S. Kat: (pant, pant) Hi… every… one… (huff, puff)

Leo: …! What's wrong with YOU?

S. Kat: Band… c-camp… I'm… so exhausted! And… it's giving me trouble working on my story! (Sighs in pity) They make us march around on the field dozens of times and go over routines and songs all day long! My ankles feel like they're gonna fall off!

Leo: Ouch! Poor you!

S. Kat: But, it isn't so bad. At least I know that the hard work will pay off, and it really helps build endurance!

Leo: (smiles and pats author on back) Way to look on the bright side, S. Kat!

S. Kat: Tee, hee! Thanks! Well, anyway--

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co., for the millionth time! Actually, for the twelfth time. Ah, well. Oh, and I DO own Ruby and Leo!

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Shadowed Photo Ch. 12- Promises

"ACK!" I squealed as a robot barley hit me. "Eeeeeeeek! Look out, Leo--!" I shouted.

"CRUD!" Leo ducked as a robot swung its arm. It had been like this for a while. This was just great! First, we got lost, and now we were being chased by robots! And they just appeared out of nowhere! All of a sudden, the ARK began to shake and the alarm was going off and all of these guard robots appeared! We were having no such luck as to finding Sonic and the others.

Another robot stopped up in our tracks, ready to fire at us. 'Oh, no…' Leo and I turned the other way, but there was another robot blocking our path. 'This is it…! Goodbye, Leo, Mom, Dad, Ricky, Rouge, Shadow… what? Wait, when did Shadow get on my friends' list?' Both of the robots were charging up to fire at us. We braced our selves…

KABLAM!

Leo and I both opened our eyes to find… WE WERE NOT DEAD! YAY! (Sorry, I just had to put that there…X3) The robots blew up in front of us, covering us in ash. Leo and I coughed and gagged a bit. When the dust finally cleared, we found two large holes on both sides of the hallway, like something blasted right through the wall. We were lucky that whoever or whatever did that, it got the robots, too.

"Whoa! Leo, did you see that?" I asked pointing at one of the walls. Leo stood there with his mouth agape and slowly shook his head.

"Uh-uh, they were moving way too fast! But I can't believe they went through the wall…!" He said amazed. We both snapped back to reality and kept going.

After a while, we were passing a room and heard a crashing sound from inside it. I stopped and tugged on Leo's shirt. "Leo, did you hear that crashing sound?"

"Huh?" He turned back to me.

"Listen." I commanded him. We both hear another crashing sound, but this time, it sounded like someone was fighting. "It's coming from that room!" I gestured him to follow. "C'mon! It might be Sonic!" He nodded and followed. The door to the room was already open, by force! We ran inside to find it completely destroyed.

"Whoa…!" I cried in amazement. "Who the heck did this?"

Suddenly, there was another explosion that went through the wall and tow figures from the holes dashed at each other and started to fight. Leo and I stood there in shock at how fast the figures were moving. One of them stopped moving and I could recognize that it was Sonic! The other one stopped too, who was Shadow!

"Sonic!" Leo cried out. Sonic whirled around to look at us.

"Leo…? What are you doing…! Wait, is that your friend there?"

That was when Shadow turned his attention towards us. "Sh-Shadow…" I stuttered, feeling slightly terrified. He did not show any emotion. He just stared at me. But his stare turned into a glare.

"Now, where do you think you two are going, hm?" He said evilly. That tone of his voice made my spine shiver. Sonic dashed towards him.

"Leave them out of this, faker!" He rammed right into him and both of them went flying into the wall. We couldn't see anything, but we heard Sonic's voice, "Leo! Get you and Ruby out of here! Hurry! I think something bad is going to happen very soon! Go find Tails and the others! Now!"

"Alright, then!" He shouted back. "Let's go, Ruby." Quickly turned back to Sonic.

"Thank you, Sonic!" Then I ran off with Leo. 'I hope Sonic will be all right… and that Shadow doesn't kill him!'

We continued to run until the ARK shook again. I gasped in shock while I held onto a pole for support. "Kyaaaaaa! What's going on!"

"The heck if I know!" Shouted Leo.

As if things couldn't get any worse, it did; when the ceiling began to crumble and was about to fall on top of us! I shut my eyes, waiting for my fate to be sealed. Then, all of a sudden, a red echidna stepped leaped above us and smashed the rocks with his fists. He landed right in front of us. (I also noticed he was carrying a VERY big emerald, too.)

