(A/N: Hello peoples! Love the reviews, and its time I gave a shout out to one of my reviewers, galeforcewinds12, one of my bestest friends and good reviewers. I gotta thank you for the support you've showed me, and all the peoples reading my story will like hers, The Lost Emerald! Hope you like this chappie!)

Chapter 16: Emerald out of Reach

My swatch sounded the alarm, fifteen to three. Me and Nika had sat by the lake all day and talked about Shadow, Nika was dumbfounded, she couldn't believe it.

"I gotta go, get it for him." I said quietly as possible. I went to stand up, but Nika tugged at my shirt.

"You better let me come." She threatened (well…as much as a super cute chao could, which is not really that much). It only made me smile.

"Fine, we're in this together." I agreed as I scooped her up and headed to the hallway that led to the stairs. We arrived in the infirmary, where we received a big surprise. Danny, Helen, Frances, Rouge, Blaze, Silver, Cream, Cheese, and Knuckles were all there, waiting in line for something. Miles was looking over Danny first with some sort of weird instrument I couldn't begin to explain. He turned to face me and Nika who were just staring at this odd operation that was taking place.

"Hey Terry, Nika, you need anything?" Miles asked curiously. I choked up, I didn't know what to say, I hadn't planned on anyone being here, but luckily Nika was prepared.

"Yeah, we just needed one of the emeralds so we could train." She stated calmly.

"well you'll have to wait for a couple hours, I am using them for some tests as you can see, but I'll tell you when I'm finished, I just need them to power my scanning tools to run some physical examinations for our friends." He explained. At that I finally snapped back to life.

"OK," I replied as composed as I could "Thanks Miles." Me and Nika left, bolting up the stairs as fast as possible, on the way up we bumped into Lina and Talia.

"Hey Terry! Are you going to train today?" Lina asked me.

"I was, but we are going to have to wait a few hours, Miles is using the emeralds for something, he said he'd tell me when he was done, so I'll find you then, OK?"

"got it! See you in a few!" she said heading back up the stairs and down the hall.

"I wonder what she is up to?" Nika thought aloud.

"No time to think, we gotta tell you know who, fast!" I said, grabbing her by the arm and heading for the entrance. I blasted out of the front door with Nika in tow, back to where I first met Gale and Crimson. Just as I thought, there they were, waiting.

"What took you so long?" Crimson yelled at me, not noticing Nika walking up to him.

"Lay off!" she said, staring him in the eye. I turned to take a look at Gale, leaning up against the boulder. He looked really drained; morphing could do that to you.

"Miles was using both emeralds, he won't be done with them for a couple hours." I explained. "What are you going to do in the meantime?" Gale sighed, and looked up at the sky the slid to the ground.

"I guess just sit here and wait." I plopped myself down next to him. Nika and Crimson seemed to be having a staring contest, each trying to stare the other into submission. I was about to interject, but Gale beat me to it.

"You two can't keep it up for two hours, so give it a rest and go explore or something." The two chao turned to us, hatred still written on their faces.

"Fine! But I won't like it!" Crimson said and ran off.

"Me neither!" Nika said, following him. I called after them

"Just don't let anyone see you!" I had to stifle a laugh. "Crazy little guys." Gale didn't seem that amused. "We should move too, if you don't want to be seen."

"Who said anything about we? I'll move, you stay here and wait for them to get back." He said, starting to leave. As he stood up, I followed

"You know, if you keep talking to me like that, I might just stop doing you little errands!" he whipped around to face me.

"If you refuse, I will…" I cut him off

"You'd what? You'd have no power, and you wouldn't be able to go around freely if you didn't want to risk being caught, so you either treat me decently or forget about staying Shadow for very long…I'll be back with the emerald later." I stormed off, leaving Gale alone. I headed to the spring on the other side of the field, and I sat there for a while, thinking about what I had just said. Why did I even agree to help him in the first place?

"I am not going to help that jerk anymore." I whispered to myself.

"Yes you will." I heard a voice say, but before I could turn around, someone covered my face with a cloth…

(A/N: YAAAY! More cliffies! I can't wait to type up the next one! R&R if you like!)