Sonic, Shadow and co are © Sega; all the other characters are mine.

Authoress' Note: Eleven reviews for the previous chapter! Eleven! This is making me really proud! Thanks you all!

Authoress' Note2: Just for letting you know… the fic is 135 pages long (this chapter included and counting out all the thanks and notes of the previous ones).

Zeo339: Hello there! Here's the next bit.

Shadow Of Oblivion: I'll never get tired in hearing that my fic has become so good. Thanks! Here's the next one. ENJOY!

RichaCo: I never dwell on the past, I'm just very surprised by this (besides I never would be a good writer of essays, since they are forced. And I am simply unable to write like that).
What happened to Shadow's brother? Well, you'll find it out soon since I'm planning to write it soon.
For the little fluff between Knux and Rouge, I assure you that I'm working on that, but rushing it will only result in a bad piece. So try to be patient.

Chibi Yoshi: I assure you that I didn't copy that from Broken Chaos! I swear it! You're right, we have probably thought of it in the same brainwaves… but being in so much authors in here, well… I think that this happen more frequently than we think.
Chaos in the city? Well, I thought about it, and I was undecided to make him go there or somewhere else, but in the end I found myself making him go… I'm not telling you anything, or I would only spoil it. And I really appreciate that you like how I described his personality.
For Tails and the other's fight… well… I still think that I could have done better than that.

Firehedgehog: Yes, that could be a version of said Horror, anyway… I'm very, very happy to see someone waiting for the remake of the first chapters. How do you find them? Better or worse? (I'm not talking about the writing, but about the content, since I changed a good chunk of it. Especially in the third chapter).

Knux: Here's next, enjoy!

Shadowkyzr: One of the best? *Jumps up and down* Thanks, it makes me really happy to see that everyone like this story so much ^^
Umm… Sonic and Shadow… umm… *goes away without answering*

Chaos Flower: YES! One day, because I'm evil and I like to make them suffer!
'I beg of you!' is more a quote from Maria than from Tikal.

Aless (x2): Like I said in my bio, Sonic and Shadow are both on the same level. They are so COOL!
Who's Shadow's brother? Umm…you're gonna discover it really soon. Why he can't remember him? Well, there's a good reason that will be explained here or in the prequel (if I do it…).
You know? I'm really happy that you review a second time asking me when I was going to update, that gave me the final push and now the chapter is complete.


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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Fleeing From GUN

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Shadow slowly walked to the window and touched his right cheek; then both his hands traveled to his quill. He was truly back to his young years.

A sudden sensation crossed the back of his mind, attracting his whole attention; it had been just for a brief moment, but the sensation continued to linger in his head, making him almost crazy. The sensation was something too real to be one of his lost memories or a joke of his mind; he simply knew it. Someone out in the real world was in deep trouble, and he perceived it.

The problem was… who was this person?

Surely not someone normal; it needed to be special, like him.

At that thought, his eyes widened and he turned around, screaming the name of the only member of his family he knew in that time period; his mind instantly went to the blue hedgehog.

A strong desire to know what was happening to the other hedgehog took over him; however, the lingering feeling in his head had disappeared, leaving him only with unanswered questions. The first of those was if Sonic was ok.

With a deep sight he closed his eyes; of course Sonic was alright, he was always alright. Nothing could stop that hedgehog 'Or is… truly it?'

'In the last days, Sonic faced so many situation that took him away many energies, and in the end his body wasn't able to sustain anymore the physical strain he was enduring.'

Shadow opened his eyes and looked at the corridor that led to his brother location; there was nothing he could do at the moment, unless he willingly woke up from his 'dream'. The only problem was that, even if he knew that he was in a dream, he couldn't wake up right now; the mental cage was too strong to break.

He started walking down the corridor; maybe if he remembered who his brother was he could finally break free from his prison and help Sonic. His head lowered and his face drew a sad expression 'Sonic… as soon as I'll free myself from my prison I'll help you.'

A tear slipped down from his right eye "So, just hang on…" He muttered looking back up.

