Chapter Four

Shadow sighed as he stood on the beach at just gone eleven waiting for Sonic to arrive. He was still wondering to his recent dreams and how he had felt in them. He felt pure untainted happiness and joy then he had to leave all that for his unhappy and lonely life.

"Why couldn't it have happened like that in real life? Things would be far different for me and I would be happy, free and no longer so alone in the world." Shadow thought as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

Five minutes later...

"Hey Shads sorry I'm late, had to shake Amy off my tail. I think I lost her a good few miles back but you know how she is. I swear she has like a personal inbuilt Sonic detector or something." Sonic said as he stood in front of Shadow with an apologetic smile, watching Shadow open his eyes and looking a little distant.

"Sorry I was miles away, what did you say?" Shadow asked with a small frown.

"I said the reason I am a little late is because I had to shake Amy off my tail. Lost her miles back but that doesn't mean she won't somehow turn up." Sonic sighed with a shake of his head as he repeated himself.

"Yes Rose is quite good at finding you, do you think she planted a tracker on you?" Shadow smirked with amusement then chuckled lightly as Sonic gasped and began to check through his fur for that mentioned device.

"Oh thank chaos there isn't one on me." Sonic said with relief as he did not want Amy knowing what he was doing or where he was, that would spoil his little secret lunch date with Shadow.

"No she isn't that fast or sneaky to do something like that and not have you notice she was up to something. Shall we get racing now?" Shadow said as he kept his amused smirk on his face, using a somewhat soft voice as he spoke.

"Yeah sure thing then it's a break for lunch together." Sonic said cheerfully and was growing excited about the whole one-sided lunch date.

"What he doesn't know cannot hurt him and besides if I openly admit this date has more meaning to me then he will up and leave." Sonic thought as they both got into starting positions.

Half an hour later...

"So you seem like you are back on your game, getting enough sleep now?" Sonic said as he and Shadow ran side by side at top speed.

"Yes but somehow a good night's sleep without the usual disturbances leaves me feeling a little annoyed that I wake up before I really want to." Shadow replied with a deep unhappy frown while looking ahead of him.

"Usual disturbances?" Sonic questioned and wondered if he was going to get an answer from Shadow.

"Ever since I gained back my memories I had been having this reoccurring nightmare of my last moments up on ARK. It had gotten to the point I was hardly sleeping which was effecting my life with drastic measures. Every night I would be forced to watch Maria die in front of me while I am trapped in an escape pod, every night I was unable to break free to help her, to save her and it was destroying me." Shadow admitted and was a little unsure why he was even talking about this to Sonic.

"Ok so what's changed?" Sonic asked for he was curious and had clocked Shadow using pass tense.

"Rouge noticed and pulled me up on it. I told her everything after she wouldn't leave me alone for hours about it. She went to some guy in the labs at GUN and he altered some sleeping pills for me to take. They seem to be working for now and not one nightmare as of yet. Just keep this to yourself ok, I don't want everyone knowing I have to take special sleeping pills just to get a good nights rest." Shadow answered and still was finding it puzzling why he was even discussing this personal matter with Sonic.

"Maybe I am growing to trust him? I don't know but it kind of feels right to talk to him about this." Shadow thought as his frown deepened more in confusion than anything now.

"Relax Shads, I won't tell a soul and I'm glad you told me. If there is anything I can do just let me know and I will come running." Sonic cheerfully said with a smile at Shadow, feeling privileged Shadow chose to openly talk to him about this and he didn't need to keep asking.

"Thanks, I appreciate the offer but I do think these pills are working for I am sleeping throughout the night and it's only been two night taking them. Oh by the way, see you at the finishing line." Shadow said then skated further in front and leaving Sonic behind.

"Hey!" Sonic called out with a grin then ran faster to catch up.

"Man he has like a huge amount of energy to the point I am actually struggling to catch up. If this is what he's speed levels are like when he gets a full amount of sleep then I wonder if his chaos powers have also increased a little too?" Sonic thought as he really pushed himself to at least get level with Shadow again.

"Has he always been this fast?" Sonic wondered in his head as had almost caught up.

"Come on it's my week off can't anyone else go?" Shadow groaned as he spoke into his communicator.

