Disclaimer: Sonic The Hedgehog and all related characters are copyright to SEGA. Athair the Echidna was originally copyright to Sonic Archie Comics and Sonic Underground. I changed him a lot, but they still get credit. Lemon the Echidna, Tenchi the Hedgehog and all related characters that don't belong to SEGA belong to me, Zeldafreak-Vikki and my friend, Alyssa the Bat!

Author's Note: Holy God, I took a long time to update this! Why? Um... Final Exams, I went to another country, working on website... Stuff. But now I'm free and I can write again. PH33R!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE – AWAY FROM HERE

Lemon winced as Rouge finished bandaging her hand.

"Augh, does it have to be so TIGHT?!"

"If you want your fingers to heal properly, yes," replied Rouge. "And you should be thankful you're still in one piece after all that!"

Lemon fell silent after that. It had been two days since Takara's rising and nobody had slept. Sonic and Arashi had somehow found the strength to seal Jigoku away, back where he belonged, but now all five of them were completely exhausted. The only one of them who had actually slept was Shadow – but that's because he had passed out after seeing Maria. And Lemon was worried sick about him. He was looking rather pale, which strongly reminded her of Tenchi. As soon as Rouge had left to check on the others, the young echidna slowly rose from her seat and wandered over to Shadow. For quite a few minutes, she simply stood there, watching him sleep. She let a small smile play on her lips. It was so hard to figure out what he was thinking sometimes. She had been so mean to him before... and even though he had kissed her once, had he really meant it? She felt so confused about it...

"You can sit down if you want..."

Lemon gasped as she realized Shadow was awake. "Oh my gosh! Did I wake you up?!"

Shadow grinned as he slowly sat up, his face as white as paper. "Nah, I've been awake for hours..." He looked over to her and frowned as he saw her staring. "What?"

Lemon touched his cheek lightly, feeling how freezing it was. "Shadow, you look so sick! How can you even move?!"

Shadow blushed at her touch and moved away a little. "Uh! I'm fine! was just... really rough..."

"Yeah, I'll bet," said Lemon, sitting down beside him. "I'm sorry, Shadow. You must feel really bad."

Shadow sighed as he leaned back against the wall. "I guess so. But at the same time, I can't help but feel glad that Maria could finally rest in peace. Takara was controlling her the entire time," He stopped, overwhelmed. "And... Now I know what I have to do."

Lemon blinked as he looked down, as if every stitch in the blanket covering him were a fascinating portrait. "What are you gonna do?" she asked.

"I'm going to fulfill Maria's new wish," he replied. "I'm going to go live my own life, somewhere away from here."

Lemon smiled. That would be nice to get away. "Wow, where will you go?" she asked dreamily.

"I dunno," he shrugged. "Depends... Where would you want to go?"

"Huh? Me?!" Lemon thought and asked herself. Just where would she go?! Did it even matter where?!

"A-Anywhere!" she blurted, not sure what else to say. "As long as Pop and Knuckles aren't around to bother me! But... I doubt that would ever happen."

Shadow blushed as he looked away. "You could come with me, if you want."

Lemon's heart skipped a beat. Was he serious?!

"Really?!"

Shadow looked to her, looking nervous. "Well, you don't have to..."

"YES!!!"

They looked each other in the eyes, then smiled as they finally knew what the other was thinking. They both wanted the same thing. And now they had it.

"BOY!!!"

Knuckles groaned and stuffed his pillow over his head as his grandfather smashed the door open, making it leave a dent in the wall. He marched right up to his lazy grandson and yelled at the top of his voice.

"KNUCKLES!!! WHERE IS YOUR SISTER?!"

Knuckles didn't move a muscle. "Ain't she still asleep? It's early, Pop!"

"NO!!! HER BED IS EMPTY AND HER THINGS ARE GONE!!!"

Knuckles sat up, his pillow falling off his face. Had he just heard right?

"You're kidding me," he said, his monotonous voice not making things any better. Athair grabbed Knuckles by the neck and began shaking him, knowing the young echidna was barely awake.

