CHAPTER 6

Twenty six more innocents were accounted for dead over the next five months. During that time the group continued to lie low on Prison Island; never once arising suspicion. At night Rouge would leave to pick up supplies and return within the hour. All during this time, Shadow slowly grew stronger.

Some of the scars had faded, but the deeper ones had remained; forever imprinted in his skin. Although he couldn't walk without guidance from the walls or one of the others trapped within the watchtower's walls or speak without breaking off in a coughing fit, he was recovering at a surprising rate. But if there was one wound that would never heal, it was the pattern of some of the worst scars on his back.

They formed the word 'DISGRACE'. Deliberately carved into his flesh forever, as though he was branded.

"What's up?"

Shadow glanced from the window to Sonic, who walked up beside his bed. "Nothing,"

"You're just ready to get out there and bring whoever caused this many deaths to justice, right? Don't worry, I'm totally with you on this. Whoever did this deserves the death sentence fifty times over."

Shadow unconsciously traced one of the fading scars down the side of his head, remembering with a shudder the cold, steel blade that felt like fire. How they managed to do what they did to him without killing him was a mystery. One he would rather not know about.

"Ginny doesn't think you'll be able to leave this place for another three months. Then you'd have to go through all sorts of therapy and then she thinks you'd be ready to take on this killer." Sonic informed. "But I told her you could do all this in two months."

Shadow sat up a bit straighter, cracking his back slightly. Thanks to the aided help with the Chaos Emerald, it had healed correctly. "I don't know." He muttered.

"Well, I do. And I think you can get out of here if one of us goes out there to find another Chaos Emerald."

"What? Ginny said-"

"I know. But if I go fast enough, I can run across the water. No one will see me. Then I'll warp back here and meet up with you guys again."

"You do know that if anyone sees you at all-"

"I know…" Sonic growled.

While they had been hiding out on the island, Tails, Knuckles, Sonic, Shadow, Ginny and two of the doctors staying with them had been declared missing. The story was that Shadow escaped Prison Island and kidnapped them, possibly killing them all. No evidence was found yet, but the police were confident that something would show up eventually. Rouge was only seen at night, but no one suspected her of any foul play.

"But hey, I think I know where one might be." Sonic's bright attitude returned. "And if there's none where I think there are…I'll pay Eggman a visit. He'll get quite a shock; he probably thinks I'm dead like the rest of the innocents. Shouldn't be too hard to steal from."

Shadow was taken in a violent coughing fit that almost made him pitch forward off the bed. It passed just as quickly as it came, leaving him drawing in deep breaths.

"Cough any louder and the security will find us," Sonic remarked.

"Shut up,"

Silver came running down from the main watchtower's stairs. "Hey, you guys! This is really weird! You've got to see this!"

"Feel up to it?" Sonic held his hand out towards Shadow, who knocked it away and used the wall instead, stumbling more than once but making it up the stairs.

"Look!" Silver pointed into the harbor, where a battleship had docked. Tiny figures of GUN soldiers were swarming around like ants, carrying huge boxes and shouting orders to each other.

"I wonder what they're doing?" Knuckles squinted, but he couldn't make out what was going on. "Is that more military equipment or something more?"

"Can't tell. I'll be right back." Ginny ran down the stairs, the others shouting at her not to go. But of course she ignored them.

"She's going to get herself killed one day," Rouge sighed.

They just watched the tiny ant-like figures scurry back and fourth when they suddenly dispersed; either heading back to the ship or going into the main building on the island. The boat left the dock, disappearing into the horizon.

Ginny didn't come back until later that night after Rouge had left. "You won't believe this." She sighed.

"What?" Silver asked, fear in his voice.

"They're bringing in equipment for higher security…security that will span the entire island. We'll be trapped…we don't have time to escape or the means to."

"In that case, I'd better get that Chaos Emerald I was talking about." Sonic darted out the door and into the night before anyone could do anything.

"Why do you people never listen to each other?" One of the doctors muttered.

"It's mostly just Sonic." Tails sighed.

XxXxXxXx

The house where Sonic used to live was locked up, surrounded by security guards that seemed to be going through his stuff. So much for a backup Emerald.

