We were waiting for Sonic and Shadow to return. After they had left, Knuckles had returned the Master Emerald to its rightful position on the pedestal. And once it was returned, something unnatural happened. The Island began to shake and as the Master Emerald's power filled the island, it began to rise from the ocean. Eventually, it found a comfortable elevation and began to start its own orbit around the Earth. And it actually began to follow the direction Shadow and Sonic went.

"Do no worry, Esme." Knuckles stated as I was staring out where they went. "Those two are tough warriors. They will return to us.

What may have only been minutes, felt like years. We caught glimpses of the battle from a distance and it did look like they were doing well. Tails and Robotnik joined us soon after a moment.

"The ship is set." Tails exclaimed. "Sonic has a plan to hopefully get Black Doom back on there so he and the rest of the Black Arms go down with it."

I kept staring at the battle. My hands clutched to my heart. I was praying that they would be okay. It looked like the plan worked. Black Doom had disappeared. I was so focused on where the two gold lights were at, I didn't hear the commotion behind me. The lighter of the two lights took off towards the sky. Soon after, the second followed.

"What's happening?" I asked desperate.

"Sonic and Shadow went to prevent the Black Arms craft from crashing into the Earth." Amy explained.

My eyes returned to the sky as the lights made their way to the enormous ship in the sky that started to blow up. It slowly began to get smaller, which suggested that they were successfully pushing it away from the Earth. Now they just needed to come home.

We all waited in silence.

Suddenly, a ring portal opened. Looking through, we could see some moments of space but before too long, a gold light flew through and the portal closed. The being landed on the ground and the gold dissipated to blue. Sonic was safe. But where was Shadow?

"Sonic!" A chorus of voices called out and ran to him.

He pushed himself up with a groan. Looking up at the sky he realized what happened. "No! No! Shadow!"

He began to run but only got a few steps before we saw the ship blow up. Silence fell over us again. And it felt like my heart shattered for the second time in my life. I began to shake and my knees became weak. I began to fall until Omega reached out an arm and caught me. Tears began to stream down my face. I covered my mouth to silence the sobs that began to wrack my chest. But silence was not going to be an option.

Easing me to the ground, I allowed myself to cry so dreadfully once again. The last time I had this feeling of grief, was when my husband died. And now, I had lost someone that had become part of my family again. Someone who was like the son I never got to have. I knew he survived the Ark explosion, but this one was so much more powerful, so much larger. I didn't know if he could survive that.

As I took heaving breaths between sobs, several of the others tried to comfort me. They all felt the loss. They all felt the uncertainty. A hand touched my shoulder. I looked at the figure with tear filled eyes. It as Rouge. I hadn't seen her in a while, I didn't even know where she went or what she was doing.

She held out her hand. "I tried to fly to meet up with Shadow and Sonic before they took off for the ship, and I saw these falling."

They were the rings that Shadow had on his wrists. I gingerly took them and held them to my chest. At least it was something. Sonic walked over to me with tears in his eyes as well. He knelt in front of me.

"I want you to know," he said with a shaky voice. "The last thing he asked me to do was make sure you got home safely. And I will keep my word. But if you ever need anything, just let me know and I'll be there in a flash."

I bit my lips and reached over. Pulling him into a hug, I squeezed him close. He needed this as much as me. He probably blamed himself for what happened. But I knew it was Shadow's choice. All I could do was hope. Hope for a better future where these things didn't happen again and that we could live in peace.


Sure enough, Sonic kept his word and got me home safe. After the battle was won and we had some time to collect ourselves after the loss, he took me directly home with another ring portal. I looked around my broken house, unsure what to do. Sonic and his friends were kind and told me to get some rest while they cleaned the area up.

Robotnik soon disappeared after that, saying something about returning to vanquish the Blue Hedgehog next week or something. I was too broken hearted to really pay attention. By the time I woke up, my house looked brand new. The furniture was fixed. Anything that was broken was repaired, and you could never tell that my house had been destroyed when I was taken by Metal Sonic.

I took a look around, and on the table, next to Shadow's rings, was a framed picture of him and who I could only assume was Maria. I smiled. Grabbing the picture and the rings, I placed them on the mantle of my fireplace. Taking a deep breath, I went to my room and pulled out a box of other pictures I had hidden. I placed them around the house, filling the area with joy filled pictures between me and my husband. They belonged there, not hidden in the dark corner of my closet.

I walked down the hall and saw the spare room. Maybe I could do something with it to help me with the loss. I had an idea, and it did bring a bittersweet smile to my face. I got started immediately.