A/N

Hello my lovely readers! Sorry for the long wait! I've been struggling a bit with this chapter to lay out my ideas in a cohesive matter, and I did hit a minor road block but don't worry, I'm back at it again! And I am also done with my next chapter, it just needs to be edited so the next release will be much sooner!

Also, I just saw the trailer to the new Sonic game, Sonic Team Racing, and boy am I excited! I actually kind of nailed the design of Sonic's car without knowing that it will be portrayed like that in the game LOL.

As always, I'd like to thank my amazing Beta, Nothin'Fancy, who is my all time inspiration and gives me so much support and help with my story!

And of course, thank you to all of my reviewers: Abril378, ROCKCHIC179, Missy the Cat, Angel-kohai (thank you for reviewing yet again!) and Amefloza13 (I had to google translate your review LOL, but thank you!)

A reply to Birds of Prey: I see what you mean, I'm actually planning on writing such a story when I finish Scripted Romance. It will probably be a oneshot, but the idea of a polygamous relationship between those three is juicy! For now I'm keeping it ShadAmy with SonAmy drama, I'm a sucker for the love triangle types of relationships.

A reply to pinksakura271: Honestly, your reviews make my day, and I die when you call sonic the blue speed bump! Love it! Thank you for reviewing again!

Anyways, enjoy!

Episode 5: Breaking and Repairing Ties

Shadow threaded through the maze of city streets, the roar of his bike filling the space around him as it was the loudest sound that disturbed the quiet night. The shiny black paint job reflected the flashing lights as he entered one of the tunnels. The engine growled even louder as the sound bounced back from the echoing tunnel walls. His quills swept back and forth from the wind, his crimson eyes were narrowed and glued onto the road but his mind roamed in an entirely different direction.

Rose...

His muzzle turned into a sneer, exposing his sharp canines as his hands turned the bike's handle further down making the vehicle roar even louder from increasing speed. How could this night take a turn for the worst in just a brief couple moments? How could Rouge's stupidly naive intention to help him manage to sabotage him even worse than before? The bat had the worst timing possible, and he was not intending to forgive her any time soon. He had warned her. No, he'd blatantly told her not to get involved, but when did the bat ever listen to him anyway?

This made the hedgehog's blood boil. He knew that the bat in her own skewed sense of friendship thought she was helping him out, but that didn't stop him from enacting a little punishment on the albino witch. He glanced up at the shadowy figure above him who struggled to keep up with his speed. This made him smirk smugly. There was no harm in pushing the female to her limits. It was petty of him, but no one ever accused him of being considerate.

"Shadow…!" The bat whined lowering herself to the hedgehog, her wings now making frantic small flaps in an attempt to catch up to him.

"Stop being so pissy, I get it! Now slow down before I turn this mission into a solo one!" She growled angrily at the hedgehog.

"Good, I don't need you anyway, you're only going to get in my way." He answered coldly, his sharp eyes never leaving the road before him..

Rouge gasped in outrage, and stopped suddenly, her wings too strained to keep up with a vehicle at this altitude. A small part of her hoped that Shadow would stop, and let her take a breath in order to catch up, but the cold hearted hedgehog merely blasted past her, leaving her to choke on the dust his wheels kicked up into the air.

She blinked a couple of times taking in the initial shock. For all the years that she had been working alongside the Ultimate Lifeform, he never acted this callous towards her. Yes, they argued and bickered, he constantly questioned her orders but he always acknowledged her skills and her contribution to the team.

The remark didn't sting, Rouge knew very well what she was capable of and she knew how much of an important asset she was to the team and to G.U.N. No, what struck her was that Shadow was angry enough to actually leave her behind. No matter what was going on in their relationship, he had always been able to compartmentalize it for the sake of the mission. Tonight however, he was clearly unable to do so.

Damn, he must really have feelings for Amy…

Rouge cursed this night and Shadow's inability to see that she had just helped his cause. If he truly liked Amy, then she was positive that her little push tonight was going to cause the pink girl to stumble into his arms. She sighed as she looked at the spot where he'd disappeared, and decided it would be best to let him cool off alone. Besides, she'd seen the description of the mission and knew he could probably solo it without difficulty.

