-Amy-

I stare over Tails' shoulder in disbelief. Robotnik has Sonic! My fragile dreams start to fall around me even as part of me tries to evaluate the situation. Maybe there won't be a tomorrow after all, maybe there'll never be a time we can stop fighting...

Snap out of it, Amy! That's what Sonic would tell me, and he'd be right, too! I can't just give up like that; he's already shown me that's one reason we were losing before! I try and get control back, focus on analysing what I can see. Most of Sonic's visible injuries look pretty superficial, which is a little better. I've seen him fight enough times, know he can get pretty knocked around and still recover fast... if the worst that really happened was that robot knocking him out, then he should be all right, at least for the moment.

"...Murderers..."

With a shock, I realise that's Shadow's voice, only not like I've ever heard it before! I turn, look at him... stare at him. His expression's shifting into something hard, cold, distant, something I can barely even recognise. I've never seen him like this before, and suddenly I don't even know who he is. My Shadow, the Shadow I know, is quiet, a little sad, reserved, often a little awkward in company, afraid to care in case he loses someone again. The Shadow I see in front of me now is cold and uncaring, a terrible determination in his eyes. He turns and walks out without a word, and every step echoes the expression on his face, unstoppable and chillingly deadly. All I can do is stare after him, shocked into silent immobility.

It's Tails who snaps me out of it, a few moments later.

"Amy? Amy, what should we do?"

I don't know, but I can't tell him that. I look again at the screen, etching the image into my mind.

"Find out where Sonic is, then get out of Robotnik's systems," I reply after a moment, somehow managing to sound calm, though I'm anything but. Sonic's been captured, and now Shadow's gone, maybe in more ways than one.

Tails nods and goes back to his work, and I stand in silence, staring into space and trying to work out what's happening. How could everything have gone wrong so suddenly? And what's wrong with Shadow? What could have done this to him? It must be what he saw, but we've seen worse than that before now. Why would Shadow have reacted like that? Because it was Sonic? Or because of something else?

I think about Sonic. He didn't really look seriously hurt; beyond whatever happened to his ear, it was nothing that would last. I don't know if Shadow saw that, though, don't know what he's thinking at all. Like the rest of us, he's been on edge since Sonic ran off, but that's not enough to account for this!

But he hasn't been quite like the rest of us. True, he's been worried and on edge, but in a slightly different way, as if there was something in particular he was afraid of. And the one thing he said, it was all wrong to have been about Robotnik... there's only one thing I can think of that would put that much pain and hatred in his voice, even after everything Robotnik's done. G.U.N. are long gone, of course, destroyed with the other military forces of the world, but I know Shadow will never forget what they did on the ARK. It's as if he saw something to do with them when he looked at Robotnik, but I don't know what it could have been. There wasn't anything much in the background, just a computer console a little to the right, a blank metal wall... and all there was in the foreground was Sonic, Robotnik, and the robot. So what am I missing? What could any of that mean to Shadow?

I won't work it out by staring at my mental image. I've got to think about Shadow, try and think of anything that could have any bearing on all this. Why was he afraid the moment he knew Sonic was gone? What's Shadow scared of?

He's afraid of losing people. But we're all afraid of that, one way or another. What else? What else scares him? Things he doesn't know why...

Right after he heard Sonic was gone... those scars of his. He doesn't know where they came from, but I know they scare him. They're all fairly small, scattered across his body just about anywhere I've ever had to brush his fur back. Shadow's told me before that the only time he can remember not having them is before G.U.N. came to the ARK. I wonder if they could have something to do with it – and how he could have got them.

"I got it, Amy!"

Tails' voice cuts into my thoughts, but I almost welcome the distraction.

"Good. Shut down and call up the others – no, wait, I'll do that."

I lean over and pick up the microphone, activating the intercom system Tails installed here.

"Sonic's been captured, and we're going after him. Trick, Gaze, you take care of the hideout while we're gone. Everyone else, meet me at the main entrance, now!"

I wonder whether or not Knuckles and Rouge will come. They volunteered to help, but they're not a part of our group; I don't know them, and I can't really give them orders, either. I hope they do, though... we can use all the help we can get.

And part of me wonders if I'm not sending us all to our deaths, if my feelings for Shadow are clouding my judgement, if this is the last decision I'll ever make...