#dracaria fics

[dracarialove]

📄 F it, I'm posting my finished fics here, too 📄

Buried Desires

*Check the 'buried desires' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 2: Intoxicated]

From the bushes across the street from Doctor Golvin's private estate, G.U.N's most skillful agents watched and waited for the scientist to leave. It was still early in the morning, which would give them time to find what they were looking for once he went off to work.

Though the view of his house wasn't entirely clear thanks to the high fence that surrounded the property, it didn't seem to be guarded, at least on the outside.

"He probably assumes the gate is enough," Rouge commented, faint arrogance in her tone. "Sure, he's on the edge of town – but does he really think he's not in danger of being robbed here?"

Shadow merely shrugged when she glanced at him, using their time in hiding to get familiar with the handheld device Tower had given them to locate the stolen weapon.

His partner tugged at the long strips of cloth hanging from the back of her head, tightening the hood of her spy outfit, and kept her eyes on the area near Golvin's front door.

Shadow, of course, found a disguise to be unnecessary; and she knew it was pointless to advocate for one. He didn't really need one if they were going to make it a quick mission. She just liked to be prepared.

Then, Rouge spotted the man walking away from his house, already talking on the phone while he strolled to his car. She kept her gaze on him but held her hand out to the hedgehog, gaining his attention. "There he is, leaving now."

Shadow shifted his position to crouch beside her, the dastardly pair watching the scientist get in his vehicle and pull out of the long driveway. Just to be safe, they kept an eye on his car until it disappeared down the slope of the hilly road, then shared a glance.

"It's clear," stated Rouge, getting a nod from him before they sprang into action.

They approached the backside of the fenced area, Shadow teleporting past it to hug the home's wall while the bat flew over to dismantle any cameras – but she was surprised to not see any around.

'What kind of rich asshole doesn't have security cameras?' she thought, hovering level with the second floor. 'Even I have them...'

She looked down at the Ultimate Lifeform, who looked at the Commander's device and then up at her. He raised it towards her, then tossed it in the air for her to catch, being careful not to speak too loudly as he did so. "I don't think it's on the first floor. What color is the dot at that height?"

Rouge studied the black screen and the steadily blinking spot that sat on the right side. "It's yellow."

"It was orange down here," he replied, "so it must be up there. Try the windows."

The flying spy turned to the two windows on their side of the building, attempting to nudge each one open, but they were locked. When she looked at Shadow again, his expression silently acknowledged the hindrance, but she didn't hesitate in reassuring him as she dropped the device down into his grip.

"No worries, a little lock won't stop me." She pulled out a putty knife and a hammer, going to work on disarming one of the windows while her teammate waited.

He admired her skill, watching the thief pry the window open in less than a minute. And once she was able to lift it from the sill, she gave him a thumbs-up.

Shadow assumed she must also be smiling behind the veil of faded purple fabric; the same sly smile she always had when she succeeded at something sneaky.

He smiled, too, and reached his free hand out for her to take, then she hauled him up to the second story and they let themselves in. The agents ended up in a hallway, dark hardwood beneath their feet and light gray wallpaper sitting behind spatterings of paintings and decorous art pieces.

Rouge took a look around and said to Shadow, "Lead the way, master tracker."

They cautiously wandered the halls, him walking ahead and watching for the tracking dot to change color as it moved according to their location, while she scanned their surroundings for cameras or guards.

It put them a bit on edge how little security there seemed to be in the Doctor's home, but they eventually found the room they were looking for. Shadow stopped when the spot turned green, their wander ending outside a brown mahogany door.

"I believe it's in here," he said, pointing at the door, then tried the knob.

It was locked, as well, so the stolid hedgehog gave a slight bow to Rouge and stepped aside. She used the simpler tool of a metal paper clip to open the door, kneeling and pressing her ear against the wood as she fiddled inside the lock.

When she heard an affirming click, she hopped to her feet and eagerly nodded at Shadow, a mischievous twinkle in her cyan eyes. He could tell she was giddy to finish the mission so quickly and leave the Commander's office thousands richer by lunchtime, and it amused him to see the lady in such high spirits.

He opened the door, holding the device in front of him to follow it even closer to their target. The room was a decently sized lounge that seemed to double as a small library, judging by the bookcases that lined the walls.

Rouge closed the door behind them, looking around but unfortunately noticing too late that there was a keypad on the wall beside the entrance.

Shadow, a few steps ahead, unknowingly crossed one foot into the path of a near-invisible laser. A harsh hissing sound filled the air above them, which made him look up as water spurted from a handful of sprinklers on the ceiling.

"Ah!" exclaimed Rouge, throwing one arm above her head.

But as Shadow quickly saw, it couldn't be ordinary water bursting from the flower-shaped fixtures – purple liquid rained down on them, causing the hedgehog to cry out when a drop of it fell into his eye. It stung a little, making him clutch his face and grit his teeth.

Once she was past the initial surprise, the bat was quick to jump up and kick the nearest sprinkler off the ceiling, dispatching the rest while her companion stood briefly incapacitated. With the downpour halted, Rouge stepped across the soggy carpet towards him, worry in her voice.

"Are you okay? You're not blind, right?"

Grimacing, Shadow removed his fingers from pinched eyes and opened them, squinting and blinking the sting of the liquid away. "I'm alright... it doesn't burn that badly, just... smells flowery."

The scent was strong once it set in, a sickly-sweet aroma that strangled the air around them and buried itself in his quills. But despite his claim of being unharmed, Rouge began swiftly removing her spy suit, stripping to her usual outfit underneath.

"We don't know what was in that stuff," she said, pulling off the drenched material and dropping it on the equally wet floor. "It clearly wasn't normal water – we need to get it out of your fur. I'll be right back!"

Without hesitation, she ran out the door, leaving him in the perfumed room. Shadow took a moment to check his tracking tool, assuring that it still worked before continuing to follow the direction of the dot.

It pointed him to the right-side wall from where they'd entered, and when he walked up to the wide bookcase in between two thinner ones, the spot on the screen started blinking more rapidly.

It didn't change color until he held it closer to the books, turning blue to alert him that they were close to the object they were hunting. But when the soaked being reached out to grab one of the novels – intending to test if it was a secret entrance to another room – he suddenly felt woozy and had to steady himself.

One gloved hand clutched the government device tightly while the other splayed at his side, his arm straightened for balance and one foot planted farther behind his body to keep him from falling backwards.

'Shit, what is this?' his mind asked, while his physical form stood frozen in fear of his legs giving out. His view of the bookshelf became slightly warped, the once-straight edges of the hardcovers seeming to bend. '... Not good...'

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before fixing his posture. However, he didn't trust himself to try testing the books again, standing still a moment and trying to work out what the hell had been in the sprinkler system, or what exactly it was doing to him.

Doctor Golvin clearly wanted to inhibit intruders' rational thought and coordination; as much as he lacked security elsewhere, Shadow decided he was a strange man for booby trapping this room using such an odd method. Though, it was working to cloud his mind from completing the next step of his task...

Thankfully, Rouge didn't take long in returning with a towel, rushing back into the room and immediately throwing it over the hedgehog's head. "Good to see you're still standing! I was afraid I'd come back and you'd be passed out on the floor or something."

Instantly, Shadow knew things were worse than he initially thought – her voice sounded stronger, almost angelic while retaining a charming mature timbre.

And when she started rubbing the towel against his quills to dry them, his heart rate spiked. He placed his free hand against the bookshelf, his vision partially blocked by the shuffle of the towel and his head swimming with flustered nerves.

His dear friend's annoyed tone sounded sweeter than it normally would as she spoke, "Ugh, the stink of lilac is so strong – even for me! Sorry, Shad, I don't think this scent is coming out any time soon..."

The man let out a shaky breath and raised his hand to weakly grab the towel, trying to pull it from Rouge's grip. "I can dry it... myself."

When he managed to look at her, his heart pounded harder than before. She was so close to him, Shadow almost felt like he couldn't breathe, and the glow he saw around her silhouette scared him. 'What the fuck is happening?'

He didn't notice how quickly he was breathing, but she did. Combined with the faraway look in his eyes and his limp grasp on the towel, the ivory-haired huntress recognized an alarming amount of incoherence in his demeanor. "Shadow? You're not gonna faint on me, are you? Hey..."

She placed one hand on the side of his face, trying to establish eye contact, but it only served to freak him out further; because instead of calming the hedgehog down, Rouge's touch made him feel flush and more anxious than before.

He inhaled sharply and fought through the urge to lean closer, pulling away and taking better control of the towel. The colors of everything around him were slowly becoming more vivid.

"I'm fine." His tone was solid and steady, as close to normal as he could muster, and he managed to act calm and collected while drying his fur. "Take this... I'm pretty sure that bookcase is fake."

Shadow handed over the tracker, trying not to look directly at her. Rouge took it, but kept her eyes on him for a second, wary of his behavior.

When she turned to inspect the shelves, he couldn't resist the gravitation of his gaze towards her body, blood-red eyes lingering over womanly curves that taunted him as she pulled on different books.

The pretty super spy made finding a secret entrance look graceful, her figure elegantly posed even as she didn't acknowledge how stunning she appeared.

His stare trailed down the arch of her back to the sight of shapely hips – and more – snugly hugged by a flattering bodysuit, before he realized what he was doing.

'Damnit...!' Shadow's thoughts rushed forth, and he forced himself to look away. 'This is a side effect of that... liquid, whatever it was. I shouldn't be looking at her... like that.'

He began dragging the towel across himself more fervently for quicker results and a distraction from the scene in front of him; meanwhile, Rouge found the cluster of faux books which opened the shelf. It cracked inwards like a door.

"Yes!" she blurted, balling her fist in triumph before pressing onward through the newfound entrance.

The room it led into was made of pearl-colored tile flooring and reflective silver walls. It was like a hallway, with glass tables on either side that held different technological projects and inventions. She looked down at the tracker while walking inside and noted the more frantic flashing of the blue dot.

"Shadow!" she called over her shoulder. "You were right, I think it's in here. Come on!"

The Ultimate Lifeform dreaded following, as even the click of her heels on the solid floor rang through his head like a melodic chime. But he didn't have much of a choice, so he took another deep breath and steadied himself, dry enough to discard the towel.

In the long room, Rouge reached an area that was sectioned off from the rest by a half-wall, where the device she held showed a white dot when she pointed it at one of the objects on a square of marble counterspace. The item was stark white in color, covered in buttons and shaped like a spiky trapezoid.

"Found it!" announced the bat, taking a moment to study it in amusement. "Man, this thing looks weird. What the hell could all these buttons possibly do?"

She didn't dare touch any of them, instead thinking of the Commander's offer. She turned around and beamed at her partner in an expression of victory. "Ooh, Shadow, we are gonna be so set after this!"

Unable to contain her excitement, Rouge impulsively threw herself towards him, hugging the hedgehog and chuckling gleefully. Her gushing admiration of the sizable payout to come was drowned out by the shock coursing through Shadow's body at her sudden affectionate outburst.

The harmony of her voice became a string of music as warmth overtook him, the intoxicated G.U.N agent fully engulfed by ardor brought on by the scientist's strange trap.

He felt dizzier as his heart thumped more forcefully at the feeling of her body against his. He didn't even realize he had hugged her back until the astonishment passed, suddenly recognizing the squeeze of his arms around Rouge's familiar form.

Shadow was holding her tightly, feeling as if time had stopped for them both, until she tried to break the hug. Only after she realized he wasn't pulling away did her voice manage to cut through the pheromone-fueled haze of their embrace.

"Shadow...?"

[dracarialove]

📄 F it, I'm posting my finished fics here, too 📄

Buried Desires

*Check the 'buried desires' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 3: Confessions]

"Shadow..." Rouge repeated, her voice echoing slightly in the unconventional room.

She leaned away from the hedgehog, though her waist remained in his intimate grip; her hands rested on his shoulders and gloved fingers pressed against his fur.

And although she felt uneasy that he hadn't released her, the young mercenary's cheeks flushed a rosy shade. "Um, you can let go now..."

Finally pulling his body farther away from hers, Shadow straightened his posture and dropped his left arm from her form. His right hand stayed stuck to the bat's lower back and his eyes fixated on her face as if he were in a trance.

When Rouge stared back into his maroon-colored gaze, she identified his disconnected state by the noticeable dilation of his pupils and the hazy expression his half-lowered lids conveyed. She was concerned again, raising her hand once more to cup his cheek.

"You're not acting like yourself," she stated softly. "There must've been something strange in those sprinklers. I'm worried about you..."

The room around them may as well have not existed according to Shadow's warped eyesight. His vision was tunneling, focused only on the woman in front of him, and under the enchantment of an unknown substance, she looked unbelievably radiant.

Her beauty was enhanced in every way, and the Ultimate Lifeform could no longer force himself to look elsewhere. Rouge's bright eyes shimmered with charisma, their teal color so bold that the dark man subconsciously wondered how he'd never been hypnotized by them before.

Long lashes seemed to flutter alluringly beneath carefully applied layers of blue eyeshadow; her glossy pink lips gleamed like he'd never noticed before, tantalizingly hovering only a few inches away; beautifully tanned skin looked warm and smooth to the touch.

And her expression was the most enticing part of the illusion – instead of gentle concern, Shadow saw amorous affection. The jewel thief didn't look like a friend worried about her teammate, but rather a loving partner with desires too saucy to share.

'She can't be looking at me like that, can she?' his thoughts echoed, sounding frayed and wavery in his head. 'She is... I... can't handle this. I can't stand keeping it hidden anymore...'

Shadow's gaze drifted to one side of her face, descending along the stark whiteness of her hair to the pretty curl of silky locks above her shoulder. 'Rouge... you deserve to know. How irresponsible of me to neglect telling you for all this time...'

His eyes trailed lower to the teasing bareness of her chest so close to his, curved shadows and soft highlights accentuating her shapely breast above the constriction of her heart-shaped chest piece. The intense beating pulse of his heart thumped loudly in his head, fast enough that he feared he might start shaking.

How embarrassing it would be for his partner to feel him trembling under her caring hand. When her palm started to leave his cheek, his left hand shot up instinctively to wrap around her wrist, wanting her touch to stay.

"Rouge..." he finally slurred, his mouth feeling oddly dry, lips worryingly numb. The hedgehog felt as if he'd been staring at her for hours rather than seconds. "I can't let myself hide these emotions anymore... I have to tell you..."

Shadow didn't notice the change in her expression when he looked back up at her face; the spy, normally collected and confident, experienced her own flurry of mixed emotions as she watched his gaze slowly lift from her chest.

Her cheeks were flushed a deeper hue of pink and her heart beat quickly, too. She was anxious, worried, hopeful, sinking deeper into the crush she had on him – but above all, she was curious about what he had to say.

Though she had a good idea, hearing the words come from Shadow himself was mandatory to know for sure. He hesitated, his mouth open in preparation for a syllable to slip out, but he only managed to force the start of his confession -

"I lo-"

- before his throat cinched, cutting off his sentence and making him feel faint. He failed to get the words out as his body gave out a bit, causing the Ultimate Lifeform to slump forward.

He swiftly released Rouge's wrist and braced his palm against the wall behind her, though the sudden lean towards her pushed the bat backwards enough to bump into the counter.

"Oh!" she blurted in surprise, her hands moving to brace against the edge of the countertop.

His face hung heavily next to hers, their cheeks brushing together, and his grip on her back grew tighter. They'd rarely hugged before, and the squeeze of his fingers pressed firmly against her was the first time he'd held her so snugly.

It was surreal being embraced by Shadow for this long, their bodies fitting together while his chin rested on her shoulder. The powerful aroma wafting off him overwhelmed her sense of smell, but she couldn't stop breathing it in, no longer trying to pull away as she started to find the scent a little more pleasant.

'Maybe that's because the smell is on him,' she thought briefly before his voice filled the room again.

"I feel weak around you."

He sounded weak, physically, almost tired. His right hand slid across to the alluring curve of Rouge's waist as his arm wrapped around her a little bit more to soak up the warmth of her body, his muscles tensing from the nerves of saying something so vulnerable.

"I've tried to ignore it, but it just keeps getting stronger... and now it's all the time."

She'd always liked the buttery smoothness of his voice, but it was crazy to her how his timbre had gained that quality tenfold; the deep rumble of his tone made her shiver a little, although she tried not to let her body quiver. She wanted to hear everything her best friend had to say, staying silent and letting him finally pour his heart out.

"When we're not fighting for our lives, I end up wondering what more there is for us, and that voice... my voice... it tells me- that-"

More hesitation, and now Rouge was tensing up, her fingers tightening on the counter.

His eyelids lowered more and his volume dropped to a near whisper. "I want you..."

The blush on Rouge's cheeks spread to the rest of her muzzle, shocked at what she heard coming from Shadow's own lips. She thought it couldn't be a twisted version of his real feelings, manipulated by the weird purple substance – he said it as if he'd felt that way for a long time.

The man she knew to be stone-faced, serious, and prideful revealed possessing one of the deepest emotions possible for her, his teammate and only true confidant. She hoped the intensity of it wasn't being exaggerated.

"Jeez, Shadow..." The treasure hunter's arms slinked around his back. "I didn't know you felt that way. I always wondered if you would make a move or if I'd have to do it."

She let out a chuckle, the sound exceedingly pleasant to Shadow's ears, but he remained silent and closed his eyes. Her sultry voice continued, "But truthfully, I feel the opposite... I feel strong around you."

She tightened the hug, embracing him as lovingly as he was holding her. "Whether we're on a mission or saving the world, I know I can always count on you because you always have my back. And that makes me work harder... partly to impress you."

There was silence between them for a moment. Shadow allowed himself to stew in the wonderfully comfortable heft of his teammate's confession. Rouge savored the intimacy of their mutual grasp and lightly nuzzled the smoothness of her cheek against his.

Then, the dark hedgehog gained the strength to stand again, rejuvenated thanks to her admittance while everything around him felt brighter due to the odd pheromones' effect.

He looked deeply into her eyes and contemplated trying to say the words again – the ones he'd initially chosen to express how deeply he felt for her. And the shimmering stars in her turquoise gaze gave him the courage to do so.

"Rouge... I lo-"

"Slow down, sugar," she said, cutting him off and quickly putting her index finger up to his lips while a smile grew on hers. "Don't say anything you don't really mean."

"Can I kiss you if I mean it?" blurted Shadow, despite the gentle press of her finger. His cheeks flushed and his heart skipped a beat at the bold question.

Still blushing herself, the woman paused and her eyes slowly widened, her gloved digit pulling away from his face. The charming smile steadily faded as she opened her mouth to respond. "Yes."

He leaned in, no longer hesitant, and pressed his lips against hers. Their arms wrapped around each other again and the complementary pair shared a long-awaited kiss. It was electrifying, rocking Shadow to his core and making his heart pound furiously.

He couldn't resist pressing his mouth deeper against hers, while his flirtatious ally sunk her fingers into his quills and pulled his body closer. The chemistry they'd built up over time paid off in spades as they practically melded together.

The stolid lifeform's subconscious thoughts of being with her rushed to the forefront, telling him that this moment was the perfect next step for them after years of being so close, and he was grateful for such a mishap to have turned out the way it did – even if the process had still been nerve-wracking for all his paranoid reasons.

But he knew now: he was good enough for Rouge to love him back. And he intended to love her as he'd never done for anyone before, already playing out their future in his head.

Despite Shadow's desire to live in the blissful moment longer, the ivory agent broke the kiss. Still in her right mind, she knew they couldn't stay there; it was possible tripping the trap had alerted the scientist to their presence, meaning they had to get what they came for and bail.

Her expression turned more serious and she stared through his dreamy gaze, pulling her hands back to grip her teammate's arms. Estimating the misty state of his mind, she spoke to him in a collected, even tone.

"Okay, listen... we can't afford to be here any longer. I don't know if the guy we're stealing from knows we're here – if he does, he's probably on his way right now to catch us. So, we have to nab this device and head back to G.U.N HQ ASAP. Got it?"

Shadow tried to force a determined expression and nodded, taking in her words carefully to remind himself of their mission. His arms slipped away from her figure and he backed up, letting Rouge turn around to scoop the spiky weapon from the counter.

"Follow me," she said as she walked past him, looking poised and competent. It made the hedgehog admire her more, watching Rouge's gracefully swift movements while he picked up speed behind her.

