Author's note: A lot of POV switching in this one. Prepare for that.
*Shadow's POV*
After a painful minute of searching through frosted trees, Shadow finally found himself following Silver toward a tall, rectangular steel building. If this wasn't it… really, what was?
Silver landed, and they both crept toward the front door. Shadow got into his soldier mindset. Whatever waited behind that door was going to be a cakewalk. And even if it wasn't, he'd destroy it all… just to save Rachel.
He looked at Silver, who actually had a twinge of fear visible in his eyes. This made Shadow not fearful or worried… but ever so slightly uneasy. He'd heard that Silver had singlehandedly defeated this Eggman Nega. That Silver was to Nega like Sonic was to regular old Eggman.
He had no time to worry about something so small.
"Ready?" asked Silver.
"I have been since you told me this guy kidnapped Rachel the first time," Shadow replied, getting a firm grasp on the door handle. "Let's move it."
At that, they both opened the door… encountering nothing but emptiness, and what light crept in through the periodic window in this long corridor. Wait. No robots? No alarms, or reinforcement of some sort? What kind of evil genius was Nega?
"…We're probably just real lucky right now," Silver whispered. "Keep an eye out for Rachel, and don't let your guard down."
Shadow merely nodded. Caution in every step, they practically tiptoed quickly down the hallway. Still, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Until merely a second later, nothing happened, that is.
A few more forceful, surefire footsteps could be heard from behind them before a voice growled "Agh! Pesky hedgehogs!"
Shadow turned around to get his first true glimpse of Dr. Eggman Nega. He knew this to be not only the guy, but the type of guy to kidnap someone like Rachel. It must have been something in the white, menacing mustache.
"Cut the chat," Shadow growled, taking a step forward, startling Silver a bit. "Where is she?"
"Hmm," Eggman Nega pondered. "...Try looking in your dreams. I know who you're here for. Great company, that one."
"We'd really like her back," Silver growled in response. "What have you done with her?"
"I'm afraid you're too late, silver one," Nega chuckled. "My progress has only grown to be perpetual. Even if you were to find her, my latest resource to victory will already be available to me. You're first on the list… for me to use it on."
All of this banter was getting nowhere. Seconds that could be used to locate and rescue Rachel were only being wasted on mindless, futile banters. Like a bullet being shot from his gut, a fury exploded within him. He had had enough.
"CHAOS… SPEAR!" he cried.
From his hand and directly toward Eggman Nega sped a bolt of pure Chaos Energy.
It made a direct hit, pinning Nega to the ground before disappearing.
"Book it!" cried Shadow, getting ready to continue down the hallway.
"Hang on!" Silver said. "What if he gets back up and calls for reinforcement in hunting us down? One of us should stay here and keep him immobile. Hopefully, it'll teach him to leave us alone as well."
As Silver stated this, and for a bit of time afterward, Shadow could only stare at him. Aside from Rachel… it had been a while since he had been around anyone he actually… wanted to rely on. Silver seemed to know what he was doing. He seemed to be thinking everything through and considering every little possibility, no matter how slim of a chance it had. That was the mark of a truly great hero.
Although Silver may have been stealing the heart of the one Shadow loved without even trying or knowing… he saw him as a great comrade during this dire time. Shadow could completely trust him.
"I'll stay here," said Shadow, walking toward Eggman Nega, who appeared to be halfway to getting up. "For all we know, Rachel could be behind locked doors. You'll be able to move them." He looked Silver sincerely in the eye. "I trust you. Just… please… find her. Find her, and let me know somehow when you do. She needs to be out of here safe. That's all that matters."
All Silver could do was nod before dashing down the hallway in search.
What did Shadow do? He taught Eggman Nega a lesson, that's for sure. Just about killed the guy. Every time he'd be about to get back up on his feet, Shadow used Chaos Spear on him.
It was like that for long minutes, which felt like long hours. After the first ten, Shadow grew worried. The place certainly didn't look this big from the outside. Had Silver gotten into a scuffle with robots of Eggman Nega's creation? Had he fallen in battle? Or had he seriously not located Rachel yet?
With every second, all he could wonder was where they were…
*Rachel's POV*
Rachel was merely waiting there in that chamber. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for someone to possibly barge in and save her… like last time.
Then, to her utter horror, she heard hissing. At the same moment, her nose was being filled with the smell of fresh, clean, early-spring humidity. The kind that only comes right after rain.
