CHAPTER 25

REDEMPTION

One week later after Lien-Da's death and Gin's arrest, Tech City had became aware that G.U.N. was recovering from yet another tragic event taking place within the military facility. G.U.N. had currently went through a shut down and every single worker was questioned about the gruesome Almas experimentations.

Shadow and Trevor had decided to meet up with Sarah in her office to discuss what was the future for the G.U.N. military.

There was a long and awkward silence in the room as Sarah sat behind her desk and was lost for words as she looked across her desk and saw Shadow and Trevor sitting across from her.

"So what's going on, Sarah?" Shadow had asked as he broke the silence.

The yellow fox woman leaned on the surface of her desk as she began to reply to him. "G.U.N. is still under investigation ever since the incident took place last week. The entire facility is shut down until further notice."

"What'll happen to all of the workers? The facility? To G.U.N?" Trevor asked in a worried tone.

Sarah let out a small sigh, "…To be honest, I don't know. Due to Gin in prison and Lien-Da's death, it's hard to say what will happen to the facility. Originally, Gin was to step up to become the next commander and Lien-Da would've taken his place if something were to happen but…"

Trevor shifted his eyes away from her and understood why the entire facility was shut down. "I see…"

Sarah shook her head slowly as she became filled with frustration. "I just wish…it would all stop…"

Shadow and Trevor looked at her with blank looks.

"First Itsuki, then Fakir, and now this…"

Shadow and Trevor then looked at each other sadly. They both felt bad for what Sarah and the rest of the city had to go through during all the years with military.

"I'm beginning to wonder if G.U.N. will always be corrupted. The madness just won't stop." Tears slowly formed in her eyes, "And it's probably all my fault G.U.N. is so fucked up..."

Trevor had never seen this side of Sarah before and it had shocked him to see her show these kind of emotions. "Mayor Wish…"

Shadow understood why Sarah was so upset. Apparently, her past was still haunting her and she probably felt like she was the root of all G.U.N's evil. "But it's not your fault, Sarah. You may have made some bad choices in the past but it's in the past for a reason. You were given a second chance and you came back from your loneliness and hate. Now look at you. You're kind, warm hearted, and passionate. Now all you want to do is help people. You're trying Sarah, and that's all what the citizens of this city really wants to see from you."

Sarah fought back her tears and made a nod as she agreed with Shadow's words of encouragement. "…You're right. Thank you, Shadow." She and Shadow had turned to Trevor as he spoke.

"I haven't been with G.U.N. very long but I do hope the facility and the city will recover from all this. This city deserves protection and justice from pure hearted people. At least I know that's what Sierra would have wanted..."

Shadow was pleased to hear such words come from Trevor. At first sight, Shadow knew that Trevor was a good and gentle hearted individual. He formed a warm smile at the yellow lion.

Trevor noticed Shadow smiling as though he had admired him. "…What?"

Shadow paused for a moment and debated if he should share his thoughts with him. "…Nothing it's just…you remind me so much of myself. You remind me how I always felt about this city and what I could do to protect it and make it a safer place to live in."

Trevor's eyes widened in surprise from Shadow's words. "Wha? Really?"

The hedgehog made a small nod at him.

His smile had widened on his face. "…You made a great lieutenant, Shadow."

"Thank you, but my place is at the Chaotix with the rest of the detectives."

After hearing Shadow declining yet another opportunity to work for G.U.N, Trevor couldn't help but to feel slightly disappointed. He knew how passionate Shadow was about helping the military rebuild itself along with the city. He had wished deep down that Shadow would be one of the few to volunteer to help work at the facility especially during its time of need. He admired him because he acted like a positive influence to many of the G.U.N. soldiers and was a great leader. "…I understand. I'll miss working with you, Shadow."

"As will I, Trevor."

Sarah and Trevor watched as Shadow got up from his chair and walked over to the door.

When he placed his hand on the handle of the door, he spoke out to Trevor without turning to him. "If you continue to hold on to your hopes and dreams, maybe the citizens of this city will be acknowledging a new and great G.U.N. commander someday."

