Sonic growled at the guards running towards him. He didn't have time for this crap! He had to find Shadow before his mother did anything to him! Sonic jumped to the other side of the room, away from the sweating guards who had been chasing after him for the past two hours, and tried another spin dash at the exit.
He bounced off the door yet again and kicked the nearest guard in the face. The guard grunted in pain, cursed at him and began his charge yet again. His mothers' goons were persistent and stubborn, he would give them that, but they were going to walk out of the room full of bruises and cuts by the time he was done with them.
"Where's Shadow?!" Sonic yelled and felt his chaos energy spike at his rage. He pushed the chaos energy down deep; no matter how angry and desperate he got, Sonic never wanted his dark side to come out again. Not after last time…
He shook his head; now was not the time to be thinking about that. Sonic dodged another guard as he tried to grab him and stuck his tongue out. "Catch me if you can!" Sonic dashed to the other side of the room and his emerald eyes widened when he saw a ring of keys on one of the guard's belt.
Sonic was just about to zoom across the room and snatch the keys from the lumbering guard when the door he was trying to get out of before slammed open and the last person he wanted to see entered the room.
"Enough of these childish acts, Sonic!" Queen Aleena scolded her son; looking just as elegant and calculating as ever. The guards stopped their scrambling and went to stand next to their employer.
Sonic rolled his eyes and started to tap his foot on the ground. He placed his hands on his hips, "Whatever could you mean mother? The only children here are those lumbering idiots you call bodyguards," Sonic smirked.
Queen Aleena sighed and straightened out her dress. "Alright, Sonic; all I ask is that you would act like an adult for the next few minutes so we can get down to business." Sonic narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything. The magenta hedgehog noticed this and pulled out a small piece of paper. She made her way over to her son and handed him the paper without one word.
Sonic closely watched his mother as she walked over to him and gave the small piece of paper a confused look, but took it anyway. He glanced over the paper and his eyes widened with each sentence he read. In the end, he crumpled the paper in his fist and glared at his mother. "I refuse."
"You will, Sonic," Queen Aleena sneered and straightened her back; confident that she would win the argument. "You will marry Sally in two days or I will have no choice but to put Shadow and that freak of nature child of his to death."
Sonic froze; rage enveloped him, but he didn't act on it since he would, most likely, be signing Shadow and his child's death warrant. He stared his mother down; looking for any type of weakness to play on. However, nothing was there; his mother wasn't going to back down on this decision, no matter what.
Sonic narrowed his eyes, remembering something about the last time he saw Sally. "Did Sally agree to this marriage? If I remember correctly, she was the one who kissed Shadow at the castle four months ago."
His mother didn't so much as flinch at what Sonic said. She, actually, seemed more delighted when Sonic brought up Sally. "After some convincing, and bringing up the abomination that was growing inside that freak hedgehog, she happily agreed to marry you," Queen Aleena sneered.
Sonic stiffened at his mothers' words. Well, there went his only argument he could think of. The only silver lining in this was that Shadow and his unborn child were still alive… At least, that's what his mother was telling him…
Sonic sighed; it looked like there was only one thing he could do. He slumped to the ground and folded his ears slightly in submission. "Alright… what do you want me to do?" Queen Aleena looked him over and gave him a calculating smirk.
"Come with me, Sonic," she said and led the way out of the room; followed by her dozen bodyguards.
Sonic slowly got up from the ground and followed after his devilish mother. He may have looked submissive to any person who glanced at him, but Sonic hadn't given up in any way. Actually, if anything, he had gained more of a will to fight back the lives of his newly acquired family.
He glanced up at his mother, never once lifting his head, and saw the triumphant smile on his mother's face. He would play along with his mother's games for now, but as soon as he saw a chance to save his family… he would take it. No matter what he had to do to save them… he would do it.
*Ombra d'amore*
Shadow's mind turned to white nothingness. Nothing passed through his mind; he was too shocked to comprehend anything after Sonia told him what was happening in two days.
Seeing Shadow turn pale and freeze, Sonia turned to her brother and sighed. "Well… he took it better than I thought he would. I thought he was going to faint as soon as we told him," Sonia commented and turned her attention back to Shadow.
"Ahhh, sis; I think you spoke too soon," Manic sweat dropped as he saw the ebony hedgehog start to sway back and forth.
"Catch him!" Sonia yelped and held her hands out to stop Shadow's eminent fall to the ground. Manic shrugged and, instead, picked Shadow up bridal style and made his way over to the clean bed in the room. He set Shadow down on the mattress and covered him up with the comforter.
Manic turned around and gave his sister a triumphant look. "I think that was a better idea."
Sonia sweat dropped at her brother, "Well, genus, would you mind telling me why you placed Shadow in the bed when he's still covered in grime?" Manic gave her a sheepish look and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Sonia shook her head and opened the bathroom door. "I'm going to take a shower and, once I'm done, I'm going to leave to get food and new sheets."
Manic nodded and Sonia closed the bathroom door behind her. Used to being covered in unknown gunk, Manic shrugged and sat down in a wooden chair across the room. He took out his trusted drum sticks and started to hit the drum sticks on anything he could find within his reach.
*Ombra d'amore*
Shadow started to twitch when the sounds of two people fighting reached his ears. He cracked opened his eyes and found Sonia and Manic fighting… again.
"Come on, Sonia! He's not going to notice if I take some of his dinner! Just let me have a piece!"
"I said no! It's his food! Instead of trying to take away the food of a pregnant person, go take a shower! You smell horrid!"
"It's an extra-large pizza! I don't think even he could eat the entire thing! And should I remind you that you smelled the same as me before taking a shower, sis?"
