Shadow ran to the last crater when Sonic and Knuckles went their separate ways. He didn't know why Eggman wanted to check out the probably dead person in the deep hole, but then again he didn't care. He was actually angry, he was going to defeat and injure Sonic with every ounce of hate he had when the three figures appeared, fighting some dinosaur of a monster and then decided it was a good time to blow it up. What the hell was wrong with them?

'If they aren't dead then I'll kill them,' he told himself with a growl as he came upon the crater. It looked to be a nice fifty feet deep, at least thrice as wide. Uncaring, Shadow jumped inside and walked over to the dark bundle planted firmly in the middle. With a sneer he grabbed the body, hefted it over his shoulder and jumped out of the crater.

As he landed he was thinking of exactly how to kill the person while making it look like they was already dead, because whoever they were, they were definitely breathing. If he chocked them then the bruise wound show up on their neck. 'Unless I snapped their neck,' he thought with a grin. 'Then I can say they broke their neck on impact.'

With the plan in mind he turned back to the mouth of the crater and laid the person down. Eagerly he kneeled beside them and raised his hand. He stopped suddenly when the person groaned and opened his eyes, staring dead into his own. Bright green eyes stared at him, confused, disoriented and curious. They raised their hand and touched his cheek.

"You are in pain," the person croaked, a small smile on his face. "Be free of it, if only for a moment." And then he started humming. Shadow gasped as sudden warmth settled over him and inside of him. His body relaxed and released the tension that he didn't think he had, his heart sped up momentarily before settling on its normal, rhythmic beat. His mind, for once since he retrieved his real body, cleared of every bad, dark, horrendous and grief-stricken thought that clogged it, like a fan blowing away all the cobwebs in a dusty home.

Shadow shuddered and closed his eyes, then leaned into the touch.

Sonic and Knuckles met up at the third crater after extracting two of the people from the first and second. What they saw shocked them. Shadow was kneeling beside a body, the body not being seen because he was in the way. The stranger of that body however, was definitely wide awake, and humming. He wasn't just humming; he was rubbing Shadow's cheek. Telling from the voice, it was a male, and it sounded like he was a really good singer. Sonic frowned when Shadow leaned into the touch, and he had a pretty good idea that his rival's eyes were closed. A low purr came out of nowhere, and it shocked him even more to find out that it was from Shadow.

"Uh," he started, flinching when Shadow stopped purring and glared back out him.

Shadow sighed and purred at the hand rubbing his cheek, feeling the strong need to nuzzle into it. He never felt so completely calm in his life, aside from watching Maria play in the meadows. Such a peace, long lost and sorely missed was like food to a starving man. 'Warm,' he thought happily. 'It's so warm…'

"Uh..."

Shadow froze, his mind stopping. Suddenly everything went dark. He knew that voice, he knew that voice!

"Ok, that is creepy," Knuckles murmured as he took a step back. Shadow's eyes were red, and not like red eyed Shadow, but like red eyed Shadow no pupils showed, no iris, nothing. Just red.

Shadow growled and bared his... "Oh crud," Sonic said, taking a step back of his own. Shadow had fangs, very long, very sharp and thick fangs. The hedgehog stood up and turned towards them, and gods were his claws long! Claws! Shadow didn't have claws!

"He looks really pissed off," Amy whimpers.

"Sonic, maybe he has that werehog thing that you got," Knuckles said, taking another step back.

Sonic shook his head. "Can't be. I change under the full moon..."

Shadow gave a low growl, stopping to look back at the body behind him as it gave a pitiful whine. He picked the male up, who smiled and placed his hand briefly on Shadow's cheek before it fell limp, and lifted his head, looking back at Eggman, who was in his ship and shouting for him to hurry up.

'You shouldn't be here,' a different voice said in Shadow's head.

'I don't care anymore,' he replied back to it. Or did he? Shifting the body in his arm to a more comfortable position, he ran, purposely between Sonic and Tails to throw the two off balance and hopped onto the ship. Eggman waved them off with an evil laugh and disappeared inside, the ship lifting and taking off a few moments afterwards and leaving behind very shocked and confused heroes.