After hearing Shadow telling him he had potential to become a military commander, Trevor's eyes lit up in warmth from his words.

When Sarah saw him opening the door "Where are you going?"

He replied without turning to her, "I owe someone a little visit."

Before they could say anything else, Shadow left the office and shut the door behind him.

Later at the Tech City Prison in the cafeteria, Gin sat at a small round table eating a small portioned meal that was in a foam white tray. He took a small bite from the semi warm bread roll and placed it back down on the tray. He sighed slightly and stared down at the rest of the food on the tray. "The way this food tastes, prison is the ultimate kind of Hell." His ears perked up when he heard a chair being dragged at the front of the table. He quickly looked up and saw a familiar black and red hedgehog sitting across from him. "…Shadow?"

"In the flesh." His eyes fell upon the orange prison jump suit Gin was wearing. "New uniform I see…"

Annoyed by his sarcastic remark, he pushed his tray of food to the side and gave the hedgehog his full attention. "So what do I owe this lovely visit?"

The hedgehog gave him a teasing look. "I came to just admire how much you're living it up in here."

"Oh yeah", he spoke in a bitter voice. "This place is just paradise. I get four square meals a day, I got a fun roommate, oh and I've run into a lot of familiar faces since I got here."

Shadow was thinking he must have ran into some of his old enemies within the prison. His eyes widened when he saw a bread roll being thrown at the side of Gin's head.

"Fucking jackass!" A random male voice had shouted from across the room while laughing.

The white fox didn't turn to face who had thrown the bread roll at him. All he did was sit there and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Gee this place is just so wonderful", Shadow spoke sarcastically.

"Yeah", Gin growled. "This place is a fucking candy land. Why did you come here anyway?"

He had then gave him a serious look, "Do you know what's been going on with your end?"

The fox shook his head slowly. "Not yet. The trial is still ongoing. They're still deciding on what to do with me. If I'm lucky, they'll put me in the chair and call it a day."

Shadow wasn't really surprised that Gin felt so dark about his situation. He could imagine how awful Gin had felt for killing innocent military officers and perhaps other unnecessary murders he had committed in the past. "You never know. They may not execute you."

"Well if they don't, they're real fucking dumbass's. I took so many lives and to make it worse, I may as well have dug Lien-Da's grave as well."

Shadow had gotten confused by what he had meant. He thought that Gin and Lien-Da were on good terms most of the time. They were so comfortable around each other, they had even picked with one another at times. "Why do you say that?"

He placed his hand on his forehead and sighed heavily. "Lien-Da was already emotionally unstable but I don't think she would've gotten so bad with it if it weren't for me."

The way Gin was talking, Shadow assumed that something had happened between them years ago within the facility. "…What happened? Years ago in the facility?"

Gin's eyes sadly wandered down onto the white surface of the table. "It happened years ago. A little before Itsuki's death to be exact. At the time, Itsuki was the commander and Fakir was a lieutenant. I studied under Itsuki while Lien-Da was mentored by Fakir. Itsuki and I got along way better compared to Fakir's relationship with Lien-Da."

Shadow crossed his arms as he listened to him closely.

"Fakir and Lien-Da never saw eye to eye. If they did, it was rare. Even before Fakir's new reign of becoming the commander, he was a sick and demented man. All that bastard talked about was sex and how fun it is to kill and torture people. And Lien-Da was always by his side..."

Shadow's eyes widened as horrible thoughts began to flood his mind.

Gin saw Shadow's shocked facial expression, "That's right. Fakir did exactly what you think he did to her. He raped her…"

Now it was all starting to make sense to him. No wonder Lien-Da had gotten so defensive whenever someone called her a slut. Apparently she had a strong history with Fakir who had brutally assaulted her. "…Holy shit."

Gin continued, "It wasn't just once or twice either. He did it to her constantly. It went on for years."

"Didn't anyone know about it?"

