CHAPTER 3

TOGETHER AGAIN

Later at a small house a echidna that looked very old examined Rouge's cut.

Knuckles was deeply in concern, "Is she all right?"

"I cleaned her cut and the injury seemed very minor." He said with a good report.

"Thank god."

Rouge crossed her arms, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

The old echidna examined the bat.

Rouge thought something was on her, "Is there a problem?"

"No, it's just...our island is only full of echidnas and we never seen any other species except our own."

Then something came to Rouge's mind, "Have you guys seen a black hedgehog? He was with me."

Cobar shook his head, "No, I never seen a black hedgehog."

Rouge hoped nothing bad happened to him, "I hope he's all right."

"Hey Rouge, is this black hedgehog your..." Knuckles' sentence trailed off when a pink echidna carrying a bloody hedgehog had came through the door.

Rouge's eyes widened, "Oh my god, Shadow!"

The pink echidna laid Shadow down on a white sheeted bed.

"Julie, what happened?" Cobar asked looking at the unconscious hedgehog.

"I don't know, I heard a gunfire in the forest and when I got there I saw him lying on the ground with his foot caught in one of our bear traps."

Rouge had tears in her eyes, "Oh Shadow."

Cobar studied his arm, "The wound on his arm looks like an animal bite. There are wolves out there."

"Are you saying he was attacked by a wolf?" Rouge asked.

Cobar shrugged, "I really don't know. I must ask you to leave so I can treat him."

Rouge nodded.

Knuckles and Julie took Rouge out of the room.

While they waited Knuckles continued with his sentence, "Hey, Rouge."

Rouge looked up at him sad.

"I wanted to ask, is that hedgehog your..."

"Husband."

"...Yeah."

"Yes, he is and I love him very much."

Knuckles practically fell to the floor disappointed that the beauty he saw before him was already taken. He muttered under his breath, "This sucks."

Rouge heard his comment, "Excuse me?"

"Nothing!"

Rouge took her eyes away from him staring at the door where Shadow was.

The door opened and Cobar appeared with a smiling face with good news. "He's fine."

Rouge sighed, "Thank god, can I see him?"

Cobar nodded.

Rouge ran in the room.

Knuckles sat there in his chair looking disappointed.

Julie looked at him with pity, she laid her hand on his shoulder, "Next time."

When Rouge was in the room, she closed the door locking it. She was looking at the recovering Shadow. She saw gauze on his arm and a possibility on his foot. She laid her hand on his cheek. "Shadow love, wake up."

Shadow slowly opened his eyes and faced Rouge. "Rouge? Am I dead?"

Rouge giggled, "No silly, you're alive."

"I'm glad you're okay."

"What happened?"

"I was looking for you to apologize, but I ran into a bear trap then a wild wolf attack me, afterwards I passed out."

Rouge hugged him and cried on his chest, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have never yelled at you."

"No, it was I who yelled at you. You're right it doesn't matter who did what. We just have to get off this island."

Rouge stopped crying and kissed Shadow and he returned the kiss.

They broke apart.

Rouge rested her head on him, "Stay alive for me okay?"

Shadow stroked her fur on her head, "I will."

Knuckles and Cobar had their ears on the door trying to hear what Shadow and Rouge were saying.

Julie was disgusted at what they were doing, "Would you two get away from the door!"

The next day early in the morning Rouge was still laying on Shadow. She had fell asleep on him. She woke up and removed her head away from Shadow's chest. She couldn't help but to smile, looking at Shadow sleep was like watching a baby sleeping. She kissed his lips long, it seemed like forever.

Shadow awoken when he felt her tongue slip in, "Good morning, love."

"Hey, hon. How are you feeling?"

Shadow got from the bed slowly trying to stand because of his hurt foot, "Okay. A little weak, but okay."

"That's wonderful, Shad." She hugged him and he had done the same.

He pushed her against the wall, kissing her about to pull his pants down, until he heard a fake cough from the doorway. He looked over and saw Cobar standing there laughing.

"Someone's feeling better."

Shadow crossed his arms looking embarrassed, "Don't you echidnas know how to knock first?"

"I was checking on you, to see if you were healing okay."

"I'm fine."

Later Cobar, Knuckles, and Julie were trying to figure out why they were on the island.

"So what's the deal? Why did you two outsiders come to Angel Island?" Julie asked sitting on top of a table.

"Angel Island? Is this what this island is called?" Shadow could see why if it was.

"Yes, this is our home."

"This place is full of echidnas right?" Rouge was sitting beside Shadow with her hand on his.

"Yes, now back to my question. Why are you two here?"

"We were on an investigation to check out a floating island." Shadow said.

"What are you? Cops?" Julie was getting a little upset.

"No, we're detectives."

Julie still was upset.

"We help people." Shadow hoped they accepted them.

Julie stood from the table, "So you just set foot here like you own this place! Who the hell do you think you are?"

Cobar grabbed Julie's arm and shook his head.

Julie tried to calmly sit back down on the table.

Cobar apologized, "I'm sorry, for that."

Rouge made a slight smile, "It's okay."

"It wasn't our fault, something from the island blasted us out of the sky and now our plane's damaged and..."Shadow couldn't continue.

"Did you say something blasted you from the sky?" Cobar seemed interested.

"Yeah a white light hit the wing of our plane and we crashed."

"Usually this island contains no wrongdoing such as that, it could be, the Dark Legion."

"The Dark Legion?" Shadow and Rouge said together.

"Yes, they are an evil group of our kind always causing an attempt trying to get their hands on the Master Emerald."

"You mean that huge green jewel I saw earlier?" Rouge had more interest in the conversation now that they had mentioned jewels.

"Yes, the Master Emerald controls all the Chaos Emeralds, but only one person can do that."

"Who?" Shadow asked.

"Knuckles." Cobar looked at Knuckles in the corner with his arms crossed.

Knuckles looked at Shadow with a glare.

"What?" Shadow thought he had a problem with him.

Knuckles didn't look at him any longer, "Nothing."

Cobar moved on, "Anyway, Knuckles can fix your plane so you can leave."

Rouge smiled, "Wonderful. We'll get home in no time, Shadow."

"I can't wait until I tell Vector and the others about this crazy shit."