I am SSSOOO sorry. It has been entirely too long. I blame this on Amy. She came into the story and just about hijacked the direction. Shadow's rebuke was the only way to bring it back under control.

So yeah... Hopefully I can keep up this momentum and get another chapter for ya'll soon! All rights belong to Sega.

When they left the cave, Sonic had glanced back by chance at Maria who'd been following behind him. She'd raised a hand, blinking at the bright sunlight at first and it had taken a while for her eyes to adjust, but when they did… He'd never forget the look of awed wonder on her face as she saw the blue sky for the first time in her life.

"Sh-shadow!" she said somewhat shakily. "It's-! There's nothing between us and the sun!"

Shadow looked up at his friend, expression gentle and sympathetic. He put a steadying hand on her arm. "Take your time," Sonic heard him say.

This could be interesting. Sonic had never taken the time to imagine what it would be like to grow up without the sky or grass or dirt or a hundred of those little things that he took for granted every day. This was going to be one hell of an adjustment period for the poor girl. Come to think of it, hadn't Shadow faced the same thing?

"It's beautiful," Maria said as her eyes finally adjusted, though she was still squinting a little. "And we're sure it's safe? I mean-! I know humans have lived on this planet from the start, but-!"

Shadow's answering chuckle was quiet and Sonic realized he'd never heard genuine laughter from the other hedgehog before this moment. He couldn't help smiling to himself.

"You get used to it after a while," Shadow reassured Maria, tugging on her hand to remind her to keep walking. "Though even after six months, I still have trouble with wind sometimes."

"Wind?" Sonic couldn't help asking.

"The perceptible natural movement of the air," Maria said in a manner that came across as a professor giving a distracted clarification, but her stride hesitated as she glanced back at Sonic. "You've lived down here your whole life, how could you not know what wind was?"

Shadow shook his head. "He was asking why wind bothers me," he said quietly.

Maria turned pink. "Oooohhhh…" she said. "Wind was more of a concept on the Ark. Sorry."

Sonic waived her apology off with a grin. "That's alright," he said. "This has all got to be one huge learning curve for you! I couldn't even imagine growing up without the sky, or something as simple as dirt."

"It is a little overwhelming to see so much of it in one place!" Maria laughed. "The only dirt I ever got to see was usually in test tubes, and I wasn't allowed inside the green house for a very good reason!"

"Too many necessary pathogens for the plants," Shadow nodded. "Sterilize that and you lose the entire crop."

"Didn't know you were a botanist," Sonic said, glancing with genuine curiosity at Shadow.

"I'm not," Shadow returned. "You just pick up a few things when your sister can get deathly ill over the slightest exposure to pathogens that are normal for other people."

Sonic cringed. "Makes sense," he admitted. "So, wind?"

"Wind on board the Ark was always a bad sign," Shadow explained. After that brief statement he did not seem inclined to explain further.

Maria however was nodding, a look of sympathetic understanding in her eyes. "Wind was usually indicative of a catastrophic failure like a hullbreach," she said. "Sudden depressurization can cause a bit of a draft even from far away."

"Spacewalks shouldn't be a problem for you though," Sonic said looking at Shadow who turned away, looking uncomfortable.

"There was a... meteor storm," Maria said, sounding a little bashful. "I was in an exterior hall and Shadow had to grab me when a three foot hole opened up not ten feet ahead of us. We almost got sealed out too."

"I guess that makes sense," Sonic said with a sympathetic cringe. "When you live among people who do all have to worry about that, I can see how the worry would have rubbed off."

Maria nodded. "Although, there were a couple people aboard the Ark that I wouldn't have minded at all if they'd gone floating off into space," she said, her tone far too light for the dark implication in her words. "Dr. Stein and his cold hearted b- assistant."

Shadow's ears went flat. "They died during the raid," he said with a note of finality. "I checked."

There were a few moments of silence and Sonic could feel the weight of unspoken history between the girl and her hedgehog, and for once, he felt like an intruder.

