Hi everyone! I know it's been a long time. I'm sorry = ( University is demanding but I promise I really want to finish this fanfic.

Sorry again.

So here it is:

STAGE 3:

CRISIS CITY

The city was a mess. Every direction they looked, buildings and skyscrapers stood half-ruined in the dusty sky. Having been teleported inside one of the skyscrapers, Shadow and Rouge decided to travel from one building to another without touching the streets that were littered in debris, abandoned cars and were sometimes cracked open with strange moving lava coming out.

"There," Shadow said before leaping across the street and breaking into one of the building's windows. As Rouge began to follow him by flight, she spotted something far too familiar in the distance. She flew to the top of the building Shadow was now in to get a better view. What she saw she recognized as Eggman's signature red paint chipped away on rusting remains of a building. It had to be one of Eggman's bases, but what could have happened to it? What had happened to this city? Where were they? Certainly this destruction couldn't have been going on without her knowledge. It didn't make any sense.

She stood there, perplexed, trying to find answers to her multiplying questions as the dust clung to her suit and hair. The sound of heavy wings flapping brought her quickly out of thought and she spun to face what looked like a large bird on fire. Her eyes widened to the sight as she stepped back to take in the creature. To her surprise, it wasn't a bird in crisis, but a living flame in the shape of a bird.

The creature cried loudly before spinning into an attack. Rouge dodged it gracefully with ease and spun into her trademark Tornado Kick, effectively putting the flames out and leaving only the ashes to be blown away in the wind.

Shadow appeared the bat's side in the Chaos Control's flash with a look of worry hinted on his face. "What happened?" he asked roughly, "What attacked you?"

Rouge brushed off some dirt from her tight-fitted clothes as the hedgehog's eyes tried to look at anything else than her bouncing body. At least she seemed unharmed. "It was… some sort of living flame? Is that possible?" she asked him.

He didn't answer. If she was right, this meant trouble, nothing he couldn't handle, of course, but when Rouge is at his side, he tended be more cautious. Speaking of which, "Why weren't you following me?" he argued, "How am I supposed to protect you when you're not with me?"

The seductive bat raised a defying eyebrow. "Excuse me? I'm certainly capable of defending myself, thank you."

Shadow smirked proudly, unknowingly making Rouge's heart rise in her chest. "Oh really?" he started, "I thought I had saved you… How many times again? One… Two… at least three… and twice only in the last two days?"

His eyelids lowered, his smirk set on his face, Shadow waited for Rouge to answer as she glared at him with embarrassment rising in her cheeks. "I don't recall needing any saving before… before," she hesitated until realizing, "Well, not until you showed up in my life!"

The black hedgehog's crimson eyes widened and his smirk was nowhere to be seen. What did she mean by this? He backed away slightly and turned away to get another look at their surroundings.

Rouge didn't know what to say. In a way, she had always been proud of her independence. It was what had made her an excellent G.U.N. agent, spy and treasure hunter. Having to be saved tasted mostly bitter, but… for some reason it was rather sweet when her rescuer was the one and only Ultimate Life Form…

She gazed at her dark friend's quills blowing in the dusty wind. The contrast of his black fur in the golden glow of the smog was quite a sight.

Her turquoise eyes focused on the rusted red building standing in the distance behind the hedgehog, and she remembered the news she wanted to announce.

"Shadow, doesn't that building look an awful lot like one of Eggy's bases?"

She watched as his attention turned towards the rusted building in the horizon. His attention returned to her before simply stating, "Let's go."

"Right!" the bat cheered, hopeful that they could maybe get some answers about this ruined place.

Entering Eggman's base didn't offer any resistance since no power seemed to be running anywhere. Shadow could simply barge in through any door with ease. Soon enough, they found the main computer, only to find that it had no power as well. "Now what?" Rouge asked, rather annoyed.

Shadow grunted angrily, trying to restrain himself from smashing something. Why was there no power? Eggman was smarter than this. What was going on? "Wait," he started, "The Doctor would have to have…" His words trailed off as he searched for… perfect. His fingers pressed a few levers and the computer desk that Rouge was sitting on lit up as the screen flashed open.

