Author's Note:

So with this chapter, I wanted to change and approach a few things. I decided to put a new plot and make the events a little more exciting to read and to look forward to. Something new and better for the story, rather than constantly listening to more tedious thoughts about the character's POVs (cringe). So if you think it's a yay, great! If it's a nay, well I guess you shouldn't be continuing on to read this story then. I am doing the best I can to keep the authenticity my 16 year old self had created here, so I hope y'all understand that I'm only trying to fix a lot of grammar here and implement new events in the story.

Now on to reading!

A few days since the incident, Amy had been dispatched from the hospital. Shadow with his coffeé sat in his dining room and stared through the window thoughtfully. He couldn't seem to avoid revisiting images of Amy's wounds on her right arm and her saddened look. Her depression had seem to take over almost completely, which increased Shadow's concerns for her.

'Why on earth do I give a damn'. He thought while taking sips of his coffeé.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt accustomed to be there for her; however, the more thoughts about it, the more he felt confused about his obligation for being there for her. Amy doesn't exactly resemble much about his long-time friend Maria, but his intention to be a kind of a support system for the rose hedgehog just happened naturally.

Shadow let out sigh. 'A shower may help...'

The black hedgehog got up, finished his last sips of his coffee and head straight for a shower. As he hopped into the stall, he immersed into his warm shower and closed his eyes. Without avoiding any thoughts about Amy, Shadow redirected his thoughts elsewhere. Then came Sonic and that dreadful flashback.

'Fuck.' Shadow rubbed his eyes, took a deep breath and sighed. He couldn't shake off that flashback of the blue hedgehog being shot to death and the traumatized look on Amy's face happening in front of him. As he opened his eyes, he noticed blood being showered all over him.

"What the f-" His berserk reaction caused him to fall back through the shower stall door and on to the floor.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed the shower being back to normal. He looked in disbelief and confused that he indeed saw himself being drenched in blood previously at that moment. He rubbed his head trying to ease the pain after falling. He got up, turned off the shower and reached for his towel. While excessively wiping his face, he thought to himself whether the blood in the shower was just brief hallucination from over thinking his thoughts pertaining to the tragic event. He then wondered if he, himself is also affected by the trauma that happened to the blue hedgehog.

(Doorbell)

He thought about who could it be coming by at this time. It may be Rouge, but knowing the bat very well, Rouge would just enter from the balcony like always. Shadow threw over the bath towel around his neck, went over to his front door, and peered over through his door hole. His eyes widened, when he saw the rose hedgehog standing in front of his doorstep. He froze with confusion and wondered why Amy would make an appearance at his place.

He clenched his towel and threw it over his coat rack. What ever her reason is for stopping by, he just wants to get it over with. He opened the door and caught Amy being startled by the door opened.

"... Amy." He says.

Amy looked hesitant. She attempts to say something, but suddenly looked towards the ground and froze with anxiety. Shadow briefly observed Amy and saw bandages wrapped around her right arm and her facial expression still remained the same with the same saddened look. She took a deep breath and finally engaged eye contact with Shadow in front of her.

"T-Thank you." She says, awkwardly trying to crack a smile. "... for checking up on me at the hospital the other day."

She picked up a small packaged box beside her and shoved it in Shadow's chest and booked it. The black hedgehog felt completely confused by what just happened and watched Amy run down the hall to the elevator. He then looked over the small packaged box with a red bow tied neatly on it, went inside and closed his front door.

He went to his kitchen and opened the small packaged box. Inside was a small strawberry shortcake that says 'thank you' written in chocolate drizzle. Although Shadow had never really peaked interest in desserts, he felt a small sense of appreciation from the gift Amy had given him. The last time he had ever received a gift in his life was Maria, which had given Shadow a few light-herarted feels. Without any appetite, he gently put Amy's cake in the fridge and saved it until then.

(Phone Ringing)

"Shadow." He answered.

"Mission in 5. Meet at the harbour stat." Rouge quickly responded and hung up on the line.

Immediately, the black hedgehog put on his hover shoes and used chaos control to attend the mission. As he arrived by the harbour, he saw Rouge at the tip of an abandoned cargo ship. Shadow not looking very pleased with the last minute mission, observed around the surroundings and saw a G.U.N. truck afloat by the cargo ship and equipment scattered around the ocean. Rouge flew over to Shadow and dispersed the mission info.

"Gee, couldn't you get here fast enough?" Rouge teased.

"What's our mission." Shadow avoided her annoyance.

"Well, the General had sent me a brief report about the missing G.U.N soldiers that had been dispatched to check over this abandon cargo ship and they haven't reported back to the headquarters ever since." She explained. "When I got here, the truck and equipment were already floating in the water, I haven't gotten the chance to check inside yet."

"Let's go." Shadow immediately sped inside the abandoned cargo ship.

