Hey guys! Thanks for your support and reviews, it gave me a lot to think about, unfortunately I haven't gotten a lot of sleep because of it. So I guess I'll be a bit off on some details. When you've only gotten about... five hours of sleep each night, it sorta has a effect on you. Anyways, I digress. Hope you guys enjoy this next chapter to Family Matters and please tell me what you guys think.

Disclaimer: Dark-Illusion-Detective does not own any of the Sonic Characters nor does she own Sega. She does however own her usual OCs mentioned in the story so far. Like... Sinister the Hedgehog, Spades the Cat... um... Toxin the Hedgehog is a new one too!

Me: Enough!

Disclaimer: ...Now you wonder why sleep is important...

Presenting Chapter Five!

Chapter Five: Crossing Lines Part One

It seemed like torture, almost like Fate knew that I would meet someone as stubborn as me. For five hours straight, Spades and myself had done nothing but argue. The topic that started it? The handcuffs that kept us together.

Originally, Spades had figured out that I was the Angel of Death's apprentice when I explained to him who the two people that he had eavesdropped on were, how they were demons bent on killing me and anyone around me. Spades, like anyone else would think that I could do anything; even remove a pair of handcuffs from our wrists. That's when the opposite happened.

"What!? You can't remove these?!"

"That's right."

"What the hell!! You're the Angel of Death's apprentice! Can't you do something as simple as remove handcuffs??" Spades questioned me in an angered tone. I couldn't blame him. I killed people for a living, erm... used to, and I couldn't do something as simple as remove handcuffs. The worse part was I had no idea why I couldn't.

That was the spark that led to a wildfire between us; everything from our opinions and other ideas that came to our minds were always shot down from the sky as though a hunter was shooting birds out of the sky. The very idea of that gave me shivers and I knew that Spades wouldn't shut up unless we took a break. The first one in five hours.

"We're stopping-"

"No we're going to keep going until we reach the halfway mark," Spades said as he kept pulling me along.

"Sorry to burst your bubble there but we've passed the halfway mark about... three and a half hours ago."

Spades stopped and glared at me, "you mean to tell me we've been travelling for the past few hours for nothing?!"

I felt scared that he would attack me, but I pushed my fear aside as I nodded. He glared at me, but what separated this glare from the previous one was this one was laced with poison and armed with daggers. Shivers shot up my spine as I dragged him back, "come on. We won't get anywhere if you yell at me for making such a dumb mistake."

"But-"

"Argue with me and I'll make sure your name gets added to the Death List."

--- A little while later ---

As the fire flickered with very little life, I felt that the flames mimicked what would become of me if anything were to happen to my friends. That as they vanished from my sight that I would soon grow weak until I would die out. That was what the flame did as Spades was sleeping against a tree.

I was suppose to wake him up over two hours ago, but a part of me told me to let him sleep. He would need it if we ever got attacked.

As the smoke rose from the pile of burnt wood, I could feel irritation and anger threatening to make me scream or to cry. To argue with someone for a long time does that to you, but it wasn't what made that urge stronger than usual; it was the fact that no one was around to tell me things were going to be better and that we'd get this thing sorted out.

"Angel..." I thought sadly until I looked at Spades. "... He looks so peaceful. Perhaps because even though he acts all tough, he's still a little kid inside, a child that still has the essence of innocence?"

The thought instantly perished as I considered him being a child on the inside. It was an impossible statement that I would never be able to prove true.

SNAP

My ears twitched as the loud sound echoed through the forest Spades and I were in. Fear suddenly ran through my veins as though it was my own blood, but the last time I checked, my blood wasn't ice cold, it never burned me before... it seemed almost inhumane to feel as scared as I did.

"What'd you do?" Spades muttered, earning me to squeal in fright. His eyes were suddenly alert, prepared to lock onto anything. But his red specked eyes locked onto me and for a moment I thought he was going to yell at me, to tell me that I was overreacting.

"I-I d-d-"

My voice was lost in the possibilities as to what caused the snap. What made my voice disappear completely from my voice box was when he said, "don't be so scared. It's just a forest after all. Wanna keep travelling now? Or do you need some rest?"

