Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the hedgehog or Shadow.

Sonic and I fought against the evil of Biohazard. I was able to defeat it at first, but it used the chaos emeralds to warp to relative safety. It merged with the space colony ARK, and kept it on it's collision course with Earth. In a few short minutes, all life on Earth would be destroyed. I understood now, Maria, I understood that final promise that I made to you. Not to destroy the Earth, but to save it. I also understood the true power of the hedgehog that is my doppleganger. Or maybe, i'm his, it really doesn't matter. Using the power of the chaos emeralds, the two of us gained incredible power. It was awesome, I could never match Sonic's speed. The way he moved, It was like watching a bullet. The two of us, using our newfound power, launched ourselves at the Biohazard. We aimed at the red swellings where I had damaged the beast earlier. It defended itself with all it's power, and it might have defeated one of us, but it could not stand against two. In the end, it gave out a final death cry.

The creature was dead, but the colony was still falling, we knew that we had no choice but to use the Chaos Control to put the colony back where it belonged. I didn't tell sonic then, but something odd was happening to my body, I was weakening. I understood why, I was going against the reason I was created, I was born to destroy the Earth, to save it was going against that. That doctor, Robotnik, not the fat nothing that believed he was a partner with me, but the true genious, had set a program into my body, that weakened me if I went against the reason I was born.

Sonic and I unleashed a final wave of energy. I put everything I had left behind it. The energy of the chaos emeralds engulphed the ARK, but at great cost. Sonic was able to make it back to the Ark, but I was not.

I am falling, now. Falling toward the Earth that I worked so hard to save. The last ring in my hands is all that is keeping me alive. When it's energy is depleted, I will die.

I am fine with that, here is nothing wrong with death, for a creature such as me. Perhaps I have redeemed myself, for all the wrongs I have committed.

Sonic doesn't know that I cannot return, as much animosity as we had between us, he will feel awful at my demise.

It feels good, I never knew what it could feel like to be cared for by anyone, even at the end of my life.

Except for you, Maria. I can see you again, just as you were before, on the Ark.

It's funny, I don't really know whether I was ever on the ARK. Was I there, did I watch you die as you ejected my escape pod, or was that only a memory planted into my brain by that mad scientist. I don't know, it's so strange.

Maria, you are so beutiful, it's strange, even as difference as our species were, you cared for me, as no one else ever did.

I hear the last words you said to me.

"Sayanora, Shadow, the hedgehog" And that was It, your last words in life would be the last words I hear. Even so, I cannot be sure of what I have done, Did I fulfill my promise, or go against it. I have to ask you, in these final moments.

"Maria, this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you." With this final question, I suddenly know the answer. Now the final ring is gone. My body is losing it's form, becoming the energy of the Chaos emeralds.

Very few people know that the Chaos emeralds are a double edged sword, they are powerful, but those that cannot control them have their bodies absorbed by them.

It is painless. It is bliss, In death, I find redemtion. And my final words echo in my head.

"Maria, this is what you wanted, right? this is my promise I made to you.