Finally! I am really, really sorry for getting this in so late. I had a super bad case of writer's block for this chapter. That, and the fact that I've been doing some other stuff on my computer, which leads to the really important news… I have a deviantART account! Yes, I finally got one, but I can only do pictures done on my computer for now. I'm having a bit of trouble getting pics up at the moment, but when I do, I can show what they all look like. My name there is Ciel-Hedgehog.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, here is Chapter 17!


Rouge's eyes were shut, waiting for the burst of energy coming her way. She and Tikal had gotten the Master Emerald, and had just gotten inside when Shadow had preformed his Chaos Blast. The white bat waited a few seconds, wondering what was taking so long. After a moment or two, she slowly opened her eyes.

Rouge was quite surprised to see that there was no blast anywhere. She looked around, but there was no trace of the boys anywhere in the sky, where they had been moments before. The only other person in the room was Tikal, who was holding the Master Emerald. The echidna was so still, she almost looked like a painted statue.

"What's going on?" Rouge asked. "Weren't we about to be killed by that Chaos Blast?" Tikal slowly opened her eyes.

"Hmm? The Chaos Blast?" Tikal muttered. "I attempted to stop them with the Master Emerald, but I'm afraid that's not all it did."

"Well then, what did it do?" The thief asked. "Where are Shadow and his brothers?" There was a pause.

"I am not sure," Tikal replied after a bit. Suddenly, she fainted, Rouge barely catching her before she hit the ground.

"Oh, I hope Shadow is alright," Rouge muttered to herself. The bat looked around the room some more, until her eyes rested on three black figures a ways off on the floor. So, she wasn't the only one besides Tikal after all! Looking closer, the one figure with red streaks caught her turquoise eyes.

"Shadow!"


The black hedgehog groaned, not knowing where he was. Red irises were revealed as Shadow opened his eyes, looking around. Everything in sight was pure gray, neither dark nor light. Neutral. Beside him were Gemini and Ciel, who were also waking up.

"What happened?" Ciel asked, putting a hand to his head. "I think I blacked out." Shadow thought for a bit, for his memory was fuzzy as well. Everything came rushing back to him: Invading the GUN base. Finding out his past. Being captured by Eggman, and then fighting Ciel. Going into his Super form, and then feeling nothing but anger and hatred. The Ultimate Lifeform shuddered at the thoughts.

"You remember too," Gemini pointed out. "You were about to blast us, remember? So how did we end up here? You didn't kill us, did you?"

"I don't think so," Shadow replied. "I don't think we're in our Super forms any more, though, and Ciel's back to normal."

"Back to normal?" Ciel asked confusedly. "Did I do something?"

"We can fill you in later," Gemini said. "First, we have to figure out where we are."

The three hedgehogs all got up, which was something odd in itself. It felt like there was a solid surface underneath them, but when either of them looked down, there was only more of the gray mass. As a matter of fact, there was nothing but gray mass.

"Are we the only ones here?" All three of them thought (hey, twins, triplets, and all of those kinds of people are known to sometimes share thoughts and stuff). Suddenly, the room around them began to change, instantly taking a form they all recognized: Space Colony Ark.

"Impossible," Shadow muttered. "Chaos Blast doesn't do any teleportation, and Chaos Control doesn't have any of that gray stuff in it. So how did we get here?"

"I brought you here," A voice said. A small light appeared, and materializing out of it was…

"Maria!" All of them shouted in surprise. It was indeed Maria, looking exactly as she had over fifty years ago. In fact, to Shadow, she looked exactly like she did before the GUN invasion had taken place.

"I'm glad to see you're all together again," Maria said in her soft voice. "I knew we'd be back here sooner or later." Shadow stood there, dumbstruck. Maria, the one he had worked so hard for, was standing right in front of him. Still, something was off. What it was, the Ultimate Lifeform could not say.

"Maria, where have you been all this time?" Gemini asked, not knowing the whole story. "I haven't seen you anywhere until now. And how did we end up back on the Ark?"

"Exactly what I've been wondering," Shadow added. "Last time I saw you, you were…well, it wasn't exactly the best of goodbyes."

"No, it wasn't," Maria agreed, shaking her head. "You see, you aren't really on the Ark. I just made it look like this so you wouldn't be alarmed."

"What are you talking about?" Ciel asked. "If we aren't on the Ark, where are we?" Everything was completely silent, which was barely broken when Maria began to speak again.

"Grandfather never thought you'd end up here," She said, "but you are at the halfway point between life and death."


Definitely not what I had in mind at first, but hey, it works! What exactly does Maria mean? How the heck can Shadow (and his brothers) be there if they are immortal? I will tell you all that and more…but you have to wait until next chapter. X3 See you then.