Because You Loved Me--Even If I Didn't Want You To

Chapter Seven: Coming Undone
(AKA: Everything’s Out in the Open but No One is Rejoicing)

Knuckles knew exactly what he was doing and why. He wasn’t confused about his emotions when it came to her–he was attracted Rouge.

The bat girl, as he so affectionately called her, was interesting to him. She was cultured in the ways that he had never been, as he spent most of his life guarded the sacred Master Emerald of his people, living a life of solitude on Angel Island.

When he had met her, he found her an annoyance and a threat to the job and only life he had known. She was nothing more than a hazard in the way of his sacred duties.

But–it was just something about her that he was attracted to. Perhaps it was everything. He could admit to himself that she was a very beautiful being. Voluptuous, with piercingly beautiful violet eyes and a playful, flirtatious smirk.

But she was also cunning and smart, so he always found that trust was an issue with someone like Rouge. However, she was also a woman that could live her life as she pleased, going wherever she wanted to go, live the life of complete freedom.

That was something he always envied in people like her and Sonic–they could be so carefree when he had to be serious and dutiful for the remainder of his life. But with Rouge–it was like she tried to bring a little of her freedom to Knuckles whenever she was with him.

Certainly, she constantly tried to steal his Master Emerald but Knuckles had found that he stopped caring so much as he realized she wasn’t trying as hard as she used to. He didn’t mind her playful taunting–as he took her Knucklehead as endearing as she his Bat Girl– and often times, wondered exactly what her body language meant.

Because with Rouge, you just didn’t know what to expect–or if she was being serious or playful. Which was why he never really knew how to express his feelings toward her. Because he didn’t know how to go about things of that manner with someone like Rouge.

But he had noticed the close relationship she seemed to have with Shadow. And he also realized that the ebony hedgehog made him jealous. Because he wasn’t sure if Rouge had been playing with him either–or just how close that relationship truly was.

But now it was obvious: Rouge had honestly thought something was there. She had believed that the jerk had the same feelings that she had carried for him.

And now Knuckles was in a turmoil of rage. It wasn’t enough that Shadow had gotten the attention that he craved from Rouge–but to top things off, he was cheating on her with Amy Rose.

Or so he had thought.

Now he stood on a vine bridge, staring at the ebony hedgehog locking lips with not Amy Rose–but that slacker Sonic the hedgehog.

And now his fury was rising. It wasn’t enough that Shadow had chosen another woman over Rouge–but looking at the hurt expression on her face, it made him realize that this was insult to injury for her.

And damn it, he was determined to make him–or even both of them–pay.

“What the hell are you doing ” he exclaimed, his fist shaking in rage as he screamed the demand at them.

He watched as the kiss ended abruptly, Shadow quickly shooting him a very annoyed look while Sonic looked like a deer caught in headlights–only much more confused.

“How can you–how could you–what the hell are you–“ Knuckles sputtered, not really sure how to begin his sentence as he stared between the pair. Finally, he gave into fits of growling and before he knew it, he had launched himself forward with lightening speed of his own.

He heard a cry of shock from Rouge and gasp from Sonic as his fist bushed past the azure hedgehog’s face and connected with Shadow’s cheek, sending him crashing into the same leaf Rouge was currently standing on.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve to make a woman cry ” he snarled after him, as he stood next to Sonic now, who was looking over at Shadow with worry.

Rouge made a move to help Shadow to his feet as the ebony hedgehog got to his knees but Knuckles pointed his spiked gloved at her before he bellowed. “Don’t help him Bat Girl! He doesn’t deserve your help!”

Sonic turned to Knuckles, frowning. “Knux, what the–”

“Stay out of this,” Knuckles warned him without bothering to look his way. He was watching Shadow intently as he got to his feet, fist of his own balling up at his sides as he looked up at Knuckles, a deep sneer on his face while his crimson eyes burned in fury.

Knuckles only had time to blink before he felt pain at his side, a flash of orange brushing past him in blaze. He winced and grabbed his left side, turning around in time to be knocked to the ground by a hit in the face–but not before grabbing at the air on instinct and catching Shadow by the ankle and slamming him into the ground with him.

