He was happy. His size belied his child-like nature as he chased his friend through shining grey corridors. Blonde hair flashed as she turned a corner, disappearing from sight. Feet pounding on metal floors. Her laughter echoed all around him. Dodge around the robot. He turned another corner and there she was, standing before a starry landscape. He pounced and they tumbled down in a heap, a mess of limbs, clothing and quills. She laughed as she detangled herself, helping her assailant to his feet. Catching his breath he stared out of the ship window, naturally curious. Something caught his eye and he stared at it in wonder. Round like a slightly squished ball it was impossibly beautiful, a patchwork of blue, green and swirling white.
"What is it?" He asked in wonder. She smiled.
"That's the earth, silly."
Bored with the conversation, she tapped him lightly on the shoulder and took off, vanishing into another corridor. With a laugh he followed, nearly knocking over a scientist in the process. The endless game would go on.

Shadow's eyes fluttered in confusion as he woke up, utterly disorientated. Where was he? His limbs tangled up in the sheets as he swung to look at his surroundings. Where was the metal? The robots? Even the boring scientists were missing. Where was Maria?
'Maria's gone,' the more logical part of his mind told him. 'Get up'
He groaned as it all came back to him. Maria's death. The long dull years of being frozen, not aging but faintly aware of the passage of time. His release by Dr Eggman, and the following havoc. His sacrifice. Why was he still alive? He didn't want to be. He had wanted to destroy all the evil the doctor had created, including himself. No living creature could survive a fall through the atmosphere like that. He could remember so vividly the suffocating heat, skin blackening and cracking open, the smell of his cooked flesh repulsively appealing. But, although his body had been severely bloodied and broken when he landed in the sea, he survived. Maybe he really was the world's ultimate life form. The current washed him up on a nearby shore, and some humans who had found him took him to the hospital. Those following days were all a painful blur. All he could recall was the constant fierce ache of the broken bones in his body, the acrid scent of a thousand different chemicals, the less than appetising food. He never found out who his rescuers were. He would have surely died if he had been left on the beach as he was. They had even taken care of his medical fees.

Once recovered, he used the rings he had accumulated during the whole Ark incident to buy himself a nice apartment in central Station Square. He had spent the last two months there sitting around trying to figure out what to do with himself. He was done with world conquest, he'd never work with Eggman again. Maria wouldn't have wanted that.
She was constantly on his thoughts. He hadn't had much time to think about her, seeing as he had been off and taking over the world as soon as he had been thawed. But now it had sunk in, really sunk in. Maria had been his friend. Only friend, really. In her short life she'd shown him how wonderful existence could be. And in her death how terrible it was without her. He supposed he had loved her, if such a forsaken creature as he could feel that way. Her heroic sacrifice was painfully unfair. She had saved his life with the price of her own, when she had deserved to live more than anyone else on this planet. Why couldn't they both live? Life lacked meaning now. Without her, how could he be anything other than what everyone expected him to be: a senseless killer?

Shadow finally dragged himself out of bed and made himself some breakfast, reading the newspaper whilst he ate. It was all the same monotonous rubbish to him- new fad diet causes cancer, another violent war in a distant country, an election coming up soon- who cares? What was there worth caring about anymore?
He was about to close the paper when a small article in the corner caught his eye, causing him to nearly choke on his piece of toast in disbelief. It wasn't the heading, 'Local Chao Kindergarten Teacher wins Teacher of the Year Award", that caught his attention, but it was the small, blurry, black and white photo of the teacher in question. It was her! The name may have been slightly wrong, 'Marien Rubetec', but papers get things like that wrong all the time, right? Quickly jotting down the street address of the kindergarten, Shadow raced out the door, not bothering to finish his breakfast. It had to be Maria! If he could just find her, perhaps the world would start to make sense. Life would mean something again. He felt he had finally found something worth fighting for.

---

Knuckles' stomach twisted painfully within him, and not for the first time he emptied its contents in a nearby bush. Whatever Rouge had done to him had seriously messed him up. If the Master Emerald were not at stake he would have stopped a long time ago to recuperate. But of course, he could not afford to indulge in such a luxury. It was his duty to protect the Master Emerald, and he would not, could not stop until it was safe once more.
The intense pounding of his head was making it hard to feel the Emerald's signal, but from what he could gather he was very close. Which worried him. A short way to his left was the chasm, a deep valley kilometres across he had never explored for fear of getting lost. It was dangerous. If Rouge had gone down there, the Master Emerald was good as gone.

A clump of snow fell heavily onto Knuckles' shoulder, causing him to stagger and fall, grazing his hands on the grainy snow. He'd never seen so much snow on the island before, and never during the summer. Between his hands a mark in the snow caught his eye. A footprint! It must be Rouge's! No one else he knew wore iron boots, anyway. It looked fresh.
Wasting no time, Knuckles followed the tracks, leading out of the thicket of trees and alarmingly close to the edge of the chasm. So intent on the tracks, he didn't notice the bat until he walked into her himself.

