Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Framing the Shadow ❯ The Actress is Called to the Stage ( Chapter 1 )

Framing the Shadow: Chapter I

"So, Rouge, what will you do now? Go back to jewel hunting?"

Gazing out the window of the Space Colony Ark, the sensual white bat casually took her attention away from it and addressed her emerald-guarding comrade. With a liquidy alluring look glistening deeply in her turquoise eyes, she casually shrugged and folded her arms over her voluptuous chest. "Not this time…." She paused, giving him a placid look. "I think, I've actually found something more precious than jewels that I'm thinking about right now…" She said smugly and turned her attention back to the window, secretly hoping he'd get what she meant . Catching onto her hint, Knuckles nodded and with a small smile, reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. "Here."

Taking the small slip between her fingers, Rouge opened the note and raised an eyebrow. Speechless, she glanced up at Knuckles, who had his head lowered and his attention bashfully adverted away from her. "Um...most of the time, I'll be guarding the Master Emerald, but…" he paused to pass her an embarrassed glance "…you can stop by if you'd like." Not taking her eyes off him, Rouge wordlessly nodded.

Unsure if her silence meant she approved of his company or otherwise, Knuckles nervously cleared his throat and replaced his bashful sensitivity with his usual rugged masculinity. "Well, then…call me." And with that, he turned on his heels and sped off to the other side of the ship where the others were.

A soft smile crept itself across Rouge's lips while she watched him go. He was so sensitive when it came to women, it was cute. She continued to watch him for a few seconds longer before returning her eyes back to the window. As her eyes lingered off into the vast pools of stars, she found her mind drifting into other thoughts. The world had been saved; she had been partners with the most noble hedgehog she had ever met; and was able to gain the affectionate attention of that red-blooded echidna she had especially grown fond of.

**

"Hey there, Knucklehead." Sonic playfully greeted to Knuckles as he came over to where he stood. Once there, Knuckles casually slapped hands with Sonic, then coolly leaned against a wall near a window. "Yeah, what's good?"

"Well", Sonic began, leaning next to Knuckles on the wall with his legs crossed, "I see you're coming out of your shell."

The red echidna raised an inquiring eyebrow at the prankish hedgehog. " 'My shell'? "

"Yeah, you know what I mean!" Sonic said, nudging him with his elbow and pointing across to the other side of the ship. Following the direction with his eyes, Knuckles found himself staring at Rouge. She stood looking out one of the windows. Her wings fanned slightly around her, as if to prove as an amplifier for her deep thoughts.

Feeling his face grow hot, he quickly took his attention off her, and found himself face to face with Sonic, who had a silly sly grin on his face. Frowning, Knuckles pushed him away. "Knock it off!"

"What? I didn't say anything!" Sonic innocently retaliated. "But you know, it's good that you're listening to your heart rather than to the echoes in that hard hollow head of yours."

With a growl, Knuckles tossed Sonic a deadly glare and a raised fist. "You better watch yourself, Blue…!"

"Tch. Relaaaax, Knuckles! I'm only telling the truth! Oh…hey! She's looking this way!"

"What?" Knuckles asked skeptically, turning to look over at Rouge. And just as Sonic said, she was looking at him. Although her lips were curved in a smile, her eyes seemed reserved and a little lost. Knuckles could feel his eyes narrow as the warmth in his cheeks subsided. He could tell that she was deeply thinking about something, or rather someone, a lot more than what she let on--- to him, the others, and probably herself.

Suspicious of her thoughts, yet not wanting to be rude, Knuckles waved to Rouge, then turned on his heels to leave the upper level of the space colony.

"Hey, where're you goin'?" Sonic wondered, watching him go.

In response to Sonic's voice, Knuckles paused and glanced over his shoulder at the hedgehog. "To the departure pods….I've got a lot on my mind. I'll see you later." And with that he was gone.

Perplexed, Sonic scratched his spiky head, then shrugged it off and went over to converse with Tails and Amy before they all left for their departure pods at the base of the space colony.

**

Once alone, Rouge peered down at the world below. The space colony was nearing closer to her planet's atmosphere. Entwined in her thoughts, her eyes narrowed at the break between the atmosphere and the stratosphere, where that enigmatic hedgehog faded into after helping Sonic save the space colony as well as the planet. "Shadow…" She shuddered as his name tumbled as a whisper from her lips. He was rather puzzling and seemed to be as much of a mystery to himself as he was to others. Rouge sighed as a gloved hand gently touched the glass of the window while her mind still stirred with theories and thoughts. Shadow's supposed sacrifice was a noble thing to do, but on a lighter note, if she hadn't changed his way of thinking by snooping around in his business, then she and Knuckles wouldn't have even bothered to get as close as they were at the current moment. Somewhere deep down in her heart, Rouge secretly wished for Shadow to still be alive somewhere so she could thank him for what he'd done…for her and for the world. As her reminiscing subsided, Rouge had become aware of how close the ship was to their home planet.

