" Rouge! You'll never guess!" Yelled Siberia's obviosly excited voice from the other end of the phone. The bat was ready to go to sleep as it was almost 11.00 in the afternoon, and wasn't in a particular mood for guessing.

" Hmm, Siberia? What's going on?" She mumbled as her thoughts were unfocassed and fuzzy. Her eyes kept wanting to close themselves.

" I'm having twins Rouge! Twins!"she squeled back. The information didn't sink in straight away.

" Yeah, that's nice..."she halfheartedly answered. Although normally she would have given any chance to talk to her best freind, right now she just wanted to go to her warm, cuddely and comfertable bed.

" Oh." Siberia couldn't help but let slip out. In truth, she wanted a fuss made over her, just as Shadow had done. But it seemed Rouge was half asleep.

" Wait! Did you say twins?" The bat queried when her brain started waking up at last.

" Yes!". Rouge was now fully awake and already going to find Knuckles so he could drag him over to Shadows excluded home and talk to her until night came. Excitement bubbeled through her.

" That's the best news ever!" Rouge squeled like some school girl after seeing her crush. Her heart throbbed with adrenaline.

" I know! I can hardly believe-" Siberia began, but stopped mid sentance. Rouge waited for her sentance to continue, but it never did. Instead , her reply was a painfilled shriek, sending Rouge into panic at the other end of the phone.

" Siberia! What's wrong!" She screamed into the resiever a little too loudly, thinking her best freind had suddenly been stabbed from behind by a wild ax-man who was mentally unstable. A fit of unsteady breathing followed, which gradually dulled down to normal breathing, after which Siberia replied in a shacky voice.

" I'm ok"

" What happened!" Rouge immidiatly questioned in concern. Siberia sighed and replied

" I'm not actually sure. I just felt pain where... where the babies are...", her voice suddenly fearful once more. Rouge gulped and quickly announced

" We're coming over!"

" No. You don't have to-" Siberia burst out, but it was too late , Rouge had already slammed the resiever down and rushed out of the room. She quickly checked on Seth, who needed his nappy changing. She rushed to get it done in a hurry to get Knuckles off the island. In her hurry, she upset Seth and he screwed up his face, as if he were going to cry. Feeling frustrated, she picked him up and tried to calm him, gently singing and rocking him, noticing his many new teeth when he yawned. She sighed and walked slowly out of the room, to avoid desterbing him again. Her mind was a mild world of panic. She was incredably worried about Siberia, and about the babies she was expecting. It became even more important now that Siberia was expecting two that she kept healthy, and from what she had said Rouge knew something wasn't right.

" Knuckles!" She called across the vast plains of the island, hoping to catch sight of him, or at least that he would hear her. She knew she couldn't call too loudly incase she distirbed Seth, who was happily admiring the colourful scenary and chewing one of his dreadlocks, a habbit he had picked up during Espio's wedding, thanks particially to his dad. The more Rouge wondered across the enormous island, the more she felt she would never find Knuckles soon enough, and the more concerned and frustrated she became. She found herself by the main lake, one of her favourite spots but somewhere Knuckles never seemed to be. She sat herself down and place Seth on the grass, allowing him to roll around onto his belly and almost push himself up with his arms, almost. " Why can I never find you when I need to?" She huffed in disapointment. She closed her eyes.

" I don't think Seth is old enough to answer you Rouge" said a voice from behind her. She knew who it was even before she turned around of course, Knuckles voice was reconisable enough to pick out from the loudest crowds. He was standing behind her, apperently having approached from the thick undergrowth. He took an unusally hesitant step forward, taking a long shacking breath as he did so. Rouge caught onto his body language immidiatly, wondering what could possibly have happened. Her first thoughts travelled to the master emerald, wondering if something had happened to damage it. But that hadn't happened since eggman had been deafeted and sent into exile in a far of prison, deemed dangerous. Time slid by, and eventually , Knuckles opened his mouth and gave a little, slightly strained smile.

" Seth is wonderful, isn't he?" He said, his voice almost dreamlike. Rouge couldn't help but blurt out in a igorant way

" What?" She said, an eyebrow raised in suspition of Knuckles behavior. The echidna flushed, and shifted his large shoes uncomfertably on the grass.

