Ok, here's chapter 2. I just made them into 2 chapters so that they wouldn't be too long. Enjoy.

As she stepped in her house she was heading upstairs to her room until she noticed something in the living room. Or actually someone, sitting on the couch. She went there to see who she thought she saw, and she was right. Shadow himself was sitting right there on the couch.

She started stepping closer to him, to make sure it was him and he was real. "So, you replaced me with that echidna boy?" Shadow said, and turned to face her. She walked around the couch in order to see him completely. His face following her with every step she made. She was really scared by all of this, but decided that she was imagining things.

She walked out of the living room and headed to her room. "You're not real! I'm just imagining things because I'm tired!" She said trying to convince herself more than Shadow. When she entered her room, she looked around but didn't see him there, she sighed in relief "See, you're not real.".

She sat on her bed and removed her shoes. Then looked beside her to see Shadow sitting right next to her. Her eyes widened in shock. "I'm as real as you are, sweetheart." He told her calmly. "No you're not, and I'm not crazy! I know I'm not. Now go away and leave me alone!" She yelled and there was a hint of sadness in her tone.

He held her face in his hands and turned it to face his. "Go away? Why? Didn't you always wish that I'd be back? Well, I'm here for you now. Isn't this what you want?" he asked her sadly. "Your… your hands… I can feel them. I can feel you. You're not a ghost." She said almost crying.

"No Rouge, I'm not. I told you I'm real. And I'm here for you." He said in soft tone this time. She didn't know what to believe. She wanted him more than anything in the world. But she knew he wasn't real, or at least he wasn't alive.

"Why are you here? Why now? I'm finally starting to move on and go forward with my life. And now… now you're back… what am I supposed to do? Let go of the world and be with you? Or ignore you and try to move on?" She said crying.

He hugged her and ran his fingers in her hair. "Rouge, I love you. And you love me. Where's the harm in us being together?" he asked her softly. "Knuckles loves me, and he's alive. I can live my life with him… but Shadow… you're gone, I can't be with you... And one more thing, why wasn't Knuckles able to see you before?"

He was silent for a moment then took a deep breath. "You're the only one who can see me Rouge. Don't ask me why, these are the rules, I don't make them. But I'm sorry to say this, I'm not gonna leave you. I'm here to stay whether you like it or not." She looked at him then said "Please, leave. I can't deal with this now." He looked at her watery eyes, wiped her tears then said "Sorry."

"Well, will you please go now? I wanna change and get ready for bed." She told him after a few seconds. "Sure, I'll see you in the morning." He said then disappeared. She started getting ready for bed while she was thinking what to believe. When she was done, she lied on her bed with the same thoughts playing over and over in her head. She decided to leave it all for tomorrow and drifted into sleep.

When the morning came, the sun shone in Rouge's face. She opened her eyes slowly to find Shadow sitting on the chair right in front of her. "Good morning, beautiful." He said. "You're still here? So I wan't dreaming or imagining things… why didn't you leave?" She asked while hitting him with the pillow.

"I told you. I'm not leaving. At least not yet." He replied after he dodged the pillow. She looked at him a little confused, then just ignored him. She went to the bathroom to get ready for a new day.

As she was getting ready, Shadow was following her everywhere, except for the bathroom, she needs her privacy. She kept looking at him from time to time but didn't say a word to him, she thought if she pretended he's not there he'll probably get bored and leave her.

When she was done, she went outside to head for her work place. It was a nice day, she decided to walk to work. Shadow was still following her, and she was still ignoring him.

He decided to break the silent "You know, I went to see Maria. She's still as beautiful as ever. Not as beautiful as you, but she's still very beautiful. We talked about a lot of stuff. And she knew right away that there was someone in my heart beside her. I told her everything about you and she just smiled then told me not to let go of you." He told her smiling.

"So, is this why you came back? Because she told you not to let go of me?" She asked him. "Not really. Well, it's part of the story but not the whole thing." He told her. "Then what's the whole story?" She asked again. "Sorry, baby. Can't tell you." She was about to say something but decided not to and just let it go.

After a boring long day at work, Rouge was heading home when she received a message on her cell phone. Shadow raised an eyebrow and got a little curious at it. He looked at her phone's screen to see it from Knuckles. It said 'Be ready soon. I'm coming to take you out. Ps. wear casual.' She looked at Shadow to see his reaction but he was calm.

