CHAPTER 9

The night air had a slight chill along with the bright moon being covered by one of the many storm clouds that was set in the sky. While standing on the rooftop of a tall building, Infinite found himself lost while he gazed up at the darkened night sky. He made a slight flinch when he felt a drop of rain hit the left side of his face. However that didn't make him look away from the clouded sky. Ever since his fight with Shadow, he no longer felt the need to wear the mysterious mask he had always wore. It was a strange comfort when he revealed how he was a half demon just as he was. His ears listened out for the few sounds of the small drops of rain that fell from the sky and started to hit the surface of the rooftop he stood on. His ears twitched when he suddenly heard a noise that clearly wasn't the sound of rain. The sound was footsteps. They were very light but he could still easily hear them over the sound of droplets of rain. He looked away from the sky and turned to a male gray fox who slowly approached him across the rooftop. The fox was wearing formal like attire. He wore a black sleeveless vest with a white long sleeve collared shirt underneath, a black tie around his neck, black dress pants, brown dress shoes that he was sure to keep looking like new. He also wore a black top hat, white gloves that covered his hands, and at last he wore a black tailcoat that had the silver buttons that kept the coat wrapped around him. Just going by his appearance, it was all starting to come back to him. He had indeed met the mysterious demon before.

The gray fox continued to slowly step over to him while casually shuffling a deck of playing cards in his hands. A sly smirk formed on his lips at the sight of the jackal, "Well, well...Zero...isn't it?"

He gave the fox a cautious and bitter look, "You...I know you. You're apart of The Dark Alliance."

He made a small nod at him, "Ah so your memory is in check?"

"What do you want?" He asked in a cold tone.

The fox made a frown towards the black jackal, "How rude. Not even going to ask me my name? Not very gentlemen like."

He gave him a cold glare while he watched him continuing to shuffle his playing cards in a casual fashion. The sound of him constantly shuffling the cards had began to easily annoy him.

He made a heavy sigh as he had stopped shuffling the cards he held in his hands and placed the deck down in his hand beside his waist. "The name's Luthor if you must know."

He rose an eyebrow towards him and scoffed lowly under his breath, "Too bad I don't care."

"Well", he spoke. "Aren't you a friendly gentleman?" When he saw him flash his eyes away from him in annoyance, a devious smirk had formed on his lips, "Or are you upset that Shadow managed to wipe the floor with you?"

His eyes slightly widened when he couldn't believe that he had known about the battle he and Shadow had. He looked back over to him and saw him holding up a playing card that had Shadow's picture on it. "...How did you..."

"Heh, word gets around quickly in the demon realm." He saw him turn away from him and fold his arms across his chest in annoyance it seemed.

He wondered how he knew about what happened between him and Shadow. He began to wonder if he had some sort of ability where he saw what was taking place. He knew for a fact that he wasn't present. He couldn't feel his demonic energy anywhere after all. "I was caught off guard by his abilities. But next time, I will not underestimate his power."

A slight chuckle had escaped him, "I don't know why you're acting so surprised by this. After all, you're both half breeds."

He was again surprised by him knowing that not only Shadow is a half demon but he was as well. However he didn't know why Luthor's sudden knowledge of him was shocking. He figured some of the other demons had already told him. "So", he spoke as he uncrossed his arms and turned back to him. "You know of me being half?"

"It wasn't so hard to figure out..." He had then held another playing card up that had Infinite's picture on it and held it next to the one that had Shadow's picture on it. "I felt your abnormal power levels at first sight. I bet the others did as well."

"So you're not as dense as you appear..."

He formed a slight smirk when he held the two cards side by side while he gazed at them. "Even though you both are similar in power, you do still have the advantage over him."

"...How do you think so?" He saw him showing him the cards of him and Shadow once again.

Luthor began to explain, "Despite his status of being a halfbreed, you have one thing he hasn't. And that my friend is experience." He watched Infinite's expression as he used his power to quickly burn the card Shadow's picture was on away in an instant flame. It was obvious that he had indeed been around way longer than Shadow had. Which made him want to raise a question. "You've walked this world much longer than he has. Which makes me want to ask..." He saw the jackal raise an eyebrow towards him. "You've been here long enough to know of Angela and Devlin's existence and they've been around almost as long as Lord Dark."

"So what?" He sharply replied.

"So...how old exactly are you, Infinite? Or should I call you Zero?"

A flash of lightning bolted across the dark sky with a loud rumbling of thunder being heard afterwards.

With rain now pouring from the sky, Infinite stood there coldly staring at the demonic fox who stood in front of him. It took him a moment to finally speak back out to him. "...How long I've been roaming this miserable world is no concern of yours."

