CHAPTER 11

Meanwhile on the outskirts of Acorn Kingdom, Sonic rushed his way up the ledges of a huge mountain that was set high in the sky. When he got to the top of the mountain, he stood on the dry and dusty ground and inhaled the fresh and crisp air while the wind mildly blew through his blue quills. He stretched out his arms in excitement as he observed the large and windy plain out in front of him. "Ah! Nothing beats a little mountain climbing and fresh air, eh Shadow?" He paused as he waited for a reply but he heard nothing. He turned around and still saw saw no sight of him. "Shadow?"

"Down here!"

When he heard the familiar voice, he walked over to the ledge of the cliff he had climbed up and looked down spotting the black and red hedgehog who had slowly made his way up to the ledge. "Why are you still down there?"

He frowned as he made his way up the mountain along with Sonic. "Because news flash, I'm not as fast as you!"

He watched as he began to walk across the windy plain. He started to follow behind him. He shrugged his shoulders, "My bad. I thought you had some kind of demon super speed."

He slightly turned his head to him and arched an eyebrow, "What? No! I don't have any kind of super speed. The thing remotely close to that is my Chaos Control ability."

Sonic arched his eyebrow in interest. "...Chaos Control?"

He began to explain while he continued to make his way across the large and windy plain, "It's a power that I can use to stop time."

He couldn't believe it. Shadow harnessed powers such as that? He wondered what other abilities he had. "Wha? That's so cool!"

"I can only use it when I'm using my demonic attributes at a hundred percent."

He placed a finger to his chin. "Sounds pretty neat. But I take it you don't use your demon powers at a hundred percent very often?"

He slightly shook his head, "No not often."

He slightly tilted his head to the side in confusion, "But why not? I bet you're a complete badass at a hundred percent!"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to him with a serious look on his face. "Trust me. You don't want to see me at a hundred percent..."

Before he could ask him what he meant, the mild wind that was blowing around them had gotten fiercer.

Shadow had looked back around the seemingly empty but very windy valley in front of them. "Goddamn! Why is it so fucking windy here?"

Sonic tried to reply back to him while trying to talk over the strong wind. "This place is called Windy Valley for a reason!"

He turned back to him in confusion, "Windy Valley?"

"Yeah! This place has a lot of high wind! Even tornadoes on some occasions!"

Once the wind had died down, Shadow realized he didn't have to practically shout at him to talk to him. "Tornadoes? What the hell kind of place did you bring us?"

He placed his hands on his hips, "Hey you want info on Hao or not?" He began to walk forward, "Come on!"

Before he could say anymore, he watched as he rushed forward ahead of him. With him running so fast, he saw nothing but a blue blur running across the windy plain. He then saw him jump onto another ledge within the valley. He crossed his arms and growled lowly under his breath. "He's such a show off." He finally caught up to him and stood below the ledge where Sonic was standing. He looked up at him and shouted towards him. "See anything?"

Sonic scanned around the seemingly deserted valley, "I know I've seen it somewhere..." His eyes widened when they caught sight of a strange robotic like device that was floating in mid air in the distance. He pointed in its direction, "There!"

Shadow's ears perked up as he heard him shout out. "What?" He watched as Sonic looked back down at him.

"Come on, Shadow! Follow me!"

Before he could say anything, he watched as Sonic jumped down to him and suddenly ran off to where he saw the strange floating object. While in the form of a blue blur, Shadow saw him making his way further into the valley. He sighed in annoyance as he began to make his way following behind him. He murmured under his breath, "Can't believe Sally fucked his stupid ass..."

Before the strange floating object could proceed any further, Sonic had launched himself off the side of a ledge and sprung himself into the air. Once he got close to the strange device, he extended his leg and sent a powerful kick causing it to be knocked out of the sky.

Shadow watched as Sonic attacked the strange device and saw him standing in front of it while it was down on the ground. He ran over to him so he could observe it as well. He rose an eyebrow as he stared at it.

The device was at a decent size. It was about the size of some of the boulders and rocks that was scattered around the valley. It was made completely out of metal. It also had a blank green screen on the front of it. It almost had looked like some type of monitor.

Shadow leaned slightly closer to it. "What is it?" He then saw Sonic kneeling over and completely picking it off of the ground. "Sonic! What the hell are you doing?"

As Sonic held the strange device in his hands, he continued to observe it.