The bat snapped her wings outward and braced on the ground before shooting up into the night sky, enjoying the rush of coolness through her fur and hair. She floated above the city a moment, before deciding to head to her bar. It was as good a place as any to kill time, which she now had plenty of.

Shadow revved his bike, pushing the machine to its limit as he exited the highway and made his way onto a narrow mountain road. He swerved around the corners, not even slowing down for each sharp turn. His body swiftly leaned left to right, blending his movements perfectly with his vehicle as it hugged every oval curve.

The only lighting in this area was the rising full moon and the single headlight on his motorbike that had a black taped 'X' plastered onto it. For a normal mobian the vision would be very limited and dim, but the Ultimate Lifeform was no ordinary mobian.

His crimson eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, his pupils dilated allowing him to see every little detail around his surroundings. His sharp eyes could capture the movement of a falling leaf.

In about an hour, he stopped his bike near a cliff. The hedgehog got off the vehicle and stood on the edge, his eyes scanning the view below him.

Underneath him was a steep hill filled mostly with pine trees. His ruby orbs flicked left to right until his gaze landed onto the thing he was looking for.

"Found you."

He took a couple of steps back and lowered his body into a half crouching position. In a swift move he kicked off gliding his hover shoes until he reached the edge. He dove head first towards the ground, his hover shoes giving him an extra boost. Once he was closing in to the top of the pine trees, he flipped his body resulting him to hover above the trees from the boost that his shoes gave him. He slowly hovered down to the ground and quickly began gliding through the trees towards his destination. A red streak emitted from his body from the fast movement, making him a mere red blur.

Once he reached his destination he stopped and disappeared into a flash of blue light and reappeared on a tree branch a good 20 feet in the air. He crouched and narrowed his eyes. His ears flickered, capturing every motion around him. The way the wind lightly bristled the tree's needles and the leafs of the nearby shrubberies, the crickets chirping in the night. He could even hear his own blood rushing through the veins in his temple.

He glanced at his touch watch and ran a finger on it. The screen lit up with information about the mission.

'Type: Recon

Rank: C

Destination: Decommissioned Eggman Base South of Metropolis

Note: Spotted movement in the base.'

Shadow frowned and lowered his wrist. It wasn't his type of mission. He was above such simple recons. But lately he took every mission possible just to escape his current situation. All these troubled thoughts and feelings that he had were messing with his head. After all, the Ultimate Lifeform was not designed to feel such deep emotions. Or rather, such positive emotions.

He was used to anger, hatred and bloodlust. He also had a glimpse for a feeling of sibling friendship, but since his memory was wiped out after the ARK, it was only an indiscript blip.

However, now his soul had been exposed to deeper feelings. He couldn't remember a time when he'd actually cared about another like he did when Amy filled his mind. Yes, he had a long career alongside Rouge and Omega, but he never had much concern for their well being. Omega could always be fixed if broken, and Rouge? She'd never really let herself get seriously hurt. The bat was cunning and smart, she knew when to stay out of the headlights of the battlefield. While Amy…

The girl was reckless. She would constantly overthrow her safety in order to help or save someone else. She never put herself above others. She was selfless and often careless of her own well being.

And this irked Shadow to the very core. How could someone ignore their own self-preservation instincts?

He grunted and rubbed his temples.

'Concentrate...'

Shadow rose up from his crouching position and disappeared in a flash.

The brooding hedgehog reappeared inside the base. It was dark, pitch black, and even the Ultimate Lifeform struggled to see anything in that darkness. Without any light source he wasn't able to see that well.

He tapped twice onto the watch's screen, which resulted in a small flashlight to turn on. This provided him with enough illumination to make out his surroundings. He rose his arm up and lit up the environment around him.

There were many scattered robot parts, covered in layers of dust. He took a couple of steps and lowered his flashlight onto the floor. He narrowed his eyes and crouched down on one knee. Since the dust was so thick, any tracks could be easily spotted. And Shadow knew perfectly well that the ones carved in front of him were not his own. They were twice as big as his and were parted roughly in the middle.

"It might not be such a boring mission after all…" The hedgehog smirked and stood up.

He followed the tracks further into the base until they suddenly stopped. The hedgehog furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. He looked around the room, there were even more piles of scrap metal and busted up machinery until suddenly something caught his eyes.

