CHAPTER 1

MISSING YOU

It was another day at the Chaotix, Shadow was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed looking over to Rouge sitting on a desk filing her nails. She looked mighty depressed. His ears tilted down, 'She looks so sad. I wonder what she's thinking about. I hope she doesn't plan to break up with me. I'd better go find out what's wrong with her.' As he uncrossed his arms, he was about to walk over to her until Espio came up to him.

"Hey Shad, I gotta talk to you."

"I don't have time for this right now. I gotta talk to Rouge for a sec."

"But that's what I have to talk about."

"You know what's wrong with her?"

He shook his head, "Not really, I don't know what's been on her mind but I can give you some advice."

The hedgehog rose an eyebrow, "Why must I listen to your advice when you can't even get a girl for yourself?"

The chameleon crossed his arms, "Okay so I've had some minor setbacks with Tonya, but hey you'll see. It'll work out. Anyway, I got a great idea. The carnival's in town. Maybe you can ask her to go with you tonight. Then maybe she'll open up and tell you what's wrong."

"I guess that'll work, but what if she says no?"

"She'll say yes. I'm positive. Now get your ass over there." He pushed him over towards Rouge.

Shadow almost fell to the floor right in front of her, but he caught himself by grabbing the desk. His eyes flashed over to the chameleon with annoyance.

Espio shrugged and quickly turned away from him.

Afterwards Shadow faced Rouge with a small smile, "Hey, love."

Rouge put away her nailfile and had her attention on the hedgehog. "Hi, Shadow", she said in a sad tone.

"So uh Rouge, I heard that the carnival's in town tonight. Wanna go?"

She shrugged like she didn't care, "Sure, why not?"

"Great, I'll pick you up around seven."

"Sounds good to me." She replied with a small smile.

Before he could say anything else, he was pulled away from her by Espio.

"Well?"

He sighed, "She said yes."

"Wow, I'm surprised. After that poor performance I thought she would say no."

He crossed his arms and turned away from him, "You're really starting to piss me off, Es."

"Wha-what did I say?"

His red eyes focused on Rouge once again, 'I hope she's all right.'

Later that night at the carnival, Shadow and Rouge were sitting at a small table. Shadow was eating a hot dog while Rouge was drinking lemonade.

Rouge looked up at Shadow, "So are you enjoying yourself?"

He made a nod, "For the most part."

She smiled a bit, "You threw up after every ride."

"Now I learned not to eat before getting on rides that spin around."

Her smile then faded, "Shadow, I know why you brought me here. You were wondering why I was so sad."

He nodded, "Yeah, you don't have to tell me the reason why. I just wanted to see you happy again."

"That's very sweet of you, Shadow but...I just..."

"What is it?"

She looked away from him a bit, "If I tell you, you won't get mad with me will you?"

"No not at all."

She faced him again, "Okay, I kinda...miss Midnight."

Shadow's eyes widened with disbelief, "Midnight? The black and red wolf Midnight? The guy who tried to make road kill out of me?"

"See! I knew you would get upset."

"No! No! I'm not upset about that. Honest. I understand what you're saying, Rouge. You two were pretty close, but I had no choice. If I didn't kill him, then you wouldn't have this handsome hedgehog for a boyfriend."

She smiled faintly at the hedgehog, "Well, you're right about that."

Shadow placed his hand on hers and smiled, "And believe me Rouge, Midnight will come back."

"He will?"

"Of course he will. He's an artificial life form after all. Hao can easily create another Midnight if he wanted to."

"But what if he doesn't remember me?"

"Midnight will never forget a kind person like you, Rouge. It'll take more than Hao to make him forget." He then watched Rouge get out of her chair, walk over to him, and kiss him on his lips.

She kissed him for an eternity until she finally took her mouth from his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes, "You always know what to say."

He placed his hands around her waist, "I guess I do", he was about to lean in and kiss her again until a young yellow and black bee flew up to them making a fake cough.

Shadow and Rouge faced him with annoyance.

"Uh sorry to ruin your date, but we got a problem down at the graveyard."

"What is it?" Shadow asked.

"It's Nails."

"Nails!" Rouge shouted with anger. She grabbed Shadow's coat and shook him a bit. "Shadow, send us there with Chaos Control. It'll be a lot faster."

"Last time I checked, I was second in command." He held Rouge around her waist. "Chaos Control!" A green light surrounded them.

"Hey wait for me!" Charmy quickly flew over to them and flew into the green light.

Then they all disappeared.

When they got to the graveyard, they saw Vector, Espio, and Tonya confronting a black bat that had her back turned to them.

Shadow, Rouge, and Charmy joined them.

"Vector, what's going on?" Shadow asked.

Vector faced the black hedgehog, "Looks like Nails is up to her old tricks. Probably about you again."

"She better lay off of my hedgehog!" Rouge always knew Nails was determined about getting her hands on Shadow ever since he saved them from Nack. She had her eyes focused on Nails who still had her back turned, "Nails, what are you up to this time. The same shit you usually do?"

"Actually Rouge, this time it's a little different. This dog learned a new trick." She said while she was holding something in her arms.

"What? What are you talking about?" Rouge said frustrated.

"What do you have? Turn around." Tonya ordered in a firm voice.

The bat turned to the group with a young female brown squirrel child in her arms.

She looked barely conscious.

The group gasped in shock.

"Shadow", Espio spoke. "Is that...Kayla?"

"It can't be. She's supposed to be dead." Shadow glared at the bat, "Nails, you didn't..."

She nodded, "Of course I did. It's a new ability I learned. I did it because I felt so heartbroken when you failed to protect her from the Street Punks, so brought her back for you to make you happy."

"I don't know how you found out about her and how to bring the dead back to life, but you know damn well if you bring someone back from the dead, they won't be the same person that they once were."

Her ears tilted down, "I'm sorry, Shadow. I didn't know. I was just trying to make you like me."

Shadow had no pity for her and her lame lies, "Sorry, I don't date whores."

Nails gritted her teeth and carefully put the girl down on the grass, "You just wait, Shadow. You will be mine." Then a black aura surrounded her body and soon she had disappeared.

Charmy crossed his arms, "Well she escaped again."

"Figures", Rouge murmured.

Shadow fell on his knees and took the barely conscious girl in his arms. "Kayla", he whispered. "Can you hear me? Please say something."

The child's mouth started to move but it took quite a while before she even said anything. It took time for her eyes to focus on the black hedgehog in front of her. Her eyes were halfway open and she could barely picture him in her mind. Then it clicked, "...De-Detective H-He-Hedgehog..." she spoke in a low voice.

Shadow felt his throat hurting and tears swelling in his eyes. He felt so happy and relieved that she had remembered him. He nodded slightly, "Yes, that's right, Kayla. It's me. Detective Hedgehog."

With the little strength she had with her at the moment, she pulled herself closer to him and started to cry on his coat. She was probably scared of her new surroundings and Shadow was the only one she felt safe around at the time.

He held her closer to him picked her body from the ground. "I won't let you go, Kayla", he whispered in her ear. "Not this time."