Rouge was sitting under a peach tree, looking at the stars twinkle in the night sky. They were so beautiful. She smiled as the soft breeze brushed along her face. It was so comforting in these times of tragedy. Rouge hated going over the story of that special hedgehog who, in the end, was a hero. Everyone would always remember what he did for the earth.

One day, when the world was about to end, two hedgehogs named Sonic and Shadow worked together to save the planet. They transformed into Super Sonic and Hyper Shadow to defend the world against destruction. Sonic made it out alive—Shadow, however, didn't. He sacrificed himself to save the people of earth. No one was quite sure why he did it, but he was honored nonetheless.

Rouge, of course, was devastated when she found out from Sonic that Shadow was gone; everyone was. But Rouge's pain was much more serious than anyone else's. She had been his partner, and even more, his best friend. They had shared many precious moments together that would never be forgotten by Rouge. She had cared about him deeply, and he had cared about her. He saved her life on many occasions, and they shared a special bond—one that would never break, no matter how hard things got.

There were even times when Rouge felt she cared about him even deeper than any normal best friends. She spent a lot of her time with him, and was considering a relationship with him. She was going to ask him after his performance of saving the world, but…

And now, as she sat on the cool grass under a peach tree on top of a hill, she thought about all of these things, thought about them hard. She vowed to herself that she would never, ever forget that hedgehog and all the things they did together. And she knew that even if Shadow was gone, they'd remain friends forever.

Rouge eventually tired of these thoughts and this dumb peach tree, so she flew off. She went to a place called The Pier. It was Shadow's favorite place to be alone—where he thought. She tried not to cry as she looked over the side of the deck and into the water.

I can't believe he's gone, she thought. My best friend.

She flung her wings out as a huge gust of wind came. She leaned her whole body forward and floated against the air; the wind going into her wings kept her from falling, and the breeze wasn't strong enough to push her into a standing position. A half-smile formed on her face and she spread her arms out.

But she was still sad, still grieving—which made the half-smile disappear. Maybe it was Shadow's fate to sacrifice himself. Maybe that was how it was supposed to end. She played flashbacks of some of the times they had together: when he saved her from Prison Island; when he freed her from the clutches of that giant robot-monster; when they were up on the canyon together; even when Shadow refused to save Chris Thorndyke from Prison Island along with Rouge.

Then she had a thought: maybe Shadow only sacrificed himself for her, not Earth. Not all the citizens and residents of Earth—just Rouge. It made sense; no earth, no Rouge. Then, without warning, the tears came. The breeze stopped and Rouge started to fall, but she didn't catch herself; she just kept falling toward the water.

"I'm coming, Shadow," she whispered. "I'll be with you shortly."

Suddenly, a hand wrapped itself around her belly and stopped her from falling. It was a large hand; a hand like a mitt.

Who do I know that has hands like mitts? Rouge thought to herself.

The hand pulled her up and sat her on her knees. She didn't turn around. Instead, she held her breath and waited for the person to say something. The hand that had pulled her up placed itself on her shoulder.

"Hey, you don't look too good," a familiar voice said. "You feeling all right?"

The she knew who it was. She turned around and saw the face of a worried red echidna—it was Knuckles, of course. She smiled faintly.

"Yeah, I'm all right," she said. "Just sad, that's all."

"Seems more like depressed," he told her. "I mean, you did just try to off yourself."

"Knuckles, you have no idea how I feel right now," Rouge insisted. "I've lost my best friend, my partner. I really cared about him, and now he's gone."

"Trust me, I know exactly how you feel," Knuckles informed. "When I lost Julie-Su, I wanted to be with her, too—I really did. But then I realized that death is natural and that you can't have someone forever. They're not always going to be by your side. One day, you'll just lose your best friend; those things happen. It's ok; at least you have other friends that you can count on."

"So what am I supposed to do now?" Rouge asked him bitterly. "What am I supposed to do now that my best friend's in heaven?"

