Big rolling clouds silently floated towards the castle, occasionally giving off a muffled boom of thunder, each crack growing louder the closer the dark grey mass came. The room was deadly silent except for the steady clicking of the clock above the doorway and the booming of the oncoming storm. The wind outside quickly went from the still, humid air of spring to howling hurricane pre-storm weather.

Shadow thought that just sitting in the room like he was at the moment was a thousand times worse than sitting in that stuffy jail cell. Yeah, he wasn't in an actual prison anymore, but this room was a whole different kind of one. It might have been comfier and he was free of the Queens' guard's careful watch, but he couldn't help but think that it was better not knowing what was going on outside of the jail. Just sitting here, waiting for the green and purple royal triplets to come back and tell him how Sonic's wedding to that Princess bitch, Sally was, was turning out to be absolute torture. As the saying goes, ignorance truly was a bliss.

The first rain drop hit the window the ebony hedgehog was staring out of and the rest soon followed after in rapid succession, creating a quick, drum-like sound on the see through glass. A lightning bolt flashed dangerously close and the thunder from it shook the ground under his chair. The rain had gotten so heavy that he couldn't even see the tree outside his window and Shadow allowed a slight smirk to spread across his muzzle as the thought that the wedding might be delayed by this hurricane like weather. He had seen storms like these before and they always caused great damage. There was minimal chance the royal wedding would be done on time… especially since it was to be an outdoors one.

Shadow could almost picture Sally acting like those bitches on that god awful human show called Bridezillas. Rouge had *cough* forced *cough* him one time to watch it. From that day forward, he had promised himself never to be anywhere near her with rope in a twenty meter facility. He didn't even want to know where she had learned all the different and 'fun' ways she could tie people up with that devilish invention. His body shivered unconsciously in his chair at his own line of thinking.

Another bolt of lightning flashed outside and almost immediately a rocking boom shook the castle once more. Shadow shifted his almost glowing ruby eyes in the darkened room to the door leading outside to the hallway. When Sonia and Manic had left almost two hours ago, he wished that they had left him with some kind of communication device; it was maddening to just sit here like a stay at home 'wife' and wait for her 'husband' to come 'home'.

The already cold extra-large pizza that the two triplets had brought him was still sitting untouched on the table except for the one piece that Manic had managed to snag without his sister's knowledge. At least, until Sonia saw him with it in his hands once they got out in the hallway. Shadows' lips twitched, wanting to be formed into another smirk. He was pretty sure about now that Sonia and Manic actually liked doing these little spats together. It was probably the way that the two of them said they cared for the other without out rightly saying it to one another. Shadow's mood almost immediately turned back to being impatient and, dare he admit it, sad. Those fights made him remember the ones he and Sonic used to have… Before the whole Sally business and when they were still considered rivals.

Shadow's face turned downcast as he was sucked into thoughts of the past. Lightning continued to flash outside, its thunder shook the castle, the wind howled like it was the end of the world and the rain down poured, creating small floods outside in a matter of minutes.

Meanwhile, not very far away, Queen Aleena was rapidly pacing in front of Princess Sally's bedroom. Like every important person in the castle, there was a sub-chamber just outside the real bedroom, which was where the magenta Queen was currently at. Her ever ready yes men, or guards as most people would call them, were giving her curious looks while looking like they were really doing their jobs.

While the sub-chambers held a very tense atmosphere, inside the actual bedchambers was a different story. Inside, Princess Sally was giving such a performance that she would have given even the Bridezillas a run for their money. She was currently attempting to destroy anything she could get her hands on… including an irreplaceable family heirloom that her mother had given her on her own wedding day and so on and so forth.

It was horrible luck that this kind of storm had sprung out of nowhere and caused the wedding to be set back for a day, maybe even a couple days if the storm continued. You never knew how long these things lasted; it was like the Gods were punishing her for forcing marriage on her eldest son against his will. She scowled; it wasn't like she had any choice in the matter! Sonic was making a huge mistake with having a fling with that sorry excuse for a hedgehog! And getting the experiment pregnant to boot!

Oh, she had no doubt that Shadow really loved her son and was never once thinking about taking over the throne. Hell, that hedgehog probably didn't even know about Sonic being a royal, let alone the heir of the throne since she knew that being the King was the last thing her free as the wind son wanted to be. It wasn't exactly something that her son liked to announce to the world, especially since he has gained quite a reputation as a hero the last couple of years.

She heard a loud smash come from inside the bedroom, including a rather pissed off high-pitched female scream, and Queen Aleena knew that something, probably very expensive, found its way into Sallys' hands and a rather aggressive death. She stopped her pacing, gave a deep sigh and rubbed her temples as a headache started to form in her head. She was starting to have deep regrets about signing that contract with King Acorn about his eldest and hers getting married in the future. Yes… very deep regrets.

*Ombra d'amore*

In ways that Queen Aleena didn't know, the storm had been a blessing. Sonic had long ago outrun his guards, but getting out of the castle was another obstacle altogether. Running in rain where you couldn't even see the hand in front of your face while standing still was like taunting the devil himself. In the end, you most likely would get burned… or killed in this matter. He was desperate to get to Shadow, but he wasn't stupid enough to get himself killed along the way.

His pregnant heggie was probably in the prison outside the castle, but finding the place would also be close to impossible to do as well. Sonia and Manic wouldn't have had the same problem as himself since they lived in this damn castle… His siblings! Of course! Why hadn't he thought of them before? They would have better luck than himself in finding Shadow.