When he saw him turning his back to him, he assumed that he was about to walk away from him. "How are you going to do it?" He saw him pause in his tracks and turn back to face him once more. "You have a plan don't you? You know exactly how to kill Shadow once and for all." Without getting another word out of him, he saw him quickly rush from the rooftop and suddenly vanish within the mysterious small crimson cubes that surrounded his body. When he had disappeared, his eyes looked down at the card that had Infinite's picture on it. "But there is a price..." He murmured before destroying the card instantly with a flame.


The past few days had been dreary and rainy ones. It appeared that the few days of spring like weather had came to an end. The weather was cold and cloudy. The rain just made it seem like the days were running into each other. Despite it being late in the evening, it almost appeared to be nightfall because of the dark and cloudy weather.

Inside of Charmy and Grace's home, Rouge was sitting on the dark gray sofa in the living room holding her son, Spike lovingly in her arms. While she sat there and held him, she could hear the sound of the pouring rain hitting the roof of the house above her. She took her mind away from the rain and turned to Grace who had came into the room with two white mugs in each of her hand. She watched her place down one of the mugs in front of her on the glass coffee table in front of her.

"There you go, Rouge. I made you some hot chocolate", she spoke with a gentle smile.

Rouge glanced at the hot chocolate on the table and then watched her take a seat next to her while setting hers down on the table next to hers. "Thank you, Grace. That's super nice of you", she spoke with a smile.

"It's no problem", she replied. "I think it's pretty fitting for a night like this don't you say?"

"I agree", she spoke with both her and Grace looking at the baby black hedgehog who was squirming around in Rouge's arms acting as though he wanted to play. "Thanks again for volunteering to look after him. I guess it was time to give Nails and Tikal some alone time for once."

"It's no problem Rouge, really", she spoke with a wide smile. "I rarely get to spend time with Spike and honestly I haven't noticed how much he's already grown. He's such a chatter box now." She then saw Rouge's face light up in excitement.

"Wha? He's talking? His first words?" She exclaimed in excitement.

Grace had thought perhaps Spike wasn't babbling as much as he was while he was with her. She arched an eyebrow towards her, "Well I wouldn't exactly call them words..." She turned back to the baby hedgehog with a wide and friendly smile. "Come on, Spike. Like you were saying to me yesterday. Come on, sweetie. Say it!"

"What did he exactly say?" She had then heard Spike starting to make babbles and noises. She couldn't quite make anything out but she didn't understand what Grace was talking about. She was already aware of him making babbles and noises. According to Grace, he was saying words. Before she could say anything to Grace, her ears shot up as she suddenly witnessing him trying to talk.

The baby hedgehog took his hands and gripped onto her shirt tightly with him looking up and smiling at her. "A...ad...addy! Addy!"

"Oh!" Grace exclaimed, "That's it! That's what he was saying yesterday!"

"Oh my God! This is amazing!" Rouge shouted in excitement. "But what is he trying to say?"

Grace placed a finger to her chin and tried to pay attention while Spike kept repeating himself over and over. "Wait a minute...addy?" She then took her finger from her chin and pointed upwards while turning back to Rouge. "Maybe he's trying to say daddy!"

A slight disappointed look appeared on her face, "Great", she sarcastically spoke. "I guess that pretty much tells you who the favorite parent is..."

Grace crossed her arms and watched her stand from the sofa to place Spike down in the nearby playpen in the living room. "Oh Rouge, stop it! You know Spike loves you both. He probably just misses Shadow."

After she placed Spike down in the playpen, she turned back to her with a bitter look. "At least someone does..."

"Oh Rouge, you know you miss him."

"Yeah?" She folded her arms across her chest and shifted her eyes away from her sadly. "Well he sure as hell doesn't miss me..."

"Rouge..." Before she could say anything else, she heard the doorbell suddenly ring.

Rouge looked in the direction where the door was and turned back to Grace who had a wide smile on her face. "...You expecting company?"

"Maybe", she said in an excited tone before she got up from the sofa to make her way towards the door.

While Grace went to answer the door, Rouge stood there and wondered what made Grace want to act so strange suddenly. The way she had gotten excited, it was like she was expecting someone to be at the door. She figured maybe it was Charmy. After all he was out of town for awhile. Perhaps he had just came back early? Her ears twitched when she heard her talking to someone. She then felt her heart skip a beat when she recognized a familiar male voice getting closer and closer. 'Shit! Don't tell me...' Before she could move or even say anything, her entire body froze when she saw a black and red male hedgehog standing at the doorway of the living room alongside Grace. The look he was giving her was the same expression she was giving back to him. He showed up to Grace's house but why?

After him coming to the realization that Rouge was indeed standing in front of him, he turned to Grace with an annoyed look. "...Why is she here? When we talked over the phone yesterday, we didn't agree to this!"

The gray dove defensively held her hands up towards him, "Come on, Shadow. Just how long are you actually going to avoid her?"

"...Just watch me."

When she saw him about to make his way towards the door, she quickly jumped in front of him and rushed over to the door to lock it. She rested her back up against the door and folded her arms across her chest while giving him an annoyed look. "You're not leaving until you sit down and talk with your wife! Enough is enough!"

