I'm back! Sorry for the delay. I was trying to get to a specific point to leave off on. :D Enjoy! And of course, tell me what you think! ^_^

            Rouge was drilling answers out of Tails as the two hedgehogs entered the shop. She dropped the kitsune onto the steel floor and turned toward them, folding her arms and glaring. Shadow knew that look. He had gotten it right before he received her heel in the back of his head. At least this time he knew not to turn around.

            " What were you thinking?!"

            Shadow said nothing and let her fume.

            " You scared us half to death!! What if you weren't strong enough to be walking and passed out?! We wouldn't have known where you were!"

            " I wanted fresh air. I'm fine. I didn't overdo it."

            Her fist tightened and relaxed a little.

            " Just...be more careful..." She murmured at him.

            Another nod. She blinked and then turned away.

            " If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room." And off she went, her robe swaying as she walked.

            Tails got up off the floor and smiled.

            " How about some breakfast?"

            Sonic and Shadow stared at him, their stomachs growling at the same time. Tails laughed.

            " I'll take that as a yes."

            The small light brown turned and headed for the kitchen. Shadow waited for Sonic to follow suit before he proceeded on after the two of them. Tails had already begun to fry some eggs up in the small skillet, whereas Sonic made himself comfortable at the table, propping his bare feet on one of the chairs. Shadow stood in the doorway and glanced around.

            " You can sit down, Shadow." Tails said, throwing another smile at him. " I mean, this is your house as well as everyone else's right now, so feel free to do what you want."

            He blinked at the fox, then walked forward and sat down. Quickly looking up, his red eyes spotted the apple flying at his head and he caught it in one swipe. Sonic grinned.

            " Your reflexes are even better. Seems like you're recovering quickly." He took a bite of his apple. " Go ahead, eat it." The azure hedgehog said with his mouth full.

            Shadow gingerly took a bite. The sweet taste of the apple caused him to blink. Apparently his taste buds actually wanted to work today. But then again, this had more of a taste than the food from the bread group that he had been fed for so many days. He continued to eat the apple until the core was the only thing left. It was soon sailing through the air and into the wastebasket near the door. Tails had finished making breakfast at that time and handed both hedgehogs a plate full of food. Sonic inhaled it. Tails made a face.

            " Why don't you just eat the plate too, Sonic?"

            " Nah. They don't taste good." A grin emitted from the blue hedgehog.

            Taking his time, Shadow ate everything on his plate, as Sonic was mentally going insane at his pace. He was drumming his fingers on the table.

            " Could you eat any slower…?"

            Shadow took a mental note of this and began to chew each bite 48 times before swallowing. Sonic scowled and pointed a finger at him.

            " You're SO doing that on purpose!!!!"

            " Sonic, sit down and leave Shadow alone! Or get outta the kitchen." Tails said, hovering above the table.

            " Yeah but---"

            The kitsune gave him a look. Growling, Sonic got up and left the kitchen, grumbling something about how unfair it was to be the older one getting yelled at. Tails sighed and floated down, taking Sonic's seat at the table. He took an apple from the basket.

            " You are not eating?" Shadow asked after another swallow.

            " Oh, I ate earlier. Before I found you gone."

            " I got up pretty early...what time did you get up?"

            " A few hours after dawn."
            " What for?"

            " There was a piece of equipment that I wanted to work on. I barely slept last night since I kept thinking about how I was to fix it."

            " I didn't see you when I left."

            " I was probably in here when  you departed to explore."

            Shadow nodded and finished off his eggs as Tails continued to eat the apple.

            " I..." The ebony hedgehog paused and then swallowed again. " I would like to apologize."

            " For what?" Tails took another bite of the apple.

            He pointed at the bandage around Tails' head.

            " Oh!" The kitsune gave him a smile. " Don't worry about it. Miss Rouge said that you had no control over what you were doing, so it was just an accident."

            " Still, I would like to apologize. I'm sorry for what happened."

            " Apology accepted. Just get better soon. Everyone was pretty worried about you. Especially Sonic." The small fox got up. " Anyway, when you're finished, just put your plate in the sink. I have some work to do but if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." And he promptly walked off toward the main workshop area.