"Ha!" Rouge exclaimed as she hopped back down on her feet. "Nice work handsome," she seductively said while brushing the hedgehog's shoulder. Shadow's eyes lingered after her as she set herself in front of the keyboard and started hacking the computer. She tapped away at keys Shadow actually wasn't really paying much attention. As long as they can find out where the hell they are, that was all that mattered.

"I'm in."

Shadow ran his eyes across the information appearing on the screen. "I've pinpointed our location," Rouge started, "it's…" she pressed another few keys before continuing. "No… that's not possible…" the bat had a look of concern on her face. "We're still in the Doctor's base," she turned to face Shadow before continuing, "But how can that be?" she asked him.

Before he could give her an answer, she came up with it herself, "Wait, there's no doubt now!"

Shadow caught up with her trail of thought and continued, "So, it's not where we are…" The two returned their eyes to the screen, the answer became clear.

"It appears we've gone through time… doesn't it?" the hedgehog concluded.

Rouge kept reading and continued, "Yes… Approximately 200 years. Maybe more, depending on when this database was last updated." As her words left her lips, she noticed the irritated look on Shadow's face and attempted to stay positive, "Well, at least we know we've arrived in the future."

Her words didn't seem to affect him, though his expression changed. Maybe he came up with the same conclusion she did. "That means this Mephiles character has the power to control time."

"His power feels very similar to my own Chaos Control" he added, "But…"

A loud sound was heard from behind them. It sounded like a machine that had just started. But how could it? There was no power left in this base. This could only mean someone was here, and that it was most likely an enemy. "Stay here," Shadow ordered to the bat before dashing towards the sound. Rouge watched him go and shook her head. As if she'd stay in this boring place while he was going to get all of the fun. She shut down the computer and followed after him.

The ivory bat spotted Shadow standing, arms crossed, by the side of a broken glass window that opened to a large circular area. He was looking down at something or someone so she approached to see for herself.

Down below were three familiar characters having trouble getting back up on their feet. "Oh, look who's here!" she exclaimed as Shadow shot her a death glare. He wanted nothing to do about those three and here she was getting their attention.

"I didn't expect to see you guys," the seductive bat continued, quite amused by their look of surprise.

Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower and Knuckles the Echidna turned to the dark duo, "Rouge! Shadow!" the young two-tailed fox exclaimed loudly.

"Hi. Long-time no see!" Rouge greeted before flying down to meet them on the lower level. Shadow remained where he stood. If there were any three people that irritated him more than anything, it was them, though it was mostly concentrated around the cocky blue hedgehog.

"Not the bat-girl!" Knuckles exclaimed angrily.

"Hmm," Rouge smirked, "I missed you too," but her smirk left her features as the echidna responded only with an angry grunt.

"Give it a rest, Knucklehead," Sonic interfered, "Can one of you two tell me where we are? I've got a battle with Eggman to get back to."

"I don't know guys," Tails started, "This place looks just like the Doctor Eggman's base we were just at."

"What?" Sonic exclaimed, "Then where is he?!"

"He's dead, I'd say," Rouge answered.

"What?!" All three exclaimed. "What are you talking about, bat-girl?!" Knuckles demanded.

Rouge's smirk returned, "Listen well, the Doctor most likely managed to transport you trough time, 200 years into the future in fact."

"Stop making up nonsense!" Knuckles shouted. "It's a trick, Sonic. Don't listen to her."

Rouge's eyes went to meet Sonic's emerald ones, and Sonic's eyes went to meet Shadow's.

The dark hedgehog shrugged. "Go outside and see for yourselves."

The dusty wind blew at the trio's face as the destroyed future came into their view. "This is the distant future," Rouge explained, "far removed from our own timeline."

"The future?" Tails asked, obviously worried. "Then that means Eggman's machine can control time!"

Sonic started to show signs of frustration, "Eggman's got some nerve dropping us here."

"Now, how can we get back to our own time?" Knuckles asked. The sight of this ruined future must have calmed him down a bit.