"Should've known something was off when Espio dragged Nell to Nails' place." He couldn't believe it. Grace having Spike at her house was a trap set for both him and Rouge to finally talk to each other. He was trying to think about what he could do to try to leave, but Grace was blocking the door and he sure wasn't going to shove her out of the way. He clenched both of his fists in frustration over her idea of trying to get them both together. "God damn it, Grace!"

"No way!" Grace spoke in determination. She had every intention of keeping him there until he and Rouge had worked their situation out.

"Forget it. Let him go, Grace", Rouge had spoke at the entrance of the kitchen they were in.

When Grace and Shadow turned, they saw her standing there with her glaring at Shadow with her arms crossed.

"If he's too much of a coward to talk about his feelings, then let him go", she spoke in an uncaring voice.

He had then turned away from Grace and spun around to face Rouge with an angry look. "Coward? Who are you calling a coward?"

"You!" She shouted angrily. She scoffed under her breath before she began to imitate him. "Look at me! I'm Shadow and I don't like dealing with my feelings! Oh you're such a hard ass!"

When he saw her turn away and storm her way back into the living room, he had gotten angrier by the moment after witnessing her imitating him. "You fucking..."

When Grace saw Shadow storming into the living room after Rouge, she made a slight smirk in triumph it appeared. This all exactly wasn't what she had in mind for them to talk to each other, but it was a start. "And it begins..." she murmured before slowly making her way into the living room as well. When she entered the room, she sat herself down on the sofa and silently watched as the two stood in front of each other and started to bicker.

"How dare you call me a coward! Especially how you handle your feelings!" He shouted angrily, "Oh I got cheated on? Let me find the next dick with legs and go fuck around with them! You're fucking petty, Rouge!"

She placed her hand on her chest while she continued to shout at him, "Well I wouldn't have cheated if you didn't cheat on me first! Sally fucking Acorn! Out of all people! I still can't believe you!"

"Okay fine!" He placed his hands up towards his chest while he continued to angrily shout at her. "You know what? Yes! At one point I wanted to screw that woman's brains out but at least when I felt the way I did about her, I had self control!" He used his index finger to point towards himself, "Darkness took over my body and made me say shit to her to make her have sex with me! I wanted nothing to do with it but I couldn't stop it!"

Just hearing him bringing up the fact that the two slept together made her fight hard to hold back her tears. "But you loved her!" Her body slightly flinched when she heard his shouting getting even louder.

"I never fucking loved her! I didn't love Lien-Da either! I loved you, Rouge!"

Grace sat there on the sofa trying to be as quiet as the slight awkward silence that suddenly took place within the room. The only thing that could be heard was Spike's small babbles from his playpen. She held her mug of hot chocolate close to her before taking a small sip of it. 'Geez', she thought. 'This is pretty intense. Did I make the right decision by bringing them together like this?' She started to question herself on whether this was the right move to make to try to have them both get back with each other.

Rouge slowly folded her arms across her chest while shifting her eyes away from him. "...Do you?" She had asked in a quiet tone. "...Do you still love me, Shadow?"

He paused and knew what he needed to say, but he questioned if it was really what he felt. After everything the two had been through. In the beginning, she had chose Knuckles over him only because he was too stubborn to admit how he really felt about her. Soon it came to the point where she saw them both without Knuckles knowing until later. She then decided to break up with Knuckles and started dating Shadow. Even dating was hard because they still argued with each other. One time it became so much that she drove him to cheating with former G.U.N.'s second lieutenant. Though they both worked it out and decided to get married and tried to have a child together knowing that they would struggle from the fact that he was of demon decent. Even now that the both of them are married, he's realizing that their relationship is still struggling. He wondered if it would be like this for the rest of their lives if they stayed together. Full of heartache and broken trust. Could he really make their marriage work? Could he truly make her happy? He made a heavy sigh and slightly shook his head, "...Uh, Rouge..."

The room suddenly echoed from the sound of glass hitting the floor. Shadow and Rouge both quickly turned to Grace who had her head lowered down and her hands gripping the sides of her stomach.

A horrific expression took over Rouge's face as she heard painful groans coming from her. "Grace! What's wrong?"

She tried to speak through the sudden excruciating pain she had felt. "Oh God...it hurts..."

"Grace", Shadow spoke while taking a small step towards her. "Talk to us. What's going on?"

Her fingertips gripped around the sides of her stomach tighter, "I...I think my water just broke."

With a panicked look on her face, Rouge quickly turned to face Shadow with a look of wondering what to do. All she could read from him was an expression of disbelief as he stared at Grace. She then saw him place the palm of his hand on the side of his forehead before making a sigh.

"Oh hell..."

In The Next Chapter...

Grace:...Charmy?

Charmy: This is the happiest day of my life!

Rouge: Shadow, talk to me...

Shadow: I don't know if I can truly make you happy...