It's finally here...! And coincidentally, it coincides with my sixth year anniversary of being on this site! *I'mgettingold*

Anyway, at long last, we have Shadow's story of Sonic 06! Unlike Sonic and Silver, Shadow isn't recalling anything- he's sort of telling it as it happens, with him forgetting it all in the end anyway. But as it stands, it acts heavily as a sequel to I Am All of Me, so feel free to see it as such! I have nothing to say that I haven't said in Sonic and Silver's stories, other than "this is going to be so awesome", so without further ado, I hope you enjoy! ^^

In the Shadow of a Doubt

The sky was exceedingly dark that night, with angry gray clouds rolling across the sky in a dominant march, and several flakes of snow fell from above and amassed in spades on the ground. Sirens were going off in a singular droning wail, and spotlights were crossing the snow-blanketed ground, on the hunt for an intruder.

But they weren't going to find him for two reasons; one being that he knew well to hide in the shadows…

…and the second being the fact that he was me.

Several armed drones marched out of the vicinity, on the prowl for anything that served to infiltrate their secrets. It was useless for them to resist…for I was coming at them full force; I was getting what I came here for, and I didn't plan on leaving empty-handed.

I activated the rockets in my shoes and hovered over the rapidly deepening snow, crossing ground in record time, even with the army of drones firing in my direction. The shots were fruitless- barely any even managed to nick me, let alone actually make contact. I skated straight through their cross-fire, determination etched on my face without the slightest sign of it vanishing.

All robots I'd passed promptly exploded seconds after I whisked by.

Some I took out by hand; ricocheting off their bodies, spinning through them, punching through them, teleporting behind them and striking them from their blind spots. I could safely say I had plenty of fighting experience under my belt, and it was always a good day when I could put it all to good use.

In one harrowing bound, I leapt over the large security walls and landed within the acropolis, one step closer to my destination. A loud explosion rang out from the other side of the brick barrier- the only remnant of me having been there.

It was then that I chose to duck into the shadows to hide from the sweeping spotlights, also taking the opportunity to rendezvous with my superiors. I quickly checked the communicator a certain two-tailed fox had given me so long ago and proceeded to make the call.

"Transmission from HQ," came the gruff and stoic voice of the GUN Commander, Abraham Tower. "There's an SOS coming from Doctor Eggman's base. Our last communication with our agent was twenty-six hours ago. We expect an immediate rescue…Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Understood," I replied just as seriously, my red gaze scanning the area ahead of me for a safe path I could take. "Initiating the mission now."

Within the time span of a blink, I'd vanished in a spark of white, heading off to see that my job was complete.

My name is Shadow the Hedgehog…a year ago, I'd be nothing more than an amnesiac, one who didn't know who he was or who his friends were…but after several grueling trials, collecting the Chaos Emeralds, and defeating the leader of the alien race who had a hand in creating me, my memories finally returned, and I knew who I was at long last.

Now that I knew of my past, I was ready to move forward, and one of those ways was through working for the military, known as GUN in these parts. I'd proven to work well with agents of GUN in the past, and it was Abraham Tower himself who hired me, using it as his way of apologizing to me for how he treated me before. Seeing as it was all water under the bridge, I was willing to accept his olive branch as a step toward my new life.

And now, here I am, a year later on my latest mission to rescue one of GUN's most important agents, Rouge the Bat, who'd lost communications with HQ over a day ago. She was sent to retrieve a potentially powerful artifact, and now I had to retrieve her.

I'm pretty sure I was only assigned the mission because she's my best friend, but hey, circumstances were circumstances. Now I was faced with the trials of a deadly winter wonderland, but I was more than ready to take it on.

As a matter of fact, I doubt that anything could ever deter me again.

Chapter 1: Saving Agent Rouge

"Doctor Eggman…what is he up to this time?"

