Chapter Twenty-Two

Questions of Anguish

For a while Shadow and Rouge sat there in the ward holding their new son and worrying terribly about their daughter, Sonic and Amy were trying to reassure them but they still couldn't help but worry.

Just then, the door opened making them all look up, the midwife was standing there with another medical assistant, her face pale and sad. She looked up at Sonic and Amy, "If I could have a word with the parents" Amy went pale and tried to ask but Sonic took her hand and squeezed it then lead her out of the ward.

As soon as they got outside everyone looked up and began firing questions at them such as 'Sonic! Amy! What is it! Are they ok?' and 'What's happened!?" Sonic looked nervous as he looked back towards the door, "Well…." He said "they are some complications…"

"What!" everyone cried, "Rouge and the first child are ok….but the second one…." Everyone gasped, "NO!" cried Cream in a frightened voice, "my God!" cried Espio, "will the child be ok?" asked Charmy. "I dunno" said Sonic worried as he looked back at the door.

Meanwhile, inside the Midwife was telling Shadow and Rouge about their daughter's condition and it wasn't good news. "We've been examining her and she's still not breathing properly and…" she bit her lip; it was times like this when she hated her profession, when the news wasn't good.

"…there's nothing more we can do" Shadow went rigid and Rouge started crying again as she held Angel who gurgled unaware of the situation. The midwife turned to a male sandy coloured lion who was holding the baby in a small blanket, "do you want to hold her?" asked the midwife looking at them.

Rouge was so distraught, she shook her head, "I can't bring myself to….." she whispered "I'm….I'm so sorry…" Shadow then gathered his courage "I'll do it" he said in a broken voice holding his arms out to hold his dying daughter. The lion slowly placed her in his arms.

Shadow then cradled her, his throat was hurting from devastation and he felt his heartbeat in his stomach as he looked at the tiny child that lay in the blanket, a small white bat that looked exactly like Rouge with black wings and black stripes adorning her body.

Shadow then felt the tears come and they began to drop on the baby's forehead, "Mariah…" he whispered softly "please don't go…." He kissed her forehead gently as he cradled her "I love you my little princess" he whispered, "I love you so much" he could hear Rouge crying behind him.

As he cradled Mariah more, he felt her body go still and her breathing slow down, Shadow then held her close to his chest as she slowly slipped away. He couldn't hold his sadness in any longer, he could feel the pain of the ARK incident returning to him and the agony of Molly's death during the Metarex battle.

As he cradled her he whispered under his breath through his tears, "am I?….am I being punished? Punished for breaking out of my prison and killing all who held me there and tortured me…all because of a crime I didn't commit?" His mind began to wonder back to when he escaped from Molly's Planet.

Flashback

Shadow sat in the corner of his cell, resting his forehead on his arms, he didn't know how long he could stand the torture for something he didn't do. "I helped you Molly" he said "Rouge and I did everything we could to make sure you were safe…but the Metarex were too dangerous"

As he was dreaming the door suddenly opened as two men walked in holding shackles, "ok you creature" said one of them, "the leader wants to see you, and make you suffer more! For our enjoyment!" Shadow looked up "Why…?" he said "Why do you do this to me?" the man then stepped over "come on!"

Shadow stood up and snarled at the man, "fuck off!" he spat, "leave me alone! I will not be your creature to abuse and torture more!" the man laughed still cocky and overconfident. "Come on worthless creature! You're supposed to be our entertainment!" he walked over and another man took out a cattle pod ready to shock him with it.

Shadow backed further against the wall, "stay away from me!" he screamed "stay the fuck away from me!" "get him!" shouted the man, Shadow leapt into the corner, his fury eating up inside of him "get the fuck away!" he then held up his hand than began to glow yellow as his anger got stronger.

"Chaos Spear!" he shouted, he threw the spears at the man who was closest to him and the spears slashed his body making him fall bleeding, Shadow at first was shocked by what he did, but then realised he remembered his chaos powers, he then lifted his hand again as it glowed yellow.

He then used his spears on the other man who were in the cell, then ran out the cell door as the alarms sounded, soon the halls were flooded with men holding guns and ropes, Shadow ran through the halls as fast as he could trying to find an exit. He was then stopped in his tracks by some men running towards him.

"Hold it!" they shouted "get down on the ground!" Shadow snarled at them "fuck you all!" he clenched his fists as they began to glow red, "Chaos Blast!" he shouted, as he shouted that a red explosion went off and the shockwave knocked the men to the floor killing them instantly.

The explosion shockwave also caused some barrels of oil piled up on some shelves in the next room to fall and spill it's contents, as it did, it hit some lights and the heat caused the oil to catch fire. Shadow then saw the fire appear from the corner of his eye and realised he had to get out before the place blew up.

He then ran past the dead bodies of the men and towards a door where he could see some of the planes that they used, "Bingo!" he thought, he ran even faster but then was knocked off balance as an explosion went off behind him, he rolled onto his back to see that the area behind him had blown up and the place was catching fire rapidly.

Shadow quickly jumped to his feet and ran into the plane area, as soon as he did that he leapt into the first plane he saw and started the engine, he then served the plane around and shot outside onto the runway just as the building began to explode, he had only just got up into the air when the building blew up and when up in one big mushroom cloud.

Shadow hovered the plane in the air and watched as the plane burnt up, he then began to think of all the lives who were in there. But he didn't feel any sympathy towards them, "they kept me prisoner" he snarled "kept me prisoner because they believed I murdered Molly, but I didn't, they deserved to die….all of them" he then powered the plane to fly into space so he could find his way home

End Flashback

"I only did what I did to escape and go home" he looked down at Mariah, his heart almost shattered to pieces as he saw her small serene face, she looked like she was sleeping, but he knew she wasn't.

Shadow kissed her forehead again and nuzzled her, tears still streaming down his face, Rouge sat behind him in the bed cradling Angel who was still cooing and gurgling unaware of what was going on, she knew that little Mariah was gone, and it broke her heart, even though she had given birth to Angel and her lover had returned, she was heartbroken by her daughter's death.

Awww, how tragic....poor baby Mariah....may she rest in peace (sniffle)