This is the penultimate chapter. Enjoy!

In front of the two hybrids stood a hedgehog holding a chaos emerald. Both Amy and Knuckles were surprised to see a blue-grey hedgehog with dark sea-green eyes. "Sonic." The pink hedgehog said with full of sprite, she turned her back to him. "Go on, cry over your dead chipmunk girlfriend and leave me be." Knuckles was surprised at Amy's actions "Shadow, don't make Amy do this." "I'M NOT POSSESSED KNUCKLES, I HEARD, YOU LIED TO ME YOU SCUMBAG!" Amy spat at the both of them and ran into the forest with burning in her eyes.

I cannot take this anymore, why can't I let go of Sonic?

Sonic ran after her, then he soon realised he wasn't as fast as he use to be; he lost stamina quickly and stopped. While panting he felt a prickle as if he was being watched, he shook himself and tried to continue running but he still couldn't keep up with her. Exhausted from the chase he crawled to a nearby log in agony from the pain in his heart and sides. He then heard a slightly quiet evil laugh and a thing jumping from tree to tree but he didn't care about that. He was still panting as he let out a cry of pain and frustration that was heard all over the island.

Amy was hiding behind a tree beating up about her crush on Sonic; he was a liar and a cheater whom she would never forgive.

But no matter what he's still my hero

She couldn't take hearing Sonic's painful cries anymore and slid out from her hiding place to sit beside him and put her hand on his. He looked up to her warm smile again, she was more beautiful than she was a few years ago but her quills were in a tangled mess. He turned to face her and put his hand on hers "Amy, I'm so sorry. I so confused back then, I…" a branch cracked as if someone had stepped on it, the two hedgehogs looked around to see…

Nothing, not a single life form in sight.

He turned to face her again "I did have a small relationship with her, but it didn't work out so we just remained friends, that time you caught me was we were ending it." He looked down and sighed, "I need to speak to Knuckles but I wonder, how did he survive that bullet? and how did you survive that escape pod?"

*Flashback

The escape pod was plummeting to earth at a deadly speed. Inside, Amy and Tails were hugging each other with their eyes tightly shut for comfort, wishing that their journey wouldn't end tragically. Knuckles' body then started glowing a strange green colour "What?" cried Tails. In a flash the body disappeared and the pod immediately slowed down to a slower speed, it fell into the Sea and bobbed up and down in the waves then settled down and floated on the surface. The crew inside were relived of one worry but then started to panic as they realised there was no land in sight. After a silent, miserable three hours at sea a Westopolian fishing boat rescued them and reunited them with station square again.

*End of flashback

"I still don't understand how Knuckles was revived." Sonic said after Amy explained to him what happened. "The master emerald revived me." Knuckles was right behind him, he had heard the painful cries and came running. "Were you following me before?" asked Sonic "No." "But who was following me before? I heard someone laughing." Sonic was now curious but the others just shook their heads "I heard something in the background before but I think it's nothing." Said Amy.

Then the little group headed back to the shrine of the master emerald with Knuckles leading the way. Little did he know that Sonic and Amy behind him were holding hands and a dark figure was lurking behind the trees. Amy and Sonic quickly let go of their hands while Knuckles turned around to face them. He noticed Sonic's state, "Whoa what happened to you? You look a lot older than…" "18," Sonic sharply replied, "Don't ask what happened." Sonic wanted to forget what happened over the past two years but he was wondering how Tails was getting on with his research into Vector.

The dark corridors were all here really there was in sight, and bodies. Tails had seen the dark hedgehog run away and was pursuing it but he couldn't keep up with its speed.

Almost Sonic's speed

Tails was checking many rooms for a possible computer containing government or GUN documents but there were no computer rooms; only empty prison cells in a sea of dark corridors. He turned to one last room; this room was different to the others, which were just filled with bars. One side was covered in bullets and patches of faded red while the opposite side had rifles strapped to its peaky walls. Tails was horrified at the sight, many people had come to a gruesome end in the place, and he decided he needed to leave before he would suffer the same fate.

Screw Vector I need to get outta here

Tails had a chaos emerald with him. Throughout all the ordeal he had suffered over the past two years this emerald and his sanity was all he really fox guarded, he daren't use it then because they were thought to be useless, now he knew they weren't. "Chaos…" he started to shout then felt a painfully kick on his back, it sent him flying to the ground and tried to defend himself but it was no use, the hedgehog creature had its foot on his neck, ready to take a life. The bloody eyes of hatred loomed over the terrified kitsune as its head suffered a hard blow from a gloved fist.

The three old friends sat at the foot of the master emerald. Sonic was starting to look more azure now and Amy had finally untangled her quills. She was confused about everything that had happened over the past day or so, she still had slight feelings for him (and someone else for that matter) she wanted to tell all she knew about what was going on with the mob but that meant telling him about Shadow. Sonic had never really recovered from his psychotic moment two years ago so it was best not to tell him who her dark rescuer was.

Knuckles was still confused about everything, he could remember but what did Eggman mean when he said about Sonic going physco? He wanted to ask but Sonic's slight maddened eyes put him off completely.

It was a while after anyone had spoken and Sonic could tell both his old friends were weirdly looking at him. He couldn't stand the silence any longer and set off into the forest in an attempt to regain his famed speed. After some few minutes of running Sonic got some stamina back but couldn't run actually faster than the speed of sound like he use to. Abruptly a black figure sped past him.

That is as fast as I use to run. What a minute…

Sonic chased this mysterious figure across the entire island, no losing track of it even for a second. The figure had reached a sharp edge to the island, end of the road. Sonic pounced at the figure but then it disappeared in a ball of coloured light.

Sonic skidded in his tracks just as the figure disappeared. "What, how did that thing get a chaos emerald." He said to himself and went back to the shrine on his way he tripped over something and fell to his hands and knees, it was a kitsune that had healing cuts and bruises all over it and big bruises on its back and head. Sonic realised it was an unconscious Tails and shook him "Hey lil' bro." Sonic calmly said, "Wake up." The kitsune opened its eyes and said through a bleeding mouth ".prision…dead…Shadow…" The kitsune fell into an immediate state of unconsciousness as Sonic reattempted to keep him awake. It was no use, Tails was in a coma.

Sonic got up.

Shadow died, if he didn't he wouldn't do a thing like this. Would he?

"CHAOS SPEAR" Sonic quickly dodged this attack and saw who the strange figure that had been following him was. He was a exact copy of Sonic but he had ruby eyes, a cruel snarl on his face, black fur and stripes of red on his curled up quills.

"Shadow." Sonic greeted him

"Faker…" came Shadow's reply.

A bit of a cliffhanger there. The final chapter for this story may take a while as I'm back at school now. If you have any suggestions for a possible sequel or any improvments for the previous chapters please review and all criticism will be accepted. Visit my profile to vote for your favorite let go chapter so far.