Shadow overlooked the blue orb below, how it was dotted with lush green and wisps of white, always spinning, always peaceful. The entire planet enticed him, called to him as a treasure trove of unexplored mystery.

"What do you think they do down there, Shadow?" Maria asked.
"Dunno. It's sunny, isn't it? Maybe they lay out in the sun."
"Maybe they do. I know I'd love to, someday."
"We will. And we'll explore, too, won't we?"
"Yes," she agreed, smile clear in her voice. "We'll see all the amazing places and talk to all of the amazing people."
"There are a lot of humans, but is there anyone that looks like me?"

… No answer. Was she thinking? Were there no others that looked like him and she simply didn't want to dishearten him? Years of wondering who he was, and why, brought down by a single answer: no. He looked toward her, thinking he'd see her beaming smile and hopeful eyes. His heart dropped.

She'd collapsed beside him, bleeding from a wound in her chest, mouth contorted in a soundless shriek, eyes glossed over and fixed at the ceiling.

She was dead.
She'll always be dead.

A scream caught in his chest and he shot awake, bolting upright. Breaths rushed out unsteady and his heart pounded in his ears as the scream escaped him, albeit breathy and more of a gasp. Eyes darted around the dark room, noting he was back in Dahlia's den, sitting on the couch.

Despite knowing it had all been a nightmare, he couldn't quell his shaking hands and panicked mind. Tremors rocked his body as he tried to steady the breathing that burned his lungs and throat. He fell against his pillow and stared at the pot of ivy hanging overhead. Just calm down. It was only a nightmare.

Had that been a real conversation with Maria? It felt real, but he couldn't tell reality from fiction anymore. His fragmented memories taunted him with doubt. Sometimes he wondered if Maria was real.

No. Stop that. Of course she was. She had to be…

Something interrupted his thoughts. A small light illuminated the kitchen, briefly, before it he heard the refrigerator door shut and saw the light go out. He waited, listening, then heard gentle sniffles and irregular breathing. Lily? Dahlia? He tossed his blanket off, paw pads tapping the wooden floor as he got to his feet.

Peeking around the corner, he noticed a slumped figure over the sink. The moonlight shimmering in from the window illuminated her silhouette, a flopped right ear giving her away as Dahlia. He heard the uneven breaths coming from her, in tandem with her shuddering back. A cup clasped in her hand, held out, forgotten as she ran her other hand through the longer fur down the back of her head. Was she… Crying?

"Dahlia?"

She jumped and whipped around to face him. Her wide eyes shown tears shimmering in the light of the moon and her balled fist swiped them away as she vigorously rubbed her face.

"Sh-Shadow, you scared me. I-I didn't know you were awake."
"I just woke up."
"Yeah. Me, too. I really should get back to my room."

She rushed by him so fast that she turned nearly to a blur within the darkness; her still full cup left discarded on the counter. How odd. She'd definitely been crying, but what about? He'd almost wanted to join in — his nightmare still played in his brain like a movie on repeat. Maria's lifeless face stared into his very being.

He didn't remember how he managed to fall back asleep that evening, but he awoke early that morning alongside the sun. His groggy mind refused to clear but also refused any further attempt at rest, so he got up. Lily stepped out of her bedroom as he entered the hall, greeting him with her usual peppy,

"Good morning, Shadow!"

Then she went into the bathroom, leaving him to roam the kitchen for something to drink. When he reached for a fresh glass from the cabinet, he nearly knocked over Dahlia's undrunk cup. It served as a reminder of what had happened the night before, not only with her, but with him and why he'd awoken to find her sobbing in the first place.

As if on cue, Dahlia entered the kitchen, wiped sleep out of her eye. The moment she saw him, she stopped in her tracks. Her one foot hovered above the ground as she stared. Pink suffused her cheeks, then she whirled around on her heel and skittered away from him. He heard her door shut soon after.

Some time today, he'd question her. Not only about last night, but about what he desperately needed to get off this island: the Chaos Emeralds. Without them, he had nothing — no true power, none of his abilities, no way of fighting an enemy as strong as G.U.N., wherever they were out there. They had to be looking for him, but could they ever find him? If he'd gone so far as to fly out of range of the Chaos Emeralds, how could they get to him? More importantly, how could he get back to them and finish the job he started? For Gerald, for Maria, G.U.N and all other humans who opposed him must be eliminated.

