CHAPTER 22

THE MOTIVATION

It was dark and it felt like everything was moving. Distant voices could be heard. The voices sounded both scared and angry.

"How could you do this, Miss Lien-Da?" A woman voice had asked while sobbing.

"You're traitors!" A male voice shouted angrily.

He peeked his eyes open slowly and looked around and found himself in a small dark room. It had looked like he was in the back of a vehicle. Perhaps a van? When he looked across from him, he saw a brown cat woman sitting while both of her wrists were held together with zip ties.

She had a terrified expression on her face as tears streamed down her face.

His body felt so weak. It was like he was losing strength by each waking moment. His eyes slowly wandered down to his wrists that were cuffed together by strange silver handcuffs that had a light blue glow coming from them. He tried to break out of them but it was no use. The cuffs wouldn't break. Just by looking at the strange cuffs, he could tell that they had something to do with why he felt so weak.

"Don't even waste the little energy you have left", a woman voice had spoke.

When he had looked up at the woman, the back of his head was throbbing with pain and he could feel some of the blood trickling from where he was hit before he got knocked unconscious. When his eyes fell on the red echidna woman wearing a G.U.N. uniform standing in front of him, anger rose up from within him. "…Lien-Da…" When he saw the look on her face, he had noticed that he had never seen that look on her face before.

She had looked different. Something about her was different. Something about her was off. It was like she had become a completely different person. She pointed down at the cuffs that were restraining the hedgehog's wrists. "Those cuffs were specially made just for you, Shadow. You may have noticed by now but they cancel out your Chaos powers and drain the strength from your body. Perhaps the way it looks maybe familiar to you?"

She was right. When he studied the cuffs once again, he had realized that they were made by the same exact technology Fakir had used on him at one point in the past. He couldn't even move his feet because his ankles were shackled to the legs of the seat he was sitting on. His eyes wandered over to the male yellow lion who was sitting beside him with his wrists being tied together by zip ties as well.

With blood running down the side of his head from where he was knocked out, he looked back at the hedgehog with a relieved expression. It made him feel somewhat more comfortable now that he knew that Shadow was finally awake. "…Lieutenant Shadow", he spoke in a low tone.

Shadow looked over to see who was driving the vehicle. He saw a white male fox wearing a G.U.N. uniform driving the van. It was no other than Gin. He spotted a small black remote control being attached to the holster on his belt. He figured it was the key to unlock the cuffs that were on his wrists. What was happening? Where were they all going?

Shadow directed his attention back to Lien-Da, "What's going on?"

Before she could reply, Trevor had angrily spoke out.

"I'll tell you what's going on! We've all been had!" Tears swelled in his eyes as he shouted angrily, "Lieutenant Gin and Lieutenant Lien-Da are traitors!"

Sierra directed her attention to the white fox. "Sir?" She called in a frightened voice. "How could you do this to us? To all of G.U.N?"

The fox paused for a moment before he replied without turning back to the group. "We never meant to hurt anyone…"

"…Bullshit…"

Gin froze as he heard Shadow's cold and angered voice.

Everyone then directed their attention at the weakened hedgehog who had his head leaning against the cold metal wall of the van. They could tell he was getting weaker and weaker by the moment as the cuffs drained him of his energy.

"Never meant to hurt anyone you say?" A sarcastic chuckle escaped him, "You're full of shit."

Gin spoke out again, "We have our reasons…"

"By experimenting on people?" Trevor asked in an angered voice.

"We're not doing this because we want to", Lien-Da spoke. "We're doing this so we can see our loved ones again."

Trevor, Sierra, and Shadow turned to Lien-Da in confusion.

"You see", Lien-Da began. "A while back Gin and I had to strike a deal with the demon lord himself, Dark Demon."

Everyone's face froze as they heard the familiar demon's name.

"No way!" Sierra spoke out in disbelief.

"Dark is one of the most dangerous and most powerful beings on Mobius!" Trevor added.

Lien-Da made a nod, "Indeed. He isn't exactly someone to take lightly."

"So", Shadow spoke. "You're killing people, turning them into Almas, and handing them over to him? Why?"

Before Lien-Da could answer, Gin had suddenly spoke.

"I know…it's awful but I had no choice…that bastard is holding my wife and daughter hostage…"

Everyone's mouth hung open as they discovered a shocking secret about Gin.

