Hi guys, I'm back! Sorry for the long wait. Explanations will be at the bottom. Without further ado: please enjoy!

12: Secrets and secrets revealed

Shadow disappeared, before his mind had time to catch up and he honestly didn't care, that he landed on the coffee table in their living room. All he registered was, that it was far too quiet in the home of a speedy hero and his tinkering brother. Chaos, HE was the silent one! This wasn't good.

"SONIC! TAILS!" Shouting their names, he rushed from room to room, never finding them, but seeing, that everything was still in place like it had been, when they had departed earlier. As if they had never made it home...

Just when panic threatened to take over, he heard the familiar roar of the Tornado approaching.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he realized, that he had been simply too early. Warping was truly a shortcut. He could meet with Rouge, enrage Lupe, talk with Topaz, get scared out of his mind and still return before them.

Looking at the clock in the kitchen, he realized, that Tails must have taken a longer route also and not the shortest way possible. At least, he hoped, that this was the reason for their delay.

Trying to calm his nerves, Shadow walked to the small foyer and waited, listening to how the plane landed in front of the house and the voices of the brothers drew closer, their tones light and carefree, no signs of stress or trauma.

"-I'm saying is, that there is probably not ONE hardware store on the planet, where you weren't in at least once.," he heard Sonic say, gently teasing, while approaching and opening the door, carrying a bag of groceries in his arm.

"Well, Eggman makes it-," Tails started, but interrupted himself, when his brother was hugged by his boyfriend unexpectedly, right after entering.

"Hey, Shads. Back already?," Sonic asked, masking his surprise at the sudden public show of affection. He hadn't even had time to close the door!

Usually, Shadow refrained from every revealing of emotions, be it love, sadness or irritation, unless they were alone. Tails being there should actually stop him from doing anything along those lines.

Shadow just hugged him a little tighter, trying to calm his instincts by breathing in his mate's scent, devoid of any blood. It worked after a good minute and he let him go, immediately noticing the two curious glances on him.

"I...I'm sorry, I forgot, that you'd take longer than me...and was a little worried.," he managed to get out. It wasn't a real lie, so it was fine, right? "...Okay.," Sonic said slowly, his eyes narrowed a bit.

Thinking fast, Shadow turned to Tails, who jumped a little at his intense stare suddenly on him. "I wanted to ask for a favor.," he started, thinking quickly.

"Well, if I can help you...sure.," Tails agreed reluctantly. "It's...Omega. Something is wrong with him, but the technician, who is responsible for him, is currently out of the country. I wanted to ask, if you could take a look at him.," he explained, hoping, that he – or better: Rouge – could make this convincing.

The young genius' eyes lit up. "Really!?," he asked excitedly. He had for quite a while tried to get his hands on the high tech-robot, but Shadow had always been against it. For one, because Omega was more than an object for him and shouldn't be given to other people like a toy.

The more pressing problem was, that Eggman had built Omega to be his ultimate weapon. He hadn't taken any chances while assembling his parts and booby trapped every single access to the robot, which could in the worst case end deadly for the one trying to hack or influence him in any way. Which was, why only the most experienced technician GUN had been able to find was allowed to access the robot's systems.

With a little luck, though, the fox could outsmart the good doctor – again – and would be safe and Omega could discreetly watch over Sonic for him, while he hunted this asshole down...

He was startled out of his thoughts, when the fox hugged him unexpectedly. "Thank you so much!," he grinned up at him.

"Don't you think, that we need to make some space for Omega in your lab?," Sonic asked with a crooked grin and Tails gasped, quickly letting go of Shadow. "You're right!," he exclaimed and zipped to his lab to try and clear a corner for the robot. As full as Shadow remembered the room to be, that would take a while.

Feeling Sonic's eyes on him, he figured, that his mate wasn't all too concerned about where to keep Omega. In fact, he was most likely not buying a single letter of his recent lies and had just sent the fox away to have a talk with him. Turning around, Shadow was immediately met with a calculating gaze out of emerald green eyes.

"And what is the real reason for you to bring Omega here?," the hero asked calmly. Shadow swallowed. There was really no lying to an Alpha, was there?

"I...," Shadow started, but didn't know, how to continue. He didn't want to tell the truth and he couldn't lie...

Sonic's intense glare softened. "There was a threat against me, huh?," he asked in a voice, that was barely questioning anymore.

Shadow's jaw dropped. "How...?," he asked. GUN kept a tight lid on the information, didn't they!?

Sonic smiled. "There isn't much, that can scare you, Shads. The only thing I could figure out about your fears so far, is, that you are afraid of losing the people you love, meaning me and Rouge. I'm not delusional enough to think, that you have embraced any of my friends as much as her and me. And since it's not Rouge, who gets Omega placed in her apartment, I'm pretty sure, that your behavior has something to do with me."

He shifted his weight and leaned against the door frame, preparing himself for a lengthy conversation.

Shadow stayed silent, his brain working in overdrive. He knew, that Sonic expected a full explanation, but what could he tell him? That there was a crazy, mysterious and currently faceless killer painting his headless body on walls? That was almost everything he knew; he had left, before he had gotten all the details...

"I...can't tell you.," he finally said truthfully. Seeing Sonic raising a brow, that was for sure his Alpha-side's doing, he quickly went on, "...not yet. I don't know enough, yet, to give you appropriate information. I need to investigate first and meet up with Topaz, too."

"I see." Sonic seemed pleased with the answer and Shadow had the feeling, that it had been Instinct Shadow, who had whispered the answer into his ear, but he didn't care. He had satisfied Sonic and kept the whole case a secret, for now anyway, that was all that counted.

"Alright, then. Do that." Sonic crossed the distance between them and moved up to him in an unmistakable way.

Smiling, Shadow closed the last bit of distance between them and pulled him in a gentle, yet passionate kiss, holding him tightly against himself.

For a long moment, everything seemed alright with the world. He had his mate in his arms, safe and sound and alive. Nothing else mattered...

...and then, life called for their attention once more. First, Shadow's communicator beeped and then, just half a second later, Tails' shout was audible from his lab. "Sonic! Help!" He sounded strained, so he probably tried to move something heavy.

"Seems, like we need to go. See you tonight. And don't worry so much, alright? I'm fine.," Sonic told him, kissing his cheek briefly, before rushing to help his brother.

Shadow smiled after him for a second, his cheek tingling lightly, where his lips had touched it, and warped away again.

He landed on the table in the conference room – his anxiety taking his aim off again – but he didn't care.

He turned to Rouge, who had patiently waited for his return alongside Topaz – who both knew him too well – and said, "Rouge, I want to put Omega in our home until further notice. I told Tails, that he needs a repair – can you make that convincing?"

The bat smirked. "And here I thought, that you needed something difficult. Leave it to me, I'll take care of it.," she grinned and stood up to leave the room.

When she was gone, Shadow left the table and plopped back on his chair. "I need to know everything concerning this case.," he declared. Topaz nodded. "Of course."

When Shadow warped into Kylie's office – on the ground this time – he was surprised to see Fleetway there, too. He was busy trying to build a tower out of chess figures and too concentrated to even notice his presence. "Shadow, I really hope, that this won't become a habit.," Kylie greeted him, annoyed, dividing her attention evenly between the two semes.

"I'm not too keen on standing here, either. Listen, do you know, where I can find the flying squirrel, the mouse, the girl and your son?," the agent replied. Kylie merely raised a brow, her glare asking, if he was allergic to names. "What for?," she finally asked aloud, suspiciously looking at him.

"The...incident they were involved in today might be connected with a case I'm working on right now. I need to...ask them a few questions.," Shadow formulated it as carefully as possible.

Kylie would have his head, if he ever hinted, that he would interrogate children and probably throw him out, if necessary with Fleetway's and Mephiles' help... although he doubted, that she would need them for that.

The woman stared at him with narrowed eyes. Eventually, she sighed and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper.

"Don't think I didn't hear, that you plan on interrogating them.," she mentioned calmly – far calmer, than Shadow had expected –, while writing a few lines down. "They should be all at home right now, they are probably still shaken up a bit. My advice on this: go to Ray first and to Kari and Emma last. Shy has the ugly habit to not only toss people out, but to warp them to different places around the globe as well. She can play this game pretty long, so you better tick her off last." Her tone indicated, that she already knew, that he would anger her.

Shadow was more surprised, though, that she was this cooperative – especially with her own son being one of the people he would speak with. He didn't point it out, though, as he wouldn't risk her agreement to let him meet those four.

"Here." She gave him the paper with three written lines on it. "Go out of my office and turn to the right. Then, follow the hallway to a glass door, that'll lead outside, to a couple of buildings; they are apartment-complexes. The first numbers on the paper tell you which building, they are painted on the wall facing the Shelter. The second numbers indicate the floor and the third ones the apartment-number.," the woman explained. "Thank you.," Shadow thanked her.

"Just do me a favor and don't scare them. Or in Alex' case: don't upset him. Be gentle with them.," Kylie replied.

Shadow refrained from crinkling his nose. Her saying that didn't make it easier. He already knew that.

Avoiding an answer, he warped himself on the other side of her door and went in the pointed direction, while going through the information he had been able to get so far, his body working on autopilot.

Topaz had filled him in on as much details as they currently had and even he was remotely scared by what he had learned.

The victims had been truly random people, as he had already guessed from her earlier briefing, the youngest so far had been a mobian elephant baby – and that probably just because the body contained enough blood for the picture of headless Sonic – with no connections to each other at all. As if the one responsible for this had played darts with the pages of a telephone book, watched the this way found families and then chosen the victim on a whim.

Judging by the traces found – or lack of those – none of the victims had tried to protect themselves. As the incident with Emma seemed to be connected to the other ones, he could imagine, that all victims had been unconscious, before they were killed. It seemed to be an act of mercy, but Shadow had the feeling, that this wasn't the point. It was probably to avoid resistance.

There had been sometimes collateral damage, like with Lupe and her pack, when someone had tried to stop the murderers from killing their victims, but nobody else had been slayed – and not because there hadn't been the time or opportunity.

Lupe herself had fainted due to blood loss and still survived. Her blood hadn't been touched, either, as the lab had been able to find out by testing the blood of the pictures.

That meant, that the victims had been truly chosen, but there was no way of foreseeing the next one. There was absolutely nothing, that the victims had in common – besides being dead now.

The culprits had been just as random as the victims, close family members to total strangers. Nobody had had a reason for harming any of the victims, besides a few hard feelings between family members here and there, that were all rather trivial and definitely no reason for cold blooded murder. Most of the murderers had never done anything criminal before, a few were even sworn pacifists.

The most disturbing murderer among them had been an eight year old boy, who had killed his own father. Just like the other ones, he had no memory of his doing at all – which was a blessing, at least in this case.

Shadow couldn't help, but see Tails in the boy. What would stop the one responsible for these murders from just controlling him and sending him to kill Sonic? He could sneak up on him in his sleep, no problem. Or worse, Sonic was selfless enough to just let himself get killed, if it would free his brother, probably using his last breath to ease his guilt...

He was almost too deep in thought to realize, that he had reached his first destination, until his face nearly made contact with Mighty's door. Composing himself and keeping a straight face, he knocked.

Several seconds later, Mighty opened the door, looking at him in surprise. "Hi, Shadow. Sorry, but I don't fight in my home, we'd need to move this outside.," he greeted him, already about to step out.

"I'm not here because of that.," Shadow quickly reassured him. Mighty stopped his movement of walking out and raised a brow. "Are you sure?," he asked, after a beat of silence.

Shadow couldn't help a slight flinch. How did he know, that he wanted to smash something in just to feel remotely better!?

Mighty chuckled at his face. "Ever heard the term 'Brothers in Arms'?," he asked. Shadow nodded. "That's a common term to describe the non-romantic relationship between two semes. Basically, we created a bond of a steadily deepening friendship the moment we crossed our fists. Thanks to that, I can read you quite easily now despite not knowing you that long, yet.," the strong fighter grinned.

Well, that could explain, why Shadow's instincts had had nothing against Mighty being close to Sonic...

"Does this always happen?," he wondered, because he could still not stand the guardian and they had beat each other up quite often in the past...

"Nah, if it were like this, I'd had to remember a lot of meetings for fights. No, it depends on some 'rules', but I never learned them. I just wait for them to come.," he shrugged. "So, why are you here, if not for a fight?," he then changed the topic.

"I wanted to talk with your brother.," Shadow explained and immediately saw the other's body language change, the subtle tension appearing there.

"Why?," Mighty asked, guarded. "The incident from earlier, he might have information I need.," Shadow explained.

Mighty scrutinized him. "Then you'd have nothing against me being present, would you?," he asked, his voice as sharp as his glare. It was quite obvious, that he was inclined to just slam the door into his face (literally).

"Not at all and you're welcome to kick me through your wall, if I make him cry.," Shadow replied and it took him a second to realize, that he had just made a joke. Had he ever before made one before? Not, that he could recall...

Well, it definitely calmed Mighty down and even made him chuckle. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Come on in.," he smiled and allowed the hedgehog to enter. Apparently, this 'Brothers in Arms'-relation worked both ways, seeing how fast he had changed the armadillo's mind on the matter.

The fighter led him through a hallway lined with pictures nailed to the wall in an irregular pattern and Shadow found, that the ones with a certain hue of blue caught his interest. Sonic was in a few pictures only, but always with a big, confident grin on his lips, that was usually aimed at the photographer.

One picture seemed especially interesting, as it looked rather worn and wrinkled, as if someone had held it in their hand quite often and he actually stopped for a second to look at it thoroughly. It had been taken a few years back, he presumed, seeing, that Tails and Ray seemed to be smaller in it. They stood, arms around the other's shoulder, in front of Sonic and Mighty, who looked rather beat up, dusty and bruised.

Still, Sonic showed a thumbs up – almost, as if to reassure his boyfriend, that he was fine – and had one arm slung around Mighty, who looked rather...nervous, if not plain right uncomfortable, as if he wanted to flee or at least wiggle out of the sideways-hug.