His goal carried him through his morning, through an unusually quiet family breakfast where Dahlia did everything she could to avoid meeting his eye, and into the late morning. As he cleaned up his dishes from breakfast — last one to finish eating again, thanks to his voracious appetite and penchant toward second and third helpings — Dahlia slipped out of his fingers yet again. She left out the back door, as he heard when it closed, and kept him without clarity. He hurried to finish his dishes and followed after her.

The fresh air of the garden greeted his nostrils when he stepped outside. He didn't see her at first, but he walked along the pathways to search — past the bright lettuces and garlic stalks, ducking underneath the grape, blackberry, and pea vines, through the huge greens of tomatoes and carrots, and beside the rich purple eggplants surrounded by fragrant herbs. A startling surge of pride rushed through him when he smelled the strong scent of the basil he helped plant a few days ago.

But seeing Dahlia around the corner helped him to shake it off. She knelt by the chard, moving the mulch around its base and gently touching the leaves of the plant. Though she smiled, her eyes betrayed something deeper inside: a hopelessness and fear through their weak sheen. Her lips moved though he heard not what she said. She seemed to be speaking to the plant itself.

As he approached, she glanced to him, then shot her gaze back to her work, cheeks tinging pink as her ears flattened. Despite obviously being embarrassed by his presence, he was getting answers today, whether or not she felt prepared for the third degree.

His knees came to rest against the damp loam as he knelt beside her.

"Sorry about last night," she said tentatively. "Wasn't expecting you to wake up."
"And I wasn't expecting to see you crying in the kitchen. Yet here we are."
She chuckled, though given her lowered ears and furrowed brow, it was probably more so out of nerves. "Good point. Secret's out, I do in fact cry. 'Long as Junior don't find out…"
"I don't gossip."
"'Course not. Ya barely talk so guess I got nothin' to worry about."
"Why were you crying?"
"Oh…" There was that hesitation again, that tight-lipped look of utter humiliation. Granted, if she'd walked in on him crying, he'd feel much the same way. Still, she found the fortitude to speak. "Um, I had a nightmare. 'Bout my dad. That's why I'm here, even though the chard doesn't really need tendin'. It was my dad's favorite plant. Said he liked how bright it gets and all the different colors."

He kept his hands busy by looking through some of the crisp, hydrated broccoli leaves for pests, waiting for his opportunity to speak, for his words to form. They remained quiet for a short while, reticent. How to broach the sudden subject of Chaos Emeralds, G.U.N, and all of the other topics… She probably knew nothing about then, but she was his only hope at this point.

"I'm not a very religious person," she then said, "but whenever I come into our garden, especially around his favorite vegetables and fruits, I feel together with my dad again. He's here, in spirit. I can feel him."

She placed her hand atop the mulch, closing her eyes and breathing in deep. When she caught his gaze, her jade eyes bore into him. His heart jumped at her next words.

"Have you ever lost someone you love, Shadow?"
"I-I…" Was all he choked out.

No more words came to him. Just a tightening in his chest and throat, an ever-growing pain inside of his guts. Then a jolt hit him when Dahlia put her hand across his. She led him to the rich soil and placed his hand beside hers. His fingers sunk down against the mulch, burying into the aerated dirt. That tightness in his chest snapped like an overstressed rubber band and shocked his core. What was that? That lifted feeling, that invisible glow radiating off his hand, trailing up his arm like vines.

Despite that his mind filled with nothing but Maria's smile and brand new memories of Gerald's unique laugh, he wasn't plagued with that fallen feeling — the darkness that often crept into the corners of his eyes as he lost himself in a void of loneliness. No, rather than his typical, horrid depression, his racing heart felt freer. Freer than he had since his imprisonment, free from sadness and pain. He could stay there, be with his family again.

Is this what Dahlia felt? He examined her closed eyes and soft, upturned lips. Her gentle breathing somehow synchronized with his own steady breaths. She spoke,

"Do you feel them, Shadow?"
"Yes." He cursed his traitorous voice crack.
"This is why I love to garden. I love being out here, in nature, with Dad again. Spirit. That was his name."
"Maria. Gerald."

Why had he been impelled to speak their names aloud? Both names came with a set of unique memories: a younger Maria, helping him after he'd sprained his ankle; Gerald, pulling him into an unexpected hug when he was very, very small.

He had to take his hand away from the garden. Whatever caused these renascent memories, he couldn't deal with more of it. The moment his hand left the soil and brushed past the luscious greenery, he felt shoved back to the present. Back to his hopeless situation. Back to a reality where G.U.N had massacred his only family.