"Just try to occupy yourself the best you can," Knuckles said. "You could hang out with Sonic and Amy and Cream."

"I can't go anywhere near Sonic after he survived and Shadow didn't," Rouge told him. "It wasn't fair. Why couldn't Shadow have lived?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I can't answer that question, Rouge."

"It's not fair!" Rouge said loudly as she pounded the deck with the side of her fist.

"Rouge, everything will turn out ok," Knuckles assured. "You'll see."

He held his arms out and Rouge hugged him. Rouge liked hugging Knuckles. He was muscular, so his body kept her warm. After a while they broke the hug and Knuckles held her by the shoulders.

"Everything is going to work out for you," he told her. "Trust me."

Rouge nodded and they stood up. Knuckles started walking away, but stopped and turned to Rouge.

"Oh, and, try not to kill yourself," he added. "For all of us."

He then walked away and Rouge wiped her eyes. The tears had already started to dry, but she wiped them anyway. She was still thinking of all the things her and Shadow did together. She also started thinking about what could've happened if Knuckles hadn't caught her earlier. Maybe she would've drowned and went to heaven with Shadow.

No, I couldn't do that, she thought. I wouldn't go to heaven. People who commit suicide don't go to heaven.

She then erased that thought from her mind. She didn't want to think about suicide; she'd promised Knuckles she wouldn't. After all, if people who did suicide didn't go to heaven, there was only one other place to go—and Rouge surely didn't want to go there.

She whipped her wings about again and pushed off the deck with her feet. She flew over the city and observed all of the bright lights. The buildings were so tall in big cities. She flew around for a while, and suddenly spotted something. Something black…with red highlights!

She flew down and landed. She looked around and saw the black figure with red highlights; he was only a block away, so Rouge started to run.

"It's Shadow, I know for sure," she whispered to herself.

When she caught up to him, she stopped dead in her tracks—it wasn't Shadow. This man had a large black top hat with a red wrap, a black long-sleeved shirt, tight black pants, and black, white, and red shoes. Rouge was extremely disappointed.

The man had not seen her, so he kept walking, although Rouge was frozen. She was already jumping to conclusions about Shadow.

"I guess I just miss him so much," she said sadly.

But how do you forget someone like that? Someone like Shadow, who sacrificed himself to save the world? Who gave everything he had to protect the earth?

Rouge wandered around for a while, then finally came upon a coffee shop—strangely enough, the name was Al's Coffee Shop. She bought a cup of coffee and sat down with it. She drank and drank for what seemed like an eternity. Then, her friend Amy came by. She sat down next to Rouge as the bat finished her cup of coffee.

"So, what's up?" Amy asked, as if nothing was wrong.

"Huh? Oh, nothing," Rouge answered. "It's just that this whole Shadow thing has me cornered. I don't know if I'm supposed to fell happy or sad or mad or what. My emotions are scattering everywhere. I'm so confused.'

"It's ok, Rouge," Amy assured her. "Everything will get better as time goes by."

Rouge remembered what Knuckles had said to her on the deck of The Pier: "Everything will turn out ok; Everything is going to work out for you."

She realized that these were her friends, and that they were trying to help her; so she tried to be in better control of herself. If it weren't for these friends, Rouge probably would have slipped away by now. She would probably be drowned and dead if Knuckles hadn't come along, and she would completely lose her mind if Amy wasn't there to comfort her.

"Listen, Amy, you know you're my friend, right?" Rouge said.

"Of course, Rouge," Amy replied. "And I'll always be your friend."

"Good," Rouge said, "because you know that Shadow was my best friend."

"I know," Amy responded.

She put her arm around Rouge's shoulder and said, "Everything will be ok. Trust me."

Rouge smiled; everything was going to be ok. She was going to be able to make it in the world, even without Shadow. But deep in her heart, she knew he'd be with her forever. And so she thought, I'll never forget you…Shadow the Hedgehog…