"That picture was taken the day Sonic and I had a match to see, who of us was stronger. Ended in a draw, but I guess, we both were winners. This was the day he had become my friend, and it was one of the best days in my life, you know? Back then, there weren't many, who would go close to me without fear. Sonic kind of set an example for others, that being friends with me isn't the worst decision.," Mighty explained, who had stopped as well, looking at the picture with nothing but fondness, that Shadow's instincts were totally okay with.

They went a bit further down the hallway and Mighty turned to the right to open a door leading to a small living room with little more than a couch, two armchairs, a lamp and a TV in it. Decoration was probably a waste of money, Mighty didn't appear, as if he could touch delicate stuff without having to concentrate on every simple movement.

On the couch opposite the door was Ray, wrapped in blankets and propped up against a mountain of pillows and Shadow wasn't sure, if he could even move one muscle in this cocoon. The boy looked a bit tense, when the hedgehog entered, but he relaxed, when he noticed his brother following him.

"Hello, Ray.," Shadow greeted politely, with a rather friendly smile. It helped to imagine, that there was Sonic sitting.

"H-hello... Y-you're S-Sonic's b-b-boyf-friend, r-right?," Ray stuttered nervously. "Yes, my name is Shadow. I would like to ask you a few questions about the incident with Emma earlier.," the dark hedgehog replied. It was surprisingly easy for him to stay calm and gentle. He wasn't exactly used to interrogating children.

"O-okay...," Ray replied, sitting up a bit with Mighty settling behind him and his pillow mountain on the couch and offering Shadow the armchair opposite of him. "What happened? Try to start at the beginning.," the dark furred hedgehog went on.

Ray averted his gaze and frowned, while he tried to remember. "W-we pl-played ball... E-Emma had i-it and w-wanted t-to th-throw, b-but th-then she s-suddenly... f-flinched, l-let th-the ball f-fall a-and j-just w-went off the sch-school g-grounds. K-Kari s-saw it, t-too and w-we tried t-to c-call for h-her, but sh-she didn't r-react."

He paused to rub his arms. "Sh-she was s-so f-fast...w-we could b-barely k-keep up...she cro-crossed streets, a-as i-if the-there were n-no cars at a-all... W-we f-followed h-her into that a-alley and sh-she just f-f-fell t-to the g-ground. I...I tho-thought..."

He swallowed and leaned into Mighty, when he put an arm around him comfortingly. "W-we ran t-to Em-Emma a-and sh-she was b-breathing, b-but the-then, the-these m-men...the-they j-just a-appeared a-and w-wanted t-to k-k-kill E-Emma..." He shuddered.

"Had they hidden somewhere in this alley?," Shadow asked carefully. Ray frowned. "N-no, I...I d-don't think s-so...," he stated slowly. "Th-they j-just a-appeared...o-out of th-the sh-shadows... A-Alex, he w-was just th-there, he b-beat the-them, b-but a f-few g-got me..." "It's thankfully not bad, just a few bruises. Nothing painkillers can't soothe.," Mighty added.

Shadow nodded thoughtfully. "I see, that's good to know. Did the attackers say anything? Or was something strange about them?," he asked further.

Ray frowned. "Th-they d-didn't s-say a-anything I th-think a-and I d-didn't l-look t-too c-closely...," he admitted.

"That is alright, don't worry. Was there something strange right before Emma left your school? Someone you never saw before, or someone, who watched you intensely?," Shadow went on.

The boy furrowed his brow in concentration. "I...I d-don't th-think so...," he mumbled after a minute of thinking.

"I see. If you remember something later, please let me know. Is there anything else I would need to know to get those guys, who did that?" By now, Shadow was convinced, that it was Instinct Shadow doing the interrogation. He himself was never this patient and polite...

Ray thought for a bit, before he seemed to remember something, that had him fidgeting restlessly.

"What? Ray, what's wrong?," Mighty pried, concern written all over his face. "W-well...I...I o-overh-heard s-someth-thing a wh-while b-back. B-between E-Emma a-and K-Kari a-and Sh-Shy... B-back i-in the j-jungle.," he added, when Mighty raised a brow.

"It's okay, Ray, if you think, that it's important, then you should tell us. The ones responsible for this are still out there, after all.," the armadillo encouraged.

Ray hesitated a little longer, before he nodded, determined. "O-okay. I...I w-was m-moving a-around o-our c-campsite..."

With Mighty and the girls at training, Ray had not much to do. Blush and Scythe kept their sleeping places about as clean as soldiers and Shy had threatened several times to kill the first one to try and tidy up their beds – and cleaning up his own and Mighty's beds hadn't taken more than a few minutes. It wasn't time yet to prepare lunch and they still had enough ingredients left, so collecting anything – which he was forbidden from doing alone anyway – wasn't necessary. In other words: he was bored. They had no books he didn't know by heart already and no games he could play all alone, so distractions were hard to come by.

Usually, Ray loved it to watch Mighty train and at least cheer him on (and occasionally, up), but yesterday, he had almost been hit by a rock and although it hadn't been Mighty's fault – but Blush's – the armadillo had insisted on him staying away from their training grounds, at least for the day.

Trying to find a way to entertain himself, Ray wandered aimlessly around their campsite, until he spotted Kari and Emma huddled together behind a rock at the outer perimeter of their camp.

A bit surprised, since they usually hung around Shy and were rarely alone without her supervision, the boy approached them in hopes of some games to play, but he stopped immediately, when he heard Shy's voice.

Shy, who glared at everyone, who dared to advance her sisters without her permission. So far, the flying squirrel hadn't experienced her wrath, but with Mighty a good bit away, he rather didn't take a chance there.

"Tell me again, but slowly, so I can understand you. What happens to you?," he heard Shy speak and he kind of became curious. Hidden by the rock, he listened closely, hoping, that Shy wouldn't spot his aura. He couldn't really understand this ability of hers, therefore, he was especially cautious around her.

"I die in an alley.," Emma explained as neutrally as others would talk about the weather. Kari gasped and Ray flinched at the finality of her statement.

"When?," Shy asked darkly. "A few years from now, I guess. Kari and Ray will look bigger there.," Emma explained with an audible shrug. Ray jumped at hearing his name. He was there, too!?

"And where...? Forget it, I don't want to know it. Who is the one attacking you?," Shy asked calmly. Emma stayed silent for a little bit. "...Him...," she whispered eventually. Ray's ear twitched. Him?

Kari gave a frightened whimper at that one word, while Shy growled. "Impossible. He's gone, he can't harm any of us anymore!," she hissed, as if she needed to convince her sisters of that to prevent Emma's death.

Ray found himself shivering at her harsh tone. Now he wished, that he hadn't listened in, but if he moved now, then Shy would notice him and probably turn him to a piece of coal...

"He isn't.," Emma replied, almost regretfully. "He'll be back, soon. Or...maybe he is already, I won't know. It...didn't feel, as if he's gone."

In that moment, Ray felt the rock he leaned against starting to heat up. Knowing, that this was Shy's doing, he quickly scampered off, not wanting to be close to her show of rage.

"...Th-they never s-spoke a-about it and I-I d-didn't d-dare to a-ask...," Ray finished. "Does this Emma always speak like this?," Shadow wondered, while trying to understand, just what he had learned there. She seemed to have no sense concerning time...

"Sadly, yes. Being able to peek into time has screwed up her perception of the Here and Now. Emma can't even read a clock right without a vision interfering. She can't differ between present, past and future very well. She has moments, when she can tell them apart and speaks almost normally, but most of the time, she can't.," Mighty explained. He would love to find someone to help her, but Emma's ability was unusually strong and no uke or seme he spoke with so far had felt up to the task of teaching her control.

Shadow just thought, that trying to make sense out of her answers would be a greater bitch than dealing with her guard dog of a sister.

He stood up from the armchair he had taken a seat in. "Thank you for your time, you helped me a lot. Goodbye.," he told them, nodding politely and leaving the room.

Before he had reached the front door, Mighty had switched on the TV, left the living room, closed its door and fallen into step behind him.

"Can you make sense out of this story?," Shadow asked silently, too silently for Ray to hear them above the sounds of the television.

"I'm afraid, no. Moments like this just show me, that I don't know those three as much as I would like to.," Mighty sighed in frustration.

"I know hardly anything about them. But, their reaction to this mysterious 'him' isn't that alien to me. Kari and Emma...they had always seemed jumpy, especially around me. I just had to call one of their names and they flinched and acted, as if I was threatening them, Kari even bolted more than once, when I spoke to her, claiming it to be 'a reflex'. And whenever I had approached one of them or Shy at first, they had looked...honestly, I can't tell, how they had looked. Worried? Scared? Something along those lines. I experienced fear in people before, when they met me, but this was completely new to me.

It took ages to get them to trust me enough to relax or let me help them. Like Ray already said, they always clung to Shy, acting, as if she was their only chance for surviving in a dangerous world. As if nobody else on the whole planet could do that. The funny thing is, that, when Shy tried to get some space between her and the two girls, they stayed closer than ever to her – and when the little ones actually tried to be independent, Shy held them crushingly to her side."

Mighty had rounded the hedgehog by now and had reached the front door, but hesitated to open it, having his back to Shadow.

The agent wasn't too keen on going, yet, too. These girls seemed to know more about what happened today and kept happening since a while now – and Shadow was intent on trying to get any kind of information he could. "What about this Shy? How did she appear around you at first?," he asked.

"The total opposite, really. As long as it took me to gain the trust of her sisters, as easy was it to gain hers. Even now, years later, the trust and the distrust they showed towards me and Ray and later Blush and Scythe were in retrospect always...too much. As if they hadn't have that much reason to trust anyone before we met and once we had passed some kind of unofficial, indistinguishable test, we were promoted to the rank of 'trustworthy' and everything was just...okay. Of course, Shy can see auras, she can assess your whole soul in one glimpse, so finding out, if anyone's a threat or not is easy for her. Still...when she saw me, she seemed a bit...too glad. As if I was the solution to all of her problems."

He stopped and grimaced, not that Shadow could see that. "Okay, that was probably a bit overboard. Anyway, she trusted me practically from minute one, not even my powers – and I hardly had any control over them back then – could scare her. ...Not any of them, in fact, now, that I think about it. If anything, watching me lift humongous trees and rocks made them trust me easier, as if they were used to seeing this. I remember Ray asking them about that once and they avoided the poor guy for three days straight, until he apologized for asking in the first place and swore to never bring this topic up."

"And how did they react to the other two of your group?," Shadow inquired. He needed every piece of information he could get right now about those girls, his instincts told him that much, as if finding pieces of a puzzle, that he had to solve.

"Scythe and Blush?" Mighty turned around, leaned against the door and furrowed his hairless brow in thought.

"Well, I met Blush a few months after meeting Shy and her sisters, when she was in the process of trying to kill her latest target, a drug baron. He was a rhinoceros mobian – hard skinned and almost as strong as me. He had lured Blush in the jungle, where her large wings can't maneuver that well and attempted to crush her. The noise of the battle let me take a closer look and he was just in the process of trying to plow Blush over. No idea, if he would have succeeded in ramming her with her fast reflexes and all, but I didn't know about them back then and wasn't taking any chances. I sent the asshole on his back, before he could actually touch her. The rest was child's play for Blush and she had killed him in seconds. I was shocked, how cold-blooded she was, killing another person and even chopping off his head as a proof for her job being done. She told me, that I could take the body for myself, like some kind of a trophy, and that she owed me. She just took off after saying this and I didn't think, that I would see her again, so I told the others about her. Two days later, she and Shy were at each other's throats. Apparently, this 'owing me' included, that Blush would join me and, by default, Ray and the three girls, too from that moment on.

The first months were pure hell. Shy and Blush had at least three fights a day; I don't know, how often Shy accused her of being 'too close to her sisters'. And every time Blush mentioned, that they weren't actual sisters, Shy was on the verge of burning down a good part of the jungle."

"What changed it?," Shadow asked. Mighty chuckled briefly. "Emma did, actually. And until now, I don't know, how this simple question could change their entire relationship this drastically. Emma approached Blush and asked her in front of all of us, 'Do you enjoy killing?'. And Blush's answer was 'Of course not'. And bam! – they were friends. No more fights, no more hostility, just peace and love. Blush and Shy became inseparable in less than a week."

"This fast? How?," the hedgehog asked. Mighty grimaced. "Personally, I think it's a girl-thing. The same repeated itself a good three months later, when we found Scythe, halfway starved and seriously poisoned from eating the wrong berries. Shy insisted on letting her die and she and Blush almost started another war about it. When Blush accused her of being a 'cold-hearted bitch', she disappeared for two full days, leaving her sisters in our care. She had never done this before, so I was pretty worried she wouldn't return. Her sisters seemed to understand her need for distance, although... Kari was scared out of her mind the whole time, thought, that she would die on her own, while Emma already knew, that she wouldn't and stayed calmer than all of us combined.

When Shy returned, Scythe had already recovered, but since she owed us one, she stayed around. She didn't share our campsite and hardly stayed in our reach, but we all knew, that she wasn't far from us. When she came too close, Shy immediately started to battle her. It didn't bother Scythe, I think she even enjoyed it. That became kind of routine for six weeks or so. Then, there was this day, when one of Shy's and Scythe's battles actually caught Kari in their middle. Shy had pushed Scythe through a tree and she had landed next to the younger. It was a good thing, too, because the tree would have crushed Kari under itself, if Scythe hadn't turned into a big wolf and put herself protectively over her. After that, Shy didn't start fights with Scythe anymore and a few days after this incident with the tree, she officially invited Scythe to stay with us. And just like with Blush before, they became best friends in a matter of days."

Shadow crossed his arms, while he thought, hard. "This Blush is an assassin, correct?," he asked slowly. "Yeah. Her sisters, too. Why?" "What about Scythe?," Shadow asked further, ignoring the question.

Mighty frowned. "Well, Scythe isn't an assassin, but I learned quickly, that she doesn't have that many...problems... with drawing blood and she had probably killed already, before we met her. And definitely afterwards."

"And you?," Shadow asked. A strange look crossed the armadillo's face. "...What about me?," he asked, distrust in his features.

"Did you ever kill?," Shadow clarified, not even batting an eye, when a fist rushed past his face and buried in the wall behind him, or at the face, that was suddenly so close to him, that their noses touched painfully.

