AN: Hey guys, please don't kill me. I know it's been a long time without an update but I've been really busy. No worries I plan to update this story at least on each holiday break.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic or any of it's characters, just my ideas

"Where is it?!" Black Doom yelled, eyes blazing with furry at the unfortunate messenger that was delivering the most recent war update.

"W-we don't know, Your Majesty," the messenger stuttered. "T-there was no evidence of it's presence in either Normount or Orcrest. We did, however, retrieve the green and yellow chaos emeralds."

"There has to be something. Normount was the original possessor, so they must have records of where it's gone," Black Doom stated, anger lacing his voice. "Search Normount and Orcrest again, and I want results by noon tomorrow. You do not want to see what happens if you fail me."

"O-of course, Your Majesty," the messenger quickly bowed and retreated from the throne room.

Black Doom sighed in frustration. Time was running short. He had to find the power source before June or all of his plans were going to be ruined. It was already the end of April, which meant that he had little over a month to find it.

Not only was his attention taken up by the search for his desired object, but the political issues with his war declaration were taking up most of his time. At least the marriage of Shadow and Prince Sonic was enough to keep Vertrose from actively participating in the war. Vertrose's military power would have been a difficult problem to handle if they had gotten involved.

On top of it all, his contacts recently informed him that Shadow had been doing some private investigating on his own.

Shadow was too inquisitive for his own good, a trait that Black Doom exceedingly hated. If his plans were to succeed, then he would have to prevent Shadow from gaining anymore information.

"Okay so from what you've told me, your father is searching for the seven chaos emeralds and is planning to use their power to take over the world," Sonic said casually while hanging upside down off of the bed in their room. "Pretty straightforward if you ask me."

"Yes, but that's not all he's looking for," Shadow said, his hands rubbing his wrists irritably. "He's been desperately searching for something else, but I have no idea what it is."

Sonic tilted his head slightly as he watched the black hedgehog continue to rub his wrists. Haven't seen him do that before, new habit? Sonic wondered. "Well he could be looking for some kind of mediator. After all, you, Silver and I are the only ones known to be able to freely use the emeralds without a severe backlash."

Shadow paused a moment as he considered Sonic's train of thought. "Alright, if that were the case then what would be a mediator? The chaos emeralds are an ancient power, you wouldn't be able to use just any object."

"No clue, but we could always ask Knuckles. It was his race that first discovered the emeralds after all." Sonic flipped around, jumped up from the bed and was gone from the room before Shadow could reply.

Shadow simply shook his head at the blue hedgehog's antics and turned his attention onto his sore wrists.

Sonic raced down the halls and glanced into the rooms as he passed them, looking for the red Echidna. He raced by some of the servants, the wind following him nearly topling them.

"Sorry!" Sonic yelled back to them, trying to hide his smirk. He turned back around and nearly collided with a familiar red wall. "Knuckles!" Sonic shouted in surprise as he skidded to a stop just before hitting his friend.

Knuckles raised an eyebrow as the blue hedgehog stopped just centimeters away from him. He hadn't even attempted to move, knowing full well that Sonic would be able to stop in time, unless of course he wanted to meet Knuckles' fist.

"Knuckles, buddy," Sonic said casually, completely ignoring all etiquette and slinging an arm around Knuckles' shoulder. "Just the man I've been looking for. Are you busy right now?"

"Uh," Knuckles began to reply, "not—"

"Good I need to talk to you about something," Sonic took off with Knuckles and pulled him into an unused room.

"Sonic, what—"

"Do you know about an object that could be a mediator for the power of the chaos emeralds?" Sonic blurted out.

Knuckles looked at him skeptically. "Why do you want to know? And shouldn't you already know this, considering it involves your country's history?"

"It does?" Sonic rubbed the back of neck sheepishly. "I kind have been skipping classes lately, you know to visit Tails, and with the war...well lets just say there's no time for make-up lessons right now, so just tell me."

Knuckles sighed. "Fine, have you ever heard of the Master Emerald?"

"Hmm," Sonic thought hard, "I think I remember someone mentioning it, why?"

"It was actually the first emerald ever found by Normount," Knuckles explained, "and it was that emerald that created the seven chaos emeralds. If someone needed a power mediator, this would be what they would need to channel the power, if they knew how to use it of course."

"Perfect," Sonic replied. "But wait, you said this involved my country's history?"

Knuckles resisted the urge to role his eyes. "Yes, even though Normount had been the emeralds original holder, it's procession had been passed to Vertrose because of it's military power."

"So does this mean that Vertrose is holding this Master Emerald?!" Sonic asked excitedly.

"I believe I just said that," Knuckles said.

"Right, thanks Knuckles!" With that Sonic was gone from the room.

"Ouch!" Shadow grasped his wrists. He had been lost in thought while waiting for Sonic to return, and suddenly it felt as if burning metal was being pressed into his wrists. His ring inhibitors were faintly glowing red, burning his wrists as if the metal was hot. A slight burning sensation had been steadily increasing over the past week but it wasn't until now that it had actually hurt him.

He wanted desperately to take the inhibitors off but knew that it would only hinder him. He was told to never take the inhibitors off unless he need to access his full power. Without them, he would only lose his powers too quickly and would exhaust himself before long.

"Damn," Shadow muttered. Why were the inhibitors burning? It's almost as if they were trying to hold back more power than they could control...

Wait, did that mean his power was increasing? But why wouldn't his father say anything about it? As far as he knew, something like this wasn't supposed to happen. There were too many unanswered questions and Shadow would be damned if he didn't find answers. All he had to do wait for Sonic to get back from talking to Knuckles and he would make his move there.