"Good," Maria said quietly at last.

They made the rest of the walk to the Tornado in silence, and Shadow's ears remained pinned to his head. Before they emerged onto the track, Maria pulled them up short and knelt in front of Shadow, who averted his eyes. Sonic had never seen him looking so evasive.

"I'm sorry, Shadow," Maria said, taking his hand and leaning slightly to try to make eye contact with him. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

Shadow's shoulders loosened slightly and he glanced up to look Maria in the eyes before his gaze dropped back to the ground. "It's alright," he said quietly. "I know it was hard enough having to watch."

Maria smiled, though it was touched with sadness and she reached up to rub Shadow's ears, slowly and gently unpinning them.

Shadow sighed and leaned into her touch.

"Feel better?" Maria asked, and Shadow nodded. "Okay, let's go."

Maria's excitement about the small aircraft was infectious. Learning that Tails was the pilot was even more exciting for her, much to Sonic's relief. Even Knuckles was smiling as they arranged seating. Sonic and Knuckles were both wanting to wing walk, but Tails managed to talk Sonic into the co-pilot's seat.

Maria took the passenger's seat, and when Shadow climbed into her lap, no one said anything, but Knuckles and Tails had both looked shocked. Once they were all loaded up, they took off. Even without being in the pilot seat, Sonic could feel the Tornado having to work harder to take off and it made him a little nervous, but the calm set of Tails' ears had him relaxing again. The kit knew what he was doing.

Tails took a relaxed loop around Angel Island, much to Maria's delight and awe. It really was an impressive sight with its three major mountain peaks and the almost symmetrical underside. The many waterfalls cascading off the floating landmass added to the mist that surrounded the place. And it was green. It was soooo green!

Sonic knew that Knuckles took pride in the fact that there wasn't a single bare spot on the whole island. The whole thing had life everywhere he looked. The ocean was a nice counterpoint of blue and whenever he managed to glance back at Maria, there was always a smile on her face. He turned forward again to watch Tails point them at the mainland.

Alright, maybe this whole misadventure was worth it, just for that smile.

They touched down on Tails' runway and Knuckles jumped off the wing to walk the rest of the way. The rest of them stayed aboard as Tails took a moment to taxi into the hangar before cutting the engine.

"That was amazing!" Maria said at once as she prepared to climb out of the plane.

"Yeah," Tails said fondly as he patted the rim of the cockpit. "Flying is one of my favorite things in the whole world!"

"I can definitely see why," Maria said.

Tails grabbed her by the hand the second they were on solid ground. "Come on!" he said eagerly as he began to pull her away. "There's so much I wanna show you! I have a workshop, and I was thinking you could stay in the guest room and…"

Their voices trailed off.

Sonic smiled fondly. "They're gonna be two peas in a pod," he said, turning to Shadow who just looked overwhelmed. "You wanna get out of here and go for a run maybe?"

Shadow cringed, setting a hand on his thigh as if his legs were sore. "Sleep?" he suggested instead.

Sonic took stock of his own body and cringed as well. All of him was sore and his joints were achy, like he'd just had a terrible fever, and his tummy was gurgling threateningly at the little breakfast he'd managed to get down. "Sleep also sounds good," he admitted. "Come on, that guest room's still open open for you unless Tails has given it to Maria already. Though something tells me she wouldn't mind if you stole her bed for a few hours."

Shadow smiled. "She doesn't," he confirmed and followed behind Sonic to the rooms.

Sonic saw Shadow to the guest room before going to his own. He had left the drapes down that morning and it was dark and cool. The bed was softer than the one in Knuckle's warren and he sank into it with a slightly pained sigh. His eyelids were already beginning to droop even as he squirmed into a comfy position.

Sheesh. It wasn't even noon and he was wiped. What a hectic few days. At least Shadow and Maria had each other now, and… Sonic smiled. Shadow was where he should be, among people who would actually value him and want to get to know him. He would see. Life didn't have to be… such… a… struggle.

