CHAPTER 20

THE ROOM

Later the next day at the G.U.N. facility, Gin was pacing around his small office aimlessly. He seemed very anxious and had a lot on his mind.

Lien-Da was sitting on his desk with her legs crossed watching him pace around the room. She then saw him standing in front of a wall full off pictures.

As he stared at the pictures, it seemed as though he was caught in a daze.

"So…", she spoke. "…Things have been pretty quiet around here huh?"

Gin fixed his eyes on a picture of him appearing to be around his twenties at the time. He was standing next to a male gray mongoose who appeared to be in his late thirties. The two were both wearing military uniforms. A sad look had appeared in his eyes as he looked at how happy he was in the picture. "Yes", he spoke dully. "It has been."

She had noticed that he was staring at the picture of him and G.U.N's first commander. She figured he was caught remembering the times he had shared with the commander. "Remembering old times?"

He made a small nod, "…Yeah." He looked away from the photo and turned to her with a small smile. "Too bad the old commanders were lunatics."

The echidna let out a small chuckle. "Good thing we're not insane huh?"

"Hmm, I don't know." He walked behind his desk and sat down in his desk chair. "You tell me, Lien-Da."

She paused and gave the fox a confused look. "…What?"

He leaned against the surface of his desk and made sure to look into her eyes as he spoke to her. "You must think I'm stupid huh?"

She remained silent as she tried to figure out what he was talking about.

A teasing smile appeared on his face. "…You and that hedgehog are fucking around aren't you?"

Her heart skipped a beat as those words slipped from his lips. She had wondered how he could have possibly known about her and Shadow's secret affair. "…How did you know?"

"It doesn't take forty fucking minutes to check if he was okay from that petty gunshot wound."

She bit her lip as she knew that apparently the time they spent together that day in the office was obviously too long. "…Crap…"

"Besides after when I talked to you later that day, you were practically glowing. It was a sure sign you had gotten laid."

A small blush formed on her face in embarrassment. "It wasn't that obvious…"

"Lien-Da, come on! You and I both know you haven't gotten any in years!"

Suddenly a bitter look had appeared on her face. "Oh? And getting raped by Fakir doesn't count?"

He slowly shifted his eyes away from her when he found out that he had suddenly upset her. Apparently, he had brought up bad memories for her. He had known about Fakir's constant sexual assaults against her and it killed him from the inside that he did nothing to help her when he clearly knew what was going on. He was more closer to Itsuki than he was to Fakir because Fakir was mentally insane and he always had felt uncomfortable around him. He thought she had hated him from not being there for her. Til this day, he still didn't know if Lien-Da still carried that grudge against him. "…I'm sorry if I…"

She shook her head slowly and sighed sadly. "…No, it's all right. Just…forget about it."

After when he had brought up that horrible memory from her past, he wanted to quickly change the subject. "…So do you…love him?"

"Who?…Shadow?"

He made a small nod.

A sarcastic chuckle escaped her as she crossed her arms and looked away from him so he couldn't see her facial expressions. "To be honest, I don't know what love feels like anymore…"

Gin had then made a sympathetic look and looked down at his desk. He wanted to hate himself. Every little thing he said to her had backfired it seemed. No matter what he said, it seemed to always get to her. He knew more about Lien-Da than anyone else in the military and he knew that she had lived a rough life.

"I've been alone for so long, I forgot what it means to have someone in your life who actually gives a fuck about you."

"…Lien-Da…", he spoke in a saddened tone.

She slowly turned to him and gave him her full attention.

"Don't ever think that you're alone. We're friends remember? Friends look out for each other no matter what happens. Right?" He spoke with a warm smile.

After hearing his kind words towards her, a gently smile slowly formed on her lips. "…Right…"

Meanwhile, Shadow was walking down the crowded sidewalk of the city. He was on his way to the military facility. His hands shook nervously as all kind of thoughts were rushing through his head. He kept remembering bits and pieces of his talk with Espio the previous day. After finally sitting down and talking to someone about his situation with Lien-Da, he felt like he knew what he had to do to make things right between him and Rouge again. He suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw a white bat woman walking towards his direction. When her attention was directed to him, his heart raced. "R-Rouge?" He called nervously.

The bat woman froze in her tracks as well and glared into the hedgehog's eyes.

There was a long and awkward silence between the two as other people walked around the two who seemed to be frozen in time.

Before he could say anything else to her, he saw her beginning to walk back in the direction from where she had came.

