Author's note: Hi everyone! I'm sorry it's been super long since I haven't updated, but here's chapter 2! I'll stop talking right now so you can read = P

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STAGE 2:

KINGDOM VALLEY

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"Agent Rouge, respond."

The Bat jumped out of her bed. She became instantly alert to her surroundings, slightly surprised to be in her home, but she had to concentrate on her commander's voice buzzing through her wrist communicator.

"Rouge here."

"Agent Rouge, Agent Shadow has reported your rescue from Eggman's base. I take it you have retrieved the item?"

She rushed to find the Scepter of Darkness that had lost itself among her sheets. Luckily it wasn't very far and she quickly took hold of it.

"Yes sir. I have it here."

"Very good, Agent Rouge. I've prepared the means to go to Kingdom Valley. We'll be expecting the two of you at the nearby forest cave in 15 minutes. That is all."

"Yes sir," she said, but the communication had already been cut off.

She grunted a little, annoyed, as she got up. A back pain greeted her almost instantly, and she remembered the growing tradition of a warm bath after a long mission.

And off to the bathtub she went. She made G.U.N. wait around for her often enough, once more would be nothing new.

Before closing the bathroom door, she remembered her diamond sky was exposed. She smiled as she headed back to the plank and pressed the button. The diamonds disappeared and she was happy that he had remembered how she liked falling asleep to them.

Anything he could remember made her heart weight less.

She wished he could remember everything.

She turned the water on and stripped down and just as she got in the tub she heard footsteps followed by a knock on the door. So it seems her dark friend had stayed the night after all.

"What are you doing? 15 minutes, Rouge," she heard the black hedgehog urge her. "You just love making the Commander wait, don't you?" he asked her, rather irritated himself.

She smiled pleasantly and rested deeper in the warm water. "Relax, handsome, I'll be out in 20," she said, toying with him.

"Rouge!" he warned her, glaring at the bathroom door.

"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked, quite amused with herself as she shampooed her hair, "Oh! How about apple pancakes?"

She could hear him grunt on the other side of the door as she muffled a laugh. "You know I don't cook," he told her sternly.

"Don't or can't?" she teased.

His response was another grunt.

"Omega always makes me breakfast when he's here," she said, fainting disappointment.

"Yeah, well, Omega has better things to do."

With Rouge making no response, Shadow leaned against her bathroom door, prepared to wait a while. His eyes wandered around the bat's room. Rouge could be ridiculous when it came to her duties, even more so when it came down to the G.U.N. Commander. He had explained last night how his partner's rescue had been successful, even if she was not with him to report, and how he claimed that she had deserved her rest.

"She had orders, agent!" the commander argued with the hedgehog, visibly angry about Shadow's decision not to bring Rouge along, "Who does she think she is?!" he turned to place his fist on the window, "She can't keep doing this; working just when it pleases her!" He turned back to Shadow. "Tell her this is her last chance!"

Shadow stood there, perfectly calm. This wasn't the first time the commander told him all of this, and again, this wouldn't be the last time Rouge didn't follow orders. He didn't understand why she didn't follow them regularly when her job was a government spy. He worked under orders regularly nowwhile she acted like a spoiled child that complained any time she needed to work.

Then again he was the one to have been created to serve. Humans told him he was created to serve mankind, while Black Doom, his alien birthfather, had told him he was to serve him and destroy the human race. And if he wasn't following his givens orders, he was following the ones he had set for himself.

Rouge, on the other hand, was born into this world, a world he had long watched from the space colony. He wanted her to be free and to stay free. If it meant the disobeying regularly and the occasional thievery, then so be it.

He glared his ruby eyes at the commander as a silent threat. He shared Rouge's displeasure about orders going against their beliefs and threatening when you were the Ultimate Lifeform was easy. The commander backed off immediately and asked him what he knew about the Solaris Project.

They were to continue their research in the ruins of Kingdom Valley.

Shadow almost fell when the bathroom door was suddenly opened behind him. He quickly turned to face the bat, planning to express his irritation, but he didn't think she'd walk out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.

He took a step back, unsure if it was by surprise or to get a better view of the whole picture… Sure, he had spent a significant amount of time with his particularly attractive female partner, but this was a new sight indeed.

The bat washed her look of surprise and replaced it with a seductive smirk before stepping slowly closer to the black hedgehog, leaving small water puddles behind her.

Shadow's whole body ached to touch her and for her to touch him. He stood his ground as she approached him, not taking any more steps back.

