Shadow paced himself out of the cave and back towards civilisation. He hoped that perhaps Rouge would take him in for the night. After what had just happened, he felt too unnerved to sleep outside. Unfortunately for the melancholy hedgehog, it wouldn't be so simple to get back to Station Square. First, he would have to deal with-

"Hey, Shadow! Long time no see!"

Shadow sighed, he didn't bother to turn around and face Sonic. The annoying blue hedgehog ran towards Shadow from behind with a smile on his face.

"We saw each other yesterday…" Shadow said miserably.

"Still, it's great to see ya, Shads. Are you on your evening run just like me?" Sonic asked cheerily. Shadow turned around to look at Sonic irritably. "Whoa! You look rough, Shadow. What happened?"

Shadow growled quietly and walked ahead, not wanting to talk about it. Sonic followed him quickly.

"Shadow, have you been in a fight? You fur is all scruffy and you look really worn out!" Sonic noticed.

"I am not worn out! That fight was nothing!"

"So, you have been in a fight. With who?" Sonic said smartly. Shadow swung around to face Sonic again.

"Mephiles," Shadow grumbled.

"Who's that?" Sonic asked. Shadow sighed.

"It's hard to explain. He's not from this timeline… he's from another timeline. I've encountered him many times before, and when I first met him he showed me all of the events from that timeline."

"Am I in that timeline?" Sonic asked. Shadow nodded cautiously. "Am I the same there? Or is it some kind of parallel universe where I'm a difference species or something?"

"No, Sonic. You're exactly the same, except you're involved in a different chain of events…" Shadow said miserably with a sigh. He didn't want to answer so many questions, but he didn't have much of a choice.

"What kind of events?" Sonic asked, still wanting to know more. Shadow glared at him. He was tempted to say that Mephiles killed Sonic in that timeline to shut him up, but he realised that he shouldn't. "Okay, okay. No need to get angry. So where is this guy?"

"Mephiles? Hmm… something strange happened at the end of the fight…" Shadow said reluctantly. Sonic looked at Shadow, longingly. He wanted to know more. Before Sonic asked the inevitable question of what happened, Shadow explained. "He was… absorbed into my body… I-I didn't have any control over it, it just happened!" Shadow exclaimed. Sonic's mouth gaped open.

"So, he's inside of you?" Sonic asked. Shadow cringed, that made it sound so much worse. "Oh, is he in your stomach? Your soul?"

"I don't know!" Shadow said firmly through gritted teeth.

"Oh, do you have his powers? Did he have time travelling powers in order for him to come from another time line?"

"Yes, Sonic. He did have time travelling powers, and I most likely inherited them from him. But I shan't use them," Shadow said irritably.

"But… you could do so much with those powers. You could never be late for an event again. In fact, you could see every event that ever happened in history. You could go back to see the greatest thing that happened!" Sonic said excitedly.

"And… what would that be, Sonic?" Shadow said irately and began to rub the temples on his head.

"The day I was born, Shads. How could you not have guessed?" Sonic boasted, and looked up to the sky with his hands on this hips.

"Strange. I could have sworn you said 'greatest' not 'most disastrous'," Shadow said miserably. Sonic smirked, taking it as a friendly joke. Then a look of enlightenment came over the blue hedgehog's face. Shadow cringed, having no idea what Sonic would come up with, only knowing the idea would be crazy. "Shadow! You could go to the past and save Maria!"

Shadow stayed silent for a few moments, then rage built up inside of him. The dark one bared his teeth at Sonic, then narrowed his eyes in hatred. Sonic noticed that Shadow didn't like the idea, but didn't understand why. Feeling unnerved, Sonic stepped back and looked at Shadow uncomfortably.

"W-what's the problem? I thought you'd like that idea," Sonic said trembled as Shadow walked towards him like a bull waiting to charge. The dark one's lips grew thin and his breaths were loud and heavy. He put his fist up to Sonic and threw a punch. The speedy hedgehog dogged and ran a few feet away from Shadow.

