Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA, not me

Chapter – 1

Sometimes you can find happiness in and with other people. But you find true happiness with the people who understand you personally. You cannot find pure happiness with yes men and sympathy friends, it takes a genuine individual, or group of individuals, to reach a person's standard of expectation to reach happiness. This is the story of how a certain hedgehog regained his happiness.

Shadow the Hedgehog is atop a cliff over-looking Station Square, and in this very moment, the sunset which decorated the sky with the rich vibrant colors of orange, yellow, and pink. He let out a sigh, thinking of everything that has ever happened to him; some parts he remembered made him feel slightly happy for all the accomplishments he made, but for him it was like taking off a mask to show your identity, only to put it back on in an extremely short amount of time. Other times he felt nothing but great anger, and the fact that he often deals with a certain cocky rival of his does not help.

He had gone through so much, he remembers the crisis he was a part of when he tried to destroy the earth to avenge his creator, Gerald Robotnik, but after many flashbacks and with the help of Amy Rose, Shadow knew exactly what he needed to do and changed his ways to help save the earth.

He also remembers that adventure he had with Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega to find Dr. Eggman and later on destroy, Metal Sonic; he did however find out something that made him question his very existence.

And he remembered the invasion of the Black Arms and how the leader of the Black Arms, Black Doom, tried to reveal the truth to Shadow about his life and his purpose, luckily Sonic and the others were able to convince Shadow that Black Doom was only deceiving him. Convinced of the actual truth, Shadow was able to stop Black Doom from taking over the earth.

And for some reason, he vaguely remembers something about a princess, a look-alike, and a god-like fire beast though he doesn't know or remember why.

Regardless, there is one thing he always remembers, Maria Robotnik, the daughter of his creator and his closest friend. Shadow distinctly remembered everything that happened that day 50 years ago: running through the ARK, the urgency of the situation, Maria herself and her death it all happened too fast.

Shadow let out a sigh as he remembered his past. He grew angry at the thoughts but grew more of despair more than anything else. "Why… Why did this have to happen?" Shadow asked himself. "Why was I left to suffer? Why was I left to grieve? Why was I forsakened?"

Not too far, a figure started to approach Shadow from behind, being quiet and sneaky as he did. A devious smile decorated his face as he got closer and closer to his target, he was about to do something when shadow let out a grunt. "What do you want, Sonic?" Sonic, who was about to attempt to spook Shadow a bit, chuckled. "I guess you can see the future, or was that just a lucky guess?"

"You do this all the time."

"But its fun isn't it? I mean, it was fun but now that you know I'm the one who's doing this, it's not-"

"What do you want?" Shadow asked, very annoyed.

"I just wanted to see how my rival was doing."

"He's fine as you can obviously see. Now tell me what you really want, or get out of here."

"Someone's a little more grumpy than usual."

"I. Am. Not. In. The. Mood."

"Well how 'bout you swing by my place later. I'm having a party and I'm sure you're going to have a great time." Sonic said with a grin. There was a long moment of silence before Shadow gave his simple answer. "No." Sonic frowned a bit but was determined to have Shadow change his mind.

"Come on, it'll be great. There'll be food, dancing, competition, and all of our friends are coming. I might even bring some new friends that can be very beneficial to you, if you know what I mean." Sonic said with a cocky grin and winked at Shadow after saying the last part.

Shadow let out a huff, he did not want to hear anymore of this. "I said no! What part of that do you not understand?

Sonic scowled at Shadow's behavior. "You know Shadow, your attitude is really crawling on my skin. Here I am trying to be nice to you, and all you do is be a Negative Nancy. I mean can it kill you to show that you care about anything?"

"Like you'd ever understand!"

"You know what maybe I don't, but at least I don't drive away the people that try to help me. I mean seriously, what is your problem?"

"Drop it faker."

"Is it about what happened to you 50 years ago?"

"I said drop it."

"You gotta move on dude, what's in the past is in the past. You can't keep living in the past, take charge an-"

"SHUT UP!" Shadow yelled, not wanting to hear anymore.

"You don't know what I go through on a daily basis. I have suffered for 50 long years trying to cope with my life, and for what, to have someone like you lecture me about being negative? I have tried and tried my hardest to at least forget about my past only to remember it every time I blink. You, and every mortal in this planet, do not understand me, and you definitely don't know me, so don't talk to me like you do. You don't know what it's like to suffer like I have, the most you know about suffering is a temporary defeat by that bloated buffoon of a doctor. You have absolutely no respect if all you do is pester others with your cocky attitude and sarcastic remarks. Until the day you fully understand me, don't bother speaking to me. So shut the hell up and don't you dare speak of my past again! Understood!"

Sonic stood where he was with a shocked expression. He didn't even move a muscle since Shadow went off on his tangent.

Shadow let out a huff. "Good." He pulled out the green chaos emerald and raised it in the air. "CHAOS CONTROL!" In a flash of green light, Shadow disappeared.

Sonic still stood at his spot with the same look on his face, even after Shadow left. After a few minutes he came out of his shock and looked at the spot where Shadow was at. "Shadow, I'm sorry. I was just trying to look out for you." And with that Sonic turned around and ran back into the city.

Author's Note: What did you think? Too much, or too little? Either way, I want to thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this. See you in the next chapter, whenever that may be. Don't forget to review; constructive criticism is welcome, flames are not.