"Listen closely.," he hissed, his voice shaking with anger. "Just because I have this strength since I can remember, doesn't mean, that I go around and kill people on a whim or because they go on my nerves. It took me a lot of work to be, where I am now and I never killed, unless it was absolutely necessary. So yes, I killed, but I regret each and every single one of the lives I took and I would give the world to change the past and undo what I did."

Shadow met the enraged blue eyes calmly. "Thank you for being honest with me. I didn't know, that we had that much in common."

The anger vanished out of the armadillo's eyes. "What?," he breathed. "I killed, too. To fulfill an assignment, to protect Sonic. I regret, that I killed people because Towers ordered me to and some of those I killed to protect Sonic probably didn't deserve death.," Shadow confessed.

His glare darkened. "Except for this Perringten. He deserved everything we did to him – and more.," he growled.

Mighty smirked. "I'm with you there.," he replied and pulled his fist out of the wall. "Sorry about that.," he apologized remorsefully, taking a step back.

"No harm done...to me.," Shadow added, seeing the more-than-a-fist-sized hole behind him. "There had been times, when I would have pulverized the whole wall.," the armadillo mumbled, a little proud of his restraint, although it still needed some training.

"Impressive.," Shadow nodded, making Mighty smile. "Why were you asking these questions anyway?," the strong mobian inquired, while brushing off debris and dust from his glove. "I'm thinking about this girl, Shy. I'm not too familiar with the seeing of auras, but I can imagine, that she can identify, if someone had killed already and how he or she feels about it."

"Hm, it could be. She mentioned once, that she can see people's lives in the auras like a vitae... But how would she know...?," Mighty trailed off, when he realized, what the only two options of how Shy could know the exact appearance of these particular auras were: one, she had been around someone, who had killed and (not) enjoyed it, before – or two: she saw this aura each day in the mirror. Who was this girl?

"Does she enjoy killing?," Shadow asked. Mighty immediately looked, as if he wanted to object, but then he paused, staring at the floor in thought. "...It depends, I'd say. Whenever a predator was close, Shy was usually the one to kill it, so it wouldn't hurt the kids. She only stopped with that, when Scythe joined and her scent naturally kept most animals away. Her swift killing seemed ideal for hunting the meat-part of our meals so I took her with me, but she couldn't bring herself to kill our prey, I always had to do this. After she and Blush became friends, she left this completely to her and me and later Scythe."

"And people?," Shadow went on. Mighty grimaced. "Well, if it's a human, Shy is... more inclined... to cause damage, but she usually has a 'try to hurt me or my friends and family and I'll hurt you far worse'-attitude. When she can, she avoids killing. Blush and Scythe rather take the easy way of just killing an obstacle." Thoughtful silence followed this statement.

Eventually opening the door for his visitor, since Mighty figured, that their talk was over – and he had a lot of things on his mind now, too –, the armadillo looked at the agent, nothing but seriousness in his face. "Can you keep me updated?," he asked bluntly, getting straight to the point.

"You know, that I can't do this. I'm an agent of GUN.," Shadow declined automatically, too used to the request.

"I'm not asking for details. But if this asshole is still after my family..." Mighty paused to swallow around a growl. "Do you know, how many of Emma's predictions, independent from their content, came true?," he asked, before answering his own question flatly: "All of them."

Shadow's eyes widened a fraction. She foresaw her own death and lived. But if her visions were always coming true, then...how did she still live? "...I'd just like to know, if Emma is off the hook, or not.," Mighty amended softly.

Shadow knew, that Emma was the only one to escape the mysterious attacker so far and that would inevitably make her the potential next attack's victim, if only, because fate wanted to settle a debt.

The expression on Mighty's face told him, though, that the girl would have a lot more shadows than her own in the near future. He just wanted to know, if he knew of any attack in advance and be warned.

"...I'll keep you informed.," he eventually promised. Mighty smiled at him. "Thank you. And if you need anything, you know, where to find me."

Too soon for his liking, Shadow stood in front of Kylie's apartment. He didn't look forward to meeting the irritating teen again, but he had probably more information about the incident from earlier, than the three younger kids combined.

Steeling himself, he knocked. For a few minutes, nothing happened and just when he wanted to knock again, the door opened a tiny bit, before being pulled slowly open and he was met with a tired looking Hope, rubbing her eyes.

She blinked slowly at their visitor, before gradually freezing in her movements, while she woke up fully and recognized the one standing in front of her. At once, she clung to the door, hugging the piece of wood painfully close to her chest.

"Mama's my mama!," she hissed, her quills raising defensively and it took Shadow a good minute to figure out, that she expected him to drag her off to...well, neither he nor Hope knew, to where exactly he could drag her, but the girl wasn't taking any chances.

"Hope?," Vanessa questioned and he heard her come closer. Great. This day just got better...not.

A mere second later, the human girl had reached her younger sister and, looking in the direction she did, too, she paled, quickly shoving herself between the two mobians, blocking Hope with her body from view. "ALEX, COME QUICK! THE EVIL HEDGEHOG IS HERE!," she screamed, making Shadow wince, despite the surprise he felt: since when was he 'evil'?

"The what is here?," he heard Alex ask and his slow footfalls drew closer, before he stood in the frame as well, staring down on the agent. His eyes looked a little glazed, he had apparently taken a painkiller after he had been patched up. His gaze hardened immediately, though, when he recognized the hedgehog.

"You.," he growled, before looking to his sisters, who were cowering behind him, Vanessa still shielding Hope. "Didn't we say for you two not to open the door on your own?," he asked accusingly.

"I...nobody heard the door, so I went to open it...," Hope explained meekly. The teen sighed. "Next time, get me or Mama right away, okay?," he replied and gently ushered them away, before leaning into the door frame.

"What do you want?," he asked, his icy tone a strong contrast to the gentle one he had used towards his sisters.

"I want to ask a few questions about what happened earlier, with Emma.," Shadow replied, his tone dripping with disdain. Alex wasn't the only one willing to end this talk right now.

"Oh, so this is an official visit, huh?," he asked mockingly. "And judging by your intact fur, you haven't dared to visit Emma and Kari, yet. Scared?," he added with a smirk.

Shadow's brow twitched, but otherwise, he stayed calm. "Actually, your mother told me to come here first.," he replied coolly.

Alex' smirk slowly vanished and he grimaced. "Figures. Sold out by the own mother. That's her revenge for what I did to this Towers, huh? Fine. My room. You have five minutes.," he grumbled and moved to let Shadow in, throwing the door shut behind them with unnecessary force, before marching down the hallway to a dark room, whose door was open.

Entering it, Shadow saw, that the curtains had been drawn shut, but if it was because of a headache or because of the switched on desk lamp, that wouldn't work properly in daylight, or both, he couldn't tell.

In the twilight, he could make out a neatly made bed next to a couch with a television in front of it as well as a bookshelf.

Behind him, Alex closed the door – carefuller than the front door – plunging them in near-darkness with only the desk lamp providing a little light, before he walked over to his desk, shoving a few papers under a larger book, plopping on his chair and swiveling it so he could look at Shadow, not offering him a seat, which suited the other just fine. "Your five minutes started.," he told him dully.

"Tell me, what you remember of this incident.," Shadow immediately requested. "Fine. I was bored, sitting in class. Math, kinda lame, when you understood it. I looked out of the window for some distraction and saw a speck of orange, moving down the street. Didn't take me long to get, that this was Emma."

"How could you do that, if it was such a distance?," Shadow asked, when he paused. Alex shrugged. "After a while, you just automatically recognize the people your sisters surround themselves with. You know, to avoid embarrassing incidents. Besides, Emma totally loves orange for whatever reason, she only wears that color.

Anyway, as I said earlier, she got almost run over and didn't react at all to it while I still watched and then I knew, that something was wrong and I ran after her. When I came outside, I spotted Ray and Kari running past me and I could figure, that they wouldn't run around there for nothing. I followed them and we saw Emma collapsing in this alley with those thugs just coming out... of nowhere, I guess. They all had iron clubs and things like that in their hands and they had their eyes fixed on Emma. It wasn't difficult to figure out, what they wanted to do, so I told Kari and Ray to protect her and then went to attack them. Everything to keep them away from the kids."

"You didn't try to talk with them?," Shadow questioned. He wasn't surprised, that Ray hadn't tried that. As fearful as the boy was, his instincts had probably dictated, that he concentrated on protecting himself – and Emma by default, as he had held her close. But humans talked with their attacker, didn't they? To try and ward off the attack, before it actually happened?

Alex' face darkened. "I would have tried it, if it hadn't looked so pointless. Those guys didn't react to anything. They had such an empty look in their eyes and moved like they were on drugs. I figured, that trying to snap them out of it would do the trick. And, well, it did. A good punch in the face and they were back to normal. Sadly, some got to Kari and Ray after all."

He paused and looked up. "Is Ray okay? He left the hospital wing, before I was done...," he trailed off.

"Just a few bruises.," Shadow answered easily, repeating Mighty's words, which relaxed Alex. "Good. I hope, Kari isn't that much worse off.," he sighed in relief.

"You tried to question the men after they were normal, correct?," Shadow went on. Alex grimaced. "Yeah. Should have just left with the little ones, that would have been just as effective. The men didn't remember a thing. One even puked because he had my blood on the bar he held.," Alex shook his head with a sigh.

"Was there anything special about them, besides what you told me already?," Shadow inquired.

Strangely, Alex didn't answer right away. He seemed to hesitate, just for a second, before he found his old resolve again, but for someone as observant as Shadow, such a minuscule pause stuck out like a sore thumb.

"No.," he answered strongly, but the mobian wasn't fooled. "What are you keeping from me?," Shadow demanded.

Alex looked away. "A lot. In case you haven't noticed it, I don't like you.," he growled defiantly.

"And why is that? Just because I think, that it is unusual to adopt a mobian as a human?," Shadow questioned.

He had thought about it and that seemed to be the only problem he could imagine the boy had with him. They had never met before yesterday and only seen each other trice – once in the foyer, in Kylie's office and then once more in the foyer and he hadn't been able to stand him during the second meeting already.

It hadn't bothered him, he was used to hatred and before Sonic, he had never tried to be nice to get someone to like him. He had accepted Rouge, because she had never hated him or been afraid of him in the first place, but never really bent around himself to keep her close. Rouge had chosen herself to like him despite his character, just like Sonic, while the rest of the world had chosen to hate him. That was alright.

But if this feeling stood between him and possibly valuable information, then something needed to be done. Now!

Alex snorted. "Replace 'unusual' with 'sin', 'unnatural' or 'outrageous' and you sound exactly like him.," he sneered.

"Who?," Shadow asked, surprised by the sudden admission. He didn't mean the 'he' Emma had been talking about, did he?

"My so called 'father'!," the teen growled. "Ah.," Shadow breathed, a bit disappointed, that this wasn't helping him, but listening nonetheless.

"This asshole tried to crawl back to Mom after he dumped her, until he realized, that she planned to adopt Hope. Then he turned away from her completely and tried to fill our heads with how much of a freak she was and all that. I got Van and me out of there as soon as possible, but when he got to Mom, Hope was also there and I..."

He interrupted himself, clamping his jaws shut, only now realizing, just whom he had poured his heart out.

"What are you saying?," Shadow couldn't help, but ask. He couldn't imagine, what he wanted to say...or not.

"I...I really hated her. For a whole week, I just resented her for taking over my mother and my sister. They had only eyes for her and I was so angry, but... Chaos, she was a baby! Had just learned in fast forward to speak and walk and was totally overwhelmed, of course she needed the attention and to be watched over! But I just felt so...jealous. I hated her, wanted her gone... I...became like this asshole."

Shadow frowned at the distraught boy, who seemed hardly aware of his presence anymore. Why did this sound so familiar?

Suddenly, the teenager was replaced by a blonde girl in a blue dress in his mind's eye, looking guiltily down as well and he remembered.

"You're wrong.," he spoke slowly, thoughtfully. "It's perfectly normal for siblings to feel jealous. That wasn't hatred. I would know it, I know, what hatred feels and sounds like."

"And how would you know about jealousy between siblings?," Alex growled, while quickly wiping his eyes.

"You read my file, so you read also about the girl I was created for?," Shadow asked back, not faltering.

Alex froze in his movement and slowly let his arm fall, frowning in thought. "Do you mean Maria Robotnik? Yes, I read about her. She was sick, wasn't she? And you were meant to cure her somehow. What about it?," he questioned.

"Maria's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, was my creator. After I had come to life, Dr. Robotnik kept performing tests on me. They were consuming several hours, sometimes a day or more in a row and he spent less and less time with Maria and she hated me for taking her only relative in reach away from her. I can't say, that I was aware of her feelings and when, eventually, her grandfather explained to her, why I was created, she saw me in a different light. The hatred became mere jealousy and eventually, she apologized to me for it. Up until then, I hadn't even noticed, how she was feeling about me. I asked her about it and she explained to me, that she felt jealous about her... 'little brother'."

Shadow stopped talking with a strange noise at the end. Never before had those words touched him that much. Then again...

"I'm the first one you told that, huh?," Alex asked, his voice far gentler than whenever he had talked with Shadow before. It seemed, as if the wall between them was crumbling.

"Yes.," Shadow admitted. It was true, he hadn't thought about this incident – or Maria in general – in ages and Sonic had never asked too many questions about his past, waiting for him to open up on his own, as he understood, that he didn't have many nice memories to share and needed time to talk about the bad ones.

"...Thanks for the trust in me, I guess...," Alex mumbled, the atmosphere becoming rather awkward.

He swiveled a bit left and right on his chair for a minute, thinking, before he turned to his desk and started to dig through the papers on it.

"There's really one thing I haven't told you, yet. I just thought, that nobody would believe me this.," he mumbled, while comparing papers in his hands. "As it stands now, I'm open for everything.," the agent explained.

Alex snorted. "Prepare yourself, then, because I have no idea, if I really saw this, or if I got too many hits in the head.," he replied, before finally finding, what he had been looking for.

He turned to Shadow, holding a piece of paper. "While fighting these men, I saw...some kind of red, glowing symbol on them. Never in the same place, always somewhere else, but also always the same symbol. When they were back to normal, the symbols had kind of disappeared. Some weren't hidden by clothing, but even those were gone and when I asked them, they all said, that they didn't have tattoos, or well, some did, one or two, but not this one."

