He had never been so happy to see Knuckles in his entire life…! The chances of someone actually seeing his signal was a 100 to 1! "K-knuckles! Help!" He begged, but that got him Shadow's shoe in his face. The hedgehog loomed over him, pressing his foot against his face. Knuckles paused at this. He hesitated "help? I only came because the readings of chaos energy are far too strong here, I thought there was a chaos emerald around…" But he looked to Shadow "but… what are you doing here…? No one has seen you for months." Shadow paused, not saying a word. He slowly turned and stared at the echidna, although he couldn't see the face the hedgehog made at the echidna, it was obvious that it was a frightening one, as the echidna flinched at it. The ebony hedgehog turned back to him. "Now." He stated "Where were we?" Chaos energy came from his hand, almost as if his hand were on fire! He began to plead and beg seeing that Knuckles' fists tightened… it was over… he was going to die here! Suddenly, the echidna spoke "No" Shadow's ear perked, he turned around and he looked at the echidna "No?" He must've had a crazed look in his eye, as the echidna froze. After a moment, he got into a battle stance. He growled "I said, no." Shadow smiled wickedly and laughed at him "what are you going to do? fight me?"

The echidna was visibly taken aback, there was something wrong with Shadow. And the fact that he had a crazed look in his eyes didn't help. What was he doing here? Didn't he know the others were looking for him? Before he could ask Shadow any of these questions the hedgehog slammed him into the wall, his hand clenched around his throat. The hedgehog spoke "get in my way, and I'll kill you." He struggled; Shadow was clearly beyond talking. He swung, hitting the hedgehog in the side of the head. Only… this didn't do anything. Shadow hadn't even flinched! Normally, if he swung at anyone, they would always be sore afterwards. Shadow smiled, a creepy grin on his face "you think that hurt? Well…" He pulled him away from the wall, and up close to his face "… you don't what I've been through!" He laughed insanely as he threw him across the floor like a rag doll. The echidna winced… Shadow… was enjoying this!? The ebony hedgehog summoned raw chaos energy into his hands "I've been itching for a good fight! Come at me, Knuckles, so I'll beat you until you can't even see!" He growled, lunging at Shadow. Before he could even blink, the hedgehog had teleported behind him. Shadow suddenly grabbed his locks "Too slow ~ " He said mockingly as he threw the echidna back into the wall. He gasped… this hurt… bad… he sat up, watching the now slightly hunched hedgehog "you really are stupid…" he said "do you know how many times I screamed?" Shadow summoned a barrage of chaos spears, he quickly jumped out of the way, barely missing the sharp edges. The hedgehogs voice grew louder "do you know how many times I reassured myself; telling myself someone would come for me?" He had no clue what he had meant. Surly he was here investigating the energy spike like he was? But… then again… there was something…. wrong with him…. why was he acting to aggressively? Why was he wanting to fight? And why…. And why was Eggman… scared…? The pieces started to fix together…. Something wasn't right here. He lunged again, only for the hedgehog to coolly move to the side. He missed. Shadow chuckled "Gullible. A complete lack of any effort, as usual." He growled… this wasn't going to be easy.

**authors note: I apologize for being away so long. I had a surgery**