Chapter Seven: "Peace In Your Heart"

According to the GPS, the drive to Emerald Beach should have taken them roughly three hours to reach from the hotel, but they arrived at the familiar coast in just under half that time. The first hour of the ride had been both tranquil and exhilarating, depending on where they had been passing through. However, the mood had shifted gradually as they grew nearer to their destination. Rouge had felt tension and anxiety radiating from her partner more and more during the final few minutes of the trip, and she had held onto him tighter.

They parked just before the rolling dunes of sand, a couple of miles from the jagged cliffs. Not many people came this far down the enormous beach, so when the roar of the engine died out, the only sounds were that of the crashing waves, the whipping wind, and the distant call of seagulls.

Rouge dismounted the motorcycle first, her gaze sweeping across the shore to the rocky cliffside. After a quick glance at the coordinates Robotnik had given her, she turned to Shadow. "The entrance to the base is supposedly hidden within a fissure in the rocks, about two and a half miles from where we are now," she informed him.

Upon seeing Shadow's melancholy expression, she couldn't hide a look of concern. "Shadow?" The jewel thief gingerly placed her hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. She didn't bother asking if he was okay; she knew he wasn't.

Shadow had been silent most of the trip here. As much as Shadow wanted to be hopeful that this would finally be his ticket to see Maria and Gerald again, it was tainted with doubt. What the Doctor had said about the automated self-destruct sequence, what they would find and if anything even worked, and if this would just be another dead end. Still, Shadow had come too far to let his own doubts stop him now. If there was any way of seeing Maria, just one more time, he would find it.

The moody hedgehog glanced back at Rouge after she spoke. He gently put his own hand on Rouge's to try and assure her he was okay. In fact, he was still trying to assure himself. Shadow gave her a nod, and then looked back up at the cliff that hid Robotnik's base.

"Let's move in," he said after a moment of deliberation. "You're better suited for scaling the cliff wall. Can you scout out the entrance? I'll stay as close as I can and move in if anything happens."

"I'm on it," Rouge affirmed with a nod. "It shouldn't take long to find. If it's anything like Eggman's other bases, there are likely a few mechs set to patrol the entrance in case anyone gets too close, making it even more obvious for us." She gave Shadow's shoulder a gentle squeeze before letting go, then turned her attention back to the wall of stone.

With a flap of her wings, the bat took to the sky, hovering long enough to glance back down at the dark hedgehog. "I'll signal you once I've located the entry point, assuming I haven't been spotted by any guards by then," she added, then continued her flight towards the cliffs, praying they'd actually find the answers Shadow needed here.

Trailing on the ground as closely as he felt was safe, Shadow expertly jumped and scaled the terrain, careful to avoid triggering any defenses as they approached the entrance. Once he reached a part of the cliff too sheer to scale on foot, he turned his attention back to his trusted ally, watching her closely from this distance. As Rouge approached the coordinates she had, she clung onto the side of the rock wall and began expertly climbing down to the hidden entrance. Shadow couldn't help but admire her nimble dexterity; with the exception of Knuckles, hardly anybody they knew could manage this without falling.

'I... really do owe her for this,' he thought to himself, reflecting on just how supportive Rouge had been for him.

The treasure huntress moved as silently as possible in the hopes that if any robots were guarding the base, she'd see them before they could spot her. There was also the risk that traps had been planted along the cliffside, so she moved slower than she normally would.

A few minutes passed, and Rouge was beginning to feel irate as she continued to traverse along the steep ridges of the precipice. She knew full well that, if this hidden laboratory actually existed, she should have been able to see it by now. 'I will personally tear that Doctor to pieces if he was-' Her fuming thought was cut short as she felt a faint current of air brush by her cheek, seemingly wafting from a small crevice within the rock.

Rouge came to an immediate halt. She ensured that her foothold was sturdy enough to hold her securely in place, then pressed an ear to the crack where she could feel the light breeze coming from. Beyond the whooshing of the air current, the whirring of what sounded like distant machinery could be heard. Her breath caught in her throat, and hesitantly, the jewel thief knocked against the wall of rock.