The mere fact he was in possession of any sort of artifact was a red flag in itself, seeing as he had an obsession for trying control as many creatures of lore as he possibly could. As for those he managed to bring to life? They swatted him away like the bug he was. You'd think he'd cut and run from such acts after a few tries, but the man was known for his tenacity…

I hurriedly made my way down the snowy hill, expertly dodging trees and hoping for the best as I followed the directions HQ had given me. Seeing as it was snowing pretty heavily, it was hard to see, but weather was the last thing that was going to get me to turn around. I rushed over an outcropping on the snow and took to the air, landing on a weathered grind rail for a speedier alternate route to trudging through the snow. However, as expected, some of Eggman's robots lingered up ahead, but they were much different than the silly-looking Egg Pawns I was used to. They were built with more refined tech, a sleeker design, and didn't bear the eternally-grinning face of their creator.

Thank heavens for small miracles.

In a flash of black I was up against them, taking them down with relatively quick strikes that they never saw coming. Their debris remnants fell into the snow, disappearing quickly under the next wave of snowflakes. Just before I wondered if Eggman's new drones were really that dispensable, I came across a much bigger creation, one that was shooting out lasers in all directions and standing at least four times my size. I scouted it from behind the trunk of a fir tree and contemplated to myself.

"If it loses both its arms, that'll be my chance. It'll be off balance, so I can knock it down."

I teleported onto its shoulder, curling into a ball and using my sharpened quills as a buzz saw to hack off its right arm. The machine stumbled after this, only to use its other arm to try to swat me off. I anticipated this, jumping onto the head and dodging the blow before hurling myself at the other arm. With both arms gone, I alighted back on the ground, then whirled around and landed a kick at the mech's torso. With a loud creak, it fell into the snow, unable to pick itself up and malfunctioning to the point of exploding.

With it gone, I was free to carry on, skating down the hill once again. With Rouge and my mission at the front of my mind, they served as my driving force for the moment, along with the fact that Eggman was brewing something. And just like his namesake, it was probably something rotten.

I took the high road to avoid being detected by the spotlights, but the downside to this was the fact that it was crowded with robots. They served little as an obstacle; they were nothing more than gears and cogs mere seconds after I encountered them.

"Hmm, the door up ahead looks like it leads into the base."

Sure enough, there was a large metallic door that led into the side of a cliff, but it was shut tight, and I really didn't feel like using alternate methods to get in.

"There's gotta be a switch around here somewhere…"

I darted past the door to check the tree up ahead; nothing immediate stuck out, but just as I thought, there was a switch on an out of reach outcropping on the cliff.

"Nothing's ever easy…"

And I knew that better than anyone.

I quickly bounded from the branches of a nearby pine tree, using them as a ladder of sorts to work my way up to higher ground. When I was level with the outcropping, I curled up and threw myself at the switch, knocking into it and successfully opening the way forward. I jumped back down and rounded the cliff again; the door was opening with a slow creak, with a horde of robots waiting behind it. They all took aim at me as soon as I crossed their radar, but I simply stretched out my arm and threw myself into the fray.

"Take this!" I yelled, bounding off the smaller drones and rapidly kicking at the bigger one. I struck swiftly, refusing to allow my adversary a chance to retaliate. With it felled, I carried onward…only to see just who I was looking for.

"Rouge!" I called up to her, watching as she inched her way against the walls of the cliff. She couldn't hear me over the sounds of the winds, even with her excellent ears, and there was certainly no room on that thin ledge for me to teleport next to her. So for the time being, I was going to closely follow her and be there in case she needed me.

Which was doubtful, since she clearly pretty much had her escape all planned out.

S-R

"I might've gotten out of the base, but security's still pretty high…" I mumbled to myself, carefully watching the deadly lasers and swooping spotlights fill the path ahead. "Still, should be a piece of cake for a girl like me!"

As a well-respected government agent by day, and a beautiful, skillful jewel thief by night, there was no way I couldn't enter the doctor's scruffy old base and come out unscathed…I just wasn't expecting the shocking increase in number of his robots. I ended up breaking the communicator that cute little fox boy made for me last year in the midst of a scuffle, and I hadn't been able to contact anyone since…

But I was on my way out now, so no problem!