"You need a space-time rift," Shadow spoke, attracting everyone's attention, "but this requires a lot of energy." It was the only way, his Chaos Control along with Sonic's ability to summon the Chaos Control and the Chaos Emeralds will be the only way to return to their time. How ironic that encountering this irritating blue hedgehog would be their ticket out of this future.

"I see," Sonic caught on, "You mean using your Chaos Control will…"

"Yes," Shadow continued, "but that alone is insufficient."

Sonic's cocky smile spread wide, "Okay Shadow. It looks like we need to work together."

The group agreed. "So…" Sonic wondered, "All we have to do now is find two of the Chaos Emeralds?"

"How do we know they're here?" Tails asked.

"They're here alright," Knuckles confirmed. "The Chaos Emeralds don't disappear throughout time. They've been around since thousands of years and they'll always be!"

"Then let's split up," Sonic decided. "Rouge can track down the emeralds too, right?"

"Of course," she answered while brushing her hand through her hair, effectively removing the dirt caught in it.

"Perfect. Then I'll go with Tails and Knuckles find the Chaos Emerald and you two find the other one." Sonic said. "Let's meet back here when we've found it."

The group approved of the plan and Sonic dashed away before challenging Shadow to a race on who would find the Chaos Emerald first which Shadow simply scoffed off. Tails and Knuckles ran after the speedy hedgehog and they were soon out of sight.

Shadow turned towards his female partner. "Do you know where the emerald might be?"

Rouge seemed a little frustrated, "I can't feel it. It must be further away."

They paused to think. Where should they start to look? Meanwhile Mephiles was free to do who knows what. "We should follow the creatures that attacked you earlier," Shadow suggested, "They'll most likely be drawn to the emerald's power."

She smiled at him. He was always so brilliant

Shadow and Rouge managed to find one of the flaming creatures that could easily be followed. They followed its trace over buildings and through the city until Rouge felt the presence of a Chaos Emerald close by. They stopped following the creature and followed the trail of the emerald.

Rouge led the way with Shadow occasionally stepping in to defeat some hostile lava creatures. They arrived at the center of the city where a surreally large fire was raging in the form of a twister. There, spinning among the flames, was the green Chaos Emerald. It spiralled as high as any of the remaining skyscrapers, dangerously surrounded by the flames.

The treasure hunter stared at it disappointedly as she thought of a way to get her hands on the precious gem.

"Get me to the top of that building," Shadow told her, pointing to the highest building still standing.

She glanced at the building in question and looked back at Shadow doubtfully. "You think you can get it from there?" she asked.

He nodded confidently, eyes closed, arms folded.

"Alright , I trust you," Rouge said as she began to take flight and grabbed hold of his deadly precise hands, making familiar chills creep up her arms and mix inside her. "Just be careful," she added. A simple 'hmph' was the only response she had from her ebony friend.

Rouge dropped Shadow on the top of the building and landed next to him. Shadow wasted no time positioning himself and started a spin dash before launching himself off the building and over the flames. He landed on the wall of a building across the street from the one he had left Rouge on, and pushed against it, propelling him in the air and through the burning flame, grabbing the Chaos Emerald swiftly before landing on the street below. At the speed he was going, fire could not catch on to him and Shadow stood up, unharmed, examining the emerald.

His ruby eyes left the emerald and focused on the curvaceous bat landing next to him.

Rouge snatched the Chaos Emerald out of his hands, absolutely thrilled.

"Let's head back," Shadow said before hiding a smile and walking ahead. It was a special feeling, so new, but so welcoming. Before, when Rouge would take the Chaos Emeralds from him, he felt possessive of them. He felt that the power they held was his to tap into to enhance and develop his Chaos abilities. But now, here he was having no problem with Rouge keeping what he felt was his.

The truth was now evident to him. He trusted her like he never thought could trust again. He trusted her like he had trusted Maria, but somehow it was still completely different.

The hedgehog kept walking, trying to find an answer to clear his puzzled mind. His attention was caught by the way the green Chaos Emerald reflected in Rouge's turquoise eyes. His eyes lingered and travelled to her beautiful pink-glossed lips and beyond. She was completely absorbed by the Chaos Emerald's beauty, leaving Shadow's mind cleared as he contemplated his best friend and teammate.

