I guess this chapter is kind of dark, maybe a little uncomfortable for some people? But I figured Sonadow needed to do something about all those bodies I'm making them find.

Also, you should probably read the previous chapter again. As I divided the original chapter 4 up in these smaller parts, this one ended up becoming a little too lengthy for comfort, so I cut out a small part and added it to chapter 13's ending instead. Keeps the chapters a little more balanced with eachother.

And this once again concludes another chapter. Next up is chapter 5! :3

The Island: Chapter 14

Sonic's POV

And tomorrow came quicker than we would've wanted. Knowing what we had decided to do, this morning wasn't a good one.

Yeah, yeah, we were doing it for a good reason and with the best of intentions, but that didn't mean we liked to do this or even remotely looked forward too it. I honestly don't know who was less excited out of the two of us, me or Shadow.

But we made a promise, though to no one in particular, that we would do this. If just for our own peace of mind.

Shadow managed to fashion us some makeshift shovels out of sticks and the strongest tree bark. They were weak and splintery, but they got the job done just fine at least.

We found a good spot little ways past the cave, near the same cliff it had been carved into throughout the endlessly long, long years, and dug three graves. We couldn't get exactly 6 feet down under, but they were deep enough at least.

It wasn't the nicest chore in the world, Shadow was especially disgusted as he took it upon himself to move the still decaying body from the boat to his last resting place as he wasn't capable of becoming sick, but we did feel like we were doing the right thing.

That's what I liked to believe.

Once all three of them had been moved to our new graveyard, never thought that was something we'd create, like ever, we bound the straightest branches we could find together to create three crosses just to keep tabs on where we buried them.

Now that all of that was finally over, we held a moment of silence for them out of respect. Between the two of us, that was spend mostly thinking.

"We're not counting this as a first date, right?" I asked once the moment passed and a huff left the other.

"If we're dating than I surely hope not. You have to treat me to a nice restaurant next for this to qualify as a date." He answered as he left my side in order to wash his hands with the salt water of the ocean. It was all he could do with our current circumstances.

"'If we're dating'? Did you seriously just say that?!" I asked as I followed him, only pretending to be angry in a teasing kind of way.

"Yes. Yes, I did." Was Shadow's simple reply. Not feeling up to coming with a retort, I smiled back at him instead.

Well, the mood was light now after what we had just done, both of us were smiling, and soaking up the good weather.

So how about we ruin it again?

"I hate to bring down our mood, but this does remind me of all those people on the plane." Shadow started up quite the dreary conversation, though I guess it was more appropriate than cracking jokes and taunting eachother.

"Yeah, same here." I sighed and dropped down on the sand next to him as he had kneeled when trying to wash his hands clean.

I honestly didn't try to think about it, Shad's even been trying to keep the topic closed since the last time we discussed it weeks and weeks ago. It worked until situations like this pushed the event back to the front of our minds again.

We already knew two things for certain. Those people were assassinated for this important world-changing meeting they were all heading to and the pilots were the culprits, that's what their sudden disappearance told us anyway. But knowing so didn't make it any easier to deal with.

It was one thing to come across strangers unfortunate enough to come across this place and meet their ends without their loved ones ever knowing what happened to them, but it was entirely different thing when people died on my watch.

I was right there! Shadow was there! The Ultimate lifeform and Mobius' favourite hero! It happened right under our noses!

How could they have poisoned those people without us noticing?

Yeah, we had both been dozing off, but does that really explain how we never noticed?

I guess that's why Shadow wasn't so keen on talking about it either, though he was infinitely more familiar with these kinda situations than I was. The verb 'losing' just wasn't in my personal dictionary.

"What do you think is happening out there right now? With those pilots? With Eggman? The others?" Our disappointment from the day before fresh in our mind, the questions just came pouring out.

Though I try to keep up this positive outlook on life even now, not a day goes by that I don't think about them.

"Well, those pilots, if they truly were assassins, are now living good lives with the money they earned from a job well done, probably paid extra for taking us out in the process. Ivo is most likely growing bored because you're not there to stop him. And our friends and allies are probably doing what they do best; annoy eachother and save the world." Was Shadow's quick answer, something he didn't even need to think twice about.

"Oh, and how would you know?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, pulling my legs up to my chest to rest my elbows on my knees. I referring more to Egghead and our friends. There just was no question of what those two dudes really were.

And yeah, the water of the ocean was soaking through my pants, but that's just something you grow used to over time when living on the beach of an island. At least I wasn't actually in it myself.

"I sometimes forget, but you don't know Ivo the way I do, do you?" Shadow asked, turning his head to look back at me.

"Well, you're both Robotniks. So no, I guess I don't." I responded, shrugging.