Eggman's guard was high, but also spread thin at the moment, and I managed to break free of the building with my prize in tow and glide through the air, flying into the freedom of the night and using the cliff side as a cover. Good thing too, because even though I was more than capable of dispatching Eggman's crude creations with a good old fashioned Tornado Kick...the LAST thing I wanted a dreadful oil stain on my white boots.

Still, running into them was inevitable, so I was really lucky that GUN outfitted me with some bombs before I made my way out. With them, I could creep around the corner of the cliffs, toss a bomb, and blow any clunkers that got in my way right off the side of the mountain.

I'm beautiful AND efficient!

The bombs also made it ridiculously easy for me to eliminate the searchlights as a threat- I was elusive enough already, especially with my pristine ivory fur against the pure white snow, but if the doctor wanted to make things simpler on a girl, far be it from me to complain! I was just glad to be out in the field again; being stuck in GUN HQ was always boring, as there were so many other things I could be doing with my time…

But once I was outside, escaping was like second nature. I flew around the pine trees, brought down the doctor's bots one by one, and scaled the walls like a true professional. I was even able to open the door leading out of the base with the simplest of ease…!

"Doctor Eggman is no match for me-!"

…I just wasn't expecting Shadow to be on the other side.

R-S

"Well, hello there, hon! Fancy meeting you here," Rouge greeted me with that flirtatious wink and wave; I just folded my arms and gave her a nod of acknowledgement. She then became a bit more serious and raised an eyebrow. "Of all people though, Shadow, why you?"

"It's a request from the President, issued to the GUN Commander, and negated to me," I explained, racing away from the base with Rouge in tow. She sighed and stretched out her wings.

"Ah, and here I was thinking that you came to get me because you missed me."

"I'm sorry I'm not here on personal business," I stated, breaking in the snow in front of a mess of drones. "But there'll be plenty of time to catch up once we get out of here."

"I dunno, what I found is QUITE a conversation starter." Rouge was trying to tease me with whatever she found; I frankly didn't care. I was cold, and would prefer to get back to GUN HQ as soon as possible.

And it didn't help that we were in a foreign country.

When word spread back home about Eggman taking off toward a base in the White Acropolis, GUN sources poured over maps and globes until they found its location on a relatively small city-state isle of Soleanna. The place had a variety of different landscapes to its name…and Eggman had to pick the farthest, coldest, most secluded and unpleasant area he could to build a base.

And Rouge HAD to investigate it.

"I'm telling you, this is going to open up a lot of new mysteries," Rouge explained to me as she took out the drones ahead of us with her bombs. "Before we go home, maybe we can stop in the city and discuss it over brunch!"

"Do you have any idea what time it is right now?" I asked irritatedly, pointing at the half-moon glowing like the sun in the starry sky. "It's not even dawn and you're talking about brunch!"

Rouge rolled her teal eyes and shook her head. "Still a killjoy after all this time, I see…can't even make a little light conversation-!"

"There are advanced DRONES in our path and you want to chat about tomorrow's meal."

I ducked as Rouge hurled a bomb over my head, taking out the nearest spotlight in one shot. It then occurred to me that I should probably stop talking so condescendingly as long as she had decent explosives.

"If you're done being a letdown, there's an Armed Buggy over there," she pointed out to me, gesturing to a red and black vehicle parked behind a pile of snow. "It's not exactly the fastest mode of transportation, but we can fight back easier…and at least we won't be trudging in snow."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I asked, leaping into the front seat and revving it up. "Let's get moving!"

The ends of Rouge's mouth cured up a little as she flew over and landed in the passenger's seat, and I punched the gas of the Armed Buggy. The vehicle jerked forward, us along with it, but there was nothing to worry about as I had everything under perfect control-

I drove straight into a rock.

