It was three in the afternoon and Rouge wasn't content when someone came knocking in her apartment's door. It was one of her few days off and being a bat in modern-day society was difficult. She had to go against her primal instincts of sleeping during the day so she could keep her job. So whenever she had a day off, she made sure to sleep thoroughly.

The knocking became stronger and if Rouge didn't know better, she could tell by the knocking who it was.

A very impatient black and red hedgehog.

A half-asleep Rouge walked slowly to her door, knowing well that the black one couldn't get any angrier. She opened the door and Shadow stormed in.

"Where is Amy?" Shadow asked as he looked around her apartment. Strangely enough, Amy's scent wasn't predominant as before.

"I've been fine, thank you," Rouge said sarcastically. She rubbed her eyes as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight coming from her windows.

"I little have not time to be nice," Shadow said again, he began to panic when he didn't see the pink in the agent's apartment. "Where is Amy?"

"Then, you must never have the time to be nice," Rouge replied. "She's not here. She went on a field trip with Sonic, they should be back tomorrow night."

"What? Where did they go?"

"I don't know, Amy didn't tell me because apparently, Sonic wanted to surprise her."

Rouged watched Shadow sigh heavily as he placed his right hand on his forehead. Showing his frustration.

"She doesn't answer her phone." Shadow hissed at of anger.

"Sonic won't either ... They don't want to be bothered, so they turned off all of their communication devices." Rouged looked over at his teammate. She knew that there was something he wasn't telling her. "Now tell me, what is going on?"

Shadow didn't want Rouge to be involved with the stupidity he was about to make. However, he did realize that her help might be needed.

That and that he trusted Rouge with her decisions.

Shadow sat down on the Rouge's sofa and with a stern look, he began to tell her the story.

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"You can't arrest her! You have no proof-"

    The Commander stood up from his seat and walked towards Shadow. From his desk, he grabbed a file and opened it.

"In your report, you wrote, "I found the Resistance burnt down, nothing was left of it." The Commander said and looked up to Shadow. "That is proof that Amy wanted to burn down all proof of her doings to prevent us from arresting her."

"That doesn't make any sense!" said Shadow.

"It doesn't? Our Team of Investigations say that no one was inside the building when the accident occurred. Of the 7 agents there ... Don't you think that's too much of a coincidence?"

"That is-"   

    The Commander interrupted Shadow again.

"The investigation team also found the remainings of a plant, 'Silent Princess," The Commander added. "And according to your report ... this is the flower who helped Tails the Fox wake up from his sleep in Twinkle Star Village."

    There was a heavy silence in the room. The Commander knew that Shadow wasn't still fully convinced. His eyes still show determination and in one last hope to get him he said,

"Isn't the video of her putting up the bombs enough prove already?"

    Shadow didn't know what it was but his mind and heart just couldn't accept it. So many people have betrayed him and he was scared that Amy might be one of those too. Shadow tried to put his feelings aside but he just couldn't. His mind went to Amy. If Shadow was sure of one thing, it was her.

Well ... to hell with everything.

"I don't know know if Amy is guilty or not ... but I do know that Amy loved that place and she wouldn't do anything against it," Shadow said. "My apologies commander ... I do enjoy my job but between this job and Amy ... I chose Amy."

    The Commander wasn't scared of Shadow. However, he was concerned about the decisions the black hedgehog was willing to take. The Commander had many years working and never, not even in the human world, had he met someone like Shadow. He had never chosen a side in this job and now that he was going it, it spoke volumes about him and the subject at hand.

Shadow was the best agent he had and his determination had sparked something in the Commander's previous ideology.

Doubt.

Shadow was smart and he wouldn't throw it everything he has worked for unless he was 100% sure of his decision.

"You have three days to leave the United Republic. If you don't, we will hunt you along Amy Rose." The Commander said, "I have three days until I report of this situation back to Earth. They will most likely ask me to send a squad after you ... or even more, considering you don't have a very good reputation with humans and you are betraying G.U.N."

The first time G.U.N appeared in Mobian land, many protested. The civilians thought that G.U.N.'s agency was a way to keep an eye on the Mobians on behalf of the humans. It wasn't at all a lie, in the beginning, G.U.N consisted of human agents only but seeing the constant protests, the humans decided to remove the humans and replace them with Mobians.

    Of course, one human person stayed at G.U.N and that was the Top Commander. That calmed down the protests and all of them subside down the moment Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge, and Omega joined the agency.

