AUTHOR'S NOTE: Working on borrowed internet, so since I has no XBOX Live, you guys get more chapters (lolz). Remember that Reviews=New Chapters, and thank you to those of you who have continued to follow the story's progress. I find myself repeating words pretty often, so sorry for my lack of descriptive power. Cstan was close on his guess, but... not quite. More will be revealed!

"Maria!" Shadow called out, in vain. The emergency eject countdown finished and the first explosion went off, blasting the cage sideways through a long corridor on rails. The resulting force from the sudden movement threw Shadow and Maria backwards against the re-sealed cage door, while the Prototype managed to prevent himself from rolling back, which would have crushed them both.

Shadow, still numb from his earlier ordeal, felt no pain as he crashed into the wall. Maria, however, had the wind knocked out of her, and could do nothing but huddle against the wall as secondary and tertiary explosions went off, propelling the container even faster towards the exit.

Then, a sudden calm descended. Shadow could no longer hear the grinding of metal on the rails, and the explosions had ceased.

We're still moving, and there's no way we reached the end of the station already. Shadow's suspicions were confirmed by a falling sensation, and a feel of reduced weight. The floor panel he'd removed earlier began to float upwards, as well as Maria's hair.

They were falling, and quickly at that. Their forward motion had dwindled some, but the fact remained that they were moving extremely fast.

If we're not in space and we hit something, we're done for. I need to see what's coming, but if I start blowing holes and we are in space, we're dead. I need confirmation first… preferably not when we hit the ground, or whatever's out there. Gravity is a… "ding!" the lightbulb in Shadow's head made an encore performance, and Shadow's face came to life.

I haven't the slightest clue how long we have, so we'll just have to do it as quick as possible.

Utilizing the weightlessness provided from falling, Shadow deftly jumped to the Prototype's head and spoke into its ear. "I need you to use your weight to flip us upside-down!" The Prototype fixed his right eye on Shadow, and he knew that it understood what he was going to do.

Having one mind in two heads is better than in one, or something like that.

Shadow swung himself around the Prototype's neck, jumping off of his throat towards Maria. The beast wasted no time in pushing himself off of the floor of the cage towards the upper right side of the re-sealed door, throwing his weight into the ceiling. The room immediately gave way, moving a few degrees a second in a counterclockwise direction while facing the door.

Maria was still curled in a ball, dazed, when Shadow reached her. He grabbed her arm and jumped off from the wall, pulling her with him towards the manual levers near the lower left side of the door. Quickly scanning the levers, he couldn't find the one he was looking for. Maria let herself be dragged, her brain unable to keep up with the events happening so fast around her.

To hell with this. Shadow aimed for the corner made by the first row of AGG panels and the wall panels. He focused his thoughts willing the energy to be wide and solid, instead of piercing and destructive. The result pleased him. All the panels he struck broke loose and shot out past and behind him due to the weightlessness. Unfortunately, the lack of weight also pushed Shadow outward, away from the panels. He instinctively let go of Maria's hand. At this point, the capsule was almost completely upside down.

Maria felt Shadow let go of her, and began to panic. "Shadow…"

"Stay there!" Shadow called out, as he reached the opposite wall. He was now directly under the first AGG panel he'd removed earlier. "When I say, pull the lever directly behind you!"

Confused and disoriented, Maria made a mental effort to forget everything except what Shadow told her. Behind me. She grabbed a stray lever to her side, and positioned herself in front of the lever Shadow must've been talking about. Everything was upside down, so the lever looked like it was on, but Maria knew better. She turned to look at Shadow.

With a little extra effort, Shadow reached up and grabbed the AGG from beneath: above if it had been right side up. He shoved his hands into the unit and found the power coupling that connected the colony's main power to the generator. The Professor's words rang quite clearly in his mind.

"…even inanimate objects, like this ship, can channel and contain Chaos, if built correctly. In concentrated amounts, Chaos can display seemingly impossible feats, such as rapidly heal wounds, increase physical ability, and even be released as pure energy to power machines."

This had better work, old man. Shadow felt his power leaving him as he transferred it into the AGG.

"Maria, do it now!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Maria flipped the lever. The effect was instantaneous: down became up, up became down, and everything that floated around in the air slammed to the ceiling… which was really the floor. The Prototype expertly flipped as he fell up, watching his long neck and tail to avoid hitting Shadow or Maria. Shadow, who'd already planted his feet against the ceiling (which was really the floor) didn't move as he felt his weight shift upwards. Maria, who hadn't thought that far ahead, fell up about three feet and landed dome first on the ceiling (which was really the floor).

The deceleration was also instantaneous. Shadow could only compare it to the feeling of an elevator that had been traveling up very quickly slowing down as it approached its destination.