The fox made a small nod. "It was just Itsuki and myself. I'll admit Itsuki was just as crazy as Fakir but compared to him, he was just a little bit easier to be around. But don't get it wrong. Itsuki was still a piece of shit. He was uncomfortable with the fact that Fakir had tortured her every chance he could get but at the same time, he did nothing about it."

Shadow arched an eyebrow towards him. "…And you?"

He sighed sadly, "Just as Itsuki, I did nothing about it. We just let it happen."

Shadow found it odd that Gin was so heartless that he wasn't even there to help Lien-Da in her time of need and they were supposed to have been good friends.

Gin began to slowly clench his fists while he set them on the surface of the table. "It was horrible…what he had did to her. I would always see her with cuts, scratches, and bruises."

"And no one in the facility questioned her about the marks on her body?"

"A few did but she had made up an excuse for it. But some of the workers even started rumors and just assumed that Fakir was beating her. And when it got back to Fakir, he tracked down who was talking shit and pretty much beat them senseless and then kill them."

Shadow's jaw dropped. He had known how insane Fakir was in the past during his encounters with him, but he had no idea he had gotten away with so much inside of the military facility. All because he was a top ranked soldier and Itsuki didn't care who Fakir had hurt or killed to get what he had wanted. "This is unbelievable…"

"Even when he knew that I had obviously known about his assaults against her, he told me to keep quiet about it or he'd kill me too. I knew that Fakir had clearly didn't like me and he despised my friendship with Lien-Da." He shook his head as terrifying images came rushing back to his mind. "At times he would fuck with me by making me watch him torture her in front of me." Tears swelled in his eyes, "She cried and screamed…she was so scared and I didn't do anything because Fakir was dangerous and crazy. That was probably the reason why she didn't say anything, why she didn't beg anyone to help her. She knew that he would fucking kill her if she didn't do anything he asked of her. She was literally his slave."

Just hearing the full story dealing with Lien-Da's mental state, made Shadow feel kind of bad for her. She was driven to the way she was partially due to Fakir's torturous acts against her.

"Looking back at it now, I was nothing but a coward. I should've done something but I didn't..."

"If there's one thing I can agree on you with, then yeah you should've spoke up and helped her despite the consequences. Because that's what good friends are supposed to do for each other."

He bit his lip lightly and made a sad nod, "The more Fakir tortured her every day in and day out, the more it got to her. It tore her mind to pieces. So much, she was beginning to think what Fakir had did to her was out of love and she was later saying how much she loved him." He shook his head, "She didn't fucking love him. She hated him but that's what she was beginning to think what love really was. The entire thing tore her mind apart…more than it already was. When Fakir had died, it was too late. She was officially insane…"

Shadow then saw Gin beginning to shed a few tears. He could tell just by looking at him that Gin felt extremely guilty and regretted not doing a thing to help Lien-Da.

"And it's all my fault. If only I did something then maybe things would've turned out different for her."

Shadow had agreed if Gin had acted back then, perhaps Lien-Da would still be alive.

"Maybe she could've seen her son again and maybe I could've reunited with my family." He tried to wipe some of the tears from his face. "I guess we were both just chasing a dream."

"Yeah I still had no idea you had a wife and all."

"Yeah apparently not many people didn't know about it. I'm glad I did kind of keep it on the down low. I had quite a few enemies and I wasn't on the best of terms with a lot of people. But I guess it doesn't matter now. Either I'll rot in here for the rest of my life or I'll end up getting executed. I fucked up. I'll never get to see my family again…"

A small smile had slowly appeared on his face. He stood from his chair, "I wouldn't count on it."

Gin saw Shadow looking across the room. He had wondered who he was looking at. He looked across the room as well and saw a white fox woman who had appeared to be around his age.

The woman held the hand of a young white fox girl who was standing next to her. The little girl had appeared to be around nine or ten years old.

As Gin stared at the familiar mother and child, tears of happiness filled his eyes, "…Oh my God…"

When they both caught Gin staring at them in disbelief, the little girl ran over to him with a wide smile and happy tears streaming down her face.