Shadow continued to panic, "You don't know what that thing is! Put it down before it explodes or something!"

He turned to the worried black and red hedgehog with a teasing look on his face. "Calm down will ya? Geez are all you half demons this paranoid?"

He couldn't help but to narrow his eyes towards the blue hedgehog. He knew that Sonic wasn't afraid of exploring or being the first to react to something. But Shadow always approached things with caution and reasoning.

"Besides", Sonic drew his attention back at the device he had held. "I kicked it pretty hard. And it seems pretty harmless."

He placed a finger to his chin, "Well yes. It appears so. But wonder what it was doing?"

Sonic slightly shook his head, "Not sure." A thought had then came to him. He looked away from the device and snapped his fingers. "Oh I have an idea!" He turned back to Shadow, "Tails may know what this thing is! I'll run it over to his workshop and we can get the info on whatever this thing is!"

He slightly shrugged his shoulders and didn't have any other brighter ideas. He took in consideration with Sonic's suggestion. "Why not? I mean it's worth a shot." His eyes stared at the strange device Sonic had held in his hands. "Maybe this will lead us one step closer to bringing down Hao."

Later on that night, Sally had wandered around the castle hall while she was deep in thought about what had happened during the past couple of days. The halls were empty and practically pitch dark. It was late so she figured everyone within the castle was asleep.

She couldn't help but to keep thinking about Shadow. She hadn't seen him since earlier that morning. Despite what had happened between the two, she still couldn't help but to worry about him. She had hoped that he was okay. She stopped in her tracks when she approached the door of the library. It was crazy. Whenever she thought of a library, she thought of books. Whenever she thought of books, she thought of Shadow. God it was bad. Even a simple book had reminded her of him. When she stepped closer to the door, she heard a voice. It was a male voice. It sounded familiar. It was Shadow's. It sounded like he was talking to someone but who? She slowly placed her hand on the doorknob and cracked the door open cautiously. She slowly and easily peeked her head inside of the room. She now clearly heard Shadow's voice.

"I hope you're behaving yourself for your mother."

Her ears perked up as she heard a baby giggling and laughing. With him not knowing she slowly stepped inside of the room and stood by the door within the dark library. Once she carefully shut the door behind her quietly, her eyes caught sight of Shadow sitting at a small table with a dim table lamp setting at the center of the table.

He had a book laying open in front of him but he was directing his attention to his phone that was being propped up in front of him. A small and warm smile formed on his lips as he stared at the screen of his phone. "Heh, I love you too, Spike. Put your mother back on."

Her body couldn't help but to slightly shake nervously as she witnessed what was going on. He was on a video call with Rouge and his son. Her eyes slightly widened as she heard a woman softly giggling over the speaker of the phone.

"As you can see, your son misses you a lot."

He made a small nod, "I miss you both. More than you know."

"Same here, hun. How's everything going by the way?"

When he heard a slight breathing over near the doorway, his eyes flashed over to Sally who stood there and seemed like she had saw a ghost. He had given her the same look in return but quickly turned away from her and looked back at the screen of his phone. "...Uh everything's fine."

"Well that's good to hear, hun. You think you'll be coming home soon?"

He slightly shook his head, "I'm...I'm not sure. It's not looking likely."

"That's too bad", she spoke in a saddened tone. "I miss you so much, baby."

His eyes flashed back over to Sally before he looked back at the screen of his phone. "...I miss you too, hun." He decided to go ahead and end the call before Sally had decided to speak out towards him. The last thing he needed was for Rouge to hear Sally talking with him in a dark room and so late at night. "But anyway I'm tired. I had a long day. I'll talk to you later okay?"

"Okay, Shad. I love you."

"I love you too, Rouge. Goodnight, baby."

"Goodnight, hun."

As soon as he turned the screen off of his phone, in annoyance he turned his head over to Sally who was slowly approaching him. "Really? Do you fucking mind?"

She figured he would be irritated by her basically showing herself in and especially when he was having a private call with his wife. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude..."

He sighed heavily as he became slightly frustrated. But he knew that she was probably concerned for him as she hadn't seen him all day. He tried to calm himself a bit, "...It's fine. What do you want anyway?"

"I haven't seen you all day. I was wondering if you were okay."

