Chapter 16:

Test of Trust

Mona ran into the room and froze seeing Eggman holding a laser gun to Amy.

"Well, well. I see you decided to join the party Mona." Eggman sniggered.

"Let my friend go." Mona growled.

"Or what, you won't help?" Eggman asked. "Forget it kid. I was on to you. Did you actually believe I would let you help take over the world?"

"I didn't want to in the first place!"

"You seemed believable until I saw you helping Sonic and Tails." Eggman grinned. "So which one is carrying the real emerald?"

"Obviously, Sonic's carrying the real one." Mona said. Sonic and Tails figured they would kill two birds with one stone: saving Amy and destroying the cannon. "You'd actually think Sonic would risk you figuring that out? He cares about his friends you know!"

"Very well, if you are so sure. Why don't YOU bring it over?" Eggman asked. Sonic handed the fake Emerald over to Mona who walked over to the circle in the middle of the room.

"WAIT! DON'T DO IT!" Rouge yelled as she and Knuckles burst into the room just as Mona was trapped in the container.

"Huh?!" Mona dropped the emerald and felt the glass as she tried to search for a way out.

"Did you actually think your reverse psychology would work on me?" Eggman sneered.

"B-but how did you know it was a fake?" Tails asked.

"TAILS!!!!" Sonic and Mona yelled at the same time.

"Humph, because you just told me fox-boy!" Eggman laughed as chills ran up Mona's spine.

"Mona!" Rouge screamed.

"There's nothing we can do Rouge!" Knuckles grunted as he tried to restrain her.

"That's correct. Once the capsule goes through the atmosphere: BANG! No bratty kid!" Eggman laughed and turned to Mona. "Any last word traitor?"

"Yea! Lose weight!" Mona shouted before the capsule dropped towards Earth.

Everyone gasped as they looked out the window at their friend's capsule before it exploded.

"Why did you do that?!" Sonic yelled.

"I felt like it! She was getting on my nerves!" Eggman sneered. "Now I have one less obstacle to overcome!"

"She just helped us and we're going to repay the favor Eggman!" Tails announced.

Eggman sneered. "I don't think so." He suddenly grabbed the Emerald before escaping in the Eggwalker. "After this, my empire will begin!" He laughed before escaping.

"C'mon guys! We can't let him get away!" Sonic yelled before the triple threat left Amy and Rouge behind. Rouge looked out the window and clenched her fist.

"Are you alright Rouge?" Amy asked in a worried tone.

"Does it look like it?" Rouge asked. "Eggman will pay…I swear on her grave, EGGMAN WILL PAY!" She shouted before running after Eggman.

Amy sighed and looked out a window.

"I hope you survived Mona…"

:---:

Shadow sat on the old mattress in Maria's room. He continued trying to find out how he could straighten things out until…

AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Shadow's eyes widened.

"What?!" He got off the bed and ran over to a window in time to see a capsule dropping towards Earth. Shadow felt a sudden twinge of anger and felt his hand clench into a fist. "Eggman…you just made the worst mistake…" He snarled before shouting: "CHAOS CONTROL!!!" and vanishing towards the capsule. As he sped towards it, he continued having a vision of himself going through the atmosphere at a high speed.

Mom, dad, I-I'm sorry.

"I'm coming…hang on…" He muttered in time to feel the heat of the atmosphere as he entered the capsule. Shadow immediately spotted the curled up figure before getting Mona to her feet. The amount of heat was a little too much for her. Sweat seemed to drip onto his fur before Shadow used Chaos Control again and warped back into the room in time to see the capsule explode.

He breathed in heavily before getting Mona on the bed, wiping sweat off his forehead, and sitting in a chair.

"God, I can't believe I saved you twice in a week." He muttered. "Why did you have to jump into that capsule? You wanted to prove something?" Shadow looked up in time to see Mona regain consciousness and sit up a bit shakily.

"Wha-what happened?" She asked.

"You were getting shot into the Earth's atmosphere, that's what!" Shadow remarked with a hint of sarcasm.

"What? Did my slight mentoring/rant get to you?" Mona asked.

"You can say that…" Shadow nodded. "You were curled up like a baby hedgehog when I got in."

"I was?" Mona asked before muttering. "That's embarrassing."

"Tell me about it." He remarked before sitting down. "So how did you feel when you were in there?"

"Like it was the end." She said. "I guess you were like that when your friend sent you down to Earth."

"That's exactly how it was." Shadow nodded. "Were you trying to be noble again?" He asked recalling the prison island incident.

"I…err…well…that's pretty much it…"

"I knew it. You wanted to play hero but had to have someone pull you out of a ditch twice!" He muttered.

"Sorry. But Eggman would've killed either Sonic or Amy if I didn't do it."

"Okay," Shadow responded and stood up. "So what else do you know?" Mona pulled out the glasses.

"You know about the prototype version of the ultimate life, right?" She asked.

"I thought it was destroyed." Shadow said before Mona asked for the Bio-Lizard and handed the Search Glasses to him. Shadow put them on and his eye twitched when he saw a containment pod that was moving around. "It's still alive then." He said before taking them off.

"Yeah, and I think it will wake up if Eggman puts that final Emerald in!"

"We don't have much time then…" Shadow paused before Mona felt her sword become warm and pulled it out. "The Emeralds must be grouping…" He thought.

"What's going on?" She asked. "It's never done that before."

"Didn't you know that the Charger Emerald Sword gets more powerful each time a Chaos Emerald is grouped with another one?" Shadow asked. "For someone who knows about me she doesn't know about these things…"

"That means Eggman's getting closer to the control room!" Mona exclaimed before getting up and running in the direction of the control room. She stopped suddenly and Shadow stopped as well. "Out of curiosity, how did you know?"

"I read one of Eggman's reports about it." Shadow explained trying to find a good excuse. Mona shrugged before they both took off running.

----

Sonic: (still running from Shadow) Shadow's a softie! Shadow's a softie!

Shadow: STOP THAT OR ELSE!

Sonic: Or what?

Shadow: MONA!!!!!!!

Do I look like your babysitter?! Play Destroy All Monsters Melee…or something!

Sonic: We played that yesterday!

Shadow: And we beat all your survival scores!

(Menacingly) You…did…what?!

Sonic/Shadow: OO; MAD AUTHORESS!!!!!!

(In Outer Space) (View of an explosion)

1st alien: Carl did you...?

2nd alien: That wasn't me...