Days had passed since the plan had been discussed with the rest of the group. They were set to leave at sunrise, yet the ultimate lifeform couldn't bring himself to sleep. His boyfriend had long since embraced slumber along with everyone else, yet the black hedgehog stayed awake, unbothered by the lack of sleep. His chaos energy levels made it easy for him to resist sleep since he didn't exactly need it.

He continued to stare out onto the field, distracted by the wind swaying the thin tree branches to notice the soft sound of sock covered feet walking through the living room to where he sat by the window.

"Shadow? Why are you still up?" The intruder softly spoke, sleep still prominent in his form and voice.

Taking his gaze off the field, the black hedgehog looked at his blanket covered boyfriend. Giving a soft chuckle, he stood up and grabbed his peach, ungloved hand and lead him to the couch to sit. Sonic easily complied and sat next to his lover, resting his head on an ebony shoulder and almost too easily falling back to sleep. Using this opportunity, Shadow places a gentle kiss atop his blue boyfriend's head and returned his gaze back to the window, his earlier thoughts returning.

'Seeing her again, traveling to their reality.. will it somehow mess with my head? It already has, if I'm being honest,' the black hedgehog scrunched his nose,'we have to go, to protect her. I.. I failed her once. I can't let it happen again... not again..'

Hours passed by as the black hedgehog watched the grass sway from the chilly air. Soon enough, the sun was slowly peaking over the horizon, sealing his fate. The black hedgehog reluctantly yet gently shook his boyfriend awake, the cobalt boys lime green eyes slowly blinking awake as he stretched and yawned.

After a few seconds, he gave a large smile,"Morning Shads!"

Instead of answering, Shadow stood up and gave the cobalt hedgehog a kiss on his forehead and left to the bathroom to get cleaned up. Sonic bounced up, walking to Tails room to wake up his guests and then went to the workshop that was connected to his house to wake up his self proclaimed little brother.

"Mornin' bud! Everything ready to go?"

The golden fox yawned, his canines showing slightly," yeah, everything's ready. I just gotta start 'er up and give you and Shadow the inter-dimensional transmitter that I made so I can keep track of which planet you guys are on."

"Oh cool, how do you know they work?" Sonic sat on the desk chair awaiting his kit brothers answer.

Tails scratched the back of his head," I don't, actually. I can only assume it does since we haven't traveled to any dimensions recently. I had to try and focus it long range and to use the power from the fake Chaos Emerald I made all those years ago to power it and hopefully keep it stable."

Sonic shrugged,"you're a smart kid, I'm sure everything will work out fine, bud!"

Giving a cheeky smile, the fox kit hopped out of his temporary bed and to the workshops bathroom to get ready. Sonic took this as a good time to leave and did so. He quietly walked to his shared bedroom where he found his boyfriend sat on the bed, concern coating his normally stoic features.

"Everything okay, Shads?" Sonic focuses his attention on his boyfriend as he got ready for their next adventure.

Giving a soft sigh, Shadow cupped his cheek in the palm of his hand as he leaned it against the top of his knee," this is a very.. trying moment in my life that I hadn't expected would ever happen and I am still getting used to this all. I'm aware I've had weeks to overcome my initial shock and all, but.."

Knowing he wasn't going to say anything else, Sonic faced his lover,"I understand. Seeing someone who passed away but meant so much to you is.. crazy to say the least. No one expects you to overcome this, Shadow, I want you to know it's okay to take your time and to not be okay. I'll be your shoulder to lean on."

Giving a small but great full smile, Shadow stood up. His stoic expression soon returning. Soon after the cobalt hedgehog was done getting ready, the two males headed downstairs to meet up with the rest of the group.

...

"-and the chance that it fails is a solid 50/50. I just want everyone to be prepared for whatever happens." Tails finished handing out two inter dimensional watches to Sonic and Shadow, then faced his gaze towards Mini Shadow and Maria,"but I want you two to be prepared for whatever is on the other side of this. I don't know what is going to happen but Shadow and Sonic will help you two with whatever you need."

Maria kneeled down, planting gentle hug to the young fox boy,"thank you for everything you've done for us, Tails. My Shadow won't say it, but he is truly grateful to you and your amazing hospitality."

