If you were looking for answers, you shall find many of them here

Sonic et al belong to Sega

Nula and Brant belong to me

A barrage of threats and insults and curses followed Shadow as he was lead through the gates of Knottingham, but he didn't hear a single one. At the fall of Sticks first tear he knew that something terrible had befallen the Lady Rose, but he was not prepared for her death. In contrast to the sneers he received, Sonic was being offered condolences and flowers, which Sticks took like a waiting maid. The two of them said nothing to the crowd nor to each other as they followed Rob in to the grounds of the castle and away from the merciless masses.

The Mobians inside the castle seethed in silence as he walked by them. The sharp intakes of breath and the hisses whispered to the wind still paled in comparison to the news he had been delivered. The Mother of his child was dead. He had been too late.

The Great Hall was grand but without the glitter and gold suitable for a castle. The windows were covered with black cloth and sashes sporting a lone rose were hung from the ceiling. The chandelier was lit, casting a glow over the coffin that lay below it. It was surrounded by flowers and with some great mercy, the lid was closed.

"I am sorry I could not protect her my King," Rob whispered, his voice once again choking up, "I will catch all those responsible and put them away for the remainder of their days."

Shadow shot a glance toward Sonic, who looked too weak to portray the confusion in their minds.

"I was lead to believe," Sonic sighed heavily, "that Shadow killed her."

The blunt words seemed to hit King Robert hard and his ears fell against his head, but he did not dare speak back to 'King Sonic'.

"He is the reason that paranoia spread through my people. He is the one who gave them reason to fear him. He is the one who," Rob growled, "seduced my dear cousin and abandoned her in her months of need."

Sonic blinked slowly, "Need?"

They both stared at the turquoise hedgehog. Tears were now silently falling down his face, but the bitter scowl across his brow reflected the hatred within him.

"A child sire. She bore a son who carried the same red markings as this monster. We concealed him, telling the people the child was that of her husbands but that he had been lost in childbirth."

"Husband," Shadow breathed quietly.

"How little you care for anyone but yourself," Rob snarled, "I know not how you excaped last time but it shall not happen again. Bow Sparrow still wed my cousin knowing an illegitimate child grew inside her. Their marriage saved her from public scrutiny after rumour was already rife she was cavorting with you. I know not who took those images of you. I know not how they spread like wildfire. The people loved her but a small band of them perceived her a traitor, and it was they who slay her."

Shadows legs began to grow weak but the fire of hatred was fueled and it burned within his heart. He wished nothing more than to break his bonds and run in to the streets, finding those responsible and killing them where they stood. The Lady Rose was innocent of all crime, doing nothing but falling in love with the wrong man. It was he, himself and the ex-King, who deserved the punishment.

"The son," Sonic asked after a long pause, knowing the answer but keeping up the deceit, "where is the child."

Rob shook his head, "I know not. Amy knew as long as it marks reflected that of his Father, he would not be safe. She stole away in the dead of night and returned without him. She would not tell me where she had taken him." King Rob looked up at them again, "it broke her heart, and it broke mine. The child was an innocent and still my kin. I will find him sire, but I trust wherever he is, he is safe."

Shadow could feel the same anger burning with him begin to radiate from Sonic and was little shocked when he ordered King Robert to leave them be. Sticks had remained by the door and stood guard as they shut it behind the King, leaving the three of them with the coffin and the weight of what had happened.

Shadow approached the place where she rested, and swallowed down the bitterness he wanted to cry in to the silent air. He had never known a guilt like it before and it formed in to a salty tear in the corner of his eye. He had been so careless and he had been too slow. Was she already dead when he had been captured before? Or could he have saved her had he not run like a coward when the opportunity arose.

"What kind of world is this?" Sonic whispered, "where they would kill someone just for who they fell in love with?"

Shadow didn't respond, but he lay his hand on top of the varnished wood and closed his eyes. He could hear Sonic pacing with his own sense of outrage, muttering under his breath.

"King Shadow may have killed her," Sticks called from her spot, "maybe she knew that he might. She hid the baby, knowing that his whereabouts would die with her."

"That makes no sense," Sonic snapped, "why not come to our world and stay in our world?"

"To protect her family."

Their heads all shot in the direction of the new voice, descending from a stairwell off to the side of the hall. In the doorway stood an otter, dressed in oriental warrior clothing. There was a throwing star between her fingers, and as she ran towards them she crept low. Shadow recognised her at once as Orla, the maid who had nearly caught him in the Lady's chamber.

"We must get out of here," she told them in a low voice.

"Yea I follow every stranger that tells me that," Sonic snorted.

"I don't have time for introductions. I have to get you out of the castle before King Robert returns," she hissed impatiently.

"What is at the end of your escape plan?" Shadow asked, his voice cracking with the discomfort of speaking.

