Shadow was standing over her when she awoke, face-down, on the cement floor. She rolled over onto her back and looked up, realizing she was in a holding cell of some kind, probably deep within the bowels of Eggman's airship. Behind the other hedgehog, she could see the electric blue laser bars that kept them trapped, roped off from the rest of the ship. They were trapped.

Shadow was looking down upon her with an unfathomable expression and their gazes locked momentarily. The unwavering brilliance of his red-hued stare made her skin crawl; it seemed to burn a hole in her, like an almost physical thing. She abruptly looked away, feeling the familiar sting of tears.

"Traitor," she said, rolling onto her side and angrily wiping her face. "Did Eggman throw you in here, too? Serves you right for trusting him."

"No, actually," the darker hedgehog said smoothly. "He gave me a key." She looked over her shoulder to see that he had a keycard on a string around his neck, which he was thumbing absently as he spoke.

"Then what're you doing in here?" Amy demanded, sitting up. She pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest, glaring up at him. "Come to mock me, then?"

"I've come to check up on you," Shadow answered matter-of-factly. "And give you your gruel." He nudged what appeared to be a paper bag on the floor next to his foot. He pushed it toward her.

Amy snatched it from him and rummaged through it. It wasn't gruel at all; it was a sack-lunch, which appeared to contain a lumpy sandwich, old potato chips, a bruised apple, and a soggy, battered milk carton. "It looks positively delicious," she said sarcastically.

"Well there isn't exactly fine dining on this battleship," Shadow scoffed in response. Amy rotated the apple in her hands, examining it for further damage. It seemed relatively unharmed, considering, and she took a bite into it. It tasted slightly past its prime but she was famished, so she did her best to ignore the slightly sour taste and continued to take chunks out of it with her teeth. After a while she threw the core aside and then got to work on the sandwich and chips, all while Shadow continued to stare.

For a while she was determined to ignore him, but by the time she had drank half of her milk, she could bear his silence no longer. "What do you want from me?" she cried.

Shadow considered her for a moment. "You are very unusual, Amy Rose," he said finally. "I was at least expecting you to attack me, to steal my card, to make a daring bid for freedom. Yet you have not even gone up to investigate the bars; already you have admitted defeat." He cocked his head to one side, as if trying to get a better perspective. "I find this... interesting, coming from the girl who believes so fiercely in survival. Already you have given up your freedom, yet you had seemed determined to keep me from giving up my life."

Amy snorted. "What would be the point of fighting you? You're bigger, faster, and stronger than me. But regardless, you're wrong. I haven't given up. Not even close." When the other hedgehog arched his eyebrows at her, she continued confidently, "Sonic is coming to rescue me, and I'd be careful if I were you, because I bet he's pretty angry by now, and the next time he sees you he's gonna kick your butt."

"I will rip the blue hedgehog to shreds," Shadow told her coldly.

"Good always triumphs over evil, Shadow," Amy told him confidently. "For a while I thought maybe you walked that line, but now I just realize you're just scum. If you wanted to go with Eggman, that was fine, but leave me and my friends out of it!"

"Well if you're so certain of your beloved Sonic's abilities, then I'd assume he's pretty well-equipped to take care of himself," Shadow snapped. "There was no need for me to intervene there. As for the Doctor taking you hostage, that's none of my concern. It is a misfortunate thing to happen to you, of course, but my only purpose here was to hear what he had to say about Maria. What little affairs he has to deal with on the side has nothing to do with my agenda."

"I have a question for you, Shadow," Amy sneered at him suddenly, twisting her hands in her lap. "How much of your past do you actually remember? Because I have a theory." When the other hedgehog didn't answer, she continued. "I have a theory that says you don't actually really remember much at all. And what you do remember, you've twisted it; you've put your own spin on things. Like Maria." She glared up at him and saw that he was looking back down at her with equal dislike. His body had suddenly gone tense, rigid. "I mean, I was thinking about it, and how could you possibly love someone you don't even remember having a relationship with? You couldn't even remember who she was, after you fell from space. You had to learn about it through word-of-mouth, and through reading old documents - and only then did the little tidbits start trickling in, to start to jog your memory; but even with that, that's all it did - it jogged your memory."

"Don't you start--" Shadow began, but appeared to be rooted to the spot. "How dare you insult her--"

Amy narrowed her eyes at him. "Shadow, you couldn't possibly replicate that emotion - you couldn't possibly hurt as bad as you say you do, because you barely even remember she existed until recently. But it's tragic and romantic and dark and maybe that's what you wanted, so you started feeding yourself this crap, re-inventing this great catastrophe so you could brood. But you don't even know if that's really what it was like. It's just what you wanted it to be like. You're a fraud."

"You don't know anything!" Shadow yelled suddenly. Amy imagined if she had been standing, he might have pushed her down. "You wretched, stupid girl. How dare you speak such blasphemy about the dead. How dare you disgrace her memory. You disgust me." And he turned away from her dramatically and headed for the door. His hands were shaking so badly he had trouble sliding the keycard through the slot. Despite what Amy had said earlier, she did make a 

break for it when the bars flickered into nothingness - but maybe Shadow had expected this, or maybe he just turned around at the right time – either way, this time he did shove her, hard, and sent her skidding across the floor.

