Love Comes In Many Ways

It's the second chapter! Yay! I'm going to try to make it a little longer than the last one. Anyway, read on and enjoy. Sorry it took a while to get this up, decided to unfairly delete one of my old stories right as I finished this. But now I can finally freakin post again.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or any other related characters. I do, however, own Shatami, Riff and Raphael.(known in this fic as Raph more than Raphael). And I own Sly as well.


It took a few minutes but the smoke had finally cleared. When everyone was able to see each other again they looked around to make sure everyone was ok. Upon their searching the same question rose to their thoughts:

"Where's Shadow?"

Eggman's Secret Base

Shatami sat in a chair in her quarters. She had recently received a transmission from Riff that they got what Eggman asked for an were on their way to show her. A few minutes passed. Finally, she heard a knock outside her door.

"Come in." She called from where she sat.

The door hissed open and in walked Riff and Raph dragging an unconscious hedgehog behind them.

"We got Sonic The Hedgehog, just as Eggman asked." Raph said helping Riff lift the body onto the single bed in the room.

Shatami examined the hedgehog a minute with her eyes.

"Are you sure that's Sonic? He doesn't exactly look blue…" She said uncertainly.

Once the hedgehog had been placed on the bed Riff took a better look at their captive. His eyes widened in revelation. They HAD grabbed the wrong one.

"Eggman's going to kill us…..we got the wrong one!" he exclaimed stomping his foot on the metal floor in frustration.

He turned to Raph and pointed a finger at him.

"You shouldn't have made that smoke screen! This all your fault!" he yelled.

Raph got a hurt look on his face but said back with equal fury,

"You're the one that said we needed to get in and out without anyone seeing us! Therefore it's YOUR fault!"

Shatami stood up at that moment quickly and the two fussing animals stopped their bickering immediately and put all attention on her.

"It's nobody's fault. Mistakes happen, we'll just have to try again and get it right next time." She said calmly, her irate expression softening.

"But Shatami, this is Eggman we're working with. He doesn't like failure, you know that." Riff said matter of faculty.

"True," said Shatami walking over to where the hedgehog lay asleep, "but I'm sure the good doctor will let it off this one time."

She turned so she was facing her two team mates.

"So, which of you blind-as-a-bat ninja thieves going to go tell Eggman about this?"

At that moment the room door slid open and in walked Eggman, Sly again on his shoulder.

"Tell me what?" He asked but then he saw Shadow still fast asleep on the bed.

Raph stepped forward a little hesitantly.

"We…um…kind of got…the wrong one." He said quietly and shyly but just loud enough for Sly to hear and whisper it to Eggman.

"As much as I don't like failure, getting this one was even better than getting that miserable blue rodent." He said looking over at Shadow.

Nodding as if thinking to himself he turned his attention back to the three ninja thieves.

"Since you got this particular hedgehog it's just as well. Instead of getting Sonic and bringing him here we'll simply LURE him here. Riff, Raph, come with me to discuss this new plan. Shatami," he said making Shatami snap her head up in attention to listen, "Keep an eye on him till he wakes up. Understood?"

Shatami nodded adding on, "Yes sir."

Eggman nodded in response and turned on his heel and left the room, Riff and Raph following.

Now alone again except for the unconscious hedgehog on the bed Shatami looked over at the said hedgehog. She didn't want to admit it but he was very beautiful. Black and red, two colors she admired. The white tuft of fur on his chest made him even more beautiful…

Shatami quickly shook her head as if to get those thoughts out of her head. Never again would she allow her heart to make a fool out of her.

She was snapped from her thoughts by a groan.

Turning in her chair she saw the other hedgehog starting to awaken. Slowly his eyes began to open, revealing a set of beautiful scarlet orbs. He looked around till he saw her.

"Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here? Am I dead?" he asked almost all at once.

"One question at a time!" Shatami exclaimed, "But for your first question my name is Shatami. What's your name?"

"Shadow." He said, "Shadow the Hedgehog. Nice to meet you, Shatami. Where am I?"

Shatami nodded now knowing his name and responded,

"Nice to meet you too. You're um…currently being held captive by my two team mates, Eggman, and I."

She wasn't sure whether or not she was supposed to tell him that or not. She really didn't care at the moment.

Shadow chuckled.

"So, the good doctor is at it again, hm? What's his plan this time? Use me as bait?"

Shatami nodded and Shadow laughed a little more but quickly threw a gloved hand to his temple.

"Argh, my head hurts……" he said massaging his forehead with his fingers to try to soothe the ache.

"Smokescreen does that to you. My teammate's fault." Shatami said examining the hedgehog up and down.

Normally when she was with captives she wouldn't waste her breath talking to them. What was so special about this one that made her just want to sit there and talk till Eggman or someone else came? It was all confusing to her. But nevertheless she wasn't going to allow herself to fall victim to tricks. She was far too talented in her art to sink so low.

