Finally some new content. Sorry to keep you guys waiting for literal years. I should have my next update up in two weeks. To anyone who is returning to this fic after my years long hiatus, you might want to re-read. I re-wrote every previous chapter from scratch. The story is basically the same, but I've changed some smaller details, and added many scenes.

Sunday, December 5th, 9:13pm, Shadow's suite

When Shadow pops into his room to grab Amy, she doesn't look surprised. "He's here," Shadow tells her, and she nods, "the doctor asked me to grab you." He takes a moment to heal the bruises Sonic gave him just minutes ago, partially for dramatic effect and partially to dawdle. He really doesn't have the time, but he's not ready to let Amy go. "I won't let anything happen to you," he says, and the look Amy gives him is filled with a level of trust that he really doesn't deserve after getting her into this situation.

"I know. I love you."

He swallows. "Are you ready?" He's unable to tell her he loves her too. Not here, not yet. Amy nods and Shadow grabs her arm in an iron grip. "Act scared," he reminds her before dragging her through reality into Robotnik's central command room. Amy staggers, and Shadow suspects that his grip on her arm is the only reason she's able to remain upright. It reminds him of his first time being bent through time and space. If she feels as sick as he did, she hides it well.

Keeping up the illusion of enemy proves to be even easier than Shadow was expecting. Even when Robotnik asks Shadow to prepare a Chaos Spear, it's easy. As long as Sonic sees the worst in him, Shadow won't have to actually do anything. And if he does... Shadow ignores the lump that forms in his throat at the idea of giving up on Maria's revenge. But if it's between someone who's already dead and someone who can still be saved...

Sonic and Rouge leave, and it's just Shadow, Amy, and Robotnik. The scientist turns to one of his computers and Shadow and Amy are left to their own thoughts. Thirty minutes pass before Shadow breaks the silence.

"What are we doing with the girl if Sonic doesn't come back?" he asks, earning a funny look from Robotnik.

"We're killing her," he answers, which honestly isn't a surprise.

Shadow makes a sound that he hopes comes across as contemptuous. "And wasting such a valuable bargaining chip?"

Robotnik snorts. "Not that valuable if they're willing to let her die, which makes her a waste of resources to keep."

Amy flinches at that. "Excuse me?"

Robotnik shoots Amy a contemptuous look. "You're a weak, pampered, spoiled brat. What possible use could I have for you?" he asks, causing her to splutter. "Plus," the scientist continues, turning back to Shadow and ignoring her half formed protests. "I'm a man of my word. I said we'd kill her, so we will." The easy way he says it ends Amy's attempts to argue, and real fear replaces artificial fear in her eyes.

Shadow grits his teeth and nods. "Of course, doctor."

Another thirty minutes pass.

"Shadow," Robotnik begins, and Shadow has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from openly snarling. "Whereabouts does Sonic live?"

"Mission Street Southwest," Shadow answers, earning a flat 'this means nothing to me' look. "It's by Twinkle Park."

That resonates better with the scientist. "Well, perhaps we can give him five more minutes then," he decides, which proves to be just enough time. Sonic barges into the room, gasping and out of breath. With him comes the familiar resonance Shadow knows all too well, and Shadow isn't sure whether his relief is for finding himself so much closer to his goals, or for knowing that Sonic isn't trying to pull a fast one at the risk of Amy's life.

"Alright, Egghead," he wheezes. "I brought the Emeralds."

Robotnik raises an eyebrow at 'Egghead' but decides it's not worth acknowledging. "You're late," he points out instead. "Why should I honour our agreement when you can't be bothered to show up in a timely fashion?"

Sonic scowls. "Sorry, it must have been all the traffic," he snarks, and Robotnik lets out a guffaw at that. Shadow might have too if Amy's life weren't on the line.

"Must have," the scientist agrees in a wry tone. "But enough pleasantries; the Emeralds, Sonic."

