Shadow sat quietly, his expression hard as stone as he sat in the GUN operations briefing room. The sharp, metallic chair pressed into his backside, sapping the warmth from his body as he waited for Commander tower to finish reading the report.

The human, seated on the opposite side of the lacquered table, was just as emotionless as his eyes slowly processed the recounting of events, line-by-line. It was only as he lowered the papers that he showed any kind of reaction, sighing loudly as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Jesus, Shadow." He began, his tone exasperated as he shook his head. "So not only have two of our most vital assets been placed in enemy hands, but we've also lost the only chaos emerald in our possession to boot."

The hedgehog slowly clenched and unclenched his fists under the table, careful not to let any expression of frustration show.

"I don't intend to make excuses, Sir."

"Well, it certainly doesn't look like you intended to get results either." The Commander effortlessly batted back, further wounding the hybrid's pride. "How did the same Ultimate Lifeform that saved the world during the Black Arms crisis screw the pooch this badly?"

Shadow felt himself flinch at the mention of the monster race that led to his creation. Just the very mention of them was enough to send a wave of disgust rocking through the hedgehog's stomach.

"I am working with Sonic and his associates to get them back. I'll provide updates as we-"

"No, you won't." Tower immediately barked back. "You will report back only when you have secured Rouge and Omega. No other communication will be permitted."

"Sir, I don't understand why-"

"Do I have to spell it out for you, Agent?" His CO immediately cut him off again, harshly tapping the report in front of him. "Surely you of all people understand how precarious the position you're in is."

"I'm aware that people are still wary of me, Sir. But I don't see how that-"

His verbal contest was cut off as Commander Tower slammed his fist on the desk, leaning forward as he stood up from his seat.

"I think it's high time you acknowledge the situation you're in, Shadow. These people only work with you because I order them to. Many of them still see you as the amnesiac mowing down our soldiers in Westopolis. I get the luxury of watching recordings of you doing that every time a new president takes office and having to explain to them why that same person is now openly working for us."

The Commander was far from finished with his impassioned rant. Shadow could only watch as he continued.

"I have spent decades getting to this position, working my way to the top so I could rebuild this organization into something worthy of respect. I'm not about to let all blood and sweat I have shed go to waste. But that gets harder when I must constantly put my neck out for you and convince the people above me that you're not a threat. Hell, most of the time the only reason they agree is because it makes it easy for us to monitor you."

The hedgehog wished he could do anything at that moment- scream, yell, curse, throw punches... but he knew that every word out of his CO's mouth was completely true. People were slow to trust, and even slower to forgive. Every failure was just another tick on his record, opening himself to more scrutiny. And that scrutiny would cause only more blowback for one of the very few people who had his back the entire organization.

"I understand." Shadow nodded, doing his best to keep his shoulders straight despite the weight he felt upon them. "Once they're back safely, I will reach out to you directly."

"Good." Commander Tower nodded, crumpling the report up into a tightly packed wad. "I'll take this down to the incinerator. If there's any available satellite footage of the incident, I'll have it sent over to Tails before wiping it from our servers. Consider yourself on a leave of absence until you report back. Dismissed."

Shadow nodded, pushing himself out of the chair and onto his feet. He saluted the officer before exiting the room.

It took all his effort not to blast down the hallway and through the security checkpoints leading out of the building. Normally, he could just ignore the looks from the other soldiers, but... without his team's presence, their gazes burrowed into his body like parasitic worms. He gritted his teeth behind shut lips, sauntering past the glares and murmurs until he was eventually out of the building and back in the city proper.

With little holding him back, he revved up his shoes and practically threw himself into the highway, merging into the traffic and blasting past the vehicles until he was out of Westopolis city limits. The cityscape slowly gave way to suburbs, themselves slowly relenting to the forests and plains beyond.

He eventually slowed to a stop as he neared a large meadow dotted with smooth boulders. The wildlife was surprisingly quiet, barely even a chirp of birds as he did his best to quell the surge of emotions within himself.

He made a promise to Maria. The people of this world... they were undoubtedly good people, and despite his tampered memories, he would never think to endanger them again. It was... it was the right thing to do.

Even if the world turns against me, I will fight like I always have. He thought to himself. The taste of those words felt familiar to him, somehow. Reassuring, but faint.

But those words did nothing to help Rouge and Omega.

He barely even realized his burst of rage as he instinctively punched one of the boulders next to him. The force of the impact shattered the towering rock formation effortlessly, causing bits of stone and dust to cascade over the landscape behind it.