Tails workshop was a dream come true and a nightmare wrapped up in a huge mess. Maria couldn't have been happier. Technology had left her behind and it was thrilling to see how it had developed over the past fifty years. She was particularly fond of the new computers and of course, the tiny marvel, the smart phone. It threw her for a bit of a loop to learn that just about everyone had one. Back in her time, people had still been arguing over whether computers would end up being tools or toys, and some had sworn never to bring one into their homes.

And touch screen technology! Ah, what a time to be alive! Was it childish of her to admit that she could spend hours just flipping through the screen? Not only could she interact directly with the screen, but it was so smooth! This was clearly a work that had been refined!

Her reverie was interrupted when the door crashed open, and a pink hedgehog flounced into the workshop. "Tails! You're back!" she said, causing Tails to jump out of his fur. "I tried to check on you after that storm the other day, but you weren't here! Nobody was! Where did you go? Why didn't you tell anyone? I was so worried!"

"Sorry Amy," Tails said, rubbing his neck bashfully as he approached their newest guest. "There was a bit of an emergency and I had to fly to Angel Island the second we could take off."

"We?" Amy asked and her already bright expression brightened even further as she jumped up and down, clapping a little. "Oh! Is Sonic here?"

Tails instantly got a little defensive. "Uh, well," he said. "He's resting right now, I don't think-."

"Resting?" Amy said as if the idea was a foreign concept. Then her face went from confused to worried. It was kind of interesting to watch how quickly the hedgehog flicked through emotions. "Oh my gosh, is he alright? Did he get hurt again?"

"Something like that," Tails said, cringing. "Look he's-!"

"Oh my gosh! What happened to my Sonic?!" Amy exclaimed, approaching Tails. "Tell me everything!"

Maria was convinced that if the little fox had been wearing clothes, she'd have grabbed him by the collar and shook him.

"Amy, calm down!" Tails finally burst out. "He's fine, I promise. We just had a little incident with the device that gave Sonic seizures, we took him to the Master Emerald and he's fine now. But it was kind of tiring so he needs to rest."

"Oh my gosh! Is he okay?" Amy shouted, clapping her hands to her cheeks, eyes wide with concern.

"Yes!" Tails said with growing annoyance. "I just told you he's fine. He's just resting."

"Not anymore," Sonic said somewhat grumpily from the doorway.

Shadow rounded the corner just in time to include himself in the action and his ears went back pinned firmly to his head when Amy shrieked Sonic's name. He looked at Maria askance at her behavior, and Maria wondered if this was his first encounter with the newest arrival.

Amy dove for Sonic in a flying tackle, but in a quick motion, Shadow managed to grab her by her arm and spin her around so her momentum took her back into the workshop where she stood blinking in surprise. Sonic sent Shadow a look of profound relief and gratitude to which the darker hedgehog responded with a shrug as he rubbed his shoulder.

Before Amy could recover from her surprise, Maria started towards them, dropping to her knees to tuck Sonic protectively beneath her arm.

Shadow's expression darkened into a scowl as he placed himself protectively between them and the pink maniac. "You need to show more restraint," he told Amy. "We just told you he was injured, and with a move like that you'd have put him on the ground. Do you make a habit of exacerbating his injuries?"

"Pretty much," Sonic muttered, looking content to stay in Maria's gentle hold.

Amy looked flummoxed. "But I don't-!" she started to say and Tails interrupted her.

"Nah, it's pretty much every time," Tails agreed. "You just gotta tackle him regardless of whether he's just been in a fight or not."

Amy went quiet and it was clear the hedgehog felt she was getting it from all sides, and Sonic sighed.