There were two small glowing red orbs that were at least a head taller than him at the opposite side of the room.

Shadow quickly pointed his flashlight towards the glowing orbs but all of a sudden was smashed against the wall behind him. He felt something cold and heavy push him crushingly.

Shadow grunted and teleported out of the mechanic grasp and reappeared behind it, giving it a quick shove with the side of his body before quickly disappearing and reappearing in front of it to welcome its stumbling body with a powerful kick, sending it flying back. He heard the metal screech onto the floor.

The hedgehog lifted his arm up again to light up the culprit but the moment the flashlight hit its target, Shadow could see a huge bazooka type of gun pointed right at him which immediately fired a shower of bullets.

"Shit!" The hedgehog grunted disappearing out of the way and reappearing several feet to the right but the shooting quickly shifted its direction towards him again. Thankfully his skin was bulletproof. His watch, not so much.

The only light source he had was gone, so he had to rely on his other senses, and the yellow glow when the bullets left their chamber. After a good 5 minutes of teleporting in either direction to avoid the bullets - he may be bulletproof, but that didn't mean that the sheer force that the bullets hit him with didn't hurt like hell - his welcomer stopped shooting.

"Scanning complete. Identifying: Shadow the Hedgehog. Known weaknesses: None."

Shadow's eyes went wide. He knew all too well the artificial voice that spoke, but he hadn't heard it in two years...Not since G.U.N. had decided to decommission the robot due to it not serving a purpose anymore with Eggman gone.

"Last known affinity to Omega: Fellow member of Team Dark. Calculating… Not a threat." The robot lowered his weaponized arm and Shadow turned the headlight on his metal interior, the greek symbols on his shoulder were a bit faded, but still recognizable.

"Omega… How are you still active?" Shadow blinked a couple of times, his pupils shrinking from the sudden light.

Omega stared at the dark hedgehog who was cautiously approaching him

"Last known memory files are corrupt. Omega has been active for 2 weeks, 21 hours and 34 seconds."

Shadow frowned and put his hand on the robot's metal frame

"I've missed you old friend." He looked up at the robot's blank glassy orbs. If Shadow reported back to G.U.N. about Omega's sudden revival they would shut him down again and probably scrap the poor robot just to be sure that he would be permanently decommissioned.

"Let's get you out of here." Shadow dropped his hand from the robot and led him out of the base.

Rouge landed next to her bar and entered through the back door. Her seafoam eyes scanned the place for a familiar red face and was quickly relieved to catch a glimpse of it sitting and chatting with one of her employees at the bar. Good, she seriously needed to vent.

She walked over to Knuckles' side and hugged his huge arm giving him a pouty look.

"Hey gorgeous!" The echidna grinned turning to face her but then suspiciously lifted a brow at her look. "What did you do, Rouge?"

"Let's go in the back." She nodded her head to the "Employees only" room and sighed. She still got a little thrill whenever the echidna was able to read her like a damn book. Sometimes it was nice, but others it was off-putting, had she really gotten that close to the thick-headed guardian?

Knuckles finished his beer and stood up. He placed his large bandaged hand on the small of the albino's back and lead her to the backroom which she also used as an office.

They both entered the room and Rouge slumped down on a grey leather couch pushed against the left wall and placed her hands on her temples, rubbing them vigorously.

"Babe, something happened tonight…"

Knuckles watched her carefully as he sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. His amethyst eyes scanned the bat, the claim she just made had him on the edge. What did she exactly mean by that? Could she… The echidna clenched his jaw trying to distract his mind from the worst possible assumptions that he could think of.

"What...what happened…?" He cautiously asked staring at her and rubbing her shoulder gently, trying to calm his mind while waiting for her answer.

"I...I just wanted to help…" She quietly said and snuggled up into his bulky chest her lips turning into a pout once again.

The echidna frowned. That was just as vague as her previous claim. The more she implied, the more paranoid he felt about his dark assumptions.

"Rouge...Spit it out." He growled his eyebrows furrowing. Knuckles was not a patient person. Yes, he was working on that aspect of himself and he was actually pretty proud of himself that he hadn't snapped yet and accused the bat of cheating on him.