"Not a word, Rouge…" I grunted under my breath as a smirk teased on Rouge's lips. I threw the thing in reverse, corrected myself, then started hitting the controls for the turrets.

Large missiles soared out of the buggy and collided with the searchlights, turning them to rubble in seconds. Rouge was clearly impressed by this, as her bombs had nothing on those explosives, and I was just content that we had a decent way to get out of here.

I drove over a ramp and crossed a ravine, sailing into new territory with even more drones and spotlights. I remained expressionless as I took out robots and searchlights alike, their remains scattering on the ground and falling straight into the snow. I tore past the rubble with the buggy, looking for the fastest way out of the Acropolis.

"We need to get out of her quickly!"

"Well you're the one driving, hon; if you're in a rush then step on it," Rouge hummed next to me. I threw her a look before punching the gas again, sending the buggy careening through the snow and destroying anything Eggman-made in the process.

"Shadow, that door is open over there!" Rouge suddenly called, pointing forward. Sure enough, just behind a throng of trees was the way out of this accursed acropolis, so I stepped on it again and leaned into my steering.

"Then hang on!" I shouted, and Rouge was suddenly using my arm as support.

Clearly didn't need to tell her twice.

We left skid marks in the snow if that was even possible, cornering around trees and not stopping for anything until we were safely on the other side of the door.

"I guess that was all right…"

Even then, I kept my foot on the gas, and even and after Rouge looked over her shoulder to make sure we were in the clear, she finally relaxed.

"You know I could have totally gotten out of there without your help, right?"

"Perhaps, but no one's heard from you at HQ in over a day-"

"Some robot broke the screen on my communicator; not my fault," she huffed, folding her arms.

"Maybe you'll run into Tails and he can fix it for you."

"Yeah, like him or Knuckie or anyone's going to be in Soleanna the same time we are…"

She sounded almost disappointed, in a way. I glanced over to her and found that she was suddenly spacey.

"It's been awhile since you've seen any of them, huh?"

"Yeah," she admitted, looking thoughtful. "It's weird though…how close we've all gotten. All it takes is a couple robot attacks, an amnesiac, and an alien invasion to bring people together, huh?"

"Hmm," was all I murmured in response. The topic was just a tad sensitive, and she of all people knew that.

"What, YOU haven't seen any of the gang since the invasion, have you?"

"…can't say I really have," I finally stated with a shrug. "Been kinda busy with work, you know."

Her eyes lit up as she put a hand on my shoulder. "That's why you should get a hobby, like me!"

"Uh, sorry, but midnight raids at a jewel museum aren't really to my interest."

We fell into a bit of silence -I think Rouge was a bit miffed at my retaliation- before anything of importance happened. I also decided that we really didn't need the Armed Buggy anymore, so we jumped out of it and planned to make the rest of the way on foot. It was then that I noticed what Rouge had taken from Eggman's base.

It was small in size but powerful-looking, and it appeared to be some sort of…staff? I was too far away to tell, though the ominous purple glow of the jewel at the center was incredibly eye catching. I guess Rouge saw me staring at it, because she was using it to drum up a conversation again.

"Don't you want to know what this is?"

I still didn't particularly care, regardless of my scanning of the object. I stopped walked and turned to face her to make sure my point got across.

"My assignment was to rescue you; nothing more."

"Fine," she heaved with a sigh. "With you it's ALWAYS business…"

Before I could defend myself, the area around the base suddenly shook, catching Rouge and I entirely off guard. Three robots came soaring into the area from above, but I had a feeling that they weren't the source of the quaking…

Just a hunch.

"…it seems they don't want us to leave," Rouge commented behind me, her grip tightening around the object in her hands. I simply huffed and took a fighting position.

"Let's just get this over with."

I was ready to teleport behind the three drones and take them out simultaneously with a Chaos Blast, but I wasn't expecting a giant robotic dog to leap out of nowhere and glower angrily at me. It was a bit rusty and banged up, like it had been in a fight previously, but it was still full of energy and still posed a threat.

