Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Guardian Angel ❯ Melancholy ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

That was quite a gap in updating time wasn’t it?
I apologise for how the timeline jumps about, just role with it and pay attention to when it was set. And Queen Taila is an inside joke between me and a certain Youtube artist.

Thanks for reading, please review.


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Eight years ago: The ARK several hours before the ECLIPSE Cannon was due to fire again


Always this window, always this room. There were plenty of rooms with views but this was the most breathtaking. He didn’t pick it because of that though, he picked this room because it was their room. The one that they had spent so much time in, the scientists and others had always kept away from it because they felt they would be intruding.

The fact that most of the other ARK residents had been scared to death of him had always helped their privacy.

He could almost see her reflection on the glass. Smiling. Urging him on in his goal to complete her final revenge.

“Maria…” The name meant everything to him and nothing to anyone else. A single girl whose physical weakness had led to this entire colony, the prototypes design and creation, his design and construction. From one very special girl had sprang a web of complex designs and equations.

A girl who was unique and more precious than anything in the Universe to him. He would destroy planets for her and that was exactly what he planned to do. The moon was just visible in the corner of the window and he smiled at the destruction he had caused. Bits of rock were still breaking away and it seemed like someone had taken a hammer and hit the natural satellite with it.

The day she had died was burnt into his mind, forever to be replayed by the sub-conscious that hated him for failing her as a sort of punishment. He knew he deserved it for failing her too. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her there, in the final conclusion of her life. Her shirt bloody and her expression pained as she fell to the floor, brushing the release switch for his pod and activating the countdown. Smiling up at him despite the pain and speaking only those words.

Shadow sunk further into his own memories, closing his eyes to the outside world and retreating within a cold shell.

“Shadow, please promise me…promise you will avenge me.”

“I promise. Your bidding will be done…Maria.” Shadow walked out of the room and ignored the Bat that had been watching him. With her sensitive ears she had easily caught his promise to thin air and the name that had followed it.

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The sun was just going down and the two Hedgehogs had already left for Flicky Island. Cream had kept waving at the plane even after it had gotten into the sky and she knew they couldn‘t see her, she was that kind of girl. Rouge had flown off into the sky herself in the opposite direction, back into the city of Station Square but Tails was still with her, they were walking past the hangars with all sorts of advanced machinery and aircraft and the Fox‘s attention was waning.

“I still can’t believe Amy trusted me to look after her apartment!” The Hedgehog had asked her days ago but she was still excited that she would be alone in the place. Vanilla had been worried about it but Cream knew she had obviously had good reason now that they had talked. The young doe had already put some bags over there earlier and so she could go straight there. Cheese would, of course, arrive after his stay with Tikal when she had everything together and was settled in.

“I know….” Tails voice slowed and his head turned to look at a plane as they went past a hangar door, as soon as the aircraft went out of sight he sped up again. “….I thought she would ask Rouge or me. I’m glad it was you though, I’d have to bring my experiments and……….I think I would ruin the place.” They had passed another hangar. “What are you going to………do there?”

“When I get in the first thing I’ll do is watch that TV channel Mom won’t let me watch at home. She never said why but I bet it’s good.” Cream didn’t notice as she was talking the Kitsune had walked directly into a hangar and began conversing with a mechanic, before negotiating on parts for his own plane. By the time she realised that Tails was gone he was deep in mechanics.

“I’m sorry Cream, I’ll just be twenty minutes.” The intelligent Mobian told her, Cream didn’t mind too much though.

“That’s okay Tails, I’ll just sit in the Tornado. I have a book in there.” Tails agreed this was a good idea and gave the doe his keys. Most Mobians didn’t have cars and few had any idea how to operate them so he knew she wouldn’t drive off. As if the innocent doe would do anything like that!

Cream walked across the darkening airport and eventually got to the blue plane/car hybrid that was Tails’ pride and joy. It was parked on the road just outside the airport gates and Cream was happy to get into it when she looked around at the desolate streets. She located her book “A Chao and Me” inside her handbag (pink- a gift from Amy) - a story about an adorable little Mouse girl and her best friend, a dark purple evil-Chao called Ghost.

