Okay, this took me way too long. I apologize to whoever I kept waiting with this and I hope you like it

Pt. 3

Homecoming

Amy was worried from the moment Sonic took off and the others joined her when the sun had set and they hadn't seen or heard from their hedgehog friends. It didn't ease their nerves any when Shadow walked in all bloody and bruised carrying an unconscious Sonic in his arms. He walked, better yet staggered past the inquiring eyes of his friends and placed Sonic on the bed he was on earlier before staggering past his friends again and disappearing into the dark living room.

Several hours earlier, Shadow was racing against time, trying to get to Sonic before the truck and get him to safety. He managed to reach Sonic and dove on top of him, but didn't have the strength to stand back up. He felt the truck's tire hit his side and used all his strength to keep himself off of Sonic as it rolled over him. Once it was off, Shadow scooped Sonic up in one of his arms and tossed him forward just as another tire ran him over and pressed him to the ground.

He heard a muffled crack and thought it was his ribs or some other bone breaking, but it was actually the sound of a popping tire from contact with his flared quills. The truck swerved away and crashed into head on traffic. Shadow thought this was the perfect chance if any to leave and began to stand up, coughing up some blood in the process.

Pedestrians fled the area as panicked divers either came to a stop or sped up in shock. A couple of these hit Shadow, one rolling over him and the other sending him flying through the air and landing hard on his back. This time he stayed down as everything dimmed and sounds muffled, but something brought him back to reality followed by searing pain.

He looked over to Sonic and saw him lying on the sidewalk unharmed. He then forced himself up, picked up Sonic and left before anyone could gather what happened. His friends didn't need to know what happened, it should be enough that they came back alive, but that wasn't going to stop them from trying.

Knuckles turned on a lamp as he walked into the living room and looked over at Shadow standing in a corner "What happened"

Shadow leaned his head against the wall and sighed "Don't worry about it"

Knuckles gritted his teeth as he walked over and forced Shadow to look at him, causing him to groan "Don't give me that! You walk in here covered in blood carrying him…"

"He's alive, isn't he!" Shadow interrupted, lazily brushing away his hand.

Knuckles narrowed his eyes and growled "Yeah, but you look ready to drop dead! Now tell me what happened!"

Shadow glared in response before looking away "He passed out while running"

"And what about you?" Knuckles inquired while crossing his arms

"That's not important" Shadow responded with a quick glance before walking away.

Knuckles growled furiously and pinned Shadow to a wall, causing him to groan louder in stinging pain "Damn it Shadow, stop being stubborn!"

"Knuckles!" Rouge yelled as she walked over "Leave him alone!"

Knuckles looked at her, but didn't bother to let go "He won't tell me what happened!"

Rouge forced his hands away "He's hurt! Can't you do this later?"

"Why are you taking his side?" Knuckles said angrily while pointing to Shadow.

"Why are you being so thickheaded?" Rouge retorted.

"Thickheaded!" Knuckles repeated before sticking his face in hers "I'm just trying to get some answers!"

Rouge "Well you don't have to do it right now!"

They continued yelling at each other and Shadow stood there a watched slightly amazed at how quick they changed subjects. He felt a little dizzy, probably from the blood loss, so he ignored it. He leaned against the wall and continued watching the argument until the dizziness picked and made the room tilt and spin. He tried to steady himself, but it only made things worse.

He reached out and grabbed Knuckles shoulder, ending the argument and gaining the angry echidna's attention. He didn't seem as red as he usually was. For some reason, he was a grayish color, everything was. Shadow opened his mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out and then everything went black and he passed out.

Knuckles' expression quickly changed to concern as he caught Shadow "What just happened?"

Rouge ignored him and hurried back to the others "Quick! Get him to a bed" Knuckles swung Shadow onto his shoulder and followed the bat.