"Monster!" she screamed at him, and she ran forward again, but stopped before the bars. "You're the fake hedgehog, Shadow! FAKE!"

For a long time after that she had remained in isolation. Since the incident with Shadow, she now received meals delivered solely by robots. For a while, she had almost regretted pushing his buttons - it had gotten incredibly lonely since her arrival. She had lost track of time, but it felt like she had been stuck in there for days with nothing to do. She had resorted to singing to herself and daydreaming about Sonic to keep herself sane, and try to get as much sleep as possible to help pass the time more quickly. She felt herself sinking farther and farther into depression and despair, wondering just what was keeping her beloved hero from rescuing her. Just when she thought she was about to lose her nerve entirely, however, she saw the enormous shadow of the black hedgehog looming over her on the opposite wall, slowly becoming smaller and smaller until Shadow himself came into view. She watched in wonder as he swiped his keycard and the bars gave away. Amy was so shocked that she didn't even bother to get up, and the bars were quickly replaced behind them as he came inside.

"Dinner time," he told her without enthusiasm, lifting a paper bag in his right hand.

"Why are you here?" Amy asked him suspiciously as he tossed it to her. Either his aim was lousy, or he wasn't really trying to be accurate - either way, it went horribly askew and bounced off to the left. She didn't immediately move to retrieve it, instead eying it mistrustfully. "Did you poison it or something?"

"I wouldn't resort to something so mundane," the black hedgehog retorted dryly. "I prefer a more hands-on approach."

"Oh, I didn't know you were a comedian!" she gushed sarcastically, crawling across the floor to grab it. She dumped its contents on the floor without fanfare - it was the usual, except with an orange this time. She immediately set out to peel it. "You didn't answer my question."

He didn't say anything. "Not gonna talk to me?" she asked bitterly, sinking into the orange. "Or are you just taking notes on this whole humanoid interaction thing so you can practice it later?"

"You should be a comedian," he told her and folded her arms. "I don't need a reason to be here, girl. I am permitted to simply... observe."

"Yeah I bet you did a lot of that, back on Ark," she snapped, and she saw him stiffen. She felt the walls she had armed around herself crumbling. After all, she really did miss company - any company, even if it was Shadow. Insulting Maria's memory probably wasn't the best way to get him to come back, in the meantime. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

He didn't immediately respond, and she felt like a jerk. "You know, it was wrong for me to say those things earlier. I shouldn't pretend to understand how you feel." Grasping vaguely for straws, she added, "And I can see why you wouldn't want to get involved--"

"Experiencing a little Stockholm Syndrome, I see," the hedgehog mused.

"... What?" Amy asked, startled. It took her a moment to recall the term's meaning. "You weren't the one who took me captive."

"I suppose I could be considered an accomplice," Shadow said, shrugging. "After all, I certainly didn't help you not get captured."

"Are you playing games with me?"

"No. Listen." Shadow sighed, and his expression didn't exactly soften - but it was a little less hard, maybe. "I have something to say."

Amy watched him for several moments as he seemed to struggle with the words. Finally, he appeared to have found a way to articulate himself and began, tentatively: "For a long time, I couldn't even remember what she looked like. I couldn't remember the sound of her voice. But I... I remembered her, whoever she was, and I remembered that I loved her. It was one of the first things that I did remember."

Amy was taken aback. She wasn't sure what she had expected him to say, but it had not been that. Shadow was looking away from her, his expression a little muddled; he seemed to be as confused as she was as to why he was telling her this. "I have found pictures of her since then, so I now I have something to put a face to," he continued, and suddenly he sounded tired and impossibly old. "I can even remember the things she said. But I still can't remember her voice. There's a lot of things I don't remember..."

"Shadow." Amy said, and she was overcome with the overwhelming urge to touch him, to console him. "I'm so sorry." And she truly did mean it; what he had told her made her heart ache for him, gave her deep pangs of sympathy. "But maybe you need to stop living in the past, and start living in the present."

"Maybe," he muttered, and he seemed lost. "...Maybe I should go." And just like that, he had walled himself off again, put up an impenetrable fortress whose walls she could not breach. But he couldn't pretend that she hadn't seen it; she had watched the facade crack a little, and he had revealed some of his secrets to her. It was undeniable progress, and Amy was almost proud. It was in that instance she had forgiven him, and knew, deep down inside, that he had forgiven her also.

She wanted to talk to him more. Already, however, he was making his exit; he swiped his card through the slot and the bars disappeared and he crossed the threshold and stepped outside. He walked outside and down the hall slowly and without any real direction. He appeared deeply troubled.

"Shadow!" Amy called out to him uselessly, but the bars were already flickering back into place; she was trapped again. As she glanced out down the corridor she thought he might have glanced back at her, but she couldn't be sure. And then he was gone.

She awoke to hear sirens wailing.

