Chapter 5 - The Watcher

Rouge felt uneasy about her current situation as she brought herself to enter the quiet home, following close behind the dark hedgehog as he slowly made his way threw an open door to his right, leading him into the dark living room.

"Hello? Mr Edwards? Is there anyone home?" Rouge called as she took a moment to observe her surroundings, but she didn't seem to get any answer from the quiet house. The obscure hedgehog next to her remained silent as he thought. A small creek from inside the room had caught his attention. He turned his gaze towards another doorway to his left, noticing a small flash of red light and what seemed like a shadow quickly disappearing into a different room, but he shook it off as part of his imagination.

"Shadow, maybe they went out or something." The white bat spoke stating the obvious, or what she thought was obvious. Shadow stood for a moment to make shore there was nothing he had overlooked before giving a slight nod.

"Shore. I suppose." The dark hedgehog's scarlet eyes shifted as he turned his attention back the white bat.

"Then maybe most people are still in bed? I mean it is a Sunday morning." Rouge suggested as she turned herself around to face the ebony hedgehog. "You never know. There is a church about a mile down the road, maybe they decided to go?"

"Well there isn't a soul in the house…" He observed as he then turned and made his way back out the room. "…Not anymore."

Rouge wasn't quick to follow him, she wanted to look around more, but as soon as he was out of sight she felt another eerie silence fill the house and was soon making her way outside.

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She slowly turned and took a few steps from the garden path and back into the quiet street, only lighted by the faint sunlight that peered threw the heavily clouded sky. It was both calming and worrying. A small 'bleep' sound from her left pocket then caught her attention after she had finished inspecting the morning sky.

"Who is it?" Shadow questioned. He had also noticed the high pitched noise and had recognised it.

"How the hell should I know? I haven't answered it yet." She growled at his small spark of stupidity as she reached in and took out a small pink and black device, pushing a button and holding it to her ear. "Yeah, this is Rouge."

"Miss Rouge, for 6 hours and 27 minutes we haven't had any communication from Knuckles the echidna after he left HQ to assist you…" A voice from the other end of the line spoke clearly. Rouge nodded even though they wouldn't be able to see it. "…I understand you are safe but have you any idea of the whereabouts of Agent Knuckles?"

Curiosity about the current question almost surprised her, she remained silent for a brief moment until it got the better of her and she decided that she had to find out what it was about.

"What are you saying? I haven't seen Knux since Dr. Eggman's robot attack weeks ago."

Shadow almost laughed at the mention of the doctor's name, but he managed to pull himself together before he did so. "The doctor, eh? Haven't seen him in a while." he whispered to himself, Rouge's satellite-like ears able to over hear him. Rouge didn't think that he knew who the doctor was, but then again, he wasn't the most unpopular of people, with over twenty world domination attempts in each of the seven different contents around Mobius in the last year, he was quite famous for his failed attempts of ruling Mobius.

Rouge continued to chatter along with the person on the other end of the Small phone as Shadow's mind wondered. Slowly turning his head as he was about to walk off into a different direction from the house when something in the attic window caught his eye. Two small red orbs belonging to a vague appearance of a figure that stood almost hidden behind the dusty glass, soon turning itself away and disappeared back into the attic. Shadow's eyes narrowed to the dull room. "What.. Was that?" He growled under his breath as he tried to match it to any explanations he could think up.

Rouge sighed and slipped the device back into her confinement of her pocket, too focused on her current call to keep herself aware of Shadow or her surroundings.

"I didn't think you would know the Doctor." She smiled as she quickly moved herself to the hedgehog's side, distracting his deep thinking.

"Trust me, it's a long story." The ebony hedgehog took a moment to allow his gaze explore the other few windows of each house, the smell of rain played with his senses as he shook it off and began walking away. "Its going to rain, we should leave." Rouge simply nodded and followed, still having a weird feeling in the back of her mind.

"Hey Shad, have you gotten that feeling where it's like someone or something is watching you?" Rouge indicated as she observed the houses, the strange feeling of eyes in every window starting to creep her out, slowly drifting her gaze to the dark hedgehog. She felt she wasn't the only one getting bad vibes from the over quiet street as she realised Shadow seemed a lot more to himself than he had been since she met him.

"Yeah.." being his only response. He had always seemed to be the down to earth type so Rouge just shook it off as the same feeling. It wasn't mainly that it was so quiet, it was rather peaceful like that, it was more or less the feeling that something bad was about to happen to them that worried Rouge.

"Be on your guard." Shadow commanded as Rouge nodded. It seemed something strange for him to say, his words only conformed his fears that something bad may happen.

"Got it." Rouge was going to add something else but not before the ebony hedgehog spoke again.

"We should get you inside before it rains again." he continued as he began to walk towards her home. Rouge didn't know weather to be serious or to try and lighten him up a little. She didn't want to go anywhere if it was going to rain, she didn't want him to go anywhere on his own either.

"Just as long as you stay with me. I don't want to be on my own." Rouge requested. Shadow shook his head faintly.

"Shore, what ever. You should go on and finish what ever errands you need too." Rouge didn't want to argue. All she could do for now is settle for a long sigh and admit defeat for now, as she knew he was stubborn, almost reminding her of a certain red echidna. Following a few feet behind the sable hedgehog as he continued, when a small thought was triggered in her mind.

"Shadow, would you know a 'Sonic the hedgehog' by any chance?" The white bat's curiosity got no answer as Shadow pondered for a moment. This was a question that she wanted answered from the first day she saw him, outside the bar with Cassandra.

"I know the name. I don't recall ever meeting him." He explained as his figure remained not facing Rouge.

"Your so alike, and yet.. So opposite. It's complicated.." That, for now, was all Rouge had to explain. Shadow understood most of what she was getting at. Sonic, being a hedgehog famous for his speed, had come up in numerous occasions where Shadow had been asked if he was related to the blue hedgehog. Even though he had never seen him, apparently they looked alike, and Rouge spotted it the first time she met the dark warrior too.

'A hedgehog with speed to match my own…' Shadow thought as small, cold drops of water began to damper his nightly black and crimson fur. '…the fastest living creature on Mobius. That will be interesting.'

Rouge ran up to her doorstep and stood awaiting Shadow to join her as he slowly made his way up to the door. "Come on, it's starting to rain." She complained with a slight wine as she opened the door and stepped inside, soon followed by the obscure hedgehog. The bat shook her impermeable gloves free from a few small drops of water and began to saunter up the shaded stair way, taking her time to cast a glance back down at the foot of the stairs to Shadow.

"I need to finish a project report for GUN, maybe I can get some more information about that Vampire Crystal while I'm at it." She suggested. "Will you be ok down here, or would you like to come up?"

Shadow, still contemplative, nodded blankly at the question. The ivory bat stood for a moment in silence, until she emitted a long sigh. "Is that a 'Yeah, I'm fine down here on my own.' or a 'Yeah, I would love to come up and help with your report so you will have more time on your hands to research that crystal and we can get this whole damn situation sorted out and get on with our lives.'?" Rouge spoke calmly trying to get the hedgehog's attention as he shook his head back to reality.

"What?" He questioned faintly as he was distracted from his thoughts. Rouge rolled her eyes.

"You know which room is mine. If you get bored down here come upstairs." She instructed as she placed her hands firmly on her waist as Shadow again nodded, this time both understanding what he was agreeing too.

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A/N - Well.. This one was slow. I did need most help from a friend of mine seeing as I didn't think I was going to get this done with me having a weird problem with my computer (you know the one, Where it doesn't seem to save any of your work….).

So this, again was rather scruffy o.- and I was planning to have another chap done by Sunday but we shall see.