Shadow looked over to Gin who was still paying attention to his driving. '…What? Gin is…married?' He glanced over to Trevor and Sierra who were both giving each other the same shocked expressions. He had figured that not only them but most if not all the workers back at the military didn't have a clue that Gin had a family.

Gin was always so distant and mysterious towards everyone, a lot of people probably assumed that he was a loner. "…If I didn't agree to do what he wanted from me, he promised he would kill them", Gin had said.

"So he's torturing you by holding your family hostage and making you experiment on innocent people?" Trevor asked.

"And that's not even the half of it", Lien-Da had spoken.

Shadow glanced over at the echidna woman. "And what part do you play in this exactly?"

A seriously look had then formed on her face. "He promised he would help me reunite me with the one thing that has always been precious to me."

Everyone gave her a look of curiosity as she began to explain the reason why she was helping Gin work for Dark.

Lien-Da placed her hand gently on her gray necklace, "…Rutan…"

Shadow arched an eyebrow as he tried to remember where he had heard the name before. 'Rutan?' He thought, 'Isn't that her son's name?'

Lien-Da continued on. "Dark promised me that he would reunite me with him and I'm not turning this opportunity down for nothing!"

Everyone stared at her and studied her upset expression.

She then spun around to face Shadow, "So my part of the bargain was to bring you to him alive."

Shadow didn't find it surprising that Dark had wanted Lien-Da to take him to him. But he wondered what did Dark want with him. "What does he want with me?"

Lien-Da shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "Who knows? It's probably some demon thing."

Shadow knew just by the way, she had talked she had already knew he was a half demon. He was pretty sure a lot of people at G.U.N. knew about it. "If Dark wanted you to bring me to him then why are you just acting on this now?"

"Well", she began. "I could've brought you to him sooner but apparently I hesitated…"

Shadow saw her step close and kneel down in front of him. He flinched and avoided her touch as she tried to reach out and touch the side of his face. He had wished that he could do something but his hands were cuffed and he wasn't at full strength to break them.

"Maybe…just maybe…from those last couple of times we fucked each other, perhaps I was starting to feel for you…"

Sierra and Trevor gasped in shock when they had found out about Shadow and Lien-Da's secret affair.

Trevor looked over to Shadow in disappointment while Shadow was giving Lien-Da a hateful glare. "…Lieutenant Shadow?"

Sierra was practically lost for words, "…You and…Miss Lien-Da?"

Shadow saw the two giving him a silent and shameful look. "Hey! In my defense, this was before I knew she was crazy!"

While Gin was driving, he had not at all seemed surprised by the news. Everyone figured that he had already knew about it.

Shadow turned to Lien-Da full of anger. "But when I basically dumped your ass, you got butt hurt? Tough shit! You manipulated me and made me wreck my relationship with my girlfriend!"

"You can blame it on me all you like but we both know that you could've said no and kept your dick in your pants!" She yelled angrily.

"No! You purposely tore me away from Rouge! Because you were fucking jealous of what he had! After all…" he growled in a low tone. "…No one would ever settle for a slut like you."

After hearing what he had said, she paused for a moment and then suddenly punched him hard in the face. "You have no right!" She shouted while her fists shook in anger.

Gin had glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Lien-Da standing in front of Shadow yelling and screaming at him.

"You have no right calling me a slut! You have no idea what I've been through!"

Just because he knew that Lien-Da wouldn't dare take it as far as killing him, he decided to keep provoking her. "No wonder your boyfriend left you and took your son away! You're a crazy attention whore!" He slightly flinched when he saw her lean closer to him and slam her fist into the metal wall near him.

"He didn't leave me you fucking dumb ass!" She yelled, "I fucking killed him! I killed him before he could take my son away from me!"

Shadow paused and was lost for words as he suddenly found out the real shocking truth about what happened between her and her boyfriend.

Sierra and Trevor gave each other both confused and frightened looks as they witnessed Lien-Da's sudden outburst.

Gin decided to try to calm her before she had gotten completely out of hand. "…Lien-Da, calm down."

She turned to the white fox angrily, "Screw you, Gin! Don't tell me to…"

All of a sudden a loud and booming noise was heard behind them. Then before anyone could say anything, everyone's bodies flew to the walls and floor as the van bounced off of the road and slam back down onto the pavement.

In The Next Chapter...

Rouge: Shadow, no!

Lien-Da:...It can't be...

Julie-Su: It all ends here!

Lien-Da: No! I'm not going back! Not yet!

Julie-Su:...No...you're not going back to Angel Island! You're never going back!