I looked over the dead neighborhood and let out a sigh. A creak went over the roof and I turned to see thin air. I faced forward and jumped out of my skin. There stood the ebony hedgehog I hadn't seen in days.

He uncrossed his arms for a moment to throw my keychain into my lap without a word.

I closed my mouth.

"Explain." He groaned. I pressed down my brow "You've been gone for days. Where have you-"

"Explain. The keychain, now." his voice was harsh.

I picked up said keychain and brushed my thumb over it. "You first." I looked up to him. "Where have you been for the past couple of days?"

He shifted from foot to foot before dropping his arms and rolling his eyes in an irritated fashion.

"You damn well know where I've been." His voice was still harsh and I kept my calm.

"My apologies for caring." I hummed and set down the keychain.

"Caring? Last time I checked you kicked me out of your house."

Damn it. I hate it when his logic works "Yea I guess you're right."

"You guess?"

"Can I ask you something?" I looked down to my hands in my lap, remembering the fight I had with Sonic. "Not until you explain the-" He started but I cut him off with a shrill snap "I'll explain the stupid fucking keychain as soon as you answer this question!"

His brow pressed down to a deeper glare.

"Why do you save me? Why don't you just let me get killed?" my voice was little and when I peeked up to look at him I noticed he was slightly surprised. His eyes where widened and I could tell he was mentally asking himself the same question. He let out a small stammer "B-Because; If I let Mephiles get away with anything then that's one step ahead of the rest of us."

"How am I 'a step ahead'?"

"Because you seem to know more about us than most people in this damn dimension and speaking of which- explain why there are articles of clothing, accessories and memorabilia of the faker and myself sold around here?" His tone was a lost one- as if he was angry yet he was almost… scared to know. Like he knew the answer but didn't want to believe it.

"In this dimension you are not supposed to exist. You are fictional; A character from a video game series that was released in the 1990's."

"If I didn't exist then explain how I'm here and we're having this conversation."

"I cannot."

"Then explain how any of those healing injuries of yours would have happened if I didn't exist."

"I… can't…"

He began to raise his voice and he seemed flustered. "That's because I am real! I live and breathe!"

He snapped to be standing over me and clutching the collar of my shirt and in a second we flashed to be midair and I let out a scream. I gripped his wrists and he began yelling "EXPLAIN IT TO ME!"

"I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT! I just said you shouldn't exist! I never said that you didn't!" I panicked. The swirling of teleporting ensued and I was dropped back onto the floor of my T.V. Room.

He jumped back from me and stared down to his hands, a small amount of shakiness in his form.

It was strange to watch the Ultimate Life-form break down emotionally. To have such character go from being as readable as a blank piece of paper to drawn out perfectly and practically written on a billboard.

He dropped to his knees, his voice was low "If I don't exist then that means all I have ever tried to accomplish for… Maria… has gone to waste because… she just doesn't exist."

I reached out and he flinched away from me "Don't touch me, human."

I dropped my hand and he looked over to me "Why do you bother with me?"

And there was that question again.

"All I do is hurt you and yet you don't leave me alone. I put you in the hospital, I almost killed that boy. Hell- I've almost killed you how many times now?"

"A lot…"

"Why do you stick around? Can't you just see I want to be alone?"

I let out a sigh "Because you don't really want to."

He became disgruntled "Yes I do."

"If you did you wouldn't have saved me more times than you have tried to kill me. If you really didn't want me around I would be dead and that's the end of that."

He was quiet for a moment before looking back up to me.

Then the most confusing thing happened.

His eyes rolled up under his eyelids as they closed and he collapsed backwards onto the floor. I shuffled over to him and shook his body "Shadow?" did he feint? What the hell just happened? I leaned down and put my ear to his chest, a faint shudder of a heartbeat calmed my nerves and something else caught my attention; More like the absence of something- the rings on Shadow's wrists where both gone.

Fuck.

I quickly grabbed the emerald and placed it in his hand, wrapping both of mine around his and the gem. The energy emitting from the emerald caused it to begin shining brightly. "Shadow if you can hear me I want you to think of where you last left the rings…"

I didn't get any sort of response.

"God damnit! Uh- uh- Chaos Control!" and the swirling began as I wished to go the abandoned house. We re-appeared on the dusty floor of the old house and I began my search. I pulled up the couch cushions and pushed over the large piece of furniture.

Nothing.