She stopped a few inches away and studied his reaction. Rouge had never seen him like this. What was he thinking? She wanted to find out.

"So, Shadow… What do you want to do now…?"

She tilted her head, quite curious to what he would answer.

He locked eyes with her, not even looking at her body anymore. Most men she crossed paths with in her life were all over her by now. Shadow kept proving to her every passing day how he was different.

He reached up to touch her cheek.

Chills ran through Rouge's body as her eyes went wide.

His hand slid down back to his side in the form of a fist. He stared into her eyes and swallowed before speaking. The words that came out were not the ones she was hoping for.

"Get ready. Otherwise I can and will handle this mission alone."

With that said, he walked out of her bedroom rather irritated.

She only smiled, pleased with herself.

When she stepped down to her living room, finally ready, she heard sounds coming from the kitchen. "What are you doing?" she asked as she stepped in the kitchen and saw her hedgehog friend looking through her pantry and fridge.

He glanced at her and pulled out orange juice and some nuts and tossed them on her counter.

"Eat," he ordered. She could tell he had just about enough of waiting after her.

Unamused, she faked a laugh before pushing the nuts aside. "Is this your idea of breakfast?"

He leaned on the counter to face her, "No. This is my idea of lunch."

Surprised, Rouge glanced at the clock hanging above her stove. Indeed, it read 12:52.

She returned her eyes to Shadow, who now seemed more tolerant.

"Well, it's nice of you to make me such a… healthy meal, but I'll have something else." She turned to the fridge while Shadow grunted impatiently.

She got out some fruit and settled to eat them before she noticed something. "Aren't you going to eat anything?"

"You know I don't need it, Rouge. Why do you even ask?"

"I mean, don't you want to eat anything? Ever?"

He pushed himself off the counter and leaned against the stove instead. "No. I don't need it."

A smile spread on her face. According to her, he was being silly, but she decided to play along. "You're right, we wouldn't want you to ruin that perfect body of yours" she flirted, even adding a wink.

He grunted, impatient. She'd never change would she?

"What a far away place to set an extraction point."

Aboard G.U.N.'s flying device that resembled a deltaplane, Shadow and Rouge were approaching Kingdom Valley quickly. They could now see the ruins of the ancient kingdom. Rouge confirmed their location. "This is Kingdom Valley. Long ago there was a royal castle here."

"I wonder where it was…" she wondered, as her eyes scanned their surroundings. Instead of finding the remains of the castle, she spotted Eggman robots. "Shadow!"

He spotted them as soon as she did and was already firing the aircraft's missiles and shooting them down.

"Why are Eggman robots here?! This place was supposed to be deserted!" She called over the increasing sound of machinery.

Where Rouge was concerned, Shadow was amused. After the very slow morning he had endured, he loved this.

He shot down Eggman's robots with pleasure and was quite disappointed to find the aircraft out of ammunition.

"Looks like we're on foot from now on," He unclipped his and Rouge's safety belt and jumped down on the hill. Rouge flied down soon after, rather furious that he'd just abandoned ship like that. He smirked and watched the aircraft crash into the mountain. Quickly, more robots came to great them with bullets, but Shadow dispatched of them in eye blinks. Rouge followed close until they reached a door. She studied it while her partner chopped off another robot's head.

It was a beautiful cathedral door with not one, but three different key slots. She turned back to Shadow. "It looks like we need three keys to move on!" she called to him, as he glanced back at the door and her. "Leave it to me!" she announced as she flew off.

Shadow watched her fly away, now worried that they were splitting up. He knew she could fend for herself, but if he has being honest with himself he'd much prefer to have her in sight.

He cursed as he watched her dodge the robots' bullets. He didn't like this at all. He demolished the robots that had fired at Rouge, as more robots approached him.

Rouge was doing okay. The further she was from Shadow, the fewer robots crossed her path. It seemed Shadow was making such a commotion that he attracted most of the robots' attention. She suspected he was doing this on purpose.

She flew across the surrounding area while getting rid of the annoying robots with her mini-bombs. Surely the keys would be hidden in a safe place, so she decided to search what appeared to be the church first. She destroyed one of the beautifully decorated windows and entered from there. Her hunch was right; several robots were guarding a precious-looking box. She dropped her bombs on them before they could shoot her down and quickly got her hands on the first key. More than certainly, there would be backup coming soon. She had to get out of there.

Dodging the incoming attacks with her precise flying, she spotted a laser room in the distance and flew there directly. She had stolen from Eggman enough times to know that a laser room almost guaranteed treasure.

