Dark Rooms and Darker Deals

AN: So I had this idea and I wrote it. I thought it might be a pretty cool little fic idea so here you go! Enjoy, or not. Feedback and constructive criticism are dearly loved. :)

"What would you do to bring her back?" Rouge's fingers run lightly up Shadow's forearm as the two partners lounge in one of the (many) darkened rooms in Rouge's club.

The pointed emphasis Rouge placed on the pronoun made it clear exactly who she was talking about.

It was a question that had always dangled at the back of Shadow's mind ever since awakening but he had never ever voiced it aloud. Since overcoming his amnesia the desperate thoughts had lessened to a tiny whisper.

After casting away what he had been created to do and instead focusing on what he wanted to do Maria's name hung over him like a warm, comforting cloud when he thought of their time together instead of a driving force for revenge.

But the question Rouge gave him sent sparks up his spine.

"Even after all this time together I still don't understand what you're talking about half the time," he muttered in response, a small part of his mind briefly entertaining fantasies of somehow reviving his long dead companion but the logical processes in his brain quashing them.

"I mean, what it would be worth to you to have Maria, sweet, innocent, angelic little Maria live and in the flesh standing right here in front of you?"

Shadow suddenly breaks away from Rouge's contact as if he had been scalded.

"What the hell are you talking about, Rouge?"

The only light in the room comes from the moonlight softly shining through the curtains closed over the windows and Shadow's eyesight isn't the greatest at night but a part of him swears that his companion's eyes seem to… flicker.

The bat is suddenly standing, arms crossed over her ample chest.

Normally covered by the heart shaped breastplate in her standard jumpsuit, Shadow is given (a more revealing than usual) look into her cleavage by the slinky black dress she is wearing.

While Shadow was more than used to some of her more risque outfits (you see a lot when living with the world's self proclaimed "Biggest Jewel Thief") but the almost obscene way the dress hugged her figure, leaving nothing to the imagination, cast clouds of unease in Shadow's mind.

"What part of 'live and in the flesh' is so hard for you to understand?" Her voice rises in irritation as she advances towards the ultimate life form with catlike grace.

This Rouge was much different than the teasing, flirtatious figure he had come to know.

"I'm straight up offering to bring her back. All doe eyed and innocent and with that atrocious sounding blue dress you always mentioned her wearing."

Shadow's face suddenly paled a stark, unhealthy white, his mind envisioning the shaking, screaming figure of Gerald Robotnik and his rants and curses, his obsession with avenging Maria driving him to the breaking point. "How would you do that? Why?"

Rouge placed a hand to her chest as if grievously wounded, "Oh come now, Shadow. I only care about what's best for you."

She puts a finger to her chin in contemplation for moment. "Well, wait. Scratch that. *She* cares about your feelings and health and all that sentimental drivel."

"I, on the other hand, " and suddenly her aquamarine colored eyes fall away to become completely empty. Completely black. "only want to tear out that sweet, sweet, suffering soul of yours."

Rouge could not even finish her sentence before she is staring into the barrel of one of Shadow's handguns. She applies light pressure to the opening with one manicured, lacquered nail and clicks her tongue at him in admonishment.

"Ah, ah, ah. Pull the trigger here and your lady friend here will not only have a ruined dress but there will be a big old bloody hole in her that can't be fixed! All that gore would be a bitch to clean."

"Now let's get to talking business, shall we?"

And before Shadow knows it the gun is knocked loose from his hands and he is blown across the room by a kick to the chest.

He lands against the wall (painted in violet hues that reminded him of the real Rouge) with an unceremonious whump. He grimaces, ignoring the pain as he grips the Chaos Emerald he always carries with him and mentally prepares himself for a counterattack.

"Oh no no no, Mr. Short Dark and Surly. If you try any of your chaos energy tricks to get away I'll kill this bag of meat myself. I don't think you want that."

Shadow reluctantly lets the green stone clatter to the floor. He brings himself to full height and glares at Rouge. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Did you not listen to a word of what I just said?" The woman who is Rouge and not Rouge grinds her heel angrily into the floor in frustration.

"I'm a demon, hot shot." At Shadow's blank stare she rolls her eyes in further exasperation. "Minion of hell? Servant of Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, expert at ripping out people's insides yada yada blah blah surely you've heard the spiel before?"

