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STAGE 4:

FLAME CORE

The sun had set, leaving this dystopian future in the dark. The thick smog left no room for any light from the moon or the stars.

Shadow and Rouge watched as the recognisable blue dash flash before them, revealing Sonic, posing proudly. Tails and Knuckles arrived shortly after. Rouge cracked a smile, feeling she had to tease them for making her and Shadow wait. "You guys are so slow," she laughed and pulled out her Chaos Emerald to show off. "Look," she ordered proudly.

"A Chaos Emerald!" Tails shouted, "You already found one!"

The surprise in the young fox was flattering and Rouge loved the annoyance and jealousy Knuckles was failing to hide.

"Well now…" Rouge continued, standing proudly with a hand on her hip. "I may not look it, but I'm a real treasure hunter."

Knuckles had turned his back by now, seeming annoyed. Rouge jumped to the occasion to poke some fun out of him. "Unlike a certain echidna I know," she teased, awaiting a response from her hot-headed rival.

In a matter of seconds, Knuckles was up in her face, already furious. "What?!" he almost roared. This caused Rouge's smile to grow even wider.

Noticing how pleased Knuckles had made her, he quickly tried to compose himself and scoffed her off. Rouge watched him stomp away as she fought a laugh. None of them noticed how Shadow's grip tightened as he glared at Knuckles. His eyes never left the echidna after that.

Shadow's patience grew thin. "Have you guys discovered anything?" he asked, trying to get things moving along.

"Um, yeah," Tails answered, "I received a signal indicating there's a Chaos Emerald here, but…"

The young fox trailed off as he indicated the direction of a volcano up in the distance. "You mean we've got to go through there?" Rouge asked. The idea of a volcano had her concerned. Tails had better be telling the truth about a Chaos Emerald in a place like that, Rouge thought.

"If you don't like it, you can stay here," Knuckles warned angrily, once again inches away from Rouge's face.

This wasn't funny anymore. Rouge remembered how irritating the echidna could get. "You've got to be kidding!" she answered angrily herself. The two locked eyes for a few instants as daggers were thrown between them before Knuckles backed away again.

Shadow's eyes left Knuckles as Sonic caught his attention with a challenging look in his eyes. "Don't be late," the blue hedgehog told him.

Shadow approached his rival, not impressed. "Same to you," he returned before stepping ahead and toward the volcano.

Sonic was quick to match his pace as the others followed behind. "Shouldn't we all stay together though?" Tails called. "It's kind of why I called you two you know!"

Sonic braked in front of the black hedgehog. "What do you say, Shadow?" he asked nicely, "Care to team up? We could race!"

Shadow glared at the overly friendly hedgehog before looking over to Rouge who only answered with a wink. "Fine," Shadow answered, "Just don't get in my way."

So, the group made their way to the volcano, but the smoke in the sky thickened as they got closer. The only light was from the small glow of the flowing lava, making it quite hard to see. The group ventured forward, careful of their footing.

With her enhanced vision, Rouge glided ahead with ease, finding the darkness a comfortable change from the weather of the day. It wasn't even cold thanks the radiating warmth of the volcano.

Knuckles was walking close behind the bat, seeming to also have an easier time to see, and therefore unknowingly taking the lead with Rouge.

Shadow, Sonic and Tails were slightly behind the two. Shadow led as Tails followed carefully while Sonic walked behind the young fox, a little worried about his buddy's safety as he watched Tails' every step.

Shadow felt confident in the dark and easily could've kept pace with Rouge up ahead, but somehow he wanted to stick behind. Curiously, it was much easier to survey the red echidna's movements. It was a perfect spot to watch where that irritating echidna's eyes travelled across his best friend and teammate's body.

Sonic's attention left Tails to notice Shadow's jaw tighten. He followed the red flaming eyes of the dark hedgehog to his friend Knuckles up ahead and absolutely had to comment.

"Why are you doing this to yourself, Shad ol' buddy?" Sonic asked, quite amused by himself.

