A/N: Hey, a new chapter is here from us to you! We hope you like it... Shadow makes a reappearance! Good thing... or bad? (corny dramatic music in the background)

Enjoy the chapter!

Dedicated to Marianne

"I have been a witness to the perfect crime
I wipe the grin off of my face to hide the blame
It isn't worth the tears you cry to have a perfect alibi
Now I'm beaten at the hands of my own game."

-"Let it Rain" lyrics by Amanda Marshall

The first thing Amy noticed when she turned over in her bed was that it felt emptier than usual. She gently extended her hand over and patted it without opening her eyes. 'That's not right…' she thought. 'It's empty…'

Amy opened her eyes. Sunlight was streaming in through the open window, making her squint. Naomi whimpered in her arms and tossed fitfully. Amy smiled gently, stroking the little girl's hair, and she seemed to calm down.

But for some reason, the pink hedgehog still felt terrible. She felt… separated, like she had just forcefully torn out a piece of herself. She got up sleepily, avoiding the peaceful baby.

She glanced at the empty space beside her, and felt a pang. She remembered.

"Don't be so vain. I would have run away without you…"

Amy bit her lip. Why had she said that? And why had she spat those words with so much venom… so much hate… at Sonic? Sonic, who had given up the rest of his life for her? Sonic who had thrown away his friends without a second thought… just for her?

'Well… it's true, isn't it? I would've run away all by myself…'

Nathaniel yawned at turned over in his sleep. She walked over and picked him up, putting him beside his sister. Nathaniel seemed to smile as Naomi snuggled closer.

Amy smiled softly. She loved it how Nathaniel and Naomi loved each other, even though they were so different. Nathaniel, with his pupil-less eyes and his love for trouble, and Naomi with her fragility and exhilaration for heights – they were so different, and yet there was a connection between them that she couldn't describe.

'It's more than what Sonic and I will ever have,' she thought sadly, staring at the empty space in her bed that Sonic would usually be occupying. 'Much, much more.'

The door suddenly creaked. Amy looked over, and saw Sonic walk in.

He didn't look at her. His steps were slow, and they stirred up the dust that settled like a second skin over the carpet. Sonic glanced at the twins once, smiled briefly, and opened the closet door.

"Sonic…" said Amy, trying to catch his eye. But Sonic didn't even answer her. He opened a suitcase – his own suitcase, and started packing.

Amy felt both hurt and anger. She knew that they had an argument, but that didn't mean that he should ignore her! "Sonic…" she tried again, her voice starting to shake. "What are you doing?"

"Packing," said Sonic. He still didn't look at her. "We're leaving today, remember?"

Amy felt the hurt spread across her chest like a darkening bruise. "Sonic… look, about last night…"

Sonic made a strange sound in the back of his throat, as if he didn't want to talk about it. "Amy, you don't need to apologize. You're right, okay? I'm sorry that I… that I…"

"Sonic…" Amy walked over. She sat on the edge of the bed, as close as she dared to be with Sonic. "You don't even know what you're apologizing for…"

Sonic kept packing – a few shirts, a pair of socks, a packet of food, all thrown into his suitcase in his usual haphazard way. Was it just her, or did they seemed to hit the bottom of the suitcase a little harder than usual?

"Then what do you want me to do?" he asked her. "If I don't know what I'm apologizing for… then do you?"

Amy suddenly felt her anger spark at the hurt. "Who said I was going to apologize?" she snapped at him. She bit her tongue – that wasn't what she wanted to say! But she felt the spark of anger rage into a fire that burned away at the hurt.

"Then…" said Sonic, getting up and snapping the suitcase shut. He moved onto Nathaniel's. "What did you want to say?"

Amy's hand gripped onto the bed sheets. 'Don't get mad…' she warned herself. She took a deep breath. "I just wanted to say that… it's true, what I said yesterday. I would've just run away on my own, with or without you."

She paused, trying to collect her thoughts. Sonic was still moving around as he packed. A tiny pair of shoes landed in the case with a pair of socks stuffed inside. A baby bottle was thrown on top, followed by a package of tissues, half empty.

"It's just that… I'm grateful that you're here with me. I'm glad that… I'm glad that you've been here to help me along the way…"

Her voice trailed off. How empty her words sounded! But they were true words… even if it felt like the emotions had been drained out of them.

"Well, why didn't you leave on your own when you could?" Sonic threw a watch inside the suitcase. Amy winced as the watch's face was scratched against the baby bottle. "You probably could've done better than me…"

Amy stiffened. "How so?"

