(I'm bad with titles. Thank you, ( yokai2love ) for your suggestion for ideas. Hope you like the chapter.)

Angle Island...

        Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of Angle Island and the Master Emerald. The last of the Knuckles Clan, he has defeated enemy after enemies who dared cross him, overcoming every struggle. However, after all this time he currently is struggle with a different problem... "How do you? Can you hear me now, Rouge?" The red Echidna asked his girlfriend over the video feed.

        Tails, who is off to the side setting up some kind of security device, looks over to him. "IS THE SOUND TURNED ON?" The Fox asked.

        "Yes, its turned on!." Knuckles calls back... He turns on the sound. "Can you hear me?"

        *"Yes, I can hear you, Knuki."* Rouge cood. *"Although just seeing your handsome face is more than enough."* Rouge smiles warmly at Knuckles, and he returned it with a bashful one. *"Hold on, I want to show you something."* She tells him as she reaches over the screen. Knuckles face gets redder, because as she reaches over the camera is now looking down her shirt.

        "Umm. I, really like your outfit." He tells her. She was wearing a khaki long sleeve shirt, with brown cargo pants for a change.

        She looks into the camera with a mischievous smile, closing her eyelids a little. *"Did you enjoy that little peep show."* There is comfortable silence between them.

        "So, what did you want to show me?" He asked. Rouge holds up a photo they took at the dig sight. It was a picture of a wall with various symbols and images. "These look a lot like the ruins on Angel Island!."

        *"I won't know for sure until we get some of these finds back to a real lab but going off my father's notes. I believe this find predates the Echidna clans by 1000 years."*

        Rouge has been part of an excavation team for 3 months now. 4 months ago, some mountain climbers were on an expansion, however during their climb there was a small trimmer. What was once believed to be a forgotten Eggman base, turned out to be a Historical find. Knuckles made sure to thank Shadow for his recommendation of Rouge, to the team. He and Shadow really aren't on the best of terms, but when it comes to Rouge, they have a mutual understanding.

        *"Knuckles. Knuckles, can you hear me?"* Rouge called into the camera. "What were you thinking?"*

        Knuckles smiles. "Thinking how much I missed holding you in my arms."

        *"Aawww~. Looks like you learned to be more of a flirt."* She teased. *"Don't worry, I'll be on my way back as soon as Shadow and Omega get here with my flight."*

-Shadow's POV...

        Shadow gruntingly grips the support bars of his seat as their plane does another roll. "Why can't you shake them?!" He yelled at his pilot. "This Aircraft wasn't designed for dog fights." The pilot tells him.

        An hour after they entered the region's air space, a radical group attacked them. For months the group has been vocal about the dig site, but only recently have they resulted in violence. Shadow could really care less right now, all he wanted was to land. But not Crash!

        "Do we have any guns on this tub?!" He yells, frustrated. "Only thing I got is another set of flairs." Shadow grunts as he unbuckles himself. Wobbling around to find his balance. "Omega! With me!" Shadow and Omega make their way to the back of the Plaine, where he quickly ties a pull cable to and around Omega. The robotic arsenal observes his actions.

        "*I will enjoy this.*" Omega says. Shadow wraps his arms around a belt, with a hand on a lever. "At least one of us will." He says just before opening the back hatch. The force pulls the robot out of the plane, the cable whining as he was thrown out of the plane. Omega dangles outside, like someone paragliding. "*YES! FEEL MY WRATH!*" The robot yelled out, as his arms turned into machine guns. He laughs as he fires thundering rounds at the two planes that have been shooting them. Rounds rip through one of the plane's wings, cutting it in half, as it quickly dive bombs. The other was shredded out of the sky.

        Shadow pulls Omega back into the plane and helps him out of the cable. "*That is, what you would say, was fun.*" The robot told him, sounding cheerful. 

~Sometime later...

        The plane lands at the dig site. She flies over to greet her teammates; however, Shadow was far quicker to get out of the flying death trap. Omega walks out normally. "*ROUGE! We have arrived. *" The robot greeted. 

        The bat greeted her friends, "Glad you boys could make it." 

        Shadow brushes himself off as he recomposed himself. "I still don't understand why I had to be brought out here.?" He states in his normal tone. Rouge motions them to fallow her to her tent. He looks around the small space cluttered with books and papers and tools she has been using. He turns back to her when the sound of a very heavy chest is set down.