So on that note, Sonic left, grumbling curses about bad luck and GUN and how freaking hot it was that day, etc. At least he had a backup plan, no matter how bad it was. He knew it was bad from the start when it involved Eggman.

And so that's how Sonic found himself destroying robots guarding the doctor's base, getting inside the furthest security doors and making his way in. Although he didn't exacally remember the way, he was fairly certain that more stuff would try to stop him along the way.

"Sonic?"

He spun around to see Eggman standing behind him, a huge laser gun in his hands and looking like he just saw a ghost. Sonic waved lamely. "Haven't seen you in a while. What's up?"

"You…you're suppost to be dead…!"

"And you're suppost to be smart. I stopped questioning the facts long ago. Look, I need your Chaos Emerald. Shadow won't be able to escape GUN without it, and-"

"But…it was said that Shadow killed you! Not that I believed it at first, but with all this evidence...ah, nevermind. But what do you mean? You're working with him now?" Eggman dropped the gun and backed up. "Don't kill me!"

"He's been framed, Smart One. And severely injured. The Emerald's his only chance of survival."

"It is?" Eggman cast him a glance. "How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"I'll take it from you by force if I have to. That way, no one's tricking anyone." Sonic shrugged.

"Sounds fine," He picked up the gun again, switching on something on its side. "but you won't be getting it! BWHAHAHAAA!"

Sonic dodged the hail of bullets and knocked the gun out of Eggman's hands, making him lose his balance and fall heavily to the ground. "You were saying?"

"We'll see about that." Eggman grinned evilly.

Before Sonic could react, a large robot had picked him up by his left foot, letting him take wild swings at it but doing no harm. Eggman laughed, getting up and facing Sonic with a maniac grin on his face.

"You were saying?"

"Give me a sec…" Sonic reached up and tried to knock the fingers off the robot, but its grip around his foot got tighter, nearly crushing it. Sonic gripped at his ankle, kicking with his free foot at the robot.

"You've had your chance." Eggman sneered. The robot leveled a large gun against Sonic's head. "If you give up now I won't break every bone in your body."

"Sounds painful." Sonic pushed the gun away, but it swung back and hit him in the face. All the while, the grip on his foot got tighter, almost to the point of no feeling at all.

"Destroy him!"

The robot suddenly released its grip; so suddenly that Sonic didn't have time to flip over before he hit the ground hard…with his head. Stars clouded his vision and he felt the robot put its weight into the center of his back, driving all the air out of his lungs.

"I guess I win." Eggman laughed. "You've gotten out of practice! I knew I'd have my revenge soon!"

Sonic couldn't move an inch nor breathe. The world was going dark all around him, sound muting itself and the feeling of being crushed fading. The last thing he remembered was thinking that the group on Prison Island was doomed.

XxXxXxXx

"Sonic should have been back by now." Tails said worriedly.

"Well, you know Sonic. Always late." Knuckles sighed.

"Quiet! They're coming back!" Rouge hissed, ducking behind the stairs that lead up to the second story.

The others ducked behind crates, supplies, anything; barely moving as the squad of GUN solders ran past, their commander shouting orders to halt.

"Sir…?" One of the soldiers asked softly.

"What is it?" The commander barked.

"We're…not alone here. There are seven heat sources in that building…but we've never detected them before."

"Spread and search. On the double!"

Tails' eyes widened, fear clear on his face. Before he could do anything, the door was kicked open and sunlight streamed into the 'abandoned' observatory tower. Soldiers rushed in, guns at the ready.

"Sir! It's like…someone was living here! A group of people!"

"And they're still here." Another soldier said, dragging a kicking, punching and cursing Ginny out form behind the generator.

"Get your filthy hands off me, you son of a bitch! Who do you think you are, coming into my damn house uninvited? Get out before I kick your ass to Hell and back, mother fu-"

"Quite a temper,"

"Bet your damn life I have a temper."

"What's your name and what are you doing on this island?"

"I'm Sparrow," Ginny hissed. "Go away. This was the only place I could afford."

"I'm afraid you'll have to accompany us back to the main building, Miss Sparrow. We have a few questions for you." The soldier grabbed her arm, dragging her to her feet. "The rest of you, search this place. See if you can find anything."

