Author's Note: Welcome to the fourth installment of my Sonic saga! Though I've designed this story so that you don't need to read the previous ones in order for it to make sense, I feel that they do serve as an enrichment to its background and would greatly enhance your enjoyment of it. For those who have not read the previous installments and would like to do so, the number listed after "CO" in each story's summary indicates the order in which they occur. Either way, thanks much for your interest and support!

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Chapter 1 – Sonic's Ideal

I knew I'd never look at Shadow the same way again.

Who'd have thought that Silver's little vacation to my time would've ended with me and him goin' to the Space Colony ARK? And another 60 years ago at that! Somehow he got the bright idea to "help" Shadow by saving his friend Maria from the GUN agents, but as it turned out, it did more harm than good. A lot more. We finally had to go back and let the poor girl die after all, just to get the awful mess fixed…but some things would stay forever changed…and I was one of them. Like I said a while ago, I just couldn't help but feel bad when I looked at Shadow after that. I'd think about the kind of life that he once lived, the way he used to be—playin' board games with Maria, smiling, laughing, knockin' dominoes across the room—and how much he'd changed since then. Now he was cold, bitter, distrusting, just an unpleasant kinda guy to be around…and, maybe I was bein' too hard on myself, but I felt a little bit responsible for that. It was like I had the ball in my hands, and I just let it drop right out. I really felt the need make it up to him somehow.

But hey, first things first—there was a little detail I needed to take care of in my own life too!

Amy was pullin' supper out of the oven when I walked into the kitchen. Looked like some kind of baked fish and smelled pretty good, but the last thing I wanted to do was eat. My stomach was doin' the Macarena while I stood there like an idiot, waiting for the right words to say…or more like the gall to spit 'em out.

"Tilapia tonight," was all she said when she saw me come in, in this dull, lifeless voice that she'd been using a lot lately. I definitely needed to get this out.

"……Umm…."

C'mon, dope, just say it!!

"I…don't suppose I…."

"Huh?" Amy looked up just as she was transferring the last piece of fish over to the platter, and it ended up falling on the counter. "Aah!"

I took another breath while she dealt with that. "…I, um…I don't guess I've…told you lately…how much I care about you…."

She looked at me again with the weirdest look on her face. It wasn't that odd to hear, was it? "…Are you feeling okay, Sonic?" she asked. I had to turn away; I knew my face had to be red.

"Yeah," I laughed off the awkwardness, but then it hit me, the thing I ought to be saying. "Well, actually, no…I feel like I don't tell you that enough." By the time I peeked back at her, her amused grin had softened into a touched smile.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" She pulled off her oven mitts as she came over to give me a quick hug. I pulled her in close, actually feeling tears come to my eyes (eh, it'd been an emotional week). While her face was still pressed against my chest, she asked another question. "Not to complain, but what brought that on?"

"Well, you know…." I trailed off tryin' to decide how to explain it to her without bringing up that whole Maria thing. After a few seconds she pulled away and looked at me, waiting for me to finish. "…It's just…when I was at Vinnie's Pizza with Silver and Shadow last night, I realized just how lacking their lives are of real companionship, and I figured I oughta appreciate what I have more."

"Ohh, yeah." She looked down with a sad, almost guilty expression. After thinking about it a second, she looked back up. "I can understand that about Shadow, but I didn't think Silver was really that bad off; is he?"

"Hah! He got this little ecosphere thing full of water and shrimp, and he named the shrimp in it!"

Amy was already busy with the tilapia again but broke out laughing at that. "What did he name them?"

"Uhh, Bubbles…Scampi…Moustache……Alfredo…and Floatie, I think." I shook my head while she laughed some more. "I told him they were all about to become floaties." I got nothin' against shrimp, but he got on my nerves with that thing, constantly talkin' about it and risking both our lives so he could drag it all over the ARK with him. That's one ball I wish I could've dropped. Poor Blaze was probably being tortured with it now that he'd gone back to his own time.

"Hmm…" Amy seemed to have drifted off shrimp as she set the fish on the table. "…Do you think it's good that we've been setting Shadow up on dates?" She seemed kinda concerned when she turned back to me, but I gave her my most reassuring smirk.

"I'd say that any social activity does him good."

She smiled again and nodded. "Yeah, I hope so. There's a girl at work, a lynx, who I think might be a good match for him. See, I think the mistake I made before was to try to pair him up with more talkative girls to make up for his untalkativeness, but I think now what he needs is someone who can read him and understand what he's thinking without the need to talk all that much, and this girl's pretty good about that."

"Yeah? Got a seventh sense to her, eh?"

"Something like that." She headed back into the kitchen and shoveled some hot rice out of the cooker into a big bowl. "Umm…were you planning on going out anywhere tonight?"

Uh oh.

"Nowhere in particular. Why?" As if I didn't already know.

"Would you mind stopping by the mall and asking Shadow if he'd like to go out with Lydia, that girl I just told you about?"

