I felt weak as Shadow pulled me to my feet. I didn't even know how to react to anything anymore. I just hobbled behind Shadow as he pulled me by the wrist. We were both expressionless, like we just found out we had been reduced back to nothing.

I could hear the rush of blood in my ears and was seeing double, but I didn't let myself fall as we attempted to run. Shadow looked more like he was limping, and I kept tripping over my own feet, but we were moving. After about a minute or so, I began to wonder where we were going.

"W-where're we going?" I asked, panting.

"I..." He trailed off, seemingly not sure. "I just want..."

I stopped and he was jerked backward. "Shadow, we need a plan."

"We have to figure out what's going on first."

"How?"

"I don't know! We'll figure it out, okay?"

I just nodded, realizing I wasn't exactly putting him at ease.

Suddenly, we heard the yelling of my grandfather and he ran up to us. "Maria! Come with me!" He shouted, grabbing me by the shoulders. Shadow backed away and lowered his ears.

"What about Shadow?" I asked.

"He... Never mind him! We need to go!"

"What? I can't leave him here! What's going on? Did an experiment go wrong? We're scared, Grandfather!"

"Maria, we just don't have time right now! Hurry up and follow me!"

"No! I'm not moving until you tell me!"

He looked over at Shadow. "Yes, something went wrong, Maria. Project: Shadow's getting terminated. We need to escape! GUN's not showing any mercy!"

I gasped and Shadow began to growl. Shocked that he would growl at his creator, I turned to face Shadow, but then saw that he was glaring at a soldier with his gun aimed at him. Only the soldier didn't shoot. He had red hair that fell from his helmet and his face was extremely pale. I assumed it to be from anxiety rather than his ethnicity, because the pistol shook in his hands. I could tell he didn't want to kill Shadow.

Well, it was either that, or because Shadow was now beginning to glow red with Chaos Energy.

"No, Shadow."

The crimson aura immediately faded as he whispered, "Are you insane?"

"I may be sick in the head, but I'm not crazy." I retorted.

"This is no time for jokes!" The young redhead yelled.

That brought the ebony hedgehog's attention back to the man with the weapon. Shadow began to charge up again.

"He's not going to shoot." I whispered.

"Sure he is!" Shadow yelled, growing ever brighter, "Look at him! He's probably about to-"

"Look at him?" I replied, "He's literally shaking with fear." The man looked over at me.

"Better safe than sorry." Shadow replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No!" I yelled, trying to shove him. The black creature didn't move an inch. It was like I had tried to push a stone statue.

Well, I guess Shadow had better instincts than me, because the soldier fired his gun right as Shadow finished yelling, "Chaos Blast!"

Boy, was I tired of explosions.

Luckily, Grandfather and I were close enough to Shadow not to have been hit by the powerful shockwave he exerted. Unfortunately for the guy with the gun, he wasn't. Around the rubble in his general area, I saw some splattered blood. Trying not to gag again though, I looked away quickly. Shadow wrapped his arms around me but I pushed him off, disgusted by his murderous act.

"Y-you killed him!" I breathed.

"I had to, Love! There was nothing else I could've done! He was going to kill-" He didn't finish his sentence because he had stepped back and looked at me. "M-Maria..."

I looked down and saw a gunshot wound in the middle of my torso.

"Oh my God!" My grandfather screamed as he saw me. "You need attention right now! That's why you should've came with me when you had the chance!"

I didn't speak for a moment, just stood there, dazed, watching the blood pour from my open wound. I couldn't believe I had gotten shot. I still didn't even feel anything. "An-" Now I began to feel it. Speaking wasn't going to be easy. "And... just... let... Shadow... die?" I asked, slowly, gritting my teeth.

"I..." He shook his head. "I never thought you cared about him."

I stumbled backward and fell onto my back. Shadow ran over to me with great concern, frantically asking me if I was okay. He began to stroke my forehead gently.

"Oh my God..." He repeated. "You-"

Shadow nodded. "I love her. But what does it matter now, Professor?"

"I'm... going to get a nurse." He ran in the opposite direction and Shadow kissed me as he left.

"I wish, more than anything in the world," he began, "That I could tell you it was going to be okay."

I smiled up at him. "What... am I still doing... on the floor?"

"Don't try to get up. You're too wounded." He then placed one hand on top of another and applied a small amount of pressure to the ailment, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Hey... we have... matching gunshot wounds." I refused to stop smiling as he shot me a serious look.

"I guess." He replied, "Humans and guns... I'll never pick one up, that's for sure."

"I'll... bet you will... someday."

"What makes you say that?"

"Just... a feeling..."

He rolled his eyes, beginning to apply more pressure to redness of my nightgown. It already had his own dried blood on it from the shooting with Della, and now it was getting coated in more. That really got me thinking about how much had happened in such a short time. It hadn't even been half a year ago since I'd met Shadow. Time really flew by.

"...Shadow...?"

"Hm?"

"What happened... to Della?"

His eyes grew wider in shock. "Why'd that come to mind?"

"I just-"

We began to hear the screams of my grandfather again.

"Thank you so much!" Shadow yelled, "She's in serious condition! Please help-"

"Not. A. Word." That's all I heard from the direction in which he was speaking. I lifted my head slightly and saw that Grandfather was standing behind three armed GUN agents. Their guns were all on Shadow.

"How... could you?" I asked in horror.

"Now, I agree with them. This project has gotten a little out of hand."

"W-what? Professor?" Shadow stood up and showed them his hands. He was obviously hurt by this. "Are you serious?"

"..." Grandfather said nothing. He just watched the GUN agents as they looked at each other and nodded their heads.

And then they shot.

Shadow was still hung up on fact that his creator gave two humans permission to kill him, and was caught slightly off guard when they shot. He threw himself to the ground next to me and just barely dodged the bullets. They shot again, and he scrambled away, evading once again. He was on his feet by the time they fired again, and at that point he was dodging with ease. They emptied their clips into the wall.

While they rushed to reload their guns, Shadow picked me up bridal style. "No!" Grandfather yelled, "Don't take my granddaughter! I won't forgive you!"

Shadow just stopped in his tracks and turned to the old man. "Who cares about what you think anymore?" With that, we were off.

He moved much more easily once he was on his skates. As he picked up speed, it took him a minute to start a slow jog, but when he kicked on his hover shoes, the pain of carrying his own weight (and mine) seemed to be lifted off his shoulders. He began to glide at the speed of sound down the hallways. When we stopped, I saw that we were in front of the door to the main control room.

Shadow walked in and gingerly set me down on the ground. He then proceeded to lock the door and grab a spinning chair from a set of monitors to put in front of it. He got down on the ground and laid next to me. "What... are you doing?" I asked.

"Just... I don't know." He sighed. "Life is rough, but you were right. We had a good run." Shadow grabbed my hand in his and kissed it.

"And now... our run... is over."

"No." He kissed me on the lips before continuing. "Not yet."

Hey readers! I guess now's as good a time as ever to mention that TheWritingGamer came up with the idea for Maria to go crazy (which I tweaked a bit, okay a lot), but this story wouldn't have become what it is today without her help. Oh, don't worry! It's not over yet or anything, but as it nears its end, I just wanted to mention that. You know, it's kind of sad to see this story start to go. I can't believe I've been working on it since January! Time really flies, does it not?

So anyway, I can assure you that the next chapter will be the last chapter (unless I decide to make an epilogue, but I doubt I will), so I hope you enjoyed reading it! I know TheWritingGamer did... Well, she read it to make fun of me...

This is comparable to "Twilight", according to her...

Whatever.

-TheVideoGamer