*Author's Note*

Okay, so this isn't the first story I've submitted to , but it's the first one I really want to see all the way through. I used to write a lot more on deviantArt but I desperately want to circulate as much Shadow X Rouge content as possible rn, and seems to be the de facto standard of its namesake, so here I am.

I've shipped Shadouge for a long time. My current wife and I actually met and bonded over it a long time ago, and we still ship it today. Our interest in Sonic and Shadouge had wavered since Shadow, our favorite character, hadn't been in a big role in a game for awhile. In a nutshell, the release and success of Shadow Generations got up hyper-fixated on Shadouge again. For nostalgia's sake, we decided to collaborate and write (at least) one more Shadouge fanfic. We hope to get some feedback and traction with this, so please let me know if you like this, and if you do let your Shadouge friends know, lol.

Anyways, enjoy! My wife and I almost have the whole story done as of writing this, we just need to edit it for the most part. So hopefully it'll all be up soon!

Chapter One: Dead Ends and Crossroads

"Hmph."

Deep in the depths of Dr. Eggman's most recently-abandoned base, Shadow released his grip on the smashed head of one of Eggman's robot guards. As far as the ebony hedgehog could tell, that was the last of the remaining defenses.

"Now, let's see if the good doctor was foolish enough to leave any data for me to find," Shadow muttered to himself, and approached a few dimly-lit consoles in the room.

From what Shadow had discovered over the last few weeks, chasing leads and going through the remains of other Eggman bases, this is where the Doctor had managed to harness the power of the Time Eater. If he had left any information, some sort of clue as to how he did it…

"First things first " Shadow said aloud to straighten his thoughts, and began typing away at the console before him. He'd gotten better at hacking over the years, but it still wasn't really his Forte, unless he was able to physically enter cyberspace like before.

"Where's Rouge when you need her?" Shadow said with a sigh as he hit a firewall.

As if on cue, the metallic clang of a ventilation shaft swinging open echoed through the control room, and a familiar figure effortlessly dropped down just behind Shadow.

"So you do think about me sometimes, hm?" Rouge mused with a smirk, as she dusted herself off. She quickly held her hand out as Shadow spun around, knowing that surprising him like this might cause him to reflexively throw a punch in her direction. The aggressive hedgehog took on a battle-ready stance, but his eyes - just barely - softened when they saw his old teammate.

The bat had been tracking her hedgehog ally for some time now, though she wasn't sure if she should tell him that. Each time she received intel on Shadow's whereabouts, she had immediately set out for the same destination. However, until now, she had always been one step behind him, it seemed. With every other base she had searched throughout the last few weeks, Shadow had always been gone by the time she had arrived.

This time, she had deduced where he'd be headed next, though. She had infiltrated this recently abandoned base the previous night, and, though she wouldn't admit it, she had waited for nearly 12 hours within the vents, hoping that her hunch was correct.

"Rouge...?!" Shadow asked, relaxing his stance once he realized it wasn't another Eggman mech coming to attack him. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me you're hunting some other 'secret treasure' the Doctor had stored away, are you?" He asked, folding his arms and giving Rouge a look of scrutiny.

Rouge dramatically threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes. That was the exact response she had expected from him. Granted, yes, that was the primary reason she infiltrated so many places, unless it was for a mission given to her by G.U.N., but for some reason it had started to irk her that, whenever she ran into Shadow, the majority of the time the first thing he'd say was something along these lines, and typically in an irritatingly disdainful or scolding manner. His disapproval of her treasure hunting had started to bother her for some reason recently.

With an exaggerated sigh, she shook her head, and glanced towards the terminal Shadow had been attempting to hack into a few moments before, then back to him.

"I suppose, in a way, you could say I was hunting a treasure, but not one of Eggman's..." She paused for a moment to stretch her cramped wings, which also gave her a moment to come up with a good way to tell him her real reason for being there. She smirked again as she found the right words, and she sauntered towards Shadow. "A different, highly respectable doctor created what I'm currently after actually." He cocked an eyebrow at Rouge as she approached.

She stopped directly in front of the dark hedgehog, and placed a hand on her hip as she gave him a quick once over, mostly checking for any injuries he may have, though she couldn't help but admire his physique and good looks in the process.

Her gaze flitted back up to lock eyes with Shadow. "Seems I found what I was looking for," she concluded in a quiet, sultry voice, her smirk growing wider as she anticipated his reaction.

Shadow's expression went a little dumbfounded at Rouge's tone; he was used to her using a sultry, seductive demeanor whenever she was trying to get what she wanted, but it always made him squirm a little when it was directed at him. Even way back when on the ARK, the Ultimate Life Form had never been good with sentimental or "intimate" talk. After a couple of moments though, Shadow regained his composure.

"You're looking for me?" He asked curtly, hoping Rouge hadn't noticed his discomfort. He didn't even understand WHY it made him awkward when Rouge did that, but it felt like a vulnerability. Shadow almost hated Rouge's ability to get into people's heads like that.

Almost.

"Well, you found me," Shadow continued, turning his nose up and closing his eyes in a brooding expression. "What is it, is G.U.N. trying to bring me in for destroying their shuttle base's defenses? That was months ago, I thought they'd be over it."