"We need you so I'm expecting you to be here in ten minutes." Commander Towers seriously said then cut the line.

"Oh how wonderful." Shadow muttered under his breath and slowed down a small fraction so he was level with Sonic.

"I'm sorry but..." Shadow began but was interrupted before he could say he was supposedly needed at GUN.

"Yeah I heard Shads and it's cool, we can hang out another day." Sonic said while forcing himself to look indifferent instead of the disappointment he was feeling.

"I am sorry about this but I will make it up to you." Shadow said with an apologetic look at Sonic.

"Hey like I said it's cool Shads, I'll see you tomorrow maybe ok." Sonic replied with his fake smile and happy tone, looking back at Shadow as he spoke.

"Thanks for understanding, chaos control!" Shadow grinned back then vanished in a flash of white light to GUN HQ where the commander was.

"They sure take advantage of you Shadow." Sonic muttered as he kept running just to get some of his frustration and disappointment out of his system.

Shadow walked down corridors and was on his way to the briefing room. He was annoyed and wore his usual frown since he appeared here. He was feeling extra annoyed just because he was forced to stop hanging out with Sonic today. He wasn't all that sure why it annoyed him but he was putting it down to the fact he was kind of enjoying Sonics company for once.

"Sonic must really be growing on me for some reason or another. Stupid Towers making me leave and come here." Shadow thought as he rounded a corner and kept walking down the corridor towards the last door on the left.

When he reached the door he opened it with some attitude and made sure it slammed shut just so Towers knew he was not in the mood and really pissed for having to come in.

"And you can cut the attitude Shadow, you signed a contract that states you are obligated to come when needed." Towers seriously said as he watched Shadow walk over and take a seat in front of him next to Rouge.

"I am also entitled to proper time off without being disturbed which I might add hasn't happened in three months." Shadow said back with some anger in his voice while crossing his arms, slouching in his seat and glaring at the commander with anger in his red eyes.

"Yeah I'm with Shadow on this one, you are working us to full blown exhaustion. How are we possibly going to perform our best if we don't have time to recover from missions?" Rouge said as she too was very annoyed with having to come in.

"You both had yesterday off so you both can manage. Any more attitude from the both of you then I will suspend you both for two weeks with no pay. That will come with bad consequences for you both so suck it up and do as you are told." Towers firmly said as he tried to keep calm and not get too angry at his best and finest agents on leashes.

Shadow and Rouge glanced at each other, both smirked and nodded as they mentally agreed on their little plan. Both didn't seem to care right now of these bad consequences and just wanted time off.

"Well I have you know I am not doing this mission." Shadow seriously said with a stubborn expression at Towers.

"Yeah go find someone else or you do it, we refuse." Rouge added with a small frown and crossing her arms firmly.

"I am warning you both, any more lip I will have you escorted out of this building." Towers said with anger in his tone and not connecting the dots because he was growing more angry with how Shadow and Rouge were behaving.

"I swear they are asking for government officials to get involved and that will end badly for them. Do they even care they will end up locked away?" Towers thought as he was feeling anger and frustration.

"Oh no whatever shall we do?" Rouge faked a fearful tone and look then laughed seconds after.

"Yeah I am so damn scared right now I might even piss myself." Shadow said and using the same tone as Rouge but it was laced with sarcasm too.

"Right I warned you. From today you are both suspended with no pay and you are to hand over your ID badges, access cards and any keys you have at the front desk. Now get up and leave!" Towers said with rage in his voice as he pointed to the door when shouting out for them both to leave.

"Fine whatever." Shadow casually said with a shrug then stood up at the same time as Rouge.

"Yeah we don't care anyway, have fun without us for two whole, lovely, weeks." Rouge said as she and Shadow began to leave.

When they left and the door was slammed shut Towers stared with anger then very quickly realised what had just happened.

"They will regret doing this the sly pair of juvenile miscreants. They forget it's me who has made sure they have not been locked up and left to rot. If I can't convince the governors to not lock them up then more for them." Towers grumbled as he glared at the closed door, now having to find someone else to do this mission and probably will have to send out inexperienced soldiers.

"Sometimes I wish I never signed up for another ten years, the stress they cause me at times can be overwhelming." Towers thought as he walked to the door to hunt for replacements.