There were two huge robots guarding it. They were both heavily armored; she therefore suspected their legs to be fragile. She used two more bombs to immobilize them, and gracefully slid between the lasers and got her hands of the second key.

She got out and flew away as fast as possible. It now seemed like the robots had also considered her a threat, maybe even more than Shadow since she was the one taking their precious keys. The robots where raining on her with bullets. It soon became very dangerous so she decided to dive in the waters below. They seemed clean enough.

The robots lost track of her. She surfaced and hid under the pathways, letting herself time to breathe and dry. She briefly wondered if Shadow was alright, but put it aside and smiled. He would have been insulted if he knew she worried about him this way.

She sneakily kept her cover hidden as she ventured further. Surely the third key couldn't be far…

Lucky as always, she noticed a very large robot alone on an island. "Ah, hidden in a place like this…" she mused. It had to be it, the third key's location and guardian.

She smirked at the word "guardian", thinking how the only one she couldn't defeat was a stubborn and short-tempered red echidna.

This gave her the confidence needed to make her way to the island. She soundlessly readied her bombs before taking the robot by surprise.

Without too much effort, the robot gave away, and she could finally get the precious third key.

She was back on her defenses when she heard the humming sound of a machine. She tried to locate it in the sky but saw nothing. She finally spotted the noise and recognized the black and red paint of Shadow's personal vehicles as it neared her. "Get on," Shadow hurried. She hopped in the hovercraft and they we're off.

"Got the keys?" he asked as he turned the hovercraft into a tunnel.

"Yes," she said as she looked around for incoming enemies, "all three!"

The tunnel was like a beehive. Shadow gave his guns to Rouge, letting her fire at will as he unloaded the hovercraft's ammunition on the robots.

They returned to the locked door and Rouge careful unlocked it. "What a place to choose as an extraction point," Shadow complained, "Why is G.U.N. sending us into this?"

"Watch out!" Rouge called as the door opened. A bunch of robots were waiting for them.

Shadow emptied the hovercraft's ammunition but it was not enough to defeat them all. He forced the hovercraft to crash onto the robots and both of them jumped on the ground before it blew up. Shadow got rid of the remaining ones easily. "Ha! There's no strength in numbers." He claimed.

With more enemies coming, Shadow scooped Rouge up and dashed away, avoiding every enemy and obstacle in their way. Eggman made it clear that he did not want them to get any closer, which of course meant they had to. Together, they kept pushing their way in.

"We're getting closer to the extraction point," Rouge explained.

They finally reached the castle. Strangely enough, the entryway was deserted. Not even Rouge could detect an alarming sound. "Are we at the right place?" Shadow finally asked.

"It has to be," Rouge answered, "We've searched everywhere else haven't we?" She paused a few seconds before continuing, thinking something was wrong, G.U.N. was supposed to be here.

They quietly entered. Rouge felt Shadow tense, he was extremely silent, extremely serious. He distrusted this place and she knew it. She decided to lighten the mood a bit, by explaining a bit more about this silent castle. "The former king of Soleanna used to reside in this castle," she said, feeling maybe that was why it felt so still, "but a major accident occurred 10 years ago, and no one's lived here since."

She caught his attention at the mention of the accident. "Accident?" he asked. Good, he was interested. So she continued to tell the story.

"I heard a prototype energy engine failed, which caused the accident," she explained.

Shadow's mind was buzzing. What was it about this accident that felt so familiar? He didn't understand. Rouge continued with the remaining of her explanation. "I think the name of the plan was…"

"the Solaris Project," an unfortunately familiar voice finished. Both Shadow and Rouge turned to face him.

There he was, approaching them in one of his aircrafts, clad in his red coat and still proud as ever of his mustache.

He continued, "It was an ambitious project named after their eternal sun god."

"Doctor!" Rouge finally exclaimed, a little mad at herself for not hearing him coming.

He smiled as a gentleman would. "It's been a while, my dear Rouge," he then turned his attention to his grandfather's creation with all trace of a smile gone, "And of course, Shadow."

Rouge watched Shadow smirk as the Doctor Robotnik continued, "Now, if you'd be so kind as to hand back the Scepter of Darkness you took from me."

Shadow turned to Rouge as she clutches the scepter against her chest. If the doctor wanted the scepter back, it meant it was important, which meant he couldn't let him take it back.