He held out the paper. On it was a – quite good – drawing of a tree without leaves, around whose trunk a huge human hand was wrapped. It looked, as if it was in the process of ripping out the whole thing.

"Have you seen this symbol somewhere already?," Shadow asked. "No?," Alex answered, surprised by the question.

"Then I can safely assume, that you haven't imagined it.," Shadow explained, taking the paper and studying it. It didn't seem familiar to him, either.

He looked up, when he heard Alex chuckle. "You know, my father wouldn't have believed it, at all. Thanks. And...sorry, for how I was earlier. I try to be nicer next time we see each other.," he sighed.

Shadow felt a small smile on his face upon this. "I'm used to hatred. But you are the first one to actually apologize for it."

Alex blushed and cleared his throat. "Er...Emma's next, right? Just er...try to get Shy out of the way. Tell her to get something from Mom, that usually works – and Mom knows the drill. She'll give you between three to five minutes, maybe less. Use it; Emma and Kari are always closed up, but they are even worse, when Shy is around.," the teen explained, apparently embarrassed and unsure how to handle the situation.

Not wanting to risk the fragile relationship they had just formed, Shadow thanked him, said his goodbyes and quickly warped outside the apartment-complexes.

Before making his way to his third destination, he called Rouge, who answered almost immediately. "Shadow, hey. Look, I know I'm amazing and all, but the guys aren't, they need more time with Omega.," she greeted him.

For a second, Shadow wanted to ask her, what she meant, but then he remembered. Right, his trick to get Omega into his home. He had been almost too occupied with this case to think about anything else.

Thankfully, Rouge was, despite her behavior sometimes, pretty reliable and ALWAYS got the job done somehow. Well, time to give her one more, then.

"Here." He showed her the picture Alex gave him, making sure to keep it at a distance, so Rouge could see it fully. "I need you to find every information you can get about this image. It is most likely connected to the case. Also, ask Lupe and her pack about it, if they're still there.," he requested, holding the picture as steady as he could, allowing Rouge to make a screenshot of it.

"Well, it's not like they can return to their caves, can they? They'll stay in a hotel for a while, courtesy of Topaz. Anyway, leave it to me, I'll ask them and go through GUN's archives to try and find something.," the bat reassured.

"Thanks a lot.," Shadow thanked her and ended the connection, before she could joke about his sudden politeness, although he wasn't so sure, if she would – Rouge knew, that there were only three occasions, when he was polite: stress, to please Sonic or to show respect without making it too obvious and he and Rouge were above the latter stage. Shaking his head, he made his way to his third destination.

The first thing Shadow noticed, when he entered the hallway with the girls' apartment, was the coldness. Although the sun burnt down on the buildings, this particular hallway seemed to belong to the polar regions.

Reaching the third apartment Kylie had pointed out on her note, he was surprised to see a hedgehog at the door, trying in vain to unlock it. He had orange fur, yellow eyes and his quills were fawned out and short. For whatever reason, he had, besides his dark green boots and dark blue gloves, a scarf wrapped around his neck. It seemed, as if he had known somehow, that he would need it here.

"Come on, come on!," he heard him mumble, while trying to slide a key into the lock, but it seemed to be blocked, as he appeared stuck not even an inch in it, unable to push further into it.

Finally giving up, he banged against the door. "Shy? It's me, Conner! You froze the lock again! Hello? Girls!," he shouted, before leaning his forehead against the door with a sigh. "Come on, I'm worried.," he whispered desperately.

His ear twitched and he turned around to see Shadow watching him, which had him gasp and stumble back against the door frame. "Don't do that, please, sir! I scare easily!," he whimpered more than he said it, a hand over his obviously thrumming heart.

Before Shadow could even begin to answer, the door got ripped open, Shy appeared in its frame, looking just like she had hours before, grabbing Conner's arm and hauling him inside, before stepping out and slamming the door shut.

"What do you want?," she asked coldly, the temperature dropping more, while she spoke and Shadow felt a thin layer of ice clinging to his fur and spreading, but he never broke eye contact. The teen tried to intimidate him, but he and his instinct-side were working close together on this and refused to back down. "I would like to talk with your sisters. I was entrusted with a case, that is most likely related to the events of today.," he answered with a professional voice.

Shy narrowed her eyes. "Even if you were the last person in the world, who would try to solve this 'case' – the answer's 'no'. Now, are you going to remove yourself, or do I have to help you?," she asked, still coldly and an unspoken threat weaved into her words.

Suddenly, the door opened again, causing Shy to almost fall over, but she managed to catch herself. Whipping around, she glared down on Conner, who smiled sheepishly up to her. "Sorry to interrupt, but Kylie just called. There is an uke missing and, well, Scythe is busy and Blush has trouble with tracking him, so-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'm going, no need to chew off my ear.," Shy interrupted him and turned around to Shadow. "And you: GET LOST!"

A blinding light lit up the hallway and suddenly, Shadow was whipped by wind. Opening his eyes, that he had been forced to close, when the light had become too bright, he found himself on a rock surrounded by an ocean on all sides, but his senses told him, that the city he had been in before wasn't too far away.

This had to be, what Kylie and Alex had warned him about. Not letting this stop him, though, he just returned to where he had been before using Chaos Control, coming face to face with Conner, who smiled softly, while continuing with taking off his scarf, that was already halfway off.

"Welcome back.," he greeted, not surprised at all to see him again this soon. "Shy did already leave and I would like to apologize in her stead. She always gets very protective over her sisters, especially, when she hadn't been able to protect them in the first place. Please, come in – and I advice you to hurry. I'm not sure, how long she'll need to learn, that there is no missing uke." With that, he stepped aside to let him in.

"There isn't?," Shadow asked, surprised. "Not as far as I am concerned, no. Kylie and I have made this and several other excuses up for cases, that require Shy's absence. You have no idea, how difficult doctor appointments are otherwise. I know she means well, but some shots are just necessary, even if she thinks differently.," Conner explained, while leading him through the surprisingly warm hallway deeper into the apartment.

Opening a door, he stepped directly into the bedroom of the girls. Although the apartment seemed to be big enough for separate bedrooms, the trio apparently shared one room.

Three beds were standing next to each other in the far away corner with the one against the wall under a window and all beds as close as possible to each other, which required the occupants of the two inner beds to crawl on them from the foot ending. Shadow couldn't see any kind of furniture besides the beds, there wasn't even something, that could be seen as decoration. Just a bland room with empty walls and three too clean and colorless beds. For some reason, Shadow had the impression of standing in a roomier prison cell, meant for three people.

A few moments after entering, he noticed the eyes on him. On the bed against the wall sat Emma, bathed, dry and in a clean orange dress, playing with dolls, that she held suspended in her hands.

Kari was on the one next to her, her damp hair wrapped in a towel, patched up and wearing a dark blue night gown, although it wasn't even afternoon, yet. An open book lay in her lap and she stared at the two hedgehogs with wide eyes.

"...Connie?," she questioned and Shadow looked to the side to see Conner grimace and sigh, turning to him. "An embarrassing nickname I can't seem to shake off.," he explained, blushing.

Turning to the girls, he said, "This is an agent of GUN, he wants to talk with you about something."

Kari became immediately nervous at that, fidgeting uneasily and averting her eyes. She closed the book silently without putting any kind of mark in it and turned it to press it like a shield against her chest, as if she expected a blow to her chest or heart.

Shadow frowned. No kid was ever happy to see GUN-agents, they were often used as threats for naughty children, but her amount of fear seemed too much for normal standards. He started to understand, what Mighty had meant earlier – their reactions were really out of proportion.

"I won't ever remember, what happened to me. I won't see anybody suspicious before my memory stopped working. I'm glad, that Ray is okay. And Alex will be fine in a few weeks, no scars. Happy healed him later.," Emma reported neutrally, returning to playing with her dolls.

"Was there anything remarkable about this attack?," Shadow asked Kari, who looked jealously at her sister for foreseeing all the questions and cutting the interrogation for her short – honestly, Shadow didn't know, what else he could ask the girl, who seemed to know his questions before he could think them – but finally answered, "No, sir, I don't think so. I...I just didn't want the men to reach Emma and Ray."

"They hurt you so bad.," Emma mumbled unexpectedly, the dolls now lying on the bed as she stared them down.

"It's okay. I'll heal.," Kari quickly told her, her tone ordering her silently to shut up. "I don't want you to heal. Why do you have to be hurt and to heal? It's not fair. Why will they always hurt you?," the mouse growled, going on without heeding her sister's request and not looking up, as if she was talking to her dolls.

"Emma, quiet!," Kari snapped, unnecessarily harshly, now getting direct, and the younger girl complied, biting her lip and hugging her dolls, shrinking into herself.

"Sorry.," Kari addressed Shadow with a formal, neutral voice. "Emma lives too much in the past sometimes." She spoke that last sentence with a slight growl in her voice, clearly a reprimand for her sister, who didn't meet her eyes.

The male had the feeling, that they were both talking about something else than just the attack a few hours ago.

Before he could think about asking further, though, a cold white light shone behind him and he didn't need to turn around to know, that Shy was standing in the hallway.

"Connie, didn't take you for a traitor.," the teen greeted coldly, while entering the room, pushing both hedgehogs to the side in the process, whirling around and placing herself between the males and her sisters.

"Come on, I thought at least you would call me by my real name!," the uke whined, unconcerned by her death glare.

"See it as punishment for letting strangers into our four walls, Con-Con.," Shy replied, adding the nickname with an almost sickeningly sweet voice, making the orange furred hedgehog – and inwardly the other, too – cringe.

"And you – better get the hell out of here, or I'll have to hurt you.," she threatened, as she turned to Shadow.

"One last question and I'll leave. Have you ever seen this symbol before?," the dark agent insisted and unfolded the piece of paper he got from Alex, showing it to them.

The reaction was instant. Kari gasped and scrambled to push herself against the headboard of her bed, as if trying to disappear through the wall behind her, the book in her arms squeezed so tightly, that the hard cover bent.

Emma let her dolls fall, quickly crawled over to Kari and buried her face in her side, whimpering. The older girl was too scared herself to acknowledge her behavior at all.

Shy's face became first pale, her eyes wide in fear, before abruptly narrowing to an expression of pure rage, distorting her features to a hateful mask.

"Shy, d-!," Conner tried to stop her, but the girl ignored him. Her hair started to dance in an unnoticeable breeze, that turned stronger and stronger, while a strange, cold Chaos Energy began to seep out of her like a poisonous, invisible fog. It reminded Shadow of his more intense run-ins with Mephiles. She was apparently preparing something.

Just as he thought that, her shadow came to life, rose from the ground and split in countless, thin and deep black stripes, that wrapped around him and the girl, creating a sphere in the blink of an eye, that plunged them both in total, thick darkness.

The absence of light and fresh air didn't bother the dark hedgehog too much, he could work with both. The problem was this dark Chaos Energy, that soaked the sphere and was trying to eat away at him.

The same feeling – just in weaker intensity – always tried to creep into him during fights with Mephiles. The demonic being let his very own Chaos Energy loose in his surroundings mostly to make sure, that he didn't get overwhelmed by sunlight during battles. At least that was, what Shadow figured. He had no idea, if that was the real reason, but he had noticed, that Mephiles fought a little different during daytime encounters than in their nightly matches. During those fights, he had usually only felt a slight chill in his bones, sometimes nausea, but otherwise, he had been fine and had been able to fight like always.

This here was worse. It felt like hundreds of tiny, red-hot needles poking his body all at once, intent on pinning him down, making him weigh tons suddenly, as if the gravity itself was turning on him.

He tried to warp out of the trap, but the energy flared up to block his attempts each time without failing. To make it worse, he felt himself sinking into the thick darkness, as if he stood in a bottomless swamp. Not even his arms were spared, the blackness latching to them, making it harder and harder to move.

"What do you know of this symbol?," a voice hissed, seemingly coming from anywhere and nowhere, and it took Shadow a bit to realize, that this was still Shy. Despite his enhanced vision, he couldn't see the girl, much less smell, feel or hear her, as if she had become a ghost. Was she outside this "room"? Or just behind or even in front of him? He couldn't tell.

"Nothing.," he eventually replied earnestly, just speaking with the air, until he would find the teen.

"LIAR!," the voice roared, almost deafening him and he suddenly felt something ice cold penetrate his body from behind, on the level of his abdomen, making him gasp. Seemed, as if she had indeed been behind him.

Nervously, Conner watched the hovering, ink-black sphere in the middle of the bedroom, that contained Shy and the agent and that was too quiet for his comfort. So far, not the slightest peep had made its way outside.

"What's going on in there?," he mumbled, more to himself, than to the girls still on Kari's bed.

"She killed.," Emma's far too neutral voice rang out and he turned around to see her sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the sphere, as if it was a television. Kari still sat curled up against the headboard, her eyes clenched shut tightly.

"...What did you just say?," Conner asked the young girl. "Shy killed.," the girl answered easily. "She killed, right now. He doesn't survive scaring us like that." Usually, Conner could take it, that Emma confused the grammatical tenses. But right now, he wished, she wouldn't do this. He just didn't understand, what was going on in there. Still... "Shy isn't like that. She doesn't kill.," he told Emma. Okay, she almost killed this Stance on the Island, but that had been her dark side...that had been on the verge of taking over, when he had seen her last. Oh, Chaos...

"Shy kills so many.," Emma shrugged, uncaringly. "What are you saying there, Em?," Conner asked, feeling something cold coil in his stomach.

"You understood her wrong.," Kari whispered at once, her eyes now open, but averted. "This was in the past. Shy isn't like that anymore. Please, don't hate her."

Conner just blinked at the girls, who, for the first time since he knew them, appeared rather scary to him.

"I...I don't hate her. But we need to stop her, before she does something she regrets.," he finally said and turned back to the sphere, praying internally, that he just imagined Kari's whispered answer of 'Too late' behind him.

The icicle penetrating his abdomen didn't even begin to melt, despite all the blood and warm tissue surrounding and pouring on it.

Shy, wherever she was, kept it on a constant temperature...and probably even colder, as he was feeling, how his insides turned gradually colder and seemed to freeze slowly.

