Outside of Central City, in a canyon with odd pumpkin carvings, Rouge kept tailing the strange blue plane. She could sense the chaos energy coming from it; Shadow had been right about the final emerald.

Rouge was glad, for more than one reason.

She tailed the aircraft, grinding on rails that crisscrossed the hills and using her wings for balance. She could have flown, but there was something exhilarating about jumping from rail to rail, accelerating to dizzying speeds before jumping to incredible heights. It appealed to something within her, something hidden and repressed, perhaps buried deep in the sea of memories she hadn't uncovered yet, or maybe it was something she had simply never experienced before.

Rouge frowned, some of her elation at her fun deflating. The gaps in her memories had become more worrying lately, as things started to make less and less sense when grouped together.

Gerald had wanted to help the earth? By making weapons of mass destruction?

Rouge had been created to destroy, but also for Maria's sake? How? What secrets were hidden behind her creation?

Maria had thought the world so beautiful 一 and it was, as much as Rouge hated to admit it 一 and yet she cursed its people with her dying breath, betrayed beyond measure?

Sometimes Rouge could make a sensible line of logic, connecting all the dots and filling in the blanks. Sometimes she couldn't convince herself.

Sometimes she wondered if these memories were even real, but they had to be. Anything that brought up emotions that strongly had to be real.

Right?

She stopped on a plateau, watching the plane pass by and sensing the chaos energy grow in proximity before fading. She squinted against the sunlight, looking to the horizon, and figured out the fox's plan in an instant; after all, there was only one thing of note in that direction. She tapped into her headset, tuning into her link with Ivo.

"Doctor," she reported, "they're heading directly toward us. What should we do?"

"Just sit tight," came the orders, and Rouge frowned again. She hadn't gone down to the planet without an emerald to sit around and do nothing. They were on a time limit, weren't they? But before she could point this out to Ivo, he continued. "I've got them on radar. There's no way they can get away! I don't know what they are planning, but I'll be sure to give them a warm welcome."

The way he sounded when the transmission ended promised a threat, and Rouge supposed that she was pacified enough. If they brought the emerald to them, it would have rendered her trip down to Earth rather moot, save for the fun little chase she had been able to do across the canyon. She still preferred to get the emerald now, incapacitate anyone who wanted to disturb the plan before they got onto the ARK, and see everything through without interruptions, but it seemed as though Ivo had a personal grudge against these people.

Fine. He could have this one little thing, as a treat. She would grant one small hurrah for Professor Gerald's other grandchild before Rouge destroyed the world he wanted to conquer. He would be angry with her, but Maria's promise convinced Rouge to stay on her path. Perhaps Ivo would be consoled in time, and find enjoyment in rebuilding the broken world, filling it with the robots he so loved.

Rouge sighed, rubbing at her arm where the insignia lay. It was happening. It was really happening.

So why wasn't she happy about it?


Eggman stood by in his pyramid base, his eyes and ears peeled for any sign of those pesky kids. He had done his calculations after Rouge had updated him, and he figured there were two ways that this could go.

Either they got to the ARK, or they didn't. If he beat them here, took their emerald, and sabotaged the shuttlecraft without leading anyone to the transporter room, then the plan could continue without a single obstacle. If they did end up getting onto the ARK, then it was just a matter of shooting fish in a barrel before they did too much damage.

No matter the outcome, he was practically guaranteed a win, but that wouldn't stop him from making things as difficult as possible for Sonic to deal with.

Loud noises and high-pitched cheering steered him in the right direction, and sure enough, it sounded like a gaggle of those annoying brats hidden behind the stone doors. "You little thieves!" he snapped, silencing their cheers in an instant. "Did you really think you could get out of here alive?"

The door slid open, while Eggman rested his arms on the front of his mech, giving the kids a small wave and he came into view. He mentally applauded himself on the dramatic entrance and the look of shock on three out of four faces.

Sonic, predictably, went with the flow. "Come and get some, Eggman!" he taunted.

"Sonic!" Tails cried, looking to the hedgehog in panic, but Sonic just swiped at his nose and grinned at him.

