I'm so so so so so so so so so so sorry for not putting this up! I was banned from my computer, had writer's block and I was busy with a lot of things! Anyway, here's Chapter 7. Enjoy:)

Disclaimer: Shadow blongs to Sega (c) OCs belong to Me (c)


Chapter 7

Fireworks and Disappearances!

Part 2

Shadow's POV:

What happened? I… don't know what happened to me. My head hurts, too.

Shadow…

Huh? Who's there?

Shadow…

Where are you? Show yourself!

Shadow… can you hear me?

Yes, I can. Tell me, who are you? How do you know my name? Where are you?!

I have always been with you Shadow. You just need to look deep in your heart and you'll find me.

Answer my other questions! And what the hell are you talking about?!

All will be revealed to you in time, I promise. For now, however, you just need to look deep in your heart. I'll be waiting for you until then.

What? Wait! Tell me something before you go, where am I?!

We're in the Subconscious of your mind. I can't stay long Shadow, for you are about to awaken in the Real world right now. But I promise you that we'll meet again.

Unh! Wait a minute-!

Remember: Look deep in your heart.

WAIT!!


Normal POV:

Shadow's eyes started opening, slow and steady, as he started regaining consciousness. His vision was blurred a little, then after a while, it became clear. The first thing he saw was a ceiling. A metal ceiling with a few dents in some areas, broken wires, black explosion markings, and 10 missing tiles.

"Wh-what?" He sat up and found himself in a highly damaged room. The floor and walls were made of stainless steel and looked pretty battered to boot. There were also pieces of furniture in the room. There was a trashed up clock, hanging lopsided on the wall; an overturned desk was in the corner, and he was on top of a bed that looked slightly untouched. There was only one window that was located on the wall behind him.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking that this was a hallucination or he was seeing things and it would fade as soon as he took a second glance. It wasn't either one.

"Where… How did I… get here?" he asked to no one in particular. Shadow rubbed the back of his head, groaning as he did so.

"Damn, my head hurts. What the hell hit me?"

His mind back-tracked to what had happened before he was knocked out; his eyes bulged when it came to him.

"That yellow hedgehog. God dammit! How could I let her catch me off-guard?!" he demanded. At that moment, he heard a metal door in the room fall over and hit the ground. Shadow became alert when he heard and put up a fighting pose when he saw someone enter. Who he saw entering was a teenaged boy with short, indigo hair that touched his ears half-way; violet eyes that looked like they could see through you; light skin, and a soft expression was on his face when he saw him. Shadow glared at the boy.

The indigo haired boy smiled and chuckled a bit.

"I see you're up and active as always." he said.

Shadow looked confused. Did this 18-year-old know who he is? He doubted.

"Who are you?" he asked. Crimson eyes stared at pools of violet in confusion as he said this. The teenager didn't say anything; he just stood there with that calm smile on his face as if waiting for Shadow to remember something. When Shadow didn't say anything else, the indigo headed boy just walked up to Shadow, sat down next to him, and before Shadow could act, the teen started to gently rub his back. Shadow was pretty shocked.

'W-What? This feels… familiar… for some reason.' he thought. Shadow relaxed a bit, causing him to look down and see his hands. He was human again!

'But, I… was a hedgehog. Crap… how long was I knocked out for?!' Shadow hid his surprise from the boy. Suddenly, as if on cue, Shadow started having flashbacks… of the place he was in right now and-

"Fusion?" he questioned softly. The teen heard this and slowly moved his hand up to Shadow's right shoulder (the same side he was on).

"That's me." he said. Fusion stood up after a while and stretched.

"I'm going to find some clothes for you, okay? While I'm at it, I'll find clothes for myself as well." And he walked out of the room, giving a slight wave to a baffled human Shadow.

"What. The.-"


Meanwhile, in another banged up room, three girls were getting their clothes on. All of them were around age 18. One of the girls had short, neck-length orange hair that kind of curved up on the ends. She also had ruby red eyes and looked like an athlete with her slim and slightly buffed body. Around her head was a red and white striped headband with the Star of David emblem on it.