( Author Note: If you don’t know about hero/evil Chao you need to buy Sonic Adventure 2. Its on Gamecube as a remake too.)

Cream drifted into the story and completely lost track of time before, eventually, the comfy chairs Tails had installed began to lure her into becoming sleepy.

Outside, the city darkened to night whilst the innocent doe slept.


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Eight years ago: Somewhere within Westopilis

“Hey Tanto. Enjoying yourself?” Nails walked up to the couch on which they had placed “Black and Crispy” as Leo had named him. Tanto was watching him whilst reading a book. Their HQ was actually a warehouse that had been going cheap, they had decorated it with all sorts of things. From posters and pool tables to swords and weights it was like a giant living room. They all had beds their, even Espio who rarely showed his face more than a few days a week. Almost like he was living a double life. Or he was just too good at being invisible.

“Yeah, its actually pretty fun watching this guys fur grow back.” Sarcasm was evident in the blue Fox’s voice.

“What?”

“Look at him, he was fried when we brought him in and now..” Nails looked to see that instead of the burnt mess that they had dumped on their furniture what they now had was a slightly short-furred Hedgehog. He looked somewhat gothic, with fur so black that it seemed to suck at the light. Highlighting this was blood red fur on his quills and by his eyes.
She knew that the classic Hedgehog colour was brown, not black. Unless fur was dyed (which it rarely was because of the sheer difficulty of a full body dye) Hedgehogs were almost always that colour. Nails herself would have suspected him to have dyed it if not for the fact that it would have been impossible to get it that accurate. The white tuft on his chest was also abnormal, Hedgehog’s usually had bald spots there but he had rich ivory fur. It made him look older than he seemed physically, adding on the years and making it hard to figure out his exact age.

“How?”

“He healed. Believe me, I watched and it was gross.” Tanto looked a bit sick and Nails noticed that a number of scabs and bits of burnt fur covered the sofa. “They just healed and dropped off. When he wakes up I’m burning this sofa.”

“Hey guys! Come look at this.” Kazu and Leo looked up from the TV and came to her but Sepuku remained engrossed in his weight training. Espio was nowhere to be seen, although that didn’t usually mean a lot.

“What’s wrong Nails? You girls need a big strong man to protect you from Mr Crispy?” Leo smirked and pretend flexed his muscles, causing the Mongoose to give him the finger.

“Burning boy isn’t crispy anymore Leo, look at him.”

“Impossible, he should be scarred for life!” Kazu was staring at the creature they had brought in, he had thought about a mercy killing for god’s sake! But he had healed quicker than any creature possibly could. “Can we try and wake him up?”

“I’ll try…” Nails poked the Hedgehog with the same hand who’s glove finger had been burnt off.

As soon as she did Shadow’s eyes sprang open and the Mobians jumped back. Meanwhile, Sepuku untangled himself from his training gear and prepared himself for a fight. A good move as it happens.

Shadow’s head turned to look at each of them in turn. Quickly, analysing them for weaknesses. Once that was done he leaped into the support beams on the ceiling and stared down at the shocked bunch with blood red eyes. No expression on his face but obviously on the defensive.

“What should we do?” Nails whispered to Kazu.

“Get him down somehow, did you see that jump though? No one could do that!” The bear heard him and decided to try and threaten the new arrival.

“Get down here now Hedgehog or I’ll bring you down!” Rarely did Sepuku say more than a few words but his growling voice echoed up to the previously injured Mobian. The mint green Bear had already secured his long sword, and was holding it menacingly.

He never got to elaborate on how he would do this. Shadow saw him as the biggest threat and launched himself from the ceiling and into Sepuku with a spinning kick. The Bear flew back stunned but brought his sword around to cut the Hedgehog. Shadow ducked easily.

“Jump in when you like!” The bear growled to the gaping Mobians. Kazu was the first to attack, without his sword he was limited but he still had unarmed training. Shadow dealt a number of kicks to the Bear’s stomach at lightning speed and all the strength of a small car crashing. Then he turned his attention to the attacking Rabbit, assuming correctly that the Bear would be out of action, at least for a while.

