Shadow appeared back on that street in Station Square again during present day. He looked up to the sky to see that the sun was nearly in the centre of it, so it must have been around midday. The street was quiet, however. But there was something different about the area… it didn't look at run down as before… it was as though it hadn't gone through so much damage. The buildings weren't grey and dirty, they were painted and clean. Whatever happened in this new future, made a big difference. So if even the buildings were different, what happened to his friends?

The ultimate life form ran towards Rouge's apartment, until he was stopped by a hedgehog. The blue one stood right in front of him with a hard look on his face.

"Where you think you're going?" Sonic said harshly. Shadow took a few steps back and looked at Sonic in fear; he wasn't his friend anymore. "I thought we'd gotten rid of you for good… but I guess you're just as persistent as Eggman."

Shadow jumped out of the way as Sonic went to push him all of a sudden. The black hedgehog didn't know what to say. What had he done in this future to make Sonic think he was evil? The dark one teleported himself to the top of one of the tall buildings on the side, and watched as Sonic looked around frantically.

"I'd better go warn the others about this," the hero said to himself and ran off in the direction that he came from. Shadow's heart was beating quickly and he felt nauseous with anxiety. What had Mephiles done this time?

As Shadow was about to jump off of the building to run off and investigate, he got a splitting headache just like the one before. With a struggle, the hedgehog stumbled backwards and fell on his back. He nearly fell forward onto the concrete below, but he managed to go backwards instead, so he was still on the flat surfaced roof. The palms of his hands were pushed against this temples again as it felt like his skull was going to split open again. The ultimate life form breathed heavily and shakily while gritting his teeth. The images retuned, but this time they were different. He saw Earth from the view of the observation room in the ARK. He heard footsteps. Then soldiers at the doorway behind him.

Is this what happened when I left Mephiles with Maria? Shadow thought to himself.

He saw the Earth again, as if he'd turned away from the soldiers as though there presence meant nothing. The click of a gun echoed and Shadow turned around again to see five soldiers with weapons pointed at him. He saw his hands go up in the corner of his eyes, he'd surrendered.

What happened to me after that? Oh, Chaos. What had Mephiles done to me this time? Shadow thought as he began to tremble.

The pain died away, but it felt as if there was more to come, as there was a dull ache at the back of his head. Shadow stood up and jumped down from the building. He ran in the direction of Club Rouge, hoping to investigate. Nothing much looked different about the club when he got there, but he couldn't go inside since he didn't know whether Rouge knew him or not. Instead, he teleported to the top of the building on the opposite side of the back of it. From there, he could see through the window to the main from the main room of the apartment. What he saw… broke his heart into a million pieces.

Everything looked normal inside of the apartment, and Rouge looked just fine, but she was with two people. A mature Maria who looked about twenty… and him. The imposter, in his dull looking hedgehog form. The three of them sat on the sofa watching TV. Rouge had her luxury chocolate to share with Maria, but Mephiles was left with none because of his lack of a mouth. Maria… had her left arm around Mephiles… and the demon cuddled into her lovingly.

A tear fell from Shadow's eye… then another. The ultimate life form shook his head frantically in an attempt to get rid of his tears… but it was no use. It felt like he had no control over it, like he felt when Mephiles was in control. But this time it was different, Shadow's body wasn't controlled by Mephiles… it was controlled by his emotions. He attempted to wipe away his tears to hide the fact that he'd been crying, but there were only replaced a few seconds later. Mephiles had really done it this time. Shadow was feeling that horrible emotional pain that the demon hoped for. Surely it would end now… surely Mephiles had his revenge. He'd taken Shadow's friends, and it hurt. Shadow wanted it to end from there… he needed it to.

But it didn't.

Instead, it continued. Furthermore, Mephiles spotted Shadow from inside the apartment. His gloating green eyes stared at Shadow for a few moments before he turned back to Maria and hid his face in her side- the very thing Shadow always loved to do to Maria when they sat together. Shadow couldn't take it; he jumped from the building, landing on his feet in the alleyway below him, but he fell flat on his face afterwards. Laying on the floor, he grieved. Mephiles had everything Shadow ever wanted… to be with the one's he loved, while Shadow… had no one.

The hedgehog looked to the outside of the alleyway to see three figures of several colours walk towards him. Shadow sat up to look at him.

"Hey! He's waiting for Shadow to come out the back so he can kill him!" came the voice of Sonic. The trio of heroes walked into the alleyway, hoping to make their way towards the back door of Club Rouge in order to warn the others about 'Mephiles'. Shadow looked up at them in shock. Sonic charged towards him and pushed him to the floor with his speed. He was so fast that Shadow didn't have the time to react. Knuckles ran over to keep the ultimate life form pinned down while Sonic took his emerald then threw it to Tails. Shadow cried out as they mugged him.

"Let's see how much you can do without the emerald!" Sonic said while standing over him. "Sorry to have to do this, but your past actions left us with no choice. Shadow is our friend and we can't let you hurt him."

"I don't want to hurt him!" Shadow yelled in frustration.

"Sure… you tried to kill him before, so why wouldn't you do it again?" Sonic said while rolling his eyes. "I'm giving you the chance to get out of here before we defeat you again."

Shadow's mouth gaped open.

They… defeated me? When, and why? What did I do? Shadow thought to himself. I need to find more information before I try to fix this.

The ultimate life form pushed past the three heroes and ran off down the street, unable to fight or explain himself. He felt doomed.

Lucy Labrador