            Scarlet eyes watched him depart and then turned back to the breakfast before him. He finished it off properly, and then got up, looking for the sink. Once he had found it and deposed of the dirty plate, Shadow sat down at the table for a moment to ponder about the information that he had received from Tails. Why would Sonic be so worried about me? I mean, I survived the fall from ARK...somehow. He touched his head with one white gloved hand. I wish I could remember what happened to me. There are bits and pieces, but the puzzle has not been completed. Perhaps with time, though, everything will become clear. He got up and walked out of the kitchen. Still...why would he fret over what happened to me?

            Still pondering over the idea, Shadow walked past the door to the computer room. He paused after he had passed it, then turned his head to look at the wooden entrance. It was one of the only rooms in the whole house that he hadn't explored yet, and the temptation of looking in was getting the better of him. Testing the doorknob with his left hand, the hedgehog found that the room was not locked. Slowly, he opened it and glanced inside, eyes flittering around inside. There was no one inside the dimly lit room. Reaching into it, his hand felt at the wall, looking for a possible light switch. Once he found it, he turned it on and then slipped inside.

            It was a rather large computer, obviously fused with a huge database. Looking over the huge console, Shadow remembered the computers that Robotnik had toyed with in his base, and the one on ARK that had controlled the Eclipse Cannon. The monitor was glowing softly. He peered up at the results that were on the screen. It was basically computer code, jumbled up and unreadable. A small counter was at the top of the screen, randomly running through different variations of the code. Shadow contemplated the code for a moment, but refrained from touching anything, for fear of losing the whole project. Rouge is up to something. Looks like she's trying to get information from a protected database, but for what purpose? The counter stopped.

            " Huh?" Shadow looked up at it, waiting.

            Another window popped up to show the percent completion of the transaction. It moved slowly, but the bar began to fill. He stared at it, intently.

            " What's this file doing?"

            " It's masking my hacking so the officials don't notice." A feminine voice said.

            Shadow jumped and swung his head around to see the infamous bat girl standing in the doorway. Rouge was dressed in her normal attire, and this time, had her makeup on. Apparently she had gotten done with her beauty session and had returned for her work on the computer. Shadow didn't say anything, keeping his hands at his sides.

            " You didn't touch anything, did you?"

            He shook his head.

            " Good."

            She brushed past him and touched a few keys. Two more windows popped up. Green eyes darted across the screen rapidly, and then fell back to the keyboard. The windows were minimized and went back into hiding, just as the status bar filled to one hundred percent. Shortly after the status bar disappeared, the counter started up again and continued through all the codes. Rouge sighed a little, and folded her arms across her breasts, turning toward Shadow.

            " You're probably wondering what I'm up to, correct?"

            He nodded. She smirked, flashing her fangs.

            " I'm trying to break into the GUN Labs Database."

            " What for?"

            She blinked at him.

            " Shadow, you were captured and they did horrible things to you. Don't you want to know why they wanted to hurt you?"

            The dark hedgehog shivered a little. The thought had crossed his mind. Why him? Why was he being tormented? But another part of him didn't want to know. There were too many factors to consider, and frankly, his mind couldn't handle wondering about it constantly. He rubbed his temple again and finally answered her.

            " I suppose...but, I don't know for sure."

            Rouge stared at him.

            " What do you mean?"

            " A part of me does want to know. Another doesn't."

            " Ah, I see." She turned back toward the monitor. " Well, even if you don't want to. We do."

            " We?"

            " Sonic, Tails...Knuckles," She paused, hanging on the guardian's name for a moment. " And me. We want to know why they did those awful things to you. You didn't deserve that."

            " And what if I did?"

            Her green eyes narrowed.

            " What are you saying?"

            " I almost helped destroy the world. Perhaps that was my punishment for what I have done since I was revived..."

            She turned around and slapped him as hard as she could. Shadow hadn't even prepared himself for that, and toppled over. Rouge grabbed his shoulders before he went down and shook him.

            " Don't you dare say that! Nobody deserves to be abused the way that those Lab officials did to you! No matter how many things that they've done!"

            Shadow stared at her once the shaking had stopped. Rouge's eyes were aflame. She was extremely pissed off at what he had said.

            " You made mistakes, Shadow. Everyone does. But you also repented those mistakes by helping save the world. Did that mean nothing to you?"

