Chapter Three

Loneliness

The next morning, Rouge decided to take herself for a walk in the Mobotropolis Park, she was still feeling sad, she had been laying awake at night thinking about Shadow, she felt so lost.

As she walked she saw many mobian couples. Some were sitting on benches looking at the shining lake where the ducks were swimming, some were walking either holding hands or with their arms around each other and some were families with young children who were running on the grass or around the lake feeding the ducks.

Rouge felt more alone than ever, she felt even worse as she saw a couple of swans on the lake nuzzling each other, their arched necks making a heart shape as their beaks touched. Rouge sighed and walked on, she then went to sit on an empty bench. As she sat there she tried not to think about what it would have been like if Shadow was with her.

As she sat there, she then saw Sonic and Amy sitting together on the side of the lake, Rouge's eyes widened, she wondered why Sonic and Amy were together, it seemed strange. Often if Amy came near Sonic, Sonic would try and run off before Amy would try to glomp him, but this time Sonic seemed relaxed and was talking to Amy whilst she was sitting quietly and listening. Rouge began to wonder what they were talking about:

Sonic stared at the lake looking at Amy; his eyes were still filled with anger and sadness from Chris's death. "All these times Amy" he said "when we were teleported to earth all those years ago, he gave us shelter, kept us secret, looked after us, then he soon helped us fight Eggman when he caused trouble"

Amy nodded listening to the grieving hedgehog's every word, "when Eggman attacks again" said Sonic, gritting his teeth as tears filled his eyes, "he'll fear my wrath, when we meet again, I'm gonna kill him!" Sonic then bowed his head and sobbed hard, Amy leaned forward and pulled him close to her, Sonic then rested against her and cried into her soft stomach. As he sobbed, Amy stroked his quills whispering comforting words to him.

Rouge watched them for a while, even though she felt happy for the two hedgehog's she still felt sad, she turned away and began to walk back towards her apartment. "If only I had someone to cry with" she thought to herself. She walked on and wrung her hands, not caring if people were looking at her.

She walked out of the park and began to walk towards the cemetery, on her way she went to a floristry to buy some flowers, some red roses, the florist, a female grey Koala bear smiled at her and asked who the flowers were for, but then looked embarrassed when Rouge told her the reason, to place them on her lover's memorial.

Rouge then began to walk to the cemetery again, holding the roses close to her chest, looking at the roses reminded her of when she hid a chaos emerald inside one of them to give to Eggman, and she had met Shadow for the very first time.

Flashback

Rouge had given Eggman the Chaos Emerald and had seen the handsome black hedgehog with red quills standing with his back to her. "Who's this charming young friend of yours?" she asked looking at Shadow admiring his magnificent quills "I'm Rouge the Bat, what's your name?"

"It's Shadow" said Shadow, then turning to face her, "Shadow the Hedgehog" as he spoke, his ruby red eyes burned into her shining aqua ones, they shone and burned with such fire that Rouge couldn't take her eyes away, "oh" she whispered as she looked back, as she stared at him, all the thoughts of her passion for jewels disappeared from her head, now it seemed the only jewels that were her passion were the rubies that shone in Shadow's eyes, so firey and powerful.

End Flashback

Rouge still felt the entranced feeling of looking into Shadow's eyes flowing through her. Those two rubies that glittered. Even though she could not touch them, she could still see their glittering beauty and the preciousness in them.

Rouge walked into the cemetery and walked over to Shadow's plaque, she placed the roses next to some dried roses that had been laying there for some days, she once again kissed her lips and placed them on the plaque, "I brought you your favourites Shadow" she whispered "red roses, red, to match your red quills, and those ruby red eyes of yours" She shed a tear as she knelt there for a long time. She then stood up and walked away.