Hollow. In fact, the area she was currently scaling wasn't even real stone, but rather, a convincing imitation, made to disguise what could only be the door that led inside. Holding back a gasp, she pulled her head away and excitedly looked up at Shadow, her expression conveying that she'd found the entrance.

Now it was only a matter of finding a way to open it. The bat scanned her surroundings for any levers or buttons, but found none. Robotnik likely had a remote device to allow only his entry. With one final look around her, to make sure there were no guards, she hastily scaled her way back up to the top of the cliff where Shadow stood.

"The Doctor wasn't lying," Rouge eagerly informed him as she pulled herself up over the ledge. "I think you're gonna have to blast the entrance open though. I can hold onto you and hover us close to it, unless you have another idea?"

"No objections," Shadow replied with a shrug. "Just don't drop me or I'll take you with me," he added with a smirk.

As Rouge lifted and then lowered him by the hidden entrance, dangling Shadow over a dangerous height, he couldn't help but be reminded of when Rouge had first put Team Dark together. When they and Omega had been tracking down the Doctor then, they had been carried by Rouge across chasms, pits and sheer-falls like this more times than Shadow could've counted.

Once in front of the hidden entrance, Shadow released one hand from Rouge and charged it with Chaos energy. One Chaos Spear might not be enough, but Shadow didn't want to knock them both out of the air either. After careful consideration, he fired.

"Chaos Spear" Exactly two bolts fired from the hedgehog's hand, and collided with the hidden entrance with a boom then the crumbling of real and artificial rocks. The momentum rocked the two as they swayed perilously for a few moments, but it wasn't anything Rouge couldn't handle; Shadow knew that. After the dust settled, the two Mobians could now see a metal door tucked back a bit further from where the false rocks had been, with an opening in the cliff just the right size for them.

Once the dust settled, Rouge cautiously descended to the cave mouth. She lowered Shadow to the ground before touching down beside him. They both stood in silence for a few moments, listening for the sound of any approaching enemies further in.

"It's strangely quiet..." Rouge murmured. "Maybe he sent his robots orders to wait and ambush us once we get inside." The huntress scanned the floor and walls for any traps that could be triggered if the two of them moved forward. Nothing of note caught her eye, aside from the control panel by the door. Just to be safe, she decided to fly to the doorway, and she gingerly landed in front of the panel.

"It won't take long to hack in and open the door," Rouge said after examining the device. "Let me know when you're ready; if what Robotnik said was the truth, we only have an hour once I open that door."

"Ready," Shadow replied curtly, arms folded like usual as he regarded the door. "As soon as that door opens, we move with haste. Whether it's guarded or not, I'm not wasting a second here." Though Shadow's stance didn't visibly change yet, his whole body tensed, readying himself to take off as soon as his path was clear.

Rouge nodded. Her focus returned to the security panel and she began typing adeptly, her fingers flying over the touchscreen keyboard. After a few seconds, she paused and motioned for Shadow to look at the screen.

"Found a layout of the place," she said as a detailed map of the base popped up on the monitor. "Should save us some time. The primary control room is straight down the main hallway, past the first two intersections, then we take a left and continue to the end of that hall to the last room," she quickly summarized.

The map disappeared, and lines of coding took its place again as Rouge continued her breach of the server. "Unfortunately, there's no way for me to shut down the self-destruct sequence, at least not from here," she explained with mild frustration. "But, I am overriding the locks on all doors within the facility. Every other door will open when this one does, which will also buy us some time."

"Nice work," Shadow told her. "I'll scout out ahead and wait for you once I reach the control room. If I encounter any resistance I'll crush it."

With a few more taps of her fingers, the monitor flashed wildly, and the door began to hiss as the pressure was released.