She grabbed her wet spy outfit from the carpet and handed the heavy bundle of cloth to Shadow. "Wring it out so we don't track stuff through the halls."

He did as he was told while she jogged over to the doorway where they'd entered the lounge. He watched her lean into the hallway, looking down it for any security headed their way, then smiled when she looked over her shoulder to nod at him – the sign that they were clear to make a getaway.

The dark agent was thankful that Rouge still had a working brain, leading the way and making sure he was still close behind as they retraced their steps. He carried her dampened clothes in his arms, the leftover moisture soaking into his chest fur.

The hallways were warped from his unstable perception, making the multiple turns they took seem more arduous than they really were; and if he looked at the walls for too long, they started to bend and stretch higher than before.

But with the bat's voice chiming in every now and then, he was able to keep up, and the pair eventually made it back to the window they'd entered through. Rouge went out first, then took Shadow's hand to pull him through, next lowering him onto the grass.

"You alright?" she asked once they were on the ground, lifting his chin to look at her. His pupils were still enlarged and his balance was questionable. "You're still with me, yeah?"

"Yes," he answered with a nod, cognizant enough to ease her concern.

While the jewel hunter flew back up to close the window, Shadow looked down at the grass below his feet, its emerald color bright and beautiful as he could see every blade in shockingly clear detail.

He gently grazed the bottom of one skate against the lawn, watching the spiky turf bend fluidly to his motions. He almost got lost in the entrancing view, but Rouge's voice brought him back again.

"Hey, grass gazer, we need to split, quick." She grabbed his arm and guided him towards the tall fence, balancing the weapon cautiously on her other palm. "I saw the human's car pulling up the road, he'll be here any second."

"Let me teleport us," the speedster offered, stopping short.

But when he turned right to grab hold of his partner, she was gone. Then he felt his left hand being pulled up before he was lifted into the air. Confused that he hadn't seen her move, he looked up to the woman flying them both above the property's barrier.

She met his gaze and said sympathetically, "Sorry, Shad, but we don't know for sure if your teleportation would work right when you're this out of it. Can't risk it."

He resigned himself to trusting her judgement, letting the winged lady carry him until they landed behind the bushes across the street. There, they ducked down and hid.

Shadow closed his eyes and tried to rest his overstimulated vision while Rouge watched the victim of their burglary drive up to his home and park haphazardly in front of the gate. He looked irritated as he left the car, so she guessed she had been right about him coming back to check the security threat.

"Going in alone..." she mumbled, shaking her head as he stomped up the walkway. "What a kook."

They waited until the man was inside his home, then took off to deliver the weapon; once they did, Rouge accepted the briefcase full of cash and took Tower's advice to let Shadow 'sleep off the substance,' as he put it.

She brought the encumbered hedgehog back to Club Rouge, making sure to set her soaked uniform aside for washing before putting him to bed. As he laid on the mattress with one hand draped across his forehead, she sat beside him and smiled down at the enigmatic man she'd finally kissed.

"What a morning, huh?" she asked, her question met with the endearing sight of Shadow's eyes closing as his lips widened into a smile. "You're seriously gonna need a shower the second you wake up."

A breathy chuckle escaped the Ultimate Lifeform, and his free hand found its way on top of Rouge's. "Yeah... sorry for stinking up your room."

She sighed dramatically, her tone playful when she replied, "Well, I guess it was time to change the air freshener, anyway. If the smell gets too unbearable, I'll just kick you out."

One of his lids raised to stare a ruby eye at her teal ones, his smile unfaltering as a tinge of slyness entered his tone. "You wouldn't dare – you like me too much."

Warmth touched the bat's cheeks and she responded sincerely, "Yeah... I do."

She almost leaned towards him, until Shadow suddenly sat himself up, taking the initiative to close the distance between them. His lips hovered near hers for a moment before they kissed again, and this time his hand cupped her cheek.

Rouge felt another shiver like before, allowing her body to quiver instead of suppressing it, and pushed against him until he laid back down. Then she pulled away and squeezed his hand.

"Get some rest, handsome. We'll see how you feel when you wake up."

He nodded and shifted to get comfortable, unaware that his new beau wasn't just referring to his intoxication; but also, his feelings for her. Shadow would still mean everything he'd said once the pheromones wore off... right?

[dracarialove]

📄 F it, I'm posting my finished fics here, too 📄

Buried Desires

A mishap during one of their missions forces Shadow to confess the feelings he's been hiding from Rouge.

Ship: Shadow/Rouge

*Originally published Feb. 10th, 2023

[Chapter 1: Early-Morning Company]

Dark eyelids rose as the black hedgehog stirred from his slumber. In the dimness of a small wooden room, he looked up at the slanted ceiling and let his eyes adjust until a yawn escaped him.

Once again, Shadow was waking up in the hidden attic of Club Rouge, lying flat on the extra twin mattress his partner always offered.

It seemed she even kept it out permanently, as frequently as he decided to crash there after admitting it was a better sleep than snoozing on the grass or on a rooftop.

"Maybe you wouldn't be so grumpy if you got a proper rest every night," she'd said, finally coaxing him to ditch his loner tendencies.

And she was right, he realized. The days after he slept at Rouge's place always seemed more pleasant. This one was no exception, the Ultimate Lifeform already feeling lighter of heart as he sat himself up; but since it was still dark in the room, he had to wonder what time it was.

He looked to his right, where the bed sat against the wall, and pushed aside the curtain that covered a little window. It was completely dark out, the midnight blue color of the sky only brightened by a few dots of light coming from other buildings' windows.

It was so quiet at this hour – more enjoyable than the interrupting traffic or wildlife he would hear while sleeping outdoors. And as Shadow's gaze trailed the other way to survey the room, he twisted his torso to release the tension that had built in his back during the night.

One of the only flaws in his design was that his form stayed still while sleeping, something he hadn't realized caused a lingering stiffness until he started caring more about his comfort. A couple of pleasing cracks sounded out from the base of his spine, making the speedster sigh in relief.

At the same time, his crimson eyes dragged over to his friend's side of the room, where her bed sat against the opposite wall and closer to the hatch that led into the club.

He expected to see the hostess sleeping peacefully, but instead, her mattress was empty. There was an open space between the blanket and pillow where she'd gotten out of bed.

It wasn't unheard of for Rouge to wake up so early – as her sleep schedule was constantly shifting – but he couldn't help but wonder where she was, nonetheless.

Unhindered by the darkness, he turned to place his feet on the floor, then stood and took a few steps towards the skinny door on his left. It led outside, and when he nudged a sheer white curtain aside, he saw the jewel hunter through the single-pane window, her back to the entrance while she stood looking out from the tiny balcony. She was leaned forward a bit, seemingly placing her weight on her elbows and resting against the banister of the white platform.

She wasn't dressed for the day yet, wrapped up in a mulberry robe with heart-shaped slippers on her feet. But she looked to be in a place of tranquility, soaking up the sight of the dark sky above the city and the even darker plains past the outskirts; visible thanks to the short buildings whose roofs sat lower than hers.

Shadow smiled to himself, content at the prospect of early-morning company, and opened the door to join her. Pretty white curls drifted to the right side of her back as the woman turned to watch him exit the attic, and a friendly smile grew from her unglossed lips.

"Morning," she greeted, her voice warm already – she must've been awake for a while.

"Good morning," replied Shadow as he approached the balcony to occupy the space on her left. "You're up quite early. Did you sleep well enough?"

She cocked her head and nodded, answering, "Yeah, I did. How about you?"

He mirrored her nod and rested his left hand on the banister. "It was nice. Thank you for letting me stay."

"Of course." Rouge let one brow lower in a cheeky expression. "But you don't have to thank me. It's not like it's a bother or anything."

"Right. I know that. I just want to express gratitude, considering it's technically unnecessary."

She then rolled her eyes, her smile pulling into a smirk, and shook her head. "I accept your appreciation, Shadow. But it's been long enough that I think you can drop that now. I mean, I practically had to beg you to stop sleeping outside so much, right?"

"Hah," the stoic man huffed. "You're exaggerating. It didn't take that much convincing."

"Well, regardless, this arrangement is leagues better than what you had going on before. And you deserve better! Besides... I like having you around here, anyway."

With that, her head cocked towards him, leaving little space between them on the small gazebo-shaped balcony. Her turquoise eyes stuck to his and Shadow could see a charming twinkle within them when she added, "So, my reasonings for offering a bed aren't completely selfless."

'I like being around you, too,' the lifeform thought to himself.

He wished he had the gumption to say it outright, but it felt so personal. So... intimate. They'd known each other a long time, but he certainly didn't feel they were on that level. Adventure after adventure, their relationship was mostly friendly with a huge helping of business.

And until their team vowed undying loyalty – after a tricky mission filled with shortsighted planning and reckless decisions – the business had outweighed anything else. But with their deepening bond had come an emotion stronger than care, one Shadow hadn't been able to place for a while.

Though Rouge recognized how much she liked him at a steady pace, the realization of his own feelings didn't happen until much later in their friendship. And as the bat hadn't taken the reins to tell him anything about it herself, he assumed she didn't feel the same way.

Through his nature of taking things far too seriously, the hedgehog was overanalyzing their dynamic and holding himself back, while she was going about things more casually. He didn't know she was working towards the same step he was afraid to take.

'You're pathetic,' his conscience echoed. 'Saying out loud that you have more affection for her than she realizes? That should be effortless. You've accomplished more difficult things in a single afternoon. It should be easy.'

It should've been – but it wasn't. Shadow still didn't like all the complex emotions he was capable of feeling. Most of them were uncomfortable, some of them painful, and there weren't enough that made up for it.

He didn't even know what he would feel if she turned him down. Surely, she wouldn't be harsh in doing so, but it would still hurt, wouldn't it?

Being friends didn't hurt. Being partners didn't hurt. But trying to push for more than that? He had no way of knowing how it would turn out, so it was actually easier to say nothing.

There was no way Rouge would act the same way around him if a confession ruined their bond. And the unsettling possibility of that was stronger than the appeal of the alternative.

Shadow just didn't know how wrong he was, or how much he was psyching himself out for no real reason. Smiling at him and leaning a little closer than she was before, the ivory treasure hunter expected his confession at any moment.

She could've said something herself, but that was less romantic; although, if he took much longer to spit it out, she thought she might have to.

Did he like her back as she did him? Probably. And she wasn't so worried about tainting their partnership, because their connection was unbreakable. But she also had no idea how much importance he was putting behind his emotions.

Rouge couldn't read his expression beyond the content smile he still held, so when he didn't respond, she broke eye contact to look back out into the distance.

A faint layer of orange was peeking from the horizon to coat the bottom of the dark blue sky. The sun was starting to rise, and the sight made her lips stretch from a smirk to a more genuine smile of enchantment.

Shadow copied her action, trying to find the same joy; but his grip tightened around the banister as he fought with himself inside his head.

"You know," Rouge started, "as invasive as the sun can be, it sure is beautiful when it rises."

"... Yeah. I wish Maria could've seen it. She would've loved this."

The bat's brows upturned, switching her expression to one of solemn endearment as she looked over at him. "I bet. But you know what she would've loved more?"

Shadow turned his gaze to her, as well, silently waiting for the follow-up. Her pretty lips answered, "Seeing you enjoying it, too. I know, because it warms my heart to see you appreciating things like a sunrise; you wouldn't have done that before."

He couldn't meet her gaze anymore as the words overtook him. Ruby eyes, tinted orange by the ascending brightness, dragged downwards in contrast to his mouth, which curled instinctively. "A lot has changed, hasn't it?"

She nodded slowly, still softly staring at the hedgehog while he repositioned his weight to lean against the banister instead of holding it. His arms crossed and he was able to look at her again, causing a flutter in Rouge's heart, and she couldn't help but let out a slightly nervous chuckle.

But before she could say anything else, their conversation was interrupted by a mechanical beep sounding out from beneath the sleeve of her robe. She pulled it up to reveal the communicator she wore around her wrist, and they both saw the small screen flashing from green to blue.

"Oh, the Commander's calling," Rouge said.

The faintest tinge of annoyance entered Shadow's voice. "This early?"

She gave him a glance that showed her vague irritation, as well. "Good thing we were already up, eh?"

Her ungloved finger tapped the screen and the human man's digitized voice came through the solid blue glow. "Rouge, come in, Rouge-"

"Yes, Commander, I can hear you," she replied, rolling her eyes and making Shadow smile. "To what do I owe the interruption of my morning?"

"Your next assignment. And Shadow's, if he's willing-"

"I'm here, Tower," spoke the lifeform, leaning closer.

"Ah, good to know you stick together. This mission is rather pressing, I couldn't very well wait. We were recently informed that an experimental and dangerous piece of technology was illegally acquired from overseas."

The Mobians shared an intrigued glance while he continued, "Now, thanks to our informant, we've been able to track it; and now that it's stopped moving, we know where it is. So, I need the two of you to infiltrate an establishment belonging to Doctor Golvin."

"Golvin?" Rouge cut in. "Isn't he a scientist, or something? I think you've mentioned him before."

"That's right, he is. But apparently, he isn't as adherent to the laws as we thought when we worked with him previously. This item he's essentially stolen is a weapon, one we haven't given clearance to obtain outside of guarded military bases. And Doctor Golvin has it stashed in one of his private homes, away from the public. I don't need to tell the two of you how risky it is to let him keep it, so you see why we need your skills immediately."

"Hmm," mused Rouge, pursing her lips and tapping her chin with her finger. Shadow smirked as he knew he hardly had to speak, as capable as she was of carrying the conversation. "Sounds like you want us to break-and-enter someone's house, Commander. You know, that's a crime we'd be committing."

"Consider yourselves preemptively pardoned for an act of bravery in service of the people's safety," he responded in a calculated manner. "And I assume your next comment will be about payment."

She teased, "You know me so well, boss."

"I'm prepared to offer five thousand, untraceable – you can split it how you like."

The jewel thief's eyes widened and her smug smile dropped. She looked at Shadow again and he raised his eyebrows to mirror her surprise. He verbalized the thought he knew was going through her head. "That much for a retrieval, sir?"

"I'm not complaining, just to be clear," his partner quickly added. "I love that you recognize the worth of our services."

They heard the man snicker through the screen, and his calm timbre followed. "It's an important assignment, and I have no way of knowing what setbacks you might encounter. So, I think it's only fair to compensate you on that basis."

"Hey, I'll take it," Rouge accepted, her smile returning, and she turned her attention to the hedgehog. "For all we know, this guy could have security bots around every corner!"

"Fair enough," Shadow conceded, shrugging and nodding at her.

Tower spoke again, "It's pressing, so you'll be doing this the minute he vacates his property. Report to my office ASAP and I'll give you what you need to finish the job."

"Yessir!" Rouge chimed, visibly eager at the promise of a huge payout.

The screen turned green as the human ended their connection, then the watch was hidden again as she slid the mulberry sleeve of her robe back down. Instantly, her bright eyes locked onto Shadow as she turned to face him, leaning forward and planting her hand on the banister.

"Five thousand, can you believe it?" Her face was closer to his than he'd been prepared for, illuminated on one side by the ever-lightening sky as the top edge of the sun became visible. He tightened his grip on both of his arms, still crossed over his chest, and held his breath while she beamed. "For a simple grab-n-go! I knew working for the government would be my ticket to fortune."

She pulled away and he let his breath out in a reserved chuckle, his heart rate higher than he liked. "What happened to 'security bots around every corner'?"

"Oh, p'shaw!" she scoffed, dramatically swatting the air. "We can handle any guards, you know that. I just didn't want Tower to think it would be easy and lower the payment."

She walked over to the thin door and opened it, talking over her shoulder at him as she went through. "Let's get a move on, handsome – duty calls!"

Shadow followed, holding onto the warmth he felt when she complimented him. It was nice, but he also kept his mind grounded by reminding himself that flattery was customary with her. He tried not to also think that it was all those words would ever be.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

*Check the 'shadow's heart' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 9: Commitment]

Shadow rolled the long sleeves of his teal-green shirt up to his elbows as he left the bathroom, bright red eyes landing on the beautiful lady facing the window of their hotel room.

She primped curved locks and studied her makeup in the reflection, her figure poised in a navy-blue calf-length cami dress and black heels. And when he approached closely enough to catch her eye, Rouge turned around, immediately looking the hedgehog up and down.

"Mm, you look incredible," she said, eyes glimmering under cyan-painted lids. She stepped towards him and her gloved fingers slipped around the silver silk of his necktie, adjusting it and curling red lips into a sly smile. "Can't wait to tear this off you later."

She winked at him and the Ultimate Lifeform chuckled at her flirting, slipping his hand onto her lower back to escort her out. They visited the city again for a fine-dining experience, being seated in a room where roses and peonies bloomed in ornamented arrangements hanging on the dark walls.

Shadow stared at his date while she ordered wine for them to share, memorizing her elegant beauty before they were given menus to look over. He saw all the effort that went into her appearance – the attention to detail in making sure her lips shimmered just the right amount, that her dress fit her perfectly, that she hadn't a hair out of place.

Though wearing a tie was a good start, he held the belief that he couldn't compete with just how good she looked all the time. Glancing at the bat over his menu, Shadow was eager to make her his fiancée. It was killing him to wait.

When the waiter returned with their wine, Rouge seemed to perk up a little more excitedly than she already was. Charming as always, she commented, "Now it's officially a fancy dinner. And what great timing you have, coming back right when we've made up our minds."

The vested jaguar smiled humbly, opening the bottle for them. "Thank you. You're ready to order, then?"

"Yes," she said, turning her attention back to the list. "I'd like the red snapper with the side salad."

Shadow added, "And I'll have the lamb stew."

"Very good." He looked between the both of them. "Would you like any other drinks with that?"

"I think we're fine, right?" Rouge asked her boyfriend with a graceful hand gesture.

"Yes, the wine is enough."

The waiter nodded and smiled again. "I'll be back with your meals, then. Let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you, sweetie," the woman said casually, and grabbed the wine bottle to fill their glasses halfway while she spoke. "Shadow, you are just the most darling guy to take me out like this, you know that? And not just to dinner, I mean this whole trip."

A deeper, more sincere smile spread on her face and she seemed to blush a little, resting the bottle on the table and staring a bit coyly at her cup. "I always wanted a man who cared this much."

The speedster was softened by her words and the genuine emotion in her expression. He smiled back and lifted his cup to her. "Then it's a good thing I found you. I can't imagine experiencing this if I hadn't."

She lifted her glass, as well, and clinked it against his before they took a swig. Over the course of their dinner, Shadow found himself more and more entranced by her, letting Rouge lead the conversation and getting lost in her eyes while she told stories.

He didn't understand what he'd heard from some unsatisfied couples – that the love fades, or that the passion disappears after the honeymoon phase. He hadn't felt that way at any point and couldn't imagine it happening now.

They were certainly content in their relationship, comfortable and happy with the direction their lives had taken. But complacence wasn't something he experienced, and now, sharing a table with Rouge and listening to her tales, he had the inkling that he was falling even more deeply in love with her.

The way her face lit up when she gesticulated to enhance her retelling of a memory; the sparkle her eyes gained when she stared at him for long enough; the confidence he felt being loved and desired by someone like her; it was everything he wanted and more.

He knew there would be a right moment for the talk, but not during dinner. Their meal together would be a romantic one, the second half of which was Shadow's turn to tell stories.

Those of the interesting and funny variety were few with him, but he had some instances of shenanigans to reminisce about, harkening back to his time working at the coffee shop.

Rouge listened, as he had, and when they were sufficiently filled with food and wine, the couple left to walk the streets once again. It was dark out, the sidewalks illuminated by streetlights and the businesses that remained open.

"Do you have room for dessert?" asked the hedgehog, spotting an ice cream parlor down the road.

"Hmm, I think so! A milkshake would be nice."

So, they went inside, patronizing the establishment right before they closed, and walking out with the treats of their choice. Rouge had a vanilla milkshake with little bits of strawberries mixed in, while her lover had a big scoop of black cherry ice cream on a waffle cone.

They walked a little longer, enjoying the crisp night air and the faintly busy sounds of the city at a less crowded hour, not talking much but enjoying each other's company all the same. Then, looking around at the area ahead, the bat's eyes trailed up one of the decently tall buildings and she got an idea.

She pointed up to it while looking over at the quiet lifeform. "Hey, babe, you wanna gaze out over the city?"