They weren't related by blood and had only met just a couple of years ago in possibly the worst and most unhealthy circumstances possible, but they still considered eachother family to some degree. And with that I mean that they didn't let their shared last name get in the way of a battle.

But still, there were some things only family could know, especially with a person as weird as Eggman, no matter how young that bond could be.

"If you're curious, he does actually enjoy your battles. More than he lets on at least. Honestly, if you weren't there to stop him, he'd live a boring life." He told me and I can't help but be surprised.

So for all his attempts to kill me and all his fury and rage whenever I beat him, Eggman still enjoys it somewhere deep down, huh? And here I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

I'd tease him with this little secret my boyfriend let slip, but because of obvious reasons that will have to wait.

"Okay, now what was that about our friends being annoying?" I asked, nudging him with an elbow, causing him to smirk lightly.

"Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have our inner circle any different, but haven't you noticed how they are all driving eachother insane all the time?" Shad stated in a question, causing a laugh to erupt from me.

"Are you sure that's not just you?" I asked, smirking.

"Oh, I'm positive, Hedgehog. Are you saying that I'm a liar?" Shadow responded, eyes narrowing in a playful glare.

"What if I am? Are you gonna make me pay for it?" I retorted and leant in closer, supporting most of my weight on one arm, my challenging smirk never once fading.

"Depends on how much you deserve it." Leaning in just a little bit closer in turn, it took us a good second to realize just how close we were, our faces only inches apart.

It was so easy to close the gap now, like all those months of tension meant nothing anymore. I don't know exactly who made the first move, but our lips met immediately. Mine pressed deeply against his and our hearts skipped a beat.

They say that this kind of passion, the heated excitement of just being around eachother, the fluttering feeling in our chest, the butterflies in our gut, only lasts the first few couple of months of a relationship. That is if it doesn't already die down sooner.

I genuinely hope it'll stay much longer than that. It isn't a feeling I think I could ever grow tired of.

Our kissing grew more heated as our eyes closed. Shadow's arms wrapped around my neck and mine around his lower back, pulling eachother even closer.

We would've continued, but the moment I tried to slip my tongue between his lips to pretty much initiate the very first make-out session in our fresh and young relationship, Shadow suddenly pushed me away. With his hands on my shoulders did he stare at me in shock, like I had just tried to do something completely foreign to him.

Heh, I sometimes worry because I haven't actually slept with anyone yet myself and now I find out Shadow knows even less than me?! I was worrying for nothing! This is great!

Well, it was for me.

"Uhm... Maybe we shouldn't do this here..." Unusually hesitant, Shadow stood up and took a good step away from me.

I followed his example, soon smirking as I noticed the distance he was keeping.

"What's wrong? This too much for you?" I asked and gestured to my own body, eliciting a short and amused huff out of him.

"Oh sure, that must be it. And certainly not the three graves we just dug." He retorted back in a sarcastic tone, pointing towards the crosses not all that far away from us.

And there goes the mood again.

"Right... That was... Huh..."

"Insensitive? Careless? Thoughtless?"

"You're not helping, Shad." That slight smile returned at my response.

"Let's go back to our camp. We've done all we can here." Shadow stated and I couldn't help but agree.

It was better to return and let this final resting place for these three deceased people stay a place of rest. There wasn't anything else we could do for them.

Back at our fancy shack did we try to get on with our day. Despites the way our morning had started out for us, what we did wasn't exactly a pleasant job, we tried to find something to brighten up our mood.

Everything was so strangely quiet now and I didn't like it. And this time the tension between us wasn't caused by some callous action of mine.

But no matter how hard you want to try, sometimes you just can't stop a bad day from growing even worse.

We were standing at our signal fire, which was still proving useless so far even now that it was burning so bright and fierce. We were getting rid of our makeshift shovels. They had broken somewhere along the way and had no value for us anymore, so we decided to add them to our pyre instead. That way they could still be of use to us after all.

It changed little to our pile. It was still as hot, big, and loud as ever.

But it was then that we noticed, as we turned to our camp to keep our other, smaller fire going to scare off animals and critters alike, that we noticed something strange in the sky.

"Sonic..." Shadow called my name to turn my attention to it aswell, even though I was already looking at it.

Something was falling, shooting through the sky. And what was that it left behind? Was that a smoke plume? A trail?

My eyes squinted as if that could help me get a better look at what I was seeing. It was definitely coming straight for our island, could impact it at any second. Without a doubt it would be loud and we would feel the tremors even from here, but at least we'd still be safe from it at this distance.

When it did and the two of us had to brace ourselves at the loud bang that hurt our eardrums, that's when it suddenly hit me. Shadow seemed to realize it too.