"Who showed you this picture? Where did you get it? Answer me!," Shy's voice echoed across the room, but Shadow stayed stubbornly silent, only hissing, when smaller icicles grew out of the big one inside him, injuring him more.

If only he could find the girl and teach her a few things about how to interrogate people – but he had still no idea, where she was. For all he knew, she could stand outside already and just let her voice filter in.

"Pathetic.," a new voice suddenly said and Shadow had the feeling to be wrapped into something for a moment, before being placed rather gently on rough stone, that definitely didn't exist in the apartment. The icicle was still embedded in him, but now unusually quickly melting.

"She is quite a nuisance, wouldn't you agree?," a silky voice, the same as before, asked, a little away from him.

Shadow strained to turn his head towards the person, but pain shot through his body the second he tried.

"I wouldn't move for a while.," Mephiles stated with an audible shrug, not sounding caring at all.

"Where-?," A mouthful of blood cut him off and he turned his head painfully to the side to spit the amount out.

"A hiding place of mine, far away from the little witch's reach. It will take her a bit to find this location, hopefully.," Mephiles explained and added thoughtfully.

"Why-?" Shadow was cut off by his own body again. The icicle had reduced greatly in size and his insides weren't frozen anymore either, so he spat out thinned blood now, which didn't make matters much better, though. "Why did she attack you? Who knows. She's a little crazy, if you ask me."

"No...why...did you...help me?," Shadow managed to bring out, feeling the inner bleedings cease, although he still spat blood and water now and then.

"Why? Huh. Honestly, I don't know. I smelt your blood in the air and thought I needed to come. I have the feeling, though, that those damned instincts are at fault.," he ended with dread in his voice.

Shadow frowned. If he understood that right, then Mephiles had felt inclined to help him, because he was Sonic's – an Alpha's – mate. It was his duty as part of the colony to keep the Alphas safe, just like they protected their colony. Well, it was a good thing, he presumed, even if he would have liked nicer company...and probably would never hear the end of it.

Feeling much better and healed, he finally sat up, looking around. The wound in his stomach and back was closed and a few twinges told him, that his inner organs were on the mend as well.

They were in some kind of cave tunnel, that stretched on in both directions, illuminated by some indirect, weak blue light, that came from the two ends of the tunnel.

Thanks to his night vision, he didn't need more to make out Mephiles, sitting on a lone rock, showing him his profile with his arms and legs crossed.

"So, mind telling me, why the crazy teen wanted to gut you? Not, that I don't share the sentiment, I'm just curious.," the dark being added pleasantly.

Shadow straightened a bit and carefully smoothed out the crumpled paper he had held in his hand the whole time.

"Apparently, it has something to do with this picture.," he explained, not caring right now, how confidential this piece of information was.

Mephiles wasn't exactly someone, who would even give away the time of the day, unless trying to impress Silver, so information was generally safe with him.

"Hm..." Mephiles disappeared seemingly, just to appear in front of Shadow again, staring at the picture in concentration.

"Have you seen this somewhere already?," Shadow asked, noticing the sudden thoughtful expression on the face of the other.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. On one hand, I have never before seen it, I could swear every oath on it. On the other hand, it does look familiar. Hm...maybe I didn't remove a memory properly.," he mused.

"You... remove your own memories?," Shadow asked, speechless, both, because of the fact and because Mephiles seemed to be completely honest and civil with him for once.

Mephiles snorted. "Don't tell me, that you haven't figured that out, yet. If I can change someone else's memory – why not my own? I often remove small bits of my memory, that I don't need anymore, mostly, because the information is outdated. Being immortal makes this necessary, or my brain wouldn't be able to keep all those memories, I would forget them. While there are truly unimportant bits, like the attitudes of the ones I killed before breaking them to begging messes, there are also quite enjoyable moments of torture I'd like to revisit from time to time, for entertainment or inspiration. Therefore, I store them away, apart from my body. I'll go through them tomorrow, when Silver is spending time with his friends. Oh – and if you ever tell Silvy about this, you will be very sorry.," he threatened with a smooth hand gesture, that revealed his crystal-adorned claws.

"Whatever. I'm not interested in angering Sonic, which would angering Silver inevitably cause.," Shadow shrugged. Thank Chaos, not everything had changed between them. There were still the death threats.

"By the way, I've been meaning to talk with you." Now, that his body had recovered and the shock had worn off, he remembered Topaz' briefing.

"Really?," Mephiles asked, sounding rather uninterested, letting a small amount of curiosity only trickle in the one word.

"Yes. I'd like to talk with you about the Gentleman Killer." Mephiles chuckled, almost fondly, it seemed. "Do you still have this silly nickname for me?," he asked, amused, leaning back against the wall of the tunnel.

This was the closest Shadow ever got to an admission of guilt of the demonic seme. It was true, all the murders until lately were associated with Mephiles as the prime suspect.

They happened always in the same way: one victim, no blood left in them, the strange rune painted with the victim's blood on a wall or the ground, no witnesses.

The reason, why he never got arrested (besides the fact, that he had no known address and it would take more than an army to take him on)? There was not the tiniest proof, that he had done anything there. Not even the best at securing evidence could find anything but the victim's traces.

As if the whole thing was rigged, all cameras, that could have recorded the killing, had always, without a flaw, stopped functioning just before victim and culprit had arrived.

And the people, who had met Mephiles leaving the murder scene shortly after the victims had died (if there were any, that is), had not only been able to describe him – or better the form he had chosen to take on this time – perfectly, they had also all reported, that he had no blood or weapon whatsoever on him and, that his behavior had been that of a complete gentleman: apologizing for scaring them, when he emerged suddenly from an alley, bowing to the females, wishing them a pleasant day, even helping people out, who asked for directions, for help with their groceries or with crossing the streets – therefore the name 'Gentleman Killer'.

In most cases, it would have been just as easy and inconspicuous to kill those witnesses, too, but for some reason, the demon didn't. He just vanished around the next corner, leaving the people unscathed and staying inactive for the rest of the month (unless he clashed with Shadow or someone else). As if to mock the investigators, although that wasn't exactly Mephiles' style.

That was one of the reasons, why Shadow had always doubted, that it had been really Mephiles, who usually left a trail of death and blood behind, wherever he went.

The other reason was, that the killer had also been active, while Mephiles had been locked away.

Shadow knew better than anyone, that Mephiles had been, until several years ago, prisoner of a mythical scepter. After all, he had been the one to...stupidly let it fall, while retrieving it. He would have probably been more careful, if Towers would have had the decency to at least hint, just what he was retrieving there, but of course he didn't, making Shadow care rather...not...about the scepter being intact.

Mephiles had, right upon being freed, stolen Shadow's shadow and taken on his shape – and simply kept up the pattern of the murders from before, including never published details, that he couldn't know, which was, why he had been considered the main suspect.

"So it was you.," Shadow mumbled. "Do you want to arrest me?," Mephiles asked with a grin in his voice, already knowing the answer. "No. But tell me – how did you operate, while you were locked away?" The question was out, before he could stop it. It just bothered him so much now, that he thought about it.

"You saw my ability to create clones – and still wonder?," Mephiles chuckled, amused. "I always keep a stock of clones hidden from prying eyes. If I don't fill up their fuel regularly, the first one will awaken and know immediately, what to do."

"You seem to believe, that you would need them.," Shadow questioned. "I'm not naive enough to think, that I may never find death somehow. I definitely want to know, that Silver is well-cared for should something happen to me and I don't trust anyone besides me to do this. However, I don't think, that you ask out of mere curiosity. Why are you bringing up my past?"

Shadow raised a brow. Right, the Gentleman Killer had been inactive for quite some time now. He had the suspicion, that Silver being part of Mephiles' life had something to do with that.

"Someone is copying you.," the agent explained. That only caused Mephiles to smile with a chuckle. "Unlikely.," he said easily, not even believing for a second, that this could happen.

"Thirty victims, all without a drop of blood left in them, at times without an outer wound. Also leaving a picture on a wall with the blood. The motif is a different one, the culprits are apparently controlled by someone else and there are rare cases, in that witnesses saw the whole thing and tried unsuccessfully to help. The witnesses were spared.," Shadow listed off, watching Mephiles' face the whole time.

It shifted from surprise and worry to relief, when he mentioned the changed motif, and eventually to thoughtfulness. "It is said, that imitation is the greatest compliment to another person, but I honestly have no idea, what this means here. What is the motif anyway?," he asked.

Shadow told him. At that point, he didn't really care, if Mephiles knew too many details or not. If he liked it – or not – the demonic villain was probably the best ally he could have in this affair...

"Now I see, why you voluntarily share information with me. Seems like someone tries to reach the both of us." Seeing Shadow raise a questioning brow, he explained, "There are lots of ways to kill someone – why choose this one? It's rather complicated for a normal person to do this, so why bother – unless they wanted to get my attention?"

"What do you think – is Sonic in acute danger?," Shadow asked, his body tense. "Acute? No, I highly doubt it. Not in more danger than you put him yourself in with your own doing.," Mephiles replied with a shrug.

Shadow stiffened, feeling his heart beat faster at once. "What do you mean?," he asked, not liking, what he implied there.

The demonic being looked at him with a raised brow, clearly thinking, that he was stupid for asking that. "You think, that not telling your mate about his immortality is doing him any good?," he questioned.

Shadow swallowed, feeling his face color drain away. "How do you know that?," he asked hollowly. He was going to kill Kylie. Why did she have to talk with him about immortality!? No wonder, that he found out.

Mephiles snorted, however, proving him wrong with his next words. "You would be surprised, how many insights you get from watching the aura alone. Besides, it was so obvious two years ago already. Every other mortal mobian would have been turned into crisp by the immense amount of Chaos Energy he released during the last battle against this strange artificial creature. And as his aura lacks the hue of depression – from what I figure, he has A LOT of people to lose to death –, I could imagine, that he is still blissfully unaware of the burden his mate put on him."

Shadow flashed his fangs with a snarl. "I know, that I need to tell him – but why should that endanger him?," he growled.

Mephiles pinned him down with a glare. "Naive. Each living thing needs to know, what its limits are. What it can and can't survive. This knowledge shapes it into a brave warrior or a trembling coward, a hero or a villain. Sonic thinks like a mortal, thinks he can die from what mortals die from. Right now, that isn't too bad, but one day – especially living the life he does – he will come in a for mortals deadly situation...and survive it. What, do you think, will this do to him?

According to my own experience with that...his mind will shatter. To mature and realize, that you have your naturally limited life in your own hands, is mind-blowing enough and most mortals rather shy away from the responsibility, take the easiest or safest path possible, until their lives eventually end – to learn, that you can't limit your life like everyone else, can't fathom just when and if it will end, that you can't even end it on your own accord if you want, is like torture. You feel lost in your own existence. Nothing has a meaning anymore, because you have no moment of your life ending to look back at what you did. This is more, than a person's mind can stand. Of course, to learn it so late in the game, is about as bad. And to think, that he didn't even have a choice or say in this...," Mephiles went on, taking great pleasure in the horror Shadow's features took gradually on. "And from what I could read out of his aura, he doesn't even share your immortality fully."

That, more than anything, caused Shadow's insides to freeze. "W-what?," he choked out, feeling suddenly, as if his heart dropped into his stomach. He had always feared that, especially after Sonic had become sick already, but never known the true depth of his doing.

"You aren't a demonic being, you can't just turn somebody immortal and expect it to be perfect. From what I figure, he isn't immune to illnesses, although they won't end his life and it isn't as difficult to kill him than you and me. Actually, cutting off his head would work on him. On us? Not so much. It's just a hassle to heal, that's all.

But back to your question earlier," Mephiles went on, relishing in the anxious shift in Shadow's aura and deciding, that he was regretting his decision enough now, "If the culprit had wanted to make his threat on Sonic's life come true, he would have tried something long ago. That doesn't mean, that you should feel safe, either, though. This guy wants your attention as badly as mine and literally kills for it. Still, pretty stupid, if you ask me. They apparently don't know, what one of us is capable of – let alone both."

"Or they just don't care.," Shadow growled, for the moment pushing everything he had just learned back. He had shown enough weakness for a day towards Mephiles. "What do you think let this symbol appear on the controlled people?," he mused instead, pretending not to be frozen inside still with fear for his mate's life and well-being.

"It appeared on them?," Mephiles asked, for the first time since the beginning of this talk fully intrigued. "And disappeared, when they were back to normal.," Shadow nodded. "Interesting.," Mephiles said and he sounded genuine. "I guess, that I'll start looking through my memories today already. Should I kick you out somewhere?," he asked Shadow over his shoulder, having already turned away, adding the question like an afterthought.

The dark agent had the feeling, that the 'kicking out' was meant literally and declined. "I'll find my way out."

Slightly disappointed, it seemed, Mephiles nodded. "Very well. I'll keep you informed.," he shrugged. "And you expect me to believe that?," Shadow scoffed.

Mephiles turned his head to pierce him with a toxic green eye, the expression more serious than ever. "Until this maniac has fallen by our claws, I consider us brothers in arms, meaning you and I will share every bit of information we have and avoid killing the other for the time being."

He turned away. "After that, we are enemies again, who put any hostility behind them in the presence of their mates and want to kill each other when among each other only."

With that he disappeared and Shadow prayed, that it was just a coincidence, that Mephiles had used the same term as Mighty earlier. Chaos forbid, that they would become friends!

A few hours or so later, Shadow was all but ready to kill his demonic 'brother in arms'. Where the hell was he!? He was going for ages now through this tunnel!

At first, he had tried warping, but whatever this tunnel was out of, it prevented him from leaving it and running had only helped in missing several holes in the walls, leading out of the tunnel and potentially outside. Strangely, when he had changed to walking, there appeared no more holes and trying to go back to find the ones he had already passed had proven to be futile, they were just...gone. Just what was this place!?

Most of all, however, he hated the fact, that he couldn't hide from his gnawing feelings of fear, shame and guilt anymore in this solitude. Mephiles' words rang mercilessly in his ears, tormenting him. He should have told Sonic, long ago. He knew that. For how long had he tried to find the courage to tell Sonic everything? Enough of that, he decided. He needed to tell Sonic, as soon as possible!

