Me: YAAAAAHHHHOOOOOOOO!

Shadow: What's up with you?

Vector: Yeah. No, "hey bitches" this time around?

Me: Screw that! The Giants are going to the World Series!

Blaze: Wait. What?

Me: The San Francisco Giants are going to the World Series of Major League Baseball. CELEBRATION!

Cream: But I thought you lived in Fresno, Mr. AK.

Me: I do, Cream. I'm even in Fresno right now. But there are no major league teams that play here. So we have to choose one of many that play in the whole state.

Amy: How many teams are there in this state?

Me: Well Amy, this is California. One of the few states with more than one major league team. But we have more than two to choose from. Take New York for example. They have the Yankees and the Mets. Hell. Illinois has the Cubs and the White Sox.

But here in California, we have oh…one two three four FIVE! Five teams. The Giants which are my team, the Oakland A's, LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and the Anaheim Angels. So when it comes to major league baseball, it's a frickin civil war over here on the west side.

Sonic: Damn.

Me: Exactly. But enough about baseball. Let's get to the reason why we're all here. Who's up for the disclaimer? NOT IT!

Everyone: NOT IT!

Espio: Very well then. AK only owns the plot of this story. He doesn't own any of the characters.

Me: So enjoy chapter 14 and review afterwards if you like.

Shadikal: How is it Possible?

Chapter 14: Back to Square One

Three days had passed ever since the fight. And in that time, Shadow and Tikal hadn't seen each other at all as to her wishes. And that greatly upset the dark hedgehog. He had no intention of ever frightening her. He was just trying to save the island AND the Master Emerald. He had succeeded in doing that, but now the one person he had gotten close to was now locking herself away from him in Knuckles' and Rouge's house.

No one had seen Shadow in the time span of those three days. But it didn't take a genius to k now what he was doing. He was avoiding everyone with the exception of trying to see Tikal and explain himself. But every time, he failed. Rouge and Knuckles just sent him away. He had seen Maria die in front of him, but to even his own surprise, this felt a lot worse for Shadow. He knew the girl was alive, but he still couldn't see her. And that killed him. It actually made his heart ache moth metaphorically and literally. And when someone tried to talk to him, he sent them away with Chaos Control. What a shock.

No one else had any idea what to do. Rouge had tried her hardest to get Tikal to understand what happened. All the echidna could remember was all the destruction Shadow had caused with that Chaos Blast. He was ruthless, unstoppable, those were the things Tikal had come to this world to get away from in the first place. All the violence brought her flashbacks what happened that day her father and his troops attacked the shrine all those years ago to take the Master Emerald for themselves. She thought maybe if she came here to a point where she wouldn't have to worry about anything like that ever again, she would be happy. But she was proven wrong in less than a second. She had seen Shadow come up to the door, but when she did, she ran upstairs and hid from him while Knuckles or Rouge made him go away.

Needless to say, Shadow as right back where he started almost two months ago. Depressed and alone. And speaking of two months time, the time limit for the bet between Sonic and Amy was almost up. It was going to be over in less than 24 hours. And the chances were now overwhelmingly in Sonic's favor. But now Sonic was beginning to have second thought. Not about dating Amy. He still feared that. What he was having second thoughts about was his opinion of his dark doppelganger. Maybe he was wrong. He had watched every single one of his dates from the beginning. And he had to admit it. Shadow had been happy ever since he started seeing Tikal.

The blue hedgehog himself was inside his house sitting around alone with nothing but his thoughts, which he was focused on the most. But then his phone rang.

"Hello?...Oh what's up Rouge?...What?...Wait hold up. What do you mean? When?...Well, does Shadow know?...Why not?...Oh right. Well he SHOULD know. She was closest to him."

Rouge said something to him that lasted a good minute and then Sonic began to think again.

"Okay. I'll be there at midnight. Bye."

Sonic hung up the phone and now he was thinking out loud.

"Midnight? That's only twelve hours from now."

His phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sonic."

The voice sounded familiar, but there was a certain peppy tone that was missing from it.

"Amy? Are you alright?"

"I'm not sure. Rouge just called me."

Okay. Now Sonic knew why she was down.

"So you just got the news to huh?"

"Yep. And I bet you're planning a party already." She sounded a bit cross on that one.

"Wait. What?"

"You know what's gonna happen now and I'm sure you're thrilled about it. I just called to say, congratulations, and I'll see you in a month."

Amy slammed her phone down which made a loud click on Sonic's end. Sonic slowly hung his phone up too. Maybe it was just an overreaction on Amy's part. But still, Sonic couldn't blame her. That call from Rouge was pretty much a call saying that victory for him in the matter of this bet was unavoidable.

But we all know the kind of person Sonic truly is at heart. And he wasn't about to let this be over so fast. Even if it meant him succumbing to defeat.

"Ah…damn it all to the Sonic blue blazes of hell!"

Sonic rushed out his door and began to run.

