A/N: To the general audience, I'd like to apologize for keeping a lot of focus on Shadow. I bet you've already guessed who my number one favorite STH character is, right? Riiight. ;)
To ABCSKW: I listened to the song, but it only worked well for the last bit of this chapter. However, I will be doing the same with the next few chapters and I'm thinking it'll work better for more climactic scenes. So I'll keep it going for you! :)
Enjoy! :)
"I heard it!" Knuckles insisted as Rouge tried not to fall back asleep, "Something happened here, I swear!"
"Now, sweetheart, you're probably just having nightmares," Rouge said calmly with a yawn, "if I didn't hear a scream, then nobody could have."
"Then where's Shadow?" Knuckles challenged, "he'd have some insight on this."
Omega turned his mechanical body.
"Shadow is approaching now," he stated monotonously.
And he was. The dark figure stepped quietly towards the little group, his head down in what appeared to be his normal deep thought.
"Shadow, please tell this delusional echidna that there's nothing wrong," Rouge said, irritated and cranky that she had been woken up for "no reason".
Shadow walked slowly and didn't say anything. Upon closer inspection, Rouge, Knuckles, and Omega noticed that he looked as though he had something in his arms. Rouge observed him with more uneasiness. "Shadow?"
"Ha! There's got to be something wrong if he's not talking!" Knuckles exclaimed triumphantly, ignoring Rouge's exaggerated eye roll. He ran to Shadow to ask him what the matter was.
Knuckles stopped suddenly as he realized what—or who—Shadow was holding.
"Is that . . ." he started, staring into Shadow's arms.
Shadow shook his head and closed his eyes.
"Yes, it's Agatha," he said shortly, practically muttering under his breath, "that guard that we held captive in the house got her and I tried to stop him, but he hurt her before I got the chance to reach her."
Rouge, Knuckles, and Omega looked at Shadow's full arms in shocked silence. Knuckles was the first to react, uttering something that sounded like,
"What happened to her?"
Shadow quietly described the horrific incident as Rouge and Knuckles listened. Knuckles stared at the ground and bared his teeth, similarly to Shadow's furious expressions. Rouge crossed her arms and tried not to appear fazed by the incident, although it was difficult. When Shadow was finished, Rouge went up to the hedgehog and felt the girl's wrist for a pulse and to see if her chest was rising and falling. When her ears perked up, Shadow and Knuckles breathed out in relief.
"She's alive," the bat confirmed, "but my question is, how do we tell Mrs. Charis?"
Silence. Everyone's mind turned to the image of a wailing mother and her terrible cries of despair. Knuckles shuddered at the thought.
"We can't; it'd tear her apart," he said with a broken voice, "we might have to take care of her here."
Rouge fluffed out her hair, hoping to mask her own internal distress.
"We could do that, and then just ask her dad to take care of her," she suggested.
Shadow shrugged, still gently cradling the girl in his arms.
"I suppose that would work, but Peter is asleep. When do we tell him?"
Knuckles snapped his head up in realization.
"Guys, we have to tell Sonic, too!"
Team Dark stared at the only Team Sonic member that was present. All of them, besides Knuckles, was reluctant about the idea, but they also didn't disagree with it.
Rouge nodded her head slowly.
"Yeah, probably."
With nobody disapproving of the idea, Knuckles ran off through the grass and to the other side of the house to wake up his buddy and tell him the tragic news.
"It's serious! I'm not kidding you!"
Sonic stretched and yawned widely, looking at the sleeping Charises. Gabriel had fallen asleep, being a teenage boy, and couldn't quite remain awake for the entire night shift. After all, he needed his sleep. The blue hedgehog stood up slowly and repeated the situation that Knuckles had just explained.
"So . . . the soldier that we had trapped in the house . . . he—he stabbed Agatha after kidnapping her?"
"After Shadow tried to reason with him," Knuckles pointed out, "which I thought was weird."
