It was a warm, clear summer night in the Mystic Ruins, and the atmosphere was bustling with the sound of crickets and katydids. Shadow was lying in the tall grass in a vast field with his eyes closed listening to it all, letting the world just whiz by him. He was thinking about what has happened to him and the others in the years that Dr. Robotnik hadn't done anything ruthless and severe. Sonic finally got a grip and him and Amy are together now, living someplace in the countryside. Tails and Cream are also together and presently living in his workshop building gear to keep Robotnik in the shadows and away from the others.
Knuckles, of course, is still guarding the Master Emerald, and seldom visits the others. No one has heard of Rouge in weeks but is said that she is working for GUN and is constantly on top secret missions, never having time for anything else. Shadow has been relaxing mostly, and sometimes he would confront Sonic to a race, which typically ended in a dispute of who finished first. Nothing was a challenge, racing Sonic was the only way he could blow off steam and pent up chaos energy. He just didn't care any more…about life, about friends (although he didn't much care for the others.), or even eating. Sure he didn't have to eat; he was the Ultimate Lifeform, immortal and never aging. Chaos energy was the thing that was keeping him alive. Some days he just wanted to expire, to let go of this world that bored him so. He had seen too many seasons spin by and no one to share them with.
The only thing he was appreciative of was that he wasn't in space on ARK, wasting away with just the stars and Mobius to stare at; he often wondered when GUN would actually bring the uninhabited space colony down, and whether anybody was trying to power it up again. He shifted his crimson gaze to the horizon to the left of where he was lying. The moon was full and reminded him of how huge it looked when he lived in space. Sighing he closed his eyes yet again enjoying the cool breeze that was ruffling his quills. He didn't detect it until now but there was a slight disturbance in the breeze and it started to get extremely stifling, like how the air is after a summer thunderstorm. The air was so thick, it was difficult to breathe. His quills were bristling with live electricity which was abnormal because he didn't sense any bad weather approaching, and his chaos levels were completely fine. He couldn't locate where the static was coming from; if it was within him or somewhere around him. (The Mystic Ruins aren't the most normal of all places you know.)
The Chaos Emerald he held in his quills was going berserk and sending off electric impulses, which they only do when they are in extremely close proximity to another emerald or a large source of power. Shadow was on his feet at an instant and the air around him bubbled and the humidity in it evaporated from the extreme heat. The Chaos Emerald erupted into a sphere of light that enveloped Shadow. Never before has he seen something so intense in his lifetime. He was completely surrounded in a force field of pure chaos energy and it was fueling him with such an overwhelming power that he passed in and out of consciousness. Shadow could barely see a thing except two highlighted orbs hovering in front if his nose. He could tell they were Chaos Emeralds because of the form and color. They turned pure white and showed him an image, it was a planet and it looked scorched and burned. Volcanoes were erupting thick black ash and mountains were cracked and some reduced to nothing.
The oceans looked polluted and dirty, and what once looked like buildings now looked like massive skeletons towering and crumbling under their own weight. Shadow never saw anything so deserted and uninhabitable…ever. It was pitiful and he pitied any life that had to live there. The image faded, a flash of brilliant light, and then everything went black. Shadow passed out.