And for the first time in his whole life, Sonic ran for hours straight looking for someone other than Dr. Eggman. He was looking for his rival. By the time he stopped to take a breather, it was 7:00 PM and the stars were starting to fill the sky. Yes. Sonic ran that far for that long. And to look for Shadow of all people. He had looked everywhere he thought he could be. When he looked up at the stars once again, he screeched to a halt and slapped his forehead.

"How could I be so stupid?"

Sonic turned right around and headed for a place he knew Shadow liked to be.

The mountain range. Alone.

And his hunch was right. He stopped at the very bottom of the tallest mountain around and looked up. And right in front of the half-destroyed moon of Mobius, there was the silhouette of Shadow. Sonic ran up the mountain and stopped right in front of him.

"Go away, faker." Shadow bluntly said.

"I'm sorry, Shadow. But I can't do that." Sonic responded.

"Fine then. Chaos Control."

Shadow waved his hand and a bright white sphere of light and hit Sonic with it. Sonic vanished and Shadow gave his infamous, hmph.

"That should take care of him for a while."

"A while really isn't a long time anymore."

Shadow jumped at hearing Sonic's voice again when he thought that he had sent him away. But he clutched his chest, turned around, and saw Sonic standing right where he was before.

"I thought I got rid of you."

Sonic just smirked and held in front of him the ruby red Chaos Emerald.

"You forget, Shadow. I can use Chaos Control too."

Shadow growled and turned away from him.

"The only flaw in an otherwise perfect plan."

Sonic put the Emerald away and got back to the reason why he was there in the first place.

"Shadow, I know you're upset about Tikal."

"What business is it to you?" Shadow snapped back.

Sonic actually did have business if he counted the bet. But that's beside the point.

"Shadow, I'm your friend whether you like it or not. Sure you and I have tried to do each other in more than once but we got past that. We're friends. And I'm not about to let you go back to the mopey depressed sac of a hedgehog that everyone isn't fond of."

Shadow growled again.

"Sonic, leave now or I will kick your ass."

Sonic knew that Shadow never joked. But what he had to say was too important. And he wasn't about to let something as stupid as a death threat stop him. He stood calmly in his spot and said two words to Shadow that had never been spoken before after he made a threat to cause pain.

"Go ahead."

That caught Shadow off guard a bit. Usually after he threatens someone they leave immediately.

"I'm serious. I will rip your legs off so you can never run again."

"And I'm standing right here waiting for that to happen."

Sonic was as cool as a cucumber. And Shadow was starting to get pissed off. He tried something else. He held up his wrist with his back still turned and motioned his other hand into position to take off his bracelet.

"Last chance, faker."

"Bring it."

Shadow's head was literally steaming now. He touched the bracelet and started to pull it off. He did just a bit so Sonic would see, but the blue one stood still as if he wanted it to happen. Then Shadow stopped shaking from the anger. He let go of his wrist and let his arm dangle to his sides.

"Congratulations, faker. You called my bluff."

Sonic felt it was now safe to approach Shadow. Which he did. Very slowly.

"Shadow, it doesn't take a genius to know that you're sad about what happened between you and Tikal."

"What would you know about relationships?" Shadow asked crossly. "I've seen you run away from Rose almost every day."

"Okay. I know it might not seem that I know a lot about love, but here's something you don't know about me, Shadow. I WAS in a relationship. It was a few years ago before I met you."

Shadow got hit with yet another surprise. He never would have thought Sonic would be the kind of guy who would EVER be in a relationship.

"You have?"

"Yes." Sonic began to story tell. "Before I moved out to Emerald Hill, I used to live in a city called New Mobotropolis. I was in love with a girl named Sally Acorn who was also the princess destined to be queen when she came of age."

"You were in love with a princess?" Shadow thought Sonic was just exaggerating.

"Yep. It's the truth. She and I were actually very good friends growing up."

Shadow noticed one word out of that sentence.

"Were?"

"I'm getting to that." Sonic went on. "Anyways, about two years ago, she and I were fourteen. And then we started dating. It was the full package. Holding hands, dates, kissing…heck. I even became her royal consort to one day have her hand in marriage."

It was almost as if Shadow couldn't get enough surprises today. But the worst one was yet to come. We'll get to that later.

"You…married?"

"When we turned eighteen, we would have been immediately rushed to the altar." Sonic got ready to wrap it up. "But…things went south. One day, her parents, the king and queen, announced that they would be leaving town for a few days to deal with some political crap. And Sally was left in charge of running the kingdom while they were gone."

"What went wrong?" Shadow asked actually interested.

"She wanted to me to rule by her side. If I did that, I wouldn't have been able to fight Eggman. So I said I couldn't do it. Then she slapped me in the face and stormed off. A week later, I packed up my stuff, moved out here, and I haven't seen her since."

Shadow took a moment to let the information of that story process in his head.

"Was there a reason you just told me that?"

"Yes." Sonic had a good reason. "Shadow, I turned my back on love and I regret it every day. I just can't stand by and watch you do the same."

