CHAPTER 25

Tonya roamed around the huge church looking for Rouge until she had suddenly bumped into a purple male chameleon. Her heart raced as she looked up at him once she did, she quickly looked away from him. She tried not to make eye contact with him. "Oh, Espio! I-I'm sorry. I was just looking for Rouge…"

When he saw her about to walk away, he had decided to stop her. "Tonya, wait!"

She suddenly stopped in her tracks and spun around to him.

"Look I know things have been weird since we broke up but…I don't want us to stop being friends."

She was relieved that Espio wasn't upset with her and still wanted to talk to her. "…Me too, Espio."

"Tonya, I…I still care about you and a lot…"

"Espio…"

The chameleon paused and waited for her to speak.

"After what had happened between us, I think we should just stay friends."

It had hurt him a little to know that Tonya still wanted to be just friends with him. He tried to look like he was perfectly fine but deep down, he still had feelings for her. He made a slow nod, "…Oh yeah. I totally agree."

She made a small smile, "I'm glad you understand, Espio." She glanced around, "Well, I'd better go find Rouge."

"Uh yeah. I still gotta find Shad."

Before they parted ways, they were about to lean in and hug each other until they realized what they were about to do and stopped each other. They thought hugging would be way too informal. So they then just decided to give each other a simple handshake and carried on.

Meanwhile, Appex and Ker were sitting next to each other on the wooden benches in the corridor of the church.

Appex looked over to Ker in annoyance who was starting to softly cry. "What's wrong with you?"

Ker wiped some of the tears from his face. "I've never been to a wedding before. I'm just so happy that two people who love each other so much are finally getting married. They'll be together for the rest of their lives."

The red porcupine looked over to him with an irritated look, "…Are you fucking kidding me? The wedding hasn't even started yet."

"Yeah", Ker sniffed. "But this is such a beautiful occasion."

He turned away from him and crossed his arms. "…And now I want to kill myself."

Midnight who was sitting beside Anita, had suddenly heard a horrible cough coming from her. He looked over to her in concern, "That sounds like a nasty cough. Are you all right, Anita?"

The pink hedgehog gave the wolf a small smile letting him know not to worry about her. "Oh yes Midnight, I'm fine. Something is just in my throat." She stood up from the wooden bench, "I think I'll go get something to drink."

"Okay." When he saw her leave her seat, he watched her walk over to the drink table where Jack and Garnet were. He glanced around until he spotted a black and yellow male bee sitting in a far corner by himself. He decided to walk over to the bee.

The bee shifted his eyes and saw Midnight standing next to him.

Midnight made a friendly smile, "Is this seat taken?"

The bee had thought that Midnight wanted to sit next to him, but he really and truly didn't care if he did or not. "Does it look taken?"

And with that bitter answer, Midnight decided to sit next to him anyway. He still tried to remain friendly towards the bee. "I'm so glad you could make it, Charmy."

"Yeah well Margaret won't shut up about how she's not coming to the wedding."

A sweat drop appeared on the side of his head. "She wasn't really invited was she?"

"Nope."

He had noticed that Charmy really wasn't making any eye contact with him. "But I'm glad you're here. We all are. You worried us."

He had made a sarcastic laugh, "Yeah everyone's just so happy because they think everything is going so well. Everyone is just so blind…"

"…I don't understand."

"…Your new leader…is selfish", he spoke in a cold tone.

Midnight's jaw practically dropped as he couldn't believe the shocking things Charmy was saying. Before he could reply to him, he suddenly heard yelling. He looked around until he saw Anita arguing with Rouge's parents.

Espio saw them arguing as well and nervously bit his lip at the sight. "Crap! Not again! I gotta find Shadow." He ran off and decided to find Shadow before things had gotten any worse.

Meanwhile in another room of the church, Shadow had just finished getting himself dressed. He looked at his reflection in the mirror in front of him. He was wearing a black tuxedo with black dress shoes to match. He didn't want to admit to himself, but he was nervous. He began to overanalyze everything. He sighed heavily, "I can't believe this is actually happening", he spoke in a low tone. He was startled when he suddenly heard knocking on the door. He spun around when the door had opened.

"Hello? Is anyone in here ?"

He watched as a red male echidna peeked his head inside of the room.

The echidna's eyes widened when he saw Shadow standing in the room giving him a confused look. "Oh sorry! I was looking for the bathroom. Mind if I come in?"