Kazu tried every move that he knew but for everyone Shadow had both a counter-attack and a string of follow up moves. However, the still healing Hedgehog was not ready for full combat yet and, although he didn’t show it, he was tiring. Kazu attempted a sweeping floor kick across Shadow’s legs but was surprised when his attack simply slammed into his enemies legs and didn’t go further.

He was left on the floor with his leg feeling like he had tried to kick concrete, with the devil like creature staring back at him. About to move in for the kill. Luckily Nails chose that moment to fire her signature weapon.

Two sharp pieces of metal were propelled from the spring-loaded launchers in her gloves deep into Shadow’s chest, blood spurted freely from the wound. The Hedgehog staggered before jumping back up into the support beams and destroying the lights up there, leaving a pair of almost glowing red eyes in the darkness. A few drops of blood dropped on the floor underneath him.

“Thanks for helping guys.” Kazu said sarcastically.

“Are we supposed to call a pest control guy or what?” Leo asked, looking up at the nocturnal eyes watching them. Behind them, a very annoyed bear regained consciousness.

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A noise outside somewhere awoke the creamy brown Rabbit from her sleep.

“What- where am I?” It took her a few seconds to realise she was still in the Tornado, seeing how dark it was outside she checked her watch. A small delicate golden one with a rose pattern around the figures.

“10:30!?!” No wonder it was so dark! It was night and Tails hadn’t come back yet! “Tails was supposed to be here hours ago!” Cream knew that he would still be working in the same hangar, once he got into something there was no stopping him.

Despite the almost pitch black night Cream got the courage up to get out of the Tornado and go to the gates of the airport. The street was still deserted and Cream wondered if this was one of those bad places Amy had told her to avoid. She got to the entrance but found it had been locked, huge tall fences and gates designed to stop criminals getting over easily were in place and she doubted she could fly over them without hurting herself badly if she got tired. Cheese wasn’t here to slowly lower her down with his small Chao wings and she regretted not bringing him.

The doe thought about yelling out but didn’t want to let anyone bad know she was here.

“Maybe it would be best if I just went back to the Tornado.” Her voice was shaky and full of fear but the idea of going back to the nice warm plane was very appealing. She actually ran back, afraid of shadows and noises in the night.

Her fear turned to pure terror when she came to the plane. The doors had closed and locked automatically and she had left the keys inside her handbag to avoid losing them, the pink bag was also inside the plane. Calm down Cream, there isn’t anyone about. You’ll be fine. I know the way back to Amy’s apartment. True, the apartment keys were also in her bag Amy had long ago told her that she kept a spare set with her hyperactive neighbour Taila. All she needed to do was get back and knock on her door for the keys, she knew the way and Taila never slept.

Of course, she also had to walk through the dark scary streets. Maybe I should just stay with the Tornado. That idea was shattered when she heard a noise behind her which sounded like a voice. Her fear driving her she ran as fast as she could.

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8 years ago:

“Maybe we should try talking to him.” Tanto suggested to the group trying to figure out how to get the Hedgehog down. Suggestions had included: Ignoring him, shooting him, shaking the building, baiting him with food and poking him with a very long broom.

“You want to talk to that?” Leo pointed up to the red eyes watching there every move. He hadn’t even moved.

They wondered why he didn’t just try and leave.

“Why not? Its now like he’s some kind of animal.”

“Go ahead Tanto. The stage is yours.” The soft blue Fox walked up underneath him and began to talk in what she hoped was a brave voice.

“Who are you?”

“No-one you‘d know.” Unlike the voice they had heard in the crater, which had been happy in a strange sort of way, this one was bitter and dark.

“What were you doing in that crater?” Nails added.

“Burning.” The voice was cold, but it was also kind of sad.

“Why were you there?” Kazu joined in.

“I fell.”

“Where from?”

“Space.”

“You expect us to believe that? How would you get up there?” Leo laughed.

“I was in an impact crater, where else would I come from?”

“Why did you attack us?” Nails butted in, seeing as the Lion wasn’t getting anywhere that didn’t include a body bag.

“You stopped the test.”

“You were testing yourself by burning alive?” Nails asked, amazed and disgusted at the same time. And yet, here she was having a conversation with floating red eyes on her ceiling.

