Chapter Nine: Found again

I'm sorry for the long delay, Demon. There was stuff going on... :(

Riku awoke several hours later and stared at the ceiling. He found himself on a bed, wrapped in a blanket. But what was more, he didn't feel like there was something dark inside of him anymore. He felt better, far better than he had ever been. He saw Kara watching him with a bright smile from right beside him, and he turned his head to look into her eyes. "Kara? W-What...just happened?" he asked her quietly.

"You almost died...the demon almost killed you right before my eyes," she replied, placing a hand on his cheek. "But Shadow helped you, and purified you! You're normal again! You aren't white furred anymore or anything like that."

Riku sat there for a moment before saying, "No...no, this isn't real, is it? I'm just in a dream..." he looked at the white roof above him and then sat up. He took a look at his hand, and didn't move for several more seconds. "Now this really has to be a dream..." he muttered quietly, almost unable to believe that his demon was actually gone.

Kara shook her head and kissed him on the cheek. "Did that feel real?" she asked, grinning at him.

Riku looked over at her and then he looked down at the ground. "I thought Chaos was going to take you away, take you away from the guy who hasn't turned out leader-like at all, as she's said, even though I've done my best at this point just to protect you and her."

The dark blue hedgehog sighed and shook her head. "I talked to her while you were out cold, and she's been too stubborn. She may want to leave with me and take me with her and Shadow, just so that we don't have to deal with her. I've been trying to talk to her, and she's considering it at this point, but I'm worried, Riku-Kun."

He got up and looked at himself. His jacket was now black instead of white, with his pants now appearing to be actual jeans. His glove was the same, and the sword now had a silver hilt along with the now normal colored blade. He then looked around and asked, "Where is she now?"

"Chaos-San is most likely with Shadow. I don't think she'll take too kindly to you trying to talk to her," she replied, twiddling her fingers. She then watched Riku walk out of the room and disappear through the door. She followed him out of the door and down the hall as he began to look for Chaos and Shadow. It wasn't too hard to find them, as they were in one of the bedrooms in the same hall. However, what was surprising was that they were having an actual conversation. It wasn't an argument at all. They were, in fact, discussing what to do with Riku, seeing as what had happened and what he did.

Kara pushed past him and then knocked on the door. Chaos opened it and when she saw Kara, she said, "What are you dong? I thought I told you to stay with Riku for the time being, Kara-Chan!"

The midnight blue hedgehog motioned to the tiger, who was standing there, frowning. "Guiltless, that's what you are. You saw what happened to me initially, and yet you're still planning on taking Kara away from me and leaving me here to be found by G.U.N, aren't you?"

The white hedgehog stomped her foot on the ground and stepped up to him before punching at him, growling out the words, "Because you are hurting her!"

The cat didn't dodge, didn't lean back, didn't do anything in retaliation. He let himself get hit. The force threw his head against a wall, and he felt stunned, pain swarming through his head. Kara let out a gasp when she saw him crumple down on the ground. After regaining his senses after that initial hit, he stood up again and said, "As I've said before, you're very much guiltless. I'm hurting inside, outside now, and I want to try my best for her. Yet, here you are, not even going to give me a second chance because you don't want Kara being hurt?"

Chaos got ready to hit him again when she saw what her punch had done. He was bleeding now from the scrape that her punch had given him. However, she reasserted herself and said, "I've given you enough chances, and you've failed to prove yourself!"

She went to hit him again, trying her hardest to remain her stubborn self, but Kara got in the way and she ended up hitting her and knocking her flat on her back. Riku's anger flashed and he stepped forward, socking her with his left fist. It connected to her face and she felt her nose break. She let out a cry of pain and stumbled back, holding her nose, while Shadow now ran out. He looked around at what was going on and then he glared at Riku. "So you got up just to start a fight, did you?"

"NO!" Riku snapped, turning back and reaching down to help Kara up. Chaos had one of her temples hard enough to knock her out. He lifted her up and held her, and for a moment, Shadow could almost see the love between them take physical form, as something of a white light that hovered between the two. "I was defending Kara and knocking some sense into Chaos, who seems to be overly angry at me."