Rouge giggled, having detected the subtle changes in Shadow's body language, then giggled a bit louder after hearing his prediction as to why she was looking for him. She took a step back from him to ease his tension, despite the odd nagging desire she had to remain closer to him.

"Oh Shadow, you do know that I cleared all of that stuff regarding the G.U.N. shuttle, right?" Rouge gently leaned against the mainframe, stealing another glance at the screen. She had a hunch as to what information Shadow was after, but she was hoping her hunch was wrong. She turned her focus back to him, knowing she'd get answers one way or another shortly. "I even paid for quite a bit of the damages and cleanup; not because I had to though." With a shrug she added, "It was my idea to raid that base for the ship after all, so I didn't mind."

The bat was quiet for a few moments; the unexpected gnawing of anxiety had started to take hold of her, now that she had to tell him her reason for tracking him. What made it even worse was the fear that the worries she'd been having regarding what Shadow was up to would be confirmed. Rouge looked to the floor as the thoughts raced through her mind, a frown replacing her signature smirk, and her ears drooped a little.

She quickly kicked herself mentally, realizing that she wasn't hiding her true emotions. She cleared her throat, and shifted her expression back to as normal as possible, then looked back up at him.

"No one asked me to find you. I've been looking for you for my own personal reasons. I've been..." the treasure hunter hesitated for only a moment, then, somewhat awkwardly, continued. "Well, I've been worried about you ever since... Black Doom and the Time Eater, and... what you had to go through again..." Her gaze drifted back to the mainframe, partly in an attempt to hide her expression from him, partly because of the pained look that crossed his face at the mention of what happened.

"I... haven't been able to get in touch with you since all of that happened. So I've been trying to track you down for... quite a while now. I told you if you needed someone when all of that was over, I would be here for you, and I meant what I said. I know you're hurting... you were crying that day..."

Rouge took a breath, but she still couldn't bring herself to look directly at Shadow. She had been so confident before; had had everything she wanted to say planned out, but now she was fumbling, wondering what the hell she was even doing here. Clearly, if Shadow had needed her, she wouldn't have had to spend so many weeks searching for him. 'He doesn't need me... it's me that needs him...' The realization dawned on her, but she shook it away. 'Compose yourself, Rouge,' she demanded herself, then took another breath and continued.

"I don't mean to drag this out, so long story short, I've been worried about you, and I'm also concerned about whatever information you've been so desperately trying to find in all of Eggman's bases lately. Maybe I could have helped you sooner though, had you just asked, instead of being such a stubborn loner." With a deep sigh, she finally forced herself to look back at Shadow. "So there, that's everything."

At first, Shadow felt a twinge of guilt at Rouge's words. He well remembered her assurance to him before his last confrontation with Black Doom, but then everything happened so fast afterwards... with Dr. Eggman (or "Eggmen", rather), the Time Eater, and of course...

But then, Shadow's frown deepened slightly in anger. Rouge had noticed his tears? How? Again, the feeling of vulnerability nagged at the angsty hedgehog, something he loathed...

But then, he remembered what he had told Maria that same day...

"I'm letting go of that destructive anger."

"I... I'm sorry Rouge," Shadow said heavily. He couldn't remember the last time he'd apologized to someone. "I guess I thought, perhaps you wouldn't approve of what I was doing. To be honest..." Shadow sighed and looked at the floor. "I'm not ever sure what I'm hoping to find... something, anything that goes beyond the scope of my own Chaos Control..." he shook his head and looked back at Rouge with a small, knowing, sardonic smirk. "But you probably already knew that."

Rouge was stricken temporarily speechless. Shadow had... apologized? To her? Shadow was actually opening up to her? She had expected him to brush her off, maybe go silent or just leave, especially considering the way she had sputtered through her explanation. This wasn't the first time she had seen him express his softer side, but it had been quite a long time since he had been this open with her. For several moments, all she could do was stand there staring at him, dumbfounded.

The treasure hunter blinked, her brain finally beginning to process the last part of what he had said. She opened her mouth, but found that she hadn't yet found the words to respond with yet. Feeling embarrassed now, as well as a pit of fear in her stomach, she shook her head and tried again.

"You're looking for a way to access the Time Eater's power, aren't you? A way to... bring Maria and Gerald to our time, permanently?" Throughout the time she had been tracking Shadow, she had scanned the terminals that he had searched, looking through the most recently accessed data on each of them. It hadn't taken long to figure out what his goal likely was, but she had hoped that maybe he wouldn't resort to such an extreme.

The room grew quiet, and she knew that his silence confirmed her concerns. Rouge looked away from Shadow and swallowed hard before she spoke again.

"I know Gerald warned you of what would occur if you messed with this set timeline..." she said quietly. "Doing something like that would change history forever... Everything that has happened, between the time they were pulled from, to now; it might even create a paradox. All that we've been through will likely be erased... If you find a way to change their fates...You and I..." Rouge's voice had begun to tremble slightly, but she continued, "it's extremely likely that we'll have never met."