Shadow looked back at his hand. Completely unharmed, not even so much as a scratch.

The feelings of disgust welled up within him again, his scowl deepening as he skated away from the scene he made.

The moment Rouge had regained consciousness, she wished she hadn't. She felt her eyelids subconsciously crack open, wincing from the harsh light that flooded her senses. Almost immediately her sense of feeling returned, pain receptors firing on all cylinders as every bruise, scratch, and sore muscle simultaneously made themselves known to her.

She couldn't help but let out a groan of pain as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She couldn't feel anything beneath her, body swaying ever so slightly back and forth in the air.

"YOU ARE AWAKE." A familiar, monotonous digital voice called out.

"O-Omega?" She winced in pain, her throat hoarse. "That you?"

"AFFIRMATIVE." The robot replied. "WE ARE STILL LOCKED IN STASIS."

"Stasis?" Rouge shook her head, trying to get the bleariness out of her vision. "That last hit did a number on me. To think I'd get taken out by a Buzz Bomber... I'll never hear the end of it if word gets out."

The bat rubbed her eyes, grunting as her battered arms painfully throbbed with the movement.

With a few blinks, the world around her began to take shape. The room she was in appeared to be some kind of brightly lit workshop, littered with iron and steel components and plans that appeared only half-finished. The various benches had an assortment of robotic arms bolted onto their surfaces, some looking more recently used than others. There was still some kind of... haze or waviness that appeared in her vision, though another round of rapid blinking didn't alleviate it.

It didn't take her long to realize that it was not a problem with her vision, but the stasis field that surrounded her and kept her suspended in air. She tilted her head to the side, seeing the unfortunately familiar jellyfish-like arms of the Klagen maintaining it as the main body hovered over her.

At the opposite end of the room was another Klagen, housing her partner. It wasn't long before she zeroed in on the crumpled mess of metal where his legs used to be.

"Oh my- Omega! What happened to you?!" She immediately called out as she covered her mouth in shock.

"AUTOMATED RECORDING INDICATES PART OF MY BODY WAS DESTROYED AS A THREAT TO KEEP SHADOW FROM PURSUING." The robot responded without hesitation. "I HAVE YET TO DETERMINE IF THIS SHOULD BE ANOTHER REASON TO ANNIHILATE EGGMAN IMMEDIATELY OR ANOTHER REASON TO TORTURE EGGMAN BEFORE ANNIHILATING HIM."

Rouge chuckled, "Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

"Indeed they will! Who knew my creations could mimic free will in such a manner?"

The door to the workshop slid open with a heavy thunk. The two prisoners quickly snapped their heads to the entrance as the reviled Doctor strode in, grin wide as he clasped his hands.

"It's really such a shame the experimental neural network accelerator I had installed into you took so long to show any results. You were so below expectations; I wasn't sure if you would even be able to take on the original E-series bots!"

Rouge's eyes narrowed as Eggman let out a boisterous laugh. She didn't at all believe that was the Doctor's true opinion, so why would-

"WITHIN MY CHASSIS THERE ARE ENOUGH AUTOCANNON ROUNDS TO HOLD A SUSTAINED FIRE AT YOUR BODY FOR TWELVE MINUTES."

"And yet you're unable to fire even a single shot in your current predicament." The mad scientist sneered, leaning in towards the robot as if to challenge him.

"What are you trying to achieve, Eggman?" Rouge called out, interrupting her captor's odd behavior. "You're just trying to rile up Omega."

"IT IS WORKING." The robot immediately replied.

"Good, good. Keep that anger nice and strong. As for you..." He trailed off, turning to face the treasure hunter. "What I do with my own creations is none of your concern. As far as I'm concerned, you're only here to make sure I am not interrupted. Speaking of..."

Eggman snapped his fingers. Almost immediately, a loud metal shriek shot through the room, piercing Rouge's ears as she winced in pain. She opened her eyes again, her expression quickly morphing into one of horror as she watched Omega's arms and chest crumple inward, squealing and shriveling until they were little more than crooked spindles of metal. The only thing left unharmed was his head.

The stasis field keeping Omega suspended in air had dissipated, the traitorous super-Badnik unceremoniously being dumped onto the ground.

The Doctor simply pulled back on the brim of his gloves, readjusting his grip as he leaned over the deformed mess of sturdy metal and broken armaments.

"Now let's see here... if I recall, I installed the release mechanism around here... ha!"