He stopped at once, when a small sound penetrated the silence, that had reigned since he had started walking. He silenced his steps as the only other source of noise to listen more closely.

He frowned. Voices. Someone was talking and coming closer, not too far away from him, right ahead. There was someone else here?

Not trusting the owners of the voices, since Mephiles himself had brought him here, he looked for a suitable hiding spot. Until he had figured out, what he was dealing with, he rather stayed out of trouble – this wasn't exactly the best environment for a fight, too small and too unknown for his tastes.

There weren't many options for him, as the tunnel was mostly just uneven rock, but he spotted a larger singled out rock, similar to the one Mephiles had sat on earlier – if it wasn't the same one even – that could hide him, at least for the time being. He just hoped, that he could get around a fight.

"-don't like it here at all.," he heard a voice echoing towards him, that stroke him as vaguely familiar. "Maybe you'll think about this the next time you assume, that clinging to me during a warp is a great idea.," another voice grumbled and his quills raised unconsciously. That was the girl, Shy! So she had found this place after all.

"Where are we anyway? I've never seen a place like this!," the uke, Conner, asked. "This is the Network of Shadows. From here, I can reach every place in the world via its shadow."

"But are shadows not just...well...there? Like pictures drawn on the ground and the walls?," Conner questioned.

Shy chuckled, the sound bouncing off the walls. "For most people, it is like that. But for people like me and this Mephiles, this here is the portal to every corner of the world." So this was basically a traffic junction for the girl and Mephiles alike – why did he think, that she wouldn't find them (or better, him) here!?

A few beats of silence later, Conner piped up again. "I...don't really see your point. I mean, this is just rock, stretching on forever."

Shy chuckled again. "For you it is, but I see thousands of openings here, with lots of auras crawling out of them. And I can walk through every single one I like. You stepped over several ones already without noticing it."

"So you are still after this GUN-agent?," Conner asked silently. Shy snorted. "Sure I am. He still has some questions to answer.," she explained. According to her tone, she rather meant, 'He still has some blood to lose'.

The sounds of the footfalls changed and then both stopped, apparently, the hedgehog had blocked the girl's path...and Shadow could think of quite a few things, that weren't as dangerous as that.

"Be honest with me now, please. What was this symbol he showed you? Why did it freak you out so much?," he asked silently.

Again silence, that stretched on. "You want to know, what this symbol means to us?," Shy finally asked, her voice trembling.

"Well, it would be a start...," Conner replied reluctantly, apparently not liking, how tense his conversation partner suddenly was.

"It means pain.," Shy hissed out sharply. "It means pain. Pain and hate. And more pain and darkness. And hunger and thirst and even more pain! Do you STILL want to hear my story!?," she challenged, her voice growing colder and louder with each word, echoing painfully loud from the walls, when she had finished.

"N-no?," Conner pretty much squeaked. Shy was silent for a minute and then sighed. "Sorry. That was too close to the Island, huh?," she asked, her voice much gentler at once.

Another beat of silence, then: "I guess, I was right. We have...seen similar hells.," Conner mumbled.

Shy gave a soft sniff. "Yeah. I'm just not as strong as you are and can move on from it. Or..." She trailed off. "What?," he pried. Shy sighed. "Unlike yours, my 'hell' does follow me around still."

"...What are you saying?," the uke asked with an uneasy voice. Shy stayed silent again. Then, she gave an exhausted huff. "Forget it, it's probably just my nerves talking. I'll send you back now, it'll get a bit heated in a minute. Take care of my sisters, okay? They need a shoulder to cry on now – and I'll be a bit late." "W-!," Conner tried to stop her, but he was cut short by his disappearance.

"Alright, he's gone. Come out already, I know, that you are there.," Shy called, but before Shadow, assuming, that she was talking with him, could face her, another voice answered her already.

"You know, it's sometimes really annoying, that you have the same abilities as I do.," Mephiles mentioned.

"Believe me, I'm not too fond of them, either.," Shy mumbled, but still loud enough for both mobians to hear it. "By the way, I never took you for the hero-type. Or why did you save your twin's life?," she asked with a louder voice.

Shadow could just imagine Mephiles' eyelid twitch at the question. "He isn't my twin, but I'm afraid, we are connected through our mates, so he unfortunately needs to stay alive for now.," he answered stiffly.

Shy chuckled. "Funny, I'm kind of fond of his mate, too – but I don't think, that he needs a boyfriend THAT badly."

"Which was, why you tried to kill him." "That was a moment of weakness only, I'm no killer. ...N-not like you, anyways.," she amended after another beat of silence. "Besides, all went well, didn't it?" she added.

"No thanks to you. What were you trying to accomplish anyway? Kill him for asking a question? From the looks of it, this symbol seems to be very important for you."

"He asks my sisters about something, that happened hours ago – and shows them a picture of a symbol, that should have stopped existing years before today? Of course it is important to me! He doesn't know in the slightest, what he has gotten into.," Shy ended darkly, getting worked up.

They were silent for a minute, probably scrutinizing each other, before Mephiles spoke again. "I asked you this once and now I'm asking again: is Silver in danger?"

Shy sighed in obvious annoyance. "For the last time: NO! He would never be interested in him, not in a million years, got it!?," she shouted, for sure louder, than she had intended.

"He?," Mephiles questioned. A tiny gasp escaped Shy. "Y-yes. He. Now you know his sex. Big help, isn't it?," she mumbled, her voice trembling and suddenly, a light flashed.

"That's also a way to end a conversation, I presume.," Mephiles muttered and Shadow heard familiar footfalls coming closer.

The agent met him head on, not wanting him to know, that he had hidden before – although he could guess, that it hadn't been a coincidence for the demonic being to appear here, right before Shy could find him.

"Got any news out of that conversation?," Mephiles inquired, apparently wanting to compare notes.

"Not much, besides the fact, that these girls went through something traumatic, that isn't over, yet. And for whatever reason, the person responsible for their pain and the recent murders drags innocent people into this..." Shadow trailed off, thinking hard.

"You have an idea?," Mephiles pried. "I can't forget, what she said about Sonic..." "That he doesn't need you?," the demon asked with obvious mirth in his eyes.

"That she is fond of him.," Shadow replied, refusing to let Mephiles see, how much he irritated him right now.

The other raised a brow. "He had the decency not to die in her arms. I can imagine, that this causes a certain fondness in females.," Mephiles shrugged. "Maybe.," Shadow mumbled, although he wasn't too convinced. Something told him, that Shy and Sonic shared a deeper bond...

Mephiles didn't need much persuasion to send him out of this mysterious Network of Shadows – apparently, he had been brought in a deeper part of the network, that the girl wouldn't have thought he was in and Mephiles had 'by accident' forgotten, that people like Shadow couldn't just leave this place – and back to the outside world, in that he could actually warp. Not losing more time, he warped towards GUN, looking for Rouge.

As he quickly learned, the bat was already at their house – much to his horror. He hurried to get there, too and landed in the kitchen, just to hear the bat laughing in their living room. He ran over and saw Rouge and Sonic sitting on the couch with Rouge just finishing her – for sure not first and most certainly not last – story of him. "-so loud, that the whole floor could hear it, turning red as a tomato, veins popping out and all, while Shadow stayed cool as a cucumber. When Towers was finally done, he just looked up at him and asked, 'Did you just say something?' You should have seen Towers' face, priceless!," she giggled.

Sonic, sitting with his back to the door frame, joining her. "Is it wrong, that I love Shads a bit more now?," he chuckled.

That was, when Rouge noticed the seme watching them. "Ah, and there is our conversation topic in flesh and blood.," she grinned, raising her mug at him.

Sonic turned to the door as well and grinned at his mate, before frowning. "Hey, Shads! ...Are you okay?," he questioned, feeling the emotional turmoil in his mate by instinct – not to mention, that he had to look quite disheveled. Mephiles had most likely cleaned the blood off him at some point, but left everything else the way it was, so Sonic wouldn't have to guess so hard, that something went wrong.

"I...yes. I'm fine, don't worry. My investigation just didn't bring as much success as I would have liked.," Shadow answered truthfully.

Seriously, he only got more riddles to solve, all involving those three girls. Not to mention the worry about Sonic, although knowing, that Omega could watch over him here was calming him a bit down.

"Don't worry about it, Shads, I'm sure you'll get it.," Sonic smiled at him, approaching and hugging him, but recoiling almost immediately again.

"Shads, where were you? You're ice cold!," the hero stated in worry. "Ah, this. I...ran into some trouble, but nothing to worry about." He had the feeling, that 'I was impaled by an icicle and frozen from the inside' wouldn't exactly put Sonic at ease.

The Alpha believed the half-lie – although his glare promised a further questioning in the close future – and only said, "Can you help us with getting Omega in Tails' lab? I honestly can't imagine, how he moves around at GUN. They must have huge doors and hallways."

"Well, usually, I'm transporting him. Where did you want him?," Shadow asked. It was far easier to transport something, when he had exact knowledge over its destination.

"Just bring him in the middle of the lab, Tails will handle it from there.," Sonic grinned sheepishly.

"You couldn't clear space for Omega, could you?," Shadow guessed correctly. Sonic smiled. "Yeah. Tails' stuff tends to multiply, when you try to clear it. He promised to tidy up, but I think, he just replaced stuff with other stuff."

As well-behaved as Tails usually was – he mutated into a pack rat, when it came to throwing away his things.

It wasn't, as if Sonic expected him to get rid of personal belongings or even inventions, that weren't completely worked through and/or dangerous. But the fox even saw a huge pile of discarded blueprints as save-worthy, because he 'might get an idea for them later'. Also, the littlest scraps of metal and broken, irreparable tools were saved...although he couldn't say, for what.

"No worries, I'll handle it.," Shadow reassured him and went outside, where a truck stood, loaded with Omega, who was still secured in the back.

Tails was there, too, asking a lizard mobian, who was obviously part of the technicians GUN paid, a thousand questions about Omega, who was blinking in several more places as it was normal for the robot.

"Tails, cut the poor man some slack, okay? Besides, I bet Rotor would love a report of what you found out so far.," Sonic told his little brother with a trace of sternness – he knew, that the fox could get lost in his curiosity and wouldn't stop asking questions anytime soon, unless gently forced.

"Oh, good idea! I'll call him right away!" With that, the fox had already left the truck, much to the technician's relief.

Shadow placed a hand on Omega and warped him towards where the lab was. "Nice work, Shads.," Sonic grinned, although he hadn't seen the result. He knew, that he could rely on his mate.

They exited the vehicle, while Rouge thanked the crew from GUN, who got Omega – and her – here and allowed them to take off.

"Would you mind, if I kidnap your boyfriend for a few minutes?," Rouge turned to Sonic, who smiled. "No problem. I need to keep a close eye on Tails anyway, until he has settled down a bit.," he replied and just gave Shadow a small kiss on the cheek – the only loving contact Shadow usually tolerated in public – before going back inside.

Normally, Tails could handle himself well, but Sonic knew, that he could also quite easily forget himself – and just about everything else – when distracted by his work (or a highly technological robot). It was better to stick around, until he had his excitement under control, or he would make dangerous mistakes while examining the robot...

"We should maybe take this somewhere more private.," Rouge told her partner the second Sonic was gone. It sounded like flirting, but was really just the request to transport them to their office to avoid eavesdropping.

Shadow did just that, bringing them in the middle of the room. "What did they do to Omega?," Shadow asked, while his partner walked to her desk.

Rouge chuckled. "Nothing. It was easier to hide a little something in him, that will give fox-boy some strange readings on his instruments. Adding a few tiny but powerful lamps to create some odd blinking – and voila, a potentially damaged robot. The boys did really a great job. It will take Tails several weeks to figure out, what is wrong. Plenty of time for you to take this guy on, right?," she replied. "I hope so.," Shadow mumbled absentmindedly, still trying to figure out, if his interrogation actually helped him any or just made everything more complicated.

And Mephiles' words concerning Sonic pushed against the back of his mind again, his instincts – he was at least pretty sure, that it was his instincts' doing – urging him to make this his priority.

"No luck, huh?," Rouge read his expression just right. "Too much, actually. I just have more riddles to solve.," he grumbled.

"Oh, then you'll hate the next part.," Rouge smirked and held up a file, that could be, for how thin it was, void of any content. "I found something about that symbol. Just...not very much."

She flicked the file over like a Frisbee and Shadow caught it with practiced ease – they often 'transferred' papers and files this way –, opening it with a simple flick of his wrist. Between the layers of carton were three sheets of paper in total.

Skipping the first for now, Shadow discovered the symbol he had seen on Alex' drawing, although this one was more detailed than the teen's version, making the tree look ready to break and the hand more like a claw.

Looking at the third page, he found another drawing, looking almost like the previous one, but this one had a healthy looking tree on it with the hand just gently gripping it, looking, as if it wanted to plant the tree, instead of ripping it out.

"This is the case of a suicide, dated about eight years in the past.," Rouge started to sum up the report on the first page, "A human named Archibald Bloom, 57 years old, called the local police station around midnight, stuttering strange things about an organization doing illegal, dangerous experiments in secret. He said, that his life would be in danger and he would need protection, if they wanted more information. Apparently, someone believed him, because two officers were sent out. When they reached his address, they found him hanging from his ceiling, strung up. Every single access to his house had been locked up and there were no signs of breaking in."

"And they found this symbol on him?," Shadow asked, holding up the second picture. "No. It had been drawn on every wall, every piece of furniture, even the floors and ceilings in every single room of the house, wherever there was space. That guy must have had time. Anyway, there were no signs for murder or an accident, but the strange circumstances let the officers call for GUN. And as our 'oh so competent' Abraham Towers had been the boss back then, he had stopped the case after the first lead and left the file to rot in the archives."

"'The first lead'?," Shadow repeated. "The drawing on page three is the logo of a company named 'Narcissus Solutions'."

"Never heard that name before." Then again – when was he interested in anything, unless it was related to Sonic (and sometimes Rouge)?

"I'm not surprised, they were never about public work. Besides, a few months after Bloom was found dead, there was a fire, that burnt down the complete building housing the company. They never rebuilt, after the head of the enterprise had died in the flames."