"Just in there before you wake him up, Manic!"
Shadow sighed, rolled over and gave the green and magenta hedgehogs a half-lidded look. "Don't even bother," Shadow growled. "You guys already woke me up with your childish fight." Sonia and Manic turned to look at him and gave the ebony hedgehog sheepish looks. "And…" He sniffed the air, "Sonia is right, Manic. Go take a shower."
Manic muttered something under his breath, something that Shadow didn't want to repeat, and sat up in bed. Sonia made her way over to him and sat down on the edge of his mattress. "Are you okay, Shadow?"
He gave her a confused look, "Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Sonia bit her lip and… he remembered. "Sonic is marrying Sally in two days, isn't he?" Just the mere words were like acid in his mouth.
"It's actually only one day now…" Shadow looked up and couldn't help but notice the similar appearance between Sonia and her mother. However… the two of them may look the same, but there was one large difference in their appearances. Their eyes… while Queen Aleena's stare was cold and calculating; Sonia's held kindness and sympathy… Something he hadn't once seen in Queen Aleenas' eyes.
Shadow looked away when his ears caught the sound of the shower starting and glanced down at his hands. "So… what's the plan?" He hoped Sonia had some kind of plan in place; he didn't want to blindly follow the two siblings into danger with the cold-hearted Queen.
Sonia shook her head, "All I want you to do right now is eat, shower and get back to sleep. The castle is crawling with guards since our mom is rushing the wedding preparations and the last thing we want is for her to know that you're hiding inside the castle."
Shadow nodded in agreement and wrinkled his nose in disgust when he noticed the grime from the sewer dried to his quills and fur and that he had smeared it on his bed sheets while he was sleeping. "Tell Manic to hurry up; I want to get this gunk off of me as soon as possible."
Sonia stifled a giggle behind her hand, "Finally, a guy that actually wants to be clean. Manic explores sewers as a hobby and, when we were younger, it was almost impossible to get Sonic to take a bath or shower."
Shadow smirked; imagining the younger aqua phobic Sonic being forced into the bathtub. His ears twitched again as the water was shut off and Manic walked out of the bathroom, without even bothering to dry off and slumped back down in his wooden chair. Manic caught his staring and smirked, "You like what you see, Shads?"
'Shads' rolled his eyes and got out of bed. Now that Manic was out of the shower, nothing was going to stop him from taking one himself. He shivered; he still didn't want to know what he had picked up in his little sewer escape and stepped into the still wet shower.
*Ombra d'amore*
Sonic suppressed a growl as one of his mother's handmaidens forced yet another suit on him. From what he heard, black over powered his blue coloring; brown made him look like water in mud and, finally, they seemed to agree to him wearing a white suit. Now the three present maids were currently fighting over what colored tie he should wear.
Now would have been the perfect time to escape if it wasn't for the dozen cameras trained on his form and, despite their annoying tendencies, he really would rather not hurt the innocent maids that only wanted to help him. Even though he really didn't want whatever help they were currently giving him.
Sonic sighed; it was time to calm the storm. "I think I would look better with a dark blue tie, don't you think?" He offered and almost immediately felt like he was digging his own grave. The fighting between the three maids ceased and they turned to him in amazement. They seemed to think over his opinion for a couple moments before agreeing.
The eldest of the three maids took out a dark blue tie made of pure silk and wrapped it around his neck. She blushed at being so close to Prince Sonic and said prince had to suppress an eye roll at the irony of it all. Once she was done, all three of them took a step back and admired their work.
Just when Sonic thought it couldn't get any worse, the door swung open and the second to last person he wanted to see entered the dressing room. "Hello, my husband to be," Princess Sally coolly said and made her way over to the cobalt hedgehog.
"Hello, Sally," Sonic said and didn't even try to hide the annoyance in his voice.
She narrowed her crystal blue eyes and glared at the three maids. "Leave!" She commanded and the three maids almost ran over each other to get away from the frightening squirrel. Once the audience was gone, Sally flicked her hair behind her and returned her attention to Sonic. "Is that any way to treat your fiancée?"
Sonic crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the female squirrel that he had actually loved at one point in time. If he hadn't met Shadow and seen the way Sally treated him, he probably would still be in love with her. "No matter what happens, Sally, I will never consider you my wife."
Sally made a very un-lady like growl and scowled at her soon to be husband. "Well to bad, Sonic, because by this time tomorrow, we'll be married."
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the castle, Queen Aleena watched the fight going on between her son and soon to be daughter in law. It didn't matter whether either one of them loved the other as long as everything went as planned. Sally would get the power she always wanted and Sonic's freak hedgehog would live to see another day.
It was a real pity that Sonic chose Shadow as the one to fall in love with. From the few times she had met him, Queen Aleena had gathered a small soft spot for the ebony hedgehog and that was the only reason he had been given a chance to live; no matter how small of a chance it was. She didn't want to admit it, but she had seen herself in the ebony hedgehog and she would have made Shadow her daughter's husband. He would have probably been the perfect partner for her daughter if Sonic hadn't messed up.
The magenta queen focused her attention back on the arguing squirrel and hedgehog; it really was such a pity that Sonic had fallen in love with Shadow. Something beeped at her belt and Queen Aleena took out a small walkie talkie. "What is it?" She asked into the device.
"Well… you see… um…" Came the voice of her led bodyguard from the walkie talkie.
She sighed, "Just spit it out!"
Queen Aleena heard the large guard take a deep breath, "Shadow has escaped."
Her eyes widened, "He WHAT?!"
This was a filler chapter if I ever saw one… Two updates in two days… I need some rest now…
PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!