Puzzle Pieces (Shadow The Hedgehog Love Story)

Chapter Four

    I jumped up coming back to reality, sweat poured off of me; I flinched seeing movement and jerked away when I felt a light touch to my arm. “Hey take it easy… relax… You were really out of it for hours.” I heard Shadow’s voice.
    “I’m… alive…? How am I… alive…?” I looked at my hands.
    “What are you talking about?” He looked at me, wondering what I meant.
    “You… still don’t… remember…” My voice got quieter as I went on, “The baby… It’s… dead…” I felt a tear trickle down my right cheek.
    “Huh?” He looked completely lost as to what I was murmuring. I slowly put my hand on either side of his head. “Hey wh-!” He grunted as I realized what the problem was with his memory, what Black Doom had done to him. I resolved the issue; he grunted and gripped his head tightly, dealing with the flood of memory coming back to him. Several minutes later he slipped back to reality. “C-Cathy…?” I hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go.
    “I… Yeah I guess I am.” I closed my eyes, letting my head rest against him.
    “You’re… so different. I… I’m sorry that I lost my memory… like that… You must have felt so alone…” He stroked my quills.
    “At the time… I suppose I did. I don’t have to feel alone anymore now though.” I looked up at him, “I-if you don’t hate me… If you even accept me, like you did… I’m so different…” I gripped onto his chest fur tightly.
    “Of course I don’t hate you, I could never hate you, and of course I accept you… It’s just that you used to be so reserved now you speak your mind so much more… It’s… just not what my memory is used to. That doesn’t mean how I felt changed, I still love you.” He held onto me tightly.
    I smiled and hid in him, “Let’s not really tell Abraham this. At least for now.”
    “Understood, my love.” He kissed my cheek then smoothly ran his thumb along my other cheek. He then moved his hand down to my chin and gently grabbed hold of it, forcing me to look up. A kiss filled with passion landed upon my lips. I responded and kissed back with just as much passion.
    After a little bit we broke off and stared into one another’s eyes. “I feel happier now that I remember, now that I’m with you.” I spoke softly.
    He smiled, “I haven’t felt like this since when we were together on ARK. I actually feel… happy.” He brushed my bangs to the side.
    “Shadow, come in, Shadow.” My ear flicked, hearing Rouge on the other end.
    With a sigh he responded, “What is it Rouge?”
    “G.U.N. is under attack, we’ve fallen back into the building but I don’t think we will be able to hold it for much longer.” Rounds could be heard going off in the background.
    “I’ll be there almost immediately, sit tight.” He grabbed a couple of guns quickly from his closet in his room aboard the ARK.
    “Who would attack G.U.N.?” I asked and was handed a gun by Shadow.
    “Besides the Doctor, I don’t know. Chaos Control!” He brought us back to G.U.N. I quickly ducked and was pulled to cover by Shadow. The complete base was a disaster and almost in total ruin.
    Rouge rolled over and took cover along side us; “I think it’s the good ol’ Doctor, but this seems different, I have reason to believe that he is working along side someone.” Rouge peeked towards the enemy.
    I took a quick look, the enemy consisted of Eggman’s robots, but in the back of my mind I knew he wouldn’t have made it this far to overpowering us and essentially taking over the fort. “I think you’re right Rouge. If this was just Eggman he should have been fairly easily eliminated by now.”
    “Then I guess that just leaves it to who is truly behind this.” Rouge glimpsed back to the enemies once more.
    “I’ll take care of this quickly.” I muttered and slowly began to stand.
    Shadow pulled me down, “No you don’t I am not losing you! Not when I just got you back!”
    I looked at him and smiled a little, “I’m glad you care but I’ll be okay. Don’t worry, I’m not the scared little girl I used to be, okay? You won’t lose me.”
    “Um… What’s going on between the two of you?” Rouge asked.
    “Ah… Let’s take care of the issue before we even begin to discuss that, Rouge.” Shadow glimpsed at her then looked back to me, “Are you sure you can handle this?”
    “Yes Shadow; I have barrier’s and I can absorb anything they throw at me. Don’t worry, okay?” I stroked his cheek softly for a brief moment.
     I stood putting up a strong force field and walked out. As I walked past anything that dared to touch me, and anything that was close enough just instantly fell apart and disintegrated into dust. I soon got close enough to Eggman to speak with him, however I was not close enough to destroy his machine, nor harm him.
    “Ah, hello my spiny friend.” He tapped his fingers, his voice held curiosity.
    “Hello, Eggman. I suggest you leave or I’m afraid I’ll have to put you in your place.” I warned.
    “Oh? What place do you speak of?” He questioned, amused.