"I can't help you at all," answered Sonic. He closed Nathaniel's suitcase, and went onto Naomi's backpack. A bottle of baby powder was swallowed by the bag. "I can't take care of the babies like you do. I can't change their diapers, or give them a bath, or even feed them without your help."

He grabbed a package of diapers. "I can't sing to them – not the way you do," he continued. "And I attract much more attention then you do, even if I do dye my fur, or changed my voice, or stopped…. Stopped running."

His voice faltered at the last part, and even Amy knew why. Running was his life – he couldn't stop it if he wanted to.

"Then why did you come with me?" she asked softly. Sonic faltered and dropped the backpack. Amy stooped to pick it up and handed it to him. He took it without a word of thanks… and he still didn't look at her directly.

"I don't know." There was the sound of a zipping backpack. "But it might have been a mistake."

Amy felt stung at those words. The hurt started to spread again, making her chest feel too tight. She swallowed the tears that suddenly flooded up her throat, and bit her lip to stop it from quivering. "Are you regretting your choice?"

Sonic tucked the two backpacks under his left arm, and grabbed the suitcase with his right. He walked to the door, and suddenly stopped.

Amy saw his two eyes stare at hers, and the tears broke through. She could feel them, warm and wet as they slid silently down her cheeks. She wished that she would wail. She wished that she would cry out in despair, or gasp, or make any noise. But she couldn't – and all Sonic did was stare.

Silently, he walked out.

Amy collapsed onto the bed and buried her head in her hands. He still hid his emotions from her… he was still a closed book, a book that she wanted to read so badly, but couldn't open.

The babies stared at her, wide-eyed. She saw that their little hands were holding each other's in a tight fist.

'Why can't we be like them?' she thought. She picked the two up, and still, they never lost their grip on each other.

"Nathaniel… what am I doing wrong?" she asked the little boy. The little boy just looked back at her, his face blank… or maybe there was just a tinge of sympathy behind the look.

She turned to Naomi. "Naomi…" The little girl grabbed a small lock of Amy's hair with her free hand, and looked expectantly up at her. Amy nuzzled her face. "Am I doing something wrong?"

She shook her head. 'I don't understand him… but he doesn't understand me either…' She set the two hedgehogs down gently. 'We're hurting each other…' She felt herself tear up again, but she refused to let them fall. 'Maybe I'm starting to regret too…'

The room felt emptier than ever.

Sonic's feet dragged along the ground. He had been doing that a lot lately, as if an invisible weight had settled onto his shoulders. And he felt it increase even more after his conversation with Amy… if you could even call it a conversation.

'Amy must hate me now…' His thoughts trailed. He heard a door slam somewhere, and he wrinkled his nose at the smell of mold and dust coming from the walls.

His whole body felt heavy. He had never worried so much – in fact, he couldn't even remember worrying at all before in his life. It made him feel tired, and even the feeling of the wind against his face hadn't helped.

But Amy must be as tired as he was, right? He could see it, as much as she tried to hide it. He felt a painful jolt of guilt as he opened the door. The sun was shining brightly, the sky a clear blue, completely opposite to the way he felt now.

'She gave up everything for Nathaniel and Naomi.' The suitcase's wheels scraped against the gravelly sidewalk as he pulled it to where he had hidden the plane. '… And in a way… so did I.' The gravelly sound was replaced by the rustling of grass. 'Nathaniel… Naomi… Amy…'

He closed his eyes for a second as he remembered her voice.

"Are you regretting your choice?"

He opened his eyes. Was he already in front of the plane? It hadn't taken as long as he remembered.

He heard a scraping sound, then the falling footsteps against the grass.

Shadow.

For a while, they did nothing but stare. Sonic hid his surprise and fear. 'If Shadow's here… then what if…?'

And as if he read his thoughts, Shadow shook his head. "I'm the only one here."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad that I have a welcoming committee, then," he said, his voice mixed with a bit of mockery. "If you're not helping me pack, then would you mind moving?"

And to his surprise, Shadow moved.

Sonic walked forward cautiously. Shadow noticed it. "Need help with the luggage?" he asked, as if it was everyday that you met a runaway criminal who was essentially one of your few friends.

"No, I can handle it." Sonic popped open the trunk of the plane and picked up the suitcase first.

"Hmph, I suppose you think you can handle anything, don't you?"