"I wanted to help Shadow get with Amy, but that Ultimate doofus yelled at me and went all pissy on me instead of thanking me." The bat rolled her crystal eyes and huffed irately.

The echidna's posture relaxed a bit as his mind calmed down from the overrunning thoughts of Rouge cheating on him. Giving advice on how to deal with angry friends was something he could deal with. He smirked a little, and leaned back on the couch beside her.

"Tell me, what exactly happened?"

Rouge looked up into his eyes and sighed deeply. She knew that Knuckles wasn't going to be the least bit happy about the way she tried to help. But they promised each other to be truthful. So she was going to tell him everything. After a couple minutes of explaining, she closed her eyes, another frustrated sigh escaping her lips.

"So...That's pretty much what happened...And now he's really mad at me. I haven't seen him in such an angsty mood in years. He even left me in the middle of the road!" Rouge crossed her arms, raising her voice at the last part, feeling pissed at the fact that the hedgehog left her in the dust. However the way her boyfriend was now staring at her made her anger disappear and was replaced by a hint of guilt. The albino bit her glossed lower lip staring at the echidna trying to read his expression.

Knuckles was staring down at a spot between his large sneakers, his eyes were thoughtful and almost unreadable.

"Rouge…" He growled and put his hands on his face. His aura had turned dark and she felt like he was shooting silent curses in her direction.

She scooted away from him furrowing her eyebrows. Oh, she could feel the tension in the air about to burst in her face. She knew her boyfriend's temper all too well, and even though he had been working on it and has been pretty chill lately, she could see that she had just pulled the right string.

"Why does everything you do have to involve flirting?!" He suddenly stood up, his voice angry and on the verge of shouting. "Why?!" He turned towards her his expression full of rage, fists clenching and veins popping visibly over his massive biceps.

The bat stared at him, her soft features turned now into a grimace. She'd expected a scolding, but not a full blown scandal.

"It was fake! You know damn well that there's absolutely nothing between Shadow and me!" She stood up and moved right in front of him putting her hands on her waist. Her head was reaching his chest level so it was a bit hard to intimidate him.

"I don't care if it's fake or real, you just had to resort to flirting, didn't you!? You couldn't have helped him in any other way!" He was now throwing his hands around and pointing an accusing finger back at her. "And why the hell are you helping him get with Amy, when she clearly still has feelings for Sonic?!"

"I just wanted to give her a push in the right direction! And that boy, Sonic, is not her right direction! All he's been doing for years and years now is ignoring her and shoving her tiny pink ass in to 50 shades of friendzone!"

His mouth opened, an argument fresh on his lips, but she growled and pointed an accusing finger into his chest, "And I'm so sick and tired of your insecure jealousy! I look at a guy at the bar to get his order, and you freak out! I give a waiter a tip at the restaurant and you freak the fuck out!" Her wings flapped, lifting her body up so she could reach his eye level in an attempt to be more intimidating.

"Sonic is a good guy! Better than Shadow, just a little slow in the emotions department! And what's Shadow? An emo who can't swallow his messed up past. He has every chance to live his life like a normal person, but nooo, he has to be all edgy and bad," He countered, his amethyst eyes blazing with purple fire.

"He'll probably break the poor girl's heart the moment she actually falls for him! But wait… Amy would never fall for him, you know why? Cause she still fucking loves Sonic, and she has for the past 10 years!" His rage was now filling to the brim at her callous insults of his best friend and her sticking her nose where it didn't belong. But even more pressing than that was the fury he felt about her blatant disrespect of their relationship.

"AND I'll stop being 'insecure' when you stop acting like a fucking HOE!" Knuckles yelled and suddenly punched the wall next to Rouge, his fist going right through it and making large cracks all around the hole.

The bat flinched, stumbling a step back but stood her ground and sneered back at him.

"You fucking pussy! You think punching a wall will make your point!? Why don't you aim at me, huh?!" She screamed at him pushing him roughly back and pointing to herself. To her surprise he actually moved from the contact. She thought it would take much more to break his stoic stance. But she didn't ponder the reason for long, her anger not allowing her to see the fleck of hurt in his eyes.

"C'mon, show me what kind of a man you are! Hit me! I know you fucking want to!"