"If you regret turning your back on love, why do run from Rose?" the ebony hedgehog asked.

"My relationship with Amy has nothing to do with why I'm here."

During that time, Shadow still hadn't turned around to face Sonic.

"What do you want, Sonic?"

"See? THAT'S why I'm here. Because that's what I want to ask you. What do YOU want? And be honest."

Shadow sighed. He wanted so badly just to beat the blue off of Sonic, but he was in no mood to do so. But he needed to talk to someone. And since Sonic was the only one around, what was the alternative.

"I…I don't know." Shadow was actually opening up to Sonic. "I didn't mean to frighten her. I don't understand what I did wrong."

Ah. Now that's hard. Being in a rough patch in a relationship with one person not knowing what went wrong.

"Shadow, I'm sympathetic for you. I really am. But do you want to be with Tikal?"

"I…I just don't want to screw up my second chance."

Sonic made a confused face.

"Second chance? What are you talking about?"

Shadow now turned to face Sonic in his eyes.

"Tikal is almost in every way like Maria. I found that out a few days ago."

"So…" Sonic began to do some math. "All this time, you were dating her just because she reminded you of Maria?"

"What? No! I just told you I only found that out a few days ago! And I've been seeing her for a month!"

"Okay. Calm down." Sonic tried to lower the volume.

Shadow calmed down and took a deep breath. Then Sonic thought of something.

"Okay. Answer me this. Before you realized she was like Maria, why did you continue to see Tikal?"

That didn't require a lot of thinking for Shadow to answer.

"She's peaceful, loving, caring, and honestly…she makes me happy."

Shadow? Happy? That's the first time ever he himself has ever said it.

And that was enough to make Sonic tell the real reason why he was there.

"She's leaving, Shadow."

Now Sonic had Shadow's undivided attention.

"What?"

"Rouge called me a few hours ago. She told me that Tikal had decided to leave and she wanted us all there to say goodbye."

"Leave? Where will she go?" Shadow absolutely wanted to know.

"She's going back into the Master Emerald. Why I don't know."

"But…why didn't Rouge tell me before?"

Sonic rubbed the back of his head.

"Well…that was Tikal's request not to tell you."

Shadow felt like Tikal ran a knife through his heart. To leave and not even tell him? That's just wrong.

"What are you going to do, Shadow?"

Shadow turned back around and looked up at the sky.

"Nothing. If she wants to leave, I will respect her wishes."

Sonic rubbed his forehead and repeated his question from before.

"I know that's what she wants, Shadow. But is that what YOU want?"

Shadow took a moment to think about that. And it didn't take that much of thinking for him to come to his realization.

No. Shadow was nowhere near ready to see her leave. He knew that there was something between them and it didn't matter whether she reminded him of someone else or not. She was still Tikal the Echidna. And he loved her more than anything else in the world.

And he wasn't about to let her leave without telling her that. He wasn't ready to let her leave period.

"No. What I want…is her."

Sonic's smirk came back to him.

"Well then. Let's go get her."

"Hold on." Shadow was all for getting Tikal back, but there were things that had to be done. And he needed some time to get them all done. He turned to Sonic for his first order of business.

"How many Chaos Emeralds do you have?" he asked Sonic.

Sonic made a confused face.

"Uuuuuuhhhhh….just the one."

"Alright then. I regret saying this, but I need your help."

Shadow told Sonic his plan. And Sonic smiled when he got to the end.

"Then let's go hunting."

Sonic stood on the edge of the mountain ready to jump down.

"One more thing." Shadow said before Sonic jumped down. "What was the name of that girl you said you dated?"

"Oh. Sally Acorn. Why?"

"Brown squirrel? Red hair? Blue eyes?"

What? Shadow knew her?

"Where did you…" Sonic stopped short.

"Rose set me up with her once last month." Shadow replied.

"Really?" Sonic smirked at the thought of Sally across the table from Shadow. "What happened?"

"She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran out of the restaurant."

That was the response Sonic was hoping for.

"Okay. Cool. Now let's go."

Shadow nodded and then he and Sonic both jumped off the edge of the mountain and started to run down the side of it. If there was one thing the relationship between Shadow and Tikal was NOT, it was definitely not over.

Me: Alright then.

Tikal: Hey hey! Whoa! AK! What's going on here?

Me: Uuuuhhhh…not really following.

Tikal: Well it looks like you're getting ready to end this story.

Me: Well, Tikal…you're right. The next chapter will indeed be the final chapter in this story.

Shadow: But you can't end it yet. I haven't had enough badassness!

Knuckles: What are you going to do next, AK?

Me: Well, I'm not so sure yet. But that's up for the readers to decide.

I have a poll up asking people what I should do next. Check it out for yourself and vote. But in the meantime, I gotta get to work on m AutoKnights story. The final chapter of this will be up ASAP. But until then, peace bitches.

P.S.: Also, the first game of the World Series is on Wednesday October 27, 2010 on FOX. Root for the Giants!