She held his shoulder. "You okay?"
"The hell was that…?"
"Dad used to say that the garden can bring us close to those we've lost."

Her talk about her father made him wonder if that's what Gerald was to him. All he remembered was being told he'd been 'created'. Project Shadow. He assumed Gerald had created him. Maria had been like a sister, so did that make Gerald his father? He wasn't sure. But he wanted to know more, more about family and fathers, more about… Her.

"What happened to your father?"
"He died in the war."
"He died because of Eggman?"
"Right."
"Who's Eggman?"

She took her hand away and he looked to her, watching her fiddle with her gloved fingers. After taking a short moment to herself, she grabbed his attention by continuing.

"Doctor Eggman, technically. He's some kind a' crazy, I dunno, dictator wannabe, I guess. When he appeared — and I gotta use that word 'cuz that's exactly what people said he did, just appeared outta nowhere in a burst of light from some alien technology. But when he appeared along with half a dozen robots, he pillaged and burned down cities. He killed and used wildlife to power his machines. He took people from their homes and forced them into slavery. It wasn't long after that people took up arms.

"Fathers, brothers, grandfathers; they all put themselves on the front lines to fight. But they couldn't win. They couldn't figure out his technology, no one knew how to use the scraps from what little robots they destroyed against him. When the soldiers retreated, Ernest came back home without my father. I… Didn't believe him when he told us my father died. I was only twelve, I didn't want to believe I'd never see him again. That's what I had nightmares about. Losin' him all over again, feelin' so helpless. I mean, what little girl should grow up without her dad?"

Her voice cracked and she stopped to swallow. He didn't know what to do, what to say, so he kept quiet and observed her. Never would he have guessed that someone like Dahlia — chipper, eager, and happy — had been through something so traumatic.

She regained herself and continued. "I wasn't the only one affected by Eggman and the war. So many others were, but the one that stands out to everyone is Sonic. We were both the same age when our fathers died and, unlike me sulkin' and pretendin' my dad wasn't dead, he took up his father's mantle. He fought Eggman, who laughed and thought Sonic's challenge was a big joke. But what Eggman didn't see comin' was Sonic's awesome speed. They say he's faster than the speed a' sound, that he can see things in slow-motion, and I believe it. He outran bullets, redirected missiles, and plowed through robots in a single dash. Sonic and his best friend, Tails, are the reason Eggman is still kept in check to this day. He toppled the entire Eggman empire-in-progress. He's amazin'."

"Who is?" Lily asked as she passed through from the herb garden.
"Sonic!"
Lily's face brightened instantaneously. "Oh, he is amazing! He's grown into such a handsome young man!"
"Right? So handsome."
And apparently coveted by women.

Lily walked toward the back crops, leaving Dahlia to sigh pleasantly.

She nudged Shadow's shoulder. "What is it with you hedgehogs and bein' badass? You takin' on them Hecklers, Sonic takin' on that jackass. We could use more people like you guys on Mobius."
"I don't belong here."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"I have unfinished business."
"Yeah? With who?"

How could he explain it to her without going into some long-winded b.s. narrative? A single word — G.U.N — would only bring about more questions. Trying to describe to Dahlia the promise he made to Maria would take far too much of his time, time he didn't have to continue prattling on about their pasts, continue getting attached—

No. No, he wasn't getting attached. What nonsense. He wasn't and would never get attached to Dahlia; her determination and kindheartedness, her smiles and her generosity, her laughter, her eyes, and—

Focus, dammit,focus.

"Do you know about the Chaos Emeralds?"
She cocked her head at him, single brow raised. "Chaos Emeralds? Never heard of 'em. But I heard about the Master Emerald."
Master Emerald? He didn't know what that was but it sounded important. His eyes must've held his curiosity, as she elaborated a bit.
"Dunno exactly where it is. Well, I know that it's on Angel Island, but I ain't got a clue where Angel Island is. It's got a guardian. Some last-of-his-kind echidna. Dunno who, though. Maybe Fred or Ernest knows? They might know more about it than me, since they're so old and all." She giggled at her own lampoon. Not at all cute.

Whether the Master Emerald tied into the Chaos Emeralds or not, he would find out. Next time he and Dahlia saw Fred, he'd be sure to ask. Until then, he and Dahlia needed to get rid of the aphid he found within the leaves of her broccoli.

Which was not something he ever thought would be prudent, yet here he was.