“Who am I if I am not ultimate? That is my reason for being. To be perfect. If I am not why should I live? I had to see if I was worthy of this life. Besides that, you kidnapped me. You are threats.”

“You think we kidnapped you?” Kazu asked the odd creature.

“You brought me here, and when I awoke you were afraid of me. I knew you would attack.”

“Listen, this has all been a big misunderstanding, we found you and thought you were hurt. So we brought you back here to heal.” Nails tried to explain.

“You threatened me.”

“Sep did. There’s a difference. He’s not usually very violent, he just wanted you down.”

“You didn‘t try and talk until now.”

“Well, neither did you.”

“You shot me in the chest.” That made her feel a little guilty, those metal nails could really cause damage.

“Yeah…sorry about that.” The eyes actually laughed at that! Well, not so much laughed as let out a dark chuckle which was pretty chilling if she was honest with herself. It was a slow echoing laugh that made you think of the super-villains on TV.

“No harm done.” There was an odd flash of light and the two pieces of sharpened metal appeared in her hand from nowhere, both covered in blood. A few splatters of blood along the floor marked where he had dropped down and walked but she hadn’t seen him. It was like I had all happened in an instant.

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Cream walked timidly through the streets of Station Square, she wasn’t even sure she knew the way anymore and thought she might have gotten lost. Strange sounds erupted from the night and she was sure that she was being followed by something…or someone. A click sounded out from behind her and she whipped around to see who was there. But there was no-one in sight.

“Who’s there? This isn’t funny. Where are you?” Cream whimpered and turned tail to run away. Whoever was behind her couldn’t have followed the fear driven doe and now she wondered if the noise had been in her head.

The Rabbit finally slowed down to catch her breath and leant against a wall for support. Taking deep breaths she tried to calm herself down lest she hurt herself. When she was finally breathing normally she decided to try and find her way to a better part of town and find a kind person to help her. If only she had her handbag she could have called her Mother and asked her what to do. Or call Mr Knuckles, he’d find me here and protect me easily. But if wishes were fishes then Mr Big would have his face locked in a smile all day.

Suddenly Cream heard another noise and jumped into an alley-way on instinct. She pressed up against a wall and waited. Then her common sense caught up with her and she instantly wished it hadn‘t. Why is this wall so lumpy? It asked quietly.

Cream slowly turned and looked up into the eyes of a large grey Fox. He was smiling but not with humour.

“Cream the Rabbit?” He said, showing more teeth than the poor doe had ever seen in her life. Her mouth no longer taking commands she nodded slowly.

“Hey guys! I found the Bunny!” The Fox yelled down the alley and Cream saw vague shapes moving through the darkness until they became two Tigers. Mean looking ones with dirty fur and for some reason torn dog-collars. She tried to back away from them until she hit something else. Turning she found herself face to face with a slobbering Dog Mobian, grinning down at her.

“Did that message say if they wanted her dead or alive?” One asked.

“It said either one was fine but they prefer alive.”

“Well we have ‘er. Where’d we take ‘er?” The Dog asked.

“To the docks. Big Stanley said that the clients would be waiting there for her.”

“ Well…” The Fox had a devilish grin on his face, exposing once again those horrible teeth to the trembling doe. “We don’t have to take her straight away. We could always have some fun with the girl first.” This did sound worrying to Cream and too late did she try and get away from the Mobians who had by now circled around her. The Fox grabbed her by the ears and immediately she cried out in pain. Rabbit ears were EXTREMELY sensitive and grabbing them too hard was enough to make most Rabbits cry, it overloaded the senses and left them disorientated too.

Tears filled her eyes as the overwhelming pain stopped her from struggling when a knife cut the straps on her top and bra and they dropped away, revealing her small but firm breasts to the drooling males. The Fox moved his hands up her skirt and pulled down her panties before discarding them and moving to push her roughly to the cold ground. Tying her tightly with ragged pieces of her shirt they made sure she couldn’t move from the “leapfrog” position she occupied. Only then did she have the sense to scream out as loud as she could.

That was loud.