She looked at him, casting her eyes over every inch of him with suspicion.

"Answers. I know you are not the ex-King, and so do the ones I am taking you to. Too much is at stake to dawdle, please we must away now. Shed the cape!"

Shadow caught Sonics eye. There was not much they could do for the Lady Amy but seek revenge on the ex-King and the ones who murdered her in cold blood. Unable to look at the coffin any longer they hurried after the otter, who had flung back a rug and opened a trap door in the ground. They staircase was dark, lit by torches on the wall and it felt like he had stumbled in to another time, let alone another world. They entered a maze of tunnels, cold but not unwelcoming, and Shadow assumed they heralded back to the days the castle was under siege.

"What do we call you then toots?" Sticks questioned, seemingly at home in the dank blackness of the tunnels.

"I am Orla. I was Lady in Waiting to the Lady Rose. Though I believe you are aware of this?"

She directed the question at Shadow, though she did not turn to look at him.

"Lady Rose was not the only one keeping secrets it would seem," he replied.

The otter took a long breath, "Do not think my ruse means I had no affection for her. I was tasked with secretly guarding the Lady. For so many years I wished to tell her the truth but it would have destroyed her trust in me."

"Who hired you? King Robert?" asked Sonic.

"He was unaware. I was, however, trained by an old ally of the Kingdom. He had explored these tunnels many years ago, when the Eggman Empire still had control of Knottingham. In secret, he trained me to use these hidden passages to keep an eye on the whereabouts of Lady Rose, as well as have a place for the family to hide should the worst happen."

"So why is she dead?"

Shadow had no time to be coy about the question he wanted answering the most. The otter stopped in her tracks and whipped round to glare at him, open mouthed. At the pained look in her eye, he felt a small dusting of guilt scatter his heart, but it was short lived.

"We are nearly there. Lara-Su will meet you above ground and take you to a helicopter that will transport you to your destination," she looked at the cold, stone floor beneath her feet, "you will hear all you need to know once there."

Sonic couldn't help but stare at the young, female echidna, and she looked back at forth between himself and Shadow as if they were aliens. In the cockpit behind him was a young crocodile bearing a striking resemblance to Vector back in his own world. It didn't matter that he had been told this would be the case, that in this world were the counterparts of those of his own. Actually seeing them for himself was a mind boggling experience. It was too loud in the back of the helicopter to talk, and physical contact would certainly be unwelcome, but he really wished he could reach out to Shadow. If just seeing the children of his friends through Sonic in to a loop, he dare imagine how it would have been had he ever laid eyes on the Lady Rose.

He watched the world below him pass by in a blink. Forests, cities, villages, but nothing like his paradise back home. It was that he felt scared, but certainly he felt misplaced and the gravity of the situation started to overwhelm him. They started to climb higher in the sky, the crocodile behind him calling forward for permission to land in the castle grounds. Argyle, that was his name.

His world went from uncanny to unnerving as they landed. As he stepped out on to the soft grass he was aware of the figure up ahead. The King of all Mobius, stood beside a white hedgehog with striking spines. Sonic locked eyes on to the image of himself in another twenty years time and wavered. King Sonic, on the other hand, remained stone faced.

"I apologise for the rush and secrecy," King Sonic called, reaching out his hand to shake. Shadow took it with some trepidation. Sticks took hold of it and smiled broadly as if she was meeting an old friend, but Sonic simply started at the open palm as if it would steal his soul from him.

"You've never met an alternative version of yourself, have you?" King Sonic asked him, pulling his hand away.

"Not unless you count Metal," Sonic replied, "and he can't eat chili dogs so I don't."

The King smiled weakly at him, "yea, you're me. Taller perhaps."

"How did you know I was not the Shadow of this world?" Shadow asked him.

"Let's go inside," King Sonic answered, "time is still of the essence."

"How's the future Silver?" Sticks asked the white hedgehog, who had remained silently to the side.

"Getting there," he replied with an optimistic pitch.

Sonic looked at Sticks and gave her a puzzled look. She shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I told you about the war I was in. Not my fault you think I'm crazy."

"We don't have much time, so I will be brief," started the King, "we know that Brant is in your world. Shadow...ah, the Shadow of this world...he is after the child."

"Why?" Shadow cried, "he can not have a bond with him."

"No, but he does look like him, and to an extent he does share his DNA," King Sonic replied, "as you discovered with King Rob, he looks like his son."

"What does that have to do with anything? He cannot want to raise him?"

"That would not be his intention."

Sonic eyed the Queen carefully. It had driven him mad trying to place her face, and it was with a final gut wrenching realisation that the Sally of his world was the first girl he had ever slept with. Unlike these two, they had not been childhood sweethearts and there was no love involved, but at least if the Lady Amy could not be with the King it was because he was with the one he did love the most. In Sonics universe, Sally was nothing more than a one night deal.