        "Shadow, I need your help with something we found a few days ago, down inside the "temple". Omega is here to provide security to our workers as they load the findings onto the plain. I'm sure Commander: Konrad, explained our little problem?" The bat asked.

        Shadow gives a gruff and a nod, "yes". "We are well aware." Omega "jumps up", "*We engaged, and terminated them with extreme prejudice. *"   

        Rouge is shocked by this news, and looks at Shadow, who has a unfaced expression. He then goes on explaining what happened. "Then there's no time to waist. Let's go Shadow."

        Rouge leads Shadow down a cool pathway, inside the mountain. Walls engraved with accent images. Faded and yet preserved over time. She leads them further down where it opens up into a large room with towering pillars and a dried-up fountain in the center. Shadow looks around the chilling room. "This is what all the unrest is about?" He askes.

        "There is more to it than that, Shadow." She tells him, that people who live in this region were given this land because their ancestors used to live here before the first great war. (Eggman war was the Second Great War.) After this "temple" was found however, the peoples clamed to the region is being brought into question. "That's why its important to find out. From what we found so far this could very well predate their society."

        Shadow understands. "If, it comes out that their people weren't the original society, then they would lose their clamed... Still, doesn't justify violence." He tells her flatly. She grins, "On that we agree."

        They stop at a door, if you could call it that, looked more like a gate or a volt? Rouge puts her hand on it. The glowing moss on the walls illuminated their presence. "We found this a week ago. If our translations are right, it's a records volt, inside could be the proof were needing. The only problem is it requires Chaos Energy to open." Shadow understands, and puts his hands on the door. Channeling his Chaos energy into the door. Nothing happened at first, but then it glowed a soft blue color, air pressure shoots thru the openings as the door opened. 

        "OH, WOW!" The bat exclaimed. "Shadow let me see the camera. Rouge then starts taking pictures of the walls, as he gathered some scrolls into sealed tubs. Didn't know what they were, but better safe than sorry. "Shadow look! This is really good!" She moves his head to see the Engravings of a Echidna shaking hands with a indigenous person. Then a few more things...

        "Okay. And this means, what?" He asked. Rouge puts a hand on her hip, "It means the Echidnas were not the first society here, their clame is still valid. What this mean however is the Echidnas had peacefull relationship with their people." Rouge motions at the walls.

        "Is this just you finding a reason to continue this excavation?" He smirks, at the obvious. She puffs her cheeks at the notion, then turns away crossing her arms. "Maybe." He smirks at her childless she can have at times. It was something he considered special, like his smiles, something one each of them saw. She never even let Knuckles seen this side of her, that he knows of.

         ⚠ Without warning the whole room began to shake violently. The walls crack as pillars fall, dust and debris start to fill the air. "ARE WE BEING ATTACKED!?" He yelled out. He is tackled by her, under a support,  she yells into his ear. "NO! ITS A TRIMMER!"

        Outside everyone is bracing themselves from the earthquake that just happened. Omega does a sweep of the area and assess the damage, while others check the Plaine. The Robots attention is brought to a worker who was crying for help. "HELP! THE TUNNELS COLLAPSED!" Omega sprints over to the entrance where he helps remove debris to move injured workers out. The robot does a scan of the area. "* Where is Agent Shadow and Agent Rouge!?*" A worker only turns her direction twords the collapse.

~With GUN...

        It has been a a hour since the collapse. Knuckles left the security of Angle Island to Mighty the Armadillo, and as a good test to Tails's security system. When he heard from Omega what happened he made a B-line for the Restoration(former Residence) HQ.

          Knuckles slams his fist into the the metal table, creating a crater in it. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SHADOW CANT GET THEM OUT!?! " Knuckles yells at the hologram of that Sector Commander. The Commander flinches in fear of the worried Echidna. Amy pulls him back calming him down. 

         The Commander recollects himself. *"I understand your frustration. We already have a team in place, who specializes in rescue missions."* Amy chimes in the conversation, "I'm a little confused, as why Shadow can't get them out?"