"…Oh hell no", she muttered coldly as she turned away from him.

His eyes widened when he saw her walking away from him. "Rouge!" He began to walk after her, "Rouge, wait!"

She rolled her eyes in annoyance as she kept angrily walking away from him. "Go to hell, Shadow!"

He noticed as she kept walking, she didn't dare look back at him, however that didn't stop him from following her. "Rouge, please!" He begged, "Just hear me out!"

She sighed heavily and decided to listen to what he had to say to her while she kept walking. "…Fine. Speak."

It aggravated him that she didn't bother to stop walking and still didn't turn to face him to see how sorry he was. "Rouge, I'm sorry about this…all of this. I was just so stressed out and confused. I just lost sight of what was really important in my life and that's you." He noticed that she didn't say a word to him and kept walking.

"I know I've been an asshole but now I know I'm in the wrong and I'm going to fix that."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"…Not only am I going to break it off with Lien-Da but I'm leaving G.U.N. as well."

Her eyes widened in shock after hearing his unexpected decision. She stopped in her tracks and spun around to face him. "…You're going to quit, G.U.N?"

He had nodded as a reply.

She placed her hand on her forehead in disbelief. "So you think everything is going to be okay if you leave G.U.N? You think everything will be back to where it once was?"

He had noticed that the tone of her voice was getting higher and higher.

"Shadow, have you not learned anything? The thing that damaged our relationship was the whole trust issue. Just because you're so called done with Lien-Da, it doesn't mean you'll go out and cheat again."

He saw her step closer to him while giving him a hateful look.

"You broke my heart, Shadow. How can I ever bring myself to give you another chance and open myself back up to you?"

His eyes shifted from hers as he had remained silent.

"…I need some time to think so for now…goodbye, Shadow."

Speechless, he watched her storm her way away from him.

Much later in the conference room at the facility, Lien-Da and Gin were sitting together at the end of a huge table.

They both directed their attention to the black and red hedgehog standing at the other end of the table. Judging by his expression, it seemed that a lot was going on in his mind.

"Well", Gin spoke. "We're all here and accounted for. What was so important that you wanted to see us here, Shadow?"

"Yeah", Lien-Da added. "What's up?"

The hedgehog sighed heavily as he reached inside of his coat pocket and took out his badge.

In confusion, Gin and Lien-Da watched as he set the badge down on the surface of the table in front of him.

"I called you both in here to tell you that I'm resigning my position as third lieutenant."

The room was filled with an awkward silence when Shadow had revealed the shocking news to the two lieutenants.

After going under shock from Shadow's announcement, Gin finally spoke up. "…Resigning? Shadow, I'm…lost for words here. What made you want to make such a decision? You were doing an excellent job."

"…I know but I have my reasons." His eyes glanced over to Lien-Da who looked like she had a broken heart. "…Personal reasons…"

Judging how Shadow and Lien-Da were exchanging looks towards each other, he figured him quitting had something to do with his secret affair with her. However, he tried to make it seem like he didn't have the slightest idea why he was leaving. He shook his head slowly, "I don't understand your reason for quitting but you clearly made your decision and I can't stop you from what you want to do." He stood from his chair, walked over to Shadow, and shook his hand. "It's been a pleasure working with you, Shadow."

He made a small nod and slowly took his hand from his. "Yeah…" He suddenly heard Lien-Da speak out to him.

"We'll miss you, Shadow."

He looked over to her still sitting in her chair having a hurtful expression on her face. He admitted that he wanted to tell her that was sorry for all the things he's said and done to her. He wanted to tell her to her face that he never meant to hurt her, but he couldn't. He knew if he told her, it would be more painful for her. He just decided that simply leaving was for the best. He looked away from her and left the room without saying another word to either of them.

After when he had left, Gin slowly turned to Lien-Da who bit her lip and had her eyes looking in another direction. He could tell just by looking at her that she was hurt. Shadow had apparently quit working for G.U.N. simply to never see Lien-Da again. It hurt him to see her so upset because she had lost the only man she was close with in a long time. "…Lien-Da…"

She shook her head slowly and never directed her full attention to him. "Gin, we should just…go…"

The white fox paused for a moment and then made a small nod.