He sounded more careful with his choice of words, even more thoughtful as he studied me for any signs of weariness, any signs that I would collapse from exhaustion. He got up and I felt a bit strange, why would he not call me a scaredy hedgehog or something weird like that when it was apparent that maybe I was overreacting?

"L-Lets keep moving," I quickly replied as he helped me up to my feet. He adjusted his top hat and he started to lead the way. Unfortunately, I was dragged right along to which ever direction he was going in.

It wasn't until a while later that we realized that we had been going around in circles.

"Did you sleep too long? We took another wrong turn!"

"Look who's talking! You didn't get any sleep and you're just as worse as I am with directions!"

"At least I can tell we've been going around in circles."

"Okay miss "I'm so much better than you" why didn't you tell me that the first time around?" he asked me with a bitter tone.

I frowned, "no reason."

"What is this to you? A game?"

"M-"

SNAAP!! CRACK!

The word that wanted to come out of my mouth vanished without a trace as both Spades and myself looked around. Of course the only thing we'd see would be trees and dark green grass.

"Who's there?!" Spades yelled as he took out a playing card from his hat, "I have a card and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Oh wow a card. What do you think they are? Wimps?"

He cast me a dark glare and it wasn't until the light spear nearly hit Spades that the glare disappeared. He yelped and started to try and run away. I sighed but looking at where the spear hit I felt as though the energy used to making that was very familiar.

"Chaos energy? Here? By who?"

"Chaos Spear!"

I shoved Spades to the ground and I went down with him as several spears flew past our heads and slammed into the trees. Spades looked at me with a furious glance.

"Are you crazy!?"

"Who just saved your life!?"

"Argumentive aren't you?" a voice asked us. We looked up and we saw a black hedgehog with red streaks. My heart froze when my eyes locked with the pure red ones that belonged to my ancestor, Shadow.

"Sh-Shadow..."

The hedgehog didn't look happy to see us, nor did he look angry to see me; after all, the Maria incident still haunted him, I knew that and it haunted me since I was the one who had to take her away from him. Fear rose in my heart again, causing my heart to nearly stop. But instead of being met with chaos spears directed at us, we were met with Shadow's gloved hands.

"Come on."

We each took a hand and were pulled to our feet. My heart didn't stop beating but it didn't slow down either.

"You're Sinister right?"

I nodded and waited for the well deserved chaos spear that was going to kill me. But no pain came, and darkness didn't engulf me; a sure fire sign that I was still alive. He turned around and started to walk. Spades and myself looked at each other before Shadow called out, "COME ON!"

We jumped half a mile in the air before running to catch up with him.

--- Toward the End of the Forest ---

I've seen horrible things in the past, but what I had never been prepared to see was a clear meadow that usually would be thriving with bright green grass, pink and violet flowers that were just in bloom, and massive trees that would be ready to show off their new leaves; destroyed by the rise of toxic debris that rose from several pieces of metal that were scattered along the meadow. Anger replaced fear and I felt myself clench my hands into fists.

"Where are we... Shadow was it?"

Shadow looked at Spades and replied, "I honestly don't know."

"How did you find us?"

"I followed you. Sonic wanted to make sure you were okay and he didn't know where you were. I went to get you out but I saw you guys escaping so I followed you."

"So... if you don't know where we are then why-"

He motioned us to be quiet and I felt myself zip my lips shut. Shadow led us toward the awful smell and for a minute I thought I would pass out just by taking one smell of the place. Spades held his nose with his hand that wasn't handcuffed which I had to do as well.

The place held a dangerous aura as I recognized what the metal pieces were. They belonged to one of the sections of the Space Colony ARC... but just giving you that much information wouldn't mean much, so to be more specific... it was from the section where Maria was killed. Shadow seemed to recognize that as well as we stopped.

"Why are we here?" I found myself asking, my voice quivering.

Turning slowly and facing me I felt like screaming, for the hedgehog in front of us wasn't Shadow, wasn't my ancestor at all, but Rogue. He smiled and as he did we saw the once pure white fangs that had red on them. Spades grabbed another card from his hat and I started to run, along with Spades.