"Why are you doing this?" Shadow asked. He was baffled. He had respect for his Commander but going against what was expected of him surprised him.

"In all of my years working for G.U.N. I had never met someone like you." The Commander said. "Our relationship it's only based on work but even so ... Your determination makes me doubt ... maybe Amy Rose is innocent."

This time Shadow knew that he wasn't speaking to the Commander. He was talking to the person underneath the suit.

"And I have a feeling I should believe you, and I have survived many times by just following that."

A few seconds passed and for a moment Shadow didn't want to leave. He knew that after this day, he was probably never going to see him again. But he prayed to Chaos that one day their paths may interview again.

"You have three days agent, leave." The Commander said. "You will be facing G.U.N.'s wrath and the world will be against you."

"Then, I will fight like I always have," Shadow replied, smiling at his commander knowing this was goodbye.

"Shadow ... take care."

Shadow left his office. Content and nervous at the same time. Content because for the first time in all of his years working for G.U.N., the Commander called him by his name. No 'Agent Shadow' or just 'Agent.' And nervous because Shadow didn't know what the future awaited for him.

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The winds softly caressed Amy's hair as the strings of it danced beautifully. Sonic had never thought of settling down but he knew he could slow down once in a while for the pink hedgehog.

The grass surrounded them along with the sunflowers. It was a sunny day but the wind was cold and it made up for the heat. Sonic and Amy were in their backs, watching clouds above them. 

Sonic took Amy to one of his favorite places on Mobius, it was kinda a secret spot for him. Not a lot of tourists came and it is peaceful and quiet.

Sonic loved the idea of traveling the world and saving folks but he knew Amy was one who wanted to settle down. Have a family and such.

"Amy, if we were to get married now, would you say yes?" Sonic asked and Amy was caught by surprise. It was random considering that they were in complete silence a few moments ago.

But still, she answered.

"Now? I don't know ..." Amy said. She had been honest with Sonic from the beginning. That at the moment, she still had strong feelings for Shadow. "But my older self would have said yes without thinking."

Amy chuckled, a bit hurt but he accepted the answer.

"It's just ... you know, I love to be as free as the wind ... I don't imagine comfortably myself living in a house when I know there are people out there who might need me." Sonic said. "So ... I am guessing we can never be truthfully together, uh? Even if we wanted."

"Sonic, I'll make something clear." Amy turned her head to look at the blue one and this caught his attention as well. "I don't want to change anything about you. I love how you live freely. I don't want to take that away from you. Even if we were to get married, I will still be willing to give you your freedom."

Sonic eyes sparkled and he felt his heart beat faster. "So ... Would you have been happy by just staying at the house and taking care of the children? Waiting for me to arrive home?"

"Absolutely," Amy replied, their eyes interview and there shared a lovely moment. However, Amy knew that she needed to pop Sonic's bubble. She didn't him to have any hopes for that happening at least now. "But that was old me ... and now well ... I am not sure what I want and well you know ... I-"

"You still love Shadow, I know that." Sonic's voice had a bit of jealousy to it. Amy knew it was normal. After all, he was dating a girl who was still in love with someone else. "If you don't mind me asking ... what do you see in him?"

Amy knew that Sonic was serious about his question and to give him some peace of mind, she replied. "He is just ... incredibly kind and sweet."

"Hey, I am kind and sweet too!"

Amy smiled and let out a small giggle. "Yes you are but it comes to you naturally... but Shadow ... He was a hard time expressing how he feels or showing any emotion at all. Even if he fails miserably at it ... he still tries. He tries his hardest to be good and do good."

Amy noticed that Sonic was quiet as a signal for her to continue.

"Believe me, if a year ago you have said that I would fall in love with Shadow the hedgehog, I would probably laugh y lungs out." Amy continued, "But he showed me other sides of himself and along the way ... I just fell for that. It wasn't a moment like when you saved me from Metal Sonic ... It was gradually, in stages even and in one of those ... I fell in love with him."

A few seconds passed and Amy felt Sonic softly place a hand on her cheek, he brought her closer to him and he kissed her on the lips.

They stayed close to each other's faces and Sonic whispered. "It makes time but there's a possibility ... I can make you fall in love with me gradually and one day, you may just realize that you love me."

A sense of guilt overtook Amy. He had been nothing but sweet to her and caring. Yes, he had been absent for a long time but it was Sonic. He liked to travel around for a long time and most important of all, he was single back then.

Now he was dating Amy and he was slowing down for her.

And Amy had to acknowledge ... that the gesture made her heart beat faster than usual.

