Despite the unavoidable sight of skeleton trees everywhere, just waiting for Shadow to accidentally collide into their blockade, the prince seemed to know when and how to go around and duck under anything that comes up in his way. With Princess Amy as his cargo, he bounded through the entanglement of bushes, thistles, thorns, trees, and other dangerous traps, all the while deprived of any scratch or scars. In this, Shadow had to resist looking back at the charging monster pursuing the duo, eyes darted towards them with 'annihilate' written in its pupils.

Amy's attention wasn't focused on the monster; it was his speed. Somehow, he acquired certain acceleration beyond the law of physics and her imagination. Moreover, he never even once ran into anything, nor he never slowed down. She was so scared at how fast Shadow was going, crevices coming up, branches to duck from, clinging her arms tightly around his neck, this was too much to bear. He runs as fast as Sir Sonic!

The abomination of a creature performed an unexpected trick: he disappeared into thin air. Amy looked back just in time to see the monster vanish. Scared that it might be invisible, she yelled, "Wait a minute, stop! The beast, it's gone!"

Shadow came to an abrupt stop at her discovery, glancing back also. An eyebrow raised in confusion and doubt. Where did it go? Surely it didn't-

Suddenly, the ebony hedgehog grabbed Amy's hand and led her hastily around a nearby boulder.

"Amy, you stay here. I have a feeling that damned thing can teleport itself and it's around here…"

He crept around the corner slowly, in case the creature was planning a sneak attack, until a petite hand grabbed his. Shadow turned around.

"Shadow, be careful out there." Amy spoke distressed, bothered at the idea of his badly slaughtered body lying in pieces in the aftermath of the monster's sharp teeth in her nightmarish daydream.

Shadow nodded and held her hand up to his cheek and rubbed against it in assurance. He then went forward to the open, in the eerie silence surrounding the atmosphere. So far nothing's ever jumped out or emerged…

"Look behind you!" Amy yelled out.

Sure enough, the monster appeared right behind the prince and clawed him into the ground. Amy held her breath, hoping that he would regain his senses to fight back. Shadow got up, but with a frightening presence in his physical and mental being. His eyes had gone bloodthirsty red, his scowl growing deeper with every step, hatred coursing through his veins. He smirked in the only lethal warning glance he could give it.

"So," he growled deeply, "you've come out to play."

The monster responded in a battle cry of its own, ready to kill the black hedgehog for enraging it more. It ran fast to him, but Shadow got out of the way just in time, making it run into a tree trunk. This, obviously, made it madder, the monster manically turning around to the teasing Shadow, who grimly smiles in satisfaction. He loves to intoxicate himself of other creatures' anger and vengeance.

The opponents charged at each other only that Shadow had a blade in hand and slits the monster's right wing into a voluminous gash, the veins painfully crying tears of blood in every direction at every beat of the heart. The monster screeched out in reaction to this, but continued to commit potent attacks towards the prince.

Amy knew he can't keep this up at any rate, so she gathered some large rocks, climbed up a nearby tree, and waited…waited…waited until the monster finally got Shadow under his watch, the prince unable to get up with the monster right on top of him. The panther-eagle scratched and beaten the helpless hedgehog to unconsciousness. It thought it succeeded into killing Shadow, so it proceeded to start to devour the milled prince until-

Thunk! Thunk!

The dumbfounded monstrosity looked up to see the pink girl in a tree throwing rocks of all sizes at its head.

"Take that, you ugly thing! Don't you dare hurt him, you monster!" Amy's once innocent eyes flared with dark green venom. Every effort was done purely out of abhorrence for the thing.

Fearlessly, the abomination sprang off from the ground towards the attacking princess, only to be paralyzed by a shock of electricity in its shoulder. It fell to the ground hard and it looked up to see a very fierce and infuriated hedgehog in front of it. Shadow, with his muscular strength growing stronger, roughly picked up the startled thing by its collarbone close to his fac. His eyes glowed with menacing fire and hate.

"Don't – you – -dare- go- near- her!"

His fur grew very dark scarlet in every direction. The beast stared at Amy, petrified at what Shadow was going to do. It was the last sight the monster would ever take.

"Chaos Blast!"

A strange red, radioactive like energy spread out in a mile of a radius, eliminating everything in sight. Good thing Amy went far away because she could see that the creature was lifeless. She walked back, still startled at what just happened, and saw Shadow slightly hurt. She ran toward him.

"Shadow, you're hurt!" Amy cried.

"It's nothing; I can heal well so it won't be too long." Shadow said casually.

Shadow saw Amy with her head down and held her chin up to his eye level. "You're a little fearless thing when it comes to fighting, aren't you?" He smirked to show his point. Amy blushed at this and kind of nodded. "Well, when it comes to anything I care about, it doesn't matter if I get hurt in the process to save them." The prince chuckled at this.

"What's so funny? I'm serious!" Amy retorted.

"I know it's not funny; it's just…"

He was stopped by a finger on his lips. Amy came surprisingly close to his face. A thankful, luxurious smile crept on her face.

"Thank you Shadow…for saving my life. Now I know that you are the right one for me. Confidence…everything I dreamed of in a guy. It's just that…I've never felt this way before…"

The temptation was too much for the both of them. Before having the second thought, Shadow replied back: "I only do it for the ones I care about."

The monarchs drew closer and closer to each other, finally anticipating the moment that sealed their secret newfound relationship….

Meanwhile, the impatient wizard was waiting for his monster to bring the princess in tow. What is taking that stupid thing so long? He sent that thing after her hours ago; it should've been here even minutes ago.

Eggman summoned to his crystal ball to search for the beast, only to see it mangled and beaten on the ground.

"What! How can this be?" He angrily bellowed out.

The crystal ball's mirror image answered his question: It displayed the appearance of Princess Amy and Prince Shadow locked in an embrace, engaged in an affectionate and deep kiss.

"Damn it! It's happened already! Now how am I going to kidnap her with him in the way now?" he angrily pouted.

I'm sorry I had to rush through it! If it doesn't look too good I apologize for it because I had to do something. Anyway, hope you liked it :)