Sonic huffs. "I got them in here," he says, drawing attention to the backpack he's wearing by grabbing its strap and jostling it. "Let Amy go and they're yours."

Robotnik raises an eyebrow. "How do I know they're actually in there? Show me first."

"What's to stop you from having Shadow kill us once you're sure I have them?"

"Nothing," Robotnik answers, bored. "But, there's also nothing stopping me from shooting you now and seeing for myself."

Sonic grits his teeth before swinging the bag off one of his arms and unzipping it, tipping it forwards to reveal a familiar glow from within.

"And how do I know they're all in there?" Robotnik asks.

Shadow decides to give Sonic a break. "I can feel three of them."

Robotnik nods and Sonic smirks. "Jeez, Shadow, I'd almost think you were on our side," he teases. Shadow shoots him a bored look.

"Hardly, but I have better things to be doing with my time than holding your girlfriend hostage."

Sonic shrugs. "Then why not let her go? You have what you want."

"Very well, drop your bag in the middle of the room," Robotnik commands. Sonic starts to saunter over, one hand in his pocket the other on his backpack strap, but is halted by Amy choosing now of all times to be heroic.

"Don't do it, Sonic!" she pleads, earning an incredulous look from Shadow.

"Are you kidding me," he spits out, unable to stop himself. "What are you doing? Robotnik will kill you," he hisses, unconsciously tightening his grip on her arm. She winces and turns to him.

"We can't let Robotnik win." Shadow barely stops himself from shaking her and telling her to just let Sonic save her. Instead he marches her into the middle of the room. "Hey!" she protests. "What are you doing? Shadow!"

Sonic, uncertain, walks up the middle as well and Shadow shoves Amy against him. "Get her out of here," he growls. Sonic catches Amy with one arm and tosses his bag to Shadow with the other. Shadow catches the bag with ease, but something's off.

"Well, it's been fun," Sonic says as Shadow looks into the bag, and a few things happen at once.

"Sonic, you can't—" Amy starts, trying to yank herself away as Sonic slips his free hand into his pocket.

Peeking into the bag reveals what isn't right. Only one Emerald moved with the bag. He looks up, momentarily at a loss, and watches as Sonic and Amy disappear in a flash of light. Which isn't just a betrayal, it's reckless. And, sure, risk yourself like that if you want, Sonic, why not. But to risk Amy like that?

"I'll kill him," Shadow snarls as he drops the bag and grabs his own Emerald out of a pocket. He shouts a quick "Chaos Control!" and bends time and space to his will, folding reality so that he exists at Sonic's house instead of Robotnik's lair. He looks around, but he already knows no one's here. The only traces of Chaos are lingering ones, and his Emerald isn't resonating at all. What's more, the place is empty; even Aziza is nowhere to be seen. Which is probably for the best. Still, just in case, Shadow searches the place top to bottom. Not even a minute in he's approached by a fluffy cat with mottled brown fur meowing plaintively, but at no point does he find another person. Gently, he picks up Mr. Flufflebottom—the worst possible name for a cat—and scratches him behind the ears. He looks around the house with a sense of disdain before grabbing the cat food out of the pantry where he'd seen Manic grabbing it before... before.

Shadow searches the house once more and then draws on the energy of his Emerald. He focuses on gathering it, on gathering all the traces of residual Chaos in the room, focuses on building it up around him. If they're not here that's good, it means they're not complete idiots. But, if they can't come back, that's even better. He gathers the energy, "Chaos...," a moment more, "Blast!" And with that word acting as a focus on how he wants to manipulate the energy, he releases it in an explosion of red light. A wall of energy leaves him, burns its way through the house, slams all the furniture against the walls and shatters all the windows that are facing him. The blast is much stronger than the unintentional one he'd let out in Robotnik's lair, and the walls actually buckle this time. The cat in his arms lets out a frightened yowl and starts squirming to get free, but he doesn't release it. There's an ominous creaking sound and he looks up to see the ceiling sagging, dropping more by the second, but that's okay. He's done here. Again he gathers Chaos Energy, focusing on returning to the lair, when a thought occurs to him. They couldn't be that stupid, though. They couldn't.

