CHAPTER 11

INFILTRATING THE CASTLE

It was the middle of the night and Espio had finally gotten to the outside of Shadow's castle. He looked up at the sky and noticed that it was bright because of the white moon that lit up the entire night sky. He knew that it wouldn't be easy to break into the castle. As he looked around the area, he saw many robots and demons walking around in every possible direction of breaking in. Before he could even step on King Shadow's territory, he came across a barbwire fence that also had visible electrical wiring going through it. He didn't bother touching it since he saw the electricity going through it. He then reached inside of his brown jacket and took a can of some sort of strange spray. He took the can and sprayed it towards the fence. Afterwards, a huge hole was made just enough for him to get through. He looked at the edges of the destroyed fence and saw part of it severly rusted. "Thank you, Yamato", he spoke under his breath. He then proceed to confront the guards who were guarding the castle.

Meanwhile inside the castle, Spike was in his room looking out of his window while holding a stuffed brown bear in his hands. He didn't know how, but he knew something bad was about to happen and he wanted to find out what.

In Shadow and Rouge's bedroom, Rouge tried not to scream or cry as Shadow held her down onto the bed and kissed her all over her body. She was naked only from the waist up. She had always loved Shadow but after when he found out that Darkness had a second state, he acted so differently and he was never the man that she once loved.

He took his lips away from her skin and held her almost naked body tightly in his arms. "I love you so much, Rouge.

It took her a few seconds to respond to him because she was still nervous about the situation, "As do I, my king."

He kissed her forehead, "I'm so happy that I have a beautiful wife that I can trust."

She paused when he mentioned that he had trusted her. It was strange to her because it was obvious that he trusted her enough to marry her but he mentioned trust at such a weird time. She thought that he had unfortunately found something out. Suddenly, she saw Shadow take his body away from hers and look out of the window. She then took advantage of his distraction and started to pull her dress back over her chest area. "Is something wrong, my king?"

His eyes traveled towards the ground and noticed that everything outside of the castle had gotten completely silent. That wasn't like his army too keep so quiet. He instantly knew something was not right. He turned to his queen with uprising panic yet he tried to stay calm about the situation. He knew he could kill the intruder with no problem, but he was just worried about Spike's safety. "Rouge, come into the throne room with me."

She had no idea what was going on and what was upsetting Shadow but she was eager to find out by following him.

When they both had arrived into the throne room, they saw some of the robot guards lying on the floors with severe visible damages all over their bodies. All Shadow could do was examine the situation. "What the hell happened?"

"Shadow!"

When the hedgehog heard a voice call out his name, he looked away from the robots and stared at the purple chameleon that stood in front of them with a machine gun in each hand. His eyes widened in surprise, "Es..Espio? You-you're alive?"

The chameleon pointed the two machine guns towards the hedgehog, "Yes I am but you won't be for any longer."

Shadow knew it was obvious that Espio had gotten much stronger over the years because of the way he destroyed the demons and robots with such ease and quickness.

Espio looked over to the white bat standing beside him and smiled in relief. "Rouge, you're...okay."

"Espio..." Tears of joy came to her eyes and couldn't help but to try to attempt to embrace the chameleon until Shadow held her back. She looked down at her wrist and saw Shadow tightly gripping it. "Sha-Shadow?"

"You're not going anywhere, Rouge", he said to her in a firm voice.

"Shadow, please..." She begged.

He ignored her and faced Espio once again. "You have nerve to come here, old friend. You actually want to get captured."

The chameleon gritted his teeth in anger, "I didn't come here to be your slave, Shadow. I came here to settle things with you and to save Mobius."

Shadow couldn't help but to laugh a bit, "Are you blind? Mobius is saved and have never been in better hands."

"Yeah fucking right! You call millions of Mobians starving and living on the streets being in better hands? You're a sick bastard Shadow, and I'm here to end your reign of terror!"