She was putting on a pair of black jeans, a red sleeveless tank top, leather hiking boots, and black sweat bands around her wrist.

Another girl had cream colored skin, smooth as silk; pink eyes; long pink hair that only touched her knees, and was kind of slim. She had a green beret on her head and was putting on a nurse outfit.

The last girl had long, back-length yellow hair, light skin and beautiful hazelnut eyes. She was trying on a variety of clothes and hadn't decided on one yet.

They were all talking about something… something about the blonde.

"Sorry about your ex… must've been hard for you." said the orange top. The blonde sighed, then glared into a shard of a broken mirror.

"It was… the worst part of it was the fact that he found out about my original form before his death!" she harshly answered.

"What do you mean?" asked the pink head with a French accent. The blonde growled.

"He saw my transformation one night and a day after that, he committed suicide!!"

"Hurt you bad, huh?"

The blonde nodded.

"When I went to his grave, I had to make an excuse on how he died. We can't let people know about our… 'condition'," She did finger quotes on that word. "If you know what I mean."

The two nodded.

"But, let's face it, girl. He was never your type to begin with."

"Oui. Your type had always and forever will be, the type that-"

"Shut. Up. Celeste." interrupted the blonde. Celeste didn't say anything after that threat. The orange girl took off the red tank top, seeing that it didn't suit her, and gave a look of concern to the blonde. Something just didn't feel right. She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"This isn't like you; tell us why you're acting like this."

The blonde shoved the hand off of her and said, "Can't tell you."

"I agree with Love, Pandora-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!!!"

"Easy, girl. Just relax for a sec-"

"YOU ARE NOT FUSION, LOVE!!! So quit acting like him!!"

After that outburst, Love sighed and ran her fingers through her orange hair.

"Pandora, you can't stick with a fake name forever. Sooner or later, you'll have to tell the people you lied to that your real name is not Maria Hedrick!" she finally said. Pandora sighed.

"Even Shadow?" she asked. Two heads nodded. Pandora blushed and fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I can't you guys. Especially since I know… that he, too, is like us."

"Ce n'est pas votre défaut. It's not your fault. Anyone could 'ave made a mistake like that easily."

"But if he sees my original form, he'll try to kill me! I mean he and I fought when I was robbing a bank. And I hurt someone who had a Chaos Emerald!"

"You WHAT?!" shouted Celeste and Love. The blonde sweat dropped, a nervous smile planted on her face.

"That's… right. You guys didn't know."

"TELL US!!!"

"Look, Silva persuaded me with an offer I just couldn't refuse. After I agreed, he told me that I needed to find the Chaos Emeralds. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good start; what with all of the havoc that was going on 'over there' and due to the alien invasion a few years back, we waited for a good time and here we are right now.

"Also, I heard that a Chaos Emerald was stashed in the bank vault somewhere so I went over there; Shadow caught me robbing it on that night, so I couldn't get it. Then the next night, I found Shadow with some… bat girl!! I noticed that she had an Emerald in her hands, so I used my Chaos Shard (A/N: Think of this move as the Chaos Spear attack, but in shards.) on her. And no, I didn't kill her, but it was kind of funny seeing Shadow retreat. But to take that... that… that damn bat girl with him!! GRRRRR!!!"

The two flabbergasted girls took a while for the info to sink in and for the enraged blonde to calm down before Celeste said, "You're not… jealous are you?"

"Yeah, especially since you were-"

Love was interrupted with a smack across the face by Pandora, who was trying her best not to cry as her eyes started filling up with tears.

"Bastard! You know very well that it's gone!" she screeched. Love rubbed her check, which was now red from the slap and stared at Pandora in pity.

"Sorry I brought it up." she said, apologetically. She then grabbed a blue tank top and put in on. Pandora just stood in front of the broken mirror like a statue, clutching a yellow blouse in her hands. Celeste gave her a comforting smile and gently said, "Let's put it behind us now. I mean, we have everyone back together again!"

The blonde shook her head.