        A fourth voice that came through another line of their conversation. *"Testing... Ol'right."* Berban the Rabbit checked his connection to the conversation. *"To simply answer your question Ms. Amy, Shadow is not able to teleport them out because their surrounded in Sparcium."* The hologram screen turns up a 3d image of the mountain, with thermal readings. *"Infact the WHOLE MOUNTAIN is made out of Sparcium, that's the real reason GUN is so interested in the dig sight.?"* He asked the Commander who doesn't answer his question. "The good news is the "temple" is more likely carved into the mountain."*
        Amy asks, "Why is that a good thing?" The hologram changes again with red lines running all through the "temple" area. Berban explains that since its carved into the mountain, they had to build Air Vents to go as deep as they did. So Shadow and Rouge won't be running out of air fast. The hologram of Agent Berban looks to Knuckles. *"I understand why your worried about Rouge, I worked with Team Dark in the past, and I consider Shadow a friend. Let me assure you that I done many of these kinds of Rescues as my time as a ROUGH RIDDER."*

~Shadow & Rouge's POV

         Shadow cophs up some dust as the shacking finally stopped. Amongst the earthquake he had tucked Rouge under him, shielding her with his body. It took a moment to realize their situation. "Rouge. Are you alright?" He asked.

        "Ya, you can let go now." She tells him. She picks up the flashlight and spins it around the room. She makes a frustrated grunt sound, when she seen that they were trapped in the chamber. "This is just great... Wait! Shadow you can just Chaos Controle us out of here!" She said hopefully.

        The dark silowet hedgehog stands firmly with his eyes closed for a minute. "No, I can't. This room is made out of the same materials as my restraints. If I try to "jump" through these walls I would get stuck half way."

        "That sounds bad." The white silowet bat said. "Very bad." He responded. Rouge grabs her bag and walks further into the chamber and finds a "comfortable" place to sit. The chamber was glowing in the darkness now. The plant life having bioeliminations was fortunate, at least they weren't sitting in the dark. "Well since were stuck here, lets ketch up on months I've been gone." She cheered up  the mood.

        ~ Hours go by with them talking. Shadow noticed that she had started to shiver a little. He concluded that it must be getting darker outside.  "Rouge, get over here." He says in a low "soft" voice, as he opened his arm. She doesn't fight the need to stay warm. She even drapes a tarp around them to shield them from the chilling rocks.

        "Wow? Your really warm." She's surprised by the amount of body heat he is producing. Shadow keeps away from making contact with her eyes, "Its only natural. Since energy creates heat, it only makes since that my body temperature mirrors that effect." He tells her. As they lay there, with her in his arms, the moss on the walls produced small glowing spores, that lit up the dark "tomb". Rouge looks up in time to see a small grin on his face.

        "They kind of look like stars, don't they." She says. He simply says, "Ya." They sit there watching the spores fill the air, as they slowly without notice get sleeper and sleeper.

        ~ ' The sound of bare feet walking across a wooden floor is heard, as a small white bat makes her way to the kitchen. Her ears flopping over on themselves, too large for her head. She rubs her eye as enters. "Yawn... Morning Mamma." The young bat greets her mother. 

        A hourglass figured, short eared Lasionycteris bat, was over by the stove top cooking their breakfast. She smiles at her daughter, still sleepy, "Goodmorning, cher (share)." The blue eye bat smiles. "Do you want to cut the fruit for breakfast?" 

(Picture)

        The young Rouge the Bat jumps up, excited. " 'Ya! I'm Envie for more strawberries." The young bat runs to the fridge, flying up to the shelf with the strawberries. She flinches in shock of hearing something heavy hit the floor, HARD... Only it wasn't something, it was someone. "MAMMA!!" The bat races over to her unconscious mother. She sakes her, trying to wake her up.  Tears stinging her eyes, not knowing what to do? Her father was away on work... The young Rouge turns off  the stove before running outside the house and to the next-door neighbor. "MISS. BISHOPE! MISS. BISHOPE, HELP!" The bat screamed with tears running down her face.

~        It has been 3 weeks since her mother collapsed, since then she has been in the hospital. Rouge wakes up to the sound of her mother's monitor. When her father was contacted by Miss. Bishope, he dropped everything and few back. She sees her father talking to one of the doctors, on the other side of the glass. She gets closer so she hear them.

        "I'm sorry Dr. Bat, there is only so much we can do for your wife. Our test did learn that the cause is environmental." The doctor tells her father, Jhonathan Bat, the large eared brown bat looks scared. "Are you telling me that my daughter could be affected/ infected too?" He sounds just as he looks.