"Papa!" The little girl ran into Gin's arms and embraced him in happiness.

Gin held the child in his arms tightly while tears ran down his face. "Oh my God! Marie!"

"Papa! I missed you so much!"

As he held her, he felt like he couldn't let go of her. "I missed you too, sweetheart."

Shadow smiled warmly when Gin's wife had walked over to him to passionately hug him.

Gin hugged and kissed the woman lovingly. He took his lips from hers and cupped her face, "…Charlotte, you're okay. You're both okay." He turned to Shadow and looked for an explanation from him. "…Shadow?"

"Me and the rest of the Chaotix were out on a field mission and during the mission we ran into someone who apparently knew you."

Gin figured Shadow had convinced the Chaotix to help find his family. "You found them? What about Dark?"

"Well by the time we got there Dark had disappeared. We couldn't find any trace of him", Shadow explained.

Gin couldn't believe that Shadow had went out to of his way to reunite him with his family. Especially after how he had betrayed him. He honestly didn't know what to say or do from his sudden kind act towards him. "…Shadow, I…thank you…"

Shadow saw how happy Gin was and he honestly didn't think he would ever see Gin look so happy. He figured that he should let Gin spend some much needed time with his wife and daughter. After all, Gin was still going through his court trial and he knew that his sentence wouldn't look very good in the end. If Gin were to be executed, he knew he would die with a peace of mind knowing that his wife and daughter were still alive. "Good luck, Gin", he murmured before he walked away from the happy family.

Much later that afternoon on Angel Island, Shadow, Rouge, and Julie-Su were watching a little red echidna boy picking flowers from the ground from a distance.

Shadow stared at the young boy happily picking flowers. "So", he spoke. "That's him?"

Julie-Su made a small nod. "Yeah that's Lien-Da's son..."

"…Rutan…" Rouge spoke in a soft voice.

As Shadow looked at the echidna boy, he felt sorry for him. He grew up without ever knowing a single thing about Lien-Da. "That poor boy."

Rouge turned to Julie-Su, "Are you sure you wanna tell him?"

The pink echidna made a small nod to assure her that she felt it was time for Rutan to know the truth about Lien-Da. "He needs to know. It's not fair to him." Before she could walk over to him, Shadow had suddenly spoken.

"Oh that reminds me!"

Rouge and Julie-Su watched as he took out a grayish looking necklace from the inside of his black trench coat.

He walked over to Julie-Su and placed the necklace in the palm of her hand gently. "I pulled it off of her before they started doing autopsies and shit on her."

Julie-Su clenched the necklace tightly in her hand. "…Thank you."

Shadow and Rouge watched as she began to walk over to Rutan.

When the small child heard footsteps behind him, he turned to see the pink echidna standing there. He smiled at the sight of her and stood to his feet while presenting two white flowers to her. "Aunt Julie-Su, look! I picked more flowers for you!"

She made a small yet friendly smile at him and gently took the flowers from him. "That's very nice of you Rutan." Her smile faded as she prepared herself to bring up the subject of Lien-Da to him. She slowly kneeled down in front of him. "We need to talk."

He nervously focused his attention to her. "…Talk? Am I in trouble? What did I do?"

She gently stroked her hand through his red dreadlocks to simmer him down a bit. "You're not in trouble, sweetie."

"Then what's wrong?" He suddenly saw her pull out a gray necklace and place it in his hands. He stared at the necklace in curiosity. "What is it?"

"Open it", she simply said.

As he studied it more, he had then noticed that it was a locket. He opened it and inside of it, he saw a picture of a red echidna woman who appeared to be at a very young age during the time the picture was taken. She looked around seventeen or maybe eighteen. The woman also had one cybernetic dreadlock just as Julie-Su. As he looked harder at the picture he also noticed that the woman was holding a red baby echidna boy in her arms. She had looked so happy while she held the baby. "Who is she? She's really pretty."

Julie-Su took a deep breath before she answered him. "Rutan, that woman is your mother."