One of the Tigers managed to grab her panties and roll them into a ball before stuffing them in her mouth to stop her screaming. The others breathed out in a sigh as the painfully high-pitched sound was reduced to a kind of desperate muffled whimpering.

On the floor Cream closed her eyes, braced herself and prepared for the worst.

A loud whining noise rang out through the silent streets, consider the bullet flying from the rooftops. Dealing death to a creature that doesn’t even know its there. Its one purpose to kill him before its own “life” is extinguished.

The bullet ripped through the Fox’s skull in seconds, erasing him from existence and leaving only a shell and some blood splattered across the wall. His smile was still on his face yet his eyes were lifeless. He dropped to the ground as another bullet was shot, this buried itself in his chest.

A small incendiary charge ignited and his body turned to ash in seconds. Cream kept her eyes tightly closed, no idea of what was going on and with no desire to know.

The remaining Mobians barely have time to react before another two bullets whined and hit the twin Tigers, exploding and disintegrating them alive.

The Dog looked around for an escape route but didn’t expect what happened yet. A Hedgehog appeared out of thin-air and span a kick towards him, the blow hit him in the ribs and cracked two before knocking him to the ground.

“Machiavellian “Tiny” Lupus?” The voice sounded slightly surprised and the Hedgehog kept looking at a palmtop computer. The Dog nodded, not knowing what to do. “There’s a two hundred dollar bounty on you.” That was definitely not the last thing the Dog expected to hear. A powerful punch to the head was sufficient to kill the criminal and Shadow threw him onto a nearby roof for later collection.

The whimper of the doe brought him back to the task at hand.

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Cream felt someone pick her up and carry her. Daring to open her eyes she saw she was in the arms of a powerful looking black and red Hedgehog in a long black coat and matching baggy pants, out of his shirt sprang a small tuft of white chest fur which was the only part of his body that wasn‘t red or black. He had an almost permanent scowl on his face and to her shock and fascination ruby red eyes. Unlike any normal eye colour.

He looked down at her in what she could only guess was interest and large brown doe eyes met sharp artificial red ones. For a while they just stared at each other, with her hands tied behind her back Cream was unable to cover herself but noticed that his stare had not left her eyes.

She felt his whole body tense and would have screamed if not for the makeshift gag when he leapt far up into the air and ran UP a building. He got to the top with her in his arms and she wasn’t sure whether to try and escape or not. He definitely came under the title of strange boys her Mother had warned her about.

When he got to the top he gently placed Cream down and seemed to cut her binds with a spark on his finger before walking off a short distance.

Her heart was racing and she knew she had to calm down, she had been saved after all and nothing too bad had happened. Her Mother had told her if this happened to find someone strong and this Hedgehog was definitely strong if he had stopped all those other Mobians.

The chill up here reminded her that she was mostly naked and pantyless. The latter definitely not something to be when you have a short skirt on top of a tall building. Not only was she cold but she was in danger of showing even more of herself to the angry looking Hedgehog if a gust of wind were to happen.

It took her a while but she finally managed to remove her panties from her mouth, unfortunately they were soaked through and she dropped them instead of putting them on her.

Now she was calmer the major emotion at the moment was embarrassment, she was mostly naked and there was no doubt that her rescuer had already seen everything there was to see.

She searched for the Hedgehog and found him sitting on the other side if the roof looking down on the city.

“Excuse me, do you have a spare shirt I could borrow please?” Cream watched him turn to glance at her and she immediately tried to cover herself more than she possibly could, really just showing more of herself to the Hedgehog. The fact that he hadn’t said anything yet was beginning to make her uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that he was pretty terrifying looking.

He got up and walked to her, Cream tried to back away but he just kept walking and she decided it would be best to just submit to whatever he had in mind before she walked right off the building. However to her surprise he simply stood there and looked her up and down. She was still trying to cover her more private parts from him and was getting worried that he might just want to do the same thing to her as the other Mobians had. After a few seconds he removed his long coat and wrapped it around her before walking back to the edge of the building.

“Wait and don‘t look in the pockets.” His voice was deep and cold but it was clear he expected her to obey him. The Hedgehog then walked to the edge and dropped off silently. Leaving her to sit down on the roof and hug the coat closer to herself.