It was time for her to go.

With a small smirk lacing across her scarlet lips, Rouge tossed a silent thank you into the vast space of twinkling celestial bodies-hoping that wherever Shadow was, he would feel her utmost respect for him and his actions.

"Attention Rouge the Bat!" Dr Eggman announced from the ark's intercom system. Turning her head towards the device, Rogue suddenly realized that all the time she spent thinking, all the others had gathered into their dispatching pods and she was the only one left! "Hurry up!" he continued " The pods are ready to be released! Do you want to stay here and become a fricasseed fried bat when this ship enters the atmosphere?"

"Allright allright! I heard you!" Rouge snapped, even though she couldn't be heard. "You don't have to spook me..." With an annoyed hand on her hip, she proceeded to make her way to the pods when the faint sound of static resonated in her ear. "What the..." she wondered, instinctively tapping her ear-piece, "Is someone there?"

"Ru…ge…..R…ge…can…u….. er…me…."

Trying to make out the garbled message, Rouge pressed the ear-piece deeper into her ear as an attempt to get better clarity. "What? Who is this?"

"….Rouge….Ru..ge! Can you…hear……me?"

Fully recognizing the voice, Rouge gasped and took a step back. "…You… Shadow…you're alive?"

There was a pause.

"Shadow?"

"….Listen to me…Rouge. …Th…re…There isn't much time….I..I need to ask a favor ..of you…"

**

"…She's still not here yet…" Knuckles bluntly stated, already strapped into his pod.

"What?!" Sonic exclaimed, in the same pod strapped in across from him. "How would you know that?"

"..I'm not making it up.." Knuckles replied with a hint of a growl in his voice, " I can feel it.."

Sonic gave his comrade a rather unsure expression; partly sincere, partly confused. If Rouge still really was in the space colony, then she had to get out of there before she and the colony became a display of fireworks upon reaching the atmosphere.

"Then what are we doing sitting here? We have to get her out!" Sonic exclaimed, already clawing at the buckles and straps on his safety equipment. "Man, this thing is like a straight-jacket! I can't get it off!" Glancing to Knuckles, he smirked. "Don't worry, I'll help you out of there in no time…Just as soon as I get out of these things..!"

Wordlessly, Knuckles watched Sonic relentlessly gnaw, pull and fight against the straps and buckles that securely and safely kept him in place for departure. Needless to say, his vain attempts weren't working.

"Grrrr!" Sonic growled, still forcefully trying to break out of the straps "What was I thinking letting Eggman wrap these things up so tight?! It feels more like a restraint than a safety mechanism!"

Finally choosing to block out the hedgehog's bothersome complaints, Knuckles warily stared at Sonic's safety straps and analyzed how they were put on. There was a belt around the waist, two diagonally across the shoulders and one around the ankles. The structure was so simple, Knuckles had to hold back his growing irritation at Sonic for making things harder than what they actually were, and swiftly undid the buckles. Standing to his feet, he turned his back to Sonic and clenched a fist. "I'll go."

"Huh?" Sonic wondered looking up, just in time to see Knuckles dash out of the pod and climb up the space colony's walls before the pod's doors shut off his line of vision. Once alone, he ceased his struggling farce and crossed his arms. A smug smirk on his lips, he chuckled proudly to himself. "Heh. He fell for it. Ah…such great acting, I should receive an Oscar."

**

" …A Chaos Emerald?!" Rouge relayed into the ear-piece. " What do you need one of those for? And why are you telling me this?"

There was a small pause before Shadow continued. " ….I'm using your ear-piece's frequency…you're the only one who can hear me…"

Becoming annoyed at his beating around the bush, Rouge angrily placed a hand on her hip and stomped a five-inch pumped heel on the floor. "You're not answering my questions, Shadow! Why do you need an emerald and why do you have this frequency?"

"For an enigmatical spy, you ask a lot of questions. I recall you digging up information on me, so now I'm returning the favor."

"Why you…!"

"But Rouge, please, I need you to do this for me. This is a life or death situation, and I know you wouldn't want to be responsible for someone's death if it could be avoided."