Could they?

"Chaos Control," he says, focusing on Tails' workshop.

He appears in the midst of Sonic's friends, who are frantically packing. They start, and he gives them a contemptuous look even as weapons are grabbed and readied, though no one seems willing to strike him while he's holding a yowling cat. "You guys are idiots," Shadow informs them, dropping the cat food but keeping his grip on Mr. Flufflebottom. "I found you immediately."

"It's not like we had much time," Rouge drawls, leaning casually against the nearest piece of furniture to examine her nails. "Me and your mum just got here ten minutes ago."

Shadow flinches at that. He looks around and spots her off to the side eyeing him as if he were a stranger. That hurts, and he wishes she were elsewhere. The idea of Aziza seeing him like this... not that it matters. He's going to do a lot worse than scare his classmates before this is all over, so he presses on. "No excuse. If you were smart you would have fled the second I sided with Robotnik."

Rouge gives Shadow a funny look. "We only found that out three days ago," she argues, and everyone else nods. There's a pang of warmth in his otherwise hollow gut at that, because that means she hasn't betrayed him, means she might still be on his side.

Of course, rather than letting that relief show, Shadow just says "So you've had three days to flee." There's some awkward shuffling and he sighs, raising his free hand to massage his temples. "Look, I appreciate you keeping Aziza safe so I'll tell Robotnik I couldn't find you, but you need to leave." He hesitates a moment, then shoves the struggling Mr. Flufflebottom into Rouge's arms, which she's wholly unprepared for.

"Wh—Shadow! Why are—ow!" With a scratch, Mr. Flufflebottom earns his freedom and flees under the nearest couch.

"He belonged to Manic, his name is Mr. Flufflebottom."

Everyone stares at him for a moment before Tails voices what they're probably all thinking. "But, why give him to us?"

Shadow raises an eyebrow at that. "What's the alternative? Take him to Robotnik's lair?"

"Why not?" A skinny black guy with short grey-white hair—Silver, Shadow recalls him being called—asks. "Villain cats get pampered. He'd probably be safer with you."

Shadow considers it, but thinking of the cat he can't help but be reminded of Manic. "I don't want Sonic's stupid cat," he decides.

"I thought you said he belonged to Manic," Knuckles points out, and Shadow swallows the lump that forms in his throat whenever he thinks of Sonic's brother.

"Manic's dead," he reminds the other teen in a harsher tone than intended. "Anything that was his belongs to Sonic now." The others nod and Shadow looks around, failing to find any sign of Sonic or Amy. "Speaking of Sonic, where are him and Amy—" he pauses to clear his throat. "Amelia. Where are they?"

Rouge snorts. "As if we'd tell you. All you need to know is that they're safe where you'll never find them."

Shadow shrugs. "It's only a matter of time, you can't stop me."

There's a long moment of silence and Shadow thinks it might be a good time to leave, but then Aziza speaks up. "You can stay," she suggests. "What that man offers, it's not worth for this."

Shadow forces his expression to harden, pulls his shoulders back and looks down his nose at the others. He can't be so soft, not for anyone. He reminds himself that she was never really his mother, pretends that somehow erases all her years of love and support.

"He offers me truth, which is more than you ever did." He's surprised to find real bitterness in his heart as he says it. "With his help, I will have my revenge." He uses the Chaos Control to return to the lair before anyone else gets any ideas about convincing him to leave his current path.

...

Sunday, December 5th, 11:31pm, Rouge's Livingroom

Amy finds herself being shaken awake, and for a heartbeat she doesn't know where she is. Then her memories come back and she really doesn't know where she is, because the last thing she remembers is being painfully squeezed through time and space with Sonic. She has no idea how Shadow does it so frequently, because after the short hop from his room, and then the presumably much longer hop from the lair to wherever she is now, she feels like hell. Her head is pounding, her stomach is in her throat, and she never wants to open her eyes again.