Ignoring his pain now, he left go of his side and before Shadow could wriggle free, he brought is free hand crashing into the ebony’s hedgehog’s back, earning a grunt of pain from him as he snarled.

“It’s bad enough that you had to cheat on Rouge,” Knuckles bellowed, bringing his fist down again. This time Shadow as able to escape and instead, Knuckles punched his fist clear through the bridge, getting it tangled between the thick vines.

Shadow rolled and back flipped to his feet, skidding a bit as he launched himself into a homing attack, knocking Knuckles loose before unrolling himself and swinging his fist around together, he delivered a blow to Knuckles chin and sent him crashing into a nearby tree with enough force to knock a few branches and leaves down.

Knuckles could hear Rouge’s pleas for them to stop but neither paid her any mind as Shadow launched himself at Knuckles again. The echidna quickly climbed up the bark of the tree and using his feet, launched himself away from it as Shadow’s foot collided with the spot he once was and flipping, Knuckles was able to land other punch to Shadow’s back while he was preoccupied.

“But to cheat on her with another guy? And with Sonic?”

At his own words, Knuckles tried to land another blow but Shadow was too quick for him. The ebony hedgehog landed on a nearby leaf, panting slightly at the loss of breath the last blow had delivered while steadying himself so he wouldn’t fall into the unforseen crater. But he wasn’t backing down. Not yet.

Knuckles, who had been hanging on to the tree with his fist, pushed himself off of it with his feet again and slammed his right fist in the leaf, nearly falling through it as Shadow quickly side stepped to another leaf nearby.

Shadow’s sneer deepened as his eyes narrowed at him. “What are you talking about echidna? I’ve cheating on no one. You have to be involved with someone before you can be accused of cheating on them.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Knuckles snapped, trying in vain to land another punch, then another. But Shadow was side stepping them now, biding his time before he struck again and Knuckles knew it.

“First leading Rouge on, then you go after Amy,” he accused him, punching a nearby tree so hard in an effort to hit Shadow’s face that pieces of bark went flying in all different directions. “And now you’re here with Sonic. You both sicken me!”

“Amy? Are you daft moron?” Shadow snarled, finally catching one of Knuckles punches, this one headed for his face before grabbing him by his wrist, he swinging him around and into one of the vine railings of the bridge. “I’m not interested in her or Rouge. And I’ve never given either one of them such an impression.”

Knuckles watched as Shadow’s expression became darker. “But then–I don’t have to explain anything to you, do I?” With this, Shadow brought the heel of his right foot down on what would have been right in between Knuckles’s eyes.

But the foot was caught by a white glove that was connected to a azure hedgehog as he said “Wait!”

Shadow shot him an annoyed glance and snarled. “Stay out of this faker.”

“I can’t, this has gone too far,” Sonic replied, frowning at the both of them as Rouge came to his side, staring at the pair in worry. “And– you’re not interested in Amy?”

Knuckles narrowed his eyes at Sonic. How shallow was he? This wasn’t about Amy.

Shadow cut him a side glance, and his face softened but only by a fraction of an amount. “That isn’t obvious to you yet?”

“That doesn’t matter ,” Knuckles snapped as finally dismantled the veins that held him and again tried to attack Shadow. But this time, Rouge grabbed him by his arms and held him back while Sonic held back the equally as hostile Shadow now by his arms, finally letting his foot down.

“He shouldn’t be here kissing anyone when he’s involved with Rouge!”

“Knucklehead, let’s just calm down,” Rouge pleaded as gently as she could, still holding him back with all her strength. But she didn’t have to. Knuckles had no intention of harming her. “I’m sure this is all a very big misunderstanding and–”

“Misunderstanding?” Knuckles replied, cutting her off. “The only misunderstanding is why you were crying over this two-timer! How can you be interested in someone that doesn’t care about you at all ”

“Knuckles...”