His eyes narrowed in new determination; the faster he remembered, the faster he was going to wake up, and the faster he could go and help him. His pace transformed from a normal walk to a normal run and mentally cursed the fact that he was no more in possess of his special shoes.

He increased his run to the max, copying from his memories the blue hedgehog's stile of run, and turned a corner, towards his brother "Just hand on, Sonic! I know you can do it!" He shouted into the air.
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Darkness, darkness, numbness and darkness.

That was all that it could be felt in that moment; the five senses were dead, like the capability of formulating any type of thought. Memories of a life were locked away by the comforting darkness and only a little part of the previous conscience was active; that, being the part that was aware that darkness and numbness surrounded it.

Time and space didn't existed for it, it was like being in limbo and not being able to feel emotions it just rested into the comforting darkness, which was the only thing it knew.

However, something nagged it; it had been just for a brief moment and extremely faint, but it stirred something into it. Slowly, it started to discover the self-awareness and something else stirred in itself; now, it could faintly feel that it owned something. Something that wasn't darkness and numbness.

Another part of itself stirred, and it was no more a 'it', but a 'he'; as soon as he realized this, memories returned to his mind and he remembered who he was.

Yet, something was missing from his memories, and that were the ones regarding his infancy.

Why couldn't he remember them? What happened that made him lose them?

Curiosity took over his mind and he opened his eyes; he was, indeed, into darkness. However, this time he was aware and back to his old, regular self.

He stood up and noticed that his body was the only seeable thing into the darkness; a question instantly popped into his mind.

Where the hell was he?

Sighing and scratching his head he started walking forwards, hoping to find something that could help him; however, his mind wandered to that sensation. It had been like someone had called him, and thinking about it, he knew who that someone was.

A black and red hedgehog by the name of Shadow.

He didn't know how that happened or even how he knew it; he just did, like the morning after the 'last' battle against the BioLizard where he knew that he would find him in that forest.

Time passed with him walking, until he saw something on the horizon; he ran to it, and what he saw made his right eyebrow go up a little.

It was a little oval area made of blanket that was suspended from the ground by two feet; in one of the ends there was something that looked like a pillow. The whole thing appeared heavily blurred and black colored

Sonic sat down and watched around, then, some seconds later a faint black shape, barely distinguishable from the background, appeared; he instinctively lay down and watched the figure sit down. Just a little later it started singing the same song of before.

Minutes later the song ended and a light appeared some feet away from the little site, blinding him; the blue hedgehog closed his eyes and when he looked again, he found out that he was standing again and that the site was nowhere to be seen.

Walking in the center of the previous scene a thought crossed his mind.

What if that was a memory of his lost past?
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Chaos had swam around the ruins for the entire night by now; he could have been faster, but the noise produced by the boat would have alerted the humans, that by now were swarming in the entire place.

A thought crossed his mind; it was plain that the humans knew that they were here, or else they wouldn't be in so much in this zone. Narrowing a little his eyes he swam under a still standing bridge, being very careful to not be noticed by the five humans that were walking over it.

The water creature looked up; the sky was starting to lighten, letting see the surroundings better. Luckily until now the weather had been merciful with him and his two protected, giving them the entire night; however a drop, which landed on his forehead, told him that the time was up.

Gradually the rain increased in intensity and Chaos looked frantically left and right for a temporary shelter; his search was unfruitful and he did the only thing that he could do. He swam, and fast too.

The noise produced alerted a nearby group of humans, who started yelling orders at each others; the water beast left them be and swam past under another bridge. Now things would be harder, the humans knew their position and the weather was getting worse by the minute; not to mention that the time for the hedgehogs was slowly coming to an end.

A sudden strange sound attracted his ears and he briefly glanced back; his eyes narrowed in anger as he saw that three other boats were pursuing him. With a growl of frustration he increased his speed.

Yet the enemy was slowly gaining ground on him.

A quick scan of the surrounding water told Chaos that he was coming close to the end of the swamp; he turned left into a canal made by two buildings and stopped as he came to the shore, Which punctually swarmed with the enemy's agents.

