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I can only remember flashes. Things went by so fast, I hardly knew what was happening. I remember transforming, and the will to fight. Then I remember falling, but in a strangely good way. I think at that moment, the moment I disappeared…I died.

I remember that, after seconds that seemed like months, I finally woke up. There was Maria…I must've been dead. She explained to me what happened…but, on a sadder note, said that it was not my time. I didn't understand her, but before I could ask, I faded again.

That's what happened. This is now. This is what happened after I faded away again. This is what happens.

This is my story.

* * *

I landed in a heap in some strange alley. I remained frozen, unwilling to move. I started breathing. I started to awaken. I got up on unstable legs, disoriented. I fell back over again, tired from the mere effort to stand. Two humans approached me.

"What is it…?" One asked, "Is it dead?"

"Nah," The other replied, "I saw it move. It's alive." He grabbed a piece of pipe from a trash can. He poked me with it. "I'm gonna make it move again."

"Leave it alone. It looks confused. Hello?" He started talking to me slowly. "Do you understand?"

"I…I think I do." I stammered. "Where am I?"

"I told you it was alive!" The other human spat, "Now can we go?"

"It's still confused! Give me a moment!" The human cried.

"No, I'm quite fine." I muttered, trying to stand again, "I won't be any trouble. Sorry." I took some wobbly first steps.

"Ya know, that thing looks heck a whole lot like…." The other human muttered.

"Come to think 'bout it, it does."

"You don't suppose?"

"But he died a week ago!"

"Well, what else would be this guy?"

"Good question."

"Do you think he's a ghost!?"

"Nonsense. There's no such thing as ghosts…." He shot a look at me. "Right?"

"Hey." I muttered, "You said something about someone I looked like. Where is he? I think I have some unfinished business to take care of." The two humans glanced at me, then at each other, and ran away, screaming. "Okay, I'll find him on my own."

I exited the alley, the two humans still staring at me. I stepped into the middle of the daylight. It felt good. "What are you two all worried about?" I gloated, proud that I could finally do something on my own, "I'm perfectly fine." Suddenly realizing where I was, the two humans ran at me, shouting something. "What's wrong? Afraid of ghosts?" I laughed at my own joke.

Suddenly, something honked at me. I looked over my right shoulder. A huge truck was headed straight towards me. I looked down. Yellow lines ran between my legs and up and down. I was standing in the middle of the street.

Just as the truck was about to hit me, something caught me, and dragged me out of the street. I watched blankly as the truck continued down the street. More confused than ever, I tried to get up again, but didn't have the energy.

"Guess you don't have as much memory as you thought yet, huh?"

I stared at the almost exact copy of me sitting beside me. "Sonic?"

"Shadow?" We stared at each other. Sonic's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, my gawd, it is you!" He hugged me, but I didn't return it. "I thought you were dead!"

"Everyone here seems to think that way."

"Were you?"

"For a while, yes. But Maria said something about it 'not being my time', and then I ended up here."

"Oh, man, Shadow, I can't believe it!"

"Then don't."

He stared at me, then burst out laughing, despite the tears flowing down his face. "Aw, Shadow, I'm just so glad that you're back!"

"Yeah, I guess I am too."

Sonic started laughing harder, and then I started to laugh. Maybe being on earth a little longer wouldn't be too bad anyway. But something still didn't seem right. Faint memories kept coming back of a harder time in my life when he and I were enemies, but I didn't know why….

* * *

After a rather uncomfortable reunion with the rest of Sonic's friends, I began to feel less confused, and more welcomed. Yet I still felt rather hostile towards them for reasons I didn't understand. I wasn't the only one to see this.

"Lighten up, man!" Rouge said, patting my shoulder, "You seem a little tense."

"Nah, I'm still getting used to being alive again."

"Whatever you say."

Although everyone seemed to be acting friendly, I still felt like an outsider. Did dying for a mere week change anything? Sonic claimed to be rather depressed without me, and so did the others that stated to be my friends. But I wasn't sure….

"Boo." Sonic said, sneaking up behind me. I must've jumped ten feet in the air. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya."

"You didn't. Just stop doing that, okay?"