He slightly shook his head. He tried to act like he was fine but in reality he wasn't. His mind and thoughts were a frazzled mess. "I'm fine. I just..." When his eyes locked with hers, he knew that whatever what was going on with them had to end. He looked over at the empty chair that was set next to him. "...We need to talk, Sal."

She made a small nod before taking a seat next to him, "...Yeah I think we do."

There was a long pause before he said anything again. He slightly leaned against the table and locked his eyes with hers. "Sally, I'm going to be straight with you."

She made a small nod without taking her eyes away from him. Her heart raced a mile a minute. What was going to happen? What was he going to say? Whatever it was, she had a bad feeling about it.

"God where do I begin? When we first met, I knew you and I were gonna have problems. You fucking despised me. You hated me. You wanted me dead. But suddenly...back in The Field of Mylaria, I didn't feel any of that from you. It was both strange and warm. Having you as no longer my enemy but now my ally after all this time has made me feel so accepted."

She was happy about this as well. The hateful tension they both shared had finally died and now the two were finally equal with each other. They accepted each other for who they were.

"It feels good knowing that Luke and now you both have my back on The Council. I have allies. I have friends." It was a great feeling. If something serious were to happen on The Council, he knew that Sally and Luke would support him all the way.

She made a slight nod with a small smile on her face.

"But what we both did back in The Field of Mylaria..." He slowly shook his head, "...This morning in the bedroom...I don't need that to happen again."

The small smile on her face couldn't help but to slowly fade from her lips and her eyes had had slowly shifted from his. It was indeed heartbreaking to hear especially when she apparently had feelings for him. But he was right. What they did wasn't right and she couldn't help but to feel guilty for having such feelings and desires for him while knowing he was with someone else.

He slightly sighed as he could tell that Sally didn't exactly like what she was hearing from him. But he wanted to be forward with her. He wanted to give her honesty. "Sally, in all honesty, I won't lie and say I don't find you fucking attractive but that's all this is. It's just tension."

She slowly looked back at him with a hurtful look in her eyes, "...So...if we did sleep with each other...it would just..." Saying what she wanted to say was so hurtful, she couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence. She didn't want to believe that he would have sex with her and go on with his life like nothing ever happened. But that's exactly what he was saying.

God he felt awful. He didn't know if it was best to keep things simple by telling her that he was married and left it as that? Or tell her how he really felt about her? "...That's why I didn't want us to go further. I didn't want to hurt you, Sally..."

He didn't want to hurt her, but the damage had already been done. She didn't want to admit it but she had such strong feelings for him. Everything was moving so fast. If she could go back to hating him as fast as she fell for him, things would be so much easier for her it seemed. But things weren't that simple.

He slowly nodded his head, "I know. I'm a piece of shit for saying this, but yes. I maybe a half demon but also still a man. I'll think some fucked up shit. Hell, I'll do some fucked up shit. And I'll make mistakes..." He placed his hand lightly on his chest, "Because like every normal mortal being, I'm not perfect..."

She made a slow nod. Despite him being brutally honest, she did have to agree that no one in the world was indeed perfect.

"But what was going to happen between us...it's never going to happen. I have a wife. I have a family. And I love them so much. I wouldn't trade what I have for anything in the world. I'm sorry, Sally..."

She made a slight nod, "No I totally get it. You and Rouge have something special together. And I wouldn't want to cause anymore trouble with your marriage. I'm sorry for everything..."

"Please, Sal. Don't fucking apologize", he spoke as he slowly shook his head. "It was me. I should've had more control over the situation. I hope I didn't hurt you, Sal."

She couldn't help but to slightly bit her lip. She had to put on a face saying that everything was fine and she never had any sort of feelings for him. When in reality, she was heartbroken. She understood the situation but everything still hurt. She tried her best to not show it though.

"I hope we can still be friends?"

A small and faint smile appeared on her lips. "Of course, Shadow."

He had given her the same small smile in return. "Great", he stood from his chair and closed the book that was laying open in front of him. He looked over to her one last time, "And Sal? Let's just pretend none of this ever happened."

She made a long and hesitant pause before she made a weak nod while he was already leaving out from the library, "...Yeah...sure..."

In The Next Chapter...

Freya: Whoa...what the hell is going on?

Risa: Freya!

Freya: Risa...what's happening?

Risa: They're dead! They...they ate them!

Freya: No...

Scourge: ...Luke?

Luke: Hello, Scourge...