As much as this could be a learning moment for her, it was plain to see that Sonic couldn't stand to see her so down. With a reassuring pat on Maria's arm, he shrugged out of her grip and approached Amy with a smile. "Hey, kiddo," he said, putting a hand on Amy's shoulder. "We all love your enthusiasm, chaos knows that it's saved our tails more than a few times, and maybe you could learn to direct it a little more carefully, but we all still appreciate you, okay?"

Amy looked up at Sonic and for a moment Maria thought she was going to cry, but the pink hedgehog straightened her shoulders, looked Sonic in the eye and pasted on a fake smile. "I know that," she said, but her tone wasn't quite back up to the bubbly levels the rest of them were all familiar with.

"Tell ya what," Sonic said. "Since we just added somebody to the gang today, why don't we go shopping. She arrived here with just the clothes on her back."

Maria abruptly felt like hiding. How did the focus of this conversation turn so abruptly back to her? "We don't have to-!" she started to protest, but Shadow scoffed quietly in amusement and put a hand on her shoulder.

"For once, I agree with Sonic," Shadow said. "You're going to need a few things."

Amy stepped forward staring at Maria with eyes the size of dinner plates. "You only have that one outfit?!" she said. "How did that even happen?"

There was a long pause as the group shared a collective look.

"Long story?" Tails laughed uncomfortably as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hmm, I'm sure it will be a good topic for discussion when we pause for ice cream," Amy said, attaching herself to Maria's arm.

"Ice cream?" Maria asked, brightening.

"It's decided then!" Amy declared. "We'll go as a group! It'll be fun!"

And that was how the entire group ended up on the tramway bound for Station Square.

Sonic knew he was in for carrying duties when he saw the troubled look on Shadow's face. When Tails, Amy and Maria (Knuckles had disappeared sometime back) were all absorbed watching the landscape speed by, he approached Shadow.

"Somethin' up there Shadow?" he asked. "Anything I can help with?"

Shadow sighed and pinned him with a searching stare, the emotions in those red eyes were currently veiled. "...Can I count on you to watch out for Maria?" he asked at long last.

"Of course," Sonic said, matching his serious tone, though he was starting to get a little worried at this point. "You need to split off from the group or something?"

Shadow's mouth tightened into a frown of distaste. "I have a few loose ends that require my attention. Things that can't wait," he said. "You're the only one I trust to guard my sister the same way I can."

"Loose ends?" Sonic said, feeling the fur on the back of his neck prickle. "You sound like you're gonna kill somebody." His attempt at a jovial tone sounded a little thin.

"Depending on how this goes, I just might have to," Shadow said darkly. "As much as I'd rather stay, this situation will only get worse the longer I ignore it."

"Are you sure you don't need back up?" Sonic asked. "This shopping trip can wait."

"You are the back up, Sonic," Shadow said. "I can't be in two places at once, and she needs clothes, and I need to do this."

"Could ya at least tell me where you're going?" Sonic asked.

"I'm handing in my resignation," Shadow said, eyes sliding to the floor, he looked ashamed.

Sonic just barely curbed an explosion of temper. Just what exactly did he think had happened in the Green Hills Zone? "Is that really necessary?" Sonic asked, making an effort to keep his voice down. "If that wasn't a blatant betrayal back there, then…"

"You don't understand, Sonic," Shadow said. "If I don't hand them a resignation notice, and go through the channels and paperwork to quit, they'll have grounds to hunt me down as a rogue agent."

"As if they need an excuse," Sonic groused.

"Oh I fully expect them to come after me anyway," Shadow said. "The difference is that they'll have no legal clout if they try to pursue me into a different zone. This will make things much more difficult for them, I guarantee it."

Sonic shifted his weight back onto his heels as he considered his options. As much as he enjoyed the idea of Shadow simply never returning to GUN as his resignation, the other hedgehog was making a very good point. He still didn't like it that Shadow was going in without immediate back up.

"Alright, Shadow," Sonic said. "I guess I see your point."

"But?" Shadow asked.

"Maybe consider taking backup with you next time?" Sonic said. "Neither of us are at one hundred percent at the moment."