"Just say it. Shadow doesn't remember us. Hazard forgot about us, too. And Cedric… he's-"

"Enough. We all know what happened way back when, but let's just hope that he's in a better place now. And as for Shadow and Hazard, weeellll…" Love started.

"Silva is going to force them to remember by using the Alcanine drug on them." finished Celeste. Pandora went wide-eyed.

"Alcanine?! You mean-" Before she could finish her sentence, someone entered the room. An 18-year-old boy with tan skin, messy black hair with green streaks that stopped between the shoulder blades, and maroon cat-like eyes. He wore a black shirt, a long, black cloak, black boots, gloves, and a pair of dark blue jeans. Around his neck was a red collar.

"Hello girls. You all look lovely this morn-"

At that precise moment, Pandora screamed. She was only wearing her undergarments and immediately covered up her body with her hands and arms.

"GET OUT OF HERE YOU PERVERT!!!" she screamed. Love helped by holding Pandora close so that no one saw her.

"You heard her Silva! GET OUT!!" she yelled. Silva smirked and walked closer to the girls. Celeste stopped him from getting any closer by stepping in front of him.

Silva's smirk was still on his face, then he said, "I just came in here to congratulate Celestial and Love for your success in retrieving the Master Emerald. I already gave Fusion credit since he helped in stealing it." He looked over at the blonde haired girl now. "And Pandora… dear, sweet Pandora, I give you congrats, too, for retrieving Shadow. You were correct that you found him and thanks to you, The Brethren clan is now complete."

Pandora became infuriated for many reasons.

"Stay away from Shadow… you murderous bastard!" she screeched. Silva roughly pushed Celeste out of the way and walked up to the angry blonde. Love held her very close now as this happened. The dark haired teen moved his head towards Pandora and whispered in ear, "One dose won't kill him, but if he still doesn't remember, well you know what'll happen."

Pandora shoved him away from her, blushing furiously, both in anger and in embarrassment.

"I'll KILL YOU!!"

"Don't be so cruel… remember our talk a couple of days back? You should be ashamed of yourself. I helped all of you break out, yet you still don't trust me."

Celeste picked herself up from the floor at this point, saying in French, "Vous ne méritez pas d'être fait confiance!"

Silva looked back at the pink girl and growled at her. "Again how ignorant of me. But all of you need to trust me now. Unless anyone has any ideas on how to bring him back, I suggest you all start finding the three remaining Emeralds.

"As for Love and Celestial, I didn't release you two and Fusion from the capsules so that you could shower me with mistrust!"

There was a moment of silence between the foursome, then Silva turned and left the room, stopping at the door only to say, "And another thing, there will be no interference while I work on Shadow and Hazard. They will remember… I'll make sure of that."

When he was gone and out of earshot, Pandora pulled away from Love and put on the blouse, grabbed a black skirt with red edges and put those on. While doing this, she said in fury, "Like hell I won't interfere! If he thinks he can get away with doing something like that, then he's got another thing coming!"

The two girls remaining stared at her in shock. They stared at each other for a while then back at the blonde. When Pandora was all decked out, she marched out of the room − not really caring if she was only wearing socks on her feet – and ran down a corridor that led to the main lab.

'I've gotta get to Shadow before Silva does. I can't let him get hurt… or worse, killed.'


Shadow scanned his appearance in a broken mirror. Fusion came back with clothing for him a few minutes ago and had already left. Shadow was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and a pair of black jeans.

"This will do for now." he said to himself. He then walked towards the door and walked out of the room. Shadow looked from side to side, seeing nothing but corridors and other doors. Parts of the corridors were all trashed and broken cords stuck out of a few ripped out walls.

"The hell?" he asked himself. He walked to his left and made a right turn in one of the corridors. The corridor led him to a giant door. The metal doors looked like they were forced open by some unknown force for Shadow saw the giant metals on the ground, both had a large dent on them. He walked in and gasped when he saw the destruction of the giant room.