" No, I mean er...Having Seth was...the right thing to do?" He rambled carefully, staring at Rouge intently. She frowned and said

" I guess so". She was not really in a mood to talk about Seth at this point, there were other, more immportant things to deal with, things she had her mind on at that point. But Knuckles continued on his strange path of talking, again saying

" I had a dream, Seth had grown up, he was so strong, and had such a kind heart. You were there, and me, and we looked happy". Rouge stared at him, not saying anything as he talked seemingly to himself, his eyes clouded over and a half awake expression on his face. His voilet eyes shifted onto his son, who was trying to role over to a bunch of vibrantly coloured flowers. He seemed to almost drift over to his son and picked him up softly. Seth mumered a complaint but didn't little more, and was soon content in his fathers grasp. The minetes swam by where Knuckles simply held Seth, studying his son as if he never seen him before. And although Knuckles seemed content to waste the hours in his own mind, Rouge had other things in mind, and she felt that she would go to Siberia's house on her own if she had too.

She stood up suddenly and adressed Knuckles.

" Knuckles, I need to go, Siberia-"she began, but Knuckles raised his arm to cut her off. His eyes met hers, and almost pleedingly he said

" Please, let me finish". Rouge kept silent, hoping that whatever Knuckles wanted was important. He took another glance at Seth and continued. " In my dream..." He hesitated, seeming now not to want to meet Rouges eyes. " In my dream, the one where Seth had grown up, we...we...we had more children" he looked up breifly to see Rouge staring at him intently, not appearing to show any emotion. Taking a sigh he continued " It was like a perfect life. It felt so right. I'm beginning to think that's what is mean to be". Rouge willed for him to stop talking so she could leave. None of what he was saying was really sinking in, the phone call was still fresh in her mind, and Knuckles seemed like he had gotten drunk off of the strange smelling flowers on the island again.

The echidna gently layed Seth down on grass, tickeling him on the nose and stroking his head delicatly. He slowly advanced on Rouge again, his hands reaching out a grasping hers, caressing them in such a loving way that Rouge felt she had not had in a long time. His eyes seemed to have melted into soft pools of colour was they rose and met hers. For a second she was caught on his eyes, but then Siberia's thoughts entered her head again, and her mind trailed off in a different direction. So when Knuckles spoke again, his next words caught her by surprise.

" Rouge, I love you, and I love Seth more than I ever thought I could. And I have a favor to ask. I'd like...i'd like for us to ...seriously consider more children, soon" he finished, lowering his head. Rouge eyes widdened. She stared at Knuckles in disbelief. He had chosen the worst possible time to talk about this and right now all she felt was anger towards him for mentioning this at such a horrible time. She didn't stop to think about the fact that Knuckles couldn't have known about Siberia, and ripped her hands from his own. Knuckles looked as if he had been struck, his eyes staring in disbelief at his paws as if they were on fire. Rouge backed away, took to the air, told Knuckles to look after Seth while she was gone, and flew off. The shocked father stood silent and still for minetes on end, letting it all sink in. A complete feeling of failure flooded through him. He was so sure she would say yes, looking at the way she seemed to drift into her own little world with Seth. But the complete opposite of her reaction made him feel empty inside. He slouched over onto the grass, watching with a feeling of utter despair as Seth tried in vain to push himself up on his forarms. It seemed both father and son were loosing their battles right now. Seth gave a defeated moan and slumped over on his belly. A lone tear rolled down Knuckles cheek as he watched his son . He wished that Seth would have a younger sibling to grow up with. But right now, it seemed that wouldn't be an option. He gently picked up his son and cuddled him, the bachidna gripped at Knuckles fur with his tiny hands, grabbing one of Knuckles dreads and chewing it. For once Knuckles didn't mind. He was going to appriciate Seth for all he was, becuase it was there was a great possibility that he would never get anymore children. He wondered if the master emerald would even allow it. Without that, him and Rouge were just like any other mixed species couple, childrenless.

Knuckles got up, deciding he needed a change of veiw. The veiw of angel island usually calmed him, but right now he felt sickened. Feeling utterly deafeated, He took to the air, making sure to leave Seth with Vector and Seringhetti on the way.

Sonic sighed into his slouched arms, a glass by the side of his head. His world had spun into chaos, but not a chaos he had any power to face. The water demon with which he had fought so long ago nearly destroyed a city in the human world and Sonic had come close to being deafeted once and for all. But once again, with the power, the thrill of the chaos emeralds, he defeated Chaos, and it was one of the best times in his entire life.