Rouge's eyes had started to sting, she realized, at the thought of their history together being erased and forgotten. She really had grown attached to the hedgehog beside her over the years she had known him. Her heart was hurting in a way she hadn't experienced before, even though she didn't quite understand why. She wanted to just destroy the mainframe in this base; wanted to beg Shadow not to go through with his plan.

Perhaps, she thought, that this was the kind of pain Shadow had been enduring for so long now though, and if what she was feeling now is how he always felt, then...

The bat swallowed the ever-growing lump in her throat and steeled herself to throw aside her own feelings on the matter. She turned towards the terminal and let her fingers fly over the keyboard, rapidly shattering the firewalls that had locked Shadow out before.

Within seconds, the screen lit up brightly, and dozens of folder icons loaded in. Rouge stepped back, motioning for Shadow to take it from there. She was still unable to look directly at him, but she did her best to give him a smile. "Find whatever data you need." she spoke quietly. "I'm here if you hit any more firewalls."

Shadow again looked at Rouge, his eyes widened in surprise at what she had just said and done. He peered at the console, then back at his old teammate. After a few moments of silence, he sighed again.

"Don't worry," Shadow muttered. "I'm not going to do anything foolish. I... I just wondered if it might be possible to see them again, just... just one more time." His hands clenched into fists so tightly the fabric of his gloves creaked.

"I had so much more I wanted to tell her..." Shadow whispered, unable to look at Rouge anymore. The Ultimate Life-Form felt the all-too familiar lump in his throat, the surge of painful emotion that always accompanied his thoughts of Maria, and how unfair everything had turned out to be...

"If you really mean it about wanting to help... thank you," he said heavily, and went over to the console. Shadow tried to keep his gaze locked on the screen as he browsed the spoils of Rouge's infiltration. He didn't want to know whether or not Rouge had noticed his surge of emotion.

Rouge felt the tension in her shoulders slowly easing the moment Shadow had assured her not to worry, though as her body relaxed, she realized that she had begun to shake, mostly from relief. She gripped her left arm tightly in an attempt to hide it..

She finally lifted her gaze back towards Shadow as he moved towards the terminal. Her mind cycled through several potentially comforting words she could offer him, but felt as though there wasn't anything she could say that would be consoling enough to him, given the amount of grief Shadow was experiencing all over again. Not to mention, Rouge acknowledged that she wasn't very good with showing her genuine emotions towards others. She could talk her way out of basically any situation, but when it came to expressing her care and support for someone else, she struggled. After so many years of taking care of only herself, with not many people she truly trusted, she had created a mask of sorts. Throughout her life, she had learned that getting too close to most people tended to be dangerous. There was always the threat of being backstabbed or taken advantage of, especially in her line of work. After a few hard learned lessons when she was much younger, she had hardened herself, at least, as much as she could. Showing vulnerability was not something that came easily to her anymore.

Rouge finally decided that Shadow probably didn't want her to address his emotions anyway. He was, after all, more like her than he'd ever admit, at least when it came to closing off their true feelings. Instead, the bat stepped up beside him at the terminal and simply responded, "You're welcome," and added "...and yes, I truly mean to help you however I can."

Shadow stopped what he was doing for a moment, and turned his head to look at Rouge. However much he tried to deny it, Rouge had proven to be an invaluable ally to him, time and again. Now here she was offering words of solace. Rouge typically never got sentimental, but Shadow was well-aware that she'd made a few exceptions for himself over the years. He wanted to thank her, somehow truly express his gratitude...

For now, all he could do was nod and, despite himself, offer the bat a ghost of a smile. Finally, Shadow turned his attention back to the terminal, searching for anything relating to the Time Eater or Eggman's research on it.

Browsing, searching, digging... Shadow broke through a few more firewalls, but nothing. Plenty of reports on robots, weapons research, anti-hedgehog traps, but nothing relating to the Time Eater or time manipulation, at least nothing beyond what Shadow already knew of Chaos Control. After more than ten minutes of searching every file that looked even remotely promising, Shadow knew beyond a doubt that this was yet...

"Another dead end..." Shadow verbally affirmed, more to himself than to Rouge. The room was so quiet then that you could've heard a pin drop; only some distant cracking of cement and debris from the base's most damaged, dilapidated areas broke the silence.

"HRRNG!" Shadow suddenly growled, his eyes flaring with red Chaos energy for a split second, and he drove his fist straight into the screen of the terminal. The glass shattered and the terminal burst into a cloud of smoke and scrap. The black hedgehog stood there, eyes shut tight as tried to regain his composure.

"...I'm tired of this," he said in nearly a hiss. Shadow turned towards Rouge but didn't look at her, and started towards the exit. "Let's go..."

With one last glance back at the terminal, now just a pile of debris, Rouge gave a heavy sigh and followed Shadow. They strode through the winding corridors of the base for a while in tense silence. The only sounds around them were their echoing footsteps against the metallic floors, and the occasional buzzing of a few Eggman mechs that Shadow had torn to shreds on his way in. Rouge trailed just a few steps behind Shadow, trying to give him some space. His fists were clenched tightly by his sides and his shoulders were visibly rigid with frustration.