Some walls were blown off; snapped cords hung from above and from destroyed machinery, charred areas, etc. The room looked like it was in ruins! He looked around again and saw that most of the machinery was untouched and functioning properly. Shadow backed up a bit, stopping when he felt something stop him from behind. He turned around, seeing a lab table with broken test tubes and splotches of blood on it.

He maneuvered around it and a few other lab tables. Shadow picked up a blood stained chair that had been on its side for some time and put it right side up.

"What the hell happened in here? A war or something?" he asked to no one in particular. He kept on walking, then stopped when he saw a giant crystal orb in the middle of the room.

"Damn. This is-"

'A remote, underground lab facility that hasn't been used since the arrival of the G.U.N. soldiers… or so they thought.' A voice finished. Shadow spun around, seeing no one there. He looked around at all sides and angles. No one. He started getting ticked off and shouted, "Who's there?! Show yourself!"

Just then, he heard the voice chuckle. 'You really don't remember my voice or this place anymore.'

Shadow growled. "Tell me now! Who's there?!"

'Meet me in the old testing lab and I'll tell you everything.' And with that, the voice disappeared. Shadow glared at nothing and walked off. Just then, something in the corner caught his eye. He walked towards it. As he walked he began wondering who was the voice that was talking to him and what it meant by he 'no longer remembers this place'. It didn't make sense to him.

'It probably has something to do with the memories I've been having lately. That voice from when I was unconscious… Is that what it meant? Look deep in my heart and-… No. Not possible; I've already told myself that the memories are fa-' His thought was interrupted when he ran into something and fell over.

"Ow. I have got to stop thinking while I walk. You never know what you'll-" he started. What stopped him from finishing his sentence was the thing he ran into. "… hit."

What Shadow saw was a capsule with seven slots on the front. Four of these slots had a yellow, red, blue, and green Chaos Emerald in them. Shadow didn't know how the green Emerald left his possession, but he couldn't care less. He reached his hand in that slot and tried to grab the Emerald. Before he could touch it, he automatically pulled his hand out of the slot and started gently rubbing it.

The capsule must have had a security system, because Shadow's hand had a burn mark on the fingers and a cut was seen on his palm.

"Dammit. I can't get the Chaos Emerald. At least, I can't get it without losing my hands in the process." he said to himself. He licked the blood off his hand and stood up. He then noticed something behind a dome-like glass window. He tapped it with his other hand and looked closer. There were bubbles in the green fluid of the capsule that seemed to hide whatever was is there.

Shadow looked closer and could just make out something through all of the bubbles. He pressed his face against the glass, careful as to not make the capsule fall over or anything. He squinted his eyes until he could finally see what was in there. What he saw was a human with blonde hair. The human was a boy as far as Shadow knew.

He also noticed that one eye was closed; the other eye was hidden amongst the bubbles. Shadow tried to get a good look at what was hidden among the bubbles, but couldn't make it out.

'The boy looks familiar for some reason.' he thought. He heard something a while after, turning his gaze away from the boy in the capsule to the direction of the noise. He stared at the capsule for a while before taking off to find out what the noise was.

If Shadow had stayed, he would've seen the Chaos Emeralds glow and he would've heard the boy in the capsule say, "Sha… dow?" Then the glow faded back to its original glow, making the boy look lifeless again.

Two hours later…

Shadow slammed his body against the wall, panting heavily with sweat running down his body. It seemed to him that every time he got closer to the source of the noise, it just got farther away from him. He pushed some of his hair to the side and wiped some drops of sweat off of his forehead.

"This… is… -pant-… stupid!" he said in between breaths. "How long… will this… go on?!"

Shadow could hear clanging sounds coming from around the next corridor (which was close by) at this point, so he had enough energy to walk over there to see what was there. The noise led him to a room; the metal door had been forced open. He looked inside and saw six tubes, three were against one side of the room and three were on the opposite side. The room was untouched, but two tubes looked like they had malfunctioned and had just been repaired. Shadow could tell that everything in the room hadn't been used for a long time.

As soon as he walked in the room, he heard the sound of crying and frustration coming from a broom closet on one side of the room. He cautiously walked up to it and was about to grab the handle when-

WAP!!