"Just leave it to me."

"This time, I'll take your lives as well as the Chaos Emerald!" Eggman threatened, pulling the attention back to him. Then, with a dramatic wave of the arm, he spoke loudly enough that his voice echoed off of the walls of the chamber. "I call on you to destroy these pests. Come out, my servant!"

At his beckoning, a massive golem rose from below the walkways, restrained and mechanized by a device attached to his head. It was so large and imposing that even cool-headed Sonic gaped at it in shock. Eggman laughed in glee; finally, the time had come to be rid of these nuisances once and for all!

"Now go, and squash that blue hedgehog!"


Rouge kept a steady pace toward the pyramid base, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the top of the structure open.

"What in the world…?"

She was even more taken aback as a space shuttle shot from the newly-formed opening, and her fingers fumbled as she reactivated her headset.

"Doctor? Has something happened?"

There was a loud blare of interference which had Rouge wincing as it collided with her sensitive ears, followed by static and garbled speech. "Doctor?" she repeated, feeling worry flare up in her despite her best efforts.

"...unexpected oversight… on the shuttle… matter…"

Rouge took a deep breath. He was okay. It relieved her more than it should have.

"The line is still breaking up. One more time, please."

There was another blast of ear-shattering interference, followed by several seconds of static before everything quieted down. "There… that should do the trick. Can you hear me clearly now?"

"Yes."

"Good. As I said, there was an oversight on my part. Sonic escaped my Egg Golem and turned it against me, then got onto the shuttle with his friends."

So Sonic had made it off of Prison Island in one piece. Rouge's mouth twitched upward before she remembered that this would only make things more difficult.

"I've sustained a few minor injuries," Ivo continued, bringing her back from her thoughts, "and some damaged equipment, as you've no doubt heard. Get here as soon as you can; we'll need to transport up to the ARK as soon as possible! There's only so much Shadow can do on his own before our plan is in jeopardy."

"I'm on my way," Rouge replied, already dashing across the sand. A crackling in her ear told her that Ivo had switched channels, and Rouge guessed that he was updating Shadow on the situation at hand. Unease gripped at her gut as she considered what might happen next.

Shadow was alone up on the ARK. If push came to shove, would he fight back? Would he get hurt?

Or would he do the logical thing, and try to join the winning side? Especially with an emerald coming right to him?

Rouge grit her teeth, pushing herself to run faster. She hated this. She hated that Ivo reminded her of Professor Gerald and that his injuries concerned her. She hated that she was happy that Sonic was alive. She hated that she was preoccupied by Shadow's well-being and the unfortunate realization that she didn't entirely trust him. How could she? They had known each other for only a day.

So why did a possibility of him betraying her hurt so badly?


Up in the central control room, Shadow's communicator crackled to life and Eggman's voice brought him away from gazing longingly at the beautiful, glittery gems that lay within the cannon's core.

"Shadow? Are you there? Emergency update!"

Blue-lined eyes narrowed in concern. An emergency? Did something happen to the emerald? To Rouge? Shadow lifted his communicator and cleared his throat, making sure he sounded sufficiently calm before he answered.

"Hi Doctor, how's it going?"

"Badly. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy have escaped with the emerald."

"What?" Shadow screeched, losing his cool immediately. "What do you mean they escaped? I stay up here because you both tell me, 'oh, don't worry Shadow, we can handle this', and then you come and tell me that-"

"Zip it," Eggman growled, and Shadow reluctantly held back the rest of his tirade. "Time is of the essence here. They've made off with a rocket of mine, so they won't be transporting. That buys you a little bit of time before Rouge and I reconvene and go up to assist. They have the emerald with them; if at all possible, I need you to take it from them. Can you do that?"

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" Shadow bragged. "I'll find a way."

An emerald coming right to him? This reeked of opportunity, and Shadow was already spinning a new plan in his head as he kept talking.

"Do you think you can tell me the password for the central control computer?"

"Why do you need it?" Eggman didn't sound pleased.

