Chapter 18

It was rocky, the wind currents strong and shaking the plane from side to side. Shadow laid flat against the Tornado's wing, his arm over and holding (Y/N) down as it dipped. The (a/t) let out a yell as it propelled towards the sandy dunes below.

"Tails!" Shadow yelled, his hands crackled with chaos energy.

"I'm trying!" The fox yelled back, he was straining to pull the plane upright, "This isn't exactly going to plan!"

"Just get us close to the ground, I'll take care of the rest." The hedgehog shielded his eyes from the wind, the dunes were right below them when Tails managed to swing the plane upright.

"I'll try!" The kitsune grit his teeth, his blue eyes looked around, trying to find the safest path to take.

"Sh-Shadow..." (Y/N) was shaking, her eyes closed tightly.

"Don't worry, I have a plan." He reassured, his grip on her tightened, "When I tell you to, I want you to let go of the plane."

"Wh-What?!"

"Just trust me, it won't be as bad as it sounds." He said, "Did you hear that Miles?"

"Yep." The fox nodded, though he didn't like it.

The plane dipped again, and everyone held on tightly. Once they were near the ground, Tails pulled up, one side of the wing hit a sand dune, throwing them off track and (Y/N) cried out. She gripped onto the wing though the force of the hit made her slip back. Shadow did his best to hold on, wrapping his hand under her arm to stop her from off.

"Easy fox!" He barked, before his eyes rose to see them heading straight for another dune.

"I'm trying!" Tails yelled, his ears had pinned back as he pulled his hands from the wheel, "Now!"

Shadow nodded and reached over the wing with his spare hand, gripping onto the twin-tailed fox's shoulder. He closed his eyes, remembered the emerald hidden in his quills, before chaos controlling them off the plane.

A wave of energy passed through the hedgehog as they teleported, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground.

"Shadow? Shadow wake up!" A worried (Y/N) was yelling.

The hedgehog let out a groan, before feeling his head shaking. He reached up and grabbed onto whatever was shaking him and it stopped immediately.

"What...?"

"You passed out. When you did that thing with the white light you... I didn't know what had happened." She sat back, her shoulders sagging in relief; though she shook slightly.

"Are you okay..?" Shadow said, he sat up slowly. A pounding started to appear in his head and he let out a groan, holding it.

"I'm fine. Are you?" The (a/t) tilted her head, "Tails said you may have overloaded with chaos power when you used the white light. I don't know what that means but it sounds painful."

"I can feel it now... But I'll be fine." The hedgehog rubbed his head, before focusing on their scenery, "Where is Tails?"

"He went to find the plane, he hasn't come back yet."

"We should go find him then." He stood slowly, dusting sand from his fur, "Our equipment is on that plane, we won't be able to do anything without it."

"Alright, are you sure?"

A smile pulled at his muzzle, "Yes (Y/N), I'm sure."

The (a/t) gave a nod, before turning her head, "He went that way."

The two set off, crawling over the sandy landscape and keeping an eye out for a right red plane. The wind seemed to have died down since they landed, that or it was crazy up in the air right now. Shadow wasn't entirely sure, though he knew they would have to find another way home.

Although with this much chaos energy in the air, he was pretty positive he'd be able to teleport Tails, (Y/N) and the plane home if he had to.

Speaking of chaos energy, his head was still pounding, and there was a sort of static in the air; it made the dark hedgehog feel queasy, overpowered almost. No wonder he passed out when he Chaos Controlled. Hopefully this won't cause any problems later.

Finally, they found the plane, it's red paint glinted in the distance, and the two hurried over. Tails was half under the plane, which had crash landed into a large hill of sand.

"Tails." Shadow walked over, "How is everything?"

"Well thanks to your Chaos Control, I'm unharmed." The fox said, crawling out from under the aircraft, "But the Tornado's wing was nearly ripped off, and the landing gear is full of sand."

"And our gear?"

"It's all in one piece. The only reason the wing is damaged is because of the dune I hit trying to land. It seems like the sand tried to catch the plane." Tails gave a chuckle, scratching his head, "We may have even been fine staying in the plane, although I would have been buried in sand."

"It wasn't an option really." The hedgehog crossed his arms, "Will you be able to fix the plane?"

"Possibly, but even if I could, I wouldn't be able to fly out of here safely. I should have looked more into the energy surrounding this place..." The yellow kitsune rubbed his furred muzzle, "I could have avoided this."

"I doubt it, no one has been here and returned to tell the tale remember?"

(Y/N) watched the two talk, although confused, she did her best to follow the conversation. All she could picture was Shadow passing out when they landed in the sand, how he fell as if he had fallen asleep, and how she was worried he wouldn't wake up.

But he did, even Tails had said he would be fine.

Though in those moments, she had come to realise something.

"So, will this be a safe place to set up for now?" Shadow's voice drifted back to her ears.

"As safe as any other location around here. We're pretty far into the desert and the chaos energy will act as a cloaking devise for us."

"Right, will you be able to test (Y/N)'s abilities now? They could be useful here."

"I can try but... As much as it's helping us hide, the chaos energy might get in the way."

"We can move, can't we?" (Y/N) piped up, causing the two to look at her, "I want to know what I can do as well... If I can do anything that is... And the sooner the better. We could go just beyond the barrier of this power, and then return once we know what we need to."

"That's a good idea, but we don't know where the barrier ends." Tails said, "I could try to scan the area, but I'm not sure how long it will take, or even if it will work."