Shadow noticed she looked as if she was fighting something and asked,

"Are you ok?"

Shatami quickly covered up her feelings and looked away scoffing slightly.

"I'm fine." She responded a little colder than she had intended.

Shadow left it alone and a long, slightly awkward silence fell between the two hedgehogs.

"Why are you working for Eggman?" Shadow asked breaking the silence.

"Why do you want to know?" was Shatami's response as she turned her head back to face him.

He shrugged.

"I was just curious."

Shatami was silent for a few minutes. Wondering whether she should tell him the truth or not.

Finally she spoke,

"Because he made us a promise we couldn't refuse."

Shadow sat up a bit, propping himself up with the headboard so that his back was resting against it. His headache was starting to go away.

"A promise?" He said, "What kind of promise?"

Shatami sighed. I might as well tell him everything, she thought.

"My friends and I come from a small village faraway called Avager. As villagers there we were raised and trained to be ninja thieves. Because our village was also poor we had to steal from others to get food for everybody. Riff, Raph, and I were the best of the thieves so it was us who were usually called to go on missions to get something. Usually it was just supplies like cloth and things." She tried to keep the tears pricking at her eyes at bay. To let someone see her cry would destroy her reputation.

Shadow noticed this and said,

"You don't have to tell me if don't—"

"No, I might as well." She interrupted.

Waiting a moment she continued,

"One day as we were coming back from a supply mission we found Avager had been burned to the ground sometime while we were gone. There was blood everywhere and all that remained of our friends and family were their ashes." Her voice started to crack a little but she went on anyway, "With nowhere else to turn to we wandered around for a few years. Eggman somehow got a hold of us and told us to come see him. That he had a proposal for us. So, we paid him a visit. He told us of his plan to capture Sonic and said that he would need our help. Of course we don't take to agreements easily so we asked what we would get out of it. He told us that in exchange for helping him capture and eradicate Sonic that he would give us a place to stay and give us enough food so that we wouldn't be forced to go hungry for a day or more till the next time we could get food."

A few tears made it past her eyes and she quickly lowered her head hoping her bangs would hide them.

But Shadow did see them. A look of sympathy crossed his face. He knew what it was like to lose everyone you ever cared about or loved. For a moment he saw Maria appear in his mind. He knew all too well what she was going through.

Leaning over a bit so he could reach he gently placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. She didn't raise her head but he knew she was crying.

"I know how you feel." He softly said.

She sniffled and wiped at her eyes with the back of her own gloved hand and looked up at him.

"You do?" She asked not believing that someone could possibly know what she was going through.

Shadow nodded, noticing for the first time just how beautiful she was.

Shatami smiled a little, her tears starting to disappear from her eyes.

"I guess I really am not alone after all…" she said looking away a little.

Shadow smiled back.

"Me too."

At that moment the door slid open and in walked Riff, stopping immediately at seeing the hostage was awake at last.

"He's finally awake!" the rat exclaimed.

Shatami nodded then asked,

"Where's Raph?"

"Kitchen." Camethe response and in reply to that she and Riff rolled their eyes.

"The good doctor has reviewed with you two the plan, I presume?" Shatami asked cocking an eyebrow slightly.

Riff nodded.

"He seemed a little odd though." He said.

Shadow looked confused.

"Isn't Eggman always odd?" he spoke up.

Riff looked at Shatami questionably and she nodded. His gaze went back to Shadow.

"Well, he was odder than usual, you could say."

"How so?" Asked Shatami.

"Halfway through talking about the new plan he seemed……..almost anxious. But it wasn't an anxious like when he's close to taking over the world. It's like he wanted to go be doing something else. I don't know why though, a new plan is supposed to make you want to go over it a lot." He said in response.

Shadow closed his eyes in thought. What could he be up to, he thought to himself.

Meanwhile Somewhere Else In The Base

Eggman was setting about connecting wires on a mysteries machine, Sly by his side handing him parts he asked for. Done connecting wires he walked over to a dark part of the room where a pair of red, lifeless eyes were staring intently at him.

"It is ready, my master." He said bowing deeply before the pair of eyes.

"Good." Said a deep, robotic voice that seemed to come from the dark part of the room, "Soon, my pet, once we have all seven Chaos Emeralds we will be unstoppable! No one will be able to defeat me!" exclaimed the voice.

As night fell on the Hidden Base the halls echoed with the sounds of evil laughter as three pairs of robotic eyes slowly disappeared and all went dark.


Go plot twists and cliffhangers! I know this chapter might've been a little boring story wise but believe me, there's a lot more to the story than what I revealed in here. LOTS more. Hope everyone liked this chapter, next one will be up ASAP! R & R!

Kalana Fox