"If I come back and find one thing out of place, you're getting it good, buster," Ginny growled, but the solders didn't pay her any attention as they dragged her out of the tower.

"She wasn't who she said she was, was she?" One soldier asked.

"No. She's working for the Others. We've got another of their spies….this is almost too good to be true. Soon we will overtake GUN…I must say, our agent is doing a very good job framing that experiment for these deaths."

Shadow, who was lying motionless behind a few crates of supplies, couldn't believe what he was hearing. And yet...it made complete sense. Being framed by someone else for unknown causes…but those causes weren't unknown anymore. The insane GUN members were aiming to overthrow the organization, starting with those who seemed the biggest threat.

"I can't wait to see what they'll do when we get ahold of him again," The soldier continued. "The glass self-torture thing was new, but got old quickly. I'm hoping for something more…high tech."

"I thought the glass was perfect." Another soldier spoke up.

"We'll argue later. There's still people in here." A third voice spoke up. "One's right in front of you."

The crates began to move. Shadow gritted his teeth together and sprang up, his fist catching the soldier in his jaw. Just that simple move caused white-hot pain to flare through his arm.

"Something hit Kyle!"

"Open fire!"

Bullets began to tear apart the crate. Shadow ducked down as close as he could to the ground, praying for the bullets to not find their mark. After a few seconds of ear-shattering shooting, it stopped.

"Did you get it?"

"No clue."

"Well, go check!"

Shadow shoved the crate away, knocking one soldier over and taking the others by surprise. He sprang up, left leg burning with pain and threatening to give out, and retrieved a small pistol from the ground.

"Shadow…" the first soldier gasped. "Wha…what…?"

"Leave my friends alone!" Shadow hissed, leveling the gun with the soldier's arm. He shot, the bullet piercing the flesh and splattering blood onto the floor.

Two more shots downed the other soldiers, bleeding and in pain but not dead. Knuckles leapt out of hiding and helped Shadow stay steady on his feet while Rouge, Tails, Silver and the two doctors gathered up everything they could need for a quick escape.

"What about Ginny?" Shadow coughed.

"She'll make it. She's experienced in this field." Rouge tossed Knuckles a small pistol much like the one Shadow was holding. "Come on!"

A gunshot from behind them, where one of the soldiers was lying.

Shadow managed a choked gasp before falling to the ground, curled tightly in a ball.

XxXxXxXx

A light as bright as the sun interrupted the darkness. Sonic squinted, trying to move away. His back hit thick steel bars, no way out. He forced himself awake, trying to find out where he was. His left foot felt broken; just moving slightly sent burning pain throughout his leg. The cage's floor was hard and his shoulder hurt from where he had been lying on it for a while. He gritted his teeth together and forced himself into an awkward attempt at sitting that ended up with him collapsing painfully back onto his side.

"Where am I?" Sonic muttered, not sure he wanted an answer.

"In the heart of my lair. No escape, even if you managed to run out of here," The triumphant voice answered somewhere to his right. "Yes, I've finally got you, Sonic. And I want a few questions answered."

"Or what?" Sonic growled.

"Why don't you look down?"

Sonic glanced down, trying not to let fear enter his eyes. The cage he was in was suspended by a thin table over a giant tank of water. He backed away from the cage's bars, trying not to catch sight of the height he was at again.

"Since the public thinks you're dead, I could kill you myself and not make any difference. But I think I want you alive. I have a plan in store for you, unless you resist. In that case, I will enjoy watching you drown," Eggman walked over, a remote that probably activated the table to retract. "So…what do you mean that Shadow was severely injured?"

"Exacally that. What else could I mean?" Sonic shrugged.

"Where is he?"

"Somewhere safe…hopefully."

"Who else is with him? Does that mean that Knuckles, Rouge, Tails and those other people are still alive?"

"Kind of. Last I heard he was keeping them to eat," Sonic acted like he was thinking hard. "The only reason he let me go was because he needed the Chaos Emerald. And his exact words to me were, 'you'd better return or all of Hell will be after you-'"

"Stop lying!"

The table shook dangerously. Sonic gripped one of the bars, knowing it wouldn't do anything if the support fell. One end of the cage seemed to be tipping dangerously.

