The cool breeze over Green Hill glided past Sonic as he ran through the zone. Normally he'd be patrolling, but the recent drop in crime waves had allowed him some downtime, and what better way to relax than to run at his own pace in his favorite place on Earth? A grin crossed his faith as an upcoming loop appeared on the horizon. Curling into a ball to gain more speed, he flew straight through the loop and off a hill, gaining some air. Upon reaching a high enough vantage point, he uncurled and scanned his surroundings as he descended.

Sure enough, he was alone. Hitting the ground and continuing his run, he sped towards a nearby cliff side, sliding along the ground into a small crevice in the rocks, coming to a stop in a small cavern on the other side. The cavern was illuminated by small, dim battery-powered lanterns. He picked up one of them and used it to illuminate his path as he walked over to the wall at the opposite end of the cave. On the wall rests a panel, which he promptly flicked open to reveal the keypad. Entering the code, "1994," he stepped back as the rocks shifted around nearby, opening a doorway.

Once inside, Sonic flicked a switch to turn on the lights and pressed a button to lock up behind him. A yawn escaped his mouth as he stretched his arms out. After a long day, it was nice to finally be back home. He was quite frankly surprised he and Tails had managed to hide it so well, as proven by the fact that no one had found it yet, despite many being sure it had to be in Green Hill given how often he spent time there. Kicking off his shoes, he made his way over to the couch and plopped down on it, exhausted. Letting out a yawn, he fumbled around for the remote to his TV.

When he finally found it and raised it to the TV, he froze, noticing the reflection of someone standing behind him in the dark screen. In one swift motion, he reached behind himself as fast he could, stood on his couch and put the guy in a headlock. "Buddy, you broke into the wrong house," Sonic snapped.

"Sonic!" the man choked. "It's-it's me! Let go!"

After a bit of confusion, Sonic realized who he was and let go of the man. "Silver?! What-? How did you get in here?! How do you know where I even live?!"

Silver rubbed his throat. "What do you mean, I've been here plenty of times!" He coughed. "Well, at least in your future I have… woops."

Sonic plopped down on the couch again, letting out a sigh of both relief and frustration. "Dude, don't sneak up on me like that. Especially not in my own home."

"Hehe… sorry about that…" Silver jumped over the couch and took a seat next to his friend, picking up a plate of food from the end table Sonic had somehow missed before. "Hope you don't mind, I made a grilled cheese for myself. Extra mayo and Swiss! Time traveling always makes me a little hungry."

"Do I let you make use of my kitchen whenever you want in the future?"

"This is the first time you've seemed to have a problem with it."

After a bit of pause, Sonic shook his head. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense," he sighed. "What are you doing here, anyway? Not that you're not welcome, just… weird of you to show up out of nowhere, I guess."

"Oh, yeah, I got the message from my alternate future self," Silver explained. "I guess it ties into those missing people you were looking into."

"Yeah, I know about that. Ran into one of them already, and he's in G.U.N.'s custody at the moment."

"Alan Jobs, right? He was all… cyborg-like and whatnot?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well I found something from the future I'm from." Silver held up his hand and, with the use of his telekinesis, summoned a bag from across the room over to him. "IT should be in here somewhere… Got it!"

Looking over his friend's shoulder, Sonic watched as Silver pulled out some printed off sheets off paper. On them was a printed screen from an online news article, with a headline reading, "EGGMAN EMPIRE EXPERIENCING A ROBOT REVOLUTION, RUMORS SAY."

"Robot… revolution?" Sonic asked, confused.

"Yeah, I don't think they were ever confirmed- at least not outright, there's a ton of evidence it happened- but in my timeline Eggman was never caught, right? Well, at some point rumors began to circulate that some of his robots were starting to go haywire and revolt. Start a revolution, if you will."

"Weird, but what does a robot uprising have to with what we're investigating?"

After shuffling the pages around, Silver pointed to a new one with a picture below the headline, "UNIDENTIFIED GROUP AIDS ALLEGED ROBOT REVOLUTION IN EGGMAN EMPIRE."

"Look at the people in the picture here," Silver commented. "Look familiar?"

Sonic squinted, taking a closer look at the blurry photograph. In it appeared to be a human male, a cheetah female, and an ox male that seemed much younger than both of them. All three of them seemed to be heavily augmented with cybernetics. "That's the three of them, isn't it?"

"Yep. I found another article here that discusses the three's disappearances. I guess they were never found in my timeline, though."

"Why would they be helping Eggman's robots rebel like that? And why are they are all so… heavily modified?"

"I'm not sure, but I've passed my findings on to G.U.N.'s temporal anomalies division as requested. These are just some back-up files I've gathered."