She looked up to see that what she was smelling was really a glowing, blue mist that was being sprayed from the top rims.
Not long after that, she felt herself begin to grow fatigued. Woozy, her eyelids merely dropped, and so did she.
Everything just blacked out. A preset sedative dose. She should have figured as such, considering the fact that Eggman Nega did tell her how to give off energy…
Still, the tears would not give a second thought. They kept flowing, like pure waterfalls of stinging, salty hopelessness. Rachel would have tried to stop them, knowing that it was all leading up to something that could kill Silver.
But she just… couldn't. Even if she was awake. Being free of this chamber, she just knew she'd be driven to try suicide. It was all too much. A force more huge than anything she thought possible. Trying not to cry merely made her cry harder.
Behind her, the meter on the wall was officially at the halfway point.
She could normally find it in her to take a few deep breaths and assure herself that everything was going to be alright.
It just wasn't in her. She couldn't do it. Any strength she normally would have had was completely absent.
At this point, she knew she had broken down… and given up.
It wasn't even the fact that she was trapped in this chamber.
All of this distress… every little drop of sadness, and every smidgen of pure distress… had rooted from her belief that Silver liked Blaze.
Even she didn't know how it still bothered her when the possibility of her being sentenced to life in a chamber was lingering just above her head. She was that submerged in her love for Silver… He had become her everything. Her inspiration, her love… and her life as a whole.
Finally, she had found someone who she could connect with on every level proven possible, and effectively at the same time… and it may all have been for nothing.
The courage wasn't there, like it definitely should have been. She had officially given up all hope. She had forgotten what it was like to have strength. She had forgotten what to do, what to think, and how to see positives.
She had… might I say, completely forgotten her way. Now, she wasn't even awake to try and find it again.
*Silver's POV*
Silver stepped into every open door and gave the room lying within a thorough scan before moving on. Every empty room he encountered made him more and more worried. After 5 rooms or so of nothing but tables, test tubes, emptiness, and windows, that worry turned to pure fear.
Rachel was well on the path to becoming a rather dear friend to him. Even more dear than Blaze, for that matter. And she was nowhere to be found at the headquarters of a man who sacrificed a lot of tech money for biological studies and resources. That was why he only had 10 or so robots.
Then, Silver came upon the first closed door. Every other door was open… and he could hear an ominous humming coming from behind the door.
Immediately, he put his psychokinesis into action, using it to rip the door off of its hinges.
He knew that he had found a key room when he noticed that in the dead center of a wall he was facing, there was that same machine he had spotted through a window, while it was likely still in construction. Now, it glowed a brilliant blue.
And when he looked a little closer, he found her. Rachel. She was lying face-first on the chamber's floor. He figured she had been knocked out. Maybe by a sedative of some sort?
He ran up to the chamber and first tried saying "Rachel! Are you alright? Can you hear me?!"
*Shadow's POV*
Spearing this guy over and over was beginning to grow tiring. Shadow wouldn't have to continue it for long.
He had let his guard down when he figured that Eggman Nega was finally down for the count.
Little did he know that he was being faked out. Less than 5 seconds later, Nega got up and completely passed Shadow as he headed down the hallway. Growling, Shadow chased him until they reached a laboratory-like room.
Within the same room was Silver, who was trying to get through to a sedated Rachel, until Shadow and Nega came in, that is.
"Well," said Nega. "It appears the sedative worked. I'm going to have to ask you guys-"
"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted once more, sending another bolt of pure Chaos energy toward none other than Nega's head. This time, Nega was not only pinned to the ground, but knocked out himself.
Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport himself into the chamber with Rachel… instantly being met with a shocking noise from above him.
"No!" Silver cried from outside.
Shadow looked up… seeing that an opaque surface had closed up the top. A.K.A. the entrance AND exit.
"Damn!" Shadow growled, banging a fist against the wall.
"We should focus on what this thing even is," said Silver, walking toward a flexible tube that seemed to be connected to the chamber and the floor. This chamber was very possibly taking energy and using it to either stock or fuel something underground.
After a minute or so of pondering, Silver asked "Do you feel any different in there, Shadow? Like, hurt, or like something's being sucked out of you?"
"…No," Shadow replied in amazement.
"Then clearly, it's something she has that you don't," Silver sighed. "That makes things only slightly more difficult. I'll keep looking for clues. Let me know if Rachel wakes up."