“He’s kissing Sonic–Sonic–when he knows how you feel about him Why would you let him do something like that to you when you know you deserve better?,” Knuckles pressed on, his anger getting the better of him. “When you deserve someone that actually likes you Rouge? That would treat you the way you’re suppose to be treated? How can you choose that bastard over me?”

Knuckles could feel the hold on him relax greatly as Rouge stared at him in utter shock. Shadow was glaring at the pair venomously, as if he really didn’t know which insult to come swinging with first while Sonic stared at Knuckles in slight surprise.

Knuckles calmed down greatly as he stopped trying to break away from her. Damn it, he hadn’t meant to say that. He hadn’t meant to say that at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadow watched as the moronic echidna looked down at his knuckles, flexing his hand a bit, a lit blush creeping across his face as they all continued to stare at him.

He could feel Sonic trying to hold him firmly in place but Shadow wasn’t too worried. If he truly desired or needed to, he could easily throw the faker off of him.

But as the threat of Knuckles had diminished aside from wanting to pummel the idiot’s face into oblivion just for principle, he had relaxed greatly himself.

He studied Rouge for a second as she clasped her hand over her mouth, continuing to stare at Knuckles in shock. Shadow couldn’t help but sneer at her as he narrowed his eyes.

Shadow had never been stupid, even if he did misunderstand things himself at times. He could read Rouge pretty well now–something the bat wasn’t aware of. Yes, she was shocked–but not as much as she was letting on. It was more of a mixture of minimal shock and expectance. She knew–or wanted–this to happen.

He had gotten the feeling that she was ‘prepping’ him on to admit his feelings for some underlined meaning back in the city but at the time, he wasn’t able to put his finger on exactly why.

While it still didn’t make complete since to him, it didn’t take him much to realize that he had been used in some fashion–why else would the idiot think they were involved? And no one used Shadow the hedgehog.

“You vindictive bitch,” he spoke in his calm, deadpan voice. But each word was dipped in venom.

Rouge stared at him startled while Knuckles was brought out his stupor of embarrassment and snarled at him. But Rouge grabbed his arm again.

Sonic looked over at Shadow with a disapproving frown. “Shadow–”

“You set this up, didn’t you,” he continued, glaring at her. “You made the echidna think that we had some type of relationship, didn’t you?”

“Because she thought you actually cared about her jerk,” Knuckles spat at him angrily, coming to her defense as he began taking another step towards him despite Rouge holding him back. “She cried over you once she realized you were after someone else! Because she thought you were serious about her. And all the while when we thought you were interested in Amy–”

“Why the hell would any of you think I was interested in Amy?” he grimaced in ridicule, cutting them all withering glares.

“– when it was really Sonic ” Knuckles finished, ignoring his question. “ And here you are, on the bridge, kissing him right in front of Rouge’s face ”