Something hit his face; the result of the hit had him crash to the ground. The door ripped off of its hinges and almost crushed Shadow had he not of pushed it out the way in time. Something then fell on top of him, something that had long blonde hair and hazelnut eyes.

'Maria?' was all that came into his head before he felt the girl's lips lock with his. When that happened, a few more memories flowed through his mind. One memory showed him as a hedgehog arguing with a yellow hedgehog about something. The second one showed him in a room that was filled with plants. The last one…

Memory: 55 years ago…

"Do you like the view Shadow?" asked a yellow female hedgehog. Shadow smiled, pulling the hedgehog close to him.

"Yes. I like it Pandora."

Pandora blushed and giggled softly. Both hedgehogs were looking out of a big glass window that was three feet taller than them combined and around seven feet long. They were standing on a metal surface of a room that was originally a corridor of the Underground. From where they were standing, they could see the sun setting behind an oceanic horizon, the waves crashed just underneath the mammoth sized window.

Pandora looked up at the black hedgie and smiled her sweetest smile of all time. Shadow looked down at her and tenderly kissed her forehead.

"But you know what?" he whispered to her. Pandora's blush had subsided; she quizzically stared at Shadow, only to answer, "What?"

Shadow planted a kiss on her lips before answering. "You remind me of the sunset. Like the one we had just seen today."

Pandora softly and slowly gasped as the blush returned to her face.

"Whenever I look at you Pandora, I see only beauty. If I would compare you to the sunset, I would only mention one of the colors of the setting sun. You are also mysterious like one, too." Shadow romantically added. He then pulled the yellow hedgehog into a gentle hug. Pandora returned the gesture, a few tears leaking out of her eyes while doing so. Shadow noticed this and pulled away a bit.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Pandora looked up at the black hedgehog, wiped away her tears, and smiled.

"I'm sorry Shadow. It's just… well…" She couldn't get the words out. Shadow looked deep in her eyes and knew that something was wrong.

"Tell me. What's bothering you?"

Pandora pulled away from him, just so there was enough distance between them for her to grab her lover's hand and caress it.

"Shadow? I have something that I need to tell you. I'm just afraid of how you'll react." she said. Shadow nodded and told her to go on. Pandora took a deep breath and held on to Shadow's hand a little tight.

"Shadow. I'm…"

End memory.

Shadow snapped back into reality, then shoved whoever was on him off. He noticed who it was afterwards.

"Maria?" he asked, helping her get up on her feet. Maria Hedrick stared at him and nodded.

"What are you doing here? How did you get here?" he asked. Maria shrugged and dusted off her black skirt and yellow blouse.

"Intuition, I guess." she said.

"Intuition? That I was here?"

"Yes. I, uh, couldn't find you in Station Square, so I guessed where you were and here I am!"

Shadow smirked. "Oh, before I forget. Sorry for shoving you off, I didn't know who it was at first."

Maria shook her head.

"Forget about it! That happens to me all the time, so I don't mind!" she said, optimistically. Shadow's eyes widened a bit.

"All the time?" he asked. The blonde haired girl looked like she was frozen stiff!

"Uuuh… never mind!" she said quickly. Shadow's eyebrows arched a bit in suspicion; he didn't know Maria very well, but something about her was strange. He turned towards the open door and was about to leave, when Maria stopped him.

"Wait!"

He turned his head to see her.

"While I was trying to find you, I passed by a room that I think you'll want to see."

Shadow thought about this for a while. He wasn't sure whether he should go with her or not.

'Then again, this place is a little familiar. After seeing those memories, I'm starting to think that… maybe…' he thought.

"Where is it?" he asked. The blonde smiled.

"I'll show you." she said before grabbing Shadow's hand. A slight blush came across both of their faces as they began towards the door and out of the room. After a while, Shadow dared to ask, "What were you doing in a broom closet anyway?"

Maria Hedrick looked up at him and shrugged.

"I must've… uh, locked myself in there while searching. I don't know." she said. Shadow raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

'She's a mysterious girl, that's for sure.' he thought.