Shadow nodded, directing his eyes back to Rachel and putting his hand on her shoulder. Poor thing… Wait a second…
"CHAOS CONTROL!" he cried, in hopes that the idea he had just come up with would work.
Unfortunately, it did not.
"Uh oh," said Silver. "Your Chaos Control's not working?!"
"No!" Shadow growled. "Now I'M stuck in here, too!"
After a few more seconds of looking at signs, in corners, and under flaps, Silver cried "AHA! I think I've found what this thing's sucking from Rachel!"
"What is it?!" asked Shadow.
"Huh," said Silver, reading a label that appeared to be hidden under the door to a control panel. "This chamber is a conversion chamber, blah blah blah… wait… WHAT?!"
"What did you find out?!" Shadow shouted.
"This thing creates fuel," Silver answered. "…from the heartbreak of its subjects!"
"Heartbreak?!" asked Shadow, purely in shock.
"Yeah," Silver nodded. "That means… Rachel's heart has been broken somehow! Whoever did that is getting their-"
"W-…" Shadow stuttered. He couldn't say a word as he looked down at Rachel's face again. Indeed… her face did appear to have the stains of pure, natural tears. But… HOW?!
Glancing at a meter on the wall that was a little to the right of the halfway point, Silver said "Looks like a fuel gauge. Eggman Nega's still out cold, so I say we focus on cutting off any more heartbreak energy conversion. I can't find anything sharp around here…"
At that, Shadow took a glance at the area behind Silver… to see that Eggman Nega had risen, much like a movie-worthy zombie."
"And," Silver continued. "I'm not sure how risky-"
"Silver!" Shadow cried. "Behind you!"
Silver instantly turned around, only grimacing at the sight of Nega's revival.
Shadow couldn't do anything to attack since he was within such close proximities with Rachel. Hurting her was the last thing he'd ever do, if he'd even dare to do it at all. He could only wish Silver good fortune.
Immediately, Silver used his psychokinesis to pick Eggman Nega up and throw him against the wall, which he seemed to recover immediately from.
"Looks like I have a battle on my hands," said Silver, using the same attack once more. "Figure out a way to deactivate the fuel supply! M-Make her happy!"
At that, Nega ended up chasing Silver into the hallway. Shadow saw no more beyond that.
Almost like a charm, Shadow looked down to see that Rachel was opening her beautiful, sea-blue eyes.
"…Shadow!" she murmured. She didn't appear to be getting any stronger than to a state just beyond awake.
"Rachel, please tell me," Shadow asked of her desperately. "What's wrong? What's broken your heart?"
"I-It's… a sensitive matter," Rachel replied, another lonely tear creeping out of her eye. "I'm not sure you should know."
"Rachel, please…" Shadow whined. "Knowing will be half of our ticket out of this chamber. Even if it wasn't… I only want you to be happy. Your sadness is my distress." At this, Shadow felt himself develop a rosy blush.
Rachel sighed, sitting up and leaning against the glass, shedding a few more tears.
"Fine," she began to sob. "…I-I'm in love, okay?! I've been so despaired… because I can't be sure of anything! I'm led to believe that the one I'm in love with will only ever have feelings for another. He's my first true love, and… a-and I'm just not sure. I think he's in love with another girl!"
It all became clear. Like a novel that had been ended, summarized, and clarified within the last paragraph. He didn't even feel stupid for not knowing, for Rachel had been hiding her despair rather well. Also, merely knowing that she was in love set him on edge. He wasn't sure whether to be honored and the happiest male being in the universe… or whether to have the desire for the blood of another male to be strewn across the streets.
She was in love, and her heart had been broken.
And then… at the snap of a finger… an idea came to mind that, if one crucial factor worked right despite not doing so before… would solve more than one situation.
He had to try it. There was no other way anything was going to work. There was just no other path. He was going to end up doing it anyway, but now, he couldn't wait to.
He had to find a way to acquire the poem he had written for her… and confess his love for her.
Author's note: Not-completely-intended cliffy! It's almost 2 in the morning, I'm just about falling asleep… and honestly, I think this is a nicely executed cliffy! What do you think?
Question for the reader: I've got ideas. Therefore, this fanfic either will or won't end soon. It depends. Here's the opinion I need from you guys: Silver x OC (a.k.a. Silver x Rachel). Yea or nay? Why or why not? Now, I know what you're thinking. There's some STRONG Shadow x OC going on here… but trust me. This could or could not change the future. I know I do this entirely too much, but… it's in both your hands and mine…