The black hedgehog laid down on his back, staring up in the clouds and trees above him, listening to nothing but the sounds of the birds around him. The sun streaked through the branches, scattering the light across the morning sky. The hedgehog smiled as he enjoyed his surroundings, not wanting to move from his spot in the forest.

He had been there for a few hours, as long as he could remember, but he felt no need to get up and walk around. He was content to stay where he was, alone and uninterrupted by anyone. Besides, it's not like he would be of any use to anyone – he didn't know where he was, what he was doing out in the woods, what he was doing with a shiny emerald in his hand – or even his name.

Not that the hedgehog was worried at all. He didn't want to be bothered, didn't want to be interrupted by anyone. For all he cared, he was perfectly fine lying there, even as the sun started to get right into his eyes. He grabbed the emerald again, staring into the mesmerizing object. He could barely make out what he looked like from the reflection glaring back at him, with the glass being so thick he could only see the pure white colour of the gem. He felt his face with his hands for a few moments, trying to piece together what exactly he looked like, but couldn't gather up any references from the past. For the hedgehog, there was no past to draw up from.

The hedgehog groaned as he slowly sat up from the ground, leaning onto his knees. He opened and shut his eyes, sluggishly waking up from what seemed to be an eternal sleep. He shook his head as he breathed in the humid air surrounding him. He picked up the emerald again, this time paying more attention to the jagged edges of the gem. He wondered to himself how the emerald could have been cut so precisely, so perfectly, and wondered why he kept being drawn into the emerald, as if it was calling into him.

"It's as if it wants me to go somewhere," said the hedgehog out loud to himself. "The trouble is, I don't know where to go…"

The hedgehog got up on his feet, and almost by instinct, walked towards the river that was a few feet away from where he was. The sounds of the water flowing gently on the rocks nearby started to become more and more apparent, and the hedgehog dipped his hand into the water out of curiosity. Immediately, he drew his hand back, startled at how frigid the water was. He knelt down by the river, studying the water more and more intensely as it rolled and bounced around in the creek, turning at each rock and piece of wood scattered throughout.

The emerald started to call out to the hedgehog again, demanding its attention back. Annoyed, he picked it back up from the ground, confounded by its silent calling. The emerald wasn't talking to him, but it glowed on and off, gaining the hedgehog's curiosity back again.

"Where does this thing want me to go?" asked the black hedgehog. "I don't know what this thing is trying to tell me."

Out of the corner of his eye, the hedgehog noticed a red echidna walking towards him, almost astounded by his presence. The hedgehog stayed where he was, just as confused as the echidna was, as the two met each other's eyes.

The hedgehog shook as the echidna squinted to focus more on the hedgehog. "Who are you?" asked the hedgehog.

The echidna scratched his head. "I should be the one asking you that! If you're who I think you are… you were supposed to be dead six years ago."

"Six years?" the hedgehog turned away from the echidna. "That can't be possible…. But then again, I don't remember anything that happened at all before today."

The echidna sighed as he fixed his cowboy hat. "You're Shadow the Hedgehog, aren't you? You look like you haven't aged a day since I last saw you. Don't you remember me at all? You don't remember helping out with Sonic when you stopped the Ark from destroying the Earth?"

The hedgehog looked around himself at the echidna's questions. "That sounds oddly familiar… Shadow… But I don't remember anything that you've said I've done."

"I can't even begin to describe what you did," said the echidna. "Come with me, Shadow, I'll try to jog your memory as best as you can. And I'll tell Sonic about you as well. He'll be so happy to see you again!"

"Sonic…" the hedgehog whispered to himself as he walked beside the echidna. "What does he look like? What do I look like?"

The two arrived at a wooden house perched underneath a large tree, its branches covering the roof. As the hedgehog went inside, he laid himself down on the straw couch, rubbing his face. He had only been walking for a few minutes, but he felt like it took forever to get to where he was.

The echidna took off his hat as he took out the receiver of the radio nearby the entrance. "Where's Sonic at, Miles? You'd both better come here to my place immediately. It's easier if I show you who decided to drop by."

"We'll be both there soon, Knuckles," a loud boom replied on the radio. "This better be good."

Knuckles put down the receiver and went back to the black hedgehog, who was staring blankly at the top of the ceiling of the house. Knuckles grabbed a glass of water and gave it to the hedgehog, bringing up a chair beside him. The hedgehog gently took the glass and sipped it, before placing the glass down on the floor beside his feet.

The hedgehog looked up to Knuckles, seemingly concerned. "What… did I do to deserve this?"

Knuckles leaned forward to face directly at the hedgehog. "If you knew the good you did for the Earth, you would understand why I'm helping you out. I don't know what happened to you in the last few years, Shadow, but whatever the case… we'll bring you back to normal."

"I don't know what's happened in the last six years, either," replied Shadow, shaking his head. "It's like I just appeared here, as if I had never existed before."

The two sat quietly in the room for a few minutes, before Knuckles answered a knock on the door, letting a two-tailed yellow fox inside.

"Sonic said he'll be around in a few minutes," said the fox in a low voice, as he raised his goggles onto his forehead. "Just tell me what's going on… what the?"

The fox stopped right where he was standing, staring right at Shadow. "Knuckles… how is this possible? I thought he was…"

Knuckles walked up right to the fox. "Dead, I know, but there he is, right in front of us. I don't understand this just as much as you do."