There was an explosion, stifled from beyond the steel walls surrounding her. She could hear gunfire and the entire foundation beneath her rumbled and shook before tilting at an angle completely, causing her to slide across the floor and hit a wall. There was another crash, and a sound of twisted metal, and distant, familiar laughter. Suddenly the power was killed off, submerging her completely in darkness. Everything became quiet and still. Her reinforcements had arrived, she realized, with a surge of emotion. Sonic was here.

The electric bars had gone out, and she seized her chance, already on the move. She felt her way out of the holding cell and then turned left, jogging down the hall. She put her hands out in front of her to help her guide the way but it was unnecessary - after a moment she heard another clang, closer now, and suddenly the lights came on again. The sirens started up for a second time directly overhead now, hurting her ears. She heard Knuckles shouting in the distance, over the roar, accompanied with more clangs as robots were being destroyed. As she just about to reach the hallway leading out into the beyond, however, Shadow rounded the bend, and the two nearly collided.

Both of them jumped back to avoid each other at the same time. For a minute they simply looked at one another and Amy wondered in the back of her mind if she was about to be physically assaulted and then apprehended. Then Shadow spoke, his voice louder than usual so that it could be heard over the din. "I was looking for you!" he said, and to her surprise, he seized her by the wrist. "Let's get out of here!"

"What!" she exclaimed in surprise as he dragged her along behind him. "But why?" He threw her a questioning look over his shoulder and she added, "Uh, not that I'm not grateful!"

They were about to reach a fork in the hallway when Shadow suddenly shoved her forcibly against the wall, flattening himself beside her as Eggman, seated in his newly improved and heavily armed Egg Walker, went stomping past. After the doctor disappeared around the bend Shadow turned to look at her.

"It was you who convinced me to save Earth, last time," he said suddenly and she felt herself flush under his scarlet gaze. "You told me to help them, that they deserved to live. You said exactly what Maria had said, years before." He was looking at her with an earnest, open expression she had never seen him wear before. It was something tender and reverent and so unlike Shadow that it made her feel a little uncomfortable, like she was barging in on something that was private and didn't belong to her. She wondered if this was how he had looked at Maria, so many decades before. "You told me to save them, and I did. That was you." It wasn't a 

question and at the same time it was, as though he was privately begging for her to confirm this story, to somehow make it more real for him.

"Well, yeah..."

He regarded her with that same look for a moment longer and then seemed to remember where he was, once again gathering his wits about him. He quickly checked down the hall. "Let's go," he said, grabbing her by the arm again and leading her forward.

"But wait!" she protested, glancing down the hall from whence they came. "What about Sonic?"

"What, you don't think your boyfriend can take care of himself?" Shadow said, almost a little mockingly, as they continued to weave throughout the labyrinth that served as the inside of Eggman's battleship. "I'm doing him a favor!" Amy wasn't sure where he was taking her, but she followed him blindly in silence. Neither of them said anything for a while, and Amy could no longer hear the sounds of battle - only the sirens overhead and the sound of her own labored breath.

Suddenly there was an explosion and the airship tilted, causing Shadow and Amy to be sent hurtling. Shadow rolled in mid-air and landed on his back spectacularly, cushioning Amy's fall as she landed abruptly on top of him. She was pretty sure the collision would have knocked the wind out of him but he seemed relatively unharmed, immediately leaping to his feet and dragging her to her own. Then they set off again.

There was another explosion, closer this time, and the two of them went crashing into a wall. Shadow charged forward and moments later they had encountered a door. Shadow swiped his keycard and entered a pin number, the enormous steel door sweeping open to reveal the keel of the ship. As the two of them entered there was a deep groan that issued from beneath them, and the undeniable feeling that they were sinking.

"We're losing altitude!" Shadow said, slapping a giant red button on the side of the wall. Amy saw the enormous bay door opening up just before them, revealing dark, midnight-colored sky and a deep green mountainside that was growing steadily larger by the moment. Shadow led her to the edge of the ship and Amy reluctantly followed until they found themselves staring out into the darkness. She watched as they floated through the clouds. She also saw that smoke was trailing from the ends of the ship and a high-pitched whining sound met them from outside; clearly, the engines had failed. Other than that, the gentle movements and scenic view were almost serene. "Amy," Shadow said suddenly, twisting around to face her. "Amy, we've got to get out of here!"

"But what about Sonic?" she said, looking fearfully back towards the direction in which they had come.

"I'm sure he'll be fine!" Shadow told her, and she shook her head. He turned back toward the open bay door, watching as they continued to descend; they were picking up speed now, clearly plummeting. The ship was also starting to turn and tilt to one side, causing them to them slide 

back toward the entrance to the keel. He pivoted back around to appeal to the pink hedgehog. "Amy, I'm serious. He'll be okay. But we need to go." She nodded feebly, although she still didn't look quite convinced.

"Amy, do you trust me?"

I want to, she thought.

"Amy?"

She simply looked at him. Figuring this was the best invitation that he was going to get to continue, he picked her up in one arm and threw her effortlessly over his shoulder. "Hold on." She let out a startled yelp in surprise as he secured his grip on her, turning around so that he was staring out into the beyond. The wind was whipping his face as the ground rushed up to meet them. He took a deep breath and steeled himself for what was coming next.

"Chaos Control!"