She groans, and the shaking becomes more insistent. With much internal grumbling she lets her eyes flutter open, and after an intense wave of vertigo hits her, Amy sees brown eyes looking down at her from beneath blue eyebrows. For a moment she thinks its Manic, who could never be bothered to dye his brows to match his hair.

"You've stopped wearing your contacts," she says, and Sonic lets out a surprised laugh as he stops leaning over her so that she has room to sit up.

"Ah, yeah. It seems kinda pointless now," he answers softly, giving a subdued shrug. Amy nods absently before glancing around the room and taking in her surroundings. She's laying on a plush carpet that's vaguely familiar, surrounded by very expensive looking couches and cushions, and—

Amy starts, because she's been in this room once before, sat on this very carpet and received a series of toe-curling kisses from everyone other than her current companion. "Is this Rouge's house?" she asks, and Sonic nods. "What are we doing here?" she wonders aloud, and then a more important thought occurs to her. "Wait, you did that thing with the Emeralds that Shadow does!" she accuses, whirling back to face Sonic. A mistake that nearly causes her to pass out again, but she presses on. "How did you manage that?"

Sonic flinches at Shadow's name. "I can do anything he can do," he replies hotly. "If he can go to wherever he's thinking of when he touches an Emerald, then so can I."

Amy lets out an appreciative hum. "That's amazing, when did you figure that out?"

Sonic scratches the side of his nose and refuses to meet Amy's eyes. "Ah, just now?" He chuckles nervously. .

Amy can only stare, and then the heat floods her body. "Just now?" she demands. "Meaning you didn't know how when you made the plan?"

"Uh, no?" Sonic answers, nervous tone making it sound like a question. Amy shrieks at that, lunging forward, nausea be damned, and tackling her former crush.

"You idiot!" she cries, grabbing his shoulders and giving them a firm shake. "Do you have any—" shake, "idea—" shake, "how stupid—" shake shake, "that was!?"

Sonic splutters at the manhandling, before yanking himself out of Amy's grip. "Whoa, hey! It worked, didn't it?"

Amy lunges at him again. He holds her off and keeps her at arms length. "And if it hadn't," she growls, straining to reach him, "we could have died!"

"You had literally just told me not to give him the Emeralds," Sonic shouts back. "If I'd done that, you would have died anyways!"

Amy snarls, because how dare he bring logic into this! It isn't the same! "But that was my choice!" she yells. "Plus! If you hadn't been able to teleport us, we'd both be dead and Robotnik would have the Emeralds!"

"So, what, you'd rather I just hand over the Emeralds, leaving him with five out of the seven?" Sonic demands.

"No! I'd rather you have left me there!"

"Forget it, Amy! I wasn't going to leave you for dead."

Amy rolls her eyes at that. "Oh please, Shadow wouldn't have let that happen." That was the wrong thing to say, Amy realizes as Sonic's entire body tenses.

"Are you crazy? Shadow would have killed you himself and been glad to be rid of you!" Sonic screams, leaping to his feet and pointing an angry finger in her direction. "You need to stop putting your faith into that monster!"

"Shadow is not a monster!" Amy protests, getting to her feet and jabbing her own finger into Sonic's chest. "He wouldn't have let anything happen to me!"

"Oh great," Sonic scoffs, swatting her hand away. "Now we can add Stockholm Syndrome to Shadow's list of crimes and your list of delusions."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Sonic?"

"You're the one defending him. You're the one dating him! He isn't even a person, Amy! He's a weapon, and you're in denial. He's a cold, soulless, killing machine, and you still like him, maybe even love him, enough to defend him after everything? I meant exactly what I said."

Amy's entire body flushes, and without thinking she raises a hand to slap Sonic. He catches her wrist before the blow connects, though, and for a moment they're both too shocked to speak. Then the spell breaks and Sonic snarls.

