Hey guys! So firstly, I would like to apologize for the lack of activity, I basically dropped off the face of the Earth for two years. Anyway, I would like to thank my readers, however scarce or vast they may be. But that's beside the point, I will try and update more often. Here is chapter 2. Enjoy! Please leave a review!

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When Knuckles the Echidna woke up that morning there were few things he was expecting: The sun shining brightly, bird song littering the bright green foliage of his home, the island itself still remaining floating. But he was not expecting to arrive at the master emerald shrine to find the large gem glowing as it radiated nothing but the purest of chaos energy. He was also not expecting the unconscious body of a snowy hedgebat that was laying in front of it.

As soon as he saw the body his hero instincts kicked in. He ran towards her and checked for any signs of life. After making sure she was alive and stable, Knuckles immediately contacted Tails, knowing that the young kitsune would know what to do.

When the guardian's ears had heard the familiar sounds of the tornado landing on his island he sighed in relief. The girl was still unconscious and Knuckles had moved her away from the master emerald and had attempted to wake her up, mindful to not cause more damage.

"Yo, Knux! What's up-" It was then that the blue speedster saw the girl on the floor. His mouth closed and his lime gaze switched from the girl to Knuckles a few times before a cocky smirk appeared on his muzzle "Wow, Knuckles. I knew you were desperate for a girl but I didn't think you'd go as far as this".

Knuckles glared at him, "Oh, shut it, Hedgehog. This is serious!"

Sonic nodded, sobering up, "Right, so what happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

Sonic and Knuckles turned their heads to find a small orange fox quickly making his way up the steps to the altar, on his tail were a pink hedgehog and a small cream rabbit.

Knuckles quickly nodded his head in a greeting, stepping back from the girl as Amy and Cream knelt by her, the rabbit checking her pulse. "I woke up this morning and everything was fine until I noticed something was wrong with the master emerald, that's when I called you guys. I finally got up here and I just found her here." The Echidna explained, gesturing to the girl.

"Well, she's alive," Cream concluded, moving her hand from the girl's neck, "She isn't hurt, she just seems to be sleeping."

"Where did she come from?" Tails asked, turning to look at Sonic as he cleared his throat.

"You don't think..?" The Speedster trailed off, knocking his foot against the master emerald.

"Is that even possible?" Amy asked.

Knuckles ran a hand down his face in exasperation, "I've stopped asking myself that question."

Tails frowned, "You think she came from inside the master emerald?"

"Either that or she was trying to steal it before she decided to take a nap in front of it." Sonic offered.

"Wrong winged mammal for that." Knuckles muttered under his breath.

"Point taken, Knuckie." Sonic winked, causing the echidna to blush furiously.

"Guys," Tails began, rolling his eyes at his friends, "can we please get back to the matter at han-"

The fox was cut off as Cream gasped and a hand suddenly gripped his wrist. Snapping his head round, Tails turned to face the girl, now awake and panting heavily. Her nails dug into his wrist while her free hand clutched at her chest.

Sonic reacted first. He grabbed his little brother and pulled him from the girl's grasp, pushing the young kitsune behind him. Amy reacted in kind, pulling Cream from the girl's side and moving her behind her.

The girl's eyes snapped up to him, a curious mixture of pinks, purples, and blues. When her eyes focused on him, they widened, "Shadow?" She asked hesitantly.

Taking a step back, and moving Tails with him, Sonic shook his head, "No." He answered slowly.

The girl blinked rapidly, climbing unsteadily to her feet. She stumbled slightly, prompting Knuckles to take a step forward to try and steady her. "Get back!" She shouted, raising a hand in his direction. The echidna heeded her request, holding his hands up in surrender.

The girl stared about, taking in her surroundings in a panic. She stared at the large glowing green gem in the centre of the altar before turning back to the others, who were watching her apprehensively. "Who are you?" She asked, taking a step back.

Sonic took a slow step towards her, "I'm Sonic," he said, gesturing to himself, "This is Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and that's Cream." he finished, gesturing to them each in turn, the little rabbit offering the girl a wave from behind Amy's legs.

"Where am I?" The girl demanded.

"Angel Island." Knuckles answered.

"Where?"

The echidna frowned, "Angel Island, home of the Master Emerald?" he tried, giving a weak gesture to the giant gem behind him.

The girl's frown only deepened. She took in her surroundings once more, glancing up at the sky through a squint in the sunlight. "What," she hesitated, "What planet is this?"

Tails leaned around his big brother, "This is Mobius. Where are you from?"

But his question fell on deaf ears. The girl's multicoloured eyes had widened, and she stepped back from the altar, running her hands through her quills "No..I can't be!...We...The soldiers...I couldn't."