"Pardon me asking Sal," Sticks butted in with no sense of respect for the crown, "but if you were married to evil Shadow for years, how come you didn't pop out any of his kids?"

"Sticks!" Sonic barked, but the badger carried on staring at the Queen.

"It's quite all right," Queen Sally soothed, smiling at Sonic while taking hold of her husbands hand, "the truth of the matter is that he simply can't have children. After he was tested he seemed quite shaken by the news, but I later discovered it was not out of sentimentality. He wanted an heir to make sure his line would always have power, and that it could spread across the planet."

"With Amy gone, he could claim Brant as his own and nobody would question it," King Sonic added, "legally as Amy's child he would have right to the throne of Mercia. Only, of course, with the passing of those already in line."

"That is why Amy returned," Queen Sally joined in again, "poor Orla begged her to stay away but Amy wanted to make sure our Shadow was no longer a danger. It was Orla who informed us that all was not as it seemed."

"I never embraced her in public," Shadow muttered, "this picture you say was leaked to the press., it was not me."

"It was our Shadow, and though it is not as scandalous as some would have you believe, by this point Amy was already with child and married to Bow Sparrow," the Queen sighed, "Argyle will find out the source, no doubt the last few rebels and followers of the old Kings regime. We believe Shadow himself set up the picture, planning to use it to bribe her, but then the child came along."

Shadows head was in his hands, "I should have come back sooner. I should have protected her."

"You did come back," Lara Su jumped in, "but at that time we only had half the information we do now. When Brant was born we expected the ex-King to try and get to him, thinking at the time it was his son. I was helping King Rob...it was me who froze you."

Sonic was astounded at how bright the daughter of Knuckles sounded, and to know that she was capable of powers in the same way Shadow was.

"And I'm sorry!" she carried on, "when I released you, you disappeared before we could explain anything to you."

"How did you know he was innocent?" Sonic asked.

"Silver," the King answered, indicating to the white hedgehog stood silently to the side.

Silver stepped forward and nodded quickly at them, "I am from the distant future," he declared, "and I came back to this time to stop the ex-King from getting hold of Brant and once again seizing power."

"But you were too late to..."

Silver held up his hand to stop Shadow from carrying on.

"Time travel is not an exact science, and I can only work with the information I have. In my time, Shadow is still King in Mercia, and generations of his supposed sons and daughters have waged ward on all Kingdoms across the planet."

"How do you know he is not their offspring?" Sticks chipped in.

"The medical records Queen Sally just mentioned had been hidden in unused computer systems, until the technology wizards of my Kingdom hacked in to it. In my time it is too late for them to be of much use, but I decided to come back to save Brant from Shadows clutches and stop him getting back in to power."

Sonic stood up, and swallowing his pride he placed a hand carefully on Shadows shoulder.

"We lost Lady Rose, but Brant's real Father is here and will raise the child with care and love. Brant is safely back in our world, being cared for by my wife...Amy. I don't know how the Lady got to us but..."

"It was me," Silver interjected, "I got him to your world. Lady Rose knew me and trusted me with her son, thankful that I was placing him in the arms of another Amy. Neither of us expected for her to never be reunited with him."

"But the letter, the letter suggested she was not to return."

"That was her idea, to try and stop you from looking for her. She thought, if it looked like he had been unloved, you would not try and find her and put Brant in danger."

Sonic felt his throat grow tight, and he desperately wanted to be back with his wife. He could see the regret in the faces of those around him, and Shadows shoulder underneath his hands grew tense.

"How did you get to our world?" Shadow asked, "have you the same powers as me. Or you, echidna?"

Lara-Su shook her head, "That was a bit more old fashioned."

"Star Posts," King Sonic jumped back in, "they were a long shot, and we have only decommissioned them to stop Scourge from getting back in to this world. But he..." Sonic paused, "it doesn't matter now."

"I can move silently," Silver said, hovering just above the ground to demonstrate, "and unknown in your world it didn't matter if anyone saw me."

"But Shadow, our Shadow, has vanished. If we are to freeze him again we need to track him down."

"Excuse me your Kingship," Sonic growled, loudly, "you've had us chatting all this time and there's a chance he has got in to my world? You've put my wife in danger?"

"The Star Posts are guarded!" King Sonic snapped back, but they all detected the uncertainty in his voice.

"He would have no idea which world I went to," Silver soothed, trying to calm the tension in the air, "the only way he could guess is..."

"If he met me," Shadow gasped, and without another word he grabbed hold of Sonics hand and teleported them back to their own world, leaving behind the panicked King to wonder if at any point he had made the right choices for the Lady.