“What?” someone cried breathlessly from across the way. Knuckles paused in his rant as they all turned to see Amy Rose standing on the other end of the bridge, her emerald eyes wide with shock as she looked first at Shadow, who only frowned back at her, then at Sonic.

~~~~~~~

Amy knew she hadn’t heard wrong.

She hadn’t gotten too far away from Tails when she could have sworn she heard him call Sonic’s name.

Well needless to say, this had gotten Amy’s attention and she quickly turned around and headed back to where she had seen Tail’s last. Sure enough, there he was, talking to Sonic about meeting someone on a bridge.

This had made Amy slightly upset. Why would Tails purposely trick her into going to the wrong place? She had waited until Sonic left before she decided to follow him, opting to hit Tails later for his deception.

When she had gotten to the wall of trees and heard angry voices, she knew she must hace been at the right spot. Then she heard what she thought was Shadow calling someone a ‘vindictive bitch’.

As she got closer and broke through the trees, she could hear Knuckles ranting on about Shadow being involved with Rouge and even her–to which Shadow seemed almost insulted by–then she heard the words she dreaded.

That Shadow was the one that Sonic had met on the bridge. And that they had kissed. Again.

Amy could almost feel the surge of tears that threatened to make their way to her eyes as she continued to stare at Sonic.

“You...kissed Shadow?”

Sonic stared back at her with sadness and Amy could almost feel her heart break. “Amy...I”

“Amy, just wait a minute honey, ” Rouge intervened, taking a step forward as she let go of Knuckles, looking at her with kind eyes. “This isn’t–”

Amy turned to look at Rouge so quickly that she made the bat falter in her words. Amy could feel anger rise in her chest at the sight of her. She and Tails both...they had lied to her. Set her up.

“Rouge...y-you told me that Sonic wanted to meet ME on the bridge ” she accused in a sad tone, the hurt evident in her voice.

“Amy...”

“You knew didn’t you?” she accused further, fighting back the tears. “You knew that Shadow would be here didn’t you? With Sonic Why did you tell me to come here when you knew they would be here together?”

“Amy–it wasn’t suppose to be this way, honest ” Rouge called to her quickly, talking with her hands. “Sonic–I mean Shadow–well–”

“Rouge–you told me that Amy wanted to meet me in the mushroom patch,” Sonic frowned at her, rendering her speechless again.

Amy watched as Shadow shot Sonic a look, pulling away from him. “Amy? You were here to meet Rose faker?”

She watched as he stared at Shadow confused. “ Rouge said she wanted to have a private conversation with me because she was worried that I was upset about her spending so much time with you–”

“Why the hell would you care if we were spending time together, I’m not interested in her faker,” Shadow snapped.

“Then why did you tell Amy you were in love with her back at the workshop?” Sonic snapped back.

Before Shadow could reply, Amy cut in, looking utterly bewildered at Sonic with a sniffle. “What are you talking about Sonic? Shadow never told me that.”

Sonic blinked at her. “Back a the workshop, when you were having that argument. He said it then!”

“No he didn’t,” Amy cried, shaking her head as she adverted her eyes to the leaves, still fighting her tears back just at the thought. “Sonic–we were fighting about you.”

This earned her a look of utter shock. “...Me...?”

Amy nodded. “I...we got into an argument about him liking you. What you heard–I wasn’t talking about our relationship–I was talking about the two of you.”

She could feel his emerald eyes on her before she looked up at him again. He stared at her bewildered, then at Shadow, then finally, he cut his attention back to Rouge, a look of utter betrayal on his face.

“You lied to me,” he snapped at her, making her back up a bit as he took a step toward her. “You told me you heard the entire conversation! You told me that Shadow confessed his love to Amy and that Amy might be interested in–”

“You told him what?” Shadow snarled at Rouge, eyes flaring. Amy frowned at the bat in anger as she made her way across the bridge, her fist balled up into tight fist at her sides.

What the hell was Rouge playing at? Why would she purposely tell Sonic something like that? Certainly, it might have helped her but that wasn’t the way she wanted to get Sonic’s affection–by making it seem like he was forced to like her before someone else swooped her up. She would wait for Sonic no matter how long it took.

She was too angry to cry now.

“Rouge, why did you tell Sonic Shadow was in love with me when I told you Shadow was in love with Sonic?” Amy snapped. “And why did you set it up to make Shadow and I meet on the bridge? Did you really want to make it look like he liked me? Why did you lie to me?”