            He looked down, trying to remember. She waited, and felt her face soften.

            " Better question, can you remember what you've done for the Earth?"

            His eyes closed and remained closed as he attempted again. Only bits and pieces came to him.

            " I can only remember a little..."

            Rouge frowned.

            " I wonder if that's one of the effects from the drugs that those GUN bastards pumped into you."

            " Amnesia?"

            " You seem to have a form of it. Seems like a small form though. You can remember things from the past and when we worked for Robotnik, correct?"

            He nodded.

            " Looks like just some of your present state of mind is missing. I'm sure it will come back with time." She looked at the screen again and then back at him. " Just take it easy and it will come back soon."

            Shadow nodded again and looked away. Everything was a jumble in his mind, trying to process every bit of information that he had gained from Sonic, Tails, and Rouge. His shattered memories made it more confusing, almost maddening. He rubbed his temple and turned toward the door.

            " Shadow, are you alright?"

            " Yes. I think I need to lie down for a little while though."

            " You look a little pale." He felt her hand grip his elbow. " Here. Let me help you to your room."

            " I can walk on my own."

            " I don't doubt that, but I'm going to follow you anyway."

            Shadow walked back toward his room, with Rouge at his side. He wanted to take a nap really badly right now. The female bat watched his every move, waiting for any stumbles or dizzy spells. He didn't have any while walking, so she relaxed as she helped him into bed.

            " Do you want me to get you anything?"

            " No. I think I just need to sleep a little while." Shadow kicked off his shoes, letting them tumble off the bed and onto the floor.
            " Alright. I won't have Tails wake you for dinner if you're still asleep. You need your rest."

            " Okay..." His eyes were already half lidded.

            Rouge gave his hand a little squeeze and then walked out of the room. He watched her leave and then rolled over, pressing his head down onto the pillow as far as he could. Pulling his knees upwards, Shadow curled into a fetal position, and fell asleep almost instantaneously.

***

            It was bright and blinding. And it was heading right for them. The scorching heat was starting to get to him but he ignored the pain. There was no turning back now. They had to stop it.

            " Shadow!!"

            He didn't move. It was terrifying. I...can't do it...

            " SHADOW!!!!" The voice was more urgent now.

            I can't do it!!

***

            Shadow bolted upright, tossing the blanket from him. He was panting slightly, covered in sweat. A dream. It was just a dream… He held his head in his hands, covering his face with black hands. What the hell was that? His hands fell away and his eyes scanned the unlit room. I wonder what time it is… He got up and found his shoes, after promptly striking his toes on the end of the bedpost. A curse and two shoes later, Shadow was exploring the workshop for any signs of the others. A plane was missing from the main shop area, so Tails was off somewhere. He heard voices coming from the computer room and quietly headed for the half opened door.

            " How much longer, Rouge?"

            " Sonic, you just asked me that thirty seconds ago."

            " Yeah, well, how much longer?"

            Rouge growled something under her breath. Shadow could hear her counter still running through code after code, trying to find the right one. He listened carefully, trying to make out everything that was said.

            " I just want to know an approximate timeframe."

            " Stop tapping your foot. I told you, I don't know when my program will hack into the mainframe. You're going to have to be patient."

            " I can't wait any longer! Maybe I should bust into GUN Labs and find the chart myself…"

            " Sonic, they already know to look out for you as it is since you broke Shadow out of there. Going back would be suicide. And you have no idea what they would do with you if they caught you."

            " Who said they're going to catch me?"

            " God damn it, Sonic, wise up. If they don't catch you, they'll probably kill you. And I am not explaining to Tails that you went off on some whim to gather information and got yourself killed because of it."

            Sonic must have been fuming because Shadow didn't hear him come up with some sort of retort. He glanced back toward the front door when he heard the sound of a plane overhead. Tails must have returned from wherever he went. I don't have much time before the kitsune comes back inside…Rouge and Sonic either didn't notice or didn't care that the airplane was touching down on the runway, for they continued to argue.

            " But we've got to find out why they did those things to Shadow!"

            " Sonic, I want to know the answer to that question as much as you do, but being arrogant isn't going to get us the information that we're looking for!"

            " But I could—"

            " No!!"