"Here we go," Rouge said as she stepped back and stood ready just behind Shadow. After three loud clanking sounds, the door slid open, revealing a long, empty corridor, bathed in red emergency lighting.

Taking a deep breath, Shadow mentally repeated the directions Rouge had just given him, then glanced back at her, offering her a quick, small smile and a nod.

"See you in there." With that, Shadow sped off like a black-and-red rocket, his fire-skates illuminating the darkened hallways as he ran through. Carefully looking around him, Shadow quickly noticed that the base was empty, entirely devoid of mechs or any kind of guards. Not even any automated weapons or laser-grids, at least not yet.

Thanks to Rouge, Shadow basically had a straight-shot to the control room. Once he arrived, a quick observation gave Shadow some hope they were on the right track; Eggman had definitely done work on the Time Eater here, even if the younger Robotnik hadn't realized it. In the center of a room were two large pylons of energy, standing like a giant archway with a current of purple electricity connecting the two tips. Between the pylons was a large aura of black and purple clouds, like smoke, being contained by what looked like giant cogs, wheels and old-fashioned clock hands. It looked just like one of the gateways in White Space Shadow had used to defeat his old enemies.

"Finally," Shadow remarked, clenching one of his fists before himself dramatically in affirmation. But as Shadow approached the gates, he noticed a large console with several screens on it. One had a flashing message in large text with a red background: "ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE ASAP. NOT A DRILL." One of the others showed a timer counting down; it was about to reach fifty-nine minutes. They already had less than an hour.

Meanwhile, Rouge had made note of one other potentially useful place within the facility, the surveillance office. Before catching up to Shadow, she swiftly made her way there. Dozens of monitors filled the cramped space, each one still recording live feeds of every other room within the base. Immediately, she found the three monitors connected to the primary control room, each one set to record from different angles.

The thief quickly swiped the USB drives for all three, as well as a couple that recorded within the factory area. Once they were safely away from the base, they could review the footage that had been stored from Eggman's work on the Time Eater project. If they found nothing else here, perhaps that would come in handy.

Once she had everything she needed, she hurried to the control room to join Shadow. She had briefly spotted the gateway on the surveillance monitor, but seeing it in person gave her a sudden feeling of unease. Having been trapped in the Time Void before had been an unsettling experience, to say the least, so she steered clear of the eerie gate and joined Shadow by the large console broadcasting the evacuation warning.

"Ah, so this is why there's no mechs bothering us," Rouge commented as she approached. "Robotnik really didn't want to lose any other assets." The bat cast a glance at the hedgehog as she readied herself to crack the system. "Seems like we're in the right place, at least. I'll pull up anything regarding the Time Void and that gateway, then try to override the detonation command." She was quiet for a few seconds, then forced herself to ask him, "Are you planning to go in there if I can establish a connection to her...?"

"Yes," Shadow replied without hesitation. "This might be my last… I can't waste this chance," he added with a pained pause. Was this it? Were they actually about to see Maria and the Professor again? He looked at Rouge directly. "Do whatever you can to establish a link, then focus on overriding the detonation. If you can't, we'll make the most of… either way, I'll get us out of here safely. I promise." As eager as Shadow was to see Maria again, he couldn't bring himself to voice the fact that they would have to say goodbye again before much longer.

Rouge averted her gaze from him and nodded. There wasn't any time to waste voicing her concerns. She wholeheartedly trusted Shadow, but there were just too many unforeseen possibilities. She felt overwhelmed with a mixture of emotions; hope, fear, anxiety, worry... the list went on. The pressure weighed heavily on her as she looked back at the countdown displayed on the monitor. Fifty-six minutes and sixteen seconds. The outcome rested on her shoulders...

'No. Stop it.' Rouge mentally shook herself and fought to push aside her nerves. She had to focus; the last thing she needed was to be distracted by the "what ifs." The hacker took a deep breath to center herself, then went to work on breaking through the system's firewalls.