But the choas he found now was not as easy to face, and that was chaos that came from the inside. The chaos of emotion. His feelings had never felt so mixed. Half of him felt dull, frozen, dead. All day he sat in his house with Amy, doing things he would have never thought he would end up doing. Cooking, cleaning, repearing the toilet. While Amy skitted around ' preparing'. He hadn't realised what was happening until Amy had mentioned something, mentioned something about them being a perfect ' ordinary' family. Sonic was never ordinary. Ever since he was born, he had been special. As young as 14 he was racing around, ripping through the air with his speed, and taking apart Robotnics robots as if it were a game. And to him, it was. Even when the world was in danger, which it often was, Sonic wasn't afraid, becuase he knew the danger would end. All this gave him confidence, and made him feel like a giant around mortals. It was a good feeling. It was this feeling that made him feel better than Amy, an annoying cling on fan girl. He felt he was too supirior to even go near her, or at least get to know her as much as he perhaps should. But when Robotnic went, and the reporters became lest interesting, his life dwindled into insigificance. The numerous parties he had couldn't cover up his boredom, so he turned to something else. Of course, being the clean hedgehog he was he wouldn't go near drugs, or even touch a cigarrette. But there was something he could try, something that was perfectly legal and something that a certain person had been begging from him for years, in her own little way. Sex. He had to admit to himself that he did it with Amy becuase he could, becuase there was nothing else he thought he had left, becuase it gave him a thrill. But, as much as he thought it would never happen, he started to devolep a deeper bond with Amy. As this bond grew stronger he felt himself feeling strangly about Amy, almost as if he loved her. That thought seemed unacceptable at first, and he tried to deney it. But the more he tried, the more he became obssessed with her, and finnaly, he offered her his hand in marriage.

Sonic the hedgehog! Marrying Amy Rose! The media had lept at this headline, spraying it wherever copyright didn't stop them. But that only seemed to intensify Sonics lust for Amy and he wanted to make him hers, no matter what. His thoughts filled with many pation filled nights, the ones he could have over and over again on their honeymoon. But strangly , Amy had refused to go on one. Sonic thought he had upset her somehow, and started treating her as well as he could, trying to win back her favour. Trying to win back the sex. In the end he got it and for a while his life seemed to it back together again, his relationship with Amy filling the gaps the eggman had left.

And then, the news. At first, Sonic was stunned into shock, his mind forcing himself not to believe what he had heard. Another portion of his mind screamed for him to look after her, becuase that's what loved ones do. ' Loved ones' he had echoed to himself, and after a few tension filled arguments and rage and worried tears, peice was restored. But as it became more apparent that what Sonic dreaded was infact happening, his life once again began to break down. The sex had stopped, reaveling the holes in their relationship, and there was a lot of holes. Amy started to become irritable and argumentative when Sonic wasn't paying enough attention to her. But Sonic wanted to avoid her as much as possible. To avoid her was to avoid the reality of what he had done to her. Rape. Yes , he realised it was a little over the top, but he knew he didn't love Amy at the time, he knew she thought he did and he knew he used her. Now his child was growing inside of her, and as it grew, Amy grew more ugly. Sonic's love dwindled everyday. No longer was she the shining new hope of his life, but the fat, annoying hedgehog who's ear peircing voice was now around him constantly. He had become moody and irritable, tence and stern and almost unapproachable, so much so that he and Amy began to have arguments, almost constantly. After one particularly rage filled exchange, Sonic had left the house, travelled to his recently favourite pub, and slumped across the table, realived to get away from his one and only.

All this negative emotion bought about the question, a question he had been dreading. Did he love Amy? There was no way the pregnancy could be terminated any more, and as much as Sonic felt sickened to admit it, the answer was slowly becoming no.

Knuckles entered the bar from the front door, sighed, looked round and spotted Sonic, pulling up a chair and slumping down next to him. The hedgehog didn't question why the echidna was so far away from his home, and instead reacted with a half hearted

" Hey". Knuckles grunted and replied just as enthuiasticly with an echoed

" Hey". He noticed the half finished drink. " Women trouble?". Sonic lifted his head of the table, looking directly into Knuckles eyes, hicoughed and replied meekly

" Yes". Knuckles gave a sadenned laugh and grunted back

" You ain't the only one". Both emmited a long sigh. Sonic ordered a drink for Knuckles, which he promptly drained in two gulps. A few minetes drifted by in drunken misery before the front door slipped open once again, first letting in a happy pair of cats and then an orange fox who looked like he had just been to a funeral. The fox spotted Knuckles and Sonic, drifted over in a zombie like trance and pulling up the final chair of the table. Sonic gave another sigh and struggled to say

" Hey Tails". The fox murmered his greeting and drank the rest of Sonic's drink. He also neglected to ask why Knuckles was so far away from home without his wife of child, and simply started scrathing the base of his head in a slow motion.