It took a few minutes for the twosome to get to the room. When they entered it, the room looked more like a corridor than a room (in Shadow's opinion anyway.). Maria led him to the large window on their left. It was a few inches taller than Shadow (in his human form) and in some areas, there were cracks in the glass and some parts had no window at all. The ocean waves crashed underneath the window as time flew by.

"Do you… like the view?" asked the blonde headed girl. Shadow just nodded and stared out the window with a blank look on his face. Maria trembled a bit.

"Is something bothering you?" asked Shadow without looking at her.

"Um… Shadow? I have something I need to tell you."

He looked at the girl now and urged her to go on.

"Actually, it's a secret that I've been keeping from you since we first met. I'm just afraid of how you'll react when you hear it."

Again, Shadow urged. The sun was now setting a little fast than normal, so Maria looked at the dark haired teen in his deep crimson eyes and said, "We've… met before. I'm not talking about our first meeting in at the cemetery, but… we have met before. A long time ago."

Shadow looked confused. "What the hell are you-" he started.

'Shadow. Where are you? Come to the testing lab NOW!!' the voice from earlier said to Shadow, telepathically. Shadow looked back for a minute, causing the blonde girl to worry.

"Can we talk later? I need to be somewhere right now." he said. Maria Hedrick gasped and, without thinking, grabbed Shadow's arm before he could walk away, turned his face so it was facing her, closed her eyes, and planted a kiss on his lips. She held it like that; tears started forming in her eyes. Shadow was surprised by this sudden move Maria made, but gave in to it almost automatically. At that moment, a whole bunch of memories flowed through his mind.

Memory: 55 years ago in Shadow's room.

The black hedgehog looked around at his new surroundings. Hey, living underground was no picnic, but it had its benefits. He growled under his breath for he knew that life without Maria would be hell for him (A/N: This was before his first encounter with Cedric.)! As soon as he heard someone walk in his room, he spun around and used Chaos Spear on the intruder. He was surprised to see that his attack was blocked by a green dome that quickly receded when the smoke cleared.

"You need to work on not attacking when someone enters the room. Mon Dieu." said the French, pink echidna.

End memory.

Memory: 55 years ago in the main lab.

"PANDORA!!!!!!" screamed a rather furious black hedgehog as he attempted to punch the yellow hedgehog in question. She dodged the punch, arms crossed and eyes closed.

"What's your problem?" asked the rather annoyed looking hedgie. Shadow faced her, crimson eyes filled with rage, both of his hands balled up into very tight fists, and teeth bared.

"What's my problem?" he asked softly in an angry tone. "What is my PROBLEM?!?!?" His voice was louder at this point. "I HEARD YOU MAKING FUN OF MARIA A WHILE AGO!!!"

Pandora 'humph'ed at this. "Well what I said was true. That girl deserves to burn in the fiery pits of an eternal hell for all I care! She's a skank and a blonde haired BITCH! I'm actually happy that's she's dead!" she yelled.

Shadow growled. "You don't even know Maria! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HER!!"

"YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT YOUR PRECIOUS MARIA?! No!! I would care less if she wanted you to actually kill someone just to avenge her gruesome death!"

"You know nothing about me! You know nothing about Maria! I would gladly kill you first as the beginning of my promise to her!"

"You only think revenge is the answer?! Well guess what, Shadow! IT'S NOT!!"

Shadow punched the hedgehog directly in the face in response to the remark.

"SHUT UP! Why do you give a damn about it?! I'll even bet that prissy little son of a bitch of a friend of yours isn't as great as they say! I'll bet he's not even real!"

Before anyone knew it, he received a good smack across the face by the yellow hedgehog.

"You don't know him! Why do you give a damn if he's real or not!!"

Shadow rubbed his right check and gave her a death glare.

"Take back what you said about Maria!!"

"HELL NO!! NO WAY IN HELL AM I GONNA TAKE IT BACK!!"

"I CAN'T STAND TO TALK TO YOU, LET ALONE LOOK AT YOU!!"

