Chapter 10

Shadow, even in his weakened state, returned Rouge's embrace as he felt her hot tears run off her own face and on to his.

"Rouge, it's alright. Stop crying."

The rest of the group also had tears in their eyes from seeing their ally alive and healthy. Even the 'tough' Knuckles was shedding tears.

Rouge leaned closer and whispered in Shadow's ear.

"Don't ever do that again."

He whispered back.

"I made a promise, didn't I?"

Rouge lifted her head and smiled warmly at Shadow.

All the peace was interrupted however, when two familiar voices echoed through the air.

"Chaos Sword!"

Chaos Arrow!"

The two attacks released by Amber and Eclipse flew straight towards the group. Knuckles and Sonic stepped forth and countered the attack.

"Thunder Arrow!"

Sonic Wind!"

Both attacks combined and knocked the two energy blasts to the right, where they harmlessly destroyed a small rocky hill.

Both hedgehogs landed on the ground and stared at the group. It wasn't for a full minute that they realized they were standing next to each other. They both slowly turned around and faced each other, completely ignoring the group of heroes. Eclipse was the first to speak.

"Who the hell are you?"

The female responded.

"You tell me who you are first!"

"I am Eclipse the hedgehog!"

Suddenly, as if being dropped in a pool of ice water, a memory hit her as her eyed widened.

FLASHBACK

Amber the hedgehog was silently sneaking around the old, restricted hallways of the space colony ARK. She had been hiding from Shadow because he wanted to put her through more rigorous training.

The young hedgehog slowly crept down a dark hallway to a metallic door.

'He'll never find me in here.' She thought.

'What's this?' She thought after seeing a bright red control panel with 26 letters inscribed into it.

"A password required eh? Well no problem, I know the password to every computer on this station."

She began typing in letters. First an M. Then a A. Then a R. Next an I. And finally another A.

"Access approved."

The huge metallic door lifted open as Amber stepped inside. Before her were three green stasis pods. Two were empty but the one to the far right housed a figure. The hedgehog stepped in to get a closer look and crept over to the pod.

Inside was a white and silver hedgehog. His eyes were firmly shut and there was a mask over his muzzle. Surrounding him was a strange green liquid. There was some sort of sign on a panel in front of the tube. It read:

Ultimate Life Form Project 001

Codename: Project Eclipse

Status: Stable

FAILED EXPERIMENT

END FLASHBACK

"Eclipse…" she murmured.

"Yes, that is my name."

"Are you one of the ultimate life form projects?"

"Yes and you are…."

"My name is Amber, I am also a ultimate life form experiment."

Eclipse's eyes widened, along with everyone else's.

"You're the final experiment?" Eclipse asked.

Amber nodded. Then all of a sudden, Eclipse threw his head back and laughed.

"This is too perfect. I have both of the other experiments here. Now I can proove once and for all that I am the best and destroy you both."

Amber snickered.

"If anyone's going to kill Shadow, it'll be me. Get in my way and I'll be forced to kill you too!"

"Is that so? Well then, looks like we have ourselves a three way battle"

At this point, Shadow had regained enough energy to stand. Rouge however, was still holding on to him. Eclipse and Amber both looked at Shadow.

"Whoever wins will be the true ultimate life form." Amber stated.

"Yes, now Shadow, pry yourself loose from that pathetic creature and meet your destiny."

Upon hearing those words, Shadow regained the fiery look in his eyes and stood up straight.

'He had gone too far this time!'

Shadow looked over at Rouge and gave her a rare, warm smile.

"Please let me go."

"Are you sure?"

Shadow nodded and turned to the rest.

"The rest of you leave as well. I know you want to help but you will only be aiding them if you stay."

Everyone nodded and Rouge released Shadow.

The dark hedgehog made his way up to his 'siblings'. The three stood in a perfect triangle formation. All three had cocky smirks on their faces. Shadow turned around one last time and his smirk vanished when he saw the group leaving. Rouge turned around one more time and mouthed Shadow some words.

Even though he couldn't hear them, he knew all too well what they were and he gave her a warm smile before he turned around again.

"Come back to me."