            Shadow was more intent on listening to Sonic and Rouge argue than he was looking out for Tails. So when the hand clamped down on his shoulder, Shadow nearly hit the ceiling.

            " GAH!!!!!!"

            " What the?"

            The door flung open. Sonic and Rouge peered out into the hallway, where Shadow was clutching his chest, gasping for air.

            " Remind me not to sneak up on him again." A deeper masculine voice stated.

            Rogue practically shoved Sonic out of her way.

            " Knuckles?"

            The tall guardian removed his gloved mitt from Shadow's shoulder and smiled, removing his sunglasses.

            " What are you doing here, Red?" Sonic asked, looking a little puzzled.

            " I saw the twerp scouting about when I was doing my rounds and decided to hitch a ride back with him to see what was up on the home front."

            Tails was hovering over them with his normal beam plastered across his face.

            " Seems like Shadow's feeling well enough to be sneaking around, eh?" Knuckles said, grinning.

            Shadow frowned a little.

            " I wasn't sneaking around…" He said, half lying.

            " Uh huh…He reminds me of you, Rouge."

            " Why you! Oooh!" She fumed at the tall echidna.

            Sonic and Tails laughed. Shadow felt a smile appear on his own face as Rouge turned redder than Knuckles' dread color. A soft beeping noise sounded from the room next to them.

            " What was that?" Sonic asked, looking toward the room again.

            The female treasure hunter turned toward him, then her eyes widened. She threw him aside and ran into the room. A few little victory noises were heard as Knuckles helped Sonic up off the floor.
            " What's with her?" He asked.

            " Her program must have gotten through!" Tails said, still hovering above them.

            " You mean she got into the GUN Lab Database?"

            " Apparently! Now we can find out why they wanted to capture Shadow!"

            Shadow blinked and stepped into the computer room. Rouge had already begun her search through the database, looking for any files that she could find. Sonic and Knuckles entered the room one after the other, then Tails appeared and continued to fly over them to conserve space. A few windows appeared on screen, searching for anything that pertained to Shadow the Hedgehog. Rouge growled when some of the older results appeared. She read out loud for the others to hear.

            " Shadow the Hedgehog…encapsulated in frozen stasis on Prison Island…set free by Dr. Robotnik and an accomplice with the ARK incidents…Guilty of theft one Chaos Emerald, along with helping in the assistance of stealing the others from Prison Island…." She muttered something about how they already knew that and then continued. " Also an accomplice with the Eclipse Cannon catastrophe... Satellites spotted the culprit assisting Sonic the Hedgehog with stopping the space colony ARK from falling... Whereabouts unknown of this time..."

            " Wait a second, what does that mean?" Sonic asked, still puzzled. " I mean, they did recapture Shadow so why wouldn't the records show---"

            " Hang on, Sonic." Rouge said, tinkering with the keyboard again. " There has to be another report or something in this database."

            The files were scanned again as she searched for any sign of a report on the last encounter that Shadow had with GUN. She kept getting the same files as before.

            " Damnit!"

            " Perhaps they haven't filed a report yet." Knuckles said, folding his arms.

            " There has to be one. GUN is picky about these sorts of things."

            " Maybe it wasn't completed."

            She scowled and moved the files over to see if the results of the search had given her another project. There were some new files, but they only pertained to a few sightings by GUN officials before the ARK incidents.

            " One more time..." She growled, redoing the search with a few different keywords.

            The search bar ran and filled as it gathered the files. Shadow had remained silent throughout the whole ordeal, letting Rouge do her hacking without adding any more stress.

            " Wait. There!" Sonic pointed at the screen. " That file's date is the most recent that we've seen."

            Rouge opened up the file and waited as it processed.

            File 78593

            Subject Shadow the Hedgehog

            Subject was seen wandering the shorelines of the coast, near the projected landing area where ARK was to fall. Witnesses reported that the subject seemed disoriented and fatigued, possibly injured. Current whereabouts at this time are unknown. Agent Keller and Agent Ruiken will be dispatched in order to continue the investigation. See File 79863

            " Well, they were looking for you...but for what purpose?" Rouge said, glancing over at Shadow.

            He shrugged and motioned for her to continue with the next file.