Rouge was now giggling with joy, "My precious Chaos Emerald," she started. "You are all so beautiful. Your mysterious brilliance…" She trailed off, noticing Shadow had stopped before her.

Her eyes left the emerald to find what Shadow was looking at before them. As soon as she laid eyes on the source, her blood seemed to become still. She wordlessly stored the Chaos Emerald away, as it had become almost insignificant right now, and stepped carefully forwards. Shadow was motionless behind her, still processing what he was seeing.

"Omega!" she exclaimed, "What's he doing here?" she asked Shadow even though she knew he couldn't give her an answer. She rushed forward to study the rusting E-series Eggman robot covered in dirt. Shadow was by her side soon after and immediately went to the control panel at the back of the E-series robot.

Rouge followed to watch Shadow try to bring their robot teammate to life.

Nothing.

"It seems he's in standby mode," Shadow announced, not bothering to hide his disappointment from the bat.

Rouge starred at their friend in disbelief. "What could have possibly happened to create this future?"

There was no answer from the hedgehog. Shadow shook his head, feeling powerless for his metallic friend. He hated it.

Suddenly Rouge's G.U.N. communicator strapped on her wrist beeped. Rouge wondered briefly how the military could reach her across time, but decided to answer nonetheless. She was slightly surprise to hear Tails respond. She didn't think he'd be able to tap into her communicator's frequency. It made her realize she was maybe underestimating the young fox.

Tails announced that they had located a signal of an emerald and that they should join up, since finding it could prove to be difficult.

Rouge agreed and ended the transition. She shared the information with Shadow who was still trying helplessly to help Omega return to them. Rouge sighed sadly. She knew how bad he must feel. She tried to think of a way to cheer him up, which was hard at any moment, but then she realized. This was a future, whatever happened to create this future could be stopped. And whatever happened to Omega could also be changed. They could save him, just not now. "Let's go, Shadow," she called, "It's not like we can do anything for him now."

Shadow stepped back from their friend as he realized Rouge was right. And he was determined to change Omega's fate. His eyes locked with Rouge's and stuck.

Had he really never noticed how beautiful her eyes were? More importantly, how soft and caring they were right now. Her turquoise eyes stood out even more when her cheeks shied a warm pink. It left him breathless. "Yeah," he whispered, which surprised them both. His voice was low and almost gentle. He walked up closer to her before catching himself. He stood in front of her but kept three or four feet between them. He trusted this stunning and clever bat more than anything and he truly believed that they could save Omega together. They were a team. The best there was in his eyes. They would undoubtedly find a solution.

Rouge's cheeks went a deeper shade of red before she turned to take walk away to take the lead and meet up with Sonic and the others. Shadow didn't miss Rouge's smile spreading across her face as she turned. It was the most honest smile he had ever seen on her and she wore it beautifully. It gave him a sincere smile of his own that he knew no one could see as he followed her closely.

They walked silently together as the sun was setting. Although they did want to get back to their present time, there truthfully were in no hurry to return to the others. There was just something so comfortable and peaceful between them that none of them wanted to break.

Shadow breathed a warm laugh, catching Rouge by surprise again. She wasn't going to comment on it though, in fear of never hearing such a sweet sound again. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing," Shadow quickly answered. He didn't believe how open he was becoming around her. It was a strange feeling. He wasn't sure if he should welcome it or not. "We make a good team, that's all."

"Yep! I've got your back, love," she teased happily. "Oh! Speaking of backs," she added, "when we get home and I can finally get a bath, you'll wash my back for me, right? This dirt is getting everywhere, I swear…"

Shadow looked at his ally like she had gone insane, which made her laugh. "Isn't that what teammates do?" she asked, still laughing.

"Don't count on it, bat-girl," he concluded quickly. Though, her playfulness was making it hard to hide the smile that crept at his lips.

A part of him wondered if he'd actually be washing her back sometime soon though.

Hope you liked it! Flame Core is up next. I'll try to be much faster about it. Don't forget to review if you have anything to share with me. = )

Until next time! Thank you for reading! = )