"BOY!!! YOUR SISTER IS GONE!!! WHERE DID SHE GO?! TELL ME NOW!!"

"Okay, okay!" yelled Knuckles, struggling to get away. He took a deep breath, feeling like he was going to die. "Jeez, I'm sure it's nothing serious..."

A few minutes later, he was standing in Lemon's room, in pure shock.

"...It's serious..."

"What do you mean by that?!" yelled Athair, worry driving him mad. Knuckles grinned coolly.

"Well, Pop, I do believe our Lemon has eloped," he said simply.

"Wh-What does this word mean?" asked Athair, not fully understanding.

Knuckles chuckled as he answered. "Well! I think she ran off with Shadow!"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!" exploded Athair, his eyes glowing red. "Why are you so HAPPY about this?!"

"No clue," replied Knuckles. "I was kinda expecting this, actually..."

Athair growled, clenching his fists as Knuckles walked away.

"THAT – HEDGEHOG – WILL – DIE!!!"

Sonic yawned as Tails scrambled around, trying to gather up all of his things. But his whole body was shaking from nervousness and he kept dropping everything.

"Ack! Oh, Sonic! I'm screwed! I'm gonna totally mess up and she's gonna hate me!" stressed Tails, pulling on his ears.

Sonic laughed as he stiffly stood up to help his friend. "Oh, c'mon, little buddy, it'll be fine. I'm sure by the end of today, Vixy'll be head over heels for ya!"

"You really think I've gotta chance with her?" asked Tails hopefully.

"Definitely! She agreed to go out with you, didn't she?!"

"You're right!" declared Tails, gaining back some of his confidence. "I'm gonna go make her love me!"

Sonic laughed as he sorely sat back down in a chair. "Heh, right. Don't tell her that though."

Tails chuckled nervously, blushing with embarrassment. "Well, I better get going. You sure you'll be okay alone, Sonic?"

"Yeah, yeah," replied Sonic, waving his hand. "Get outta here."

Tails grinned and dashed out the door. Sonic's ears perked as he heard a deeper voice than Tails' yell with surprise. Then his whole body jerked with surprise as Shadow walked in. How had he appeared so suddenly?!

"Sonic," said Shadow, sounding slightly urged, yet at the same time, very relaxed. "I don't have very much time... I've come to say goodbye."

"Wha-?" Sonic blinked. Maybe he WAS still delirious. "Where are you going?"

Shadow shrugged, as if that didn't matter. "We'll figure it out."

"We?" repeated Sonic. Then he was silenced as Lemon walked in, as if appearing from behind Shadow.

"Lemon?! What're you two doing?!"

Lemon shrugged. "What does it look like? We're leaving."

Sonic raised an eye ridge, feeling a grin coming on.

"Ohhh, you're eloping, aren't you?!"

Lemon's eyes widened as her whole face went as red as her brother. Shadow, however, looked quite confused.

"What does that me-?"

"Never mind, Shadow! You don't need to know!" exclaimed Lemon, holding onto his arm, looking nervous. "Sonic's just being silly!"

"Okay..." Shadow decided not to ask questions. "I suppose we should be going before Athair discovers you're gone."

Lemon nodded and they turned to leave when Sonic suddenly called to them.

"Whoa, whoa, waitaminit!" he said, stiffly getting up. "Yeesh, I almost forgot!" He reached up a high shelf and pulled down what looked like a can. Shadow blinked and stared at it as Sonic walked up to him.

"Matt and dad cremated Maria while you were out of it. I figured you'd want this..."

Shadow took a shaky breath. Inside, his heart still ached from knowing Maria was dead. But he was relieved he could keep her with him. He took the can and smiled. "Thanks."

And with that, Sonic watched his friends leave out the door, not knowing he wouldn't see them for a very long time.

Author's Note: OHHHH!!! PART 2'S FINALLY DONE!!! MWAHAHAHA!!! I'm already working on the 3rd part, I REALLY hope you don't think this is too long, I never thought I'd make it this far. And if I'm right, am I seriously close to 200 reviews? I thought FF.Net had an error or something... but thanks for all your reviews and I hope you enjoy!