"you've got nothing to say?" She asked him. "No." he answered simply. "Ok. Whatever you say.". With that she was home so she started getting ready for her date. When she was doing her make-up she looked at Shadow to see him still there like her shadow. "You're not coming, by the way." She told him.

"Says who?" He asked her. "Says I. this is a date between two people. You're not coming." She replied a little furious by him. "Don't worry. I'll be good. You won't even know I'm there." He said teasingly. "No. You're not! Don't even think about it." She replied feeling herself getting a little angry. "Too late, I've already thought about it. And besides, there's nothing you can do to stop me." He said smirking. "God! You're like a pain in the back!" She said angrily.

Just as she was ready, Knuckles was at the door. She went downstairs and opened the door smiling. "Hey honey. I missed you. Hope you feel better now." He said while embracing her. She returned the embrace, looked at Shadow then said "Yes, I guess.". "Shall we go?" Knuckles asked her. She nodded and they headed outside.

They first went to the park, and talked about pointless stuff while they had ice cream. They watched the sunset together. Shadow was with them the entire time, he was silent as he promised but from the way he looked, he wasn't amused.

"Care for dinner?" Knuckles asked her. She thought for a moment then smiled "Now that you mentioned it, I'm actually hungry." They both got up and started leaving the park and heading for a nice restaurant. Not one of those fancy places. Just a normal place where they can eat normally.

While they were walking Shadow finally decided to speak "Seriously, Rouge. You're not the kind of girls who would enjoy these stupid dates. You like to go wild, I know you. You like to stay up all night partying, not going to stupid restaurants and just talking. Dump this idiot and be with me." She looked at him with a death glare then said from under her breath "Shut up!". Knuckles looked at her confused "Did you say something?" He asked her. "No, I was just coughing." She answered with a smile.

They went to the restaurant and had a pleasant meal. They were both having good time. "Well, excuse me. I need to go fix my make-up." She said while getting up and heading for the ladies restroom. "Seriously Rouge, dump him. You know just as much as I do that he's an idiot." Shadow told her while he followed her.

As they reached the door to the ladies restroom Shadow stopped following her and she went inside. She looked around her and Shadow was no where to be found. "Where did you go?" She asked Shadow. "You know I'm not allowed in here." He said from outside.

She paused for a moment then said "Like you were allowed in my house and my room without my permission?" He chuckled a bit then said "You're my girlfriend. Of course I'm allowed in your house." "I'm not your girlfriend. Come in here right now." She said really mad now. By the tone she had, he decided not to tease anymore, he appeared in front of her.

"What do you want?" he asked her sounding more serious this time. "I want to know. Why are you here? Please tell me. Why now? If you really loved me and you wanted to be with me, you would've come a long time ago. It doesn't take 2 years to realize that you wanna be with the one you love." She told him, tears sliding down her cheeks.

He was silent for what seemed like forever. He came close to her and held her in his arms. "Don't cry. I don't like seeing you sad… do you really wanna know why I'm here? Are you sure you can handle it?" He asked her.

"Just say it. I can handle it. No matter what it is." She replied softly. He took a deep breath "Although I'm not supposed to tell you, but I will anyway, because I can't handle seeing you like this." He paused for a short while then he continued.

"Rouge, the reason I came back now is to… to take you with me. If I'm here with you we can go together, but if we're not together then I'm not sure I'll be able to find you and be with you." She looked at him both confused and worried. She thought she knew what he meant but she didn't want to believe it.

"What do you mean by take me with you and be together?" She asked afraid of the answer she may receive. "Rouge, you're not staying here for long. You're gonna die soon." He told her. She started sobbing harder, she was never afraid of death. But when she's actually facing it, she's afraid. No-one wants to die.

"No. no… you're lying." She tried convincing herself otherwise. "I wish I were." He answered her, feeling himself sobbing as well. She freed herself from his grip "So, you're telling me that you leave me for 2 years, then come back to me when I finally start to move on to tell me that I'm gonna die soon?" "Rouge, please. I know this is hard for you. But you have to believe me. I would never lie to you. Mostly at something this serious." He told her.

"Shadow, please leave me alone. I need to be alone." She told him. "Ok. But I just wanna remind you that Knuckles is waiting outside." He said then disappeared. Rouge's eyes widened as she remembered Knuckles 'Oh no, Knuckles.' She wiped her tears and fixed her look then went outside trying to fake a smile.

