***

Shadow looked at the computer's clock. It was 11:43 now; seventeen minutes until midnight. He had managed to find information on four of the emeralds, but that meant that he would need to find the remaining three by himself. This bothered him. He didn't like not having the information he wanted…

Oh well. He would need to deal with that later. For now, he had another task to attend to. Let's get this over with…

Shadow crept silently into the kitchen and pulled a knife out of the knife drawer at random. He honestly didn't care what he used; he just wanted to kill her quickly… Careful not to make any noise, Shadow closed the drawer again.

The black hedgehog made his way across the floor and over to the stairway, pausing when he reached the bottom. Then, step by step, he prowled up the staircase.

His ascension was slow and nearly noiseless. One creeping step followed after the next. As silent as he tried to be, it seemed to him that the small noises he made echoed through the house like the ticking of a dying clock, or the slowed beating of a heart.

Even louder was the sound of the clock that rested in the downstairs hall. The clock's ticking gave him a slight feeling of discomfort and uncertainty. But up the stairs Shadow continued. Step by step, inch by inch… Why was his heartbeat starting to match with the ticking of the clock?

He shoved the eerie feeling aside. It was pathetic for him to allow himself fear. Why should he be afraid? He was going to die anyway, he expected, and he already knew he would not be caught a killer. His fate was inevitable if he wanted to end all misery on this planet. This did not unnerve him, yet something else did… The feeling haunted him like a ghost; he could only do his best to keep it out of his mind.

The two and a half minutes he spent edging up the stairs passed very slowly. When he finally reached the top, he almost felt sure that a quarter of an hour had already passed. The closer he got to her bedroom, the slower the clock seemed to tick. From where he was, he could barely hear it now, but his ears were telling him that something wasn't right… Shadow walked up to Rouge's bedroom door, trying to make his footsteps as soft as possible. He stopped to listen. He could hear her breathing somewhat slowly, which suggested she was asleep. The black hedgehog smirked. This would make things a whole lot easier… her death would be quick.

The door was partially open. Using his free hand, the hedgehog pushed the door open very slowly, and then took one step inside…

"…Shadow?"

Dang it. Shadow refrained himself from muttering a curse. He casually moved the hand holding the knife behind his back so that she would be unable to see it. Despite his frustration and disappointment, he answered her in the most caring voice he could manage, "Yes, Rouge?"

The white bat sat up in bed very slowly and weakly, looking at him. The moonlight was being covered up by the window curtains, but she could see her old friend plain as day with her night vision. "…Why are you in my room?"

Shadow smiled sweetly. "I just wanted to check on you. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you… Or were you having trouble sleeping?" The smile slowly changed back to a frown.

"Yeah… I'm having a hard time… I should probably take a sleeping pill, but I never needed them before…" Rouge sighed, coughing a bit before she was finished.

"Why don't you?" Shadow asked.

"…Well, I never needed them… so I never bought any… I'll have to go to the store tomorrow to get some… maybe if I can finally get some decent rest I can get better…" She cleared her throat.

"Yes… you will." Shadow squeezed the knife behind his back. The annoyance in his voice was hardly there, yet completely unmistakable to the white bat. She felt a little nervous.

"…Shadow, is there something wrong?"

"No, no! I'm fine… Why do you ask?"

"You seem to be really… temperamental lately…"

"…I'm just tired."

"Then why aren't you asleep?"

"Maybe I don't want to go to sleep."

There was a long pause in which neither of them moved or breathed a word. Finally, Rouge whispered, slipping out of bed and weakly standing up, "Shadow, you haven't been sleeping at all lately… That could have a terrible effect on your coordination, or mission performance… or even just your thinking… Plus you need rest! Don't you know you can die from lack of sleep?"

Shadow scoffed. "I can't die from lack of something as pathetic as rest. I'm the ultimate life form."

Wrong answer.

Rouge walked over to him. Crap, he thought. He considered taking a step backwards, but he knew that would do no good. She seemed suspicious of his behavior already, and taking a step back would only make things worse… It wasn't as if it mattered that much, though. He could see plainly that killing her quietly was no longer an option. It wouldn't make any difference if he ran up to her swung his knife now, or waited until she was close enough to embrace him to sink the blade into her heart. If he wanted to wait even longer, he could wait until she fell asleep again, but then who knew if she would just wake up again once he entered back into the room?

The hedgehog didn't move as the bat kept drawing nearer to him until she was just one foot away. "You can't just keep acting like you're invincible! Ultimate life form or not, you have to remember, you are mortal now! You can't live forever! You don't have all the time in the world anymore… Don't you know that?"

No answer. Rouge sighed again and continued, "You're my best friend… I just hate to see that you're not taking care of yourself! I don't want you to get deathly ill, or seriously injured, or get hurt at all just because of some stupid decision you've made not to let yourself rest or let yourself eat or let yourself do anything that you need to be doing!"

