A/N: I warned you, this is a long and very sad chapter. It is very soppy too I'm trying to do that empathy thing.

Ch10: Gone

She took him down some stairs he hadn't noticed before and led him into an extremely large room.

"Wow!" Sonic said, nearly speechless. He stared at the huge squashy sofa, 42-inch plasma TV and gigantic music surround sound system.

"I've been saving up money for ages, so I had a bit to splash out" Signo said bashfully "I don't show off though"

"Sonic" Signo blushed. He looked at her. "I…."

"Shhh" he whispered putting his finger on her lips "I love you, you're so beautiful" then they both fell back and the couch was occupied by the two teenagers snogging. Suddenly, Signo pulled away. "What's wrong?" Sonic questioned disappointedly.

"You're on top of me"

"So?"

"Don't try it on with me"

"Why not?"

"Like I said, I'm not that easy"

"Why can't you be- for me?"

"I prefer making guys catch me, not me falling for every guy under the sun"

"But I'm not 'every guy under the sun'"

"But if I go soft with you and you just ditch me; that would make me easy"

"Who says I'm gonna ditch you?"

"You don't get anything for free, just like you don't get me for free"

"You mean I have to pay you?" Sonic asked dopily

"No, you have to work for me" Signo answered

Meanwhile, back at the CDA base, Espio was blubbering fit to burst.

"Why?" he screamed, "I thought she loved me!"

"Maybe" Vector snapped, "She did it for attention, coz you never give her any". Espio wailed louder.

"Wow Espio" Charmy buzzed "If you liked her so much how come you never took any notice of her?"

"I did though!" Espio sniffed "Didn't I Vector?"

"Not from where I was standing" Vector bellowed; getting angry about all the noise. Espio stopped

"You mean, I didn't give her any attention?" he asked. Vector nodded his head. "How can I get her back then?"

"I'm not sure if you can Espio" Vector grunted "It's you're fault if you can't". Espio began to wail louder than ever yet again.

At Shadow's place, all was silent. Shadow looked livid.

"Well" Rouge said cautiously "What more do you expect? When I was 14, if I had met Knux then, I would've done more than just kissing!" Knuckles looked at her and smiled, she smiled back. But then she realised she shouldn't have said what she just said. Shadow looked horrified.

"You think" Shadow whispered sounding panicky "That Sonic and Signo are ……." He got quieter and quieter until eventually he faded away. He got up and Rouge saw he looked angrier than he ever had before.

"Don't jump to conclusions, Shadow" Knuckles sighed.

"Don't jump to conclusions?" Shadow yelled in return "My little sister is alone at her house with some hot shot hedgehog who thinks he's top of the world, who she thinks she loves and you're telling me NOT TO JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS!"

"Calm down please" Rouge begged "She's not a tiny bundle of fluff anymore Shadow! She's grown up on her own with no one around to protest nearly all the time. She of all people deserves some fun. Why can't you just be happy for her, and happy that's she's growing? Coz if you're happy- she's happy"

Shadow sat down and took a minute to let Rouge's words sink in.

"I'll go talk to her" Shadow got up again as he spoke.

"No" Rouge said "I will. I doubt she's had many good girl mates and it's a whole lot easier to talk to a mate than your protective big brother" Rouge got up and flew out of the house.

Shadow sat down and sighed heavily. Then he put his head in his hands. 'Please Rouge, talk to her, and good luck'

Back at Signo's place, she and Sonic had resumed their 'tonsil tennis tournament' as Rouge had dubbed it, but yet again, Signo pulled away. Sonic tried to get her to carry on, but Signo got up and went to the door. She opened it with a sigh.

"ROUGE!" She shouted. Soon after she came back followed closely by Rouge.

"Nice apartment, so cool, the fact that it's underground" Rouge said shakily "Signo, Sonic we really need to talk." Rouge sighed.

"Come in here " Signo sighed in return "You too Sonic" she led them into a dining room with a big glass dining table and sat down. Rouge and Sonic sat down too.

"Signo, Shadow is really worried about you, er ……." Rouge began

"He's worried about me being alone with Sonic" Signo finished closing her eyes "I know how Shadow thinks, I also know the only emotion he shows is anger, but I know how he feels"

"He wants to know" Rouge looked sideways at Sonic then looked away again "how, er, extensive your, err, relationship is with Sonic" Rouge stuttered.

"If Shadow is so bothered, I tried to get her interested but she blew me off!" Sonic yelled.

Signo's eyes snapped open like the eyes a child's doll, but her expression remained stern and somewhat angry. "Sonic, I knew if I had just carried on, Shadow would've literally killed you" She closed her eyes again "Sonic, if I did what I wanted instead of what Shadow approved of, the world and inhabitants would all be dead"

"What do you mean?" Rouge asked slowly but quietly.

"Shadow is too over protective for his own good. I love the fact he cares about me and wants to look after me, but if he doesn't let me learn how to look after myself- what will become of me? In the years I didn't have any idea where Shadow was, I learnt how to look after myself and get trough life a day at a time. When I found out where Shadow was I was thrilled. But now he's here again it's like the years we didn't see each other didn't pass. In Shadow's eyes I'm still 5. He won't let me grow up because he doesn't want me to" Signo explained plainly. Rouge and Sonic were shocked. "I need to show him that I'm not a baby any more. I need him to understand me like I understand him"

"Why don't you talk to him?" Rouge suggested "I tried to tell him earlier but he wouldn't listen unless it comes from you"

"Why was Shadow so angry at the party, why was everyone mad at the party?" Signo questioned.