" Women trouble?" Knuckles quiered like he had done for Sonic. The fox gave a low groan as a reply and Knuckles nodded slowly, seemingly staring into space. " Figures"

THREE HOURS

The three old teammates still occupied the seats, although their moods had noticably changed. The small table that stood with them was now boasting a large collection of empty bottles, glasses and a bag load of smashed peanuts, which had been used in an amusing but childish game earlier on.

" I mean! I SHWEAR Swadow doesn't know how to ushh a door! Right?hic" Knuckles half yelled to Sonic and Tails even though they wern't even a meter away from him. Tails giggled in a childish way and Sonic yelled back while he looled on his chair, waving his arms around in an extreme rate and more than once almost knowcking Tails around the back of the head.

" I KNOW! He just chaosh controlsh his arsh everywheres! I thinksh he has a phobia of the frameshhh!" Sonic slurred and laughed in a boystrous way, taking a huge gulp of his current drink. Tails snickered and burped loudly, sending the other too into yet more air brained laughter. Knuckles laughed a little too much and almost feel of his chair, only steadying himself by throwing his arms around Sonic's shoulders. " Givesh ush a kish! Knuckle-allsh!" Sonic said in a put on gay tone, smirked into the echidnas ear and pursing his lips out in an overally exageratted way.

" Bride and groom!" Tails exclaimed at the two, causing Knuckles to let go in discust, and realise his grip across his rivals chest, and causing him to crash off of the chair and fall onto the floor, dragging down Sonic with him.

" I ain'ta for gay sexsh ya know old buddyyyyyyyy" the hedgehog giggled into the echidna's ear, attempting to push him off. Tails jumped atop the two.

" Threesome!" He yelled, trying to cling onto Knuckles dreadlocks. The echidna threw him off and Sonic sat up.

" Your not serious?" He said in a semi serious tone. They never got to find out as the attention the crash brung to the three caused the owner of the club to get annoyed, and kick the three drunkards out and close the bar for the night.

The three stumbled with their legs and tried their best to drift down the street without any accidents. Knuckles giggled and stumbled into the gutter, while Sonic slammed face first into a lampost, knocking himself down into the gutter along with Knuckles. The echidna snickered and pointed to Sonic, yelling

" Tramp!". Sonic rolled out of the gutter guiltily and attempted to gain his footing, with help from Tails. All three of them ended up stumbling down the streets, arms on each others shoulders, singing with their voices wialing like an old crones.

" Haaappy birthday to Knuckles! Haaaaaaaappy birthday to Knuckles!" Tails wailed into the freezing night air.

" And me!" Announced Sonic into sky, tripping over his feet.

" And me!" Knuckles sung, not wanting to be left out. Tails pushed Knuckles off his shoulders, so almost immidiatly the echidna lost his footing and tumbled down to the floor.

" I already sung you happy birthday!" Tails scorned. But without the support of Knuckles on his left side, he soon stubled over himself, Sonic followed suit after tripping over his freinds tails. The three giggeled in the middle of the road, rolling around in the rain as if they were on a beach.

" Hey Tailsh, you ain't a vigin ish ya?" Knuckles suddenly asked. Tails looked thoughtful and answered

" No", he snicked and said " The snake has visited the forest". Sonic and Knuckles burst into another wave of ungraceful and perverted laughing and managed to clamber onto the pavement as a car approuched. The driver of the car gave each of them a disapointed look as he drove past, but the three just kept snickering with stupidity.

" I not a virgin either" Sonic suddenly announced, feeling he had to tell of his secrets to his two best freinds. Knuckles rolled his eyes and gave Sonic a whack in the head.

" We know that! How elsh did Amy get pregganant?"(that is supposed to be spelt like that, Knuckles is slurring his words) Knuckles yelled in his ear scornfully. Sonic shrugged and slouched at the word Amy.

" I forgot about her..." He mummbled unhappily to himself. His mood instantly translated to the rest of them and the echidna and the fox were soon wearing depressed expressions.

" They never know what you want" Knuckles added, his voice glum and suddenly serious. Tails gave a nod and replied

" And they try to cage you like...like your in a cage"

" Wise words my freind" the super sonic hedgehog commented, still sitting in a puddle which had been slowly accumulating. He gave a sigh and moaned " This water is really wet". His comment went unnoticed. The three sat in silence for a while, going over their thoughts in what was left of their drunk minds. Suddenly and somewhat randomly, each one announced their conclusions at exactly the same time.