The hedgehog shook his head, "No not at all."

When he stepped inside of the room, he closed the door behind him. He observed at how Shadow had looked in his tuxedo. "Fancy suit."

He tried to form a friendly smile towards Knuckles' attempt to acting nice towards him. He saw that Knuckles was dressed in a blue suit and wearing black dress shoes. "Thanks."

"Congratulations by the way. It's good to see you settling down and with a great woman like Rouge."

"Yeah…thank you."

He could tell that everything had felt awkward so he had decided that it was probably best to leave. "Well uh I should get back to the others…" Before he could leave, he heard Shadow call out to him.

"Knuckles, wait…"

The echidna spun around to the hedgehog and gave him his full attention.

"I'm really glad you came. It means a lot that you're supporting me and Rouge."

The echidna placed his hands in his pants pockets as he continued to talk to Shadow. "Well, Rouge is a one of a kind woman. She deserves nothing but the best…I'm glad she has someone like you to look out for her and I mean that."

Shadow couldn't believe his ears. Knuckles was actually being nice to him. He was really expecting for him to act really immature towards him but he was actually putting his differences behind him and tried to make peace with him. He looked at everything all wrong. He judged Knuckles wrong. "Knuckles, I know you and I have never been on the best of terms…

"Yeah", Knuckles spoke with a smile. "We literally tried to kill each other over one girl."

When he saw Knuckles smiling about it, he couldn't help but to look back at the past and smile in amusement from it as well. "I wanted to let you know without any girl drama being involved, I know you're a great guy. Your heart's always in the right place."

Just hearing Shadow talking all these nice things about him had put a warm smile on his face.

"Even when you were with Rouge, you treated her like royalty. You never wronged her."

Knuckles had nodded, "Yeah at first when I found out…I was pissed off with you and then later I got pissed with her because she never told me how she actually felt about the both of us."

He made a slow nod.

"Rouge was definitely in the wrong but…I would never dare think about wronging her."

"…She and I were both wrong and it always came down to me…because I was the one who always ended up hurting her. I treated her like she never had any feelings."

"Shadow…"

"…I took her from you…I don't understand why you don't hate me."

"Because I knew when I first met you two for the first time, that you two belonged together and I just wanted what you would've gave her."

He stood there speechless as he listened to Knuckles.

"She saw something in you that even you couldn't see. She knew you had been hurt. You shut everyone out and thought that the world had turned against you when you lost Faye."

Shadow's heart skipped a beat when Knuckles had brought up his old dead girlfriend.

"But Rouge could see a light inside of you. She didn't believe that you were this cold hearted monster. She knew you could get close and love again. She wanted to help you to become the man you once were."

"Knuckles…"

"If a woman like that can put up with your kind of crap on a daily, then damn it Shadow, you're one hell of a lucky guy."

He saw the echidna smiling at him warmly, "…How did…"

"Trust me. While Rouge and I were together, she talked about you…a lot. I just never put the pieces together right away." He had then saw Shadow extend his hand out to him.

"I'm sorry for what happened between us. Perhaps we can start over?"

His smile had widened on his face. He took Shadow's hand and shook it. "I'd like that a lot." As he shook his hand, he could feel that moment they shared together would mark the moment the two would officially become friends.

The two of them were startled when Espio flung the door open to the room.

"Shadow, there you are!"

The hedgehog looked at the chameleon in confusion, "Espio? What's up?"

"Anita is fighting with Rouge's parents again."

Shadow sighed heavily in disbelief, "Not again!"

Knuckles looked down at the watch that was on his wrist, "Looks like we better get this thing started then."

"Yeah", Shadow agreed. "Let's go." Shadow, Espio, and Knuckles quickly stormed out of the room and decided to head out to get the wedding started.

Meanwhile down in the basement of the church, The Raiders were listening to the soft playing of the piano from the top floor.

Nack turned to Razi who held a leash in his hands. "Ready to crash this thing?"

An evil smirk had formed on Razi's face as he heard a loud growling coming from the creature that was on the other end of the leash. "Oh yeah! It's gonna be one hell of a party!"

In The Next Chapter…

Rouge: Well here it goes…

Shadow: I can't believe this is happening…

Nails: My baby sister's so beautiful!

Nack: This wedding is boring! How about we make things interesting?

Appex: The Raiders?

Nack: Until death do you part!