Giving a smile with a bashful blush, he turned away,"you're welcome, Maria."

"So, hows this gonna work?" Sonic gained everyone's attention as he asked the one question everyone had on their minds.

Perking up, Tails walked over to his now fully functioning Miles Electric and pressed a button on the touch screen part of the tablet.

"Using a warp ring as a reference, I was able to recalibrate the time and power consumption and was able to track down their timeline and dimension by the backwards numbers and chaos field. I was able to connect the missing pieces and now have a fully functioning dimensional time machine." The kit smiled, almost continuing his explanation when he realized no one correctly understood aside from Shadow's extremely helpful knowledge of Chaos Theory.

Without a word, Tails clicked a button on his tablet as it dispensed what looked like a grey colored warp ring. The kit tossed the ring in the air and it started to increase in size while making a loud ping sound.

On the other side was the room Maria and Shadow had left previously when running from the G.U.N. guards.

Turning to face Shadow, Sonic grabbed his lovers hand and walked through followed by Maria and her Shadow. The portal closed soon after.

Time seemed frozen for a few moments after, not a single sound came from the Ark. As if on que, banging and shouting could be heard from the other side of the blocked door. Screaming sounded through the walls of the hallways outside, gunshots fueling the air with their piercing sounds. Shadow's immediate reaction was to guard Sonic and Maria from the loud banging but he felt like he couldn't move. His body seemed to disobey his own mind as he stood, his pupils shrinking when he realized the predicament he was now faced with.

The black hedgehog's breathing was slow and shallow, his form looked completely still as Sonic waved a hand in front of his face,"Shadow, look at me."

Said hedgehog looked towards his lover without moving his head or saying a word.

"You can do this. You were given a second chance to save her, you won't fail this, okay? I'll be by your side fighting everything with you, you're not alone," the azure hedgehog worried his boyfriend wouldn't respond, but was glad to see his statue like body become relaxed if only slightly.

With a quick and subtle nod, they duo turn to Maria and Mini Shadow. The young girl was beyond concerned and looked terrified but confident that she had three hedgehogs to help her deal with this whole Mini Shadow turned around to observe the room they were in to find an escape route.

Before they could quickly come up with a plan, the door to the room burst open, three GUN soldiers surrounding the only known exit.

"Hand us Project Shadow!" One yelled.

The other two, most likely new recruits, looked stunned to see three hedgehogs instead of the original one.

Shadow, being quick on his feet, shielded Maria with his body, outstretching his arms to prevent any opening to the young girl. A deep growl erupted from his throat, eyes narrowed as he stood silently.

They were the exact same guards that killed Maria from his timeline. Every detail was the exact same and it only pissed him off. Not having been able to get closure or revenge on the ones who took his best friend away triggered something deep within his chest.

His voice was deeper than normal when he spoke to the cobalt hedgehog behind himself without taking his eyes off the guards," Sonic, get them out of here."

"But Shadow-"

The black hedgehog whipped his head around to look at Sonic. Although Sonic was in utter shock at seeing this angrier side of his boyfriend, he obeyed and quickly picked up Maria and grabbed Little Shadow's hand and zoomed out of the room, not wanting them to be scarred by what he knew his boyfriend was bound to do.

Sonic's feet weren't quick enough to outrun the screaming coming from the room he was previously in, not wanting to think about the blood bath, he focused his gaze ahead as he spoke to Maria," where's the safest place on the Ark?"

Before she could come up with an answer, Little Shadow spoke now able to use his hover skates to keep up with the blue speed demon,"the safest place would be in the lower levels. There are vents big enough for us to hide in. It was where we were originally supposed to Chaos Control to before we ended up in your dimension."

"Lead the way," Sonic slowed slightly, allowing Little Shadow to run ahead of him to the safest place they could think of.

"I've never seen Shadow look so mad.." Maria spoke softly, concern basically dripping from her words.

Sonic gave a soft smile," he's dealt with a lot that you wouldn't understand. Just know that he would more than willingly put himself in danger to protect you with ever fiber of his being."

She seemed saddened by this fact," I would do the same for him. He's my best friend. I would save him even if it meant I got hurt."