The water creature looked back and saw the three boats stop.

One of the men on the ground pulled out something and put it over his mouth "Chaos! Surrender and return the hedgehogs, we don't want anything from you and we will let you go." He said whit voice altered by the machine and by the now heavy rain "We just want the hedgehogs back."

That made Chaos go into a towering rage; there was no way that he let them put their dirty hands over the two hedgehogs. Not even in a million years.

The water beast jumped onto the boat and protectively stood over the two fallen creatures, taking a fighting stance; he was ready to fight, and he would do the impossible to take the two to a safe place.

Lightnings started to cross the cloudy sky, illuminating the place, and they were soon followed by loud thunders; the storm was there, and it could give him some advantages. The wind started to pick up, making the rain almost horizontal.

Chaos looked back at the three boats and saw that they were dragged away; he quickly looked at the humans on the ground, which were now only faint shapes against the rain, and jumped back into the water, dragging his boat away with him.

The wind wasn't a problem to him, as a being born by the Master Emerald he never felt fatigue doing these type of tasks; he swam as fast as he could and reached another shore. Dragging the yellow boat on solid ground he quickly reached for the two hedgehogs that were now well soaked with water.

After a quick check over their condition he took them, blanket included, and started running towards the city; he needed to find help. A few hours and Sonic and Shadow would die in his arms.

Suddenly, a sensation on the back of his mind made him briefly glance down at the two bundled hedgehogs; it had been brief and faint, and it seemed some sort of call. Some seconds later he felt it again; this time, however, it was different…

Unconsciously, he started pondering over what he felt.

What had happened? And why he felt it too? But mainly, what was the meaning of that?

Shaking a little his head, Chaos focused back on running to the city; now he was on open ground, but 'luckily' the rain was giving him a little advantage. Meanwhile humans were not made to be in this type of weather, he was one with the liquid, so he was not bothered by it.

His only problem was that his passengers were now in a danger worse than before.

Morning came and Chaos finally managed to reach the outskirts of the city he saw from the ruins; a quick glance to the streets and he had to duck into a back alleyway. Although the rain was still hard, people were starting to go around in some sort of closed metal carts without horses or oxen.

He took another moment to control the conditions of Sonic and Shadow; their time was almost up. However, he was amazed at their strength of survival; they were completely drenched in water, part of their bodies were heavily injured and they were as cold as the rain that was falling, yet they were still alive, even if barely.

Raising his head, the water creature looked again at the streets; what he was supposed to do now?

He could ask for help, but the humans would surely flee at the first glance of him, or worse… call the humans like the ones he first meet after he was released from the Master Emerald. Their weapons were useless against him, but for the hedgehogs they would be lethal; not to mention that they could manage to take them away from him and give them back to that evil human.

However, if he didn't try, the two would surely die in his arms…

For the first time in his long life, Chaos was deeply confused on what to do.

Since he couldn't afford to waste time, the water beast walked back into the open and looked around; without really realizing it, he started running down the large path, being very careful to stay to the sides, so the strange carts wouldn't hit him.

He ran, until he reached almost the center of the city, where he stopped abruptly; like a blessing, he started to feel it. A Chaos Emerald was nearby.

Emotions flooded his mind; emotion that he couldn't clearly understand and that were contrasting each other. Maybe a day he would understand them, but for now he didn't have time to ponder over them.

He started running towards the mystical emerald and ended up in front of a big building; he walked in front of a wall and tested it by poking his finger on it. It was made of a think and solid dark material that reflected his image, and he could feel that the Chaos Emerald that he needed was somewhere on the other side of it.

Chaos reared back his right arm and punched the surface, which exploded into thousands of pieces; quickly, he used his free hand to protect the two hedgehogs' heads from the flying sharp fragments and entered through the new opening.

The water creature looked around the big room; it was fairly wide, with a high table on the far end that went from side to side and some plants here and there. There were some humans around the place; three were standing in front of the black divisional and five were behind it. All of them stared at him with fear and shock in their eyes.

