Everything was all so sudden for Shadow. Hell, it had been sudden for everyone.
One moment, everything was like normal.
The next...
There's no way around it. There was no warning, nor were there any signs.
It just happened and now people were suffering because of it...
Shadow had blocked one of the doors on the way to the escape pods. There were some injured scientists in the room with them. Maria refused to leave them, and Shadow had agreed.
That was his mistake.
In minutes, the soldiers had burst through the barricade Shadow had put up. The moment he saw them, he had grabbed Maria and ran.
Of course, as luck would have it, they reached an obstacle: a fuckin locked door.
While Shadow was getting it open, he heard footsteps approaching from behind. The soldiers must have figured out they had gotten away. They quickly caught up to them.
Then, there was a shot.
"Maria!" Shadow cried out.
Then came the rage.
He took off his Inhibitor Rings, all four of them, and he let loose. While he couldn't recall exactly what he did, the soldiers were gone when he was done with them. Reduced entirely to nothing.
When Shadow had finally gotten that damned door open, he grabbed Maria, carrying her the rest of the way. By the time they had gotten to the escape pods, his hands were covered in her blood.
There were no escape pods.
"Damn it! Where the hell are they?!" Shadow shouted in frustration.
It turns out that they had taken a wrong turn somewhere and were not in the room with escape pods.
All of a sudden, Shadow was encased in some kind of glass tube.
He saw Maria at a console. She was asking him to help the people of Earth, as though they hadn't just tried to kill her... That was Maria for you: Selfless, to a fault. Even in her last moments.
"Shadow... I beg of you... Please, do it for me... for a better future!" Maria coughed out "For all people who live on that planet... Give them a chance to be happy. Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason why you were brought into this world."
She reached for a button on the console.
"Sayonara... Shadow the Hedgehog."
And then the entire world seemed to disappear, as Shadow felt himself lose consciousness.