"Err, Amy, err" Rouge garbled like a baby.

"What about Amy" Signo said.

"Amy is in love with Sonic" Rouge spluttered extremely quickly.

"WHAT!" Signo screamed, turning to face Sonic "I thought, I thought" Signo stood up and ran out of the room.

"Signo!" Sonic called. Then he turned to face Rouge angrily " What did you have to tell her that for, now she thinks I'm a two timing cheat!" he yelled.

At Amy's house, Tails and Cream were trying to stop Amy crying with no avail.

"How could he do this to me?" Amy wailed.

"Please Amy, stop crying" Cream begged.

"You know, Sonic wasn't actually cheating on you, coz he didn't go out with you in the first place. So technically he hasn't actually done anything wrong and he is entitled to snog any girl he wishes" Tails said absent-mindedly. Amy gawped in horror and Cream gave him an evil glare. Tails' normally orangey-yellow fur turned a dark shade of crimson in embarrassment.

"Err, sorry" he stuttered. Amy cried even harder. "I think it's best if I leave, I'm not taking your side in this!" Tails yelled angrily, standing up and heading for the door.

"So basically you think it's Right of Sonic to CHEW THE BLOODY FACE OFF ANY DAMN BITCH!" Amy bellowed at him. Tails stopped and turned to face her.

"Yes, for a matter a fact I do Amy! It's his decision and if he wants to he can go ahead and chew anyone's face off he wants to!" Tails bawled, before walking out and slamming the door behind him.

"Signo! Signo! Open the damn door!" Rouge yelled, banging on Signo's bedroom door. There was no answer from the room.

"Signo! Please open the door, I can explain!" Sonic yelled but still there was no answer. Rouge went and sat down on the couch. Sonic on the other hand, did not give up. He used his homing attack several times and brought down the door. "She's not here!" Sonic screamed. Rouge ran to the door.

"WHERE HAS SHE GONE!" She yelled.

Signo was running, she stopped as she got to the Chaotix base and she could hear some one crying, she opened the door and saw Espio in a wailing heap on the floor.

"Espio, please SHUT UP!" she screamed. That shut everyone up, Vector looked up at her as if to say thank you and gave a sign of relief; and Charmy smiled at her like he always did. But Espio jumped up and wrapped his arms around her neck in a huge hug that almost strangled her. She hugged him back, but soon realise what she was doing and pulled away.

"Espio, I need to talk to you" Signo gasped, as Espio squeezed the air out of her lungs.

"Come in here!" he said giddily, grabbing her hand and dragging her into a room at the side and slamming the door shut.

Espio, I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings at the party" Signo sighed "and I really, really, really like you but I don't know if I can get back with you Es"

"WHAT!" Espio yelled. Then he opened the door ran out and slammed it shut behind him. He ran out of the CDA base and headed straight for Amy's house. He now knew exactly how she felt.

"Espio wait!" Signo yelled coming out of the room crying.

"What happened?" Vector demanded.

"He hates me" She whispered "HE HATES ME VECTOR!"

"Signo, of he hated do you think he would bust all our ear drums crying over you! If he hated you do you think he would welcome you back with open arms? That stuff sounds like something that some one who loved you would do to me! So both of you should admit you love each other and get on with the rest of your life- TOGETHER," Vector bawled. Signo looked at him, her eyes red and puffy and her mascara blackening her cheeks. "This is enough!" Vector continued, "You two love each other so much, but you are too scared to admit it and I think it's obvious that you two are just meant to be"

Espio charged in through Amy's front door and straight into her bedroom and onto her bed next to her.

"I know exactly how you feel" he said then he looked at her.

"You do?" Amy asked him.

"Yeah, you weren't the only one who got a really nasty shock back then" Espio told her.

"What? Are you… and Signo?"

"Yeah, now I look at it and laugh at my own stupidity to have ever of thought that she loved me" he answered. He looked at Amy. Amy looked at him. A few seconds later, there they were, kissing. To be honest they weren't really kissing, they were eating each other it was so vigorous. Espio soon grunted and pulled away. "I, I, I sorry, that didn't mean anything" he stammered. What neither he nor Amy knew was that Signo had come to see where Espio was to tell how she really felt about him, only to look through Amy's window and see them sucking each others faces like Hoovers.

"So much for loving me" Signo wept, "If you love her, stay with her, because even if it breaks my heart I love you so much I just want see you happy" Signo cried silent tears as she walked away. 'I should go to Angel Island, look after the wall of the chaos'. Signo thought as she went back to the CDA base and told Vector what she had seen. "I'll see you Vector" she said giving him alight hug "Thanks for everything, I'm leaving now, for good" she was continuing to cry.

"Don't go Signo" Vector pleaded her, then he tried to make her laugh by adding "Who's gonna cook?"

"Bye Charmy, I'll miss you" she said, picking up the sleeping bee and squeezing him tightly. "Vector" she said, her voice now wobbly and high pitched "Can you please tell Shadow I'm gone" Vector nodded and looked extremely sad and upset. And with that, Signo ran out the door into and out into the cold, bitter dark of the night.

A/N: the sonamy bit will happen in Ch12 but you have to read this bit to get it