A/N: It's a long one. Tell me if the rating should be changed to M. I also considered posting this as a stand-alone one-shot. Let me know what you guys think.

Shadow writhed violently across the bed. The covers tangled around his legs, suddenly restricting his sporadic movements. He felt his body grow hot as he tried to free himself from the sheets.

This is why they choose not to speak to me, he thought. They can sense the thoughts that trouble me.

He knew it was time.

With all of the strength that he could muster, Shadow pulled himself out of his bed, and found his way to his bathroom. He flicked the lights on, and glanced around the porcelain room. It was completely spotless. He liked to keep it tidy.

He made his way over to the large bath tub, and sighed. He had waited over sixty years for this, yet he knew that he couldn't put it off any longer. He began to draw the bath water, making sure that it was uncomfortably chilly. Shadow liked that cold baths pushed him beyond his usual realm of comfortableness. Cold baths are certainly underrated.

He reached into his bathroom drawer, and found it – the tiny Master Emerald shard. He had shaved it off with a scalpel, while Knuckles was off on some unnecessary adventure with Sonic. He wouldn't miss it.

Finally, the tub was filled. Shadow shut off the faucet and slowly climbed into the freezing water. He nearly gasped once the water had reached his thighs. "Slow and steady wins the race, contrary to popular belief," he mumbled. He gripped the little piece of Master Emerald to avoid grunting from the cold. As he continued to submerge himself under the water, he felt the little piece Emerald shard grow warmer. Once he had settled down into the tub, he opened his palm to observe the jewel. It seemed to appear duller under the fluorescent lights.
It was only a matter of time. Shadow leaned his head back against the tub, feeling the ends of his quills soak up whatever moisture they could. He inhaled deeply, and closed his eyes.

After about fifteen minutes of silence, Shadow felt a warmness radiating from within him. He had numbed himself to the chill of the water. Finally, he knew that he was ready to go through with his plan.

He gripped the Emerald shard between his thumb and middle finger, and held it up to the lights above him. "Master Emerald, take me to her," he whispered.

The water splashed as Shadow slipped into a sudden comatose state. He had known that he could have drowned, but it didn't matter. If he died, then he would finally be at peace.


Shadow was floating. He was surrounded by bright, flashing purple-and-green lights. He kicked his feet to test out the lack of gravity – he moved forward slightly. Off in the distance, he could see a tall golden door. He kicked swiftly as he attempted to move toward it. By the time he reached it, he was huffing with exhaustion.

The door was wrapped with golden vines that were covered in blood-red thorns. I suspected that I might consider turning back when I got here, but I didn't think that the feeling would be so strong. Shadow gripped the door's handle, hesitant. He could turn around now, and continue living life as he was used to it. On the other hand, he could go open the door, and confront his problems once and for all.

Shadow jerked open the door.

At first, he could only see darkness. There was nothing welcoming about the pitch black that was beyond the entrance. Of course, Shadow hadn't expected there to be. He took a step in, but his ears pricked up when he suddenly heard the soft crying of a little girl.

Shadow's first instinct was to run in and comfort the child that he held so deeply to his heart, but he knew that that wasn't the correct response. He had to act with some dignity. He couldn't let the monsters win. He marched forward, following the sound of a child's sobs, determined to put his demons to rest.

Finally, he saw a spotlight upon a tiny blonde girl, wearing a blue dress. It appeared as if she were sitting on the ground. She cried loudly as she wiped her tears away. As Shadow got closer, he could see the red marks where she had been rubbing her skin.

"Maria."

The crying stopped. Maria glanced up, tears smeared across her cheeks. When she saw Shadow, she furrowed her eyebrows. Slowly, she climbed to her feet. "Shadow?" Her voice cracked. "Am I just as you remembered me?"

Shadow didn't meet her eyes. "Your tricks won't work on me today. You're not the Maria I remember."

A sudden gust of wind blew around the dark room. Maria rushed at Shadow, her hair flaring up around her. She seemed larger than he the Maria he knew. She towered over him, and looked down at him from her nose.

"You don't remember me?!" she cried. "Me?! The girl you nearly died for?"

Shadow didn't respond.

Maria's face turned pink with anger. "I know you've been wanting to see me for all of these years, Shadow! Why don't you just follow me into the darkness?" She suddenly calmed down and walked a bit into the shadows. She beckoned for her old friend to follow her. "We can pretend that we're still on the A.R.K., laughing and playing games just like we used to."

Shadow's lip trembled, but he knew he couldn't falter. He couldn't be weak, or he would take her up on her offer of nostaliga. How he longed to be a child again. Instead, he put on a brave face. Shadow shook his head and chuckled. "I didn't come here to play games. I came here because I don't wish to see you, ever gain."

Maria swiveled around, fire dancing in her eyes. "If you never wanted to see me again, then why didn't you come here sooner?"

Shadow had no answer.

Maria laughed, her voice echoing in the silent chamber. "You think you can get rid of me? I will never leave you, Shadow."

Shadow let a coy smile slip onto his face. "The Maria that I knew would let me be at peace." With that, he dashed forward, alarming the little girl. She took a step back and fell to the ground. Her eyes widened as her body hit the floor with a thud. She slowly glanced up at Shadow, and he instinctively threw his hands up over his ears as Maria let out a deafening roar.

"Shadow! You can't do this to me! You can't live without me!" Maria's soft, child-like voice had deepened into something horrifyingly evil.

"You're wrong. I will always remember Maria. But the fact of it all is, I now feel ready to let you go." Shadow tightened his grip around the Master Emerald shard, which began to grow more brightly than Shadow had ever seen before. Maria tossed her head back, and continued to scream as her body began to melt. While Shadow could barely stand to see the body of the girl he so cherished turn into a corpse again, he knew that her body as he was seeing it was merely a vessel.

"Shadow! Shadow!" The guttural roar turned into an ear-shattering screech as Maria's beautiful blonde hair started to curl up into smoky black wisps. What was left of her body began to float, blood-red and black rising up into the pitch-black room. Shadow backed towards the door, somewhat afraid that he wouldn't be able to leave the way he had came. He wanted to reach out to Maria – he didn't want to see her die all over again. He fought the urge to run over and grab her wrist, to take her back to her grandfather's planet.

But he knew that the person he had seen was just an illusion.

The wisps rapidly began flying around each other in a spiral. Shadow was aware that they had no power as long as they didn't have a body to take the form of – he had been warned as such. The wisps, loud and horrifying as they were, began to fly back into the darkness. He stood there, listening, until their screeches sounded more like whispers. With that, he quickly turned around and began to skate out of the golden doors.

He couldn't look back.


Shadow jolted up out of the still-cold water. Even though he was lying in the freezing bath, he could feel the sweat dripping off of his body. He frantically looked down to see that he was gripping the shard of the Master Emerald so hard that his knuckles were poking through his fur. He leaped out of the water and ran into his bedroom.

There, on his night stand, was a picture of Maria. He picked up the gold-framed photo and smiled. Of course I will always remember her. How could anyone be so foolish? Still, it's finally time. He placed the picture face-down on his desk, and now smiled down at the piece of Emerald gripped in his fist. Thank you, Sonic, for telling me how to reach her. And most of all, thank you, Tikal.

With that, Shadow placed the Emerald on top of the picture frame, and climbed into bed, ready to finally sleep without any dreams.