The evacuation notice vanished from the screen as she started typing, though she left the countdown in the bottom right corner so they wouldn't lose track of time. She swiftly took down all of the virtual barriers and ran a search through the entire system for anything related to the Time Void of White Space. She also ran a diagnostic test regarding the countdown in the background. A minute and a half of silence passed, the clicking of keys the only sound in the room.

"I... I think I may have found it," Rouge finally murmured. A program opened on the screen, seemingly linked to opening the gateway in the room. She easily cracked the password locking the controls, and the gate began to emit a low hum. A tab opened with a prompt; 'Input Location and Date.'

Rouge took a step back and signaled for Shadow to approach.

"I think the gate will open as soon as you enter the information," she told him. "However, the countdown seems to be locked with no way to bypass it without Eggman's biosignature..." The huntress glanced nervously at the angsty hedgehog beside her. "I can try a few other ways but... I don't think there's any way to pause or stop the self-destruct function."

Shadow glanced at Rouge, the floor, and then back at the console, before nodding stiffly. Typing quickly but carefully, he entered in the date he had last seen Maria. It was easy to remember since the whole Time Eater debacle took place on Sonic's birthday; it had been talked about and celebrated on television, much to Shadow's annoyance. Hard to miss when they did it every year. As for the destination, he cross-referenced some files Rouge had uncovered to sync it with where Shadow, Rouge, Omega and Big the Cat had been sent at that time to give the highest chance of success. A place like the void of White Space didn't exactly have a longitude and latitude.

After he punched in the data, the cogs and hands on the portal began to turn slowly, and the purple aura of smog around it grew larger, gradually revealing a shimmering, white light that grew with the smokey energy. It was reminiscent of the Mobian Warp Rings, but as if twisted by the Time Eater's dark taint. It bothered Shadow that the Doctor had been able to harness such power, but it was defeated. For now. A concern for later, perhaps.

As the machine worked, energy began to pulse and hum throughout the base. Sparks started cracking and popping from the pylons as they channeled power to the device. After a few especially large bursts of sparks, Shadow reflexively put himself between Rouge and the machinery.

Eventually, the white light started to outshine the dark outline, and finally stopped growing once it reached a size able to accommodate a large vehicle. Shadow's eyes widened at the sight; as he looked through the portal, he recognized the white landscape on the other side. It was the timeless White Space.

They'd done it.

Despite the urgency, Shadow hesitated. Now that his mission was a reality, even now he scarcely dared to believe it a success. Ever since he'd last seen Maria, he'd been thinking about what to say to her; he knew he couldn't say anything that would alter events, as much as he wished he could. Still, Maria and Gerald both knew that due to the timeline being scrambled in the Time Void that the Shadow then was not the one they knew from the ARK fifty years ago. So Shadow could at least reveal and speak to them about certain things.

Still, there was so much. Even after mulling it all over for months, picking apart what he could or couldn't say. Perhaps the best way…

Shadow approached the portal, and looked over at Rouge. After considering his idea for a moment, he decided it was time to act decisively and stop screwing around. Shadow punched in a timer on his gauntlet's communicator, just two minutes before the base was set to detonate. It had only taken Shadow about forty-five seconds to get here from the entrance. That gave them plenty of time to get to minimum safe distance.

The Ultimate Life-Form extended a hand towards the person he was closest to since awakening on Earth.

"Come with me, Rouge," he asked softly. "I'd… like you to meet them. I'll make sure we get clear in time."

"...Huh?" With a completely dumbfounded expression, Rouge could only stare at him for several moments before finally finding her voice.

"You... want me to come with you to meet them?" She repeated his words in the form of a question, then shook her head slightly. "But... why? I... well, wouldn't I just be in the way of your very personal reunion?" Rouge stammered over her words, the shock now shifting to a strange new anxiety she had never felt before, though the cause of it quickly dawned on her.

She would, essentially, be formally introducing herself to her boyfriend's family. Her face flushed a little at the realization, despite the fact that she had technically already met Maria and Gerald before within the Time Void.