Again, there was no answer. Rouge was almost becoming angry due to his carelessness. "Shadow, I'm worried about you! Please, take care of yourself and stop treating me like a stranger! I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you!"

"What does it matter to you?" The black hedgehog mumbled.

"Shadow, I care about you! You've always been such a great friend to me…" She suddenly wrapped him in a hug. Shadow stiffened, trying not to cut her yet. He didn't even really want to be hugged, but after a few seconds, he realized that he would have to not only allow this, but use it to his advantage. Carefully moving the knife around her to where it was positioned behind her back, Shadow returned the hug half-heartedly. The white bat continued, "I just want to be as great of a friend to you as you are to me… I just don't know how… I owe you so much, especially because you've saved my life so many times…"

Her embrace was gentle and loving. There was no hostility to it. It seemed so genuine… but was it really? Shadow remembered why she was one of the few people he ever allowed to hug him. She always seemed to mean it… he realized he had missed her hugs the last few weeks. Still, he did not answer her.

"…Shadow… Please say something… If something's bothering you, you can always tell me… That's what friends are for."

"Everything's fine…"

"Then why won't you talk to me anymore…? I've been trying to talk to you… but even when you answer me it's like you don't want to… You haven't been yourself…"

Shadow had a strange feeling… It was hardly there, but he could feel it all the same. It was like sadness and remorse… Was it guilt?

A voice screamed at him from the inside. She's lying! Kill her now! Strike her down!

Why?

Suddenly, he was split by confusion. Did he really know what he was doing? Was he actually doing the right thing, or was he allowing his emotions to play with him like a puppet? What if he was doing the wrong thing? What then? Shadow considered the situation. He usually listened to the voice in his head when his actions were illogical. Whenever he used reason, he ignored it…

Reasonably, there were people all over the world who were kind… and a good portion of the population consisted of children who were just as innocent as Maria had been…

Guilt struck down on him like a thousand knives. What was he doing this for? To rid the world of sorrow? There would be no world if he continued. There were so many good people in the world that would prefer to live out life as a whole, even with the bad things and the people who had such bad intentions. He hadn't even thought about the fact that so many of whom he would slaughter would be children…! Hurting a single child would be awful, and he would be killing them all! What sort of monster was he?

And the voice! From the start he should have seen that he was going the wrong way… But no, he had not only listened to it, but he had agreed with it! Half of the things that had gone through his mind earlier had not even been his thoughts, but the words of the voice! He had thought that they had been his thoughts, but thinking about it…

I'm such a moron…! That stupid—

He felt Rouge suddenly stiffen in his arms. "S-shadow? A-are you holding something?"

Shadow snapped out of his thoughts, and quickly realized that he was holding the knife right against her back. If he brought it any closer, it would break her skin… She herself was at many times like a child… Sometimes she reminded him of Maria. This was something he had forgotten. Of course, there were times where she acted nothing like Maria as well, but these differences did not make him hate her… After they had become friends they had gotten along well… up until today, he had cherished her friendship…

Without showing any signs of alarm, the black hedgehog casually moved the knife away from her and hid it again. At the same time, he let go of her and gently pushed her away with his free-hand. "No, what would make you think that?" Without waiting for an answer, he coldly turned away from her, careful to keep the knife out of her sight. "You should try to get back to sleep. I'm going to bed. Sweet dreams…" He stormed out of the room.

Rouge paused a moment, startled by Shadow's odd behavior. For a moment, she had thought that he had calmed down and had been back to normal… but then she had felt something on her back which had left her blood to run cold. It had only lasted a few seconds, though… maybe she had imagined it…

Or maybe not. After all, Shadow had gone right back to acting hostile after she said something…

Rouge walked toward the door and opened it, following after her friend. She mostly just wanted to see if he was really going to bed, but part of the reason was also that the panic had not completely left her. She still felt as if her blood was about to turn to ice.

She reached the top of the stairs, looking down onto the second floor. Shadow had just reached the bottom of the stairs. He was staring at the ground.

He had had the voice in his mind for as long as he could remember, but it left him mentally unstable. He confused wrong and right, he had an even harder time deciding on what to do sometimes because of this… His judgment was completely flawed.

Shadow saw something out of the corner of his eye. His head immediately jerked toward the window that he had been looking out earlier, and he froze. For a split second, he saw ghostly mist in a humanistic shape, then the mist was completely gone.