"Sure, sure, sure, but there's something I wanna ask you."

"Yes…?"

"Up for a tour?"

* * *

After investigating some of Sonic's favorite places, I was about to fall asleep. Nothing had interested me. It just didn't seem right. Nothing was right. So I eventually grew bored. Very bored. Until something caught my eye. "Uh, Sonic?" I pointed at a dark alley. A greenish glow came from the back. "Is that place always like that?"

"It isn't…." Sonic muttered.

"That's the place I first landed in."

"Really…." He started walking towards it.

"Where are you going?"

"To check it out, man! Are ya coming?"

I didn't want to disappoint him, so I followed obediently.

Green light filled the alley the closer we got to it. Mold grew on everything in sight. Rats tip-toed silently through the gutters above. It sent shivers down my spine. A rat fell from above, cut me off, stared right through me, and scuttled away. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Whatever happened to that old, adventurous Shadow?" Sonic muttered, picking his way through the garbage-covered ground.

"I was adventurous?"

"Oh, sure. You'd do anything. You even tried to blow up earth."

"I was that reckless!?"

"Yup."

"Wow…."

"I bet if you tried, you could be that Shadow again."

"I could?"

"Just don't try to destroy earth."

"Um...sure."

In front of us was a strange dome-like thing sticking from the ground. It was a dark gray, with no doors or windows. It was just a dome. "What is it…?"

"I dunno. Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't want anyone in." Sonic passed a hand over the smooth, metallic plates. Part of the plating pushed inwards, and it grew longer and taller. It became a staircase. "That was easy. C'mon!" He grabbed an old flashlight from a garbage can and started down. Sighing, I followed.

The staircase looped down and down. After the first hundred or so steps, I began to wonder if this staircase ever ended. A howling sound blew from the stairs below. "What was that!?"

"I think that's the subway. We must be going underground."

"Let's hope that's the subway."

"What else would it be? You aren't scared, are you?"

"Well…no…."

"C'mon." He gestured for me to hurry. I stumbled down the next five steps, but slowed down as the howl returned. "It's just the subway. Nothing to be afraid of…."

I nodded, repeating to myself, "Nothing to be afraid of…nothing to be afraid of…."

Suddenly, the stairs folded back. We tripped, and tumbled down the long slide. After a while, it grew flatter, and we got up. "Well," Sonic muttered, dusting himself off and grabbing the flashlight, "That was fun." Only a few steps remained. The howling grew louder and louder as we completed the last twenty or so steps.

The howl was now ear-splittingly loud. I was convinced that it was not the subway. The glass on the flashlight broke, and we were cast into darkness, pitch black darkness.

Something grabbed my ankle. "Sonic!"

"Shadow!" He grabbed my arm.

The thing that grabbed my ankle seemed to swarm around us. It was not just one thing, it was many tiny little lizards. Two larger ones ran from the dark hallway, each hissing and spitting at Sonic. The tiny lizards kept trying to tear us apart, but Sonic held on, even when one jumped up and bit him. The two larger ones shoved the tiny ones away, each one trying to get at Sonic.

I had to do something. Grabbing the broken flashlight, I tried to make it work again. Nothing worked. So I threw it at one of the tiny one still biting Sonic. The two collided, and the tiny one was knocked off.

Something clinked on the ground. A green jewel. I numbly picked it up, and held it in my hands. I forgot about the strange tug-of-war I was stuck in, and just stared at it. It was bringing back memories….

"A Chaos Emerald!" Sonic cried, "Toss it here!"

I couldn't. It was bringing back too many memories.

"Shadow! Wake up! Over here!"

The jewel felt powerful in my hands. I still couldn't remember what it could do….

"Shadow!"

More tiny creatures flooded the hallways. They each hissed and clawed at us, but I couldn't feel them. The jewel was hypnotizing me with its unseen powers….

The two larger monsters hissed at Sonic. One drew back, and pounced. Sonic let go, and I fell back into the darkness.

* * *

"I think we have a new specimen, guys…."

"What is it?"

"I dunno."

"Look at it! Scientist is going to be pleased with this find."

"It does look very interesting."

"Yeah." Something brushed up against my fur. "Smells funny, though."