~ooo~

"Whoa ho ho! Knuckles she's a beauty! Great catch!"

"Ugh, shut up Sonic!"

The group stood around a table in their still broken ship. The two bodies they found were on the table, laying side by side each other. One of the bodies was a female, her fur an emerald green color. Long green hair fanned out from under her. A furry tipped tail wrapped around her ankle from under her royal purple dress that went past her feet and draped halfway off the table. The dress had silver edges and a diamond necklace hung around her neck. Silver marking surrounded the tips of her eyes and three silver stripes donned each cheek.

The male beside her was a golden color, feathers sticking out of his head. From his fore arm down the gold darkened into orange. The sideways V-shaped markings on him were around his beak, which was a very deep red, and around his arms, which were also deep red. His eyes had two rings surrounding them, the first being red and the second being black. A phoenix tail laid semi spread under him.

"You think they're alright?" Sonic asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"It looks like it." Knuckles answered, leaning a bit closer to look at the male's red markings. Something was very, interesting, about them.

"Hmph! Let me see," Amy growled, pushing them out the way and taking a closer look at the male body first. 'Hmm. Nice eyelashes for a guy. Pretty tall too.' She looked his face over with a frown before switching to the female, her frown deepening. 'Ok, so she is pretty cute, but that's nothing. Sonic will be focused on me!'

"I guess they are alright. Nothing looks badly injured," she said finally, still watching the female keenly. She leaned closer, her nose almost touching the other's. "Around her eyes is silver. And they're darkening. I have to say that's pretty- EEK!"

Amy jumped back in surprise as the female's eyes suddenly opened. Dark green eyes met lighter green eyes briefly before the pupils turned into slits and the eyes turned silver, the markings around her eyes and on her cheek flickering between black and silver as the female grinned. She sat up and looked around her, eyes latching onto the group in front of her. That made her grin even more, showing her long fangs to them all. "Hello there," she said sweetly, though her eyes were cold and evil.

Cream shivered and stepped further behind Tails, the fox himself feeling a shiver from the base of his spine. "H-hey there."

"Are you OK? You took a pretty nasty blow from that blast," Sonic said, taking an oblivious step forward. Amy pulled on his arm and made a whimpering sound, though Sonic looked back at her and grinned. "What are you afraid of?"

"She doesn't look right Sonic. Don't go near her!"

Sonic turned and looked at the girl, face frowning in confusion. Her eyes made him shiver. "Now that you mention it..." A pained groan escaped the green female, making everybody jump. She was bent over, hands on her head and ears flattened. Sonic was instantly by her side. "Hey are you OK?!"

"Sonic be careful!"

"What? She's in pain! What could she possible do to-ACK"

"Sonic!"

Sonic struggled and kicked and pulled at the hands that had an iron grip around his neck, but to no avail. His vision started to swim as he looked down at the girl below. Cold, evil silver eyes stared up at him with sadistic glee; the silver rings around her eyes were now black, as were the rest of the markings on her face. Her tail, once had a fluffy end, now was spiked with black tips. Long black claws were at the tips of her fingers, and they grew longer as she raised them to his stomach.

"Goodbye blue man."

Knuckles gave a yell and charged at her, only to be thrown back by a blast of power. The blast pushed away the others, along with the table that the other male was currently on. Sonic struggled more, growing more tired by the second. His vision flickered dangerous, his heart beating in his ears and chest, trying to force his lungs to take in air. 'I'm going to die,' he thought tiredly. He didn't want to die. He had to stop Eggman and Shadow. 'I can't now...'

Shouts of his name fell to deaf ears as the blue hedgehog went limp, giving up the urge to fight. Just when he was about to close his eyes the grip on his neck disappeared, and he fell disoriented to the ground. He coughed harshly, greedily taking in the air around him. Knuckles was by his side a second later, followed by Amy's frightened shrieks and a loud roaring sound. Sadly the air wasn't enough, and Sonic blacked out in Knuckles's arms.