A/N: Its 2 am and I'm sitting here and I guess I'm in a angsty mood. Which is RARE if you've seen the types of fics I write. Hell, have I even wrote a angst fic before? How about story? AT ALL? Hmm, I guess not. OH WOW. A first. -_-;;

Wanna know another First? A DISCLAIMER! *gasp* I don't own Sonic *gasp* *gasp* *gasp* BREATH DAMMIT! *exhale* Ahh, that's better.

***

"Belong"

Time. Being the bastard that it is, took Maria away from me. When I was frozen in the neverending sleep, sometimes I used to wonder what it would be like. What it would be like if she were here today. If I'd met her. She'd be old of course, the tired look in her eyes weighing my heart down some. I'd feel sorry because I wasn't there to make some of those bad days a little better. Think she'd forgive me? Would I forgive myself for ending up like this in the first place?

Fifty years. I know I don't look it but I feel it, deep down. I'm so very tired sometimes. Like I could just lay down and never get up again. Then something stops me. Maria and her wish...she wanted me as well as everyone on Earth to be happy. But am I really happy? Living amongst these people who are not from my time? Well, some of them are there...some of them that remember.

I see them when I walk down the street with Soniku. Older humans. Some were just becoming adults when they heard about the ARK incident. Some were children. But their all old now. Soniku calls it a blessing that I didn't age. I call it a curse. It is but naught time standing in my way again from being with my Maria.

Its not that I don't love Soniku...I do. Its just, me and Maria shared something even deeper than the Connection of the Chaos Emeralds. Looking down apon Earth, me and Maria shared dreams and fears. What if's and trying to imagine what the grass smelled like. How the sun felt when it was shinning down your back. How the ocean air would taste while lying in the warm sand. How that sand itself would feel.

Sometimes you could really see it. The yearning in her eyes. She wanted to be on Earth...even though she'd never even been there. Maybe it was just her trying to be one of the race she was never going to be a part of. That not even I was truly going to be a part of.

The Professor would have a garden on the space station. We weren't allowed to touch the flowers because being the blissfully ignorant (aka...just clumsly) beings we were, we were sure to kill the blossoming flowers. Sometimes I would use my incredible speed and steal one for her. She'd smile, hug me, then the flower, which would of course, be smothered and die.

***

Maria held the delicate flower out in the lamp light so she and the black hedgehog could see it clearly. "Do you think it hurt? When it died?"

"I don't know..." Shadow said, intrigued. "I think its like sleeping."

Maria blinked innocently, "Sleeping? How so?"

"Well," Shadow said, "Some call sleeping the brother of death. Maybe if your sleep long enough...you'll die. And dying right away is sleeping."

Maria sweatdropped, "you have no idea what your saying right now, do you?"

Shadow burst out laughing, "I guess not! Seeing as I'll never know how that feels."

"Yeah..." she looked away. At once, Shadow knew he'd said the wrong thing. The Professor had made Maria as close to human as he could. And that meant one day, she would die. But Shadow didn't want to think about that. Not now, not ever, really.

"Hey, let's go down to the boiler room!" Shadow said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Maria smiled, remembering the last time they went down there. "You know the Professor wouldn't like it if we went down there. His face was red as a tomato!"

Shadow winked, taking her hand, "Well, let's see what color his face will be this time."

***

The flashback caught Shadow off guard as he sat high up in the tree in Twinkle Park. The children were off on the roller coasters and Knuckles, Rouge, and Sonic sat at a nearby picnic table. Shadow stared solemnly at the wilting sky blue flower in his hand, brows lowered in thought.

"He does this alot, doesn't he?" Rouge asked, turning away from the Ultimate Lifeform.

"Yeah," Sonic said, looking down, "but I understand why."

"Regretting..." Knuckles suddenly responded, looking down into his cup of soda, taking a sip.

Rouge and Sonic blinked. Knuckles made an intelligent comment?

"Oh lookie, an ice cube." Knuckles cooed, going to eat it from the cup. Rouge and Sonic turned away. It had been but a random lapse of sanity. Oh well.

"But Knuckles was right there, for a moment. Shadow regrets something. Something 50 years ago..."

"But your his..." Rouge started.

"...Something not even I can reach. He blames himself for Maria's death. I don't know why, seeing as he really wasn't there to see it happen." Sonic sighed, "I wish he'd let it go."

"He was frozen for 50 years. Maybe he's just coming to terms with everything around him. I mean, everything that he once knew is either destroyed, floating in space, or too old to even talk to him, and dead." Rouge noted.

"I'm here..." Sonic sighed, going to look back up at Shadow. "Even if he still remembers."

***

END.

A/N: MAN! I am so sorry if that felt chopped up...uber-cheesy or just WEIRD. And short. That was dammed short. ;;

Sonic: Woah. You made it sound like we're about to break up or something.

Shadow: WHAT? BUT I LUV YOU! *glomps Sonic*

Me: Yeah...but think about it, their relationship is VERY tangible. Shadow could declare his love to the sadly deceased Maria or Sonic could go with Amy. *shivers* Ewww...het. XD!

Shadow: Great...I'm in love with a dead girl.

Me: Who said she was REALLY dead? Damn spoilers for stories I must write...;;;

Shadow: WHAT?

Sonic: Will there be more bouts of Knuckles and his new found intelligence?

Me: Okay, shut up hedgehogs! Your turning this into a rant! Just review, people...flames are welcome on this, I guess. What the hell will I rate this? PG?

Sonic: SHADOW GET OFF MY HEAD!

Shadow: BUT ITS SO NICEEE!