Shadow continues to stare in defiance, holding this… this things gaze in contempt being the only act of resistance he could afford. He crosses his arms before speaking, "Go on."

The demon inhabiting Rouge's body kneads at her temples with a melodramatic sigh. Her lacquered nails glint in the limited amount of moonlight.

"God I didn't know the Ultimate Lifeform could be so ultimately ignorant. Okay, the head honcho downstairs," she gestures to the floor and Shadow smiles in spite of himself thinking of the king of hell residing in Club Rouge's basement, "is on a…" her hands whirl in the air as she searches for a word, "donation drive, if you will. For souls."

"And I don't know when Crowley's tastes slipped over to the short and furry side of things but he sent me to make a deal and collect yours."

Shadow's eyebrows raised, "Mine? What good is my soul? I would think you'd go for someone more heroic, like Sonic."

And he cannot help but grin wider as Rouge's voice keens in irritation.

Her expression morphs into one resembling disgust as she answers, "Euchhh, Sonic's soul? One drenched in sugar, spice, and everything stupid? Crowley doesn't deal in heroism, Shadow."

And suddenly the demon wearing his best friend's face is close enough where he can feel her hot breath on his cheek. And it stinks like sulfur.

"He wants people that have been dipped in darkness. Those who are in touch with their primal selves. You've seen and dealt death, Shadow. You've shot, and stabbed, and fought all in the name of vengeance and wiped the blood off of your hands. Those are the souls most easily broken in hell."

"I sound like such a keeper," Shadow snorted.

"Maria wouldn't mind, you know."

Shadow is taken aback at the frankness of her voice.

"All the things you've done, she wouldn't know a thing. She'd still be that innocent little girl from onboard the ARK fifty years ago. She wouldn't judge, or fear, or hate. She would only love."

Her voice is earnest and true, which for a moment makes him think that it's actually Rouge talking to him and not a demon writhing inside of her using her as a puppet. However, her smile is so lewd that Shadow feels almost physically ill. Despite his misgivings he asks her, "Tell me about this deal."

"See, isn't this easy? You should've just asked me in the first place!" She giggles in a coquettish manner.

"You make this deal with me, and Maria will be here as if she'd never left you," Rouge places her chin on her hand and leans in closer to Shadow with a vampiric smile, "and for ten, fifteen, even twenty years, she'll stay with you and have the life she never got to have. And whenever the timer's up, and you're still dark, broody, and devilishly handsome and I'm starting to sag from middle age, I'll come to collect your soul. Easy and painless, really."

"And hey, cool thing about being a demon? You can hop from body to body like frogs on lily pads. Vessel of choice gets scratched up? Leap right in to the next poor soul!"

"You're connected with this primal, raw energy that fills you up and makes you stronger and faster and more powerful than even what your master Gerald had dreamed of. Hell, Crowley doesn't even care that you grew in a tube instead of being born the natural and sweaty way."

"What do I have to do to make this deal?" Shadow asks before he can stop himself, cursing his weakness.

"All it takes is a kiss."

Despite all his misgivings a small midge of his conscience began to gnaw away at the logic and emotional processes of his brain.

Think of Maria, it whispers to him, a naughty child telling a secret. She was too young to die, too innocent. You were the one who got to escape and live out your life! Think of all the times she asked you, "What do you think it's like down there, Shadow?"

And suddenly all he can see is Maria, slumping pitifully against the glass paneling of the escape mechanism. Tears are glistening in her eyes as blood is slowly starting to bloom from the pale, blue cotton of her dress. She is pulling weakly at the release lever and her skin is already beginning to pale.

"Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."

And before he can stop himself and with her last words reverberating in his consciousness, Shadow is kissing Rouge and not Rouge. He roughly pulls her towards him and his lips almost devour hers, inhaling her scent and taste, the last drop of water to a man dying of thirst.

He pulls away after what seems like a lifetime yet is only moments, numb to everything. He is unable to hear the cruel laughter that emits from his best friend's mouth, a high pitched, merciless cackle before her mouth opens wide and expels an inky, living black cloud that fills the room with thunder as Rouge crumples to the floor unconscious. He does not know how long he waits for Maria and is unaware of Rouge shaking him and screaming at him, and only barely feels the stinging sensation when she slaps him.

Because, really, he had died when Maria did.