SURPRISE!

….

Okay, So I know, it's been a while (I'll be honest, I don't know how long it's been...) but I promise you guys, I haven't given up on this. Life is just…well, different. I won't make excuses; I need to be a better person and update more, I know. On the plus side, I can absolutely PROMISE you that I will update again by the end of this Friday. I was gonna wait till then, but this part seems complete enough to be a chapter despite its shortness. We're starting to get into the main conflict of the story now, and things will soon start being clearer. Pinky swear.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: despite all the time I spent away from this, that time was not spent purchasing Sega or whoever owns Pokémon. Sadly.

Chapter 13

On the mountain

It was shortly after dark when the clouds moved in. She hadn't even noticed them approaching. The rain began suddenly and mercilessly, pelting the pink hedgehog with concentrated droplets and drawing her thoughts away from her troubles long enough to seek out shelter. An overhang in the cliff wall adjacent to her meadow proved sufficient to shield her from the water, but did little to comfort her.

Mew seemed unphased by the weather as it danced around in the air, the rain seeming to deflect off of a faint pink glowing sphere around it. It spun and twisted in the air, waltzing with the rain and singing with the wind while Amy Rose shivered against the stone.

The evening had passed with several attempts by the creature to get Amy to play with it again, to no avail. Though, as she watched it during the day, it had grown somewhat more serious—alternating between chasing its tail and staring out over the mountains, as though waiting for something to happen.

As the hours went by, Amy found herself contemplating her life's purpose more than once. She considered the many times she had swung her mallet, and how each of those time had somehow linked together to get her to where she was. She considered her undying, unrequited love of Sonic the Hedgehog and all the times she had said she would go to the ends of the earth for him—now, it seemed, she had; and it wasn't at all as romantic as she thought it should have been.

"What are you looking at?" she demanded bitterly of the pink creature that had turned to grin at her.

"Mew!" it said happily, continuing its dance in the rain.

Its dance was cut short, however, when suddenly a roar of thunder louder than any Amy had heard before raged across the sky and a bolt of hot white lightning sliced the air in front of them, striking the edge of the cliff. Amy and Mew screamed together and the creature flew to Amy's side, snuggling in with eyes squeezed shut and body trembling with fear. Despite her grudge towards the animal for keeping her prisoner, Amy couldn't help but feel the instinct to protect it; and though she felt Mew could take care of itself, she put her arms around it and hugged it close in the storm.

Only a few moments passed before another terrifying sound pierced the night. Howls, wails, roars, of anger and of pain grew from the darkness, swelling slowly over the pounding of the rain. At first, Amy thought it was the wind. Then, as strange lights began to glow afar off, she thought it was a ghost. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and clutched the warm creature closer to her body, because she realized that she did not want to see a ghost. It wasn't until poor Mew managed a smothered cry that Amy realized she was strangling the creature and she released immediately, allowing the pink hue of its skin to replace the purple tint it had acquired.

Silly Amy, she thought to herself. What would even draw a ghost here?

Then suddenly, she found herself wishing that it had actually been a ghost. Maybe it would have made more sense than what she really saw.

Drawing nearer and nearer were seven distinct shapes of different colours. They came from every direction, both from the sky and from the ground. Green, purple, yellow, cyan, sapphire, white, and red approached-some glowing and some being illuminated only by the sheets of lightning briefly lighting the world. As she watched, the shapes rushed towards her, becoming more distinct, and she felt panic rising in the pit of her stomach.

"I'm about to be eaten, aren't I?"

Celestic Town

The company of Mobians waited quietly in the ICU. The only sounds were the steady, too-slow beeping of the heart monitor and the less steady rumble of Knuckles's snoring. Echidna, bat, hedgehog, and fox had been sitting, pacing, napping, tapping, and doing anything that they could to pass the hours of the night and keep their minds from drifting to pessimistic thoughts. The darkness of the sky was beginning to melt away as dawn approached, but only the few that remained in the lobby noticed.

Professor Oak, Ash, Dawn, Brock, and Nurse Joy spent the night in a similar fashion, but the overall energy level in the lobby was considerably lower than in Shadow's room. Nurse Joy had fallen asleep sitting at her desk and Chansey, being the loyal helper that it was, fetched a blanket and draped it over the young woman's shoulders. Dawn had lost the battle with sleep hours earlier and was curled up on the small couch, her head resting on a drooling Brock's lap.

Ash couldn't have found sleep even if had wanted it. The storm beyond the walls of the compound had finally begun to lift, but it was the storm slowly brewing inside of him that caused him so much unrest. He knew that he had been a jerk far too many times and he was genuinely regretful of his actions, but there was a part of him—a part deep down, rising further towards his surface with every passing hour—that liked it.

...

It wasn't until he felt her hand slip out of his own that Shadow realized something had changed. She wasn't smiling anymore.

"Maria?"

The girl replied by hastily climbing to her feet and turning from her friend, trying to hide her tears by brushing a sleeve over her eyes.

"Maria, why are you crying?" Shadow asked, suddenly concerned.

The angelic girl clasped her hands together and lifted her eyes towards the stars again. "I'm just so happy," she began. "I'm happy that I could see you again, that I could show you this place."

Shadow smiled. "I'm happy too," he replied, joining her side. "We can stay here together, forever." He reached for his best friend's hand again.

For a moment she lingered, squeezed his hand gently, not wanting to let go, but suddenly she pulled away.

"No, Shadow."

He felt her words pierce him. "No?"

Maria's eyes were no longer cast to the heavens but fell somberly to the ground. "Shadow, you can't stay here. You have to go back."

A cold fear all too familiar gripped his heart and he took a step back, wishing her words away. "No," he whispered.

"You still have much to do, Shadow," she said quietly, her voice heavy. "Your journey isn't over."

The moon began to darken, the grass beneath their feet fading away.

"I won't go!" Shadow cried, memories of that terrible night on the ARK flooding him. Desperate, he snatched Maria's hand back and tried to run, tried to flee the fading of the world around him, but his feet didn't seem to be working. His body felt as heavy as the weight in his heart.

Memories flashed through his mind of that night on the ARK—soldiers beating down the doors, glass shattering from showering shots, a stream of crimson blood flowing in front of his eyes. He was losing her again.

"Please," he whispered, meeting her sad blue eyes as he felt the sting of tears in his own.

Maria knelt with a sad smile and brushed an escaping droplet from his cheek. "Your friends need you, Shadow. They can't do this without you."

"I don't care!"

Maria looked deep into the shadows of his hardened heart. "Yes you do, Shadow. You care more than you want to admit."

As she spoke, familiar sounds drifted on the wind and roared in his ears.

"Why do you always have to be such an idiot?!"

Knuckles, angry at him as usual.

"You pull through for me, okay? You owe me that much."

Rouge assuming another favour.

"…I don't think I can get us back home alone this time."

Sonic.

More than anything, Shadow wanted to stay with her. He wanted to forget the world, forget the life that had caused him so much pain, had taken so much from him. But deep inside, there was a part of him that knew she was right.

Maria wrapped her arms around him in a final embrace. "Keep smiling, Shadow."

Suddenly, he was falling away from paradise. Away from her.

"Maria!" he cried, trying to claw his way back through the light surrounding him. He couldn't leave her again, not like this.

"MARIA!"

He never got to say goodbye.