He's never been gone this long. I . . . somehow I feel like he'd let me know before disappearing for such a stretch. I had to turn down a G.U.N. mission because he wasn't here."
"Do you think he's in any danger?" asked Tails grimly.
Rouge was silent, her eyes on the floor.
"Rouge."
"Yes."
"What?! Why? Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"I didn't know what was going on," said Rouge grimly. "I didn't think there was any real reason to be worried too soon. But something's very strange." She stepped aside and motioned indoors. "Come in and sit down. I need to tell you something."
Sonic, Tails, and Amy stepped in and sat down a sofa, their faces anxious. Rouge didn't sit down; she paced back and forth, chewing her lip.
"I don't know if there's a connection with this or not," she said, "But I know Shadow was last seen on the first of May. And the first and second of May . . . I never saw them. For all I know, they never existed."
Silence. Three pairs of eyes watched her.
"Did they exist?" asked Rouge, smiling ruefully.
"They existed," said Tails. "For the rest of us, anyway."
Rouge nodded and continued.
"On the first of May," she said, "I slept in, because I'd been up late with a mission the night before. When the alarm clock rang, I just turned it off and went back to sleep. The next thing I knew, it was noon—on the third of May. I checked my clock, I checked my watch, I checked three different computers, I went out and asked some random guy what day it was, like a total idiot." Rouge shook her head bitterly. "I don't know what happened. I couldn't have slept through two whole days! And the house . . . " she looked around. "I could tell someone unfriendly had been in here."
A sharp intake of breath from Amy.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "What did they do?"
"No, I'm not sure," said Rouge, shaking her head. "I don't have anything real to go on. Nothing was taken or even moved, no notes, nothing. Maybe there was a different smell . . . but it was more like a feeling. But I don't know if I imagined it or not. Having two whole days just disappear on you can make you paranoid and semi-delusional, I guess."
She paused and tugged on her ear wearily, a frown twisting across her muzzle.
"So, a while later I found that Shadow wasn't around anymore. I wasn't really worried at first. It was so typical of him. But I was kind of waiting for him to get back, so I could ask if he knew anything about days just vanishing like that."
She tensed slightly, hoping it didn't seem like she had been frightened. Frankly, she had been, been frightened and very confused, but there was no need for anybody to know that. Luckily, the others only continued to listen grimly.
"But yeah, he never came," she finished, shrugging. "Never called, never even reported to G.U.N., as far as I know. They asked to speak to him that time when I had to turn down a mission, and they were majorly ticked when I said I didn't know where he was."
"I think we should start searching," said Sonic quietly, standing up.