=Chapter 1=

Months later, everyone at Castle Mobius was planning for Shadow and Amy's wedding. Rouge of course was at the helm of all the organizations and working everything from showers to receptions into a working schedule. The ladies were all too eager to pitch in. The guys on the other hand, were more fixed on horsing around. Rouge had a hard enough time getting them to set up things like chairs, tables, the abbey next to the mansion, and the technical stuff. The theme of the whole wedding was Goth and the date set for it was October 31st. Halloween. The ladies at first, didn't like it nor did they get it. The guys thought it suited Shadow a lot. It was to be a private ceremony attended only Council members and a few close friends.

XXXXXXX

One day, Rouge was walking around the halls with a small catalog in her hand. A few minutes later, she found Tails also wandering about the hallway.

"Oh good, I found you." the ivory bat. "Can you fetch Amy for me? I need her to pick out her bouquet so I can order it."

"Umm okay." Tails replied. "But I don't think she's up yet."

"It's 11 o'clock in the morning, Tails. She's gotta be up."

The kitsune let out a sigh and went down the west wing of the mansion on the 4th floor. When he got to Amy's door, he politely knocked.

"Amy?" he called out. "You awake in there?"

There was no answer. After waiting a few minutes, Tails reluctantly got out his security override key and gained entry to the sakura hedgehog's dorm.

"Amy?" he called out again.

Instead of finding the sakura hedgehog in the small apartment, the saffron fox found a couple of sheets torn off the bed, tied to one leg of the frame, and hanging out the open window as the magenta curtains fluttered in the breeze. Tails made a face.

"Oh no...not again..."

XXXXXXX

Amy made a groan as she climbed the fence. She actually found one that wasn't too high and made of either brick or stone. The cherry-pink female let out a groan when she landed on the other side. Without waiting another minute, Amy quickly ran off to the nearest bus stop. She was clad in jogging sweat pants, a turquoise tank top and a grey hoodie. Amy was sure to leave the hood over her head so nobody would recognize her and to cover her head from the falling rain.

This was the third time Amy was running away. Only she didn't quite call it running way, she called it, taking leave of absence through forceful routes. Amy had tried leaving the mansion grounds without sneaking off, but its residence wouldn't let her, so she had to resort to escaping the compound as it were. The sakura hedgehog just had to get away from there so she could have some time to herself and sort of collect her thoughts. Council members were convinced that Amy might end up doing something really stupid, like hurting herself, so they all watched her like a hawk. Particularly senior members like Rouge, Sally, and Shadow. And most especially Shadow.

Amy boarded the bus and sat in the very back as it took off. She wasn't really planning on going anywhere specific actually. Sitting in the large vehicle for a while was just fine. As the bus zoomed along the paved road, the young flower stared out the window with droplets of water come trickling down the glass and thinking of married life to Shadow in the very near future. It came as a total shock to her. After all, why on earth would he ever choose someone like her in the first place? Hell, Sonic choose Sally over her so there had to be something wrong with the sakura hedgehog, right? Amy felt like she was really an outcast despite the fact the Council couldn't function properly without her. The Council wouldn't be to operate without one of its members absent, unless if they were ill or had a very good reason not to attend the very important meetings. Amy still couldn't understand the whole thing. Most of the time, the guys were out in the courtyard on their skateboards or on the video games in the Rec Room. Except maybe Shadow and sometimes Knuckles if the workload was just something he couldn't ignore. Speaking of Shadow, Amy hadn't really talked to him since he marked her which left her feeling more insecure about the whole wedding thing. Was Shadow just marrying her just for the hell of it? It wasn't that she didn't love him back, she just didn't want to get her heart broken again if that was the case.

The bus made a few stops along the way letting off some of its passengers. Soon, Amy was almost the only one left on board the bus. If it were it were a perfect world, she could stay on the bus for forever. However as the day waned down, she too got off it. The sakura hedgehog went off to a local park wandering aimlessly around. She went over to a swing set and got on one of the swings. Amy slowly swung herself back and forth, deep in thought and staring at the sandy ground beneath her. The rainy weather got a little lighter so it was just sprinkling. Amy swung herself a little faster. She forgot how much fun she had on a swing set. Why didn't Castle Mobius have this?