"Oof! Hey, watch where you're going you- Knuckles!" She was clearly surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?"
"I should be the one asking that question! Isn't it perfectly clear to you now that the Master Emerald belongs to me? What happened to it stinking like Echidnas?" Knuckles snapped.
"Well, I never said it was a bad smell. I figured I could get used to it after a while. Besides, how could I leave such a jewel to the likes of you? Jewels of that quality need to be treated with respect! I'm surprised it's still in one piece, the way you handle it!"
"You think I don't know how to look after the Master Emerald?! Do you know just how many years I've been guarding that damn thing? It would certainly take more than what you've got, anyway!"
"The way you're talking it sounds as though you would want to be rid of it!" They were yelling at each other by this stage. Neither noticed the deep rumbling that was shaking the ground.
"Oh look, of course I don't want to be rid of it! Just give it back to me, and maybe I'll let you go!"
"Hah, and you think you could stop me?!"
"I stopped you back on Ark and I could stop you again!"
"I gave you the pieces of emerald!"
"Right after I saved your life! And this is how you repay me?"
"Argh, there's no point in trying to reason with you! Just let me go and-"
Rouge was cut off as the rumbling grew to a roar. They both stared at each other.
"What on earth is that?" She asked. He just glanced at her, eyes wide.
"Run!" They both dove for the cover of the trees, but it was too late. The avalanche poured in like an icy waterfall, sweeping up everything in its way. Including Knuckles and Rouge. Helpless to resist, they were thrown over the edge of the cliff, falling for what seemed like an eternity...

---

'Seventy six Stanley road, seventy six Stanley road... I can't see it! I've been all the way up and down here five times, and there is no seventy six!' Shadow was frustrated. he was so, so close to finding his Maria once more, and he couldn't even locate the bloody kindergarten!
'Seventy six, seventy six...' He glanced at his piece of paper. Maybe he had written it down wrong. Come to think of it, that seven did look an awful lot like a one. With one more short glance for seventy six, he renewed his search with sixteen. Sixteen, sixteen... aha! There it was, right under his nose the whole time.

He was glad there was no one around to witness his foolishness. Shadow wasn't supposed to make mistakes like that, just like any other person. He was special. He was the world's ultimate life form! He was... ah, forget it, he was nothing. He knew he was deluding himself. That big ugly lizard thing he had destroyed was the real ultimate life form. The prototype of it, anyway. He was... a mistake, maybe. Some kind of experiment. Who knew? He was here now, no matter how that came to be.

He stared up at the sign. 'Station Square Chao-care Centre. For Chao of all ages.' This is it. Finally, to see Maria again, after all these years! Suddenly, fear gripped him. What if she didn't recognise him? Further more, what if she didn't want to see him at all? Rejection had never mattered much to him before, but the prospect of it now was tearing him apart inside.
'Only one way to find out, Shadow,' he told himself. 'Don't be such a wuss.'

Swallowing his doubt, he reached for the door knob and, after a slight hesitation, turned it, entering the small building. An empty room. It was a very small place, not dissimilar to the other kindergarten he had visited a few times whilst trying to take over the world. Of the few doors in the room, he figured the classroom would be his best bet, so he turned to the closest door to the left and pushed it open. He was greeted by the sight of five Chao of varying alliances sitting in a circle, all finger painting. Which was strange, seeing as Chao don't possess fingers of any shape or description. There seemed to be more paint on the Chao than the paper. There was no teacher in sight. At the sound of the door opening, they all turned and stared at him. He shifted uncomfortably.
"Uh, hi. Would any of you know where Maria is?" They looked at him blankly. A hero-type Chao crawled up to him and begged for a pat. He obliged the little creature, looking around the room. The walls were colourful to the point that they hurt his eyes, with what must have been Chao paintings hanging on the walls everywhere. It was the kind of room he was sure he could go crazy in if left there too long.

There was a noisy squeak as the door was opened. Turning around, His breath caught in his throat...

---

Rouge never remembered the actual impact. Which she was glad for, because it would have been terrible hearing her limb snap. Rather, she remembered the moments afterwards, finding herself metres deep in the icy snow, her right arm crushed with unmeasurable pain beneath her. A ragged gasp escaped her lips as she attempted to move. Her arm was surely broken, there was no way it could possibly hurt that much without there being something seriously wrong with it.
At least she still had the emerald. She could feel its point digging painfully into the side of her leg. All this effort, for a jewel she couldn't even keep. She'd better get a damn good reward for all this.

She stayed motionless, for fear of damaging her arm more. The snow was starting to numb her, blissfully calming the fierce pain. Perhaps if she stayed there long enough it wouldn't hurt at all. It wasn't too bad, lying there in the crystaline whiteness. Warning bells were faintly sounding in the back of her mind, but she pushed them away. So tired. Her eyelids felt as heavy as cement. There, as she was lying in the snow drift, they fluttered closed...