"Shadow, what's the problem!?" Sonic yelled, asking the same question again.

"You know how much pain that event caused me! Why would I want to be reminded of it, let alone actually go and see it. What am I supposed to do when I get there? I've tried to leave the past behind me, but you're not helping me to forget!" Shadow yelled furiously.

"But… you don't have to be upset about it anymore if you save Maria," Sonic said sheepishly. Shadow walked over to Sonic and got right up close to his face. The blue one's heart rate increased, but he stood his ground.

"What kind of fantasy land do you live in? That would never work!" Shadow said spitefully, pronouncing his consonants harshly.

"Sure it would. You could save Maria, then time would change and you'd be together," Sonic said, feeling uncomfortable since Shadow was so close to him.

"And where would she be now?" Shadow asked condescendingly as he put his back straight and folded his arms. Sonic shrugged. "She'd be DEAD!" Shadow said harshly.

"W-why?" Sonic said, realising he'd dug himself into a hole. Shadow's expression became even darker. "Shadow, you haven't told me anything about Maria before! How am I supposed to know what's wrong with her?"

Shadow sighed and looked to the floor.

"She was ill, seriously ill. If she were to leave the ARK, she'd die. Her immune system was useless, broken. She could have died from a cold, or from germs that got into a cut."

"So, she would been killed by a cut?" Sonic asked, sounding shocked. Shadow nodded.

"Maybe even if I breathed on her with the tainted air of this planet. She needed to be in a sterile environment. She couldn't leave the ARK," Shadow sighed, sounding deeply depressed.

"Shadow… I'm sorry," Sonic said sincerely, his voice was soft and weak since he didn't want to upset Shadow any further.

Shadow looked to the sky, imagining the ARK in its glory. Then he remembered that horrible day that changed everything.

"Maybe if… I did go back…"

Shadow held Maria close as the terrified couple fell from the ARK down to Earth. The events happened so quickly, but from what he gathered, it was his future self that set the both of them free. A very unexpected and implausible event, but it happened nonetheless. The hedgehog felt he had to thank himself when he got the future and grew up to the stage, however that worked.

"Maria… we could have both died, but we're free. We can enjoy the planet," Shadow whispered to his companion while he held her close. The girl shook profoundly, so afraid of what had happened. Shadow felt like trembling himself, but he wanted to stay strong for Maria. Shadow pulled Maria to her knees and they sat down while the pod fell at an unbearable speed. "Don't worry, it'll be over soon."

Then Shadow looked down and saw an island, a jungle.

CRASH!

The pod made a crater in the floor, but the two beings inside of it remained relatively unharmed. Shadow and Maria breathed heavily, they had gone through a massive shock. It's not every day that one would drop from space in a pod made out of glass. Shadow kicked the glass but it didn't budge, crack or even chip. Then a robotic voice droned.

"LAND-SUCC-ESS-FULL. LOC-AT-ION: PRIS-ON IS-LAND."

Shadow gasped as the base of the pod popped out from the glass cylinder and the both of them rolled out onto the floor unexpectedly.

"We're on Prison Island, Shadow. That's where GUN is. We've ended up in the very place was wanted to escape from," Maria said fearfully. Shadow face Maria and held her hands tightly.

"I won't let anything hurt you, I promise," Shadow promised her.

The two of them climbed out of the crater. When they got to the top, Maria yelped in pain and grabbed her hand to stop the stinging feeling.

"Maria, what happened?" Shadow exclaimed in shock.

"I cut my hand on a rock. I'll be fine," she said bravely. Shadow shook his head.

"No, Maria. I'm sorry. I should have carried you. I won't make you do any work any more. I'll do everything for you. You need your rest, you are sick after all," Shadow said with great concern. He grabbed her hand and encouraged her to sit down by a large tree.

Shadow looked up to one of the branches of a smaller tree and noticed and exotic fruit. He wondered whether it was best to pick it and let Maria have it. Was it poisonous?