"What am I gonna do?" she asked herself while her mind was being stuffed with stressful thoughts.

Amy spent the rest of the afternoon on the swings while letting off some steam. Then the clouds above her went from a dark grey to a very dark blue, signaling that the sun was going down. Suddenly, the cherry-pink female's ears twitched to a very familiar sound, making her head pop up like a prairie dog.

'Oh shit...'

She recognized that sound just about anywhere. Just around the block from her, was Silver's Volvo. With Silver and Blaze in the front seat and Rouge in the back. They had spent hours looking for Amy and it looked like they had finally found her. Quickly, Amy sprang up from the swings and made a break for it. The sakura hedgehog wasn't quite ready to go home just yet. She ran into a suburban neighborhood that was currently under construction. Amy went inside of a house being built. Even though the walls were just barely put up, she could already see the cozy and homeliness it was guaranteed to bring once completed.

'...why can't I live here?'

A few moments later, she realized that what she was doing was really stupid and she might as well surrender already. The sound of Silver's Volvo got closer and closer until it came to screeching halt. Then the car doors opened.

"Amy? Amy?"

It was Blaze coming after the cherry-pink female again.

"Amy? You out here, hon?"

Oh crap. Amy blinked when she heard Rouge's voice. It must be very serious this time. Amy decided not to make the situation any worse and make herself known.

"I'm over here!" she called out nonchalantly.

Blaze's ear twitched and ran over to the young flower who was sitting in what would be the living room of the house.

"Sup?" Amy droned.

"Where the hell have you been?" Blaze cried. "We were worried sick!"

"Around."

"Well you need to get your butt home. NOW." Rouge retorted.

"I'm coming..." Amy sighed.

She followed them to the Volvo where Silver was waiting at the steering wheel. Blaze got into the front seat again, while Rouge and Amy slid into the back seat. From there to Castle Mobius, Amy got what seemed to be an hour long lecture from Rouge.

XXXXXXX

Meanwhile back at Castle Mobius, Sonic, Tails, and the Chaotix were in the courtyard skate park and performing hard core tricks and stunts with either a skate board or a bike. Knuckles came outdoors himself with an impatient look on his face.

"Hey Tails!" he called out. "Has Rouge radioed back yet?"

"Heck if I know." Tails replied.

Sonic made a frown and halted his skate board.

"Aw hell, Amy didn't run away again, did she?" he asked.

"Yup." Tails said, zipping past the cerulean hedgehog and performing a grind on the railing. "You know, maybe we should have a psychiatrist come talk to her or something."

"Nah, she's probably just blowing off steam. Hey Knux grab a board and join us!"

"I'm not joining anything until I've heard back from Rouge." Knuckles muttered.

"Will you quit worrying so much about? I'm sure she, Blaze and Silver will find Amy okay."

Knuckles let out a short as the blue blur did a front side 5-0 grind on the top railing. Vector tried to copy him, but tripped and came sliding down to the bottom.

"Epic Fail." Espio quipped.

"Shut the hell up." Vector growled.

Sonic, Tails and Charmy busted up laughing. Then another unexpected visitor came over. It was Shadow.

"Hey Shads." Sonic greeted. "What's up?"

"Nothing." the ebony hedgehog said. Then he turned to Knuckles. "Anything from Rouge yet?"

"Nope." Knuckles replied nonchalantly. "But if she doesn't call in the minutes, I'm going to be the one hunting down her ass."

Shadow gave a nod and went back indoors. Sonic shook his head.

"Honestly, you two need to lighten up." he said.

Then, the ruby echidna's cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi Knuckie, it's Rouge. Just want to let you know that we found Amy and headed home right now."

"About damn time!"

"Hey, don't take that attitude with me, mister."

"Whatever, I'll see you later then."