"Why not just... Walk?" She asked, "Just... Walk until we're out."

"(Y/N), we don't know where we are, we could choose to walk in one direction and head further into the energy. It's too much of a gamble to just walk and hope for the best." Shadow said.

"I agree." The yellow fox nodded, before grabbing a device and holding it up, "Just give me a moment. I should be able to scan the area with this."

The other two stood and watched, not really sure what they could do in the time being. (Y/N) glanced at Shadow, he seemed to be shaking lightly, was he okay? The hedgehog's gaze met hers and she felt her cheeks heat, before rubbing her head sheepishly.

Shadow raised a brow, before turning his attention back to Tails, who was currently holding up the device, his eyes scanning the screen. The (a/t) let out a sigh, Shadow was still definitely a mystery to her.

"Alright, I have a visual on the chaos energy." The kitsune said, "We're not too far from the border, if we head there, we can figure out what (Y/N) has up her sleeve."

"Good, then lead the way." Shadow said, "We should be safe for a while, G.U.N won't have any leads yet."

"I agree." Tails nodded, before turning his back to the two, "It's this way."

"Do you need any equipment?"

"No, this device will help me."

With that, the three headed out into the desert. (Y/N) kept her eye on Shadow, wondering if Tails had even noticed the hedgehog's shaking. The closer they got to the border, the less he was shaking.

Does the energy affect him that strongly?

"I should Chaos Control us there." The hedgehog said, "Just to speed things up a little."

"That wouldn't be wise Shadow. You passed out last time you did that, we don't need our only line of defence down just to speed things along. No matter how safe we are, we can't risk it. Plus, you're right about us having some time, we don't need to rush and make possible mistakes." (Y/N) smiled at the fox, glad he was even there to aid them in this mission; but it was obvious he could see how affected Shadow was as well.

"Fine.." The darker hedgehog let out a huff and they kept walking.

A few minutes later, they came to a stop. The sun beat down on them all, and (Y/N) wondered why she hadn't felt the heat until now.

"Alright, this should do." The fox turned to the (a/t), "Stand as still as possible okay? I'll scan you and see what my little doohicky can fine."

"You haven't named it yet?" Shadow crossed his arms, "Normally you have by now."

"Haven't thought of a good one yet." Tails chuckled slightly, before shaking his head, "Anyway..."

"Will it hurt...?" (Y/N) asked, making sure to stand as still as possible. The last thing she wanted right now was to go through any more pain.

"Nope! But it is easier to find things if you stay still."

She nodded, and a moment later a green light moved over her body. Tails was completely focused on the device, pressing buttons on the sides and moving the screen as he read everything that appeared. Shadow took his place next to (Y/N) while they waited, and she looked up at him,

"Should we have done this at another time...?" She asked, rubbing her arm.

"Doing it later wouldn't help us any, you could be really useful while we're here." He came up with a quick response, "And it's not like we had any idea to start with, it was a sudden decision of mine."

"Alright..." The (a/t) nodded, "It just feels... I don't know, a little off topic."

"I agree, but the sooner we know, the better. It's just a pain we were in the middle of something else." He nodded, "But don't worry about it, this won't affect our original mission, unless we're attacked right now."

"Well, it looks like Shadow's hypothesis was correct." Tails said, causing the two to look at him.

"Hypothe-what?" (Y/N) tilted her head, "What does that mean?"

"It means his idea was right, which also means you absorbed the power from the Crescent Life Source." The fox raised his gaze, "Whatever that could do, now you can too."

"Y-You mean... I can create and destroy life...?"

"Yep, and it says here you can also manipulate the environment." The fox's twin tails started to wag, "It's a really interesting power, and it could really help us while we're here."

"I... I can destroy life...?" The (a/t)'s ears lowered. That was a huge ability to have, "I don't want to do that..."

"Oh don't worry. You're new to your abilities, so it will take a while for you to be able to control them. It will take a lot of training, that's for sure."

"I-I don't want to destroy..."

"You won't." Shadow rested a hand around her shoulders, "If you don't want to, then you won't. You'll always have control in that area at least."

"But... If I can't use my powers now, how will I be of use?"

"Well now that you know about them, you may be able to channel them faster. Or lets say you panic and manage to throw a wave of sand at someone or something. That happens a lot with new abilities." Tails said, tilting his head slightly, "If it's alright with you, when we get back I'd like to do more detailed tests. I'm interested in the extent of your power."

"Oh um... Sure...?"

"Great! Now lets head back, you two have a mission to do."

"Wait. If I absorbed the powers of the Golden Moon, doesn't that mean it's useless...?" (Y/N) asked, watching the two, "What's the point of hiding it then...?"

Shadow nodded to himself, before holding up the artefact, "G.U.N don't know that. They're still targeting it, which means their focus is off any real danger. If we hide it, they'll still believe it's powerful."

"So we're basically leading them on a wild goose chase." The fox giggled, "It's actually a really good plan."

"Oh, I see." The (a/t) smiled, "Then what are we waiting for? Lets get started."

Sorry! Sorry! Idk if this was confusing or not. If it was I'll try to explain it to you (just ask away). I've been trying to get back into writing since I left that hellhole of a job, and it's been a little bit of a challenge.

Simply: I want to write, I know what I want to write, but I don't want to sit down and write. I think it's motivation, but I'm getting there. So yeah, sorry if the writing was off, I wanted to write it I just struggled to. Yay author's block/dead motivation, amirite?

Anyway, see you in the next chapter, Haven Out!!!