Chaos ignored them and slowly walked up to the counter; he could feel that the emerald was nearer. Looking around, he saw that the counter wasn't really from side to side, but that on the right end it ended before it reached the wall; he walked up to the pass and went behind the divisional.

The humans in the bank slowly started to make their way to the new exit, trying to not make any noise that could warn Chaos that they were fleeing; an employee, before leaving his place, pressed a little button under the desk behind the counter. After that he left like the others

However, nobody noticed that the water beast was carefully carrying two dying hedgehogs in his left arm.

Chaos slowly walked in front of a door that was behind the counter and with a push he broke it down; he stepped into the new environment and gave a quick look at it. It was a long corridor with several doors on both sides; not caring about what could be in there, he walked straight, where the feeling of the emerald was coming from.

Interminable seconds passed with him slowly making his way through the corridor, but in the end he finally reached a staircase that was leading down; however, his head turned around to look towards the entrance of the place. Strange sounds were coming from that direction, and they reminded him of those metal carts with blue and red lights on tops of them.

Narrowing a little his eyes, Chaos ran down the stairs; the humans with the weapons were out there and were probably going to try to send him away.

Without realizing it, he reached the end of the many ramps of stairs and came to a stop in front of a huge round metal door; behind it, the Chaos Emerald was patiently awaiting for someone.

Chaos placed the hedgehogs on the ground, near a wall a hidden behind a desk that was near the wall; after he assured himself that nobody was coming down the stairs, he walked to the huge door and poked it.

It was massive, and the water beast pondered if he could truly open it; he grabbed the long vertical handle with both his hands and started pulling with all his might. Some seconds later something into the iron door moved making a faint vibration.

He put his left foot on the wall near the door and pulled harder; a metal sound later he found himself on the ground with the bar in his hands. He looked at it then threw it to the side and stood up; he walked back to the door and noticed that it had budged by an inch from its original place.

He looked at the hole left by one of the handle's end and put hit hands in it, gripping the edge; he started pulling again, and finally he felt it move slowly. Seconds later he stopped and looked at the fissure that permitted to see in the new room; it was just an inch wide, so he couldn't see much.

Chaos put both his hands in the fissure and with his right one he started moving the door, meanwhile the other remained on the frame; two seconds later the door gave in and the water beast felt it swing open with a really annoying metal noise.

The water beast examined the new room; it was long and many big metal shelves were on the sides. On the front there were many squares with a little horizontal handle.

He tilted his head a little to the side; were those doors?

Shrugging it off, he walked into the room following the signal of the Chaos Emerald; he stopped in front of one of the metal shelves that was at the end and gripped the handle of the square where the emerald was hidden. With a firm yank a square bowl came out of the shelf making a crunching metal sound.

Chaos reached inside the bowl with his right hand and gripped the only thing that could save the hedgehogs; the red Chaos Emerald.

He turned around and headed for the exit, but when he saw that a group of humans had reached the room and that two of them were taking away his protected he felt himself momentarily froze on the spot with another unknown emotion.

Well, not really unknown since he knew that it was the same that he brought to the humans six months ago; mortals called it 'fear'. In all his life he never felt it, but now the fact that the two hedgehogs were taken away from his care… well, it greatly scared him.

What if they were given back to that evil human? What if they died before he could activate the emerald?

His eyes widened in realization and he quickly fused with the gem, activating it; he instantly felt the drain, but it was only one. He looked up as the two humans started making their way up the stairs.

Chaos started running towards them launching a cry that was different from all the previous; it was long and low, and seemed to be more a desperate call than anything else.

The humans backed away, fully aware that the water beast was invincible for them; the two men holding the hedgehogs started running up the stairs, but they were quickly stopped as Chaos grabbed them by their necks.

The water creature slowly dragged them back to the basement and made them face him with their backs on the wall; he narrowed his eyes at them and then looked down at the hedgehogs. Only the black and red one was slowly absorbing energy from the emerald.