Shadow followed the direction of her pointing finger, then nodded. "Sure. It must be pretty colorful in a place like this."

"That's exactly what I was thinking! Come on."

She hopped off the ground to hover in the air, dropping her arm down so Shadow could grab on. His free hand gripped her wrist, and hers grabbed his, then the winged woman lifted her beau off the ground to fly them both up to the rooftop of the nearby building.

And when she was able to see above it, the brightness of the city was apparent. It really was colorful, the night lightened by glowing hues of rainbow colors from the different attractions beckoning people to occupy their business.

"Wow," Rouge uttered in awe, her eyes twinkling. "It's like a hundred gemstones glittering in the dark!"

Shadow didn't care as much for the lights as she did, but the colors were still nice to look at, and he cared more that his partner found it pretty. They landed on the flattened slate and approached one side of the raised barrier that lined the roof.

Leaning their elbows on it, the couple went back to enjoying their ice cream while staring at the different attractions, some of whose signs they could still read clearly – namely, the casinos and nightclubs.

As the seconds passed by, Shadow felt the pertinent moment getting closer, his gut instinct telling him that this tranquil, secluded place would be the best spot to have that important conversation. So, he savored the moments before that, sharing glances with his lover until the ice cream was gone.

And when he looked down at the empty wafer cone in his hand, he felt he'd lost his appetite, and knew it was time. He placed the cone on the raised stone and then hoisted himself up, gaining Rouge's attention as he sat on the edge of the structure.

"Oh, we're sitting now?" she said teasingly, then set aside her cup and positioned herself beside him.

"Yeah, we've been on our feet enough these last few days, I think." He smiled at her and the bat wrapped her arm around his, then gave him a peck on the cheek before resting her head on his shoulder.

In truth, the Ultimate Lifeform had no worry for their feet, or how much they'd been walking; they both had more than enough endurance to handle traveling on foot, and Rouge even hovered every now and then.

Really, he felt his thinking skills were a little better when he was sitting on the edge of a rooftop, his legs dangling over the side. It was something he'd done often at his old apartment, sitting on the roof and just thinking for an hour before bed.

He hadn't done that since moving in with Rouge, so replicating it now activated those memories and the thought-stirring nature of the night air surrounding the city.

Except this time, he wasn't alone. He had a woman by his side, a beautiful one; one he loved so much that the introspection of it was daunting. Because the last time he'd cared about a girl, he'd gotten hurt.

Although it was different with Rouge, the fear of loss was very much still present, and he was still reminded of the painful ache he'd felt before he met her.

With romantic feelings now thrown into the mix, how much would it hurt to lose her, too? He thought he'd done away with those frets, but they kept coming back.

It irritated him to know his concerns still had some sort of power over him. But he had to stop letting those troubles resurface. He knew it would psyche him out of getting things done if he didn't take control.

And Shadow the Hedgehog was rarely a quitter, determined to overcome the lingering worries from his past now that he had a duty to someone again. He'd done well for two years – he wasn't going to be beaten now.

"Rouge... love..." he started, his gentle voice soaking into the night. It came out weaker than he wanted, so he swallowed to push back the unease still threatening him.

Rouge's head shifted a little, but didn't leave him. He could guess she was now looking at him. "Yeah?"

He pulled in a breath and let it out softly. "I have a secret to tell you... and before I do, I'm sorry I haven't said it sooner."

Now the weight of her head did leave his shoulder, and his gaze caught her cautious expression when her posture straightened. Their arms were still enwrapped, so he rested his other hand on hers and looked earnestly into teal eyes. Her worried demeanor dared to strike more hesitance into the hedgehog's heart, but he forced himself to speak again.

"I've told you about how I came to exist. You know that I'm an artificial being; that as organic as I feel, I was created with certain features and abilities that change how I live."

The bat nodded, her voice coming out a bit somberly. "Right, things like godly strength and chaos power. What about it?"

"Well... I also told you that... my body won't deteriorate like a normal Mobian's as I get older."

"Shadow, what are you talking about?" Her gaze scanned over his figure. "Is something wrong?"

His mouth tightened into a tense line and he squeezed her hand. 'Just say it...'

"Rouge," he said firmly, "I understated my lifespan... greatly. I won't ever get old... I was created to be immortal."

Shadow expected her to gasp, but it seemed like she'd stopped breathing instead – he could no longer hear her quietly anxious exhales in the still air, only his own. Her eyes never left him, and slowly, her lips parted.

"You're immortal...?" she nearly whispered.

The fear he saw in her eyes made the lifeform want to reassure her that everything would be okay. But he knew the thoughts going through her mind were all the valid reasons he'd imagined for her to worry over.

It was written on her shock-stricken face that questions about their future were forming as he'd predicted they would. He hadn't planned exactly what to say next. Instead, in that moment, he caught the urge to pull her into a hug, doing so with a shaky breath and embracing her tightly.

"I'm sorry. I should've been honest from the start. But I couldn't..."

Rouge didn't hesitate to hug him back, the pair sitting in silence for a minute. She was picking through the thoughts that whirled in her head, trying to focus on the ones that really mattered. And he gave her as much time as she needed, afraid to speak again first for fear of falling apart.

"So... you'll outlive me, right?"

Shadow didn't want to say yes; didn't even want to nod. His arms squeezed her tighter and his face nestled into her hair. Another minute passed, then the bat started to pull back from his grasp.

"Baby," she spoke tenderly, meeting his eyes again once they were face-to-face. His looked sad, but still a little hopeful. "I still love you... is that what you were worried about?"

An uneasy swallow fell down the dark man's throat. "Well, I was worried that... you would be afraid. Too afraid to..."

His eyes dropped from hers as he trailed off, holding her gloved hands and running his thumbs over each one. He recognized that it was to calm himself more than anything.

Though not immediately brushing aside the news, Rouge didn't seem as panicky as he expected anyone would be. She didn't say anything for a few tense beats, and when he looked back up, her expression was surprisingly firm.

"There's very little in this world that scares me, Shadow." Her eyes twinkled with unwavering certainty. "If anyone can handle an immortal partner... it's me."

The woman's maroon-colored lips curled and she raised a hand to cup his cheek, making Shadow smile in return. His eyes closed and he slowly leaned his forehead to rest against hers, then asked with less hesitation, "Don't you have questions? You can't really be this calm, can you?"

A sweet chuckle permeated the air between them. "We make our own destiny, sweetheart. You and me... we adapt when things get tricky."

His head pulled back so he could look her in the eyes as she continued, "And we learn to navigate unclear paths. So that's what we'll do. The questions can come later."

"It's possible I'll live forever... that's not daunting to you?"

She then broke eye contact to gaze over the city, taking in a thoughtful breath and letting it out in a deep sigh. Her shoulders raised gingerly in a brief shrug before she answered, "Maybe a little... if I think about it alone."

Teal eyes met him again, and her smile remained. "But I'm not alone! I'm with you, and... you're on my side." She grabbed one of his hands with both of hers and pulled it close, squeezing lovingly. "So, if you thought that would send me running, you were wrong! I'm not going anywhere."

Shadow's confidence was whole again at Rouge's words. She was true to her determined spirit, not giving up on him – just as he'd been told. He inched closer. "Neither am I. As long as we're breathing, I'll be here."

She glanced at his lips, leaning in slowly. "Even if we can't spend eternity together... we'll make the most of the time we have."

They kissed, their devotion blessing the night air where they sat. The secluded rooftop over the glitzy vacation city would be marked in their memories as the place where they reaffirmed their commitment even in the face of an existential quandary.

But it wasn't the place where Shadow would make her his fiancée. The ring, he knew, had to shine as brightly as his love for the enchanting bat when the moment came. So, with the passionate seal of loyal lips, the evening ended there.

Before it got too dark, they headed back to the hotel to sleep off the outing. Their figures rested peacefully entwined throughout the night, and when it was morning, the hedgehog woke his lover with a room-service breakfast.

"Mm, best vacation ever," said Rouge through a bite of scone. "Seriously, I wish we could do stuff like this every day!"

"Hah, well... I can always make you breakfast in bed, you know," her man offered, pouring a cup of coffee.

"Knock yourself out, handsome," she bantered with a wink. "But I mean... we're just so busy at home! Imagine if we could both just be served every day?"

"Hm, it might be glamorous for a time... but it also might make us lazy."

Rouge sighed, "Maybe so," then her face lit up with an idea. "Hey, let's go to the beach after this! It's just about the best time to sunbathe."

A smile crept across Shadow's muzzle as he thought about the little black box sitting in his bag. "Sounds perfect."

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

*Check the 'shadow's heart' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 3: Confliction]

Pulling up to the home Silver and Blaze shared, their dark-furred guest parked his Viper behind the platinum-painted Camaro and made eye contact with the lavender cat sitting in the bay window.

She hopped down from the cushioned seat while he stepped out of his car, then greeted him at the door with a surprisingly wide smile on her white muzzle.

"This has been such a long time coming," she claimed as he walked in.

"A long time?" The edge of his lip curled into a small, perplexed smile. "We've only been together for two years."

"Yes, but I can see how happy Rouge is when she's with you." Blaze led him to the living room beyond the foyer, where they sat on a gray triple-wide couch. "I'm surprised you waited to snap her up as long as you have."

One black eyebrow lowered and his slightly amused smile remained as he tilted his head at her comment. "And what about you and Silver? You two have been dating much longer than us and just got engaged a couple months ago."

The princess stiffened a bit and Shadow caught a streak of pink touching her cheeks. "Well... w-we wanted to wait! With the renovations and all... anyway-" Her expression turned determined, gold eyes locking to his. "Today is about you, and how you're going to offer Rouge your heart for the foreseeable future."

The Ultimate Lifeform chuckled lightly. "I didn't know you had this romantic side to you, Blaze. I always thought Silver was the mushy one."

"Appreciation of true love isn't exclusive to one half of the relationship, my friend. But, speaking of..."

She turned towards the back of the sofa, facing the open archway that led to the rest of the house, and raised one hand beside her mouth. "Silver! Shadow is here!"

"Oh, coming!" echoed the excited tone of the futuristic hedgehog, moments before he rushed into their living room. He was smiling wider than Blaze, and his eyes immediately darted to their guest. "So, you're finally proposing?"

Shadow scratched awkwardly behind his ear. "Uh, yeah... finally."

Before he could say anything else, Silver plopped himself down on the open couch space between them and planted one hand on his friend's shoulder, giving it a compassionate squeeze. "Congratulations, man! How are you gonna do it?"

"Uhhh..." Shadow hesitated, feeling a little overwhelmed. Silver let go of him, which allowed him some relief, but the optimistic hedgehog had given him multiple things to address in an instant – it was a bit overbearing, even though he meant well.

Blaze diverted her fiancé's attention, patting his knee with a gloved palm. "I don't think we're there just yet. There needs to be a ring first."

"Also," Shadow added, "she has to say 'yes' before you can congratulate me."

Silver looked at him as if he'd said something unbelievable. "Of course she'll say yes. She said yes to Knux, and he-"

The young man cut his own sentence short when Blaze's fingers tightened on his knee, warning him not to continue the thought. He cleared his throat, embarrassment on his face. Shadow was reminded that he still had to talk to his girlfriend about the previous run-in with Knuckles.

Silver spoke again, "Well... point is, you're great; and I know Rouge loves you a lot."

His words lit a bit of a fire in the Ultimate Lifeform again, and a warm smile drew across Shadow's muzzle. "Thank you for the confidence. Now..." He retrieved his cell phone and began pulling up his earlier search results. "... to find a worthy ring."

***

"I think a gold band would be best; Rouge does like flashy jewelry."

"Oh, but what about this icy-white one? It's so pretty, imagine how that'll sparkle! And the shape is cool!"

"Well, Shadow will certainly want a gold band to fit his style, so it's a good idea for the bride's ring to match."

"But that's the wedding ring! The engagement ring is supposed to be cute and shimmery!"

"Silver, just because that's what you got for me doesn't mean it's what Rouge would like."

Shadow was scratching behind his ear again in discomfort, staring down at the phone and listening to his friends debate the choices. His eyes wandered over to Blaze's left hand, to the glimmering aquamarine stone sitting atop a polished platinum band. It was a good choice for her, but something like that wouldn't be quite right for Rouge.

"I agree with Blaze," he spoke, looking up at their faces and ending their tame squabble. "The more obviously it shines, the better."

Silver pouted a little and Blaze smiled softly while Shadow continued, "But, to Silver's credit, I do think a curvy design would be nice."

"Wow," Blaze chimed, "look at you, making your own vision. And the stone? If I know my best friend, she'd be predictably smitten with a high-carat diamond."

"Hmm..." pondered Shadow, looking back down and idly rubbing an index finger above his lip.

"Wouldn't the gold overshadow a diamond?" Silver asked, genuinely curious.

"Perhaps, but-"

"Not to cut you off, Blaze," interrupted Shadow, "but I do have an idea. Rouge has told me her favorite gems in the world are the Chaos Emeralds. Obviously, I wouldn't be able to use one, as difficult as they are to find... but what do you think of a regular emerald?"

Silver gasped, his smile wide. "With diamonds lining the band!"

"Ooh," the cat cooed. "I actually think that's a great idea! You could get it shaped like a Chaos Emerald, I'm sure she'd love that. Green goes very well with gold."

"And it'll bring out her eyes," Shadow added, more comfortable and smiling down at his phone while searching for emerald rings.

The white hedgehog put his right hand to his heart, his expression softening into a display of deep affection for his friend's rare optimistic mood. "This is so sweet." He looked at Blaze and his free hand grabbed hers. "It makes me want to propose to you all over again."

His fiancée blushed and tensed her shoulders towards her cheeks, trying to subdue her smile. "Silver! Please, not in front of a guest..."

But she didn't need to worry about Shadow noticing her embarrassment. He was engrossed in the thought of Rouge gasping and grinning at his choice for the symbol of his intent. The pieces finally fit together in his head – the perfect ring for a perfect woman.

Silver gave Blaze a quick kiss on the cheek while Shadow wasn't looking, then stood from the couch. "Think I'll make some fried rice – get a good lunch going. You want some, Shadow? Or something else?"

Red eyes flicked up at him briefly. "Sure, that's fine."

"Cool!" The futuristic hedgehog strolled back through the nearby archway, starting to whistle a tune once he left the room. The remaining two sat in silence for a moment. Then, just before the lack of conversation got awkward, Shadow's phone rang. It was the jewel hunter herself, prompting him to stand.

"I'll take this outside," he told Blaze, who nodded and also left the sofa to seek out her cooking beau while the dark hedgehog walked out the front door.

He answered with a lighter tone than his usual deep timbre. "Hey, love."

"Hi, baby!" Her mature voice sounded elated, but longing. He understood, as he was longing for her, too. "God, it's so good to hear your voice after listening to Tower bark orders all morning."

Shadow chuckled. "He's being insufferable again, is he?"

"Always. You know he badgered me again last night about you joining G.U.N? So annoying."

"Hm. Well, with you on their team, they shouldn't need my help." He leaned back against the side of the house, bending his free arm under the other to support it.

He heard Rouge sigh and closed his eyes to picture her. She said, "I know, I'm great."

Her confidence made him chuckle and she continued, "Although, I can say these missions would be a lot more fun with you around. But don't worry, I told Tower you had better things to do than take orders from the government."

"Like... take orders from you, boss?" Shadow countered, a smirk bending his voice into a teasing tone.

The ivory bat scoffed playfully; he could tell she was grinning. "Well, yes! You can't tell me you'd rather have an old, stern, unfunny man for a superior."

"You are right, I can't. It would be a lie to pretend that I don't enjoy working for a beautiful, charming, enchanting woman... even if she is a little materialistic."

"How dare you," she bantered, still speaking with a smile. "Just for that, you'd better have a stunning new accessory for me when I get back!"

Shadow laughed, tickled by the serendipity that Rouge was unaware of. She thought she was being funny, but the jewel-loving spy had no idea that she was actually going to get her wish. When his laugh subsided, he opened his eyes and looked up at the clear sky.

He said thoughtfully, "I miss you."

He half-expected a witty quip to keep the joke going – something like, "After only one day? You must be obsessed!" – but Rouge's tone softened and she replied, "I miss you, too."

"How's the mission going?"

"It's okay. A bit boring. So far, we're just doing surveillance. But, on the up-side, I've been learning some interesting things about sea life since we picked up some books from this old laboratory nearby. What I found most fascinating was this section about one particular species; did you know there's such a thing as an immortal jellyfish?"

The Ultimate Lifeform's brows raised at the mention of immortality, and his smile slackened. "No, I didn't. That's curious."

"I almost found it unbelievable at first! But it's true, the little guys can reverse their life cycle if they want – or, something like that, I haven't gotten to finish reading it, yet."

"Wow... that must've been surprising to see." Shadow masked the unease that crept into his heart at the thought of a creature that could live forever. It was too similar to his own biology, and – uncomfortably – made him think about his long lifespan too much for his liking.

"Yeah," Rouge spoke, calm because she didn't know the introspection she'd just sparked, "I'm not usually into science, but that kind of stuff is cool. Plus, anything's better than listening to Topaz complain about the way I work."

"Ha, yeah... I bet." He took a breath as his lean turned into a slump. In his head, he was thinking, 'You might not consider it cool if you knew you were living with an immortal... and what that truly means.'

"Sooo," her voice dragged, "how are things on your end?"

"Well... up and down, I suppose." Shadow pushed off the wall and stepped forward to sit down on the concrete stoop. "The casino is doing well, although it was very crowded last night."

"Aw, sorry I couldn't be there, hun. Bane helped you hold things down though, right?"

"Yeah, we got through it..." One hand slinked across the back of his neck and he rubbed it in discomfort. He remembered his encounter with Knuckles again, and knew he couldn't put off telling her about it. "But we had an... unpleasant visitor last night."

"Oh no, who?"

Shadow sighed. "Knuckles."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, long enough for the dark hedgehog to get a sinking feeling in his stomach. Then his lover asked with a hint of disgust, "Why? What did he want?"

Shadow's answer escaped a growing sneer, "He was demanding to speak with you. Babbling about apologizing... after two fucking years."

His eyes rolled, black brows furrowing at the memory. Rouge's tone sounded softer when she spoke again. "Shadow... don't concern yourself with him. Especially if it's going to ruin your mood."

Fingers pinched the midsection of his closed eyes and he shook away the frustration. Then the bat added, "When I get back, we'll do something nice. A date night – how's that sound?"

Shadow nodded even though she couldn't see it. "I'd like that. Hopefully your mission doesn't run long."

"I'm crossing my fingers as we speak. Talk to you later?"

"Whenever you have time. You know I'll always answer."

"I won't make you wait if I can help it." The smile in her voice returned when she mimicked a kiss through the phone. "Love you!"

"Love you, too."

They hung up and Shadow felt troubled that he couldn't form a smile like Rouge could. There were two big problems hanging over him now; conflicts he wouldn't be able to shake through sheer force of will.

But, irritating as it was that his girlfriend's ex wanted back in her life, the other issue was even more daunting: the Ultimate Lifeform's immortality, which would pale her lifespan as the years went on, and – dreadfully possibly – her desire to stay with him, as well.

[dracarialove]

📄 F it, I'm posting my finished fics here, too 📄

Buried Desires

*Check the 'buried desires' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 4: Midnight Embrace]

While her best friend slept more soundly than she'd ever seen – lying on his side in a more relaxed pose than on his back in his typical stiff-straight posture – Rouge tended to her club and the patrons who floated in and out through the evening.

She checked on him periodically via the balcony door, but each time she only saw Shadow in a new sleeping position with his eyes still restfully shut. Whatever he'd been doused with, it had thoroughly knocked him out once he'd drifted off to sleep.

When her casino closed for the night, the bat started to get a tad worried about just how much he was sleeping. Twelve hours had passed between her business opening and closing, and her dear quiet crush still hadn't awoken to tell her he was okay.

Rouge approached his bedside and looked over the slumbering hedgehog, wringing her hands and studying his changed body language. It was the first time she'd witnessed him sleeping on his side, facing the wall with his hands cradling his chest and legs pulled up a little to bend at the knees.

She sat down on the edge of the mattress, filling the vacant crook behind his legs, and watched the spines on his back steadily raise and lower with his deep, slow breaths.

The side of his face that she could see looked peaceful, another new development; somehow, the Ultimate Lifeform had always seemed like he was scowling, even in his sleep.

