This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 1: The Fall
{A year… a very lonely year…}
Sally looked out her window at her kingdom. The reconstruction was moving along well, though there was still much to be done.
Ever since Dr. Robotnik was defeated several months ago, and the water and lands around the ruined city slowly returned to normal, the residents of Knothole moved back to their old home to rebuild it.
Houses had sprung up everywhere, and were occupied; though there were still a lot of people living in tents, and the large center that was hastily built to act as a town hall, hospital, and center for any other essential services. There was still no water or electricity being run to any of the buildings, but work was progressing on that problem. Education was another problem. Most of the families from Mobotropolis had fled to nearby lands when Robotnik took over, but some had remained while others were returning to help rebuild their old home. There was no school for the children, and only a few people were able to teach them.
Not visible from the window was Acorn Castle, Sally's former home. The castle was still in total ruin, and often any salvageable pieces of it were cannibalized for the sake of building the town. The royal treasury was found, so there would be plenty of money to pay for the rebuilding of Mobotropolis. But Sally knew the castle itself would never return to its former glory, it would take too much work to do so, and it was really a bit much to begin with. Having lived a hard life in the forest for the past decade, Sally didn't much care for large castles anymore, a small palace, more like a large mansion was far more than what she wanted.
But whatever would be built, she really didn't care. It was one year ago, in two days from now that her whole life came crashing down. She remembered it so vividly, the large grouping around the scouting party, the push forward to see the sight, and the most horrid picture she ever saw. It was far worse than the invasion of Robotnik, and it ripped at her far worse than the image of her roboticized retainer. Before her lay the deceased form of her one and only love, Sonic.
Sally couldn't count the times she's cried herself to sleep over the past year, or woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. She was growing so tired, and so weak. She wasn't eating properly and was wearing herself down to the bone. Though she would try to act tough for her subjects, the constant pestering of her new retainer, Amy to eat something was a constant reminder that she wasn't well, not that she needed one.
In her despair, she was letting her own life slip away, she didn't care anymore, she wanted to be with Sonic again. Sally didn't really want to die, but subconsciously, she was counting the days until the anniversary of Sonic's death, perhaps it would be fitting for it to be her own demise as well.
Later that afternoon, there was a knocking at Shadow's door. Bunnie went to answer it.
"Tails? What is it, yah look all tuckered out?"
Tails was panting pretty heavily having raced the whole way here. "Is Shadow here? It's urgent."
Bunnie led Tails into the kitchen where Shadow was at the counter preparing a snack while Rouge was sitting at the table reading a book.
Shadow was struggling with a knife and a jar. "I'm telling you, there's something totally unholy about cheese in a jar."
"Spreadable cheese is the future, live with it."
"Shadow!"
The hedgehog is question looked back to see Tails flying towards him.
"What's up kid?"
"You've got to come quick, to the hospital."
It did not take long for Shadow to arrive at the large building at the center of town, though Rouge and Tails would take a few more minutes; Bunnie languished in back, lacking powers of speed or flight.
Shadow paced down the halls after being given a warning by the staff not to run through the hallways. He eventually reached a row of rooms, out of one of which a small pink hedgehog stepped out.
"Amy, what happened?"
The pink girl looked up. "Shadow? Looks like Tails found you."
She sighed while Shadow looked at her, awaiting her answer.
"She been so tired as of late, and she doesn't look well at all. She hasn't eaten anything over the last few days and… all of the work is taking her toll. It just happened. She just collapsed from exhaustion."
Shadow stood looking in awe at the girl as she did a number of fidgety movements.
"What kind of retainer am I if my retainee ends up in the hospital?"
"Is she going to be alright?"
"I don't know, the doctors aren't sure. Geoffrey's in with her now." Amy started to stammer a bit from the shock and disbelief. "I've got to go, calm down a bit."
She charged off down the hall. Shadow walked up to the door where a raccoon had been placed on guard. He stopped Shadow, and then opened the door slightly to talk into it. After a moment, he opened the door to allow Shadow to enter.
Inside, Sally was a sleep on the hospital bed while Geoffrey was sitting silently in a chair next to her with his head resting in his hands. Sally looked like death had already taken her away and left the corpse to rot. She was wasting away, there seemed to be little of anything between the skin of her face and the bone of her skull. Over the white sheet laid her arms, both appeared as depreciated as her face. Connected to her right was a clear tube held in place by white surgical tape, leading up to a bag of clear fluid.
Shadow's attention was split between the princess and her bedside guard; he honestly didn't know if he should say anything or not.
"How is she?"
Geoffrey didn't respond at first, he sat there, motionless except for his breathing; he didn't even acknowledge Shadow's presence for almost a minute. Afterwards, the skunk turned his head to finally look at the black hedgehog.
"Not good. She's alive, but very weak."
The pair went back to silence. Shadow contemplated any of a hundred questions and comments regarding her withered state: 'How did she end up like this?', 'Has she eaten anything in the last few days?'. Looking at Geoffrey's almost dead look in his face, he shelved them.
The silence was broken again when the guard poked his head through the door to alert the presence of another visitor. Before he could say word one, the dreaded atmosphere was broken by a rather domineering voice.
"One side, I'm here to see a friend."