"I take it you tried calling already."

"Yeah, he never answers, and he never calls back when I leave a message. I doubt he even checks them."

It was a way to score extra points on the home front, at least. "Okay, I can stop by there for ya after supper."

And stop by I did. Shadow had only had his mall job a few weeks at this point, so I was careful to time my visit to be just before his shift was due to start. I walked into the mall's security office, where the orange-bun-haired lady at the front desk typed away at her computer, pretending not to notice me. "Hey there!" I greeted, getting her annoyed attention, but attention nonetheless. "Shadow here?"

"He's in the back." She just started typing again after that, so I just took it upon myself to go on in. That really got her attention. "Uh, excuse me, only security personnel are allowed in the back!"

I chuckled on my way back out. "Oh, my bad, thought this was a self-service station!" With the look she gave me, you'd think she and Shadow would actually get along. I didn't know whether she had something against Mobians or just hated everyone that had anything to do with Shadow or what, but I just flashed my most charming grin at her, the way I always do with these kind of people. It didn't do much to tame her sneer as she turned to the microphone on her desk.

"Shadow the hedgehog, you have a visitor." And back to typing she went. At least I didn't have to wait long after that. Shadow came out seconds later, wearin' a security band on his left arm and only a half-scowl on his face. Apparently he was in a good mood. I lifted a friendly hand, hoping he'd stay that way.

"Hey! Got a minute?"

He crossed his arms. "What do you want?"

"Uh…" I paused and glanced over at the orange bun lady, "…let's go outside the office." After we stepped out into the corridor, I turned to find him starin' at me with an eyebrow cocked. I decided to cut to the chase. "Amy asked me to come here and see if you were interested in hookin' up with a girl she knows." Waiting for the go-ahead before saying any more, I watched him drag a quiet sigh.

"Tell her I'll be off tomorrow," he finally said, opening the door to head back into the office as he did so.

"Hold up," I laughed, "don't you wanna know her name or species or anything?"

He paused with his back to me. "…It doesn't matter." And then he walked off. I stood there watching him through the door's tinted glass pane, suddenly overcome with a sour feeling—not of anger or resentment, but of…sadness. He was going through the motions, but he wasn't even trying anymore. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge between them, wanting to clear my head, but all I could see was Maria's face, beaming with the sweet laughter that was still so fresh in my mind. It was like I was the one who was now trapped in the nightmare that plagued him for so long, doomed to ask myself for the rest of my life what more I could've done.

I wandered with an unusually slow pace toward the nearest mall exit, but then, I was unusually bummed. I felt the need to do something significant for someone, something above and beyond…but heck if I knew what. That's when the display of a corner-side jewelry store caught my eye. There was the photo of a husband givin' his wife a tenth anniversary ring, reminding me that my seventh was comin' up soon. All at once it dawned on me one special thing I could do—get Amy that wedding ring she'd always wanted! Hey, better late than never! I was already in good spirits again by the time I walked into the store.

And then something else caught my eye. Behind the sales counter, a pretty yellow hedgehog was in the middle of a heated exchange with a robust mole on the other side. I figured she had to be the same girl Shadow mentioned at Vinnie's the night before, one of his new acquaintances. I waited for the mole to leave while I browsed the cases, but judging by the intensity of their argument, it didn't look like it'd be anytime too soon. Worse still, the guy totally ranked of musty earth and was stinkin' up the whole store. What the heck was his problem, anyway? I was breathing through my grimaced teeth as I listened in, soon finding the nature of their little quarrel to be a domestic dispute. They were obviously well familiar. Finally the mole stormed off after the lady sharply pointed out the presence of a customer. Sheesh, 'bout time!

She was pretty worked up when I approached her counter, huffing, frowning, flushed—and once I was near, I realized that she carried the mole's scent as well. They were mates. I was deliberating whether I should come back another time when she turned to me and, just like flippin' a light switch, broke into a radiant smile. It was all I could do to keep from bustin' out laughin'.

"You must be Raye," I began, flashing a debonaire smile of my own. Her eyes lit up like little apricots in a bowl of cream.

"Yes I am!" She then tilted her head and squinted at me a bit, probably tryin' to figure out whether she should know me. I saved her the trouble.

"I'm Sonic…Sonic the hedgehog!" The intro was accented with one of my coolest poses, which I save for just such occasions. It was enough to spark recognition in her expression.

"I thought you looked familiar!" she relayed. "But…how is it you know me…?"

"Shadow told me about you; he's a friend of mine—uh, well, we put up with each other, anyway," I chuckled.

"Ohh, well it's nice to meet you in person, Sonic!"

"Most definitely likewise."

I don't wanna drone on with the boring details, so let's just say I walked out of that place with two things. The first was a gold ring set with seven diamonds, one for each year of marriage shared between my wife and me. The other was a hunch: It was only a matter of time before this mole fellow was out of the picture…and I knew just the guy who could use Raye's sunshine in his life.