Darren looked around and saw Sally standing beside him, chaos emerald still in her hand. The dusty metal walls looked even more menacing now. "S... S... Sally, I think we should just get out of here...!" Panic was starting to set in, violently. Sally ignored him and walked over to the capsule. "Sally!" Darren's voice had gone high pitched and squeaky.

"Shh!" She put the emerald in the slot and went to the keyboard. It was so choked with dust it looked like pressing the keys would be almost impossible. "Hmm.... it's a QWERTY keyboard..." She said absently, then she flipped it over, sending up a cloud of dust, she held her breath, she'd been expecting it. Darren coughed, he hadn't. Taped on the back was something, she brushed away dust with her sleeve, five letters stood out, black, against the creamy yellow of the preserved paper. M-A-R-I-A. She typed the letters.

"Security code accepted. Initializing wakefulness." The two of them jumped, they'd thought that the computer wouldn't say anything. Thin veins of green light lit up all around the room, beneath the dust, a hidden computer hummed until the room was echoing with the sound, steam issued from ruptured pipes and soon the two of them were coughing, lung-wracking coughs which were almost painful. They heard a mechanical whirring noise then the steam cleared, Shadow stood in front of them, holding the chaos emerald, and smiling faintly at them.

"Thank you for letting me out, and not running." His head jerked up and he disappeared.

"Wh... where's he gone...?"

"I do not know who "he" is, but you are coming to Perfect Chaos for disciplinary lectures. Darren froze, cold metal was against his head, Sally's hands flew to her mouth.

"D... Darren!"

"Come with me and I shall not harm either of you... my master Perfect Chaos will."

"Only if he can get them." Suddenly the robotic sentry's neck snapped and the power core was ripped out of it's chest, Shadow stood there, he took the gun from the fallen android and helped Darren (who had collapsed from pure relief) up. "Where to now? I have never had the chance to explore Earth, so I do not know what places are safe... and who is this "Perfect Chaos" that soldier spoke of?" Sally composed herself before replying.

"Would you mind if I explained it all to you outside? Rather than in here?" Shadow shrugged.

"Lead on." He stood back and allowed them to go past him. He still held the gun in his hand, Darren felt like they had walked out of the frying pan... and into the fire.

***

Shadow looked down over the flooded city. They stood on one of the tilting roofs of what must once have been an apartment building. Sheets hung dismally from the windows, and curtains billowed. The sky looked a dark grey. "Is it night or morning?" Shadow asked no one in particular.

"Morning. At night the sky is black." Sally sat on the edge, dangling her legs over it. Darren was quite pale as he watched her. He had replied to Shadow's question.

"What caused all this?" He asked, looking at Sally. She sighed and stood (Darren almost had a panic attack, he thought she was going to fall off the building), she turned and looked at Shadow.

"You know that Perfect Chaos guy that's been mentioned? Well... he's the cause. He's a sort of god made of water, and Perfect Chaos is his most powerful form, before that it's just Chaos. Chaos was trapped in the Master Emerald, a large green gem that controls the seven chaos emeralds, but then this guy called Eggman, a.k.a. Dr. Ivo Robotnik..."

"WHAT?!" Sally sighed again.

"I know, how some power loving evil nutso is related to the brilliant Professor Gerald Robotnik I will never know. Anyway, this blue hedgehog who was really fast, his name was Sonic, tried to beat Perfect Chaos, but... he... failed. Chaos broke his leg and he blacked out from the pain, shortly after, he died. And since then, Perfect Chaos has conquered all of the planet, we all have to obey him. If he wishes one of us to jump off a cliff into the now living sea, we must do it, or be tossed in anyway, it's better to go willingly, because if not, you go through all hell before going." Sally looked down. "Our world is in a sorry state... and... we were looking for something that might allow us to go back in time and change it, so that it isn't like this, so that it's... happier." Sally looked at him. "We found you, but nothing else." Shadow smirked. Sally was confused. "What's so funny?"

"You only found me... nothing else. Very funny Sally, do you have the other six chaos emeralds?"

"Yeah, my Dad is the person who looks after them and makes sure no one else gets them."

"Well you'll have to get them."

"But... but why?!"

"I can go back in time."

"Can't you do that with only one emerald?"