Shadow cursed himself quietly, heart pounding. He should have taken the medication earlier… and yet… could that have been what was helping his mind to run haywire? True, he had eaten little and had little rest since he had first ordered the prescription from the doctor, but for some reason, complete destruction of the planet running through his mind didn't seem to be something that could be caused from lack of food or sleep. Being the ultimate life form, not a normal hedgehog, the medication could very well help cause hallucinations instead of prevent them. …What had been the problem in the first place? He tried to remember…

…The looks of his co-workers. That had been the problem! He had thought he had been imagining or hallucinating their want of his death, and because of this had thought himself insane! It had greatly alarmed him, so he had thought maybe he had lost his mind. He took the medication, and afterward, he had started seeing similar things with his friends. So it was the medication that had helped to cause this! His friends did not really want him dead. He had imagined it all…

But this did not explain everything. Assuming the medication had caused this, he would have only seen everyone's hate of him after he started taking it. But his co-workers, except for Rouge, had all seemed to want to kill him before he started taking the medication. After he had started to take it, he had assumed that they really did want to kill him… but surely not all his co-workers with GUN wanted him dead? He had thought that Agent Steven was a good ally, yet before he even started taking the medication, he had thought that Steven hated him too. It had been suddenly, just two days before he had gone to the doctors that everyone suddenly seemed to want him dead…

…That meant he was at least partially insane… Being mentally unstable already, this made him dangerous…

Shadow unhid the knife, unconsciously holding it in Rouge's plain sight. She froze, feeling as if her blood had dropped below zero degrees. How long had he been carrying that knife around? More importantly, why had he been carrying it around?

Shadow looked at it. The penalty for killing was death. It was one of the only two crimes that deserved death. He had been about to kill billions of people, and he could have gotten away with it. No other killer could match that. Was he really any better than a killer? He had decided against his plans at the last minute, but he had been about to kill the entire world mercilessly… No, he was worse than a killer, far worse…

Maria was looking down upon him from heaven with immense disappointment and shame.

Although unknowing of his intentions, Rouge was looking down upon him from the stairway in horror. Shadow did not realize that she was there, but he knew that if she had known his intentions, she would hate him for eternity.

Somewhere in the house, the grandfather clock began to sing its midnight song.

Shadow's guilt became self-loathing. No one was safe while he was around. Not Rouge, not GUN, not even Sonic or Dr. Robotnik. He faintly remembered something he had read: If you think it, you might as well have done it. As a sin, it was counted as the same thing. Shadow did not believe in God like Rouge and Maria did, but he knew that that saying had great truth to it. He could almost feel the planet's blood on his hands…

The clock struck one. The black and red hedgehog raised the knife he held. He did not fear death. He did not want anyone to get hurt. He just wanted everyone to be safe from him… Rouge flinched, her grip greatly tightening on the stairs banister.

The clock struck two. The knife tore across the surface of his chest. He gasped, but tried to hold his pain inside. His friend also gasped, mind racing, heart pounding.

The clock struck three. He tore through his wrist, trying not to cry out or gasp and letting his crimson blood fall to the floor and splatter. "Shadow!" Rouge dashed down the stairs as she began to cry. I have to make him stop…! Why is he doing this?!

The clock struck four. Shadow collapsed on his knees. Although his lower arm's muscles screamed in pain and almost refused to be of any use to him, he took the knife in his other hand, and with effort, forced himself to cut through his other wrist. He choked on a sob. Rouge was a mere second too late to stop him. More blood spilled. Rouge dropped to the floor at his side.

The clock struck five. The knife dropped from Shadow's hand, hitting his leg and causing a small cut in it. He trembled, feeling weak and faint, and starting to feel dizzy as well. Pain was surging through him from the wounds he had created. He wanted to scream, but he held it back with all his might, only letting tears escape from his eyes and sobbing quietly. Rouge grabbed the knife as soon as she could so he wouldn't try to pick it up again. Briefly, she left him there, dashing as quickly as she could to the kitchen to throw the knife in the sink and then over to the telephone to dial 911.

The clock stuck six. Rouge almost couldn't dial the numbers due to her terror. Shadow curled up in a ball, but did not try to stop the bleeding, against his very instincts. He cried.

Seven… eight… nine… ten… eleven… Rouge hurriedly explained the situation to the operator, then ran back to Shadow. He was barely aware of her presence. He felt like he was drowning in pain and agony, but too weak to cry out and too weak to move. He tried to open his eyes, but when he did, he shut them again. The room was spinning too much and it was too blurry to make out a single object.

The clock struck twelve. For the next few minutes, Shadow was faintly aware of Rouge holding him in her arms, trying to stop his bleeding the best that she could herself. She was whispering to him, crying, stroking his fur once the ambulance arrived and she could do nothing more… but it seemed to be nothing more than a dream… the pain was fading. He began to feel numb. Weakness began to simply feel like nothingness. His hearing left him next. The blaring sirens became soft whispers, and Rouge's voice became silent. It only took fifteen seconds before even the sirens fell silent, and he was alone in the dark.

The darkness took over, and all existence ceased.