Silver scratched his neck a little before finally asking, "Is the Doc helping you out on this now?"

"Against my wishes, yeah," Sonic sighed in frustration. "Since your future self showed up, my whole investigation has become a G.U.N. matter. I'm basically a secret contractor with them right now, as far as the details of this case are concerned."

"Well, at least you got Shadow and Rouge to back you up now! Or, well, Rouge at least."

"No, I just have Shadow."

"Huh?"

"Rouge put in her two weeks. She's retiring from the agency. Something about farm life… I don't know. There's a lot of drama between her, Shadow and Knuckles right now."

"Oh, right, that's this year, isn't it? Yeah, oof. That's such a not poggers situation to be in."

After cringing a bit at his friend's slang, Sonic rolled his eyes and continued with the conversation. "It's so hard to focus on everything going on right now. It's like I'm being pulled in every direction. Tails is having girl troubles, Amy is still coming to terms with how I feel, Knuckles has fallen into a depression, Shadow kicked Rouge out of his apartment, Ray and Mighty finally let Vector back into their life, Omega's been M.I.A. for years now and I just found out like, yesterday, and on top of all that I got a couple begging me every day for an update on their missing son that I just found out might be apart of some grand conspiracy and Chaos damn it, my arch-nemesis is a broken, dying old man rotting in a padded room and I don't know how to process these feelings in the slightest!" Slouching over, he heaved with exhaustion.

Silver twiddled his thumbs awkwardly. "Sooo… I'm no psychologist, but I think you should probably seek out a therapist here soon…"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up like that. All this- this stuff is really getting to me. More than I realized."

"I'm here if you want- or need- to talk about some of it. I do recommend therapy, though."

"Yeah, not a bad idea. I think I'm ok, but I'll keep in touch."

"Ok, cool."

"Hey Silver?" Sonic asked as he turned to his friend.

"What's up?"

"Thanks. For helping me out, I mean."

Silver smiled. "Any time man, any time."

"You sure about this?" Tails asked. "I've kinda grown attached to having you as a roommate, not gonna lie. I can always turn the plane around…"

"I'm sure, man," Knuckles replied. "I had fun goofing off for a bit, and you're awesome for letting me overstay my welcome for so long, but… I gotta get back to my island. Gotta keep things together, and the Master Emerald safe."

"Alright, I understand that. Just, you know, keep in touch, alright?"

"For sure, brother."

As the Tornado IV reached a landing spot on the island, Knuckles unbuckled himself and picked up a stack of boxes and marched out of the opening hatch. Taking in a deep breath, he smiled. The crisp air of the floating island flowed through his lungs, filling him with a sense of homeliness. As he and Tails carried some boxes he looked around at the nature around him, listening to the sounds of flickies chirping and rushing water from the nearby waterfall and reminiscing about old times on the island. Approaching the hut, Knuckles pushed the door open and walked inside, setting some boxes by the door. The empty spots that once held Rouge's belongings still stuck out to him, filling him with a ting of sadness.

"Hey," Tails said, pulling something out of one of the boxes he was carrying, "you think this would look good on that shelf up there?" In has hands was a model plane, the same one that he, Knuckles and Amy had built together around a week ago.

Looking from a shelf that once held Rouge's gem collection and back to the model plane in his friend's hands, the echidna couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I think it would."

"Thought so! Got some other stuff in here. Mainly the trinkets you ordered online and just let stockpile in the guest room."

"Heh, sorry about that. I'm sure they'll look good on these shelves at least."

"Yeah, I'll stick around and help you set up some stuff. Or, you know, unpack at least."

"You don't have to do that."

"Yeah, but I want to."

With a big, stupid grin on his face, Knuckles grabbed Tails' hand and pulled him in for a bro hug. "You rock man, ya know that?"

"Any time, man," Tails laughed. "Just as long as you understand I'm not helping you out with any of that."

The echidna turned to where his friend was pointing, only to see the disheveled, weed infested remains of farmland, filled with rotting vegetables and fruits. "Man, I forgot about that," he groaned. "I'm gonna have to go down to the surface once a month until I get the farm back in shape…"

"Well, good luck with that! I'm gonna unpack all the knickknacks you bought."

Knuckles shook his head and sighed, massaging his forehead. "That's gonna be a pain in the ass."

Not even five minutes home, and someone was already knocking on Amy Rose's front door. With an annoyed sigh, she got off the couch and marched over to answer it, quickly fixing her hair a bit in the nearby mirror. The work day may be over, but she still had to attempt to look presentable for any potential guests. Opening the door, she was met by potentially the last person she thought she'd see at her front door- and he had a lost look in his eyes, like she'd never seen before.