"I need all seven, otherwise I can only temporarily freeze time." Sally looked at him, then shrugged.

"Alright, but if my Dad kills me for this it's your fault." Shadow looked confused.

"Why would your Dad kill you?"

"It's just... oh never mind, wait here with Shadow Darren." Darren was going to protest but Sally had already disappeared. Shadow looked at where she had been seconds before.

"Darren..." The hedgehog jumped.

"Wh... what?!" Shadow shook his head.

"I only wanted to ask if she always does stuff like this." Darren calmed down slightly.

"She does, she likes annoying her dad." Shadow stared at Darren, then shrugged. It was really none of his business.

***

Sally arrived, panting. "You'd better hurry up with this, my Dad's hot on my tail, come on come on come on! Make haste Shadow!" She tossed the other six emeralds to Shadow, who caught them. He nodded and quickly turned super. They heard yelling far off. "Goodbye Shadow! Good luck!" Darren shook Shadow's hand, then Shadow rose in the air and gathered the energy to him, the chaos emeralds whirled around him in a blur.

"Chaos....... CONTROL!" He disappeared in a flash of golden light.

Present day, Mobius

Sonic darted around the race track, grinning, the speed was good, but there was not enough. He sped up even more and broke the sound barrier, whizzing around so fast that he lest a dent in the track. He screeched to a halt (setting the dent on fire), when Tails called him. "What is it li'l bro?"

"Knuckles has called us over to the island."

Knuckles went around, wishing Rouge hadn't forced him to call everyone for a picnic.... especially on Angel Island. He sighed. She'd even had the nerve to leave and tell him to set up everything while she went and collected a few things. He frowned, some jewel owners were going to be very angry very soon. He heard a noise, and a light flashed behind him. He turned. There on the ground lay a black hedgehog with red stripes, his eyes were closed, and his fur looked like it's colour of black was deepening... something had made it brighter. Even more puzzling to Knuckles was the fact that dust lay around the hedgehog in an oval, multicoloured dust. For safety, Knuckles picked the hedgehog up and took him to his house, then shut him in one of the rooms, locking the window and door. And then making sure the window wouldn't break under force by punching it, it didn't. Knuckles smirked, at least buying bullet proof windows had some advantages... maybe Rouge would get a sprained ankle trying to break into the house, but that was too much to hope for.

Tails was surprised when he received another call. He opened it and Knuckles face appeared on the screen. "Oh Knuckles! We're still on our way, I'm just fixing up the Tornado so we can use it." Knuckles looked at Tails strangely, then fixed his face and said.

"Something weird happened." Sonic appeared immediately.

"Weird like what?"

"Weird like, a hedgehog appeared on my island." Sonic grinned.

"Do we know the hedgehog?"

"It's not Amy, and it's a guy... I've never seen him before."

"I wonder where he's from.... hurry up Tails! We've gotta see this!" So Tails hurried as best he could, and they were on their way.

Rouge yawned and looked down at the jewels in her hand, smiling. "And now to place you somewhere safe." She opened a vault (that was unsurprisingly jam packed with jewels) and stored the new jewels in with them. "See you beauties later." Her phone rang. She answered. "Oh, hey Knuckie. Missing me?" Knuckles growled.

"Nothing of the sort, something weird happened."

"The Master Emerald told you to marry me?" Knuckles went purple in his rage, yelling for a full twenty minutes, Rouge amused herself by watching this then said. "You know you're getting saliva on the screen don't you." Knuckles glared at her then said.

"A hedgehog appeared on my island."

"Amy or Sonic?"

"NEITHER!" Yelled Knuckles. Rouge grinned, how she loved moments like these...

"Then what Knuckie?" Knuckles composed himself with some difficulty.

"A black hedgehog, and he's got red stripes..." Knuckles described the rest of the scene.

"That dust might have been jewels..." Rouge mused.

"DO YOU THINK OF NOTHING BUT JEWELS?!" But Rouge ignored that.

"Seven colours...... maybe chaos emeralds?"

"But those are safe with the gang!" Rouge ignored the fact that he'd meant everyone in the gang except her, she grinned though, she could get one at any time if she wanted.

"Maybe this hedgehog of yours is a time traveler Knuckles, and his emeralds weren't needed in this time, who'd need fourteen chaos emeralds? So they pretty much dissolved." Knuckles looked at her like she was crazy, not knowing how close to the truth she was.

