Welcome back to World at War. Sorry for the super long wait but life sucks. I wasn't totally dead during this time. If any of you bothered to look at my profile, I posted a new story. It's a crossover I'm working on with a friend of mine. Anyways, enough about why I didn't write and on with the story.

Chapter 4: Remember Me?

Survival. What did that mean? Survival from what? He, whoever he is, destroyed that world. Who in their right mind kills what it needs to live to survive. There it is! In their right mind. Not only are we up againstan empowered villain, we're up against an insane one.

By now it's around midday. After Sonic's story we just sat in silence listening to the stream run. Said blue annoyance had taken one of his torn-gloved hands, and gingerly guided his fingers in the water. His fingers danced with the crystal liquid until he submerged his other fingers. Then both hands, down his arms until his nose dipped in the surface of the creek.

This was odd to do if you were terrified by water. I pondered whether or not to ask him about it for quite some time. Then, as if he had awoken from unconsciousness, he gasped for air. His whole body retreated from the running water and he stumbled back, eyes wide in shock and pure fear. Two emotions hardly ever present in the once very egotistical hedgehog.

"W-we sh-shouldn't s-s-s-stay he-here any-ma-more." He stuttered. Was he? Yes, he was shaking with horror and trying to escape. Someone needs to fix him, soon.

"Your right. They probably got word out of our escape and are searching for us. We need to find a better hiding spot before we do anything else." Even when I agreed with him, he shivered. Tired of his display of fear, I pick him up and sling him over my shoulder. Our quills become a tangled mess because they have been lacking care for ten years. My wounds have started their heeling process and it won't be long before I am once again spotless. As for the trembling heep of quills on my shoulder I have no idea when he will be ready to run.

My skates are defaulted and no longer boost my speed so this is purely me. Although common belief is that my shoes do all the work when I run, that's not true. I can run just as fast as Faker without my skates.

Without a moment of hesitation, I run to the edge of the oasis. From behind the bushes of lush green leaves I see the burnt plants, the crusty dirt, the black clouds and that blood red sky. Why does the green stop right here? Why doesn't the death creep it's way into the patch of life behind me?

I dash to the other side and find the same thing. How peculiar? I have so many questions and I am determined to find answers.

"Are we going or not? If we are put me far away from the *shivers* water."

Restless as always. With no warning, I sprint out of last night's campgrounds and into the unknown.

Having extra weight didn't help a whole lot but not even I want to be alone in a world like this. Even if the company is Sonic.

Hours past and I'm still running in this wasteland. I haven't even spotted any forts or whatever they kept Sonic and I in. All I can see is destruction.

"And I though my demeanor was depressing."

"Speak for yourself, Shadow. This depicts me perfectly."

Is this gonna be all our conversations, I mean seriously. I thought he would try making me talk.

"Do you think we might find anyone we know Sonic?"

"Maybe. What if they were in the same building we were and we just left them there to be punished for my mistake even longer and-"

"That does it!" I take the sad excuse of a hero and flip him off my should to the ground then stop running. As he rolls on the ground in pain, I adjust myself over him so my furious eyes burn holes through his.

"I have had enough of you bickering and beginning about how it's your fault! News flash Sonic! You didn't push the button or pull the switch to blow up the world!"

"No... but I-"

"No, shut up! You did all you could! You fought Eggman, you made the plan, you met the guy, you protected her!"

Sonic's face shifted from terror to confusion. He had no idea what was going on. I had fallen to my rear next to him and lowered my voice.

"You searched and searched, you couldn't find her, you couldn't defend yourself, you couldn't prevent it, you couldn't save her, you couldn't do anything, you couldn't, you just couldn't."

By now, my ears had flattened and my eyes were shut. Memories of that horrid day ten years ago flashed back in one painful array of my failure. I heard Sonic sit up.

"You losing Rouge was all my fault man, I'm sorry."

That reignited my fuse of anger.

"It was not you! It was me! I failed in protecting her and all those people who died!"

Out of pure rage I once again stood and started pacing next to him.

"Not everything that happens is because of you! Mobius does not revolve around Sonic! This isn't Sonicland, this is a cold dead Mobius because some idiot thinks he can run the world! You know what! Let's ask around!"

"No Shadow, calm down I-"

"Hey dead tree number 5, do you blame Sonic for the world exploding!? No? Well that makes two of us!"