Shadow rolled his tongue and took a deep breath before responding to the infuriating blue hedgehog. "I am not your 'buddy' and I told you not to call me that," he said, grimacing at the friendly nickname Sonic kept giving him. He breathed again, trying to avert his eyes from the ogling echidna before continuing, "and I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Suuure you don't," Sonic answered slyly, obviously not buying any of it.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" Tails asked, his curiosity kicking in.

"Nothing. Your friend's an idiot," Shadow answered abruptly.

"You see, Tails," Sonic started, still very amused, "Our ol' buddy, Shadow, doesn't like having Knucklehead hanging out with our girl Rouge here."

Shadow stopped.

"Ohh… I get it. Shadow's expressing a common case of jealousy," Tails concluded. "Many things can cause jealousy," Tails explained, "Like possessiveness or one's own insecurities. Many psychologists have studied the subject, Shadow, and if you want, I could help you work on your issues, wh-wh-which you have not and I'm being silly, and and, Soniiiiiic!"

Tails sputtered nervously and quickly hid behind his best friend and hero, Sonic, for protection as Shadow had spun around to stare the fox down with a dangerous look in his eyes.

Sonic put his hands up slightly, but kept his cool attitude as he tried to diffuse the bomb that was now Shadow.

"Calm down, Shadow," Sonic started, "Tails is just trying to help."

Shadow's eyes were still furious as he glared into Sonic's cool green ones.

"And if you're too immature to take it lightly," Sonic continued as he lowered his hands to assume a fighting stance, "You know I never turn down a challenge!"

Shadow hmpted before assuming his own fighting stance.

"You're on, hedgehog."

"Uh, guys?"

Sonic, Tails and Shadow just now noticed Knuckles who had walked up to them.

"Knuckles!" Tails exclaimed, relieved to have someone break the two rivals up.

"What's up?" Sonic asked as he quickly relaxed as if nothing had happened.

Shadow grunted and folded his arms as he turned away from the echidna.

"Well…" Knuckles started, a little uncertain of the three's reaction, "Uh… Rouge and I spotted some weird glowing purple lights up ahead," he stopped for a moment to point at the lights. "Over there," he explained, "so we were thinking they could maybe lead us to the emerald. All we have to do is follow them."

"Hold up there bud," Sonic cut it, "I know you tend to imagine things, but there are no purple lights anywhere."

"What?!" Knuckles exclaimed in disbelief, "They're right there!" He pointed insistently.

"Yup, he's crazy," Sonic quickly concluded.

"Why you!" Knuckles roared as he clenched his fists.

"But Knuckles," Tails chirped in, "We can't see any lights. It's too dark."

"Oh," Knuckles relaxed as he realized his friends point. He turned back to Rouge who was waiting for them up ahead. "These idiots can't see!" he called to her with a laugh.

Shadow's glare returned to Sonic. Sonic gave him a sympathetic smile that Shadow scoffed away.

Rouge walked up to them. "Ugh, fine, if none of you can see them then me and Knux will go on ahead and lead the way. There seems to be some kind of crust on those lights that seems to dim the intensity. If we remove them then all of you dears can see the way."

She turned back to head to work before turning around with a wink. "Keep up now okay?"

Knuckles followed her and got to work quickly and soon enough, a path revealed itself by the ominous purple-glowing orbs of light. The group scaled the volcano carefully. It was becoming more and more dangerous as it grew hotter the closer they got to the top. More and more lava was flowing, making the earth and rocks crumble easily. Rouge and Tails had opted to stick with flight, while the others moved expertly up the volcano.

Finally they could see the mouth of the volcano. The group paused, all feeling weary about their location.

"Quite the dangerous hiding spot," Rouge commented, the thrill of the adventure spreading a smile on her face.

"Nervous, bat-girl?" Knuckles asked her, also wearing a smile of his own.

"Never," she admitted confidently.

"Stay here," Shadow ordered as he headed up to the top.

Rouge let out a dry laugh before responding, "And leave you have all the fun? I didn't climb up this rock to wait patiently," she retorted, "Now move along, hedgehog."