A few minutes later an alarm started somewhere out in the city and her rescuer came back at speed matching Sonic’s. Wow! He’s as fast as Mr Sonic, I wonder if they’re related. He does look like him. It was true, now Cream thought about it he seemed to have the same basic structure as Station Square’s personal hero Sonic. He was around the same height, his facial structure was the same, the only differences were his fur colour, clothes (Sonic wore none- like most male Mobians) his golden bracelets and his strange shoes.

He held out his arms to her and she saw there were a number of clothes with the price tags still on around her size. He had obviously robbed a store somewhere but considering the circumstances she was prepared to forgive that crime. Only then did Cream realize that the nice top that Rouge had given her was gone and began to feel slightly angry towards the criminals who had attacked her. Still she picked out a bra and a nice long sleeved pink shirt to go with her dress and protect her from the cold. As well as that she found a nice thick orange jumper, it didn’t really match her outfit but it was warm. Unfortunately he hadn’t brought her any panties.

“Excuse me Mr….” She asked quietly.

“My name is Shadow, only Shadow.” Maybe he was another person who didn’t like being called Mr or Miss.

“I don’t mean to be rude but..” She was blushing madly and Shadow was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with the clothes he had brought. “Do you think you could get me any underpants please? Its cold up here and…you know.” No wonder she was embarrassed! He had forgotten some clothes!

A second trip was made and he came back with around half a dozen different pairs to her relief and embarrassment at the same time. The blushing doe picked one and was happy to see the Hedgehog turn as she put them on.

Shadow stared off the edge of the building. Numerous Mobians were searching around on street level and he guessed that the ones he had killed had friends, they had probably come to look for the Rabbit. Now that he had her he wasn’t sure what to do, was he supposed to just take what he needed and go?

“We must leave Cream.” He told the now dressed Rabbit, looking at her properly now she was properly robed he was surprised to find himself thinking of her as quite attractive. And she wasn’t even his species! Then again, she is at least Mobian. Maria was a human and I never thought of that as weird.

“How do you know my name?” The doe backed away from the Hedgehog, the others had known her name and had said they were going to take her somewhere. Maybe he was doing the same.

“I have no time for this.” Shadow picked her up and ignored her struggling against him before taking out his red emerald.

“Put me down! Wait, that’s a Chaos Emerald!”

“Well done.” Shadow held her with one hand and lifted the emerald with the other.

“Chaos Control!!” There was a zap of blue residual Chaos energy across the roof and a bright red light seemed to engulf them. They disappeared from the roof.

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GUN HQ: Station Square


In a seat raised above his lackeys going about there government work sat the Commander. His real name was unknown to all but a few. On the wall in front of him was a map of Mobius.

“Have those criminals found her yet?” He asked his personal aid, Lt. Stevens.

“No sir, no one has turned in her or her corpse and none of our seeker robots have found her either. It is possible Kazu was able to find her and take her somewhere, or send one of his allies.”

“God damn it, we need that damn crystal! Are you sure we can’t pick it up with satellites?”

“Yes sir, Kazu must have hidden it within some sort of shielding.”

“What about that Assassin? Has Rouge figured out who it is yet?”
“No sir, but we have no reason to believe that it is who you say it is sir. Its impossible that the project survived a fall through the atmosphere.”

“Mark my words Stevens, that thing is like a demon straight from hell. Soldiers have thrown grenades at it only to find them back in their hands a few seconds later. People have shot at him only to find that the bullets come back at them. He has walked through explosions unharmed. It does not pay to underestimate a creature like that.”

“Yes sir.” Little did they know that their entire conversation was being recorded. On the ceiling was a tiny robot, barely the size of a fly. It had been there for over a month and knew everything there was to know about GUN’s latest interest.

Far away, an overweight scientist laughed to himself maniacally.

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The flash of light brought them away from the cold rooftop. Cream knew it had been Chaos Control, something Sonic used as a party trick when he needed something to bring attention back to himself. He wasn’t this good though, if he teleported more than twenty metres or so he got tired and disorientated. Rouge had once said that she had known someone who could do it across the planet and now Cream wondered if Shadow had known them too.