“Rouge, what the hell is going on?” Knuckles bellowed in utter confusion, staring between all of them. “Why did you tell me Shadow was interested in you if he was interested in Sonic?”

Amy watched as Rouge closed her eyes and took in a calming breath, uttering a “Damn.” that was barely audible.

“Look, just give me a chance to explain–”

“Explain? Which part?” Shadow snapped, cutting her off. “Where you manipulated us? Or used us in your ridiculous scam? What in the hell was the point of it all? To make that idiot jealous?” he finished, pointing at Knuckles.

Rouge bit her bottom lip and Amy gave her friend a look of disbelief. All this confusion–all these misunderstands–just to make Knuckles jealous?

Shadow gave her a looks of utter disgust as he fumed.

Sonic shook his head, giving Rouge a frown of disapproval.

“Look–it wasn’t suppose to be this way,” Rouge snapped desperately. “Sonic–you weren’t even suppose to be here! I told Tails to–”

“You involved Tails in this?” she heard Sonic shout, looking angrier by the second.

“He’s the one that told me to meet you here,” Shadow told him, cutting him a look before focusing back on Rouge.

She watched as Rouge looked directly at her. “Amy–you were suppose to meet Shadow on this bridge, not Sonic! I didn’t want Sonic to see the kiss so I told him to go the mushroom patch. I don’t know what he was doing here–”

“Tails told him to come here,” Amy snapped at her bitterly, and this earned a surprised look from Sonic.

“How did you–”

“Because he told me to go the wrong place once he found out I was going to the bridge,” Amy snapped at him impatiently. She could realize now that Sonic being here wasn’t any fault of his own but she couldn’t help but still be angry by the entire thing. Rouge and Tails may have gotten him there–but that didn’t explain why he was on the bridge kissing Shadow.

“If that damn fox hadn’t– ” Rouge began.

“Don’t you dare blame this on Tails,” Sonic snapped at her. “I don’t know what exactly you told him, but you’re the reason he helped you at all!”

“I didn’t tell him to bring you here!” Rouge snapped at him angrily. “And I didn’t tell him to tell Amy to go anywhere. He was simply suppose to tell Shadow to come to the bridge so Amy would confuse Shadow for you and kiss him. Then Knuckles would see the kiss and–”

“Overact like he did,” Shadow finished.

“But it wasn’t suppose to be this bad!” Rouge exclaimed. Then she rounded on Sonic and Shadow. “And I didn’t make either of you kiss either!”

There was a heavy silence and the pain that had been in Amy’s chest returned. She had wanted to forget about that little fact but the vindictive bat, whom now wore a smug expression on her face as she crossed her arms and glared at the pair, had brought the issue back up.

Amy turned her attention back to Sonic then, her anger still evident but faltering into that of sadness. “Sonic–why did you kiss Shadow?”

She watched him sigh as he closed his eyes shook his head.. “Amy–I didn’t come here to kiss Shadow– I thought I was coming here to talk to you–”

“But why did you kiss him?” she pressed on.

“I didn’t,” he admitted, quickly looking at Shadow, who was watching him intently, then back at her.

“Then–Rouge is lying again,” she said hopefully. “And Knuckles–he got it all wrong? You weren’t kissing Shadow?”

Sonic looked straight into her emerald eyes with such guilt that it almost made her heart stop. “I didn’t say that Amy–I said that I didn’t kiss him.”

Amy blinked rapidly as she tore her eyes away from him, sniffling a bit and fighting back the surge of tears that threatened to assault her. So they had kissed–he just meant that Shadow had kissed him, not the other way around.

“Then–it didn’t mean anything,” she pleaded, looking back into those pools of emerald that she dreamed of getting lost in. She wanted to believe that. She had to. All he had to do was tell her that it didn’t mean a thing and Amy could be all right again. “The kiss didn’t mean a thing to you–right Sonic?”

There was complete silence as she and the others gave him their undivided attention. She watched as Sonic stared at her for a moment, then looked back at Shadow for what seemed to be an eternity.

Amy’s heart sank as the azure hedgehog didn’t give her a quick answer–or an answer at all. He only continued to stare at Shadow with a troubled expression, his arms limp at his sides.

‘Why?’ she thought to herself, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as they began to fall. ‘Why won’t he answer me?’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one on the bridge acknowledged Dr. Eggman as he flew by unstablely in his Egg Carrier, grunting in anger as he tried desperately to pry Tails off of his face.

“Get...off..you... ” he spat, digging one his gloved hands into Tails side, tugging at the fur.

But the small fox held firm, one hand pulling on Eggman’s mustache while the other gripped the golden ring with encrusted Chaos Emeralds, trying to pull it away from him.