"Noted," Shadow said.

"It looks like they're actually getting along!" Tails said. "That's kind of… scary."

Sonic looked over to see that the others had noticed their discussion and were looking on as if watching a train wreck take place, although Maria looked puzzled at their horrified fascination.

"Why is that such a big deal?" Maria asked. "I thought you guys were friends?"

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other and both cleared their throats a little uncomfortably. "It didn't start out that way," they said in unison.

"I feel like I've missed a lot," Maria complained.

"You kinda have," Sonic said, smiling sympathetically at her. "Not to worry, though. We'll get you all caught up."

"Knuckles did say that Shadow kicked your teeth in when you first met," Maria said a little shyly.

Sonic whipped his head around to look at Shadow, who was smirking. "That's not how it went!" the blue hedgehog exclaimed.

"Keep telling yourself that, faker," Shadow said proudly. "But the guardian is correct. That is also what I remember."

"Oh no," Amy said quietly.

"Guess we're still on for that showdown then?" Sonic said, feeling his quills beginning to rise with anticipation.

"Count on it!" Shadow said. "I just regret that there isn't time for this now."

"I'd rather you be at full strength anyway," Sonic said loftily. "That way there'll be no doubt about who's faster."

"I don't have to be at full strength to beat you," Shadow said, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Guys! If you keep this up, you're gonna wreck the tram, and we won't be able to get Maria anything at all!" Tails said, his little fists balled up with frustration. "You're both too alike! You start trash talking now, and neither of you will be able to resist the challenge!"

The two hedgehogs cast a guilty look at each other. That was exactly the direction this had been going.

"Guess that's a rain check then," Sonic said bashfully, holding out a hand.

Shadow accepted it. "Truce," he agreed as they shook on it. "For now."

Once they got to the tram station, Shadow made his excuses and skated off.

"He'll join us when he can," Sonic said, gently prying Maria away from watching worriedly after her hedgehog. Luckily, the next few hours were enough to keep her thoroughly preoccupied…

Shadow was hoping to catch Rouge, so instead of heading straight to GUN HQ, he made a detour to the club, taking the alley entrance to avoid attention, even though he knew it would be closed this time of day.

To his luck, she was there, and even waiting for him. She'd been sitting on the bar with her legs dangling as she ate her lunch, but the second she saw Shadow, she dropped everything and hopped down with a graceful flutter of her wings.

"There you are!" she said approaching to examine him. "What took you so long? Do you know how worried I've been? They wouldn't tell me anything, I had to steal the mission report! Do you know they still have no idea what their toy gun even does?"

"It scrambles Chaos energy," Shadow said. "Lucky for me, Sonic's crew has already encountered it and they had a cure."

"So it was bad," she said, resting a gloved hand on his shoulder. "What happened, hon. Tell me everything."

Shadow explained in brief about his experiences with the pandemonium roiling inside him and how the Master Emerald had been the cure.

"That's not everything, is it," she scolded him softly. "Something happened on Angel Island. Something big."

Shadow couldn't help lowering his gaze. "Not ready to talk about this one, yet," he admitted.

"Whatever it was, it really threw you for a loop, didn't it," Rouge said, smiling sympathetically at him.

"It isn't bad…" Shadow said. "I'm just… having trouble adjusting I guess."

"Take all the time you need," Rouge told him, giving him a brief hug, then pulled back and winked. "You know I'm all ears."

Shadow almost smiled at the familiar pun.

"So," she said. "You seem like a hedgehog on a mission. You didn't come here just to fill me in. Frankly, I'm a little surprised you didn't go to HQ first. Change of plans?"

"Got it in one," Shadow confirmed. "I'm resigning."

"About damn time," Rouge said. "And with their recent behavior, you need an ally who will make sure all the paperwork gets filed properly. No 'lost' files."

"Are you up for this?" Shadow asked.

"Darling," Rouge said. "I can't wait to see the looks on their faces."