"Knuckles! Long time, no see!" Leo greeted.

"Yo, Leo." Knuckles smirked. "Is that your friend… uh, Ruby, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Ruby, this is…"

"Knuckles the Echidna! Wow!" I jumped up and down. I ran up and shook his hand. "It's very nice to meet you! I'm Ruby Gemmon! Thank you so much for helping Leo rescue me!" I gave him a warm smile and let go of his hand-- then went on with my ranting. "Man, Ricky's not going to believe that I shook hands with Knuckles the Echidna…! Hee, hee. He's going to hate me for sure…!"

"…Ooooookay… are all kids this friendly now a days?" He asked in confusion.

"Sorry, I usually try to be nice towards people… if it bothers you…"

"I didn't say that it bothered me!" Knuckles boasted, shaking his hands back and forth. I giggled, which made Knuckles turn red—um, redder. He then cleared his throat. "Anyway," he said, changing the subject, "have you two found Tails, Sonic or Amy yet?"

"Oh, yes! We saw Sonic fighting Shadow!" I informed him.

"What!" He roared. "Is he still fighting him?"

"We don't know!" Leo and I yelped in union.

"Knuckles!" A voice echoed on the loud speaker. "This is Tails! Bring Ruby and Leo to the main computer room right now! It's urgent!"

"Tails?" Knuckles rotated his head waiting for a response. "How did you know that they're with…? Ah, forget it." He picked up the Master Emerald again (which I stared at him because the thing was so freaking HUGE), and signaled us to follow. "C'mon, this way." He took a step forward, until Leo called out to him.

"Hold it, Knuckles! This could be a trap!" Leo stated, closing his eyes and crossing his arms like he was 'Mr. Know-it-all'. "He's probably using some kind of gadget to make himself sound like Tails and kidnap us and take the Master Emerald."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I bet that's it!"

"Ha ha ha. Very funny, kid…" Eggman's voice crackled on the speaker. "But fox-boy, here is right. So I suggest you get yourselves over here right this instant!"

"Okay then, Doc." Knuckles mumbled. "Hey, you two get on my back!" He barked. We hesitated for a moment.

"Um… are you sure you can carry all of us…?" I asked. He didn't give me a response, though. He just chucked Leo and I on top of the Master Emerald and took off.

Now let's fast forward to 30 seconds later…

"Are you two getting off now?" Knuckles asked while slightly shaking the Master Emerald. Even though Knuckles was very strong, he was also very fast, but not as fast as Sonic, but fast enough that Leo and I were clutching to the emerald for dear life.

"Nev…er… again…" Leo and I whispered, before we finally slid off. Tails, Amy and Rouge were already waiting for us, but there was no Sonic.

"Okay, so what's going on, Eggman?" Knuckles asked.

"Well…" Eggman began. "Long story short, when I put the Chaos Emeralds into the Eclipse Cannon, it activated some sort of defense mechanism, and the ARK is now on a one way collision course with the Earth!" Everyone in the room had a look of shock on their face. "Apparently, my grandfather, Professor Gerald, used this as a plot for revenge for what happened 50 years ago. And, not only we will die, the collision will be so catastrophic, it could destroy the entire planet."

'WHAT!'

"But…" he continued slowly, "there is a chance we might be able to save ourselves and the entire planet!"

"Wha…? So now you're a good guy?" I cocked my head to the side.

"Guess so." Sonic smirked.

"Wha da heck?…!" Leo and I screamed. "Weren't you just fighting Shadow?" Leo asked.

"Hah… he escaped…but, I can beat that faker anytime of the week!" He said with his smirk still in place. "Alright Eggman, what do we have to do?"

"We have to get to the center of the ARK and destroy it." He explained. "But to do that I need all of your help."

"Okay, I think we all agree, then." Sonic announced. He turned to Amy, Leo and I. "Amy, look after Ruby and Leo while I'm gone."

"B-but Sonic--! Will you be… okay…?" She asked, worried. All that Sonic did was smile and replied,

"Don't worry, Ames, I'll be okay!" And then he was gone. Amy stared at the spot where her knight and shining armor once stood. Then she began to blush madly.

"OOOOOOH! HE'S SOOOOOO COOL!" She swooned. Leo sweatdropped.

"Geez… what is it with females and being weird whenever a guy says something?"