Sensing the girl's distress, Amy moved towards her, "Hey, it's okay. Everything's going to be okay; we can help you."

The girl glanced up at her, saying nothing and Amy took it as a chance to continue, "What's your name?"

"Fauna."

Amy smiled, holding out a hand, "Well, Fauna, it's nice to meet you." Her smile grew as the hedgebat shook her hand, "Is there anything you can remember about how you got here?"

Fauna frowned, bringing a hand up to her breastbone, "I was shot." She said, carefully watching the confused and astounded faces of the people surrounding her, "I think I died."

Silence settled and the hedgebat watched the group around her cautiously. The silence was broken as Sonic let out a whistle, "Well, that's new."

Tails sighed as he elbowed the speedster in the side before frowning at the hedgebat, "What do you mean you died?"

Fauna shrugged, shaking her head, "I don't know. I remember being shot and dying, and the next thing I know I'm waking up here."

Sonic nodded, scratching his ear thoughtfully, "When you woke up, you called me Shadow. You don't, by any chance, mean a black and red hedgehog that's literally the walking personification of angry and brooding, do you?"

"I heard that, Faker."

Sonic sweatdropped as he turned to face his counterpart, "Hey, Shads!-"

"Shut up!" The ebony hedgehog snapped, lowering his chaos emerald and making his way towards the steps of the altar.

"Okay."

"Who's the new girl?" Rouge asked, drawing everyone's attention to the hedgebat.

Fauna had frozen, staring at Shadow with teary eyes as he reached the base of the steps. Rouge's question had him halt in his steps, moving his gaze to the white hedgebat. As they locked eyes, Shadow's stoic expression fell away and he was left gaping at the girl. He frowned at her as she made her way down the steps, tears falling freely down her face.

Shadow's expression softened as she stopped at the first step, "F-Fauna?"

She nodded, smiling through her tears. "Shadow." She spoke his name with such emotion that he thought he was still dreaming. Suddenly, he was back on the Ark. The two of them huddled together, side by side, staring out the large window and at the planet they both wished to visit. The planet they both stood on now.

Shadow shook himself out of his memories as Fauna reached out to him. This couldn't be true. His expression hardened, and his grip on his chaos emerald tightened.

"Chaos spear!"

The familiar bolts of energy went flying towards the hedgebat, who barely had time to react before a blue blur swooped in pulled her out of the way. The bolts crashed into the steps, spraying chunks of rock everywhere.

Behind Shadow, Sonic reappeared, one arm flung out to the side to protect Fauna. The hedgebat stared at her friend in shock, unwilling to believe that he would willingly hurt her.

"What the hell, Shadow?!" Rouge yelled, glaring at the offending hedgehog.

"What are you thinking?!" Sonic added.

Shadow growled at the two of them, "That is not Fauna!" He shouted, the raw anger in his voice caused Fauna to shrink behind the blue hedgehog further. "The real Fauna went down with the Ark! She's an imposter; one of the Doctor's creations. She has to be. Fauna died in my arms! She-"

"Was shot." Fauna said quietly.

Shadow narrowed his eyes at her, "What did you say?"

Fauna moved out from behind Sonic, walking towards Shadow, calmly. "She was shot. When the soldiers attacked the Ark." Her voice wavered as fresh tears threatened to fall. "She sacrificed herself to save you."

"How do you know that?!" Shadow demanded. He hadn't told anyone about the late Doctor's experiments, about the others, about Fauna. Not even G.U.N. knew about Fauna.

The hedgebat merely smiled at him, pulling the collar of her shirt down to reveal a large, splintering scar that stretched across her chest, exactly where the bullet had struck her fifty years ago aboard the Ark. He glanced at the still-glowing master emerald and realisation struck him. His chaos emerald fell from his hand, but he didn't care. He took the last few steps towards Fauna and threw his arms around her, pulling her to him tightly. She returned the favour, burying her face into the crook of his neck and allowing her tears to fall.

"It really is you, isn't it?" He whispered to her.

She didn't speak, only gave a small sniffle as she nodded into his shoulder.

"But how? You were shot, you died in my arms."

Fauna moved back, still in his embrace. "I don't know, Shadow. I really don't." She sniffed, wiping her tears and grinning up at him. "I just woke up next to the emerald and-"

Shadow shook his head, hugging her to him again, effectively cutting her off. "I don't care; it doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're here."

"Well, this is all delightful," Rouge drawled, leaning on Knuckles' shoulder, "But would you care to introduce us all, Shads?"

Giving a rare, small smile, Shadow released Fauna and turned to his team before gesturing to the hedgebat, "This is Fauna, another one of the late Doctor Robotnik's experiments, and an old friend of mine."

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Thank you for reading! Please review, I will answer any requests! xx