"Picking up his bad habits, I see," he practically spits, dropping her hand to cross his arms.

"Shadow is not the villain here," Amy reiterates, mimicking Sonic's stance.

"Are you kidding me? 'Buttnik told him to prepare a Chaos Spear to kill you with and he actually did it!"

"Of course he did! He wants that jerk to think they're on the same side, but if he'd actually been asked to go through with it—"

"He would have."

"He would not!"

"Would."

"No!"

"Yes!"

Sonic's yes is punctuated by the heavy sound of feet coming up the staircase that divides the living room into two sections, and just like that, Sonic is stepping between Amy and the danger, as if their fight never happened. The two teens apprehensively watch as a pair of heavily armed G.U.N. soldiers come up the stairs; a man who looks to be in his late forties leading the way, and a woman who can't be much older than twenty following close behind.

"Who goes there!?" the man demands. He turns his weapon on them as soon as he catches sight of them.

"Whoa, easy now!" Sonic protests, quickly raising his hands. Amy mimics his actions, and hopes Sonic didn't take her out of Robotnik's lair just to get her killed somewhere else.

"Who goes there?" the man repeats in the same harsh tone, the woman coming up beside him.

"Ah, I'm Sonic, and this is Amy. Rouge invited us to stay here?" The names clearly mean nothing to the soldiers. "Rouge Dubois?" Sonic tries again and that must mean a little more to them, because they lower their weapons.

"Is Miss Dubois here?" the woman asks, and Sonic shakes his head.

"She should be on her way with some others," he says.

The soldiers nod. "We'll direct them to you when they arrive, then," the man says, turning to head back down the stairs. As he descends he pulls out a walkie talkie and orders someone to set up guards at both entrances to Rouge's living room.

The woman behind him hesitates. "How did you get past our security?"

Sonic and Amy exchange a nervous glance, as if asking each other permission to answer. Or maybe daring each other.

"We used a Chaos Emerald to warp in," Amy finally answers, tearing her gaze away from Sonic's lest she see disappointment make its home in his eyes.

Both G.U.N. agents freeze at that, turning expectantly to the teens. Amy swallows, but Rouge wouldn't have sent her and Sonic here if there were any danger, would she?

Before the soldiers can formulate their questions, Sonic speaks up again. "If you don't mind, could you guys question us later? We'll still be here in the morning."

The soldiers exchange a glance. The woman looks like she wants to protest, but the older guy rests a hand on her shoulder and shakes his head. "The boss will want to speak to you, but I don't see the harm in letting kids sleep," he says, turning and heading down the stairs. The woman frowns after him for a moment before shaking her head and following.

After they've left, Amy collapses onto a nearby couch. "How long was I out?" she wonders.

"Not much longer than me," Sonic answers, taking a seat next to her.

She nods again. "And, how long were you out?"

A shrug. "No clue."

They sit in nervous silence for a while, until eventually they hear the sound of voices coming from downstairs. A moment later a familiar voice calls out, "Amy? Sonic?"

"Rouge?" Sonic calls back, and there's a loud scuffling as multiple pairs of feet rush up the stairs. Rouge emerges with a small crowd of familiar faces. There are some expected faces; Knuckles, Silver, Blaze, and Tails, along with some unexpected additions; Aziza, Cream, Vanilla, and a peacefully sleeping cat.

"What's everybody doing here?" Amy wonders, and Sonic relaxes beside her.

"You didn't expect us to let Sonic have all the fun, did you?" Knuckles answers with a cocky grin.

"We're gonna need all the help we can get if we want to find the last two Emeralds," Tails chimes in.

Rouge and co. arrange themselves around the room after that, everyone making their way to the available couches. "Glad to see you're safe, Ames," Silver says, dropping in next to Amy and giving her a hug.

"I was never in danger," Amy replies, hugging him back.

"Has anyone else been here?" Rouge asks.