Eggman signalled his hidden robots and they quickly surrounded the duo. Shadow was alert, ready to strike at any moment. Rouge stepped closer to him, covering his back. From the side, one of the robots fires at them but they both dodge easily. The two of them jump in different directions, successfully causing them to be separated. Rouge quickly decides that if she can't be at Shadow's side, the safest place for her is the sky, where she is much more agile.

Shadow sunk his fist into the firing robots and quickly tried to take care of as many robots possible so Rouge can escape with the precious scepter.

Worried of leaving Shadow behind, she glanced back at him, making her the perfect target for Eggman's robotic arm to punch the Scepter of Darkness out of her hands as they both fell to the ground.

Noticing this, Shadow pushed one of the robots off of him and rushed to catch Rouge from a certain death, leaving the Scepter of Darkness to hit the ground violently. "No….!" Eggman was furious as he watched the Scepter break and destroy his robots.

Shadow knew now that breaking the scepter probably meant trouble, but saving Rouge was the right choice to make. He didn't want to think what he would do with her dead…

He watched Rouge intently and gave her a little shake. She finally opened her eyes after what he thought was too long. He was so relieved to see her okay, but still had Eggman to deal with. He left Rouge to herself and stood up to face the man who had struck her.

But Eggman wasn't even looking at him. He was staring intently at the Scepter of Darkness as if it was going to explode. He decided to examine it and stepped closer to the scepter.

Meanwhile, Rouge was recovering from the blow to her head just in time to see Shadow approach the scepter. Something happened when he got close, and according to the information she had received about the Scepter the Darkness, Shadow would be the one to awaken it… "Shadow!" she tried to warn, but it was too late…

A dark shadow burst out of the scepter and spiraled around them as it engulfed the bodies of the robots. Eggman knew what was coming next because he retreated, panicking, as soon as the shadow left the scepter. The shadow rose up in the sky before crashing down a few inches in front of Shadow. It was gone for a moment, but suddenly Shadow's shadow detached from himself and was engulfed as well.

A cloud of darkness formed to reveal a familiar shape.

"What?" Rouge didn't like this at all, "His shadow…" Shadow didn't like this either. This creature that appeared was identical to him, except for the different colored stripes and eyes. He had blue-gray stripes, green poisonous eyes and no mouth. This creature proceeded to greet them with an evil laugh…

"Oh, how ironic fate can be!" was the first thing he said.

He was an enemy. Shadow was certain of it… Just who was this?

"I would never have believed I would be resurrected through your shade!" the creature continued talking, quite amused with himself, "I thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

The creature bowed before him, waiting for Shadow to speak.

This was enough. It was time to ask questions, "Who are you?" Shadow demanded, "How do you know my name?"

The creature stepped forward, still with his head down, which made him look like the living dead. "I'm Mephilis," he answered, as he continued stepping forward, "Mephilis the Dark."

He let a long pause pass before continuing, "What, did you forget me?"

This set Shadow's mind racing. What did he mean? Should he remember him? Maybe he did know him, but with his amnesia, he can't remember? Who was he?

Mephilis stepped even closer, approaching Shadow at a few inches only, successfully making Rouge back away. As the creature turned his head and stared at Shadow with his poisonous green eyes, Shadow glared back at him, holding his ground firmly. "I owe much to you, Shadow," Mephilis finally said.

Mephilis lifted his arm and Shadow knew that he was preparing an attack and even worse, that he could do nothing to stop it. He followed his instincts and quickly placed himself protectively between Rouge and this new enemy.

Mephilis watched him do so, not caring at all as he form an orb of energy as dark as night. "Oh yes," he continued as the orb glowed with electricity, "What you gave to me, I now return to you!" Shadow and Rouge could only watch the ominous orb grow bigger. Shadow hastily pushed Rouge behind him with his arm, fully ready to take the blow. Mephilis continued his threat before throwing the orb in the air, "A one-way ticket to oblivion!"

The orb spread out to cover the entire space of the castle's entryway. Searing shocks crossed Shadow's body. He quickly turned to Rouge to find that she was enduring the same thing. He tried to reach out to her, to grab the hand she was giving him, but his hand went right through hers. She was disappearing.

"Shadow!" Rouge panicked, trying desperately to grab his hand without success. Shadow cursed until he saw his hand starting to disappear as well. Could this be a similar version of his Chaos Control? His eyes returned to Rouge just in time to see her completely disappear.

"Mephilis!" he called as he turned to the creature that was almost his reflection, "Who are you?! Where are you taking us?!" he demanded. Mephilis only answered with a deep laugh of amusement before Shadow himself disappeared.

