Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog.

A/N: This chapter and the next may have a few things from "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie," including South Island, which I know in the movie was a large floating island, with all sorts of various aircraft crashed on it. Of course, in the world of SA2:B, where everything is firmly attached to the ground (I hope, anyway), the exception being Angel Island, South Island has somehow fallen from the sky, I suppose, and is now anchored securely in the ocean. I mean, it's above water...

If you have not seen "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie," I really suggest you do, it's a great anime movie, it was supervised by Sega, something like that, and the only bad thing is that the English voices are absolutely horrible until you get used to them.

A stranger sight had never reached Shadow's eyes.

A large, tropical island, with a huge mountain in the center... completely covered in wrecked aircraft.

As soon as Tails landed (on a landing strip seemingly built into the mountain itself,) Sonic hopped off the biplane and walked to a large, vine covered mass. He tore at the weeds and other plant life until he revealed a door.

A door to an airplane.

A very large airplane.

As Sonic and Tails carried Shadow into the airplane-house on an object something like a stretcher, Shadow raised an eyebrow as he stared at the odd, dusty surroundings. So did Amy.

"You two lived in this dump??" she questioned in astonishment.

"Hey! It's not a dump!" Sonic argued, dropping Shadow a little quickly on the floor.

"Sonic..." Tails whined, quickly apologizing to Shadow. He looked around. "Although I guess we could clean up a bit..."

"Argh!!" Sonic muttered, then grabbed a bucket and headed out to fill it with water.

Tails located Sonic's old lounge chair and set it up. "Shadow, you can sit in this for a while." Shadow shrugged, then stood up and walked over to it.

Amy's eyes widened. "Shadow! You're not supposed to be walking around, you know..."

Shadow sat down. "I can do whatever I want..."

Just then Sonic walked up to him with a rag. "Well, no, you can't. You're going to help us clean up. And it's not a dump!!" he added, in Amy's direction.

Shadow glared at Sonic, then took the rag and started wiping the dust off of something sitting in the corner.

"Ahhh!" Tails yelped, then ran over to Shadow. "Be really careful with that, okay?"

"...what?" Shadow asked. Tails started dusting the machine really carefully.

"I was working on this a long time ago... but I never finished," he explained. "I kind of gave it up, after Eggman lost all of Sonic's data..." Tails started explaining.

"So, after I realized that there was no way for Eggman to build another Metal - er, sorry, Hyper Metal Sonic - without Sonic's data and... well, also after I figured this thing was beyond repair, I stopped working on it and when we, you know, Sonic and I, started moving around and going wherever we felt like it, I left behind a lot of stuff and this was one of them."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked Tails, now standing right next to him.

"You remember that navigator that Eggman gave us when we had to find the Egg-Generator?"

"Yeah... you rewired it to pick up me and Metal's brain waves."

"Mm-hmm. I was working on it before we left, seeing if I could repair it."

"What?!" shrieked Sonic. "You were working on a device that could pick up my brain waves?! What kind of crazy person are you?!"

Tails' eyes widened at the angry Sonic in front of him. "Well, if Eggman ever decided to build another Metal with your data, this would pick up its brain waves in advance--"

"But Eggman lost the data," Sonic pointed out.

"Let me finish!" Tails yelled. Everyone was quiet. "Thank you! And this would also pick up your brain waves, in the event that we were ever separated and I needed to find you really quick."

"When would we ever be separated?" Sonic pointed out.

"Lots of times! You left me behind a lot when I was little!" cried Tails.

"That's because you were slow!" Sonic yelled. "Not my fault that I could always run like that."

"I needed a plane to keep up with you sometimes!" Tails cried.

"Yeah?! Well--"

"That's enough!!" Amy screeched, jumping in between them. "What's done is done, and Tails! Throw that thing away!" she yelled, pointing at Tails' abandoned project.

"But... but..." Tails' eyes widened as he stared at his project. "I've never... thrown away... any of my projects before..."

"Do it, Tails," Sonic muttered. "There's never going to be another Metal, and you can keep up with me now, anyway."

"Oh, fine... but where are we going to throw it?" Tails asked.

Sonic sighed. "Whatever... keep it there. But clean it... Mr. Clean Freak..." he muttered.

"I am not a clean freak!" Tails said angrily.

Shadow sighed, left his cleaning rag on Tails' machine, and sat back down on Sonic's lounge chair. He wondered why he was here in the first place.

The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. He, Shadow, was here, on Earth, alive. But why?

'I could have died,' he told himself. 'I could have been with Maria. I could have been happy. I was ready, I was prepared to die.'

~*~

But Maria sent me back.

Unless it was only a vision...

Shadow closed his eyes in deep thought.

But why would my mind make up a vision of Maria, telling me to Chaos Control down to Earth?

Why did I come to Earth in the first place?

To carry out revenge?

No... that's not right. To fulfill Maria's wish. My promise.

But why did I want revenge?

And what was my promise, exactly?

...to make everyone on Earth happy.

And my being alive made Sonic and Tails happy. Probably the others, too.

So... I am still alive...

...so that I can carry out my promise even farther?

And the revenge...

...I can't remember...

...I was... supposed to avenge Maria...

...and destroy the people of Earth...

...but that wasn't right. Maria told me to make everyone happy.

I wonder...

On a planet as beautiful as Earth, everyone must be happy.

They don't know how lucky they are, to live on a place like this.

But if everyone is happy... then why am I still alive?

Why do I remember... what I remember?

~*~

Shadow's thoughts drifted, as he slowly fell asleep.

~*~

Sonic sat down on the beach, watching the sun set.

Tails, who was outside, noticed his friend. He walked over.

"Hi Sonic. What's going on?"

"Nothing..." Sonic replied.

Tails sat down next to Sonic. It was the perfect time to get something off his mind. "You know... I've been wondering..."

"Yeah?" Sonic asked, drawing something in the sand.

"...why... why are you trying so hard to keep Shadow safe? I mean, you two never did get along so well, except for that time with the FinalHazard..."

Sonic sighed. "Long story, buddy."

"There's time," Tails said. "Not like we're going anywhere."

"I don't like to dwell on the past, but..." Sonic trailed off. A few moments later, he began again. "I like to keep looking forward... the past is the past, there's nothing you can do to change it..."

"Where is this going?" Tails asked patiently.

"Well... about Shadow..."

"...yeah?" Tails prompted.

"...you remember Metal."