A/N: I know this doesn't make up for all the time that there were no updates, but I was separated from the Internet for 4 weeks. So here it is, Ch. 7.

Mystic Ruins, Cave

6:30 AM

Wednesday

Nack had returned around midnight, carrying a pitiful amount of food, given the time that he was away. All he had managed to scrounge up in the wild were a few apples, a tomato, and three berries. Upon his return, Nack had immediately started on the apples, while Shadow merely ate one of the small berries. It also began to rain, at which point Nack and Shadow decided to get some rest.

Early the next morning, it was still raining. Both Shadow and Nack were now awake, as the storm began producing loud thunder. Seeing as they had nothing to do, Shadow decided to tell Nack the plan that he had been thinking over the night before.

"Okay, Nack, here's what we're gonna do," Shadow started. "To get in, we'll need a large distraction outside of the workshop to keep Tails and anyone else who's there busy. Then, we'll need to climb up the pipe on that contraption outside the workshop to the roof. There's a door up there that looks pretty defenseless, giving us a way in. Once inside, I'll look for the Emerald vault while you keep watch and tell me if there's anyone coming our way. After we get what we came for, we'll need to escape back where we came in through. No one will know that we've been there until we're on the other side of the mountain. Got it?"

"Umm... I think," Nack muttered.

"Good, because we're going today," Shadow said.

"What?!" Nack cried, peering out of the cave opening. Outside, it was dark, the sky was covered by thick, gray clouds, lightning was flashing dangerously close to the mouth of the cave, and the rain was almost horizontal. "You'd be crazy to go out in that!"

"That's why we're going in that," Shadow said calmly. He walked over to the mouth of the cave and paused. "You coming?" he called to Nack.

"One question," the weasel said. "What are we gonna use as a distraction?"

"The storm will do fine," Shadow replied.

"How did I get into this mess?" Nack muttered to himself as he followed Shadow out into the gale outside.

--

Mystic Ruins, outside Tail's Workshop

7:32 AM

After running the gauntlet of the intense storm, Nack and Shadow found themselves at the foot of the hill Tail's Workshop was built on. From where they were, they could see that all the lights around the outside of the workshop were dark. Shadow guessed that probably the power had gone out during the storm. However, another result of the power outage was that the spider-like contraption on the outside of the workshop had stopped spinning, giving Shadow and Nack a chance to climb on it and jump to the roof.

There, they found a small wooden cabin, with a small wooden door-- probably where Tails slept. Shadow tried to peer through the window to see if anyone was inside, but it was too dark to tell. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit no more than five feet away from the foot of the hill. Nack jumped in surprise, and the light the bolt made lit up the whole area. Luckily for Shadow, the light revealed that no one was inside the cabin at that time.

Taking this opportunity, he tried the door. It was unlocked, and opened with a quick turn of the knob. Shadow entered, and motioned for Nack to follow. Once inside, Shadow closed the door behind them. Inside the cabin, the duo found themselves in a small room. There were few furnishings; a red rug, a wooden bunk bed against the wall, and a short, squarish dresser of the same material next to it. On top of the dresser were a few pictures of Tails and Sonic in the summer; one showed the two playing beachball on the beach, while another showed Amy chasing after Sonic, who in the picture was only seen as a blur of blue.

Now taking a chance to examine himself and Nack, Shadow found that both of them were dripping all over the floor. However, he didn't count it as very important and continued on. There was a trapdoor in the middle of the room with a small metal handle on top. Shadow pulled on it, lifting the door up and revealing a short set of stairs leading down. Shadow climbed down the stairs quickly, with Nack following along reluctantly, not knowing what could await them downstairs.