She wondered if he was dreaming. Then she mulled on the question of whether or not he could've been permanently altered in some way because of their slip-up.

But in what way, if any? He still seemed like himself, even while struggling to focus. And he's the perfect being, anyway, Rouge deduced. His body and brain could handle a little mind-fuck, even if it had been kind of intense. He'd been through worse.

Nevertheless, she stayed where she was for a few more minutes, hesitating to wake him up herself, until he started to stir on his own. His body shifted to turn over, but dark-furred legs were halted by the barrier that was Rouge's back. The rest of him slowly twisted and his eyes cracked open.

Watching him wake up made the bat smile, and she spoke softly once red irises locked onto her face. "Welcome to the waking world. Your sleep schedule is fucked now."

Shadow couldn't see her perfectly in the dimness of the loft space, having to rub his eyes to get a clearer view after they'd been shut for so long. His voice was flat and husky when he asked, "What time is it?"

"Just after midnight. You slept through all the partying going on down below."

"I did?" He paused, lowering his hands to rest on his stomach and staring at the beautiful woman sitting beside him in the darkness. "That strange stuff had me more out of it than I thought."

Rouge sighed a little, before gathering the gumption to ask, "Shadow... do you remember much about what happened this morning?"

Nervous like she'd never been before, the jewel thief pointed the heart-shaped toes of her boots together while her heart rate rose in anticipation of his reply.

One of his legs still rested propped against her back while he lay casually. She saw his index finger tap thoughtfully on the glove beneath it and instinctually dreaded the few seconds of silence he made her suffer through.

The handsome hedgehog's brief hesitation served as his preparation to tell the truth, his heart also beating faster as he swallowed to wet his dry mouth.

"I remember everything," he answered, his tone a little sweeter than the neutral timbre he usually spoke in. "There's not a moment I can't recall."

Her worry soothed and she leaned closer to see him better. "And how do you feel now that it's over?"

"... Lighter. More free than I have in a long time." His eyes dropped from her face to her hand planted on the mattress; his own moved from resting atop his stomach to lay on top of her gloved fingers. "Though, I am concerned that I burdened you during our mission. I was useless towards the end of it and I'm sorry you had to get us out of there yourself."

"Well... it's true that I could've managed the task on my own," teased Rouge, a sly smile playing at the corner of her lips. "But I don't care about that. I'm just glad you came out of that weird state okay – I was worried for a bit there."

"Ah, Rouge," he started, shaking his head and smirking a little, "you worry about me entirely too much."

She feigned offense, balling her free hand into a fist against her hip. "And who else will, hm? Sorry, sir, but the Ultimate Lifeform will just have to accept that I care about his well-being."

Shadow exhaled a laugh through his nose and rolled his eyes. Then his partner lowered her unoccupied palm onto his hand, sandwiching it between hers, and changed the subject.

"You said a lot of stuff before. And you remember it now. But... did you mean it? Was that really you?"

The lounging Mobian's expression softened, though subtly enough that Rouge couldn't tell through the dim lighting. He repeated the way he'd sat up before he'd gone to sleep, pulling himself towards her and meeting her turquoise gaze more sincerely. His lips parted and the charming baritone of his deep voice came off assuring and certain.

"It was really me." He squeezed the hand under his. "And I meant all of it. Everything I did and said... I'd been thinking about it for a while before that."

His teammate's mouth widened into a relieved grin. "And you were too prideful to admit it before? Or shy?"

Shadow leaned closer, their muzzles a mere inch away from each other. "I don't know what I was... foolish, I suppose..."

The gap between them closed when Rouge leaned in, kissing him for the first time in a purely sober state. He recognized that it felt almost as good as the initial intoxicated smooch, his soul just as embraced by the confirmation that she wanted a deeper connection as he did – only without the wavery imbalance of his pumped-up nerves or the worrisome pound of a fiercely thumping heart.

It was much more calming this time around, more real as he could feel the soft, slick press of her lips for what it was instead of being hyper-sensitive to every slight grazing touch. Kissing his best friend was truly blissful.

Rouge also repeated her own action from the previous morning, leaning further to push Shadow back against the bed; but this time, she didn't pull away. His arms slipped around her waist and she kissed him a little harder, then broke it briefly to look into his eyes again. "You know, Shad..."

She trailed off and bit her lip, flashing sharp fangs as she betrayed the glee she felt with another grin. The dark man raised an eyebrow and let his smile creep upward, amused and intrigued as he spoke, "Yes? What's going on in that mischievous mind of yours?"

A chuckle slipped from Rouge's mouth and she twirled one finger into the patch of white fur on his chest. "Well... it's been a long time that we neglected to say anything about our feelings, right?"

He nodded. "Unfortunately."

"In that case," she said in a sultry tone, her bright teal eyes managing to twinkle even in the darkness, "we have a ton of lost time to make up for."

Shadow watched her expression change into the charming, seductive face he was used to, while she shifted her body to lift one leg over to the other side of his stagnant form. Hovering above him, Rouge cocked her head and stared a dreamy, lidded gaze at the relaxed hedgehog.

"What'ya say, sugar?" she muttered, her inquiry sounding a bit more like a statement than a question. "You wanna make this partnership a lot more exciting?"

It felt much more natural, being able to connect to the stunning lady with a clear head; and Shadow didn't want it any other way in that moment. The dim blanket of midnight made him feel more at ease, too. And being enticed by Rouge in this way was something he'd only dreamed of before.

Now there was no worry, no suffocating paranoia – and no question as to the answer the stoic lifeform had for her. Shadow enwrapped his arms around her more, pulling the alluring temptress closer before replying in a deep, buttery whisper.

"More than anything."

*Explicit 5th chapter only available on Ao3 for registered users

[dracarialove]

📄 F it, I'm posting my finished fics here, too 📄

*Check the 'rouge's heart' tag if you haven't read previous chapters

[Chapter 5: Violence]

Blaze was clipping up her hair in her signature ponytail when the doorbell rang; before she could call out to Silver, he was already telling her he would answer it. The white hedgehog opened the door and greeted Rouge, inviting her inside.

"Lookin' sharp," she said, pointing to the teal blazer and black bowtie he was wearing.

Silver tightened his tie and smiled. "Thanks. Blaze should be out in a minute."

They chatted briefly until the lavender cat walked into the room, her slim figure presented in a knee-length magenta dress with a single ruffled strap crossing over to one shoulder. Red strappy heels covered her feet, and she had applied a nude gloss to her lips.

"Wow, Blaze!" Rouge exclaimed, impressed. "I've never seen you so stylish."

The princess shot her a sly look as she slipped one gloved hand around Silver's arm. "It's not often that I get dressed up. Besides, we're not all like you, hoarding outfits for every occasion!"

The bat rolled her eyes and swatted the air, grinning as she turned back toward the door. "You guys ready to go?"

The couple followed, Silver grabbing his keys. "Let's hit the town!"

***

Shadow's stint at the coffee shop was almost over, the grumpy hedgehog having worked a rare morning shift. His mood was sour as he and his coworker blasted through a rush of customers. The hour of repetitive labor left him irritated and ready to clock out, continuously checking the time once his coworker had gone outside for a short break.

He let out an aggravated sigh when another customer walked in only a few minutes after the rush had subsided. The red echidna stomped his way over to the counter, a steamed expression plastered on his face.

Shadow's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the angry patron approach the register. Knuckles stopped at the counter, staring across at Shadow with an unflinching frown stamped across his tan muzzle.

Hyper-aware of the echidna's hostile body language, the neutral hedgehog remained on his guard as he held eye contact, then dully mustered a customer-friendly phrase. "Can I help you?"

"Stay away from Rouge," Knuckles growled.

Shadow responded with the furrowing of his brow and a quiet scoff. "You're looking for trouble, threatening me. I don't care who you are – if you think you can scare me, you're sorely mistaken."

"I'm not trying to scare you, tough guy. I'm warning you. You back off of my woman if you don't want a problem!"

Knuckles raising his voice set off Shadow's growing frustration, the dark hedgehog refusing to accept the disrespect. He replied in a sharp tone, "You're the one who needs to back off. You must have a death wish – or maybe you're just stupid – to challenge someone whose capabilities go beyond your comprehension."

The echidna started to ball his fists, the two men staring each other down. Shadow continued, "Besides, if Rouge is 'your' woman, and she's taken a liking to me, what does that say about your inability to keep her interest?"

He didn't know if it was true, if Rouge really was in a relationship with the angry stranger in front of him; but he hated being talked down to, and had easily pegged Knuckles' weakness when it came to insults. The redhead's frown turned into a toothy scowl as he suddenly raised his fists and swung.

"Chaos Control!"

***

The telekinetic hedgehog was the driver for their night out, all three of them hopping into the silver Camaro that boasted two bright teal stripes down the hood. They headed downtown, soon being surrounded by countless bars, clubs, and restaurants – all brightly-lit with energetic music pouring from the windows. Per Blaze's suggestion, they pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant bar, Silver scooting his car into an empty corner spot.

A human hostess met them when they walked through ruby-colored double doors, then led them past a number of tables filled with a mixture of diners; some human, some Mobian, all enjoying their meals and drinks with their personal groups.

She sat them at a booth near the back, Blaze and Silver sitting on one side while Rouge took the other. The woman handed them menus and offered to provide a pitcher of water for the table, which they graciously accepted before she left them to decide on entrées.

"The salmon sounds good," Blaze commented, drawing Silver's attention to her menu, "but it's kind of expensive."

He skimmed the price and smiled up at her. "Get whatever you want – it's a special occasion. I think I'll have the pasta salad. See anything you like, Rouge?"

"Hmm..." the bat wondered, tapping an index finger against her chin. "Maybe fettuccine, that's always a safe choice. Although, it might be worth it to try the grilled chicken."

Blaze perked up as she closed her menu. "Oh! I can vouch for the chicken. Certainly worth it."

"I'll take your word for it, then," she responded, snapping the menu shut with one hand.

When the waitress came by to place their pitcher of water on the table, the triad put in their orders and each poured a glass for themselves. The uplifting orchestra music playing through the restaurant's speakers coupled with the soft orange lights to set a positive mood for their evening, even as Silver brought up a subject that was still considerably sore.

"Hey, so, I know it just happened," he started, addressing Rouge, "and you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to... but I wanted to ask how you're holding up since the whole debacle with Knuckles."

Blaze lightly slapped his arm, but the strong-willed bat was determined not to let the breakup get to her; if she was going to get over him, she did need to talk about it. No amount of crying alone would help her completely heal from the pain, so Rouge smiled and made eye contact with Silver.

"You know, it still stings – and maybe it will for a while – but I think I'm coming more to terms with it as the days go by."

"I don't think I've ever met another woman as emotionally strong as you," Blaze commented, picking up her water. "Already starting to get over Knuckles, when Amy bursts into tears every time Sonic doesn't answer her calls!"

Silver chuckled and Rouge shrugged. The bat didn't want to mention her new love interest just yet, thinking it would be better to get her frustrations out first. She could save the good news for last and close out their dinner with happier thoughts.

So, while they waited for their food to arrive, she recounted the hurtful events while sprinkling in complaints about both Knuckles and Julie-Su. A cathartic experience, it allowed the treasure hunter to fully enjoy her meal once their waitress came around with the dishes and drinks.

***

Time was frozen, Knuckles' balled fist hovering in the air above the coffee shop counter. His mouth was agape, canines exposed in a display of aggression, fierce eyes alive with rage. The powerful hedgehog walked around the counter, trying to remember if he'd seen the echidna before.

The only instance he could pull forth was a mere possibility; a red BMW speeding down the street as he and Rouge enjoyed warm beverages outside the shop. Although it could've been anyone driving such a vehicle, it was the only conclusion he could draw, as there hadn't been anyone around the first time he'd spoken to her.

"Pathetic," Shadow mumbled to himself as he rolled along his skates to stand behind Knuckles.

As time began to speed back up, the Ultimate Lifeform hooked one foot under the echidna's legs and pushed them out from under him. Knuckles dropped, the forward momentum of his punch slamming his jaw onto the countertop as he fell. He let out an agonized shout as he tumbled to the floor, then clutched his muzzle and grabbed the counter to pull himself up.

Shaking, the echidna's eyes watered and he continued to groan in anguish. A splitting headache shocked through his skull and he remained kneeled on the floor while Shadow stood away from him, his baritone voice cutting through the otherwise quiet coffee shop.

"Get out of here. I don't want to have to expend any more energy on you."

Knuckles turned and glared up at him, attempting to speak but immediately clutching his mouth again before finally standing. Shadow remained on the defensive as the echidna chose to leave, his crimson gaze following the attacker until he was out the door.

He watched Knuckles climb into the same BMW that he had seen the evening before – initially invisible as he had parked in the farthest spot from the entrance – and made a mental note to speak with Rouge about the enraged echidna.

***

As the three of them were eating their respective meals, Blaze prodded Rouge about where she had run off to the previous day. "You said it would be good, so let's hear it."

"I met someone interesting the other day," the bat answered, trying to keep her smile from turning into a grin.

Silver's eyes widened a bit. "Woah, already? I knew you were quick about picking up new guys, but that has to be a record."

"Hey!" she retorted playfully, stabbing a piece of chicken with her fork. "This one doesn't count, okay; probably the first time I wasn't trying to find a lover after a breakup."

The hedgehog argued through a mouthful of pasta salad, "Well, it's extra impressive, then."

He covered his mouth when Blaze made a disgusted face, using his telekinesis to pull a napkin from the dispenser. The lemon-eyed cat turned to Rouge and said, "So, tell us about him."

The bat swallowed her food as a faint pink shade flushed across her cheeks. "He's this hedgehog who works at a coffee shop in town; small place, never been, so I'd never seen him before."

"Right, because you only go to clubs," Blaze interjected, chuckling.

"Exactly," Rouge smirked. Her gestures became more expressive when she started describing Shadow. "Anyway, he's kind of mysterious and moody – has 'grump' written all over his face. But he seems like a quiet guy, sort of reserved. Black hair with bright red highlights, the most striking cherry-red eyes I've ever seen; and handsome like you wouldn't believe!"

"Aw," the princess piped, her expression softening as she placed a hand on Silver's arm. He continued eating and nodded along to Rouge's story.

"I met him right after I dumped Knuckles. Just stopped at a random shop for a cup of tea." She purposely lowered her energy and took a sip from her champagne glass, then chuckled a little. "He made the most awkward small talk while I was sitting there; just had my heart broken, and there was a guy I would've never expected to approach me, talking so calmly that I actually felt like the world was slowing down. He had invited me to go back, so that's where I went after Knuckles picked up his stuff."

"Sounds like a connection to me!" said Blaze, returning to her meal. "Are you going to see him again?"

Rouge couldn't stop herself from grinning while she stabbed another chunk of chicken. "We have a dinner date tomorrow. It would've been tonight, but I already had plans with you two."

"Well, Rouge, you could've gone out with him tonight!" Blaze protested supportively. "We would've completely understood."

The bat shrugged and rolled her eyes in lieu of a response, her mouth full. Silver took the opportunity to cut in with a comment of his own.

"I'm glad things are looking up so quickly for you. You really deserve it, after the shit Knux pulled?" He shook his head. "Man, I'm just glad he got double-dumped."

Blaze laughed, making the hedgehog smile and chuckle as well. Rouge thanked him earnestly, then the three of them finished the last bits of their meals. They decided to order dessert, and the jewel hunter shifted the conversation over to Silver and Blaze. They discussed new developments over tiramisu, talking about the renovations they were making to their home, as well as a trip they were planning.

At the end of the night, Silver brought them home again and made sure Rouge was alright to drive. Her single glass of champagne hadn't impaired her enough to crash, so they said their goodbyes and the bat drove home with the window down. She enjoyed the rushing wind flicking through her hair as the radio played a smooth jazzy beat accompanied by inspirational lyrics; and when she arrived home, she pulled out her phone and quickly deleted every picture of Knuckles from her gallery.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

*Check the 'shadow's heart' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 6: Preparation]

Music filled Shadow's kitchen. With hope in his heart and a plan in his head, he'd decided to embody Rouge's spirit for a morning, listening to something lively and upbeat for a change while he made breakfast.

He hadn't felt so fluttery before, his memories playing back the most supportive words from his friends. He wasn't going to waste any time.

And he felt so full of energy so early in the morning that it almost seemed unnatural. When he was finished cooking, the spatula went into the sink, along with the pan he'd used to make his humble stack of pancakes.

He forewent toppings besides a dribble of syrup – no butter or fruit for the Ultimate Lifeform, that was Rouge's thing – and was sitting down at the table when his phone started to ring.

His heart lurched and he looked at the black cell sitting on the tabletop, then smiled when he saw his girlfriend's name on the screen. He immediately picked up, "Good morning."

"Mornin', hun!" her pretty voice replied. "Is that a good mood I hear in your voice?"

"Ah, how could you tell?" he asked. It was impressive how skilled she was at reading him, his mannerisms foreign and unfamiliar to anyone but her.

Rouge was confident and a bit teasing when she answered, "I can hear the smile in your tone. Now is that only for me or did I just catch you in a rare moment of happiness?"

"Well... both, I suppose." He worked on cutting up his pancakes while speaking, one-handedly squishing his knife through the warm pastry. "I'm not so stressed anymore. And really, it's not so rare; you know I've been happier since-"

"-Since we met, mhm," she interrupted playfully. "You tell me all the time, dear, how could I forget?"

They shared a chuckle, then Rouge asked, "So, what are you up to this early?"

"I just made breakfast. Pancakes."

"Mm, I'm jealous." She sighed, "I wish I could join you, that sounds incredible right about now. My own breakfast was less than satiable, these military rations really are the worst!"

"It sounds like it." He let a tinge of playfulness enter his tone as he stabbed his fork into his food. "Honestly, how do you survive?"

The drama in the bat's voice was clear. "Ugh, I don't even know! These humans have no idea how to live, it's a travesty, really."

She made Shadow laugh a little – just an exhale, but it warmed her all the same. Before taking his first bite, he said, "Still no end to the mission in sight?"

"Pft, no. But at least they're giving me more information on what we're doing, after I snuck away from a task in protest."

"They were being stingy with information? On a government assignment?"

"I know, great leadership, right?"

Shadow could practically hear her eyes rolling and shook his head. Then he heard a faint voice in the background of the call. He could tell the mouthpiece was away from her face when she said "Okay" to whoever was speaking on the other side.

Then she returned to him. "Shadow, baby, I'm sorry, but I have to go. We have a disturbance to investigate."

"No worries. Be safe."

"Thanks, I will. Love you!"

"Love you, too." The call ended and Shadow looked down at his plate with a few bites missing, pausing briefly to think through what he had planned for the day.

Besides working as usual, he did have another business to visit; and checking the time confirmed he would be able to swing it before going to Club Rouge. So, he finished his breakfast and quickly cleaned the dishes before dressing in his uniform and heading out.

***

The big, inviting windows of the jewelry store greeted him once again. Remembering his last visit, the hedgehog gazed through them before going inside, but didn't spot the blonde that'd bothered him before; so, he walked in, announcing himself with the chime of the bell above the door.

He knew what he wanted, so he walked up to the counter and looked up at the human man standing behind it. An array of sparkling rings sat in the glass case between them.

"Welcome!" the clerk said, a friendly smile spread on his round face. "You look like a Mobian on a mission! What can I help you with today?"

"I'm looking to get a custom ring made," Shadow started, taking out his phone. He leaned forward to show an image of the features he'd cobbled together, raising the cell higher to meet the man's taller height. "Can you do that?"

The human stared at the phone for a moment, leaning forward himself but respectfully refraining from taking the device for a better look. "Looks like you want an emerald on a gold band that's lined with diamonds, is that right?"

Shadow nodded and pointed at the screen, emphasizing, "Yes, but I want the curvy design for the band here. And a special shape for the emerald."

"It shouldn't be a problem," the man said, leaning both hands on the counter. "What shape is that?"

"A Chaos Emerald – as if she were wearing a smaller version of one. You know it, right?"

"I wouldn't be worth spit as a jeweler if I didn't know about the Chaos Emeralds!" He looked proud, his face beaming at the hedgehog. "I can get that made for you – so long as you know custom rings are more expensive than the pre-assembled variety."

"I'm aware." Shadow laid his phone on the counter while the human took out an electronic tablet. "Would I be able to get quicker shipping on that? I assume with a higher fee, as well."