Sonic started walking to the other side of the house as Knuckles jabbered on about the injustice of the event, obviously unable to contain his anger. "That stupid human! Thinking he could get away with trying to murder a good friend who hasn't done anything to him or anyone else! They've got reason to hate us, but how can they possibly blame innocent girls for wrongdoings?"
"Slow it down, Knucklehead!" Sonic said, trying to persuade Knuckles to relax, "just take it easy. How bad of a condition is she in?"
Team Dark was walking towards the duo, Shadow in the front, and the others on either side.
"She's in pretty bad shape," Shadow muttered bitterly.
Sonic did the best he could as far as looking over the girl's body in the dark. He noticed the blood dripping from between Shadow's gloved fingers underneath the girl's back. After inspecting her body, the blue hedgehog gritted his teeth.
"Where's that guy?" he asked suddenly and angrily.
"And Omega . . . ?" Rouge inquired in addition, realizing that the robot was missing.
Everyone turned around and looked at the tree trunk, where the soldier started laughing madly and Omega's eyes blazed red as he took something from the guard's hands and crushed it. Sonic, Rouge, and Knuckles ran over to join Omega, while Shadow stood bewildered, unsure of what to do with Agatha. As a final resort, he carefully placed the unconscious girl on the grass by the wall of the house, praying that no one would step on her.
"Omega, what did you do?" Rouge asked frantically as the man still laughed.
"No, what did he do?" Sonic countered as he pointed at the laughing soldier, "why are you laughing, wise guy?"
The man gazed at Sonic and his friends with a drunken stare.
"He's coming . . ." he said between laughs, "he'll be here tomorrow . . ."
Sonic grabbed the soldier's shoulders and shook him.
"Who'll be here?" he demanded.
"The greatest being . . . of all time! Dictator Edric! Ha . . . ha . . ."
Sonic dropped the man's torso and backed away, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"No . . . that's impossible," he stated, still not accepting this news. Everyone else was speechless.
"Well, believe it, Mobian scum! He'll be here to arrest everyone! I've done it . . . I've done well . . . he said so!"
Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, and Sonic exchanged glances of panic, worry, and for some, fear. Shadow turned to Omega.
"What did you take from him?"
Omega, in his claws, held up a device that had been crushed, and was reduced to a pile of metal pieces and wires.
"This is a communication device. I heard the human speaking quietly and I tried to reach him before he could reach their supreme leader. But I've failed."
Rouge, her eyes wide with anger, bitterly consoled the robot.
"Not your fault, big guy. It's a good thing you actually heard him; none of us did."
Sonic's mind raced as he realized the gravity of the turn of events. Agatha was down, and she wasn't even part of the fight. They had to take care of her, as well as face this dictator. What were they going to do? Where would they go?
The blue hedgehog buried his face in his hands.
"No, no, no . . ." he whispered, "this can't be happening . . ."
Team Dark simply walked away, leaving Sonic and Knuckles together.
Knuckles patted Sonic on the back.
"We can sort this out."
"Before the sun rises?" Sonic challenged, incredulous.
Knuckles was taken aback by this response and didn't reply back. Sonic stood up and began raging, in a rare fury.
"We've got a wounded human to take care of, and this dictator is coming to their house tomorrow! How are they going to evacuate in time? What do we tell the dictator? Why is everything so freaking difficult?!"
Sonic's outrage forced him to the ground in a kneeling position as he screamed in frustration. Knuckles, being a supportive friend and beginning to realize Sonic's trouble, took the hedgehog's hand and raised him back up.
"Sonic, you've had way too much pressure on yourself. Everyone thought that you were the only one who was supposed to be thinking about everything, when we really shoulda been helping you. I don't care what happens, but I'm part of Team Sonic, and I'm not going to leave this decision to you."
Sonic stared at the echidna, who beamed at him in reply and flashed a thumbs-up. The hedgehog gave his friend a half-smile and suddenly changed his attitude.
"Knucklehead, how would I manage without ya?"
The pair bumped fists and headed back to their station, discussing plans for the next day.