"It's an Eggman robot!" We exclaimed at the same time and a new sense of hope welled up within.

"Come on!" I told him and we both hurried over to where it crashed, the smoke telling us exactly where to look.

What should've been nearly an hour of walking to a cliff far from our home turned into a full-out sprint that took us there in just a few seconds, in time to catch the robotic object that just fell from the sky.

I don't think I've ever been more happy to see one of Egghead's robots than today. The color scheme of red, yellow, and black, his logo and ego plastered all over this thing, I never thought I'd ever miss seeing one of his pieces of junk, especially when it was made to destroy.

But here we were and here it was. Just seeing that thing, broken as it was, felt like a miracle!

Shadow was especially happy with this new turn of events.

"Yes... Yes! This is it! Sonic, it's our way home!" He could barely contain his happiness, much like yesterday when we found that oh so promising boat.

I couldn't really follow, though.

"What? This thing? How?" I asked, watching the darker hedgehog approach the robot with hurry and kneel next to it.

It was a classic badnik, one that was still so round and wasn't all that big. It was all torn up and I could recognize that technique from anywhere. It was definitely Knux who did this!

Of course those guys were doing great in keeping the world safe in my place. Though saving people was my life and has been for a long time now, I still can't help but feel glad that they're doing just fine without me.

I watched as Shadow pulled the broken robot's chest plate away with ease, revealing its wiring and inner skeletal structure inside. I just stood there and stared at what he was doing, clueless as to how this thing could possibly help us.

"Yes, it's still working!" He stated, out of nowhere even more excited for reasons that were beyond me as I still had no clue.

He pulled something out of the robot's chest, a small grey and rectangular box held in both of his hands with numbers in bright red LED-lights. The box was still connected with wires to the energy source, the battery, that kept this thing going.

"You see this?" Shadow asked, showing me those numbers. I figured this was the part where he would give me an explanation, so I nodded.

"These are our coordinates. Every single one of Eggman's creations have random numbers set. In order to prevent his technology from falling into the wrong hands, he's programmed his robots to launch towards these set coordinates." He said, which was something I actually didn't know.

Heh, imagine that. Years of battling him and his creations and I didn't know that.

"They are all connected to the base he's currently in. If I somehow reroute this thing to send these exact coordinates back to Eggman, he might be curious enough to check it out and that could mean our rescue!" Shadow continued before rummaging back inside the robot, determined to see this plan through.

Lucky me! Not only is my little bro a genius, but my boyfriend's got some smarts too!

"Now I may not be as handy in technology as Tails or Eggman, but I think I can accomplish this somehow. Even without the proper tools." I was perfectly okay with sitting back and letting him do all the talking and work, arms crossed and a smile on my muzzle. There wasn't much I could do here now anyway.

But I can't help but notice that, while Shadow's undivided attention was on the inside of the robot's chest cavity to search for whatever he needed to bring this mission to a success, the box with the coordinates was hanging outside by its wires.

And a very small extra series of numbers on the side in those same red lights was quickly counting down. An eyebrow of mine raised in confusion when I noticed it.

By the time I realized what it was, really there weren't even a couple of seconds left, the counter had already reached zero.

"Shadow!" I didn't think twice about reacting, the action just came as natural to me as breathing, especially after all of these years of saving others.

Just before the broken robot would be destroyed in an explosion that I would rather not find out would do what to Shadow, I rushed forward to grab him in the nick of time. The thing went off right as we reached the very edge of the cliff, the heat of it signing parts of fur and quills told us we were only just out of reach. The shockwave of it just nearly didn't send us plummeting off the cliff.

A long silent moment passed as we let the ringing in our ears settle and realisation kick in, Shadow unceremoniously slung over my shoulder in my hurry to get him to safety.

"Well... That's new." I chuckled nervously, trying to not let this stinging sensation of disappointment get to me too much.

Shadow decided not to be the bigger man in this situation.

"Are you kidding me?!" Struggling fiercely to get out of my grip, he got back on his own two feet and made way for the smoking scattered remains of the bot, his Chaos Energy rising to a whole new level.

"We wait nearly five damn months for rescue and this is what we get?! Two fake-outs in a single week?!" You know, Rouge told me more than once that Shadow's temper had calmed down a lot since we first met, for obvious reasons trying to put in a good word for him.

And yes, that was true, but sometimes it did still rear its ugly head. This was one of said scary moments.

Shouting and cursing, Shadow let this entire island know of his frustrations and his apparent need for sanitary facilities as his powers raged beneath his skin, his blood boiling.

I'd calm him down, but as I could feel a Chaos Blast coming up, I figured I should probably keep a safe distance for now.

Needless to say, that cliff looked a whole lot different by the time that day ended.