“Give...me...the...ring ” Tails gasped, pulling on both as hard as he could. He felt Eggman let him go for a second, then tightening his hold hold on the ring with his right hand, he began to pull him off by one of his bushy tails with the other.

The both grunted and continued to fight with one other as the Egg Carrier went sailing over the bridge and into the tops of the nearby trees, crashing harshly and throwing both from it and disappearing into the leaves below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last thing Sonic wanted to do was hurt anyone’s feelings. But in the end, he knew that it was almost impossible for that not to happen.

He had been drastically mistaken that day when he over heard Shadow and Amy’s conversation and he had been a fool to listen to Rouge, taking her words for face value.

Now it all made sense. Shadow’s attitude towards Amy of late wasn’t because he was upset at her for turning him down–it was because of their confrontation at Tail’s workshop.

Shadow didn’t like Amy as he thought. Shadow liked–him.

Him.

Sonic let his eyes fall to his shoes. He couldn’t bare to look at any of them anymore. He couldn’t stand to see Amy looking at him as if he had torn her heart out. And he just couldn’t face the intense stare that burned a hole into his soul from Shadow either. He was content with ignoring Knuckles as the poor sap had once again been fooled into another trap of sorts and Rouge–he was so angry at her that he was positive looking at her would make him see red.

Damn it all, what she’d done.

It wasn’t that he’d never noticed Amy before. He always had. But Sonic had always thought of himself young–carefree. Love wasn’t something he wasn’t willing to acknowledge–it was just an emotion he placed in the back burner of his life until he thought he was ready to express such a thing.

He was attracted to Amy Rose. He always had been. And even he couldn’t deny that Rouge’s manipulation was a great one: he had found that he couldn’t stand the thought of seeing her with anyone else-whether it be Shadow or Tails. He thought he was coming to terms with his feelings for Amy because he knew something was there.

And now it just made him feel sick to his stomach.

Was the only reason he had remotely taken an interest in Amy because he thought someone else was in love with her and nothing more? Was he just being a selfish bastard, worried about losing the attention she always showered him with going to someone else? Or did he bury his emotions so deep inside himself that he hadn’t been made aware of them until he felt threatened?

And Shadow–how was he suppose to react to him now? Why did he even react to him at all? Certainly he would in those nightmares–but they were just that. Nightmares. Crazy dreams that he experienced because he’d been spending too much time with the ebony hedgehog. Not because he was in love with him–hell he wasn’t in love with either one of them.

But he would be a fool if he didn’t admit that whatever feelings he had were scaring him now. Because he didn’t understand half of the emotions he had for Amy anymore and none of the ones he carried for Shadow–if they existed. They confused them–all of them. And the nightmares only made things worse. None of it had been real then, he could push them to the back of his mind. But now that he could Shadow’s lips on his own–fell the actual emotion expressed in such a tender way from the least likely person he would expect to hold such softness in such a simple expression.

“I. . .” Sonic breathed, shaking slightly, still refusing to look at either one of them. “I just...”

He could here a small whimper of pain from Amy’s way before he heard her voice whisper. “What am I doing wrong?”

He had to look up at her then, his mouth slightly open as he stared at her in guilt.

She looked at him pained, her arms wrapped around herself, her tears staining her face before the fell onto her boots. She wouldn’t look at him at all. He knew she couldn’t stand to look at him anymore.

He watched as Knuckles came over to Amy and took the girl in an embrace as she began to sob. Knuckles stared down at her uneasily, then turned his murderous gaze to Sonic, making him feel even more guilty than he already had.

“Damn it Sonic, what the hell is wrong with you?” Knuckles snapped. “How could you lead Amy on after the entire cavern incident? I thought you learned your lesson–”

Sonic frowned. “Cavern incident. What cavern–”

“When you kissed Shadow the first time,” Knuckles snapped. “I thought you had cleared all that up in the garden but I see you’re just as loathsome as–”

And now it all made sense–why Amy was so upset in the garden.

“You kissed me?” Sonic asked the ebony hedgehog, cutting Knuckles off as he rounded on him, glaring at him in bewilderment. Shadow didn’t answer, but only glared back and Rouge took in a long deep breath.

“Damn it Knuckles, he didn’t know about that,” she warned, messaging the bridge of her nose as she shook her head.