    “Well, there are many places I could put you: hell, in a cell in the most defended prison, or perhaps somewhere a little more cruel…” I studied my surroundings for a brief moment; I destroyed what was left of his robots.
    He chuckled, his fingers snapped and a net flew around my barrier and wrapped itself around it. Small lightning-like bolts of electricity came from the contact, then all of a sudden the barrier collapsed; completely shocked and in disarray I found myself tangled in the rope which tightened around me until moving was rather difficult.
    “What the hell is this?!” I growled, trying to break free. I attempted to use my powers, everything failed. “I don’t understand why can’t I do anything?”
    “Cathy!” Shadow ran over looking at Eggman, his eyes were fiery and cold.
    “No get away! Get to cover! Don’t touch the net, don’t get caught in one!” I told him, I tried to reach my knife.
    “Now why would I let her go, Shadow?” He seemed amused with all of this.
    “… I… If you let her go I’ll do whatever you want, just please leave her alone…” Shadow looked down.
    “You idiot what are you doing?!” I growled.
    “Say quiet.” Shadow snapped at me quietly.
    “Hmm… I don’t know… She’s more powerful than you are. I could really conquer the world with her; everyone, no, everything will bow before me!” He laughed manically.
    I reached my knife with a great deal of struggle. I tried to cut along the rope and felt extreme pain from the net as I did so. I yelped and closed my eyes tightly, the net gripping tighter. I felt a few tendrils brush against my skin; to my horror I realized that the net was a living creature.
    “Sh-Shadow! Get this thing off me get it off get it off get it off! Shoot it kill it!!!” I panicked and felt fear for the first time in a long time.
    “Kill it…?” He looked at the net carefully, his eyes widening, “What in the hell…? Doctor get it to let go of her!” He shouted at him, “Now!”
    I looked over and saw a strange alien similar in some ways to Black Doom come from the shadows. “Shadow The Hedgehog… I am sorry but I cannot allow it. I am Nurki. This man was kind enough to bring you to us, and this man shall have her as his reward. I am a species cousin to your bloodline. I was told that you have committed the highest treason and murder capable of in our rules.” He explained. “Additionally, do not worry, unlike your more savage bloodline, we survive off of energy more like a parasite. We do not harm our… ‘hosts’. Your friend will be fine once my little pet is removed; she should have full control and capabilities tomorrow evening or the day after anywhere from early morning to noon on this planet. If he is to be removed later the time would obviously have extended to some degree. Now, for a more pressing matter, we are here to take you and trial you for the crimes you have committed. Please, come quietly, let’s not make anything worse than it has to be. If you don‘t come quietly, I will not ensure that this man stops his assault on this building.”
    His ears flattened against his head, his head lowered; he slowly moved towards Nurki and accepted arrest. Some other similar looking creatures came and took Shadow away. Nurki walked over and picked me up; I glared at him, my eyes filled with complete detest for him.
    “I’m sorry young one.” In a flash of Chaos Control, Nurki, Eggman, and I were all in Eggman’s base. “Doctor Eggman, as long as we are here, while we are doing Shadow’s trials, you may use my pet as you please. It does drain energy from its hosts, but it doesn’t use all of it at once, there is a ‘storage’ area it uses. Now, you can tap into this storage and gather pure Chaos Energy from it, if that is what you wish, as well as keeping her under control. Her power is great, it would be unwise to not keep it under control, or surveillance.” He put me down in one of Eggman’s cells. He locked it up before speaking once more, “With that, I will take my leave. Enjoy your reward.” He waved, walking a little distance before disappearing in Chaos Control.
    I watched as the net pulled back and formed into a bracelet that held firmly onto my left wrist. I tried to pull it off but it just caused a pinch of pain so I ceased immediately. Eggman began working for a little while before hooking up a weird system to the odd alien creature in order to access its storage area and collect the energy it had received from me. Once Eggman left I quickly pulled out my knife once more; I knew it wasn’t a great idea but I tried to cut the strange creature off. Each time I tried pain radiated through me, and each time I had to take a few minutes breather.
    A sick thought crossed my mind; If I cut off my arm… the creature attached to it wouldn’t be sucking away my energy. All I have to do is escape before it reattaches. Desperately, I held my knife approximately a foot above my arm as it rested against the cell bars; I shook at the thought, but I squeezed my eyes closed and went to begin cutting off my arm. I felt my arm stop and pull away, as if I had no control over it, pain exploded throughout my body; I cried out and collapsed gasping for breath. I dropped my knife curling up, hot tears began running down my face. Please just get off… Please, don’t hurt or take away Shadow… I laid there for an indeterminate amount of time.