"Just a pair of G.U.N. agents," Sonic answers.

Rouge nods, expecting as much. "Daddy's been letting G.U.N. use this as a place to stay, so between them, him, and the staff, there's usually someone around. It's late, though, so I had hoped you guys would be undisturbed until we got here."

Amy scowls. "You thought it would be a good idea to bring the Chaos Emeralds to G.U.N.?" she asks incredulously.

Rouge gives Amy a funny look. "Well, they already have one of the things." Sonic and Amy blink at her in near unison, and she shrugs again. "Turns out daddy has one in his vault, which is part of why G.U.N. has been hanging around."

"So six are accounted for," Tails muses.

Sonic grins. "If we get the last one and the one from G.U.N., that'll be our four to Egghead's three. If we outnumber him, I bet we'll be able to kick his butt."

Amy frowns, but it's Rouge who speaks up first. "Shadow is a living weapon designed to use the Chaos Emeralds. We'll need to outnumber them by more than one if we want to overpower him."

"That's not how it works," Aziza chastises, shaking her head. "Even if we have six and they have only one, all it needs for them to use ours is a stronger mind."

Sonic scoffs. "Shadow's will can't be that strong if he switched sides so easily."

"My son has a mind such as needed," Aziza argues. "Once it is set, it is not stopped. Robotnik offers something he wants, that is all."

Sonic rolls his eyes. "Yeah, power and permission to hurt people."

"That's not fair, Sonic! Shadow isn't cruel or shallow!" Amy protests, earning grateful looks from Aziza and, surprisingly, Rouge.

"Don't let your feelings cloud your judgment," Sonic barks, but before he can continue, and before Amy can argue with that, Knuckles cuts in.

"If we had the Master Emerald, we could control any Chaos Emerald's gathered near it," he says, earning confused looks from everyone. Knuckles shifts, clearly uncomfortable with the attention. "My grandpa used to tell me stories about how we have a direct line to the ancient Mobians who guarded the Master Emerald. I never really believed him, but if the other Emeralds are real, then..."

"Did he ever tell you where it is?" Vanilla asks, and Knuckles shakes his head.

"So all we have to do is find the Master Emerald and gather the Chaos Emeralds around it?" Tails clarifies, and Knuckles nods.

"As long as we control the Master Emerald, the others should follow. Grandpa always said the Master Emerald would talk to you if you knew what to say to it..." His brow furrows, as if he's trying to remember something.

Sonic frowns, turning to Aziza. "You're our resident Emerald expert, is there any truth to this?"

Aziza considers for a moment, before nodding slowly. "I think yes. It was hard to get information with G.U.N. watching, but... Yes. I read it was moved from Angel Island by the descendants of a 'Brotherhood'."

Sonic turns to Knuckles and asks the obvious question. "Did your grandpa ever tell you what you'd have to say?"

Knuckles growls. "Of course he did! But I was six, and I didn't think it was real."

Blaze puts a reassuring hand on Knuckles' shoulder. "So you try to figure it out, and the rest of us can try to find it." He gives her a grateful smile before moving a bit away from the group and adopting a very thoughtful expression. Occasionally, he mutters something under his breath, only to shake his head.

"Could we use the Chaos Emeralds to find it?" Tails asks.

"Probably," Aziza answers. "It should have a similar wavelength and properties, and if we are finding a way to detect the last Chaos Emerald, it will then be easy to detect the Master Emerald after."

Tails nods. "I'll get to work on that, then. Sonic, could I borrow one of the Emeralds?"

"Sure thing buddy," Sonic replies, grabbing an Emerald out of his jacket pocket and tossing it to Tails, who nearly fumbles it in his attempt to catch it.

"Rouge, is there a room I can set up as my workshop?" he asks.