Amy puffed out her cheeks in anger. "Hey! You forget that I'm not the only girl here!" She shouted. "And you know Sonic is the coolest, what do you think, Ruby?"

They didn't receive a reply. To tell you the truth, I actually had already left…

Elsewhere…

I ran franticly down the hall. I couldn't believe I was even doing this. But, I knew that Sonic and the others needed all the help they could get! But why, oh, why did I convince myself the ask him of all people?

'Because… he really isn't evil.'

'He's just misunderstood.'

'He's a just angry because he lost someone very important to him…'

'It's not his fault, others would feel the same way as him…'

'He needs to give people a second chance… he just has to!'

I was only a few feet away from the door leading to the lounging deck.

'He has to be in there!'

I slammed my hand on the button.

'He must!'

As soon as I was in the room, I put my hands on my knees and panted heavily. Shadow was in his usual spot, staring at me. 'I… I made it… now I just got to convince him…'

"Shadow… please…" I looked at him with pleading eyes. "I'm begging you… PLEASE help them!"

I took another breath and continue. "I know you and Sonic don't like each other that much… but, the Earth will be destroyed if you don't—"

"That's exactly what I want to happen." He retorted. "Those selfish creatures deserve to die."

"What?.!" I was appalled. "How can you say such a thing? What did they ever do to you?"

"They took away a life of an innocent girl!" He shouted in disgust. "Maria didn't do anything, but they killed her anyway! She didn't deserve to die…"

"But neither do they!" I stepped forward. "I'm very, very sorry that your best friend, Maria died… but not all people are bad! I know for a fact that some are… but, there are people down there that do good, and help others!"

"Feh. You're wrong. Humans are selfish… and always will be! That's why they killed her! Because of their own selfishness! They're all like that!"

That made my blood boil. "You don't know that for a fact!" I was now shouting back at Shadow. "Have you even given them a chance? Not even one?"

Shadow's eyes widened, as if he just saw a ghost. Was it something I said?

"People make mistakes… and some are selfish, too… and mean… but, there really are good people down there, maybe some of them like Maria… but, you will never know if you don't give them a chance." Tears started to form in my eyes. "Please, give them a chance… just one. Wouldn't Maria want you to do that, Shadow?"

That did it.

"…now I know why." He whispered softly. "I know why you remind me of her." He wasn't looking at me anymore, instead he turned his body to the side, as if he was hiding something. "Both of you… have a lot of qualities in common. You try to be friendly with people who you don't know, and try to see the good in people, no matter what they used to be like… but she still loved the Earth… she promised we would go down there together… she also said something about giving them a chance…"

I was very shocked. This is not what I was expecting at all, but did that mean that he would help or not? I decided to speak again. "Please, if you won't do it for me, do it for Maria! She'd want you to! Wouldn't she? She would want you to save the planet she loved… and it's people."

I heard footsteps coming close. "Ruby!" Leo and Amy cried. When I turned around to see them, they stopped dead in their tracks, with the look of confusion on their faces. "Ruby? What is going on?" Leo asked, surprised. I turned back at Shadow, who was walking past me. After he walked past Leo and Amy he stopped.

"Ruby."

"H-huh?"

"I'll help, only because you made me realize that I need to keep my promise to Maria. After all," he paused and looked back at me, and was smiling with confidence. "I wouldn't be a very good friend if I didn't keep my promises, now would I?"

I smiled with relief and hope I quickly wiped away my tears. "Thank you… so much. Now…" I put my self into a confident position. "GO TO IT, SHADOW!"

He gave his 'Shadowed Grin' one more time and ran as fast as he could to Sonic and the others.

'Thank you, Shadow. I knew you weren't evil! Please don't let the Earth down!'

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To be continued… don't you just HATE that saying? Well, sorry folks, but, that 's how they make people watch there shows! (lol) And, I'm sorry this is late… again. But I just started band camp, so I don't have a lot of free time anymore, and my weekends are getting busy. On top of that, I GO BACK TO SCHOOL IN TWO MORE WEEKS! OO Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! Oh, well. We all knew it was going to happen eventually, huh? Well, at least I wasn't sitting on my butt all summer. Working on this story was so much fun! And I'm actually starting high school, so that outta be fun:P But, this story is coming to a close. It'll probably be over in one or two more chapters… it's kind of sad in a way, isn't it?  But don't fret, my people, for I shale return! So, you all know the drill by now. Leave a review and no flamz! Bye!