AN: (Contains a Sonic X spoiler, for those of you who haven't seen it yet)

Chapter 2

It was a bright sunny day in the Mystic Ruins. Tails exited his workshop with a watering pot and a satchel of plant food. He headed over to his garden out back and tended to the special tree he had been growing for several months.

The plant had grown quite a bit in these past few months, and Tails himself had certainly become more plump than in former times, on account of the many sweets and fattening goodies he'd been receiving from Vanilla the Rabbit and his other friends. Tails had relied heavily on comfort food to get him through the grief of losing his special friend, Cosmo, after their battle with the Metarex concluded.

ZOOM!

Somewhat alarmed by the now familiar noise of the sound barrier being broken, Tails peered off into the distance and spotted Sonic zooming across the hillside terrain at top speeds.

"I wonder what Sonic is in such a hurry for?" Tails pondered.

He thought for a moment about what he just said.

"Ha! What am I thinking?" he chuckled to himself.
"Sonic is always in a hurry like that. He's probably just going over to visit Never Lake. You can see the Little Planet clearly at this time of year."

An idea occurred to Tails.

"Hmm, I might go take a look myself later today. It's been a while since I've been away from the old homestead. Amy is always telling me I need to get out more."

Meanwhile, at Never Lake:

The Little Planet loomed in the sky as Robotnik personally stationed his time machine at the foot of the lake. His messenger robot Bokkun was standing watch, as were his bumbling assistants Decoe and Becoe. But Robotnik didn't trust the handling of his precious device to them this time. The Time Stones were all lined up in a row and Shadow stood before them.

"All the preparations are in order," said Robotnik.
"The time is now, Shadow... let it begin!"

Shadow nodded in reply. He turned to face the Little Planet, closed his eyes in meditation, and uttered the words:

"Chaos Control!"

The Time Stones began to shimmer as Shadow channeled the temporal energy of Little Planet through them. The energy waves were filtered through Robotnik's time machine as he focused them on a specific date and time.

Suddenly, Sonic stormed onto the scene, knocking the robot guards over like bowling pins before they could sound any alarm!

"Ah!" the mechanical trio yelped, as they fell over.

Sonic quickly assessed the situation.

"As I suspected, Eggman is out to use the Time Stones to reshape history according to his twisted image," thought Sonic.
"Only this time he's trying to inflict his corruption on Mobius itself, instead of just Little Planet. And he's using Shadow's help to do it."

Having determined that Eggman was up to no good, Sonic turned to address Shadow.

"Don't do it Shadow! Eggman is only using you!"

Shadow looked up at Sonic in anger.

"I warn you Sonic, do not interfere! There's no stopping this!"

"You don't have the right to distort the timeline like this!" said Sonic.
"I won't allow it!"

"You're too late!" Shadow replied.
"It has begun."

"I've gotta do something..." thought Sonic.

Sonic unveiled a Chaos Emerald he was carrying with him.

"Chaos Control!" he shouted.

"No!!!" yelled Shadow.
"I won't let anyone stand in my way! This shall come to pass!"

There was a deafening thud as the two opposing forces clashed and a gigantic shockwave whooshed throughout the entire region. Sonic and Shadow were enveloped into a brilliant flash of light, and when it faded they were both gone.

As for the Time Stones themselves, they levitated towards the sky and began to dematerialize into thin air.

Shadow was transported decades into the past, back to the time and place just before Maria's death on the Space Colony ARK. He quickly spotted that familiar face of the girl he had grown to love all those years ago.

"Maria!" Shadow exclaimed with joy.
"I can change it! Now is my chance!" he declared excitedly.

He braced himself to spring into action, but soon found that some invisible force pulled on him from behind, impeding his motion.

"Uurrgh! What is this?! What's happening?"

BOOM!
The door was kicked open.

RAT-tat-TAT!
The GUN agents stormed into the room and opened fire on the helpless girl.

"Maria, no!!!" Shadow screamed in horror.

After witnessing this horror, he was then irresistibly sucked backwards to the corner of the room, as if by a vacuum. He was engulfed through a stream of light, but when he emerged on the other end he was right back where he started — Space Colony ARK approximately 30 seconds before Maria's death.

"I'm back again!" Shadow observed.
"But I still can't move forward! I'm being pulled back to..."

BOOM!
The GUN troops burst into the room again, executing Maria exactly as before.

RAT-tat-TAT!

"No! This can't be happening!" Shadow roared as he was sucked back through the time loop, only to repeat the process over and over again.

He kept struggling to break free but the cycle continued on, exactly the same for hundreds of times.

Meanwhile, back in the "Present".

A few moments after the dust cleared from Sonic and Shadow's confrontation, Robotnik emerged from under a huge rock formation he had taken shelter behind. He observed that his time machine was broken to pieces and Sonic and Shadow were both gone.

"Drat!" Robotnik spat bitterly.
"That blasted Sonic has ruined my plans once again. At least he's gone now, hopefully for good. But Shadow......"

Robotnik paused midsentence as he heard a strange noise from above.

"Hm?"

He looked to the sky as suddenly, a tear in the fabric of time briefly opened and Shadow fell out. He hit the ground nearly unconscious and slowly staggered to his feet.

"Shadow!" Robotnik called out as he ran toward the dazed hedgehog.

"Ma- Maria..." Shadow gasped weakly.

"Shadow, what happened? Did you see her?" Robotnik inquired.

"Maria..." Shadow repeated with a tremble in his voice.

The image of Maria's murder continued to replay itself over and over again in his mind.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHRRRRRRRGGGHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Shadow just screamed at the top of his lungs for some time until he finally passed out.

"Shadow! Shadow!" Robotnik exclaimed as he checked the dark hedgehog for vital signs.

Robotnik motioned to an Eggmobile vehicle he had on standby to come pick both of them up.

Meanwhile:

Amy, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla and Vector were all en route for a visit with Tails. The concerned foursome anxiously quickened their pace after hearing the shockwave sweep through the land minutes ago.

"I'm scared Mommy," Cream remarked.
"What if the forest is under attack? What'll we do? What's happening?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," Vanilla replied.
"Maybe Tails will know."

"Of course, of course!" Vector confidently assured.
"Tails is always on top of these things, with his technological knowhow. Right?"

"Hmph! I'll bet he's the one responsible for this whole mess," Amy huffed.
"Probably one of his kooky inventions blew up or something like that."

"Look! There he is in the garden," exclaimed Cream.

They all ran near to Tails and found him weeping over a broken, uprooted sapling.

"Tails, what's the matter with you?" Amy asked in bewilderment.

Tails just continued to weep with his head held down.

"What's wrong honey?" Vanilla warmly inquired as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

Tails looked up at her and uttered one word.

"Cosmo......" he softly whimpered through sobs.

"Oh dear, it must be the tree he planted... for her," Vanilla explained.

"That's right," Cream reflected.
"Didn't he say there was a seed that time when..."

"Oh no," Amy cried.
"It must be like losing her all over again for him."

"Poor guy," Vector sighed.

Even Cheese uttered a sympathetic coo.

To Be Continued...