"Just try to stop me."

"Espio, don't! He-he'll kill you!" Rouge warned with tears running down her face. She then felt her body being dragged behind Shadow.

Shadow turned to her, "Stay behind me. I don't want anything happening to you."

She knew Shadow still wanted to protect her but he was protecting her from the wrong thing.

The hedgehog smirked, "I'm going to do something I should've done to you years ago."

Espio sent him an angry glare and pulled the triggers to the guns, hoping he would shoot Shadow to death just as he did with the Chaotix.

Shadow's tail then grew longer and surprisingly blocked every bullet that came his way until Espio had finally run out of bullets.

Espio slammed the empty guns down onto the floor with frustration. He knew that Shadow would be strong but he didn't expect him to be as strong as a hundred Almas put together. He then pulled out two swords from his two sheaths and came towards Shadow with great speed and jumped at him with the swords ready to slice him into pieces.

The hedgehog smirked and quickly took out a black leather whip with some sort of strange red energy around it from the belt he was wearing. He then lashed the whip at him, knocking him back down onto the floor making him drop his blades. While Espio struggled to get off the floor, Shadow walked up to him as he gripped the whip tighter. When he approached him, he looked down at the exhausted chameleon and formed and evil smirk. "You and I are going to have so much fun together these next couple of hours."

Espio panted as he tried to figure out what Shadow had meant. Before he could move anymore, he was suddenly beaten by the whip. He cried out in pain when he figured out that the red energy flowing through the whip was actually electricity.

"That was for sneaking into my castle like the filthy rat you are!" He then raised his whip again.

Rouge broke down into tears when she saw him about to hit him again. "Shadow, stop!"

He pretended like he didn't hear her and struck the whip down at him again, making a huge scar on his chest. "And that was for trying to cross me! Whoever stands in my way will always suffer severe punishment!"

Espio remained on the floor panting with exhaustion as the scars stung him all over his body.

Shadow kneeled down towards the chameleon and made him face him, "You really thought you were going to kill me didn't you? Well guess what? You assumed everything wrong. I would kill you right here and now but there's too many questions I have to ask you and you will answer them. Understand me?"

"Fucking asshole...burn in Hell", he replied in a weak voice.

He paused for a moment then sighed.

With tears, Rouge watched Shadow punch Espio hard in the face. She placed her hands over her mouth and couldn't help but to cry more because of watching the way Shadow was treating Espio.

The hedgehog stood from the floor and started to look around, "Ker!"

Within a couple of seconds, Ker had arrived in the room awaiting for Shadow's orders. "Yes, my king?"

Shadow pointed to the barely conscious chameleon who was laying on the floor in pain. "Ker, take this filth down to the dungeon immediately!"

Ker looked down at the chameleon and took his body off the floor, "Yes, sire."

Shadow looked over to the crying Rouge and grabbed her by her arm forcing her to follow them down to the dungeon, "Come on, Rouge." As she followed Ker, Shadow stopped in his tracks and spun around spotting a young black hedgehog hiding behind the staircase. Shadow never wanted Spike to leave his room and it angered him that he disobeyed him. "Spike!" He shouted in anger.

The child jumped as he heard his father's angry voice call his name but he never moved.

After Shadow knew that Spike would not come out the first time, he walked over to him and grabbed him by his arm in a tight grip. He then threw his body onto the floor in anger. "What the hell do you think you're doing down here! I told you to stay in your room! Why won't you listen to me!" He raised his whip about to strike it at the frightened child.

The child's eyes were completely focused on the whip, "Fa-father, I...I..."

He then lashed the whip down onto the floor but it had never harmed Spike. It was just enough to scare him out of his wits. "That was just a warning. The next time, it will be you. Do you understand me?"

He gulped and made a small nod.

"Go into your room and stay in there!"

While shaking in fear, he got off the floor and ran back upstairs.

A/N: Shadow is so mean. R&R please!