Cream saw that she was in the main room of a fairly expensive looking apartment, decorated black mostly and with few furnishings that didn’t seem like they had come with the place.

The walls, ceiling and carpet were all black and in the room were two expensive looking black sofas facing a wall-mounted plasma screen. A door led off to the kitchen which was black and silver and she saw the door a closed door that probably led to his bedroom. Cream was put down on one of the black sofas and Shadow walked off to the kitchen. Cream attempted a nervous conversation with her rescuer out of sheer want to fill the silence in the air. Unsure whether or not asking personal questions would be rude she settled on commenting on the décor.

“So Shadow, this apartment is very…themed isn’t it?” This place rivalled Amy’s pink theme but was thankfully not so hard on the eyes.

“That is all you have to ask?” Shadow came back with a first aid kit and to her surprise was not scowling as much as he had been previously. “Fair enough, I like black. That is the reason for it being black.”

“What’s the first-aid kit for please?” Shadow pointed to her wrists and she noticed that they were red raw from the tight binds that had been around her, although she didn’t feel much now her Mother had always said wash any cuts to stop them getting infected. Without waiting for her response he took out some anti-septic and washed them, it stung but Cream tolerated it. After this brief show of almost kindness the Hedgehog’s scowl returned to its normal state and he stepped away from her to lie on the other sofa and flip idly through a book .

“Excuse me, why did you save me?”

“And i I’m a naturally good hearted law abiding individual who despite his tough exterior has a heart of gold and can’t bare to let someone come to harm.” Even the innocent doe could tell that he was being sarcastic despite the fact that he said it without any hint of emotion.

“Now your just being sarcastic, only mean people are sarcastic.”

“It’s my immune systems response to stupid questions.”

“Could you at least tell me about yourself?”

“I told you, I am Shadow.”

“What else?” The Hedgehog looked at her in the eyes for a while and she grew uncomfortable under his gaze. Looking into his eyes and past the cold front she was sure she could see some sadness, as quickly as this little insight began it ended and Shadow got up from the sofa.

“In the morning I may say more but for now it is late, you should be sleeping. You can have my bed.” Shadow seemed to have frequent switches in personality and she suspected that he might be bipolar. However, she thanked him gratefully and agreed that she was tired. He led her through the closed door and into another room with an equally black theme, it had a large black bed in the centre and Cream thought it looked very comfortable.

Shadow turned to leave but Cream stopped him.

“What?”

“I never got a chance to thank you properly for saving me.” Cream was blushing slightly and looking down at the floor so he wouldn’t see her.

“I don’t require thanks.”

“Still, thank you very much for saving me Shadow. Whatever your reasons I’m glad you were there. Goodnight.” She smiled up at the slightly taller male and he simply looked back with what she guessed was curiosity.

“Goodnight.” He walked of and Cream made sure he was gone before getting undressed and hopping into the bed.

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Time unknown: Location unknown

He was in a large graveyard and surrounded by the dead. Despite this he felt oddly comfortable, he was at home with death and never feared it. It might be nice one day to submit to that long uncomplicated sleep, however that was not to be done today.

“I envy you.”

Shadow located the gravestone he had been looking for.

His own.

It was a large but fairly simple one happily, but someone had obviously made an effort with it. There was a picture of him carved into it and he was glad to see they hadn’t put him in a heroic pose. He was just there with his arms crossed, staring from the rock with as much intensity as the real thing. There were words there too which he felt were extremely appropriate.

And that was it. Whoever had done this had known him enough to bother with that and get it right.

On the top of the headstone were two golden bands with a note attached.

“Perhaps we will work together again Doctor. Perhaps we will.” Shadow smiled a strange little half smile and then slid on the two bands onto his wrists. They glowed briefly as they adjusted to his field of Chaos energy and then he disappeared.


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Wow, long chapter. To Lu, I am writing my Shails chapter too, it is around half done currently so expect it in a few days.

Sorry about the other OC Taila, she will be in a bit of the later chapters. Just go with it, I promised someone I would put her in and I can’t deny my Queen.


Remember all you freeloading bastards. Review or I will come to your house and beat you to death with a puppy.

I’ll do it, im crazy.