I pushed it back over and fixed the cushions, lifting and placing Shadow's limp body on said couch. I grabbed the blanket I had left a few nights ago and tossed it onto him. I made a mad dash to upstairs, slipping on the old wooden stairs. I tore thru the house, my heart beginning to quicken as I worried for the ebony hedgehog's safety.

As I trudged back down the stairs I slipped again and tumbled to the bottom cutting open various places on my arms and hands. Swearing a constant line of profanities as I limped my way over to Shadow, I grabbed hold of the emerald, knowing that it was an energy conductor and should be helping him at least regain consciousness.

A large and powerful surge hit my system and I let out a surprised yelp. My energy level in turn dropped and I became fatigued.

In the meantime Shadow drew in a deep breath and his eyes shot open. My body ached as fell to the floor and I strained to get back onto my feet. "Where are those damned rings?" I shouted and he grabbed my arm shouting the emeralds command and we reappeared in the midst of a forest. I struggled to my feet and looked around me- the forest was heavily damaged, as if someone had been kicking and punching the trees.

I took a guess as to who hit them and was happy to figure that he took out his anger on trees and not people. Shadow stumbled and fell down to a kneel "Damn human energy…" he grabbed my arm and the shock hit me again. I let out a yowl and I literally felt my energy zap away as he absorbed it, causing me to fall to the forest floor. I breathed heavily as I struggled to roll over and get to my hands and knees, my adrenaline the only thing keeping me conscious.

"FUCK!" I snarled and Shadow limped over to a nearby tree, a large hole in the trunk. He reached in the hole and retrieved the rings. He leaned back against the tree and slid down till he was sitting on the ground. His breathing was beginning to slow and his eyelids started to droop as he slid on the rings, twisting them and snapping them into place.

He gave a loud inhale and exhale as the red flaps on his gloves returned and beamed with a crimson glow. I shakily pushed up to my hands and knees "Did you-" I coughed "Did you just absorb my energy?"

He nodded "however I burn threw it ten times faster than chaos energy." He let out a grunt as he stood and walked over to me. "I didn't know you could do that…" I huffed and sat back on my feet, struggling to keep my eyes open from fatigue.

He reached out and I took his hand to help me up- well I would have stood if I wasn't being fed energy that prickled my skin and raced my heart. I let out a scream and we both released from the grip. I stumbled away, no longer tired or drowsy. "The hell did you just do to me?"

"I retransferred the energy."

"That was like a static shock on steroids mixed with shots of caffeine." I looked at my slightly shaky hands.

"Some of the energy must have mixed with my own. It shouldn't kill you, especially due to the small amount you received." He was calm and looked about our surroundings.

"Oh yea 'Shouldn't' that makes me feel positive…" I laughed sarcastically "I feel like my chest is going to explode open…"

"Let's refrain from that. It would be…" he looked over to me and held a blank expression before turning back to wherever he was looking "messy."

"Why didn't you have your rings on? I don't have that machine to charge you back up like the ARK. You could've died." He started to walk off and I trailed behind him. "I suppose I could have." He ducked under a branch and I followed suit.

"That didn't answer my question, Shad." I grumbled, not watching my words only to realize it a second too late. He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at me. My muscles tensed and waited for some sort of harsh retaliation.

"Humph." And he turned back around and continued walking.

… What the hell?

"You're not mad at me?" I asked aloud.

He held a pause "…No." and kept his calm pace.

Why was he being so calm? I guess I should have been more appreciative of this passive Shadow but I was so confused and partially stunned that I couldn't.

We kept walking in silence and I was curious as to where he was leading us.

He randomly stopped and turned to face me. "How's your heart?"

"Uh… fine?" I felt my pulse to notice that it had calmed back down to normal pace.

"Where are we going by the way?"

"Oh, we just made a couple circles around the clearing."

"Uhm… care to explain?"

"I could let you sit there and not burn off the energy before it kills you." His tone was a snide one and gave a small glare down to him. "Sorry for asking, then."

"Good. Now-" he held out a hand "Time to take you home."

I just stared down his white glove "How do you know you won't super shock me and I'll just explode everywhere?"

He rolled his eyes and grabbed my forearm with a bit of force and I clenched- only to receive no shock whatsoever. The surroundings swirled and hazed together as we teleported home.

Hey guys!

Shadow just keeps getting stranger by the day... why the heck is he so calm and passive all of a sudden?

Allie's lucky to have gotten off easy!

Tell me some of the reasons why you think Shadow's being so strange?

hurray for long chapters too!

~FurReal