"Shadow…I beg of you…please, do it for me…for all the people on that planet…"

"Maria…Maria, what are you doing?"

"Give them a chance…to be happy…Let them live for their dreams! Shadow, I know you can do it…that's the reason…you were brought into this world…"

"Maria…..Maria, no…please don't do it!"

"I'm sorry, Shadow…I'm so, so sorry…Please, promise me this one thing…"

"Maria…"

"Shadow, please….do it for me…."

"I…I promise you…but…what's going to happen to-"

"Sayonara…Shadow…the Hedgehog…"

"MARIA!"

BANG

And with that, it was over.

All her hopes and dreams.

All of his hopes and dreams.

Crushed under the blow of a bullet.

But for Maria Robotnik, it hadn't been about her. It had always been about Shadow. She had always wanted to give him a chance to be happy, to give him a life away from being 'Project- SHADOW'. He had never gotten a chance to really live….and her real dream was for him to go to Earth, and have a life.

She just had always imagined going there with him.

But she had always known the differences were too great. She was a human, and he was a hedgehog. That was enough to separate them from the beginning.

However, Maria had always found a way of making hope for her and Shadow on ARK.

Hopes that had been destroyed by something as simple as a bullet.

Everything moved quickly for her after that. She had gone to The Void, met Death, been judged, and went to the afterlife. And there, she waited.

She had never planned to wait for Shadow, though. She wanted him to live his life to the fullest, and the idea of waiting for her best friend to die disturbed her. She never planned to wait for anybody in particular, but she kept waiting. But she knew that sooner or later, somebody she knew, whether it was her grandfather or one of his assistants, would have to show up, and she wouldn't be alone forever.

But nobody ever showed up.

Maria later found out that her grandfather had been executed a few years after her own death, but because of actions he did after she died, he had not been allowed access to the afterlife. She never found out what happened to his soul, but Maria was under the assumption that he had become one of the wandering dead, trapped in The Void for all eternity. For a while, she mourned for her grandfather, but eventually, she went back to waiting, this time for anybody who would give her a second glance.

Time passed. Souls came and went as they were reincarnate into the living world. And still, Maria waited. She didn't know who she was waiting for, but she knew somebody would come.

And fifty years after her death, somebody did come.

It was an ordinary day for Maria. She got up and went out, planning to go to the cliffs area and wait, as she always did. But when she got there…

Somebody very familiar to her was waiting.

From her angle, all she could see was a black hedgehog. And immediately, that clicked in her mind as her friend.

And her first love.

Both worried and overjoyed, she cautiously approached the hedgehog and said the name that had been haunting her mind for fifty years.

"…Shadow?"


At the name of his rival and friend, Sonic turned around to face a human girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue dress, a mixed look of joy and horror on her face. She was about fifteen or sixteen, and was very pretty, in Sonic's opinion. Almost instantly, the girl realized her mistake. "I…I'm sorry, I thought you were somebody else." She turned to leave, but Sonic grabbed her hand and stopped her. She knew Shadow, and no matter how much he disliked that faker sometimes, anybody who had any connection to him or any of Sonic's other friends could be his ally in the afterlife.

"Excuse me, miss….but how do you know Shadow?"

Maria turned to face the blue hedgehog who was now holding her hand, concern burning in his eyes. "You know Shadow? Shadow the Hedgehog?"

Sonic nodded. He wasn't really sure who this girl was, but for now, he felt she was the only person he could trust. "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

Maria smiled a little bit. This blue hedgehog reminded her of Shadow when he was younger. "My name is Maria. Just Maria." She had heard of her cousin's actions in the world of the living, and she wanted to remove any ties she had to Eggman. She also noticed immediately that the blue hedgehog had been crying.

"Um….are you ok? Did something happen?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. I died."

Maria blinked and looked at Sonic. She understood that death was hard on everybody, even to the point where the strongest are turned into miserable souls, mourning their demise. She knew that what he must be going through was rough, so she did the only thing she could think of.

She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, Sonic. It'll be alright."

Because you will never be alone here…