            File 79863

            Subject Shadow the Hedgehog

            Agent Keller and Ruiken reported seeing the subject two towns over from the last eyewitness report. Currently, subject has not been found within the city. A statement by one of the locals reported that she had seen the subject attacked by two men, but was not able to get the police in time before they made off with him. Both agents have been notified with an anonymous tip about possible whereabouts of the subject. Orders are to bring the subject back intact and unhurt. See File 81253

            " You were jumped by some goons?" Sonic asked.

            Shadow thought about it and remembered the cruel treatment that he had received. Being smacked over the head with a pipe, chained up, and even gagged with some dirty cloth, hadn't been a fun experience for him.

            " What did they do to you?"

            " Basically kidnapped me." He stated bluntly.

            " Do I want to know what happened?"

            " Probably don't."

            Sonic made a face. Rouge was looking up the next file to hopefully get more information that GUN was keeping from the public.

            " Here it is."

            File 81253

            Subject Shadow the Hedgehog

            Subject has been located. Captors of the subject had plotted to dispose of him. Agent Keller disposed of them herself. No longer poses threat. Subject was found with only one injury, a blow to the back of the head, but otherwise, alive and intact. Agent Keller found the subject bound by heavy chain and electrical tape, so she had no problems with trying to capture him again. Subject was subdued via chloroform and transported to GUN Labs for experimentation. See CC Project

            " Experimentation?" Sonic shuddered a little to himself.

            " They…killed those people?" Tails asked quietly.

            " Well, it did help Shadow in that part…"

            Shadow quivered a little, remembering seeing that man die right in front of him. Rouge frowned a little.

            " It says here that they wanted to experiment on you…"

            The black hedgehog cringed as he remembered his torment. Sonic was looking a little green around the gills himself, also thinking about how he had seen Shadow in the stasis tube.

            " What do you suppose the 'CC Project' is?" Tails asked.

            " I'm not sure. I've never even heard of anything like this from GUN before…" Rouge moved the mouse and tried to open the project file. A screen appeared with a warning symbol on it. " Damn it!"

            " What is it?" Knuckles leaned over her a little to look at the screen.

            " It's encrypted…I can't access it."

            " And that file has the answers to our questions?" Sonic asked.

            " Most likely. This has to be big, or why would it be encrypted?"

            " Can you break it?"

            " I can try another program that could most likely gain me access, but it will take time…"

            " Then I guess we have to wait…" Sonic sighed.

            Shadow had remained silent, trying to take in all of this new information. He sighed and then looked up at Tails, who was eying his bandages.

            " Well, I suppose since we have to wait, I can check Shadow's injuries. I'm sure they're prolly much better now!" He smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

            " Right. It's been about a day since we changed those, so go ahead Tails." Sonic told him.

            Tails hovered over Shadow, smiling as best he could. The ebony hedgehog looked up at him and nodded, heading out the door. The small kitsune landed and followed him out into the hallway.

            " The kitchen is probably the best place to check your wounds." He said, gently pushing him toward it.

            Shadow complied and walked into the kitchen and sat down at the dinner table. Tails was fiddling with a cupboard, trying to get the First Aid Kit out from it. He nearly dropped it, but managed to recover it before its contents ended up on the floor. The small fox walked over to the table and set it down.

            " Want me to undress the bandages?"

            " I can do it." Shadow said, unraveling one of them.

            The small fox nodded and waited until he unwrapped his arm. The wounds and indentations had begun to scar over, already regenerating some of the black and red fur that had been removed.

            " Wow, they're healing over really well."

            " Must be that stuff that Rouge keeps pumping in me…" He grumbled, thinking about all the shots.

            " Soon we won't have to keep bandaging your body up anymore." 

            He nodded and watched as Tails started to cover his scars with new dry cloth. The two repeated this action for each limb, and finally stopped with the dressing on Shadow's chest.

            " There. All better now."

            " Thanks Tails."

            " You're welcome." He smiled.

            " Well, what are you going to do now?"

            " What do you mean?"

            " You look wide awake. From that nap, I'm sure you don't need to rest again."

            " Oh." Shadow smirked. " I suppose I could go explore some more…"
            " Rouge might not like that."