The fox walked past Knuckles and sat beside Shadow, with the two being at a similar height to each other. "Shadow? Do you remember who I am? My name's Miles – you probably remember me better as Tails. Where have you been the past six years?" It's been so long since I last saw you…"

Shadow stared blankly at Miles for a couple of seconds, before turning away and sinking his head toward the ground in despair. "I… don't remember… I'm sorry…"

Miles shook his head. "You're sure this is really Shadow, Knuckles?"

Knuckles shrugged his shoulders in exasperation. "I mean… it looks like him, sounds like him… even his eyes are the same. I don't see why it can't be him."

Miles turned back to Shadow, and noticed the emerald he had been holding in his hand all the time. Miles fixed his gaze onto the emerald, astounded beyond comprehension.

"Can I see the emerald, Shadow?" asked Miles.

Shadow cautiously handed over the white emerald over to Miles, and then sat back down on the couch to stare up at the ceiling. Miles went over to Knuckles with the emerald, eager with anticipation.

"See if you can get anything from this emerald," said Miles to Knuckles. "You've been able to read past events from the emeralds before, right?"

"I'll try," sighed Knuckles. "It won't be easy. I haven't done it in a while. And I'll need a quiet place to do it so I can stay focused."

Miles nodded and let Knuckles go into his bedroom with the emerald, as Knuckles shut the door and closed off all the blinds, leaving Knuckles with a dark room inside. Knuckles sat upright on his bed and took the emerald into his hands, focusing all of his energy into the emerald, tensing his muscles to squeeze out every last ounce of energy into the emerald's powers.

Within a few minutes, Knuckles was mentally absorbed into the emerald, lying down on his bed as his eyes were glued shut while he was going through the images seen by the emerald, figuring out what had happened to Shadow six years ago.

He could see the Ark floating in space, with its cannon aiming directly at the Earth, ready to attack. He could also see Shadow and Sonic fighting with the Ultimate Lifeform, just as Knuckles remembered it happening six years ago. The events that were occurring with him and the emerald were exactly as Knuckles remembered it happening back then, as Knuckles witnessed it from onboard the Ark itself.

As the Ultimate Lifeform started to become mortally wounded, he could see Shadow spiralling down towards the Earth, running out of energy from the emeralds they had used beforehand. As Shadow was about to enter the Earth's atmosphere, he tensed up his muscles, just like Knuckles did to draw into the emerald's energy. Shadow started to glow bright like the sun, using up every last drop of his energy, becoming so bright that it was blinding to look at, even through the images of the emerald. The flash of light got so intense that Knuckles couldn't stare at it for very long, but after a couple of seconds, the flash was gone, along with Shadow, leaving nothing in its trace.

Knuckles was then taken with Shadow forward into a portal, with Knuckles only able to witness from afar what was happening to Shadow. Around him the universe seemed to distort and vibrate, bending in all sorts of directions as Shadow faded in and out of consciousness. The portal caressed and cared for Shadow, protecting him from any danger as Shadow was suspended in midair, his limbs floating aimlessly. Eventually, the portal started to form into recognizable shapes, as Shadow landed softly onto the ground below, while the trees and grass of the forest started to fall into place. After a few moments, the shapes started to form the forest that Shadow was in, placing him into the present day, safe and sound from the dangers six years ago.

Knuckles could only witness in awe of the images laid out in front of him by the Chaos Emerald. "So Shadow was vaulted forward in time, taken out of outer space, and landed here, as if nothing had happened… while retaining nothing of what had happened…"

Soon the images of the emerald started to fade, as Knuckles was being brought back into reality into his bedroom. "But if the emerald remembers what had happened, then why doesn't Shadow remember anything?"

Knuckles woke up from his trance and gasped for air, holding the emerald firmly in his hand, the same emerald that Shadow used to transport himself six years into the future. "If what I was shown was true, then these emeralds are more powerful than I ever imagined…"

Knuckles ran out of the bedroom and back into the room where he left Miles and Shadow by themselves, but was stunned when he found only Miles standing near the door, baffled and confused.

"Where did Shadow go?" shouted Knuckles. "I thought you were keeping an eye on him!"

"He was here just a moment ago!" yelled Miles. "Then shortly before you came here, he got up and ran out of the house! And I don't know where he went!"

But just a few feet away from Knuckles' house, Shadow ran outside, as if his internal senses started to click in at once. Shadow ran towards the river that he was in a few minutes ago, unsure why he had suddenly darted away from Knuckles' house and back into the wilderness.

"That's odd," said Shadow to himself. "I could have sworn someone was coming by, but I don't see anyone around me…"

At that point, Shadow looked back into the river, and through the reflection of the water, he could see a blue hedgehog, around the same size as himself. Shadow looked up from the water and saw the hedgehog standing on the other side of the river, staring right at Shadow, as if he had seen a ghost from the past. The two hedgehogs could do nothing but stand still and look at each other, completely speechless and still, not wanting to leave from where they were standing, lest they lose each other again.

In that moment, Sonic knew exactly who he was staring at, as a warm smile started to come across his face. Sonic then broke the silence, tears about to roll down his face, as he realized who had appeared in front of him for the first time in six years.

"Good to see you again… old friend."