Shadow looked at the logo and the drawn picture, comparing them. "...What did this company do anyway?," he asked. "No idea, but I'll keep digging."

Suppressing a yawn, Rouge stood up. "Tomorrow, it was hard enough to find this file.," she clarified. Shadow nodded. "What about Lupe and her pack? Did you ask them?," he inquired.

Rouge grimaced. "Well...they are apparently not too fond of hotels, they checked out by disappearing. They're probably in the forests behind GUN-HQ, though, so I'll look there tomorrow."

It would be dark soon and not even as a bat would she be stupid enough to try and navigate through a forest at night...especially with wolf mobians most likely in it, who were in an exceptional mood due to the recent losses in their pack.

"Be careful, I didn't exactly get the best reactions to it so far.," Shadow warned and went through a report of everything he had learned so far today, leaving most of his run-ins with Shy and Mephiles out, though.

Rouge listened attentively. "Wow. There was a time, when interrogations were boring.," the bat eventually said.

"And let me guess, you want me to explain this to Topaz, am I right?" Despite Shadow liking Topaz, more than Towers anyway, he hated it to report and usually left this to Rouge or Omega.

"I'm not sure, if we should pull anyone more into this.," the seme replied after a short moment of hesitation. "We have no idea, what we are dealing with. But my instincts...they warn me."

Rouge's face darkened at that. Mobians were able to – sometimes – feel danger ahead of time. They couldn't say, when it would happen, what would happen, or even how severe the felt danger would be, only, that it actually was a danger for them (some mobians actually felt a huge phone bill coming, when they couldn't pay it).

If someone like Shadow, who was scared of nothing but Sonic and/or Rouge getting hurt and had very little, that threatened him himself, felt warned about something, then that was enough reason for them to take this serious. "So...I'll tell Topaz some things – and to leave this to Team Dark alone, got it.," the bat concluded eventually.

Shadow nodded. "Thank you. I'll take my leave, then." "Alright, but you owe me one.," Rouge grinned playfully, earning a smirk and she waved, before the seme warped back home.

Upon arriving in the foyer, Shadow found himself face to face with Sonic, who had awaited him. "Hey there.," he greeted. "Hey. How is Tails doing?," Shadow asked, hugging him tightly.

"Pretty good. He reached Rotor and they are doing some techno-talk right now, going over the readings he got with his Miles Electric. Knowing those two, they will be at it for a while. I'd say, four to five hours.," Sonic chuckled fondly. "Gotta stop them in two at the latest for dinner, though, which leaves us with plenty of time and privacy."

Shadow could just watch, how his mate slipped from his conscious- to his instinct-side speaking this one sentence. It was time for this talk Sonic had wanted from him.

Shadow looked in his expectant eyes and felt his heart beat faster. He couldn't tell him. He didn't want to drag him any deeper into this. But he needed to tell him about his immortality. What Mephiles had said, made this all too clear. Just...how? How could he tell him this?

"I...can't tell you.," he repeated his earlier statement. When Sonic looked about ready to let his inner Alpha out, he quickly added, "Topaz just gave Team Dark officially the case, I'm forbidden from giving information further." It wasn't the whole truth, but it was true, so his instincts would be fine with it, right?

Sonic looked up at him, his emerald green eyes studying his face. Surprised, Shadow noticed, that Sonic's eyes didn't show distrust, but rather concern. "Be careful, okay? I know, that Team Dark only gets the hardest cases, that nobody else can solve."

"What brought this on? Don't tell me you don't trust me anymore!," Shadow teased lightly, feeling the irony of that statement almost bite him.

"Nonsense, nothing like that.," Sonic chuckled, letting go of him. "I just...had a strange dream a few days ago, is all."

Frowning at his mate's thoughtful face, he gently inquired, "Since when do dreams bother you?"

Usually, Sonic wasn't someone to see dreams as some kind of 'secret message'. Not even Amy's constant chatter about what her dreams meant had changed that, not at all. Dreams were just dreams, nothing more.

Sonic stuck out his tongue, playfully. "They don't. I don't even remember anymore, what I saw this night, but...I still have the feeling, that it's important and, that I lost...everything.," he ended in a soft whisper.

Shadow felt his insides freeze at that. Were his instincts trying to tell him, that he would watch all of his friends and family die eventually, probably without the possibility to join them? If so, then he needed to act, before he would indeed find out on his own.

Taking his mate in his arms, he held him tightly, comforting them both. "Sonic, you will never lose me.," he soothed. "Yeah, I know. Forget I said anything, it's stupid anyway.," the hero mumbled into his mate's chest fur.

Shadow tightened his grip unconsciously as he thought hard. "Say, Sonic, should we do a race tomorrow? To that hill you showed me a while back? You know, the one you labeled as one of your favorite places?," he asked, figuring, that this was the best place to tell him the truth, away from any witnesses. Also, he had just bought himself a little time to think of the best way to say this.

Sonic chuckled. "Wow, did I finally ignite your 'racing spirit'?," he joked. Normally, Sonic had to convince Shadow to races. And while it took a small question each time only to get him to agree, the repeating pattern was kind of obvious and this request now all the more special.

Shadow smiled, although he had to force it. "I wanted to talk with you – and I could use the exertion before this." Sonic hardly heard and looked at him anymore, the prospect of a race having him in high spirits and he was already planning their route loudly.

The dark hedgehog watched him chatter with himself and he couldn't help, but watch his boyfriend. His fur sparkled almost purple in the light of the setting sun, that let his eyes shine like emeralds, that were infused with rubies. He was so beautiful, so innocent, so... trusting. Sonic trusted him unconditionally – and what had he done with this trust? Stomped on it, dishonored it. Even now was he a coward and couldn't tell him straight away, what he had done. He didn't deserve Sonic's love, that much was for sure. So he would enjoy it for today, until he would tomorrow lie in the bed he made for himself.

"Alright, I can't wait!," the hero eventually cheered happily, seeming so much younger than he was and Shadow realized at once, that he hadn't listened at all, stuck in his own musings. It didn't matter, though – they would start somewhere and then just run to their finish line.

"Should we start with preparing dinner?," Sonic asked, still grinning broadly. "No chilidogs.," Shadow reminded him, dampening the mood a bit. "Kylie's orders. Speaking of her – did you already take this second bath she prescribed?," he asked, already knowing the answer, but taking every distraction he could get. Dinner preparations were the best opportunities for serious talks, while Sonic rather talked about trivial things, when he was stuck in the tub or had just left it...and he preferred the latter right now. Maybe he would even get drowsy and not bring anything serious up for a while.

The blue hero lost his cheer quite a bit at that and started to pout. "...Oh, right, that.," he grumbled, clearly miffed, but then, he smirked. "Care to join me?," he asked coyly.

Of course, since the bath essence was medicinal, Shadow couldn't sit in the tub with him, but he enjoyed staying with him, while he was in it. Sonic actually felt better, when he wasn't alone in the bathroom, while he had to bathe, although he could hardly drown in there.

"You know the answer to that.," Shadow smiled and allowed the teen to drag him to the bathroom. Sonic then sat himself on the toilet seat and watched his mate prepare the bath, as he was more precise in measuring the substance (and because his worry had last time skyrocketed, when he had thought, that Sonic had used too much and thus caused the water to turn black).

While waiting for the tub to get filled, Shadow's thoughts were dragged back to what he had learned today, especially the three girls. Just what was their secret? Why were they so aggressively protecting it?

And involuntarily, he had to remember Shy's remark about Sonic again. "...Sonic?," he called, not turning around to him.

"Hm?," the hero replied, who was, judging by the sounds, in the process of discarding his clothes.

"I...It's about this girl, Shy.," Shadow started. "What about her?," the blue hedgehog asked. "It's just...do you know her?"

"As in personally? Not really. She's a friend of Mighty and I saw her first on the Island, so...," he trailed off and Shadow looked up and turned towards him at the sound of the silence.

Sonic had fallen silent, holding one of his shoes in his glove-less hands and staring at it in thought.

"What's wrong?," he asked. Sonic's ear twitched and he proceeded with taking off his socks and his other shoe. "It's just, every time I see her lately, I have the feeling, that something about her is off. I can't describe it better, it just feels strange to see her." He shrugged.

"You maybe rescued her once, or met her already.," Shadow guessed. "Probably the former. Besides Eggy, I never had much contact with humans before the Island-incident. But rescuing humans? Yeah, all the time. Oh well, it's not that important, is it?," he asked with another shrug, discarding his clothes and placing his shoes neatly in a corner away from the tub.

Shadow just watched him silently, but he couldn't fully agree, as he answered with a whispered, "Yeah, probably."

The same night:

Shy sighed, as she tried to curl herself into an as tight as possible ball. It seemed strange, but this position was actually the most relaxing she knew. This way, she could escape the world, at least for a little while.

Her sisters were finally asleep, with Kari clutching her communicator, that would, with a single pressed button, alert Blush, Mighty and Scythe alike and inform them, that they needed help. It was the only way Shy had been able to get her to sleep. Emma, warned by her visions, had been out like a light in seconds, Kari had followed her lead... two hours of hushed discussions later.

Afterwards, she had told Conner to leave and made her way to the flat roof of their apartment-complex. Here, the air felt cleaner, cooler. Soothing.

She hadn't found the agent again. Of course, she knew, where he would be by now (or at least sooner or later) and finding Sonic's house from here would be a matter of an hour, maybe less.

But she wasn't keen on having a talk with Sonic about this topic, or at all. She admitted it, secretly, she wished, that Sonic would recognize her, ask her, what had happened to her, urge her to tell him anything. But the logical part of her brain, that had been needed lately a lot, was strictly against it. She would tell him...maybe...if it hadn't become so very clear, that it wasn't over, yet.

He wasn't dead. He was still out there. And he knew, where they were. Mephiles had seen his aura, Kari, although staying silent about it, had seen him. She probably hoped still, that it was just a nightmare and stayed that way for as long as she didn't mention him. Naive, but she let her.

And today, this symbol. The embodiment of her nightmares. As if a noose was slowly tightening, around them all, crawling closer and closer...

Other people would pack their things and leave, try to hide again, but she wouldn't, for various reasons.

One: this was their home. Kari and Emma finally felt safe here, safer than anywhere else before.

Second: their friends were here. Mighty, Blush and Scythe as the most important ones. They tried not to show it too openly, but the three sisters were feeling safe because of them, be it in the jungle or here. Especially because of Mighty, with his unbelievable strength paired with a gentle nature, that she had thought wouldn't exist in anyone, but her.

She was by all means no angel, she had so much blood on her hands, that she sometimes wondered, how she had managed to wash it off. But she had distanced herself from it, pretending, as if there was a second person in her, who had no conscious at all.

Conner liked to point out, that her 'dark side' took over, when she let this second persona out, acting, as if they were two separate beings. Her sisters did the same and she tried it, too, but of course, it didn't always work. She knew, that she had shed the blood, dealt the pain, ruined the lives of their families.

Cruel as it was – she rather hid behind her friends for the dirty work, that's why she needed to keep them around. She could fight and kill, probably as good as Blush, if she wanted to – but she had Mighty's guilty conscious (if not worse) and avoided bloodshed as much as possible.

And the third reason – he would always find them. She had more than once tried to flee and never come far. That they had managed to stay out of his reach for this long bordered to a miracle. Well, she had personally made sure, that he would never disturb them, but she should have known, that you can't kill a devil.

Back then, it had seemed logical. Things got worse, before they got better, that's, what she had been taught. And when she had hit her worst, when he had finally done something unforgivable...she had freed them all, forever.

A short, hysterical laugh escaped her, as she thought that. He finally did something unforgivable? Ha! He had done so all the time, just this last time...she had snapped. And it had been all for nothing, he was still there. She kept chuckling crazily into her own lap, muffling her sounds.

Before curling into herself, she had spread out her aura as an alarm system, so she would feel anyone coming closer to her. She felt a small disturbance in her aura's flow now and being in the past with her thoughts as she was, she immediately attacked in the direction she felt the irregularity was in, before even opening her eyes to identify her visitor.

It was a good thing, that assassins were always on guard, even in the presence of people they knew – or Blush would have joined the 'impaled by an icicle'-club.

Instead, she just dropped out of the air, away from the flying, ice cold projectile, and into a graceful crouch, out of that she rose a second later with the grace of a dancer.

"Blush, I-," Shy started, but she was unsure on how to go on. Saying 'sorry' didn't seem appropriate, when it came to almost-murders. "What are you doing here?," she asked instead.

The butterfly grinned, not commenting further. She knew, that Shy had problems – not, which ones, just, that there were some – and sometimes got homicidal tendencies, mostly because of them; therefore, she didn't expect an explanation.

"Looking after you. I'm not the first one here, though.," she answered. She nodded towards the door leading to the roof, out of that peaked Conner with a small whimper. The uke was almost as afraid of heights as he was of the Island. But it didn't stop him...mostly...from checking up on her, despite her earlier insistence of being 'fine'.

Shy allowed herself a small smile seeing him, or better: his aura. Kari had told her, that Emma – and she herself – had hinted some things of their past towards him and although it hadn't been pleasant parts, his aura and, more importantly, his behavior towards them hadn't changed a bit. He was a friend, alright.

She just wanted to go to him to relieve him from his horrifying position, when the scent stung her nose, having her freeze in her tracks.

"Ugh, that's disgusting. What's that stench?," Blush complained, covering her nose, that was far more sensitive than the human's.

"Aftershave.," Shy mumbled with a tone Blush had never heard come from her and disappeared, leaving the butterfly and the hedgehog puzzled.

Not too far away from them, standing casually above a tree in the air, was a male human with palish-gray skin, no hair and dark, cold eyes, wearing a dirty brown trench coat and holding an old pocket watch in his leather gloved hand.

"Six minutes, thirty-two seconds.," he muttered with a click of his tongue. "Disappointing. She should have picked up on my presence far earlier. Seems, as if someone has been slacking."

An evil smirk appeared on the pale lips. "Rosy, my dear?," he asked the small figure sitting on a lower branch of the tree, as she was actually solid and had a weight not all branches could support, with a sickeningly sweet voice.