He looked again at the human then back to Sonic; he placed his right hand on his peach colored chest and felt.

There was no heartbeat, and Chaos felt himself freeze on the spot for the second time in less than five minutes.

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The night at Tails' workshop had been tranquil; there had been no sign from GUN and everyone was glad.

Rouge walked in the computer room and saw Knuckles sitting on the chair, which was standing only on its hind legs, with his shoeless feet on the desk; his arms were lazily folded on his lap and his eyes were halfway closed.

"Is this how you do the watch?" She asked crossing her arms.

Knuckles, being flung out of his resting status, yawned and stretched on the chair "I assure you that I was aware."

The bat raised an eyebrow "Yeah, of course…"

The echidna sighed and stood up "You can believe it or not. Besides it's hard to explain… it's some sort of 'sleep without sleeping', to say it easy."

Rouge tilted her head to the side, but then she just shrugged and walked next to him; she looked at the two screens and sighed "Now what are we gonna do? I mean, we can't stay here and wait for Sonic and Shadow to show up or for another attack from GUN…"

Knuckles sighed too "Well, I'm at loss of ideas too… for now we should wait for everyone to get up…" He said looking at the clock on the desk near the monitor of the computer "After all it's almost eight in the morning…"

Right on clue Tails slowly made his way into the room rubbing his right eye "Morning."

The two treasure hunters turned to him "Morning Tails." They said almost in unison.

The fox yawned and stretched, shaking away the sleep "Nothing new, right?"

The Guardian nodded "Right, GUN has took a night break and I'm sure that it'll not come back for another few hours. However, we can't let our guard down. They might do something unusual."

"Sonic and Shadow?"

Rouge and Knuckles looked at each other, then back to the fox "Unfortunately no…" The bat said sighing deeply.

Tails nodded sadly "Anyway, what you guys wants for breakfast?" He asked trying to cheer his mood and the one of his friends.

"Fruit." The two responded together.

After a second of silence the two started blushing slightly, trying hard to not to look at each other; Tails looked at the two a little confused, then his eyes widened and he quickly left the room for the kitchen upstairs.

Knuckles quickly looked away "Uh… umm…" He said, trying to start a conversation and end the terrible silence.

Rouge looked away too and scratched her head behind her right ear "I… uh… I…" 'What the hell are you doing Rouge!? This is the perfect moment to tell him and the only thing that you can say is 'I'?'

She took a deep breath and slowly released it; she slowly turned around and cleared her throat "Knuckles… I have to tell you something…"

The echidna slowly faced her, and desperately tried to subside the hot feeling on his face "Yes?" He asked, managing to not falter in his statement.

There was a long silence once again, and the two slowly started to inch closer to each other without even realizing it. However, they were interrupted by a jumping pink hedgehog that entered into the room "Hi Knuckles! Hi Rouge!" She happily exclaimed full of energies.

Knuckles resumed staring at the two monitors and managed to hide from the two females his terrible blush "Hi." He quickly greeted back.

Rouge, however, was trying hard to not grasp Amy by the neck and start strangling her "Hi…" She said a little bothered.

A sigh later she started chuckling, then her chuckle became a mild amused laugh; Knuckles turned and looked at her a little confused "Oh, it's nothing," She said "Really."

The hedgehog girl raised an eyebrow confused more than the Guardian "Umm… I came here to tell you that breakfast is ready."

The bat calmed down and sighed "Ok, we're coming."

Amy nodded and went back upstairs, almost screaming to Tails that they were coming.

Rouge looked at his red friend "Shall we go?"

"But… who's gonna do the watch?"

"I'll do it. I've already ate my breakfast."

The two looked at the doorway to see the human male scratch away the last of his sleep from his face.

Rouge smiled "Hi Jo! Slept well?"

Jo shrugged and walked to sit in the chair that Knuckles left free "Not bad… the couch is more comfortable than I had thought."

"Wait, if we took both parts of the couch, then where Tails slept?"

"He said something about a mattress on the floor in the garage area."