Rouge muscled her way through the guard and the door, and froze at seeing the unconscious squirrel; Tails followed behind her.
"You can't just barge in here, miss."
The guard tried to push Rouge and Tails back into the hallway, but Shadow caught his attention with a shallow "uhm" and gave a hand signal to motion him to let them in. The raccoon would normally only have done so by Geoffrey's order, but he could see that his leader wasn't about to either confirm or contradict Shadow's command; being in a hospital, the guard decided not to make a fuss.
Rouge stepped in next to Shadow was Tails next to her.
Not wanting to disturb anyone else, Rouge whispered to Shadow. "What wrong with her? She looks like a rake."
"I don't know; Amy said she hasn't been eating properly. Could be stress, work…" Shadow shrugged his shoulders to indicate he knew nothing more.
"Will she be O.K.?"
This time, Shadow answered more forcefully to indicate he didn't know anything more, but still whispering in respect. "I don't know."
The pair remained quiet while Tails walked up to the bed. "Please Aunt Sally, you've got to get better."
Shadow and Rouge looked on while Tails made his plea. Shadow looked at Sally's atrophied body, then he started to think. Before coming here he was about to make himself a snack; Hell, it's probably still sitting there on the counter. He was getting hungry having not eaten in hours, and the sight of Sally was just making his cravings worse. He took a quick look at the others, and decided to duck out of there.
Before moving, Shadow motioned to Rouge that he was heading out, but avoided saying anything.
"Where are you going?"
Rouge spoke too softly for Shadow to hear as he headed away, so she followed him to the door. When Shadow reached the door, it opened and Bunnie stepped in, panting heavily from running all the way here.
Upon seeing Shadow, she asked. "How is she?"
"She's over there, not good."
"Where y'all going?"
"Just hitting the cafeteria."
Rouge's eyes opened when she heard where Shadow was heading. "The café? That's where you were going?"
Bunnie came in while Shadow slipped out. He turned back to see Rouge hesitating a bit. "You coming, or staying here."
Rouge felt trapped, she was already leaving with Shadow before she found out where, and felt it would be stupid to turn around now, although she thought it was in very bad taste to just leave. With a bit of a scowl, she walked out.
Shadow sat down at a table with a couple of sandwiches and a soda that he bought from the cafeteria. Rouge followed, albeit reluctantly when she found out where he was going.
"I can't believe you dragged me down here."
"'Dragged'? I asked if you wanted to come with me."
"I didn't know you were heading out to stuff your face, which is rather inconsiderate under the circumstances."
"If my stomach started growling up there, how considerate would that be?"
Shadow took a deep bite in one of the breaded triangles. Rouge sighed, then picked another of the triangles to her mouth.
"Now look who's being inconsiderate, get your own."
"Oh stuff it."
Shadow and Rouge sat at the table eating the sandwiches when Bunnie came down and joined them, sitting on the same side of the table as Shadow.
"How can yah be eating at a time like this?"
Shadow got defensive. "I was hungry, alright?!"
Bunnie looked at the plate with the sandwiches and chose one for herself.
Shadow's eyes did a full orbit about the room after getting two of his snacks smooched. "If you guys are trying to put me in the hospital too, then by all means, take 'em."
Rouge tilted her head a bit. "My, aren't we in a good mood today? Don't tell me that Sally's getting to the big bad hedgehog."
Bunnie didn't like the idea of another competitor. "Yeah, ya've always been a little bit friendly with her."
"I just don't like it when people try to be more depressed and darker than I."
Rouge smirked at the stupid answer. "Uh huh, right."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh come off it, you've always been rather friendly with Sally."
"Really, I don't recall going over to her place and screwing her every night."
Rouge almost laughed at the joke, while Bunnie wasn't pleased that it was Rouge on the receiving end of that particular jibe.
"That's not what I meant. Around most people you're a bit of a jerk, but around her, you treat her like family. And this is not the first time we've had this discussion either; you've always shown some concern for her, whatever your reasons may be."
Shadow sighed; Rouge was right, he always treated Sally differently. The two girls watched him before he spoke again.
"I always felt responsible for what happened. It was my fault that Sonic died, and I felt that I owed her for that."
"That wasn't your fault, sugah; Robotnik killed him."
"I know, I know, but that doesn't help me any. Ever since Sonic died, she's been slipping into this deep despair of hers, and it just gets worse and worse. Sometimes it looks like she just might get on with her life, but then she slides again. Now, it looks like she's going to lose this battle once and for all. She just can't get over it, and it's been, what is it, almost a year since… since…"
Shadow stopped to consider what he was thinking.
"Bunnie, do you remember when we met?"
Bunnie perked up a bit at Shadow's question. "Yeah, it will have been one year come tomorrow."
"Well that's it. It was that night when Sonic was killed and brought to Knothole just before dawn the next day. In two days it will have been the first anniversary of Sonic's death."
Shadow was starting to perk up, as was Rouge in response. Bunnie was getting depressed at how Shadow didn't realize the significance of tomorrow, just the day after.
"Sally could barely face up to Sonic's death when it happened, and now she can't face it one year later."
Rouge was glad that Shadow wasn't quite so depressed, but his explanation really didn't offer much hope. "So what do we do?"
"I don't know."