Sonic didn't turn to look at him. He threw the suitcase in. "Yes, I suppose so," he answered as lightly as possible.

There was a moment of tense silence between the two rivals. Sonic imagined it as a clear piece of glass, waiting to be shattered or snapped in two.

He heard the hedgehog sigh. His ear flicked towards it, the only sign of his surprise. He had never heard the black hedgehog sound so exhausted before.

"Sonic, you're a wreck."

Sonic turned around, giving him a cool look. The hedgehog looked at him intensely, his eyes boring into his. 'Well, let him try!' thought Sonic with a fierce moment of defiance.

"You can't keep doing this, Sonic," he continued. He sounded a bit urgent. "You know you can't run forever, especially with Amy and those two babies with you…"

"Nathaniel and Naomi."

Shadow stared at him. "What?"

"They have names, Shadow." His voice was mocking again, and Shadow felt a surge of exasperation and anger. "Nathaniel is the boy, and Naomi is the girl."

Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but Sonic cut him off. "You're been following us for a while, haven't you?"

Shadow looked away, confirming Sonic's suspicions. "How did you know?" he asked.

Sonic shrugged and turned his attention back to packing. "A bit of black fur there, some air-shoe sounds there. You have to be alert to this sort of stuff when you're on the run, you know?"

Shadow was quiet for a moment. "Why didn't you say anything – "

"To Amy?" Sonic shrugged again. "Didn't want to worry her."

Shadow looked at Sonic's back and felt a surge of anger. 'Stupid hedgehog!' he wanted to scream. 'Are you trying to kill yourself? Are you trying to kill us all? The least thing you need to think about is Amy worrying!'

"Anyways," said Sonic, bringing him out of his thoughts. He snapped the trunk shut, and turned to face him. "As much as I love our conversation, you didn't come out of hiding just to talk to me, right? So what can I do for you?"

Did he even have to ask? The answer was so obvious. Sonic resisted the urge to spit the words right back at his face. "You need to give the babies to us, Sonic," Shadow replied.

"Uh-huh." Sonic leaned on the plane. "And you are aware by now that I'm not going to actually hand them over to you, right?"

Shadow shrugged, surprising Sonic. "That's alright. You're going to have to hand them over to us willingly some day anyway."

"What makes you think that?" he asked, his voice tensing. Shadow felt a rush of malicious joy at the thought of angering Sonic.

"Do you honestly think that you can go on taking care of them like this?" He watched carefully as Sonic shifted his position slightly. "Always on the run, just barely being able to live? Would those two actually like growing up, knowing that they're the two most wanted creatures on the planet?"

"I think it's better to be the most wanted on the planet then dead, Shadow," Sonic answered.

Shadow's face hardened. "Don't be selfish, Sonic," he snapped back. "That's only your opinion. They'll grow up with the guilt of knowing that they're causing their parents grief."

"They're not," replied Sonic, but he didn't sound so sure.

"It's not true just because you say it is, Sonic," said Shadow. The strange, new joy grew as he saw Sonic tense even more. "They'll know that the only reason that they are alive is to destroy the world. They know that every creature they meet, every being that they hold dear will die, all because of them."

Shadow was on the ground before he could even blink. His face was smarting angrily, and Sonic was looming over him with his fist raised, his face darkened by rage.

Shadow smirked at him. He found that he enjoyed angering Sonic. He liked knowing that he was the cause of his anger, that he had pushed Sonic to the point of punching him.

"Don't you dare say that about Nathaniel and Naomi," Sonic hissed, his eyes two burning points of bright, green fire.

Shadow looked up at him. "It's the truth, Sonic. And well all have to face it someday."

He rolled out of the way just in time. Where his head used to be was a small, fist-sized dent in the earthy ground.

Sonic clenched his hands, his knuckles showing through as they turned whiter than his gloves. "Shadow…" he advanced on him as his black counterpart got up a bit painfully. "You will not lay a hand on any of them!"

"Why? Just because you say so?" Shadow returned.

Shadow couldn't dodge the next attack. The wind was knocked out of him as Sonic's foot connected with his stomach. He shook off the pain in time to catch the fist that was aimed towards his face.

With all his strength, he pushed Sonic back. Shadow felt a slight trill of panic. He hadn't meant to get him this mad. He just wanted to anger him enough that he… that he…

'That he… what?' He hadn't even thought about Sonic's limit...