"Well! If that's how you're feeling about this, then fine!! I WON'T TALK TO YOU FOR AS LONG AS I FREAKIN' LIVE!!! YOU HEAR ME?!"

"SKANK!"

"FUCKER!!"

"BITCH!!!"

"SON OF A BLONDE BITCH!!!!"

"WHORE!!!!!"

Their eyes were locked in a death glare showdown; both of them were growling, their eyes filled with rage, hands clenched into very tight fists, and teeth bared. They kept it up for an hour before their heads away from each other, 'humph'ing, and then walking away.

End memory.

Memory: 55 years ago in an underground greenhouse.

Shadow looked around at the wonders of the greenhouse in awe. He didn't believe that plants could grow underground and survive since there was no sunlight, but the heat lamp proved him wrong. Cedric pushed forward in his wheelchair towards a wall with several shelves lined with different kinds of plants. He tried to reach out to grab a pot full of chrysanthemums on the bottom shelf, but to no avail. Because he was in a wheelchair and couldn't walk or stand up, the shelf was too high for him to reach.

Cedric was only able to grab the edge of the shelf, then he let it go. Pandora, who had accompanied Shadow, leaped over to the ladder that was a couple of centimeters away from the shelves and climbed on it. She then pushed it towards the shelves and grabbed the pot of chrysanthemums.

"Here you go Cedric." she said as handed the pot to the said boy. Cedric took it and thanked the yellow hedgie. Shadow just smirked.

'Not only does he look like Maria, but he acts like her, too. Maybe they're twins after all.' he thought.

"Hey Shads! Come over here!" called out Pandora. Shadow complied. Cedric smiled at the black hedgie and showed him the yellow flowers.

"Aren't they beautiful?" the blonde haired boy asked the black hedgie. Shadow stared at the chrysanthemums for a while, then he carefully and gently stroked one of the flowers.

"Yes… they are." he said softly. Pandora and Cedric just stared blankly at Shadow for a few seconds. There was silence for a few minutes. Pandora was the first to break it.

"You've never seen, touched, or smelled a flower before… have you?"

Shadow looked up to see her. "I've seen pictures of them in books that Maria would always show me back on the ARK, so I guess you can say that." he replied. Cedric couldn't help but smile.

"She loved to read about Earth, huh?" said Cedric. He then sighed. "Guess we both loved to learn about each other."

Shadow gave him a questioning glance. "What do you mean?"

Pandora spoke up before Cedric had a chance to reply.

"He means that he loved learning about his twin sister's home in space and Maria loved to learn about Earth, Shadow." she said. Shadow sighed and his face went back to its emotionless expression. Pandora giggled at that.

"Oh! I just remembered something!" exclaimed Pandora. She walked over to another part of the greenhouse and plucked off something off of a plant. She came back with three strawberries, one for each of them.

Cedric took a strawberry. "I didn't know they were ripe already." he said, half-impressed and half-awestruck. The yellow hedgehog smiled.

"I was surprised myself when I saw them!"

Pandora held out her hand to Shadow. "Hold out your hands, please."

He complied. The yellow hedgehog placed a red strawberry in his hands. When he saw the small, delicate fruit, he was amazed at its beauty. It had a wonderful red hue and the seeds on the outer layer looked so tiny! The black hedgie chuckled a little to himself.

Pandora then said, "Go on Shads. Taste it."

"You mean I can eat this thing?"

Cedric and Pandora laughed.

"It's called a strawberry, Shadow. And yes, you can eat it." noted Cedric as he popped the fruit into his own mouth. Pandora just took a bite out of the tip. Shadow stared at them for a while, then at the strawberry in his hands. He finally made his decision as he took a small bite out of it. His eyes bulged.

It tasted so sweet! Shadow took another bite out of the fruit.

"I'm guessing you like it?" asked Pandora. Shadow nodded as finished eating.

End memory.

Memory: 55 years ago… (continued)

… "Shadow? I have something that I need to tell you. I'm just afraid of how you'll react." said Pandora. Shadow nodded and told her to go on. Pandora took a deep breath and held on to Shadow's hand a little tight.