His eyes were full of shock as he continued to study the picture. "So that means this baby is me?"

She made a small nod.

"I never knew her because she left me when I was only a baby but…what kind of mother does that to her son? Didn't she want me? Didn't she love me?"

When she saw tears swelling in his eyes, she felt like she had wanted to cry as well. It was sad of her to see Rutan this upset. He had thought that Lien-Da absolutely wanted nothing to do with him. She caressed his cheek gently. "Oh Rutan, your mother did love you. She loved you very much…"

A tear had streamed down his cheek, "Then why did she leave me and never come back?"

Julie-Su fought back her tears as much as she could until she could no longer do so. A tear had fallen from her face. She knew Lien-Da had really cared about Rutan but she was far too emotionally unstable to take care of him let alone her own self. "…I don't know how to really explain this but…your mother was sick. Very sick…"

He saw her starting to cry as well and it made him wonder what had exactly happened to his mother. Did she die from an illness? If so, it had to have happened recently. "…Sick? And my dad…is he sick too? Is he not here because he fell ill?" More tears fell from his face, "Maybe someday they'll come back and take care of me and I could take care of them and help them get better. Then we can start over and be a family. We could all live together happily..." His words trailed off when she had suddenly pulled him into a loving embrace.

Julie-Su pulled the upset child to her and held him in her arms as she broke down and cried. "I'm sorry, Rutan", she spoke with a sniffle, "I'm so sorry…"

From a distance, Shadow and Rouge watched the two hug and cry into each other's arms.

Rouge stared at the two sadly. By the way things had looked, she figured Julie-Su had informed Rutan a little more information about the tragic back story of his mother. "Do you think he'll be allright?"

Shadow made a small nod. "It'll just take some time."

She turned to him with her arms crossed, "…What about us?"

Shadow gave her a look of confusion as she suddenly began to ask about their relationship with each other.

"Will we be okay?"

Shadow had paused for a moment as he thought about what had lied ahead for him and Rouge. "…I fucked up, Rouge. I fucked up so bad to the point where I had almost lost you."

Rouge shifted her eyes from him as she was still disappointed from his actions. "You really hurt me, Shadow…"

"I know and I wish I could take it all back. Like you said, no one is perfect. No relationship will ever be perfect."

She made a small nod as she agreed with him.

"But…" He held her hand gently. "…I feel like your perfect for me. I don't know how to describe it because I suck at this relationship thing apparently but I feel like you're the one I'm supposed to be with. I can't imagine myself being with anyone else except you."

A small warm smile had slowly formed on her lips. She was relieved that Shadow was still very passionate about their relationship and he truly showed that he was sorry for ever cheating on her. "But where do we start?"

He suddenly held his arms apart in front of her. "We can start with one of these."

Her smile widened and then decided to embrace the hedgehog.

He smiled as he returned the hug. "I love you, Rouge and nothing's going to change that."

"I love you too, Shadow."

He suddenly felt her pull away from him. He watched as she angrily pointed at him.

"But if you ever cheat on me again, I'll chop your dick off, shove it down your throat, and choke you to death with it!"

He paused for the longest time and didn't know what to quite say at first from her comment. "…Um I suppose that's fair enough", he spoke in a nervous tone.

She made a teasing giggle and hugged him once again. "I love you."

When they had hugged again, he had returned the hug with an uneasy expression. "I love you too, my not so scary girlfriend."

Author's Note: And boom goes the dynamite! Finally! This story has finally come to a close! And I have to say I wasn't sure how well this fic would have went when it was first posted. I had no idea it would gain so much popularity in the end! I worked hard on this entire story and looks like it paid off just to read all of you guys' lovely reviews and comments! I just want to thank you all for your patience and support! I appreciated all of your feedback! Your reviews motivated me to keep going! I hope you all enjoyed the story! The ending was pretty intense too huh? lol! Well, looks like I have more stories in the works to get cracking on so keep a look out! I again thank you all for reading! Love you all!