Rouge sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "It's rude to not let me finish."

As both of them have entered the abandoned cargo ship, the inside vessel turned out to be nothing but a daunting empty space. Shadow walked around and observed the empty vessel. The overall appearance looked rustic and no debris of equipment or such had been seen while the two have observed the abandoned ship. Rouge then flew up to railings and noticed illuminating black dusts sprinkled laying around.

"Shadow, check this out." Rouge guides him over to her location. The black hedgehog jumped towards the wall and jumped off to reach her whereabouts.

"This is quite unusual for dust to look like. Any idea?" She asks, while rubbing her fingers against the dust particles.

Using his finger, Shadow looked over the black dusk closely and noticed a red-illuminating color from the dust. No thought had came across his mind, nor he knows that this isn't one of Dr. Eggman's games.

"Take a few samples for the lab." He says. "Let's get out of here."

"W-wait, shouldn't we continue looking around? There could be more clues." Rouge protests.

"... Something feels odd around here." He claims.

"Well, I think you're the odd one here. When did you obtain the ability to be so superstitious?" She scoffed.

(Creak)

Shadow quickly looked over by the entrance of the abandoned ship, and noticed the doors slowly closing.

"It's a trap." He says while quickly going over the rails and heading towards the entrance. "Move!"

"Shit." Rouge quickly scurried to Shadow's direction.

As the two quickly head towards the entrance, the doors of the abandoned ship had slammed shut in front of their faces. The abandoned ship therefore started to move with the tip of the boat pointing upwards, causing both of them to fall towards the rear of the vessel. Shadow quickly grabbed on to the railings and caught Rouge's hand within the jist of the moment.

"What the hell is going on!" Rouge yells in confusion over the turn out of the event.

"That's not important. We need to find a way out of here." Shadow looks up towards the tip of the boat to find an exit.

His ears perked when he heard the sound of water entering the empty vessel. The abandoned ship started sinking gradually, as Shadow noticed a flood of water quickly rising up in the vessel. He is then triggered with flashbacks of the blue hedgehog falling into the ocean, in which he froze into hallucination.

"Quickly use your chaos control!" Rouge looked over to Shadow, but noticed the black hedgehog's frozen reaction towards the water rising.

"Shadow, what are you doing! Use your chaos control to get us out of here!" The more Rouge persistently yelled at him, the more it didn't register to the black hedgehog's attention. Shadow's grasp from the railways were about to loosen, and Rouge began worrying about the case of the situation. As she noticed a large debris had fallen in the water from the tip of the boat, she noticed light shining from outside.

'God damn it!'

With her wings, Rouge quickly pulled Shadow by his left arm and sped towards the opening exit made from the large debris earlier. More bits of ship's debris were falling from the top, which had distracted her from escaping. Small debris had hit her wings, but Rouge kept persisting her way to get Shadow and herself out of the abandoned ship. After mere seconds of avoiding debris and speeding through time, Rouge managed to finally get Shadow and herself out from the ship. Her energy from escaping the ship had drained her briefly, causing herself and Shadow to fall towards the docks.

The black hedgehog had finally snapped out of his hallucination, quickly grabbed the bat and landed safely on the docks. After landing on the docks, the abandon cargo ship had sank in the ocean leaving both Shadow and Rouge overwhelmed with the sudden turn of events.

"What... the fuck, Shadow." Rouge looked over to Shadow with disappointment, while trying to regain her energy.

Shadow didn't respond, nor did he bother listening to Rouge. He watched where the ship had sank and felt awfully confused about the sudden hallucination he had been experiencing lately. Cold sweats enveloped his forehead and along the back of his neck, he couldn't wrap his head around on why he is particularly feeling this way. It's as if the same traumatic feeling had came back to haunt him, just like watching Maria being shot in front of him.

Shadow rubbed his eyes, stood up and walked past Rouge. "Let's head back to the headquarters."

"Seriously!" Rouge stood up, still trying to regain her energy previously. "For God's sake, I saved your sorry ass there! You could've at least thank me doing so!"

The bat scoffed and eventually sauntered to follow him, but before doing so, she looked back to where the abandon ship sank and noticed the G.U.N truck and equipment had disappeared on land and water as well. She took out her petri dish and briefly observed the illuminating black dust she had gathered from the ship earlier before it sank. She then looked over her wings and noticed the wounds had disappeared as well; however, she still felt exhausted from all the hasty flying she did earlier. Her suspicion had started developing when she noticed how unusual the turn out of the event had recently happened. The more she put thought about it, the more the thought exhausted her. She puts back the petri dish in her pocket and flew over to catch up on Shadow's whereabouts.

And that's chapter three, everyone!

Completely different, hey? Stay tune for more new events in the next chapters of this story. R&R as you wish, no flames please and thanks!