Meanwhile, Shadow stormed down the empty halls of the facility. There wasn't a moment to spare. He had just officially quit G.U.N. and cut off any other connections he had with Lien-Da. Now all he had to do was leave the facility and confront Rouge about the entire thing once again. He took a deep breath as he walked throughout the white halls. 'It was the right thing to do. I'm sorry, Lien-Da…' He suddenly stopped in his tracks when he heard Trevor's voice calling his name and footsteps running behind him.

"Lieutenant Shadow!"

The hedgehog quickly spun around and turned to a male yellow lion who ran up to him out of breath. Just by looking at his expression, he appeared to be full of panic. "Trevor?"

"Thank God I found you! We have a problem!"

As much as he wanted to help him, he knew he couldn't. He was no longer a lieutenant so he figured there was nothing he could do anyway. "Trevor, listen I…"

He placed his hand on his arm as he begged. "Please, sir! You have to come with me! Quickly!"

The hedgehog paused for a small moment thinking if he really wanted to see what was upsetting Trevor. He took a deep breath before replying back to him. "…What's wrong?"

Moments later, Trevor led him through the empty weaponry room and to the strange metal door that allowed no one in except Gin or Lien-Da.

Shadow rose an eyebrow as he stared at the 'No Trespassing' sign . "What are we doing here? You know we're not allowed in there."

"I know", he spoke as his hand fell on the cold metal handle of the door. "But you just need to see this."

He saw him take out Gin's ID badge and hold it in front of a red light that was a little below the door handle. He had wondered how he had gotten Gin's badge. He figured Trevor probably had took it from Gin while he wasn't looking. As soon as the red light turned green, Shadow watched as Trevor slowly flung the door open. When he peeked his head into the room, he saw huge white lights being directed onto huge cells that were setting side by side and lined up across from each other. As he and Trevor walked into the room, Shadow studied what was inside of the room.

The room had looked like it used to be a place to temporarily hold criminals or suspects. Perhaps it was an old prison room. He studied the room more and saw some lab equipment being set on a huge metal table in the center of the room. He looked harder on the table and saw bloody tools and different parts of organs being placed in containers and test tubes. There were even different parts of the body such as arms, legs, and other parts being scattered all over the table. A disgusted look was shown on his face as he stared at the disturbing things that was placed all over the table. "…What the hell is this?"

When he placed his back against one of the cells, he suddenly felt something shake the metal bars of the cell. Startled, he jumped away from the cell and spun around to see what was in it. He and Trevor directed their attention to a brown creature with sharp fangs, claws, a long slender tail, and piercing red eyes. Shadow couldn't believe what he was looking at. "…Holy shit…it's an…Almas…"

Trevor nervously looked around the room and saw more of the creatures that were placed in the rest of the cells. "They're everywhere…"

As Shadow looked at all of the creatures that were placed in the rest of the cells, he had noticed some of them were wearing tattered remains of a G.U.N. uniform. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. "My God…these Almas used to be G.U.N. soldiers…"

Tears started to swell in Trevor's eyes, "What? These…things used to be people?" His hands started to shake nervously, "Oh my God! Oh my fucking God!"

Shadow gritted his teeth in uprising anger. "I knew it", he murmured. "I knew something was wrong with this place!"

Trevor looked over to the angered hedgehog. "Lieutenant Shadow?"

"…We have to go!"

He made a nod and agreed with him.

Before the two could leave the horrifying room, they turned and saw Gin standing at the doorway with a handgun pointed at the side of Sierra's head.

"You're not going anywhere…"

Shadow growled at the sight of the white fox. "…Gin…"

Trevor's eyes widened in horror as he saw Sierra's terrified face. "Sierra!"

Tears streamed down the cat woman's face. "Lieutenant Shadow, what's going on?" She asked in a frightened voice.

Before any of them could do anything, Trevor suddenly saw Shadow fall to the floor and was knocked unconscious. "Lieutenant Shadow!" When he spun around, he turned to a red echidna woman who had a handgun in her hand. "Lieutenant Lien-Da?"

An evil smirk formed on her face as she stepped closer to Trevor.

Terrified, Trevor's entire body froze. He looked up at the echidna in shock. He saw her raise the end of her handgun up at him.

"Sorry, Trevor."

He shut his eyes and suddenly everything had went black.

In The Next Chapter...

Rouge: I'm really glad I came here, Julie. I needed to get away from Tech City for at least a little while.

Julie-Su: What happened?

Rouge:...Shadow cheated on me with some military skank by the name of Lien-Da. Maybe you've heard of her?

Julie-Su:...Lien-Da? Did you say Lien-Da?