"Shadow. I'm pregnant."

The black hedgie's eyes bulged. He certainly wasn't expecting this to happen! "When did you find this out?" he asked. Pandora's body shook a bit.

"This morning." she said. Tears started to roll down her face as she embraced her lover. "I'm so sorry!"

Shadow looked down at the sobbing hedgehog for a while, the started to gently stroke her quills.

"I'm not mad Pandora. I'm just surprised is all. It's a little unexpected for me."

Pandora nuzzled her face into Shadow's white chest fur, her tears never subsiding.

"Do you even want this baby? Be honest with me Shadow."

The black hedgehog in question sighed. He thought about it for a minute, then said, "Of course I do. Pandora, why would you ask me that?"

Pandora slowly looked up to see her lover's face. She looked deep in his eyes and saw that he was being honest with her. She smiled a bit. "Oh, Shadow…" She kissed him on the lips. "I love you."

End memory.

Shadow broke the kiss instantly when the memory ended. He backed up a bit until he was up against a wall.

"Maria." he said. The girl in question shook her head slightly.

"My name's not Maria Hedrick, Shadow. I lied to you… about everything." A couple of tears fell to the floor.

Shadow slowly gasped. She had lied to him the entire time he had been with her? He thought about some things, like the memories he had, the voice from his Unconscious, and about the mysterious yellow hedgehog. Then it hit him as he stared at the blonde haired girl a couple feet in front of him.

"You. You're the mysterious yellow hedgehog that was robbing the bank back in Station Square." he said. The girl nodded.

"You're also the one who hurt Rouge a couple days before." Another nod from the girl. The last thing that Shadow said was: "You're Project Pandora the Hedgehog." The blonde girl hesitated as tears flowed down her face an on to the cold metal floor. Then at last, she nodded.

"I'm sorry, Shadow. I'm so sorry." she said in a crying tone. "About everything from before, day and night, I'm sorry. I really didn't want to steal from anyone and I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just… I'M SO SORRY!!" The blonde then fell on her knees and started crying her whole heart out. She cried due to guilt. She cried because of a promise she accepted from Silva. She cried because of what happened in the past. And she cried because she knew that Shadow would absolutely hate her now.

Shadow just stared at the blonde haired girl, whom he now knew as Pandora, and sighed heavily. He didn't know what to do. That kiss had awakened all of his memories and now he remembered everything that happened 55 years ago. There was also one thing that he knew…

"Pandora." He walked up to her, crouched down and wiped off her tears. "I thought you promised me… that you wouldn't cry anymore."

… He just couldn't find it in himself to hate Pandora.

The said blonde looked up to see Shadow's face; hazelnut eyes clashed with crimson eyes as she saw that there was no hate in his eyes. Pandora blushed, then without thinking, she leaped onto Shadow and hugged him. As she did so, the sun had set all the way down. Both Shadow and Pandora glowed with bright white light; the glow then faded and in place of their human forms was their original forms, hedgehogs.

Shadow was once again surprised by the sudden move, but he slowly and carefully returned the gesture.


'I knew you'd find me Shadow. I just knew it.' said the voice from Shadow's mind.

'I remember you now. You're a figment of Pandora.' Shadow said to the voice.

'I told you I've always been with you. All you had to do was look deep in your heart.'

'And I did. I'm sorry for forgetting.'

The Pandora figment giggled. 'I don't blame you for forgetting Shads. Fifty-five years did pass after all.'

'Huh. Guess you're right.'

'At least now… we can be together again.'

Shadow nodded and smirked.

'You're right.'


Did this chapter make sense? I tried to have it make sense, so again, sorry if it didn't. (Note that I say 'sorry' a lot, so... yeah.) Reviews are always welcome:D Next chapter: Sonic makes wedding plans, the Chaotix are in the hospital again, Tikal appears in Sonic's timeline, and Rouge leaves to go find Shadow! What surprises are in store for everyone? Find out in 'Shocking News'!