The clerk nodded, then looked from the tablet to his customer. "Usually, it takes about a month, but if you're willing to pay the extra, you can get it in two weeks. Is that soon enough for ya?"

"That'll work."

"Great! Then I'll just take your information down, here, and we can get your order put in."

Shadow kept his nerves at bay while working with the employee, doing everything as needed so he could get it over with sooner. But the second he left the store, a heavy, shaky exhale left his lips.

There was the hammering of his heart again, and not just because of the annoyance of dealing with a chipper stranger. He was still feeling the fluster of buying an engagement ring.

The striped lifeform sat on his bike, resting idly in the parking lot, and breathed through it enough to get back to his usual self. It didn't take long; he just needed a moment to decompress. Then the same Shadow was back, and he was able to ride off to Club Rouge without a wavery nerve left.

***

The next day, he had the thought to call Rouge's friends – his friends, too, he had to remind himself – and tell them of the new developments. There was a feeling he would need more of their help to make everything perfect, and he wasn't usually one for big gestures.

But he knew it was what his future fiancée would want, so he had no problem doing it for her. This time, he called Silver. On a Wednesday, the white hedgehog was probably at his gardening shop, so Shadow hoped he would pick up.

"Hello?" the young, optimistic voice on the other end chirped.

"Hey, Silver, are you busy?"

"Uh, well, I'm working the shop, but..." There was a pause. "... I think my customers are okay for a bit, looks like they're just browsing. What's up?"

Shadow steeled himself for the burst of excitement he was about to be pelted with when he said, "I wanted to let you know, I ordered the ring yesterday."

An immediate gasp, and he could hear the grin in Silver's voice. "Seriously?! Dude, I'm so happy for you! So, you planned it out, then? Tell me everything!"

"I... haven't planned much, actually," replied the dark hedgehog, hoping his friend would pick up on his tone and simmer down. "That's also why I called. I... might require a bit more assistance from you and Blaze."

He was still a little prickly about asking for help, but his love for Rouge outweighed his pride, even if he bristled involuntarily at Silver's exuberance.

"Of course! More than happy to – honestly, I love being a part of stuff like this, I mean this is a huge occasion! When are you gonna have a moment like a proposal ever again, right? I mean, hopefully never, if you and Rouge are forever-"

"Silver," he interrupted. "I appreciate your willingness... could you just tell me when you both will be available to speak in person?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." He breathed a light chuckle through the phone. "Sorry. Um... Friday should be good, any time after noon if that works for you."

Shadow only needed a second to debate in his head, deciding that a Friday afternoon off was worth it. He would make up for his absence from Club Rouge with an evening shift. "Sure. Friday. You won't be waiting."

"Ha, don't I know it. You're a punctual guy! Anyway, I'll let you go, so... talk to you later!"

"Goodbye."

He hung up and briefly wondered how Rouge's previous night had gone. Although he wished some cosmic force would give her the inkling to call, he didn't linger on how much he missed her.

He couldn't let himself stew in the annoyance of not being able to kiss her at a moment's notice; instead, he focused on clearing his mind. There was no need to worry about the next step until Friday.

***

His finger pressed against the little oval button next to the front door of Silver's house, and he heard the faint chime of the bell going off inside the home. A moment later the door opened, and the futuristic man himself stood grinning at Shadow with stars in his eyes.

It was almost embarrassing to the Ultimate Lifeform how gleeful Silver was about him proposing, as he couldn't fathom being that worked up over someone else's life plans. But he didn't say it, out of consideration for his friend's feelings – it would be an unnecessary comment to make at his expense.

"Hey!" Silver exclaimed, taking a step forward. "How was your morning?"

He spread his arms and Shadow pulled back instinctively, which made the other hedgehog stop and back away, as well. With his hands held up defensively – and a sheepish smile on his face – he said, "Whoops, sorry. Forgot, no hugs. Come in!"

'No hugs' was Shadow's rule, of course. He still wasn't very comfortable with physical contact from anyone but Rouge, who knew his body so well by now that he imagined she could successfully sketch his visage blindfolded.

She was more of a hugger, often giving Silver and Blaze each one when they visited. And he learned Silver was the biggest on physical affection out of all of them; the softie of the group.

Maybe he would've been that way, too, he thought – had he grown up differently, or had his best friend not left him behind so soon. But he had Rouge to be affectionate with, and that was enough. Everyone else would have to settle for a handshake.

Blaze met them in the living room and they all sat on the couch as they had before. Shadow started, "Thank you for having me again. I don't like to admit that I need more of your insight, but... well, I suppose it befits me to be more open if I'm going to do this right."

The princess gave him a nod and a smile, brimming with respect. His occasional eloquent openers were part of how he'd convinced her to be fond of him.

Learning of her regal background made it easy to guess that she took best to people who were capable of sounding sophisticated, as she was.

Though it wasn't required of her fiancé, Shadow figured out that it was a secret barometer for how much she respected her best friend's boyfriends. A scale which he had climbed where others before him failed.

"So," he continued, "tell me how to make this proposal perfect."

Silver was bursting to go first, insisting on helping him with the proposal itself. He set the foundation by summarizing how he'd proposed to Blaze, going into detail about the timing and the short speech he gave beforehand.

Shadow kept everything he said in mind, slowly formulating ideas in his head while he mulled over the possibilities, and was even impressed with Silver's passion on the subject, as well as his proficiency in perfecting their special moment.

He hoped he could pull off making it as magical as his friend made it sound. And when he was finished, Blaze suggested planning a trip to surround the event.

"Really?" Shadow asked. "Like a vacation, specifically to propose?"

"Absolutely! Obviously, the proposal part will be a secret, but if I know Rouge, she'll want some relaxation time anyway when she gets back from her mission. What would be a more perfect excuse?"

"Hm... we'd have to organize some things at the club to make it work, but... I think we could." Shadow thought for a second and then suggested, "Would South Island be a good choice? If you've ever been there; I've only seen the advertisements."

Silver chimed, "Ooh, yeah! We went once, and it's basically a tropical paradise! The water there is the bluest you've ever seen, the beaches are so clean- ooh, and they have these ice cream stands they put up between the shore and the beach-side hotels, it's awesome."

"It really was lovely," added Blaze. "And there's lots of hospitality if you go out to the city, so you'd have plenty of things to do. It's easily a week-long trip."

Shadow nodded, taking in their advice and letting a small smile touch his lips. He was ultimately glad that he'd decided to confide in them. It was difficult to be vulnerable with anyone, but it was important for moments like this, when his own imagination would've surely failed him.

And the stolid lifeform held a faint sense of pride at the friendships he decided to nurse, even if he did it mostly to gain better insight in the face of changing his and Rouge's future forever.

But in the case of making this choice, confronting his doubts, and tackling the preparations – he could be grateful that people like Blaze, Silver, and even Sonic were around to encourage him.

With their support, he could find new tactics and unlock new ideas to be the best version of himself. All because he was lucky enough to have met Rouge.

Before leaving his friends' home, he agreed to let Blaze assist him in expanding his wardrobe. Not only because he was sorely lacking in proper beach attire – too stubborn to buy new 'unnecessary' things – but because he actually cared about looking his best for their week in paradise.

He wouldn't normally bother if he thought his girlfriend wouldn't notice, but he understood where her attention to detail lay, and clothing was one of the things she tended to fixate on in certain situations.

He recalled how she'd complimented his style on their first dinner date, and he wanted to recreate that feeling. After all, the best time to reminisce about their last two years together would be shortly before the magical moment.

So, over the next few days, he periodically met with Blaze when they both managed to have free time outside of work. She offered perspectives on clothing he'd never considered before, helping the hedgehog piece together tasteful outfits and wishing him luck when they parted ways after the final shopping spree.

He also spent some time researching bookings and details for South Island resorts, but didn't want to jump the gun and plan for a specific date just yet. He still had no idea when Rouge would be returning home.

***

The third-story lounge was bustling more than usual for a weekday evening, thanks to the presence of a largely popular band deciding that Club Rouge would be their designated spot to kick back after performing a concert downtown.

Shadow took up residence there to offer the bouncer backup, in case the crowd of fans got too invasive. The band was friendly with him, keeping the hedgehog close and trying to get him to join in on their drunken conversations.

Shadow deduced they thought it would be a riot to convince the security guard to get plastered on the job, but he stayed professional and refused them, standing to the side and keeping his eyes on all the patrons.

However, he did sneak some photographs and a video of the singer briefly serenading the adoring customers, for Rouge to enjoy. He knew she would be annoyed that she missed it, but at least he could give her the sight as it played out; at least she could see how her nightclub was instantly beloved by the band.

And at the end of the night, he even allowed the rock stars to take a photo with him and the rest of the employees. It was a decent evening, all things considered, and he could guess they would be back at some point to meet the owner – whom Jay couldn't praise enough when they visited the bar.

When Shadow went home, he plopped down on the sofa and turned on the TV, intent on relaxing before the usual busy weekend would befall the casino.

But it wasn't long before his phone rang. And he was annoyed for a moment, until the name on his phone made his eyes light up instead. He hadn't heard from her in a couple of days.

"Hey, hun," he blurted, answering Rouge's call and being taken aback by his own words. He didn't usually call her that – it was mostly her thing. Maybe he just missed her that much.

"Hi, love," the bat said affectionately. "I know it's kinda late, but I wanted to see how you've been holding up. I know it's been a minute since I called."

"It's fine, you're working; I understand. Frankly, you could call me at 3am and I would happily answer, but..." They shared a faint chuckle and he went on, "I'm doing well. The club is doing great, too. Actually, I have some pictures to send you. Something happened today that you'll find exciting."

"Ooh, what? Tell me!"

"Hmmm," Shadow drawled, "I think I'd rather surprise you."

"Oh, you tease," she said with a giggle. "Well, you may have something surprising for me, but I think I've got you beat."

"Really? By all means, make my night."

"I'm coming home early!"

His eyebrows raised and his smile grew. "You are? When?"

"Tower said we shove back home in two days. We really kicked ass on this assignment once they started letting me in on more of the details. I bet now, they won't be so stingy on future missions, since I saved them a whole week of drudging through the jungle."

"That's incredible, Rouge." The hedgehog felt like he was bursting with excitement, even though his reaction was only half of what a more expressive person would show. "I can't wait to see you, I've... I've missed you."

"Oh, me too, sugar." Her voice was sweet and loving. "I want to cuddle up with you for three days straight when I get back!"

Shadow laughed in a breathy exhale. It was a bit cheesy, but he could hardly complain. He even reckoned he could laze about with Rouge in his arms for days at a time. "Get some rest, then. The sooner you sleep, the faster time will pass."

Her tone slipped into a sort of soothing lull. "That's true. But I want those pictures first. Text me until we fall asleep?"

"Sure," he answered, standing to head upstairs. "That sounds nice."

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

*Check 'the spy's final mission' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 8: Safer Together]

"... What happened?" Rouge asked cautiously in the eerie silence, her voice quiet.

A few seconds of nothing passed between them as Shadow looked up at her with his morose expression. Her eyes were soft, understanding, and gave him the impression he needed to assure that she meant well; that she was really helping him and this wasn't just a scheme to turn him in.

Because why would she be so invested if she just wanted to get him captured? It wouldn't make sense. She wouldn't be sitting there waiting with him. She wouldn't be asking to hear his account of her crew's history. She'd be leading him through the cave to put him in the open again.

No doubt the helicopter was circling the island, if they hadn't landed to search on foot with the rest of the overlanders. Shadow decided this woman really cared – despite her initial alliance, it felt right in his heart – and he chose to share his memories.

But just before he opened his mouth, he saw one of her ears flinch, and she whipped her gaze in the direction of the cave-in. Her right hand shot up to beg his silence, so he kept his lips pressed together and joined her in looking at the path behind them.

He heard muffled footsteps, many of them shuffling and thumping against the ground, slowly getting louder. The soldiers had made it through the first barricade. Their footfalls stopped when they made it to the second.

"Dead end," the pair heard one soldier say, though his voice wasn't the clearest through the wall of rocks resting yards away.

A second voice suggested, "Could be another cave-in they made to block us."

Rouge held her breath, and Shadow raised into a crouch, resting his weight on his feet in case they needed to start moving quickly.

"No, look!" a third man said. "Up there, it looks like an exit point."

After a tense few seconds, the first soldier spoke again. "You're right, there's a hole. A lot o' moss in the way, but definitely big enough for them to climb out. Good eye, Wells. Go on through!"

The shuffling began again, and this time Rouge could hear shifts in the earth where the humans were pulling themselves out of the cave through its ceiling.

She looked at Shadow and saw him relax a little, then his eyes met hers and she gave him a reassuring smile. It wasn't enough of a relief for him to give one back, but he did provide a sober nod and the return of his bottom to the ground.

They sat, and Shadow waited for Rouge to give word that the soldiers were gone. When she let out a deep sigh, he knew it was safe to talk, but still waited for her to speak first.

"Close call there. But that little diversion might've just saved us entirely." Her sitting position shifted again. She returned to sitting flat on her butt, outstretching her legs and laying one over the other. The discomfort of resting on stone was setting in, but she wanted to hear Shadow's story.

"Lucky for the hole," he replied in his dull cadence.

"And for that guy actually seeing it."

Shadow nodded. "Impressive preparation on your part. I don't know that I would've stopped to cause a second cave-in."

She dismissed his compliment on the surface with a wave of her wrist; not one to look eager, she kept the appreciation she felt to herself. "Well, you wouldn't really need it if you were on your own. But it usually serves pretty well to lay low when you don't know where you're escaping to."

The Ultimate Lifeform took in her words, considering the strategy behind what they were really doing – hiding. It didn't feel like hiding, though, not in the way that would typically make him feel cowardly.

It felt sneaky and smart, and the thought to be ashamed that he was avoiding confrontation hadn't crossed his mind. Most likely, he reasoned, because Rouge had made that decision. And his neglect to try and ditch her immediately was turning out well for him.

She was even giving him tips to avoid capture. Showing she knew what she was doing – and using those skills to help him – made him more willing to stay in the cave with her a little longer.

"So…" Rouge started, working up the nerve to repeat herself. "What happened on the ARK? Can you talk about it?"

Shadow clasped his hands together, and his gaze once again dragged to the floor. The furl of his brow was defeated, and would easily cross over into a crestfallen look if not for the cold mystery overcasting his expression.

She could tell he had regrets. And she wondered how much he remembered. If he didn't know his family was dead, how many of his memories of that day were fragmented?

"I can… only so you'll know the truth about the humans' cruelty." His deep voice was dark and rumbly as he recounted the raid on the space colony.

He refused to meet her eyes while the details were spilled in a rolling wave of information; everything from the morning before G.U.N arrived to the moment he ordered Maria to get in the pod.

Rouge listened, silent and sitting eerily still as she took in the gravity of the history being revealed. She wasn't aghast at G.U.N's actions. Working with them, she'd gotten a good sense of how they went about their business, and it was usually not very pretty.

That never bothered her before – and in fact, she always thought she was the one bending rules and making sly choices under the table. She knew the president worried about her intentions at times.

But hearing a victimized being speak about the tragedy he witnessed first-hand changed her perspective, especially seeing a lifeform so reserved on the surface being visibly upset by the painful past put upon him.

Shadow would be a pillar of black stone if he wasn't purposely letting his walls down. And when he stopped his tale after telling the girl to get to safety, Rouge caught his expression falling more, just before he closed his eyes to mask how much the remembrance hurt.

"She didn't listen to me," he said, his tone bitter and forlorn. "She… put herself at risk."

"To save you?" Rouge guessed softly.

He confirmed with a bracing pause. "She pushed me into the escape pod. Then…"

His eyebrows furrowed again, straining to reach into his mind for the memory. A hand draped across his forehead and his fingers pressed into the space below his ears.

"Stop!" he heard faintly, so distant and murky that he couldn't put a face to the vaguely male voice.

"You can't remember, can you?" the woman's mature timbre suggested. "It must be too painful to think of."

"It doesn't matter… I'll remember when I see her again. Or she'll tell me the story herself."

Rouge felt the rough exterior of her heart crack a little with his speckle of optimism. He was already thinking about how he would catch up with his young friend when they reunited, ignoring the possibility for now that they could never meet again.

It was harrowing to hear the words said with a desire for it to be true, and the hopeful belief that it was – but with an underlying layer of uncertainty.

The straightforward part of her nature made her consider just telling him the truth outright, but she quickly rethought that idea. It wasn't safe to tell a super weapon to his face that his family was inarguably dead.

She chose instead to nudge him with a question. "Do you know how long it's been since you were first sealed away?"

Shadow caught a bad feeling at the way she was looking at him. Her upturned brows hinted that the answer to that question was an upsetting one. So, he steeled himself for the follow-up. "No. I don't."

"... 55 years."

Hesitance to process the number stalled him from reacting at first. Then, a roaring wave of fear and regret crashed into his stomach and his eyes widened in shock. Steady breaths hitched and became shallow, meanwhile panic started to creep in.

Over five decades of time, passed and gone forever – all those years, he was asleep, and the world continued on without him. Maria would be an old woman by now, and the professor… he would never get to say goodbye.

So if Maria was alive, would that mean she really did abandon him? Would she have moved on and forgotten about their friendship? Shadow didn't think so.

Maria had love for everything living and beautiful, especially him, so he couldn't accept the idea that she would've left him to be kept and used by G.U.N. A sadder thought occurred to him: she could've succumbed to her illness.

There was a chance G.U.N might've continued her treatments while keeping Shadow in stasis, but he also severely doubted they would. There was no obligation to keep a sick girl alive, and the government could easily get away with doing nasty things. He didn't even have an idea of how they handled his father after he and Maria ran.

The guarantee that Gerald was no longer alive weighed heavy on an already-weary heart. It made his facial expression sink with hopelessness. And with the risen likelihood of Maria being gone, the thought formed in his mind that everything he was doing was pointless.

"Shadow?" Rouge's voice echoed.

She saw his depressed demeanor deepening and knew he was facing a myriad of terrible emotions behind his sullen face. She hesitated to say more, but felt she had to say something to stop what looked like a dark spiral starting to twist him up inside.

Slacking his posture, his eyes refused her attention, and he looked lost – exponentially more lost than the Ultimate Lifeform should be. Rouge wasn't usually the comforting type, so she questioned the words that urged themselves to the front of her mind.

She didn't think she could touch him at that moment, either, afraid he might lash out at her. After a stalling bite on her bottom lip, she allowed a mildly encouraging phrase to roll out into the stagnant air.

"Hey… don't lose yourself, okay? All hope isn't lost yet."

Stilted as her voice was, the lady's words struck a chord with Shadow. His heart skipped a beat, and a dreadful churning tightened his stomach. His brows strained and another memory surfaced.

"Stop!" shouted a human man as he ran into the room.

He was looking at Maria, and Shadow's gaze flicked between them while he continued hitting the glass.

"Leave her alone!" he yelled in vain.

Maria regarded Shadow with fear in her eyes, sadness following with the welling of tears. One spilled and streamed down her face. Her muffled voice was just barely audible through the glass. "Don't lose hope!"

Then her hand shot towards the lever and a jarring, violent pop filled the room in one short blast.

"MARIA!" Shadow yelled, banging his fists on the see-through door as his dear friend fell against the control panel.

The soldier stood with his arm extended, pointing a handgun at the defenseless girl. Shadow wanted to bust out of the pod and take him out, but the glass was too sturdy even for him.

And as Maria's wounded form slumped and slid towards the ground, the last bit of her strength went to closing her grip on the lever. She pulled it while falling to the floor, and Shadow heard a sharp hiss of air around him.

He let out one last agonized scream before the escape pod was released from the ARK, launching into space and shooting towards the planet below.

Shadow's hands shot up to grab the sides of his head. Red eyes stared at the ground, frozen and ignorant of his surroundings while he curled in on himself. His voice was low and panicked when he uttered, "Maria… she-!"

He clutched his head tighter when a pulsing pain brought on the first pang of a headache. He shut his eyes, oblivious to the look of shock and uncertainty on Rouge's face. She inched away from him, growing more worried that he was about to combust.

"Hey, don't go exploding on me!" she said with a waver in her voice. "Whatever's happening here, you've gotta control it if you really don't want to kill us!"