"I'm sorry!" Chaos said, standing up and looking at Riku. She let go of her face after having managed to reposition her nose, and she looked at him holding Kara. "I just wanted to keep Kara safe, and you seemed to be hurting her. I thought that I was doing you some good with the hits that I was delivering...I was too angry to control myself."

She took a step forward when the alarms all around ARK went off. "Security alert! Unknown force entering hangar bays. Repeat! Unknown forces entering hangar bays."

Shadow cursed silently under his breath and then he said, "G.U.N's tracked us to here as well. They're damn persistent, I'll give them that much!"

The tiger looked back and then he asked, "Shadow, can you get us out of here?"

The black and red hedgehog nodded, but then said, "But we're not going to be doing it the conventional way. I want us to get back to the laboratory and lock ourselves into pods. They'll take us down, but are more than likely to collide with asteroids on the way down. I'll have us chaos control out once we're out in space, and that way, that one guy can't track us through the chaos residue that I leave behind."

The white hedgehog seemed surprised and turned to Shadow. "There's a way to track us using some form of chaos residue left behind when you use chaos moves? I didn't think it left any!"

"It's not really tangible. It's basically just an area of chaos energy, and when I chaos control, it's a trail that can be followed using the right equipment," Shadow replied before he turned. There were gunshots echoing down the corridor as G.U.N came closer, as well as explosions. They were destroying ARK's reactivating security systems. "Hurry now!" he grabbed Chaos and began to run, with Riku following right behind with Kara in his arms.

Upon reaching the room, Shadow activated the computers at the far end while Riku stood on the pad and waited. Shadow got there with him and then glass went around them as they were sealed into a capsule. "Here we go...and this had better work..."

Riku turned to him and asked, "What makes you think that it won't? It's one of your better plans, after all."

He shook his head. "No, one of my better plans would be killing G.U.N by destroying that space station..."

Riku thought about it for a moment before he asked, "So then, why didn't you?"

"Because I was too preoccupied saving someone that I care about, and two others who happened to be tagging along!"

The tiger gave Shadow a confused glance, not noticing that the capsule had shot out from the colony and was heading to Earth. "And that's a bad thing to you?"

The black and red hedgehog shot him a cold glare. "Just shut up and let me concentrate on getting you out of here, alright? You're lucky that I'm dragging you along."

Chaos stayed silent, not wanting to distract Shadow with talk until they had gotten out and away safely, leaving barely any trace of their "chaos residue" behind. Shadow began to focus carefully as they shot down to the Earth, the capsule set to detonate at an exact point away from the colony. Then, they vanished, right as the capsule exploded. If Shadow's plan had worked, they left no traces behind. G.U.N would have a heck of a time finding them afterwards.

They reappeared down on an island in the middle of the ocean. Chaos looked around and then she sniffed the seawater. "This certainly is much nicer than back on ARK. No offense, but ARK is a little dreary because it's constantly indoors and all white and the like. Now then, Shadow," she turned and faced the black and red hedgehog, crossing her arms. "I'm the one who practically made you owe a debt, and you know what would happen had you not payed that off, baka!"

He stomped his foot, his lips curling into a frown. "Call me a baka one more time, why don't you? The only reason I repaid that debt was because I felt like it."

Chaos' eyes rolled when he mentioned that. "Really? Have you forgotten what I said would happen to you if you didn't repay the debt you owed me and Kara? That you would die a horrible, painful death at the hands of Ace?"

Shadow turned and headed off, not replying. Chaos saw the pride that was emanating from him and she gave a disgusted sigh as she now looked to Riku. "Keep good care of her, understood?"

As the white hedgehog walked away in pursuit of the black one, Riku could only nod his head. "Come on, Kara, let's get us a nice place in this jungle to sleep."

SO sorry for the long delay. Things just happened and the like...please, Demon, tell me whatcha think! XD