"Look Shadow, it's a mango. I read about those in a book. I never got to try one though. Can you pick it for me?"

Shadow sighed, then jumped up to snag the red and green fruit. He then passed it Maria, noticing that the object made contact with her cut. He cringed when he realised that she was putting herself at risk to infection.

"Maria, please. Be careful with that cut. We have nothing to sanitise it," Shadow said worriedly.

"I'll be fine, Shadow. Don't worry about me," she said and bit into her fruit. Shadow watched as the expression of delight fell over her face. A piece of fruit was certainly tastier than the dried and canned food on the ARK. Shadow sat down beside her, and rested his head on her shoulders. Shadow felt hungry also, but wanted all of the food to go to Maria. He realised that it was only a matter of time before GUN acted upon the large crash they heard from the escape pod landing. Until then, they had to survive.

The hedgehog planned to go with GUN willingly, realising it was better for Maria to stay with a human establishment than it would be to take her to an even more dangerous place with chaos control. Shadow watched as Maria finished her fruit, leaving the hard core on the floor.

"Are you still hungry?" the hedgehog asked loyally. Maria nodded. Shadow got up and picked a few more mangoes. "Those are the last ones in this area. Eat up, Maria. You need your strength."

Maria took them and smiled at Shadow thankfully. The hedgehog sat down by her again and wrapped his arms around waist.

"I promise I'll protect you Maria. I'll let nothing hurt you. I'll give you everything you want. I'll make you happy for as long as you live," Shadow whispered to her. "I love you."

Maria turned to her side and looked at Shadow with a smile.

"I know, Shadow. And I love you too," she said, playfully. Shadow hugged her even tighter, holding the last family he had left.

Soon after, the hedgehog fell asleep.

The ultimate life form awoke to the sound of groaning and crying. He shook his head quickly to get himself out of his groggy state. He snapped his head around and looked at Maria, who was on her hands and knees, sobbing her eyes out.

"Maria, what's wrong!?" Shadow cried out.

"This hurts so much! I feel so sick… I've been vomiting ever since you fell asleep…" she wept. Shadow felt like his heart in his throat. His skin went cold, and his surroundings silent. He crawled over to Maria and put his hand on her shoulder.

"You'll be okay. I've got you. Your body isn't used to the fresh fruit, that's all," Shadow deluded himself. He pulled Maria to an upright position and made her lean against the tree again. She grabbed her stomach in pain, and cried even harder. Shadow couldn't bear to watch her suffer, nonetheless he didn't want her suffering to end, not in the way that did end.

Shadow hugged Maria tightly and whispered many reassurances in her ear. Then he heard her speak her last words.

"Thank you, Shadow. You made me the happiest girl in the world," she coughed out. Then the girl's breathing stopped and her body went limp. Shadow froze on the spot.

"M-maria?" he trembled and pulled himself up. He shook her body, pulled her it upright and attempted to wake her up. "Maria, please don't leave me! We were supposed to be together forever! I was supposed to protect you!" the hedgehog screamed out. "MARIA!"

"Target sighted. It is, in fact, Project SHADOW. Moving in for capture," Shadow heard a human say. He turned around to see a GUN soldier. The hedgehog held onto Maria's dead body even tighter.

"No! You can't take me away from her! She needs me!" Shadow said, sounding delirious. He was in such a frantic state that he couldn't even fight back when he was grabbed by the solider. Five more followed, revealing themselves from behind the surrounding large plants. Two more of them joined their comrade in dragging Shadow away from the corpse, while three others dealt with Maria's body.

Shadow realised that it was all over, and it wasn't worth escaping. Maria was dead. There was nothing to fight for…

Apart from Maria's wish.

Shadow shook his head to attempt to remove the sordid images from his head.

"Nope, I was right to start with. There's no point in saving her," Shadow said and began to make his way to Station Square, remembering that he'd planned to go to Rouge's house.

"But, Shadow! What if-"

"Don't, Faker!" Shadow yelled and skated off.

To be continued…

Lucy Labrador