Through his anguish, he looked at the worried woman rising from her rest, unable to verbalize the guilt that was coursing through him. The thoughts in his head were jumbled in a mess of memories and shameful feelings, and a part of him wanted her to comprehend that.

Their gazes locked and it took a second for Rouge to notice the misty glimmer in his eyes; but once she did, the notion that he was pained enough to cry made her more certain there was something she could do.

Saddled with the weight of his breakdown, she returned to his side, this time kneeling directly next to Shadow. She laid the flashlight on the floor, then one hand slid onto his back, and the other wrapped a supportive grip around his arm.

She muttered, "I'm sorry," thinking those were the only words she had to offer. She didn't know what to say to someone shutting down so severely – if there was anything she could say at all to make everything right again.

Shadow closed his eyes, brought one hand over them, and let the other drop near his chest while he grimaced through a shaky sentence. "She was stronger than me…"

Rouge glanced at the hand strained in a claw-like position, shaking though it didn't close into a fist. Her grasp on his arm loosened and elegant fingers filled the space beneath his; and he accepted her comfort by turning the loose hold into a firm squeeze.

The bat didn't watch him weep, shutting her eyes and sitting still with him as the soft hitches of his restrained breaths humanized the living weapon.

However long it would take for his composer to return, she would wait. If such memories were causing this reaction in what was supposed to be the perfect being, then she had to imagine he was experiencing the worst heartbreak one could know.

And for once in her life, Rouge showed a level of compassion she wouldn't have cared to express before. He was in desperate need of someone to rely on, so she made a silent promise to be there for him. Not just for this day; but for days beyond.

***

She sat clutching his hand and bracing his back until the subtle heaves of his body ceased. It probably hadn't taken as long as she thought, but a minute felt like an hour when it was spent waiting silently.

Shadow's breaths quieted, became more regular, and Rouge opened her eyes. She didn't see any streaks where tears would've fallen down his cheek, but his face was hot near hers.

She guessed he'd held the tears in, or wiped them away too quickly for her to notice. His grimace was back to a frown, but he hadn't opened his eyes yet. Black lids still shrouded his deeper emotions.

The woman's hand eased out of his, and as it did, she asked softly, "Feel better?"

He stayed quiet for a moment, then opened his eyes. They weren't misty anymore. "Hardly… A few minutes of weakness doesn't fix anything."

"Well… I don't think your problems can be fixed." When he met her gaze, she smiled. "But you can still push forward, right?"

His back straightened and she gave him a little more space, but their eyes held in a shared, understanding lock. Without breaking it, Shadow grabbed her hand again and squeezed it. Rouge's eyes widened in surprise, but his expression didn't change at all; earnest filled his stare.

"Thank you," he said.

Her heart skipped a beat. "Don't mention it, hun."

They continued on through the tunnel, figuring that G.U.N would've run themselves crazy around the island trying to find the runaway couple – and thus it was time to leave.

The path eventually thinned, leading into a dead end of solid earth. Rouge looked at Shadow and his posture shifted to puff out his chest.

"Wanna help me create an exit?" she asked.

He gave her a single, dedicated nod and they turned towards the dirt wall. Powerful kicks from both of them easily destroyed it, carving a new path until their attacks breached beams of sunlight through the crumbling earth.

Rouge squinted and put up her hand to block the brightness while Shadow cleared enough space for them to walk through the new opening. The bat took a brief peek up at the sky, scanning it quickly and glancing around the immediate area.

"All clear," she spoke, and Shadow stepped out of the cave. "Hold up your hands – we're ditching this island before they find us."

His arms raised and Rouge hopped into the air, gripping his wrists tightly and letting him grasp hers before she lifted the hedgehog off the ground.

She flapped her wings with immense strength to propel them faster, staying just low enough to claim cover from the trees as long as possible.

"Hey, are you fast enough to run on water?" she asked him.

"I'm sure of it," answered Shadow with no hesitation. He hadn't tried to run on water yet, but his speed was incredible, so he had no doubts it was possible. And the fiery air that boosted his skates would help him hover regardless.

"Then you'll take over if I get tired. From this side of the island, it's a straight shot to the shore."

She dodged trees and Shadow avoided crashing his legs into bushes, until they reached the edge of the island and escaped the dense jungle to soar above the water. Rouge glanced down at her passenger, a confident smile playing on her lips.

"So, since you don't have anywhere to go," she started, "I have a little place G.U.N doesn't know about. It's not much since I usually live in the city, but it's by the beach. I wouldn't mind letting you stay for free if you do the chores!"

Shadow looked up at her and considered the ally she'd been to him so far. Carrying him over the sea to a safe place was more than he needed from her, especially after the many ways she'd helped him already.

He supposed after such a display of willingness to save his life – even after risking her own in the process – and after the care she showed him when he was weak, he could consider the winged super spy a friend. And if all she wanted in return for shelter was some chores done, he had no problem accepting her offer.

After letting out the first chuckle to bless his lips, Shadow answered, "Sure. We'll need some time to lay low."

Rouge grinned and gripped his wrists tighter. "Beachside property, here we come!" she chimed eagerly, and pushed farther over the ocean with a strong flap of her wings.

The End

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

*Check 'the spy's final mission' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 7: A Light In The Dark]

It was dark now that hardly any sun could make it through the cracks between the sizable stones, their heft blocking the soldiers from entering. Once the opening was shut, Rouge turned and pulled out a small flashlight to brighten the cavern, jogging over to where the Ultimate Lifeform had gone on ahead.

"That'll hold them off for a while," she said, her womanly voice echoing through the small hall. "How's your leg?"

Shadow didn't respond. He continued on, neglecting to say anything to her, and she felt a little shunned. She'd just saved his life, and thought the least he could do was thank her! But she bit her tongue from making a comment that might worsen his dour demeanor.

Soon enough, she had something of an answer to her question, watching Shadow's initial limp revert to his normal walk. She didn't see any blood on the stone floor, which told her everything she needed to know.

'Healing factor…' she silently mused. 'That must be one of his abilities.'

They trekked through the path, dipping and climbing with the changes in terrain. It felt like they were going in a straight line for the most part, but Rouge figured the stony corridor was subtly curving, as cave systems often did.

She hoped it would bring them to a spot where G.U.N wouldn't know to wait for them. After a little while, the path started to widen again, and Rouge decided it was a good place to pause.

"Wait up, Shadow," she said, then faced the space behind them.

"What now?" he asked blandly, any emotion gone from his voice.

He didn't want to stop, but did anyway, looking over his shoulder to see what she was doing. Despite his desire to be alone – and the betrayal he still felt from essentially being lied to by the only other Mobian he'd seen – he couldn't ignore how the winged lady had gone out of her way to protect him.

She was willing to defy her teammates and military orders, even if she could've been badly hurt shielding him from their gunfire. She had courage, and gall, and seemed to know what was right even when her lot in life put her in direct conflict with him. She was sent to detain him, but instead… she helped him be free. And Shadow felt a small but strengthening urge to let her assist him.

With her back to him, Rouge repeated the act of closing off the path behind them, purposely causing a sectional cave-in. Extra security, the hedgehog realized.

If G.U.N made it through the first barricade, this next one would slow them down more, or stop them from continuing altogether. There's a chance they wouldn't even realize the path was longer, if the dead end fooled them into thinking that's all there was to the pair's escape route.

Shadow fixed his gaze on Rouge, seeing her in a slightly different light than before; he'd realized she was manipulative when he found out about her affiliation with G.U.N, but now he was seeing how she used that craftiness for good.

Yet still, he reminded himself of the chance that this was some elaborate scheme to ensure his capture. Despite how her insistence on helping seemed genuine, he'd be stupid to neglect the worst possibility. When she started to turn his way, he averted his gaze and began walking again.

"That should do it!" Rouge chimed, dusting her hands together and letting a smile grace her lips. "Now we have plenty of time to find the other side of this tunnel."

There was more silence, and Shadow started thinking of what he would do when he made it out of there. Getting away from the island was priority one, and finding somewhere to lay low was priority two. After that, he had to consider how long it would take to look for his family.

Even with his speed, he would have to explore every corner of the planet, making it a grueling task. But he would search night and day if he had to; he was still clinging to the idea that they survived.

Rouge got tired of the only sounds around them being the clack of her heels and the thump of his skates. She glanced at the mysterious lifeform, unable to see anything in his expression but neutrality. It made her want to connect with him.

"You know, I wasn't too keen on the containment mission when it was brought up." She watched him, looking for a shift in his features. "I didn't even know the whole story. I doubt the files they had on you were entirely truthful, with how the government is about things like this. But even when they said you were dangerous, I still thought it would be barbaric to lock you up again if you had free will."

Shadow's gaze dropped as his eyes softened a bit, and Rouge caught on that he wasn't ignoring her words. So she said, "From what I did read, about what you went through… I think you deserve a chance at a real life."

That sentiment made Shadow slow his steps until he was standing still. Staring at the ground, his blank expression confused Rouge, who stopped as well. His head turned slightly in her direction to speak over his shoulder, though his eyes didn't meet hers.

"That was enough for you to defy orders?" he asked in a reserved tone, his deep voice floating through the confined air.

Rouge's silence extended as she thought about what to say. When he put it like that, it did make her consider her own nature. Usually, a job was just a job; but now it felt almost like a test.

Her mission started as a potentially perilous duty to prevent destruction and reseal an escaped experiment, who was too dangerous to be left roaming. But all that she'd seen of Shadow didn't paint him as that risky weapon with some kind of lust for chaos.

Especially now, speaking calmly and standing statue-still in a cavernous hallway with her, he was just another living being – one who'd been done wrong by the people of his past, and who really just wanted to exist without persecution.

It's how she was seeing him, anyway. And if he was secretly evil, he hid it expertly. She didn't think someone with bad intentions would've saved her from Dr. Eggman.

"I guess it was," slipped from her lips, a little more hushed than she meant it to. Her gaze trailed down his confident posture to the leg that'd been shot.

Instead of a wound, she saw a streak of missing fur and the thinnest red line on the dark skin beneath. "It wasn't okay for them to shoot you just for running… even if it looks like you've healed from that well enough already."

His attention darted down to his leg as well, and a quiet huff left his nose. Red eyes lifted and stared into hers, and their mutual gaze offered Rouge a sense of bonding with the runaway lifeform. She said earnestly, "I wouldn't want to be captured and controlled, either."

Shadow turned his back to the stone wall, letting his eyes fall to the floor with a somber lowering of black lids, and he descended to sit on the ground. "You're the first who's understood that."

A chuckle left the bat's lips and she joined him, sitting on her side of the cave as she assumed he wanted a rest. Strips of brightness danced around their stone surroundings with the changing position of Rouge's flashlight, then settled when she did.

Their legs occupied the space beside each other, and Rouge gave him her charming smile. "Usually I don't. If we hadn't met the way we did, maybe I would've done my job."

He watched her while she spoke candidly. "But, even I have my biases."

Teal eyes shifted across his expression in subtle motions that gave away a growing fondness for the hedgehog. "You saved me from torture-by-Eggman. And since we met, I haven't even seen you be the weapon they claim you are. So, how could I just blindly follow protocol?"

A pause hung in the air, punctuating her rhetorical question with an echo. Shadow rested his arms atop his knees and replied, "I was supposed to be a weapon. The most powerful one ever made. But… I didn't know if I wanted to be that."

His gaze dragged downward and seemed to glaze over with sad recollection. "There was another reason for my existence… one I felt was far more important."

"Does it have something to do with your family?" Rouge asked, and Shadow's eyes darted back up to hers. She saw his brow furrow and waved her hand dismissively. "Uh- never mind. Forget I asked."

She broke eye contact with him, looking over to the path behind them that led back to the barricade. Shadow continued to stare, thinking that if he wasn't ready to face the world outside just yet, it wouldn't hurt to confide a little more in the one person who was seeming to understand his plight.

But he would sooner share his experiences with G.U.N than speak about Maria; the bat wasn't worthy of that kind of vulnerability. Not yet.

With a steadying breath, he mustered up the readiness to ask, "You said the humans might not have been truthful about my records?"

She looked at him again and nodded. Shadow noticed the slight parting of her lips, as if she wanted to say more, but they closed quickly. So he continued, "Tell me what you do know. And I can tell you what's real."

Her eyelids raised a bit, surprised the Ultimate Lifeform was willing to tell her his story. But she was grateful, spotting more glimmers of hope passing over his face and through his maroon eyes like faintly-flickering sparks of spiritual fire.

He needed to collect his purpose, but Rouge saw the determination in him to carve his own path forward. They just had to settle his past first.

"I know you were created artificially by a genius professor," she started, watching for shifts in his demeanor. "They wrote down details of some abilities he gave you; though, I feel like they had to have stolen a journal to know so much."

"Most likely," he agreed with a brief closing of his eyes. It was another disappointment in humanity that they stole not only him, but Gerald's records of him as well – as if he no longer belonged with his own father.

"There were also speculations of some powers you might have. But I don't know where they got those assumptions from. If I know G.U.N, they probably just laid all the possibilities out there to try and prepare for anything." Her casual tone darkened a little. "Maybe even to make you seem more dangerous…"

Shadow paused, then admitted, "I can be dangerous. There's no denying that."

"Sure, but…" Rouge shifted on the concrete floor, pulling her legs in to lie sideways so she could lean against the wall at a different angle.

Her expression showed disappointment now, too, lit differently by a change in the direction her flashlight was pointed. "The way it was all written, it made you sound almost like a robot. Logical and unfeeling, and of course they stressed how chaotic your nature was."

Her stare connected deeply with his. "The records made you sound like a monster. And… some of my colleagues did, too. As if you would just destroy everything without prejudice."

She thought of the president in particular, about his choice of words when discussing Shadow and 'his' people. He probably hadn't known the truth either.

But through his fear, he was spreading more apprehension amongst his nation's fighters about the experiment's real character. The assumption they had of him wanting to wreak havoc looked to be simply untrue.

"But that was clearly a lie." Her mouth curved into a smile again, trying to add a sprinkle of lightheartedness to her tone. "If you were like that, this whole island would be gone, wouldn't it?"

"Yes. My power is not to be underestimated. But I don't want to make a crater of this place… if I'm not pushed to that point." His steely gaze was unblinking as he stressed, "That's why this organization of yours shouldn't be hunting me like they are. They could corner me into razing everything."

Rouge's eyebrows upturned and her smile wavered. "I know. G.U.N is making a mistake. They're also not unknown to use shady tactics when they're apprehending targets. And speaking of shady tactics… the records also glaze over how they captured you the first time."

Her arms raised to cross loosely over her middle, comforting herself while she asked more about his past. "They only say you were 'confiscated' from an escape pod; not how they were able to seal you up."

Shadow scoffed and his eyes left hers. "Of course. Either they neglected to detail their inhumane ways, or they neglected to give you those details on purpose."

He fixed the floor with a resentful glare. "They raided the ARK. It wasn't peaceful, or an offer, or a suggestion… it was forceful."

Rouge felt a sadness growing at the sight of bitter melancholy in his eyes. Knowing the ARK was raided – likely stormed with soldiers – nurtured a pit in the spy's stomach at a piece of information that now seemed much more important than it had when she first read the documents.

One snippet of detail was nearly overlooked, something that was also glossed over and merely mentioned with seemingly no fault from G.U.N: the names of two deaths aboard the space colony.

Professor Gerald Robotnik had been declared deceased, and at first, Rouge thought that was part of the reason they set to detain Project Shadow. Not only was he a powerful being, but without his creator to control him, they might have thought he could go on a rampage that no one would be able to stop.

The professor was old, losing him made sense. And Maria… poor Maria had been sick. That was the only other thing Rouge knew besides her status also reading 'Deceased.' Now it was starting to seem less like she'd fallen to her illness and more like G.U.N had blood on their hands.

She hesitated to ask for more, knowing they would eventually get to the dark truth about Shadow's family; something he was apparently unaware of, or in denial about. She didn't want to be the one to tell him they were gone, but he would figure it out eventually.

If the tragic news would be his final straw, then she had a dreadful obligation to try and keep him from exploding into an unstoppable rage. He'd saved her, and she'd saved him – she just hoped he wouldn't end up killing her, too.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

*Check 'the spy's final mission' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 6: Whispering Morals]

Clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk

The sound of his bulky shoes hitting the metal floor echoed through the hall. Softer footfalls thumped behind him, short breaths huffing out from the sick, scared girl being pulled along by Shadow's desperation to keep her safe.

His mind was in a flurry, hoping the corridor they were following was the correct way to the escape pod. He could hear the distant steps of the soldier who was chasing them.

He would catch up if they stopped, and would try to detain the Ultimate Lifeform. Gerald had told him to take Maria and run, but what happened to him?

Did they take him away? Was he talking them down? Shadow had to believe he would be okay, because he couldn't focus much on that when the two of them were running for their lives.

"Shadow!" Maria cried behind him, probably exhausted from running.

But they couldn't stop. His heart raced. Fear was gripping him, too.

"Shadow!"

"Shadow!"

He blinked, erasing the scene that haunted him.

"Hey, talk to me!"

The bat woman's tone was urgent, and he remembered where he was. His eyes snapped to her, worry on her face while she tugged on his arm.

"Jeez, you were totally unresponsive there!" she shouted over the sound of the helicopter hovering just above the trees.

"You work with them," he stated, pulling his arm away from her. His brows furrowed deeply and his scowl made Rouge step back. "They wanted to experiment on me! You're here to confine me again, aren't you?"

She was silent, unsure of what she could even say to him. Topaz's voice blared from a megaphone, drawing their attention to the flying vehicle. "Shadow the Hedgehog, you are required by militant law to return to the G.U.N research facility. Remain where you are! We do not wish to use excessive force, but we will if you do not cooperate."

A rope ladder was thrown from the helicopter, and soldiers began climbing down to reach the ground below. Shadow shot another glare at Rouge, then turned to run.

He wasn't going to stand still and let his freedom be stolen again. Rouge barely had time to move before he took off, the force of his speed pushing her backwards as he bolted into the jungle.

"Project Shadow is retreating!" Topaz yelled at the soldiers who were touching down. "Do not let him escape!"

The conflicted thief looked at the group of men who were sprinting her way, knowing they would shoot if they found him first – and even if that didn't kill him, she didn't want the hedgehog to get hurt.

So, she pushed off the ground to fly after him, having a better chance at finding him before the humans. She heard the white noise of the helicopter move and assumed they would be looking for him from the sky, as well.

A trail of orange light had been left behind by the lifeform's sprint; and though it faded quickly, Rouge tried to keep in mind the direction it had gone while she dodged the trees in her path.

***

Though his speed allowed him to escape them for the time being, he couldn't continue running with the terrible aching in his chest. A small mossy grove protected Shadow on three sides, shielding his back from sneak attacks as he sat with his head in his hands.

His body was shaking, his breaths were short; and his eyes stared at the ground in front of him, focused on nothing. A flash of Maria's scared face assaulted his mind.

This was not the place to be regaining those memories, but he couldn't stop them.

A recollection surfaced of the two of them reaching the end of the corridor, finding the escape room. She had to stop and catch her breath while Shadow frantically approached the escape pod and tried to rush Maria to get in. Her heavy breathing looked like it hurt, but he urged her to go just a little farther and they'd be safe.

In the real world, Shadow balled his hands into fists and pressed the heels of his palms against his forehead. His heart raced unforgivingly in his chest, and he knew he had to keep moving and find a better hiding place, but he was paralyzed by an uninvited fear that refused to let him collect his thoughts. All he could think about was-

"Hurry, Maria!"

He beckoned her with a flicking hand, almost walking over to take her wrist again before she stepped towards him. But her expression was hesitant, and she glanced at the control panel nearby.

"How will we make it launch?" she asked, seeming confused and worried.

"It'll be fine, just get in the pod!" he shouted.

She went to him, but he had a horrible sense of dread rising in his stomach. He was going to give her the pod, that he was sure of. He knew which lever would send it towards the beautiful planet below – where she deserved to live, even if without him. He would stay and fight the humans hunting him, and she would be far away from the destruction.

But the girl had a different idea. Just before she was close enough for him to reach out and grab her, Maria lunged and pushed Shadow into the pod, closing it on him and sealing the hedgehog inside.

"MARIA! What are you doing?!" he screamed as he hit the glass, but he couldn't even tell if she heard him.

Terror gripped him as she turned away.