The bat hadn't told Shadow about it, as it had only been a brief chat with them, and it would have certainly embarrassed the hedgehog if he had known about it. Maria had asked Rouge if she was one of Shadow's friends. The huntress had said yes, but then the young girl had taken her off guard with a follow-up question; "Are you Shadow's girlfriend?" she had excitedly inquired with a beautiful smile. At the time, Rouge had chuckled and told her no, but now...

'Shadow surely wouldn't admit to being in a relationship with me though, would he?' she wondered, though she quickly answered her own question. 'If there was anyone he'd be comfortable telling about us, it'd be Maria, especially given the... circumstances.'

Rouge nervously stepped towards him, still feeling uncertain about accompanying him. However, despite her reservations, she took Shadow's extended hand. "Are... are you absolutely sure?"

"Rouge, they meant everything to me," Shadow replied, his eyes locking with hers as he spoke. "They still do. Of course I want you to meet them. There's so much I want to tell her but can't… I think Maria meeting my first real friend will say so much more than I can." The ebony hedgehog gently pulled Rouge a little closer, and held their clasped hands up a little, giving her a hand a reassuring squeeze. "Now, let's go. We don't have much time."

The two Mobians turned to face the portal together in unison. Rouge squeezed Shadow's hand back as she looked into the Time Void. She knew that if this were a normal family she was being properly introduced to, she would most definitely be labeled a bad influence, but Maria hadn't seemed to be the kind of person to judge her like that. Rouge smiled a little and tried to cast her worries aside. As Shadow had said, they didn't have much time.

"Let's go, hotshot."

Finally, the two walked into the portal. As soon as they did, all the sounds of the base's machinery faded away. Shadow and Rouge now stood in the great, white space of the Time Void. At first, the only thing they could see was the portal back to Eggman's base. But then, a fair distance away from the portal, two figures began to focus into their vision. Perhaps it was due to the portal taking time to load in the destination they put in, or perhaps their vision was taking longer to focus here. Either way, it was as if they were materializing before them.

Shadow's eyes widened, and his whole body froze as he looked. He could make out the distinct vibrant, baby-blue of the dress, and the shining gold of pure, blonde hair.

"Maria…?" The name escaped the hedgehog's lips, barely a breath. He glanced at Rouge, then back over at Maria. Now he could see a tall figure with a large grey mustache next to her. It was them… it was really them!

Slowly at first, then breaking into a full run, Shadow ran straight at them, never taking his eyes off of Maria. He stopped just before them, and gazed up at their faces.

"Shadow?" Maria asked softly. "Are… are you okay? We just saw you leave. What's happening?"

"N…Nothing, Maria…" Shadow could barely form the words. "I… I just needed to see you again…"

Maria's face showed a concerned frown. She glanced up at her grandfather, and then pulled Shadow into an embrace.

"It's okay, Shadow," Maria assured the dark hedgehog. "I'm here, we both are. Whatever you need, we're here."

Shadow couldn't believe it; here she was again, hugging him just like old times. The Ultimate Life-Form's eyes shimmered with restrained tears, and he surprised Maria by hugging her back. Gerald gave them a musing smile. From what he knew, he guessed Shadow had found a way to speak to them from whatever time this version of him came from. He clearly hadn't used Chaos Control to freeze them all in time like Shadow had suggested before.

But for now, that didn't matter. Whatever happened in the future, Shadow and Maria were together again, even if only for the moment. Gerald's heart always warmed whenever seeing his creation and his granddaughter together. For now, that was enough.

-Author's

Note:-

Really wanted this to be a "feel-good" story, even if the logic and "science" here is choppy, so I decided to let Shadow have one more reunion with Maria, this time to just reconcile and introduce Rouge to them. Of course this won't last forever, but maybe Shadow can heal more easily. Also wanted to show how much Rouge is there for Shadow, both here and in the games. Please let me know what you think!