"Stop that!"

"You may be half pig, but that gives you no permission to smell someone!"

"Sorry. I can't help it. I think Scientist put too much pig brain with cat."

"Uggh."

"At least I didn't become something as low as a pig."

"Pigs aren't low! We just like to get down and dirty."

"Eew!"

"Gross!"

"Like it or not, that's what we do."

"Ssshhh!" It's waking up!"

I groaned. "Where…where am I…? What happened to Sonic?"

"You mean, that blue thing?" A squirrel with gray fins sticking from its fur chattered, "Oh, it escaped. Ran right up the stairs. Very fast. Very interesting."

"Who are you?"

"No, no, no, it's no longer a question of who, it's what."

"Okay then. What are you?"

"I'm a squirrel-shark!"

"A what?"

"A squirrel-shark! What else could these fins be here for?"

"Wait a minute. Shark?"

"Yup. I'm Scientist's first hybrid of two completely different species!" He hopped up and down, excited. "Isn't that interesting?"

"Actually, I don't get it."

"Oh." He stopped hopping around. "Everyone here thinks that I'm very interesting…." He turned, and dragged himself into the shadows.

"Don't listen to him." A fish with long, purple wings snapped, "He's very emotional. Too emotional."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to get a clear shot. She remained the same. "What are you?"

"I'm a butterfly-fish!" She extended a long, black arm between the bars of the cell I was locked up in. It looked like it could snap right off. I shook it. It snapped. "Oh! No problem. I'll just grow back another one." I threw the snapped-off arm away, terrified. "No need to be frightened. Everyone here has their own oddities."

I turned, and curled into a ball, hoping everything was a dream. Warm air snorted past my face. I looked up into a pig snout.

"Hi." A pig with tiger stripes, tail, and teeth grunted, "I'm a pig-cat! Mind if I smell ya?"

"Eew!" I shoved him away. "What is going on here!?"

"This is Scientist's underground laboratory." The pig-cat grunted, sniffing around, "We're all creatures who wandered here a long time ago. Scientist captured us the same way he captured you. Then he performed some strange…stuff…on us, and we became these hybrids! Personally…." His voice dropped to a whisper. I leaned in, trying to listen. "I have no idea what he changed all of us for…." His voice dropped lower. I struggled to hear. "But we're here for some reason or another…we all think he's mad…." A loud sniffing noise buzzed through my ear. I shoved him away. "Sorry, but you smell good."

"Yuck!" I got up. "This is impossible! This must be a-ouch!"

"Sorry," The butterfly-fish said, "But this ain't no dream. We all thought that way too. But now it's clear." She withdrew her hand. "Just wanted to prove it." She winked. I back away from her.

"This is crazy!" I blurted, "This cannot be real!"

"Oh, it's real." The squirrel-shark muttered, "This is very real."

"But…."

"I know, it's hard to believe. We all have to face the facts. If we don't do what we're told…Scientist will kill us…."

Suddenly outraged, I muttered, "Wanna know what I am?" They gave me confused looks. A memory popped up in my head. "I am…the world's ultimate life form."

"I'm sorry," The squirrel-shark said, poking a finger in his ear, "I don't think I heard you correctly."

"I am the world's ultimate life form!" I cried.

Suddenly, shrill laughter boomed from the cells and cages around us. Some were real laughs, while others were cries, roars, chatters, and squeaks. Still, they were laughing. And they were laughing at me.

"I swear! I am! I just can't remember when." The laughter grew louder. "No! Stop that! I am, I know it!" The laughing continued. I finally thought of something to prove it. "Look!" I held up that green jewel. "I don't know what this is for, but I'm gonna use it to get out of here!" The laughter exploded.

"The only way you're gonna get out of here with that thing," The butterfly-fish giggled, "Is if you turn it into a shovel!" She exploded with laughter.

I looked around helplessly. Parts of various animals were lashing out from other cells. I sat down abruptly. No one believed me, yet I know it was true on some level. Then I noticed the squirrel-shark. He stared at me, oblivious to the laughter pouring from other hybrids. He shot me a solemn look. I crawled back into the shadows, ever guided by the squirrel-shark's serious look.