"Why aren't you attacking him?!"

"Are you kidding? Even an apprentice knows when not to attack! This is one of those times!" I yelled my response as we kept running. That's when I realized something dangerous. By running, we'd have to breathe the toxic scent in the air, causing us to go unconscious... or worse; but if we didn't run, Rogue was sure to kill us.

"Spades!" my mind screamed as I put the hand that covered my nose over Spades' mouth.

"MPHH!!!"

"You'll thank me later."

We were running as fast as we could and I could see a long fence of barbed wire just ahead of us. Where were we? What was going to happen to us? Just as a huge explosion occured right behind us, I realized something strange. Time was moving too fast. Angel would have controlled it so it went normally, but the faster this incident was over with, the better.

Spades sped past me, dragging me with a new force I didn't think he was capable of. He jumped over the barbed wire fence and I barely made it over without getting a cut. He threw more cards back.

"What are you-"

"GET DOWN!" he yelled quickly as he pulled me to the ground and suddenly the playing cards that seemed harmless, deceived me as they were engulfed in vivid orange flames that caused a loud boom to be heard. An explosion.

I felt myself being blown back and I remember hitting a tree. Time was going faster than it was before, and I could feel the effect as my mind raced too fast for me to comprehend! Before I knew what was going on, I felt myself running along side Spades and that's when I realized that he no longer had his nose or mouth covered, but helped me keep my hand over my own nose and mouth.

"Is he insane!? He'll die if he inhales too much of that!"

"Chaos Spear!"

"WAH!"

Spades and I jumped over the black hedgehog whose red eyes were lit with anger. That's when I realized that this wasn't Rogue, but this was the actual Shadow the hedgehog. My heart sped up and we both darted away as fast as possible.

BANG!

We fell to the ground as bullets flew over our heads. We looked to see what appeared to be a hedgehog... well until we saw one off detail.

"What on Mobius? I know that's a hedgehog... but... it's... furry... fuzzy... no spikes..."

"Back away from these two. Now."

"You dare interfere with my problems?" Shadow asked as he glowed, preparing for a chaos blast.

Spades looked at Shadow and then looked at me to see me shivering.

"Are you cold?"

"N-no..." I gasped. I felt horrible, almost like my lungs were being frozen solid. The hedgehog seemed to see me gasping and she looked at Spades.

"Cover your mouth."

Spades did quickly but seemed scared to see me gasping like I was. To be honest, I couldn't tell if I was breathing still or if I had stopped. It scared me that I was in a life or death situation.

Shadow charged up, "Chaos-"

"Toxic Hold!"

Two objects flew over us and landed near Shadow, catching him off guard. He stopped and suddenly we all were blown away as the objects turned out to be grenades, and we were hit.

The world vanished under a blanket of darkness, and the scent of toxic fumes wrapped me in a suffocating, death grip. I know something happened because my thoughts slowed down dramatically until everything stopped. There was no wind.

I opened my eyes and saw the hedgehog patching me up and saw Spades rubbing his head. He looked at me and questioned, "what did you do?"

"Huh?"

The hedgehog looked at me with a pair of gold eyes and I felt myself pay attention to my surroundings more. There was no wind, in fact it seemed like the world was stuck in the hour of twilight.

"Who are you?"

"Toxin the Hedgehog. Sinister and Spades I pressume?"

"Erm..." I stood up quickly and got my scythe out, "you're working against u-"

I fell to my knees and gasped even more than I had during the whole "oh my chaos, Shadow's going to kill us" incident. Toxin seemed worried.

"Don't move."

I did just as she said until I found out that no thoughts were running through my mind. Well one thing was... but when I heard it, it seemed impossible.

A tear fell onto the darkened grass as the sky didn't move into the full nighttime scene.

"Sinister, if you can hear me... listen carefully. We lost Angel. Angel is gone."

---

Hey guys! Thanks for reading. Listen, I know it's fast paced, and it's suppose to be for a reason. Also I know it's a bit strange how Toxin appeared but that'll be explained in the next part for this chapter. Until then though, I hope you guys enjoyed...