"Are you going to talk to me now, girl?"
"..." Nothing came from the petite hedgehog but silence.
"Stop acting like a child."
"..." More silence.
"Hmph," The dark hedgehog sighed frustrated, as soon as he'd got Amy back on the ground she'd done nothing but pretend that he didn't exist, and although he wouldn't admit it, it was really starting to annoy him.
"I didn't see much of your chest girl if thats why your acting so ticked off."
"..." Shadow abruptly halted and folded his arms.
"How is the Faker, still weak and incompetent? Is he still treating you as if you were something he should wipe of his shoe?"
"...What?" Amy stopped dead in her tracks. Shadow immediately regretted asking that question as the pink hedgehog spun on her heals and glared at him, her emerald eyes filled with anger.
"How dare you!" Amy snapped bitterly.
"Rose-"
"Don't ever talk about Sonic like that! Yes he WILL run away from me as quickly as he can, but at least he comes back! Why did you do that to me Shadow? Do you even know how messed up i am on the inside? Didn't it occur to you that kissing me with such passion and then disappearing like that would have serious repercussions?"
Amy wept, the salt of her life soaking into the floor below, hot torrents of grief coursing out her eyes like the breaking of a dam, her racking sobs shaking her thoroughly with the knowledge that she was in the presence of someone who had betrayed her - that nothing would ever be the same again for her. Gasping for air, she turned her head and sobbed some more.
"Amy ple-"
"Why do you pretend to care Shadow? Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be out there with those aliens breaking your promise to Maria? In fact, is that what kissing me was all about, trying to find yourself a Maria substitute!"
The ultimate lifeform stood motionless, his impassive stare replaced with a furious, soul piercing glare. The teenagers anger and sadness seemed to morph into a feeling of fear as she watched Shadows body quiver and vibrate, a deep red aura consumed his being. Vibrations shook the ancient, decrepit castle as Shadow struggled to calm his anger.
"I will help you find the weakling rabbit, but if you ever dare to cross me or use Maria as a weapon against me again, i WILL obliterate you girl, is that understood?" the dark hedgehog spat through gritted teeth.
Amy nodded slowly as the red aura dissipated and the vibrations stopped. Amy began to sob more as she realised what she had just done. She knew how much her words would hurt Shadow, but the anger and hurt that had been building up in her heart over the last few months blinded her with rage.
"We should leave this section of the castle and continue our search else where before the doctor sends his androids down here."
"Shadow...I'm so sorry i said that about Maria-"
"We have to go. Now."
...
Shadow and Amy had spent no less that a few hours searching the castles complex, to no avail. The journey was made even more time consuming by the silent, tension-filled atmosphere that seemed to surround them. Every path they took led them to a damp, dark and decrepit passage way. The pink hedgehog was somewhat grateful of her new attire as the cold air surrounded her, its icy breath trying to reach through her thin, long sleeved jumper, caressing her skin like lovingly teasing undead fingers, and chilling her skinny jeans like icy serpents constricting her slender legs. She felt her self shiver as she pulled out her MP3 player and turned it on, in an effort to separate herself from her music did little to suppress them.
How could she have used Maria as a verbal weapon against Shadow like that? Sure she was hurt and angry, but how she felt paled in comparison to what the dark hedgehog had witnessed 50 years ago. Maria was the only person he had ever shown any emotion too and Amy had used that to hurt him. The young teenager grew more angry with herself with each passing second. Her hand automatically gripped the top of her arm as she felt it twitch and quiver. Although she longed to satisfy her dark desire, she couldn't do that now, not while someone else was present.
The cool air became more humid as the pair continued to delve deeper into the castle. Shadow became lost deep in thought as he glided forward. How could she use Maria like that? Amy knew how much Maria meant to him, and to use like that was simply unbelievable. He knew that he should never have kissed her, but he just couldn't stop himself. All he wanted was too feel something other than hate and contempt he felt for his existence. The dark hedgehog kept remembering her words:
"Do you even know how messed up i am on the inside? Didn't it occur to you that kissing me with such passion and then disappearing like that would have serious repercussions?"