Shadow clicked his tongue. "So distrustful! It really brings a guy down, you know. I just wanted to keep track of the camera feeds, let you know when they arrive, and if they happen to split up, I can direct you and Rouge to the ones I haven't gone after yet… but I can't check the feeds without the password."

The line was silent for several seconds. Shadow tried to think of any other excuses he could make, before the quiet, gruff voice of Doctor Eggman came up again.

"Maria. M-A-R-I-A. Don't fail me."

With that, the line went dead, and Shadow grinned from ear to ear. Tricking the old doctor had been all too easy!

He zipped over to the console, typing in the password. There was something strange about it; a simple name, no special characters, no numbers… something about it seemed familiar, too. Like he had heard it spoken, or maybe whispered, but he couldn't place when or by whom.

As the computer started up, he supposed it didn't matter all that much.

"Let's see here," he murmured, searching around. The first thing he did was pull up the camera feeds; it was a good idea, after all, to make sure he knew when everyone was arriving. A quick survey said that the ARK was still empty, as expected.

Then he started digging around, searching for information about the Eclipse Cannon. He needed to find any intel that could help him identify and disable any alarm systems that would prevent him from taking the Chaos Emeralds.

A file showed up on the screen, and Shadow paused, his fingers suspended above the keys.

It was the insignia. The one on Rouge's jumpsuit. The one that had led him to the ARK.

Curiosity ate at him and urged him to click on it. Inside the file were multiple subsections, but his eyes shot immediately to one in particular.

"What's this? 'Research Project Rouge, the Ultimate Lifeform'…"

A sense of unease fell on him as he saw the words 'research project' next to Rouge's name. The implications that came from the title alone were enough to fill him with a terrible sense of doubt and trepidation.

Maybe… maybe there was more to Rouge than he understood.

He clicked on the file, and began to read.


"Wh… What is this?" Shadow shrieked, stepping back from the screen. His eyes took in the image before him, reread every line, but it was the same. Panic settled over him, mixing with shock and cold fear into an icy shower of distrust.

He was so upset that he almost missed the sight of his favorite blue hedgehog on the camera feed.

Shadow gave himself a light slap to the face, forcing himself to remain calm and stay on task. He could worry about Rouge later, though he still felt seconds away from screaming when he remembered what was on file. He took a deep breath and re-examined the cameras.

Sonic wasn't alone. Shadow could also see Tails piloting his mechanized airplane and Amy bouncing along with the two of them.

On another camera, he saw a flash of red barrel down a different hallway, and frowned as he remembered Eggman mentioning Knuckles was there too.

So now came Shadow's dilemma. Did he go after Sonic's group of three, where the last emerald was most likely to be, and have to deal with a three-against-one battle, possibly with Sonic looking at him in disappointment while Amy pulled no punches with her hammer? Or did he go after the lone echidna and take what was rightfully his?

The answer was obvious. The Master Emerald shards still hidden on his person seemed to agree with him as he pulled out his communicator.

"Doctor, come in. It's Shadow."

"Have they arrived?"

"They have, and just as I thought, they've split up. Are you coming up soon?"

"Rouge and I are heading to the transporter room as we speak," Eggman replied, and Shadow felt a sharp stab of unease at the bat's name. "We should be up there in two minutes."

"Good. In that case, once you're up, head to the observation deck on the way to the reactor. I can handle the echidna on my own, but unarmed in a three-on-one fight against the rest? No thank you."

"I suppose that's fair. Well done Shadow! We'll rendezvous at the cannon once we've finished our opponents off."

"Y-Yeah, don't mention it," the hedgehog responded weakly, still not used to congratulations. He knew that, once he absconded with the Master Emerald and all the Chaos Emeralds too, he wouldn't be getting any more of those from Eggman.

He was going to miss it, but… this was how it had to be.

He switched off his communicator, checked the camera one more time, and made his way to the airlock to the surface of the ARK. He had an echidna to taunt and a treasure to take.


Next chapter: Eggman notices two emeralds on his radar, and Shadow gets his rematch for the Master Emerald with Knuckles.