Sonic ignored the confused expression of Knuckles or the wariness of Rouge as anger ignited in his chest.

“You kissed me when I was unconscious?” he demanded again, still glaring at the ebony hedgehog who stared back at him blankly, his emotions unreadable.

Sonic couldn’t help the creepiness of his nightmares that crept into his mind and ignored the rational thoughts that entered his mind or the peace he had felt while he had been resting in Shadow’s arms that day as he continued his rant. “What else did you do while I was knocked out? ”

That sparked a fire in Shadow’s eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself faker, I would never lower myself to such practices.” he snapped, a sneer appearing on his lips. “You aren’t worth that.”

“Gentleman, this is getting well out of hand again,” Rouge replied quickly, trying to come in between the pair as she raised her hands up. “Look–we need to find Cream and Tails and–”

“Who gave you the right to kiss me like that in the first place?” Sonic snapped, ignoring her completely. “Did you do it just to get a rise out of Amy? Just to make her jealous?”.

“I didn’t even know the little ingrate was there, nor would I care to play such petty games with a child,” Shadow snapped. “But I assure you, I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“No, you won’t,” Sonic agreed, knowing his voice was coming off as a threat.

“Why are complaining now?” Shadow challenged as he uncrossed his arms and met Sonic head on. “You weren’t complaining when you woke up and you sure as hell weren’t complaining when I kissed you just now!”

“You said it yourself, it was a mistake,” Sonic spat back angrily, not wanting to face Shadow’s words.

There was a deafening silence between the entire group as Shadow stared at Sonic with an almost startled expression. And Sonic couldn’t help but feel guilty again. He could see the hurt in Shadow’s eyes for a split second before it gave way into unmistakable hatred and loathing.

There was just no way someone wasn’t going to get hurt, not anymore...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eggman crept his way silently across the bridge. No one had noticed him since he had made his presence known after leaving the small fox knocked out with his Egg Carrier and making his way toward them. They were all too busy in their deep conversation of kissing and romance and tears–or whatever they were bantering on about.

He paid minimal attention to Shadow’s words as he kneeled directly behind Sonic. He was in plain view now and he knew it as Shadow’s words died in his throat upon seeing him, staring at the doctor with widen eyes.

Using both hands, he fit the now expanded gold ring around Sonic’s head and watched as it shrank down in size once it got around Sonic’s neck, fitting snugly like a collar.

This made Sonic spin around and glare at the doctor in surprise, earning the attention of anyone that hadn’t noticed him yet as he clasped his hands around the ring and tried yanking the garment off but to no avail.

He gave up and the entire group sweat dropped–probably from their own lack of vigilance and Sonic asked him in a bored tone “Egghead–what are you doing.”

He didn’t bother with answering. He simply stood to his feet and waited for the emeralds in the new collar to take effect, a triumphant smile already appearing on his face.

As if on cue, the encrusted emeralds began to glow brightly and Sonic’s iris dilated before they rapidly contracted to the size of a pea and grinding his teeth, let out a wail of pain before falling to his side and grabbing at the collar desperately.

“Sonic ” Amy cried as broke away from Knuckles and both ran to his side, each trying to help him. But that didn’t last long once Amy touched the collar and the power of the ring surged and knocked them, as well as Shadow who had been standing rather close to him, away from him. They all crashed into Rouge and stumbled to the ground in a heap.

Sonic struggled to get to his knees slowly as he grinded his teeth together and looked up at Dr. Eggman, who looked back down at his foe with his hand clasped together in front of him, rubbing them with excitement while he smiled.

“At long last hedgehog, there’s no escape from my trap.”


~~~~~~~~~
Author's Notes:
My goodness I would like to give each of you a hug ::hugs:: and thank you all so much for your encouragement and reviews so far. They mean the world to me really and I'm very happy that so many people are finding enjoyment in my story.

Shadown's Bane- Here is the link you've been requesting. Sorry it too so long but I had to find a good one:

I really hope that you all enjoy this new chapter. I had to be very careful as I went about and had to rewrite it twice. Dunno when I'll update again though.

Thank you all so very much again for reading my story and I hope this chapter won't disappoint anyone.

More to come and Happy Reading!