We must've been close to the ground… or whatever's out there. If I'd been a little late with my idea… Shadow decided not to think about it. More importantly, this is eating up a ton of energy! I'm not going to be able to hold this long.

Shadow strained to keep a constant flow of energy flowing through the AGG, but he was already on his reserves, and they were nearly depleted. The cage had nearly stopped moving, but there was no telling how close they actually were to the ground. If the weight they carried was greater than the AGG's ability to reject the gravity they were experiencing, they still might crash into the ground. If not, they might hover too far off the ground, only to fall and injure themselves when Shadow ran out of power.

His strength fading, Shadow resolved to hold on for a few more seconds. Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to continue…

Thump!

The cage abruptly jolted. They had touched down safely. An exhausted Shadow released his grip on the power unit, and fell to the ceiling below. Maria gave a short shriek as the world righted itself; she found herself subject to the effects of gravity once again. The Prototype snagged Maria tenderly in its mouth as it once again displayed incredible flexibility and maneuverability by landing on its feet. Once safely on the ground, it set Maria down as well.

Mentally drained, Shadow let himself fall without attempting to land safely. He hit the ground with a dull thud, and didn't move. He wasn't injured… at least, not that he knew of. Still numb, Shadow felt like taking a quick nap to recover his energy. They were safe, for the moment. He just needed to close his eyes…

"Are you all right?" Maria asked from above him. Shadow opened his eyes and found himself staring deep into her blue eyes yet again, although they lacked the brilliance they'd had when they first met. A trail of blood running down her temple made him abandon all thoughts of sleep and rest.

"You're bleeding," he said, sitting up.

"I'm fine," she responded. "I didn't just fall twenty feet."

"Let me wrap it up for you," Shadow offered. He stood to his feet and faced her.

"I'm fine," she repeated.

"Does it hurt at all?" he continued.

"I'm fine," she stressed.

"Bend down so I can take a look," Shadow persisted.

"I said I'm fine!" Maria yelled. Shadow fell silent. "I'm perfectly fine! I'm better than fine! I'm great, I'm super! Getting nearly drowned? Being accused of false friendship? Being ejected from who-knows-what height to who-knows-where? That's nothing! It doesn't stress me out or make me sad in the slightest! I'm not lonely, I'm not angry, I'm not depressed! I'm just fine!"

Shadow could only stand and accept what she shouted at him. He didn't talk back, or look away. He stared straight into Maria's eyes as she unloaded a month's worth of anger and frustration on him.

Maria took in several deep breaths, held them in for a few moments, then slowly let them out, attempting to calm herself. After a few breaths, she smelled something… different. It lingered in her nose, then tickled the back of her tongue. She quickly drew another breath, eager to identify the smell. Maria's hair and dress momentarily drifted forward, carried by a gust of wind from behind. As if in a trance, Maria turned around and shuffled towards a small opening in the ceiling that must've been caused by their crash landing.

The opening was just small enough for a person to crawl through, and before Maria herself knew what she was doing, she had crawled through the hole to what awaited outside. What she saw nearly made her heart stop.

The ejected pod had landed with its left and right sides on the opposite banks of a river. On both sides of the river, continuing as far as she could see, luscious plants, trees, and nature sprang forth. Behind the pod, she could see that the source of the river came from a mountain source; the mountain began to incline steeply only a few hundred yards behind them. On top of one of the lower peaks, Maria stared in disbelief at a sphere of metal jutting out, which she could only assume had been where they'd ejected from.

In the opposite direction from the mountain, a waterfall gave way to a valley that extended far into the distance. The river also continued until it reached the ocean, which shimmered at the edge of the horizon. Nesting on the horizon was a setting sun, casting a soft red light over the entire landscape. As Maria continued to stare, captivated by the beauty of it all, a gust of wind flowing inland carried the smell of the ocean to her nose. She took another deep breath, feeling as though she was truly breathing for the first time. Maria was so entranced, she didn't even notice that Shadow had also exited the pod, and was standing beside her.

"Maria…" Shadow said softly. "you're crying."

"I'm fine, Shadow," Maria managed, as tears streamed down her face and past her smiling mouth. "I'm really fine."

Shadow smiled, the image of Maria's brilliantly shining eyes ingrained is his memory once more. He conceded, knowing that this time, she really was… just fine.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Awww... ain't that sweet. I bet you suckers thought Maria was gonna die before she had a chance to experience true nature (heartless bastards). For anyone who may have had questions regarding how I write my stories or come up with good ideas... it's all ad lib. When I put my fingers to the board, the story literally writes itself. I originally wanted Shadow to do some badass blow-crap-up-while-holding-Maria-and-somehow-land-safely stuff, but I quickly realized it wouldn't be realistic. From there... ideas just flew out from my fingers. You can write amazing things from the smallest details, guys. Don't give up!