"Where is he?" Eggman demanded.

"Somewhere," Sonic said. "I don't know."

"One last chance."

"I don't know." Sonic said firmly. "You'd have better luck asking a tree where he was."

Eggman pressed the button on the remote and the table dropped. The cage hit the water with a loud splash, its weight dragging it to the bottom. Sonic kicked out wildly, ignoring the agonizing pain in his foot and tearing at the bars. But they didn't weaken in the slightest.

He glanced around wildly, nothing to see except the water blurring everything. His lungs were burning, any second he'd take in a gasp of water. Just when all strength was leaving him completely, the cage lifted.

Sonic lay, gasping and coughing, almost surprised that he was still alive. The will to fight was sapped along with his strength, but he still would battle if he had to.

"That was a warning. Next time I really will let you drown." Eggman growled.

"Yeah…I knew you wouldn't do it anyway…" Sonic said in-between gasps.

"Where's Shadow?"

"The last place anyone would look." Sonic said. "And that's all I'm telling you."

"Good," Eggman pulled a communicator from his pocket, turning it on and saying, "Some of the 'dead' aren't really dead. They're helping Shadow recover, including Sonic the Hedgehog. I have him captured at this moment, but the others are still free. He told me that Shadow is in the last place anyone would dare to look…that can only mean one place."

Sonic crossed his fingers behind his back. He hoped that GUN wasn't as smart as they thought they were.

"Rodger that. We understand." The communicator said. "Sending out search parties within the hour. We'll have them back here by nightfall."

Eggman switched it off and turned back to his prisoner. "The last place anyone would look, huh?"

"Yep. Solve that riddle."

"Already did."

XxXxXxXx

"Shadow!" Tails screamed, trying to reach him. Two soldiers came running into the room and held him back, guns leveled at his head.

"Back off!" Knuckles growled, slamming a bag of food into one of their temples. They turned to him, allowing Tails time to slip away.

"We're here to rescue you!" the first soldier shouted. "Don't attack us!"

"What do you mean, 'rescue'?" Silver retorted. "Isn't it clear to you that Shadow isn't the one who's killing all these people?"

At his name, Shadow sprang up from the ground and shot, barely missing the soldiers. "Don't make yourselves my first kills." He hissed. "You're lucky you have bad aim, otherwise you would have destroyed all chances of finding the real killer. Now, let us go and no one else gets hurt."

"We can't do that," The first soldier said. "We have orders to bring you back to base, dead or alive. Your choice."

They trained their guns on him, waiting for the next move.

And that's the chapter. Yey, suspense! (My Guinea Pig swears)… And you have to wait to find out what happens! HA HA! And the climax is coming, probably within the next few chapters here. So…what do you think will happen? Remember to review!

XxXxXxXx

Holy crap, you guys! You're lucky enough to get a PT 2 of the Author Notes! Yey!

The other day I was reading through every Author Note I had ever posted…and boy, am I amazed. I've come an extremely long way. I can't stress that enough. I began stuff on this site while I was in a severe depression, believe it or not. (Those of you who know me know this) That's why humor was a main goal of mine, I would attempt to make myself laugh along with you guys. Now my parents would tell you otherwise, as the mask of 'non-depression' I always wore was enough for them…they were never really good with 'seeing below surface emotions', anyway. But they're not here to butt in on everything I do, thank God, I'm sick and tired of that; of them always saying, "Oh, your life was perfect back then!" whenever I bring up my old schools.

Hell, no. That place was Hell on earth. The people were fallen angels, I swear…

So on that note, I came out of a depression mostly from you guys. Your reviews really helped me. I thought I could never make a difference in the world…but apparently I got a few of you to choke on watermelon while reading some of my stuff. (Sorry!)

And so, thanks mainly to high-school and a few really good friends and teachers who really opened my eyes to things, the worst of it is over. I'm able to write about depressing things without being depressed myself, so I count that as a major milestone. Although sometimes the depressing part of me takes over and things go downhill from there. It happened…I think…twice. But not in this Fic.

I'm rambling again. Sorry. Ignore everything you just read. I'm having a weird day.

Until next time!

Hasta la Vista, Readers!

Lordoftheghostking28