Sonic gave a soft smile, knowing fully well she would do anything for Shadow.

They soon reached the sublevel of the space colony, moving some boxes around to find the large hidden vents. As footsteps approached, the trio quickly hid behind the boxes, not sure who would be looking down here of all places since they were too fast for anyone to follow.

The soft clinking of what sounded like metal against the concrete floor reached Sonic's ears and he slowly peaked out from behind the boxes to see Shadow. The hedgehog himself looked utterly pissed yet satisfied with his handiwork back from the escape pod room.

His blood red eyes scanned the room and quickly caught sight of Sonic's lime green eyes,"I figured you would be down here, Faker."

Releasing the breath he didn't know he was holding in, the cobalt hedgehog stood up along with the human and hedgehog duo.

"You scared the living Chaos out of me, could have warned me you were down here," Sonic gave the dark hedgehog a quick peck on the cheek.

"I didn't know if you would be in hiding or if you had been in combat, I didn't want to disturb you."

"How'd you know where we were anyways?"

Th black hedgehog gave a side glance towards the blonde haired human before answering,"when I was forst created, my Maria and I would play hide-n-seek and stumbled upon the vents that you seem to be looking for."

Nodding, Sonic motioned towards the boxes,"give us a hand, won't you?"

Stepping over to a large yet heavy box, the black hedgehog moved it aside to reveal the vents the trio had been looking for.

Before either of the four friends could move towards the vent, a red dot appeared on Maria. Time seemingly froze once again as a loud, piercing gunshot erupted from behind them. Turning as quick as he could to Maria, Shadow dashes towards her with all of his might. His heart pounded in his chest as he used his body as a shield to prevent any damage to Maria.

Sonic turned from the duo to see GUN soldiers piling into the room one after another, their laser dots all targeted on either mini Shadow or the original Shadow. They seemed confused but continued to point their weapons to the two similar hedgehogs. Another bullet sounded as a soldier shot another round into Shadows back, the bullet getting lodged into his rib cage and ultimately shattering the solid bone. Gunshot after gunshot rained onto the black hedgehog and Sonic felt his legs get tremendously heavy as time continued to seemingly move in slow motion. His heart shattered as he watched the bullets pierce into his boyfriends falling frame.

Maria's scream was silenced from the loud gunfire, yet no bullets hit her. Turning to face the soldiers doing the damage, the blue blur charged at them with all of his strength, ramming into them and knocking them over like dominos.

Little Shadow could only stare in ultimate horror as he watched his dimensional doppelgänger fall lifelessly to the floor.

Hearing his voice being called, Little Shadow turned to Sonic and watched in astonishment as his cobalt fur flicked from its natural shade to a much darker, almost black, pigment. The gunfire had stopped, the only sound was Maria's sobs.

The soldiers didn't dare point their guns at the dark blue hedgehog as his pupils vanished from sight, making them all regret following orders to open fire on the black hedgehog.

"Run." Was all they heard before Dark Sonic's quick like reflexes picked them up and tossed them effortlessly. One idiotic soldier opened fire on the hedgehog but his bullets seemed to be bouncing off the dark hedgehog before falling to the floor.

"I said run."

Nearly wetting his pants, the soldier booked it followed by his other battle buddies. A pained grunt caught the attention of the trio, Sonic's dark form almost too quickly vanished as he raced to Shadow's side.

"How bad is it?" The cobalt hedgehog asked but no one answered. His boyfriends bloodied form shook with adrenaline, his body trying to rid of the foreign bullets as the chaos that fueled his blood courses through his veins but to no avail.

"S-Sonic," the ebony hedgehog coughed out blood, it's red contents dripping from his mouth," I.. I can't..."

A shaky smile formed on the cobalt hedgehogs trembling lips,"it's okay, Shadow. Don't speak, just let your Chaos abilities fix your wounds."

It took almost all of his might to shake his head no,"I-I can't.. use Chaos Control... m-my power has... no offect,"he took a shallow breath," in this world.. their Chaos is different.. than what I use.."

Sonic didn't understand,"what do you mean different? You can still heal yourself can't you?"

"N-..no, I can't," a blood covered glove reached out to caress his lover's cheek,"this.. is how it ends.."