Knuckles growled at the female in front of him, everything in his body screamed to act on her taunts, his body was shaking, his muscles were pulsing and his teeth were gritting so hard that they could brake. He closed his eyes taking a deep breath silently counting to 10 in his mind trying desperately to cool off. This was his tactic. It had been working for so many years, this was his way of not blowing off like he used to at every little thing.

5...6...7…

He counted while the female in front of him continued to spit insults and provoke him.

8...9...10…

He finally let out his breath and pulled his fist away from the wall. Pieces of concrete and dust fell from his hand as he unclenched it.

Rouge stared at him with her narrowed cold blue eyes waiting for him to act on her taunts, to finally lay a hand on her like many other lovers had done in the past. Most driven to insanity by her difficulties, some just because, and she never let them stick around much longer after that. But the hit never came.

He moved pass her, bumping his shoulder into hers and walked away.

"Where the hell do you think you're going!?" She turned after him, the gesture pissed her off even more than the insults or fists. Who did he think he was to turn his back on her? She was not done with him.

"To find something that's actually worth my time." He replied coldly without even turning to look at her, as he exited the room and slammed the door behind him.

Rouge stared at the door, her seafoam eyes wide in shock. All rage suddenly left her body and was replaced by something else. Her figure trembled as her eyes started watering to a point where her vision blurred. That had stung. It had stung more than Shadow's demeaning. More than the earlier insult. More than any of her past lovers abusing her. It burned her to her very core. The bat fell onto her knees and grasped her chest desperately in effort to calm the shakes.

However, nothing could comfort her as tears escaped her eyes. Quiet whimpers filled the small room as she pushed herself to lean on the wall. It was official, she was the biggest screw up in all of Mobius. Sure Knuckles had his issues, but he'd never laid a hand on her… and she had pushed him further than any boyfriend in her life - most males breaking under the first curveball thrown their way.

Knuckles was a firecracker on his best day, more willing to throw a punch then talk it out. Heck he'd thrown a punch her way more than once when they'd still been frenemies. However, the moment they'd started sleeping together, and… 'dating' he'd never touched her in anger again.

Her whimpers turned to grunts, which turned to screams muffled by her fangs digging into the palms of her hands. Blood soaked into her white gloves, but she hardly noticed or cared. She'd just let the most kind and enduring male walk right out of her life, and she feared it was forever.

Amy stared into deep jade pools. It wasn't the first time she'd gotten lost in them. She'd been staring at them for so many years... yearning to see them stare back at her with the same adoration and emotion that she held in her own. And now finally when she received this smoldering, hopeful, full of adoration gaze, she felt... strange.

It was such a strange feeling to finally get something that you've fought for, something you've desired for so many years. And finally, when you have almost given up, it's served to you on a silver platter, it was almost… disappointing.

She was happy, yes but the feeling wasn't as satisfying as she thought it would be. She'd been waiting all these years for a confession that in the end, when it was given without any effort on her part to draw it out, it felt superficial.

The rosette shook her head violently trying to shake the insane reaction away. What was she thinking, this was Sonic - her Sonic - confessing his love to her. That very thought helped bring her out of her ridiculous doubts.

The gesture made the male hedgehog hitch his breath in his throat, as if a huge lump of chilli dog had gotten lodged in there and restricted his breathing. His eyes became wide with a panicked realisation that maybe he was too late. She wasn't reacting how he'd imagined, and she was now shaking her head furiously. Chaos, this was embarrassing. His whole body screamed 'RUN!', and now he was fully ready to listen to the instinct.

Just as he was about to stand up and dash away, a small gentle hand gripped his forearm and emerald eyes full of determination, kindness and affection, made the azure hero stay in place. A sweet cheerful smile spread across her muzzle, and her free hand reached up to his cheek, cupping it gently.

"Sonic the Hedgehog… You always have an impeccable sense of timing."

Now the male felt even more confused. His eyes frantically moved from left to right, before settling onto hers, searching for any sign. Was that acceptance, or pitty? Was she rejecting him? Or was she willing to try?

"A-Ames…" His throat felt dry as the Sahara desert and his body was on the verge of exploding from the overwhelming desire to run the hell away from this whole ordeal. Each molecule in him felt like it was shaking and smashing into another, making his body go into overdrive. The girl was literally driving him nuts.