She passed him with a seductive wink. Sonic was laughing, shaking his head as he followed after her. Knuckles had a cocky smile as he followed along, and Tails flew behind, avoiding eyes contact with the black hedgehog. As irritating as they all were, Shadow let an amused smile spread on his face once they all weren't looking.

They reached the top and there it was. The turquoise Chaos Emerald spun over the lava pit of the volcano.

"I've found a Chaos Emerald!" the thieving bat squealed happily before taking flight and reaching out to grab it.

Suddenly, Shadow's instincts screamed in alert. "Don't touch it!" he ordered Rouge.

At that moment a large and imposing lava creature emerged from the lava to attack the bat who had dared to lay hands on its emerald.

Thanks to Shadow's warning, Rouge managed to get out of the way on time and landed safely at Shadow's side.

Quickly, Shadow confirmed his ally was alright and stepped in front of her in a protective stance. He, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails prepared to fight.

"What?" Rouge tried to recover, "What's this?" she asked, annoyed this monster had gotten in between her and the Chaos Emerald.

The creature screeched at its attackers and Shadow wasted no time to launch the first attack.

A Chaos Spear in hand, Shadow dodged the flaming rocks the creature threw at him and unleashed his attacks at every opportunity.

Meanwhile, another lava creature burst out to attack the others.

Shadow hardly had time to worry about Rouge's safety before Sonic was already fighting it off, effectively defending Rouge, Knuckles and Tails who had begun cheering him on.

Without the other creature to worry about, Shadow's attention returned to his fight.

True, he didn't particularly like the blue hedgehog, but he had proven to be quite the challenge many times over, and Shadow had learned to at least trust his azure rival.

Both the hedgehogs brought down the two lava creatures at the same time, much to Shadow's annoyance.

Rouge happily snagged the turquoise Chaos Emerald before it fell into the lava.

"Nice job boys," Rouge congratulated as she returned to the group, emerald in hand.

"Let's hurry back to our time, Sonic!" Tails rushed "Elise needs our help."

"I know Tails, no worries," Sonic calmly answered.

"Come on bat, hand over the emerald," Knuckles asked.

Rouge groaned in annoyance. "Always the gentleman," she said as she tossed the turquoise Chaos Emerald into Sonic's hands.

Sonic nodded a thanks, "Alright Shadow, so… we Chaos Control on go?" he asked.

It was Shadow's turn to groan. "Just follow my lead," he answered. He tapped into the Chaos energy of the green Chaos Emerald, making it glow and lifted it forward before being met with Sonic's own emerald. Together they shouted to travel through time, "Chaos Control!"

The two Chaos Emeralds flashed and created a warp hole that opened up like a swirling vortex. Both emeralds merge into the vortex and travelled to the other side.

Always on his feet, Sonic immediately jumped into it. Tails followed his hero closely behind and Knuckles eagerly jumped into the warp hole as well.

Rouge flew up close to the strange phenomenon, amazed by the powers of her teammate. She turned to meet eyes with him, but he had his eyes glued to the ground, lost in thought.

Something seemed wrong. Shadow didn't like it. He realized Rouge was waiting after him and brought his attention to her.

The way Shadow looked at her… Rouge couldn't remember a time where he had his eyes glued so intently to hers. His red orbs seemed to scream at her to go, while also pleading for her to stay with him.

Suddenly, Shadow eyes darted away as turned to face something behind him.

Before she could tell what he was looking at, Rouge found herself bathed in sunlight.

The dark and ominous sky was replaced by a cloud-free blue one. Rouge landed on the pure white stone tiles below her. She quickly looked around, calling for the her dark hedgehog friend who had just disappeared. Finding no signs of him anywhere, she returned her worried eyes to where the time portal had vanished.

Shadow was unreachable. He was stuck in the future, hundreds of years apart from her.

Would she ever see him again?

Thank you for reading! Tropical Jungle is next, although it should go by fast, since we want to help Shadow as soon as possible!