Shadow managed to compose himself, then teleported to Station Square. His surroundings looked the same as they were before. No changes were made to the city when Mephiles altered the past, but it was uncertain what changes were made to people's memories. Would Sonic even know Shadow? There was only one way to find out, find him.

Luckily for the ultimate life form it didn't take long to locate the blue hedgehog; he was at the nearest chilidog stand. Shadow took in a deep breath and approached him. The blue hedgehog looked at Shadow for a second from the corner of his eye.

"Hey, Shadow! Long-time no see! How's Maria?" Sonic asked cheerily as he collected his change from the hotdog vendor.

"Sonic… I need your help," Shadow rasped. The blue hedgehog turned to look at the darker one and gasped. The hero grabbed his lookalike by the arm and dragged him to the nearest alleyway so that they were out of site.

"Shadow, where did that blood on your muzzle come from? And it's all over your hands, what happened?" Sonic hissed, trying to keep as quietly as he could, but panicking at the same time.

"It's Maria, she…" Shadow began but couldn't finish his sentence. Sonic guessed that something awful had happened which is why Shadow needed his help, but the suspense was killing him; he wanted to know what happened to Maria. Shadow just looked into thin air, feeling himself freeze up with nerves.

"Is Maria hurt?" Sonic asked. Shadow didn't answer. "Did she kick you out?"

Irritated by Sonic's guesses, Shadow looked at Sonic angrily. Sonic noticed the glint of fury in the hedgehog's ruby orbs.

"She's dead," Shadow said harshly. Sonic stepped back and dropped his chili dog on the floor. "I need your help with something…"

"When did this happen, Shadow? HOW!?" Sonic yelled.

"It was Mephiles… and I need your help to use time travel in order to stop him from doing it in the first place," Shadow said in a serious tone.

"Shadow, you want to go back in time to stop Maria from dying? But that will change the past and cause some kind of paradox!" Sonic cried out. "Won't it?"

"Not exactly. Sonic… I'm not from this timeline… I'm from an alternate time line where Maria never survived the GUN raid and I was put into stasis for 50 years. In order for me to go back to that timeline I need to go back to the past and let the past Maria and I live out the fates we were supposed to."

"Shadow, you're crazy! I thought you wanted to fix this, not make Maria die even earlier," Sonic hissed again, becoming wary that people nearby might be able to hear him and get suspicious if he continued to yell.

"It's the only way it can be. Now, do you have an emerald on you?" Shadow asked. Sonic shook his head, which made Shadow sigh. "Maybe Rogue will have one."

"Rouge? Is that a friend of yours? I never heard of her."

Shadow's eyes widened. This created another reason to put the past back to the way it was. Shadow and Maria were dead according to GUN, so Eggman never had to free him from their base. Thus, Rouge was never sent to investigate so their paths never crossed. Rouge didn't know Sonic and the others, and most likely didn't know Shadow either. Shadow had never realised this before then.

"Sonic! You need to help me to change the past!" Shadow said frantically while shaking Sonic by the shoulders. "You won't know the difference, I promise, because I'll do the actual changing… but you just have to help me get the energy I need."

Sonic was torn. He wanted to help his friend because he was obviously in a lot of distress but… he didn't want to alter his time line because of what Shadow wanted to do when he got there. If Shadow were saving Maria, Sonic would be happy with it, but making her die earlier… it was take a lot more convincing.

"Trust me, Sonic… this is for the best…" Shadow tried to assure his ally. "I have a feeling that this world will suffer if we don't' do it."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, sounding concerned.

"In my timeline… there is an event so horrible that was only prevented because Maria died!" Shadow said dramatically, completely lying to Sonic. "It could happen any second… and Maria only dies just now, when she was supposed to die fifty years ago so if we don't change the past we'll all die!"

Sonic gasped and grabbed Shadow by the arm.

"Not on my watch! Come on, Shadow. Let's go get another emerald!" Sonic yelled as the two of them ran towards Tails' workshop in mystic ruins. Shadow couldn't believe that Sonic had believed him so easily.

A conversation full of confusion and persuasion later, Shadow managed to get an emerald off of Tails. Shadow took it eagerly, relieved that he finally had enough power to travel through time.

"Shadow, don't you need help?" Sonic asked his ally when he saw him walk towards the door.

"No, Sonic. I have my own method that doesn't involve you," Shadow said and opened the door to Tail's workshop to exit.

Shadow wasn't going to use the method that he'd seen himself and Sonic use in the deleted timeline. He was going to try and use the method that Mephiles did, he'd gained the demon's powers after all.

"Wait, Shadow. I want to go with you!" Sonic yelled after him.

"Don't you trust me, Sonic?" Shadow asked irritably. Sonic didn't answer, which told Shadow everything he'd expected. "What do you think I'm going to do? Destroy time and space? I'm only going to fix what was wronged in the first place, and I'll make sure that this never happens again."

"But, Shadow, you'll need help to change the past, won't you? It would be unfair of me to leave it all to you," Sonic attempted to change Shadow's mind.

"Nice try, Sonic. CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow yelled and a rift opened up in front of him, right in the door frame. The dark hedgehog jumped inside, then closed the door behind him with his remaining arm. Sonic ran after him, but by that time the hero could open the door again the portal was gone. "Darn, he tricked us! What will we do now?"

Meanwhile, Shadow was on the Space Colony ARK during the GUN raid. He was near the escape pod room when he saw Mephiles approaching.

"Mephiles! You will not change the past; I won't let you!" Shadow barked. Suddenly he was hit in the chin by a small burst of Chaos Energy.

"Save your breath, Shadow. I'm getting my revenge and you're taking it," Mephiles threatened.

"You're wrong. I stopped off somewhere before I arrived here. Having your timeline hopping powers… I managed to pick up this," Shadow said and revealed the sceptre of darkness. Mephiles gave a slight chuckle. "You won't escape from it this time. I have different tactics to my alternate self in the other timeline."

"Wuhaha! Try it, hedgehog. I'm confident that this sceptre will be as weak as the last," Mephiles boasted. "And hurry up, before those humans and your past-self shows up."

"That won't be a problem. Chaos Control!" Shadow said, and the gun shots in the background ceased. Silence was music to Shadow's ears. Then the hedgehog lifted up the Sceptre of Darkness and let it do its work. Mephiles had frozen in time along with the surroundings. Shadow would have loved to hear his cries but he didn't want to risk seeing the demon escape. When the last of the demon was inside of the sceptre, Shadow let time continue and disappeared. The hedgehog wanted to leave the ARK before Maria's death took place.

Shadow shivered when he landed at his next destination. The ice cap zone in the distant future, millions of years after his adventures with Sonic. No one would show up to free Mephiles any time soon. With a Chaos Spear, Shadow shattered some of the ice in one of the tall cliffs and pushed the sceptre inside of the small thin hole he made in the ice. The surroundings were so cold that ice covered the hole within seconds, leaving the sceptre inside a thick block of ice.

"Let's see you get out of this," Shadow said harshly and left for home.

Lucy Labrador