The next thing Shadow knew was that his feet were falling on a completely different ground. He landed swiftly, all signs of shocks and turbulence gone. Where was he? But more importantly, where was Rouge? He turned around a fortunately there she was, though she was lying on her stomach. He rushed to her and knelt by her side before carefully turning her. She opened her eyes calmly with a look of anger in them. "I hate that guy," she simply stated.

Those words were enough to reassure him. He helped her lean against the old concrete wall behind her. She placed a hand to her throbbing head and shut her eyes tightly. The setting sun was in perfect view, worsening her headache. Shadow made a personal note to get Eggman back for the wound he gave her. He checked her head for any open wound and found none. Of course that could mean internal damage, which could be worse, but he didn't let himself think that way.

Her eyes having finally focused in the strong light, Rouge allowed herself to check her surroundings. "What is this place?"

They were within was used to be a skyscraper that was now covered in debris and shattered glass from the windows. What was more worrisome was the view of the city they had. It was in ruins, with most of the buildings' structure gone and with many fires still raging on. The sky was clouded in dirt, making the sunlight spread even harder.

Looking at the destroyed city with the bat, Shadow gave Rouge the only answer he was sure of, "It seems we've been teleported to another location."

Sharply, Rouge stood up with determination, "Well, let's find out where we are." Before she could take another step, Shadow forced her back to sit against the wall. "You're in no condition," he said as he got up, "Stay here. I'll go alone."

"Why do you insist on doing everything on your own?!" she asked. It seemed the headache and events of the day had finally drained her patience out.

He didn't say anything and Rouge knew better than to expect an answer from him. He ignored her and started to walk towards the city.

"Shadow, don't you remember anything?!" She was standing again. "We're a team! We've always been. Or did you forget?"

He stopped. Memories ran through his mind. When they stole the Chaos Emeralds from the Prison Base, planning the planet's destruction aboard the Space Colony Ark, when Rouge found him in Eggman's base, destroying Eggman's robots together, the robot that was also created by Professor Gerald, the attack of the Black Doom and his army… Pain struck his chest instead of fondness.

"I'll tell you what I remember," he said before turning his back to her completely.

Rouge stepped closer, this was what she wanted. Finally, Shadow would make everything clear. She had been comfortable with his mysteriousness up until now. She had told herself that she wouldn't pry, but it was something she needed to know and something she though Shadow had to speak of.

"I remember being manipulated by the Doctor from the very beginning," he started. "Ever since he awakened me from unconsciousness, he's been manipulating me."

Rouge wanted to say something, but Shadow cut her off. "Even you, Rouge," he continued as he faced her, "You were only working with us to research on me, on Project Shadow."

Her lips closed. He was right. Back when the two of them were pawns in Eggman's plan to take over the world with the Eclipse Cannon aboard the ARK, she was manipulating both Eggman and Shadow to complete her mission: finding out everything there is to know about the Ultimate Life Form, and everything else related to it. "And you caught on before I could get anything more than the failed prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, Biolizard," she said dryly but with a smile on her lips. "If you had given me more time, I probably could've told you everything, even about Black Doom," she added.

She watched him grit his teeth. This was hard on him. He took a deep breath and continued. "That prototype… I crashed into the earth because of it, because I had been so intent on revenge for…" Memories he had put behind him rushed into his head like a waterfall. His hands went to his throbbing head. He had to make them leave. The memories of Maria were too painful.

Watching him clutch his head as if it were about to burst open, Rouge rushed to his side and placed her hands on his. "I shouldn't have asked," she said. She didn't know how to fix this except by changing the subject. "Let's find out where we are. Maybe if we can locate a computer or something we'll be able to know our surroundings."

Her words seemed to have calmed him, but he became still with his hands still firmly placed against his temples.

Rouge got down on her knees and slowly neared his head with her forehead. "Shadow," she whispered, trying to calm him. Their foreheads hardly touched before Shadow eyes opened, unable to escape the golden sunlight reflecting in the turquoise pools of the bat's eyes.

She smiled. "Wanna start with the buildings on the right or on the left?" she asked playfully.

"Left," he answered. He got up and helped Rouge to her feet.

"Then let's go" she said as she flew ahead. Shadow suddenly got worried she might get dizzy because of the blow Eggman gave her earlier, but she looked fine. There was just one thought remaining.

Mephilis. Who is he?

There we go. On to Crisis City! See you next chapter!

Review if you want, thank you = )