            " Who said Rouge would have to know? She's got to work on breaking that encrypted file…"

            " You sound like Sonic…"

            Shadow eyed him and smirked again.
            " Another similarity between the two of us, I guess." He got to his feet. " But I would like to see this world a little more."

            " You can always do that later…" Tails said, frowning slightly.

            " Or he could do it now." Sonic's voice added to the conversation.

            The sapphire colored hedgehog was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning up against the doorframe with his arms folded. His expression was unreadable.

            " Sonic, you know Rouge will go nuts if Shadow leaves by himself again---"

            " Who said he'd be by himself?"

            Tails blinked at him.

            " What are you talking about?"

            Shadow stood up and looked over at Sonic. Both hedgehogs' faces were illegible as they stared at each other. Emerald burning into crimson and vice versa. Tail's blue eyes shifted back and forth between the two, confused. Shadow broke eye contact for a moment.

            " You're not going to let me out of this house if I don't let you come with me, is that it?"

            " Basically." Sonic said.

            The black and red hedgehog sighed a little to himself.

            " I lack the strength to even try and fight you off right now, so it looks like I have no choice but to corporate with you. After all, you could probably tell me more about the things around here than I would learn just going off by myself."

            The famous grin appeared on Sonic's face as he gained another victory. Tails waved his arms at the two of them.

            " Hang on, what about Rouge? I'm not going to get thwacked around for you two again…"

            " Don't worry about it, Tails. The two lov—er…" He snickered. " The two treasure hunters are hitting it off in the computer room…"

            Loud arguing could be heard from the closed door down the hall. Tails made a face.

            " Are you sure they aren't trying to kill each other?"

            " Nah." Sonic smirked again, looking down the hallway. " I'll bet in about fifteen minutes, they'll probably be all over each other after we leave."

            The small kitsune made another face.

            " Sonic!"

            " What?! You know they like each other." He grinned. " Right, Shadow?"

            " Um, I'm not discussing that." The black hedgehog blinked at Sonic. I like living, thank you.

            " Heh, well, you want to check things out. Let's move."

            Shadow nodded and followed Sonic out the doorway.

            " Hey! What am I supposed to tell Rouge whenever she realizes that you guys are gone?!" Tails cried, flying after them.

            Sonic was already halfway out the front door, with Shadow at his heels.

            " Just tell her the truth. I'm taking Shadow out to have a look at town. Maybe Knuckles can show him the ruins tomorrow. And if you have problems with her, just shove her into Knuckles' arms, then fly like hell. It's funny to see them both flush up… but you gotta be fast or your ass is dead meat. Anyway! Let's roll!" And out he went.

            " But Sonic---argh… oh alright….just be careful…"

            Shadow gave Tails a reassuring look and then followed Sonic out and into Mystic Ruins. The sun was making its final descent toward the horizon, ready to dip into the ocean when the time came. The mysterious hedgehog stared at the orb for a moment, and then turned toward Sonic, who was tapping his foot a little.

            " Well, ready to have a look about? I can take you to Station Square if you want."

            " Station Square?"

            " Yeah, it's a nice town. Some of the people are a little high strung when you're weaving in between vehicles, but they drive to slow…" Sonic looked up at him. " Did you want to go there? We only have so much time before the train shuts down for the night, and you're in no condition to run the tracks."

            " I would like to see the city…" His excursion into the city hadn't been exactly for fun the last time he entered its limits.

            Sonic nodded.

            " Alright then. C'mon. We'll have to get to the station over there." He pointed to the wooden structure a short distance away. " Then it's just a short ride to the city by train. Maybe we can pick something up to eat there as well." Another grin.

            The two hedgehogs walked down the stairs that led up the hill. Shadow could tell that simply walking slowly was driving Sonic insane, but he was hiding it as best as he could. He did appreciate the gesture though. It made him feel less like a burden. Soon they were mounting the wooden stairs to the train station. Sonic haggled around with the attendant, trying to get Shadow the same deal that he got with being a hero: Free passes. After a few moments of bargaining, Sonic was shoving Shadow into the train, telling him to find some comfy spot to sit. They sat in silence as the train rumbled underneath them, coming to life. It started down the tracks, slowly picking up speed and disappeared into the mountain.

Legal Stuffies!!!!! Sonic, Shadow and Crew are all copyright of SEGA!
Shall I continue with this?