Amy was actually starting to enjoy herself. She had never seen Sonic in this kind of state. A small part of her felt a sadistic pleasure seeing the hedgehog torment himself with panic. However the love she had in her heart for the hero, overwhelmed that desire and she decided to put Sonic at ease.

"Let's do it." She finally spoke up smiling confidently.

Suddenly, Sonic's muzzle turned into a deep shade of crimson and his eyes went wide. She was breathing heavily, and the twinkle in her eye was sending him heated signals… not to mention the fact that they were currently sitting on her bed… and the neck of her shirt was hanging loosely off her shoulder, revealing the strap of a red bra. His favorite color. His whole body suddenly felt hot in comparison to the cold sweat he felt a second ago. Not to mention the sudden heat he felt rushing to his nether regions

"Wh-wha…? Here…? N-Now…?" He started frantically looking around as if someone was watching them about to commit a crime. "Ames, I never knew that you would be so...straightforward…" He gulped grinning awkwardly and sheepishly.

Amy gave him an utterly confused look, her brows furrowing and her head tilting to the side, causing the shirt to shift downwards even further. Sonic gulped.

"I-I always thought that you would like to wait a bit for that part…" He tried to put on a smoldering smirk but it came off into a cringy embarrassed grin.

Sudden realisation hit the female hedgehog.

"OH MY CHAOS!" The girl practically screeched in horror making the male hedgehog fall off of her bed and grip his almost bleeding ears.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PERVERTED HEDGEHOGS!?" She took her pillow and threw it with full blast at the shrunken hedgehog, knocking him a couple of feet back, making him crash into the wall behind him.

Shit! Shit! SHIT!

The male hedgehog was now grabbing and rubbing his head. Damn his primal instincts and his male hormones. How could he misunderstand that? His head, ears and back now ached. Who knew that a pillow could be so painful? But Sonic guessed that anything in Amy's hands was a potential weapon. Good thing he reacted quickly, otherwise the pissed girl in front of him would've inflicted worse damage to his body. Maybe more than she already inflicted on his mind.

"A-Ames! I'm sorry! So Sorry! I misunderstood the atmosphere! I-I wasn't thinking clearly! I'm not exactly a genius when it comes to these things… I-I mean you'd be my first!" He put up his gloved hands in front of his face and squinted his eyes, ready to receive another blow from some other object laying around the fuming female.

Amy was now standing on her bed glaring at the blue hedgehog, her dark, furious aura, could practically make any plant placed within a foot away to contract itself and turn back into a seed. Her quills had aggressively bristled making them spike up like a fan around her head.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, running a hand back through her quills to smooth them out. Once her mind was clear from the anger, she actually found the situation quite humorous. Sonic the hedgehog was cowering away into a corner, ready to take the next blow so she could cool down. And he wasn't running away.

Amy knew fully well that he could easily dodge almost anything she threw at him, yet he chose to accept the consequences of his dirty mind. It was actually kinda sweet. Besides, his little unconscious admission of his inexperience really helped to squash any further doubts about her decision. She had always thought the chicks she'd seen him with in the past had shared his bed, and she'd be lying if that thought hadn't caused her to dislike the idea of dating him and becoming one of his notches. To know he was a virgin just like she was, was somehow both attractive and comforting.

Amy smiled cheerfully and hopped out of her bed to crouch next to the speedster. This caused the male hedgehog's fur to prick up in expectancy for an even worse blow from the female herself, but after a minute of anticipation, he sheepishly opened an eye, his face still turned away to the side. He looked at the girl and sighed in relief ever so softly.

"Sorry…" He mumbled again and cleared his throat repositioning himself into a 'not-so-cowardly' position. Then after a moment's hesitation, he looked up at her shyly and held out his arms.

Amy giggled at the sight and threw herself into his embrace. Sonic tensed up for a moment but this time he regained his composure quicker, as he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her in to his chest to snuggle up. She was kneeling between his legs, her head leaned on to his toned chest with her arms wrapped around his neck. His eyelids dropped into a half closed position and a small tender smile spread across his face. His hand gently started caressing her back as both hedgehogs melted in the warmth of their embrace. Neither one recalling a time that they'd been happier then this very moment.