Shadow swung himself left to dodge another flying fist. He tried to deliver his own, but Sonic caught it with fearful ease. He twisted it behind Shadow, making him gasp slightly in pain.

"At least," Sonic hissed again, this time in his ear, "I'm not the one running away and hiding from my emotions!"

Shadow flinched, his ears ringing from the words. 'How did he know?'

Sonic laughed a bit. "What, you don't think any of us noticed? All those times you almost cried, all those times you almost laughed, only to become the emotionless shell you are before you could experience them? You don't deserve our friendship!" he spat.

Shadow kicked backwards. Somehow, his left heel found it's way into Sonic's stomach, leaving him clutching the grass while he backed away a little, the blood roaring in his ears. 'That's not true… you're wrong!' he wanted to shout back at him. But they sounded empty, even in his own mind.

Sonic got up slowly. "Well, Shadow?" he asked. "Where has this gotten you?" He breathed heavily, as if his outburst had taken all his energy to say.

Suddenly, the black hedgehog's face darkened with anger. "This isn't the time, Sonic!"

Sonic laughed at him openly. "Oh, so anger is the only emotion good enough for Shadow the Hedgehog? Not joy, or sadness, but anger?"

Shadow growled, about to charge.

"Stop it!"

The two hedgehogs froze. Sometime during all their fighting, Amy had stopped at the edge of where they were standing, her suitcase in hand, Nathaniel in one arm and Naomi in a sling across her back. The two children were crying loudly.

Amy herself was staring at them, wide-eyed. Sonic looked away with a pang of hurt. She looked so… disappointed.

"What's happened to you two?" she whispered. The anger in both of them drained away as the watched the forlorn girl stare down at them. Shadow recovered his usual emotionless posture.

"Amy, you know that you have to hand them over," said Shadow.

Amy turned away. She suddenly turned back. Sonic was amazed at how her eyes had transformed from forlorn to angry and determined in the space of a breath.

"No, Shadow." She shook her head, holding Nathaniel tighter in her arms. "As long as there's breath left in my body, I'll never hand them over."

Sonic looked closely at Shadow. Was he imagining it, or did Shadow look rather strange? Then he placed it. He was staring at the two children with a look of hungry greed. Amy must've noticed it too. She backed away slowly as Sonic made a move to stop him.

Too late.

"No!" Sonic shouted as Shadow dashed towards Amy.

Amy screamed, dropping the suitcase as she tried to protect the two with her body. She squeezed her eyes tightly, listening as Naomi and Nathaniel's cries mingled together, waiting for the babies to be torn out of her grasp…

She opened her eyes. Through a veil of tears, she saw that Shadow had stopped.

"Nathaniel…" whispered Sonic a bit strangely, looking at the boy in her arms.

The boy's pupil-less eyes had gone wide. They shone bright, bright green, two tiny stars that were giving off a light all on their own.

Amy looked up at Shadow. He hadn't just stopped – he had frozen, as if he was caught halfway between a Chaos Control. He was only inches away from them. Amy leapt back. She couldn't – didn't understand what was happening. Was this the power that the twins were supposed to have?

Shadow hadn't completely frozen. His eyes were still moving, wide with surprise and fear. It looked like he wanted to shrink back from the terrible monster that she held in her arms.

The pink hedgehog looked at Sonic. Was that … fear she saw in his eyes? She looked away. That wasn't what she had wanted to see… thought she wasn't sure what she had wanted him to feel.

"A-Amy…" she heard him call.

"Let's go," she said, cutting him off. Her words had come out harsher than she had intended.

A few moments later, they were up in the air. Nathaniel's eyes had stopped glowing, and both he had his sister had fallen asleep.

"So… err… where are we headed to now?" Sonic asked her nervously.

Amy stared back at him, but her eyes were hard. "Anywhere," she answered. Then, she added in a soft whisper. "Anywhere but here…"

Sonic wasn't sure if she meant all of them, or just herself.

A/N: Both The Queen of Aces and I hope you've enjoyed the chapter! Today's my last day before my vacation... glorious vacation... (slightly maniacal look in eye). Eh, sorry about that. Must be all the chemical fumes while I was cleaning out all our bathrooms... My mom usually does it, but she looked a little tired from everything, so I decided to help... Now I know why my mom's crazy - it's from all those chemicals :P

Mom, if you're reading this, I'm kidding. Not that you'll understand this anyway, seeing as you don't know English... but at least I feel better now for poking fun at you behind your back :)

Thanks for reading!

The Queen of Aces

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