Amy cuddle in Sonic's arms, she heard his beating heartbeat that matched hers. "I really wish for that moment to come soon."

.

If Shadow couldn't pint point the moment he fell in love with Amy. He had realized he loved her a few days ago but he knew he had feelings for her even before then. Did he love at first sight? Most likely not. It was in stages, gradually. Like a plant, it slowly grew. During a year, Amy and he had provided with light, water, and other resources for it to grow. And the small plant had grown into a beautiful flower.

"So, your plan is to run away to the Acorn Kingdom. That's on the other side of the world. How are you planning to get there?" Rouge asked. They were still at her apartment, talking over the matter.

"I am going to buy a small plane or helicopter from the yellow fox. I should take all of my money out of the bank before G.U.N cancels all of my accounts." Shadow replied.

"And will you be accepted in the Acorn Kingdom?"

"Yes, I spoke with Princess Sally and she owns me a favor. She plans to hide us for some time."

"And then what?" Rouge asked again.

"We will plan everything as we go," Shadow said. "But to be honest, I don't even know where to start looking. Is this an old enemy? And if so, who? Who has a grudge against Amy?"

Rouge stood up from the sofa, walking from side to side, thinking about the different possibilities. "Maybe it's not against Amy ... but you."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"In your Star Festival's report, you said that in the drainage bunker, there were imagines and videos of you and Amy during our Twinkle Star Village mission." Rouge added, "They have been watching you two ... maybe they notice how close you are to her and they want to take advantage of that."

Shadow looked away, was he so obvious? "We are not that close."

Rouge rolled her eyes at him, she knew he was lying but this was over the top. "Can you just men up and say you like the girl? It ain't that hard."

"I don't like her," Shadow lied again. At least this time he knew he was lying. He just didn't want Rouge to tease him about it.

"Now I know why Amy is with Sonic," Rouge added. "He wasn't afraid of talking about his feelings for her and he got the girl."

Rouge had never seen Shadow snap his head so fast before. His expression changed and Rouge was confused by his sudden change.

"Wait ... you didn't know they were together?"

"Together as?"

"Together ... as boyfriend and girlfriend."

Shadow knew this feeling. He had felt before when he used to date Maria and she would show up with a different guy every night. However, there was a difference. The first one, Maria was technically his and he couldn't focus on this feeling because he was concentrated more on the fact that she cheated. Secondly, Amy wasn't even his girlfriend ... yet. He had barely realized his feelings for her and he had already lost to his blue rival nonetheless.

Shadow gave it a thought again. Sonic and Amy were Chaos knows were and alone. They could be hugging, kissing, holding hands, sleeping together, being intimate together.

He knew this feeling too well. He thought he had forgotten about it but no ... it was there and it overtook him. He let out a growl and he held his hands so tight that even with the globes on, he knew his knuckles were white from the pressure.

"I need to finish somethings," Shadow said as he stood up from the sofa. "I'll be back tomorrow night if Amy comes back early contact me as soon as you can."

Rouge watched the black hedgehog opening the door of her apartment to get out. However, she stopped him.

"Are you angry?" Rouge asked, a certain hint of worry in her voice.

"Angry? No," Shadow gave Rouge one last look before exiting her apartment.

"... maybe jealous."

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A/N: First, I want to apologize for the grammar errors and all that. I will be fixing the mistakes soon, I just wanted to publish this chapter as soon as I could.

I had finished writing the final two chapters of 'Stages' yesterday. However, as I read over them, I realized that I didn't like them.

I was putting too much information, conjunctions, and subplots that it was just too much. As some people may know, 'Stages' was originally a series of one-shots stories that concentrated on the development of Amy and Shadow's relationship. It was as simple as that but as people wanted to read more, I found myself writing this story without a plot. Because originally this story wasn't meant to have a plot. It wasn't meant to have any deep meaning nor to be a long story.

With that said, I enjoyed very much writing the first chapters, but I guess I let myself get influenced and wrote a story of 20 chapters that was meant to only be 10 chapters.

There is a lot of inconsistency, I didn't like how I literally build up the villain of the story in the last five chapters and I believe that it's all due to that as well as that my writing is not good to the point I can create a good building of a villain within a few chapters.

Now those two chapters are there, they may never be read. I guess I would publish them later on Wattpad as 'Alternative Ending."

The next chapter, it the FINAL chapter. It will most likely come out this week and after that, I will start working on the story prompts request. Thank you, everyone, who has been with me on this journey and hopefully will continue to read other of my works.