The two treasure hunters looked at each other, then walked out of the room and into the garage area; sure enough there was a mattress laying in a corner behind the Tornado. It was gray from the dust, and the two guessed that the young vulpine used it when he was too tired to walk back to his room.

"Aaahh!"

It had been loud and shocked, and it attracted the attention of every inhabitant of the house; Rouge, Knuckles and Jo ran up the stairs and stopped in front of the TV, where a shocked Amy was pointing the screen.

Tails was in the kitchen, fixing the screen of his little TV with wide eyes.

"What happened?" Rouge asked frantically.

Receiving no response she looked at the screen and raised her left eyebrow, like the one of the two next to her.

On the screen a human was holding an umbrella to protect herself from the hard rain and a microphone; behind her there was a bank, which was heavily surrounded by police cars.

Unfortunately the news ended before the trio could extrapolate something useful from it; Rouge took the remote from the couch and turned off the TV, then she placed her other hand on Amy's shoulder "Amy, what happened?"

The pink hedgehog turned around and a few tears leaked out of her eyes "It's… it's…" She stammered.

Knuckles sighed and looked at Tails, who was slowly recovering from his own shock; he walked up to him and placed his right hand on his left shoulder "Tails?"

The fox looked at him, then back to the screen "Sonic and Shadow…" He said looking back at the echidna "They are there, and there's Chaos too. The officials say that he's holding them hostages, but I don't believe them…"

The Guardian's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, then he looked at the others "Guys!" He called "We need to get busy! Now I know why GUN hasn't attacked yet. They are after the hedgehogs!"

At his call, everyone quickly reached the table in the middle of the room; the echidna leaned his hands on the wooden surface and looked at the fox "Tails, do we know where they are?"

The young vulpine nodded "Yes, they are at the National Bank of Green Lake City. With the Tornado II in special mode it's just half a hour from here."

"Good, take the plane and go."

"Uhhh… there's a problem, the left wing is damaged… I can temporarily patch it, but I don't know if it'll hold on in that storm…"

Rouge looked at him "We have to risk. If GUN get an hold on them once again, they would not be able to escape once again, and I'm not going to think at what those humans are planning to do with them."

Tails nodded, then he ran down the stair to get his blue special biplane into the workshop and repair it as quickly as possible.

"Knuckles…" Amy started, dragging the red male attention to her "What about Chaos?"

The echidna took a deep breath and slowly released it, looking down at the table "I don't know, but like Tails said, I'm sure that he hasn't them as hostages. Chaos doesn't know that… he kills or pro…"

The other three raised an eyebrow at his interrupted sentence; then started pondering as he started smiling. He looked back at them and his smile widened more "He's protecting them!" He exclaimed almost screaming "Chaos is protecting Sonic and Shadow!"

Jo scratched his head in confusion "How's that possible? I mean… if what GUN discovered about him, then his only purpose in life is to protect the chao… for example, he came to Desert Base because there were three chao there."

Knuckles frowned a little and shook his head "I don't know how, but I'm sure that he's protecting them, and it'll take a lot for GUN to reach their goal if he's there." He said looking back down at the table 'Is it possible that… he's repaying his debt with Sonic?'

He looked back up once again "I have to go back to Angel Island… Tikal might have some clue why Chaos has decided to help them. Besides I think that we need to move away from here… this place is not safe anymore."

Rouge smiled at him "Great idea, a flying island can't be reached that easily. This will give us time to plan something good."

The echidna looked at the two spies "Umm… is one of you two able to fly Tails' Tornado?"

The human slightly raised his right hand "I can."

"Good. C'mon, we need to go now."

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Look… I killed Sonic…
*Angry mob appears with a lot of axes, spears and others painful weapons*
Ahem… I guess that I have to start writing the next one… right?
*Mob nods*
Ok, but try to not kill me, or the next chapter can go ciao-ciao.
*Mob raises weapons*
Ok, I'll start the next chapter, just don't hurt me… please!

And remember! Reviews are always welcomed! They keep me into the go. Without them I usually slack off…

Az