Rouge had to admit that he had a point. She was good at hiding her emotions, but the guilt would be too heavy for even her to bear. Reluctantly, she agreed. "Fine, I'll do it. But what's in it for me…?"

**

"Where is she?!" Knuckles frantically and angrily asked himself, while still climbing the walls of the ark. "How could she stay behind like this?! Just what was she thinking?!! Doesn't she know she's putting herself in danger--Gyah!!" He shouted as he missed his footing and slipped. Quickly he drove his fist into the wall and reclaimed his balance. With beads of sweat brimming his brow and his chest heaving from deep and raspy breaths, Knuckles stopped for a moment to collect his scattered thoughts. Why was Rouge doing something so endangering? It didn't make any sense to him.

"Why… Why are you doing this to me, Rouge…? …Don't you know you're making me worry…." Concluding that his onslaught of rhetorical questions would do nothing but delay him time, Knuckles forcefully put the rest of it behind him and continued to make his way up the wall.

After what seemed like hours, he finally reached the top. Panting heavily, he pulled himself up one arm and leg at a time and frantically scanned the area for Rouge.

Nothing.

Concerned and irritated, he rounded a corner. "Rouge!!"

No answer.

"Dammit." He growled through gritted teeth. "Where is she!" Turning in another hallway, he picked up the distinct flicker of light from the far end of it.

Was it her?

Putting all else aside, Knuckles forced himself to pick up enough speed kick off the floor and glide to the end of the hallway as fast as he could. 'Hold on Rouge..' he whispered to himself, 'Just hold on…!'

**

"Are you sure about this!?" Rouge exclaimed to Shadow after tuning on another light switch.

" Think of it this way….If…I'm lying...we both die. I'm not someone crazy enough to…take my...own life."

Rouge half smiled. "Somehow I seriously doubt that. I already can't believe I'm allowing you to talk me into this, but if your offer stands firm, then I'm ready to gamble. Tell me what I need to do."

" G…to th…middle of the room…"

"What?"

"Go to the middle of the room and turn to your left. Do you see a door?"

Rouge walked to the middle of the main computer room and turned left. Just as he said, there was a door there. It was in a rather odd place in her opinion, but nonetheless she went over to it. Scanning it over, she found it to be locked with a numeric keypad next to it. Casually, she punched in the numbers 62742 and stepped back to let the door open in front of her.

There was a gasp from the ear-piece, then a cough.

"Shadow…Shadow are you allright?"

"The password….how...did you…?"

Rouge smirked. "You ought to give me better credit than that, Shadow. Just about every password on this ship relates to the same person."

There was a pause as the dark hedgehog mourned the loss of the one dearest to him.

"…Maria…"

Feeling the deep sadness and remorse in his voice, Rouge took it upon herself to lighten things up a bit. "I'm sorry about your loss, Shadow, but, after what you've done, I'm sure she's happy and smiling down at you from above."

Appreciating her concern, Shadow made a sound of acknowledgement."Thank you… Oh no…! …Ru…..hu…! You….d..n..have...mu…tim..!"

"What? Shadow I can't hear you…you're breaking up.."

"Hurry! There's no time! Activate the panel in fro..nt..of you…and g…t..out!"

Confused, Rouge didn't give much time to argue with him and pressed a few buttons on the panel. After doing so, a pod that looked to be framed with a chaos emerald's luster material dropped down in front of her. Not wasting any time, Rouge nervously held her breath and hopped into it, not knowing what to expect. The very moment she did, the space colony began to shake tremendously.

It had hit the atmosphere already!

'This is bad…' she mumbled in her mind. 'This is really bad…' Frantically, she searched the inside of the pod for an ejection switch.

"Rouge!!!!"

Her already short breath got caught in her throat at the call of her name. 'Knuckles!' she exclaimed to herself. The exact moment she thought of him, was within the same second that he flew into the room and saw her. For a moment, their eyes met-his were frantic and racing, while hers were awed and welling with emotion.

Did Knuckles actually care for her this much? That even while the space colony practically tore itself apart, he left the safety of his escape pod to come back, looking for her? 'Oh..Knuckles…' she whispered breathlessly in her mind, as a silent tear fell from her eye.

But before any other them could make another movement, the space colony shook with an overwhelming force and knocked Rouge to the floor of the emerald pod---which resulted in her setting off the dispatching switch.

Unable to do anything to stop her, Knuckles watched in horror as Rouge's distraught and tearful eyes tore from his as she and the pod disappeared from the ark in an instant. The fearful scream of his name was the only thing she left behind.

Wow…such many ways this was written. I'm trying something new with this particular story. With that said, see you next time.

-Mel ^^