He knew that the Fakers resentment hurt her deeply, but thats all he knew. He had no idea how much pain Amy was actually in. What worried Shadow the most was the "serious repercussions". Just what did she mean by that? He waited for the pink hedgehog to look away from him before he glanced at her. Shadow realised that she wasn't wearing her signature red dress. Instead she adorned a snow white, long sleeved jumper and a pair of deep blue skinny jeans. While the garments, in Shadows opinion, made her look fantastic, something just didn't feel right about it. The ultimate lifeform sighed as he kept going through their "conversation" in his head. He shouldn't have threatened her. If Amy was emotionally wrecked, then that could have made things more worse than what they were.
"After I've found out whats really going on here, I'm gonna make it up to rose," Shadow thought to him self.
...
"I really don't like it here. It's scary!"
Cream the Rabbit walked slowly through the dusty old passage way, taking care with each step. The young rabbit wasn't sure how long she had been walking aimlessly around the ancient complex, but she knew it must have been more than a few hours. At least she hadn't run into any aliens or robots, that was something she could be thankful for. Her thoughts kept returning to Amy's well-being. If She was lost then she could be certain that Amy would come looking for her, but that was what worried the young cream coloured rabbit. Black Arms, The Eggman Empire and G.U.N had been at war with each other for a few days now and the news reports kept claiming that Shadow had been working with the bad guys. What if Amy bumped into the dark hedgehog and the news reports were true? Cream forced the fought out of her head as she pressed on.
...
Amy's delicate fingers Pressed deeper into the flesh of her arm. The urge becoming ever more more uncontrollable. The pink hedgehog yanked out her headphone's and fixed her gaze on Shadow.
"I need to do something, in private. Do you mind waiting here a few minuets?" Amy asked as sweetly as she could despite the obvious venom in her voice.
"As a matter of fact, girl, I do mind. I can sense the rabbit, she's close by. We should retrieve the child."
"She'll be fine! I will only be a few minuets!" Amy spat as she spun on her heel to walk away. She only had a few seconds to realize that Shadow had appeared and swept her off her feet, carrying her in Creams direction. A light blush fell over her muzzle before her anger returned.
"Put me down! Do you hear me Shadow the hedgehog! Put me down!" The teenager shouted as she smashed her fists in to the dark hedgehogs chest.
"I won't put you down until we find Cream. So until then, be quiet. Or i WILL be forced to silence you." Amy simply crossed her arms and huffed. Amy glanced up admiringly at Shadows features. This felt right. Of course it felt right when she was in Sonics arms but this just felt...better. They seemed to fit together in a way that she never could with the blue blur, and to be quite honest, she liked it. The vibrations of Shadows beating heart drew Amy further away from her anger and hurt, enough to almost make her forget about her arm.
"Amy!" Her eyes snapped open as she heard her best friends voice pierce the silent atmosphere. Cream ran towards the pair in a panic.
"Mr Shadow, what happened to Amy?"
"Nothing. She refused to co-operate with me so i decided to carry her." Shadow answered as Amy was realized from his grip. The warmth she had felt when she was close to him seemed to disappear with every step she took.
"Hey Cream!" Amy greeted the young rabbit with a bone crushing hug.
"Where the hell have you been Cream? I've been worried sick!"
"I'm so sorry Amy, i don't know what happened, one minuet i was walking and then the next i found myself in this castle."
Shadow watched the two best friends from a distance as a feeling of loneliness swept over him. He badly needed a friend. Shadow decided that once this was over he would have to meet up with Rouge and 123 Omega. Shadow was shook from his thoughts as the ground shook violently beneath his feet, due to the large robot that had smashed into the ground across from them.
"Doctor?" Shadow said in surprise as the mad scientists laughter echoed through out the gothic chamber.
" Well well well, what do we have here? I expected G.U.N forces or Black Arms soldiers to be sulking around down here, i didn't expect to find you little pests." Dr Eggman laughed, feigning ignorance.
"Amy, Take cream and find a secure location." the dark hedgehog ordered as he stood between the giant battle mech and the two girls.
"What about you Shadow?"