"Of course," Rouge replies, getting to her feet. "Daddy's been keeping people out of my rooms, so you can use my reading room." Then she turns to the rest of the group. "We should probably stay together. There are ten of us?" she glances around the room, double checking. "Tails can sleep on the couch in the reading room," she decides. "While I help him get set up, you guys can decide where everyone else is staying. There's a queen-size bed in my room," she gestures to one of the doors off the current room, "a loveseat in my closet, and then the couches in here." And then she's heading into a different door with Tails scrambling to grab his bags and follow her.

Everyone considers each other for a moment before Sonic speaks up. "We could send the guys to Rouge's room and let the gals sleep out here?" he suggests.

Amy frowns at that. "That sleeps three of us, but what about everyone else? There are only three couches in here," she points out. "Plus, I think we should let Rouge sleep in her own bed."

Blaze nods. "It seems like the right thing to do," she agrees.

"Or we could let the adults take her room," Silver suggests, earning appreciative looks from Vanilla and Aziza.

Amy shakes her head. "That's only two people in a place with room for three."

"I can sleep with my mama," Cream offers.

Everyone glances at Amy as if looking for her approval. "Don't look at me, I still think Rouge should have her own bed."

By the time Rouge returns, there has been no progress, and the look she gives everyone when they tell her as much reeks of disappointment. "Okay, fine, I guess I have to figure everything out myself." She glances around the room. "Aziza, I know you like privacy so you can have the couch in the walk-in. Amy, Cream, Vanilla, you can share the bed. Blaze, and I can take a couch each, and the guys can figure out who gets the remaining one and who gets the floor."

"You don't want your own bed?" Amy asks, at the same time as Silver says "We could probably share the couches," with a meaningful glance at Blaze. Amy raises an eyebrow at that. Having briefly dated Silver the year before, she is well aware of the way he'll take any excuse to snuggle, but that's usually reserved for people he's dating, and to her knowledge he and Blaze are just friends.

Rouge glances between Amy and Silver, then shrugs. "The couches in here are comfy enough, and I'm not going to sleep any time soon. If I were sharing my bed, I'd just wind up waking someone in the middle of the night."

"I guess that makes sense," Amy concedes, and Rouge nods.

"Well, now that that's settled, come on guys. It's late, and there will be plenty of time for talking tomorrow."

After showing the girls to her room and grabbing a set of pyjamas, Rouge puts a hand on Amy's shoulder, then points at the door to her en-suite. Once they're alone together Rouge lets out a sigh. "Can we talk?" she asks quietly. Amy nods and follows Rouge to the far side of the room, where they perch on the edge of her spacious bathtub. "How is he?" she asks, and Amy blinks, because there's no way Rouge is asking after Shadow, not after the little show he put on at the lair.

"Seriously?" she asks after a moment, and Rouge gives her a flat look. "I'm held captive in Robotnik's lair, used as a bartering chip, threatened, and you want to know how Shadow is!?" she hisses, making an effort to keep her voice hushed. Sure, she had been perfectly comfortable, perfectly safe, but there's no way Rouge knows that!

Rouge rolls her eyes. "Don't be dramatic. We both know that Shadow wouldn't have let any harm come to you." Oh. Well, so much for that. Amy deflates. She thinks about the question for a moment, and is grateful when Rouge doesn't push her.

"I don't think he's okay," she finally admits, voicing a thought she'd been pushing down since she found herself in his rooms. "I don't think he's happy with the path he's chosen, but he's refusing to come back to our side."

Rouge nods, saying softly, "he's stubborn like that."

They're silent for a few minutes before Amy speaks up again. "He asked me if I think Hell is real," she whispers. Rouge leans forward, rests her chin in her hands. She doesn't say anything, though. Just sits pensively. Amy can feel the events of her day catching up with her, not to mention the lingering dizziness from her Chaos-fuelled trip. After another minute of silence, Amy speaks up. "I'm gonna head to bed."

Rouge waves her off absently. As she leaves, she swears she can hear Shadow's pager beeping, a testament to how tired she is. In the bedroom, she flops on Rouge's bed and promptly passes out.