"It's like the doctor's guard dog!" I sneered, activating my hover shoes and gliding around the area to get a better angle on it. Rouge was darting around behind me, just in case there was anything she could do. She stashed her treasure away and spread out her wings, ready for anything.

The Egg Cerberus was prancing around the arena, like a puppy that didn't go outside much. It was really far away from us at the moment, and I wasn't particularly keen on getting too close.

Rouge was.

"Hey, bone breath!" she crooned, standing in an open area trying to get the thing's attention. "Come and get me."

I just stared curiously.

"What in the world are you-"

"Just get behind it while it's distracted!" she hissed through gritted teeth, now flying in the air and still crazily waving her arms. I had no idea what going behind it would do for me, but if Rouge insisted, why not?

Egg Cerberus eventually honed in on Rouge and started thundering over to her, with Rouge staying in one place and hoping for the best. I hurried to skate behind Cerberus, where I realized I could grind on its tail. Jumping up and reaching its back, I noticed that there was an antenna on its head, which was probably where it received its orders.

Just before he could take a bite out of Rouge, I grabbed the tip of the antenna, and found I could control it myself.

"Shadow! Make it crash into something!" Rouge called out to me.

It veered sharply to the left, just barely evading Rouge, and I wasn't sure where I was supposed to drive it to. It just wanted me gone, and it started shaking its head back and forth in an attempt to get me off. Still, I managed to mow it through some searchlight stands and ultimately crash into one of the reinforced steel walls that surrounded us. I bounced off before the collision; Egg Cerberus wasn't doing as well as I was.

"Nice job, Shadow!" Rouge exclaimed, coming back down from the air. "Just keep on intercepting its orders and crashing it into the wall, and he'll go down!"

I wasted no time in getting back at Cerberus' tail; he was so preoccupied with turning back around to get at me that I had just enough time to work my way up his tail again. Bounding across his back, I latched onto the antenna once more and jerked it sharply to the right.

The three drones we encountered earlier tried shooting at me to get me to let go, but Rouge came to my rescue, knocking one of them out with a spin and a kick to the head. It shattered almost instantly upon impact, with the other two taken out by a well-timed bomb toss.

"That takes care of that!" Rouge exclaimed, alighting on the ground rather stylishly. She winked at me, and I used this chance to ram Cerberus into the wall again. I hadn't let go in time, thus the impact of crashing into the wall send me flying, tumbling into the snow for a soft yet unpleasant landing. Rouge was at my side in a flash, but I was on my feet faster, flashing my fangs at the robotic monster and demonstrating that I meant business.

"There was armor on its head," I realized, and Rouge's eyes lit up curiously. "I think I finally broke it off! One more hit should do it in!"

"The front's too dangerous, Shadow! Try going at it from the back again," she told me, which was exactly was I planned to do.

I melted the snow with the flames from my shoes, skating my way over to the back of Cerberus once more. Its face was now exposed, and I had to say, it was a lot less ugly with the armor over its face. It then jumped onto a higher part of the area, proceeding to roar in anguish and lock its gaze onto me.

Well, shoot.

It lunged instantly, and all I saw was a ten ton android canine come soaring down at me, mouth wide open and fangs looking for something to clamp down on. I managed to dodge, but the shockwave it sent out with its jump forced me to the ground.

"Ugnh…!"

"Shadow, get up!" Rouge snapped at me, having flown over the shockwave with no problems. She bent down in the snow and tried to get me to move, but I suppose that dog had some bite to its bark…!

"I'm fine," I stated instantly, pushing myself up off the ground and glowering at my adversary. "This thing's dog days are numbered!"

"Ooh, good one!" she squealed, applauding afterward. I then jumped up and homed in on its tail, barely managing to grab it before Cerberus went careening around the area again. Rouge rushed to fly out of the way, only to be knocked into the snow trying to avoid getting stepped on.