The present, Knuckles' house

Shadow woke up with a start, he looked around. He was in a room... a bedroom from the looks of it. Though it didn't feel like it. One bed, a bedside table, and a lamp. And all of it plain. He looked out the window, trying to open it, he found he couldn't, he smiled wryly, he hadn't expected it to be unlocked. He sat on the bed with a sigh. Pretty much back where he'd started. Sure he wasn't in a capsule, and sure he wasn't comatose, but he was caught again... trapped, you might say. He heard a noise, his ear twitched. Voices were coming his way, he lay back on the bed in the position he'd woken up in, and pretended to be unconscious. "So that's him?"

"Yeah."

"So where exactly did you find him?"

"Near the emerald altar."

"Wonder what his name is?"

"What could that multicoloured dust have been?"

"Is he awake?"

"Is he faking?" From the variation of the voices, he guessed he was being viewed by turns, there must be a spyhole for the door. Either that or... Shadow strained and heard the faint swish of air as the door opened and closed. Then he heard one of them step in. He smiled inwardly.

"Sonic I don't think that's advisable..."

"So what? You're a worrier Knuxs, I can handle it. And besides... I'm probably much faster than he is."

"Think again." Shadow whizzed up and out of the door before Sonic could blink, the blue hedgehog stood there with his mouth open for five seconds, then whizzed after Shadow. Shadow got out of the mansion and flipped up onto the roof before Sonic came out. Shadow quickly scaled down the other side of the building and zoomed off into the woods, he heard Sonic coming after him. He smiled slightly. At least the hedgehog had some intelligence... He was taken completely by surprise when Sonic tackled him into the ground.

"Alright are you going to come back or will I have to make you?" Shadow growled slightly.

"When Sally told me about that battle I felt almost sorry for you... now I wonder how I ever could have."

"Which battle was it?" Asked Sonic, Shadow just glared at him, he needn't give Sonic any hints about his fate.

"This almost makes me not want to help you..."

"If you want to help me why don't you come back and meet my friends first?"

"She never said anything about working with you, only making sure you don't get killed in your next battle." Sonic looked confused.

"Who said?"

"Sally." Sonic looked uncertain.

"What does this Sally look like?"

"She's a human girl, now get off me.... or I'll make you!" Sonic laughed.

"You might be as fast as me but I don't think you can throw me."

"Just watch me." Shadow kicked up and tossed Sonic, yelling, into the air. Then he stood and was going to run when a strong arm wrapped around his neck.

"Stay right where you are hedgehog." Shadow stood still. Sonic smiled at Shadow.

"Thanks Knuxs, and what's your name then... we haven't been introduced properly. I'm Sonic."

"So I've heard." Said Shadow coldly. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Okay... will you answer my question?"

"No." Sonic sighed.

"Come on then buddy..."

"I'm not so sure we should let go of him Sonic... first of all, we have no idea who he is, where he comes from, or anything else. And second... what the hell is he here for?! Without knowing that, and letting him go, we could be putting ourselves in danger!"

"Says you." Knuckles sighed, but didn't lower his arm from Shadow's neck.

"If you'll submit to getting chained, I'd be a little easier in my mind." Shadow's eye twitched, chained? If they were trying to get slaves, they wouldn't be so openly saying that.... but.... would they lock him up and by doing so make him lose the chance to change the past, or rather, present, according to what Sally wanted? Sonic looked at him. Shadow felt Knuckles waiting for the answer too. He sighed and lowered his head. "Thank you." Said Knuckles, letting go of him and grabbing his arm instead, leading him back towards the house... and chains.

Whoa.... this is totally unexpected... I guess that when I said it was a rewrite, my subconscious mind took me seriously......

Disclaimer: I thought you were too much of an idiot for it to ever take you seriously though.

.............

Disclaimer: What? Have I offended?

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! *whacks Disclaimer with baseball bat* Anyhow, you know who belongs to who, Sally and Darren belong to me. ^_^ And so does the story, but the settings (mostly) and the characters all belong to SEGA..... it's a crying shame, but true. :(

Disclaimer: Ow........

R&R and tell me what you think of the rewrite! :D