With a triumphant laugh, the head of the robot popped out of its destroyed body, clattering to the ground before being picked up by the Doctor and being tucked under his arm.

"You..." Rouge trailed off, her own anger building within her at the mutilation of her friend.

"Your 'friend' is safe and sound with me, don't worry." Eggman taunted, patting the robotic head in his grasp. "As for you, Bat- you're only here so I can keep you in that stasis field. I can assure you it can do a lot worse than what you saw in a fraction of the time."

He didn't bother waiting for a response before heading out the door. As it began to close, he called out with a mocking tone, "Oh, and go ahead and get comfortable. That field is only going to go down when my Klagen stops detecting any life signs."

Shadow wasn't quite sure exactly when he was supposed to arrive at Sonic and Tails' house. To be quite frank, the last thing he wanted to do at this point was get there only to find that there hadn't been any headway. Getting some sleep was completely out of the question, and the last hour he spent racing along a secluded path through the hills didn't do much to assuage his emotional turbulence. Any effort spent trying to clear his head of thoughts only invited them to entrench themselves further.

He sighed in resignation before turning back towards his rendezvous. Tails made it clear that under no circumstances would they be rushing in, but... resting on his laurels gave him an anxiety the likes of which he'd never felt before.

The journey to the domicile provided no distractions. It wasn't long before the house had risen as a dot on the horizon, slowly growing as he drew near.

The garage door had been left open, proudly displaying the Tornado in all its pristine glory. The floor had been scattered with numerous tools, grease-stained towels, and other equipment. Behind it all sat two workbenches, one covered in wires and breadboards, while the other contained a computer and monitor. The two tailed fox sat in front of it, back to the black and red hedgehog as he closely analyzed what was on the screen.

Shadow paused before entering the workroom, knocking on the frame of the garage door to announce his presence.

Tails briefly turned his head around, casting a glance at the hybrid before returning his gaze to the monitor.

"Oh, hey Shadow. Sonic is out on a run, but he should be back soon." He called out, reaching back to beckon him to come in. "GUN was kind enough to send me footage. I've been scrubbing through it to see what we can find."

"...Anything useful?" Shadow asked, trying to not sound too hopeful.

"Somewhat. Unfortunately there's no lynchpin to pull, but what we got is still worth analyzing."

The black and red hedgehog walked past the equipment and biplane, coming to a standstill next to the monitor. The young genius was constantly playing and reversing the footage, using a dial to precisely control the movement of the video feed.

It was extremely difficult to even pinpoint where Team Dark even were within the torrent of Badniks that covered the screen. Every frame forward looked like a massive swarm that constantly swirled and spasmed with the ebb and flow of combat.

"Oh, I prepared another mug of tea if you'd like it. I have it sitting on the warmer over there." Tails pointed to the table next to him, where another white mug had been sitting. The hedgehog wordlessly grabbed it, taking sips of it in the hopes it would calm his nerves while he was re-watching the event.

He swirled the warm, strong herbal drink in his mouth. It was strong, almost bitter- but a pleasant taste nevertheless.

"This is delicious." He noted, taking another sip.

"Glad you like it." Tails replied as he swiveled the monitor towards Shadow so he could see it better. "I looked at all the robots in the footage we found, and I think I identified all of them. It wasn't easy though; you should get GUN to upgrade their satellite tech."

"I'm not in charge of that, but I'll pass your feedback along."

"Thanks. Anyways, something that I noticed was that most of the enemies here are extremely old- most of them made before you were released from stasis." The fox switched to a different window, which appeared to be some kind of database containing Eggman's robot designs. "They're not just from one specific design iteration, some of them were made almost a decade apart."

"He doesn't like using old designs, though." Shadow noted, looking more closely at the images scrolling across the screen.

"Exactly. He usually just leaves them to collect dust whenever he abandons a base. So far, I can correlate these designs to at least 5 different bases. I'm still not entirely sure how exactly he managed to get them all to gather at the ambush site without raising any alarms..." Tails trailed off, reversing the footage all the way to the point where the Badniks had burst out of the ground. "Wait... could it...?"

The hedgehog quietly watched as the young fox pulled opened up a new web browser, typing almost too quickly for him to keep up with. Eventually, they were presented with a map of the globe, overlaid with an assortment of colors, ranging from blue to green to yellow to red.

Tails' brow furrowed in confusion. "Drats. I was hoping we'd get some more insight by checking recent seismic activity sensor history, but... unless..."