        "No. Your daughter is in No danger. The prolonged exposure was from your wife's early childhood." The doctor tells him. "How affective is the treatment?" Jhonathan asked. The brown bat's eyes gleam over to see his daughter listening to them. "Annabelle."

        Rouge walks around, holding the hymen of her skirt, "I- Is mamma going to d-d-?" She couldn't get the words out. Her father gets down on his knee and holds her in his arms, as he tells her that everything will be alright.

        Rouge wakes up in a start, tears forming in her eyes. She looks around and sees that its dark now. She notices she's laying on something furry. It takes a moment to realize that she has been sleeping on top of Shadow. She hurly gets off him, her face red from embarrassment.

        "NO... YOU WON'T..." Shadow growls in his sleep. His body twist back and forth as his claws protract, carving into the stone floor. She shakes him a little to wake him, she assumes he's having nightmare, again. "Shadow, wake up! Your dreaming." 

        ~ Shadow stands on top of what was once a 30-story building but is now a pile of rubble. It has been hours since the Dr. Eggman had attacked the city. GUN sent out rescue teams to the area. His ear twitches to the sound of whimpering. He fallows it to where a wall had collapsed. "CHAOS, CONTROLE!" He appears behind the rubble where two kids were hiding. "Hold on to me. I'll get you out." He says it as comforting as he possibly could. The reappear outside where he hands them off to some GUN solders. 

        *"Shadow."* Rouge radio. "This is, Shadow." He answered. *"We need that sexy ass of yours over on 98 street, now." She tells him. He takes off running through the wreckage. "I really don't think your new Boyfriend would like you flirting with other men.?" He tells her. *"Good thing its only you then~." She teased back.

        ~ "Please... don't go..." The mobian pinned against the rubble asked Shadow, is a raspy voice. He gets on his knee and takes the victim's hand. There were so- many that day...

        ~ "NO... YOU WON'T." 

        "Shadow, WAKE UP!" Rouge screams at him. His eyes shoot open to see her worried face. He felt like he should say something, to let her know he was alright. "Hey." He says, and she says "hey" back. "Get off me, your heavy." 

        Rouge was mad now, as she hit his chest hard. "That is no way to talk to a woman." She does, however, get off him. *Static* crackles through her radio. The two look at each other for a moment to make sure they were not hearing things. "Hello? IS someone there?" She asked.

        *"Rou.... Aado... almost... Can you us?"* It was Berban and his team trying to reach them. "We can hear you. We trapped in the chamber." Rouge tells him. *"We... wait another hour."* Rouge looks overjoyed as a smile grows on her face. "Were saved!" She laughs as she hugs Shadow. Shadow holds her in the hug. 

       She pulls her head back and she sees his eyes looking at her. It gave her a warm feeling inside, for some reason. She leans in and gives him a kiss on the cheek, "Thank you, Shadow."

       "For what?" He asks. "For keeping my mind busy, from thinking about our problem." She joked. Then she starts to laugh hysterically, to herself.

        "What's so funny?" He asked a little irritated. "Oh, its just something, Knuki told me about, Us." She motions her finger between the two of them. "He told me a while back, that he thought YOU had romantic feelings for me. I told him your not like that. I mean could you imagen that." She chuckles a little more... but his silance worried her...

        "... and what if I did.?." He says under his breath. Rouge's eyes widen in surprise, and now feels uneasy with their atmosphere. They stay silent for a few minutes, until she asked, "... you said you have feelings for me... for how long? Since, when?"

        " A little after you and Knuckles were on break, back in Venice. (Chapter 1-3)" He tells her. 

        "And you still have these feelings towards me?.." She asked. A little unsure what she wants him to say.? "... Not anymore. I did have romantic feelings for you, but you and Knuckles are back together, and I am happy for you. Rouge your my friend and my team mate first"

        Rouge smiles at him, like a horse eating oats. "Did, Shadow the Hedgehog, JUST admit that he considers MWWWAA~, HIS friend." She teased. 

        A hour later Berban and his team got them out of the cave in. Rouge presented her finds on the dig site, at the very same Colledge her father done work for. And the two agents went on doing their jobs, but the question remains. How will Shadow's confession effect Rouge's personal and professional relationship.