Time Heals All Things

Chapter Twelve: A Jungle of Emotions

A/N~ This chapter is dedicated to all those who have read, voted, commented or just waited patiently for this chapter, it's just nice to know someone likes this story... 💕

"Are you reading me Shadow?" Rouge's voice came out of the wrist communicator on Shadow's right arm as he stepped out of the shuttle and immediately the dark hedgehog lifted his arm until it was horizontal to his white chest and glanced down to the live stream of her on the dial. They had arrived at their destination: The Jungle Zone..

"Your coming in fine Rouge. Wouldn't you have found it easier to just use a surveillance droid?" Shadow queried, kinking one black and red eye ridge upwards.

"And give you the chance to lose me, I don't think so hon." Rouge cooed with a playful wink. "What about you Big Blue, you reading me?" She added towards Sonic who was now had an earpiece in one cobalt pointed ear.

"Loud and clear Rouge." The forty year old hedgehog replied brightly, his green eyes scanning the surrounding dense rainforest around them curiously. This did seem like a good place for a murderous alien race to crash land, desolate, balmy climate and overrun by dense foliage.

"Perfect, I am sending Omega coordinates to the G.U.N shuttle crash site. The first thing you guys need to do is locate the wreckage and try to determine where Eclipse and his offspring might go from there. Good luck and let me know what you find." Rouge's voice stated in an official, business-like tone.

"I have the coordinates.." Omega's metallic voice stated, immediately turning in a southern direction and taking a few precise steps before halting. "It is three point two, nine kilometres in a south-western direction."

"Hmh, that's not far from here." Shadow murmured in response. "Alright Omega, lead the way." He gestured with one hand in the direction they needed to head. "Sonic, stay close to me."

"What for?" The forty year old blue hedgehog threw his dark counterpart a curious look. "I might be out of practise but that doesn't mean that I've forgotten how to take care of myself." He added in a terse voice, feeling slightly disgruntled by Shadow minimising his combat skills.

"This isn't about that, this is just for your protection." The black and red teenage-looking hedgehog responded bluntly, his mouth forming a thin line as he moved to follow Omega. The huge artillery robot had raised his guns and was already moving in the direction

"Shad, seriously, I don't need you to protect me." Sonic responded dryly in disbelief, a pout twisting his lips as his green eyes rolled in a childish manner. He did not need to be babysat by his dark younger-looking counterpart. Just because he was the big G.U.N Agent and was a weapons and unarmed combat expert did not mean that he, Sonic the Hedgehog, was completely defenceless. He had been up against many forms of evil before and had always managed to defeat it, did none of that count?

"Sonic, please.." Shadow's voice was suddenly soft and warm, it was disarming for the forty year old blue hedgehog as he had not heard it since their kiss and immediately his heartbeat fluttered a little in response. The black and red hedgehog had stopped moving and a sigh escaped his lips before he spun back around to look into Sonic's green eyes. "Don't think that I am underestimating you. I'm the last hedgehog that would do that. I just don't wish to see you used as a pawn or, Chaos forbid, injured in an attempt to get to me." Shadow's red eyes looked emotional, almost as if he were close to pulling down the guard that he kept around his heart. "Eclipse has a habit of targeting those.." The black hedgehog suddenly looked as if the weight of the entire world was weighing him down, his suddenly troubled gaze turning to the floor, unable to take in the gaze of his blue older-looking counterpart. "-who have a significant meaning to me." He mumbled the end of his sentence turning his head coyly away as if he had just confessed a deeply embedded secret.