Chapter 3

"I can't believe I did that when I was five…" Grace said embarrassedly. She looked a lot older, in her early teens. She'd gotten a lot taller and thinned out. Her blonde hair curled and sat on her shoulders. "Oh Chaos, we could have been done for."

"Yes… but I got off rather lightly," Scott, who looked more middle aged than young adult.

Nearly ten years had passed since Grace met Shadow. She thought about him an awful lot, and how good of a friend he probably could have been if he were allowed to stay. Suddenly, there was a deafening knock on the door of the small bedroom they were sitting in.

"Robotnik! Come out here right now!"

Grace squeaked quietly.

"Shh…" Scott hushed as quietly as possible. "I'm not here, okay?"

Grace mouthed a fearful 'why?'. There was another bang, then silence. The two of them listened out for footsteps, which soon came. Their rude visitor was gone.

"Why didn't you answer?" Grace asked.

"That was the General… and I can't stand to face him right now. He's been an asshole to me lately," Scott said.

"Dad… you'll get into trouble," Grace said worriedly.

"I'll get into more trouble if he actually finds me," Scott said. He stood up. "Well, I need to be at work in ten minutes, so I'd better go." He began walking to the door.

"When do you get off?"

"Ten hours from now," Scott said as stopped by the door and sighed exasperatedly. Grace looked down sadly. He walked back over to her and patted her on the back. "We can spend more time together soon, I promise."

"I just get this feeling of urgency… like we're running out of time," Grace said.

"Don't be silly… whatever do you mean?" Scott asked assuringly.

"I know why we're imprisoned here, Dad…" Grace said. "And… they seem to be more and more harsh at us."

"Oh, Grace…" Scott said softly and rubbed her back as if to calm her. "There's nothing we can do about it."

"Please don't get yourself fired…" she pleaded. "Don't push it, Dad. I've seen you get into trouble a lot before… I'm worried that if you keep pushing it, we'll be done for!"

"Shh…" Scott said and pulled her into his chest as Grace began to cry. "It'll be fine. It won't come to that… I promise." He looked dead into space, feeling unsure about his words. "They can't punish us just because of a few crazy fools."

"They already are…" Grace said hopelessly and pulled away. She curled up on her bed and closed her eyes depressedly.

"It doesn't mean we can't have a good time…" Scott said. "I'll be back later… and we can talk all about it, okay?"

Grace nodded silently, but other than that, stayed still and silent. Scott left quickly, he was already running late.

"We're prisoners… just like that poor hedgehog…" she whispered to herself when she was all alone and fell silent again as she fell asleep.

She awoke to the sound of shouting. She shot up and sat straight. Suddenly, Scott bust into the room and shut the door behind him in a hurry. He looked terrified.

"Dad!?" Grace cried out.

"I've been fired," he breathed.

"What!?"

"That's why the General wanted to see me earlier," Scott said urgently, then swallowed hard and closed his eyes as he began trembling and sweating all over. "I'm screwed."

"Y-you said earlier that..." Grace said through her constricted throat. "You… promised…" Her eyes stung with tears. There was a loud bang on the door.

"You have five minutes to pack your things!" a harsh, deep voice sounded.

"The General…" Grace breathed in fear.

"That girl is going with you!"

Grace's eyes widened in even more fear.

"DAD!" she cried out.

"No! Grace isn't getting punished for my actions!" Scott boomed. "I won't let you take her!"

"Until she's a legal adult, she has to stay with her parents… and you're her last parent. So, she's coming. And if you don't comply… we'll start shooting." He ended on an ominous note.

"Okay!" Scott cried out in a cowardly manner.

"Four minutes!" the General yelled.

Scott ran over to Grace, who was shaking profoundly and crying her eyes out. He took her daughter's hand and tried to calm her down.

"Grace… we're going to go on a little holiday-"

"Don't fucking lie to me! I'm not a child!" Grace yelled, she pulled her hand away. "I warned you! And here we are!"

"I'll get us out of this, I promise," Scott said, but he was swiftly rejected.

"No! You keep promising things that never happen!" Grace screamed. She stood up, pushed past him, and ran out of the room. She looked left and right frantically to realise that the General wasn't outside the door anymore, in fact, no one was. She ran down the corridor as fast as she could. She wasn't going to let herself get taken away, she'd heard of other members of her family getting taken away. She had no idea of where they went, but it certainly wasn't a good thing when it happened.

Her family had been forcefully imprisoned on the ARK, ever since the creator of it, and several generations after him proved to be a threat to mankind. It seemed that many agreed that the Robotniks were bad news to society. But they were wrong, it was only a select few of them. A lot of them may have been geniuses, but only a few of them were evil ones.

Grace didn't know where to go. She just kept running and running, feeling more and more liberated the longer she ran. It reminded her of the stories she'd been told about one of her great-great uncles and their fights with a blue hedgehog that also liked to run. The blue hedgehog was apparently a hero… something she needed urgently at that moment.

Suddenly, she felt an urge to stop running. She turned to her right to see the door, that very door that changed her life forever. She ran over to it and looked closely at the keypad. She bit her lip urgently as she typed in the password she'd always known.

"M-A-R-I-A," she typed as quickly as possible. The screen flashed red. "They changed it!" she remembered, not believing she could have forgotten something so obvious during her moment of panic. She began to think, but her mind was racing. "H-E-L-P." she typed in. The screen flashed red again. She stomped her foot in frustration. "What is it?" she hissed and banged her hand against the wall. Then she swallowed hard as she thought of something… it was a long shot.

"G...R...A...C...E…" The keypad flashed green and beeped, then the door opened. She ran inside, and typed the same code on the inside, it closed behind her. Then she looked to the cryo-tank behind her.

"Shadow…" she breathed. There he was; she hadn't seen the hedgehog in ten whole years. The childhood idol… the five minute friend. Grace had found herself looking to him again… because now, more than ever before, she really needed that friend.

Grace admired the hedgehog for a few moments, making the most of the moment of silence. There was a soft humming coming from the machine. The hedgehog floated in the liquid soundlessly. His eyes were closed, it looked as if he was resting. But there was a sense of uneasiness in his facial expression, which was fitting, because Grace knew that he'd been put there unwillingly by GUN, as she and her father was about to be put in a new place unwillingly. The teenage girl slowly walked over to the panel on the right side of the machine. She bent down and typed in the password slowly, hoping with all her might that it was the same as the one on the door.