"I have some business with the Doctor that i need to take care of."
"Do you now?" the egg shaped scientist said in surprise. "And what might this business be?"
"We can discuss it when these too have left." The dark hedgehog said calmly as he stared him down.
"well, too bad!" Eggman shouted as the battle mech stormed forward. A gigantic metal arm pierced the air as it flew towards them. Shadow leapt gracefully into the air, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick that tore through the metal, which sent it spiraling in to a stone wall rendering the arm useless.
"Get out of here! Now!"
"Come on Amy, we have to go!" the young rabbit shouted as she grabbed Amy's hand, pulling her away from the confrontation. Shadow watched until they had left the chamber, his attention now fully resting on Robotnik.
"Why are you here Shadow?"
"I wished to have some words with you, Doctor." Shadow scowled. The dark hedgehog half sprinted, half leapt as he flew towards the battle mechs cockpit, his fist drawn back. The cockpits canopy shattered as Shadow smashed his fist through the glass, Eggman tried to veer backwards but to no avail as Shadow grabbed him by the collar and tore him out of the cockpit, there noses nearly touching.
Amy didn't even notice the transition between staring down Eggman and running for her life, but now that she had she desperately wanted to go back.
"Cream let me go! I can't leave him!" the pink hedgehog screeched as she pulled against Creams grip.
"I can't let you go back Amy! Shadow wanted us to leave." the young girl tried to reason.
"Well tough! Go if you want cream but i refuse to leave him!" Amy snapped as she tore free from Creams pull.
"Amy! Wait!" Cream shouted after her as they ran back to the chamber. They both skidded to a halt at the entrance. Amy motioned for Cream to be quiets as she heard Shadows voice boom out of the chamber.
"Black doom claims that i am his son, that i am the original ultimate lifeform designed to gather the chaos emeralds for this "ritual" of theres. G.U.N have declared that i am a monster and that i need to be eliminated as they did 50 years ago. I'd be inclined to believe them if it wasn't for the mounting evidence that i am one of YOUR creations, one of YOUR Shadow androids. My final Memories are of falling towards the planet after the battle on space colony ark. I died, yet here i stand before you, a living breathing creature. Tell me Doctor, who am I?"
Amy Rose felt the blood drain form her face as she eavesdropped on the cryptic conversation. None of them had known how to explain Shadows miraculous survival, and yet this seemed like a logical conclusion. Could he really be a fake?
"Well, I'll take it that your memories still haven't returned yet. Tell me hedgehog, whose side do you believe your on?" Eggman asked calmly despite the position he was in. The dark hedgehog eyes narrowed.
"I don't know. You tell me." Shadow said darkly.
"Why don't you work it out for yourself. I n the mean time, i have a little proposition."
"What proposition?"
"Let me go and i wont be forced to blow up Amy and Cream," Robotnik said with a smirk.
"Your bluffing Eggman-"
"You think Cream disappeared for no reason? She was my trump card, while she was passed out i placed a powerful explosive about her person. She's a walking bomb and if you don't want yourself and the two girls to be annihilated then you have to disable it. you have 5 minuets." Shadows grip became tighter as he struggled to stop himself killing the crazed Doctor.
"You're insane!"
"You only just figured that out?" Shadow Growled as he pulled Eggman further out of the cockpit. The dark hedgehog stopped when he heard a scream from the chambers entrance. Cream was petrified. Her face became contorted with fear as tears ran down her face. Shadow growled as he through Eggman back into the cockpit and leapt towards the pair. Shadow seamed to tear a chaos emerald out of thin air as yelled "Chaos Control". The three were engulfed in an emerald green light before disappearing completely. The green light dissipated revealing that their new location was a lush, green meadow. Shadow paid no attention to their new surroundings as he dashed toward cream. His intense blazing eyes scanned every inch of the young rabbit to no avail. HE couldn't locate the explosive.
"Shadow! Hurry up! We only have a few seconds left!" Amy screamed through sobs as she held creams hands.
"I'm trying woman! I can't see any type of explosive attached to her!"
Shadows eyes widened as the mental timer he had been following hit zero...