The fox trailed off again, but almost immediately snapped his fingers as a realization came to his mind. "Let's check historical activity as well!"

Tails had rapidly opened a number of different maps, each one going back further in time by anywhere from a week to a month each. Eventually, he turned to Shadow, a triumphant look on his face.

"Take a look at this." He said, pointing at a couple of small green patches on the map. "Notice these spots? Watch what happens when we move forward in time with these reports."

As the young genius opened up the more recent maps, it became clear what he was referring to. Those green patches were slowly moving, converging onto the position where the ambush base was at.

"We don't have sensors in those areas for obvious reasons, but if we were to extrapolate the direction these blips were coming from, it looks like they all correspond to bases we had previously thought abandoned by Eggman."

Shadow took another swig of the tea before placing it back on the warmer. He shifted his weight to one foot as he folded his arms over his chest. "But why would he do all this? Why not just build a new army?"

"I think... he was more interested in the number of enemies he could throw at you, not their strength." Tails paused, before adding. "Sonic and I have never gone up against anything like that. We certainly wouldn't have been able to fare as well as you did."

"Clearly not well enough." Shadow scowled, softening only slightly once he saw the wince the young fox had given at the statement.

"S-Sorry, I just... a-anyways-" He cut himself off, shaking his head. "Whatever his end goals, I can't imagine he'd be able to pull a move like that off again. That was easily about a third of all the robots he created during his lifetime."

"What about where he took them?"

Tails nodded, pulling up a map of the globe. Several red Eggman symbols dotted the picture, clearly denoting known locations of Eggman's bases.

"Unfortunately the satellite didn't track him too far outside of the base. I tried some educated guesses based on the direction he headed off in, but I was unable to map it to any places we know of. And I haven't picked up any signs of the Egg Fleet being mobilized after the last time we demolished it." The fox sighed, a downtrodden look on his face- which he quickly wiped away almost immediately as he turned to face Shadow with his best smile of encouragement. "B-But that won't stop me from continuing the search! We'll find them, I promise! I was actually thinking of contracting Team Chaotix in order to expedite the process."

Shadow's eyes narrowed at the mention of the detective agency. Their antics were... questionable at best, but their track record speaks for itself. Despite his personal gripes, he could mostly count on their assistance.

Tails quietly returned his gaze to the monitor, bringing up the satellite footage and scrubbing through it until the part where Shadow disengaged his limiters. Almost immediately, the cacophonic swarm of Badniks converged on him, and within seconds, the Eggmobile and the two Klagens quickly came out of the nearby base, effortlessly scooping up his spent teammates.

"I still don't get why, though." The fox propped his chin up on his palm as he replayed the scene over and over again. "I thought he may have just been buying time, but... it's pretty clear he's been working for months just for this specific moment. What reason does he need them for, and why both of them? Did Rouge come across any new gems, or did Omega upgrade himself or something?"

The hedgehog shook his head. "Not that I am aware of."

"...I see." He sighed. "I'm really sorry about this Shadow, but... I don't think I'm going to get any breakthroughs with what we have right now. I'll send over our proposal over to Vector... I'll give you a call if anything come up, okay?"

Shadow felt his face contort into a glower as he stared Tails down, watching as the fox became more and more uncomfortable and nervous as the silence dragged on. The hedgehog felt another wave of frustration mount within him, further frightening the young genius who was too polite to tell him that he should leave. He clenched his eyes shut, shaking his head as he quietly walked out of the garage and back into the rural landscape.

He barely noticed the streak of blue that trailed around the hillsides, abruptly swerving towards him before coming to a standstill in front of him. The black and red hedgehog momentarily stopped to stare at his blue counterpart, who greeted him with a calm smile and a hand casually raised for a high-five.

"Heya, Shads! Wanna go for a race? Might feel good to-"

His words were cut off by the hybrid as he callously walked past the blue blur, roughly bumping his shoulder as he sauntered past him.

Sonic stood there speechless for a moment, watching his rival slowly walk away. He turned with a questioning gaze to look at the fox, who could only shrug and shake his head. It was enough to tell the hero what had transpired while he was gone.

He looked back at Shadow, then back to Tails, then back at Shadow again. The blue hedgehog sighed deeply, before lightly strolling back up to his somber counterpart.

"Listen, we don't have to do anything if we don't want to, but... can we talk?"

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it! If you have the time, I'd really appreciate a review letting me know what you thought. I'll be updating this every Sunday and Wednesday. See you then!