"Yes, master?," the obvious child asked immediately, stopping the bored dangling of her short legs. "Do you see the hedgehog on the roof?," he asked. "Sure." "Shyra has been slacking in her training and you know, what the punishment for this is, don't you?," he asked.

The girl giggled. "Of course.," she laughed. "Leave this to me, master, I won't disappoint you." And she swung herself off the high branch with the agility of a monkey, disappearing into the night's darkness.

"Good. Time for you to remember, what you are, Shyra.," the man grinned, before vanishing as soundlessly as he had appeared before.

Scythe rubbed her hurting head. Taking Pinky to the jungle had been meant as a way of finding closure and herself and she was still convinced, that this was the best solution for the younger girl – if she could for TWO seconds stop complaining!

First, the air had been too moist – quite normal for a jungle –, then the mosquitoes hadn't been leaving her alone – she had advised her to roll in some mud to protect her, but no, then her dress would become dirty (the horror...) –, then her huge backpack had been too heavy – Scythe had told her to pack light –, then she had been hungry and forgotten to pack something she didn't need to cook before eating and finally, the jungle floor had been actually too hard to sleep on.

After getting her eventually settled – and she had been very tempted to just knock her out – she had finally some time for herself.

Looking into the campfire, she couldn't help, but smile. What had she gotten herself into? Pinky was as spoiled as one could be...or maybe she was just used to people, who were so painfully modest.

It was true: hanging out with Blush, Mighty, Shy and their adopted siblings had never been complicated.

Blush had never required anything besides some time alone to meditate now and then – and with her wings, she could fly herself up to a quiet tree branch easily.

Mighty was too busy making sure, that they were okay and had everything they needed to want anything for himself – quite frankly, he seemed happy to just have friends alone – and Shy hardly mentioned it at all, if something bothered her and either suffered through it quietly, or got whatever she needed herself.

Ray, as one of the youngest in their group, rarely asked for anything and if he did, then usually just for help with whatever he wanted to get or do for himself, if he couldn't do so on his own.

And Kari and Emma? They never uttered a single wish, but they were overjoyed over the oddest things. Emma had more than once happily announced, that the river water they had fetched was 'so tasty', or been surprised, that their beds made out of branches and leaves had been 'soft'.

Scythe knew very well, that no amount of leaves attached to their branches and twigs could ever be called 'soft', but she insisted on that.

As for Kari, she had more than once suddenly started crying over the most bland and simple cooked meals like grilled vegetables, claiming, that she had never tasted something better. They didn't have much to season their meals, so they were hardly tasty.

By experience, nobody asked anymore about these reactions and statements of the youngest girls, unless they wanted a moody and literally explosive Shy on their hands.

In comparison to that, Pinky was a spoiled brat and she doubted, that her attitude would change anytime soon. Oh well, she just had to hope for the best.

In the worst case, she would grab Curi and just leave her in the jungle, throw her into the deep water, so to say.

Before the thought could take on real form, though, she straightened, as her ears picked up a small noise.

Curi, having slept until now at her feet, jumped up and turned to their left, from that came more noises. Footfalls, drawing closer.

Scythe frowned and sniffed the air. Curi's silence had already revealed to her, what her nose was affirming now. The one approaching wasn't a stranger.

Standing up from the log she had sat on, she went to meet her familiar visitor. Stopping just at the edge of the shine her campfire was casting, she waited and just a moment later, she emerged already from the shadows.

Scythe frowned. Shy looked horrible! Pale, haggard and somehow hunted... or haunted? It was so hard to read her...

Before she could speak a single word, Shy closed the distance between them and hugged her tightly. Anyone else would have been stunned by the sudden show of affection, as it was a well known fact, that Shy only showed her sisters such sentiments, but Scythe took it like a champ and just let her squeeze her to her heart's content.

It was a secret between them, that nobody knew about...besides maybe the younger girls, she wasn't sure. Now and then, Shy used her as her personal cuddle toy by hugging her like this. As far as Scythe knew, she was the only one, who got such a treatment, at least out of the older ones of their group.

And it wasn't hard to understand, why: unlike Mighty and Blush, Scythe had fur. It seemed ridiculous, especially for a human like Shy, but she found comfort in her warm, soft fur coat. Mighty's thick, rough skin and Blush's eternally cool and hard to the touch scales just weren't the same.

It wasn't, as if Scythe was a cuddle bug, far from it, but on some level, she understood Shy's need and provided for it. Otherwise, she didn't know, what to do.

As Shy started to actually cry – which had happened far rarer than her hugging the mobian female –, the scythe wielder was at a loss. Hugging back was out of a question for her and her reassurances were hardly such and rather cliche sentences. Something told her, that Shy wouldn't want that.

With no real option in mind, she just let the girl cry, until she had, several minutes later, calmed down and finally let her go. "S-sorry.," Shy sniffed and wiped her now red eyes. "No problem. You okay now?," Scythe shrugged and asked. "Y-yes, sorry.," the teen repeated. "As I said, no big deal. Do you want to talk about it? I'm a good listener, as you may recall.," Scythe offered.

Shy showed a small smile. "After listening for twenty minutes straight to Emma's crazy bubbling, you definitely proved that.," she chuckled weakly. "I'll decline, though. I better make my way back."

With that, she turned around, but hesitated for a long moment. "If you don't mind...I would like to borrow Curi for a day or two.," she requested.

Scythe blinked and looked down on the puppy, who scratched his ear and yawned. She didn't see the wolf as a thing, that could be borrowed, but she knew, what effect Curi had on people. Shy probably needed his presence at night to feel safe enough to sleep.

It would make dealing with Pinky a greater bitch, as he wouldn't be around to remind her, that she couldn't kill her to get rid of her complaining, but she would manage. "Alright, but I expect him back in four days tops!," she agreed.

Shy showed her a small smile. "You're the best. Curi!," she called and obediently, the animal trotted to her side.

Curi was well behaved, but he only listened to certain people – thankfully, Shy belonged to those.

"See you around.," Scythe waved her off and returned to her campsite, ignoring the light shining behind her, that marked Shy's departure.

She was just about to plop back onto her log, when a VERY loud groan coming from the tent hiding her travel companion announced the next point on Pinky's long list of complaints: backaches.

The next day:

"What's up, Shads!? Got dirt stuck in your shoes!?," Sonic teased gently over his shoulder, while leading their race through a natural obstacle course of trees and bushes, that sometimes required quite a few skills, if they didn't want to trip or crash into a tree.

Eventually, the untamed wilderness retreated and gave way to a huge grass plain, that dipped first into a small, shallow valley filled with various flowers, before rising to a steep hill, their finish line.

Sonic pretty much flew over the valley with just one jump, using his momentum, before climbing the hill, reaching the tip long before Shadow.

The dark seme was usually faster, just as Sonic had pointed out, but for various reasons, he was slowed down.

After sustaining an injury like yesterday, he would actually need at least a bit of rest, a healthy meal or, shouldn't he be able to get any of that, at least some time to recover his Chaos Energy-reserves completely, which, among other things, fed his rocket shoes.

He got neither since yesterday. He hadn't eaten anything – although Sonic didn't like it, he accepted, that Shadow had times, where he just didn't want to eat and could afford doing so and just sat without a plate in front of him at the table during their meals – and he didn't find any sleep last night, dreading the next day and trying to keep the feeling of his mate in his arms and of peace in general locked in his memory.

He could have used the Chaos Emerald to even out the lack of energy, but he hadn't done so, as the other reason, why he was slower than usual, was, that he was – metaphorically speaking – running towards his own execution. Who wouldn't try to stall that?

He knew, that this talk wouldn't be pretty. By all means, he could hardly expect Sonic to take this lightly. He loved his freedom, to have full control over his life. And he had selfishly taken this control away from him, influencing his whole life in the most unstoppable way possible...

He was almost too deep in thought to realize, that he had reached the hill as well by now and managed to stop only in the last possible moment. Sonic stood next to him, his grin extra broad because of his triumph, but he didn't rub it in...much.

"So, now, that I won – what did you want to talk about with me?," he eventually prompted, ever so curious, when Shadow stayed quiet and didn't know, how to start.

"Right. L-let's take a seat, yes?," Shadow mumbled and lowered himself into the grass, Sonic plopping down as well, looking at him, confused and worried.

"What's wrong, Shads?," he asked, all happiness and curiosity replaced by concern at once.

"I...I need to tell you something.," Shadow started, fighting to get his voice under control, that was starting to tremble.

"Whatever it is, it can't be that bad, can it?," Sonic asked, trying to help settling his nerves, but the kindness shown to him just made things worse.

"Just hear me out, please?," Shadow asked, which was the best way he could currently think of to request no more interruptions. Realizing this, Sonic fell silent, his green eyes on his face in interest.

Shadow couldn't stand the trust shining so obviously in those eyes and he quickly looked away and on his lap.

"Back...back on the Island. After...after you...after you miscarried...," he hastily got out, knowing, that this was still a sore topic, "you were in a very critical condition."

He paused briefly, swallowing around the lump in his throat upon remembering his mate in midst of all those tubes tethering him to life...

"Kylie tried everything to heal you, but you were dying under her hands, no matter, what she tried.," he went on. "As a last resort, she sent for me, hoping, that I could help, but my instincts...they didn't know, what to do, either, so my conscious-side took over."

He paused again and took a deep breath, trying to steel himself. He had hoped, that using the terms of 'instinct- and conscious-side' like Kylie did would help him to get the point across – but it somehow just made him look like an egoistic bastard in his own ears.

He remembered this day only halfway clearly – he had been on a good ton of drugs back then – but most of all, how something in him had just shattered upon seeing Sonic like that. Possessing the knowledge he did now, he understood, that his instincts had felt the lingering death trying to steal away his mate. Instinct Shadow, connected to Conscious Sonic, had seen no way to help him and just retreated from the situation in grief and pain, leaving the stage for Conscious Shadow, who had refused to give up and had clung desperately to this last straw, hidden in his memories of his time with Gerald Robotnik.

"I...I have the ability...that is, I had...I had the ability to share my immortality with someone else. It was meant for Maria, but as she isn't here anymore, I had, so to say, an ace up my sleeve. It...it only took some of my blood and Chaos Energy mixed together, but after I transferred it to you, something changed in my body's chemical balance, taking this ability away forever. I guess, it was some kind of safety measure to-"

"Quiet." The force behind this one, silently outspoken word cut Shadow off, before he could slip in a full repetition of Gerald Robotnik's explanation to this topic, how he had never found a way to mix his blood and his Chaos Energy just right outside of his body for a vaccine, that would save Maria, or how he had seen the 'kiss-approach', as he had, flustered beyond compare, called it, as the ultimately last resort, should she have been on her deathbed.

Startled by the sharp, yet small command of his mate, the seme turned around to see Sonic looking on his outstretched legs, his head bent down so low, that his face was shadowed.

"Are you telling me, that you made me immortal?," Sonic asked slowly, his voice dangerously low and close to a growl. As Shadow had gotten his explanation very quickly out, the hero had the tiny hope to have misunderstood something.

"It...it was the only way to save you. You were so weak, you would have d-" "And when exactly did I agree to this plan of yours?," the Alpha uke interrupted coldly, feeling dread build up in his chest and stomach, making him more than just a bit nauseous.

Shadow swallowed at the tone. "Sonic, you were unconscious, comatose, you were close to-"

"And that gave you the right to decide for me!?," the hero snarled, jumping up and facing him, his eyes a pair of hard emeralds, a storm of emotions behind them.

Shadow shivered, feeling suddenly glued to the grass and unable to move. By instinct, he realized, that he was disciplined.

"Sonic, if this is about you being an Alpha-" Sonic gave another snarl and a sudden hard pressure on his shoulders stole his breath away, telling him, that he had just dug himself a deeper hole.

"Me being an Alpha!? You think, that is my problem!? That you stepped over my authority!?," Sonic shouted, sounding offended and feeling disappointed, that Shadow actually thought, that he would ever let his instincts control him like that.

"No, Shad. That isn't, what makes me so mad. It's your selfish decision to turn my life upside down and to NOT tell me about it, when you had the chance!," the blue hedgehog hissed, lowering his voice again.

Shadow wanted to say something, do anything, but he found himself still firmly frozen in place, his throat tight, as if something was wrapped around it in a strangling, yet not suffocating, grip.

Sonic's emotions were in turmoil, he didn't know, what to feel: should he be happy to not be able to die? Should he feel flattered, honored even, that Shadow had seen him as save-worthy? Or sad, as nobody of his friends was immortal like him and would die eventually? Confused, as he had no idea, what exactly that whole immortality-thing meant for him? Angry, that Shadow had decided over his life for him, which he hated like nothing else?

This last emotion was the easiest to feel, so he latched to it. "Two years, Shadow. It's been two years. Why did you keep this away from me? Why!? Did you think, that I don't deserve to know!? Was this your stupid 'protecting my mate by not telling him'-thing? What was it!?," the blue hedgehog went on, screaming his frustration and shock out.

Even if he had an answer to that, Shadow couldn't speak, Sonic's Chaos Energy held him firmly captive, he could just watch helplessly, how his mate ranted at him, his shoulders heaving in hardly suppressed rage.

Eventually, after Sonic had ended his tirade and a heavy silence had reigned for several minutes with the hero expecting answers and Shadow physically and mentally unable to give them, the pressure disappeared at once and Sonic turned his back to him.

"I don't want to see you ever again.," he growled, the finality of the statement letting the seme feel colder than the icicle piercing him yesterday could have ever been.

Before he could even utter a letter, Sonic was gone, leaving nothing but a sonic boom in his wake.

That, and a seme, whose heart shattered to pieces and who soaked his own lap with tears...

And another chapter finished! I hope you enjoyed it!

I'm terribly sorry for letting you wait this long - over four months I think -, but I had a severe case of writer's block. I think, that the stress I had lately due to the global situation and all the changes because of it are to blame...

I took my time editing the chapter, too, as I know, how badly trying to write with writer's block can end (and I had to rewrite some passages several times). I'm happy with how this chapter turned out, though.

I can't say, when I can update again as my new semester will start rather chaotically and I'll be busy with university-work, but you know me - I'll work on my story whenever I can :D!

Bye for now and have a nice week despite everything!