"Maria…" he mumbled, closing his eyes and feeling a pulse begin in his temples. His voice was trembling while he murmured to himself, "Please be alive… please, you have to… be alive… I have to see you again…"

The memories stopped coming, his mind instead playing on loop the worst parts of his last moments with his dear friend; the echo of their rushing footfalls, the petrified expression on Maria's face, and the primal fear he felt when she pushed him in the pod. He had no proof she survived after that, but also no proof she died. He couldn't remember what happened next.

***

Rouge flapped her wings as hard as she could, propelling herself far beyond the soldiers' position and darting her vision in every direction as she flew.

Any time she saw a dark spot, she stopped long enough to identify it as something other than Shadow, then kept going. The hum of the helicopter still hovered above, though it wasn't clear how close they were without looking to the skies.

'Idiot…' she thought. 'I could've talked him out, if he didn't run off. No way Topaz would listen now that he's being uncooperative.'

She growled to herself, frustration building as she continued sweeping her gaze – until she saw a sliver of pitch black and, more importantly, bright red.

She dropped her legs towards the ground and spread her wings on either side, slowing her momentum. When her boots touched the earth, she rushed over to the mossy stretch of greenery.

Feeling uneasy, she thought, 'There's no way the Ultimate Lifeform is this bad at hiding! Why would he stop here?'

When she rounded the corner of the grove, the sight of him huddling with his head in his hands halted her. And the fact he was muttering to himself was concerning.

"Shadow…?"

He didn't respond; didn't even look up at her. She realized something was very wrong with him, though she didn't see any wounds. Rushing to his side, she called out, "Shadow!"

'I can't let G.U.N take him like this,' Rouge thought, and said his name a third time with no reply. 'He'd probably fight, and they'd hurt him. I can't let that happen…'

She reached out to shake his shoulder, and when she did, the sudden movement of his body jerking away startled her. His defensive, guttural grunt had the bat leaning away and holding her hands close to her body. Stressed crimson eyes were locked onto her face and his fangs flashed in a grimace.

"You!" he shouted angrily, recognition in his gaze. "Leave me, if you want to make it out of here alive!"

He jumped to his feet, no longer paralyzed by harmful memories. Reality was in front of him again – she'd brought him back to it. And for that, he'd do her the favor of not injuring her gravely, but he wouldn't let her turn him in.

Rouge didn't know what she could say to stop him from running off again. At this point, she was sure nothing would work. And when one of her large ears twitched, the urge to look up revealed the G.U.N helicopter hovering closer than she expected.

She said to Shadow, "Wait, don't run! Let me-"

"Be grateful you're still breathing!" he snarled, then quickly stepped away from her. "I'm getting off this island- GAAHHH!"

The sharp sound of metal slicing through the air rang in the spy's ears, loud enough to be heard under the continuous roar from the chopper. A thin line of blood followed the golden bullet that stuck in the ground, splattering the grass with maroon.

Shadow fell to one knee, growling in pain while holding his leg; and Rouge realized what attacked him was a sharpshooter aiming from the helicopter.

"Damnit!" she blurted, propelling herself towards the hedgehog. When she was beside him, she threw one wing over his kneeling form to stop them from shooting again – they wouldn't risk hurting their best agent. She yelled over the white noise, "This is why I said not to run! They'll kill you if you go off on your own!"

Shadow's teeth clenched as he squeezed his hurt limb, trying to block the bleeding even though touching the burning wound was more painful. His defender stood her ground and looked for a way out, even as she heard Topaz's voice blare through a megaphone once more.

"Contain the experiment, agent, or stay clear of it! Shadow the Hedgehog, you are once again ordered to return to the facility under militant law!"

'There's no reasoning with them now,' Rouge thought, squinting at the forest to see farther. 'I have to get him out of here!'

The collection of trees grew denser as they led to the center of the island, and within the grouping of mossy trunks and thick bushels, she spotted what looked like a cave.

It might only be a temporary refuge, but she had to get Shadow out of the line of fire. So, she grabbed the Ultimate Lifeform's hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Come on, you!" she said, draping his arm over her shoulder even as he groaned and tugged himself the other way. She fought his stubbornness, hooking her other arm beneath his spines when his wounded leg failed to hold his weight. "I'm helping you get out of here – away from them. Let's go!"

She could feel the tenseness of his body as they fled into thicker woods. His arm stayed flexed in the crook of her shoulder and he limped a little as they ran together.

He wasn't incapable of moving on his own, but Rouge didn't trust his limb to not give out and slow him down. She'd carry him if she needed to – she had the strength. But it didn't take much to get him under a tighter canopy of leaves.

"Agent Rouge! What are you doing?!" Topaz yelled as they rushed into the cavern.

Once they passed the cave's mouth, Shadow shunted himself out of the bat's grip and said in a clipped tone, "There, you helped me. Now get away and return to your squad. I'll escape myself."

"No way," she replied calmly, glancing out the cave before turning back to him. "G.U.N is relentless. You need someone who knows how to avoid them and what slows them down… the soldiers will catch up soon."

She walked past him, stepping farther into the grotto and seeing a path that thinned out up ahead. "I'll bet this leads to another cave opening in another place on the island. If not, then we'll make one."

Her casual use of 'we' was both comforting and confusing to Shadow. It seemed she was on his side; but that also made them sound like a team, which they certainly were not.

He didn't know if she thought they had somehow become compatriots through this ordeal, but he intended to ditch her as soon as he was in the clear.

Rouge spoke while approaching the open entrance, "There's grass above us, so I think the rest of the cave system will be shrouded. They shouldn't know which way we're going, but… this opening needs to be sealed off. Immediately." She shifted her body into a readying stance. "Stand back."

Shadow did, already advancing towards the branching path, and briefly observed her kicking the rocky threshold with ferocity before moving forward.

Loose stones and boulders were knocked free from their idle rest, and the daylight lessened as the entryway was plugged full of rocks and dirt. When the kicking stopped, the earth settled, and the final crumbling pebbles fell to the ground.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

*Check 'the spy's final mission' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 4: Her Hero]

Rouge explored the island at a fixed pace, hovering above the ground and diligently scanning her surroundings so she wouldn't miss anything. Though, the longer she looked, the more she realized there wasn't much but jungle to be seen. She let out a bored sigh after ten minutes of seeing nothing but greenery.

'Where is this guy?' she asked herself, landing to walk leisurely. 'I thought he was built for destruction – so why am I not seeing any?'

Soon enough, she heard the unmistakable sound of buzz saws in the distance, turning towards it and wondering if that was a noise her target was capable of making.

He could theoretically have indestructible saws for hands; though, the file didn't mention it explicitly. Without photo evidence of Project Shadow's appearance, Rouge had to prepare for anything.

The sound was getting closer, so she dashed to the right, intending to encircle the source and possibly be able to catch sight of it from behind – that would give her time to plan.

But when she stopped to judge her location, the mechanical whirring seemed to still be headed her way. That's when she saw trees falling, spotting them through the gaps between other trees.

'It's cutting them down,' she thought, running to the right again, and still being followed.

Now she could hear the tearing of tree bark as the blades made contact. If the unknown destructor was targeting her, there wasn't anything Rouge could do to make it stop the chase; she could only try to see it before it got too close.

She hopped up onto a high branch to get a better vantage point, then looked towards the falling trees. The ground was starting to rumble. Whatever the thing was, it was big, and loud. The bat plugged the tips of her fingers into one ear to dampen the sound.

And then she saw it – or, at least, part of it. Between the falling trees, Rouge could make out red metallic casing with gold decals and two glowing blue lights on the front.

Then she heard a voice to the left, not far from her. "Playing hide and seek, are we, Rouge?"

Gravelly, malicious, elderly… She looked and saw Dr. Eggman in his floating transport, grinning wickedly with his brows furrowed.

She glared back. "You're a sore sight. What are you doing on Prison Island?"

"I was just looking for something of mine. Something you seem to have thought would be of better use to you."

She remained vaguely aware of how close Eggman's buzz pawn was to her perch. "And what makes you think I took anything of yours?"

"Have you forgotten I'm a genius?!" he shouted over the noise. "When I walked into my lab, it smelled of cheap perfume! Not to mention the few white hairs I found under the table that used to hold my brand new invention!"

Rouge glowered at him more, simultaneously cursing her new scent and nurturing spite for his insult. She left the branch to hover in front of him, shoving both fists against her hips. "Too bad you came all the way out here for nothing, Doc. I don't have your trinket anymore, and you'll be hard pressed to get it back!"

A loud crack sounded out from behind her, making the spy turn around to see a tree falling her way. Eggman's robot stood still in its place while its saws continued running.

She managed to dodge the tree trunk, but couldn't avoid the thick branch reaching out in the direction she'd instinctively flown. It hit her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. Rouge fell a few yards before she was caught by a metal clamp enveloping her sides.

She cried out when its unfeeling edges squeezed her body. Dr Robotnik cackled as he floated closer, then surveyed the scene while his pawn ceased the turning of its bladed hands.

The steel triangular grip connected to a thick tube extending from the robot's back, holding the bat tightly enough that she could hardly breathe. Her eyes scrunched and she inhaled as deeply as she could, staring daggers at Eggman.

The human man peered back through shiny round glasses, grinning again. "Now, you thieving girl – since you didn't want to play nice, you'll have some time to regret your choices while I think up a fitting form of repentance for your transgression!"

Rouge merely grunted in response, trying to push against the constricting metal and feeling frustratingly helpless.

***

Shadow wandered far enough through the forest that he eventually managed to see beyond the thick collection of flora. It made him stop, because it wasn't more land he was seeing past the brush; it was water.

There was nothing but water beyond the jungle, which led him to believe this place was either on the coast of an ocean, or it was an island. Neither was good, as it meant he had to change his trajectory.

But he didn't have time to think about where he would turn to walk next, as he suddenly heard a distant crashing sound. It was followed by a feminine scream, and then a mad cackle.

'Someone must be in trouble,' ran through his mind, and he caught an intense urge to head in that direction.

Although he knew he had to be cautious, he couldn't ignore the instinct to assist whoever was clearly in need. The scream had awoken something in him, a slightly panicked feeling that terrible things would happen if he didn't check it out.

And the laugh… it sounded sinister. He followed the noise, weaving past the trees as he tried to keep a straight line.

***

While Rouge tried hopelessly to push the robot's claw open, Eggman taunted her by humming performatively as he supposedly thought out his next move. His index finger tapped against his chin, then he plucked at his graying mustache, and the thief grew angrier at his smugness.

"Make up your mind already, you old kook!" was what she wanted to say, if she could breathe enough to speak. But she felt like if she tried, all that would come out would be a gasp.

"Aha!" he finally exclaimed, smiling wide and pointing upwards. "I know! I'll- GAHHH!"

The bat's teal eyes widened at what she saw: a black and red ball smacking into Robotnik before bouncing back and unfurling. What landed on the overgrown grass was a scowling, dark-furred hedgehog who glared at the overlander before tucking into another spin.

He launched himself towards the floating transport, knocking it out of the sky. Upon hitting the ground, Eggman fell out of his seat, still shouting in pained surprise, and Rouge saw the brave stranger look her way as his stance shifted for a third attack.

Thinking she might be next, she closed her eyes and braced, then heard a loud clunk against the metal right beside her. After another thunk, the clamp loosened a bit; Rouge opened her eyes, looking down as she was able to breathe normally again.

If it loosened one more time, she could position her hands for a more powerful push and possibly free herself! Eggman's minion turned towards its enemy, its buzzsaw hands starting to whirr.

The claw swung through the air, extending behind the robotic pawn as if it was keeping its captive away from salvation. She discerned that the unknown hedgehog was trying to save her, barely glimpsing his determined expression as he stared down the robot.

The Doctor yelled from his place on the ground, "Destroy him, B-Saw! NOW!"

One of the spinning blades thrust forward, but the hero was far too quick for it to make contact; Rouge didn't even realize he was in the air until she saw his foot crashing down on the robot's head. The metal folded immediately, caving inwards and crunching loudly.

Eggman shouted in angered panic. Then, the stranger disappeared as the minion's arms started to flail. She blinked incredulously – did he actually disappear, or was he really just that fast?

She was soon distracted from her thoughts by being flung around as the claw's tubelike connector also waved through the air. The mechanical thing probably couldn't see anymore, seemingly trying to hit its attacker randomly by swinging its weapons around.

She wiggled against the metal, trying to gain any kind of leverage, because the sharp high-pitched sound the blades made when they whizzed by scared her.

She didn't have to worry about her safety for long, though. A deep voice yelled, "Chaos Spear!" one brief moment before she heard an electrical zapping sound and felt the drop of the robot's extension tube being sliced in half.

The claw fell to the ground with Rouge still in its grasp, and she looked up to see the dark hero approaching quickly. His face still held the same serious expression, but she could see his red eyes were sparking with urgency.

He slipped his hands into the gap between each section of the claw, grabbing both and pushing them apart to pry the giant grip open. It seemed almost effortless, the ease of freeing her only betrayed by the light grunt that escaped through his clenched teeth. The bat stared in awe at the mysterious being saving her life, then slipped out from her prison as soon as the opening was wide enough.

She had so many questions for him already – a brave hedgehog with fighting spirit, jumping to her rescue even as they were strangers – but she couldn't ignore the threat that remained. They both turned to face the robot, whose arms were still flailing as Robotnik cursed and shouted from the other side.

Without a word, the black and red speedster charged at the buzzing machine, going to work on destroying it fully. Rouge pushed off the ground and hovered around the saw bot, catching sight of Dr. Eggman climbing back into his vehicle.

She cupped her hands around her mouth to be heard over the noise. "Leaving now, huh, Eggy? What happened to my punishment? I'd love to hear what method of suffering you thought up for me!"

His panicked face snapped in her direction as he slid into the tilted seat and grabbed the directional sticks. There was a big dent in the metal where the hedgehog had bashed into it. "Never mind me! I'll let you off the hook just this once – but don't think your luck will last forever, thief!"

He pressed buttons and piloted the transport as it floated upwards. Rouge flew towards him and reared back, then spun rapidly into a Screw Kick and flung herself towards the rounded bottom of the vehicle.

The force of her powerful attack put another dent in the metal, and it clunked loudly before Eggman was sent flying higher into the air. She smirked and watched the Doctor's hovercraft wobble from the aftershock of her kick, jostling the human inside as he exclaimed and cursed again.

Then, he flew away himself, and she heard the whirr of the buzz saws coming to a stop behind her. When the jewel hunter turned around, she saw her savior jumping down from the wrecked pile of parts that was formerly Robotnik's minion.

Now that the enemy was dealt with, she could ask her questions, figure out who this guy really was, learn what the hell he was trying to do… and thank him for selflessly helping her escape.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

*Check 'the spy's final mission' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 3: Prison Island]

A government helicopter provided Rouge a way to access Prison Island, accompanied by Lieutenant Topaz on their mission to contain Project Shadow. A number of soldiers acted as their backup, preparing to sweep the island for the escaped experiment once they landed.

"So, we have to put this guy back in his cage?" the bat asked, waving a folder that contained information on their subject. "Seems a little barbaric if he has a will of his own, doesn't it?"

"We don't get paid to think like that," Topaz replied. "What's more important is that we don't know what he's fully capable of. If he already blew a hole in the research facility, then we have to consider him dangerous."

"And G.U.N had him in a coma for how long, again?"

"Apparently, he's been sealed away for 55 years now." The human's eyebrows furrowed a bit. "I wonder if they thought he'd be more docile after all that time spent in stasis. I bet they regret waking him up."

"55 years?" Rouge echoed. "That's a lot of beauty rest. He'd better be gorgeous with so much sleep in his system!"

The comment received a glare from her superior. "Can you be serious for five minutes? This is a dangerous mission and-"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your wrinkles in a bunch." Her hand raised to hover palm-up, as if waiting to be given something. "What's he look like, anyway? Hard to track someone down when I can't put a face to their name."

Topaz sighed, then pointed at the folder. "There should be a photo in there; you'd know if you actually read through it like you should've."

"I read it!" responded Rouge in a huff. She briefly flipped through the dossier, then shook her head. "No pictures here. Did you forget to print that page, Lieutenant?"

"I didn't-" She snatched the folder and flipped through it herself, complaining, "Ugh, can we ever get a rookie who does their job right?!"

With a roll of her eyes, the spy said, "No picture means we'll have to follow the destruction; no doubt he's been doing some damage if he's bent on breaking things."

"Good point." She dropped the folder on the seat next to her. "We'll search the island for clues on where he might've gone. I just hope he hasn't found some way off of it by now."

The helicopter took them towards the landing pad on the far side of Prison Island, flying low enough that the on-board crew could look through binoculars for hints of disturbance among the dense trees. But the only clue they found was the hole Shadow had blasted in the research wing of the prison.

They landed and made their way to the massive complex, and Topaz sent the soldiers to comb the immediate area while she and Rouge met with the scientists who'd witnessed the escape.

It didn't seem they had any answers on where he went after leaving the premises, but they offered to recount the event for G.U.N records. The Lieutenant stood scribbling on a pad of paper as they told their story, but Rouge soon got bored.

Looking at the tropical land nearby, she got an idea, and turned back to the overlander. "How about I go out into the jungle and see if I can spot him, or something that'll tell us where he is?"

Topaz paused her scribbling and looked at the agent with annoyance on her face. "That's just like you to want to go out on your own."

"I'm not hearing a reason why I shouldn't," she fired back. "I'm not doing much standing here watching you take notes."

The overlander then turned back to the scientist. "Fine. But check in with us as you go; don't keep us in the dark."

"Sure thing, Sarge," quipped the bat, taking off into the forest with a powerful flap of her wings.

***

The unleashed experiment walked cautiously through the dense forest, pausing occasionally to study the things around him in greater detail.

The lush green grass beneath his feet; the tall, thick trees towering above with their canopies of leaves; the speckles of spring flowers budding from the ground and the soft brambles of bunched bushes; it was all unfamiliar to him. But also intriguing.

Was this Mobius? Could it be that he'd made it to the planet he and Maria dreamed of visiting?

'Maria!' he remembered, halting suddenly.

The memory of her flooded back, a dear friend he couldn't believe he'd forgotten, even briefly. Then he remembered the Professor, her grandfather… his creator. The humans who raised him.

But if they were human, why did he have such an adverse reaction to the ones who'd woken him? What was it about their uniforms that put him on edge…? Whatever it was, he couldn't think of it now, steering his thoughts back to Maria.

She must've made it too, somehow, if he did. Gerald was a smart man - he would've figured out a way to get both of them off the ARK safely, right? He couldn't remember anything about leaving the place where he was made.

He didn't know how he was put into cryostasis. Maybe they stole him from his family. Maybe that forced them to leave in a hurry, to come to this planet as well. No matter what had happened, if they were here, he had to find them.

'But what if they're somewhere far?' he wondered, looking around and assuming there had to be an untold amount of places Maria could be if she and Gerald had escaped. 'Those humans had me locked up… what if they ran away and forgot about me?'

He sighed, raising a hand to his forehead and deciding his next move. Even if they did abandon him, they were the only family he had in this strange world. And he didn't want to experience too much of the planet without Maria, the one who'd wanted to see it most of all.

So, he had to search; carefully. He had no idea what dangerous things might be in the jungle, and it was possible he was being hunted as well, if the scientist was to be believed. But he would avoid them, or outrun them. He wouldn't let them take his power - or stop him from finding his family.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

*Check 'the spy's final mission' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 2: His Freedom, Her Job]

Shadow stopped wiggling the second he heard the metal clunk of the door's handle being pushed. Letting his body lay limp again, he pretended to still be asleep, hoping the humans wouldn't notice anything amiss.

He had to escape this prison and whatever they planned on doing with him. Because he couldn't remember why he felt so defensive against them, but he knew his survival instincts were blaring louder for these overlanders than anything that would normally try to threaten the Ultimate Lifeform.

It wasn't just the guns they pointed at him when he first awoke. Something about the uniforms, the symbol they wore… all of it together struck a deep sense of panic into him that he couldn't place.

The scientists assigned to him walked into the room, and Shadow could hear their conversation clearly as their voices echoed through the large room.

One spoke, "The risk of working on a living experiment like Project Shadow is high, so we have to practice as much caution as possible. If it becomes lucid again, we have to be ready to put it back down before it can get violent."

"Understood," the other responded. "The higher-ups are expecting good results from this study; hopefully we can find out more about this thing than we knew before. And hey, it'll be a great find on our part, right? If we figure out its full potential?"