"Hey look I know I'm a little down but-"

"Dead grass blade number 375! Do you blame Sonic!? Oh, well me and dead tree number 5 agree!"

Sonic stood up and stomped over to me. His eyes had a fire that haven't seen the light of day, well whatever this is, for ten years. I got him.

"You don't have to be so outrageous about this Shadow!"

"Oh look, it can speak!"

"I've had it with this! Just shut up! I'm a big enough person to except the blame!"

"Blame that's not yours! Hey! If there is anyone out there who blames Sonic, say I!"

From behind the dead branches and bushes, a group of four Mobians jumped out.

"Well... this certainly wasn't the response I was expecting."

A fifth figure appeared. A light pink ribbon was tied across their forehead above the midnight colored fabric on their head. Another cloth covered the mouth and neck while the rest of their body was concealed by the same colored body suit. A skirt that appeared to have crisscrossed black ribbon on it went just above her knees and her suit acted like leggings. Boots that went half way up her shins had the same light pink colored ribbon on the outer sides.

After taking another look around, I noticed two others with similar styled attire in light purple and a rusted orange. The remaining two didn't wear skirts but had ribbon tied on the tips of their gloves and shoes, one a tealish color the other a grass green. Those two wore black jackets and simi-tight pants. The pink accented one spoke first.

"I was wondering when you two would show up." Her voice seemed familiar. I couldn't quite place it, but Sonic did for me.

"Amy?" She pulled down the cloth that covered her mouth. It was in fact the rose colored hedgehog.

"Hiya Sonic. How has the last ten years been without me?"

The others revealed themselves as well. Blaze and Sliver were to our left and to our right was... Scourge and Fiona?

"When did you two join the good side?"

Scourge snickered and answered with, "roughly ten years ago, when did you?" He chuckled some more at his "joke" and earned a 'nice one babe' from the vixen now draping her arms around him.

While those two were busy, Amy once again addressed us.

"They were one of the first to sign up for my resistance."

"Resistance?" I asked.

"Yours?" Sonic inquired.

Blaze stepped into our line of vision and explained it all.

"Yes, Amy rallied a group of survivors that were willing to fight for Mobius. We were the first five. The first two years was just us but when word got out, more and more mobians joined our cause. There is a total of thirty-four of us now, not counting the refugees."

"One question guys. I'm sure Shadow would like to know this as well, where on Mobius do you guys hide from him?

"Well Sonic if you must know, we take shelter in an abandoned base. For the last eight years, that's been home. Before it was abandoned we hung out in the piping of a Slave City."

That caught my attention. "Slave City?"

Silver walked over and wrapped his left arm around Blaze's shoulder and explained. "It's not really a city per say, but it looks like one. It houses thousands of imprisoned Mobians who have to obey what the Shade Crawlers say. Before you ask, Shade Crawlers are the hooded figures that roam freely and force anyone and everyone to obey their commands. They come strait from the Fortress, the place he stays."

"Okay." Was all I said. Sonic was still wrapping his head around Silver's arm on Blaze.

"Oh, and Blaze and I are married. We decided that we may not make it through this alive so why wait? When we came here from our time, the bombs had just stopped going off and we ran into Amy. When we acquired a priest as a refugee, we had already been a couple for three years. So we thought why not."

Sonic, who had been starring wide eyed at the two finally found his words. "Wow." Great words huh.

"Let's head back to base guys. The others might get worried. Come on Scourge and Fiona, we are taking them back to HQ."

"Yes ma'am." They stated in unison. In the blink of an eye, they surrounded us. Blaze and Fiona to our left and the boys to our right. Amy was right in front of us with her back turned. Everyone faced forward and waited. For what I did not know.

"You might like this Shadow. We stole some technology from that idiot and now look what we can do." She pulled her wrist to her face and started messing with a contraption I failed to notice earlier. "Here we go!" With force, she slammed her hand on top of her wrist device and we were engulfed in swirling green lights.

They shined brighter and brighter until the turned a blinding white. The others protected their eyes with their cloths but Sonic and I had to use our arms. In an instant, we vanished.

Yay! Done with chapter four. Hopefully, hopefully I will update more often but you never know. Please keep reading and reviews are nice. I like to know what your inferences are and what you think of the story. If you don't like the couple's in this story, sorry, pretend they're someone else. And if you see type-ohs, I'm only human people. Keep doing what you guys are doing and cross your fingers I can update more. Until next time readers; thank you.