A few moments later, Shadow was resting in a bed next to Sonic, sweating and breathing heavily. Tails worked busily tending to Shadows injuries while a concerned bat paced behind him, Amy sat in a chair next to Sonic grasping his hand tightly in concern. Melony and Cream were returning with freshly cooked food for their worried friends.

Cream lowered her head as they continued down the dark hallway, which only helped make the situation more depressing. "I hope they'll be okay" she whimpered aloud.

Melony frowned at her comment, but quickly shook it off to cheer her up "Don't worry. From what you've told me, Sonic's been through worse and Shadow's strong, they'll get through this"

Cream smiled at her "You're right, this is nothing" she faced forward and skipped happily down the hallway.

Melony followed at her same pace when a green glow coming from underneath a door caught her attention. She stopped and stared at the light curiously before a voice brought her back to her senses.

"Melony?" Cream called from down the hall worriedly.

Melony smiled up at her reassuringly "I'll be right there, I just want to check something"

Cream nodded in understanding before continuing down the hall. Melony's smile faded to a curious frown as she used her free hand to open the door and look in. It appeared to be Shadow's room and nothing seemed out of place. It was well kept, nothing laying about on the floor like she had seen in other rooms and his green emerald rested on a red colored clothe on a night stand near the bed…glowing.

Her curiosity peeked as she approached the gem. She placed the food she was carrying down on the bed so she could pick up the gem and thoroughly examine it. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary other than its glow, so she dismissed the thought. As she went to place it down, she felt a slight tug as if something was trying to take it from her. This indirectly caused her to grasp it tighter as the emerald began to shake in her hand trying to get free.

She watched as the gem struggled in her grasp with wide eyes "What's going on?"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a scream, from a familiar voice.

Sonic screamed in agony as he tossed and turned violently in his sleep. Amy fell back out of her chair in surprise from his sudden moment and didn't immediately recover due to hitting her head on the floor.

Tails walked up to his friend and attempted to shake him awake "Sonic, wake up. It's just a dream" that having no affect, he grabbed his hands in an attempt to stop their violently sporadic flailing "Sonic! Wake up!" his attempts were in vain and he was thrown away when Sonic suddenly sat up clutching his stomach.

Rouge stood up from her recently claimed seat next to Shadow. Keeping her hand in his, she stared at the wailing hedgehog and then to the fox "Tails, what's wrong with him?"

Tails sat up on the floor and stared dumbfounded "I…I have no idea"

Knuckles rushed into the room, nearly breaking the door down as he entered "What happened?! Who's screaming?!"

Tails glanced up at him trying to think of a proper answer when more screaming caught his attention. He faced forward and saw Rouge struggling to free her hand from Shadow's vice grip.

"Shadow! Let go!" Rouge pleaded as she yanked and pulled at his fingers.

Shadow gritted his teeth in discomfort and then suddenly arched his back and gripped harder at her hand, resulting in another scream. Knuckles immediately rushed over to assist her, managing to free her hand and leave Shadow in a similar state to Sonic.

Amy came to and sat up on the floor, moaning in pain "Ugh, what happened?"

Her question is met with a combination of screams by the two other hedgehogs. The room started to brighten and slowly, colorful gems appeared and floated around them.

Melony rushed down the hall, still clutching the emerald in her hand when the light it was emitting suddenly died. She stopped and looked down at it. The light returned, only dimmer, but quickly grew to an unbearable white light that consumed the hallway.

This went unnoticed by the others as their attention was focused on the sudden appearance of the other emeralds.

Knuckles looked around at the colorful gems in disbelief "The…chaos emeralds…..here, now!" he glanced down at Tails, hands clenched in tight fists "Tails! What's going on!"

Tails stood next to him staring in fear and confusion "…Nothing good"

The emeralds suddenly died down , but quickly lit back up brighter than ever, consuming the room with a white blinding light and a strange eerie noise. This lasted for only a few moments before the room was left dark. The emeralds were gone and so were the two screaming hedgehogs.