CHAPTER 8

A POWERFUL DECISION

When they got back to the Chaotix, Kayla was fully conscious, but was unaware about what had happened when Kaliyah took her over. She was standing beside Shadow while he was getting yelled at by Vector. She had no idea why they were arguing, she didn't even know how they made it back from the military so fast. She tugged on Shadow's coat trying to get his attention. "Detective Hedgehog", she called innocently.

Shadow looked down to her in frustration, "What the hell do you want, Kayla?" He replied in a cold voice that made her want to cry.

She continued with hesitation, not wanting to make Shadow any madder than he was. "Um, why are you and Detective Crocodile fighting?"

"We're not fighting , we're..." He stopped and had no clue what to say to her to convince her that they weren't arguing. "Kayla, why don't you stand next to Rouge for a minute for me?"

She nodded sadly, "Okay." She left his side and stood next to Rouge.

Afterwards Shadow had glared back over to a furious Vector. "As I was saying, there has to be another way for her."

"Quit trying to change my mind, Shadow!" Vector shouted. "You know damn well that I told you to kill that girl if she had anything demonic inside of her!"

"But she can't help it. She didn't even know that the reaction from the Chaos Emerald would free Kaliyah."

"That's bullshit, Shadow and a load of it! Kill her and send her back to hell."

"You just don't understand. I...care for Kayla and if I kill Kaliyah then I'll kill Kayla too and I'll never see her again."

"We all have to make sacrifices, Shad. Do what your brain tells you to do not your heart."

Espio couldn't believe what Vector just said, 'How could he? That was so cold-hearted', he thought. "How could you say that, Vector. Kayla's just a child. She didn't know and even if she did it again, she still wouldn't have known."

Vector looked over to Espio in anger. "Espio, keep out of this or I'll fire your ass."

Espio then kept quiet.

Shadow looked down to the floor then back to Vector, "No, I won't."

"What?" Vector said with disbelief.

"You heard me. I won't do it."

Vector shook his fists in anger, "Shadow, how dare you go against my orders. That's the kind of thing that can get your sorry ass fired."

He looked away from the floor. "Then fire me!" He shouted. "I don't care what you say. I'm not going to kill her because she's...like a daughter to me and I won't lose her to your stupid god damn orders!"

Vector remained silent for the moment and decided to listen to Shadow more.

Shadow continued, "So what if she's a demon. I'm one too. Are you going to kill me, Vector? Are you!"

He shook his head slowly, "No, I could never do such a thing to you, Shadow."

"Why?"

"Because you're precious to me and you're like family to us."

"...And Kayla isn't?"

The crocodile sighed, "She can't control herself unlike you. She could kill us all and I won't risk losing you guys."

Shadow sighed, "I think I understand your reasons now." He reached inside of his coat pocket and took out his badge. "But, I just can't agree with your ways...not this time." He then threw the badge on the floor in sorrow. He looked away from the badge laying on the cold floor and looked back at Vector with sadness. "I'm sorry." He looked away from him and turned to Kayla. His hand reached out to her, "Come on, Kayla. Lets go home."

Before she moved, she looked up at Rouge then back at Shadow. She slowly walked over to him and took his hand.

Charmy shouted Shadow's name, but he had already left. His antennas flopped down as he looked over to Espio. "Shadow just quit didn't he, Espio?"

The chameleon nodded, "Yeah", he answered with a sigh.

Tonya placed her hands on her hips and turned to the two. "Well I don't blame him. If I had to kill an innocent little girl like Kayla, I'd walk away too."

"This sucks ass big time", Espio said quietly. "We just lost the greatest member of our team."

"Yeah", Charmy agreed. "It totally sucks."

Then they were all interrupted from Vector's loud voice.

"Shut up all of you! I don't want to hear another word about this got it? Just drop the subject already!" The crocodile shouted from frustration.

Everyone was then immediately quiet. They could all tell that Vector was upset about this as well, but he tried his best to hide it and so far it was still very obvious.