"Hey, honey. What took you so long? And you look upset, are you ok?" He asked her. "Yes. Kinda. I just need to go home, please." She told him in a sad tone. He knew something was wrong but decided to let it slip by and when she's ready to tell him, she will. He paid the pill and they left the restaurant.

When she got home, she was still trying to soak in the information she heard. She decided the best thing she could do was to go to bed and take a rest. She was having hard time falling asleep but soon feel asleep due to being exhausted. She was thankful that she didn't have work the next day, she just couldn't deal with anyone at her state.

She slept long that day. Part of her didn't want to wake up because she knew if she woke up she'd have to deal with the ugly truth, and that was the last thing she wanted right now. Shadow was sitting by her side, staring at her. He didn't want to be the reason for her sadness, but what was he supposed to do. She asked him why he was there and he didn't wanna lie to her.

Suddenly a loud crash was heard from outside which startled Shadow and woke Rouge up. He quickly disappeared, he knew she didn't want to see him right now. She looked out the window to see Eggman attacking the city. Then suddenly her phone starting ringing, she grabbed it and answered, it was the commander.

'Rouge, I know you're not working today, but Eggman is attacking the city, and we could use your help.' She sighed then said "Fine, I'll be there soon." 'Thanks. We're waiting for you.' She hung up and quickly got ready then headed to where Eggman was.

As she reached the place. She saw Sonic, Tails and Knuckles already fighting Eggman's robot. G.U.N soldiers were also trying to fight the robots but they were no match for them.

Rouge started helping the others too, breaking a robot after the other. "ROUGE WATCH OUT!" Knuckles screamed. Rouge turned around, everything seemed to move slowly around her. Then suddenly, a shot ran through her chest making a hole in there.

Shadow then appeared in front of her, he held out his hand to her then said "Are you ready to come with me?" She was too weak to answer him, but it was obvious it was a yes. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them… she was no longer in station square fighting Eggman's robots.

She was in a beautiful garden, the sky looked amazing. Birds were singing everywhere. Flowers were surrounding the whole place that you could no longer see the green grass. She heard someone approaching her from behind, when she turned around she saw Shadow standing there smiling.

"Welcome to heaven, Rouge." He said. She smiled at the thought then ran to him and hugged him. He hugged her back and they kissed passionately. They both broke the kiss and stared deep at eachother's eyes smiling. "I really missed you." Shadow spoke softly. She smiled then said "I know. I missed you too. I'm so glad we're finally together. Nothing can now ruin this for us."

'ROUGE! WAKE UP! PLEASE!' Rouge heard Knuckles shouting for her to wake up. Her eyes widened and she asked "Did you hear that?" "No. I didn't hear anything." Shadow answered her. "It's Knuckles. He's calling me. He's telling me to wake up. I have to go. I can't leave him." She said worriedly.

"Rouge, I know this will sound selfish. But just ignore it. We belong together." Shadow tried convincing her. "I can't. when you died… I would've done anything to have you back… and I know Knuckles feels the same. I'm sorry Shadow. But I can't leave him heartbroken alone." She said sadly.

'ROUGE! DON'T YOU DIE ON ME! PLEASE WAKE UP!' She heard Knuckles calling for her again. "He's calling again." She told Shadow. "Rouge, I've heard from trusted sources that he's gonna be just fine and he'll find love again." Shadow told her. "Are you sure?" Rouge asked. "As I said before. I would never lie to you." He said smiling.

She was silent for a moment then she said "I don't hear Knuckles' voice anymore." He looked at her before answering "It either means he stopped trying. Or it's too late for you to go back there."

Back in reality, Knuckles was holding Rouge's body shaking it, trying to wake her. "Rouge, please don't go! Don't leave me!" He said crying. Sonic came to him. He placed his hand on his shoulder then said "I'm sorry, buddy. She's gone." Knuckles looked up at him still crying then looked back at Rouge and said "I will always love you."

The ambulance soon arrived after her death, and took her dead body. Everyone was sad. 2 years ago they lost Shadow, and now they lost Rouge. Eggman was gonna pay big time for this.

But in heaven, both Shadow and Rouge were happy. They didn't care about a thing. They had nothing to worry about. Suddenly a little girl with blond hair came to them and greeted them. Shadow smiled at her then looked at Rouge "Rouge, this is Maria. Maria, this is Rouge." He said to both of them. They both smiled and shook hands. They talked and laughed then Shadow took Rouge in his arms and kissed her and they both lived happily ever after… or died happily ever after… or whatever, they were both happy together. The End.