" I want to get married"

" I want a divorce"

" I want more kids". There was silence for a few more seconds, in which the three exchanged confused and surprised looks at one and another. The silence was broken when Knuckles jumped to his feet

" YOU want to get married!" He yelled at Tails, not believing what he was hearing. Tails shrugged and nodded absentmindidly, seeming not to care what Knuckles thought. Sonic seemed to have fallen asleep for a while and Tails didn't seem to have heard what Knuckles had said. Suddenly, his ears pricked up and he jumped up too.

" You want more kids? is one vomit machine not enough?" He quickly jabbered in a strained voice, his voice breaking higher as he pushed it. Knuckles growled and grabbed hold of Tails scruff around his neck, suddenly incredably angry.

" They are not vomit machines! I love Shhheth!" He yelled into the foxes face, their nuzzled incredably close. Tails snickered, suddenly his tone wasn't so serious anymore. The echidna looked more shocked than angry at the fox now, apparently he didn't expect Tails to laugh. He realised his grip a little and asked perhaps a bit to calmly

" What's funny?". Tails grinned and pointed a finger at Knuckles, squeling as if he was a total genius the word

" DADDY!". Knuckles rolled his eyes and dropped Tails to the ground, where he landed in the same puddle Sonic was sitting in and continued to laugh at what seemed to be himself.

" I jush'd figured it out. Like... The meaning of lifsh" Soic suddenly said. Knuckles even jumped a little. He had forgotten Sonic was even there. The hedgehog sat, staring at the ground, a look of deep thought on his face. Or at least as much of a thoughtful look as a drunk animal could pull. He scratched his chin and continued " We're all bored right? That'sh why were like...shitting in a puddle and ...stuff". Tails burst into a fresh amount of laughter at Sonic's miss said 'sitting'. Knuckles was looking far too serious to laugh at the hedgehogs drunken mistack, but a grin did creep up on his face. Sonic looked up and surveyed the two of them, remembering how close they used to be as freinds, remembering how each of them had more or less forgotten about each other in exchange for their familes. It was a sad thought.

" We gott'a getsh our lifsh back. We gotta get back Robotnic". Tails stopped laughing and Knuckles fixed Sonic was a hard, stern stare. Although Sonic's reasoning was jarred at that point, to Knuckles it seemed to be a reasonable thing to say, but not nessisarily an easy thing. It basically involved going back to their old lives, something Knuckles wasn't sure he could cope with. After all, he had a son now and a wife he had to win favor with if she was to agree to what he wanted. That would have been what would have gone through a normal, sensible Knuckles head. But right now, with the under the influence of alcahol Knuckles in charge, things were working out a little different.

" Let'sh do it!" He announced, jumping into the air and slamming his fist up, as if about to go on an adventure.

" YEAH!" Screamed Tails at the top of his lungs in agreement. Sonic jumped up to and grinned, thinking how it was just like the old times and jumped to his feet too.

" All right! Let'sh do it!" He yelled in triumph, the other two echoing him. " Tommorow, i'm washted. Let'sh go to Shhhadowsh".

AT SHADOWS HOUSE

The black hedgehog was sitting on the roof of his house, the moon beating down onto his head. He loved the night, where everything was quiet and peiceful. When Draco was usual asleep, along with everyone else, except for him. He enjoyed his time alone. But it seemed today, he wouldn't be getting that peice.

" ROW ROW ROW YA BOUT! GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM!" Came a tangle of three voices, singing out of time and out of tune. Shadow frowned and made him way over to the front of his house, hoping to see if he could catch what ever madmen had decided to disturb his peice. What he saw , enclosing on his front door, was an echidna wearing a police helmet, a blue hedgehog waving around a handful of flowers that looked like they had been torn out of someones garden and am orange fox, who looked like the only thing he had was a incredable air of stupidity. The corus of off tune singing continued as Shadow jumped down from his roof, landing infront of the three and causing them all too fall over, obviously they were not to steady on their feet.

" What are you doing?" He asked, his tone calm for now. Sonic's eyes widdened in recognition and he yelled

" Shadow! Your here! At your house! I'm so glad to see you!" He squealed with delight, running up and hugging Shadow around the chest. Shadow sighed and restrained himself from punching Sonic, knowing it was going to be a very long night...

AUTHORS NOTES

Yes I know this chappie took ages but I have been extremly beuisy and it's also very long. PLEASE give me long reviews! I spent apsolutly ages on this chapter and will probably give up if people can't be bothered to write more than' great chapter'. Sorry about being rude but im tired. Btw, me and my boyfreind are writing a fic together about Shadow- its called ' ruin is thy name'. Plz give it a glance.