Chapter 1

A gentle wind blew by, causing the leaves on the trees to stir. The breeze continued to go through the beautiful island that people hardly ever see. An occasional bunny came by to find some food, but even then the place was quiet. So peaceful was it, that nobody would know that hidden in this island was a temple. It has been there for over a million years, for the ancient civilization that lived there was wiped out. On the top of that temple was a large glowing emerald. They called it the master emerald, and the ancient people that lived there use to guard it, for it was possibly the most powerful thing in the galaxy. The ancient civilization was made of echidnas. One day, a long time ago, they were all killed... except for one who lives there, even now. The emerald made him immortal, so he can protect the powerful jewel from getting into the wrong hands. He never leaves his island that floats above the ground. One would think that he'd go crazy, being by himself, but he does have the company of an immortal friend and his daughter.

"Knuckles!" a young voice was heard. The last echidna looked over at a black and blue hedgehog with emerald eyes.

"Hello Chaos." Knuckles smiled. "How was school?"

"It was school." the girl replied with a shrug. "Where's mom?"

"He's at the graves..." Knuckles sighed. Chaos nodded and ran off, leaving Knuckles alone, yet again. He watched her until he knew she was out of earshot. "I've still not gotten use to her calling him mom..."

Meanwhile, Shadow the Hedgehog was staring at a row of graves. They were his and Knuckles friends, who have died of old age. He glanced at one grave. One that didn't die of old age: Rouge the Bat. She was out on a G.U.N. mission, how young she was... She never made it back. She was the first to be buried in Angel Island, and the second to bring Shadow such grief. He sighed and walked to another grave that brought him great grief. The name etched into the stone grave made him cry: Sonic the Hedgehog.

They use to be rivals until one day that changed everything. Just one day turned their rivalry into friendship, and Shadow was actually happy for once. They grew close, really close, until one day, Sonic told Shadow of his true feelings. Sonic actually liked Shadow, way more than a friend. At first, Shadow was confused. He ran away from the blue hedgehog that day and avoided him for about a month afterwards. He didn't want to face the hedgehog until he knew what he felt. He slowly came to realize that he liked the blue blur. He always seemed to make the black hedgehog smile, no matter the mood. Finally, he went to confront the blue hedgehog. That day became one of the best days of his life. Sonic treated him well, and they were able to share a happy life together. Then there was news of a child. It turns out that Professor Gerald created Shadow to be able to bare children. Shadow didn't know this, of course, and when the blue hedgehog finally convinced him to do what the black hedgehog thought to be a disgusting act of love... Well, it came as a bit of a surprise. It was a happy time, nonetheless, and everyone wanted to be there for the baby's birth. It hurt, to say the least, but that was nothing after the happiness he felt when he held his baby girl in his hands for the first time. Of course, he didn't let Sonic touch him until a month after, but they were still happy.

Shadow smiled at the fond memory of when he first saw his daughter, Chaos, but then frowned when he looked back at the grave. When Chaos was born, they were told that her growth would be slowed because she has the DNA of the immortal ultimate lifeform, so she stayed an infant for over ten years. She was almost two when death finally caught up with the fastest thing alive. She only remembers a vague image of her father, who was holding her when he died. Sonic never got to see his daughter grow up, but Shadow likes to think that he is watching over them along with Maria, Professor Gerald, and all of his friends. It's been over two hundred years since his death, and Chaos is now fifteen, about to be sixteen in a couple days, and she has grown to be a gem. Shadow almost always refused to look her in the eyes, them bringing back memories of the one who had those same emerald green orbs. Knuckles was the one to always scold her when she did something wrong because of this.

After Sonic's death, Shadow and Chaos moved up to Angel Island with Knuckles. This was actually a request from Sonic. On his deathbed, he told Knuckles to take care of his husband and daughter because they were all immortal. Knuckles agreed, and he stayed true to his word, helping Shadow overcome his grief and helping with taking care of Chaos. He almost was the father that Chaos never could have, and Shadow was grateful that Knuckles would help fill in that empty gap that was left by Sonic's death, and he had a feeling that the blue hedgehog knew that would happen. Shadow and Knuckles became nothing more than best friends, but neither of them corrected Chaos when the word 'dad' would slip out when she was addressing Knuckles.

"Mom...?" A quiet voice disturbed the black hedgehog's thoughts. Shadow looked over to find his daughter standing in between two trees. Her voice was normally as loud as her father's, but this place brought even the loudest down to whisper level.

A small smile appeared on Shadow's muzzle. "Hello Chaos. Back so early? I thought you wanted to hang out with your friend after school."

"He was busy... We did get smoothies though." Chaos smiled and hugged him before handing him a strawberry smoothie. Shadow smiled in appreciation before taking a small sip. Chaos looked at the grave. "Mom... Will you tell me a story about dad...?"

The question caused Shadow to look at his daughter in surprise. She has never asked about her father before; usually she'd do anything to escape a conversation about him. "Wh-What?"

Chaos looked back at him with curiosity filled eyes. "I want to know about my father... Who was he? How did you two meet? Do I look like him?"

Shadow sat down on the grass, the wind making them tickle his legs, and gestured for her to sit as well. She sat down in front of her mother. "Well, there's a lot to tell... Where should I start...?"

"How about when you first met?" Chaos suggested.

Shadow nodded and chuckled at the memory. "It definitely doesn't start out like most love stories, I can tell you that. It all happened a very long time ago, when cars didn't fly and a fat, egg shaped man tried to rule the world many times, yet always failed because of one hero and his friends..."

Chaos listened with interest as her mother went on with a story where he was awakened from a fifty year long sleep by a man, that looked like a younger version of his creator, just to help him take over the world, which he agreed to only because Eggman woke him up, and he misinterpreted a promise that he made to his creator's granddaughter, Maria. That lead on to him trying to gather the seven chaos emeralds along with Eggman and his soon to be friend, Rouge the Bat. Getting one of these chaos emeralds was how he met Sonic the Hedgehog.

"So you were basically awoken, then set to work, even though you didn't know what Earth looked like or what year it was?" Chaos interrupted.

"Eh, yeah... I was confused at first, but I memorised the area easily..."

As the story goes on, Sonic and Shadow grew to be fierce rivals, but when the end came, they both worked together to save Earth from the ARK crashing into it. During the fight with the biolizzard, Shadow started to lose his chaos energy, that being the first time he's ever used his super form. At the end of the fight, they both chaos controlled the ARK back into place, but Shadow had ran out of chaos energy afterwards, making him fall towards Earth...

"You almost died!?" Chaos' eyes were wide as she stared at her mother. "Did Sonic save you?"

Shadow shook his head. "No. The chaos control left him weak as well, and before I fell, I gave Sonic my inhibitor ring and pushed him toward ARK..."

"So you fell to Earth?" Shadow nodded. "But... how did you survive?"

"That's when my memory becomes fuzzy... I believe Eggman found me one day and took me to his base to use as a weapon once I was healed... or it was because of the clones he made of me..."

"Clones? What happened after that?"

"That's another story to tell later." Shadow chuckled slightly when Chaos gave a pout that looked a lot like a certain blue hedgehog's. "We should get back to Knuckles for dinner."

Chaos frowned but nodded, and the two went back to the shrine of the master emerald. Knuckles was waiting for them, berries already picked and meat cooked over a fire. They enjoyed their time, as they always did, and Knuckles told the story of how he met Sonic. After the story, they all cuddled for warmth in the temple of the master emerald because of the fall weather, and they all fell asleep soon afterwards.