With his plan in place, Sonic dashed down the hallway, not even having the slightest clue that he had just been standing right outside of the very hedgehog's room he was looking for in the first place…

Somewhere across the castle, the green and magenta triplets sighed in unison. Their plan had been to try to sabotage as much of the wedding preparations as possible. Like, wiping sewer sludge, curtsy of Manic and friends, all over the table cloths, bugs in the food and drinks and, Manic's personal favorite, a horde of mice being unleashed during the practice ceremony. However, the storm had put a damper on their plans as the wedding planners scrambled to pack in all the preparations in one space and it would probably look very unusual for the other two siblings of the royal family to just prance around the room like the party had already begun.

"Should we get back to Shadow to make sure that no one found him?" Manic suggested when it seemed like there was nothing they could do to delay the wedding anymore at the moment.

Sonia shook her head; Shadow was probably in the safest place he could be at the moment. Their mother wouldn't have dreamed that an elusive hedgehog like Shadow to be still in the castle, let alone in a room right down the hallway from Queen Aleena's own bedchambers. No, they had to keep away for the time being so they wouldn't draw any more attention to his room than necessary.

"Then what should we do now?"

"Camouflage."

"Camouflage?"

Sonia turned to look at her brother and away from the annoyed wedding designers. "Yes, camouflage. We don't want Mom to get suspicious of us, so we need to put on an act to make her think we're looking forward to the wedding."

Manic cocked his head to the side in confusion. "But we're not looking forward to the wedding, so… why?"

Despite herself, Sonia faceplamed. She sighed and started explaining her plan all over again so that even someone like Winnie the Pooh or Big the Cat would understand. Once she was finished, and when it looked like Manic finally understood, they headed off to find Princess Sally.

Sabotaging the wedding would have been only a temporary solution, as well as the storm; they needed to come up with something permanent to stop their mother's plans on getting Sonic married off. And Princess Sally was that plan. If they could somehow convince her that she would be better off without become Queen and marrying Sonic, then everything so far would be void. It was common law that if the eldest son of the royal family wasn't to be politically married off, than he could choose whoever he wanted as his partner.

Yes, partner. When the laws were written, nobody had ever thought that two men or women would ever fall in love with each other; it just wasn't something that computed in their minds back then would ever happen. That was the loophole that Sonia and Manic had planned to use right from the start.

It was true that she had a small crush on Shadow before this all happened or maybe it was just before she knew what was going on, she wasn't quite sure. However, she did know one thing; Sonic had never shown any real interest with anybody before Shadow. Sonic's relationship with Sally was always one of like a sister and he had tried so hard to turn it into something more than that, but it never did despite his best efforts. She herself had so many boyfriends and crushes and she couldn't and wouldn't take the one love her brother had ever had.

Sonic had always been there for both Manic and her and now… it was time to pay back the favor. Now was the time for the royal family to step down and for the people to finally take over.

Sonia took out her communicator and punched in the Code Beta password and, almost immediately, a voice responded.

"Is it finally time, Sonia?"

"Yes it is, Rotor. Get everyone assembled by the time this storm is over… and tell Mina that her dream of crashing a wedding is about to come true." Sonia heard a muffled squeal of joy come from the communicator and smiled.

"Got it Sonia," she heard a slight smile coming from Rotor's voice and knew she could count on the guys on the other line. "See ya guys soon." A click came from the small device in her hand and she threw in on the ground before smashing it under her foot. She didn't want anyone to be able to detect their signal before her friends got here.

Whether they convinced Sally or not, they were going to need backup. Their mother wasn't going to take the decision sitting down and when they needed help, they had it. Unlike Queen Aleena, Sonic, Sonia and Manic had seen what the community was like. The people wanted more say in things and having a monarchy wasn't helping anything.

Their friends were formed for a reason. Sonia and Manic had created the group for their own revolution against the monarchy before the entire population rallied and ended up killing dozens of people. Having a group of specialists and inside help was the best way to go. The marriage… had just sped things up a little bit.

"Sonia! Manic!" Said hedgehogs turned around to see their overjoyed brother making his way over to them. "Guys, I've been looking all over for you! Have you seen Shadow anywhere?"

Manic looked away as Sonia answered. "No, we haven't, Sonic." The blue speed demon's joy quickly diminished. They couldn't tell their brother where Shadow was since the first thing he would do would be to take the ebony hedgehog as far away as possible from this place… and ruin all the planning that they've made so far.

"Could you, at least, help me find him?" Sonic knew it was an empty request by the way his siblings were looking at him, but he had to at least try.

His question was met with silence. Another strike of lightning flashed outside and the lights flickered out, leaving the three of them in darkness. "I'm sorry Sonic, but it would be best just to let things take their course," Sonia's voice spoke out in the blackness. Two pairs of footsteps echoed and Sonic knew that his siblings had taken their leave. It truly looked like he was all alone on this one.

Hah! You guys thought I was gone for good, didn't ya? Nope! Can't get rid of me that easily!

Shadow: Damn… Thought she was gone.

Ever notice that you use the word 'damn' too much, Shadow? *Flashes back to the game Shadow the Hedgehog.*

Shadow: … No…

*Rolls my eyes* Oh, before I sign off for now I would like to point out that I don't have anything against the show Bridezillas. Heck, I haven't even seen an episode. Oh, and you might want to brush up on some Archie Sonic characters and a lot of the old ones since I'll most likely be using a lot of them in the future.

So, like always, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!