---

It wasn't her. His heart sank as soon as he saw her face. It was a remarkable likeness, true, but it was no Maria. This face, although not a cruel one, lacked the warmth Maria's had always possessed. Marien looked rather alarmed when she saw him.
"Don't touch that Chao! He's not yours! Who are you and what are you doing here?" She snapped, briskly snatching up the Chao Shadow had been petting.
"I was just-"
"You were just nothing! The lesson is not over, you can't pick up any Chao yet, although none of these are yours anyway, and it's obvious you have none to drop off! Now get out before I call the police!"
"There's no need to get upset, he just wanted a-"
"No need? These Chao are my responsibility! I don't need filthy strangers putting their perverted hands all over them! Now, leave!"
"Perverted? How dare you call me a-"
Marien grabbed the phone, glaring menacingly at him over the receiver. Shadow took the hint and left, slamming the door on his way out. Definitely not Maria. She would never be that distrustful. How on earth had that lady become teacher of the year?

He walked away from the place in a daze. Why had he let his hopes get up so high? He'd known Maria was dead for a long time. How did a woman with a faint resemblance of her change all that, make him hope against hope that somehow, she'd made it, saved herself? But it was not to be.

'You know,' he thought, 'Maria would not have wanted you moping around after her all the time. She would have wanted you to live your life to the fullest. I've finally made it to Earth, like we always talked about, and all I've done is try and destroy it and worry about her. Well, no more. I'm gonna find out just what all the fuss is all about, I'm going to-' A pink arm shot out and grabbed his wrist.
"Hey, watch out!" The owner of the pink arm exclaimed. "You nearly just walked in front of a car! You could have killed yourself!" He blinked in confusion.
"I would have seen it." Shadow muttered defensively, moving to walk away. But the person prevented him, holding on to his wrist with a vice grip. Looking down at her, he jumped slightly in surprise. Her reaction was more extreme.
"Shadow?! Oh my god, I thought you were dead! We all thought you were dead! How did you survive that fall?" Amy threw her arms around Shadow's waist. He just stared down at her. People didn't tend to hug him often.
"I'm not sure," He admitted. "Just lucky, I guess."
"Lucky indeed!"
"Look, I'm kinda busy, I'd better keep moving." This encounter was starting to make him uncomfortable.
"Oh, sure, of course. Hey wait," Amy grabbed a piece of paper out of her handbag and scribbled on it. "This is my address. You should drop by sometime, it would be so great. I'm sure everyone would be happy to see you again."
"If you say so." Seeing no way out of it, Shadow took the piece of paper. "See you round."
"Bye, Shadow the Hedgehog!" She winked, then disappeared into the crowd, leaving Shadow dumbfounded for the second time that day.

---

Covered in grease, Tails slid from under the plane to pick up another tool. It was heaven, to have all this time to work on his machines rather than using them. He was currently making some modifications to the Tornado, to generally make it move faster and use weapons more accurately. Finding the tool he needed, he was about to move back under the machine when a beeping came from his tool belt. With an exaggerated sigh, he gave the mobile phone an annoyed look before answering it. Never should have bought the annoying thing.

"Hello?"
"Ah Tails, so good to hear your voice again." A cold shiver ran down Tail's spine. He knew this voice all too well.
"Doctor Eggman?! Why are you calling me? Who have you captured? What have you done to Sonic?"
"Tails, my boy, calm down, I haven't done anything to anyone. Can't a reformed evil genius call one of his former rivals for a... friendly chat?"
"Reformed?" Tails snorted in disbelief. "Since when did you reform?"
"Oh Tails, I'm so hurt. Surely you've missed my presence for the last six months since Ark? I've given up world domination. Too much hard work, and too many people like Sonic trying to stop me. I'm now trying to help people with my inventions."
"That's good," Tails commented cautiously, "but what has that got to do with me?"
"Cut straight to the chase, don't you? Very well. I've always admired your technical expertise, Tails, and I was hoping you would be willing to work on a rather large project with me."
"What kind of project? If you're expecting me to help you build some kind of massive weapon, you can forget it."
"Oh of course not, nothing like that. The machine's prime use would be to remove the animals safely from inside my robots, which I will destroy. It has other uses too, but it's all rather complicated and difficult to explain over the phone. Why don't you drop by the base and take a look?"
"You swear this isn't a trick?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die." His voice was sarcastic, but Tails found himself believing him. Still, he hesitated.
"I'll think about it."
"Hope to see you soon." There was a click as Eggman hung up. Tails stared at the Tornado. It didn't really need any work at the moment. Everything was working fine and although the speed could be improved, it was only a minor issue. But then again, how can he trust Eggman? He had fooled them many times before, from tricking Knuckles into giving him the Super Emeralds years ago to kidnapping Tails himself even earlier. However, what Eggman has said was true- he hadn't attacked them since Ark, and they had worked well together then to save their lives.

Tails put down the spanner he was carrying, and headed into the house. If he was going to Eggman's lab, he'd better have a shower first.