"Argh, do what I tell you…!" I exclaimed, making my way toward the antenna, but Cerberus was a dog that wouldn't fall for old tricks, and I ended up being tossed into the snow once more. Rouge scrambled up from where she was, noticing that the snow around me was glowing red. Cerberus seemed pretty entertained by this as well, since he stopped to gaze at the glowing snow too.

Which was a mistake.

"Death to all who oppose me!"

I rocketed out of the snow, my shoes lit up to the max and keeping me hovered in midair while my aura glowed a dangerous red. Cerberus looked up at me and growled again, as if challenging me to come at it. I didn't want to waste my precious Chaos Energy on this guy, so I flashed forward, smashing into its head and grabbing onto its antenna. Rouge just watched with wide eyes as I wrestled with Cerberus, the crazy machine trying to knock me off again, but there was no way I was going to let him get ME twice.

I eventually started winning out the battle, forcing Cerberus toward the wall. He stumbled a bit, losing traction by the second, and finally, I directed his head into the wall, ricocheting away before I myself got caught in the blast.

It stumbled backward from the impact, struggling to stay standing at this point. It eventually let out one final roar before going lifeless, falling in a slump on the ground, the drifting snow coming down and starting to blanket it in white.

"I really need to stay focused," I muttered under my breath, standing straight and dusting myself off. I've tangled with things much worse than that mechanical mutt, and letting something like that get the best of me was unheard of.

"Thank goodness THAT'S over," sighed Rouge, sauntering over to my side. "Now, I know you're in a hurry to get out of here, but there's a very good reason why that guard dog was in this area."

"And what reason is that?" I asked, only for Rouge to point over to a teleporter, one that was blocked off but the effects of the battle had revealed it for all to see. She grabbed my wrist and started dragging me over to that direction.

"Come on! I bet Eggman's got some MORE treasure stashed around!"

"I think you have less of a nose for treasure and more of a nose for trouble…"

Rouge murmured something under her breath, but still insisted on dragging me along. I couldn't understand why she needed me, but anything related to the doctor always had me on edge…

And for good reason.

. . .

We were transported somewhere into the deepest catacombs of Eggman's base, and Rouge was particularly excited at whatever we were destined to find. Eggman's teleporting technology was top notch as always, but I stayed on alert regardless.

The room we were in was completely made out of metal, with electronics and other tech decorating the walls. Of immediate interest was the painting of a young lady on the wall framed in gold, and the electronic screen with the map of Soleanna on it. Perhaps this trip would produce results after all…

"Ah, Soleanna, the city of water," Rouge hummed, rattling off with her trivia. "It has a constitutional monarchy, you know. The primary industries are tourism and crafting precision machinery."

She then noticed me staring at the picture of the girl on the wall, and felt the need to fill me in on that too.

"The current sovereign is Princess Elise the Third."

Why the heck did Eggman have a picture of her in his base…?

"…so why does Eggman's base lead to an odd place like this?"

For all we knew, maybe this place didn't belong to Eggman, but the odds of that weren't nearly as high as the alternative.

"How should I know? I just followed my orders and retrieved the item that Eggman wanted so badly." Rouge shrugged it off rather quickly. She then twirled the object between her fingers, a twinkle in her eye as she turned to smirk at me. "Anyway, I have a little favor to ask of you. Could you escort me to the GUN rendezvous point?"

"Where's the rendezvous point?" I inquired, already knowing that there was no way to talk myself out of the mission. Rouge pointed up at the electronic map, at the only area that was colored red…

"It's the ancient castle of Soleanna, in Kingdom Valley…"

"Kingdom Valley, hm?"

I found myself staring curiously at that particularly peculiar section of the map. The rest of it was green, so why was only that one section red? Did something happen there, or was it just an area of interest?

Curse you, foreboding sense of curiosity. I had just wanted to go home...and little did I know I was walking straight into the biggest mistake of my life.