"Hey," Shadow the Hedgehog mumbled simply.

"…Hey," was all Amy could utter back.

"…Mind if I come in?"

"It's getting late, you know."

"I won't be here long."

"Why… are you here, anyways?"

The lost look in his eyes only seemed to grow. "I didn't know where else to go."

After some pause, Amy let him inside. Immediately, he walked straight ahead to the couch and sat in the middle of it, as if operating on mostly autopilot. With a bit of hesitation, Amy took a seat on the far end of the couch, putting distance between them. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Instead of answering her, he asked a question of his own. "How do you know if you're heartbroken?"

Amy was taken aback by what he said. "Excuse me?"

"How do you know if you've had your heart broken? I figured you'd know the answer best out of everyone."

"What happened, Shadow? Why are you asking me this?"

The ultimate lifeform's head fell back onto the couch cushions as he stared up at the ceiling. "Rouge happened."

A frown crossed Amy's face. "What did she do this time?"

"I thought she loved me. I really did. But… not anymore."

"I guess Knuckles told you, then? About what she said to him."

"Why am I not surprised he told you first?"

"Shadow, everyone tells me everything. That's why you're here right now, isn't it?"

"It's because you're good at talking to people."

"And bad at gossiping."

A smile crossed his face, something that was rare for anyone to see, but less rare for her. This was far from the first time he had talked to her like this and it likely wouldn't be the last. "If it makes you feel any better," Amy muttered, "Tails hates Rouge's guts now. So… you can relate to him about that."

"Oh, no, he doesn't like me either. He went off on me and her when he was visiting Eggman a while back."

"Wait, that actually happened? I kinda thought he was exaggerating."

"Nope, it is. He was really upset that day. Can't say I blame him, though. I'm not the best guy to be around sometimes." He turned to face her. "And I don't hate Rouge. At least, I don't think I do. I'm just… I don't know."

The frustrated sigh that left Amy's mouth said a lot, but what she said after it put her mood in context. "Rouge, you utter bitch. I told you not to do this."

His attention grabbed, Shadow jerked his head towards her. "Not to do what?"

"To play with people's emotions, of course. She told me she was done with that, but I guess not. I also told her to pick between the two of you already, but she kept flip-flopping."

"How… frustrating."

"You're telling me. Look, I know I'm usually the right one to talk to, but this- this is totally different from what I went through with Sonic. I'm not really experienced on this front."

"That's fine. So… what should I do then?"

"Well I was going to suggest you talk to Tails, but that's not gonna happen."

"Right."

"So instead, I think you should try hanging out with Knuckles. You two have a lot in common and, well, maybe you could use this situations as a starting point."

"You think talking about my feelings with the lonely guardian is a good idea?"

SMASH!

Shadow held his head as the pain throbbed through it. "OWWW!" he yelled. "What the hell was that for?!"

Standing over him, a menacing look on her face and her Piko-piko hammer in her hand, Amy simply stared at him for a moment before speaking. "You're being an idiot. Don't write off what others say without thinking. That's not how you get better, and you know that."

"Amy-"

"Did I say I was finished? No, I didn't, so let me continue. You've spent so much of your life staying on the edge of friendships, not allowing yourself to get too close to others. That's not good for someone's mental health, Shadow, and that includes the ultimate lifeform. You need to open up and socialize more. This situation- as horrible as it is- is a good start."

After a moment, Shadow gave a small nod. "I guess you're right. I'll go up to that island soon. For right now, though, I need to clear my head a bit."

"Another midnight drive on your motorcycle for now, then?"

"Am I that predictable?"

"Only because you're so edgy."

The ultimate lifeform let out a hearty chuckle as he stood up and headed to the door. "You know, I think Miles is gonna enjoy having you around whenever one of you finally confesses to the other."

Amy's face turned bright red. "E-excuse me?!"

Grinning, Shadow shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just some silly words from a friend. Stay safe, Rose."

"No- what?! Ugh, screw you Shadow! Get out of my house!"

Shadow laughed his way out of the front door as Amy stuck her tongue out at him and slammed the door. As he took a seat on his motorcycle, he looked up at the stars and smiled. "Friends, huh?" he thought. "I guess they do exist for a reason. Although…" He frowned. "I'm still missing one."

"Where in the world are you, Omega?" he muttered under his breath, before riding off into the night.

Author's note: Apologies for the late update, but I was writing a chapter for this two of my other stories at the same time. Check out my bio to join my new Discord server! As always, R&R. See ya next time!