Shadow held back the urge to furrow his brow in frustration at the mentions of studying him for their own gains. He made sure to let the full weight of his body lay heavy to keep up the facade of being unconscious, even as he wanted to tense up and ball his hands into fists.

"We can worry about recognition once we've actually gotten some work done," said the older-sounding man. "Taking its vitals was just the first step – now we have to do a more in-depth physical. I don't doubt it's in perfect shape if the readings are anything to go off of, but we have to make sure."

Shadow felt a poke to his temple as the senior scientist prodded a pencil against his head, irritated at the sensation but allowing himself to be moved. The pencil then left the side of his face and the man said, "It's still unconscious. Heart rate is still steady. We can proceed. Unstrap it one limb at a time, just in case."

The second human grabbed hold of the leather binding the hedgehog's right wrist, apparently overlooking that it was slightly looser than before.

Once that hand was free, Shadow sprung into action; opening his eyes to lock onto the younger scientist that'd just partially released him, and firmly grasping his arm.

The overlander hardly had time to recognize the danger before he was thrown aside. Shocked, his superior dropped his clipboard while Shadow tried to pull his legs from the straps.

"Retrain the experiment!" he shouted, lurching to wrap his arms around Shadow's legs while his colleague regained his footing. "It can't be allowed to escape!"

The Ultimate Lifeform let out an angered grunt and threw a punch at the senior scientist, hitting his face and knocking the man away from him. Then he ripped off the strap containing his other arm and turned to see the second human lunging towards him. Shadow gripped the front of his shirt and used the momentum to throw him over the table, launching him past the heart monitor.

While he slipped his feet out of the straps, the older man shouted into his communicator, "Project Shadow is hostile and attempting escape! Lock it down!"

Shadow jumped off the table and sped towards the door, but when he pulled it open, an alarm began blaring through the room, and he was met with a solid wall of dark metal blocking his way out.

He thought about trying to blast through it, but there would likely be an army of soldiers on the other side by the time he created an opening.

He didn't want to kill the humans if he didn't have to, and he furthermore didn't know how he might instinctually react if he saw a group of them pointing weapons at him again.

Without another exit, the lifeform turned back around and tensed up as he flicked his vision between the two scientists standing near the table.

When they saw his hands ball into fists, as if he was ready to fight, the younger man pleaded in terror, "S-Stay away from us! We weren't trying to hurt you, I swear – we were just doing our job!"

Shadow's mouth tugged downward in disgust and he took a few steps away from the door. They dared to beg and act defenseless when they'd just had him trapped against his will, planning to do unknown things to his unconscious form?

They were nothing more than greedy, selfish mortals. They only wanted to know his potential so they could use it for their own benefit, or destroy it for their safety. They didn't care about him as a living being; that was evident by the way they referred to him as 'it.'

After a shared moment of silence, where the senior scientist recognized pleading with him wouldn't grant them mercy, he spoke up. "If you work with us, we can provide as much care and personal growth as you need to live a full life."

Their attention was caught by vents near the ceiling flipping open with a click, followed by a hissing sound as purple gas was released into the room.

Recognizing it, the man's tone became more urgent as he told Shadow, "Not complying will only make G.U.N see you as dangerous! It'll make you a bigger target for assassination, and we don't want that. We just need to know what kind of power you hold."

Shadow's brows furrowed when the overlander added, "You could use it for the good of mankind… to help the world."

Blatant lies. He only spoke of care now that they felt threatened by the most formidable force ever created. Where was the care when they awakened him? Or before that, when he was sealed away?

Where was the compassion he was now pretending to have when it regarded a creature who wasn't like him? There was no love in these people's hearts for someone like Shadow… something like the Ultimate Lifeform.

Ignoring the scientist's claim, Shadow jogged forward and held his breath before jumping into the air, high above the men in white. They instinctively ducked for cover under the table and behind the machines, unsure of his plan and fearing for their lives.

Golden light sparked from his hands as he sliced through the air, throwing electric arrows at the far wall. They exploded against the room's barrier, blasting open a large hole and causing the floor to shake.

Shadow disappeared from the facility before the dust settled, avoiding the gas and escaping the humans who wanted to control him. Once they realized he was gone, they also ran out through the hole to escape the gas, which would've knocked them unconscious if they breathed too much of it.

The exit Shadow created led to the outside, where a concrete wall was the only barrier between them and the forest of Prison Island. He truly had disappeared, as they saw no trace of him once they were in the open.

The senior scientist's communicator beeped and a voice came through, asking sternly, "What was that explosive sound? What has Project Shadow done?"

He shared a worried glance with his protégé and responded, "He damaged the south wall. We weren't harmed, but… I apologize, sir. Project Shadow has gotten free… and we've lost sight of him. We have to notify the President immediately."

***

An hour later, in the President's office, the middle-aged man was startled when one of his windows was opened from the outside. Though, his initial startle was quelled when Rouge entered his office with a big brown bag hanging at her side. He let out an exasperated sigh while she graciously closed the window.

"Can you never use the door?" he asked. "You could've given me a heart attack coming in like that."

"Hm, sounds like you need a healthier diet if something like that could cause your heart to give out," replied Rouge in a snarky tone while she approached his desk.

When he gave her a disapproving look, she decided to rein in her irreverence. "Sorry, darling, that was a bit harsh. But, to answer your question, I just prefer to travel unhindered. Can't exactly come and go when I have to stop at the front desk."

She reached into the bag for the item Eggman had stolen; a chunky communication device shaped like an old phone, but covered almost entirely with buttons, switches, and digital screens. "Here's your thing. Hopefully I don't smell like oil, Eggy had it hidden in some factory of his."

She handed it off and added smugly, "He probably thought no one would think to look for a gadget like this in a place like that!"

The President paged for a guard to retrieve the item, but Rouge noticed his expression wasn't very cheerful. Nor did he express gratitude for her bringing it back when she could've refused the job.

Her arms crossed over her chest and teal eyes stared in suspicion. "No 'thank you,' Mr. President? You're looking more dour than usual. What's the deal?"

His fingers laced together and he stared down at his desk, concern wrinkling his forehead. "Rouge… something terrible happened today. I've been wrestling with this new problem for an hour, and I've come to realize we might not have a team determined enough to fix it."

Dark eyes trailed up to her, his brows lying in a straight line. "I have to saddle you with an extremely pressing and dangerous mission. It'll be your biggest challenge yet, but you're the best of the best – the most skilled and efficient agent to handle a crisis like this. It's devastating enough that I'm willing to pay you anything you want and more, even if it bankrupts me."

The bat's shoulders slacked and her expression turned to unease. "Jeez… what could be that serious?"

He let out a steadying breath through his nose. "Project Shadow has escaped. I need you to head a containment operation."

Rouge's gaze trailed away from him as she stood in silence, taking in the weight of her new assignment. Containing a being with unmeasured power… and he wanted her for the job?

She knew it was part of what she'd signed up for becoming a government agent, but this wasn't raiding Eggman's lair or saving soldiers stranded in a hostile environment. From what she knew, this was potentially a global threat, depending on what the creature was capable of.

Her attention snapped back to the human when he asked, "You've been briefed on what Project Shadow is, correct?"

"I wouldn't say 'briefed.' I've heard whispers - some creature with unknown power created by a crazy old scientist?"

"You'd better start doing more research, because that thing's origin isn't just a classified experiment. Confrontation could be downright perilous."

One white eyebrow furled at his honesty. "Perilous, huh? I'm not sure if I should be flattered that you think I'm the best agent for the job, or suspicious that you want me in charge of such a risky mission. You trying to get rid of me, Prez?"

He shook his head and looked at her with dreadful seriousness. "No, Rouge… I believe you are the only one of my forces who could handle this. The truth is, Project Shadow is more than just a creature. He's a living weapon."

'He?' she thought, raising her brow in intrigue.

The President sighed. "Calling him an experiment may be an insult to your kind. He's a Mobian… a hedgehog, specifically. A man-made one, but one very similar to you and your friends. And it seems his strength could be even greater than we originally thought."

"A hedgehog? Well, why not recruit Sonic, then? He's the valiant hero, not me."

"There's a disconnect in my communication with Sonic," he replied, shaking his head. "As his independence from our government demands, he's difficult to get a hold of. If you need his help, please seek it, but my only connection is with you. So, I'm asking as a man concerned about the safety of his nation: will you lead the mission to contain Project Shadow? As I said, I'll compensate you with whatever you want. I need my people protected."

Rouge hesitated at the mention of 'his' people. It was always a wonder if Mobians were included when he said that. But, the payout would be exorbitant, and she had no reason to let someone spread destruction across the world.

"Alright, Mr. President. I'll do everything I can."

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

The Spy's Final Mission

Rouge is an agent tasked with returning a living weapon to his containment. Shadow is an experiment who merely wants to find his family and be free from captivity. Once they meet, a huge payout from the President and worldwide glory may not be enough for the super spy to ignore the intrigue of the mysterious Ultimate Lifeform.

Ship: Shadow/Rouge

*Originally published Feb. 24th, 2024

[Chapter 1: Dichotomy]

Rouge the Bat was the top agent and spy in her field.

Efficient, arrogant, and not adverse to using sly tactics to get the job done. She was G.U.N's best tool for tough tasks that required someone quick, quiet, and clever.

Whether the assignment was scouting out threats, infiltrating high-security facilities, or ripping weapons away from dangerous organizations without detection, she was the ace up their sleeve. She had a morally gray stance on the methods she often used to complete a mission, which made the President uneasy, at times.

Occasionally, he feared that she or the other high-status military personnel might go too far one day. That if she got to be too self-serving, she might persuade their soldiers to bend more rules than they were allowed to.

But Rouge hadn't let him down yet, being reliable in succeeding while not technically committing crimes that could be considered immoral. With this in mind, and with the knowledge that they needed her talents, he trusted her as much as he respected her; which was plenty enough to consider the bat more of an asset than a liability.

On one particularly cloudy day, just after she completed a rescue mission for one of their teams that'd gone missing in a high-risk area, her boss received a report that a classified weapon of theirs was stolen by the endlessly troublesome Dr. Eggman.

He looked to Rouge, who lounged in the brown leather armchair that'd unofficially become hers – it was where she'd been seated when she first met the President, and it had become her regular sitting spot when she collected her reward for a job well done.

"Agent, I'm sorry to ask you to stand up so soon," he started, watching her shoulders slump and her head tilt to one side. She wasn't tired, but was clearly a bit annoyed at having to go on another assignment already. "I've just been informed that Dr. Eggman stole something of ours, and it's urgent we get it back."

"Oh," she said, perking up from her vague exasperation. "That's all? Well, sneaking into his base is a piece of cake, I can do that again and be back in no time!"

She stood up, stretching out her arms and wings while the President spoke of her payment. "I hope you understand we can't afford to pay in priceless jewels every time. Since that scientist has never been much of a challenge for you before, I have to be more mindful of what can be spared from the budget."

"Hm," hummed disapprovingly from her closed mouth, which pulled into a doubtful line. Her hands found their place on her wide hips. "That's a shame, Mr. President. Truly, a pity you can't match the value of urgently getting back what he stole…"

The human man was worried she would refuse if not compensated to her liking, so he started trying to bargain with the treasure hunter. While he offered rings, vacations, and anything else that might be of lesser value than her typical taste, Rouge's mind wandered off to a rumor she'd heard about the doctor's secret stash of precious gems.

She didn't know for sure if it was real, but she reckoned even if it wasn't, there must be something he'd gathered or stolen that would look better in her collection.

"Tell ya what, Prez," she said, cutting off the overlander's offer, "I'll accept payment in the form of keeping anything I might decide to grab while I'm in his base. Sound fair?"

The man hesitated. "Well… I don't like encouraging you to steal."

"Oh, darling," Rouge chuckled, swatting the air and flashing her signature charming smile. "Stealing from a menace like Eggman is hardly a crime!"

A small sigh left his lips, but he didn't have much room to try and change her mind. She had a point; and it was more beneficial for him than having to spend from his own pocket. So, the President agreed to Rouge's terms, and she set off to complete the mission.

***

Shadow the Hedgehog was an experiment recently revived by G.U.N.

He was awakened when his cryostasis pod was opened, where he was immediately defensive towards the men pointing guns at him. Distrusting of his lucidness after coming out of a frozen state, they tranquilized him before transferring his unconscious body to a room where they could monitor his next awakening.

They strapped the lifeform's body to a table to keep him restrained and checked his physical state to determine the risk of attempting to reprogram him to their liking. His vitals were perfect – a marvel to them, as he was created decades before, unable to grow in size or strength since he'd been sealed away.

Regardless, they had gone long enough without using his powers for their own duty of establishing order in the world. He was an artificial being, and thus could be changed and taught to obey as one of their soldiers; but as it stood, he was too powerful to let loose yet.

So, he would remain detained on Prison Island, and would be sealed back into containment once they finished the initial testing of his potential.

Pacified into inactivity, he was left to lay still while the scientists assigned to analyze him prepared elsewhere for the research they would conduct on his sleeping form.

When he woke a second time, sooner than they'd thought he would, Shadow first felt a sense of confusion at where he was, seeing no one in the empty room.

It was a different place than the last location his memories held, and when he tried to sit up, he found himself strapped down. Oblivious to what was happening, he started to feel a pang of panic and worry growing in his chest as his heart rate rose.

He looked over at the beeping monitor beside him and saw it spiking with his heart beat. It was something he was familiar with from the ARK, something humans used. And he remembered briefly being released by them.

'What do they want with me? They were the ones who… locked me up before… right? Do they wish to question me? Dissect me? Or is this… an experiment?'

He couldn't pin down the memories from before they opened his pod, brief flashes of dreadful images flittering in unpleasant snippets. All he knew for sure was that these were humans he couldn't trust, and that asking questions in his head would get him nowhere.

So, he started feeling out the strength of the straps. They were tight, but not unmovable if he put a decent amount of effort into straining against them. He spent a minute getting the straps loose enough to give him a chance at slipping out. But then, he heard the far door begin to open.

They were coming.

[dracarialove]

📄 Posting my finished fics here, too 📄

Dark Duo

Rouge visits Club Shadow and converses with her partner about a mission. Enter an alternate reality where the bat is stoic and calculated, while the hedgehog is flirty and jewel-motivated.

*Originally published Dec. 2nd, 2023

A pretty white bat stood on the sidewalk in front of red double doors that would soon open into a night club. It was dark out, evening having fallen hours before, and the party going on inside the building sounded like it was in full swing; she could hear sinister electronic music bumping through the walls while red and yellow lights flickered and poured through the tall windows.

She closed her eyes for a moment, scowling and mentally preparing to go inside. Rouge despised crowds, bright light, and loud noises – all things encompassed in one place when she visited her partner-in-crime, Shadow.

His business was bustling, dark rave music assaulting the woman's large ears the second she cracked the door open, then blaring overhead when she crossed the threshold into the lobby filled with people.

Groups of patrons drank and danced too close to the entrance. She would've flown over them, but Shadow had built his ceiling dreadfully low, forcing Rouge to walk near the wall as she went around to the other side, where she would find the stairs.

And, annoyingly, there were people blocking the bottom steps, three of them just standing and slurring their words while they talked. Ivory brows furrowed and she looked up to the open space behind them, offering enough room to jump up and fly through to the second floor.

Knowing Shadow, he would be lounging on a plush purple loveseat with a glass of red wine in one hand. With the other, he would likely be gesturing animatedly while conversing with his customers and lapping up their praise. The bat could see it so clearly in her head even before she got a good look around the second story.

The bar was packed, not a seat left unoccupied, and many of the comfy chairs sitting about were filled with groups of friends chattering away between taking their shot on the billiards table.

As Rouge stepped farther into the lounge area, she listened for her teammate's voice. In a place as packed and darkly lit as this, she would likely hear him before she saw him; and it was true.

Shadow's vibrantly smooth cadence was recognizable beyond the music when the woman got closer to his location. The deep rumble of his tone was amplified when he laughed, and Rouge soon found her confident counterpart through a break in the crowd.

He was indeed sitting on a loveseat, occupying the entire couch with his feet propped up on one side and his back against the other. She'd been wrong about the drink, though.

Tonight, Shadow was drinking something stronger than wine, the liquid in his square glass almost looking black under the wicked lighting, ice cubes clinking as he raised his cup to gesture at Rouge when he spotted her. A fanged grin widened across his muzzle and blood-red eyes locked onto her unwavering gaze.

"Rouge!" he greeted, causing the patrons around him to turn and look at her, too.

The bat's posture stiffened. She didn't appreciate being the center of attention in this setting. "Shadow, can I speak with you alone? It's important.

"Pleasure before business! Sit and chat with us," he insisted, swinging his legs off the loveseat. One gloved hand patted the cushion beside him, beckoning Rouge while dark eyelids lowered in an alluring expression.

But instead of obliging his request, the no-nonsense spy stepped closely enough to talk at a low volume into his ear, cupping one hand beside her muzzle to funnel the sound towards only Shadow.

"I don't want to embarrass you in front of your admirers, but I won't be staying here. I need to talk to you about a mission; if you can spare the time for your job, meet me on the roof within the next ten minutes. Otherwise, I'll assume you don't want in and take the payout for myself."

With that, Rouge turned around and left the way she'd come. A couple of dirty glances were thrown her way as Shadow's adoring patrons thought she was being a bummer and couldn't understand why she wouldn't want to stay. But the hedgehog laughed it off, quickly diverting their attention back to himself and letting his partner skulk off to the roof.

***

Five minutes later, the ivory visitor was joined by her more charming counterpart on the flat gray slate of Club Shadow. Her hands were on her hips and she was gazing up at the sky, teal eyes taking in the sight of the moon hanging above the darkness.

The electric crackle of his Chaos energy drew her attention. Rouge turned to see a few golden sparks dissipating around him as he stepped forward, his skates clunking against the concrete.

"Alright, Rouge, what's the job?" He stopped a few feet away from her and crossed his arms, jutting his hips to one side.

"More trouble in paradise," she answered, and began fiddling with the communicator on her wrist. "You would know if you'd heard the Commander's transmission."

Shadow looked down at the gizmo while she set it to play back the message Tower had given her earlier, remarking, "So I have to be at G.U.N's beck and call now? As if I'm going to wear my communicator every day just in case they summon us."

His partner shot him a glare as the human's voice cut into the air. Interspersed with Rouge's responses, the Commander described a disturbance of attack robots on Emerald Coast, which he believed to be the work of Dr. Eggman.

And after first sending Omega to deal with them – as his desire to destroy Eggman's robots demanded – they found the mechanical minions were being continually deployed from the sky.

Tower wrapped up his briefing, "We believe Sonic will assist soon, as well, but we haven't gotten to assess the full scope of the threat; our men are being deployed as we speak. I want you and Shadow to help contain the threat while we track the airships that are dropping them onto the coast. They cannot be allowed to overrun Station Square."

A staticky version of Rouge's voice answered flatly, "With our strength, that shouldn't be a problem."

Then she stopped the recording and looked at Shadow, her expression deadpan. "If Eggman's behind this, he probably attacked at night thinking that would give him the upper hand in moving inland before his bots could be spotted."

"Hmm." The hedgehog tapped a finger against his lip. "Now, you mentioned taking the payout for yourself, but I didn't hear a reward being offered for this mission."

White brows furled and glossed lips pulled into a frown. "Don't mind my bluff. The reward is stopping Eggman from claiming more land for his empire. Do you want Station Square to end up as a hub for part of his amusement park, or one of his labs?"

"Not necessarily. But you've got this, right? You're strong, Omega's strong, Sonic will be there-"

"Shadow, if G.U.N is asking for both of us, they need both of us. I'm not going to let you neglect your part of keeping the world safe."

A gloved hand reached out and gripped the club owner's arm, pulling him as she began walking to one side of the roof. Shadow grunted and yanked his arm out of the lady's grasp, but continued to walk behind her.

"Ugh, fine. But I will be having a word with Tower about compensation. And don't be surprised if I force you to stay for a lounge on the beach after we clear out those robots!"

"Hmph," Rouge scoffed, pausing at the edge of the roof and holding her hand out to Shadow. "We'll discuss that later if it comes to it. But I make no promises."

A sly smile etched itself onto his face and he firmly grabbed his teammate's hand to be carried on their flight. "Deal."